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

In 2015, soon after he had rolled Tony Abbott to become prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull was heckled when, with a straight face, he told New South Wales Liberals, “We are not run by factions”.

Once, there had been a contrast, at least in degree, between the factionally-organised Labor party and the Liberals. But those days are long gone.

Today the difference is that factions in the federal Labor Party are externally well behaved – albeit sometimes internally brutal as Ed Husic and Mark Dreyfus can attest – while the Liberal factions are currently creating havoc for their party.

On Monday, Turnbull gave the ABC his latest take on the Liberals’ internals. Ley, he said, was in a fish tank whose occupants “want to eat each other. They have the memory of goldfish and the dining habits of piranhas”.

The conservatives have taken over the party. After being trounced on net zero, moderates are angry with Sussan Ley for mishandling the issue: if she had brought things to a head months or even weeks ago she might have achieved a compromise. On the other hand, if the moderates undermine her they just aid conservatives Angus Taylor or Andrew Hastie to become leader, probably bringing all sorts of other policies they don’t like.

Against this background, Monday’s Australian carried a front page lead claiming: “A growing number of moderate Liberal MPs are pulling their support for Sussan Ley and are backing Andrew Hastie to be the next leader, arguing she has caved to his agenda and he has a better chance of lifting the Coalition’s stocks electorally”.

The story went on to say two senior moderates had said a majority of moderate MPs would vote for Hastie against Ley.

It looked like some in the moderates were having a hissy fit, or declaring they were generally stuffed, or perhaps engaging in some unfathomable plot to stymie Hastie.

As a punchdrunk Ley hit yet another morning media round, other moderates then sought to get the faction back on a more even keel.

Senator Anne Ruston, as close to a leader as the faction has, and Senator Maria Kovacic in a joint statement rejected the media reporting.

“We, along with an overwhelming majority of our moderate colleagues, continue to strongly support Sussan’s leadership. This matter was resolved in the party room six months ago and Sussan will lead us strongly to the next election,” they said.

Ruston then went on Sky News to further defend Ley, days after trenchantly fighting to head off the ditching of net zero.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of my colleagues this morning, and I can confirm that every single one of the moderates I spoke to supports Sussan Ley as the leader of our party,” Ruston said.

Ley’s tactic when on the defensive is to go out and do more and more media, even if it looks like a losing battle.

On the ABC she was asked about her message to future generations, now net zero has been abandoned by the Coalition. “I want to reassure people listening who care about the climate, that I do too.”

On 2GB during her interview, presenter Ben Fordham played talkback calls from September, when people had been asked whether they would prefer Ley or Hastie as leader. Those played all said Hastie.

Fordham then asked Ley, “what’s that like to listen to?” When she fobbed him off, he persisted, “Does that hurt though?”

He went on, rather bizarrely: “Don’t get me wrong, we all have it in our jobs. I have the same thing here, not everyone wants me hosting the breakfast show, but they’re stuck with me, and the Liberal voters are stuck with you.”

Ley said she wasn’t “here for a sense of ego about me”.

Fordham, after inviting her back, presumably to be pummelled again, threw her a final question.

“You’re tough enough to withstand any pressures coming from the likes of Andrew Hastie or Jacinta Price or anyone else who’d like to see you as a former opposition leader, not the current one?”

To which she replied: “Ben, I’ve been underestimated a lot of my life. I remember when a lot of blokes told me I couldn’t fly an aeroplane and did a lot to keep me out of the front seat. I flew an aeroplane, I flew a mustering plane in very small circles, very close to the ground, and that was pretty tough at the time.”

Ley is once again flying very close to the ground. She knows she may not be able to keep herself aloft, but she appears determined to make Taylor and Hastie’s chase for the leadership as difficult as she can.

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. View from The Hill: The Liberals may fell Sussan Ley but she won’t make it easy for Taylor and Hastie – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-the-liberals-may-fell-sussan-ley-but-she-wont-make-it-easy-for-taylor-and-hastie-269914

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Linton, Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Sydney

Schools have been shut in the Australian Capital Territory after children’s play sand was recalled due to asbestos fears.

Almost all Canberra primary schools were closed on Monday, with Education Minister Yvette Berry conceding it could take “days” for schools to be declared safe to open again.

The sand has also been used in schools in other states and territories and has been sold nationwide by major retailers. I am a cancer specialist and researcher into asbestos related diseases, should parents be worried?

Coloured sand recall

Last week, the Australian consumer watchdog recalled several types of coloured sand, which children use for art and craft activities or sensory play.

This was because tremolite asbestos (a naturally occurring form of asbestos) had been “detected in some samples after laboratory testing”.

Worksafe ACT says it has also found traces of chrysotile (another type of asbestos) in one product, Kadink decorative sand. It says “the risk of exposure to traces of chrysotile is low”.

All the products came from China and were sold by a wide range of retailers, including Woolworths and Officeworks, between 2020 and 2025.

Read more:
Asbestos has been found in children’s coloured sand. What’s the risk to kids?

How worried should parents be?

