Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gil Davis, Associate Professor and Director, Ancient Israel Program, Australian Catholic University

This article is part of a series explaining how readers can learn the skills to take part in activities that academics love doing as part of their work.

A few more brushstrokes and the student gasped with excitement. There in the dirt was a small, bronze statue of a calf, revealed for the first time in 3,000 years. The discovery could have been yours! In this article, I dip into the many opportunities for you to take part in an archaeological dig both locally and abroad.

Places on these digs are not confined to university students. There are opportunities for you to become involved in the fascinating world of archaeology both locally and abroad. You can make a useful contribution in many ways and have enormous fun doing it.

What is archaeology?

Archaeologists in popular imagination are like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft seeking powerful lost artefacts and unimaginable wealth. You don’t need me to tell you this is the stuff of fantasy. Gone too are the days (hopefully!) when real archaeologists just wanted to find palaces and temples and significant objects to stuff in museums.

The reality is more absorbing and less dangerous. The questions that interest us nowadays involve understanding how people lived and interacted with their landscape. What did they eat, drink, wear and believe, and what tools and technologies did they use? This comes under the rubric of “material culture”.

Read more:
Why archaeology is so much more than just digging

Excavation is the essential part, but it is destructive. We excavate the minimum area possible to answer specific research questions. We leave the remainder for future archaeologists with different questions and even better technologies.

Uncovering architectural remains and artefacts is vital, but only if we can interpret the finds. To do so, we need to employ a wide range of specialisations, many of them scientific.

To take a case in point, a team in Israel was excavating the site of Ramat Rachel, which was the administrative centre of the Persians just outside Jerusalem. It was complete with a palace and pleasure gardens traditionally kept by Eastern potentates – think the Garden of Eden full of exotic species. No plants have survived from 2,500 years ago, of course, but the walls in the garden were plastered annually, and in the plaster was microscopic evidence of pollens and phytoliths (the mineralised remains). Bingo!

How does a dig work?

A typical dig in the Middle East, Europe and the United Kingdom will start with a survey to identify what is likely to be found and the most promising areas to excavate. This includes plotting surface finds.

Just as sultanas in a cake mix will come to the surface, ubiquitous broken sherds of pottery litter the ground. Diagnostic elements can be identified, giving a snapshot of what lies beneath. Geophysical surveying reveals the outline of subterranean structures.

The dig director(s) then decides where to dig in 5m-by-5m squares. Each square has a supervisor and a few people to help dig and record the finds.

What you can do (and why you will learn to hate buckets)

Those squares don’t dig themselves. First you get down to the levels of interest by removing all the topsoil. It’s usually filled with tree roots and rocks. Mattocks, spades and an endless supply of buckets are the go.

This is where (your?) labour comes in. Most digs need volunteers to do the hard yakka. The dig supplies the equipment, training and supervision; the volunteers do the work.

Soon the team reaches the levels of interest. The work becomes more careful, turning to trowels and brushes. The volunteers become adept at identifying and recording finds and levels.

Fit people don’t need a gym on a dig. Others less physically able will contribute to light duties, logistics, recording and preparing meals.

A dig draws on a wide range of expertise including geophysics, surveying, photography, computing, pottery, lithics, biology, zoology, archaeometallurgy, chemistry and isotopic analysis. There is always call for volunteers able to offer specialised skills. People with medical and allied health training are especially welcome, as are people who can speak a local language.

Australian sites are handled differently as they mostly deal with understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander use of land and historical (post-European settlement) sites. Research questions are usually linked to cultural heritage management.

The way the sites present does not lend itself to excavating in squares and is more to do with plotting surface finds such as campsites spread out over a wide area. Nonetheless, volunteers are usually welcome and specialised skills and knowledge are prized.

Read more:
Cave dig shows the earliest Australians enjoyed a coastal lifestyle

How to volunteer

Be mentally prepared. It’s tough work in the dirt with long hours and very basic, shared accommodation. Hats and sunscreen are essential – but not whips. Usually, you pay for the privilege of participating, though the dig will supply your accommodation, food and transport.

There are endless opportunities to volunteer but finding them takes a bit of sleuthing on the net. Some countries provide a contact point.

For digs in Israel, which is where we dig at Australian Catholic University, contact the Israel Antiquities Authority. Field schools are ideal, such as these ones in Menorca (Spain), Ireland and Bulgaria. The Archaeological Institute of America lists many opportunities.

For digs in Australia, it is best to inquire at the universities that offer archaeology to find out which digs they are doing and whether they accept volunteers.

Finally, if you’re serious about becoming an archaeologist, especially if you are studying it, many organisations place volunteers. Here’s a guide courtesy of the Australian Archaeological Association.

Read more:
Down and dirty: what volunteers bring to archaeological digs

Why do it?

A dig offers a unique experience. Volunteer archaeologists know they’re doing something worthwhile. You challenge yourself in many ways, work in a team and create amazing friendships with like-minded people.

As you gain experience, you become more valuable. You could then be employed as a supervisor and not have to pay.

Many volunteers become archaeology junkies who can’t wait to spend their next holiday digging up the dirt.

You can read other articles in this series here.

Gil Davis 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. Volunteer on a dig for the thrill of digging up the past (you’ll also learn to hate buckets) – https://theconversation.com/volunteer-on-a-dig-for-the-thrill-of-digging-up-the-past-youll-also-learn-to-hate-buckets-171214

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

The Morrison government has claimed it has delivered on its commitment to co-design an Indigenous Voice, but the parliamentary term will end without any such Voice being legislated or in place.

This is despite the Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt saying more than a year ago it was his “aspiration” to have legislation passed this term.

Instead Wyatt, in a statement on Friday, said the government had “delivered” with the release of the Indigenous Voice Co-Design Process Final Report to the Australian Government, which sets out the proposed model.

This report, which the government has had since July, will be the basis for further consultations to set up local and regional Voices.

The report, produced by an advisory group chaired by Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, following extensive consultations with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, has recommended a structure of local and regional Voices and a national Voice.

It said the local and regional Voices should be established immediately, with the national Voice either following or being set up as an interim body while the local and regional Voices form.

The national Voice would advise the parliament and the government on matters of significance to Indigenous people, engaging with the different stages of the development of laws and policies, the report said.

At this point there is no movement on the national Voice, with the government concentrating on the lower levels.

“It is important to get this right,” Wyatt said. “For the Indigenous Voice to work, it must have a strong foundation from the ground up. That’s why we are taking the next step and starting with the Local and Regional Voice, as per the process in the report.”

Scott Morrison told reporters: “This is about listening to local Indigenous communities and that’s where the Voice must start. It doesn’t start with grandiose gestures, it doesn’t start with big political speeches, it starts on the ground pulling together local Indigenous communities and listening carefully to them so we can get service delivery right.

“It’s about closing the gap. I’m about closing the gap, not setting up political edifices. I’m interested in hearing what’s happening on the ground.”

Wyatt said the government would

• begin discussions with states, territories and local governments to encourage their participation in local and regional Voice arrangements

• appoint an “establishment group” to work with government to form the proposed 35 local and regional Voice bodies

• engage with stakeholders to progress the local and regional Voice.

Wyatt will begin discussions with other jurisdictions next month.

The push for an Indigenous Voice followed the Uluru Statement from the Heart, at a 2017 convention of Indigenous people.

The Uluru statement called for “the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution”.

The government has rejected putting the Voice into the constitution.

The advisory group did not recommend this – it was not part of its terms of reference – but did say the government should “note the support for the enshrinement of the Indigenous Voice in the Constitution that was expressed particularly through the submissions received as part of the consultative process”.

Labor has said it would seek to have the Voice enshrined in the constitution.

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, said the government had “promised A Voice to Parliament in this term.

“Today, they’ve announced they’ve failed on that promise.

“The only thing the government has managed to achieve is more delays and more processes. What the government is proposing gives the Voice no security. They even banned their co-design committee from speaking about constitutional recognition,” she said.

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. There’ll be a lot more talk before we hear the Indigenous Voice – https://theconversation.com/therell-be-a-lot-more-talk-before-we-hear-the-indigenous-voice-173993

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

Thursday’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook reminds us of some uncomfortable truths.

In the short term, MYEFO forecasts the economy bouncing back, with deficits shrinking, unemployment falling, and growth rebounding.

But that will largely play out in the next financial year, 2022-23.

Beyond that, the forecasts have us returning to the relatively low-growth economy we endured before COVID.

Read more:
Frydenberg’s MYEFO Budget update shows big election war chest

Economic growth is forecast to be 3.25% in this financial year, back briefly in the 3-4% range we used to regard as normal.

Next financial year it is forecast to remain high at 3.25% before falling back to 2.25% and then 2.5%, well within the historically low territory it occupied before COVID.

Annual financial year GDP growth, actual and forecast

Unemployment, which is forecast to fall to an impressively low 4.25% by mid-2023, is forecast stay there in the following forecast years, improving no further.

The broader takeaway is that not only did the government do the right thing by providing massive financial support during the pandemic – some A$337 billion of it – it is continuing to do the right thing by not prematurely withdrawing it.

The ongoing (if significantly smaller) budget deficits in coming years are a testament to the lesson learnt about the importance of spending to get economic growth up, and unemployment down.

Perhaps the most uncertain forecast is for wages. Growth in the wage price index is forecast to increase from 2.25% this year to 2.75% in 2022-23 and then on to 3.0% and 3.25% in the follow years.

Sluggish wages growth has been a persistent problem in advanced economies since the 2008 financial crisis. In the US, wages didn’t really get moving again until unemployment dropped to near 3%.

Perhaps an analogous thing will happen in Australia, or perhaps it might require a terminating unemployment rate lower than the forecast 4.25%.

We need an economic engine

Of course, economic and employment growth don’t just happen. They are driven, in no small part, by business investment.

As the following chart shows, this is forecast to bounce back strongly after a big drop during the pandemic. In part this simply reflects that kind of catch-up, but it also follows from an increase in business confidence.

Non-mining business investment, expected to grow 1.5% this financial year at budget time, is now expected to climb 8.5%.

What is now absolutely beyond doubt is that confidence is fragile, and depends on support from the government.

The old days of the 1980s, when it was seriously argued that government spending “crowds out” or frightens away rugged capitalists, are long behind us.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s MYEFO statement makes clear there will be no return to austerity, no return (probably ever) to getting back in the black for its own sake.

The massive financial force used during the pandemic worked.

Government has to keep doing the heavy lifting

In due course the budget will need to return to something closer to balance. But there is no case whatsoever for a sharp U-turn – not one that Frydenberg and Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy would countenance.

Team Frydenberg-Kennedy have prevailed over the Coalition budget hawks.

There are plenty on both the Coalition front and backbenches who still think the Liberal Party is the party of thrift. If that was ever true or sensible, it isn’t now.

Read more:
$16 billion of the MYEFO budget update is ‘decisions taken but not yet announced’. Why budget for the unannounced?

One might think that Herbert Hoover’s disastrous austerity in the United States in the early 1930s proved the folly of that approach. Or the UK’s version following the 2008 financial crisis.

But, in any case, the dominant forces in the Coalition seem to have learnt their economic lesson. As they say in the classics: “however you get there…”

Richard Holden is President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

– ref. Vital Signs. No return to austerity as Team Frydenberg prevails over the budget hawks – https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-no-return-to-austerity-as-team-frydenberg-prevails-over-the-budget-hawks-173902

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

In her last podcast for the year, Michelle Grattan speaks with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg about the mid-year budget update, his optimism about the economy, and the election.

Although Scott Morrison has the option of a March poll, Frydenberg says he is working on the assumption he’ll deliver a budget on March 29, which would put the election in May.

Frydenberg says he’ll be “spending my Christmas period doing other than eating turkey and having a quiet beer on the balcony and looking at the beach in Lorne. I will be thinking about the budget, thinking about next year’s election and hoping to frame the contest about economic management.”

He admits that with the pandemic “there’s a lot of uncertainty out there.” But he stresses that the “one message I want to give to all your listeners today is there is no complacency. We’re not out of this thing yet.”

Frydenberg says he is still “very confident about the economy going forward”, with plenty of spending power to help it along.

“We have this wave of money that’s been accumulated by households and businesses because the restrictions meant that they couldn’t spend it and they will in time.”

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. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Josh Frydenberg ‘thinking about the budget’ over Christmas – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-josh-frydenberg-thinking-about-the-budget-over-christmas-173994

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristen Lyons, Professor Environment and Development Sociology, The University of Queensland

Universities are among the many institutions that sustain settler colonialism in Australia. The public university system was, and continues, to be part of the state’s investment in its own future.

Universities emerged in Australia during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries against a backdrop of frontier violence and dispossession of First Nations’ lands, labour and relationships. While nature was privatised and commodified, universities grew in scale and influence. Knowledge hierarchies that perpetuate racial, class and gender divides were normalised.

Read more:
Five shifts to decolonise ecological science – or any field of knowledge

Our new book, Transforming Universities in the Midst of Global Crisis: A University for the Common Good, scrutinises the role of universities today. We argue these institutions, and indeed the entire higher education sector, must be considered as not only in crisis – though they clearly are – but also as drivers of crisis.

Universities have become fully integrated into the neoliberal economy. They fixate on vocational “job-ready” curriculums and commercial research agendas. They enable industries built on extracting natural resources and thereby support endless economic growth.

The problems arising from this system are destructive and life-threatening. Climate chaos, biodiversity destruction, the COVID-19 pandemic, the democracy recession and deepening socio-economic inequalities have reshaped our very ways of relating, being and knowing.

Transforming universities therefore demands we seek out ideas, practices and values beyond the university’s walls. Only then will universities be capable of responding to interconnected ecological, health and social challenges.

Drawing from case studies and examples around the world, we show how this transformation is possible – and, indeed, already under way.

Read more:
After coronavirus, universities must collaborate with communities to support social transition

Crisis as a catalyst for change

In the 21st century, multiple mega-crises have ravaged ecological systems, human lives and livelihoods.

A small but powerful lobby of political interests continues to deny, downplay or divert attention from such problems. Yet turning to face these challenges may shed light on solutions.

US scholar Lauren Berlant suggested:

At some crisis times like this one politics is defined by a collectively held sense that a glitch has appeared in the reproduction of life […] A glitch is also the revelation of an infrastructural failure.“

But glitches can – and must – provide the impetus to bring alternative worlds into being. For universities, the challenge now is to situate human relations and responsibilities in the web of life on Earth.

The Ecoversities Alliance, for example, is working for a change of ecological consciousness. This involves a shift away from the pursuit of private interest and towards ecological integrity and the common good. The goal is to orient universities towards “service of our diverse ecologies, cultures, economies, spiritualities and life within our planetary home”.

Another challenge is to decolonise universities. The Dechinta Bush University in the Northwest Territories in Canada provides an exemplar. The university has embraced Indigenous land-based practices and values. In this context, Indigenous pedagogies and practices refuse the colonial enclosures of traditional “education-based” institutions.

In countless other ways, in Australia and elsewhere, Indigenous scholars, educators and activists are leading decolonising, anti-racist and ecological governance agendas.

Read more:
How a university can embed Indigenous knowledge into the curriculum and why it matters

What will it take to transform universities?

Universities, of course, cannot be transformed in isolation from the wider world. Change must engage with the values, practices and leadership of progressive movements. Examples include Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and movements for Indigenous sovereignty and treaty.

Our book documents the possibilities for radically transforming the political and economic structures that universities are built on and continue to uphold. The change agenda needs to be bold, not piecemeal. We showcase activities and interventions that move beyond superficial reformism to more radical possibilities for change.

Among many other things, we call for:

• more democratic university governance

• a return to the idea of the public university (as set out in state and territory legislation)

• decoupling from market-oriented extractivist ideas of growth

• resistance to “job-ready” graduate tropes

• genuine and inclusive communities of learning

• centring Indigenous rights and knowledges in curriculums and research agendas

• fostering cultures of appreciation, generosity and collaboration as opposed to competition, individualism and hierarchy.

