Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phillipa McCormack, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Adelaide

It’s almost bushfire season. Yes, even though floods are still racing through parts of eastern Australia. Fire conditions are above average including in inland New South Wales and Queensland.

When we switch back to a neutral or El Niño climate cycle, our fire risk will likely intensify, given the huge vegetation growth during these rainy years.

As we prepare for the next major fire season, it’s vital we take a close look at our laws. Why? Because these laws can clash in ways that make it harder for us to prepare.

Governments have always struggled to balance laws protecting nature with laws protecting us from bushfire.

In recent years, planning laws have been changed to make it easier to fell trees and clear vegetation to keep our homes safe. Some of these came out of the review of Victoria’s catastrophic 2009 Black Saturday fires, where many houses nestled in bush burned. But these changes to the rules about clearing native vegetation can also make it harder for us to preserve habitat – and can give us a false sense of security, encouraging us to settle deeper and deeper into the fire-prone bush.

Why do laws matter for bushfire preparation?

My colleagues and I recently mapped out Australia’s legal “anatomy” for fire. By anatomy, we mean all the different parts of the legal framework, including those that affect fire preparation.

Why? To optimise our system of laws to be ready for the ever-more-intense fires expected as the world heats up.

Here’s what a clash looks like. It’s now common to undertake prescribed burns and burn vegetation to reduce fuel loads and reduce the chances of a major bushfire.

But prescribed fires cause smoke. Fire agencies must comply with smoke pollution laws designed to keep vulnerable people safe. These two different risks – bushfire, and smoke-related illness – are managed under two different areas of law. Finding the balance is really hard.

Read more:
New research in Arnhem Land reveals why institutional fire management is inferior to cultural burning

We already know our environmental laws are failing to adequately protect nature.

Bushfires add to this as a serious and growing threat to our distinctive wildlife and ecosystems. The Black Summer megafires of 2019–20 killed huge numbers of animals and pushed many species closer to extinction, including mountain pygmy possums, native bees and rare frogs.

As fire seasons worsen and get longer over coming decades, fire agencies and local governments will be called on to clear and manage fuel loads – essentially, trees, plants and leaf litter – close to communities in the bush.

You can see the issue. Bushfire fuel is also habitat. Our international and domestic obligations to protect threatened species and habitats will come into increasing conflict with the need to preserve our settlements and farms.

Better, clearer laws would help balance these issues. Last year, the Victorian government announced plans to make bushfire planning provisions clearer and more understandable. Reviews like this should clarify where homes can and can’t be safely built, as well as preventing development in sensitive habitat.

Laws around fire need to be considered separately

Emergency planners often group floods, storms and bushfires under the blanket term “all hazards”. This is done to help emergency services to plan efficient and coordinated responses to all kinds of extreme events.

We believe laws about fire also deserve specific attention, particularly in Australia, where many of our ecosystems have evolved alongside fire. Not all fire is equal and not all fires are emergencies.

In fact, laws governing protected areas in some states actually require parks agencies to use fire as a conservation tool. Using fire carefully is front and centre in the new plan to look after Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Not only that, but some areas need small fires lit in a mosaic pattern. Why? To encourage moorland plants to put out the flowers and seeds the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot relies on.

Read more:
How 1970s conservation laws turned this ‘paradise on Earth’ into a tinderbox

Or take the growing importance of cultural fire management and traditional land management. Victoria’s cultural fire strategy describes cultural burning as a “responsibility” and an example of “living knowledge”, but not as an emergency.

Some laws, like arson, only apply to fire. There’s no equivalent crime for floods. Improving arson prevention could help cut the estimated A$1.6 billion in damages annually from fires being lit deliberately.

While arson is not as common as it used to be, cutting arson further will reduce the number of fires Australian firefighters have to respond to.

We have to make laws intersect better

In the wake of destructive and lethal fires come the reviews and inquiries, which often recommend changes to emergency management laws.

These post-disaster inquiries also often recommend streamlining rules around native vegetation, to let landholders clear more trees and shrubs around their houses. That’s understandable, because these inquiries are intended to find lessons.

But if we look across the whole range of laws governing or touching on fire, we might find new ways to help us adapt.

Over the last century, Australian governments have launched hundreds of inquiries and commissions after major bushfires.

We don’t need to wait for the next fire and inquiry. We can find ways of optimising our web of intersecting laws right now – and prepare ourselves and nature for what is to come.

Read more:
We have already had countless bushfire inquiries. What good will it do to have another?

My co-authors Professors Jan McDonald and David Bowman, Associate Professor Michael Eburn, Dr Stuart Little and Dr Rebecca Harris contributed to the research on which this article is based.

Phillipa McCormack is affiliated with Natural Hazards Research Australia, and was the NHRA 2022 Early Career Research Fellow.

– ref. Clashing laws need to be fixed if we want to live in bushfire-prone areas – https://theconversation.com/clashing-laws-need-to-be-fixed-if-we-want-to-live-in-bushfire-prone-areas-195210

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Brown, Professor, Human Resource Management, The University of Melbourne

Do you work for an organisation that treats pay information like a state secret? Do you know what your coworkers get paid? Can you tell others what you earn?

Well, now you can, following the passing of the Albanese government’s “Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill” reform package, which includes a ban on pay secrecy policies.

Read more:
What the compromise IR deal means for wage negotiations, and pay rises

The ban is primarily aimed at reducing gender-based pay differences – part of a larger suite of reforms that make gender equity a key principle of the Fair Work Act.

But there’s also reason to believe it should benefit other disadvantaged workers in both individual and collective pay negotiations.

Secrecy and the gender pay gap

The gender pay gap in Australia is currently 22.8%. According to federal employment and workplace relations minister Tony Burke, pay secrecy clauses have long been used to conceal gender pay discrepancies:

Banning them will improve transparency and reduce the risk of gender pay discrimination by allowing women to compare their pay with that of their co workers. Differences can be discussed with their manager without fear of punishment.

International evidence support Burke’s claim. Studies in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Denmark all report a decline in the gender pay gap as a result of legislation to promote pay transparency.

US research shows women’s wages in states prohibiting pay secrecy clauses are 4-12% higher (depending on how the data was analysed) than in states that allow secrecy clauses.

In Canada, pay secrecy law reduced the gender pay gap between men and women by 20-40% (again depending on how data was analysed).

These findings are supported by studies of organisations that have dropped pay secrecy policies. A 2019 study covering approximately 9,000 US employees found women’s annual pay growth was 0.4% lower than for men under pay secrecy. This gap disappeared with greater transparency.

It’s possible that just ending secrecy clauses is enough to improve outcomes even without people disclosing how much they earn – that the prospect of pay information being shared is enough to focus an organisation on ensuring fair and equitable remuneration.

Secrecy, by contrast, means managers can make decisions they don’t have to justify to employees. This heightens the risk of unconscious bias, favouritism, discrimination and stereotyping affecting pay decisions.

What about conflict?

Not everyone wants to share their pay information. Some people are self-conscious about how it will affect their image. Some worry it will affect work relationships.

It may be upsetting for coworkers in a similar role to discover they are paid less than you. It is even more upsetting to find out you’re paid less than them.

Employers argue that pay secrecy is needed to minimise conflict between employees. This is based on the “jealousy hypothesis”, which says that employees reduce their work effort when they find out they are paid less than a colleague.

But such claims are overstated. In fact, employees are more likely to view restrictions on sharing pay information with suspicion and as something driven by managerial self-interest, not the best interest of the employees.

Read more:
Wages and women top Albanese’s IR agenda: the big question is how Labor keeps its promises

This is borne out by research showing pay secrecy leads workers to underestimate supervisors’ pay (but overestimate coworkers’ pay).

Most employees deserve to be given more credit. The research shows they understand and accept pay differences that can be explained and justified according to work contribution and performance.

Further, studies report that greater pay transparency is associated with higher employee performance and job satisfaction.

Where to now?

While the ban on secrecy clauses is primarily aimed at reducing the gender pay gap, it could deliver positive pay outcomes for other disadvantaged employees as well.

It’s a fundamental principle of economics that sharing of information contributes to more efficient markets. Removing pay secrecy therefore contributes to a more efficient labour market.

Bargaining freely with full information, employees are able to assess their employment options and make better informed choices. The decisions of individuals encourage organisations to ensure they have fair and equitable pay systems.

This should lead to greater fairness for all.

Michelle Brown had received funding from the Australian Research Council.

Leanne Griffin 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. Pay secrecy clauses are now banned in Australia; here’s how that could benefit you – https://theconversation.com/pay-secrecy-clauses-are-now-banned-in-australia-heres-how-that-could-benefit-you-195814

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

Labor needs to develop plans to address dissatisfaction among voters in heartland seats, especially in outer suburban Melbourne, the party’s federal election review has warned.

It also should develop plans to improve outcomes in Queensland, to deal with its under-performance in Tasmania, and to retain the clutch of seats it won in Western Australia.

The review, titled Election 2022: An opportunity to establish a long-term Labor government, was chaired by former minister Greg Combet and Lenda Oshalem, a former party official in Western Australia. Other members were Linda White, a Victorian senator and Craig Emerson, a former minister.

It found that the unpopularity of Scott Morrison and his government was the “most significant” factor in the election result.

Despite the Morrison government’s unpopularity, Labor’s primary vote fell to its lowest level since 1934.

Contributing to this, the review says, were the long-term downward trend in the major parties’ primary vote, driven by declining trust in government, politics and politicians.

Other factors included:

• tactical voters by Labor supporters, particularly where there were high-profile independents

• Labor’s focus on Morrison’s shortcomings as a leader, and its small and tightly-targeted set of policies

• the proliferation of minor party, Green and independent candidates

• dissatisfaction with Labor in some heartland seats in Melbourne and Sydney

• an anti-Labor swing in Tasmania.

“The election victory conclusively affirmed the Labor campaign’s strategic judgment to maintain focus on the Morrison Government’s negatives, and to present a more targeted set of policies, even if it may have moderated the primary vote,” the review concludes.

The success of Greens and teals in Liberal heartland seats, multiple Coalition losses in WA, and Labor’s loss of Fowler (contested by former senator Kristina Keneally) to an independent shows the “folly” of assuming some seats as safe, the review says.

Read more:
What explained the seismic 2022 federal election? The Australian Election Study has answers

“The unusually disparate results in individual seats, regions and states reflect the political turbulence of recent years and the frustrations of many voters.

“While the results do not represent a permanent realignment of Australian politics, the loss of support for Labor in heartland areas, as evidenced once again in the recent Victorian state election, is cause for significant concern.”

The election saw a realignment for the Liberals, with voters in their traditional seats leaving them, benefiting Labor, the Greens and independents.

But while the Liberal party is in “its worst position since the 1946 election”, with the Coalition’s path back of office appearing difficult, “there is no room for Labor complacency”, the review says.

“It is reasonable to expect that the Coalition will target Labor-held outer-suburban and regional electorates – a strategy that Labor must anticipate and counter.

“The Review cannot overemphasise the importance of both federal and state Labor focussing on the delivery of demonstrable improvements for communities in areas of long-standing support for Labor. These communities must not be taken for granted.”

The review does point out that although Labor “experienced swings against it in some outer-suburban areas, some of the biggest swings to Labor were also recorded in outer-suburban and regional electorates”.

Read more:
Labor retains big lead in Newspoll as Albanese’s ratings jump; Victorian election update

Among its recommendations, the review makes specific reference to how China is spoken about. “While always uncompromisingly promoting and defending Australia’s national interests and Australia’s security, both major parties should avoid unnecessarily divisive and aggressive rhetoric towards China.”

Chinese Australians swung towards Labor, while Vietnamese Australians swung away from Labor in 2022. The latter “might partially be explained by the result in Fowler [where the successful independent was a Vietnanese Australian]. However, the correlation is still evident when Fowler is excluded from the overall results.”

The review says Morrison’s unpopularity was the result of:

• failure to accept responsibility and show leadership during natural disasters

• failures in the pandemic, on the vaccine rollout and the shortage of rapid antigen tests

• politicisation of the pandemic through attacks on Labor governments and leaders

• failure to empathise with women’s experience

• failure to develop a credible climate policy

• political dissembling and misleading

• bellicose politicisation of the relationship with China.

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. Labor election review warns about risks in party’s ‘heartland’ seats – https://theconversation.com/labor-election-review-warns-about-risks-in-partys-heartland-seats-195942

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

Before the men’s FIFA World Cup commenced, the Socceroos’ most noteworthy contribution seemed likely to be their pre-emptive video campaign on human rights in host country Qatar.

The political debate receded somewhat once the action on the field kicked off. After losing their opening game heavily to world champions France, the focus was set to be on the deficiencies of the team, coach and organisation of the game in Australia.

But unexpectedly, the Socceroos, ranked 38th in the world by FIFA, won two consecutive games for the first time in their World Cup history, and qualified for the knockout stages for the first time since 2006. There, they faced Lionel Messi’s Argentina, ranked 3rd in the world.

While their 2022 World Cup road then ended in an honourable 2-1 defeat, their historic run is a chance to reflect on the meaning of the Qatar experience for football in Australia, which has a troubled local history, as we look ahead to co-hosting the Women’s World Cup next year.

Taking on the world game

Those in Australia who only pay attention to football (or soccer) because of noisy World Cup intrusion tend to underestimate such effort and accomplishment.

The two biggest football codes in the country, Australian rules and rugby league, are far less globally significant. Australian rules is played professionally only in Australia, while rugby league is dominated by Australasia.

The recent Rugby League World Cup in the UK saw the Australian men’s team win it for the 12th time in 16 attempts, while the women’s team have won the last three successive tournaments.

By contrast, the Socceroos have never come close to winning the football World Cup. This is unsurprising given FIFA has 211 affiliated national teams, compared to the International Rugby League’s 34 with two pending.

After first qualifying in 1974 and losing all three games without scoring, Australia didn’t return to the FIFA World Cup for 32 years. Before Qatar, the Socceroos had won only two out of 13 World Cup games since 2006, conceding twice as many goals as they’d scored.

To win consecutive games in Qatar and progress to the last 16 for only the second time was impressive, especially as the current team consists mostly of “journeymen” and has no outright stars.

Being on the same pitch as superstars like Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, both of whom scored against the Socceroos in Qatar, signalled both the scale of this achievement and the tough task ahead for a game with a troubled history in Australia.

Multicultural stigma and football diplomacy

The late Socceroo and commentator Johnny Warren observed that men’s football in Australia has been widely stigmatised as feminised, fey and foreign. This prejudice sometimes resurfaces, especially when any cases of crowd disorder generate tabloid headlines about mob violence and old ethnic enmities being imported to Australia.

Ethnic community clubs have been the cradle of football in Australia. But when football became fully professional in 2004, this contribution was actively repressed under its new regime, which was run by the mega-rich Frank Lowy at the urging of Prime Minister John Howard. A condition of public funding was the “de-ethnicisation” of the game, which included banning ethnic-related names, emblems and chants.

The attempted erasure of the local game’s cultural history and present is at odds with its officially-sanctioned use in football diplomacy.

Australia left the small Oceania Football Confederation in 2006 for the bigger stage of its Asian counterpart, the Asian Football Confederation. But the move had long been opposed by some Asian nations. Australia was seen, especially in the Middle East, as an affluent agent of the West.

Ironically, Qatar comprehensively defeated Australia in FIFA’s now-discredited bidding process for hosting the 2022 World Cup. A further irony is that in countering China’s ambitions in the region, Australia is enthusiastically using sports diplomacy to mend fences with the same Pacific nations it previously abandoned in the football world.

Up next: co-hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup

Still, following the Socceroos’ success in Qatar there will soon be plentiful opportunities for regional sports diplomacy when Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The Australian women’s soccer team, the Matildas, has a higher ranking in world football than the national men’s team – 13th compared to 38th.

Australia’s Sam Kerr has a much higher global profile than any current Socceroo. She’s currently playing for London club Chelsea in the top division of women’s football in England, and has finished third in the women’s Ballon d’Or (the prize for the world’s best player) in both the last two years.

This World Cup will be the biggest sport event in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It will also be a major indicator of the post-peak pandemic resurgence of women’s sport and its challenge to traditional male domination.

Australia’s treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, refugees, and the environment, among other major political issues, are likely to be subjected to increased global scrutiny.

The Socceroos earned respect for how they began and finished their 2022 World Cup campaign. But as I suspect Australia will discover in 2023, when it comes to hosting mega sport events, it’s not only illiberal countries like Qatar that feel the heat.

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

– ref. Qatar World Cup: Socceroos’ best ever performance, and what it means for the game in Australia ahead of hosting the Women’s World Cup – https://theconversation.com/qatar-world-cup-socceroos-best-ever-performance-and-what-it-means-for-the-game-in-australia-ahead-of-hosting-the-womens-world-cup-195736

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yvonne Middlewick, Nurse & Lecturer, Edith Cowan University

Around half of the world’s population are women or people who menstruate – yet the way their body works can be a mystery, even to them.

Most women will experience periods roughly every month, many will go through childbirth and those who live into midlife will experience menopause.

While menopause is a significant time of change, it isn’t talked about much, other than as a punchline. This may contribute to keeping it a taboo topic.

So, what happens during menopause? How do you know when it is happening to you? And – the thing most women want to know – how long will it last?

What is menopause?

Menopause is defined as the permanent cessation of menstruation, which is medically determined to be one year after the final menstrual period. After this time women are considered to be postmenopausal.

The average age of “natural menopause” (that is not caused by a medical condition, treatment or surgery) is considered to be around 51 years.

However, natural menopause does not occur suddenly. Changes can begin a number of years before periods stop and most often occur in a woman’s 40s but they can be earlier. Changes can continue for 10 years or more after periods have stopped.

Using hormones such as the oral contraceptive pill or hormone intrauterine devices may make it more difficult to determine when changes start.

Menopause that occurs before 45 is called “early menopause”, while menopause before 40 is called “premature menopause”.

What about perimenopause?

