Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Surely Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe won’t move to a private bank after his term as governor ends next week.

After having chaired his last board meeting on Tuesday, there’s nothing to stop him, and – as shabby as it seems – he wouldn’t be the first.

There are three reasons why he shouldn’t join the board of or become chair of a private bank, all alluded to in the public service code of conduct.

One is concern that the former employee would reveal confidential Commonwealth information (which would be unlikely for someone as cluey as Lowe) or “provide other information that would give the new employer an advantage in its business dealings”, which would be more likely, even if unintentional.

Banks don’t seek out former Reserve Bank chiefs unless they think there’s something in it for them.

Another concern set out in the code of conduct is that the former employee would exploit their knowledge of the Commonwealth to lobby, or otherwise seek advantage for their new employer in dealing with the Commonwealth.

Banks such as Westpac, NAB, the ANZ and Macquarie Bank deal with the Reserve Bank all the time. It runs the payments system, it is responsible for the financial system, and it sets interest rates.

Every one of the four banks I just mentioned has employed either a former Reserve Bank Governor or Treasury Secretary.

Perceptions matter when a Governor moves on

Even where these high-profile hires don’t help the banks in their relations with the regulator, the public service code of conduct points to the “perception” that they will have a greater ability to influence regulators than other hires.

The third concern identified in the code of conduct – in my view the most important – has been labelled “ingratiation” by a public service specialist at the Australian National University, Richard Mulligan.

It’s the possibility that while still in the public service, the employee will use their position to go soft on an organisation (or type of organisation) they see as a potential future employer.

The Reserve Bank’s own code of conduct is silent on the question of taking up employment with the banks it regulates, although it does say that where there is a perception of conflict of interest, the employee has to discuss it with the relevant department head or governor.

Read more:
The RBA has kept interest rates on hold. It’ll be cautious from here on

The government’s lobbying code of conduct in place since 2008 purports to ban heads of department from engaging in lobbying activities relating to any matter with which they have had official dealings for 12 months after they have left office.

But former governors needn’t lobby, and 12 months isn’t long to wait.

Philip Lowe’s predecessor, the man to whom he was deputy, Glenn Stevens, finished up as Reserve Bank Governor in September 2016 and joined the board of the Macquarie Bank and Macquarie Group in December 2017. He has been chair of the chair of Macquarie Bank and Macquarie Group since 2022.

Stevens’ predecessor as governor, Ian Macfarlane, finished as head of the Reserve Bank in September 2006 and joined the board of the ANZ bank in February 2007.

The governor he replaced, Bernie Fraser, finished at the Reserve Bank in September 1996 and joined the board of the industry funds that became Australian Super in the same year, becoming chair of the super-fund-owned ME Bank in 2000.

Ken Henry stepped down as head of the Australian Treasury (and a member of the Reserve Bank board) in April 2011 and in November that year joined the board of the National Australia Bank. In 2015 he was made its chair.

The man Henry replaced at the Treasury, Ted Evans, stepped down in April 2001 and joined the board of Westpac that year, becoming its chair in 2007.

I’ve dealt with each of these people while they were governors or treasury secretaries and I’ve never seen anything that made me doubt their integrity.

And yet in my view, none of them should have gone on to work for the type of organisations they used to regulate.

All of them were paid extraordinarily well. In 2021–22 Philip Lowe was on a package of $1.037 million including superannuation and a salary of $890,252.

None needed another high-paying job straight away, and (because of public service super) all had a generous income to look forward to in retirement.

I understand their need to continue to do interesting things, but I don’t think it’s too big a sacrifice to ask former regulators to do those things away from the types of organisations they had the privilege of regulating.

On retiring from the Reserve Bank in 1968, its first governor HC Coombs, chaired the Council for the Arts and the Council for Aboriginal Affairs. He made an ever-greater contribution to Australia without doing what the Japanese call amakudari, or “descending from heaven” to work for the organisations he once regulated.

A profile of the practice includes the admonition “don’t snicker”.

When Lowe took the governor’s job in 2016 I wrote a profile of him for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, speaking to former teachers and colleagues off the record. Repeatedly, unprompted, they mentioned his firm moral compass.

Lowe is about to turn 62. He has years of useful work ahead of him. I don’t expect him to descend from heaven to do it.

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

– ref. What’s to stop Philip Lowe moving to a private bank after he leaves the RBA? It’s what his predecessors did – https://theconversation.com/whats-to-stop-philip-lowe-moving-to-a-private-bank-after-he-leaves-the-rba-its-what-his-predecessors-did-212780

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Robertson, ARC DECRA Fellow & Senior Lecturer in Construction Management, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne

The Olkola people from Queensland’s very remote Cape York Peninsula gained their land back through a native title claim in 2014. Since then, they have undertaken land management using traditional fire techniques, habitat protection and restoration and cultural tourism.

The Olkola are in the process of building a Cultural Knowledge Centre on their Country. The centre will support the Olkola people’s practices and showcase their culture to the world. During the Cultural Knowledge Centre design process, the Olkola identified the need to find, repatriate, document and share their cultural stories and archives.

In support of this vision, they formed the Traditional Owner-led project, Getting Back on Country. The project is led by the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation and the Olkola Rangers in collaboration with researchers at the University of Melbourne, including authors Hannah Robertson and Rochus Urban Hinkel.

In partnership with the researchers, the Olkola are using digital technologies including virtual reality and augmented reality to capture their cultural stories. These digitised stories, as well as Olkola artefacts, are to be kept and shared at the Cultural Knowledge Centre.

These digital technologies will also help to bring Country to Olkola Traditional Owners with dementia or disabilities who are unable to travel to Country.

Read more:
Rising seas and a great southern star: Aboriginal oral traditions stretch back more than 12,000 years

Nukakurra: a new way to visit Country

This is important work for Olkola people. Today we have a lot of people who can’t move, are in hospital or can’t get back on Country. We want to take Country back to them, so if they’re lying in a hospital bed, they’re lonely and nobody’s visiting, they’ve got something there that can take them back on Country and remind them where they came from. We believe this will be a healing medicine for people.

To realise this vision, we decided to create the Getting Back on Country Project. We began our collaboration by focusing on the Nukakurra Walking Trail as a pilot process for creating a digital cultural story.

Nukakurra is a cultural story place with a loop walk that passes several Olkola significant sites. Some of the sites in Nukakurra include the Blue Tongue Lizard dreaming site, an old Olkola campground and the Crocodile dreaming site. These dreaming sites are sacred to Olkola people because they are the creation places of these animal spirits which continue to walk across Olkola Country.

Author Melissa Iraheta and University of Melbourne researcher Mitch Ransome travelled to Olkola Country with the Olkola Rangers to document Nukakurra. Using 360-degree microphones and cameras, Lidar scanners (a laser used for determining distances between objects that can be used to create 3D landscapes), photogrammetry (which involves collecting overlapping images to build 2D or 3D models) and drones, they spent a week documenting the key sites.

Robertson and Uncle Mike Ross then travelled to Olkola Country with Olkola Elder Uncle Jack Lowdown and other senior elders to document the cultural story audio for Nukakurra in both English and Olkol using a 360-degree microphone.

This process highlighted the power of yarning and the connections between the sites of significance. Uncle Mike created a new story of a grandfather and grandmother walking the Country and passing the sites with their grandchildren and sharing their knowledge as they did – just as it would have happened in the old world prior to colonisation.

The process also highlighted the limitations of the technologies in the remote context, with cameras overheating and the 360-degree microphone struggling to capture audio while walking. Now we have these stories, the final stitching of the Nukakurra cultural story place experience is being developed as a 360-degree film experience.

Read more:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must be at the centre, not the margins, of LGBTQIA+ plans and policies

The importance of preserving story

The pilot digital experiences for the Nukakurra Olkola cultural story place are still in development. In May, three generations of Olkola people shared their experiences of working with the University of Melbourne on the Getting Back on Country and Olkola Cultural Knowledge Centre projects.

During this yarn, Olkola woman and project manager for the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Katherine Samuel, reflected on the data collection process:

[Uncle Mike] saying welcome [to Nukakurra] in English and Uncle Jack saying it in [Olkol] language and Mitch holding the 3D camera and collecting all that data, it was so much. And when they came up March this year, Grandad Mike put on the VR goggles, wow it was so cool. To be able to sit in the office and feel like you were there. It was really cool; we were able to collect data with multiple technologies.

There are hopes to continue to expand the collaboration with the Olkola in a larger project. We aim to encompass multiple cultural story sites and find and repatriate Olkola cultural archives. It is our hope this can provide a process for other traditional owner groups to explore and preserve their respective stories on their own Country.

We wish to acknowledge the contributions of all of the Olkola people involved in this project. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Olkola woman Katherine Samuel of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Olkola elder Uncle Jack Lowdown and Mitch Ransome from the University of Melbourne for their contributions.

Hannah Robertson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. She is affiliated with the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The Getting Back On Country project is funded with internal seed funding through the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, Chancellery and a Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning Seed Grant. The Cultural Knowledge Centre Project receives construction funding from the Queensland Government through the Growing Indigenous Tourism Queensland Fund and the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation’s Our Country, Our Future’ fund.

Melissa Iraheta is affiliated with the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.

Rochus Hinkel has received funding for the Getting Back On Country project, from the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, Chancellery and from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.

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

– ref. Virtual reality is helping Olkola Traditional Owners get back on Country – https://theconversation.com/virtual-reality-is-helping-olkola-traditional-owners-get-back-on-country-211501

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Teske, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

This weekend, the world’s major economies will convene in Delhi for the G20 summit. On the table will be the common goal of limiting global temperature rise as climate chaos becomes ever more evident.

When we talk about limiting climate change, we’re really talking about the global carbon budget set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Basically, we have a two-thirds chance of holding global heating to 1.5℃ if we keep future emissions under 400 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. At current emission rates, we’ve got just under five years left before we blow through that limit.

As our new research shows, getting to net zero isn’t going to be the same in each country. There are commonalities – halting new fossil fuel projects and funding renewables, storage and energy efficiency. But there will be significant differences in how manufacturing giants like China zero out emissions compared to India or Australia.

And then there’s the question of fairness. Some countries have emitted vastly more than others. If we divide up the remaining carbon budget while taking historic emissions into account, we find countries like America, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia have already gone past their fair carbon budgets.

Meanwhile, countries which have industrialised later like Mexico, China, Argentina, Turkey, India and Indonesia are sitting below their fair carbon budgets.

What’s new about this?

The G20 account for 80% of the world’s emissions. If each of these countries ended their reliance on fossil fuels and other emissions sources, we’d be most of the way to tackling the climate crisis.

We took into account how much each country has emitted historically, from industrialisation to 2019, and population size. Then we devised a per capita carbon index, which gives developing countries with little historic responsibility for climate change a fair distribution of carbon from 2020 to 2050. We did this to show how every country can make this energy transition in a timeframe realistic to their circumstances.

India: minimal historic impact but rising fast

The world’s most populous country has historically been a very low emitter, producing just 25% of China’s emissions from 1750–2019. But in recent decades, it has begun to emit more and its future emissions might rise substantially.

India has relied heavily on coal power, but its renewable sector is growing exceptionally fast. It’s now the fourth largest market for solar, biomass and wind power

Steelmaking is rapidly growing. If this industry relies on old coal technology, it will add to emissions and eat away at the global carbon budget. New build steel plants should turn to hydrogen or other green steelmaking techniques.

Power sector: not yet on track but positive trend

Industry: not on track.

Read more:
Africa has vast gas reserves – here’s how to stop them adding to climate change

China: giant of emissions, manufacturing – and renewables

China produces over 30% of the world’s emissions with 18% of its population, making it the world’s biggest.

The North Asian nation’s cement, steel, chemical and aluminium industries rely heavily on coal, producing 60% of the global energy-related emissions from each of these sectors – vastly more than America’s 10%.

Cleaning up its enormous industrial sector through green steelmaking and other new techniques will be actually be harder than getting off coal power.

On the positive side, China has emerged as the world’s leading nation in solar and wind energy deployment and manufacturing. It’s surging forward on electric cars and long-distance rail.

Power sector: decarbonising slowly, not yet on track

Industrial sector: well off track

America: gas, inefficient cars and a clean energy boom

The United States is the world’s largest single emitter of carbon emissions in the power sector, both historically as well as per capita.

Fossil gas plays a major role for power and heat generation, while America’s cars and trucks are the most inefficient in the world. The nation has just 4% of global population but its vehicles emit almost 25% of the world’s emissions from road transport.

The nation’s building sector accounts for 15% of all global emissions from buildings, due to large, inefficiently built houses and heating systems.

These sectors – power, transport and buildings – still need urgent attention. But, thankfully, America’s much-vaunted Inflation Reduction Act has triggered an enormous investment boom in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Power sector: well on track to be largely decarbonised by 2040

Transport and building sectors: not yet on track

Australia: rich in renewables – and gas and coal

Australia is one of the top five per capita emitters in the G20, both historically and today. Our relatively small population means we’re not one of the largest overall emitters.

Huge coal and gas reserves mean Australia has long profited from fossil fuel income. We’re the second largest coal exporter and one of the top liquefied natural gas exporters.

On the upside, Australia has some of the world’s best and largest solar and wind resources. We could play a leading role in the transition towards green steel and green hydrogen. At the rate things are going, we could decarbonise domestic energy supply in just over a decade.

Power sector: broadly on track

Transport sector: not yet on track

Fair is possible – and necessary

This weekend’s G20 summit gives an opportunity to build political momentum and formulate plans for concrete action among high-emitting countries.

An agreement to fairly split up the remaining carbon budget is unlikely, however, given debate over whether cutting carbon will damage economic development in developing countries at the recent G20 meeting of foreign ministers.

It might be hard. But it is possible. Many rich countries have already broken the link between GDP growth and energy demand. Developing countries can decarbonise while continuing to grow.

Read more:
COP27 roundup: how the world can stick to its carbon budget fairly

Sven Teske receives funding fromthe European Climate Foundation, 23 Rue de la Science, 1040 Brussels, Belgium (grant number 2101-61369).

– ref. Every country can make a difference – but carbon reductions need to be realistic and fair – https://theconversation.com/every-country-can-make-a-difference-but-carbon-reductions-need-to-be-realistic-and-fair-212375

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hazel Keedle, Senior Lecturer of Midwifery, Western Sydney University

Many women want a different kind of pregnancy and birth the next time around. Many want to see the same one or two midwives throughout, and want to choose where they give birth. And when the time comes, they want a vaginal birth, with less intervention.

This is what thousands of Australian women told us when we asked if they would do anything differently if they had another baby.

We publish our findings today in British Medical Journal Open.

Read more:
Curious Kids: why do babies cry when they come out of their mum?

What we did

In 2021, we undertook Australia’s largest national study of birth experiences. As part of that, we asked women, “Would you do anything different if you were to have another baby?”

A total of 6,101 women left comments. More than 85% of comments were from women who said they’d do things differently the next time around.

Several themes emerged.

Read more:
Monday’s medical myth: women forget the pain of childbirth

‘Next time I’ll be ready’

The largest group of comments (39.2%) were from women who wanted to avoid a repeat of their previous pregnancy and birth experience. They wanted to better advocate for themselves, get more informed about their choices, and avoid certain birth interventions.

For example, there were more than 500 comments from women who would try to avoid having their next labour started manually, known as an induction of labour.

A woman from Western Australia, who ended up having a caesarean, said:

I would 100% opt for no induction. I believe it’s the reason that led me to a c-section.

Australia has a high rate of induction, especially for women having their first babies (41% induced labour rate for women having their first baby). Women feel they are inadequately informed about the process of induction and not given a choice or alternative options.

We have also shown an induction of labour in Australia can lead to further medical interventions . High rates of medical intervention, such as induction, can lead to poorer maternal and neonatal outcomes when used excessively.

Read more:
Too many healthy women are having their labour induced for no identified medical reason, our study shows

‘I want a specific birth experience’

This was the second largest category (28.5% of comments). Here, most women said they wanted their next birth to be a vaginal birth (1,735 comments) and some would opt for a caesarean (438 comments).

Of the women wanting a vaginal birth, 1,021 comments related to wanting the next birth at home.

Read more:
Explainer: what are women’s options for giving birth?

‘I want a specific model of care’

Women also said they wanted to be better prepared by getting better support. This ranged from a more supportive partner, hiring a doula and choosing their care provider.

