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

With the cabinet meeting today agreeing to targeted Russian sanctions legislation, New Zealand is preparing to circumvent its normal United Nations-based response to international crises.

The Russia Sanctions Bill will allow additional sanctions against Russia, including the ability to:

• freeze assets in NZ

• prevent people and companies from moving their money and assets to NZ to escape sanctions imposed by other countries

• stop super yachts, ships and aircraft from entering NZ waters or airspace.

Passing the law under urgency this week is justified due to Russia being one of the UN Security Council member states, allowing it to use its veto power to block any proposed UN sanctions.

But this is a sad development, and a break with 30 years of diplomatic history. Since 1991, New Zealand has worked within the UN framework and largely based its sanctions regimes around what the UN has mandated.

Over Ukraine, New Zealand has taken some small and supplementary steps against Russia, such as travel bans and export controls over technologies that may have military value. But this has been inadequate compared with the actions of its allies, and the rapidly worsening situation.

NZ must align with allies

To create a new sanctions regime outside the UN system, New Zealand will need to take into account various important factors, including the law’s scope and how it fits with the actions of its allies.

Above all, the legislation must recognise this is a unique situation and must not create a precedent that enables other actions outside the UN system. The new law must expressly state why the urgent actions are justified and the objectives it wants to achieve, and it should have a sunset clause whereby it will lapses on a set date unless expressly renewed.

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

The law must be effective, proportionate and targeted. Anti-Russian hysteria must be avoided. Due process, fairness to those involved, and compliance with existing international obligations, must be uppermost.

Detail must be applied to the creation of a cross-party sanctions committee and a monitoring group. The evidence used to justify sanctions should come from secure and robust sources, which should be as transparent as possible.

Coordination with friends and allies is uppermost. It’s not a question of how large New Zealand’s sanctions are, but rather that they are consistent with those of other countries. If there are inconsistencies, these risk being exploited both politically and economically.

Military aid an option

In a normal situation, a “laddering” process for sanctions is used: sanctions start softly (sporting or cultural events, for instance) and escalate (with some diplomatic restrictions) towards increasingly harsh trade restrictions prohibiting goods, from luxuries to near essentials.

Exclusion from airspace, maritime zones and even travel restrictions for ordinary citizens may be added to the mix, as Russia is increasingly isolated from the wider world. With events moving so fast already, New Zealand is already halfway up the ladder.

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As the Ukraine war drags on, how secure will Putin’s hold on power remain?

Military aid needs to be an option, too. The goal is to help the Ukrainians fight for their own freedom, without putting foreign “boots on the ground”. A distinction between lethal and non-lethal aid (such as body armour, communications equipment, food and medical kit) will need to be made.

Again, the question is not one of scale but consistency with friends and allies. The symbolism of such support is important. Supplementing the efforts of Australia, for example, would be useful.

The new law may also need to cover those New Zealanders who want to fight in Ukraine – on either side. New Zealanders without dual Ukrainian
citizenship are unlikely to be given prisoner of war status if they’re captured.

Such volunteers will be in a grey area of domestic law, too, as current legislation covering the activities of mercenaries, or those who seek to go overseas to fight for terrorist groups, is inadequate.

Fighting the Russian invasion of a sovereign country is not an act of terrorism, and some may be willing to fight without significant financial incentives. The government should make the rules clear – again, consistent with friends and allies.

Risk of unintended consequences

Despite what Vladimir Putin has suggested, sanctions are not an act of war. They are an unfortunate but sometimes necessary non-military strategy aimed at changing or ending a country’s harmful actions.

But even if New Zealand and other like-minded countries apply maximum pressure through sanctions, there is no guarantee Putin will change his policies.

À lire aussi :
Russian sanctions are biting harder than it could have imagined, and it’ll get worse

Sanctions have the best chances of success when a country’s leadership feels affected by the pressure of its own citizens – or in Russia’s case, its oligarch class, as the prime minister hinted today.

So, sanctions may work better with Russia than North Korea. But there is also a risk, if Putin starts to feel this pain, that he will respond in unexpected ways.

The only real certainty is significant collateral economic damage – for Russia and the world, including New Zealand. Everyone will see or feel the impact as economic and diplomatic relationships hit turbulence. Right now, however, there is no viable alternative.

Alexander Gillespie ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. How will NZ’s law targeting sanctions against Russia work – and what are the risks? – https://theconversation.com/how-will-nzs-law-targeting-sanctions-against-russia-work-and-what-are-the-risks-178634

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University

Review: The Exhibitionists, ABC TV

What do you picture in your mind when you imagine an artist?

Is it a man in a beret? Do you think Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Van Gogh? Odds are it is unlikely to be a woman. Yet there are many famous and highly regarded women artists: Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cindy Sherman.

It is even less likely for the word “artist” to trigger the image of an Australian woman. There are however many of importance to Australia’s cultural life: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Tracey Moffatt, Patricia Piccinini and Margaret Preston among them.

Female artists are nowhere near as well known as their male counterparts.

A new docu-comedy, The Exhibitionists, explains why this dominant image of an artist is man, and describes many fascinating stories of the noteworthy place of women across the history of Australian art.

After a few too many drinks at an exhibition opening, four friends dare each other to get locked into the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).

Having a bit of a lark, they notice there aren’t many female artists on show, and set about rectifying that. This narrative is used as a framing device for fascinating profiles of Australian women artists and interviews with experts.

Shaping art practice: the female gaze

The Exhibitionists defines the male gaze as

the idea that everything we look at is created for a default viewer who is male. It is men’s ideas, men’s needs, that dominate the creation of art and visual media.

In contrast, this docu-comedy gives an insight into “the female gaze”, which I describe as “the individual way anyone who identifies as female inflects her own female experience or subjectivity” onto her artwork.

The female artists included in the program played a role in elevating female iconography and women’s culture. Through their work, they introduced crafts such as embroidery into the halls of fine art, and avoided exploitative representations of the female body.

Arguably, it was these things that led to their work being disregarded by gatekeepers and critics.

The Exhibitionists chronicles decades of misogynist critics whose point of view arguably worked to hold women out, an issue across most artforms.

In 1933, critic James Stuart MacDonald bemoaned the “tremendous intrusion of women painters since the war”.

As recently as 2008, Brian Sewell wrote in London’s Evening Standard that “only men are capable of aesthetic greatness”. He noted women are prevalent in art schools but tend to fade away – a fact that indicates systemic issues for female artists rather than a lack of talent.

Women artists are subjected to the same discrimination evident in many other fields, including a gender pay gap, under-representation in galleries, and unconscious bias — particularly by gatekeepers. For example, critics are still often white, heterosexual men over 40 with track records of lacking regard for women’s art.

Read more:
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#KnowMyName

The NGA, which assisted financing The Exhibitionists, has recognised that only 25% of works in its Australian art collection are by women. This situation is mirrored in galleries nationally and internationally.

To redress this, the NGA launched an initiative called “Know My Name” in 2019, aiming to increase representation in the collection while celebrating and recognising Australian female artists.

The initiative has been a call to action and also made visible the work of women across diverse creative practices, highlighting the systemic issues that have been barriers to their participation.

Read more:
Beauty and audacity: Know My Name presents a new, female story of Australian art

This example of leadership by a cultural institution comes on the back of a long history of women’s activism to attain recognition.

Often this has been achieved through humour, as it does in The Exhibitionists.

Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous activist group, fight sexism and racism with humour. In 1989 they printed posters asking “do women have to be naked to get into the Met museum?”, noting only 5% of the modern art collection was from female artists, but 85% of the nudes were of women.

Referring to that phenomena as “the male graze”, the Guerrilla Girls challenged people to count the nudes in other galleries and report back.

Brilliant artists

There are some shocking statistics in The Exhibitionists about how women have been held out of art world circuits, but of most interest are the stellar female artists across eras and styles.

The program creates a potted female-centred history of Australian art. Included is landscape painter Jane Sutherland (1853-1928), the first professional Australian female artist. She was a member of Heidelberg School and one of a small number of women who accompanied Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts on painting trips.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-1996) was one of Australia’s finest abstract expressionists, achieving the highest price for a painting by an Australian woman artist (A$2.1 million in 2017). She did this in sourcing her work from her clan country Alhalkere, and not from western art.

Dorrit Black (1891-1951) was the first Australian woman to run an art gallery and the first Australian cubist landscape painter.

It does appear that in order to make this contribution, many of these artists did not have families and devoted themselves to their art. This life choice led to them being regarded as unfeminine or unwomanly. However, along the way they made a substantive contribution to Australian art.

The Exhibitionists tells us women’s stories matter, and they attract audiences.

Art is for everyone, and it should mirror society.

The Exhibitionists screens on ABC TV on March 8.

Lisa French 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. From the ABC and the National Gallery of Australia, The Exhibitionists explores the unsung talent of Australian art – https://theconversation.com/from-the-abc-and-the-national-gallery-of-australia-the-exhibitionists-explores-the-unsung-talent-of-australian-art-176804

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hamid R. Jamali, Associate Professor and Associate Head, School of Information and Communication Studies, Charles Sturt University

At least 140 Australian journals ceased publication in the past decade. While there are still more than 650 Australian journals, 75% of the discontinued ones served the arts, social sciences and humanities disciplines. The loss of journals has significant implications for local scholarship.

Journal discontinuation damages research. Scholarly communities and the discourse that develops around a journal might be lost or damaged. The content of journals that are the result of the hard work of researchers – publicly funded work in most cases – is jeopardised.

Our recently published research shows establishing and maintaining journals has become increasingly challenging. Australian journals need more support from the higher education and publishing sectors and better strategies for sustainable editorial and publishing practices.

Read more:
Book publishing sidelined in the game of university measurement and rankings

Why do local journals matter?

Academics need suitable journals to publish in, especially as journal articles are the key output assessed in research evaluation exercises such as Excellence in Research for Australia. While large international commercial publishers publish plenty of journals in many fields, national or local journals are important.

Domestic journals better accommodate articles on local issues. This is not limited to social and cultural issues such as Indigenous matters. Australia is unique in many aspects, including ecology, economy, geology and so on.

Research communities and discourses form around these journals. Editors direct research in their field through their editorial practices.

Read more:
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Local journals also support the national education system. They inform practices, especially in fields such as medicine where practices differ from country to country.

Why do journals discontinue?

Our study of discontinued journals and a survey of their editors showed several key factors were at work. These include:

• a lack of funding and support
• unsustainable reliance on voluntary work for editorial processes
• increasing workload pressures on academics who have less time to review and edit submitted articles
• a metric-driven culture that puts pressure on authors to publish in highly ranked journals, at the expense of local journals.

As one editor of a discontinued journal said:

“Potential replacement editors were unwilling to take on the workload of editorship and management given the pressure to focus on Q1 publication [in journals ranked in the top 25%].”

Australian journal publishing is characterised by journals belonging to non-profit organisations (364, 55.9%) and universities (168, 25.8%). As these journals are mostly self-published by their owners, the issues we identified are very likely to adversely impact more journals as economic conditions worsen.

Of the discontinued journals, 54% belonged to educational institutions and 34% to non-profit organisations. They had been operating for an average of 19 years.

Moreover, while humanities and social sciences are well represented in the disciplinary focus of Australian journals, a large proportion of the discontinued journals were from these fields. Yet local journals might be more needed in many of these fields where research issues are more likely to be of local significance.

Read more:
Indigenous scholars struggle to be heard in the mainstream. Here’s how journal editors and reviewers can help

It’s getting harder for journals to survive

Journal publishing has become a challenging task. It’s complicated by many different business models and a competitive market. Small publishers are disappearing as large international publishers acquire them.

Sometimes institutions fund the cost of publishing. Without such funding, journals have to charge either their readers (a subscription fee), or their authors (an author processing charge, APC), or both (hybrid).

A subscription-based journal published by a small publisher might struggle to find subscribers; libraries are less likely to subscribe to individual journals due to their reliance on vendor and publisher-curated packages, or “big deals”.

To publish open access with an APC, a journal has to compete with many other such journals. Some of these competitors (such as those published by Frontiers or MDPI) are well-resourced. They benefit from state-of-the-art technology for managing editorial and publishing processes.

Read more:
Making Australian research free for everyone to read sounds ideal. But the Chief Scientist’s open-access plan isn’t risk-free

Journals can, of course, outsource their publishing side to a commercial publisher, as 162 Australian journals have already done. These journals are mostly published as hybrid journals.

But such a decision might come at a cost as the direction of the journal might not be aligned with that of the new publisher. For instance, the editor in chief of the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) was sacked over his opposition to outsourcing the journal’s sub-editing and production functions to Elsevier. All 19 members of the journal’s editorial advisory committee subsequently resigned.

Some local journals operate in niche areas that cater to a very small reader audience. These journals are simply not attractive for commercial publishers.

What can be done?

It is natural and inevitable that some journals will cease publication as fields evolve. And about 100 journals were established in Australia over the past decade. However, the overall decline in journal numbers is concerning – especially as the global trend is one of growth.

The already precarious financial condition of the higher education sector has been made worse by the pandemic. Many academic jobs have been lost. Some journals – Flinders Law Journal, for example – have discontinued because of COVID.

Enthusiasm alone is not enough to sustain journal publishing. Every journal needs to have a robust business strategy and have undertaken proper contingency planning.

Research is needed to develop strategies for sustainable editorial and publishing operations. Research policymakers must be mindful of the impact of their policies on local journals.

Finally, higher education as a whole needs to be more supportive of journal publishing and the activities associated with it.

