Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Saurav Dutta, Head of School at the School of Accounting, Curtin University

Zip Co’s “buy now, pay later” service is fast becoming a ubiquitous payment option in Australia. Retailers from Bunnings and Best & Less to Target and Tigerair offer it. All up, the company now boasts 10,000 retail partners and more than 850,000 customers.

It’s part of the phenomenal upsurge of “buy now pay later” services. In the past three years, according to Australia’s corporate watchdog, the number of Australians using such services has jumped from 400,000 to 2 million.

Read more: Explainer: how lending startups like Afterpay make their money

Their rising popularity has to do with technology making electronic payments easier and more secure, more online shopping, increasing distrust of banks and younger people shying away from credit card use.

But the way a service like Zip operates has consumer advocates worried. Its business model means it can avoid the responsible lending requirements of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. As such, Zip lends money without verifying a person’s income or credit history. The potential it will entice those with low income and bad credit has attracted the scrutiny the Senate inquiry into credit and financial services.

So let’s look at how Zip’s business model works, and why it is proving so popular.

How Zip works

Zip has two slightly different products: one offering credit more than $A1,000 is called Zip Money; the other offering credit up to $A1,000 is called Zip Pay.

Let’s focus on Zip Pay as the company’s most popular and profitable service.

Zip Pay is particularly convenient in that you can access credit at the point of purchase with minimum hassle and little delay (thanks to no credit checks or income verification procedures).

Zip Pay promotes itself as “interest-free”. It instead charges a flat fee of $6 a month on whatever is owed, and an additional $5 if the minimum monthly payment of $40 is not made on time. It also charges a 4% upfront fee to the retailer; that is, it pays the retailer A$960, then collects $1,000 from the customer.

Implicit costs

Despite the “interest-free” boast, Zip Pay’s $6 monthly fixed fee is in fact a quasi-interest charge, equivalent to paying 7.4% interest annually on a $1,000 debt.

Because you still pay $6 even if you owe less than $1,000, the fee structure is also highly regressive. The less you owe, the greater the effective interest rate you pay. For example, if you owe $500, the $6 fee translates to a 15% annualised interest rate.

If you owe $100, it equals an annual interest rate of more than 100%.

This fact could encourage you to take advantage of the full $1,000 of credit, on the basis it doesn’t cost you any more in monthly charges. That might, of course, be Zip’s plan, because the more you owe the longer it may take you to pay the debt off.

But if you feel confident you will have more money in the future than you have now, this easy credit option could be a highly attractive means to “manage” the disconnect between the things you want and when you can afford these.

Theories and consequences

If that’s the case, you fit the common profile, with 90% of “buy now pay later” credit consumers feeling the debt “helps” them better manage their finances.

What makes individuals regard debt as manageable is of great interest to entrepreneurs and economists alike.

It was Milton Friedman, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for economics, who first hypothesised that an individual’s spending habits were based not only on current income but also on anticipated future income. This idea, from his 1957 book A Theory of the Consumption Function, has become known as as the “permanent income hypothesis”.

Typically those who are younger and well-educated have greater expectation that their income will increase over time, and will therefore be more inclined to borrow money to fund current consumption.

This explains why almost a quarter of Zip customers are under the age of 24, and more than 60% are under 36.

It also helps explain why items bought using Zip are mostly non-essential. By drilling down into the data behind the figures in Zip’s 2018 annual report, we know customers are using Zip to pay for fashion items, clothes and restaurant meals, rather than to pay energy bills or buy medicine.

Easy access to credit also encourages individuals to take on more debt.

Not surprisingly, research by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission shows the majority of “buy now pay later” users admit easy credit has led them to spend more money, with one in six reporting some negative impact as a result. These impacts include becoming overdrawn, borrowing money from family or friends, or using another loan provider to cover their debts.

Read more: Financial literacy is a public policy problem

For savvy consumers confident they can manage their finances, willing to pay that quasi-interest rate to fund their immediate consumption desires, Zip’s service may make sense. But don’t get carried away by wishful thinking and overconfidence. Without financial discipline and proper budgeting, it’s an easy path to overcommitment and financial hardship.

– ref. How Zip Pay works, and why the extra cost of ‘buy now, pay later’ is still enticing – http://theconversation.com/how-zip-pay-works-and-why-the-extra-cost-of-buy-now-pay-later-is-still-enticing-110429

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Biddle, Associate Professor, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

Scott Morrison today became the fifth prime minister to deliver a Closing the Gap report to parliament – the 11th since the strategy began in 2008. Closing the Gap has aimed to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with particular respect to life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational achievement and employment outcomes.

Almost every time a prime minister delivers the report, he or she states the need to move on from a deficits approach. Which is exactly what Morrison did this time. But he also did something different. Four of the seven targets set in 2008 were due to expire in 2018. So last year, the government developed the Closing the Gap Refresh – where targets would be updated in partnership with Indigenous people.

The current report and the work leading up to it has led to new targets, such as a “significant and sustained progress to eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care” and old targets framed differently. For example, the headline new outcome for families, children and youth is that “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years”. This is on top of more specific targets such as having 95% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander four-years-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025 – which this year is on track.

Read more: Closing the Gap is failing and needs a radical overhaul

Looking back on the past 11 years, there are several things we’ve learned. This includes those targets that seem easiest to meet, as well changes in the demographics of the population that complicate the measuring of the targets. Below are three lessons from the last decade of the policy.

1. Some targets are easier than others

The targets where there has been some success tend to be those where government has more direct control. Consider the Year 12 attainment compared to the employment targets. To increase the proportion of Indigenous Australians completing year 12, the Commonwealth government can change the income support system to create incentives to not leave school, while state and territory governments can adjust the school leaving age.

That is not to downplay the efforts of parents, teachers, community leaders, and the students themselves. But, there are some direct policy levers.

To improve employment outcomes, on the other hand, discrimination among employers needs to be reduced, human capital levels increased, jobs need to be in areas where Indigenous people live and to match the skills and experiences of the Indigenous population. These are solvable policy problems with the right settings and community engagement. But, they are substantially more complex.

Read more: Three reasons why the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians aren’t closing

2. The life-expectancy measure is unpredictable

The main target has always been related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy. The 2019 report shows the target of closing the gap by 2031 is not on track.

Unfortunately, the life expectancy target is one of the more difficult to measure, as it uses multiple datasets that are potentially affected by different ways Indigenous people are counted in the census and changing levels of identification. The most recent estimates, based on data for 2015-17, are that life expectancy at birth is 71.6 years for Indigenous males and 75.6 years for Indigenous females.

While the gaps with the non-Indigenous population of 8.6 years and 7.8 years respectively are smaller than they were in 2010-12 (the previous estimates) the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and most demographers suggest extreme caution around the interpretation of this change. The ABS writes:

While the estimates in this release show a small improvement in life expectancy estimates and a reduction in the gap between 2010-2012 and 2015-2017, this improvement should be interpreted with considerable caution as the population composition has changed during this period.

More people have been identifying as being Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander over recent years. What’s more, the newly identified Indigenous people tend to have better outcomes on average (across health, education, and labour market outcomes) than those who were identified previously. This biases our estimates, making it appear there is more rapid progress than there might otherwise be.

Read more: Three charts on: the changing status of Indigenous Australians

The Closing the Gap framework was implicitly designed around improving the circumstances of the 2008 Indigenous population relative to the 2008 non-Indigenous population. However, both populations have changed substantially over the intervening years. There has been a growth of the non-Indigenous population due to international migration. It is hard to measure and track differences in changing populations.

3. On-track one year, off-track the next

There is also the yearly reporting cycle. The target of child mortality, for instance, no longer appears to be on track. This is despite it being on track in previous years. Yearly fluctuations make it hard to gauge the effectiveness of long-term policy settings.

For other indicators, such as employment, the data is available far less frequently than it could be, and we are less able to judge the effect of individual policies and interventions. Having said that, in my view, the sophistication and nuance with which data in the Closing the Gap reports has been presented has improved considerably.

It seems most policies prioritise Indigenous Australians living in remote areas than those in the city. David Clode/Unsplash

4. Indigenous Australians in the city and country have different needs

This isn’t always reflected in policy settings. The current report shows many outcomes are worse in remote compared to non-remote Australia. It also makes the point (though less frequently), that the vast majority of Indigenous Australians live in regional areas and major cities. This creates a tension between relative and absolute need. Unfortunately, the policy responses of government often don’t get that balance right.

Take the signature policy proposal announced with the current report – a suspension or cancelling of HECS debt for teachers who work in remote schools. What the policy ignores is that the vast majority of Indigenous students live outside remote Australia, that outcomes for Indigenous students in non-remote areas are well behind those of non-Indigenous students, and that the schools Indigenous students attend in non-remote areas tend to be very different from those of non-Indigenous students.

Read more: Infographic: Are we making progress on Indigenous education?

Attracting and keeping more high quality teachers in remote areas is a worthwhile policy aim. Alone, it is not sufficient.

The current report and speech by the prime minister states that “genuine partnerships are required to drive sustainable, systemic change” and that the government needs “to support initiatives led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to address the priorities identified by those communities”.

These are admirable goals. But, they require significant resources, a genuine engagement with the evidence (even if it isn’t positive), taking the Uluru Statement from the Heart seriously, and real ceding of control to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

– ref. Four lessons from 11 years of Closing the Gap reports – http://theconversation.com/four-lessons-from-11-years-of-closing-the-gap-reports-111816

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Reid Boyd, Senior Lecturer School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University

We must discover … the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this whole world a new world. But love, love is the only way.

In his spirited sermon at the 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, US Bishop Michael Curry, Primate of the Episcopal Church, quoted these words of Dr Martin Luther King. Dr Curry went on to describe love’s transformative power for humanity: “Think and imagine a world where love is the way,” he urged the congregation.

In universities across the world, academics are doing just that. Love Studies, a field newly emerged in the last couple of decades, is becoming an increasingly significant area of application and research.

There are journals and conferences on Love Studies, websites about popular romance such as Teach Me Tonight and a growing number of Phds in the field. But what exactly is it?

Love Studies emerged from discourse and analyses in popular romance, cultural and gender studies. In its first flush, it included a revaluing and deeper understanding of the complexity and sophistication of love, in particular romantic love, and how it has shaped our ways of being and knowing.

As academic Virginia Blum once put it when writing about the discipline:

While sex may indeed ‘sell’, love seems to trump sex every time when it comes to talking about the nature of individual autonomy and happiness.

Gradually, the idea of romantic love began to be explored in other subject areas: in philosophy, law, languages and literary studies, politics, anthropology and social science. Love Studies looked at desire, and intimate relationships, gender and power while retaining a critical wariness about the costs of love to women. Meanwhile, in psychology, there has been a renewed focus on happiness and loving-kindness.

Read more: What is this thing called love?

Today, Love Studies is becoming more clearly defined and developed. Last year, The Journal of Popular Romance Studies produced a special issue on Critical Love Studies. It looked at such things as the juxtaposition of popular romance and queer theory, “love migrants” who conduct much of their relationship long distance over Skype, “boy love” in Japanese romance fiction and masculinity in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels (The latter article was titled: Is Edward Cullen a good boyfriend? Young men talk about Twilight, masculinity and the rules of heteroromance).

Technology is transforming romantic relationships. shutterstock

This October, meanwhile, a global conference called LOVE, ETC will be held in Denmark. Situating love as the hot new topic in the academy, it will embrace issues such as how love is being transformed in the age of online dating and the challenging of gender and sexuality norms. How will love change in the technological future? (Will we come to love robots?) What’s the difference between love and caring?

At the same time, courses on popular romance are growing globally and romance research collections in libraries are expanding.

Some have suggested that in the 21st century, love is one of the existential goals of our lives. It can be both subversive or conservative, depending on your point of view.

Read more: There are six styles of love. Which one best describes you?

Indeed romantic love is no easy subject. It’s the front line: where our hearts, minds and bodies meet. For some, it’s a battlefield. Revenge porn. Intimate partner violence. Date rape. Sexual harassment. Online bullying. Abusive relationships. There’s a lot of damage done when we get up close and personal.

Some may call the study of love shallow, superficial too chocolatey and commercial. A bit like Valentine’s Day. While there has long been stigma and disdain for the area as lacking sufficient gravitas, for some academics, it’s the sweet spot.

As a romance novelist, Love Studies helps me to think through issues in my own writing. As an academic, I am working with colleagues in the fields of psychology, sexology and cultural studies, to explore issues of consent post #MeToo and how “civil rights” can be enacted in the bedroom, without repressing desire.

Love is as love does. It is not an end in itself, a happy ever after, but a creative process providing endless opportunities for thought and imagination. It remains to be seen if a new world, of which Martin Luther King dreamed, can be made of it.

– ref. Love, Academically. Why scholarly hearts are beating for Love Studies – http://theconversation.com/love-academically-why-scholarly-hearts-are-beating-for-love-studies-104697

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Lovell, Research Director of the Security and Surveillance Research group; Professor, The University of Queensland

Recently, the Victorian Government brought in new rules stating Victorian state schools will be banned from using facial recognition technology in classrooms unless they have the approval of parents, students and the Department of Education.

Students may be justifiably horrified at the thought of being monitored as they move throughout the school during the day. But a roll marking system could be as simple as looking at a tablet or iPad once a day instead of being signed off on a paper roll. It simply depends on the implementation.

Trials have already begun in independent schools in NSW and up to 100 campuses across Australia. According to the developers, the technology promises to save teachers up to 2.5 hours a week by replacing the need for them to mark the roll at the start of every class.

Read more: I should know you: ‘face blindness’ and the problem of identifying others

Many students now have smart phones that recognise faces right now. There are also downloadable face recognition apps for Android phones and iPhones. So face recognition is already in our schools.

And I argue that, like earlier technologies such as the motor vehicle and mobile phone, a strategy where adoption is managed to create the most good and least harm is appropriate. We shouldn’t simply ban it.

How does it work?

Face recognition technology uses a camera to capture a face and then matches this face against a database to determine identity. First, the face or faces must be detected and localised in the camera frame. Then, face images are aligned and rescaled to a standard size. Finally, these faces are matched against a database. Matching is almost invariably performed using artificial intelligence technology.

We are now in a golden age of face recognition. The main reason for rapid adoption is recognition accuracy has improved astronomically in recent years with 20 times better accuracy from 2014 to 2018.

Now deep learning – a form of artificial intelligence that uses a machine to do a task that usually requires human intelligence – is used for face recognition and an increasing number of other vision tasks.

Read more: The future of artificial intelligence: two experts disagree

Saving time

The simple application of this technology proposed for schools is to automate the collection of the student roll call for classes. This is a mandatory compliance requirement imposed by the education department.

Roll call is a menial task currently performed by highly skilled teachers or their assistants. Looplearn, the Melbourne startup running the face recognition trials, estimates approximately 2.5 hours of teaching time a week is wasted through mandatory roll calls.

Student time is also wasted. Most of us remember waiting in line many minutes to get marked off on a roll during our school days. Roll call is not a constructive use of time, but it is required by law.

In wider society, it’s now estimated each of us spends three working weeks of the year simply authenticating ourselves to computers and other people. This is time consumed in providing identity documents, password resets, signing documents, waiting in phone queues, and so on.

Clearly authentication is vitally important, but it is consuming increasing amounts of our daily lives. Time is one resource none of us can ever recover.

Many of us remember how bad and slow airport immigration control was before Australia adopted face recognition. Now we can leave Australia with very short delays using SmartGates.

An electronic image of our passport photo is securely stored within the passport itself. The SmartGate terminal extracts the photo from the passport chip and gives us a blue ticket. We then insert the blue ticket into the SmartGate, look at the camera and wait for the face recognition technology. If the faces match, the gates open.

