Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Charles Skinner, Senior Research Fellow, Indigenous Health, Macquarie University

Water plays a significant role in Aboriginal culture. The Fish Traps in Brewarrina, Baiame’s Ngunnhu, for example, were built by eight clan groups and continue to sustainably fish the Barwon River.

Respect for and understanding of water has enabled Aboriginal people to thrive for millennia in very hot and remote places. The impacts of colonisation including introduced species of plants and animals, farming and overuse of rivers and ground water, compounded by global warming, has dramatically reduced water access and quality, and in some places threatened the water supply.

Recent coverage of the quality of drinking water in Walgett in New South Wales again highlights that clean, safe drinking water is not a right in Australia. Walgett residents say the water is unsafe to drink and they’re backed by scientists from the George Institute who report an urgent need to address drinking water quality.

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

Supply is only half the issue

The reasons for poor or limited water supply vary. They include river flows and environmental health issues, infrastructure, and insufficient skilled, credentialed staff available to conduct water quality checks. But understanding the causes is one thing. Taking active steps to address them is another.

When clean, safe water doesn’t flow to communities, they are more likely to drink sugar-sweetened beverages. Our 2020 study visited three remote schools with high proportions of Aboriginal students. Our initial results, gathered in 2014, found 64% of children regularly drank sugary drinks. Some 5% thought drinking water was “unhealthy”. In some places in Australia that’s true at least some of the time.

The availability of safe drinking water impacts tooth decay, obesity and diseases like diabetes. Australia has drinking water quality guidelines but they are not mandatory.

We installed cold, filtered water fountains through a structured, collaborative process and, as a result, found in 2018 that 84% of children at those same schools drank water every day. The percentage who regularly drank sugary drinks shrank to 33% in the intervening four-year period.

Our follow up study found towns of lower socioeconomic status were less likely to have access to community drinking water and more likely to have a high Aboriginal population. So, Aboriginal people are particularly disadvantaged by this issue. It also found that in many towns the cheapest drink is soft drink.

Making a difference through codesign

We have been working with NSW communities to install refrigerated water fountains in rural and remote places. We collaborate with local Aboriginal land councils, traditional owners, and local government using codesign principles. Together we confirm the need, identify a suitable location and then select the right model of water fountain. We also negotiate local responsibility for ongoing maintenance and provide water bottles, education resources and spare filters.

In most cases we work with schools and preschools to embed positive health messages and reinforce water as the best drink. As Kim Cooke, Director Little Yuin Preschool in Wallaga Lake says,

The water fountain is a wonderful asset to the preschool outdoor learning environment. For us, as educators, it is central to the children’s health to be able to hydrate their bodies ready for learning; and having access to fresh water to drink everyday has led to an increase in their independence and learning about the importance of drinking water throughout the day.

Read more:
Travelling around Australia this summer? Here’s how to know if the water is safe to drink

Meeting local need

We recently conducted a survey of towns across Australia with a population of fewer than 5,000 people and Aboriginal population greater than 3%. We estimated that 222 places out of 612 small towns nationally do not have community drinking water.

Providing drinking water to every Australian town requires a place-by-place approach so that communities get a say about how and where fountains are installed and they meet local needs. Schools and preschools can participate in health promotion too. A national approach that overcomes the policy “ping pong” of responsibility for water safety, quality and infrastructure between local, state and the federal governments is also required. A national approach would enable:

• high quality infrastructure to be purchased at reasonable price

• professional and timely installation

• local responsibility for maintenance

• codesign so that each town gets the infrastructure they need, where it’s needed.

We estimate it would cost A$5 million to solve this problem nationally, based on our installation costs in NSW communities to date – a small investment in the prevention of chronic disease.

Water fountains in every town won’t solve all of our water issues. But they could ensure everyone can access free, cold drinks and reduce sugar consumption.

As community member, Brewarrina and Brewarrina Shire Councillor Aunty Trish says:

Having cold water available after you finish your sports or on our hot days will mean a lot for the community, fresh water helps with the health and wellbeing of the community.

Read more:
Drinking water can be a dangerous cocktail for people in flood areas

The authors wish to acknowledge Uncle Boe Rambaldini and Professor Chris Bourke, our project ambassadors. Aboriginal communities and local government authorities that have participated in our research and the implementation of water fountains. Our partners at the Alliance for a Cavity Free Future, Australian Dental Association NSW Branch, NSW Council of Social Service, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Australian Red Cross.

John Charles Skinner has consulted to Colgate Palmolive Pty Ltd and the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW. He receives funding from Asthma Australia for research. He is affiliated with Charles Sturt University.

Kylie Gwynne receives funding from NHMRC and various charities/foundations for research. She is affiliated with the Resolution Institute.

Tom Calma receives funding from a consultancy on tackling Indigenous smoking from the Department of Health and Aged Care, an academic appointment with the University of Sydney and various other consultancies. He is affiliated with the University of Canberra and University of Sydney.

– ref. Drinking fountains in every town won’t fix all our water issues – but it’s a healthy start – https://theconversation.com/drinking-fountains-in-every-town-wont-fix-all-our-water-issues-but-its-a-healthy-start-204912

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofía López-Cubillos, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

Bees are crucial for producing many of our beloved foods and beverages. Coffee is one crop that benefits from bee pollination.

Unfortunately, pollinator numbers are falling worldwide. Many are facing extinction. This decline is due in part to ever-expanding farmland covered by a single kind of crop plant – agricultural monocultures.

Restoring pollinators’ habitat is essential, both to stop their decline and to maintain food production. Calls for large-scale restoration, such as the UN Decade of Restoration, are ambitious and may compete with other land uses. In addition, restoration often has an upfront cost, while its benefits could take time to obtain.

However, our new research shows that coffee farmers who restore patches of forest across their properties can nearly double their profits with just a 15% increase in natural habitat over five years. The benefits, a result of higher pollinator numbers, continue to increase for both farmers and forest over the long term (40 years). This is the first study that assessed such benefits in the long term and at a large scale.

Read more:
How the birds and the bees help coffee plants

Finding a sweet spot

Planting trees without planning that takes all factors into account may lead to poor conservation or economic outcomes. For instance, tree planting in unsuitable arid areas of China ultimately led to further environmental degradation, although the aim was to combat desertification.

For our study, we set up two clear objectives:

1. to maximise coffee profitability
2. to maximise restoration of forest that pollinators could use.

We used Costa Rica as a case study because of the wealth of information on pollination services for coffee in this region. One study found forest-based pollinators increased coffee yields by 20% within 1 kilometre of forest. So the presence of a healthy population of pollinators has a big impact on farmers’ revenue.

Read more:
Boosting bee diversity can help stabilise crop production – new research

A common practice to increase profits is to expand cropland by clearing forest. Therefore, restoring coffee lands to forest may involve trade-offs. To account for this, we considered two different planning contexts:

1. only restoration and no agricultural expansion
2. a mix of restoration and agricultural expansion.

We also compared multiple scenarios to assess the trade-offs between focusing solely on coffee profitability (objective one) versus giving more priority to restoring habitat for bees (objective two), and everything in between. Our mathematical modelling then selected the best locations to restore habitat (or expand agriculture) for each scenario.

There was a sweet spot between both objectives when practising only restoration. We found coffee farms can increase economic benefits by 98% after five years by increasing forest area by 15%. After 40 years, the economic benefits increase by about 109% with a 19% increase in forest area.

We also found that if farmers restore habitat without expanding agriculture, profits are steadier. When farmers restore and expand at the same time, this adds an element of volatility.

Read more:
Restoring forests often falls to landholders. Here’s how to do it cheaply and well

Small or big patches?

We found restoring many small patches throughout the farmed area maximised pollination services. Bees can only travel fairly short distances, ranging from 40 metres to 3 kilometres. Dispersed forest patches allowed the bees to reach more coffee plants.

However, while smaller patches are generally suitable for pollinators, other species have different needs. Restoring large areas is important for species that travel longer distances, such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), or for forest specialists that need dense forest to thrive.

However, having only a big patch of restored forest in an area of farmland may isolate species that have a large home range. In contrast, restoring small patches of land can provide important corridors for mammals.

In our study, we found other solutions that restored a mix of big and small patches at the same time. These solutions can still can deliver good economic and restoration outcomes. Having a mix is important because it allows biodiversity conservation and farming to co-exist.

Ideally, farmers who have large patches restored on their land would receive financial compensation. This could make up for the farmers’ upfront and ongoing costs, such as sapling cost and labour to maintain plants throughout some years. At the same time, neighbouring farms will benefit from bees travelling to and pollinating their crops, even if habitat isn’t restored on this land.

Read more:
Tropical forests can recover surprisingly quickly on deforested lands – and letting them regrow naturally is an effective and low-cost way to slow climate change

Importantly, these findings support solutions for farmers with different environmental outlooks. Some farmers may be generally supportive of conservation, leading to more proactive restoration actions and no clearing of forest. Other farmers may place a high importance on expanding agricultural production to improve their livelihoods.

Our study takes into account both contexts. Our findings show strategic habitat restoration for pollinators produces win-win outcomes for farming and the environment in both cases.

Sofía López-Cubillos is affiliated with Fundación Manigua desde la Tierra in Colombian and the Institute for Capacity Exchange in Environmental Decisions in Australia.

Rebecca K. Runting receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Coffee, brought to you by bees: a case study in how restoring habitat is a win-win for forests and farmers – https://theconversation.com/coffee-brought-to-you-by-bees-a-case-study-in-how-restoring-habitat-is-a-win-win-for-forests-and-farmers-205932

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Kristin Merga, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Newcastle

Reading is a critical skill for school and life beyond it.
Young people need strong reading skills to learn and demonstrate their learning. Reading skills are not just about performing well in subjects such as English. They are related to performance in subjects like science and maths.

When it comes to reading, girls typically do better than boys.
This was highlighted by the results of a major international test on reading skills, released last week.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) test, found Australian girls in Year 4 scored on average 17 points higher than Australian boys in the same year.

There was also a gap in terms of attitudes to reading. While more than a third of Australian girls “very much like reading” according to the PIRLS study, less than a quarter of boys feel the same.

Attitudes toward reading matter

Research consistently makes a link between students’ reading skills and their attitudes toward reading. If students are more motivated to read, they read more often and build their reading comprehension skills and vocabulary.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released last month, girls (aged five to 14 years) are also more likely than boys to read for pleasure (77% compared with 68%).

To close the gender performance gap and enhance the performance of boys, we need to get more boys reading for fun.

Why is there an attitude gap?

One reason is boys and girls are brought up differently when it comes to reading.

A 2016 study of Canadian, US and UK parents found they spend more time reading with pre-school daughters than sons. So, while we teach young girls to see themselves as lifelong readers, many boys miss out.

Then as children move into primary school, even though boys read less often, they also receive less parental encouragement to read than girls.

Some boys think that reading is no longer important for them once they know how to do it.

What can we do?

Parents, guardians and relatives can play an important role in helping boys see themselves as readers, but once boys can read on their own, this role can be unclear.

Like any skill, sustained reading experiences are needed for reading skills to be both maintained and developed.

We cannot assume boys have opportunities for sustained reading for pleasure at school, as even when silent reading is timetabled in the school day.

Read more:
School phone bans seem obvious but could make it harder for kids to use tech in healthy ways

Ten tips to encourage reading

Here are some steps you can take to encourage the boys in your life to read, and improve their attitudes toward reading.

1. Take your boys to the local library

Joint library visits can encourage children to read more often, and as children move through the years of schooling, boys are less likely than girls to visit the library in their free time.

2. Encourage reading, even after they learn to read

Make sure your child knows reading is still important even after they can do it by themselves. Keep up the encouragement, and encourage boys as well as girls.

3. Keep reading together

Don’t stop reading aloud just because he can read by himself. Opportunities to read with parents can lead boys to have a positive attitude toward reading, and value shared time spent reading together.

4. Talk about books and share book recommendations

Keeping reading for pleasure in focus rather than reading for testing. Some children begin to see reading is something purely done for testing, making reading seem like a chore.

5. Show them you read for fun

The PIRLS report also found a positive link between parents liking books and their child’s reading achievement. So, show your children you read and read for fun.

6. Encourage holiday reading

Encourage boys to read during the school holidays. During these times, children’s reading skills may decline as they are not being sustained and developed.

7. Go to the experts

Not sure what your child might like to read? Ask the teacher librarians at your school. They are experts at connecting struggling and disengaged readers with books that meet their interest and ability levels.

8. Fiction and non-fiction are both great

The stereotype that all boys prefer to read non-fiction is not true. Fiction books offer literacy benefits as well as building social skills such as empathy.
That being said, non-fiction is great, too. Reading non-fiction books for pleasure was also recently linked with “high reading performance, especially among the male students”.

9. Dads especially need to read

Fathers and male influences need to play a greater role in encouraging boys to read. While 49% of teens felt their mother encouraged them to read, only 25% of fathers were playing this role.

10. Have lots of books around the house

Having a home with many books (more than 200) is related to reading achievement, and access to books in the home is linked to improved attitudes toward and frequency of reading, particularly in boys.

It’s not ‘just boys’

Finally, it’s important to note while the gender gap in performance and attitudes exists, there are also many girls who are disengaged from reading. More than one in five Australian girls do not like reading. There are also other concerning gaps that deserve our attention related to First Nations background, geographic location and socioeconomic status.

We should encourage all children to regularly read for pleasure so that they can build the strong literacy skills needed to understand and critically evaluate the large volumes of written material they will encounter in their lives today and in the future.

Margaret Kristin Merga has received past funding from the BUPA Health Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, Edith Cowan University and the Collier Foundation. She is the Patron of the Australian School Library Association and the Western Australian School Library Association. She also runs Merga Consulting, working with schools, Departments and professional associations to deliver parent seminars, staff professional development and planning advisory support.

– ref. 10 ways to help the boys in your life read for enjoyment (not just for school) – https://theconversation.com/10-ways-to-help-the-boys-in-your-life-read-for-enjoyment-not-just-for-school-205997

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ursula Kennedy, Lecturer of Wine Science, University of Southern Queensland

The martini cocktail has existed in a range of guises throughout its ice-cold, crisp life.

Several stories exist as to its origins. The “classic” martini is made with gin and vermouth (a fortified wine infused with spices) and garnished with an olive or a twist of lemon. It is quintessentially American.

The contested origins of the martini

Many believe the martini was invented in the 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco by bartender Jerry Thomas.

Thomas evolved a one part sloe gin, two parts sweet vermouth, maraschino and a dash of bitters with a lemon concoction into a drink he called the Martinez, which he made for passengers departing on the ferry to the town of the same name. It was said to also be prepared for miners celebrating striking gold.

Others believe it was invented in 1911 at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York by bartender Martini di Taggia, served to billionaire John D. Rockerfeller with equal parts London dry gin and dry vermouth. However, recipes for the drink were published as early as 1862, in Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders’ Guide.

Stronger versions of the martini include two parts gin, and even up to five parts gin, to one part vermouth, garnished with olive or lemon.

A “dry” martini has little to no vermouth at all – the focus being gin. Author T.S. Eliot once said:

There is nothing quite so stimulating as a strong dry martini cocktail.

The martini’s rise, fall and rise again

During the Gilded Age (1880-1900), the martini rose in popularity and remained so through to the mid-20th century.

Prohibition in America during 1920 to 1933 did little to harm the martini’s popularity, as backyard gin production was reasonably easy.

In the 1960s the drink’s popularity started to wane due to the burgeoning quality and availability of other beverages such as wines and beers. There were also concerns about alcohol consumption and health.

With the increasing popularity of “retro” style and culture in recent years the martini has made a comeback, with reports of increased demand for the drink among young people.

Martini and its variations

Today, the martini (or a common variation of it) is best known for its identity in popular culture, most famously as the drink of fictional British Secret Service agent, James Bond. The famous phrase “shaken, not stirred” was first uttered on screen by actor Sean Connery playing Bond in the 1964 movie Goldfinger. Bond’s tipple of choice is prepared with vodka rather than gin.

While most purists believe the gin martini is the classic form of the drink, there are myriad variations that use the martini name or are closely related to the original drink, such as the Gibson, a classic martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives.

The “dirty” martini is currently popular, which is gin soiled with a generous dash of brine from the olive jar. According to the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, the practice of adding brine to a martini has been around since at least 1901. The term “dirty martini” seemingly wasn’t coined until the 1980s, however.

US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have been an early proponent of using olive brine in cocktails. Allegedly, the president “would shake up a drink at the drop of a hat … and was reported to have splashed a bite of brine in his drinks at the White House,” writes Robert Simonson in The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World’s Greatest Drink, with Recipes.

The story goes that London bartender Dick Bradsell first made the espresso martini, a fusion of espresso, sweet coffee liqueur and vodka, in the late 1980s when supermodel Kate Moss (or sometimes Naomi Campbell) asked for a drink that would “wake me up and fuck me up”.

There are many modern drinks that use the iconic martini glass to justify using martini in their name – however, they bear little resemblance to the original cocktail. An appletini is vodka blended with apple juice, apple cider or apple brandy, while the “French martini” consists of vodka, pineapple juice and raspberry liqueur. The TV show Sex and the City popularised the “flirtini”, containing vodka, champagne and pineapple juice.

Keeping cool

A martini glass – a classic conical bowl on a long straight stem – is one aspect of the drink that does not change.

The glass was formally unveiled at the 1925 Paris Exhibition as an alternative to the classic champagne glass.