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. Australia has lost 140 journals in a decade. That’s damaging for local research and education – https://theconversation.com/australia-has-lost-140-journals-in-a-decade-thats-damaging-for-local-research-and-education-177807

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meribah Rose, Associate Lecturer in Criminology, La Trobe University

The retrial of Jason Roberts, accused of killing two Melbourne policemen in 1998, is expected to begin this week in Melbourne.

The retrial marks a significant milestone in Victoria’s criminal justice system – it’s the first to occur since Victoria passed a new law in 2019 allowing defendants in criminal cases to seek an additional appeal in their cases under specific circumstances.

What is the Roberts case about?

In the early hours of August 16 1998, Victoria police officers Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller were fatally shot while engaged in a surveillance operation. They were part of a team investigating a series of armed robberies in Melbourne’s eastern and south-eastern suburbs.

Silk died almost immediately, while Miller was still conscious when the first responders arrived. Multiple officers gave evidence that Miller’s dying declaration mentioned two offenders – crucial to the criminal investigation and proceedings that followed — and a dark blue Hyundai hatchback.

Two men were eventually charged and convicted of the murders: Bandali Debs and Jason Roberts, who was 17 at the time of the killings. They were sentenced to life in prison.

Debs and Roberts unsuccessfully appealed their convictions and were later refused an application for special leave to appeal. At the time, this meant their legal avenues for appeal had been exhausted.

Between 2016 and 2019, Roberts lodged three petitions for mercy with the attorney-general of Victoria. Each of these was accompanied by sworn statements in which he confessed to being involved in armed robberies with Debs, but denied any connection to the deaths of Silk and Miller.

The first petition for mercy was refused, while the second and third were overtaken by legal reforms which provided a new, albeit limited, possibility of appeal.

In 2015, allegations also arose about police misconduct in the investigation of the killings. This led the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) to establish Operation Gloucester to look into these issues.

In 2017, the investigation uncovered a second statement by one of the first responders at the murder scene. Significantly, this newly discovered statement – made within four hours of the killings – was inconsistent with evidence given at trial that Miller had mentioned two offenders.

In 2020, IBAC published its special report on Operation Gloucester, which identified a pattern of improper practices employed by Victoria police while investigating Debs and Roberts. This related primarily to the manipulation and altering of witness statements by police and the failure to disclose this to Roberts’ defence team.

Read more:
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The Court of Appeal held that this serious misconduct tainted Roberts’ original trial and quashed his conviction in November 2020.

Police have reportedly contacted 400 witnesses as prosecutors have prepared for the retrial. The central issue in the retrial is likely to be whether the prosecution can establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Roberts was present at the scene on the night of the shootings.

Roberts and his then-girlfriend (Debs’ daughter) claim he was with her that night and had an alibi.

How do the new appeal provisions work?

Until recently, a person convicted of a crime in Victoria was only entitled to a single appeal. If that appeal failed, there was no further legal avenue available to challenge a conviction, even if fresh evidence was discovered. The only option was for the convicted person to lodge a petition for mercy with the attorney-general who, in turn, could refer the case to the Court of Appeal.

This fundamentally changed in November 2019, when legislation was passed allowing a convicted person, in very limited circumstances, to launch a further appeal before the Court of Appeal, effectively bypassing the more political petition process.

The new law seeks to strike a difficult balance between two competing imperatives.

On the one hand, the principle of finality recognises it is essential for criminal proceedings to be brought to a conclusion and that convictions are not perpetually challenged. Challenges like this can be devastating for the victims of crimes and their families.

On the other hand, it is also important there be a transparent judicial pathway to correct miscarriages of justice, regardless of when they might be uncovered.

The new appeal provisions in Victoria have a high threshold for review to guard against unmeritorious or frivolous appeals. To be granted leave to appeal, the applicant must demonstrate there is “fresh and compelling evidence” in the case. A new appeal will be denied if the evidence could have been found with a reasonable amount of diligence, or if it isn’t reliable or substantial enough.

The Court of Appeal also retains discretion to determine whether it is in the interests of justice to allow further legal challenges.

Once another legal challenge is granted, the applicant must then satisfy the Court of Appeal that a substantial miscarriage has, in fact, occurred. This means there is very little prospect convictions will be quashed without basis or on minor legal technicalities.

The retrial of Roberts, more than 20 years after the killings, will no doubt cause anguish for the families of the victims. However, unless we are prepared to tolerate possible miscarriages of justice going uncorrected, we must allow cases to be reviewed under these very narrow circumstances.

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. A retrial is happening in a police murder case 20 years after the conviction. Two lawyers explain the case – https://theconversation.com/a-retrial-is-happening-in-a-police-murder-case-20-years-after-the-conviction-two-lawyers-explain-the-case-178521

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor, Bond University

In response to the Russian cyber attacks that have accompanied its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has begun recruiting what it calls an “IT army”.

Perhaps a more accurate term would be a “cyber militia”, given it will consist of civilian volunteers. In any case, it aims to repel Russian hackers’ attacks, and launching cyber counterstrikes of its own.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also the country’s digital transformation minister, has called “digital talents” to join the resistance effort.

Reports suggest more than 275,000 volunteers from around the world have already answered the call, although verifying an exact figure is impossible at the moment.

A will to help – but are we allowed?

Russia’s war on Ukraine is half a world away from Australia. But many Australians recognise the importance of helping Ukraine, on both humanitarian grounds and because of the wider geopolitical ramifications.

While countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Denmark have opened the door for their citizens to enlist in Ukraine’s international territorial defence legion, the Canberra government has so far advised Australians not to do so.

But in an interconnected world, volunteers who are unwilling or unable to physically help Ukraine could potentially join its cyber militia.

However, there’s one snag as far as Australians are concerned: Australia’s criminal law makes it illegal to engage in many of the activities that might be required of members of a foreign-organised cyber militia. Put simply, “hacking” is a crime.

Read more:
Russia is using an onslaught of cyber attacks to undermine Ukraine’s defence capabilities

A proposed ‘cyber militia bill’

The Australian government has not publicly expressed a view on whether Australians should be barred outright from joining Ukraine’s cyber fight.

One way the government could address this would be to introduce specific legislation aimed at creating legal safeguards for genuine members of a foreign state-run cyber militia, within a narrowly defined set of circumstances.

Such people would need protection from being held to have violated the hacking-related provisions of Australia’s criminal law. And they would also need legal safeguards against civil liability and against being extradited.

This protection should apply unless the person has acted in violation of international law.

Of course, such legislation would need to be carefully designed, and its implications rigorously considered.

Policing the cyber army

One problem with cyber attacks is the issue of attribution. It can be hard to identify who is responsible for the attack with the level of confidence required under international law. This means cyber attackers often have a crucial advantage over those seeking to defend against them.

“Non-state actors” such as hacker groups might be willing to attack targets that are off-limits for state agents, such as hospitals or other civilian infrastructure. This can cause conflicts to escalate dangerously.

Consequently, it is vital that any proposed legal protection for cyber combatants would be conditional on governmental oversight. In my proposal, this is achieved by the involvement of both the Australian government and that of the foreign power in direct control over the cyber militia.

More specifically, this means the Australian government should have the discretion to designate that a specific country’s cyber militia (and not those of other countries) as being governed by the new rules.

I suggest the government should consider exercising that discretion where:

1. a foreign state has established the cyber militia;
2. that foreign state has invited foreigners to join its cyber militia; and
3. that foreign state is under armed attack by another state.

Only members of such a designated cyber militia would be protected. That ensures Australia can prescribe the situations in which it deems it acceptable for Australian citizens to engage in cyber warfare as part of a foreign cyber militia.

Further to this, participants should only enjoy legal safeguards where they have acted on specific orders issued by the foreign state in control of the militia. This is the second method of ensuring state control, and in the current situation, that control would be exercised by the Ukraine.

Another important question is how to strike a balance between offensive and defensive activities. To minimise the risk of Australia being seen to violate international law, I propose that only “defensive activities” – such as measures safeguarding vital computer systems in Ukraine – would be legalised for Australian members of a foreign cyber militia, and these “defensive activities” should be defined very carefully.

A necessary step, but not the only one

Clearly, this proposal is a response to the current invasion of Ukraine, and the Russian cyber aggression that has accompanied it. But given future wars are also likely to be fought in cyber space, this proposal will also be more broadly relevant.

Sooner or later, Australia will have to reckon with the prospect of significant numbers of citizens becoming involved in foreign cyber warfare. And there’s truly no time like the present.

Read more:
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A version of my proposal could usefully be adopted by any nation that wants to support the defence of Ukraine. But in the meantime, there are still things concerned Australians can do to help the Ukrainians.

Donations to carefully selected organisations is one option, but social media abounds with other possibilities too. One creative option is to counter Russian disinformation by posting verified information about the atrocities on any Russian site that allows user posts – such as restaurant reviews, for example. Such posts are very likely to be removed, but if posted in sufficient numbers they may reach some of the Russian people.

Dan Jerker B. Svantesson 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. Ukraine is recruiting an ‘IT army’ of cyber warriors. Here’s how Australia could make it legal to join – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-is-recruiting-an-it-army-of-cyber-warriors-heres-how-australia-could-make-it-legal-to-join-178414

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Associate professor in regulation and governance, UNSW Sydney

The world’s five leading tech companies – Google (now Alphabet), Apple, Facebook (now Meta), Amazon and Microsoft – have taken steps to impose significant and (mainly) voluntary sanctions on Russia, in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

But the decisions didn’t come unprompted. Ukraine has lobbied the major tech companies in the same way it sought assistance from the European Union, NATO and the US government.

Facing the largest military action in Europe since the second world war, Ukraine appealed directly to big tech companies as though they were nation states. It’s a reminder that in today’s world, these giants are major players on the geopolitical stage.

So what impact could the tech-related sanctions have?

The Big 5’s response

Google’s response to the crisis has come in two parts. The first has been finance-related. The company has limited the use of Google Pay in Russia for customers or merchants that use a sanctioned bank.

It has also stopped selling online advertising in Russia across its services, and has removed the ability for Russian state media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik to monetise content on YouTube (which is owned by Google). RT and Sputnik have also been blocked in Europe.

Foxtel has removed RT in Australia, but it’s still available on YouTube, with ads in the livestream. That means RT can earn direct revenue from advertising in Australia, but no advertising revenue from YouTube. Google Search and Maps both remain available in Russia.

Apple has gone several steps further than Google. The company has suspended all product sales in Russia, and Apple Pay and other services have been limited. It has also blocked RT and Sputnik from the Apple App Store everywhere outside of Russia.

Meta has removed access to RT and Sputnik on both Facebook and Instagram (which it owns), and has removed the option for state media to monetise content on any of its platforms. It is also demoting posts that contain links to Russian state-controlled media websites on Facebook.

Amazon has taken the path of supporting cybersecurity efforts in Ukraine and offering logistical support, as announced on Twitter by chief executive Andy Jassy. However, Amazon hasn’t yet taken any action to reduce the revenue it receives from Russia.

Microsoft has also helped on the cybersecurity front. It identified a potential Russian cyber attack in Ukraine on February 24, helping efforts to thwart it. In addition, it has banned all advertisements from RT and Sputnik across its ad network, and blocked access to both channels in the European Union.

(Almost) no chips for Russia

Two of the largest US semiconductor (microchip) manufacturers, Intel and AMD, have ceased supplies to Russia. Although the official US sanctions prohibit the export of “dual use” devices with both military and non-military purposes, Intel and AMD have gone a step further and halted all supplies at this stage.

Perhaps more importantly, the major Taiwanese supplier TMSC has stopped supplies. TMSC makes chips for Russian manufacturers such as the Russian Scientific and Technical Centre Module, Baikal Electronics and Marvel Computer Solutions. There are no alternative semiconductor fabrication plants in Russia.

Samsung Electronics, another major chip manufacturer, also announced on Saturday that it would suspend shipments. Samsung leads mobile phone supplies in Russia and, prior to the suspension on Saturday, would have stood to benefit from Apple’s decision to stop sales in the country.

But not all tech companies have given in to political pressure. South Korean chip fabricator SK Hynix has not yet decided to limit supplies (as of when this article was written).

It seems the South Korean government wants to continue supplying semiconductors to Russia, as it has sought exemptions from the US in respect to actions that could negatively impact its semiconductor industry.

Other consequences

Apart from the more directly imposed restrictions, Some Meta and Google services were also blocked after users subverted them for political messaging. For example, social media users across the globe began using Google reviews of restaurants in Moscow and St Petersburg to send information to Russian citizens.

As a result, new reviews in Russia and Ukraine have now been restricted by Google. That is, Google has acted to avoid delivering potential disinformation from either side.

And both Meta and Google have restricted some of their location-based services in Ukraine to limit potential military use.

What’s the immediate impact?

The actions of Meta and Google, and any loss of ad revenue they previously afforded, will have an immediate but relatively small impact on the Russian state – much smaller than the impact from direct financial sanctions.

And not being able to use Google Pay or Apple Pay is still not as inconvenient for Russian citizens as being unable to use ATMs – many of which have run out of notes.

On the other hand, the loss of access to Apple hardware could have a much more lasting impact on Russian consumers.

The overall effect of the various sanctions will be a slowing down of the Russian economy – especially the digital economy which is reliant on semiconductors. However, this too will have a small immediate impact.

Read more:
Russian sanctions are biting harder than it could have imagined, and it’ll get worse

Corporate decisions

There was no legal or regulatory obligation for chip manufacturers and tech companies to limit the export of goods and services to Russia. Instead, the move seems to have been prompted by two key incidents.

First was the very public and direct appeal by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov to the tech companies, asking them to take action.