Privacy concerns

Privacy is often raised as an objection and this issue can never be dismissed lightly. Objections are mostly based on the collection and distribution of the photos. But every school collects photos of their students already and schools have strict control over distribution.

Such controls would necessarily be built into any school certified system. The only fundamental change to the process is whether the teacher or a computer recognises the student.

Commercial face recognition technology is often quite unreliable unless the person cooperates by standing still and looking directly at the camera like a SmartGate. This is quite different from non-cooperative recognition of persons without their knowledge using surveillance cameras. Cooperative face recognition systems are now well-accepted by the public at the borders, and privacy has been carefully considered in their design.

The emerging non-cooperative surveillance systems have greater potential for invasion of privacy, but they are also faster and more convenient. Indeed, Australia is now rolling out facial recognition technology that will see international travellers pass through airports without even producing their passports

We can’t stop the tide – but we can manage it

Face recognition technologies will become widely adopted across society over the coming years. Concerns over implementation and privacy may slow down adoption in some places, but the tide will come in and will change business practices right across the world once that happens.

So who should manage and advise on these changes? Government will certainly have a role, but they need to be well advised and be aware of best practice worldwide. Such a role role is often played by the Biometrics Institute which was established during the development of the SmartGate system to advise on biometrics best practice as well as privacy concerns.

Read more: Big Brother is watching, but it’s nothing to fret about … honest

This technology has the ability to free up our time and reduce the costs of necessary compliance as has already been demonstrated at the airport. As with all new technologies, face recognition raises legitimate concerns. Constructive policies and dialog are the preferred way forward to gain the maximum benefit for society at large, and to make sure we do the least harm.

– ref. Face recognition technology in classrooms is here – and that’s ok – http://theconversation.com/face-recognition-technology-in-classrooms-is-here-and-thats-ok-111351

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University

Curious Kids is a series for children. Send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. You might also like the podcast Imagine This, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen and The Conversation, based on Curious Kids.

Why do we have a drought? – Leon, age 6, Croydon, Sydney.

Hi Leon. That is a great question.

We have a drought whenever it stops raining for a long time. Rain is not always fun, but it is really important.

In some places it is pretty normal if it doesn’t rain for a long time, like in the desert. But even they still need a little bit of rain sometimes.

When it rains, some of the water goes into the ground. That keeps the plants in your backyard, on the farms and in nature happy, because they can drink water from the soil with their roots. Some water can trickle really deep into the ground, but we can still pump that groundwater from wells when we need it.

Another part of the rain goes into the rivers and that is really important too. When you open the tap at home, the water comes all the way from the river. The fish also need the river water, and the farmers need some of it to grow our food.

So as you can see, all of us need water: at home, on the farms and in nature. When we don’t have enough water left for the people, plants and animals to stay healthy, then we call that a drought.

There are lots of ways to save water. Shutterstock

Read more: The rise of an intelligence lobby threatens the rights of lawyers, journalists – and all of us

But why?

Maybe you want to know why it doesn’t rain? Because that is also a really good question.

Most rain comes from the sea. We need the wind to bring the clouds with the rain to us. But sometimes the wind can blow the wrong way for a long time, and then we don’t get that rain.

Then it can also get really hot, like in the summer holidays we just had. It also gets hotter because we are making our planet warmer. The heat makes the drought even worse, because it makes the plants more thirsty so they have to drink more.

We can’t make it rain. But we can try to make sure we have enough water to keep everyone and everything healthy. You are already helping if you don’t use more water from the tap than you need.

You can also talk to your parents about the planet getting warmer. With their help there is a lot we can do about that, too. For example, when they get to choose a government they can pick a person who really wants to fix it. And when you grow up, so can you!

Read more: Curious Kids: What is dew?

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:

* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationEDU with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
* Tell us on Facebook

CC BY-ND

Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.

– ref. Curious Kids: why do we have a drought? – http://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-we-have-a-drought-110592

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merlin Crossley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and Professor of Molecular Biology, UNSW

University students, like many in society, demonstrate bias against women and particularly women from non-English speaking backgrounds.

That’s the take home message from a new and comprehensive analysis of student experience surveys.

The study examined a large dataset consisting of more than 500,000 student responses collected over 2010 to 2016. It involved more than 3,000 teachers and 2,000 courses across five faculties at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney.

Read more: Study of 1.6 million grades shows little gender difference in maths and science at school

Most bias in science and business

Interestingly, the bias varies.

In parts of science and business the effects are clear. In the science and business faculties, a male teacher from an English-speaking background was more than twice as likely to get a higher score on a student evaluation than a female teacher from a non-English speaking background.

But in other areas, such as arts and social science, the effects are almost marginal. In engineering, effects were only detected for non-English speakers.

When one looks at the probability of scoring very high ratings, and dissects the categories into genders and cultural background, the results are clear. The disparities occur mostly at the very top end: this is where bias creeps in.

Previously the university had looked at just the average (mean) ratings of teachers of different genders, and found that they are more or less indistinguishable (unpublished data). But this new study goes further and provides information that is not evident in superficial analyses.

Should we abandon student feedback?

Student feedback can be a useful mechanism to understand the varied experiences of students. But student feedback is sometimes used inappropriately in staff performance evaluations, and that’s where the existence of bias creates serious problems.

One can make the case for abandoning student feedback – and many have.

But it’s problematic to turn a deaf ear to the student voice, and that is not what national approaches such as the Quality in Learning and Teaching processes (QILT) are doing.

This is because feedback can often be helpful. It can make things better. In addition, it is often positive. Sometimes the feedback is actually the way students say thanks.

However, sometimes it can be very hurtful and damaging, particularly if it is motivated by prejudice. We have to be aware of that and the barriers it can create.

We know that minority groups already suffer from reduced confidence and visibility, so biased teacher evaluations may exaggerate existing inequities.

Read more: How understanding animal behaviour can liberate us from gender inequality

What do the numbers mean?

It is very important to be cautious when looking at the raw numbers.

Firstly, let’s consider what the numbers mean. Students are not evaluating teaching and learning in these surveys. They are telling us about their experiences – that’s why we call them MyExperience surveys at UNSW. We resist the idea that they are student evaluations of teaching, as are used in some settings.

Peer review can make contributions to evaluating teaching while assessments can help evaluate learning – however they may not be enough to overcome bias. When considering professional performance at UNSW, we do not exclude the feedback that students provide on their experience, but we look at a basket of indicators.

Secondly, one has to be serious about the biases that emerge, acknowledge them and confront the issues. Most universities pride themselves on being diverse and inclusive, and students support this.

But this study reminds us that we have work to do. Biases exist. The message is strong. You are more likely to score top ratings if you come from the category of white male: that is, if you are from the prevailing establishment.

The influence of history

These results may be surprising given the diversity of the student and staff body at Australian universities.

But our cultural milieu has been historically saturated by white males, and continuing biases exist. The important thing is to be aware of them, and when looking at the numbers to realise that the ratings are provided in the context of a particular society at a particular moment in time.

The scores should not be blindly accepted at face value.

Most universities, including ours, are working on being more inclusive. At UNSW a new Deputy Vice-Chancellor Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – Eileen Baldry – was recently appointed, and we are working hard to combat bias and to introduce new strategies aimed at supporting diversity. For example, the university will introduce new training for members of promotion panels, explaining the biases detected in our new study. By understanding the problem, we can begin to address it.

Read more: ‘Walking into a headwind’ – what it feels like for women building science careers

All staff across all of our universities can benefit from becoming more aware of issues around bias – especially those in powerful positions, such as members of promotion committees.

Reducing bias will have great benefits for society as university students represent a large proportion of future leaders in government and industry.

It is clear that negative stereotypes will contribute to the partiality that exists within our student community. Encouraging more women and cultural minorities at all levels in higher education, in leadership positions and in membership of key committees will help shrink these biases.

Training in values

Training students is challenging, especially at large modern universities such as UNSW, which has a cohort of over 50,000 coming from more than 100 countries. But our study found similar levels of bias in local students, as we did in international students.

In training students we have to remember that we provide knowledge, but also communicate values via our words and our behaviours.

If we are to continue to listen to the student experience, we need to be careful with the results. Rigorous statistical analyses such as this study, can help us recognise bias and work to address it. If our students graduate with less bias than when they entered their degree, we will be contributing to creating a more equitable and inclusive society in the future.

It is not easy to uproot prejudices but the data are clear. We expect people will be on board and be pleased to contribute to moving things in the right direction.

– ref. Male teachers are most likely to rate highly in university student feedback – http://theconversation.com/male-teachers-are-most-likely-to-rate-highly-in-university-student-feedback-111741

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leanda McKenna, Lecturer, Curtin University

It’s the middle of the night. Your newborn baby is awake. Again. She wants to feed. You lift her to your breast and brace for the pain.

Most mothers who breastfeed come to appreciate the convenience and the bonding it provides. But until your breasts get used to feeding your infant, it may hurt.

Around one in five Australian mothers will also develop mastitis, an inflammation of the breast tissue. Mastitis is most common in the first four to six weeks after birth.

Read more: Want to breastfeed? These five things will make it easier

How do you know you’ve got mastitis?

Common symptoms of mastitis include a breast that may be abnormally red, tender to touch, or painful. You may have swelling, firm areas or lumps in your breast.

Some mothers may also have more general flu-like symptoms such as a fever, chills, high temperature, fatigue, joint aches, headache or malaise.

Your health care professional will typically diagnose mastitis based on these symptoms; blood tests aren’t usually needed.

Mastitis can be very distressing for new mothers, as it impacts on their desire to continue breastfeeding, their capacity to cope with their baby, and in some cases, their ability to care for other children.

About 10% of breastfeeding mothers get mastitis more than once when breastfeeding the same baby, and 7% will get mastitis again when breastfeeding subsequent children.

The more children a woman has, the less likely she is to develop mastitis during breastfeeding. This may be because women become more used to breastfeeding, the more children they have.

Causes

Nipple damage may lead to mastitis by allowing bacteria to enter the breast tissue through a graze or crack on the nipple. Cracked nipples can occur if the baby has difficulty attaching to the breast during breastfeeding, or when the baby’s feeding action damages the skin of the nipple.

About 60% of mothers who have mastitis have an infection caused by the bacteria that commonly live on the skin or in the breast. However, these same bacteria are present in the milk of mothers who don’t have mastitis. So although a bacterial infection may be the cause of mastitis for some, it’s not necessarily the cause for all mothers with the condition.

Mastitis most commonly occurs during the first four to six weeks after birth. From shutterstock.com

Milk stasis, or the obstruction of milk flow, can also be an important factor in the development of mastitis. Breast milk needs to be effectively cleared from the breast and there are a number of reasons why this may not be the case.

Mothers may have an oversupply of milk or have begun to decrease their level of breastfeeding.

Wearing a bra with straps that cut across breast tissue may reduce milk flow, and clearance, from that section of the breast.

Using dummies to soothe infants who may be hungry can delay breastfeeding and subsequent milk clearance from the breast.

Read more: Breastfeeding dictator or breastfeeding enabler? Midwives’ support styles can make a difference

If the breast is not cleared of milk, milk stasis may allow bacterial concentrations to change within it, or cause an inflammatory reaction as milk is forced out of milk ducts and into the surrounding breast tissue.

Treatment and prevention

Effectively removing milk from the breast is the most important part of treatment for mastitis. This can usually be achieved by helping the baby attach properly to the breast – with the assistance of a lactation consultant – and by feeding regularly.

To manage your symptoms, your health care professional might suggest taking pain relief, resting, drinking lots of water, applying warmth to help with milk clearance (such as by having a warm shower), and applying cooling after breastfeeding.

GPs may prescribe antibiotics to treat mastitis, but there is very little evidence to show this approach is effective.

Read more: Breastmilk alone is best for the first six months – here’s what to do next

Physiotherapists can treat mastitis using ultrasound and gentle massage to help remove milk from the breast. Research is underway to evaluate how well used and effective these emerging techniques may be.

In 3% of mothers with mastitis, it may progress to a breast abscess, which may require hospitalisation and treatment via needle aspiration. In serious cases, the condition may require surgical drainage.

There is now also some evidence to suggest that probiotics such as Lactobacillus may be an effective preventive measure. They have been shown to halve the chance of developing mastitis when taken for 16 weeks following childbirth.

To avoid mastitis, mothers wearing maternity bras should ensure the bra does not cut across the breast tissue. If you’re using dummies, only give them when you’re sure the baby isn’t hungry. Most importantly, continue to breastfeed regularly.

– ref. Explainer: what is mastitis? – http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-mastitis-108686

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Orr, Veterinarian and PhD candidate, University of Sydney

Have you ever wondered what’s going through your dog’s mind when you say the word “walk”? And does your pup seem to show guilt when you ask them sternly “what have you done?” Their tail might drop between their legs, their ears droop down, and their eyes turn away.

We often attribute human emotions to animals, in a practice called anthropomorphism. It’s frowned upon in scientific circles, because it can lead us to incorrectly assume what animals are expressing. In the example of your naughty pet, you’d be right to think your dog displays some change in emotional state when you scold them. However, the emotion isn’t guilt: they’re expressing confusion and occasionally anxiety.

Read more: About time: science and a declaration of animal consciousness

The ACT is currently considering legislation that would enshrine animal “sentience” in the law, which means for the first time an Australian jurisdiction will consider animals’ feelings as well as their physical well-being in animal protection laws.

The emotional lives of animals

Modern science has clearly demonstrated that animals experience feelings, sensations and emotional states (or as scientists like to call them, “affective states”). What owners and livestock attendants have known or suspected for a long time, we can now definitively prove.

Unfortunately, the idea that animals can experience emotions has only re-emerged fairly recently. We can blame thinkers during the Renaissance for the spread of the idea that animals weren’t capable of experiencing emotions or feelings. They maintained that animals were like machines, unable to feel or perceive. Any animal which cried out when injured or beaten was thought to be showing an automatic response, similar to a reflex, rather than a conscious response.

It wasn’t until the 18th century that philosophers and scientists began recognising that animals were not only conscious, but they were actually sentient and capable of suffering.

What is sentience?

Sentience can be defined simply as the ability to feel or perceive. Humans are obviously sentient, but many other animal species are also considered sentient. These are animals that respond to a sensory input such as heat, interpret that sensation as an emotion or feeling such as discomfort, then consider an appropriate response to that feeling.

This goes beyond a simple reflex, as sentient animals may choose different responses based on their environment or internal state. For example, a sheep experiencing uncomfortable heat might not move and seek shade if a predator is nearby.

Most animals are sentient

All animals with spines, which includes all mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, as well as some animals without spines such as octopus, squid, crabs and lobsters are generally considered sentient. This means that essentially all the animals we use for food, entertainment, work and companionship have feelings, emotions and the ability to suffer.

Read more: Octopuses are super-smart … but are they conscious?

Other animals like insects and some lower crustaceans haven’t demonstrated sentience. However, as knowledge increases, and experimental methods improve, it is possible that in the future we may reclassify these animals as sentient too.

We commonly misinterpret dog behaviour, especially by thinking they look guilty when they’re actually anxious or confused. NatalieMaynor/Flickr, CC BY

Moral responsibility

With the knowledge that almost all animals are able to experience both positive and negative emotions such as fear, happiness, anxiety and excitement, how we deal with this information is underpinned by our morals and ethics.

Some people consider the moral responsibility of knowing our actions may cause pain and suffering towards animals too great and follow a type of virtue ethics called “animals rights”. People who believe in animals rights think that no amount of harm towards animals for human gain is worth the suffering it causes, and hence they seek to do no harm by not eating animals or using them for entertainment.