Various terms are used to describe this period of change, including “menopause” or “the menopause”, “menopausal transition”, “perimenopause” or “climacteric”.

These terms tend to refer to the period before and after the final menstrual period, when changes are considered to be related to menopause.

The difficulty with the definition of menopause is it can only be decided retrospectively. Yet women can experience changes many years before their periods stop (a lead up usually called “perimenopause”). Also, any changes noticed may not be associated with menopause (because people might not be aware of what to expect) or changes may be associated with a combination of factors such as stress, being busy or other health issues.

Read more:
‘Brain fog’ during menopause is real – it can disrupt women’s work and spark dementia fears

So, what is going on?

Through a feminist lens, menopause can be seen as a complex and diverse experience, influenced by biological, psychological, social and cultural aspects of women’s lives.

However, it is usually viewed from the biomedical perspective. This sees it as a biological event, marked by the decline in ovarian hormone levels leading to a reduction in reproductive function.

The female reproductive system operates because of a finely tuned balance of hormones managed by the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. International experts have developed a staging system for female reproductive ageing, with seven stages from “early reproductive” years to “late postmenopause”.

However, female reproductive hormones do not just affect the reproductive system but other aspects of the body’s function. These include the neurological system, which is linked to hot flushes and night sweats and disrupted sleep. Hormones may also affect the heart and body’s blood circulation, bone health and potentially the immune system.

Menopausal hormone changes may cause hot flushes, night/cold sweats, mood swings, sleep disruption and tiredness, vaginal dryness.

Medical confirmation of menopausal changes in women over 45 years is based on two biological indicators: vasomotor symptoms (those hot flushes and night sweats again) and an irregular menstrual cycle.

In early perimenopause the changes to the menstrual cycle may be subtle. Women may not recognise early indicators, unless they keep a record and know what to watch for.

Read more:
What is perimenopause and how does it affect women’s health in midlife?

How long does it last?

The body demonstrates an amazing ability to change over a lifetime. In a similar way to adolescence where long-lasting changes occur, the outcome of menopause is also change.

Research suggests it is difficult to give an exact time frame for how long menopausal changes occur – the average is between four and eight years.

The Penn Ovarian Ageing Study found 79% of the 259 participants experienced hot flushes starting before the age of 50, most commonly between 45 and 49 years of age.

A later report on the same study found one third of women studied experienced moderate to severe hot flushes more than ten years after their periods had stopped. A 2017 study found a small number of women continued to experience hot flushes and other symptoms into their 70s.

So overall, the research cannot offer a specific window for perimenopause, and menopause does not appear to mark the end of changes for everyone.

Read more:
Making sense of menopausal hormone therapy means understanding the benefits as well as the risks

5 tips for uncertain times

Shifts and changes can be recognised early by developing knowledge, paying attention to changes to our bodies and talking about menopause and perimenopause more openly.

Here are five tips for moving from uncertainty to certainty:

1. talk to people and find out as much information as you can. The experiences of mothers and sisters may help, for some women there are familial similarities

2. notice any changes to your body and make a note of them, this will help you recognise changes earlier. There are menopause tracking apps available

3. keep a note of your menstrual cycle: start date, duration, flow and note any changes. Again, an app might help

4. if you are worried, seek advice from a GP or nurse that specialises in women’s health. They may suggest ways to help with symptoms or refer to a specialist

5. remember changes are the indicator to pay attention to, not time or your age.

Menopause is a natural process and although we have focused here on the time frame and “symptoms”, it can also be a time of freedom (particularly from periods!), reflection and a time to focus on yourself.

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

– ref. How long does menopause last? 5 tips for navigating uncertain times – https://theconversation.com/how-long-does-menopause-last-5-tips-for-navigating-uncertain-times-195211

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amelia Cossart, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

Taking regular medicines is common, and it’s not unusual for people to miss an occasional dose or take it outside the regular time window. Forgetting to do something is normal, but in the case of medicines, forgetting to take them at the prescribed time can have negative health effects.

By one estimate, about half the population of people taking regular medicines don’t take them as prescribed. Is this a breakdown in communication? A lack of understanding of their importance? Forgetfulness?

Largely, reasons for not taking medicines as prescribed can be organised into two types: intentional and unintentional.

Unintentional is when a patient intends to follow the prescribed regimen but doesn’t due to factors outside their control, including forgetfulness, difficulties understanding dosing instructions, or cost.

But for some, a patient consciously decides not to follow the prescribed regimen. This could be due to side effects, or not believing in the necessity of the medicine.

Medication-taking is complex because each person is unique and the challenges to each person’s medication-taking can vary quite significantly. The most effective strategy is one that also considers why a person isn’t taking their medicine. What are some of the support strategies available, and are they actually helpful?

Pill boxes

The most commonly used methods to support medication adherance are organisational strategies such as days-of-the-week pill containers.

These are functional if a patient has to take many different medications.

But they’re not always suitable – if the user does not fill the container correctly or doesn’t remember to collect the prefilled pack (called a Webster-pak, blister pack or dosette box) from the pharmacy, this simple intervention quickly becomes ineffective.

Some medicines can’t be packed because their stability is compromised with repacking, and patients with reduced eyesight or dexterity can struggle to use these containers.

So while they are an effective prompt, simple reminder cues such as days-of-the-week pill containers may not be ideal for everyone.

Alarms

Pre-set alarms are another commonly used reminder method.

However, this strategy is not infallible, and the literature shows many patients miss medication doses when out of routine because they turn their alarm off subconsciously when occupied with another task.

Reminder alarms only seem to be effective when they are interactive or personalised.

For example, in a handy combination of both methods above, you can now buy automated pill dispensers with alarms that go off at predetermined times and only stop when the medication is removed.

These can be especially handy for those with memory issues such as dementia. However, they are not cheap, costing a few hundred dollars each, and so will not be accessible for everyone.

Mobile apps

The latest Apple iOS update allows you to track your medications and schedule reminders.

Medication reminder apps were first developed to support older adults and people with chronic diseases required to manage multiple medicines.

But they’ve now been embraced as a suitable support for anyone wishing to independently manage their own medicines, including those on short-term medicines such as antibiotics.

They provide simple, practical health-specific information as well as supporting medication-taking through automation.

According to The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, a lot of patients like receiving reminder prompts through an app, and it helps them remember to take their medication.

Although the platforms differ slightly, the general premise is a patient independently inputs their medication-taking and prescription refill schedule, and the app then generates automatic reminders for the patient.

The only downside is like any notification, they can be easily dismissed or overlooked.

Habit stacking

When our day changes, for example if we go out for brunch and we usually take our medicines with breakfast, or an unexpected visitor arrives at the usual 11am pre-lunch tablet time, often we forget our medications. This is where “habit stacking” may be beneficial.

Although habit stacking is a relatively new approach to fostering medication taking, habit formation has been repeatedly shown to effectively support wellbeing. Linking medication-taking to a behaviour that does not change from day to day, such as cleaning your teeth, or removing shoes when entering the house, can help you to remember medications.

Some more habit stacking examples to support medication taking may include:

• hygiene routine – shower, shave, swallow

• after dinner unwind – cuppa and meds

• morning mantra as you leave the house – keys, phone, wallet, meds.

What else can we do?

We are all unique, so to make sure we actually take our medicines we need to find what works for us, and consider why we weren’t actually taking them in the first place.

Reminders, gadgets, habit stacking, or a combination may help. We need strategies that can adapt to the unexpected.

Amelia Cossart 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. Always forgetting to take your medicines? Here are 4 things that could help – https://theconversation.com/always-forgetting-to-take-your-medicines-here-are-4-things-that-could-help-193717

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathryn Trott, Research Fellow in Radio Astronomy, SKA-Low Chief Operations Scientist, Curtin University

Construction of the world’s biggest radio astronomy facility, the SKA Observatory, begins today. The observatory is a global project 30 years in the making.

With two huge two telescopes, one in Australia and the other in South Africa, the project will see further into the history of the Universe than ever before.

Astronomers like me will use the telescopes to trace hydrogen over cosmic time and make precise measurements of gravity in extreme environments. What’s more, we hope to uncover the existence of complex molecules in planet-forming clouds around distant stars, which could be the early signs of life elsewhere in the Universe.

I have been involved in the SKA and its precursor telescopes for the past ten years, and as the chief operations scientist of the Australian telescope since July. I am helping to build the team of scientists, engineers and technicians who will construct and operate the telescope, along with undertaking science to map primordial hydrogen in the infant universe.

What is the SKA Observatory?

The SKA Observatory is an intergovernmental organisation with dozens of countries involved. The observatory is much more than the two physical telescopes, with headquarters in the UK and collaborators around the world harnessing advanced computers and software to tailor the telescope signals to the precise science being undertaken.

The telescope in South Africa (called SKA-Mid) will use 197 radio dishes to observe middle-frequency radio waves from 350 MHz to more than 15 GHz. It will study the extreme environments of neutron stars, organic molecules around newly forming planets, and the structure of the Universe on the largest scales.

Read more:
Aspiration vs delivery: the long road to the Square Kilometre Array

The Australian telescope (SKA-Low), in Western Australia, will observe lower frequencies with 512 stations of radio antennas spread out over a 74-kilometre span of outback.

The site is located within Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. This name, which means “sharing sky and stars”, was given to the observatory by the Wajarri Yamaji, the traditional owners and native title holders of the observatory site.

Tuning in to the Universe

After decades of planning, developing precursor telescopes and testing, today we are holding a ceremony to mark the start of on-site construction. We expect both telescopes will be fully operational late this decade.

Each of the 512 stations of SKA-Low is made up of 256 wide-band dipole antennas, spread over a diameter of 35 metres. The signals from these Christmas-tree-shaped antennas in each station are electronically combined to point to different parts of the sky, forming a single view.

These antennas are designed to tune in to low radio frequencies of 50 to 350 MHz. At these frequencies, the radio waves are very long – comparable to the height of a person – which means more familiar-looking dishes are an inefficient way to catch them. Instead the dipole antennas operate much like TV antennas, with the radio waves from the Universe exciting electrons within their metal arms.

Collectively, the 131,072 dipoles in the completed array will provide the deepest and widest view of the Universe to date.

Peering into the cosmic dawn

They will allow us to see out and back to the very beginning of the Universe, when the first stars and galaxies formed.

This key period, more than 13 billion years in our past, is termed the “cosmic dawn”: when stars and galaxies began to form, lighting up the cosmos for the first time.

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After our universe’s cosmic dawn, what happened to all its original hydrogen?

The cosmic dawn marks the end of the cosmic dark ages, a period after the Big Bang when the Universe had cooled down through expansion. All that remained was the ubiquitous background glow of the early Universe light, and a cosmos filled with dark matter and neutral atoms of hydrogen and helium.

The light from the first stars transformed the Universe, tearing apart the electrons and protons in neutral hydrogen atoms. The Universe went from dark and neutral to bright and ionised.

The SKA Observatory will map this fog of neutral hydrogen at low radio frequencies, which will allow scientists to explore the births and deaths of the earliest stars and galaxies. Exploration of this key period is the final missing piece in our understanding of the life story of the Universe.

Unimagined mysteries

Closer to home, the low-frequency telescope will time the revolutions of pulsars. These rapidly spinning neutron stars, which fire out sweeping beams of radiation like lighthouses, are the Universe’s ultra-precise clocks.

Changes to the ticking of these clocks can indicate the passage of gravitational waves through the Universe, allowing us to map these deformations of spacetime with radio waves.

It will also help us to understand the Sun, our own star, and the space environment that we on Earth live within.

These are the things we expect to find with the SKA Observatory. But the unexpected discoveries will most likely be the most exciting. With an observatory of this size and power, we are bound to uncover as-yet-unimagined mysteries of the Universe.

Cathryn Trott receives funding from the Australian Research Council, and is employed by SKAO and Curtin University.

– ref. In Australia and South Africa, construction has started on the biggest radio observatory in Earth’s history – https://theconversation.com/in-australia-and-south-africa-construction-has-started-on-the-biggest-radio-observatory-in-earths-history-195818

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniela Kaleva, Program Manager, Researcher Development, Deakin University

Review: Médée, directed by Justin Way and conducted by Erin Helyard, Pinchgut Opera

Known for specialising in baroque opera and historically informed music interpretations, Pinchgut Opera always programs pieces that not only delight with luscious baroque instruments and beautiful voices but bring forth characters and themes that speak to modern audiences.

Médée, by Thomas Corneille and Marc-Antoine Charpentier, is a masterpiece of French baroque opera, first performed in 1693 at the Académie Royale de Musique.

The story explores themes of justice, loyalty, migration and family annihilation with pertinent relevance for an audience of the 21st century still suffering the consequences of the COVID pandemic.

The voice of Médée

Médée is based on the ancient Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides (431 BC).

Knowing that her husband, the power-thirsty and spineless Jason (Michael Petruccelli), will betray her, Médée (Catherine Carby) attempts diplomacy. She is forced to enact justice by usurping her status and breaching the constricting social and political norms. In doing so, she breaks one of society’s greatest taboos: she kills her children.

In this production, the two sons are part of the action and their bodies are brought on stage covered in blood.

Corneille’s libretto emphasises the political manoeuvring at the Corinthian court to respond to the sensibilities of the French court of Louis XIV. Power tactics are used by everyone to gain advantage during a crisis.

In the Pinchgut production, the setting of the opera transports the imminent threat and negotiations at the Corinthian court to the 20th century with the respective civic and military connotations.

The strong voice of Médée dominates this story and resounds on the Australian operatic stage as a rare representation of a formidable female character who uses diplomacy and power to stand up for herself in a male-dominated world.

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Baroque sound and modern visual storytelling

Conducted by Erin Helyard, the Orchestra of the Antipodes play Charpentier’s music with elegance and restraint. It renders the melodious richness of orchestral colour and instrumentation with finesse. The choir enchants with the uniformity and depth of their sound. The beautiful solo voices of the cast leave the listener gasping for more.

The minimalist grey columns and walls of the set allow for effective contrast of costumes, movement and lighting and projection to play their role in the visual storytelling.

A supersized bust dominates the stage and remains malleable throughout, referencing the gradual disintegration of the Corinthian court and the humiliation the male characters suffer in this story.

Médée’s music is more often mournful and pleading than furious and destructive. Carby portrays well the inner turmoil of the character with a silky mezzo-soprano voice that soars over the tricky waves of Charpentier’s phrases and offers a variety of tonal qualities to express the emotional states of Médée’s complex character. Her touching rendition moves the audience with pity.

Carby is less successful in expressing physically the power of the sorceress or the sexual attraction her character feels for Jason, which is not helped by a reliance on the symbolism of costumes over bodily eloquence.

In this production, Médée is presented as a crone – white haired and having lost her physical allure, juxtaposed against the younger princess Créuse (Cathy-Di Zhang), stunning in a royal purple dress.

It is only in pursuit of Créuse that Petrucelli’s Jason shows virility and arduous persuasion. Zhang’s Créuse is sexy and cunning, negotiating well the political manoeuvres of the court.

Adrian Tamburini’s Créon looks younger than Petrucelli’s Jason to be a father of Créuse, but he does his best to convey the authority and arrogance of the King by relying on his rich bass-baritone, crisp diction and good acting.

Andrew Finden is most convincing as Oronte with attention to text emphasis and strong commitment to the character.

Maia Andrews stands out among the secondary roles with a voluptuous voice and portrayal of the Italian entertainer.

Louis Hurley’s singing and acting deliver a compelling Arcas and La Vengeance.

Elevating the soul

If the purpose of art is to elevate the soul, provide an opportunity for contemplation and even salvation, then Médée’s performance delivers.

The music is elegant and noble, transporting the listener away from the crude noise of the modern world to a state of aesthetic pleasure and satisfaction.

The tragedy of Médée encourages reflection on justice and reciprocity and asks us to look within. Are we like Jason and Médée obsessed by our desires? Do we love too much someone who does not deserve it? Do we feel so vulnerable that violence is the only way to protect ourselves? How do we accept those that are different and more powerful than us? Do we have the courage to live on the edge and stand up for our ideals and consequently face the music – and do we condone or support those that do?

Pinchgut’s production of Médée is an opportunity not to be missed to enjoy baroque opera performed at the highest standards by expert baroque musicians and singers. The choice of an opera based on Greek tragedy provides intellectual stimulation to consider the human condition, loyalty and justice in the world we live today.

Médée is at City Recital Hall, Sydney, until December 7.

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Daniela Kaleva 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. ‘A state of aesthetic pleasure and satisfaction’: Pinchgut Opera’s Médée demands to be heard – https://theconversation.com/a-state-of-aesthetic-pleasure-and-satisfaction-pinchgut-operas-medee-demands-to-be-heard-192178

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

A federal Newspoll, conducted November 30 to December 3 from a sample of 1,508, gave Labor a 55-45 lead, unchanged from the post-budget Newspoll in late October. Primary votes were 39% Labor (up one), 35% Coalition (steady), 11% Greens (steady), 6% One Nation (steady), 1% UAP (steady) and 8% for all Others (down one).

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at 62% satisfied (up three) and 29% dissatisfied (down four), for a net approval of +33, up seven points. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was down two points on net approval to -9. Albanese led Dutton by 59-24 as better PM (54-27 previously). Newspoll figures are from The Poll Bludger.

In all polls conducted since the May election, Labor has had a big lead, with one exception. Last week’s Morgan poll only gave Labor a 52.5-47.5 lead, and Morgan’s polls have generally been better for the Coalition this term than other polls. In the past, Morgan polls nearly always skewed to Labor.

Labor and Albanese have had a long honeymoon since the election, but so did Kevin Rudd after the 2007 election, and he did not even lead Labor to the 2010 election. Honeymoon polling is not predictive of the next election’s result.

Essential: first voting intentions has Labor leading by 51.4-43.1

In last week’s Essential poll, conducted in the days before November 29 from a sample of 1,042, the Guardian reported that Labor led by 51.4-43.1 with 5.5% undecided in the first time Essential has polled voting intentions since the May election.

