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

After more than two decades, Jenny Macklin is in her final days as a Labor MP. Her legacies from her time as a Labor minister include parental leave and the landmark National Disability Insurance Scheme.

In this podcast she tells The Conversation a Labor government would fix “one of the worst” problems of the NDIS by abolishing the cap on the number of staff that could be employed in the agency. “There are other issues as well […] there’s problems with the pricing of services. There just hasn’t been the quick response that has been needed,” Macklin said.

She also speaks about the need to listen to and support Indigenous-led programs to close the gap, as well as implement measures to address increasing inequality in Australia.

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A List of Ways to Die, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.

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AAP Image/Lukas Coch

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Jenny Macklin on inequality and Labor values – http://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-jenny-macklin-on-inequality-and-labor-values-114366

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samara McPhedran, Director, Homicide Research Unit/Deputy Director, Violence Research and Prevention Program, Griffith University

Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation into the US National Rifle Association (NRA) has gained international headlines, partly because of One Nation political wannabes drunkenly bragging about how important they could be if only they had the money.

None of this should come as a surprise. You would have to be living under a rock to not know that the NRA has money, lobbies with it, and uses a standard set of PR tactics. Likewise, nobody has ever accused One Nation of being sophisticated or lacking grandiose delusions.

Read more: View from The Hill: James Ashby rocks a few boats, including his own

However, in a carefully timed release to the ABC, a report commissioned by Gun Control Australia and Getup! claims gun control in Australia is being eroded because of the gun lobby.

In reality, Australia’s gun laws remain virtually the same as when each state and territory introduced them more than 20 years ago. The last major change was in 2017, when all jurisdictions agreed to ban lever-action shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than five rounds of ammunition. Hardly “watering down”.

What is really going on?

Simple: when all we hear is guns, guns, guns, it means an election is on the horizon. It is not about guns, but politics.

Over the past few years, regular as clockwork, we have seen both major parties wheel out campaigns around gun laws, aided and abetted by the Greens. This occurred most recently in New South Wales, with the Liberal-Nationals running attack ads against the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.

The campaigns involve one or more of: releasing data obtained under Freedom of Information about how many guns are legally owned; claiming gun laws are being (or have been, or will be) dangerously watered down if an opposing major party or rising minor party gains power; and making scary statements about a well-funded gun lobby (which is somehow all-powerful despite having changed little in over two decades).

The goal is to create fear, in the expectation this will translate to voting patterns. Politicians also like to have an “enemy” to rally against, to display their own virtues. At times, this tactic has worked. It is a fair bet that politicians’ reactions to One Nation’s buffoonery reflect the hope that it will work again.

Based on past voting patterns, it is likely both major parties anticipate One Nation robbing them of votes in the upcoming federal election and are looking for ways to blunt that. The mudslinging over preferences makes this clear.

If the recent New South Wales state election is anything to go by, though, voters seem to be ignoring gun campaigns and making their own decisions based on much bigger issues.

However, there is a genuine danger arising from the Al Jazeera report. Unfortunately, we can now expect that anybody who suggests that effective firearm policy takes time and careful thought – and that it might not be as simple as it looks – will be denounced as an NRA shill. This is a silencing tactic that does absolutely nothing to improve the impoverished and tribalised nature of public debate in this country.

As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently observed, firearm policy and legislation is a complex area. In addition to the technical aspects, evidence about what does and does not work to reduce gun violence is nowhere near as clear-cut as it is sometimes made out to be. Well-intentioned measures can have unintended consequences, which we should learn from and attempt to avoid.

It is not far-right madness to say that if a policy gains appeal primarily because of the emotions surrounding it, rather than on its merits, then it might not be an effective policy. It is not dangerous extremism to suggest that sound legislation comes from careful reflection and robust debate. It is not irrational to raise concerns about the negative outcomes that can arise when reacting is turned into a virtue and thinking into a vice.

Read more: Did Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation into One Nation overstep the mark?

In fact, a rational and careful approach, based on rigorous evaluation and calm, measured discussion, is the very foundation of evidence-based policy – a much-touted model of how to approach decision-making.

Political failure to adopt evidence-based policy – despite politicians paying it lip service – is the subject of much scholarly teeth-gnashing, and for good reason. Some of the most ill-fated, costly and objectionable policies we have seen in Australia in recent years – in areas including immigration, Indigenous affairs, and youth violence, to give just three examples – have come as a result of ignoring evidence-based policy. We are quick to call these out, and rightly so. Why behave differently about guns?

If we are serious about wanting thoughtful and well-considered decisions, we cannot pick and choose the issues to which we apply reflection and analysis. And if we do want to pick and choose, then we cannot complain when politicians do the same with the issues we really want them to do better on.

– ref. Guns, politics and policy: what can we learn from Al Jazeera’s undercover NRA sting? – http://theconversation.com/guns-politics-and-policy-what-can-we-learn-from-al-jazeeras-undercover-nra-sting-114291

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Collins, PhD Candidate in Pharmacy Practice, University of Sydney

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is currently looking to expand the list of medicines available “over the counter” – that is, via a pharmacist without a prescription.

If these changes get off the ground, we could soon be able to head straight to the pharmacy for a range of medications including the contraceptive pill, Viagra®, and selected treatments for nausea and migraines.

This approach may reduce the need for trips to the doctor, saving time and lowering costs both for the patient and the health care system.

It could also result in people seeking help and advice for some conditions from their pharmacist, when they may not have otherwise sought medical help.

Read more: The role of pharmacists should be overhauled, taking the heat off GPs

How are medicines regulated in Australia?

The TGA is responsible for the regulation of medicines and medical devices in Australia.

Medicines and other substances considered to be poisons are divided into “schedules” numbered from 2 to 9. The schedules determine the availability of these substances, including where they can be sold, by whom, to whom, and what labelling is required.

Medicines fall into four schedules (2, 3, 4, and 8). A higher schedule means there are more restrictions on access.

Schedule 3 items are known as pharmacist only medicines – so they’re available to the public without a prescription. The pharmacist dispenses the medicine together with any relevant advice, and when necessary, will refer the person to a doctor.

Read more: Weekly Dose: new morning after pill makes it difficult to choose which to take

Examples of Schedule 3 medications include treatments for cold sores (famciclovir), vaginal thrush (fluconazole), and the morning after pill (levonorgestrel, ulipristal). Schedule 3 also covers medicines used for potentially life-threatening situations, such as salbutamol for asthma and adrenaline (epinephrine) for anaphylaxis.

Meanwhile, Schedule 4 denotes prescription only medicines – so those that need to be prescribed by a doctor. Examples include medicines for chronic conditions such as diabetes (metformin), heart disease (perindopril), as well as a variety of antibiotics for infections, among others.

What are the proposed changes?

Different schedules can have appendices which may stipulate other conditions.

A new appendix for Schedule 3 medicines – Appendix M – opens the door for medicines currently only available with a prescription to be made accessible via a pharmacist who has specific training and expertise in the health conditions (and medicines) of interest. Essentially, this means shifting some medicines from Schedule 4 to Schedule 3.

These changes are currently under a period of public consultation, so no medicines are listed in this appendix yet.

What medicines could become available over the counter?

One of Australia’s closest neighbours offers a good example of how this appendix might work in practice.

Trained pharmacists in New Zealand have been supplying certain medicines that require a prescription in Australia over the counter for a number of years, while Australia is falling behind.

Examples include trimethoprim, an antibiotic for urinary tract infections, sildenafil (Viagra®) for erectile dysfunction, triptans for migraines, and the contraceptive pill.

The TGA regulates what medicines we can get over the counter at the pharmacy, and which ones a doctor must prescribe. From shutterstock.com

Pharmacists may be required to document the supply of these medicines, and share this information with other health care professionals, such as the patient’s GP.

Research from New Zealand and Canada shows pharmacists can successfully manage the appropriate supply of these sorts of medicines.

Read more: Weekly dose: the hard facts on Viagra

Despite common fears switching medicines to be available without a prescription may result in a rapid increase in use, this is not necessarily the case. For example, no increase in use was found when New Zealand pharmacists were allowed to supply trimethoprim without a prescription.

This additional list of medicines available without prescription may benefit consumers, and would allow pharmacists to broaden their role within the health care system.

For a variety of more serious medical concerns, though, it’s still important to see a doctor.

Expanding the role of pharmacists

Pharmacists are well-positioned to provide advice on the safe and appropriate use of medicines.

The role of pharmacists has been extended in recent years. They now provide an increased number of Schedule 3 medicines, and deliver health services such as vaccinations.

The Australian public appears to support the expanded role of pharmacists. In a 2018 survey, two thirds of respondents agreed pharmacists should be allowed to administer more vaccinations. Many said this would be more convenient than seeing a doctor.

Read more: Discount chemists are cheapening the quality of pharmacy along with the price

The new Appendix M recognises the skills and knowledge of pharmacists to be able to directly provide additional medicines to the public in a timely manner under specified circumstances.

To ensure the supply of these medicines is appropriate, and that service delivery remains consistent, the TGA has proposed pharmacists will undergo additional training for each medication to be added to Appendix M.

Public submissions on the topic are open until April 1. It’s not yet known when we can expect the first medicine to become available in this new appendix.

– ref. Making more drugs available ‘over the counter’ would be a win for the public and the health care system – http://theconversation.com/making-more-drugs-available-over-the-counter-would-be-a-win-for-the-public-and-the-health-care-system-113453

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Natusch, Honorary Research Fellow, Macquarie University

We are all familiar with the concept of “fake news”: stories that are factually incorrect, but succeed because their message fits well with the recipient’s prior beliefs.

We and our colleagues in conservation science warn that a form of this misinformation – so-called “feelgood conservation” – is threatening approaches for wild animal management that have been developed by decades of research.

The issue came to a head in February when major UK-based retailer Selfridges announced it would no longer sell “exotic” skins – those of reptile species such as crocodiles, lizards and snakes – in order to protect wild populations from over-exploitation.

But this decision is not supported by evidence.

Read more: Guns, snares and bulldozers: new map reveals hotspots for harm to wildlife

Too simplistic

Banning the use of animal skins in the fashion industry sounds straightforward and may seem commendable – wild reptiles will be left in peace, instead of being killed for the luxury leather trade.

But decades of research show that by walking away from the commercial trade in reptile skins, Selfridges may well achieve the opposite to what it intends. Curtailing commercial trade will be a disaster for some wild populations of reptiles.

How can that be true? Surely commercial harvesting is a threat to the tropical reptiles that are collected and killed for their skins?

Actually, no. You have to look past the fate of the individual animal and consider the future of the species. Commercial harvesting gives local people – often very poor people – a direct financial incentive to conserve reptile populations and the habitats upon which they depend.

If lizards, snakes and (especially) crocodiles aren’t worth money to you, why would you want to keep them around, or to protect the forests and swamps that house them?

Women raise Burmese pythons at a small farm on Hainan Island, China. Daniel Natusch, Author provided

Read more: What Australia can learn from Victoria’s shocking biodiversity record

Biggest man-eaters in the billabong

The iconic case study that supports this principle involves saltwater crocodiles in tropical Australia – the biggest, meanest man-eaters in the billabong.

Overharvested to the point of near-extinction, the giant reptiles were finally protected in the Northern Territory in 1971. The populations started to recover, but by 1979-80, when attacks on people started to occur again, the public and politicians wanted the crocodiles culled again. It’s difficult to blame them for that. Who wants a hungry croc in the pond where your children would like to swim?

Saltwater crocs are the reason many beaches are not open for swimming in northern Australia. Shutterstock

But fast-forward to now and that situation has changed completely. Saltwater crocs are back to their original abundance. Their populations bounced back. These massive reptiles are now in every river and creek – even around the city of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory.

This spectacular conservation success story was achieved not by protecting crocs, but by making crocs a financial asset to local people.

Eggs are collected from the wild every year, landowners get paid for them, and the resulting hatchlings go to crocodile farms where they are raised, then killed to provide luxury leather items, meat and other products. Landowners have a financial interest in conserving crocodiles and their habitats because they profit from it.

Saltwater crocodile eggs collected in the Northern Territory, Australia. Daniel Natusch, Author provided

The key to the success was buy-in by the community. There are undeniable negatives in having large crocodiles as neighbours – but if those crocs can contribute to the family budget, you may want to keep them around. In Australia, it has worked.

The trade in giant pythons in Indonesia, Australia’s northern neighbour, has been examined in the same way, and the conclusion is the same. The harvest is sustainable because it provides cash to local people, in a society where cash is difficult to come by.

Read more: Elephants and economics: how to ensure we value wildlife properly

Decisions without evidence

A collector captures a yellow anaconda in Argentina. Emilio White, Author provided

So the evidence says commercial exploitation can conserve populations, not annihilate them.

Why then do companies make decisions that could imperil wild animals? Probably because they don’t know any better.

Media campaigns by animal-rights activists aim to convince kind-hearted urbanites that the best way to conserve animals is to stop people from harming them. This might work for some animals, but it fails miserably for wild reptiles.

We argue that if we want to keep wild populations of giant snakes and crocodiles around for our grandchildren to see (hopefully, at a safe distance), we need to abandon simplistic “feelgood conservation” and look towards evidence-based scientific management.

We need to move beyond “let’s not harm that beautiful animal” and get serious about looking at the hard evidence. And when it comes to giant reptiles, the answer is clear.

The ban announced by Selfridges is a disastrous move that could imperil some of the world’s most spectacular wild animals and alienate the people living with them.

– ref. Banning exotic leather in fashion hurts snakes and crocodiles in the long run – http://theconversation.com/banning-exotic-leather-in-fashion-hurts-snakes-and-crocodiles-in-the-long-run-114173

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Willsteed, Lecturer, School of Media, Entertainment, Creative Arts, Music and Sound, Queensland University of Technology

Pick your day — dark, rainy, lamps on — let those songs fill the room, and you’ll be lost in the most beautiful fog in the world. Stop all the clocks, Scott is gone — but the voice that made that world is here forever.

-Peter Milton Walsh, The Apartments

In Sydney in the very early 90s, my buddy Roger and I wanted to start a kind of acoustic ensemble. We were in a swooning, noisy, melodic guitar band called the Plug Uglies, darlings of the inner west, but we needed something else. Our big idea? We wanted to play the songs of Scott Walker and Jimmy Webb. We wanted to have a go at those grand stories, the soaring melodies. We called our little ensemble The Drunk, The Monk and The Spunk. (Don’t ask.) My fingers still thrill at playing those wonderful chords.

Scott Walker – born Noel Scott Engel in 1943 – almost exists outside time. His voice first came to greet us in the 1960s, in the Walker Brothers. A trio of Americans, not brothers at all, who found success in England in 1965 with Make It Easy on Yourself, My Ship Is Coming In and The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore – heartfelt and emotional pop ballads, with massive orchestral arrangements, and enormous, exploding choruses, produced for Philips Records by Johnny Franz.

The group, rivalling the Stones or The Kinks in popularity, collapsed under the pressure of this instant stardom, and Scott went on to release four solo albums between 1967 and 1969 – Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3 and Scott 4.

Scott Walker in 1971. Starstock/Photoshot

This was the Golden Age of the songwriters. The cultural earthquake of 1968 had been followed by a wave of astounding music, and Scott Walker lies at its heart. These records shudder and swell, his sometimes obtuse lyrics adrift on poetic orchestral arrangements, mainly by Angela Morley, which define the notion of Baroque pop.

It’s quite hard to measure the influence of these four records, but it runs deep, and in the last day many have been eloquent in their praise, from Thom Yorke and Damon Albarn to David Sylvian, Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley.

David Bowie owed Walker a huge debt, partly repaid by his contribution to the making of 30 Century Man, an excellent documentary on the work of Scott Walker.

Scott 4 was a commercial failure, and Walker disappeared, back into his quiet life. The Walker Brothers re-united in the 70s, and released three albums, but they also didn’t sell and he disappeared again. But in 1981, Julian Cope from Teardrop Explodes released a compilation of Scott’s 67-71 work, Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker. This album influenced a generation of post-punk musicians, and became the momentum which led Walker into the next phase of his career.

The albums Climate of Hunter, Tilt and The Drift were released across the next two decades, as Walker created a new music, unsettling and evocative and difficult. By now he had joined the British label 4AD, the home of the beautiful outsiders, in the company of true fans like The Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil. Rob Young has described elegantly in the Guardian this later period of Walker’s creative output.

Although it appeared on 1978’s Night Flights, I find Walker’s song, The Electrician, in some ways, an aural lexicon for his entire career. Unsettling, ethereal soundscapes almost cut loose from tempo or time, bookend a rich centre, with grand melodies and exploding strings, harp notes cascading into Spanish guitar flourishes, and then the death knell of the de-tuned guitar leading us back into the cavern of torture.