A more dominant ethical position is that of utilitarianism, a type of consequentialist ethical theory often associated with the saying “the end justifies the means”. Utilitarians try to minimise the amount of harm done to the largest number of moral subjects.

As animals can suffer, they are considered moral subjects alongside humans. Therefore, it would be wrong to cause animals to suffer for no reason. However, if only a small number of animals suffered in order to feed or bring joy to a large number of people, that might be morally acceptable.

There are many other types of ethical theories which consider the idea of animal sentience, and in reality, most people are a mixture of a few different moral positions (it is really hard being a strict utilitarian: see the The Trolley Dilemma).

Read more: The trolley dilemma: would you kill one person to save five?

What the ACT is proposing

The ACT is proposing to become the first Australian state or territory to formally recognise the sentience of animals in animal welfare legislation. With public consultation closed, the ACT government will now consider public feedback on their proposed changes. This feedback will inform the final piece of legislation, to be debated by the Legislative Assembly later in the year.

If sentience is included in the amended law, the ACT won’t be the first jurisdiction to have done so. New Zealand, Europe and Canada have already included it in their animal welfare laws.

However, it is significant for Australia, as it commits the government to consider how the feelings of animals may impact their welfare. Far from giving animal’s rights, it acknowledges that an animal can be physically healthy but mentally suffering, and this mental suffering can lead to poor welfare. With animal welfare an issue of growing importance to many Australians, recognising the inner lives of animals is an important step forward.

Read more: What does it mean to think and could a machine ever do it?

– ref. In an Australian first, the ACT may legally recognise animals’ feelings – http://theconversation.com/in-an-australian-first-the-act-may-legally-recognise-animals-feelings-111079

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gigi Foster, Professor, School of Economics, UNSW

After three years and 35 polls, the Economic Society of Australia has received its first-ever unanimous response to a survey question.

It asked just over 50 of Australia’s leading economists to respond to this statement:

There is no way to significantly increase the degree to which Australian retail banks act in the interests of consumers.

Twenty did. All rejected the proposition that nothing could be done. But there was widespread disagreement about what should be done.

Most thought that regulations should be tightened and better enforced.

Mathew Butlin’s comments typify this “more regulation” approach:

The incentive structures for bank staff, from the top down, play a key role in shaping behaviour. A more complete set of performance measures linked to remuneration that strongly penalises behaviour not in the consumer interest would provide stronger incentives for better behaviour, especially when linked with reliable information on non-compliance going to management and ultimately the bank board and a requirement for both to take action.

A smaller group openly doubted that better regulations would help, because they were not confident that the current crop of regulators or politicians would be able to devise and properly enforce them.

Allan Fels gave the most damning response (with the highest word count) saying what was needed – among other things – was a “radical improvement in the performance” of the two main regulators, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

In particular they need a change of culture. This will prove to be harder to do than it sounds. People have been talking for over twenty years about the ASIC and APRA culture needing improvement.

Geoffrey Kingston called for mandatory minimum sentences for financial crimes, arguing that the courts were complicit in the maintenance of financial crimes by being reluctant to jail white-collar criminals.

Kingston and Joaquin Vespignani pointed to the monopoly power of the big four banks before then raising the hope that the “big data” revolution would democratise banking and re-empower consumers, an idea at the heart of the government’s Consumer Data Right initiative.

Also targeting market concentration, Allan Fels, James Morley, and John Quiggin called for the separation of bank functions (with marketing separate from advice) or the breakup of banks themselves as happened in the United States under the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which separated investment banks from deposit-taking banks.

Gigi Foster called for foreign countries to send competent regulators to sort out Australian’s banking system, suggesting that Australian regulators were compromised.

John Quiggin called for a stand-alone “no frills” public bank modelled on New Zealand’s Kiwibank, something he hoped would rein in the expansion of the financial sector that began in the 1970s. But he added:

These proposals may be beyond the realm of political feasibility, which is why I have expressed only modest confidence in my view.

Quiggin and a substantial minority of those polled acknowledged that – uncomfortably for economists – many of the barriers to getting banks to behave better lay outside the realm of economics. Like well-meaning doctors, economists have been dispensing prescriptions that “should work”, while the patient continues to die.

But standard prescriptions have their place – among them removing commissions, imposing salary caps, imposing fee caps, revoking licences and setting minimum jail terms, all of which would change the balance of risks and rewards and help put money back into the pcokets of ordinary Australians.

Of course, even applying traditional economic prescriptions require political will.

Perhaps surprisingly for a group of “dismal scientists”, 20 of Australia’s leading economists believe that change is possible. It isn’t the economics that is dismal, it’s the dearth of political courage to do what’s needed.

The Conversation

– ref. It’s unanimous: Economists’ poll says we can fix the banks. But that doesn’t mean we will – http://theconversation.com/its-unanimous-economists-poll-says-we-can-fix-the-banks-but-that-doesnt-mean-we-will-111748

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Management, Swinburne University of Technology

The leaders of our banks and financial institutions are seen as the most self-serving in the nation, according to a national survey undertaken by researchers at Swinburne University of Technology.

More than a third (35.4%) of respondents believe banking and financial institutions show “no leadership for the greater good”. This score is slightly worse than public perceptions of the Federal Government, substantially worse than religious institutions and significantly worse than trade unions.

The results, from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians, also repudiate the Australian Banking Association’s claim a year ago that “Australians believe banks are heading in the right direction”.

And given this survey was done in December 2018, before the Banking Royal Commission had completed its work exposing misconduct in the financial services sector, it’s likely a future poll will show even greater community distrust of bankers.

Read more: Banking Royal Commission: no commissions, no exemptions, no fees without permission. Hayne gets the government to do a U-turn

Transparency and accountability are crucial

Our findings come from the initial results of the Australian Leadership Index, a new quarterly survey from the Swinburne Business School that measures and tracks community perceptions and expectations of leadership for the greater good across 13 societal institutions.

The index won’t be officially published until later in the year. But given the important public discussion about corporate leadership in the wake of the final report of the banking royal commission, we think it’s useful to share a snapshot of our findings.

Consistent with other studies that highlight the importance of transparency and accountability to perceptions of trust, our research confirms the importance of these attributes to perceptions of leadership for the public good.

From a community perspective, leadership for the greater good occurs when leaders demonstrate high ethical standards, when they demonstrate transparency and accountability for their positive and negative impacts, and when they seek to balance the interests of multiple stakeholders, including the wider community in which their institutions are nested.

So, leadership for the greater good is reflected in what value leaders create, how they create value, and for whom they create value.

Unhappily, banking leaders are found wanting on all counts.

The importance of how value is created

But other institutions are also found wanting, with our results revealing a generalised pessimism about Australian leadership.

Our survey results shed light on where the public think leaders are failing and what the community expects of leaders and their institutions to serve the greater good.

Notably, creating economic value is not a highly regarded aspect of leadership for the greater good. This is not to say it is unimportant. But on its own it is insufficient.

What looms largest in the public mind when thinking about the greater good is the social value that institutions create, how ethically they create this value, and their transparency and accountability for positive and negative impacts.

Our research demonstrates that leadership for the greater good is as much about how leaders create value for their stakeholders — from their employees to their customers to society-at-large — as it is about what value they create and for whom they create value.

It’s not hugely complicated.

And yet, as revealed by the endless, unedifying parade of misconduct in government, business, religious, sporting and other civil society institutions, community standards and expectations are too often observed in the breach.

Read more: What banking regulators can learn from Deepwater Horizon and other industrial catastrophes

In the wake of the banking royal commission, the Australian community has a golden opportunity for a thoroughgoing discussion about the leadership we need to protect and enhance the public interest.

We hope the Australian Leadership Index will contribute to that discussion, by making all our data freely accessible through a new data visualisation platform. This will enable easy tracking of how institutions are performing according to public perceptions of their impact on the public good.

Wise leaders focus on the greater good. It behoves all leaders to create this new culture of public leadership.

– ref. One-third of Australians think banks do nothing for the greater public good – http://theconversation.com/one-third-of-australians-think-banks-do-nothing-for-the-greater-public-good-111346

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Lee, Graduate Researcher, University of Tasmania

Who is currently regarded as the greatest guitarist of all time? It’s a hard question to answer but plenty have tried. In the last decade, a plethora of lists have sought to rank our guitar greats, drawing variously on panels of experts, lone “specialists”, and public opinion polls.

My colleagues and I recently analysed ten such lists, which were published on the websites of music journals such as Rolling Stone, Louder and Guitar World, industry groups such as WatchMojo and UDiscover Music and online guitar communities including Guitar Habits.

Overwhelmingly, we found Jimi Hendrix in the number one spot with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page often locked in a wrestling match for second ranking. Remarkably, among the 33 guitarists mentioned in the top ten places across these lists, not one was a woman.

By giving each guitarist a score from one to ten for their positions across the lists, we created an assimilated meta-list showing the top ten guitarists of all time (as inferred by industry and popular media discourse). This list contained from one to ten: Hendrix, Page, Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards and Dave Gilmour.

Other guitarists mentioned in the lists included Jeff Beck, Queen’s Brian May, Carlos Santana, Dimebag Darryl from Pantera, Slash from Guns N’ Roses, and Duane Allman.

Joni Mitchell was the highest ranking female in any of the lists at twelfth spot on the PurpleClover ranking. But where were female blues legends Bonnie Raitt (who scraped in at 89 on the Rolling Stone list) or multiple Grammy nominee Susan Tedeschi? Where is Orianthi, a young Australian guitarist who shared a stage with Michael Jackson and continues to tour the world with other major artists? Why are women being written out of the canon in this way?

The author of the UDiscoverMusic article wrote:

Believe us when we say, women guitar players are in short supply on these lists, and as much as we love Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt and Chantel McGregor, to name just three, they just did not make the grade.

But are talented women guitarists really in such short supply?

Guitar wielding female rock legends certainly exist. Think of Joan Jett, Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman and the genre defying St. Vincent. Consider the American virtuosos Nita Strauss and Jennifer Batten, renowned freelance guitarists who have performed respectively with Alice Cooper and Michael Jackson. (Batten played lead guitar on Michael Jackson’s Bad, Dangerous and HIStory world tours).

Young female guitarists are out there in large numbers around the world, some having developed impressive on-line followings, including Swiss fingerstyle artist Gabriella Quevedo and French rock virtuoso Tina S..

A recent study by Fender suggested that 50% of new guitar players are women; Guitar World magazine cited the influence of Taylor Swift as the reason young girls are taking up the instrument.

Is part of the problem here the age and gender of the people who compile these canonical lists? There is also a bias towards certain musical genres. All the guitarists in the top ten positions on the lists are rock or blues players: there are no jazz, classical or world music guitarists. There is also an Anglo-American monopoly – no Australian made it to any of the top tens, not even AC DC’s Angus Young – and the youngest guitarist on the meta-list is baby boomer Eddie Van Halen.

Is the guitar hero a creation of the 1960s and 70s and therefore outdated? Do we need a new perspective on guitar godliness? Do these lists perpetuate the idea that only white men of a certain age can be “greats” in these genres?

Our study suggests online guitar community discourse is simply granting more exposure to already venerated guitar heroes. What role music education has had, or will have, on this is unclear. When I called for students of contemporary guitar to participate in my research project, currently in progress at the University of Tasmania, on the influence of tertiary music education in Australia, 95% of respondents were male. (Of course this may say more about who responds to surveys than the gender balance of university contemporary music courses.)

But given that plenty of young people are learning guitar, one wonders if music teachers are teaching their favourite music to the next generation – and thus replicating old ideas of the canon.

– ref. We crunched the numbers on ten recent ‘world’s best guitarist’ lists. Where are the women? – http://theconversation.com/we-crunched-the-numbers-on-ten-recent-worlds-best-guitarist-lists-where-are-the-women-111598

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Milford, Professor, Queensland University of Technology

Alita: Battle Angel is an interesting and wild ride, jam-packed full of concepts around cybernetics, dystopian futures and cyberpunk themes.

The film – in cinemas from today – revolves around Alita (Rosa Salazar), a female cyborg (with original human brain) that is recovered by cybernetic doctor Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) and brought into the world of the future (the film is set in 2563).

Hundreds of years after a catastrophic war, called “The Fall”, the population of Earth now resides in a wealthy sky city called Zalem and a sprawling junkyard called Iron City where the detritus from Zalem is dumped.

Read more: The science of parkour, the sport that seems reckless but takes poise and skill

We follow Alita’s story as she makes friends and enemies, and discovers more about her past. Her character is great – she has many of the mannerisms of a teenage girl combined with a determination and overarching sense of what is right – “I do not stand by in the presence of evil.”

So let’s dig into the many scientific concepts touched on in the film and see how far from reality they are, or might be in the future.

Alita: Battle Angel Trailer. (20th Century Fox)

Touch skin

Alita goes through two cybernetic bodies in the film, with the second being especially advanced. A big part of the film is the interaction between the human and cyborg components, and a major component of that is touch, especially with respect to the main love interest Hugo (Keean Johnson).

A touching scene from the movie. 20th Century Fox.

As shown in the film, Alita’s cyborg body has a pretty advanced and location-sensitive sense of touch. In today’s world, robot touch, or tactile sensing, is relatively advanced (although not yet widely deployed) and uses a range of technologies including deformable skin that changes both its capacitance (to measure and “sense” the touch) and illuminance (to display the results of the touch).

Touch can also be detected in terms of changes in temperature, conductivity, resistance or even optical changes that result from a touch.

Verdict: Not a stretch.

Antimatter heart

A heart of antimatter. 20th Century Fox

Like Ironman from The Avengers with his arc reactor, and The T-850 from the Terminator series with its hydrogen fuel cells, Alita is powered by an antimatter heart.

We are nowhere close to an antimatter-type energy source at this stage – current robots of similar size like the ones Boston Dynamics builds are increasingly being powered by relatively conventional batteries.

There are multiple major obstacles to overcome in using antimatter as any type of energy source, including finding an efficient way to obtain the antimatter in the first place and capturing the energy released from a matter-antimatter event.

Verdict: Beating physics is difficult.

Learning to use a body

Alita’s first steps upon waking up in her new body cause her to stumble, but only momentarily.

Robot walking and other related motion capabilities have long been an active field of research, with companies such as Boston Dynamics making very publicly visible strides (see what we did there) in biped (two legs) and quadruped (four legs) movement.

The two legged robot Atlas performing robot parkour. (Boston Dynamics)

Alita has likely never used the exact body that she is given at first – but manages to walk, jump and fight fluently almost instantaneously.

This is in stark contrast to current robots learning from scratch to walk – which can take thousands of hours of training in simulation and then on the robot to get right.

Emergence of Locomotion Behaviours in Rich Environments. (Google Deepmind)

Instead it’s likely that Alita has a range of pre-trained motion models for a variety of body configurations, and is able to rapidly tweak them to work on the body she is given.

Rapid learning. 20th Century Fox

Verdict: Runs well.

Will cyborgs need to eat?

The doctor tells Alita she has to eat to provide nutrients to her (still organic) brain. This sounds reasonable, but she would need a complete digestive system to break the food down into nutrients and absorb them into her bloodstream.

Since her torso is completely inorganic, it’s more likely that fluid, vitamins, minerals and macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) would be injected directly into her blood.

Today, some people who have had their intestines removed due to illness continue to live relatively normal lives.

Verdict: Hard to swallow.

Will cyborgs need sleep?

We first see the repaired Alita as she wakes up from a deep sleep.

Scientists are not certain about all the reasons that sleep is needed, but it seems particularly important for the brain. While awake, your brain cells use lots of energy and produce lots of metabolic waste that accumulates around the cells.

At night while you sleep, your brain clears away the waste. Sleep also seems vital for remembering what you’ve learned.

Since Alita’s brain is human, it’s quite plausible she would need to sleep.

