Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University

Victoria has led the states and territories in setting out a detailed housing statement that it says will help tackle the state’s housing shortage.

Broad in scope and ambition, the plan includes new dwelling supply targets for Melbourne and regional Victoria, new fast-track deadlines for dwelling approvals and legislative reforms to protect private tenants.

There are also major place-based initiatives that, if successful, will transform Melbourne as a city. These include the re-purposing of its 44 high-rise public housing towers, a new planning act, as well as a freshly minted tax on short-term rentals to help fund more social housing.

There is a lot to be done, but do the individual initiatives stack up as a coherent package and, more importantly, will they deliver the policy goods?

One answer to that is to be found in its vision. Instead of addressing itself to colourful and culturally significant questions that surround housing – such as whether or not the government wishes all Victorians to live in a home of their own or in secure social housing – the statement sets itself a much less interesting challenge.

Affordable housing and plenty of it

Top of the list is the need for more housing, for as the premier put it in his introduction to the statement, “It’s a simple proposition: build more homes, and they’ll be more affordable”.

And more housing delivered faster is said to be needed because of a booming population. Gone are the pandemic-era years of population decline. Victoria is now the fastest growing state in the country, with 3.5 million more people expected to arrive over the next 28 years.

Read more:
The Greens were right to pass Australia’s Housing Future Fund bill – the case for further delay was weak

The number one goal is to build 800,000 new dwellings over the next decade, with 250,000 or almost a third of these to be a product of the housing statement.

That’s a powerful if uninspiring goal, but the statement has little detail of where all those dwellings are to come from. We do know 60,000 are to come from ten new activity centres, 13,000 from streamlined planning regulations for medium and high density developments overseen by the planning minister instead of councils. Another 10,000 will result from converting commercial buildings to residential, and 9,000 from using surplus government land.

What about the backlog of local council approvals that figured prominently in the pre-statement publicity? Well that amounts to only 1,400 permits as it turns out, with an indeterminate number being held up perhaps for good reason.

Around 10,000 will come from new social and affordable housing, accounting for barely 4% of the planned additional supply. By way of contrast, the plan is expected to boost the supply of private rental accommodation by 70,000, or 28% of the new stock. That’s not good news for Generation Rent, which might have been hoping for new ladders into homes of their own.

But the statement is by no means bad news for tenants. There are new initiatives designed to bolster tenant rights, including a ban on rental bidding, establishing a new rental disputes agency, and restricting landlords’ ability to raise rents in between successive fixed-term rental agreements.

Who might be the statement’s biggest winners? That would be the building industry and the developers who drive new housing supply. This is a statement that promises them more work more quickly with lower costs. Those lower costs will come even if those dwellings are not built, and it is here that the biggest problems with the statement are to be found.

Potential problems

Victoria’s housing system depends heavily on private markets, which in turn depend on consumers willing and able to fund them. Declining real incomes, insecure work together with HECS debts for graduates provide the unmentioned backdrop to the housing statement.

Today’s high interest rate environment is not one that is conducive to increased dwelling supply or improved affordability, and the current record level of migration sits next door to it as a housing policy contradiction.

Read more:
Governments are pouring money into housing but materials, land and labour are still in short supply

Yes town planners play a role, but research shows new housing supply may not be the problem it has been made out to be, including by respected economists at the RBA.

Researchers have also pointed out planning laws and regulations have been subjected to countless reviews and reforms over the last two decades, including the introduction of a variety of fast tracks and templates, with no discernible impact on housing supply or affordability.

For all its ambition, the Victorian government’s housing statement sets bold targets, but has no clear means to achieve them. It offers a lot of individual initiatives, but in the end can be criticised for offering no compelling vision.

David Hayward Chaired the Victorian government’s Review of Social Housing Regulation (completed June 2022).

– ref. Victoria’s housing plan is bold and packed with initiatives. But can it be delivered? – https://theconversation.com/victorias-housing-plan-is-bold-and-packed-with-initiatives-but-can-it-be-delivered-213974

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nora Campbell, PhD Candidate, UNSW Sydney

Have you ever wondered what a kangaroo’s social life looks like? Well, kangaroos have stronger bonds to one another than you might think.

Over six years, we monitored a population of around 130 eastern grey kangaroos near Wollar in New South Wales to see how their relationships changed over time. Keeping tabs on individual roos led to some surprising results.

We found that kangaroo mothers become more social when caring for joeys (which is the opposite of what we previously thought). We also uncovered new evidence that indicates kangaroos could potentially form long-term relationships.

This research, published in Animal Behaviour, sheds new light on the behaviour of Australia’s most iconic animal.

How to watch kangaroos

Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) are found throughout the eastern third of Australia, and they are extremely social animals.

If you’re lucky enough to have some living near you, you’ll notice they are rarely alone. What you might not notice is how often their small groups (called mobs) fluctuate throughout the day.

Kangaroos have a loose “fission–fusion” social structure, which means mobs often split and reform. Knowing this, we wanted to see just how strong kangaroo relationships actually are, and how these relationships changed over several years.

To find out, we spent a few days each year taking photographs of every single kangaroo in our study population. We then used these photographs (all 3,546 of them!) to individually identify each kangaroo.

The best way to tell kangaroos apart (for humans) is the unique shape of their ears, because both the outline of the ears and the inner ear tufts remain very similar throughout the years. New scars can change the overall ear shape, but we were careful to watch out for those.

Using this method, we identified 130 individual kangaroos. We then looked at which kangaroos appeared next to each other in the same photograph to get an idea of what their social groups looked like.

We also gave each kangaroo a social score based on how many other kangaroos they associated with and how “popular” these associates were.

Suprising sociability

There are usually a couple of difficulties in this sort of long-term animal study, such as identifying individual animals and being able to follow the same population over several years. These problems are easily avoided with kangaroos, as our photographic survey let us identify animals without invasive tagging, and they tend to return to the same place every day.

We could easily look at the short-term and long-term relationships of each kangaroo, as well as how these relationships varied with sex, age and reproduction.

Looking at sociability on an individual level produced some surprising results.

Read more:
Animal friendships are surprisingly like our own

We discovered some kangaroos were just more social than others. In some this was consistent, and in others it changed from year to year.

In fact, we found female kangaroos tended to be much more social in years when they had joeys. This is quite different from earlier research, which suggested kangaroos actually tend to isolate from the rest of the population when they become mothers.

What we think is happening here is that, while mothers tend to spend time in smaller groups (which is what other studies have shown), those groups change often. As a result, mothers associate with more other kangaroos in total – which would account for their high social scores.

So kangaroos’ loose social structure allows them to adjust their sociability with their reproductive state.

Long-term friendships?

However, the fact the social structure is loose doesn’t mean it is simple. We found kangaroo relationships might be far more complex than previously thought.

Some of our kangaroos maintained friendships across multiple years, a phenomenon that was particularly common among females. Kangaroos that were more “popular” – as determined by the social score we calculated – were far more likely to have these friendships.

This is the first evidence for long-term relationships in macropods (the animal family that includes kangaroos as well as wallabies, quokkas and others). However, long-term relationships are common in other large, social herbivores such as elephants, giraffes and ibex.

We only looked at the kangaroos for a short time each year. To find out whether they really do form long-term relationships, we will need to do more research. However, we have shown such relationships are a possibility, which is itself a very exciting development in the study of kangaroo behaviour.

The importance of social organisation

So what’s next? The study of animal behaviour is constantly changing and there’s always lots more we can learn.

We have shown the benefits of looking at animal populations on an individual level, not just a species level. With this in mind, future research should investigate the existence of long-term relationships in kangaroos, as well as why female kangaroos might deliberately increase their sociability when they become mothers.

We often underestimate the importance of social organisation in animals. Further research into kangaroo behaviour can help us better appreciate the intelligence and social complexity of our favourite marsupials.

Read more:
Mother roos endanger health for joeys

Nora Campbell receives funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (RTP) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Funding for this research was provided by the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) and the Science Faculty at UNSW.

– ref. The social lives of kangaroos are more complex than we thought – https://theconversation.com/the-social-lives-of-kangaroos-are-more-complex-than-we-thought-213770

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Bushell, Clinical Assistant Professor in Pharmacy, University of Canberra

Spring has sprung and many people are welcoming longer days and more time outdoors. But for almost one in five Australians, spring also brings the misery of watery, itchy red eyes, a runny, congested nose, and sneezing.

Hay fever (also known as allergic rhinitis) is caused when an allergen enters the nose or eyes. Allergens are harmless airborne substances the body has incorrectly identified as harmful. This triggers an immune response, which leads to the release of inflammatory chemicals (mediators) – one of which is histamine.

Allergens that trigger hay fever differ from person to person. Common seasonal allergens include tree, grass and weed pollens (year-round allergens include dust mites, mould and pet dander). It’s now pollen season in many parts of Australia, with pollen counts at their highest and hay fever cases surging.

So what medicines can prevent or reduce hay fever symptoms, and how do they work?

Read more:
Do I have COVID or hay fever? Here’s how to tell

Antihistamines

Knowing the release of histamine is a cause of hay fever symptoms, it’s unsurprising that anti-histamines are one of the most frequently recommended medicines to treat hay fever.

Antihistamines block histamine from binding to histamine receptors in the body and having an effect, reducing symptoms.

In Australia, we broadly have two types. The older sedating (introduced in the 1940s) and newer, less-sedating (introduced in the 1980s) antihistamines.

Less-sedating antihistamines used to treat allergic rhinitis include bilastine (Allertine), cetirizine (Zyrtec), loratadine (Claratyne) and fexofenadine (Telfast). Bilastine, which came onto the Australian market only last year, is only available from a pharmacy, on recommendation from a pharmacist. The others have been around longer and are available at supermarkets and in larger quantities from pharmacies. Cetirizine is the most likely (of the less-sedating antihistamines) to cause sedation.

The older sedating antihistamines (such as promethazine) cross the blood-brain barrier, causing drowsiness and even brain fog the next day. They have lots of side effects and potential drug interactions, and as such have little place in the management of hay fever.

The newer less-sedating antihistamines are equally effective as the older sedating ones.

Antihistamines are usually taken orally (as a tablet or solution) but there are also topical preparations such as nasal sprays (azelastine) and eye drops. Antihistamine nasal sprays have equal to or better efficacy than oral antihistamines.

The individual response to antihistamines varies widely. For this reason, you may need to trial several different types of antihistamines to see which one works best for you.

Increasing the dose of an antihistamine, or combining an oral and topical antihistamine, does not provide any additional benefit. Paying extra for a brand name doesn’t offer any more or less effect than the generic (both have the same active ingredient and are bioequivalent, which means they have the same outcomes for patients).

Steroid nasal sprays

If your symptoms don’t improve from antihistamines alone, a nasal spray containing a corticosteroid is often recommended.

Corticosteroids prevent the release of several key chemicals that cause inflammation. How they work is complex: in part, corticosteroids “turn off” the production of late phase inflammatory mediators (cytokines and chemokines). This reduces the future release of more inflammatory mediators, which reduces inflammation.

Corticosteroids and antihistamines have different mechanisms of action. Research shows corticosteroid nasal sprays are more effective than antihistamines in controlling an itchy, runny, congested nose. But when instilled into the nose, corticosteroids also reduce the eye symptoms of hay fever.

There are also nasal sprays that contain both an antihistamine and corticosteroid.

Read more:
Sneezing with hay fever? Native plants aren’t usually the culprit

While there are a range of corticosteroid nasal sprays containing different active ingredients, a large study published this year shows they are all about as effective as each other, and work best when they have been taken for several days.

Sodium cromoglycate

Another medicine used to treat hay fever symptoms is sodium cromoglycate, which is available as an eye drop and over-the-counter in pharmacies.

This medicine is known as a mast cell stabiliser. As the name suggests, it stabilises or prevents mast cells from breaking down. When mast cells break down, they release histamine and other chemicals that cause inflammation.

This eye drop is both a preventative and treatment medicine, usually used before allergies strike. Evidence shows it is effective at reducing the symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis (eye inflammation from allergies).

Decongestants

Decongestants constrict blood vessels. They can be taken orally, administered as a nasal spray, or instilled into the eyes. When administered into the eyes it will reduce redness, and when administered into the nose, it will stop it from running.

However, decongestants should be used for a short duration only and are not for long term use. In fact, if a nasal spray decongestant is used for more than five days, you can experience something called “rebound congestion”: a severe stuffy nose.

Saline

Saline (saltwater) nasal sprays or irrigation products are also available to flush out the allergens and provide hay fever relief. While there are not many studies in the area, there is evidence that saline irrigation may reduce hay fever symptoms. Saline is safe and is not associated with adverse effects.

If you’re suffering from hay fever symptoms and unsure what to try, talk to your prescriber or pharmacist, who can guide you through the options and identify the best one for your symptoms, medical conditions and medicines.

Allergen immunotherapy (or allergen shots) is another option hay fever sufferers may discuss with their doctors. However it’s not a quick fix, with therapy taking three to five years.

Read more:
I’m considering allergen immunotherapy for my hay fever. What do I need to know?

Mary Bushell 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. How do hay fever treatments actually work? And what’s best for my symptoms? – https://theconversation.com/how-do-hay-fever-treatments-actually-work-and-whats-best-for-my-symptoms-213071

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flavio Macau, Associate Dean – School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University

As Australia’s housing affordability crisis worsens, governments are spending more on housing.

Victoria’s Andrews government has announced a suite of reforms (such as boosting social housing and making planning processes faster) in an effort to get 800,000 extra homes in Victoria over the next decade.

Federally, the Albanese government’s A$10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, or HAFF, has passed the Senate with the help of the Greens, who supported the bill in exchange for another A$1 billion for social housing.

And this year’s federal budget has expanded eligibility for the Home Guarantee Scheme so more people can buy a home with a smaller deposit.

But is Australia ready for a house construction boom?

Supply chain constraints say no. Ballooning construction costs and labour shortages have already claimed well-known building firms across the country. Delivering thousands of extra new homes in the coming years will not be easy.

Read more:
The Greens were right to pass Australia’s Housing Future Fund bill – the case for further delay was weak

Materials are hard to get

Building a home requires the right materials at the right time. But many building materials are in short supply.

Timber is a good example. The Master Builders Association highlights there are still pressures on timber and wood supplies.

This imbalance between supply and demand for construction materials can be traced back to the HomeBuilder program, which saw over 138,000 Australians applying for a grant to build or renovate.

The number of new dwellings commenced went from 41,855 in September 2020 to a peak of 67,306 in July 2021 – an increase of 60% in less than a year.

Typically, a spike in demand is met by imports. But soaring shipping costs during the pandemic conspired with restrictions to timber imports from Russia to send global markets into disarray.

Tim Reardon, Chief Economist for the Housing Industry Association reckons housing supply issues will not get any better soon. The federal government’s National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation expects housing supply will only recover by 2025-26.

Demand pressures will continue. As it is, there are lots of unfinished homes around the country.

Labour and land are also in short supply

Building a home is labour intensive. Finding roofers, bricklayers, carpenters, tilers, landscapers and other construction workers has not been easy.

Australia’s record low unemployment rates and a global rise in labour shortages have made it hard for builders to find the workers they need to finish jobs. Delays are common.

Some skill sets are in even higher demand, as workers flock to oil and gas, mining, and infrastructure projects. In Western Australia, for example, research has shown a shortage of construction managers, handy persons, and civil engineering professionals.

Then, there is the question of land. Greenfield projects (new developments on the city fringes) typically see fast approvals, fast sales, and good profit.

But suburbs alone cannot deliver the demand that is coming, thanks to the Housing Australia Future Fund and the other government initiatives.

There is a growing consensus more has to be done to increase urban density (in other words, apartments) next to mass transit hubs.

But this isn’t easy either. Not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) critics abound and demand for standalone houses remains strong as people pursue the “great Australian dream” of a large house on a large block of land.

So how can we strengthen supply?

These issues in materials, labour, and land will not solve themselves. Pouring more money into the housing market without addressing supply shortages will only increase prices.

So, what initiatives can really address the housing supply crisis? Options include:

• reducing import taxes on materials like construction timber and steel frames to boost short-term supply (while adhering to long-term strategies to address future demand)

• supporting new technologies in the construction industry (the federal government’s Accelerate Adoption of Wood Processing Innovation program, which enables the use of innovative technology for timber production, is one example)

• increasing skilled migration to boost labour supply (Western Australia’s Construction Visa Subsidy Program, which targets skilled migrants to the construction sector, shows what’s possible)

• embracing manufactured homes (modular construction, for example, can increase labour productivity, reduce costs and mitigate the effects of weather delays)

• making it easier to release land for development, especially in urban areas (for example, the Victoria government is investing $40 million in red-tape busting measures).

The housing crisis in Australia is far from over. Without coordinated action to increase supply, government grants will have little practical effect on house affordability anytime soon.

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. Governments are pouring money into housing but materials, land and labour are still in short supply – https://theconversation.com/governments-are-pouring-money-into-housing-but-materials-land-and-labour-are-still-in-short-supply-205471

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stuti Bhatnagar, Research Fellow (Asian Security), Australian National University

The diplomatic fallout continues to worsen over Monday’s shocking accusation by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India was behind the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader and Canadian citizen, outside a Sikh temple in Canada earlier this year.

Trudeau said Tuesday after the Canadian government expelled a senior member of India’s foreign intelligence agency:

India – and the government of India – needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness.

India strongly rejected the allegations and expelled one of Canada’s top diplomats in retaliation, adding further tension to an already strained relationship.

What is the Khalistan movement?

Nijjar had been a designated “terrorist” by the Indian government in 2020 for his leadership role in a movement advocating for a separate Sikh state to be carved out of the Indian state of Punjab called Khalistan (the land of the Khalsa).