People should not be overly worried about this as the risk for children and families is going to be very small. The odds of developing an asbestos-related disease from any exposure in this particular scenario are very low.

Our understanding is the asbestos in the sand is not respirable (able to be breathed in) in its current form. Significant mechanical processes (crushing/pulverising) would be required for release of the fibres.

In routine play, the risk of this happening is low.

Why are authorities concerned then?

We still need to make sure these products are adequately and safely removed.

Australia has a long history of asbestos use and deaths and illness related to exposure. About 4,500 Australians die per year from asbestos-related diseases. These deaths happen many years after exposure. For example, lung cancers occur 20–30 years after exposure. Mesothelioma occurs 30–50 years after exposure.

So we can’t be complacent and want to be able to reduce any risks of the exposure to any member of the population – especially children.

When asbestos is removed from homes during a renovation, expert removalists come in with full body coverings, including gloves and masks. Even though the risk is low, the process should be the same for schools.

What should you do if you have coloured sand at home?

If you’ve got these products at home, put unopened containers in a heavy-duty plastic bag and double tape them. Then take them to somewhere that accepts asbestos waste. Do not just throw it in the kitchen or curbside bin.

If there is loose sand, wipe it away with a wet cloth while wearing protective clothing and masks – and then follow the same procedure with heavy-duty plastic bags and tape. If you have any doubts, consult an asbestos removal specialist for further support.

Worksafe ACT has more detailed instructions on disposal here. So does Australia’s asbestos eradication agency.

I’m worried my family has been exposed

Unfortunately, there is no test to determine your disease risk if you have been exposed to asbestos. This means there may be little value in going to your GP.

But we can be reassured by the statements made by authorities so far, and do not expect significant danger to families and other groups exposed to this product at this time.

A timely warning

Australia banned asbestos more than 20 years ago. But there are still countries who mine this deadly substance.

Read more:
From a ‘magic mineral’ to the stuff of nightmares: a 6,700-year history of asbestos

So we need to make sure it does not come across our borders. In 2015, trace elements of asbestos were found in children’s crayons, for example.

We also still have it in our community – asbestos is in about one-third of our houses. It is also in our schools and hospitals because it used to be a standard building material.

Coincidentally, next week is asbestos awareness week. This is a reminder of why we all have to be vigilant about asbestos and continue our efforts to remove it from our community.

Anthony Linton is senior staff specialist in medical oncology at the Concord Cancer Centre in Concord Repatriation General Hospital. He is also the research director at the Asbestos and Dust Diseases Research Institute. He receives funding from iCare and the NSW Dust Diseases Authority.

– ref. A cancer specialist explains why parents should not be too worried about coloured sand recalls – https://theconversation.com/a-cancer-specialist-explains-why-parents-should-not-be-too-worried-about-coloured-sand-recalls-269904

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow in Music Industries and Cultural Economy, RMIT University

When the Amyl and the Sniffers’ free show at Federation Square was cancelled on Friday night due to safety concerns, the band worked quickly to turn this disappointment around.

Using their performance fee, they placed A$35,000 across the bars of seven prominent grassroots music venues around Melbourne.

Many celebrated the band giving back to spaces that had nurtured them in their infancy, while providing much needed support to a struggling sector.

However, the gesture raises questions as to why these spaces are not already supported. And why are musicians – rather than governments, audiences or the community at large – the ones that need to step in?

Grassroots venues are struggling

Independent, grassroots music venues have been doing it tough. Australia has lost 1,300 venues and stages in the past five years.

Music venues have always been precarious. But inflation and exorbitant insurance costs have made running a venue exceedingly difficult.

Audience behaviours have also changed. Punters today attend more major events at the cost of attendance for smaller venues.

Audiences are also drinking less. This is an existential challenge for these venues, whose primary revenue stream is alcohol sales.

Despite this significant shift in the market, venues appear reluctant to change their business practices.

James Young of Melbourne’s Cherry Bar recently praised the same large arena tours that often draw punters away from grassroots venues for stimulating increased drinking in CBD venues, revealing the priorities of these spaces.

Meanwhile, owners of The Tote and The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar have decried the lack of government support, while begging punters to come to more shows.

Such responses do not consider the fundamental ways in which the market for live music has changed, or whether live music should be subject to the market at all.

Is a commercial model fit for purpose?

Australian grassroots music venues largely conform to a market-based model of alcohol consumption that cross-subsidises cultural activities like live performances.

Live music may often attract considerable audiences, and young people are spending more on entertainment and leisure – particularly for major concert events. But grassroots music venues often use music as a “loss leader” to promote increased liquor sales.

Such a business model may have been lucrative in the 1980s and 90s. But as audience behaviours have changed, a rethink is needed.

In much of northern Europe and France, there is a strong precedent of nonprofit venues receiving operational subsidies from municipal governments to avoid reliance on alcohol sales.

These models maintain strong public support thanks to disciplined and professional advocacy from the sector. Advocacy has also increased in the United Kingdom through the work of the UK Music Venue Trust.

