Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Kendall, Adjunct Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

Yesterday morning, the Australian Federal Police arrested a Russian-born Australian couple for spying.

Police allege Kira Korolev, an Australian Defence Force (ADF) army private, undertook undeclared travel to Russia while on long-term leave. While there, she allegedly instructed her husband, Igor Korolev, to log on to her work account and access defence force material to send to her.

It is alleged the couple intended to provide the information to Russian authorities. The Korolevs have been charged with “preparing for an espionage offence”, which could see them in jail for up to 15 years.

This is a significant case and one worth watching. Not only is it the first time that someone has been charged with an espionage offence since new laws were introduced in 2018, but it is only one of a handful of known espionage charges that have ever been laid in Australia. The Korolevs have also been charged with a standalone “preparatory” national security offence, which only existed in the terrorism context prior to 2018.

Espionage and the law

According to ASIO, espionage is:

the theft of information by someone acting on behalf of a foreign power, or intending to provide information to a foreign power which is seeking advantage over Australia.

Espionage has been a crime in Australia since the first world war.

In 2018, Australia completely overhauled its espionage offence framework to better address the threat of modern espionage. Espionage today targets a wide range of information from many different people (not just those in intelligence or the military). It can be engaged in by any foreign power, not only those considered to be “enemies”, and is increasingly conducted using cyber-espionage.

The 2018 offences include “underlying” espionage offences, a “solicitation” offence and a “preparatory” offence. A standalone offence of “preparing for espionage” did not exist prior to 2018.

There has only ever been one recorded case in Australia in which a person has been prosecuted for an espionage offence.

In R v Lappas, a Defence Intelligence Organisation employee was convicted of the 1914 offence of “making a sketch, plan, model or note that might or was intended to be useful to an enemy”. He had passed annotated documents that revealed sources of ongoing intelligence to a third party, who was to sell them on to a foreign power. The attempted sales were unsuccessful.

While Lappas faced up to seven years in jail, he was sentenced to two years.

Pre-crimes on top of pre-crimes

The Korolevs are the first people to be charged under the 2018 espionage law reforms.

Unlike Lappas, who was found to have committed an offence similar to the 2018 underlying offences, the Korolevs have been charged with “preparing for espionage”.

“Preparing for espionage” is a broad offence that makes it a crime for a person to engage in any conduct. However, in doing so, they must intend to prepare for an underlying espionage offence. If found guilty, a person faces up to 15 years in jail.

The similar offence of “preparing for terrorism” has a maximum penalty of life in prison. It has been the foundation of a number of successful prosecutions in which defendants have been sentenced to very lengthy periods of imprisonment.

Standalone preparatory offences such as preparing for espionage or terrorism aim to prevent harm from occurring in the first place. However, they expand the criminal law beyond its traditional bounds because they punish people for crimes that may occur in the future, not for substantive crimes that have already been committed. For this reason, they can be considered “pre-crimes”.

Preparatory crimes are a type of “inchoate” offence: an offence relating to a substantive crime that has not been committed. Other inchoate offences in the Commonwealth Criminal Code include attempt, incitement and conspiracy. Each inchoate offence has different elements that must be proved.

Because “preparing for espionage” is a standalone offence, the general inchoate offences in the Criminal Code can “attach” to the preparatory offence to create “pre-pre-crimes”. For example, a person could be charged with “conspiracy to prepare for espionage”.

This kind of offence broadens the scope of the law even more by criminalising conduct a further step removed from the commission of any substantive offence.

These offences can be easier to prove than both the substantive offence and the preparatory offence, yet defendants could still face many years in jail. For example, the offence of “conspiring to prepare for terrorism” has been routinely used in the terrorism context in Australia and has supported sentences of up to 28 years in prison.

The Korolevs have been charged with “preparing for espionage”, but could conceivably have been charged with “conspiring to prepare for espionage” given two parties were involved.

Authorities are still investigating whether the couple did in fact share information with Russian authorities. If they did, police have confirmed that further charges could be laid. This includes charges for underlying espionage offences, which carry maximum penalties of 15 years to life in prison.

Legal test case

The Korolev case will be one of the most significant national security cases to watch. If it proceeds to trial, it will provide an opportunity to clarify the operation of Australia’s 2018 espionage offences and resolve some of the key issues with the offences.

For example, many key terms and phrases used in the espionage offences are not clearly defined or are defined with significant breadth. This creates offences that are unclear and have the potential to be inappropriately wide-reaching.

For example, many of Australia’s espionage offences could apply to the legitimate conduct of journalists, sources or academics. Even where the person’s conduct is more obviously nefarious, there are uncertainties as to how the offences operate.

Some of the issues with the espionage offences also extend to other offences that were introduced in 2018, such as the secrecy, foreign interference and sabotage offences.

Apart from clarifying the operation of the law, the Korolev case joins only a small number of other known cases in Australia in which a person has been charged with spying. So keep your eyes peeled – you’ll be watching history in the making.

This article was written in Sarah Kendall’s personal capacity as an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. It does not reflect the views of any organisation with which the author is affiliated.

– ref. A Russian-born ADF soldier and her husband have been charged with spying. What does this mean? – https://theconversation.com/a-russian-born-adf-soldier-and-her-husband-have-been-charged-with-spying-what-does-this-mean-234555

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren O’Donovan, Senior Lecturer in Administrative Law, La Trobe University

Following the release of a review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) late last year, reform is on the cards for the scheme in 2024.

The first step, the proposed NDIS Amendment Bill, has, however, generated political controversy and significant concerns in the disability community.

The bill had been moving forward to a final vote, but the Opposition demanded more time to study the bill. It now faces a second senate inquiry.

So why has the bill generated concern? And what issues will the new inquiry examine?

From concept to detail

In December last year the NDIS review proposed key reforms to ensure the sustainability of the scheme and improve outcomes for people with disability.

It recommended NDIS plans should shift from arguing line by line over each requested support to an overall funding amount for each participant. That global budget would be based on a standardised assessment of defined categories of needs.

This would replace the current subjective rules centred on contestable ideas of what’s reasonable. Too often the operation of these has been marred by gruelling and complex bureaucracy for people claiming support.

The review also called for state and federal governments to cooperate in improving support across the lifecycle of disability. There would be greater focus on early intervention rather than letting people languish until they meet the NDIS entry criteria, for example.

In March, the federal government introduced a bill to implement a limited number of the review’s recommendations (the NDIS Amendment Bill). I would argue three dynamics in the bill have clouded the original vision of the NDIS review.

1. An uncertain ‘method’

The bill replaces the existing test for funding with an as yet unwritten “method” for calculating budgets for individual participants. This would occur after a transition period of up to five years.

The method will be created by rules which, unlike the current approach, can be passed without the consent of the states and territories. This provoked an outcry from state premiers. NDIS participants, meanwhile, have been left wondering if the co-operation needed for effective reform will eventuate. If not, this could lead to people going without the supports they need in areas like health and education.

Other elements of the bill also risked narrowing the supports available. For example, the original definition of NDIS support did not fully reflect Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That definition was removed from the bill after the Disability Discrimination Commissioner warned it risked the NDIS not being “holistically responsive” to individuals’ needs.

Further, the bill proposed using an unclear 2015 policy document – a series of bulletpoint tables – to set the interface between state and federal services. Fortunately, this was also removed from the bill as it risked disputes between governments over who was responsible for what.

Finally, the bill stated assessments would only fund needs resulting from “impairments” which meet the NDIS entry criteria. This deficit-focused language risked not fully addressing complex and overlapping disabilities and the barriers people face in society. In the past fortnight, the federal government has moved amendments to moderate this, but complexities remain.

The federal government was responsive on these issues, but only to a point. The bill does little to stop such flaws re-emerging as the rule-making process moves forward. So what protections apply at that point?

2. Ensuring co-design and oversight

If a bill is passed, rules, or “legislative instruments”, are used to fill in the detail needed to implement chosen policy. In this case, such instruments will determine fundamental issues like what supports NDIS participants receive.

But rules made through legislative instruments are subject to much more limited parliamentary oversight than primary legislation (acts). They receive accelerated and condensed examination – which will mean far less opportunity for disability organisations to be heard.

Disability representative organisations have stressed co-design and transparency are absolute essentials in the making of future rules. Co-design requires government to work in partnership with people with disability when designing policies, programs and services.

This must be protected by the bill. But the government has only consented to inserting vague assurances of consultation, which lack mechanisms for enforcement. This contrasts sharply with other countries, which regularly subject bureaucrats to enforceable consultation requirements.

Responsible government should mean more than just promising standards of behaviour. It should mean holding people accountable to them. Otherwise, what will stop future governments abandoning today’s promises?

3. Bureaucratic power

The bill comes replete with broad powers allowing the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to regulate the supports people receive or impose administrative requirements upon them. In the hands of one government these might drive a vision of quality services. Under another they could lead to damaging forms of conditionality or administrative burden.

One key area is what happens when the NDIA believes a participant has spent money in a way that’s not compliant with their plan (debt raising). While public commentary has been awash with “rorts” rhetoric, the bill leaves vital duty of care questions under-addressed.

In reality, most “rorts” are cases of abuse involving the costly non-delivery of supports to people who need them. Yet the bill fails to spell out exactly when a debt will be raised against a third party versus a participant. It should do more to protect the person with a disability who acted under duress, was misled or was the victim of abusive practices.

Trust

This bill commences a long reform process that can only succeed if it’s based on clarity, accountability and transparency. The voices and experiences of NDIS participants and their representatives are key to delivering people-centred reform.

The question is whether Australia’s political class – federal and state – is capable of living up to the trust which this bill will place in them.

Darren O’Donovan 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. NDIS reforms are still in limbo. What’s going on, and are people with disability getting enough say? – https://theconversation.com/ndis-reforms-are-still-in-limbo-whats-going-on-and-are-people-with-disability-getting-enough-say-234275

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jathan Sadowski, Senior Research Fellow (ARC DECRA), Emerging Technologies Research Lab and CoE for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Monash University, Monash University

Last week, two big names in the artificial intelligence (AI) and wellness industries announced a collaboration to develop a “customised, hyper-personalised AI health coach that will be available as a mobile app” to “reverse the trend lines on chronic diseases”.

Sam Altman (head of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT) and Arianna Huffington (a former media executive who runs a high-tech wellness company called Thrive Global) announced their new company, Thrive AI Health, in a Time magazine advertorial.

Health is an appealing direction for an AI industry that has promised to transform civilisation, but whose huge growth of the past couple of years is beginning to look like it’s stalling. Companies and investors have pumped billions into the technology, but it is still often a solution looking for problems.

Meanwhile, venture capitalists Sequoia and the investment bank Goldman Sachs are wondering out loud whether enough revenue and consumer demand will ever emerge to make this bubble feel more solid.

Enter the next big thing: AI that will change our behaviour, for our own good.

Personalised nudges and real-time recommendations

Altman and Huffington say Thrive AI Health will use the “best peer-reviewed science” and users’ “personal biometric, lab and other medical data” to “learn your preferences and patterns across the five behaviours” that are key to improving health and treating chronic diseases: sleep, food, movement, stress management and social connection.

Whether you are “a busy professional with diabetes” or somebody without “access to trainers, chefs and life coaches” — the only two user profiles the pair mention — the Thrive AI Health coach aims to use behavioural data to create “personalised nudges and real-time recommendations” to change your daily habits.