Second was the need to meet stakeholders’ expectations. This can be characterised as “corporate social responsibility”, or as social licence.

Both Apple and Google responded to calls for help from members of the Ukrainian government. Google’s philanthropic arm and its employees are directly contributing US$15 million to relief efforts in Ukraine.

While the US sanctions didn’t demand for the tech companies to stop trading with Russia entirely, the signalling from both the US government and Ukrainian officials provided a persuasive context.

It has raised the spectre of multinational tech companies deciding which “side” to support based on a stakeholder perspective, rather than a legislated one. It seems in the end, stakeholder views are still the chief driver of Big Tech’s response to ethical dilemmas.

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Facebook is tilting the political playing field more than ever, and it’s no accident

Rob Nicholls is a member of the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation from which he receives research funding. He is also the faculty lead for the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security (IFCYBER), which provides support. UNSW has received an untied gift from Facebook, which is used to fund some of Rob’s research.

– ref. The power of tech giants has made them as influential as nations. Here’s how they’re sanctioning Russia – https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-tech-giants-has-made-them-as-influential-as-nations-heres-how-theyre-sanctioning-russia-178424

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yolanda Vega, Lecturer and PhD Researcher, Swinburne University of Technology

We are about to mark another International Women’s Day.

But amid the breakfasts and uplifting speeches about girl power, we will also be reminded of the appalling rates of violence against women, the stubborn gender pay gap and pervasive sexism that is seemingly entrenched in our society. An imbalance remains: women do the vast bulk of unpaid work at home while men make the bulk of the laws and policies that affect us all.

Nothing seems to change – or change fast enough. But there are concrete things we can do to fix it. New research offers practical ideas to fix gender inequality in Australia from those at the very centre of federal government policy-making.

Talking direct to experts

As part of her PhD research, Yolanda Vega interviewed past and present MPs, senior bureaucrats, diplomats and political and public service advisers during 2018 and 2019. They were asked what works and what we need to do to eliminate sex-based discrimination in Australia.

In all, 25 interviews were conducted, and all were people who had direct experience of government policy-making and legislating around sex-based discrimination. Both sides of politics were involved and responses were kept anonymous so people could speak freely.

More women in power

Interviewees overwhelmingly believed we needed more women in the federal parliament to create a more equitable Australia (currently, 31% of lower house MPs and 52% of the Senate are women).

As one noted:

Australia has had an enviable track record of 27 years of economic growth, the best in the world, yet various cohorts of women have fared so badly, particularly over the last 20 years.

They pointed to other parliaments as evidence of the benefits of more women in power, such as Scandinavian parliaments with higher proportions of female MPs, where they have “very pro-women” policies.

As a way to address this, one interviewee suggested increasing the number of women in parliament using the “Irish model”, which uses financial incentives.

Every primary vote I received, at each election, returned to my party about A$3.00 per vote, paid from government revenue. In Ireland, which has the same system, a party can only access those payments if they have put up equal numbers of women. I think that is a great idea and would help drive change.

Others noted the importance of women being visible across the political spectrum – out proudly telling their stories.

People who go and talk about the importance of the rights of women [are] described by certain politicians as being ‘representatives of the green-left’ as if there is some political agenda involved in being in favour of women’s rights, which is really damaging.

More men prioritising equality

Interviewees also overwhelmingly wanted to see more male leaders within government prioritise gender equality. They said men needed to be encouraged to challenge the status quo and examine whether policy decisions (or a lack thereof) are based on prejudices and how these, in turn, affect women.

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Interviewees lamented that the attitude of male leaders has not changed over time. One structured way to ensure gender equality is incorporated into policy-making is to make it part of every aspect of the federal budget (and not just as a separate “women’s budget statement”).

What is the best way of doing macroeconomic reform that does not disadvantage women? […] What do investment strategies look like that are positive for women?

Another interviewee put it simply: “every policy needs to look at how it affects women”. This approach should be reinforced with measurements of success. As one person noted, “transparency” was needed if new policies were going to have a positive impact on women.

Another interviewees agreed, adding key performance indicators “have to be put in the job description”.

you have to have someone say, ‘I am going to measure your performance […] on this topic, off you trot!‘

Keeping the pressure on

Interviewees also wanted to see Australia take a cold, hard look at some of the infrastructure “upholding” gender equality.

The 1984 Sex Discrimination Act was a watershed moment for Australian law and women’s equality (a reform that was not coincidentally, led by women).

A 1992 review added elements to stop employers using pregnancy as a means of discriminating against women – but that was 30 years ago. Or as one interviewee said, “those legislative frameworks served us well, but they are not finished yet”.

As a starting point, it was noted there are no provisions for childcare in the Sex Discrimination Act. But interviewees also wanted to see other critical examinations of Australia’s legal and policy landscape.

Several interviewees said Australia’s award system further ingrained sex discrimination and as a legislative instrument, the Fair Work Act often functioned as a barrier. For example:

In my mind, that is where a lot of the economic disadvantage comes from – the award wage for a childcare worker versus a basic builder’s labourer are not equal. Some of them [awards] have been around and not amended for decades and decades and decades […].

Another interviewee said far more transparency when it came to pay negotiations – but this would be easy to fix if the federal government had the “political courage”.

A lot of it comes down to the fact that pay is negotiated behind closed doors and there is no visibility of what you are paid, and if you are not prepared to shine a light on it, then you are going to struggle to get there.

One expert had an even more striking idea, for a royal commission into the issue, or “what the hell is going on?”:

We will have an inquiry into our banks, but surely the bigger issue is what is happening every day in workplaces across Australia, where women are being paid differently, just because of their sex.

The benefits of equality

These are just some of the perspectives these experts at the heart of Australian government shared. Despite the serious nature of the discussions, the overriding theme was one of possibility and optimism with future governments. However, accountability, incentives and resources to include women in policy making are critical.

As a final thought, informants also spoke of the need to reframe the gender equality debate in more positive terms. And this needs to come not just from politicians, but the media and other community leaders, too:

I would turn the debate around. I would not be working for the elimination of discrimination against women in Australia or the elimination of barriers to equality, I would be celebrating the benefits of equality.

Vega received funding from the Victoria Women’s Trust (Fay Marles Equal Opportunity Sub-Fund grant) in September 2017. The grant covered the vast majority of the travel costs associated with executing the 25 interviews in Australia.

Vega is a member of the Reason Australia Party and is affiliated with Emily’s List Australia and various other women groups. Vega is the founder and former CEO of the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry. As CEO, Vega was appointed to several government boards and committees by Labor and Liberal federal governments.

Melissa Wheeler has engaged in paid and pro-bono consulting and research relating to issues of applied ethics and gender equality (e.g., Our Watch, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, VicHealth). She has previously worked for research centres that receive funding from several partner organisations in the private and public sector, including from the Victorian Government.

– ref. New research asked government insiders how to fix gender discrimination in Australia – this is what they said – https://theconversation.com/new-research-asked-government-insiders-how-to-fix-gender-discrimination-in-australia-this-is-what-they-said-177539

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Director, Health and Aged Care Program, Grattan Institute

Nearly every Australian uses some part of the health system every year, whether it be going to the GP, getting a prescription filled, or seeing a specialist.

Despite having a universal health-care system, we often still pay for these services out of our own pockets.

Sadly, these out-of-pocket payments are unaffordable for many Australians – so they skip the trip to the doctor, or defer going to the chemist.

This is bad for those individuals, but also bad for taxpayers and the economy. It makes people sicker, widens inequities, and puts further strain on the health system down the track.

In the Grattan Institute’s latest report, we identify what governments should do to make health care more affordable for more Australians.

Who is missing health care because of cost?

In 2020-21, more than half a million people deferred or did not fill a prescription because of cost. Nearly half a million decided not to see a specialist because of cost.

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People with chronic conditions have much higher health-care costs, particularly if they have multiple chronic conditions; they spend between A$200-600 on average on health care each year.

But they are also less likely to be able to afford their ongoing care because their chronic condition can make it more difficult to keep or get a job.

Many of these people who are forgoing health care due to cost are younger, particularly younger women:

Younger people tend to have fewer savings, and can therefore find it harder to afford care. And women are more likely to have chronic health conditions. About 55% of people with two chronic conditions are women, and 60% of people with three or more chronic conditions are women.

Chronic conditions are becoming more common, so more and more Australians will be facing higher health-care costs and are at risk of missing needed care.

Over the past ten years, average out-of-pocket payments rose by 50%, and they will continue to rise unless governments act now.

What can be done?

The federal government can do much more to reduce out-of-pocket payments and avoid unnecessary costs down the line.

Cost of medicines

While Australia has a world-renowned Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) that helps keep many medications affordable, Australians are still spending nearly A$3 billion on PBS-listed prescriptions each year, including A$1.5 billion on mandatory co-payments and A$1.4 billion on PBS-listed prescriptions which cost less than the co-payment.

The federal government should lower the cost of prescriptions for people taking five or more medications for chronic conditions, after their GP conducts a medication review triggered by a computer-generated alert.

We estimate this could reduce inappropriate medication use for about 300,000 patients.

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The government should also extend the duration of prescriptions for some medications to reduce the number of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payments people have to make to pharmacies.

Tests and scans

The government should abolish the out-of-pocket burden from diagnostic services, such as blood tests and scans.

Australians spend about A$400 million on these services each year – even though patients aren’t the real users of these tests, doctors are.

With these services now frequently provided by large corporations, the federal government should fund them directly through a commercial tender instead.

Patient enrolment

The government should expand the voluntary patient enrolment scheme to people with two or more chronic conditions.

Patient enrolment is where a patient can enrol in a GP practice and nominate a GP to be their “usual doctor”. It can help make care more affordable for people with chronic conditions by reducing their exposure to out-of-pocket payments.

Greater GP stewardship over a person’s care could reduce inefficiencies in areas such as routine repeat prescriptions and routine renewal of specialist referrals.

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The government has already committed to this reform for people older than 70. If it was expanded to younger people, we estimate an additional 1.7 million people would be eligible for the program.

Bulk billing

The vast majority of health services people receive outside hospital are “bulk-billed” – meaning the patient pays nothing out of pocket. But bulk-billing rates for specialists and allied health are still far too low – at about 46% for specialists and 56% for allied health.

The federal and state governments should expand the number of health-care services provided free of charge, particularly in lower-income areas and areas where bulk-billing rates are especially low.

Our analysis shows that if state and federal governments invest an additional A$710 million a year on these reforms, they could save Australians about A$1 billion in out-of-pockets a year, and enable more people to get the care they need, when they need it. That’s a healthy return on investment.

Stephen Duckett is chair of the board of directors of the Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network. Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute’s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website.

Linda Lin is currently on secondment to the Grattan Institute from the Victorian Department of Health.

Anika Stobart 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. Last year, half a million Australians couldn’t afford to fill a script. Here’s how to rein in rising health costs – https://theconversation.com/last-year-half-a-million-australians-couldnt-afford-to-fill-a-script-heres-how-to-rein-in-rising-health-costs-178301

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Seers, PhD Candidate, Charles Sturt University

Wellness is mainly marketed to women. We’re encouraged to eat clean, take personal responsibility for our well-being, happiness and life. These are the hallmarks of a strong, independent woman in 2022.

But on the eve of International Women’s Day, let’s look closer at this neoliberal feminist notion of wellness and personal responsibility – the idea women’s health and well-being depends on our individual choices.

We argue wellness is not concerned with actual well-being, whatever wellness “guru” and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow suggests, or influencers say on Instagram.

Wellness is an industry. It’s also a seductive distraction from what’s really impacting women’s lives. It glosses over the structural issues undermining women’s well-being. These issues cannot be fixed by drinking a turmeric latte or #livingyourbestlife.

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What is wellness?

Wellness is an unregulated US$4.4 trillion global industry due to reach almost $7 trillion by 2025. It promotes self-help, self-care, fitness, nutrition and spiritual practice. It encourages good choices, intentions and actions.

Wellness is alluring because it feels empowering. Women are left with a sense of control over their lives. It is particularly alluring in times of great uncertainty and limited personal control. These might be during a relationship break up, when facing financial instability, workplace discrimination or a global pandemic.

But wellness is not all it seems.

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Wellness blames women

Wellness implies women are flawed and need to be fixed. It demands women resolve their psychological distress, improve their lives and bounce back from adversity, regardless of personal circumstances.

Self-responsibility, self-empowerment and self-optimisation underpin how women are expected to think and behave.

As such, wellness patronises women and micro-manages their daily schedules with journaling, skin care routines, 30-day challenges, meditations, burning candles, yoga and lemon water.

Wellness encourages women to improve their appearance through diet and exercise, manage their surroundings, performance at work and their capacity to juggle the elusive work-life balance as well as their emotional responses to these pressures. They do this with support from costly life coaches, psychotherapists and self-help guides.

Wellness demands women focus on their body, with one’s body a measure of their commitment to the task of wellness. Yet this ignores how much these choices and actions cost.

Newsreader and journalist Tracey Spicer says she has spent more than A$100,000 over the past 35 years for her hair to “look acceptable” at work.

Wellness keeps women focused on their appearance and keeps them spending.

It’s also ableist, racist, sexist, ageist and classist. It’s aimed at an ideal of young women, thin, white, middle-class and able-bodied.

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But we can’t live up to these ideals

Wellness assumes women have equal access to time, energy and money to meet these ideals. If you don’t, “you’re just not trying hard enough”.

Wellness also implores women to be “adaptable and positive”.

If an individual’s #positivevibes and wellness are seen as morally good, then it becomes morally necessary for women to engage in behaviours framed as “investments” or “self-care”.