Verdict: Not just a dream.

Could a brain survive for 300 years?

Even while you sleep, your brain still needs a constant supply of oxygen. Brain damage from a lack of oxygen starts becoming irreparable after about 20 minutes without it, although with noted exceptions.

Brains can be temporarily put into a state of suspended animation by cooling them down dramatically, and operations like heart transplants are sometimes done this way today.

But keeping the brain cold also requires power, and a brain can only currently be kept alive like this for a few hours, not the 300 years portrayed in the movie.

Verdict: A little brain-dead.

The future of humans – cyborgs

Alita: Battle Angel presents a world full of cyborgs with varying remnants of their humanity (both physical and mental). Whether this is a realistic potential future is still up for debate – we don’t know whether this ongoing hybridisation of humans and technology will be sustained or will rapidly switch completely over to robotics technology.

Read more: Why visual illusions appear in everyday objects – from nature to architecture

But if we are to have a future of cyborgs, the movie presents (sometimes realistically) a range of concepts that are fascinating to consider: will these cyborgs still need to eat, to sleep, and how will a mixed society of humans and cyborgs function.

Alita: Battle Angel is a vision of one such possible future, and is a worthy addition to the canon of films that provoke us to think about just what our world of tomorrow will look like.

Alita: Battle Angel prompts us to consider what exactly our machine and technology-filled future may look like. 20th Century Fox

– ref. A robot that can touch, eat and sleep? The reality of cyborgs like Alita: Battle Angel – http://theconversation.com/a-robot-that-can-touch-eat-and-sleep-the-reality-of-cyborgs-like-alita-battle-angel-110430

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

Over the past 15 years, we’ve seen a decline in the performance of Australian school students on international tests. On the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Australia ranks a disappointing 20th in mathematics and 12th in reading. However you feel about standardised tests like NAPLAN and PISA, it certainly isn’t good news that we’re falling behind internationally.

Australian PISA Scores. ACER

Over the same period, there has also been a revolution in education research through the use of randomised controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of different education policies. All manner of things have been tried – everything from smaller class sizes to intensive tutoring. And now paying kids to learn.

My coauthors and I did just that in two sets of experiments in Houston, Texas and Washington, D.C. We found if kids are paid for things such as attendance, good behaviour, short-cycle tests, and homework they were 1% more likely to go to school, committed 28% fewer behavioural infractions, and were 13.5% more likely to finish their homework.

Read more: Speaking with: Andrew Leigh on why we need more randomised trials in policy and law

This led to a big increase in kids performing at a proficient level in mathematics and reading. This cost money – we distributed roughly AU$7 million in incentives to 6,875 kids. But measured financially, the approach where we gave students money for a number of things (such as behaviour, attendance and academic tasks) produced a 32% annual return on investment.

Our experiments

In Houston, we paid 1,734 fifth graders to do maths homework problems. We paid the parents too, if their child did their homework.

Some 50 schools were given educational software that fit in with the curriculum. Half (25) of those schools were randomly selected to be in the “treatment group”. This group of school kids got AU$2.80 per homework problem they mastered. Parents of the children got AU$2.80 per problem mastered, and teachers were eligible for bonuses of up to AU$14,000.

The 25 control schools got the identical educational software and training, but no financial incentives.

This randomised controlled trial allows for a simple test of the effect of financial incentives. This works because there are a large number of students in both the treatment and control group, and because they were randomly assigned. Differences in other factors like innate ability, home background, or parental involvement average out.

We should be open minded about trying similar trials in Australia. from www.shutterstock.com

So to understand the true, causal effect of the cash incentives on test scores we can just look at the difference in average test scores between the treatment and control kids.

This is the same principle underlying pharmaceutical trials. For example, some patients might get heart medication, while others get a placebo (a sugar pill). Researchers then look at the difference in heart functioning to figure out whether the medication works.

This approach is the gold standard for understanding the true effect of an intervention – in medicine, economics, or education.

The financial incentives we used in Houston led to children doing lots more homework, and to a fairly large increase in performance on standardised maths tests. But there was an almost equal offsetting decline in performance on reading tests.

The children responded to the incentives all right – by shifting their efforts from reading, which they didn’t receive incentives for, to maths.

Read more: The best way to boost the economy is to improve the lives of deprived students

The most able 20% of students, based on their prior-year test scores, did way better in maths and no worse in reading. Incentives for the least able 20% of students were a disaster. They did lots more maths problems, did no better on maths tests, and far worse on reading tests.

By contrast, in Washington D.C. we provided incentives for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students on multiple measures, including: attendance, behaviour, short-cycle assessments, and two other variable measures chosen by each school. This led to a 17% increase in students scoring at or above proficiency for their grade in maths and a 15% increase in reading proficiency.

Is it ethical to pay kids to learn?

Paying children to study and behave might sound radical, or even unethical. Yet we provide incentives to kids all the time. Most parents use a combination of carrots and sticks as motivation already, such as screen time or treats.

A legitimate concern is that cash incentives might affect intrinsic motivation and turn learning into a transaction rather than a joy. The evidence from our study showed intrinsic motivation actually increased.

Perhaps the harder question is whether it’s ethical to use an approach that won’t help less advantaged students perform better and develop a love of learning.

The path forward

Nearly two decades of research in the US using randomised control trials has identified the positive causal effect of a range of interventions. These include high-dose tutoring, out-of-school and community-based reading programs, smaller class sizes, better teachers, a culture of high expectations and, yes, financial incentives.

Read more: Smaller class sizes improve student achievement

In Australia, we should be open minded and look at the evidence. This will involve carefully designed randomised trials in Australian schools to determine what really works, and what the return on investment is.

– ref. Why we should (carefully) consider paying kids to learn – http://theconversation.com/why-we-should-carefully-consider-paying-kids-to-learn-111624

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne

History tells us that no matter which side of politics – Labor or Coalition – is in power, there is no respite for the ABC from incipient government hostility.

What does change, however, is the nature of the provocations that make governments antsy with Aunty.

Both sides get cross when the ABC criticises what the government does. But, in other respects, the provocations differ depending on which party is in power.

When it’s Labor, the sharpest tensions arise when the ABC’s journalism harms the party or its mates.

For example, during the Hawke-Keating years (1983-1996) there was fury about the ABC’s treatment of a Labor icon, Neville Wran, and Hawke’s mate, the transport tycoon Sir Peter Abeles.

In 1983, when Wran was premier of New South Wales, a Four Corners program, The Big League, implicated him in allegations of corruption in rugby league and the NSW magistracy. Wran was forced to stand aside during the ensuing royal commission. Although he was exonerated, he neither forgot nor forgave the ABC, and neither did the Labor Party.

Four Corners also investigated the business practices and political influence of Abeles, who was credited with playing a critical role in Hawke’s ascendancy to the Labor leadership.

However, under Labor these eruptions tend to be episodic – the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years were relatively tranquil – whereas during the Coalition’s past two terms in office hostility towards the ABC has been relentless.

When the Coalition is in office, the sharpest tensions are caused by allegations of bias and by ideological conflict of the kind typified by the culture wars: Aboriginal issues, Reconciliation and Australian history.

Read more: Constant attacks on the ABC will come back to haunt the Coalition government

This pattern was already established when John Howard became prime minister in 1996, but he took it to a new level. His senior adviser, Grahame Morris, characterised the ABC as “our enemy talking to our friends”. Howard himself referred to the 7pm ABC television news as “Labor’s home video”.

Within four months of the election, his government cut the ABC’s budget by 2% – breaking an election promise – and announced a review of the role and scope of ABC services.

Howard’s communications minister, Richard Alston, kept up an unremitting barrage of complaints that the ABC was biased. This culminated in 2003 with 68 complaints about the coverage of the second Gulf War. An independent review panel upheld 17 of these but found no systematic bias.

During the Howard government years, Communications Minister Richard Alston maintained a furious attack on the ABC. AAP/Alan Porritt

This playbook – repeated funding cuts, relentless allegations of bias, and recurring inquiries into the ABC’s efficiency and scope – has been followed to the letter by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison administrations.

Howard also fashioned appointments to the ABC board into a new weapon in the culture wars by selecting not just party grandees and reliable allies, but cultural warriors.

This reached its apogee with the appointments of Ron Brunton in 2003, Janet Albrechtsen in 2005 and the historian Keith Windshuttle in 2006.

Brunton is an anthropologist who worked for the Liberal Party and right-wing think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs. He made a name for himself by writing a critical response to the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Albrechtsen is a columnist with The Australian. She is a longstanding critic of the ABC and in particular its Media Watch program.

Her qualifications were enhanced by the fact that she had written in praise of Windshuttle’s work, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, in which he disputed estimates of the number of Aboriginal people killed in frontier massacres during European settlement. These estimates formed part of what the historian Geoffrey Blainey called the “black armband” view of Australian history, an epithet later adopted by Howard.

Labor also stacks the board but tends to content itself with the appointment of straight-out political mates – ex-politicians, labour lawyers and trade union officials. According to the ABC’s historian, Ken Inglis, in 1992 the then chairman, Mark Armstrong, looked around the boardroom and wondered whether he was the only director who did not owe his place to some connection with Labor.

As this brief history shows, both side of politics are contemptuous of the merit-based process laid down in the ABC Act for board appointments. It requires an independent nomination panel to produce three names, based on stated selection criteria, and then to recommend them to the minister.

Ministers are under no legal obligation to take any notice and, as we have seen, they routinely do not.

Australia saw the climactic results of this shameless jobbery last September when the ABC chair, Justin Milne, and the managing director, Michelle Guthrie, were forced out. This came amid recriminatory accusations about Guthrie’s performance, Milne’s relationship with the then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the board’s incapacity to defend the broadcaster’s editorial independence.

Two changes to the ABC Act would go some way towards reducing the likelihood of more crises like this.

First, part VI of the act should be amended to include a mechanism for guaranteeing the agreed level of funding for a triennium. The finance minister would then be obligated to make a statement to parliament explaining any reduction.

Second, the merit-based appointment process set out in part IIIA of the act should be made mandatory. The act should also be amended so that if the minister rejects a nomination panel’s recommendations, he or she must tell parliament who has been rejected and why someone else was preferred.

In the lead-up to the 2019 election, Labor has promised to restore the most recent cuts of A$83.7 million to the ABC budget over three years, but not the other A$250 million taken out, mainly by the Abbott government. The Coalition has kept a decent silence.

The moral of this story is that voters should not be too starry-eyed about how Labor is likely to treat the ABC if it wins the election. And they should be less starry-eyed still about the prospects of a minister giving up the power to manipulate board membership of Australia’s most important cultural institution.

– ref. Australian governments have a long history of trying to manipulate the ABC – and it’s unlikely to stop now – http://theconversation.com/australian-governments-have-a-long-history-of-trying-to-manipulate-the-abc-and-its-unlikely-to-stop-now-110712

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

Independent MP Kerryn Phelps, who set the ball rolling for the medical transfers legislation, says its passage is “a remarkable exercise in cooperation”.

Phelps says that of the about 1000 people on Manus and Nauru “around 70 people require urgent medical evacuation” and “another couple of hundred will require transfer but not as urgently”.

She describes Scott Morrison’s proposal to reopen the Christmas Island detention facility as a “political statement”.

“What we need to do is to have a regional resettlement option for people who are currently on Manus and Nauru so they don’t have to become so sick that they have to be transferred to Australia to await resettlement somewhere else.”

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kerryn Phelps on medical transfer numbers – http://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-kerryn-phelps-on-medical-transfer-numbers-111751

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Procter, Professor and Chair: Mental Health Nursing, University of South Australia

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have now passed amendments to the Migration Act 1958 that allow for the medical evacuation of asylum-seekers from Manus Island and Nauru. These amendments are also known as the medevac bill.

So, how will the situation for asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island and Nauru change with the provisions in place?

Read more: The government was defeated on the ‘medevac’ bill, but that does not mean the end of the government

What’s in the Bill?

The medevac bill allows for the transfer of asylum seekers or refugees on Nauru or Manus Island to Australia for “medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment”. Family members will also be transferred if recommended.

It gives a clear pathway for medical specialists to make medical decisions. Two doctors must assess – either in person or remotely – the person and make the recommendation for transfer. The criteria used in the initial assessment and in any review is that the person:

• needs medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment
• is not receiving appropriate medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment in Nauru or Manus Island, and
• must be transferred for appropriate medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment.

The recommendation is given to the Minister for Home Affairs who must either approve or refuse the transfer within 72 hours. The minister can refuse the transfer if the person has an adverse security assessment or if the person has a “substantial criminal record”.

The minister may also refuse the recommendation on the basis he does not accept the transfer is necessary on medical grounds. In those cases an expert medical panel – known as the Independent Health Advice Panel (IHAP) – would be formed to reassess the recommended transfer.

Read more: Morrison government defeated on medical bill, despite constitution play

If the panel recommends the person’s transfer should be approved, the minister must transfer the person unless satisfied there are security or character grounds for refusing the transfer.

The panel will consist of at least eight members, including the Chief Medical Officer for the government, the Department of Home Affair’s Chief Medical Officer and the Surgeon-General of the Australian Border Force. Other members would be appointed by the minister based on nominations by various professional medical bodies.

Medical transfers to Australia are for a temporary period only, so those currently in Australia could still be returned to Nauru or Manus Island following their treatment. This will continue to be the case even now this bill is passed.

These procedures are only applicable to asylum seekers and refugees who are on Nauru and Manus Island currently. The law will not apply to anyone who comes after the passage of this bill. Anyone brought to Australia for medical treatment must be kept in onshore immigration detention.

Three examples

Medical transfers that have occurred to date are mostly for psychiatric reasons or a combination of psychiatric and other medical reasons. The importance of provided, rapid medical assessment and response to critically ill, or at-risk-of-dying, refugees and asylum seekers cannot be overstated.

Under the provisions of the medevac bill, asylum seekers with medical or psychiatric conditions can be transferred to Australia. from shutterstock.com

In August, 2014 a 24-year-old Iranian detainee on Manus Island, Hamid Khazaei, fell ill and presented to clinicians at the detention centre with “flu-like symptoms” and a small lesion on his leg. After a course of antibiotics, his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a hospital in Papua New Guinea. He died a few days later.

A coronial inquest identified ambiguous and deficient policies for emergency evacuation, finding Mr Khazaei’s death was preventable. If his clinical deterioration was recognised and responded to in a timely manner, and he was evacuated to Australia within 24 hours of developing severe sepsis, Khazaei could have survived.

Medical evacuations are time sensitive because of the nature of the emergency and the logistics of the transfer itself. Were the provisions of the medevac bill in place at the time, independent expert overview of clinical decisions could have saved Khazaei’s life.

Another case was that of a refugee woman on Nauru who attempted suicide. An order was made for her to be urgently transferred to Australia. This was based on reports from a psychiatrist and a surgeon who expressed concerns that, without urgent surgical intervention, she could develop peritonitis (a life-threatening inflammation resulting from her suicide attempt) and die.

This case was heard by the Federal Court within four days of her attempt. Evidence demonstrated she needed complicated surgical intervention and psychiatric care that appeared not to be available on Nauru. Medical evacuation to Australia was requested as soon as possible, and the woman was brought to Australia.

Read more: Self-immolation incidents on Nauru are acts of ‘hopeful despair’

With the medevac provisions in place, the woman could have been brought to Australia earlier for an independent assessment of her physical and mental health prior to her situation deteriorating to a point where emergency management was required. The costs and delays involved in seeking intervention of the courts to order medical evacuations would also have been reduced with the provisions in place.