The long stem allows the glass to be held while the drink remains cool, not warmed by the drinker’s hands. The wide rim allows the drinker’s nose to be close to the liquid when sipping, so the aromatics can be easily appreciated.

Read more:
The name’s Bond, James Bond … and I’m an alcoholic

Never out of style

While Bond embodied the glamorous side of the martini, studies of writer Ian Fleming’s famous spy indicate that Bond had a severe problem with alcohol consumption. On occasion he may have had a blood alcohol concentration of .36% – almost fatal.

The martini should be consumed with deference … and in moderation.

Ursula Kennedy 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. Alluring, classic, glamorous: the history of the martini cocktail – https://theconversation.com/alluring-classic-glamorous-the-history-of-the-martini-cocktail-195913

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Tookey, Professor of Construction Management, Auckland University of Technology

Do you have gas? It’s a personal question that may cause offence – and not always for the obvious reason. Because the way we choose to cook or heat our homes is increasingly becoming something of a sore point.

Since the Climate Change Commission issued draft advice recommending the banning of new gas installations by 2025, anyone with a gas hob or central heating has been put on notice.

With the government’s gas transition plan due for consultation this year, a long-term plan to phase out gas will require everyone affected to start thinking about the alternatives. But it may not be a simple transition. Moves to cancel the humble gas hob even ignited another culture war in the United Sates.

On one side, some environmentalists and health researchers point to the role of gas in global warming and respiratory conditions like asthma. On the other, conservatives have called it another “woke” outrage. One celebrity chef even taped himself to a stove in protest.

Nevertheless, New York recently became the first US state to ban new residential natural gas connections from 2026. This followed the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which introduced financial incentives for homeowners to switch from gas to electricity.

What are the arguments for a gas ban in Aotearoa New Zealand, then? Will it make a difference to our emissions profile? And are we likely to see something like the New York policy introduced?

Big change for minimal gain?

First the good news. When burned efficiently, natural gas – the stuff that’s piped into your home if you’re on the mains – produces 40% less carbon dioxide than coal, and 30% less than oil.

The amount of contaminants it contains (such as mercury and sulphur dioxide) is insignificant. It creates no soot or dust, and emits minimal particulates when it’s burned. Overall, it’s among the cleanest of the fossil fuels.

But natural gas is primarily methane – an active greenhouse gas which traps 86 times more atmospheric heat than the same amount of carbon dioxide over 20 years.

Read more:
As NZ gets serious about climate change, can electricity replace fossil fuels in time?

A recent study of gas stoves in homes found the appliances can leak unburnt methane and nitrogen oxides even when turned off. This damages indoor air quality and creates more emissions than it saves in carbon dioxide from the cleaner burn.

Given the country’s commitment under the Climate Change Response (Zero Emissions) Amendment Act to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to 50% below gross 2005 levels by 2030, the case against gas may seem clear. Just how urgent the situation is, however, is open to debate.

As of 2017, New Zealand’s natural gas consumption was 0.1% of the global total (putting us 55th in the world). Electricity and heat production accounted for 13% of New Zealand’s gross carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, but domestic consumption of gas and production of CO₂ are relatively low.

By contrast, agriculture-based emissions are very high. Livestock produced 90% of gross methane emissions in 2020.

With natural gas making up such a tiny portion of the country’s overall emissions, does ending home use really add up? Might a ban be seen as tokenism – or become the political hot potato it has in the US?

Invest in alternatives first

In the end, it’s about priorities. But it’s unlikely the supply of natural gas to New Zealand homes can end soon. The Climate Change Commission’s 2023 draft advice recommends the government introduce “targeted support” to help lower-income households replace gas infrastructure (perhaps similar to what is proposed in the US).

This in turn will require significant investment in the electricity sector first. As many have witnessed first-hand, the country’s electricity infrastructure can’t always withstand extreme weather events. The thought of going without hot food or water, especially in winter, might make one think twice about ditching gas.

Read more:
Cyclone Gabrielle: how microgrids could help keep the power on during extreme weather events

Yes, sustainable and renewable sources of power are essential in the long term. But while there are alternatives to relying on an unreliable national grid, those who want to install solar panels and battery storage have to pay from their own pockets.

Moving off-grid is a slow process, too, even for for those who can afford it. And it achieves only incremental change in the wider energy system. Given the marginal reduction in overall emissions from a move away from natural gas, reliable alternatives must be in place first.

Grants to support individuals and communities looking to develop local micro-power generation (such as solar and wind turbines) will reduce demand on overstretched infrastructure. The same applies for hydrogen fuel cells for housing when these are launched commercially.

We need to put the means to develop alternative sources of power in place first, then phase out natural gas. Not before.

John Tookey 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. NZ’s gas problem: phasing out natural gas in homes demands affordable alternatives first – https://theconversation.com/nzs-gas-problem-phasing-out-natural-gas-in-homes-demands-affordable-alternatives-first-205991

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University

The Andrews government’s ninth budget is its toughest. The bill from Victoria’s COVID experience, as well as the state government’s ambitious infrastructure spending, has finally come due.

The pandemic has added more than $30 billion to the state’s total net debt, bringing the total to a whooping $117 billion. (New South Wales’s state debt, by comparison, is about $80 billion.)

Victoria’s floods in 2022 have added to the debt. But so too has the Andrews goverment’s borrowing for its $90 billion “Big Build”, encompassing projects from removing Melbourne’s level crossings, extending Melbourne’s underground rail network a building a suburban rail loop.

The state’s debt load was manageable when interest rates were low. But with borrowing rates now almost 4% and rising, interest payments are swallowing increasing amounts of the government’s budget. Interest payments on the debt are expected to be $5.5 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, rising to $8 billion by 2026-27.

There are only two ways to fix this: reduce spending or increase taxes. Andrews and his treasurer Tim Pallas have chosen to do a bit of both, with a ten-year plan to pay down the $30 billion COVID debt.

Less infrastructure spending, more taxes

The Victorian government has already announced it will delay several infrastructure projects. The Melbourne Airport rail link and the Geelong rail upgrade have been put on ice due to the federal government’s ongoing review of infrastructure projects. If they are delayed, as seems likely, they will lower the debt burden of the state.

This will be a shame for Melbourne’s frequent flyers, but is probably the right call. Infrastructure Australia says the construction sector is already at capacity on large infrastructure projects. This significantly increases the likelihood of cost and time blowouts. Infrastructure Australia expects the (recently widened) Tullamarine Freeway won’t reach capacity for at least another decade, so delaying the rail link is probably the best course of action.

To help pay down the debt, a suite of tax hikes has been implemented, primarily rises in payroll tax (falling predominantly on large businesses) and land tax (which is largely paid by landlords).

The measures are expected to raise more than $8 billion over the next four years, although they will be put in place for a decade.

Reforming land tax

Beyond the immediate task of paying down debt, the Victorian government has taken on the task of land tax reform, proposing to eliminate stamp duty on all industrial and commercial land in favour of an annual land tax.

No changes affect residential land, at least for now. But this could change if the reform proves popular.

Land taxes are the most efficient, and hardest to dodge, form of taxation.

Taxes on labour, such as income tax, can discourage work. Taxes on company profits can discourage investment and lead businesses to set up shop elsewhere. Land cannot be moved, and taxing it does not discourage its use.

The biggest problem with replacing stamp duty with land tax is that it often takes a lot of time and money for a fair transition to occur. In the Australian Capital Territory, a transition that began in 2012 is taking 20 years. The Victorian government proposes doing it in ten years, with further details to be released later this year.

The next transaction to occur after July 2024 will still attract stamp duty, but transitions after that initial one will be shifted to an annual land tax model.

The Andrews government also has a plan to phase out taxes on business insurance over the next ten years.

This small, but highly inefficient, tax has long been criticised by economists as it has punished businesses that seek to mitigate risk by buying public liability or professional indemnity. Removing it, albeit slowly over the next decade, will help the Victorian economy grow over the coming years.

Budgets are all about choices. The Victorian government has no easy choices.

Faced with a mountain of debt, it has outlined a plan for paying down the debt with a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts. The job remains far from complete, but this budget is a decent first step to get Victoria’s finances back on track.

Isaac Gross 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. Victoria bites a $117 billion bullet, and begins the long march of land tax reform – https://theconversation.com/victoria-bites-a-117-billion-bullet-and-begins-the-long-march-of-land-tax-reform-206066

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Economic Policy, Grattan Institute

From working 20 to 30 hours of unpaid overtime each week in one of Australia’s fanciest restaurants to picking fruit while being exposed to dangerous chemicals for less than $10 an hour, the underpayment of migrant workers is rife.

The Grattan Institute’s new report, Short-changed: How to stop the exploitation of migrant workers in Australia, show a broad pattern.

We’ve used two nationally representative Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys of employees and employers – Characteristics of Employment and Employee Earnings and Hours – to find out whether employees are paid below the national minimum hourly wage in Australia, currently $21.38 an hour or $26.73 an hour for casuals.

We estimate that recent migrants – those who arrived in Australia within the past five years – are twice as likely to be underpaid as migrants who have been in Australia for at least 10 years, and those born here.

Underpayment is widespread

In 2022, 5% to 16% of employed recent migrants were paid less than the national minimum wage. Between 1% and 8.5% of recent migrants were paid at least $3 less than the hourly minimum.

This compares with 3% to 9% of all employees in Australia being paid below the national minimum wage; with 0.5% to 4.5% paid at least $3 an hour less.

These numbers are likely to under-represent the extent of underpayment because our analysis only counts those being paid less than the national minimum wage.

It does not count cases where workers are underpaid against appropriate award rates, which typically pay more than the national minimum wage, penalty rates, or are not paid their superannuation.

Factors contributing to exploitation

Part of reason recent migrants are more likely to be underpaid is because they tend to work in industries where underpayment is more prevalent, such as hospitality and agriculture.

For example, temporary visa holders account for nearly 20% of workers in hospitality, the industry with the highest reported rate of underpayment.

Migrants also tend to be younger workers. Employees aged 20 to 29 are nearly six times more likely to be paid less than the national minimum wage than workers aged 30 to 39.

But even after accounting for age, industry and other demographic characteristics, migrants are still more likely to be underpaid.

Migrants who arrived in the past five years are 40% more likely to be underpaid than long-term residents with similar skills working in the same job with the same characteristics. Migrants who arrived five to nine years ago are 20% more likely to be underpaid.

Several things explain this.

First are visa rules, which make temporary visa holders more vulnerable to exploitation. For example, many international students put up with mistreatment for fear their visa may be cancelled for working more hours than permitted by their visa rules. Two-thirds of recent migrants are on a temporary visa.

Migrants have less bargaining power than local workers, partly because they have small social networks to help them find a job. They may not know what workplace rights they are entitled to and face discrimination in the labour market.

Read more:
What’s in a name? How recruitment discriminates against ‘foreign’ applicants

Our analysis shows the likelihood of underpayment is also higher among those working less-skilled jobs with fewer qualifications.

Without change, underpayment will rise again

Rates of underpayment for migrant workers and locals alike have fallen since the pandemic began

In 2018, 8% to 22% of recent migrants were paid less than the minimum hourly wage (compared with 5% to 16% in 2022).

This probably reflects the decline in the number of temporary visa holders living in Australia, especially students and working holiday makers, and labour shortages boosting worker’s bargaining power.

But with borders open again and temporary visa holders coming back in big numbers, the rate of underpayment seems sure to rise again without action from government to stamp out exploitation.

The federal government needs to reform the visa rules that make migrants vulnerable, boost resources to enforce workplace and migration laws and make it easier for migrants to claim money owed.

Underpayment has been widespread for too long. Now is the time to put a stop to it.

Read more:
How to improve the migration system for the good of temporary migrants – and Australia

Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute’s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website. We would also like to thank the Scanlon Foundation for its generous support of this project.

Trent Wiltshire and Tyler Reysenbach 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. Up to one in six recent migrants are paid less than the minimum wage. Here’s why – https://theconversation.com/up-to-one-in-six-recent-migrants-are-paid-less-than-the-minimum-wage-heres-why-206067

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University

By the end of the year, Victoria’s trouble-plagued native forest industry will end – six years ahead of schedule. The state’s iconic mountain ash forests and endangered wildlife will at last be safe from chainsaws. And there will be no shortage of wood – there’s more than enough plantation timber to fill the gap.

Today’s announcement by Premier Daniel Andrews is excellent news for forests, the state’s economy, and its threatened species. We congratulate the Victorian government for this decision.

Ending native forest logging is long overdue. For decades, we’ve known of how much damage it does to biodiversity. Logging vast areas of Victoria’s native forests over the past several decades has pushed many once-common animals, such as the greater glider, to become endangered.

Even now, the last remaining logging areas proposed under the state’s Timber Release Plan overlap directly with the areas of highest conservation value for biodiversity.

Our research has catalogued the damage done to produce low-value products such as woodchips and paper pulp. The industry never made economic sense. The state-owned logging company, VicForests, has been running at a loss for many years. The industry can switch to our abundant plantations of eucalyptus and pine.

What damage did native forest logging do?

The vast majority of areas slated for logging provide habitat for more than 50 threatened and rare species. We know that the more forests are logged, the less likely we are to find species such as the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum. Logging pushes species into decline. Common species become threatened and threatened species move closer to extinction.

The lead author of this article has been part of a team conducting ecological monitoring and research in Victoria’s forests for almost 40 years.

We have seen the damage first-hand. We’ve watched old forests of high conservation value be clearfelled when they should not have been. We’ve watched essential habitat such as large old trees, with their all-important nesting hollows, become rarer and rarer.

We have seen extraordinary animals such as the Southern Greater Glider go from the most common species identified in night surveys to so scarce they’re now endangered.

We have seen once intact landscapes become dominated by highly flammable young forest at risk of extremely severe wildfires.

And we watched in dismay as logging fragmented landscape. Now up to 70% of Victoria’s critically endangered mountain ash forests are either severely disturbed by wildfire and logging or within 200 metres of such areas.

Native forest logging never made sense

Almost all (86%) of felled native forests in Victoria are turned into low-value products such as woodchips, paper pulp and boxliners.

In 2018, we estimated sawn timber equates to just 14% of the volume of logs cut from native forests.

By contrast, more than 80% of all sawn timber in Victoria comes from plantations. Native forest timber does not help build houses.

Read more:
Logged native forests mostly end up in landfill, not in buildings and furniture

Bringing forward the end of native forest logging from 2030 will be a major boost for climate action – equal to removing 730,000 petrol or diesel cars from our roads every year. This single decision gives Victoria – and Australia – a far greater chance of meeting their emissions reductions targets.

In its last annual report, VicForests announced a loss of A$54 million and a loan of $80 million. It’s now propped up only by the Victorian Treasury.

Even before these losses, the Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office showed the state would be $190 million better off without it.

How can we help forests recover?

Ending logging will take pressure off our forests. But we can’t simply walk away from heavily damaged areas. Many areas have never properly regenerated after logging or repeated fire.

In north-eastern Victoria, years of logging have warped the composition of tree species in the forest; many areas are dominated by trees that are largely unsuitable as food sources for koalas and greater gliders.

The urgent task is to restore forests across Victoria while managing fire and invasive species such as deer.

That’s not all. We will still need wood and paper. Ending native forest logging requires getting things right in Australia’s plantations.

At present, we export up to 95% of all plantation eucalypt logs we grow for processing overseas. That’s a missed opportunity for local jobs.

Even now, the plantation sector is crying out for more workers in haulage and processing. This sector offers comparable jobs for workers leaving the native forest sector. But there will be other jobs: forest restoration, firefighting, feral animal control, carbon stock management and more. Getting the transition right is important.

The exit from native forest logging must now be coupled with the declaration of a Great Forest National Park in the Central Highlands region. The region has been a hotspot for native forest logging in recent decades.

It’s almost ten years since the state’s then-environment minister Lisa Neville promised this park would be declared. Once established, the new park should be co-managed with First Nations peoples to ensure Aboriginal self-determination, as well as good opportunities to work on Country.

Today is a day for celebrating. At last, Victoria’s government has acted for the future. Preserving our native forests is worth much more in carbon storage, water production and tourism than they ever were as woodchips.

Victoria’s move is a clarion call for other Australian states still doggedly logging their precious forests.

Read more:
When is a nature reserve not a nature reserve? When it’s already been burned and logged

David Lindenmayer is a member of the Biodiversity Council and Birdlife Australia. He receives funding from Australian Government, the Australian Research Council, and Victorian Government.

Chris Taylor 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. After the chainsaws, the quiet: Victoria’s rapid exit from native forest logging is welcome – and long overdue – https://theconversation.com/after-the-chainsaws-the-quiet-victorias-rapid-exit-from-native-forest-logging-is-welcome-and-long-overdue-206181

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

The proposition that cutting prices will stoke inflation is a hard one to get your head around, even if you are an economist.

Yet it has been seriously put forward as a critique of this month’s budget; the one in which Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced measures that will take the edge off electricity and gas prices, the price of prescriptions and some visits to the doctor, and the out-of-pocket costs faced by low-income renters.

And childcare. Although announced in last year’s budget, measures to take effect in July are set to save a typical family with one child in care about $1,780 per year.

Some of the critics of these measures were participants in this year’s Economic Society of Australia post-budget survey.

What they said was that cutting these prices will give people more free money to spend on other things, pushing up prices elsewhere, and putting more pressure on inflation and the Reserve Bank, which might have to push interest rates higher.

As one of them put it, subsidising bills is “not really all that different” to giving people cash payments that they can use to bid up prices and push up inflation.

As I said, it’s a hard argument to get your head around. It makes sense in theory, but in practice I don’t think it makes much sense at the moment, given the measures actually in the budget.