Soon, supposedly, everybody will have access to the “life-saving benefits” of a mobile app that tells you — in a precisely targeted way — to sleep more, eat better, exercise regularly, be less stressed and go touch grass with friends. These “superhuman” technologies, combined with the “superpowers” of incentives, will change the world by changing our “tiny daily acts”.

Despite claims that AI has unlocked yet another innovation, when I read Altman and Huffington’s announcement I was struck by a sense of déjà vu.

Insurance that manages your life

Why did Thrive AI Health and the logic behind it sound so familiar? Because it’s a kind of thinking we are seeing more and more in the insurance industry.

In fact, in an article published last year I suggested we might soon see “total life insurance” bundled with “a personalised AI life coach”, which would combine data from various sources in our daily lives to target us with prompts for how to behave in healthier, less risky ways. It would of course take notes and report back to our insurers and doctors when we do not follow these recommendations.

In a related article, my colleagues Kelly Lewis and Zofia Bednarz and I took a close look at the theories of behavioural risk that might power such products. A model of insurance based on managing people’s lives via digital technology is on the rise.

We examined a company called Vitality, which makes behavioural change platforms for health and life insurance. Vitality frames itself as an “active life partner with […] customers”, using targeted interventions to improve customer well-being and its own bottom line.

Similar projects in the past have had questionable results. A 2019 World Health Organization report on digital health intervention said:

The enthusiasm for digital health has also driven a proliferation of short-lived implementations and an overwhelming diversity of digital tools, with a limited understanding of their impact on health systems and people’s wellbeing.

Hyper-personalisation

Altman and Huffington say AI-enabled “hyper-personalisation” means this time will be different.

Are they right? I don’t think so.

The first problem is there is no guarantee the AI will work as promised. There is no reason to think it won’t be plagued by the problems of bias, hallucination and errors we see in cutting-edge AI models like ChatGPT.

However, even if it does, it will still miss the mark because the idea of hyper-personalisation is based on a flawed theory of how change happens.

An individualised “AI health coach” is a way to address widespread chronic health problems only if you envision a world in which there is no society – just individuals making choices. Those choices turn into habits. Those habits, over time, create problems. Those problems can be rooted out by individuals making better choices. Those better choices come from an AI guardian nudging you in the right direction.

And why do people make bad choices, in this vision? Perhaps, like middle-class professionals, they are too busy. They need reminders to eat a salad and stretch in the sunshine during their 12-hour workday.

Or – again from the AI health coach perspective – perhaps, like disadvantaged people, they make bad choices out of ignorance. They need to be informed that eating fast food is wrong, and they should instead cook a healthy meal at home.

The social determinants of healthcare apps

But individual lifestyle choices aren’t everything. In fact, the “social determinants of health” can be far more important. These are the social conditions that determine a person’s access to health care, quality food, free time and all the things needed to have a good life.

Technologies like Thrive AI Health are not interested in fundamental social conditions. Their “personalisation” is a short-sighted view that stops at the individual.

The only place society enters Altman and Huffington’s vision is as something that must help their product succeed:

Policymakers need to create a regulatory environment that fosters AI innovation […] Health care providers need to integrate AI into their practices […] And individuals need to be fully empowered through AI coaching to better manage their daily health […]

And if we don’t bend society to fit the AI models? Presumably we will only have ourselves to blame.

Jathan Sadowski receives funding from the Australian Research Council (grant DE220100417).

– ref. Why an ‘AI health coach’ won’t solve the world’s chronic disease problems – https://theconversation.com/why-an-ai-health-coach-wont-solve-the-worlds-chronic-disease-problems-234369

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Evans, Associate Professor, specialising in Indigenous leadership, The University of Melbourne

When discussing the creativity and ingenuity of Indigenous people, we often talk about our deadly artists, sportspeople and Elders.

But more and more, Indigenous business leaders are finding themselves in the spotlight.

This year’s NAIDOC Male Elder of the Year is Uncle Kim Collard, a Balladong/Wadjuk Elder of the Noongar Nation.

Collard established two of Australia’s largest Indigenous-owned businesses – workplace supplier Kulbardi and fleet management and salary packaging firm Kooya.

But he and his family have also made outstanding philanthropic contributions to Aboriginal communities, raising almost A$1.5 million through the Bibbulmun Fund.

Collard is just one example of many outstanding leaders across the thriving Indigenous business sector.

This cohort drive more than just dollars and cents in the economy – they serve as role models and employers, sponsors and philanthropists, and suppliers to major corporations. They also bring important cultural knowledge and cultural guidance to bear.

Yet many Australians still don’t grasp the sheer size and diversity of Indigenous-owned and led businesses.

Greater visibility of these businesses – both in government statistics and Indigenous business directories – would do more than just showcase their diversity and excellence. It would also help them succeed further.

A thriving sector

Indigenous businesses operate at every scale in Australia, from small sole traders through to large corporate enterprises.

As previously reported in The Conversation, our research revealed that in 2022, the Indigenous business sector generated more than A$16 billion in revenue. We found that 13,693 unique businesses employed more than 100,000 people, paying annual wages of $4.2 billion.

Read more:
Indigenous businesses are worth billions but we don’t know enough about them

This job creation is really important. One of the sector’s biggest benefits is that it supports such a wide range of families and households across Australia.

Previous research has found that Indigenous businesses employ Indigenous Australians at a greater rate than non-Indigenous businesses.

Operating across diverse industries

Indigenous-owned businesses are often associated with important cultural services and cultural tourism. But their influence extends far beyond these areas into industries such as technology, architecture and construction, manufacturing, property, financial services, education and legal services.

There are some great examples of firms integrating cultural knowledge at the cutting edge of their fields.

The Queensland-based agriculture technology company RainStick uses electricity to mimic the natural effects of lightning to grow bigger crops faster.

And design firm Nguluway DesignInc is currently overseeing the design and development of the new University of Technology Sydney Indigenous Residential College.

But registration really helps

To help people and organisations engage with Indigenous businesses, whether as customers or large-scale suppliers, it’s important they are able to find them.

It’s not currently possible to declare a business as Indigenous when filing for an Australian business number (ABN).

However, it is possible to become registered in other directories. These include a range of state and territory chambers of commerce and other non-profit organisations.

The NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce (NSWICC) was the first of its kind when it was established in 2006. It has now grown to represent more than 500 businesses in 70 different spend categories.

Victoria’s Kinaway Chamber of Commerce was established in 2010 and now has close to 300 businesses on its registry.

At a national level, Supply Nation operates a large non-profit directory called Indigenous Business Direct. This aims to connect the procurement teams of large organisations with verified Indigenous businesses.

To register with Supply Nation, businesses need to demonstrate Indigenous ownership of at least 50% to be a “registered” business, or 51% or greater ownership to become “certified”.

Relevant documents are verified with bodies including ASIC. And regular audits and spot checks are conducted to ensure these companies continue to be Indigenous-owned and led.

Supply Nation has just passed the significant milestone of registering its 5,000th Indigenous business, up from just 13 in 2009.

Registration takes effort on the part of a business, but it’s really important. Our Snapshot study found that formally registered businesses were responsible for around 70% of all the revenue and jobs generated across the Indigenous business ecosystem.

All of these organisations provide business mentoring, guidance on procurement and a clearing house for opportunities.

But more importantly, registering a business as Indigenous on any of these directories allows corporations, non-profits and governments to find and connect with it, opening the door to all kinds of opportunities.

Read more:
Indigenous businesses are worth billions but we don’t know enough about them

Michelle Evans receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Indigenous businesses are thriving across a wide range of industries – here’s how to make sure that continues – https://theconversation.com/indigenous-businesses-are-thriving-across-a-wide-range-of-industries-heres-how-to-make-sure-that-continues-234170

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Babak Zolghadr-Asli, QUEX Joint PhD Candidate, Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter, and Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland

When it comes to inland surface water bodies, saline lakes are unique. They make up 44% of all lakes worldwide and are found on every continent including Antarctica. These lakes’ existence depends on a delicate balance between a river basin’s water input (precipitation and inflows) and output (evaporation and seepage).

The reason a lake turns saline is often because it doesn’t have a consistent stream outlet, leading to a build-up of dissolved salts from water inflows. The water levels of saline lakes are naturally unstable and these lakes are generally susceptible to any disturbance.

This heightened sensitivity makes saline lakes more responsive than freshwater lakes to natural and human-caused factors. The main cause of change in a saline lake is disturbances in its water balance. These can be the result of natural or human-induced factors that are local, such as droughts, pollution, and upstream water diversions, or global, such as climate change, decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature.

The rapid response of saline lakes to the changing conditions makes these lakes suitable candidates for reliably reflecting the regional, and potentially global, status of water resources, and revealing crucial changes in the water balance. Unsurprisingly, many of the world’s saline lakes are shrinking rapidly, a major warning about the sustainability of regional water resources.

How are saline lakes changing?

There have always been fluctuations in saline lakes. Unfortunately, more lasting changes have become more common in recent years due to regional human activities and global climate change.

Most lakes have been shrinking and their water quality has declined. In permafrost regions of the Arctic and the Tibetan Plateau, however, some salt lakes have expanded due to areas of ice melting in a warming climate.

Changes in saline lakes pose significant challenges. They can endanger local ecosystems and industries, threaten public health and cause broader socio-economic harm.

Iran’s Lake Urmia is a good example. Until a few decades ago, Lake Urmia was one of the the world’s largest saline lakes, but it shrunk rapidly due to unsustainable human activities. The resulting problems include a decline in tourism, dust and salt storms, falling agricultural productivity and a loss of biodiversity.

The Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth-largest inland water body, is another tragic example. Since the 1960s it has shrunk to a fraction of its former size largely due to poorly planned irrigation development in the region.

The consequences have been disastrous. Despite many efforts, it has not been possible to restore the lake to its former glory.

Our natural early-warning systems

Saline lakes, much like the canaries used to give coalminers early warning of dangerously poor air quality, could play a vital role in monitoring the health of our water resources.

To better understand this analogy, we must first step back in time to the depths of underground mines where coalminers battled a hidden danger: carbon monoxide. This gas could build up silently, without any warning, endangering the miners’ lives.

Miners devised an ingenious solution: canaries. These small birds, with their rapid breathing rate, small size and fast metabolism, were tiny detectors of danger. When carbon monoxide levels rose, the canaries would be the first to show signs of distress, giving the miners a crucial warning to evacuate before it was too late.

The natural world continues to offer us unexpected insights. Saline lakes, with their intricate ecosystems and unique characteristics, act as nature’s early-warning systems.

Just as the canaries signalled hidden dangers in coalmines, the behaviour of saline lakes can alert us to looming issues with our water resources.

The bigger picture demands our attention

Of course, it is crucial to act when lakes are shrinking, whether through preservation efforts or restoration projects. But we must not overlook the bigger picture. It would be like a miner focusing on a distressed canary when it’s a sign of a more serious problem.

The real challenge lies in delving into the root cause, much like improving poor air quality in mines rather than merely trying to revive the birds.

This highlights the urgent need for a fundamental shift to water management and getting to the root of the problem rather than just dealing with the surface issues. Unfortunately, real-world experience shows we’ve often failed to make much of an impact when tackling these issues. But we can learn from our past mistakes to make better decisions now and in the future.

In the quest to ensure water resources remain sustainable, paying attention to saline lakes would be a good starting point. We need to grasp their intricacies and accurately gauge the water budget of these lakes around the world. We can only do that by investing in continuous monitoring of their health and behaviour.