Another recent case involved a 46-year-old refugee on Manus Island who had lost vision in his right eye after a traumatic injury during a riot on the island. Vision in his left eye was also deteriorating and there was a lack of appropriate treatment in PNG. His mental health had also deteriorated to a point where he was assessed as being at high risk of suicide.

The evidence was that Manus Island did not have adequate facilities to treat his physical deterioration and suicidality. The court ordered his transfer to Australia as soon as possible for assessment and treatment.

Again, this man could have been brought to Australia earlier for an independent assessment, prior to emergency life saving treatment being required. The bill’s provisions will now allow for this. This translates to continuity and consistency of care and reduced deadlocks over treatment decisions.

Medical care can’t be political

Aside from being a circuit breaker to current arrangements, the bill is a new opportunity to establish agreed governance arrangements and a clinical pathway for recognising and responding to medical need without political interference. In the past bureaucrats and politicians have invalidated medical evidence and clinical decision making processes.

To provide safe and high quality care to refugees and asylum seekers based on medically assessed need, independent medical experts must be provided with all available relevant information about the patient. Giving the best medical and health advice must be free from delay and political interference.

– ref. Explainer: how will the ‘medevac’ bill actually affect ill asylum seekers? – http://theconversation.com/explainer-how-will-the-medevac-bill-actually-affect-ill-asylum-seekers-111645

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Marie Rivers, PhD Candidate, Monash University

Twenty-six of the forty-six fish species known to live in the Murray-Darling basin are listed as rare or threatened. Recent fish kills in the iconic river system are a grim reminder of how quickly things can take a turn for the worst.

A sudden drop in population size can push a species towards extinction, but there may be hope for resurrection. Frozen zoos store genetic material from endangered species and are preparing to make new individuals if an extinction occurs.

Read more: Cryopreservation: the field of possibilities

Unfortunately, poor response to freezing has hindered the introduction of fish into frozen zoos in the past. Now new techniques may provide them safe passage.

Ice ice baby

A frozen zoo, also known as a biobank or cryobank, stores cryopreserved or “frozen” cells from endangered species. The primary purpose of a frozen zoo is to provide a backup of endangered life on Earth allowing us to restore extinct species.

Reproductive cells, such as sperm, oocytes (eggs) and embryos, are cooled to -196ºC, at which point all cellular function is paused. When a sample is needed, the cells are warmed and used in breeding programs to produce new individuals, or to study their DNA to determine genetic relationships with other species.

There are several cryobanking facilities in Australia, including the Australian Frozen Zoo (where I work), the CryoDiversity Bank and the Ian Potter Australian Wildlife Biobank, as well as private collections. These cryobanks safeguard some of Australia’s most unique wildlife including the greater bilby, the golden bandicoot, and the yellow-footed rock wallaby as well as other exotic species such as the black rhino and orangutans.

Internationally, frozen zoos are working together to build a “Noah’s Ark” of frozen tissue. The Frozen Ark project, established in 2004 at the University of Nottingham, now consists of over 5,000 species housed in 22 facilities across the globe.

The Manchurian trout, or lenok, is the only fish successfully reproduced through cryopreservation and surrogacy. National Institute of Ecology via Wikimedia, CC BY

Less love for fish

As more and more species move into frozen zoos, fish are at risk of being left out. Despite years of research, no long-term survival has been reported in fish eggs or embryos after cryopreservation. However, precursors of sperm and eggs known as gonial cells found in the developing embryo or the ovary or testis of adult fish have been preserved successfully in several species including brown trout, rainbow trout, tench and goby.

By freezing these precursory cells, we now have a viable method of storing fish genetics but, unlike eggs and sperm, the cells are not mature and cannot be used to produce offspring in this form.

To transform the cells into sperm and eggs, they are transplanted into a surrogate fish. Donor cells are injected into the surrogate where they follow instructions from surrounding cells which tell them where to go and when and how to make sperm or eggs.

Once the surrogate is sexually mature they can mate and produce offspring that are direct decedents of the endangered species the donor cells were originally collected from. In a way, we are hijacking the reproductive biology of the surrogate species. By selecting surrogates that are prolific breeders we can essentially “mass produce” sperm and eggs from an endangered species, potentially producing more offspring than it would have been able to within its own lifetime.

Cell surrogacy has been successful in sturgeon, rainbow trout and zebrafish.

The combination of cryopreservation and surrogacy in conservation is promising but has only successfully been used in one endangered species so far, the Manchurian trout.

Not a get-out-of-conservation card

The “store now, save later” strategy of frozen zoos sounds simple but alas it is not. The methods needed to reproduce many species from frozen tissue are still being developed and may take years to perfect. The cost of maintaining frozen collections and developing methods of resurrection could divert funding from preventative conservation efforts.

Even if de-extinction is possible, there could be problems. The Australian landscape is evolving – temperatures fluctuate, habitats change, new predators and diseases are being introduced. Extinction is a consequence of failing to adapt to these changes. Reintroducing a species into the same hostile environment that lead to its demise may be a fool’s errand. How can we ensure reintroduced animals will thrive in an environment they may no longer be suited for?

Reducing human impact on the natural environment and actively protecting threatened species will be far easier than trying to resurrect them once they are gone. In the case of the Murray Darling Basin, reversing the damage done and developing policies that ensure its long-term protection will take time that endangered species may not have.

Read more: I’ve always wondered: does anyone my age have any chance of living for centuries?

Frozen zoos are an insurance policy, and we don’t want to have to use them. But if we fail in our fight against extinction, we will be glad we made the investment in frozen zoos when we had the chance.

– ref. It’s fish on ice, as frozen zoos make a last-ditch attempt to prevent extinction – http://theconversation.com/its-fish-on-ice-as-frozen-zoos-make-a-last-ditch-attempt-to-prevent-extinction-111633

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Procter, Professor and Chair: Mental Health Nursing, University of South Australia

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have now passed amendments to the Migration Act 1958 that allow for the medical evacuation of asylum-seekers from Manus Island and Nauru. These amendments are also known as the medivac bill.

So, how will the situation for asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island and Nauru change with the provisions in place?

Read more: The government was defeated on the ‘medivac’ bill, but that does not mean the end of the government

What’s in the Bill?

The medivac bill allows for the transfer of asylum seekers or refugees on Nauru or Manus Island to Australia for “medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment”. Family members will also be transferred if recommended.

It gives a clear pathway for medical specialists to make medical decisions. Two doctors must assess – either in person or remotely – the person and make the recommendation for transfer. The criteria used in the initial assessment and in any review is that the person:

• needs medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment
• is not receiving appropriate medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment in Nauru or Manus Island, and
• must be transferred for appropriate medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment.

The recommendation is given to the Minister for Home Affairs who must either approve or refuse the transfer within 72 hours. The minister can refuse the transfer if the person has an adverse security assessment or if the person has a “substantial criminal record”.

The minister may also refuse the recommendation on the basis he does not accept the transfer is necessary on medical grounds. In those cases an expert medical panel – known as the Independent Health Advice Panel (IHAP) – would be formed to reassess the recommended transfer.

Read more: Morrison government defeated on medical bill, despite constitution play

If the panel recommends the person’s transfer should be approved, the minister must transfer the person unless satisfied there are security or character grounds for refusing the transfer.

The panel will consist of at least eight members, including the Chief Medical Officer for the government, the Department of Home Affair’s Chief Medical Officer and the Surgeon-General of the Australian Border Force. Other members would be appointed by the minister based on nominations by various professional medical bodies.

Medical transfers to Australia are for a temporary period only, so those currently in Australia could still be returned to Nauru or Manus Island following their treatment. This will continue to be the case even now this bill is passed.

These procedures are only applicable to asylum seekers and refugees who are on Nauru and Manus Island currently. The law will not apply to anyone who comes after the passage of this bill. Anyone brought to Australia for medical treatment must be kept in onshore immigration detention.

Three examples

Medical transfers that have occurred to date are mostly for psychiatric reasons or a combination of psychiatric and other medical reasons. The importance of provided, rapid medical assessment and response to critically ill, or at-risk-of-dying, refugees and asylum seekers cannot be overstated.

Under the provisions of the medivac bill, asylum seekers with medical or psychiatric conditions can be transferred to Australia. from shutterstock.com

In August, 2014 a 24-year-old Iranian detainee on Manus Island, Hamid Khazaei, fell ill and presented to clinicians at the detention centre with “flu-like symptoms” and a small lesion on his leg. After a course of antibiotics, his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a hospital in Papua New Guinea. He died a few days later.

A coronial inquest identified ambiguous and deficient policies for emergency evacuation, finding Mr Khazaei’s death was preventable. If his clinical deterioration was recognised and responded to in a timely manner, and he was evacuated to Australia within 24 hours of developing severe sepsis, Khazaei could have survived.

Medical evacuations are time sensitive because of the nature of the emergency and the logistics of the transfer itself. Were the provisions of the medivac bill in place at the time, independent expert overview of clinical decisions could have saved Khazaei’s life.

Another case was that of a refugee woman on Nauru who attempted suicide. An order was made for her to be urgently transferred to Australia. This was based on reports from a psychiatrist and a surgeon who expressed concerns that, without urgent surgical intervention, she could develop peritonitis (a life-threatening inflammation resulting from her suicide attempt) and die.

This case was heard by the Federal Court within four days of her attempt. Evidence demonstrated she needed complicated surgical intervention and psychiatric care that appeared not to be available on Nauru. Medical evacuation to Australia was requested as soon as possible, and the woman was brought to Australia.

Read more: Self-immolation incidents on Nauru are acts of ‘hopeful despair’

With the medivac provisions in place, the woman could have been brought to Australia earlier for an independent assessment of her physical and mental health prior to her situation deteriorating to a point where emergency management was required. The costs and delays involved in seeking intervention of the courts to order medical evacuations would also have been reduced with the provisions in place.

Another recent case involved a 46-year-old refugee on Manus Island who had lost vision in his right eye after a traumatic injury during a riot on the island. Vision in his left eye was also deteriorating and there was a lack of appropriate treatment in PNG. His mental health had also deteriorated to a point where he was assessed as being at high risk of suicide.

The evidence was that Manus Island did not have adequate facilities to treat his physical deterioration and suicidality. The court ordered his transfer to Australia as soon as possible for assessment and treatment.

Again, this man could have been brought to Australia earlier for an independent assessment, prior to emergency life saving treatment being required. The bill’s provisions will now allow for this. This translates to continuity and consistency of care and reduced deadlocks over treatment decisions.

Medical care can’t be political

Aside from being a circuit breaker to current arrangements, the bill is a new opportunity to establish agreed governance arrangements and a clinical pathway for recognising and responding to medical need without political interference. In the past bureaucrats and politicians have invalidated medical evidence and clinical decision making processes.

To provide safe and high quality care to refugees and asylum seekers based on medically assessed need, independent medical experts must be provided with all available relevant information about the patient. Giving the best medical and health advice must be free from delay and political interference.

– ref. Explainer: how will the ‘medivac’ bill actually affect ill asylum seekers? – http://theconversation.com/explainer-how-will-the-medivac-bill-actually-affect-ill-asylum-seekers-111645

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Adjunct Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia

When Kenneth Hayne handed down the banking royal commission’s final report, he urged the corporate watchdog to investigate several entities for criminal charges. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has since announced it is preparing cases against executives of some of the big players.

The day of the report, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg reiterated a government commitment made last year to boost the enforcement powers and resources of agencies such as ASIC and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to launch criminal prosecutions. The government would also extend the jurisdiction of the Federal Court to include “criminal corporate crime”.

Frydenberg said the government would provide a legislative framework necessary, and better resources, for regulators to hold those who abuse our trust to account. But this is unnecessary – the legislative framework is already there. And then there’s also the question of whether criminal convictions and terms of imprisonment are the best way to deal with the issue.

A dishonest culture

A key finding of the report was that entities may have committed breaches of the Corporations Act – the main legislation regulating Australian companies. The relevant section in the act is “Dishonest conduct” (1041G), inserted in 2001. It says “a person must not, in the course of carrying on a financial services business in this jurisdiction, engage in dishonest conduct in relation to a financial product or financial service”. Those convicted face a maximum ten years imprisonment.

This is the main criminal offence at play here – dishonesty. It is dishonest for a finance company to charge for a service they know will not be provided. It is dishonest for a bank to continue to charge dead people for services rendered.

That said, convictions under 1041G have usually occurred where individuals have been found seeking to deliberately line their own pockets. Commissioner Hayne has therefore upped the ante by prodding ASIC to consider whether at least two corporate entities, not just individuals, have breached 1041G.

Read more: Compensation scheme to follow Hayne’s indictment of financial sector

Hayne’s observation could not be in greater contrast to one made in the wake of a similar investigation two decades ago. In 1996 the Howard government initiated their inquiry into the financial services sector. The inquiry’s chairman Stan Wallis had claimed Australia’s tough corporate governance rules were a major reason for the perceived under-performance of companies at the time.

In a June, 2000 speech to the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, Wallis advocated winding back boardroom independence rules since “too much attention to corporate governance can cloud a board’s judgement”. Governance, he said, had become an end in itself, and, as a result, directors were predisposed to being risk-averse rather than bold.

But now the regulator’s guillotine is being sharpened, not blunted, and with good reason. The amount charged by financial institutions for services never received is reportedly more than $1 billion. Hayne has referred 24 entities to regulatory authorities. We can virtually guarantee prosecutions will be launched in relation to these alleged misdeeds.

So, how can a conviction occur?

First, ASIC needs to look beyond what was reported to the royal commission to find clear evidence of wrongdoing. With sufficient evidence, the matter is referred to the DPP. The DPP in turn needs to be satisfied of the probability of a conviction, which might have been difficult but for a significant legislative ally that came into being under the Keating government in 1995.

The Commonwealth Criminal Code’s bold wording (chapter 2, part 2.5, division 12), cross-referenced under section 1311 of the Corporations Act, confirms that the Code applies to corporations, and states that they may be found guilty of any offence, including those punishable by imprisonment.

The Code then links an individual’s potentially culpable behaviour to the concept of corporate culture, defined (in section 12.3(6)) as an

attitude, policy, rule, course of conduct or practice existing within the body corporate generally or in the part of the body corporate in which the relevant activities take place.

This means individual directors or senior managers can’t simply claim they were not directly culpable and hope to escape scrutiny. If they presided over a rotten corporate culture, one that showed little disdain for dishonest behaviour, they can be convicted and go to jail. Mr Frydenberg doesn’t need to extend jurisdictions, or boost enforcement powers. The law that the DPP needs is there already.

But do the people want this?

If one believes the political commentary that tells us there is a heightened contempt among the public today for white-collar offending, then perhaps bosses should be jailed. But there’s also some evidence suggesting that the public’s intolerance of, and reaction to, such behaviour is not as radical as many believe.

Research conducted in England led the author to conclude that punishment preferences of the public are

rational and reasoned, and the emotive aspects of their attitudes were primarily regretful rather than vengeful […] there were signs that the desire to express condemnation and disapproval of offenders’ conduct was counterbalanced by recognition of the need for humane and just penal policies.

In other words, there is an argument the public don’t consider senior managers who have already been humbled by the Commissioner, or humiliated by the commission’s lead barrister Rowena Orr QC, need to go behind bars.

Read more: Banking Royal Commission: the real problem is how we value executives and workers

Criminologist John Braithwaite’s seminal work, Crime, Shame and Reintegration, explored shame in a leader’s falling short of public expectations. His hypothesis was that fear of shame is a major social force for preventing criminality, not threat of imprisonment.

Punishing key financial services leaders by naming them, highlighting their failings, accepting their contrition, disqualifying them, and seeking restitution from them is as likely to satisfy the public’s demand for appropriate consequences as any prison term.