Correct in theory, if not in practice

Here’s how it might make sense. Imagine a big expense that households had no choice but to pay. If the government introduced measures that increased it by $1,000 a month, those households would be forced to spend a good deal less per month on other things, and would put a good deal less upward pressure on prices.

Actually, we don’t need to imagine. It’s partly why the Reserve Bank has just ramped up interest rates – to increase mortgage payments by up to $1,000 per month, and in doing so take up to $1,000 a month from household budgets to take pressure off prices.

And it’s partly why the Reserve Bank cuts interest rates – to lower mortgage payments and free up money households can use to bid up prices.

The argument is that if a cut in the price of paying off a mortgage can be inflationary, so too can cuts in other prices.

Except that other price cuts are hardly ever anything like as big.

When the price of petrol (and diesel) jumped 40 cents per litre after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, few people doubted it was inflationary. It pushed up the price of nearly everything.

So when the price per litre fell 22.1 cents after the Morrison government temporarily cut fuel excise, few doubted that the measure restrained inflation as it was meant to, even though if the price had been cut by much more the cut might well have fed inflation.

Which is another way of saying that size matters. If I was to spit into the ocean, theory suggests I would lift the sea level. Practice suggests I would not.

A small effect, with a lag

In his post-budget address to Australian Business Economists last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy revealed the government’s calculations on the budget’s effects on inflation.

He said the changes to rent assistance, the price of prescriptions and bulk billing were small and would put only “small downward pressure on prices”, which he conceded might theoretically be offset by a boost to spending.

But he said that offsetting effect would be “largely immaterial”, meaning it would be too small to measure.

Read more:
No, the budget does not make further interest rate rises more likely

The energy price measures will do much more. Kennedy’s department reckons they will cut inflation by three quarters of a percentage point in 2023-24, producing an inflation rate of 3.25% rather than 4% in the year to June 2024.

It says the caps on wholesale prices will do most of the work, cutting the inflation rate by half a per cent, with the consumer and business rebates cutting inflation by a further quarter of a per cent. When the rebates end in mid-2025 their effect will be unwound.

The department says the offsetting effect from extra spending will be measurable but “small”, and will work “with a lag”. So by the time it has had much of an effect, inflation itself should be a good deal lower.

And Kennedy identified three things that should help offset the offsetting effect:

• lower energy prices and inflation will lower the indexation of payments that are linked to inflation, putting less money into the economy to add to inflation

• the expected 0.75 point cut in inflation should help restrain inflationary expectations, making it harder for high inflation to become self-sustaining

• the cuts in the profits of energy companies brought about by the energy price caps will themselves remove money from the economy.

And Kennedy says Australia is well placed to fight inflation in other ways.

All of the budget measures taken together, including the cost-of-living measures, should add just $20 billion to the amount the government pumps into the economy over the next four years – a mere fraction of $11 trillion that Australians will spend and earn over that time.

As well, Australia’s very, very low unemployment rate has pushed the proportion of the population in paid employment to record highs, making Australia better able than ever to call upon workers to respond to shortages as prices rise.

Read more:
Economists award Chalmers top marks for budget, but less for fighting inflation

The faster-than-expected return of migration will help even more, adding to the capacity of the economy to provide services without pushing up prices, all the more so because the migrants Australia selects tend to be young enough not to need many services themselves.

While you can never know what’s around the corner, I’m yet to see a credible argument that inflation won’t do as predicted in the budget: come down swiftly from here on. It’s forecast to fall from 7% to 6% by the middle of this year, and to 3.25% by the middle of next year.

Rather than making inflation worse, it seems to me that by cutting prices for many of us, the budget will help bring down inflation sooner.

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

– ref. Will Jim Chalmers’ budget drive up inflation? Not likely – and here’s why – https://theconversation.com/will-jim-chalmers-budget-drive-up-inflation-not-likely-and-heres-why-206171

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ayesha Jehangir, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Media Transition, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

Pakistan’s former military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. At the end of his tenure, he declared the military would no longer meddle in politics anymore.

However, the recent arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan – once seen as the “army’s blue-eyed boy” – and the army’s intention to prosecute civilian protesters under military laws proves the men in uniform are still very much in politics.

The recent turmoil in Pakistan also serves as a poignant reminder of the considerable power wielded by the military.

Amid the ever-changing political landscape, the only permanent force is the military establishment, while the political parties only coexist to share power with it.

Khan, whose success in the 2018 general elections was engineered by the military itself before the two drifted apart, has more than 100 cases registered against him now. These cases range from corruption and sedition to terrorism and even blasphemy, which is punishable by death.

His arrest was followed by days of violent anti-army protests across the country. Protesters set fire to police vehicles, damaged public property and mobs stormed into the compounds of army commanders in Lahore and Rawalpindi.

However, days after the military’s intention of using army laws on civilians became public, events changed course rapidly. Peaceful rallies expressing solidarity with the army took the centre stage.

How did a military of roughly 140,000 men at the time of partition of India in 1947 become the world’s seventh most powerful army?

An army with a state

Since its creation in 1947, Pakistan has been under military dictatorship spanning a total of 34 years. When not directly in power, the military elite have discreetly engaged in hybrid regimes, exerting influence on civilian governments from behind the scenes.

The British colonial legacy has played a vital role in shaping Pakistan’s military today. British generals continued to head the Pakistan’s military until 1951, when the authority was transferred to General Ayub Khan. Just seven years later, Ayub became Pakistan’s second president through a military coup.

This foundation led to the establishment in 1948 of the spy agency Inter Services Intelligence. It gained remarkable influence in the 1980s, when the US covertly waged a war in Afghanistan using Pakistan as a proxy against the declining Soviet Union.

This period also saw the execution of an elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Then came the era of religious extremism under General Zia-ul-Haq. This consolidated Pakistan’s obsession with the “strategic depth” for interference in Afghanistan.

In later years, Pakistan saw the assassination of an elected prime minister, Benazir Bhutto under the rule of General Pervez Musharraf. This was the time of enforced disappearances of civilian dissidents. Pakistan also became a safe haven for Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden while receiving funds from the US as a frontline ally in the war against terrorism.

Pakistan’s army received substantial financial backing from the US during the Cold War. This bolstered its might domestically while allowing it to undertake adventures abroad for which it was unaccountable.

Traces of the Pakistani military’s involvement could also be seen in the Arab conflicts and the Bangladesh “rape camps”.

Military immune to hyper inflation in Pakistan

Pakistan is on the verge of an economic meltdown, weighed down by harsh pay-back terms from international lenders. With only A$5.2 billion worth of state reserves and a debt of over A$13.5 billion owed to the International Monetary Fund, the army nonetheless received an increased payment of A$11.27 billion in last year’s budget.

Between 2011 and 2015 alone, the army’s assets grew by 78%. By 2016, the armed forces in Pakistan ran over 50 commercial entities, including public sector organisations and real estate ventures worth A$30 billion. Today, their commercial assets are worth over A$39.8 billion.

Top military officers, including former army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa and army spokesman, General Asim Saleem Bajwa, have been revealed to have experienced significant financial gains within a relatively short time. Bajwa’s immediate family amassed substantial wealth, transforming into billionaires within six years.

General Asim Saleem Bajwa and his brother established a business empire that included 133 restaurants across four countries, operating under the Papa John’s pizza franchise. An investigation was also launched into real estate corruption by the brothers of former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who for many years was the most powerful figure in the country.

The Pandora Papers exposed a long list of Pakistan’s former military officers who had accumulated immense wealth through tax evasions and corruption.

Over time, the military’s economic interests have gained prominence. This includes military-owned businesses, significant onshore and offshore land and property holdings, influence over defence contracts, as well as alleged involvement in ventures linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

The military’s influence in Pakistan extends beyond politics and the economy. To control information dissemination, the military employs a combination of traditional and social media censorship. It also utilises vaguely worded draconian laws.

These laws effectively criminalise any form of “ridicule” directed at the army, carrying severe penalties such as long prison sentences and hefty fines. Slain journalist Arshad Sharif was charged with “sedition” under the same laws for allegedly spreading hate against the military and disrespecting state institutions.

As a nuclear state, Pakistan’s military is much like Voltaire’s description of Frederick II of Prussia: it is a state within itself, benefiting from its sheer size, a great deal of money, and an advantageous geopolitical positioning.

The military’s rise to power in Pakistan is linked to cultivating a collective ethos that portrays politics as inherently corrupt, while positioning itself as the sole bastion of honesty, discipline and nationalism.

It is because of this approach that despite corruption within the military, it has successfully distanced itself from the prevalent political culture, which is characterised by kinship ties, factionalism, patronage networks, and most importantly, corruption.

Ayesha Jehangir 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. Explainer: A historical trail of Pakistan’s powerful military enterprise – https://theconversation.com/explainer-a-historical-trail-of-pakistans-powerful-military-enterprise-205749

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Hall, Acting Director, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

Narendra Modi arrives this week for an official visit to Australia. When he first came to Australia in November 2014, the recently elected Indian prime minister was still to find his feet on the global stage. Keen to show the new government meant business, Modi worked hard to establish a rapport with other leaders at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Brisbane.

But in the limelight, Modi appeared nervous, not least in his speech to the Australian parliament.

Almost nine years on, things are very different. India is the focus of world attention, as the 2023 G20 chair, with an economy growing faster than almost all its competitors.

And Modi, now a veteran of dozens of summits and visits, is far more confident abroad.

Indifference and irritations

In the meantime, the relationship between Australia and India has also changed. Twenty years ago, the two countries had very little to do with one another. China’s insatiable hunger for coal and iron ore was the main focus of Australia’s political and business leaders. New Delhi concerned itself with its own economic development and overcoming longstanding differences with the United States.

Things started to shift in the late 2000s, as both Australia and India grew more concerned about Beijing’s burgeoning power and ambition. In 2007, both countries took part in a meeting of the Quad, a diplomatic dialogue also involving the US and Japan. Two years later, Kevin Rudd went to New Delhi and signed a new security agreement.

A little later, Australia dropped a ban on uranium sales to India, removing a longstanding irritant in the relationship.

These actions cleared the air, but weren’t quite enough to push the two sides to build a partnership. It took the shock of Donald Trump’s election as US president to provide the necessary impetus. The prospect of Trump putting “America First”, and the possibility the US might not act as expected if a crisis occurred, led to a flurry of diplomatic activity by Australia and India and the reconvening of the Quad in late 2017.

Indo-Pacific partners

Since then, the Australia-India relationship has advanced in leaps and bounds, despite the disruptions caused by COVID.

The biggest advances have been made in the areas of defence and security. The two countries now hold annual leaders’ summits and talks between their foreign and defence ministers. The Australian army, air force, navy, and special forces regularly exercise with their Indian counterparts.

The economic relationship has also become stronger, assisted by the growing Indian diaspora and concerted effort by the Australian government. Education has been a particular highlight, with more Indian students flowing to Australian universities and Australian institutions opening campuses in India.

The conclusion of an interim trade deal just prior to the 2022 election promises to further boost economic ties.

The Quad is opening up other possibilities for cooperation. Since 2017, it has expanded its agenda to cover everything from artificial intelligence and semiconductors, to infrastructure and maritime security.

Closer collaboration in the mining and processing of critical minerals such as lithium, used in batteries, discussed within the Quad, particularly interests both countries.

Deals and the diaspora

These issues and more are on the agenda for Modi’s visit to Australia this week. Boosting economic ties is a key priority. A comprehensive trade and investment deal is the ultimate aim.

Both countries also want to draw on the connections and capabilities of the Indian diaspora in Australia, now almost a million strong, to advance this part of the relationship. The new Centre for Australia-India Relations, based in Sydney, will be central to this effort.

At the same time, Modi is also looking to the diaspora for more political reasons. His Bharatiya Janata Party (“Indian People’s Party”, or BJP) relies on people of Indian origin across the world, especially in the US, for funds, skills, and influence. With a national election looming in 2024, Modi wants to energise and mobilise this crucial constituency to help the BJP to a third consecutive victory.

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Howdy Modi in Houston: why India’s Narendra Modi puts so much effort into wooing the diaspora

In Australia, however, the diaspora is divided. Some have long opposed the BJP and criticised its policies, especially concerning India’s 200 million strong Muslim minority.

But lately, a new issue has surfaced in Australia and overseas: a campaign by some Sikh activists for a separate Sikh state, “Khalistan”. Unofficial “referendums”, organised to show support for the cause, have been held in Australian cities. Anti-India and anti-Modi slogans have been daubed on Hindu temples.

Only a small proportion of Australian-based Sikhs support the Khalistan movement. But the issue is causing problems for the Modi government and for the relationship between Australia and India.

During Albanese’s recent visit to India, Modi reportedly pressed his counterpart to rein in separatist activism in Australia.

Maintaining the balance

The partnership built between Australia and India is sufficiently robust to manage challenges like the Khalistan movement. And it needs to be.

The security and prosperity of both countries depends on closer cooperation to manage Beijing’s push to reshape our region to serve China’s interests.

Australia and India must work together – and with others across the Indo-Pacific – to maintain the balance of power that allows all countries in the region to determine their own futures.

Ian Hall receives funding from the Department of Defence and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

– ref. Divided Indian diaspora in Australia tops concerns for Narendra Modi visit – https://theconversation.com/divided-indian-diaspora-in-australia-tops-concerns-for-narendra-modi-visit-205993

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isabelle Kingsley, Senior Research Associate at the Office of the Women in STEM Ambassador, UNSW Sydney

It likely comes as no surprise that women receive a smaller share of research funding than men. But untangling the underlying reasons is no small feat.

A recently published international review spanning 45 years found that women accounted for just under a quarter of awards.

But our own study of 48,061 grants awarded in Australia by the Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council over 20 years points to a complex issue that extends beyond granting systems: fewer women researchers mean fewer women applicants, in turn leading to fewer women receiving grants.

The international scene

In the recent international review, the authors synthesised evidence from 55 studies from 14 countries including the United States and Canada, and the European Union, from 1975 to 2020. Their analysis explored gender differences in grant award outcomes, success rates and funding amounts.

They found, on average:

• fewer awarded grants were led by women (24%) than men (76%)

• 30% of applicants were women. Success rates for grants led by women (23%) did not differ significantly from those led by men (24%)

• women researchers received about half the amount of research funds per grant than men – an average of US$342,000 compared to men with an average of US$659,000.

But this international analysis only incorporated one year of Australian data, limiting the degree to which those findings might pan out here.

What about Australia?

We, the research team at the Office of the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador, deployed a statistical model that enabled us to detect nuanced patterns by simultaneously considering not only gender, but also career seniority, field of research and time. This research is currently available as a preprint ahead of peer review.

Echoing findings of the international study, our modelling revealed fewer awarded grants were led by women than men. However, we also found that career seniority mattered – increasingly more male researchers received grants at a senior level. The percentage of grants led by women was 39% among early-career, 33% among mid-career, and 26% among senior-career researchers.

We also found that gender differences in awarded grants varied by field of research. Proportionally fewer awarded grants were led by women in the fields of chemical sciences, mathematical sciences, Earth sciences, technology, engineering and physical sciences.

Read more:
More women are studying STEM, but there are still stubborn workplace barriers

We documented progress towards gender parity over the 20-year period, and the rate of progress depended on career seniority. The percentage of awarded grants led by senior-career women increased by 11% in the span of 20 years, reaching 31% in 2020. The increase was 8% for mid-career and 4% for early-career women researchers.

However, progress is slow and remains well below parity.

Importantly, we found that success rates for grants led by women did not differ significantly from men’s success rates. Based on this, we conclude it’s unlikely the main source of gender disparities in grant outcomes is how the research is assessed.

Unlike the findings from the international review, we found that funding amounts didn’t differ by gender. Women-led grants in Australia were awarded the same amount of funding per grant as men-led grants.

That said, because fewer awarded grants were led by women, the total funds showed a substantial difference: A$19.1 billion awarded to men lead investigators versus A$7.5 billion awarded to women lead investigators.

What about the workforce?

It is important to place these gender differences in the context of research workforce participation. According to available Australian data, there are fewer women than men in the research workforce. In fact, for every 100 men researchers, there are only 75 women researchers on average.

When we considered the number of awarded grants relative to workforce participation, we found the award rate was actually higher for women than men, especially among senior career researchers. For every 1,000 women professors in the research workforce, 11 led a successfully funded grant each year; whereas for every 1,000 men professors, six led a successfully funded grant each year.

Despite award rates apparently favouring women over men (note the workforce data are not as comprehensive as our grant funding data), fewer women researchers mean fewer women applicants, which means fewer women awardees overall.

Pulling all this together, it seems gender differences in Australian research grant programs may primarily arise from unequal workforce participation.

Read more:
It’s not lack of confidence that’s holding back women in STEM

What can we do?

We need to support women entering the research workforce and ensure they remain there and can progress in their careers. Barriers to women’s workforce participation have been extensively documented. The responsibility to remove such barriers rests with several entities.

Higher education and research institutes have social and legal responsibilities to provide environments in which all researchers have an equal opportunity to excel. In Australia, Science in Australia Gender Equity provides an accreditation framework to identify and address inequities and can accelerate the increase of women in leadership positions.

Governments and research funders can incentivise these and other gender-equity initiatives. Options include mandating workplace gender targets, equity plans or relevant accreditation as a condition of receiving government funds. These approaches are shown to progress gender equity.

Only when the whole sector comes together to contribute solutions across the research ecosystem will we see genuine, sustainable progress towards gender equity.