If undecided were excluded, Labor would lead by 54.4-45.6. Primary votes were 33% Labor, 31% Coalition, 13% Greens, 17% for all Others and 6% undecided.

Essential asked respondents to rate leaders from 0 to 10, then 0-3 ratings were counted as negative, 4-6 as neutral and 7-10 as positive. Albanese’s ratings were 46-23 positive (45-20 in early November), while Dutton’s were 33-28 negative (32-29 previously).

By 46-9, respondents thought Australia’s relationship with China would be better after Labor won the May election, with 44% opting for no different.

On the AUKUS submarine partnership, 44% (down one since September 2021) thought it would make Australia more secure, 39% (up three) said it would not affect our security and 16% (down three) that it would make us less secure.

By 55-11, voters agreed that “the media is too biased to one side of politics”. Greens voters were most likely to agree (63%), but so did Coalition voters (57%), Labor voters (51%) and Other voters (61%). By 47-21, voters agreed that “I feel well-informed about federal politics”.

Morgan poll: 52.5-47.5 to Labor

In last week’s Morgan weekly federal poll, Labor’s lead dropped to 52.5-47.5 (53.5-46.5 the previous week). This poll was taken November 21-27.

Labor’s industrial relations changes pass parliament

Last Friday the House of Representatives passed Labor’s industrial relations reforms with the Senate’s amendments, after they had passed the Senate Thursday night. Labor had earlier secured support from David Pocock in the Senate.

The passage of these reforms highlights the importance of two Senate results at the May election: Pocock’s win in the ACT was the first time either territory’s two senators had not split 1-1 between the major parties. And Labor won three of Western Australia’s six senators that were up for election, with the Greens winning one, for a 4-2 left-right split.

Read more:
Final Senate results: Labor, the Greens and David Pocock will have a majority of senators

These two results gave Labor, the Greens and Pocock a combined 39 of the 76 senators, enough to pass legislation opposed by all others.

Victorian upper house: is Transport Matters really winning a seat from second last?

The ABC calculator currently shows Rod Barton, the lead candidate of Transport Matters in Northeastern Metro region, defeating the Greens to win the fifth and final seat in this region despite being second last on just 0.2% or 0.01 quotas.

In the initial count, Barton was last behind the New Democrats, but correction of an error at a booth put the New Democrats behind Barton, and he receives their preferences starting the spiral that puts him ahead of the Greens at the final count. Labor preferences go to Barton ahead of the Greens.

However, the calculator assumes all votes are above the line. In fact, only 377 of the 649 New Democrats’ votes are above the line, so only these votes will be automatically transferred to Barton when the New ?Democrats are excluded. So Barton will have only 1,153 votes after this, not the 1,425 the calculator gives him.

That will put Barton 199 votes behind Sustainable Australia, the next party that gives him their preferences, not the 73 ahead the calculator shows. Barton will be knocked out early and the Greens will win the final Northeastern Metro seat.

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Labor, Greens and Legalise Cannabis likely to have combined majority in Victorian upper house

In the lower house, the ABC is calling 52 of 88 seats for Labor, 27 for the Coalition, four Greens and five still undecided. A late Greens surge in Northcote has reduced Labor’s lead to 50.2-49.8 after the Greens conceded when Labor led by 51.2-48.8.

Labor will very likely win Preston, is just ahead in Bass, just behind in Pakenham, and the Coalition will likely win Narracan when the deferred election is held.

Overall lower house late counting has helped the Greens and hurt the Coalition. With 85.7% of enrolled voters counted, the ABC’s statewide two party estimate is 54.8-45.2 to Labor, with Labor on 37.0% of the primary vote, the Coalition 34.4% and the Greens 11.5%.

Georgia Senate runoff and US midterm poll performance

I covered the United States Georgia Senate runoff for The Poll Bludger; polls now suggest a narrow win for Democrat Raphael Warnock on Wednesday AEDT. US polls for the midterm elections understated Democrats in key Senate contests, in contrast to polls in recent major national elections that have understated the right.

I also covered the November 19 Malaysian election, at which Anwar Ibrahim became PM in a hung parliament. Labour maintains a huge lead in United Kingdom national polls, and had a big swing in its favour at a byelection.

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. Labor retains big lead in Newspoll as Albanese’s ratings jump; Victorian election update – https://theconversation.com/labor-retains-big-lead-in-newspoll-as-albaneses-ratings-jump-victorian-election-update-195440

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Bell, Professor of Marine Biology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Marine sponges were thought to be more resilient to ocean warming than other organisms. But earlier this year, New Zealand recorded the largest-ever sponge bleaching event off its southern coastline.

While only one species, the cup sponge Cymbastella lamellata, was affected, a prolonged marine heatwave turned millions of the normally dark brown sponges bright white.

Subsequently, we reported tissue loss, decay and death of other sponge species across the northern coastline of New Zealand, with an estimated impact on hundreds of thousands of specimens. In contrast, we didn’t observe any bleaching or tissue loss in central areas of New Zealand’s coastline, despite extensive surveys.

Our latest research shows the most severe impacts on sponges occurred in areas where the marine heatwave was most intense. The loss of sponges may have major repercussions for the whole ecosystem.

Why should we care about sponges?

Sponges are among the most ancient and abundant animals on rocky reefs across the world. In New Zealand, they occupy up to 70% of the available seafloor, particularly in so-called mesophotic ecosystems at depths of 30-150m.

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They serve a number of important ecological functions. They filter large quantities of water, capturing small food particles and moving carbon from the water column to the seafloor where it can be eaten by bottom-dwelling invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are consumed by organisms further up the food chain, including commercially and culturally important fish species.

Sponges also add three-dimensional complexity to the sea floor, which provides habitat for a range of other species such as crabs, shrimps and starfish.

Sponge bleaching, tissue loss and decay

Like corals, sponges contain symbiotic organisms thought to be critical to their survival. Cymbastella lamellata is unusual in that it hosts dense populations of diatoms, small single-celled photosynthetic plants that give the sponge its brown colour.

These diatoms live within the sponge tissue, exchanging food for protection. When the sponge bleaches, it expels the diatoms, leaving the sponge skeleton exposed.

Tissue loss occurs when sponges are stressed and either have to invest more energy into cell repair or when their food source is depleted and they reabsorb their own tissue to reduce body volume and reallocate resources.

Tissue decay or necrosis on the other hand is generally associated with changes in the microbial communities living within sponges and growth of pathogenic bacteria.

Bleaching, tissue loss and decay in sponges have all previously been associated with heat stress, but didn’t necessarily result in sponge death. In other places where such impacts have been observed, they were much more localised, compared to what we saw in New Zealand.

The impact of marine heat waves

Marine heatwaves are defined as unusual periods of warming that last for five consecutive days or longer. Some can last from weeks to several months and extend over hundreds or thousands of kilometres of coastline.

The sponge bleaching and tissue loss or decay in New Zealand matched the duration and intensity of marine heatwaves to the north and south of New Zealand during the summer of 2021/2022. The Hauraki Gulf, where sponge necrosis and decay was reported, was in a continuous marine heatwave for 29 weeks from November 2021 to the end of May 2022, with a maximum intensity of 3.77℃ above normal.

In Fiordland, a prolonged marine heatwave developed in early February 2022 and persisted for more than 16 weeks into May, with a maximum intensity of 4.85℃ above normal temperatures. In contrast, the Wellington and Marlborough Sounds regions experienced only short (weeks) marine heatwaves with a lower intensity and we did not observe any impacts on sponges.

These extreme heat events can result from a combination of changes in the heat exchange between the air and the sea, wind patterns and ocean currents. Their likelihood is also influenced by large-scale climate patterns such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

What the future may hold

Most global research on climate change impacts has focused on experimental studies exposing organism to temperatures predicted for 2100, often 2-4℃ higher than current temperatures. But the occurrence of marine heatwaves means organisms are already experiencing these temperatures, sometimes for several weeks or months. By 2100, marine heatwaves will become even more extreme.

For bleached Cymbastella, recent anecdotal reports suggest many sponges have recovered their colour, which is good news. However, observations immediately after the bleaching indicate many sponges were being eaten by fish, possibly because their symbionts may provide chemical defences against predation.

Read more:
Sponges can survive low oxygen and warming waters. They could be the main reef organisms in the future

For bleached corals, studies have shown impacts on spawning success for many years after the event, likely because their energy reserves have been depleted.

We don’t yet know if this is the case for sponges. For sponges with decayed tissue the outlook is even less clear, as many probably died.

Sponges are not the only species to be affected by marine heatwaves New Zealand experienced in 2021/2022. There were reports of seaweed die-offs and changes to normal distribution patterns of tuna and other ecologically and commercially important fish species.

Marine heatwaves should be front of mind when thinking about climate impacts. They are happening now, not in 50 years, and we don’t know enough yet to determine if sponges may be the canary in the coal mine.

This is especially important because New Zealand’s northern coastlines are already experiencing almost continuous marine heatwave conditions, with the ongoing event forecast to extend into the coming summer.

James Bell receives funding from the George Mason Trust, Victoria University of Wellington, The Fiordland Lobster company and The Leslie Hutchins Foundation

Nick Shears receives funding from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Sustainable Seas, New Zealand Department of Conservation, Waikato Regional Council, Foundation North – GIFT and Live Ocean Foundation.

Robert Smith receives funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.

– ref. Loss, decay and bleaching: why sponges may be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for impacts of marine heatwaves – https://theconversation.com/loss-decay-and-bleaching-why-sponges-may-be-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine-for-impacts-of-marine-heatwaves-194146

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney

Ron DeSantis’s re-election as governor of Florida was one of the few bright spots for Republicans in an otherwise disappointing 2022 midterm election. DeSantis originally won the governorship by less than half a percentage point in 2018. in 2022, he defeated his Democratic opponent (and former Republican governor) Charlie Crist by more than 19% of the vote.

For the first time in years, Donald Trump may have a serious challenger to his domination of the Republican Party. Donors, media figures and other conservative elites are flocking to DeSantis.

The contrasts with Trump are obvious. DeSantis won re-election while Trump lost, and many Republicans hold Trump responsible for their losses this year. DeSantis’s allies also point to his policy victories, something largely missing from Trump’s presidency.

But winning a Republican primary requires winning over large numbers of evangelical Christians, and for them the calculus of victory is more complex than “check out the scoreboard”. Trump has always promised them a victory much bigger than legislative triumphs or even election wins. While DeSantis represents the orthodox conservative Christian uses of political power, Trump appeals to those who believe that only an apocalypse can save America.

The Kingdom of God

One of the most important Christian narratives is triumph over death, embodied in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and promised one day to all God’s people. Death is not just beaten, but humiliated. In the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul taunts “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

There will be other reversals of earthly fortune, because God’s grace does not follow established social convention. In the parable of the vineyard workers, Jesus tells his followers that in the Kingdom of God “the last shall be first, and the first last”.

Read more:
After Trump, what is the future of the Republican Party?

This passage has historically inspired enslaved and oppressed peoples to find a message of liberation in the gospels. But it has also encouraged relatively well-off people to imagine themselves as the persecuted “last” who will one day be first by God’s grace.

For orthodox Christians (referring not to Eastern Orthodox churches, but all adherents to core Christian creeds), politicians are not supposed to promise the Kingdom of God. The state and the Kingdom of God are separate realms, as Jesus himself explains. Nonetheless, political power has had important uses for Christians ever since Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.

The Kingdom of DeSantis

Ron DeSantis exemplifies the orthodox American use of political power for conservative Christian ends. While he uses the updated language of fighting “wokeness”, DeSantis has used the governor’s office to pursue a time-honoured culture war agenda in Florida, reasserting the primacy of traditional family structures and gender roles and keeping children away from material that may conflict with their parents’ beliefs. DeSantis’s message of victory on election night was “Florida is where woke goes to die”.

DeSantis learnt from Trump that evangelical Christians don’t care much about the personal piety of their candidates. They want fighters, not Sunday school teachers. He taps into the idea that secular authorities are persecuting Christians in America, an old claim that has also been a centrepiece of Trump’s appeal to evangelicals.

But there are limits to how much DeSantis can emulate Trump. While DeSantis sounds like a politician with a law degree, Trump sounds like a tent revival prophet. Rather than rearguard culture war actions, Trump promises the redemption of America.

The Kingdom of Trump

In his first presidential run, Trump was notable for his scathing “American carnage” speeches about the fallen state of the nation. It was rare to hear an American politician talk his country down like that, but it appealed to Christians who thought that even their own leaders didn’t understand how bad things were.

His speeches this year are even darker. While DeSantis complains about “woke corporations”, Trump talks about “cesspools of blood”.

Trump’s vows to restore America’s glory and punish its enemies without mercy resonate with evangelicals, who long for a day of reckoning when everyone will be held to account. As president, Trump always hinted that bigger things were around the corner. In the words of Kimberley Guilfoyle at the Republican National Convention, “the best is yet to come!”.

In contrast, Trump warned that if Joe Biden won the 2020 election, “there will be no God” in America.

Even Trump’s “stolen election” claims fit a death and resurrection narrative. Remembering his remarkable 2016 victory in defiance of the polls, Trump’s most ardent supporters expect him to ultimately triumph, one way or another, despite the appearance of defeat in 2020.

Orthodox Christian politicians do promise such things, but Trump is not an orthodox Christian.

Trump’s original pool of evangelical Christian supporters included many Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians. Pentecostals and Charismatics are huge in number, but have often been marginalised by more powerful evangelical groups because of their physicality and their beliefs in personal prophecy and spiritual warfare. Some evangelical leaders have denounced Trump’s “spiritual adviser” Paula White as a heretic.

For many Pentecostals and Charismatics, Trump was such a radical break from political norms that he represented the fulfilment of biblical prophecy. They likened him to biblical figures like Cyrus the Great, a pagan king who was nevertheless chosen to save God’s people.

A subset of evangelicals known as Premillennial Dispensationalists saw Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as a necessary step for bringing about Christ’s rule on Earth and the final confrontation with Satan.

This apocalyptic style does not appeal to all conservative evangelicals, but in 2016 more orthodox-minded Christians couldn’t unite around a single candidate in opposition to Trump. Now, after six years of Trump influencing evangelical subculture and bringing previously marginal views to the centre of it, any challenger to Trump seeking evangelical votes faces a daunting task.

How abortion could make or destroy the 2024 Republican candidate

The most complicated issue in any contest between Trump and DeSantis could be abortion.

In 2016, Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v Wade, the framework that had kept abortion legal in all states for nearly five decades. The Dobbs decision in 2022 overturning Roe was a direct consequence of Trump’s three appointments.

Read more:
The end of Roe v. Wade would likely embolden global anti-abortion activists and politicians

Trump’s supporters can point to the fulfilment of this longstanding conservative dream as far more significant than anything DeSantis has achieved, and Trump quickly claimed credit for it. But he reportedly also worried that Republican legislators were going too far for voters with abortion bans, and that the issue could hurt him politically in 2024.

He was right to worry. The abortion issue is widely recognised as one of the main reasons Republicans did so poorly in the midterm elections.

Before the Dobbs decision, DeSantis signed a law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks in Florida, with no exemptions for cases of rape or incest. The law survived a legal challenge and DeSantis suspended a state attorney who refused the enforce the law.

After Dobbs, which allows for even more extensive abortion bans, DeSantis said Florida would “expand pro-life protections” but has so far declined to say what these would be. Some Florida Republicans may push for tougher restrictions after making big gains in the state legislature at the midterms.

Both Trump and DeSantis would have difficult decisions to make about whether to try to outflank each other on the abortion issue, or to distance themselves from Republican extremism. Abortion bans are increasingly unpopular even in the Republican Party, but these are among the most prized goals of religious activists who vote in Republican primaries.

Primary contests are highly unpredictable, and there is little current polling on how evangelical Christians compare the two most likely candidates. Trump secured 81% of the white evangelical vote in the 2020 election, but a contest with DeSantis could open deep divides among evangelical conservatives – at least until the winner faces a Democrat.

David Smith 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. Evangelical Christians are crucial voters in Republican primaries. Would they support DeSantis or Trump? – https://theconversation.com/evangelical-christians-are-crucial-voters-in-republican-primaries-would-they-support-desantis-or-trump-194914

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

The numbers of people who are homeless have risen sharply across Australia, with soaring housing costs emerging as the biggest driver of the increase. The Australian Homelessness Monitor 2022, released today, reports that the average monthly number of people using homelessness services increased by 8% in the four years to 2021-22. That’s double the population growth rate over that period.

Just as in other countries, the 2020 COVID-19 emergency accommodation programs achieved sudden reductions in rough sleeping in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. But these remarkable gains were only temporary.

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States housed 40,000 people for the COVID emergency. Now rough sleeper numbers are back on the up

In the first major homelessness analysis spanning the COVID crisis years, we also show numbers have been rising in some parts of the country at rates far above the national trend. The problem has been growing especially rapidly in non-metropolitan areas. This trend is consistent with the boom in regional housing prices and, more especially, rents sparked by the pandemic.

The homelessness that has long been a sad feature of our biggest cities has clearly spread to regional and rural Australia.

Many other patterns in the changing scale and nature of homelessness in Australia are ongoing trends that pre-date the 2020-21 public health emergency. This period appears to have had relatively little effect on these trajectories, which include a growing proportion of older adults, as well as First Nations peoples and those affected by mental ill-health.

As the chart below shows, unaffordable housing is playing an increasing role in people becoming homeless.

Social housing programs are welcome but overdue

The pandemic triggered significant and welcome commitments to social housing programs by the new federal government and some state governments. The recent federal budget confirmed funding for 20,000 new social housing dwellings over five years.

Several states had already announced a set of self-funded programs of a similar scale as part of their post-COVID economic recovery measures.

Social housing offers secure tenancies at below-market rents. It’s a crucial resource for both preventing and resolving homelessness.

