Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathon Hutchinson, Senior Lecturer Online Communication and Media, University of Sydney

The constraints of coronavirus isolation have closed down most recreational activities, but some creative industries are responding in innovative ways.

I have been researching “digital first personalities” – content producers who build massive (or highly engaged) audiences online first and then often make the jump to traditional media.

Online spaces and social media platforms including Twitch, Patreon, Streamlabs, OnlyFans, and SubStack are becoming more familiar to consumers. This new frontier of the creative industries has writers, comedians, gamers, musicians and even porn producers adopting new ways to make a buck online that could prove viable beyond lockdown.

Plamping the DJ

Zoom and TikTok have emerged as the go-to social platforms during isolation. Families share meals together online, colleagues enjoy drinks remotely after work, families perform micro-dance challenges together, and trivia has found a new audience.

Read more: Dads’ time to shine online: how laughter can connect and heal

DJs and their record labels) are providing an innovative model and keeping the good-time vibes rolling during isolation.

The recent phenomenon of “plamping” (a portmanteau of plant and lamp to describe the DJ’s classic background mise en scène) has emerged as a meme. When people are “plamped” they are ready to socially engage with others by tuning in to a live DJ set on Twitch TV and interacting with others in a “hosted” Zoom room.

This is the online equivalent of paying your entry fee to the club and hanging out with your mates. Once there, DJs and their labels encourage participants to donate to support the creators.

As users engage with each other via the chat functionality on the Twitch channel’s stream, they build relationships. Twitch has its own communication style – from platform-specific emojis to catch-cries. As the party kicks into gear, someone will likely ask: “Still plamped?”

New York club Nowadays is hosting virtual DJ sets and asking for financial contributions via Patreon. The highest level of support includes entry to a post-pandemic party.

DJ Khaled and Katy Perry are among high profile artists who will perform live concerts via BeApp, though the platform (sponsored by Coca Cola) will raise funds for International Red Cross.

Front Runner Platforms

Twitch has exploded as the go-to streaming platform during coronavirus times. Italy’s Twitch gaming traffic alone increased by 70%. There are now 5 million monthly streamers on site, up almost 40% on last year.

What is new, however, is the evolution of Twitch (owned by Amazon) for other entertainment areas, including fundraising, house parties, and of course, plamping. It is estimated Twitch’s turnover was approximately US$1.54 billion in 2019 (A$2.32 billion), with creator revenue around US$600 million (A$900 million) per year.

Beyond Twitch, there are a number of other monetised streaming apps and platforms, established to enable creators to earn money while they “perform” their craft.

Patreon, Streamlabs, OnlyFans, and SubStack all have business models in place that enable creators to choose a plan and partner with the streaming app.

Started in 2013, Patreon now claims to be home to over 150,000 creators supported by more than 4 million patrons. A Patreon creator will select either a 5, 8, or 12% membership plan, with each level offering increased member benefits. As the artist earns more money, so does the streaming app.

OnlyFans – where users sell nude pics and videos – has reportedly been booming since lockdown, with a 75% increase in monthly sign-ups and gaining 150,000 new users every 24 hours.

Can you make a living?

It is estimated Patreon paid its members approximately US$1 billion (A$1.5 billion) up to and including 2019. And with the isolation period in the first three months of 2020, Streamlabs says its active user base has increased by over 30%.

Online gamer Ninja earned US$17 million (A$25 million) in 2019 alone according to Forbes. Social media influencer Caroline Calloway (famous for securing book deals and then not delivering on them) has bragged about a projected US$223,800 (A$337,000) salary from OnlyFans pics, while porn creator Monica Hudt claims she earned over $100,000 on OnlyFans in 2019.

But are these figures representative of online streamers more broadly?

As with all start-up platforms, there are varying degrees of success with typically only a few rising as top earners above the majority of creators. Most streaming creators generally offer branded merchandise alongside their stream to support their income. In the plamping space, DJs are digitally busking by asking punters to leave tips or contribute to their rent.

OnlyFans has been criticised for recent changes to referral bonuses that will cut into earnings.

Read more: The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It’s not that simple

After lockdown

Some believe creative industries and major events will change forever after COVID-19. If that’s the case, new economic models are required for those who work in this space.

Digital first personalities who integrate streaming apps are leading the way, but it remains to be seen whether they can sustain themselves this way. As with all disruptive technologies, they explode when they emerge, then settle in the larger media framework.

Still with the increased exposure to live streaming during COVID-19, it is likely we will see more integration of online activity even when live events return. And that is a space where more attention is required to ensure those who work in the industry are supported.

– ref. ‘Plamping hard’: how DJs and creatives are earning a buck online via Twitch, Patreon, OnlyFans and more – https://theconversation.com/plamping-hard-how-djs-and-creatives-are-earning-a-buck-online-via-twitch-patreon-onlyfans-and-more-139116

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lamb, Associate Professor in Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Back in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant blobs rising as plumes of hot mantle rock from near Earth’s core, where rocks are so hot they move like a fluid.

According to the theory, as these plumes approach the surface they begin to melt, triggering massive volcanic eruptions. But evidence for the existence of such plumes proved elusive and geologists had all but rejected the idea.

Yet in a paper published today, we can now provide this evidence. Our results show that New Zealand sits atop the remains of such an ancient giant volcanic plume. We show how this process causes volcanic activity and plays a key role in the workings of the planet.

Read more: Satellites reveal melting of rocks under volcanic zone, deep in Earth’s mantle

Unusual vibrations

About 120 million years ago – during the time of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period – vast volcanic eruptions under the ocean created an underwater plateau about the size of India. Over time, it was broken up by the movements of tectonic plates. One fragment now lies beneath New Zealand and forms the Hikurangi Plateau.

We measured the speed of seismic pressure waves – effectively soundwaves – and how they travel through mantle rocks beneath the Hikurangi Plateau. These vibrations were triggered either by earthquakes or deliberate explosions and reached speeds of 9 kilometres per second.

It’s well known these waves, known as P-waves, travel in the uppermost mantle of the Earth at a remarkably constant speed: around 8.1km per second (about 30,000km per hour). Even small deviations from this constant speed reveal important information about the state of the mantle rocks.

Since the late 1970s, fast P-wave speeds (8.7-9.0km/s) had been reported from a depth of about 30km under New Zealand’s eastern North Island. The seismic vibrations recorded in these early data were only travelling in one direction through a small part of the mantle, and the significance of the high speed was unclear.

Our new data is much more extensive, from a major seismic experiment in 2012 that spanned the southern North Island and offshore regions, including the Hikurangi Plateau.

It shows the speed of P-waves reached 9km/s, regardless of the horizontal direction in which they travelled. But a careful analysis of vibrations triggered by deep earthquakes showed unusually low speeds for vibrations travelling in the vertical direction.

This reveals crucial information about how the mantle rocks have been stretched or squeezed by the huge forces inside the Earth, and this turns out to confirm the existence of the elusive plumes.

A seismic pancake

The pattern of seismic speeds we observed requires the mantle rocks beneath the Hikurangi Plateau to have been stretched and squeezed in much the same way as one might produce a pancake shape by flattening a rubber ball.

When we carried out computer simulations of rising plumes in the mantle, we found they reproduced exactly this pancake flattening pattern, as the mushroom-shaped head of the plume spreads sideways and collapses near the surface.

We also looked at data from seismic experiments by international teams on other oceanic plateaux in the south-west Pacific region. Remarkably, both the Manihiki and Ontong-Java plateaux showed the same pattern as we observed beneath the Hikurangi Plateau. P-waves travelled at the same high speeds regardless of the horizontal direction, but at significantly slower speeds in the vertical direction.

Read more: Parts of the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia fault are more seismically active than others – imaging data suggests why

Reconstructing an ancient superplume

The major oceanic plateaux of the southwest Pacific are now dispersed, but we know how they once fitted together, about 120 million years ago. They formed a region underlain by a thick layer of volcanic rock, thousands of kilometres across.

Our analysis shows this entire region lay above the single head of a giant plume – a superplume – which melted to produce massive lava outbursts over a geologically brief period of a few million years.

Siberia is the only other place on Earth where this pattern of P-wave speeds has been observed in the upper mantle. And it turns out this was also the scene of widespread volcanic eruptions about 250 million years ago, thought to be caused by the rise of a superplume.

This volcanic activity may have changed Earth’s climate and triggered a mass extinction that affected the evolution of life.

New Zealand and some scattered islands in the southwest Pacific are perched on the remains of what was once an immensely powerful geological force. We don’t know whether this process is still ongoing today, but our new seismic technique for finding these superplume remnants may help us discover more – providing further insight into the many connections between the deep interior of our planet and what happens at the surface.

– ref. New Zealand sits on top of the remains of a giant ancient volcanic plume – https://theconversation.com/new-zealand-sits-on-top-of-the-remains-of-a-giant-ancient-volcanic-plume-139019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University

In the expansion of its iron ore mine in Western Pilbara, Rio Tinto blasted the Juukan Gorge 1 and 2 – Aboriginal rock shelters dating back 46,000 years. These sites had deep historical and cultural significance.

The shelters are the only inland site in Australia showing human occupation continuing through the last Ice Age.

The mining blast caused significant distress to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama traditional land owners. It’s an irretrievable loss for future generations.

Aboriginal cultural heritage is a fundamental part of Aboriginal community life and cultural identity. It has global significance, and forms an important component of the heritage of all Australians.

But the destruction of a culturally significant Aboriginal site is not an isolated incident. Rio Tinto was acting within the law.

In 2013, Rio Tinto was given ministerial consent to damage the Juukan Gorge caves. One year later, an archaeological dig unearthed incredible artefacts, such as a 4,000-year-old plait of human hair, and evidence that the site was much older than originally thought.

But state laws let Rio Tinto charge ahead nevertheless. This failure to put timely and adequate regulatory safeguards in place reveals a disregard and a disrespect for sacred Aboriginal sites.

Not an isolated incident

The history of large developments destroying Indigenous heritage sites is, tragically, long.

A $2.1 billion light rail line in Sydney, completed last year, destroyed a site of considerable significance.

More than 2,400 stone artefacts were unearthed in a small excavated area. It indicated Aboriginal people had used the area between 1788 and 1830 to manufacture tools and implements from flint brought over to Australia on British ships.

Read more: Four ways Western Australia can improve Aboriginal heritage management

Similarly, ancient rock art on the Burrup Peninsula in north-western Australia is under increasing threat from a gas project. The site contains more than one million rock carvings (petroglyphs) across 36,857 hectares.

This area is under the custodianship of Ngarluma people and four other traditional owners groups: the Mardudhunera, the Yaburara, the Yindjibarndi and the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo.

But a Senate inquiry revealed emissions from adjacent industrial activity may significantly damage it.

The West Australian government is seeking world heritage listing to try to increase protection, as the regulatory frameworks at the national and state level aren’t strong enough. Let’s explore why.

What do the laws say?

The recently renamed federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is responsible for listing new national heritage places, and regulating development actions in these areas.

At the federal level, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) provides a legal framework for their management and protection. It is an offence to impact an area that has national heritage listing.

Read more: Australia’s problem with Aboriginal World Heritage

But many ancient Aboriginal sites have no national heritage listing. For the recently destroyed Juurkan gorge, the true archaeological significance was uncovered after consent had been issued and there were no provisions to reverse or amend the decision once this new information was discovered.

Where a site has no national heritage listing, and federal legislation has no application, state laws apply.

For the rock shelters in the Western Pilbara, Rio Tinto was abiding by Western Australia’s Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 – which is now nearly 50 years old.

Section 17 of that act makes it an offence to excavate, destroy, damage, conceal or in any way alter any Aboriginal site without the ministerial consent.

But, Section 18 allows an owner of the land – and this includes the holder of a mining licence – to apply to the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee for consent to proceed with a development action likely to breach section 17.

The committee then evaluates the importance and significance of the site, and makes a recommendation to the minister. In this case, the minister allowed Rio Tinto to proceed with the destruction of the site.

No consultation with traditional owners

The biggest concern with this act is there’s no statutory requirement ensuring traditional owners be consulted.

This means traditional owners are left out of vital decisions regarding the management and protection of their cultural heritage. And it confers authority upon a committee that, in the words of a discussion paper, “lacks cultural authority”.

Read more: Separate but unequal: the sad fate of Aboriginal heritage in Western Australia

There is no statutory requirement for an Indigenous person to be on the committee, nor is there a requirement that at least one anthropologist be on the committee. Worse still, there’s no right of appeal for traditional owners from a committee decision.

So, while the committee must adhere to procedural fairness and ensure traditional owners are given sufficient information about decisions, this doesn’t guarantee they have a right to consultation nor any right to provide feedback.

Weak in other jurisdictions

The WA Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 is under review. The proposed reforms seek to abolish the committee, ensuring future decisions on Aboriginal cultural heritage give appropriate regard to the views of the traditional Aboriginal owners.

NSW is the only state with no stand-alone Aboriginal heritage legislation. However, a similar regulatory framework to WA applies in NSW under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

There, if a developer is likely to impact cultural heritage, they must apply for an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit. The law requires “regard” to be given to the interests of Aboriginal owners of the land, but this vague provision does not mandate consultation.

What’s more, the burden of proving the significance of an Aboriginal object depends upon external statements of significance. But Aboriginal people, not others, should be responsible for determining the cultural significance of an object or area.

As in WA, the NSW regulatory framework is weak, opening up the risk for economic interests to be prioritised over damage to cultural heritage.

Outdated laws

The federal minister has discretion to assess whether state or territory laws are already effective.

If they decide state and territory laws are ineffective and a cultural place or object is under threat, then the federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 can be used.