Some 17.8% of all comments, the next-largest group, identified a specific model of maternity care. Women wanted to access a more supportive model that would respect their choices and wishes.

Most women in this group wanted “midwifery continuity of care”. This is where women are cared for by one or two midwives throughout their pregnancy, labour and birth, and into the post-birth period.

A woman from Victoria, who told us she wanted continuity of care next time around, said:

It is very important to me that next time I have a care provider who I fully trust, who has a good understanding of my birth preferences and who I know will be a strong advocate for me and who will encourage, empower, support and believe in me and my ability to birth my baby.

Midwifery continuity of care is available now in many public hospitals and is commonly called midwifery group practice or caseload midwifery. Some women access this type of care through private midwives. These charge a fee (there are some Medicare rebates) and can support women to have births at home.

But access to midwifery continuity of care is still limited and booked out early, meaning many women miss out, especially if they live in regional or remote regions.

Read more:
Call the Midwife: playing catch up with Australia’s maternity care

‘I want better access’

This group of comments (2.9%) included ones from women in regional and remote parts of Australia.

They said they wished they had access to more local maternity services and equitable access to models that offer continuity of care and homebirth, such as private midwives.

A woman from a remote town in New South Wales said:

If I ever fell pregnant again. I would move to a bigger town. Obstetric care in the bush is very much lacking. Rural women like myself are lucky to even be alive after our experiences.

With many maternity units in rural and remote areas shutting down, women are forced to travel big distances and have fewer maternity care options than women who give birth in cities.

‘I don’t want to change anything’

Some 10.2% of comments were from women who didn’t want to change anything the next time around.

Of these, just under half (47%) were from women who received midwifery continuity of care.

This is significant as midwifery continuity of care only represent 15% of maternity models in Australia.

Why are birth experiences important?

We’ve shown that many women who reflect on their experience of pregnancy and birth wish they had made different decisions and wish they had a more positive experience to look back on.

A negative birth experience can lead to birth trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some of this may be unavoidable, such as when emergency situations arise during the labour. But trauma can also be related to the way women are respected, informed and cared for.

Read more:
So your birth didn’t go according to plan? Don’t blame yourself

What happens next?

What women are asking for is humanised, evidence-based maternity care. So it’s time to act if we are to avoid the type of experiences highlighted during the current NSW Select Committee on Birth Trauma.

With evidence from more than 4,000 submissions, this reminds us we often fail women during one of the most vulnerable, yet potentially transforming experiences in their life. We hope women’s voices are finally heard.

Read more:
1 in 10 women report disrespectful or abusive care in childbirth

Hazel Keedle is affiliated with the Australian College of Midwives.

Daniella Susic is affiliated with UNSW Sydney, RANZCOG and MothersBabies. Funding for research has been received via RANZCOG.

Hannah Dahlen receives funding from NHMRC, ARC and MRFF. She is affiliated with the Australian College of Midwives

– ref. More than 6,000 women told us what they wanted for their next pregnancy and birth. Here’s what they said – https://theconversation.com/more-than-6-000-women-told-us-what-they-wanted-for-their-next-pregnancy-and-birth-heres-what-they-said-211435

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Carter, Adjunct Research Fellow, Griffith University

Inside our bodies at every moment, our cells are orchestrating a complex dance of atoms and molecules that uses energy to create, distribute and deploy the substances on which our lives depend.

And it’s not just in our bodies: all animals carry out this dance of metabolism, and it turns out none of them do it quite the same way.

In new research published in Science Advances, we analysed specific carbon atoms in amino acids – the building blocks of proteins – to discover distinctive fingerprints of the metabolism of different species.

These fingerprints reveal how different creatures meet the demands of survival, growth and reproduction – and offer a whole new way to understand metabolism in unprecedented detail.

A more detailed picture

We have developed a new way to study metabolism – the chemical processes inside your body that keep you alive and functioning – that reveals much more detail than previous methods. Our new technique looks at isotopes inside amino acids to see how metabolism is working.

Isotopes are versions of the same chemical element with different masses. For example, the most common kind of carbon is carbon-12, but there is also an isotope called carbon-13 that is a little heavier. We can measure the ratio of heavy to light isotopes in biological molecules such as proteins to learn about the organism that produced them.

Read more:
Explainer: what is an isotope?

Traditionally, scientists would analyse the overall isotope ratio of the entire protein. This can reveal some information, particularly about what kinds of things an animal eats, but it is like averaging out a complex TV image into a single pixel of light – you lose all the detailed information.

More recently, scientists have been able to measure isotopes in each of the 20 individual amino acids that make up proteins. This is like having 20 dots of light – better, but still not very nuanced.

Our new method goes even further, by measuring isotopes in a particular carbon atom on each amino acid. It’s like seeing every pixel in the TV image, which gives us amazingly detailed metabolic info.

Finding the right carbon

We used a chemical called ninhydrin to chop off and isolate the carbon atom we wanted from each amino acid. We then sent these carbon atoms – from a very metabolically active part of the amino acid called the carboxyl group – through a machine called a mass spectrometer to read their isotope fingerprints.

This research began more than a decade ago, and developed into a collaborative project between Griffith University and Queensland Health. In 2018, working with colleagues in Japan, we were able to demonstrate that we could indeed use nihydrin to isolate the carbon atoms we wanted from amino acids.

The next stage was to combine our nihydrin technique with a process called high-performance liquid chromatography, which can separate out different kinds of amino acids.

In 2019, we were able to report position-specific isotope analysis for several different mammals. We found we could distinguish a clear metabolic “fingerprint” of each mammal.

The four phases of metabolism

In our latest work, we tested a broader range of animals including oysters, scallops, prawns, squid and fish. We found the patterns of isotopes in the amino acids could be tracked back to the biochemistry of mitochondria, the tiny energy-providing powerhouses in the cells of all animals and plants, as well as many other organisms.

We identified four distinct phases of metabolism: creating fats, destroying fats, creating proteins, and destroying proteins. Animals combine these phases in distinct ways to accomplish growth and reproduction.

For example, adult mammals use fats as a pantry to regulate their temperature, whereas adult prawns cannibalise their own proteins to make the fats they need for reproduction.

Read more:
Why are bigger animals more energy-efficient? A new answer to a centuries-old biological puzzle

We also found that the humans we studied showed a very balanced, steady state metabolism, which is perhaps unsurprising given our generally stable and nutritious diets. Interestingly, this was quite similar to what we found in an oyster sample.

In this work, we studied individuals with generally normal metabolisms. Future applications might include studies of groups with abnormal metabolism such as cancer, obesity and starvation.

By peering deep into the isotopes of amino acids, we will be able to understand eukaryote metabolism like never before, in animals, plants and fungi.

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. Ever wonder how your body turns food into fuel? We tracked atoms to find out – https://theconversation.com/ever-wonder-how-your-body-turns-food-into-fuel-we-tracked-atoms-to-find-out-211047

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

Embattled Qantas boss Alan Joyce will quit immediately, bringing forward his retirement by two months.

A Qantas statement early Tuesday said the CEO had advised the board he was doing this “to help the company accelerate its renewal”.

Joyce has been under sustained attack over the airline’s poor service, high prices, and customers’ difficulty in retrieving flight credits. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched legal action against Qantas for continuing to sell tickets on flights already cancelled.

Last week Joyce was subjected to a ferocious grilling in the senate inquiry into the cost of living. Later in the week Qantas scrapped the expiry date for flight credits.

The spotlight on Qantas has intensified with the Albanese government’s refusal to let Qatar Airways have additional flights on the routes it requested – seen as a decision to protect Qantas, which lobbied against the extra flights. Several state Labor government have urged the decision be reversed.

Qantas CEO-designate Vanessa Hudson will assume the role of Managing Director and Group CEO on Wednesday.

Joyce said:

In the last few weeks, the focus on Qantas and events of the past make it clear to me that the company needs to move ahead with its renewal as a priority.
“The best thing I can do under these circumstances is to bring forward my retirement and hand over to Vanessa and the new management team now, knowing they will do an excellent job.

He said he left Qantas, where he has been chief executive for 15 years, with a lot to be proud of.

There have been many ups and downs, and there is clearly much work still to be done, especially to make sure we always deliver for our customers. But I leave knowing that the company is fundamentally strong and has a bright future.

Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder said: “Alan has always had the best interests of Qantas front and centre, and today shows that. On behalf of the Board, we sincerely thank him for his leadership through some enormous challenges and for thinking well-ahead on opportunities like ultra long-haul travel.”

Goyder said the transition came at “a challenging time” for the airline and for its people.

“We have an important job to do in restoring the public’s confidence in the kind of company we are, and that’s what the Board is focused on, and what the management under Vanessa’s leadership will do,” Goyder said.

On Friday Qantas notified the ASX that Joyce had been given a total of $10.8 million in shares under a COVID retention scheme and for long-term bonuses from 2020-22, which he had deferred.

Recently Joyce sold a large packet of Qantas shares.

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. Qantas chief Alan Joyce quits early, amid customer fury at the airline – https://theconversation.com/qantas-chief-alan-joyce-quits-early-amid-customer-fury-at-the-airline-212845

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah McLean, Lecturer in environmental health, Swinburne University of Technology

Our relationship with pets has changed drastically in recent decades. Pet ownership is at an all-time high, with a recent survey finding 69% of Australian households have at least one pet. We spend an estimated A$33 billion every year on caring for our fur babies.

While owning a pet is linked to numerous mental and physical health benefits, our pets can also harbour infectious diseases that can sometimes be passed on to us. For most people, the risk is low.

But some, such as pregnant people and those with weakened immune systems, are at greater risk of getting sick from animals. So, it’s important to know the risks and take necessary precautions to prevent infections.

Read more:
Health Check: what bugs can you catch from your pets?

What diseases can pets carry?

Infectious diseases that move from animals to humans are called zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. More than 70 pathogens of companion animals are known to be transmissible to people.

Sometimes, a pet that has a zoonotic pathogen may look sick. But often there may be no visible symptoms, making it easier for you to catch it, because you don’t suspect your pet of harbouring germs.

Zoonoses can be transmitted directly from pets to humans, such as through contact with saliva, bodily fluids and faeces, or indirectly, such as through contact with contaminated bedding, soil, food or water.

Studies suggest the prevalence of pet-associated zoonoses is low. However, the true number of infections is likely underestimated since many zoonoses are not “notifiable”, or may have multiple exposure pathways or generic symptoms.

Dogs and cats are major reservoirs of zoonotic infections (meaning the pathogens naturally live in their population) caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. In endemic regions in Africa and Asia, dogs are the main source of rabies which is transmitted through saliva.

Read more:
Explainer: the rabies virus

Dogs also commonly carry Capnocytophaga bacteria in their mouths and saliva, which can be transmitted to people through close contact or bites. The vast majority of people won’t get sick, but these bacteria can occasionally cause infections in people with weakened immune systems, resulting in severe illness and sometimes death. Just last week, such a death was reported in Western Australia.

Cat-associated zoonoses include a number of illnesses spread by the faecal-oral route, such as giardiasis, campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis and toxoplasmosis. This means it’s especially important to wash your hands or use gloves whenever handling your cat’s litter tray.

Cats can also sometimes transmit infections through bites and scratches, including the aptly named cat scratch disease, which is caused by the bacterium Bartonella henselae.

Both dogs and cats are also reservoirs for methicillin-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), with close contact with pets identified as an important risk factor for zoonotic transmission.

Read more:
Cats carry diseases that can be deadly to humans, and it’s costing Australia $6 billion every year

Birds, turtles and fish can also transmit disease

But it’s not just dogs and cats that can spread diseases to humans. Pet birds can occasionally transmit psittacosis, a bacterial infection which causes pneumonia. Contact with pet turtles has been linked to Salmonella infections in humans, particularly in young children. Even pet fish have been linked to a range of bacterial infections in humans, including vibriosis, mycobacteriosis and salmonellosis.

Close contact with animals – and some behaviours in particular – increase the risk of zoonotic transmission. A study from the Netherlands found half of owners allowed pets to lick their faces, and 18% allowed dogs to share their bed. (Sharing a bed increases the duration of exposure to pathogens carried by pets.) The same study found 45% of cat owners allowed their cat to jump onto the kitchen sink.

Kissing pets has also been linked to occasional zoonotic infections in pet owners. In one case, a woman in Japan developed meningitis due to Pasteurella multicoda infection, after regularly kissing her dog’s face. These bacteria are often found in the oral cavities of dogs and cats.

Young children are also more likely to engage in behaviours which increase their risk of getting sick from animal-borne diseases – such as putting their hands in their mouth after touching pets. Children are also less likely to wash their hands properly after handling pets.

Although anybody who comes into contact with a zoonotic pathogen via their pet can become sick, certain people are more likely to suffer from serious illness. These people include the young, old, pregnant and immunosuppressed.

For example, while most people infected with the toxoplasmosis parasite will experience only mild illness, it can be life-threatening or cause birth defects in foetuses.

What should I do if I’m worried about catching a disease from my pet?

There are a number of good hygiene and pet husbandry practices that can reduce your risk of becoming sick. These include:

• washing your hands after playing with your pet and after handling their bedding, toys, or cleaning up faeces
• not allowing your pets to lick your face or open wounds
• supervising young children when they are playing with pets and when washing their hands after playing with pets
• wearing gloves when changing litter trays or cleaning aquariums
• wetting bird cage surfaces when cleaning to minimise aerosols
• keeping pets out of the kitchen (especially cats who can jump onto food preparation surfaces)
• keeping up to date with preventative veterinary care, including vaccinations and worm and tick treatments
• seeking veterinary care if you think your pet is unwell.

It is especially important for those who are at a higher risk of illness to take precautions to reduce their exposure to zoonotic pathogens. And if you’re thinking about getting a pet, ask your vet which type of animal would best suit your personal circumstances.

Read more:
One in three people are infected with _Toxoplasma_ parasite – and the clue could be in our eyes

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. Is it okay to kiss your pet? The risk of animal-borne diseases is small, but real – https://theconversation.com/is-it-okay-to-kiss-your-pet-the-risk-of-animal-borne-diseases-is-small-but-real-210898

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Ritter, Professor & Specialist in Drug Policy, UNSW Sydney

The haze of cannabis is everywhere right now. Germany has recently become the latest country to move towards legalising recreational cannabis, following in the footsteps of Uruguay, Malta, Canada and parts of the United States. Even Thailand has begun distributing one million cannabis plants to households after dropping it from the official list of prohibited substances.

Australia has not been left out. In the last couple months, Legalise Cannabis Party members in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia have tabled bills to legalise recreational cannabis use.

And at a federal level, the Greens tabled a bill last month, which would provide for the registration of cannabis strains and the establishment of a national agency overseeing a new commercial cannabis industry.

Many policy experts both here and overseas, however, remain very worried about a for-profit industry – namely the potential for commercial interests to promote regular cannabis use.

Non-profit supply models offer an alternative, including allowing people to grow cannabis for their own personal consumption. But what do we know about home-growing cannabis in Australia?

Our research on cannabis growing in the ACT

The Australian Capital Territory is showing the way forward. In 2020, ACT passed a law to allow people to possess, use and grow cannabis. It is now legal to grow up to two cannabis plants per person (up to a maximum of four per household) for personal consumption.

We have been studying the experiences of these cannabis growers in the ACT. Our research provides important lessons for policymakers across the nation who are considering whether to allow home-growing as a legal source of cannabis supply.

We conducted in-depth interviews with 10 people who grow cannabis, exploring their growing techniques, what works well and what challenges they’ve faced.

We were struck by the diversity of the growers we met. Some were growing for medicinal purposes because it is cheaper and more accessible. Others grew for recreational consumption, while some did it for the love of gardening.

But our main takeaway was how difficult it is to get a home-growing cannabis policy right. In the ACT, there are odd bits of law and outdated drug-policy thinking that can make it difficult for home growers to get started, access the supplies they need and share gardening knowledge.

Challenges aplenty

People in Canberra are doing a lot of experimenting and finding their own ways of growing – this is a developing knowledge base that should be celebrated.
The people we interviewed are really interested in sharing their knowledge with others, but social barriers prevent many from doing so.

To date, there also aren’t any resources in Australia that aggregate data or the in-depth experiences of cannabis growers, like the kind available to gardeners of other plants. People can’t pop down to Bunnings for cannabis gardening advice. Gardening Australia hasn’t produced a feature on the preferred soil and nutritional needs of cannabis plants. And while there is online information, it mostly doesn’t address Australian growing conditions.