For those who do not achieve self-optimisation (hint: most of us) this is a personal, shameful failing.

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Wellness distracts us

When women believe they are to blame for their circumstances, it hides structural and cultural inequities. Rather than questioning the culture that marginalises women and produces feelings of doubt and inadequacy, wellness provides solutions in the form of superficial empowerment, confidence and resilience.

Women don’t need wellness. They are unsafe.

Women are more likely to be murdered by a current or former intimate partner, with reports of the pandemic increasing the risk and severity of domestic violence.

Women are more likely to be employed in unstable casualised labour, and experience economic hardship and poverty. Women are also bearing the brunt of the economic fallout from COVID. Women are more likely to be juggling a career with unpaid domestic duties and more likely to be homeless as they near retirement age.

In their book Confidence Culture UK scholars Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue hashtags such as #loveyourbody and #believeinyourself imply psychological blocks, rather than entrenched social injustices, are what hold women back.

What we should be doing instead

Wellness, with its self-help rhetoric, absolves the government of responsibility to provide transformative and effectual action that ensures women are safe, delivered justice, and treated with respect and dignity.

Structural inequity was not created by an individual, and it will not be solved by an individual.

So this International Women’s Day, try to resist the neoliberal requirement to take personal responsibility for your wellness. Lobby governments to address structural inequities instead.

Follow your anger, not your bliss, call out injustices when you can. And in the words of sexual assault survivor and advocate Grace Tame, “make some noise”.

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. Wellness is not women’s friend. It’s a distraction from what really ails us – https://theconversation.com/wellness-is-not-womens-friend-its-a-distraction-from-what-really-ails-us-177446

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Noel D Preece, Adjunct Asssociate Professor, James Cook University

At the time Australia was colonised by Europeans, an estimated 180 mammal species lived in the continent’s northern savannas. The landscape teemed with animals, from microbats to rock-wallabies and northern quolls. Many of these mammals were found nowhere else on Earth.

An unidentified account from the Normanton district of Northwest Queensland, dating back to 1897, told of the abundance:

“There were thousands of millions of those rats (Rattus villosissimus), and as most Gulf identities may remember, after them came a plague of native cats (the Northern Quoll).

These extended from 18 miles west of the Flinders (River) to within 40 miles of Normanton, and they cleaned up all our tucker.”

But tragically, in the years since, many of these mammals have disappeared. Four species have become extinct and nine face the same fate in the next two decades.

And we know relatively little about this homegrown crisis. Monitoring of these species has been lacking for many decades – and as mammal numbers have declined, the knowledge gaps have become worse.

A precipitous decline

Northern Australia savanna comprises the top half of Queensland and the Northern Territory and the top quarter of Western Australia. It covers 1.9 million square kilometres, or 26% of the Australian landmass.

Species already extinct in Northern Australia are:

• burrowing bettong
• Victoria River district nabarlek (possibly extinct)

• Capricornian rabbit-rat
• Bramble Cay melomys.

The Northern Australia species identified at risk of becoming extinct within 20 years are:

• northern hopping-mouse
• Carpentarian rock-rat
• black-footed tree rat (Kimberley and Top End)
• Top End nabarlek
• Kimberley brush-tailed phascogale
• brush-tailed rabbit-rat (Kimberley and Top End)
• northern brush-tailed phascogale
• Tiwi Islands brush-tail rabbit-rat
• northern bettong.

Many other mammal species have been added to the endangered list in recent years, including koalas, the northern spotted-tailed quoll and spectacled flying foxes.

So what’s driving the decline? For some animals, we don’t know the exact reasons. But for others they include global warming, pest species, changed fire regimes, grazing by introduced herbivores and diseases.

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Monitoring is crucial

There’s no doubt some mammal species in Northern Australia are heading towards extinction. But information is limited because monitoring of these populations and their ecosystems is severely lacking.

Monitoring is crucial to species conservation. It enables scientists to protect an animal’s habitat, and understand the rate of decline and what processes are driving it.

Our research found most of Northern Australia lacks monitoring of species or ecosystems.

Monitoring mostly comprises long-term projects in three national parks in the Northern Territory. The trends for mammals across the region must be estimated from these few sites.

More recent monitoring sites have been established in Western Australia’s Kimberley. Very few fauna monitoring programs exist in Queensland savannas.

The lack of monitoring hampers conservation efforts. For example, researchers don’t know the status of the Queensland subspecies of black‐footed tree‐rat because the species is not monitored at all.

Research and monitoring efforts have declined significantly over the past couple of decades. Reasons for this include, but are not limited to:

• a massive reduction in federal environment funding since 2013 and substantial reductions in some state and territory environment funding

• reduced capacity of government-unded institutions devoted to ecosystem and species research

• the existence of only two universities in northern Australia with an ecological research focus

• a reliance on remote sensing and vegetation condition monitoring, which does not detect animal trends.

Read more:
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The lesson of the Bramble Cay Melomys

An avalanche of research shows increasing rates of decline in animal populations and extinctions. Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate of any country.

Yet governments in Australia have largely sat on their heels as the biodiversity crisis worsens.

A Senate committee was in 2018 charged with investigating Australia’s faunal extinctions. It has not yet produced its final report.

In September last year, the federal environment department announced 100 “priority species” would be selected to help focus recovery actions. But more than 1,800 species are listed as threatened in Australia. Prioritising just 100 is unlikely to help the rest.

The lack of threatened species monitoring in Australia creates a policy blindfold that prevents actions vital to preventing extinctions.

Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the Bramble Cay Melomys. The nocturnal rodent was confirmed extinct in 2016 due to flooding of its island home in the Torres Strait, caused by global warming.

The species had previously been acknowledged as one of the rarest mammals on Earth – yet a plan to recover its numbers was never properly implemented.

A crisis on our watch

Conservation scientists and recovery teams are working across Northern Australia to help species and ecosystems recover. But they need resources, policies and long-term commitment from governments.

Indigenous custodians who work on the land can provide significant skills and resources to save species. If Traditional Owners could combine forces with non‐Indigenous researchers and conservation managers – and with adequate support and incentives – we could make substantial ground.

Indigenous Protected Areas, national parks and private conservation areas provide some protection, but this network needs expansion.

We propose establishing a network of monitoring sites by prioritising particular bioregions – large, geographically distinct areas of land with common characteristics.

Building a network of monitoring sites would not just help prevent extinctions, it would also support livelihoods in remote Northern Australia.

Policies determining research and monitoring investment need to be reset, and new approaches implemented urgently. Crucially, funding must be adequate for the task.

Without these measures, more species will become extinct on our watch.

Noel D Preece received funding from The Nature Conservancy for work that led to this article. He is a member of the Spectacled Flying-fox Recovery Team. He has worked in northern Australia since the mid-1980s.

James Fitzsimons is affiliated with The Nature Conservancy Australia.

– ref. Extinction crisis: native mammals are disappearing in Northern Australia, but few people are watching – https://theconversation.com/extinction-crisis-native-mammals-are-disappearing-in-northern-australia-but-few-people-are-watching-178313

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Couch, Senior Lecturer – Youth Work and International Development, Australian Catholic University

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is dominating our screens and conversations. Children and young people are constantly being exposed to images and information about the devastation there.

This kind of exposure can lead to heightened stress and anxiety in both adults and young people. In such times, a classroom can provide a safe space for students to express their fears and concerns.

Teachers can inspire children and young people to feel hopeful and promote a sense of agency through thoughtful, honest discussion and developmentally appropriate activities.

What teachers need to think about

As with all difficult topics, educators should be keenly aware of the emotional impact these events have on students. Teachers should pay close attention to students who may have family members in the regions and who might be worried about how this crisis might impact them here.

Teachers should also be aware some of their students may have lived through war or have family in other active conflict zones. For children and young people with a trauma or refugee background, images and talk of war and violence can be triggering. Conversations about the conflict and constant media exposure can exacerbate this experience.

Previous experiences with major global crises such as the September 11 attacks in the United States and bushfires in Australia have provided insight into children’s possible reactions to an event such as this.

Students will come to teachers with concerns. Answering questions may be tricky but we can give them a safe place to discuss things.

The first you can do is acknowledge and validate the students’ concerns: wars are scary, and it’s OK to feel scared. Start by asking what they have heard and address any misinformation.

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Explain why it is important to pay attention to other parts of the world. Research shows that including discussion of global issues increases empathy and helps students develop more of an understanding for people around them who may have different backgrounds and experiences.

Listen and don’t avoid difficult conversations. Be prepared to answer the questions the student may have, and answer with facts which will provide context to aid their understanding.

Be aware of your class and monitor children at risk, as young people with a background of trauma or loss are at higher risk of experiencing distress.

While it is important to be honest, the level of detail needed for an eight-year-old will be very different to that of a 12-year-old.

Primary school children

Primary school children have active imaginations and might not understand the situation as well as their older peers. But they will still sense the mood of the adults around them, which can impact their behaviour.

As a result they could experience an increase in stress and anxiety, distress at being separated from parents, or experience nightmares, sleep disturbances, or behavioural disruptions (“acting out”).

Read more:
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You can use picture and story books to help these children understand relevant concepts and to think about their treatment of others. For instance, “Paulie Pastrami Achieves World Peace” by Jaimes Proimos is about an a boy who plans to achieve world peace before his eighth birthday. He does this through acts of kindness such as reading to the trees and helping his little sister.

Books like this can help children understand altruism, and that even children can make the world better through kindness.

Use movies or cartoons to help children understand how they can make changes and improve their own community. Agency is a skill that can be taught from a young age, and can play a role in reducing feelings of helplessness, particularly during times of uncertainty.

Help students create artwork to express their feelings. We have seen even children in Ukraine doing this.

Instil hope. Show maps of locations and distances to help children understand their safety. You can remind children the war is very far away and they are safe here, while encouraging them to feel empathy for Ukrainian children.

Be prepared to answer student’s questions. If you do not know the answer, you should say so.

Children might ask you how you are feeling, such as “are you scared?” You should respond honestly, as this is an opportunity to encourage open and transparent conversations about tricky topics.

Secondary school children

Secondary school children have higher levels of emotional regulation than their primary school peers. While they may be more curious, they may also have visualisations of possible attacks, and concerns about the implications for their future – including being sent to war or being conscripted if the war in Ukraine becomes a larger conflict.

You can share stories of what regular people are doing and experiencing to humanise the event. Lead with a positive tone, offering stories of people persevering in Ukraine and people in Russia who are challenging their government’s actions. It is useful to point students to independent media in the Ukraine such as The Kyiv Independent and The New Voice of Ukraine. Radio Liberty in Russia is also a useful source of news.

Help older students build critical thinking skills and see the conflict in a wider historical and political context. The Netflix documentary “Winter on Fire” may be a useful discussion starter.

You could encourage students to start a fundraising project where funds will go directly to the Ukrainian community such as Ukranian Red Cross and Nova Ukraine.

You can encourage students to become global citizens and think about how they can start making changes in the world, both here and abroad. Provide information on how they can volunteer with local groups that focus on peace and community-building. Linking them to online platforms such as Global Citizen will help build feelings of solidarity with Ukraine.

Read more:
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Other ways to demonstrate solidarity would be to hold a vigil or an awareness-raising activity at school. You could also teach students how to write letters to a local MP.

Students want and need to talk about what they see, remember and are feeling now. They need the guidance and safety of adults in their schools to be able to navigate their own emotions and trauma in a healthy, safe and productive way.

Jen is a member of the Refugee Education Special Interest Group (www.refugee-education.org)

Joel Anderson works for Australian Catholic University and the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University. He has previously received funding from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education. Joel is a member of the Refugee Education Special Interest Group (www.refugee-education.org)

Kelda Robinson 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. Teachers can offer a safe space for students to talk about the war in Ukraine and help them take action – https://theconversation.com/teachers-can-offer-a-safe-space-for-students-to-talk-about-the-war-in-ukraine-and-help-them-take-action-178406

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University

The great enforced global experiment in working from home is coming to an end, as vaccines, the Omicron variant and new therapeutic drugs bring the COVID-19 crisis under control.

But a voluntary experiment has begun, as organisations navigate the new landscape of hybrid work, combining the best elements of remote work with time in the office.

Yes, there is some push for a “return to normal” and getting workers back into offices. But ideas such as food vouchers and parking discounts are mostly being proposed by city councils and CBD businesses keen to get their old customers back.

A wide range of surveys over the past 18 months show most employees and increasingly employers have no desire to return to commuting five days a week.

The seismic shift in employer attitudes is signalled by Google, long a fierce opponent of working from home.

Last week the company told employees they must return to the office from early April – but only for three days a week.

That’s still way more than tech companies such as Australia’s Atlassian, which expects workers to come into the office just four days a year, but it is a far cry from its pre-pandemic resistance to remote work.

Hybrid work is here to stay. Employers will either embrace the change or find themselves being left behind.

Gains in productivity

Google began – under pressure – to soften its opposition to remote work in 2020. In December of that year chief executive Sundar Pichai told employees:

We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being.

Its chief concern has been protecting the social capital that springs from physical proximity – and also perhaps with keeping employers under surveillance.

But longstanding (and widespread) management concerns that employees working from home would lower productivity have proven unfounded.

Read more:
50 years of bold predictions about remote work: it isn’t all about technology

Even before the pandemic there was good research showing no productivity penalty from remote working – the opposite, in fact.

Fro example, a 2014 randomised trial involving about 250 Shanghai call centre workers found working from home associated with 13% more productivity. This comprised a 9% gain from working more minutes per shift – due perhaps to fewer interruptions – and a 4% gain from making more calls per minute – attributed to a quieter, more comfortable working environment.