– ref. Yes, we can put bank bosses in jail, but is that the best way to hold them to account? – http://theconversation.com/yes-we-can-put-bank-bosses-in-jail-but-is-that-the-best-way-to-hold-them-to-account-111507

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine R. Smith, Professor of Eye & Vision Health, Flinders University

Syphilis is a sexually transmissible infectious disease that has plagued humankind for centuries. Today, syphilis is diagnosed rapidly by a simple blood test, and easily treated with an inexpensive antibiotic. However, the disease may masquerade as other medical conditions, confusing even health care professionals. A delay in diagnosis and treatment may have serious medical consequences.

There’s ongoing debate about the origin of syphilis, but the disease is well described in the medical literature from the Middle Ages. The name “syphilis” was coined in 1530 by an Italian physician. Dr. Girolamo Fracastoro wrote a poem describing features of the illness in a fictional shepherd named Syphilus, who had blasphemed against the Sun-God and was punished with a severe case of the disease.

Since this time, syphilis has claimed many lives and influenced civilisation in diverse ways.

Syphilis has afflicted heads of state, whose nations have suffered from the consequences of their diminished mental health. King Henry VIII of England and Tsar Ivan IV Vasilievici of Russia (“Ivan the Terrible”) are examples. Careers of internationally influential artists – such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Oscar Wilde and Scott Joplin – ended prematurely due to syphilis.

Public outrage over the highly unethical Tuskegee study and Guatemalan experiments on people with untreated syphilis have helped to shape present day human research regulations.

Read more: Three charts on the state of STIs and blood-borne viruses in Australia

Cause and effect

Syphilis is caused by a spiral shaped bacterium called Treponema pallidum. Although the bacteria multiply slowly, they are easily passed between sexual partners via the skin or mucous membranes.

A small ulcer is the typical “first stage” of syphilis. The ulcer does not appear until several weeks after the sexual encounter, and it is painless, short-lived and heals without a trace. So it may go unnoticed, especially if it occurs in an inconspicuous place, inside vaginal or rectal passages, or in the mouth.

The second stage of syphilis is characterised by unusual skin and mucous membrane rashes that improve without treatment over weeks to months. The disease then enters a period called the latent stage that lasts for years, during which a person has no symptoms, but continues to be infected.

Finally, in the tertiary stage, syphilis becomes extremely destructive. Large inflammatory growths that occur anywhere in the body may seriously damage tissues. There may be aneurysms, heart disease, dementia and paralysis.

Syphilis can also be passed from a pregnant woman to her unborn child, resulting in a serious illness and sometimes loss of the baby.

Throughout the course of syphilis, the nervous system and senses may become affected, causing unusual health problems. This includes inflammation inside the eye, called uveitis. Syphilitic uveitis causes vision loss in about two-thirds of people who develop it, and may lead on to other eye conditions, such as cataract, glaucoma, retinal scarring and retinal detachment.

Oscar Wilde is one of many well-known people throughout history who suffered from syphilis. from www.shutterstock.com

Treatment

Introduction of penicillin into medical practice in the 1940s provided an opportunity to eradicate syphilis, as Treponema is highly sensitive to this antibiotic. In countries where testing and antibiotics were readily available, rates of syphilis dropped to extremely low levels during the 20th century.

In Australia in 2010, there were just five reported new infections per 100,000 people. Hope was high that the same might be achieved in low income, developing nations.

Unexpectedly, however, rates of syphilis are climbing in high income countries across the globe. Latest figures from the Kirby Institute indicate an increase by over 250% between 2010 and 2017, affecting both Australian men and women.

Many factors are responsible. Aware of the highly effective drugs for HIV infection, people are less concerned about safe sex. Other factors that promote spread of the Treponema bacteria are high levels of travel and new drugs for sexual dysfunction. There is also a relationship between HIV infection and syphilis: having one infection increases the risk of catching the other.

This creates a challenging situation for health care professionals, who are suddenly encountering patients with a disease they did not focus on during their training. Add to this that syphilis may masquerade as a wide range of other medical conditions as it moves past the first stage. It is actually referred to in clinical textbooks as the Great Imitator or the Great Mimicker.

Read more: Stigma and lack of awareness stop young people testing for sexually transmitted infections

Ocular syphilis

As ophthalmologists we have noticed an increase in cases of syphilitic uveitis. A delay in starting penicillin can result in permanent vision loss. In one very large study conducted in Brazil, it took about three months to recognise syphilis as the cause of uveitis, and half of people in the study did not fully recover their vision despite taking antibiotics.

Ophthalmologists who specialise in uveitis identify the lack of medical suspicion for the diagnosis of syphilis as an important reason for a delay to starting treatment.

Prevention

There is no vaccine for syphilis, and a person may catch it more than once. But there are ways to avoid the health problems caused by syphilis. Practising safe sex protects against – but does not completely prevent – the disease.

Testing is key. It involves checking the blood for antibodies against Treponema bacteria. The test is inexpensive and you get results within a day.

Anyone who is sexually active can ask for a test, but certain situations should trigger a test: pregnancy; HIV infection or sexually transmissible infections; and a partner with syphilis. Doctors may also suggest a test for rashes or ulcers, and for some inflammatory problems, such as uveitis. Everyone from the general public to our health-care professionals need to be more aware of syphilis.

– ref. Syphilis is making a come-back, and causing some unusual health problems – http://theconversation.com/syphilis-is-making-a-come-back-and-causing-some-unusual-health-problems-109658

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa A Williams, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, UNSW

The pursuit of happiness and health is a popular endeavour, as the preponderance of self-help books would attest.

Yet it is also fraught. Despite ample advice from experts, individuals regularly engage in activities that may only have short-term benefit for well-being, or even backfire.

The search for the heart of well-being – that is, a nucleus from which other aspects of well-being and health might flow – has been the focus of decades of research. New findings recently reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences point towards an answer commonly overlooked: meaning in life.

Meaning in life: part of the well-being puzzle?

University College London’s psychology professor Andrew Steptoe and senior research associate Daisy Fancourt analysed a sample of 7,304 UK residents aged 50+ drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Survey respondents answered a range of questions assessing social, economic, health, and physical activity characteristics, including:

…to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

Follow-up surveys two and four years later assessed those same characteristics again.

One key question addressed in this research is: what advantage might having a strong sense of meaning in life afford a few years down the road?

The data revealed that individuals reporting a higher meaning in life had:

• lower risk of divorce
• lower risk of living alone
• increased connections with friends and engagement in social and cultural activities
• lower incidence of new chronic disease and onset of depression
• lower obesity and increased physical activity
• increased adoption of positive health behaviours (exercising, eating fruit and veg).

On the whole, individuals with a higher sense of meaning in life a few years earlier were later living lives characterised by health and well-being.

You might wonder if these findings are attributable to other factors, or to factors already in play by the time participants joined the study. The authors undertook stringent analyses to account for this, which revealed largely similar patterns of findings.

The findings join a body of prior research documenting longitudinal relationships between meaning in life and social functioning, net wealth and reduced mortality, especially among older adults.

What is meaning in life?

The historical arc of consideration of the meaning in life (not to be confused with the meaning of life) starts as far back as Ancient Greece. It tracks through the popular works of people such as Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Victor Frankl, and continues today in the field of psychology.

One definition, offered by well-being researcher Laura King and colleagues, says

…lives may be experienced as meaningful when they are felt to have a significance beyond the trivial or momentary, to have purpose, or to have a coherence that transcends chaos.

This definition is useful because it highlights three central components of meaning:

1. purpose: having goals and direction in life
2. significance: the degree to which a person believes his or her life has value, worth, and importance
3. coherence: the sense that one’s life is characterised by predictability and routine.

Michael Steger’s TEDx talk What Makes Life Meaningful.

Curious about your own sense of meaning in life? You can take an interactive version of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, developed by Steger and colleagues, yourself here.

This measure captures not just the presence of meaning in life (whether a person feels that their life has purpose, significance, and coherence), but also the desire to search for meaning in life.

Routes for cultivating meaning in life

Given the documented benefits, you may wonder: how might one go about cultivating a sense of meaning in life?

We know a few things about participants in Steptoe and Fancourt’s study who reported relatively higher meaning in life during the first survey. For instance, they contacted their friends frequently, belonged to social groups, engaged in volunteering, and maintained a suite of healthy habits relating to sleep, diet and exercise.

Backing up the idea that seeking out these qualities might be a good place to start in the quest for meaning, several studies have causally linked these indicators to meaning in life.

For instance, spending money on others and volunteering, eating fruit and vegetables, and being in a well-connected social network have all been prospectively linked to acquiring a sense of meaning in life.

For a temporary boost, some activities have documented benefits for meaning in the short term: envisioning a happier future, writing a note of gratitude to another person, engaging in nostalgic reverie, and bringing to mind one’s close relationships.

Happiness and meaning: is it one or the other?

There’s a high degree of overlap between experiencing happiness and meaning – most people who report one also report the other. Days when people report feeling happy are often also days that people report meaning.

Yet there’s a tricky relationship between the two. Moment-to-moment, happiness and meaning are often decoupled.

Research by social psychologist Roy Baumeister and colleagues suggests that satisfying basic needs promotes happiness, but not meaning. In contrast, linking a sense of self across one’s past, present, and future promotes meaning, but not happiness.

Connecting socially with others is important for both happiness and meaning, but doing so in a way that promotes meaning (such as via parenting) can happen at the cost of personal happiness, at least temporarily.

Given the now-documented long-term social, mental, and physical benefits of having a sense of meaning in life, the recommendation here is clear. Rather than pursuing happiness as an end-state, ensuring one’s activities provide a sense of meaning might be a better route to living well and flourishing throughout life.

– ref. Having a sense of meaning in life is good for you — so how do you get one? – http://theconversation.com/having-a-sense-of-meaning-in-life-is-good-for-you-so-how-do-you-get-one-110361

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Pryke, Lecturer, Languages and Literature of Ancient Israel, Macquarie University

In this series, we look at under-acknowledged women through the ages.

The world’s first known author is widely considered to be Enheduanna, a woman who lived in the 23rd century BCE in ancient Mesopotamia (approximately 2285 – 2250 BCE). Enheduanna is a remarkable figure: an ancient “triple threat”, she was a princess and a priestess as well as a writer and poet.

The third millennium BCE was a time of upheaval in Mesopotamia. The conquest of Sargon the Great saw the development of the world’s first great empire. The city of Akkad become one of the largest in the world, and northern and southern Mesopotamia were united for the first time in history.

In this extraordinary historical setting, we find the fascinating character of Enheduanna, Sargon’s daughter. She worked as the high priestess of the moon deity Nanna-Suen at his temple in Ur (in modern-day Southern Iraq). The celestial nature of her occupation is reflected in her name, meaning “Ornament of Heaven”.

Enheduanna composed several works of literature, including two hymns to the Mesopotamian love goddess Inanna (Semitic Ishtar). She wrote the myth of Inanna and Ebih, and a collection of 42 temple hymns. Scribal traditions in the ancient world are often considered an area of male authority, but Enheduanna’s works form an important part of Mesopotamia’s rich literary history.

Ancient Akkadian cylindrical seal depicting Mesopotamian love goddess Inanna. Wikimedia Commons

Read more: Friday essay: the legend of Ishtar, first goddess of love and war

Enheduanna’s status as a named poet is significant given the anonymity surrounding works of even earlier authors. Yet she is almost entirely unknown in the modern day, and her achievements have been largely overlooked (a notable exception is the work of Jungian analyst Betty De Shong Meador). Her written works are deeply personal in subject, containing numerous biographical features.

Enheduanna’s cycle of temple hymns concludes with an assertion of the work’s originality and its authorship:

The compiler of the tablets was En-hedu-ana. My king, something has been created that no one has created before.

While clearly asserting ownership over the creative property of her work, Enheduanna also comments on the difficulties of the creative process — apparently, writer’s block was a problem even in ancient Mesopotamia.

Long hours labouring by night

In her hymns, Enheduanna comments on the challenge of encapsulating divine wonders through the written word. She describes spending long hours labouring over her compositions by night, for them then to be performed in the day. The fruits of her work are dedicated to the goddess of love.

Enheduanna’s poetry has a reflective quality that emphasises the superlative qualities of its divine muse, while also highlighting the artistic skill required for written compositions.

Her written praise of celestial deities has been recognised in the field of modern astronomy. Her descriptions of stellar measurements and movements have been described as possible early scientific observations. Indeed, a crater on Mercury was named in her honour in 2015.

Enheduanna’s works were written in cuneiform, an ancient form of writing using clay tablets but have only survived in the form of much later copies from around 1800 BCE, from the Old Babylonian period and later. The lack of earlier sources has raised doubts for some over Enheduanna’s identification as the author of myths and hymns and her status as a religious official of high rank. However, the historical record clearly identifies Enheduanna as the composer of ancient literary works, and this is undoubtedly an important aspect of the traditions surrounding her.

Read more: Friday essay: the recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

Aside from poetry, other sources for Enheduanna’s life have been discovered by archaeologists. These include cylinder seals belonging to her servants, and an alabaster relief inscribed with her dedication. The Disk of Enheduanna was discovered by British archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley and his team of excavators in 1927.

The Disk of Enheduanna. Zunkir/Mefman00/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The Disk was discarded and apparently defaced in antiquity, but the pieces were recovered through excavations and the scene featuring the writer successfully restored. The scene depicts the priestess at work: along with three male attendants, she observes a libation offering being poured from a jug.

Enheduanna is situated in the centre of the image, with her gaze focused on the religious offering, and her hand raised in a gesture of piety. The image on the Disk emphasises the religious and social status of the priestess, who is wearing a cap and flounced garment.

Art imitates life

Enheduanna’s poetry contains what are thought to be autobiographical elements, such as descriptions of her struggle against a usurper, Lugalanne. In her composition The Exaltation of Inanna, Enheduanna describes Lugalanne’s attempts to force her from her role at the temple.

Inanna temple relief. Wikimedia Commons

Enheduanna’s pleas to the moon god were apparently met with silence. She then turned to Inanna, who is praised for restoring her to office.

The challenge to Enheduanna’s authority, and her praise of her divine helper, are echoed in her other work, such as in the myth known as Inanna and Ebih.

In this narrative, the goddess Inanna comes into conflict with a haughty mountain, Ebih. The mountain offends the deity by standing tall and refusing to bow low to her. Inanna seeks help from her father, the deity Anu. He (understandably) advises her against going to war with the fearsome mountain range.

Inanna, in typically bold form, ignores this instruction and annihilates the mountain, before praising the god Enlil for his assistance. The myth contains intriguing parallels with the conflict described in Enheduanna’s poetry.

In the figure of Enheduanna, we see a powerful figure of great creativity, whose passionate praise of the goddess of love continues to echo through time, 4000 years after first being carved into a clay tablet.

Note: Translations of the Temple Hymns are taken from Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford 1998.

– ref. Hidden women of history: Enheduanna, princess, priestess and the world’s first known author – http://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-enheduanna-princess-priestess-and-the-worlds-first-known-author-109185

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

Veterinarians have a professional and moral obligation to reduce or prevent any negative health impacts of disorders in animals. But what if animals are bred with known disorders? And what if those disorders are a big part of what makes them cute?

In a paper, published earlier this year in Animals, we argue that veterinarians must do more to discourage the breeding of animals with conditions known to seriously compromise their welfare.

This is the case with extreme brachycephalic or short-skulled dogs, including French bulldogs, pugs, British bulldogs, Boston terriers, and Cavalier King Charles spaniels.

Read more: Why decisions to desex male dogs just got more complicated

The trend towards shorter skulls seems to have taken hold since the 1870s and the development of breed standards that inadvertently encouraged extreme “conformation” (shape, size and anatomical proportions).

