Beyond meat? The market for meat substitutes is way overdone

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Wood AO, Adjunct Professor in Biotechnology, Monash University

Meatless burger maker Beyond Meat has just reported quarterly earnings of US$67.3 million – much better than market expectations of US$52.7 million. It is now forecasting sales of US$240 million for the 2019 year, nearly three times that of 2018.

But the company is yet to make a profit, let alone one big enough to justify its current market valuation of about US$13 billion.

Since it listed on NASDAQ in May, its shares have surged more 700%. Investors’ enthusiasm reflects high hopes in the future fortunes of a company promising to put the sizzle into a meat substitute.

Interest is booming in plant-based meat substitutes and lab-grown meat alternatives. The appeal is summed up by Beyond Meat’s mission statement: “By shifting from animal to plant-based meat, we are creating one savoury solution that solves four growing issues attributed to livestock production: human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources and animal welfare.”

How realistic is this? The data suggests not very – that meat alternatives might play a positive role but in no way are going to save the planet.

Investment appetite

Predictions about the market potential for plant-based or lab-made meat vary. A lot of it appears to be only slightly better than sheer guesswork. One prediction, by the well-known Barclays, is that the market could be worth US$140 billion, or 10% of the US$1.4 trillion meat market, in the next 10 years.

It’s such projections that have fuelled investors’ appetite for companies working on ways to make plant-based protein look and taste like meat.

There’s Impossible Foods, for example, whose burger “bleeds” beetroot juice and is the meat (substitute) in Burger King’s Impossible Whopper. The privately held company has reportedly raised more than US$500 million, and is valued at US$2 billion.

An Impossible Burger from an Umami Burger franchise in San Francisco, California. www.shutterstock.com

Other players in the market include Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, and Tyson Foods, the world’s second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef and pork.

Investors are also betting on the longer-term prospect that lab-grown meat can capture the hearts and dollars of carnivores worried about the ethics and environmental sustainability of killing animals.

Feeding the world

The rationale for the importance of meat substitutes and alternatives often starts with feeding a global population projected to grow from 7.7 billion now to 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100.

Most of this growth will occur in Africa, followed by Asia. Populations elsewhere are expected to increase marginally. Europe’s will decline.

How this population growth affects meat consumption depends largely on income levels. Historical data show diets tend to become more meat-rich as wealth increases. Thus the chart below shows dramatic increases in meat consumption in China, and throughout Asia and Latin America, reflecting economic development.

Total consumption of meat (in million metric tons) in different regions and globally (inset). FAO

Only countries with cultural reasons to not eat meat, such as Hindu-majority India, are likely to buck this trend.

The fact of increasing populations in the areas most likely to also see per capita meat consumption rise is why the OECD and Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations predict meat demand in developing regions will grow at four times the rate of developed nations over the next decade.

By 2030, according to projections published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation in 2018, meat will increase by 80% in low and middle incomes, under a business-as-usual scenario. By 2050, it will increase more than 200%.

Can meat substitutes change the scenario? Price will make a difference. Right now consumers pay a significant premium for a plant product to taste like meat. An Impossible Whopper, for example, costs a dollar more than a standard Whopper.

But let’s say the meat substitutes can make themselve indistishuable from meat, both in taste and cost. Let’s say Barclays’ projections are accurate and meat substitutes take 10% of the meat market in the next 10 years. Or even double that.

It still means there are going to be more cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens on the planet than there are now. Animals will still be crucial sources of calories and protein (currently 18% and 34% globally), and their farming will continue to be a livelihood for hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia.

Overheated claims

In light of this, we need to have a sensible discussion about how to drive sustainability across all agriculture. This should include asking if the marketing spin of some of these companies is helping that conversation.

Impossible Foods’ founder, Pat Brown has declared: “Our mission is to completely replace animals in the food system by 2035. You laugh but we are absolutely serious about it and it’s doable.”

Really? The trends suggest it isn’t.

There’s also science to suggest it isn’t even necessary – at least from the point of view of tackling climate change. The CSIRO, for example, says Australia’s cattle and sheep industries, which produce almost 70% of the nation’s agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions, could be carbon-neutral by 2030.

Great marketing it might be, but making livestock production the great ethical and environmental bogeyman, and talking about its elimination, seems a tad overdone.

– ref. Beyond meat? The market for meat substitutes is way overdone – http://theconversation.com/beyond-meat-the-market-for-meat-substitutes-is-way-overdone-120579

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Ihumātao reflects the Zeitgeist of 2019

By Bryce Edwards -

July 30, 2019

Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards

The extraordinary Māori land protest at Ihumātao in Auckland is symbolic of our time. It is unlikely to have occurred, say, five years ago. It perfectly reflects heightened concerns and increased radicalism over racism, economic inequality, and the history of colonialism in New Zealand. This meant that when the police moved in last week to evict a long-running protest about the confiscation of Māori land, it suddenly ignited those values that have been brewing in many about injustice and a need to take a stand.

Today’s Otago Daily Times editorial argues the protest has been snowballing due to rising radicalism in society: “The emotional pull is compelling. Those with leftish and anti-establishment sentiments join in enthusiastically. The evils of colonialism, capitalism and racism are laid bare” – see: The Ihumatao cause celebre.

Like much of the radicalism – leftwing, rightwing, or otherwise – we’re seeing around the world, the editorial points out that the movement at Ihumātao doesn’t fit into a traditional box. This is because it involves complex issues, difficult history, unusual alliances, and some big potential ramifications for race relations in this country.

There have been a number of useful attempts to explain the complexities of the Ihumātao clash. The best of these were actually published some time ago – see Leonie Hayden’s National Geographic feature article from 2017: When Worlds Collide and Geoff Chapple’s article for the Listener from 2016: Ihumātao and the Ōtuataua Stonefields: A very special area.

Today on RNZ, Alex Ashton and Sharon Brett-Kelly detail some of the background issues and explain how local iwi and hapu are split on the issue of Fletcher Building constructing houses on the land – see: Ihumātao explained.

This piece lays out a “tale of skulduggery” in which Māori land was unjustly confiscated in 1863, leading to the Ihumātao farmland remaining in private hands ever since – first with the Wallace family, and today with Fletchers. And it’s now part of the Auckland City Council’s recognised Special Housing Area, meaning that a development is set to proceed.

As Ashton and Brett-Kelly’s piece explains, Fletchers has worked with local Māori (mana whenua) who have been regarded as having a mandate to negotiate. The local iwi, Te Kawerau a Maki, “accepted the inevitability of the Fletchers development and struck a deal with the corporation that negotiator Te Warena Taua describes as ‘better than anything we have ever achieved from Housing New Zealand or the Crown’. Eight hectares, or 25 percent of the land, will be handed back as a buffer against Otuataua, views of the maunga protected which has meant scaling back the height of some homes, and some of the homes placed into a shared equity scheme with the iwi. It’s unusually generous. Fletchers isn’t putting up a spokesperson during this protest but would it would be unfair to paint the corporation as the villain.”

However, not everyone agrees that the iwi, and its leadership, are the only mana whenua who should be discussing or deciding what happens to the land. Other claimants to the role have now become involved in asserting their rights, including some from within Te Kawerau a Maki. You can also listen to today’s 22-minute RNZ podcast: Ihumātao explained podcast.

To read the perspective of the local iwi who favour the Fletchers development, see Pita Turei’s opinion piece: Leave Ihumātao land decisions to iwi. In this he outlines the history of the land, and how local iwi leaders have worked to get Fletchers to give concessions in the development.

Turei, who’s been involved in activism for decades including the Land March and occupation of Bastion Point, says he understands the desire to protest, but argues that the protestors have got it wrong, and are unnecessarily splitting the unity of Māori. He also challenges the protestors to consider what they are really achieving, which he argues would be worse for local Māori.

The protestors believe that the deal struck between the Māori leaders and Fletchers isn’t sufficient, and the return of the land is necessary. A group called Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) has been at the forefront of the whole campaign – see Matthew Rosenberg’s Ihumātao eviction protest: An occupation 150 years in the making.

In this he profiles SOUL’s main spokesperson, Pania Newton, who says: “We will remain here until the bulldozers come. I’ve already planned to sacrifice my life for this campaign… I’m willing to die for it. It’s so important to my identity and to the history of our nation and my nieces and nephews.”

A lot of media coverage has emphasised the generational clash involved, as the protests have been centred on younger people. And as an illustration of this divide, although Pania Newton is leading the protests, it’s her uncle, Te Warena Taua, who is the chairperson of the Makaurau Marae Trust and executive chairperson of Te Kawerau Iwi Tribal Authority, and has fronted much of the defence of the arrangement with Fletchers – see Kendall Hutt’s Ihumātao eviction: Generations of Māori divided in dispute.

Another way to look at the divide is to view the traditional iwi leadership as having been incorporated into the business establishment, which is what socialist intellectual Alex Birchall argues in his blog post, Ihumātao: The class conflict in Māori politics opens up. He says that the dispute is not simply between protesting Māori versus Fletchers and the police, but also between the local Māori Establishment versus disaffected Māori.

Similarly, John Moore has argued that this new protest represents a growing disillusionment with the Treaty process: “What Ihumātao points to in a deeper political sense is that deep dissatisfaction with how the whole treaty process has played out. With billions of dollars of land, resources and money transferred to certain Māori iwi, we have seen the enrichment and empowerment of certain Māori leaders, while we also have the reality of general poverty within te ao Māori. Most Māori don’t seem to of benefited particularly from the treaty process. So, in a sense this occupation is a cry and rallying point for those Māori who feel they haven’t gained form the enrichment and empowerment of official iwi leaders” – see: Ihumātao – a rallying cry for disaffected Māori.

Mounting pressure on politicians to fix the problem

The protestors at Ihumātao have called on the Government to intervene, and they’ve been supported by coalition partner the Green Party, who have formally written to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to request action. So far, the Government’s response has been to try as hard as possible to keep out of the issue.

Ardern has indicated her preference for the status quo: “Ultimately we are falling on the side of the local iwi and their position… They are not the ones leading the protest here and so if we come in over the top, it really would be undermining the local iwi in this case.”

On Friday, however, the Prime Minister gave an assurance that construction on the Ihumātao development wouldn’t proceed in the meantime while an attempt was made at finding a resolution.

While this has been appreciated by many of the protesters, it doesn’t get the Government off the hook. Many protestors won’t be satisfied until the Government arranges to buy the land off Fletchers to be made into a public reserve, which may or may not include housing as well.

Critics have been scathing about the Government’s attempts to sit on the fence on the issue. Morgan Godfery has argued that: Ihumātao is Jacinda Ardern’s foreshore and seabed moment. And she’s failing.

Writing prior to the PM’s Friday intervention, Godfery questioned the authenticity of Ardern’s commitment to biculturalism: “It’s an intolerable position, especially from a Prime Minister who’ll wrap herself in Māori iconography for the international press. Do you take your kahu huruhuru off when land at Auckland Airport? When the Governor-General said in the Speech from the Throne that your government will work to ‘honour the original treaty promise’ did you have your fingers crossed?”

The PM is now overseas, and is to some extent able to avoid the ongoing debate. But it’s a sign of just how fraught the issue is for her that she is making some extraordinary attempts to prevent being questioned over it. Anna Bracewell-Worrall reported last night: “Jacinda Ardern has personally tried to prevent media from asking about the Ihumātao dispute while on a charm offensive in the Pacific. Her staff threatened journalists with restricted access to the PM if they did, forcing her Beehive team to intervene from Wellington. After crisis calls from the Capital, media were allowed a second shot” – see: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tried to prevent media asking about Ihumātao.

It looks as if the Government is still very disinclined to step into the issue in a more radical way, such as buying the land off Fletchers. Today on the AM Show, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters spoke out strongly against the protestors and in favour of the iwi who had negotiated with Fletchers, saying “Let’s not have some of the statements by, in particular, people who don’t belong there, who have not kept the land warm all these centuries, who are not in authority or do not have the mana to speak on behalf of them, let’s not have this sort of media circus” – see: Ihumātao protest: Winston Peters critical of ‘imposters’ protesting.

According to the above article, Peters “said in the ‘Māori world’, if people turn up to protest on land they haven’t personally safeguarded or are connected to, they are regarded as strangers and shouldn’t be making statements on the land.”

This follows on from Labour MP Peeni Henare going on TV on Saturday saying “that every Treaty settlement ever completed could be undermined if the Government purchased the Ihumātao land for use as a public heritage space.”

For more arguments on why a special deal on Ihumātao would be a problem for other iwi, see Ben Thomas’ Here’s why the Government can’t return Ihumātao to Iwi.

Not everyone agrees with this, however. Today, former indigenous studies academic at the University of Auckland, John McCaffery has argued that there is a misunderstanding in terms of Treaty settlements at Ihumātao: “the Government is claiming that issues at Ihumātao cannot be further discussed, litigated or reopened because of the precedent it would create. This is not historically supported by evidence held by the Crown. The fact is, there has not been any such Waitangi settlement of the Wai 8 1986 Manukau area claim, so attempts now to find a just solution are not constrained by a previous full and final Treaty settlement over this land” – see: Finding a solution to the tragedy of Ihumātao (paywalled).

McCaffery also challenges the mana whenua status that the Government says the iwi has: “According to the written decisions, Te Kawerau a Maki was never mandated by the Crown to have prime tangata whenua or Government’s mandated mana whenua status at Ihumātao, and Ihumātao is not within their agreed tribal mandated boundaries in their settlement either.”

There’s obviously also the potential for this to blow up as a larger political issue. And Chris Trotter writes about this today – see: Ihumātao watched by unfriendly eyes. He looks at whether the land occupation could spark a conservative backlash, and then a deeper clash that impacts significantly on the Treaty settlements process, Labour’s hold on the Māori seats, and ultimately creating something of an “iwi/Kiwi”-style culture war that raises the stark question of whether the nation proceeds towards becoming “The Bi-Cultural Republic of Aotearoa”.

Finally, what does the controversy say about how this country does its urban planning? Business journalist Rob Stock investigated by going along to a Fletchers annual general meeting, and then visiting the site of the housing development. He was less than impressed with the company. He concludes that not only is Ihumātao a “remarkable place, and is something quite unique in a city that has a tendency to bulldoze its history”, but also that “The truth is Fletcher is building at Ihumātao not because it is a good idea, but because it is convenient” – see: The real reason Fletchers is building at Ihumātao .

Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis: G7 Rates of Interest, Inflation and Unemployment

By Keith Rankin -

July 30, 2019

G7_interest-inflation-unemployment — Interest, Inflation, and Unemployment rates. Chart by Keith Rankin.

Interest rates, though headline‑rousing when it comes to mortgages, are an arcane and deeply mysterious component of economic life.

The received wisdom is that they represent the ‘time‑value of money’, and therefore should always be positive. Low interest rates are supposed to indicate a high willingness to postpone consumer pleasures. Interest income is also understood as an entitlement, a reward for hoarding rather than spending money.

In macroeconomics, we are told that low interest rates indicate ‘loose money’, which in turn means higher inflation. And we are told that we must engineer interest rates upwards as a means of curbing both residential land prices (‘house prices’ in common parlance) and consumer prices. Recessions are known to be collateral damage of upwardly‑engineered interest rates; but recessions pass, we are also told.

Much of our evidence is from individual nations’ statistics. The problem here is the way countries’ currency exchange rates confuse the picture. By looking here at G7 data, we have the worlds predominant capitalist countries taken together rather than individually. The exchange rate movements between their currencies largely cancel out.

On its own, the charts shows an ambiguous relationship between interest rates and inflation. We should note however, that conventional wisdom suggests it takes around two years for rising interest rates to curb inflation, and for falling interest rates to raise inflation.

The chart shows interest and inflation rates, using the percentage rates on the left‑side axis of the chart. Unemployment rates are read using the right‑side chart axis.

There are certainly instances where falling interest rates are followed by rising inflation – eg early 2000s. And falling interest rates (2009, 2012) followed by rising inflation. We might note that the rising inflation in 2010 and 2011 was mainly due to fiscal stimulus (rather than due to low interest rates); governments choosing to run the very high budget deficits that enabled recovery from the Global Financial Crisis.

In recent years, falling interest rates since 2011 have not been able to raise inflation above the annual two‑percent that is optimal to keep the wheels of capitalism spinning. And interest rates sure have come down. The key global interbank rate – the LIBOR – has been below zero since 2015.

We see that the relationship between interest rates and unemployment is rather more compelling than that between interest and inflation. Rising interest rates clearly bring‑about higher unemployment. Further, it is the rising unemployment that typically – but not always – induces lower inflation. In the chart, falling interest rates were followed by falling unemployment. Unemployment rates, our most critical indicator of recession, show that recessions have been the critical instigator of low inflation.

Indeed, it is fair to say that rising interest rates only curb inflation by creating contractionary conditions; creating recessions or near‑recessions. There is no direct connection between ‘loose money’ (indicated by low interest rates) and ‘high inflation’; or between ‘tight money’ and low inflation’.

By pre-2015 conventions, the developed world liberal‑capitalist economy is now in a sweet spot; low inflation, low unemployment. Annual economic growth is at potentially sustainable levels (eg 2% rather than 3%+). Yet there is much anxiety. Much of the anxiety among the richest 10% is because there were other motives – other than disinflation – for past high interest rate policies. It was through these monetary policies that the 1980 to 2008 ‘class‑war’ between capital and labour was waged. High and compounding interest was understood then as a free lunch by the rich, a means of transferring wealth directly from the poor to the rich.

The 2020s will bring new economic challenges; the challenge of low inflation and negative interest rates as the new norm. This happy state of affairs will not last though, so long as we have economic policy frameworks rooted in the 20th century. Labour shortages are now the big challenge of global capitalism. If policymakers fail to see this – and persevere with fiscal austerity policies (as we see in New Zealand) – then in the late 2020s we should expect a new form of stagflation; high inflation and structural unemployment.

The market for meat substitutes is way overdone

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Wood AO, Adjunct Professor in Biotechnology, Monash University

But the company is yet to make a profit, let alone one big enough to justify its current market valuation of about US$13 billion.

Since it listed on NASDAQ in May, its shares have surged more 700%. Investors’ enthusiasm reflects high hopes in the future fortunes of a company promising to put the sizzle into a meat substitute.

How realistic is this? The data suggests not very – that meat alternatives might play a positive role but in no way are going to save the planet.

Investment appetite

It’s such projections that have fuelled investors’ appetite for companies working on ways to make plant-based protein look and taste like meat.

Other players in the market include Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, and Tyson Foods, the world’s second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef and pork.

Feeding the world

Most of this growth will occur in Africa, followed by Asia. Populations elsewhere are expected to increase marginally. Europe’s will decline.

Only countries with cultural reasons to not eat meat, such as Hindu-majority India, are likely to buck this trend.

Overheated claims

Impossible Foods’ founder, Pat Brown has declared: “Our mission is to completely replace animals in the food system by 2035. You laugh but we are absolutely serious about it and it’s doable.”

Really? The trends suggest it isn’t.

Great marketing it might be, but making livestock production the great ethical and environmental bogeyman, and talking about its elimination, seems a tad overdone.

– ref. The market for meat substitutes is way overdone – http://theconversation.com/the-market-for-meat-substitutes-is-way-overdone-120579

Consumer watchdog: journalism is in crisis and only more public funding can help

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Simons, Associate professor, Journalism, Monash University

Once upon a time, step onto a train and you could be pretty sure that most of the passengers would have their noses buried in newspapers. These days, commuters look at their phones. It’s a powerful example of how much digital platforms – particularly Google, Facebook and the like – have become central to our lives.

In all of our overlapping personas – friend, employee, audience member and citizen – digital platforms have become the means to our ends. We use them to keep up with friends, to work out where we are going and to choose goods and services.

This means the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s report on Digital Platforms, released last week, is potentially one of the most important documents in recent national history, with the potential to affect every area of life.

Whether or not it fulfils that potential will depend on the response of government, and of course the lobbying attempts of Google and Facebook, both of which will oppose much of the regulatory thrust – despite the fact this is the local version of similar inquiries and initiatives around the globe. Bringing these new and uniquely powerful players to heel will require an international lawmaking effort.

So far, there has been some media attention on the business impacts of the report, and the issues surrounding privacy. I want to focus here on what the report says about journalism – the provision of reliable news and information.

This, surely, is the aspect of the report that is most important to our role as citizens, the health of our democracy and the capacity of our political processes and system of government to meet the needs of the nation.

The journalism crisis

First, the ACCC reaffirms its view that journalism is a public good, important for democracy. It also confirms that journalism is in crisis, thanks largely to the flow of advertising revenue to the digital platforms.

Significantly, in a first for a government agency, the ACCC declares that despite the fact most journalism is produced by private businesses, this is an appropriate area for government action.

The ACCC’s own research, conducted as part of this inquiry, confirms the number of journalists employed in print and online businesses (traditionally the main employers) dropped by 20% from 2014 to 2018.

More than 100 local and regional newspapers have closed over the past ten years, and as a result, 21 local government areas have no coverage by local newspapers. Swathes of suburban and regional Australia are now news deserts. The digital news business models reward those who provide international and national news. Local news falls through the cracks.

In other words, it’s now probably easier to find out what US President Donald Trump did last night than it is to find out what’s happening at your local school, why a local property development has been approved or what the story is behind that column of smoke on the horizon.

The results of the dive in the number of employed journalists are real, the ACCC research shows. There are 26% fewer articles on local government issues, 40% fewer articles reporting on local courts, 30% fewer articles on health issues and 42% fewer articles on science.

The ACCC says its data didn’t allow it to assess the impact on investigative journalism and detailed analysis of issues. Other research suggests that so far investigative work is holding up quite well – old media business have protected it and the new, digital-only players are also investing in it. But it would be wrong to be complacent about this given the crisis in news media business models continues to roll on.

As for articles giving detailed analysis on issues, it’s hardly necessary to do the research. A casual comparison of today’s mainstream news websites with their counterparts 15 years ago would lead to the conclusion it’s much harder these days to gain a grasp of important issues, including who is running the country, and how well or badly they are doing it.

This is not a matter of the digital delivery mechanism. It’s about how many journalists are employed, and whether they have the time and support to seek out and curate the facts.

ACCC recommendations

So what does the ACCC recommend government do about this? First, it suggests a top-to-toe review of media regulation – long overdue and broader in scope than my focus here. Also, it recommends measures designed to combat fake news and increase media literacy.

Then it recommends “stable and adequate” funding for the public broadcasters – the ABC and SBS. In this, the ACCC echoes every inquiry that has looked at this issue. It’s past time for governments to pay attention.

The public broadcasters should get more, and the funding should be on a longer cycle to guard against political interference.

The ACCC doesn’t quantify the amount of extra funding necessary. For this, we will have to await the public release of the Tonagh efficiency review – the results of which are currently with the public broadcasters, but yet to be more widely released.

The ACCC then moves on to consider a number of measures proposed in submissions – including some in submissions I had a hand in writing as a board member of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative.

It comes down in favour of a system of direct grants to local news services – rural, regional and suburban – with an emphasis on reporting of local government and local courts. This, the ACCC’s research suggests, is the area of most urgent need, though it anticipates the scheme may need to be widened in the future.

This system of grants would replace the existing under-subscribed and politically tainted Regional and Small Publishers Jobs and Innovation Package, which was established as a sop to then Senator Nick Xenophon in return for voting through the last round of media ownership deregulation.

That scheme didn’t work – partly because the eligibility criteria were designed to exclude certain publishers. The Guardian in Australia has claimed it was “stiffed” for party political reasons. Other problems included overly complex processes and limitations on the kind of things covered, with the emphasis being on technological innovation rather than the simple business of employing journalists.

A$50 million in grants

The ACCC’s recommended replacement would offer A$50 million in grants a year, to be administered at arm’s length from government, possibly by a new statutory authority called “Journalism Australia”.

The amount of money is not large, but is an increase on the existing scheme. The impact can also be judged in another way: the ACCC estimates the current total investment in full-time equivalent employees producing journalism in Australia is approximately A$600 million a year.

The ACCC also recommended philanthropic donations to not-for-profit journalism enterprises be made tax-deductible. Media organisations, or arms of media organisations, would be able to register as charities. In the US, philanthropy has significantly aided public interest journalism. There have been nascent moves here, as well, but if the ACCC recommendation is adopted we can expect a helpful boost.

Sadly, though, the ACCC did not pick up one of the potentially most transformative measures recommended by submissions – that investment in public interest journalism attract a tax rebate. This would be similar to the schemes that led to a revival of the Australian Film Industry decades ago.

The ACCC rejected this idea – and in my view, without sufficient consideration. Usefully, it estimated that a 25% tax rebate would provide a benefit to media businesses (and a cost to the budget) of around A$150 million a year. The cost could be contained using caps or limits on eligibility.

The Public Interest Journalism Initiative had argued that such a scheme would immediately increase the number of journalists in Australia, and thus the amount and quality of journalism.