Research in the past two years supports these findings.

Harvard Business School professor Raj Choudury and colleagues published research in October 2020 that found allowing employees to work wherever they like led to a 4.4% increase in output.

In April 2021, Stanford University economist Nick Bloom and colleagues calculated a the shift to remote working resulted in a 5% productivity boost. Though their working paper, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, was not peer reviewed, it was based on surveying 30,000 American workers, which is a decent sample size.

Our relationship with work has changed

There are good reasons most of us don’t want to go back to the old normal. It just wasn’t that great.

While working from home can brings challenges of other kinds, not least the ability to switch off and stop working when work is done, working in an office can increase stress, lower mood and reduce productivity.

My own research has measured the effects of typical open-plan office noises, finding a 25% increase in negative mood even after a short exposure time.

Then there’s the time spent commuting. Not having to go into the office every day frees up hours of time to do other things. Particularly in winter it’s nice to not have to leave and arrive home in the dark.

Preferred number of days working at home, by occupation

Changed expectations of work

The importance of these things should not be underestimated.

In a June 2021 study by McKinsey of 245 employees who had returned to the office, one-third said they felt their mental health had been harmed.

The experience of the pandemic has lowered our tolerance for this old world of work.

Nothing exemplifies this better than the growth of the “lie-flat” trend, which began in China and is now a global phenomenon. Increasing numbers of people are rejecting the idea of pursuing a career at all costs.

They don’t want to spend their life being a cog in the wheel of capitalism and are choosing to work less – even not at all.

No one size fits all

Rather than a bastion of meaning and fulfilment, the structures around how we have conducted work has for many people meant an existence of quiet desperation. The pandemic has brought an unforeseen opportunity to change this narrative and rethink both the way we work and the role of work in our lives

For some, no job is better than a bad job. The rest of us will settle for the flexibility we’ve had over the past two years.

Read more:
How many days a week in the office are enough? You shouldn’t need to ask

No one size fits all. The downsides of working from home include missing coworkers and losing the benefits of serendipitous conversations. The nuances of how much time we need to spend together in the office for outcomes like creativity, belonging, learning and relationship building varies between individuals, teams and job types.

But what is certain is we don’t need to be together five days a week to make these things happen. With a shrinking workforce and an increasing war for talent, employers who don’t provide flexibility will be the losers.

Libby (Elizabeth) Sander 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. Even Google agrees there’s no going back to the old office life – https://theconversation.com/even-google-agrees-theres-no-going-back-to-the-old-office-life-177808

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern Queensland

When it was released 50 years ago, The Godfather won a swag of Oscars and hailed director Francis Ford Coppola as the voice of a new auteur. But timing is, as they say, everything.

The story of an ageing Mafia Don and his family in New York City from 1945 to 1955, The Godfather is a sweeping saga of the trials and tribulations of running a criminal organisation.

There are two timelines that need to be looked at when watching The Godfather: when it was set, and when it was made. They are inextricably linked, yet polar opposites of the moral, cultural and social fabric of the United States.

Post-war optimism

Coming out of the devastating destruction and loss of life of the second world war, Americans had a newfound sense of optimism that the worst was behind them.

After years of uncertainty and stress, people yearned for a “normality” in the mundane in their suburban houses, family life and nine-to-five job. People believed in governments and traditional institutions to look after their interests and well-being.

New opportunities and an even distribution of wealth created through low post-war unemployment incentivised growth and created “an advanced consumer economy” which drew both legitimate and illegitimate businesses.

With easy money to be made, Mafia groups flourished. This is the world where we find the Corleone family: Italian immigrants who sought a distorted vision of the American Dream through theft, extortion and violence.

Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) wants to continue with the old ways. He is suspicious of this new trade in drugs offered by the Tattaglia crime family. His son Michael (Al Pacino) has experienced life outside of the Mafia world and wants to change the whole structure of the organisation, vowing to make the family legitimate.

What happens next is as much a statement on the character arc of Michael as it is about a statement of when The Godfather was made.

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The great movie scenes: The Godfather

A new war for a new generation

By 1972, the social and cultural norms had shifted dramatically.

People, especially young people, had grown increasingly suspicious and disenchanted with both government and the institutions that had grown post war. While many saw the second world war as a “moral war”, they did not express the same feelings towards the Vietnam war. Many saw America as the immoral aggressor.

The 1960s had started out as a decade of hope, full of idealism. Young people were not happy with continuing the ways of the past and wanted change. They were leading the charge for the better.

But in the 1970s, it was dawning on the Woodstock generation the values they had fought for were not coming to fruition. The ongoing Vietnam War, the publishing of the Pentagon papers and the unravelling Watergate all added to the disillusionment.

Despite the cries of revolution, the old institutions kept a strong grasp on the mechanisms of society.

This all becomes a metaphor for The Godfather.

Growing into pragmatism

The Godfather argues the principles of a generation are often corrupted by the realities of the times.

As with the the lost ideals of the 1960s, Michael is confronted with the pragmatism of running a criminal organisation. The Corleone’s could never be legitimate: the institutions of the past are just too powerful.

Like a big Italian opera, the film sways between personal loyalties, betrayals and consequent ruthless murders.

At the end of it all, Michael – a man of morals who desperately wants to transform the world into something better – falls back down the rabbit hole of the past. He takes over the family “business” and is forced to be more cunning and ruthless than even his father was.

The one figure who stood for light turns out to be the darkest of them all. There will be no change from the past.

The film’s ending is powerful but pessimistic. Early in the film, Michael tells his then girlfriend Kay (Diane Keating) he is going to change the whole way the organisation operated.

Now, Michael tells his wife Kay “don’t ask me about my business”. He closes the door on her as he takes his father’s chair.

In a way, Coppola was predicting the path of the next generation, and perhaps every young generation.

They all start with good intentions but practicalities often change ideals. The 1980s started as the era of anti-apartheid and Live Aid, but soon changed to “greed is good”. The 1990s started with the fall of the Soviet Union and the confirmed belief in Western Democracy, but resulted in disillusioned grunge.

Will the youth movements of this era have any demonstrable impact in ten years time? Or, like Michael Corleone, will they have been turned by the power and authority of the traditional institutions?

Five decades later, The Godfather still remains an allegorical tale for the passing of power from one generation to the next. But perhaps the greatest lesson from the film is the old adage that unless you learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it. The past often makes an offer you can’t refuse.

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Daryl Sparkes no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.

– ref. The Godfather at 50: set among the American Mafia of the 40s, Coppola’s film is unmistakably a film of the disillusioned 70s – https://theconversation.com/the-godfather-at-50-set-among-the-american-mafia-of-the-40s-coppolas-film-is-unmistakably-a-film-of-the-disillusioned-70s-178030

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

Scott Morrison on Monday will unveil a plan for a new submarine base to be built on the east coast to support Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines.

Announcing the base in a speech to the Lowy Institute, the Prime Minister will declare that “Australia faces its most difficult and dangerous security environment in 80 years”.

The government has been elevating national security as an issue for the election, but Labor is taking bipartisan positions and can be expected to do so on the submarine base.

Three sites are being considered for the base – Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla. The short list follows Defence examining 19 possible locations.

Morrison says that on early estimates more than $10 billion is needed to provide the facilities and infrastructure required for the transition from the present Collins-class submarines to the nuclear-powered ones.

The money will come from a new allocation within the existing defence budget.

In his speech, a draft of which was released ahead of delivery, Morrison stresses the new base will be extra capacity, not a relocation of existing or planned capacity for Fleet Base West, where the Collins submarines are based.

Given its strategic importance oo the Indian Ocean, that will remain home for present and future submarines, Morrison says.

“The decision to establish an east coast submarine base has been many years in the making as part of our transition from Collins,” he says.

“The government has now determined that, to support our decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, establishing a second submarine base on our east coast will enhance our strategic deterrent capability, with significant advantages in operational, training, personnel and industrial terms.

“An optimal east coast base would provide home-ported submarines with specialised wharfs, maintenance facilities, administrative and logistics support, personnel amenities, and suitable accommodation for submarine crews and support staff.

“It would also enable the regular visiting of US and UK nuclear-powered submarines.”

Defence Minister Peter Dutton on Sunday reiterated that Australia will get the nuclear-powered submarines “much sooner” than the originally-canvassed timeframe of around 2040.

Dutton told the ABC the government would have an announcement “within the next couple of months” on “what boat we are going with [and] what we can do in the interim”.

An evaluation process has been underway to determine whether Australia will acquire a British or an American design. Australia will have a gap in submarine capability before the arrival of the nuclear-powered submarines, which has led to speculation about the possibility of leasing.

Read more:
How do nuclear-powered submarines work? A nuclear scientist explains

Dutton said: “Both the US and the UK understand the timelines, they understand what is happening in the Indo-Pacific and they are very, very willing partners”.

Morrison says in his speech all three sites being considered for the new base meet many of the required criteria. These include

• proximity to industrial infrastructure

• closeness to large population centres to help recruit the substantially larger uniformed submarine workforce needed

• reasonable proximity to maritime training and operational areas, as well as to deep water, and to weapons storage and loading facilities

• strategic depth as far as possible from potential threats, and the ability to support the mounting and sustaining of operations.

Morrison says Defence will immediately engage with the NSW and Queensland governments and local authorities to validate the work to date and begin negotiations “on what will be an enormous undertaking”. This initial work would be due to be finished by the end of next year.

The new base would bring significant economic benefits, Morrison says.

On February 8 the Exchange of Naval Nuclear Propulsion Information Agreement with AUKUS partners the United States and the United Kingdom came into force.

“This landmark agreement is the first time since 1958 that the US has allowed access to this information. It gives Australia the training and the information sharing that we need to build a nuclear-powered submarine capability here,” Morrison says.

“It is a huge milestone and a reflection of the strategic trust that we’ve built with our partners.”

On Ukraine, Morrison says “everything points to a bloody and protracted conflict” there.

He and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke at the weekend, including discussing possible ways in which Australia and the international community could further assist. As well as humanitraina assistance, Australia has already provided $70 million in lethal aid.

Morrison says “a new arc of autocracy is instinctively aligning to challenge and reset the world order in their own image.

Read more:
Australia to build nuclear submarines in a new partnership with the US and UK

“We face the spectre of a transactional world, devoid of principle, accountability and transparency, where state sovereignty, territorial integrity and liberty are surrendered for respite from coercion and intimidation, or economic entrapment dressed up as economic reward.”

The crisis has been a “major wake up call” for Europe, in both strategic and economic terms, he says.

“The strategic, political, economic and social implications of this crisis will be deeply felt in Europe, but will inevitably stretch to the Indo-Pacific,” he says.

“This war of choice by Mr Putin is a reminder that, although Australia’s focus is the Indo-Pacific, events anywhere can affect our security.

“The Indo-Pacific remains at the centre of global geo-strategic competition,” he says.

“Threats in our region are proliferating from both state and non-state actors.

“Militarisation is expanding and evolving rapidly.

“The spectre from terrorism and all forms of violent extremism endures.

“The challenge from more surreptitious malign activities – espionage, disinformation, cyber-attacks, foreign interference, and economic coercion – is mounting daily.

“We’re seeing increasing resort in our region to ‘grey area’ tactics – where the boundary between legitimate and hostile activity is deliberately blurred.

“And the rise of so-called ‘hybrid warfare’, that has stripped away the old boundaries that once separated the realms of defence, foreign policy, trade and investment, communications and other areas reaching deep into our domestic society.”

“The challenges we face continue to mount. They require us to increase our resilience, expand our capabilities and harden our defences.”

Labor’s defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor told Sky on Sunday: “I think it’s fair to say we’ll see a further increase in investment in defence and Labor supports that approach.”

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. Morrison to announce new submarine base will be built on Australia’s east coast – https://theconversation.com/morrison-to-announce-new-submarine-base-will-be-built-on-australias-east-coast-178618

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Associate Professor, 50/50 By 2030 Foundation, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra

Pure box office, pure genius, was how former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain summed up the late, great Australian bowler Shane Warne, who died unexpectedly at just 52.

But limelight is illumination of the most unreliable kind, I noted at the beginning of The Private Don, my book on the inner life of Australia’s peerless batting genius Don Bradman.

Though Bradman and Warne had strikingly different attitudes to public attention, there was more to both their lives than the limelight revealed.

Warne used it like a nuclear reactor uses uranium: it fuelled him.
We gave him our attention. In exchange, he shared an exhilarating intensity and appetite for life that riveted us for years.

Read more:
Vale Shane Warne: a cricketing genius who lived a life of ‘no regrets’

The combination of Warne’s libido and laser-like focus was compelling. The libido made him relatable. Only the unworldly could find no empathy for, and occasional vicarious pleasure in, Warne’s hedonism, in which misogyny was notably absent.

The laser-like focus gave us the most thrilling individual sporting performances we will see in our lifetimes. The excitement it generated was contagious among the cricket-indifferent and cricket-lovers alike.

Millions of conversations around the world between people swapping stories about Warne since his death included this with a cricket-indifferent corporate lawyer. She recounted being at a test match at the MCG one day as her cricket-buff husband’s “handbag”. Warne put on a star turn and, she said, “Melbourne exploded”. She did too. It was ecstatic.

This was quintessentially to do with Warne, not just his bowling. Australia’s current top spinner, Nathan Lyon, is an extraordinary third on the ladder of most wickets taken in Australian cricket, behind only Warne and Glenn McGrath. As good as Lyon is, the cricket-indifferent likely have never noticed him and never will.