The history of the Khalistan movement is complex. It is, in its most simplistic form, a demand for a distinct homeland for the Sikhs. It was most active in the 1980s as a result of widespread dissatisfaction with the economic, social and political conditions for Sikhs in post-independence India.

The partition of Punjab between Pakistan and India in 1947 created fear and disaffection in the Sikh community. They suddenly found themselves divided between a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India. In 1966, Punjab was divided again, this time on linguistic lines, as a new Hindi-speaking state of Haryana was carved out of the region.

Read more:
Is a Sikh separatist movement seeing a resurgence four decades after sparking terror in India?

Punjab’s Sikh community was also impacted by India’s Green Revolution, an initiative in the late 1960s to improve agricultural production. While this benefited Punjab economically, it created resentment among Sikhs due to the inequitable distribution of wealth, the lack of non-agricultural development and the central government’s monopoly over agricultural policy.

Another issue contributing to the Sikhs’ sense of injustice was the diversion of water from the Sutlej River that flowed through Punjab to the neighbouring states of Haryana and Rajasthan.

All this resentment was given a voice in the late 1970s by the Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who claimed the government was discriminating against Sikhs and intentionally undermining Sikh identity. Bhindranwale soon became a prominent political leader in Punjab, ultimately taking up residence in the Golden Temple complex in the city of Amritsar, one of the Sikhs’ holiest sites. He established something of a parallel government there, fortified with weapons.

To dispel Bhindranwale and the militants from the Golden Temple, the Indian army launched Operation Bluestar in June 1984. The operation further angered the Sikh population, including the large diaspora around the world, for the desecration of the holy site.

The resentment only worsened when more than 2,700 Sikhs (as per government estimates) were killed in New Delhi by rampaging mobs after the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in November 1984. Within Punjab, this was a period of violence and draconian policing measures used to suppress the separatist movement.

Farmer protests in New Delhi in 2020–21, led predominantly by Sikhs from Punjab, brought the issue of Khalistan back into the public eye. Supporters in Punjab began advocating for the potential revival of the movement. Government actors also cited this possibility as a way to delegitimise the protests.

The Indian government has also claimed for years that Pakistan has provided support to exiled Khalistani groups to promote disharmony in India.

Then, earlier this year, Amritpal Singh – a self-styled Sikh preacher – was arrested after reviving calls for an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab. This stirred fears of renewed violence and reignited debates on a very polarising issue.

Read more:
Justin Trudeau’s India accusation complicates western efforts to rein in China

‘O Canada’

The Khalistan movement has always had a transnational character. The Indian army’s operation in Amritsar and the anti-Sikh violence in 1984 created an enduring memory for many Sikhs that has transcended India’s borders.

The Khalistan movement found supporters among the large and scattered Sikh diaspora, predominantly in Canada, the UK and Australia. Canada is home to the largest Sikh population outside Punjab, comprising more than 2% of the country’s population. It also has significant political representation.

Canadian-based Sikh organisations were blamed for the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight from Toronto to London, which killed 329 people onboard. One man acquitted in the attack was shot dead last year in the same Canadian town where Nijjar was gunned down in June.

The Indian government has repeatedly claimed the Khalistan movement remains active with the support of militants continuing to operate in Canada. New Delhi has repeatedly accused Ottawa of giving safe haven to “Khalistani terrorists and extremists”.

The Indian government was further outraged in 2019 when the Trudeau government removed mentions of Khalistan and “Sikh extremism” from a public report on terror threats to Canada.

And in recent years, New Delhi has been dismayed by public referendums on the creation of an independent Khalistan state, which have been held intermittently in Canada, the UK, Australia and other countries.

Owing to these issues, India-Canada ties have been on a rapid decline. In recent days, New Delhi paused talks on a landmark free-trade agreement between the countries over Ottawa’s perceived support for separatist groups in Canada. This followed a frosty exchange between Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in New Delhi.

India has largely avoided criticism for its own dwindling record on human rights as it has grown closer to the US, Australia and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region in recent years. Whether this changes following Canada’s accusations, however, remains to be seen.

Australia said it was “deeply concerned” by the allegations of India’s involvement in Nijjar’s killing. A UK government spokesperson also called the allegations “serious” but said the two countries would continue negotiating their own trade deal.

There are likely to be more public and diplomatic ramifications of this incident in the months to come.

Read more:
Who are the Sikhs and what are their beliefs?

Stuti Bhatnagar 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. Explainer: what is the Khalistan movement sparking a diplomatic feud between India and Canada? – https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-khalistan-movement-sparking-a-diplomatic-feud-between-india-and-canada-213860

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yvette Grant, PhD (Dance) Candidate and Dance History Tutor, The University of Melbourne

Last year when, The Australian Ballet announced their 2023 season and I saw a “new” Swan Lake on the list, I asked myself: did we really need another Swan Lake?

I love Swan Lake.

First staged by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 1877 – but most known for its 1895 version staged by the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg – it is the ballet which makes most sense as a pure classical ballet with its castles of parading royalty, its princes and princesses performing in crowded ballrooms and its lake of gliding swans.

Indeed, had classical pointe shoes not existed prior, they would have been a great invention for this ballet alone, enabling the fast tippy-toe footwork (bourrées) which transform the dancers into swans gracefully skimming across the surface of a lake. And tutus, sometimes strange in other contexts, in this ballet look like the white swans they aim to evoke.

Tchaikovsky’s score is powerful, narrative and broadly familiar. Petipa’s 1895 choreography is held in such esteem that it has been largely unchanged for 128 years.

But there are two questions here: do we really need to continue performing Swan Lake? And, if so, how often do we need a new one?

In their 60-year history, this will be The Australian Ballet’s fifth take on Swan Lake and each new iteration takes more rehearsal time, more new sets and new costumes, and much more budget.

And when we see Swan Lake again, it takes the budget and programming from another possible production, perhaps an Australian ballet by an Australian choreographer.

So, how does David Hallberg’s 2023 Swan Lake stack up?

Read more:
The West Australian Ballet’s Swan Lake brings the story to Perth – but the Noongar elements never feel completely integrated

Reborn from the archive

Well, firstly, it is clearly stated on the company’s website that the production was entirely funded through philanthropy, so it hasn’t directly cost the public purse.

Secondly, it is not being called a “new” Swan Lake, but rather a revival of former artistic director Anne Woolliams’ 1977 version, which draws heavily on the Petipa 1895 choreography, with a few tweaks to bring it into the 21st century.

As such, it is an engagement with the company’s history and a cultural remembering of an important figure from the past – indeed an important and controversial woman choreographer from the company’s past. Woolliams didn’t see out her contract as artistic director stating publicly that she refused to have repertoire dictated to her by the company’s administration.

She believed in creating new and exciting work.

The changes Hallberg has made to Woolliams’ choreography are laid out in detail in the program and apart from new sets and costumes (designed in 2023 by Daniel Ostling and Mara Blumenfeld), there are few.

We really are seeing an authentic and distinct Swan Lake reborn from the archive of The Australian Ballet, and that feels good.

Joyous movement

In the first act, dancing groups form out of the gathered crowd in the square and then blend back in with a dynamism more like a flash mob than a ballet. This accentuates the joyous spontaneous nature of the atmosphere and movement. The costumes are lavish with rich greens, golds, blues and purples.

In Act II, 24 swans (up from 18 in Woolliams version) move seamlessly through flock formations both familiar and unique with a striking V formation being repeated to powerful effect throughout.

Woolliams’ insistence on the corps de ballet swans becoming birds is also evident with a rippling of feathers that passes through the flock of dancers bringing them to life as animals. The set is abstract with black branches back lit with moonlight blue.

Act III is a more intimate ballroom than we might usually see. The same emerging and re-merging with the group is evident from Act I as the princesses and their entourages step up to showcase their national spirit.

Crowd favourites

But the real power throughout this Swan Lake is its leads, Benedicte Bemet and Joseph Caley on opening night.

Bemet is both formidable and vulnerable, capturing a natural animalism as Odette. She displays impeccable technique through her gruelling set of solos and pas de deux. Caley partners strongly and sensitively. His Act III solos are exacting and commanding.

The cygnets don’t disappoint. They are always a crowd favourite.

In fact, on opening night everything seemed to be a crowd favourite. Ecstatic applause followed almost every variation.

With the entire season of the company’s Swan Lake in four different cities across Australia already close to a sell-out, it would seem the people have spoken. They, at least, needed another Swan Lake.

And a sell-out season brings in a lot of money which can fund other projects, other ballets with living choreographers – maybe even Australian, women or First Nations.

While this will not be the last Swan Lake we see from The Australian Ballet, Hallberg says it will be the one we see for the next couple of decades. I don’t think the fans will be disappointed.

Swan Lake is at Arts Centre Melbourne until September 30, then touring to Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney.

Read more:
60 years of The Australian Ballet and 90 years of ‘Australian’ ballet: Identity asks us to reflect on Australian dance today

Yvette Grant 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. Do we really need another Swan Lake? – https://theconversation.com/do-we-really-need-another-swan-lake-212876

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Sullivan, Professor, University of Notre Dame Australia

Indigenous people in remote and very remote communities in Australia tend to experience poorer health, education and employment services and outcomes compared to the general population.

To find out more about why this is happening, we brought together the main players in Aboriginal service delivery in the remote communities of the Kimberley in Western Australia to identify problems and discuss opportunities.

Read more:
People in the Kimberley have spent decades asking for basics like water and homes. Will the Voice make their calls more compelling?

What we did

In 2018 and 2019 we ran three workshops to discuss the roadblocks to Aboriginal development that service providers encounter in towns and remote communities of the Kimberley.

The first was with Aboriginal community organisation leaders, the second with public servants, and the final workshop with non-Aboriginal NGOs.

We decided to run separate workshops because we didn’t think it would be productive to put all sides in the same room together; we hypothesised the groups would be more likely to speak freely if they were separated.

By running each workshop separately, we found each sector enthusiastic to engage and discuss their aspirations as well as their frustrations.

We recorded each workshop and edited the transcripts down to the most insightful contributions, then arranged them under similar topics.

The result is the book Voices from the Frontline: Community leaders, government managers and NGO field staff talk about what’s wrong in Aboriginal development and what they are doing to fix it, published by the Nulungu Research Institute of the University of Notre Dame Australia.

We found all sides tended to identify the same systemic problems, rather than blame each other, when given the chance to discuss their work in a safe environment.

Some of their concerns included:

• excessive managerialism (having too many managers doing too much managing), reporting, and top-down direction

• the inefficiencies and misdirection of resources through government’s creation of a false competitive market in Aboriginal services

• the need to counter this by recognising the dedication of all local players to a shared goal

• greater regional decision-making and cooperation.

‘Governed by a bureaucrat who hasn’t seen a Blackfella in their life’

Most of the Aboriginal contributors had worked in the field of community development for about 40 years – all their adult lives.

They remembered a time before the introduction of a bureaucratic management style that focused heavily on outsourcing, competition for service delivery contracts, and intrusive reporting on targets determined by people who live nowhere near the community.

The other contributors, newer on the scene, tended to accept this as just the way business is done.

All sides said managerialism – which they saw as private sector methods and ideologies applied in the public sector – and control of projects by bureaucrats in faraway cities were the major impediments to effective outcomes in Aboriginal development.

As one Aboriginal contributor put it:

My mother worked [in a state welfare department] and every day I had to go to work with her after school […] I can recall everybody being happy. I can recall a lot of social inclusion. I can recall a lot of discipline, respect. I can recall a lot of happy times growing up as a kid […] Today, for heaven’s sake, we can’t move. Government all over us like a rash. Today our lives are being governed by a bureaucrat who hasn’t seen a Blackfella in their life or haven’t spoken to one.

Cooperation should trump competition

Competition for government contracts often provoked suspicion and antagonism from all sides involved in Aboriginal service development.

To counter it, all sides identified personal commitment as important. They saw personal commitment as going above and beyond, often directly counter to the direction they get from bureaucrats or NGO staff sitting in Perth and Canberra.

All sides believed greater regional cooperation – from design through to implementation of programmes – was an absolute necessity.

Worryingly, even the government middle managers felt there was no institutional support for this regional cooperation.

Encouragingly, participants said the formal relationship between First Nations peoples and settler Australians must be re-thought, re-stated and then reflected in government processes.

No shortage of talent, good will and enthusiasm

We gave our book the title Voices from the Frontline before the current debate over a constitutionally enshrined Voice got underway.

Yet the foreword by Elder and Yawuru man Peter Yu shows how relevant it is to that debate. He writes:

The referendum on a constitutionally enshrined First Nation Voice has brought national attention to the failure of Australia’s government system in addressing the appalling economic and social conditions experienced by First Nations people.

There is a nearly unanimous acknowledgement that the formal relationship between the Australian nation state and its First Nations people is faltering.

Through the voices of those directly involved, [Voices from the Frontline] presents a compelling case for change and serves as a call to action for all who wish to understand and address the pressing issues faced by First Nations communities in the Kimberley region and beyond.

This is a sentiment all of the contributors would have agreed with, whether government managers, Aboriginal leaders or NGO managers and field staff.

Our research shows there is plenty of talent, good will and enthusiasm out there. It just needs to be harnessed more effectively.

Read more:
Countless reports show water is undrinkable in many Indigenous communities. Why has nothing changed?

Patrick Sullivan received funding from the Australian Research Council for the research in this article.

Kathryn Thorburn received funding for this project from the Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP160102250: Reciprocal Accountability and Public Value in Aboriginal Organisations.

– ref. ‘Government all over us like a rash’: the broken service delivery system in remote Aboriginal communities – https://theconversation.com/government-all-over-us-like-a-rash-the-broken-service-delivery-system-in-remote-aboriginal-communities-212858

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena Wajrak, Senior lecturer, Chemistry, Edith Cowan University

If you are a blonde like me and enjoy laps in a swimming pool, you may have noticed your hair acquires a green tint after frequent swims in chlorinated water.

This happens to both bleached and natural blondes. In fact, the green tinge happens to everyone, but it’s less visible on dark hair and those whose hair isn’t damaged by chemical treatments such as bleaching.

But what exactly causes this green discoloration, and what can we do about it? Most of us blame the chlorine in the pool water. However, although chlorine does play a part, it is not the main culprit.

Which chemicals in the pool turn the hair green?

The element to blame for the green staining of hair is copper.

The main source of copper is copper sulfate (CuSO₄), a compound added to swimming pools to prevent the growth of algae. Contact with algae can cause skin irritation and respiratory issues, and ingesting water with algae can lead to serious gastrointestinal problems. Only a small amount (around 0.5mg per litre or 0.5 parts per million) of copper sulfate is needed to prevent algal growth.

However, copper can also enter swimming pools through the corrosion of water pipes, so concentrations may be higher in some pools.

Copper sulfate crystals are greenish-blue in colour. So, when hair comes into contact with copper ions – a positively charged variant of a copper atom with extra electrons – those ions get absorbed by the hair and cause the greenish hue.

Scientists were fascinated by the green “pool hair” phenomenon as far back as the 1970s, so we actually have research data on copper being the cause.

One very interesting study in 1978 performed experiments by immersing hair samples into water containing different concentrations of copper ions, chlorine and various pH values (neutral and basic). Their results showed hair exposed to free copper ions does turn green.

Furthermore, when hair is oxidised (meaning electrons are removed from the hair proteins) by chlorine, it actually damages the hair, enhancing the absorption of copper ions. Hair submerged in water with chlorine but without copper ions did not turn green. Meanwhile, hair exposed to water with only copper ions and no chlorine still formed a green colour.

Hence, chlorine by itself does not play a role in causing the green hue we see in “pool hair”, but it does exacerbate it.

So, how does copper get into the hair?

Other research teams have conducted more extensive studies, using sophisticated instruments, such as scanning electron microscopy, to examine how exactly copper ions attach to the hair.

Our hair is predominantly composed of protein called keratin. Keratin is classified as a “structural fibrous protein”, meaning it has an elongated, sheet-like structure.

The keratin structure is composed of various chemical groups (types of atom groupings with similar properties), such as carboxyl groups, amino groups and disulfide groups. Copper ions have the ability to form bonds with these groups, forming a copper-keratin complex. This complex remains in the hair, causing it to appear green.

Interestingly, the most recent study conducted in 2020, showed copper ions mainly bind to the disulfide groups. This study also found other metal ions such as zinc, lead, chromium and mercury also bind to hair in the same way. This is very useful in forensic analysis, for example, because forensic scientists can analyse hair samples to determine if a person has been exposed to a particular metal.

Light-coloured hair already has the most visible green discoloration, but research has shown that damaged hair, caused by bleaching, straightening, or exposure to sun, is the most susceptible to the binding of copper ions. This is because in damaged hair the disulfide groups have “broken bonds” (the link that holds the elements within these groups together is broken), making it easier for the copper ions to bind to the hair.

Can I prevent the green colour or get rid of it?

To prevent your hair from turning green in a swimming pool, you have two basic options. The first is a physical barrier – just wear a swim cap.

The second option is chemical – you can pre-treat your hair with an alkaline shampoo. Studies have shown under alkaline pH conditions, the copper ions won’t attach to the hair. To treat your hair before going to the pool, you can either use a shampoo with a pH lower than 7, or you can even try mixing some baking soda into your regular shampoo.

But what can you do if your hair has already turned greenish? Well, you can try washing your hair with a shampoo designed to achieve this, typically marketed as a “chlorine removal” shampoo. These products contain a chemical called EDTA – it can bind to metal ions (such as copper) and thus will remove copper from the hair.

You may have heard tomato sauce or ketchup is a good way to get the green out of your pool hair – potentially because the red pigments are supposed to “cancel out” the green ones. However, I’m not aware of any scientific evidence this would work.