But this act is also weak. It was first implemented as an interim measure, intended to operate for two years. It has now been in operation for 36 years.

Read more: Australian rock art is threatened by a lack of conservation

In fact, a 1995 report assessed the shortcomings of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.

It recommended minimum standards be put in place. This included ensuring any assessment of Aboriginal cultural significance be made by a properly qualified body, with relevant experience.

It said the role of Aboriginal people should be appropriately recognised and statutorily endorsed. Whether an area or site had particular significance according to Aboriginal tradition should be regarded as a subjective issue, determined by an assessment of the degree of intensity of belief and feeling of Aboriginal people.

Twenty-five years later, this is yet to happen.

– ref. Rio Tinto just blasted away an ancient Aboriginal site. Here’s why that was allowed – https://theconversation.com/rio-tinto-just-blasted-away-an-ancient-aboriginal-site-heres-why-that-was-allowed-139466

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Climie, Exercise Physiologist and Research Fellow, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute

In Australia, more than 1.1 million people currently have type 2 diabetes.

A host of potential complications associated with the disease mean a 45-year-old diagnosed with type 2 diabetes will live on average six years less than someone without type 2 diabetes.

This week we published a report bringing together the latest evidence on the health consequences of type 2 diabetes.

Aside from demonstrating the complications we know well – like the link between diabetes and heart disease risk – our report highlights some newer evidence that suggests type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of cancer and dementia.

Read more: How Australians Die: cause #5 – diabetes

Common complications of type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes, which typically develops after the age of 40, is usually due to a combination of the pancreas failing to produce enough of the hormone insulin, and the cells in the body failing to adequately respond to insulin.

Since insulin is the key regulator of blood glucose (sugar), this causes a rise in the blood sugar levels.

Risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes include being overweight, being physically inactive, having a poor diet, high blood pressure and family history of type 2 diabetes.

People with type 2 diabetes are about twice as likely to develop heart disease than people without type 2 diabetes.

While heart attacks, due to blockages in the coronary arteries, are perhaps the better recognised form of heart disease, heart failure, where the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood around the body, is becoming more common, especially in people with type 2 diabetes.

This is due to a number of factors, including better treatment and prevention of heart attacks, which has allowed more people to survive long enough to develop heart failure.

People with type 2 diabetes are up to eight times more likely to develop heart failure compared to those without diabetes.

Read more: Got pre-diabetes? Here’s five things to eat or avoid to prevent type 2 diabetes

Meanwhile, diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure and vision loss in working age adults, and accounts for more than 50% of foot and leg amputations.

But beyond these common and familiar complications of diabetes, there’s mounting evidence to suggest type 2 diabetes increases the risk of other diseases.

Emerging complications of type 2 diabetes

People with type 2 diabetes are approximately two times more likely to develop pancreatic, endometrial and liver cancer, have a 30% higher chance of getting bowel cancer and a 20% increased risk of breast cancer.

Increased cancer risk is of particular concern for the growing number of people under 40 living with type 2 diabetes. In Australia, this group saw a significant increase in deaths from cancer between 2000 and 2011.

Dementia, too, is a recently recognised complication of type 2 diabetes. A meta-analysis involving data from two million people showed people with type 2 diabetes have a 60% greater risk of developing dementia compared to those without diabetes.

Read more: Type 2 diabetes increasingly affects the young and slim; here’s what we should do about it

Why the increased risk?

It’s important to acknowledge the studies we looked at are observational and can’t tell us diabetes necessarily caused these conditions. But they do suggest having diabetes is associated with an increased risk.

The two leading theories for why cancer risk is increased in people with type 2 diabetes relate to glucose and insulin.

Many types of cancer cells use glucose as a key fuel, so the more glucose in the blood, potentially, the more rapidly cancer will grow.

Alternatively, insulin can promote the growth of cells. And since in the early stages of type 2 diabetes insulin levels are elevated, this might also promote the development of cancer.

There are several possible explanations for the link between diabetes and dementia. First, strokes are more common in people with type 2 diabetes, and both major and repeated mini-strokes can lead to dementia.

Second, diabetes affects the structure and function of the smallest blood vessels throughout the body (the capillaries), including in the brain. This may impair the delivery of nutrients to a person’s brain cells.

Third, high glucose levels and other metabolic disturbances associated with diabetes may, over time, directly affect the way certain types of brain cells function.

Room for improvement

Despite well-established recommendations for the management of type 2 diabetes, such as guidelines for medication use, healthy diet and regular physical activity, there remains a significant gap between the evidence and what happens in practice.

A study from the US showed only one in four patients with type 2 diabetes met all the recommended targets for healthy levels of glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure.

Australian data has shown having diabetes is associated with 14% increased likelihood of discontinuing cholesterol medication after one year.

In our report, we showed increasing the use of a range of effective medications would prevent many hundreds of people with diabetes developing heart disease, strokes and kidney failure each year.

Read more: Unscrambling the egg: how research works out what really leads to an increased disease risk

With the burden of diabetes complications in our community casting such a large shadow in terms of death rates, disability and impact on the health system, we need greater education and support for people with living diabetes, as well as health professionals treating the condition.

For people with type 2 diabetes, close monitoring for other diseases such as cancer through screening programs is particularly important.

And alongside managing their blood sugar levels, it’s essential Australians with type 2 diabetes are supported to keep risk factors for complications, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, at healthy levels.

A healthy diet and regular physical activity is a good place to start.

– ref. A disease that breeds disease: why is type 2 diabetes linked to increased risk of cancer and dementia? – https://theconversation.com/a-disease-that-breeds-disease-why-is-type-2-diabetes-linked-to-increased-risk-of-cancer-and-dementia-139298

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Adams, Postdoctoral Biomedical Engineering Researcher, Deakin University

During the frenzy of the past few months to secure resources for the fight against COVID-19, the demand for technologies that promise to detect symptomatic individuals has been sky-high. However, not all proposed solutions work as advertised.

Thermal cameras are already being implemented as a means of detecting people with fever-like symptoms in high-traffic areas such as hospital entrances, shopping centres and office buildings, and potentially mass-attendance sporting events when they resume.

People who show up as having high temperatures can then be directed to further assessment and encouraged to isolate to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

But the evidence suggests thermal cameras are far from a perfect solution, offering limited accuracy if set up incorrectly, and raising data privacy concerns.

Read more: Coronavirus: how long does it take to get sick? How infectious is it? Will you always have a fever? COVID-19 basics explained

Accuracy is important

Despite the urgency of the COVID-19 situation, we cannot abandon accuracy. If temperature screening incorrectly detects many people as having a fever, then healthcare services will be burdened by needless secondary assessments.

On the other hand, if the technology fails to detect many people who do have symptoms it may create a false sense of security and lead to future COVID-19 clusters. This is especially important in high-risk environments such as aged-care facilities or hospitals.

The most accurate tools for measuring temperatures are the ones used to assess hospital patients for fever, such as mouth, ear and rectal thermometers. However, these tools require training to use correctly, and bring patients into direct contact with a device which must then be cleaned before it can be used again.

The requirements for training and cleaning are a major drawback during a pandemic and are the reason these tools are not widely used for mass fever screening.

Why thermal cameras?

As a result, both government and industry are deploying automated systems involving infrared thermal cameras instead to perform fever-screening from facial temperature measurements. Many such systems have already been deployed in high-risk locations across the country.

These systems are sometimes seen as a magic bullet for mass fever screening. Measurements are almost instant, there is no contact, and data can be viewed at a distance, so there is minimal disruption in public places and little risk of cross-contamination or harm to the operator. And the system can be used with minimal training.

Read more: Why do some people with coronavirus get symptoms while others don’t?

Lack of evidence

However, there is a glaring lack of clinical evidence for thermal camera-based fever screening solutions. So far there has been no multi-site, large-scale independent clinical trial to assess the accuracy of these systems. To our knowledge, no thermal imaging system has been approved as a medical device by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration.

This is concerning, particularly as these systems are being trusted to protect high-risk areas. It is possible that in the rush to find solutions to keep people safe, the limitations of such systems have been overlooked.

The limits of thermal cameras

The most crucial limitation of these technologies is biological. The skin on a person’s face is not one single temperature, and does not uniformly reflect their core body temperature, which is needed to assess fever.

After entering a building on a cold winter day, a person’s forehead temperature stays unusually low for minutes afterwards. This could potentially allow a feverish person to be incorrectly screened.

Research suggests the region of the face that best reflects core temperature is the inner corner of the eye. This is a very small target, so to measure this area an individual must be very close, and directly facing the camera. Even a small change in angle has been found to alter the readings.

Even if the system can measure the right part of the face, many other factors can change the reading, such as room temperature, airflow, wearing glasses, image background, and skin dampness.

In 2017, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released guidelines on how to deploy thermal camera systems to account for these factors. The recommendations include only measuring a single person at a time, keeping the subject and camera close, and ensuring each person pauses while directly facing the camera.

Read more: The coronavirus pandemic highlights the need for a surveillance debate beyond ‘privacy’

Privacy problems

In addition, many thermal camera systems include facial recognition capabilities to make it easier to identify anyone who triggers an alert. Hospitals, shopping centres and office buildings around the world are now receiving facial images of every person who enters their facilities.

Significant questions remain over whether these organisations are up to date with the required security practices to collect and store this type of private information safely.

In places such as aged-care facilities and hospitals where the impact of an outbreak could be catastrophic, there is an ethical obligation to follow best-practice protocols, and the advice of experts.

Currently, in the case of thermal cameras for mass fever screening, the obligation would be to ensure the systems follow the recommendations put forward by the ISO, and avoid providers who don’t comply.

More research is needed to investigate this technology and begin developing a library of reliable independent research. This is necessary to make sure decisions about this technology can be made on the basis of firm evidence during COVID-19 and future pandemics.

– ref. Are thermal cameras a magic bullet for COVID-19 fever detection? There’s not enough evidence to know – https://theconversation.com/are-thermal-cameras-a-magic-bullet-for-covid-19-fever-detection-theres-not-enough-evidence-to-know-139377

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brooke Collins-Gearing, Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle

Review: The Beach, created and directed by Warwick Thornton

Watching Warwick Thornton’s The Beach is a journey into place and self. It made me want to breathe deeper and smell the salty air. It made me want to walk barefoot among the mangrove trees. And it made me want to eat.

Thornton cooks food from the place he dwells in, the shack on the beach at Jilirr, on the Dampier Peninsula in far north Western Australia, on the land of the Baard people. You want to touch, smell and taste – and feel gratitude for how Country can provide.

Dressed in a flash black jacket and cowboy hat, Thornton arrives in his old Toyota jeep. From the start, the energetic elements of Country are apparent. Fire, water, earth and air are his constant companions – along with his three chooks (the Ladies and Man) and the spices and seeds he tenderly chops, grinds and nurtures with his hands.

Thornton’s combination of saltwater sustenance with oils and spices makes meal preparation ceremonial. As he hunts, catches and prepares the food, he transforms it – from liquid to solid to gas to artwork on (at times) extremely fancy plates. He gives us a sense of what that Country might taste like, how it might nourish your spirit.

The colours, sounds and smells of this patch of beach are alive and moving.

Energy of Country

The Beach was filmed by Thornton’s son Dylan River. And it’s beautiful. Every shot is a living, breathing piece of artwork. Country itself – this little piece of liminal space between land and sea with a one-room wood and tin shack – is as much the protagonist as Thornton himself. And the chooks. And Hermit Crabs – who pay no attention to Thornton’s requests, but carry on with their own business.

Near and far, with intimate close ups, wide panoramic views and aerial shots, River captures the colours of the land, sea and sky: their movements; the patterns they create.

Thornton’s interactions with Country are soundtracked by the sounds of the beach and its tin shack. Tin, wood, wire, glass, steel and cloth all contribute to the dialogue. Thornton’s skill at using the sound of silence – nowhere more evident than in his breathtaking and heartbreaking film Samson and Delihah – creates layered dialogues swirling in conversation with Thornton, much like the swirling tides that, at times, turn the shack into an island.

Sounds of Thornton chopping food, sharpening knives, whirling the handle of the cooker, sizzling in frypans and washing utensils are embedded in the sounds of water, wind and fire. These join with the musical notes of his guitar, sometimes played by him, sometimes played by the wind.

Read more: Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country: a tragic investigation of race on Australia’s frontier

The kinetic energy created by Thornton’s use of tools and utensils feels like an extension of the potential energy manifesting from Country itself. It’s as if he taps into the energeticness of the place, harnessing this energy and then extending it from his own body back into place again as he holds his spear, his guitar or his pen.

Tracing patterns

Thornton’s presence and stories, River’s camera, and the beach each give glimpses into memory, time, scale and the aliveness of place.

The beach is ever shifting and changing with its tides and winds and the movement of Moon and Sun. The cloud formations are undeniable story tellers.

Amid the stories of and from Country that Thornton lives and River’s camera lens sees are the stories Thornton tells. Storytelling time with the Ladies and Man; the moments between him, his guitar and its musical notes; his long shadow stretched above him and his track of footprints behind him across the sand continually speak of the journey he is on.

With the stories come the patterns and the scars. Patterns in the sand and tides, patterns in the wood that abounds, patterns in the string of the fishing net, patterns he burns into his guitar.

Thornton seems very aware of the patterns that surround him. The patterns in his life and himself he recognises and owns. The scars he carved into his arm; the Fibonacci-like spiral fractal tracks he carves in the sand with his car.

As he strips away the outer layers of a coconut he strips away layers of himself to find his centre, to regain his balance.

