Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ataus Samad, Lecturer, Western Sydney University

We are currently watching candidates battle night and day to win a spot in federal parliament. Many put their lives on hold trying to become an MP.

What is it like when they get there?

In recent years, Australian politicians have been under immense pressure, responding to COVID-19, floods, fires and international war. Yet, research repeatedly shows Australians’ trust of political leaders is at an all-time low. This is not helped by the constant scandals, power struggles, as well as alleged cases of bullying and corruption.

Read more:
‘This worked much better than I thought.’ Why you need to watch out for strategic lies in the federal election

We recently interviewed politicians about their experiences, providing insight into the personal challenges of being a politician, including the loneliness and limited control over workloads. This is not to suggest we give politicians an easy ride (or excuse corruption), but to better understand some of the demands of a job they do on behalf of us all.

Our study

As part of research into what it’s like to lead during a crisis, we spoke with 13 Australian politicians between March and December 2021.

They included federal and state MPs and ministers, as well as mayors of local government.

Interviewees came from right across the political spectrum, but for ethical reasons, participants are not named.

The most challenging role

The politicians we spoke to described leadership as “very difficult” and a “responsibility”. It naturally also comes with high levels of scrutiny and criticism.

One interviewee noted:

I think the biggest challenge of leadership is having to make the hard decisions, knowing that there are times when you’ve got to make some decisions that will have a negative impact on people.

Another told us:

[Politics is] the most physically, intellectually, emotionally challenging role I could imagine.

Interviewees said serving the public was their primary objective, but they were well aware that their motives were questioned by constituents and the broader public.

The systems that we have favour people who seek power, but not every politician does […] There are politicians that are more than happy to find an answer even if they don’t get credit for it. But there are others that will only do things that they can claim [credit for].

A lonely job

Some politicians talked about feeling isolated. They were unsure whom to trust, whom to confide in, and whom to involve in key decisions. As one former premier observed:

It can be quite lonely […] You are often alone, and I noticed that particularly when I moved into the role of premier.

Federal politicians also spoke of physical isolation when in Canberra – away not just from constituents and families, but their colleagues.

We start work at 9 o’clock. We finish at 8.30 at night. We’re not allowed to leave the building. So, there isn’t a system where we gather around a coffee machine even. It just doesn’t happen. We’re in our own offices. And then, we meet for a particular purpose and then we separate again.

Bringing stress home

It is not uncommon for politicians to speak publicly about the impact politics has on their personal lives. For many, time away from family is what leads them to eventually leave office.

Our interviewees also spoke about this problem – as well as the issue of bringing work stress home to their loved ones.

You know someone told me once if 30% of the electorate doesn’t want to shoot you, then you are not doing their job properly. Politics is a blood sport and so it can get very personal and so I think that that has a significant impact on your family. A lot of members of parliament in public figures, their families really suffer as a result.

Maintaining any sort of work-life balance was near-impossible.

I don’t have weekends anymore [or] public holidays. I’m often juggling family time with work time. Often, I feel guilty about that as well. But yeah, certainly the guilt of leadership and commitment to the job can take its toll because of the time that it takes up, being available all the time.

Another interviewee – a federal politician – spoke of how they don’t have “control” of their days or weeks.

We spend 20 weeks of the year in Canberra […] there’s an irregularity about our work and a lot of it is reactive, we don’t have the control of our working lives. So, it’s not work-life balance, it’s work-work balance.

Constantly available

Political journalist Katharine Murphy has previously written about the “urelenting” demands of political life, noting, “the environment parliamentarians work in is a pressure cooker”.

The incessant nature of the media cycle, coupled with the personal nature of social media and mobile phones, means politicians can never escape their work. One interviewee told us:

Emails on phones were not a thing that existed when I first ran for politics. So [there’s] the idea that you are constantly available, that people can tweet at you, or Facebook message you any time, day or night.

This not only subjected them to constant requests, but also to anger and abuse, as other public figures – such as high-profile journalists – have also spoken about. As one MP told us:

I don’t blame people for expressing frustration, anger, or disappointment, but the political class, in some ways, have become a place where it’s legitimate to direct your anger, disappointment, and frustration in the most direct terms, and individually sometimes at political representatives on social media. And that’s really changed the landscape.

Who wins if politicians are overworked?

The politicians we interviewed seem to be devoted to their work and keen to do good for the community. They were not seeking an easy ride from the public, the media, or their opponents. Indeed, we need tough scrutiny of our political leaders for very good reasons.

But a political career also needs to be sustainable.

As a community, we need more understanding of the pressures and demands of being a politician, and a serious examination of how our political system functions on a daily basis.

As one interviewee told us:

I think people expect that their leaders find the job intellectually challenging, I wonder how much the community understands how physically and emotionally challenging leadership is, and the extent of the demand that it places, not just on the individual, but on their family, their friends, their physical health.

If our politicians are less stressed and less exhausted, surely they will make better decisions and be better representatives.

Ataus Samad is affiliated with the following organisation:
Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
Ethnic Communities Council of NSW Inc

Currently I am working as a lecturer at the Western Sydney University.

Ann Dadich receives funding from the Sydney Partnership for Health Education Research and Enterprise. Furthermore, she is affiliated with the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management and the Australian Psychological Society.

– ref. ‘It’s not work-life balance, it’s work-work balance’ Politicians tell us what it’s like to be an MP – https://theconversation.com/its-not-work-life-balance-its-work-work-balance-politicians-tell-us-what-its-like-to-be-an-mp-181602

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darryl Stellmach, Lecturer in Emergency Management, University of Tasmania

The war in Ukraine puts the plight of refugees and displaced people back in the headlines. From February 24, more than 5 million people have crossed Ukraine’s borders. A further 7.7 million are estimated to have been been displaced internally.

Sadly, these are only the most recent additions to the flow of refugees, displaced people and other forced migrants globally in 2022. Many will have had limited access to health care, safe drinking water or nutritious food.

Over the past 25 years, we have worked to deliver essential health care in wartime, natural disasters and epidemics. We have been on the ground in situations of forced displacement in Darfur, Myanmar, Thailand, Uganda, Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Colombia. Survivors have taught us about their experiences, abilities and needs.

As humanitarian workers and health researchers, we can draw lessons from past events on what works, and what doesn’t, when dealing with mass displacements and forced migration.

Labels don’t matter to us

States may classify individuals fleeing war as refugees, internally displaced persons, or something else. However, these distinctions are largely irrelevant to humanitarian workers.

The medical imperative is to treat the person based on need, regardless of legal or social status. This tenet of medical ethics is doubly important in wartime.

Humanitarian medics are protected by international law, but in turn must practice strict neutrality.

Read more:
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What health issues do forced migrants face?

Like any population, forced migrants are a diverse group with equally diverse health needs. Health interventions in situations of mass displacement are only effective if designed and implemented to meet individual context, informed by understanding of patients’ lives within their community and culture.

In “classic” refugee emergencies after the second world war, infectious disease and under-nutrition were major killers. So humanitarian agencies specialise in interventions that most impact these: basic health care, routine immunisation, nutrition, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene.

Humanitarian agencies learned in more recent conflicts, such as in Syria, to offer a wider array of health services.

Read more:
Australia’s resettlement of Syrian refugees is tinged with déjà vu

Syria had a middle-income economy. Pre-war, its health-care system offered complex treatments for chronic and non-communicable diseases.

As a result, patient demographics and disease profiles were different. Humanitarian medics were faced with dilemmas not previously encountered – for example, ensuring insulin supply during conflicts. We can expect a similar dynamic in Ukraine.

John F. Ryan, from the European Commission’s health policy body DG SANTE, said:

In a crisis of this kind, many people think of casualties and injuries, but they do not necessarily think of the problem of cancer patients, people with diabetes, people with HIV, people suffering from COVID.

Many Ukrainians on the move will have left behind complex care for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, heart or kidney disease. At some point on their journey – better sooner than later – those therapies will need to be resumed.

Read more:
Ukraine: war has an impact on people’s health beyond bullets and bombs

Evacuation is often a last resort

This highlights an important point: evacuation is often a last resort. Very few people willingly abandon home. The most effective health intervention is the one that prevents the need for displacement in the first place.

Using the levers of society and politics to address the root causes of conflict and displacement is more impactful than medically treating its after-effects. Humanitarian health-care providers have just as much a responsibility to advocate for this as providing care.

While preventing or ceasing war is the most effective health intervention, in Ukraine and more than a dozen other current conflicts around the globe this seems unlikely in the short term.

Read more:
Ukrainian refugees might not return home, even long after the war eventually ends

What needs to happen next

When affected populations can’t return, the next best option is rapid integration in a host community. This means new arrivals can access the same, or very similar, health care, education and employment opportunities as members of the host community.

Integration offers better health and social outcomes for people who have been forced to displace. It may equip people to return home after the conflict ends. When done well, integration provides short- and long-term benefits to the host country through entrepreneurship and the influx of skilled and unskilled essential workers.

Even rapid integration takes time, however, particularly if host countries frustrate entry and access to essential services such as health care, accommodation or employment. As a result, many fleeing conflict will be forced to spend time in a camp or similar accommodation. Some face barriers and never integrate, returning to their home countries when they are able.

Read more:
Refugees, reporting and the far right: how the Ukraine crisis reveals brutal ‘everyday racism’ in Europe and beyond

Refugee camps

The camp is perhaps the image that most comes to mind when hearing the word “refugee”. Refugee camps provide for the basic needs of thousands in the wake of conflict and displacement.

Although they enable the delivery of basic services at scale, camps are often crowded and provide limited opportunities for education or employment. They also take a toll on people’s physical and mental health.

Camps should be a temporary solution: transit accommodation to facilitate movement to more stable arrangements. So, ideally, camps should permit freedom of movement, allowing people to seek outside employment, health care or government paperwork. Yet, at times, camps are effectively places of detention.

Read more:
How do you self-isolate in a refugee camp?

Forced detention is the worst option

Forced detention is, from a humanitarian practitioner’s perspective and that of medical ethics, the worst option for displaced people.

Extended immigration detention is widely practiced around the world. There is also evidence some non-white refugees fleeing Ukraine have been placed into forced detention.

Read more:
Ukraine refugee crisis exposes racism and contradictions in the definition of human

While any journey of displacement is harmful to health, there is abundant evidence forced detention actively compounds harm. In addition to proven damage to physical and mental health, forced detention limits capacity to provide effective health care. Detention settings, by their nature, are difficult to access, so medical care can only be practiced under constrained conditions.

Read more:
Death in offshore detention: predictable and preventable

There are enormous challenges ahead

Responders and policymakers have evidence and effective tools to address Ukrainians’ health, but there are immense challenges.

Some issues, such as gender-based violence or childhood trauma, are particularly acute in wartime.

Other challenges are novel, for example, the spectre of a radiation event in a wartime humanitarian setting.

Ultimately, no medical intervention – nothing humanitarian health workers can do – is as beneficial for displaced people’s health as preventing the conditions that led to them leave their homes in the first place. So conflict prevention and reduction should be policymakers’ and citizens’ focus.

Darryl Stellmach has worked in various field and headquarters roles for Médecins Sans Frontières between 2003 and 2022.

Kamalini Lokuge has worked for Médecins Sans Frontières, the World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross in the past.

– ref. Ukraine refugees need urgent, ongoing health care. We’ve worked in refugee camps and there’s a right way to do it – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-refugees-need-urgent-ongoing-health-care-weve-worked-in-refugee-camps-and-theres-a-right-way-to-do-it-180873

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eliza Middleton, Laboratory Manager, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney

The Royal Australian Mint has released a $2 collectors’ coin to celebrate 200 years since the introduction of the European honeybee.

At the time of writing, one of the 60,000 uncirculated coins was selling for as high as A$36 – but that’s not the only sting in the tail of this commemorative release.

The coin celebrates an invasive alien species, and continues a long tradition in Australia of romanticising introduced fauna.

Meanwhile, we’ve missed an important opportunity to showcase Australia’s native pollinators, some of which are threatened with extinction.

Honeybees: two sides of the coin

The coin was released to mark the bicentenary of Australia’s honey bee industry. Honeybees were introduced to Australia by early European settlers and there are now about 530,000 managed honeybee colonies.

The commercial honeybee industry provides pollination services to a range of crops, as well as honey and beeswax products.

But the industry comes with costs as well as benefits. The introduced honeybee can escape managed hives to establish feral populations, which affect native species.

In New South Wales, feral honeybees are listed as a “key threatening process”.

Honeybees can take over large tree hollows to build new colonies, potentially displacing native species. Tree hollows can take many decades to form and bee colonies occupy hollows for a long time – so this is a long-term problem for native bees.

Many other native species also rely on tree hollows for shelter and breeding, and are likely to be affected by competition from honeybees. They include at least 20% of birds including threatened species such as the superb parrot and glossy black cockatoo, as well as a range of native mammals and marsupials.

Honeybees, both feral and managed, also compete with native species for nectar and pollen in flowers. Research has shown honeybees often remove 80% or more of floral resources produced.

Read more:
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Unrealised pollinator potential

As others have noted, farmers around the world have become “dangerously reliant” on managed honeybee hives to pollinate their crops. Overseas, honey bees colonies are declining due to threats such as parasites, loss of habitat, climate change and pesticides.

While Australia has been sheltered from some of these threats, relying on a single managed pollinator is still considered risky.

For example, Australia is the only inhabited continent free of the varroa mite, a parasite implicated in the collapse of overseas bee colonies.

Should the mite become established in Australia, it could lead to agriculture industry losses of $70 million a year. Fortunately, the varroa mite has little impact on native species.

Read more:
Explainer: Varroa mite, the tiny killer threatening Australia’s bees

Australia is home to a range of native pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and bats, which all contribute to the $14 billion pollination industry.

Some – such as Australia’s 11 species of stingless bees – can produce honey – though not to the extent honeybees can. They can also pollinate blueberries, macadamias and mangoes.

In fact, some native bee species can nest on the ground in stubble and other parts of crops. In contrast, honeybee hives are often trucked from crop to crop.

And best of all, pollination by non-commercial native species is free.

A recent study found the common native resin bee is a suitable lucerne pollinator, and that small, ground-nesting nomiine bees were more efficient at pollination than honeybees. Pollination by stingless bees also may result in heavier blueberries.

While these studies are promising, more research is needed to assess the potential of native pollinators.

Read more:
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Feral horses: a true national icon?

This is not the first time an Australian coin has commemorated an invasive species. This year, the Perth Mint released a collectable $100 coin to celebrate Australian brumbies – or feral horses – which it described as “national icons seen by many as symbolic of our national character”.

Brumbies have long been an object of affection in Australian culture, including romanticised depictions in movies and poems such as Banjo Patterson’s The Man From Snowy River.

In recent years this has translated into a campaign to protect feral horse populations, which can wreak havoc in fragile ecosystems such as NSW’s Kosciuszko National Park.

The damage includes trampling endangered ecological communities, causing soils to erode or compact and sending silt into streams. Feral horses drive away native species such as kangaroos and can wipe out populations of threatened native species.

Like feral honeybees, feral horses are listed as a key threatening process in NSW. They’re also considered a potentially threatening process in Victoria.

Read more:
Feral horses will rule one third of the fragile Kosciuszko National Park under a proposed NSW government plan

Which species should we celebrate?

When species are featured on a coin, it elevates their profile, engenders public affection and, according to the Royal Australian Mint, helps “tell the stories of Australia”.

Australia’s native species are tenacious – often the underdog fighting for a fair go in a harsh environment. Surely that’s a story also worth telling.

In response to this article, chair of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, Trevor Weatherhead, said the Royal Australian Mint “took the opportunity, after representation from our industry, to highlight a very important pollinator that makes an enormous contribution to the Australian economy […] If people want other pollinators to be on a coin then they can approach the mint to do so.”

Eliza Middleton receives funding from The Australian Research Council.

Caitlyn Forster receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is a board member for the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Don Driscoll receives funding from DPI NSW, DELWP Vic, National Geographic, Rufford Foundation, and Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. He is Director of the Centre of Integrative Ecology at Deakin University. Don is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and Society for Conservation Biology.

– ref. A new $2 coin features the introduced honeybee. Is this really the species we should celebrate? – https://theconversation.com/a-new-2-coin-features-the-introduced-honeybee-is-this-really-the-species-we-should-celebrate-181089

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Clayton, Lecturer in Curriculum Studies (Primary), University of Tasmania

Fewer students are choosing language electives at school, but contrary to popular perception, it isn’t purely a lack of interest causing the decline. My recent study suggests students want to study a language, but can’t.

Language electives continue to have the lowest enrolments compared to other subjects. In 2020, only 9.5% of Year 12 students were studying languages. This is the lowest figure in the last decade.

Learning another language is important in our globally connected world and has personal, societal and economic benefits. These include enhanced cognitive functions and cultural sensitivity. Language learners develop more of an understanding of the nature of language and communication and languages can improve employment opportunities.

I conducted an online survey with over 500 students from years 9 to 12, asking about their attitudes to school and learning languages. I found there are three main barriers stopping students from reaping the rewards of language study.

1. Lack of options

Not being able to study the language they preferred is a key barrier. Some 55% of students surveyed in my study said their school did not offer their desired language. One boy said, “I want to learn European languages but my school offers none”.

2. Timetable restrictions

Students experience barriers from their school’s timetabling arrangements. One boy said he was unable to study French and Chinese because both subjects were scheduled at the same time. Another boy said, “I am interested in continuing with a second language but cannot fit it in around other subject choices”. This is because students often only have room for up to six subjects on their timetable. In Year 12, this can drop to four.

3. Languages are rarely a prerequisite for study

In senior year levels, students start thinking about what subjects they need for future study, which leads to students prioritising some subjects over others. Although interested in a language, other subjects are seen as more important for study and career pathways. “I probably would’ve done French, but I needed a science to be applicable for studying to be a pilot,” said one boy. One girl added, “a lot of people do not study a LOTE because other subjects, such as prerequisites are more of a priority”.