And as much as people go on about Warne’s larrikinism, it was the mesmeric intensity with which he pursued his quarry that dominated as I thought about him over the weekend. He had a super-human stillness that demanded and commanded attention as he hauled the wickets in.

This was both his big cricket brain at work as well as a visceral understanding, shared by top politicians, that combining effective theatre with the substance of one’s performance maximises success.

This was central to Warne’s later career as an elite poker player, too, where the “poker face”, and well-timed and convincingly executed bluff, are essential tools.

Here is the paradox of Warne: that someone loved for his authenticity was so good at the mask, one he curated literally as well as figuratively. There was plenty of cosmetic “work” and hair loss treatment in his attempts to keep time at bay.

Warne’s nonchalant waving away of problems in public was put down to an ability to compartmentalise. But this is just another way of saying he could give himself over totally to, and deliver, the performance required in the moment.

On the eve of his death he shifted gear, letting the public into more of the complications of his large life, including in relation to his family and his body, via the documentary Shane.

This was presaged by an Australian Men’s Health magazine joint interview a few months earlier with Warne and his son Jackson.

“Now, people can take the mickey out of me,” he said. “They can do whatever they like. They can call me vain because it doesn’t worry me in the slightest. Because in my mind it’s always been look good, feel good.”

Superficially, the body preoccupation did not seem obsessive. “Not everyone should worry about their weight – they should worry about feeling good,” Warne sensibly said. “But, for me, mate, I look at a cheeseburger and put on three kilos, whereas I know other people can have five of them and nothing happens.”

But one didn’t have to read between the lines to work out the issue was more significant than this. “(If) I’m quite strict with my diet and I combine that with my fitness routine, I’ll be fine,” Warne said, vocalising the unbidden thought track in the heads of most Australian women as well as many men.

Read more:
From the ashes of shame arises an Australian men’s cricket team to make us proud

The unspoken question was, of course, whether the public adoration (and Tinder success) would continue if Warne’s weight blew out. For very sad reasons, this is a worry no more.

The most tender part of the interview concerned the impact of cricket as then played, with long months away from family, on him and them, along with the limelight’s particular effect on son Jackson, now 22. (Daughters Brooke, 24, and Summer, 20, are mentioned but presumed to have escaped the gendered impact of being a famous man’s child.)

This was a worry for Don Bradman, too, who was close to daughter Shirley but struggled to help his depressed son John. Bradman was devastated when John changed his name to “Bradsen” to escape the burden of others’ expectations.

Unlike Warne, who began to open up before his death, Bradman remained silent on this all his life, except in correspondence with close friend, Australian journalist Rohan Rivett. John’s depression was “the supreme tragedy of my life for I seem so powerless to help,” Bradman told Rivett.

Asked whether he felt his father’s “long shadow”, Jackson Warne commented that the “shadow is quite warm [… and] you can have a lot of fun in the shadow.” Australian Men’s Health magazine’s description of Jackson as “sensitive, self-contained and likeable” hints, however, at the weight of masculinist expectations on the young man’s shoulders, as does the list of sports he tried and failed to shine in before finally finding salvation in the gym.

Like Bradman, Warne’s star will shine on. Unlike Bradman, Warne had begun using the limelight to work through his life’s complications. We will understand him better over time than we ever really did The Don.

Chris Wallace has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. At once an open book and a master of disguise, Shane Warne’s allure extended far beyond the cricket pitch – https://theconversation.com/at-once-an-open-book-and-a-master-of-disguise-shane-warnes-allure-extended-far-beyond-the-cricket-pitch-178613

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

When the news broke it was tempting to conclude swiftly that Shane Warne died as he had lived. On holiday in Thailand, nudge nudge. The tabloids, especially in Britain where he lived much of his life, had luridly chronicled his life. Many may have speculated that he died living life to the fullest.

As it turned out, Warne, who was just 52, had declared he was on a serious health kick, trying to lose weight and get in condition. Previously, he had even managed to turn weight loss into a scandal, when he failed a drugs test at the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa and was sent home. He was ridiculed for blaming his mother for recommending the banned diuretic.

To say Warne was no stranger to controversy is as banal as observing that he was a superlative cricketer. One of five Wisden Cricketers of the [20th] Century, cricket fans pore over his bowling record with the same forensic eye as the paparazzi tracked his carousing. It was Warne who delivered the “ball of the century” in 1993, perhaps the most famous dismissal in modern cricket, to a perplexed English captain, Mike Gatting. It was a piece of sporting sorcery that will never be forgotten.

These contrasting images lead us to ask who is Shane Warne, and why does he matter so much to so many?

Warnie: the soap opera

There are few sportspeople interesting enough to have an entire musical devoted to them, but Eddie Perfect found plenty of material for his 2008 production Shane Warne: The Musical. Its subject may be much admired by cricket followers around the world, but he is also well known to a much wider audience precisely because he has generated so much tabloid fare.

Warne is often presented as the lovable larrikin, a masculine archetype long celebrated in Australia. This is a colonial-era image of young men who mocked the stuffy propriety of the British with cheeky, anti-authoritarian attitudes and behaviour.

Perfectly suited to play a key role in the “postcolonial pantomime” that is the Ashes cricket series, he was loud, untidy, disrespectful and, crucially, very good at beating the Poms at their own game.

Warne was radically different from other Australian cricket heroes like Sir Don Bradman and Richie Benaud. When the latter died in 2015, I reflected on his transition from on-field rebel to sober commentator.

Shane Warne also made the move to television commentary, but whereas Benaud offered dignified consideration, Warne was animated and opinionated. Restraint was never part of Warne’s armoury, although his successful career as a professional poker player and the subtlety of his bowling were evidence of a shrewd, calculating mind behind the brash exterior.

But Warne was a different type of larrikin from older cricketers like Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, who died on the same day in a different time zone.

Lillee and Marsh were creatures of the cricket world, aggressive practitioners of the art of demolishing opposition teams.

Read more:
Cricket, commentary and the dollar: Benaud’s legacy is complex

Warne moved well beyond this sphere, as the emergent global sport star system fully embraced gossip-based entertainment.

He was both product and producer of the sporting celebrity that now moves effortlessly across the cultural landscape. He unblushingly endorsed hair loss treatment. Warne’s doomed engagement to British film star Liz Hurley was a classic case of a relationship conducted largely in the media spotlight.

The arrival of social media, and the pocket cameras always on hand to upload “evidence” of a transgression, was crucial in shaping the world’s knowledge of Warne the man when he was not performing astonishing feats on the cricket field.

He is, therefore, much closer to the postmodern cohort embodied by “bad as I wannabe” US basketballer Dennis Rodman than traditional Australian sporting larrikins.

More than just a cricketer

There is no need to persuade cricket fans to remember Shane Warne. His phenomenal record places him firmly in the cricket pantheon. But he is also important to sport in general and beyond the world of bat and ball.

Warne reminds us that sport is always much more than performance on the field. It is not just a question of what is done, but how. There is as much fascination with the back story as the big game.

An indifferent student from suburban Melbourne, Warne was socially mobile purely because of his sporting prowess. This everyman did extraordinary things with bravado, but was also a flawed personality. From his ill-advised early fraternisation with bookmakers to his feuding with past and current players, Warne became Warnie, almost a caricature of the sporty Aussie bloke loved by some and disdained by others.

Warne compulsively sought and attracted attention. Despite his expression of sadness about his family relationships in the documentary Shane, he insisted “I smoked, I drank, I bowled a bit. No regrets”.

Onlookers alternatively admire and criticise this life led on its own terms. It is in the conversational space between that Warne lives on.

David Rowe has received funding from the Australian Research Council for the Discovery Projects ‘A Nation of “Good Sports”? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia’ (DP130104502) and ‘Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics’ (DP140101970).

– ref. Vale Shane Warne: a cricketing genius who lived a life of ‘no regrets’ – https://theconversation.com/vale-shane-warne-a-cricketing-genius-who-lived-a-life-of-no-regrets-178603

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

It was Western Sydney’s turn for a drenching this week, as the region was hit by an east coast low – the infamous storm systems that periodically bring heavy rainfall to the New South Wales coast.

This east coast low was created by the same persistent band of low atmospheric pressure that generated a series of thunderstorms that soaked Brisbane and Lismore during the preceding days, delivering daily rainfall totals greater than 250 millimetres to Southeast Queensland and the NSW Northern Rivers.

The east coast low then formed on Tuesday, dumping more than 100mm of rain on western Sydney and the nearby ranges.

And this low pressure trough isn’t done yet. It’s forecast to create a second east coast low that will develop over the weekend and affect the NSW south coast, bringing rain that could once again extend to the greater Sydney area and also to to the Hunter region.

The remarkable persistence and geographical spread of these rain systems prompts several questions. Why did the first east coast low form, even after so much rain had already fallen on Brisbane and Lismore? Why is a second east coast low poised to form further to the south? And why are these systems, more commonly thought of as a winter phenomenon, happening at the tail end of summer?

How and when do east coast lows form?

East coast lows typically form one at a time. But it’s not that unusual for a particularly large area of low atmospheric pressure to spawn several of these storm systems, either one after another, or sometimes even simultaneously.

As we’ve already described, the precursor to the formation of an east coast low is typically a low pressure trough, similar to the one that has been positioned near Brisbane and northern NSW for more than a week.

A low pressure trough is an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure, and on Australia’s east they typically run alongside the coast. They are often an indicator of coming clouds, showers or, given enough atmospheric moisture, very heavy showers or thunderstorms.

Read more:
Stalled weather: how stuck air pressure systems drive floods and heatwaves

Combined with the high moisture content in the atmosphere over coastal eastern Australia, due partly to the influence of La Niña this summer, the resulting flood rainfall was focused close to the trough. The fact that the trough has remained almost stationary for an extended period of time has meant continuous rainfall for Southeast Queensland and the NSW Northern Rivers.

Eventually, the low pressure trough moved east on Tuesday and a weak low pressure centre developed well to the east of Brisbane, over the Tasman Sea. As the low pressure centre developed and moved slowly towards the NSW coast on Wednesday, the moist, southeast winds on the southern side of the low concentrated the rain onto the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, north of Sydney.

The low pressure centre finally weakened on Thursday. But a second east coast low is forecast to form during Sunday near the southern half of the New South Wales coast, resulting in more coastal rain spreading as far north as the Hunter region.

Do they eventually move on?

These low pressure systems tend to dissipate in a matter of a day or two, unless other nearby atmospheric conditions prolong their survival. At this time of year, they need to be reinforced by cold fronts moving from west to east, immediately to Australia’s south.

Such frontal systems have been absent in recent months, enabling the very moist air to remain in place over most of eastern Australia.

A contrasting sequence of the persistent easterly airflow has been its impact on southwestern Australia. The easterly winds have shed their moisture during their passage over southern Australia. Hence, they reach southwestern Australia as a hot, dry air mass. It’s no coincidence that Perth has just smashed its record for the number of days above 40℃ in a summer.

Is this normal for this time of year?

East coast lows can form in any month of the year, although they tend to happen mostly in the cooler months of April to September. Some devastating east coast lows have formed during warmer months, including the one that hit the Sydney to Hobart Race in December 1998, claiming six lives and sinking five yachts.

Read more:
Explainer: the wild storms that lash Australia’s east coast

It is hard to assess whether climate change has had an influence on the frequency of warm-season east coast lows. However, rising average sea surface temperatures could conceivably be a contributing factor to any change in their frequency.

For the more common cool-season east coast lows, however, we already know their development has shifted further south and east since the 1990s. This is consistent with the predictions of climate models that global warming will push mid-latitude westerly winds further towards the poles.

As this process continues, those east coast lows that develop in a westerly wind regime are likely to shift further poleward or become less frequent if conditions become less conducive to their formation, as suggested by recent research.

But these ferocious weather systems will nevertheless continue to be a threat to Australia’s east coast. Even if the rain doesn’t make landfall, east coast lows can generate large waves that disrupt otherwise benign sea conditions, such as in January 2021, when three people were tragically killed at Port Kembla.

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. NSW is being hit by a one-two of east coast lows. But aren’t those a winter thing? – https://theconversation.com/nsw-is-being-hit-by-a-one-two-of-east-coast-lows-but-arent-those-a-winter-thing-178419

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Irwin, Visiting Lecturer, Nuclear Reactors and Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Australian National University

It sounds like a nightmare come true. During a military offensive as part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fire broke out at Europe’s largest nuclear power station, the Zaporizhzhia power plant in the southern city of Enerhodar.

From what we understand of the situation, Russian troops were shelling the area during a battle for control of the facility, which supplies 25% of Ukraine’s electricity.

The plant has six large 950-megawatt reactors, built between 1980 and 1986 – crucially to a different design to the notorious and now decommissioned Chernobyl power station.

The fire evidently broke out in a multi-storey training building but has since been reportedly extinguished.

Was there a real risk of nuclear contamination?

The incident understandably raised the spectre of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. But it’s important to remember these are two different types of reactor. Chernobyl used RBMK-type reactors, a Soviet design from the 1970s that was never built in the West because of inherent safety flaws.

The Zaporizhzhia power station features Russian-designed VVER reactors, which use broadly the same design as the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR), the most popular reactor design used worldwide and also the type used in nuclear-powered submarines.

A PWR has a self-contained primary cooling water system to transfer heat from the reactor core to a steam generator. This system is kept pressurised so the water doesn’t boil – hence its name. A second, separate water loop transfers the steam produced in the steam generator to the turbine that produces the electricity.

Another crucial contrast with Chernobyl is the fact that VVER and PWR reactors have a massive concrete containment around the reactor to stop any radioactive release. This completely surrounds the reactor and steam generators, ensuring any water that could potentially be radioactive is within the containment.