With his last feed of oysters, provided by Country and cooked among the mangrove trees, you see the transformation Thornton experiences. By the time he’s ready to leave, you can feel Thornton’s calm: his energy has moved through the extreme heat, from the dream to reality, with the big full Moon rising.

Watching Thornton pack up and leave, I remember something he said in one of his stories: “You gonna follow, or are you gonna create your own path?”

These words stay with me long after I watch him drive away.

The Beach premieres on NITV, SBS and SBS On Demand on Friday May 29 at 7.30pm.

– ref. Review: Warwick Thornton’s The Beach is a delicate conversation with Country – https://theconversation.com/review-warwick-thorntons-the-beach-is-a-delicate-conversation-with-country-139464

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Quinn, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University

A new trial has begun in Victoria this week to evaluate a potential vaccine against COVID-19.

The vaccine is called NVX-CoV2373 and is from a US biotech company, Novavax.

The trial will be carried out across Melbourne and Brisbane, and is the first human trial of a vaccine specifically for COVID-19 to take place in Australia.

This vaccine is actually based on a vaccine that was already in development for influenza. But how might it work against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19?

Read more: Could BCG, a 100-year-old vaccine for tuberculosis, protect against coronavirus?

What’s in the mix?

Vaccines trigger an immune response by introducing the cells of our immune system to a virus in a safe way, without any exposure to the pathogen itself.

All vaccines have to do two things. The first is make our immune cells bind to and “eat up” the vaccine. The second is to activate these immune cells so they’re prepared to fight the current and any subsequent threats from the virus in question.

We often add molecules called adjuvants to vaccines to deliver a danger signal to the immune system, activate immune cells and trigger a strong immune response.

Read more: Revealed: the protein ‘spike’ that lets the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pierce and invade human cells

The Novavax vaccine is what we call a “subunit” vaccine because, instead of delivering the whole virus, it delivers only part of it. The element of SARS-CoV-2 in this vaccine is the spike protein, which is found on the surface of the virus.

By targeting a particular protein, a subunit vaccine is a great way to focus the immune response.

However, protein by itself is not very good at binding to and activating the cells of our immune system. Proteins are generally soluble, which doesn’t appeal to immune cells. They like something they can chew on.

So instead of soluble protein, Novavax has assembled the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into very small particles, called nanoparticles. To immune cells, these nanoparticles look like little viruses, so immune cells can bind to these pre-packaged chunks of protein, rapidly engulfing them and becoming activated.

The Novavax vaccine also contains an adjuvant called Matrix-M. While the nanoparticles deliver a modest danger signal, Matrix-M can be added to deliver a much stronger danger signal and really wake up the immune system.

Rethinking an influenza vaccine

The Novavax vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is based on a vaccine the company was already developing for influenza, called NanoFlu.

The NanoFlu vaccine contains similar parts – nanoparticles with the Matrix-M adjuvant. But it uses a different protein in the nanoparticle (hemagglutinin, which is on the outside of the influenza virus).

In October last year, Novavax started testing NanoFlu in a phase III clinical trial, the last level of clinical testing before a vaccine can be licensed. This trial had 2,650 volunteers and researchers were comparing whether NanoFlu performed as well as Fluzone, a standard influenza vaccine.

Read more: Where are we at with developing a vaccine for coronavirus?

An important feature of this trial is participants were over the age of 65. Older people tend to have poorer responses to vaccines, because immune cells become more difficult to activate as we age.

This trial is ongoing, with volunteers to be followed until the end of the year. However, early results suggest NanoFlu can generate significantly higher levels of antibodies than Fluzone – even given the older people in the trial.

Antibodies are small proteins made by our immune cells which bind strongly to viruses and can stop them from infecting cells in the nose and lungs. So increased antibodies with NanoFlu should result in lower rates of infection with influenza.

These results were similar to those released after the phase I trial of NanoFlu, and suggest NanoFlu would be the superior vaccine for influenza.

So the big question is – will the same strategy work for SARS-CoV-2?

The Australian clinical trial

The new phase I/II trial will enrol around 131 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 59 to assess the vaccine’s safety and measure how it affects the body’s immune response.

Some volunteers will not receive the vaccine, as a placebo control. The rest will receive the vaccine, in a few different forms.

The trial will test two doses of protein nanoparticles – a low (5 microgram) or a high (25 microgram) dose. Both doses will be delivered with Matrix-M adjuvant but the higher dose will also be tested without Matrix-M.

All groups will receive two shots of the vaccine 21 days apart, except one group that will just get one shot.

This design enables researchers to ask four important questions:

1. can the vaccine induce an immune response?

2. if so, what dose of nanoparticle is best?

3. do you need adjuvant or are nanoparticles enough?

4. do you need two shots or is one enough?

Read more: Coronavirus anti-vaxxers aren’t a huge threat yet. How do we keep it that way?

While it’s not yet clear how the vaccine will perform for SARS-CoV-2, Novavax has reported it generated strong immune responses in animals.

And we know NanoFlu performed well and had a good safety profile for influenza. NanoFlu also seemed to work well in older adults, which would be essential for a vaccine for COVID-19.

We eagerly await the first set of results, expected in a couple of months – an impressive turnaround time for a clinical trial. If this initial study is successful, the phase II portion of the trial will begin, with more participants.

The Novavax vaccine joins at least nine other vaccine candidates for SARS-CoV-2 currently in clinical testing around the world.

– ref. The vaccine we’re testing in Australia is based on a flu shot. Here’s how it could work against coronavirus – https://theconversation.com/the-vaccine-were-testing-in-australia-is-based-on-a-flu-shot-heres-how-it-could-work-against-coronavirus-139380

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle

The Jerusalem District Court has ruled that Malka Leifer is fit to stand trial on charges of child sexual abuse. This is a significant ruling in a very long process seeking Leifer’s extradition to Australia.

Leifer was employed from Israel to be headmistress of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Girls School in 2000. She is accused of 74 counts of child sexual abuse against former students of the school.

Read more: Explainer: what is extradition between countries and how does it work?

A six-year court battle for extradition

Her alleged victims – sisters Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper – have described their relief at this ruling, in a “bruising” six-year court battle involving 66 hearings to date.

The sisters had a difficult home life within an ultra-orthodox Jewish community, and for many years did not disclose their alleged abuse to anyone, even each other.

A 2018 ABC Australian Story report used Dassi Erlich’s childhood diary entries to help relate the sisters’ story of abuse in the early to mid-2000s.

When allegations against Leifer emerged in 2008, the Adass Israel School funded her flights to flee with her family to Israel. Australia issued an extradition request in 2013, which Israel eventually acted on by arresting Leifer in 2014.

Leifer has by turns been bailed and imprisoned in Israel since that time. She has repeatedly claimed she suffers from mental illness to the extent that she is unfit to face trial on the charges against her. Government minister Yaakov Litzman has been accused of altering medical documents in Leifer’s favour to influence the outcome of court hearings regarding her health and fitness. Israeli police have recommended Litzman’s indictment.

One result of the delays and twists in the case is that no Israeli court has yet considered the substantive issues that are key to Australia’s extradition request.

In January this year, an expert psychiatric panel determined Leifer had been feigning her claimed mental illness to avoid extradition. In this week’s District Court ruling, Judge Chana Miriam Lomp accepted the panel’s opinion and decided Leifer was fit to stand trial.

Where to next for Leifer?

Judge Lomp has scheduled an extradition hearing for July 20. Leifer’s lawyers stand prepared to appeal a decision of that hearing.

This means Leifer’s alleged victims are hopefully at last close to the point where an Israeli court will make decisions central to the extradition process. The court will need to be convinced a clear case exists against Leifer to justify her extradition.

The point of extradition is to facilitate Leifer’s trial for crimes allegedly committed within Australia, which fall within the state of Victoria’s jurisdiction to prosecute. Although extradition is a concept emerging from international law, it is not governed by a multilateral treaty obliging one country to accept another country’s jurisdiction over its national.

Where Australia believes extradition is justified – and that a request fits within the framework of the Extradition Act 1988 – it can request but not expect extradition to occur.

Israeli law will govern the process followed in Israel. This may mean Israel would only permit Leifer’s extradition to Australia on the proviso she be returned to Israel to serve any prison sentence delivered to her by an Australian court.

Any appeal against an extradition ruling will delay the process further. Prosecuting authorities in Israel may challenge a successful appeal, but it is impossible to say what prospects of success would be. Although the most recent ruling is a very positive development for the alleged victims, it by no means secures the outcome they and the Australian government are seeking.

High-level political advocacy

The lengthy history of this case has strained relations between Australia and Israel. Several Australian politicians have directly approached Israeli officials to seek an expedited process.

Even Israel’s ambassador to Australia publicly celebrated the latest ruling.

Attorney-General Christian Porter also welcomed the decision:

The allegations against Ms Leifer are very serious and the Australian Government remains strongly committed to ensuring that justice is served in this case. To achieve that, it is appropriate and remains the Government’s strong view that Ms Leifer is ultimately extradited to stand trial in Australia on the 74 counts of child sexual abuse against her and I travelled to Israel last year to make that case to Israel’s Attorney-General.

At this time, the thoughts of the Australian Government are very much with alleged victims and hopefully this positive development will give them some confidence that proceedings in Israel are moving towards their aim of seeing proceedings commence in Australia within the Australian justice system.“

Such high-level representations between governments reflect the extent to which Australia is committed to seeing Leifer tried in the Victorian courts.

Australia’s willingness to advocate for the rights of Leifer’s alleged victims vindicates the sisters’ long-standing commitment to pursuing this matter publicly, despite the inordinate toll the process has taken.

– ref. Malka Leifer has been ruled fit to stand trial. Will extradition to Australia follow? – https://theconversation.com/malka-leifer-has-been-ruled-fit-to-stand-trial-will-extradition-to-australia-follow-139463

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elspeth Tilley, Associate Professor of English (Expressive Arts), Massey University

You’re walking on a public footpath when a jogger overtakes you from behind, well inside the recommended two-metre physical distance. What to do? By the time you’ve reacted it’s too late. Just another random encounter in the strange new world of COVID-19.

New Zealand’s alert level 2 restrictions ask that we “consider others” by keeping two metres from strangers when “out and about”. In reality, we’ve seen a rise in anxiety on public transport and airlines.

With social gatherings up to 100 people allowed from May 29, such anxieties may only increase.

Debate about social distancing often pits “COVID-19 is gone” against “COVID-19 might not be gone, let’s be careful”. It’s an unwinnable argument: because of the virus’s incubation period we still don’t know.

It’s also a red herring, because if we focus only on risk we overlook consent.

Consent is one of the most important ethical doctrines. It means respecting people’s right to free choice within agreed legal parameters and according to their ability to exercise that right.

Read more: Coronavirus has turned retail therapy into retail anxiety – keeping customers calm will be key to carrying on

When it comes to consent, New Zealand gets a “can do better” grade. We’ve even had public education programs about sexual consent, such as the Don’t Guess the Yes campaign from the New Zealand Police.

While this article is not about sexual consent, social distancing requirements offer an opportunity to learn more about consent in general. This might then equip us better to navigate other situations.

Consent 101: an introduction

Living in a cohesive society means we give up some autonomy. We agree to live by the law – or to go into lockdown when asked by our government. We still retain plenty of personal control within that social contract. Ethically, someone can only remove that remaining autonomy with our informed consent.

Consent is usually a process of communication. A capable person is given enough information to voluntarily make a knowledgeable decision about participating in an activity.

Power and vulnerability are complicating factors. The principles of consent aim to protect vulnerable people from being exploited by those with more resources, including more information.

For example, intoxicated people are vulnerable. A drunk person can’t consent to anything, including a breach of their social distance. It’s why bars took longer to reopen than restaurants while safety systems were set up.

Back to our hypothetical jogging incident. Was there informed consent? Before COVID-19, choosing to be in a public place implied accepting proximity with others. Currently, though, there is a public health directive to stay apart.

Read more: 7 tips to help kids feeling anxious about going back to school

Assuming the jogger did not have a (socially distanced) friendly chat with the walker to obtain their informed consent to breach their government-recommended minimum distance, can they ethically presume to make that decision on another’s behalf?

First, is there a power difference between the jogger and the walker? Arguably, the person breaking distancing holds more power. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone.

In this instance, the jogger also has more power than the walker because they have more information. They can see ahead, predict a breach is likely to occur, and decide how to react. The walker cannot see behind them.

Was our walker vulnerable? Our jogger does not know. They cannot tell whether the walker is in a vulnerable COVID-19 category, lives with a newborn baby, has cancer or is a carer for someone elderly.

Finally, what does our social contract suggest? In New Zealand everyone has equal rights to use public walkways. As fair-minded people it’s unlikely we’d want vulnerable people’s disadvantage worsened by removing their right to go out for a walk.

Assume other people are vulnerable

On all counts, our jogger can best fulfil their ethical duties by assuming the walker is vulnerable and actively protecting them from potential harm.

Under level 4 restrictions, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested we act as though we have COVID-19. It’s what is known as a heuristic – a useful mental shortcut to help us make decisions. Perhaps it’s time for a new one.

Read more: Should you fly yet? An epidemiologist and an exposure scientist walk you through the decision process

It may be most helpful now to act as though everyone we encounter in public is vulnerable. It is easier to imagine other people being vulnerable than to trick our brains into thinking we are unwell when we feel fine.

Presuming the vulnerability of others until proven otherwise ticks the consent box: an easy rule of thumb for doing the right thing.

Consent is sometimes described in the literature of ethics as a “social gift”. By upholding consent we give the gift of respect for others’ right to choose when they want to step beyond their own “bubble”.