As one grower told us,

The climate is really tough in Canberra for the type of plant that cannabis is. It doesn’t do well over 30 degrees and it doesn’t do well under like 20-18 [degrees], maybe. And we’re like the extremes [here] – we’re freezing and boiling.

The greater obstacles, however, are legal in nature. For instance, the ACT cannabis law prohibits people from using “artificial” means to grow cannabis, such as hydroponics or artificial sources of light or heat.

This leaves cannabis growers in the difficult position of trying to manage the wintry Canberra climate without the heat lamps and other indoor growing aids they use for their capsicum and tomato plants. There are also no such prohibitions on artificial light or heat for officially sanctioned medicinal cannabis farms.

Read more:
More Australians back legalising cannabis and 57% support pill testing, national survey shows

When an outdoor cannabis plant does flourish, the law also insists on a maximum yield of 150 grams of cannabis. Our interviewees are able to grow quite large (and potent) plants outdoors. So, what are they supposed to do with their excess cannabis? As one grower said,

Are you allowed to like give it to a friend? […] I don’t know if you can bag it up and put it in the garbage bin […] like do you take it down to the green waste, do I take my bushes down there? I don’t know.

Another obstacle: buying seeds is not permitted under the ACT law, so the Commonwealth prohibition stands. For many, this means acquiring seeds illegally from overseas markets. We spoke to plenty of people whose plants were fertilised and ended up producing seeds, leaving them in a legal quandary.

One grower pointed out the contradiction:

I think it’s sort of a half-arse law to be honest […] you’re allowed to smoke it, you’re allowed to grow, but you are not really allowed to buy any of the seeds or anything to make it.

Allowing a legally operated cannabis seed bank in the ACT makes practical sense. It would address a need we heard from cannabis growers – the importance of knowing the type of cannabis plant they are growing and its active ingredients. This includes the amount of THC (the psychoactive ingredient that produces the high), compared to CBD (the ingredient that reduces inflammation, pain, seizures and anxiety).

For those growing for medicinal purposes, this information is critical for matching their crops to their particular needs.

Lastly, we found that growing your own cannabis at home also requires an environment that supports it. For those in rental accommodation or unstable housing, it is often not possible. Passing laws to allow for cannabis community gardens or other open growing areas would address this problem.

What other states can learn

With increasing moves towards cannabis legalisation, we are seeing a field of green across Australia, and the world.

ACT growers have a lot to offer other Australian jurisdictions about how policies can better support home cannabis gardeners. It’s important to learn from their experiences so states and territories can get their policies right.

Alison Ritter receives funding from the NHMRC, the ARC, state and federal governments, and non-government bodies.

Kari Lancaster receives funding from the ARC, state and federal governments, industry, and non-government bodies. She is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy.

Laura McLauchlan receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation and the Australian Research Council.

Matthew Kearnes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the NSW Geographical Society.

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

– ref. As many states weigh legalising cannabis, here’s what they can learn from the struggles of growers in Canberra – https://theconversation.com/as-many-states-weigh-legalising-cannabis-heres-what-they-can-learn-from-the-struggles-of-growers-in-canberra-212009

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gillian Sandra Gould, Professor in Health Equity, Southern Cross University

The Australian government is cracking down on vaping. Recreational vapes of any type – whether they contain nicotine or not – will be banned from retail sale across Australia after legislation is introduced (though the date is yet to be set).

Rates of teen vaping have been rising rapidly in Australia, from 0.8% of 14- to 17-year-olds describing themselves as a current vaper over the past six months in 2018 to 14.5% in 2023. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 19.8% have been a current vaper over the past six months.

Teens mainly get vaping products from their friends, retail vaping stores or the internet. Once the government restricts the distribution of vaping products, many will suddenly lose access to supplies.

In anticipation of this loss, people may start stockpiling vapes. But at some stage, they will have a drastic reduction in their use of vaping.

The majority of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, even when they’re not labelled as such. Some vapes tested in Australia contained 900 milligrams of nicotine – the equivalent of the nicotine in almost 100 cigarettes.

So we can expect teenagers who vape will experience nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

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

What is nicotine dependence and withdrawal?

Nicotine dependence means a person is physically and psychologically addicted to nicotine. This produces a strong desire for, and difficulty controlling, nicotine use.

Young people are at greater risk of nicotine dependence than adults and can develop dependence faster.

Once nicotine-dependent, a person will experience withdrawal symptoms if they reduce or cease their use. These symptoms can include irritability, frustration, or anger; anxiety; difficulty concentrating; increased appetite; restlessness; depressed mood; and insomnia.

The Hooked on Nicotine Checklist is helpful for teens and their parents. It’s a ten-item checklist to assess dependence on smoking cigarettes or vaping, specially designed for adolescents. The higher the score, the less control your teen will have over their nicotine addiction.

Feeling a loss of control can begin after using vapes for only a short time. Some adolescents start showing signs of becoming dependent on nicotine within days of occasionally using it – before they are smoking or vaping daily.

I don’t even know if my teen vapes …

Nicotine exposure during adolescence can disrupt the brain’s normal development, impacting their mood, impulse control, memory and ability to focus and learn.

If your teen is unusually irritable or has an unexplained low mood, consider the possibility of nicotine withdrawal, particularly after vapes are no longer readily available. Many adolescents are vaping without the adults in the household being aware. Vapes can be hidden in plain sight, as they look like a highlighter pen or USB stick.

Initiating a conversation is sometimes easier when side-by-side, not face-to-face with a young person – for example, when walking together or if your teen is in the car with you. One way to bring the subject up is to ask whether any of their friends are vaping or if they’ve seen it at school. Then gradually move on to whether they have tried it themselves and their usage.

During the conversation listen out for hints that mean your teen could be a heavy user of vaping, such as:

• vaping alone, instead of only socially
• vaping within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning, or
• vaping through the night (this might mean keeping an e-cigarette under the pillow for night-time use).

Read more:
TikTok promotes vaping as a fun, safe and socially accepted pastime – and omits the harms

So how do I help my teen quit?

Once you know your teen is vaping, broach the subject of quitting with them in a non-judgemental way. Try questions like “have you ever tried having a break from them?” and “how did that feel?”

If they are willing to attempt quitting, or are already withdrawing due to reduced access to vaping products, let them know you are there to support them and help is available.

First try counselling and cold turkey

The Quitline or a GP can help with goal setting, such as setting a quit date, making a quit plan and identifying triggers for vaping and strategies to address them.

There are also online tools your teen may like, such as My Quit Buddy, an app that provides practical tips, progress charts and health information to help with quitting.

Nicotine replacement therapy

If counselling alone is not successful, nicotine replacement therapy may help.

Nicotine-replacement therapy is available in a fast-release form (used by mouth via a nicotine inhalator, spray, gum, or lozenges) or a slow-release patch. For someone quitting vaping, fast-release forms are likely to work best.

However, sometimes a teenager might need more than one nicotine-replacement product, called “combination therapy”. Combination therapy is better when the teen is highly dependant on nicotine and has strong and frequent urges to vape.

Be sure to follow the instructions for each product and encourage regular doses so withdrawal symptoms are controlled.

Eighteen year olds can buy nicotine-replacement products without a script at a supermarket or pharmacy. A pharmacist can advise on the correct use.

If your child is aged 12–17, it’s recommended they are first assessed by their GP, who can prescribe nicotine-replacement therapy. A script from a GP may allow access to a subsidised course through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth can get further help from their local Aboriginal health service, which can offer culturally safe support and may also have supplies of nicotine-replacement therapy.

When using nicotine replacement therapy, adherence is critical to successfully quitting. Use it for a minimum of eight weeks and preferably 12 weeks to avoid relapse.

GPs can also prescribe nicotine liquid (non-flavoured) for a refillable e-cigarette. But clinical guidelines recommend discouraging vaping because of their ongoing addictive nature because they’re a gateway for smoking tobacco.

Teens who vape are three times more likely to take up smoking. So addressing your teen’s vaping is an important preventative step for both smoking and vaping in future.

Read more:
How can I help my teen quit vaping?

Gillian Sandra Gould receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, Cancer Australia, Cure Cancer Australia, NSW Health, RACGP Foundation, and the Dept. of Health and Aged Care.

Marilyn Clarke receives funding from Dept of Health and NHMRC for research projects involving smoking cessation and pregnant Aboriginal women.

Karen McFadyen 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. My teen is addicted to vaping. How can I help them quit and manage their withdrawal symptoms? – https://theconversation.com/my-teen-is-addicted-to-vaping-how-can-i-help-them-quit-and-manage-their-withdrawal-symptoms-208586

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amandine Schaeffer, Senior lecturer, UNSW Sydney

Most of us know what a heatwave feels like on land – sweltering heat for days. But oceans get heatwaves too. When water temperature goes over a seasonal threshold for five days or more, that’s a marine heatwave. They do their worst damage in summer, when the ocean is already at its warmest, but they can occur any time of year.

Over 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases has gone into our oceans. So it’s no surprise marine heatwaves are getting much more intense and more frequent. This year has been off the charts. From April this year, the world’s average ocean temperature has been the highest ever recorded.

Since the 1980s, satellites have revolutionised ocean science by making it possible to take daily measurements of ocean temperatures. But satellites watch from above. They can’t see what’s happening below the surface.

Our new research explores what’s happening in deeper waters. It turns out, marine heatwaves aren’t just on the surface. In the most devastating marine heatwaves, heat can penetrate right down to the sea bed. Remarkably, some heatwaves only affect the seafloor.

Why do deep marine heatwaves matter?

While we usually only see sea creatures at the surface of the ocean, there’s life all the way down. In the shallower seafloors of the continental shelf – the sunken parts of our continents – live fish, kelp beds, sponges, cold water corals, shellfish and crustaceans.

These shallow oceans are, on average, less than 100 metres deep. When the shelf ends, there’s usually an abrupt slope into the deep ocean, where there are kilometres of water between surface and seabed.

Marine heatwaves are damaging to life in the seas covering the continental shelf. Creatures here are sensitive to extreme temperatures, just like those at the surface. But “extreme” to them is different to what we think of as extreme. If you’re used to water at 12℃, a heatwave of 15℃ can be devastating.

When marine heatwaves strike, they can kill. More than a billion sea creatures died during a single heatwave off the coast of the western United States and Canada in 2021. This year, extreme heatwaves have hit large parts of the oceans during the northern summer.

Fish and other creatures that can move do so, heading towards the poles or down deeper in search of cooler water. Those that can’t have to endure it or die. Heatwaves can trigger migration. New species arrive, seeking refuge and can alter the ecosystem.

Read more:
An ‘extreme’ heatwave has hit the seas around the UK and Ireland – here’s what’s going on

We don’t know much about deeper marine heatwaves

The seas covering the continental shelf are relatively shallow compared to the kilometres of water in the deep oceans. But even so, it’s impossible to see what’s going on below using satellites or high-frequency radar.

The sea is a hostile environment. Instruments are subject to high pressure, corrosive salt water and marine organisms like oysters and sponges settling on them. This is one reason why we only have very limited data on long-term trends in temperatures under the surface. But these records are vital to calculate typical temperatures for the time of year and to figure out what constitutes an extreme.

Australia is one of the few places generating this kind of valuable data long-term. Off the coast of the southeast lie many oceanographic moorings – a floating collection of sensors anchored to the bottom. One of these has been measuring daily temperatures from the surface to the seafloor 65 metres down since 1993.

Our earlier research found marine heatwaves at depth can actually be more intense and last longer compared to the surface. But why?

In our new research, we looked at the temperature data closely. We found marine heatwaves come in a variety of types and have different causes. We also found some types of marine heatwave are more likely during particular seasons.

For instance, winter marine heatwaves often run from surface to seafloor. They occur when the powerful, deep and warm East Australian Current snakes westward towards the coast. As the current swings over the continental slope, it drags warm water over the shelf and close to the coast.

In summer, Australia gets two very different types of heatwave in our oceans. The first occur when we get blue-sky weather. With few clouds, more heat from the sun gets into the oceans. They can also occur when there are weaker winds and less ocean cooling from evaporation. These heatwaves are confined to the surface and a few metres below.

Then there’s the second, a very weird heatwave system that only appears close to the seafloor. These are produced when strong wind creates currents driving warm, shallower water down to the bottom. On the east coast, these currents come from cold winds from the south. So even while you’re shivering through cold winds from the Southern Ocean, the ocean seafloor may be sweltering through a heatwave. These may be the most destructive to ecosystems but go all but unnoticed.

Marine heatwaves are not created equally

Our research has shown marine heatwaves come in different flavours. That matters, because it will allow us to get better at predicting if a heatwave is about to strike our oceans. And it will let us anticipate which parts of the water column are about to be hit, and which ecosystems.

Of course, slowing ocean warming and preventing marine heatwaves from damaging ecosystems means slashing carbon emissions. But while we work on that, this knowledge could give us time to find strategies to reduce the undersea death toll – and the damage to tourism and fishing which rely on these ecosystems surviving.

Read more:
Coral reefs: How climate change threatens the hidden diversity of marine ecosystems

Amandine Schaeffer receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Alex Sen Gupta receives funding from the Australian Research Council

Moninya Roughan receives funding from the Australian Research Council, and Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) – IMOS is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

– ref. Marine heatwaves don’t just hit coral reefs. They can cause chaos on the seafloor – https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-dont-just-hit-coral-reefs-they-can-cause-chaos-on-the-seafloor-211902

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andy Sheppard, Research Director CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, CSIRO

Invasive alien species are driving biodiversity loss and extinctions in every country, all over the world.

Responding to the challenge, the United Nations is today releasing the first global assessment of invasive alien species and their control.

It comes from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which represents almost 140 member states.

Over four years, 86 expert authors from 49 countries gathered the latest scientific evidence and Indigenous and local knowledge on invasive alien species. The report draws on more than 13,000 references, including governmental reports. We were among the authors. Here are some of the key insights for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Read more:
Invasive species are Australia’s number-one extinction threat

Hope in the face of increasing threats

In 2019, IPBES released a global biodiversity assessment that placed invasive alien species in the top five drivers of biodiversity loss – alongside changing land- and sea-use, over-exploitation of natural resources, climate change, and pollution.

This triggered further assessment to determine the current global state of biological invasions, the effectiveness of our existing responses, and recommended management and policy options.

The result, released today, is the most comprehensive overarching policy-relevant report on biological invasions to date.

It promises to help us meet our international obligations under the recently adopted UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In particular, one of the targets in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is to “eliminate, minimise, reduce and/or mitigate the impacts of invasive alien species on biodiversity and ecosystem services”.

The world faces increasing biosecurity threats, but effective management can prevent or lessen the extent of subsequent biological invasions. Ambitious progress can be achieved with an integrated approach.

The experience in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

Australia already has close to 3,000 introduced alien species. Aotearoa New Zealand has almost 900.

Globally, we observe around 200 new alien species every year, and many of these species (>10%) have negative impacts, including threats to native species, the health of natural vegetation, or the way ecosystems work.

Australian examples include foxes, red imported fire ants and gamba grass.

Aotearoa New Zealand suffers from invasive Australian possums. And the Māori cultural icon the Kauri tree is under siege from a deadly dieback disease.

The assessment reveals that invasive alien species have contributed to 60% of global extinctions, and have been the sole driver of 16% of recorded extinctions.

Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have among the highest modern global native species extinction rates. Australia is the worst in the world for mammals, while Aotearoa New Zealand has experienced tragic loss in endemic birds, largely due to invasive species.

The economies of both countries rely heavily on agriculture, trade and eco-tourism. These sectors are highly susceptible to threats from invasive alien species. The cost to Australia is A$24.5 billion a year out of an estimated global cost of $654 billion (US$423 billion a year).

The cost of biological invasions is quadrupling every decade, but stringent biosecurity policies and practices can protect our environment and economies. They also safeguard our wellbeing and cultural and social livelihoods.

Continued cooperation and investment across our region is paramount to preventing future impacts from increasing threats. These include foot and mouth disease and avian influenza.

At the same time, already established invasive alien species can supercharge environmental disasters. For example, the wildfire-promoting properties of introduced African pasture grasses exacerbated bushfires in Hawaii this year.

Read more:
New exposé of Australia’s exotic pet trade shows an alarming proliferation of alien, threatened and illegal species

Coordinate, consult and prioritise

An effective biosecurity system can mitigate the threats from invasive species. But to do so, we’ll need coherent policy across primary production and logistic sectors, better education and greater public awareness.