The containment is typically constructed from pre-stressed concrete with a steel liner. In contrast, the Chernobyl-type reactor was physically very large, meaning a similar containment to enclose that system would have been very expensive.

Read more:
Military action in radioactive Chernobyl could be dangerous for people and the environment

Besides the normal cooling systems, VVER reactors have emergency core cooling systems consisting of four “hydroaccumulators” – vessels pressurised with gas and filled with water that can be automatically released into the reactor to cool it. These are called “passive” systems because they rely only on gas pressure to inject the water, rather than pumps that would require electrical power.

They also have multiple systems that use pumps to inject water into the reactor to prevent a core meltdown if the normal cooling systems are not available, for instance as a result of a loss of electrical power.

If the connection to the grid is lost, standby diesel generators can provide electrical supplies to essential plant. This backup plant has several “trains” – identical and independent sets of plant that are physically separated and perform the same safety function. For example, this VVER has three trains of high-pressure water injection and three trains of low-pressure injection.

The four trains of passive hydroaccumulators do not need diesel supplies and will still provide the necessary cooling.

Previous disasters

In 1979, one of the PWRs at Three Mile Island in the US state of Pennsylvania suffered a core meltdown, but there was practically no radioactive release to the environment because of the concrete containment system.

After the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator examined the capability of its nuclear power plants to withstand extreme events so all nuclear plants are better prepared to cope with these situations. This led to the installation of mobile diesel-driven pumps that can be connected to the reactor’s cooling system to provide water in an emergency.

Read more:
Is Fukushima still safe after the latest earthquake?

The Zaporizhzhia plant supplies 25% of Ukraine’s electricity, and Russia presumably wanted to gain control of it so as to control the electricity supply. Despite the self-evident recklessness of fighting near a nuclear power plant, it would not be in Russia’s interest to cause a radioactive release because this would immediately affect its army personnel in the vicinity, and also potentially cause a radioactive cloud to spread over western Russia and particularly the annexed region of Crimea, just to the south of the plant.

Tony Irwin 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. Russian shelling caused a fire at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant – how close did we actually come to disaster? – https://theconversation.com/russian-shelling-caused-a-fire-at-a-ukrainian-nuclear-power-plant-how-close-did-we-actually-come-to-disaster-178549

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

Alan Tudge will not return to his post as education minister, although an independent inquiry concluded there was “insufficient evidence” to find he bullied or harassed a former staffer.

Vivienne Thom, who conducted the inquiry, said the evidence available to her was limited by the decision of the former staffer, Rachelle Miller, not to participate.

If Tudge had been returned to his ministerial duties the controversy would have been reignited, in an election where Morrison will be under fire over issues to do with women.

Tudge said in a statement: “Despite Dr Thom’s findings, given the impact of the allegations on my family and myself, I have requested not to be returned to the front bench before the election. In the meantime, I will focus on my health, my kids and my electorate.”

Morrison said in a statement he “supported” Tudge’s decision to not seek to return to the front bench. Employment minister Stuart Robert will continue in the role of Acting Minister for Education and Youth, Morrison said.

Tudge will obviously be hoping to revive his ministerial career if the government is returned.

Miller accused Tudge of emotional abuse and on one occasion physical abuse (when, she claimed, he threw her out of bed) during their 2017 affair. Tudge denied the allegations.

Miller was Tudge’s media adviser from about August 2016 to November 2017 when he was human services minister.

Late last year, after Miller’s second round of allegations – the first was to the ABC’s Four Corners in 2020 – Morrison had Tudge stand aside from his portfolio and appointed the Thom inquiry

In her report, Thom said there was conflicting evidence about the nature and timing of the relationship.

She said Tudge and Miller were intimate about four times between June and October 2017, in what Tudge considered consensual interactions.

“Mr Tudge considered that this was not an ongoing relationship. He believed that Ms Miller wanted a long-term relationship,” the Thom report said.

“Mr Tudge said that in his view Ms Miller was in love with him and wanted a long-term relationship, which was not reciprocated.”

According to Tudge, “she believed that both should leave their respective spouses and would be happy together. He said that he has not seen Ms Miller since she finished working in his office in 2017. He said that he told her at that time that he could not see her and that his objective was to try to rebuild his marriage.”

Tudge said they had never had sex.

Ms Miller had told at least three people in the office about the relationship at the time, the report said.

The report said Tudge had supported a request, likely after their relationship started, to upgrade Miller’s position, which was a reasonable one based on her competence and workload.

Thom concluded: “In respect of Ms Miller’s allegations and noting that the available evidence was limited by Ms Miller’s decision not to participate in the Inquiry, there is insufficient evidence to support a finding on the balance of probabilities that:

• Mr Tudge bullied or harassed Ms Miller.

• Ms Miller’s relationship with Mr Tudge was emotionally abusive.

• Mr Tudge was physically abusive to Ms Miller during a work trip to Kalgoorlie Western Australia.”

Thom also said the evidence considered in the inquiry did not provide a basis for a finding Tudge breached the ministerial standards.

But she pointed out the ministerial standards “do not specifically address broader integrity and conflict of interest issues that can be a consequence of relationships that do not amount to ongoing or family relationships”.

Tudge said this was the second inquiry created at Miller’s request “and the second time the allegations have been dismissed”.

He said he deeply regretted the 2017 consensual affair “when both of us were married with children and in our forties. It should never have happened”. He said it caused the end of his marriage that year.

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. Alan Tudge will not return to education post – https://theconversation.com/alan-tudge-will-not-return-to-education-post-178552

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

University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon talk about this week in politics.

They canvass the war between Russia and Ukraine, as Western nations continue to ramp up tough sanctions against Russia and uncertainty hangs over the future.

Meanwhile the Quad (the US, Japan, India, Australia) met in the early hours of Friday (Australian time) when leaders reaffirmed “their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific”. This follows concern by some observers that the events in Eastern Europe could embolden the Chinese to move against Taiwan.

Paddy and Michelle also discuss the devastating floods in Queensland and NSW, as well as the possible disruption COVID could bring for electioneering.

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. VIDEO: The war, the floods, and COVID and campaigning – https://theconversation.com/video-the-war-the-floods-and-covid-and-campaigning-178519

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bradley J. Moggridge, Associate Professor in Indigenous Water Science, University of Canberra

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) assessment reports have great influence over government decision-making on climate change. The latest report, launched this week, for the first time features Indigenous Knowledges alongside Western scientific research.

Previous IPCC reports have only included evidence on how climate change has affected Indigenous Peoples. It is an historic improvement in this report to include actual Indigenous Knowledges after many years of lobbying by IPCC lead authors and outside organisations.

But, like most other IPCC chapters, the Australasian chapter did not include Indigenous lead authors. Our inclusion could have contributed ways of thinking, knowing and understanding that would have strengthened and deepened the report and subsequent media coverage.

Better representation of Indigenous Voices

IPCC lead authors are selected on the basis of their expertise and approved by their home country’s government.

The five authors of this article recommended to the Australian government that the next IPCC assessment report (AR7) appropriately represent Indigenous voices in the lead author selection for the Australasian section.

Two authors (Lansbury and Pecl) are non-Indigenous lead authors on the current report. We invited three Indigenous scholars (Moggridge, Creamer and Mosby) to be contributing authors to specific sections of the draft report.

These contributing authors brought science and cultural understanding from their respective heritages and Countries of Kamilaroi (Moggridge) and Waanyi and Kalkadoon (Creamer), and the Meriam Nation in the Torres Strait (Mosby).

The invitation to be contributing authors relied on the lead authors’ goodwill, not on government selection. The contributing authors co-wrote sections on Indigenous Peoples and screened the draft of the Australasian chapter for appropriate and respectful portrayal of Indigenous Peoples.

However, as per IPCC’s strict protocols for any contributing authors, this was only a reviewing role. The lead authors had final say on the text. If the lead authors had not asked Indigenous authors to contribute, the Australasian chapter of the report may not have had Indigenous input at all.

Read more:
World-first research confirms Australia’s forests became catastrophic fire risk after British invasion

We are the first to be impacted and the last to be heard

Australia has among the world’s highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. Indigenous Peoples in Australia contribute the least emissions, but are among those most affected by the consequences.

The current severe floods, recent droughts, fish-kills and bushfires of 2019-2020 show the climate has changed. The delay of urgent action means our People and Country are being forced to rapidly adapt.

One-fifth of the Indigenous Australian population lives in remote areas where climate change raises risks to our health and way of life.

This include a loss of access to traditional foods on Country. In some cases, communities have been forced to change their diet, which affects nutrition levels.

Some communities are also experiencing water insecurity, loss of land and cultural resources through land erosion and sea-level rise. Parts of the Torres Strait are seeing their ancestors’ burial sites exposed following saltwater intrusion and sea level rise.

High levels of poverty and underlying health conditions in some First Nations communities make many of our mob even more vulnerable to a warming climate.

Yet, recognition of our role in identifying solutions to problems caused by climate change are only slowly being recognised. This is despite the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples supporting self-determination. This should include Indigenous Peoples as key stakeholders on climate change decisions.

Such self-determination is already occurring in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which has a treaty obligation ensuring Māori Knowledges are considered.

Read more:
We need to design housing for Indigenous communities that can withstand the impacts of climate change

In-built survival and stewardship

Indigenous Peoples manage around 25% of the earth’s territory, containing 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. On average, trends of declining biodiversity have been less severe or avoided in areas managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Clearly, the global population of over 370 million Indigenous Peoples take seriously their responsibility to maintain the land and water for the future.

The Indigenous-led review of climate change impacts on the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples in Australia, commissioned by the Lowitja Institute, documented our diverse leadership in maintaining the care of Country.

The review highlighted that Indigenous-led initiatives on both climate change adaptation and emissions reduction can strengthen well-being among Indigenous Peoples. It was launched at last year’s COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow.

Read more:
Why the Australian government must listen to Torres Strait leaders on climate change

Positive steps towards recoginising Indigenous Knowledges

The IPCC report is a reminder of how Indigenous Australians have been largely excluded from climate change decision-making. Indigenous Knowledges are often treated as inferior, or described as myth, legend or fable.

But in fact, our Knowledges provide evidence from thousands of years of observations and practices to keep Country healthy.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a powerful proposal to enable a direct voice in decision-making in Australia. But it has been dismissed by two successive prime ministers.

However, this latest IPCC report suggests that inclusion is improving. The IPCC chapter featuring Australia now recognises:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples can enhance effective adaptation through the passing down of knowledge about climate change planning that promotes collective action and mutual support.

It then describes the value of Indigenous Knowledges regarding fire management, cultural flows, Indigenous protected areas and Indigenous ranger programs.

And the IPCC chapter on climate resilient development looks to Indigenous Knowledges in oral histories for improved understanding of ecosystem change over time.

But despite this progress, our Peoples still need better upfront inclusion and representation in climate change research, dialogue and decision-making.

Looking to the next IPCC report

The IPCC and governments can look to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for leadership on respect and inclusion of Indigenous Knowledges and Indigenous scholars. This platform acts on its policy to recognise:

Indigenous Peoples and local communities possess detailed knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem trends. This knowledge is formed through their direct dependence on their local ecosystems, and observations and interpretations of change generated and passed down over many generations, and yet adapted and enriched over time.

The next iteration of the IPCC’s work will benefit from Indigenous representation and leadership as appointed by governments in their lead author teams.

We Indigenous People are here and ready. Come join us at our sacred fires to listen. We can answer the call for action on climate change, just as our thousands of past generations have done.

Associate Professor Bradley J. Moggridge is affiliated with Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s Committee on Aboriginal Water Interests (CAWI), a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a Governor with WWF Australia.

Gretta Pecl receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment, Department of Primary Industries NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet (Tasmania), the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation, and received travel funding support from the Australian government for participation in the IPCC process.

Nina Lansbury received travel funding support from the Australian Government for participation in the IPCC process.

Sandra Creamer and Vinnitta Mosby 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. IPCC reports still exclude Indigenous voices. Come join us at our sacred fires to find answers to climate change – https://theconversation.com/ipcc-reports-still-exclude-indigenous-voices-come-join-us-at-our-sacred-fires-to-find-answers-to-climate-change-178045

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate R Saunders, Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

The extreme rain and flooding bombarding Australia’s east coast has inflicted a heavy toll on lives and livelihoods. This, however, could’ve been minimised if weather warning systems had been clearly translated into on-the-ground, local impacts for communities.

Early and detailed impact warnings can give people sufficient time to act. This should include continually updated predictions showing the spatial extent of flooding, timing, and the levels of uncertainty. All this should be easily accessible via a central hub of information.

Access to this sort of information depends on the council. Residents in Brisbane, where half a year’s worth of rain fell in three days, had only a PDF of a map showing the flood extent. It didn’t show the water’s depth, just whether there was predicted water – and a house submerged from floor to ceiling is very different from having some water on your front lawn.

Improved warnings are unlikely to protect houses, as there’s an inevitable loss of infrastructure that goes along with large catastrophic floods. However, it means people can prepare for floods. Possessions can be moved, vulnerable loved ones can be reached, and people can be evacuated in a timely manner – not in the middle of the night.

Weather warning vs impact warning

The Bureau of Meteorology issues warnings about extreme rainfall, river heights and possible floods. These are usually communicated on social media and in the news.

Individual councils translate these weather warnings into possible impacts for their communities, such as how high the floodwaters may rise and what infrastructure may be damaged.

Early weather warnings are often broad in location and time due to large uncertainties in the predictions, even with the best weather models and mathematical and statistical methods behind them. As the event draws nearer, forecasters can make better predictions with more certainty, with greater detail about the location and timing of the event.