But the song I, and many others, return to as a touchstone is Montague Terrace (In Blue) with its floating verses, a slow, ticking clock that, true to form, erupts into a grand chorus – “But we know, don’t we, And we’ll dream, won’t we?” It became the centre of our set of acoustic covers, the cello and accordion swelling under the chorus, the drifting trumpet solo. It was The Drunk, The Monk and The Spunk’s finest moment. A recording exists somewhere.

In 2017, 4AD staged a BBC Proms event to honour the music of Scott. One of the highlights for me is Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanne Sundfør wrapping her wonderful voice around The Amorous Humphrey Plugg (from Scott 2) – it peels back the domestic façade, the woman trapped and angry, with children and home, as mired in frustration as the man is trapped in his endless thirst, the nightly pleasures of the city.

The Apartments’ Peter Milton Walsh describes this ability of Walker’s: “His lyrics were so vivid and the language was completely personal, full of night and rain and loneliness. People in a certain kind of trouble. He owned that world, just as Sinatra once did.”

And, like Sinatra, Scott Walker had a voice. His will be with me as I drift into my twilight, as timeless as memory:

Oh to die of kisses
Ecstasies and charms
Pavements of poets will write that I died
In nine angel’s arms.

-Scott Engel

– ref. Scott Walker has gone but his voice will drift with us into the twilight – http://theconversation.com/scott-walker-has-gone-but-his-voice-will-drift-with-us-into-the-twilight-114299

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Parker, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne

Smart speakers equipped with digital voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa are now the fastest-growing consumer technology since the smartphone.

Nearly 100 million were sold in 2018 alone, a threefold increase on the year before. And nowhere is this growth faster than in Australia.

Read more: Skills like ‘crap detection’ can help kids meet cybersecurity challenges head on

But we should be concerned about what these smart speakers are actually listening to. It’s more than just our voice commands to play a piece or music or turn down the lights.

We need to think carefully about where this sort of technology is heading. Very soon it won’t just be our smart speakers listening, but all manner of other devices too.

Security systems that listen for the sound of gunshots or broken glass, CCTV cameras outfitted with microphones, auditory surveillance at work, and a growing range of other devices are all cause for concern.

Rapid take up

By the end of 2018 the percentage of Australian adults with a smart speaker had risen from zero to 29% in only 18 months, according to the Australia Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report released this month. The report was joint work of tech news site and Voicebot and digital consultants FIRST.

Based on a survey of 654 Australians, the report estimates that some 5.7 million Australians now own smart speakers out of a total adult population of around 19.3 million.

The Australian user base relative to population now exceeds that of the US (26%), despite the devices being available here for less than half the time.

If the upward trend continues – Deloitte expects the market to be worth at least US$7 billion in 2019, up 63% on 2018 – smart speakers will soon be even more common.

They’re already in our homes and workplaces, hotels, hospitals and universities.

We are also getting increasingly comfortable talking to our technology, according to the consumer adoption report:

Over 43% of Australian smart speaker owners say that since acquiring the devices they are using voice assistants more frequently on smartphones.

We are no longer surprised to find we can talk to our phones, cars, televisions, watches, even our Barbie dolls, and expect a response.

What about privacy?

But the recent consumer report also says Australians worry about such speakers. Nearly two-thirds of people surveyed say they had some level of concern over the privacy risks posed by smart speaker technology – 17.7% said they were “very concerned”.

The report doesn’t specify what those concerns are. Perhaps we are concerned about recordings of our conversations being emailed to colleagues without our knowledge or consent, or admitted as evidence in court.

But I believe we are much less concerned than we should be about where this industry is headed next. Smart speakers aren’t just listening to what we say. Increasingly, they are also listening to how and where we say it.

They’re listening to our vocal biometrics, to how we stutter and pause, to our tone of voice, accent and mood, to our state of wellness, to the size and shape of the room we’re sitting in, and to the ambient noises, music and TV shows on in the background. All for the purpose of extracting more and more data about who we are and what kinds of things we do.

Who’s listening?

Even more importantly, though, the rapid rise smart speakers heralds the coming era of machine listening, where we can expect all manner of networked devices to be listening to, processing and responding autonomously to our auditory environments: listening for both sound and speech, with and without our consent, virtually all the time.

Audio Analytic, one of the more prominent companies in this area, states on its website:

We are on a mission to give all machines a sense of hearing […]

This is much less far-fetched than it sounds. Audio Analytic’s flagship software, ai3TM, claims to be able to recognise “a large number of audio events and acoustic scenes”, with a view to enabling devices to understand and respond to sonic environments in their own right.

Already, this includes headphones that know when someone is talking to you and can tweak the volume accordingly; cars that autonomously adjust to the sound of horns blaring; security systems able to identify the sound of arguments brewing, windows shattering, as well as other acoustic anomalies. Systems can then either respond autonomously or notify the relevant authorities.

Another company, Shooter Detection Systems, sells technology for the autonomous detection of active shooter situations including gun shots. Its so-called Guardian System can quickly pinpoint the location of any gunshot and issue alerts.

Gun shooting technology already listening in US schools.

In a similar but even more troubling vein, AC Global Risk, reportedly claims to be able to determine potential risk level of someone with greater than 97% accuracy simply by analysing the “characteristics” of few minutes of their speaking voice.

Walmart recently patented a new employee performance metric based on algorithmic analysis of audio data (employee speech patterns, the rustling of bags, sounds from carts, footsteps and so on) gathered from microphones installed at terminals and other locations throughout its stores.

In 2017, Moreton Bay regional council in Queensland introduced always-on listening devices to 330 CCTV cameras throughout its council area, a move the mayor said was to help police fight crime.

Sound the warning

Each of these examples raises complex questions of ethics, law and policy.

The kinds of questions we have recently begun asking about all AI – about the possibilities of algorithmic overreach, bias, profiling, discrimination and surveillance – all need to be asked of smart speakers too.

Read more: Your car is more likely to be hacked by your mechanic than a terrorist

But it is also important to understand the ways in which smart speakers are connected to a much broader field of machine listening and auditory surveillance that many are rightly worried about.

Machine listening isn’t just coming, it’s already here and it demands our attention.

– ref. Smart speakers are everywhere — and they’re listening to more than you think – http://theconversation.com/smart-speakers-are-everywhere-and-theyre-listening-to-more-than-you-think-114018

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

It’s appalling, sinister and faintly ludicrous that Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man James Ashby and former Queensland MP Steve Dickson played footsie with the American gun lobby, talking up One Nation’s book, trailing their coats for gun or any other gold.

That they fell victim to an Al Jazeera “sting”, trusting a man in an Akubra whom they now call a “spy”, is stunning but sort of fitting. It was Ashby who was involved in a different kind of sting that brought down former speaker Peter Slipper.

Indeed, Ashby’s political career is a dark, rolling soap opera. Currently he’s banned from entering Parliament House over a physical altercation with a former One Nation senator.

These two political cowboys are crying foul after being duped and publicly trashed by an extraordinarily elaborate Al Jazeera plot.

They’ve called in the police and ASIO, denounced political interference from a “Middle Eastern country”, claimed they didn’t set out to seek money, let alone to weaken Australia’s gun laws. They just wanted to tap into America’s National Rifle Association about campaigning techniques.

As for those damning recorded references to $10 million, $20 million, they’d “got on the sauce” – it’s what happens when there are “three men talking together and having scotches for about three or four hours”.

They might as well not bother with the spin and excuses. Claims about “context” are lame; they damned themselves most times they opened their mouths and that was often.

The whole sordid episode, in long version, is there in pictures and audio. Ashby and Dickson grabbed the entree to the US gun advocates, and if the millions of dollars they fantasised about had materialised from somewhere they’d have grabbed them too.

Subject, no doubt, to what Hanson said – a couple of months later she voted to ban foreign donations.

Read more: Did Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation into One Nation overstep the mark?

Not that the dollars were a prospect. Just as, all those years ago in the 1970s, the money the Labor party sought from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Baath party was never seen. It’s like that when you deal with dubious characters – or ones who are much too clever for you.

Ashby knew he was playing a dangerous game; as we hear him saying in the Al Jazeera documentary, “If it gets out, it’ll fucking rock the boat”. And Hanson, though invited, sensed this was a trip not to be on.

Well, boats have been rocked. Hanson’s for one. Scott Morrison’s for another. To say nothing of Ashby’s.

The extraordinary expose is a blow for the One Nation leader, days after her star recruit Mark Latham was elected to the NSW upper house. Hanson – who did not appear on Tuesday, reportedly feeling very unwell – and Ashby are joined at the hip. He’s the political figure to whom she is closest, and she’s stood by him in previous embarrassments. She should, of course, immediately send him packing.

Read more: Coalition wins a third term in NSW with few seats changing hands

How much the affair will hit the One Nation vote is a matter of conjecture. Logically, you’d expect substantially, especially coming after the New Zealand massacre. There has been much praise for the strength and value of Australia’s gun laws.

But I’m not sure logic is the best prism to use here. Hanson has a certain Teflon quality in the eyes of her supporters, who routinely have overlooked the chaos, and worse, around her shambolic party.

Many of those in One Nation heartland are protesting against perceived grievances; they may see this as a sideshow. Anyway, some potential One Nation voters would be quite in sync with the gun lobby. On Saturday in NSW, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers picked up two more seats.

The Ashby-Dickson debacle complicates Scott Morrison’s struggle in handling what were already awkward questions about his attitude to preferencing One Nation.

Since the Christchurch killings Morrison has been on the barbed wire fence when repeatedly pressed on whether the Coalition should or would put One Nation last on how-to-vote cards.

In the Coalition this is another north-south issue, like coal and climate change. Southern Liberals insist One Nation should be at the bottom of voting tickets. Cabinet Minister Kelly O’Dwyer (retiring from the Melbourne seat of Higgins) said on Tuesday, “I can’t see any reason why One Nation wouldn’t be preferenced last”.

In Queensland it’s another story. Nationals Ken O’Dowd on Monday said One Nation should be above Greens and ALP.

In general, the preference debate is encouraging the Coalition to demonise the Greens even more than usual, with some in the government painting them as being as bad as, or worse than, One Nation.

Morrison initially used his favourite look-over-there tactic, trying to fend off the questions by saying there would be no preference deal with One Nation. That didn’t wash. No one ever thought there would be a “deal” (quite apart from remembering the Liberals’ bad experience in the Western Australian election, when they did one).

The issue is where the Liberals and Nationals decide to put One Nation on their tickets, regardless of what One Nation does with its preferences.

As the preference debate has raged, some are urging Morrison to take John Howard’s “principled” position when the then prime minister said One Nation should be placed last. Talk of Howard’s “principle” overlooks that he was dragged to this position. His inclination was for a seat-by-seat approach, but this became untenable.

In the wake of the Al Jazeera revelations, Morrison on Tuesday hopped into One Nation while making a direct appeal to those inclined to vote for it.

It was “abhorrent” that its officials “basically sought to sell Australia’s gun laws to the highest bidders, to a foreign buyer,,” Morrison said.

He went on: “I’m not interested in getting One Nation’s preferences, I’m interested in getting their primary vote”. The answer to the grievances of these votes “is not One Nation, the answer is not to go to those extremes. The answer is the Liberal and National Parties”.

But that is not the answer to the preference question. And on that Morrison’s not for turning. It’s a matter for closer to the election, he says, when all the candidates can be seen. (One convenient diversionary line is: what about if there are Fraser Anning candidates?)

The signs are that come the election, the Coalition preference picture will likely be a patchwork, with One Nation being treated benignly at least in parts of Queensland. Possibly Morrison coouldn’t stop that if he wanted to; probably he doesn’t want to.

– ref. View from The Hill: James Ashby rocks a few boats, including his own – http://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-james-ashby-rocks-a-few-boats-including-his-own-114324

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catharine Phillips, Acting Superintendent, Karnet Prison Farm, Edith Cowan University

I’ve spent many years working within the prison system, in minimum and maximum security facilities, with adults and juveniles, men and women. I often hear people say that people who commit crimes, particularly serious crimes, should be imprisoned so they can no longer hurt people.

What the public often doesn’t realise is that imprisonment itself does not prevent some people from engaging in misconduct, or from committing serious offences.

I have conducted the first study in Australia to investigate offences carried out in prison. Understanding the prevalence, incidence and type of prison offences that occur in adult prison facilities could help improve the security of prisons, and the safety of staff, prisoners and visitors.

Read more: I deliberately sent myself to prison in Iceland – they didn’t even lock the cell doors there

Offences range from disobedience to assault

I studied the offences of all prisoners imprisoned in Western Australia over a period of 12 months. That included 1959 male prisoners (2014 offences), 125 female prisoners (166 offences), 648 Aboriginal male prisoners (1029 offences), and 1311 non-Aboriginal male prisoners (372 offences).

Details of offences were sourced from official databases. The study included only those offences where prisoners were found guilty as charged.

Minor offences include:

• disobeying a rule or order
• disorderly behaviour
• swearing or the use of indecent language
• breaking or damaging property

Aggravated offences include:

• behaving in a riotous manner
• assaulting another person
• escaping or preparing to escape
• use of possession of drugs or alcohol
• refusing to submit to a drug test

The majority of prisoners see out their imprisonment without incident. Of the sample studied, 55% had no prison offences recorded across the study period. But for some, imprisonment is an opportunity to continue their offending ways. A number of those studied occasionally engaged in acts that disrupted the good order, government or security of the prison. Others routinely and consistently violated prison rules.

Younger prisoners commit more minor offences

Younger prisoners were found to commit minor offences more often than older prisoners. This finding has also been documented within community settings, where age is one of the strongest factors associated with criminal activity.

Researchers in the field of psychology suggest that the gaining of maturity from late adolescence to early adulthood plays a significant role in lowering crime rates as people age. Some researchers have speculated that younger prisoners may have a more difficult time than older prisoners in adjusting to prison life.

Others have indicated that young people may commit acts of misconduct in prison to meet a range of emotional needs. That might include getting attention, showing others that they are in charge of their situation, seeking revenge against authority or older people generally, or managing periods of boredom.

Young people need specific interventions that focus on the underlying causes of the behaviour, while taking into account their level of maturity. By understanding the reasons behind young people’s propensity to commit offences in a controlled environment, such as a prison or detention centre, specific, tailored and effective responses may be implemented to reduce such offending.

Read more: Australian governments should follow the ACT’s lead in building communities, not prisons

Race wasn’t a factor

While prisoners associated with gangs were found to commit more offences generally, they were no more likely to commit serious offences.

This might mean that gang members enlist other prisoners to carry out serious offences within prison. Such offences might involve trafficking or holding drugs on their behalf, and threatening and assaulting other prisoners as acts of reprisal or retaliation.

It may also demonstrate that management strategies employed to prevent serious offences from occurring are effective. Strategies include moving prisoners to higher security prisons, more intensive searches, and more stringent monitoring of movements, telephone calls and visits.

Aboriginality in itself was found not to be significantly related to the prevalence, incidence or type of prison offences committed, when other factors relating to offending were considered, such as prisoners’ age, offence type, security rating and number of years left to release.

Aboriginal prisoners represent 38% of the total prison population in Western Australia, and 28% of the national prisoner population. The findings are therefore generalised to other Australian prisoner populations, particularly where there is an over-representation of Aboriginal prisoners.

Imprisoning people is expensive

Prison offences have financial implications for prison systems, governments and taxpayers in terms of compensation for injured prison staff, prisoners and visitors, as well as the cost of repairing damage caused by prisoners.

Major disturbances such as the Greenough Prison riot in October 2018 reportedly cost $2.4 million. The Banksia Hill riot in 2013 reportedly cost around $1.5 million.

Prisoners who are unable to achieve parole due to their behaviour in prison can also result in costs to the taxpayer. The average cost of one prisoner in Australia’s prisons is almost $300 per day. Every extra day served is a substantial cost to society.

Read more: Prison is expensive – worth remembering when we oppose parole

Structured interaction is important

Aggravated offences are more likely to occur in areas of a prison, such as living units and in reception and recreation areas, where there isn’t a lot of structured interaction with other prisoners.

The results make clear that offending may be best managed by ensuring prisoners are offered as many opportunities as possible to engage in constructive and structured activities. That includes meaningful employment and education, and structured recreational activities during the day.

Prisoners interacting with each other, and with staff, without purpose and meaning should be reduced as much as possible. Resources should be allocated to providing meaningful employment, education and recreational activities.

While this has the added benefit of providing skills necessary for successful rehabilitation, practical interventions such as this may help to reduce the prevalence and incidence of prison offending, and the severity of such offending. Subsequently, the good order and security of prisons may be improved, as may the safety of staff, prisoners and visitors, while associated costs may be reduced.

– ref. The inside story on crime within prison – http://theconversation.com/the-inside-story-on-crime-within-prison-114075

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Belinda Medlyn, Professor, Western Sydney University

Most citizen science initiatives ask people to record living things, like frogs, wombats, or feral animals. But dead things can also be hugely informative for science. We have just launched a new citizen science project, The Dead Tree Detective, which aims to record where and when trees have died in Australia.