The ACCC concluded it would be too difficult to ensure the money would be used for public interest journalism, which it defined as

journalism with the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining issues of public significance in order to engage citizens in public debate and inform democratic decision making at all levels of government.

Comparable schemes for the film industry, the ACCC pointed out, are project-specific, rather than aimed simply at making more films. The PIJI has already signalled it still thinks the tax rebate idea has legs, and was deserving of more consideration and research.

Citizens need journalism

So how should we regard the ACCC report, thinking about it as citizens? It’s groundbreaking in clearly making the case, from a usually dry-as-dust business-related body, that journalism is a public good, that it matters, that we have a civic crisis underway, and there is ample justification for government action.

The recommendations are welcome, but more work is needed. If we want to continue to be effective, informed citizens we should be doing our best to follow what happens from here on – and hope that there will be enough journalists around to allow us to assess progress.

– ref. Consumer watchdog: journalism is in crisis and only more public funding can help – http://theconversation.com/consumer-watchdog-journalism-is-in-crisis-and-only-more-public-funding-can-help-121133

Potential cost to patient safety as NZ debates access to medicinal cannabis

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Glass, Professor of Pharmacology, University of Otago

Cannabis-based products will be allowed to bypass usual processes required for medicines in New Zealand and go directly onto the market without any proof of safety or effectiveness. This unprecedented proposal is contained in the government’s consultation document on giving greater access to medicinal cannabis.

The government is introducing a scheme for regulating medicinal cannabis. The consultation covers proposed licensing, cultivation, manufacturing and product standards, and a prescription and enforcement regime.

The key driver for this seems to be that people currently access cannabis through the illegal recreational market. But even if there is no doubt that a regulated market would provide a safer environment for access, we argue that there could be a potential cost to patient safety.

From trial to market

The usual market pathway for a drug in New Zealand is the development and manufacture to good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards. This ensures each batch has the same amount of active ingredient and is free from contaminants.

Companies then run clinical trials, first on small groups of healthy subjects to establish the compound is safe and to understand how it behaves in the body. This information is essential to ascertain dosage.

Finally, the medicine moves into “efficacy” trials. This is the first time it is given to patients. These trials confirm safety and, importantly, establish effectiveness. The data are then presented to the medical regulatory body Medsafe, which decides if the drug can be prescribed.

Current medicinal cannabis regulations suggest bypassing all these processes and moving straight from manufacture to prescription. Whether or not manufacture needs to be to GMP standards is one of the consultation questions.

What are cannabinoids

Cannabis, like all plants, contains a wide array of different chemicals. Of these, phytocannabinoids generate most interest. The most highly expressed cannabinoids in dried plant material are Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), but at least 100 other cannabinoids are present, many in vanishingly small quantities.

THC is the main psychoactive component of the plant, known to generate a “high” or sense of euphoria. Its mechanism of action within the human body is well understood. It mimics the body’s natural cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) to bind to and activate specific proteins in the brain. The endocannabinoid system is involved in lots of different physiological processes, including memory formation, appetite, pain regulation and inflammation. THC can therefore alter these functions.

There is nothing unusual about a plant compound interacting with human proteins. A large number of drugs are originally from plants. This includes morphine, which comes from opiate poppies and mimics the body’s own opiates, the endorphins.

In contrast to THC, CBD does not produce a high and is often described as not-psychoactive. But this is a mistake as it clearly alters activity within the brain. It is better described as a non-intoxicating cannabinoid. The mechanism by which CBD produces responses in the body are not well understood.

A recent review of scientific literature described more than 65 discrete molecular targets that might interact with CBD, but concluded that it probably isn’t acting within the endocannabinoid system at all.

Cannabinoids as medicines

There is a commonly held idea that cannabis doesn’t lend itself to being treated as a typical medicine because it is the combination of different chemicals that produces the desired effects. But there is little scientific evidence to support this.

Many plants have medically useful compounds and these, without fail, have been isolated, either by extraction from the plant or chemical synthesis. They form the basis of medicines such as morphine, codeine, aspirin and pseudoephidrine to name but a few. This same approach has been used for cannabis. Marinol (dronabinol) is synthetic THC, Nabilone is a synthetic THC derivative, Sativex is a plant extract blending two plant varieties, one high THC, one high CBD.

Sativex is approved by Medsafe in New Zealand to treat muscle spasms related to multiple sclerosis and through the medicinal cannabis access scheme for other diseases. Although not yet approved for distribution in New Zealand, the pharmaceutical grade CBD product, Epidiolex recently became the first FDA-approved plant derived cannabinoid medication.

All of these products have been through clinical trials to establish their safety and efficacy. They come with clear recommendations on dosage, likely adverse effects and indications on their likely effectiveness in given conditions. This means the doctor and the patient can genuinely make an informed decision about risks versus potential benefits.

This information also highlights potential drug-drug interactions. For example, clinical trials on Epidiolex for paediatric epilepsy highlighted that, at effective doses, CBD changes how other anti-epileptic medications are processed in the body, sometimes increasing them to toxic levels.

Equity issues

If we already have data for these existing medicines, why don’t we just manufacture a similar product but market it more cheaply? This is a model New Zealand has already adopted for generic medicines, essentially copies of original medicines for which the drug-funding agency PHARMAC can negotiate cheaper pricing.

But even these medicines require early clinical testing. The manufacturer must test their medicine in people and prove that it is processed by the body in the same way as the established medicine before it can be prescribed. Even following these rigorous tests, differences can remain which make the copy of the drug less acceptable to a patient, such as was seen recently when PHARMAC swapped the antidepressant EFFexor-XR for Enlafax-XR.

The consultation document also raises the question of equity, both in terms of equity to access cannabis products and equity to enter the market as a manufacturer. There is an expectation that requiring cannabis derived medicines to meet Medsafe standards would push costs to prohibitive levels. But data from the Canadian College of Family Physicians suggest pricing in Canada is very similar between dried plant materials and pharmaceutical grade products.

Regardless, do any of these considerations outweigh patients’ right to safe, and proven effective medicine? Or doctors’ right to make a fully informed decision before writing a prescription?

New Zealand’s limited health care budget already strains to keep up with demand. The lack of public funding for expensive but proven cancer medications is just one example. How can we justify spending any of this budget on access to and regulatory control of products that don’t meet our standards, when we can’t afford to fund medicines that do? These are questions that should be answered before we add untested cannabis-based products into our health care system.

– ref. Potential cost to patient safety as NZ debates access to medicinal cannabis – http://theconversation.com/potential-cost-to-patient-safety-as-nz-debates-access-to-medicinal-cannabis-120750

There’s a reason you’re feeling no better off than 10 years ago. Here’s what HILDA says about well-being

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

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

During the election campaign then-opposition leader Bill Shorten repeatedly claimed that everything was going up.

“Childcare is up 28%, out of pockets to see the doctor up 20%, specialists … up nearly 40%,” he said. And then the punchline: “everything is going up, except your wages.”

Statistically, it wasn’t true. The official rate of inflation was just 1.3%. The official rate of wage growth was 2.3%.

I haven’t asked him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept saying it because his focus groups told him that’s what people felt.

Today’s release of the 17th wave of Australia’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Survey (HILDA) tells us that despite the official statistics, people were right to feel they were going backwards.

Funded by the Australian government and managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, HILDA is one of the most valuable tools Australian social researchers have.

It examined the lives of 14,000 Australians in 2001 and then kept coming back to them each year to discover what had changed. By surveying their children as well, and in future surveying their children, it will be able to build up a long-term picture of how circumstances change over the course of lives and generations.

It can be thought of as Australia’s Seven Up!, the British TV series that keeps going back for updates on the lives of 14 children it first examined when they were seven. Except that HILDA’s results have statistical significance, and the questions are detailed, asking among other things about depression and anxiety, work-life stress, stress in relationships, and illicit drug use.

We are right to feel no better off…

The Australian Bureau of Statistics does indeed find that wages are climbing faster than prices, as they almost always have, but because it doesn’t examine what happens to a particular household over time it can tell us little about whether an individual’s experience of things is getting better or getting worse.

HILDA gets a handle on each household’s disposable income by asking each member of the household about their gross income from wages, benefits, investments and other sources and then deducting its estimate of taxes. It gets a handle on the real (inflation-adjusted) changes by adjusting its totals for changes in the consumer price index.

It finds that for the thousands of households it interviewed, real disposable income grew strongly during the first nine years of the survey, between 2001 and 2009. Then, after the global financial crisis, for the eight years between 2009 and the 2017 results released today, that growth stalled.

Expressed in today’s dollars, the average annual real disposable income of those households climbed by A$19,773 between 2001 and 2009, about $2,472 per year.

But most of the growth was during the mining boom that stretched from 2003 to 2009 when the average annual real disposable household income climbed about $3,000 per year, as did the income of the more representative median (or middle) household.

Since 2009 and the global financial crisis, the average and the median have moved in different directions.

The average houshold’s annual real disposable income has climbed a further $3,156. The median (or typical) household’s income has fallen $542, although not steadily. The graph shows it falling between 2009 and 2011, climbing in 2012, and changing little thereafter.

…and as if it’s harder to get ahead…

It has also become harder to “get ahead”, in the phrase used often by the prime minister.

Between 2001 and 2005, 40% of the households in the bottom fifth of earners (the bottom qunitile) moved out of it into a higher one. In more recent years, between 2012 and 2016, a lower 38.5% moved up.

Between 2001 and 2005, 44% of the households in the top qunitile had to move down to let other households take their place. In more recent years, between 2012 and 2016, only 41.5% have moved down.

Getting a long way out of the income circumstances you were born in is a long-shot, according on HILDA’s early attempt at measuring intergenerational mobility.

People who were 32-34 years old in 2015-17 are highly likely to be in the same household income quintiles as those people found themselves in when they were 15-17 back in 2001-03.

There’s only a one in ten chance of moving from the bottom quintile as a teenager to the top quintile in your early thirties. There’s a 37% chance you’ll stay put.

Even among teenagers who grew up in the middle quintile, there’s only a 17% chance of making it to the top, along with a 19% chance of moving one rung up.

Interestingly, women turn out to be more tied to the income their families had when they were children than men, and both men and women tend to stay more closely tied to their mother’s income than their father’s.

…yet we are less reliant on welfare, even pensions…

When HILDA began in 2001, 39% of Australians aged 18 to 64 were living in a household that received government welfare of some kind. By 2017, that proportion had fallen to 31%, but almost all of the drop happened before the global financial crisis in 2009.

Most of us are still in households that have received something from the government over a 10-year period: 58% of working age Australians in 2017, down from 64% in 2010.

Among older Australians aged 65 and over, reliance on the age pension and other benefits for more than half of income needs has dropped from 60% to 51%.

Among new retirees aged 65 and over, the proportion receiving the age pension has fallen from 76% of men and 74% of women to just 60% of men and 55% of women.

But while the growth of compulsory superannuation is likely to be part of the story, almost all of the decline happened before the financial crisis in 2009, suggesting that the destruction of wealth in the crisis kept people on the pension who otherwise might not have needed it.

…and gender roles are changing

Before the financial crisis, almost three quarters (73%) of men of traditional working age were employed full-time. After the crisis, the rate slipped to a much lower 67% and stayed there.

Female full-time employment was also hit by the crisis but has since almost totally recovered to be just a fraction below its pre-crisis peak of 39.6%.

Women’s hourly earnings are also climbing faster than men’s, up 24% between 2001 and 2017, compared to 21% for men’s.

While women have always been more likely than men to be employed casually, since the crisis male casual employment has climbed while female casual employment has declined. The two are now as close as they have ever been, with women now only six percentage points more likely than men to be employed causally.

In dual-earner male-female couples, the proportion in which the woman earns more than the man has climbed from 22% to 25%.

The woman being the main breadwinner is more common in couples that aren’t legally married and don’t have children. It is also far more common in the regions than in cities and among couples in which the man doesn’t have a university degree.

Men in predominantly female breadwinner households are somewhat less happy with their lives and with their relationships, as (perhaps surprisingly) are women.

Fathers tend to agonise more about work-family conflict than mothers, notwithstanding the much greater amount of housework and childcare work performed by mothers. The men who worry the most work long hours, have irregular shits and very young children. A mother working the same hours as a father will typically be more conflicted.

Most parents suffering high work-family conflict get out of it within a year or two, often by managing things better and sometimes by changing jobs. Those suffering high work-family conflict are 50% more likely than others to separate the next year.

HILDA’s great strength is that it will be able to follow those parents and their children and all the other families it surveys and tell us what happens next. Rather than being an Australian version of Seven Up!, it might be better described as Australia’s never ending story. Its co-director Roger Wilkins says its design allows it to be “infinitely lived”.

– ref. There’s a reason you’re feeling no better off than 10 years ago. Here’s what HILDA says about well-being – http://theconversation.com/theres-a-reason-youre-feeling-no-better-off-than-10-years-ago-heres-what-hilda-says-about-well-being-121098

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – July 30 2019

By Bryce Edwards -

July 30, 2019

Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.

New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.

Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.

Ihumātao
John McCaffery (Herald): Finding a solution to the tragedy of Ihumātao (paywalled)
RNZ: The Detail: Ihumātao explained
Anna Bracewell-Worrall and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tried to prevent media asking about Ihumātao
Rob Stock (stuff): The real reason Fletchers is building at Ihumātao
Morgan Godfery (Metro): Ihumātao is Jacinda Ardern’s foreshore and seabed moment. And she’s failing
Chris Trotter: Ihumatao Watched By Unfriendly Eyes
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Ihumātao: Winston Peters says mana whenua views will be taken seriously
1News: Simon Bridges says ‘laws need to be observed’ by Ihumātao protestors
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Simon Bridges wants the Police to drag protesters out of Ihumātao – this is why he can never be Prime Minister
ODT Editorial: The Ihumatao cause celebre
Tiana Mihaere (Critic): Why We Must All Protect Ihumātao
RNZ: Ihumātao protest: ‘We are still here’
Māori TV: Police presence scaled back at Ihumātao
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): PM invited to Ihumātao – Police, Fletchers invited to leave
Chelsea Daniels and Michael Neilson (Newstalk ZB/Herald): Jacinda Ardern invited to Ihumātao, Fletcher Building and police asked to leave
Katie Bradford (1News): Ihumātao protestors say they won’t budge until they meet with Government, Fletcher Building
RNZ: Ihumātao: Senior iwi member Rankin to complain over PM Jacinda Ardern ‘interference’
1News: Bolstered by Ihumātao, Māori Party looks towards 2020 comeback
Mark Quinlivan and Erin Speedy (Newshub): Ihumātao protest: Social media campaign taking over proper discussions – iwi leader
Māori TV: Waikato-Tainui leaders to support mana whenua to address Ihumātao issues
Damian Rowe (Southland Times): Invercargill protesters gather to sign petition for Ihumātao
Tom Furley (RNZ): Police cost for Ihumātao protest ‘tens of thousands’ each day
Herald: ‘We are with Ihumātao and we are here’: Celebs at the protest

State care of children, Oranga Tamariki
Audrey Young (Herald): Winston Peters says Māori need to address violence against women and children
1News: ‘Cultural renaissance in Māoridom’ needed, says Winston Peters ahead of Oranga Tamariki protests
Stuff: Oranga Tamariki ‘our job to fix’, Winston Peters says ahead of Parliament protest
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom):A call for justice on NZ’s ‘taken generation’
Māori TV: Māori Party pres calls for independent commissioner for Māori issues
Newshub: What you need to know about the KiwiSaver Foster Children Amendment Bill

1News Colmar Brunton poll
Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): National on top, NZ First drops in the latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll
Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): 1 NEWS poll shows people ‘clearly thinking beyond Simon Bridges’
Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): Air NZ’s Christopher Luxon makes appearance as preferred PM in 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll
Richard Harman (Politik): Talking himself down
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Winston Peters fires scalding criticism at poll after disastrous New Zealand First result
Claire Trevett (Herald): Relief for National’s Simon Bridges, none for Winston Peters in new poll (paywalled)
David Farrar: Latest poll
Martyn Bradbury: TVNZ Poll

National Party
Chris Trotter (Interest): What is “National Conservatism”?
1News: Simon Bridges says he’s ‘not going to be on the cover of Vogue’ but brings ‘real leadership’
Brent Edwards (NBR): Bridges claims National has the government on the ropes (paywalled)
No Right Turn: Will National stay the party of climate change denial?
Mike Yardley (Press): National seized the moment the door was left ajar

Peter Ellis and Civi Creche case
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): Supreme Court considering urgency for Peter Ellis’ Civic Creche case
Don Brash (Newsroom): Peter Ellis: the Supreme Court needs to hurry
Beck Eleven (North & South: 2015): Why the Peter Ellis Civic Creche Case won’t go away

Corrections
Blair Jackson (Stuff): Corrections says rosters will address UN prisoner violations
Damian George (Stuff): Prisoners who shared boxing video on Facebook will be punished – Corrections
Luke Appleby (1News): Corrections to charge Auckland Prison inmates who broadcast live sparring video
1News: Corrections investigating after Rimutaka Prison inmates broadcast live sparring video

Operation Burnham
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Operation Burnham Inquiry: NZDF admits Afghan target may have been unarmed
Boris Jancic (Herald): Law allows ‘unavoidable’ civilian deaths, Operation Burnham probe hears
RNZ: Operation Burnham: Third public hearing begins in capital

Cancer care
1News: Simon Bridges defends National’s new cancer policy after Cancer Society criticism
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Cancer campaign Malcolm Mulholland could trigger political movement
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Husband of cancer patient might enter politics
Herald: Frustrated cancer patient’s husband mulls new political party
David Cormack (Herald): It’s National v National on cancer (paywalled)
1News: Government focused on getting cancer action plan right, David Clark says amid complaints it’s taking too long
Emma Russell (Herald): Cancer disgrace: 49-year-old woman dies after GP misses breast cancer
TVNZ: Sunday: Meet Blair Vining, the dying Southland farmer fighting for better cancer care

Christchurch
Tina Law and Dominic Harris (Press): Wins and losses for Christchurch ratepayers as final quake deal comes to light
RNZ: Major Christchurch projects to be handed to city council

Environment and conservation
Lois Williams (RNZ): Sculptor says ‘art work’ exported to China looks like giant log
1News: More than three-quarters of Kiwis now considering electric cars, a big jump from last year, survey shows
John Anthony (Stuff): Number of Kiwis considering buying EVs spikes, Trade Me figures show
Tom McKinlay (ODT): Our plastics addiction
Jamie Morton (Herald): $11.5m mega-project to shed light on NZ’s changing oceans (paywalled)
Simon Collins (Herald): 1080 challenge: $40k bill for Friends of Sherwood Trust after Environment Court battle against Auckland Council, DoC
Jono Edwards (ODT): Hearings over drilling plans
Jono Edwards (ODT): Below-par water issue for region
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Water contamination costs South Wairarapa District Council $300,000
Herald: Countdown’s BYO container trial goes nationwide
Tim O’Connell (Nelson Mail): Port Nelson joins Climate Leaders Coalition in tide shift towards low-emission economy

Housing
University of Auckland: Q+A: Boom or bust: What is the state of housing in New Zealand?
Eleisha Foon (RNZ): Conditions at social housing place risk tenants’ health – expert
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Steep decline in property sales to foreign buyers
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Tenants struggle as demand for rental properties soars
Paul Gorman (Manawatū Standard): Manawatu Tenants’ Union pleas for rent control as region’s rents continue to climb
Rikiahana Smallman (Stuff): Stock is not keeping up with demand as Waikato and Hamilton rents increase
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Call to use Wellington City council-owned golf course to ease housing crisis

Education
Laura Walters (Newsroom): AUT scraps Tiananmen Square event
Julie Iles (Stuff): Whitireia documents show enrolments close for 67 courses
Simon Collins (Herald): Parents, children asked to wear green to support school principals

Foreign affairs and trade
1News: Tokelau lays on grand welcome for Jacinda Ardern
RNZ: Peters announces two more years support for Tonga’s police
1News: Government announces more police support for Tonga to fight transnational crime
RNZ: NZ joins Samoa campaign to save manumea national bird
RNZ: PNG leader urges Australia and NZ responsibility on climate
Point of Order: Ardern and Peters at odds on China’s expansion into the Pacific
RNZ: To tax or not to tax: imported steel back before the courts

Public Finance Act
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Robertson eyes big Public Finance Act reform
MIchael Reddell: Overselling past reforms

Christchurch mosque attack, violence against Muslims
Emma Hatton (RNZ): Emails reveal Islamic Women’s Council’s battle for government attention
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Human Rights Commissioner calls for better inclusion of muslims in Mosque attack inquiry

Drug law reform, cannabis referendum
Derek Cheng (Herald): Drug law reform: What the Government has kept quiet (paywalled)
RNZ: Parliamentary Bill enables cannabis referendum process

Health
Emma Russell (Herald):‘Happy Meal’ healthcare: 200 drive-through mobile medical clinics by 2020
Bruce Munro (ODT): A cure for what ails
RNZ: Fifty more measles cases confirmed in Auckland
RNZ: Why Countdown will stop selling energy drinks to children
Cira Olivier (Rotorua Daily Post): Rotorua schools: Countdown’s energy drink age restriction a step in the right direction (paywalled)
RNZ: Radius Care home operator to apologise over man’s falls
Ruby Macandrew (Stuff): Overtime the norm for Kiwi psychologists with staff vacancies prompting strike action

Local government
No Right Turn: Something is rotten on the West Coast
Matthew Littlewood (Stuff): Appointed Environment Canterbury councillor Tom Lambie standing down
Damian George (Stuff): Fourth regional councillor drops out of Wellington’s local government election race
Cherie Sivignon (Nelson Mail): Tasman District Council proposes sinking lid on pokie machine numbers
RNZ: New Plymouth council roofing project blows budget
RNZ: Hawke’s Bay’s Sikh community to challenge council’s farmland decision

Primary industries
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Government talks to Fonterra about speeding up replacement of coal boilers
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): What’s the cost to dairy of going green? (paywalled)
Sally Rae (ODT): Focus on a high-value future
Jacqueline Rowarth (Herald): If veganism is the answer, what was the question?
Maja Burry (RNZ): Untreatable pig disease puts pressure on pork industry
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Why you need to watch out for African swine fever
Maja Burry (RNZ): MPI approves 5400 dairy breeding stock export to China

Firearms
Ben Strang (RNZ): Poor gun storage ‘incredibly concerning’ – police
Heather Roy: Gun Register Will Fail at First Shot

Pike River
Tim Brown (RNZ): Checkpoint: Work begins to break through first barrier in Pike River Mine
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): No major delays expected as Pike re-entry closes in on ‘big milestone’
Mark Quinlivan and Mel Logan (Newshub): Pike River: Preparations on track to enter further into drift

Immigration, refugees
Richard Davison (ODT): Family hit by ‘heartless’ deportation
Sophie Trigger (Stuff): Marlborough organisations prepare for first refugee intake

Jacinda Ardern to appear in Vogue
Herald: Harry and Meghan share sneak peek of Vogue edition with Jacinda Ardern
Lana Andelane (Newshub):Jacinda Ardern urges us to ‘come back to humanity’ in promo video for Vogue magazine
1News: Jacinda Ardern offers solution to ‘polarised world’ in promo video for Vogue’s Forces for Change issue
1News: National’s Judith Collins praises Jacinda Ardern’s upcoming Vogue cover
RNZ: Jacinda Ardern picked by Meghan Markle for Vogue special edition
1News: Jacinda Ardern features in special British Vogue issue guest edited by Duchess Meghan
Herald: Jacinda Ardern features on Meghan Markle’s British Vogue cover

Mainzeal
RNZ: Shipley, other Mainzeal directors lose appeal over $36m liability
Anne Gibson (Herald): Mainzeal case: $36m penalty stands against Jenny Shipley, other directors

Abortion
Herald: Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki compares abortion to the Holocaust
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Brian Tamaki declares abortion a ‘savage pagan practise’

Other
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Don’t eat the rich. Just set hard limits on their greed
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Why ‘gold plating’ our banking system is a good thing
Sam Hurley (Herald): Three big telcos admit billing customers after contracts end (paywalled)
Liam Hehir (Stuff): Voting for children, not by children
Gordon Campbell: On some of the barriers facing female politicians
Christine Rose: Hope with Hone
Katie Kenny (Stuff): The fine line between Facebook fun and undermining democracy
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Government model points to 1000 more wind turbines by 2050
Peter Lyons (ODT): Rising sharemarket inflating like bubble
Nevil Gibson (NBR): Debates need open minds (paywalled)
Erik Olssen (ODT): Simplicity compounds ignorance
Simon Kemp (Stuff): Individual giving means a range of values are represented
Felix Desmarais (Stuff): Political thriller ‘Burn Her’ has spooky parallels with real-life politics

How Australia can make AI work for our economy, and for our people

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Elliott, Dean of External Engagment and Executive Director of the Hawke EU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, University of South Australia

The idea of robots taking our jobs is not radically new.