Read more:
Honouring Te Tiriti means ‘getting into the stream together’ — so this vice-chancellor has become a student again

Working for a just and resilient future

These transformations are urgent if universities are to be relevant to meeting the challenges of the 21st century. A university for the common good could enable human society to connect with more-than-human communities and operate within the limits of nature. By ensuring accountability to all communities, human and more-than-human, such a university could build more sustainable and just worlds.

Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti and colleagues from the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective assert that only through the decay of the modern university will regeneration be possible. If so, the challenge for those committed to the future of the university is to ensure that, through its dwindling, a new regenerative approach – within and beyond its walls – flourishes.

Kristen Lyons is an Australian Greens member.

Richard Hil is a member of The Australian Greens; coordinator of Critical Conversations (NFP discussion forum); volunteer with Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre; co-leader of research circle, Resilient Byron; member of Academies for the Public University.

Fern Thompsett 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. Amid global crisis, how can universities be regenerated to serve the common good? – https://theconversation.com/amid-global-crisis-how-can-universities-be-regenerated-to-serve-the-common-good-172495

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

With Christmas around the corner and COVID-19 case numbers rising, it’s important to keep getting tested when you have symptoms, have been exposed to the virus, or are going to a high-risk environment.

Now we have access to PCR tests (known as RT-PCR, or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, tests) and rapid antigen tests to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.

So which test should you use? And what’s the difference?

Read more:
Taking your first rapid antigen test? 7 tips for an accurate result

How the tests work

In Australia, PCR tests are used to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infections. This test looks for SARS-CoV-2 genetic material.

RT-PCR converts viral RNA to DNA and amplifies the genetic sequence, making billions of copies, to a point where these copies can be detected.

Because the test can amplify tiny amounts of viral genetic material, it’s considered the gold standard and can detect infection in earlier stages than other tests like rapid antigen tests.

Rapid antigen tests instead detect viral proteins. The proteins bind in the solution to antibodies that become fluorescent to indicate the presence of the proteins.

Rapid antigen tests are:

• quicker than PCR tests (15-20 minutes versus hours to days to get a result)

• can be done in the home compared to having to line up and wait for a swab, which then has to be analysed in a laboratory.

But they’re less sensitive than a PCR test because there is no amplification process.

How effective are they?

While both tests are more likely to correctly detect an infection when the person’s viral load is high, PCR tests are more sensitive than rapid antigen tests.

An Australian study comparing the sensitivity (correctly diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection when you have it) of one type of rapid antigen test compared to a PCR test, found 77% of positive antigen test results aligned with PCR test results.

This rose to 100% when people were tested within a week of the onset of symptoms.

Read more:
Rapid antigen testing isn’t perfect. But it could be a useful part of Australia’s COVID response

The Therapeutic Goods Administration provides a list of approved rapid antigen tests, which have results that align with PCR test 80-95% of the time, provided the test is done within a week of symptom onset. Some of these tests are rated as very high sensitivity, with 95% agreement with PCR tests.

Which test to take when?

Take a RT-PCR test if you:

• have COVID symptoms

• have a known exposure to someone with COVID

• do a rapid antigen test and get a positive result, because PCR confirmation is required

• are required to by your health department to be released from quarantine or isolation

• are required to by a health department to get permission to travel to a location.

A PCR is the test of choice in these situations because it is more accurate at diagnosing an infection.

Consider a rapid antigen test if you:

• are planning to visit a sensitive site (for example, an aged care facility)

• are planning to have contact with someone at high risk from COVID (for example, an elderly person or someone on immunosuppressive treatment), and you want to protect them

• have COVID symptoms but can’t get to a PCR testing site

• are going to an event where lots of people will be mixing, particularly if it’s being held indoors where the risk of transmission is considerably higher

• want to quickly check whether you might have a SARS-CoV-2 infection

• are part of a regular COVID surveillance program (some workplaces require it, particularly in situations where the person is not fully vaccinated).

Read more:
Planning a Christmas get-together? 8 tips to avoid a super-spreader event

The rapid antigen test is considered to be a screening tool. In other words, it can indicate that you might be infected, but a PCR test is needed to confirm the result.

While a negative rapid antigen test result is not a guarantee that you aren’t infected, it does provide more protection for your contacts than not testing.

How often should I take a rapid antigen test?

It depends on the reason you are taking the test. If you’re part of a surveillance program, take the test when you are asked to.

If you don’t have symptoms, taking the test two to three times over a week can help improve test sensitivity because viral load waxes and wanes. Test sensitivity will be highest when the viral load is at its peak.

How does the Omicron variant affect testing?

The highly mutated Omicron variant appears to still be detected by both PCR and rapid antigen tests.

Ordinarily, a PCR test indicates whether or not you have a SARS-COV-2 infection but not which variant you have. Genome sequencing is needed to find that out.

However, some PCR tests look for a specific genetic sequence that is missing in the Omicron variant (called S gene target failure). Those particular PCR tests can not only detect a positive result but also whether it’s likely to be the Omicron variant.

Read more:
Omicron FAQ: How is it different from other variants? Is it a ‘super-variant?’ Can it evade vaccines? How transmissible is it?

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

– ref. When is it OK to take a rapid antigen test for COVID rather than lining up for a PCR swab? – https://theconversation.com/when-is-it-ok-to-take-a-rapid-antigen-test-for-covid-rather-than-lining-up-for-a-pcr-swab-173487

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Laird, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Wollongong

In recent years, the Victoria and New South Wales governments have both unveiled strategies to move more freight across the country by rail and ease the increasing pressure of goods moving through the two largest container ports.

The reality is, however, the numbers of containers coming and going by rail to the Port of Melbourne and Sydney’s Port Botany have been going backwards.

More massive trucks on Victoria’s highways

The Port of Melbourne moves more containers than any other port in Australia. In 2020-21, 3.3 million containers passed through the port, a 30% increase from ten years ago.

Over this time, the percentage of containers moving by rail has fallen, reaching a low of 6.1% in 2020-21. This has meant the number of trucks going to and from the Port of Melbourne has significantly increased.

Read more:
Trucks are destroying our roads and not picking up the repair cost

This has been assisted by improvements to the state’s roads and bridges. But the Victoria government also in mid-2021 approved large “A Double” trucks being able to access the Port of Melbourne. These trucks can carry two 12-metre containers and be up to 36 metres long – much longer than the standard semitrailer at 19 metres.

Large numbers of trucks accessing the ports not only add to road construction and maintenance bills, they also make our roads less safe and more congested, and add to noise and air pollution.

The recently released report into the health effects of air pollution in Victoria notes the city of Maribyrnong has some of Australia’s highest levels of diesel pollution. This is mostly due to the number of trucks accessing the Port of Melbourne each day.

The report also notes the transport sector is accountable for 20% of Victoria’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2018, Victoria introduced a new freight plan that included initiatives to move more goods from the port by rail. One of these projects was the Port Rail Shuttle Network, a $28 million investment to connect the freight terminal in South Dandenong to the rail network. This is now underway.

Increasing the amount of freight moving by rail will not only make our roads safer and reduce maintenance costs, it makes environmental sense – rail freight produces one-third the emissions of road freight.

However, rail freight in Victoria is crippled by two different track gauges and tracks with too many temporary and permanent speed restrictions. Without greater investment to improve the rail system, it remains a less feasible option than moving freight on massive trucks on our roads.

Read more:
Transport is letting Australia down in the race to cut emissions

Sydney’s situation is not much better

A recent NSW auditor-general report said the volume of freight passing through Greater Sydney is expected to increase by 48% by 2036.

In 2020-21, 2.7 million containers moved through Port Botany. The NSW government had planned to increase the number of containers moving by rail from the port to 28% by 2021. However, the auditor-general report said this effort would fall short. Just 16% is currently carried by rail.

This means more trucks on the roads in NSW, as well. The NSW government has also recently given permission for “A Double” trucks to access Port Botany.

The auditor-general report made recommendations on how NSW Transport could improve the operation of the state’s rail network to allow for more rail freight. It noted, for example, 54 trucks could be replaced by one 600-metre-long port shuttle freight train.

Rail moving less intercity freight

The rail network between Australia’s two largest cities is outdated and under-utilised. In fact, the proportion of freight moving between Melbourne and Sydney on rail has fallen to about 1% today. In 1970, it was about 40%.

This is, in part, due to the total reconstruction of the Hume Highway from a basic two-lane road to a modern dual carriageway, completed in 2013. There are now over 20 million tonnes of freight moved each year on the Hume Highway, with over 3,800 trucks on the road each day (and night at Gundagai).

The result is more road trauma, higher maintenance bills and pressure for further road upgrades. Plus more emissions.

The Sydney-Melbourne rail track, meanwhile, has been left with severe speed weight restrictions and a “steam age” alignment characterised by tight curves. It is also over 60 kms longer than it needs to be.

From a national perspective

Getting more freight on rail is not helped by hidden government subsidies to heavy truck operations, which in my estimations exceed $2 billion per year.

It is also made harder by the current National Freight and Supply Chain strategy, which puts much more emphasis on increasing truck productivity with ever larger trucks.

Instead, much more attention is needed to improving the efficiency and competitiveness of rail freight.

Philip Laird owns shares in some transport companies and has received funding from the two rail-related CRCs as well as the ARC. He is affiliated, inter alia, with Action for Public Transport (NSW), the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Railway Technical Society of Australasia and the Rail Futures Institute. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

– ref. Instead of putting more massive trucks on our roads, we need to invest in our rail network – https://theconversation.com/instead-of-putting-more-massive-trucks-on-our-roads-we-need-to-invest-in-our-rail-network-172491

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Patulny, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Wollongong

As we resume our social lives after strict COVID restrictions have lifted, many of us are finding it’s time to take stock of our friendships.

Recent research I’ve been involved in found friendship networks were shrinking in Australia during COVID lockdowns.

Some people pruned their networks, focusing on only the most important family and friends. Others lost friends through reduced recreational and community activities, falling out of the habit of socialising, and shifting to more digital interaction.

As we start to re-engage, the obvious question is – how do we get our old friends back?

We might also ask ourselves – which friends do we want back?

Which friends do we want?

There’s no one answer here – different people want different things from friends.

Data I have calculated from the 2015-16 Australian Social Attitudes Survey show the main form of support received from close friends in Australia is:

• primarily, having a confidant who provides emotional support

• followed by fun and good times

• and then, favours and advice of various kinds.

These results vary by background and life stage.

Women are much more likely to have a confidant who provides emotional support as their closest friend. Men are more likely to have friends who provide fun, good times, favours and advice – or else no regular support at all.

Younger people are more likely to have a confidant, emotional support, fun and good times. Older people, aged over 56, are slightly more likely to receive favours and advice, and are much more likely to lack a close supportive friend.

These results are indicative of what different people get from close friendships, but may not represent what they want or need.

The close confidants women report as friends may well alleviate emotional loneliness, which is defined as the absence of close attachment to others who provide strong emotional support.

However, it may still leave them with social loneliness, or the feeling of lacking quality, companionable connections with friends.

Conversely, male camaraderie built around fun, activities and mutual favours may alleviate social but not emotional loneliness.

Emerging evidence suggests emotional loneliness has a stronger negative impact on well-being than social loneliness, so it’s important for everyone to have someone to talk to for emotional support.

We still need a variety of approaches and goals to suit different friendship needs nonetheless.

Beating social loneliness

The first way to reduce social loneliness is to reach out to those we already know, now that we can.

We can message old friends, organise get-togethers, or start new conversations and activities with everyday contacts including colleagues, fellow students, regulars at the local club or cafe, or neighbours.

That said, reconnecting may now be impossible or undesirable for several reasons. These can include physical distance, changed life circumstances, different interests, intractable arguments, or a masculine aversion to initiating contact.

In these cases, we can join, organise, invite others, and connect with new social and community groups. Better groups tend to run regular activities that genuinely reflect members’ interests and input. Generic groups that meet sporadically are less effective.

Some people may benefit from joining support groups designed for people subject to stigma based on identity or life events, such as LGBTQI or health recovery groups.

Some groups help deal with the stigma of feeling lonely. This includes shared activity groups where people talk “shoulder to shoulder” rather than face to face, such as Men’s Sheds.

Groups focused on education, shared discussion, or exercise are particularly good for friendship and alleviating loneliness among older people.

While online options abound for connecting, it’s important to avoid activities which increase loneliness, such as passive scrolling, unsolicited broadcasting, or escapist substituting of digital communities for physical ones.

Interactive online contact and online groups that help us organise in-person catch ups (such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Meetup) are more effective.

Beating emotional loneliness

To beat emotional loneliness, the focus should be on deepening existing relationships.

It’s essential to spend high quality, meaningful time with a few good quality friends (or even one).

It might mean repairing damage, and apologising in a considered and respectful manner if you did or said something wrong.

Sometimes it just requires the effort of checking in more regularly. Organisations like RUOK provide sensitive, step-by-step suggestions on how to do this.

Online contact and videoconferencing can help maintain intimate partner and family connections, as it did during lockdown. It’s particularly helpful for older people and migrants, but less so for younger people already saturated in online social media connections.

Some people may also need help from a professional psychologist, counsellor, or support group to process increased social anxiety, particularly after COVID lockdown.

Such support can reduce emotional loneliness by helping us process social situations more positively and be more realistic (and less anxious) about our friendship options.

Read more:
Don’t be fooled, loneliness affects men too

Ending wrong or ‘toxic’ friendships

In reflecting on our friendships, we may decide to end any that have become particularly toxic.

Where possible, we should be kind, explain this, and avoid ghosting, as this can be highly traumatic to those who are ghosted and de-sensitise us to others’ feelings if we do it regularly.

Before doing so, we should be careful we don’t just need a break to rebuild energy and habits of interactions.

We should be especially careful with ending long-term friendships. Quality relationships take time, shared history, and involve natural ups and downs – especially in a pandemic. We should look to renegotiate rather than end them wherever possible.

Take time, and seek counselling or another friend’s advice. Since listening is key to friendship, maybe ask yourself – have you heard everything they’re trying to say?

Roger Patulny 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. Lost touch with friends during lockdown? Here’s how to reconnect (and let go of ‘toxic’ ones) – https://theconversation.com/lost-touch-with-friends-during-lockdown-heres-how-to-reconnect-and-let-go-of-toxic-ones-172853

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peng Du, Associate Professor, University of Auckland

Our stomach is a wonderful organ that turns what we eat into the nutrients and energy we need to maintain our health. At first glance, it might appear as a simple extendable muscular bag, but it has many sophisticated divisions of labour and functions that continue to puzzle researchers.

When food enters the stomach, a series of biological processes kick in to extract nutrients while continuously moving the content down the gut. The movement comes through gentle, rhythmic contractions, which is not surprising given there are three layers of muscle in the human stomach.

But how these muscles are coordinated and what happens when the controlling mechanisms break down are key questions researchers are seeking to address.

We know the movement is regulated by bioelectrical activity — much weaker but similar to the process that regulates our heart beat. By measuring the bioelectrical activity in the stomach, we can detect whether something is amiss with certain aspects of our gut health.

When food enters the stomach, it goes through a regulated sphincter valve called the gastro-oesophageal junction. The top-most portion of the stomach, called the fundus, can then expand to accommodate the increase in volume of the stomach.

The bottom portion, the antrum, works hard to break down food and mix it with gastric acid and other secretions into a pulpy fluid called chyme, ready for further processing in the gut.

The chyme is emptied at a controlled rate through another sphincter valve, called the pylorus, into the intestines. There, absorption of nutrients takes place. Interestingly, certain substances, such as alcohol, can partly bypass this process and get absorbed through the stomach wall directly.

Read more:
Curious Kids: how does my tummy turn food into poo?

When the stomach stops working

Our increasingly sedentary modern lifestyle has brought a rise in both the prevalence and severity of digestive disorders in developed economies.

For example, 34.2% of a community in Wellington reported dyspepsia, or indigestion. Some of the more serious diseases, such as gastroparesis and cyclic vomiting syndrome, have a significant impact on the quality of life for sufferers.