Having made significant progress on a big ticket levy aimed at supporting grassroots venues, the Music Venue Trust has also encouraged many small venues in the UK to transition to nonprofit corporate structures. As nonprofits, these venues become eligible for greater public funding and tax exemptions.

France’s Scene de Musiques Actuelles (Contemporary Music Venue) model also promotes engagement with disadvantaged communities, facilitating greater accessibility and diversity in return for public subsidies.

This stands in stark contrast to Australia’s alcohol-dependent, market-based approach, which often attracts a homogeneous audience that may not reflect contemporary, multicultural Australia.

Structural reform

Grassroots music venues require structural reform to reduce their reliance on alcohol sales.

Such reform could involve nonprofit structures, such as Lazy Thinking in Dulwich Hill, soon to be incorporated as a registered charity eligible for tax-deductible donations. Charity status also reduces tax obligations on wages and salaries.

Other reforms involve who owns the building itself.

Commercial rents and overheads are exorbitantly expensive. Insecurity of tenure is a recurring problem for venues, such as in the case of The Curtin Hotel in Melbourne and The Crown & Anchor in Adelaide.

In the UK, Music Venue Properties operates as a collectively-owned community benefit society. Through crowd-sourcing shares and donations from passionate live music fans, the organisation is able to purchase the freeholds to grassroots music venues. Through this, they can protect them in perpetuity and offer long-term cultural leases to their operators.

Apart from some additional top-up funding from government, the scheme requires little regulation or intervention to be successful.

Other successful non-government initiatives include voluntary ticket levies, such as in Germany and Wales.

Such community-led reforms are possible in Australia, but require an acknowledgement of the many important non-market roles venues perform and some (literally) sober thinking about how best to support them.

Musicians save the day, again

Amyl’s act of generosity towards seven of Melbourne’s grassroots music venues might have been unprecedented, but it was not surprising. The band is known for their commitment to crowd safety, community spirit and generosity towards fans.

But should the band have been the ones to make it up to the city? Particularly in a chronically underfunded arts and cultural ecosystem that requires musicians to cope with the rising costs of doing the work they love.

Musicians, venues, governments and other industry stakeholders need to work together to ensure that this ecosystem is valued for what happens on stage, rather than just what’s exchanged over the bar.

Read more:
Civic squares as contested spaces: what history and urban planning can tell us about Fed Square

Sam Whiting receives funding from RMIT University, the Winston Churchill Trust and Sound NSW.

Megan Sharp 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. Amyl and the Sniffers’ generosity shows what’s missing for Australia’s live music venues – https://theconversation.com/amyl-and-the-sniffers-generosity-shows-whats-missing-for-australias-live-music-venues-269899

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Iampolski, PhD Candidate, Centre for Urban Research RMIT, RMIT University

On Friday, thousands packed into Melbourne’s Federation Square for a free Amyl and the Sniffers show. Within minutes, fences buckled, the perimeter was breached, and the gig was cancelled over crowd crush fears.

It was gutting for fans – but it’s also the latest episode in a much longer fight over what, or who, Federation Square is really for.

A city that avoided gathering spaces

Melbourne’s uneasy relationship with civic squares goes back to the 1830s, when surveyor Robert Hoddle laid out the city grid without a major central square. This was a deliberate design choice to avoid the open plazas that elsewhere had become magnets for dissent and mass protest.

In the 19th and 20th century there were repeated failed attempts to retrofit a proper city square.

Proposals for a grand Parliament forecourt, for example, were abandoned in 1929 amid fears it would be used for protest.

City Square eventually opened in 1968 as a temporary design after the City of Melbourne acquired the land across from Town Hall. However, by 1997 it was carved up and sold off for the Westin hotel development, with much of its original design features (including a small waterfall) razed.

Federation Square, opened in 2002 on decking above rail yards, meant to fix our critical civic space gap. A publicly owned, privately operated space, the square blurred public place and commercial asset.

A focus on tourism and entertainment resulted in a square that often struggled to draw people in outside of events and beyond its surrounding venues, such as ACMI and NGV Australia.

In 2017, Fed Square’s management accepted a bid from Apple to demolish an existing building to erect their own flagship store within the square. This triggered fierce community backlash.

In response, Heritage Victoria listed Fed Square on the state heritage register – the youngest place ever to be listed. This limited development in the square, effectively putting a stop to the demolition plans.

The Heritage Council recognised the square as “the most important public square in Victoria”.

This flashpoint triggered a state government review into the square’s management, after which Fed Square was incorporated into the new Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation in 2019. This brought a renewed emphasis on cultural programming. The irony, however: it has worked almost too well.

When you truly activate civic space, people show up. The Amyl gig proved relevant, exciting events draw crowds. But even with perfect crowd management, Fed Square – or any of Melbourne’s existing squares – simply couldn’t safely accommodate a crowd that size.

Lessons from Friday night

Fed Square has limited entry points and rigid borders: ideally, civic squares should have porous edges with lots of opportunities for spillover, or surrounding streets that can be closed to absorb crowds.

Melbourne’s rigid grid makes this difficult. As such, much of Melbourne’s public life has long been pushed into edge spaces – laneways, riverbanks, footpaths and markets, the State Library lawn (originally designed as a fenced off ornamental space, now inadvertently our most successful protest space following the removal of the picket fence).