But artificial intelligence (AI) is now completely reorganising the global economy. Some estimates of productivity-driven economic growth conclude that AI will contribute approximately $US16 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Unfortunately – compared to the European Union, Japan, United States and United Kingdom – Australia has been relatively late in turning to address the challenges of AI, and creating the right policies to deal with its many implications (good and bad).

For our economy to thrive, what we need now is the right mix of governance, regulation, civil society participation, industry support and business compliance – as well as the development and deepening of digital literacy throughout Australian communities.

So how can we make that happen? A report launched today is designed to help.

Euphoria versus cataclysm

New developments in AI are very different from previous forms of automation. Technologies today are mobile, situationally aware, adaptive and in real-time communication with other intelligent machines.

Machine learning has been especially important in speeding up the spread and efficacy of AI. Machine learning encompasses smart algorithms that improve their performance unsupervised, often through sorting and classifying big data sets. Applications include weather prediction, medical diagnostics and personalised marketing (such as ads through Facebook).

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, said the AI revolution is “unlike anything humankind has experienced before”.

The consequences of our increasingly automated global world involve a shattering of political orthodoxies. We have to be much more agile and prepared to change fast. Our policies and approaches should allow us to cope with the unexpected, unanticipated shifts coming from the digital revolution.

I have been pondering these massive global changes over the last nine months while working as a member of the Australian Council of Learned Academies Expert Working Group on Artificial Intelligence in Australia. The ACOLA Report, launched today in Canberra, considers the full spectrum of issues arising from AI.

One big challenge we faced was to distinguish between euphoric and cataclysmic visions of AI. Another big task was to chart the public policy “sea change” arising from AI. Neither challenge was easy to confront.

Leveraging AI for Australia

The ACOLA Report lays out how we can improve Australia’s economic, societal and environmental well-being while taking into account the ethical, legal and social issues linked with AI.

It highlights the importance of finding a balance between innovation and risk, and how we can weigh up the promise of unprecedented technological transformation of manufacturing, infrastructure and the economy on the one side, and the growing risks of technological unemployment and autonomous weapons (“killer robots”) on the other.

The plan outlined in the report focuses on education, business operations, governance and regulation, social implications, research and skills.

In terms of education, for example, increased automation of routine tasks means people will be freed up in the workplace. This means there’s likely to be an increased demand for employees with strong interpersonal skills and critical thinking.

The social sciences, humanities and creative arts have a big role to play in promoting ethical AI. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are vital in advancing the next generation of AI researchers.

AI will demand new skills and capabilities, and adaptability, in our workforce. Micro-credentialing (a form of education in which “mini-degrees” are achieved in specific subject areas) is likely to become useful for certifying basic education and digital literacy in AI.

Schools, the vocational education and training (VET) sector and universities should encourage broad-based training and lifelong learning in AI development.

The ACOLA report also addresses the need for new policy relating to data harvesting and invasions of privacy (for example, involving tech giants Facebook and Google) and geopolitical concerns, especially where the spread of fake news has been powerfully weaponised by Russia and other countries.

Everything to play for

Getting the balance right between opportunity and risk arising from the AI revolution will be essential to the future fabric of Australia. However the ACOLA report is only the start of the process of public engagement – much more needs to be done.

What is now urgently needed, I think, is a national summit on AI – involving politicians, policymakers, business leaders and industry representatives and people from the broader community. This can help us consider how Australia might best fashion a common framework for the ethical development of AI, both in our country and internationally.

Australia has come to this global policy debate somewhat later than some, but in terms of the AI revolution there’s everything still to play for.

The arguments developed in this article are the author’s own views, and not representative of ACOLA or the panel that contributed to the horizon scanning report on AI.

– ref. How Australia can make AI work for our economy, and for our people – http://theconversation.com/how-australia-can-make-ai-work-for-our-economy-and-for-our-people-113744

HILDA findings on Australian families’ experience of childcare should be a call-to-arms for government

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Melbourne

Australian parents are disadvantaged by a lack of affordable childcare, with childcare costs rising by about 145% in real terms since 2002, the latest HILDA study reveals.

The annual survey found the majority of Australian parents have experienced childcare difficulties over the past year and the costs of childcare are an increasing stress.

This is no surprise given that childcare costs absorb 27% of household income, with childcare costs in Australia among the highest of OECD nations. Compare those costs to a country like Sweden, where childcare costs absorb only 5% of the family income, and it is no wonder Australian families feel overwhelmed by the rising and excessive costs of childcare.

Perhaps we cannot expect Australia to become Sweden. But we would expect Australia could look like a country like Bulgaria, where childcare absorbs 8% of the household income.

Australia has fallen behind most OECD countries in making childcare a top priority to help families thrive. So far, the answer from successive governments has been a head-in-the-sand approach leaving families and early childhood learning centres to work out the rising cost of childcare.

The childcare crisis cannot be solved by asking workers to take lower wages or families to pay more money. The government must step in to help subsidise the rising cost of childcare to support Australian families.

This rise in childcare is on top of significant increases in petrol prices, food costs and electricity. So it is little wonder Australian families increasingly feel like they can’t keep up – and buying too many avocado toasts does not seem to be to blame.

Neither is women’s reticence from the labor market. The HILDA study shows women’s labour force participation rates have increased to their highest rates since the survey’s inception in 2001, as has the number of dual-income couples.

But, women continue to make less money than men, and are less likely to be breadwinners than their male partners. In fact, the HILDA reports that even when women are the family breadwinners, it’s only for a short time, with 60% remaining in that position five years later compared to 80% of male breadwinners.

So, these competing realities present a knotty problem – women are more attached to the labour market than in the past, yet families feel like they can’t keep up. And childcare costs are central to this, with many families unable to out-earn the huge dent it places on their household income.

For many Australian families, part-time employment is the solution. Australia has the fourth-highest rate of part-time work rates across the OECD. Mothers are more likely to reduce work time to part-time than fathers (37% against 5%) to buffer the family from rising childcare costs.

The consequence of these employment shifts mean mothers perform more childcare and housework while fathers’ work time is largely constant as children age.

Then, of course, there is the mental load, or the unpaid invisible mental work that women do to ensure husbands have socks for work and children have lunches for school. As the HILDA survey shows, women are assuming the bulk of this work on top of their increased attachment to employment. Thus, it is no wonder that work-family conflict has boomeranged – once higher for fathers, but now experienced more severely for mothers.

The cumulative pressure of all of it and, doing it all right, is disproportionately shouldered by mothers at the expense of their health.

For families, the HILDA report has little good news – childcare costs, poverty and anxiety are rising, all while women are more involved in the labour market. While these types of reports can cause one to assume a foetal position in a dark room, there is reason for hope.

Government subsidised, full-time childcare is a policy solution that is shown to work. In my forthcoming book, I look at which US states are the most effective in supporting working mothers. The results are clear: reducing childcare costs, offering high-quailty childcare and extending school days and after-school care are key to effective family policy.

Mothers in these states have the highest employment in the nation and fewer families are below the poverty line. These states provide key policy directions for countries with a void – like Australia.

In Washington D.C., lawmakers expanded government subsidised childcare to cover all children in the district. As a result of this policy, maternal employment rates increased by 12%, with 10% of the increase directly attributable to the program, reducing employment gaps between high and low income mothers.

Extending high-quality childcare to a wider population also benefits children, with those in effective programs exhibiting better language skills, fewer behavioural problems and more positive parent-child interactions that extend into their primary school years.

In this regard, the recent HILDA report should be a call to action – for governments to look at work-family challenges as major policy opportunities.

And, legislating high-quality low cost government subsidised childcare to all Australian families is the perfect place to start.

– ref. HILDA findings on Australian families’ experience of childcare should be a call-to-arms for government – http://theconversation.com/hilda-findings-on-australian-families-experience-of-childcare-should-be-a-call-to-arms-for-government-120417

Language of love: a quarter of Australians are in inter-ethnic relationships

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Inga Lass, Academic, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne

Australians have become much more diverse over the last few decades. In 2018, 29% of Australians were born overseas, the most it has ever been since the late 19th century.

This diversity has influenced who people choose to be in a relationship with.

This year, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey released data on inter-ethnic couples – couples where the partners were born in different countries – in Australia. The survey found that in 2017, around one in four relationships in Australia were inter-ethnic.

In fact, sociologists suggest that inter-ethnic partnering is a sign of social integration and cohesion. If this is the case, multi-ethnic Australia isn’t doing so bad, with almost half of the migrant population choosing a partner from a different country, despite the language and cultural challenges these relationships may sometimes bring.

Australia’s rate of inter-ethnic relationships show Australia is an open society that embraces its vibrant ethnic and cultural diversity. Shutterstock

But before we talk about our findings, two caveats should be mentioned. First, country of birth is only a proxy measure for ethnicity since people born in the same country can be of different ethnicities, and people born in different countries can be of the same ethnicity.

Second, due to the HILDA sampling design, people who migrated to Australia after 2011 have a very small chance of being included in the study. This means the results can only be considered representative of people migrating to Australia prior to 2011.

Growing diversity

Australia’s share of overseas-born people is among the highest in the OECD. And the range of birth countries of our overseas-born population has broadened.

In the immediate post-war era of 1947, fewer than 10% of Australians were born in a different country. And 79% of these overseas-born Australians came from the UK, Ireland or New Zealand. Now, Australians stem from a larger variety of countries, with more people being born, for example, in China, India or the Philippines.

Still, around 75% of Australian couples in 2017 consisted of partners who were born in the same country. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of these are couples where both partners were born in Australia, accounting for 56% of all couples.

Most inter-ethnic couples are made up of one Australian-born and the other born in a Main English-Speaking (MES) country – that is, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, the US and South Africa.

Who is most likely to be in an inter-ethnic relationship?

For starters, the chances of partnering with someone from another country differ vastly by region.

Australian-born people who live outside the capital cities are less likely to live in an inter-ethnic relationship than those in the capital cities.

In contrast, overseas-born people outside the capital cities are more likely to live in an inter-ethnic relationship than those living in the capital cities.

Both findings have to do with the pool of potential mates people meet in their neighbourhoods. On average, fewer overseas-born people live outside the capital cities. This means both Australian-born and overseas-born people living in these regions are more likely to partner with an Australian-born.

Yet, maybe surprisingly, there are also gender differences. Australian-born women are significantly more likely to live in an inter-ethnic relationship than their male counterparts. And in particular, they appear to be more likely to partner with someone from New Zealand or the UK.

In part, this result can be traced back to the opportunities. People born in the MES countries are the most likely to partner with an Australian-born person. And there are just more male than female New Zealanders and UK-born people around.

Who your parents are matters too. Within the group of Australian-born people, those with at least one parent born overseas are more likely to live in an inter-ethnic relationship than Australian-born people with two parents that were born here.

And a higher age at the start of the relationship, a higher educational qualification, progressive attitudes towards marriage and children, and an openness to experience, also promote inter-ethnic relationships.

Inter-ethnic couples not only connect two individuals, but entire families and communities of different ethnic backgrounds. They help break down boundaries between these ethnic groups and weaken prejudice and stereotypes.

Having one in four couples being inter-ethnic is indicative of an open Australian society that embraces its vibrant ethnic and cultural diversity.

– ref. Language of love: a quarter of Australians are in inter-ethnic relationships – http://theconversation.com/language-of-love-a-quarter-of-australians-are-in-inter-ethnic-relationships-120416

More Australians are diagnosed with depression and anxiety but it doesn’t mean mental illness is rising

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Jorm, Professor emeritus, University of Melbourne

Diagnoses of depression and anxiety disorders have risen dramatically over the past eight years. That’s according to new data out today from the Housing Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey, which tracks the lives of 17,500 Australians.

The increase spans across all age groups, but is most notably in young people.

The percentage of young women (aged 15-34) who had been diagnosed with these conditions increased from 12.8% in 2009, to 20.1% in 2017.

In young men, there was a similar increase, from 6.1% to 11.2%.

But this doesn’t mean Australians’ mental health is worsening.

What’s behind the numbers?

HILDA surveys collate data on the “reported diagnosis” of depression and anxiety disorders. Many people with these conditions have remained undiagnosed by a health practitioner, so it could simply be a matter of more people seeking professional help and getting diagnosed.

To find out whether there is a real increase, we need to survey a sample of the public about their symptoms rather than ask about whether they have been diagnosed. This has been done for almost two decades in the National Health Survey.

This graph shows the percentage of the population reporting very high levels of depression and anxiety symptoms over the previous month, from 2001 to 2017-18.

Rather than worsening, the nation’s mental health has been steady over this period.

Shouldn’t our mental health be improving?

So it seems while our mental health is not getting worse, we are more likely to get diagnosed. With increased diagnosis, it’s no surprise Australians have been rapidly embracing treatments for mental-health problems.

Antidepressant use has been rising for decades, with Australians now among the world’s highest users. One in ten Australian adults take an antidepressant each day.

Psychological treatment has also skyrocketed, particularly after the Australian government introduced Medicare coverage for psychology services in 2006. There are now around 20 psychology services per year for every 100 Australians.

The real concern is why we’re not seeing any benefit from these large increases in diagnosis and treatment. In theory, our mental health should be improving.

There are two likely reasons for the lack of progress: the treatments are often not up to standard and we have neglected prevention.

Treatment is often poor quality

A number of treatments work for depression and anxiety disorders. However, what Australians receive in practice falls far short of the ideal.

Antidepressants, for example, are most appropriate for severe depression, but are often used to treat people with mild symptoms that reflect difficult life circumstances.

It takes more than a couple of sessions with a psychologist to treat a mental health disorder. Kylli Kittus

Psychological treatments can be effective, but require many sessions. Around 16 to 20 sessions are recommended to treat depression. Getting a couple of sessions with a psychologist is too often the norm and unlikely to produce much improvement.

Treatments are also not distributed to the people most in need. The biggest users of antidepressants are older people, whereas younger people are more likely to experience severe depression.

Similarly, people in wealthier areas are more likely to get psychological therapy, but depression and anxiety disorders are more common in poorer areas.

Prevention is neglected

The big area of neglect in mental health is prevention. Australia achieved enormous gains in physical health during the 20th century, with big drops in premature death. Prevention of disease and injury played a major role in these gains.

We might expect a similar approach to work for mental-health problems, which are the next frontier for improving the nation’s health. However, while we have been putting increasing resources into treatment, prevention has been neglected.

There is now good evidence that prevention of mental-health problems is possible and that it makes good economic sense. For every dollar invested on school-based interventions to reduce bullying, for instance, there is an estimated economic return of $14.

Much could to be done to reduce the major risk factors for mental-health problems which occur during childhood and increase risk right across the lifespan.

Parents who are in conflict with each other and fight a lot, for example, may increase their children’s risk for depression and anxiety disorders, while parents who show warmth and affection towards their children decrease their risk. Parents can be trained to reduce these risk factors and increase protective factors.

Yet successive Australian governments have lacked the political will to invest in prevention.

Where to next?

There is an important opportunity to consider whether Australia should be heading in a very different direction in its approach to mental health. The Australian government has asked the Productivity Commission to investigate mental health.

While we’ve had many previous inquiries, this one is different because it’s looking at the social and economic benefits of mental health to the nation. This broader perspective is important because action on prevention is a whole-of-government concern with resource implications and benefits that extend well beyond the health sector.

– ref. More Australians are diagnosed with depression and anxiety but it doesn’t mean mental illness is rising – http://theconversation.com/more-australians-are-diagnosed-with-depression-and-anxiety-but-it-doesnt-mean-mental-illness-is-rising-120824

Teenagers who play sport after school are only 7 minutes more active per day than those who don’t

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harriet Koorts, Research Fellow Implementation Science, Deakin University

Teenagers who play organised sport only get seven minutes more physical activity per day, on average, than teenagers who don’t play any sport.

Our research, published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, found organised sport contributes to just 4% of teenagers’ daily physical activity levels.

There are several possible explanations for this. Teenagers typically get most of their physical activity during school hours and unstructured leisure time rather than organised sport.

Studies show teenagers spend between one-third and one-half of time at sport practice getting activity at an intensity that’s beneficial for their health. Teenagers may also be getting to and from sport practice and games in a car.

And those who don’t play sport may be spending this time doing other physical activities.

This isn’t to say sport isn’t important, but there are different ways to be active. Teenagers might walk or cycle to and from school, walk between classes at school, participate in physical education, shoot hoops at the local park with friends, help with chores around the house and also play sport.

What did we study?

We recruited 358 teenagers (146 boys, 212 girls) from 18 Victorian secondary schools for the study. We asked them to report the number of sports teams and physical activity classes they took part in outside school hours, as well as the type of sport they played and the number of times they played each week.

We also recorded participants’ daily physical activity by asking them to wear an accelerometer (a device recording their movements) for eight days.

Participants (with a mean age of 15.3) spent a mean of 27 minutes per day doing moderate to vigorous physical activity.

Half reported playing at least one sport. Those who played sport did so an average of 3.4 times per week. They got seven more minutes per day of activity than the participants who did no sport.

There are many ways to be physically active. from shutterstock.com

Participants got an extra five minutes of physical activity per day, on average, for each additional sport. Field hockey and gymnastics contributed most to activity levels.

This doesn’t mean playing sport isn’t important. Sport offers a range of social and mental health benefits for teenagers. But our study shows it’s not the best way to meet physical activity guidelines or to lose weight. Previous studies also show the link between playing sport and weight loss is quite weak.

Why does this matter?

Australia’s physical activity guidelines recommend teenagers get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, including activities that strengthen muscle and bone at least three times a week.

But only 6% of 15-to-17-year-olds meet these guidelines. Latest figures show one in four Australian children and teenagers (aged 2-17) are overweight or obese.

The federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on school and community sport over the last decade or more. The Sporting Schools program, for instance, provides children with access to over 30 national sporting organisations that deliver sport sessions (sometimes along with equipment) during school term.

Sports programs may fail to reach teenagers who are least active. Teenagers who play organised sports tend to come from higher socioeconomic areas. Government-funded sports programs also often run at weekends and after school, but physical activity should be accumulated throughout the day every day.

The government is now starting to target more than organised sport to get young people moving. In spite of its title, the Sport 2030 – National Sports Plan’s top-line goal is to “build a more active Australia”.

This is the first time Australia has had a national sport or physical activity policy. The next steps are to develop a national action plan or evidence-based framework. And there are several templates that could be followed.

For instance, the Heart Foundation’s Blueprint for an Active Australia contains 13 action areas, 12 of which target-specific settings and population groups such as workplaces, health care, children and adolescents, sport and active recreation.

Action area 13 recommends research and program evaluation to ensure meaningful progress is being made towards increases in overall physical activity across the population.

Plans like these recognise the need for relevant agencies and government areas to work together. Sport and recreation needs to work with education and schools, the health sector, urban planning, transport, justice, disability organisations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, parent groups and private industry to support young people to get moving.

Our research findings support the notion that focusing solely on a single strategy or sector is not enough to address current levels of inactivity among Australian youth. A teenager would need to be playing sport daily and performing at the elite level for it to be the main contributor to them meeting guidelines.

– ref. Teenagers who play sport after school are only 7 minutes more active per day than those who don’t – http://theconversation.com/teenagers-who-play-sport-after-school-are-only-7-minutes-more-active-per-day-than-those-who-dont-120756

Australian city workers’ average commute has blown out to 66 minutes a day. How does yours compare?

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Runing Ye, Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne

The average weekly commuting time in Australia has increased considerably since 2002. According to the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey released today, workers averaged 3.7 hours’ commuting time per week in 2002, but this had increased to 4.5 hours by 2017.

In 2017, workers in mainland state capitals (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth) had consistently longer commute times than those living elsewhere. These city workers typically spent more than an hour travelling to and from work each day. The average was about 66 minutes. This is a 20% increase from the average of around 55 minutes in 2002.

As in past surveys, Sydney had the longest average daily commutes (71 minutes). In 2017, it was followed by Brisbane (67 minutes), Melbourne (65 minutes), Perth (59 minutes) and Adelaide (56 minutes). Reasons for the increasing commute time vary among different cities but may include increased road congestion, urban expansion and poor public transport services.

Average daily commuting times across Australia also increased from about 49 minutes in 2002 to almost one hour in 2017.

Workers in the Northern Territory had the shortest commutes in 2017, averaging close to 35 minutes per day.

The HILDA analysis covers all workers aged 15 years and older. This includes those with commuting times of zero (that is, who work from home).

Daily commuting times are calculated by dividing the time spent travelling to and from work in a typical week by the usual number of days worked per week. Data source: HILDA

The survey, based on interviews with about 17,000 Australians yearly, also reveals that the share of people commuting two or more hours a day is increasing, from 12% in 2002 to 18% in 2017. Men are more likely than women to be long-distance commuters. And middle-aged workers (aged 25-54) are more likely to have long commutes than younger and older workers.

Interestingly, fathers of two children had the highest likelihood (27%) of having long commutes, while mothers with two children were the least likely (less than 13%). On the one hand, households with dependent children are more likely to live in suburban locations for the larger houses, potentially increasing commuting distance for workers in these households. On the other hand, female workers’ relatively lower wage rate and more household responsibilities, such as child rearing, may restrict them to choosing jobs closer to home.

Impacts on job satisfaction

According to the HILDA Survey, long-distance commuters (two hours or more a day) are less likely than short-distance commuters (less than one hour) to be satisfied with their working hours, work-life balance and even pay. Therefore, they have lower levels of overall job satisfaction. These long-distance commuters are more likely to quit or lose their jobs within the next year.

These results from the HILDA Survey align well with the findings of our research. Our findings suggest longer commutes not only impose physical and mental strains on workers but may also affect their work participation, engagement and productivity.

Negative impacts go beyond work

A growing number of studies have found long-duration commuting can reduce the time a person has for other activities. These other activities, such as physical exercise, time with family, social activities and so on, are important for psychological well-being.

Lengthy commuting also potentially increases exposure to nuisances and hazards such as traffic noise, crowds, congestion, pollution and uncomfortably hot or cold conditions. These can cause physical or emotional distress and have a direct influence on people’s physical and mental health.

What can policymakers do about this?

A better balance of jobs and housing within a smaller geographic area could help to shorten commuting distances and time. Planning policy such as polycentric cities – with multiple activity centres – have been proposed in Sydney and Melbourne, and could help achieve this.

Most Australians still rely on their cars for daily commuting. Aside from long travel distance, traffic congestion is another important factor in increasing commuting times. Encouraging alternative travel modes for commuting could potentially relieve congestion.

The HILDA Survey reveals that close to 28% of workers live and work in the same postcode. About 55% of workers live within 10 kilometres of their place of work. This suggests there is huge potential to promote active travel – cycling and walking – for daily commuting trips. Only for a minority (11%) are the postcodes of the home and place of work 30 or more kilometres apart.

High-frequency and reliable rapid public transport networks linking major residential and employment centres could encourage more medium and long-distance commuters to use public transport for daily commuting.

Finally, emerging transport technology, such as autonomous vehicles, is also promising to curb traffic congestion and reduce the “perceived” commuting time, if these vehicles are shared rather than owned by individuals.

Companies also have a role to play in helping to reduce commuting times and their impact on workers’ well-being. Flexible working times, which allow employees to avoid peak-hour travel, and a supportive company culture for working from home can help reduce weekly commuting time. In return, companies potentially benefit from improving employee job satisfaction and retention rates.

One of the authors, Runing Ye, is available today for a Q+A on this topic from 3pm-4pm AEST. Please post your questions in the comments below.

– ref. Australian city workers’ average commute has blown out to 66 minutes a day. How does yours compare? – http://theconversation.com/australian-city-workers-average-commute-has-blown-out-to-66-minutes-a-day-how-does-yours-compare-120598

There’s a reason you’re feeling no better off than 10 years ago. Here’s what HILDA says about wellbeing

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

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

During the election campaign then-opposition leader Bill Shorten repeatedly claimed that everything was going up.

“Childcare is up 28%, out of pockets to see the doctor up 20%, specialists … up nearly 40%,” he said. And then the punchline: “everything is going up, except your wages.”

Statistically, it wasn’t true. The official rate of inflation was just 1.3%. The official rate of wage growth was 2.3%.

I haven’t asked him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept saying it because his focus groups told him that’s what people felt.

Funded by the Australian government and managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, HILDA is one of the most valuable tools Australian social researchers have.

We are right to feel no better off…

Expressed in today’s dollars, the average annual real disposable income of those households climbed by A$19,773 between 2001 and 2009, about $2,472 per year.

Since 2009 and the global financial crisis, the average and the median have moved in different directions.

…and as if it’s harder to get ahead…

It has also become harder to “get ahead”, in the phrase used often by the prime minister.

Between 2001 and 2005, 44% of the households in the top qunitile had to move down to let other households take their place. In more recent years, between 2012 and 2016, only 41.5% have moved down.