Different diseases of the stomach present themselves with largely overlapping symptoms. If the symptoms don’t go away after repeated visits to a doctor, an endoscopic examination (inserting a camera into the stomach) is usually performed. But about half the time it will show no obvious issues, which is frustrating for both the patient and clinicians.

Read more:
Diarrhoea, stomach ache and nausea: the many ways COVID-19 can affect your gut

More expensive medical imaging tests are available, including scintigraphy, which requires eating a low-dose radioactive meal, or MRI. Both scanning methods offer relatively short-term snapshots of what the stomach is doing.

Is there a better way of pinpointing what is wrong with the stomach? One potential answer lies in the bioelectrical source that powers the contractions of the stomach.

The pacemaker of the gut’s rhythm

There is an intricate grid of pacemaker cells (called the interstitial cells of Cajal) within the muscles of the stomach. They generate a rhythmic bioelectrical wave that regulates when and how the muscles contract.

Additional inputs come from nerves in the brain to kickstart contractions for digestion. We know the pacemaker cells and nerves can be damaged by disease, which results in abnormal rhythms of bioelectrical activation that make the stomach work less efficiently (or not at all).

Therefore, reliable detection of an abnormal bioelectrical rhythm offers a potential early indicator of problems associated with the stomach. Detecting this signal is tricky, as it is ten times weaker than the signal generated by the heart.

To make this happen, we are developing transparent and soft conductive polymer sensors to record the bioelectrical activity directly from the stomach during surgery. The data recorded generates further “signatures” that we can match to non-invasive recordings from the abdomen of patients in a conscious state.

The progressive translation of research to clinical application has now achieved the first portable high-resolution recording system of the stomach.

While detection of stomach diseases offers some reassurance, effective treatment is the ultimate goal. We have shown that actively manipulating the gastric bioelectrical rhythm is possible through neuro-modulation. This controls how the stomach functions by delivering a minor electric charge to alter the signal from the brain to the pacemaker cells and muscles in the stomach.

We are now bringing together what we have learned from recording the stomach with a non-invasive stimulator to develop a strategy for actively maintaining the normal functions of the stomach. We hope these new findings and techniques reduce the number of doctor visits and improve the quality of life for sufferers of gastric diseases.

Peng Du is a co-founder and has shares in Alimetry Ltd. He receives funding from Royal Society Te Apārangi and the US National Institute of Health.

peikai.zhang@auckland.ac.nz is affiliated with The University of Auckland and The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.

– ref. The stomach moves to a rhythm of gentle contractions. Any change can be an early signal of gastric disease – https://theconversation.com/the-stomach-moves-to-a-rhythm-of-gentle-contractions-any-change-can-be-an-early-signal-of-gastric-disease-173647

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ksenia Sawczak, Head, Research and Development, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney

The acting minister for education and youth, Stuart Robert, wrote a letter last week to Australian Research Council (ARC) CEO Sue Thomas, listing four demands. These included changes to ARC funding models and an overhaul of the ARC itself. These “expectations” were repackaged for the public in a press release on Tuesday entitled “New direction for the Australian Research Council to help secure Australia’s recovery”.

While the media release applies the usual positive political spin, the letter itself – although light on detail – crystallises some concerning matters. These are:

• a history of confused and often conflicting messaging about what is meant by priority areas and national interest in determining research funding

• the government’s failure – after eight years in office – to achieve its aspirations for research commercialisation

• the government’s loss of trust in the ARC.

Thomas has now advised the government she will step down prematurely from her role early next year. Her reasons have not been made public, but one can’t help wondering if the weight of the unrealistic demands have figured in her decision-making.

Looks a lot like government picking winners

The ARC administers the National Competitive Grants Program. This program invests about A$800 million a year in the highest-quality fundamental and applied research across all disciplines other than clinical and medical research, which is funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Importantly, 40% of this allocation is committed through the ARC Linkage Program. This program funds collaborative projects between universities and industry and community organisations. The end game is to stimulate the transfer of skills and knowledge to deliver public benefit.

Read more:
How to get the most out of research when universities and industry team up

The minister is now demanding that 70% of the Linkage Program funding goes to the government’s National Manufacturing Priorities. The six priorities were devised as part of the 2020 Make it Happen: the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy. A number of these already enjoy significant government support.

Interestingly, the government also has in place Science and Research Priorities. All applicants for ARC funding are already asked to address these. Although introduced in 2015, and supposedly meant to be reviewed every two years, these priorities have never informed funding.

In 2019, the ARC was asked to review the Science and Research Priorities with regard to how they apply to the National Competitive Grants Program as well as government science, research and innovation agendas. These priorities are problematic because, aside from never really having been priorities in terms of government investment in research, they exclude humanities and social sciences.

Read more:
We need to fund more than just science priorities for Australia’s future

Thus, a review was an opportunity to rethink how disciplines can deliver public good. Nothing seems to have come of it. The ARC lost an opportunity to get on the front foot in guiding future direction for research.

The latest ministerial manoeuvre essentially renders the Science and Research Priorities obsolete. And the losers are not just humanities and social sciences again, but also science disciplines that were once deemed noteworthy. This edict sends an undesirable message to the sector: when it comes to achieving positive impacts for society through collaborative research, there are lesser disciplines.

The narrowing of focus by insisting more funding go to National Manufacturing Priorities is madness. Essentially, it devalues partnerships addressing other important challenges in society that deserve support.

Years of rhetoric for little return

By devaluing non-manufacturing-related research, the manoeuvre has unwittingly created possible disincentives within the broader research sector for undertaking collaborative research.

Throughout its nearly decade-long concern with improving university-industry engagement to ensure researchers’ work translates to benefits for end users, the government has adopted motivational tactics. For example, the Research Block Grant, involving performance-based funding for universities, underwent a change of formula in 2015 to reward universities for securing industry and other such funding. And the ARC’s Engagement and Impact Assessment, announced as part of the 2015 National Innovation and Science Agenda, was meant to magically enhance engagement, even though outcomes do not translate to performance funding.

Read more:
Where is the evidence for ERA? Time’s up for Australia’s research evaluation system

We have had many years of rhetoric about improving university-industry engagement to boost commercial returns from research. It is time to call the government’s shallow commercialisation thinking (policy would be too generous a term) for what it is – a failure. The changes to the Linkage Program smell of one last desperate attempt to reverse that failure.

Read more:
Our unis are far behind the world’s best at commercialising research. Here are 3 ways to catch up

Playing the national interest card again

Another interesting demand in the minister’s letter is a strengthening of the National Interest Test (NIT). This includes expanding the College of Experts charged with applying the test and making recommendations to the minister.

The National Interest Test itself is a ministerial invention devised to exonerate the foolhardy actions of a former minister. It was hastily cobbled together in 2018 following a controversy over the rejection by the then education minister, Simon Birmingham, of 11 ARC-approved grants.

Read more:
National interest test for research grants could further erode pure research

The new test essentially replaced the Benefit and Impact Statement that had previously been in applications. The key difference is that the National Interest Test was presented in the context of ensuring public confidence as opposed to achieving public good. It seems Minister Robert is just as intent on maintaining public confidence, particularly through the inclusion of more individuals from outside the research sector to evaluate applications.

But, by doing so, the minister risks diluting the expertise needed to evaluate whether the design of a project is such that it will deliver positive outcomes for society. Anyone with good writing skills and a creative inkling can devise a National Interest Test statement that is palatable to the public. Only a gifted researcher can devise a research project that will generate genuine public good.

The ARC has one year to deliver on the minister’s demands – an unrealistic expectation. Given the madness of the demands, one can’t help wondering if it is even worth trying.

Ksenia Sawczak 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. Latest government bid to dictate research directions builds on a decade of failure – https://theconversation.com/latest-government-bid-to-dictate-research-directions-builds-on-a-decade-of-failure-173834

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruno Alves Buzatto, Principal Biologist at Bennelongia Environmental Consultants, The University of Western Australia

Millipedes were the first land animals, and today we know of more than 13,000 species. There are likely thousands more species of the many-legged invertebrates awaiting discovery and formal scientific description.

The name “millipede” comes from the Latin for “thousand feet”, but until now no known species had more than 750 legs. However, my colleagues and I recently found a new champion.

The eyeless, subterranean Eumillipes persephone, discovered 60 metres underground near the south coast of Western Australia, has up to 1,306 legs, making it the first “true millipede” and the leggiest animal on Earth.

Finding life underground

In Australia, most species in some groups of invertebrates are still undescribed. Many could even become extinct before we know about them.

Part of the reason is that life is everywhere, even where we least expect it. You could be excused for thinking remote areas of Western Australia such as the Pilbara and the Goldfields, where the land is arid and harsh, are not home to too many species.

But the reality is very different. An enormously diverse array of poorly known animals live underground, inhabiting cavities and fractures in the rock several metres below the surface.

One way to find out about these creatures is to place “troglofauna traps” far below the surface. E. persephone was found in one of these traps, which had spent two months 60m underground in a mining exploration bore in the Goldfields.

Read more:
About 500,000 Australian species are undiscovered – and scientists are on a 25-year mission to finish the job

A lucky discovery

At the time I was working for a company called Bennelongia Environmental Consultants, which had been hired by the mining company to survey the animals in the area. I was lucky enough to be in the laboratory on the day the leggiest animal on Earth was first seen.

Our senior taxonomist, Jane McRae, showed me these incredibly elongated millipedes, less than a millimetre wide and almost 10 centimetres long. She pointed out how their triangular faces placed them in the family Siphonotidae, comprised of sucking millipedes from the order Polyzoniida.

Their long, thin and pale bodies, with hundreds of legs, reminded me of a paper I had read years earlier, which redescribed the leggiest millipede in the world, the Californian Illacme plenipes, bearing 750 legs. Back in 2007, while teaching zoology at Campinas State University in Brazil, I used that paper to explain to students how no millipede species in the world really had 1,000 legs.

Often, popular names are scientifically inaccurate, but in front of me I had an animal that stood a chance of finally making the name millipede biologically correct.

A true millipede at last

I suggested to Jane that our new specimens might be more consistent with I. plenipes, which belongs to another order of millipedes, the Siphonophorida. We consulted Mark Harvey from the WA Museum, and together were surprised to realise Siphonophorida are very rare in Australia: there are only three known species, all found on the east coast.

Next, I contacted Paul Marek at Virginia Tech in the United States, a millipede expert and lead author of that paper about the 750-legged I. plenipes. He was excited to receive the specimens a few weeks later.

This new species turned out to have up to 1,306 legs, making it the first true millipede. Paul named it Eumillipes persephone, in reference to its “true 1,000 legs” nature, and to Persephone, the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology who was taken from the surface by Hades.

Why so many legs?

E. persephone was most likely driven to its underground life as the landscape above became hotter and drier over millions of years. We eventually discovered Jane was right about the nature of E. persephone: it is in fact a member of the Siphonotidae family, only distantly related to I. plenipes, and is therefore the only species in the whole order Polyzoniida with no eyes.

We classify any millipede with more than 180 body segments as “super-elongated”. E. persephone has 330.

With a genetic analysis, we found that super-elongation has evolved repeatedly in millipedes, and it might be an adaptation to living underground.

The large number of legs likely provides enhanced traction and power to push their bodies through small gaps and fractures in the soil. But this is just a hypothesis at this stage, and we have no direct evidence that having more legs is an adaptation to subterranean life.

Finding the unknown

Finding this incredible species, which represents a unique branch of the millipede tree of life, is a small first step towards the conservation of subterranean biodiversity in arid landscapes.

This starts with documenting new species, assessing their vulnerability, and ultimately devising conservation priorities and management plans.

A large proportion of the species of arid Australia are undescribed. For subterranean fauna, this may be more than 90%. Not knowing these animals exist makes it impossible to assess their conservation status.

Biodiversity surveys, and especially the taxonomy that supports them, are incredibly important. Taxonomists such as Jane, Paul and Mark are the unsung heroes of conservation.

Read more:
An end to endings: how to stop more Australian species going extinct

Bruno Alves Buzatto works for Bennelongia Environmental Consultants. He has previously been funded by the University of Western Australia, Macquarie University, the Australian Research Council, Australian Geographic and National Geographic, but none of this funding is related to the research described in this article. Bruno is also an honorary lecturer at Macquarie University and an adjunct research fellow at the University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Museum.

– ref. 1 millipede, 1,306 legs: we just discovered the world’s leggiest animal hiding in Western Australia – https://theconversation.com/1-millipede-1-306-legs-we-just-discovered-the-worlds-leggiest-animal-hiding-in-western-australia-173753

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Deakin University

As we reach the end of 2021 and cast our eyes towards 2022, we can begin to imagine what life in the “post-pandemic” world might look like.

But before we do this, it’s vital we look back and learn every lesson we can so next time we are faced with such a crisis – and there will be a next time – we can do better.

If the measure of success in responding to the pandemic is the amount of disease prevented and lives saved, Australia will undoubtedly be held up globally as an exemplar of best practice.

However, the real story of the response to COVID in Australia is messier.

It’s important to appreciate the experiences across the states and territories in the pandemic have been as different as Swan Lager is to Victoria Bitter.

Victoria indisputably went through the toughest ordeal of any state in the country. While we should celebrate what went right, it’s much more important we look fearlessly at what could have been done differently.

In doing this, the objective is not to blame. Context is important and needs to be factored into any critique. Decisions had to be made quickly, often with only limited and uncertain evidence, and most importantly, without the all-knowing benefit of hindsight.

With that in mind, let’s look at what went right, and wrong, in Victoria amid the pandemic so far.

Success 1: Victorians followed the rules and ‘stayed the course’

Living in Victoria the last couple of years has been really tough.

Despite enduring one of the longest aggregate periods of strict lockdown in the world, the Victorian community by and large hung in there. Victorians displayed enough collective adhesion to the strict public health orders that were in place to make those orders effective.

It would have been so easy to lose hope and stop complying with the tough restrictions en masse, especially as Victorians navigated their way through lockdown six, arguably the toughest to endure.

The fact this didn’t happen should make Victorians extremely proud.

Success 2: the uptake of the vaccine was incredible

The uptake of COVID vaccines by Victorians was nothing short of remarkable. It has fully vaccinated over 92% of those aged 12 and above at the time of writing.

Whether the period spent in lockdown – and the desire to do anything it took to avoid more of the same – was a motivating factor, or whether there were other reasons for this, does not really matter.

What does is Victorians got vaccinated at a rate that surpassed all expectations. This resulted in the state being able to emerge from the final lockdown five days ahead of schedule and the return of freedoms so desperately desired.

Success 3: determined commitment from our leaders

Regardless of your political stripes, or whether you felt all of the calls Victorian health authorities made were always the right ones, no one can doubt the commitment of the government and health authorities to get Victoria through the pandemic, and to communicate with Victorians.

Fronting up to press conferences day after day and answering all of the tough questions was important for many reasons.

But most importantly it kept the community focused on what was needed to bring the virus under control.

Failure 1: the Victorian public health system was exposed

It was no surprise for those of us familiar with the Victorian health department that at times it struggled to cope during the pandemic.

The health department had been depleted over many years by both sides of politics and it clearly entered the pandemic under-resourced.

While resources were poured into the department to cope with the unprecedented demands during the pandemic and some structural changes were made – most notably the creation of local public health units – more work undoubtedly needs to be done.

The pandemic has highlighted the vital role public health plays in keeping the community safe and healthy, so it needs adequate resources in future.

Failure 2: hotel quarantine was a debacle

The way hotel quarantine was managed in Victoria in the early part of the pandemic can only be described as a mess. The government and health authorities failed to control infections among returned travellers spreading to hotel quarantine workers and beyond.

This is clearly one of the biggest failures of the Victorian public health response to the pandemic, and was the catalyst for the devastating second wave in Victoria.

Although many issues were eventually rectified and Victoria finished up with one of the best hotel quarantine systems in the country, the failing was in the leadership model and how responsibilities were delineated.

The bigger question of course will be whether we ever need to rely on hotel quarantine again or whether we have learned the more important lesson about how unsuitable hotels are for containing infectious diseases.

Many health experts advocated for the development of purpose-built quarantine facilities and Victoria was a comparatively early adopter, yet we still don’t have a facility in operation.