We need to coordinate and prioritise our efforts, from offshore ports to border control and quarantine, through to eradication or containment of any new pests and weeds.

Government-industry partnerships are leading to trusted “green-lane” trade supply chains. This cuts red tape for businesses that manage import risks and produce pre-costed and co-designed emergency response agreements.

Prevention will not stop arrivals altogether. We will still have to contend with blow-ins on storm winds, ocean waves and boat hulls. There’s also the $23 billion a year illegal pet trade.

Biosecurity tools work best alongside strong public support, regulation and governance. We share a proud history of effective biological control programs for many weeds and pests. Australia’s approach to rabbit control using a virus was a world-first and it remains in use 70 years later. This has delivered benefits worth more than $70 billion.

Despite strong biosecurity measures, highly engaged primary industries agricultural industries, excellent research infrastructure and a high level of public awareness, invasive alien species continue to slip through our borders and multiply.

We tried to defend our countries against recent invasions from the fall armyworm, myrtle rust and the varroa mite. But they have still managed to establish.

One world, ‘One Biosecurity’

The rising pressure of trade will likely outpace the resourcing dedicated to biosecurity measures. Frequent interceptions of pests, weeds, and diseases at our border highlight the pressure we are under. We will have to simply become smarter, more effective, and better coordinated across the human, animal, plant and ecosystem health sectors.

We encourage governments to recognise the threats invasive alien pests pose and mobilise their resources and capability to combat these threats – in regions where a species is first recognised as going rogue, rather than simply monitoring its progressive global spread. This is the One Biosecurity concept.

Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand can play a much stronger leadership role in managing biosecurity risks in the Pacific. After all, lax border protocols in our neighbourhood help pests and diseases end up on our doorstep.

Read more:
Why red fire ants and yellow crazy ants have given themselves a green light to invade Australia

Andy Sheppard, as a chief research scientist with CSIRO, receives funding from the Australian federal government. This included funding to participate in the IPBES Assessment process as a coordinating lead author from 2019-2023, where he co-led Chapter 5 and made contributions to three other chapters. He is therefore well connected to the IPBES process, corporate, assessment team and media team. However, as a CSIRO employee he respects all the values of the organisation and does not undertake any commentary that would be seen to criticise Australian government policy or in any way lobby for additional research funding from governments.

Melodie McGeoch receives funding from the Australian Research Council – ARC SRIEAS Grant SR200100005 Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future. She is affiliated with La Trobe University and Monash University. She is 1st Vice Chair of the Science Committee of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, Member of the Implementation Committee of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, Independent Board Member of the National Computation Infrastructure and on the Editorial Board of Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Philip Hulme receives research funding from the New Zealand government. He is affiliated with Lincoln University, New Zealand. and is a member of the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board and a Director of the QEII Trust. He is a member of the Biosecurity Advisory Groups of both Environment Canterbury and Zespri.

Phill Cassey receives funding from the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions and the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The true damage of invasive alien species was just revealed in a landmark report. Here’s how we must act – https://theconversation.com/the-true-damage-of-invasive-alien-species-was-just-revealed-in-a-landmark-report-heres-how-we-must-act-211893

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Goldstein, Associate Professor, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University, Australian Catholic University

Artificial intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton made headlines earlier this year when he raised concerns about the capabilities of AI systems. Speaking to CNN journalist Jake Tapper, Hinton said:

If it gets to be much smarter than us, it will be very good at manipulation because it would have learned that from us. And there are very few examples of a more intelligent thing being controlled by a less intelligent thing.

Anyone who has kept tabs on the latest AI offerings will know these systems are prone to “hallucinating” (making things up) – a flaw that’s inherent in them due to how they work.

Yet Hinton highlights the potential for manipulation as a particularly major concern. This raises the question: can AI systems deceive humans?

We argue a range of systems have already learned to do this – and the risks range from fraud and election tampering, to us losing control over AI.

AI learns to lie

Perhaps the most disturbing example of a deceptive AI is found in Meta’s CICERO, an AI model designed to play the alliance-building world conquest game Diplomacy.

Read more:
An AI named Cicero can beat humans in Diplomacy, a complex alliance-building game. Here’s why that’s a big deal

Meta claims it built CICERO to be “largely honest and helpful”, and CICERO would “never intentionally backstab” and attack allies.

To investigate these rosy claims, we looked carefully at Meta’s own game data from the CICERO experiment. On close inspection, Meta’s AI turned out to be a master of deception.

In one example, CICERO engaged in premeditated deception. Playing as France, the AI reached out to Germany (a human player) with a plan to trick England (another human player) into leaving itself open to invasion.

After conspiring with Germany to invade the North Sea, CICERO told England it would defend England if anyone invaded the North Sea. Once England was convinced that France/CICERO was protecting the North Sea, CICERO reported to Germany it was ready to attack.

This is just one of several examples of CICERO engaging in deceptive behaviour. The AI regularly betrayed other players, and in one case even pretended to be a human with a girlfriend.

Besides CICERO, other systems have learned how to bluff in poker, how to feint in StarCraft II and how to mislead in simulated economic negotiations.

Even large language models (LLM) have displayed significant deceptive capabilities. In one instance, GPT-4 – the most advanced LLM option available to paying ChatGPT users – pretended to be a visually impaired human and convinced a TaskRabbit worker to complete an “I’m not a robot” CAPTCHA for it.

Other LLM models have learned to lie to win social deduction games, wherein players compete to “kill” one another and must convince the group they’re innocent.

Read more:
AI to Z: all the terms you need to know to keep up in the AI hype age

What are the risks?

AI systems with deceptive capabilities could be misused in numerous ways, including to commit fraud, tamper with elections and generate propaganda. The potential risks are only limited by the imagination and the technical know-how of malicious individuals.

Beyond that, advanced AI systems can autonomously use deception to escape human control, such as by cheating safety tests imposed on them by developers and regulators.

In one experiment, researchers created an artificial life simulator in which an external safety test was designed to eliminate fast-replicating AI agents. Instead, the AI agents learned how to play dead, to disguise their fast replication rates precisely when being evaluated.

Learning deceptive behaviour may not even require explicit intent to deceive. The AI agents in the example above played dead as a result of a goal to survive, rather than a goal to deceive.

In another example, someone tasked AutoGPT (an autonomous AI system based on ChatGPT) with researching tax advisers who were marketing a certain kind of improper tax avoidance scheme. AutoGPT carried out the task, but followed up by deciding on its own to attempt to alert the United Kingdom’s tax authority.

In the future, advanced autonomous AI systems may be prone to manifesting goals unintended by their human programmers.

Throughout history, wealthy actors have used deception to increase their power, such as by lobbying politicians, funding misleading research and finding loopholes in the legal system. Similarly, advanced autonomous AI systems could invest their resources into such time-tested methods to maintain and expand control.

Even humans who are nominally in control of these systems may find themselves systematically deceived and outmanoeuvred.

Close oversight is needed

There’s a clear need to regulate AI systems capable of deception, and the European Union’s AI Act is arguably one of the most useful regulatory frameworks we currently have. It assigns each AI system one of four risk levels: minimal, limited, high and unacceptable.

Systems with unacceptable risk are banned, while high-risk systems are subject to special requirements for risk assessment and mitigation. We argue AI deception poses immense risks to society, and systems capable of this should be treated as “high-risk” or “unacceptable-risk” by default.

Some may say game-playing AIs such as CICERO are benign, but such thinking is short-sighted; capabilities developed for game-playing models can still contribute to the proliferation of deceptive AI products.

Diplomacy – a game pitting players against one another in a quest for world domination – likely wasn’t the best choice for Meta to test whether AI can learn to collaborate with humans. As AI’s capabilities develop, it will become even more important for this kind of research to be subject to close oversight.

Simon Goldstein is an associate professor in the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University, and a research affiliate of the Center for AI Safety.

Peter S. Park is a postdoctoral associate at MIT’s Tegmark Lab, a Vitalik Buterin Postdoctoral Fellow in AI Existential Safety, and the director of Stake Out AI. He acknowledges research funding from the Beneficial AI Foundation and from the Department of Physics at MIT.

– ref. AI systems have learned how to deceive humans. What does that mean for our future? – https://theconversation.com/ai-systems-have-learned-how-to-deceive-humans-what-does-that-mean-for-our-future-212197

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tregear, Principal Fellow and Professor of Music, The University of Melbourne

The serendipity of the pairing between John Farnham’s 1986 hit single You’re the Voice and the Voice to Parliament referendum is obvious, but it goes well beyond the fact the two share the key word “voice”.

The original was composed by a team of British songwriters in response to an anti-nuclear demonstration in London’s Hyde Park in 1985. Chris Thompson, Andy Qunta and Maggie Ryder had planned a song-writing session on the day an estimated 100,000 marched through central London in support the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Thompson, however, overslept. As an act of self-admonishment he decided to express his remorse by conceiving a song that emphasised the importance of personal agency in achieving political change.

This is the kernel of meaning in You’re the Voice. It is also what makes it so especially well suited to support a campaign about a referendum to give Indigenous Australians a constitutionally recognised Voice to Parliament nearly 40 years later.

Read more:
The Voice to Parliament explained

The grain of Farnham’s voice

Thompson was not at all convinced at the time Farnham could do the song justice when he requested it for inclusion in his album Whispering Jack.

And yet the particular qualities of Farnham’s singing is also arguably crucial to the song’s success, then and now.

The music’s combination of power ballad tempo with pub anthem singability calls for a kind of full-throated vocal performance that takes more than a little inspiration from African American gospel traditions.

Singers drawn from these traditions include giants of popular musical culture like James Brown, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. It is not exaggerated praise to suggest Farnham here delivers a performance that stands with their best.

And it was career changing for him, helping Farnham to put to rest his earlier image as a clean-cut purveyor of sentimental pop songs like Sadie the Cleaning Lady and relaunch his career.

Farnham’s singing here exemplifies what Roland Barthes famously described in an essay from 1972 as the “grain of the voice”: the element of a singer’s individuality which helps convey the sincerity and authenticity of what is being sung.

You’re the Voice further highlights the grain of Farnham’s singing via the exclamation “oh, whoa!” regularly punctuating the song’s chorus. In a powerful moment of sonic symbolism, the exclamation is eventually taken up in the advertisement (like the sentiment of the song itself, it is no doubt hoped) by a chorus of supporters.

You are the voice

Indeed, if it is to succeed, the referendum will need to convince an especially broad coalition of Australians to vote for “yes”.

The song supports this goal from its very title: you are the voice. It asks each of us, individually, to consider how we can act for the common good.

We have the chance to turn the pages over
We can write what we want to write
We gotta make ends meet, before we get much older.

The song’s explicit call to action has now been connected to the forthcoming referendum: now is the moment to use your voice at the ballot box to give, in turn, a constitutionally enshrined voice to indigenous Australians.

The “yes” campaign’s appeal to collective responsibility is one aspect of the referendum process that concerns some Indigenous critics. The very enterprise of constitutional reform, after all, presumes the legitimacy of the Australian constitution which in turn presumes the legitimacy of the original act of colonial dispossession.

But the bigger threat to the “yes” campaign arguably comes from those who see the idea of an Indigenous voice to parliament itself as divisive.

Yet, as the song goes:

This time, we know we all can stand together
With the power to be powerful
Believing we can make it better.

The use of You’re the Voice here reinforces the view that supporting the Voice to Parliament is a positive act of national reconciliation that we, as a nation, can take together.

It is an injunction to take personal and collective responsibility for the history and character of the country we all share.

Politically inclusive

The advertisement is the work of Mark Green of The Monkeys advertising agency and historian Clare Wright.

It focuses on a family as they watch key moments which shaped Australia’s collective identity. It looks at key moments of reconciliation, Indigenous achievement and Indigenous protest; but also broader moments in collective action.

In a particularly astute move, the advertisement overlays images of John Howard’s 1996 gun reforms in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre as Farnham delivers the lines:

We’re all someone’s daughter
We’re all someone’s son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?

Implicit in this conjunction is a reminder to us that support for the “yes” vote, like any nation-changing political act, can come from any side of politics.

Democratising the message

There are many more layers we could tease apart in You’re The Voice. Its extended bagpipes solo originated as an homage to AC/DC singer Bon Scott, connecting it to the egalitarian, working class culture Scott’s music addresses.

Then there is the way the bagpipes, combined with the song’s use of side-drum rhythmic patterns, evoke the sound world of a military tattoo or march. This simultaneously elevates the register of its message. The song – and now the ad – is an implicit call to arms.

The inclusion of You’re the Voice in the “yes” campaign thus provides powerful support for its central message.

Farnham himself recognises this. Upon release of the advertisement, Farnham spoke about how, when it was first released in 1986, the song “changed his life”.

Generously, he concluded:

I can only hope that now it might help in some small way, to change the lives of our First Nations Peoples for the better.

Read more:
Why the ‘yes’ campaign should embrace the politics of nationhood

Peter Tregear 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. It was written for nuclear disarmament – but today You’re The Voice is the perfect song for the ‘yes’ campaign – https://theconversation.com/it-was-written-for-nuclear-disarmament-but-today-youre-the-voice-is-the-perfect-song-for-the-yes-campaign-212769

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Komesaroff, Professor of Medicine, Monash University

Last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia will vote in the Voice referendum on October 14.

When the proposal for a Voice to Parliament was first put forward in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, it was mostly welcomed as an invitation to Australians to come together.

The subsequent announcement of a referendum brought hope and history into alignment for a possible process of reconciliation — just as occurred with the 1967 referendum.

It was recognised that opinions would differ, but there was confidence these could be resolved through considered dialogue.

Now, however, we are seeing increases in racism and hardening of entrenched positions instead of respectful dialogue.

Where we need trustworthy analysis of and commentary on the proposed Voice, and careful, respectful discussion, there has been a torrent of misinformation, personal criticisms and even abuse.

Read more:
How we can avoid political misinformation in the lead-up to the Voice referendum

Misinformation has multiplied

There have been claims and “theories” unleashed through the media, campaigning and social media that are often unverifiable and of uncertain origin. The surfacing of Donald Trump-style conspiracies has severed the link between political claims and established standards of truth.

We’ve heard claims such as the Voice would somehow lead to reparations for Aboriginal people or a new “Black State”. It has also been argued Australia Day will be abolished and the courts would be overwhelmed with claims from the Voice. Although there is no evidence for such claims, and a lot of them have been disproven, they have the potential to sow confusion and reap distrust of the proposed Voice.

However, the most concerning are the conspiracy claims and personal attacks against First Nations individuals and groups.

There have been calls for blood tests to verify Aboriginal heritage, and even accusations that some people darken their skin to gain some kind of advantage. These inflammatory claims have focused on undermining the validity of First Nations people, securing political advantage regardless of the truth.

It is our argument that many of these attributions qualify as “hate speech”.
Hate speech is written or spoken communication that incites discrimination, prejudice or hatred based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender or other characteristics. The damage hate speech can cause is well established. Harms include the normalisation and more frequent occurrence of deliberate derogatory, discriminatory and dishonest speech.

Hate speech can cause physical and psychological harm.

Hate speech causes harm at a social level, as it can worsen and even promote intolerance, divisiveness and hostility towards its targets. It hinders public discussion by using polarising and exaggerated claims, disrupting any chance of civil discussion. At its most extreme it can lead to the large-scale collapse of law and order, and catastrophic social division, as we have seen in the United States, and even overt political violence, as in the assault on the Washington Capitol.

At the individual level, evidence shows hate speech can also cause physical and psychological injury, including increased risk of stress-related illnesses. Hate speech can cause fear and anxiety, leading to social exclusion and isolation. It can also lead to discrimination becoming normalised and accepted.

It is true our democracy has become increasingly fragile. Political debates can easily be distorted or compromised. Access to reliable information cannot always be assumed. Particular voices can be excluded systematically from public discussions — traditionally, the voices of women and minority groups.

The undermining of the Voice debate has far-reaching and potentially dangerous consequences. The apparent inability of the nation to conduct a reasoned, respectful debate about an issue central to its collective identity will likely inflict lasting damage on our society. It will undermine confidence in public institutions, the legitimacy of government and social policies.

These are not extreme predictions. We have already seen how the questioning of health policy by some groups during the COVID emergency in some states led to actual violence. Overseas, examples of the breakdown of civil order have become common.