Getting a long way out of the income circumstances you were born in is a long-shot, according on HILDA’s early attempt at measuring intergenerational mobility.

People who were 32-34 years old in 2015-17 are highly likely to be in the same household income quintiles as those people found themselves in when they were 15-17 back in 2001-03.

There’s only a one in ten chance of moving from the bottom quintile as a teenager to the top quintile in your early thirties. There’s a 37% chance you’ll stay put.

Even among teenagers who grew up in the middle quintile, there’s only a 17% chance of making it to the top, along with a 19% chance of moving one rung up.

…yet we are less reliant on welfare, even pensions…

Most of us are still in households that have received something from the government over a 10-year period: 58% of working age Australians in 2017, down from 64% in 2010.

Among older Australians aged 65 and over, reliance on the age pension and other benefits for more than half of income needs has dropped from 60% to 51%.

Among new retirees aged 65 and over, the proportion receiving the age pension has fallen from 76% of men and 74% of women to just 60% of men and 55% of women.

…and gender roles are changing

Before the financial crisis, almost three quarters (73%) of men of traditional working age were employed full-time. After the crisis, the rate slipped to a much lower 67% and stayed there.

Female full-time employment was also hit by the crisis but has since almost totally recovered to be just a fraction below its pre-crisis peak of 39.6%.

Women’s hourly earnings are also climbing faster than men’s, up 24% between 2001 and 2017, compared to 21% for men’s.

In dual-earner male-female couples, the proportion in which the woman earns more than the man has climbed from 22% to 25%.

Men in predominantly female breadwinner households are somewhat less happy with their lives and with their relationships, as (perhaps surprisingly) are women.

– ref. There’s a reason you’re feeling no better off than 10 years ago. Here’s what HILDA says about wellbeing – http://theconversation.com/theres-a-reason-youre-feeling-no-better-off-than-10-years-ago-heres-what-hilda-says-about-wellbeing-121098

Over 50% of young Australians still live with their parents – and the numbers are climbing faster for women

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Wilkins, Professorial Fellow and Deputy Director (Research), HILDA Survey, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne

The latest Housing Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey data confirm a sustained trend towards young adults staying in the family home longer.

The HILDA Survey tells the story of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. Starting in 2001, the survey now tracks more than 17,500 people in 9,500 households.

In 2017, 56% of men aged 18 to 29 lived with one or both parents, up from 47% in 2001. More strikingly, over the same period, the proportion of women aged 18 to 29 living with their parents rose from 36% to 54%.

Growth has been particularly strong among women in their early to mid 20s. For example, in 2001, 30% of women aged 22 to 25 were living in the parental home, while in 2017, 58% were doing so. In other words, the gap between young women and young men is shrinking.

Traditionally, women have partnered and had children at younger ages than men. That’s linked to the fact that women are more likely, on average, to leave the parental home at a younger age than men.

The tendency for women to marry and have children at younger ages still exists, but it no longer translates to a greater propensity of young adult women to be living apart from their parents.

So what’s the average age that young people move out? It’s complicated. In our report, we did consider the average age of moving out – but looking at it this way means you’re only considering young adults who have already moved out. For women, this was 22.1 in 2001 and 24.2 in 2017. For men, it was 23.1 in 2001 and 23.5 in 2017.

But this doesn’t accurately convey the magnitude of change. A growing proportion of young adults have not moved out at all. Consequently, the average age of moving out is considerably higher and has grown more than these numbers suggest.

Rate is high in Victoria, growing fast in Queensland

The trend is happening right across the country, although there are regional differences.

Comparing across the states, over 60% of Victorian young adults live with their parents, followed by 56% in New South Wales and approximately 53% in the other four states.

However, Queensland has experienced higher growth compared with most of the rest of the country, the proportion of young adults living at home rising from 31% in 2001 to 52% in 2017.

A growing proportion of young adults have not moved out at all. Shutterstock

Moving out is more likely if you’re young in a small town

Looking at the country versus the city, the propensity to be living in the parental home is, perhaps surprisingly, relatively similar in non-urban areas compared with the major cities.

It is towns and cities of less than 100,000 that stand out as having lower rates of living with one’s parents. This is consistent with housing costs being lower in those regions compared with the major urban centres.

Housing costs are also relatively low in non-urban areas, so you might think that the proportion of young adults living with their parents should also be lower in these regions. But young people in the country tend to move to the city, so they show up in the data as living in urban areas.

There has been a slight increase in women moving back into the parental home, particularly among those aged in their early 20s. However, the data tell us that most of the growth in young people living with parents has been among those young adults who never moved out in the first place.

Housing costs, casual work, marriage delayed

A number of mutually reinforcing economic and social factors are likely to be driving the overall trend towards staying in the parental home longer.

Of course, the cost of housing is a big factor, and it’s been rising faster than inflation and incomes.

It appears harder these days for young people to find full-time permanent employment opportunities. In particular, casual employment has risen for young adult men and women since around 2009; by comparison, it has only increased slightly for older men and has actually declined for older women.

There has also been growth in education participation of young adults, especially among those aged 25 and under. Interestingly, however, among those aged 18-21, the proportion of those living with their parents engaged in full-time education has fallen in recent years. This may reflect the growing importance of housing costs and the labour market in keeping young adults at home. The growth in education participation appears to have mainly been a factor up until 2011.

Changes in the preferences of young adults may also be a factor. It is possible that our longer life expectancy is increasing the desire to “live a little” before taking on the challenges and responsibilities traditionally associated with adulthood.

Certainly, young adults seem to be in less of a hurry to settle down and have children. For example, the median age at marriage has risen by 1.5 years since the turn of the century for both men and women; similarly, the average age of mothers at first birth has been creeping upwards and is now around 29.

It is difficult to ascertain the relative importance of changing economic realities facing young adults versus changes in their preferences.

But one thing is clear: it could not happen without the capacity and willingness of parents to accommodate their adult children. So perhaps, ultimately, we should be looking to their parents for an explanation of this trend.

– ref. Over 50% of young Australians still live with their parents – and the numbers are climbing faster for women – http://theconversation.com/over-50-of-young-australians-still-live-with-their-parents-and-the-numbers-are-climbing-faster-for-women-120587

Grief, racism and uncertain futures: your guide to the 2019 Miles Franklin shortlist

By The Conversation -

July 30, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Webb, Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra

I think it’s fair to say that each year the selected novels on the Miles Franklin shortlist manifest the zeitgeist, reflecting on some of the issues that are troubling society.

This year they take on and inflect some signature themes: racial/cultural relationships; human engagement with the natural world; and, threading through each novel, the problem of mourning – for lost loves, for the ruins of the past, for uncertain futures, for a hurt planet.

A Sand Archive

Gregory Day’s A Sand Archive starts with an introduction to engineer and dreamer FB, and his “cheaply printed” volume, The Great Ocean Road: Dune Stabilisation and Other Engineering Difficulties.

It is an introduction full of evocative images, and FB’s quaint and archaic self-presentation against a backdrop of shadows, sand and heath lets readers know with whom they will be travelling during the course of this novel. It establishes the voice of the novel, one marked by a lyrical flow, combining something not explicitly lyrical (Dune Stabilisation; Engineering Difficulties) with a poetic tone, and with a philosophical treatise on sand.

FB is studying “the ontology of dunes”, and discovering the uncertainty of a world built on sand. The narrator, like FB, is a polymath, and like FB is sequestered in regional Victoria. Thanks to the magic of publications and imaginations, both are able to range widely through history and cultures.

But FB has been knocked about by life: by his hopeless love for French activist Mathilde, his thwarted desire to arrest the degradation of south Victoria’s sand dunes, and the loneliness (and satisfactions) of the life he builds. This is a tender novel, and one in which sand becomes a metaphor for story, for the human heart, for how to keep living through “the absurdity of human endeavours”.

Dyschronia

Dyschronia, Jennifer Mills’ latest novel, to some extent fits the clifi genre, but its brilliant exposition of time and its instabilities is perhaps the stronger driving force in this narrative.

Sam, the central character, suffers from migraines that come with the dubious gift of knowing the future. For Sam, who is thus captured by dyschronia, the future is not necessarily future. She lives in a jumble of tenses, and though her mother tries to instruct her in linearity – “Time’s like a road, see?” – she never escapes the “dys” of “chronos”.

For her, time is like Einstein’s river, one that flows randomly, separates, folds back on itself. The novel also offers a scathing interrogation of economic “development”. The local environment and the lives of the people living in Clapstone are ruined in the interests of corporate greed. The asphalt plant on which the town was established has closed, leaving behind a poisoned town and a wrecked environment.

Sam has lost herself, aware that her knowledge of the future will change nothing, that “the whole weak joke of order is unravelling”. But there is still a touch of hope in all this, a lovely contrast between the hopelessness of the situation and the irrepressibility of the locals, who determinedly ignore the end of their world. And, at the end, “laughter comes unbidden, like a gas bubbling up through water”.

The Lebs

Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s The Lebs begins in the quasi-prison environment of Punchbowl Boys High, and all the violence and crassness of a community of sex segregated adolescents, boys whose present and probable future involves being derided and excluded. This makes it sound grim, but in fact it is often a very funny novel.

The narrator, Bani Adam, is a misfit at school and outside, and his performances and protestations of himself as intellectual, sophisticated, open-minded yet still devout, make for humour, albeit of a poignant, plaintive kind.

Bani also delivers an education in Muslim faith and its complexities; and illuminates the effect of a brutalising culture through an insider’s eye on the politics of being Muslim in an unwelcoming Australian context. Still, I found the unrelenting racism, the constant lateral violence, the easy homophobia and the sexualised representation of girls and women not sufficiently outweighed by the wit and literary skill that mark this novel. “That’s the problem at Punchbowl Boys”, says Bani, “even if you win, you lose”.

The Death of Noah Glass

In The Death of Noah Glass, Gail Jones takes on a topic she has often explored: the creative world, one in which the eponymous Noah and his son Martin attempt to reconcile image and text, creativity and identity. It splendidly maps the world of art while offering beautiful portraits of mourning. Martin and his sister Evie have lost both parents now, and the impact of those deaths sets up a tremor that runs through the narrative.

Evie remembers “searching the rooms of their cold house” for her mother, “listening to her own breathing, the barest rhythm, in case stillness might summon her mother back”. And with their father’s sudden death being followed by the news of his possible involvement in art theft, there is “the wider mystery of things”, the impossibility of dealing with this slur on his reputation “when he was still inside them and not yet resting in peace”.

How the dead remain inside us; how memory and its regrets keep banging away at us (Noah in particular has much to regret); how the patterns of the world and of society shape and contain us; how parenthood, family, and sensory being allow us to live: these reappear throughout the novel, animating its characters.

Too Much Lip

Melissa Lucashenko’s Too Much Lip takes us to regional Australia, introducing readers to an Aboriginal family living on country, and tracing the threads of settler violence that continue to harm the current generation. The story starts in 1943, with now-patriarch Owen Addison being brutalised so that: “When Owen died … there were seven decades of agony caged in him”.

Kerry Salter is returning home to see Owen, her damaged dying Pop, and she literally blasts into town, the “skinniest dark girl on a shiny new Softail, heart attack city, truesgod”, startling the “whitenormalsavages” at the corner store.

She is witty, sharp, tricky, compassionate, but like her siblings suffers intergenerational trauma, which emerges as pretty appalling sibling abuse, and inevitable tragedy. Her uncle manages to divert the worst possible ending to the story, telling her armed and desperate brother: “Terrible things happened in his [Owen’s] life … Some of that pain had to go somewhere. There’s no shame to you in it, my nephew. It wasn’t your fault.”

While the themes of the novel are tragic and often deeply disturbing, the tone and register point to courage, perseverance, and a powerful refutation of the violence of colonisation and the lies of history.

A Stolen Season

A Stolen Season, Rodney Hall’s first novel in over a decade, also takes on trauma, tracing its effects on the lives of the characters who people its pages. Adam Griffiths served in Gulf War 2, and due to what may have been “friendly fire” was reduced to little more than bones and burnt skin.

Now he has been returned from the dead, “a monstrosity”, and his previously estranged wife, Bridget, faces the dilemma of whether to remain with this shell of a man who functions only as a sort of android, or leave him to the uncertain compassion of government services: “There’s nothing to stop her walking out. Except the freedom to do so. This is what makes the possibility impossible.” Their story is interleaved with two others: that of Marianna Gluck, who like Adam was effectively dead, and then restored to a life of PTSD, paranoia, and flight; and the obscenely and pointlessly wealthy John Philip, whose vignette exposes the vapidity of the art market, celebrity culture, and elitism.

For each story line, an overwhelming issue is existential certainty; each character must realise that they are, after all, alive, and must therefore confront an ethical problem. This profoundly empathetic novel is finely attuned to sorrow and all its siblings – regret, pain, anguish, dust, despair. It offers glimmers of hope here and there, but no concrete answers.

In fact, each novel in this list is profoundly empathetic, and deeply attuned to contemporary Australia. While they look directly at crisis and suffering, they avoid hopelessness, using lyrical imagery, humour, and the consolations of art or family as tools against despair; and they suggest more intelligent, more compassionate ways to be human in the 21st century.

The winner of the Miles Franklin will be announced on Tuesday July 30.

– ref. Grief, racism and uncertain futures: your guide to the 2019 Miles Franklin shortlist – http://theconversation.com/grief-racism-and-uncertain-futures-your-guide-to-the-2019-miles-franklin-shortlist-120978

PMC project ‘grab bag’ unveiled at mid-winter showcase

By Asia Pacific Report -

July 29, 2019

Professor Guy Littlefair … Pacific Journalism Review “provides once again a magnificent example of the best, most relevant most meaningful research”. Image: Michael Andrew/PMC

By Michael Andrew

A creative “grab bag” of projects has been unveiled by the Pacific Media Centre in a showcase of collaboration across academic and communication communities.

Held at Auckland University of Technology on Friday and hosted by PMC advisory board chair Associate Professor Camille Nakhid, the PMC “Midwinter Showcase” celebrated the launch of a double edition of Pacific Journalism Review, the 2018 Bearing Witness documentary Banabans of Rabi, the Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis video and the new PMC Online website.

AUT doctoral candidate Atakohu Middleton opened the night with a karakia before pro-vice chancellor and faculty dean Professor Guy Littlefair officially launched PJR – which focuses heavily on the New Zealand mosque massacre and media dilemmas of democracy – with a powerful and poignant speech.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor Dr David Robie … an occasion to celebrate a range of projects coming to fruition in one moment. Image: Michael Andrew/PMC

Describing universities as the “critic and conscience of society”, he lauded the value of the new PJR research in light of the media response to the March 15 atrocity.

He said how the privileged Pākehā narrative of New Zealand history made the violence of the attack all the more affronting for a media community consisting of mostly young, white journalists.

“This double issue of PJR that I have the privilege to launch tonight picks up on the narrative at precisely this point,” he said.

“’Dilemmas for journalists and democracy [PJR title]’ – these five words encapsulate for me the critic and conscience role of universities.

“This journal provides once again a magnificent example of the best, most relevant, most meaningful research that I as a dean could hope to see come from this wonderful faculty of ours.

“David and the team, I could not be more proud.”

The trailer for Banabans of Rabi.

Banabans of Rabi
Banabans of Rabi was then screened after an introduction by AUT screen production senior lecturer Jim Marbrook.

Marbrook, who helped produce the film, described it as a successful product of collaboration between journalism and screen production students.

He explained that film creators Blessen Tom and Hele Ikimotu had to overcome particular challenges to get to the remote Fijian island of Rabi and make the documentary.

“The philosophy of the Bearing Witness project is to go to areas that are under reported, that are quite difficult to get to; with that comes risks and complications.

“It’s kind of a pressure cooker situation to drop two students into.

“There is not a lot of power on the island, it’s isolated. Complicating that is the mix of languages; Fijian, Gilbertese and Banaban as well.

Blessen Tom then described filming on Rabi where scarcity of electricity meant that he had to be very selective with his choice of shots to conserve battery power.

Sri Krishnamuthi and Blessen Tom’s documentary about Pacific Media Watch.

PMW Project – The Genesis
Postgraduate communications student and former NZ Press Association journalist Sri Krishnamurthi introduced the Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis documentary which pays homage to the origins of the PMW media freedom project.

Through making the film with Blessen Tom, Krishnamurthi described learning about the project, from its creation in response to the wrongful arrest of three Tongans in the famous “contempt of Parliament” case in 1996, to its two decades since as a “watchdog of Pacific journalism.”

He stressed the value of the project and its role in the development of student journalists.

“The beauty of it is the use of student contributing editors – all of them will echo my sentiments; that this little gem which is invaluable as a guardian of Pacific journalism must be kept going for years to come.”

PMC Online
Finally, Tony Murrow of Little Island Press unveiled the new mobile friendly and robust PMC Online website, the product of almost two years of his team’s work in collaboration with the PMC.

He said the bold and colourful design reflected the vibrancy and diversity of the Pacific Media Centre.

The website is due to go live on www.pmc.aut.ac.nz in the coming days. The pilot can be seen at pmc.littleisland.co.nz

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie acknowledged all those who had contributed and collaborated on the assortment of projects – including Pacific Journalism Review co-editors and collaborators Khairiah Rahman, Dr Philip Cass, Del Abcede, Nicole Gooch and Professor Wendy Bacon, whom he described as one of the best investigative journalists in Australia.

Professor Guy Littlefair with Pacific Journalism Review team members designer Del Abcede (from left), founding editor Professor David Robie, associate editor Dr Philip Cass, assistant editor Khairiah Rahman and Associate Professor Camille Nakhid, an editorial board member and chair of the PMC Advisory Board. Image: Michael Andrew/PMC

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pauline Hanson stymies inquiry into Angus Taylor’s intervention on endangered grasslands

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

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

Pauline Hanson has saved Energy Minister Angus Taylor from an inquiry into his intervention over endangered grasslands, with a Labor motion defeated 33-32 in the Senate.

Earlier Taylor defended his intervention in a statement to the House of Representatives, insisting he had obtained a meeting with officials on the grasslands in response to representations from local farmers, and there was no canvassing of the compliance issues that were on foot relating to land in which he had an interest.

The opposition continued to pursue Taylor in question time, but it was already clear it would not have the numbers in the Senate for the inquiry. Hanson said One Nation, which has two votes, would not back a “witch hunt”. Labor’s motion had the support of the Greens, Centre Alliance and Jacqui Lambie. The other crossbencher, Cory Bernardi, voted with the government.

In 2017 Taylor sought a briefing on the classification as endangered of the natural temperate grassland. The environment minister at the time was Josh Frydenberg who was not, however, at the meeting that occurred in response to Taylor’s representation.

At the time there was an investigation into the clearing of a section of the grassland on the property of the company Jam Land Pty Ltd, of which Taylor’s brother Richard is a director. Angus Taylor has an interest in Jam Land through his family company.

Taylor told parliament that when he took up the matter there “had been strong antagonism expressed by the farming community about federal and state native vegetation regulation.”

In late 2016 and early 2017 he had spoken with farmers in his Hume electorate and nearby about their worries with the listing of the grassland.

“On 21 February 2017, I spoke with a farmer near Yass who expressed strong and detailed concerns about the revised listing, pointing out that it had occurred despite the concerns of the National Farmers’ Federation and NSW Farmers, and with little consultation with farmers themselves,” he said.

“All of these farmers were completely disconnected from our family farming operations.”

Taylor said the revised listing of the grassland – which is in both the Hume and Eden-Monaro electorates – “would ultimately halt pasture improvement and efficient weed control across the Southern Tablelands and Monaro” and “has the potential to do untold damage to agricultural productivity throughout the region”.

“I sought a briefing on the revised listing from the then minister’s office, which I made clear was not to include any discussion of compliance matters.”

Taylor said FOI documents already released showed that an official had written that the meeting was “to answer questions on the technical aspects of the listing outcome”, and would “stay out of completely” any compliance action underway.

This was how the meeting had gone, Taylor said. “At no time during this meeting, was any compliance matter, or any personal interest of mine, discussed. At that meeting we discussed precisely what the department had said we would discuss.”

The opposition pressed Taylor to produce any correspondence from complaining farmers. Nothing was forthcoming.

Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong accused Taylor of using his ministerial position to “shore his investments up”.

She told the Senate: “Mr Morrison says Mr Taylor has one KPI, to be the minister for lower prices. But he is the minister to increase the value of his own investments.

“Angus Taylor failed to declare a direct financial interest in a company [in the declaration of interests register]. But worse, he then used his position, as a minister, to defend that company’s interests after it was accused of breaking the law.”

– ref. Pauline Hanson stymies inquiry into Angus Taylor’s intervention on endangered grasslands – http://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-stymies-inquiry-into-angus-taylors-intervention-on-endangered-grasslands-121110

Some good conservation news: India’s tiger numbers are going up

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Hayward, Associate professor, University of Newcastle

Indian tiger numbers are up, according to one of the most detailed wildlife surveys ever conducted. Tiger populations have risen by 6%, to roughly 3,000 animals.

The massive survey may set a new world standard in counting large carnivores. The encouraging results validate India’s impressive investments in tiger conservation.

A mammoth effort

Large, solitary predators hate being seen. They owe their entire existence to being able to avoid detection by prey and sneak close before attacking.

Hence, when we want to count tigers, the tigers don’t help. But accurate population numbers are fundamental to good conservation. Every four years since 2006, the Indian government conducts a national census of tigers and other wildlife.

The efforts the project team undertakes to derive the tiger population estimate are nothing short of phenomenal: 44,000 field staff conducted almost 318,000 habitat surveys across 20 tiger-occupied states of India. Some 381,400 km² was checked for tigers and their prey.

(There is an application in with the Guinness Book of World Records to see if this is the largest wildlife survey ever conducted anywhere in the world.)

The team placed paired camera traps at 26,760 locations across 139 study sites and these collected almost 35 million photos (including 76,523 tiger and 51,337 leopard photos). These camera traps covered 86% of the entire tiger distribution in India. Where it was too dangerous to work in the field (14% of the tigers’ distribution) because of political conflict, robust models estimated population numbers.

Millions of photos were analysed to create an accurate count of India’s tiger population. Author provided

Count the tigers

Collecting this volume of data would be an utter waste of time if it were poorly analysed. The teams took advice from some of the world’s foremost experts to sort the photos: pattern matching experts who could identify whether a photo of a tiger taken in the monsoon matched that of a tiger taken in the dry season while walking at a different angle, machine learning experts to speed up species identification, and spatial analysis experts to estimate the populations of tigers and their prey.

The research team took this advice and coupled it with their own knowledge of tiger ecology to develop a census that is unique among large carnivore studies.

We were fortunate enough to be among the non-Indian scientists invited to review this process. Peer review is a crucial part of any scientific endeavour, and especially important as early Indian tiger surveys were notoriously unreliable.

Actual numbers

So how did they do? A total of 2,461 individual tigers older than one year of age were photo-captured. The overall tiger population in India was estimated at 2,967 individuals (with an error range of roughly 12%).

Out of this, 83.4% were estimated from camera-trap photos, and the rest estimated from robust modelling. Tiger numbers have increased by 6% per year, continuing the rate of increase from the 2014 census. This is a wonderful success for Indian conservation efforts.

However not all is rosy. There has been a 20% decline in areas occupied by tigers in 2014 to today, although tigers have moved into some new areas (some 8% of their Indian range is new). The coordinators of the tiger survey – Yadvendradev Jhala and Qamar Qureshi – conclude that while established and secure tiger populations in some parts of India have increased, small, isolated populations and those along corridors between established populations have gone extinct.

This highlights the need for conservation efforts to focus on improving connectivity between isolated populations, while incentivising the relocation of people out of core tiger areas, reducing poaching and improving habitat to increase prey resources.

This will be no easy task with India’s burgeoning population, but investment from private sector tourist corporations in land acquisition along corridors and the creation of community conservancies could supplement government funding for expanding protected corridors.

The success of India’s census has led the governments of Nepal and Bangladesh to employ the same project team to help estimate their own tiger populations. These methods can – and should – be employed for other iconic, charismatic species that can be individually identified, such as jaguars in South and Central America; leopards, cheetahs, and hyenas in Africa, and possibly even quolls in Australia.

This article was co-authored by Chris Carbone, Senior Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London.

– ref. Some good conservation news: India’s tiger numbers are going up – http://theconversation.com/some-good-conservation-news-indias-tiger-numbers-are-going-up-121055

NSW’s water plan is ‘not working’ but we can save the Barwon-Darling

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barry Hart, Emeritus Professor Water Science, Monash University

The plan to manage water in the Barwon-Darling is not working, according to a draft review released last week.

The New South Wales Natural Resources Commission, which released the draft report, found the Barwon-Darling is an “ecosystem in crisis”. The report provides a robust blueprint for a more sustainable water-sharing plan.

The review confirms criticism the existing plan gives too much water to irrigators and has added to pressures on the entire Murray-Darling ecosystem.