As Senior Research Associate for the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador, Isabelle Kingsley receives funding from the Australian Government that supports this work.

Emma Johnston currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council for her Antarctic research. Professor Johnston has previously received funding from the Department of Industry, Science, and Resources that supported Australia’s Women in STEM Ambassador and this research project.

Lisa A. Williams receives funding from the Australian government (Australian Research Council; Department of Industry, Science, and Resources).

As the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador, Lisa Harvey-Smith receives funding from the Australian Government that supports this work.

Eve Slavich 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. Fewer women receive research grants – but the reasons are more complicated than you’d think – https://theconversation.com/fewer-women-receive-research-grants-but-the-reasons-are-more-complicated-than-youd-think-205649

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Guastella, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health, University of Sydney

Neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), affect one in ten people. While the primary focus is often on these diagnoses, worrying research shows people with neurodevelopmental conditions are at a much higher risk of experiencing serious mental health concerns. They may also find it particularly challenging to access mental health support.

For instance, when young autistic people seek help from youth mental health organistion headspace, they often present with severe anxiety and depression. Importantly, these mental health symptoms are one of the most important contributors to their disability in daily life.

We wanted to get a better understanding of how early mental health symptoms emerge. Our new study, published this week, assessed mental health symptoms in young children attending their first neurodevelopmental assessment. This study used the Sydney Child Neurodevelopment Research Registry, an ongoing program focused on child development clinical services.

The results surprised us. About half of the children showed clinical levels of mental health symptoms and were in need of support. This risk increased to nearly 70% for children with multiple diagnoses.

So, when children first present with neurodevelopmental concerns, they are also likely to have mental health concerns. More work needs to be done to ensure mental health and neurodevelopment needs are addressed early. Neurodevelopmental assessments may present an opportunity to combine efforts.

Read more:
What is ‘early intervention’ for infants with signs of autism? And how valuable could it be?

Why the high rates?

In our study, 232 families were asked about their child’s mental health when they first attended a broader neurodevelopmental assessment. The reasons for the higher than average mental health concerns in people with neurodevelopmental conditions are complex.

People with neurodevelopmental conditions can face greater challenges related to social determinants of health, such as unstable housing, financial difficulties, family separation and conflict, social isolation and unemployment.

Other social factors, including stigma, discrimination, peer rejection and exclusion in communities, and social, occupational, and educational support services also play a role.

Some neurodevelopmentally specific factors can also increase risk for mental health concerns. Neurodevelopmental conditions can be associated with difficulties with attention, impulsivity, problem solving and working under stress. There may be differences in sensory processing and concrete and repetitive thinking. Such factors can make emotion regulation more challenging.

Finally, some genes that are linked to conditions such as autism and ADHD are also linked to other mental health conditions.

In the ‘too hard’ basket?

So, mental health care should be central to health supports for people with neurodevelopmental conditions. Unfortunately, they experience many barriers to accessing care. These include:

• A lack of professional focus and training in mental health that takes neurodiversity into account.

• Incorrect beliefs from professionals that neurodiverse people may be too complex to benefit from standard assessments and supports for mental health. Yet, common tools for depression and anxiety have been shown to work well.

• Limited evidence with few trials of psychological therapies for mental health focused on or including neurodiverse people.

• A complex government structure and hard-to-navigate referral pathways for funding, services and inclusion that separate disability and mental health care.

• Stigma and discrimination where needs are overlooked because of a neurodiversity diagnosis. Social anxiety or depressive symptoms may be too easily attributed to social interaction difficulties or flatness of expression associated with autism. Anxiety and worry may be too easily attributed to executive function and emotional regulation difficulties associated with ADHD.

• Access and cost can make it very hard to see a mental health professional, such as a psychologist. You might be able to get National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) support for needs specific to autism, but mental health is considered separately.

Read more:
Wondering about ADHD, autism and your child’s development? What to know about getting a neurodevelopmental assessment

Getting in early

A failure to provide mental health supports when symptoms first develop results in more acute and chronic issues. Individuals present more frequently to acute mental health services, have more emergency service presentations and more inpatient admissions for complex and chronic mental health problems.

Sadly, autistic people also have a tenfold higher risk of suicide, compared to people without neurodevelopmental conditions.

That’s why this study is important. Over half of the children in our study had clinically elevated internalising symptoms, including anxiety, depression, loneliness and withdrawal. This increased to nearly 70% of children if they received more than one diagnosis. These symptoms were more common in girls.

Studies show such problems get more frequent as children age.
There is an opportunity to address mental health needs early before these problems become more complex. When children receive their first neurodevelopmental assessment, usually after waiting years, they should have access to the right supports for lifelong development.

The federal government has commissioned a mental health strategy specifically for autism. State-specific supports include New South Wales’ new mental health hubs for people with intellectual disability.

More needed

These latest steps are positive. But a fully integrated strategy needs to include all those with neurodevelopmental conditions. Our research shows children with multiple neurodevelopmental conditions are at greatest risk and there’s a need to provide mental health supports to these children as early as possible.

Individuals, families and the community will need access to supports and resources that help them to navigate, understand and be empowered in their mental health care. This will be likely facilitated by technology, personalised care methods and community engagement in co-design of these pathways. The assessment and support process provides a unique opportunity for education and engagement with other service providers and community hubs that can promote lifelong well being.

It will be critical that state and federal governments work in partnership to ensure mental health care can be provided across disability, education and health systems.

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

– ref. Around half of kids getting neurodevelopmental assessment show signs of mental distress. We can support them better – https://theconversation.com/around-half-of-kids-getting-neurodevelopmental-assessment-show-signs-of-mental-distress-we-can-support-them-better-205225

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jake M Robinson, Ecologist and Researcher, Flinders University

Nurturing a forest ecosystem back to life after it’s been logged is not always easy.

It can take a lot of hard work and careful monitoring to ensure biodiversity thrives again. But monitoring biodiversity can be costly, intrusive and resource-intensive. That’s where ecological acoustic survey methods, or “ecoacoustics”, come into play.

Indeed, the planet sings. Think of birds calling, bats echolocating, tree leaves fluttering in the breeze, frogs croaking and bush crickets stridulating. We live in a euphonious theatre of life.

Even the creatures in the soil beneath our feet emit unique vibrations as they navigate through the earth to commute, hunt, feed and mate.

Eavesdropping on this subterranean cacophony using special microphones can provide researchers with important insights into ecosystem health. Our new study published in Restoration Ecology shows ecoacoustics can provide an effective way of monitoring biodiversity in soil and in the forest it supports.

Read more:
Restoring forests often falls to landholders. Here’s how to do it cheaply and well

What did the study do?

Acoustic technology is widely used to survey bats, birds and other creatures. However, scientists who restore degraded ecosystems have yet to make full use of soil ecoacoustics. This is despite its demonstrable effectiveness at detecting small animal vibrations.

Our study applied ecoacoustic tools to measure biodiversity above and below ground in a UK forest. We hypothesised that the soils of forests restored to a healthier state would have a higher diversity of sounds than the soils of recently deforested plots. This is because we assumed more creatures would live in the restored and “healthier” soils, producing a greater variety of sounds that we would detect.

Think of two symphony orchestras. Half of one orchestra’s musicians have fallen ill and can’t play at the concert. This is analogous to a degraded ecosystem. In contrast, the other orchestra has all its members and will therefore be louder, with more complex and diverse sounds.

During the spring and summer of 2022, we collected 378 samples from three recently deforested and three restored forest plots. We created a recording system with special “contact” microphones that we inserted into the ground.

We used a chamber with sound-dampening foam inside to record soil creatures such as earthworms and beetles. This chamber allowed us to block out unwanted signals such as mechanical noise, wind and human activity. The chamber housed the microphone and a 5 litre sample of the soil at each plot.

Our results were exciting. The diversity of sounds was much higher in the soil from the restored plots. This finding confirmed our suspicions that healthier soil would be more tuneful.

Read more:
How technology allows us to reveal secrets of Amazonian biodiversity

Why is monitoring soil health important?

Our preliminary findings suggest ecoacoustics can monitor life underground. But why is monitoring soil biodiversity so important? Soil health is the foundation of our food systems and supports all other life on land. It should be a global priority.

The “unseen” and “unheard” organisms living in the soil maintain its health. Below-ground organisms, such as earthworms and beetles, play a crucial role in nutrient cycling and soil health. Without them, forests can’t thrive.

By using ecoacoustics to monitor below-ground biodiversity, ecologists can better assess the effectiveness of restoration efforts. This will allow them to make more informed decisions about the best ways to protect nature.

Using ecoacoustics in restoration efforts could also have important implications for climate change mitigation. Forests are crucial carbon sinks. They absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it in their woody biomass and soils.

In contrast, degraded or deforested areas are significant sources of carbon emissions. Restoring these areas and monitoring subterranean life can help reduce carbon emissions and improve our ability to reduce the effects of a changing climate.

Read more:
No more excuses: restoring nature is not a silver bullet for global warming, we must cut emissions outright

It’s still an emerging science

The use of ecoacoustics in restoration efforts is still relatively new, but it’s an important step towards a more holistic and effective approach to ecosystem recovery. By embracing new technologies and approaches, we can work towards a healthier and more sustainable planet.

Of course, there are challenges we still have to overcome. For instance, accurately identifying the sources of acoustic signals in a complex soundscape can be challenging. However, as technologies and methods continue to improve, the potential benefits of ecoacoustics are immense.

By monitoring life underground in a non-intrusive and efficient way, we can better understand the effectiveness of our restoration efforts. This will help us make more informed decisions about how to protect nature.

We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to the possibilities of ecoacoustics in restoration efforts. It’s an exciting time for those working in this field, as we discover new ways to use sound to heal our planet.

Read more:
Soil abounds with life – and supports all life above it. But Australian soils need urgent repair

Jake M Robinson is affiliated with the UNFCCC Resilience Frontiers think tank.

Carlos Abrahams works for Baker Consultants, an ecological consultancy that specialises in ecoacoustics. He currently receives research funding from the UK Government.

Martin Breed receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME), Australian Academy of Science, and New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.

– ref. Good vibrations: how listening to the sounds of soil helps us monitor and restore forest health – https://theconversation.com/good-vibrations-how-listening-to-the-sounds-of-soil-helps-us-monitor-and-restore-forest-health-205223

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nataliya Ilyushina, Research Fellow, RMIT University

Amid management changes at Twitter, discontented users are exploring an alternative social media platform called Bluesky. According to media reports, downloads of the Bluesky app surged more than 600% in April.

Initially conceived by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2019 as a complementary project aimed to improve Twitter user experience, Bluesky transitioned into a standalone project in early 2022, and its iOS app was released in February this year followed by an Android version in April.

Visually, Bluesky looks similar to Twitter. The timeline is called the “skyline” and tweets are “skeets”. It has two main differences that drive its popularity – decentralisation and invite-only access.

Decentralisation was a driving force behind Dorsey’s creation of Bluesky. So what does that mean and how’s this app different to Twitter?

Read more:
What is Mastodon, the ‘Twitter alternative’ people are flocking to? Here’s everything you need to know

‘Decentralised’ social media

Dorsey is a big proponent of decentralised control and cryptocurrency. He believes centralised platforms like Twitter cannot address issues such as enforcement of policies to address abuse and misinformation, and the proprietary algorithms are not meeting user needs.

Twitter uses an AI-powered, centrally managed algorithm to moderate what content the user is exposed to.

On Bluesky, however, users have control over the algorithm that selects what they are exposed to. As Wired magazine explained:

Crucially, users and servers will be able to label posts or specific users – e.g., with a tag like “racist” — and anyone can subscribe to that list of labels, blocking posts on that basis.

Bluesky calls this concept a “composable, customizable marketplace of algorithms that lets you take control of how you spend your attention.”

In addition to giving users more control over what kind of content they see, Bluesky has plans to “decentralise” control of social media even further. If all goes well, Bluesky itself will just be the first of many interconnected social networks running on the same basic principles.

Bluesky is based on what it calls the AT protocol, a network that allows servers to communicate with each other. This means that, hypothetically, you could move your account between different social networks that also use the AT protocol without losing your content and followers.

It’s worth noting this is all a bit theoretical for now; this functionality can’t be used yet.

But it is designed to eventually address the concerns of social media influencers who fear losing their audience due to platform rule changes or when choosing to move to a different platform.

Invite-only

Another distinguishing factor of Bluesky is that, for now anyway, it is invitation-only.

Most social media platforms, including Twitter, allow users to register freely. Bluesky, however, requires an invitation code. Existing users receive invitation codes fortnightly.

Despite at least 360,000 Bluesky app downloads, it’s been reported there are only 70,000 users. Media reported earlier this month there were a staggering 1.9 million people on the waitlist.

With so many people curious to get in, the Bluesky invites became a hot commodity. You can find them on eBay between A$50 and $200; some listings were asking much more.

The invitation-only design ensures steady user growth, avoiding a rapid influx of users followed by a sudden loss of interest.

And potential new users who patiently wait for an invitation are already familiar with Bluesky. Flooding other social media platforms with requests for invitation codes creates extra interest, too.

Every new Bluesky user knows at least one existing user. It ensures users have something in common to post about.

It would seem Bluesky’s creators aimed to selectively bring in like-minded individuals from the start, rather than attempting to retrospectively eliminate problematic users.

Thanks to a great deal of user control over the content they see, and a small and selective user base so far, many report they’ve found a friendly atmosphere and good vibes on Bluesky.

Others say it feels almost like a group chat. Bluesky has particularly resonated with marginalised communities, especially transgender people, who may feel safer there expressing themselves than on other social media sites.

But will any of this last?

As we’ve all seen, social media sites come and go.

Social media site Mastodon experienced explosive user growth in November last year, reaching 2.6 million users within weeks, only to decline to 1.2 million within a couple of months.

Decentralised moderation challenges on Mastodon have resulted in what some users have described as a “stuffy” culture. This, coupled with the complicated interface and the hard to grasp concept of “belonging” to a server, may have affected its chance of lasting success.

Unlike Mastodon, Bluesky has a simple and straightforward interface. To remain relevant in the long term, Bluesky must strike a delicate balance between curbing hate speech and trolls while maintaining engaging content and discussions. All while being more captivating than your inner-circle group chats.

Nataliya Ilyushina receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

– ref. What is Bluesky and how’s it different to Twitter? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-bluesky-and-hows-it-different-to-twitter-205995

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, PhD Student/Epidemiologist, University of Wollongong

Medical decision-making is complex. There are often hundreds, if not thousands, of published studies that may impact how to manage your medical condition.

Some studies look at which drug is best in a particular situation, or whether pain is better treated by, say, avoiding exercise or seeing a physio for therapeutic massage.

In this morass of difficult choices, Cochrane reviews stand out as internationally trusted and independent. They are considered the “gold standard” in evidence-based medicine.

They involve teams of researchers looking through all the published academic research on a topic to produce an overall answer on what the best evidence says about different treatments.

However, Cochrane has recently come under fire after a controversial review that looked at whether wearing masks in the community during COVID worked to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.

Studies like this can raise the question of how useful Cochrane reviews are, particularly for the general public.

Issues with evidence-based medicine

As with any research process, Cochrane reviews are not perfect. And they cannot answer all medical questions.

The entire process – from gathering data based primarily on randomised clinical trials, to reviewing that data and coming to some conclusion about the evidence – was mostly developed in the context of clinical interventions. Randomised trials are a type of medical study where people are given treatments in a controlled, random way, giving a robust estimate of whether the treatment works for the condition that’s being studied.

People regularly question whether this “gold standard” framework deals well with things other than surgery, drugs and the like.

For example, take the mask review mentioned above. Much of the criticism was focused not on the specifics of the included papers, but on the general idea of whether randomised clinical trials are an appropriate way to measure the impact of masks on respiratory disease.

What is the “gold standard” if randomised trials are impossible, unethical, or otherwise inappropriate? For example, if an intervention like vaccination is already proven effective, you can’t ethically randomise people into a group that doesn’t get the treatment.

Read more:
Yes, masks reduce the risk of spreading COVID, despite a review saying they don’t

This gets at the underlying question of what a Cochrane review is actually there to do. The key aim of aggregating research this way is to filter out the noise and provide the most accurate data on a specific question.

Sometimes, the most honest answer is that we just don’t have enough evidence to make a conclusion.

In other cases, there is evidence, but not from randomised clinical trials. Then the debate becomes about how much weight to give this evidence, whether and how to include it, and how to draw conclusions based on this data.

This may seem arbitrary, but there are good reasons to be wary of findings based only on observational research. A systematic review of observational trials of hormone replacement therapy led to widespread use in the late 90s for preventative health, until randomised trials showed the therapy had little to no benefit.

This isn’t actually a new problem. Indeed, it’s something Cochrane has been grappling with for years.

For example, a recent Cochrane review into vaping to help people quit smoking included quite a few non-randomised trials. These were not given the same weight as randomised research, but did provide support for the central finding of the review.

Read more:
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Cochrane is OK about being criticised …

There have been many issues raised with Cochrane teams over the years. This includes problems with how reviewers rate trials included in the reviews.

However, the organisation is famously transparent. If you have an issue with a particular review, you can post your comments publicly. I did this, sharing my concerns about a review on using the drug ivermectin to treat COVID.

Cochrane is also good at incorporating criticism. It even has a prize for the best criticism of its work.

Read more:
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… even if reviews take time

There’s a reason so many experts trust Cochrane. The occasional controversy aside, Cochrane reviews are generally the most detailed and rigorous summary of the evidence on any question you can find.