Read more:
Why do fingers get wrinkly after a long bath or swim? A biomedical engineer explains

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

– ref. Why does my hair turn green from the swimming pool? – https://theconversation.com/why-does-my-hair-turn-green-from-the-swimming-pool-211736

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

It’s a coincidence that New Zealand elects a new parliament on October 14, the same day Australians decide whether (at the request of Indigenous people) they will entrench in the constitution an Aboriginal and Torres Islander Voice to Parliament. But there is one striking parallel between the two campaigns.

On both sides of the Tasman, some people are claiming Indigenous policies risk their nation being divided along racial lines.

In Australia, opposition leader Peter Dutton argues the Voice “will permanently divide us by race” and “re-racialise” the constitution. He doesn’t mention that the constitution has always allowed governments to discriminate against people of some races.

In New Zealand, the libertarian ACT (Association of Consumers and Taxpayers) party – which according to the polls is likely to be needed by the National Party to form a government – is campaigning with the slogan “End division by race”.

ACT particularly opposes a distinctive Māori voice in public decision making through the co-governance of natural resources and the Māori Health Authority, established this year to allow Māori health experts to make decisions about the funding of Māori primary health services.

The party is calling for a referendum to redefine the Treaty of Waitangi and reduce its influence.

But the treaty itself doesn’t mention race. It was an agreement about how British government could be established without compromising Māori authority over their own people and resources. Importantly, it protected cultural equality – which is what co-governance and the Maori Health Authority try to achieve.

Cultural equality

In my book, Indigeneity, Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, I examine how bringing culture and the experience of colonisation into policy discussions makes a big contribution to what works.

But arguments against these distinctive ways of including Indigenous cultural perspectives and experiences in public policy have often been couched in prejudice, in New Zealand and Australia.

When Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime used the occasional Māori word at a recent campaign debate, for example, there were angry shouts from some in the crowd.

Read more:
Colonial ideas have kept NZ and Australia in a rut of policy failure. We need policy by Indigenous people, for the people

The implicit message was not simply that some might prefer to exercise their democratic right to vote for somebody else. It was that Prime was not accepted there as a Māori person using her own language.

Elsewhere, billboards for te Pāti Māori (the Māori Party) have been vandalised in what the party said “feels like a targeted campaign”.

And ACT leader David Seymour joked in a radio interview about his pledge to abolish the Ministry for Pacific Peoples: “In my fantasy, we’d send a guy called Guy Fawkes in there and it’d be all over, but we’ll probably have to have a more formal approach than that.”

Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said his “remarks are in line with his history of race-baiting and creating divisions, particularly concerning Pasifika and Māori communities”.

Read more:
The Voice to Parliament explained

Democracy and racism

Sepuloni’s response didn’t excite much backlash. But in Australia recently, Indigenous academic Marcia Langton was harshly criticised by Dutton and some news media for suggesting racism was influencing the campaign against the Voice to Parliament. At a community meeting in Western Australia, Langton said:

Every time the No cases raise their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism, I’m sorry to say that’s where it lands, or sheer stupidity.

If you look at any reputable fact-checker, every one of them says the No case is substantially false, they are lying to you.

The comments were misreported by some to suggest she was saying “no” voters were always and everywhere motivated by racism, rather than that some of the No side’s arguments were inherently racist.

The implication is that racism can’t be discussed, let alone called out, and even that racist arguments can be a fair and reasonable contribution to public debate. In turn, this makes it harder to discuss its impact at a structural level.

And we know from opinion polls some people have reasons for voting “no” to the Voice that can’t be called racist. Some think it won’t make a big enough difference for Indigenous people, or that it doesn’t challenge the colonial power of the state sufficiently.

Read more:
No, the Voice to Parliament would not force people to give up their private land

Democratically, it’s fair to argue about whether the Voice to Parliament is a good response to policy problems. Just as it’s fair to say that a Ministry for Pacific Peoples isn’t the best way to ensure government policies work equitably for Pacific people.

But all people still have a right to influence policy making in ways that work. We all think in ways that reflect our culture and experience. Saying that’s fair for some but not others is to say that Indigenous perspectives and experiences shouldn’t be allowed to contribute to policy decisions.

Interestingly, former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, who opposes the Voice, still recognised the importance of meaningful Indigenous perspectives when he spoke about the National Agreement on Closing the Gap in 2020:

We perpetuated an ingrained way of thinking, passed down over two centuries and more, and it was the belief that we knew better than our Indigenous peoples. We don’t.

Giving everyone a ‘fair go’

In New Zealand, the Māori Health Authority, which the National party also says it will abolish, was established precisely to counter health policies that didn’t work because Māori people weren’t sufficiently involved in making them.

It followed a Waitangi Tribunal report that found poor Māori health outcomes could be partly explained by the system not allowing Māori knowledge of what works and why to properly influence decision making.

As one of the authority’s advocates explained it, “We would prefer to be the designers of our own destiny.”

Read more:
7 rules for a respectful and worthwhile Voice referendum

The broader policy implication is that inclusion matters. Liberal democracy exists because we all think differently. We bring different experiences, values and aspirations to our ideas about what governments should and shouldn’t do.

There is no objective truth in the business of government. Democracy developed to manage these differences. Sometimes, however, dominant populations use the democratic system to protect their self-interest rather than accommodate the rights and interests of others.

But democracy can also manage differences through what’s known as “participatory parity”. According to the political theorist Nancy Fraser, citizenship means all citizens are entitled to “parity of esteem”. In other words, a “fair go”, which Fraser says requires two conditions:

First, the distribution of material resources must be such as to ensure participants’ independence and “voice” [and] the second condition requires that institutional patterns of cultural value express equal respect for all participants and ensure equal opportunity for achieving social parity.

Participatory parity means everybody should be able to participate in public decisions knowing they have the same chance of influencing the decision as anybody else.

Thinking about what politics should achieve from an Indigenous cultural perspective or through an Indigenous language shouldn’t be a disadvantage. Otherwise, Indigenous people lose independence, voice and equal respect.

Racism – which is to discriminate on the basis of culture, racial or ethnic origin – means democracy can’t give everybody a fair go. So when people like Marcia Langton point out its influence, they contribute to a fairer and more democratic society.

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

– ref. Racism and democracy: why claims of ‘division by race’ in the NZ election and Voice referendum need challenging – https://theconversation.com/racism-and-democracy-why-claims-of-division-by-race-in-the-nz-election-and-voice-referendum-need-challenging-213651

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bill Gammage, Emeritus Professor, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University

First Nations readers are advised this article contains references to colonial violence against First Nations people.

In 1788 the First Fleet brought two bulls and four cows from the Cape of Good Hope and put them on grass on Bennelong Point, where Sydney Opera House is now. But there wasn’t much grass, and it wasn’t much good, so the cattle took off. Seven years later they were found 65 kilometres southwest, on the Cowpastures near Camden, a flourishing herd. By 1820 they were supporting an abattoir and a couple of tanneries.

The cows had found land that was deliberately made for grazing animals – kangaroos. In small patches and on extensive plains, Dharawal managers had performed cool burns to promote rich grass near water. When the cattle found this grass, they stayed.

It was the start of dispossession. Grazing animals trod on or ate the staple tubers such as murnong, on which local groups relied. These grew in rich beds, but were easily trampled. As colonists moved inland, they took Aboriginal land used for growing grain and ran sheep or cattle on it.

The effects of this upheaval are still with us today.

Without fire, the trees took over

The newcomers who took the Camden country tried to keep it open, without scrub. There, John and Elizabeth Macarthur developed the Australian merino sheep. But they did not understand fire, and the bush got away. As early as 1817, the Macarthurs’ land “had become crowded – choked up in many places by thickets of saplings and large thorn bushes [Bursaria spinosa] and the sweet natural herbage had for the most part been replaced by coarse wiry grasses which grew uncropped”.

In 1848, Thomas Mitchell observed the effects:

The omission of the annual periodical burning by the natives (sic), of the grass and young saplings, has already produced in the open forest lands nearest to Sydney, thick forests of young trees, where, formerly, a man might gallop without impediment, and see whole miles before him. Kangaroos are no longer to be seen there; the grass is choked by underwood.

On good grass, stock fed themselves – they needed only shepherds or stockmen – but European crops grew reluctantly on Sydney sandstone. In 1789, English farmer James Ruse grew corn on better land at Rose Hill near Parramatta, but it still yielded poorly.

Read more:
Before the colonists came, we burned small and burned often to avoid big fires. It’s time to relearn cultural burning

In 1794, Ruse sold his block and joined the settlers crowding the rich flats of the Hawkesbury River. Here, he produced the first successful wheat crop.

Soon, corn, English wet wheat and barley were supplying government stores and the Sydney market.

On those Hawkesbury flats, Dharug people had long grown a key staple: tubers. They could not afford to lose the land. They gave some up, but the settlers wanted it all. In 1794, guerilla war broke out. It lasted 22 years – Australia’s longest war – until in 1816 British soldiers finally broke Dharug resistance.

Tubers and grain

Unlike the newcomers, the Dharug rarely ate grain. They preferred tubers. This was common – wherever it was wet enough, people across Australia relied on tubers, notably warran (Dioscorea hastifolia) in the southwest, and the yam daisy, murnong (Microseris lanceolata) in the southeast.

Women regularly dug over tuber fields to make the soil crumbly, and replanted tuber tops for the next harvest. For mile after mile where they had worked, the ground looked ploughed. At Sunbury, near Melbourne, Isaac Batey, a gardener in England, saw a slope of:

rich basaltic clay, evidently well fitted for the production of myrnongs. On the spot are numerous mounds with short spaces between each, and as all these are at right angles to the ridge’s slope, it is conclusive evidence that they were the work of human hands extending over a long series of years.

In country too dry for tubers – most of Australia – people grew grain, notably native millet (Panicum decompositum). They chose land near water, burned the ground, spread seed, blocked channels to spread water, watched the seasons to know when to return, reaped the crop by pulling or stripping with stone knives, dried, threshed and winnowed the grain, and stored it in skin bags or ground it into flour.

On the Narran River, northwest of Lightning Ridge, the explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell observed in 1848:

Dry heaps of this grass, that had been pulled expressly for the purpose of gathering the seed, lay along our path for many miles. I counted nine miles along the river, in which we rode through this grass only, reaching to our saddle-girths.

Dispossession and reversal

Even allowing for the modern expansion of irrigation in the north, people probably farmed more of Australia in 1788 than we do now.

But we don’t crop the widespread grainlands of the arid interior. We leave them to cattle or camels. Our crops largely grow on tuber country, so a great many tubers have diminished or disappeared. How people use the land has essentially reversed since 1788, based on my research into the subject.

This upended the lives of many species. It let inland birds such as galahs, crested pigeons, and later, little corellas, expand their range. When Europeans arrived, galahs were typically inland birds. Now they’re common from coast to coast. What changed? My research suggests it was colonisation. Galahs feed on the ground. To get at tall inland grasses, they relied on Aboriginal grain cropping before contact. Afterwards, introduced stock shook or trampled grass – and expanded the galah’s range.

But ground-dwelling small and medium-sized mammals and birds declined. Dozens of species became extinct or endangered. The toolache wallaby was gone in less than a century. The lesser stick-nest rat and the paradise parrot disappeared not long after newcomers, their stock, and new predators like cats and foxes invaded their habitats. Today, even the koala is endangered.

Those who had cared for these species – the people of 1788 and after – were devastated by invasion. It’s possible they had more war dead than white Australia’s 103,000 in all its wars.

Survivors were commonly driven or taken from their country, and the land they managed so carefully was made a resource to exploit, or left to burn randomly.

So much was lost. Gone are the stories, the dances, the paintings, the languages of ten thousand campfires, gone knowledge of land, sea and sky, the skill to care for every habitat, to grow local crops and husband native animals, to feel truly at home.

Read more:
The biggest estate on earth: how Aborigines made Australia

Bill Gammage 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. Colonists upended Aboriginal farming, growing grain and running sheep on rich yamfields, and cattle on arid grainlands – https://theconversation.com/colonists-upended-aboriginal-farming-growing-grain-and-running-sheep-on-rich-yamfields-and-cattle-on-arid-grainlands-207118

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Fougerouse, Research Fellow, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University

There is nothing quite like a diamond. For many they are the ultimate “I love you” gift, and jewellers will tell you the ultra-hard stones have unmatched “fire” and “brilliance”. The sentimental and aesthetic value of the gems is matched by their price, which can run to tens of thousand dollars per carat – and even more for coloured diamonds, especially if they are blue, green, violet, orange, red or pink.

But why are diamonds so expensive? How do they form? Do we really find diamonds in volcanoes? What is the link to supercontinents and ancient lifeforms?

In new research published in Nature Communications, we answer some of these questions by studying the world’s largest diamond deposit, Argyle in Western Australia, the source of more than 90% of pink diamonds.

We found that at Argyle, diamonds crystallised deep in Earth’s interior were brought to the surface when a supercontinent, Nuna, began to break apart. As continents break up, their edges stretch, allowing small pockets of diamond-rich magma to rise to the surface.

Why are pink diamonds so special?

Only about 20% of mined diamonds are of gemstone quality. If you think of diamonds as cars, 80 of every 100 on the road would be old, beat-up rides and 20 would be luxury cars.

One in every 10,000 would be the equivalent of a supercar: a rare and precious coloured diamond.

However, some places in the world are special. Just as you might see a greater proportion of supercars in Monaco or Hollywood, so too do some places produce more coloured diamonds.

When it comes to pink diamonds, one place stands alone. More than 90% of all the pink diamonds ever found come from a single mine in the Kimberley region of Western Australia: Argyle.

The Argyle mine closed in 2020, and the price of pink diamonds has skyrocketed while the supply dwindles.

While pink diamonds are highly prized, they are also in a sense “damaged goods”.

Diamonds are made of carbon atoms arranged in a compact, regular lattice. Clear, perfect diamonds sparkle because light reflects off their internal surfaces.

However, when diamonds are subject to intense pressure deep inside Earth, the lattice of atoms can twist and bend. This causes small imperfections that diffract light and bring colour to the gem.

Why is Argyle so well-endowed in pink diamonds?

All diamonds are found in pipelike volcanoes, or in their eroded remnants. These volcanoes have deep roots under continents, which is where diamonds reside.

The roots need to be deep. If they’re shallow, the carbon that might become diamonds will instead be in the form of graphite, which is not nearly as appealing on an engagement ring.

The story of the Argyle volcano begins some 1,800 million years ago, when the continental plate beneath the Kimberley smashed into the rest of WA to form the first supercontinent, Nuna. Five hundred million years later, Nuna ripped apart again while Australia hung together.

Yet old wounds never fully heal. The suture between the Kimberley and the rest of the continent was stretched open as Nuna split up, and the Argyle volcano shot to the surface, bringing pink diamonds with it. The death of a supercontinent gave birth to Argyle.

So what made Argyle’s diamonds pink? The force that damaged the deep diamonds, resulting in their beautiful hue, probably came from the continental collision that formed the supercontinent in the first place. But the diamonds remained deep below this old wound for a long time before being brought to the surface.

Read more:
Perfectly imperfect: the discovery of the second-largest pink diamond has left the world in awe. What gives diamonds their colour?

Will we find another trove of pink diamonds? With Argyle now closed, the search is on to meet the demand for these illustrious gems.

The ingredients appear to be continental breakup, the edges of ancient continents and volcanic pipes.

Is carbon recycled in Earth’s interior?

Finding diamonds is no mere quest for glitz and glamour. It’s an exploration of Earth’s deepest history.

Diamonds are ancient time capsules from the depths of our planet. They are relics of a past so remote it challenges comprehension.

We know they are made of pure carbon – but where did this carbon come from?

Read more:
More than just a sparkling gem: what you didn’t know about diamonds

Most of the carbon is remnants of carbon-rich asteroids that clumped together to form Earth 4.5 billion years ago.

However, some diamonds contain carbon that was once part of living organisms. Organic carbon, from organisms that once thrived on Earth’s surface, got buried deep down by geological processes.

The Argyle diamonds, for instance, hold such organic imprints, like echoes from an ancient world long vanished. In these glimmers of the distant past, we find more than beauty; we find keys to unlock the most profound secrets of our planet’s history.

Denis Fougerouse receives funding from The Mineral Research Institute of Western Australia.

Hugo Olierook receives funding from various minerals industry partners and the Australian Research Council.

Luc Doucet receives funding from the Australian Research Council and China University of Geoscience, Wuhan.

– ref. Most pink diamonds were birthed by a disintegrating supercontinent. Where can we find more? – https://theconversation.com/most-pink-diamonds-were-birthed-by-a-disintegrating-supercontinent-where-can-we-find-more-212019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Taylor, Research fellow, Chronic Disease & Ageing, Monash University

Menopause is the stage of life where the ovaries stop releasing eggs and menstrual periods cease. Most Australian women go through menopause between 45 and 55 years of age, with the average age being 51 years, although some women may be younger.

Hot flushes and night sweats are typical symptoms of menopause, with vaginal dryness, muscle and joint pains, mood changes and sleep disturbance also commonly reported. Up to 75% of women experience menopausal symptoms, with nearly 30% severely affected.

These symptoms can negatively impact day-to-day life and wellbeing. The main therapies available include menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) and non-hormonal prescription therapy. Some women will elect to try complementary and alternative medicines, such as herbal medicines and nutritional supplements. Black cohosh is one of them.

Read more:
How long does menopause last? 5 tips for navigating uncertain times

What causes hot flushes

The cause of hormonal hot flushes (also called hot flashes) still isn’t completely understood, but the decline in oestrogen at menopause appears to play a role in a process that involves the area of the brain that regulates temperature (the hypothalamus).

Factors linked to a greater likelihood of hot flushes include being overweight or having obesity and smoking.