What the plan covers

The draft review examines the 2012 Water Sharing Plan for the Barwon-Darling, which covers 1,600km of the river from Mungindi to Wilcannia. The river here flows south-west through a relatively narrow floodplain with a tightly meandering channel and a highly variable flow pattern.

The river is unregulated and depends heavily on upstream rivers for its water (for example, Condamine–Balonne, Border rivers, Gwydir and Namoi).

January’s massive fish kills around Menindee are only the most recent example of the pressures on the river’s ecosystems. Alongside the fish deaths, research has shown that other aquatic species in the system, such as river mussels, have suffered losses that will take many decades to recover.

Communities that live along the river told the commission people can no longer fish, swim or drink the river water. Graziers struggle to provide water for their stock because the river dries up more often.

Indigenous communities are particularly affected because without water their strong connection to the river – the Barka – is being damaged. A Barkandji elder told the commission:

The river is everything. It’s my life, my culture. You take the water away from us, we’ve got nothing.

Bad priorities

While the review found drought, upstream water extraction in NSW and Queensland and climate change have all contributed to these problems, the greatest effect comes from inappropriate water-sharing rules, particularly when water levels are low.

The law underpinning river management in NSW prioritises protecting the environment and basic landholder rights (including native title) over irrigation. However, the commission found the current plan does not achieve this.

In fact, the plan has been highly controversial since it was enacted in 2012. This in large parts arose because major changes were made between the draft plan circulated in 2011 and the actual plan gazetted in 2012. The commission documents 16 such changes in the review and rates six as substantial.

The NSW government did not publicly explain the reason for such significant alteration in 2012, but there has been much speculation powerful vested interests influenced the government to provide more water for irrigation.

The most important effect of these changes was letting irrigators take water even when the river is very low. The review concludes:

These provisions benefit the economic interests of a few upstream users over the ecological and social needs of the many.

What to do?

The review recommends the NSW government urgently change water-sharing rules so these better comply with the legal requirements to protect the environment and other water users, restore community trust and make the river more resilient to future shocks.

Key priorities for the NSW government are:

redesigning the water-sharing rules so environmental protection and basic landholder rights cannot be harmed by lesser priorities such as irrigation
introduce new flow targets to more effectively protect critical ecosystems and enhance river health
change rules relating to water extractions by A Class licence holders during critical low-flow periods, particularly those relating to commence-to-pump, cease-to-pump, and the size of pumps.
introduce and enforce more effective metering and monitoring
develop strategies and rules that address the inevitable impacts of climate change
develop and implement more integrated management of water resources in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.

The commission did note there have been positive changes to the NSW government’s approach to water policy and management since the ABC 4 Corners report Pumped in 2017 and the subsequent Ken Matthews report.

However, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan required NSW to complete a new water resource plan for the Barwon-Darling River by June 2019. The state missed this deadline. The NSW water minister has requested an extension to December 31 2019. A recent assessment by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority suggests NSW is still some way from completing this water resource plan.

While NSW delays, the Barwon-Darling river system and its communities suffer. The NSW government now has an excellent blueprint for a new plan. It must urgently implement the review’s 29 recommendations and complete a new plan for the Barwon-Darling before the end of 2019.

– ref. NSW’s water plan is ‘not working’ but we can save the Barwon-Darling – http://theconversation.com/nsws-water-plan-is-not-working-but-we-can-save-the-barwon-darling-121100

Meet Reece Kershaw, the new AFP commissioner. He’s confronted superiors before, and will need to again

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

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

When Reece Kershaw takes over as the new commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in October he will become the eighth person to lead the organisation since its creation in 1979.

Kershaw becomes commissioner at a critical time for the AFP. The organisation is not in the media’s good books following its post-election raids on journalists working for the ABC and News Corp.

His role will be even more challenging with the AFP now sitting in the Home Affairs portfolio. The AFP Association (AFPA), the union representing 6,500 AFP members, claims the AFP is losing its independence and integrity in the super portfolio. The danger is that the AFP will become politicised over time.

Kershaw has demonstrated he is not afraid of change and tackling thorny integrity issues – traits that could serve him well in his new role.

The question remains, however, whether Kershaw will oversee another transformative era for the AFP, or if our current political and security environment will require more of a focus on organisational stability.

A police force trusted by the public

The AFP was created following the most serious terrorist attack in Australia – the Sydney Hilton hotel bombing in 1978. In the wake of the attack, the Fraser government commissioned Sir Robert Mark, the London Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner, to report on Australia’s policing capabilities. The opening of the report noted that

some aspects of policing are … common to all free societies; for example, the extent to which the effectiveness of a police force depends on public confidence and support arising from its accountability.

The AFP’s dependence on public confidence has not changed in the 40 years since its formation.

Choosing a first commissioner to lead the AFP was difficult. Mark recommended the merger of the ACT and Commonwealth police forces, both of which already had a commissioner. In adopting Mark’s recommendations, the Fraser government chose Sir Colin Woods, another former deputy commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, as the first head of the AFP.

The choice of Woods, another Englishman, avoided a choice of the Commonwealth commissioner over the ACT commissioner – or vice versa.

Woods’ successors were Major General Ron Grey; Northern Territory commissioners Peter McAulay and Mick Palmer; and AFP deputy commissioners Mick Keelty, Tony Negus and Andrew Colvin (who is stepping aside at the end of September).

Changes in the political environment over the years, as well as heightened security concerns from crime and terrorism, have required some of these men to be greater agents of change than others.

Palmer, for instance, remodelled the AFP’s national arm from a quasi-military service to a more flattened team structure during his term as commissioner from 1994-2001. This created a flexible and dynamic model of policing that put the AFP in a good position to handle the terrorist threats that followed the 9/11 attack and 2002 Bali bombings.

The AFP doubled in size under Keelty’s watch from 2001-09. In 2004, Keelty contradicted the Howard government and warned that Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war had increased the threat of terrorist attacks at home. Despite criticism from Prime Minister John Howard and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, Keelty held firm, supported by other police commissioners and a public that understood the risks.

During his time as commissioner, Mick Keelty was fond of saying, ‘If a police force doesn’t have its integrity, it has nothing.’ Alan Porritt/AAP

This action, among others, helped build public trust in the AFP. The latest Essential poll in March showed that the AFP – along with other police services – enjoyed the highest level of public trust of any Australian institution and organisation.

Maintaining this trust will be one of Kershaw’s key challenges, particularly in the wake of the AFP media raids.

When I was working for the AFP, I often heard Keelty tell audiences:

If a police force doesn’t have its integrity, it has nothing.

Kershaw’s focus on integrity issues

Kershaw began his policing career with the AFP in 1988 and clearly learned lessons about leadership integrity while serving under Keelty.

In 2011, Kershaw joined the Northern Territory police, and as deputy NT commissioner four years later, was forced to confront, and eventually give evidence in court against his boss, then-Commissioner John McRoberts.

McRoberts was eventually found guilty for attempting to pervert the course of justice in a fraud investigation into his former lover. It was the biggest scandal involving an Australian police commissioner since the conviction of Terry Lewis for corruption after the Fitzgerald inquiry in Queensland.

Kerhsaw then stepped into the NT commissioner role, which he held until his current promotion.

The reports that have followed Kershaw’s shift from NT to federal commissioner are telling. The acting NT commissioner, Michael Murphy, praised Kershaw for confronting integrity failures at all levels.

We need to police by consent, that is vitally important. Commissioner Kershaw made it quite clear that if you can’t align with those values, then you shouldn’t really belong to a public safety agency.

This reflects the Mark report’s observations on the role of the police from 40 years ago.

Kershaw’s ability as a deputy commissioner to confront his superior also shows the moral strength expected of police leaders. He will need to exercise this strength in his new role as the political pressures on the AFP are sure to increase.

The Morrison government will likely demand that any future national security leaks be investigated. These have always been sensitive for any government. And special references from government – the technical term that includes leaks – cannot be ignored by the AFP.

Dealing with the special references from government in a balanced way will shape a bigger challenge for Kershaw – maintaining the AFP’s independence in the Home Affairs portfolio. If the AFP becomes permanently enmeshed within the Home Affairs culture, it may indeed lose its identity.

In the 78 years between the time of federation in 1901 and the creation of the AFP, the Commonwealth relied on ten different police forces. It then took years to overcome the ACT-Commmonwealth rivalry within the AFP. With the 40th anniversary of the AFP now approaching, few if any serving officers will have known anything but the current culture of the AFP.

Defending and improving this culture through further integrity-building will benefit both the AFP and the Australian community at large. We should all wish Kershaw success in these endeavours.

– ref. Meet Reece Kershaw, the new AFP commissioner. He’s confronted superiors before, and will need to again – http://theconversation.com/meet-reece-kershaw-the-new-afp-commissioner-hes-confronted-superiors-before-and-will-need-to-again-121002

Helen Davidson: Australia has a ‘moral responsibility’ to planet, says Marape

By Asia Pacific Report -

July 29, 2019

James Marape told The Guardian that Australia had “a moral responsibility … to the upkeep of the planet”, particularly given the extreme effect it was having on smaller Pacific nations.

“I don’t intend to speak from Canberra’s perspective, they have their own policy mindset, but as human beings I know they will respond to the moral obligation that is prevalent amidst us, that we are environmentally sensitive to the needs of others.”

He said the voices of smaller island nations must be listened to.

“As big countries in the Pacific – Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand – we have a sense of responsibility to the smaller island countries, because displacement of these smaller communities will first and foremost be our neighbourhood responsibility,” Marape said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Marape outlined a vision for his country, to leave behind a history of wasted opportunities and squandered resources, and move towards a healthy and educated nation free of violence.

– Partner –

In May, after Scott Morrison led the Coalition to an election victory, Pacific leaders urged him to do more on climate change, saying Australia was “lagging behind”.

Marape, undertaking his first official visit to Australia last week, said he would “not be silenced” on environmental responsibility.

“We can have our resources but we must have it in an environmentally-friendly manner, so that we leave planet earth to the next generation not in the form we’ve inherited but a better form.”

He said he believed Australia, New Zealand, and PNG should lead the Pacific as a “bloc” of nations reconstructing their economies to handle resource productions in a more environmentally and socially sensitive way.

On Thursday Marape warned foreign companies already in PNG that he intended to crack down on regulatory compliance, and also shake up revenue processing to ensure PNG drew at least 50% in taxes and royalties.

He also wanted to see a shift towards an agricultural exports economy, as a “food bowl for Asia” rather than the current dependence on mining.

“For the amount of wealth the lord has blessed us with … the actual translation of this resource into improving peoples life hasn’t happened well in 44 years,” he told Guardian Australia.

“I don’t blame the past they lived at the time. They wrote the history, I’m going to write the future for our country.”

He said if his government didn’t get the balance right, future generations would blame them.

His comments followed an ambitious declaration on Thursday that the impoverished nation would be free of its dependence on Australian aid – more than half a billion dollars a year – within the decade.

He told Guardian Australia a prosperous PNG was a “win-win” for Australia.

“If we are independent economically, if we are solid and sustaining our own life, your taxes don’t need to come to us,” he said.

“We’ll keep the borders up north safe, we’ll have a better, friendly region up there, so the entire region is safe. If we disintegrate up there it affects Australia too.”

This article is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission from Keith Jackson’s blog PNG Attitude.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

What is Ligandrol, the drug swimmer Shayna Jack had in her system?

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Associate Professor | Program Director, Undergraduate Pharmacy, University of Sydney

Australian freestyle swimmer Shayna Jack tested positive to the banned substance Ligandrol in late June, before competing at the world swimming championships in South Korea this month.

Jack said she did not knowingly take Ligandrol but noted it could be found in contaminated supplements.

Ligandrol can help repair and build muscles. While it has been studied as a treatment for cancer and other conditions where patients experience muscle weakness and wastage, it is banned for use by professional athletes.

So how long has this drug been around, and how does it work?

History of Ligandrol

Ligandrol, which is also known by the development codes LGD-4033 and VK5211 and the name Anabolicum, was initially developed by the company Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the United States. It was patented in 2009.

The results of the first human clinical trial were published in 2013, where taking Ligandrol was found to increase muscle mass without also putting on fat.

The drug rights have since been licensed to the company Viking Therapeutics. In 2018, it completed a clinical trial which examined Ligandrol for people aged over 65 who were recovering from a hip fracture. The results showed patients who took Ligandrol significantly increased their muscle mass and could walk further than patients not on the drug.

Read more: Why is doping wrong anyway?

The drug has also been examined for other conditions, including as a possible treatment for cancer-related weight loss, enlarged prostates, for patients who have a diminished function of testes and ovaries, and as a potential cure for breast cancer.

Ligandrol is still considered an experimental drug, and as such, is not approved for sale by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

How Ligandrol works

Ligandrol is taken orally as a tablet at doses between 0.5 and 2 milligrams.

The drug is what pharmacists call a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM). These drugs bind at specific sites on skeletal muscles. There, they initiate a cascade of processes which change the expression of different genes in the DNA of muscle cells. The end effect is an increase in the repair and growth of muscle.

This means Ligandrol works in a similar way to testosterone and anabolic steroids, although SARMs typically have fewer side effects. The typical side effects of anabolic steriods can include short-term aggression and violence, acne, and sleeping difficulties, and long-term effects such as damage to the liver and kidneys, depression, and high blood pressure.

In contrast, in clinical trials of patients taking Ligandrol, the rate of side effects was similar to those in the placebo group and included headache and dry mouth. While clinical trial participants on Ligandrol did have a higher rate of throat infections, it was concluded this was not due to the drug.

Ligandrol can be detected for up to 21 days in the urine of those who take it.

In the news

Because Ligandrol can potentially be used to gain an advantage in competitive sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) placed the drug on its prohibited list.

Shayna Jack’s hypothesis that it must have entered her system through contaminated supplements is not without merit. The TGA regularly bans the import of supposedly natural supplements for weight loss, erectile dysfunction, and body building because they contain prescription-only medicines.

While there have been no instances of body building protein or sports supplements being adulterated with Ligandrol, there are reports of some dietary supplements being spiked with anabolic steroids and similar drugs.

For safety and security, athletes should only use supplements from reputable brands bought from reliable stores in their home country. The risk of accidentally taking a banned substance is significant if an athlete buys supplements online.

– ref. What is Ligandrol, the drug swimmer Shayna Jack had in her system? – http://theconversation.com/what-is-ligandrol-the-drug-swimmer-shayna-jack-had-in-her-system-121097

PNG’s donated APEC vehicles given to state agencies, NGOs and churches

By Asia Pacific Report -

July 29, 2019

By Simon Keslep in Port Moresby

The 166 donated vehicles used during last year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Papua New Guinea have been distributed to government institutions, non-governmental organisations and churches.

They were handed over by the Department of Finance in Port Moresby last Friday.

Present to officially handover vehicle keys to recipients was Minister for Finance and Rural Development Charles Abel and Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan.

The vehicles were donated to the Papua New Guinea government by the governments of China and Japan.

“As part of the process of disposing of assets acquired for APEC, we are starting with the vehicles given, they are of high value. The disposal will not only include vehicles but all assets that were purchased by the APEC authority,” said Dr Ngangan.

– Partner –

“It has taken us a long time but the process that we going through are done transparently so to account for all assets purchased.”

Dr Ngangan said all these was submitted to the Finance Minister and then to the attention of the National Procurement Commission for endorsement of disposal of donated assets.

Public assets
He said the process of disposal follows under the Procurement Act and the Public Finance Management Act complies with disposal requirements.

“The Department of Finance is the department responsible for the disposal of public assets and we have now taken ownership of all assets purchased by the APEC Authority.

The next process will include the state-purchased assets which is about 321 in total,” he said.

“After that we will provide a full report and submit to our Finance Minister, and to the National Executive Council, National Procurement Commission board and other oversight agencies like Ombudsman Commission and to everyone including the general public.”

Simon Keslep is a PNG Post-Courier journalist.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – July 29 2019

By Bryce Edwards -

July 29, 2019

Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.

Today’s content

National Party
Liam Hehir (Spinoff): National’s path to victory in 2020
Henry Cooke and Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Simon Bridges’ very bumpy road to 2020
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): National Party slowly refreshes itself at Christchurch conference, but tension remains
Peter Dunne (Stuff): The next election is not over yet
Richard Harman (Politik): Most of the Nats survive the weekend
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Bridges rebuilds confidence after trying year
Derek Cheng (Herald): Simon Bridges delivers speech to rapturous audience at National Party conference (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): National leader Simon Bridges is not a rock star, but he’s hardly a shambles either
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): The climate change question is National’s future
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): National battered by both sides on climate change
Rod Oram (Newsroom): CEOs need to talk tough to National on climate
Henry Cooke (Stuff): National ventures into vacated Labour territory with cancer announcement
Jane Patterson (RNZ): National’s cancer agency promise a smart political move
RNZ: Simon Bridges on cancer care: Labour talked big and did nothing
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Why are National promising $200m for cancer when they were the ones who shut the independent Ministerial Cancer Control advisory committee?
Derek Cheng (Herald): Cancer sufferers applaud National’s cancer-care policy
Newshub: Greens and ACT scoff at National’s cancer agency plans
1News: National would establish a National Cancer Agency – but Government says new anti-cancer measures are already being finalised
Henry Cooke (Stuff): New cancer agency and a $200m cancer drugs fund pledged by National
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Bridges promises cancer agency, $200m for drugs
Dan Satherley and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): National promises $200 million cancer fund
Audrey Young (Herald): National heads into conference in a state of limbo over leader Simon Bridges (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan and Henry Cooke (Stuff): Simon Bridges’ chance to reunify National Party after a bloody year
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Sir John Key refuses to rule out giving Judith Collins advice for leadership bid
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Sir John Key reminds National it needs potential coalition partners
1News: Sir John Key says Simon Bridges is ‘doing well’ – but won’t talk about Labour
Henry Cooke (Stuff): John Key says opposition can be challenging and ‘unity is critical’
Derek Cheng (Herald): Sir John Key to Simon Bridges at National Party conference: Don’t get disheartened
Thomas Coughan (Stuff): Sir John Key the star attraction at National Party conference
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Simon Bridges on surviving in leadership role: ‘I’m popularly supported’
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Simon Bridges: ‘NZ can’t afford another three years of this government’
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Simon Bridges opens National conference in Christchurch with promise to make ‘you’ bottom line
Derek Cheng (Herald): ‘Our bottom line is you’: Simon Bridges’ pitch to middle NZ at conference
1News: Maiki Sherman’s analysis: National Party conference a very big deal for Simon Bridges
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Newshub Nation: ‘I simply don’t believe it’: Simon Bridges rejects poor polling
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Leaked polling shows National below 40 percent under leadership of Simon Bridges
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Newshub Nation: Simon Bridges ‘would have voted for’ Boris Johnson if he was a Tory
Lee Kenny (Press): Extinction Rebellion protests outside National’s Christchurch conference
Brent Edwards (NBR): Paul Goldsmith confident the UK could manage a no-deal Brexit (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Dowie fails to net her opposite

Ihumātao
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Could Ihumātao resurrect the hopes of the Māori Party and National?
John Minto (Daily Blog): “Divide and rule” is the first-choice weapon of government, the second is the police and the third is the army
Ben Thomas (Stuff): Here’s why the Government can’t return Ihumātao to Iwi
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Dangerous for Jacinda Ardern to get involved in private land sale at Ihumātao
Heather McCarron and Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘Racism’ behind why Govt won’t buy Ihumātao land – Māori Party
1News: Breakfast host accuses Māori Council head of ‘xenophobic dog whistle’ after suggestion Ihumātao is symptom of migration
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Ihumātao protests: ‘We need to be here to show solidarity’
Steven Cowan: Ihumātao: A Clash With Capital
Vincent O’Malley (Spinoff): Our trail of tears: the story of Ihumātao
Kymberlee Fernandes (RNZ): Ihumātao land battle: a timeline
Dubby Henry (Herald): Battle for Ihumātao: How farmland became a flashpoint
Miriama Aoake (Stuff): The battle for Ihumātao: Tensions between rangatahi and kaumātua
Otago University: Ihumātao situation a ‘complex’ power battle – Otago research
Anne Russell (Scoop): Jacinda Ardern, the 40th Prime Minister for Racism
John Darroch (Re-Imagining Social Work) : Ihumātao
Point of Order: Law and order rules are being rewritten as Ardern bridles at accusations of leadership failure
—————
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): Ihumātao protester numbers surge into thousands, as ministers enter fray
Simon Shepherd and John Michael Swannix (Newshub): Newshub Nation: Peeni Henare warns Government buying Ihumātao land will ‘undermine every Treaty settlement done to date’
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Ihumātao an injustice, but the iwi’s deal should be respected – Willie Jackson
RNZ: Ihumātao: Government ministers welcomed to protest site with powerful powhiri
1News: Government cannot ignore Ihumātao, Greens co-leader tells crowd at protest site
Isaac Davison (Herald): Greens call for ministers to step in as occupation at Ihumātao grows
Herald: Ihumātao protest: Green Party MPs attend to ‘stand with mana whenua
Hone Harawira: Don’t buy the hype, save your SOUL
Denise Piper (Stuff): Skepticism over Government’s olive branch at Auckland’s Ihumātao protest sit
Michael Neilson (Herald): A day at Ihumātao: Cautious optimism following Government announcement, but Māori land rights the focus
Glen McConnell (Stuff): Construction has halted at Ihumātao, but the protesters won’t be stopping anytime soon
1News: Government steps into Ihumātao land dispute, halts building activity
Newshub: Ihumātao building development suspended until solution reached – Jacinda Ardern
Fiona Connor (Newshub): As it happened: Jacinda Ardern makes announcement on Ihumātao
Danielle Clent (Stuff): No development to take place until solution is found, PM says
Michael Neilson (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern halts building works on Ihumātao development site until solution found
RNZ: Ihumātao protests: No building while a solution is sought – PM
Māori TV: Govt shouldn’t broker kōrero, “They’re the ones who stole the land.” – Hone Harawira
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Ihumātao: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern slow on intervention – leading Māori figure Matthew Tukaki
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern’s inaction over Ihumātao ‘a lack of leadership’ – Pania Newton
Charles Anderson (Guardian): Ihumātao: Jacinda Ardern accused by Māori of ‘lacking leadership’ in land dispute
Dan Satherley and Heather McCarron (Newshub): Ardern is promoting illegal behaviour at Ihumātao, says ACT
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): ‘Socialists and prison abolitionists’: Seymour slams Ihumātao protesters
—————
Fiona Connor (Newshub): Who is Ihumātao protest leader Pania Newton, what is she fighting for and why does it matter?
Tom Furley (RNZ): Battle for Ihumātao: Balance shifts as 300 protesters outnumber 100 police
RNZ: Ihumātao protest: ‘People power – it’s still a thing’
Emma Cropper (Newshub): Watch: What it’s like at the Ihumātao demonstrations
Māori TV: Lawyer Moana Jackson provides legal advice about Ihumātao
Taroi Black (Māori TV): Daughter follows in footsteps of her father Māori activist Mike Smith
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ):Muslims at Ihumātao: ‘They can always rely on us’
Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): Kanaka Maoli protecting Mauna Kea send support to Ihumātao
1News: Watch: Police officer performs ‘absolutely stunning’ waiata for Ihumātao protestors
Lana Andelane (Newshub): ‘So beautiful to see the aroha’: Police officer sings with Ihumātao protesters
Herald: ‘Absolutely stunning’: Police officer sings with protesters at Ihumātao
Caroline Williams and Matthew Rosenberg (Stuff): Stan Walker performs at Ihumātao: ‘If my people ain’t winning, I ain’t winning’
Amanda Saxton (Stuff): Stan Walker urges crowds to ‘dream bigger’ at Ihumātao
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): “Jacinda, I hope you hear our cry” – Stan Walker performs at Ihumātao

Attack ads
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of James Shaw and the Simon Bridges’ ad (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): The Government eats its vegetables, gives attack ads a go
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Greens’ water balloon was off-target (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Greens’ catastrophe
Bill Ralston (Listener): NZ would do best to avoid American political nastiness
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Attack ad shows Greens are taking Simon Bridges ‘seriously’ – Judith Collins

Week in politics, Parliament
Peter Wilson (Herald): Week in politics: Contentious legislation and protests
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: Simon Bridges’ double-down on Bojo, a Canberra cable and Shane Jones’ party (paywalled)
NBR: The week in politics: Is Simon Bridges safe? (paywalled)
Phil Smith (RNZ): Simon Bridges asks questions on endless repeat. Why?

