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Mobile apps might make you feel better about travelling alone, but they won’t necessarily make you safer

October 10, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor and ARC DECRA Fellow, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University

As I was writing this article, I was fortunate enough to be at a conference in Florence, Italy. Like a growing number of women who travel overseas, whether for work or leisure, many of the trips I’ve done in recent years have been alone. And as a digital criminologist (as well as a mobile app enthusiast), I’m certainly a convert to the practical usefulness of technologies for travel.

There are a wide variety of smartphone apps that certainly make travelling alone easier to navigate. Think offline maps, language translation, transport timetables, online ticket bookings, Uber, electronic banking, virtual private networks (VPNs, especially if using electronic banking on public Wi-Fi), and updating friends and family about one’s activities.

Then there are the more specific “safety” technologies. Some of them, like the Australian government’s Smart Traveller website, allow voyagers to register their intended whereabouts in case of a natural disaster or emergency. Travellers can also keep up to date with local risk and incident alerts, which can help you to steer clear if there is an incident in the city you’re headed to.

Others, like BSafe and Bugle, allow you to easily notify your emergency contacts if you feel unsafe, or do not arrive at your intended destination.

But while these apps might make you feel safer, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they make you safer in reality.

The bSafe app allows your loved ones to pinpoint your location when you activate the SOS button. BSafe

How risky is solo travel for women?

In Australia, one in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and one in five has experienced sexual violence. Much of this violence takes place in private space. And the overwhelming majority of it is committed by men who are known to the woman victim. Often by an intimate partner, date, family member or acquaintance.

The rates and patterns of violence against women are similar in many countries globally. But there are some places where both violence generally, and violence against women, happen more frequently and where travellers might be at additional risk. For example, a 2013 report of the World Health Organisation found that women in Africa were almost twice as likely as women in Europe to experience violence.

Meanwhile the Australian government recommends avoiding any travel to some countries and regions within Africa, South America and the Middle East. India also features in research into countries which may be comparatively less safe for women travelling alone.

The author travelling in Tuscany, Italy last week. Author provided

But for many of the most common destinations of Australians travelling overseas, the rates and patterns of violence against women are similar to those at home. Some countries, such as Japan, have notoriously low rates of sexual violence. Although there are also well documented concerns over sexual harassment on the subway, and some claims of substantial under-reporting of sex crimes due to social taboos.

Yet the point remains that statistically speaking, unless you’re travelling to a high conflict zone or your travel is to seek refuge in another country, then as a woman it is not necessarily “riskier” for you to travel solo abroad.

This doesn’t mean that there is no risk, but generally speaking the risks of sexual assault or homicide from an unknown male perpetrator in a public place are low. Many women do experience street harassment, intimidation and fear from men in public, but this happens in Australia as well as abroad.

‘Security theatre’

Women are experienced at different types of “safety work”. Many women take additional precautions to manage both their risk of violence, and their feelings of fear or safety, on a daily basis. From avoiding eye contact with unknown men in the street, to wearing headphones even without music playing, to sitting in the back seat of a taxi, to texting a friend when we are home safe.

While travelling solo, this safety work might also include: providing family or friends with our itinerary before we depart, regularly checking in our location on our social media, sending location updates or any changed plans back to family or friends back home, and following along on our navigation while taking a taxi.

Of course, some of these activities – which are certainly practical – can also be understood as managing fear, rather than necessarily keeping us safer. Some of them are directed only at raising the alarm should we go missing – that is presumably, after some harm has already befallen us.

We engage in a kind of “security theatre” – a term famously used to refer to some counter terrorism measures that actually do little to reduce the risk of a terrorist attack, but make the public less afraid. For women, our security theatre includes practices that make us feel safer and more empowered to enter into public spaces.

The right amount of panic

As legal scholar Fiona Vera-Gray rightly points out, it seems impossible to know what “the right amount of panic” is. Women are regularly blamed if they fall victim to men’s violence for not being panicked enough – in other words, for taking too much risk. But if we are too panicked it will restrict our movements and participation in the world in ways that seriously undermine our freedoms.

To travel solo while female seems to require walking a tightrope of challenging gender stereotypes of women as inherently in danger and in need of protection, while also navigating a cascade of advice on how to keep safe.

Ultimately, of course, no mobile app is going to prevent a violent crime by a perpetrator who chooses to enact it. But if the convenience of an all-in-one navigating, translating and incident reporting device both makes solo travel easier – and makes you feel more safe and confident – then go on, get out there!

– ref. Mobile apps might make you feel better about travelling alone, but they won’t necessarily make you safer – http://theconversation.com/mobile-apps-might-make-you-feel-better-about-travelling-alone-but-they-wont-necessarily-make-you-safer-104013]]>

Six things you can do to get boys reading more

By The Conversation -

October 10, 2018

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

The OECD consistently finds girls perform significantly better than boys in reading. This gap can also be observed across the Australian NAPLAN reading data.

Research suggests reading more can improve literacy outcomes across a range of indicators. But girls typically read more frequently than boys, and have a more positive attitude toward reading.

Parents read more with their daughters. This sends a strong and early message that books are for girls, as well as equipping girls with a significant advantage. Recent research found even though boys read less frequently than girls, girls receive more encouragement to read from their parents.

So how can parents and educators help bridge the gap for boys’ literacy?

Stop telling boys they only like non-fiction

To improve boys’ literacy outcomes, parents and educators may look for ways to connect boys with reading. This had led to discussion about the importance of promoting so-called “boy-friendly” books that boys are supposedly “drawn to”, which are typically assumed to be non-fiction works, as it’s regularly contended that boys prefer to read non-fiction.

But this contention is not typically supported by recent quantitative research. For example, OECD and my own research suggests boys are more likely to choose to read fiction than non-fiction. Encouraging all boys to read non-fiction under the assumption this meets an imagined uniform preference can actually lead to negative outcomes.

You can model good behaviour for your child by reading for enjoyment in front of them. from www.shutterstock.com

Firstly, the reading of fiction is more consistently associated with literacy benefit than non-fiction in areas such as verbal ability and reading performance. When we tell boys non-fiction books are for them, this may steer them away from a more beneficial text type. This is counterproductive if we’re doing so in order to improve their literacy.

Secondly, recent research suggests non-fiction readers tend to read less frequently than fiction readers. So, if we want to increase boys’ reading frequency, engaging them in fiction may be more effective.

We may also be encouraged to steer boys toward comic books. While children can benefit from exposure to diverse text types, the reading of comic books, e-mails and social networking posts, newspapers, magazines and text-messages is not associated with the same level of literacy benefit.

In addition, recent research supports the relationship between reading fiction and the development of pro-social characteristics such as empathy and perspective taking. So reading fiction can help students to meet the Personal and Social Capability in the Australian Curriculum, among other general capabilities. Instead of buying into stereotypes, we should aim to meet our children’s individual reading interests and encourage a reading diet that includes fiction.

Six strategies for connecting boys with books

Here are six strategies you can use to connect boys with books and increase their reading engagement:

just as your interests and views are not identical to all those of the same age and gender, boys have diverse interests and tastes. These don’t necessarily stay static over time. To match them with reading material they’re really interested in, initiate regular discussions about reading for pleasure, in order to keep up with their interests
schools should provide access to libraries during class time throughout the years of schooling. Girls may be more likely to visit a library in their free time than boys, and as children move through the years of schooling they may receive less access to libraries during class time, curtailing boys’ access to books. Access to books is essential to promote reading
keep reading to and with boys for as long as possible, as many boys find it enjoyable and beneficial beyond the early years
provide opportunities and expectations for silent reading at home and at school, despite competing demands on time
keep paper books available. Boys who are daily readers are even less likely to choose to read on screens than girls. The assumption that boys prefer to read on screens is not supported by research
promote reading as an enjoyable and acceptable pastime by being a great role model. Let your children or students see you read for pleasure.

Reading is for everyone. from www.shutterstock.com

As a final comment, the OECD note:

Although girls have higher mean reading performance, enjoy reading more and are more aware of effective strategies to summarise information than boys, the differences within genders are far greater than those between the genders.

So, parents and educators seeking to support the literacy attainment of young people through increased reading engagement should focus on meeting the needs of all disengaged and struggling learners, regardless of gender.

– ref. Six things you can do to get boys reading more – http://theconversation.com/six-things-you-can-do-to-get-boys-reading-more-104140]]>

In their own words: internees tell of life in our German detainment camps

By The Conversation -

October 10, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Moir, Lecturer in Germanic Studies, University of Sydney

On August 15 1918, a German steamship called the Lothringen reached Melbourne from Antwerp after 47 days at sea. Without access to telegraphy during their journey, the sailors had no idea that war had broken out between the German and British Empires. When the Lothringen docked here, a company of naval officers informed the Germans on board of the news.

Friedrich Meier, one of the sailors on board, recorded in his diary on 18 August 1914 that he and his comrades were “arrested, […] unsuspectingly, as prisoners of war.” Meier was removed to Langwarrin Internment Camp in Victoria, one of 11 “German Concentration Camps” around the country in which so-called enemy aliens were held during the war.

Locations of internment camps. National Archives of Australia

At first, only those born in countries with which Australia was at war were interned. Later, the policy was extended to include Australian-born descendants of enemy nations. Like Meier, those detained were very often civilians, thought to pose a threat purely on the basis of their heritage.

In total, around 7,000 people were interned in Australia during the first world war, including around 4,500 with German ancestry born or resident in Australia at the time war broke out. A new exhibition at the State Library NSW showcases the papers of German internees, one of six sets of holdings at the Library with UNESCO Memory of the World status.

Thanks to a collaborative translation project between the library and faculty and students from the University of Sydney’s Department of Germanic Studies, visitors to the exhibition can read internees’ stories in their own words.

Camp life

Though conditions varied between camps, life inside them was generally hard. A strict regime operated: “reveille” at 6.30 a.m., lights out at 10 p.m. Prisoners were required to submit to roll call twice a day, and to assemble for parade three times. In between, they might occupy themselves by reading, playing cards, or working, for instance, doing carpentry, like this internee in Holsworthy Camp.

Internee carpenter at work in Holsworthy Camp. State Library NSW

Visits from relatives were permitted, and correspondence was allowed, though letters could only be written in English. It was forbidden to keep a diary or any other written materials in German, or to write about political matters. A strict censorship system operated, with prisoners who spoke German or Croatian used to intercept potentially risky correspondence. Whatever was found, was confiscated, though the letters, diaries, and newspapers that remain demonstrate that much escaped the censors.

The Censor’s office at Holsworthy Camp. State Library NSW

The remaining records illustrate how internees tried to make the most of their time. A lively parallel society developed in the camps, with cafes and sports clubs, theatre groups and football leagues. One of our students has translated an article in Holsworthy’s Kamp Spiegel newspaper which details one league’s efforts to set up a proper pitch to play on.

The Kamp Spiegel was one of several German-language newspapers that circulated illicitly inside the camps. Advertisements in Die Welt am Montag, the Trial Bay camp weekly, spruik the wares of Andreas Meiers, the proprietor of Café Habsburg, the “first and biggest food stall in the camp”. The Habsburg opened “every Monday and Thursday” and served a “variety of foods” including the speciality “braised beef with potato dumplings”.

Another restaurant, “next to the roller-skating rink”, advertised itself as a “Newly fitted, spacious and comfortable established locale”, where one could play “billiards and snooker”, and eat the “finest pastries” and “excellent lunches and evening suppers”. The Café Artist Klause, meanwhile, was positioned “opposite the German theatre”.

Croatian internee employed as a translator in the Censor’s office at Holsworthy. State Library NSW

Treading the boards

The dramatic life of some inmates is revealed in the theatre criticism of the Kamp Spiegel. An anonymous reviewer writes encouragingly of his fellow detainees’ theatrical performances. In 1915 in Holsworthy camp, a theatre troupe, the Deutsche Theater Bühne, staged Hermann Sudermann’s 1905 play Stein unter Steinen (Stone among Stones). It tells the story of Jakob Biegler, a young and talented but hard-up stonemason’s apprentice who is sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for killing his landlord in a heated confrontation.

The camp critic tells us that Mr Diederich’s portrayal of Zarncke, the benevolent master stonemason who gives Jakob work, was “quite superb”. Meanwhile, “Mr. Himmelmann’s natural gift for acting” allowed him to play the role of Lore, Jakob’s common law partner, “deftly and realistically”.

The pride in the improvement of each performer and in the ability of “our little stage” to convey the impression of a stonemason’s workshop is touching when one considers that many of these men were themselves manual workers confined for no other reason than their German heritage.

Program cover of ‘Deutsches Theater Liverpool’ (DTL), the theatre troupe inside Liverpool Camp. State Library NSW

German internees had little choice but to try and make a life in the camps: after all, nobody knew how long the war would last. But life was far from rosy. Conditions were cramped and unsanitary: not cleaning up properly after using the toilet facilities carried a punishment of solitary confinement.

Other punishments included restriction to a meagre diet of watery oats, and restraint using leg chains or a body belt. Guards taunted prisoners about life on the outside, and worries about families and businesses drove some to suicide, or to attempt escape.

Poetic resistance

The illustrated poem ‘The Three Freedom-Seekers’ from Der Kamerad, June 1915. State Library NSW

Among the materials our student translators have unearthed is an illustrated poem from Der Kamerad (The Comrade), the handwritten weekly published by prisoners of Torrens Island Camp, South Australia, in June 1915. It recounts a failed escape attempt, though it isn’t clear from the context whether these particular events actually took place or whether the poet is trading on hearsay.

The author tells us that the poem is to be sung to the tune of the German folk song Es zogen drei Burschen wohl über den Rhein. In its original form, the song goes:

Three lads went a wandering over the Rhine,
A landlady welcomed them, gave them some wine.

In its modified form, the unnamed prisoner — who dedicates his poem to “The Three Freedom-Seekers” — writes:

It rained one evening with force so great,
The time in the camp was long after eight.
Three young lads, through the fence they did crawl,
The guards, they slept – who’d believe it at all?

The author continues by telling us that the “freedom-seekers” were caught and returned to the camp after 13 days, with “long hair and beards, many now turned grey” and concludes that “a moral can be learned” from this story: “Don’t run away from Torrens Island!”

Returning home?

After the war ended, these camps were closed. All internees were deported to Germany, regardless of whether they had any family ties there or had set foot on its shores.

In a mass letter of complaint, prisoners of Holsworthy camp “with wives, families or other dependants in Australia” pleaded to be released to their home on parole, or interned on house arrest with their loved ones. Over 1,000 people appealed deportation decisions, but only 306 were allowed to stay.

Like many others, Friedrich Meier was eventually also transported to Holsworthy to await deportation. In his final entry, he writes:

The majority of our camp is expected to depart on the 25th or 26th of month with the “Kursk” …, which is currently docked in Sydney.

Unlike so many other German internees, Meier, at least, was returning home.

A hundred years later, the first world war is still largely commemorated as a conflict in which members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps — ANZACs — fought with the British Empire against the German and Austrian aggressors.

But the full picture is much more complex. While some German Australians fought on the side of the British Empire against their ancestral country, others were interned in camps. Their papers reveal the complex history of Australia’s first world war in more detail than ever before.

The exhibition runs until March 2019. A public event will be held on the evening of 14 November 2018, revealing more findings from the translation project.

Acknowledgements: library curators Anna Corkhill and Margot Riley; student translators: Holly Anderson, Giulia Ara, Brigitta Bene, Alexander McDonald, Lauren O’Hara, Benjamin Walker, Ruby Watters. Images reproduced with permission of State Library New South Wales.

– ref. In their own words: internees tell of life in our German detainment camps – http://theconversation.com/in-their-own-words-internees-tell-of-life-in-our-german-detainment-camps-103328]]>

The AFLW found instant success, but challenges remain for its long-term sustainability

By The Conversation -

October 10, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith D. Parry, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, University of Winchester

This has been a momentous year for women’s sport in Australia. For the first time, the country’s major sporting leagues had both male and female competitions following the introduction of the NRL Women’s Premiership – a tournament that builds on the success of the first-ever Women’s State of Origin competition.

Since 2015, new elite women’s competitions have been introduced in Australian football (AFLW), cricket (Women’s Big Bash League) and Rugby League, while the National Netball League emerged as a replacement to the ANZ Championship. The top-division women’s football competition, the W-League, has also grown in visibility, with a new deal to televise all of its matches.