A sense of doing the right thing is also psychologically rewarding for the giver – it makes us feel positive about ourselves.

Understanding consent means that as we jog (or cycle, or get on a bus or plane) we can leave the job of calculating current COVID-19 risks to the experts. Instead we can focus on something within our immediate control: by the simple social gift of stepping back, waiting or veering around them, we recognise and validate the humanity and personal autonomy of others.

– ref. Don’t stand so close to me – understanding consent can help with those tricky social distancing moments – https://theconversation.com/dont-stand-so-close-to-me-understanding-consent-can-help-with-those-tricky-social-distancing-moments-139293

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorana Bartels, Professor and Program Leader of Criminology, Australian National University

Yesterday was National Sorry Day in Australia. It marks the anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report, which chronicles decades of removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

Sorry Day also acknowledges the strength of the Stolen Generations survivors and reflects on the role everyone can play in healing our country.

Yesterday was also the third anniversary of the release of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which poignantly notes:

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

And this week is National Reconciliation Week, which represents a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements. The theme this year is “In This Together”.

Read more: Why self-determination is vital for Indigenous communities to beat coronavirus

Findings of a new report

However, a new report released today makes clear the treatment of First Australians during the COVID-19 outbreak is not the same as for non-Indigenous Australians.

The report by Change the Record, the First Peoples-led justice coalition of peak bodies and allies, highlights numerous ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been disproportionately affected by the more punitive and restrictive policy responses to the pandemic.

Among the findings were:

• First Nations people have experienced an increased use of lockdowns in prisons and have had reduced access to lawyers and visits from families

• some prisons have required people in prison “to pay exorbitant fees to call loved ones”

• victim-survivors of family violence have been unable to access police protection and support services due to staffing shortages (a particular concern because there is evidence such violence is increasing)

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services have reported “substantial challenges” in working with their clients and are concerned about a spike in legal demand as soon as restrictions are lifted

• the closures of residential drug and alcohol facilities have led to people being sent home, leaving some people without alternative and safe living arrangements

• First Nations parents have had access to their children in out-of-home care restricted, causing “distress and anxiety in a time of heightened stress for everyone”

• there has been over-policing of First Nations people for offences such as public nuisance, public drunkenness, fare evasion and failure to comply with move on orders. There have been high numbers of fines issued in small towns with high First Nations populations and low levels of COVID-19.

Governments’ COVID-19 prison policies have been inadequate

As we have argued in open letters to governments and elsewhere, the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in prisons has been a concern requiring immediate action across the country.

First Nations people are particularly at risk of infection, due to:

Accordingly, we have called on governments to release some prisoners early, including First Nations people.

The government response to prevent the spread of coronavirus in prisons has included restrictions on visitors (especially family members), enforced isolation and lockdowns of people.

These circumstances have created unrest in prisons and likely contributed to three recent deaths in Queensland prisons.

Read more: FactCheck Q&A: are Indigenous Australians the most incarcerated people on Earth?

The Change the Record report chronicles the despair of First Nations people in prisons and their lack of access to services and support.

An Aboriginal man, Daniel, has been remanded in prison in Tasmania since early 2020. … Daniel is not allowed any visits with his family or his lawyer because of COVID-19 restrictions. He reports feeling lost in the legal proceedings because he cannot have a decent chat with his lawyer about the matters and get advice.

The report makes recommendations for people in prisons, including:

• the release of First Nations people in prisons who are low-risk, on remand, elderly or at increased risk of COVID-19, as well as children and those with chronic health conditions

• protecting the human rights of First Nations people in prison, by ensuring access to oversight and monitoring agencies, family, legal services, mental health care, education and programs

The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on children

Some of the invisible victims in the pandemic are the children of prisoners. Imprisonment disrupts family life, especially in cases when a First Nations mother or primary caregiver is incarcerated.

Because physical visits have been suspended, children’s access to their imprisoned parents has been even more constrained.

Read more: Friday essay: voices from the bush – how lockdown affects remote Indigenous communities differently

This has life-long and intergenerational effects on individuals and communities. It can also lead to the permanent placement of children in state care.

The Change the Record report also notes how First Nations parents are unable to visit with their children in out-of-home care.

Julia had been having multiple face-to-face visits with her child every week. Due to COVID-19, Julia’s contact with her daughter has been reduced to one phone/video call a week. … When children cannot engage in this mode of communication, for some parents contact with their children has stopped all together.

The report makes recommendations for policies affecting children during the pandemic, including:

• increasing support and access to safe accommodation for First Nations families fleeing family violence to stop further removals of children

• implement legislative changes to ensure parents of First Nations children in out-of-home care don’t lose their children to permanent care during COVID-19.

The report also calls for:

• rebuilding our justice system after COVID-19 to focus on investing in community, not prisons, to increase community safety and prevent black deaths in custody.

No return to status quo

We endorse these recommendations, especially the final call to rebuild our justice system. As we emerge from the immediate threat of the pandemic, it is vital that we not return to the status quo.

More than two years ago, the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Pathways to Justice report was tabled in parliament. It outlined a comprehensive blueprint for reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander over-incarceration.

The Australian government is yet to respond.

If Reconciliation Week is to be meaningful, governments must take action to heal, rather than jail, First Nations people. In the current circumstances, this includes acting on Change the Record’s recommendations.

– ref. For First Nations people, coronavirus has meant fewer services, separated families and over-policing: new report – https://theconversation.com/for-first-nations-people-coronavirus-has-meant-fewer-services-separated-families-and-over-policing-new-report-139460

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sian Tomkinson, Media and Communication Scholar, University of Western Australia

Last week, a 17-year-old boy in Toronto was charged with an act of terrorism in the alleged killing of a woman with a machete – the first time such a charge has been brought in a case involving “incel” ideology.

Also last week, a 20-year-old man who self-identified as an “incel” – short for “involuntary celibate” – allegedly went on a shooting spree in Arizona, targeting couples to express his anger over the fact women had rejected him.

These are just two of the most recent attacks attributed to incels. Incel-related violence has been on the rise for the past seven years, and according to our research, has been linked to the deaths of at least 53 people and scores of injuries.

Incel is the name adopted by an online community comprised almost entirely of men and boys who rage against women and blame them for their sexless lives.

While many are simply lonely and use the community for support in an age of digital isolation, some radicals advocate for social and sexual rebellion. These extremist incels seek revenge through violent attacks against people they call “Chads and Stacys”, a reference to men and women they perceive as very successful when it comes to sex.

In our new research, we argue governments should recognise incels as ideological extremist organisations and, through stronger policies and laws, start combating misogyny in the same way they fight Islamic extremism.

What do incels believe?

In our research, we reviewed incel attacks over the past seven years, looking at what the perpetrators were posting online and how they were engaging with others in the community.

We found incels are angry because they believe the sexual revolution has made women promiscuous and manipulative. They believe feminism, the contraceptive pill and women’s involvement in politics have fuelled this promiscuity.

But they believe women are choosing to have sex only with “Chads”, not incels, and feel a sense of injustice and persecution as a result.

According to the incel-run “Incel Wiki” website, these men view Chads as “the only male beneficiaries of the sexual revolution”. They hate Stacys because they are “vain and obsessed with jewellery, makeup and clothes”, and are “entitled whores”.

Read more: How a masculine culture that favors sexual conquests gave us today’s ‘incels’

These misogynistic views connect incels to other alt-right, anti-women groups like Pick Up Artists and Men’s Rights Activists, which believe feminine values have come to dominate society and men must fight back against a politically correct and misandrist culture to protect their very existence.

Alt-right groups, including incels, have been emboldened by the presidency of Donald Trump in the US, and are certainly active in Australia.

They use online forums to spread their messages of hate, convincing other would-be incels they can blame their social and sexual difficulties on others. Some fantasise about committing acts of violence.

This was the case for Alek Minassian, who has admitted to driving a van onto a sidewalk in Toronto in 2018, killing 10 people. Minassian has told police he was radicalised by other incels online.

Before the van attack, Minassian posted this message on Facebook:

the Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!

The last part of the quote refers to Elliot Rodger, who published a 141-page incel manifesto online before killing six people in a shooting and stabbing spree in California in 2014. He has since become a martyr in the incel community.

Addressing misogyny at a societal level

Our research shows incel violence presents a similar threat to public safety as religious extremism – and it’s increasing.

Incel extremism fits the definition put forth by Home Affairs for violent extremism:

the use or support of violence to achieve ideological, religious or political goals.

However, Home Affairs apparently does not view misogynistic extremism as such a pressing issue. While some states have developed “threat assessment centres” that could be used to monitor radical incels, the federal government has not provided important leadership by labelling incels or misogyny a security threat.

Understanding the threat posed by incels is difficult because it requires unpacking and critiquing the misogynistic views that underpin their behaviours. Some men misread this as an attack.

Read more: Remembering everyday violence against women and girls on Dec. 6

Some lessons can also be learned from strategies to counter other forms of violent extremism.

Targeting specific groups can create “suspect communities” and contribute to feelings of persecution. This, in turn, can increase the chances of people becoming violent. Incels already feel disempowered and victimised, so creating a “suspect community” could exacerbate the problem.

Our research suggests the most effective interventions should occur at a societal level.

One reason for this is the anonymous nature of the incel movement. These men tend not to admit to their beliefs in public, relying instead on comments from opinion leaders to legitimise them. If we counter these types of misogynistic statements and deem them a security threat, it could lessen their impact with individual men.

This also means not allowing the mainstream media, politicians or public commentators to excuse or justify gendered violence when it happens.

There is also plenty of evidence that tackling misogyny in this way could help reduce domestic violence, as well as all other forms of violent extremism.

Read more: ‘Ideological masculinity’ that drives violence against women is a form of violent extremism

Targeting individuals before radicalisation happens

Beyond this, health, education and social workers could be trained to spot at-risk behaviours in individual men and act when appropriate.

Following ideas surfaced by other researchers on countering violent extremism, we advocate taking a “public health approach” that allows us to address the feelings of isolation and alienation among incels and intervene at early stages to prevent violence from occurring.

Waiting for radicalised people to start planning attacks is too risky. Germany and Norway have had significant success changing opinions and behaviours by targeting “at-risk” individuals at earlier stages of potential radicalisation.

It is time for Home Affairs to end its preoccupation with external threats and instead address the threats within. Misogyny needs to be understood as a real threat to our public and private security.

– ref. ‘Incel’ violence is a form of extremism. It’s time we treated it as a security threat – https://theconversation.com/incel-violence-is-a-form-of-extremism-its-time-we-treated-it-as-a-security-threat-138536

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Rosenbaum, Associate professor & Scientia Fellow, UNSW

Amid the coronavirus pandemic we are being warned of a “second wave” of mental health problems that threatens to overrun an already weakened mental health service.

As we emerge from this crisis, while some people may need specialist help with treating mental illness, everybody can benefit from strategies to improve mental health.

This is because mental health is more than just the absence of mental illness. Positive mental health is a combination of feeling good and functioning well.

Read more: Is your mental health deteriorating during the coronavirus pandemic? Here’s what to look out for

Mental illness vs mental health: what’s the difference?

Mental health and mental illness are not simply two sides of the same coin. Mental health, just like physical health, exists on a spectrum from poor to optimal.

With physical health, some days we naturally feel stronger and more energetic than others. Similarly, some days our mental health is worse than others, and that too is a natural part of being human. We may feel tired, grumpy, sad, angry, anxious, depressed, stressed, or even happy at any point in time. These are all normal human emotions, and aren’t on their own a sign of mental illness.

Someone living with a mental illness can be experiencing optimal mental health at any point in time, while someone else can feel sad or low even in the absence of a mental illness.

Differentiating between poor mental health and symptoms of a mental illness is not always clear-cut. When poor mental health has a sustained negative impact on someone’s ability to work, have meaningful relationships, and fulfil day-to-day tasks, it could be a sign of mental illness requiring treatment.

What does positive mental health look like?

Mental health is more than just the absence of mental illness.

Positive mental health and well-being is a combination of feeling good and functioning well. Important components include:

• experiencing positive emotions: happiness, joy, pride, satisfaction, and love

• having positive relationships: people you care for, and who care for you

• feeling engaged with life

• meaning and purpose: feeling your life is valuable and worthwhile

• a sense of accomplishment: doing things that give you a sense of achievement or competence

• emotional stability: feeling calm and able to manage emotions

• resilience: the ability to cope with the stresses of daily life

• optimism: feeling positive about your life and future

• self-esteem: feeling positive about yourself

• vitality: feeling energetic.

How can I cultivate my mental health?

Your mental health is shaped by social, economic, genetic and environmental conditions. To improve mental health within society at large, we need to address the social determinants of poor mental health, including poverty, economic insecurity, unemployment, low education, social disadvantage, homelessness and social isolation.

On an individual level, there are steps you can take to optimise your mental health. The first step is identifying your existing support networks and the coping strategies that you’ve used in the past.

There are also small things you can do to improve your mental health and help you to cope in tough times, such as:

• helping others

• finding a type of exercise or physical activity you enjoy (like yoga)

• getting good sleep

• eating healthy food

• connecting with others, building and maintaining positive relationships

• learning strategies to manage stress

• having realistic expectations (no one is happy and positive all the time)

• learning ways to relax (such as meditation)

• counteracting negative or overcritical thinking

• doing things you enjoy and that give you a sense of accomplishment.

How do I know if I need extra support?

Regardless of whether you are experiencing a mental illness, everyone has the right to optimal mental health. The suggestions above can help everyone improve their mental health and well-being, and help is available if you’re not sure how to get started.