MHT, previously known as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), usually includes oestrogen and is the most effective treatment for menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes. But women may choose complementary and alternative medicines instead – either because they shouldn’t take hormone therapy, for example because they have breast cancer, or because of personal preference.

Close to 40% of Australian women report using complementary and alternative medicines for menopausal symptoms, and up to 20% using them specifically to treat hot flushes and sweats.

Read more:
Is menopause making me put on weight? No, but it’s complicated

A long history

Complementary and alternative medicines have a long history of use in many cultures. Today, their potential benefits for menopausal symptoms are promoted by the companies that make and sell them.

The complementary and alternative medicines women often try for menopausal symptoms include phytoestrogens, wild yam, dong quai, ginseng and black cohosh.

Black cohosh (plant name Cimicifuga racemosa) was traditionally used by Native Americans to treat a variety of health concerns such as sore throat, kidney trouble, musculoskeletal pain and menstrual problems. It is now a popular herbal choice for hot flushes and night sweats, as well as vaginal dryness and mood changes.

There are many theories for how the active ingredients in black cohosh might work in the body, such as acting like oestrogen, or affecting chemical pathways in the brain. But despite extensive research, the evidence to support these theories remains inconclusive.

It is also not clear whether black cohosh is effective for hot flushes. Results from individual studies are mixed, with some finding black cohosh improves hot flushes, while others have found it doesn’t.

A 2012 review combined all the results from studies of menopausal women using black cohosh to that date and found overall there was no proof black cohosh reduces hot flushes more effectively than an inactive treatment (placebo). This review also revealed that many studies did not use rigorous research methods, so the findings are hard to interpret.

A more recent review of clinical trials claimed black cohosh may ease menopausal symptoms, but the included studies were mostly small, less than six months long, and included women with mild symptoms.

There is also no meaningful evidence black cohosh helps other symptoms of menopause, such as vaginal symptoms, sexual problems, or poor general wellbeing, or that it protects against bone loss.

Evidence for how black cohosh is absorbed and metabolised by the body is also lacking, and it is not known what dose or formulation is best to use.

More good quality studies are needed to decide whether black cohosh works for hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms.

Read more:
Hot flushes, night sweats, brain fog? Here’s what we know about phytoestrogens for menopausal symptoms

Is it safe to try?

A review of studies suggests black cohosh is safe to use, although many of the studies have not reported possible adverse reactions in detail. Side effects such as gastrointestinal upset and rashes may occur.

While there have been rare reports of liver damage, there is no clear evidence black cohosh was the cause. Even so, in Australia, black cohosh manufacturers and suppliers are required to put a warning label for the potential of harm to the liver on their products.

It is recommended black cohosh is not used by women with menopausal symptoms after breast cancer, as its safety after breast cancer is uncertain. All women should consult with their doctor before using black cohosh if they are taking other medications in case of possible drug interactions.

Many women like to try herbal therapies for hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms. While black cohosh is generally considered safe and some women may find it helps them, at the moment there is not enough scientific evidence to show its effects are any better than placebo.

Women experiencing troublesome menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes, should talk to their doctor about the best treatment options for them.

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. Lots of women try herbs like black cohosh for menopausal symptoms like hot flushes – but does it work? – https://theconversation.com/lots-of-women-try-herbs-like-black-cohosh-for-menopausal-symptoms-like-hot-flushes-but-does-it-work-211272

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Victoria Whitington, Associate Professor in Education Futures (Adjunct), University of South Australia

Young children love to play with their mums and dads. But for busy parents, it’s often the last thing they feel like doing.

Running a home and family, doing paid work and trying to squeeze in some personal time mean parents don’t have a lot of time or energy to play magical princess dragons or soccer ninjas.

But playing with your kids and letting them lead the play is really important. Here’s why and how you can approach it.

Read more:
Children learn through play – it shouldn’t stop at preschool

Why is play so important?

Children love to play. But it is more than a way for them to enjoy themselves. It is also the principal way they learn about their world.

There are many types of play. For example, it can be manipulating objects, such as play dough. Or it can be imaginary, where children pretend they are mums, dads or babies.

In play, children have ideas and then follow those ideas in a way that is not simply a response to what surrounds them. Instead, they use that environment to imagine and create another world. A block becomes a phone, a table a house and a garden the home of a dragon.

Holding an imaginary theme in mind and creating a sequence of actions and appropriate language to enact it requires considerable intellectual effort. This sees children perform at a higher level than when engaged in other activities they are not leading.

Play teaches children to test their hypotheses and solve problems they encounter. Parents will notice children usually play about the world in which they are living. This is why they play families, pets and other familiar roles such as shopkeepers, doctors or nurses.

These themes may look mundane to parents (even boring). Yet for children they are exciting opportunities to explore their world, find out about the various roles they see around them and to bring ideas learned in a variety of contexts together in play.

Play develops concentration and emotional skills

Often children are seen as having short attention spans. Yet in play they can follow a theme or idea they have chosen for a longer time than when engaged in adult-led activities.

Developing the capacity to sustain attention to that idea in play and ignore other stimuli builds children’s capacity to self-regulate.

Self-regulation – the ability to control emotions and actions – is important in learning, at school and socially and emotionally.

Play is also central to language development. Play enables children to use the words and ideas they hear in their everyday lives and experiment with them in imaginary environments. In play they may talk to themselves to guide their thinking.

Read more:
‘That’s getting a bit wild, kids!’ Why children love to play-fight and why it is good for them

Why do my kids want to play with me?

Children from approximately 18 months to eight years old want to play with their parents. Their parents are the centre of their worlds, until their attention shifts increasingly to their peers.

They want to do so because it helps their learning and development. Parents can anticipate their child’s thinking and create shared meaning in a way other children of the same age are not able to do.

Shared meaning enables to play to continue and makes it more interesting.

Read more:
Why the tween years are a ‘golden opportunity’ to set up the way you parent teenagers

The role of adults in play

A parent’s role is to assist their child in play. This means it is important for adults to let children be the decision makers. Parents can initiate the play, make suggestions or provide props. But for the activity to be regarded as “play,” children must be those who make the decisions and guide its direction.

Research shows when an adult attempts to control the play children become distracted and quickly lose interest.

Play is not instructional (this is not about teaching your child how to do something). We have all experienced situations where we have been talked at, not discussed with, and likely we found it much harder to focus.

Children need to have this control because in play they are operating exactly at the level at which they are best able to learn. Suggestions from an adult or older child, however, can take the child’s play to a higher level. This makes it more challenging intellectually than if children were playing alone or with peers.

How much play and how often?

Children are instructed in almost every aspect of their day – when to get up, when to go to sleep, what to eat. Having a regular play time in which they lead, make decisions about an activity and how it progresses, gives them power and a sense of control in their lives.

My work as a professional teacher and early childhood academic has shown me that when parents – particularly those concerned about their child’s behaviour – dedicate 30-plus minutes each day (or every other day) to parent-child play, they find their child is happier and more easily guided in other aspects of their lives. This also strengthens their relationship.

Not all parents can manage this. But finding regular play time when you can is likely to be well worth it.

A valuable window

Parents who play with their children can find it is a valuable window into their children’s thinking, interests and world.

If you are going to join in the play, do so fully. Put away your phone – and sit on the floor or follow your child to where they are playing. This shows your child you are genuinely joining in.

Hopefully, by dedicating this time and prioritising it, parents may also find their child becomes more amenable to parents also allocating time for themselves.

Victoria Whitington 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. ‘Mum, can you play with me?’ It’s important to play with your kids but let them make the rules – https://theconversation.com/mum-can-you-play-with-me-its-important-to-play-with-your-kids-but-let-them-make-the-rules-213748

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland

As we approach the release of Monday’s employment white paper we can expect to hear a lot about something called the NAIRU – the so-called Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment.

This ungainly acronym, which currently dominates the thinking of both the Reserve Bank and the Treasury, derives its power almost entirely from the economic crisis of the 1970s, and is overdue for reconsideration.

The story of the NAIRU begins even further back in time, in the 1940s, and is best illustrated by a curious machine displayed in the entrance of the Melbourne University Business, Economics and Education Library.

The MONIAC is a hydraulic computer, one of 12 constructed by New Zealand economist Bill Phillips in 1949 to illustrate Keynesian economics.

MONIAC stands for MOnetary National Income Analog Computer, and, although the machine is made out of tanks and pipes and valves and coloured water, it is a working (early) computer.

A guide to the Melbourne University MONIAC says when in operation, water is “injected into the ‘active balances’ tank, pumped up to the top of the machine as income, and allowed to flow downwards as expenditure, with controlled amounts siphoned off to enter the tanks representing taxes and government spending, savings and investment, and trade”.

While the MONIAC was an amazing innovation, even more important was the thinking behind it, which a decade later led Phillips to discover the Phillips Curve, a graph still used today to show the relationship between unemployment and the rate of wages growth or inflation.

In the model described by Phillips, strong aggregate demand (a strong desire to spend) both cuts unemployment and pushes up inflation.

Weak aggregate demand boosts unemployment and cuts inflation.

The Phillips curve represents the trade-off.

At the time, with memories of the Great Depression still fresh, and the United States competing with the Soviet Union to achieve full employment, a slightly higher rate of inflation seemed a small price to pay to get closer to full employment.

It could be obtained by moving along the Phillips curve, using government spending and other measures to increase inflation and bring down unemployment.

Leading Keynesian economists including Paul Samuelson recognised at the time that the curve might not hold if people came to expect high inflation. However, given that earlier episodes of inflation in the early 1950s had been short-lived, it was thought that problem could be managed.

Phillips morphed into NAIRU

This prevailing view was challenged in 1968 by the great Chicago economist Milton Friedman who argued in his Presidential Address to the American Economic Association that, if inflation persisted long enough, the expectations of workers and businesses would adjust.

The inflation rate would become “baked in” as workers and suppliers increased their wages and prices by enough to compensate for inflation, whatever the unemployment rate.

Over the long term, there was a “natural rate of unemployment” – a floor – below which extra wages growth would simply lead to more inflation.

Translated to the graphical representation of the Phillips curve, Friedman implied that in the long run, the “curve” would be simply a vertical line, represented here with the annotation NAIRU in a graph prepared by Australia’s Reserve Bank.

The combination of high inflation and high unemployment (often referred to as “stagflation”) which emerged in the early 1970s seemed to vindicate Friedman. High inflation and high unemployment can’t coexist on a standard Phillips curve.

Friedman’s presentation of the problem implied the need for a full-scale model of what moved unemployment and wages, but it was never seriously attempted.

Instead, economists used Friedman’s insight to estimate the rate of unemployment at which inflation remained stable – the so-called “natural rate”.

Unfortunately for proponents of the idea, the “natural rate” turned out to vary over time, leading to the term being replaced with the clunkier but more descriptive “NAIRU”.

Worse still for proponents of the idea, estimates of NAIRU tended to move in line with the actual rate of unemployment. When unemployment was high, estimates of NAIRU were high. As it fell, estimates of NAIRU fell, suggesting that how far unemployment could fall was determined by how far unemployment had fallen.

Put to the test, NAIRU failed

The NAIRU model’s first real test since the 1970s came with the rapid upsurge and then decline in inflation in 2022 and 2023 that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the end of the COVID lockdowns.

Inflation was initially driven by a combination of supply chain disruptions and demand from savings made during the lockdowns.

Because the unemployment rate didn’t much move (presumably being near NAIRU, albeit an estimate that had progressively been lowered as unemployment fell) the upsurge in inflation could be seen as consistent with the existence of NAIRU, a vertical line on the Phillips graph.

However, the absence of a significant increase in wages growth was inconsistent with NAIRU, which was built around the idea that inflation was driven by growth in wages, passed on as higher prices.

Read more:
We can and should keep unemployment below 4%, say top economists

More damaging to the idea of a NAIRU was what happened next.

So far in 2023 inflation has dived (using the monthly measure, from 8.4% to 3.9%) but the unemployment rate has barely budged – at 3.7% in August, it’s where it was in January.

This doesn’t fit the standard NAIRU model. However, it makes perfect sense in a world where high inflation can be seen as the simple result of strong demand driven by COVID income support and supply constraints associated first with COVID and then Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Let’s not use NAIRU to limit our ambition

The central banks that pushed up interest rates have been quick to claim credit for the latest decline in inflation, but this claim doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Higher interest rates work with a lag to drive inflation down by reducing investment and consumption, and increasing unemployment. But inflation has fallen without these things happening.

Unemployment may well rise as the economy contracts, but that will be an unnecessary cost, like undergoing a dangerous treatment for a medical condition that is curing itself.

Like a one-hit wonder from the 1970s, the NAIRU model has remained dominant on the strength of its success in predicting the emergence of stagflation in the 1970s.

But as a general model of inflation and unemployment, it is woefully deficient. It is to be hoped it isn’t used to limit the government’s ambition in the white paper.

Read more:
Why unemployment is set to stay below 5% for years to come

John Quiggin 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. Living in the 70s: why Australia’s dominant model of unemployment and inflation no longer works – https://theconversation.com/living-in-the-70s-why-australias-dominant-model-of-unemployment-and-inflation-no-longer-works-211487

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael B. Charles, Associate Professor, Management Discipline, Faculty of Business, Arts and Law, Southern Cross University

For thousands of years, people have been describing unexplainable gleaming objects in the sky.

Some aerial phenomena like comets, meteor showers, bolides, auroras or even earthquake lightning – all easily explained by today’s knowledge – were widely reported in the ancient world.

The US Congress is currently investigating unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs – what you might think of as UFOs), in the wake of previously classified footage of UAPs being leaked and a former intelligence official alleging the US government possesses “off world” technologies.

Meanwhile, a recent NASA report concluded there is no evidence suggesting UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin.

Ancient writers saw these phenomena as signs of social unease and impending disaster. In this way, modern reactions to UAPs are similar to those of thousands of years ago. There is a long history of strange objects in the sky associated with political and military crises.

Read more:
NASA report finds no evidence that UFOs are extraterrestrial

Ancient signs of trouble

In the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel mentioned a divine chariot: it glowed like hot metal in a fire and Ezekiel could see four living beings in it. They looked human-like, though they had four faces and four wings.

The vimāna – the flying chariots of the gods – also appear in ancient Indian epics, including the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana.

In Hindu myths, the gods were portrayed as riding these chariots to every corner of the universe.

Describing portents of the winter of 218 BC, the Roman historian Livy said a “spectacle of ships gleamed in the sky”. The Second Punic War had begun, and the enemy general Hannibal was on the verge of a series of victories.

Maybe these “ships” in the sky were odd cloud formations, but Livy’s choice of words suggests something “shining” or “gleaming” – qualities even today associated with UAPs.

Livy reports another appearance of ships in the sky in 173 BC, when a “great fleet” allegedly appeared. In the spring of 217 BC, with Hannibal still threatening Rome, Livy says “round shields were seen in the sky” over central Italy.

Livy doesn’t say if these objects gleamed like the “ships” seen the previous year, but the “shields” recall the appearance of “flying saucers”, the type of UAP that came to prominence at the height of the Cold War.

Another curious classical UAP is recorded by the Greek writer Plutarch in his Life of Lucullus, a Roman general. Lucullus’ forces were about to fight King Mithridates VI of Pontus when a strange object appeared between the two armies:

suddenly, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar (pithos), and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated.

That the object was described as a pithos, a vessel which has a specific shape, suggests something more than a flashing light. Some have interpreted this as a meteor, but Plutarch’s focus on its shiny metallic nature does not match this possibility.

Whatever it was, both armies thought it was a bad omen and withdrew.

Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, writing about war between Roman and Jewish forces, records an aerial battle between UAPs in AD 65. Before sunset, “chariots” were seen in the sky, accompanied by “armed battalions hurtling through the clouds”.

Josephus says numerous eyewitnesses saw it and believed it foretold the Roman victory that followed.

From ancient to modern doomsdays

Saint Paul referred to God’s “shield of faith” in his Letter to the Ephesians, while “ships voyaging in the sky” were a common theme in medieval Ireland, symbolising the safety the “ship” of the Church afforded believers.

Reports of unusual phenomena increased at the turn of every millennium, when Christian people feared or hoped for the Judgement Day predicted in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

Millennial ufology is a fascinating development of recent Christian predictions of the end of the world, where the Messiah poses as a space traveller who returns to save us from Satanic aliens.

Millions of adults every year report experiences with UAPs: when interviewed about their experiences, some admit they are religious; others insist they are not. Importantly, ufology may well be a way of reconciling religion with science, an approach many find appealing.

We will never know what the objects and lights described by ancient texts were, and whether they were real or the result of psychological stress. At the very least, significant ancient sightings of UAPs almost always speak to conditions of anxiety and imminent change.

UAPs – ancient and modern – confirm our need to project our crises to objects in the skies.

Ancient people did not have the Doomsday Clock to warn them how close the end was, but they watched the skies carefully and found plenty of warning up there.

Read more:
Is there evidence aliens have visited Earth? Here’s what’s come out of US congress hearings on ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’

Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Discovery Project: Crises of Leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire, 250-1000 CE.

nothing to disclose

Michael B. Charles 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. Chariots of the gods, ships in the sky: how unidentified aerial phenomena left their mark in ancient cultures – https://theconversation.com/chariots-of-the-gods-ships-in-the-sky-how-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-left-their-mark-in-ancient-cultures-210276

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suze Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey University

Last night’s live TV leaders debate between Labour’s Chris Hipkins and National’s Christopher Luxon made clear the policy and leadership style differences between the two contenders to become New Zealand’s next prime minister.

But as TVNZ’s post-debate analysts tended to agree, neither candidate will have changed many minds – or reversed the main political poll trends since mid-year.

The so-called “bandwagon effect” describes how opinion polls can not only inform but sometimes influence electoral behaviour. Voters start aligning with whichever politician or party seems to be gaining support and momentum, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy effect.