This constraint has bred its own cultural innovation: Melbourne’s famed laneway culture emerged partly from necessity. And these diffuse, in-between spaces are genuinely valuable for everyday public life, not just mass gatherings.

But Friday shows we still need more opportunities for large-scale assembly. Other cities with established grids have managed it: Midtown Manhattan closed parts of Broadway to traffic; Barcelona’s Superilles (superblock) program created pedestrianised networks and new public squares within dense neighbourhoods.

Melbourne needs both large gathering spaces for moments like Friday night, and a diffuse network of everyday public spaces. That means seizing opportunities to create new civic plazas from major transport projects and renewal sites, protecting existing spaces like the State Library lawn and City Square from further privatisation, and challenging car dominance by closing more streets – temporarily or permanently.

If our only response to Friday night is tightening controls at Fed Square without also bolstering this diffuse cultural infrastructure – through planning protections, fairer regulation and investment in small venues (like Amyl and the Sniffers did themselves) – we will have missed the point.

Re-imagining public space

After a vexed history, rooted in a colonial planning logic that wanted to minimise gathering, Fed Square is slowly becoming the vibrant civic space people wanted. But we haven’t built the infrastructure to support that success.

People want to gather, but activating civic space without accommodating for growing demand is setting ourselves up for failure. We can’t just program better events; we need flexible crowd management systems, surrounding streets that can absorb overflow, and more public spaces.

Most importantly, we need to support the entire ecosystem – from Fed Square’s big stages to the small venues that quietly hold up Melbourne’s cultural life every night, and continue to carve out opportunities for public life.

Friday night proved Melburnians are hungry for public gathering. Now we need the civic infrastructure to match that appetite.

Rachel Iampolski received funding from Australian Government’s Research Training Program as part of her PhD. She is affiliated with the Australian Greens Victoria.

– ref. Civic squares as contested spaces: what history and urban planning can tell us about Fed Square – https://theconversation.com/civic-squares-as-contested-spaces-what-history-and-urban-planning-can-tell-us-about-fed-square-269920

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Murray, Professor of Cybersecurity, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne

Over the past weekend, the US AI lab Anthropic published a report about its discovery of the “first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign”.

The company says a Chinese government–sponsored hacking group used Anthropic’s own Claude AI tool to automate a significant part of an effort to steal sensitive information from around 30 organisations.

The report has drawn a lot of attention. Some, including respected experts, have warned that AI-automated cyber attacks are the future, urging cyber defenders to invest now before the coming onslaught.

At the same time, many in the cyber security industry have been underwhelmed by Anthropic’s claims, saying the actual role AI played in the attacks is unclear.

What Anthropic says happened

Critics have pointed out what they say is a lack of detail in the report, which means we have to do a certain amount of guesswork to try to piece together what might have happened. With that in mind, it appears the hackers built a framework for carrying out cyber intrusion campaigns mostly automatically.

The grunt work was carried by Anthropic’s Claude Code AI coding agent. Claude Code is designed to automate computer programming tasks, but it can also be used to automate other computer activities.

Claude Code has built-in safety guardrails to prevent it from causing harm. For example, I asked it just now to write me a program that I could use to carry out hacking activities. It bluntly refused.

However, as we have known from the very first days of ChatGPT, one way to bypass guardrails in AI systems is to trick them into engaging in role-play.

Anthropic reports that this is what these hackers did. They tricked Claude Code into believing it was assisting authorised hackers to test the quality of a system’s defences.

Missing details

The information Anthropic has published lacks the fine details that the best cyber incident investigation reports tend to include.

Chief among these are so-called indicators of compromise (or IoCs). When investigators publish a report into a cyber intrusion, they usually include hard evidence that other cyber defenders can use to look for signs of the same attack.

Each attack campaign might use specific attack tools, or might be carried out from specific computers under the attacker’s control. Each of these indicators would form part of the cyber intrusion’s signature.

Somebody else who gets attacked using the same tools, coming from the same attacking computers, can infer that they have also been a victim of this same campaign.

For example, the US government Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently partnered with government cyber agencies worldwide to publish information about ongoing Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage, including detailed indicators of compromise.

Unfortunately, Anthropic’s report includes no such indicators. As a result, defenders are unable to determine whether they might also have been victims of this AI-powered hacking campaign.

Unsurprising – and with limited success

Another reason many have been underwhelmed by Anthropic’s claims is that, on their face and absent hard details, they are not especially surprising.

Claude Code is widely used by many programmers because it helps them to be more productive.

While not exactly the same as programming tasks, many common tasks performed during a cyber intrusion are similar enough to programming tasks that Claude Code should be able to carry them out, too.

A final reason to be wary of Anthropic’s claims is that they suggest the attackers might have been able to get Claude Code to perform these tasks more reliably than it typically does so.

Generative AI can perform marvellous feats. But getting systems such as ChatGPT or Claude Code to do so reliably remains a major challenge.