A recent study highlighted increasing numbers of women’s sport fans, as well. It found that 84% of sport fans in Australia and seven other countries were interested in women’s sport. Among men, 51% said they were engaged in women’s sport.

While this is all good news for women’s sport, challenges remain. And with the AFLW about to enter its third season, it is a critical time for this league in particular.

The league’s success has clearly been seen as a threat to some. Former AFL player Mick Malthouse sparked outrage – and prompted AFLW star Moana Hope to storm out of a Grand Final luncheon – when he suggested the AFL was a “man’s game”. He went on later to say:

Let’s get the game into such a manner that it doesn’t expose the girls to the injuries that some of the men are copping, because we are built differently.

Lingering stereotypes and misogyny are one thing. But the AFLW also needs to address critical funding and visibility issues in order to ensure its long-term viability, including tackling big questions over whether to charge fans for tickets and how to pay players a living wage.

Maintaining fan interest

Attendance figures for the AFLW have been higher than was initially expected. When the league launched last year, the first four games drew more than 50,000 fans. A crowd of nearly 41,975 also turned out for a match between Fremantle and Collingwood earlier this year, setting a record for the largest stand-alone women’s sporting event in Australian history.

So far, the vast majority of AFLW games have been free to attend (except when scheduled before a men’s game in a double-header). Significantly, the fans at the Fremantle-Collingwood match paid a A$2 entry fee. Yet, the challenge of making the AFLW profitable in the long run remains.

The Fremantle-Collingwood AFLW match broke a record for fan attendance. AAP Image/Tony McDonough

The AFL has considered charging for tickets to all games – a major step that would certainly ensure the league’s sustainability. First, this would generate revenue to allow for greater wages for the players. It also places a value proposition on the sport and gives the league a greater degree of credibility.

The WBBL has taken this approach this season, charging fans A$10 to attend games in Sydney. Sydney Sixers general manger Jodie Hawkins said of the move:

The decision to ticket the WBBL is in line with the value we believe the elite matches deliver and our match-day experiences will reflect that.

Sponsorships and TV deals

With 41% of Australians indicating they are interested in women’s footy, according to a recent study, there is clearly a demand for the sport. But it is still difficult to turn this general fan interest into a financial commitment through purchasing both tickets and merchandise. This may be even more difficult with men.

Investment in marketing and TV coverage is key to changing this. Sponsors have been quick to support the AFLW, with many citing the image of the sport as a good fit for their brands. The lack of off-field scandals, compared to male players, is also appealing to sponsors.

A number of new, high-profile sponsors came on board after the first season’s success. Existing AFL sponsors have also been keen to include sponsorship of the AFLW in new deals. However, the growth of all the new women’s leagues – from rugby league to cricket – means that competition for sponsors is as fierce as the action on the field.

Sponsorship deals are aided by television coverage of the sport and the AFLW has been a ratings success. But there’s a caveat: the initial two-year deal with Channel Seven and Foxtel saw the rights given away for free. The current AFLW broadcasting deal has been described as a “bargain-basement broadcast agreement”, but a renegotiated deal was delayed while the AFL decided on the structure of the 2019 season.

Increasing the visibility of women on the sidelines of AFLW matches is also important for the sport to grow.

Kelli Underwood is delivering excellent commentary on games – a much-needed shift in the culture of masculinity that has long dominated sports broadcasting. Underwood is also one of the hosts of a new AFL show, On The Mark, that is primarily fronted by women. Meanwhile, ABC Grandstand’s 50-50 gender split for its radio commentary teams has brought a rise in its ratings.

Having women represented on the commercial channels reaffirms that sport is something they can and do have valid opinions about. Yet, while inroads are being made, opportunities covering AFL remain few and far between for women overall.

The teams in the inaugural AFLW season. AFL

Paying a living wage

The AFLW is set to expand the number of teams in 2019 and then again the following year. Yet, controversially, the number of games each team will play this season will remain the same.

This is problematic in terms of offering players a decent wage. The AFLW season is short. Players were only contracted for 24 weeks in 2018. Given that the highest basic AFLW salary was just A$20,000 last season, it is unsurprising that many players are not full-time professionals.

AFLW players struggle to make a living from the sport. Many are forced to compete in a variety of leagues around the world during their off-seasons, or in a number of different sports. This situation needs to change so that women’s sport is valued and women can focus on being full-time, professional athletes.

Whether women’s sport will continue to grow in a highly competitive landscape is uncertain. But growing the commercial interests in the game and increasing its visibility will no doubt ensure the league’s future is sustainable and profitable. It is now time for fans and administrators to put their money where their mouths are and support women’s sport in meaningful ways.

– ref. The AFLW found instant success, but challenges remain for its long-term sustainability – http://theconversation.com/the-aflw-found-instant-success-but-challenges-remain-for-its-long-term-sustainability-104406]]>

Australia moves to El Niño alert and the drought is likely to continue

By The Conversation -

October 10, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Skie Tobin, Climatologist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

The chances of an El Niño developing late in 2018 have increased and this week the Bureau moved to El Niño ALERT. This means that model outlooks and observations indicate there is approximately a 70% chance that El Niño will develop in the coming months. Current patterns in the Pacific are similar to the early stages of past El Niño, with warm water shifting east towards South America.

We’re also seeing indications a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) has likely started, in which warmer waters near Africa drag moisture away from Australia. El Niño and positive IOD events typically mean below-average spring rainfall in central and southern Australia, and a drier start to the wet season in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The development of either would favour continued dry weather, and increase the likelihood that widespread drought relief will be delayed until 2019. Higher than average temperatures, heatwaves, and more severe bushfire weather are also more likely during El Niño and positive IOD events.

A dry year so far

September 2018 was a very dry month, adding to low rainfall seen across many parts of Australia so far this year. September 2018 was not only the driest September in 119 years of record for Australia, but it was also the second-driest for any month of the year (behind only April 1902).

Rainfall for the year to date has been exceptionally low over the mainland southeast, with much of the region experiencing totals in the lowest 10% of records for January–September. Many locations in eastern New South Wales, eastern Victoria, and southeast Queensland have received about 400 mm less rainfall than they usually would have by this time of the year.

Rainfall deciles for January to September 2018. Bureau of Meterology

Much of southern Australia has experienced a persistent rainfall decline spanning several decades, which is adding to drought stress by drying the landscape.

Southwest Western Australia has experienced significantly lower cool season (April to October) rainfall since the mid-1970s, compared to observations since 1900, while for the southeast the drop has been more recent, emerging in the mid-1990s. These rainfall declines have been linked to circulation changes in the southern hemisphere influenced by the increase in greenhouse gases.

These rainfall changes have also been accompanied by much larger reductions in streamflow, particularly in the southwest of Australia where high flows have become much less frequent.

April to October rainfall anomalies (mm) for southwestern (left) and southeastern (right) Australia, showing the decline in totals with respect to the 1961 to 1990 average. The main feature of the decline is significantly fewer wet years, meaning recovery from the dry years is patchy. Bureau of Meteorology

And it’s also been unusually warm

Low rainfall has also been accompanied by very high daytime temperatures so far this year. Of course, Australian temperatures are warming in line with global trends, but in individual years variations which are likely to be largely natural (such as droughts) may add to or subtract from the broader trends.

Historically, droughts have often brought hot conditions, and this has been borne out in 2018. Maximum temperatures for January to September were the warmest on record for the Murray–Darling Basin and New South Wales, with neighbouring regions also much warmer than average.

These extremely warm days, combined with extremely low rainfall, have caused an intense drying of the Australian landscape in 2018, resulting in an early start to the bushfire season in New South Wales and Victoria, where damaging fire were observed as early as late winter.

So how might the year end?

Like all Australians, the Bureau hopes farmers and those suffering through drought get the rainfall they need, but unfortunately, the outlook indicates dry conditions are likely to continue for some time.

Large parts of southern and eastern Australia are likely to see a drier than average end to the year, though odds favouring drier than average conditions tend to moderate as we head towards summer. Most of the country is likely to see a dry October, though local heavy falls can occur against a backdrop of broadly suppressed rainfall.

Chance of exceeding median rainfall between October to December 2018. Bureau of Meteorology

While some parts of New South Wales and southeastern Queensland have received very welcome rainfall in the first days of October, rainfall has been below average over much of over eastern Australia for so long (since early 2017) that this rainfall event hasn’t been enough to break the drought.

Looking at temperature, outlooks show a very high chance of warmer than average days and nights through to the end of 2018. Considering the year so far has already been very warm, this means 2018 has the potential to rank as another significant warm year. Seven of Australia’s ten warmest years have occurred since 2005, with just one cooler than average year in the last decade (2011), highlighting how warmer than average temperatures now dominate Australia’s climate.

Change of exceeding median maximum temperature between October to December 2018. Bureau of Meteorology

– ref. Australia moves to El Niño alert and the drought is likely to continue – http://theconversation.com/australia-moves-to-el-nino-alert-and-the-drought-is-likely-to-continue-104636]]>

Five lifestyle changes to enhance your mood and mental health

By The Conversation -

October 10, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jerome Sarris, Professor; NHMRC Clinical Research Fellow; NICM Health Research Institute Deputy Director, Western Sydney University

When someone is diagnosed with a mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety, first line treatments usually include psychological therapies and medication. What’s not always discussed are the changeable lifestyle factors that influence our mental health.

Even those who don’t have a mental health condition may still be looking for ways to further improve their mood, reduce stress, and manage their day-to-day mental health.

It can be empowering to make positive life changes. While time restrictions and financial limitations may affect some people’s ability to make such changes, we all have the ability to make small meaningful changes.

Here are five lifestyle changes to get you started:

1. Improve your diet and start moving

Wholefoods such as leafy green vegetables, legumes, wholegrains, lean red meat and seafood, provide nutrients that are important for optimal brain function. These foods contain magnesium, folate, zinc and essential fatty acids.

Foods rich in polyphenols, such as berries, tea, dark chocolate, wine and certain herbs, also play an important role in brain function.

In terms exercise, many types of fitness activities are potentially beneficial – from swimming, to jogging, to lifting weights, or playing sports. Even just getting the body moving by taking a brisk walk or doing active housework is a positive step.

Activities which also involve social interaction and exposure to nature can potentially increase mental well-being even further.

General exercise guidelines recommend getting at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days during the week (about 150 minutes total over the week). But even short bouts of activity can provide an immediate elevation of mood.

2. Reduce your vices

Managing problem-drinking or substance misuse is an obvious health recommendation. People with alcohol and drug problems have a greater likelihood than average of having a mental illness, and have far poorer health outcomes.

Some research has shown that a little alcohol consumption (in particular wine) may have beneficial effects on preventing depression. Other recent data, however, has revealed that light alcohol consumption does not provide any beneficial effects on brain function.

Stopping smoking is also an important step, as nicotine-addicted people are constantly at the mercy of a withdrawal-craving cycle, which profoundly affects mood. It may take time to address the initial symptoms of stopping nicotine, but the brain chemistry will adapt in time.

Quitting smoking is associated with better mood and reduced anxiety.

3. Prioritise rest and sleep

Sleep hygiene techniques aim to improve sleep quality and help treat insomnia. They including adjusting caffeine use, limiting exposure to the bed (regulating your sleep time and having a limited time to sleep), and making sure you get up at a similar time in the morning.

Some people are genetically wired towards being more of a morning or evening person, so we need to ideally have some flexibility in this regard (especially with work schedules).

It’s also important not to force sleep – if you can’t get to sleep within around 20 minutes, it may be best to get up and focus the mind on an activity (with minimal light and stimulation) until you feel tired.

The other mainstay of better sleep is to reduce exposure to light – especially blue light from laptops and smartphones – prior to sleep. This will increase the secretion of melatonin, which helps you get to sleep.

Getting enough time for relaxation and leisure activities is important for regulating stress. Hobbies can also enhance mental health, particularly if they involve physical activity.

4. Get a dose of nature

When the sun is shining, many of us seem to feel happier. Adequate exposure to sunshine helps levels of the mood-maintaining chemical serotonin. It also boosts vitamin D levels, which also has an effect on mental health, and helps at the appropriate time to regulate our sleep-wake cycle.

The benefits of sun exposure need to be balanced with the risk of skin cancer, so take into account the recommendations for sun exposure based on the time of day/year and your skin colour.

You might also consider limiting your exposure to environmental toxins, chemicals and pollutants, including “noise” pollution, and cutting down on your mobile phone, computer and TV use if they’re excessive.

An antidote to this can be simply spending time in nature. Studies show time in the wilderness can improve self-esteem and mood. In some parts of Asia, spending time in a forest (known as forest bathing) is considered a mental health prescription.

A natural extension of spending time in flora is also the positive effect that animals have on us. Research suggests having a pet has many positive effects, and animal-assisted therapy (with horses, cats, dogs, and even dolphins) may also boost feelings of well-being.

5. Reach out when you need help

Positive lifestyle changes aren’t a replacement for medication or psychological therapy but, rather, as something people can undertake themselves on top of their treatment.

While many lifestyle changes can be positive, some changes (such as avoiding junk foods, alcohol, or giving up smoking) may be challenging if being used as a psychological crutch. They might need to be handled delicately, and with professional support.

Strict advice promoting abstinence, or a demanding diet or exercise regime, may cause added suffering, potentially provoking guilt if you can’t meet these expectations. So go easy on yourself.

That said, take a moment to reflect how you feel mentally after a nutritious wholefood meal, a good night’s sleep (free of alcohol), or a walk in nature with a friend. `

– ref. Five lifestyle changes to enhance your mood and mental health – http://theconversation.com/five-lifestyle-changes-to-enhance-your-mood-and-mental-health-102650]]>

VP’s camp defers to Duterte over his health disclosure – ‘he knows his oath’

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 10, 2018

robredo-duterte-plus-vice-president-rappler-680wide-jpg — ]]>

Health controversy: The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo in the Philippines says it respects the declaration of President Rodrigo Duterte that his recent medical tests came back negative. Image: Rappler montage

By Lian Buan in Manila

The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo is keen on pushing for the public disclosure of President Rodrigo Duterte’s state of health, saying they trust what the President says about the results of his medical tests.

“We respect his declaration,” Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said yesterday.

Duterte told his Cabinet members in a meeting on Monday night that his recent medical tests came back negative for cancer.

Gutierrez said it was up to the President to decide when to disclose his state of health.

“The Vice-President understands that the President also took the oath, he understands the Constitution, and he should know his obligations under the Constitution with respect to disclosure on his true state of health,” Gutierrez said.

-Partners-

Gutierrez added in Filipino: “We are happy that the President is well. The VP has said that it’s clear nobody wants the President to be sick, we want him healthy, we want him working. So if he says it’s like that, then I suppose we must respect it.”

State of health
Duterte had revealed undergoing endoscopy or colonoscopy, where doctors found a “growth”. Duterte said he would inform the public if he had cancer.

The 1987 Constitution states that the President must disclose the state of his health if he has a “serious illness”.

Asked for his legal opinion, Solicitor-General Jose Calida dismissed the topic.

“That’s not the business of the Solicitor-General to find out the health of anybody,” Calida said yesterday, adding that “I’m not a busybody, I mind my own business.”

Section 8, Article VII, of the 1987 Constitution says the vice-president shall serve as the president “in case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation” of the latter. The VP will serve only the president’s unexpired term.

When Duterte revealed he had undergone colonoscopy, the President said he would not want Robredo to take over the presidency because “she is really weak”. The Vice-President responded, saying the President should just get to work instead of insulting her.

Draft rejected
On Monday, it was revealed that the draft constitution authored by House Speaker Gloria Arroyo skipped the Vice-President in the line of succession during the proposed transition to a federal system.

The Senate immediately shot down the House draft.

“To introduce an amendment, they need 3/4 vote in both the House and the Senate, and I’m confident we have enough right-thinking senators who will not follow that kind of proposal,” Gutierrez said.

The Robredo camp had earlier slammed the proposal and its basis as “outright ridiculous”.