However, when distress or poor mental health is interfering with our daily life, work, study or relationships, these suggestions may not be enough by themselves and additional, individualised treatment may be needed.

If the answer to RUOK? is no, or you or your loved ones need help, reaching out to your local GP is an important step. If you are eligible, your GP can refer you for free or low-cost sessions with a psychologist, exercise physiologist, dietitian, or other allied health or medical support services.

This article is supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

– ref. What are the characteristics of strong mental health? – https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-characteristics-of-strong-mental-health-139032

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bill Hare, Director, Climate Analytics, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University (Perth), Visiting scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Every few years, the idea that gas will help Australia transition to a zero-emissions economy seems to re-emerge, as if no one had thought of it before. Federal energy minister Angus Taylor is the latest politician to jump on the gas bandwagon.

Taylor wants taxpayer money invested in fast-start gas projects to drive the post-pandemic recovery. His government plans to extend the emissions reduction fund to fossil fuel projects using carbon capture and storage.

The government’s “technology investment roadmap”, released last week, said gas will help in “balancing” renewable energy sources. And manufacturers advising the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission want public money used to underwrite a huge domestic gas expansion.

Read more: Morrison government dangles new carrots for industry but fails to fix bigger climate policy problem

Amid all these gas plans, there is little talk of the damage this would wreak on the climate. We need only look to Woodside’s Burrup Hub proposal in Western Australia to find evidence of the staggering potential impact.

By the end of its life in 2070, the project and the gas it produces will emit about six billion tonnes of greenhouse gas. That’s about 1.5% of the 420 billion tonnes of CO2 world can emit between 2018 and 2100 if it wants to stay below 1.5℃ of global warming.

This project alone exposes as a furphy the claim that natural gas is a viable transition fuel.

Undermining Paris

The Burrup Hub proposal involves creating a large regional hub for liquified natural gas (LNG) on the Burrup Peninsula in northern WA. It would process a huge volume of gas resources from the Scarborough, Browse and Pluto basins, as well as other sources.

We closely examined this proposal, and submitted our analysis to the WA Environmental Protection Authority and the federal environment department, which are assessing the proposal.

Read more: NSW has approved Snowy 2.0. Here are six reasons why that’s a bad move

The likely scale of domestic emissions from the Burrup Hub will significantly undermine Australia’s efforts under the Paris climate agreement. To meet the Paris goals, Australia’s energy and industry sector can emit 4.8-6.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2018 and 2050. By 2050, the Burrup Hub would emit 7-10% of this.

Woodside’s investors are clearly concerned at the potential impact of the company’s emissions. On April 30 more than half its investors called on the company to set emission reduction targets aligned with the Paris agreement for both its domestic emissions and those that occur when the gas is burned overseas.

Not a climate saviour

Woodside has claimed the proposed Burrup Hub project would help the world meet the Paris goals by substituting natural gas for coal. This claim is often used to justify the continued expansion of the LNG industry.

But in several reports and analyses, we have shown the claim is incorrect.

If the Paris goals are to be met, the use of natural gas in Asia’s electricity sector – a major source of demand – would need to peak by around 2030 and then decline to almost zero between 2050 and 2060.

Globally (and without deployment of carbon capture and storage technology), demand for gas-fired electricity will have to peak before 2030 and be halved by 2040, based on 2010 levels.

Our analysis found that by 2050, gas can only form just a tiny part of global electricity demand if we are to meet the Paris goals.

Read more: Scott Morrison’s gas transition plan is a dangerous road to nowhere

The electricity sector is the main source of global LNG demand at present. Emissions from gas-fired electricity production can be lowered by 80-90% by using carbon capture and storage (CCS), which traps emissions at the source and injects them underground. But this technology is increasingly unlikely to compete with renewable energy and storage, on either cost or environmental grounds.

As renewable energy and storage costs continue to fall, estimates of costs for CCS in gas power generation have increased, including in Australia. And the technology doesn’t capture all emissions, so expensive efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would be required if the Paris goals are to be met.

Beyond the Burrup proposal, Woodside says its broader LNG export projects will help bring global emissions towards zero by displacing coal. To justify this claim, Woodside cites the International Energy Agency’s Sustainable Development Scenario. However this scenario assumes a rate of coal and gas use incompatible with the Paris agreement.

This problem is even starker at the national level. We estimate LNG extraction and production creates about 9-10% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. If we include exported LNG, the industry’s entire emissions would roughly equal 60% of Australia’s total emissions in 2017.

A big financial risk

If the world implements the Paris agreement, demand for gas-fired electricity will likely significantly drop off by 2030. Technology trends are already pointing in that direction.

This creates a major risk that gas assets will become redundant. Australia will be unprepared for the resulting job losses and economic dislocation. Both WA and the federal government have a responsibility to anticipate this risk, not ignore it.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has warned of the economic risks to financial institutions of stranded assets in a warming world, and the Burrup Hub is a prime example of this.

The economic stimulus response to COVID-19 presents a major opportunity for governments to direct investments towards low- and zero-carbon technologies. They must resist pressure from fossil fuel interests to do the opposite.

In response to the claims raised in this article, Woodside said in a statement:

We support the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rises to well below 2℃, with the implicit target of global carbon neutrality by 2050. At Woodside, we want to be carbon neutral for our operations by 2050.

Independent expert analysis by ERM, critically reviewed by CSIRO, shows Woodside’s Browse and Scarborough projects could avoid 650 Mt of CO2 equivalent (CO2-e) emissions between 2026 and 2040 by replacing higher emission fuels in countries that need our energy.

This means every tonne of greenhousa gas emitted in Australia from our projects equates to about 4 tonnes in emissions reduced globally. To put that in context, a 650 Mt CO2-e reduction in greenhouse gas is equivalent to cancelling out all emissions from Western Australia for more than eight years.

To have reliable energy and lower emissions, natural gas is essential. As a readily dispatchable power source, gas-fired power is an ideal partner with renewables to provide the necessary system stability.

Woodside remains committed to realising our vision for the Burrup Hub, despite the delay to final investment decisions on the projects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid decline in oil prices. We believe these projects are cost-competitive and investable, with 80-90% of their gas reserves to be produced by 2050.

The Burrup Hub developments have the potential to make a significant contribution to the recovery of the West Australian and national economies when we emerge from the impact of COVID-19. They will provide thousands of jobs, opportunities for local suppliers and tax and royalty revenues to the state and Australia.

– ref. A single mega-project exposes the Morrison government’s gas plan as staggering folly – https://theconversation.com/a-single-mega-project-exposes-the-morrison-governments-gas-plan-as-staggering-folly-133435

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah McLaren, Professor of Life Cycle Management, Massey University

Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.

If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz

I would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions of 0.17% include emissions produced from products manufactured overseas and then imported for the New Zealand consumer?

The latest Ministry for the Environment report, published last month, shows New Zealand contributes 0.17% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

New Zealand’s population represents just 0.06% of the world’s population (New Zealand 5 million, global 7.8 billion), which means it has a disproportionately high share of emissions for its population size. This is sometimes represented as per capita emissions – and in 2017, New Zealand ranked sixth highest among developed and transitioning countries, at 17.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per person. This is almost three times the average per capita share.

The reason for this can be partly explained by the way countries account for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Read more: Climate explained: which countries are likely to meet their Paris Agreement targets

Keeping track of emissions of traded goods

Countries generally use “production-based accounting” to quantify their greenhouse gas emissions. This approach counts emissions from all activities that happen within a country’s territory – which means goods manufactured elsewhere and then imported are not included.

It also means that if a country exports more goods and services than it imports, it will likely have disproportionately higher per capita emissions.

It can be argued that if a country can produce these goods more efficiently (with lower emissions) than other countries, this may be the preferred situation. This is the case for New Zealand’s agricultural production. Research shows New Zealand’s pasture-fed agricultural systems are efficient in producing meat and dairy products – per kilogram of meat or litre of milk, New Zealand emits less than many other countries.

Although most of these products are exported, the emissions from their production count towards New Zealand’s greenhouse gas inventory. In fact, almost half of New Zealand’s emissions in 2018 came from agriculture, and just under three-quarters of these agricultural emissions were methane from cows and sheep.

From a global perspective, climate policy needs to recognise the advantage of producing goods where they can be made with lower emissions. Otherwise there is a risk industries relocate to other (typically less developed) countries with less stringent climate change regulations, and global greenhouse gas emissions rise as a result. This is known as “carbon leakage”.

Patterns of consumption

But there is an important corollary to all of this: considering only the production-based emissions of countries is not enough to address the climate crisis. Even if New Zealand can produce agricultural goods more efficiently than other countries, should these be produced at the current volume – or at all?

Ultimately we need to consider patterns of consumption and assess whether they are in line with a sustainable future for the world.

In practical terms, this means that we should be accounting for both consumption and production-based emissions. An accounting system based on consumption would assess greenhouse gases emitted in the production of goods and services consumed by New Zealanders. This includes imported goods as well as everything that is produced and then consumed in New Zealand – and it excludes exported goods and services.

Two New Zealand studies (for 2011 and 2012) show the biggest contribution to consumption-based emissions comes from three sectors: construction, food and beverages, and education and health services. For food and beverages, animal protein and processed meat contributes 35% of the emissions associated with an average adult New Zealand diet.

Read more: Climate explained: how the climate impact of beef compares with plant-based alternatives

But accounting for emissions from consumption comes with challenges. It requires tracing the point of origin of imported products, often in countries with less stringent emission inventories. There are two types of modelling we can use to support consumption-based analysis. Life cycle assessment starts with a product – say an apple or packet of milk powder – and tracks the entire supply chain back through the retail, distribution and agricultural production. Other models integrate environmental and economic data across multiple regions.

Such data and the insights we glean from both production and consumption accounting could guide future climate policies to enable New Zealand to reduce emissions both within the country and internationally.

– ref. Climate explained: why countries don’t count emissions from goods they import – https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-why-countries-dont-count-emissions-from-goods-they-import-138604

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University

As COVID-19 lockdown measures are lifted, some children may experience social anxiety about the prospect of returning to school.

People with social anxiety may fear embarrassment or the expectation to perform in social situations, or worry exceedingly about people judging you poorly.

In certain situations, people with anxiety may find their heart beats quicker as adrenalin is released into their blood stream, more oxygen flows to the blood and brain, and even digestion may slow down.

Read more: Don’t want to send the kids back to school? Why not try unschooling at home?

These are helpful responses if you need to run away or fight danger. But social situations are generally not life threatening, and these physical symptoms can interfere with socialising.

People with social anxiety may fear looking silly, being judged, laughed at or being the focus of attention. For anyone, such experiences might be unwelcome but for those with social anxiety they pose an unacceptable threat.

Social anxiety in Australian children

One Australian report found that about 6.9% of children and adolescents surveyed have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, 4.3% experience separation anxiety and 2.3% a social phobia.

Social phobia (social anxiety) is more common in adolescents, whereas separation anxiety (intense anxiety over leaving caregivers, such as parents) is more prevalent in children.

These figures only account for those who have a diagnosis of anxiety. They do not include undiagnosed young people who experience high stress in social situations.

Any recent prolonged absence from school may have increased social anxiety, as avoiding what you fear can make your fear become greater.

This is because you do not get to learn that the thing you fear is actually safe. Your beliefs about the threat go unchallenged.

Anxiety can also increase through what pyschologists call reduced tolerance. The more children withdraw from the situations that cause them fear, the less tolerance they have for those situations.

Anxiety can affect education

The educational cost for students with anxiety is considerable.

The research shows students with poor mental health can be between seven to 11 months behind in Year 3, and 1.5 – 2.8 years behind by Year 9.

Read more: 5 reasons it’s safe for kids to go back to school

That’s because these students experience more absences from school, poorer connection to school, lower levels of belonging and less engagement with schoolwork.

7 strategies to help overcome social anxiety

So what can children do to overcome anxiety as they return to school? Here are some useful tips.

1. deal with some of the physical symptoms. It is hard to think if your body is stressed. Use calming strategies like mindfulness or breathing exercises. Slowing your breathing can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, anger and confusion. Useful apps to help you control your breathing include Smiling Mind (iOS and Android) or Breathing Bubbles (Android only).

2. anxiety increases while using avoidance techniques such as avoiding eye contact, not raising your hand to answer a question, or not attending school. So the most effective way to deal with social anxiety might be to face it. Allow your child to have small experiences of social success – give their opinion to one person, start a conversation with someone they know – so they can learn to feel safe in these social situations.

3. fear and anxiety are normal and benefit us by helping us to respond efficiently to danger. Rather than read your body as under threat, think about the changes as helpful. Your body is preparing you for action.

4. while avoiding your fears is not the answer, being fully exposed to them is not the answer either. Providing overwhelming social experiences may lead to overwhelming fear and failure, and may make anxiety sufferers less likely to try again – or at all. Start small and build their courage.

5. supportive listening and counselling are less effective than facing your fears because these approaches can accommodate the fears. While you want to support your child by providing them with comfort and encouragement – ensure you also encourage them to face the fears that cause the anxiety.

6. you cannot promise negative things won’t happen. It is possible you will be embarrassed or be judged. Rather than try to avoid these events, try reframing them. Remember that that we all experience negative social feedback, and this does not make you silly or of less value. It makes you normal. Or, rather than see it as embarrassing, maybe it can be funny.

7. remember it is the “perception” that something is a threat – not the reality. Reasoning with your child to help them see your perspective may not change theirs. This reality only changes with positive real experiences.

What we think is truth is often revealed as untrue when we face our fears. There is joy in social situations. Keep turning up to them.