Read more:
1 million homes target makes headlines, but can’t mask modest ambition of budget’s housing plans

Together, these new programs will – at least temporarily – halt the long-term decline in social housing capacity. The sector’s share of the nation’s housing stock has been shrinking for most of the past 25 years.

By our reckoning, the government programs should deliver a net increase of about 9,000 social rental dwellings in 2024. This will be the first year for decades in which enough dwellings will be built to maintain the sector’s share of Australia’s occupied housing stock.

But sustaining this achievement will require more funding beyond the current commitments. Otherwise, the decline will resume.

Affordability is the big issue, but some need other help

As a recent Productivity Commission report acknowledged, homelessness is primarily a housing problem. In its words, “fundamentally, homelessness is a result of not being able to afford housing”.

While other reasons do contribute to some people becoming homeless, most people experiencing homelessness have no long-term need for personal support. And many who do have high support needs can access and keep tenancies when suitable affordable housing is available.

Read more:
‘I’ve been on the waiting list for over 20 years’: why social housing suitable for people with disabilities is desperately needed

At the same time, the most disadvantaged rough sleepers may require a great deal of help to overcome their problems. The widely acclaimed “housing first” model successfully does this. As other recent research emphasises, for many chronic rough sleepers helped into secure housing, withdrawing such support – even after three years – markedly increases their risk of becoming homeless again.

Australian governments need to better recognise the case for expanding the supply of permanent supportive housing. This involves integrating long-term affordable housing with ongoing support services where required.

Only a few such projects operate in Australia. There is no general framework to fund them, especially the support services.

Lengthy rough sleeping is typically a symptom of societal failure. All too often, for those affected, this failure starts from infancy.

Read more:
Eliminating most homelessness is achievable. It starts with prevention and ‘housing first’

Housing the chronically homeless pays for itself

The Productivity Commission report advocated a “high-needs-based [social] housing subsidy to ensure housing is affordable and tenancies can be sustained”. Logically, since this is essentially a social work (not social security) responsibility, it is the states and territories, and not the Commonwealth, that should bear the cost.

This may sound like a big ask for underfunded governments. But state and territory budgets stand to benefit from avoiding the costs that recurrent and chronic homelessness imposes on departments such as health and justice. As our previous research shows, we spend enormous amounts of public money responding to the consequences of leaving people in a state of chronic homelessness.

A model for funding permanent supportive housing needs to be developed. Ideally, this process should involve all Australian governments, perhaps as part of discussions to advance the National Housing and Homelessness Plan. Federal Labor pledged this project will take shape in 2023.

More broadly, these deliberations must be underpinned by recognition that our current ways of developing, operating and commodifying housing produce homelessness. A plan to end homelessness requires a plan to overhaul our housing system so it produces enough suitable and affordable housing for all Australians.

Read more:
The market has failed to give Australians affordable housing, so don’t expect it to solve the crisis

The authors acknowledge research funder Launch Housing.

Hal Pawson receives funding from Launch Housing, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and Crisis UK.

Cameron Parsell receives funding from Launch Housing, as well as the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Homeless numbers have jumped since COVID housing efforts ended – and the problem is spreading beyond the big cities – https://theconversation.com/homeless-numbers-have-jumped-since-covid-housing-efforts-ended-and-the-problem-is-spreading-beyond-the-big-cities-194624

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

Australians are getting older, sicker, and harder to treat. This isn’t news to GPs, who say they are overwhelmed with demand and frustrated with a rigid system that doesn’t support them.

To improve general practice, the Albanese government has set aside almost a billion dollars and convened a Strengthening Medicare Taskforce to advise how to spend it. Many people argue recruiting more GPs is the best path forward.

But as a new Grattan Institute report shows, Australia has plenty of GPs – although they’re not always in the right areas. What we lack are supporting clinicians to help GPs respond to a growing tide of chronic disease.

Read more:
Some GPs just keep their heads above water. Other doctors’ businesses are more profitable than law firms

General practice is becoming more complex

One reason many GPs feel overwhelmed is because their patients are getting sicker. More patients have multiple conditions that need to be managed by their GP, and the proportion with more than one chronic condition has been estimated at nearly half.

Managing these patients is more complex and takes more time, but Medicare does not reward GPs for longer consultations. Average consultation length has been stuck at between 14 and 15 minutes since 2002, despite the increasing complexity of patients’ needs.

Australia has many GPs

To help general practices meet this demand, peak bodies have called for more GPs, and to attract them to the specialty through higher pay.

It’s true that many places in Australia, particularly some rural areas, don’t have enough GPs. And the pandemic has led to a surge in demand everywhere, with wait times spiking after years of steady decline.

But at a national level, almost all the indicators suggest GP supply is stronger than ever. As our report shows, Australia has more GPs per person than ever before, more GPs than most wealthy countries, and record numbers of GPs in training.

GPs need more support

While the supply of GPs has grown, more GPs alone can’t manage the rising tide of chronic disease, or the growing pressure on many general practices. Instead, we need to make general practice a team sport.

Team-based care is increasingly used in general practice overseas. But compared with similar countries, Australian GPs have little support.

About three-quarters of clinical staff in Australian general practice are GPs, with nurses making up almost all the remaining quarter. And those nurses don’t get to help as much as they want, with three-quarters saying they face barriers to using all their skills.

Other countries have different types of workers that Australia lacks. Germany has about 400,000 medical assistants, providing administrative and clinical support in general practice, while Australia has only about 100. England has about one supporting clinician for every GP, three times as many as Australia. In the United States, nurse practitioners and physician assistants deliver about 11% of all medical services outside hospitals. In Australia they would deliver less than 0.1%.

Read more:
General practices are struggling. Here are 5 lessons from overseas to reform the funding system

Team care is good for everyone

Evidence overwhelmingly confirms these and many other clinicians can share parts of a GP’s load with the same safety and quality of care. Studies suggest well-implemented team care can improve quality of care, patient safety and health outcomes, as well as reducing demand on hospitals.

It also makes GPs’ jobs more manageable, impactful and satisfying. By sharing simpler care with other team members, GPs can spend more time working with more complex patients.

It also creates time for other types of work: planning, improving care, maintaining oversight of the team’s care, and consulting with other specialists. While a GP’s clinical work will be more complex, they will also have more time to do other vital aspects of their role.

Emerging trials in many states (such as the pharmacist-prescribing trials in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria) have also made it clear task-sharing is happening – with GPs, or without them.

Unlike these trials, our recommendations focus on bringing new workforces into general practice, not taking care out.

Read more:
Should pharmacists be able to prescribe common medicines like antibiotics for UTIs? We asked 5 experts

What needs to change?

GPs might think this sounds like a fantasy that would never work for them. That’s because for most clinics, it will only be possible if there are fundamental changes to how the system is run.

The first barrier is funding. General practices lose revenue if they have anyone other than a GP deliver care. Medicare does not fund practice pharmacists, physiotherapists, practice nurses, nurse practitioners or Indigenous health workers to work to their full skill level.

Other workforces, such as physician assistants, community paramedics and medical assistants, are not funded to provide care at all.

General practices should be able to opt into a new funding model which, as well as paying GPs for each appointment, gives them a budget for ongoing care of each patient. This would enable GPs to expand their team, and give them funding even when another team member is providing care. Most wealthy countries use this kind of funding model.

The second barrier is regulation. An independent commission should advise government on how different roles should be regulated, to make sure workers can safely use all their skills.

Finally, taking away barriers isn’t enough. As other countries have found, change needs financial support.

The federal government should use Strengthening Medicare funding to roll out 1,000 new nurses, physiotherapists, mental health clinicians, pharmacists and other allied health workers in the highest-need communities, to work in general practices alongside GPs, providing fee-free care.

Read more:
The physio will see you now. Why health workers need to broaden their roles to fix the workforce crisis

The shift to team-based general practice won’t be easy. It will require changes in how practices are designed and operate, and enough funding, time and training for teams to work well together. This should be recognised with more funding and sustained expert support.

Although it will be hard, the payoff will be worth it. GPs will be free to choose a model with more support and more sustainable workloads. Government will be able to reduce the biggest gaps in access and outcomes. And patients will have more time with their general practice team, quicker access when they need it, and better care.

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. How do you fix general practice? More GPs won’t be enough. Here’s what to do – https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-fix-general-practice-more-gps-wont-be-enough-heres-what-to-do-195447

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Wainwright, System lead – Sustainable Corporates, Monash University

About half of Australia’s biggest listed companies have plans to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, our new analysis has found.

We assessed the climate change commitments of 187 companies out of 200 listed on the Australian Stock Exchange – the ASX200. Together, these 187 companies produce 32% of Australia’s operational emissions – that is, emissions produced directly from a business’ operations or from the use of its energy products.

The net-zero plans represent a significant step for climate change action in Australia.

Property developer Lendlease, for example, aims to achieve absolute zero carbon by 2040. Fortescue Metals Group, meanwhile, plans to reach net-zero emissions along its entire value chain by 2040.

But more must be done by Australian companies.

Importantly, the net-zero plans we identified typically don’t include all emissions associated with a business’ operations, such as fossil fuel burned by customers. And much of the action promised will come too late to avert catastrophic global warming.

Comparing commitments

Meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5℃ is imperative if we’re to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

So, we set out to examine whether the net-zero corporate commitments of some of Australia’s biggest companies were in line with the crucial 1.5℃ goal, as well as three best practice principles:

1. a net-zero commitment by or before 2050

2. at least one appropriate and ambitious short or medium-term target

3. address scope 3 emissions.

We collected data in March and in November this year on the 187 ASX200 companies with operations in Australia. Our data coverage doesn’t extend beyond Australia’s borders.

We examined three types of emissions:

• Scope 1: those directly generated by a company’s operations, such as a steel manufacturer burning fuel on site in its blast furnace
• Scope 2: indirect emissions occurring from energy purchased and used by a company
• Scope 3: indirect emissions along the wider value-chain, which includes the raw materials required to make a product, transporting it, and emissions caused by others using the product.

From the March data, we found 84 of the 187 ASX200 companies had net-zero targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions. Some 96% of these emissions were covered by the targets. And 68% of these were covered by 1.5℃-aligned targets.

Of the 187 companies assessed, 100 had no net-zero commitment. But many of these were in relatively low-emitting sectors, such as communications, and hotels and restaurants.

Read more:
Why it doesn’t make economic sense to ignore climate change in our recovery from the pandemic

Most technology solutions required to decarbonise these sectors are already commercially viable, such as switching to renewables and increasing energy efficiency. But without action, emissions from these sectors are expected to rise.

Scope 3 emissions can be trickier to measure and address because a company has less visibility and influence over their suppliers and customers. Only 92 of the companies we assessed disclosed any scope 3 data. Of these, 21 companies had a net-zero target and only 16 were 1.5℃-aligned.

This means 71% of reported scope 3 emissions were not covered by net-zero commitments. Given scope 3 emissions typically comprise more than two-thirds of an organisation’s emissions overall, this is significant.

We similarly noted a lack of short (2022-2025) and medium-term (2026-2039) commitments. This means a lot of the promised action would come too late this decade to keep the goal of 1.5℃ alive.

Only 57 companies assessed had any interim emissions reduction targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions, and only 33 had 1.5℃-aligned interim targets.

This implies the ASX200 is overspending its carbon budget by 36%. A carbon budget is how much carbon can still be released into the atmosphere before we exceed a global warming threshold, in this case 1.5℃.

Read more:
Stripping carbon from the atmosphere might be needed to avoid dangerous warming – but it remains a deeply uncertain prospect

Momentum is gathering

We tracked the progress of these companies up until last month – and saw notable momentum compared to the March data.

As at November, 23 of Australia’s largest companies had all emissions under 1.5℃-aligned, net-zero targets. This represents a 44% increase since March.

There was a 40% increase in scope 3 net-zero targets, all of which were 1.5℃-aligned. And 20-30% more companies had interim targets.

For example, Origin Energy is responsible for approximately 10% of the ASX200 reported scope 3 emissions. It now aims to reach net-zero across all emissions scopes by 2050.

Overall, this means 62% of emissions reported by the companies studied are covered by some sort of net-zero target, up from 56% of reported emissions in March.

The resulting estimated carbon budget overspend for scope 1 and 2 emissions is 24%. This is a significant reduction from 36% in March.

We need strong commitments from everyone

The momentum in the last six months demonstrates increasing corporate confidence, willingness, and an understanding of what’s required to reach net-zero emissions.

But 38% of reported ASX200 emissions are not yet covered by net-zero commitments. And it’s fair to assume that more emissions have not been disclosed.

Australian companies stand to benefit from the transition to clean energy, thanks to the continent’s wealth of natural resources, like sun, wind, and critical minerals. There’s much opportunity for companies to dial up their ambition, particularly in the energy sector where solutions are readily available today.

The costs of not acting strongly are tangible. The analysis highlights the importance of transparent reporting to track progress and hold companies accountable.

If Australia’s leading corporations don’t fully disclose their emissions, they risk exposing themselves to hardening consumer, investor and regulator expectations. For example, scope 3 emissions are the largest source of emissions, yet they’re the least reported.

Read more:
‘Toxic cover-up’: 6 lessons Australia can draw from the UN’s scathing report on greenwashing

To avoid accusations of greenwashing, companies must go beyond setting targets. Any commitment needs to be backed up by a robust strategy, followed by demonstrable action and investment to give us confidence that it can be met.

This is the crucial decade for climate action. The recent momentum towards 1.5℃ shown by Australia’s leading corporations provides evidence they recognise the importance of this goal, and can see a path to get there.

Hopefully, the momentum translates to tangible progress, where Australia’s largest and most influential companies bring their peers and value chains along with them to a low-emissions future.

Tom Wainwright is part of Climateworks Centre which receives funding from philanthropy and project-based income from federal, state and local government and private sector organisations. Climateworks Centre receives funding from several philanthropic foundations, and project-specific financial support from a range of private and public entities.

Coral Bravo is part of Climateworks Centre which receives funding from philanthropy and project-based income from federal, state and local government and private sector organisations. Climateworks Centre receives funding from several philanthropic foundations, and project-specific financial support from a range of private and public entities.

– ref. Half of Australia’s biggest companies have net-zero emissions plans, but climate action may come too late – https://theconversation.com/half-of-australias-biggest-companies-have-net-zero-emissions-plans-but-climate-action-may-come-too-late-195727

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Esperanza Vera-Toscano, Senior research fellow, The University of Melbourne

An increasing number of Australian children are going to private high schools, new research shows.

The latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Annual Statistical Report has found an increasing number of students going to public schools over non-government (Catholic and other private) schools for the primary years.

But once students get to high school, the trend is significantly reversed.

Primary school enrolments

The HILDA survey tells the story of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. Starting in 2001, the survey now tracks more than 17,500 people in 9,500 households. In years 2012, 2016 and 2020, it collected information regarding each child in the household attending school.

The just-released data from 2020 of the HILDA survey found the majority of Australian school kids go to a public primary school and that proportion is growing. Almost 67% of primary school children were enrolled in government schools in 2012. This grew to almost 73% by 2020.

At the same time, there was a dip in primary school enrolments for Catholic and other private schools. Catholic enrolments went from 19.4% to 15.1%, while other private enrolments dropped from nearly 12.7% to 10.9%.

However, by high school, a different trend can be seen.

Private school enrolments

In 2012, 63.4% of high school children were enrolled in government schools. This dropped to 57.2% by 2020.

Catholic enrolments in high school also dipped from 20.9% to 17.8%. But other private schools saw a significant increase: from 13.5% in 2012 to 22.9% in 2020. This is a jump of almost 70%.

The fees for non-government schools are significant, and on the whole are increasing. In 2012, the average fee for a Catholic primary school was A$2,024 per year. For other private schools it was $6,621.

In high school it was $5,477 for Catholic students and $12,407 for other private schools.

By, 2020, fees had increased by 28.5% for Catholic primary school students and 24.5% for Catholic high school students. For other private school students, fees had actually dropped by 4.5% in primary schools, while high school fees had increased slightly by 5.3%.

Private schooling and academic success

While there are many options for schools in Australia, where you live and your financial resources will affect what is available to you.

So, why do so many families pay for private schools, particularly for high school?

Read more:
Going to private school won’t make a difference to your kid’s academic scores

High marks and successful university entrance results are obvious reasons. However, research in Australia and worldwide shows the exam scores of children who attended private schools are no different to those in public schools, after accounting for socio-economic background.

That is, the academic achievement of expensive private schools might say more about the families (and their incomes and education levels) who send their children to those schools, rather than anything particularly unique to the school’s teaching and learning.

So, what are the reasons for this increase?

While our 2020 study did not specifically ask parents about their school choices, we did ask them about the levels of satisfaction with their children’s school experience and other various education outcomes.

We found parents of students who attended private schools (both at primary and high-school levels) self-rated the quality of education higher than Catholic or public school parents. For high school parents this was 8.4 in 2020, compared to 7.9 (Catholic) and 7.5 (government).

They were also more likely to declare their their children’s overall achievement as “excellent” or “above average” (65.1%, compared to
51.7% in Catholic schools and 47.3% in government schools).

Meanwhile, 71.9% of private school parents expected their children to go to university, compared to 67% of Catholic school parents and 47.8% of government school parents.

This suggests parents are sending their children to private schools because they think it will give them a better education.

Bullying and behaviour

There is also a chance that they believe their child will face less social and behavioural issues at private schools. Parents of public school students were more likely to say their child had been bullied at both primary and high school.

In primary school, 23.4% of public school parents said their child had been bullied, compared to 19.2% for Catholic parents and 15.4% for other private school parents.

Read more:
Why do kids bully? And what can parents do about it?

In high school, 20% of public school parents reported bullying compared to 11.5% for the Catholic system and 15.6% for other private schools.

Moreover, in high school, 20.9% of public school parents said they had been contacted by the school for “poor behaviour”, compared to 13.1% for Catholic school parents and 15.3% for other private school parents.

Different attitudes for different stages of school?

Results from the HILDA survey seem to indicate parents may have different motivations around school choice for the primary and secondary years.