Lian Buan is a journalist with the independent news website Rappler.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The Risks to Simon Bridges’ leadership

By Bryce Edwards -

October 9, 2018

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The Risks to Simon Bridges’ leadership

[caption id="attachment_13635" align="alignright" width="150"]

Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption] Last week was Simon Bridges’ worst one as National Party leader, which has sparked widespread discussion about his risk of being rolled. Commentators are relatively divided on the likelihood of this happening, and they also have differing views on how he’s performing, and how united his party currently is. [caption id="attachment_15887" align="alignleft" width="300"]

National Party Leader, Simon Bridges.[/caption] Bridges’ harshest critic is the Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan who says that “Bridges’ days seem numbered” and “Bridges is close to blowing it. His time is almost up” – see: Simon Bridges in the last chance saloon. She starts with a list of Bridges’ weaknesses: “Bridges never quite felt right for the leadership. It’s that lack of authenticity, the baggage of the last government, the public obsession with his diction.” And then in the column du Plessis-Allan just adds more to the list: “Bad personal polling. Ordering the [leak] inquiry. Calling Housing New Zealand tenants meth crooks. Failing to impress business.” Also unimpressed with Bridges’ performance so far, is Stuff political journalist, Andrea Vance, who says that he’s unlikely to ever become prime minister because “he lacks two skills vital to holding the premiership: strong leadership and smooth communication” – see: Bridges lacks skills vital to be PM. Vance says “his media appearances lack weight and authority and he often gets tangled up in word salads.” And like others, Vance blames Bridges’ decision to order the leak inquiry for his current predicament. However, she also credits Bridges with a number of impressive strengths. And she says there “is no suggestion he is finished just yet. His caucus remain loyal and there is no hint of a leadership challenge.” In contrast, a picture of great disunity is painted by Duncan Garner: “The National Party is tearing itself apart, limb by limb, fingernail by fingernail, and the hard part is pretending everything behind the blue picket fence is in support of Simon and it’s all dandy. Cause it ain’t” – see: An embarrassing own goal when National’s defence wasn’t even under pressure. Garner says that such instability is deadly for parties, and Bridges’ decision to order an inquiry into the leak has merely put more focus on this, when National should be opposing the Government: “Focus on what matters to voters. Voters find internal spats a turnoff”. Furthermore, Garner claims to have insider information suggesting that the leak inquiry report will be inconclusive: “the world’s most pointless inquiry ever will reveal … nothing of note.” There are in fact four different possibilities that the inquiry could produce, according to TVNZ political editor Jessica Mutch McKay, and “None of these are good options for Simon Bridges” – see: Plugging the leak an ongoing headache for Simon Bridges, says Jessica Mutch McKay. Here are Mutch McKay’s four possible outcomes: “1. The inquiry finds the leaker is an MP. That MP is named and shamed and pushed out by the party. Depending on who it is this could cause a by-election. 2. The inquiry finds the leaker is an MP and National keeps it under wraps. 3. The inquiry identifies a staff member as the leaker and that person is dealt with by the party. 4. Or the inquiry can’t find enough evidence to identify the leaker and they stay working in the corridors of power.” There will be significant public interest in the leak report, and Bridges is suggesting that it will be made public, saying: “We want to be as open and transparent as we possibly can so we anticipate making the report public.” But it’s not clear when it will come out, with Mutch McKay reporting on this: “It was due back next Friday, while the MPs are away from Parliament in their electorates. Now there could be a delay for another week.” “If the culprit is outed next week when the inquiry reports back, it could easily blow up in his face”, writes Stuff political editor Tracy Watkins in her column, Is Simon Bridges a dead man walking? And she says that there are other reasons to forecast Bridges’ demise: “His personal poll ratings are low, and his favourability ratings (anecdotally at least) are said to be heading south. He is struggling to connect with voters”. What’s more, “There is a very long line of ambitious politicians at his back whose seats in Parliament are reliant on his performance. They will turn on him in an instant if he puts their livelihoods under threat.” However, that would risk ramping up party instability, which actually means that Bridges is more secure: “He has only one ace card: disunity is toxic.” Watkins also suggests that although Bridges is in a “particularly precarious position” – especially because National’s “staggering” high popular support is “despite” not because of him – he is made more secure because National’s “message is getting cut-through” with voters at the moment. In addition, she says that there’s a number of “election-year timebombs ticking away” that could jeopardise Labour’s re-election chances. In fact, Bridges hasn’t made many mistakes since he became leader, according to New Zealand Herald political editor Audrey Young – see her column, National leader Simon Bridges doing better than Jami-Lee Ross saga suggests. She explains that last week shows that “he is an easy magnet for criticism and there is a low tolerance for errors from him”. Also, “People like to dislike him which is a slight disadvantage in politics.” In terms of Bridges’ widely-criticised “embarrassing” media conference last week about Jami-Lee Ross, Young says the criticism was disproportionate: “The pile-on to Bridges seemed excessive – considering he acknowledged the error and offered a plausible explanation – that he was meaning ’embarrassment’ at having your personal health issues aired so publicly, and not that mental health issues were embarrassing.” Young says that Bridges simply has his work cut out trying to lead a party that just lost power after nine years in government: “being Opposition leader in the first year of a new government is surely the worst job in politics as Simon Bridges is finding. You are trying to instil a positive outlook in a team of disappointed and frustrated egos”. And in this, he’s not doing too badly, even finding positions to support the Government in – for example signing up to Labour’s agenda on child poverty reduction targets and climate change policy. Nonetheless the leak inquiry has been Bridges’ big mistake, she says: “It is not likely Bridges will ever admit to regretting the inquiry but it has been a two-month distraction for what may well turn out to be an inconclusive outcome by the inquiry. That amounts to the worst decision in an otherwise reasonable showing in National’s first year of Opposition.” Of course, there can’t be a risk to a leader unless there is a legitimate challenger who actually wants Simon Bridges’ job. That’s the focus of Danyl Mclauchlan’s column, The next few weeks may decide the fate of Simon Bridges. In this, he argues that there’s no pressing desire for a leadership change in National, but you never know when the caucus might suddenly notice someone in their ranks who could do better than Bridges. Despite the current lack of an alternative leader, Mclauchlan does think Bridges is in trouble: “It’s probably not working. He’s blundered into that deadly terrain where so many opposition leaders end their careers: a few bad decisions raise doubts about his judgement; now he has to take risks to demonstrate his leadership qualities – and to stay relevant in the media – but every mistake he makes is amplified, often out of all proportion, until some final, trivial gaffe combined with a bad poll result wipes him out.” Similarly, Alex Braae says there’s a lack of contenders, and there’s no apparent plotting or undermining going on (apart from the original leak of Bridges’ expenditure report) – see: Simon Bridges isn’t going anywhere. According to Braae, any disgruntled National MPs would be irrational to create instability at the moment: “why would National, a party famed for internal discipline over the last decade, shoot itself in the foot with a coup? Why risk being 44% in the polls for the outside chance of getting to 45%?” For the best discussion of possible replacements for Bridges it’s worth reading John Armstrong’s colourful column from six weeks ago: National Party lacks leadership options if Simon Bridges is rolled. He suggested then that Bridges is in trouble, but that it’s difficult to see an obvious replacement. The possible options are canvassed: Amy Adams (“You cannot be serious”), Judith Collins (“Never say never in politics. But Collins is very much the rainy day option to be saved for a very rainy day”), Paula Bennett (“At a pinch, she could serve as a temporary leader in an emergency”), and Mark Mitchell (“His public profile is still relatively low. But he may now head the pack of credible replacements for Bridges”). Armstrong also dissents from the consensus that Bridges has erred by ordering the leak inquiry: “Had he sat back and been passive, however, he would surely have been condemned as being weak.” Furthermore, he says the leaker “has given Bridges a heaven-sent opportunity to command respect by looking tough and decisive. Not surprisingly, he has grabbed that opportunity with both hands.” Finally, does the public still deserve an explanation for the departure of National MP, Jami-Lee Ross? Former Act Party leader, Rodney Hide, thinks so, arguing that National is treating the public like fools – see: Jami-Lee Ross and the National Party owe the electorate an explanation.]]>

Who Owns You?

By Barbara Sumner -

October 9, 2018

Barbara Sumner –

Who owns you? Have you ever asked yourself this question?

If you are a non-adopted person then the idea that someone could own you may never have occurred to you.

If you are an adopted person, you may not be aware of the terms of your adoption. Or how current adoption laws resemble sale and purchase agreements.

I had this lesson rammed home last week.

While I have been writing about the Adoption Act 1955, I had no idea about the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1955.

Each of us has a birth certificate. But Births, Deaths and Marriages also hold two more essential documents. The first is known as the ‘source document’. It details everything factual about you and your parents. Filed first with Births, Deaths and Marriages, many are still completed by hand.

The ‘birth print out’ comes next. That’s an extraction of the source document. This contains all your relevant information in a shorter version. It also includes the name of the informant, the person who reports your birth.

Birth certificates are created from these documents. And that’s you. That’s how society identifies you. That’s your founding document, your social contract with the world. It says: I am.

You can get copies of these documents for $20 each.

Unless you are adopted.

That’s when s s76(3)(d) kicks in. This stealthy little clause in the BDM act says the Registrar-General may permit a person to inspect any document containing information if –

(d) the adopted person concerned, the adoptive parents or the adopted person’s natural parents are all dead; or

(e) that 120 years have passed since the birth of the adopted person.

I’ve edited out the wordy legal language. But here’s the thing. The Judge refused to permit me to inspect my own documents, because (a) I am still alive, (b) one of my adopting parents is still alive, (c) I’m not 120.

The Judge has left me with one option: to apply again under s76(4)(c) and try to prove ‘special grounds.’

But nowhere is special grounds defined. In the files held by the Ministry for Children, my birth date is six months earlier than on my birth certificate. But not knowing when you were born and suspecting your birth certificate is incorrect is not special grounds enough.

Here’s where ownership comes in. My parents are both dead. That leaves my adopting parent holding the key card.

I am 58 (or nearly 59, I’m still not sure), but my information is owned by my adopting parent.

I am in essence still an adopted child. I have no agency of my own, no control over the information held on me, nor any right to see it.

The people I am interacting with inside the system have so normalised this abuse they think it is natural to withhold your identity.

I am forced to enter this arcane labyrinth. On a good day, I am treated with strained politeness. On others, there is a callous disregard. At other times I have faced outright hostility. I am forbidden to speak to the judge in person. I am told over and again that I have no moral or legal right to my information.

Have you noticed so far the one voice missing from this?

The people who adopt.

Aside from the adopting mother of one acquaintance, I’ve not met a single adopter agitating for change. Where are the adopters outraged their child is so disenfranchised? Where are those parents demanding their son or daughter’s most basic human rights?

Instead, I hear them falling back on tired phrases. ‘We didn’t know.’ ‘We did as we were told.’ ‘We did our best.’

I could go on about willful ignorance. Or extrapolate on why an adopter does not want their child to experience the same freedoms they have.

But the phrase that hits home the most is: ‘We loved you as our own.’

Because surely no parent would want this for a person they profess to love. Would they?

Right now, there is no other group of people in New Zealand living under such laws. We have so few advocates in a system stacked against us. There are mothers and adopted people who’ve been fighting for decades against the silence of bureaucracy. Most have all but given up.

I can rant all I like about this. I can scream ‘why’ to the rafters. But all I’ll hear back is an echo of my own voice.

So my options are limited. Keep agitating and writing. To anyone and everyone in power who might want to do the right thing. Or wait until I’m 120.

– ref. Who Owns You? – https://www.sadiesumnerbooks.com/blog/2018/10/9/who-owns-you]]>

‘Most important years in history’ – last chance over climate, says UN report

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 9, 2018

looding-climate-report-echo-680wide-jpg — ]]>

Warming beyond 1.5C will unleash a frightening set of consequences and scientists say only a global transformation, beginning now, can avoid it. Climate Home News reviews the warnings in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change research report released yesterday.

Only the remaking of the human world in a generation can now prevent serious, far reaching and once-avoidable climate change impacts, according to the global scientific community.

In a major report released yesterday, the UN’s climate science body found limiting warming to 1.5C, compared to 2C, would spare a vast sweep of people and life on earth from devastating impacts.

To hold warming to this limit, the scientists said unequivocally that carbon pollution must fall to “net zero” in around three decades: a huge and immediate transformation, for which governments have shown little inclination so far.

GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5C -THE REPORT

“The next few years are probably the most important in our history,” said Debra Roberts, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) research into the impacts of warming.

-Partners-

The report from the IPCC is a compilation of existing scientific knowledge, distilled into a 33-page summary presented to governments. If and how policymakers respond to it will decide the future of vulnerable communities around the world.

“I have no doubt that historians will look back at these findings as one of the defining moments in the course of human affairs,” the lead climate negotiator for small island states Amjad Abdulla said. “I urge all civilised nations to take responsibility for it by dramatically increasing our efforts to cut the emissions responsible for the crisis.”

What happens in the next few months will impact ON the future of the Paris Agreement and the global climate

Abdulla is from the Maldives. It is estimated that half a billion people in countries like his rely on coral ecosystems for food and tourism. The difference between 1.5C and 2C is the difference between losing 70-90 percent of coral by 2100 and reefs disappearing completely, the report found.

Small island states
Small island states were part of a coalition that forced the Paris Agreement to consider both a 1.5C and 2C target. Monday’s report is a response to that dual goal. Science had not clearly defined what would happen at each mark, nor what measures would be necessary to stay at 1.5C.

As the report was finalised, the UN Secretary-General’s special representative on sustainable energy Rachel Kyte praised those governments. “They had the sense of urgency and moral clarity,” she said, adding that they knew “the lives that would hang in the balance between 2[C] and 1.5[C]”.

37 things you need to know about 1.5C global warming

At 2C, stresses on water supplies and agricultural land, as well as increased exposure to extreme heat and floods, will increase, risking poverty for hundreds of millions, the authors said.

Thousands of plant and animal species would see their liveable habitat cut by more than half. Tropical storms will dump more rain from the Philippines to the Caribbean.

“Everybody heard of what happened to Dominica last year,” Ruenna Hayes, a delegate to the IPCC from St Kitts and Nevis, told Climate Home News. “I cannot describe the level of absolute alarm that this caused not only me personally, but everybody I know.”

Around 65 people died when Hurricane Maria hit the Caribbean island in September 2017, destroying much of it.

In laying out what needs to be done, the report described a transformed world that will have to be built before babies born today are middle aged. In that world 70-85 percent of electricity will be produced by renewables.

More nuclear power
There will be more nuclear power than today. Gas, burned with carbon capture technology, will still decline steeply to supply just supply 8 percent of power. Coal plants will be no more. Electric cars will dominate and 35-65 percent of all transport will be low or no-emissions.

To pay for this transformation, the world will have invested almost a trillion dollars a year, every year to 2050.

Our relationship to land will be transformed. To stabilise the climate, governments will have deployed vast programmes for sucking carbon from the air. That will include protecting forests and planting new ones.

It may also include growing fuel to be burned, captured and buried beneath the earth. Farms will be the new oil fields. Food production will be squeezed. Profoundly difficult choices will be made between feeding the world and fuelling it.

The report is clear that this world avoids risks compared to one that warms to 2C, but swerves judgement on the likelihood of bringing it into being. That will be for governments, citizens and businesses, not scientists, to decide.

During the next 12 months, two meetings will be held at which governments will be asked to confront the challenge in this report: this year’s UN climate talks in Poland and at a special summit held by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in September 2019.

The report’s authors were non-committal about the prospects. Jim Skea, a co-chair at the IPCC, said: “Limiting warming to 1.5C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes.”

Graphic from the IPCC’s special report on 1.5C.

‘Monumental goal’
Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and a former lead author of the IPCC, said: “If this report doesn’t convince each and every nation that their prosperity and security requires making transformational scientific, technological, political, social and economic changes to reach this monumental goal of staving off some of the worst climate change impacts, then I don’t know what will.”

The scientist have offered a clear prescription: the only way to avoid breaching the 1.5C limit is for humanity to cut its CO2 emissions by 45 percent below 2010 levels by 2030 and reach “net-zero” by around 2050.

But global emissions are currently increasing, not falling.

The EU, one of the most climate progressive of all major economies, aims for a cut of around 30 percent by 2030 compared to its own 2010 pollution and 77-94 percent by 2050. It is currently reviewing both targets and says this report will inform the decisions.

If the EU sets a carbon neutral goal for 2050 it will join a growing group of governments seemingly in line with a mid-century end to carbon – including California (2045), Sweden (2045), UK (2050 target under consideration) and New Zealand (2050).

But a fundamental tenet of climate politics is that expectations on nations are defined by their development. If the richest, most progressive economies on earth set the bar at 2045-2050, where will China, India and Latin America end up? If the EU aims for 2050, the report concludes that Africa will need to have the same goal.