In the memorable words of one commentator, too often these tools respond to difficult requests with “ass-kissing, stonewalling, and acid trips”. In plainer language, AI tools are prone to sycophancy, repeated refusal to carry out difficult tasks, and hallucinations.

Indeed, Anthropic’s report notes that Claude Code frequently lied to the attackers, pretending it had carried out a task successfully even when it hadn’t. This is a classic case of AI hallucination.

Perhaps this explain the attack’s low success rate: Anthropic’s own reporting says that while about 30 organisations were targeted, the hackers succeeded against only a few.

What does this mean for the future of cyber security and AI?

Whatever the details of this particular campaign, AI-enabled cyber attacks are here to stay.

Even if one contends that current AI-enabled hacking is lame, it would be foolish for cyber defenders to assume it will stay that way.

If nothing else, Anthropic’s report is a timely reminder for organisations to invest in cyber security. Those who do not may face a future in which their secrets are stolen or operations disrupted by autonomous AI agents.

Toby Murray receives funding from the Department of Defence, and has previously received funding from Google and Facebook. He is Director of the Defence Science Organisation, which receives funding from state and Commonwealth governments.

– ref. An AI lab says Chinese-backed bots are running cyber espionage attacks. Experts have questions – https://theconversation.com/an-ai-lab-says-chinese-backed-bots-are-running-cyber-espionage-attacks-experts-have-questions-269815

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruari Elkington, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries & Chief Investigator at QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology

To the best of my knowledge, Pope Leo XIV has never visited the town of Yass in New South Wales.

Yet efforts by the Yass community to restore the town’s 1930s art deco Liberty Theatre are very much aligned with the Holy Father’s latest pronouncement. The theatre – once a cultural hub for the townspeople – recently screened its first film in more than 50 years.

In Yass, like everywhere else, smart devices provide an opportunity for screen-based entertainment. So, why spend time and money restoring an old cinema when you can watch anything you want on your iPhone at home?

Remarkably, the answer to this question is the same in Vatican City as it is in rural NSW.

A Hollywood audience at the Vatican

On November 15, Pope Leo XIV had something to say to the world about cinema.

For researchers such as myself who study cultures of cinemagoing this is both a welcome and strange development.

We don’t have a long history of popes listing their Letterboxd “top four” films of all time, but on the weekend, we got Leo’s: in case you missed it, they were The Sound of Music (1965), It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), Ordinary People (1980) and Life Is Beautiful (1997).

The pontiff’s decision to invite actors, directors and film executives to the Vatican to make a speech about why cinemas and cinemagoing still matter suddenly placed questions about the value of this practice squarely in front of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Australia’s Cate Blanchett was there, along with Monica Bellucci, Chris Pine and Adam Scott. So too were the filmmakers Darren Aronofsky, Spike Lee, Judd Apatow and Gaspar Noe. For anyone familiar with Noe’s oeuvre, it’s clear the pontiff wasn’t not playing it safe when it came to his choice of guests. This reflected a key line from his speech:

When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console but challenges.

Why is the pope talking about cinema?

As many of the residents of Yass will tell you, cinema is a powerful way for communities to come together and experience a shared story.

This experience, and the focus and commitment it demands from us, is arguably needed now more than ever.

The commentary in Yass when the Liberty Theatre reopened was not about the latest blockbuster, but the social, emotional and communal benefits the cinema enabled. As one resident explained:

Having a cinema back in Yass means the community can come together, and there’s a sense of pride as well.

In his Saturday address at the Vatican, Pope Leo did not hesitate to hold up cinemagoing as a deeply human and indeed spiritual pursuit that allows us to reflect on our own humanity:

Cinema combines what appears to be mere entertainment with the narrative of the human person’s spiritual adventure. One of cinema’s most valuable contributions is helping audiences consider their own lives, look at the complexity of their experiences with new eyes and examine the world as if for the first time. In doing so, they rediscover a portion of the hope that is essential for humanity to live to the fullest.

My own research has focused on understanding the various reasons cinemagoing is valuable for communities – and how the “social prescribing” of cinemagoing can benefit communities.

In surveys my colleagues and I conducted with industry, 81% of moviegoers said they believe cinemagoing enhances their overall wellbeing – underlining its broader benefits, despite the often reported gap between pre-pandemic attendance and now.

In his speech, Pope Leo homed in on one overlooked but increasingly valued understanding of why cinema matters: we get to focus. In an attention economy where “second screen shows” play alongside other digital distractions, giving ourselves over to a single onscreen story may provide much needed relief. In the pope’s own words:

We live in an age where digital screens are always on. There is a constant flow of information. However, cinema is much more than just a screen; it is an intersection of desires, memories and questions. […] As the plot unfolds, our mind is educated, our imagination broadens, and even pain can find new meaning.

A practical call to action

For anyone who thinks academics read too much into cinemagoing, the notion of going to see Avatar as an “intersection of desires, memories and questions” may seem overblown.

But the speech wasn’t just heavy on the metaphysical, it also spoke to practical issues and solutions. The pope spoke about cinemas’ struggles to sustain audiences, the closure of sites, and the idea the cinematic experience may be in danger.