In companion animal practice, the veterinary profession is kept busy ministering to these dogs and bringing them into the world, with more than 80% of Boston terriers, British bulldogs and French bulldogs being born by Caesarean section.

Struggle to breathe

Extreme brachycephaly is associated with a range of disorders, most notably Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS). BOAS occurs in shorter-skulled dogs because the nose, tongue, soft palate and teeth are crammed into a relatively small space, reducing the size of the airway.

Clinical signs of BOAS include increased respiratory noise, effort and difficulty in breathing, an intolerance to exercise, gagging, blue gums (in the mouth), overheating and fainting.

Brachycephalic dogs probably experience the unpleasantness of air hunger (lack of oxygen and surplus of carbon dioxide) and, compared with healthy non-brachycephalic dogs, show marked increases in respiratory rate as temperatures rise.

Can’t stand the heat

The hotter the temperature, the harder these dogs have to work to cool down by panting. As a result, the tissues of the upper airway swell, further reducing airflow and eventually causing airway obstruction, which causes them to get hotter . It’s a life-threatening vicious cycle.

This reduced capacity to cope with heat explains why Qantas no longer permits the transport of affected breeds on flights longer than five hours, or those with more than two sectors per journey.

Affected dogs also change the way they sleep to avoid airway obstruction, sometimes by adopting a sitting position. They also raise their chins or sleep with a toy between their teeth to keep their airways open. Indeed, 10% can sleep only with an open mouth.

Extremely short skulls are associated with excess carbon dioxide concentrations (that shift the acid-base balance of the blood), neurological deficits, skin disease, eye disease and certain behavioural disorders.

Brachycephalic dogs also have an increased anaesthetic risk – and yet increasingly need surgery to treat these problems.

This is not new information. For example, in 2008, the documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed revealed the impact of extreme brachycephaly on dogs.

But they’re popular dogs

Despite accumulating evidence about the health and welfare impacts of brachycephaly, affected breeds are becoming more popular.

In the last decade, registrations of French bulldogs have increased by around 3,000%. This prompted kennel clubs to warn prospective owners about the real possibility of bad breeders trying to cash in on the trend.

Brachycephalic breeds are booming in popularity in Australia where, since the mid-1980s, puppy purchasers have increasingly favoured shorter, smaller, brachycephalic breeds.

A costly health problem

Extreme brachycephalic dogs aren’t the only ones bearing the costs of inherited health and welfare problems.

Figures from overseas and Australian pet insurance providers confirm that the financial costs of owning extreme brachycephalic dogs are high. This is due to the many conditions they suffer from including, but not limited to, BOAS.

Analysis of more than 1.27 million Australian pet insurance claims over a nine-year period (2007-2015) confirms this.

As you can see (above), brachycephalic dogs were more likely to suffer from a number of health conditions when compared with non-brachycephalic dogs. They also suffer from fungal skin disease, skin cancer, brain disorders, back problems and difficulties giving birth.

Dysphagia (problems swallowing), vomiting, regurgitation and flatulence are other common clinical signs in brachycephalic breeds.

There is also the emotional cost of owning dogs that may require extensive treatment, and live, on average, shorter lives than their longer-nosed canine counterparts.

What more can vets do?

The brachycephalic dog patient may place veterinarians in ethically challenging situations when they are approached to help in treatment and breeding of affected animals.

In discussing breed-associated disorders, veterinarians may appear to be critical of the very features that clients find most endearing about their companion animals and some have preferred to speak up only anonymously. Or veterinarians may have a conflict of interest if they draw an income from treating the typical disorders.

But unless veterinarians and breed organisations speak up, the demand for extreme brachycephalic breeds will continue. The enormity of the welfare problem is increasing with the increased demand for affected dogs.

The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) and the RSPCA Australia joined forces back in 2016 to promote awareness of these health and welfare problems in their Love is Blind campaign.

“They’re lovely dogs …” but!

Breeder organisations are exploring ways to moderate extreme shapes in the show-ring. For example, a survey published last year of 15 national kennel clubs, identified exaggerated morphological features and inherited disorders as their chief concerns.

Companies can also play a role. Last year New Zealand’s online marketplace Trade Me banned the sale of pugs, French bulldogs and British bulldogs on animal welfare grounds.

Read more: Is your dog happy? Ten common misconceptions about dog behaviour

In recognition of the media’s role in generating this demand, the British Veterinary Association no longer uses adverts depicting brachycephalic breeds. The Australian Veterinary Association also avoids use of images of other breeds with exaggerated features, such as shar-peis and dachshunds.

Every veterinarian must provide every individual patient with the best possible care they can. But given what we know, we’re also morally obliged to discourage breeding of dogs with extreme brachycephaly so that we can turn off the tap on this suffering.

It’s also something potential dog-owners should be more aware of. They might think they look cute, but those extreme brachycephalic dogs could be costly, both financially and emotionally.

– ref. Vets can do more to reduce the suffering of flat-faced dog breeds – http://theconversation.com/vets-can-do-more-to-reduce-the-suffering-of-flat-faced-dog-breeds-110702

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Kristin Merga, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University

Words are powerful, and a rich vocabulary can provide young people with significant advantages. Successful vocabulary development is associated with better vocational, academic and health outcomes.

When parents read books aloud to their children from an early age, this offers notable advantages for children’s vocabulary development. This gives them a broader range of possible word choices.

Read more: Research shows the importance of parents reading with children – even after children can read

Research also suggests children who don’t have the opportunity for shared reading are comparatively disadvantaged. If we want our children to be able to draw on a rich vocabulary to express themselves clearly, we need to read to them. Developing a child’s vocabulary is a valuable investment in their future.

Benefits of reading aloud

In the very early years, spoken vocabularies have been associated with higher achievement in reading and maths, and better ability to regulate behaviour. Vocabulary is also linked to success in reading comprehension and related word recognition skills.

Much of a child’s vocabulary is acquired through daily conversations. Shared reading aloud can provide a valuable additional source of new words children can use to power their expression. Research suggests the text of picture books offers access to more diverse vocabulary than child-directed conversations.

At some point, most of us have experienced the frustration of searching for an elusive word that is essential to clearly communicate an idea or a need. When children speak or write, they draw on their vocabulary to make word selections that will optimise the clarity and accuracy of their expression.

Reading can make for valuable parent-child bonding time. from www.shutterstock.com

Beyond vocabulary, reading aloud offers numerous additional benefits for children. Reading aloud may support students to develop sustained attention, strong listening skills, and enhanced cognitive development.

Recent research also suggests children who are read to from an early age may be less likely to experience hyperactivity. Children who are at risk of reading difficulties may particularly benefit from being read to. Children who are learning English as an additional language may experience better reading comprehension when they are read to in English.

Reading aloud with your child is also valuable parent-child time. It can strengthen the parent-child relationship and foster reading engagement, which is essential if we want our children to enjoy the benefits of being a life-long reader.

How can I optimise vocabulary growth for my child?

Vocabulary development can be improved through explicit teaching techniques such as providing definitions for new words. For example, while reading to your child, when you encounter a new word you may pause and ask the child what they think it means.

If they’re unsure, you can then read a little further along so the word is encountered in a context that can give valuable clues about meaning. If the meaning is still unclear, you can provide a definition for your child so you can move on.

A recent study found approaches that involve pointing, providing definitions, and asking some questions as you read together can be good for vocabulary building.

Recent research found nearly identical gains in vocabulary where children were read to either using explicit techniques (such as pointing and giving definitions) or a more engaging storytelling approach. In the storytelling approach, the adult reading to the child added contextual information, which made the child more interested and engaged in the story.

Read more: Enjoyment of reading, not mechanics of reading, can improve literacy for boys

Children will also benefit from hearing the same story a number of times. It’s also a good idea to use some of the new language in subsequent conversation if possible. This can increase exposure and strengthen retention of new words.

Read more: There’s a reason your child wants to read the same book over and over again

What if I don’t have a book?

We may not always have a book at hand. In these cases, you can draw on your creativity and tell a story, which can also benefit vocabulary.

While there is limited research in this area, one study compared telling a child a story or reading them a story with a child reading silently to themselves. The study found all three groups of children learned new words. But telling a story and reading a story to a child offered superior gains in vocabulary.

Beating the barriers

Research suggests that children may be aware of the benefits of listening to books read aloud. This awareness can be a source of regret for the child when reading aloud at home ends, but they still enjoy shared reading. Children may continue to enjoy and benefit from being read to beyond the early years. You should keep reading with your children as long as they let you.

Children get more benefit out of shared reading than reading alone. from www.shutterstock.com

By far, the biggest barrier raised by parents to reading aloud to their children was the formidable barrier of time. If reading aloud becomes a routine part of family life, like dinner and bedtime, this barrier may be overcome as the practice becomes an everyday event.

Due to diverse issues faced in homes and families, not all parents will be able to read their child a book, or tell them a story. This is why it’s still so important for schools to provide opportunities for students to regularly listen to engaging and culturally diverse books.

Read more: Ten ways teacher librarians improve literacy in schools

But reading aloud is not a typical daily classroom practice. We should increase the number of opportunities children have to hear stories both at home and in schools so children can experience the many benefits of a rich and varied vocabulary.

– ref. Read aloud to your children to boost their vocabulary – http://theconversation.com/read-aloud-to-your-children-to-boost-their-vocabulary-111427

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University

This is the second of two articles looking at the increasing reliance of Australian cities on desalination plants to supply drinking water, with less emphasis on the alternatives of water recycling and demand management. So what is the best way forward to achieve urban water security?

An important lesson from the Millennium Drought in Australia was the power of individuals to curb their own water use. This was achieved through public education campaigns and water restrictions. It was a popular topic in the media and in daily conversations before the focus turned to desalination for water security.

Water authorities were also expanding the use of treated wastewater – often a polite term for sewage – for “non-potable” uses. These included flushing toilets, watering gardens, and washing cars and laundry.

Today, the emphasis on recycling wastewater in some locations is declining. The arguments for increased water recycling appear to be falling away now that desalinated water is available.

Read more: Cities turn to desalination for water security, but at what cost?

This trend ignores the fact that the potential supply of recycled water increases as populations grow.

Today most Australian wastewater is treated then disposed into local streams, rivers, estuaries and the ocean. In Sydney, for example, the city’s big three outfalls dump nearly 1 billion litres (1,000 megalitres, ML) a day into the ocean.

Where has recycling succeeded?

Australia has several highly successful water recycling projects.

Sydney introduced the Rouse Hill recycled water scheme in 2001. Highly treated wastewater is piped into 32,000 suburban properties in distinct purple pipes. Each property also has the normal “potable” drinking water supply.

Rouse Hill is considered a world-leading urban recycling scheme. South Australia (Mawsons Lakes) and Victoria (Yarra Valley Water, South East Water) have similar projects.

Our farmers often struggle to secure water for irrigation. Chronic water shortages across the Murray-Darling river system vividly demonstrate this.

Read more: Damning royal commission report leaves no doubt that we all lose if the Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails

Recycled water can play an important role in agricultural schemes. There are successful examples in South Australia (Virginia Irrigation Scheme), Victoria (Werribee) and New South Wales (Picton).

Read more: It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help

Perth has gone further by embracing water recycling for urban use with plans to treat it to a drinking water standard. Part of the extensive treatment process involves reverse osmosis, which is also used in desalination. The treated water is then pumped into groundwater aquifersand stored.

This “groundwater replenishment” adds to the groundwater that contributes about half of the city’s water supply. The Water Corporation of Perth has a long-term aim to recycle 30% of its wastewater.

Southeast Queensland, too, has developed an extensive recycled water system. The Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme also uses reverse osmosis and can supplement drinking water supplies during droughts.

Read more: More of us are drinking recycled sewage water than most people realise

Demand management works too

Past campaigns to get people to reduce water use achieved significant results.

In Sydney, water use fell steeply under water restrictions (2003-2009). Since the restrictions have ended, consumption has increased under the softer “water wise rules”. Regional centres including (Tamworth) outside of Sydney are under significant water restrictions currently with limited relief in sight.

Despite a 25% increase in Sydney’s population, total demand for drinking water remains lower than before mandatory restrictions were introduced in late 2003. © Sydney Water, used with permission

The Victorian government appears to be the Australian leader in encouraging urban water conservation. Across Melbourne water use per person averaged 161 litres a day over 2016-18. Victoria’s “Target 155” program, first launched in late 2008 and revived in 2016, aims for average use of 155 litres a day.

In a comparison of mainland capitals Melbourne used the least water per residential property, 25% less than the average. Southeast Queensland residents had the second-lowest use, followed by Adelaide. Sydney, Perth and Darwin had the highest use.

Although Melbourne water prices are among the highest of the major cities, lower annual water use meant the city’s households had the lowest water bills in 2016-17, analysis by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology found.

Calculated from Bureau of Meteorology data, Author provided

What impact do water prices have?

Clearly, water pricing can be an effective tool to get people to reduce demand. This could partly explain why water use is lower in some cities.

Water bills have several components. Domestic customers pay a service fee to be connected. They then pay for the volume of water they use, plus wastewater charges on top of that. Depending on where you live, you might be charged a flat rate, or a rate that increases as you use more water.

The chart below shows the pricing range in our major cities.

Flat charges for water per kilolitre (where a kL equals 1,000 litres) apply in Sydney ($2.08/kL)), Darwin ($1.95/kL) and Hobart ($1.06/kL.

However, most water authorities charge low water users a cheaper rate, and increased prices apply for higher consumption. The most expensive water in Australia is for Canberra residents – $4.88 for each kL customers use over 50kL per quarter. The cheapest water is Hobart ($1.06/kL).

Higher fees for higher residential consumption are charged in Canberra, Perth, Southeast Queensland, across South Australia and in Melbourne. In effect, most major water providers penalise high-water-using customers. This creates an incentive to use less.

For example, Yarra Valley Water customers in Melbourne using less than 440 litres a day pay $2.64/kL. From 441-880L/day they are charged $3.11/kL. For more than 881L/day they pay $4.62/kL – 75% more than the lowest rate.

Is recycled water getting priced out of business?

Recycling water may not be viable for Sydney Water. It can cost over $5 per 1kL to produce, but the state pricing regulator, IPART, sets the cost of recycled water to Sydney customers at just under $2 per kL. That’s probably well below the cost of production.

Recycled water, where available, is a little bit more expensive ($2.12/kL) in South Australia.

Subsidies are probably essential for future large recycling schemes. This was the case for a 2017 plan to expand the Virginia Irrigation Scheme. South Australia sought 30% of the capital funding from the Commonwealth.

Where to from here?

Much of southern Australia is facing increasing water stress and capital city water supplies are falling. Expensive desalination plants are gearing up to supply more water. Will they insulate urban residents from the disruption many others are feeling in drought-affected inland and regional locations? Should we be increasing the capacity of our desalination plants?

We recommend that urban Australia should make further use of recycled water. This will also reduce the environmental impact of disposing wastewater in our rivers, estuaries and ocean. All new developments should have recycled water made available, saving our precious potable water for human consumption.

Water conservation should be given the highest priority. Pricing of water that encourages recycling and water conservation should be a national priority.

Read more: This is what Australia’s growing cities need to do to avoid running dry

You can read the first article, on cities’ increasing reliance on desalination, here.

– ref. When water is scarce, we can’t afford to neglect the alternatives to desalination – http://theconversation.com/when-water-is-scarce-we-cant-afford-to-neglect-the-alternatives-to-desalination-111249

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carley Ruiz, Research Assistant, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University

A teenager’s first job can be deeply rewarding, a step towards independence and building skills. But that job may also involve an early taste of exploitative workplace behaviours, including abuse, bullying and harassment.

There are numerous cases of exploitation in workplaces that offer jobs to young people. Think of the systematic underpayment of 7-Eleven workers, for instance, or of Domino’s workers.