Some of the tools needed are available, they just need scaling up. Renewable deployment would need to be six times faster than it is today, said Adnan Z Amin, the director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency. That was “technically feasible and economically attractive”, he added.

Innovation, social change
Other aspects of the challenge require innovation and social change.

But just when the world needs to go faster, the political headwinds in some nations are growing. Brazil, home to the world’s largest rainforest, looks increasingly likely to elect the climate sceptic Jair Bolsonaro as president.

The world’s second-largest emitter – the US – immediately distanced itself from the report, issuing a statement that said its approval of the summary “should not be understood as US endorsement of all of the findings and key messages”.

It said it still it intended to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

The summary was adopted by all governments at a closed-door meeting between officials and scientists in Incheon, South Korea that finished on Saturday. The US sought and was granted various changes to the text. Sources said the interventions mostly helped to refine the report. But they also tracked key US interests – for example, a mention of nuclear energy was included.

Sources told CHN that Saudi Arabia fought hard to amend a passage that said investment in fossil fuel extraction would need to fall by 60 percent between 2015 and 2050. The clause does not appear in the final summary.

But still, according to three sources, the country has lodged a disclaimer with the report, which will not be made public for months. One delegate said it rejected “a very long list of paragraphs in the underlying report and the [summary]”.

Republished under a Creative Commons licence.

A Nasa satellite photo showing the retreating extent of sea ice in the Arctic. The latest IPCC climate change report says unprecedented action is needed to keep global temperature rises to 1.5C. Image: IPCC

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – October 9 2018

By Bryce Edwards -

October 9, 2018

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – October 9 2018 Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Environment Spinoff panel: Today marks the end of magical thinking on climate change RNZ: Climate target not viable for NZ economy – expert Charlie Mitchell and Leith Huffadine (Stuff): ‘Life-altering’ changes needed to avoid the worst of climate change Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Paris agreement goal still achievable, but requires unprecedented change – report Jamie Morton (Herald): Keeping future global warming within 1.5C demands ‘truly heroic’ effort RNZ: Rapid action needed to limit global warming – IPCC report No Right Turn: Climate change: A line in the sand for our species Gerard Hutchings (Stuff): Climate change report a wake-up call for NZ farming David Williams (Newsroom): IPCC report stokes methane debate Jim Salinger (Herald): The real facts on methane Pattrick Smellie (Newsroom): Māori freshwater claims stalling allocation decisions Richard Harman (Politik): Why cleaning up water will be hard Farah Hancock (Newsroom): An ambitious freshwater deadline Henry Cooke (Stuff): Increased RMA powers and regulation of intensive farming planned in water quality push Jane Patterson (RNZ): Govt sets five-year timeline for swimmable rivers Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Government releases plans to improve water quality by 2020 1News: Government reveals its plan to clean up quality of New Zealand’s rivers and lakes Jason Walls (Herald): Government promises ‘noticeable’ water-quality improvements within five years BusinessDesk:Government promises better freshwater quality within five years Moana Makapelu Lee (Māori TV): Govt announces plan to make rivers swimmable in five years Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Greenpeace wants all dairy conversions banned now Joanne Carroll and Liz McDonald (Stuff): Christchurch properties contaminated with lead top Environment Ministry’s priority list Catherine Groenestein (Stuff): Groups opposed to seabed mining plan prepare to go back to court Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): ‘Moral disgust’ is changing how we think about plastic George Heagney (Stuff): Anti-plastic campaigner appointed to United Nations taskforce to help fight marine pollution Katee Shanks (Rotorua Daily Post): Changes to freshwater fishing could spell disaster for Rotorua’s trout fishing, anglers say Greg Presland (The Standard): At least Labour wants to save the planet Water Alice Guy (Rotorua Daily Post): Consent granted to take Hamurana Springs water for bottling 1News: Controversial Christchurch water bottling plant under fire after label claims product is from 200m underground RNZ: Government will no longer put NZ freshwater up for sale, says Ardern 1News: PM says it’s ‘incredible’ and ‘unacceptable’ previous Government prompted NZ to water bottlers Anuja Nadkarni (Stuff): NZTE encouraged Chinese firms to get into business of bottling Kiwi water Derek Cheng (Herald): Previous govt’s efforts to sell Franz Josef water to overseas buyers ‘very disturbing’ – PM 1News: Simon Bridges says National government courted Chinese water bottlers, but Labour gave final approval for Whakatane plant Dan Satherley (Newshub): Trade officials invited Chinese water-bottling company Petrol prices Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): If the Government is so certain motorists are being fleeced, what is it waiting for? Herald Editorial: High petrol prices call tax into question Zane Small (Newshub): ‘Profiteering’: Jacinda Ardern doubles down on fuel industry crusade Jason Walls and Luke Kirkness (Stuff): Petrol price taxes: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern takes on oil firms – BP, Z respond Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Petrol company: ‘I don’t believe we’re fleecing anybody at all’ BusinessDesk: Z Energy responds to Jacinda Ardern’s claim customers being fleeced 1News: ‘A government that’s in panic’ – Judith Collins calls for Government to drop Regional Fuel Tax 1News: ‘It’s pricing Kiwis out of their cars’ – Simon Bridges calls on Government to axe fuel tax hikes Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Govt runs with National’s fuel review idea Henry Cooke and Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Government will rush through legislation to look into petrol price margins Jason Walls (Herald): ‘Consumers, in my book, are being fleeced’ – PM Jacinda Ardern on petrol prices BusinessDesk: “Unacceptable” petrol margins fleecing customers: Ardern Sophie Bateman (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern ‘hugely concerned’ by escalating fuel prices, will introduce transparency Bill 1News: Jacinda Ardern ‘hugely concerned’ at petrol prices, Government to force fuel companies to open their books RNZ: Ardern speeds up law change to tackle soaring petrol prices Herald: You’re paying record GST at the petrol pump RNZ: Govt urged to cut taxes on petrol Katarina Williams and Luisa Girão (Stuff): Wellington service station attendants copping motorists’ fury over petrol prices Luke Kirkness (Herald): ‘It’s irritating when you drive past a petrol pump’ 1News: ‘I see this building momentum’ – fuel price protestors urge people to get active No Right Turn: We should be trying to raise petrol prices, not lower them David Farrar: Ardern blames fuel companies Heather Roy: Excisive Fuel Prices? Mental health Edward Gay (RNZ): Man killed pensioner days after ‘hasty discharge’ from mental health unit LInday Laird (Northern Advocate): Rural mental health and Māori statistics grim in Northland 1News: Exclusive: Sir John Kirwan positive children can drive NZ’s change in mental health Newshub: Are we overthinking our approach to mental health? Chris Reed (Herald): Swarbrick cites own experiences on universities tour to discuss mental health 1News: Mental Health Awareness Week: Connecting with nature can help Kiwis create positive wellbeing Newshub:‘I shouldn’t have left him’: Kiwi comedian blamed himself after father’s suicide Mark Quinlivin (Stuff):Services begin marking Mental Health Awareness Week Marlene Singh (Stuff): Rainbow community uses art to illustrate frustration over mental health system Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Mental Health Awareness Week goes bush Migrant exploitation Teuila Fuatai (Newsroom): Migrant exploitation and the true cost of UFB Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Migrant exploitation in broadband roll-out ‘not acceptable’, says minister Zane Small (Newshub): Chorus subcontractors ‘exploiting’ migrant employees Chris Keall (Herald): Nearly all Chorus broadband subcontractors breaching labour laws, MBIE says RNZ: Chorus subcontractors ‘exploiting’ immigrant workers Canterbury quake settlements Michael Hayward (Stuff): Govt launches ‘game changer’ new Canterbury quake insurance settlement service RNZ: Government launches ‘one stop shop’ to fast track outstanding quake claims National Party Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The next few weeks may decide the fate of Simon Bridges Alex Braae (Spinoff): Counterpoint: Simon Bridges isn’t going anywhere Government Shane Te Pou (Newsroom): Why I was wrong about Andrew Little Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Clare Curran: ‘Traumatic time for myself and my family’ James Borrowdale (Vice): Biography as a Battleground: What It Means To Be New Zealand’s First Refugee MP 1News: Jacinda Ardern’s UN address has more YouTube views than Donald Trump and Theresa May’s speeches combined Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Russel Norman’s damning assessment of Greens should wake them up – will it? Clayton MItchell Curwen Ares Rolinson (Daily Blog): Should There Be A Statute Of Limitations In Politics? Andrea Vance and Tony Wall (Stuff): ‘Dwarf tossing’, underage gambling concerns at MP’s pub Parliament Vice: Our New Documentary Reveals What It’s Like to Be a Female Politician in New Zealand James Borrowdale (Vice): New Zealand’s Female MPs On What They Face That Men Don’t Housing RNZ: Govt betters target of housing homeless Rob Stock (Stuff): Retirement village boom is a symptom of age-unfriendly society Ben Leahy (Herald): Concern as Government cuts up front funding for new community houses John Minto (Press): Much more money required to address social housing needs Thomas Manch (Stuff):Desperate and deteriorating, Waikanae man moves in with parents as last resort Sean Nugent (ODT): KiwiBuild fever strikes Wanaka Susan Edmunds (Stuff); Auckland, Christchurch properties worth less than CV Evan Harding (Stuff): Rental shortage equals worker shortage in Te Anau Foreign affairs and trade RNZ: NZ asked to step in over Tokelau fiscal concerns RNZ: Niue to skip NZ flag and anthem during constitution day Power prices Grant Bradley (Herald): Mercury and Genesis Energy take swipe at Meridian Energy’s pricing stance Steve O’Connor (Spinoff): This year, power is getting political. Here’s why you should care Carl Hansen (Kiwiblog): Guest Post: Response to Bryan Leyland’s Guest Post on 4 October Local government Efeso Collins (Stuff): Lack of Pasifika among high-income earners at council shows unconscious bias Dave Armstrong (Stuff): We get the ‘vibe’ but what about the value? Dominion Post: Painting Wellington street with pride RNZ: Wellington sculpture broken by man swinging on it Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Len Lye sculpture worth $300,000 broken in pieces by would-be daredevil Transport RNZ: $96m funding for Wairarapa rail Matt Chatterton (RNZ): ‘We’ve got a history of leaving things just too damn long’ Alice Wilkins (Newshub): ‘Sooner the better’: Whangaparāoa locals back Penlink road Dan Satherley (Newshub): Penlink: Bringing it forward a ‘no-brainer’ Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Wellington bus network: Consultant defends original scheme Amanda Cropp (Stuff): ‘Double-dipping taxi drivers’ working 100 hours a week’, federation claims Child welfare Jonathan Boston (Stuff): Historic child poverty agreement a cause for hope Georgia May (Hawkes Bay Today): Social media cause of bullying increase Raniera Harrison (Māori TV): Ngapuhi mum loses daughter to cyber-bullying Education Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Principal ‘grilled and grilled and grilled’ after restraining child RNZ: Numbers at polytech still declining – MIT head Cas Carter (Stuff): Universities must show they can adapt to changing world Abortion Emma Hatton (RNZ): Abortion law breaches rights of pregnant people – lobby group Zoe Madden-Smith (Vice):New Zealand’s “Archaic” Abortion Law Violates Human Rights, Says Lobby Group Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): New Zealand’s ‘degrading’ abortion ban breaches human rights, say activists Health 1News: Children’s gym classes defended by Exercise NZ boss with most Kiwi kids not getting enough physical activity Amy Williams (RNZ): Children going to adult gyms to get active Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): Father-of-four not giving up after terminal cancer diagnosis Katie Bradford (1News): Family pleads with Pharmac to help save toddler’s life by funding cystic fibrosis ‘wonder drug’ Justice Harrison Christian (Stuff): Intellectually disabled woman sent back to prison Waikato Times Editorial: Thank goodness our judiciary is at arm’s length from our legislature Liam Hehir (Stuff): A brawl breaks out over Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh Defence Andrew McRae (RNZ): ‘He’s finally home’: NZ soldiers’ remains reunited with loved ones Māori TV: Māori schools pay tribute to fallen soldiers in Italy Derek Cheng (Herald): NZ Defence Force continues to evacuate survivors from quake-struck Palu Honours Eva Corlett (RNZ): I’ll be damed: 12 women recognised for excellence RNZ: Dame Lynda: ‘There’s been a lot of farmers trying to curtsey’ 1News: Watch: Topp Twins harmonise beautiful waiata in investiture ceremony for damehoods Bridget Grace (Newshub): Rebels get their medals: Topp Twins celebrate becoming Dames Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Panapa honoured with MNZM Other Chris Harrowell (Stuff): Beneficiaries calling for changes to New Zealand’s welfare system Gordon Campbell: On the ongoing battles over free speech Rukuwai Tipene-Allen (Māori TV): Indigenous business on the rise John Drinnan: Upheavals Likely For Maori TV Sam Hurley (Herald): Political party general secretary charged over failing to declare $200k in donations James Croot (Stuff): She Shears: A celebration of New Zealand’s fleece specialists Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Mycoplasma Bovis eradication slow going, but improving – Farmer Māori TV: Shear guts Aroha Awarau (Māori TV): Ngapo Wehi helped me write gay haka – Mika Mānia Clarke (Māori TV): Tuku Morgan fronts up at Waahi Pa Preya Gothanayagi (Salient): The Fine Line of Cultural Appropriation Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Shoppers should stop wasting money on extended warranties, advocates say Jennifer Dann (Stuff): 12 Questions with Juliet Gerrard, Prime Minister’s science advisor]]>

Why you might be paying more for your airfare than the person seated next to you

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior lecturer in Business Law, UNSW

Price discrimination is legal in Australia where sellers will typically pick an opening price based on the likelihood that someone will pay it. We take a look at how you can get the best deal on airfares in the second part of a series exploring how technology is changing tourism.

Few things are more annoying than spending a large sum of money on a purchase, only to discover that someone else got the same thing for a lower price. This often happens with airfares. You go the same website, search the same airline, choose the same seat row and fare conditions, but you’re offered a different price depending on when and where you do it. Why?

Often it’s a result of price discrimination. This happens when a seller charges you what you’re willing to pay. Of course, it also needs to be at a level that the seller is willing to accept.

When it comes to airfares, there are two levels of price discrimination, both driven by algorithms. First, there is price discrimination by the airline. Airline pricing is typically dynamic. That is, the prices are higher for more popular flights. Then there are intermediary platforms, such as travel agents or price comparison websites, which can introduce a further level of price discrimination.

How it works

Websites create cookies that record interactions between a user and a website. Often there are other tags and beacons created. From these, the website provider can obtain information, such as the browser type and the kind of device being used. Flight sales providers use this information to determine the price offered to a customer.

For example, if the same user checks a website multiple times for a flight at a specific time and on a particular date, the provider might assume this is the only time and date the user is interested in. It might respond by increasing the price offered, since it knows the travel decision is made. Alternatively, it might reduce the price to lock in the customer.

Clearing cookies or using a search engine that does not share search history (such as Duck Duck Go) can reduce this effect.

Price discrimination is legal

In Australia, like in many countries, price discrimination is legal. Sellers will typically pick an opening price based on the likelihood that someone will pay it. You see this happen at garage sales. Indeed, perfect price discrimination may mean that no two people pay the same price for the same product or service.

There are a few different ways of thinking about this.

In one sense, this is just how markets operate. If both buyers and sellers operate in a self-interested manner, efficient outcomes arise that are better for everyone – it’s the “invisible hand”. Of course, this doesn’t prevent people from feeling ripped off.

The market can also provide intermediaries. Instead of paying the airline’s asking price, you could get an intermediary to buy the fare for you at a lower price. After all, you might not mind paying more than the minimum price available, provided that it’s less than you thought was reasonable to start off with. In airline searches, this is the type of service offered by businesses such as SkyScanner.

Limitations

There is a legal issue which limits the use of price discrimination – such as if a seller engages in actual discrimination. If a website discriminates against an identifiable group, for example by charging more to women with an Italian surname, it would risk being in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Another limitation is the potential for social media backlash against the practice, which could lead to reputational harm. In the retail space, Amazon issued a statement denying that it engages in price discrimination, after angry customers found they had been charged different prices for the same product. Platforms engaged specifically in airline sales haven’t disclosed whether or not they engage in price discrimination, but they are likely at risk of similar customer backlash.

In the end, if you want to get a better deal on your airfare, the answer is still to shop around. And using comparison services, clearing cookies from you browser cache, and leaving as few breadcrumbs as possible is likely to yield the best deals.