Bowel cancer: Southern DHB failures, nitrates in drinking water
Juliet Speedy (Newshub): Scathing report blasts Southern DHB: Highest rate of bowel cancer, lowest rate of colonoscopy procedures
Ruth Hill (RNZ): Report on bowel cancer diagnosis delays finds Southland ‘inter-service warfare’
Oliver Lewis (Stuff): Audit finds major colonoscopy service failures in Otago, Southland
Elspeth McLean (ODT): Response on cancer criticised
Patrick Gower (Newshub): Southland man denied a colonoscopy now dying of bowel cancer
Patrick Gower (Newshub): Southern District Health Board refuses colonoscopy test to a woman with bowel cancer symptoms
RNZ: Health expert renews call for study on nitrates in drinking water

Health
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Ian Powell calls David Clark’s leadership weak, without strategy or vision in damning speech
Cate Broughton (Stuff): Outgoing health union boss slams Health Minister David Clark
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Doctors at war over euthanasia claims
Tony Wall (Stuff): Over-the-counter codeine sales are booming and a proposed ban has been delayed
Hannah Martin (Stuff): One in five New Zealanders avoid seeing a doctor due to cost – survey
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Institutional racism to blame for poor Māori, Pacific health, Auckland DHB says (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: ‘institutional racism’ of health system hard pill to take (paywalled)
RNZ: DHB introduces training to combat racism
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Middlemore Hospital staff ‘shortage’: DHB rubbishes claims Defence Force may be needed to assist
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Middlemore Hospital so understaffed it might need help from Defence Force – union
Herald: Hospital crisis in Auckland: Ambulances diverted after 16 nurses call in sick
Suzette Howe (Newshub): Eye specialists concerned by kids’ excessive screen use
Karen Brown (RNZ): Review recommends significant increase of midwives at Hutt DHB
Stephanie Ockhuysen (Stuff): End of financial year sees Taranaki District Health Board more than $23 million in the red
1News: Hazardous rise in drinking seen among Kiwi baby boomers, research finds
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Boomer boozing a cause for concern, warns academic
Denise Piper (Stuff): Whangārei sickness beneficiary can’t afford dental care to stop teeth falling out
1News: Countdown’s restriction on selling energy drinks to under 16s ‘disappointing’, Beverage Council says
Herald: Countdown supermarket introduces age requirement for buying energy drinks
Sharnae Hope (Stuff): Vaping and smoking to be banned in Matamata-Piako district
Heather McCarron and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Council ‘demonising’ vaping despite benefits, manufacturer claims
—————
Karen Brown (RNZ): Can New Zealand’s mental health crisis be cured?
Dale Husband (E-Tangata): Māori suicide rate calls for new strategy
Katie Fitzgerald and Lauren Paddy (Newshub): Waikato DHB withdraws call for second inquiry into Nicky Stevens’ death, apologises to family
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Waikato DHB finally takes responsibility for Nicky Stevens’ death after four years – mother
Stuff: Waikato DHB withdraws complaint over Nicky Stevens ‘avoidable’ death finding, whānau says
1News: Mike King’s Gumboot Friday fundraiser gives more than 1,000 youth free counselling

Climate change, environment and conservation
No Right Turn: New Zealand’s dirtiest emitters
Dominion Post Editorial: Agriculture needs to grab emissions target and its opportunities
Muriel Newman (NZCPR): A Sacrificial Lamb
1News: Hawke’s Bay community for the intellectually disabled to move inland over climate change threat
Catherine Groenestein (Stuff): The unexpected and unavoidable consequences of living with climate change
Tracy Neal (RNZ): Tasman mayor rejects ‘symbolic’ climate declaration
Laura Smith (ODT): Unsure over climate change responsibilities
Mark Quinlivan and Lydia Lewis (Newshub): Climate emergency: Whangarei District Council latest to declare
1News: Father of five clocks up 74 days of climate change protest outside Parliament
David Herket (Stuff): Melt: A Kiwi climate-change novel of big ideas and an all too-plausible future
Sam Kilmister (Stuff): Defence Force spends almost $200,000 on water tanks and bottled water for contaminated Ōhakea properties
RNZ: Regional council boss defends role in GE regulations vote
Jamie Morton (Herald): Fox River ‘horrorscape’ clean-up huge task for DOC, NZ Defence Force, volunteers (paywalled)
1News: DOC warning operators carrying out illegal tours
1News: Wellington cracks down on illegal mountain bike trails in bid to save rare snail
ODT Editorial: Great progress on great walks
Samantha Gee (Stuff): Inreasing access fees makes Abel Tasman more expensive for visitors
Joseph Dougherty (ODT): Tourism: value not volume is the way
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Calls grow for early review of Tasman dog control bylaw
Herald: What mysterious extinction means for NZ’s native fish

Primary industries, Billion Trees programme
RNZ: The Detail: Planting a billion trees by 2028
David Williams (Newsroom): Canterbury farmer fined for killing native shrub
Andrew McRae (RNZ): Campaign launched to highlight issues around winter cropping
1News: Farm managers to pay $24k after stream had faecal levels 640 times higher than recommended
Stuff: Ōpōtiki dairy farm’s jammed irrigator pollutes waterway
Suzette Howe (Newshub): Industry shake-up puts South Island butchers on the chopping block

Local government
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Councils urged to find ‘West Coast way’ of withholding information from the public
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Auckland Council’s $1.9m legal battles with itself
Evan Harding (Stuff): Shadbolt initially told he was ‘entitled to indemnity’ for defamation costs
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): A climate of change: Calls for diversity at the council table in 2019
Todd Niall (Stuff): We’re quick to point out Auckland’s problems, but when does it help?
John Roughan (Herald): How we can make this city shine (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): John Banks out of Auckland mayoralty race
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): Former Auckland City Mayor John Banks decides against fresh campaign
Herald: Why John Banks is out of Auckland’s mayoral race
RNZ: John Banks out of race to be Auckland mayor
1News: Auckland mayor announces plan to expedite removal of car parks from popular city centre street
Spinoff: Councillor Penny Hulse: We’ve failed to represent the diversity of Auckland
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Council spends $1.2m defending new hotel rates
Sam Hurley and Chelsea Boyle (Herald): Auckland Council bribery case: Former employee named over allegations of cheque for tech contract
Edward Gay (Stuff): Named: Former Auckland Council official accused of taking bribe
Dileepa Foneska (Stuff): Mayor Justin Lester runs against his ex-campaign volunteer Conor Hill and former puppet theatre operator Norman Hausbert
Matthew Tso (Stuff): Battle of the generations in Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt mayoral races
Kate Green (Stuff): Young candidates step up for Wellington council roles
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Porirua’s mayoral candidates taking on Mike Tana seize on STV strategy in local elections
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Mayoralties to be challenged in all three Wairarapa districts
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Hamilton mayoral sign prompts sharp words
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Hawke’s Bay mayoral contests include candidate who isn’t sure he wants the job
Chris Morris (ODT): Numbers in Dunedin mayoralty race growing
Kelly Makiha (Herald): Local body elections: Social media trolls putting off potential politicians (paywalled)
Nicola Martin (Stuff): Surviving local government reality

Capitalism, NZ’s super-rich
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: Capitalism under scrutiny in a new NZ documentary (paywalled)
Luke Kirkness (Herald): NZ’s super-rich and the tax man: 350 people. Each worth $50m plus. And a fight over $85.8m (paywalled)
Maria Slade (Spinoff): The crisis in capitalism: NZ CEOs respond to the worldwide loss of faith
Duncan Bridgeman (Herald): Eric Watson text messages feature in FBI insider trading probe

Peter Ellis and Civic Creche case
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): Time to revisit the lessons of the Civic Creche case
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): Former Civic Creche worker Peter Ellis’ last bid before the cancer takes him
Thomas Mead (1News): Peter Ellis diagnosed with terminal cancer as he seeks last appeal

Disability
Mark Quinlivan and Delphine Herbert (Newshub): New Zealand venues found wanting when it comes to wheelchair access – Disabled Persons Assembly
Cleo Fraser (Newshub): ‘Gutting’: Te Papa apologises after guest speaker unable to access stage in wheelchair
Stuff: Wellington’s Te Papa museum apologises for lack of wheelchair access

Foreign Affairs
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacina Ardern says New Zealand’s aid to Samoa shouldn’t be compared to China’s big spending
RNZ: Jacinda Ardern in Samoa and soon to visit Tokelau
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sets out on Tokelau voyage
Jason Walls (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sets off tomorrow to spend a few days in Tokelau
Stuff: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern travels to Tokelau
Bonnie Flaws (Stuff): What does Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit plan mean for NZ?
Mike Wesley-Smith (Newshub): Kiwi Uyghur man claims harassment and threats by Chinese embassy

Education
RNZ: Call for overhaul of childhood service regulations
Boris Jancic (Herald): Principals fear Government learning support plan lacks long-term funding
1News: More funding, new action plan for students with disabilities, learning difficulties
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Fears early childhood teacher shortage will worsen as kindy teachers accept pay rises
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Kindergarten teachers approve new collective agreement
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Kindergarten teachers vote to accept collective agreement, giving them pay parity
Herald: Kindergarten teachers agree to $75 million collective pay parity deal
Dylan Cleaver (Herald): Ministry of Education rebukes top Auckland school over staff housing rugby players
RNZ: Govt promises 16 new classrooms for Canterbury
Lee Kenny (Stuff): New $32m Student Association hub set to open at University of Canterbury

Media
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Revealed: TVNZ’s plan to become a not-for-profit while it turns to face Netflix
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Running the numbers on public service PR
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Climate scepticism boosted by broadcasters
Stuff: Stuff joins over 60 global news outlets taking strong stance on climate change coverage

Public Finance Act
Audrey Young (Herald): Finance Minister Grant Robertson urges changes in public finance system
Richard Harman (Politik): How crises changed the Government

Provincial Growth Fund
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Provincial Growth Fund winners and losers: Where is the funding going?
Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Locals getting jobs through PGF not tracked by officials

Ngāti Rangi settlement, Māori land
RNZ: Passing of Ngāti Rangi Treaty settlement marks new era for iwi
Laurel Stowell (Herald): Settlement bill for Ruapehu iwi Ngāti Rangi passed (Paywalled)
Mike Dinsdale (Herald): Far North District Council to pay $80,000 to Māori trust for using land for dam (Paywalled)

Housing
Rebecca Howard (Herald): Only 75 Auckland homes sold to overseas buyers in past 3 months; Chinese activity collapses
RNZ: Foreign house buyers drop from 1116 to 183 in a year
Greg Ninness (Interest): More overseas people are cashing up and selling their New Zealand properties than are buying them
The Listener: Auckland’s house prices are finally falling. Whoopee?
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): No takers yet for KiwiBuild Homes in Te Kauwhata
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): First home buyers should be able to withdraw their KiwiSaver funds to buy investment properties
Tina Law (Press): Social housing residents at wits’ end with cold, draughty, uninsulated units

Cannabis, drug laws
Derek Cheng (Herald): Big Read: Is the Government’s ‘health’ approach to drugs delivering the goods? (paywalled)
Bob McCroskie (Family First): Not Fear, It’s Due Diligence on Today’s Cannabis – A Response to SpinOff
Alison Mau (Stuff): For those in pain, medical cannabis pricing and access must be urgently addressed
Brian Gaynor (Herald): Future looking dope for global cannabis sector (paywalled)

State care of children, Oranga Tamariki
Damien Grant (Stuff): Snatching children from their family is an act of savagery that can never be undone
Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): Māori should lead state care change
Evan Harding (Stuff): Oranga Tamariki staffer being investigated following assault claims

Transport
Damian George (Stuff): Rapid bus system would be faster than light rail or trackless trams in Wellington – report
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington’s trackless tram vs light rail debate turned up a notch
Laura James (1News): New initiative launched to stop young people driving without a licence

Abortion
John Armstrong (1News): Little’s recruitment of Amy Adams to rewrite abortion laws is smart politics
1News:NZ’s abortion law in its current form is ‘really quite ridiculous’, Dame Margaret Sparrow argues
Lizzie Marvelly (Herald): Abortion law reform: Vote safe, legal termination (paywalled)

Gun buyback scheme
George Block (ODT): Hundreds of guns netted in buy-backs
Joanne Holden (Stuff): South Canterbury’s first gun collection event ‘successful’

Other
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Final reckoning for Chch with global settlement plans to be revealed
RNZ: Final Christchurch rebuild costs to be divvied up today
Peter Dunne: Will the Government’s RMA review end up being all too difficult?
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Department of Internal Affairs considers credit card ban for online gambling (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Ministry model suggests $12b investment coming in greener power
The Standard: Jacindamania
Jon Stokes (Stuff): Shining a light on Māori deprivation is easy – fixing it is the problem
Jono Bell (Newshub): Opinion: Living in poverty like living in a war zone
Nikki Mandow (Newsroom): Take my KiwiSaver and can’t we call it quits?
1News: Cash Converters front up to politicians to defend lending practices as bill comes under review
Sophie Bateman (Spinoff): How to stop someone becoming radicalised online
Alanah Eriksen (Herald): ‘My All Black father had dementia – now I have it too’ (paywalled)
Stuff: Spy watchdog Cheryl Gwyn appointed a High Court judge
Dale Husband (E-Tangata): Rauru Kirikiri: Diplomacy and Māori convictions
Collette Devlin (Stuff): New NZDF training focuses on stamping out harmful sexual behaviour
Charlie Gates (Stuff): Ashburton Muslims endured racist attacks, but feel more welcome after March 15
Marc Wilson (LIstener): Why the struggle for gay rights is far from over
David Herkt (Stuff): A communist in the family – searching for Comrade Rewi Alley
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Indian artist paints tiny Jacinda Ardern portrait on almond for her birthday

Young crime is often a phase, and locking kids up is counterproductive

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Robert McGregor, Associate Lecturer, University of Newcastle

Last week, violent riots erupted in the NSW Frank Baxter Juvenile Justice Centre. Several inmates allegedly attacked known sex offenders, and a held a siege on the rooftop lasting nearly 22 hours. In June, officers at the centre walked off the job after a number of violent attacks by detainees.

And on average, 980 young people were in youth detention in Australia every night in the June quarter of 2018. While there has been some fluctuation in this number, there has been an overall increase in the average number of young people in detention per night since 2014.

This crowding and rising tensions have led to an Australia-wide spotlight on youth detention, which began with the 2016 ABC Four Corners investigation, “Australia’s Shame”, on the treatment of young offenders in detention centres in the Northern Territory and, in turn led to a royal commission into Northern Territory’s youth justice system.

Young people in detention often come from unstable backgrounds, their literacy levels are generally very low, they have extensive childhood trauma. On release, their prospects of employment are low. And many young people in custody are known to have experienced some form of childhood trauma, such as neglect, and physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

But research has shown young people often grow out of their offending behaviours and rejoin their local communities.

It’s time the youth justice system considered alternative community-based models that better recognise the ability for young people to abandon crime.

The juvenile justice system in NSW

In Australia, a person under the age of 10 years old cannot be charged with a criminal offence, and young person must be at least 18 to be tried in court as an adult.

The Young Offenders Act 1997 is the primary diversion legislation for young offenders in NSW. “Diversion” is used to steer young people away from involvement in the criminal justice system or deter their long-term involvement into adulthood.

The principles of this act are to ensure there are alternative measures in place to deal with young people who come into contact with the criminal justice system. These measures include warnings, cautioning and Youth Justice Conferencing.

It’s widely accepted there are certain, more minor crimes committed disproportionately by young people, such as property crime. In these cases, young people are more likely to end up diversionary programs.

Those who do end up in custody are likely to have done so for more serious offences, for example, drug, sexual or terrorism offences, and many of the detainees have histories of violence.

While being withdrawn from the community is part of the punishment for these young people, the isolation of custody can have compounding problems upon release. As a result, there are growing calls for an overhaul of the youth justice system.

The New Zealand model

Following the recent Frank Baxter riots, Stewart Little, the general secretary of the Public Service Association, has called for a judicial inquiry. And Ruth Barson, director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the worst course of action would be a “knee-jerk and punitive” response.

Rising tensions in youth justice centres have led to calls for an overhaul of the system. Dean Lewin/AAP

While reform would happen on a state-by-state basis, Australia could look to the New Zealand model to deal with young people who come into contact with the youth justice system.

The New Zealand model has a strong focus on community, and recognises that the majority of young people grow out of participating in crime.

When a young person comes into contact with police, Police Youth Aid officers have specialised training to work with young people to divert them from the court system.

As a result, as many as 80% of young people in New Zealand are diverted from the court system.

If a young person does end up going before the court, they first undertake a Family Group Conference where the best form of intervention is determined. This process is supervised by the court and ultimately goes back before the judge for approval.

The young person is active in this process. But if they don’t comply, they must then go through a more formal process. This can take many forms, depending on the nature of the offence, such as a hearing in Youth Court or the matter may be transferred to the district court.

In part, this model is being trialled in Queensland. The families of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who come into contact with the criminal justice system are being given a greater role in family-led decision-making and Youth Justice case planning.

While custody may have a place in the youth justice system, an overhauled framework might look to place a stronger focus on the role of the community and breaking down barriers and stigmatisation of justice involved young people.

– ref. Young crime is often a phase, and locking kids up is counterproductive – http://theconversation.com/young-crime-is-often-a-phase-and-locking-kids-up-is-counterproductive-120968

An app to prevent pregnancy? Don’t count on it

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Bateson, Clinical Associate Professor, Discipline of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neonatology, University of Sydney

Fertility awareness apps are being championed as a new approach to contraception. In reality, while the technology may be new, women have been predicting the fertile days in their menstrual cycles to prevent pregnancy for a very long time.

But the growth of the “femtech” industry, alongside a seemingly growing wave of younger women looking to move away from hormonal methods of contraception, has led to a renewed interest.

Fertility awareness methods and apps can help women better understand their bodies, are relatively cost-effective, and have no side-effects.

Yet at the same time, the apps rely on dedicated daily monitoring and data entry, and strictly abstaining from unprotected sex for several days each month. They also leave significant room for user error.

Most importantly, their effectiveness remains to be properly proven with research evidence.

How many women are using them?

We don’t know exactly how many Australian women use these apps, but a 2016 survey found 2.8% of contraceptive users aged 18 to 51 were using a fertility awareness method of contraception.

Anecdotal clinical experience points to a small but increasing number of women who may at least be trying a fertility awareness app.

Importantly, not all fertility apps are equal. The earliest apps were designed to predict fertility to optimise a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant. Some apps available today can function either for this purpose, or to prevent pregnancy.

Tracking apps such as Period Tracker and Clue simply monitor the menstrual cycle and associated symptoms.

Contraceptive apps go a step further, using an algorithm to compute the fertile and non-fertile days in a woman’s cycle. The app alerts the user to abstain from sex (or use a condom) on fertile days, and indicates on which days unprotected sex is less likely to lead to pregnancy.

Women using fertility awareness methods of contraception will need to abstain from sex, or use a condom, for several days every month. From shutterstock.com

Most of these apps also collect data on basal body temperature, while some call for a woman to examine her cervical mucus secretions – both additional indicators of fertility.

Only Natural Cycles, an app designed by Swedish husband and wife scientists, has been licensed as a contraceptive device (though not in Australia). Although certified by the European Union and US regulatory organisations, it has not undergone the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration approval process.

How do fertility apps work?

While the eggs released from the ovary each month survive for around 24 hours, sperm can survive for five days or more in the uterus and fallopian tubes. This means a woman has roughly six fertile days each month.

This “fertile window” extends from the five days before ovulation to one day after ovulation. The challenge lies in predicting exactly when ovulation – the egg release from the ovary – occurs.

Calendar-based methods rely entirely on menstrual cycle length and an assumption that ovulation occurs 14 days before the next period. But both menstrual cycle length and ovulation timing are highly variable, making these methods less effective than fertility awareness methods of contraception which include additional fertility indicators.

“Symptothermal” methods, for instance, involve taking the basal body temperature first thing every morning with a special thermometer in the vagina. This checks for the small rise in core temperature that follows ovulation (although illness or a late alcohol-fuelled night out can affect the reading).

A daily check for a sensation of wetness at the entrance to the vagina can also be added. Cervical mucus becomes stretchy and viscous during fertile days to help sperm swim up into the uterus.

The number of directed abstinence days varies between apps. The Natural Cycles app plays it safe with approximately ten “red for no sex” days per cycle, and sends motivational messages to help support adherence.

An app called Dot advises 11–13 high risk days, depending on the user’s cycle lengths and other factors. This longer window is likely because this app relies on menstrual cycle length alone, and so may be less precise in predicting ovulation.

How effective are fertility apps for contraception?

Contraceptive effectiveness is based on the number of pregnancies occurring in the first year of use, both in perfect research conditions and in typical everyday use.

The oral contraceptive pill is more than 99% effective in perfect use, but up to seven in every 100 women become pregnant in the first year of typical use, due to forgetting pills or running out.

Implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs) are more than 99% effective in each case.

High-quality studies for fertility awareness methods of contraception are lacking, but rates are quoted at between 75% for typical use, and up to more than 99% in perfect use.

Different women will have different preferences for contraception. But it’s important to understand the pros and cons of each option. From shutterstock.com

Studies of the Natural Cycles app report a typical use failure rate of 7%, similar to the contraceptive pill. But these studies have been controversial and their authors have acknowledged limitations in capturing accurate data on unplanned pregnancies.

For example, in one study, the pregnancy rate relied on users logging a positive pregnancy test result on the app, but also on assumptions made about possible pregnancies among women who discontinued the app and therefore weren’t followed for the duration of the research.

Where to from here?

Although the “perfect use” figures may look high, we need more rigorous research into fertility apps – which notably leave much room for “imperfect use”.

Learning to use fertility awareness methods of contraception can be complicated and arduous to maintain. Modifying sexual behaviour in line with instructions from the app can also be a challenge.

Research into the Natural Cycles app found high discontinuation rates. Some 54% of women stopped using it after one year of use.

Women who are dissatisfied with other methods of contraception or prefer a hormone-free approach for personal or medical reasons, and are comfortable with the demands of the method, may choose to use apps.

But the bottom line is, fertility awareness apps are not as effective as other methods of contraception (particularly IUDs and implants). Apps require dedicated daily monitoring and data entry, strict adherence to when you can and can’t have unprotected sex, and leave room for user error.

The scientific community will continue to call for more high-quality research, while fertility apps with seductive “scientifically proven” and “clinically tested” claims will undoubtedly proliferate.

In making an informed choice, it’s important for every woman to be aware of the pros and cons of all contraceptive methods. Your doctor or local family planning clinic can provide advice and direct you to evidence-based resources.

– ref. An app to prevent pregnancy? Don’t count on it – http://theconversation.com/an-app-to-prevent-pregnancy-dont-count-on-it-119922

Poor housing leaves its mark on our mental health for years to come

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ankur Singh, Research Fellow in Social Epidemiology, University of Melbourne

Australia carries an enormous and increasing mental health burden. At the same time, housing disadvantage is on the rise in Australia. Our latest research indicates the trends are related. A systematic review of the evidence shows housing disadvantage is harmful for mental health, and the effects stay with you well after your housing situation might have improved. For instance, living in an overcrowded house from birth to early childhood is associated with depression in midlife.

So how many people are affected? One in five Australians experience a mental disorder in any given year and nearly half will experience some form of mental illness during their lifetime. Mental health accounts for more than A$9 billion of public and private spending in Australia, and 4.2 million Australians received mental health-related prescriptions in 2017-18.

As for housing, up to 1.1 million Australians live in homes that are in very poor condition.

Making the link between housing and mental health

In recent years, several high-quality Australian and international studies have sought to understand the relationship between housing disadvantage and mental health. A small portion of this evidence base has attempted to rigorously quantify the effect of housing on mental health over an extended period. Bringing the results of such longitudinal studies together, we conducted a systematic review to establish whether housing disadvantage can lead to poorer mental health down the track.

Housing disadvantage includes overcrowding, falling behind on mortgage payments or rent, moving house often, insecure housing tenure, subjective perception of inadequate housing, eviction, or poor physical housing conditions. Our systematic review of international evidence shows that, regardless of how housing disadvantage is considered, there is a correlation with poorer mental health in future.

In the studies we reviewed, sample sizes ranged from 205 to 16,234 people. The follow-up period ranged from within one year to as long as 34 years across all life stages — birth to adulthood and old age. Despite deliberately excluding studies on the two extremes of homelessness and severe mental illness, we found each study confirmed an association between at least one marker of housing disadvantage and poor mental health.

The mental health outcomes included higher odds of depression, stress and anxiety. The studies included in the review detected these outcomes across all age groups from both very short follow-up periods of about two years to reasonably long periods over decades.

These findings make sense. Housing is a central part of our lives. It is, for most of us, our largest expenditure. It shapes our experiences; it is both a financial asset and a home.

This means insecure housing can be very destabilising for families and individuals.

Our review highlights a great diversity of mechanisms through which housing affects mental health outcomes (such as anxiety and depression) at different stages of life. For example, physical housing problems such as damp or cold affect mental health in different ways to housing-related financial insecurities. But there is evidence that physical housing and affordability problems may work together to amplify the mental health effects.

Housing problems on the rise

The Australian housing system is changing and becoming less secure. More and more Australians are renting privately. Many young people will never own their own homes.