Read more:
Learning languages early is key to making Australia more multilingual

How to get more students learning languages

To boost senior secondary language enrolments, languages need to be available and encouraged all the way from early learning to year 10 in order to build a pipeline of language students for senior year levels.

Ensuring students are familiar with language learning from an early age will set the foundation for them to continue with languages later.

Read more:
Is your kid studying a second language at school? How much they learn will depend on where you live

Additionally, each state needs a language policy that requires schools to teach the recommended hours so students see a commitment to this subject area. The minimum recommended hours by the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority are 870 across Years 6-12. As this is a recommendation, these hours are not enforced and differ between states.

The most popular reasons for students doing a language are:

• speaking the language when travelling

• enjoying the challenge

• liking the language and culture.

Parents and teachers should emphasise these aspects if they want to ensure their children and students reap the benefits of language learning.

Read more:
Thinking of taking a language in year 11 and 12? Here’s what you need to know

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

– ref. 3 barriers that stop students choosing to learn a language in high school – https://theconversation.com/3-barriers-that-stop-students-choosing-to-learn-a-language-in-high-school-178033

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Eager, Senior Lecturer Freelancing, Small Business, and Entrepreneurship, University of Tasmania

Announce to your friends and family that you’re choosing to live in your vehicle and you’re likely to raise some concern.

The 2017 book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder – made into the 2020 film starring Frances McDormand – drew attention to the hundreds of thousands of Americans living itinerant lifestyles due to poverty and insecure employment.

But not everyone choosing to live in a van is doing so out of desperation.

Technology and changing workplace norms have helped make the option of trading an office cubicle for a rotating vista of beachfront and desert sunsets an attractive option for the affluent.

This attraction has been amplified by the power of social media, with an entire movement evolving around the hashtag #vanlife.

To be part of the movement, any old grey-nomad style camper will not do.

Explore #vanlife on social media and you’ll discover glamorous adult cubby houses on wheels fitted with Scandinavian-inspired kitchens, parquet wood flooring, and linen bed sheets with matching throw cushions.

From Walden to wandering

Though it can be hard to discern in all this glamour, the ideas that shape the #vanlife movement have their origins in the philosophy of Henry David Thoreau and his famous book Walden (also titled Life in the Woods), first published in 1854.

The book relates Thoreau’s experience building a small cabin in the woods by Walden Pond in Massachusetts, and living there for two years, from 1845 to 1847. He wanted to connect to nature, be self-reliant and live simply. As he writes:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Walden is a popular reference among those who live in vans. The 2014 documentary
Without Bound: Perspectives on Mobile Living, for example, opens with this line:

Rise free from care before the dawn and seek new adventures. Let noon find you at other lakes, and night find you everywhere at home.

Read more:
Thoreau’s great insight for the Anthropocene: Wildness is an attitude, not a place

Out of the woods and onto the road

These ideas have influenced many movements, from voluntary simplicity to anarcho-capitalism, but they got wheels in the 1950s.

Jack Kerouac’s hugely influential 1957 novel (On the Road) built on Thoreau’s message of economic freedom and transformed it into a lifestyle favouring hypermobility.

Thoureau also had strong views on the duty of civil disobedience, which endeared him to counter-cultures based on rejection of mainstream values.

John Steinbeck further contributed to the mythology of “living the good life on the road” with his 1962 book (Travels with Charley), recounting his travels across the US in a van with his French poodle.

Along came Instagram

Today’s #vanlife movement is driven not by authors and books, but by influencers and images.

Thoreau’s Instagram successor is Foster Huntington, who in 2011 quit his corporate job, moved into a vehicle and became a social media influencer, blogging and sharing videos of his life in a van.

His Instagram account, now with 917,000 followers, is credited with starting the #vanlife hashtag. His trademark images are artful glimpses of life on the road, from beach sunsets to alpine dawns.

This style has been replicated by a growing number of Instagram accounts portraying the travels of the young and beauty-filtered in custom-built campervans.

There are dozens of vanlife-related hashtags pushing the movement forward (#homeiswhereyouparkit, #vanlifemovement, #vanwives, #vandogs).

Read more:
Digital nomads: what it’s really like to work while travelling the world

From a movement to an industry

Social media has thus helped transformed life on the road into an aspirational lifestyle choice.

We can only imagine what Thoreau might think of his cries for “living on one’s own terms” turning into a movement spurred by seeking likes on social media and creating a booming consumer market. (The affluent economy around the #vanlife movement is part of our research.)

In the US, for example, demand for luxury conversions of vans and buses have boomed with the pandemic, keeping companies such as Marathon Coach busy.

These coaches cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – and are obviously the high end of the market. But a more modest #vanlife conversion will still cost tens of thousands of dollars on top of the price of the vehicle. It depends on material selection and inclusions – solar panels, bathroom, on-demand hot water, rooftop deck, and so on.

It’s not uncommon for used converted vans with more than 100,000 km on the odometer to sell well in excess of US$100,000 (about A$135,000).

The cost of entry into #vanlife (as apposed to life in a van without the hashtag) clearly places the movement in opposition to “nomadland” portrayals of necessity-based living.

Which might leave us wondering if announcing, by choice, to live life on the road has become a middle-class pastime reserved for the privileged few.

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. It’s not all nomadland: how #vanlife made mobile living a middle-class aspiration – https://theconversation.com/its-not-all-nomadland-how-vanlife-made-mobile-living-a-middle-class-aspiration-180876

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emlyn Dodd, Assistant Director of Archaeology, British School at Rome; Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University; Research Affiliate, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, Macquarie University

In this series, academics explain the ways they are recreating historical practices, and how this impacts their research today.

Olive oil was one of the major commodities in the ancient Mediterranean. Alongside wine, grain and perhaps also cheese in some regions, it enveloped and permeated Canaanite, Phoenician, Greek and Roman cultures, and was present in Egypt long before.

According to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century CE):

there are two liquids that are especially agreeable to the human body, wine inside and oil outside […] [the latter] being an absolute necessity.

Olive oil was used for a broad variety of purposes in antiquity: fuel for cooking, lighting and heating; personal hygiene; craft; and within the daily diet.

Large proportions of Greek, Roman and presumably Phoenician agricultural texts are devoted to the production of oil.

Authors like Columella, Palladius, Pliny and Cato the Elder, and the now-lost treatise of Mago the Carthaginian – the father of agriculture – debate what tools and equipment are needed, how and where to grow olive trees, what workers are required, and the array of olives and oils.

The detail within these texts is staggering. It extends to precise instructions for creating olive oil as well recipes for various types. Combined with surviving iconography and art that depicts these processes, as well as the archaeological remains of oileries and olive groves, we can attempt to reconstruct these ancient commodities.

This process is termed experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology is often used to fill gaps in our knowledge and help us understand the practicalities of these production techniques – particularly for objects and processes that are rarely preserved.

This is particularly true for some types of oil presses, which were made almost entirely of organic materials and only survive in exceptional circumstances.

Recreating ancient Egyptian olive oil

One of the earliest, if not the first, methods of pressing substances to produce a liquid such as wine or oil was by torsion.

This method involves filling a permeable bag with the crushed fruit, inserting sticks at either end of the bag before twisting them in opposite directions. This compresses the bag, and liquid filters out.

The torsion method is depicted on various Egyptian wall paintings, from the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. The earliest known example is in the tomb of Nebemakhet from around 2600–2500 BCE.

This method lasted millennia. There is evidence for the use of the torsion bag method from pre-industrial Venice, Spain and Corsica, and it is illustrated in early 20th century Italy.

Egyptian depictions of the torsion press have often been assumed to be related to wine production, but we wanted to know: could it also be effectively used to make olive oil?

With a lack of written and structural archaeological evidence – unlike the later Graeco-Roman eras – depictions on wall paintings and in relief are some of our only clues in Egypt.

Accompanied by basic olive crushing methods, known since the Neolithic era and still used until recently, we aimed to use these processes to test how effective they were and what quality of oil was achievable.

Read more:
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It is difficult to determine exactly what cloth was used in antiquity for the bag, so we decided to use a simple cheesecloth.

A mix of green and black olives, still used by traditional Italian producers today to create high quality extra-virgin oil, were harvested in the late Australian autumn season of mid-May.

Following ancient recommendations, they were washed before processing.

Before the torsion occurs, crushing is necessary to tear the flesh of the olive. This allows for the release of oils under pressure. We used a basic mortar and pestle – a technique documented archaeologically since around 5000 BCE.

This was hard work, particularly on the less ripe green olives.

It is not surprising that advances through the Classical and Hellenistic Greek eras were made, including larger rotary mortars, called trapeta (or later, the slightly different mola olearia), allowing greater quantities to be processed with ease.

After crushing, the pulp was placed in a cheesecloth sack and a variety of torsion methods were tested: twisting on both ends; anchoring one end and twisting the other; and first soaking the fruit in hot water to release oils before twisting.

It was immediately noticeable that gentle pressure worked well, providing a slow but steady drip of liquid and minimising any solid materials being forced through the cloth. Multiple layers of cloth were required to prevent ripping, but this also made the filtration process slower and less permeable.

A slow and gentle pressing

A compromise in the middle created the best results: a gentle, slow pressing, anchoring one end and twisting the other.

Some pressing methods separated the oil far quicker, with a fine yellow layer floating on the surface of the vegetable water in just minutes. Other methods did not separate even when left overnight and we were left with a thick brown mixture of vegetable water (the Roman amurca) and oils. Even Pliny noted “the very same olives can frequently give quite different results”.

The successful jars produced a delicious olive oil. Sharp, bitey and with hints of pepper – just like a nice fresh-pressed extra virgin oil.

Despite the fact that almost no archaeological evidence is known of actual olive oilry facilities in Pharaonic Egypt, with iconography providing the only real clues, this experiment clearly showed it is possible to press olives and produce oil using this frequently depicted method.

It is also an excellent (and relatively easy) method of making your own olive oil at home!

Read more:
Extra virgin olive oil: why it’s healthier than other cooking oils

Emlyn Dodd receives funding from the British School at Athens, Australasian Society for Classical Studies, and Macquarie University. He is affiliated with the British School at Rome, Macquarie University, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, and the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and the Environment. Thanks must go to Hugh Thomson for collaborating on this experimental work.

– ref. Remaking history: using Ancient Egyptian techniques, I made delicious olive oil at home – and you can too – https://theconversation.com/remaking-history-using-ancient-egyptian-techniques-i-made-delicious-olive-oil-at-home-and-you-can-too-180018

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

Labor has maintained unchanged its solid two-party leads in both Newspoll and the Australian Financial Review’s Ipsos poll.

In Newspoll, published in The Australian, Labor is ahead of the Coalition 53-47% for the third consecutive poll. In Ipsos, it is leading 55-45%, the same as three weeks before.

The polls come as the national security debate escalates with the government under attack from Labor for being unable to head off the Solomon Islands-China security agreement. For its part, the government is trying to paint Labor as weak on China and is talking up a threatening international environment.

Labor on Tuesday will announce a range of initiatives aimed at making Australian “the first partner of choice” for its Pacific neighbours.

Labor will be relieved it has held its two-party position as it copes with recalibrating its campaign to deal with Anthony Albanese’s absence, in isolation with COVID.

In Newspoll Scott Morrison has widened his lead over Albanese as better PM for the second consecutive week. He heads Albanese 46% (up 2) to 37% (unchanged).

But net satisfaction with Morrison is down 3 points compared with the previous week. His satisfaction rating declined a point to 42%, while dissatisfaction with him increased 2 points to 54%.

Satisfaction with Albanese was up a point to 38%; his dissatisfaction rating fell a point to 50%.

Both leaders are on a net negative satisfaction level of minus 12.

The primary vote of the Coalition rose a point to 36%, while Labor also increased a point, to 37%. The Greens declined a point to 11%.

The Newspoll was done April 20-23, with 1538 voters.

The Ipsos poll also shows only slight movements. Labor’s primary vote was down a point to 34%, compared to three weeks before; the Coalition was up a point to 32%; the Greens rose 2 point to 12%.

On a two-party basis, when the undecideds are removed Labor leads 55-45%.

Morrison’s approval lifted a point to 33%; his disapproval was steady at 48%. Albanese’s approval rose a point to 31% while his disapproval increased 3 points to 35%,

Notably, many more people haven’t made up their mind about Albanese than about Morrison. Some 34% were in the “uncommitted” category on Albanese’s performance, but only 18% were uncommitted about Morrison.

Women are particularly unimpressed with Morrison. Only 31% approve of his performance while 50% disapprove. In contrast, 36% of men approve and 47% disapprove.

Albanese increased 2 points on the preferred-PM measure to lead Morrison, who rose a point, by 40-38%.

More than 4 in 10 (42%) think Labor will win the election; 34% believe the Coalition will be the victor.

The poll found low trust in Morrison; Albanese rating low on economic management, and both doing badly on competence.

The Ipsos Poll was conducted April 20-23 of 2302 respondents.

With the Easter and ANZAC holidays over the tempo of the campaign, now in its third week, will increase.

Ramping up the national security issue on Monday, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said: “The only way that you can preserve peace is to prepare for war and to be strong as a country, not to cower, not to be on bended knee and be weak”.

“We’re in a period very similar to the 1930s now, and I think there were a lot of people in the 1930s that wish they had spoken up much earlier in the decade than they had to at the end of the decade. I think that’s the sobering reality of where we are. It’s a sobering reality of the intelligence that we receive,” he told Nine.

This followed Morrison’s declaration at the weekend, in the context of the Chinese-Solomons agreement, that “Working together with our partners in New Zealand and of course the United States, I share the same red line that the United States has when it comes to these issues”.

“We won’t be having Chinese military naval bases in our region on our doorstep.”

Labor’s deputy leader Richard Marles said Australia’s current strategic circumstances “are as complex as any point since the end of the Second World War.

“And we certainly need to prepare. But we have not seen the preparation under this government. And words are one thing, action is another.

“This is a government which beats its chest, but when it comes to actually delivering and doing what needs to be done, this is a government which repeatedly fails.”

The government has said there had been clear statements from the Solomons prime minister that there would not be a Chinese military base built there. But based on Chinese conduct previously it is sceptical about such assurances.

Both Morrison and Marles were in Darwin for ANZAC day.

Labor’s seven-point Pacific plan will include a boost to development aid, support on climate infrastructure, improvements to Pacific labour arrangements both to help address economic challenges in the Pacific and ease Australia’s agricultural worker shortages, and a restoration of parliamentary engagement.

In other initiatives a Labor government would

• set up an Australia-Pacific Defence School which would train people from Pacific countries’ defence and security forces. Labor says this would give the region practical support and build stronger institutional links between Australian and regional defence forces

• double Australia’s funding for the Pacific Marine Security Program. This provides aerial surveillance of Pacific island countries’ large exclusive economic zones, where they lose annually an estimated US$150 million in revenue due to illegal and unregulated fishing

• deliver an Indo-Pacific Broadcasting strategy to boost Australian public and commercial media content to the region, increase training for Pacific journalists and enhance partnerships with broadcaster in the region. Labor would increase funding to ABC International to expand ABC transmission and deliver Australian television, radio and online content to more audiences in the Pacific and south east and south Asia

Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong said: “Scott Morrison has dropped the ball in the Pacific, and as a result Australia is less secure”. The resulting vacuum “is being filled by others – who do not share our interests and values.”

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. Labor maintains election-winning leads in Newspoll and Ipsos, as opposition to unveil Pacific initiatives – https://theconversation.com/labor-maintains-election-winning-leads-in-newspoll-and-ipsos-as-opposition-to-unveil-pacific-initiatives-181867

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Romain Fathi, Senior Lecturer, History, Flinders University

Emmanuel Macron has been reelected as President of the Republic of France for a second five-year term.

He defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election only hours ago, winning about 58.8% of the votes against 41.2% for his opponent.

While most political watchers were expecting a narrower Macron victory, many in France were genuinely scared by the lack of nationwide mass demonstration against Le Pen and the far right ahead of Sunday’s vote. The possibility of having Le Pen elected was higher than ever before.

What are the key consequences of Macron’s reelection for both France and Europe?

Read more:
French elections: a divided country faces an uncertain second round

Continuity amid dissatisfaction

Providing Macron’s party La République en Marche! can win the lower house election in June – which it is predicted to do – the first major outcome of this election is continuity.

For now, France remains a stable, moderate, “steady-as-she-goes” nation with inclusive values. No major change in policies is expected under Macron.

And this, paradoxically enough, might become a major issue because the 2022 results have clearly shown the French are seeking radical changes and want their concerns to be addressed. Rising costs of living, inflation, low salaries, the environment, law and order, and immigration have all been burning issues during the campaign.

As opposed to the 2017 presidential election, when most voters still supported traditional mainstream parties, this year, the majority of those who voted did so for parties promoting radical measures from both the far left and the far right.

Never before in the history of France’s Fifth Republic had those extremist parties totalled more votes than the moderate parties of the left, the centre and the right.

This means that despite being re-elected somewhat as a result of the French “winner takes it all” voting system, Macron has a real challenge if he does not want to face major social unrest, as was the case in 2018-19 with the violent Yellow Vests movement.

Read more:
As protests roil France, Macron faces a wicked problem — and it could lead to his downfall

More work ahead for the French

While Macron endlessly repeats he is neither from the left nor from the right, his election campaign’s economic program was preferred by France’s major employers’ federation, the MEDEF.

For instance, in the coming months, Macron once again wants to reform France’s generous pensions system to make the French work longer, so that the existing retirement scheme can endure.

He would also like to propose some conditions for the two million French people who are on the lowest possible social aid scheme, so they perform 15 to 20 hours of work or training in exchange of the money they receive.

The returning president has also pledged to continue attracting foreign investment through the “choose France” program, while supporting start-ups.