Based on recent polling, this might seem to favour the National Party. But the rise of New Zealand First and Winston Peters, and the relative decline in support for the ACT Party, means there is still an unpredictable element to this election.

For Labour’s Chris Hipkins, it was important he not be perceived as a “dead man walking”. He probably managed that. But arguably, his situation remains more akin to someone attempting to thread a needle while running – a difficult and risky thing to do.

More than political theatre

Attempts to analyse leadership often focus on personal attributes – such as skills, personality, character and decision-making – and how these influence the results a leader achieves.

But what leadership researchers call “followership” – in this case, voter attitudes, behaviours and expectations – matters greatly. So does the wider socioeconomic and cultural context in which a leader is operating. Weighing all these can help reveal how Hipkins is responding and performing as a political leader.

Read more:
NZ election 2023: combined poll trends now show a clear rightward shift since June

In a nutshell, his core challenge is to navigate adverse conditions in ways that rise above the mere theatrics of politics. He needs to connect with voter’s values and interests, not just their current mood.

If Hipkins can do that, and with at least one recent poll suggesting the election could deliver a hung parliament, he could secure Labour a chance of forming the next government.

Authenticity and fallibility

Hipkins is campaigning primarily on his and Labour’s claimed desire and ability to support the “ordinary Kiwi” – that traditional target of most political parties. His own background as the “boy from the Hutt”, along with his self-deprecating and pragmatic, centrist instincts, are important features of his appeal and credibility.

That pragmatism orients him to seek politically practical and achievable outcomes whatever the circumstances. The challenge, however, is to be both aspirational and positive while also not indulging unrealistic expectations.

Research shows people are more likely to trust and support leaders they see as being “one of us”, and who they believe are genuinely motivated to act “for us”.

Read more:
After the election, Christopher Luxon’s real test could come from his right – not the left

To sustain that, leaders also need to show they can deliver. Hence the balance in Labour’s advertising between its priorities for the coming term and its key achievements in government.

Hipkins has also emphasised the importance he attaches to just being himself, acknowledging he’s not infallible. Describing the government’s COVID policies and some decisions that, with the benefit of hindsight, weren’t optimal, he has said:

And that means you don’t get everything perfect, and there’s no point being defensive about it – you just have to own it.

Good leaders, according to some research, are authentic and know their weaknesses, but also possess the virtues needed to exercise wise judgment. Overall, the more voters trust Hipkins as a “safe pair of hands”, the more likely he is to win their support.

Crafting a persuasive narrative

The flip side to Hipkins’ pragmatism is that by not being bolder with policy, he risks giving people too few reasons to vote for Labour. His “middle ground” approach gives more political oxygen to parties on the left and right offering more radical change proposals.

And while policies might be the focus of campaigns and debates, politics remains an emotional experience for many voters. The electoral mood becomes a significant factor. And, as one observer put it recently, the electorate is unusually “grumpy”.

Hipkin’s therefore needs to persuade undecided voters – and previous Labour voters thinking of voting for another party – to reassess any negative feelings they might have about Labour’s performance. He has to convince them their long-term material interests, rather than their current emotional state, will be better served by giving him their vote.

In a cost-of-living crisis, it’s tempting to look for someone to blame for life’s challenges. That is a gift to Labour’s opponents, keen to build a narrative of political and economic incompetence.

Read more:
Taxing questions: is National glossing over the likely cost of administering its new ‘revenue measures’?

There is a counter-narrative, of course: inflation and government debt levels are both below the OECD average, New Zealand has had proportionally far fewer COVID deaths than elsewhere, and the country’s credit rating remains solid. But facts and logic may hold little sway.

In leadership research, the attempt to create or control the narrative is called the “management of meaning”. Unless Hipkins discovers an effective way to do this, he will struggle.

This is a common problem for incumbent governments, campaigning on their record of managing real-world, complex problems. For opposition parties, it’s easier to present simple solutions and make bold promises, or what researchers of populism have bluntly called “bullshit statements”.

Breaking through these barriers and appealing to voter’s actual interests over their emotions is no easy task. Chris Hipkins has just over three weeks to find a way.

Suze Wilson 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. Controlling the political narrative is key to winning the NZ election – no easy task for Chris Hipkins – https://theconversation.com/controlling-the-political-narrative-is-key-to-winning-the-nz-election-no-easy-task-for-chris-hipkins-213533

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

The outlooks for both local and export supplies of gas are positive for the early months of next year, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry’s September report.

The inquiry, which provides regular information on east coast supply, says there will be sufficient gas to meet domestic demand as we go into 2024, while exports are predicted to be 9% higher in the first quarter, compared to the same quarter this year.

Even if all uncontracted gas is exported, there will still be an overall east coast surplus of 1.4 petajoules in the first quarter of 2024, according to the report.

It also forecasts gas supply in quarter one 2024 will be 5.9 petajoules above that forecast in June and 13% higher than actual supply in quarter one this year.

Export demand in the first quarter next year is projected to be 8.2 petajoules higher than the June forecast or 9% above actual LNG exports in the first quarter of this year.

The report says recent investment in pipeline infrastructure has improved the east coast gas market’s ability to transport gas from the northern states to the southern states, with further upgrades to be ready for next winter.

The forecast on domestic supplies follows actions by the government to ensure companies provide adequate quantities of gas into the local market at reasonable prices.

The ACCC does warn, “While the overall outlook is positive there remains risk that the outlook could worsen, particularly from higher-than-expected gas demand”.

The ACCC notes its data was collected during “a changing policy environment, including the implementation of the Gas Market Emergency Price Order and consultation on the Gas Market Code of Conduct”.

Under the code, which came into full operation this month,
producers may be exempted from reasonable pricing
requirements in exchange for making domestic supply commitments.

“However, as data was collected before the code was finalised, forecast supply in quarter 1 2024 does not reflect possible supply commitments producers may make to gain an exemption from the code.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the data disproved the opposition’s fearmongering claims about the government’s energy price relief plan.

“The Liberals and Nationals voted against energy relief for families and small businesses in the parliament and they said the sky would fall in as result of our price caps and gas code of conduct. This data collected after the government announced action to limit the worst impacts of gas price increases is more proof they have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Chalmers said the plan was designed “to deliver better, fairer prices for Australian consumers at the same time as we honour our trusted role as an energy supplier”. The evidence showed it was working, he said.

He said gas would “play a crucial role in the defining decade ahead as we look deepen and broaden our industrial capacity and make the most of the transformation to cleaner, cheaper energy”.

Employment White Paper released on Monday

The long-awaited employment white paper, prepared by Treasury, will be released on Monday.

The paper will list five objectives. They are delivering sustained and inclusive full employment; promoting job security and strong, sustainable wage growth; reigniting productivity growth; filling skills needs and building the future workforce; and overcoming barriers to employment and broadening opportunities.

It will include a small number of initiatives, and point to future reform directions across ten policy areas. These are:

• strengthening economic foundations

• modernising industry and regional policy

• planning for our future workforce

• broadening access to foundation skills

• investing in skills, tertiary education and lifelong learning

• reforming the migration system

• building capabilities through employment services

• reducing barriers to work

• partnering with communities

• promoting inclusive, dynamic workplaces.

Chalmers said the white paper “is a roadmap for ensuring more Australians can make the most of the big shifts underway in our economy and society over the coming decades”.

“Today our unemployment rate is around historic lows and the participation rate is near record highs. This positions us well in the face of the immediate challenges of slowing economic growth and continuing global uncertainty, but more needs to be done to shape the future direction of our labour market and put the benefits of employment within reach of more of our people.”

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. Positive outlook for local and export gas supplies for early 2024: ACCC – https://theconversation.com/positive-outlook-for-local-and-export-gas-supplies-for-early-2024-accc-213875

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

The outlooks for both local and export supplies of gas are bright for the early months of next year, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry’s September report.

The inquiry, which provides regular information on east coast supply, says there will be sufficient gas to meet domestic demand as we go into 2024, while exports are predicted to be 9% higher in the first quarter, compared to the same quarter this year.

Even if all uncontracted gas is exported, there will still be an overall east coast surplus of 1.4 petajoules in the first quarter of 2024, according to the report.

It also forecasts gas supply in quarter one 2024 will be 5.9 petajoules above that forecast in June and 13% higher than actual supply in quarter 1 this year.

Export demand in the first quarter next year is projected to be 8.2 petajoules higher than the June forecast or 9% above actual LNG exports in the first quarter of this year.

The report says recent investment in pipeline infrastructure has improved the east coast gas market’s ability to transport gas from the northern states to the southern states, with further upgrades to be ready for next winter.

The brighter outlook for domestic supplies follows actions by the government to ensure companies provide adequate quantities of gas into the local market at reasonable prices.

The ACCC notes its data was collected during “a changing policy environment, including the implementation of the Gas Market Emergency Price Order and consultation on the Gas Market Code of Conduct”.

Under the code, which came into full operation this month,
producers may be exempted from reasonable pricing
requirements in exchange for making domestic supply commitments.

“However, as data was collected before the code was finalised, forecast supply in quarter 1 2024 does not reflect possible supply commitments producers may make to gain an exemption from the code.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the data disproved the opposition’s fearmongering claims about the government’s energy price relief plan.

“The Liberals and Nationals voted against energy relief for families and small businesses in the parliament and they said the sky would fall in as result of our price caps and gas code of conduct. This data collected after the government announced action to limit the worst impacts of gas price increases is more proof they have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Chalmers said the plan was designed “to deliver better, fairer prices for Australian consumers at the same time as we honour our trusted role as an energy supplier”. The evidence showed it was working, he said.

He said gas would “play a crucial role in the defining decade ahead as we look deepen and broaden our industrial capacity and make the most of the transformation to cleaner, cheaper energy”.

Employment White Paper released on Monday

The long-awaited employment white paper, prepared by Treasury, will be released on Monday.

The paper will list five objectives. They are delivering sustained and inclusive full employment; promoting job security and strong, sustainable wage growth; reigniting productivity growth; filling skills needs and building the future workforce; and overcoming barriers to employment and broadening opportunities.

It will include a small number of initiatives, and point to future reform directions across ten policy areas. These are:

• strengthening economic foundations

• modernising industry and regional policy

• planning for our future workforce

• broadening access to foundation skills

• investing in skills, tertiary education and lifelong learning

• reforming the migration system

• building capabilities through employment services

• reducing barriers to work

• partnering with communities

• promoting inclusive, dynamic workplaces.

Chalmers said the white paper “is a roadmap for ensuring more Australians can make the most of the big shifts underway in our economy and society over the coming decades”.

“Today our unemployment rate is around historic lows and the participation rate is near record highs. This positions us well in the face of the immediate challenges of slowing economic growth and continuing global uncertainty, but more needs to be done to shape the future direction of our labour market and put the benefits of employment within reach of more of our people.”

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. Bright outlook for local and export gas supplies for early 2024: ACCC – https://theconversation.com/bright-outlook-for-local-and-export-gas-supplies-for-early-2024-accc-213875

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prema Arasu, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Western Australia

One of the most highly anticipated game releases this year is Bethesda Studio’s action role-playing game Starfield. An open world game set in the year 2330 with over 1,000 explorable planets, it’s been described by producer Todd Howard as “Like Skyrim in space” and by director Ashley Cheng as “the Han Solo simulator. Get in a ship, explore the galaxy, do fun stuff.”

New game releases are rarely without their controversies. Earlier this month, a clip of YouTuber HeelvsBabyface complaining about the inclusion of pronouns in Starfield went viral.

You take everything we love, all our immersions, all our fantasies, all our escapism, and you can’t help shovel your dogshit fucking crap ideology into everything.

Other internet gaming personalities are claiming they will boycott the game over its inclusion of pronouns in the character creation system.

All this is in a response to a window that pops up during character creation asking the player to confirm their character’s pronouns from three options: he/him, she/her, and they/them.

Larian Studios’ Dungeons & Dragons-based game Baldur’s Gate 3 was released for Playstation 5 on the same day as Starfield. The game has a similarly detailed character creation system including three “identity” options: male, female, and non-binary/other, which has similarly incited criticism from gamers.

What is character creation?

In an ever-growing age of increasing digital processing power and graphics capabilities, big-budget releases such as Starfield are judged by the level of detail in worldbuilding, graphical realism, and character customisation options.

Open world games keep getting bigger and character creation systems are becoming increasingly comprehensive.

The Sims (2000) was one of the first games to offer a highly detailed level of character customisation. Most role playing games follow The Sims’ established sequence of choosing male or female, which displays a default character on screen. Players then progress through different selection pages to further customise skin colour, body proportions, hairstyle, facial features and clothing.

Conventionally, the body initially chosen will then go on to limit options for hairstyles, facial hair, and clothing. It may also affect the character’s voice in-game, determine what pronouns with which they are referred to, and limit romance options.

Read more:
Hogwarts Legacy’s game mechanics reflect the gender essentialism at the heart of Harry Potter

Newer releases are changing their approach to the sex, gender and body options to allow the creation of characters beyond the gender binary. Some games, such as Elden Ring (2022), simply avoid gendering secondary sex characteristics by allowing players to choose between “Body A” or “Body B” in place of male or female. Splatoon 3 does something similar.

Other games go a lot further: CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) was the first game to allow genital customisation. Regardless of the gender chosen at the beginning of character creation, players may then select between two penis options (circumcised and uncircumcised) and a vagina, and can select a penis size from “small”, “default” and “big”.

Genital customisation does not affect gameplay, but according to ScreenRant, “both aligns closely with the cyberpunk subgenre and allows for greater player expression”.

What are pronouns, and why do they upset some people?

Pronouns are some of the first identifying words we learn. They form the basics of how we refer to ourselves and others, and we all have them.

Pronouns include words such as “I”, “me”, “you”, “your”, “she”, “his”, “them”, and “theirs”. When conservative internet personalities complain about pronouns, they are referring to the inclusive in-game options that allow people to create characters beyond the gender binary.

The argument that pronoun and custom genital options impedes player’s ability to have an “enjoyable experience” is a reflection of real-world transphobia.

Trans and gender diverse people have used games as a way to escape this reality, entering worlds where they can play as characters that align with their gender identity in ways their real-world body may not.

This is a common acting-out fantasy among non trans players too, who might create a character who is stronger, taller, or more conventionally attractive than they perceive their real-world selves to be. Games offer a world where almost anything is possible, and with the added features in newer games such as Starfield, trans and gender diverse people have more possibilities than ever to perform their gender.

Those calling for a boycott of these games over their inclusion of pronoun options and customisable genitals are also seeking to act out a fantasy: one where trans and gender diverse people do not exist. To wish the world, even a fantasy world, be rid of all traces of gender diversity, is to impose a political ideology onto a game.

Paradoxically, this is the very thing these conservative reviewers are mad about. Politics informs all forms of media in some way, but especially so science-fiction narratives, which speculate on the myriad future possibilities of humanity and beyond. Inclusive options in character creation are not only a draw for the increasingly diverse consumers of digital games, they are also an important part of storytelling.

This article was co-written with Seth Malacari.

– ref. Starfield is the latest game to be boycotted by conservatives. This time because of pronouns – https://theconversation.com/starfield-is-the-latest-game-to-be-boycotted-by-conservatives-this-time-because-of-pronouns-213244

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mai Nguyen, Lecturer in Marketing, Griffith University

The future of influence is here: a digital avatar that captivates millions of adoring fans while offering unparalleled customisation and round-the-clock availability.

Virtual influencers are transforming the way content is created, consumed and marketed online. They represent an electrifying dance between cutting-edge technology and our desire for connection. But, at the same time, they are yet another product being peddled by marketers that want our money.

Upon close inspection, we can see the risks that emerge with these blurred realities.

What are virtual influencers?

While virtual influencers aren’t a particularly new concept – virtual Japanese popstar Kyoko Date has been around since 1996 – recent advances in technology have thrust them into the spotlight.

Also called digital influencers or AI influencers, these digital personalities have a social media presence and interact with the world from a first-person perspective.

They’re created by 3D artists using CGI (computer-generated imagery), motion-capture technology and AI tools. Creators can make them look and act exactly how they want, and their personas are thoughtfully developed to align with a target audience.

There are three main types of virtual influencers: non-humans, animated humans and life-like CGI humans. Each one provides an innovative way to connect with audiences.

Why do virtual influencers exist?

Advancements in AI, the rise of social media and visions of the metaverse (in which the real and virtual worlds are blended into a massive immersive digital experience) are synergistically fuelling the growth of virtual influencers.

Their popularity has prompted marketing agencies to embrace them as a cost-effective promotional strategy.

While real influencers with millions of followers may demand hundreds of thousands of dollars per post, one 2020 estimate suggested virtual influencer Lil Miquela charged a more reasonable £6,550 (currently about A$12,600).

Virtual influencers have clear benefits when it comes to online engagement and marketing. They don’t age, they’re free from (real) scandals and they can be programmed to speak any language. It’s no surprise a number of companies and celebrities have caught onto the trend.

In 2019, supermodel Bella Hadid posed with Lil Miquela in ads for Calvin Klein in what one columnist dubbed a “terrifying glimpse of the future”.

Since then, virtual influencers have become even more popular.
In 2021, Prada introduced a CGI ambassador for its perfume Candy. More recently, Lil Miquela has popped up in a number of high-profile brand campaigns and celebrity interviews. Even rapper Timbaland has said he is considering a collaboration.

The transparency issue

Virtual influencers have a unique cultural dimension. They exist in a murky space between our world and the virtual which we’ve never quite explored. How might they impact us?

One major concern is transparency. Many virtual influencers already present as human-like, and it may become increasingly difficult to distinguish between them and real people. This is particularly problematic in an advertising context.

As the market for virtual influencers grows, we’ll need clear guidelines on how this content is used and disclosed.