Young people working in hospitality – covering restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs – are particularly at risk of exploitative practices, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

We wanted to get a more complete picture of the different types of exploitative behaviours that young workers might encounter. To do so we surveyed 330 undergraduate university students about their experiences in the workplace.

Overall, almost three-quarters (74.2%) of respondents reported experiencing some form of exploitative, abusive or harassing behaviour in their first job.

Read more: How to stop businesses stealing from their employees

Researching workplace exploitation

Our convenience sample of university students that anonymously volunteered to participate were surveyed about their workplace experiences while aged under 18 years old. While the results may not be representative of all young peoples’ work experiences, they provide a good indication of the pattern and relative frequency of different forms of exploitative behaviour.

Importantly for prevention, the study also indicates who is most likely to be a perpetrator and who is most at risk. The results of this exploratory study show that workplace exploitation is common enough to warrant future research on a national level to understand the extent and consequences.

In our study we defined exploitation as the following behaviours:

• economic exploitation, such as not receiving the correct pay, superannuation, breaks, holidays, or being unfairly dismissed

• exposure to unsafe work conditions, including not being properly trained or supervised, or being required to carry out tasks breaching workplace health and safety rules

• bullying, involving repeated behaviour that humiliates and intimidates the victim

• sexual harassment, involving all unwelcomed sexual behaviour such as touching, as well as jokes or unwanted communication

• verbal harassment, such as being sworn at, insulted and berated

• physical violence, including threats of a physical attack.

What we found

The age at which our respondents were first employed in Queensland ranged as low as 11 years old to 17 years old. The majority of respondents (84.0%) were first employed in retail or hospitality.

Just over half (51.5%) of our participants reported some kind of economic exploitation in their first job, including incorrect pay and not being allowed proper breaks.

Verbal harassment was also a common experience (49.1%), followed by exposure to unsafe work conditions (32.1%), sexual harassment (14.5%), and violence (6.4%) in their first job.

Nearly a third (29.4%) experienced ongoing incidents of workplace bullying in their first job.

About a quarter (25.8%) of respondents reported no form of workplace exploitation in their first job.

Victims and perpetrators

Our results indicate there is a statistically significant association between (1) the age respondents are first employed and exploitation and (2) gender and exploitation.

Those who started their first job when aged under 16 were significantly more likely to report verbal harassment (55.3%) and bullying (35.2%) than older respondents aged 16-17 (39.7% and 20.6%, respectively).

This is consistent with other research showing younger teenagers are more vulnerable to being exploited, because they may not understand workplace agreements and laws, and be more frightened to report incorrect pay or incidents.

Females were significantly more likely to report economic exploitation (49.1%) and sexual harassment (16.6%) compared to their male counterparts (34.5% and 5.2%, respectively).

Read more: Are you a bully? Here’s how to tell

Co-workers, supervisors and employers were largely responsible for bullying and exposing teenagers to unsafe work conditions.

Customers were largely responsible for harassment and physical abuse.

Respondents also reported many instances where other workers or managers (including owners) witnessed exploitative behaviour but failed to intervene.

Reducing workplace exploitation

Our analysis of survey data indicates workplaces can do much more to protect young people from victimisation.

Low management supervision in retail and hospitality settings, for example, puts females under 16 at high risk of harassment and economic exploitation.

To improve the situation, governments and workplace regulators should more actively monitor, investigate and enforce the laws and regulations. Specifically those surrounding child employment, fair work, pay and superannuation, and workplace health and safety.

Governments and industry groups also need to more effectively engage with employers to make them more aware of their legal obligations.

There is also a role for technology that can help young people monitor their working conditions. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s “Record My Hours” smartphone app, for example.

Apps like this can help young staff track their hours and pay. They could also be modified to enable the reporting of incidents of abuse or incorrect pay.

In recent years we have lurched from one worker underpayment and exploitation scandal to another. Our research indicates this problem may be more grave and pervasive than we have imagined. If that is the case, we must do better.

– ref. Welcome to your first job: expect to be underpaid, bullied, harassed or exploited in some way – http://theconversation.com/welcome-to-your-first-job-expect-to-be-underpaid-bullied-harassed-or-exploited-in-some-way-110438

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

An extraordinary amount of hype and some confected hysteria preceded Tuesday’s vote on the medical transfer legislation.

The government threw everything at trying to avoid a defeat. In a last stand, it fell back on a constitutional argument – backed by Solicitor-General advice – that carried no practical weight and was simply circumvented by the majority that passed the bill in the House of Representatives.

Read more: Crossbenchers must decide between something or nothing on medical transfers bill

While the government frantically attempted to thwart Labor and the crossbench, Scott Morrison also ran the line that he wasn’t that fussed. Afterwards he told a news conference: “Votes will come and votes will go, they do not trouble me.” That claim wouldn’t pass a fact check.

This was a big vote, and everyone knew it. Morrison operates a minority government and Tuesday’s loss underscored that he can’t automatically get his way. (Ironically, in the last days of Turnbull’s majority government, the threat of losing a House vote came from internal dissidents.)

Read more: The government was defeated on the ‘medivac’ bill, but that does not mean the end of the government

The next test for Morrison will be on whether the House agrees to extra sitting days to discuss the measures from the banking royal commission. For procedural reasons, this needs 76 votes, one more than the 75 required on the medical transfer bill. The government has been leaning heavily on Bob Katter, the crossbencher who will be the key.

While the government looked rattled as the votes on the medical transfer bill proceeded, Labor was calm and steely.

For all the talk about Labor’s misjudgement on the issue, this week it has moved cautiously and methodically.

Originally pushed by the crossbench into taking a stand on humanitarian grounds – the bill is based on a proposal from independent Kerryn Phelps – Labor has sought to display compassion but contain the political risk.

Bill Shorten, knowing the danger, decided the version of the bill coming from the Senate (which Labor had supported there) left the ALP too exposed. He flagged last week he’d like a “middle” course.

So the opposition came up with amendments to give the minister wider discretion and more time in making decisions, and to limit the application of the legislation to those on Nauru and Manus now. The latter change was to minimise the “pull” factor – the extent to which the new arrangement would encourage the people smugglers.

Then it was a matter of persuading the required six crossbenchers. They accepted in the negotiations that a modified bill was better than nothing (though there was some Greens cavilling).

In the House, the ALP troops were kept carefully in check; the emotion was turned down; the speeches from the bill’s supporters were few and brief. Labor just wanted one thing in the chamber – a win. This wasn’t the time to grandstand.

The government, wounded and worried, is seeing this as one (albeit major) battle in the long war to the election. Its spruikers will say that in defeat it has had a victory – that Labor has given the Coalition ammunition for the campaign.

It’s true the bill has breathed new life into the border security debate, but whether this will be enough to do Labor serious harm is an open question. `

The ALP is always vulnerable on boats. On the other hand, boats are lower in voters’ minds than they used to be.

The government will turn up the dial by announcing “contingency plans” against fresh arrivals. Morrison, having accused Shorten of undermining offshore processing, is already moving on to the claim that he couldn’t be trusted to be strong on turnbacks.

Goodness knows how the politics would play out if a boat appeared on the horizon in the next few weeks. You can be sure, however, that the government would be quick to tell us about it, and point the finger at Shorten.

In all this, the bill itself (which has to go back to the Senate for a tick off on the amendments) should be kept in perspective.

The minister has a veto on “security” grounds, including being able to exclude anyone who has committed a major crime. The composition of the medical panel which would have the final say on other transfers is broad and balanced.

Probably, over a period, there would be a lot of transfers out of the 1000 people offshore. But there have already been nearly 900 (some after legal action). These transfers have amounted to a backdoor route into Australia.

If the legislation in the longer term opens that door a little wider, it will also be a way of “settling” people in Australia without acknowledging that is being done.

More of the same? Or a radical change? It depends how you look at it.

– ref. View from the Hill: Shorten’s victory will bring dangerous counter strikes from a desperate government – http://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-shortens-victory-will-bring-dangerous-counter-strikes-from-a-desperate-government-111666

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

The Morrison government has been defeated in the House of Representatives by the passage of a government bill containing amendments made against its wishes that allow for the medical evacuation of asylum-seekers from Manus Island and Nauru.

At the last minute, the Speaker tabled, against the wishes of the government, advice from the Solicitor-General raising a constitutional problem with the Senate amendments. In short, those amendments provided for an “Independent Health Advice Panel”, of which six members would have to be paid. Their remuneration would come automatically under an existing appropriation in the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 for the payment of persons who hold public offices. The effect of the amendments in the Bill would therefore have increased the amount payable under that existing appropriation.

This is important, because section 53 of the Constitution says that the “Senate may not amend any proposed law so as to increase any proposed charge or burden on the people”. The argument was that even though the Senate amendments to the bill did not contain an appropriation, they would increase a burden on the people by increasing the amount automatically appropriated under the Remuneration Tribunal Act.

Read more: Explainer: what is a hung parliament and how would it affect the passage of legislation?

Whether this is enough to trigger section 53 is a matter of dispute between the Houses. Understandably, the House of Representatives has long considered that Senate amendments of that kind do breach section 53, while the Senate takes a different view.

The issue cannot be decided by a court, because the courts have held that section 53 is an internal matter for the houses, and not one to be determined judicially. This was made clear in the recent case on the same-sex marriage postal survey. So even if the houses chose to ignore section 53 and pass a bill that breached its terms, and the validity of the law was challenged, a court would not find it to be invalid.

The consequence was that this was a battlefield for the two houses. In the absence of any judicial precedents, all we have to guide us is parliamentary practice and the competing views of parliamentary committees. These do not provide clear answers. While the houses are under a moral and political obligation to obey the Constitution, this is difficult when the Constitution itself is unclear and its interpretation is disputed.

The government’s action in seeking to declare the bill to be a money bill also raised the political stakes. In order to govern, a government must retain control over government finance. Defeat on a money bill in the House of Representatives is regarded as a loss of confidence, which by convention requires the government to resign or seek an election. For example, the Fadden Government resigned in 1941 when its budget was reduced by the nominal sum of £1. So if the bill was treated as a money bill by the government, its passage against the wishes of the government would have raised a serious issue of whether it could continue governing.

However, the Labor Party moved an amendment to remove any right to payment of officers of the panel. This should mean that it is not a money bill, with the consequence that the constitutional issues about s53 should go away (although there would still be a precedent of the House of Representatives dealing with the Senate amendments, rather than rejecting their validity outright).

The bill still has to pass the Senate. If it does so, it will then be presented to the governor-general for royal assent. I have previously discussed why it would not be wise for the government to advise the governor-general to refuse royal assent. Assuming that royal assent is given, then the medivac amendments will take effect the day after the bill receives royal assent.

Read more: Why a government would be mad to advise the refusal of royal assent to a bill passed against its will

Can the Morrison government continue to govern after its defeat on this bill? Yes. As the bill is no longer a money bill and is not one that the government has declared to be a matter of confidence, the government can continue to govern.

If the House of Representatives has truly lost confidence in the government, it can always move a vote of no confidence to make this clear. Unless that happens, the Morrison government can continue governing until the election is held.

– ref. The government was defeated on the ‘medivac’ bill, but that does not mean the end of the government – http://theconversation.com/the-government-was-defeated-on-the-medivac-bill-but-that-does-not-mean-the-end-of-the-government-111635

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Chinna, Senior Honorary Research Fellow, University of Western Australia

Review: Sunset, Perth Festival 2019

On a humid night with strong easterlies blowing across the river, the opening night audience for dance-theatre performance Sunset was ushered towards the Sunset Heritage Precinct, on the banks of the Swan River in Dalkeith.

The precinct is currently undergoing refurbishment as a community space and arts centre after many years of disuse. It seems fitting that a piece invoking, in the director’s words, “loss, memory, space and silence”, should be chosen as the initial performance for the venue. It was constructed as a home for destitute men and later became a hospital, with resonances of an asylum (the men’s home had two padded cells).

The performance, to some degree paradoxically, takes place in the hospital’s former cinema, although this cinema space is more a dance hall cum theatre auditorium. A Perth Festival Co-commission, it is a collaboration between UK-based freelance director and choreographer Maxine Doyle and her associates Conor Doyle and Paul Zivkovich, and Western Australia’s STRUT Dance in association with Tura New Music.

Sunset explores love, love and memory. Simon Pynt

Once inside the precinct, the Sunset audience moved past rooms with piles of dirt and spindly plants, evocative of a deserted building in the outback where “nature” overcomes civilisation. But, this was also a reference to the myth of Demeter, the Goddess of Grain, seeking her daughter Persephone. As the director indicates in the program, the myth had a significant influence on Sunset’s narrative.

More time spent in these rooms to reflect on the institutional architecture and ablution blocks reminiscent of a prison, or asylum, would have helped set the tone for what followed. However, perhaps the number of patrons precluded that, even though 100 is the maximum allowable for any one performance.

From there patrons moved into the “cinema”, a cavernous hall with peeling-paint walls, a small stage at one end, and a servery at the other. Chairs were scattered throughout, allowing spectators the opportunity to stand or sit, or wander at will – though few took up this opportunity.

Thematically, the performance focused on those “universal” themes of love, loss and memory, tied in with the myth of Demeter and Persephone. That spectators may infer something different from what is intended is very much part of the “dreamlike” experience.

While the former home housed, among others, Great War veterans and Depression era homeless, what was evoked for me was the displacement of diaspora. This was in part expressed in the character of Alfred Ganz, a fictional poet performed by Humphrey Bower, complete with an Eastern European accent and with a nod to T.S. Eliot in his poetry titles.

Humphrey Bower as Alfred Ganz in Sunset. Simon Pynt

This European influence was evident when the stage was used early in the performance in a conventional manner, inviting the audience to be unidirectional in their focus. This was to witness the performance of a quasi-Expressionist playlet “The Lost Girl”, complete with Ernst Toller-like skeletons wooing the girl.

The stage was not used again in a major way until the long closing dance sequences, where the Tura New Music quartet played so wonderfully as accompaniment to the dancers.

In what no doubt signified a celebration of rebirth, in tune with the Demeter and Persephone myth, the performers danced a mixture of folk-style dances with touches of the tarantella and a Scottish cèilidh. Earlier, performers had moved individually among the audience, either hugging the walls or breaking into brief intermittent dances. When dancing as a group, the varying levels of experience and expertise of the performers were made more obvious.

Sunset is performed in a former men’s home and hospital. Toni Wilkinson

Some of the dancers were excellent, particularly Natalie Allen as Demeter. But it is difficult to identify who in the performance were dancers and who were actors. The program is devoted to words and pictures on the Sunset precinct, notes from the directors, a poem from the character Alfred Ganz and pictures and bios of the major production and technical crew. The 12 performers get just their names — four lines in total.

That said, there are many fine things about this performance, such as evidence of some hard thinking on the best use of the space and how best to incorporate certain stories and omit others.

An effectively varied soundscape, and excellent use of lighting, helped draw out the sometimes nightmarish qualities of the experience – for the cast, as seeming inmates of this asylum cum hospital cum prison space, and for the audience, where at any moment a bystander might break into a performance. The voice of composer and soundscape designer Rachel Dease was beautifully utilised and added yet another layer of a dreamlike quality.

Many spectators appeared to have enjoyed it, notwithstanding the sauna-like conditions. And although there are workers in the world who must undergo far more blistering and extended working hours in extreme conditions, congratulations should be extended to the performers for their energy and commitment in spite of the oppressive heat.

Sunset is playing as part of the Perth Festival until February 17.

– ref. Sunset, a danced evocation of love, loss, and rebirth – http://theconversation.com/sunset-a-danced-evocation-of-love-loss-and-rebirth-111531