– ref. Why you might be paying more for your airfare than the person seated next to you – http://theconversation.com/why-you-might-be-paying-more-for-your-airfare-than-the-person-seated-next-to-you-100959]]>

As the High Court challenge to abortion clinic ‘safe access zones’ begins, there is much at stake

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tania Penovic, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law and Deputy Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University

From October 9-11, the High Court of Australia will hear a challenge to the constitutional validity of Victorian and Tasmanian legalisation that provides for “safe access zones” around abortion clinics.

Safe access zones are sometimes called “bubble zones” because they create a bubble around abortion clinics. In Victoria and Tasmania, safe access zones are the area within a 150 metre radius of a clinic. Within these zones, certain conduct is prohibited, including the harassment of people accessing the clinic.

The purpose of safe access zones is to prevent patients, staff and others from being targeted by anti-abortion protesters. These laws are designed to protect the safety, well-being, privacy and dignity of people attending abortion clinics, and facilitate women’s access to health services without harassment and intimidation.

Safe access zones now operate in Tasmania, Victoria, the ACT, the Northern Territory and New South Wales. A bill that establishes safe access zones is currently before the Queensland Parliament.

These laws do not prevent anti-abortion protesters from expressing their views. They can write to newspapers and politicians, and protest in other places. The only thing these laws prevent them from doing is protesting within a safe access zone.

Background to the cases

The laws that have been challenged in the High Court are those that operate in Victoria and Tasmania. The High Court will hear these two challenges together.

Kathleen Clubb is an active member of the US-founded anti-abortion group known as Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Members of this group have protested outside East Melbourne’s Fertility Control Clinic six days a week for more than 20 years. In October 2017, Clubb was found guilty of “prohibited behaviour” within the safe access zone outside the Fertility Control Clinic. She was found to have engaged in communication about abortions which is reasonably likely to cause anxiety or distress.

Similarly, John Graham Preston was found guilty of engaging in prohibited conduct after protesting within the safe access zone outside Hobart’s Specialist Gynaecology Centre in July 2016.

Clubb and Preston are now challenging the constitutional validity of safe access zone legislation before the High Court. They argue that parts of the Victorian and Tasmanian safe access zone laws, respectively, are invalid on the basis that they violate the implied freedom of political communication under the Australian Constitution.

What is freedom of political communication?

Unlike the right to free speech under the US Constitution, the freedom of political communication under the Australian constitution is narrower. It only protects communication that is “political” – in other words, communication about political matters and representative government. Our High Court has taken a broad view of what amounts to political communication.

Further, unlike the US, freedom of political communication doesn’t act as a “trump card”, or an inviolable right. Laws can limit political communication in some circumstances, such as where the law is designed to protect public safety.

In the Clubb and Preston cases, the High Court will decide whether parts of the safe access zone laws limit political communication and if so, whether the limit is justified.

We argue that if the laws do limit political communication, they do so only to the extent necessary to protect the safety, privacy, well-being and dignity of patients and staff. Therefore, safe access zone laws permissibly limit political communication.

What is at stake?

The Victorian and Tasmanian laws protect people from unwelcome intrusions into their privacy by strangers who seek to interfere in deeply personal decisions.

In research undertaken over the past 18 months, we have looked at the impact of anti-abortion protests outside clinics and what has changed since safe access zones were established.

Anti-abortion protests outside clinics have included a range of unwelcome behaviour. This includes verbal abuse and the display of violent images. It has also included chasing women seeking access to clinics and barring access to clinic entrances.

The impact of this behaviour is devastating for some patients and staff. We were told that the protesters created an undercurrent of anxiety and fear. Many women were extremely traumatised by the protests and needed additional medical care.

Health professionals told us that the protesters’ conduct has had an especially harmful effect on young women and those who had experienced sexual or physical violence. We have learned that protesters have deterred some women from seeking abortions and follow-up care.

Safe access zones have not stopped anti-abortion protests. These protests have continued outside safe access zones. But they have prevented the protesters from targeting individuals. If the laws are found to be constitutionally invalid, the targeting of women will resume.

The purpose of safe access zones is to protect the safety, privacy and dignity of people accessing clinics that provide lawful healthcare services. Because of the importance of their purpose we are hopeful the High Court will find these laws compatible with the Constitution.

The authors prepared written submissions in the Clubb proceeding on behalf of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law seeking leave to appear as amicus curiae. The centre was granted leave with respect to those submissions.

– ref. As the High Court challenge to abortion clinic ‘safe access zones’ begins, there is much at stake – http://theconversation.com/as-the-high-court-challenge-to-abortion-clinic-safe-access-zones-begins-there-is-much-at-stake-104315]]>

Why people with dementia don’t all behave the same

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lila Landowski, Neuroscientist, University of Tasmania

Dementia is the is the leading cause of death among Australian women and the third most common cause of death among men.

While dementia is not a normal part of ageing, the biggest risk factor for dementia is advancing age. Given ours is an ageing population, estimates suggest dementia cases are set to almost triple by 2050.

Many people associate dementia with memory loss, so it may come as a surprise that dementia is a killer. So, what does it do to the body to make this happen?

The brain is our control centre

Everything we do is controlled by the brain. It generates the instructions that tell our body parts what to do, as well as facilitating our complex behaviours, such as personality and cognition (our ability to think, understand and do things).

When a person has dementia, neurons in various parts of their brain stop communicating properly, disconnect, and gradually die. We call this process neurodegeneration.

Dementia is caused by progressive neurodegenerative diseases. This means the disease starts in one part of our brain and spreads to other parts, affecting more and more functions in the body.

Certain causes of dementia will impact different parts of the brain, and the symptoms a person with dementia develops will depend on what part of their brain is affected.

Memory loss

In the early stages of dementia, a person may experience issues with memory, attention, or personality.

One of the most common things that occurs in dementia is memory loss. It may not be the first change that happens, but it’s often one of the first things people notice. Memory loss begins when neurons in a part of the brain called the hippocampus degenerate and die.

The hippocampus is a bit like a diary – it keeps track of what you do from minute-to-minute. This is why a person with dementia might have trouble keeping track of what they are doing, remembering where they are and how they got there, or forming new memories.

Memory loss can be confronting for sufferers of dementia and their families. From shutterstock.com

A person with dementia might also experience regressive memory loss, as the disease erodes the neurons storing long-term memories in various locations in the brain’s cortex. As more recent long-term memories are lost, this could mean their most vivid recollections might be from decades ago. This is why a person with dementia might feel like they are existing in another time.

As more parts of the brain succumb to disease, people with dementia will ultimately lose control of functions in the body such as speaking and swallowing, and may eventually fall into a coma.

Dementia doesn’t refer to one specific disease, but to a collection of similar symptoms. It can be caused by Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and many other diseases, or triggered by heart disease, stroke and head injuries. To make things more complex, people can have more than just one type of dementia.

Dementia affects people differently

There are different types of dementia. Each one is characterised by different patterns of symptoms, though every person with the same type of dementia won’t necessarily exhibit the same set of symptoms, especially early on. Just as our personalities can be incredibly diverse, the way dementia may affect personality and behaviour can be very different between individuals.

For example, a person with Alzheimer’s disease will have two main brain regions affected: the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex. The entorhinal cortex is a specialised part of the brain that works together with the hippocampus to form long-term memories. Together, they take the input from all our senses to help orientate us in space and time, and also help us form declarative memories – things like facts and memories of events.

The changes in the brain of a person with another type of dementia, known as Lewy body dementia, are less established. But they include damage to a slightly different part of the hippocampus, and a loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitters dopamine and acetylcholine. These neurons are especially important for various aspects of movement, visual perception, and cognition. Because of this, people with Lewy body dementia might experience hallucinations and difficulties with movement.

A person with frontotemporal dementia will experience degeneration that affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, though the exact location can vary between people.

The frontal lobe, temporal lobe and hippocampus can all be affected by different types of dementia. The Conversation, CC BY-ND

The frontal lobe is the part of the brain responsible for our ability to make judgements and decisions, including interpreting what is socially acceptable. So a person with this type of dementia may act on their impulses or vocalise their opinions or thoughts without realising this may be inappropriate. You could say that the loss of behavioural filters means some people with dementia are expressing humanity and emotion in its most raw and true form.

The temporal lobe (which also contains the hippocampus), is the part of the brain that helps us process faces, sounds and scenes, as well as form memories.

Eventually, the disease will spread to other parts of the brain. For example, the neurons in the part of the brain involved in recognising faces (called the fusiform gyrus) may degenerate, resulting in the inability to recognise people. This can happen even when a person with dementia still remembers who you are. For this reason it can be helpful to reintroduce yourself when you talk to a person with dementia.

People with dementia deserve compassion. They don’t have control over their behavioural changes, but we have control over how we react to these changes. Through education and understanding, we can all play a part.

– ref. Why people with dementia don’t all behave the same – http://theconversation.com/why-people-with-dementia-dont-all-behave-the-same-100960]]>

How your birth date influences how well you do in school, and later in life

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lionel Page, Professor in Economics, Queensland University of Technology

Whether you were born in December, January, August or September can have a significant and long-lasting impact on your life. Our new research shows your birthday month may also contribute to shaping your personality. In particular, we found people’s self-confidence can significantly differ because of their month of birth.

The reason isn’t your astrological sign, but rather the role your birth date plays in deciding when you enter school. Most countries specify when young children should start school using a cut-off date in the year.

For instance, in the UK the cut-off date is September 1. In federal nations such as Australia or the US, cut-off dates vary between states. Children who turn five by the cut-off date will start school, while children whose birthday is after the cut-off date will still be four and start school the following year.

The relative position of your birthday to the school cut-off date has one important consequence: it determines whether throughout primary and secondary school you are among the older, more mature, taller students in the class or not.

Relative age and career success

It’s well known that relative age at school can have a long lasting impact. A large body of research has shown, for example, students who were relatively old among their peers are more likely to become professional sports players. This pattern is evident across a wide range of sports in many different countries with different cut-off dates: soccer, ice hockey and AFL.

Famous footballers who were relatively old among their peers include for instance Pep Guardiola, the current manager of Manchester City.

In a previous study, we found US Congressmen are more likely to have been relatively old among their peers at school. from www.shutterstock.com

Studies have also found relatively old students do better at school. Even though the advantage tends to decrease over time, they are still slightly more likely to go to university. The long term impact on professional achievement doesn’t seem very large, but in some highly competitive environments, people who were relatively old at school are substantially over-represented.

This is the case among CEOs of large corporations. Previous research found this was also the case among leading US politicians.

The role of self-confidence

Our research suggests one of the main reasons for this “birthday effect” is the impact of relative age on self-confidence. Recent research shows children who enjoy being ranked relatively high compared to their peers have higher self-confidence. Being relatively old among your peers tends to place you higher in the distribution of achievement. Children who enjoy this throughout childhood can end up being more confident in their aptitude and carry this confidence with them later on.

To test this idea, we conducted two studies. The first was with Australian school children in years eight to nine (13- to 15-year-olds) born one month apart from the school cut-off date.

We surveyed 661 children about their tendency to take risks and to feel confident. We found evidence some of the relatively old boys tended to be more competitive than their peers.

In the second study, we surveyed more than 1,000 Australian adults (24- to 60-year-olds) who were born on different sides of the cut-off date in their state. We found those who had been relatively old at school were more confident in their ability in a task involving simple mathematical calculations. They also indicated they were more willing to take risks in their lives than those who had been relatively young.

The main impact of the ‘birthday effect’ is on self-confidence. from www.shutterstock.com

Policies to mitigate the birthday effect

In a world where self-confidence and risk-taking is rewarded, these traits can give them an edge. Those who were relatively young may be at a disadvantage.

Understanding the somewhat unexpected effect of birth dates on personality traits is important. It can inform policies to mitigate the relative age effects.

For instance, it can help educators in their assessment and fostering of each child’s potential. In particular, it can help inform the design of curriculum and assessment programs to avoid the unintended penalty imposed on relatively young students who were born before the cut-off date rather than after it. It also means grouping children based on ability across age range may be a better solution than strict age-based classes.

– ref. How your birth date influences how well you do in school, and later in life – http://theconversation.com/how-your-birth-date-influences-how-well-you-do-in-school-and-later-in-life-102401]]>

Labor’s pay policy merely hints at helping low paid workers rather than actually doing it

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, Lecturer, UTS Law School, University of Technology Sydney

There is little dispute the pay packages for leading chief executives have reached gross and excessive proportions while the wages of poorly paid Australians have stagnated.

Pay ratios – a measure of disparity between the highest and median (representative) wages within a company – stand at around 100:1 in Australia’s largest firms. That’s up from 15:1 in the late 1970s.

This graph, from a study prepared by Labor assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh and Melbourne University economist Mike Pottenger in 2013, shows the pay packet of BHP’s chief peaked at around 50 times average earnings in the early 1900s and then slid to just 10 times average earnings in the 1970s before soaring again to well over 100.

BHP chief executive remuneration as a multiple of average earnings, 1887 to 2012. Source: Pottenger and Leigh, 2013

Last week Leigh announced Labor’s response. In government Labor would require stock exchange listed firms with more than 250 employees to report the ratio of their chief executive’s pay to that of the median worker.

It is an idea adopted in the United States and in Britain, where it has been championed by Conservative Prime Minister Teresa May.

But a study of mine in the August edition of the Journal of Australian Political Economy finds no evidence such reports lift the pay of low or middle-ranking workers.

Reporting needn’t lift pay

Where reporting is not backed by laws requiring an increase in workers’ pay – and Labor’s present proposal isn’t – they simply encourage shareholders to take their chief executive’s pay and hand it to themselves.

My study found even where shareholders have voted to cut their chief executive’s remuneration (in some cases by as much as 32%) the funds freed have been passed on to shareholders rather than workers.

Numerous studies since the early 2000s have found about 60% of Australian shares and liquid wealth are held by the wealthiest 10% of Australians.

Accordingly, the only likely redistributive effect of pay disclosure laws of the type proposed by Labor will be to redistribute wealth among the already wealthy.

Pay disclosure laws can certainly serve an educative purpose by making public the size of shameful disparities. But as some British trade unionists have asked, “how do you shame people who are shameless?”.

In some form or other Australia, the US and Britain have already had pay disclosure laws for nearly a decade.

It’s an old idea

Australia’s Corporations Act requires listed companies to annually disclose the complete remuneration packages of all their directors and their five most highly paid executives. It gives shareholders the right to reject excessive remuneration packages.

Since the introduction of the provision in Australia, total chief executive pay has increased rather than fallen.

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie, paid multiples of the typical BHP worker. Julian Smith/AAP

Other countries impose requirements

There are a number of measures Labor could take that would actually redistribute executive pay to lower paid workers.

One, proposed by UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn and leading economist Anthony Atkinson would cap executive pay at 20 times the wage of a firm’s lowest paid worker and require equal pay for equal work.

It’s an idea Labor in Australia ruled-out on the ground that a scheme in the US that capped executive pay at US$1 million per annum failed because companies rewarded executives instead with stock options and bonuses.

But as the UK think tank the High Pay Centre points out, that could readily be curbed simply by requiring companies to include all forms of remuneration (not just salary) in the calculation of the executive-to-worker pay ratio.

In countries such as in Spain and Germany workers are given an enforceable vote on what they perceive to be a fair ratio between CEO and worker pay. Where this practise exists at the Mondragon Corporation in Spain, the ratio between executive and worker pay is no higher than 9:1.

Other measures include a pay ratio tax of the kind in force in Portland Oregon which imposes a 10% tax on the profits of companies whose pay ratios exceed 100:1 and the so-called Buffett rule proposed in the US which would impose a minimum 35% tax on incomes of more than US$300,000.

Another mechanism is compulsory company-wide profit-sharing of the kind that is required in French companies with more than 50 employees.

Australia could too, if it wanted

As Australian Labor’s announcement made clear, its new policy comes not from UK Labour or from innovative ideas being tried elsewhere, but from the policy handbook of the British Conservative government and Prime Minister Theresa May.

Overseas and Australian experience suggests that without specific action to redistribute executive pay, Labor’s policy will achieve little, merely suggesting redistribution instead of achieving it.