India has taken the lead on this. In January, its Department of Consumer Affairs made it mandatory for social media influencers, including virtual influencers, to disclose promotional content in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Similarly, TikTok has updated its community guidelines to say:

Synthetic or manipulated media that shows realistic scenes must be clearly disclosed. This can be done through the use of a sticker or caption, such as ‘synthetic’, ‘fake’, ‘not real’, or ‘altered’.

A Messi way to make money

The emergence of virtual replicas of real people (including deepfakes) has led to new discussions about how a person’s likeness may be used, with or without their consent.

On one hand, celebrity deepfake porn is on the rise. On the other, celebrities are including “simulation rights” in their contracts so their likeness may be used in the future. Take global football star Lionel Messi, who allowed PepsiCo to use a digital version of him to promote Lay’s potato chips.

While this might introduce opportunities for talent expansion, it also raises exploitation risks. People may unwittingly or desperately sell off their digital likeness without consent or adequate compensation.

Will the virtual replace the human?

For now, the relationship between virtual and human influencers seems more poised for coexistence than a total replacement. For now, virtual influencers can’t connect with people the way a real person can (although it’s hard to say how this might change in the future).

As for human content creators, virtual influencers are both inspiration and competition. They’re transforming what it means to be creative and influential online. Whether they like it or not, human creators will need to work with them – or at least alongside them – in whatever ways they can.

Read more:
‘Virtual influencers’ are here, but should Meta really be setting the ethical ground rules?

Mai Nguyen 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. Virtual influencers: meet the AI-generated figures posing as your new online friends – as they try to sell you stuff – https://theconversation.com/virtual-influencers-meet-the-ai-generated-figures-posing-as-your-new-online-friends-as-they-try-to-sell-you-stuff-212001

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

A majority of Australians have indicated they will vote “no” in the upcoming referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, according to a national Essential poll conducted Sept. 13–17 from a sample of 1,135 people.

The poll gave the “no” side a 51–41% lead over the “yes” side, compared to a 48–42% lead two weeks ago.

On voter strength, 42% said they were a hard “no” (up one percentage point), 28% were a hard “yes” (down two points), 12% were a soft “yes” (steady) and 8% were a soft “no” (up one point). The figures don’t add up to the overall “yes” and “no” totals due to rounding.

Below is the updated 2023 Voice aggregated polls graph. Essential has been the best pollster for “yes”, but now even this poll is showing a 10-point national lead for “no”. In every poll conducted since June by all pollsters, support for the “yes” side has been declining steadily.

The polling indicates the Voice referendum is headed for a heavy defeat. I wrote in my article on the last Newspoll that it was a blunder to hold this referendum as a standalone vote rather than with a general election, given the long history of failed referendums in Australia.

Large crowds at weekend rallies for the “yes” side do not imply the polls are wrong, as people who attend political rallies are very unrepresentative of the overall voting-age Australian population. Analyst Kevin Bonham has more in this long article debunking “poll denial” themes.

Read more:
Albanese records first net negative Newspoll approval as Voice support slumps further

Labor at post-election low in Essential’s voting intentions

In Essential’s two-party estimate that includes undecided voters, Labor led the Coalition by 49–45%, down from a 51–43% lead a fortnight ago.

This is the lowest Labor lead in Essential’s fortnightly polls since it started asking about voting intentions in December 2022. The previous lowest Labor lead was five points in March and July.

Primary votes were 32% Coalition (steady), 31% Labor (steady), 13% Greens (down two points), 8% One Nation (up one point), 2% UAP (steady), 8% for all others (up one point) and 6% undecided (steady). The drop for the Greens means fewer preferences for Labor.

On what was causing the rising cost of living, 49% of those polled thought businesses maximising profits for shareholders contributed more than wage and salary increases for workers, while 32% blamed workers’ salaries more.

On power in the workplace, 42% thought it tilted too much in favour of employers, 12% said it was too much in favour of workers, and 46% thought the balance about right.

A majority of respondents supported the three proposed changes to workplace laws, with

• 79% backing a new offence for employers to knowingly underpay their workers

• 66% supporting the closure of loopholes to prevent employers from using labour hire workers to undercut full-time workers

• and 54% supporting minimum rights and entitlements for gig workers.

In other Canberra news, there will be no double dissolution election over Labor’s housing bill after it passed parliament on Sept. 14 with Greens support after the two parties reached a deal, ending months of conflict.

Other national polls

In last week’s Morgan federal poll, conducted Sept. 4–10 from a sample of 1,382 people, Labor led the Coalition by 52.5–47.5%, a 0.5-point gain for the Coalition from the previous week. Primary votes were 37% Coalition, 32% Labor, 13.5% Greens and 17.5% for all others.

I previously covered the continued tumble in Voice support and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ratings from a national Resolve poll for Nine newspapers that was conducted September 6–9 from a sample of 1,604 people.

In other questions related to Qantas in that poll, 64% thought foreign airlines should be granted more flights to Australia to increase competition, while just 15% thought they should be limited in the national interest.

By a 69–17% margin, participants thought it unacceptable for politicians to accept free lounge memberships from Qantas.

Participants were also asked to give a positive, negative or neutral rating for each airline. More respondents had a negative view of Qantas (42%) than positive (26%), and a negative view of former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce (54–6%).

Both Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways had higher positive ratings of 41% and 29%, respectively, than negative.

NSW Resolve poll: Labor drops but still well ahead

A New South Wales Resolve poll for The Sydney Morning Herald, conducted with the federal August and September Resolve polls from a sample of 1,019 people, gave Labor 38% of the primary vote (down three points since July), the Coalition 36% (up four points), the Greens 9% (down one point), independents 13% (up two points) and others 4% (down one point).

No two-party estimate was provided by Resolve, but The Poll Bludger estimated Labor would lead the Coalition by 54–46%, a 4.5-point gain for the Coalition since July. This is close to Labor’s 54.3–45.7% win at the March state election.

Labor incumbent Chris Minns maintained a 41–14% lead over the Liberals’ Mark Speakman as preferred premier (compared to 39–12% in July).

Respondents were also asked about a recent scandal involving Tim Crakanthorp, Labor MP and former minister for the Hunter, over revelations that his family owned several commercial properties in the Hunter region that he had not disclosed.

On the appropriate action, 48% thought Crakanthorp should be stood down and independently investigated, while 29% thought he should be disciplined by the party or parliament and 7% thought no action should be taken.

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. Support for both the Voice and Labor drop in latest Essential poll – https://theconversation.com/support-for-both-the-voice-and-labor-drop-in-latest-essential-poll-213350

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Richardson, Professor in Biological Oceanography, University of Copenhagen

As far as we know, there is exactly one planet in our Solar System – and the galaxy – which hosts life. And you’re on it.

For the first 800 million years, Earth was dead. Then life began making itself at home. For over three billion years, lifeforms have helped shape their own environment. Earth’s energy balance (commonly known as the climate) and its interactions with trillions of species is the main determinant of environmental conditions.

As you know, one species – ours – is exceptionally good at changing our environment to suit us. The problem is, we’re now too good at it. We chop down forests, remove mountains to get at ore bodies, take over grassland, fish out entire seas, create and unleash novel chemicals and pump huge quantities of nutrients from fertiliser into the system. These and many more undermine the hidden life support system on which we rely.

What are planetary boundaries?

Almost 15 years ago, this article’s lead author helped create something called “planetary boundaries” to make clear what damage we had done.

We teased apart nine processes vital to the Earth system.

Three are based on what we take from the system:

• biodiversity loss
• fresh water
• land use.

The remaining six come from waste we deposit back into the environment:

• greenhouse gases (which cause climate change and ocean acidification)
• ozone depleting chemicals
• novel entities (plastic, concrete, synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms which owe their existence to us)
• aerosols
• nutrient overload (reactive nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilisers)

If we keep our activities to a safe level, the sheer exuberance of life and the planet’s own processes can handle it. But in six out of nine vital life support systems, we have blown well past the safe zone. And we’re now in the danger zone, where we – as well as every other species – are now at risk.

Our breach of boundaries is very new

In the year 1900, there were around 1.6 billion humans – nearly all of them poor. Now there are 8 billion of us, and some of them are rich. And nearly all of us use fossil fuels, plastics, chemicals and products from intensive agriculture.

It can be very easy to live our lives and only occasionally glimpse the reality. You might have flown over palm oil plantations where rainforest was. Seen blue-green algal blooms or fish kills. You might have wondered where all the animals or bugs were on a bushwalk.

Read more:
Humanity is in the existential danger zone, study confirms

But when we zoom out and look at the sum total of our impacts, the story is clear. Put bluntly, we are eating away at our own life support systems. And this has happened extraordinarily recently. If we keep going, we risk triggering a dramatic and potentially irreversible change in living conditions.

Like all other living organisms, we survive by using Earth’s resources. We once believed these resources were unlimited. But we now know there are hard limits.

Take fresh water – essential to life on land. If we pump too much water from rivers, lakes and aquifers for farming, industry or cities, we risk hitting that hard limit. This isn’t hypothetical – places like India and California are close to that limit.

How are these boundaries calculated?

Remember – the entirety of human civilisation, the flowering of culture, religion, agriculture and cities – has taken place only in the last 10–12,000 years. For the roughly 190,000 years before that, we were nomadic hunter-gatherers. What changed?

The climate, for one. We entered a climate sweet spot, with relatively stable and warm conditions. Gone were the recurring ice ages. Many experts believe there’s a connection here – stable climate, rise of civilisation, though this is hard to establish with certainty.

What we do know is we can thrive under these conditions. We don’t know for certain our civilisation as we know it can thrive if they are different. We would be foolish to risk pushing our supporting envelope to breaking point.

That’s why we and many other independent scientists have worked as hard as we have to develop the framework of planetary boundaries and keep it up-to-date as new science comes in.

Read more:
It’s not just climate – we’ve already breached most of the Earth’s limits. A safer, fairer future means treading lightly

How do we know if we’ve breached the boundaries?

The Earth’s environmental conditions have changed many times in its long history. Climate is a good example here. We know the Earth looked very different when temperatures were higher or lower. Palms once grew in Antarctica. These swings from hothouse to ice age let us estimate the boundary beyond which our activities can upset the process.

These are boundaries, not thresholds. When we cross one, it doesn’t trigger immediate disaster. And it’s entirely possible to bring our activities back from unsafe to safe. We’ve done it already in the 1990s, when international cooperation quickly phased out ozone depleting chemicals and stopped the dangerous ozone hole from getting ever-bigger.

So how are we doing? Not great.

In last week’s update, the research team found we had now gone beyond the safe zone into dangerous territory in six of the nine processes. We are still in the green for ozone-depleting chemicals. Ocean-acidification is still, just, in the green, and so is aerosol pollution and dust.

But on climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, synthetic chemicals such as plastics, freshwater depletion, and nitrogen/phosphorus use, we’re well out of the safer zone. On these six, we’re deep in the red zone.

We’re keeping the party going as long as possible. But it can’t continue indefinitely. The bill comes due. The faster we do for the other boundaries what we did for ozone-depleting chemicals, the safer all of us will be.

Read more:
Two trillion tonnes of greenhouse gases, 25 billion nukes of heat: are we pushing Earth out of the Goldilocks zone?

Xuemei Bai receives funding from Australian Government, Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), The Future Earth, and the Australian National University. She is affiliated with the Earth Commission.

Katherine Richardson 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. What are ‘planetary boundaries’ and why should we care? – https://theconversation.com/what-are-planetary-boundaries-and-why-should-we-care-213762

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gemma Perry, Post doctoral researcher, Bond University

There are plenty of health claims about humming. They include reducing stress, helping you breathe more easily, relieving sinus congestion, lowering your blood pressure and lifting your mood.

That’s a lot of potential benefits for something that comes pretty naturally to most of us.

Can something so simple really be healthy? Here’s what we know so far.

À lire aussi :
From Marie Kondo’s tuning fork to vibrators for ‘hysteria’: a short, shaky history of curing with vibrations

Humming’s all around us

Humming is likely connected to our earliest memories of comfort and care, as caregivers soothe infants with lullabies and humming. Infants, unable to comprehend speech, take in the melodic information, making humming one of our earliest forms of bonding through sound.

As we get older, we hum when we’re happy, embarrassed, displeased or in agreement with someone. Mmm. Hmm.

We often hum tunes unconsciously, even ones we don’t like, by mirroring what we hear. Some tunes can even get stuck in our heads if they contain hooks and repetition. And let’s face it, humming’s also handy when we can’t remember the words.

Then there are songs that feature humming, such as Enya’s The Humming, the 90s smash hit Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by the Crash Test Dummies, or James Blake’s Retrograde.

What happens when we hum?

When we hum, we create a buzzing sound with our mouth closed. We force air through our vocal folds (the newer term for vocal cords), causing them to vibrate and produce sound. We can control the pitch by adjusting the tension of our vocal folds to hum a tune.

All this vibration likely stimulates our vagus nerve (we actually have two), part of our parasympathetic nervous system. This is the nervous system that calms and restores body functions such as our heart rate, digestion and respiration.

People often hum as a way to relax. Their heart rate can decrease and their heart rate variability can increase. Heart rate variability refers to the slight fluctuation in time between each heartbeat. A higher heart rate variability is associated with better health.

À lire aussi :
Heart rate variability – what to know about this biometric most fitness trackers measure

When we hum, oscillating sound waves may also affect the sinuses, leading to increased levels of nitric oxide in the nose. One study found a 15-fold increase of nasal nitric oxide from humming compared to exhaling quietly. Nitric oxide is involved in everything from brain and immune function to blood flow to the lungs and sexual arousal.

In another study, researchers looked at people with allergic rhinitis (such as people with pollen or dust allergies). When they hummed, they had higher levels of nasal nitric oxide and had fewer sinus problems compared to those who exhaled silently.

Humming also leads to some unexpected psychological effects. These include increased body awareness and “decentering” – the ability to separate oneself from thoughts, emotions and sensations.

How about chanting?

Humming also plays an important role in chanting. One example is in the ancient meditation technique bhramari pranayama (which can involve humming while gently closing the ears with your fingertips).

It is no coincidence one of the world’s most chanted sounds – om – involves a long, sustained hum at the end. Chanting all sorts of various sounds and prayers is believed to connect practitioners to the spiritual realm and induce feelings of peace.

Chanting has cognitive benefits, such as mindfulness, and altered states of consciousness, such as flow – a feeling of being absorbed by and deeply focused on an activity. Chanting also reduces stress.

In a nutshell

We hum for lots of different reasons, suggesting that these common vocalisations play an important role in our lives.

Is humming healthy? More research is needed. But humming feels good, improves our mood, distracts us from boring tasks, and can even be used for spiritual practice. Happy humming!

Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.

– ref. Is humming healthy? Mmm, here’s what the evidence says – https://theconversation.com/is-humming-healthy-mmm-heres-what-the-evidence-says-209586

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Kerry, Lecturer in Sociology, Charles Darwin University

More than half of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ Buddhists feel reluctant to “come out” to their Buddhist communities and nearly one in six have been told directly that being LGBTQIA+ isn’t in keeping with the Buddha’s teachings.

These are some of the findings from my research looking at the experiences of LGBTQIA+ Buddhists in Australia.

I’m a genderqueer, non-binary Buddhist myself and I was curious about others’ experiences in Australia since there has been no research done on our community before. So, in 2020, I surveyed 82 LGBTQIA+ Buddhists and have since followed this up with 29 face-to-face interviews.

Some people may think Buddhism would be quite accepting of LGBTQIA+ people. There are, after all, no religious laws, commandments or punishments in Buddhism. My research indicates, however, this is not always true.

Buddhism does have five precepts, or rules for behaving in a moral or ethical way, that monastics and some lay practitioners are meant to follow to have a morally good life. The precept of “sexual misconduct” has been interpreted as referring to homosexuality.

As a result, many LGBTQIA+ Buddhists here continue to experience discrimination. For example, some trans and non-binary Buddhists have been subjected to gender segregation at meditation retreats, while others have been forced to lie about being LGBTQIA+ out of fear of being denied access to ordination.

Difficulties of coming out

In my research, I found that many LGBTQIA+ Buddhists are reluctant to come out because, as Lang* (a pansexual, non-binary man) explained:

there is a profound lack of understanding of how heteronormative and puritan many Buddhist spaces are.

Similarly, Helen (a pansexual transwoman) described the monastery she visits as “a ‘male’ institution”, adding that

judgements and phobias do not disappear because of ordination.

Traci (a lesbian woman) was told explicitly by monastics that being LGBTQIA+ is not in keeping with the Buddha’s teachings. She was not allowed to join a Tibetan sangha (community) in Australia because of her sexuality.

And when Annie (a pansexual transwoman) came out to her teacher (a monastic), he gave her an hour and a half lecture that focused in part on the “evils of gay sex”, despite the fact she stressed she isn’t gay.

Read more:
Traditional Buddhist teachings exclude LGBTQ people from monastic life, but change is coming slowly

Barriers to meditation and ordination

Meditation is one of the key elements of Buddhism and many Buddhist groups offer meditation retreats.

Some trans and non-binary Buddhists I spoke to, however, have had difficulties attending these retreats because they always segregate participants into two groups based on a binary view of gender. Nano (a queer non-binary man) reflected on how it felt when they attended a retreat:

I remember going and sitting with the women, and all the old [local] ladies laughing at me and pushing me back into the midsection [next to the men].

Gender segregation is meant to support practitioners by removing the distraction of “the opposite sex”, but this ignores the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people. Raja (a polyamorous gay man) said:

I would have to potentially deal with my own possible lusts should they arise within the shared environment. Others who identify as heterosexuals would be in a slightly more advantageous setting.