The current drought across southeastern Australia has been so severe that native trees have begun to perish, and we need people to send in photographs tracking what has died. These records will be valuable for scientists trying to understand and predict how native forests and woodlands are vulnerable to climate extremes.

Read more: Recent Australian droughts may be the worst in 800 years

Understanding where trees are most at risk is becoming urgent because it’s increasingly clear that climate change is already underway. On average, temperatures across Australia have risen more than 1℃ since 1910, and winter rainfall in southern Australia has declined. Further increases in temperature, and increasing time spent in drought, are forecast.

How our native plants cope with these changes will affect (among other things) biodiversity, water supplies, fire risk, and carbon storage. Unfortunately, how climate change is likely to affect Australian vegetation is a complex problem, and one we don’t yet have a good handle on.

Phil Spark of Woolomin, NSW submitted this photo to The Dead Tree Detective project online. Author provided

Climate niche

All plants have a preferred average climate where they grow best (their “climatic niche”). Many Australian tree species have small climatic niches.

It’s been estimated an increase of 2℃ would see 40% of eucalypt species stranded in climate conditions to which they are not adapted.

But what happens if species move out of their climatic niche? It’s possible there will be a gradual migration across the landscape as plants move to keep up with the climate.

Read more: How the warming world could turn many plants and animals into climate refugees

It’s also possible that plants will generally grow better, if carbon dioxide rises and frosts become less common (although this is a complicated and disputed claim.

Farmers have reported anecdotal evidence of tree deaths on social media. Author provided

However, a third possibility is that increasing climate extremes will lead to mass tree deaths, with severe consequences.

There are examples of all three possibilities in the scientific literature, but reports of widespread tree death are becoming increasingly commonplace.

Many scientists, including ourselves, are now trying to identify the circumstances under which we may see trees die from climate stress. Quantifying these thresholds is going to be key for working out where vegetation may be headed.

The water transport system

Australian plants must deal with the most variable rainfall in the world. Only trees adapted to prolonged drought can survive. However, drought severity is forecast to increase, and rising heat extremes will exacerbate drought stress past their tolerance.

To explain why droughts overwhelm trees, we need to look at the water transport system that keeps them alive. Essentially, trees draw water from the soil through their roots and up to their leaves. Plants do not have a pump (like our hearts) to move water – instead, water is pulled up under tension using energy from sunlight. Our research illustrates how this transport system breaks down during droughts.

Lyn Lacey submitted these photos of dead trees at Ashford, NSW to The Dead Tree Detective. Author provided

In hot weather, more moisture evaporates from trees’ leaves, putting more pressure on their water transport system. This evaporation can actually be useful, because it keeps the trees’ leaves cool during heatwaves. However if there is not enough water available, leaf temperatures can become lethally high, scorching the tree canopy.

We’ve also identified how drought tolerance varies among native tree species. Species growing in low-rainfall areas are better equipped to handle drought, showing they are finely tuned to their climate niche and suggesting many species will be vulnerable if climate change increases drought severity.

Based on all of these data, we hope to be able to predict where and when trees will be vulnerable to death from drought and heat stress. The problem lies in testing our predictions – and that’s where citizen science comes in. Satellite remote sensing can help us track overall greenness of ecosystems, but it can’t detect individual tree death. Observation on the ground is needed.

These images show a failure of the water transport system in Eucalyptus saligna. Left: well-watered plant. Right: severely droughted plant. On the right, air bubbles blocking the transport system can be seen. Brendan Choat, Author provided

However, there is no system in place to record tree death from drought in Australia. For example, during the Millennium Drought, the most severe and extended drought for a century in southern Australia, there are almost no records of native tree death (other than along the rivers, where over-extraction of water was also an issue). Were there no deaths? Or were they simply not recorded?

The current drought gripping the southeast has not been as long as the Millennium Drought, but it does appear to be more intense, with some places receiving almost no rain for two years. We’ve also had a summer of repeated heatwaves, which will have intensified the stress.

Read more: Is Australia’s current drought caused by climate change? It’s complicated

We’re hearing anecdotal reports of tree death in the news and on twitter. We’re aiming to capture these anecdotal reports, and back them up with information including photographs, locations, numbers and species of trees affected, on the Dead Tree Detective.

We encourage anyone who sees dead trees around them to hop online and contribute. The Detective also allows people to record tree deaths from other causes – and trees that have come back to life again (sometimes dead isn’t dead). It can be depressing to see trees die – but recording their deaths for science helps to ensure they won’t have died in vain.

– ref. Are more Aussie trees dying of drought? Scientists need your help spotting dead trees – http://theconversation.com/are-more-aussie-trees-dying-of-drought-scientists-need-your-help-spotting-dead-trees-113756

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Petrova, Section Editor: Education

Voting is a key part of the democratic process. It allows all citizens of a certain age to have a say on matters important to them. Voting in federal elections and referendums is compulsory for every Australian aged 18 and over.

But decisions made by elected governments – especially in areas such as education, health and energy – impact young people too. Legal and political voices have long called for Australia to lower the voting age to 16. After all, people under 18 can leave school, get a job, drive a car and pay taxes. So why not vote?

A parliamentary inquiry is currently looking into the issue. In the meantime, we asked five experts their views. Here’s what they said.

Five out of five experts said yes

Here are their detailed responses:

If you have a “yes or no” education question you’d like posed to Five Experts, email your suggestion to: sasha.petrova@theconversation.edu.au

Disclosures: Louise Phillips has received competitively awarded funding from The Spencer Foundation, and the Queensland Department of Education, and is a current member of the Early Childhood Australia and the Australian Association for Research in Education.

Philippa Collin has received funding from a range of government and quasi-government agencies (NHMRC, Australian Research Council, Department for Industry and Innovation, Western Australian Children’s Commissioner, UNICEF) as well as industry (Google, Navitas English) and non-profits (Multicultural Youth Affairs Network NSW and the Foundation for Young Australians). She is a member of the Technology and Well-being Roundtable and the Australian NGO Child Rights Task Force and an expert advisor to the Raising Children Network.

– ref. We asked five experts: should Australia lower the voting age to 16? – http://theconversation.com/we-asked-five-experts-should-australia-lower-the-voting-age-to-16-104251

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney

I Need to Know is an ongoing series for teens in search of reliable, confidential advice about life’s tricky questions. If you’re a teen, send us your questions about sex, drugs, health and relationships and we’ll ask an expert to answer it for you.

Are kegel exercises actually beneficial?

– Anonymous

Key points

• Yes, they are very beneficial
• They are super easy to do (once you know how)
• Childbirth is the common reason why pelvic floor muscles weaken.

Hi, and thanks for your question. Kegel exercises are also known as pelvic floor exercises and were introduced back in the 1940s by a gynaecologist (a medical doctor specialising in women’s reproductive health) named, you guessed it, Dr Kegel. He developed these exercises as a method for improving control of urine leakage after childbirth.

These are the female pelvic floor muscles (click on the image if you’re having a little trouble seeing it). Even if you’re not thinking of having a kid any time soon, it’s still a good idea to get into a good routine of exercising them. Shutterstock

Your pelvic floor muscles are quite an amazing collection of layers of muscle. The work they do also involves the bones of the pelvis (hip bones and lower end of the spine), ligaments and nerves. Together, they work a bit like a hammock across the bottom of your pelvis not only to keep your organs from sagging but also work in sync with your bladder, rectum (the last part of your large intestine) and the vagina, making sure urine and poo are stored and released when you’re ready for it.

You might not want a kid today (or ever!) and you might be of any gender – it doesn’t matter because keeping your pelvic floor muscles fit is good for now and the future. There is much less research on whether Kegels make sex more enjoyable or easier to orgasm, despite what you may have read online or heard from friends. However, what we do know is having a strong pelvic floor helps with sexual enjoyment after giving birth, and might also help men experiencing erection problems.

Read more: I Need To Know: ‘is it normal to get sore down there after sex?’

How to do them

Doing Kegel exercises is super easy once you know how. Because there are several pelvic floor muscles, it’s good to work out where they are and to exercise all of them.

1. If you sit on the toilet to wee, try stopping the wee half way through and holding it like that for a few seconds, then let go. If you do that successfully, you’ve found some of your pelvic floor muscles.

2. Next try squeezing the muscles around your anus as though you are holding in some wind.

3. When you do pelvic floor exercises, you lift and squeeze all these muscles at once. Hold the squeeze for eight to ten seconds then relax for the same amount of time.

4. Repeat this eight to ten times, and do it three times a day. That’s a pretty good daily workout.

The good thing about Kegel exercises is that you can do them pretty much anywhere. Sitting in class, on the bus or train, driving, watching TV, or reading The Conversation.

All people have pelvic floor muscles (not just women), but childbirth is a common reason why the pelvic floor muscles weaken. Ageing and surgery to the pelvic floor area can also weaken these muscles. This can lead to incontinence (involuntary leaking of urine, or less commonly leaking of poo) as well as sagging of the organs inside the pelvis.

Read more: I Need to Know: ‘is it normal for girls to masturbate?’

Research shows doing Kegel exercises early in pregnancy can reduce incontinence later in pregnancy and after childbirth. It’s not certain how long the benefit lasts, but that’s because the research hasn’t extended beyond a few months.

If you do have problems with urine leakage, or have concerns about weakness of your pelvic floor muscles for some other reason, you might need help from a physiotherapist to get more personalised advice.

If you’re a teenager and have a question you’d like answered by an expert, you can:

• email us at intk@theconversation.edu.au
• submit your question anonymously through Incogneato, or
• DM us on Instagram.

Please tell us your name (you can use a fake name if you don’t want to be identified), age and which city you live in. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

– ref. I need to know: ‘are Kegel exercises actually good for you?’ – http://theconversation.com/i-need-to-know-are-kegel-exercises-actually-good-for-you-111747

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Carey, Lecturer in Food Systems, University of Melbourne

If you’ve eaten fresh strawberries recently, they likely came from one of Australia’s city foodbowls. Around 40% of the nation’s strawberries are produced on Melbourne’s fringe and 28% on Brisbane’s fringe. All of Australia’s state capitals have city foodbowls that are an important source of fresh food, particularly fruit and vegetables.

These foodbowls also increase the resilience to pressures on city food supplies from climate change, particularly drought. But Australia’s cities are growing rapidly and their foodbowls are under threat as farmland gives way to housing.

Read more: The key to future food supply is sitting on our cities’ doorsteps

The Foodprint Melbourne research project today released its final report outlining a “roadmap” of recommended actions for protecting and investing in Melbourne’s foodbowl. And there are signs that state governments are waking up to the threat to fresh food supplies.

In 2017, the South Australian government took action to preserve Adelaide’s foodbowl. Legislated Environment and Food Production Areas now protect significant areas of farmland on the city fringe from urban development. The Queensland Farmers Federation has called for the Queensland government to take similar action to protect Brisbane’s foodbowl.

In Victoria, the government recently began public consultation on protecting Melbourne’s farmland. The government has committed to permanently protect “strategic agricultural land” on the city fringe.

This is an important step in preserving Melbourne’s foodbowl. Existing measures to protect this farmland – including the city’s urban growth boundary and “green wedges” – have not prevented ongoing loss of farmland. Stronger measures are clearly needed.

Apple orchards are among the farmland that has been lost to urban growth. Matthew Carey/Foodprint Melbourne, CC BY-NC-SA

Read more: To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food supply

What actions does the roadmap present?

Collaboration with stakeholders from local and state government, industry, civil society groups and farmers has informed the roadmap of actions to protect Melbourne’s foodbowl.

The report recommends permanently fixing the city’s urban growth boundary and introducing a “food production zone”. This could reduce speculative investment in farmland at risk of development. These measures would also create confidence to invest in farms and infrastructure in the foodbowl.

Protecting farmland is a critical first step in securing Australia’s city foodbowls, but this alone will not be enough.

If Australia’s city foodbowls are to continue to feed cities, farmland protection must be accompanied by other strategies. These would promote farm viability, water access, sustainable farming and recycling of nutrients essential to food production (like phosphorous and nitrogen).

Roadmap for a resilient and sustainable Melbourne foodbowl. Foodprint Melbourne

Promoting the viability of farming in city foodbowls and ensuring farmers have access to water are just as important as protecting farmland.

Foodbowls can recycle city waste

City foodbowls have access to large volumes of city wastewater and organic waste. This can increase these farms’ resilience to growing environmental pressures on food production. City foodbowls offer opportunities to use natural resources more efficiently by creating circular food systems that “close the loop” on valuable resources from city waste by returning these to the soil.

City wastewater, such as recycled water from water treatment plants and treated stormwater, can provide a relatively secure source of water for food production in a drying climate.

Read more: When climate change hits our food supply, city foodbowls could come to the rescue

Composts and biofertilisers made from city organic waste can improve soils on farm. This is a more sustainable alternative to conventional fertilisers based on non-renewable resources (like phosphate rock).

Learning from other cities

Australia’s cities need to have flexible responses to increase the resilience of their food systems. This requires city planners to take a precautionary approach now to protecting their foodbowls. International leaders in protecting city fringe food production, such as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, offer valuable lessons in how to achieve this.

Read more: Feeding cities in the 21st century: why urban-fringe farming is vital for food resilience

Our report recommends that Melbourne follow Vancouver in developing an integrated food systems planning strategy. This will support collaboration between government departments and other stakeholders in promoting farm viability, water access, nutrient recycling and sustainable farming in the city’s foodbowl.

The report also recommends that local governments on Melbourne’s fringe should form an alliance to develop a common vision and actions to strengthen the city’s foodbowl – as the Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance has done in Toronto. And it emphasises the importance of actively promoting city foodbowls to the public. The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation in Ontario is a good example of this.

If Australia’s city foodbowls are to keep producing fresh local food for current and future generations, the public needs to be more aware of city fringe farmers’ role in feeding cities.

– ref. To protect fresh food supplies, here are the key steps to secure city foodbowls – http://theconversation.com/to-protect-fresh-food-supplies-here-are-the-key-steps-to-secure-city-foodbowls-114085

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pat Ranald, Research fellow, University of Sydney

Australia scored a victory over the tobacco giant Philip Morris in the High Court in 2012. The court held that Australia’s plain cigarette packaging laws were legal and did not constitute an unjust confiscation of trademarks and intellectual property. Philip Morris had to pay all of Australia’s costs.

If it had been an Australian company, that’s where it would have ended.

But because of a once obscure but increasingly common class of provisions in international treaties known as an ISDS (remember that name) it tried again.

ISDS actions are costly…

ISDS or investor-state dispute settlement clauses give to foreign companies rights unavailable to local companies. They get to claim billions in compensation through an extraterritorial tribunal if they believe their rights have been infringed on even after losing in Australia’s highest court.

Philip Morris, a US company, moved ownership of its Australian operations to Hong Kong to take advantage of ISDS in an Australia-Hong Kong investment treaty.

The case made headlines around the world, in part because it scared other countries out of following Australia’s plain packaging law and being on the hook for massive compensation and legal fees if they lost.

Australia versus Philip Morris. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) February 2015.

In December 2015 Australia won, completely.

The tribunal decided said that Philip Morris was not a Hong Kong company and had moved ownership of its Australian operations to Hong Kong in order to take advantage of the ISDS provision.

And that’s where things rested until late last month when a half a decade later a freedom of information request revealed how much Australia’s win cost it.

Australia’s external legal fees and arbitration costs amounted to almost A$24 million. It is likely to have had to bear substantial internal costs in the departments of health, attorney generals and foreign affairs and trade on top of the A$24 million.

Even though Philip Morris had its case thrown out on the grounds that it was an abuse of process it will only have to pay half of Australia’s costs.

…even if you win

There are now 942 known ISDS cases, with increasing numbers against health and environment laws, including laws to address climate change.

Australia’s tobacco plain packaging laws were recommended by the World Health Organisation and designed to reduce the numbers of young people becoming new smokers. Research showed that young people were attracted to the glamorous images on the packaging, and that plain packaging could reduce the attraction.

The tobacco plain packaging law was passed with bipartisan support in 2011. The tobacco companies responded with a barrage of strategies to obstruct the law. They claimed billions of dollars of compensation in the High Court, and helped other governmentstake take a dispute with Australia in the World Trade Organisation.

And they are secretive

Until now the loss in the tribunal set up under ISDS provisions has been a secret. It was blacked out in the publication of the original costs decision in 2017.

ISDS tribunals have notoriously lower standards of transparency than national courts but costs figures have been published in other ISDS cases. The refusal to reveal them was a new low in secrecy. Community organisationsargued that taxpayers had the right to know.

The first FOI case to reveal the costs, launched by Senator Nick Xenophon and continued by Senator Rex Patrick, resulted in the Australian government releasing internal government figures in 2018 which showed invoices for external legal costs of A$39 million.