This attention to detail comes at a cost. Cochrane reviews are often the final word on a subject, not just because they are so robust, but because they take a very long time to come out.

Cochrane aims to publish reviews within two years. But more than half take longer to complete. Cochrane reviews are also meant to be updated regularly, but many have not been updated for more than five years.

Read more:
Clinical trials are useful – here’s how we can ensure they stay so

In a nutshell

Cochrane reviews can be flawed, cannot answer all medical questions and, while comprehensive, can take long to complete.

But there’s a reason that these reviews are considered the gold standard in medical research. They are detailed, lengthy, and very impressive pieces of work.

With more than 9,000 Cochrane reviews so far, these are still usually the best evidence we have to answer a range of medical questions.

I have previously worked with several members of Cochrane Australia on unaffiliated projects.

– ref. Does my treatment work? How major medical reviews can be ‘gold standard’ evidence, yet flawed – https://theconversation.com/does-my-treatment-work-how-major-medical-reviews-can-be-gold-standard-evidence-yet-flawed-205014

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wilma Hart, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland

Chocolate sales have boomed in recent months. As the cost-of-living crisis bites, consumers are increasingly reaching for chocolate as a simple and affordable pleasure.

The most important ingredient in chocolate is cocoa beans, which come from plants grown in the tropics. About 70% of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa. The countries of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ghana are two of the biggest producers.

Meeting the world’s insatiable appetite for chocolate has wrought a huge environmental cost, as the incredibly rich and diverse rainforests of West Africa are razed to make way for cocoa farms.

Research by my colleagues and me, released today, sheds new light on the problem. By generating a new high-resolution map of cocoa growing areas in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, we found the area under cocoa production is truly enormous – and may be associated with up to 37% of forest loss in protected areas.

The price of cocoa farming

The Upper Guinean forests of West Africa have been classified as a “global biodiversity hotspot”, due to their exceptional concentrations of plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. But much of this forest has now been destroyed.

Since 1950, Côte d’Ivoire has lost up to 90% of its forest cover and Ghana has lost 65%. Cocoa has been a primary driver of this deforestation, together with other crops, mining and logging.

But the exact contribution of cocoa plantations to the problem is not well understood. This is due in part to a lack of an accurate, high-resolution map of cocoa-growing areas.

Without a map, we don’t know where the chocolate we consume comes from. In particular, we don’t know whether the cocoa was grown in formerly forested areas, or even illegally in protected areas.

Read more:
Child labour on farms in Africa: it’s important to make a distinction between what’s harmful, and what isn’t

What we did

We set out to determine the location and extent of cocoa plantations by using artificial intelligence (AI).

We used a type of AI known as a “neural network”, which allows computers to recognise and predict patterns in data. When a neural network is trained on satellite images showing different land uses, it can apply this “understanding” to identify the same land uses in satellite images of other geographic areas.

In our study, we trained the neural network to recognise cocoa plantations across Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. We did this using satellite images, together with the known locations of more than 100,000 cocoa farms.

We then checked the accuracy of the information provided by the neural network, by engaging field teams to confirm the results at 2,000 random locations on the ground.

This combination of advanced technology and hard fieldwork allowed us to create the first high-resolution map of cocoa production across West Africa. And what the map tells us is worrying.

Read more:
Chocolate chemistry – a food scientist explains how the beloved treat gets its flavor, texture and tricky reputation as an ingredient

What we found

We found that the land area devoted to cocoa is enormous, comprising more than 7 million hectares of plantations across both countries. The result is far greater than official figures – up to 40% higher in Ghana’s case.

What’s more, much of the cocoa plantation area exists in vast areas of what was once native forest. And more than 1.5 million hectares of land under cocoa production is located in protected areas.

Deforestation in protected areas is a major issue globally. Given where we found cocoa growing, and where forest loss has been observed, we estimate more than 37% of deforestation in protected areas can be linked to cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire. For Ghana, the figure is 13%.

How do we fix this?

Our map demonstrates the massive role that cocoa may be playing in forest destruction in West Africa, including in protected areas.

This is a complex problem, with no easy fix. Cocoa is grown by an estimated two million mostly small-scale farmers, who typically live below the poverty line on less than US$1 a day. Expanding their cocoa farms into forest is one way farmers and their families can maintain or improve their livelihoods.

To fix this problem, we must help farmers manage existing farms in a more productive and sustainable way. Stronger law enforcement is also needed, to safeguard protected areas. Both will require action from governments and companies.

More money from chocolate sales should end up with the farmer. And consumers may also have to pay more for their chocolate.

Only determined changes on all these fronts will preserve the remaining forests of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Wilma Hart receives funding from the Lindt Cocoa Foundation, the Joint Cocoa Research Found, BiodivClim ERA-Net COFUND Programme and the Queensland Government through the Advance Queensland Women’s Research Assistance Program.

– ref. The real cost of your chocolate habit: new research reveals the bittersweet truth of cocoa farming in Africa’s forests – https://theconversation.com/the-real-cost-of-your-chocolate-habit-new-research-reveals-the-bittersweet-truth-of-cocoa-farming-in-africas-forests-206082

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annabelle Workman, Research Fellow, Melbourne Climate Futures and Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne

Two billion people, including many Australians, will find themselves living in dangerously hot places this century if global warming reaches 2.7℃, research released today reveals.

The authors calculated how many people would be left outside the “human climate niche” by 2100. The niche is defined as places with an average temperature of about 13℃, or about 27℃ in the tropics. Human population has historically peaked in these areas.

The world is on track for 2.7℃ of warming by 2100. This would push a third of people on Earth outside the human climate niche. This includes people in parts of northwest Australia such as Darwin, Broome and Port Hedland. It also includes parts of Southeast Asia, India, Africa and South America.

Limiting warming to 1.5℃ would substantially reduce the number of people exposed, including most of those affected in northwest Australia.

We were not involved in the research, which was conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom, China, Europe and United States. We are Australian experts in the health implications of global warming. Below, we discuss the broader implications of these globally significant findings.

What is the human cost of global warming?

The research calculated the number of people outside the “human climate niche” under different demographic scenarios and levels of warming. Exposure to unprecedented heat was the main factor pushing people out of the niche.

This includes an average temperature greater than or equal to 29℃, as well as a high number of days with a maximum temperature above 40℃ or in humid places, with a wet-bulb temperature greater than 28℃. The wet-bulb temperature (as opposed to the standard dry-bulb temperature) reflects humidity and is a method used to measure heat stress. That’s because it’s the point at which sweating is no longer effective as a means of cooling.

The study says a wet-bulb temperature of 35 ℃ can be fatal, especially for vulnerable people, because the body can no longer cool itself.

Above the present level of about 1.2 ℃ global warming, the authors found exposure to unprecedented average temperatures increased markedly, along with increased exposure to temperature extremes.

But 2.7 ℃ of warming threatens a third of the world’s population. The below map shows where in the world people will suffer the worst heat. Almost the entire area of some countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali in West Africa, would be exposed to unprecedented heat.

Why is warming a health hazard?

Just last week, the World Meteorological Organization predicted global surface temperatures would rise to record levels within the next five years. The temperature is also likely to temporarily climb 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels.

This spells trouble for human health. Even incremental warming increases exposure to health hazards including potentially deadly heatwaves, infectious diseases and diet-related health issues.

Let’s be clear. A 1.5℃ world will result in injury and death, particularly for people in Asia and Africa. Importantly, the people most at risk will be the least capable of protecting themselves: children, the elderly and those with existing health conditions.

While populations closer to the equator are more likely to experience heat-related harm, Australians are by no means immune.

For example, a 2019 study found heat-related health issues in Australia have been grossly underestimated. It found more than 36,000 deaths between 2006 and 2017 were attributable to heat.

And experts predict Darwin could experience an average 265 days a year above 35℃ in a 3℃ warmer world.

Read more:
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As in other parts of world, primarily high-risk populations in Australia will experience some of the worst impacts from a changing climate. In essence, climate change creates and maintains health inequities.

To date, the Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed 1.2℃ above pre-industrial levels. We must enact ambitious climate policies now if we are to change our dangerous trajectory.

For too long, we have focused disproportionately on the economic costs of climate action for current – often wealthy – groups at the expense of considering the economic costs of inaction for all, including future generations.

Historically health has rarely been included in these economic assessments, much less ethical considerations. Emissions reduction policies need to consider health and equity issues, and in doing so can provide governments with a strategic rationale to act.

How can extreme heat harm health?

There are multiple ways in which climate change can harm human health. Extreme heat can have direct effects, such as dehydration and heat stroke. Groups most at risk include the elderly and those already unwell.

Extreme heat can also harm mental health, increasing rates of injury and death by aggravating existing mental illness. Beyond direct effects, heat can affect health by influencing, for example, agricultural productivity, water security and air quality.

Read more:
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There are physiological limits to adaptation, particularly to heat. These limits can have negative consequences for labour productivity, especially for outdoor workers, and for health service demand, leading to increased hospital admissions, emergency department visits, and ambulance calls.

Pursuing adaptation measures in an effort to reduce the harmful effects of existing climate change is vital, but to protect the health of all, it is critical that we pursue strong emissions reduction measures.

Developing healthier climate policies

Australian climate action targets have improved under the Albanese government, however they remain incompatible with keeping warming to 1.5℃.

Approving additional coal projects is not helpful for reducing emissions or demonstrating climate leadership.

A commitment to develop and implement a National Health and Climate Strategy and establish a National Sustainability and Climate Unit are promising initiatives. This will help to address our woeful performance in a recent assessment showing how national climate commitments don’t link with health.

Last week, the Victorian Government committed to reducing emissions by 75-80% compared with 2005 levels by 2035. Their analysis indicates it will lead to A$5.7 billion in health benefits from improved air quality between 2035 and 2045.

As today’s new research states, the findings highlight the need for “more decisive policy action to limit the human costs and inequities of climate change”. Australia, in particular, must protect children, the elderly and the broader population from the harms they face in a warmer world.

Read more:
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Annabelle Workman received a Strategic Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship from the Australian Government to complete her PhD. She is affiliated with the Climate and Health Alliance.

Kathryn Bowen has received funding for climate and health research, policy advice and technical assistance from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, WHO, Asian Development Bank, UNDP, UNEP, USAID, GIZ, EU, Future Earth, City of Melbourne, Victorian Department of Health. She is affiliated with the Climate and Health Alliance as a member of the Advisory Board and sits on the Science Committee of the World Adaptation Science Program.

– ref. Study finds 2 billion people will struggle to survive in a warming world – and these parts of Australia are most vulnerable – https://theconversation.com/study-finds-2-billion-people-will-struggle-to-survive-in-a-warming-world-and-these-parts-of-australia-are-most-vulnerable-205927

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judith Rosentreter, Senior research fellow, Southern Cross University

Coastal ecosystems can absorb or emit the three main greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

We explored how coasts in ten regions of the world differ in greenhouse gas uptake and emissions. Our research published today in Nature Climate Change finds that, globally, our coastal ecosystems are a net greenhouse gas sink, but smaller emissions of potent methane and nitrous oxide gases reduce some of the carbon dioxide uptake.

We found coasts in Europe and Russia are net emitters, while coasts in Southeast Asia and North America have a large uptake of these gases.

Like upland forests and rainforests, ecosystems like coastal wetlands can take up atmospheric CO₂ and turn it into new leaves, roots and other organic matter. When some of this carbon is stored long-term in deep sediments, it can help battle rising CO₂ levels in our atmosphere.

The coastal net greenhouse gas uptake should not be confused with carbon storage. Only part of the coastal greenhouse gas uptake is stored long-term in coastal sediments, while another part is transported to the ocean where it might be stored or released back to the atmosphere.

Not all coasts are the same

Africa and Australia have large swathes of sandy coastline and coastal wetlands. By contrast, Europe and Russia’s cold coastline lacks mangroves or tropical coastal wetlands. These differences drive the changes we found in how different coasts take up or emit greenhouse gases.

The strongest coastal greenhouse gas sink is Southeast Asia, because of its extensive and productive tropical mangrove forests and seagrasses which soak up large amounts of CO₂. North America’s coast is another excellent sink for greenhouse gases, with its salt marshes, mangroves, seagrasses – and Canada’s fjords, glacier-made valleys filled with seawater.

While Australia and New Zealand have long stretches of coastal wetlands soaking up CO₂, this is offset by a large number of estuaries, many of which are a source of greenhouse gases produced by decaying organic matter.

Coasts in Europe and Russia actually release more greenhouse gases than they absorb. Their many polluted tidal estuaries release greenhouse gases, but the colder climate means this region has fewer coastal wetlands to soak these gases back up.

But across the three main greenhouse gases, eight out of the ten world coastal regions are a net greenhouse gas sink.

Some coasts soak up greenhouse gases while others emit more

The world’s coastal ecosystems are enormously diverse, ranging from tropical lagoons to polar fjords to coastal mangrove forests to underwater seagrass meadows. This sheer variety means they differ greatly in how they take up or release greenhouse gases.

For example, we show that fjords around the world take up around 40% of CO₂ that would otherwise be released from tidal systems, deltas and lagoons. Most (86%) of this important CO₂ uptake by fjords comes from the North America region.

By contrast, salt marshes and mangroves are home to trillions of microorganisms which live in deep, oxygen-free sediments, eating dead organic matter and emitting methane and nitrous oxide. Some of these gases reach the atmosphere, making many coastal waters a source of methane and nitrous oxide.

Coastal wetlands release more than three times more methane than all estuaries in the world. But coastal wetlands, also called coastal “blue carbon” wetlands, can be strong sinks of CO₂ and some also take up nitrous oxide. On balance, these coastal ecosystems become a net greenhouse sink when we consider the net effect of these three most important greenhouse gases.

What does the big picture look like? Globally, our research shows our coasts’ ability to take up CO₂ is offset between 9% and 20% by coastal methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

Read more:
Half of global methane emissions come from aquatic ecosystems – much of this is human-made

Why is this knowledge important?

If we understand how our coastal ecosystems take up or emit greenhouse gases, we can target the most crucial ecosystems for preservation or restoration.

That’s why many researchers are interested in blue carbon as a way to boost long-term carbon storage. By protecting and restoring mangroves and salt marshes in nations rich in blue carbon, such as Indonesia, we can expand their ability to take these gases back out of the atmosphere and ultimately store some of the carbon long-term in their sediments.

And by reducing nutrient overload, organic matter and wastewater flows into our coastal waterways, we can cut the greenhouse gases emitted by polluted estuaries.

Read more:
Floods of nutrients from fertilisers and wastewater trash our rivers. Could offsetting help?

We shouldn’t just see our coastal ecosystems as a boon to carbon credit markets. They have much more to offer, including many valuable ecosystem services. Our coasts protect our shorelines from severe weather and tides. They are a nursery for many fish and plants. And they’re vital to us as a place to be in nature.

Protecting our coasts is good for us, for nature and for the earth system as it plunges into the climate crisis.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank our international team of scientists and the Global Carbon Project for initiating this research.

Judith Rosentreter receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Bradley Eyre receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. From mangroves to fjords, coastal ecosystems can take up or emit greenhouse gases. But globally, they’re a vital sink – https://theconversation.com/from-mangroves-to-fjords-coastal-ecosystems-can-take-up-or-emit-greenhouse-gases-but-globally-theyre-a-vital-sink-205473

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Morley, Professor of Social Work, Queensland University of Technology

This article is part of our series on big ideas for the Universities Accord. The federal government is calling for ideas to “reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond”. A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.

Mandatory work placements are a vital part of many university degrees. This includes some of the most important degrees in our society, such as nursing, teaching, social work, psychology and the allied health professions.

The time these require varies but is always significant. For example, for social work and occupational therapy programs it is 1,000 hours. Nursing degrees require at least 800 hours of placement. Undergraduate education students need to complete at least 80 days of professional experience.

These positions are not paid.

Amid a cost-of-living crisis, with rising university fees, we can no longer expect students to do this work for free. The Universities Accord has placed a big emphasis on equity and improving participation in higher education. As part of this, it needs to make sure students are not penalised for completing necessary parts of their degrees.

Our research

Late last year, the Australian Council of Heads of School of Social Work commissioned a survey about work experience placements and I led the research team.

More than 700 students around the country responded to the survey, which asked about current challenges for field education, particularly given the COVID pandemic.

We also received nearly 500 responses from educators and practitioners in organisations who host these students.

Income deficits and hidden costs

Our survey found the financial burden of placements on students could be crippling.

Work placements invariably mean students have to travel, potentially pay for parking and wear professional clothing. This immediately leaves students out-of-pocket. As one survey respondent told us:

The extent of the hours and […] the cost of petrol and transport made my placement experience a financial issue.

But students also often have to forgo paid work they have in order to meet their course requirements. As one student noted:

To do unpaid work we have to choose between putting petrol in the car to get to placement or putting food in our stomachs.

More than a third of students (33.7%) said they lost their entire weekly income because of field placement. Another 25% had lost up to 75% of their regular wage.

More than 96% of students said they didn’t have enough money to pay for food, or the clothes and travel required for placement. More than 79% said they knew of other students who have had to defer their social work studies or withdraw from the degree altogether due to placement requirements.

Many told us they had incurred large debts from additional student loans “due to lack of resources”. Others talked about a total disruption to their lives:

I will need to […] resign from my full-time employment and relocate as I will not be able to afford my rent in the city.

This is harming mental health

The disruption caused by work placements was not just financial.
Almost 80% said their mental health had been adversely affected due to the financial hardship associated with their placement. As these students noted:

My mental health has never been so bad after doing placement and now I have to do another one. I have no idea how I’m going to live on such little money for six [more] months.