Failure 3: it took too long to control outbreaks in aged-care centres

The outbreaks that devastated the aged-care sector during the second wave in Victoria were desperately sad.

Vulnerabilities such as understaffing and inadequate training have been known for decades and were largely swept under the carpet. These were exposed in all their awfulness during the pandemic.

Many issues quickly became clear, such as the understaffing of aged-care centres and infection control practices, along with the lack of the proper accountability by government for these facilities.

Despite the efforts of the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, a new unit specifically formed to bring these outbreaks under control, hundreds of elderly people died unnecessarily.

If the devastating impact of COVID on aged-care centres is not enough to catalyse meaningful reform in this sector in Australia, then nothing will. And our society will be all the worse for it.

Failure 4: we struggled with community engagement

One of the things that makes Victoria so vibrant is it’s a melting pot of cultures.

When it comes to responding to a pandemic, however, this presents its challenges.

This is more than simply a language issue. Multicultural groups are more reliant on different channels to get their health advice and may have different attitudes towards government and health officials.

They may also have more extensive family and community networks that aren’t in the minds of health officials when laying down a one-size-fits-all set of rules.

In the early part of the pandemic, the amount of effort needed to reach these groups was underestimated.

Read more:
Multilingual Australia is missing out on vital COVID-19 information. No wonder local councils and businesses are stepping in

But to the credit of the authorities, efforts were boosted in the second part of 2020 and beyond, building resources that were language and culturally appropriate and partnering with community leaders to design local public health interventions and disseminate messages.

Many lessons have been learned about engaging the diverse communities of Victoria. But as the initial challenges with the vaccine rollout highlighted, there’s still more work to do.

We must invest in these community partnerships to ensure all communities are more resilient and protected.

We need to prepare for the next pandemic

Crises expose weaknesses, and there’s no doubt the pandemic revealed a number of issues in Victoria.

There will be another pandemic and potentially this will occur sooner than we all would like.

Consequently, there is an urgent need to reflect on the journey and to address issues that have been raised so we can be on the front foot and do even better next time.

Catherine Bennett receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund. She was appointed as an independent advisor on the AstraZeneca covid vaccine advisory group, Australia

Hassan Vally 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. COVID in Victoria: 262 days in lockdown, 3 stunning successes and 4 avoidable failures – https://theconversation.com/covid-in-victoria-262-days-in-lockdown-3-stunning-successes-and-4-avoidable-failures-172408

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University

When it comes to solar energy, Australia has a huge natural advantage with an abundance of sun and vast, flat expanses of land. This makes it relatively easy to build solar farms across the continent.

Some proposed projects, however, overlap with arable land. As a result, solar companies and farmers are often in competition, with conflicts already arising in Canberra, Queensland and Wagga, the South Riverina and Greater Hume in New South Wales.

But these are familiar battlegrounds. Such tension has played out over many decades with agricultural communities facing serious environmental, social and health impacts from coal and coal seam gas projects.

We can avoid history repeating itself if we urgently set the right policies and laws in place. The pressing task for law and policymakers now is to ensure Australia’s clean energy transition sees solar development occur with co-benefits for local communities, and protects productive agricultural land.

Rising tension

Australia has the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world. This has led the federal government to aim for ultra-low cost solar production in its long-term plan to reduce emissions.

Likewise, Labor’s recent announcement of 43% emissions reduction target by 2030 relies heavily on increased renewable energy.

Read more:
Renewables need land – and lots of it. That poses tricky questions for regional Australia

But right now, the state and territory governments are leading Australia’s clean energy revolution, rolling out crucial “Renewable Energy Zones”, often within or near agricultural regions.

Agricultural land is flat, cleared, and sometimes situated near existing power infrastructure and distribution networks. Such conditions are ideal for solar farms, which can require up to 2-3 hectares per 1 megawatt (MW) of solar energy.

Clean energy companies must avoid the development mistakes of the fossil fuel industry or risk losing their social licence.

In fact, rising tension between agricultural communities and solar companies has led the NSW government to recently consider restricting solar and wind farm developments in regional towns.

Some communities who have experienced the impacts of coal seam gas, such as the Darling Downs, are particularly sensitive to the potential impacts of any new energy development. This includes aquifer contamination, damage to the surrounding environment and ecosystems, and the displacement of communities.

Read more:
Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse. How on Earth did they do it?

Now, these communities are once again being asked to negotiate land access and compensation arrangements for solar farms. Vast solar farms may mean arable land can no longer be used for growing crops.

The main problem is the twin policy objectives of accelerating renewable energy development and preserving sensitive land uses aren’t woven into legal precedent in some states.

For example, in Queensland, local councils usually need to assess the merits of a new solar farm project by default, rather than assess them “against a range of other existing uses or matters such as agriculture”.

What co-benefits could look like

Experiences in Victoria show a better alternative. Two Victorian tribunal cases assessed solar farm proposals on agricultural land from companies PowerVault Mildura and Helios Volta. The tribunal emphasised the need for “co-location” as a foundational policy pillar to balance the overall community benefit.

The Victorian government has also taken steps to create best practice guidelines for renewable energy companies to deal with agricultural land loss. This includes protecting high-quality soils and strategic agricultural land.

Read more:
People need to see the benefits from local renewable energy projects, and that means jobs

But it’s not just about managing loss of land. Best practice regulation could lead to a range of benefits for farmers, from electricity benefits in the local community to sustainable farming practices.

For one farmer in Dubbo, installing 56,000 solar panels provided crucial shade and condensation to help grass stay green for sheep grazing during drought. Likewise, solar energy from Sundrop Farms in South Australia powers a desalination unit, which produces pure water to irrigate crops.

So what needs to happen now?

Governments should incentivise and prioritise renewable energy and storage facilities on rehabilitated land, such as land previously used to develop coal, gas or other minerals. Agricultural land should be selected only if no alternative sites are available, or if co-location is possible.

An excellent example of this is the recent site selection of a 150MW battery earmarked for construction at the previous Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

Another is Kidston in regional Queensland, where an abandoned gold mine was transformed into the world’s first solar and pumped hydro system.

As the world surges towards net-zero emissions, coal and gas will be rapidly phased-out. Solar and wind are now the cheapest form of energy generation and are already outcompeting coal and gas in the electricity grid.

The clean energy revolution will create endless economic and job opportunities for regions. Australia could lead the world in renewable energy and other clean industries such as renewable hydrogen.

But we need strategic and holistic planning to ensure the transformation of our energy system strikes the right balance for both our champion industries – renewable energy and agriculture.

Read more:
The end of coal is coming 3 times faster than expected. Governments must accept it and urgently support a ‘just transition’

Madeline Taylor is a Climate Councillor at the Climate Council and is affiliated and has received funding from ACOLA.

– ref. Farmers shouldn’t have to compete with solar companies for land. We need better policies so everyone can benefit – https://theconversation.com/farmers-shouldnt-have-to-compete-with-solar-companies-for-land-we-need-better-policies-so-everyone-can-benefit-173333

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shirley Alexander, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education and Students), University of Technology Sydney

One could be forgiven for thinking moving lectures online is the only change to the higher education experience to come from the COVID-19 pandemic. Barely a day goes by without a headline that another university will conduct “lectures” in online mode only. But there is so much more potential for change in the wake of the pandemic. Our experiences in Australia and the UK have shown one significant change is that university decision-making has become more student-centred in response to students’ demands for flexibility.

Flexibility is often understood as student preferences for modes of learning. Some students see benefits in fully online learning and may decide to continue in that mode. The majority, though, have expressed a strong desire to return to campus. But they want to retain the flexibility of online learning.

Read more:
Digital learning is real-world learning. That’s why blended on-campus and online study is best

How can universities meet these expectations?

Let’s take timetabling as one example. For decades, timetables have been produced to maximise the use of expensive campus infrastructure. Students had to fit their complex lives around that.

During emergency remote teaching many students were able to choose an online class or watch a recording at a time that suited them. Having experienced this flexibility, there is increasing evidence of a demand for 24/7/365 access to learning. Or is there? Have we really understood students’ “demands” for flexibility and are we making decisions in their best interests?

Such 24/7 flexibility involves a significant trade-off for students. For one thing, it means they lose consistent contact with the same peers as they dip in and out of different classes.

Current timetables mean students sometimes travel significant distances for a single one-hour class. It’s not surprising these students would prefer to access a class remotely or at a later time.

But could we use technology to build timetables that cluster classes over fewer days to reduce students’ total travel time? In this way, a student-centred approach would fit in with students’ lives rather than the other way around. At the same time, it would protect the essential elements of the on-campus experience.

Consider what kind of post-COVID, on-campus experiences students want. Students enrolled at campus-based institutions often said they missed the social environment during lockdown. So it is no surprise they now seek social opportunities to make new friends, build new networks through social activities like clubs and societies, engage with different perspectives and be physically located within the academic community.

Managing change in a time of constraints

A shift to more student-centred decision-making will need to confront external constraints. One is the urgent need to find ways of meeting the costs of education.

Governments worldwide had already reduced spending on higher education before the pandemic. The pandemic has left governments facing a challenging financial situation: the government debt legacy and economic recession resulting from COVID as well as rising student loan debt. They are now seeking to lower public spending on higher education further.

Read more:
After 2 years of COVID, how bad has it really been for university finances and staff?

Another challenge is the demand to prepare highly skilled graduates to overcome skills shortages made worse by COVID. Employers are seeking capabilities such as problem solving, resilience, social influence and stress tolerance, in addition to particular knowledge and skills.

To reduce costs, teaching may need to draw on freely available open education resources or online content from commercial providers. But universities still have to make sure they design active learning experiences on campus to allow students to make friends, experience student life and feel part of the academic community.

Crucially, active learning experiences provide the environment for meaningful activity, whether online or in person. This can be supported by scaffolded learning to progressively develop students’ academic, metacognitive and professional skills from orientation through to graduation.

Caring has to be a priority

An added dimension is the pastoral and caring role universities play in the lives of students. Caring has always been an important facet of teaching, but never more so than during the pandemic.

Academics have spent long hours giving academic and pastoral care to students. A UCL study provides evidence of the additional (often unaccounted) time and emotional labour academics invested in supporting students online.

As we return to campus, caring has to continue. Students still face uncertainties that cause them anxiety. Mental health is at an all-time low.

Read more:
COVID has increased anxiety and depression rates among university students. And they were already higher than average

The added costs of caring for students come at a time of major financial pressure on all institutions. So, student-centred decision-making will be vital in determining how this care can be provided as an integral part of our teaching.

The big questions for higher education go beyond which parts of the student experience should be online and which should be on-campus. The bigger question is how we can accommodate demands for flexibility while preserving the social aspects that provide crucial academic and pastoral support at the same time as ensuring sustainability.

Taking a student-centred approach to decision-making in higher education, informed by a careful analysis of students’ experiences, might be a start.

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. COVID has changed students’ needs and expectations. How do universities respond? – https://theconversation.com/covid-has-changed-students-needs-and-expectations-how-do-universities-respond-172863

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Messer, Honorary Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Literature, Macquarie University

You need thalassa therapy, the woman said to me, knowing I was ever so anxious and sad about too many things. These included my mother’s months in hospital and decline from Alzheimer’s, made worse by all the stops and starts to any of us being able to visit her at the aged-care home during COVID.

I would weep in short sobs or just tears streaming, any hour of the day. There was also the fraught health of one of my children. I’d wake in the middle of the night, with a ping of fright flowering in a burst in my sternum. At the university where I worked, we were suffering endless rounds of workplace change, redundancies and the ominous morning emails from our Dean and Vice Chancellor. I was waking each day with a feeling of dread.

To put it simply, there was a lot going on and it all involved uncertainty, worry and rarely, hope.

“In the early morning before the day has told you what it is going to be like, take yourself into the sea. Give yourself your thalassa,” the kind woman told me.

To give yourself thalassa therapy, is simple. You walk into the sea, and immerse yourself, all of your body, from head to toe. The ancient Greek word thalassa simply means the sea. The Greek sea was a she, and Thales was its primeval spirit, and like the sea, her body was strong. She spawned both fish and storm gods. In some Greco-Roman mosaics she has the sharp horns of the crab claw. She is fish-tailed, her hair is black and thick. Dolphins, sea horses, octopus and fish swim with her.

It was to McIver’s pool that I began to go for my morning thalassa. I wanted the calm waters of the pool, not the turbulent exuberance of the surf. I would arrive long after dawn on a weekday, but still early enough that the sun was slanting brightly along the pool’s moving, shimmery surface. A friend came with me, a woman who has swum there countless times. She is sun-browned, creviced and wrinkled, lean and strong. She has walked up and down the steep steps to the sea pool many times. She’d slide into the water ahead of me, then lap easily, for she’s long been an ocean swimmer.

I didn’t lap, not to begin with. I’d dip myself down, my toes feeling-out the serrations of rock and shell, the silk of the weeds. I’d feel the sea water loosen and slide through my hair. I’d feel the change from air to water, from warm to cool, from busyness to simply being, under the sea. Submerged, I’d open my eyes to look up through the water to the sky, my breath bubbling to the surface in pockets of light. The sea-pool made my body my friend again. I felt then that it had always been thus, for a few moments, lithe and buoyant, and almost joyful.

Over on the undersea rockface, live purple and black-spined sea anemones, barnacles, cockles, crabs, and sea urchins. Sometimes there have been octopus. Small fish dart about, Maori wrasse and Old Wives, fish that are plain grey and short-finned, or colourfully striped with fins that undulate. From the northern rock’s overhang, water falls in precise droplets to the tiny rock pools below, each droplet arriving with a startlingly bright miniature splash.

I would take a deep breath, dive, and swim across the rocky floor, then swivel with a twirl and lie on my back gazing, not breathing, letting the sea do its therapy.

Sometimes if it was early there was just myself and my friend, or another swimmer or two lapping, or a woman simply floating. There is a pool-net for sweeping up any blue-bottles that have swept in over seawall. One day my friend and I removed six. A woman in a floppy red hat was treading water slowly, gazing at the water, the mosses, at us at our task, at nothing in particular. On a small square of concrete on the ocean side of the pool, a woman moved gracefully in a slow tai chi dance, her face towards the sun.

A dimpled Rubenesque woman stepped down the stairs holding her loose bare breasts in her hands, then let go when she reached the water. A young woman stepped out, water streaming as she shook her long hair. She climbed the stairs and sat above us, crossed-legged, facing the early morning sun to dry, like a cormorant.

Sometimes the women on the rocky points remind me of basking seals, round and gleaming with oil or water, or of sea birds drying their wings before the next dive. I have seen so many bodies here: wrinkle-bummed, wobbly-bummed, long breasted, with shell-white skin, and skin that is mottled from a lifetime of use.

You can tell who the ocean swimmers are if they’re a bit older because they have lean arses and strong shoulders and invariably wear Speedos. When I shower, peeling off my swimmers, rinsing my hair and skin in the cold water, then walking to one of the benches where my clothes lie in a tumble, I feel a little embarrassed that I have almost no pubic hair now, whereas my friend, who is much older than me, still has hers. Is she still, after all these years, naturally brown? I could dress in the privacy of one of the change rooms, but that would be missing the point. I seem to have become like my late godmother. I saw her sparse white hairs once when she’d accidentally left a button undone on her “housedress”. I now remind myself of her, or of an old dog’s grey snout.

On sunny weekends, groups of women in twos and threes track across the rock platforms looking for an untaken space to sun-bake. Out come the towels, the cool drinks and fruit, the sunblock, books and hats. One time I watched a black-haired woman reveal herself as a toned athlete in an apple-green G-string. Then she folded her hijab away into her beach bag and lay back.

At the pool, a woman can be as (non)attractive as she likes, and nothing bad will happen. No military general, media commentator, or politician will warn her that she’s being provocative. She can dry herself off with long leisurely strokes of her towel, or give herself a brisk rubdown. She will not be followed, touched, slurred or victim-blamed. She can stretch her arms out to the sun and laugh out-loud, or curl up with a book on the grass in shorts and singlet. No one will film her unawares.