The government later claimed the A$39 million covered the ISDS case, the earlier High Court challenge and the World Trade Organisation case. It refused to reveal the specific ISDS legal costs and what percentage of the total costs had been awarded to Australia.

The most recent FOI case on the ISDS costs, launched in 2017 by a legal publication, took another two years to reveal in February that the costs were almost $A24 million but Australian taxpayers were awarded only half of this.

This decision reinforces the case against ISDS provisions. Australia could afford to defend the case, but A$12 million is still a loss to taxpayers that could have been spent on health or other community services.

Other countries are phasing them out

It is a cost poorer countries simply cannot afford. Uruguay was only able to defend its tobacco regulation against a Philip Morris ISDS case because the Bloomberg Foundationfunded its legal costs.

Faced with increasing numbers of ISDS cases, India, South Africa and Indonesia have cancelled ISDS arrangementswithout negative impacts on investment.

The EU is excluding ISDS from its current deals, including the EU-Australia FTA now being negotiated, but is pursuing longer-term but equally controversialproposals for a multilateral investment court. The US and Canada have excluded ISDS from the revised North America Free Trade Agreement.

On Tuesday this week Australia and Hong Kong signed a free trade agreement and a new investment agreement, that continues to include ISDS.

The government claims that it has more safeguards for changes to public health laws than the old one that it replaces. It specifically excludes tobacco regulation and regulation relating to Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Gene Technology regulator.

Read more: Canada has an ISDS clause with the US. It has faced 35 challenges. Is this Australia’s future?

But the need for those specific exceptions suggests that the general safeguards for public interest regulations are ineffective. They wouldn’t prevent cases being brought against Australia over energy or climate change regulations or changes in industrial relations laws.

Australia should exclude ISDS from current trade negotiations, and remove it from existing agreements. The Coalition government still supports ISDS, but Labor has pledged to outlaw it and remove it from the deals we have, as have the Greens and Centre Alliance.

It will take continued community pressure to ensure that actually happens if the government changes in the coming election.

– ref. When even winning is losing. The surprising cost of defeating Philip Morris over plain packaging – http://theconversation.com/when-even-winning-is-losing-the-surprising-cost-of-defeating-philip-morris-over-plain-packaging-114279

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Morey, Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe University

By now, most of us would know that 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage along the East Coast of Australia. The federal government has allocated $48.7 million to commemorate the occasion, with a replica of Cook’s HMB Endeavour to circumnavigate the country.

But at the time of the voyage, Indigenous Australians often travelled great distances too, with most of those journeys being unrecorded. One that was, however, was the journey of Weitchymumble, a man of the Wati Wati (Wadi Wadi) from the Murray River around Swan Hill who travelled by foot across the dry regions of northwest Victoria around 200 kilometres to Lake Hindmarsh and back. He endured extreme heat, food shortages and exhaustion during this trek.

Back in 1877, Peter Beveridge, a squatter on the Murray River, published an article detailing Weitchymumble’s journey in the Ballarat Star. It had been told to him by Turrangin, a senior elder of the Wati Wati, who was Weitchymumble’s great-grandson.

We don’t know exactly when this happened, but Turrangin did tell us a little about the timing (Beveridge included words in the Wati Wati language in brackets):

When my cokernew (grandfather) was but a very small boy, long before the turrawil ngurtangies (white devils) came with their numberless stock to overrun the country, and drive away the teeming game, from whence the Woortongies (aborigines) drew their food supply […] his father, then quite a young man, was deputed by the tribe to accompany the Ngalloo Watow to the far Wimmera on tribal business.

The Ngalloo Watow was described by Beveridge as a “postman”, who carried news and conducted barters, able to travel “with impunity”.

At the time of the journey Turrangin’s grandfather was perhaps aged 10. Since Turrangin was a senior elder when he told the story to Beveridge in the 1850s, he might have been born around 1810. His grandfather might then have been a boy around 1770, the same time as Cook’s journey.

A journey through a land of plenty

Weitchymumble’s name means “welcome swallow”. The late Luise Hercus, a linguist who recorded many Indigenous languages, heard this word 50 years ago spoken by Mrs Jackson Stuart, one of the last to speak the Werkaya (Wimmera) language as a mother tongue. Hercus spelled it “wity-wity-mambel”.

Read more: How Captain Cook became a contested national symbol

We don’t know what the business of Weitchymumble’s trip with the Ngalloo Watow was, but it started in the spring, “the season of peetchen-peetchen (flowers), when the whole country was glowing with bloom”. They reached Lake Hindmarsh after “a long weary tramp of many days”.

After a bath and meal of wallup (sleeping lizard), they were spotted by scouts of the Wimmera tribe, who:

fraternised after the fashion of the Aborigines prior to the advent of European customs; […] they walked up to the fire, squatted down by its side without saying one word, until the time (which was considerable) had expired which Australian savage etiquette demands on these occasions. After that, however, they talked fast enough […]

Returning from Lake Hindmarsh in heat described as having “the fervency of a wean chirrick (a reed bed on fire)”, soon they had run short of water and food when they came upon the nest of a lowan, or Mallee Fowl. Lowan is one of the few words from an Indigenous Victorian language borrowed into English.

In the Lowan’s nest, they found “politulu murnangin mirk” (eggs to the number of the fingers on both hands). The Ngalloo Watow made fire “by rubbing a narrow lath-like piece of saltbush across a sun crack in a pine log” then set the eggs on the sand until they simmered, stirring them with a thin twig, through an opening at the top end. When cooked there was a rich yellow paste of yolk and white mixed, the taste was “talko” (good).

Ebenezer Edward Gostelow, The Mallee fowl (or lowan), watercolour, 1939. National Library of Australia

But, within a few days, they were again short of food when they saw a sleeping “little old man” threatened by a mindi (large snake). Weitchymumble immediately dashed, grabbed the snake, rescued the old man from it, cut off the snake’s head and then collapsed from exhaustion.

Seeing Weitchymumble lying, the old man exclaimed “”Niniwoor wortongie birra. Yetty tumla coorrongendoo. Ka ki nginma. Boorm.” (Ah, the young man is dead. I shall cry very much. Come here you. Quickly.) These words are the longest single piece of continuous written text in this language.

Weitchymumble was carried into a large conical stone, where the old man gave him a special drink and he revived. The old man turned out to be the Ngowdenout, the “spirit of the Mallee”. As Beveridge wrote: “He is both good and bad by turns […] all-seeing, all-powerful, and unvulnerable to everything earthly.”

Because Weitchymumble had acted to save the old man, the Ngowdenout was good to both the travellers, providing them with food and then when they were sleeping, disappearing. When they woke, the stone was nowhere to be seen but a clear path for them to return home had been marked out.

Read more: The ring trees of Victoria’s Watti Watti people are an extraordinary part of our heritage

Beveridge concludes the story by noting that “the story of the Ngowdenout and his coorongandoo muckie loondhal (big stone house) is as fresh in the memory of the Watty Watty tribe as it was the day after Weitchymumble and his companion had related it”.

While the Ngowdenout is perhaps a mythical entity, at the core of this story is a real journey. It tells of a land of plenty, of Indigenous tribes meeting and interacting in their own customs’ manners, and of ways of life, like the method of cooking eggs. Such journeys would have happened regularly, but this is the only one from Victoria recorded in such detail.

Along with the Cook voyage, then, in 2020 let’s honour Weitchymumble’s journey and the people of the inland.

– ref. When we celebrate Captain Cook’s voyage, let’s mark the epic journey of a Wati Wati man also – http://theconversation.com/when-we-celebrate-captain-cooks-voyage-lets-mark-the-epic-journey-of-a-wati-wati-man-also-112692

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling

Next Tuesday night is budget night, and it’s happening on the eve of a federal election where the Coalition is in for the fight of its life to hold onto government.

The Conversation’s team of editors and experts will be in the budget lockup at parliament house next Tuesday, where they’ll have early access to what the government plans to do with our money this year.

Read more: Expect tax cuts and an emptying of the cupboards in a budget cleanout as the billions roll in

On the night, we’ll bring you Chief Political Correspondent Michelle Grattan’s analysis of what’s set to be a last ditch attempt to woo voters ahead of the election next month.

And veteran economics correspondent Peter Martin will look in detail at where the money is going – and what the mooted tax cuts look like.

Economist Richard Holden will examine the government’s strategy, and former Chief Economist of the ANZ bank, Warren Hogan, now with UTS, will bring us the economic outlook.

And if you’re a podcast person, check your podcast app on Tuesday night for a fresh episode of Trust Me, I’m An Expert and Politics with Michelle Grattan (subscribe now, if you haven’t already). There, Peter Martin and Michelle Grattan will be speaking with political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch about this election-year budget.

We’ll also bring you some nifty graphics that will explain at-a-glance the big announcements from the budget papers. And as always, our experts will be on hand to respond to any big announcements in health, education, energy and infrastructure.

Keep an eye out for our special budget newsletter on the night (you can subscribe here), and on our Facebook and Twitter at @ConversationEDU.

New to podcasts?

Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts).

You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert.

Read more: Shorten to announce Labor’s ‘living wage’ plan but without an amount or timing

Additional audio

Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks

Sky News report.

Sky News report.

Image:

AAP/Mick Tsikas

– ref. It’s your money they’re spending in this election-eve budget. Here’s how we’re covering the story – http://theconversation.com/its-your-money-theyre-spending-in-this-election-eve-budget-heres-how-were-covering-the-story-114286

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne

The sheer audacity of Al Jazeera’s three-year ruse is astounding.

The news company’s investigation unit has carried out a sting that has captured both the National Rifle Association of the United States and Australia’s One Nation Party in all sorts of compromising positions.

The series, “How to sell a massacre”, has exposed the NRA’s manipulative media practices and revealed One Nation’s desire to cosy up to the US gun lobby to find ways of funding its domestic campaign to overturn our gun laws.

The documentary has exposed the thinking of some of the party’s most senior figures about taking control of the parliament and their obsession with Muslim immigration.

How to Sell a Massacre P1 | Al Jazeera Investigations.

Al Jazeera senior producer Peter Charley did this by placing actor-turned journalist Rodger Muller in the field to impersonate the head of a fake pro-gun lobby group called Gun Rights Australia. The pair then pandered to One Nation’s desire for financial support and international endorsement and exploited US gun lobbyists’ fears about Australia’s strict gun laws.

They got away with this for three years, gaining unprecedented access to the halls of the NRA and to the minds of two One Nation officials, Queensland state leader Steve Dickson and the party’s controversial chief of staff, James Ashby.

Read more: How Australia’s NRA-inspired gun lobby is trying to chip away at gun control laws, state by state

A matter of ethics

There are at least two ethical questions about this documentary.

The first is whether the producers have overstepped the mark by not only reporting what they saw but creating the scenario in which the events occurred.

The second concerns the program’s extensive use of hidden cameras.

On the first matter, the issue is whether the program created the meeting between One Nation and the NRA and therefore acted irresponsibly by entrapping the subjects of the film.

In his account of what happened, Rodger Muller put it this way:

Then Charley asked me to contact Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – a far-right pro-gun Australian political party. Charley wanted me to find out if any connections existed between One Nation and the US gun lobby. And so began another chapter in my life as an avid “gunner”.

When I approached One Nation Chief of Staff James Ashby and mentioned my NRA connections, he told me he wanted to visit the US to meet them. I set up meetings in Washington and soon Ashby and One Nation’s Steve Dickson were on a flight to the US.

I was there, ready to meet them. And our hidden cameras were all primed and ready to go.

This suggests that Muller and Al Jazeera were catalysts and enabled the connection between One Nation and the NRA. But it also demonstrates that there was a desire on the part of One Nation to meet the US gun lobby, and – as later becomes clear – the party was motivated to do so to raise funds and make political connections.

So is this responsible journalism?

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance code of ethics – the protocols by which thoughtful journalists operate in Australia – is largely silent on this issue.

It doesn’t say anything explicitly about creating the news by making connections between players to observe what happens next. But it does stress the need to “report and interpret honestly”.

It calls on reporters to use “fair. responsible and honest means to obtain material” and to “respect personal privacy”. But the code also acknowledges journalists both scrutinise and exercise power. The preamble makes the point that journalism animates democracy.

Most importantly, in its guiding cause, the code states:

ethical journalism requires conscientious decision-making in context.

It allows for any of its other clauses to be overridden to achieve “substantial advancement of the public interest”.

So is it wrong to make and enable connections that might not otherwise happen in order to observe the outcomes? Is this fair and honest and responsible?

Like many things, the answer might be dependent on the motivation. From where I stand, it looks like Al Jazeera’s motivation was to get to the heart of something fundamentally important that would otherwise remain opaque.

Breaches of privacy and deceptive conduct

And while we’re pondering that one, there’s the perennial ethical question about hidden cameras.

This isn’t your garden variety case of a tabloid TV program exposing a dodgy car salesmen or a real estate scammer. In this film, the use of hidden cameras directly places several parts of the code of ethics against that all important public interest override.

The question is whether the public’s right to know is so important that it justifies the film’s deceptive conduct and breaches of privacy.

For me, the use of hidden cameras can clearly be defended when a publicly funded Australian political party, that knows what it’s doing is dodgy, is making connections to “change Australia” by gaining the balance of power in the parliament and “working hand in glove with the United States”.

It is highly likely the extent of One Nation’s behaviour could only be exposed through this sort of reportage. James Ashby is captured repeatedly reminding others they need to be secretive in their dealings with the NRA.

The public has a clear right to know what One Nation is up to. This is especially the case when part of its mission is to learn new techniques to manipulate the public debate to pursue an agenda of overturning the ban on guns following the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre.

The NRA are media experts

There’s something else about this program that justifies the use of hidden cameras. It exposes the utter cynicism of the media messaging and media training that underpins the NRA like nothing I have ever seen before.

Read more: What the NRA can teach us about the art of public persuasion

In a closed meeting with NRA officials, One Nation is given a crash course on how to deal with bad press, particularly following mass shootings.

Lars Dalseide, an NRA media liaison officer, is captured saying pro-gun lobbyists should smear supporters of gun control by accusing them of exploiting the tragedy.

He even provides a useful retort to anyone who might suggest that gun ownership might be a factor in a mass shooting. He says:

How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forth your political agenda.

“Just shame them to the whole idea,” he suggests, by arguing pro-gun campaigners should declare to opponents:

If your policy isn’t good enough to stand on its own, how dare you use their deaths to push that forward.

As he says this, Ashby is recorded replying: “That’s really good, very strong”.

Some of that phrasing seems familiar in the immediate aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, suggesting parts of the NRA’s playbook have already made their way down under.

This documentary underscores two things.

The brutal tactics of the gun lobby and the operations of One Nation need exposing. Journalism sometimes has to take on the unsavoury job of extracting the truth from those who do not want to share it.

– ref. Did Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation into One Nation overstep the mark? – http://theconversation.com/did-al-jazeeras-undercover-investigation-into-one-nation-overstep-the-mark-114288

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Pisch, Honorary Lecturer, School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Australian National University

Review: Peta Clancy, Undercurrent, Koorie Heritage Trust

The slaughter of Australian soldiers at Gallipoli in 1915 is claimed by many to be a key factor in the building of our national identity. However, warfare on our own soil has been concealed beneath a code of secrecy and silence.

Peta Clancy’s Undercurrent exhibition at the Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne’s Federation Square aims to bring this hidden history to the surface, exploring the frontier wars and massacres that characterised Australia’s colonisation into the early 20th century.

Comprising eight large, inkjet pigment prints and a 30-metre wallpaper installation, shot on 4 x 5 colour negative film, the exhibition seduces with familiar bush landscape views, then disrupts through slippages in time, space and context.

The exhibition seduces with familiar bush landscape views, then disrupts through slippages in time, space and context. Christian Capurro

Massacres and massacre sites have a long history of being concealed, especially after the 1838 Myall Creek massacre, in which at least 28 unarmed Indigenous people were killed by colonists.

Seven white men were found guilty of murder and hanged following this massacre. The punishment was intended as a message that these atrocities would not be legally condoned. But rather than acting as a deterrent, this led only to greater concealment of massacres and massacre sites.

Read more: How can we achieve reconciliation? Myall Creek offers valuable answers

In 1988, the year of the extravagant Australian Bicentennial celebrations, Bruce Elder’s Blood On the Wattle documented 26 frontier massacres Australia-wide. In the same year, the Koorie Heritage Trust compiled a Victorian Massacre Map showing the locations of known killings of Aborigines by Europeans between 1836 and 1853.

Far from comprehensive, the Massacre Map was published in 1991 and was an initial step in illuminating this hidden aspect of Australian colonial history. The publication of the digital map, Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930, by the University of Newcastle in 2017, further raised awareness of this issue in the national consciousness.

Australian artist and Monash University academic Peta Clancy first encountered the 1991 Massacre Map in 2016. She was researching her maternal lineage, connected to the Indigenous Bangerang people, traditional occupants of much of north-Eastern Victoria and areas of southern New South Wales, and photographing threatened butterflies and moths at Museum Victoria and the CSIRO in Canberra.