Read more: How not to fall for coronavirus BS: avoid the 7 deadly sins of thought

– ref. 7 tips to help kids feeling anxious about going back to school – https://theconversation.com/7-tips-to-help-kids-feeling-anxious-about-going-back-to-school-139207

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby Porter, Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

The need for public housing is greater than ever before – Australia has a shortfall of at least 433,000 dwellings. Using public land for public housing is a no-brainer. But, at the time of writing, the Victorian government is preparing to sell over 2,646 hectares of land. Our analysis reveals 24 of these sites are suitable for delivering high-quality, well-located public housing in places where the need is high.

This is nothing new. As our recent research has shown, successive governments in Victoria have been systematically selling public land.

The twin health and economic crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic will add to the shortfall of public housing. And yet the government shows no sign of rethinking its land sales.

Read more: The need to house everyone has never been clearer. Here’s a 2-step strategy to get it done

More than 90ha suitable for public housing

We examined the land parcels listed as being prepared for sale by the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance in April and May 2020. We assessed each parcel for suitability as residential, based on zoning and on liveability criteria from the Australian Urban Observatory.

Our analysis shows 90.9 hectares, across 24 individual sites, would be suitable for public housing. Around 55 hectares is in metropolitan Melbourne. As the map below shows, other key sites are in regional centres such as Bendigo, Geelong, Mildura and Sale. (Scroll to resize and hover cursor over locations to see details of sites.)

Together, these sites could yield between 1,350 and 1,800 public housing dwellings, depending on the density. The Victoria Planning Authority has a density target of 15 dwellings per hectare. Plan Melbourne aspires to 20 dwellings per hectare.

The total cost would be A$405-540 million, assuming costs of $300,000 per dwelling. While this cost is higher per unit than some studies have suggested is possible, it provides a realistic path to a high-quality outcome.

Such investment would deliver an immediate public good with a lasting positive impact on Victoria. It would be a good first step in a long-term public housing works program.

The cost is relatively modest compared with other state investments such as the A$11 billion Melbourne Metro, the A$1.2 billion Comprehensive Cancer Centre and A$7.2 billion school building program.

Land is located in areas of high need

This available public land is located in areas with high priority housing needs. Using data from the Victorian Housing Register, we analysed where this need is significant. As the map below shows (hover cursor over each area for details), high numbers of people are applying for social housing in Melbourne’s west, north and outer south-east, and the central belt of Victoria.

Public land in these high-need areas is also being lost through the Victorian Government’s Public Housing Renewal Program. This program will redevelop well-located public housing estates in Melbourne into mostly private apartments and some community housing. Virtually all this high-value land and the public housing on it will be privatised – right where it is needed most.

This is happening at a time when the supply of public housing in Victoria has reached critically low levels. The waiting lists for housing are at a record high of about 100,000 people and growing.

Read more: The many faces of social housing – home to 1 in 10 Australians

Public housing tenancy as a proportion of total occupants in Victoria is at its lowest level since the 1954 Census, the first to ask about public housing tenancy. Public housing stock has been declining in real terms since the mid-1990s. Victoria has the least public housing, relative to all dwellings, anywhere in Australia.

And this is just the tip of the affordable housing problem. Tens of thousands more people are in housing stress and eligible for housing assistance.

As housing advocates have been saying for a long time, the most effective solution to homelessness and housing stress is public housing.

Read more: Shh! Don’t mention the public housing shortage. But no serious action on homelessness can ignore it

Despite these trends, the twin policy failures of selling public land and disinvesting in public housing have been a feature of Victorian government for decades. The Andrews Labor government continues to ignore the importance of using strategically placed government-owned land for the public good.

This also disrespects the spirit of treaty negotiations with First Peoples now under way in Victoria.

Build public housing to spur recovery

The state government has responded to a wide range of calls to invest in social housing as part of a stimulus package. The announcement of A$500million investment in upgrading 23,000 public housing dwellings and building 168 new ones is very welcome. Direct state investment in public housing can throw the construction sector a lifeline.

Read more: Why the focus of stimulus plans has to be construction that puts social housing first

But the announcement falls way short of the scale needed. Key organisations in the sector have identified the need for tens of thousands of new units.

The evidence proves that directly providing public housing is the most cost-effective and efficient way to deliver housing for low-income households. It is much cheaper than buying homes at market prices, which the New South Wales government is considering.

Read more: Australia needs to triple its social housing by 2036. This is the best way to do it

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the tremendous scale of housing inequality in Victoria and across Australia. It also presents an opportunity. The Andrews government is in the unique position of being able to support the construction sector, deliver the public housing this state desperately needs and respect treaty negotiations with First Peoples in Victoria.

For modest investment, Victoria could build thousands of public housing dwellings in excellent locations to deliver the basic infrastructure of life: a place to call home. If we are serious about a construction-and-infrastructure-led recovery, now is the time to finally realise that housing is essential infrastructure.

Roland Postma contributed to this article. The authors acknowledge that the lands discussed in this article are the unceded lands of Traditional Owners. The article was written on Wurundjeri Country and we pay our respects to Woiwurrung Elders and ancestors.

– ref. Public land is being sold exactly where thousands on the waiting list need housing – https://theconversation.com/public-land-is-being-sold-exactly-where-thousands-on-the-waiting-list-need-housing-139118

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brigit Busicchia, PhD, Political Economy, Macquarie University

Extreme shortages of toilet paper, pasta and other pantry products defined the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic for many shoppers around the world. Availability of most these goods has returned to normal.

But not for baking goods – flour in particular.

In Britain the flour shortage has led to the thousand-year-old Sturminster Newton Mill, established in 1016, cranking back into production. Sales by small artisan outfits – such as the Shipton Mill, mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 – have surged. It’s the same in France.

So why are there flour shortages from Europe to the United States and Australia?

The answer is both simple and complex.

It is partly to do with the basic economics of demand and supply. Demand for baking ingredients has spiked because people staying home (and not going to restaurants or cafes) cook more.

More fundamentally it is about the structure of concentrated food distribution systems geared to supply commercial rather than retail demand.

The inflexibility of those channels highlights a key issue in discussions about food security – that is, ensuring people have access to food. It is not just a matter of how much food is produced but how it is distributed.

Changing consumption patterns

Supermarket shortages of toilet paper and pasta were mostly attributed to a surge in demand driven by panic-buying and stockpiling, along with a lag in supply chains geared to provide just enough product to stores to avoid storing inexpensive but bulky inventory.

As stock disappeared from supermarket shelves, other consumers afraid of being caught short also started buying more than they normally would. Responding to that surge in demand and increasing supply took producers time – usually at least a month.

Read more: A toilet paper run is like a bank run. The economic fixes are about the same

But a less-discussed part of the problem was the shift in consumption patterns, as stay-at-home rules resulted in toilet paper demand from workplaces and public buildings declining and home demand increasing. And the toilet paper that commercial buyers want is different to what people buy for themselves.

In the case of flour, the split between supplying commercial and retail demand has been an even more significant factor.

Until the pandemic, retail demand was a small (and diminishing) part of the flour market. In Britain, for example, it represented just 4% of flour consumption. The rest went to commercial bakers and food manufacturers.

While the quality of flour commercial users buy is not necessarily different, the size of the packages in which they buy is – bags of 12, 25 of 32 kilograms, rather than the 1kg or 2kg bags that home bakers prefer.

With home demand spiking – in Australia, for example, retail flour sales rose 140% in March – the large flour-milling operations quickly reached the limits of their equipment and processes to package flour in smaller bags.

Hence the supermarket shortages – and the opportunity that presented for boutique millers.

Industry concentration

Also contributing to the slowness of flour millers in responding to higher retail demand (compared to eggs, for instance) is the level of industry concentration.

In Australia, for example, four companies mill 80% of flour. In Britain the four largest millers account for about 65% of flour production.

Although highly efficient, these producers have been less flexible in adjusting their product packaging and moving distribution to supermarkets.

Read more: We’ve had a taste of disrupted food supplies – here are 5 ways we can avoid a repeat

Concentration in the supermarket sector has not helped either. Increasingly, supermarket chains cut out intermediaries (wholesalers) from their supply chains and buy directly from producers. This has made changing their sources more difficult.

Production versus distribution

The rigidity of food supply chains in responding to changes in consumption by moving food distribution from commercial to retail channels can also be seen in cases of European and American farmers reportedly pouring milk down the drain and leaving vegetables to rot in their fields.

Read more: Why farmers are dumping milk down the drain and letting produce rot in fields

As we ponder how to ensure food security, we will need to address these systemic issues. We cannot think problems are solved just by increasing supply. It is distribution that is key.

– ref. Why flour is still missing from supermarket shelves – https://theconversation.com/why-flour-is-still-missing-from-supermarket-shelves-137263

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Toffoletti, Associate Professor of Sociology, Deakin University

Digital fitness is enjoying a COVID-19 boom. Online fitness technology provider Virtuagym reports a 400% increase in engagement and a 300% increase in the use of online workouts. Gyms, barre instructors, and yoga studios have been on a steep learning curve to become online businesses. And social media feeds have been flooded with home fitness options.

Women have long been the focus of home fitness programs – so it makes sense they are at the forefront of this shift, finding ways to connect and fit more fitness into their day.

Health clubs around Australia are set to reopen between now and mid-June. But the gains women have made online might make them less inclined to return to the gym once restrictions ease.

Livingroom fitness

While many people are using free content on YouTube during social isolation, others are sticking with fitness instructors who usually run classes in gyms, parks or studios.

By becoming digital providers, instructors can support their loyal clientele through difficult times while protecting their livelihoods during a massive industry downturn .

Big industry players are getting in on the action, with Nike’s Livingroom Cup and Strava’s range of stay active at home challenges aiming to provide motivation and connection with others.

Previous studies have shown people with gym memberships are more likely to meet weekly fitness benchmarks than those without, perhaps due to the financial commitment they’ve made. Older studies have looked at the tribal appeal of group fitness and the influence of others.

Global fitness celebrities like Les Mills, Kayla Itsines, Sam Wood and Chris Hemsworth are offering free program trials during lockdown. They hope mass uptake will convert to longer term paid subscriptions.

Fit women goals

Research shows women find it difficult to exercise for reasons including caring commitments, and feelings of intimidation and judgement in public leisure settings. Digital fitness offers privacy, safety and convenience.

There are also economic and time-saving benefits for women, who have less time for leisure than men and less money to spend on fitness.

Digital technologies and programs can also help women build supportive online social networks around their workouts. Facebook groups include Fitness First at Home with 10,000 members and the hashtag #GotAHomeGotAGym.

With 12.5 million followers, the dominant face of online fitness is Kayla Itsines. Her success can be attributed in part to her effective use of digital platforms to build a fitness community.

It’s not just about sweat

Though research has indicated Instagram use can contribute to poor self-esteem and negative self-perception, women also have the opportunity to take pride in their exercise achievements with hashtags like #fitnessgoals and #isolationfitness.

By analysing how active women interact with each other online, we have observed many benefits of digital networks for supporting women’s mental health, community building, and knowledge sharing.

In our study of Itsines’ fitness followers on Instagram, we found sharing photos, stories and advice was important for staying motivated.

Statements from followers such as “I want you to know that whatever you are going through – it’s OKAY!” and “You have to tell yourself each day ‘I got this, I’m gunna get those abs and lose this muffin top’”, show how women connect and relate to each other online by disclosing feelings of insecurity as well as hopes for overcoming them. These connections can feel especially meaningful for women at home or exercising alone.

As part of research soon to be published, we interviewed a dozen Melbourne women who are using Instagram for fitness. They repeatedly identified the value in the communities they found online. One interviewee said:

I feel that I, through Instagram, have got to know more people and I learn a lot of things from them and it’s a source of inspiration for me.

Another said:

I’d moved to a city where I didn’t really know anyone, so it was quite isolating for a period of time. I’ve always thrived on health and fitness so I still trained, but in the last two years with this [online] running community … I have my sense of belonging back, and I feel like I’ve got my people again.

During COVID-19 lockdowns, people are using digital technologies to connect with existing fitness communities. Others are discovering online communities for the first time. This is especially important amid concerns about the mental health impact of social isolation. Experts know that physical exercise can help.

Read more: 7 ways to manage your #coronaphobia

Bodies online

Of course, connection leaves room for comparison. While comparison can be motivating, digital exercise communities also fuel pressures on women to demonstrate feminine success through physical and psychological means.

Performing fit femininity online can impose new demands of self-love, body positivity and ongoing self-improvement. These values are captured in inspirational fitness quotes that encourage women to accept who they are while simultaneously aspiring to a better version of themselves.

In our research on the Itsine’s #BBG fitness community, we studied thousands of women from around the world – of all different body shapes and sizes – “brought together in a shared motivation for a changing body, the becomings of a ‘better’ body”.

The presentation of positive emotion through and about the body was prevalent in the images and text, with posts carrying affirming hashtags like #selflove #strongnotskinny #bodypositive #healthyandhappy”.

How women’s exercise efforts are responded to by others through comments and reactions, can shape women’s digital fitness participation.

Women’s fitness beyond COVID-19

With the gradual loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, gyms will reopen and many free programs will cease to be available.

Some people will return to leisure centres and fitness studios over the coming weeks, driven by the physical connections, infrastructure and the sense of familiarity these spaces provide. However, we anticipate that many women will maintain their home workout habits because of the value found in these online offerings.

– ref. Working out at home works for women – so well they might not go back to gyms – https://theconversation.com/working-out-at-home-works-for-women-so-well-they-might-not-go-back-to-gyms-138111

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

Scott Morrison has indeed taken to heart that adage about not wasting a crisis. He insists he is going to put to advantage the opportunity brought by these most unfortunate circumstances.