For those who swim at the women’s pool, how fortunate we are to have this safe place, open almost every day of the year from sunrise to sunset. Though even here, there are the histories of violence toward and dispossession of the Eora coastal women. Let us not forget, nor not know.

At the pool there are no mirrors

The Women’s Baths welcomes us to its shelves of stone and grass for drying off, to doze, to talk, to preen, to gaze into the aqua green, ivory and midnight blue pool, to the rocks and outcrops either side, and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

I wish I could bring my mother here. The minutes of joy and refreshment that I experience now in my morning swims, I wish my mother could have too. Not that she likes cold water, or wind coming off the ocean. She was always confident in her body, walking about unabashed from bathroom to bedroom, stopping on the way to say something to her cringing daughter.

As a girl unwillingly becoming a young woman, I was horrified by the ever-so-slight sag of her stomach and gnarly brown nipples and the unapologetic lack of shame. The pool is the great leveller, welcoming the agile and the infirm, the exceptional and the ordinary. Much of the time I now gladly inhabit my body, that has born children, braved surgeries, and most grievously, lost its beautiful, saucy oestrogen after menopause. I’m well aware that all-in-all, my body has done me remarkably well so far.

At the pool there are no mirrors to see oneself in, other than the dappled water. There is much to feel about oneself though – your own salty skin and dripping hair, the ancient sandstone beneath your feet, the frisky embrace of the tidal sea water and ocean breezes. Swimming in the water I feel myself whole, from head to toe.

Rubbing my hair dry one time, feeling the sun-warmed towel on my cold scalp, I remembered a terrible moment a few months ago, when my mother was still in the hospital. She asked me, “Where is my head?”

Your head? Your head is here, I said, touching her hair gently, expecting that once she felt the contact, she’d know it again. “But, where is it?” she insisted.

She has always been a conceptual person, interested in systems and relations.

It’s at the top of your body, here where it always is, at the end of your neck, I said. I felt her confusion like a small, contained explosion within me. Another part of her mind had disassembled, fallen off like a loose rock might.

Only when I crouched down in front of her, held her hands to anchor us both, and looked at her did she begin to reorient herself. You’re looking at me from your head, Mum, I said.

“That’s right,” she said, nodding. Everything was back in place again.

There are times in your life when you need help and nurture, and to feel safe. And so, I take my morning thalassa therapy, arriving before the day has told me what it is going to be like.

This is an extract from The Women’s Pool edited by Lynne Spender (Spinifex Press).

Jane Messer 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. Friday essay: morning thalassa – the calm, salt therapy of Sydney’s women’s pool – https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-morning-thalassa-the-calm-salt-therapy-of-sydneys-womens-pool-171386

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Associate Professor in Commercial Law and Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

The Southland town of Gore is best known for its giant statue of a brown trout and the Golden Guitars country music festival. But the town’s Eastern Southland Gallery (ESG) also hosts one of the country’s most remarkable and eclectic art collections – and a connection to one of the art world’s enduring controversies.

Amassed by John Money, a New Zealand psychologist who lived and worked in the US, the collection includes works by notable New Zealand artists Rita Angus and Theo Schoon, and the Baltimore artist Lowell Nesbitt. (Rich examples of Ralph Hotere’s works, donated by the artist, supplement the Money collection.)

Schoon’s posthumous reputation is now mired in controversy for his despoiling of Māori petroglyphs and his use of Indigenous carving techniques.

But it’s the gallery’s examples of Benin bronze heads that appear to bring sleepy Gore into the centre of one of the hottest art world debates – the acquisition by force of Indigenous artworks during the colonial period.

Imperial plunder

The Kingdom of Benin, situated in Edo State in modern Nigeria, flourished for six centuries from 1200 CE. Benin City was famous for its massive protective walls and the remarkable artistic practices that flourished behind them. As the National Geographic library explains:

Artists of the Benin Kingdom were well known for working in many materials, particularly brass, wood, and ivory. They were famous for their bas-relief sculptures, particularly plaques, and life-size head sculptures. The plaques typically portrayed historical events, and the heads were often naturalistic and life size. Artisans also carved many different ivory objects, including masks and, for their European trade partners, salt cellars.

Read more:
Germany is returning Nigeria’s looted Benin Bronzes: why it’s not nearly enough

Britain was keen to include the kingdom in its sphere of control, and in 1897 took the opportunity of the murder of some European traders to annex the territory and sack Benin City. Countless artefacts were seized as punitive compensation, and eventually included in public collections, notably in London and Berlin, but widely around the world.

The Brooklyn Museum, for example, has the largest collection of African art in the US. It includes a Benin sculpture of a horn blower, thought to have been cast in the 16th century in copper alloy and iron.

The museum does not – and almost certainly cannot – provide the full history of ownership of the sculpture. The bulk of its African collection was bought in 1922 from dealers in Brussels, London and Paris.

The NZ connection

This vagueness about provenance is common. Nevertheless, the distinctive skill of the Benin artists was such that their work is easily identifiable. We also know that any Benin bronze in a Western collection is tainted by the possibility it came onto the market as a result of the sacking of Benin City.

New Zealand’s Canterbury Museum has the largest collection of Benin artworks in Australasia. Unlike other collections, the museum’s curators have constructed a clear narrative of the provenance of the artworks. According to the museum records:

All but one of the pieces of Benin art were acquired during the directorship of Canterbury Museum by Captain Frederick Wollaston Hutton around the turn of the 20th century.

While Hutton bought the items, they most likely became available to the market as a result of the sacking of Benin City. Ironically, Canterbury Museum’s careful research is likely to facilitate any repatriation claim.

Because of Māori experience of colonial plunder, especially the trade in mokomokai, people of Aotearoa New Zealand should be particularly attuned to the desire of previously colonised peoples to regain agency over their cultural artefacts.

Read more:
Cultural appropriation: when ‘borrowing’ becomes exploitation

Pressure for repatriation

Perhaps, in an ideal world, Western collections would repatriate all their Benin artworks. They would then be studied and admired in the place they were created, particularly by local people, but also by academics and gallery goers from around the world.

That may not be likely any time soon, but the Canterbury Museum will eventually need to come to terms with growing demand for the return of plundered artworks, even if its items were acquired for value and in good faith from intermediaries under the usual circumstances of the time.

An Edo Museum of West African Art is planned for Benin City, which would house the region’s returned art. Several major Western collections have already agreed to repatriate or lend their bronzes and other works. However, the museum has not yet been completed and may never meet the architect’s vision.

While the local people’s spiritual attachment to their cultural treasures is likely to prevent returned artefacts being simply recycled through the black market, they are unlikely to receive the same level of curatorial care as institutions like Canterbury Museum may provide. As Nigerian essayist Adewale Maja-Pearce has written:

The Kingdom of Benin no longer exists. Its legacy […] is a dismal, sewage-infested ruin in Benin City, over which Obaseki, as state governor, has the last word. The oba [king] has appealed to the federal government of Nigeria to take custody of the artefacts while he makes alternative funding arrangements, despite the fact that no administration during the last 60 years has lifted a finger to protect our cultural heritage.

Read more:
We identified 39,000 Indigenous Australian objects in UK museums. Repatriation is one option, but takes time to get right

So, how does Gore’s ESG fit into this narrative? On closer investigation, all is not quite what it seems. The three display items in the Money collection were created in the Benin tradition but actually date from the 1960s. (Money engaged reputable dealers so that living artists could benefit from his purchases.)

In the penumbral light of the gallery, however, only an expert could tell the difference between ancient and modern artefacts. If the Canterbury Museum joins the international movement towards repatriation of Benin artworks, then, Gore will be the only place in the country where we will be able to appreciate in physical form the extraordinary craft of traditional Benin metalworkers.

The author gratefully acknowledges the advice of Eastern Southland Gallery curator Jim Geddes and PhD candidate Chizo Chukwujama.

Jonathan 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. Imperial loot in a small-town gallery in New Zealand? The curious case of Gore’s ‘Benin bronzes’ – https://theconversation.com/imperial-loot-in-a-small-town-gallery-in-new-zealand-the-curious-case-of-gores-benin-bronzes-173424

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

Scott Morrison and his government enter the new year with a fresh iteration of the “women problem”. This is the multiple high-profile female independents contesting a number of Liberal seats.

It’s not that the next parliament is likely to see a big influx of new lower house crossbenchers. ABC election analyst Antony Green points out that, to win, independents in these seats would need a 25-30% primary vote and to push the Liberal vote down to about 45%.

One of these aspirants may succeed, two if they were extremely lucky. Perhaps the drive will end up nothing more than colour and movement.

But however it goes, their challenges bring serious campaign trouble for Morrison.

Strong female candidates casting themselves as representatives, or “voices”, of their communities are standing in North Sydney, Mackellar, Wentworth, Hughes and Hume in NSW, and in Goldstein, Kooyong and Flinders in Victoria.

Their priorities include climate change, integrity and women’s issues.

There’s also Jo Dyer, who was a close friend of the deceased woman who made an allegation of historical rape against Christian Porter (which he denies), standing in Boothby in South Australia. The risk for the government is she might tip that marginal seat to Labor.

Notably, most of these candidates will be extraordinarily well financed, thanks to climate campaigner Simon Holmes à Court’s massive Climate 200 war chest, now totalling $6.5 million and with a target of $20 million.

The Liberals strike a note of outrage about this fund. They weren’t so offended by Clive Palmer’s much larger election spending spree last election, but then that hit Labor.

Fighting the independent candidates will be a costly distraction for the Liberals.

They are pulling out all stops to label the independents a de facto party, with preselections and common talking points.

Morrison declared this week of the “voices” candidates: “They’re the voices of Labor. And if you vote for an independent from that ‘Voices Of’ movement, you may as well vote Labor.”

This smacks of arrogance – a sledgehammer approach. It also has a ring of Chris Bowen’s infamous 2019 line, that those who didn’t like Labor’s franking credits policy “are, of course, perfectly entitled to vote against us”.

But rather than being “voices of Labor”, these candidates are “voices of criticism”, forming a well-resourced, like-minded, often mutually supportive, protest vote.

À lire aussi :
What’s going on with independent candidates and the federal election?

Years ago the term “doctors’ wives” became fashionable among commentators to describe comfortably off middle-class women in the leafy suburbs likely to vote against the Liberals over the Iraq war (although the phrase went back further).

Today, one Liberal quips, “The doctors’ wives are not just voting against us – they’re standing against us.” These “doctors’ wives” are highly qualified professionals – including a couple of medicos. Monique Ryan, running in Kooyong, is director of the department of neurology at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

For all the Liberals’ sledging of the high-profile independents, these candidates will increase the heat on Morrison over such matters as whether, if re-elected, he’ll continue to refuse to introduce legislation for an integrity commission, on the excuse Labor doesn’t support his model.

In polling done for Climate 200 this month in nine urban and regional electorates in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, voters in most seats rated the Morrison government’s behaviour with regard to integrity and ethics as poor, with the intensity of feeling tending to be strongest in urban seats.

One unknown is the likely gender divide in the coming vote. Morrison is working hard to shore up his support among male “tradies” and the like but, after the year we’ve had on women’s issues, will he lose a significant number of female voters? And in the leafy seats, will women be attracted to these female independents?

The women’s vote is just one of the uncertainties the PM faces as he looks to 2022.

Morrison this week again indicated strongly that he wants the community to put COVID aside – to accept living with the virus. “The cases, when it comes to COVID-19, are now not the primary issue,” he said. What mattered was the impact on the health system and serious illness.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declared the states need to “keep calm and carry on”.

The government has made the basic judgment that the community is “over” lockdowns. But with Omicron set to surge, the messages from various governments and authorities will be mixed. The media will feature the case numbers, not just the hospitalisations.

Obviously, the time of “living with COVID” had to come, but it is arriving inconveniently close to both Christmas and the election.

À lire aussi :
Farewell to 2021 in federal politics, the year of living in disappointment

With outbreaks and people isolating, the virus will continue to randomly disrupt. Morrison on Thursday had to take a rapid antigen test on the way to making an announcement, after finding he’d been a casual contact of a COVID-positive woman on Wednesday night.

The combination of re-openings and mounting Omicron numbers will likely make for an uncomfortable level of anxiety and confusion for months.

On the other hand, some anxiety might work to Morrison’s advantage, by making voters more likely to stick with the government.

In terms of the electoral map, the government is at a high-water mark in Queensland and Western Australia – its challenge in those states is essentially a defensive one. In NSW, Victoria and Tasmania it will be on the offensive as well as the defensive, in the quest for seats.

Morrison goes into election year in poor shape personally – he has lost a lot of skin over the “lying” tag – and leading a government seeking a fourth term. But he has one well-inflated life raft to climb aboard – the economy.

Thursday’s budget update shows an encouraging rebound after the lockdowns, and forecasts one million jobs being created over four years.

Thursday’s employment figures actually pre-empted the budget update’s forecast of unemployment at 4.5% by mid next year. The latest numbers show the rate was already at 4.6% in November, down from 5.2% in October.

However, slow wages growth remains in prospect, and the opposition will be homing in on this.

There is also the issue of when a re-elected Morrison government would start on budget repair – an awkward question which will be pressed in the election campaign.

The update points to a multi-billion-dollar stash for pre-election sweeteners.

Whether he hangs out for his scheduled March 29 budget, as he appears set to do, or makes a dash for a March poll, Morrison seems likely to produce some tax cuts for low and middle-income earners, among his other offerings to voters, in a well-tried election pitch.

Campaigners know that in elections money talks, whether it is in backing local campaigns or in handing out government largesse. What varies from election to election is how loudly.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Pesky female independent candidates are the PM’s latest ‘women problem’ – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-pesky-female-independent-candidates-are-the-pms-latest-women-problem-173916

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

Thursday’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook reminds us of some uncomfortable truths.

In the short term, MYEFO forecasts the economy bouncing back, with deficits shrinking, unemployment falling, and growth rebounding.

But that will largely play out in the next financial year, 2022-23.

Beyond that, the forecasts have us returning to the relatively low-growth economy we endured before COVID.

Read more:
Fydenberg’s MYEFO Budget update shows big election war chest

Economic growth is forecast to be 3.25% in this financial year, back briefly in the 3-4% range we used to regard as normal.

Next financial year it is forecast to remain high at 3.25% before falling back to 2.25% and then 2.5%, well within the historically low territory it occupied before COVID.

Annual financial year GDP growth, actual and forecast

Unemployment, which is forecast to fall to an impressively low 4.25% by mid-2023, is forecast stay there in the following forecast years, improving no further.

The broader takeaway is that not only did the government do the right thing by providing massive financial support during the pandemic – some A$337 billion of it – it is continuing to do the right thing by not prematurely withdrawing it.

The ongoing (if significantly smaller) budget deficits in coming years are a testament to the lesson learnt about the importance of spending to get economic growth up, and unemployment down.

Perhaps the most uncertain forecast is for wages. Growth in the wage price index is forecast to increase from 2.25% this year to 2.75% in 2022-23 and then on to 3.0% and 3.25% in the follow years.

Sluggish wages growth has been a persistent problem in advanced economies since the 2008 financial crisis. In the US, wages didn’t really get moving again until unemployment dropped to near 3%.

Perhaps an analogous thing will happen in Australia, or perhaps it might require a terminating unemployment rate lower than the forecast 4.25%.

We need an economic engine

Of course, economic and employment growth don’t just happen. They are driven, in no small part, by business investment.

As the following chart shows, this is forecast to bounce back strongly after a big drop during the pandemic. In part this simply reflects that kind of catch-up, but it also follows from an increase in business confidence.

Non-mining business investment, expected to grow 1.5% this financial year at budget time, is now expected to climb 8.5%.

What is now absolutely beyond doubt is that confidence is fragile, and depends on support from the government.

The old days of the 1980s, when it was seriously argued that government spending “crowds out” or frightens away rugged capitalists, are long behind us.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s MYEFO statement makes clear there will be no return to austerity, no return (probably ever) to getting back in the black for its own sake.

The massive financial force used during the pandemic worked.