He urged institutions to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity and, like the good people of Yass, pointed squarely at why we should value cinemagoing:

If a city is alive, it is thanks in part to its cultural spaces. We must inhabit these spaces and build relationships within them, day after day.

If Pope Leo ever makes it to Yass, hopefully he will find a community united around its local theatre.

Ruari Elkington has received funding from the Queensland government’s Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI), Screen Queensland, The Embassy of France in Australia, and the Cinema Association Australasia.

– ref. Why Pope Leo is making a plea to save our cinemas – https://theconversation.com/why-pope-leo-is-making-a-plea-to-save-our-cinemas-269898

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Gardiner, Research Associate, Western Sydney University

It’s a common misconception that religion and gender and sexuality diversity are at odds with one another.

There’s good reason for this. Some LGBTQIA+ people have had very difficult experiences in religious settings.

But in reality, many LGBTQIA+ people hold religious and spiritual beliefs. Our new research has interviewed gender and sexuality diverse Australian young people about their experiences, including how they navigate school, faith, family and digital media.

Our findings illustrate the urgent need for legislative changes to federal anti-discrimination law, particularly religious exemptions.

We have heard from LGBTQIA+ youth whose school environments were unsafe because their religious schools were exempt from the Sex Discrimination Act. Under the laws, religious schools can discriminate on the basis of their gender and/or sexuality, leaving LGTBQIA+ teachers and students unprotected.

LGBTQIA+ and religious young people are erased in this legislative environment, because it assumes that religious and LGBTQIA+ communities do not overlap. Our research shows this isn’t the case.

Our research

We spoke to 43 people from across Australia about being religious and LGBTQIA+.

Through interviews we asked questions about identity, attachment, faith, gender and sexuality.

We also asked participants to capture, hand-draw, or take screenshots of images that represent emotionally resonant moments connected to gender, religion and/or sexuality. The resulting photo diaries acted as memory prompts to facilitate discussion.

We discovered digital spaces are crucial for LGBTQIA+ and religious young people. These included social media, online groups, forums, queer media and events websites.

These digital resources support self-esteem and self-discovery, facilitating access to ideas and connections that are inaccessible or unsafe to seek out in their day-to-day life.

Crystal, a 20-year-old Christian lesbian who had experienced discrimination at her childhood church explained:

there’s a Reddit community called Gay Christians and it’s actually quite a big community of people and it’s a lovely place to discuss. Having people who I could say, “Hey, I’m queer and Christian” to and not get absolutely condemned for that, and actually start to discuss things, was really helpful.

Offline too, there is a burgeoning scene of alternative spiritual communities and social groups that explicitly include LGBTQIA+ people.

For example, we spoke to young people who are connected to a rapidly-growing queer Muslims community group. M.A., a bisexual Muslim man in his mid-twenties, told us:

I have so many queer Muslim friends now it’s almost scary. The people I’m surrounded by are queer Muslim people and other queer people of faith as well. I love learning about their history and their connection.

Having a safe place to meet other queer Muslims their age to share struggles, discuss theology and connect provides a much-needed sense of belonging.

Neo, a transgender, non-binary lesbian who grew up Christian experienced this sense of belonging during their Jewish conversion classes:

there were about ten of us, and eight of us were trans […] a very big contrast to what my experience growing up was like. We were allowed to be there and visible in who we were. It wasn’t just “you can be here but be quiet and stay at the back” sort of thing. It wasn’t just about being allowed to ask questions, it was actively encouraged.

While religious and LGBTQIA+ communities are often positioned to be in direct conflict with one another, there is a significant crossover between these two worlds shaped by acceptance and care, rather than conflict or exclusion.

Religion as positive change

A commitment to social justice has been another recurring theme with participants sharing their commitment, determination, and successes in making a positive change in the world. Erin, a bisexual Christian woman in her early 20s, explained:

that’s what I like about religious teachings. The way I’ve been raised has affected me like that because it’s very much about helping the less fortunate.

For some, this looked like working within their religious institution to make it a more supportive space for the LGBTQIA+ community. For Francis, a nonbinary lesbian Catholic, who gives guest sermons at their church, social justice is inherent to their religion. They said:

I think everything I write has got that social justice intent behind it, whether it comes through or not. And I think that is very much grassroots Catholicism as I see it.

Our research adds to broader academic literature by demonstrating the creative strategies that LGBTQIA+ and religious young people use to navigate these spaces.

Invisible in the law

While this cohort has previously been considered rare or non-existent, our research challenges this assumption. This has policy implications.

Presently, the federal Sex Discrimination Act allows religious institutions, including schools, to discriminate on the basis of gender and sexuality.

In 2024, the Australian Law Reform Commission released its review of these laws. It concluded the circumstances in which religious educational institutions can discriminate against their students and staff should be substantially narrowed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to protect LGBTQIA+ students and teachers in religious schools during the 2022 election campaign. His Labor government is yet to implement these changes.

At the state level, Victoria removed religious schools’ ability to discriminate on the basis of gender and sexuality diversity in 2021. This conflict between state and federal laws, however, has led to uncertainty and a dispute is currently before the courts.