But social protections to continue

But Macron also wants to make social benefits easier to access.
Instead of having to apply for a particular scheme, eligible benefits would be paid straight into a person’s bank account.

Given the complexity of social aid schemes in France, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people who struggle applying for support would be better off under Macron’s new proposal.

A greener France

To gather the support of the Greens electorate, Macron has also pledged to continue subsidising nation-wide insulation programs, renovate 700,000 homes, protect biodiversity and legislate for a greener farming industry. This is an ambitious program in comparison to a first term that delivered mixed results on green policies and climate change.

Macron has also promised to extend the operational life of most nuclear powerplants and to get started on the construction of six new generation nuclear powerplants. In France, most citizens consider nuclear power as a green energy, given the minimal carbon emissions it generates.

Read more:
Can nuclear power secure a path to net zero?

This also provides the country with a higher level of energy (and therefore diplomatic) independence than its European neighbors.

What does Macron mean for the European Union?

The re-election of Macron is a blessing for Brussels and European institutions. With Brexit and the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, France is playing an even greater role in European affairs and Paris has the opportunity to breathe new life into the EU.

This, of course, is a defeat for Putin, who tried to intervene in the 2017 Presidential election. Le Pen had close ties to the Russian regime for many years, although she tried to brush them off during the campaign.

Macron is a dedicated European and wants to build a stronger and more independent Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian has certainly provided a wake-up call for European leaders.

Previously, many relied on the United States to ensure European defence, while others looked to Moscow for cooperation, or to the French for peacekeeping operations.

That landscape is radically shifting now, and France’s traditional approach to ultimate sovereignty in defence (as the only European country with second strike capability) suddenly looks quite attractive to other European states.

High on Macron’s agenda for Europe is greater cooperation between EU states. He wants to ensure Europe’s “strategic autonomy”, be it military, energetic, economic and political.

This will please neither Moscow nor Beijing. It may, however, offer breathing space to Washington who desperately wants to focus on the Pacific.

Macron’s European ambitions are likely to be supported by the Baltic states who fear for their existence, by Eastern European countries who now understand that anything can happen with Putin, and even by the Germans who are radically rethinking their previously timid foreign policy.

The next five years are going to be Macron’s hardest term, be it in the national or international spheres. To succeed he will need to keep radical parties at bay in France, accelerate measures on climate change, and steer the European Union toward a stronger, more independent future.

Romain Fathi 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. Emmanuel Macron is reelected but the French are longing for radical change – https://theconversation.com/emmanuel-macron-is-reelected-but-the-french-are-longing-for-radical-change-181488

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Public health and injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, University of Sydney

Child’s play involves risk and challenge, a vital part of development. Failing, falling and picking yourself up again are crucial life lessons. But children also need to be protected from severe and lifelong injury.

As the latest evolution in exciting play, numerous giant tube slides have been introduced around Australia. However, several of them have caused serious injuries within weeks of their installation.

The most recent giant tube slide causing serious injuries was opened by Shoalhaven Council in New South Wales in January. A four-year-old girl broke both her legs after riding tandem down the slide with her dad.

Her mum took to Facebook seeking the local community experience. Within 24 hours there were 750 comments, more than 150 shares and more than 30 serious injuries reported, including fractures and facial injuries.

Such preventable injures can cause lifelong difficulties for some, and cost Australians millions of dollars, not only in wasted playground development but also the cost of injuries and any associated litigation. The fate of the giant slide at Boongaree Nature Play Park is yet to be determined.

More than ‘rough and tumble’ injuries

In 2016, an Adelaide giant tube slide complex was closed only months after opening, after a spate of serious injuries such as compound knee fractures and dislocations were reported.

The two giant tube slides reportedly cost A$600,000 to build, in a playground upgrade costing $3.55 million. It then cost a further $340,000 for the hazardous slides to be dismantled.

In 2018, a Sydney playground was closed after “horrific” injuries including broken legs were reported from parents and children using the new “giant tube slide”. The Stockland playground reportedly cost $2.3 million to build. This giant slide was also closed, dismantled and removed.

The frequency and severity of these incidents is more than we should expect from “normal rough and tumble” play in a visit to the local playground.

Read more:
Why working families need parks and playgrounds more than ever

What’s the problem with these slides?

Longer tube slides allow users to travel faster through the inner tube. A person’s speed depends on their size, weight and the slipperiness of their clothing (with something like nylon leggings being more slippery than denim jeans, for example). The slipperiness of the slide can change with use over time as well.

Injuries have occurred within these giant slides, as users enter the twists and turns of the slide at great speed and sometimes try to “brake” with their feet to slow down. For each child, it’s hard to determine how fast each descent will be, but once it’s started, it can be very hard to control.

Attempting to brake during a descent can load ankles and knees with significant energy that causes bones to break. Trying to put the brakes on with a bare foot versus a sneaker can also affect the likelihood of a fracture. If the user is not able to slow down, they may shoot out of the end at high velocity.

Injury surveillance data from the United States shows tandem riding (sitting on a person’s lap on the slide) is associated with up to 50 times the odds of a lower-limb injury for the child, compared with riding alone.

Paradoxically, many parents probably believe riding together is safer. The new giant tube slide in Boongaree Park did not have any signage to warn parents of this risk.

How do we know playground equipment is safe?

The current Australian playground standards are informed by 50 years of experience in design and use of play equipment, and are constantly updated. The standards look at factors such as playground design, installation, maintenance and operation. They aim to optimise the safety of playgrounds and minimise the risks associated with them. They are also intended to remove known hazards such as things that could cause strangulation.

Read more:
Ensuring children get enough physical activity while being safe is a delicate balancing act

While public playgrounds in Australia are usually certified to meet the Australian standards, it’s not mandated by law. So not all will be certified to the most recently published standard, tested with a risk assessment before installation, or regularly checked for wear and tear that could cause injury.

To comply with the playground standard, certified playgrounds must have a marking plate secured to them indicating the name and address of the manufacturer or authorised representative, information to identify the equipment, the year the playground was manufactured, and to what standard. However, information regarding any updates or repairs, or schedules of inspections are not made publicly available by any council.

While the standards require testing for things like head and neck entrapment and structural integrity, they don’t require the slides to be tested for normal use to see how children might fare on the equipment.

Similar to vehicle safety testing, prototypes of products like slides should be tested across a range of user sizes and clothing types, and if any risks of severe injury are identified, the design can be modified before it’s installed.

There have been calls to leave giant slides unchanged in children’s playgrounds (regardless of the injuries) to develop children’s skills in risk management.

However there’s a difference between “risk” – where children can recognise and evaluate a challenge and decide on a course of action – and “hazard”, which is a source of harm that cannot be assessed by children (or in this case, even adults) and has no learning benefit.

We agree children need to learn about risk, challenge, success and failure, and sometimes injuries can occur. However serious injuries are preventable when every part of the system is carefully reviewed and modified accordingly.

Giant tube slides are making children (and their parents or carers) pay too high a price through no fault of their own. These hazardous items of playground equipment should either be removed or modified to ensure a simple trip down the slide doesn’t result in broken legs.

Read more:
Too much screen time and too little outside play is holding back kids

Lisa Nicole Sharwood represents the University of Sydney on the Standards Australia Committees: CS-005- Playground Equipment and Surfacing; this committee was responsible for drafting and publishing the AS 4685 series of standards that apply to the Playground. Lisa Nicole Sharwood also represents the University of Sydney on the Standards Australia Committee SF-051- Trampoline Facilities.

David Eager represents Engineers Australia on CS-005 Playground Equipment and Surfacing since 1998; this committee was responsible for drafting and publishing the AS 4685 series of standards. David was the Chairperson of CS-005 from 2008 to 2021. David is also the Chairperson of several of other Australia Standards Committees including: Contained play facilities; Landbourne inflatable devices; Artificial climbing structures and challenge courses; Trampoline park facilities; and Sports and recreational facilities and equipment.

Dr Ruth Barker represents Queensland Children’s Hospital on Standards Australia Committee: CS-005- Playground Equipment and Surfacing. This committee is responsible for drafting and publishing the AS 4685 series of standards that apply to public Playgrounds. Dr Barker is also currently the president of Kidsafe Queensland. Kidsafe provides a limited number of paid playground safety inspections in Queensland.

– ref. Giant tube slides and broken legs: why the latest playground craze is a serious hazard – https://theconversation.com/giant-tube-slides-and-broken-legs-why-the-latest-playground-craze-is-a-serious-hazard-181073

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Declan Kuch, Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

Last month former carbon market watchdog Andrew MacIntosh blew the whistle on Australia’s carbon offset market. He described the scheme as a “rort” with up to 80% of carbon offsets “markedly low in integrity”.

While these allegations reignited debate over carbon offsets, the issues are not new. Integrity issues have plagued carbon trading schemes and offsets since they first emerged in the mid 1990s.

You might think this is a fairly major bug. In fact, it’s a feature. Polluting industries want low-cost compliance with climate laws – and poor quality offsets satisfy this demand. The key phrase there is “low cost”. That’s the reason free-market economists championed this kind of flexible compliance over direct regulation in the first place.

For polluters, it’s an easy win: buy offsets, appear to have done something, and keep on polluting. But bad quality offsets can actually make climate change worse.

Who loses? The rest of us. Questionable offsets and flexible compliance have slowed down the shift away from oil, gas and coal.

So should we abandon offsets entirely? Or do they have a place?

Carbon offsets: a failure in market experimentation

Carbon offsets have played a significant role in government and industry’s climate change response since emerging from early global climate negotiations. They have been popular because they do not require major change to the status quo.

Free market economists and their allies in industry have experimented with ways of paying for emission-reducing technology changes, avoiding deforestation, planting new trees, and building wind and solar farms. These methods have been packaged up as certificates and sold on market platforms created by both government and private actors as certified “emissions reductions”.

There are a number of problems with this.

First are the well-founded concerns over whether offset projects actually do reduce or soak up carbon. For instance, 85% of credits in the long-running United Nations carbon offset scheme did not actually reduce emissions as of 2017. That meant coal-fired power stations and industrial gas facilities owned by oil companies such as Shell were effectively subsidised while simultaneously increasing their emissions.

One of the world’s first regulatory carbon markets in NSW was similarly plagued by issues of “additionality” – that is, whether the offset activities would have happened anyway.

There are also questions about the governance of offsets. For offset schemes to be a real market, the buyers and sellers need to be separate, and the offsets need to independently verified. Australia’s offsets aren’t.

The Clean Energy Regulator creates, buys, sells and endorses the integrity of offsets.

Do carbon offsets need better integrity?

Some experts have argued offsets and carbon markets can be fixed through better transparency, oversight, and more stringent baselines. This is appealing because it buys more time for sectors with no zero-emission technology substitute to develop one.

But this is too hopeful. Over the last 25 years, a clear pattern has emerged with each offsetting program: problems are visible, calls for improvements build, more transparency arrives, but industry pressure for low-cost compliance means almost nothing actually changes.

Some industries have benefited enormously from this soft regulation, especially fossil fuel extraction companies whose links to political parties have been concerning for many years.

Carbon offset markets won’t be fixed by calls for clear rules, especially while the Clean Energy Regulator is the buyer, seller and regulator of Australia’s offsets.

Moving beyond carbon offsets

If offsets are broken by design, what should we do instead? In brief, we should switch from offsetting to a simple concept: keep fossil fuels in the ground.

To date, market-based approaches to environmental compliance have effectively given a huge windfall to the fossil fuel industry, emissions from which have only grown since offsetting approaches began. The industry has sponsored think tanks to support flexible compliance, attacked climate science and lobbied against international treaties trying to phase out out fossil fuels.

Rather than thinking of emissions by industries as something to offset, we must embrace the shift to a low-carbon society, free from fossil fuel combustion. We have to move past the magical thinking that carbon pricing and offsetting alone will lead to the technology shifts that will save us.

What does it mean for those of us buying high-quality carbon offsets for our flights? It might be a worthy act of charity, but it won’t undo the long-term damage done by carbon dioxide emissions.

Stopping new fossil fuel projects is the best way to avoid blowing through our shrinking carbon budgets into very dangerous levels of warming. Unlike offsets, phasing out fossil fuels can be easily monitored and verified. We know cutting fossil fuel use will make a difference as we work to check the worst ravages of climate change.

Declan Kuch has received funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Reliable Affordable Clean Energy Cooperative Research Centre.

– ref. Now we know the flaws of carbon offsets, it’s time to get real about climate change – https://theconversation.com/now-we-know-the-flaws-of-carbon-offsets-its-time-to-get-real-about-climate-change-181071

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jun Yao, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Macquarie University

Have you noticed your favourite chocolate is a little smaller, there are fewer biscuits in the same-sized package or bags of chips contain more air?

If you haven’t, you’re not alone.

What marketers call a “contents reduction strategy” is more popularly known as “shrinkflation” – reducing the size of a product while the price remains the same.

It’s a comparatively recent phenomenon in the supermarket business, reflecting the pressure on manufacturers to keep prices down. In fact the word “shrinkflation” entered the lexicon only in 2009.

Since then, manufacturers have “shrunk” everything from jars of Vegemite, Maltesers, Tim Tams, Freddo Frogs and Corn Flakes. In the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics counted 2,529 examples between 2012 and 2017.

So why does shrinkflation seem preferable when it is effectively the same as putting up the price?

To investigate this, we conducted experiments playing with consumer perceptions of changes in prices and volume sizes. Our results show the innate cognitive bias shoppers have towards focusing on price, no matter what.

How we tested the shrinkflation effect

In our experiments we wanted to measure the relative effect of different strategies to increase a product’s per-unit price.

We simulated this in real-world conditions by manipulating shoppers’ perceptions of products for sale in a supermarket in Brisbane, then measured the differences in sales. The experiment took six weeks and involved five products – coconut rolls, confectionery, biscuits, soy milk and coconut water.

We changed neither the price nor size of these products. But we did change the shelf tickets, to manipulate shoppers into believing the price or size had previously been different.

Each week over four weeks we changed the shelf tickets to test the following four scenarios, all implying an identical increase in the per-unit price:

• tactic 1 created the impression only the price had increased

• tactic 2 created the impression the price was the same but the size had been reduced (standard shrinkflation)

• tactic 3 created the impression the size has increased, but also the price had increased even more

• tactic 4 created the impression the product’s price had been reduced, but also the size had been reduced even more (shrinkflation variant).

The following images show how we did this with the coconut rolls.

The product and price never changed but the signs indicating the previous price and size did. In each case the “before” per-unit price was also shown – an identical 38 cents per 10 grams.

The other two weeks were used as “control” weeks. In one week we displayed a “New Package” shelf ticket. In the other control week we displayed a regular shelf ticket without the words “New Package”.

What we found

Even though the changes signalled by the shelf tickets represented an identical increase in per-unit price, the sale results suggest shoppers found our shrinkflation variant the most attractive.

The following chart shows the sales figures for all five products over the six weeks. With tactic 4 (our shrinkflation variant) 530 units were sold. This compares with 448 sales with tactic 3; 435 sales for tactic 2 (standard shrinkflation), and 391 sales for tactic 1.

The power of framing

These results demonstrate the commercial power of psychological “framing”.

First, there is the “silver lining effect” – a mixed outcome consisting of a small gain (a lower price) and a larger loss (an even smaller size) is more favourable than a net outcome consisting of just a smaller loss (price increasing or package downsizing) alone.

This effect is tied to the “loss-aversion theory” developed by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, which says people value losses and gains differently.

Read more:
The behavioural economics of discounting, and why Kogan would profit from discount deception

Second, price is more noticeable and is given more weight than size. Thus shoppers were influenced more by the price drop than by the reduction in package size.

We attribute this to an automatic cognitive response – people have inherent preference toward lower prices.

Unit pricing is important, but not enough

In most developed countries, consumer protection laws require retailers to display unit prices to enable shoppers to cut through the proliferation of marketing signals designed to attract attention.

However, there’s no obligation to show the “before” unit price, so it’s difficult to gauge unit price changes.

Read more:
Archibald argy bargy as Ben Quilty wins populist prize

It seems to be equally important for retailers to advertise unit price changes to help consumers make more informed purchases.

But our results confirm what marketers have clearly gleaned over the past decade. Consumers’ cognitive biases are strong. So you can expect ever more shrinkflation and for ever more “price drop”, “discount”, “new price” and “price match” tickets to adorn supermarket shelves.

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

– ref. All new smaller size! Why getting less with shrinkflation is preferable to paying more – https://theconversation.com/all-new-smaller-size-why-getting-less-with-shrinkflation-is-preferable-to-paying-more-181326

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Kell, Honorary Research Associate, Murdoch University

Chloé, the French nude by Jules Joseph Lefebvre, is an Australian cultural icon.

Chloé made its debut at the 1875 Paris Salon and won medals at the 1879 Sydney and 1880 Melbourne international exhibitions. In December 1880, Thomas Fitzgerald, a Melbourne surgeon, bought Chloé for his private collection.

Two years later, when Fitzgerald loaned Chloé to the National Gallery of Victoria, a furious debate erupted in the press. Public opinion was sharply divided over the propriety of displaying a French nude painting on the Sabbath.

Chloé spent the next three years at the Adelaide Picture Gallery, before Fitzgerald removed her from the public gaze.

After the surgeon’s death in 1908, Henry Figsby Young bought Chloé for £800 and hung the famous nude in the saloon bar of Young and Jackson Hotel, opposite Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.

Enjoying a drink with Chloé at the hotel has been a good luck ritual for Australian soldiers since the first world war.

Longing for her lover

According to the 1875 Paris Salon catalogue, Chloé depicts the water nymph in “Mnasyle et Chloé” by 18th century poet martyr André Chénier. Toes dipped in a puddling stream, longing and heartache etched on her lovely features, she listens for the voice of her lover.