For primary school, parents may want to send the children to a local (free) public school because they are understandably not as focused on exam results and career prospects.

Read more:
As another elite boys’ school goes co-ed, are single-sex schools becoming an endangered species?

But for high school, they may think the extra financial investment is worth it and want a certain type of culture or value system for their teenagers to grow up and study in. Their ideas about academic excellence, citizenship and friendship networks may become more important to try and ensure their children’s desired success in life.

But given access to free, good-quality education is a fundamental right in Australia, these figures are a concern. Parents should not have to pay to get (what they believe is) a better education. And any family, regardless of their income or where they live, should be able to access quality education for their children.

Esperanza Vera-Toscano is employed in the HILDA Survey project which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.

– ref. Australian private high school enrolments have jumped 70% since 2012 – https://theconversation.com/australian-private-high-school-enrolments-have-jumped-70-since-2012-195714

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

The shift to working from home is unlikely to reverse.

Data from the HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) Survey released on Monday show the proportion of Australians working “most hours” from home jumped from around 6% before the pandemic to 21% in 2020. Unpublished data available to researchers shows a further jump to 24% in 2021.

While the rise was most pronounced in Victoria (which was in lockdown when the 2020 survey was conducted) there were big increases in all states except Tasmania.

Working from home increased in every industry but agriculture. It increased the most in industries dominated by office jobs.

Easier to work at home, or harder?

The 2020 survey asked those who had increased their hours working at home whether their ability to do their jobs was “much better”, “a little better”, “about the same”, “a little worse”, or “much worse”.

There are arguments in each direction. On one hand, working from home can give workers greater control of their time, making it easier to balance work and non-work activities. And at-home workers often report fewer meetings and interruptions, meaning work at home can be less stressful.

On the other hand, working from home can blur boundaries between work and non-work time, pushing work into unsocial hours. And it can mean workers spend more time isolated, without the opportunity to interact with colleagues.

Read more:
About that spare room: employers requisitioned our homes and our time

What the survey found was that the proportion of these workers who reported negative effects on their ability to do their job (42%) far outweighed the proportion who reported positive effects (24%).

Another way of looking at the result is to say that given that one-third of those working more at home reported little change in their ability to do the job, more than half found things no worse.

Although the number reporting negative effects outnumbering the number reporting positive effects might seem surprising, it is less surprising given that many of the people who suddenly had to work from home in 2020 lacked dedicated workspaces and had to share space with other household members working at home and children forced to learn remotely.

In non-pandemic times, when working from home is voluntary and home workspaces are better set up, assessments are likely to be more positive.

Women feel better off, men not much

The 2020 HILDA Survey found minimal effects of working from home on job satisfaction. But preliminary unpublished research we have undertaken on data from the 2021 survey paints a different picture – one divided on gender lines.

Focusing on people employed in both 2019 and 2021, and controlling for worker characteristics, we find a significant positive association between changes in the extent of working from home and changes in job satisfaction among women, but not men.

Furthermore, the improvement among women is concentrated on women with children.

The largest increase is found for those who work two days in the workplace and three days at home.

For mothers who shifted to the two-day/three-day arrangement, average job satisfaction increased by around 0.9 of a point on the scale of zero to ten, which amounted to a 12% improvement.

The findings suggest the main benefit for workers from working from home arises from the improved ability to combine work and family responsibilities – something that matters to women more than men as they continue to shoulder the bulk of home and care work.

Greater opportunities to work from home should thus lead to the greater involvement of mothers in paid work. This is a good thing. But there is at least one potential problem.

Working from home can be a trap

It is well-established that the workers visibly present in a workplace are more likely to be promoted and get extra responsibilities than the workers who are not.

If women become less visibly present at a faster rate than men, their efforts are less likely to be recognised and they are more likely to be excluded from tasks and roles that enhance their promotion prospects.

Unless attitudes change, this downside of working from home is likely to become more apparent for women.

Mark Wooden is Director of the HILDA Survey project which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. He also receives funding from the US National Institutes of Health which is supporting a research grant on the effects of COVID-19 and COVID-19 mitigation policies.

Esperanza Vera-Toscano is employed in HILDA Survey project which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. She also works on the project funded by the US National Institutes of Health on the effects of COVID-19 and COVID-19 mitigation policies.

Inga Lass 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. HILDA finds working from home boosts women’s job satisfaction more than men’s, and that has a downside – https://theconversation.com/hilda-finds-working-from-home-boosts-womens-job-satisfaction-more-than-mens-and-that-has-a-downside-195641

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Blazevich, Professor of Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University

If you’ve been watching the World Cup, you might have marvelled at the physical fitness and skill of these elite players.

How can they run and run and run for so long? What makes them so good at speedy changes of direction? Biomechanically, is there a certain body type that is perfect for football?

Of course, much of the brilliant play is down to natural talent combined with years of very hard training and practise. But there are certainly some physical features that help a lot when it comes to being able to play football at this level.

Read more:
VAR and peace? Why tech-assisted refereeing won’t do away with disputed decisions at the World Cup

Different features for different positions

There’s no one single perfect body type for this sport; much depends on what position you play.

A central defender, for example, might benefit from a bit of extra height so they can defend against aerial balls in the box.

Midfielders, on the other hand, head the ball less often but need a lot of agility and to run astonishing distances in the game – most will cover more than 10 kilometres, with sprints and direction changes common. That’s where having lighter body mass really helps, and that means not being too tall. When you are tall – even if you are skinny – you weigh more, so being very tall can be a disadvantage for these players.

And being shorter means that our centre of mass is lower, so we have more stability and better balance. That makes technical skills with the ball easier to perform and it makes swiftly changing direction easier too.

There is one fairly consistent physical feature across footballers, which seems to be similar across male and female players: an ability to run and run.

They need to have a big engine, so they are physiologically strong in terms of heart and lungs. In a running test, these players will show up with a very high VO₂ max (a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use while exercising).
They will also have a high lactate threshold, which means their bodies can cope with high intensity effort for long periods of time.

All this adds up to what we call good repeat sprint ability. That means they can run, then recover, then run, then recover, and so on and so on. Don’t forget, they do spend some time standing or walking, so it’s the repeated effort to go from low intensity to maximum intensity over and over that necessitates this big engine.

Lighter upper body, strong lower body

Football players in general are not stocky like, say, rugby players. But while the upper body tends to be fairly light (which saves on mass and helps with speed), they do generally have quite big, strong legs.

That’s because changing direction rapidly – and to accelerate and decelerate almost instantly – takes quite a lot of force. You need muscly legs to do that.

Having a large upper body, on the other hand, would be mostly downside with little upside. There’s no significant requirement for upper body strength in this sport, so if want to increase speed and endurance, you need to maintain a lighter upper body mass. They are not training to get really big in the upper body.

They also generally have very low body fat levels as they need a lighter body mass to run, jump and accelerate.

What about the goalkeeper?

One position that does benefit greatly from height is the goalkeeper. The Australian goalkeeper, Mark Schwarzer, used his 1.95 metres frame to great advantage. And most elite goalkeepers stand taller than 1.85 metres.

The job of the ‘keeper is to leap vertically and laterally. Having long legs can help the ‘keeper to jump higher and further because they can push off over a larger distance during the jump. And having long arms helps with reach to tip or catch the ball. So being tall can be a real advantage.

All in all, these players are well built to produce elite performances at the highest levels of the game. While years of hard training has surely contributed to their success, they might also thank their parents for the genes they received too.

Read more:
Why Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal is priceless — and unforgettable

Anthony Blazevich 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. World Cup: what body type works best for football? A professor of biomechanics explains – https://theconversation.com/world-cup-what-body-type-works-best-for-football-a-professor-of-biomechanics-explains-195813

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney

The Albanese government proposes to ditch the “Yes/No” case pamphlets that are ordinarily posted to voters before a referendum. Is this a good idea, and what, if anything, should replace it?

What changes are proposed?

Under the existing law, after a proposed constitutional amendment is passed by parliament, a majority of MPs who voted for it may prepare a written Yes case of up to 2,000 words. If any members voted against it in parliament, they can prepare the official No case.

Before the referendum, the electoral commissioner sends a pamphlet in the mail to every voter. This includes the Yes case and the No case (if one has been provided) as well as a copy of the proposed changes to be made to the Constitution. This is the only official information given to voters to help them decide how to vote in the referendum.

The Commonwealth government is currently prohibited from otherwise spending money on the presentation of arguments for or against a referendum proposal.

In its Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022, the Albanese government intends to “disapply” the relevant section so it ceases to operate until the next general election. The effect would be that there would be no official Yes/No case distributed to voters for any referendum held in this term of parliament, and no legal restriction on government spending on the referendum campaign.

Read more:
Creating a constitutional Voice – the words that could change Australia

What is the point of the Yes/No case?

The Yes/No case pamphlet was first required by a law enacted in 1912. It was introduced due to a concern that the previous referendum had failed because the voters were inadequately informed.

Opposition Leader Alfred Deakin, who had opposed the previous referendum, was nonetheless supportive of introducing better public education on referendums. He argued:

It is our duty, when we ask the electors to vote for or against momentous proposals of this kind, to give them the best material we have in order that they may form an independent judgment.

The attorney-general of the day, Billy Hughes, had a rather naïve expectation of how the Yes/No case would be used. He said:

Honourable Members may put their case before the public, provided that it is put in an impersonal, reasonable, and judicial way. There is to be no imputation of motives. In short, the argument is to be one which appeals to the reason rather than to the emotions and party sentiments.

This is not how things have turned out. In fact, the Yes/No case, because it is prepared by political partisans, is often misleading and emotive, particularly on the No side.

The No case and the aviation referendum

A good example is the 1937 referendum on giving the Commonwealth parliament power to legislate on aviation. When the Constitution was first being written, the Wright brothers had not yet flown a plane. So there was nothing in it about making laws to govern aviation in Australia.

The consequence was that federal laws applied to flights in and out of Australia and some interstate flights, but not to planes flying within a state. This was inefficient and potentially dangerous, so a referendum was held to give the Commonwealth full power over aviation in 1937. Despite it logically being the type of thing that should be dealt with on a national basis, the referendum was lost.

The No case had argued the expansion of aviation would compete with and ruin the state railway systems. It would make railway workers unemployed and bankrupt country towns. The price of food would sky-rocket, because the cost of freight would be higher and the finances of every state government would be endangered.

These claims were highly exaggerated and had nothing to do with whether the Commonwealth or the states should regulate aviation. But it was enough to make some people worried and so vote No.

It is, of course, difficult to attribute referendum outcomes to the inflammatory and misleading content of the Yes/No cases, as most people don’t read them. But some will, and the official nature of the document will give its contents greater credence than they deserve.

Read more:
Changing the Australian Constitution is not easy. But we need to stop thinking it’s impossible

Referendum pamphlets in New South Wales

In contrast, in New South Wales the practice has been to have public servants, not politicians, write the pamphlet that is sent to voters prior to a referendum. The public servants are required to do so in a factually accurate and impartial manner. Before publishing the pamphlet, they send it to acknowledged experts for vetting to ensure it is accurate and a fair explanation of the issues.

The success rate of New South Wales referendums is much higher than that at the Commonwealth level. If you count state-wide referendums to amend the New South Wales Constitution where voters were given a binary Yes/No choice, then the success rate is 85%. This can be compared with the Commonwealth success rate of 18%. While other factors will also have been in play, providing voters with informative and accurate material rather than inflammatory and misleading material is likely to have helped at the state level.

What replaces the Yes/No case?

While the Yes/No case in its current form has not proved the reasonable and informative tool that was intended by Hughes, a question remains as to what should replace it. If there is no officially sanctioned information, then this just leaves open a free-for-all on social media with even more misleading material circulating. There surely needs to be at least one source of authoritative information to which people can turn.

The government has said it proposes to fund educational campaigns to promote voters’ understanding of referendums and the referendum proposal. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has stated the bill will “enable funding of educational initiatives to counter misinformation”.

The difficulty facing the government will be working out how this can be done in a way that maintains public confidence and is not seen to be partisan in nature.

The intention behind this change is a worthy one. The Yes/No case has long been recognised as a failed experiment. But the successful execution of the government’s educative proposals will be difficult and need great care.

Anne Twomey has received funding from the Australian Research Council and been a consultant to Parliaments, Governments and inter-governmental bodies. She is a director of Constitution Education Fund Australia (CEFA) which engages in constitutional education initiatives. It is possible that CEFA or its materials might be used in any education campaign. Anne Twomey also has her own constitutional education YouTube channel, Constitutional Clarion.

– ref. The government will not send out Yes and No case pamphlets ahead of the Voice to Parliament referendum. Does this matter? – https://theconversation.com/the-government-will-not-send-out-yes-and-no-case-pamphlets-ahead-of-the-voice-to-parliament-referendum-does-this-matter-195806

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Burgin, Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Swinburne University of Technology

ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shane Drumgold today announced that the charges against Bruce Lehrmann, the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019, have been withdrawn.

An earlier jury had been dismissed resulting in a mistrial, after an academic research paper relating to sexual assault was found in the jury room. Jurors are forbidden from doing their own research, as each case must be decided only on the evidence presented in court. A retrial had been ordered by the court to begin in February.

Decisions to prosecute

There are two tests the DPP must consider in determining whether or not to prosecute a case.

First, based on the evidence, are there reasonable prospects of conviction? In the Lehrmann case, the DPP has determined – and maintains – there are reasonable prospects for a conviction for the charge of sexual intercourse without consent – an offence other states call rape.

If this first test is met, the DPP must then determine whether proceeding with prosecution is in the public interest. It is this second test the DPP referred to when announcing the decision not to proceed with the retrial.

This “public interest test” is complex, and there are countless factors to be considered in making a determination. It is, for example, certainly in the public interest to pursue sexual offences, given the prevalence of sexual violence in the community.

However, this cannot be the only basis on which the decision is made. The DPP specifically referred to a section of the ACT Prosecution Policy (which outlines these tests) that states consideration should be given to “the actual or potential harm occasioned to any person as a result of the alleged offence”. He continued that this required him to consider the harm that could be caused to a survivor in pursuing prosecution.

Speaking specifically about Brittany Higgins, he said he had received independent evidence from two medical professionals, which made it clear the “ongoing trauma associated with this prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk to the life of the complainant”.

The risk to Higgins’ life means prosecution is not in the public interest.

Courtroom trauma

This decision would not have been made lightly, and almost certainly, would have been made in consultation with Higgins. Her friend released a statement on her behalf calling the last few years “difficult and unrelenting”. Higgins is seeking mental health treatment in hospital.

Today’s decision brings into public view the effect on complainants of reporting and pursuing sexual violence cases. The justice system caused more harm to a person who was reporting a crime within their rights.

During the first trial, the defence consistently shifted focus away from the actions of the accused, onto those of Higgins – a typical tactic in rape trials. The prosecution, for its part, encouraged the jury to centre its attention on Lehrmann – on the inconsistencies in his own statements and whether he was reckless to the issue of consent.

This is not new. Decades of research confirms victim-survivors experience the justice system as retraumatising. This is, at least in part, because of the role rape myths play in criminal rape trials.

Rape myths refer to widely held, hard-to-change and incorrect views about rape, survivors, and those who commit the crime. They inform society’s response to sexual violence – including that of the criminal justice system.

Victim-survivors are asked about what they did to resist an assault, whether they flirted with the accused, drank alcohol, had previously consented to sex with the accused or another person, or whether they might have a “motive” to lie about rape.

This is exactly what law reform is focused on changing, including through the introduction of affirmative consent standards that require active communication of willingness to engage in a sexual act.

Read more:
NSW adopts affirmative consent in sexual assault laws. What does this mean?

But this questioning is designed to encourage the jury to draw on rape myths, including about the truthfulness of rape allegations, based on the premise that such allegations are easily made and difficult to defend.

In reality, the opposite is true – most people who experience rape never report to the police. And for those who do, convictions are rare.

In effect, these trial practices put the complainant on trial, and we certainly saw this happen to Higgins.

Trial by media

For Higgins, the experience extended far beyond the courtroom, to a “trial by media”.

Over the course of the trial, including multiple days of intrusive cross-examination about her every action in the days, weeks and months before and after the night in question, the media relentlessly reported on her every word. And, of course, photographers were on hand to capture a snap of her as she left each evening.

The media focus was on Higgins. Defence assertions likening Higgins to a “con artist”, calling her “unreliable”, and statements characterising her evidence as “lies” have been featured across news headlines. But statements by legal counsel are not evidence, nor are the questions put to any witness during a trial. Yet they were repeated in the media, often uncritically.

This type of reporting lends legitimacy to rape myths, particularly the notion that a rape trial is “her word against his”. This isn’t true in a case that started with a witness list of 58 names.

This is also hardly in line with the principles of due process. For Lehrmann, inappropriate media reporting, prompted by Lisa Wilkinson’s ill-considered Logies acceptance speech and equally ill-advised reporting of the speech in the days that followed, threatened his right to the presumption of innocence. This forced a delay of the trial to protect his rights.

For Higgins though, apparently no such rights apply. Instead, a criminal justice system that is not fit for purpose and a media storm more interested in the scandal, both bolstered by a community that readily consumed and regurgitated sexist victim-blaming narratives, saw the charges dropped.

Read more:
Why was the Brittany Higgins trial delayed, and what is ‘contempt of court’? A legal expert’s view on the Lisa Wilkinson saga

Impact on survivors

Ignoring sexual violence in the media isn’t the answer – change rarely comes out of darkness. But we do need to respect the dignity and privacy of victim-survivors.

The spectacle of the Lehrmann case doesn’t just affect those involved. The impacts will be felt far beyond.

For the one in five women and one in 20 men in Australia who experience sexual violence in their lifetime, this view into the criminal justice system and into the reporting of sexual violence has sent a clear message – in Australia, it’s the survivors on trial.

Read more:
Making change, making history, making noise: Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club

Rachael Burgin receives funding from Family Safety Victoria. She is the CEO of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA).