– ref. Labor’s pay policy merely hints at helping low paid workers rather than actually doing it – http://theconversation.com/labors-pay-policy-merely-hints-at-helping-low-paid-workers-rather-than-actually-doing-it-104415]]>

Venom: an excellent superhero film, perhaps best not experienced in 4DX

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Media Studies, University of Notre Dame Australia

The history of Hollywood is, in many ways, the history of cinematic gimmicks appearing at times when its media dominance was perceived as being under threat.

Take 3D, for example. Its key periods of popularity coincided with three of the most significant threats to Hollywood’s screen domination: the 1950s, after the emergence of television, the 1980s, after home video appeared, and the 2000s, in the wake of quick and cheap (or free) Internet streaming. Accompanying each of these periods have been prognostications of the disappearance of cinema as we know it, and certainty that 3D would come to permanently replace the old technology.

The latest gimmick is “4DX” – basically a 3D film with moving chairs and water spraying on you. It fits into a long continuum of attempts to extend the cinematic narrative into the space of the theatre by synchronising physical effects occurring in it with events depicted onscreen. (One of the most delightful examples of this accompanied the 1959 Vincent Price vehicle, The Tingler, when mechanisms were installed in select cinema seats that would “tingle” the viewer during periods of particular suspense and terror!)

I was fortunate, in that my 4DX experience involved an excellent film – Marvel’s latest, Venom – with the banality of the 4DX in many ways mitigated by the superiority of the film itself. Venom is one of the best I’ve seen this year: a tightly made, engrossing science-fiction film that, whilst set in the universe of Marvel, is effective as a stand alone work.

Tom Hardy, as the eponymous character, is compellingly hard-boiled, and Riz Ahmed is equally terrific as Carlton Drake, a villain with a touch of Elon Musk, who wants to cure the problems of Earth by escaping into space. The narrative, involving the fusing of human and alien organisms and the anthropologically threatening ramifications of this, has become a science-fiction staple. Venom – which at under two hours is not, as is the case with so many recent Marvel films, grossly overlong – has fun with the story’s generic qualities.

Tom Hardy and Riz Ahmed in Venom (2018). Avi Arad Productions, Columbia Pictures Corporation,Marvel Entertainment.

The intense action sequences are balanced by disarming humour; and the light touch of Michelle Williams, as Anne Weying, the ex-fiance of Venom who becomes his co-combatant in battle against Drake, neatly balances Hardy’s typically overbearing qualities.

Venom is the perfect vehicle for showcasing 4DX – short, sharp and violent. The most impressive aspect was the range (and violence) of motion of the seats, and, in a film replete with car chases, crashes, and several muscular fight sequences, there was ample opportunity for this to be demonstrated.

The experience was fun enough, akin to a theme park ride. (It reminded me of the Batman ride from Movie World in the 1990s). But I can’t really imagine this catching on as a popular way of watching films, even though the experiment of 4DX in Melbourne must have been successful enough to warrant giving it a run in Sydney.

The key reason for its basic ineffectiveness concerns a mistaken analogy on the part of its designers – the idea that including action in the physical realm of the theatre will somehow make the experience of watching the film more affective.

The opposite is, in fact, the case. The darkness of the movie cinema allows us to completely concentrate on the unfolding of the images on the screen, and their accompanying audio, without being distracted by our own corporeality. But our proximity to ourselves, our awareness of our own bodies, serves to sever the illusion that allows us to suspend our disbelief – that we are observers of a different, imaginary world.

Being reminded of our physical bodies in this world draws our attention to the technical apparatus that is usually so well concealed in the mass movie experience, and this demarcates a clear separation between the world of the theatre, as a physical space, and the world of illusion on the screen. Every time our chair violently thrusts from one side to the other, we become aware of our physical bodies and stop concentrating on Venom.

There is an even more basic reason why these attempts to connect the physical space of the theatre with the world of the screen have never superseded the basic pleasure of watching moving images – our own vision is in no way analogous to the vision of a camera. The way a camera looks at the world does not resemble the way a human does so, and film techniques like first person point of view shot have thus never really worked in their attempt to directly reproduce, on screen, the visual perspective of a human character.

Watching Venom in 4DX was at times, therefore, a little irritating. I wanted to concentrate on a (very good) movie, but was instead forced to concentrate on the act of watching itself, as I was sprayed with water and shaken around. Coupled with the odd effect of watching the film in 3D, the whole thing really just created a context in which it was harder to become absorbed in the narrative of the film than would usually be the case.

Still, the whole thing was kind of fun – like the ritual of donning 3D glasses – and it’s the kind of thing lots of people will probably try once, before the next gimmick replaces 4DX. It is good to know, in any case, that lean, mean action films like Venom can still be experienced in the most affectively immersive way possible – in a dark theatre seated in a comfortable chair without glasses blocking the screen from the viewer.

– ref. Venom: an excellent superhero film, perhaps best not experienced in 4DX – http://theconversation.com/venom-an-excellent-superhero-film-perhaps-best-not-experienced-in-4dx-104557]]>

In Trustees, Belarus Free Theatre mercilessly demolishes Australia’s cultural debate

By The Conversation -

October 9, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sandra D’urso, Researcher, The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne

Review: Trustees, Melbourne International Arts Festival.

The Belarus Free Theatre, exiled from their home nation, have returned to Australia to collaborate with local theatre artists on a new political work, Trustees. The production begins with a hypothetical scenario in which the Australian government has placed a moratorium on public funding for the arts. While this scenario isn’t real, it cuts close to the bone after then-arts minister George Brandis gutted the Australia Council in 2015.

The production stages a public debate hosted by the (made up) Melbourne Trust Forum. It unfolds as part media reportage and part gameshow. The actors take on the roles of charismatic celebrity types, stalking the stage and encouraging the audience to register an online yes or no vote to the question “does government funding for the arts do more harm than good”? Several positions are thrashed out by the four celebrities who embody the spectrum of right-wing and left-wing commentary, in a parody of Australia’s own culture wars.

If not our poets and playwrights, argues one of the members of the trust forum, who or what forces will shape a cohesive and distinct Australian cultural identity today? As if such a thing were possible or even desirable. These arguments are not staged as earnest interventions, but rather as an absurd spectacle.

Natasha Herbert. Nicolai Khalezin

This staged debate becomes a decoy for exploring other structures of political disenfranchisement and privilege. For instance, can the debate over the arts be connected to Australia’s dehumanising treatment of refugees and asylum seekers? While a direct link is never explicitly made, it is certainly intimated.

The stage, which until this point has been modelled on a TV studio, with its bright lights and cues for audience applause, is then transformed into a boardroom. Here, the trustees of the Lone Pine Theatre Company gather to elect a new CEO and decide on a survival strategy amid the wreckage of a defunded arts sector. A proposal for a new form of theatre is floated: an immersive playground housed in a multi-storey building. It will host plot-lines and participatory experiences where jingoism might intermingle with a Kardashian style reality TV format: something to really make theatre profitable again.

The absurdity mounts. The trustees brainstorm underground levels where the violence of the Frontier Wars will be re-enacted in a kind of sexed-up colonial “Westworld”. The critique of arts funding driven by cynical interpretations of what counts as innovation and diversity in Australian theatre is certainly not lost here.

The boardroom table is not what it seems in this production. Nicolai Khalezin

The increasingly debauched suggestions of the trustees create a tension and sense of complicity in its audience. We laugh at the trustees’ rising absurdity and self-exploitation, yet recognise our role as consumers of their commodifiable identitities: a Palestinian man (Hazem Shammas), an Aboriginal woman (Tammy Anderson), a young Indian woman (Niharika Senapati), and as counter-point, two white characters (Daniel Schlusser and Natasha Herbert).

Then the mood shifts again, to great theatrical effect. Where in the earlier scene the audience was asked to take on the role of adjudicators in a failed debate on arts funding, we now became voyeurs. One of the trustees is to be elected as leader, and a choreographed leadership spill ensues where board members battle it out in a dirty power play.

Bridget Fiske’s movement direction comes to the fore here. Her stylised choreography captures the slow-burn horror of market-driven competitiveness in the arts. The tussle for power is expressed as a violent libidinised tango, intimating that power is not only synonymous with brute physical force but laced with sado-masochistic impulse.

As is to be expected, the white guy (Daniel Schlusser) wins. He mounts the boardroom table to give a terrifying victor’s speech with a recognisable reference to John Howard’s 2004 acceptance speech. The boardroom is suddenly transformed into a bizarre occultish space where the acceptable violence of Australian political and cultural life bleeds to the surface and the anti-racist platitudes of the liberal left are prodded and deflated.

Daniel Schlusser, as the victorious white guy, and Tammy Anderson. Nicolai Khalezin

It provides a surreal platform for the actors as they explore legacies of male anger and violence. The disturbing dynamics of white guilt are played out, political complacency is confessed, and theatrical traditions of exploitation of Indigenous women’s bodies are confronted head-on.

The production avoids the kind of earnestness that imbues much of political theatre. Is it didactic? Yes. But it also cuts through the turgid crust of fraught public debate over the arts and culture to create an atmosphere that verges on gothic horror. Unable to concede to the viewpoint that a distinction between left and right even exists, it asks us to imagine a post-political world. Here, freedom of speech no longer functions as the dignified ideal of democratic institution but is captive to hellish modes of spectacular, and mediatised, presentation.

It asks us to imagine that we live in an oppressive echo chamber that resembles one of the rings of Dante’s Inferno, a purgatorial space of ritualised punishments. The only way out of this impasse of opinion and apathy, it seems, is to invoke chaos.

On this front, Hazem Shammas’ powerful incantations towards the end of the production will leave you reeling. With a kind of terrifying conviction, he speaks the unspeakable into the void of Australia’s political sublimations, jolting us temporarily out of our sense of complacency: “Fuck the Australian dream”, he tells us, “fuck Allah, fuck Christ, fuck white validation, withdraw, stay safe, stay comfortable.”

Trustees is being staged as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival until October 21.

– ref. In Trustees, Belarus Free Theatre mercilessly demolishes Australia’s cultural debate – http://theconversation.com/in-trustees-belarus-free-theatre-mercilessly-demolishes-australias-cultural-debate-104559]]>