Chloé was created in the winter of 1874-75. France was still rebuilding after its defeat in the Franco Prussian War and the Versailles government’s brutal repression of the revolutionary Paris Commune.

Newspapers in France and around the world described women who supported the Commune as lethal pétroleuses, or petrol carriers. The women were often blamed for destructive acts of arson carried out by Versailles troops during The Bloody Week.

Read more:
The petrol bomb’s incendiary – and uncertain – history

Jules Lefebvre claimed his working class model for Chloé was involved with former Communards. She may have fought alongside other girls and women, and witnessed the widespread bloodshed that stained the streets of Paris red in 1871.

This volatile chapter in French history has been absent from Chloé mythologies. But Chloé was painted in the wake of war and revolution and of women’s inspiring activism, as women challenged the class and gender barriers that had limited their opportunities.

Chloé and the Australian soldier

The ritual of having a drink with Chloé at Young and Jackson Hotel, opposite Melbourne’s busiest railway station, began after Private A. P. Hill, who was killed in action, put a message in a bottle and tossed it overboard.

When the bottle was found in New Zealand in January 1918, his message read:

To the finder of this bottle. Take it to Young and Jackson’s, fill it, and keep it till we return from the war.

The hotel and Chloé proved irresistible for returning soldiers.

By the start of the second world war, Chloé and Young and Jackson’s were so enmeshed in military mythology they were included in the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion’s official march song:

Good-by Young and Jackson’s

Farewell Chloé too

It’s a long way to Bonegilla

But we’ll get there on stew

Tragically, on February 2 1942, the B and C Companies of the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion were massacred by Japanese forces at Laha Airfield on the Indonesian island of Ambon. Those who weren’t killed became prisoners of war.

After Japan’s surrender in 1945, the Australian prisoners’ hopes for liberation were frustrated when Japanese officers refused to give them radio access.

When they finally got a radio transmitter their SOS message was received on the neighbouring island of Morotai. The men were asked questions to prove they were “dinki-di Aussies”.

One of the first questions Melbourne soldier John Van Nooten was asked was “how would you like to see Chloé again?”

When Van Nooten replied “Lead me to her”, the operator asked “where is she?”

Van Nooten responded with Young and Jackson’s, finally convincing the operator he was Australian.

Read more:
Two-up, Gallipoli and the ‘fair go’: why illegal gambling is at the heart of the Anzac myth

A soldier’s consolation

In his 1945 article Seein’ Chloé, West Australian journalist Peter Graeme claimed:

Chloé is to Melbourne what the Bridge is to Sydney. From the soldier’s point of view of course. All over Australia you meet men who have seen her […] Chloé belongs to the Australian soldier.

Graeme recalled meeting a soldier at Young and Jackson’s who drained three drinks in front of Chloé. When he asked the soldier why he drank the beers in quick succession, the soldier said he was honouring a promise he and two mates had made to Chloé.

The three of them had pledged to have a drink with her when they returned to Melbourne. His two friends never returned, buried at Scarlet Beach in New Guinea.

As Graeme concluded in his poignant tale, Chloé may have been:

the symbol of the feminine side of his life. That part which he puts away from him, except in his inarticulate dreams.

The soldier’s grief for the mates he lost, and the comfort drinking with the painting gave him, seems to resonate with the longing in Chloé’s melancholy expression, and the war-torn history behind this celebrated Melbourne icon.

Katrina Kell has previously received funding from the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries (Culture and the Arts) Western Australia. She is a member of the Australian Society of Authors.

– ref. Chloé: how a 19th-century French nude ended up in a Melbourne pub – and became an icon for Australian soldiers – https://theconversation.com/chloe-how-a-19th-century-french-nude-ended-up-in-a-melbourne-pub-and-became-an-icon-for-australian-soldiers-180032

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

As the government fights for its life, John Howard, the Liberals’ living icon, has been on the campaign trail.

It’s not all been smooth sailing for the veteran, however. When Anthony Albanese had his now infamous numbers lapse, Howard’s first reaction was an understanding “So what?”

This undermined the government’s exploitation of Albanese’s gaffe, bringing a quick clean up by Howard the following day.

On Saturday, Howard was campaigning in his old seat of Bennelong, which he lost, with the election, in 2007.

Howard weighed into the “teal” independents. “These men and women are all posing as independents. They’re not independents, they’re anti-Liberal groupies.”

We hadn’t heard the “groupies” sledge before. The government’s favourite attacks have been to say the teals are “fakes” and a vote for them is a vote for Labor. It’s claimed the teals – some of whom do share information and resources – are really a “party”. And it’s deeply frustrating for the Liberals that many of the teals are receiving generous funding from Climate 200.

The Liberals are using sledgehammers against the teals. But in the seats where these independents are considered seriously competitive with the Liberal incumbents, notably North Sydney and Wentworth in Sydney and Goldstein and Kooyong in Melbourne, could such attacks be counterproductive?

In an election when voters are disillusioned with the main parties, including their generally disrespectful tone, the Liberals have to take care in how they mount their arguments against these candidates who are running on issues such as integrity and, at least by implication, advocating a better way of doing the political conversation.

To dismiss them as “groupies” sounds insulting (and somewhat old-fashioned).
Regardless of the arguments for and against their election, many of the teals have impressive backgrounds and present a good deal better than some of the backbenchers who sit behind Scott Morrison.

The suggestion by some of their critics that they’re just a version of Labor is simplistically binary. Allegra Spender (Wentworth) and Kate Chaney (Curtin) come from distinguished Liberal clans. Percy Spender, grandfather of Allegra, was central in the forging of the ANZUS treaty.

The teals are challenged by the government for standing only against Liberal MPs. This isn’t surprising, for a couple of reasons.

The issues at the centre of their campaigns, climate change and an integrity body, are ones on which the government is lagging.

Beyond that, the seats where they have most potential appeal are the Liberal leafy electorates, where many usually-Liberal voters are put off by Morrison.

One would expect many women, especially, in these seats may be attracted to teals who are articulate, professional women like themselves. These female voters would find Morrison’s ultra-blokey style uncongenial and alienating.

What many yet-to-decide voters will want from the Liberals is not insults against the teals but answers to the criticisms they are making of the government. But there are difficulties here – for example, how can a Liberal MP respond to a teal about an integrity commission when the prime minister says he won’t even introduce the integrity legislation unless Labor supports his model, which is almost universally criticised?

The government attacks the teals for not declaring who they would support in a hung parliament.

That might be frustrating some voters and the candidates could pay a price for that. And there is a real issue here. Despite the case made for its virtues, a hung parliament could bring instability and unpredictability.

But would you expect teals to be doing anything other but keeping their powder dry at this stage?

Firstly, in the real world of politics, why would they show their hand, even if they had made a decision? It would throw their campaigns off course.

Secondly, for some teals (as for some of the present crossbenchers assuming they are re-elected) it would depend on the precise details of the hung parliament (who got how many seats, who won the popular vote), and on what was on offer from the two leaders. Spender last week was frank: she hadn’t made a decision, and would want to see what was on the negotiating table.

Both Morrison and Albanese say they would do no deals with crossbenchers in seeking to form government in a hung parliament. Maybe, maybe not. But one would expect most crossbenchers would have plenty of questions for the leaders as they made up their minds to whom they might give confidence and supply.

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. View from The Hill: Could going too negative on ‘teals’ do Liberals more harm than good? – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-could-going-too-negative-on-teals-do-liberals-more-harm-than-good-181837

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt A. Field, Associate Professor – Bioinformatics, James Cook University

Many people know modern dogs evolved from the grey wolf. But did you know most of the more than 340 modern dog breeds we have today only emerged within the past 200 years?

Dogs were first domesticated during the Neolithic period between 29,000 and 14,000 years ago, and have been closely linked to humans ever since. Dingoes – the only native Australian dog – are thought to represent a unique event within canine evolution, having arrived in Australia 5,000–8,000 years ago.

Yet dingoes’ exact place in the evolutionary family tree of dogs has never been known. To find out where they branched away from grey wolves on their evolutionary journey, we used cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies to discover that dingoes are fundamentally different from domestic dogs.

In research published today in Science Advances, in collaboration with 25 researchers from four countries, we show dingoes are an early offshoot of modern dogs situated between the grey wolf and the domesticated dogs of today. This work has potential implications for the health of all modern breed dogs.

Dog and human history

By studying dogs we can gain insight into how we as humans have influenced their physical and behavioural traits, as well as observe changes in their genome.

For example, dogs only recently developed the ability to raise their eyebrows – a trait likely developed to communicate more effectively with humans. So it seems puppy dog eyes really were “created” just for us.

But some examples aren’t so obvious, and can only be found by looking deeper into dogs’ genomes.

For example, previous scientific studies have shown dogs require a particular gene (amylase 2B) to digest starch. Many dog breeds carry several duplicates of this gene (sometimes more than ten copies). However, the wolf and dingo only retain a single copy of this gene.

This duplication in modern dogs likely resulted from a change in diet for the earliest domesticated dogs, as they were increasingly fed starchy foods such as rice (cultivated through early widespread agriculture).

Interestingly, the same gene duplication has occurred independently in other recently domesticated livestock animals, which indicates how humans can affect the genomes of domesticated animals.

An early offshoot of modern dogs

Dingoes are unique as they have been geographically isolated from wolves and domestic dogs for thousands of years. In our study, we used genetics to help us understand exactly where the dingo fits in the evolution of dogs, and what role it has in the Australian ecosystem.

Initially, in 2017, we only had access to a single dog genome as a point of comparison (a boxer breed). It contained many gaps, due to the limitations of the technology at the time.

However, that same year, the dingo won the “World’s Most Interesting Genome” competition held by US biotech company Pacific Biosciences. This got us thinking about generating a high-quality dingo genome.

But to understand the dingo’s place in dog history, we needed several high-quality dog genomes as well. So we generated a German shepherd genome as a representative breed, followed by the basenji (the earliest dog breed used for hunting in the Congo).

Finally, we were able to sequence the genome of a pure desert dingo puppy, Sandy, found abandoned in the outback (pictured at the top of this article).

The ability to generate high-quality genomes only became possible in the last few years, due to the development of long-read sequencing technology. This technology has also been crucial to the recently announced completion of the entire human genome.

Read more:
The Human Genome Project pieced together only 92% of the DNA – now scientists have finally filled in the remaining 8%

Using our new dog genomes – along with existing genomes of the Greenland wolf and other representative species including the great Dane, boxer and Labrador – we measured the number of genetic differences between these breeds and the dingo to definitively show where the dingo fits in the evolutionary timeline.

We found dingoes are truly an early offshoot of all modern dog breeds, between the wolf and today’s domesticated dogs.

Future work

Collectively, our analysis shows how distinct demographic and environmental conditions have shaped the dingo genome. We can’t say for certain whether the dingo has ever been domesticated, but we do know it’s unlikely it was domesticated after its arrival in Australia.

Future work on more dingo genomes will address whether the dingo has ever been domesticated at all, and also measure the level and impact of pure dingo crossbreeding with domestic dogs. While many hybrid dingoes are similar in appearance, there has been substantial crossbreeding, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria.

This knowledge is important. A better understanding of the effect of dingoes cross breeding with dogs may provide insight into dingoes’ role in the ecosystem, and therefore help with future conservation efforts.

Also, knowledge about dingoes’ evolutionary history ultimately helps us understand how and when domestic dogs evolved alongside humans, and can help us identify and target new ways to improve their health and vitality.

Veterinary applications

Through artificial selection, humans have been selectively crossbreeding dogs for desirable traits and characteristics for hundreds of years.

While this has created modern purebred lineages, it has also resulted in many breed-specific diseases. For example, Labradors and German shepherds are prone to hip dysplasia (improper joint fitting that leads to serious mobility issues over time), golden retrievers are prone to certain cancers, and jack terriers are susceptible to blindness.

Generating high-quality genomes for dingoes and wolves could help us determine the cause of these diseases by serving as a disease-free baseline or reference. These discoveries could lead to new targeted treatment options for breed dogs.

Read more:
Five ways to help your dog live a longer, healthier life

Matt A. Field receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

J. William O. Ballard receives funding from Australian Research Foundation and support from Pacific Biosciences.

– ref. From wolf to chihuahua: new research reveals where the dingo sits on the evolutionary timeline of dogs – https://theconversation.com/from-wolf-to-chihuahua-new-research-reveals-where-the-dingo-sits-on-the-evolutionary-timeline-of-dogs-181605

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

“Well, the boss has got the bug, so you’ve got me.” Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare fronted the media the morning after Anthony Albanese tested positive for COVID, and the contrast didn’t go unnoticed.

Clare answered questions confidently and without waffling, let alone stumbling. So much so that at the end of the news conference one journalist said, “You come in today and have been comfortable, nuanced and on message. Are you not the Labor leader that many will be looking for?”

If Albanese was watching at home he might have winced at that question.

There was laughter in the room. Clare stayed on course. “It is time to give Albo a go,” he said.

Labor had always anticipated Albanese could come down with COVID during the campaign. Unlike Scott Morrison he had not had a bout of the virus. Contingency plans were put into place, and they swung into action on Friday, after Thursday night’s positive test.

Clare was an obvious choice to front the first “plan B” news conference. As one of the two campaign spokespeople (the other is Katy Gallagher), he is well across the policy and the lines. And indeed a few years ago he used to be in lists of possible future Labor leaders, although he’s dropped out of those more recently.

What Albanese’s COVID means is that we will be seeing a lot more of Labor’s frontbench over the coming few days.

The opposition is fortunate in that it has a strong shadow ministry. Apart from Clare, Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong, Gallagher, Tony Burke and Tanya Plibersek are very good performers before the cameras. Labor is not having a “surrogate” leader take Albanese’s place, which could have created more problems than it solved.

How much Albanese can do from home in the next few days will depend on how hard he is hit by COVID. Morrison said on Friday, a touch competitively, that he was sure Albanese would be able to work on, as he himself had done. “I’m sure he will keep on with the campaign as I kept on with the governing.”

On Friday Albanese did some “virtual” media, while admitting, “I’ve had better days”.

In one sense there might be advantage in having the team more to the fore. Indeed, the frontbenchers have probably been underused in the run up to the election.

On the other hand, given the need in this campaign for Albanese to get himself better known in the electorate, a week out means lost time for that mission. And if his Covid symptoms become serious, requiring him to be absent for longer, that becomes a greater problem.

Albanese was set to fly to Perth when he was diagnosed. But, as things turned out, there would have been no appearances with premier Mark McGowan, who has also now tested positive.

The Labor leader is still confident of being able to do his planned campaign launch in Perth on Sunday May 1. The choice of Perth is notable, out of the groove for federal campaign launches. It indicates the weight Labor is putting in trying to wrest seats in the west.

Meanwhile, as the war of words between Labor and the government continues to rage over the the Solomons security treaty with China, the government on Friday homed in on what Labor deputy leader Richard Marles wrote in his book Tides That Bind: Australia in the Pacific, which came out last year.

Marles argued that for Australia to base its Pacific actions “on an attempt to strategically deny China would be a historic mistake”.

“Not only would this be detrimental to our regional relationships, it would be a failed course of action.

“Australia has no right to expect a set of exclusive relationships with the Pacific nations. They are perfectly free to engage on whatever terms they choose with China or, for that matter, any other country. Disputing this would be resented, as the recent past has shown.”

Marles knows something of the Pacific, serving as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs in the Gillard government. He became Labor’s defence spokesman after the 2016 election but early last year moved to a “mega” portfolio of national reconstruction.

It’s widely speculated that if Labor won the election, Marles would switch back into defence. While Albanese has indicated he would expect his current frontbenchers to stay in their present roles he hasn’t ruled out some change.

For Morrison, the Marles quotes presented a doubly welcome opportunity. Labor has been on full attack against the government for not being able to head off the China-Solomons security deal. Wong, shadow foreign minister, called it the worst failure of Australian foreign policy in the Pacific since World War Two.

Also, any chance to attack Labor in relation to China feeds into the government’s push to make this, among other things, a khaki election. Part of this is claiming a distinction between government and opposition over policy towards China – which is in fact substantially bipartisan. Thus Morrison accused Marles of thinking “it’s a good idea for Pacific Island nations to sign up to security agreements with the Chinese government”.

How much impact the “khaki” element will have on how people’s vote is up for debate. Most voters are probably more concerned with issues closer to home. On the other hand, national security does reinforce the government’s mantra that a vote for Labor is a vote for uncertainty.

Regardless of how the row over the Solomons plays into the election, what is clear is that whichever side wins, it will face a major challenge in navigating policy in the Pacific against a assertive, determined and apparently persuasive China.

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. View from The Hill: ‘The bug’ gives Albanese opportunity to sell the team but less time to sell himself – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-the-bug-gives-albanese-opportunity-to-sell-the-team-but-less-time-to-sell-himself-181792

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of Adelaide

In Nicolas Cage’s latest film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Cage plays a character called … Nick Cage. This meta-commentary on fame and celebrity, wrapped around a thriller plot, is full of Cage-inspired “Easter eggs” and knowing nods to the audience.

Once again, Cage reminds us that he might just be the most interesting and exciting actor working in mainstream cinema today.

As a Cage super-fan, I’ve always been struck by his prodigious work ethic (over 100 films, many shot back-to-back or concurrently); his appeal to venerated auteurs like David Lynch, Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese; his eclectic, quirky choices that bamboozle us; and his approach to stardom.

Take three other actors of a similar age: Cage is not Tom Cruise, whose precision-engineered career allows no risks to be taken. Nor is he Jim Carrey, whose early career blazed brightly and then faded away. Nor is he George Clooney, who has traded stardom for activism and advocacy.

Cage’s take on stardom is different: a chance to reinvent himself with each role, to try something new, to push barriers and surprise jaded viewers.