As her research progressed, her vision of the landscape was transformed by this undercurrent of hidden violence. Clancy sought a Cultural Heritage Permit to visit the massacre sites. In 2018, she undertook a 12-month residency at the Koorie Heritage Trust, collaborating with Dja Dja Wurrung Elders and community to create an artistic response to massacres on Dja Dja Wurrung Country.

Clancy had initially planned to visit every massacre site on the 1991 map, however, over time, her focus narrowed to Dja Dja Wurrung Country in central Victoria. She visited sites with Traditional Owners, becoming particularly drawn to the metaphoric potentials of an 1870s massacre site known to the community. This site on the bank of the Loddon River had been flooded when a weir was constructed between 1889 and 1891, diverting the course of the river.

There is little detail on the massacre itself provided in the exhibition, perhaps out of respect to the community, but Clancy has developed her response to it through extensive collaboration with Dja Dja Wurrung people.

Victoria’s lush waterways and river beds, the sites of Aboriginal habitation where food and water were abundant, were also the most attractive spots for white settlement. The now underwater massacre site, near a popular tourist spot with caravan park, has a split existence as a place of ignorant bliss and concealed sorrow.

Clancy focused her exhibtion on an 1870s massacre site on Victoria’s Loddon River. Christian Capurro

Clancy’s working methodology reveals the dual nature of the site. Beginning by taking conventional landscape shots there, she returned months later with these printed and attached to custom frames. Cutting into the original photos to reveal the landscape behind, she then re-photographed the scene through the frame, creating a genuine capture of the juxtaposed double images.

Comfortable viewing of the familiar landscape is disrupted by contrasts in focus, exposure and colour, with water sometimes appearing to threaten to engulf the treeline. Clancy highlights the existence of two worlds on the one site: earth and sky, past and present, mythic and historic, Indigenous and settler, oblivious joy and hidden violence.

Although looking at the same landscape, the happy holidaymakers and the Dja Dja Wurrung community experience wildly divergent perspectives – a dissociative response to past trauma which is too painful and thus hidden from consciousness. Reconciliation can only occur when both realities are brought to the surface and acknowledged as part of the history of the site.

Clancy’s work exposes two worlds coexisting on the massacre site. Christian Capurro

Can a reviewer of European origin and other non-Indigenous observers make the attempt to alter our perspectives on the Australian landscape and admit another world view? Can we allow the possibility that shame over the massacres and denial of the truth continue to affect the present?

The land itself has been defiled. The ancestors denied an honourable death and those who carried murderous deeds to the grave haunt our collective present as well as our past.

Clancy sees the manual cutting of the photographic image as analogous to scarring. Although the images are rendered whole again, the scar line remains visible.

Despite signalling violence, Clancy views scarring in positive terms. “It is not the actual cut, which has healed,” she says, “but a reminder of the violence of the incision”.

Scarring is a sign of healing. Clancy reminds us of the trauma as a prerequisite for this healing to occur.

Undercurrent is on display in the Yarra Building in Melbourne’s Federation Square until April 28.

– ref. Peta Clancy brings a hidden Victorian massacre to the surface with Undercurrent – http://theconversation.com/peta-clancy-brings-a-hidden-victorian-massacre-to-the-surface-with-undercurrent-113350

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Co-Director Centre for Commercial Law, Bond University

The terrorist attack in Christchurch is a horrific attack on society. We must consider all measures available to avoid something like this ever happening again, anywhere.

Now in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to introduce new criminal laws for social media companies that fail to quickly remove footage like that broadcast by the gunman in the New Zealand massacre. The alleged gunman live-streamed his activities on Facebook, and the footage was republished across many platforms in the days following.

Read more: Morrison flags new laws to stop social media platforms being ‘weaponised’

This is an indication that Australian leaders may now be prepared to move beyond just blaming technology for its role in the Christchurch massacre.

Laws are typically based on social values and social duties. However, penalties can of course only stem from violations of law – not violations of social duties – and it is governments that make law.

How is the internet regulated?

Internet platforms such as Facebook and Google are already subject to a complex web of laws stemming from around the globe.

A project at Stanford University has started mapping out this web of regulation.

The site points to several laws in Australia that apply to internet platforms. Of these, the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth) is most relevant. But this is a largely untested legal provision providing certain protections for internet platforms handling content posted by users.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated he aims to create laws that:

• make it a criminal offence to fail to remove the offending footage as soon as possible after it was reported or it otherwise became known to the company

• allow the government to declare footage of an incident filmed by a perpetrator and being hosted on a site was “abhorrent violent material”. It would be a crime for a social media provider not to quickly remove the material after receiving a notice to do so. There would be escalating penalties the longer it remained on the social media platform.

These laws would not prevent violent livestreaming from taking place in the first place, but if drafted carefully may help control its spread and impact.

Read more: Anxieties over livestreams can help us design better Facebook and YouTube content moderation

This is an important point, as there is a strong argument that banning live-streaming on the major platforms will not prevent terrorists live-streaming their acts via other outlets.

Along with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, Attorney-General Christian Porter and Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, today the prime minister will meet with representatives of Google, Facebook and Twitter and telcos including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to discuss the responsibilities of social media companies when violence is streamed online.

Read more: Four ways social media companies and security agencies can tackle terrorism

Global examples for improving regulation

Recent activity around the world shows increasing attention paid to regulating online hate and terrorist content.

In October 2018, the US Department of Justice launched a new website to improve the identification and reporting of hate crimes.

And in the European Union, work has advanced to stop terrorists from using the internet to radicalise, recruit and incite to violence. The EU proposal includes a framework for strengthened cooperation between hosting service providers, member states and Europol (the EU’s law enforcement agency). Within that framework, service providers must designate points of contact reachable 24/7 to facilitate the follow up to removal orders and referrals.

Using the powers of the Office of Film and Literature Classification, New Zealand has banned possession and distribution of the “manifesto” said to be written by the suspect behind the Christchurch mosque attack. (This accompanies other measures like stricter gun control updated recently in New Zealand).

Australia can draw upon these experiences, copying the good and developing what needs improvement.

International cooperation is key

Morrison has placed the matter of social media platforms being misused to promote violence on the G20 agenda. This is a good step. The major tech companies are established overseas so this is an issue that can only be addressed via international cooperation.

However, the G20 is only one forum of many. Ultimately, what we need are multi-stakeholder discussions involving governments, the tech industry, civil society and academia.

A relevant example in this context is the work the Paris-based Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network, and more specifically its work on cross-border content take-down and blocking. Its work is advanced, and includes concrete suggestions aimed at managing globally available content in light of the diversity of local laws and norms applicable on the internet.

– ref. Why new laws are vital to help us control violence and extremism online – http://theconversation.com/why-new-laws-are-vital-to-help-us-control-violence-and-extremism-online-114069

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW

On the weekend, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he would end the Medicare freeze in his first 50 days as prime minister if Labor won the election.

Every day Morrison’s Medicare freeze stays in place is another day that families are paying higher out-of-pocket costs to visit the doctor. If I’m elected prime minister, I won’t waste any time stopping Morrison’s cuts to Medicare.

Health issues always feature strongly in election debates, but what is the Medicare rebate freeze and how does it affect what you pay when you see a GP?

How Medicare works

Medicare is our public health insurance system and funds a range of services such as GP visits, blood tests, X-rays and consultations with other medical specialists.

The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) lists the services the Australian government will provide a Medicare rebate for. Medicare rebates don’t cover the full cost of medical services and are typically paid as a percentage of the Medicare schedule fee.

Read more: Explainer: what is Medicare and how does it work?

GPs who bulk bill agree to charge the Medicare schedule fee and are directly reimbursed by government.

Those who don’t bulk bill are free to set their own prices for services. Patients pay for their treatment and receive a rebate from Medicare.

There is often a gap between what patients pay for services and the amount that Medicare reimburses (A$37 for a GP consultation, for example). This gap is known as an out-of-pocket expense, as the patient is required to make up the difference out of his or her own pocket.

Under an indexing process, the Medicare Benefits Schedule fees are raised according to the Department of Finance’s Wage Cost Index, a combination of indices relating to wage levels and the Consumer Price Index.

On Sunday, Bill Shorten blamed the rebate freeze for higher out-of-pocket costs to visit the doctor. James Ross/AAP

Organisations such as the Australian Medical Association (AMA) have long argued this process is inadequate and Medicare schedule fees have not kept up with “real” increases in costs to medical practitioners of delivering services.

The rebate freeze compounds this financial challenge by continuing to keep prices at what the AMA and others argue are “unsustainable levels”.

How did the freeze begin?

Although the Coalition is largely associated with this issue, Labor first introduced the Medicare rebate freeze. The freeze was introduced as a “temporary” measure in 2013, as part of a A$664 million budget savings plan.

The AMA, the Coalition and others loudly criticised the then government for the freeze.

However, on being elected to office in 2014, the Coalition froze the rebate after the failure of a number of proposed health policies. The rebate was frozen initially for four years, starting in July 2014, and extended in the 2016 federal budget to 2020.

Read more: Rebate freeze will set GPs back $11 per general patient consultation, but they’re likely to charge them more

Although the freeze was to be in place across the board until 2020, since 2017 there has been a phased lifting of the freeze for GP bulk-billing incentive payments (July 2017), standard GP consultations and other specialist consultations (July 2018), medical procedures (due July 2019) and targeted diagnostic imaging services (from July 2020).

What impact has the freeze had?

The freeze means those medical professionals who have not seen it lifted are reimbursed the same for delivering health services today as they were in 2014.

Professionals are paying more for their practices, staff, medical products, utilities and just about anything else that goes into running a medical service. But the amount paid remains static.

Those who have had indexing return to their services have seen only a limited rise in their value – A$0.55 for a GP consultation, for example.

In the run-up to the 2016 federal election, Labor made a similar promise and told voters they needed to “save Medicare” from the government’s plans to privatise the system.

This tactic was dubbed the “Mediscare” campaign. Some saw it as being highly effective in driving a swing towards Labor in the last election.

The ‘Mediscare’ campaign drove a swing to Labour in the 2016 election. Dan Peled/AAP

Read more: Labor’s ‘Mediscare’ campaign capitalised on Coalition history of hostility towards Medicare

Last month the shadow health minister, Catherine King, blamed the Coalition for the freeze and argued this had driven up out-of-pocket costs for both GP and specialist visits, leading to more than 1 million people delaying or avoiding medical care.

There are a number of reports of GP practices and specialist services halting bulk-billing and patients having to pay higher out-of-pocket costs.

Yet the data on bulk-billing show bulk-billing rates have not fallen. In fact, the latest data show bulk-billing at an all-time high at 86.1%.

Read more: FactCheck: are bulk-billing rates falling, or at record levels?

Some commentators argue these figures are misleading as they are calculated on services and not patients and so may be an indication of the increasing number of health services that use the MBS.

GP groups have welcomed the lifting of the Medicare freeze, but argue the indexation rates still fail to reflect the genuine value of general practice.

For those in areas such as diagnostic testing, the freeze is argued to have a profound impact. The Australian Sonographers Association argues that for ultrasound alone the average out-of-pocket cost for patients has increased by 117%.

Many experts argue that just giving a little more funding to GP services will not improve the quality of the Australian health care system and far more fundamental issues need attention if we are to see significant reform.

– ref. What is the Medicare rebate freeze and what does it mean for you? – http://theconversation.com/what-is-the-medicare-rebate-freeze-and-what-does-it-mean-for-you-114169

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerstin Jantke, Postdoctoral Researcher on conservation biology, University of Hamburg

Australia has some of the most spectacular marine ecosystems on the planet – including, of course, the world-famous Great Barrier Reef. Many of these places are safe in protected areas, and support a myriad of leisure activities such as recreational fishing, diving and surfing. No wonder eight in ten Aussies live near the beach.

Yet threats to marine ecosystems are becoming more intense and widespread the world over. New maps show that only 13% of the oceans are still truly wild. Industrial fishing now covers an area four times that of agriculture, including the farthest reaches of international waters. Marine protected areas that restrict harmful activities are some of the last places where marine species can escape. They also support healthy fisheries and increase the ability of coral reefs to resist bleaching.

Read more: Most recreational fishers in Australia support marine sanctuaries

One hundred and ninety-six nations, including Australia, agreed to international conservation targets under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. One target calls for nations to protect at least 10% of the world’s oceans. An important but often overlooked aspect of this target is the requirement to protect a portion of each of Earth’s unique marine ecosystems.

How are we tracking?

The world is on course to achieve the 10% target by 2020, with more than 7.5% of the ocean already protected. However, our research shows that many marine protected areas are located poorly, leaving many ecosystems underprotected or not protected at all.

What’s more, this inefficient placement of marine parks has an unnecessary impact on fishers. While marine reserves typically improve fisheries’ profitability in the long run, they need to be placed in the most effective locations.

We found that since 1982, the year nations first agreed on international conservation targets, an area of the ocean almost three times the size of Australia has been designated as protected areas in national waters. This is an impressive 20-fold increase on the amount of protection that was in place beforehand.

But when we looked at specific marine ecosystems, we found that half of them fall short of the target level of protection, and that ten ecosystems are entirely unprotected. For example, the Guinea Current off the tropical West African coast has no marine protected areas, and thus nowhere for its wildlife to exist free from human pressure. Other unprotected ecosystems include the Malvinas Current off the southeast coast of South America, Southeast Madagascar, and the North Pacific Transitional off Canada’s west coast.

Marine park coverage of global ecosystems. Light grey: more than 10% protection; dark grey: less than 10% protection; red: zero protection. Author provided

Australia performs comparatively well, with more than 3 million square km of marine reserves covering 41% of its national waters. Australia’s Coral Sea Marine Park is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, at 1 million km². However, a recent study by our research group found that several unique ecosystems in Australia’s northern and eastern waters are lacking protection.

Furthermore, the federal government’s plan to halve the area of strict “no-take” protection inside marine parks does not bode well for the future.

How much better can we do?

To assess the scope for improvement to the world’s marine parks, we predicted how the protected area network could have been expanded from 1982.

With a bit more strategic planning since 1982, the world would only need to conserve 10% of national waters to protect all marine ecosystems at the 10% level. If we had planned strategically from as recently as 2011, we would only need to conserve 13% of national waters. If we plan strategically from now on, we will need to protect more than 16% of national waters.

If nations had planned strategically since 1982, the world’s marine protected area network could be a third smaller than today, cost half as much, and still meet the international target of protecting 10% of every ecosystem. In other words, we could have much more comprehensive and less costly marine protection today if planning had been more strategic over the past few decades.

The lack of strategic planning in previous marine park expansions is a lost opportunity for conservation. We could have met international conservation targets long ago, with far lower costs to people – measured in terms of a short-term loss of fishing catch inside new protected areas.

This is not to discount the progress made in marine conservation over the past three decades. The massive increase of marine protected areas, from a few sites in 1982, to more than 3 million km² today, is one of Australia’s greatest conservation success stories. However, it is important to recognise where we could have done better, so we can improve in the future.

Australia’s marine park network. Author provided

This is also not to discount protected areas. They are important but can be placed better. Furthermore, long-term increases in fish populations often outweigh the short-term cost to fisheries of no-take protected areas.

Two steps to get back on track

In 2020, nations will negotiate new conservation targets for 2020-30 at a UN summit in China. Targets are expected to increase above the current 10% of every nation’s marine area.

We urge governments to rigorously assess their progress towards conservation targets so far. When the targets increase, we suggest they take a tactical approach from the outset. This will deliver better outcomes for nature conservation, and have less short-term impact on the fishing industry.

Read more: More than 1,200 scientists urge rethink on Australia’s marine park plans

Strategic planning is only one prerequisite for marine protected areas to effectively protect unique and threatened species, habitats and ecosystems. Governments also need to ensure protected areas are well funded and properly managed.

These steps will give protected areas the best shot at halting the threats driving species to extinction and ecosystems to collapse. It also means these incredible places will remain available for us and future generations to enjoy.

– ref. More fish, more fishing: why strategic marine park placement is a win-win – http://theconversation.com/more-fish-more-fishing-why-strategic-marine-park-placement-is-a-win-win-113374

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney

There’s an old saying that pets and their owners become more similar as time goes by. There may be some truth in that, but can we use information about owners to improve veterinary care?

Research is showing the health and welfare of pets can be influenced by personality traits in their owners.

More than 3,000 cat owners were measured across five areas: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness.

Read more: Vets can do more to reduce the suffering of flat-faced dog breeds

Those who scored highly on neuroticism were more likely to demonstrate a preference for pedigree rather than non-pedigree cats.

Neuroticism is associated with emotional instability. People high on this trait tend to be generally more anxious and moody than others and may also respond more poorly to stress, often overreacting to small challenges.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the same group were also more likely to report their cats were showing unwelcome behaviours. These included signs of aggression, anxiety and fearfulness and more stress-related sickness behaviours, as well as having more ongoing medical conditions and being overweight.