Students also explained this made it hard to benefit educationally from the placement:

How are we meant to meet learning competencies, support clients to the best of our abilities if we ourselves are suffering due to unfair, unrealistic placement expectations?

Another told us, the placement became just about “getting the hours done, rather than learning”.

What can we change?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, students overwhelmingly supported being paid for field placements. Some described the current situation as “unethical”.

I am already struggling with providing basic needs for my family, such as childcare, mortgage [without being on placement].

This was endorsed by social work educators and practitioners who said “we can no longer justify unpaid labour”.

This idea is not a new one. It has long been been proposed for disciplines such as nursing and education.

Paid placements are the way forward

We need an immediate restructure of how student placements are conceptualised and funded.

We pay apprenticeship wages for trades, so why not support students who are studying vital professions? There are many ways it could work, but here are three possibilities:

1. the government funds organisations who take students on placement to pay them for their work

2. the government funds universities to pay students a bursary, or

3. students doing a placement apply through Services Australia for a special temporary payment.

Whichever way we do it, we need to stop assuming all university students have wealthy parents who can fund their studies. And we need to stop pretending free labour is they best way for students to learn.

Read more:
Why arts degrees and other generalist programs are the future of Australian higher education

Christine Morley received partial funding from the Australian Council of Heads of Schools of Social Work to undertake the research that informed this article
The research team also included: Vanessa Ryan (QUT) Dr Lisa Hodge (CDU), Dr Maree Higgins (UNSW), Prof Linda Briskman (WSU), Dr Robyn Martin (RMIT) and Dr Nicole Hill (UoM).

– ref. ‘We can no longer justify unpaid labour’: why uni students need to be paid for work placements – https://theconversation.com/we-can-no-longer-justify-unpaid-labour-why-uni-students-need-to-be-paid-for-work-placements-203421

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Historian, Australian Catholic University

Shows like The Great on Stan are changing how we look at history. Instead of being all about getting the facts straight, they’re shaking things up and telling the story their own way. These shows are rewriting the rulebook.

In The Great, the narrative deviates significantly from historical reality. This fast-and-loose approach, humorously labelled as “an occasionally true story”, represents a trend of irreverence that has been evolving over the years.

A German-born usurper, Catherine II, holds a significant place in Russian history, second only to Peter the Great.

She played a pivotal role in transforming Russia into a great empire, defying gender norms and expectations of her time. Catherine made Russia a European superpower and established foundations on which Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin based their ideologies of “Mother Russia” – she was the Mother Russia.

The Hulu series The Great takes a bold approach by re-imagining the life of Catherine II as a coarse period comedy. It utilises stunning historical settings to enhance the vivid absurdity of this romp through Russian history in the mid-18th century.

The Great doesn’t pretend to adhere closely to the historical record. Instead, it presents an extravagantly vulgar yet brilliantly humorous portrayal of Catherine II and her era. The series is fast-paced, fiercely witty and tailored for modern audiences, embracing the art of historicising filmmaking.

Taking liberties with history

The Great takes significant liberties with historical facts, distorting the timeline and altering the lineage of its characters.

In The Great, Peter is already emperor when Catherine arrives, whereas in reality, they were married for 17 years before he ascended the throne. In the series, Peter is the son of Peter the Great, whereas the true Peter was his German-born grandson. These creative deviations highlight the show’s inclination towards reimagining historical events for dramatic effect.

While The Great may not align with historical events, it provides an entertaining and irreverent perspective on Catherine the Great’s legacy as a powerful female ruler who shaped Russia’s destiny. Yet, it is not easy to separate fact from fiction, especially with the show’s warped timeline.

Catherine took the power as empress in 1762 and held the supreme authority of Russia until her death in 1796. In her usurpation of the crown, just six months after her husband, Peter III, took the throne, she was assisted by her lover Grigory Orlov.

With his help, she staged a coup and dethroned Peter III “like a child being sent to bed”, drawing admiration from the Machiavellian Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Who was Catherine the Great?

Catherine was born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729 in Stettin, Prussia (now known as Szczecin in Poland).

Her father, a minor German prince, was a Prussian governor of Stettin. Her mother’s royal connections and political machinations brought Sophie to the attention of the reigning Russian empress, Elizabeth. The empress decided to make Sophie the wife of her nephew and heir, Peter.

In 1744, the young German princess arrived in Russia, converted to Russian Orthodoxy, adopted the name Catherine and at the age of 16 was married to Peter.

Initially, Catherine struggled to navigate the complex and intricate dynamics of the Russian court, where Empress Elizabeth held absolute power. However, she was determined to learn and adapt to her new surroundings.

Catherine later reflected that she made a conscious decision to do whatever was necessary and to publicly embrace the beliefs and ideals required of her to be qualified for the crown of the tsars.

A disastrous marriage

Catherine and Peter’s marriage was a disastrous mismatch. They were completely incompatible in terms of intellect and interests.

While Catherine was an erudite lover of European culture, Peter was boorish and immature. He lacked ambition and did not understand his role as the future emperor. Their differences led them to seek intimacy elsewhere, raising questions about the paternity of their son, Paul I, who later believed that his father was Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland-Lithuania.

With Peter’s ascension to the Russian throne upon his aunt Elizabeth’s death in 1762, Catherine recognised the threats to her position and life. Her decision to act and overthrow her husband was accelerated by Peter antagonising the key factions at court and behaving dangerously irrationally, as she wrote in her memoirs.

Within first six months of Peter’s reign, Catherine, supported by her followers, staged a coup, arrested Peter and coerced his abdication. He conveniently died eight days later under uncertain circumstances, possibly murder or an accidental result of a drunken brawl. The official cause of death was stated as “hemorrhoidal colic”, a euphemism for assassination.

Catherine claimed the throne in her own right rather that under the pretence of ruling as regent for her son Paul.

Her coronation highlighted her status as the God-anointed ruler of “All the Russias”, bringing us roughly to where the story is up to in season three of The Great – it is hard to tell.

The Great shocks and entertains by revealing that history can be retold to reflect on contemporary society. People, for all the celebrated progress and “giant leaps forward” are as vulnerable today as they were in the past.

Catherine in The Great whispers “Destiny didn’t do it. I did it.” The historical Catherine would most likely have agreed.

Darius von Guttner Sporzynski 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. Hulu’s The Great depicts her as humorous and vulgar – the real Catherine the Great is perhaps even more interesting – https://theconversation.com/hulus-the-great-depicts-her-as-humorous-and-vulgar-the-real-catherine-the-great-is-perhaps-even-more-interesting-205394

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

The treatment of Stan Grant that has driven him off the ABC is a case study in how content on the professional mass media can fuel social media toxicity, especially on issues such as race.

It does not require the professional mass media to be overtly racist to accomplish this, but to send signals of intense disapproval that trolls then use as the basis for their racist attacks.

Grant himself clearly sees this. In his statement on ABC Online announcing his decision to step away from hosting Q+A on ABC television, he wrote:

Since the King’s coronation, I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate-filled. They have accused me of maligning Australia.

He does not accuse the professional mass media outright of racism, and indeed it is difficult to find outright racist statements there.

Instead, he reserves his accusations of racism for social media, writing:

On social media my family and I are regularly mocked or abused. This is not new. Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted. My wife is targeted with abuse for being married to a Wiradjuri man.

The professional mass media’s contribution to the racism he writes about is more subtle. It is to be found, first, in the singling out of Grant from the other members of the ABC panel whose discussion as part of the ABC’s coronation coverage has led to the outrage driving Grant away.

A review of The Australian newspaper’s coverage of the controversy in the period between the coronation and the day following Grant’s announcement shows that Grant was named 11 times: that’s more than the other panel members, Craig Foster, Julian Leeser and Teela Reid, put together.

Read more:
Stan Grant stands up to racist abuse. Our research shows many diverse journalists have copped it too

He was portrayed as the personification of all that was said to be wrong with the panel discussion. Yet Foster, who was there as a representative of the republican movement, and Reid, an Aboriginal lawyer, were just as outspoken, in their own ways, about the effect of the monarchy and its place in Australian life.

But Grant is a tall poppy whose performance as the moderator of Q+A was already the subject of controversy, and the attention directed at him reflected that well-established stereotype.

Second, some of the language used to describe Grant’s words – “rant”, “tirade”, “steam-bath of emotion” – was calculated to intensify antipathy towards him.

That is all the trolls need. From there, the hate speech launches off into territory that will not be described here beyond a general statement that it involves varied references to skin colour and attitude.

This is not to say Grant or anyone else should be immune from criticism. Grant is frequently criticised for his interviewing style, and his views are open to legitimate challenge. But the line is drawn at the point where the criticism becomes personal: where his motives are impugned or his race invoked.

The professional mass media well understands the effects its work can have – for good or ill – on those engaged on social media. But it fails to give sufficient weight to this when making judgements about the portrayal of people who are vulnerable to being trolled: women, people of colour, ethnic and religious minorities.

It may be that the lack of diversity, especially in the upper echelons of media organisations, including the ABC, accounts for at least some of this failure.

In the aftermath of Grant’s announcement, Osman Faruqi, formerly a journalist at the ABC and now culture news editor of The Age, wrote a scathing assessment of the ABC in this respect. He writes:

The higher up the organisation you go, the fewer and fewer diverse faces you see […] contributing to a culture that is, at best, dismissive of the needs and concerns of staff and audience who aren’t white and, at worst, actively hostile to them.

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the ABC management’s appalling lack of support for Grant, his fellow panellists and the journalists who conceived and executed the coronation coverage when they came under severe attack from reactionary elements in Australian politics.

Grant himself called it out, saying no one at the ABC offered a word of public support:

Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible. It is an institutional failure.

This was obvious even from the outside. Not until Grant had announced his withdrawal from Q+A did the director of news, Justin Stevens, come out with a statement of support, saying the attacks on him were abhorrent and unacceptable.

Read more:
The power of yindyamarra: how we can bring respect to Australian democracy

And then, finally, the editor-in-chief, David Anderson, broke his silence. He apologised to Grant, saying he was “dismayed” at the “sickening behaviour” he had been exposed to, and announcing a review of the way the ABC responds to racist abuse of its staff.

These are fine sentiments, about two weeks too late.

Where were they when some unnamed source inside the ABC was briefing The Australian that complaints about the coronation coverage were being referred to the organisation’s ombudsman and that senior management were reviewing the way the coronation had been covered?

Leaving the field open while your people are attacked is not the way to run a news organisation. A robust defence was called for when the whips were cracking, but it has taken Grant’s stand to bring it forth.

That defence is set out in the organisation’s editorial policies on impartiality: the requirement to present all principal relevant perspectives on an issue. The coronation was first and foremost an intensely political event, freighted with religious and political history, overlaid with spectacle. The journalists who devised the panel understood this and brought in the principal relevant perspectives: monarchist, Indigenous and republican.

As this article was being written, ABC staff were taking matters into their own hands, walking out in support of Grant. Leadership is coming from the bottom.

Denis Muller 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. Stan Grant’s treatment is a failure of ABC’s leadership, mass media, and debate in this country – https://theconversation.com/stan-grants-treatment-is-a-failure-of-abcs-leadership-mass-media-and-debate-in-this-country-206080

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

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has condemned the plan to enshrine a constitutional Voice to Parliament as “a symptom of the madness of identity politics which has infected the 21st century”.

As debate on the historic referendum legislation – introduced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in March – began in the House of Representatives on Monday, Dutton claimed the Voice would “re-racialise our nation.”

“At a time when we need to unite the country, this prime minister’s proposal will permanently divide us by race,” Dutton said.

But Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney told the house: “Constitutional recognition through a Voice to Parliament is about giving Indigenous Australians a say in the matters that affect us.

“It means delivering structural change that empowers Indigenous communities. It means getting better advice, so we get better policies and better outcomes.”

The debate in the house is expected to continue all week and into next week, with about 70 speakers listed at the moment. When the vote comes, the votes of all MPs will be recorded, even if there is not a division called, because it is a referendum bill. The legislation’s passage is assured because the Liberals are not opposing it.

Dutton condemned the Voice as “regressive, not progressive”.

In the referendum, Australians “will be voting as to whether they should change, or to preserve, our Constitution – our nation’s rule book.

“It’s one of the most important decisions Australians will make in their lifetime.

“Because if Australians vote for change, then our nation, our democracy and their lives will be fundamentally altered – and, in this case, not for the better,” Dutton said.

“The Voice would be the most radical and consequential change to the way our democracy operates in our nation’s history.”

Read more:
Word from The Hill: Government should set date for Voice to start talking

Dutton said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wanted people to vote for the Voice “on a vibe”.

He said Albanese was “seeking to conflate two separate issues. One, the constitutional recognition, and two, enshrining the Voice in the Constitution.

“He wants to leverage the overwhelming public support for constitutional recognition to piggyback his poorly defined, untested and risk-ridden Canberra Voice model.”

What was needed was a “bottom-up approach”, Dutton said, rather than “another top-down one”. “We believe that local communities know best.”

Burney accused Dutton of putting into one speech “every bit of disinformation and misinformation and scare campaigns that exist in this debate”.

She said the Voice had been “a grassroots movement, the culmination of years of discussion, consultation and hard work by so many”.

Recognition through a Voice was about “making a practical difference”.

“The purpose of the Voice is to improve outcomes for our people,” she said. “It is symbolic – and practical.”

Burney said that after a successful referendum “we will work to link the national Voice in at a regional level, in a way that works for local communities”.

“Everyone agrees that the Voice needs to be connected to grassroots communities.

“It’s why regional voices that can plug into a national Voice are so important. And why the investment set by the former Liberal government for regional arrangements remains in the budget.”

Burney said the Voice was constitutionally sound and got the balance right, as the solicitor-general’s opinion made clear.

Read more:
View from The Hill: Albanese should not try to make the Voice the only game in town in Indigenous affairs

But this was “not enough for those hell-bent on dashing the hopes of a people. Not enough for those hell-bent on stoking division.

“It’s not enough for those trying to play politics with an issue that should be above partisan politics,” Burney said.

Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer, who is campaigning for the yes case, strongly rejected Dutton’s argument that the referendum was dividing the country by race.

“This referendum provides an incredible chance to begin righting so many wrongs and to bring about tangible differences in quality-of-life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I think most Australians would agree that the status quo isn’t acceptable and that we as a country must do better. Here is our chance.”

Speaking earlier on the report of the parliamentary inquiry on the Voice, Andrew Gee, who defected from the Nationals to the crossbench because of their opposition to the Voice, said while the committee had heard some differing legal opinions, “I found the evidence that the proposed words are legally sound to be highly persuasive”.

The evidence had showed it was “ridiculous to suggest that the Voice […] could or would imperil Anzac day, federal budgets or nuclear submarine contracts”.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia has thrown its weight behind the Voice, joining a number of other sporting bodies. Former NSW Premier Mike Baird, who chairs Cricket Australia, said: “The board is proud of cricket’s powerful and unique history with First Nations people”.

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

– ref. Dutton condemns Voice as symptom of ‘identity politics’, as Burney says it will bring ‘better outcomes’ – https://theconversation.com/dutton-condemns-voice-as-symptom-of-identity-politics-as-burney-says-it-will-bring-better-outcomes-206089

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

The United States debt limit is a legislative limit on the overall debt the US government can incur. As the US keeps running budget deficits, the debt keeps increasing. Congress could deal with this permanently by either repealing the debt limit, or increasing it to a very large number.

But instead, Congress has only increased the debt limit enough to give grace for a year or two before it needs to be increased again. The last time the debt limit was increased was December 2021.

The US hit the debt limit on January 19 this year. The Treasury has been taking extraordinary measures to delay a default, but these measures could fail as early as June 1. While the US has never defaulted, there were debt limit crises in 2011 and 2013.

The main reason for the 2011 and 2013 crises was divided government – Democrat Barack Obama was president and Republicans controlled the House of Representatives. This situation is the same now, with Democrat Joe Biden as president and Republicans controlling the House. Republicans have attempted to use the debt limit to demand spending cuts.

Read more:
A brief history of debt ceiling crises and the political chaos they’ve unleashed

Republicans only hold a 222-213 House majority, and it took 15 rounds of voting for Republican Kevin McCarthy to be elected House speaker in early January. But right-wing Republicans won concessions from McCarthy, and the speaker decides what comes to the floor for a vote.

To keep the right onside, McCarthy will probably deny a vote on any debt ceiling increase that excludes major spending cuts, and such cuts would be unacceptable to Democrats.

Democrats had overall control of the presidency, House and Senate until January 3 when the new House started. But they made no real attempt to increase the debt limit and avert a crisis until after the 2024 presidential election. If there is a default, the failure to increase the limit will come back to haunt Democrats, the US and the world economy.

A weaker economy in the presidential election year of 2024 is likely to hurt Biden, so Republicans have some incentive to not compromise on the spending cuts they are demanding.

On April 26, Republicans passed a bill through the House of Representatives by a 217-215 margin that would raise the debt limit in return for big spending cuts that Democrats strongly oppose. All Democrats that voted were opposed.

This bill has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, and would be vetoed by Biden. But it showed that Republicans could pass their agenda. Had the House not passed this bill or something similar, there would be more pressure on Republicans to pass a “clean” debt limit increase – an increase without any spending cuts.

As it is, McCarthy can argue that the House has done its job, and that Democrats need to give ground on spending cuts.

In the last week there have been negotiations over the debt limit between Democratic and Republican leaders, but these negotiations have broken down in the last two days, with both sides blaming the other for changing their positions.