Read more:
An easy-going everyman, with vulnerability beneath the bravado: the best performances of Bruce Willis

From character actor to action to schlock

Early in his career, Cage established himself as an off-beat character actor renowned for his eccentric vocal delivery, his commitment to the Method and his ability to effortlessly pivot between genres.

In quick succession, he made Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, directed by his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola), Raising Arizona (1987), Moonstruck (1987) and Vampire’s Kiss (1988). None of these films are alike.

Co-stars were both baffled and bewildered. Some admired his verve that pushed performance to the limits. Others were dismayed at his peculiar decisions and what they saw as a “look-at-me” descent into excess and histrionics.

By 1996, with an Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) as an alcoholic screenwriter seeking redemption, Cage had announced himself as a star.

Cage shortly became a fully-fledged 90s action hero, with roles in The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997) and Face/Off (1997).

Watched back now, those performances seem to foreshadow Cage’s descent into self-parody, but at the time it was refreshing to see Cage play roles usually reserved for Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He was a nerdy everyman, with a lithe, fluid body. His nerdiness and ad-libbing was a refreshing antidote to the muscular action stars.

For sure, there were missteps along the way as he navigated his new-found status: the tabloid press had a field day reporting on his lavish spending. But in an era of changing modes of film distribution, audience fragmentation and the existential demise of the film star, his presence felt both reassuring and addictive.

We looked forward to what he would do next.

But the wheels soon fell off. Cage drifted into generic video-on-demand schlock, such as Rage (2014) and The Runner (2015).

He has vigorously defended this work, but the suspicion remains he was motivated by commerce not art.

At the same time, the internet, and in particular meme and gif culture, began to work alongside Cage’s career, both undermining and reinforcing his peculiar brand of stardom.

Fan edits, memes and YouTube mashups eventually became a source of great frustration for Cage as he struggled to reassure fans and critics alike he was a serious performer.

But this was not always backed up by his career choices or his own pronouncements on his craft. Sean Penn, his contemporary and early rival, disparagingly called him a “performer”. Cage referred to himself as a thespian, a troubadour entertaining the mob.

Most intriguing, he defined his heightened acting style as “nouveau shamanism”: a singular blend of trancelike “being” and pure Kabuki “playacting”.

For some, Cage’s ideas gloriously pointed to the new direction film acting was headed: brave, gonzo, idiosyncratic. For others, it cemented his status as a self-promoting charlatan.

Read more:
Hollywood has got method acting all wrong, here’s what the process is really about

His finest performances

So it comes as a great relief that the last five years or so have heralded a remarkable return to form for Cage.

His career was revitalised in 2018 with a quite extraordinary performance as the grieving lover turned avenging angel in Mandy. There is a scene from that film which distils Cage’s career into 60 magnificent seconds.

Sat alone in a garishly lit bathroom, he chugs a bottle of vodka, moans and mumbles and screams with grief. The “Cage Rage”, as it has become known, is there in full technicolour detail.

He followed that up with two memorably strange films: Colour Out Of Space (2019) and Willy’s Wonderland (2020).

The first is a Lovecraftian tale of meteors, glowing goo and hostile alpacas. In the latter, he plays the silent janitor of a demonically possessed funhouse.

Cage attacks both roles with typical insouciance and stoic resignation.

But best of all is Pig (2021). Here, Cage plays a grieving chef who has retreated to the Oregon wilderness with only a truffle-hunting pig for company. When the pig is kidnapped, Cage re-enters the world, intent on finding his only true companion.

Gone is the Elvis coolness of Wild At Heart (1990), the physical dexterity of National Treasure (2004) and the childlike blankness of City of Angels (1998). In Pig, Cage is bloated and bearded, wracked by grief and remorse.

It is one of his finest performances.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent once more showcases Cage’s skills. He remains an intense, immersive actor whose career blends kitsch and Method commitment and who realises that stardom – and what it means to be a movie star – has changed.

As he once famously said: “You tell me where the top is, and I’ll tell you whether or not I’m over it.”

Ben McCann 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. Nicolas Cage is the most fascinating and exciting actor working today – https://theconversation.com/nicolas-cage-is-the-most-fascinating-and-exciting-actor-working-today-181483

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patricia A. O’Brien, Faculty Member, Asian Studies Program, Georgetown University; Visiting Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University; Adjunct Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC., Georgetown University

Like the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano that triggered a massive tsunami and sent shockwaves around the world when it erupted on January 15, the recently signed security deal between the Solomon Islands and China has also unleashed geopolitical convulsions of immense magnitude.

The source of the spectacular volcanic eruption that was visible from space came from deep below the surface. Similarly, the controversial security deal, and Australia’s alarmed response to it, also goes deep into history.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has repeatedly described the China deal as an assertion of sovereignty. (Critics say it is the opposite.) China added to this discourse by accusing the Australian government of “disrespectful colonialism” in its unsuccessful attempts to dissuade Sogavare’s government from formalising the deal.

Yet Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended Australia’s response, claiming his government did not want to repeat the “long history” of telling Pacific nations what to do. Morrison added,

I’m not going to act like former administrations that treated the Pacific like some extension of Australia.

Morrison is absolutely right about one thing – there is a long history shaping the recent deal. But were the Solomons treated like an extension of Australia? Did Australia exercise colonial power over the nation? Most crucially, how can Australia correct past mistakes and move forward given the new regional reality?

The 19th-century sugar plantations

Britain colonised the Solomon Islands from 1893. Unlike British New Guinea, where Britain transferred colonial control to Australia after Federation in 1901, the Solomons stayed under British control until 1978, when the islands gained independence.

That Britain was taking control of the Solomons at the end of 19th century was a comfort to Australians in ways that echo the present. At the time, Australia was deeply “concerned” about “Great Powers […] now established in the South Seas within a few days’ steaming distance from Eastern Australia, especially Queensland”, wrote Brisbane’s Courier Mail.
It continued:

It is a great pity […] that the colonial statesmen of former days had not foresight enough to grasp the importance of these South Seas territories and secure them, for their strategic as well as productive value.

And in words that sound remarkably like those being articulated now, the article predicted “we will have to spend millions […] because of the nearness of bases of possible hostile operations”.

The “Great Powers” in question in 1898 were France, which was attempting to control all the islands south of the Solomons (present-day Vanuatu and New Caledonia) and Germany, which had claimed the arc of islands from the northern Solomon Islands into New Guinea (excluding British New Guinea in the southeast).

Australian politicians had aspired to Britain controlling all South Pacific islands on their behalf from the 1870s. This was articulated by Australia’s Monroe Doctrine, which held that Australia, backed by Britain, exclusively presided in its region. France and Germany challenged it in the 19th century, but the notion persisted along with Australian security concerns.

Although Australia did not officially colonise the Solomons, Australians exercised colonial powers there in other ways. The most egregious and devastating was through labour recruiting, which began in the islands around the 1870s.

It is estimated some 19,000 Solomon Islanders worked on Queensland sugar plantations before most were repatriated in 1902. Recruiter mistreament sparked cycles of violence in which white people were killed and then these killings were avenged with official and unofficial punitive expeditions.

During – and after – the second world war

Small numbers of traders and planters, many from Australia, established enterprises in the islands. Missionaries came too. But it was not until the Battle for the Solomons, which stretched from August 1942 to December 1943, that Solomon Islanders experienced colossal intrusions into their island homes.

Some Australians participated in this epic episode, but it was predominantly US forces fighting to halt the Japanese advance on Australia. The importance of these islands to Australia’s security was horrifically demonstrated.

After the war, and with decolonisation happening at a rapid pace, Australian politicians thought about how this wave of independence would affect the islands and how Australia might shape that change to preserve its security.

The idea of a “Melanesian Federation” was suggested. This would bind Dutch New Guinea (which became part of Indonesia in 1969), Papua New Guinea and “The British Solomons”. But this idea relied on the new nations buying into it. They did not.

Another idea was incorporating New Guinea, and possibly the Solomons too, as a “seventh state” of Australia. Future Australian governor-general John Kerr plainly articulated in 1958 the sticking point for this security guarantee. Australia would have deal with “racial problems” that “we would have to solve on the basis of equality and genuine acceptance of New Guinea people in Australia”.

These ideas did not happen and many Pacific nations have remained closed off from economic opportunities that would have drastically improved lives and permanently bound Australia to Pacific nations through transnational communities.

Economics is key

The root causes of the Solomon Islands’ problems since independence can be found in economics. Australia may have played a leading role in peacekeeping through the 2003-17 RAMSI Mission, but it did not take bold action on economic issues.

Almost 13% of Solomon Islanders live below the poverty line and just 70% has access to electricity. China now seems to be offering an economic panacea that Australia did not.

Australia has to shed its longstanding aversion to Melanesian migration. Economic (rather than racial) exclusion is now the barrier keeping Pacific Islanders out of Australia. Communities have come via “the New Zealand pathway”, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, and established themselves in Australia. They have created a vital remittance economy that has been even more important during COVID with the collapse of island economies.

Very few Australian residents originate from the strategic islands that arc around Australia’s north. If people from these nations do come to Australia, it is through temporary means such as educational programs or the Pacific Labour Scheme, which allows for employment in meat works, agriculture, trades and cooking, hospitality and care.

Recently, this scheme has suffered terrible publicity with many workers claiming they were subjected to “slave-like conditions”, bringing to mind the Queensland plantation labour history.

Now the geopolitical situation has become precarious, Australian politicians are again thinking about the islands and how major adjustments are needed to the ways things are done. A parliamentary committee reported in March 2022, suggesting ideas about compacts of free association, similar to those the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia have with the United States. It also suggested more Pacific-friendly migration policies like that of New Zealand. The impacts of climate change are going to make all the pressures of life on Pacific islands more acute in the coming years.

Australia must take bold steps to reinforce its Pacific relationships and secure its strategic interests. Taking the humanitarian approach and integrating with the Pacific islands is not only right – it is also the best way to support Australia’s interests and shed its colonial legacies.

Patricia A. O’Brien received funding from the Australian Research Council as a Future Fellow, the Jay I. Kislak Fellowship at the John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. and New Zealand’s JD Stout Trust.

– ref. In the wake of the China-Solomon Islands pact, Australia needs to rethink its Pacific relationships – https://theconversation.com/in-the-wake-of-the-china-solomon-islands-pact-australia-needs-to-rethink-its-pacific-relationships-181702

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Clark, Deputy Engagement Editor, The Conversation

When tennis superstar Dylan Alcott’s post rebuking the Prime Minister for his clumsy “blessed” comment is outperforming election news stories on social media, you know the leaders’ debate didn’t go as hoped for the Coalition.

Scott Morrison effectively lost a day of campaigning on Thursday, which he largely spent apologising to disability groups and families who were offended when he said he was “blessed” to have children without disability during Wednesday night’s leaders’ debate. Alcott posted, “Woke up this morning very blessed to be disabled – I reckon my parents are pretty happy about it too.”

In this episode of Below the Line, host Jon Faine explores the political fallout from the debate and some policy highlights. Our expert panel consider what impact catching COVID and spending a week in isolation will have on Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s campaign. Anika Gauja says the virtual campaign will take off and it’s a good opportunity to hear more from Labor’s shadow ministers.

But why have we not seen more ministers and their political counterparts debating policies in the media, asks Faine? Do voters benefit from the media’s focus on the leaders, personalities and polls? Andrea Carson says The Conversation’s #SetTheAgenda survey is a good example of putting voters ahead of the interests of media proprietors and getting away from “horse race” coverage.

Finally, listen to what we make of the Solomon Islands’ security pact with China. Simon Jackman says it’s a major setback for the Coalition’s election campaign and not in Australia’s foreign policy interests.

Below the Line is brought to you twice a week by The Conversation with La Trobe University.

Image: Toby Zerna/AAP

– ref. Below the Line: Albanese has COVID, but Morrison is ‘blessed’ with an even bigger problem – podcast – https://theconversation.com/below-the-line-albanese-has-covid-but-morrison-is-blessed-with-an-even-bigger-problem-podcast-181784

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgia Cervin, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia

Children forced to train on empty stomachs and falling on their heads. Young athletes told to manage the welfare of their own coaches. Girls starving themselves before enduring skinfold tests to avoid the horror of gaining weight, and sending them into lifelong patterns of disordered eating.

These are the stories that have emerged from a report released this week on the women’s gymnastics program at the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS).

Read more:
As a former elite gymnast, I know sport needs a cultural shift to ensure athlete safety

Calls from former gymnasts

When more than 50 former athletes from the WAIS women’s artistic gymnastics program called for an investigation into their experiences, Sport Integrity Australia was brought in to conduct it.

Sport Integrity Australia is a government agency established in 2020 with a mandate that includes investigating child abuse in sport.

The Sport Integrity Australia review follows the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report nearly a year ago on the “toxic” and dehumanising culture of Australian gymnastics.

A trauma-informed approach

Adopting a trauma-informed approach, Sport Integrity Australia invited gymnasts to agree to the terms of the review alongside WAIS leadership.

This collaboration was an important first step in remedying the power imbalance between the gymnasts and WAIS that has marked many of their experiences.

The review was designed to map the trauma experienced in the WAIS program, examine potential policy failures and recommend ways to make the sport safer.

However, it was not set up to investigate individual claims or make disciplinary recommendations.

Ninety-two participants contributed, including former WAIS athletes, coaches and administrators.

Like the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report a year ago, the stories of those affected are peppered throughout the report – and they make for distressing reading.

Belitted, smacked, humiliated and ostracised

The gymnasts’ experiences are confronting.

Comments like “You’re a pawn in a bigger game,” “We were treated as objects,” and “I thought there was something so wrong with me” reveal the lack of care shown towards young people in a win at all costs culture.

They were yelled at, told they were pathetic, smacked for having a biscuit. For many, this report validates their concerns that these experiences were not OK.

Sport Integrity Australia recommended increased measures for athlete well-being, more child-focused programs, and that WAIS adopt Sport Integrity Australia’s independent complaints processes for child abuse investigations.

Ongoing effects of harm

Gymnasts reported the ongoing effects of their harm including eating disorders, emotionally abusive relationships and opiate addiction.

While the report doesn’t offer any chronology of experiences, it reviewed allegations of harm from 1987-2016 – the entire duration of the WAIS program’s existence. The most recent complaints were only six years ago.

“Times have changed and WAIS has changed with the times,” WAIS chair Neil McLean said in his response to the report (following an apology “to those who experienced abuse and harm”).

In a statement released on Friday, he said Sport Integrity Australia “referred a number of allegations of sexual abuse and/or physical abuse to the relevant authorities who had the jurisdiction to investigate these allegation but none of these allegations progressed to investigation or charges and all have been closed.”

Gymnasts are now calling on the WA government and Gymnastics Australia to take the lead and investigate further.

Gymnast Alliance Australia said, “child abuse has never been acceptable and should never be considered the ‘cultural norm’ of the time”.

Gymnasts lose agency

It’s at this point the review could be seen to depart from the trauma-informed approach it adopted at the outset. The recommendations deny gymnasts the agency and choice they were offered at the beginning of the process.

Without any explanation, the Sport Integrity Australia recommendations omit some of the remedies gymnasts were seeking, including redress and accountability for coaches who harmed them.

The report’s only recommendations for remedy are that WAIS should apologise, and that there be a “restorative and reconciliatory process” facilitated by an independent mediator.

Research shows that closure from traumatic events is not a “one size fits all” process.

Restorative and reconciliatory processes need to be designed around the needs of those affected.

Sports officials may be willing to do this, but without clear guidance from Sport Integrity Australia on how, they risk falling short.

So why no recommendations on disciplinary action?

Further context around Sport Integrity Australia’s mandate may provide some explanation.

Sport Integrity Australia was formed in July 2020 and in the safeguarding context, its task was to convince 93 sporting organisations to sign up to its suite of policies known as the National Integrity Framework.

The National Integrity Framework provides for an independent complaints mechanism and a suite of policies to make sport safer.

Meanwhile, however, Sport Integrity Australia is also entrusted to investigate the same agencies it wants to sign up. Is this a case of conflicted loyalties?

Sport Integrity Australia may argue against this idea. Meanwhile, the question hangs over this and all similar reviews where Sport Integrity Australia is mandated to investigate a sporting organisation it needs to bring into its policy fold.

Read more:
Girls no more: why elite gymnastics competition for women should start at 18

Georgia Cervin worked part time for Gymnastics Western Australia for a brief time in 2017.

Alison Quigley is affiliated with Athlete Rights Australia, a body that advocates for human rights in sports.

– ref. Sport Integrity Australia’s report represents a reckoning for West Australian gymnastics – but has justice really been done? – https://theconversation.com/sport-integrity-australias-report-represents-a-reckoning-for-west-australian-gymnastics-but-has-justice-really-been-done-181246

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato

The so-called Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to measure the imminent risk of nuclear conflagration, has been at 100 seconds to midnight since 2020. It’s now looking increasingly out of time with current events.

News that Russia has tested a nuclear-capable missile this week, and warnings by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russia may resort to nuclear or chemical weapons, suggest the clock’s hands should be moving.

To bring events to this point, Russian president Vladimir Putin has exploited gaps in international law and policy that have failed to better regulate the arsenals of the world’s nuclear powers.

Perhaps following former US president Donald Trump’s lead, Putin has broken with diplomatic norms around the reckless use of nuclear rhetoric, threatening the West it would “face consequences that you have never faced in your history”.

And following the failure of the international community to create a convention that nuclear weapons should be kept at a non-alert status (meaning they can’t be fired quickly), Putin has put his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness”.

Sabre-rattling or not, these are worrying developments in a world that has struggled to pull back from the precipice of nuclear disaster since the Doomsday Clock began in 1947.

Putting back the clock

Even when the United States and Russia were closest to a nuclear conflict during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the clock only got to seven minutes to midnight.

While the clock moved backwards and forwards as threats came and went, the US and Russia extended the bilateral arms control treaty capping the number of deployed warheads, and in January this year the five main nuclear powers agreed that a nuclear war “cannot be won and must never be fought”.