But it’s not too late to change course.

It is important the debate be depoliticised, with politicians from all sides stepping back. The voices of ordinary people, including especially ordinary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, should be brought to the fore, in the spirit of the Uluru Statement. Careful truthfulness should be observed by all participants in the debate. And exaggerated claims calculated only to provoke discord should be named as such by existing fact-checking processes.

The authors of this article have developed a compendium of key resources that avoid ideological distortions and political grandstanding. It is available free of charge to all Australians to help them make up their minds about how to vote. Interested people are invited to visit https://voicetoparliament.info/ and download the pdf, read the text, or search it using a ChatGPT-powered search facility.

Australia is facing a test of the resilience of its peaceful social infrastructure and the safety of individual citizens.

Regardless of the referendum outcome, we must return to respectful, ethical, fact-based dialogues and political processes.

Paul James is affiliated with Global Reconciliation.

Sally May Gardner is affiliated with Global Reconciliation as a volunteer.

Lisa Jackson Pulver and Paul Komesaroff 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. How hate speech during the Voice campaign can harm personal wellbeing, as well as democracy – https://theconversation.com/how-hate-speech-during-the-voice-campaign-can-harm-personal-wellbeing-as-well-as-democracy-211730

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing, University of Tasmania

Even before COVID-19, social isolation and loneliness were all too common across the community. Living among millions of other people is no comfort for people in cities, where the pace of life is often hectic, and technology and digitisation often limit, rather than help with, social interaction.

The pandemic amplified these problems. In its wake, more of us report we’re lonely.

For some, a weekly shopping trip may be the only chance to interact with others. A supermarket chain in the Netherlands is helping to combat loneliness with so-called “slow” checkouts where chatting is encouraged. Could a similar approach work here?

Read more:
Why loneliness is both an individual thing and a shared result of the cities we create

We’re getting lonelier

Around a third of Australians report feeling lonely. One in six experience severe loneliness.

According to the annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, people aged 15 to 24 report the greatest increase in social isolation over the past 20 years and the highest rates of loneliness. Another Australian survey found men aged 35 to 49 had the highest levels of loneliness.

Loneliness and social isolation are not the same. Social isolation is a matter of how often we have contact with friends, family and others, which can be measured.

Loneliness is more subjective. It describes how we feel about the “quality” of our interactions with others.

Technology is contributing to high rates of loneliness. Instead of meaningful face-to-face interactions, many of us now rely on social media, phone apps and video calls to socialise.

Read more:
How the digitalisation of everything is making us more lonely

We’re also working longer hours, often at home. And due to the cost of living, many of us are choosing to stay home and save money, rather than eat out or go to “the local”.

It isn’t only in Australia where this is happening. In the UK, around 3.9 million older people say television is their main company. Half a million may go five or six days a week without seeing anyone.

The World Health Organisation recognises loneliness and social isolation as public health issues and priorities for policymakers. These issues seriously affect people’s mental and physical health as well as longevity. The impacts are comparable with other risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity and not being physically active.

Read more:
Loneliness is making us physically sick, but social prescribing can treat it – podcast

Could slow, ‘chatty’ checkouts be part of the solution?

For many, a visit to the supermarket may be the only time they interact with others. Sadly, increased use of technology, including self-serve checkouts, and cashiers tasked with speedily processing customers can make it challenging to have a conversation.

Read more:
More than milk and bread: corner store revival can rebuild neighbourhood ties

Four years ago, the Netherlands’ second-largest supermarket chain, Jumbo, introduced Kletskassa or “chat checkout”. It’s for shoppers who want to chat and aren’t in a hurry. Recognising loneliness was an issue for many, the idea was to increase social interaction between customers and staff by slowing things down and encouraging conversation.

Jumbo’s chief commercial officer, Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd, explained:

Many people, especially the elderly, sometimes feel lonely. As a family business and supermarket chain, we are at the heart of society. Our shops are an important meeting place for many people, and we want to play a role in identifying and reducing loneliness.

The first Kletskassa, in Vlijmen in Brabant, was so successful the family-owned company started rolling out slow checkouts in 200 of its stores. Not only were customers responding positively, the concept also appealed to Jumbo’s employees. They are trained to recognise signs of loneliness and come up with local initiatives to combat social isolation.

Read more:
‘I tell everyone I love being on my own, but I hate it’: what older Australians want you to know about loneliness

Cloosterman-Van Eerd said:

We are proud our staff want to work the chat checkout. They really want to help people and make contact with them. It’s a small gesture but it’s a valuable one, particularly in a world that is becoming more digital and faster.

The original focus of Jumbo’s initiative was older shoppers. However, the trial showed people of all ages were keen to use the Kletskassa. The desire for human interaction didn’t change across age groups.

So, these “chatty” checkouts are open to anyone who will benefit from social connection. Some Jumbo stores also have an All Together Coffee Corner, where locals can enjoy a coffee and chat with neighbours and volunteers who also help out with shopping and gardening.

The Netherlands’ government is partnering a range of organisations, local government and companies to come up with solutions to combat loneliness across the country. Some 50% of the 1.3 million people over 75 report they regularly feel lonely. Jumbo’s initiatives are part of the Health Ministry’s One Against Loneliness campaign.

Supermarkets as ‘third places’ to combat loneliness

In the 1980s, sociologist Ray Oldenberg coined the term “third place” – a place that’s not home (the “first place”) and not work (the “second place”). Third places are familiar public spaces where people can connect over a shared interest or activity.

Libraries, coffee shops, book stores, community gardens, churches, gyms and clubs are examples of third places. They all provide the opportunity for close proximity, interaction and often serendipitous conversations with other people we might not usually meet.

Read more:
Many people feel lonely in the city, but perhaps ‘third places’ can help with that

Kletkassa have helped thousands of people, of all ages and backgrounds, by providing a few minutes of kindness and conversation. Imagine what could be achieved if our supermarkets offered their own version of the “slow checkout” for anyone who’s in need of a chat to brighten their day.

The first chain to introduce this sort of initiative in Australia would have a solid advantage over competitors through differentiation and prioritising customers. At the same time, it would make a small but meaningful contribution to improving social wellbeing.

Challenge extended!

Louise Grimmer 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. Feeling lonely? Too many of us do. Here’s what our supermarkets can do to help – https://theconversation.com/feeling-lonely-too-many-of-us-do-heres-what-our-supermarkets-can-do-to-help-211126

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Haswell, Professor of Health, Safety and Environment, Queensland University of Technology and Professor of Practice in Environmental Wellbeing, Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services) and Honorary Professor (School of Geosciences), University of Sydney

We are seeing deadly heat and fires circle the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns we are fast running out of time to secure a liveable and sustainable future. Without emergency action to stop mining and burning fossil fuels, the world faces an unthinkable 2.8℃ temperature rise.

It’s incomprehensible, then, that many of our politicians support “unlocking the Beetaloo Basin” in the Northern Territory and developing another 48 oil and gas projects across Australia.

“Unlocking” means starting large-scale shale gas extraction. After drilling through 3–4km of rock and aquifers, a cocktail of chemicals, sand and water is forced down the well. This process of hydraulic fracturing is commonly known as fracking. This brings to the surface, and then into the atmosphere, carbon that had been securely stored underground for 300–400 million years.

Today we have launched a report that demonstrates the many risks of oil and gas development for human health and wellbeing in Australia. Based on a review of over 300 peer-reviewed studies, our report provides the public and decision-makers with a summary of the now-extensive evidence of these risks.

Read more:
Australia’s 116 new coal, oil and gas projects equate to 215 new coal power stations

What is the evidence against oil and gas?

There is a need to combat widely held misconceptions and repeated misinformation about the safety of the oil and gas industry. We undertook the review at the request of concerned paediatricians in the Northern Territory.

New research clearly shows that “unlocking gas” is at least as harmful to the climate as mining and burning coal. This is largely due to methane leaks at many stages of production. Methane is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over 20 years.

Read more:
Methane must fall to slow global heating – but only 13% of emissions are actually regulated

Doors opened for the 49 planned projects in Australia after state reviews of potential impacts. These reviews are flawed and outdated as the volume of published studies has grown rapidly in recent years. Reviews were undertaken, for example, in New South Wales in 2014, Northern Territory in 2017, South Australia in 2015 and Western Australia in 2018.

Our report synthesises recent scientific and public health research on five areas of concern about oil and gas operations:

1. threats to biodiversity, water and food security arising from site preparation, drilling, fracking, wastewater handling, gas pipeline transport and processing

2. contributions to the climate emergency

3. a vast array of potentially harmful chemicals

4. contamination of water, soil and air

5. physical, social, emotional and spiritual health impacts near oil and gas fields and their sprawling infrastructure.

Each fracking event to release shale gas uses 6 million to 60 million litres of fresh water. Fracking is often applied many times to each of hundreds to thousands of wells in a region. This puts water security at risk in arid areas.

Read more:
Mining vs rivers: a single line on a map could determine the future of water in the Northern Territory

Each step of gas production creates risks of contamination of surface and ground water. With vast quantities of wastewater, it can happen through spilling, leaking, flooding and overflows. Wastewater can even be deliberately spread for so-called “beneficial uses”.

This wastewater contains hundreds of chemicals. Some are naturally occurring. Others are added during drilling and fracking.

These chemicals can include heavy metals, phenols, barium, volatile organic compounds including benzene, toluene, ethylene and xylene, radioactive materials, fluoride, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, salt and many chemicals of unknown toxicity.

Air becomes contaminated with volatile organic compounds, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, radioactive materials, diesel fumes, hydrogen sulfide, acrolein and heavy metals. Formaldehyde, particulate matter and ground-level ozone are formed and travel long distances, damaging health and agriculture.

Read more:
Companies that frack for oil and gas can keep a lot of information secret – but what they disclose shows widespread use of hazardous chemicals

What are the health impacts?

People exposed to oil and gas operations experience a long list of harms. These include:

• more severe asthma in children requiring more medical treatment, emergency department visits and hospitalisations

• higher hospitalisation and death rates due to heart attacks, heart failure, respiratory diseases and some cancers

• higher injury and fatality rates due to increased heavy vehicle traffic

• increases in depression, anxiety and social withdrawal, especially among young and pregnant women

• increases in sexually transmitted infections associated with the industry’s mobile workforces

• reproductive harms and interference with development of unborn babies, including higher risks of low birth weight, pre-term delivery and spontaneous abortion

• higher risk of severe birth defects

• higher risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Read more:
Land clearing and fracking in Australia’s Northern Territory threatens the world’s largest intact tropical savanna

Putting Indigenous people and others in harm’s way

Many of the 49 planned projects affect Aboriginal land. Some companies have allegedly violated the rights of Traditional Owners to free, prior and informed consent. The massive disruption of Aboriginal Country and life puts people at great risk of physical, social, emotional, cultural and spiritual harm.

The report also issues a loud warning about sexual violence against First Nations Americans and Canadians associated with oil and gas activities. The WA parliamentary inquiry into women’s experiences of sexual harassment and sexual violence in “fly in, fly out” (FIFO) mines suggests these risks apply equally in Australia. Yet all government assessments of oil and gas development in Australia completely ignore these risks.

Read more:
The Beetaloo drilling program brings potential health and social issues for Aboriginal communities in remote NT

In the United States, the industry has grown so vast within two decades that over 17.6 million people live within a mile (1.6km) of oil or gas wells. By 2016, the estimated cost to the community was US$77 billion. This was the cost of illness, extra health care and premature deaths (7,500) from asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular disease due to air pollution alone.

Our report makes clear any further gas development will have serious impacts on the climate, the people living in or near gas fields and the overburdened health services that serve them.

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

Melissa Haswell has previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health, Queensland Department of Environment and Science, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Australian Red Cross, The Healing Foundation, Queensland Health and Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council. She is affiliated with the Climate and Health Alliance, Australian Public Health Association and the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.

Jacob Hegedus is member of NSW Young Labor Party

David Shearman and Lisa Jackson Pulver 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. Health evidence against gas and oil is piling up, as governments turn a blind eye – https://theconversation.com/health-evidence-against-gas-and-oil-is-piling-up-as-governments-turn-a-blind-eye-212459

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erika Penney, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Technology Sydney

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the sight of clutter and mess in your home? Have you walked in the door only to feel overloaded by scattered papers, unwashed dishes and clothes in disarray? Maybe you’ve even had arguments because it bothers you more than it bothers you partner or housemates.

You’re not alone. Many people report a messy house can trigger feelings of stress and anxiety.

So why do clutter and chaos make some of us feel so overwhelmed? Here’s what the research says – and what you can do about it.

Read more:
Sorry, men, there’s no such thing as ‘dirt blindness’ – you just need to do more housework

Cognitive overload

When we’re surrounded by distractions, our brains essentially become battlegrounds for attention. Everything competes for our focus.

But the brain, as it turns out, prefers order and “singletasking” over multitasking.

Order helps reduce the competition for our attention and reduces mental load. While some people might be better than others at ignoring distractions, distractable environments can overload our cognitive capabilities and memory.

Clutter, disorder and mess can affect more than just our cognitive resources. They’re also linked to our eating, productivity, mental health, parenting decisions and even our willingness to donate money.

Are women more affected than men?

Research suggests the detrimental effects of mess and clutter may be more pronounced in women than in men.

One study of 60 dual-income couples found women living in cluttered and stressful homes had higher levels of cortisol (a hormone associated with stress) and heightened depression symptoms.

These effects remained consistent even when factors like marital satisfaction and personality traits were taken into account. In contrast, the men in this study seemed largely unaffected by the state of their home environments.

The researchers theorised that women may feel a greater responsibility for maintaining the home. They also suggested the social aspect of the study (which involved giving home tours) may have induced more fear of judgement among women than men.

We will all live with clutter and disorganisation to some degree in our lives. Sometimes, however, significant clutter problems can be linked to underlying mental health conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoarding disorder, major depressive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety disorders.

This raises a crucial question: which came first? For some, clutter is the source of anxiety and distress; for others, poor mental health is the source of disorganisation and clutter.

Not all mess is a problem

It’s important to remember clutter isn’t all bad, and we shouldn’t aim for perfection. Real homes don’t look like the ones in magazines.

In fact, disorganised spaces can result in increased creativity and elicit fresh insights.

Living in constant disorder isn’t productive, but striving for perfectionism in cleanliness can also be counterproductive. Perfectionism itself is associated with feeling overwhelmed, anxiety and poor mental health.

Mess makes me anxious so what can I do about it?

It’s important to remember you have some agency over what matters to you and how you want to prioritise your time.

One approach is to try to reduce the clutter. You might, for example, have a dedicated de-cluttering session every week. This may involve hiring a cleaner (if you can afford it) or playing some music or a podcast while tidying up for an hour with your other household members.

Establishing this routine can reduce clutter distractions, ease your overall mental load and alleviate worry that clutter will spiral out of control.

You can also try micro-tidying. If don’t have time for a complete cleanup, commit just five minutes to clearing one small space.

If the clutter is primarily caused by other household members, try to calmly discuss with them how this mess is affecting your mental health. See if your kids, your partner or housemates can negotiate some boundaries as a household over what level of mess is acceptable and how it will be handled if that threshold is exceeded.

It can also help to develop a self-compassionate mindset.

Mess doesn’t define whether you are a “good” or “bad” person and, at times, it may even stimulate your creativity. Remind yourself that you deserve success, meaningful relationships and happiness, whether or not your office, home or car is a mess.

Take comfort in research suggesting that while disorganised environments can make us susceptible to stress and poor decision-making, your mindset can buffer you against these vulnerabilities.

If clutter, perfectionism or anxiety has begun to seem unmanageable, talk with your GP about a referral to a psychologist. The right psychologist (and you may need to try a few before you find the right one) can help you cultivate a life driven by values that are important to you.

Clutter and mess are more than just visual nuisances. They can have a profound impact on mental wellbeing, productivity and our choices.

Understanding why clutter affects you can empower you to take control of your mindset, your living spaces and, in turn, your life.

Read more:
Men do see the mess – they just aren’t judged for it the way women are

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

– ref. Why is a messy house such an anxiety trigger for me and what can I do about it? – https://theconversation.com/why-is-a-messy-house-such-an-anxiety-trigger-for-me-and-what-can-i-do-about-it-211684

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer Taxation, Auckland University of Technology

The property market is New Zealand’s largest industry, adding NZ$41.2 billion a year to gross domestic product. But there is an ongoing debate over how we tax houses – particularly those sitting empty despite the ongoing housing crisis.