His plan for a government-employer-union-community effort to reform this country’s industrial relations will, if it comes off, be a substantial achievement (although the actual magnitude would depend on just how much was done).

Politically, success would give Morrison something positive for the next election, which will be fought in the testing circumstances of likely high unemployment and sectors of the economy still struggling.

Labor would be outflanked.

If Morrison’s effort ends as a busted flush, he’ll say he tried and move on to something else.

Despite his pragmatism, Morrison aspires to be remembered as a leader who delivered reform. Remember when as treasurer under Malcolm Turnbull, he pushed strongly to change the GST and talked up his mission?

In Tuesday’s address to the National Press Club, he was the ambitious consensus prime minister, declaring “we’ve booked the room, we’ve hired the hall”, to get everybody to the table in pursuit of better industrial relations arrangements.

The present system had “retreated to tribalism, conflict and ideological posturing,” he said. It had “settled into a complacency of unions seeking marginal benefits and employers closing down risks, often by simply not employing anyone”.

As a “good faith” gesture, the government won’t pursue another Senate vote on its controversial Ensuring Integrity bill which would give the Federal Court the power to cancel the registration of a union or an employer organisation and introduce a public interest test for the amalgamation of such organisations. The Senate rejected the legislation last year.

In his speech Morrison announced a structure for talking, and broad topics to talk about. Industrial relations minister Christian Porter will chair five groups – they will consider award simplification; enterprise agreements; casuals and fixed term employment; compliance and enforcement, and greenfield agreements for new enterprises.

“Membership of each group will include employer and union representatives, as well as individuals chosen based on their demonstrated experience and expertise and that will include especially small businesses, rural and regional backgrounds, multicultural communities, women and families,” Morrison said.

The process will run until September. “It will become apparent very quickly if progress is to be made,” he said.

Indeed, it is not as if Porter is starting from scratch. After being appointed industrial relations minister following the 2019 election, Porter set up a process of IR reform which has produced several discussion papers and consultations on a range of issues.

A frustrating feature of the Coalition government, if you take it as a whole from its election in 2013, is its failure to finish what it starts. Key reform processes have previously begun but run up dry gullies or been overtaken.

For instance Tony Abbott commissioned white papers on taxation and federalism. After overthrowing Abbott, Turnbull aborted the white papers. Turnbull in turn flirted with tax change, not just possible GST reform but even the states raising their own income tax. Tax reform as well as federalism are among the issues Morrison has in his sights.

As for Morrison’s declared determination to get a better system for training and skilling workers for the jobs of the present and the future – we have heard this from governments of both stripes for a very long time.

Of course, the past isn’t necessarily a guide to the future, and Morrison’s handling of the pandemic points to his adaptability as a leader.

His agenda appears broad and ambitious (although we can’t be definitive ahead of the detail). He has talked skills and industrial relations this week, but there’s also deregulation (another recurring Coalition theme) and energy as well as tax and the federation.

Admittedly it is not a matter of all-or-nothing. Worthwhile but limited changes would be better than not making the effort.

The extent to which Morrison succeeds will depend on a number of factors.

On industrial relations, it is whether employers and unions put the interests they share above those that divide them – whether each side will be willing to give ground for a larger common cause. The chance of agreement will differ according to the issue.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus responded on Tuesday: “The ACTU will measure any changes to industrial relations law on the benchmarks of: will it give working people better job security, and will it lead to working people receiving their fair share of the country’s wealth?”

They could be challenging benchmarks.

A co-operative discussion will go against the instincts of some of the Coalition’s anti-union hardliners, and be resisted by some in McManus’s constituency.

Asked his message to people in his own party who might see this as an opportunity to finally neuter the union movement, Morrison said: “I think everybody’s got to put their weapons down on this”.

On making progress with reforms involving federal-state relations, including the training system, the attitude of the states will be crucial.

Morrison lauds the national cabinet, and the government contrasts it with the more bureaucratic Council of Australian Governments processes.

But national cabinet and COAG are the same people. The difference is national cabinet is operating in a crisis and totally focussed on that, and on the moment.

COAG deals with everything, and is mostly putting in place measures for the longer term. Inevitably, interests will diverge and corners are harder to cut (which doesn’t mean COAG’s working can’t be usefully shaken up).

Even if national cabinet continued, on some of these reform measures the states would probably behave more like they were in COAG – that is, there’d be more “process”.

Finally, there’s whether a crisis really does produce a climate conducive to reform.

It certainly concentrates attention, turns the page, sweeps away most else. (Asked on Tuesday about the timetable for the religious freedom legislation and the proposed anti-corruption body, Morrison had no answers. It was almost as though they were from another era.)

The road out of this crisis will be very tough for many people. Extensive reform is often painful. Whether the Australian public will be in the mood for it as they cope with the aftermath of such a trauma is an open question.

– ref. View from The Hill: Can Scott Morrison achieve industrial relations disarmament? – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-can-scott-morrison-achieve-industrial-relations-disarmament-139408

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Krystian Seibert, Industry Fellow, Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University of Technology

Comedian Celeste Barber’s whopping $51 million bushfire fundraiser showed us just how generous people can be in times of trouble.

But the need to seek the NSW Supreme Court’s advice about how to spend the funds also demonstrates how tricky things can become when large amounts of money are involved.

As someone who researches the regulation of philanthropy and the not-for-profit sector, the episode is both a lesson in reading the fine print and the need for simpler donations laws.

But it should not deter public-spirited celebrities from fundraising in the future.

Celeste Barber’s big fundraising win

The summer bushfires saw an outpouring of generosity, with Australians donating vast sums towards various charities and causes.

Barber has family on the NSW South Coast, which was badly hit by the fires. The well-known comedian responded by setting up a Facebook fundraiser.

The beneficiary was the Trustee for NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) and Brigades Donation Fund and the target was to raise $30,000.

The fundraiser went viral and saw millions of dollars pour in from around the world. As donations skyrocketed, Barber told her fans via Instagram she planned to spread the money raised around:

I’m going to make sure that Victoria gets some, that South Australia gets some, also families of people who have died in these fires, the wildlife.

Ultimately, Barber raised more than $51 million from about 1.3 million donors. Facebook’s fundraising partner, PayPal Giving Fund, then passed the money on to the NSW RFS donation fund.

The $51 million question

But spending the money was not straightforward.

The RFS donation fund is governed by a “trust deed,” which limits what it can use donations for. This means it can only spend funds received on equipment, training and resources or administrative costs for RFS brigades.

It does not allow donations to be passed on to fire services in other states or to other charities.

Given Barber’s comments about how the donations should be distributed and the intense attention on the issue, the RFS sought the advice of the NSW Supreme Court.

The NSW Supreme Court’s advice

On Monday, the court handed down its decision, and depending on your perspective, it’s a mix of good and bad news.

On the one hand, the court confirmed that donations can’t be passed on to fire services in other states or to other charities.

But it found funds can be spent to support rural firefighters injured while firefighting and the families of rural firefighters killed while firefighting. The funds can also be spent on physical and mental health training, as well as trauma counselling.

Where to from here?

The effect of the court’s decision is that the funds will stay with the RFS, where they will no doubt be used for important purposes.

But the decision may disappoint some donors, who thought the money would be able to be used to help the broader response to the bushfires. That includes supporting relief and rebuilding efforts in communities devastated by the fires, or helping injured wildlife.

Read more: Celebrity charities just compete with all other charities – so why start one?

The decision did flag that individual donors could bring their own court case if they believed the funds they donated where not being used for the purposes they were donated for. But this is unlikely – if you’ve donated $25, then you may not want to spend lots of time and expense pursuing a court case.

The NSW Parliament could pass legislation to broaden the purposes for which the donation fund can spend donations. And NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge has proposed a bill to do just that.

But NSW’s Coalition government is unlikely to back a Greens-sponsored bill.

What lessons can we lean?

The main lesson is that if you’re setting up a fundraiser, or looking to donate to a particular charity, do some due diligence first.

For example, the national charities regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has a free public register where you can look up information about individual charities.

To be fair to Barber, she did only intend to raise $30,000 for the RFS, and only expressed a desire to broaden the beneficiaries of her fundraiser when it took off.

Read more: After the bushfires, we helped choose the animals and plants in most need. Here’s how we did it

But it’s important to read the fine print and to understand what you can and can’t do as part of a fundraiser.

The episode also shows us that the laws governing charities and philanthropy in Australia are complex.

If the federal government introduced simpler laws to regulate “deductible gift recipients” (organisations that can receive tax deductible donations), then it’s likely the problem with Barber’s fundraising would have been easier to resolve.

This is because the activities of organisations wouldn’t need to as tightly confined as they are currently required to be.

We don’t need to leave fundraising to the professionals

In a short statement on Monday, Barber noted: “turns out that studying acting at university does not make me a lawmaker”.

Some people may think the court’s involvement means we should leave fundraising to the professionals, and that celebrity fundraisers do more harm than good. I disagree.

One of the powerful aspects of philanthropy is that anybody can see an area of need, donate money and rally others to do so.

Read more: As fires rage, we must use social media for long-term change, not just short-term fundraising

That is something we should encourage. Whilst it’s important to do due diligence, celebrities can play an important role by using their platform to promote giving.

Barber’s bushfire fundraiser was a powerful example of this, and we shouldn’t let the legal issues detract from it.

– ref. Celeste Barber’s story shows us the power of celebrity fundraising … and the importance of reading the fine print – https://theconversation.com/celeste-barbers-story-shows-us-the-power-of-celebrity-fundraising-and-the-importance-of-reading-the-fine-print-139379

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Adair, Principal Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne

People living in socially disadvantaged areas and outside major cities are much more likely to die prematurely, our new research shows. The study, published in the journal Australian Population Studies, reveals this gap has widened significantly in recent years, largely because rates of premature death among the least advantaged Australians have stopped improving.

These inequalities were already evident long before the enormous economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. While Australia (unlike the United States and some European nations) has so far avoided widespread deaths due directly to COVID-19, there may well be longer-term health impacts of the pandemic caused by widespread job losses and societal disruption, particularly among the most vulnerable.

This could well have a flow-on effect in terms of poorer health behaviours and access to health care, leading to adverse health outcomes, including a higher risk of death. Indeed, studies predict the pandemic will exacerbate these existing health inequalities.

Read more: Rich and poor don’t recover equally from epidemics. Rebuilding fairly will be a global challenge

While the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s death rate will not be known for some time, we know there were already significant inequalities in our society regarding the risk of premature death.

Our research analysed trends in deaths between ages 35 and 74 years from 2006-16. We found people living in the 20% most socio-economically disadvantaged areas are twice as likely to die prematurely than those in the highest 20%.

More worryingly, this gap in death rates between the most and least well-off sectors of the Australian population grew wider between 2011 and 2016. It widened by 26% for females and 14% for males.

These figures would probably be higher still if we measured the socio-economic status of individuals, rather than the area they live in. People living in outer regional, remote and very remote areas have death rates about 40% higher than those in major cities. In 2006, this gap was smaller, at 30%.

What’s the cause?

These growing inequalities are the result of recent stagnation of premature death rates in the lowest socioeconomic areas and outside of major cities. In contrast, rates of premature death have continued to decline in the most affluent areas of major cities.

This is not a new trend. A similar pattern of rising inequality in death rates was observed from 1986 to 2002. But this time around there is much slower growth in overall average life expectancy, and a stagnation in mortality decline among the most disadvantaged population.

One particular concern is the rapid slowdown in improvements to death rates from cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease and stroke. These are Australia’s leading causes of death, and largely explain the significant gains in life expectancy in Australia and other high-income countries over the past few decades. Our results suggest these gains may now be drying up among Australia’s most disadvantaged people.

The socio-economic and regional inequalities in rates of early death are likely due to a wide range of factors. Smoking, poor diet and excessive alcohol consumption are more prevalent in lower socioeconomic groups and outside major cities, and are likely to be major contributors to the trend. People in the lowest 20% socio-economically are almost three times more likely to smoke than those in the highest 20%.

The higher rates of premature death outside major cities are also likely to be linked to differences in access to essential health care. People aged 45 years and over and living outside major cities are less likely to have a GP or specialist nearby.

Read more: Waiting for action on access to GPs in rural Australia

While Australia’s public health leaders are rightly focused on controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, they should not ignore the wide and growing health inequalities that were already entrenched in our society.

Reducing this widening gap in rates of premature death will require a major policy effort. We need to understand and improve the many factors involved – including smoking, diet and alcohol use, education, employment, housing, and access to health care.

We need to ensure policies and information campaigns are targeted to the population groups where death rates are highest and improvements have been slowest. Without a comprehensive approach, the COVID-19 pandemic will likely turn this widening gap into a chasm.

– ref. The poorest Australians are twice as likely to die before age 75 as the richest, and the gap is widening – https://theconversation.com/the-poorest-australians-are-twice-as-likely-to-die-before-age-75-as-the-richest-and-the-gap-is-widening-139201

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guy Morrow, Lecturer in Arts & Cultural Management, University of Melbourne

This week, Australia’s finance minister Mathias Cormann told ABC radio he didn’t “accept [the] proposition” workers in the arts and entertainment industry were missing out on wage subsidies through the government’s Jobkeeper program.

If they’re not receiving JobKeeper, he said:

… that must mean they can’t demonstrate they’ve had relevant falls in their revenue. […] To the extent [artists are] sole traders […] if their revenue drops on the same basis as any other Australian in similar circumstances in another industry, of course they would be able to participate.