Left-wing Democrats have been urging Biden to use Section 4 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, and effectively declare the debt limit unconstitutional. However, the US Supreme Court currently has a six-to-three right-leaning majority, so it’s unclear whether they would support Biden.

Trump way ahead of DeSantis in Republican primary polls

Republicans and Democrats will both select their presidential candidates for the November 2024 election in a series of nominating contests in each state in early 2024, at which delegates to the national conventions are elected. When we are closer to the voting in the early states, polls of those states will be useful, but for now the national polling is better.

Former President Donald Trump has 53.5% of the vote in the FiveThirtyEight aggregate of national Republican presidential primary polls. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trails far behind on 20.8% and no other candidate has more than 6%. Since this aggregate started in early March, Trump has steadily increased his lead over DeSantis.

For the Democratic primary, there are polls that list many possible candidates, which indicate that Biden could face a contest if a high-profile candidate were to enter. However, Biden will easily defeat the only two other candidates who have actually entered: Robert F Kennedy Jr and Marianne Williamson.

General election Biden vs Trump polls are close

If Biden and Trump both win their parties’ nominations, which current polling suggests is likely, we will have a November 2024 rematch of the 2020 contest which Biden won. The RealClearPolitics average of national Biden vs Trump general election polls currently has Trump leading Biden 44.2-42.8%.

A key reason why this match-up is close is that Biden’s ratings have slumped since the beginning of his presidency.

In his first six months as president, Biden’s approval rating was over 50% in the FiveThirtyEight aggregate. But since October 2021, his approval rating has consistently been below 45%, while his disapproval has been over 50%. Biden’s ratings haven’t changed much in the last few months and are currently at 52.7% disapprove and 42.4% approve (net -10.4).

The two potential hurdles to Biden’s re-election are the economy and his age. A debt default would make the economy far worse, and Biden will be almost 82 by the November 2024 election, though Trump will be 78.

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

– ref. The US could default on June 1 owing to gridlock over the debt limit; Biden vs Trump polls are close – https://theconversation.com/the-us-could-default-on-june-1-owing-to-gridlock-over-the-debt-limit-biden-vs-trump-polls-are-close-205924

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Bent, Research Fellow, La Trobe University

Most early support programs for autistic children (also called “early interventions”) are provided after diagnosis. But long waiting times can leave families feeling stressed that they are “missing out” on critical opportunities to support their child.

With last week’s government announcement of A$22 million for two new pilot programs, support for babies and their parents is set to become more available – and potentially ease demand for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) supports.

Our team recently consulted with more than 200 community members, including autistic and non-autistic parents, clinical professionals, and researchers to understand their views on what very early supports might look like.

So what do families need to know about these types of early support and are they worth the hype?

Read more:
Autism and ADHD assessment waits are up to 2 years’ long. What can families do in the meantime?

Increasing support needs

Currently 88,617 children under seven are supported by the NDIS. Some 10% of boys and 4% of girls aged five to seven access the scheme and half of all child participants are registered for autism supports.

The substantial need for services has led government to consider other options for supporting neurodivergent children. Rather than waiting until after an autism diagnosis, very early supports for infants may promote better outcomes while also taking pressure off an overloaded system.

Government interest in very early support programs has increased following research suggesting that for every $1 invested in supporting neurodivergent infants and parents, the NDIS could save at least $3 down the track. The Australian study modelled service costs through to children’s 13th birthday.

Read more:
Therapy for babies showing early signs of autism reduces the chance of clinical diagnosis at age 3

What are autism supports for babies?

Supports provided very early in life, before a diagnosis, are sometimes called “pre-emptive interventions”. The idea is that a relatively small amount of support early on can help prevent future difficulties, as families are better equipped to understand their baby’s skills and needs and respond supportively.

Until now, there has been very limited support available for families before diagnosis. Several different models have been developed and trialled, but these are not widely available in the community.

Our work with the autistic community has identified key recommendations for supports for neurodivergent infants, to assist parents to make informed decisions about what is best for their child.

Because these very early programs are aimed at supporting such young babies, the work should be with the parents, rather than with the child. Supports can involve parent training and education focused on helping parents understand and support their child. Parents might learn strategies and ways of interacting that they can then use at home with their little one.

An example of this might be a clinician and parent observing an infant together and practising noticing their communication cues, or following the infant’s lead and engaging together in activities the infant is interested in (regardless of whether these are “usual” for neurotypical children).

This type of support can be valuable because neurodivergent children can communicate in different ways, and parents might need some help to understand what their baby wants and needs.

Becoming a new parent brings many changes, and insights from the autistic community indicate parents of neurodivergent children may require additional support. Many parents of autistic children may also be neurodivergent or exhibit autistic traits, including sensory sensitivity.

But this won’t look the same for everyone. Supports should be tailored according to what the infant and family needs. The amount of support families need will also vary. It’s got to be balanced so that children can continue to play and participate in the community without the burden of attending too many appointments.

But not all babies who show early signs of neurodivergence will be autistic. Ideally, support provided will be something that is helpful for any child. Community members told us that programs for infants should aim to foster an enriching and supportive environment around the child – promoting secure attachment and supporting infants as they grow into happy, healthy children (and adults).

Similarly, supports should not be aimed at making children appear neurotypical, trying to “fix” or eliminate autism. Rather the aim should be to promote understanding of a baby as an individual, with their own unique strengths and ways of communicating.

Read more:
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What does the evidence say?

This is a relatively new area of research and evidence regarding the effectiveness of supports is still emerging.

An international review of 13 studies reported mixed outcomes with supports leading to an increase in parents’ use of strategies – but this only translated to an improvement in infants’ communication for those who used the strategies consistently. A second review found low to moderate quality evidence overall.

An Australian clinical trial with 103 infants and parents, which some of our team were involved in, showed improvements in communication and a positive impact on developmental outcomes. This study helped inform an initial pilot of similar supports in Western Australia, and is the basis of recent reports of cost savings.

While there is promising local evidence of benefits for one model of very early support, research in this area is ongoing.

What’s next?

The announcement of new pilot programs for babies showing early signs of neurodivergence creates an opportunity for much-needed further research regarding the potential benefits of these very early supports across different contexts and service models.

It will be important for policymakers to consider implementation strategies to help parents use the support strategies at home in order to maximise their benefits.

Autistic community involvement will also be essential to inform the roll out of supports if the program is expanded – to ensure they genuinely benefit those who need them.

Cathy Bent has received funding for the work reported here from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and La Trobe University ABC Early Career Researchers Award Scheme (Healthy People, Families and Communities Research Theme), and funding for related and other research, including salary support, from the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). She has also received fees for training on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

Alexandra Aulich has received funding for the work reported here, including salary support, from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and La Trobe University (Healthy People, Families and Communities Research Theme). She has also received salary support through coordination of training on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

Christos Constantine identifies as autistic. He has worked at La Trobe University to conduct the research reported here, for which he received salary support from grants from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and La Trobe University (Healthy People, Families and Communities Research Theme).

Kristelle Hudry has received funding for the work reported here from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and La Trobe University (Healthy People, Families and Communities Research Theme), and funding for related and other research from the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS), and National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), the AutismCRC, Autism Queensland, JVCKENWOOD Corporation, La Trobe University (School of Psychology and Public Health, and Understanding Disease Research Focus Area), and the Medical Research Future Fund. She has also received fees in her previous role as Associate Editor for Research in Developmental Disabilities (RIDD) and for training on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

– ref. What is ‘early intervention’ for infants with signs of autism? And how valuable could it be? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-early-intervention-for-infants-with-signs-of-autism-and-how-valuable-could-it-be-205839

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milovan Savic, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Swinburne University of Technology

Montana has made an unprecedented move to become the first US state to ban TikTok.

However, doubts have been raised over the decision’s legal foundation, enforcement mechanisms and underlying motives. While the move draws attention to data security on social media, banning TikTok alone may not provide a comprehensive solution to this problem.

For one, the move risks alienating the many young people who have come to rely on the app for meaningful connection, and in some cases their income. It also does little in the way of ensuring better future data privacy and protection for users.

Caught in political crossfire

Since its meteoric rise in 2020, TikTok has been caught in geopolitical tensions between the US and China. These tensions peaked in late 2020 when then-president Donald Trump signed an executive order directing ByteDance – the Chinese media giant and parent company of TikTok – to divest from its US operations, or face being banned. In response, TikTok partnered with Oracle on Project Texas: a US$1.5 billion initiative to relocate all US user data to servers outside China.

Allegations that China-based employees at ByteDance had accessed the TikTok user data led to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appearing before Congress in March amid yet more calls for it to be banned, and reports of the Biden administration pushing for its sale.

Throughout these controversies, TikTok has denied sharing user data with the Chinese government, and said it wouldn’t do so even if asked. Nonetheless, governments worldwide – including in Australia – have banned TikTok on government devices, citing concerns over data protection.

Read more:
Is China out to spy on us through drones and other tech? Perhaps that’s not the question we should be asking

Enforcing a ban is a daunting task

Montana’s new law will make downloading TikTok within state lines illegal from January 1 2024. The law imposes fines of up to US$10,000 per day for entities offering access to or downloads of the app within the state. Users themselves will not incur penalties.

The current legislation places responsibility for blocking access on Apple and Google – the operators of app stores on iOS and Android devices. These companies would be held liable for any violations. However, they lack the capacity to enforce geofencing at the state level, making it difficult for them to prevent Montana residents from downloading TikTok.

As a result, it may ultimately fall on TikTok itself to block usage by Montana residents by collecting geolocation data. But this raises privacy concerns – the very concerns driving the ban in the first place.

For now, the ban’s enforceability remains to be seen. How will the government of Montana prevent users from using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access TikTok? VPNs encrypt data traffic and allow users to present themselves as being in another location, making it possible for tech-savvy users to bypass bans. Residents could also cross state lines to download the app.

Montana may become a testing ground for the “TikTok-free America” that some national lawmakers envision. Apart from TikTok, the ban also targets messaging apps including Chinese-owned WeChat and Russian-founded Telegram – highlighting growing apprehensions over data security and privacy.

But it’s unclear if such a ban is an effective solution for lawmakers’ concerns about American users’ privacy and data security.

Even if the ban in Montana is successful, its national impact will be limited. The state has a population of just over one million, whereas the US as a whole has more than 100 million monthly TikTok users. As such, the ban in Montana will likely affect only a few hundred thousand prospective users, at best.

TikTok’s importance for Gen Z

While TikTok’s popularity in the US continues to soar, nearly half of all US-based users are the digital-native teens and 20-somethings of Generation Z. TikTok is Gen Z’s playground.

Young people have protested potential bans by flooding the app with videos mocking lawmakers they see as out of touch with modern technology, further magnifying their disdain for such regulation.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supported young protesters, highlighting the unprecedented nature of banning an app that would stifle free speech while raising questions regarding digital rights in the US.

TikTok has emerged as a vital platform for Gen Z users to express their political views, entertain themselves and interact with their peers. Where other platforms might feel saturated with older generations, TikTok provides an environment where young people can safely lower the barriers to meaningful online participation.

Read more:
TikTok is teaching the world about autism – but is it empowering autistic people or pigeonholing them?

And despite what some may think, it’s not just a quirky app for dance videos. TikTok has become a golden goose for millions of content creators who rely on the app as their stage to showcase their talents, build their brands and connect with fans and customers. Many local small businesses also rely on TikTok to reach potential customers.

With the app now under threat, the future livelihoods of these creators and small businesses are in jeopardy too.

A ban won’t fix privacy and data security issues

A successfully implemented TikTok ban may drive users to Silicon Valley’s big tech platforms. But the security of user data with these companies, including Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and Google, can’t be assumed to be more secure than TikTok. They also collect significant amounts of user data that can be shared or sold to third-party entities, including those with connections to China or countries with similar data laws.

The underlying issues of data security will persist beyond a TikTok ban. If data security really is the main concern, policymakers should address the problem comprehensively and systematically across social media platforms.

Tackling the root cause is essential. Until that’s done, snapping off the branches – TikTok or otherwise – will do little to keep users’ data safe.

Milovan Savic 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. A TikTok ban isn’t a data security solution. It will be difficult to enforce – and could end up hurting users – https://theconversation.com/a-tiktok-ban-isnt-a-data-security-solution-it-will-be-difficult-to-enforce-and-could-end-up-hurting-users-202732

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zac Roberts, Associate lecturer, Macquarie University

In 1965, James Spigelman joined Charlie Perkins and 30 other students on a bus ride around New South Wales to bring attention to the extent of racial discrimination in Australia. This would go on to be known as the Freedom Ride.

Spigelman, who later became the Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court, was an arts student at the time. He later stated his “involvement was obviously determined by personal background as the child of Holocaust survivors”.

Spigelman’s involvement in the Freedom Ride is captured in the 2010 book Hand in Hand. Alongside Spigelman and the Freedom Ride, Hand in Hand covers dozens of other stories of Jews and Indigenous people coming together in good relations and solidarity.

Missing from these stories are the experiences of people who are both Indigenous and Jewish. My newly published research set out to explore some of these stories.

Negotiating identity

When asked about how she fits into the story of Indigenous and Jewish relations, Leah*, a Wiradjuri woman, told me “I don’t know if I fit into the story”.

Leah was raised in a nonreligious household, and was disconnected from her Indigenous community.

After leaving home as a teenager, she found comfort in religious rituals.

As a runaway kid, the people who showed a lot of kindness to me were either the Catholic nuns or Jews. And I always felt […] very fondly towards these weird people who did weird rituals. And I love the rituals of the Catholic Church and I love the rituals of the Jewish cultural and religious people, and … I went on a search for God, you know?

Leah converted to Judaism after meeting her husband, a non-practising cultural Jew. Her conversion was motivated by both a desire to marry and by a deep connection to the cultural and religious aspects of Judaism.

The shared experiences of “connection and heritage and history and spirit” were seen as being very appealing to someone who grew up disconnected from community and culture. Judaism is now an important aspect of her life and identity.

It wasn’t always easy going.

After her synagogue had a change of leadership, Leah experienced a breakdown in community acceptance and belonging and ended up leaving that community.

When the next rabbi came along, he had removed the plate at the front of the door that said, ‘This synagogue stands proudly on the land of Gadigal’. Removed because we’re Jews and we only recognise, really, our land Israel […] I fought and fought and fought and eventually just got so harassed and harangued.

Leah has now found a new synagogue with “a nice big plaque on their door” acknowledging traditional owners , but her experiences demonstrate the complexities of being both Aboriginal and Jewish.

There are a lot of similarities in Jewish and Indigenous experiences and values, but there are just as many differences.

‘How can you be Aboriginal and Jewish?’

Rebecca* is a Koori woman who converted to Judaism 12 years ago. While she is a regular at temple services, she says doesn’t share her Jewish identity with many of her Aboriginal family and community. Her Jewishness and Aboriginality “don’t always act in conversation with each other”.

While her overall experience with both her mob and her Jewish community have been positive, she says people would still ask questions.

People would sort of question me and kind of go, how can you be Aboriginal and Jewish? I’ll be like, ‘Well, why can’t I? How can you be Aboriginal and Muslim? Like, there’s a lot of them too.’ But it’s funny that this is sort of the automatic thing […] people find it hard to digest.

Judaism’s positioning as a world religion as well as a cultural – and sometimes racial – identity poses as a barrier for some people who are both Indigenous and Jewish.

The boundaries between these categories are sometimes blurred. Not all Jews consider themselves Zionist, the nationalist movement in favour of upholding a Jewish state in Palestine. However, there is a dominant belief globally among both Jews and non-Jews alike that all Jewish people are Zionist – or should be.

This belief that all Jews associate themselves with a separate Jewish people causes conflict with some Indigenous communities. In some cases there is an interpretation of this sense of belonging as a rejection of Country and community.

Read more:
Long history with Islam gives Indigenous Australians pride

Zionism and Palestinian solidarity

The relationship between Zionism and settler colonialism in Palestine is a point of increasing tension between Jewish and Indigenous people.

There is a long history of solidarity between Indigenous people and Palestinians. In many cases, this has led to accusations of antisemitism and racist statements directed at Indigenous people.

These tensions are an added layer of complexity for those who are both Indigenous and Jewish.

Caitlin* is Aboriginal on her fathers side; her mother’s family are Holocaust survivors. She says she can see shared values between her Jewish and Aboriginal families, particularly around family and community: a “blood is thicker than water value”.

When I asked Caitlin where she would like to see inter-community relations develop in the future, she seemed conflicted.

From a personal perspective […] it would be nice to see that sort of compassion and acceptance. I’m not super educated in like I’m by no means an expert on what’s going on in like Palestine and Israel and stuff but like, it would be nice to see I guess […] empathy and compassion

The challenges presented in relation to Indigeneity, Jewishness and Zionism are considerable. Relations are complex across and between minority groups.

How individuals navigate these complexities vary but, as Leah reminds me, “you can’t not bring your whole self to something”.

*Names have been changed.

Read more:
Stan Grant stands up to racist abuse. Our research shows many diverse journalists have copped it too

Zac Roberts 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. ‘You can’t not bring your whole self to something’: how Jewish Indigenous women are navigating their dual identities – https://theconversation.com/you-cant-not-bring-your-whole-self-to-something-how-jewish-indigenous-women-are-navigating-their-dual-identities-201078

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elodie Camprasse, Research fellow in spider crab ecology, Deakin University

Imagine coming across an injured kangaroo on the side of the road. Or a bat entangled in fruit tree netting. Would you know who to call to get help?