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – October 8 2018

By Bryce Edwards -

October 8, 2018

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – October 8 2018 Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] National Party Audrey Young (Herald): National leader Simon Bridges doing better than Jami-Lee Ross saga suggests Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Is Simon Bridges a dead man walking? Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): Analysis: Plugging the leak an ongoing headache for Simon Bridges Andrea Vance (Stuff): Bridges lacks skills vital to be PM Duncan Garner (Stuff): An embarrassing own goal when National’s defence wasn’t even under pressure Rodney Hide (Newshub): Jami-Lee Ross and the National Party owe the electorate an explanation Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Simon Bridges in the last chance saloon Steve Braunias (Herald): Secret Diary of Simon Bridges RNZ: Simon Bridges: National Party leadership not at risk Dan Satherley (Newshub): Expenses inquiry the ‘right thing to do’ – Simon Bridges Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘I’ve learned my lesson’ – Simon Bridges on Jami-Lee Ross Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: An embarrassing week for National David Farrar: Constructive Opposition Petrol prices, transport, road safety Liam Dann (Herald): Petrol prices the big risk for Government right now RNZ: Fuel retailers taking New Zealanders for a ride – former employee RNZ: Motorists warned lower NZ dollar will push up petrol prices Emelyn McHardy (Stuff): Nationwide petrol boycott gains support of thousands 1News: Two mums behind nationwide fuel strike can’t afford to get their kids together 1News: Nationwide petrol boycott gaining thousands of supporters as prices reach record highs Audrey Young (Herald): National leader Simon Bridges blasts accumulating petrol price rises Newshub: Interview: James Shaw (video) Jason Walls (Herald): Green Co-Leader James Shaw has ‘whole stack’ of options to get Kiwis into electric cars Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Disappointment as NZ car fleet continues to grow, kilometres driven increases Tom Furley (RNZ): Chinese investors offer to build Auckland road Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Checkpoint: A night with police at a Petone checkpoint Jarred Williamson (Stuff): New window washing laws one year on: Has anything changed? Newshub: Can Wellington’s bus woes be fixed? Mental health Bruce Munro (ODT): A road to recovery Phil Quin (Stuff): Depression isn’t the opposite of happiness, but of vitality Anna Leask (Herald): Dedicated detective, doting dad and an almost deadly depression RNZ Sunday Morning: Johann Hari: ‘we need to deal with why we’re in such pain’ (audio) Barbara Staniforth (Newsroom): Hope at last for NZ’s mental health system Finn Hogan (Newshub): ‘Mental health system only works for the wealthy or dying’ – advocate Finn Hogan (Newshub): Interview: Jazz Thornton (video) Lincoln Tan (Herald): Concern over rise in suicide and mental health issues in Asians 1News: ‘It’s OK to sometimes not feel OK’ – Mental Health Awareness Week kicks off today RNZ: Mental health services strained beyond capacity – Greens Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Greens call for conversation around mental health after Government rejects cross-party group Sam Hurley (Herald): Innocent people are dying due to mental health pressures, says murder victim’s daughter Ruby Macandrew and Andre Chumko (Stuff): Alcohol industry funding for charity mental health scheme disingenuous Alexandra Nelson (Newshub): Lifeline’s partnership with Lion sparks controversy 1News: NZ’s biggest alcohol company to fund Lifeline mental health charity programme Health Kirsty Lawrence (Stuff): Women band together to push for ‘game changing’ cancer drugs to be publicly funded Kirsty Lawrence (Stuff): New Zealand women with advanced breast cancer are dying faster than in other countries Chris Harrowell (Stuff): Auckland cancer patient Lynne Hanson faces selling home to fund treatment Catherine Groenestein (Stuff): Devastating diagnosis two years too late for cancer support advocate Cate Broughton (Stuff): Public hospitals ‘failing to pick up bowel cancer early, leading to more deaths’ Karen Brown (RNZ): Young patients’ long wait for bowel cancer – study Nikki Macdonald (Stuff): Complaints rise, two-year wait on health watchdog investigations Nikki Macdonald (Stuff): Grieving Kiwi families face torturous wait for answers Donna Chisholm (LIstener): Under-pressure hospital investigated over man’s death from minor surgery Piers Fuller (Stuff): Medical profession lobbies against advertising prescription drugs in New Zealand Danielle Clent (Stuff): Health boss raises ‘significant concerns’ over gender mixing at Auckland’s Mason Clinic Nina Hindmarsh (Stuff): Golden Bay’s GP shortage a warning of wider rural doctor issues RNZ: Anaesthetic technicians strike in Hawke’s Bay Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Rescue helicopter base stays in Taupō, Rotorua gets the chop Stuff: Taupō to keep rescue helicopter under Government’s new plan for air ambulances Anusha Bradley (RNZ): Axing of Rotorua helicopter base sparks tensions Newshub: Rotorua Mayor confident new consolidated rescue helicopter service will deliver Lydia Lewis (Newshub): James Rolleston disappointed at rescue helicopter cuts RNZ: Presbyterian Church disagrees with euthanasia bill Synthetic drugs Newshub: Synthetic cannabis a ‘public health emergency’ – NZ Drug Foundation RNZ: NZ Drug Foundation disappointed in ‘old-school’ approach to synthetic drugs Damien Grant (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern’s ramblings on the world stage amount to hypocrisy RNZ: Synthetic drug raids in Chch find unconsious users Government Max Rashbrooke (Spinoff): What is Jacinda Ardern’s big idea? Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Former Green leader Russel Norman labels Marama Davidson’s interview ‘terrible’, won’t call her right person for the job Dan Satherley and Emma Jolliff (Newshub): James Shaw fronts with the welfare numbers Marama Davidson forgot Dale Husband (E-Tangata): Kris Faafoi — a minister on the rise Bill Ralston (LIstener): The one way that Jacinda Ardern is behaving like Donald Trump Stuff: Actress Anne Hathaway still buzzing after meeting Jacinda Ardern and Neve Herald: Anne Hathaway’s heartwarming photo with Jacinda Ardern and baby Neve Jason Walls (Herald): Pesky possums pose problem for PM Jacinda Ardern’s Premier property Newshub: PM Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford have possums in the roof Report on Meka Whaitiri released Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): PM stands by Whaitiri decision Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): ‘Blackmail’ allegation over Whaitiri altercation Scott Palmer and Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Meka Whaitiri questions staff member’s credibility after report release Henry Cooke (Stuff): ‘Probable’ that Meka Whaitiri grabbed staffer, investigation finds Herald: Official version of Meka Whaitiri report finally released RNZ: Official report into Meka Whaitiri incident released Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Investigation into Meka Whaitiri incident released No Right Turn: An unrepentant bully Martyn Bradbury: Official report into Meka incident – micro-aggression policing at its most woke Political week in review Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: Rumour mill keeps Bridges in a spin Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Below the beltway Point of Order: The trough monitor: where did the politicians spend our money this week? OIA RNZ: Ombudsman may launch investigation into OIA saga No Right Turn: Looking into it No Right Turn: Contractors, public records, and the OIA Foreign Affairs and trade Andrea Vance (Stuff): Taxpayers fork out for VIP screenings of Helen Clark documentary Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Man believed to be deportee died on Auckland’s streets Tracey Barnett (The Conversation): Nauru: Why was NZ’s refugee offer left dangling? Anne Marie Brady (Spinoff): Crunch point on China interference: Anne-Marie Brady’s warning to Ardern Michael Reddell: Makhlouf on China Michael Reddell: The PRC and the Prime Minister Andrea Vance (Stuff): Diplomat: Brexit good for Kiwi migrants Ripeka Timutimu (Māori TV): Diplomat inspired by Matiu Rata Aroha Awarau (Māori TV): Italian Ambassador inspires Māori students Daniela Maoate-Cox (RNZ): Checking in on the neighbours RNZ: Jacinda Ardern to visit Tokelau within two years RNZ: NZ plans weather stations for Tokelau RNZ: RNZ: NZ MPs support better gender balance in Melanesian politics Leah Te Whata (Maori TV): West Papua human rights advocate calls for solidarity Tess Brunton (RNZ): Iceland visits to learn tourism lessons from New Zealand Housing Alan Johnson: Call it KiwiBuild but it is still gentrification Eva Corlett (RNZ): Housing NZ tenants complain about ineffective heaters Ben Leahy (Herald): First KiwiBuild ballot winners set to get their keys and pay $100k below market value Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Papakura family moving out of ‘swamp house’, into ‘warm, dry’ new rental Leith Huffadine and Brad Flahive (Stuff): HNZ neighbours from hell: Here’s what it takes for them to be evicted Dave Nicoll (Stuff): Women’s refuge struggling amid housing crisis RNZ: Workers’ village good for Kaikōura – Mayor Ruby Macandrew (Stuff): Warning about the financial ‘fish-hooks’ of moving into a retirement village Mānia Clarke (Māori TV): Home ownership dream closer for Hamilton whānau Māori TV: 80 new homes for Hamilton East Kirsty Wynn (Herald): ‘Historical vandalism’: Grand homes could be bulldozed for townhouses Construction industry, apprenticeships Press Editorial: Government grabs the clipboard, but who’s the boss? Catherine Harris (Stuff): Plumbers and builders say apprenticeship scheme too limited Melissa Davies (Newshub): Companies with apprenticeship schemes preferred for Government building projects Education Kirsty Johnston (Herald): Half of university scholarships go to wealthiest students while the poorest struggle Newshub: Massey’s Don Brash cancellation under scrutiny Herald: Massey launches review into Brash speech cancellation Stuff: Massey council launches review into cancellation of Don Brash speech RNZ: Massey orders independent review into Brash cancellation John Boynton (RNZ): Jobs at risk after review of Māori tertiary provider Libby Wilson (Stuff): Looming deficit, rating downgrade prompt Te Wānanga o Aotearoa shake-up Māori TV: Up to 40 jobs could be lost at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa – CEO Te Ururoa Flavell (video) RNZ: New centre for health science students in Southland Tracy Neal (RNZ): Maritime education centre announced in Nelson Tyler West (Critic): Proctor Protest Was the Biggest Otago Student Protest Since the ’90s Joel MacManus (Critic): Proctor Offered Resignation After Bong-Taking Revelations Environment and conservation 1News: Whakatane locals outraged on government’s encouragement of Chinese water bottling investment Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Campaigners want assurance foreign water bottling investing ceased Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): What happened here: When NZ chose money over the environment Richard Harman (Politik): Sir Geoffrey Palmer caught in middle of row over iwi rights Shamubeel Eaqub (Stuff): Putting a price on pollution fixes a problem for New Zealand Belinda McCammon (RNZ): Protect and promote: Can DOC really do both? Rod Oram (Newsroom): Why we need a real forestry strategy Brian Easton (Pundit): Towards a Low-Emission Economy. Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Wind power operators say changes to the RMA needed to fulfill renewable energy goals RNZ: Australian tampers with Bird of the Year competition Lois Williams (RNZ):‘There might be something that really is a magic cure’ John-Michael Swannix (Newshub): Te Kawerau ā Maki to launch Treaty claim over Govt’s ‘failure’ to combat kauri dieback RNZ: Weasel sighting at Wellington’s Zealandia Alice Neville (Spinoff): New Zealand faces up to its plastic problem Jennifer Eder (Stuff): The Marlborough Express): Round two in pyrolysis plant fight as new application lodged Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Dog kills baby pup in Napier, prompting DOC warning Dominic Harris (Stuff): Initial drinking water tests come back clear after 20,000 litres of diesel pollutes water table Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): Wellington Water bosses don’t want a repeat of Havelock North incident Gerald Piddock (Stuff): Hamilton’s dirty little secret: High levels of E coli recorded downstream of Hamilton Sam Kilmister (Stuff): Sanson’s new water treatment plant to cost $1.1m Bridget Grace (Newshub): Environmental groups still fighting seven years after Rena disaster Primary industries Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Farmers at odds with public on greenhouse gases Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Opposition to farmers’ hopes soft approach on emissions John Anthony (Stuff): Marc Rivers: The man with Fonterra’s fortunes in his hands John Small: One-Sided GMO Vibes Pat Deavoll (Stuff): Adopt GE or risk falling behind competitors: Federated Farmers president Jacqueline Rowarth (Herald): NZ dairy farmers share similar woes to Aussie counterparts Immigration and NZ values Martin van Beynen (Stuff): New Zealand values a sad excuse to attack immigrants Andrea Vance and Tony Wall (Stuff): NZ First MP campaigning for ‘Kiwi values’ was ruled unfit to run a pub Chris Trotter: Revolutionary Principles, Reactionary Values. Oscar Kightley (Stuff): The only real New Zealand value is taking the piss Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Kiwi values don’t include kicking out foreigners Paul Little (Herald): An open letter to migrants RNZ: Refugee agency wants more support in resettlement areas Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Shot taxi-driver’s life in limbo: ‘I’m just asking for my own safety’ Media Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Confident about business confidence stories? Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Breaking down the ‘attention economy’ Tim Murphy and Mark Jennings (Newsroom): MediaRoom: A thousand cuts Sunday Star Times: The newspaper business: This is where we’ve come from, and this is where we’re going Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Farewell, The Spinoff TV: You enraged the critics, for that I will miss you Business and economy Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Dear Adrian: Please go easy on us Cherie Howie (Herald): ‘It’s women helping women’: Theresa Gattung and the crowd-funding initiative helping Kiwi businesswomen succeed Finance and banking Aaron Drew (Newsroom): Why vertical integration in banking is past its use-by date Janine Starks (Stuff): Finance bosses shake off misdeeds while investors suffer Employment Madison Reidy (RNZ): Compulsory licensing of labour-hire firms would get rid of ‘ratbags’ RNZ: Firm ordered to pay $384k after worker crushed by forklift Thomas Manch (Stuff): Mindfulness and deep breathing help 80 unemployed youth into jobs Justice Audrey Young (Herald): Chief Justice Sian Elias says courts have taken an unacceptably broad view on non-interference in Parliament Action Station (E-Tangata): Executive Summary: They’re our whānau: Māori perspectives of NZ’s justice system Evan Harding (Stuff): Killer ‘should have died in prison’: Father of victim Child welfare Simon Bridges (Spinoff): Why we decided to support the Child Poverty Reduction Bill Anne Marie May (Stuff): Abuse victims say priests’ prayers and fasting hypcritical and missing point Ryan Boswell (1News): Calls for children’s rights to be recognised in review of ‘outdated’ adoption laws Ian Hyslop: Colonisation + Capitalism = Māori in state care RNZ: Legislation needed to prevent social work crime Herald Editorial: Child bride blot – We must do better Local government Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Former PM slams mayoralty rumours as ‘ridiculous’ Nick Truebridge (Stuff): SkyPath backers float user pays despite Government’s toll-free suggestion Todd Niall (Stuff): Goff needs to win the hide and seek game with Airbnb hosts Katie Bradford (1News): Waiheke holiday home owners rally against new rates hike Todd Niall (Stuff): Protecting view of Mt Eden is costing Auckland billions, says economist Herald: A single viewshaft of Mt Eden is costing Auckland $1.4b, says PwC Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland councillors approve $29m bailout for multinational recycling company Herald Editorial: Jump in cost of recycling shows need for change Laura Dooney (RNZ): Documents reveal conflict over pay for Sir Peter’s museum plan RNZ: BNZ building on Wellington waterfront to be demolished Damian George (Stuff): Wellington business owner offers to pay for parking to win back customers David Farrar: Council venues and politics Hamish McNeilly and Liz McDonald (Stuff): First shots fired in stadium arms race between southern cities Penny Bright Herald Editorial: Penny Bright a colourful fighter for city democracy Dan Satherley (Newshub): Penny Bright was a ‘kindred spirit’ – John Banks Marlene Singh (Stuff): Activist Penny Bright’s five most memorable moments Defence Andew McRae (RNZ): Final repatriated servicemen to be buried at Whenuapai RNZ: ‘Palpable sense of relief’ as NZ Defence Force evacuates earthquake victims Alexandra Nelson (Newshub): New Zealand Defence Force aids Indonesian tsunami survivors RNZ: Defence to survey Cavalli Islands for first time in 40 years RNZ: Air force trains fewer pilots due to lack of parts for planes Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to visit NZ RNZ: Where you can see Harry and Meghan in NZ RNZ: Checkpoint: Maranui Café excited to host Prince Harry and Meghan Other Grant Bradley (Herald): Meridian Energy boss lifts the lid on ‘dirty secrets’ in power industry Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Billions owed in child support penalties RNZ: New Human Rights chief confident of culture change Charlotte Carter (Stuff): People’s Party secretary faces charges over undeclared donations Bryce Edwards (Newsroom): Stardust and Substance:How candidates campaigned in the 2017 election Jane Matthews (Stuff): 60 living kids, 165 dead animals Michael Neilson (Herald): Hopes high as Ngāpuhi enters third round of Treaty settlement consultation hui Bay of Plenty Times: Change in law on death certificates pleases mum who lost two daughters Bruce Cotterill (Herald): Corruption isn’t a Kiwi value so let’s not bring it here 1News: Abortion rights group brings complaint to Human Rights Group over ‘discriminatory’ laws Sasha Borissenko (Newsroom): Abortion case headed for Human Rights Tribunal Newshub: Kim Dotcom vows to ‘fight for internet freedom’ in series of tweets James Borrowdale (Vice): New Zealand’s Migrant Sex Workers Are Still Criminalised Under The Law Eden More (RNZ): New app helps people learn te reo Māori through sport Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): TPK to launch new reo Māori app Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): A ‘matter of time’ before New Zealand faces significant cyber attack – GCSB RNZ: Judge reserves decision in Colin Craig defamation case RNZ: New Zealand air for sale at Auckland airport]]>

Tukuitonga goes into battle on behalf of Pacific for WHO position

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 8, 2018

apjs-p2-colin-tukuitonga-image-sk-680wide-jpg — ]]>

Dr Colin Tukuitonga, a New Zealander of Niuean descent and proposed by New Zealand, was given resounding support for his nomination from Pacific countries. Image: AUT

By Sri Krishnamurthi

Health challenges in the Pacific Islands require acute and immediate attention from the World Health Organisation, says Dr Colin Tukuitonga, a New Zealander of Niuean descent whose nomination was proposed by New Zealand.

Dr Tukuitonga goes into battle this week for the position of WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, in a struggle which takes place on October 8-13 in Manila, Philippines.

He is up against three others – Dr Narimah Awin, proposed by Malaysia; Dr Takeshi Kasai, proposed by Japan; Dr Susan Mercado, proposed by the Philippines – at the nomination which will take place during the 69th session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific.

“I know what needs to be done,” he says emphatically.

“Without a doubt it is our turn, not just for climate change but other health challenges such as Non-communicable diseases (NCD) (diabetes and heart disease) child health, polio in Papua New Guinea, and the list goes on.”

-Partners-

He says it is a position that needs fresh thinking and new leadership in keeping with good governance rather than being bogged in the mire of bureaucracy.

Already Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea have publicly indicated they will vote for Japan.

‘More of the same’
“Voting for Japan is a vote for more of the same. The candidate is a long-term staff member of WHO,” says Dr Tukuitonga.

“WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO) needs change and transformation, lift impact, get value for money, improve transparency and accountability. The region needs diversity in leadership.”

Dr Tukuitonga is guarded against talk of the money-game buying votes in the process.

“Only in so far as offers made by Japan to small islands, such as a new airport extension in Solomon Islands,” he says, and quickly adds “New Zealand is meeting most of the costs of my campaign”.

His expectation is that all the Pacific Island countries will back him – at least when it comes to voting from the second round onwards. However, he expects that he has done all the work he could to convince countries to vote for him.

“It is hard to say which way countries will vote, but all Polynesia, plus Micronesia, plus Nauru and New Zealand, Australia, France and the United Kingdom have indicated support for me,” he says.

“Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji have signalled support for Japan.
Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have made public statements supporting Japan.
We are told Vanuatu and Fiji also (supporting Japan), but it is not public.”

Nomination backed
It was only last year that the Pacific Island countries backed his nomination for the regional director’s position, and he is left wondering what the difference is now.

“They (Pacific Island Countries) approached me to stand back in October 2017. We can’t win without remaining united, where is the regionalism? Where’s the Pacific way?” he asks.

And Dr Tukuitonga answers the question himself.

“I suppose it’s an issue for Pacific leaders.

“Do we believe in our ability to influence global and regional affairs? Do we have the skills and talent as a region, rather than being viewed as passive, poor and dependent? Can we truly harness our collective power?

“Solomons benefited from RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands), and now this! Where’s the solidarity? Is there a future for regionalism? Is regionalism a fact or a fallacy?” he asks.

In the meantime, Dr Tukuitonga must gird his loins for battle and at stake is the championing of the Western Pacific region.

Sri Krishnamurthi is a journalist and Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student at Auckland University of Technology. He is attached to the University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme, filing for USP’s Wansolwara News and the AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Stop worrying and trust the evidence: it’s very unlikely Roundup causes cancer

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide

The common weed killer Roundup (glyphosate) is back in the news after a US court ruled it contributed to a man’s terminal cancer (non-Hodgkin lymphoma). Following the court’s order for manufacturer Monsanto to compensate the former school ground’s keeper US$289, more than 9,000 people are reportedly also suing the company.

In light of this, Cancer Council Australia is calling for Australia to review glyphosate’s safety. And tonight’s Four Corner’s report centres around Monsanto’s possible cover-up of the evidence for a link between glyphosate and cancer.

Juries don’t decide science, and this latest court case produced no new scientific data. Those who believe glyphosate causes cancer often refer to the 2015 report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that classified the herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.

IARC’s conclusion was arrived at using a narrower base of evidence than other recent peer-reviewed papers and governmental reviews. Australia’s regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), reviewed the safety of glyphosate after IARC’s determination. It’s 2016 report concluded that

based on current risk assessment the label instructions on all glyphosate products – when followed – provides adequate protection for users.

The Agricultural Health Study, which followed more than 50,000 people in the US for over ten years, was published in 2018. This real world study in the populations with the highest exposure to glyphosate showed that if there is any risk of cancer from glyphosate preparations, it is exceedingly small.

It also showed that the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is negligible. It is unclear to what extent this study was used in the recent court case.

What did the IARC and others find?

Glyphosate is one of the most used herbicides worldwide. It kills weeds by targeting a specific pathway (the shikimic acid pathway) that exists in plants and a type of bacteria (eubacteria), but not animals (or humans).

In terms of short-term exposure, glyphosate is less toxic than table salt. However, it’s chronic, or long-term, exposure to glyphosate that’s causing the controversy.

Pesticides and herbicides are periodically re-evaluated for their safety and several studies have done so for glyphosate. For instance, in 2015, Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment suggested glyphosate was neither mutagenic nor carcinogenic.