Government has to keep doing the heavy lifting

In due course the budget will need to return to something closer to balance. But there is no case whatsoever for a sharp U-turn – not one that Frydenberg and Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy would countenance.

Team Frydenberg-Kennedy have prevailed over the Coalition budget hawks.

There are plenty on both the Coalition front and backbenches who still think the Liberal Party is the party of thrift. If that was ever true or sensible, it isn’t now.

Read more:
$16 billion of the MYEFO budget update is ‘decisions taken but not yet announced’. Why budget for the unannounced?

One might think that Herbert Hoover’s disastrous austerity in the United States in the early 1930s proved the folly of that approach. Or the UK’s version following the 2008 financial crisis.

But, in any case, the dominant forces in the Coalition seem to have learnt their economic lesson. As they say in the classics: “however you get there…”

Richard Holden is President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

– ref. No sign of a return to austerity, as team Frydenberg prevails over the budget hawks – https://theconversation.com/no-sign-of-a-return-to-austerity-as-team-frydenberg-prevails-over-the-budget-hawks-173902

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society and NATSEM, University of Canberra

One of the most fascinating elements of Thursday’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook is the one we cannot see clearly.

Included in the MYEFO budget update are A$16 billion (over four years) of spending “decisions taken but not yet announced and not for publication”.

These refer to measures to which the cabinet has agreed but about which we will only be told later (and also to things that are not for publication because they relate to commercial contracts and the such.)

Like the wrapped presents under the Christmas tree, we can see there is something there for us, but we can only guess as to what it is.

Why do they do this?

So why doesn’t the government not wait until the budget in March? The decisions and their costs could be announced together then.

Firstly, it is because the government might want to keep open the option of holding the election in March, announcing the spending during the campaign in January and February.

Read more:
Fydenberg’s MYEFO Budget update shows big election war chest

The problem this would create comes from the Charter of Budget Honesty enacted by the Howard government.

This requires the heads of treasury and the department of finance to sign off on updated budget forecasts in a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook within 10 days of the issue of the writs for an election.

Importantly, and unusually, they are required to do this in their personal capacities, rather than as servants of their political masters.

Speaking with their own voice in 2016, departmental heads John Fraser and Jane Halton embarrassed their political masters by warning that “without considerable effort to reduce spending growth, it will not be possible to run underlying cash surpluses, say in the order of 1% of GDP, without tax receipts rising”.

Announcing a blowout in the forecast deficit caused by unbudgeted-for spending would be more embarrassing, and could become an election issue.

And there’s another somewhat cynical media management issue.

The impact on the deficit of the unannounced spending has been announced the week before Christmas, well ahead of the campaign. It’ll pass into history.

By contrast, the details of the new spending will be announced in the spotlight of the budget or the campaign, already “paid for”.

How big compared to previous years?

The Parliamentary Budget Office released a report on this matter last week.

Its figures suggest the $16 billion of unannounced spending revealed this year is a record. The previous record was the almost $12 billion in the December 2018 MYEFO, also – not at all coincidentally – just before an election.

It is understood that some of the $16 billion relates to contracts and provisions for payments. Among the likely candidates are vaccine and submarine contracts.

Read more:
That reverse mortgage scheme the government is about to re-announce, how does it work?

One part of the package some will be keen to find out about is the measures promised in secret agreement with the Nationals to gain their acquiescence to the net zero by 2050 greenhouse gas emissions target.

Another will be “sweeteners” for electorates the government is hoping to win or hang on to. These will include traditional bellwethers such as Eden-Monaro, Lindsay and Robertson and also the seats under challenge from “voices of” independents.

It isn’t certain the billions flagged are the extent of the generosity, but it is likely to be within the ballpark.

John Hawkins is a former Treasury official.

– ref. $16 billion of the MYEFO budget update is “decisions taken but not yet announced”. Why budget for the unannounced? – https://theconversation.com/16-billion-of-the-myefo-budget-update-is-decisions-taken-but-not-yet-announced-why-budget-for-the-unannounced-173654

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Caldwell, Clinical Psychologist and Researcher, The University of Queensland

You walk into a room. You are going to play a game. Your competitors? Other parents.

There will only be one winner.

You aim is to survive.

No, we’re not talking about Squid Game but Channel 9’s show Parental Guidance, which aired season one’s final episode last month.

Parents competed against one another to find the “best” parenting style. Is it the protective helicopter, the ambitious tiger, or the relaxed free-range? (Spoiler: the free-range parents won.)

Read more:
From tiger to free-range parents – what research says about pros and cons of popular parenting styles

But parents on the show faced internal competition too, just as every parent does, every moment of every day. It is a competition between three systems that have evolved to help us survive: the threat system, the drive system and the soothing system.

And just as with Parental Guidance, one system is the ultimate “winner” for parenting. Let us explain.

What are the three systems?

British clinical psychologist Paul Gilbert’s theory of evolution helps us understand these three functional emotional systems. You can think of each one as a brain state with specific brain regions and chemistry. Once you are in a particular state, it will colour your world – what you see and how you act.

We switch between these systems, or states, depending on what is going on around, or inside, us. Each system evolved for a reason and each has its purpose and place.

The threat system motivates us to survive under conditions of threat. Think about stumbling across a lion after getting your morning coffee. Your threat system would automatically kick in. You’d feel more alert as your body would be flooded with fear. You’d have a surge of adrenaline and cortisol, feel anxiety, anger or disgust. You may fight the lion (if the odds are good), or flee in fear.

Your threat system also helps you protect your child. It gives you the burst of alertness and energy to chase after a wandering toddler or stick up for your child at school or in the family.

The drive system is about seeking out good things – from food to falling in love. This system activates positive emotions such as excitement, pleasure or desire. It helps ensure parents have food on table and a roof over their family’s head, and prompts them to seek out fun family activities like a trip to the zoo.

Read more:
4 ways to get your kids off the couch these summer holidays

And then there’s the soothing system. This one’s about feeling calm and grounded and is vital to maintaining equilibrium. Guess what gets it going? Other people being kind and compassionate. It’s that warm, fuzzy, heart-warming feeling you get when you feel loved and give love to others.

The soothing system is activated by moments like lazy cuddles with your child in bed or snuggling up together to watch a favourite movie. In these moments, you feel a rush of feel-good chemicals: opiates and oxytocin (the chemical released after baby has been born). This makes it feel good being close to, and getting along with, others.

So, why does all this matter? Because parenting often feels like a pressure cooker, and that leads to over-activation of the threat system.

No one should be blamed for this – after all, it’s evolution. The problem is, when your threat system is on, you probably feel anxious, down and like you are not good enough as a parent. You probably feel shame.

Research shows when parents feel shame they are more likely to resort to controlling types of parenting and the use of punishment. Research also shows children of parents with anxiety disorders are more likely to suffer anxiety themselves.

So, what do you do?

The best way to dampen down the threat system is to activate the soothing system.
And remember what does that – other people. We can deliberately practise love and compassion for ourselves, and others, to train our soothing system to respond more often.

Self-compassion is being aware of what sets off our pressure cooker and doing things to reduce the pressure. It’s also about treating ourselves the way we’d treat our closest friends.

Self-compassion might mean planning an easy dinner on a busy day, taking 20 minutes to relax with a good book, or simply giving yourself permission to make mistakes.

And we can give that compassion to our children, too. Science shows greater compassion in parenting is associated with better relationships, connection and resilience in children.

Read more:
High anxiety: how I use mental exercises to ease my fear of flying

The situations that activate your parenting threat system are countless: your child screaming in a store or running around in a restaurant and refusing to calm down.

Your immediate reaction is most likely a threat response. You may feel angry at your child’s behaviour, or with yourself. While in truly threatening life-or-death situations such emotions help us take action, a threat response in a less dire situation might prime you to fight.

The first thing to do when you feel this anxiety is breathe. Slowly and deeply. And to become aware that your threat system is well and truly active.

The second thing is to remember children have the same threat system too. Part of our job is to lay down the soothing system for our children, until they can do it for themselves. So, tell your child you understand their pain. As Dr Justin Coulson, expert on Parental Guidance, says:

When someone is having a difficult time, behaving in a challenging way, they don’t need us to tell them that they are being silly, to calm down, to be quiet, to grow up. What they actually need is to have compassion […] to join them in their suffering […] to say, “It’s tough, isn’t it? How can I help?”

All parents have been down this path, and this is really hard. Ultimately, you will be okay.

None of us can be perfectly compassionate at every moment. And when we fail at being this, what should we do? Be compassionate, of course. Give yourself permission to be human and make mistakes, just as you do with your children.

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. Your kid is having a meltdown in the supermarket. In tough parenting moments, here’s what you can do – https://theconversation.com/your-kid-is-having-a-meltdown-in-the-supermarket-in-tough-parenting-moments-heres-what-you-can-do-171935

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Taylor Coyne, Doctoral Candidate, UNSW

“We know we can do better than this, don’t we?”

This line sits towards the concluding paragraphs of Country: Future Fire, Future Farming, by Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian activist and author Bruce Pascoe and non-Indigenous historian Bill Gammage.

The book is part of the wider six-part “First Knowledges” series published by Thames and Hudson in collaboration with the National Library of Australia. It focuses on a collection of topics, including astronomy, design, law and, in the case of this book, Country.

As stated by editor Margo Neale in the introduction, the overarching series is designed to “stimulate and provoke you to enlarge your mind and expand your worldview to encompass limitless other possibilities, including ways in which you can learn from the Aboriginal archive of knowledge embodied in Country.”

For many, the book will be a timely invitation to be a part of constructive dialogue and a call to take action, especially in light of the lacklustre resolutions from COP26 and following the Black Summer bushfires.

For myself, a non-Indigenous scholar researching waters throughout Eora Country, I humbly come to this review with deep awareness of my position, and firmly take up the invitation to be part of this dialogue and follow through with action.

Read more:
How the Dark Emu debate limits representation of Aboriginal people in Australia

A conversation between experts

Country: Future Fire, Future Farming is crafted to present the two authors’ own personal perspectives, while drawing on rich evidence to support their claims.

After their co-written opening chapter, Pascoe starts off the book’s first three solo-written chapters. Then, Gammage takes over with the next four, before they round off their thoughts in two distinctly separate but ideologically similar concluding chapters.

At the core of their book, Pascoe and Gammage affirm in varying ways that Aboriginal people were – and are – farmers and agriculturalists. Pascoe expands on this in his chapters by describing the ways Aboriginal peoples have made use of the plants and animals across Australia.

According to Pascoe, using and understanding these knowledges can make farming in Australia better.

Gammage’s chapters focuses almost entirely on fire – its use by Aboriginal people as a tool to farm the land, and the detrimental misunderstandings of Aboriginal fire practices appropriated by non-Indigenous people.

Consistently throughout the book, there is a subtle dialogue that emerges between the two authors. The dialogue could at times be more pressing, especially when contrasting perspectives arise, such as their differences in dating Aboriginal people’s presence on the continent or their interpretations of particular terms.

On their own, the wonderfully detailed chapters provide ample room to reflect on key ideas (farming and fire) which both authors have become known for. That said, at times, I craved a more emphatic conversation between the two.

Payment where payment is due

In both subject and in tone, Country: Future Fire, Future Farming feels like a polite conversation, with any arguments quite restrained.

Pascoe writes with urgency and an enthusiasm as vibrant as the landscapes he describes. He opens the book’s first chapter with an unequivocal call to arms – what is happening across Australia with land care (as well as the many other issues relating to Indigenous affairs) is not good enough anymore.

Quite consistently throughout, Pascoe reaffirms the idea that Aboriginal land care is done with the aim to better the “common wealth”, in contrast to the damaging practices of non-Indigenous settlers.

He asserts Aboriginal people should be the primary beneficiaries of wealth generated by land care practices that are environmentally and economically productive.

Similarly, Gammage directs non-Indigenous peoples not to “commandeer traditional expertise” – a hard-pressed claim to refute.

This tension of wanting to celebrate Indigenous knowledges while also ensuring it is not appropriated by non-Indigenous people for economic gain has been articulated as “bio-piracy.” The scholars Dr Daniel Robinson and Dr Miri Raven focus on this issue extensively in their work.

Read more:
Australia’s agriculture sector sorely needs more insights from First Nations people. Here’s how we get there

We know we can do better than this

The bulk of the book outlines the many intricate knowledges that Indigenous people across Australia have maintained.

Pascoe works tirelessly to address the misconception surrounding “hunter-gatherering” – the idea that Indigenous peoples were only ever nomadic hunter-gatherers – which is also at the core of Pascoe’s acclaimed work, Dark Emu.

In addition, Pascoe’s witty, sharp, and conversational chapters on plants and animals are what many have come to expect of him.

Gammage presents a pragmatic recount of the importance of fire to people in Australia – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, now and in the past. It is detailed and logical. In places, the practicality of Gammage’s writing overwhelms the reflexive narrative I was craving, especially when read against the works of Victor Steffensen or Vanessa Cavanagh.

That said, both the breadth of materials the two authors engage with, and the depth with which they are analysed, is impeccable.

Recent critiques of Pascoe’s engagement with evidence in relation to Dark Emu have brightened the discussions in this space. Quite pleasantly, Pascoe makes some effort to respond to these critiques, stating,

Hunting and gathering is a sustainable and healthy lifestyle but it is not the only thing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did.

The book’s interpretation of historical material, such as Pascoe’s commentary on the Melbourne Museum’s recent Indigenous Bread research, or Gammage’s interrogation of historical archives, is invigorating, contemplative and lush.

Reading the book excites me to want to act to care for land, and respectfully celebrate Indigenous knowledges. If you have a desire to be part of the action, then this book is for you.

Country: Future Fire, Future Farming opens space for dialogue, but readers need to want to be part of this conversation to begin with.

Taylor Coyne 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. Book Review: Country is an urgent call to learn from Indigenous knowledges to care for the land – https://theconversation.com/book-review-country-is-an-urgent-call-to-learn-from-indigenous-knowledges-to-care-for-the-land-172142

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

The Morrison government has given itself a massive “war chest” for spending in the run-up to next year’s election, the budget update released on Thursday reveals.

The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) shows $15.9 billion in expenditure “decisions taken but not yet announced and not for publication” over the forward estimates.

It is believed that roughly half of this refers to commercial-in-confidence and like decisions, such as vaccine purchases – leaving the rest for pre-election spending.

Last year’s MYEFO had only $1.5 billion for unannounced spending.

On the revenue side, the unannounced decisions amount to only $940 million over the forward estimates.

This is despite the government being expected to announce tax cuts for low and middle income earners. But the Parliamentary Budget Office pointed out in a paper last week that measures dealing purely with tax do not have to be included in the unannounced category – rather they can be factored into the overall revenue estimate.

The MYEFO shows only a very small fall in the predicted deficit compared to the May budget. This is because of some spending blowouts, including for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and the government’s decision to leave maximum room for election sweeteners.

The deficit for this financial year is expected to be $99.2 billion (4.5% of GDP), which is $7.4 billion better than the budget forecast.

Across the four-year forward estimates, there is an improvement of only $2.3 billion compared to the budget.

Improving economy, growing expenses

The update paints an optimistic picture, declaring “the Australian economy is rebounding strongly from the impact of the Delta outbreaks”.

It comes as the Omicron variant is hitting the country, with estimates of a quick spread in coming weeks and months.

But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told a news conference the expectation was that Omicron would not derail the recovery.

Economic growth, which was 1.5% in 2020-21, is forecast to be 3.75% in this financial year and 3.5% in 2022-23.

The unemployment rate is forecast to fall to 4.5% by mid-2022, and 4.25% by mid-2023.

The unemployment figure for November, released on Thursday just ahead of MYEFO shows a fall from 5.2% in October to 4.6% in November.

Wage growth is expected to climb from 2.25% this financial year to 2.75% next financial year and to 3.25% by 2024-25.

Non-mining business investment, expected to grow 1.5% this financial year at budget time, is now expected to climb 8.5%.

The update says that the resilience of the economy has contributed to an upgrade in tax receipts of $95 billion over the forward estimates.

Read more:
That reverse mortgage scheme the government is about to re-announce, how does it work?