Other animal and human studies

Similar relationships have been observed elsewhere. Parents who score highly on neuroticism may be more likely to have children with clinical obesity.

When it comes to dogs, our own studies have shown that working dog handlers who score highly on neuroticism report more attendance at competitions but no greater success in farm dog performance.

And male owners with moderate depression are at least five times more likely than those without depression to use punitive and coercive training techniques such as hitting, kicking or yelling at their dogs.

The same group of men also reported their dogs as showing significantly more house-soiling (urination and defecation when left alone) and aggression towards other dogs.

Animal welfare

These important differences in personality and ownership styles may have a bearing on the welfare of pets.

The recent cat study shows owners high in neuroticism are more likely to keep their pets indoors or restrict their access to the outdoors.

This may reflect heightened concern about the risk of road traffic accidents or other hazards. It could lead to improved cat welfare, but only if such diligence is accompanied by behavioural enrichment indoors, such as toys and puzzle feeders.

Owner personality may also influence how often a cat is taken to a veterinary clinic. Owners who score highly in neuroticism may be hypervigilant in the way they scrutinise their cats, which can lead to extra trips to the vet.

This could actually compromise cat welfare, because many cats don’t like trips to the vet. Even the sight of a carry-cage can cause increased anxiety and flight response in a cat.

How to get a cat into a carrier.

On the other hand, such trips may lead to improved welfare if they result in better health, particularly if, upon arrival, the cats are subjected to low-stress handling.

Other findings from the cat study suggest some owner attributes may be associated with an extremely positive attitude towards their pets.

High scores for agreeableness were associated with cat owners tending to view their animals in a good light. These cats had fewer reported unwelcome behaviours and were less likely to be considered overweight.

Previous studies in dogs show owners are often poor judges of whether their pets are overweight or not.

Look to the owner

This evidence that attributes in the owner can influence how their pets are perceived, and the kind of life they experience, means anyone working with these animals needs some understanding of human psychology.

Behavioural change is often the first sign that an animal is unwell. One of the most revealing aspects of a case history is the behaviour changes that owners report.

The quality and accuracy of this information from owners on their pets is crucial. But this may be strongly influenced by the relationship that owners have with their pets, such as what they look for and the intensity of their appraisal.

This evidence that owner characteristics may influence many aspects of their pet’s life – including potentially how the pet presents to a veterinary clinic – prompts us to consider how we can improve the quality of data.

For clinical behaviour cases it is important to include video records of the animal’s unwelcome behaviour. Owners are already quite adept at capturing and supplying video evidence when consulting behavioural veterinarians.

But this video evidence can also help with veterinary consultations about other conditions such as neurological disorders and intermittent lameness.

There are tools that allow owners to capture and report data in real time, using apps such as doglogbook. They have the advantage of being simple to use and having a time/date stamp that may help to keep a chronological record of the owner’s observations.

A complex relationship

The relationship between owners and veterinarians can be extremely complex and take some time to mature. A veterinarian who knows both owner and pet well will be able to detect subtle clinical signs that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Yet each clinical case must now be understood in the context of the human background baggage that enters the consultation room.

Read more: Raw meat pet food may not be good for your dog, or your own health

It’s all too easy to overlook the role of the owner’s personality in their interactions with their pet, and how their personality may influence how they perceive the animals, how they manage the animals and how they concern themselves with the health status of the animals.

Further research will undoubtedly continue to provide new insights into the fascinating world of owner-pet relationships.

– ref. Pets and owners – you can learn a lot about one by studying the other – http://theconversation.com/pets-and-owners-you-can-learn-a-lot-about-one-by-studying-the-other-114167

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

Scott Morrison is foreshadowing tough new criminal laws to crack down on social media companies which fail to quickly remove footage like that streamed by the gunman in the New Zealand massacre.

Under the proposal, it would not be just the companies that faced heavy penalties but individual executives based in Australia could be found personally liable.

The laws would make it a criminal offence for the companies to fail to rapidly take down footage filmed by perpetrators of extreme violence.

The Prime Minister will meet representatives of the social media giants in Brisbane on Tuesday. Also present will be Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, Attorney-General Christian Porter and Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.

They will discuss the responsibilities of these companies and how the use of their platforms for spreading dangerous terrorist and other harmful material can be curbed.

“We need to prevent social media platforms being weaponised,” Morrison said ahead of the meeting.

Morrison said if social media companies failed to show they were willing immediately to make changes to prevent the use of their platforms for material like the New Zealand footage, “we will take action”.

At the meeting will be representatives of Google, Facebook and Twitter.

The proposed laws would:

• Make it a criminal offence to fail to remove the offending footage as soon as possible after it was reported or it otherwise became known to the company

• Allow the government to declare footage of an incident filmed by a perpetrator and being hosted on a site was “abhorrent violent material”. It would be a crime for a social media provider not to quickly remove the material after receiving a notice to do so. There would be escalating penalties the longer it remained on the social media platform.

The government says that there cannot be special rules for these companies. They should operate under the same conditions as the print and broadcasting media, and the services they provide need to be safe.

The new laws would be based on existing offences which require social media companies to notify police of child abusers on their sites, and require content host sites to remove offending material.

Morrison has already moved to have the G20 take up the issue of getting this sort of violent content off social media. He has asked for the issue of social media governance to be put on the agenda for the June summit of the G20 in Japan.

– ref. Morrison flags new laws to stop social media platforms being ‘weaponised’ – http://theconversation.com/morrison-flags-new-laws-to-stop-social-media-platforms-being-weaponised-114237

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Axel Bruns, Professor, Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology

The federal election is fast approaching – less than 100 days away in the view of most commentators. Social media will again play an important role in the campaign, as they did in 2013 and 2016.

But it’s not only the political candidates and their parties who must incorporate social media into their practices. Political journalists increasingly report news first on social media, then later via print, broadcast and online news outlets.

In a new study, we analysed the Twitter use of the Australian Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery during 2017, and compared this with the equivalent press corps in Germany, the Bundespressekonferenz.

Are Australian journalists, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison has claimed, simply trapped inside the “Canberra bubble”, obsessed with parliamentary minutiae and disconnected from the “real” Australia in the suburbs? Or do they engage with the wider Australian community, explaining and discussing the political events of the day?

Our research suggests it’s a bit of both.

Read more: How social media is helping Australian journalists uncover stories hidden in plain sight

Twitter remains important

As it turns out, Australian journalists are very enthusiastic Twitter users. In Australia, 182 press gallery accounts posted an average of 1,507 tweets per account, while the 400 German accounts managed only 609 tweets on average through the year.

And this effort is rewarded by the twittersphere. Press gallery accounts received some 1.9 million retweets and mentions from over 231,000 unique accounts over the course of the year. Meanwhile, their German colleagues received only 714,000 retweets and mentions from 117,000 unique accounts.

Of course, this is also a reflection of the relative status of Twitter, and social media in general, in the media environment of each country. According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, social media play a comparatively minor role in the news repertoire of German news audiences, and so they are less likely to follow and engage with journalists on Twitter than Australians.

In each case, some three quarters of this engagement is through mentions rather than retweets. In both countries, users prefer to talk with, at, or about the press corps journalists, rather than help them share their stories by retweeting them.

And the journalists seem to respond, at least some of the time. Of the Canberra press gallery tweets, 43% were mentions, compared to 46% of the Bundespressekonferenz tweets.

Read more: Media Files: What does the Nine Fairfax merger mean for diversity and quality journalism?

Some signs of insularity

But we also found that the press gallery accounts spend a substantial amount of time talking among themselves. Of the 117,000 mentions they posted, 22% were directed at fellow press gallery journalists, compared to only 12% of the mentions posted by Bundespressekonferenz accounts.

In fact, almost half (48%) of the 200+ accounts that were most frequently mentioned by press gallery journalists were other Canberra journalists. Politicians made up for only 21% of these most frequent conversation partners. German journalists, on the other hand, engaged more often with politicians (32%) over fellow journalists (31%), in their most frequent interactions.

Ordinary users didn’t feature much as frequent conversation partners for either group of journalists. This means that engagement with them tends to be more fleeting and random, and is rarely repeated on a regular basis. Journalists might respond to questions or comments, but normally this does not lead to lasting connections.

This should not surprise us particularly much. The job of the press corps is to report on their country’s political leaders. In a social media environment, this now also means taking note of and commenting on the work of other journalists. That’s why they direct their interactions especially to these groups.

Remarkably, in Australia this debate amongst journalists also tends to take place across institutional boundaries. There is substantial engagement through mentions between journalists working for ABC News, News Corporation, Fairfax, and other major organisations. In Germany, these discussions remain more strongly in-house.

The mention network around the leading Canberra press gallery accounts, showing significant interaction across institutional boundaries.

Read more: How ‘new power’ is driving journalism in the digital age

The professionalisation of social media

If there is a “Canberra bubble”, then, it seems press gallery journalists are all in it together. By contrast, the bubble around Germany’s Bundespressekonferenz is weaker, while at the same time journalists from different news outlets keep to themselves more more often.

And this is despite the fact that Australians in general, and Australian journalists in particular, show greater adoption of Twitter (and social media overall). In fact, perhaps it is the very professionalisation of social media use in Australia that has created the press gallery’s greater inward focus, as the journalists’ social media routines have solidified.

That professionalisation may also have provided them with more “official” counterparts to engage with – including politicians, lobbyists, experts, and other professional actors – crowding out ordinary users. In Germany, where Twitter use matters less, the general public remains more involved in the conversation.

– ref. Australian political journalists might be part of a ‘Canberra bubble’, but they engage the public too – http://theconversation.com/australian-political-journalists-might-be-part-of-a-canberra-bubble-but-they-engage-the-public-too-114084

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Wendy Wrapson, Senior Research Fellow, Auckland University of Technology

Older adults are more digitally connected than ever, even though their uptake of internet-based technologies remains lower than for younger age groups.

Today’s senior citizens are likely to spend their spare time tweeting about their social lives and Facetiming their grand kids. This is good news because research shows that social interactions benefit us.

The drive to join the digital community is no doubt influenced by social media becoming an important platform for news and information, sharing experiences and connecting with friends and family. Nevertheless, age-related gaps in digital engagement (“the digital divide”) still exist.

As our research shows, people who live in aged care environments are at risk of being excluded from the digital world.

Read more: Vertical retirement villages are on the rise, and they’re high-tech too

A digital community

Moving into aged care can affect a person’s ability to remain connected to their local community. The facility might be some distance away from the neighbourhood in which they have lived. They may be unable to travel to maintain relationships.

Low levels of social connectedness and participation are related to poor health and higher mortality risks, as well as a significant reduction in quality of life. Family can provide an important source of social contact and support but geographic distance can again make frequent visits difficult.

Digital engagement in later life might not always be desired or possible. But access to online resources can enhance older adults’ well-being through improved access to information and more frequent social interactions.

The social internet

An early study reported psychosocial benefits from providing computer training in internet use for aged care residents. These include improvements in life satisfaction and lower levels of depression and loneliness. In another study, a once weekly video conference with a family member had a positive impact on loneliness and perceived social support.

But there is little information on informal and unstructured use of the internet by residents because the use of digital technologies in aged care remains largely invisible. Residents are omitted from many surveys and reports.

In a recent Swiss study, where all residents in a facility were offered wi-fi access, 14% used the internet. This percentage is similar in that age group living in the community.

Read more: Connecting online can help prevent social isolation in older people

Staying connected

We conducted telephone interviews with over 70 members of the public who had a family member or friend living in residential aged care. We spoke to family and friends rather than seniors because we wanted to hear about residents who had physical and mental challenges, as well as healthy seniors who tend to volunteer for research. To reduce the risk of bias, we did not mention in our study advertising that we wished to talk to people about technology use.

Our research highlighted the enthusiasm with which many older people have adopted digital technologies. Nearly half of the 80 residents spoken about owned a computer or a smartphone. The average age of residents was 86 years, and the oldest was 102. Sometimes the family had purchased a device for the resident, specifically to make communication easier.

Mobile phone calls, texts and emails were the most common methods of communication using these devices. Technology not only enabled residents to interact with family and friends they seldom saw (for example, those overseas) but also resulted in increased interactions with people who visited more often. While dementia and other serious health issues reduced the likelihood of uptake, the frequency of personal visits was not affected by technology use.

Family help

Importantly, family members were essential to residents’ digital connectedness. They often bought the device, set up software and troubleshooted any technical problems. They were also involved in the day-to-day use of technology. For example, some residents used video conferencing, but needed assistance to initiate the call.

Interviewees endorsed the use of digital devices if they were used to supplement social contact, rather than supplanting it. The majority reported that they were not aware of computers being available for residents in common areas of the facility they visited.

Aged care operators do not generally provide wi-fi access to residents. They have to arrange this with their own internet provider. These deficits are of concern because residents don’t always have family or friends to help them become digitally connected.

Devices were also often criticised for their small keys and buttons which are difficult to manage for arthritic hands and by people with vision impairments. Older users, it seems, must try to adapt their abilities to devices that have been designed for younger people.

Senior citizens are an important consumer group which is only going to increase in number in the future. The time has come for aged care operators and the technology industry to engage in meaningful efforts to meet their needs.

– ref. Older people are more digitally savvy, but aged care providers need to keep up – http://theconversation.com/older-people-are-more-digitally-savvy-but-aged-care-providers-need-to-keep-up-113471

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola F. Johnson, Associate Professor of Digital Technologies in Education, Edith Cowan University

It’s been over ten years since Kevin Rudd’s Digital Education Revolution placed small laptops (also called Rudd-tops) into the hands of every Year 9 and up Australian student. Once the scheme was deemed unsustainable, for obvious reasons, many schools brought in a “bring your own device” (BYOD) scheme.

While the Rudd-tops had the same capacity and specifications, so teachers knew what they were working with, this wasn’t the case with devices students brought in themselves. My colleagues and I observed how and when devices brought to class by students were used in a public secondary school. After speaking with teachers and students, we identified the limitations and enabling roles devices played in their learning when at school.

While devices can be used successfully and effectively, we found that more often than not they were sitting around unused. This was for several reasons, including inconsistent software, different expectations and teaching approaches, and technical obstacles. Many students who were using the devices were also doing so to disengage, rather than engage, with learning.

Bring your own device

Many public secondary schools employ a BYOD program, where parents are expected to buy their child an iPad or laptop. Some private schools provide an individual device as part of school fees. In the early days of many BYOD schemes, public schools typically stated “any device will do”. But that meant not all students’ devices had the same capacity.

Read more: Why access to computers won’t automatically boost children’s grades

Given the rise in technology use in society, it makes sense schools should also be using technology. Today, school book lists state the minimum requirements for a device. Some schools in lower socioeconomic areas will provide devices for those who cannot afford them.

But, in the 21st century, effective digital practices are not always straightforward and using devices is not always predictable. It is usually decided at a school-wide level that devices will be placed on a book list. But when the student comes to a class with their device, it is up to the teacher to figure out if, when and how they will use the student’s device.

Integrating technology into the classroom doesn’t come naturally. Teachers need professional development, support and an understanding of how to use digital devices in their teaching. And they need to see the benefits of doing so. Some students like using their devices and are motivated to do so, but some students would rather use an exercise book and pen.

Integrating technology into the classroom doesn’t come naturally. Author provided

In our research, many teachers commented on the frustrations they had during the first few years of their BYOD scheme. Not all devices had the same software, some weren’t charged and some were unusable because they were broken. Some parents could not afford to get broken devices fixed.

Certain students spent a lot of time going back and forth to the library to issue and return a school-owned digital device for their use during a period. Some students had expensive laptops while others had poor-quality digital notepads.

When students logged in to the network, they sometimes had to wait ten minutes at heavy use times. Some teachers did not think it was worth the hassle of trying to use these devices during their teaching times because of the potential time waste, so they resorted to textbooks or worksheets.

Making better use of digital devices

Many policymakers are influenced by the mantra that digital technologies will bring about revolutionary change and more technologies mean better teaching and learning. But as proclaimed by Stanford education professor Larry Cuban in his 2003 book, Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom, technologies have failed to bring about evidence of increased performance.

It might be easier for an English teacher or a humanities and social sciences teacher to use a device in their subject area. Devices can be used to take notes (and can help achieve a paperless environment), complete and submit assignments, inquire and search online, and present work professionally. Teachers can also mark assignments online and provide digital feedback.

Other subject areas find it more challenging – for instance, many of the mathematical symbols used in senior maths require a mathematics calculator. Students can’t complete the exercises on their devices. For other subjects such as visual arts, physical education and musical performance, using a device all the time isn’t appropriate.

Read more: Ten reasons teachers can struggle to use technology in the classroom

If devices are to be used efficiently and successfully, schools need better technical support. Schools must also ensure software is compatible and that apps are loaded onto students’ devices and available. Additionally, the internal policies that govern the use of information and communications technology and devices need to support the teachers’ ability, goodwill and desire to implement an initiative.