Read more:
Russia is sparking new nuclear threats – understanding nonproliferation history helps place this in context

The very next month this small pause of reason was broken when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Although Ukraine is hardly comparable to Cuba in the 1960s – there were no missiles on Russia’s doorstep and no blockade – Putin feared the country could potentially become a nuclear base for NATO. His aim has been to force all the former Eastern bloc countries now aligned with the West to agree to their 1997 pre-NATO positions.

To achieve this, Putin violated the United Nations Charter, sidelined the rule of global order set by the International Court of Justice, and possibly allowed his military to commit war crimes.

Tactical nuke fears

Since Trump quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, Putin has been free to rebuild and redeploy his nuclear land forces.

Perhaps most ominously, Russia (to be fair, not alone) has been interested in developing low-yield tactical nuclear weapons (typically smaller than the 15 kiloton bomb that destroyed Hiroshima) to give battlefield “flexibility”.

These weapons would breach international humanitarian laws and their use could quickly spiral out of control, but there is no international law prohibiting them.

Read more:
Beyond tougher trade sanctions: 3 more ways NZ can add to global pressure on Russia

Finally, Putin has exploited the world’s failure to form a nuclear “no first use” agreement. Current Russian nuclear doctrine doesn’t require an enemy state to use nuclear weapons against it as justification for its own strike.

A nuclear build-up by a potential adversary in neighbouring territories would be justification enough, along with a number of other potential non-nuclear triggers.

While the use of nuclear weapons to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian state might sound reasonable, the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 shows how available such justifications might be.

‘Unpredictable consequences’

The worst has so far been avoided because the US and its NATO allies are not belligerents in the Ukraine war, having carefully avoided direct involvement, declining appeals for a NATO-enforced no-fly zone.

But the West is hardly neutral. Providing weapons to assist one country’s fight with another is an unfriendly act by any definition. While the amount and variety of that military aid has been carefully calibrated, it is growing and it has clearly made a significant difference on the battlefield.

Read more:
Ukraine crisis: how do small states like New Zealand respond in an increasingly lawless world?

In return, Russia continues to ramp up the rhetoric, warning the West of “unpredictable consequences” should military assistance continue.

And while the director of the CIA has moved to quieten concerns, saying there is no “practical evidence” Russia might resort to using nuclear weapons, what happens from here is hard to predict.

As has been the case since the Doomsday Clock was first set 75 years ago, our possible futures lie in the minds and hands of a very small group of decision makers in Moscow and Washington.

Alexander Gillespie 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. Why the war in Ukraine is pushing the Doomsday Clock’s hands closer to midnight – https://theconversation.com/why-the-war-in-ukraine-is-pushing-the-doomsday-clocks-hands-closer-to-midnight-181783

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Davis, Senior Lecturer in Wildlife Ecology, Edith Cowan University

As I write this article, a furry blur of a rodent has just scampered across the room and under the couch. It’s autumn in Australia and, as air temperatures plunge outside, rodents start seeking the warmth and plentiful food inside our houses.

This is a familiar experience for many of us, whether it’s a mouse in your house, or rats invading your chicken cage or eating the fruit from your trees.

In fact, a study last year found rodents have cost the global economy up to US$35.53 billion between 1930 and 2018, largely due to the damage they inflict on farms.

Farmers along Australia’s east coast know this all too well. The rodent problem can amplify to plague proportions following wet years and warmer than average minimum temperatures.

Having personally experienced a mouse plague while staying on the Nullarbor, I can attest that these are horrible experiences. The economic losses are huge and the unrelenting waves of mice day and night are horrifying for those who have to live with them, sometimes for months.

Last year’s plague resulted in a proposal to drop the poison bromadiolone over large parts of eastern Australia. Had it been successful, it would have significantly harmed non-target species of native wildlife such as owls, goannas and quolls, which our research has shown are highly vulnerable to a range of rodenticides as they travel up the food chain.

Indeed, I’m often asked by people grappling with invasive rodents how best to manage them without harming native wildlife. So, here’s some advice.

Mechanical traps

Use them indoors only

Sometimes old-fashioned is best. The snap traps you might remember from your childhood are still a highly effective way of removing pesky rodents from your home. Just keep them away from the exploring toes of children and pets!

Some newer plastic traps with pivoting jaws that close on the mouse are, in my experience, less effective and can risk injuring but not killing the mouse. I’ve had several experiences of traps being dragged away by a mouse caught only by a leg.

A new entry to the Australian market is a type of mechanical trap, the A24. It’s self-resetting with a scent-based lure and can kill 24 mice or rats on one canister. These, however, are not suitable for use outside in areas with native wildlife.

I recently had an horrific experience of a native quenda (bandicoot) killed by one of these traps set on my bush property. I was devastated and, after deploying a monitoring camera on the deactivated trap, I found possums are at grave risk from this type of trap, too.

These traps don’t seem to discriminate invasive rodents from native wildlife and are known to kill native birds, rabbits and hedgehogs in New Zealand.

Governments need to reconsider the ethics and conservation implications of such traps in Australia. It is my view that no mechanical traps should be set outside the home or shed where there’s risk to native wildlife.

The Conversation asked Goodnature, which manufactures A24 traps, whether it is taking steps to address this issue.

Goodnature co-founder and industrial designer Craig Bond said the traps’ threat to native animals is “ideally mitigated by the overall benefit to nature”. He said the company is working on preventative measures such as warning users, through various means, about reducing risks to native wildlife. Bond went on:

We can and do put processes in place to mitigate and hopefully empower our trappers. And we have employed staff with the requisite expertise to do that.

However […] we can be more proactive in our warnings regarding the risk to non-target species.

The issue in the past has not been widespread but [we] understand that Australia is a particularly vulnerable environment.

Bond said Goodnature was keen to learn more about reducing the risks its traps might pose to native Australian wildlife.

Electric traps

Effective and humane

These are battery-powered rat and mouse traps that work by delivering a fatal shock to rodents once they make contact with the two plates in the trap.

These are highly effective and very humane because upon touching two plates, a fatal electric shock is administered, instantly stopping the heart.

Though not cheap, I swear by these traps as they catch and kill quickly using a bait of your choice, such as peanut butter. There is minimal risk of impacts to non-target animals in the home.

But again – they definitely should not be used where native wildlife could enter the trap. The traps are usually labelled as being not for outdoor use and this advice should be followed.

Read more:
‘No one ever forgets living through a mouse plague’: the dystopia facing Australian rural communities, explained by an expert

Live traps

Compassionate or inhumane?

Live catch traps are popular with those not willing to kill animals. These include bucket traps for dealing with large plagues. The main issue is finding ways to dispatch them.

Killing the invasive rodents often requires drowning them and, if the animals are not killed, you are releasing vermin for somebody else to deal with. Unless you address the problem of how they’re entering your home, they may just be back for a visit again that night.

Some live traps are inhumane, such as glue traps, which comprise sticky boards to capture rodents that walk over them. These traps are not recommended under any circumstances.

Glue traps are not only cruel as it can take days for the animal to die, but they do not discriminate. Unless contained and used carefully, they have a high risk of catching reptiles, birds or other non-target species.

Poisoned baits

Best for industrial and broadscale use

Despite the risk to non-target animals, baits will always be needed for large scale rodent problems, such as mouse plagues. However, they are not humane as animals die slowly by blood loss over an average of 7.2 days and have the most potential for poisoning other species.

In Australia, it’s almost always unnecessary to use so-called “second-generation baits” such as brodifacoum. These baits are made in response to rodents developing resistance to some chemical formulations, and require only one feed to be fatal.

The active ingredients in second generation baits have a very long persistence time in the liver of animals that eat them, resulting in widespread secondary poisoning along the food chain.

Read more:
Mouse plague: bromadiolone will obliterate mice, but it’ll poison eagles, snakes and owls, too

Research from 2020 showed invasive rodents in Australia are unlikely to have the gene for rodenticide resistance shared by their kin from Europe and North America. Consequently, some first generation products containing coumatetralyl and some natural alternatives such as zinc phosphide can be safely used in Australia to control rodents.

These products have a much shorter half life in the livers or rats and mice. What’s more, a 2018 study didn’t detect them in significant quantities in dead southern boobook owls, which eat mice.

It’s also important to remember that baits must be deployed according to manufacturer’s instructions. Too often I hear stories of people throwing wax baits or grain baits into their gardens.

This is horrifying given the direct access this provides to possums, bandicoots, birds, small children and pets. Most baits should be deployed in bait holders that prevent exposure to non-target species.

Pest management is holistic

We should recognise that pest management is a holistic activity. Relying on any one technique is unlikely to be sufficient.

Rodent-proofing your house, shed or grain silos as much as possible is essential in the war against pests. This might include sealing water and power inlets, holes in skirting boards and gaps or holes in grain storage facilities.

On a commercial scale, investing in modern vermin-proof facilities such as sealed grain silos and blocking all possible gaps, may well balance out the long-term expense of baiting. They certainly come with a much reduced risk to native wildlife.

Robert Davis is a member of Birdlife Australia, the Ecological Society of Australia and the Society for Conservation Biology. He has no conflicts of interest to declare.

– ref. How to control invasive rats and mice at home without harming native wildlife – https://theconversation.com/how-to-control-invasive-rats-and-mice-at-home-without-harming-native-wildlife-180792

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caroline Robinson, Associate Professor Podiatry, Charles Sturt University

Toe jam can be a source of fascination, disgust or barely noticed. It can be a sign you need to wash your feet or rethink your choice of footwear. It can also lead to major health issues.

Toe jam, the gunk and debris between your toes, has even made it to a Beatles song.

But it was unlikely John Lennon was thinking about foot hygiene when he wrote the lyrics to the second verse of Come Together:

He wear no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football

He got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola

He say, ‘I know you, you know me’

One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.

What is toe jam, actually?

Toe jam isn’t a medical term. There is no formal medical term to describe the dead skin cells, sweat, sock lint and dirt that combine in the small and often cramped spaces between our toes.

Toe jam can have the consistency of soft cheese or cake crumbs. It can smell or be odourless. And its colour can range from white to grey-brown.

You’re more likely to create toe jam if you wear closed-in shoes when it’s hot, or gumboots that don’t allow sweat to evaporate.

Poor foot hygiene will certainly make it more likely you’ll develop toe jam. That’s because sweaty debris accumulates in between the toes if you don’t pay attention to cleaning these areas in the shower or bath.

Toe jam may also be more likely if your feet sweat a lot for other reasons. For instance, we know sweaty feet can be a problem for children and adolescents, who have more active sweat glands. And some people have a serious medical condition called hyperhidrosis, where they sweat excessively.

Read more:
Anhidrosis: why some people – apparently like Prince Andrew – just can’t sweat

Is toe jam like athlete’s foot?

The collection of sweat and dead skin between toes provides bacteria living naturally on our skin the chance to thrive.

These bacteria, which include ones in the genus Brevibacterium, feed on sweat, releasing molecules that give the characteristic “cheesy” smell of sweaty feet. Brevibacterium is also used to ripen some cheeses.

This warm and damp environment is also a perfect site for tinea pedis, a fungal skin infection you might know as athlete’s foot.

Signs of tinea might be soggy white skin between your toes, which can be itchy, and red areas, a sign of skin damage. Damaged skin between toes might develop small fluid-filled blisters and may also bleed if the weak skin is torn.

So while toe jam isn’t the same as tinea, it might provide the perfect conditions for the fungus to grow.

Read more:
Why do feet stink by the end of the day?

How serious is toe jam?

Generally, toe jam is a minor health problem. You can manage it with good foot hygiene. And if you develop tinea, you can use a short course of an anti-fungal treatment you can buy from a pharmacy (see below).

It is quite a different prospect, however, for a person living with a chronic disease such as diabetes, someone who has poor vision (so can’t see toe jam or its complications developing), or who may be unable to reach their feet due to limited mobility.

Diabetes not well controlled with diet and exercise, or drugs, increases the risk of a person having reduced blood flow (peripheral arterial disease) and reduced feeling in their feet (sensory neuropathy).

Broken skin between the toes caused by tinea can become infected rapidly, increasing the risk of:

• infection spreading to the foot and leg (cellulitis)

• infection of the bone (osteomyelitis)

• gangrene (dead tissue caused by lack of blood flow)

• amputation of a toe, part of the foot or leg.

So early identification of tinea in a vulnerable person is especially important to prevent complications.

Read more:
Life on Us: a close-up look at the bugs that call us home

4 ways to avoid problems

Here are our four tips to avoid problems with toe jam, including developing tinea and its complications:

1. wash the spaces between your toes and dry them carefully after a shower or bath, and after swimming. Gyms and swimming pools are a common place to pick up a fungal infection on your feet so it’s a good idea to wear thongs to reduce the risk of tinea

2. if possible, avoid wearing footwear that doesn’t allow sweat to evaporate (such as closed-in shoes made of synthetic material and gumboots). Going barefoot, when there is no risk of injury, will also allow sweat to evaporate

3. treat sweaty feet by using an anti-perspirant containing aluminium chloride. More severe cases of hyperhidrosis may be managed using drugs, such as Botox injections to the feet. Fungal infections (tinea) should be treated using over-the-counter antifungal creams such a terbinafine or clotrimazole. Resistant infections might require a course of prescribed antifungal medicines

4. pay attention to signs indicating an infection is spreading from the foot. These could be pain and swelling in the toes, or red streaks along the foot and up the leg. This requires an urgent visit to a podiatrist or doctor.

Footnote

Lennon mentions a “walrus gumboot” in verse three of Come Together. The final line of verse two says “you got to be free”. The cover of The Beatles album Abbey Road shows Paul McCartney walking barefoot (second from the left).

Maybe the Beatles did know a thing or two about toe jam and foot health.

Read more:
Beatles: Abbey Road at 50 is a marker of how pop music grew up in the 1960s

Caroline Robinson is affiliated with the Australasian Council of Podiatry Deans and the Australian Podiatry Association.

Luke Donnan is affiliated with the Australasian Council of Podiatry Deans and the Australian Podiatry Association.

– ref. What is toe jam? From harmless gunk to a feast for bugs – https://theconversation.com/what-is-toe-jam-from-harmless-gunk-to-a-feast-for-bugs-177454

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

In May, I wrote that white voters without a university education were increasingly voting for right-wing parties in Australia, the US and the UK.

However, in Australia, this trend is most apparent in regional electorates such as Capricornia in Queensland.

Read more:
Non-university educated white people are deserting left-leaning parties. How can they get them back?

At the 2019 federal election, Labor had no trouble retaining traditional urban heartland seats, such as Scullin in Melbourne, Blaxland in Sydney and Spence in Adelaide – as ABC election analyst Antony Green’s pendulum shows.

It’s possible non-uni whites in big cities such as Melbourne and Sydney have not swung right like those in regional areas owing to more cultural assimilation in cities. Associating with other ethnic groups may mean non-uni whites in cities are less persuaded by anti-immigrant rhetoric than those in regional areas.

Currently, non-uni whites, especially in regional areas, are trending to right-wing parties, while university-educated people are trending to the left. A key question is whether these trends will continue. It’s possible high inflation could reverse this trend among non-uni whites in countries that currently have right-wing governments.

If the trends to the right with regional non-uni whites continue, but urban non-uni whites are not moved, and university-educated voters trend left, then the percentage of the population living in cities becomes important.

I have calculated an urbanisation percentage for four countries based on lists of cities by population. I have used 100,000 people as the minimum required for a city.

In the US, a total of over 97 million people lived in cities with over 100,000 population at the 2020 Census, but the total US population was over 331 million. That’s an urban percentage of just 29% for the US.

In the UK in 2021, 29.8 million people lived in cities with over 100,000 population, while the UK’s total population was 68.4 million people. That’s an urban percentage of 44%.

In Canada, 20.9 million people lived in cities with over 100,000 population at the 2016 Census, with a total Canadian population of 35.2 million people. That’s an urban percentage of 60%.

In Australia, 16.0 million people lived in cities with over 100,000 population at the 2016 Census. I have omitted Central Coast and Sunshine Coast from the population centres as they are not single cities. Australia’s population at the 2016 Census was 23.4 million, so 68% of Australians lived in urban areas.

You can see the large numbers of urban electorates in Australia compared to regional seats on the electoral maps article.

Read more:
Where are the most marginal seats, and who might win them?

Australian implications from the 2021 Canadian election

At the September 2021 Canadian federal election that used first past the post, the centre-left Liberals won 160 of the 338 seats, the Conservatives 119, the left-wing separatist Quebec Bloc 32, the left-wing New Democrats (NDP) 25 and the Greens two.

The Liberals won 41 more seats than the Conservatives despite losing the national popular vote by 1.1% (Conservatives 33.7%, Liberals 32.6%, NDP 17.8%, Bloc 7.6%). The Bloc ran only in Quebec.

The Liberals easily won the most seats by completely dominating major Canadian cities such as Toronto and Montreal, and also by winning seats in Edmonton and Calgary in the Conservative province of Alberta. You can see this in the CBC results map at the above link.

As Australia is more urbanised than Canada, Labor would win elections easily if they dominated our five mainland capital cities to the extent the Liberals do in Toronto and Montreal in Canada.

To become dominant in cities in the way Canada’s Liberals are, Labor would need to gain the high income seats in Melbourne’s inner east and Sydney’s north shore, which have long been seen as Liberal heartland. If polarisation along education lines becomes greater, this will eventually occur – but not necessarily at the upcoming election.

However, some of those seats are facing a genuine challenge from “teal” independents. Is it in Labor’s best interests for independents to win these seats? Once independents are established as sitting members, they are difficult to dislodge.

If Labor can defeat the Liberals in these seats in the future, it would be frustrating for Labor to have independents occupying them; Labor would prefer its own candidates be elected.