Prior to lockdown, the creative arts contributed an esitmated A$14.7 billion to Gross Domestic Product and employed 193,600 people. The arts also create work of immense value to society in and of itself.

But how exactly are artists employed, and are they eligible for JobKeeper and JobSeeker? The answer is complicated.

Eligibility dilemmas

Some artists and arts workers are eligible for JobKeeper and JobSeeker, while others are not.

Where these workers invoice for their work, they operate as sole traders, setting up an Australian Business Number (ABN) and running their business as an individual. In this, the finance minister is correct in lumping sole trading artists in with any other Australian sole traders.

However, many artists and arts workers do not operate as sole traders and do not issue invoices using an ABN. They are instead employed on contracts for periods under 12 months. This includes actors at major theatre companies, people in the film industry, and administrators moving from festival to festival. If these workers weren’t on contracts when JobKeeper began – or if companies weren’t able to forward JobKeeper payments and so let go of staff – they are ineligible.

Many Australian artists have portfolio careers. They do core creative work, arts related work and non-arts related work often on the same day and often on a casual basis. This is why many in the sector are hurting: they don’t qualify for JobSeeker because their work is a mix of short-term contracts across jobs and across sectors. While their overall income may have fallen by more than 30%, the income earned on their ABN may not have fallen enough to be eligible.

35% of Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance members surveyed were ineligible for JobKeeper. The union is requesting proof from the Morrison government that its JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs will boost the arts industries by $4-$10 billion, as claimed by arts minister Paul Fletcher.

Read more: Coronavirus: 3 in 4 Australians employed in the creative and performing arts could lose their jobs

Not only was the minister’s $4-10 billion estimate based on a working paper published two years ago, it has emerged in the past week that the Treasury’s forecast for JobKeeper spending was out by $60 billion. This estimate of boosting the arts was relative to JobKeeper pumping $130 billion into the economy, not $70 billion.

Realities of arts work

The word “gig” in the term “gig economy” originated in the arts. 81% of artists work as freelancers or are self-employed, with 43% relying on contracts and 35% of artists income from royalties and advances.

These royalties and advances are a form of capital, further complicating matters and differentiating some artists from other workers. While labour income may have been instantly cut off during the shutdown, capital income from royalties may complicate attempts to claim JobKeeper.

The current support packages (including $27 million targeted federal arts support and various state government programs do not go far enough.

The arts are a public good. Artistic creativity is beneficial in and of itself. While it is difficult to define how far is “enough” when it comes to something as open ended as artistic creativity, international comparisons can be used as reference points.

Germany’s federal government is providing sole traders, freelancers and firms with up to five employees a one-off payment of up to €9,000 (A$15,000). The German equivalent of JobKeeper (known as Kurzarbeitergeld) pays between 60%-80% of a worker’s pre-pandemic salary, with extra allowances for workers with children.

Access to basic income support for unemployed workers has also been simplified and they doubled the Neustart fund providing grants of between €10,000 and €50,000 (A$16,650 – A$83,250) for small-to-medium arts companies reopening after lockdown.

Read more: As we turn to creativity in isolation, the coronavirus is a calamity on top of an arts crisis

The UK’s Self-Employed Income Support Scheme makes grants of up to 80% of prior earnings, capped at £2,500 (A$4,650) a month. The UK government has also allocated £160 million (A$298 million) in emergency funding, and appointed a Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal.

A comprehensive listing of hundreds of different international measures is available here.

Arts hearts

International comparisons are not new and, as an advocacy approach, there is scant evidence Australian governments pay them much attention.

A better way forward during the current crisis could lie in touting Australians’ enduring desire to enjoy the arts.

As we dust ourselves off after lockdown, high on our lists will be (carefully) returning to pubs playing live music, to regional towns with proud local galleries, making the pilgrimage to green-field summer festivals, sipping bubbly at an edgy exhibition opening at – dare we hope – a resurrected Carriageworks.

The arts are – in their own right – essential threads in the fabric of Australian life. Australians want the arts to still be there on the other side of COVID-19. Let’s try putting this role at the heart of an arts advocacy in a time of crisis.

– ref. The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It’s not that simple – https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eryn Newman, Lecturer, Australian National University

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world, politicians, medical experts and epidemiologists have taught us about flattening curves, contact tracing, R₀ and growth factors. At the same time, we are facing an “infodemic” – an overload of information, in which fact is hard to separate from fiction.

Misinformation about coronavirus can have serious consequences. Widespread myths about “immune boosters”, supposed “cures”, and conspiracy theories linked to 5G radiation have already caused immediate harm. In the long term they make may people more complacent if they have false beliefs about what will protect them from coronavirus.

Social media companies are working to reduce the spread of myths. In contrast, mainstream media and other information channels have in many cases ramped up efforts to address misinformation.

But these efforts may backfire by unintentionally increasing public exposure to false claims.

Read more: We’re in danger of drowning in a coronavirus ‘infodemic’. Here’s how we can cut through the noise

The “myth vs fact” formula

News media outlets and health and well-being websites have published countless articles on the “myths vs facts” about coronavirus. Typically, articles share a myth in bold font and then address it with a detailed explanation of why it is false.

This communication strategy has been used previously in attempts to combat other health myths such as the ongoing anti-vaccine movement.

One reason for the prevalence of these articles is that readers actively seek them out. The Google search term “myths about coronavirus”, for example, saw a prominent global spike in March.

Debunking false information, or contrasting myths with facts, intuitively feels like it should effectively correct myths. But research shows that such correction strategies may actually backfire, by making misinformation seem more familiar and spreading it to new audiences.

Familiarity breeds belief

Cognitive science research shows people are biased to believe a claim if they have seen it before. Even seeing it once or twice may be enough to make the claim more credible.

This bias happens even when people originally think a claim is false, when the claim is not aligned with their own beliefs, and when it seems relatively implausible. What’s more, research shows thinking deeply or being smart does not make you immune to this cognitive bias.

The bias comes from the fact humans are very sensitive to familiarity but we are not very good at tracking where the familiarity comes from, especially over time.

One series of studies illustrates the point. People were shown a series of health and well-being claims one might typically encounter on social media or health blogs. The claims were explicitly tagged as true or false, just like in a “myth vs fact” article.

When participants were asked which claims were true and which were false immediately after seeing them, they usually got it right. But when they were were tested a few days later, they relied more on feelings of familiarity and tended to accept previously seen false claims as true.

Older adults were especially susceptible to this repetition. The more often they were initially told a claim was false, the more they believed it to be true a few days later.

For example, they may have learned that the claim “shark cartilage is good for your arthritis” is false. But by the time they saw it again a few days later, they had forgotten the details.

All that was left was the feeling they had heard something about shark cartilage and arthritis before, so there might be something to it. The warnings turned false claims into “facts”.

The lesson here is that bringing myths or misinformation into focus can make them more familiar and seem more valid. And worse: “myth vs fact” may end up spreading myths by showing them to new audiences.

Read more: Why is it so hard to stop COVID-19 misinformation spreading on social media?

What I tell you three times is true

Repeating a myth may also lead people to overestimate how widely it is accepted in the broader community. The more often we hear a myth, the more we will think it is widely believed. And again, we are bad at remembering where we heard it and under what circumstances.

For instance, hearing one person say the same thing three times is almost as effective in suggesting wide acceptance as hearing three different people each say it once.

The concern here is that repeated attempts at correcting a myth in media outlets might mistakenly lead people to believe it is widely accepted in the community.

Memorable myths

Myths can be sticky because they are often concrete, anecdotal and easy to imagine. This is a cognitive recipe for belief. The details required to unwind a myth are often complicated and difficult to remember. Moreover, people may not scroll all the way through the explanation of why a myth is incorrect.

Take for example this piece on coronavirus myths. Although we’d rather not expose you to the myths at all, what we want you to notice is that the fine details needed to debunk a myth are generally more complicated than the myth itself.

Complicated stories are hard to remember. The outcome of such articles may be a sticky myth and a slippery truth.

Making the truth stick

If debunking myths makes them more believable, how do we promote the truth?

When information is vivid and easy to understand, we are more likely to recall it. For instance, we know placing a photograph next to a claim increases the chances people will remember (and believe) the claim.

Making the truth concrete and accessible may help accurate claims dominate the public discourse (and our memories).

Other cognitive tools include using concrete language, repetition, and opportunities to connect information to personal experience, which all work to facilitate memory. Pairing those tools with a focus on truth can help to promote facts at a critical time in human history.

– ref. Seeing is believing: how media mythbusting can actually make false beliefs stronger – https://theconversation.com/seeing-is-believing-how-media-mythbusting-can-actually-make-false-beliefs-stronger-138515

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Keating, Visiting Fellow, College of Business & Economics, Australian National University

In the early 1970s, when rising inflation and unemployment tore through the economy, someone coined the aphorism “one man’s wage increase is another man’s job” (unfortunately, most of the talk was about men in those days).

It took off, in part because it appealed to common sense. If the price of something (workers) went up, employers would want would want less of them (workers).

Employers have used it to oppose every wage increase or improvement in working conditions in history, and still are.

Sometimes they are supported by widely respected economists, such as Ian Harper, who as head of the Fair Pay Commission in 2009 delivered Australia’s last freeze in minimum wages amid forecasts that unemployment was about to climb.

Now he and other economists are calling for another freeze, for the sake of jobs, in the downturn caused by the coronavirus.

Wages are more than prices

But the price of labour is different to other prices. While it represents the cost of buying a service, it also represents an income, one that bundled together with other incomes pays for the service.

When wages grow, spending grows (so-called “aggregate demand”), and so does the economy, as measured by gross domestic product.

Nevertheless, the standard neoclassical growth model used by the treasury and Reserve Bank doesn’t recognise this. Instead, it assumes that over the medium term economic growth is entirely determined by supply rather than demand, and that supply is a function of the three Ps: productivity, population and workforce participation.

Read more: Vital Signs: Amid talk of recessions, our progress on wages and unemployment is almost non-existent

Demand is said to merely cause short term fluctuations around the medium term growth path, and it is thought to be the job of monetary and fiscal policy to iron out the fluctuations to avoid unnecessary inflation or unemployment.

There are a number of other peculiar things about the model. It assumes that there are constant returns to scale, that technological progress favours neither labour nor capital, and there is perfect competition.

These assumptions effectively mean the distribution of income between wages and profits is constant and can be ignored.

The model that continually gets it wrong

Fluctuations in wages growth are presumed to be cyclical, amenable to correction by by monetary policy (interest rates), with fiscal policy (tax and government spending) held in reserve.

The model hasn’t performed well.

Over the past decade the treasury and Reserve Bank have persistently overestimated wage growth.

Wage growth has almost halved during the time it was overestimated, and it seems likely this is related to a similar decline in the growth of GDP.

Treasury and the Reserve Bank overestimated wage growth because, when combined, the three Ps of productivity, population and workforce participation were growing strongly.

Their thinking was that if wage growth wasn’t climbing as expected, that was mainly due to a cyclical downturn. All that was needed were some interest rate cuts.

We’ve had 17 interest rate cuts in the past decade the treasury and Reserve Bank have continued to forecast wage growth while taking the cash rate all the way down from 4.75% to close to zero.

There are better models

A better model, used by post-Keynesian economists, treats economic growth as being determined by aggregate demand, both in the short and longer terms. Aggregate demand can be either wage or profit-led.

Wage growth can lead to growth in consumer spending, profit growth can lead to growth in business investment.

Profit growth can be enhanced by changes in the profit share of income, which is the other side of the wage share of income. When the wage share of income goes up, the profit share goes down.

Read more: Budget explainer: why is Australia’s wage growth so sluggish?

But profit growth can also be affected by capacity utilisation, which is the extent to which factories and the like are operating at their full capacity. The more consumers spend, the greater the rate of capacity utilisation and the greater are profits.

Very large increases in real wages can most certainly dent economic growth.

They cut profits and business investment by more than they increase consumer demand and capacity utilisation, as happened in the early 1970s when between 1973 and 1975 nominal wages increased at an average annual pace of 23.2 per cent and real wages increased at an average pace of 8.9 per cent – way ahead of annual productivity growth of 1.3 per cent.

But mostly, wage rises boost consumer demand by more than they cut business investment.

Indeed, they can actually push business investment higher. This is because profits are often more responsive to the increase in capacity utilisation that results from increased consumer demand than to a lower profit share.

We’ll need to boost incomes, if not wages

This seems to explain the economic stagnation we have experienced since the global financial crisis. Low wage growth has held back consumer demand, which has also held back business investment.

There are three possible policy responses.

One is to boost household incomes in a way that doesn’t involve boosting wages, perhaps by government payments and/or tax relief. A downside is that they add to the budget deficit and public debt.

Another is to try and increase wages. Tools could include include government support for higher wages, starting with support for a modest increase in the minimum wage case now before the Fair Work Commission.

Read more: We should simplify our industrial relations system, but not in the way big business wants

Longer term, a more effective and lasting increase in wages could be achieved by better education and training to better skill workers. These proposed courses of action are not mutually exclusive. We will probably need to adopt all three.

But we will need to understand that improving our economic circumstances will require a combination of wage increases and increased government support.

The more the government opposes wage increases, the more pressure there will be for it to increase spending and/or offer more tax relief if we want the economy to grow at its potential and to lift that potential.

These thoughts are developed in Low Wage Growth: Why It Matters and How to Fix It, Stephen Bell and Michael Keating, Australian Economic Review, December 2019.

– ref. Why the coronavirus shouldn’t stand in the way of the next wage increase – https://theconversation.com/why-the-coronavirus-shouldnt-stand-in-the-way-of-the-next-wage-increase-139277