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. Why saline lakes are the canary in the coalmine for the world’s water resources – https://theconversation.com/why-saline-lakes-are-the-canary-in-the-coalmine-for-the-worlds-water-resources-232477

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanita Northcott, Research Fellow, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne

The Australian government has been investigating whether we should ban unhealthy food advertising online, and how it could work. In the United Kingdom, a ban on unhealthy food and drink advertising online will start in October 2025.

We recently used the Australian Ad Observatory to investigate targeted junk-food ads on Facebook in Australia. Our study finds that unhealthy food and drinks are promoted in ways designed to appeal to parents and carers of children, and children themselves. Additionally, young men in our study were being targeted by fast-food ads.

Kids, young people and parents should be aware of the strategies online advertisers use to normalise unhealthy eating patterns. We should all demand a more healthy digital environment.

Our work supports ongoing calls for a ban on junk food advertising online.

What did we see in the ads?

The Australian Ad Observatory has created the world’s largest known collection of the targeted ads people encounter on Facebook. Our 1,909 volunteers have donated 328,107 unique ads from their social media feeds. This gives researchers an unprecedented opportunity to examine what ads Australians see on social media and how they are being targeted.

We searched the database for ads promoting the top-selling unhealthy food and drink brands. These are “discretionary” or “sometimes” foods that tend to be high in fats and sugars. They include fast-food meals, confectionery, sugary drinks and snacks. (To identify unhealthy food and drink categories, we used government guidance on healthy food and drinks.)

We also looked at online food delivery companies because of their popularity on digital platforms. They play a likely role in promoting unhealthy foods.

We found nearly 2,000 unique ads by 141 separate advertisers observed about 6,000 times by individuals. Ads for fast-food brands made up half of the unhealthy food ad observations in our study.

Fast-food giants KFC and McDonald’s combined accounted for roughly 25% of all unhealthy food ad observations. Snack and confectionery brands, like Cadbury, featured in a third of the ad observations. Soft drink brands such as Coca-Cola were promoted in 11% of observations.

About 9% of ads promoted online food delivery companies, and typically promoted fast-food options. Other advertisers we might not think of as junk food brands, such as Coles supermarkets and 7-Eleven convenience stores, also regularly promoted junk foods.

The power of junk food

The vulnerability of children to junk food ads is well established. Children’s exposure to food marketing has been associated with what types of food they prefer and ask their parents to purchase. When they develop preferences for unhealthy foods, this contributes to unhealthy habits and related health concerns.

But it’s not only children who are susceptible to unhealthy food marketing. Junk food advertising also shapes the food norms and attitudes of young people aged 18 to 24.

Our experiences online and digital technologies more generally can impact our health. These are known as “digital determinants of health”.

Food advertisers use the vast amounts of data collected about individuals to target specific audiences. They can seamlessly integrate advertising into everyday life.

Our study shows junk food advertising is disproportionately served to young people, especially young men. Young men are seeing a much higher proportion of fast food ads (71%) compared to the sample overall (50%), suggesting fast food is marketed to them more aggressively. Many ads promoted special “app-only” deals, including free delivery, especially for fast food.

The ‘halo effect’

We also found examples of ads aimed at busy parents, painting fast food as something that saves parents time, quietens children and feeds families.

Even though Facebook accounts are available only to people 13 and over, junk-food ads still use child-oriented themes, such as characters and games. Many appear to be designed to appeal directly to children. This included ads promoting “healthy” foods, such as vegetables, in kids’ meals.

The most insidious marketing tactics we found connect junk foods, and the brands synonymous with junk foods, to wholesome or popular activities. This creates a “halo effect”.

For example, many ads use “sports-washing” to associate unhealthy foods with healthy sports activities or pleasurable spectator sports. Sports in junk-food marketing can appeal to a broad audience, including young people.

While not all of these sport-related ads promoted or displayed unhealthy food products directly, the sport provided the focal point of ads with strong brand-specific elements, therefore forging the connection.

Other ads used “mental health-washing”, including ads for chocolate bars, packaged snacks or fast food co-promoting community mental health organisations.

Unhealthy food advertising should be banned

Last week a Parliamentary Inquiry into Diabetes in Australia repeated calls for the government to restrict the marketing and advertising of unhealthy food to children on television, radio, in gaming and online.

The federal government should soon issue its report on how best to limit unhealthy food marketing to children. Our study supports the government’s proposal to ban all unhealthy food and drink advertising online.

The proposed ban should cover not just unhealthy food itself, but also any mention of the brands synonymous with those foods. This is because mentioning these brands brings such foods instantly to mind.

We also recommend the government should include all types of promotions. This includes ads from online food delivery companies, supermarkets and sports clubs that cross-promote unhealthy foods.

Many are concerned about the impact of social media and its algorithmic content feeds on children and young people. Our study highlights the food and drink ads targeting children, young people and harried parents can also create an unhealthy digital environment.

Christine Parker receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

Tanita Northcott 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. Junk food is promoted online to appeal to kids and target young men, our study shows – https://theconversation.com/junk-food-is-promoted-online-to-appeal-to-kids-and-target-young-men-our-study-shows-234285

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University

It’s easy to look back at the bad haircuts, beige clothes and brown Beehive carpets and chuckle. But whatever one’s views on its aesthetics, the Fourth Labour Government – elected 40 years ago on July 14 – was no laughing matter.

After nine years of economic nationalism and social conservatism under National prime minister Robert Muldoon, David Lange’s new broom left no corner unswept. In the space of a few short years, fuelled by a high-octane blend of neoliberal theory and neoclassical state minimalism, it reinvented the nation.

The incoming government was helped on its way by Muldoon precipitating a constitutional crisis just days after the election, and by a political system that allowed a government with a parliamentary majority to legislate with relative impunity.

Lange and his finance minister Roger Douglas also relied heavily on the intellectual support of senior Treasury officials who had spent the Muldoon years absorbing the free market philosophies of the Chicago School of Economics.

Labour deployed the political resources of a new, reforming government to full effect. And the list of its reforms says as much about the country we once were as it does about the one we have become.

The rise of Rogernomics

During its first term in office, public subsidies in the agriculture and forestry sectors were removed. Foreign exchange and interest rate controls were lifted. The dollar was floated and financial markets substantially deregulated.

The goods and services tax (GST) was introduced, the personal income tax structure simplified, and the top tax rate for individual income earners fell from 66 to 48 cents in the dollar.

Government businesses and departments were corporatised. Many were then privatised, particularly after Labour’s increased support at the 1987 election. One of the most regulated economies in the world rapidly became one of the most open.

It was dubbed “Rogernomics”, but the Lange-Douglas government’s social and foreign policy reforms were almost as significant. Rape within marriage was finally outlawed, homosexuality was decriminalised, and nuclear-free laws passed as part of a newly assertive and independent foreign policy.

Attorney-general Geoffrey Palmer revised parliament’s Standing Orders, transforming our legislature into one of the most open in the parliamentary democratic world. Palmer also shepherded the Constitution Act (1986) through the House, which formally ended the outmoded provision that New Zealand governments could ask the British parliament to legislate on their behalf.

The past shapes the present

The Lange government would drive other, deeper transformations over time. The manner in which both Labour and its National Party successor threw their executive weight about, for instance, goes a long way to explaining the advent of the MMP proportional electoral system in 1993.

Many, perhaps naively, hoped MMP would clip the wings of the political executive. But the more astute architects of reform recognised MMP was the perfect system for locking in the structural changes made in the 1980s and 1990s by Labour and National.

The sort of radical politics that would be required to undo the neoliberal reforms enacted since 1984 are much harder to achieve in a multi-party system than in one dominated by two parties which swap executive power.

Moreover, the DNA of Labour’s Lange-Douglas era can still be found in the party system that has evolved under MMP.

Most obviously, the ACT Party was co-founded by Roger Douglas. It draws its intellectual inspiration less from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged than from the Treasury’s epochal briefing to the incoming government in 1984, Economic Management. NZ First leader Winston Peters still adheres to aspects of the world Lange and his core cabinet ended.

And Te Pati Māori is the latest in many attempts to wrangle something for tangata whenua out of our Westminster parliamentary arrangements. The political environment in which it operates was shaped by Labour’s expansion of the Waitangi Tribunal’s powers.

A new orthodoxy

Perhaps the Fourth Labour Government’s most enduring legacy, however, is the least visible: it changed the way we talk and think about politics, especially what we now consider either politically possible or beyond the pale.

We have voluntarily chosen to constrain our ability to control fiscal and monetary policy. And these self-imposed limits on state power are now so embedded in legislation that any form of fiscal activism – such as saving jobs and businesses during a pandemic – seems extraordinary.

The notion that the human condition amounts to the rational pursuit of individual self-interest is similarly pervasive. By this reasoning, wealth inequality – of which there is a great deal more than in 1984 – is a moral not a market failure. Not even a global financial crisis or pandemic could really shift the paradigm.

These things are now widely accepted as natural and immutable, rather than the political choices they are. Without anyone really noticing, two equivalent fictions – the “dead hand” of the state and the “invisible hand” of the market – have assumed the status of both lore and law.

In France, one of the crucibles of modern democracy, the fall of the ancien régime during the revolution is commemorated on July 14, Bastille Day. On that same day in 1984, an old New Zealand order also fell. It was replaced by a new orthodoxy that has effectively smothered an alternative political or economic imagination.

We are all still living in the shadow of 1984. That is the real legacy of the Fourth Labour Government.

Richard Shaw 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 nation reinvented: 40 years on from its 1984 victory, the Fourth Labour Government still defines NZ – https://theconversation.com/a-nation-reinvented-40-years-on-from-its-1984-victory-the-fourth-labour-government-still-defines-nz-232133

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Fuller, Charles Perkins Centre Research Program Leader, University of Sydney

When trying to lose weight, it’s natural to want to see quick results. So when the number on the scales drops rapidly, it seems like we’re on the right track.

But as with many things related to weight loss, there’s a flip side: rapid weight loss can result in a significant loss of muscle mass, as well as fat.

So how you can tell if you’re losing too much muscle and what can you do to prevent it?

Why does muscle mass matter?

Muscle is an important factor in determining our metabolic rate: how much energy we burn at rest. This is determined by how much muscle and fat we have. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, meaning it burns more calories.

When we diet to lose weight, we create a calorie deficit, where our bodies don’t get enough energy from the food we eat to meet our energy needs. Our bodies start breaking down our fat and muscle tissue for fuel.

A decrease in calorie-burning muscle mass slows our metabolism. This quickly slows the rate at which we lose weight and impacts our ability to maintain our weight long term.

How to tell you’re losing too much muscle

Unfortunately, measuring changes in muscle mass is not easy.

The most accurate tool is an enhanced form of X-ray called a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. The scan is primarily used in medicine and research to capture data on weight, body fat, muscle mass and bone density.

But while DEXA is becoming more readily available at weight-loss clinics and gyms, it’s not cheap.

There are also many “smart” scales available for at home use that promise to provide an accurate reading of muscle mass percentage.

However, the accuracy of these scales is questionable. Researchers found the scales tested massively over- or under-estimated fat and muscle mass.

Fortunately, there are three free but scientifically backed signs you may be losing too much muscle mass when you’re dieting.

1. You’re losing much more weight than expected each week

Losing a lot of weight rapidly is one of the early signs that your diet is too extreme and you’re losing too much muscle.