Both gross and net debt are projected to be lower in the forward estimates and the medium term than forecast in the budget.

Gross debt is expected to be 41.8% of GDP at June 30, 2022 and to stabilise at about 50% of GDP in the medium term.

Net debt is expected to be 30.6% of GDP in June next year and to peak at 37.4% in mid 2025, before improving over the medium term to react 35.5% in June 2032.

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. Fydenberg’s MYEFO Budget update shows big election war chest – https://theconversation.com/fydenbergs-myefo-budget-update-shows-big-election-war-chest-173905

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Savulescu, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford

Unvaccinated mother, 27, dies with coronavirus as her father calls for fines for people who refuse jab.

This is the kind of headline you may have seen over the past year, an example highlighting public shaming of unvaccinated people who die of COVID-19.

One news outlet compiled a list of “notable anti-vaxxers who have died from COVID-19”.

There’s shaming on social media, too. For instance, a whole Reddit channel is devoted to mocking people who die after refusing the vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccinations save lives and reduce the need for hospitalisation. This is all important public health information.

Telling relatable stories and using emotive language about vaccination sends a message: getting vaccinated is good.

But the problem with the examples above is their tone and the way unvaccinated people are singled out. There’s also a murkier reason behind this shaming.

Read more:
Why telling stories could be a more powerful way of convincing some people to take a COVID vaccine than just the facts

Why do we shame people?

Public shaming is not new. It is entrenched in human history and psychology. From an evolutionary perspective, shame is a way of keeping individuals accountable to the other members of their community for their perceived anti-social behaviours.

Philosophers Guy Aitchison and Saladin Meckled-Garcia say online public shaming is a way of collectively punishing a person “for having a certain kind of moral character”. This punishment (or “reputational cost”) can be a way of enforcing norms in society.

However, shaming others is also a way of signalling our own virtue and trustworthiness. Moralising about other people’s behaviour can help us feel better about ourselves.

The online world exacerbates this human tendency. It polarises two heavily moralised camps: the self-perceived good, responsible people on one side (the shaming ones), and the ones considered bad, irresponsible people on the other (the shamed ones).

Vaccination has become such a sensitive issue it easily triggers the instinct to shame others.

Read more:
The power of public shaming, for good and for ill

Do people deserve to be shamed?

Shaming people for their health-related choices disregards the complexities about whether people are individually responsible for their own decisions.

Take obesity, another example associated with public shaming. The extent to which individuals are responsible for their obesity or for the lifestyle that causes obesity is complex. We need to consider issues including genes, environment, wealth, as well as choice. Indeed, shaming people for their obesity (“fat shaming”) is widely considered unacceptable.

Likewise, low levels of vaccine uptake in some communities is often linked to structural inequalities, including health inequality, and a resulting lack of trust. The blame for this situation is typically placed on broader society and institutions, and not on the affected groups or individuals.

If someone cannot be blamed for something, then shaming them is not ethically justifiable.

In discussions of responsibility it is now common to focus on “structural injustice” or “inequality” – the injustice of various social factors that shape choice and behaviour.

This applies not only to obesity, drugs, alcohol but also to vaccination decisions.

Even where this is not the case, there has been a targeted, systematic and even state-sponsored misinformation campaign about vaccines. People who are misinformed are victims, not perpetrators.

Finally, we should remember why medical ethics has designated autonomy and consent as foundational ethical values. Even where there is a clear expected benefit, and only very rare side effects, these won’t be shared equally. Many will have their lives saved. But some people will be the ones who suffer the harms. This a strong reason for respecting people’s decision about what risks to take on themselves.

Read more:
There’s no need to pause vaccine rollouts when there’s a safety scare. Give the public the facts and let them decide

Barring any public health issue, an individual should make the decisions about health risks, whether they are from the disease or vaccines. Shaming them disregards the complexities of the distribution of risks and benefits, of the way individual values affect individual risk assessment, and of personal circumstances shaping individuals’ views on vaccines.

Granted, public health ethics is a broader area and autonomy does not have the same weight there, because other people’s health interests are at stake.

But when public health issues do arise, it is up to public health authorities to limit autonomy through appropriate and more ethical strategies.

One of us (Savulescu) has previously argued for incentives to vaccinate. Mandatory vaccination (such as imposing fines, or other penalties such as limitations on access to certain spaces) would require a separate ethical discussion, but could also be preferable in certain circumstances.

Read more:
Anger, grievance, resentment: we need to understand how anti-vaxxers feel to make sense of their actions

Shaming is a form of vigilantism

One could plausibly imagine shaming pleases people who are vaccinated – especially the most self-righteous among them. But those who are opposed to vaccines, or who mistrust the government messages, are unlikely to be persuaded and may even be entrenched.

Even if shaming was effective, shaming wouldn’t necessarily be ethically justified. Not everything that is effective at achieving a goal is also ethical. Torture is, generally, not a justifiable way to obtain information, even if that information is credible and life-saving.

Shaming is a form of vigilantism, a mob behaviour. We have moved beyond burning witches or atheists, or lynching wrong-doers. We should stop doing these things also in the metaphorical sense.

We have parliaments and formal mechanisms for limiting behaviour, or incentivising it. We should leave it to these to regulate behaviour, not the media or the mob.

Julian Savulescu receives funding from the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education, NHMRC, Wellcome Trust, Australian Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (Arts and Humanities Research Council) as part of the Ethics Accelerator Award AH/V013947/1, WHO. He is a Partner Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage award (LP190100841, Oct 2020-2023) which involves industry partnership from Illumina. He does not personally receive any funds from Illumina. He is a paid member of the Bayer Pharmaceuticals Bioethics Committee.

Alberto Giubilini receives funding from the Wellcome Trust.

– ref. Shaming unvaccinated people has to stop. We’ve turned into an angry mob and it’s getting ugly – https://theconversation.com/shaming-unvaccinated-people-has-to-stop-weve-turned-into-an-angry-mob-and-its-getting-ugly-173137

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Savulescu, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford

Unvaccinated mother, 27, dies with coronavirus as her father calls for fines for people who refuse jab.

This is the kind of headline you may have seen over the past year, an example highlighting public shaming of unvaccinated people who die of COVID-19.

One news outlet compiled a list of “notable anti-vaxxers who have died from COVID-19”.

There’s shaming on social media, too. For instance, a whole Reddit channel is devoted to mocking people who die after refusing the vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccinations save lives and reduce the need for hospitalisation. This is all important public health information.

Telling relatable stories and using emotive language about vaccination sends a message: getting vaccinated is good.

But the problem with the examples above is their tone and the way unvaccinated people are singled out. There’s also a murkier reason behind this shaming.

Read more:
Why telling stories could be a more powerful way of convincing some people to take a COVID vaccine than just the facts

Why do we shame people?

Public shaming is not new. It is entrenched in human history and psychology. From an evolutionary perspective, shame is a way of keeping individuals accountable to the other members of their community for their perceived anti-social behaviours.

Philosophers Guy Aitchison and Saladin Meckled-Garcia say online public shaming is a way of collectively punishing a person “for having a certain kind of moral character”. This punishment (or “reputational cost”) can be a way of enforcing norms in society.

However, shaming others is also a way of signalling our own virtue and trustworthiness. Moralising about other people’s behaviour can help us feel better about ourselves.

The online world exacerbates this human tendency. It polarises two heavily moralised camps: the self-perceived good, responsible people on one side (the shaming ones), and the ones considered bad, irresponsible people on the other (the shamed ones).

Vaccination has become such a sensitive issue it easily triggers the instinct to shame others.

Read more:
The power of public shaming, for good and for ill

Do people deserve to be shamed?

Shaming people for their health-related choices disregards the complexities about whether people are individually responsible for their own decisions.

Take obesity, another example associated with public shaming. The extent to which individuals are responsible for their obesity or for the lifestyle that causes obesity is complex. We need to consider issues including genes, environment, wealth, as well as choice. Indeed, shaming people for their obesity (“fat shaming”) is widely considered unacceptable.

Likewise, low levels of vaccine uptake in some communities is often linked to structural inequalities, including health inequality, and a resulting lack of trust. The blame for this situation is typically placed on broader society and institutions, and not on the affected groups or individuals.

If someone cannot be blamed for something, then shaming them is not ethically justifiable.

In discussions of responsibility it is now common to focus on “structural injustice” or “inequality” – the injustice of various social factors that shape choice and behaviour.

This applies not only to obesity, drugs, alcohol but also to vaccination decisions.

Even where this is not the case, there has been a targeted, systematic and even state-sponsored misinformation campaign about vaccines. People who are misinformed are victims, not perpetrators.

Finally, we should remember why medical ethics has designated autonomy and consent as foundational ethical values. Even where there is a clear expected benefit, and only very rare side effects, these won’t be shared equally. Many will have their lives saved. But some people will be the ones who suffer the harms. This a strong reason for respecting people’s decision about what risks to take on themselves.

Read more:
There’s no need to pause vaccine rollouts when there’s a safety scare. Give the public the facts and let them decide

Barring any public health issue, an individual should make the decisions about health risks, whether they are from the disease or vaccines. Shaming them disregards the complexities of the distribution of risks and benefits, of the way individual values affect individual risk assessment, and of personal circumstances shaping individuals’ views on vaccines.

Granted, public health ethics is a broader area and autonomy does not have the same weight there, because other people’s health interests are at stake.

But when public health issues do arise, it is up to public health authorities to limit autonomy through appropriate and more ethical strategies.

One of us (Savulescu) has previously argued for incentives to vaccinate. Mandatory vaccination (such as imposing fines, or other penalties such as limitations on access to certain spaces) would require a separate ethical discussion, but could also be preferable in certain circumstances.

Read more:
Anger, grievance, resentment: we need to understand how anti-vaxxers feel to make sense of their actions

Shaming is a form of vigilantism

One could plausibly imagine shaming pleases people who are vaccinated – especially the most self-righteous among them. But those who are opposed to vaccines, or who mistrust the government messages, are unlikely to be persuaded and may even be entrenched.

Even if shaming was effective, shaming wouldn’t necessarily be ethically justified. Not everything that is effective at achieving a goal is also ethical. Torture is, generally, not a justifiable way to obtain information, even if that information is credible and life-saving.

Shaming is a form of vigilantism, a mob behaviour. We have moved beyond burning witches or atheists, or lynching wrong-doers. We should stop doing these things also in the metaphorical sense.

We have parliaments and formal mechanisms for limiting behaviour, or incentivising it. We should leave it to these to regulate behaviour, not the media or the mob.

Julian Savulescu receives funding from the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education, NHMRC, Wellcome Trust, Australian Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (Arts and Humanities Research Council) as part of the Ethics Accelerator Award AH/V013947/1, WHO. He is a Partner Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage award (LP190100841, Oct 2020-2023) which involves industry partnership from Illumina. He does not personally receive any funds from Illumina. He is a paid member of the Bayer Pharmaceuticals Bioethics Committee.

Alberto Giubilini receives funding from the Wellcome Trust.

– ref. Shaming unvaccinated people has to stop. We’ve turned into a lynch mob and it’s getting ugly – https://theconversation.com/shaming-unvaccinated-people-has-to-stop-weve-turned-into-a-lynch-mob-and-its-getting-ugly-173137

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shayne McGregor, Associate Professor, and Associate Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Monash University

Severe coastal flooding inundated islands and atolls across the western equatorial Pacific last week, with widespread damage to buildings and food crops in the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

On one level, very high tides are normal at this time of year in the western Pacific, and are known as “spring tides”. But why is the damage so bad this time? The primary reason is these nations are enduring a flooding trifecta: a combination of spring tides, climate change and La Niña.

La Niña is a natural climate phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean known for bringing wet weather, including in eastern Australia. A less-known impact is that La Niña also raises sea levels in the western tropical Pacific.

In a terrifying glimpse of things to come, this current La Niña is raising sea levels by 15-20 centimetres in some western Pacific regions – the same sea level rise projected to occur globally by 2050, regardless of how much we cut global emissions between now and then. So let’s look at this phenomena in more detail, and why we can expect more flooding over the summer.

These spring tides aren’t unusual

Low-lying islands in the Pacific are considered the frontline of climate change, where sea level rise poses an existential threat that could force millions of people to find new homes in the coming decades.

Last week’s tidal floods show what will be the new normal by 2050. In the Marshall Islands, for example, waves were washing over boulder barriers, causing flooding on roads half a metre deep.

This flooding has coincided with the recent spring tides. But while there is year to year variability in the magnitude of these tides that vary from location to location, this year’s spring tides aren’t actually unusually higher than those seen in previous years.

For instance, tidal analysis shows annual maximum sea levels at stations in Lombrom (Manus, Papua New Guinea) and Dekehtik (Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia) are roughly 1-3cm higher than last year. Meanwhile, those at Betio (Tarawa, Kiribati) and Uliga (Majuro, Marshall Islands) are roughly 3-6cm lower.

This means the combined impacts of sea level rise from climate change and the ongoing La Niña event are largely responsible for this year’s increased flooding.

A double whammy

The latest assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds global average sea levels rose by about 20cm between 1901 and 2018.

This sea level rise would, of course, lead to more coastal inundation in low-lying regions during spring tides, like those in the western tropical Pacific. However, sea level rise increases at a relatively small rate – around 3 millimetres per year. So while this can create large differences over decades and longer, year to year differences are small.

Read more:
Do La Niña’s rains mean boom or bust for Australian farmers?

This means while global mean sea level rise has likely contributed to last week’s floods, there is relatively small differences between this year and the previous few years.

This is where La Niña makes a crucial difference. We know La Nina events impact the climate of nations across the Pacific, bringing an increased chance of high rainfall and tropical cyclone landfall in some locations.

But the easterly trade winds, which blow across the Pacific Ocean from east to west, are stronger in La Niña years. This leads to a larger build up of warm water in the western Pacific.

Warm water is generally thicker than cool water (due to thermal expansion), meaning the high heat in the western equatorial Pacific and Indonesian Seas during La Niña events is often accompanied by higher sea levels.

Read more:
Back so soon, La Niña? Here’s why we’re copping two soggy summers in a row

This year is certainly no different, as can be seen in sea surface height anomaly maps here and here.

From these maps, along with past studies, it’s clear Pacific islands west of the date line (180⁰E) and between Fiji and the Marshall Islands (15⁰N-15⁰S) are those most at risk of high sea levels during La Niña events.

What could the future hold?

We can expect to see more coastal flooding for these western Pacific islands and atolls over the coming summer months. This is because the La Niña-induced sea level rise is normally maintained throughout this period, along with more periods with high spring tides.

Interestingly, the high sea levels related to La Niña events in the northern hemisphere tend to peak in November-December, while they do not peak in the southern hemisphere until the following February-March.

This means many western Pacific locations on both sides of the equator will experience further coastal inundation in the short term. But the severity of these impacts is likely to increase in the southern hemisphere (such as the Solomon islands, Tuvalu and Samoa) and decrease in the northern hemisphere (such as the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia).

Looking forward towards 2050, a further 15-25cm of global average sea level rise is expected. La Niña events typically cause sea levels in these regions to rise 10-15cm above average, though some regions can bring sea levels up to 20cm.

Given the projected sea level rise in 2050 is similar to the La Niña-induced rise in the western Pacific, this current event provides an important insight into what will become “normal” inundation during spring tides.

Read more:
The seas are coming for us in Kiribati. Will Australia rehome us?

Unfortunately, climate projections show this level of sea level rise by 2050 is all but locked in, largely due to the greenhouse gas emissions we’ve already released.

Beyond 2050, we know sea levels will continue to rise for the next several centuries, and this will largely depend on our future emissions. To give low-lying island nations a fighting chance at surviving the coming floods, all nations (including Australia) must drastically and urgently cut emissions.

Shayne McGregor receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Environmental Science Program.

– ref. La Niña just raised sea levels in the western Pacific by up to 20cm. This height will be normal by 2050 – https://theconversation.com/la-nina-just-raised-sea-levels-in-the-western-pacific-by-up-to-20cm-this-height-will-be-normal-by-2050-173504

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne

The proposed appointment of Gina Cass-Gottlieb as chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) next year is welcome, as is the appointment of Liza Carver as ACCC enforcement commissioner.