After a quick search, you find the number of your local wildlife rescue service and give them a call. A trained operator gathers the information they need to assess your case and coordinate rescue and rehabilitation if needed.

Across Australia, wildlife emergency response hotlines, such as Wildlife Victoria in Victoria, WIRES in New South Wales and smaller groups throughout the country, offer valuable help to wildlife and members of the public who encounter wildlife emergencies. Data from these services can also help us understand how human activities harm wildlife at a local level. And that in turn highlights what can be done to better protect wildlife.

In newly published research, our team analysed a ten-year dataset from Wildlife Victoria, the main wildlife emergency response service in that state. The service responded to more than 30,000 cases a year, on average, between 2010 and 2019. Around 400 cases a year involved threatened species.

Read more:
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Human activities are the greatest threat

Many such services operate on a daily basis. They collect enormous amounts of information on human and non-human threats to wildlife, particularly in urban areas.

When you call a service about an animal, a rescuer might need to attend or, if safe to do so, you might be asked to take the animal to a vet clinic free of charge for assessment. Or it might be that the animal, such as a fledgling bird on the ground, just needs to be left alone.

Confirming what studies in Australia and elsewhere have shown, our results demonstrate that human activities do the most harm to wildlife, as opposed to more natural causes such as severe weather or being preyed on by other animals. A majority of cases were reported in the Greater Melbourne area rather than the rest of the state.

As might be expected, common species accounted for most cases. Eastern grey kangaroos, ringtail and brushtail possums and magpies were the most commonly reported species.

Of 443 identified species reported to the service, 81 were listed as threatened. The majority of cases involving threatened species (on the Fauna and Flaura Guarantee Act 1988 Threatened List) concerned grey-headed flying foxes.

Generally, the main causes for concern were collisions with vehicles, animals found in an abnormal location (an unnatural habitat where they did not belong) or in buildings, and attacks by cats or dogs.

Read more:
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Some species were disproportionately impacted by some threats rather than others and in some locations. For example, kangaroos and koalas were more likely to be victims of vehicle collisions outside Greater Melbourne. In contrast, ringtail possums were more likely to be attacked by cats within the metropolitan area.

Flying foxes were more frequently reported within Greater Melbourne. The main cause of concern was entanglements in nets such as fruit tree netting. The data thus confirmed the danger these nets present.

Read more:
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Services struggle to keep up with demand

Worryingly, Wildlife Victoria recorded a 2.5-fold increase in reported cases from 2010 to 2019.

However, such services are often under-resourced. While the number of cases increased, the number of volunteers able to respond to cases did not. This means a lower proportion of all cases can receive the support they need.

Using data from services such as Wildlife Victoria can help us understand service-demand gaps and where resources would be best allocated to fill these gaps.

We also showed such services provide invaluable education to the community. Around one in five calls resulted in education, rather than requiring an emergency response.

Read more:
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Databases are a largely untapped resource

Wildlife emergency response services have a wealth of data that describe the species-specific and location-specific threats wildlife face. Local wildlife managers and organisations interested in protecting wildlife from common threats before they occur could use this data to understand what they can do to achieve this.

For example, the data can help pinpoint where measures such as educating the community on responsible pet ownership, banning the sale of dangerous netting or wire and reducing speed limits would be effective depending on the wildlife affected in specific areas.

The data could also help monitor the success of new laws, campaigns and measures to protect wildlife. For example, researchers in Queensland have used data from their local wildlife rescue services to quantify the reduction in koala deaths from car strikes and dog attacks following a campaign to raise awareness of threats to koalas. This source of information is invaluable because such data can be hard and costly for ecologists and conversationists to collect.

Interested in interacting with Wildlife Victoria’s historical data? Check out this webpage.

Read more:
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Dr Elodie Camprasse was employed as an Emergency Response Operator for Wildlife Victoria from October 2016 to August 2021.

Dr Adam Cardilini is a member of the Animal Justice Party and volunteers in it’s policy working group. He is also a fellow at PAN Works (https://panworks.io/), an international ethics think tank dedicated to the wellbeing of animals.

The work in this article was partly supported by funding from Deakin University.

– ref. With hundreds of call-outs every day, wildlife rescue services can help us understand the threats to our native animals – https://theconversation.com/with-hundreds-of-call-outs-every-day-wildlife-rescue-services-can-help-us-understand-the-threats-to-our-native-animals-205841

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Omid Rezaei, PhD Candidate, Edith Cowan University

Australia has long been a nation of migrants. Immigration is now being increased to make up for COVID-related labour shortages. The housing crisis means the new arrivals are likely to face major challenges in finding adequate housing and settling successfully.

The challenges will be particularly great for migrants and refugees from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Our recent research focused on the integration challenges faced by the millions of these migrants who have arrived in Australia since 1975. Our findings show the barriers they face, including discrimination, have not changed significantly since then.

In particular, their problems finding suitable housing and jobs have hampered their integration in Australian society.

Such a situation perpetuates systemic injustices that affect marginalised individuals and communities. The 2017 parliamentary report, No One Teaches You to Be an Australian, highlights the impacts of inadequate access to affordable and suitable housing. It can lead to social isolation, economic disadvantage and poor health for migrants.

The housing situation has become even more challenging since the 2017 report. If immigration is being encouraged, why isn’t more being done to help migrants settle in this country?

Read more:
What’s behind the recent surge in Australia’s net migration – and will it last?

Housing supply isn’t the whole solution

Providing more homes is certainly important. However, it isn’t the complete solution.

Migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds face multiple obstacles to finding suitable and affordable housing. These include language barriers, lack of local housing references, lack of social networks, norms around family size, and unfamiliarity with Australian housing regulations.

A 2022 study of refugees’ housing choices unpacks the complexity of the issue. Its findings point to the need for a broader approach than only providing more homes.

Solutions should target the systemic discrimination against migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds in Australia. It’s a major problem that adds to the already complex issues of access to affordable housing.

Read more:
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Building social networks is a key strategy for overcoming some of the obstacles these migrants face. Our research has found being part of a social network plays a critical role in migrants’ and refugees’ housing choices.

Migrants who have social connections are more likely to be aware of available housing options. They can also get help navigating the complex housing market.

This finding highlights the importance of services that help migrants build social connections and promote community-led initiatives. Housing programs that prioritise diversity and inclusivity are needed.

We have seen some good examples of a holistic approach to housing migrants and refugees in Australia.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne provides one such integrated housing service. The centre has created a housing model that matches refugees with available housing and support networks. It’s providing refugees with not only a place to live but also a sense of community and support.

Another example comes from the Hume Community Housing Association. It, too, has developed a holistic program to provide affordable, secure housing for refugees and migrants. The program includes services such as employment and education assistance, language classes and social integration activities.

Integration benefits migrants and the country

The integration of migrants is particularly important for Australia’s future prosperity. Migration underpins the projected increase in population to at least 37.4 million by 2066. Successful integration depends on a comprehensive approach, with a particular focus on housing, given its central role in this process.

The Refugee Council of Australia has recommended several ways to improve access to housing for refugees and asylum seekers. These include:

• increasing social and affordable housing options
• enhancing the private rental housing sector via measures such as rental subsidies, tenant support programs and collaboration with housing agencies
• offering customised support services to aid in the transition to sustainable housing, ensuring individuals have access to affordable, long-term housing options.

Read more:
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Encouraging immigration without providing the resources needed for successful integration perpetuates systemic injustice that worsens the situation of already marginalised individuals and communities in Australia.

Supporting the integration of immigrants, with access to the services they need, is not just a matter of providing more homes or jobs. It’s also about promoting fairness and equity more broadly.

Integration is a two-way street, and overcoming some of these challenges is beyond the efforts of migrants. It’s up to the host society to adopt supportive policies that ensure successful integration.

Francesca Perugia works for Curtin University. She receives funding from Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) postgraduate top-up scholarship to complete the research linked in this article.

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

– ref. It’s not just about more homes: unpacking the housing challenges migrants face in Australia – https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-about-more-homes-unpacking-the-housing-challenges-migrants-face-in-australia-204753

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debra Wilson, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Canterbury

Over the last 12 months, multiple young sex offenders have been given home detention for sexual assault. Time and time again, the argument has been that these men were too young to fully understand the consequences of what they were doing.

But is 25 really too young to understand that sexual assault is wrong? And how old is old enough to be considered fully responsible for your conduct?

The recent case of a 25-year-old church youth group leader and his 15-year-old victim provides some insight into where the court is heading on these key questions.

The case also highlights the need for the parliament to step in and make a call on revising its 2002 Sentencing Act, which currently does not clearly define who a “young offender” is. That gap in the law is what’s allowing discounts for sexual offenders into their mid-20s.

Imprisonment “clearly warranted”

While a youth leader at Otūmoetai Baptist Church, Luke Stainton persuaded a 15-year-old girl to enter into an “intimate relationship” with him. This involved weekly sexual encounters over a one year period. During this time, Stainton sought advice from his church and was told that his actions were inappropriate and needed to stop. He did not follow this advice.

A pre-sentence report described Stainton as placing his “own needs and gratification” first, with “no thought for the victim”. His offending was “calculated” and “planned” to avoid detection, and his expressions of remorse focused on the impact of his behaviour on himself, not the victim.

The report concluded that he was at a medium risk of re-offending. The judge concluded that the report did “not speak very positively of [Stainton]” and that a sentence of imprisonment was “clearly warranted.”

But the defence’s psychiatric report described Stainton as having “considerable naivety for his age” and of “very low-risk of re-offending”. It noted Stainton’s acknowledgement that he made “foolish choices”.

In the end, Stainton was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment, based on a starting sentence of 3.5 years, and discounts of 25% for early guilty plea and 10% for good character. He appealed.

The appeal judge agreed with the approach of the sentencing judge, but then added a further discount of 10% due to his age. This meant that the sentence was now less than 24 months imprisonment, which allowed the judge to convert it to a sentence of home detention.

Are under 25s unable to make good decisions?

Between Stainton’s initial sentencing and his appeal, the Court of Appeal released a separate decision on sentencing of “young people”.

In R v Dickey, three teenagers were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. They appealed this on the basis that the sentences were too harsh given their ages.

The court agreed and reduced their sentences, accepting neuro-scientific evidence that the part of the brain that deals with impulse control, risk assessment and planning may not be fully developed until the age of 25.

If this is the case, then these research findings will need to be taken into account for all sentencing of those under 25.

But should a sentencing discount for age be automatic?

Read more:
Sam Uffindell was lucky to avoid NZ’s criminal justice system as a schoolboy – but it was the right outcome

Stainton does not fit the mould of the young offender described in the Dickey decision. Stainton’s offending was not impulsive, but occurred weekly over a one year period. He did not fail to understand risk, but deliberately planned his offending to avoid detection. Despite this, he received a 10% discount because of his age, with the judge noting that his lack of remorse was evidence of his immaturity.

It is important to note that when an offender shows remorse, this is often taken to mean that the offender has taken responsibility for their actions and shows potential for rehabilitation. This remorse can therefore justify a sentencing discount. But in Stainton’s case, the lack of remorse was interpreted as a sign of his immaturity, warranting the sentencing discount.

Time for parliament to act

As pointed out above, Stainton is the latest in a series of cases in which sex offending against teenage girls is punished only with home detention, and not imprisonment. Despite the young ages of the victims, it is the older offenders who depicted as young and immature.

The victim in the Stainton case suffered from mental health issues in the four years since the offending. Her bravery in coming forward should be recognised.

Read more:
Outrage over a rapist’s home detention highlights the need for victims’ voices in NZ’s sentencing process

The Sentencing Act of 2002 permits a sentencing discount based on “the age of the offender” but does not state when a person is too old to receive this discount.

In the Dickey case, the court suggested that it might apply to under 25s, but added that it was not creating a rule for judges in future cases to follow, and that the maximum age limit was a matter for parliament to decide. Without any further guidance, the judge in Stainton applied the discount to a 25 year old.

New Zealand’s increasing number of cases in which young sex offenders are sentenced to home detention, and the rising age at which they may be able to an age-based discount, suggest it is now time for parliament to revisit the Sentencing Act’s provisions on young offenders.

The parliament should consider this new neuro-scientific evidence – and then clarify, so all New Zealanders know, how old someone needs to be before they are presumed to be fully responsible for their sexual offending.

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

– ref. It’s time to fix NZ’s Sentencing Act, which lets too many young sex offenders avoid jail – https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-fix-nzs-sentencing-act-which-lets-too-many-young-sex-offenders-avoid-jail-205825

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University

Stan Grant, a well-known Aboriginal journalist and soon-to-be former host of Q+A, has made a stand against racist abuse, saying he is “stepping away” from the media industry. Grant said he’s paid a heavy price for being a journalist and has been a media target for racism.

As authors of a recent Media Diversity Australia report investigating online abuse and safety of diverse journalists, we’re not surprised.

Grant was one the few diverse journalists employed in the Australian media industry. Yet his story of relentless racial abuse is one shared by other journalists who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and racially marginalised, LGBTQIA+ and/or living with disability.

Grant said:

I want no part of it. I want to find a place of grace far from the stench of the media. I want to go where I am not reminded of the social media sewer.

Racism across the media

The latest round of racially motivated abuse came after Grant hosted the ABC’s coverage of the coronation of King Charles.

Grant said:

Since the King’s coronation, I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled. They have accused me of maligning Australia.

When Elizabeth II, died many Indigenous journalists and newsreaders were targeted for not sharing the same grief many non-Indigenous people expressed. Narelda Jacobs was one of many Aboriginal journalists who received abuse across social media and was also targeted by mainstream media.

Grant called the ABC’s lack of support an “institutional failure”, saying:

I am writing this because no-one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support.

In response to Grant’s column, a statement was issued from the ABC’s Director News, Justin Stevens, conceding Grant has, over many months, been subject to grotesque racist abuse, including threats to his safety.

The ABC’s Bonner Committee has recommended a full review into the ABC’s responses to racism affecting staff and how they can better support their staff.

What our research found

Our report, Online Safety of Diverse Journalists, commissioned by Media Diversity Australia and released this month, focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and racially marginalised, LGBTQIA+ and/or people living with disability.

This new research followed a 2022 Media Diversity Australia report, Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories 2.0, which detailed significant under-representation of diverse journalists in the industry, particularly Indigenous people and those from culturally and racially marginalised groups.

Our new report focused more on online safety and the high cost for diverse journalists who are often not supported or protected in the workplace. It found 85% of participants had experienced either personal or professional abuse online.

As one participant said:

It’s so ingrained within all parts of society, all the pillars within society, all professions, which includes the media, and I think women, particularly women of colour and from Indigenous backgrounds, they receive the most horrific and vile abuse.

The report has not yet gained interest from the Australian media other than The Fourth Estate who expressed alarm at the findings.

One of the key findings from this research was that diverse journalists often accepted that online harassment and abuse from the public was “just part of the job”. Many reported they were working in what they considered “hostile work environments”.

One participant expressed:

As soon as you say you are a journalist, the response is: you are asking for it.

It was concerning to find the normalisation of online harassment and abuse, and many diverse journalists were reluctant to report their experiences for fear of being considered a problem. Many felt if they raised the issue it would impact any chance of career progression.

A participant commented:

I am cautious revealing my struggles because I don’t want people to think I can’t handle my job.

In his recent experience, Grant said:

Aboriginal people learn to tough it out. That’s the price of survival.

Organisations have a duty of care to their employees. Online harassment and abuse of diverse journalists is a work health and safety issue and needs to be urgently treated as such.

The impact and cost to diverse journalists is high, and many make the same choice as Grant – to leave the industry to protect themselves and their health. Many spoke about how harassment and abuse was not only online; 39% reported the abuse moved offline.

When it comes to thinking about who gets to tell Australian stories or who gets to have a career as a journalist free of harassment and abuse, the Media Diversity Australia report evidences the hostility of the media industry for those who are not white, able bodied, and/or cis-gender and/or heterosexual.

The report also shows, as Grant points out, that online harassment and abuse actively and incessantly targets Indigenous journalists. Although many of the participants stated they were unofficially warned by their workplace to expect online violence, they said they received little support to protect and defend them from racial harassment and abuse.

I started to see exactly what I’d been warned about (…) But there was no mechanism to flag that to say that you had received a racist email to send it somewhere where that person could be put on a watch list or whatever it is, you know, where they’re going to become a serial offender.

Grant echoes the experiences of many participants when he says:

Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted.

The research report also reveals that workplace and online harassment in media industry involves fairly predictable culprits. As one participant highlighted, they come from a similar demographic – white men.

Grant’s resignation is a huge loss to Australian journalism. He and other diverse journalists nationally are crying out for action on the part of media bodies and organisations.

There are many other diverse journalists who have left the profession prior to Grant’s departure. One of our interviewees contacted us to say:

If a serious and well respected journalist feels the best thing to do is leave and has had no support from work – what does that mean for the rest of us?

Let’s hope the media industry is finally paying attention.

Bronwyn Carlson received funding from Media Diversity Australia to conduct the research that resulted in the report discussed

Faith Valencia-Forrester received funding from Media Diversity Australia to conduct research for the report discussed in this article.

Madi Day received funding from Media Diversity Australia to conduct the research that resulted in the report discussed.

Susan Forde received funding from Media Diversity Australia to conduct the research discussed in this article.

– ref. Stan Grant stands up to racist abuse. Our research shows many diverse journalists have copped it too – https://theconversation.com/stan-grant-stands-up-to-racist-abuse-our-research-shows-many-diverse-journalists-have-copped-it-too-206063