Devices can be used successfully and effectively but, given recent arguments about too much screen time, parents should also acknowledge the benefits of students interacting with each other and with their teachers – not via screens.

Just because devices are being used, it does not mean good teaching and learning are occurring. In our research, we observed many occasions when students were being quiet and focused on their device’s screen, but were obviously not doing anything along the lines of learning. But their devices were being used.

So, just because devices are not being used, that doesn’t mean poor learning and teaching are occurring.

– ref. Schools are asking students to bring digital devices to class, but are they actually being used? – http://theconversation.com/schools-are-asking-students-to-bring-digital-devices-to-class-but-are-they-actually-being-used-113353

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will Rifkin, Chair in Applied Regional Economics and Director, Hunter Research Foundation Centre, University of Newcastle

Christchurch has a challenging new aspect to its identity. The city is now inextricably associated with the March 15 mass shootings at two mosques. So how does a city come to terms with and recover from having its name become synonymous with and coloured by such an atrocity?

This event has impacts on how both outsiders and residents perceive the city. The city has to manage the social and economic effects of any stigma that might arise.

The stigma of this sort of association is clearly not unique to Christchurch nor to one-off tragedies. Other places that came to be identified with atrocities include Port Arthur, Tasmania, after the mass shooting in 1996, and Lockerbie, Scotland, after the 1988 plane bombing. Stigma can also arise from a history of industrial decline, pollution or political upheaval.

Read more: From trauma to tourism and back again: Port Arthur’s history of ‘dark tourism’

Geographers refer to a concept of “territorial stigma” but usually in relation to poorer sections within a city rather than whole cities. That said, this concept – and notions of individual stigma and its management – may have relevance for how Christchurch or any other community can recover over time. We can see examples of such recovery in Port Arthur and the state of Tasmania, in Kobe, Japan, after a devastating earthquake, and in Eindhoven in the Netherlands after economic collapse.

Christchurch also faced the impact of stigma as a devastated city following earthquakes at the start of the decade, as did Kobe after the 1995 earthquake.

Read more: Christchurch five years on: have politicians helped or hindered the earthquake recovery?

In Kobe, city planners gave themselves the crucial role of being agents of change and mediators between the government and the community. They championed community-led place-making (machizukuri in Japanese). Machizukuri examples of Kobe renewal are still praised as beacons of effective disaster recovery and urban planning. What underlies the challenge and the response?

A girl lights a candle during a 2010 ceremony to remember the thousands of victims of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Everett Kennedy Brown/EPA

Stigma and its management

Individual stigma was characterised by the sociologist Erving Goffman, who noted that the Greeks used the term to refer to “bodily signs designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of the signifier”. He clarified that stigma now refers to the disgrace itself, the reason for social rejection, rather than just to the mark.

Goffman identifies three categories of people in relation to stigmas. There are those who bear the stigma. There are the “normals” who do not. And there are the “wise”, who are normal but who are aware of and accept those who bear the stigmatised condition (being literally, “wise to it”).

Loïc Wacquant extended the concept of stigma to locations. Territorial stigma occurs in neighbourhoods of post-industrial cities as a result of marginalisation through poverty, unemployment, insecurity and criminality.

Wacquant and others argue that policies and practices – such as government grant schemes or depictions in the media – maintain this boundary between “spoiled” areas and the rest of the city. Those with power undertake this marginalisation as a means for the rest of the city to achieve economic growth. Such stigmatisation and marginalisation can lead to unattractiveness to migrants and businesses, lower property values, and policy neglect.

Managing such stigma, at least for individuals, Rebecca Meisenbach found, ranges from accepting or avoiding it, to arguing against it, or proudly displaying the stigmatising characteristic. For cities, we can see such strategies being undertaken. But which ones are the most effective?

Remaking identity

The Winning from Second report, based on research by the UN Global Compact – Cities Programme and RMIT University for the Committee for Geelong, identified cities or regions that have successfully shifted perceptions and associated stigma. The study’s examples were second cities with smaller populations, often existing in the shadow of larger global cities.

The report found success where a city undertook a unified approach to economic and cultural development. That would include uniting the stigmatised sectors of the community with “wise” allies, such as in the investment sector. One approach was support of new and innovative businesses, such as development of a health tech corridor in Cleveland, Ohio.

These second cities also aimed to provide an identity and attractions distinct from those offered by nearby capital cities. In essence, they celebrated their difference.

Read more: Putting culture at the core of the Christchurch rebuild

Eindhoven managed a successful transformation. It was a “one-company town”, home to the electronics giant, Philips. Philips relocated its manufacturing in the 1980s, causing job losses and the collapse of businesses.

Local government and business leaders collaborated to convince Philips to retain its research and development arm in the city. That launched the area as an innovation hub, referred to as Brainport Eindhoven.

With only 4% of the Netherlands population, the city now generates 44% of the country’s patents and 19% of its private investment. Eindhoven has shaken off negative perceptions to become known as one of the world’s most innovative cities.

A memorial pool near the massacre site is a permanent reminder of the lives lost in 1996, but Port Arthur refuses to be defined by this one act of infamy. Robert Cianflone/AAP

A similar reversal in Tasmania was recently described by David Bartlett, the premier from 2008-2011, who spoke about the “MONA effect”. He explained the impact of the “random lightning bolt of weirdness” that is the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart. MONA’s opening in 2011 boosted tourism numbers and spawned a range of other enterprises, breathing new life into the state economy.

Bartlett said this MONA effect shifted perceptions of Tasmania. “We have had an extraordinary cultural change in Tasmania,” he said. “There is a cultural confidence and a contagious view of our own assets.”

The Kobe, Eindhoven and Hobart examples suggest that the prosperity and well-being of Christchurch depend on the city’s leaders and the community, now united in grief, finding a path to shared solutions. Overcoming the effects of terrorism, natural disasters or economic adversity also demand pride in the history and distinctive character of the city, albeit while looking forward. In such efforts, collaboration appears to be a pivotal element, especially partnerships between the stigmatised and the “wise” among us.

– ref. Massacre is now part of Christchurch’s identity, so how does a city rise above that? – http://theconversation.com/massacre-is-now-part-of-christchurchs-identity-so-how-does-a-city-rise-above-that-113854

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Warren Hogan, Industry Professor, University of Technology Sydney

It has been just over three months since the December budget update but once again the government has been gifted a windfall of unexpected revenues, despite a raft of economic data suggesting the economy has slowed its rate of growth.

This is because the things that really matter to the budget have all done better than was expected by the Treasury just months ago. Strong conditions in commodity markets and lower unemployment mean that in the current financial year the budget bottom line will be about A$3 billion better than had been expected in December, and about A$12 billion better next financial year.

Since the last budget only last May, the outlook for 2018-19 has improved by A$12.3 billion and the outlook for 2019-20 by $13.8 billion.

Going up

Rising commodity prices and export volumes have pushed up the profits and tax bills of mining companies.

Iron ore is the standout. Prices have exceeded the Treasury’s December forecast on the back of lower international supply (a result of the tragic dam wall collapse in Brazil) and continued growth in demand from China.

In December, Treasury expected iron ore prices to average US$55 a tonne. But in fact they have averaged about US$75 a tonne. That alone will add about A$2 billion to government revenues in 2018-19 and, if maintained, A$6 billion in 2019-20.

Add in a weaker Australian dollar and the combined effect will account for almost half of the net improvement in the overall budget position this financial year and the next.

Iron ore is only one of our exports.

Coal prices have also exceeded expectations, which should add another A$1 billion to A$1.5 billion to revenue over the next two years.

Read more: An evening with the treasurer: how governments belt out budget hits and hope someone is listening

And there’s more to it than mining. Corporate profits have generally been strong despite some storm clouds forming around the banking industry and the economy more generally.

Another thing driving the better budget starting point is strong jobs growth and a lower than expected unemployment rate, boosting the government’s financial position through lower unemployment benefits and a higher personal tax take. The February employment statistics showed an unemployment rate of 4.9%.

The Treasury had expected the rate to fall more slowly, only getting to 5% by June and then staying there for several years.

If the budget cupboard was untouched, which it won’t be, the budget would have a deficit of next to nothing this financial year and an impressive surplus as high as 1% of gross domestic product next year, a year ahead of the government’s schedule.

But it mightn’t last

These upside surprises from the corporate tax take can just as quickly go the other way.

Assuming they will last, as budgets often do, would be to make the same mistake as the Howard-Costello government, which made permanent changes to tax rates and commitments on the back of revenue that prove to be temporary. So did the Gillard-Swan government some years later with its “spreading the benefits of the boom” package.

Corporate profits might struggle to improve in future years in an increasingly difficult economic environment. No one knows what will happen with commodity prices. Right now China is using infrastructure spending to stimulate its economy, but it won’t always do that. Eventually its growth will be less metal-intensive.

But with the government well behind in the polls, I doubt these considerations are getting much attention.

China drives budgets, the US drives rates

The US economy sets the global price of money, which in turn determines the environment in which our Reserve Bank sets Australian interest rates and works out how to deal with the bursting of the housing bubble, which was itself in no small part the result of an easy US monetary policy in the wake of the global financial crisis.

China, on the other hand, determines the global price of commodities and trade flows and so helps determine corporate profitability in Australia.

This contrast between the two has never been greater, with the government flush with unexpected revenues while the Reserve Bank walks a knife-edge of low real economic growth, financial stability risks, and already easy monetary policy.

It is best summed up in this chart of real and nominal gross domestic product, which shows annual growth in real GDP (which affects the economy) slowing to 2.3% while growth in nominal GDP (which drives the dollars flowing into the Treasury) growth climbing to more than 5%.

ABS National Accounts

Looking beyond this budget, the major risk for the Australian economy is a retrenchment of consumer spending on the back of falling house prices and tighter credit conditions.

The national accounts suggest it has already started.

The worry is that domestic spending, which is dominated by consumer spending, will weaken to the point at which it forces businesses to shelve hiring and investment plans, pushing unemployment back up.

A vicious cycle could result in some type of recession.

How can the government and the Reserve Bank try to control these risks?

One way would be to do what they have always done and cut interest rates in an attempt to boost household and business cash flows.

Read more: Now is the time to plan how to fight the next recession

Another would be to take some of the free cash being generated by China and use it to boost domestic demand through temporary arrangements that help the economy ride out the adjustment to lower house prices.

It could be done in many forms including tax cuts and targeted cash injections into low and middle income households.

Expect extra and earlier tax cuts

The government has known about the much better revenue position for months.

To date it has displayed incredible restraint in spending it.

New policy announcements since the December update have been limited to about A$500 billion a year, which isn’t bad for a government facing an election wipeout before winter.

But it would be wise not to get too glowing about its restraint.

Instead we should expect a cascade of policy announcements culminating in a major tax cut to be revealed on budget night next Tuesday.

The government has a A$12 billion war chest.

It is most likely to spend it in the form of tax cuts, most likely by bringing forward the second stage of the already announced cuts due to take effect in July 2022.

Read more: Grattan on Friday: Josh Frydenberg has a great job at the worst time

That would mean lifting the ceiling for the 32.5% tax rate from A$90,000 to A$120,000 and lifting the ceiling for the 19% rate from A$37,000 to A$41,000.

Bringing forward those already legislated tax cuts by three years to July 2019 would cost the budget less than A$10 billion a year and still leave room for a surplus in 2019-20 and room for targeted election pork barrelling.

With the government so far behind in the polls there is virtually zero chance this extra income will be saved for a rainy day. Although the Coalition’s chances of re-election are remote, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is an optimist who might think a surge of generosity and a few lucky breaks could get him over the line.

The more likely possibility of an election loss means Morrison will want to keep the incoming government’s cupboard as bare as he can. This means keeping the budget surpluses small so that if the Labor Party wants to go on a spending spree, it will have to renege on his promised tax cuts.

Read more: No surplus, no share market growth, no lift in wage growth. Economic survey points to bleaker times post-election

The good news is that whatever the government does in the budget and no matter what party forms the next government, the budget position is all but back in balance.

It will hold us in good stead should the global economy run into trouble.

It will be all the more needed if the Reserve Bank pushes interest rates below 1% over the coming year, leaving it little room to cut further.

– ref. Expect tax cuts and an emptying of the cupboards in a budget cleanout as the billions roll in – http://theconversation.com/expect-tax-cuts-and-an-emptying-of-the-cupboards-in-a-budget-cleanout-as-the-billions-roll-in-113727

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Moore, Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics, Australian National University

Bogan is the most significant word to be created in Australian English in the past 40 years. It is defined as “an uncultured and unsophisticated person; a boorish and uncouth person” in the 2016 edition of the Australian National Dictionary.

Ever relevant, the word has made the news in recent weeks with Will Connolly, the teenager who egged Senator Fraser Anning, posting a video online warning that if you egg politicians, “you get tackled by 30 bogans at the same time”.

The type of Australian the term refers to has been the subject of books, television shows, and heated debate. The noun has generated many derivatives and compounds: bogan chick, boganhood, boganic, boganism, boganity, boganland, boganness. Not since “ocker” appeared in the late 1960s as a reference to an uncultured and uncouth Australian male has there been such a productive Australian word.

We have still not established its etymology. Some have argued the term “bogan” may derive from the Bogan River and district in western New South Wales. But there is no evidence whatsoever that could link our uncouth bogan with this area. Nor is there convincing evidence that Henry Lawson’s story The Blindness of One-Eyed Bogan gave rise to the word.

Until now, the earliest evidence of the word cited in the dictionary is from a letter signed by “Dave, Phillip Island, Vic” to the surfing magazine Tracks in September 1985. He asks: “So what if I have a mohawk and wear Dr Martens (boots for all you uninformed bogans)?”

But fresh evidence discovered by Melbourne historian Helen Doyle, and kindly passed on to me suggests the word dates to at least 1984, and probably originated in Melbourne. It comes from an article that appeared in the third edition of a magazine produced by students at Xavier College Melbourne in 1984, which includes a detailed description of “the bogan doll”. (In the same year, incidentally, ALP leader Bill Shorten was a student at Xavier.)

The fictional ‘bogan doll’ came with optional extras including ‘nunnies’ and a flick knife. Author provided

This fictional male “doll” has rat tails and tattoos, wears an “Iron Maiden T-shirt or a sleeveless denim vest”, is adorned with studs or earrings “in the style of a Roman cross”, and has “a miniature pack of ‘Winny Blues’ […] to shove up the sleeve of his Eastcoast top”.

If there is a car to go with the doll, we are told, it will be “a black panel van […] [with] heavily modified engine”, and if the doll has a “female companion” she will come “complete with skin-tight jeans, ‘Eastcoast’ top and black moccasins”.

The ‘bogan doll’ in Sursum Corda in full. Author provided

The bogan doll comes armed with nunchakus (“nunnies”) and flick knife. It has a special button which, when pressed, allows the bogan doll to say: “Oi you, come over here I wanna smash ya bloody face” or “oi, did youse look at my bird? I’ll get me nummies onto yer”. An illustration of the bogan doll is also provided.

Four years after the publication of this article, Judith Clarke’s 1988 novel The Heroic Life of Al Capsella, set in Melbourne, gives a description of bogans that appears to be a direct descendant of the students’ bogan doll:

It looked like the kind of place you might find Bogans hanging about, the kind of place you could get bashed up. […] Sure enough, in the yard of a house across the street, I saw a gang of Bogans in tight jeans and long checked shirts, mucking about with a big fancy car, vintage model, complete with brass lamps and running-board. I felt sure they’d ripped it off: for one thing, they were taking off the number plates.

So by the mid 1980s Melbourne had established the term bogan. It was absolutely synonymous with westie (used to describe someone from the western suburbs of Sydney), the bevan (a Queensland term), the booner ( a term from Canberra, sometimes abbreviated to boon – probably a shortening of the American boondocks, meaning “rough or isolated country”), and the chigga (a person from the working-class suburb of Chigwell in Hobart).

At this time a slightly variant meaning of bogan appeared, which also began as a Melbourne term. It was used in teenage slang for someone who was regarded as a bit of a dag, a sense popularised by the fictitious schoolgirl “Kylie Mole” from the television show The Comedy Company (which ran from 1988 to 1990).

Read more: Bogan in the eye of the beholder: the curious case of Rebel Wilson

Kylie Mole was played by the Melbourne-based actor Mary-Anne Fahey, and it seems possible that Fahey picked up this meaning from teenagers of the kind at work in the Xavier College magazine, giving a specialised “spin” to the general term of abuse. The nerdish bogan was not long lived, however, and it was soon overpowered by the hooligan bogan.

Unlike the other regional terms for “hooligan”, bogan soon spread Australia-wide. The evidence in the dictionary shows that by 1987 it was used at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra (it is included in B. Cowham’s 1987 glossary Legolingo: the Cadets’ Language). Perhaps it was brought there by students from Melbourne. By the beginning of the 1990s it was everywhere.