Rapid weight loss (of more than 1 kilogram per week) results in greater muscle mass loss than slow weight loss.

Slow weight loss better preserves muscle mass and often has the added benefit of greater fat mass loss.

One study compared people in the obese weight category who followed either a very low-calorie diet (500 calories per day) for five weeks or a low-calorie diet (1,250 calories per day) for 12 weeks. While both groups lost similar amounts of weight, participants following the very low-calorie diet (500 calories per day) for five weeks lost significantly more muscle mass.

2. You’re feeling tired and things feel more difficult

It sounds obvious, but feeling tired, sluggish and finding it hard to complete physical activities, such as working out or doing jobs around the house, is another strong signal you’re losing muscle.

Research shows a decrease in muscle mass may negatively impact your body’s physical performance.

3. You’re feeling moody

Mood swings and feeling anxious, stressed or depressed may also be signs you’re losing muscle mass.

Research on muscle loss due to ageing suggests low levels of muscle mass can negatively impact mental health and mood. This seems to stem from the relationship between low muscle mass and proteins called neurotrophins, which help regulate mood and feelings of wellbeing.

So how you can do to maintain muscle during weight loss?

Fortunately, there are also three actions you can take to maintain muscle mass when you’re following a calorie-restricted diet to lose weight.

1. Incorporate strength training into your exercise plan

While a broad exercise program is important to support overall weight loss, strength-building exercises are a surefire way to help prevent the loss of muscle mass. A meta-analysis of studies of older people with obesity found resistance training was able to prevent almost 100% of muscle loss from calorie restriction.

Relying on diet alone to lose weight will reduce muscle along with body fat, slowing your metabolism. So it’s essential to make sure you’ve incorporated sufficient and appropriate exercise into your weight-loss plan to hold onto your muscle mass stores.

But you don’t need to hit the gym. Exercises using body weight – such as push-ups, pull-ups, planks and air squats – are just as effective as lifting weights and using strength-building equipment.

Encouragingly, moderate-volume resistance training (three sets of ten repetitions for eight exercises) can be as effective as high-volume training (five sets of ten repetitions for eight exercises) for maintaining muscle when you’re following a calorie-restricted diet.

2. Eat more protein

Foods high in protein play an essential role in building and maintaining muscle mass, but research also shows these foods help prevent muscle loss when you’re following a calorie-restricted diet.

But this doesn’t mean just eating foods with protein. Meals need to be balanced and include a source of protein, wholegrain carb and healthy fat to meet our dietary needs. For example, eggs on wholegrain toast with avocado.

3. Slow your weight loss plan down

When we change our diet to lose weight, we take our body out of its comfort zone and trigger its survival response. It then counteracts weight loss, triggering several physiological responses to defend our body weight and “survive” starvation.

Our body’s survival mechanisms want us to regain lost weight to ensure we survive the next period of famine (dieting). Research shows that more than half of the weight lost by participants is regained within two years, and more than 80% of lost weight is regained within five years.

However, a slow and steady, stepped approach to weight loss, prevents our bodies from activating defence mechanisms to defend our weight when we try to lose weight.

Ultimately, losing weight long-term comes down to making gradual changes to your lifestyle to ensure you form habits that last a lifetime.

At the Boden Group, Charles Perkins Centre, we are studying the science of obesity and running clinical trials for weight loss. You can register here to express your interest.

Dr Nick Fuller works for the University of Sydney and has received external funding for projects relating to the treatment of overweight and obesity. He is the author and founder of the Interval Weight Loss program.

– ref. 3 signs your diet is causing too much muscle loss – and what to do about it – https://theconversation.com/3-signs-your-diet-is-causing-too-much-muscle-loss-and-what-to-do-about-it-223865

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Jane Elliott, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Sydney

As a mother, I know the dread of hearing a gastro bug is going around the daycare, school or netball team. Diarrhoea and vomiting can stun a healthy child for days and wreak havoc on a family for weeks.

As a paediatrician, with extensive research experience in acute gastroenteritis (gastro), I also understand the effects on the community, our hospitals and our most vulnerable patients.

In the past year, Australia has experienced a surge in gastro cases due to a bug called cryptosporidium, which particularly affects children.

Cryptosporidium is not the only cause of gastro, but its spread provides a timely reminder to think about what we can do to manage and prevent this nasty illness.

Symptoms and causes

Gastro is characterised by the rapid onset of diarrhoea, or vomiting, or both, which lasts fewer than 14 days. These symptoms may be accompanied by tummy pain, nausea, appetite loss and fever.

Hundreds of strains of different pathogens may infect the gut to cause gastro. Worldwide, viral pathogens (such as rotavirus or norovirus) are the most common cause, but bacterial pathogens (such as Salmonella or E. coli) and parasites (such as Giardia and cryptosporidium) also cause gastro. Traveller’s diarrhoea may involve pathogens rarely seen in Australia, such as typhoid and cholera.

Gastro is usually transmitted from person to person, including through contact with saliva, vomit or faeces. It may also be acquired by ingesting contaminated water or food (food poisoning), swimming in contaminated water (in pools, dams, estuaries or water parks), or contact with farm animals.

What about cryptosporidium?

Cryptosporidium is a relatively common cause of gastro, called cryptosporidiosis. It especially affects young children, but the elderly and people with suppressed immune systems are also vulnerable.

Cryptosporidium is spread by spores called oocysts excreted in the faeces of humans and animals.

People often become infected through ingestion of contaminated water or contact with contaminated water, including in swimming pools.

When the parasite escapes the gut, it may survive in pool or spa water, even if it’s chlorinated, for days. So outbreaks often occur in spring or summer months when children are more likely to be swimming.

We saw this over the summer in Australia, when outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis led to pool closures and general alerts in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

The infection can also be spread from person to person.

Cryptosporidium causes symptoms typical of gastro, notably watery diarrhoea and tummy pain. Fever and vomiting are less common. Symptoms usually begin a few days after infection but may come and go over a few weeks.

Children may be infectious for two weeks. People with poor immune function may carry and shed cryptosporidium (and therefore infect others) for longer.

An upward trend

Data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System confirms an upward trend in cryptosporidiosis cases across Australia this year. Some 11,860 cases have been recorded so far in 2024, compared with 3,716 during all of 2023.

From February to May, cases were more than ten times higher than the five-year average for that period. Cases have been particularly high in Queensland.

We don’t know the reason for this cryptosporidiosis epidemic, but it may be related to changing weather patterns and extreme weather events, perhaps reflecting climate change.

Rates may be higher in Queensland because more kids swim year-round in a warmer climate.

What to do if your child is sick

The mainstay of managing gastro at home, including cryptosporidiosis, is to prevent and treat dehydration. This can best be achieved by offering frequent drinks of a commercial oral rehydration solution which is formulated to promote absorption of water and electrolytes by the gut and replace fluids lost through diarrhoea and vomiting.

If your child’s symptoms are severe or ongoing and you’re worried, contact a doctor, as it’s possible they may need hospital treatment.

Keep any child with diarrhoea or vomiting away from other children or vulnerable adults and home from daycare, pre-school or school until 24 hours after their symptoms have resolved. Parents, child-care workers and teachers are also at risk of infection and should isolate if symptomatic.

If your child has had cryptosporidiosis, they should not swim in a public pool for at least two weeks after the diarrhoea has stopped. Likewise, don’t share towels, linen or utensils with them during this period.

Simple measures can go a long way

To prevent gastro generally, the approach is similar regardless of the pathogen. Some worthwhile precautions include:

• don’t drink untreated water from tanks, bores or wells

• don’t eat or drink unpasteurised milk or dairy products

• wash all fruit and vegetables before eating raw

• wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds, particularly after changing nappies, using the bathroom, gardening, before preparing food or drinks, or after contact with animals

• follow local advice and avoid swimming at beaches and in other waterways after heavy rain or flooding, as run-off and sewage overflow may result in contamination.

• make sure your child is vaccinated against rotavirus.

Gastro is a global problem

Despite advances in diagnosis (improved identification of gut pathogens), prevention (notably rotavirus vaccination), and treatment (particularly use of oral rehydration therapy), gastro remains a major cause of illness and death in young children, particularly in developing countries.

According to the World Health Organization, each year there are nearly 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal disease in children globally.

It’s worth taking extra care when travelling, especially to low- and middle-income countries where food and water may be less safe. Take advice from your doctor regarding appropriate vaccination for specific destinations, such as for cholera or typhoid.

Elizabeth Jane Elliott 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. Cryptosporidiosis: what to know as gastro surges among Australian children – https://theconversation.com/cryptosporidiosis-what-to-know-as-gastro-surges-among-australian-children-234160

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Pirotta, Postdoctoral Researcher and Wildlife Scientist, Macquarie University

In the past few days, two well known survivors of the battle between marine mammals and vessels have been spotted in Australian waters. I’m talking about Bladerunner the humpback and Split Fin the killer whale. Both have become famous for the massive scars they bear on their bodies, inflicted by boats.

Bladerunner is marked by a series of lines across her back and part of her tail. These lines were made by a propeller in motion. Spilt Fin, as her name suggests, has a split dorsal fin – likely also caused by a boat propeller.

I’m lucky to have seen both during my career studying whales. I first saw Bladerunner in 2013 while conducting research off Cape Solander, Sydney. And I spotted Spilt Fin and her pod on a whale watching trip off Eden, New South Wales, back in 2009.

I get a buzz every time I hear about another sighting. I know countless other people feel the same way. But there’s another feeling, too, knowing they were hurt yet narrowly avoided a fate far worse. So let’s take this opportunity to learn a bit more about these majestic creatures and how to keep them safe from harm.

What happened to Bladerunner and Split Fin?

Bladerunner and Split Fin sustained terrible injuries quite some time ago now. Bladerunner was struck in 2001 and Spit Fin was first spotted in 2003. In both cases, the wounds healed without becoming infected.

Killer whales, such as Split Fin, are actually the largest members of the dolphin family. Whales and dolphins swim to the surface to breathe. They may also feed and socialise at the surface, where they’re highly likely to encounter a vessel.

A collision in the ocean is called vessel strike (sometimes ship strike or boat strike).

Unfortunately, whales and dolphins are at risk of vessel strike worldwide. In some cases, whales may be fatally wounded or sustain terrible injuries that restrict movement and leave them unable to swim properly. This makes them more vulnerable to predators such as killer whales.

Bladerunner and Split Fin look different, so people notice them

It’s impossible for scientists to be out on the ocean all the time, so it’s helpful when other people spot whales travelling on the “humpback highway”. For example:

Bladerunner was sighted by people onshore at Tathra, NSW, on Wednesday, and filmed using a drone :

Split Fin and her pod were spotted off Eden last week from a whale-watching platform:

Both humpback whales and killer whales can live for well over 50 years, so hopefully we can enjoy many more sightings.

Dedicated “citizen scientists” capture sightings on social media through groups such as Killer Whales Australia. There’s also various “whale-y” fun local projects, right around Australia, where you can get involved.

In addition, my team and I are documenting unique humpback whale sightings including the elusive white humpback whale Migaloo. Being all white makes him stand out, so people tend to notice him. But it’s been four years between sightings now. When will Migaloo turn up next?

A reminder to please keep your distance

Both Bladerunner and Split Fin remind us all to take care when on the water, or flying a drone over the ocean.

All whales, dolphins and porpoises in Australian waters are protected. The authorities have rules in place to keep these animals safe.