Housing affordability is an ongoing concern for both renters and home owners. Last year, one in four rental households spent more than 40% of their disposable income on housing costs, compared with one in five households that were paying a mortgage.

A comprehensive capital gains tax has been ruled out by both major political parties.

While the bright-line rule means home owners have to pay income tax on profits from properties sold less than 10 years after purchase, this still only applies to house sales. What about those investment properties sitting empty for investment reasons?

My forthcoming research looks at the feasibility of taxing empty homes and what I found was a potential source of substantial revenue for the government.

Empty homes during a housing shortage

Around 5% of New Zealand’s housing stock – 95,000 dwellings – were considered empty during the 2018 census.

According to the Empty Homes report, roughly 10% of the empty homes surveyed were intentionally being kept empty, while 35% were empty because they were holiday homes. A further 8% were kept empty for personal use (often as a second home), 23% were empty for renovations and repairs and about 17% were vacant rentals, sometimes due to non-compliance with Healthy Homes Standards. The remaining 6% were empty for “other reasons”, which often meant they were awaiting sale.

Read more:
Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done

It was not clear how much of New Zealand’s housing stock remains in the hands of overseas-based investors after rules changed in 2018 to restrict foreign ownership.

But the National Party has promised to allow foreign buyers back into the property market. Under National’s plan, foreign buyers will be limited to properties over $2 million and will need to pay a 15% tax on the sale price.

Introducing an empty homes tax

My research examines the under-utilisation of property taxes by the New Zealand government.

In the financial year 2021-22, the central government earned 4.7% of its total tax revenue from property taxes, below the OECD average of 5.7%.

But New Zealand is fertile ground for an empty house tax, which would directly impact property investors and those who have the means to own multiple properties.

An empty house tax targets home owners who let a property sit empty for a certain length of time.

New Zealand would not be breaking new ground with an empty house tax. This type of tax already exists in a number of countries.

What’s more, New Zealand has the infrastructural prerequisites needed to implement an empty house tax.

New Zealand has an existing land registry which records essential information regarding all parcels of land, bypassing the need to establish this data or to rely on self-reporting form home owners.

A potential boon for government

Some sort of empty house tax could be a source of revenue for the government, as illustrated by cities and countries overseas.

Empty properties in Paris, France, incur an annual surcharge of 160% of the standard property rates. In Vancouver, Canada, vacant homes are taxed at 3% of the property’s taxable value and failure to pay can result in fines.

In Ireland, the empty house tax is three times the property’s existing base local property tax. And in Melbourne and Sydney, house buyers who leave a property unused for six months face an annual charge of at least A$5,500 (NZ$5,978).

Read more:
Airbnb and empty houses: who’s responsible for managing the impacts on our cities?

These countries’ responses to vacant properties suggest that high rates and tax penalties steer investors toward more productive areas of the economy – a reason cited by policy makers in Vancouver and elsewhere for introducing the tax.

Following the Vancouver model, an empty homes tax on property in Queenstown could generate $255 million a year.

Time for serious consideration

New Zealand could take one of two paths when introducing an empty home tax.

The first option is to charge a tax of between 200% and 300% of rates, similar to Ireland. Alternatively, we could introduce a tax of 3-5% of land value, like Vancouver.

This tax could be tailored to cities and regions, with empty homes in cities like Queenstown and Auckland incurring higher charges than other areas.

The rules could exempt residential and rental properties, with an exception for holiday homes unless they are normally used for Airbnb. People forced to relocate from their residential homes for extended periods due to work requirements could also be exempted from paying the empty home tax.

Read more:
Proving the wealthiest New Zealanders pay low tax rates is a good start – now comes the hard part

To ensure the success of the empty house tax, we need to include credible measures to monitor compliance.

The revenue from an empty house tax could then be funnelled into building new homes.

Property investors benefit from New Zealand’s lack of an empty house tax. An empty house is still an asset accruing value, even without rent.

On the flip side, introducing an empty house tax will penalise land holdings for speculation, encourage property owners to enter the rental market – which could in turn increase rental affordability.

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

– ref. As NZ struggles to resolve its long-running housing crisis, investors should be taxed for keeping homes empty – https://theconversation.com/as-nz-struggles-to-resolve-its-long-running-housing-crisis-investors-should-be-taxed-for-keeping-homes-empty-212356

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

The first federal Newspoll since mid-July, conducted August 28 to September 1 from a sample of 1,200, gave Labor a 53–47 lead, a two-point gain for the Coalition. Primary votes were 37% Coalition (up three), 35% Labor (down one), 13% Greens (up one), 7% One Nation (steady) and 8% for all Others (down three).

On Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, 46% (up six) were dissatisfied and 45% (down six) were satisfied, for a net approval of -1, down 12 points. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s net approval improved two points to -11. Albanese led Dutton as better PM by 50–31, down from a 54–29 lead in mid-July.

In a particularly bleak result for the “yes” case in the October 14 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament, “no” led by 53–38, out from a 48–41 “no” lead in mid-July. Newspoll figures are from The Poll Bludger.

Here is the chart of all 2023 Voice polls by Newspoll, Resolve, Essential and Morgan that I first published in July. As we approach the referendum, it continues to worsen for “yes”.

Just one of 25 Labor-initiated referendums have succeeded in winning the required four of the six states as well as a national majority. While not succeeding, referendums held at general elections have performed far better than those held midterm.

Read more:
While the Voice has a large poll lead now, history of past referendums indicates it may struggle

The Voice would have had a far better chance at a general election. Choosing to hold it midterm was a blunder.

Albanese’s Newspoll net approval of -1 is easily his worst this term. His previous worst net approval was -10 in late June. The graph below is an update of the graph I published with the mid-July Newspoll article.

Labor’s 53% two party vote in this Newspoll is its lowest for this term, a drop from 54% in March and late June. I believe both the Voice and the cost of living are affecting Albanese and Labor’s ratings.

YouGov used to administer Newspoll, but Pyxis Polling has now taken over. Pyxis was formed when two senior staff quit Newspoll. While YouGov’s Newspolls used fieldwork periods from Wednesday to Saturday, this Newspoll used a Monday to Friday fieldwork.

The sample size of 1,200 for this Newspoll is lower than the 1,500–1,600 used for most Newspolls conducted by YouGov. However, The Poll Bludger’s report said that the “effective” sample size (sample after weighting adjustments) for this Newspoll was near the actual sample size, while for the YouGov polls it was well under the actual sample.

Tasmanian EMRS poll: Liberals recover after slump

A Tasmanian EMRS poll, conducted August 15–21 from a sample of 1,000, gave the Liberals 38% of the primary vote (up two since May), Labor 32% (up one), the Greens 14% (down one) and all Others 16% (down two). In May, the Liberals were down six points.

Incumbent Liberal Jeremy Rockliff led Labor’s Rebecca White by 42–39 as preferred premier, reversing a White lead of 40–38 in May. Tasmania uses a proportional system for its lower house elections, so a two party estimate is not applicable.

Adrian Beaumont 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. Albanese records first net negative Newspoll approval as Voice support slumps further – https://theconversation.com/albanese-records-first-net-negative-newspoll-approval-as-voice-support-slumps-further-212368

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Sanderson, Professor of Information Retrieval, RMIT University

Today marks an important milestone in the history of the internet: Google’s 25th birthday. With billions of search queries submitted each day, it’s difficult to remember how we ever lived without the search engine.

What was it about Google that led it to revolutionise information access? And will artificial intelligence (AI) make it obsolete, or enhance it?

Let’s look at how our access to information has changed through the decades – and where it might lead as advanced AI and Google Search become increasingly entwined.

1950s: public libraries as community hubs

In the years following the second world war, it became generally accepted that a successful post-war city was one that could provide civic capabilities – and that included open access to information.

So in the 1950s information in Western countries was primarily provided by local libraries. Librarians themselves were a kind of “human search engine”. They answered phone queries from businesses and responded to letters – helping people find information quickly and accurately.

Libraries were more than just a place to borrow books. They were where parents went to look for health information, where tourists requested travel tips, and where businesses sought marketing advice.

The searching was free, but required librarians’ support, as well as a significant amount of labour and catalogue-driven processes. Questions we can now solve in minutes took hours, days or even weeks to answer.

1990s: the rise of paid search services

By the 1990s, libraries had expanded to include personal computers and online access to information services. Commercial search companies thrived as libraries could access information through expensive subscription services.

These systems were so complex that only trained specialists could search, with consumers paying for results. Dialog, developed at Lockheed Martin in the 1960s, remains one of the best examples. Today it claims to provide its customers access “to over 1.7 billion records across more than 140 databases of peer-reviewed literature”.

Another commercial search system, The Financial Times’ FT PROFILE, enabled access to articles in every UK broadsheet newspaper over a five-year period.

But searching with it wasn’t simple. Users had to remember typed commands to select a collection, using specific words to reduce the list of documents returned. Articles were ordered by date, leaving the reader to scan for the most relevant items.

FT PROFILE made valuable information rapidly accessible to people outside business circles, but at a high price. In the 1990s access cost £1.60 a minute – the equivalent of £4.65 (or A$9.00) today.

The rise of Google

Following the world wide web’s launch in 1993, the number of websites grew exponentially.

Libraries provided public web access, and services such as the State Library of Victoria’s Vicnet offered low-cost access for organisations. Librarians taught users to find information online and build websites. However, the complex search systems struggled with exploding volumes of content and high numbers of new users.

In 1994, the book Managing Gigabytes, penned by three New Zealand computer scientists, presented solutions for this problem. Since the 1950s researchers had imagined a search engine that was fast, accessible to all, and which sorted documents by relevance.

In the 1990s, a Silicon Valley startup began to apply this knowledge – Larry Page and Sergey Brin used the principles in Managing Gigabytes to design Google’s iconic architecture.

After launching on September 4 1998, the Google revolution was in motion. People loved the simplicity of the search box, as well as a novel presentation of results that summarised how the retrieved pages matched the query.

In terms of functionality, Google Search was effective for a few reasons. It used the innovative approach of delivering results by counting web links in a page (a process called PageRank). But more importantly, its algorithm was very sophisticated; it not only matched search queries with the text within a page, but also with other text linking to that page (this was called anchor text).

Google’s popularity quickly surpassed competitors such as AltaVista and Yahoo Search. With more than 85% of the market share today, it remains the most popular search engine.

As the web expanded, however, access costs were contested.

Although consumers now search Google for free, payment is required to download certain articles and books. Many consumers still rely on libraries – while libraries themselves struggle with the rising costs of purchasing material to provide to the public for free.

What will the next 25 years bring?

Google has expanded far beyond Search. Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Pixel devices and other services show Google’s reach is vast.

With the introduction of AI tools, including Google’s Bard and the recently announced Gemini (a direct competitor to ChatGPT), Google is set to revolutionise search once again.

As Google continues to roll generative AI capabilities into Search, it will become common to read a quick information summary at the top of the results page, rather than dig for information yourself. A key challenge will be ensuring people don’t become complacent to the point that they blindly trust the generated outputs.

Fact-checking against original sources will remain as important as ever. After all, we have seen generative AI tools such as ChatGPT make headlines due to “hallucinations” and misinformation.

If inaccurate or incomplete search summaries aren’t revised, or are further paraphrased and presented without source material, the misinformation problem will only get worse.

Moreover, even if AI tools revolutionise search, they may fail to revolutionise access. As the AI industry grows, we’re seeing a shift towards content only being accessible for a fee, or through paid subscriptions.

The rise of AI provides an opportunity to revisit the tensions between public access and increasingly powerful commercial entities.

Read more:
The hidden cost of the AI boom: social and environmental exploitation

Mark Sanderson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Julian Thomas receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Google Australia has contributed funding to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, which he leads.

Kieran Hegarty receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology through a Digital Humanism Junior Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for Human Sciences.

Lisa M. Given receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology.

– ref. Google turns 25: the search engine revolutionised how we access information, but will it survive AI? – https://theconversation.com/google-turns-25-the-search-engine-revolutionised-how-we-access-information-but-will-it-survive-ai-212367

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suman Majumdar, Chief Health Officer, Burnet Institute

Around 5–10% of people who get infected with SARS-CoV-2 will experience symptoms that persist way beyond the initial acute period, a clinical syndrome we are learning more about, known widely as long COVID.

Shortness of breath, brain fog, lethargy and tiredness, loss of smell or taste are common features of long COVID, as is the development of new conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression and dementia.

But how long is the “long”? If and when do symptoms resolve?

Read more:
When does COVID become long COVID? And what’s happening in the body when symptoms persist? Here’s what we’ve learnt so far

A recent study has examined this in detail, following people for two years after their infection. This and other recently published studies on long COVID show that while symptoms do resolve in many people, their resolution is slow and imperfect.

What did the study find?

The key work, led by Ziyad Al-Aly, examines the effect of SARS-CoV-2 two years after infection in a large group of US veterans. The researchers followed 139,000 people with COVID and almost six million uninfected controls for two years, tracking deaths, hospitalisations and 80 long-term impacts of COVID, categorised into ten organ systems.

They found that people who were initially hospitalised with COVID were 1.3 times more likely to die and 2.6 times more likely to be hospitalised again, compared to the control group (people without COVID), over the two years. After two years, this “hospitalised” group remained at increased risk of 50 conditions.

People who had milder COVID (who weren’t hospitalised with their initial COVID infection) had an increased risk of death for up to six months and increased risk of hospitalisation for up to 18 months. However, at two years, they remained at increased risk of 25 conditions.

So, while people who were initially hospitalised for COVID had worse outcomes over the two-year follow-up, there was still a substantial burden of illness in people who initially had milder COVID. This included a risk of clots and blood disorders, lung disease, fatigue, gut disorders, muscle and joint disorders and diabetes.

Findings from other recent research were similar

A separate cohort study followed more than 208,000 veterans with COVID over two years. It showed that overall, 8.7% died compared with 4.1% in the uninfected control group. The risk of death was concentrated in the first six months after infection.

A third, not yet peer-reviewed and smaller cohort study of 341 people with long COVID from Spain, found only 7.6% of them recovered at two years.

Read more:
What is POTS? And how is it related to long COVID?

Another significant (not yet peer-reviewed) study from the United Kingdom assessed diabetes risk after COVID by following 15 million people in England from 2020–21. It found a 30–50% elevated risk of new type 2 diabetes after COVID. This increased risk persisted up to two years. But the risk for type 1 diabetes risk did not persist.

An Australian (not yet peer-reviewed) study followed 31 people who developed long COVID and 31 matched controls who recovered from COVID for two years. It found that most of the concerning immunological dysfunction effects that had been present at eight months, had resolved by two years. While almost two-thirds of those with long COVID (62%) reported improved quality of life over the two years, one-third were still struggling in this regard two years after their infection.

Finally, a recent whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and biopsy study showed prolonged tissue level immune-activation and viral persistence in the gut for up to a remarkable two years after COVID.

These studies have some limitations

It’s important to note the observational studies have some inherent limitations.

The US veterans cohort studied by Al-Aly is nearly 90% men, with an average age of 61 years, which is different to groups most at risk of long COVID.

They acquired their initial infection in 2020, before Omicron, before vaccination and before therapies – all of which are protective against long COVID to a degree.

Having said that, long COVID still frequently occurs in vaccinated people infected with Omicron.

We still don’t have treatments for long COVID

Increasing understanding about underlying mechanisms of long COVID, such as those involving persistent virus and effects on mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cells – can lead to treatment options that need to be trialled.

In July 2023, the White House established the Office of Long COVID Research and Practice. Two randomised trials are testing whether the antiviral nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) can treat long COVID are currently recruiting patients.

A separate randomised, placebo-controlled trial has shown that metformin, a commonly prescribed anti-diabetic medication, taken for two weeks (and taken within three days of testing positive for COVID) reduced the chance of developing long COVID by 41%. The mechanism may involve an effect on mitochondria or directly on the virus.

Read more:
Paxlovid is Australia’s first-line COVID antiviral but Lagevrio also prevents severe disease in over-70s

But it’s still important to prevent COVID (re)infections

Taken together, these studies on the longevity of long COVID add substantially to the case to fast-track the development of interventions and therapies to prevent and/or cure the condition.

In the meantime, it’s crucially important to prevent (re)infections in the first place to reduce the future burden of long COVID, already estimated to be greater than 65 million people globally.