In the journeyings of bogan there have been some slight changes in meaning. One important shift is the fact that it is no longer necessary for the bogan to belong to “a low socio-economic or poorly-educated background”.

The creation of the acronym CUB (“cashed-up bogan”) in the early 2000s was a sign that the original sense was shifting. Of course, a bogan can still come from such a background, as evidenced by the characters profiled in Paul Fenech’s 2017 book The Bogan Bible.

The major criteria for boganhood are: a lack of culture and sophistication; boorishness and uncouthness and vulgarity. But being a Melburnian is no longer a requirement.

– ref. A new twist in the elusive quest for the origins of the word ‘bogan’ leads to Melbourne’s Xavier College – http://theconversation.com/a-new-twist-in-the-elusive-quest-for-the-origins-of-the-word-bogan-leads-to-melbournes-xavier-college-113755

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Morris, Professor of Pharmacology, Head of Pharmacology, UNSW

Trying to keep up with what constitutes a “healthy” diet can be exhausting. With unending options at the supermarket, and diet advice coming from all directions, filling your shopping trolley with the right things can seem an overwhelming task.

For a long time we’ve known diet is key to maintaining physical health.

But emerging evidence indicates diet quality also plays a critical role in our cognitive function.

We’re learning some of the best things to eat in this regard include vegetables, nuts and berries, foods containing “good fats” and, possibly, fermented foods.

As well as potentially improving our brain function, eating these sorts of foods could improve our mental well-being – and could even help the planet, too.

Read more: Research Check: does eating chocolate improve your brain function?

Diet and brain function

In the face of rising obesity rates, over the past couple of decades, researchers have questioned whether increased weight, or poor diet, could influence cognition. They have since looked at what sorts of diets might impair or improve the function of our brains.

Long term follow-up studies show obesity is associated with mild impairments in several domains of cognitive function, including short-term memory, attention and decision-making.

Research has also shown short-term memory is poorer in people who report eating more saturated fat and sugar.

Conversely, the Mediterranean diet has been associated with better brain health and maintenance of cognitive abilities into older age. A Mediterranean diet is based on vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts, with healthy fats such as olive oil. Intake of red meat, saturated fats and sugar is limited.

A healthy diet has many elements, so let’s look at what particular foods might explain these benefits.

Vegetables, nuts and berries

Evidence indicates eating more vegetables slows the gradual decline in cognitive abilities that occurs naturally as we age.

While all veggies are likely to contribute, those in the cruciferous (Brassicaceae) family may confer particular benefits through their high fibre, folate, potassium and vitamin content. Vegetables in this family include broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and fad favourites kale and rocket.

Interestingly, while there’s good evidence for the protective role of vegetables, there’s less evidence when it comes to fruit.

Research has shown a healthy diet can improve cognitive functions such as learning and memory. From shutterstock.com

Berries, though, contain high levels of antioxidants. These compounds protect the body by scavenging harmful free radicals and reducing inflammation. Together these functions are likely to protect our cognitive ability.

Studies in rats, and in older people with mild cognitive impairment, indicate supplementing diets with berries improves performance in various memory tasks.

Nuts, meanwhile, are excellent sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, minerals and vitamins. Studies in animals have shown the addition of nuts improves learning and memory. Emerging evidence in humans suggests consuming nuts within a Mediterranean-style diet improves measures of cognition, such as the capacity for verbal reasoning.

Healthy fats

Healthy diets such as the Mediterranean diet are also characterised by foods such as oily fish, avocados, olive oil and small amounts of animal-derived fats (such as from red meat).

One of our experiments in rats showed diets high in saturated fat from lard or high in sugar led to memory impairments, whereas an oil-based diet high in polyunsaturated fats didn’t.

Read more: Food as medicine: your brain really does want you to eat more veggies

Importantly, rats fed these different diets did not differ in their total energy intake – only the type of fat and sugar varied.

While we can’t comment directly on the effects in humans, these findings suggest eating excess sugar, or animal-based fats, may negatively impact cognition.

Fermented foods

For thousands of years humans have prolonged the life of foods through fermentation, which increases the proportion of Lactobacillus and other healthy gut bacteria.

Kombucha and kefir are trendy right now, but other popular fermented foods include kimchi, miso, yoghurt and sauerkraut. Intake of these foods is thought to maintain the diversity of the gut microbiome.

Read more: Health check: will eating nuts make you gain weight?

Interest in the potential cognitive effects of fermented foods stems from emerging evidence for the importance of the gut microbiota in cognition and health.

It’s well known that a poor diet can reduce the diversity of the gut microbiome. Our work in rats has shown the cognitive impairments produced by exposure to an unhealthy “cafeteria” diet – a Western-style diet high in saturated fat and sugar – are linked to changes in the gut microbiome.

Beyond cognition

It’s not possible to attribute “miracle” properties to one food group alone. We suggest a balanced, varied diet is the best approach to sustain not only brain health, but heart health too.

And there may be other reasons to seek out these foods. A newly published study showed eating fruit and vegetables improved mental well-being. Subjects tended to feel happier, less worried, and reported higher levels of overall life satisfaction.

The link between diet quality and better mental health is now well-established.

The recently published EAT-Lancet report adds a further compelling reason to eat healthily: the environment. This commission argued for a “planetary health” diet – akin to the Mediterranean diet – consisting of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and dairy, healthy fats, with low animal protein and few processed foods.

It is thought that shifting to such a diet, together with reducing food waste and adopting more sustainable food production systems, will minimise environmental damage and safeguard individual health.

The central message is the health of individuals and of the planet are inextricably linked, and this requires a rethink of global food systems.

Read more: Want to improve your mood? It’s time to ditch the junk food

Overhauling food systems – and individual food habits – will not be simple while foods high in fat and sugar are so readily available and relatively cheap.

Nonetheless, recognising that eating well might benefit the planet, as well as the body and brain, might motivate people to change their dietary habits.

– ref. Health check: can eating certain foods make you smarter? – http://theconversation.com/health-check-can-eating-certain-foods-make-you-smarter-113551

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Harper Campbell, Lecturer in Drama, Flinders University

Review: Animal Farm, State Theatre Company of South Australia

In a new one-man production, Renato Musolino brings George Orwell’s classic novella Animal Farm to life. A searing solo piece, the play showcases not only the talents of Musolino as a performer, but also its director Geordie Brookman.

Written as an allegorical critique of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent Stalinist era, Orwell’s novella details the rebellion of animals on Manor Farm against the cruel farmer Mr Jones. What follows is the establishment of a new order, an animal utopia in which all animals are equal. The animals collaboratively develop a new philosophy, “animalism” which consists of seven commandments aiming to instil a sense of pride and empowerment.

This initially egalitarian society slowly and hauntingly evolves, or rather devolves, into a system not much better than before the rebellion. A sense of unease and foreboding loomed over the production as we watched, helpless and passive, the insidious rise of the leader Napoleon and his class of pigs as rulers of the farm.

Musolino switches from narration to monologue and dialogue, voicing the many characters of Animal Farm. James Hartley

Musolino’s performance, the beating heart of this production, had the opening night audience transfixed. Switching from narration to monologue and dialogue, he portrayed the many and varied members of this new society with impressive vocal and physical transformations.

The pigs were characterised not only by snorts of laughter and squeals of delight in the face of other animals’ misery, but also by Musolino’s tensed and contorted hands, forming trotters.

The bleating banality of the sheep, the slow but deliberate philosophising of the committed workhorse, and the grumpy quips from the old donkey, along with the folk-tale lyricism of the narration, created a clear and consummate symphony of voices.

Musolino’s transitions between characters were quick but seamless. Thanks to the actor’s piercing sincerity and skill as a storyteller, the pace and dramatic tension of the story was never lost – a risk when so much falls to just one performer.

A well-structured adaptation from Brookman, the outgoing Artistic Director, ensured that Orwell’s created world – one not so far from our own – and its injustices, betrayals and exploitations, were orchestrated for maximum impact. The journey of Boxer the horse was particularly heartbreaking, crystallising the cruelty, exploitation and ruthlessness of this new society.

One of the most effective ways Napoleon and the pigs disempower the other animals is by taking away their means of communication. Leading up to the revolution, the pigs teach themselves how to read and write while only offering a cursory education to the other animals.

It is the pigs’ literacy that affords them the most power to change the rules. This quite literally occurs throughout the play, as the commandments painted on the side of the barn are amended to suit their needs. For example, “no animal shall kill another animal” eventually becomes “no animal shall kill another animal without cause”.

A mixture of straight lines and softer lighting was used in the production. James Hartley

The set, designed by Bianka Kennedy, consisted of an ominous black structure, not unlike an open coffin, tombstone or even a geometric Venus flytrap, which could close at any moment, swallowing us all. This limited space allowed for a concentrated focus on Musolino’s performance.

Straight lines informed the approach of lighting designer Alexander Ramsay on the structure itself, juxtaposed nicely with the softer lighting used to frame Musolino in quieter moments.

Andrew Howard’s soundscape, haunting but never overpowering, amplified the work’s dark intensity. The production, thanks no doubt to Brookman’s skilful direction, is technically explosive, intense and consistent with the work’s thematic concerns.

This is a production not to be seen, but experienced. It moved me to tears, stirring a seething rage within me. Such was the power of Orwell’s, Brookman’s and Musolino’s combined storytelling.

A cathartic production in the purest sense, Animal Farm evoked fear, pity, empathy, anger and recognition as the exploitation of power played out once more. The words “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” rang in our ears long after leaving the theatre.

Animal Farm is playing at the State Theatre Company of South Australia until March 30.

– ref. A skilful and stirring one-man treatment of George Orwell’s Animal Farm – http://theconversation.com/a-skilful-and-stirring-one-man-treatment-of-george-orwells-animal-farm-114165

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicolas Pirsoul, Sessional lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics, Australian Catholic University

The Christchurch terrorist attack has shown us that we need to address the threat posed by far-right extremism to our ideals of peaceful social cooperation in a multicultural society. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the shooting, some of the worst far-right commentary has blamed the Christchurch shooting on immigration laws, and Muslim communities themselves.

But these v⁠i⁠e⁠w⁠s⁠ ⁠a⁠r⁠e⁠ ⁠b⁠a⁠s⁠e⁠d⁠ ⁠o⁠n⁠ ⁠i⁠n⁠a⁠c⁠c⁠u⁠r⁠a⁠t⁠e⁠ ⁠i⁠n⁠f⁠o⁠r⁠m⁠a⁠t⁠i⁠o⁠n⁠ ⁠a⁠b⁠o⁠u⁠t⁠ ⁠I⁠s⁠l⁠a⁠m⁠ ⁠a⁠n⁠d⁠ ⁠h⁠i⁠s⁠t⁠o⁠ry⁠.

As a New Zealander academic, my work deals with questions related to Islam and multiculturalism. In the past, I have argued both that Wahhabism – the Sunni fundamentalist form of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia – is not compatible with liberal democratic values, unlike some other Islamic schools of thought.

As Muslims in the West come under attack, it is essential to understand and distinguish between these different kinds of Islamic thought and how the West responds to them. W⁠h⁠i⁠l⁠e⁠ ⁠t⁠h⁠e⁠r⁠e⁠ ⁠i⁠s⁠ ⁠a⁠ ⁠p⁠r⁠o⁠b⁠l⁠e⁠m⁠ ⁠a⁠t⁠ ⁠t⁠h⁠e⁠ ⁠g⁠l⁠o⁠b⁠a⁠l⁠ ⁠l⁠e⁠v⁠e⁠l⁠ ⁠w⁠i⁠t⁠h⁠ ⁠e⁠x⁠t⁠r⁠e⁠m⁠e⁠ ⁠S⁠u⁠n⁠n⁠i⁠ ⁠m⁠i⁠l⁠i⁠t⁠a⁠n⁠c⁠y⁠,⁠ the fact is this is a⁠ ⁠m⁠i⁠n⁠o⁠r⁠i⁠t⁠y⁠ ⁠p⁠h⁠e⁠n⁠o⁠m⁠e⁠n⁠o⁠n⁠ ⁠w⁠i⁠t⁠h⁠i⁠n⁠ ⁠I⁠s⁠l⁠a⁠m⁠ – and one that ⁠i⁠s⁠ ⁠m⁠o⁠r⁠e⁠ ⁠o⁠f⁠ ⁠a⁠ ⁠t⁠h⁠r⁠e⁠a⁠t⁠ ⁠t⁠o⁠ ⁠M⁠u⁠s⁠l⁠i⁠m⁠s⁠ ⁠i⁠n⁠ ⁠t⁠h⁠e⁠ ⁠M⁠i⁠d⁠d⁠l⁠e⁠ ⁠E⁠a⁠s⁠t⁠ ⁠t⁠h⁠a⁠n⁠ it is ⁠t⁠o⁠ ⁠W⁠e⁠s⁠t⁠e⁠r⁠n⁠ ⁠n⁠a⁠t⁠i⁠o⁠n⁠s⁠.⁠

Read more: Right-wing extremism has a long history in Australia

Islam cannot be reduced to a single idea

Right-wing commentators often make statements about Islam and Muslims that are factually incorrect. They demonise Muslims and proclaim that Islam is incompatible with Western democratic values.

But Islam cannot be reduced to a single theological framework or simplistic worldview. Complex theological debates have taken place over the centuries about the relationship between faith and reason, and the political role of Islam. This has led to a religion that contains multiple branches and schools of thought.

Critics of Islam often mistakenly conflate Islam with Wahhabism. Wahhabism is an Islamic school of thought that promotes violence towards both non-Wahhabi Muslims and non-Muslims by taking an uncritical, literalist, approach to Islamic scriptures.

While its intellectual roots can be traced back to 13th-14th century theologian Ibn Taymiyyah, it only became a genuine political movement in the mid-18th century. This is when the House of Saud entered a religio-political alliance with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. This alliance is still the foundation of the current Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to this day.

If it was not for the West’s continuous support for the contemporary Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for almost a century, Wahhabism might have remained a marginal historical phenomenon within Islam.

Read more: Christchurch attacks are a stark warning of toxic political environment that allows hate to flourish

Muslims are often victims of Wahhabi extremism

The next move from these right-wing figures is usually to argue that Wahhabism is the essence of Islam, and that “moderate Muslims” are just not following their own sacred text. They usually proceed by cherry-picking verses from the Koran and historical narrations to prove that Muhammad was a warlord, a paedophile and a terrorist.

This completely ignores the fact that there have been debates for centuries within Islam over the historical context, interpretation, and even accuracy of these cherry-picked parts of the vast corpus of Islamic scriptures.

The rest of the scriptures and Islamic history that promotes compassion, justice, and pluralism are never mentioned. Indeed, the broader Muslim community, in many cases, not only theologically disagree with the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, but have sometimes been victims of Wahhabi extremism themselves.

Besides being intellectually dishonest, this hostile attitude contributes greatly to anti-Muslim sentiment in the West.

Right-wing extremism reinforces Islamic extremism

By conflating Wahhabism and mainstream Islam, the far-right is creating and reinforcing the strength of its own enemy. Alienating and harassing Muslims in the West runs the risk of radicalising some of them. And making the argument that Islam is incompatible with democracy and human rights suggest that the Wahhabi reading of Islam is in fact the correct one.

This reinforces the clash of civilisation thesis that argues that Western and Islamic worldviews are so fundamentally incompatible that they are destined to perpetual conflict.

Historically, right-wing policy makers in some Western nations have reinforced the economic and military power of Wahhabi ideologues by creating alliances with proponents of the doctrine in places such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Even Israel (usually considered as a bastion of democratic values in the Middle East) is now cosying up to the Wahhabi kingdom because of their mutual fear of Iran.

Let me also highlight that most of the victims of the Wahhabi ideology were and still are Muslims themselves. From the Wahhabi sacking of Karbala in 1802, to the rise of the Taliban, al Qaeda, and Islamic State, countless innocent, mainly Muslim, lives have been lost to Wahhabism in the Middle East.

Read more: Finding dignity and grace in the aftermath of the Christchurch attack

The West must reassess its narrative about Islam

It’s natural to want to understand the deeper, root causes, of the Christchurch massacre, and the potential role played by Islamic extremism. But the culprit remains the same: those in the West who promote the idea that Islam and liberal democratic values are incompatible.

They demonise Muslim communities by conflating Islam and the Wahhabi ideology that the West has empowered for many years. Yes, there is a problematic extremist element within the Islamic world, but Western actors, mainly on the right, have aided the Wahhabi ideology in becoming a global phenomenon to the detriment of Muslims themselves.

Instead of blaming Muslim migration and Islamic extremists for the Christchurch massacre, it is time for the West to look into the mirror and reassess their own narratives and actions regarding Islam and the Islamic world.

– ref. We need to stop conflating Islam with terrorism – http://theconversation.com/we-need-to-stop-conflating-islam-with-terrorism-114073