As a general rule, please keep your distance on the water by staying at least 100 metres away from whales. If a calf is present, the “exclusion zone” extends out to 300 metres.

If you’re flying a drone, that means the drone must fly at least 100m or higher above the ocean’s surface.

Ensuring we don’t get too close will allow these creatures safe passage in our waters, so we can continue to enjoy them.

Of course, vessel strike is not the only threat whales and dolphins face. Human activities present other dangers such as entanglement in fishing gear, noise and other forms of pollution, climate changes, and underwater construction to name a few. The good news is science is helping us understand these threats, so we can make evidence-based decisions to better protect these creatures in the future.

Tail end

Bladerunner is one of more than 40,000 humpbacks currently migrating north to warmer waters from Antarctica. They’re on their way to a fun place I call the “whale disco”, where male humpback whales sing and socialise with females. Humpback females may give birth or fall pregnant during this time.

It’s a special time of year, when all eyes are on the big blue.

Let’s hope for safe passage for all whales and dolphins, as they enjoy Australian waters.

This article was drawn from material in Vanessa Pirotta’s new book Humpback Highway: Diving into the mysterious world of whales.

Vanessa Pirotta 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 return of Bladerunner the humpback and Spilt Fin the killer whale – a cautionary tale about seafaring vessels – https://theconversation.com/the-return-of-bladerunner-the-humpback-and-spilt-fin-the-killer-whale-a-cautionary-tale-about-seafaring-vessels-234389

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Asher, Retail Expert, PhD Candidate & Sessional Academic, University of Sydney

The proposed merger of Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island raises the prospect of even less choice for New Zealanders in what is an already heavily concentrated market. But will regulators prevent it from happening?

New Zealand currently has just three major supermarket entities: the two Foodstuffs cooperatives (member-owned companies) and Australian-owned Woolworths. These three control 85% of the grocery market and almost 100% of the supermarket sector.

The Commerce Commission will release its delayed decision on the proposed merger in October.

Less choice in NZ than overseas

The dominance of Foodstuffs and Woolworths gives the New Zealand supermarket industry a concentration ratio of almost 100% – calculated by adding the top four firm’s market share of an industry.

By comparison, the supermarket sector concentration ratio in Italy is 58.3%, in Spain it’s 67.4%, in the United Kingdom it’s 61.2%, and in the United States it’s 58.5%. These lower ratios point to markets that are more competitive.

A recent OECD survey has raised concerns over the concentration in the New Zealand market. And suppliers have warned they are being hurt by the dominance of these retailers.

Research has long shown higher levels of concentration favour the companies dominating the market to the detriment of consumers and competition.

Our research supports this finding.

In 2022, the Commerce Commission released a report on New Zealand’s grocery sector. It found competition was not working well for consumers in the retail grocery sector. Recommendations included establishing a dedicated
grocery regulator to provide monitoring and oversight, which was done by the then Labour government last year.

To better balance the market, regulators need to ensure local markets are competitive. This will require not just the rejection of Foodstuffs’ merger but, also, the possible split or demerger of the existing entities.

The most logical step is split the Pak’nSave and New World brands, ensuring they are independent of each other.

Otherwise there is a risk of precedent being set, which establishes an example for other sectors and markets to follow. It also raises the question of the point of the market study, if – despite the knowledge of concentration – the market was allowed to concentrate further.

Research shows the high price we pay

New Zealand’s size and low population density are often blamed for higher food costs.

But our ongoing research shows low population density in developed markets is not a predictor of supermarket market concentration.

Highly concentrated markets have lower store availability for consumers, driving up population per store and reducing choice.

New Zealand has four times more population per store than Germany, and more than two times the UK and US. New Zealand also has the highest revenue per store across 25 developed markets, ahead of the United States.

Foodstuffs North Island, for example, generates double the global average operating profit of supermarkets.

Individual store owners are benefiting from the lack of competition. In 2018, three Foodstuffs supermarket owners entered the NBR rich list.

Anti-competitive claims against Foodstuffs

The proposed merger of the two Foodstuffs cooperatives is not the first time the company has joined together geographically disparate entities.

In 2013, Foodstuffs merged their Wellington and Auckland regions to become Foodstuffs North Island. This merger concentrated an already small market further.

The cooperatives’ increased market and bargaining power after the 2013 merger has resulted in complaints from some suppliers over Foodstuffs North Island’s tactics.

Despite being two separate entities, Foodstuffs has admitted to sharing information between its North and South Island entities. And since 2020, Foodstuffs North Island and South Island have released joint annual corporate social responsibility reports.

In a submission on the merger to the Commerce Commission earlier this year, one industry insider claimed the two Foodstuffs cooperatives were behaving as an unofficial cartel. Foodstuffs has rejected this claim.

But the commission has active fair trading investigations into both Foodstuffs South Island and Foodstuffs North Island over pricing and promotional practices. It is also investigating Woolworths New Zealand for the same issues.

And the regulator recently filed proceedings against Foodstuffs North Island, alleging that anti-competitive land covenants were lodged by the supermarket operator. The commission claims Foodstuffs did this with the purpose of blocking competitors from opening rival supermarkets at particular sites.

Splitting the Foodstuffs brands

New Zealand is not the only country facing increasingly concentrated supermarket sector, though it is, arguably, one of the worst.

In Australia, concerns have been raised about the dominance of Coles and Woolworths. These two companies control 65% of the grocery sector between them. The Queensland Greens have called on the government to introduce a 20% cap on market ownership.

In May, the Australian government outlined a mandatory code of conduct for supermarkets to address anti-competitive behaviour. It is clear Australia is attempting to prevent further concentration of its grocery market, highlighting just how much of an outlier New Zealand is.

In contrast, the UK’s two largest supermarkets, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, control just 42.2% of their market. An investigation into rising food prices by the country’s competition watchdog found inflation was not driven by weak retail competition.

Operating profits in the sector in the UK fell 41.5% in 2022-23, with average operating margins falling to 1.8% from 3.2%. This suggests retailers’ rising costs were not passed on in full to consumers.

The UK grocery sector shows how competitive a grocery sector can be – if consumers and regulators are vigilant. But the merger of the two Foodstuffs cooperatives is taking New Zealand in the opposite direction.

Instead, the commission should reject the merger. It should also look at the demerger or divestment of the Foodstuffs banners to foster real competition and a better outcome for consumers.

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. Supermarket concentration benefits stores, not shoppers. It’s time to split Foodstuffs – not make it stronger – https://theconversation.com/supermarket-concentration-benefits-stores-not-shoppers-its-time-to-split-foodstuffs-not-make-it-stronger-234150

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shumi Akhtar, Associate Professor, University of Sydney

This article is part of The Conversation’s “Business Basics” series where we ask experts to discuss key concepts in business, economics and finance.

It’s July, which means if they haven’t already, many Australians will be thinking about and filing their tax returns.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who likes paying taxes, but they fund essential public services such as health care, education, infrastructure, defence spending and social services.

In Australia, we tax individuals under a progressive tax system – the tax rate increases as your income rises. Such a system is designed to ensure those who earn more contribute a larger percentage of their income towards the country’s revenue.

But this isn’t the only way to tax individuals’ income. Some countries including Estonia and Bolivia have a “flat” tax system that imposes the same income tax rate on everyone, no matter how much they earn.

So how does Australia’s tax system work for individuals – and how has it just been changed?

First, working out what you earn

Each financial year, every taxpayer must either lodge a tax return – detailing their income and any deductions or offsets to which they are entitled – or submit a “non-lodgement advice” form.

Read more:
What are financial years – and why are they different from calendar years?

To prepare a tax return, a taxpayer has to work out their taxable income, which the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) defines as “assessable income minus any allowable deductions”.

At one end of the scale, a person’s assessable income might just include their salary or wage payments made over the course of a financial year.

But for others with diverse income streams – which could include interest, investments, government payments and profits from owning a business – preparing a tax return will be more complicated. These income streams may face their own tax implications before being taxed progressively.

Taxpayers are often able to make deductions against their taxable income, including for certain work-related expenses, charitable donations and educational costs.

Depending on their income and level of private health cover, individuals may also have pay to a Medicare levy.

It’s important to note that our discussion here is only general in nature, and tax laws are always evolving. Consider seeking professional advice to manage your own tax return.

Read more:
Beware of ‘tax hacks’ to maximise your return this year. The tax office is taking a close look at incorrect claims

The more you earn, the more you pay

Once we’ve worked out how much someone has earned, we tax them on a progressive scale, where tax rates increase with income.

But you don’t pay a higher rate of tax on all of your income, only on your respective earnings above and within certain thresholds.

For example, under the tax brackets for the last financial year (2023–24), Australian residents faced marginal tax rates of:

Bracket creep

But there’s a problem. Over time, inflation in an economy increases the general cost of goods and services, eroding the purchasing power of money. As a result, people demand higher wages so their living standards don’t decrease.

Over the years, these higher incomes amid high inflation can push people into new tax brackets, meaning they might pay higher rates of income tax without seeing any improvement in purchasing power. This is called “bracket creep” or “tax creep”.

As the Parliamentary Budget Office explains, even those who aren’t pushed into new tax brackets can still be impacted by bracket creep. This is because the design of our system means the more a taxpayer earns, the greater the proportion of their income will be paid in tax.

Put simply, they face a higher average tax rate – total tax calculated as a proportion of total taxable income – as their income increases, even if they stay in the same bracket (excluding those below the tax-free threshold).

Avoiding bracket creep was one of the key rationales for Australia’s recent income tax cuts, stage three of which came into effect on July 1. As you might remember, these cuts were changed from what was originally planned.

The previous Coalition government’s original plan was to eliminate the 37% tax rate, reduce the 32.5% bracket rate to 30% and expand it to cover earnings all the way up to $200,000, and apply the 45% tax rate to earnings over $200,000.

But the current Labor government ended up instead lowering the 19% rate to 16%, reducing the 32.5% rate to 30% for earnings up to $135,000, keeping the 37% rate above this higher threshold, and applying the 45% marginal tax rate to earnings above $190,000.

These changes mean that over the current financial year (2024–25), Australian residents will face the following new marginal rates of income tax:

The changes have reduced some of the tax savings for those on high incomes. For example, a worker earning $200,000 will see a tax saving this year of $4,529, down from $9,075 under the original plan.

Not the only way to tax

It’s sometimes argued that an alternative system of flat taxes – applying the same tax rate to everyone no matter how much they earn – could increase simplicity and economic efficiency.

But like many other countries, Australia’s progressive tax system is designed to ensure that those who earn more contribute more accordingly. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring it stays fair over time.

Shumi Akhtar is affiliated with Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (ANU).

– ref. How does Australia’s progressive tax system work – and what is ‘bracket creep’? – https://theconversation.com/how-does-australias-progressive-tax-system-work-and-what-is-bracket-creep-234152

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

Political donations would need to be disclosed in “real time” during elections under reform legislation that also would restrict spending on individual seat campaigns to an amount that will be less than $1 million per candidate.

The package, which Special Minister of State Don Farrell aims to introduce in the next parliamentary sitting fortnight beginning August 12, also includes a truth-in-advertising provision, and is expected to boost public funding for elections. Total election funding paid by the Australian Electoral Commission for the 2022 election was nearly $76 million.

All donations of $1000 and above would have to be disclosed, under the proposed measures. At present the disclosure threshold is more than $16,900. There would also be caps on donations.