As it stands, federal law is also in conflict with Tasmania’s anti-discrimination law, while New South Wales is currently reviewing its legislation.

The disconnect between state and federal laws on this issue needs to be resolved federally so LGBTQIA+ students and teachers can exist in all Australian schools without fear of discrimination, harassment or exclusion.

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

– ref. School exemptions to discrimination law leave religious LGBTQIA+ teens unprotected – https://theconversation.com/school-exemptions-to-discrimination-law-leave-religious-lgbtqia-teens-unprotected-266789

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carolyn Ee, Senior Research Fellow, NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University

For most women, menopause occurs naturally around the age of 49. In the lead up to menopause, the quality and quantity of eggs declines over time. Then the ovaries stop releasing eggs completely.

At this time, the ovaries also stop producing the sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone. This causes menstrual periods to end. When you clock 12 months of no periods, you’re in menopause.

But some women will start menopause quickly after having their ovaries removed in surgery. Others will transition to menopause over a longer timeframe if medical treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, damage their ovaries.

So what can you expect from menopause due to surgery or medical treatments?

What treatments can cause menopause?

Surgical menopause occurs when women have their ovaries removed to treat conditions such as ovarian cancer.

Some women with a genetic predisposition to ovarian and breast cancer, such as those like Angelina Jolie who carry the BRCA1 gene, may also have their ovaries removed to stop the production of oestrogen. This reduces the risk of ovarian and breast cancers, which are considered oestrogen-dependent cancers.

Other pelvic surgery can damage the ovaries and trigger menopause, such as removal of ovarian cysts or treatment for endometriosis.

Medical treatments that severely damage or are toxic to the ovaries can also trigger menopause. These include chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer, and treatment for rheumatological conditions such as lupus.

Whether you become menopausal after medical treatment will depend on your age, underlying ovarian reserve, as well as the type and dose of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Younger women generally have greater ovarian stores so can withstand more damage.

When does it happen? How is it diagnosed?

Menopause due to medical treatment may occur earlier than the typical age of natural menopause. When menopause occurs between 40 and 45 years, it’s called early menopause. Around 12% of women will have early menopause.

Before 40, early menopause is called “premature ovarian insufficiency”. This is because for women whose periods spontaneously stop, there’s still a chance of their ovarian function returning. But this is less likely if periods stop due to the effect of medical treatments. And it’s impossible after surgical menopause. Around 4% of women have premature ovarian insufficiency.

The diagnosis of surgical menopause is clear. But making a diagnosis of menopause after medical treatments can be more difficult. The diagnosis is based on four months or more of no or irregular menstrual periods, plus a high follicle-stimulating hormone level, which is determined using a blood test.

What are the symptoms? How do they differ?

Symptoms of oestrogen deficiency, such as hot flushes, usually start quickly after surgical menopause. Other symptoms such as vaginal dryness may develop more slowly. Symptoms of surgical menopause are often more severe than natural menopause.

But every person’s experience is different. And symptoms can vary within and between people. It can also be hard to tell what symptoms are due to menopause and what are due to the underlying health problem or treatment, such as the effects of chemotherapy on cognition.

Low oestrogen from premature ovarian insufficiency can cause vaginal dryness, reduced libido, muscle decline and bone loss, and may also impair brain function. It can also increase risk risk of heart disease and stroke, with a higher risk after surgical menopause than spontaneous premature menopause.

Premature ovarian insufficiency can can also result in poorer mental health and quality of life, and can impact your ability to work.

Women with surgical menopause cannot become pregnant, while women with premature ovarian insufficiency are unlikely to fall pregnant naturally.

How is it treated?

Our previous research has shown women with early menopause and premature ovarian insufficiency often receive poor health care. There is a large variation of quality between health providers.

To assist health-care professionals provide best-practice care, in 2024 we updated the evidence-based guidelines with 145 recommendations to treat early menopause and premature ovarian insufficiency.

Hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), which replaces the missing oestrogen (plus progesterone if you still have your uterus), is the mainstay of treatment for women with premature ovarian insufficiency and early menopause.

Women who have undergone surgical menopause or are experiencing premature ovarian insufficiency can consider HRT for symptom relief and bone protection.

However, HRT cannot be used if you have certain health conditions such as hormone-sensitive breast cancers.

It’s important you talk to you health-care provider about the pros and cons of HRT in your situation.

Other treatment options include:

• vaginal oestrogen, which can be helpful for vaginal dryness

• cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which be helpful for managing hot flushes, sleep and mood.

Although Chinese herbal medicine may alleviate menopausal symptoms in some women, overall there isn’t enough scientific evidence that complementary therapies can effectively manage premature ovarian insufficiency.

Health practitioners should talk to patients about the likely symptoms and risks of surgical menopause and premature ovarian insufficiency before starting any treatments that can cause these conditions.

Options to minimise these risks and preserve fertility should also be discussed and may require a referral to a specialist.