Read more:
Friday essay: how the West discovered the Buddha

A common image associated with Buddhism is a monastic in robes. I found that some LGBTQIA+ celibate monastics who are “out” have, at times, been encouraged to keep their sexual and gender identities a secret so they would not be denied access to ordination.

When the Venerable Daiji (a queer man) lived in a monastery, he was approached by a woman who asked if he was gay and then said: “Then you can’t ordain. You can’t be a monk.” He notes that in a monastery,

there was a lot of pressure to not identify with my sexuality […] which of course, no one else seemed to have to do that work on their sexuality.

An ordained Buddhist priest, Daiden (a gay man), was told by his teacher to not say anything about his sexuality.

If somebody asks, of course, you’re not going to lie. But don’t just say anything about it.

When he is asked if he has a partner, he still says no.

That is lying I guess […] because I do have a partner.

Ways to build a more inclusive community

To build a more supportive and inclusive community, some LGBTQIA+ practitioners are forming groups to connect with others internationally, such as the Third International Queer Buddhist Conference, which brings together hundreds of LGBTQIA+ Buddhists every year.

This is happening within Australia, as well. Rainbodhi was founded in Sydney in 2019 as a “spiritual friendship group” for LGBTQIA+ Buddhists to organise and advocate for greater inclusion and acceptance within the broader Buddhist community. This has led to the formation of other Rainbodhi groups in Singapore, Spain, Poland, Canada and the US.

In 2021, Rainbodhi published “Welcoming the Rainbow”, a booklet promoting awareness and understanding of diversity for use in Buddhist temples, organisations and retreat centres. It has now been translated into Dutch, French, Polish, Spanish and Thai, with a Portuguese translation on the way.

For many of my survey participants, these efforts have gone a long way to create a greater sense of belonging and community.

Venerable Atid, another openly gay Buddhist monk, said he’s happy being part of a LGBTQIA+ Buddhist group

because people there are striving to lead authentic lives as faithful Buddhists, practicing Buddhists, and LGBTQIA+ Buddhists.

* All names in this article are pseudonyms.

Stephen Kerry is a member of Rainbodhi.

– ref. ‘Don’t say anything about it’: why so many LGBTQIA+ Buddhists feel pressure to hide their identities – https://theconversation.com/dont-say-anything-about-it-why-so-many-lgbtqia-buddhists-feel-pressure-to-hide-their-identities-212253

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Barnett, Professor of Statistics, Queensland University of Technology

You feel unwell, and visit your doctor. They ask some questions and take some blood for testing; a few days later they call to say you have been diagnosed with a disease.

What are the chances you actually have the disease? For some common diagnostic tests, the answer is surprisingly low.

Few medical tests are 100% accurate. Part of the reason is that people are inherently variable, but many tests are also built on limited or biased samples of patients – and our own work has shown researchers may deliberately exaggerate the effectiveness of new tests.

None of this means we should stop trusting diagnostic tests, but a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses is essential if we want to use them wisely.

People are variable

An example of a widely used imperfect test is prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, which measures the level of a particular protein in the blood as an indicator of prostate cancer.

The test catches an estimated 93% of cancers – but it has a very high false positive rate, as around 80% of men with a positive result do not actually have cancer. For those in the 80%, the result creates unnecessary stress and likely further testing including painful biopsies.

Read more:
Prostate cancer testing: has the bubble burst?

Rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are another widely used imperfect test. A review of these tests found that, of people without symptoms but with a positive test result, only 52% actually had COVID.

Among people with COVID symptoms and a positive result, the accuracy of the tests rose to 89%. This shows how a test’s performance cannot be summarised by a single number and depends on individual context.

Why aren’t diagnostic tests perfect? One key reason is that people are variable. A high temperature for you, for example, might be perfectly normal for someone else. For blood tests, many extraneous factors can influence the results, such as the time of day or how recently you have eaten.

Even the ubiquitous blood pressure test can be inaccurate. Results can vary depending on whether the cuff is a good fit for your arm, if you have your legs crossed, and if you’re talking when the test is done.

Small samples and statistical skullduggery

There’s an enormous amount of research on new diagnostic models. New models frequently make the headlines as “medical breakthroughs”, such as how your handwriting could detect Parkinson’s disease, how your pharmacy loyalty card could detect ovarian cancer earlier, or how eye movements could detect schizophrenia.

But living up to the headlines is often a different story.

Many diagnostic models are developed based on small sample sizes. A review found half of diagnostic studies used just over 100 patients. It is hard to get a true picture of the accuracy of a diagnostic test from such small samples.

For accurate results, the patients who use the test should be similar to those who were used to develop the test. For example, the widely used Framingham Risk Score for identifying people at high risk of heart disease was developed in the United States and is known to perform poorly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Similar disparities in accuracy have been found for “polygenic risk scores”. These combine information on thousands of genes to predict disease risk, but were developed in European populations and perform poorly in non-European populations.

Recently, we identified another important problem: researchers have exaggerated the accuracy of some models to gain journal publications.

There are many ways to exaggerate the performance of a test, such as dropping hard-to-predict patients from the sample. Some tests are also not truly predictive, as they include information from the future, such as a predictive model of infection that includes whether the patient had been prescribed antibiotics.

Read more:
Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos scandal has more to it than just toxic Silicon Valley culture

Perhaps the most extreme example of exaggerating the power of a diagnostic test was the Theranos scandal, in which a finger-prick blood test supposed to diagnose multiple health conditions attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. This was too good to be true – and the mastermind has now been convicted of fraud.

Big data can’t make tests perfect

In the era of precision medicine and big data, it seems appealing to combine tens or hundreds of pieces of information about a patient – perhaps using machine learning or artificial intelligence – to provide highly accurate predictions. However, the promise is so far outstripping the reality.

One study estimated 80,000 new prediction models were published between 1995 and 2020. That’s around 250 new models every month.

Are these models transforming healthcare? We see no sign of it – and if they really were having a big impact, surely we wouldn’t need such a steady stream of new models.

For many diseases there are data problems that no amount of sophisticated modelling can fix, such as measurement errors or missing data that make accurate predictions impossible.

Some diseases or illnesses are likely inherently random, and involve complex chains of events which a patient cannot describe and no model could predict. Examples might include injuries or previous illnesses that happened to a patient decades ago, which they cannot recall and are not in their medical notes.

Diagnostic tests will never be perfect. Acknowledging their imperfections will enable doctors and their patients to have an informed discussion about what a result means – and most importantly, what to do next.

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. Tests that diagnose diseases are less reliable than you’d expect. Here’s why – https://theconversation.com/tests-that-diagnose-diseases-are-less-reliable-than-youd-expect-heres-why-213359

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Kildea, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney

When Australians vote on the Voice to Parliament referendum on October 14, ballots from the Northern Territory and the ACT will be treated differently from those of the states. The same goes for votes cast by residents of Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

In fact, for most of Australia’s history, territory voters haven’t had a say in referendums at all.

To many, this seems unfair and hard to justify. So, how did we arrive at this point? And should we change the rules so territory voters are treated like everybody else?

Not all referendum votes are equal

The Australian Constitution can only be changed if the people agree to it at a referendum. Section 128 says a proposal for constitutional amendment must obtain “a majority of all the electors voting” and a majority of electors “in a majority of the States”. This is sometimes called a “double majority”.

But state and territory ballots are not treated equally. Votes cast by territory residents count only towards the first half – the national majority. Territory ballots are set aside when it comes to working out whether a proposal has won enough support “in a majority of the States”.

As a result, territory voters don’t have a huge influence over referendum outcomes. Territory populations are small, so any ballots cast are subsumed into the national count. A referendum would have to be very close for territory votes to make a difference.

History helps to explain how we settled on this approach to the referendum franchise. When the Constitution came into being at federation in 1901, the regions we know as the Northern Territory and the ACT did not exist. They were part of South Australia and New South Wales, respectively, and the people living there were able to vote at referendums. The Constitution guaranteed this – it required that proposals for constitutional change be submitted to electors “in each State”.

But in 1911, when both of those regions became federal territories, the people living there lost their referendum voting rights.

Over the next few decades, territory residents had no say on a whole raft of constitutional reforms. The inequity of this arrangement was highlighted at the 1967 referendum, which asked Australians to give the Commonwealth power to make laws about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and include them in the population count.

Read more:
‘Right wrongs, write Yes’: what was the 1967 referendum all about?

More than 90% of electors voted “yes” in a moment of national consensus that is rightly celebrated. But that milestone is blemished by the fact that the many Indigenous people living in the NT (and the ACT) at the time were unable to cast a ballot on this measure.

It took a referendum in 1977 for residents of the territories to finally be given the right to vote at referendums. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser asked Australians to vote “yes” to a proposal to require referendum questions to be put to electors “in each State and Territory”.

This reform was met with almost unanimous approval in the parliament. The only opposition came from Liberal Party senators Ian Wood and Reg Wright. They argued the Constitution was a compact between the Commonwealth and the states, and that it was inappropriate for territories to have a say on whether changes should be made to it.

On the other side, the “yes” case argued it was unfair for residents of the Northern Territory and the ACT to have no say in referendums that could affect their lives. It said a “yes” vote would ensure territory residents were “given the same basic democratic right as other Australians”.

In the end, Fraser’s proposal passed easily. It received 77.7% of the national vote and won majorities in all six states.

This amendment cleared the way for voters in the NT and the ACT to cast their first referendum ballots seven years later. But, as has been the case for every ballot since, their votes only counted for the purposes of calculating the national majority.

But is it fair?

As we prepare to vote in our first referendum in more than two decades, some are asking if it is time to change the rules so territory ballots are finally counted the same as state ballots.

There are at least two arguments for keeping the status quo.

One is that the states and territories have different constitutional status.

Under the Constitution, the states are recognised as independent entities with guaranteed powers. They are sovereign bodies with full powers of self-government.

The territories, on the other hand, have a far more limited constitutional status. They are ultimately under the control of the Commonwealth.

The NT and the ACT owe their powers of self-government to a Commonwealth law. And the federal parliament can legislate for the territories, and even override territory laws. In 1997, for example, the federal government nullified voluntary euthanasia laws that had been passed by the NT legislature.

This can be easy to forget on a day-to-day basis because the territories have their own parliaments and courts, and tend to operate a lot like states. But from a legal standpoint, there is a difference between a state and a territory, and for some that justifies giving territory voters less say over changes to the national constitution.

A second argument for keeping the status quo is that a change to the amendment procedure would give territory voters too much influence over constitutional reform.

The populations of the NT and the ACT are about 250,000 and 461,000, respectively. All up, the combined territory populations come to approximately 710,000 people – noting that, for the purposes of elections and referendums, Norfolk Islanders count towards the ACT’s total, while residents of the other external territories are tallied for the NT.

If the votes of the territories were included when calculating both parts of the double majority, this would see a relatively small fraction of the population have a very big say on whether the Constitution should be changed.

These arguments have a sound logic to them. But in 2023, when Australians are voting on recognising First Nations people through establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, not everyone will find them convincing.

The NT is home to the highest proportion of First Nations people of any jurisdiction – about 30.8%. Given the question on the ballot paper, some will ask whether it is fair they have a lesser vote than most other Australians.

And if we are worried about giving small jurisdictions an outsized say over constitutional change, the Constitution already sets a precedent for that. Ballots cast by residents of Tasmania, currently home to 572,000 people, count towards both parts of the double majority.

Read more:
Changing the Australian Constitution was always meant to be difficult – here’s why

The path to change

If Australians decide it is time to put state and territory voters on an equal footing at referendums, there are two possible pathways to take.

One is to change the amendment procedure in section 128 of the Constitution. It could be altered to require that proposals for constitutional change must win a national majority of votes, plus a majority of votes in at least five of the six states and two mainland territories. Doing this would involve holding and winning a national referendum.

A second pathway involves the Commonwealth parliament conferring statehood on the NT and the ACT. That would automatically include them in both parts of the double majority. This would be a potentially easier path because it could be achieved without a constitutional referendum.

But statehood is a complex issue in itself, not embraced by everybody. In 1998, the NT government put the question to a referendum. In a tight result, 51.9% of territorians voted against statehood.

Whatever happens with the statehood question, the Voice referendum has cast a spotlight on a peculiar and enduring inequality between the voting rights of state and territory residents. Whether it is something that needs addressing is a question not only for people who live in the territories, but all Australians.

And who knows, one day we may find ourselves voting on it at a future referendum.

Paul Kildea has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. State and territory ballots will be counted differently at the Voice referendum – is that fair? – https://theconversation.com/state-and-territory-ballots-will-be-counted-differently-at-the-voice-referendum-is-that-fair-212703

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trevor Mazzucchelli, Associate professor, Curtin University

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has seen increasing numbers of children with developmental delay or disability receive support within clinical settings. It’s also seen reduced support in other settings, including home and school.

Bruce Bonyhady, often referred to as the father of the NDIS, and who has two sons with a disability, is co-chair of the review underway into the scheme. He said recently:

The overwhelming feedback we’ve received through this review is that families want their child supported in the settings where they normally live and are educated […]

Our recent article, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, highlights how existing NDIS guidelines are falling short for parents and carers of children with disability.

The importance of home-based and parent- or carer-integrated support for children with disability appears to have been lost. The consequence: many families and NDIS providers are unsure about how to access or provide parenting support.

Read more:
20% of children have developmental delay. What does this mean for them, their families and the NDIS?

Parenting children’s unique needs

Parenting programs provide valuable opportunities for parents to acquire the extra skills needed to develop a better understanding of their child’s unique needs.

As a result, children can improve their communication and capacity for play, and day-to-day living skills.

Parenting support does not need to be intensive, but rather delivered at critical times – during the child’s preschool years and at various important transitions. It can range from providing high-quality parenting information, to online workshops, to group and one-on-one programs that provide tailored advice and an opportunity to practice skills.

Specialist programs can support parents to understand and manage challenging behaviours (such as uncontrolled crying or hitting, that can be harmful or interfere with learning), increase quality of family life and community participation. Such support can also improve parent and carer wellbeing, and help to reduce the stress experienced by many parents of children with disability.

But since the introduction of the NDIS, parents report difficulty accessing parenting support. And services that used to provide support say they are no longer able to do so.

An NDIA spokesperson told The Conversation:

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) acknowledges the significant role parents and carers play in supporting loved ones living with disability.

The NDIS forms one part of the disability ecosystem, supporting Australians and their families to ensure those living with disability can lead a fulfilling life.

Despite recognition of the central role parents and carers play, there is a lack of clarity around who is responsible for providing parenting programs.

Whose responsibility is it?

The only reference to parenting programs in the NDIS Guidelines comes in the section describing what child protection and family support systems should be offering.

For families who are not involved in the child protection system, the guidelines say the NDIS is:

[…] responsible for supports that families need as a direct result of a child’s developmental delay or disability, and that help families and carers sustainably maintain their caring role.

These may include social and recreation support, therapy and behaviour supports, short breaks or respite, or assistive technology. It is not clear whether parenting programs are included.

We know the NDIS can pay for “training for carers and parents”, because it’s in their price guide. However, it is unclear whether such training covers specialist parenting programs.

Read more:
More children than ever are struggling with developmental concerns. We need to help families connect and thrive

What the NDIS Review can do

The NDIS Review – due to be handed to state and federal disability ministers at the end of October – presents an opportunity to re-prioritise the main agents for change for children with disability: their parents and carers.

A number of initiatives, if incorporated into NDIS policy, would help optimise the development of children and reduce family stress. The NDIS could:

• explicitly state parenting programs for children with disabilities are funded under the NDIS

• maintain a list of best-practice parenting programs for children with disability that can be used as a resource to inform the decision making of parents, carers, NDIS planners and service providers

• track and provide aggregated data on the nature of supports funded, so the delivery of parenting programs provided through the NDIS can be monitored.

An NDIA spokesperson said:

The NDIA is looking forward to the release of the NDIS Review, and will continue to work alongside our participants, as well as their families and carers, on implementing any recommendations stemming from the Review.

Parents and carers are their child’s first and most important support. Parents should have the flexibility to seek out high-quality parenting support and programs that have been found to be effective for children with a disability. They can also advocate for the initiatives listed above.

Increasing parents’ capacity to provide enduring high-quality support will build children’s independence and social skills, and be part of the solution to ensure the equitable sustainability of the NDIS.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of colleague Catherine Wade to this article.

Trevor Mazzucchelli is a co-author of Stepping Stones Triple P – Positive Parenting Program and a consultant to Triple P International. The Parenting and Family Support Centre is partly funded by royalties stemming from published resources of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, which is developed and owned by The University of Queensland (UQ). Royalties are also distributed to the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at UQ and contributory authors of published Triple P resources. Triple P International (TPI) Pty Ltd is a private company licensed by UniQuest Pty Ltd on behalf of UQ, to publish and disseminate Triple P worldwide. He has no share or ownership of TPI, but has received and may in the future receive royalties and/or consultancy fees from TPI. TPI had no involvement in writing of this manuscript. Trevor has a child with autism and accesses support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme. He is also a member of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance (PAFRA), a multidisciplinary research collaboration of experts from leading Australian universities and research centres. The alliance is actively involved in conducting research, communication, and advocacy pertaining to parenting, families, and evidence-based parenting support. PAFRA is supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course.

Bruce Tonge is a co-author of the evidence-based parenting programme Pre-schoolers with autism (Jessica Kingsley Press UK) for which any royalties are returned to research. He is also a chief investigator on NHMRC MRFF Research Grant. APP119968 Evaluation of a New Brief Intervention for Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders (2020–2023). He is also a member of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance.

Kirsten Baird-Bate has an autistic child and accesses support through the NDIS. She is also a member of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance.

Sharon Dawe is co-developer of the Parents under Pressure program (www.pupprogram.net.au). The PuP program is owned and disseminated by Griffith University. Proceeds from dissemination are distributed in accordance with Griffith University policy. Sharon is also a member of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance.