Under the real-time disclosure provision, donations outside election periods would have to be made public within weeks. During an election campaign, they would need to be disclosed weekly, then daily as polling day approached.

Some details of the package are still being finalised. One major issue is the need to minimise the risk of a successful High Court challenge on the grounds of limiting the implied freedom of political communication.

The plan includes caps on parties’ campaign spending at a national and a state level (the latter covers campaigns for the Senate) as well as on spending at the seat level.

Parties, candidates and others involved in elections would be required to have dedicated Commonwealth campaign accounts for all donations and spending, which would be subject to audit by the Australian Electoral Commission.

Parties would receive some funding for their administration.

Farrell says his package will “address the growing threat of big money in politics”.

During Farrell’s extensive negotiations there has been blowback from some crossbenchers. Some “teal” MPs ran highly expensive campaigns which saw them elected in 2022.

Independent member for the Victorian seat of Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, one of the teals, said she supported a lower disclosure threshold for donations and real-time disclosure. “Above everything else, the priorities are transparency and accountability,” she said.

But she warned, “I remain suspicious that the major parties will dress up their proposals as electoral reform when their real goal is self interest. We must make sure they don’t collude to lock out newcomers and tilt the playing field in their own favour, in contrast to the demonstrated wishes of voters at large.”

The Coalition parties have been in negotiation with Farrell over the measures, but where they will land is unknown.

The package will have provisions covering “associated entities”, which are funding-raising arms for parties, and “significant third parties”, which spend on and raise money for elections. They include unions, advocacy groups such as Advance and organisations such as Climate 200. Details of the provisions covering them are not known.

Earlier consideration of increasing the number of senators from the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory (at present two each) has been abandoned.

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. ‘Real time’ donation disclosure and spending limits in Labor electoral reforms – https://theconversation.com/real-time-donation-disclosure-and-spending-limits-in-labor-electoral-reforms-234471

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

In the latest instalment of the Ladies Lounge saga at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), curator Kirsha Kaechele’s has revealed she faked a number of Picasso paintings hanging in the gallery’s new ladies toilets, established in response to the forced closure of the Ladies Lounge earlier this year.

This entire saga is perhaps the most effective piece of performance art I’ve seen since Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece of 1964 – a work hailed as being the Titanic of performance pieces. In it, Ono sits, as members of the public are invited to approach and cut off pieces of her clothes.

As was the case with Cut Piece, the public’s reaction to Kaechele has been intense. Unlike Ono, however, Kaechele’s performance has lasted for months and has engaged and scandalised many more people, garnering worldwide attention.

An ongoing performance

The very first stage of this serialised event was Kaechele’s creation of the Ladies Lounge. In this space, women could have high tea, admire great art and be served by attractive, adoring male butlers.

The butlers had to be young, handsome and dressed to be of service to the ladies. In Kaechele’s own words:

They are the only men allowed in the Ladies Lounge, and that is because they live to serve women. They attend to our every desire and shower us with praise and affection (in chivalry — the unequal rights component of the reparations equation). And champagne. They also massage us.

So when a man, Jason Lau, complained about being denied access on account of his gender, the media had a field day.

Indeed, the presence of a women-only lounge serving champagne and great art drew the ire of some men. And that was the point: in a world where women have been (and continue to be) denied access to the same spaces as men, Jason Lau was “experiencing the artwork as it’s intended”.

Read more:
Women have been excluded from men’s spaces for centuries. That’s why the MONA Ladies Lounge matters

Lau took Kaeschele and MONA to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal, where the hearing became the second act of Kaeschele’s performance.

In court, Kaechele and her troupe staged a synchronised performance reacting to those who stood over them in judgement. The tribunal found the Ladies Lounge discriminated against “persons who do not identify as ladies”. But even as the case was lost, the troupe danced out of the courtroom to the tune of Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible.

While the lounge was closed “for reform”, Kaechele pondered her next move. She considered a ladies bible study room, but eventually settled on decorating a toilet with some of the master works.

When questioned on the desirability of drinking champagne in a toilet, Kaechele replied:

There is a real precedent for people imbibing in the toilet. People enjoy all kinds of substances in there.

She has a point.

Once the toilets were open, a fascinated media noted – among other works – paintings by Picasso. To treat famous (and expensive) art with such open contempt drew international attention, including from the Picasso Administration, which manages, collects, distributes and controls the rights attached to Picasso’s works.

Kaechele then “confessed” she painted the “Piacassos” herself three years ago. She said she she made the paintings green to match the lurid green aesthetic of the Ladies Lounge, where they were first placed.

These “Picassos” weren’t the only fakes in the lounge/toilets. Others included modern spears from Papua New Guinea captioned as antiques and plastic jewellery claimed to be heirlooms.

Might there be consequences?

As well as taking the mickey out of the patriarchy, one lesson from Kaechele’s work is that gallery and museum visitors should use their eyes and not always believe what labels say.

If Kaechele had persisted in claiming the works were by Picasso after being challenged by the Picasso Administration, she would have been guilty of fraud. However, she immediately “confessed” and explained why and how she acted as she did.

As a result, the Ladies Lounge/toilet has become an amusing exposé on how thin-skinned some men can be – and why the legal system (at least at its lower levels) needs to get some perspective.

This event reminds me of Melbourne artist, Ivan Durrant, who in 1974 put a dead cow in the forecourt of the National Gallery of Victoria. The following year his commercial gallery, Hogarth Gallery, announced Durrant had acquired a severed human hand which would be exhibited as art. The photographs looked so realistic that the national media tied itself in knots trying to locate the person whose hand it was. It was, of course, a prosthetic.

The last laugh goes to…

For Kaechele – and for MONA – the Ladies Lounge controversy has been a spectacular success. She has reminded visitors that the roles of artist and curator are often intermingled. She has also succeeded in exposing the patriarchy as a humourless joke.

Kaechele’s acts fall within a great tradition of performance art, which had fallen out of fashion since it’s heyday in the 1960s and ‘70s. She is, however, more lighthearted than Pat Larter’s Tailored Maids. In this performance work, which itself was critique of female circumcision, she sat behind a sheet and used shadow play. As the implements of destruction – including secateurs – approached her body, she threw pieces of raw meat into the audience.

Ever since it opened, MONA’s exhibitions and installations have combined curatorial originality with a talent for attracting the kind of worldwide publicity other art museums yearn for. Kaechele’s husband, David Walsh, has said his mission is to make the arts approachable to people who aren’t a part of a self-defined cultural elite.

Indeed, Kaechele has now brought more international prominence to MONA, showing yet again why it is essential viewing for any art lover in Australia.

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

– ref. Fake Picassos in a ladies toilet: why the saga at MONA is one of the most effective pieces of performance art I’ve seen – https://theconversation.com/fake-picassos-in-a-ladies-toilet-why-the-saga-at-mona-is-one-of-the-most-effective-pieces-of-performance-art-ive-seen-234470

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Reardon, Postdoctoral researcher in pulsar timing and gravitational waves, Swinburne University of Technology

Neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the universe. Formed from the collapsed cores of supergiant stars, they weigh more than our Sun and yet are compressed into a sphere the size of a city.

The dense cores of these exotic stars contain matter squashed into unique states that we can’t possibly replicate and study on Earth. That’s why NASA is on a mission to study neutron stars and learn about the physics that governs the matter inside them.

My colleagues and I have been helping them out. We used radio signals from a fast-spinning neutron star to measure its mass. This enabled scientists working with NASA data to measure the star’s radius, which in turn gave us the most precise information yet about the strange matter inside.

Read more:
Explainer: what is a neutron star?

What is inside a neutron star?

Matter in the core of neutron stars is even denser than the nucleus of an atom. As the densest stable form of matter in the universe, it is squashed to its limit and on the brink of collapse into a black hole. Understanding how matter behaves under these conditions is a key test of our theories of fundamental physics.

NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) mission is trying to solve the mysteries of this extreme matter.

NICER is an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station. It detects X-rays coming from hot spots on the surface of neutron stars where temperatures can reach millions of degrees.

Scientists model the timing and energies of these X-rays to map the hot spots and determine the mass and size of the neutron stars.

Knowing how the sizes of neutron stars relate to their masses will reveal the “equation of state” of the matter in their cores. This tells scientists how soft or hard – how “squeezeable” – the neutron star is, and therefore what it is made of.

A softer equation of state would suggest that neutrons in the core are breaking apart into an exotic soup of smaller particles. A harder equation of state might mean neutrons resist, leading to larger neutron stars.

The equation of state also dictates how and when neutron stars get ripped apart when they collide.

Solving the mystery with a neutron star neighbour

One of NICER’s primary targets is a neutron star called PSR J0437-4715, which is the nearest and brightest millisecond pulsar.

A pulsar is a neutron star that emits beams of radio waves that we observe as a pulse every time the neutron star rotates.

This particular pulsar rotates 173 times per second (as fast as a blender). We have been observing it for almost 30 years with Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales.

The team working with NICER data faced a challenge for this pulsar. X-rays coming from a nearby galaxy made it hard to accurately model the hot spots on the neutron star’s surface.

Fortunately, we were able to use radio waves to find an independent measurement of the pulsar’s mass. Without this crucial information, the team would not have recovered the correct mass.

Weighing a neutron star is all about timing

To measure the neutron star’s mass, we rely on an effect described by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, called the Shapiro delay.

Massive and dense objects such as pulsars – and in this case its companion star, a white dwarf – warp space and time. The pulsar and this companion orbit one another once every 5.74 days. When pulses from the pulsar travel to us across the compressed spacetime surrounding the white dwarf, they are delayed by microseconds.

Such microsecond delays are easy to measure with Murriyang from pulsars like PSR J0437-4715. This pulsar, and other millisecond pulsars like it, are observed regularly by the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project, which uses these pulsars to detect gravitational waves.

Read more:
Using a detector the size of a galaxy, astronomers find strongest evidence yet for gravitational waves from supermassive black hole pairs

Because PSR J0437-4715 is relatively close to us, its orbit appears to wobble slightly from our point of view as Earth moves around the Sun. This wobble gives us more details about the geometry of the orbit. We use this together with the Shapiro delay to find the masses of the white-dwarf companion and the pulsar.

The mass and size of PSR J0437-4715

We calculated that the mass of this pulsar is typical of a neutron star, at 1.42 times the mass of our Sun. That’s important because the size of this pulsar should also be the size of a typical neutron star.

Scientists working with the NICER data were then able to determine the geometry of the X-ray hot spots and calculate that the neutron star’s radius is 11.4 kilometres. These results give the most precise anchor point yet found for the neutron star equation of state at intermediate densities.

Our new picture already rules out the softest and hardest neutron star equations of state. Scientists will continue to decode exactly what this means for the presence of exotic matter in the inner cores of neutron stars. Theories suggest this matter may include quarks that have escaped their normal homes inside larger particles, or rare particles known as hyperons.

This new data adds to an emerging model of neutron star interiors that has also been informed by observations of gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars and an associated explosion called a kilonova.

Murriyang has a long history of assisting with NASA missions, and was famously used as the primary receiver of footage for most of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. Now, we have used this iconic telescope to “weigh in” on the physics of neutron star interiors, advancing our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Daniel Reardon receives funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).