At the same time, our public housing sector can only provide a safety net for the most vulnerable people with high and complex needs. Waiting lists are long. And we’re seeing no substantive government commitment to reduce this shortage of social housing.

In addition, the quality of our housing is getting worse across the entire housing stock. The Australian Index of Unhealthy Housing is a composite measure of housing affordability, security, quality, location and accessibility. The index charts an increase in housing disadvantage across our housing stock since 2000, including a marked increase for low-income private renters.

Increases in unhealthy housing in Australia from 2000 to 2016. Adapted from An Australian geography of unhealthy housing

Due to the growing unaffordability of housing, many of us simply cannot keep up with basic maintenance and repairs. Band-aid solutions mean some of us live with cold and damp housing, homes that leak when it rains, homes unable to accommodate growing families, or homes that may not support our needs as our mobility declines. At the most extreme end, 116,427 of us were homeless on census night.

On current estimates, one in every nine households has unaffordable housing. Up to 1.1 million Australians have housing that is in very poor condition (or even derelict).

Given the scale of housing disadvantage, its role in driving poor mental health should greatly concern us all. It suggests a large number of Australians will suffer with mental health issues related to, or worsened by, inadequate housing.

The changes in tenure and quality in the housing sector have been widely discussed. The mental health consequences of housing also need to be discussed and even prioritised.

Invest in housing for mental health

The Australian government’s latest research funding initiative, the Medical Research Future Fund, has a “Million Minds Mental Health Research Mission”. It aims to support research into the causes of mental illness, and the best early intervention, prevention and treatment strategies. Our systematic review suggests it is vital that both research and public investment directed towards improving mental health consider the affordability, quality and condition of people’s housing.

Housing is central to our lives. When it is affordable, secure and in good condition, it provides a foundation for us to participate fully in and contribute to society.

If we discovered a risk-free medication that protected people’s mental health, we would be clamouring for it to be made widely available. In considering the shape that housing policies might take, what if we thought of decent housing as a form of mass medication? A protective safety net? Wouldn’t it be something we’d invest in and prescribe for all?

– ref. Poor housing leaves its mark on our mental health for years to come – http://theconversation.com/poor-housing-leaves-its-mark-on-our-mental-health-for-years-to-come-120595

What Australia’s competition boss has in store for Google and Facebook

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

Central to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms inquiry were two questions:

do Google and Facebook hold substantial power in crucial digital markets?
does this power pose a risk to competitive processes?

In its Final Report released by the government on Friday, the ACCC correctly answered both with a resounding “yes”.

The ACCC did not set out to determine whether either company has broken the competition rules. That can only be determined in an investigation of specific conduct based on specific facts and evidence.

The report itemises six such investigations already underway.

Having identified risks, the ACCC did set out to determine how they might be contained.

Its proposals are rightly cautious, reflecting the complexities of digital markets and the challenges in ensuring that any intervention protects the competitive process rather than individual competitors.

With market power comes dangers

The ACCC points out that substantial power won by serving consumers is not against the law.

It acknowledges that Google and Facebook provide services that are highly valued.

And it emphasises the distinctive features of digital markets that contribute to this power: extraordinary economies of scale, network effects, massive accumulations of data and the use of highly sophisticated data analytic techniques.

These features help Google dominate internet search and internet search advertising and help Facebook dominate social networks and display advertising.

While they also help deliver value for consumers, they can be used against new entrants that may offer a better deal and against other businesses (such as traditional media companies) that have come to rely on Google and Facebook to deliver services to customers.

The ACCC wants to reduce the risks…

There are no quick fixes. The ACCC rightly rejected the idea that platforms such as Google and Facebook be broken up.

Given the highly interconnected complex nature of the markets in which the major platforms participate, divestiture would not guarantee, and might in fact harm, consumer welfare.

The report recommends instead building up the ACCC’s capacity to aggressively enforce the competition rules and to review acquisitions that would further entrench the dominant players’ market power.

Many of the other recommendations are designed to ameliorate imbalances in information and bargaining power between the platforms and business users, and between the platforms and consumers in relation to the collection and use of their personal data.

Implementing these recommendations presents challenges, not the least of which is to ensure they don’t themselves damage competition.

…hunt out abuses…

The ACCC proposes the establishment of a new specialist branch within the ACCC to build and sustain the skills needed to continue studying digital platforms and enforcing their competition and consumer rules.

This is a welcome initiative. It replicates similar capacity-building initiatives in the United States and Europe.

The report is peppered with references to European cases in which Google has been subject to thundering fines for various abuses of dominance. It also invokes the European mantra that these powerful companies have “special responsibility”.

But the Australian misuse of market power prohibition may not be flexible as the one in Europe. The ACCC has recommended broadening the unfair trading law in order to allow it more flexibility, and not only for use in dealing with digital platforms.

The recently amended section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act will play a role, but it is yet to be taken for a proper run and, in the digital context, its application will be complicated by the rapid pace of innovation in digital markets.

…and scrutinise mergers…

In an acknowledgement that digital mergers are different, the ACCC wants to ensure the merger laws pay attention to mergers with potential as well as actual competitors, and to mergers with the owners of data assets.

It also wants Google and Facebook to voluntarily notify it of any future acquisitions. This is a polite request backed by a thinly veiled threat of repercussions.

But the report also implies that neither of these proposals may be enough.

Still more changes to the merger law might be needed to persuade judges of the need to stem unhealthy concentration in the Australian economy generally.

Australia almost certainly needs a compulsory notification regime, triggered by a combination of turnover and transaction value thresholds to ensure nascent competitors are not snuffed out.

Both of these are bigger conversations that the Commission needs to engage government and business in.

…while not offering much for legacy media…

The Commission has stepped away from a proposal in its preliminary report that there be a special regulator to oversee the relationships between platforms and media organisations, significant business users and advertisers.

It might have listened to criticism that the proposal would benefit traditional players in disrupted industries more than it benefits consumers.

The advertising industry is highly fragmented, complex and constantly changing. The evidence that the new platforms are distorting competition in the industry is questionable at best. The ACCC has sensibly suggested it needs to thoroughly examine dynamics in the ad tech supply chain before firming up any recommendation.

For the media industry, the compromise is that each platform be required to negotiate a code of conduct to be overseen and enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Whether this will address media concerns about the appropriation of their content and about short notice periods for algorithm changes that can make their products hard to find remains to be seen.

But, recognising that the platforms are themselves knee-deep in the media business, the ACCC has called for a wholesale overhaul of media regulation to level the playing field and remove regulatory impediments to competition, an idea the government seems to have accepted.

…and upgrading protections for privacy

The call for broad ranging reform of our privacy laws to wrench them into the digital age is also likely to be accepted by government.

The platforms might grumble at additional privacy requirements imposed country by country without an international standard, but the proposal to work with them on the development of an enforceable code at least allows them a seat at the table, and a chance to ensure the regulations are workable.

The challenge will be to ensure that the regulatory burdens don’t disproportionately hurt small businesses and prospective entrants, the ones the ACCC wants to help.

An imminent ACCC-led reform that will help both new entrants and consumers is the Consumer Data Right, which will give consumers more control of their data and enable them to move it between suppliers.

The ACCC’s work on digital platforms has just begun and there is a long and bumpy road ahead. The government should give it the time and money it will need to get on with it.

Caron Beaton-Wells is host of the Competition Lore podcast, exploring competition policy and law in a digital age.

– ref. What Australia’s competition boss has in store for Google and Facebook – http://theconversation.com/what-australias-competition-boss-has-in-store-for-google-and-facebook-121037

We can put a leash on Google and Facebook, but there’s no saving the traditional news model

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Lotz, Fellow, Peabody Media Center; Professor of Media Studies, Queensland University of Technology

Living with two preteens, I get almost daily requests to approve new apps. My standard response is to ask my kids to describe the app, why they want it, and how it makes money.

The last question is important, and not just to avoid to avoid in-app charges. Understanding the forces that drive the online economy is crucial for consumers, and increasingly citizens. All the new tools we access come at a cost even when they seem to be free.

How technology companies make money is a good question for digital media users of any age. It lies at the heart of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into the power and profits of Google and Facebook, the world’s two most ubiquitous digital platforms.

Australians’ time spent online. ACCC Digital Platforms Inquiry Final Report

The competition watchdog’s job was to look at how online search engines, social media and digital content aggregators wield power in media and advertising, how that undermines the viability of traditional journalism (print in particular), and what can be done about it.

Limited recommendations

Its final report makes a swag of recommendations to limit these platforms’ market dominance and use of personal data.

One example is requiring devices to offer consumers a choice of search engine and default browsers. Google now requires Android phones to pre-install Google apps. This feeds a “default bias” that contributes to it being used for 95% of Australian searches.

Another is reforming Australia’s privacy laws to address the digital environment. Platforms’ “take it or leave it” policies now give consumers little choice on having their data harvested.

But on the area of concern central to the inquiry’s establishment – the decline in journalism – the recommendations are relatively minor:

a code of conduct to treat news media businesses “fairly, reasonably and transparently”
“stable and adequate” government funding for the ABC and SBS
government grants (A$50 million a year) to support original local journalism
tax incentives to encourage philanthropic support for journalism.

The reality is that there is little governments can do to reverse the technological disruption of the journalism business.

Targeted revolution

The internet has made stark that news organisations aren’t primarily in the journalism business. The stories they produce play an incomparable social role, but the business model is to deliver an audience to advertisers.

Australian advertising expenditure by media format and digital platform. ACCC

Social media and search give advertisers better tools to target messages to more precise groups of potential consumers. It is a phenomenally better mousetrap.

Traditional advertising is expensive and inefficient. An advertiser pays to reach a broad audience, most with no interest in what is being advertised.

Search allows advertisers to pay to reach people precisely when they are looking for something. Google knows what you are interested in, and serves up advertising accordingly. In the last quarter alone its advertising in its properties (Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Play Store and Shopping) made US$27.3 billion in revenue.

Social media platforms have a different model, but one no less damaging to the old newspaper business model. It’s a bit more like traditional mass media advertising, selling the attention of users to advertisers, but in a far more targeted way.

To the extent Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on capture your attention, and effectively monetise content made by others through sharing, they also undercut traditional news businesses.

Follow the money

No regulation can fix this. As the competition watchdog’s report notes, Australian law does not prohibit a company from having substantial market power. Nor does it prohibit a company “from ‘out-competing’ its rivals by using superior skills and efficiency”.

No one – not even the tech companies – is necessarily to blame for the technological innovation that has disrupted traditional news organisations.

To see that, as with my kids understanding how their apps make money, it’s just a case of following the money.

– ref. We can put a leash on Google and Facebook, but there’s no saving the traditional news model – http://theconversation.com/we-can-put-a-leash-on-google-and-facebook-but-theres-no-saving-the-traditional-news-model-113554

Voluntary super: a good way to increase women’s dependence on men

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Hodgson, Professor, Curtin Law School and Curtin Business School, Curtin University

Making super contributions voluntary for people earning less than A$50,000 a year, as proposed by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg, would be a backward step for women.

It would predominantly be used by women, because more women earn less than A$50,000 than men. In 2016-17, 306,008 women earned less than A$50,000, compared with 216,749 men.

Many would find it a help. An extra 9.5% of salary (an extra 12% if compulsory superannuation contributions climb as planned) would be exceedingly useful.

And most women have much less super than most men. In 2017, the median super balance for women aged 60-64 was A$36,000. For men it was A$110,000.

This is partly because women are much more likely than men to take time out of work or to work part-time to care for children and other family members, and partly because of the persistent gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap means that women contribute less to superannuation, and as a result are much more likely than men to experience poverty and hardship in retirement and will have to rely on the pension anyway, regardless of super.

So why not let women take the money?

Senator Bragg says his proposal could lift disposable incomes for low earners, and save the government A$1.8 billion in the first year alone, because earnings taken in cash are taxed more highly than earnings paid into super – although these people are least able to afford the extra tax.

But it could also change the dynamics within relationships.

Compared with other developed countries, Australia has a high proportion of “1.5 earner” families, made up of a man working full-time (often earning much more than A$50,000) and a woman working part-time (often earning less).

They would be tempted to regard the lower earner’s superannuation account as unnecessary and take the money upfront, using only the higher earners account for retirement.

The inevitable outcome would be a reversal of the recent narrowing of the superannuation gap, with women increasingly dependant on their husbands (or a good divorce lawyer) for security in retirement.

Why not make super meaningful?

There are alternatives that would reduce the gender gap in retirement incomes. The 2016 Senate inquiry into economic security for women in retirement recommended government contributions during parental leave and removing the exemption for employers of low income earners earning less than A$450 per month.

And in 2010 the Henry Tax Review recommended a flat tax concession for super contributions, instead of the present one that widens the gap between low and high earners.

Although successive governments have made changes to the superannuation system, none has adopted the recommended flat tax concession. Nor have they shown much concern for workers earning less than A$50,000.

Earlier this month, Senator Bragg’s party pushed through parliament legalisation that excludes workers earning less than A$48,000 from the full budget tax offset.

Workers earning less than A$50,000 find it difficult to make ends meet. It is true that the super system (and the new tax offset) treats them badly. But allowing them to opt out of super would make them even more reliant on either the pension or better-off partners.

– ref. Voluntary super: a good way to increase women’s dependence on men – http://theconversation.com/voluntary-super-a-good-way-to-increase-womens-dependence-on-men-120979

Wordslut: a new book aims to ‘verbally smash the patriarchy’, but its argument is imprecise

By The Conversation -

July 29, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roslyn Petelin, Course coordinator, The University of Queensland

In her book Wordslut, Amanda Montell argues that patriarchal assumptions deny women an active role in society, claiming that, “In our culture, men run the show”.

With a degree in creative writing and linguistics, having studied “how language works in the real world”, Montell has set out to “verbally smash the patriarchy”. Her aim is to educate a readership of women who need “the knowledge to reclaim the language that for so long has been used against us”.

She promises that:

By the end of this book you’ll have all the nerdy know-how you need to sound like the sharpest word ninja in the room.

The wording of her promise sums up both the strengths and weaknesses of this book. Montell tries too hard to popularise her agenda by adopting up-to-date slang and jargon, although she must be fully aware of how transient and imprecise this strategy makes her argument.

Occasionally, she is also seduced into making irrelevant asides that contribute nothing to her argument. For example, she mentions a seminal feminist paper that was published in 1997, “the same year as Princess Diana’s death and Mike Tyson’s bite fight”.

Despite all this, it is a book that explores the fascinating etymology of words such as “bitch” and “slut” that we were taught never to use in polite company, and which have nonetheless underpinned gendered attitudes.

Gender and sexuality

Since the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, sociolinguists have been studying language and gender: how people use language to express gender, how gender impacts how a person talks, and how their speech is perceived.

Montell comprehensively discusses the way in which second-wave feminist activists put the distinction between sex and gender on the “mainstream cultural radar in the mid 20th century”. She notes that “no one ever posed a semantic distinction between sex and gender until the 1960s” and that the word gender didn’t enter the mainstream English lexicon until the 1980s.

As she also notes, the rise of the #MeToo movement with fifth-wave feminism has accelerated discussions around gender and sexuality in the press, with even the Summer 2019 issue of Playboy magazine dedicated to the topic.

Montell’s book ranges across issues relating to sex, gender and language with many provocative pronouncements.

Amanda Montell, author of Wordslut. Black Inc

The most astounding, to my mind, is her claim about “valley-girl ‘vocal fry’,” also known by linguists as “creaky voice”, “a raspy, low-pitched noise that we often hear as people trail off at the end of their sentences”. Particularly teenage girls.

Montell says that:

Today’s sharpest linguists … have data suggesting that “teenage girl speak”, one of the most loathed and mocked language styles, is actually what Standard English is going to sound like in the near future. In a lot of ways, it’s already happening. And that’s making a lot of middle-age men very, very cranky.

Her credibility would have been enhanced if she had provided data for this bold claim, as it would seem to me that this is a style of language mostly confined to certain parts of California.

Montell rails against sexism in relation to women, but exhibits it herself in relation to men, particularly older men. Through most of the book she uses the term “dude” to replace the word “man”, oddly claiming that “today dude is one of the most beloved terms in the English language”.

Her ageism is evident when she discusses how labels such as cisgender, transgender, graygender, and pansexual “aren’t surfacing just because it’s suddenly trendy to have an identity that will perplex and/or pissoff all our great-aunts and-uncles at Thanksgiving”. She quotes many male and female linguists throughout the book, but mentions the age of only two, a woman who is “now in her 70s” and a man who is 58 years old.

He or they?

In his preface to Gwynne’s Latin (2014), the conservative British grammarian Neville Gwynne mentions what he calls the “now-contentious problem of how to express what for the entire history of English literature until the last few decades was the all-embracing ‘he’.”

Surprisingly, he suggests that before then it was never considered “remotely inappropriate or uncomfortable” and goes on to comfort the readers of his book by stating that “on the few occasions [in his book] that you see the all-embracing “he” or equivalent, that it is occurring without any offence being intended”.

Publications such as the Australian government’s Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers have accepted the singular “they” for decades, way ahead of those in the UK and the USA. Montell advocates the singular “they”, along with North American linguistics societies and dictionaries, although The Times style guide does not enthusiastically endorse it:

He and his can no longer refer to both sexes equally; he or she will sometimes do. It is often easier to use the plural they for he or she, and sometimes even the ugly their for his or her. Do this only when necessary.

Montell predicts, however, that “20 years from now, introducing yourself with your name and your pronouns could become the norm”.

Absent index

In a book that aims for an educated readership, we would expect to see an index and a list of references. This book has neither. Montell’s failure to consistently and meticulously cite her sources somewhat diminishes the value of the book.

Much of the research that she mentions, such as a 2003 study of 30 Irish men and 30 Irish women on their swearing habits, features very small populations.

She also makes sweeping generalisations with no evidence: “people above the age of forty have always loathed teen slang”. The smattering of underwhelming cartoons contributes nothing to the text.

The book could also have done with a closer edit. On page four, Montell makes a grammatical and a factual error when she states that “Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years”. (Homo sapiens is thought to have originated in Africa more than 315,000 years ago.) Many readers will be put off by the book’s annoyingly gauche and patronising style: “You may or may not have heard of a little thing called patriarchy?”

But is the book worth reading? Yes. Despite my reservations, I enjoyed reading it. Montell puts her linguistics degree to good use in a thorough coverage of historical sociolinguistics that forms the precursor to the contemporary feminist stance practised in many arenas today.

– ref. Wordslut: a new book aims to ‘verbally smash the patriarchy’, but its argument is imprecise – http://theconversation.com/wordslut-a-new-book-aims-to-verbally-smash-the-patriarchy-but-its-argument-is-imprecise-119160

Ihumātao: Powerful powhiri welcomes state ministers to protest site

By Asia Pacific Report -

July 27, 2019

By RNZ News

About 2000 people showed their support as New Zealand protests against a controversial proposed housing development at Ihumātao in South Auckland entered their fifth day.

RNZ reporters at the scene sid it was abuzz with people and activities that included traditional Māori massage, mirimiri.

At least 50 tents were erected in the main paddock which protesters reclaimed from police yesterday.

LISTEN TO RNZ: Peeni Henare speaks to Kim Hill on Saturday Morning

Government minister Peeni Henare, the MP for Tāmaki Makaurau, arrived at the site at midday with fellow minister Willie Jackson.

– Partner –

They were welcomed onto Ihumātao with a roaring powhiri.

Earlier this week both ministers were reluctant to weigh in on the land dispute, saying there was nothing the government could do to resolve it.

A representative of mana whenua, Eru Rakena, spoke directly to Henare, asking him what he would do if Ihumātao was his land and under threat.

Appeal for support
He asked the ministers for their support to save the land from a housing development so it could be used by his mokopuna.

He said whānau protesting were mana whenua and had always been mana whenua.

Mana leader Hone Harawira … “stay away” from the issue plea to the prime minister. Image: RNZ

Mana movement leader Hone Harawira said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should stay away from the land dispute at Ihumātao, and allow her Māori ministers to find a resolution.

Yesterday Ardern vowed that no building would take place at Ihumātao while the government and other parties tried to broker a solution

Harawira arrived at the site this morning with more than 100 Destiny Church members to pledge his support for protesters.

He said it was disappointing that Māori ministers had not taken a lead role in trying to find a solution.

“It would be nice to see the Māori ministers leading here rather than being told what to do by Jacinda.

‘Stay overseas’
“I don’t think she knows what’s going on here. Stay overseas. Leave it to Peeni and the whānau here. Let’s get it done.”

Earlier, one of the Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) campaign leaders, Pania Newton, said people were arriving from all over the country to oppose the Fletcher Building development on land considered sacred by iwi.

Newton said there would be a free concert later today, with Stan Walker, Ladi6, Troy Kingi, NRG Rising and others performing.

“We just are so grateful for the support that is coming in from the nation.

“We are expecting around 10,000 to 15,000 visitors so we do encourage everybody to come on down and enjoy the event and to come and take a stand on the land with us and with our whānau and our marae to protect it.”

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki said Pākehā systems and the government would never be able to help Māori.

He said a solution to the land dispute would come from the ground up.

Range of stakeholders
Henare told Kim Hill on Saturday Morning ahead of his visit to the disputed site that there was a range of stakeholders.

“There are mana whenua, there are whānau, there are iwi, there are local supporters, that’s the trickiness of this all … mana whenua have as we know traditional rights in places like this, but we also have other people involved too.

“Mana whenua are Ti Akitai, Te Wai o Hua, Tainui and Te Kawerau ā Maki – those are the mana whenua. Now whether people like it or not, engagement that the Crown has had in the past with those tribes … for legislation purposes, they are recognised as mana whenua.”

But Henare said no one was denying the whakapapa to the land of people from the group Save Our Unique Landscape.

“There’s no doubt it’s caused a lightning rod, if you like, for the issue of Māori land rights and that’s what’s seen so many other iwi and people from across the country make their way to Ihumātao.”

Henare said it was a complex issue which had been through many courts and also involved Auckland Council, as well as mana whenua.

“One of the points made to me by mana whenua, who have said many of the people that are going there aren’t from there, and that creates a bit of a challenge because they would argue that they’re not respecting the rights of mana whenua there.

‘Passionate people’
“While I don’t want to belittle the role of mana whenua in this, the fact remains there’s many passionate people that made their way to Ihumātao.”

The government has been considering how to broker a situation for a number of months, Henare said.

He said he and minister Jackson were going there today primarily to listen and to get a feel for what was going on.

Despite the prime minister’s assurances no houses would be built at Ihumātao until a solution was found between both groups, people still arrived during the night to support those protesting against the development.

Green MP Mārama Davidson was one of those supporting the SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape) group by sitting with the line of protesters in front of police.

Around 30 tents were set up in a paddock and people were also sleeping in their cars.

Throughout the night there was singing and speeches of support as many fires around Ihumātao lit up the whenua.

Fletcher Building welcomes talks
A senior Fletcher Building executive has welcomed the chance for talks while the development of housing at the Ihumātao site in south Auckland stops.

Steve Evans, the company’s chief executive of residential and land development, said the company had had about a dozen meetings with the Save Our Unique Landscape group in recent years.

Last night, after meeting iwi, Fletchers and Auckland Council, Ardern said no houses would be built at the site while they tried to broker a solution.

Evans said people had the right to protest.

He said the hui with iwi and the government meant no further work would happen at the site for now while talks were arranged.

This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Capitalism under scrutiny in a new NZ documentary

By Bryce Edwards -

July 27, 2019

Democracy and inequality are two of the most contentious political issues of our era. Across the globe there is growing discontent about political systems not working well, while the rich are getting richer and the poor get poorer.

Declining democracy and increasing economic inequality are usually seen as linked, with the popular notion taking hold in many countries that the super-rich elite have hijacked the political system and are using it to entrench their wealth and power. Here in New Zealand, for example, a 2017 survey showed 64 per cent of the public believed that “the economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”.

And it’s a global phenomenon, with politicians, political movements, populists, and elections centring around concerns about political elites and “the 1 percent”.

An important film has just come out that contributes to debates about the state of democracy and inequality – and it’s been made by New Zealanders Justin Pemberton (directing) and Matthew Metcalfe (producing). The film is an adaptation of French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book “Capital in the 21st Century”.

Currently screening as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival, it’s already had showings in Auckland, and it’s about to open in Wellington and then the rest of the country. You can watch the film’s trailer: Capital in the 21st Century – Official Trailer.

Inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke provides an overview of the film for the festival programme: “Pemberton relays this story in saturated, pop art-style colours. He also blends archival footage with film sequences, both old and new, into an almost hallucinatory cocktail, as if the bizarre excesses of wealth defied realistic description.”

The film adaption is very different from the economics text book: “Piketty’s thesis is crisply and engagingly presented in a documentary purposefully light on graphs and numbers, and heavy on top-notch talking heads (Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the Financial Times’ Gillian Tett, et al.), visuals of the rich and famous, and stylised historical recreations.”