There is evidence Labor has indeed gained with high income voters. In the March quarter Newspoll breakdowns, Labor held a 55-45 lead among those on $150,000 or more income per year, up from a 53-47 deficit in the December quarter.

But maybe inflation will reverse the Coalition’s gains among non-uni whites, and the current level of education polarisation could stabilise or reduce.

While this exercise could lead to left dominance in Australia, the same logic implies that the right will dominate future elections in the US, where just 29% live in cities of over 100,000 population.

But in the US, many high income people live in “suburbs” outside cities, and swings to Democrats in the suburbs were responsible for Joe Biden’s narrow victory in 2020, and the Democrats’ decisive midterm victory in 2018.

UK Labour already has difficulties owing to the first-past-the-post system, which will probably be increased by the UK’s population demographics.

Adrian Beaumont 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. Will a continuing education divide eventually favour Labor electorally due to our big cities? – https://theconversation.com/will-a-continuing-education-divide-eventually-favour-labor-electorally-due-to-our-big-cities-180970

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lewis Mitchell, Professor of Data Science, University of Adelaide

Most people who use Twitter have had the experience: you fire off a quick tweet, realise it contains a typo, then get annoyed you can’t click “edit” to fix it. Twitter users have been clamouring for an edit button for years.

Elon Musk, who has recently been buying up shares in the microblogging platform and has made a US$48 billion offer for the whole company, asked his 82 million followers if they wanted an edit button. His (deeply unscientific) poll attracted 4.4 million responses, with 73% in favour.

Other social media platforms let you edit posts after you’ve sent them. It seems like it would be a simple feature to add – so why doesn’t Twitter do it?

Well, the time may at last have arrived. Independent of Musk’s poll, Twitter has confirmed that an edit button may be in the works. Enterprising users have even dug out some hints of what it might look like.

So what’s the fuss about?

Why has Twitter been so opposed to an edit button? The answer might be that it isn’t as simple as it appears.

The first thing to know about tweets is that, unlike posts on many other platforms, there is fundamentally no way for Twitter to pull them back after they are sent. The reason is that Twitter has what’s called an Application Programming Interface (or API) which allows third parties such as other apps or researchers to download tweets in real time.

That’s what powers Twitter clients such as TweetDeck, TweetBot, Twitteriffic and Echofon, which together account for some 6 million users.

Once third parties have downloaded tweets, there’s no way for Twitter to get them back or edit them. It’s a bit like an email – once I’ve sent it and you’ve downloaded it, there’s no way for me to delete it from your machine.

If a user were to edit a tweet, the most Twitter could do is send out a message saying “please edit this tweet” – but the third party could choose whether or not to actually do it. (This is currently what happens when tweets are “deleted”.)

Cats and dogs

More importantly, an edit button might have unintended consequences, and could be weaponised.

Consider this. I, a cat lover, decide to tweet “I love cats!”

Then you, being also a cat lover (because why wouldn’t you be), decide to quote my tweet, agreeing “I do too!” (Remember when Twitter used to be this innocent?)

Now, what happens if I edit my original tweet to declare “I love dogs”? You are now misrepresented as a dog-lover, and when your cat-loving friends see this (which they will when I reply to your tweet, mentioning them all), they disown you.

Yes, this is contrived, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see how the edit button might be used in this fashion, particularly by things such as bot armies. Will Twitter users be happy to trade this possibility for the convenience of fixing typos in their tweets?

‘Warts and all’: a bug or a feature?

Twitter has built its reputation on being the most “real-time” of the social media platforms – the place where earthquakes are reported quicker than by scientific instruments. However, for many people the “warts and all” nature of Twitter postings is starting to look like a bug, rather than a feature.

Will an edit button change Twitter’s unique brand? There may be ways to ameliorate this, such as only allowing edits within a short time of posting, but it is surely a consideration for the company.

More generally, the design of media platforms shapes the type of discussion that occurs on them.

Read more:
Elon Musk’s bid spotlights Twitter’s unique role in public discourse – and what changes might be in store

The presence of the “like” and “retweet” buttons on Twitter encourage users to create content that will entice others to click these buttons, and make their content spread further. This, in turn, shapes the nature of conversation that occurs on the platform.

Similarly, websites use algorithms and design to “nudge” users in particular directions – such as to buy a product.

There is a rich body of research into the ways discourse is shaped by the design of social media platforms, which establishes that every “affordance” a user is given affects the conversation that ends up taking place.

This means that beyond the fundamental technological challenges, Twitter must think about the possible unintended consequences of seemingly simple changes – even to the level of a humble edit button. The medium shapes the message, and Twitter must think carefully about what sorts of messages they want their platform to shape.

Lewis Mitchell receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP210103700), NHMRC, and the Defence Science and Technology Group’s ORNet program.

– ref. Why an edit button for Twitter is not as simple as it seems – https://theconversation.com/why-an-edit-button-for-twitter-is-not-as-simple-as-it-seems-181623

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

The first two weeks of the 2022 election campaign have increased the possibility that neither of the two major parties will gain a majority in the House of Representatives.

While the prospect may make some people queasy, the country’s political history tells us hung parliaments can work effectively and support productive, and even strong, governments.

Indeed, it is possible an indecisive election in 2022 might produce a better government than one that results in a narrow majority in the House of Representatives for one side or the other.

On the Coalition side, especially, there are differences of outlook between the partners as well as within each party that might produce the same kinds of unpredictability the naysayers often attribute to minority government.

There have been several stable minority state and territory governments over the past 30 years. But at the federal level, since the two-party system emerged in 1910, there are really two precedents for a hung parliament and minority governments.

The first was between 1940 and 1943, during the second world war. Robert Menzies and Arthur Fadden each led non-Labor minority governments, and these were succeeded by John Curtin’s Labor government.

The second precedent was between 2010 and 2013, when Julia Gillard, followed briefly by Kevin Rudd, led a minority government supported by the Greens and some of the crossbench.

Minority government in war-time

The 1940 election left the Australian Labor Party with voting support equal to that of the United Australia Party (UAP, a predecessor to the Liberal Party) and the Country Party (predecessor to today’s Nationals) together. Two independents, representing traditionally conservative seats, held the balance. One of those independents, businessman Arthur Coles, soon joined the UAP, but withdrew after it changed leaders.

Coles was elected in 1940 to the seat of Henty, which included the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, some of which now form part of the seat of Goldstein contested this year by another independent, Zoe Daniel.

The other independent seat in 1940 was held by wheat farmer Alexander Wilson, who had wrested the seat of Wimmera in Victoria’s north-west from the Country Party in 1937. In contrast with Coles, he leaned left – toward Labor – rather than right.

In a divided House of Representatives in 1940 and 1941, Menzies more than once invited Curtin to form an all-party or “national” government. Curtin, fearing a split in the Labor Party, declined the invitation and Menzies led a United Australia-Country Party coalition government supported by the independents.

But, while rejecting a national government, Curtin suggested something else that would help minority governments manage the House of Representatives during wartime: he accepted Labor’s membership of an Advisory War Council (AWC). It drew all the major parties in the parliament into the process of making decisions on Australia’s war effort. The two independents eventually switched sides, but not before giving the Coalition government ample opportunity to succeed. The instability of that government had nothing to do with the independents. Its problems were self-inflicted, coming from within.

When Curtin succeeded Menzies and Fadden as leader of a minority government, he kept the AWC. Between 1941 and 1943, one observer noted,

not a piece of legislation could be framed by the [Labor] Cabinet with the certainty that it would be passed in the form in which the Government framed it.

But with the support of the independents and deft use of the AWC, Curtin was able not only to lead a stable government but to implement ground-breaking legislation. These included the Uniform Tax legislation that led to the Federal Parliament monopolising income taxation ever since.

The Gillard-Greens alliance

If this seems like ancient history, we have a more recent exemplar that minority government can be made to work. Between 2010 and 2013, Julia Gillard was able to secure workable and reliable parliamentary majorities in both houses of parliament, despite Labor’s lack of control of either house.

In some areas, she was able to succeed where Kevin Rudd, who had a comfortable majority in the house but no majority in the Senate, had failed. Some 561 pieces of legislation were passed, many more than during the Rudd government and, remarkably, more than when John Howard had control of both houses (2005-2007).

Like the difficulties of the Menzies government in 1940-41, the Gillard government’s major problems did not arise so much from lack of parliamentary numbers as from internal divisions arising from the rivalry between Gillard and Rudd.

Read more:
Farewell to 2021 in federal politics, the year of living in disappointment

Could 2022 be next?

A minority government established in 2022 could consider similar mechanisms to the Advisory War Council: a variation on the existing National Cabinet, consisting not only of the leaders of Commonwealth and state governments, but of representatives of the opposition, minor parties and independents as well. Its remit could be extended beyond COVID-19 to encompass necessary reforms given a mandate by the people, such as a national integrity commission, and climate change and energy policy.

Curtin was helped, too, by the United Australia Party Speaker of the House of Representatives, Walter Nairn, remaining in his post for most of the parliamentary term, giving him a more stable majority in the house. Had Tony Smith remained in parliament, a minority Albanese government might well have welcomed him continuing to perform this role. There would be nothing to stop one of the crossbench, moreover, accepting the role to become an “independent speaker”.

What does history tell us might happen if a divided House of Representatives is the outcome in May?

Most of the crossbench will have won their seats campaigning for a robust national integrity commission, stronger action on climate change and water policy, and more serious action on gender equity. Labor’s policies on these matters place it in a stronger position to negotiate with the independents. But some of the independents, most of whom represent “natural” Coalition seats, might fear the electoral consequences of supporting a Labor minority government.

The experience of independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott is instructive here. They showed they could win historically National Party seats. But their experience would be a warning to an independent in a “natural” Coalition seat about the dangers of supporting Labor. While neither recontested his seat in 2013, there was sufficient evidence of a local backlash to indicate that holding on, in the context of a national swing to the Coalition, would not have been easy. As we pointed out in an earlier article, another scenario after May 21 might be the independents supporting a minority Coalition government supported by someone other than the present prime minister.

Read more:
What if the 2022 federal election gives us a hung parliament, but those with the balance of power want Morrison gone?

Whatever the case, it is entirely possible a hung parliament might provide the circuit-breaker for a parliament that needs to grapple with much needed national reforms.

Australians have many things to fear about the future, but a minority government is among the least of their problems. If it should happen, it would rather reflect the loosening hold of the major parties on the votes of Australians, and so would be an authentic expression of an important turn in the history of our democracy.

Frank Bongiorno is a member of Kim For Canberra (Senate election) and has donated to Climate 200.

David Lee is a member of the Australian Labor Party and has donated to Climate 200.

– ref. Could the 2022 election result in a hung parliament? History shows Australians have nothing to fear from it – https://theconversation.com/could-the-2022-election-result-in-a-hung-parliament-history-shows-australians-have-nothing-to-fear-from-it-181484

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby Callaway, Associate Professor, Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre and Occupational Therapy Department, School of Primary and Allied Healthcare, Monash University

Ahead of the upcoming election, Labor has promised a rigorous review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), focused on spending and administration, should it win office.

But workforce shortages present a danger to participants now. To ensure the stated ambitions of a market-based system in which NDIS participants can choose their own supports, Labor’s proposed review must focus on these pressing workforce issues.

Some NDIS participants aren’t having their most basic care needs met, such as assistance to get out of bed each day, because of a shortage of disability workers. Others cannot access assistive technology or other allied health assessments to achieve their goals for social or work participation.

Workforce solutions must focus on attracting a greater number of both international and local workers to the disability sector, while addressing the wage growth and career pathways currently lacking.

Early warnings ignored

Disability has historically been an employment sector that has been challenged by poor perceptions.

Low pay rates, a lack of career structure, supervision and mentoring, and a casualised workforce have limited both supply and growth.

Read more:
Labor vows to tackle the NDIS crisis – what’s needed is more autonomy for people with disability

Five years ago, the Productivity Commission warned that the disability workforce was growing too slowly to meet future demands of NDIS participants and their families. Since then, some NDIS participants have struggled to secure support workers, and have had difficulty accessing allied health workers such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech pathologists.

Then came COVID

No-one could have foreseen the impact a pandemic would have on labour supply across all industries in Australia. With COVID cases surging, many workers have had to isolate.

This has been compounded by the international workforce supply to Australia having been completely shut off by border restrictions.

These multiple issues are now added to what was already causing both direct support and allied health workforce shortages, with the aged care and health sectors also competing for staff.

Policy responses so far inadequate

The Coalition government’s five-year NDIS national workforce plan, released last year, focuses on building capability of existing employment markets.

But it doesn’t address the need to increase the supply of disability and allied health staffing numbers, or include new or innovative ways to grow a quality workforce.

This means people with disability and service providers will continue to compete with other sectors trying to attract the same employees.

Read more:
What we know about the NDIS cuts, and what they’ll mean for people with disability and their families

Without coordinated, supply-side government investment, the workforce growth issues will continue.

Add to this the fact there is currently no actual data on the number of workers in the NDIS.

Due to this data gap, to forecast workforce supply, the government uses modelling estimates from analysis of participant spending, using assumptions on the share of NDIS payments paid as labour costs.

But relying on actual spend is not accurate, as it does not base forecasting on the real demand, or factor in under-spending caused by lack of workforce supply.

Here are three things we can do now to attract a disability workforce and ensure appropriate support for people living with disability.

1. Increase strategic and skilled migration

We need a more targeted skilled migration program that includes a broader range of skilled visa categories, especially for the disability workforce skill shortages and rural and regional market supply gaps.

Both English-speaking and culturally and linguistically diverse groups will be important to attract into a growing and diverse disability workforce, for both direct support workers and allied health workers.

Government should increase migrant intakes for these skill categories.

2. Invest in new approaches to NDIS workforce development

The National Disability Insurance Agency (which runs the NDIS) has been investing in some small-scale pilot projects in areas with staff shortages. However, to date these projects have not been designed for replication, or scaled up to other areas.

More broadly, the Australian government has invested more than A$64 million in an NDIS Jobs and Market Fund – and previous to that an Innovative Workforce Fund – to support the growth of disability workers.

One example of this was the scaling up of mixed telehealth and face-to-face allied health student placements with NDIS participants. It aimed to attract students to work in the disability sector while studying, as well as preparing them for practice in the field.

The project also embedded disability lived experience within the education students received, employing NDIS participants to deliver education content. However, this program can’t be scaled up without supply-side investment.

Read more:
Understanding the NDIS: many eligible people with disabilities are likely to miss out

A low-cost initiative for government would be to invest in NDIS-focused educator roles within universities. By investing in supervision programs, both face-to-face and telehealth services in allied health could be quickly expanded nationally.

This could not only ensure more disability workers, but provide employment for supervisors with disabilities. It would give students experience in the disability sector, give them paid work while they study, and they would graduate ready for NDIS practice.

3. Improve conditions for workers

Moving into the disability workforce needs to be a career pathway, with secure employment benefits and conditions that are competitive against other labour markets. This requires pay that recognises the value of education, training and experience, as well as access to a supportive workplace.

Equipping people with disability to manage and train their own workforce, while offering a safe employment environment, is also important to improve both NDIS participant experiences and worker retention.

Little progress has been made in addressing the disability workforce demand that exists, and competition from the health sector and an ageing population will only grow.

As Australians head to the polls, the incoming government is going to need strategies to ensure the growing disability workforce demand is met.

Libby Callaway receives funding from the Australian Government’s Department of Social Services. She is affiliated with the Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association (ARATA), the national peak body for assistive technology stakeholders, and is the current President.

– ref. Workforce shortages are putting NDIS participants at risk. Here are 3 ways to attract more disability sector workers – https://theconversation.com/workforce-shortages-are-putting-ndis-participants-at-risk-here-are-3-ways-to-attract-more-disability-sector-workers-181473

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Higham, Professor of Tourism, University of Otago

With the arrival in Sydney of the cruise liner Pacific Explorer on Monday – a giant “WE’RE HOME” sign emblazoned on her bow – the pressure is on New Zealand to match Australia and reopen our maritime border to cruise ships.

Chief executive of the New Zealand Cruise Association, Kevin O’Sullivan, called on the government to “stop mucking around”, before leaving to attend an international cruise conference in Miami next week when he would prefer to know when borders will open again.

The government, meanwhile, is awaiting advice from health officials. So the questions now are: should New Zealand rush to welcome back cruise ships, or
should the international cruise industry be given a set of conditions on which any readmission would be contingent?

The world has changed in the past two years. The tourism minister has repeatedly stated there will be no return to the old ways and that the country must make “structural change for regenerative tourism”.

The aim is to align post-pandemic tourism with the government’s Living Standards Framework. The new tourism should enrich Aotearoa New Zealand’s four kinds of capital: natural, financial, social and human/cultural.

To date, little evidence of such structural change exists. Instead, there have been isolated responses to specific tourism management issues – the Milford Opportunities Project and tighter regulation of freedom camping are two examples.

But given its environmental and economic record, the cruise industry should also be subject to close scrutiny before the maritime border reopens.

High impact, low value

The cruise industry trades on an image of luxury and opulence, which implies high economic value. The reality is different.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research reports that “despite its high visibility, cruise tourism accounts for about 9% of international visitor arrivals (approximately 350,000 cruise passengers and crew) but only 3% of international tourist expenditure in New Zealand”.

Read more:
As borders reopen, can New Zealand reset from high volume to ‘high values’ tourism?

This is because cruise lines are overseas owned, passengers spend less than a day at each port of call and eat meals provided onboard rather than onshore. By comparison, international students account for 23% of international “tourist” spending.

As others have argued, the new direction for tourism in Aoteaora should be underpinned by the Māori values of kaitiakitanga, kotahitanga and manaakitanga – a reciprocal model that values the host as much as the visitor.

That’s a far cry from the kind of exclusion of local tourism businesses highlighted by the use of Filipino staff to perform a “pantomime powhiri” when the Golden Princess docked at Tauranga Moana in late 2019.