– ref. What happens when matter is squashed to the brink of collapse? We weighed a neutron star to help NASA find out – https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-matter-is-squashed-to-the-brink-of-collapse-we-weighed-a-neutron-star-to-help-nasa-find-out-229813

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Hunter, Senior Lecturer in Art and Performance, Deakin University

What if significant portions of William Shakespeare’s text for Macbeth had been lost, leading to a narrative in which Lady Macbeth charts a different path, free from madness?

This is the twist in Scottish playwright Zinnie Harris’ show Macbeth (An Undoing). First presented last year at the Lyceum in Edinburgh, the contemporary re-imagining of the classic tale is now premiering at The Malthouse Theatre.

Harris is celebrated for revitalising timeless works from the Western canon, infusing them with freshness and innovation. In Macbeth (An Undoing), Malthouse Artistic Director Matthew Lutton directs an ensemble cast which interweaves the original text with fictional “lost” scenes and re-imagined story fragments.

Billed as as an “adrenaline fuelled epic”, this is a rollicking tale in which grandiose Shakespearean proclamations are juxtaposed with contemporary vernacular and asides made to the audience.

A stereoscopic effect

The show’s ten actors largely work in and around Dann Barber’s imposing, monotone set. It is a labyrinthine structure of gunmetal-grey rooms and passageways on a rotating stage. The actors can variously walk around and through Castle Inverness at a pace, or be framed within contained lit vignettes.

This stereoscopic effect is a satisfying and artful conceit, setting up a kind of analogue fade where scenes appear and disappear. But it does establish a particular spatial constraint for the ensemble. The flat perspective is perfect for a tableau effect – such as witches shivering under snowfall – but little to no downstage space sometimes results in awkwardly composed clusters of actors.

The costumes are simple, stylish and streamlined, featuring muted forest colours which pop against the monotone panels. In a nod to the postdramatic, the Shakespearean world of rustic belts, cinched-in waists and thonged doublets is slowly undone as the play deconstructs – exposing modern underwear and the mechanics of the headset technology that amplifies the actors’ voices.

Solid performances – but a lack of presence

Award-winning actor Bojana Novakovic plays Lady Macbeth with a kind of daily, quotidian energy. Macbeth himself (played by Johnny Carr) is equally restrained. Both actors skirt the territory satisfactorily, but I was a little underwhelmed by their lack of physical presence, which is required to effectively convey the terror and weight of Macbeth’s story (even a re-imagined version).

I do wonder if the casual, soap-opera style of delivery was a directorial decision. It felt peculiar to me. It was lacking the necessary presence and depth needed for these roles, detracting from my engagement.

However, I did enjoy David Woods as a simmering Macduff and Natasha Herbert as Carlin, the witty and acerbic witch/servant. Herbert, in particular, has an embodied gravitas and grounded physicality that the text requires. She is funny, complex and compelling in the role.

Woods’ grimy Macduff – suspicious of Macbeth having committed the regicide of King Duncan – broods and rages in the corner. His version of Murderer is a silent, gum-chewing brute with a sustained physicality that remains potent even as he says nothing.

Despite its two-and-a-half hour run time, the show moves at a cracking pace.

Jethro Woodward’s sound design is relentless throughout, mixing deep rhythmic drones with textured crunches and spatialised audio. The aural space is cinematic and constant: music swells between sections to indicate scene changes and background sounds – including bells, grinding tones, knocks and ghostly fluttering wings – fill the auditorium.

The post-show music was also an apt choice, with Led Zeppelin’s thrashy Immigrant Song.

Overall, a bit undercooked

Ultimately, I felt slightly disappointed in the work, which was presented as a radical re-telling. The meta-commentary that runs through the play asks us to embrace a new trajectory for Lady Macbeth, but seems unresolved in its delivery and tone.

The play sets up big questions. Who is really in control here? Who can we trust? How do we hold it together when all else is falling and failing? Yet for all the dripping, blood-covered bodies (the blood is convincing), the work feels undercooked.

Its monumental themes of power, ambition and perspective deserved a larger, bolder set of choices. The stage combat could have also used more work as it was questionable. Perhaps the show will run itself in as the ensemble builds cohesion over time.

Either way, the audience at opening night seemed appreciative and engaged in this story of ambition, power and grief.

Kate Hunter 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. Macbeth (An Undoing): a new take that aims to reimagine Lady Macbeth’s path – but ultimately leaves you guessing – https://theconversation.com/macbeth-an-undoing-a-new-take-that-aims-to-reimagine-lady-macbeths-path-but-ultimately-leaves-you-guessing-233880

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracy Molloy, Senior Lecturer in Sport Governance, Law & Ethics, Auckland University of Technology

As the All Blacks’ bruising first encounter with England last weekend showed, rugby is not a game for the faint-hearted. The same can apply off the field as well.

At the end of May, a special general meeting of NZ Rugby, the game’s national organisation, decided on a future governance structure. It marked the culmination of an arm wrestle between the national board and key provincial unions, with the latter prevailing.

Media coverage captured the depth of feeling attached to the outcome: NZ Rugby chair, Dame Patsy Ready, was reportedly prepared to resign, and the Players Association threatened a breakaway organisation for the professional game.

Behind the substantive issues of funding and board appointment models, deeper forces were at work.

Since the game went professional in 1995, there has been a longstanding tension between two institutional “logics”. One is corporate, about commercialisation, professionalisation and efficiency. The other is community oriented, about the “grassroots” voice and member representation.

Making that dual remit workable now falls to NZ Rugby and the provincial unions to progress at tomorrow’s annual general meeting. Some commentators are suggesting the future stability of the game is at stake.

Finding common ground

The challenges to the game are commonly accepted: static or declining participation rates, the financial sustainability of the professional game in a small domestic market, disrupted spectator engagement, low Māori and Pasifika presence in leadership, and questions about maximising opportunities for the women’s game.

What is contested is how the game should be funded, and how NZ Rugby should be structured to address these challenges.

The tensions that came to head in May were sparked by the investment agreement NZ Rugby made with US private equity firm Silver Lake in 2022.

Part of the deal involved NZ Rugby commissioning and publishing an independent governance review. This resulted in the Pilkington Report (named after the review panel chair David Pilkington). Published last year, the report found the NZ Rugby model no longer “fit for purpose”:

The structure it sits within was not designed for a business of this size and complexity.

The report contained two key recommendations: the selection of independent board members through an independent process, and the creation of a “stakeholder council” to ensure broad representation.

Two proposals were presented at the special general meeting. The first, supported by the NZ Rugby Board, the Māori Rugby Board and the Players Association, was rejected in favour of the second, backed by key provincial unions.

Competing proposals

At the core of the debate is a complex disagreement over achieving “independence” of board members. NZ Rugby wanted to move away from an “independence of office” model, which risked undue influence by provincial union interests, to a more corporate “independence of thought” model.

Under the previous NZ Rugby model, board members could not also sit on the board of a provincial union or similar rugby organisation (“independence of office”).

In practice, the board selection process saw candidates campaigning for nomination by provincial unions. The fear was that they may then feel obliged to promote those unions’ interests, potentially influencing an elected board member’s decisions.

However, the new Incorporated Societies Act requires board members to “act in good faith” and in the “best interests” of the organisation as a whole (“independence of thought”).

Both proposals presented at the special general meeting allow for an “open” application process, meaning candidates no longer need to be nominated by a provincial union. Both proposals also include a stakeholder council and an appointments panel in the board selection process.

However, the provincial union proposal requires three of the nine board members to have previously been on a provincial union board. This potentially narrows the candidate pool, and could see pro-provincial union members back on the board.

Given there would still be six other board members, this may not be a problem. More telling, perhaps, would be the provincial union proposal effectively giving the stakeholder council more power over the board appointments panel than recommended in the Pilkington report.

Importantly, this would give the stakeholder council the power to “sign off” on some board selection criteria and processes.

But the stakeholder council (now called a governance advisory panel) is a broad church. It provides for representation of the Māori Rugby Board, Pasifika Advisory Group, NZ Super Rugby clubs and the Players Association. Combined with an independent chair and three provincial union representatives, it can represent a range of community and professional perspectives.

All on the same team

Our research shows appointment panels have been used by New Zealand sports organisations for over 25 years. The NZ Rugby model, with a mix of independent and stakeholder perspectives on the appointments panel, is not new.

The research also suggests the two competing logics within NZ Rugby – professional/elite and amateur/grassroots – can be resolved. Both coexist in various forms within other New Zealand sporting codes.

As NZ Rugby prepares for tomorrow’s AGM and the staged implementation of the provincial union proposal, all involved will need to act in the best interests of the whole game and the NZ Rugby organisation.

Ultimately, the game’s top administration needs well-chosen representatives who can bring their individual experience and perspective to the table, but be capable of thinking and acting independently, without favouring any particular interests.

Rugby has been described as a “game for everybody and every body”. The same applies to the NZ Rugby board, the stakeholder council and the appointments panel. They’re all on the same team, contributing their respective skill sets.

Now they just need to get the ball over the line at the AGM, and then convert it between the goal posts of good governance.

Lesley Ferkins worked with NZ Rugby and Auckland Rugby on the research project Navigating Two Worlds: Pacific Contribution to Leadership in Rugby.

Geoff Dickson and Tracy Molloy 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. NZ Rugby’s big test: can it select the right boardroom players for the modern game? – https://theconversation.com/nz-rugbys-big-test-can-it-select-the-right-boardroom-players-for-the-modern-game-232483

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thea van de Mortel, Professor, Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University

What’s the difference? is a new editorial product that explains the similarities and differences between commonly confused health and medical terms, and why they matter.

The term “man flu” takes a humorous poke at men with minor respiratory infections, such as colds, who supposedly exaggerate their symptoms.

According to the stereotype, a man lies on the sofa with a box of tissues. Meanwhile his female partner, also with a snotty nose, carries on working from home, doing the chores and looking after him.

But is man flu real? Is there a valid biological reason behind men’s symptoms or are men just malingering? And how does man flu differ from flu?

What are the similarities?

Man flu could refer to a number of respiratory infections – a cold, flu, even a mild case of COVID. So it’s difficult to compare man flu with flu.

But for simplicity, let’s say man flu is actually a cold. If that’s the case, man flu and flu have some similar features.

Both are caused by viruses (but different ones). Both are improved with rest, fluids, and if needed painkillers, throat lozenges or decongestants to manage symptoms.

Both can share similar symptoms. Typically, more severe symptoms such as fever, body aches, violent shivering and headaches are more common in flu (but sometimes occur in colds). Meanwhile sore throats, runny noses, congestion and sneezing are more common in colds. A cough is common in both.

What are the differences?

Flu is a more serious and sometimes fatal respiratory infection caused by the influenza virus. Colds are caused by various viruses such as rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, and common cold coronaviruses, and are rarely serious.
Colds tend to start gradually while flu tends to start abruptly.

Flu can be detected with laboratory or at-home tests. Man flu is not an official diagnosis.

Severe flu symptoms may be prevented with a vaccine, while cold symptoms cannot.

Serious flu infections may also be prevented or treated with antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu. There are no antivirals for colds.

OK, but is man flu real?

Again, let’s assume man flu is a cold. Do men really have worse colds than women? The picture is complicated.

One study, with the title “Man flu is not a thing”, did in fact show there were differences in men’s and women’s symptoms.

This study looked at symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis. That’s inflammation of the nasal passages and sinuses, which would explain a runny or stuffy nose, a sinus headache or face pain.

When researchers assessed participants at the start of the study, men and women had similar symptoms. But by days five and eight of the study, women had fewer or less-severe symptoms. In other words, women had recovered faster.