– ref. The NDIS has a parent problem. Changes could involve parents more in disability support and reduce stress – https://theconversation.com/the-ndis-has-a-parent-problem-changes-could-involve-parents-more-in-disability-support-and-reduce-stress-212099

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keiko CP Bostwick, Postdoctoral research fellow, UNSW Sydney

Academic challenges and difficulties are inevitable parts of school – this is how students learn. So researchers have long been interested in the ways students navigate these challenges and how to help them cope better.

Recent research has focused on the concept of “academic buoyancy” or everyday resilience at school. This is about students’ capacity to handle everyday setbacks and challenges. This could include negative feedback on an assessment or facing competing study deadlines and schoolwork demands.

Research has found resilient students tend to have more positive academic outcomes. These include making greater effort with their work, having better study skills and enjoying school more than students who are less resilient.

Research has also shown resilience is underpinned by personal attributes such as confidence. But we need more understanding about what school-related factors are involved in students’ resilience and what schools can do to build their students’ resilience.

Our study surveyed high school students in schools around New South Wales to look at what other factors impact students’ resilience.

Read more:
To help students overcome setbacks, they need to develop ‘academic buoyancy’

Our research

The study was based on responses from 71,861 high school students in 292 NSW government schools who completed the annual “Tell Them From Me” student survey organised by the state’s Department of Education.

Students’ responses were collected at two points one year apart: once at the beginning of the 2018 school year when students were in Years 7 to 11 and then a year later in 2019 when they were in Years 8 to 12. Schools were in metropolitan, rural and regional areas.

One of our main aims was to find out if students’ perceptions of different types of support in their school would influence their resilience one year later.

This included academic and emotional support from teachers, students’ sense of school belonging and behavioural expectations in the classroom.

We looked at the role of support factors in two ways. First, we looked at how support for individual students was associated with students’ resilience. For example, does a student who perceives greater academic support from their teacher, regardless of the school they are in, report greater resilience one year later?

Second, we investigated the relationship between support at the whole-school level and whole-school resilience.

Our findings

In our study, students’ sense of school belonging stood out as the most notable factor of resilience. In fact, the role of school belonging was important at the individual student level and also at the whole-school level.

That is, when individual students felt a greater sense of belonging to their school, they tended to also report greater resilience one year later.

When a school had a higher proportion of students reporting a sense of belonging, it demonstrated higher school-average resilience one year later.

There was also evidence of a reciprocal relationship between students’ sense of belonging and their resilience — that is, increases in school belonging were associated with greater resilience one year later and vice versa.

Notably, these findings were largely similar across contexts, including schools of different sizes, in different locations, with different gender compositions, with varying levels of academic selectivity, with a range of socioeconomic status and with varying levels of students’ academic ability.

The similarity in the findings across contexts suggests targeting these areas of support could benefit students’ resilience in a wide range of academic settings.

Read more:
Research suggests one way to prevent depression and anxiety is a strong sense of connection at high school

Why is this so?

When faced with everyday academic setbacks and challenge, having a strong sense of school belonging helps to protect students from stress and negativity.

This is because students feel less isolated at times of adversity and have options and opportunities for support from their peers and teachers.

Evidence of the reciprocal relationship among these factors also suggests facilitating a greater sense of belonging could have long-lasting effects on students’ resilience as they positively feed into each other over time.

How can we boost belonging?

Helping students to feel safe and included in their school is one way to promote a greater sense of belonging for students. This could include:

• offering a range of extracurricular activities that help students to get involved and feel part of their school community

• anti-bullying or wellbeing programs to help students to feel safer and more comfortable in their schools

• helping students build and feel confident in their personal identities at school.

Read more:
Our new study provides a potential breakthrough on school bullying

Teaching students to be aware of their emotions

There are also strategies for targeting students’ resilience directly. For example, providing students with specific reasoning behind a poor assessment mark and then time (in class or one-on-one) to help them understand and constructively respond to the challenging feedback.

Students might also be taught to be aware of the thoughts, behaviours and emotions they have when they receive a disappointing result and how they can respond constructively. For example, re-framing the event as a learning opportunity or a time to seek out further information from a teacher is one way to focus on self-improvement rather than the disappointing result.

Amid ongoing concerns about young people’s mental health and wellbeing, academic resilience is an important attribute that helps students to navigate their school careers.

More resources for teachers can be found in this guide to everyday resilience published by the NSW Department of Education. The authors also wish to thank Nicole Hare, Samuel Cox, Anaid Flesken and Ian McCarthy at the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, NSW Department of Education, for their assistance with the conduct of this research and co-authorship of the original journal article.

Andrew J. Martin receives funding from the NSW Department of Education, including for the conduct of this research

Rebecca J. Collie receives funding from the NSW Department of Education.

Emma Burns and Keiko CP Bostwick 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. What helps students cope with academic setbacks? Our research shows a sense of belonging at school is key – https://theconversation.com/what-helps-students-cope-with-academic-setbacks-our-research-shows-a-sense-of-belonging-at-school-is-key-213362

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney

When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits China later this year he will encounter a nation whose future is about as uncertain as it was 50 years ago when Gough Whitlam became the first Australian prime minister to visit in late 1973.

Then China was poor, in the process of reengaging the rest of the world after the death of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. Today it is, on one measure, the second-biggest economy in the world, one of the top five along with the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Along the way, it has become by far the biggest customer for Australian exports, accounting for 30% of everything Australia sells, and Australia’s biggest source of imports, providing 27% of all the goods and services that come into the country.

But like Japan before it (which was Australia’s biggest customer before the rise of China) its economy is at a crossroads.

The similarities between China today and Japan in late 1991 are eerie.

Japan’s phenomenal economic growth had been fuelled by a blend of government investment, cheap labour and export-led growth, alongside something else not given enough credit at the time – continually climbing real estate prices.

When those prices collapsed amid mountains of debt, Japan was thrown into what became known as its lost decade. This was a decade in which the economy barely grew, notwithstanding ultra-low interest rates, rolling into a second lost decade in which the economy barely grew, even though interest rates had turned negative.

Eerie similarities

Some of the similarities between China today and Japan in the early 1990s are too uncanny to ignore.

Corporate debt: China’s rapid growth was accompanied by a surge in debt, both in the corporate sector and among local governments.

Just as Japan struggled with unproductive “zombie companies” during its crisis, China faces a similar challenge with state-owned enterprises that for the moment continue to operate despite heavy debt burdens, relying on government support.

Unstable financial institutions: China’s banking sector, like Japan’s in the 1990s, is heavily exposed to non-performing loans. Some of Japan’s banks survived only because of taxpayer funded bailouts.

Decelerating economic growth: from the 1990s to 2010 Chinese annual economic growth was rarely below 10%. It has spent much of the time since COVID below 5%, raising the prospect of falls toward zero – as experienced by Japan from time to time throughout its lost decades.

Ageing, shrinking populations: both China’s and Japan’s populations are turning down, in China’s case because of limited immigration and the aftermath of the one-child policy, and in Japan’s case because of limited immigration and a decline in the birthrate to well below replacement level.

In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 and above has climbed from 8% to 30% since 1980. In China, the proportion has climbed from 4% to 14%.

In both cases the increasing proportion of aged citizens means a greater stock of savings to be invested, but in both cases much is invested aboard where the returns are often better.

Different this time? Maybe

China can learn a lot from Japan’s painful experiences, but putting the lessons into practice won’t be easy.

Just as cross-shareholdings ensured Japan’s bad loans permeated the economy for much longer than they should have, China’s system of enmeshed government and private entities threatens to do the same thing.

The world is watching as China navigates these challenges. It has seen what happened elsewhere.

Richard Gruppetta, a former diplomat and trade commissioner to Tokyo, assisted with the preparation of this piece.

Tim Harcourt 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. In China, Albanese might find an economy as uncertain as Japan’s 30 years ago – https://theconversation.com/in-china-albanese-might-find-an-economy-as-uncertain-as-japans-30-years-ago-213539

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paige Donaghy, Early career researcher, The University of Queensland

Ever wondered where the placenta got its name?

In Italy in the 1500s, the anatomist Matteo Realdo Colombo coined this term to describe the large fleshy organ of pregnancy. Colombo chose placenta because it resembled another big, round object seen in daily life: a cake.

In the premodern world, there existed a variety of words and concepts used to understand the placenta.

In my research, I try to uncover the cultural significance of the placenta and afterbirth in premodern Europe (1500–1800) to help us better understand the social and medical history of this important organ.

Read more:
Explainer: what is placenta?

Afterbirths and secundines

Before the anatomical term placenta appeared, men and women in medieval Europe used the terms “afterbirth” (nachgeburt in German, arrière-faix in French) and “the second” (secundina in Italian, secondine in English).

These terms captured the fact that placental expulsion was the “second” part of a childbirth, necessary to end the birth.

From the medieval to late early modern period, childbirth was very much the preserve of women midwives, family members and neighbours. Much of their knowledge about the placenta was transmitted orally (women were generally not literate, unless elite) yet some of this knowledge survives in texts.

Male physicians recorded women’s knowledge about childbirth to demonstrate they could access “secret” knowledge about women’s bodies. This boosted their reputation among other male physicians, and gave credibility to their expertise over women’s health and childbirth.

One example of this is the 12th century medical compendium, The Trotula, one of the most influential works on women’s medicine in Europe from its publication until well into the 1500s.

The text, a compilation of different medical treatises, was supposedly authored by the first female physician and professor, Trota, in Salerno, Italy.

Although modern scholars suggest that some of the text’s authors were certainly male, historian Monica Green argues that part of the work was likely shaped by a female midwife or healer, possibly called Trota.

At this time, there were many female healers in Salerno, and it was typically only women who had access to women’s births and bodies.

Examining The Trotula allows us to see earlier cultural and medical ideas about the placenta. The author describes how, during birth:

The foetus is expelled from its bed, that is to say the afterbirth, by the force of Nature.

The afterbirth and foetus were understood as having a close, companion-like relationship; the placenta was a “bed” for the foetus during pregnancy, providing support and comfort.

We can also see how the afterbirth might be used following pregnancy and birth. Trota writes:

If [the mother] has been badly torn in birth and afterward for fear of death does not wish to conceive any more, let her put into the afterbirth as many grains of caper spurge or barley as the number of years she wishes to remain barren.

The post-birth use of the placenta in remedies was common in Europe. The afterbirth was perceived as having “sympathetic” healing qualities relating to future fertility and the health of the infant.

Anatomy and the afterbirth: new terms

Women’s ideas about placental remedies were often ridiculed by university-educated male anatomists, who labelled these practices “superstitious”. Yet, many did respect women’s knowledge as experts in childbirth.

When Italian anatomist Matteo Realdo Colombo coined the term “placenta” in the 16th century, he used a term directly related to women’s worlds: cooking. Colombo was professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, a hub for anatomical learning in Europe at the time.

Colombo described the shape and function of the human placenta in his anatomical treatise, De Re Anatomica (On Things Anatomical, 1559).

In this book, Colombo introduced the term “placenta” to distinguish it from other anatomical terms, as well as midwifery terms like “secundina”.

“Placenta” referred to a wide, flat cake, cooked in a pan with layers of cheese and honey, dating as far back as Ancient Rome.

Colombo chose this term to describe the large, flat organ, “circular” like a placenta cake, and of a similar size.

In choosing the term placenta, he also associated the organ with ideas about women’s worlds, of cooking and childbirth; the placenta, like the Italian cake, provided nourishment and comfort. This idea connected with earlier ones like the Trotula, which suggested the afterbirth was the foetus’ bed.

The placenta today

Exploring the history of ideas about the placenta and afterbirth offer us insights into how people have valued this important organ.

This can tell us about the development of scientific knowledge, such as the emergence of the word placenta, providing context for urgent placental science being undertaken today. History can help us determine how and why in different times and cultures, science has or has not prioritised placental research.

Histories of the placenta also help provide context for current cultural attitudes to and practices around the afterbirth, such as eating the placenta and turning the placenta into memorabilia, jewellery or art.

By studying past knowledge about the placenta, we can see the echoes of attitudes to this organ in our modern science and culture.

Our bodies are not static. They are deeply shaped by the prevailing medical and cultural perceptions of our times.

Read more:
No, you shouldn’t eat your placenta, here’s why

Paige Donaghy 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. How a 16th century Italian anatomist came up with the word ‘placenta’: it reminded him of a cake – https://theconversation.com/how-a-16th-century-italian-anatomist-came-up-with-the-word-placenta-it-reminded-him-of-a-cake-207323

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Allen, Research Fellow, Monash University

This week world leaders are gathering at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York to review progress against the Sustainable Development Goals. We’re halfway between when the goals were set in 2015 and when they need to be met in 2030.

As authors of a global UN report on the goals, we have a message to share. Currently, the world is not on track to achieve any of the 17 goals.

There is much at stake. Failing to achieve the goals would mean by the end of the decade, 600 million people will be living in extreme poverty. More than 80 million children and young people will not be in school. Humanity will overshoot the Paris climate agreement’s 1.5℃ “safe” guardrail on average global temperature rise. And, at the current rate, it will take 300 years to attain gender equality.

But there is hope. With decisive action, we can shift the dial towards a fairer, more sustainable and prosperous world by 2030.

Read more:
We modelled 4 scenarios for Australia’s future. Economic growth alone can’t deliver the goods

What does the research say?

The set of 17 universal goals agreed in 2015 aim to end poverty, improve health and education, and reduce inequality – while tackling climate change and preserving our oceans and forests. Each of the goals are broken down into targets.

Every four years, the UN Secretary-General appoints an independent group of 15 international scientists to assess progress against these goals and recommend how to move forwards. We were among the authors of the latest Global Sustainable Development Report published late last week.

To provide a snapshot of progress, we reviewed 36 targets. We found only two were on track (on access to mobile networks and internet usage) and 14 showed fair progress. Twelve showed limited or no progress – including around poverty, safe drinking water and ecosystem conservation.

Worryingly, eight targets were assessed as still going backwards. These included reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and fossil fuel subsidies, preventing species extinction and ensuring sustainable fish stocks.

What is holding us back?

Recent studies have identified feasible and cost-effective global and national pathways to accelerate progress on the goals.

Unfortunately, in many developing countries, insufficient financial resources and weak governance hinder progress. In other cases, existing investments in fossil fuels have generated strong resistance from powerful vested interests. Achieving some goals, such as responsible consumption and production, will also require big, unpopular changes in habits and lifestyles, which are very ingrained.

To accelerate progress on the goals, targets must be fully integrated by government and business at all levels into core decision making, budgeting and planning processes. We need to identify and prioritise those areas that lag furthest behind. To be effective, we also need to uncover and address the root causes of inadequate outcomes, which lie in our institutions and governance systems.

Accountability also remains weak. The goals are not legally binding and even though countries have expressed their support, this has often failed to translate into policy and investments. In practice, the targets are often “painted on” to existing strategies without redesigning norms and structures to deliver improved outcomes.

If the world is to accelerate progress on the goals, governments need to play a more active part, by setting targets, stimulating innovation, shaping markets, and regulating business.

We call on policymakers to develop tailored action plans to accelerate progress on the goals in the remaining years to 2030, including measures to improve accountability.

Scientists have a major role to play too. As we argued in Nature, scientists can help us redesign institutions, systems and practices. By studying ways to strengthen governance and build momentum for tough but transformative reforms, research can overcome resistance to change, and manage negative side-effects.

What does it mean for Australia?

Australia tends to perform poorly on the goals when compared to our peers in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), ranking 40th in the world in 2023. Our best-performing goals include health and education, while progress lags on environmental goals, economic inequality and cost-of-living pressures.

While some environment agencies, businesses and local groups have embraced the goals, Australia’s poor performance is symptomatic of limited traction and commitment at the centre of government.

Here, the goals are often seen as an international development issue rather than central to domestic policy efforts. We lack a high-level statement or any strategy or action plan for the goals. There is no lead unit or coordination mechanism in place and no reference to the goals in the federal budget. One promising development, a national Sustainable Development Goal monitoring portal, hasn’t been updated in five years.

The best performing countries have taken concrete steps to mainstream the targets and ensure accountability:

• Denmark requires new government bills to be screened and assessed for their impacts on the goals

• Finland has taken steps to place sustainable development and people’s wellbeing at the heart of policy and decision making. A sustainable development commission, annual citizens’ panel on sustainable development and national audits provide increased accountability

• Wales requires public bodies to use sustainable development as a guiding principle reflecting the values and aspirations of the Welsh people.

Australia’s first wellbeing framework is an important step forward. The framework of 50 indicators has considerable overlap with the goals, despite notable exceptions such as the lack of a poverty indicator or any specific targets or benchmarks.

Read more:
Australia’s first wellbeing framework is about to measure what matters – but it’s harder than counting GDP

Start lifting our game

As we’ve learned through our own research, little will change if such promising initiatives remain box-ticking exercises that fail to reorient our societies and economies towards sustainable development.

To achieve real change, indicator frameworks need to be translated into timebound targets that clearly set the agreed direction and level of ambition. These targets must be embedded in the core decision-making processes of government and business.

Remember the goals are not a set of technical targets and indicators. They are the outcomes each of us want for our society and the world we live in.

While we are behind at halftime, the game is not over. It is up to us to lift our performance and turn the score around.

Read more:
Climate change threatens the rights of children. The UN just outlined the obligations states have to protect them

Cameron Allen receives funding from the Australian Government.

Shirin Malekpour receives funding from the Australian Government.

– ref. Well behind at halftime: here’s how to get the UN Sustainable Development Goals back on track – https://theconversation.com/well-behind-at-halftime-heres-how-to-get-the-un-sustainable-development-goals-back-on-track-206677