If approved by a majority of the states, they will start in March.

Cass-Gottlieb is a fine appointment. She is widely regarded as the leading practitioner of competition law in Australia. Besides her outstanding skills, she has been adept at understanding the mind of the regulator and persuading clients to adapt their defence accordingly, quite often arriving at outcomes suitable for the defendant and the regulator.

A critical requirement is that the chair is a person of integrity who puts the public interest first. I believe Gina Cass-Gottlieb will do this despite years of being on the big business defence side.

I myself have urged her (and Liza Carver) to join the ACCC for over twenty years because I believe both have this essential attribute as well as the required skills.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb will be the first female chair since the establishment of competition institutions in the mid-1960s.

Interestingly, there has been a recent awakening by competition authorities and the OECD to the existence of gender issues in competition policy.

Read more:
Uncomfortable comparisons. Why Rod Sims broke the ACCC record

To take but one example, as everyone knows there has been massive discrimination past and present against women in terms of access to jobs, education, finance, small business opportunities, and so on.

This discrimination is not only inherently objectionable, but also constitutes a substantial restriction to competition in itself.

It will be interesting to see if the new leadership team addresses these issues – at least in their advocacy. I doubt there will be much litigation on this subject.

Liza Carver is also a very good appointment. In the 1990s, she was an associate commissioner of the ACCC for six years.

Her original background was from the consumer and public interest law community.

Like Gina Cass-Gottlieb, for the last twenty years she has been on the defence side, but I believe she too has the necessary public interest commitment essential for the appointment.

It is also timely to appoint a lawyer as chair.

Many years ago, I used to say that lawyers had an unwarranted monopoly on the chairmanship, as they did in the first twenty years of competition law.

These days I would say the opposite: economists should not have a monopoly and where they are appointed, they need to have a strong feel for legal questions.

Despite what you’ve heard, the ACCC litigated well

Some claim that the appointments have been made because the ACCC has been poor at litigation, citing evidence of a set of recent losses in merger cases. However, the ACCC’s litigation generally across the whole field of competition and consumer law has been effective and successful.

Its recent losses in merger cases are not essentially the fault of a weak litigation team, but rather reflect the fact that the test for substantial lessening of competition introduced in the 1990s has proved problematic.

Read more:
Are mergers harming consumers? We won’t know if we don’t check

The old pre-1990s test that a merger would only be prohibited if it gave rise to dominance had shortcomings. In particular, mergers that clearly would lessen competition – such as those where the number of major competitors was reduced from three to two – generally were left untouched.

But the test had one advantage: it was easy for courts to apply. It focused on the structure of the market at the time. It was not highly forward looking.

The current prohibition on mergers that are likely to “substantially lessen competition” is right in principle, but asks what the state of competition might be a few years after a merger.

Numerous fanciful stories are presented to the courts about how future competition is a real possibility, with the courts placing too much weight on the self-interested evidence of business applicants.

Sims put the public interest first

This problem has been added to by the substantial upskilling of the legal defence establishment compared with times in the 1990s when it was less equipped to deal with new vigorous enforcement of the law.

Claims that the ACCC’s own litigation skills are inadequate pale into insignificance compared with the forces arrayed against them.

Outgoing ACCC chair Rod Sims has proposed changes in merger law because of his concerns. One way of fighting off a stronger merger law is to claim it is the regulator’s skills in enforcing the law that are the problem, not the law.

Sims himself has a record of fine achievements across the range of litigation, consumer protection, regulation, market studies and advocacy.

He brought to bear his skills and experience working in government bureaucracy, as a regulator and as a person who spent ten years in the private sector.

He has made a special contribution with his world-first pioneering work on digital platforms, which is being copied around the world.

Sims also had that essential commitment to putting the public interest first, despite enormous pressures from those affected by the application of the law.

Crytocurrencies, cartels among priorities

Looking ahead, there are some challenges for the new ACCC chair: above all, continued vigorous and intelligent day-to-day enforcement of competition and consumer law across the board.

Continuing to make progress on the application of the law to the digital platforms will be especially challenging. The economic analysis needed in this area is essentially new and different from that needed in past litigation and regulation.

Big changes are looming in the financial services sector, including the rise of cryptocurrency and new forms of business like those in the buy now and pay later arena. These require careful handling to protect consumers.

Read more:
We allowed Facebook to grow big by worrying about the wrong thing

Recent changes in the law need careful application. Historically there has been some limitation on the reach of cartel law. In former times, certain business practices that brought about the same results as would an agreed cartel were not covered by the law.

These days if there is a “concerted practice” by business that falls short of an agreement to fix prices – but if it has that effect – it is covered by the new law. This will require careful testing.

I do not agree with the view that the ACCC should not advocate for changes in the law nor comment on competition issues.

Speaking up will matter

Without strong ACCC advocacy, most of the good changes in competition law in the past 30 years would not have occurred, including the improved, strong merger law, more sensible provisions about the abuse of market power, criminal sanctions for cartel conduct, unconscionable conduct laws and public support for the Hilmer competition reforms.

In these matters the ACCC has usually started out as a lone voice fighting often loud, hysterical and uninformed opposition from the big end of town, both corporates and lawyers defending their clients.

Many challenges lie ahead for the new chair, but she will find Rod Sims has left the ACCC in excellent shape. We wish her well.

Allan Fels was chair of the ACCC from its inception in 1995 until June 2003.

Allan Fels was chair of the ACCC from its inception in 1995 until June 2003.

– ref. Allan Fels: As ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb will put the public interest first, despite years of fighting for business – https://theconversation.com/allan-fels-as-accc-chair-gina-cass-gottlieb-will-put-the-public-interest-first-despite-years-of-fighting-for-business-173736

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Thiele, Adjunct Assoc. Professor, The University of Western Australia

“What’s in a name?”, asked Juliet of Romeo. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

But, as with the Montagues and Capulets, names mean a lot, and can cause a great deal of heartache.

My colleagues and I are taxonomists, which means we name living things. While we’ve never named a rose, we do discover and name new Australian species of plants and animals – and there are a lot of them!

Read more:
About 500,000 Australian species are undiscovered – and scientists are on a 25-year mission to finish the job

For each new species we discover, we create and publish a Latin scientific name, following a set of international rules and conventions. The name has two parts: the first part is the genus name (such as Eucalyptus), which describes the group of species to which the new species belongs, and the second part is a species name (such as globulus, thereby making the name Eucalyptus globulus) particular to the new species itself. New species are either added to an existing genus, or occasionally, if they’re sufficiently novel, are given their own new genus.

Some scientific names are widely known – arguably none more so than our own, Homo sapiens. And gardeners or nature enthusiasts will be familiar with genus names such as Acacia, Callistemon or Banksia.

This all sounds pretty uncontroversial. But as with Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, history and tradition sometimes present problems.

What’s in a name?

Take the genus Hibbertia, the Australian guineaflowers. This is one of the largest genera of plants in Australia, and the one we study.

There are many new and yet-unnamed species of Hibbertia, which means new species names are regularly added to this genus.

Many scientific names are derived from a feature of the species or genus being named, such as Eucalyptus, from the Greek for “well-covered” (a reference to the operculum or bud-cap that covers unopened eucalypt flowers).

Others honour significant people, either living or dead. Hibbertia is named after a wealthy 19th-century English patron of botany, George Hibbert.

And here’s where things stop being straightforward, because Hibbert’s wealth came almost entirely from the transatlantic slave trade. He profited from taking slaves from Africa to the New World, selling some and using others on his family’s extensive plantations, then transporting slave-produced sugar and cotton back to England.

Hibbert was also a prominent member of the British parliament and a staunch opponent of abolition. He and his ilk argued that slavery was economically necessary for England, and even that slaves were better off on the plantations than in their homelands.

Even at the time, his views were considered abhorrent by many critics. But despite this, he was handsomely recompensed for his “losses” when Britain finally abolished slavery in 1807.

So, should Hibbert be honoured with the name of a genus of plants, to which new species are still being added today – effectively meaning he is honoured afresh with each new publication?

We don’t believe so. Just like statues, buildings, and street or suburb names, we think a reckoning is due for scientific species names that honour people who held views or acted in ways that are deeply dishonourable, highly problematic or truly egregious by modern standards.

Just as Western Australia’s King Leopold Range was recently renamed to remove the link to the atrocious Leopold II of Belgium, we would like Hibbertia to bear a more appropriate and less troubling name.

The same goes for the Great Barrier Reef coral Catalaphyllia jardinei, named after Frank Jardine, a brutal dispossessor of Aboriginal people in North Queensland. And, perhaps most astoundingly, the rare Slovenian cave beetle Anophthalmus hitleri, which was named in 1933 in honour of Adolf Hitler.

This name is unfortunate for several reasons: despite being a small, somewhat nondescript, blind beetle, in recent years it has been reportedly pushed to the brink of extinction by Nazi memorabilia enthusiasts. Specimens are even being stolen from museum collections for sale into this lucrative market.

Aye, there’s the rub

Unfortunately, the official rules don’t allow us to rename Hibbertia or any other species that has a troubling or inappropriate name.

To solve this, we propose a change to the international rules for naming species. Our proposal, if adopted, would establish an international expert committee to decide what do about scientific names that honour inappropriate people or are based on culturally offensive words.

An example of the latter is the many names of plants based on the Latin caffra, the origin of which is a word so offensive to Black Africans that its use is banned in South Africa.

Some may argue the scholarly naming of species should remain aloof from social change, and that Hibbert’s views on slavery are irrelevant to the classification of Australian flowers. We counter that, just like toppling statues in Bristol Harbour or removing Cecil Rhodes’ name from public buildings, renaming things is important and necessary if we are to right history’s wrongs.

Read more:
WA’s first governor James Stirling had links to slavery, as well as directing a massacre. Should he be honoured?

We believe that science, including taxonomy, must be socially responsible and responsive. Science is embedded in culture rather than housed in ivory towers, and scientists should work for the common good rather than blindly follow tradition. Deeply problematic names pervade science just as they pervade our streets, cities and landscapes.

Hibbertia may be just a name, but we believe a different name for this lovely genus of Australian flowers would smell much sweeter.

This article was co-authored by Tim Hammer, a postdoctoral research fellow at the State Herbarium of South Australia.

Kevin Thiele 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. Hibbert’s flowers and Hitler’s beetle – what do we do when species are named after history’s monsters? – https://theconversation.com/hibberts-flowers-and-hitlers-beetle-what-do-we-do-when-species-are-named-after-historys-monsters-172602

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Hensher, Associate Professor of Health Systems Financing & Organisation, Deakin University

Over the past two years, we’ve learned COVID-19 survivors can develop a range of longer-term symptoms we now call “long COVID”. This includes people who did not have severe illness initially.

Such longer-term symptoms can affect multiple systems in the body. This can result in ongoing, severe fatigue plus a wide range of other symptoms, including pain, as well as breathing, neurological, sleep and mental health problems.

So far, Australia has had far fewer COVID-19 cases than many other nations. But as we re-open, this situation may change. So we will likely see more long COVID in the months and years ahead.

Read more:
The mystery of ‘long COVID’: up to 1 in 3 people who catch the virus suffer for months. Here’s what we know so far

Our research, which we posted online as a pre-print and so has yet to be independently verified, examined the shifting burden of disease of COVID-19 as Australia re-opens and as high vaccination rates reduce mortality and severe illness.

We show how long COVID will increasingly drive the burden of COVID illness, even as death rates decline.

We also estimate the likely numbers of long COVID cases we can expect in Australia over the two years following reopening.

We wrote this briefing paper before the rise of Omicron, the impact of which we’re yet to fully understand.

Read more:
Will omicron – the new coronavirus variant of concern – be more contagious than delta? A virus evolution expert explains what researchers know and what they don’t

Here’s what we did and what we found

We examined the 2021 Delta outbreaks in Victoria and New South Wales in which nearly 140,000 people had been infected by the end of October.

We estimated long COVID prevalence using two sources. A large dataset from the UK found more than 13% of people had symptoms after 12 weeks. A much smaller study conducted in NSW found about 5% had symptoms over roughly the same period.

Our modelling suggests, by the end of October, the combined Victoria and NSW outbreaks may have already led to 9,450–19,800 people having developed long COVID that could last 12 weeks after their COVID infection.

Even more will have experienced long COVID symptoms for a shorter time: 34,000-44,500 people will likely have symptoms for at least three weeks after first becoming ill, but our model indicates more than half will then recover over the following nine weeks.

Read more:
Will Australia follow Europe into a fourth COVID wave? Boosters, vaccinating kids, ventilation and masks may help us avoid it

We also estimated the likely consequences for long COVID if we follow
Australia’s national re-opening plan, based on interim modelling from the Doherty Institute, which has since been updated.

The Doherty Institute modelled various scenarios with different vaccination rates and public health measures in place. These gave different estimates of COVID-19 cases. We combined these with our upper and lower estimates for long COVID prevalence.

We calculated that more limited relaxation of public health measures could generate 10,000-34,000 long COVID cases (people with symptoms lasting at least 12 weeks). More complete relaxation of public health measures could lead to 60,000-133,000 long COVID cases.

Based on the longer-term UK data for long COVID prevalence, we calculated 2,000-11,000 people might still be sick a year after their initial infection.

What we cannot be absolutely certain about is the impact of vaccination on the expected number of long COVID cases. Some studies suggest that if vaccinated people become infected, this reduces their chance of developing long COVID, but the evidence remains uncertain.

Read more:
We shouldn’t lift all COVID public health measures until kids are vaccinated. Here’s why

Many impacts, beyond health

Long COVID can be a debilitating and distressing health condition. It also has a number of economic impacts, for the health system and people’s ability to work.

For instance, people with long COVID require coordinated care across a range of different health services and specialties.

Recent data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics indicate that around 1.2 million people reported long COVID symptoms in the four weeks to the end of October. The UK health secretary said he was alarmed at the growing scale of this problem for the National Health Service.

Indeed, attempts to provide long COVID care through specialised hospital-based clinics in the UK and elsewhere have led to long waiting times and uneven access.

By contrast, Australia needs to focus urgently on identifying and counting long COVID. It also needs to establish mechanisms to coordinate care for long COVID by mobilising resources across the community and private sectors, not just public hospitals.

Meeting the emerging needs of people with long COVID represents an additional burden on health-care systems already battered by COVID and rapidly rising backlogs of care for other conditions.

If health-care workers are particularly at risk of long COVID as some people claim, this will further stretch health systems as they take time out to recover or leave the workforce.

Read more:
6 ways to prevent a mass exodus of health workers

Beyond health care, long COVID again highlights weaknesses which were made clear early in the COVID-19 pandemic, but which have not yet been remedied.

COVID-19 has more severely affected those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, and who rely on insecure employment. We expect long COVID to continue to be over-represented in this already disadvantaged population.

Read more:
Social media, activism, trucker caps: the fascinating story behind long COVID

Avoiding COVID-19 in the first place

While societies around the world grapple with addressing the types of disadvantage the pandemic has exposed, there are several steps individual people can take to minimise their risk of long COVID.

Obviously, this means minimising your risk of COVID-19 in the first place. This means vaccination, mask wearing where appropriate, and complying with other public health measures.

Meanwhile, if you test positive for COVID-19, isolate early, rest and do not return to work until you have fully recovered.

We refer in this piece to earlier work we (MH and MRA) undertook to produce an Issues Brief commissioned by the Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research, the research arm of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association. No funding or remuneration was provided by the Deeble Institute or AHHA for that work.

We refer in this piece to earlier work we (MH and MRA) undertook to produce an Issues Brief commissioned by the Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research, the research arm of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association. No funding or remuneration was provided by the Deeble Institute or AHHA for that work.

– ref. We calculated the impact of ‘long COVID’ as Australia opens up. Even without Omicron, we’re worried – https://theconversation.com/we-calculated-the-impact-of-long-covid-as-australia-opens-up-even-without-omicron-were-worried-168662