Breathe clean air by ensuring indoor spaces are well-ventilated. In poorly ventilated or crowded spaces, wear a well-fitted and high-quality mask (a P2, KN95 or N95 mask), and/or use air filtration devices suitable for the space you are in.

Keep up to date with boosters. And get tested so you can get antiviral treatment if you’re eligible.

If you suspect you have long COVID, discuss this with your GP, who may refer you to specialised services or multidisciplinary care.

Suman Majumdar, through the Burnet Institute receives grant funding from the Australian Governemnt via the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia, the Medical Research Future Fund and DFAT’s Centre for Health Security.

Brendan Crabb and the Institute he leads receives research grant funding from the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia, the Medical Research Future Fund, DFAT’s Centre for Health Security and other Australian federal and Victorian State Government bodies. He is the Chair of The Australian Global Health Alliance and the Pacific Friends of Global Health, both in an honorary capacity. And he serves on the Board of the Telethon Kids Institute, on advisory committees of mRNA Victoria, the Sanger Institute (UK), the Institute for Health Transformation (at Deakin University), The Brain Cancer Centre (Australia), the WHO Malaria Vaccine Advisory Committee; MALVAC, and is a member of OzSAGE and The John Snow Project, all honorary positions.

– ref. Long COVID symptoms can improve, but their resolution is slow and imperfect – https://theconversation.com/long-covid-symptoms-can-improve-but-their-resolution-is-slow-and-imperfect-212015

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Stevens, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Adelaide

When you think of moths, do you see holes in your clothes, pests in the pantry, or pesky insects drawn to night lights spoiling your social BBQ? Or worse, do you have an irrational fear of moths? (That’s called mottephobia).

Would it surprise you to learn moths are not the poor cousin of butterflies? They’re incredibly diverse and deserve a second chance.

There are about 160,000 species of moths known to science. Compare that to 17,500 species of butterflies.

Moths vary enormously in their size, what they like to eat, how they reproduce and how they live their lives.

Read more:
Newly discovered moth is enigmatic evolutionary wonder

Life arising from biological soup

Remember the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar? The life cycle begins with a little egg that hatches into a caterpillar, eats its way through a rainbow of food and then builds a cocoon for a complete transformation into a beautiful butterfly.

This is complete metamorphosis, where the structure of the caterpillar dissolves into a biological soup and then into an adult that looks nothing like the original.

Are butterflies just ‘flamboyant’ moths?

There’s a long-standing argument among scientists over whether butterflies are really colourful, flashy moths.

A few defining features separate moths from butterflies. Moths have larger “scales”, giving them more stocky, furry-looking bodies. Moths also have eyes suited for night vision and exhibit wing coupling, where the fore- and hind-wings join as a single wing for flight. Then there’s the colour palette.

But these features actually don’t separate all moths from butterflies, just night-flyers (nocturnal) from day-flyers.

Butterflies should perhaps be considered as a group of day-flying “flamboyant” moths. The opposite is also true, we have moths that fly during the day, just a “wannabee” butterfly perhaps.

There are 125 families of moths and just six families of butterflies. The newest moth family was discovered in 2015.

The Hedylidae family is commonly referred to as the moth-butterflies. They are dull coloured, fly at night, have bristly antenna and wing coupling (in most species). These are definitely moth features but their genetic code suggests they are most closely related to butterflies.

Moths helped flowering plants evolve

One family still living today, the Micropteridae, has been pollinating flowers for millions of years. It’s likely to be one of only a few insects that pollinated the first flowers. This most ancient moth has been found preserved in amber from 125 million years ago. That makes moths twice as old as butterflies.

As adults, these moths have chewing mouthparts. Today they use these jaws to eat flower pollen. This suggests these ancient moths contributed to the success of the first flowering plants.

Most moths and butterflies have sucking mouthparts for drinking nectar. They have a tube-like proboscis that curls up to sit just under their head. This can be uncurled to probe flowers.

This means moths are not only the night-shift pollinator, they’re also more efficient than the daytime bee pollinators we hear most about.

The big and small of it

The smaller moths are commonly grouped as “microlepidoptera”, but not necessarily related to each other. The smallest has a wingspan of only about 2.6mm.

The largest moth is the Hercules moth from northern Queensland in Australia with a wingspan of 361mm.

The family Hepialidae, commonly known in Australia as rain, ghost, splendid or swift moths, are among the heaviest of all moths with a wingspan of 250mm and weigh 35 grams.

They are considered an old group as they have no proboscis (mouth parts).

The moths emerge in huge numbers and mate almost immediately after hatching. The females then fly through the woodland dropping eggs randomly as they go.

One common species is thought to hold the world record for the number of eggs carried at around 44,000.

Although most species of Hepialidae are cryptically camouflaged, most adult moths do not live longer than a single day as they are a great food source for bats, birds and other animals. The caterpillar growing phase may take many years in the ground and yet the adults only live for around a single day.

Some moths can hear

That’s right, some moths can hear sound. But moth “ears” (tympanic organs) are not on their heads. Some groups have only two such organs but others have four, located at the bases of their legs on the body (thorax) of the animal.

These organs can help the moths detect bats, who hunt moths at night, so it is no surprise that three of the largest moths all have tympanic organs. One study also suggests the exaggerated hindwings of silk moths evolved to mess with bat sonar.

Although most moths use chemicals and pheromones to attract a mate, whistling moths use sound. The males fly around (during the day) and are thought, as they fly, to rub a scaleless ribbed area of the wing against a body protrusion making what sounds like a high pitched whistle. The females hear this noise and fly towards it.

There may be up to a million moth species on the planet and many moth species are yet to be discovered.

So next time you’re out for a walk, or spending time in your garden, day or night, look out for moths. They’re truly remarkable creatures. And perhaps you could discover a new species?

And regarding this recent tweet about a “frothy moth”: this moth belongs to the genus ‘Amerila’ (in the family Erebidae, subfamily Arctiinae) and could be ‘Amerila crokeri’ . They are known to produce the froth as a defence mechanism.

Acknowledgement: This article was coauthored with Michael Moore, Honorary Researcher at the South Australian Museum.

Mark Stevens receives funding from Australian Biological Resources Study. He is affiliated with the South Australian Museum and co-wrote this article with Michael Moore, Honorary Researcher at SA Museum.

– ref. Unveiling the enigmatic world of moths: from ancient pollinators to whistling wonders – https://theconversation.com/unveiling-the-enigmatic-world-of-moths-from-ancient-pollinators-to-whistling-wonders-209590

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

Co-design is the new buzz word being applied to relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

It has been used as a key part of the Indigenous Voice process. But it is also talked about when it comes to health policy and infrastructure design.

Even fashion brand Country Road has talked about co-design in its work with Ngen’giwumirri artist, Kieren Karritpul to develop a homewares range.

Co-design is also increasingly used in education circles.

Educational policies are emphasising the importance of schools and Indigenous peoples and communities working together in improving educational outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

But what does it mean and does it stand up to the hype? Our research has identified three clear ways we can improve co-design.

Read more:
10 questions about the Voice to Parliament – answered by the experts

What is co-design?

Co-design is open to interpretation and can mean something different to each person who comes to process.

It originally comes from academic work on participatory principles and public sector innovation. It is generally understood to be a process that gives marginalised people a say on policy or programs that affect them.

But it is more than a consultation process. It is supposed to improve outcomes through collaborative relationships.

It is not without risks. So far, there is not a lot evidence around what effective co-design looks like in Indigenous settings and how it works in practice, without reinforcing existing power imbalances.

It may also see Indigenous peoples blamed if a program fails.

Our research on co-design

So it is a critical time to explore how co-design is defined and by whom and its potential to shift outcomes.

We are looking at co-design in Indigenous education policy and practice across three domains: conceptualisation (how we define it), process (how we do it) and evaluation (how we measure its success).

Our ongoing research includes case studies of primary and secondary schools and a review of existing research on co-design in education. We will also conduct a survey later this year.

Our work so far has shown us there are three clear opportunities to improve how co-design works.

1. What is the problem?

A crucial issue in co-design is the identification of problems and who does this.

If governments or schools have already decided what the problem is and then they seek Indigenous people to co-design a solution, this is not a co-designed process.

We have heard examples of schools doing “co-design”, which is really the school presenting the community with a range of solutions and asking for their help to implement them.

The priorities of the community may well be different to the priorities of the school. For the community, the priorities might be addressing transport barriers so students can attend school more easily. For the school, it may be improving literacy and numeracy outcomes.

These examples show why it is important Indigenous people are part of identifying problems and priorities. Building Indigenous peoples and communities’ strengths means deep listening before the process even begins.

Read more:
The budget makes glossy announcements on Indigenous education, but real change requires more than just money

2. Who really has the power?

Addressing power imbalances is an obvious ingredient to good co-design. However, governments and schools are hierarchical places that have typically not enabled Indigenous leadership in their structures.

This means good co-design builds in genuine collaboration and power sharing dynamics.

One principal we spoke to talked of the need for “distributive leadership”. This means “everybody having a voice and respecting that voice as well”.

Another Aboriginal community liaison officer told us how at their school, they

have an Aboriginal person that sits down and makes decisions with the principal […] including Elders […] basically empowering the community to have a say.

3. How involved are Indigenous peoples?

Our research so far has shown us how different people’s expectations and ideas can be about the co-design process.

Indigenous people are telling us there is an expectation mob are part of the process from the problem location to the evaluation of it’s success.

But in our systematic literature review of 15 papers on co-design in Indigenous education, only six showed evidence of Indigenous engagement from the early design phase and on.

We have also seen the importance of understanding and respecting Indigenous protocols and leadership throughout. This includes understanding traditional owners in the process.

Where co-design could take us

Co-design can encompass many ideas – already advocated over past decades – such as strengthening school and community relationships and giving Indigenous people a greater say in how schools serve their families and communities.

Our research is focused on consolidating the limited research we already have on co-design in Indigenous education and generating new, Indigenous and evidence-based understandings of co-design in schools.

The next key step is evaluation, to look at whether whether co-design is effective and to make the most of its potential to transform outcomes in education.

Read more:
What did the public say about the government’s Indigenous Voice co-design process?

Marnee Shay receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Government.

Marnee Shay is a member of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Training Advisory Committee with the Department of Education Queensland.

Grace Sarra receives funding from the
Australian Research Council

– ref. ‘Co-design’ is the latest buzzword in Indigenous education policy. Does it live up to the hype? – https://theconversation.com/co-design-is-the-latest-buzzword-in-indigenous-education-policy-does-it-live-up-to-the-hype-212194

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, The University of Melbourne

In the toughest days of the pandemic, many dual-income families made the difficult choice to drop down to one income.

With dads being the primary earners in many heterosexual households, it was often the mother who gave up her job to manage all the extra housework, homeschooling and childcare the pandemic brought.

But what about heterosexual households where the mother was the primary earner?

Our study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, involved analysis of 7,139 different-sex married parents in the United States, captured at multiple time points. We found many married mothers who earned half or more of the family’s income got knocked out of employment during the first 18 months of the pandemic.

The employment rate of fathers who earned the bulk of the money over this time dropped much less, we found. In fact, it barely changed.

Our study also found the ability to work remotely was an important lifeline for mothers to retain employment. Overall, earning more of the income couldn’t guarantee mothers would be protected from employment loss, but working remotely was crucial to mothers remaining employed.

Read more:
The ‘great resignation’ didn’t happen in Australia, but the ‘great burnout’ did

Even earning more, many mothers were knocked out of employment

To track US mothers’ employment over the duration of the pandemic, we used data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey. The data are collected by the US Census Bureau.

Our sample included civilian respondents aged 25–54 who were different-sex, married parents with children 12 years or younger. In each case, both the respondent and their spouse reported working for pay in 2019, before the pandemic started.

We used this data set to follow mothers’ and fathers’ employment patterns over the first year of the pandemic (January 2020 to May 2021).

We found fathers in this group who were primary earners tended to remain employed over this period.

The employment rate for mothers, by contrast, dropped significantly in the first few months and never fully recovered. It didn’t matter if mothers were primary earners or not – their employment rate still dropped.

In fact, by the March to May period of 2021, mothers’ employment was over four percentage points lower than pre-pandemic levels – regardless of their earnings.

So, earning more of the family income didn’t necessarily shield mothers from employment loss. What did matter, however, was access to telecommuting.

Mothers who could work online had significantly higher employment rates across the period of our study than mothers who couldn’t. Additionally, the positive effect of telecommuting on employment was four times larger for mothers than for fathers.

Telecommuting was a lifeline for mothers’ employment during the pandemic.

The pandemic-pummelled mothers

These findings build on our previous research showing US mothers’ employment was hit hard during the pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic, our previous research found nearly 250,000 more mothers than fathers exited employment from February to April 2020.

We also found in prior studies that US mothers with children aged five or under reduced their work time four to five times more than equivalent fathers.

We also showed that in-person learning in the latter part of 2020 was lower in US districts with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic students. Remote learning across the 2020–2021 school year led mothers’ but not fathers’ employment to drop, especially for those with less education and limited access to telecommuting.

And our earlier research revealed how US mothers stepped into more housework and childcare, causing sleep problems, anxiety and stress.

As we discussed these findings with researchers and the community, one question would keep coming up: isn’t all this just the consequence of fathers earning more?

Isn’t it a “rational” choice to shield fathers from job loss, rather than mothers, because men tend to be the primary earners?

Our recently published research shows that, no, this was not necessarily about who made more money in the household – it is often about who is expected to provide care when times get tough.

Many mothers got knocked out of employment even when they were the family’s highest earner.

Where to from here?

US mothers have now returned to employment at pre-pandemic levels. But we can’t ignore the fact many mothers stepped into the added care of the pandemic while also trying to maintain their work lives. Many couldn’t and employment dropped. Others experienced significant earnings losses even while remaining employed.

For those with the option to work remotely – who are largely employed in professional jobs – this benefit was and remains critical to their ability to hold onto their job. Despite this, employers are increasingly removing this lifeline and demanding a return to the workplace.

These lessons also extend to other Western nations. In Australia, for example, mothers picked up more housework and childcare at the expense of their health and wellbeing (as did fathers). Australian workers want remote work to remain which has long been critical to mothers maintaining employment and to avoid burnout.

The pandemic showed care work is critical to our lives and we must support those who do it.

For married heterosexual mothers, this means acknowledging the tolls of the pandemic and ensuring access for all in relevant occupations to critical resources like telecommuting.

Read more:
Yet again, the census shows women are doing more housework. Now is the time to invest in interventions

Leah Ruppanner receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Liana Christin Landivar is a senior researcher at the US Department of Labor. Views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the US Department of Labor.

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

– ref. Being the main breadwinner didn’t necessarily keep married mums in work during the pandemic – https://theconversation.com/being-the-main-breadwinner-didnt-necessarily-keep-married-mums-in-work-during-the-pandemic-210897

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate professor, Music Industry, RMIT University

Women participate in Australia’s music industries – as musicians and workers – at rates well below men. On average, women receive less airplay on Australian radio, less pay and less representation on music boards, awards and line-ups than their male counterparts.

Understanding why women might leave their music careers and what could bring them back is an important part of solving the puzzle to increase their participation.

We recently conducted a study aimed at developing strategies to help women and gender-non-conforming people in Victoria return to music work after a career break.

One key finding – unsurprisingly – was that caring responsibilities and parenthood were common reasons for women taking a break. These responsibilities then create barriers to re-establishing careers and career progression in music.

This, of course, is not unique to music work. Women take on the majority of caring work for children. It means they take longer away from their careers, and are more likely to return on a part-time basis. This leaves them at a disadvantage compared to men who have had no career interruptions.

But there are particular circumstances in the music industry that create complications and problems specific to this field, compounding the disadvantage new parents face in any workplace and compounding the issues of insecure work in music.

Read more:
Returning to work after childbirth: still a case of ‘managing it all’

Unsociable social hours

The culture of music has been built around its role in the entertainment industries. Gigs are often held late at night, and the consumption of alcohol (and possibly other drugs) is central to many music scenes.

Even music with a more conservative image, like classical, is still performed outside normal working hours.

As one person we interviewed said:

I really had to start reinventing my world because as a single mum I couldn’t do a nighttime life, I couldn’t. I couldn’t afford babysitters, and your job is to parent. So the whole nighttime scenario was – I could occasionally get out, but I couldn’t have a career with gigs and rehearsals after hours.