– ref. Lehrmann trial discontinued: when prosecution isn’t in the public interest – https://theconversation.com/lehrmann-trial-discontinued-when-prosecution-isnt-in-the-public-interest-192495

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of Adelaide

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles – Chantal Akerman’s 1975 hypnotic study of a mother performing domestic chores in microscopic detail – has just been crowned the “greatest film of all time” in Sight and Sound’s prestigious poll.

It is only the fourth film to have topped the list since polling began, and the first directed by a woman.

The full list of 100 films was published today, with the top ten:

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
4. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
5. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
8. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
9. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
10. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)

If you are looking for a crash-course in film history, this is not a bad place to start.

How did we get here?

Once a decade since 1952, the British Film Institute’s magazine Sight and Sound has polled filmmakers, critics, curators and programmers from around the world, asking them to name their ten best films ever made.

In the film world, this is the list that counts.

It is collated by the industry itself, its rankings are a barometer of changing movie-going tastes, and the ten year wait between each announcement cements its reputation.

Polling began in June this year and everyone is sworn to secrecy. Mike Williams, the editor of Sight and Sound, has spoken about the magazine’s “credibility, authority, and an international reputation that’s second to none”.

The first winner in 1952 was Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948), the masterpiece of Italian neorealism. In the five polls from 1962 to 2002, the winner remained the same: Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ 1941 debut.

Kane’s status as the “greatest” was consistently reinforced by directors and critics who admired Welles’ authorial single-mindedness, his chutzpah and his daring dismantling of Hollywood’s rules about storytelling and visual composition.

Citizen Kane was finally dethroned in 2012 by Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 twisted tale of obsession and betrayal.

Vertigo’s gradual rise up the list (it first appeared in 1982, and finished only 34 votes behind Kane in 2002) reflected cinema’s ongoing recognition of Hitchcock as an artist. As the critic Roger Ebert wrote at the time, “The king is dead. Long live the king.”

Read more:
The great movie scenes: Hitchcock’s Vertigo

As a film historian, it is fascinating to track the performances of some of cinema’s most beloved and esteemed films.

Casablanca (1942), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Gone With the Wind (1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) – for some, the apex of Hollywood’s expertise – have never made it anywhere near the top of the list.

The poll’s reluctance to embrace popular genres like musicals, comedies and westerns is reflected in the fact that only Singin’ in the Rain (1952), The General (1926) and The Searchers (1956) have ever appeared in the top ten.

But Hollywood has never dominated the list. To Sight and Sound’s credit, this is a global poll, with voices, opinions and perspectives canvassed from across the world cinema ecosystem. In 2012, a total of 2,045 different films received at least one mention.

The list is always eclectic and international. The Rules of the Game (1939, France) has appeared in every poll until this year, along with the likes of Tokyo Story (1953, Japan), L’Avventura (1960, Italy) and Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Russia).

So what does the new poll tell us?

In 2022, there are more contributors than ever before – 1,600 industry insiders, up from 846 back in 2012.

Apart from the new winner, this broader church has not shifted the results in any meaningful way. Vertigo, Citizen Kane and Tokyo Story are still ranked two, three and four.

But a generational shift is taking place. New critics have emerged over the past decade and this is reflected in their choices: the masterpieces by Wong Kar-Wai, Kubrick and Lynch have all moved up in the rankings.

The new poll has also skewed towards “newer” films for the first time. In 2012, there were no films on the list made in the preceding decade. This year’s list includes Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Moonlight (2016), Parasite (2019) and Get Out (2017), alongside other relatively new additions The Gleaners and I (2000), Spirited Away (2001) and Tropical Malady (2004).

Read more:
Get Out: why racism really is terrifying

What is even more exciting is a direct challenge to what might be seen as the film industry’s herd mentality.

For years, the same films have been reconfirmed as the only ones worth talking about. The 2022 poll smashes open this echo chamber, recognising not just Akerman, but also Claire Denis, whose majestic Beau Travail (1999) makes its first appearance at number seven and Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) at 14.

Read more:
Agnès Varda, a pioneering artist who saw the extraordinary in the ordinary

Francophone female directors, it seems, are currently at the vanguard of great cinema.

But what will happen in 2032? Will Jeanne Dielman stand the test of time? Is there a film that hasn’t been made yet that will make an appearance in the top ten? Unlikely, given that there is usually at least a 20-year lag between a film’s release and its appearance on the list.

With this year’s list, we learned it takes time for a film to enter the critical consciousness and to reveal its stylistic intricacies or narrative pleasures.

We have just been reminded that the classics will always appear on polls and lists because, well, they are classic. They display craft, precision, elegance and emotional depth. They resonate down the decades, and they are the films that many of us – from world-famous directors to armchair critics – turn to again and again.

In the meantime, go and watch Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and see what all the fuss is about.

Ben McCann 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 ‘greatest film of all time’: Chantal Akerman’s win shows a generational shift is taking place among critics and filmmakers – https://theconversation.com/the-greatest-film-of-all-time-chantal-akermans-win-shows-a-generational-shift-is-taking-place-among-critics-and-filmmakers-195437

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Divya Narain, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland

In 2017, scientists described a new species of great apes – the Tapanuli orangutan. The species, found in the Batang Toru ecosystem of North Sumatara, Indonesia was listed as critically endangered soon after.

The population of the species has declined by 83% over the past 75 years, largely due to hunting and habitat loss. Just 800 Tapanuli orangutans remain – and their last known habitat is threatened by a slew of infrastructure projects.

Chief among them is the Chinese-funded Batang Toru hydropower dam, which threatens to fragment and submerge a large chunk of the orangutan’s habitat. The project is just one of a staggering 49 hydropower dams China is funding: mostly across Southeast Asia, but also in Africa and Latin America.

In new research, my colleagues and I show the substantial risk to biodiversity posed by the sheer number of Chinese-funded dams. And yet, environmental regulation of these projects has serious flaws.

Big dams, big risks

Hydropower is expected to be an important part of the global renewable energy transition. But the technology brings environmental risks. Dams disrupt the flow of rivers, altering species’ habitat. And dam reservoirs inundate and fragment habitats on land.

Traditionally, financing of hydropower projects in low-income countries was the preserve of Western-backed multilateral development banks. China has now emerged as the biggest international financier of hydropower under its overseas infrastructure investment program, the Belt and Road Initiative.

Yet little is known about the scale of China’s hydropower financing or the biodiversity risks it brings. Whether adequate safeguards are applied to the projects by Chinese and host country regulators is also poorly understood. Our research attempted to remedy this.

We found China is funding 49 hydropower dams in 18 countries including Myanmar, Laos and Pakistan.

The dams are likely to impede the flow of 14 free-flowing rivers, imperilling the species they harbour. The first dam on a free-flowing river is akin to the proverbial “first cut” of a road into an intact forest ecosystem, causing disproportionate harms to biodiversity.

We also found Chinese-funded dams overlap with the geographic ranges of 12 critically endangered freshwater fish species, including the iconic Mekong Giant Catfish and the world’s largest carp species, the Giant Barb. The dams exacerbate the threats to these species and may push them closer to extinction.

Almost 135 square kilometres of critical habitat on land is also likely to be inundated and fragmented by the dams and their reservoirs.

Read more:
The hydropower industry is talking the talk. But fine words won’t save our last wild rivers

Lax environmental rules

Despite the biodiversity risks, we found serious gaps in the environmental rules applied to Chinese-funded dams.

A previous analysis found six Chinese state-owned banks – which together contribute most financing for Belt and Road projects – had no safeguard standards to limit biodiversity damage.

Complementing this analysis, our investigation found Chinese regulators also did not require hydropower projects to mitigate environmental damage. Some regulator policies, however, contained non-binding guidelines.

A number of Chinese government policies defer to host country laws on environmental protection. But our investigation found in most countries where the dams are being built, regulation to limit environmental harms was absent or still developing.

This poor governance leaves species and ecosystems in these countries vulnerable to environmental damage from dams.

A spotlight on Sumatra

The Batang Toru dam aims to bolster North Sumatra’s energy supplies. Its proponents say the dam uses environmentally-friendly technology that requires only a small area to be flooded.

Two multilateral development banks, however, distanced themselves from the project after concerns were raised about potential impact on the Tapanuli orangutan. The Chinese state-owned Bank of China also withdrew its finance offer after international protests. Chinese financier SDIC Power Holdings then stepped in to fund it.

Habitat destruction has confined the few remaining Tapanuli orangutans to a fragmented 1,400 square kilometre tract of rainforest in North Sumatra. Scientists say the Batang Toru dam further threatens this habitat.

Constructing the dam requires digging a tunnel in an area where most Tapanuli orangutans live. Experts also say the project will permanently isolate sub-populations of the species, increasing the risk of extinction.

The case illustrates the potential destruction hydropower projects can cause in the absence of appropriate planning and safeguards.

Read more:
Orangutans: could ‘half-Earth’ conservation save the red ape?

Need for holistic planning

The sheer number of Chinese-funded dams presents significant biodiversity risks. It also presents an opportunity.

China is funding several hydropower projects in single river basins. This puts it in an advantageous position to carry out “basin-scale planning”.

This involves making decisions about dams not based solely on an individual project, but by considering it in the context of other projects within the basin, as well as in the broader context of communities and the environment.

This type of planning also means dams can be configured to have the least impact on critically endangered species, and other irreplaceable and vulnerable biodiversity elements.

Such “system scale” planning is a key recommendation of international initiatives such as the World Commission on Dams and the European Union’s Water Framework Directive.

It also involves determining whether a proposed dam is the best way to meet energy needs, or if alternatives – such as wind or solar – could do so with lower environmental risks.

In the case of the Batang Toru dam, a 2020 report by a leading international consulting firm found the dam would not “materially improve access to nor the regularity of power supply” in North Sumatra, which in fact had a power surplus.

Given the huge damage dams can cause to biodiversity, it is crucial that only those dams that are really needed get built – and any associated damage is minimised.

The many Chinese-funded dams on the horizon must undergo rigorous vetting if serious biodiversity damage is to be averted.

Read more:
Why conservation areas are not living up to their potential in Indonesia

Divya Narain 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 China-backed dam in Indonesia threatens a rare great ape – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg – https://theconversation.com/a-china-backed-dam-in-indonesia-threatens-a-rare-great-ape-and-thats-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-192615

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

The plan for a second trial of Bruce Lehrmann has been dropped after expert medical advice warned it posed a “significant and unacceptable risk” to Brittany Higgins’ life.

The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, announced the decision in a statement at 10am Friday. He also condemned in the strongest terms the attacks Higgins has had to endure.

She is currently in hospital.

Higgins, a former Liberal staffer, alleged Lehrmann, then a fellow staffer, raped her in the office of then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in 2019. The pair had returned to the parliament house office after a night out drinking. Lehrmann denied the allegation.

The latest development follows the abandonment of an earlier trial after it was found a juror had done their own research, against the explicit and repeated instructions of the judge. Another trial had been due to start early in the new year.

Drumgold said in his statement there were two considerations under ACT policy in deciding whether to continue a prosecution: whether there was a reasonable prospect of a conviction and, if so, if it were in the public interest to proceed.

In June he had “formed a clear view that there was a reasonable prospect of conviction and this is a view that I still hold to date”, he said.

But under the public interest test he had to consider “the harm that could be occasioned to a party, particularly a complainant, from an ongoing prosecution”.

He had now received “compelling evidence from two independent medical experts that the ongoing trauma associated with this prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk to the life” of Higgins.

“The evidence makes it clear that this is not limited to the harm of giving evidence in a witness box, rather applies whether or not the complainant is required to enter a witness box during a retrial.

“Whilst the pursuit of justice is essential for both my office and for the community in general, the safety of a complainant in a sexual assault matter must be paramount,” Drumgold said.

“In light of the compelling independent medical opinion and balancing all factors, I have made the difficult decision that it is no longer in the public interest to pursue a prosecution at the risk of the complainant’s life.”

This had left him with no option but not to proceed with a retrial.

Drumgold also delivered an exceptionally strong condemnation of the treatment to which Higgins had been subjected.

“During the investigation and trial as a sexual assault complainant, Ms Higgins has faced a level of personal attack that I have not seen in over 20 years of doing this work.

“She has done so with bravery, grace and dignity and it is my hope that this will now stop and Ms Higgins will be allowed to heal.”

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. Lehrmann retrial abandoned because of ‘a significant and unacceptable risk’ to Brittany Higgins’ life – https://theconversation.com/lehrmann-retrial-abandoned-because-of-a-significant-and-unacceptable-risk-to-brittany-higgins-life-195805

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Lowke, Adjunct Research Professor of Physics, University of South Australia

Everyone has seen lightning and marvelled at its power. But despite its frequency – about 8.6 million lightning strikes occur worldwide every day – why lightning proceeds in a series of steps from the thundercloud to the earth below has remained a mystery.

There are a few textbooks on lightning, but none have explained how these “zigzags” (called steps) form, and how lightning can travel over kilometres. My new research provides an explanation.

The intense electrical fields in thunderclouds excite electrons to have enough energy to create what are known as “singlet delta oxygen molecules”. These molecules and electrons build up to create a short, highly conducting step, which lights up intensely for a millionth of a second.

At the end of the step, there is a pause as the build-up happens again, followed by another bright, flashing leap. The process is repeated again and again.

An increase in extreme weather events means lightning protection is increasingly important. Knowing how a lightning strike is initiated means we can work out how to better protect buildings, aeroplanes and people. Also, while the use of environmentally friendly composite materials in aircraft is improving fuel efficiency, these materials increase the risk of lightning damage, so we need to look at additional protection.

What leads up to a lightning strike?

Lightning strikes happen when thunderclouds with an electric potential of millions of volts are connected to the earth. A current of thousands of amps flows between the ground and the sky, with a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees.

Photographs of lightning reveal a host of details not observed by the naked eye. Usually there are four or five faint “leaders” coming from the cloud. These are branched and zigzag on an irregular path towards the earth.

The first of these leaders to reach the earth initiates the lightning strike. The other leaders are then extinguished.

Fifty years ago, high-speed photography revealed still more complexity. The leaders progress downwards from the cloud in “steps” about 50 metres long. Each step becomes bright for a millionth of a second, but then there is almost complete darkness. After a further 50 millionths of a second another step forms, at the end of the preceding step, but the previous steps remain dark.

Why are there such steps? What is happening in the dark periods between steps? How can the steps be electrically connected to the cloud with no visible connection?

The answers to these questions lie in understanding what happens when an energetic electron hits an oxygen molecule. If the electron has enough energy, it excites the molecule into the singlet delta state. This is a “metastable” state, which means it is not perfectly stable – but it usually doesn’t fall into a lower energy state for 45 minutes or so.

Oxygen in this singlet delta state detaches electrons (required for electricity to flow) from negative oxygen ions. These ions are then replaced almost immediately by electrons (which carry a negative charge) again attaching to oxygen molecules. When more than 1% of the oxygen in the air is in the metastable state, the air can conduct electricity.

So the lightning steps occur as enough of the metastable states are created to detach a significant number of electrons. During the dark part of a step, the density of metastable states and electrons is increasing. After 50 millionths of a second, the step can conduct electricity – and the electrical potential at the tip of the step increases to approximately that of the cloud, and produces a further step.

The excited molecules created in previous steps form a column all the way to the cloud. The whole column is then electrically conducting, with no requirement of an electric field and little emission of light.

Protecting people and property

The understanding of lightning formation is important for the design of protection for buildings, aircraft and also people. While it is rare for lightning to hit people, buildings are hit many times – especially tall and isolated ones.

When lightning hits a tree, sap inside the tree boils and the resulting steam creates pressure, splitting open the trunk. Similarly, when lightning hits the corner of a building, water from rain that has seeped into the concrete boils. The pressure blasts off the whole corner of the building, creating the risk of deadly collapses.

A lightning rod invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 is basically a thick fencing wire attached to the top of a building and connected to the ground. It is designed to attract lightning and earth the electric charge. By directing the flow through the wire, it saves the building from being damaged.

These Franklin rods are required for tall buildings and churches today, but the uncertain factor is how many are needed on each structure.

Furthermore, hundreds of structures are not protected, including shelter sheds in parks. These structures are often made from highly conductive galvanized iron, which itself attracts lightning, and supported by wooden posts.

The new version of Standards Australia for lightning protection recommends such shelters be earthed.

Dr John Lowke was a member of the Standards Australia committee that recommended the change to lightning protection standards.

– ref. Why does lightning zigzag? At last, we have an answer to the mystery – https://theconversation.com/why-does-lightning-zigzag-at-last-we-have-an-answer-to-the-mystery-195549

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Moore, Professor, School of Engineering and Technology, CQUniversity Australia

The European Space Agency made history last week with the announcement of the first “parastronaut”, 41-year-old UK citizen John McFall.

He is the first candidate selected for the Parastronaut Feasibility project, described by ESA as a “serious, dedicated and honest attempt to clear the path to space for a professional astronaut with a physical disability”.

McFall, a former Paralympic sprinter, had his right leg amputated after a motorcycle accident at age 19.

Most of us are familiar with images of gruelling astronaut selection tests and training from movies such as The Right Stuff. ESA seeks to answer the practical question of what changes to training and equipment need to be made for a physically disabled person to travel to space.

How are astronauts selected?

NASA first selected astronauts, the Mercury Seven, in 1959. Recruitment was limited to male military test pilots less than 40 years old, in excellent physical and mental health, and less than 1.8m tall (the Mercury capsule was tiny).

Today, NASA uses a similar basic eligibility screening. Applicants must have 20/20 vision (corrective lenses and laser eye surgery are okay) with blood pressure under 140/90 when seated and a height between 1.49 and 1.93m (to fit available spacesuits).

However, this is the easy part. Candidates endure several rounds of interviews and testing, and if lucky enough to be selected will need to pass the long-duration flight astronaut physical. It’s a gruelling week-long test of physical abilities necessary for space, such as agility and hand-eye coordination, as well as tolerance of extreme pressure and inertial (rotating) environments.