Remembering the Ruby Princess

The global pandemic has only magnified the credibility issues facing the cruise industry.

On March 11 2020, the day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic and 37 days after the Diamond Princess was quarantined in Japan, the industry’s local representative argued against the government’s advisory warning of the risks associated with cruise ships.

Read more:
NZ tourism can use the disruption of COVID-19 to drive sustainable change — and be more competitive

The next day, the liner Ruby Princess visited Dunedin and a week later returned to Sydney, where almost 3,000 passengers disembarked. More than 700 COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths have been linked to the ship, and the case remains a salutary reminder of the risks of under-regulation.

While Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have set testing and vaccination requirements and reopened to cruise ships, Tasmania is yet to make a decision due to community concerns.

The impacts and loss of social licence caused by high cruise passenger arrivals in local communities, as well as claims of exploitation and abuse of international labour , remain unresolved issues.

High environmental costs

One recent headline linked the return of cruise ships to Australia with a “sinking feeling” due to the ships’ high carbon emissions. Research has shown cruise liners emit the highest per-capita levels of carbon within New Zealand’s tourism sector, mainly due to their function as a self-contained floating resort, transporting everything passengers need.

Yet the cruise industry remains largely silent on its decarbonisation ambitions, the uptake of transitional and alternative fuels such as hydrogen and entirely emissions-free cruise design.

Read more:
Can the cruise industry really recover from coronavirus?

According to one Australian MP, “Sydney has been a dumping ground for the cruising industry’s oldest and dirtiest cruise ships – vessels that wouldn’t even be allowed to enter most ports in the northern hemisphere.”

The cruise industry also remains silent on air quality, water quality and degradation of the marine environment, as New Zealand’s parliamentary commissioner for the environment explicitly pointed out about ship impacts on Akaroa and its environs.

Boutique cruises, not mega-liners

A comprehensive and critical analysis of the cruise industry is required to advance the debate beyond simplistic reference to ship and passenger numbers and total expenditures.

Such an analysis should include an explicit account of cruise tourism’s contribution to GDP, social impacts and unaccounted environmental costs, and the distributional issues caused by cruise visits benefiting a small number of businesses while those costs are borne more widely.

Read more:
Cruise lines promise big payouts, but the tourist money stays at sea

It would also highlight the urgent need for a new cruise model that is lower in volume and carbon emissions, and much higher in local onshore expenditures, social and cultural engagement and environmental sustainability.

It would almost certainly show that the maritime border should initially be reopened to small boutique cruise ships rather than mass tourism in the form of mega-liners.

In the meantime, the cruise industry requires strong regulation. Now is the perfect time to hold it to account, rather than be in a hurry to offer good news for an industry conference in Miami.

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

– ref. Without stricter conditions, NZ should be in no hurry to reopen its border to cruise ships – https://theconversation.com/without-stricter-conditions-nz-should-be-in-no-hurry-to-reopen-its-border-to-cruise-ships-181607

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Peetz, Professor Emeritus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University

The Coalition and Labor have been arguing over the “better off overall test”, known as the BOOT. What is it, why are they arguing, and who is right?

The BOOT is a provision in industrial relations law that requires any new enterprise agreement to leave workers better off, compared with the basic award conditions.

It was introduced by the Rudd Labor government in 2009, after the Howard government had abolished its predecessor – the “no disadvantage test” – enacted by the Keating Labor government soon after the advent of enterprise bargaining in 1992.

The BOOT is supported by unions, who see it as protection against wage cuts. It is opposed by employers, who see it as reducing flexibility, increasing costs and leading to “absurd outcomes”.

What is the argument about?

In 2020 the Morrison government introduced into the Parliament an “omnibus” bill that, among other things, tried to override the BOOT for a specific group and for a specific time.

The amendment was targeted at workers employed by companies that could claim they were affected by COVID-19.

It would have allowed those companies to negotiate enterprise agreements without having to worry about the BOOT. These agreements had to be made within two years of the bill’s passage, but the agreements themselves could last much longer.

Read more:
Chance for genuine industrial relations reform thrown under the omnibus

It provoked so much opposition – including from Pauline Hanson – that then industrial relations minister Christian Porter withdrew the provisions in February 2021 before the the bill reached the Senate.

In the end most of the rest of the bill was withdrawn while being considered by the Senate. (It had also contained provisions affecting pay rates for part-time employees, lengthening greenfields agreements and penalising wage theft.) Only changes to the treatment of casuals were passed.

Return of the omnibus bill

A week ago (on April 16) Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated “absolutely” his intention to reintroduce the omnibus bill.

This immediately raised the prospect of the BOOT being undermined again, which the Labor Party seized on.

Shadow industrial relations minister Tony Burke said Morrison had “made clear” the omnibus bill was returning and this meant “every loading, every shift penalty, every overtime rate can be cut”.

In response, Morrison then said there would be “no major changes” to the BOOT.

After further quizzing over what “no major changes” would permit, he said during the Sky News debate with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese:

We said we’d only go forward with the measures that aren’t the emergency pandemic measures.

Those measures could lead to lower pay for part-time workers or poorer prospects for workers on greenfield sites, but would not directly affect the BOOT.

Can we find the truth of the matter?

In different circumstances Morrison’s latest comments might have been considered the end of the matter. A literal interpretation of his words is that the BOOT will not change, even if his previous comments implied otherwise.

But it’s not simple to be confident.

Parties make claims before an election they often feel they will not be held to afterwards, especially if they are re-elected after modifying previous election promises.

The most radical changes to industrial relations were introduced after the 2004 election, which returned the Howard government for its fourth and last term.

As part of its sweeping “WorkChoices” changes, the Howard government abolished the BOOT’s predecessor and protections against unfair dismissal for workers in medium and small enterprises, along with many other “reforms”. Some of those changes are still with us.

Yet these reforms were not mentioned before that election. Howard later justified this by saying voters should have been aware because his government’s intentions had “been very well known for a long period of time”.

They were, he said in 2005, “an article of faith” for the Coalition.

WorkChoices is widely considered a decisive factor in the Howard government’s defeat in 2007.

Is the BOOT safe or not?

Labor has stated it plans to retain the BOOT – an unsurprising position given it introduced it.

But it’s harder to know the Coalition’s intent, given its past actions and track record of campaigning against wage increases and supporting legislation to reduce workers’ bargaining power.

After the Coalition won power in 2013, the employment minister Eric Abetz warned of a wages explosion. Nine years of historically low wages growth followed, culminating in a period of real wage decline.

That said, even if the Morrison government is returned it would likely face a Senate hostile to the omnibus bill. Whatever gets introduced would depend on what they thought they could get away with.

In the unlikely circumstances it wins well enough to have the numbers in the Senate (as it did in 2004), its ambitions will be far greater and the omnibus bill irrelevant.

Either way, it is impossible to know what a re-elected Morrison government would do with the BOOT. All we can know is what has happened in the past.

As a former university employee, David Peetz has undertaken research over many years with occasional financial support from governments from both sides of politics in Australia and overseas, international organisations, employers and unions. He has been and is involved in several Australian Research Council-funded and approved projects, some of which included contributions from the employer body Universities Australia, the superannuation fund Unisuper, the National Tertiary Education Union or the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. The projects do not concern the subject matter of this article

– ref. ReBOOT: what is the ‘better off overall test’, and should you be worried about it? – https://theconversation.com/reboot-what-is-the-better-off-overall-test-and-should-you-be-worried-about-it-181616

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Moore, Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics, Australian National University

Two-up is an Australian gambling game in which two coins are placed on a small piece of wood called a “kip” and tossed into the air. Bets are laid as to whether both coins will fall with heads or tails uppermost. It is one of the core activities of Anzac Day celebrations – and a beloved tradition.

The word ANZAC was created in 1915 as an acronym from Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. By 1916 it was being used emblematically to reflect the traditional view of the virtues displayed by those in the Gallipoli campaign, especially as these are seen as national characteristics. This cluster of national characteristics includes mateship, larrikin daredevilry, anti-authoritarianism, and egalitarianism.

The game of two-up became indicative of these qualities. Mateship was evident in the way the game brought together people of disparate backgrounds. Larrikinism was evident in the defiant rejection of authority and convention.

Two-up was always illegal, because the game is an unregulated form of gambling (although from the 1980s it became legal in most Australian states on Anzac Day). But in spite of the illegality, it was widely regarded as the fairest of gambling games, and at the time of the First World War the verbal command for the coins to be spun was not “come in spinner” (as it is now) but “fair go”. Indeed, the important Australian concept of the “fair go” was in part cemented by its role in the game.

Two-up was the common pastime of the urban working-class man, and it feeds into the elements of egalitarianism and anti-authoritarianism that are central to both the Anzac myth and the Australian myth.

Two-up and wartime life

From the very early period of the First World War, two-up assumed great importance among the Australian troops. Soldiers reported that two-up was played on the battlefield during the Gallipoli campaign, even when under shellfire. As the war dragged on, numerous stories were told about Australian soldiers’ obsession with playing it.

In 1918 the war correspondent Charles Bean studied the daily life of a company of Australian soldiers stationed at a brewery in Querrieu in northern France. He places great emphasis on two-up, writing in his diary in 1918:

Two-up’ is the universal pastime of the men. … It is a game which starts in any quarter of an hour’s interval or lasts the whole afternoon. The side road outside becomes every evening a perfect country fair with groups playing these games in it – a big crowd of 70 or 80 at the bottom the street, in the middle of the road; a smaller crowd of perhaps twenty on a doorstep further up. … The game is supposed to be illegal, I think; but at any rate in this company they wink at it.

Two-up was important not just in taking soldiers’ minds off the realities of the war, but also in creating a strong sense of community. Photographs from the war that show the men playing two-up reveal how it brought them together physically in a communal activity.

This helps explains why men, who in civilian life may have had little or no interest in gambling, joined in the camaraderie and fun of the two-up fair, and by so doing blotted out the boredom, isolation, and loneliness of much wartime experience.

Anzac Day and tradition

Playing two-up became an integral part of the diggers’ memories of the experience of war, especially when commemorated on Anzac Day. By the 1930s the playing of two-up outdoors after the Anzac Day march had become an entrenched tradition.

As the ranks of diggers from the two world wars declined, so the structure of Anzac Day changed in emphasis. In recent years the Dawn Service has increased greatly in popularity, while the Anzac Day march has suffered from dwindling numbers of veterans. The streets of Sydney and similar cities are no longer dotted with two-up games in the afternoon. The games have shifted to pubs and clubs, and they are largely played by people with no experience of war.

Those people who play the game on this day do so not for any deep-seated gambling impulse or because they would love to play the game on every other day of the year. They play two-up because it has become part of the meaning of Anzac Day.

Anzac Day has always combined solemnity and festivity. The Dawn Service commemorates the landing at Gallipoli, and the sacrifices that ensued. Its mood is solemn.

Read more:
Let’s honour the Anzacs by making two-up illegal again

In the past, returned soldiers reminisced, told war yarns, drank, and played two-up. The soldiers have passed on, but their larrikinism survives in the tradition of the game they have bequeathed to their descendants.

We should not underestimate the significance of rituals of this kind—the playing of two-up is a way in which Australians can become not just observers of, but participants in, their history and their myths. Two-up is a ritual that links the present with the past on this one day of the year.

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

– ref. Two-up, Gallipoli and the ‘fair go’: why illegal gambling is at the heart of the Anzac myth – https://theconversation.com/two-up-gallipoli-and-the-fair-go-why-illegal-gambling-is-at-the-heart-of-the-anzac-myth-181337

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

For months there has been a great deal of debate about Scott Morrison’s “character”.

Now, in the controversy over Katherine Deves, the Liberal candidate for Warringah who Morrison refused to dump despite a string of offensive social media posts, we have seen the prime minister fail a significant character test.

Ignoring the public and private calls by Liberals – not all of them moderates – for Deves to be disendorsed, Morrison said on Thursday, the day nominations closed, “I’ve been in contact with Katherine again today, encouraging her”.

Morrison has not only refused to budge, but tried to turn the argument back on his critics.

He condemned “those who are seeking to cancel Katherine, simply because she has a different view on the issue of women and girls in sport”, and attacked the “pile on”.

In a revealing comment he also said, “I think Australians are getting pretty fed up with having to walk on eggshells every day because they may or may not say something one day that’s going to upset someone”.

This reminded those with long memories of remarks by John Howard in the wake of the maiden speech of Pauline Hanson, who had been disendorsed by the Liberals for the 1996 election over racist remarks but won anyway.

“One of the great changes that have come over Australia in the last six months is that people do feel able to speak a little more freely and openly about how they feel. In a sense, a pall of censorship on certain issues has been lifted,” Howard said.

Howard was trying to tap into a backlash against “political correctness” – although later he had to change his tune, partly because of the feeling in urban Liberal seats. Morrison’s target is “cancel culture”.

Deves was Morrison’s pick. In one of the long-delayed preselections in the NSW Liberal party she was chosen by a committee of three including NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and former Liberal party federal president Chris McDiven. Morrison wanted women in as many of these seats as possible. He later said he wasn’t aware of Deves’ transphobic posts, which is extraordinary given they were recent, numerous, rumoured within the party, and basic vetting would have found them.

One theory has been Morrison believes Deves’ views on keeping women and girls from having to compete against transgender people in sport will resonate in certain seats. The flip side would be that he is dismissing the possible cost of her offensive tweets in “teal” seats where Liberal incumbent face high profile independents.

If he does think she brings wider advantage, it would be an appallingly cynical calculation, and a risky political judgement.

In his defence of Deves, Morrison is framing the issue in a misleading way on several fronts. It is not a case of critics wanting to “cancel” her. It is a question of whether she is a suitable candidate for the Liberals.

People have the right to express all sorts of unsavoury views. But to be accepted as a candidate by a major party, a person should have to pass a much higher test, because by endorsing them the party is telling the electorate their values align with its own.

Morrison also tries to frame Deves’ tweets as “insensitive”. They went way beyond “insensitive” – they were downright offensive.

He suggests she was expressing herself badly on her issue of protection women and girls in sport. But in fact her tweets go far wider.

As the days pass, more and more posts emerge. Sam Maiden this week on news.com.au reported Deves’ posting in 2021: “Surrogacy is a human rights violation. Women’s bodies are not vehicles for a vanity project.”

In another post reported by Maiden, Deves said of people who didn’t fight moves towards gender fluidity, “I have no doubt these people would imagine themselves to be part of the French Resistance in WWII – but no, they are the villagers who watched the trains go by, ignored the clouds of soot and smoke and joined the Party to get good jobs. They are complicit.’’

Morrison says Deves apologised for her posts. But was that the easy way out? It’s a bit hard to see this as a major change of heart, given the posts were multiple and recent.

The row over Deves could have major implications in particular for the fights in two Liberal Sydney seats, North Sydney (Trent Zimmerman) and Wentworth (Dave Sharma), where there are high profile “teal” candidates. Deves came up in the debate between Sharma and teal independent Allegra Spender on Thursday.

Also, it’s hard to see how she can campaign effectively in Warringah, held by independent Zali Steggall. The Liberals were never expected to have much chance of dislodging Steggall – now she is considered a shoo-in.

It is instructive to compare Morrison’s obduracy over Deves and his reaction when he came under attack after Wednesday’s “people’s forum” over saying he and Jenny had been “blessed” to have children that did not have autism.

He was answering a question about the NDIS from the mother of an autistic child.

His remark got a strong reaction on social media, including from Dylan Alcott, disability advocate and Australian of the Year. “Woke up this morning feeling very blessed to be disabled – I reckon my parents are pretty happy about it too,” Alcott tweeted.

Morrison swung into action with a public apology, and was in contact with Alcott.

“I meant no offence by what I said last night, but I accept that it has caused offence to people,” he said.

He said he had been simply saying it was tough and these were hardships he and Jenny hadn’t had to deal with.

That indeed, was the interpretation many people would have taken from Morrison’s remarks (especially as he has often spoken of his brother-in-law, who has a disability). Others would see the line as insensitive and out of touch, especially in today’s context of how we discuss disability.

Whatever one’s interpretation of his “blessed” remark, it is extraordinary Morrison would deal with that immediately but hang onto and encourage a candidate whose comments were a hundred times more offensive.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Scott Morrison fails the ‘character’ test posed by his Warringah candidate – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-scott-morrison-fails-the-character-test-posed-by-his-warringah-candidate-181715

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

Labor’s worst fears have been realised with Anthony Albanese testing positive for COVID.

In a statement late Thursday, the opposition leader said: “Following a routine PCR test this afternoon ahead of interstate travel to Western Australia, I have returned a positive result for COVID this evening”. He has been testing regularly.

“I will be isolating at home in Sydney for the next seven days and will continue to follow health guidelines and advice,” he said.

Albanese said while at home “I will continue my responsibilities as alternative prime minister”.

“I am feeling fine so far – and thank everyone for their well wishes, he said. “I am grateful to know that I will have access to the world’s best health care if I need it, because of Medicare”.

Senior Labor figures on Thursday night were discussing reconfiguring the campaign.

Labor had war-gamed the possibility Albanese would get COVID during the campaign because, unlike Scott Morrison, he had not had it previously.

If Albanese remains well he will be able to make some appearances virtually, and conduct media interviews.

But his stepping off the actual campaign trail will mean much more weight will fall on other Labor frontbenchers.

It was not clear on Thursday night whether the leaders plane would proceed on its earlier planned route with a “surrogate” leader.

The setback comes just as Albanese, who on Thursday flew from Queensland to regional NSW before returning to Sydney, appeared to be hitting his straps after a bad first week. An audience of undecided voters scored him the narrow winner in Wednesday’s peoples forum.

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

– ref. Anthony Albanese confined to home for seven days after testing COVID positive – https://theconversation.com/anthony-albanese-confined-to-home-for-seven-days-after-testing-covid-positive-181736