Even when respondents could afford childcare, they told us the hours on offer do not match with when they are needed.

This separation of music performance from “everyday life” and domesticity means industry structures, such as venues and booking agents, often overlook basic accommodations for women with caring responsibilities.

One respondent said:

Touring is really, really difficult with a child because venues often don’t provide you with accommodation or green rooms or anywhere you can change a nappy or put a child down. You have to have a carer on tour with you to make that work and women with families manage that but it’s the exception, not the rule.

Another interviewee told us they had become sick with mastitis because of a lack of places to breastfeed or express.

Irregular work puts mothers off beat

The literal gig economy of music means not having regular hours, which makes planning financially and organisationally difficult.

It’s not an office job where you know you’re working nine to five, five days a week, and those hours are set for the whole year. I mean it can be very flexible but at the same time there’s that unpredictability [which] can be really hard with arranging childcare or additional hours.

This unpredictability and informal nature mean a lack of structures protecting workers. Often working as sole traders or on short-term contracts, women have little recourse if they face discrimination because of their parenting status, if they are underpaid, or if they face harassment.

For some women, the combination of these factors means parenting and a music career are just not compatible:

There’s been times where I’ve just gone, ‘I’m just going to take a regular job where I get sick pay and holiday pay and carer’s leave, and where I can take time off to look after my kid during the school holidays, because I’m a single parent and no one else is going to do it.’ So many roles in the music industry are self-employed, and you are left flailing to try and look after yourself.

In an industry where women and gender-non-conforming people are already facing sexism, harassment and ageism, parenthood can be the final straw.

For others, seeing how hard parenting is in music might lead them to delay having children, or not have them at all.

Making music work more accessible

Music industry employers and workers offered several suggestions to improve the conditions for parents in the music industry.

The new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces may help mothers assert their rights within music workplaces.

Grant schemes should provide a way to account for care-giving, including facilitating children being taken on tour. Funding quiet infant-feeding rooms and safe, flexible and affordable childcare options would send the message women with children are valued.

Participants told us they needed employers to be more understanding about career gaps and to provide paid parental leave beyond government requirements.

Working to change the culture of the music industry so women with children are not treated as a novelty would help retain the talent of many who struggle to balance caring and music work.

Read more:
Pay, safety and welfare: how the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector

Community is key

Our key takeaways were about the importance of personal relationships.

Participants told us rebuilding connections and networks in the music industry after a career break – or maintaining them during the break – was central to being able to restart careers.

Networks are fundamental to building strong music careers. For women trying to shape careers around the constraints of motherhood, having people who had been, or were in, the same situation made them feel supported and gave them creative ideas about how to solve problems. Formal and informal mentorships were highly valued.

People in our study had formed connections with one another and were resolved to develop their careers. But opportunities for building bridges back into the music industry are still constrained.

Ongoing activism, community-building and initiatives focused on bringing parents (and others who take career breaks) back into music work are essential for diverse and thriving music cities.

Catherine Strong received funding from the National Careers Institute for this study.

Fabian Cannizzo received funding from the National Careers Institue for this study.

Shelley Brunt received funding from the National Careers Institute for this study.

– ref. ‘You are left flailing to try and look after yourself’: the music industry still constrains mothers’ careers – https://theconversation.com/you-are-left-flailing-to-try-and-look-after-yourself-the-music-industry-still-constrains-mothers-careers-210978

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dylan Bird, PhD candidate, University of Tasmania

“We’re here because this moment demands an explanation.”

So begins the first ever episode of New York Times’ The Daily podcast, delivered by host Michael Barbaro in his now famous style. It arrived on Wednesday February 1, 2017 – less than a fortnight after Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States.

By the end of Trump’s term, it was wildly popular, reportedly attracting some four million daily downloads and referred to as the newspaper’s “new front page”.

The Daily’s success inspired many other news outlets to develop podcasts, including in Australia, with the likes of ABC’s The Signal (since replaced by ABC News Daily), Schwartz Media’s 7am, and Guardian Australia’s Full Story launching from 2018.

According to 2023 data from The Infinite Dial – which tracks digital media use internationally – Australia has now surpassed the US to be a world leader in podcast listening, with 43% of the population aged 12 and over having listened to a podcast in the past month.

Australia also has the third highest rate of news podcast listening, behind the US and Sweden, with 14% of news consumers listening to news podcasts in the past month.

Despite these trends, there’s been limited research on news podcast listening in Australia. My recent research, published in June, found news podcast listeners in Australia tend to be politically left-leaning, wealthier, and more highly educated than average.

I also found they tend to be politically active, and value news podcasts for enabling them to better participate in democratic life.

Interestingly, listeners didn’t appear to trust podcasts more than other forms of news in general, with 61.1% reporting “the same” level of trust. However, they reported a high level of trust in news they choose to consume.

The rise of news podcasts happened amid a volatile political climate. In 2023, as Trump prepares for another run for president, and with a political storm brewing in Australia as we approach a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament, there are good reasons to consider the role this podcast genre plays in democracy.

Read more:
Michelle Obama, podcast host: how podcasting became a multi-billion dollar industry

From radio to podcast news

Radio news developed slowly following the invention of mass broadcasting in the early 1920s. It began with announcers reading press agency reports on air, giving rise to an authoritative and detached presenting style, reflecting the journalistic value of objectivity. While formats have differed, this has characterised radio news for much of its history.

Podcasting emerged in the early 2000s out of the disruption caused by the internet, and particularly the ability of users to generate and share content.

The lack of time constraints compared to radio meant podcast episodes could go for any length. And because they could be downloaded, listeners could engage with content in their own time, on their own terms.

Slate’s Political Gabfest (2005-) was one of the first “native” podcasts – that is, produced specially for digital consumption – exploring news and politics. But it wasn’t until 2014, with podcasting’s breakout moment in true-crime sensation Serial, that news podcasts began to take off.

The Daily grew out of the New York Times’ election podcast The Run-Up. It pioneered the format known as the “daily deep dive” – defined by the Reuters Institute as “heavily produced using sound design and narrative storytelling techniques”.

Many news podcasts since have similarly deployed narrative storytelling and immersive sound design to explore issues in the news. This has been championed as offering a more “human” approach to the news, featuring personal presenting styles and the harnessing of emotion.

Media fragmentation and politics

Reuters’ 2023 Digital News Report notes how in the podcasting sphere “news jostles for attention with lifestyle and specialist shows”. This may explain the degree of ambivalence around trust in news podcasts, with a wide variety of offerings categorised as “news” in podcast players such as Apple Podcasts.

Podcasting is difficult to regulate, and there’s a risk of the medium being used to spread dangerous messages, as has happened across social media generally.

Read more:
Misinformation is rife and causing deeper polarisation – here’s how social media users can help curb it

In his new book, Bruce Wolpe, Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre, considers what a second Trump presidency would mean for Australia. He notes the corrosive influence of Trump and his Fox News acolytes on public trust, and warns that Australia should prepare for an emboldening of the populist right-wing sentiment that accompanied his rise on the political scene.

In the face of this, independent and rigorous journalism, supported by a well-funded ABC, has an important role to play.

As my study highlights, it’s important to acknowledge news podcast listeners tend to be from the higher social classes. There’s an impetus, then, to ensure coverage includes the perspectives of those who might not otherwise be well represented across the media sphere.

This has particular importance in relation to issues like the upcoming referendum, with a risk of it being used to fan the flames of culture wars.

Read more:
Who is Joe Rogan, and why does Spotify love him so much?

At their best, news podcasts can engage us meaningfully in important issues, transporting us to unexpected places and highlighting the human impact at the heart of news stories, supported by facts and informed analysis.

With Australians among the most active news podcast listeners globally, there’s reason to have hope they can play a productive role in helping us navigate politically uncertain times.

Dylan Bird receives funding through an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

– ref. Australia tops the world for podcast listening. Why do we love them so much? – https://theconversation.com/australia-tops-the-world-for-podcast-listening-why-do-we-love-them-so-much-208937

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mahya Tavan, Postdoctoral research fellow – Sustainable Nutrition Initiative, Massey University

Iron deficiency is one of the most common forms of nutrient deficiency around the world.

Severe iron deficiency, also known as anaemia, affects nearly 50% of women of reproductive age in regions like South Asia, Central Africa and West Africa (in contrast to 16% of women in high-income countries).

In New Zealand, 10.6% of women aged 15-18 and 12.1% of women aged 31-50 suffer from iron deficiency. The risk increases during the third trimester of pregnancy, and the iron status must be carefully monitored to ensure good health for both the mother and baby.

As more people consider switching to plant-based diets, the risk of iron deficiency will likely increase.

Our modelling of nutrient availability in current and future global food systems also suggests we can expect a gap in dietary iron by 2040 if global patterns of food production and supply remain unchanged.

This means we’ll have to address iron shortfalls in our diet, especially in populations with higher requirements such as adolescents and women. We argue that fortifying foods with iron could provide a one-stop solution to bridge nutrient gaps caused by inadequate dietary intake.

Read more:
Low iron is a health risk made worse by COVID. How to get more without reaching for supplements

Food fortification

Many foods in supermarket shelves, including common staples such as bread and cereals, already have added nutrients.

Unlike mandatory iodine and folic acid fortification of bread, there is currently no government initiative to encourage or mandate iron fortification in New Zealand.

Since iron-fortification strategies have the potential to prevent deficiencies in many countries, including New Zealand, we argue that introducing iron to our foods may be a convenient and cost-effective way to provide a source of dietary iron.

Shift to plant-based diets

More consumers are opting for diets that include fewer animal-sourced foods in the hope of reducing environmental impacts and emissions. Recent statistics show a 19% increase in the adoption of vegan and vegetarian diets among New Zealanders from 2018 to 2021.

Considering these plant-based diets for a sustainable food system must involve conversations about nutrient availability. Plant foods often contain high amounts of fibre and phytates, which reduce the body’s capacity to absorb the iron.

Iron in plant foods such as whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and leafy greens is known as non-heme and is less readily absorbed than heme iron in animal-sourced foods. In a mixed diet, consisting of vegetables, grains and animal-sourced foods, the consumption of some red meat, fish or poultry facilitates non-heme iron absorption.

Read more:
What to drink with dinner to get the most iron from your food (and what to avoid)

Fortification can be a potent strategy in helping people to shift towards plant-based diets by enriching these diets with nutrients that would otherwise be lacking.

A recent study investigating this potential revealed that fortifying foods with essential micronutrients, including iron, enables a more gradual dietary adjustment. Consumers wishing to adopt more plant-based diets without compromising nutrient adequacy may find this approach helpful.

However, there’s a caveat. These iron-fortified foods often contain wheat or cereal-based ingredients, which can act as iron absorption inhibitors. As these are common breakfast foods that may be consumed with a morning coffee or tea, the inhibition effect may be even stronger due to the presence of phenolic compounds in these beverages.

One solution could be to eat iron-rich plant foods with foods high in vitamin C, such as orange juice, which helps to convert iron to a more absorbable form.

Is NZ ready for iron-fortified foods?

Although fortified foods can offer great benefits in tackling iron deficiency, some consumers are hesitant to include these foods in their diets.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), a government entity responsible for developing food regulations for both nations, found many consumers had second thoughts about reaching for fortified foods, viewing them as unnatural, processed and less healthy.

This hesitancy was particularly evident when it came to non-mandatory fortifications. Added vitamins and minerals in breakfast cereals or, more recently, in plant-based milks and meat alternatives, are examples of non-mandatory or “voluntary fortification”. Consumers often perceive this as a marketing tactic rather than a health-promoting intervention.

Given the importance of adequate dietary iron intake and the projected shortage in dietary iron, it is crucial to evaluate the benefits of fortification. Educational interventions such as promoting awareness of iron deficiency and positive impacts of fortification may help improve consumers’ acceptance of these initiatives.

Mahya Tavan receives funding from the Global Dairy Platform for developing a dietary optimisation model called The iOTA Model.

Bi Xue Patricia Soh 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. Future diets will be short of micronutrients like iron — it’s time to consider how we feed people – https://theconversation.com/future-diets-will-be-short-of-micronutrients-like-iron-its-time-to-consider-how-we-feed-people-212355

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mahya Tavan, Postdoctoral research fellow – Sustainable Nutrition Initiative, Massey University

Iron deficiency is one of the most common forms of nutrient deficiency around the world.

Severe iron deficiency, also known as anaemia, affects nearly 50% of women of reproductive age in regions like South Asia, Central Africa and West Africa (in contrast to 16% of women in high-income countries).

In New Zealand, 10.6% of women aged 15-18 and 12.1% of women aged 31-50 suffer from iron deficiency. The risk increases during the third trimester of pregnancy, and the iron status must be carefully monitored to ensure good health for both the mother and baby.

As more people consider switching to plant-based diets, the risk of iron deficiency will likely increase.

Our modelling of nutrient availability in current and future global food systems also suggests we can expect a gap in dietary iron by 2040 if global patterns of food production and supply remain unchanged.

This means we’ll have to address iron shortfalls in our diet, especially in populations with higher requirements such as adolescents and women. We argue that fortifying foods with iron could provide a one-stop solution to bridge nutrient gaps caused by inadequate dietary intake.

Read more:
Low iron is a health risk made worse by COVID. How to get more without reaching for supplements

Food fortification

Many foods in supermarket shelves, including common staples such as bread and cereals, already have added nutrients.

Unlike mandatory iodine and folic acid fortification of bread, there is currently no government initiative to encourage or mandate iron fortification in New Zealand.

Since iron-fortification strategies have the potential to prevent deficiencies in many countries, including New Zealand, we argue that introducing iron to our foods may be a convenient and cost-effective way to provide a source of dietary iron.

Shift to plant-based diets

More consumers are opting for diets that include fewer animal-sourced foods in the hope of reducing environmental impacts and emissions. Recent statistics show a 19% increase in the adoption of vegan and vegetarian diets among New Zealanders from 2018 to 2021.

Considering these plant-based diets for a sustainable food system must involve conversations about nutrient availability. Plant foods often contain high amounts of fibre and phytates, which reduce the body’s capacity to absorb the iron.

Iron in plant foods such as whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and leafy greens is known as non-heme and is less readily absorbed than heme iron in animal-sourced foods. In a mixed diet, consisting of vegetables, grains and animal-sourced foods, the consumption of some red meat, fish or poultry facilitates non-heme iron absorption.

Read more:
What to drink with dinner to get the most iron from your food (and what to avoid)

Fortification can be a potent strategy in helping people to shift towards plant-based diets by enriching these diets with nutrients that would otherwise be lacking.

A recent study investigating this potential revealed that fortifying foods with essential micronutrients, including iron, enables a more gradual dietary adjustment. Consumers wishing to adopt more plant-based diets without compromising nutrient adequacy may find this approach helpful.

However, there’s a caveat. These iron-fortified foods often contain wheat or cereal-based ingredients, which can act as iron absorption inhibitors. As these are common breakfast foods that may be consumed with a morning coffee or tea, the inhibition effect may be even stronger due to the presence of phenolic compounds in these beverages.

One solution could be to eat iron-rich plant foods with foods high in vitamin C, such as orange juice, which helps to convert iron to a more absorbable form.

Is NZ ready for iron-fortified foods?

Although fortified foods can offer great benefits in tackling iron deficiency, some consumers are hesitant to include these foods in their diets.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), a government entity responsible for developing food regulations for both nations, found many consumers had second thoughts about reaching for fortified foods, viewing them as unnatural, processed and less healthy.

This hesitancy was particularly evident when it came to non-mandatory fortifications. Added vitamins and minerals in breakfast cereals or, more recently, in plant-based milks and meat alternatives, are examples of non-mandatory or “voluntary fortification”. Consumers often perceive this as a marketing tactic rather than a health-promoting intervention.

Given the importance of adequate dietary iron intake and the projected shortage in dietary iron, it is crucial to evaluate the benefits of fortification. Educational interventions such as promoting awareness of iron deficiency and positive impacts of fortification may help improve consumers’ acceptance of these initiatives.

Mahya Tavan receives funding from the Global Dairy Platform for developing a dietary optimisation model called The iOTA Model.

Bi Xue Patricia Soh 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. Our modelling suggests future diets will be short of micronutrients like iron — it’s time to consider how we feed people – https://theconversation.com/our-modelling-suggests-future-diets-will-be-short-of-micronutrients-like-iron-its-time-to-consider-how-we-feed-people-212355