This is followed by a two-year training period mastering complex space hardware and software, performing simulated EVAs (spacewalks) in Houston’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and experiencing weightlessness during parabolic flight.

Read more:
Australia just flew its own ‘vomit comet’. It’s a big deal for zero-gravity space research

Although I have described the NASA process here, similar programs are used across space agencies. Determining what adaptations to training are required to allow participation by physically disabled candidates will be one outcome of the parastronaut project.

Astronaut diversity is improving

Culturally, astronaut selection criteria have slowly evolved since the first all-male, all-military cohorts. The first female (and civilian) in space, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, flew on the Vostok 6 capsule in 1963.

It was another 15 years before NASA selected female astronauts, and a further five before Sally Ride became the first US woman in space aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983. The first NASA astronaut of colour, Guion “Guy” Bluford, flew in the same year.

The 2021 NASA astronaut class of ten candidates, Group 23, included four women and several candidates from culturally diverse backgrounds.

It would appear that diversity in astronaut selection has lagged behind society, and ESA has made a bold step with the parastronaut project.

Levelling the playing field

ESA has initially focused on candidates with a lower-limb disability. Astronauts primarily use their upper body to get around in weightlessness, and a lower-limb disability is unlikely to impair movement. In this respect, zero-g presents a level playing field.

Issues are likely to arise when operating existing space hardware. The parastronaut study aims to determine what modifications to launch vehicles, spacesuits and other space systems would be necessary to allow a physically disabled astronaut to live and work in space.

There is precedent for an astronaut with a progressively disabling condition flying in space. NASA astronaut Rich Clifford was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1994 after noticing a lack of movement in his right arm when walking, shortly before his third scheduled shuttle flight.

NASA not only allowed him to launch aboard Atlantis in 1996 for his final mission, but scheduled Clifford for a six-hour EVA on the exterior of the Mir space station.

Although his experience was largely positive, Clifford did note he had difficulty donning his spacesuit due to limited motion of his right arm. The human-machine interface may present the biggest challenge for future parastronauts.

Space is still risky and extreme

In November 2021 we passed the milestone of 600 humans having gone to space. Compare that to the 674 million passengers who flew on US airlines in 2021 alone.

If we could travel back in time to when only 600 people had flown in aeroplanes, we would find the risk of flying considerably higher than today. This is where we are with spaceflight.

It remains a high-risk venture to an extreme environment with significant physical and mental challenges. We are still a long way from anyone being able to travel to space, although hopefully we won’t have to wait until billions of people have launched to reach a level of safety comparable to modern commercial aviation.

Our knowledge of the physical, mental and operational risks associated with spaceflight is still incomplete. Of the 600+ space travellers to date, only 70 have been female, and an understanding of gender difference in space health is only just beginning to emerge.

How would a physical disability affect an astronaut’s performance in space? We don’t know, but ESA is taking the first step in finding out. It would appear that space truly is the last frontier.

Steven Moore has received research funding from NASA and ESA.

– ref. The world finally has its first ‘parastronaut’. Can we expect anyone to be able to go to space one day? – https://theconversation.com/the-world-finally-has-its-first-parastronaut-can-we-expect-anyone-to-be-able-to-go-to-space-one-day-195566

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wilfred Yang Wang, Lecturer in Media & Communications Studies, The University of Melbourne

The recent Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories? report on diversity in Australian newsrooms revealed some grim, but unsurprising figures. The report found most television news and current affairs presenters on major Australian free-to-air networks are Anglo-Celtic. So too were most senior network news editors.

One part of this problem is a lack of representation of Asian people in Australian mainstream newsrooms.

Despite (or perhaps because of) this, ethnic media outlets have proved indispensable to Australia’s media landscape. For example, the first two years of the pandemic showed the crucial role ethnic media outlets can play keeping Australians informed in a crisis.

So what now? How can ethnic media be supported to continue to inform Australians, and how might mainstream media need to change to better serve these communities? Drawing on our research on Chinese and Sri Lankan communities in Australia, here are some possible paths ahead.

Read more:
How can we stop fake election news spreading in migrant communities?

Older migrants are online and looking for information

Our research focused on older people, who are often assumed to be not particularly active online. But that’s not the case.

Older Australians have embraced digital technologies and research has shown many older Asian migrants use digital media. This is certainly true among older members of Chinese and Sri Lankan communities we spoke with.

Our interviews with older Chinese and Sri Lankan migrants in Melbourne revealed nearly all had more than one digital device. Nearly all used social media to connect with friends and family in Australia and abroad.

Most didn’t get news and information from mainstream media outlets, with the exception of SBS’s in-language radio programs. But many didn’t know these programs also distribute news content on Facebook (in Sinhala and Chinese), WeChat (in Mandarin) and Telegram (in Cantonese). Our participants instead frequently accessed news from community Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups and WeChat news accounts.

During the early part of the pandemic, many actively sought news and health information about COVID through traditional and digital news platforms. But our participants reported it was ethnic community media that played a central role keeping these Australians informed. These included media outlets such as Today Media and YeeYi Australia on WeChat, and Sri Lankan online community news media outlets such as Pahana and Aus News Lanka on Facebook.

All our Sri Lankan interviewees spoke fluent English and used Facebook, but felt Australian mainstream media did not satisfy their news needs. Instead, they preferred media sources attuned to their cultural contexts, which often included narrative and storytelling forms of reportage.

The ABC and The Australian have started to offer news services in Chinese (ABC also has Indonesian and Pidgin). But they tend to distribute these daily news updates via Facebook and Twitter. None of our Chinese participants used these platforms. Both ABC and The Australian have WeChat accounts but they are not updated daily. Only SBS Mandarin uses WeChat to provide daily updates about news and current affairs.

A greater role

COVID serves as an example of the role ethnic media outlets can play in keeping Australians informed but it is far from the only challenge facing Australia.

Victoria’s recent flooding crisis, for example, saw culturally and linguistically diverse communities negatively impacted by the absence of good systems to communicate important information quickly.

In future, perhaps governments and other authorities could engage Chinese and Sri Lankan community and ethnic media organisations to produce and disseminate disaster materials in language. A lack of engagement with ethnic media risks fuelling distrust of Australian authorities and creates the conditions under which misinformation can flourish.

Government and disaster authorities could consider creating registers of locally-based ethnic language media outlets (both digital and non-digital). These outlets could be briefed and called upon to spread important information when disaster strikes.

Governments could also consider funding training for staff working in ethnic media. Training could cover issues such as ethics, journalism codes of conduct, Australian media law, and ways to collaborate with their colleagues working in mainstream media.

There’s a role to play for mainstream media too. These organisations and their journalists should consult closely with migrant cultural associations to enable culturally inclusive coverage and the distribution of content that’s relevant to these communities.

Finally, governments should have a systematic approach to collaborating with ethnic language media to provide accurate, timely and culturally and linguistically accessible content to diverse communities during major public incidents.

Read more:
Migrant communities keep our cemeteries alive as more Anglo-Australians turn to cremation

Wilfred Yang Wang is affiliated with Victorian Multicultural Commission, Knox Multicultural Advisory Committee and Centre for Holistic Health. This article is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Shashini Gamage has done consultancy work at the Australia Awards.

– ref. Ethnic community media can play a key role in a crisis – but it needs our support – https://theconversation.com/ethnic-community-media-can-play-a-key-role-in-a-crisis-but-it-needs-our-support-195193

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

The recent claim by Kim Jong Un that North Korea plans to develop the world’s most powerful nuclear force may well have been more bravado than credible threat. But that doesn’t mean it can be ignored.

The best guess is that North Korea now has sufficient fissile material to build 45 to 55 nuclear weapons, three decades after beginning its program. The warheads would mostly have yields of around 10 to 20 kilotons, similar to the 15 kiloton bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

But North Korea has the capacity to make devices ten times bigger. Its missile delivery systems are also advancing in leaps and bounds. The technological advance is matched in rhetoric and increasingly reckless acts, including test-firing missiles over Japan in violation of all international norms, provoking terror and risking accidental war.

The question now is how best to bring the pariah nation into the orbit of arms control negotiations and international dialogue. However remote the chances of that, the alternative risks a regional nuclear arms race.

A history of failure

The current impasse can be traced back to 1991 and the end of the Cold War. As part of its efforts to create a viable arms control treaty with the Soviet Union, the United States removed all nuclear weapons from South Korea.

This seemed sensible at the time, especially since North Korea had pledged itself to the cornerstone Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1985. This commits member states to arms control and reduction, with independent observers to monitor compliance.

Read more:
It’s time to take Kim Jong Un and his nuclear threats seriously

The faith was misplaced. From 1993, North Korea went on to trick or fool every US president and most of the international community for the next 30 years, quitting the NPT in 2003 and detonating its first nuclear explosion in 2006.

This so upset the global balance of power that all members of the UN Security Council agreed that North Korea had to stop developing nuclear warheads and associated missile delivery systems. Nine rounds of sanctions since 2006 have attempted to enforce this, to no avail.

Former US president Donald Trump was the last to try, inviting Kim Jong Un to open the North Korean economy and even pledging to end the joint military exercises in the south that aggravated him so much. Kim promised to “denuclearise” and then did nothing.

Influence of Russia and China

By the end of this decade, North Korea could have 200 devices, en route to Kim Jong Un’s vision of becoming a nuclear superpower. This would still be a lot fewer than those stockpiled by the US and Russia, which possess 90% of all nuclear weapons. But it would put North Korea on or above current estimates for Israel (90), India (160) or Pakistan (165), and into the middle league with Britain (225), France (“under 300”) and China (350).

The ideal solution would be for North Korea to sign the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – but we need to realistic. None of the other existing nuclear powers are signatories, and we now live in an age of nuclear upgrades and expansion.

The war in Ukraine has changed everything, its main lesson seemingly being that weapons of mass destruction are still strategically useful. Indeed, the Ukrainians are paying a price for having given up their nuclear stockpile in 1994 after Russia promised not to threaten or use force against Ukraine’s territorial integrity or political independence.

Even if additional sanctions might work, both Russia and China have only recently vetoed an attempt to impose tighter sanctions on North Korea over its missile launches. To underline their position, they also recently conducted military exercises inside the South Korean air defence zone.

Read more:
North Korea’s nuclear program is funded by stolen cryptocurrency. Could it collapse now that FTX has?

A regional arms race

All this raises a critical question: should the existing, ineffective sanctions be dropped in an effort to calm relations with North Korea and find a way forward? After all, there are precedents for eventual acceptance that countries have joined the nuclear club.

The US relented and dropped sanctions against India and Pakistan in 1999, despite both having never accepted the NPT. Nor has Israel, which has never even faced sanctions.

But for such a strategy to work, North Korea, India, Pakistan and Israel would need to become signatories to the NPT and its associated protocols. History suggests this isn’t a plausible option.

Three decades of non-compliance with international obligations by North Korea have not engendered trust or a willingness by surrounding countries to submit to a nuclear neighbour. More likely is a regional nuclear arms race, as happened when India got the bomb and Pakistan had to keep up, or when Israel triggered Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

South Korea, Japan and possibly even Taiwan are likely to follow suit, either asking to host US ballistic missiles or pursuing independent nuclear strategies – especially if they feel the US won’t defend them after the next presidential election.

None of this makes the world safer.

Alexander Gillespie 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. Kim Jong Un wants North Korea to be a nuclear superpower – the real risk is a regional arms race – https://theconversation.com/kim-jong-un-wants-north-korea-to-be-a-nuclear-superpower-the-real-risk-is-a-regional-arms-race-195726

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreea Lachsz, PhD Candidate, University of Technology Sydney

Content warning – this article discusses acts of violence, suicide, and deaths in custody.

Australia appeared before the United Nations Committee against Torture on November 15 and 16 2022. This UN body monitors compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Australia voluntarily signed up in 1989.

One of Australia’s obligations under the convention is to prepare a report for the committee every four years, and appear before the committee. The committee considered the report prepared by Australia, as well as information provided by civil society organisations such as the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The committee’s approach was to engage in constructive dialogue with the Australian government.

At the end of last week, the committee published its concluding observations, which provide guidance to Australia on both preventing torture and ill-treatment, and strengthening accountability mechanisms.

It noted work still lies ahead for Australia, particularly in relation to the continued over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, deaths in custody and raising the age of criminal responsibility.

Read more:
Dragging its feet on torture prevention: Australia’s international shame

What constitutes torture?

Under the convention, torture is defined as:

any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for […] obtaining […] information or a confession, punishing […] or intimidating or coercing […] or for any reason based on discrimination […] where the pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official.

Torture is much broader than those practices which often spring to mind, such as testimonials of waterboarding that have come out of Guantanamo Bay.

Importantly, while the committee does consider torture, it also considers cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, also prohibited under the convention.

First Nations deaths in custody

The committee noted the increase in deaths in custody, linked to increasing incarceration rates. It was particularly concerned that Australia should address the over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Australian delegation itself acknowledged “transformational change is required to reverse the trend” of ever-increasing incarceration rates.

Causes of death included “use of force, lack of health care and suicide”. The committee recommended all deaths in custody be “promptly, effectively and impartially investigated by an independent entity”. It also suggested reviews of current prison healthcare and prevention strategies for suicide and self-harm.

Improving conditions and treatment in places of detention

Australia appeared before the committee in the same week the Four Corners report Locking Up Kids was released. The report, examining the treatment of children in youth prisons, received national attention.

The UN committee was concerned about the use of solitary confinement, and reports children “are frequently subjected to verbal abuse and racist remarks, [and] restrained in ways that are potentially dangerous”. It called for prompt investigation of “all cases of abuse and ill-treatment of children in detention” and adequate sanctions for perpetrators.

The committee concluded Australia should raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from ten years old, something First Nations groups such as Change the Record have been campaigning on for years.

It also emphasised the need to alleviate the overcrowding of detention facilities, and said keeping someone in pre-trial detention (prior to them being found guilty of an offence) should only be used “in exceptional circumstances and for limited periods”.

Read more:
Locking up kids has serious mental health impacts and contributes to further reoffending

Further recommendations

The committee made detailed recommendations about current practices in Australia, including:

• medical services should be improved, as they are inadequate in many places. It referred to reports that prisons “lack the appropriate capacity, resources and infrastructure to manage serious mental health conditions”

• the use of spit hoods “in all circumstances across all jurisdictions” must end

• solitary confinement must be used “only in exceptional cases as a last resort for as short a time as possible,” and never for children

• strip searches must not be performed routinely and must be conducted “in a manner that respects […] dignity”

• restraints must be “used only as a last resort” to prevent harm to the individual or others. Use of force (including restraints) should not be used as a “means of coercion or to discipline children”

• tasers must be used “exclusively in extreme and limited situations”, “where there is a real and immediate threat to life or risk of serious injury”.

Preventing torture and ill-treatment

The committee expressed concerns with the delay in establishing and funding the Australian National Preventive Mechanism – bodies that visit places of detention. It noted the upcoming, extended deadline to meet this obligation under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, on January 20 2023.

The committee said it “deeply regrets” the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture had to suspend its Australia visit due to “insufficient cooperation” from Australia in providing access to sites and other means of cooperation.

The subcommittee has since invited Australia “to provide all necessary assurances to the Subcommittee in order for it to be able to resume its visit as soon as possible”.

With the committee’s concluding observations, Australia has been provided expert guidance on how to strengthen its compliance with the convention against torture. The road map has been drawn. All that’s left now is to follow it.

Read more:
Why has a UN torture prevention subcommittee suspended its visit to Australia?

Andreea Lachsz is currently contracted to the ACT government as the ACT National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) Coordination Director. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of ACT government, ACT NPM or any extant policy.

– ref. The UN committee against torture has found Australia still has work to do – https://theconversation.com/the-un-committee-against-torture-has-found-australia-still-has-work-to-do-195420

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben White, Professor of End-of-Life Law and Regulation, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology

Voluntary assisted dying will soon be an option for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory, now the Senate has just passed a landmark bill.

The passing of the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022 removes the key legal barrier for the ACT and NT to introduce their own voluntary assisted dying legislation, should they wish to do so.

This could see the territories join all six Australian states, which already have voluntary assisted dying legislation.

After extensive consultation, the ACT will introduce its voluntary assisted dying legislation, with debate expected in late 2023 or early 2024. The NT government has stated it has no plans to follow suit, at least during this parliamentary term.

Read more:
Voluntary assisted dying will soon be legal in all states. Here’s what’s just happened in NSW and what it means for you

The territories once led reform

Although the territories are now the only Australian jurisdictions without voluntary assisted dying laws, they once led reform in this area.

The ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to attempt to legalise assisted dying, although its 1993 Voluntary and Natural Death Bill failed to pass.

Shortly after, in 1995, the NT parliament passed the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act – the first operational voluntary assisted dying law, not only in Australia, but in the world.

However, it was the passing of this law that prompted the Commonwealth to remove the territories’ power to legislate in this field.

In 1997, the NT’s act was overturned by the Commonwealth parliament through the Euthanasia Laws Act, introduced by then Liberal backbencher Kevin Andrews. This act also aimed to prevent the territories passing such laws in the future.

The Commonwealth was only able to do this for the territories – not the states – because the Constitution gives the Commonwealth unlimited power to make laws “for the government of any territory”.

Nine previous bills aiming to restore territory rights on this issue have been introduced into the Commonwealth parliament, but all had failed, until now.

The ACT and NT can learn from the states

If the ACT and NT choose to legalise voluntary assisted dying, they must consider the evidence and data from states where voluntary assisted dying is operational. There is also an opportunity to select the best aspects from each state law.

For instance, for all states except Queensland, for a person to access voluntary assisted dying, they must be expected to die within six months (within 12 months for neurodegenerative conditions).

Given challenges with delays in getting through the system, the 12-month period adopted by Queensland, or not imposing a specific time limit until death, may allow more time for terminally ill people to navigate access.