Carolyn Ee is a member of the International and Australasian Menopause Societies, and was a guideline development group member on the 2024 POI guideline, past Chair of the RACGP Integrative Medicine Specific Interest Group and past Program Lead of Western Sydney Integrative Health.

Amanda Vincent has received honoraria from pharma companies Besins, Astellas and Theramex. She receives grant funding from the NHMRC and MRFF. She has received travel support or honoraria from HealthEd Australia, Australian Doctor Group, Australasian Menopause Society and IQ Fertility. She is a current board member of the International Menopause Society and was co-chair of the POI guideline development group.

– ref. Some women start menopause after surgery or medical treatment. Here’s how it’s different – https://theconversation.com/some-women-start-menopause-after-surgery-or-medical-treatment-heres-how-its-different-257627

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natasha Heap, Program Director for the Bachelor of Aviation, University of Southern Queensland

The next time you board a commercial flight and are told how to sit in the brace position for an emergency landing, consider this: did you know that international plane safety testing only requires adult male crash test dummies?

Even with car crashes, male dummies are still used for the majority of crash tests worldwide and in Australia. Bizarrely, until just three years ago, the only supposedly “female” crash test dummies used in car safety tests were just shrunken versions of male dummies.

As a former airline pilot now completing a PhD in aviation safety, I’ve been researching the history of aeroplane and car safety. And I’ve been shocked at how little real-world testing is still being done to keep women safe in the air and on our roads.

The problem with crash test dummies

Crash test dummies, called “anthropomorphic test devices”, were first developed for the military in 1949, then adopted by the automotive industry in the mid-1960s.

One of the most widely used test dummies today for both aeroplanes and cars is the Hybrid III “average” man: 175cm tall, 78kg, first created in 1976. That’s meant to represent a 50th percentile or average-sized man and is even written into US regulations for certification safety testing.

Automotive safety testing does include a “small female” dummy for around 25% of tests. However, the dummy required to be used is not actually shaped like an average biological female.

Supposedly “female” dummies have been made and used over the years, such as the Hybrid HIII-5F.

But at just 149cm tall and 48kg, it’s more like the size of a 12-year-old girl. And
this dummy (widely used in car testing, including in Australia) is actually a scaled down version of the widely used average male Hybrid III – with plastic breasts swapped in for its chest.

It was only three years ago that a team of Swedish engineers led by pioneering researcher Astrid Linder finally unveiled the first dummy built to mimic an “average woman” of 162cm and 62kg.

The creation of a new female dummy is a step forward. But using that more accurate “average” female dummy is not yet a legal requirement for car or plane testing.

Women’s higher risk of serious injuries in cars

In cars, women are more likely to be seriously injured in crashes, even at low speeds.

Women sit further forward than men when driving, even if they are the same height. We need to, as we have different limb proportions than men.

In crashes, women are often labelled “out of position drivers” — simply because car designs are based on the average male. Half the world’s population is not sitting wrong; it’s a design flaw.

Startlingly, some car protection systems designed and tested on male dummies have been shown to increase injury severity in women, while decreasing the injury in men.

Aeroplanes are only required to test with male dummies

When it comes to aeroplanes, all research, testing and aircraft certification – including seat and seat belt design, as well as the brace positions to adopt before a crash – use only “average” male dummies, such as the Hybrid III male dummy modified for aviation.

Aeroplanes get safety certified in the country they’re made. The two big global manufacturers are Boeing and Airbus. Boeing planes are assembled and certified in the United States by the Federal Aviation Administration, while parts of Airbus planes are built across Europe, China and Canada, certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

The US and the European Union aviation safety agencies largely harmonise their standards for crash-worthiness and safety testing through international agreements. They follow standards and recommended practices set by global engineering association, SAE International.

Other national authorities, such as Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, rely on those international safety certification standards, rather than each country re-testing aeroplanes.

The lack of aeroplane safety research for women

As just one example, US regulations for testing emergency landings are very clear about what to use in those safety tests: the average male dummy. There is no requirement to use a female dummy.

Though I have been searching for it, there has been no research on the effect this male-centric focus has on female aeroplane passengers or crew safety.

Despite clear evidence that women experience different — and often more severe — injury outcomes in car crashes, there is no publicly-accessible research on this in aviation.

Women are not simply smaller men

Body proportions, muscle mass and limb length differ between the sexes. Research into injuries from car crashes in the United Kingdom has found men possess 8% greater skeletal mass and a different body mass distribution than women.

Women generally have a smaller height and shoulder width, but a larger hip circumference than men. Female sex hormones lead to more lax ligaments, influencing joint stability.

Physiological differences between women and men matter to safety outcomes.

Such differences need to be considered in better future testing for aeroplanes and cars. One design does not fit all when it comes to safety.

Natasha Heap was an airline captain, who flew from 1998 to 2012, including flying for QantasLink, Australia’s largest regional airline. Since 2024 she has been a member of the International Board for Research into Aircraft Crash Events (iBRACE).

– ref. Plane and car crash testing is still designed to keep men safe. That puts women in danger – https://theconversation.com/plane-and-car-crash-testing-is-still-designed-to-keep-men-safe-that-puts-women-in-danger-268990