But when participants rated their own symptoms, we saw a somewhat different picture. Women rated their symptoms worse than how the researchers rated them at the start, but said they recovered more quickly.

All this suggests men were not exaggerating their symptoms and did indeed recover more slowly. It also suggests women feel their symptoms more strongly at the start.

Why is this happening?

It’s not straightforward to tease out what’s going on biologically.

There are differences in immune responses between men and women that provide a plausible reason for worse symptoms in men.

For instance, women generally produce antibodies more efficiently, so they respond more effectively to vaccination. Other aspects of women’s immune system also appear to work more strongly.

So why do women tend to have stronger immune responses overall? That’s probably partly because women have two X chromosomes while men have one. X chromosomes carry important immune function genes. This gives women the benefit of immune-related genes from two different chromosomes.

Oestrogen (the female sex hormone) also seems to strengthen the immune response, and as levels vary throughout the lifespan, so does the strength of women’s immune systems.

Men are certainly more likely to die from some infectious diseases, such as COVID. But the picture is less clear with other infections such as the flu, where the incidence and mortality between men and women varies widely between countries and particular flu subtypes and outbreaks.

Infection rates and outcomes in men and women can also depend on the way a virus is transmitted, the person’s age, and social and behavioural factors.

For instance, women seem to be more likely to practice protective behaviours such as washing their hands, wearing masks or avoiding crowded indoor spaces. Women are also more likely to seek medical care when ill.

So men aren’t faking it?

Some evidence suggests men are not over-reporting symptoms, and may take longer to clear an infection. So they may experience man flu more harshly than women with a cold.

So cut the men in your life some slack. If they are sick, gender stereotyping is unhelpful, and may discourage men from seeking medical advice.

Thea van de Mortel teaches into the Master of Infection Prevention and Control program at Griffith University.

– ref. What’s the difference between ‘man flu’ and flu? Hint: men may not be exaggerating – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-man-flu-and-flu-hint-men-may-not-be-exaggerating-231161

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Davies, Lecturer in Sustainability and Urban Planning, RMIT University

Have you ever walked or ridden a bike along a street, and thought to yourself, “Gosh, it’s noisy”, or “This feels unpleasant”? Odds are you were on a stroad.

Maybe you’ve seen someone on social media talking about a “loud, polluted, car-filled, congestion-blocked, unbearably hot, decaying concrete nightmare” of a street. Yep, that’s definitely a stroad.

The term stroad – a portmanteau of street and road – is said to have been coined over a decade ago by “recovering engineer” Charles Marohn to describe a hybrid street and road.

Stroads are trying to be both a thoroughfare for vehicles, and a place for people.

Typically they fail at both, with Marohn saying:

It is truly the worst of all possible approaches. Our neighborhoods are filled with stroads.

What’s wrong with stroads?

Stroads have an inherent conflict between their role as a movement corridor and their role as a place. While they try to be everything to everyone, they become nothing to anyone.

Focusing on movement funnels more cars and trucks into a street, making it more like a road.

This lessens the sense of place, which is the very reason people wanted to go there in the first place.

The end result is a stroad, something which is neither a good street for people nor a good road for drivers. In some cases, they can be a good road to drive on, but a particularly unpleasant street for pedestrians and cyclists to be on.

In the United States, where the term originated, the term stroad largely refers to highways with shops along the sides.

Many major roads in large Australian cites are stroads. Think of Parramatta Road or Cremorne’s Military Road in Sydney, and City Road in Melbourne. In Brisbane, consider Ann Street and Wickham Street. In Perth, think of Charles Street or Beaufort Street. Or, lastly, Sir Donald Bradman Drive or Anzac Highway in Adelaide.

We also find stroads in our many shopping strips. King Street in Sydney or Sydney Road in Melbourne spring to mind.

Again, movement of cars and trucks gets prioritised above people and sense of place. This results in a significant imbalance in space allocation between motorists and other users.

The development of stroads is a reflection on an older way of thinking, which views all streets and roads as places for cars and trucks. As one Victorian government document put it:

Traditionally, roads and streets are considered only movement corridors to get us from A to B. [But] streets not only keep people and goods moving, they’re also places for people to live, work and enjoy.

How to fix a stroad

Thinking has changed on how we should use street space. Many Australian states have begun implementing a framework called “movement and place”.

This shifts away from seeing streets as things that support movement of cars and trucks, and toward a view they move people and goods, but also have a place function.

“Movement and place” frameworks can be used to identify what a street’s role is, and where it may be lacking. However, this only diagnoses the problem, it does not solve it.

To truly solve the stroad, we need to change the priority of the street. We need to remove some space given to cars (both driving and parking), and give that space to people and place.

And yes, it can be done. There is a concept called complete streets. This re-imagines how our streets are laid out, giving more space to people and public transport. These makeovers improve overall flow of people and benefit the local economy.

Many major stroads have benefited from street makeovers. Prominent examples include:

• in 2009 traffic was removed from New York City’s Times Square

• the Sydney light rail has offered the opportunity to transform the stroad of George Street into a vibrant and welcoming place

• Melbourne initially closed Swanston Street to through traffic in 1992, converting a horrible stroad into a bustling civic spine.

Smaller scale, temporary initiatives, such as parklets, can help too. This is where parking spaces are converted to public space, as either parks or outside dining space. We saw pop-up parklets across Australia during COVID, to help with physical distancing. These temporary measures can be a great way to see how change could look.

Opposition to change

Such proposals often meet fierce opposition.

In 2015, then-NSW opposition leader Luke Foley called a plan to replace cars on George Street with light rail “stupid”, claiming it would worsen traffic.

In Melbourne, Robert Doyle ran for, and won, the 2008 mayoral race on a promise to reopen Swanston Street to traffic.

However, the Sydney light rail was built and Swanston Street was instead redeveloped to improve pedestrian, cycling, and tram access.

We now have two bustling civic places of which we should all be proud, both replacing unpleasant stroads which ran through the heart of each city.

While urban change can sometimes be controversial, it can help to consider the counter-factual. How would we feel if things were the other way around?

For example, if we currently had trams, widened footpaths, and bicycle lanes down Sydney’s Parramatta Road or Melbourne’s City Road, would we rip them out to build six lane stroads?

I think not.

In addition to his academic position, Liam Davies works for a private consultancy, the Institute for Sensible Transport, which provides services to Australian governments. His PhD was funded by an Australian government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship, and an AHURI Housing Postgraduate Scholarship Top-up. He is currently, and has previously, worked on projects funded by Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute investigating housing policy. He is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia, Victoria division.

– ref. Not quite a street, not quite a road – why ‘stroads’ are disasters of urban planning, and how to fix them – https://theconversation.com/not-quite-a-street-not-quite-a-road-why-stroads-are-disasters-of-urban-planning-and-how-to-fix-them-232485

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wayne Peake, Adjunct research fellow, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University

The Latin motto of the Olympic Games, which Baron Pierre de Coubertin – known as the father of the Olympics – resurrected at Athens in 1896, is “citius, altius, fortius – communiter”.

In English, this means “faster, higher, stronger – together”.

The addition of “together” in 2021 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which oversees the games and decides who hosts them, is significant.

It demonstrates its more recent desire to be a progressive and inclusive organisation. In earlier years, many had accused it of being rigid, conservative, and Western oriented.

The original, shorter, motto summed up what the early modern summer games were about – identifying athletes who were self-evidently the best in their sports.

In 1896, except for gymnastics, disciplines requiring judges to award points to rank competitors were not included.

A brief history of Olympic sports

De Coubertin resurrected the Olympic Games almost as an afterthought.

His first desire, inspired by a visit to Britain’s Rugby school, was to encourage physical education in French schools.

It took seven years to organise the 1896 Games. Since then, the meeting, held every four years, has showcased the finest athletes in the world, competing in an ever-changing mix of competition.

The Olympic Games program consists of sports, disciplines, and events. For example, in 2000, Ian Thorpe won the 400 metres (the event) freestyle (the discipline) at the swimming competition (the sport).

These categories can be slightly tricky – while the decathlon is an event in the athletics program, the modern pentathlon is a sport.

The sports contested at those first modern Olympic Games – with the obvious exception of shooting – would have been familiar to the athletes who competed at the ancient Olympics, held at Olympia in Greece from 776 BCE until 393AD.

Notably absent at Olympia was swimming. Boxers wore not padded gloves, but leather straps studded with lead. Tough guys.

From the unusual to the bizarre

In the first decades of the modern games, organisers sometimes included events that were either weird variations of mainstream sports, or sports not often associated with Olympic competition.

At the 1900 Paris Olympics, Australian swimmer Fred Lane won a 200 metres obstacle event. Contestants scrambled over the first two obstacles (a pole and a row of boats) and swam under the third (another row of boats).

Cricket and croquet made one-off appearances at Paris 1900. A rugby union competition took place at the 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924 Games.

Other discontinued sports include:

• Jeu de paume, or real tennis (1908). The forerunner of modern tennis, jeu de paume players at first struck the ball with their hands, later a glove and finally a crude racquet. The enclosed court has a net but also sloping walls off which the ball may be bounced.

• Lacrosse (1904, 1908). A ten-a-side team sport that resembles a combination of basketball, soccer and hockey. The racquet has a small net on one end, in which the ball is carried and hurled towards a goal.

• Motor boating (1908). Contested at the 1908 London games in eight metres, under 60-foot and open class races, each over 40 nautical miles. Remarkably in each race there were two starters and only the winners reached the finish.

• Pelota basque (1900). A team sport that resembles jeu de paume but the ball is caught in, and hurled from, a large, banana-shaped scoop. Pelota basque was also an exhibition sport in 1968 and 1992.

• Polo (1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, 1936). Olympic polo competitions were held only in countries where the sport had an established following.

• Rackets (1908). The forerunner of the sport of squash where all four walls are in play. Although often associated with England’s public schools, the game originated in that nation’s prisons.

• Softball (1996 to 2008). Softball suffered the same fate as its big brother, baseball, though both made a possibly temporary return in 2021.

• Tug-of-war (1900 to 1920). Teams contested tug-of-war competitions at each Games from 1900 until 1920. The objective was to pull the opposition more than six feet. If there was no decision within five minutes, the team which had made the most ground was the victor.

A gold medal for experimentation

The IOC is never shy in experimenting with its mix of sports and events.

Some popular sports made early Olympic debuts, were dropped, then revived decades later.

For example, golfers competed at the 1900 Paris and 1904 St Louis games but then remained in the clubhouse until Rio in 2016.

Winners at tennis jumped the nets in celebration from 1896 to 1924 then sat it out until 1988.

Baseball made six appearances as an exhibition sport before its inclusion for full medal competition at Barcelona 1992. It struck out after Beijing 2008.

And sometimes, big-time sports are discontinued because the best players had become pros or were prevented from competing by their ruling bodies.

In more modern times, the IOC continues to add new events.

The Tokyo games in 2020 showcased 33 sports — the most in Olympic history — including Olympic debuts for sports such as sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing and karate, and events like BMX freestyle and 3×3 basketball.

Next up, breaking – better known to most of us as breakdancing – makes its debut in Paris.

Wayne Peake 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. Anyone for obstacle course swimming? How some of the more unusual Olympic Games sports came to be – https://theconversation.com/anyone-for-obstacle-course-swimming-how-some-of-the-more-unusual-olympic-games-sports-came-to-be-228398