Read more:
‘One of the most extreme disasters in colonial Australian history’: climate scientists on the floods and our future risk

Impact warnings must evolve in the same way: broad at first, and becoming more targeted and specific with time. But the available warnings didn’t make the best use of information about the probability of flood water at different locations and times.

The map provided by the Brisbane City Council, for example, showed only one possible predicted scenario for the flood extent at the maximum river height. This doesn’t show people when their place will go under, and many homes were inundated before maximum river height was reached.

The map also didn’t show the predicted water depth at given locations, and didn’t show any uncertainties in its predicted extent. This makes it harder for people to make decisions about how and when to act.

While there are many ways this map could be improved upon, many other councils in flood-affected areas didn’t even have this.

Making good decisions

Broad flood estimates for catchments aren’t always useful for individual action. To make effective decisions for your family and home:

• Location matters: to act, it’s important to know if you’ll be cut off by flood waters

• time matters: knowing your property is at risk of flooding in three days time offers different mitigation options than “likely to flood” in seven hours

• uncertainty matters: people will act differently based on a one in 100 risk than a one in ten risk, and interpret descriptions (such as “likely”) in different ways.

Indeed, research shows communicating forecast uncertainties and probabilities helps people make better decisions, increases trust in the forecast, and even improves compliance with warnings.

There’s also a much lower cost in taking action early. Of course, early warnings need to be balanced with false-alarms. Acting early is often done in the face of uncertainty, but waiting until the event is about to occur doesn’t give people enough time to act.

When events are low probability and high impact, it’s often better to err on the side of caution.

Read more:
Why water inundates a home during one flood but spares it the next

What needs to improve?

In Australia, different councils have different resources and funding for translating complex weather data into usable flood impact information. For most councils, this isn’t part of their day-to-day business, and they likely don’t have necessary expertise on-staff given how infrequent flood events of this magnitude are.

As climate change brings more frequent and intense natural disasters, improving weather impact warnings and the resources of councils is more urgent than ever.

Drawing from the warning systems in place for bushfires is a good place to start. Australia has a highly localised warning system for bushfires, which includes: Monitor Conditions,
Evacuate Now and Shelter in Place. Information about which roads are cut off are also widely communicated.

A similar tiered warning system linking weather and actions would have greatly helped residents make decisions. Low-lying areas with a moderate to high risk of flooding could then better understand how their flood or isolation risks were growing over time.

What’s more, information about where a flood can occur, its depth, when it will happen, and how likely at a given point in time and space needs to be visualised in an accessible way. This could include interactive, local maps showing the predictions and uncertainty in how the event will evolve.

Read more:
Like many disasters in Australia, Aboriginal people are over-represented and under-resourced in the NSW floods

Australia can also look to the United Kingdom Met Office, which focuses on impacts in their weather warnings.
It issues colour code warnings based on the impact and the likelihood of the event – for example, a code orange can be issued when an event either has a very high likelihood and a moderate impact, or a very high impact and a moderate likelihood.

Issuing timely, actionable warnings based on impacts isn’t easy. Spatial estimates of floods require advanced modelling techniques, especially when predicting in real time. Uncertainty is also a difficult concept to visualise and communicate, but there is ongoing research to address this problem.

These challenges can’t be tackled in an ad hoc manner in the midst of a natural disaster. Data science, better data, and technology all offer solutions for this challenge, and must be an ongoing focus in the lead-up to future, inevitable floods.

Kate R Saunders receives funding from The Harry Otten Prize for Innovation in Meteorology.

Kate Helmstedt receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.

Kirien receives funding from The Harry Otten Prize for Innovation in Meteorology.

– ref. People could’ve prepared for the floods better if the impacts of weather forecasts were clearly communicated – https://theconversation.com/people-couldve-prepared-for-the-floods-better-if-the-impacts-of-weather-forecasts-were-clearly-communicated-178309

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Fortescue, Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney

There has been constant speculation for most of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 22 years in power as to what it would take to bring about his departure. Authoritarian leaders tend to depart according to two scenarios (beyond natural causes): forced out by the elite or by the street.

In light of events in Ukraine, has the time finally come that either of those scenarios might come to pass?

Putin appears to be isolated from advisers

It was generally accepted among Russian political experts that the really big decisions in Russia, such as whether to annex Crimea or invade Ukraine, were made by a small circle of advisers from the security services. These are people who also have close personal ties to Putin going back many years.

There is also a technocratic elite in Russia that has kept the economy and social services going under his supervision. And there is a group of rich businesspeople (the oligarchs and others), who in return for obsequiousness, were allowed to keep making money.

The first sign of a potential crack in Putin’s small circle of security advisers came at the meeting of the Russian Security Council on February 21, at which Putin extracted an agreement for Russia to recognise the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states. It was this decision that led to parliamentary approval of the use of Russian troops to “protect” those republics from Ukrainian aggression, which brought on the invasion.

The meeting revealed that the security chiefs who were considered Putin’s closest cronies were not in the loop. And many appeared uncomfortable and expressed, very carefully, their reservations. It took humiliating bullying to get them all onside.

It is unclear where Putin gets his advice from today, but a process of elimination suggests it might be just the military and the minister of defence, Sergey Shoigu. Seasoned observers have suggested even Shoigu looked shocked when Putin ordered him to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert.

Some oligarchs distancing themselves

However, there is no sign these worried and humiliated members of the security elite are so discontented as to take action against Putin. And the technocratic elite claims to be loyally taking on the task of preparing the nation for crippling sanctions.

That leaves the economic elite. And here, there are signs of discontent, particularly the Yeltsin-era oligarchs, such as Oleg Deripaska and Roman Abramovich, who do not totally owe their wealth to Putin.

Deripaska, a billionaire who has been sanctioned by the West, has broken ranks with the Kremlin and called for the war to end, as has Mikhail Fridman, one of Russia’s richest men.

Abramovich, meanwhile, is selling the Chelsea football club he owns and setting up a foundation for victims of the war (although he has yet to condemn the war outright).

Such public challenges by oligarchs have been rare in Russia since ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was targeted by the Kremlin and spent years in prison on charges his lawyers maintain were trumped up.

Even if it’s starting to hit home for some oligarch that their businesses and wealth are under serious threat, there is not enough here to suggest a palace coup. It doesn’t help that the Russian president is directly elected, and can only be removed through impeachment, a drawn-out process that cannot be organised conspiratorially.

Will street protests gather momentum?

Nervous elites might get braver if there is enough tumult on the streets. What are the chances of popular protests bringing about Putin’s downfall?

Putin has always enjoyed high levels of popularity. He brought a style of open bluntness to the presidency that could be charming or brutal, depending on the circumstances. He was lucky with oil prices, which with some judicious economic management allowed him to preside over a dramatic improvement in people’s living standards.

Putin’s once-restrained but constant insistence that Russia was by right a great power and must be recognised as such did his popularity no harm. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 drove his poll ratings through the roof in an outpouring of patriotic fervour (peaking at 89% in June 2015, according to an independent pollster).

Read more:
Putin’s approval has stayed strong over the years – war in Ukraine could change that

There’s been a decline ever since, as the economy stagnated, opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, and elections were manipulated. His rating dipped to 59% in mid-2020 and has hovered in the 60-70% range since then.

There have been people on the streets countless times over the years, but they have never been able to maintain momentum, fading away before policy brutality, arrests and imprisonment.

Thousands have already been arrested during street protests since the start of the Ukraine invasion.

The mass in the middle

In what direction will things go this time? There are anti-war petitions garnering millions of signatures, and people continuing to gather on the streets, despite the risks. But prior to the invasion, polls showed an improvement in Putin’s rating to 71%.

Anecdotal evidence suggests a mass in the middle who don’t know what’s happening in Ukraine or choose to avoid knowing. For a political scientist, the issue is how to account for the apathetic middle when judging the survivability of a regime. Which side will they take when things get serious, given the fact Western sanctions are bringing about serious economic pain?

Read more:
Ahead of constitutional reform vote, two-thirds of young Russians think Vladimir Putin should step back from power

Those in the middle will put off taking sides for as long as possible. For many, the measure of serious economic pain is the severe hardships of the 1990s, which led many Russians to reject the Western model.

There is no reason to believe a new plumbing of the depths will produce a different response.

Stephen Fortescue 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. As the Ukraine war drags on, how secure will Putin’s hold on power remain? – https://theconversation.com/as-the-ukraine-war-drags-on-how-secure-will-putins-hold-on-power-remain-178312

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University

The latest report from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) shows the homicide rate is increasing in Australia.

But should we be concerned and how does Australia compare to other similar countries? Is crime in general increasing or is the rise in the homicide rate a standout?

How much has the homicide rate risen?

The AIC runs the National Homicide Monitoring Program, which is Australia’s only national collection of data on homicide incidents, victims and offenders. The report classifies homicides as being domestic, acquaintance, stranger or unknown. The latest report covers the period 2019-20.

It shows the homicide rate has risen in Australia over this period by 16%. The homicide rate in 2019–20 was 1.02 incidents per 100,000 people, the highest rate since 2012–13. Within these incidents the rate of domestic and stranger homicides increased, while the rate of acquaintance homicide decreased for 2019-20.

In this period there were 261 homicide incidents, up 35 from the previous period. This is the highest number of murders since 2005-06.

The biggest increase was in homicides in which the relationship between the victim and offender was unknown or not stated. These accounted for 51 incidents, up 64% for 2019-20. Stranger homicides, 46 incidents, rose 35%. Domestic homicides, 81 incidents, rose only 5%.

What do we know about the homicide incidents

Males accounted for 87% of homicide offenders in 2019-20. The rate of offending for males increased to 2.45 per 100,000. That’s almost seven times the rate of female offending, which increased slightly to 0.36 per 100,000.

There were 278 victims, an increase of 38 over the previous year. Of these victims, 65% were female and 35% were male.

The most common cause of death for homicide victims was a stab wound: this accounted for 37% of deaths. This was followed by blunt force (19%) and gunshot wounds (13%). Other causes of death included strangulation, shaking, burns and poisoning.

Domestic homicides include intimate partner, child, spouse or sibling, and other family incidents. In 2019-20, the number of intimate partner homicides decreased to 45 incidents, the lowest number since records began in 1989-90. However, killing of a child by parents increased, while other categories remained stable.

Residential settings accounted for 57% of homicide incidents, while 28% occurred in a public setting such as a park or street.

New South Wales had the most murders with 85, followed by Victoria with 66. The Northern Territory had the biggest increase of 60% compared to the previous period, although the number of incidents remained small at just eight. Of the other states, Victoria recorded the next biggest increase compared to 2018-19, with homicide incidents increasing 46%. Western Australia and South Australia both recorded declines.

How Australia compares

Provisional data from the United States show a dramatic increase in the US murder rate in 2020. It rose from six homicides per 100,000 in 2019 to 7.8 per 100,000.

In England and Wales, the homicide rate for 2019-20 was 1.1 per 100,000 a rate similar to the previous year.

United Nations homicide data indicate the global homicide rate in 2018 was estimated to be 5.8 per 100,000. To put this in perspective, generally homicide rates around the world have been in decline: between 1990 and 2015, the world homicide rate fell by 20%. Indeed, the current rate of homicide in Australia is almost half of the peak rate of 1.88, which was recorded in 1992-93.

What about other crime in Australia?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) produces data on both reported crime to police and experiences of victims gathered through the Crime Victimisation Survey. This survey collects details about a range of personal and household crimes, such as assaults, breaking and entering, and theft. The victimisation survey may capture offences that were not reported to police.

For the 2019-20 period, the survey showed that those who experienced physical assaults, break and enters, sexual assaults, motor vehicle thefts and robberies had similar rates when compared to 2019-20.

In terms of reported crime, the period 2019-20 captures the beginning of the COVID pandemic, which had a significant impact on decreasing crime levels.

The ABS data for reported crime in 2020 show substantial decreases in break and enters, motor vehicle thefts and robbery. However, there was an increase in sexual assault reported during this period.

So why did homocide rates rise?

Some insight can be gained by looking at the motives for the homicides. In 36% of the incidents, there was an argument or personal dispute prior to the homicide. Drugs and money were recorded as a motivation in only 5% of incidents. There was no apparent motive in 10% of incidents, and revenge or jealousy accounted for just 3% of murders.

Alcohol and drugs were often present. Victims had consumed alcohol in 25% of cases and drugs in 28%. Offenders were reported to have consumed alchol in 17% of incidents and drugs in 10%. It should be noted that the results for offenders rely on self-reporting or police observation, whereas toxicology reports are available for victims.

Read more:
Explainer: how do police undertake major crime investigations?

Where to from here?

Data collection needs to be improved to identify why so many homicide incidents are not able to be classified. This would seem to be primarily due to no relationship being stated or known.

Having investigated more than 25 homicides as a police officer, it is hard to fathom how a relationship status remains unknown in so many cases where the offender is identified. Such information is crucial is terms of investigative strategies, risk mitigation and crime prevention responses. This knowledge gap needs to be addressed.

The homicide rate increase is out of step with trends for most other crimes in Australia for the 2019-20 period and Australia compares well to international counterparts.

While the number of incidents is low compared to historical levels, we should be concerned this increase does not continue. For obvious reasons, homicides inflict the most harm on society and we must be vigilant about keeping them as low as possible.

Terry Goldsworthy 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. Homicide is on the rise in Australia. Should we be concerned? – https://theconversation.com/homicide-is-on-the-rise-in-australia-should-we-be-concerned-178320