Read more:
Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying scheme is challenging and complicated. Some people die while they wait

Similarly, all states require a person to live in the state for 12 months before requesting assistance to die. Now voluntary assisted dying is lawful throughout most of Australia, there is little need for this requirement.

The territories may choose to impose minimum legal obligations for how health-care and aged care facilities who do not participate in voluntary assisted dying handle such requests. This is the case in Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales.

The territories also may wish to allow eligible people to choose how the medication is administered – they can take it themselves or a health professional can administer it. This choice is permitted in NSW, whereas other states make self-administration the default method.

Read more:
What happens if you want access to voluntary assisted dying but your nursing home won’t let you?

What now for the rest of Australia?

Of the six states with voluntary assisted dying laws, those in Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania are already operational.

Queensland’s laws will start on January 1 2023, with SA following on January 31. NSW, the final state to pass its laws, will start on November 28.

Should the territories propose their own legislation, we’d anticipate wide consultation and debate.

With territories now permitted to decide this matter for themselves, there is a real prospect for them to have access to voluntary assisted dying in the foreseeable future.

Katherine Waller, Project Coordinator, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology, coauthored this article.

Ben White receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and Commonwealth and State Governments for research and training about the law, policy and practice relating to end-of-life care. In relation to voluntary assisted dying, he (with colleagues) has been engaged by the Victorian, Western Australian and Queensland Governments to design and provide the legislatively-mandated training for doctors involved in voluntary assisted dying in those States. He (with Lindy Willmott) has also developed a model Bill for voluntary assisted dying for parliaments to consider. Ben White is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project number FT190100410: Enhancing End-of-Life Decision-Making: Optimal Regulation of Voluntary Assisted Dying) funded by the Australian Government.

Katrine Del Villar has been involved in designing the legislatively-mandated training provided by the Western Australian and Queensland Governments for health practitioners involved in voluntary assisted dying.

Lindy Willmott receives or has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and Commonwealth and State Governments for research and training about the law, policy and practice relating to end-of-life care. In relation to voluntary assisted dying, she (with colleagues) has been engaged by the Victorian, Western Australian and Queensland Governments to design and provide the legislatively-mandated training for doctors involved in voluntary assisted dying in those States. She (with Ben White) has also developed a model Bill for voluntary assisted dying for parliaments to consider. Lindy Willmott has also been appointed to the Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board. She is a former Board member of Palliative Care Australia.

– ref. Territories free to make their own voluntary assisted dying laws, in landmark decision. Here’s what happens next – https://theconversation.com/territories-free-to-make-their-own-voluntary-assisted-dying-laws-in-landmark-decision-heres-what-happens-next-195291

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Loughran, Director Radiation Research and Advice (ARPANSA), and Adjunct Associate Professor (UOW), University of Wollongong

As summer approaches, we need to start remembering to slip on sun-protective clothing, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek shade where possible, and slide on sunglasses.

When it comes to sunscreen, we all know we need to wear it to protect against the harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can cause skin cancer.

But what about the sun protection factor, known as the SPF rating, we see on our sunscreen bottles? It indicates the level of protection – but is it always what it says it is, and how is it actually tested?

Risking human health for SPF testing

While there have been some cases of sunscreens not matching up to their SPF claims, this is the exception and not the norm.

In Australia, we can be comfortable knowing these products are tightly regulated to ensure they are safe and meet their claimed SPF rating, according to current SPF testing methods.

However, problems arise when it comes to how sunscreens are tested for their SPF rating. Most people would not be aware that the SPF value on their sunscreen bottles is determined by testing on humans.

Ultimately, this means we are risking people’s health to test how effective our sunscreens are – and we urgently need to change this.

How is sunscreen SPF tested?

Once a sunscreen formulation has been developed by a manufacturer it needs to go through testing to ensure it only contains approved ingredients, and ultimately, that it does what it says it does.

All sunscreen products available in Australia are tested according to the Australian Standard to determine the SPF. This is great and provides assurance of safety and quality for the consumer – but the problem is with how this testing is done.

Currently, testing sunscreens on humans is the approved international standard to rate the UV protection level of a sunscreen. This testing involves volunteers wearing strictly defined amounts of sunscreen and being exposed to artificial solar UV radiation.

Performance is measured by determining the time it takes for erythema or redness to occur. This is, basically, sunburn; based on this, an SPF rating is assigned.

Why is human testing of SPF a problem?

If sunscreens only contain approved ingredients we know are safe, is it really a problem they are tested on humans?

Sadly, yes. Human testing involves exposing people to harmful UV radiation, which we know can cause skin and eye damage, as well as being the leading cause of skin cancer. This alone is unethical and unjustifiable.

There are also other issues associated with testing sunscreen on humans. For example, the use of erythema to determine sunscreen effectiveness is highly subjective, and may differ from one person to another, even for those with the same skin type. This makes the reliability of such testing methods questionable.

Read more:
Human skin stood up better to the sun before there were sunscreens and parasols – an anthropologist explains why

Further, testing is only done on a small number of people (a minimum of ten people is required in Australia). This is great for exposing as few people as possible to harmful UV radiation to determine a product’s SPF rating – but not so great when it comes to inclusiveness.

Testing such a small number of people is not representative. It does not include all skin types and leads to real challenges in achieving reproducible results across different laboratories testing the same product.

The testing itself is also very expensive. This adds to the already high cost of buying sunscreens, and potentially limits manufacturers from developing new and better products.

These, along with many other issues, highlight the urgency for non-human (in vitro) testing methods of a sunscreen’s effectiveness to be developed.

Human-free SPF testing technology is in development

While efforts have been made to develop non-human testing methods, there remain several challenges. These include the materials used to simulate human skin (also known as substrates), difficulties in applying the sunscreen to these substrates, reproducibility of results, and ensuring that results are the same as what we see with human testing.

However, scientists at RMIT University, with support from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and the Cancer Council Victoria, are working on a solution to this problem.

So far, they have developed a prototype sensor that changes colour when exposed to UV radiation. This sensor could be customised for human-free sunscreen testing, for example.

Reliable in vitro testing methods will mean in the future, sunscreen manufacturers would be able to quickly make and test new and better sunscreens, without being limited by the time and cost constraints involved with human testing.

So the next time you buy a bottle of sunscreen, look to purchase the highest-rated sunscreen of SPF 50+ – and know that work is underway on getting that rating classified in a more ethical way.

Read more:
Are bananas really ‘radioactive’? An expert clears up common misunderstandings about radiation

Sarah Loughran receives funding from The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). She is the Director of Radiation Research and Advice at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA). She is is also currently a member of the Scientific Expert Group at the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

Sylvia Urban receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). She is a Professor in Chemistry and together with other colleagues in the School of Science, RMIT University, she is funded by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) on this project. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI), a member of the American Society of Chemistry (ACS) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

– ref. There’s a serious ethical problem with some sunscreen testing methods – and you’re probably not aware of it – https://theconversation.com/theres-a-serious-ethical-problem-with-some-sunscreen-testing-methods-and-youre-probably-not-aware-of-it-195359

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Arrow, Professor of History, Macquarie University

Amid the scale and sweep of the list of decisions made by the Whitlam government in their first week in office, most people remember the big changes: freeing all draft resisters from prison, or official recognition of Communist China.

The removal of the sales tax on the contraceptive pill, and adding it to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which came into effect on December 9 1972, is easily overlooked. Yet this reform was both symbolic and materially important. It signalled to Australian women that their new government would be much more responsive to their demands for reproductive rights and freedoms, and ushered in a wave of feminist reforms under the Whitlam government.

The popularity of the pill

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in January 1961 had brought the topic of contraception into the open in Australia. It was hailed as a reliable and convenient way for married couples to plan their families.

The pill also made an important contribution to the changing sexual climate of the late 1960s. By removing the fear of pregnancy, the pill helped to change women’s attitude towards sex. Concerns about side-effects, cost and availability deterred some women from taking it, but by the early 1970s, one in every four Australian women had a prescription.

Read more:
‘The relation between politics and culture is clear and real’: how Gough Whitlam centred artists in his 1972 campaign

However, many doctors refused to prescribe the pill to single women, and it remained out of reach to many working class women due to its cost. At the time, Australia had banned the advertising of contraceptives, and the sales taxes and tariffs applied to contraceptives added to their expense. As the Women’s Electoral Lobby liked to point out, the 27% sales tax on the pill was the same as that applied to mink coats.

Growing calls for reproductive rights

Given many women’s difficulties obtaining the pill, it is unsurprising that access to abortion became a significant political issue in the 1960s. The Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) was formed in 1967, and by 1971 it had branches across Australia.

The laws criminalising abortion were state-based, and these laws were liberalised in Victoria in 1969 and NSW in 1971. This liberalisation did not grant women the “right” to abortion, but clarified the conditions under which a doctor could perform an abortion lawfully.

Under the liberalised law, a doctor could perform an abortion legally when they believed that it was “necessary to preserve a woman from serious danger to her life or to her physical or mental health”.

These reforms were focused on doctors’ rights, rather than women’s. But at the same time, the women’s liberation movement was demanding bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom for women. They wanted abortion on request, free birth control, and free childcare, arguing that women could only fully participate in society as equal citizens if they had control over their fertility. Contraception was a fundamental feminist issue.

Whitlam, WEL and reproductive rights

As part of his reshaping of the Labor party to make it electable and modern, Whitlam extended the ALP’s language of equal opportunity beyond class to encompass migrants, women and Indigenous Australians.

While Labor’s 1972 election platform only addressed women’s specific needs in relation to childcare, Whitlam was a vocal supporter of women’s access to affordable contraception and abortion, as was his wife, Margaret.

Yet it was the Women’s Electoral Lobby that was perhaps most crucial in reshaping Labor policy on women’s issues. Formed in March 1972 by abortion law reform campaigner Beatrice Faust, WEL wanted to place women’s concerns on the political agenda by surveying all candidates in the 1972 election on issues women believed were important. One-third of those questions were on contraception and sex education.

Apart from the candidate survey, which generated huge publicity in the lead up to the 1972 election, WEL also engaged in lobbying, and made a submission to a 1972 tariff inquiry calling for a reduction in tariffs on contraceptives. As Marian Sawer notes in her history of WEL, this put family planning issues on the ALP’s agenda. Within a week of WEL’s submission, the shadow health minister, Bill Hayden, said a Labor government would remove the sales tax on contraceptives and support the development of a network of family planning clinics.

This early action made the contraceptive pill cheaper; the Whitlam government’s subsequent actions made contraception more widely available. The government made numerous grants to family planning organisations, and between 1973 and 1974, around 100 family planning clinics opened throughout Australia.

These clinics were important for several reasons: they took away some of the stigma of having to approach your doctor for a prescription for the pill, especially for young single women, and the location of clinics in working class areas helped increase uptake of the pill among working class women.

This early decision on the pill was the first of the Whitlam government’s reforms on reproductive rights. The government made an unsuccessful attempt to reform the law on abortion in the ACT. However, while it failed to change the law, it did create the Royal Commission on Human Relationships, a far-reaching inquiry into sexuality, gender and family life. In the words of Elizabeth Reid, the Whitlam government’s advisor to women’s affairs (the first position of that kind in the world), the commission helped foster a “revolutionary consciousness” that she saw as vital to driving structural and cultural change.

It inquired into why women had abortions and planned their families, recommending new laws and practices to respond to changing times. The government also funded women’s refuges and women’s health centres, which helped share new knowledge about contraception. It expanded the provision of childcare, and, through Reid, started the long, slow process of making Australian governments more responsive to women’s needs. It is an ongoing journey.

In his book The Whitlam Government, Whitlam remarked that

the many and diverse achievements of the Government did much to correct an alarming history within the Labor Party of ignorance and inactivity on women’s issues.

His government recognised women as independent political subjects with roles to play beyond motherhood. It also recognised the central principle of second wave feminism: namely, that women needed bodily autonomy and control over their fertility before they could participate in society on their own terms.

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The decision was also an important signal to the women’s movement: an assurance that they took women’s concerns seriously, and that the rights of women were important to the Labor party as they built an expanded coalition of voters.

The removal of sales tax on the pill was fitting recognition of women’s new political engagement, and the beginning of a productive relationship between the government and the women’s movement.

On the 50th anniversary of this symbolic and important decision, it’s worth remembering what governments and activists can achieve when they work together to improve the lives of Australian women.

Michelle Arrow receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She has worked as a campaign volunteer for the Australian Labor Party.

– ref. Fifty years ago, the new Whitlam government removed the luxury sales tax on the pill. It changed Australian women’s lives – https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-ago-the-new-whitlam-government-removed-the-luxury-sales-tax-on-the-pill-it-changed-australian-womens-lives-194718

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Byrne, Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne

On December 2 1972, after 23 years in opposition, Gough Whitlam led the Labor party back to government. What followed was three tumultuous years of crisis and transformation, after which Australia would never be the same again.

In our own era, when many have lost faith in the ability of the parliamentary system to deliver transformative reform, there is much the modern ALP can learn from Whitlam’s example.

But the simple nostalgia-driven narratives of that time often elide the serious mistakes Whitlam made, and the dangers inherent in seeking fundamental change.

Whitlam’s ambitious program

By the time Whitlam was elected as party leader in 1967, Australia had transformed beyond recognition in the almost two decades since Labor had been in power.

Whitlam’s drive to modernise the party had earned him no small number of enemies within Labor’s ranks, but his endeavours reflected the reality that if the party did not change, it would be consigned to irrelevancy. It needed to demonstrate its “contemporary relevance”. Condemning those in the Victorian party who were determined to cling to the certainties of the past, Whitlam delivered one of his most cutting jibes: “Certainly, the impotent are pure”.

Whitlam drew on a network of intellectuals and policy heavyweights to devise a far-reaching vision of Australia’s future, and a concrete plan to realise it. This was the famed “Program”, a promise of new opportunities and modernisation, that was the basis of Whitlam’s electoral appeal.

The Program was a compelling vision of the type of country Australia could become if it embraced the possibilities of the future. It expanded Labor’s electoral appeal beyond its traditional base to the rapidly expanding ranks of professional and white-collar workers. In his famed 1972 campaign speech, Whitlam posited that the poll would be a choice between “the habits and fears of the past, and the demands and opportunities of the future”.

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After the election, Whitlam wasted no time implementing the Program. He and his deputy, Lance Barnard, were sworn into a multitude of ministries (none secretly) until the full ministry could be appointed. This “duumvirate” sprung into action, ending conscription, removing Australian troops from Vietnam, and diplomatically recognising China.

The whirlwind of change had just begun. In the years that followed, university education was made free. Outer suburbs were provided with sewage systems. The remaining vestiges of the White Australia policy were abolished. No-fault divorce was introduced and the government supported two claims of equal pay for women. The Racial Discrimination Act was passed. The prime minister poured sand through Vincent Lingiari’s hand.

Whitlam’s downfall

Whitlam was determined to drag Australia into the future. But he was ill-prepared to deal with the seismic economic changes that were to come. Post-war politics was shaped by the elongated boom that delivered consistent growth and full employment. When the boom became bust in 1973/4 – an international phenomenon – Whitlam’s program came under serious threat. It was premised on the assumption of continuing growth. There was no Plan B.

Whitlam’s new deputy and treasurer Jim Cairns was steeped in personal controversy after a high-profile affair with his secretary, and was not politically equipped to grapple with the realities of the new era of “stagflation”: low growth, high inflation, and high unemployment.

The government pursued quixotic schemes to fund major investment projects, which led to the loan affair scandal, where attempts had been made to borrow money from international lenders, subverting usual borrowing practices and in contravention of the Australian Constitution.

The Whitlam government was losing control. This was made worse by the Coalition’s intransigent blocking of its agenda in the Senate, and the manoeuvrings that led to the dismissal in November 1975. In the December election that year, Whitlam’s Labor was categorically rejected.

Whitlam left a difficult legacy for Labor. His government’s reforms fundamentally transformed Australia for the better, but at a high cost for the party. Subsequent Labor administrations have had to question how best to balance ambition and pragmatism.

Lessons for the current Labor government

The Albanese Labor government is no different.

Whitlam floundered due to presumptions the economic framework would continue to function much as it had over the preceding decades. Once the boom was disrupted, so was Whitlam’s strategy for delivering opportunity.

The current economic shocks mean Albanese has had to confront from the outset difficult questions of how to ameliorate social inequality within the frameworks of acceptable fiscal orthodoxy.

In this difficult economic environment, the current government has managed to successfully negotiate substantive bills through the parliament to satisfy electoral pledges. But it is notable that much of what it has achieved, such as climate reduction legislation, has addressed inaction inherited from the previous government.

What Albanese’s Labor lacks is a coherent and compelling vision of the future it wants to use government to create.

And this is the danger the party faces. In a country where a quarter of the population admits to having to skip meals due to cost of living pressures, it is clear greater change than is on the agenda is required to once more capture the ethos of opportunity and equality that underpinned the Whitlam agenda.

It is quite shocking that so much of what Whitlam said, and strove to achieve, remains relevant today – 50 years on. Albanese’s Labor has so far confronted the effects of inaction it has inherited, but what is its grand vision? What is its belief in the type of Australia we can become? How will it use the power of government to actively create a new society?

A society where at the very basic level, amid such national wealth, nobody should be skipping meals to make it through the week.

While Labor has learned important lessons from the Whitlam years on competent administration, it too can learn about the significance of vision. The necessity of a program for change that brings distinct policies together into a unified conceptualisation of the politically possible that is able to regenerate a sense of enthusiasm and hope for the country’s future.

Whether this will be a government that grasps the possibilities of the future, and takes the ambitious action required to bring it into being, remains to be seen.

Liam Byrne is a member of the Australian Labor Party. Liam works as the Historian of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, but writes in a personal capacity.

– ref. 50 years ago today, Gough Whitlam was elected. There are some lessons for Albanese in what came next – https://theconversation.com/50-years-ago-today-gough-whitlam-was-elected-there-are-some-lessons-for-albanese-in-what-came-next-195649