The reviews for the documentary so far have been full of praise. TVNZ’s Miriama Kamo wrote on Facebook this week that “It’s an incredible achievement to turn economist Thomas Piketty’s 800-page book into a visual feast and provocative thought piece about capitalism and the perils of inequity, in 90 minutes”.

Similarly, another view of the film says that director Pemberton succeeds in translating Piketty’s book into film: “it is a brilliantly accessible, panoramic introduction to his ideas. Pithy and sensual, it is essential viewing: Pemberton’s magnificent achievement” – see John Hurrell’s A Thin slice of NZIFF 2019 so far. The review states that it’s a film that “despite its extremely alarming content, you don’t want to end.”

And documentary film-maker Bryan Bruce declared that Capital needed to be watched by those in and around the New Zealand political system: “I would really like to see a screening of this film in our parliament – or perhaps have it projected onto the walls of it this summer” – see: Capitalism in the 21st Century.

Bruce sums up the film, saying it “delivers an excellent overview of 400 years of Capitalism and reveals why, if we don’t close the widening gap between the rich and the poor, history tells us there will be violence and revolution.”

Although the film is about the past, present and future of capitalism and democracy in global terms, it has plenty of relevance for the New Zealand situation. This is made especially clear in Danyl Mclauchlan’s excellent review of the film, which thoughtfully considers the themes of both the film and Piketty’s original book, and how it applies to this country – see: Piketty’s Capital comes to the big screen, urging us to make the world less terrible.

Mclauchlan explains how global capitalism appears to be reverting back to something akin to its earlier period of the 18th and 19th centuries, in which wealth dominates, and there’s very little capacity for the system to deal with inequalities.

In terms of New Zealand, he’s somewhat pessimistic: “The capital gains tax and KiwiBuild were supposed to attenuate this wealth transfer [of recent years] but failed, so it’s still ongoing; locked in no matter who is in government. That’s what real transformative political change looks like. Given its nature and who it benefits, how hard it is to overturn – we can’t even put a price on carbon – it’s difficult to feel optimistic about Piketty’s invitation to recapture our democracy and fix the system from within.”

But Mclauchlan’s conclusion is the same as Piketty’s – that it’s important to keep on struggling against the power of business: “we know the problems, we know the solutions; we have no other credible options. And we have an obligation to the generations who’ll be born into capitalist systems of the 21st century to try and make their world less terrible than it was in the 19th, or most of the 20th.”

In one interview about the film, Pemberton illustrates the power of business in contemporary democracy with reference to when film industry bosses got the John Key-led National Government to change some important laws to suit them: “One of the clearest examples for me was when one of the world’s wealthiest film companies, Warner Bros, lobbied the NZ government to change our labour laws and provide them with generous tax breaks in exchange for making the Hobbit movies here. It really showed the power of capital and its desire to weaken the position of labour—along with the inability of governments to resist such pressure” – see Steve Newall’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century director explains his NZIFF doco.

In this interview, Pemberton also discusses the role he wants the film to play in encouraging people to fight back against the lack of democracy: “The goal is to stimulate composed and clear conversations around capital, to illuminate the forces of capital and to show how it moves, acts and reacts. In many democracies, capital has become the tail that’s wagging the dog, which is creating outcomes that are worst for most of us—as two-thirds of people in developed economies are now on track to be poorer than their parents. But the future is not written. One of the reasons Capital In The Twenty-First Century takes such a long-view of capital is to highlight how our relationship with capital can and has changed over time. I’m also sure it will again.”

But like Piketty, in many ways the filmmaker seems very pessimistic about the uneven relationship between capitalism and democracy, saying “I think capital is damaging democracy… And this is why we can’t address issues virtually all of us are concerned about – like climate change, like housing costs, like tax havens.”

Pemberton is still optimistic about the power of politics and democracy to fix big problems in the world. He told RNZ’s Kim Hill: “There’s no reason why tax havens can’t be solved. I mean, that’s just so simple. The only thing that stopping us solving the issue of tax havens is capital and the way that capital is dominating politics. It is really that basic; rich people, wealthy people, like them and they put pressure on governments to maintain them.” And “Fixing democracy and wrenching it back from the wealthy is the only way to rein in capital, Pemberton says.”

You can listen to his very interesting 26-minute interview with Hill here: Justin Pemberton – Capital in the Twenty-First Century. And in this he also talks about other intractable problems, such as climate change: “when you’re thinking about climate change, the reason it’s not being sorted is because of capital, is because of capital and politics. It’s not because most people don’t believe this is an urgent thing that needs to be dealt with. It’s the capital that’s getting in the way.”

The film has just screened in Australia and the Australian Financial Review, not normally known for its sympathy for the plight of the poor and exploited, gave the film a strong review, saying the “doco is essential viewing for anyone who sees the cinema not as an escape from the workaday world on a rainy day, but as a tool that helps us understand the strange days in which we live”.

The Australian Financial Review’s New Zealand counterpart, the National Business Review has also published an in-depth video interview with Pemberton about the making of the film and it’s subject matter – see: Nathan Smith’s Kiwi director breathes new life into Piketty’s ‘Capital in the 21st Century’ (paywalled).

The NBR reports that the Piketty analysis and film “was a ‘warning call’ that if the conditions of today’s global economy, funnelling the world’s capital into fewer and fewer hands (particularly to the owners of the giant tech companies), then a return to the inequalities of previous centuries is ‘inevitable’.”

In the interview, Pemberton singles out tech companies for special mention: “Global capital is now one big beast, represented in its purest form by the big tech companies. They create far fewer jobs than did the companies of the past and make vastly more amounts of money but pay no tax… This is breaking the social contract we all signed up to as democratic countries. I know Facebook, Google and Apple want their workers to enjoy roads or the justice system and reasonable education but they’re not going to pay for it”.

He concludes: “I think 99.99% of the planet would be better off if we looked at renegotiating our relationship with capital”.

So, how did the film come to be made by New Zealanders? For an explanation of this and other aspects of the film, see Metro Magazine’s Q+A: Auckland-based director Justin Pemberton on doco Capital in the 21st Century.

Finally, the movie is next screening in Wellington as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. And as part of the screenings on Sunday and Monday, I’ll be holding post-screening question-and-answer sessions with director Justin Pemberton – for details see: Capital film screenings in Wellington and elsewhere.

Increasing tree cover may be like a ‘superfood’ for community mental health

By The Conversation -

July 27, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Astell-Burt, Professor of Population Health and Environmental Data Science, NHMRC Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Fellow, University of Wollongong

Increasing tree canopy and green cover across Greater Sydney and increasing the proportion of homes in urban areas within 10 minutes’ walk of quality green, open and public space are among the New South Wales premier’s new priorities. Cities around Australia have similar goals. In our latest study, we asked if more of any green space will do? Or does the type of green space matter for our mental health?

Our results suggest the type of green space does matter. Adults with 30% or more of their neighbourhood covered in some form of tree canopy had 31% lower odds of developing psychological distress. The same amount of tree cover was linked to 33% lower odds of developing fair to poor general health.

We also found poorer mental and general health among adults in areas with higher percentages of bare grass nearby, but there’s likely more to that than meets the eye.

Treed neighbourhoods have a natural appeal to people. Tim Gouw/Unsplash

How did we do the research?

Our research involved tracking changes in health over an average of about six years, for around 46,000 adults aged 45 years or older, living in Sydney, Newcastle or Wollongong. We examined health in relation to different types of green space available within a 1.6 kilometre (1 mile) walk from home.

Our method helped to guard against competing explanations for our results, such as differences in income, education, relationship status, sex, and age. We also restricted the sample to adults who did not move home, because it is plausible that people who are already healthier (for instance because they are more physically active) move into areas with more green space.

So is the answer simply more trees and less grass? Not exactly. Let’s get into the weeds.

Trees make it cool to walk

Imagine you’re walking down a typical street on a summer’s day in the middle of an Australian city. It’s full of right angles, grey or dark hard surfaces, glass structures, and innumerable advertisements competing for your attention. Then you turn a corner and your gaze is drawn upwards to a majestic tree canopy exploding with a vivid array of greens for as far as you can see.

A tree-lined street like Swanston Street in Melbourne is a more walkable street. kittis/Shutterstock

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Walking down this green street, you may instantly feel some relief from the summer heat.

Studies are linking high temperatures with heat exhaustion and mental health impacts. Research has suggested trees, rather than other forms of green space, may be best at reducing temperatures in cities. It may also simply be more comfortable to walk outside in cooler temperatures – not to mention going for a run or bike ride, both of which are good for mental health.

Feeling restored and alert

But as the minutes of walking beneath this natural umbrella of lush foliage accumulate, other things are happening too. The vibrant colours, natural shapes and textures, fresh aromas, and rustling of leaves in the breeze all provide you with effortless distraction and relief from whatever it was you might have been thinking about, or even stressing over.

Trees can provide a soothing sensory distraction from our troubles. Jake Ingle/Unsplash

Studies back this up. Walks through green space have been shown to reduce blood pressure, improve mental acuity, boost memory recall, and reduce feelings of anxiety. The Japanese have a name for this type of experience: shinrin-yoku.

Friends, old and new

You walk past groups of people on the footpath taking time to catch up over coffee in the shade. Some research has found that tree cover, rather than green space more generally, is a predictor of social capital. Social capital, according to Robert Putnam, refers to the “social networks and the associated norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness” that may have important influences on our life chances and health.

Dogs and trees both contribute to building healthy social relations. Liubov Ilchuk/Unsplash

You walk further and a chorus of birdsong soars through the neighbourhood noise. Trees provide shelter and food for a variety of animals. Research suggests tree canopy tends to be more biodiverse than low-lying vegetation.

Increased biodiversity may support better mental health by enhancing the restorative experience and also via the immunoregulatory benefits of microbial “Old Friends” – microorganisms that helped shape our immune systems but which have been largely eliminated from our urban environments.

Green spaces with tree canopy are settings where communities can come together to watch birds and other animals, which can also be catalysts for new conversations and developing feelings of community belonging in the neighbourhoods where we live … just ask dog owners.

So, what about the grass?

Our research did not show a mental health benefit from more bare grassed areas. This does not mean grass is bad for mental health.

Previous research suggests adults are less likely to wander in green spaces that are relatively plain and lacking in a variety of features or amenities. This may also be partly attributable to preferences for green spaces with more complex vegetation, such as parks that mix grass with tree canopy.

Parks with a variety of vegetation, including trees and grass, may be more attractive for a wider range of outdoor activities than those with few trees. Author

Furthermore, large areas of bare grass in cities can make built environments more spread-out and less dense. Without tree canopy to shield from the midday sun, this may increase the likelihood of people using cars for short trips instead of walking through a park or along a footpath. The result is missed opportunities for physical activity, mental restoration, and impromptu chats with neighbours. Previous work in the United States suggests this might be why higher death rates were found in greener American cities.

Grassed areas can occupy a large amount of space for surprisingly little mental health benefit. chuttersnap/Unsplash

Large open areas of grass can be awesome for physical activity and sport, but let’s make sure there is also plenty of tree canopy too, while also thinking about ways to get more people outdoors in green spaces. Here are some suggestions.

Making Australia greener and healthier

As the density of Australian cities continues to increase and more of us live in apartments and/or work in high-rise office blocks, it is great to see strategies to invest in tree cover and urban greening more generally across Australia. Cities with such plans include Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Bendigo, Fremantle, and Wollongong.

You can get involved and have some fun at the same time too. Lots of evidence says gardening is really great for your mental health. So why not grab a mate and spend a couple of hours planting a tree on July 28 for National Tree Day!

Both the act of planting a tree and its presence over the decades are good for us. Amy Fry/flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

– ref. Increasing tree cover may be like a ‘superfood’ for community mental health – http://theconversation.com/increasing-tree-cover-may-be-like-a-superfood-for-community-mental-health-119930

Consumer watchdog calls for new measures to combat Facebook and Google’s digital dominance

By The Conversation -

July 26, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior lecturer in Business Law, UNSW

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has called for “holistic, dynamic reforms” to address the online dominance of digital behemoths such as Google and Facebook.

A 600-page report, released today, makes 23 recommendations for regulating digital platforms – covering competition law, consumer protection, media regulation, and privacy.

Most of the suggested reforms are aimed squarely at countering the dominance of Facebook and Google, which the ACCC says has distorted a range of markets including advertising and media.

The ACCC recommends forming a new branch to deal specifically with Google and Facebook. But it doesn’t propose itself as the sole watchdog: the report also recommends a regulatory role for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Meanwhile, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is called upon to develop an enforceable code to regulate platforms’ use of data. And even the Australian Tax Office will potentially be involved, as part of a proposal to introduce measures to encourage philanthropic funding of public-interest journalism.

Digital platforms with more than a million active users in Australia will be required to provide ACMA with codes to address the imbalance in the bargaining relationship between these platforms and news media businesses. These codes are expected to recognise the need for value-sharing and monetisation of news content.

Under the recommendations, ACMA would also be expected to monitor digital platforms’ efforts to identify reliable and trustworthy news, and to manage a mandatory take-down code for content that breaches copyright.

Market muscle

The ACCC report highlights the “substantial market power” enjoyed by Google and Facebook in their respective domains of web searching and social media. While it is not unlawful for firms to have this degree of power, it does mean they are likely to be subject to the (as yet untested) misuse of market power law introduced in 2017.

The ACCC is concerned that current merger laws do not go far enough, given large platforms’ ability to remove future competitive threats by simply buying start-ups outright. Such acquisitions may also increase the platforms’ access to data. The ACCC considers that either or both of these could entrench a platform’s market power.

As a result, the report recommends changes to Australia’s merger laws to expressly require consideration of the effect of potential competition, and to recognise the importance of data. It also recommends that platforms should be obliged to notify the ACCC in advance of any proposed acquisition.

This is not a substantial change to the existing law, which already allows consideration of anti-competitiveness. But it is a signal that the ACCC will be focusing on this issue.

The ACCC also wants Google to allow Australian users of Android devices to choose their search engine and internet browser – a right already enjoyed by Android users in the European Union.

Empowering consumers

The ACCC recommends substantial changes to Australian Consumer Law, to address the huge inequalities in bargaining power between digital platforms and consumers when it comes to terms of use, and particularly privacy.

The report’s most significant proposal in this area is to outlaw “unfair practices”, in line with similar bans in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and elsewhere. This would cover conduct that is not covered by existing laws governing the misuse of market power, misleading or deceptive conduct, or unconscionable conduct.

This could be relevant, for example, where a digital platform imposes particularly invasive privacy terms on its users, which far outweigh the benefits of the service provided. The ACCC also called for digital platforms to face significant fines for imposing unfair contract terms on users.

Federal communications minister Paul Fletcher photographed during a press conference to release the ACCC report. AAP Image/Bianca de Marchi

The report recommends a new mandatory standard to bolster digital platforms’ internal dispute resolution processes. This would be reinforced by the creation of a new ombudsman to assist with resolving disputes and complaints between consumers and digital platforms.

Protecting privacy

The ACCC found that digital platforms’ privacy policies are long, complex, vague, and hard to navigate, and that many platforms do not provide consumers with meaningful control over how their data is handled.

The report therefore calls for stronger legal privacy protections, as part of a broader reform of Australian privacy law. This includes agreeing with the Australian Law Reform Commission on the need for a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy.

Legal action ahead?

The ACCC also highlighted several matters on which it is considering future actions. These include the question of whether Facebook breached consumer law by allowing users’ data to be shared with third parties (potentially raising similar issues to the investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission, which this week resulted in a US$5 billion fine against Facebook), and whether Google has collated users’ location data in an unlawful way.

In a statement, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and federal communications minister Paul Fletcher accepted the ACCC’s overriding conclusion that there is a need for reform.

The federal government will now begin a 12-week public consultation process, and said it expects to release its formal response to the report by the end of the year.

– ref. Consumer watchdog calls for new measures to combat Facebook and Google’s digital dominance – http://theconversation.com/consumer-watchdog-calls-for-new-measures-to-combat-facebook-and-googles-digital-dominance-120077

The Albany pitcher plant will straight up eat you (if you’re an ant)

By The Conversation -

July 26, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University

Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au.

On a warm evening in early 1802, Robert Brown sat aboard the HMS Investigator describing several plant specimens collected that day. Brown was the botanist on Captain Matthew Flinders’ expedition, and they had been anchored in King George Sound for nearly a month documenting the remarkable flora of the area.

He keenly awaited the return of their gardener, Peter Good, who had left earlier in search of a curious “pitcher plant” discovered the previous morning by botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer and landscape artist William Westall.

Unbeknownst to him, in minutes he would be gazing upon a uniquely wondrous plant: Cephalotus follicularis, the Albany pitcher plant.

Named after the southwestern Australian port city around which it occurs, the Albany pitcher plant stands out as an oddity even by the standards of carnivorous plants. The species is instantly recognisable, as it produces distinctive insect-trapping pitcher leaves that sit on the ground almost expectantly waiting for prey.

The toothed mouth and overarching lid of these pitchers look superficially similar to those of the tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes) and North American pitcher plants (Sarracenia). However, these plants are not related; this similarity is a remarkable example of convergent evolution. The Albany pitcher plant is unique.

C. follicularis is the only species in the genus Cephalotus, which is the only genus within the family Cephalotaceae. Its nearest living relatives are rainforest trees from tropical South America, from which it is separated by some 50 million years. Indeed, it is the only carnivorous plant among the 70,000 species, a quarter of all flowering plants, that make up one of the largest evolutionary plant groups, the rosid clade.

The Albany pitcher plant is more closely related to cabbages, roses and pumpkins than it is to other pitcher plants.

The Albany pitcher plant only grows in a very small area of Western Australia, and is thought to be an ancient Gondwanan relict from a period when this region was almost tropical. It grows in nutrient-poor soils of coastal swamps and lowlands, where it survives by luring insects into its traps to be digested in a pool of enzymes at the base of each pitcher. Each pitcher bears a lid to prevent rain from diluting the pool of enzymes, with translucent windows to disorient trapped prey and prevent escape.

Interestingly, one species of insect not only survives inside the fluid of the pitchers, but relies on it for survival. The wingless stilt fly Badisis ambulans lays its eggs in the pitchers, and the larvae develop in the pool of pitcher fluid, feeding on captured prey.

The wingless stilt fly lives inside the Albany pitcher plant. Tony D/Wikimedia, CC BY

These stilt flies live only in the dense vegetation of the swamps inhabited by the Albany pitcher plant. They look more like an ant than a fly, which is probably a deliberate mimicry of the ant Iridomyrmex conifer, the primary prey of the pitcher plant. It is likely that these three species – plant, fly and ant – have co-evolved together over millions of years.

The Albany pitcher plant was probably widespread in the southwest corner of WA before European settlement, and almost 150 populations have been recorded throughout this region. However, the species has declined dramatically over the past century as extensive land has been cleared throughout the southwest for agriculture and urban development.

The Albany pitcher plant now occurs only as small, isolated populations in remnant habitat patches. It is thought that less than 3,000 hectares of habitat suitable for the species now remains in the greater Albany region. Recent survey efforts suggest that fewer than 20 populations of the Albany pitcher plant still exist, and fewer than 5,000 plants remain.

A swamp near Walpole after an intense prescribed burn. David Edmonds, Author provided (No reuse)

Despite the perilous state of the Albany pitcher plant, it still has no formal conservation status. Indeed, swamps containing the species have been bulldozed for housing development in the past 12 months. But habitat loss and changes to bushfire frequency and water flow are not the only threats to this amazing species. Current projections of a drying climate in the southwest of Western Australia may see the species pushed towards extinction in the coming decades.

Incredibly, the Albany pitcher plant is also at risk from poaching. The species is prized for its horticultural novelty, and unscrupulous individuals dig up plants from the wild either to grow or sell. At one accessible location where the species was known to grow in abundance, every single plant within reach has been removed. At other sites, entire populations have been dug up.

Without improved conservation measures, and tough penalties for removing this incredible species from its natural habitat, the Albany pitcher plant and its complex web of insect relationships face a potentially dire future.

Sign up to Beating Around the Bush, a series that profiles native plants: part gardening column, part dispatches from country, entirely Australian.

– ref. The Albany pitcher plant will straight up eat you (if you’re an ant) – http://theconversation.com/the-albany-pitcher-plant-will-straight-up-eat-you-if-youre-an-ant-120767

Mueller testimony does not produce smoking gun, but the issues it raised are far from resolved

By The Conversation -

July 26, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon O’Connor, Associate Professor in American Politics at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney

According to much of the early commentary, Robert Mueller’s testimony on Wednesday before two US congressional committees was a disappointment.

Democrats are frustrated the special counsel did not make a clear-cut case for impeaching President Donald Trump. Mueller answered questions in the most minimalist way possible, often suggesting congresspersons simply read his report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats wanted Mueller to testify in the hope the American public would start paying more attention to his findings on how Trump obstructed justice.

It turned out that Mueller’s testimony was more sophistic than animating. But it did again highlight damning things about the president’s behaviour.

During the hearing, Republicans unimaginatively echoed Trump’s claims of a “witch-hunt” and asserted that the Mueller report turned up no evidence of collusion with Russia during the 2016 election or of obstruction of justice.

Like Attorney-General Bob Barr’s disingenuous summary of the Mueller report, these claims by Republicans this week were not true, but they have created a narrative that Trump is innocent. This claim is given ballast by Republicans’ allegations that FBI agents conducting the Mueller investigations were politically biased because some of them had said negative things about Trump in private correspondence or donated money to the Clinton campaign.

If saying highly negative things about Trump behind closed doors disqualified bureaucrats and politicians from doing their job, Washington DC would grind to a halt. However, in public Republicans are sticking with Trump, doing his bidding in the Congress and tying their fortunes to him at least for the foreseeable future.

Democrats may initiate impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives, but the trial ultimately occurs in the Senate, where the Republicans have a 53-47 majority. As a result of these numbers and the need for a two-thirds majority vote to dismiss a president, removing Trump from office via impeachment proceedings is very unlikely.

Republicans are showing no signs of abandoning Trump. It is worth remembering that no president has ever been removed from office by the Senate, although two – Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson – have been impeached by the House of Representatives.

Given these political rather than legal realities, will Democrats continue to push for Trump’s unlikely impeachment? The answer is yes. Although Democratic house leaders led by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the house, are urging caution, the fresh wave of Democratic congresspersons elected in 2018 who rode a strong wave of anti-Trump sentiment in their congressional districts will continue to push hard for impeachment.

However, this divide can be overstated. As Pelosi’s comments following Mueller’s testimony demonstrate, the fact that Republicans control the Senate and are unlikely to convict the president may not factor into future considerations among the house leadership. Pelosi wants a strong case, not an act of political theatre. As she put it:

The stronger our case is, the worse the Senate will look for just letting the president off the hook.

Pelosi knows that the case against Trump continues to build. Democrats are pursuing the president in federal courts for a number of alleged financial improprieties, and the House Judiciary Committee is preparing to enforce a subpoena against Don McGahn – the former White House Counsel allegedly directed by Trump to fire Mueller during his investigation.

In his testimony on Wednesday, Mueller confirmed that Trump pressured McGahn in yet another attempt to obstruct justice. Those who have read the Mueller report would know that there were many such attempts. These include Michael Flynn’s lies to the FBI about his conversations with Russians during the transition, the pressuring and eventual firing of FBI director James Comey, and the attempted cover-up of Don junior’s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016 to get whatever dirt he could on Hillary Clinton.

The challenge for Democrats, if they go ahead with impeachment in the House of Representatives, is to articulate a clear case about why such drastic action is justified.

In legal terms, the case that Trump obstructed justice is strong, whereas the case for collusion with Russia is weaker.

It is easy to impute guilt by association with Trump and the Russians. First, there are Trump’s business dealings with Trump Soho and the push to have a Trump Moscow hotel. Then there is Paul Manafort’s close associations with Viktor Yanukovych. Finally, there is Steve Bannon’s appreciation of Putin’s support for ultra right-wing populists across Europe.

However, the Mueller report and his testimony produced no smoking gun. Mueller rightly warned that the Russians have an ongoing campaign to undermine the faith of Americans in democracy. Given the existing levels of frustration and apathy about politics in America, Mueller’s alarm on this issue should be taken seriously. This was one of the few issues that the reluctant witness Mueller became more animated and forceful about.

Many of us are following the vast cast of characters central to the Trump era, the complex details of the Mueller report and Trump’s financial dealings, as well as the congressional hearings into Trump’s behaviour in office.

However, there is a simpler reality to keep in sight. That is that during the Trump presidency, the truth has been more politicised than ever. Increasingly, the truth is presented as a lie and a lie as the truth.

– ref. Mueller testimony does not produce smoking gun, but the issues it raised are far from resolved – http://theconversation.com/mueller-testimony-does-not-produce-smoking-gun-but-the-issues-it-raised-are-far-from-resolved-120781