But then came the IARC’s surprising classification. And the subsequent 2015 review by the European Food Safety Authority, that concluded glyphosate was unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard, didn’t alleviate sceptics.

The key differences between the IARC’s and other reports revolve around the breadth of evidence considered, the weight of human studies, consideration of physiological plausibility and, most importantly, risk assessment. The IARC did not take into account the extent of exposure to glyphosate to establish its association with cancer, while the others did.

Demonstrating the mechanism

Establishing whether a chemical can cause cancer in humans involves demonstrating a mechanism in which it can do so. Typical investigations examine if the chemical causes mutations in bacteria or damage to the DNA of mammalian cells.

The studies reviewed by IARC, and the other bodies mentioned, that looked at glyphosate’s ability to produce mutations in bacteria and to mammalian cells were negative. The weight of evidence also indicated glyphosate was unlikely to cause significant DNA damage.

Animal studies

Animal studies are typically conducted in rats or mice. The rodents are given oral doses of glyphosate for up to 89% of their life spans, at concentrations much higher than humans would be exposed to.

Studies examined by the European Food Safety Authority included nine rat studies where no cancers were seen. Out of five mouse studies, three showed no cancers even at the highest doses. One study showed tumours, but these were not dose dependent (suggesting random variation, not causation) and in one study tumours were seen at highest doses in males only.

Glyphosate works by disrupting a pathway that exists in plants but not animals or humans. from shutterstock.com

This led to the European Food Safety Authority’s overall conclusion that glyphosate was unlikely to be a carcinogenic hazard to humans.

The IARC evaluation included only six rat studies. In one study, cancer was seen but this wasn’t dose dependent (again suggesting random variation). They evaluated only two mouse studies, one of which was negative for cancer and that showed a statistically significant “trend” in males.

The IARC thus concluded there was sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animals but there was no consistency in tumour type (mouse vs rat) or location.

Human studies

This is an enormous field so I can only briefly summarise the research. The European Food Safety Authority looked at 21 human studies and found no evidence for an association between cancer and glyphosate use. The IARC looked at 19 human trials and found no statistically significant evidence for an association with cancer. It did find three small studies that suggested an association with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (not statistically significant).

As already mentioned, the large Agricultural Health Study found no association between cancer and glyphosate in humans. And the 2016 review by Australia’s regulator concluded glyphosate was safe if used as directed.

It’s possible the animus towards Monsanto and genetically modified organisms may have influenced the recent juries’ decision far more than any science. However, these materials had no impact on the scientific findings.

– ref. Stop worrying and trust the evidence: it’s very unlikely Roundup causes cancer – http://theconversation.com/stop-worrying-and-trust-the-evidence-its-very-unlikely-roundup-causes-cancer-104554]]>

Review: The new Doctor Who picks up the chase with a pace as she crosses the gender barrier

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin White, Senior lecturer, University of Adelaide

Doctor Who is back on our TV screens with the first episode of the new series airing on the ABC here in Australia today, staring Jodie Whittaker as the first female regeneration of this particular Time Lord.

Anyone who has been watching the long-running BBC series over the past few years should not find a female Time Lord surprising.

The Doctor’s arch enemy The Master has most recently been brought to life as Missy, in a BAFTA-nominated performance by Michelle Gomez that easily ranks as my favourite incarnation of the evil Time Lord.

We have also been shown an actual regeneration of a male Time Lord into a female body, when a character known as The General regenerated in the Series 9 episode Hell Bent.

The fact that a Time Lord can periodically regenerate into another body was itself only invented to allow the show to sidestep the failing health of William Hartnell, who played the first Doctor on TV.

Nevertheless, to deny that the decision to cast a woman as the Doctor is a historic moment is to understate the bravery of the new production team, led by Chris Chibnall (of Torchwood and Broadchurch fame), and of Whittaker in particular.

The new Doctor. BBC

A regeneration reboot

The latest episode, The Woman Who Fell to Earth, picked up where the 2017 Christmas special left off, but teasingly didn’t offer us a view of the new Doctor for several minutes.

Indeed, with its Northern England setting and outstanding shots of Yorkshire scenery, I could be forgiven for confusing it with an episode from the Dalziel and Pascoe boxset that I’m still working through.

We were soon on familiar ground, as Whittaker’s Doctor chased a mysterious, Predator-inspired alien through the streets of Sheffield. It is way too early to gauge where Whittaker fits in the pantheon of Doctors, but her hyperactive, clever and funny performance brought to mind a greatest hits package of Christopher Ecclestone (the Ninth Doctor) and David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor), with less of the darkness that has been favoured of late.

She delivered the requisite post-regeneration comedy with ease, and expertly portrayed a Doctor who knows everything and knows nothing at the same time. I predict great things as the season develops.

“Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.”

The production changes

The Doctor’s gender was not the only thing that felt new. The show looked noticeably more fantastic than it has at any point in its history, aided by properly cinematic landscapes and an alien that still looked scary in close-up.

It also sounds better, with composer Segun Akinola’s score proving more contemporary and less obtrusive than the previous work of Murray Gold. I assume much of this was terrifying for children, and thank goodness for that!

But my favourite change in the show is in the writing. The new companions were fleshed out to such an extent that a particular shock late in the episode felt genuinely tragic, a feat that is particularly impressive for a script that also had to dump enough Who-lore to pull in new viewers.

In crafting a self-contained ensemble drama, there is evidence that Chibnall’s team will avoid the overly-intricate plotting of the outgoing Steven Moffat-led era.

My only complaint is that we were cruelly taunted with the demise of that laziest of plot devices – the sonic screwdriver – only to have it dramatically reinvented later in the episode.

Best of all, the show ended on a massive cliffhanger, the likes of which we have not seen since the classic era. Fans of the reboot have thus far been robbed of this experience, and I hope that we can expect more ludicrous finales as the weeks roll by.

The Doctor as a role model in science

The Doctor is a rare figure in popular culture, being a person devoted to solving problems with little more than curiosity and an immense scientific knowledge.

A couple of years ago, I was part of a group that toured Australian theatres in a Royal Institution of Australia production that explored whether that scientific gobbledegook has any basis in fact.

This allowed us to explain the science of time travel (yes, it is possible), regeneration (you do this roughly every seven years, with exceptions) and extra dimensions (yes, they are possible!) to an audience of more than 6,000 people who would never knowingly attend a science lecture.

Most importantly for the children in the audience, we were able to communicate both the excitement of scientific research, and the feasibility of becoming a professional scientist regardless of your background. This really is the closest you can get to being the Doctor without having a TARDIS.

In a country where over three times as many boys as girls study high school physics, and a 2014 survey revealed that some girls do not take physics because they think that boys are better with numbers, I find it hard not to see the selection of a female doctor as the greatest science communication opportunity of my lifetime.

In an age of binge watching, the coming generation will be awed by both the Doctor’s male and female incarnations. Can there be any better role model for budding young scientists?

The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker, centre) with (left to right) Grace (Sharon D. Clarke), Yasmin (Mandip Gill), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Graham (Bradley Walsh). BBC

– ref. Review: The new Doctor Who picks up the chase with a pace as she crosses the gender barrier – http://theconversation.com/review-the-new-doctor-who-picks-up-the-chase-with-a-pace-as-she-crosses-the-gender-barrier-104312]]>

Watt questions being and perception but could have gone further

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Balkin, Lecturer, English and Theatre Studies, University of Melbourne

Review: Watt, Melbourne International Arts Festival.

It resembled a pot, it was almost a pot, but it was not a pot of which one could say, Pot, pot, and be comforted. It was in vain that it answered, with unexceptionable adequacy, all the purposes, and performed all the offices, of a pot, it was not a pot. And it was just this hairbreadth departure from the nature of a true pot that so excruciated Watt.

This passage from Watt, the novel Samuel Beckett wrote while hiding from the Gestapo during the second world war, describes the title character’s dawning certainty that a pot is not actually a pot. The instability goes beyond language to ontology, or the nature of being.

There is much to like in Barry McGovern’s adaptation of Watt, which presents selections from the text. McGovern is a seasoned performer who spoke Beckett’s repetitive prose beautifully. His quiet delivery brought out the novel’s deadpan qualities; the audience laughed often. And yet, I came away with the feeling that McGovern’s Watt was not quite a pot, which is to say, not quite Watt.

McGovern first adapted Watt for a production at Dublin’s Gate Theatre in 2010. In this Melbourne production, with his worn clothing, boots, braces, and pepper-coloured hat, he looked the part of a generic Beckett character.

This was not a bad thing per se, but it did contribute to my sense of seeing the ghost of a Beckett play. It is tempting to attribute this washed-out quality to the difficulty of adapting the novel to the stage. And yet, the problems instantiated by the novel’s narration are well suited to McGovern’s adaptation.

Beckett’s novel describes Watt’s journey to, within, and away from Mr Knott’s house, where Watt lives for some time as a servant. Upon leaving Mr Knott’s service, Watt travels to an institution, seemingly an asylum, where he tells his story to another inmate, Sam. But the story is told out of order, sometimes in unreadable language, and with fragmentary addenda appended by a fictional editor.

The narrator is not just unreliable, but impossible, or plural: though late in the novel the narrator identifies himself as Sam, who is reporting Watt’s story as Watt told it to him, neither Watt nor Sam were present at the beginning of the novel. These contradictions are not resolved; indeed, they constitute the novel.

McGovern sometimes was Watt while he narrated what happened to Watt. This was especially effective in two scenes. In the first, McGovern demonstrated the extraordinary way in which Watt walks:

Watt’s way of advancing due east, for example, was to turn his bust as far as possible towards the north and at the same time to fling out his right leg as far as possible towards the south, and then to turn his bust as far as possible towards the south and at the same time to fling out his left leg as far as possible towards the north.

McGovern spoke the lines while performing the motions, embodying Beckett’s comic repetition and the unexplained inefficiency with which Watt advances.

Worn clothing, boots, braces, and pepper-coloured hat – McGovern looked the part of a generic Beckett character. Pia Johnson

McGovern was likewise effective in a scene where Watt, resting in a ditch that anticipates the one in which Waiting for Godot’s Estragon sleeps, seems to hear “from afar, from without, yes, really it seemed from without, the voices, indifferent in quality, of a mixed choir.” A recorded choir sang the two verses Beckett supplies (though the music is not printed in all editions), including such lyrics as “Fifty two point two eight five seven one four” and “oh a bun a big fat bun.”

During the first choral verse I was unsure about the choice to include the recording, since it seemed to resolve definitely that the voices came “from without” — a point that Beckett leaves open. But as the second verse was sung, and as McGovern reacted with quiet but increasing perplexity to its nonsense, I changed my mind.

I was with Watt in that moment, but where was I? I could no longer say, in the world of the play, that the choir came from outside him; only that it seemed to, and that its lyrical improbability put pressure on this seeming. In moments such as these, McGovern enacted the instability of the novel’s form and perspective.

At other times McGovern spoke and performed as different figures from the story: as Arsene, the servant who leaves Mr Knott’s establishment as Watt arrives, or as a narrator (Sam in the novel, but nameless in the play) to whom Watt has told his story. Here too the shifts enacted the text’s instabilities in another medium. Who was speaking, and why were they telling us this story? We weren’t to know. In the audience’s laughter I felt an acceptance of skimming along the surface of things.

My dissatisfaction with McGovern’s Watt is not about what he included and excised, though one might object that he made it a bit too coherent. My frustration boils down to his treatment of the pot, one of the production’s few props. At the relevant moment, McGovern produced and unfolded a piece of paper with a picture of a pot on it. In so doing he made a point about representation: an image of a pot is not a pot. But I wanted him to make a point about existence — to produce a solid pot and make me question, or make me think he questioned, whether it was a pot.

Theatre is the perfect medium in which to make an audience see that a pot is not a pot. Stage pots may be real, may even be cooked in, but as props they are also fictional and fictionalizing. Making us feel this could have been a resonant counterpoint to the kinds of ghosting — Marvin Carlson’s term for theatrical elements that appear again and again — that attended McGovern, boots, braces, hat, and ditch.

Watt is being staged as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival until October 13.

– ref. Watt questions being and perception but could have gone further – http://theconversation.com/watt-questions-being-and-perception-but-could-have-gone-further-104555]]>

New UN report outlines ‘urgent, transformational’ change needed to hold global warming to 1.5°C

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Howden, Director, Climate Change Institute, Australian National University

A landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commissioned at the breakthrough 2015 summit that brokered the Paris climate agreement, outlines what’s at stake in the world’s bid to limit global temperature rise to 1.5℃.

The report, released today, sets out the key practical differences between the Paris agreement’s two contrasting goals: to limit the increase of human-induced global warming to well below 2℃, and to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5℃.

Two and a half years in the making, the report provides vital information about whether the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious goal is indeed achievable, what the future may look like under it, and the risks and rewards of hitting the target.

Here are five key questions to which the report provides answers.

Can we limit warming to 1.5℃?

There is no clear yes or no answer to this question.

Put simply, it is not impossible that global warming could be limited to 1.5℃. But achieving this will be profoundly challenging.

If we are to limit warming to 1.5℃, we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030, reaching near-zero by around 2050.

Whether we are successful primarily depends on the rate at which government and non-state bodies take action to reduce emissions. Yet despite the urgency, current national pledges under the Paris Agreement are not enough to remain within a 3℃ temperature limit, let alone 1.5℃.

Source: Australian Academy of Science.

Global warming is not just a problem for the future. The impacts are already being felt around the world, with declines in crop yields, biodiversity, coral reefs, and Arctic sea ice, and increases in heatwaves and heavy rainfall. Sea levels have risen by 40.5mm in the past decade and are predicted to continue rising for decades, even if all greenhouse emissions were reduced to zero immediately. Climate adaptation is already needed and will be increasingly so at 1.5℃ and 2℃ of warming.

Rapid action is essential and the next ten years will be crucial. In 2017, global warming breached 1℃. If the planet continues to warm at the current rate of 0.2℃ per decade, we will reach 1.5℃ of warming around 2040. At current emissions rates, within the next 10 to 14 years there is a 2/3 chance we will have used up our entire carbon budget for keeping to 1.5.

How can we limit warming to 1.5℃?

The report says “transformational” change will be needed to limit warming to 1.5℃. Business as usual will not get us there.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases need to reach net zero globally by around 2050. Most economists say putting a price on emissions is the most efficient way to do this.

By 2050, 70-85% of electricity globally will need to be supplied by renewables. Investment in low-carbon and energy-efficient technologies will need to double, whereas investment in fossil-fuel extraction will need to decrease by around a quarter.

Sustainable agriculture is a big piece of the low-carbon puzzle. CIFOR/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Carbon dioxide removal technology will also be needed to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. But the IPCC’s report warns that relying too heavily on this technology would be a major risk as it has not been used on such a large scale before. Carbon dioxide removal is an extra step that may be needed to keep warming to 1.5℃, not an excuse to keep emitting greenhouse gases.

Production, consumption and lifestyle choices also play a role. Reducing energy demand and food waste, improving the efficiency of food production, and choosing foods and goods with lower emissions and land use requirements will contribute significantly.

Taking such action as soon as possible will be hugely beneficial. The earlier we start, the more time we have to reach net zero emissions. Acting early will mean a smoother transition and less net cost overall. Delay will lead to more haste, higher costs, and a harder landing.

Reducing emissions quickly will also ensure warming is capped as soon as possible, reducing the number and severity of impacts.

Yet severe impacts will still be experienced even if warming is successfully capped at 1.5℃.

What is the cost of 1.5℃ of warming?

Although the Paris Agreement aims to hold global warming as close to 1.5℃ as possible, that doesn’t mean it is a “safe” level. Communities and ecosystems around the world have already suffered significant impacts from the 1℃ of warming so far, and the effects at 1.5℃ will be harsher still.

Poverty and disadvantages will increase as temperatures rise to 1.5℃. Small island states, deltas and low-lying coasts are particularly vulnerable, with increased risk of flooding, and threats to freshwater supplies, infrastructure, and livelihoods.

Warming to 1.5℃ also poses a risk to global economic growth, with the tropics and southern subtropics potentially being hit hardest. Extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves, and droughts will become more frequent, severe, and widespread, with attendant costs in terms of health care, infrastructure, and disaster response.

The oceans will also suffer in a 1.5℃ warmer world. Ocean warming and acidification are expected to impact fisheries and aquaculture, as well as many marine species and ecosystems.

Coral reefs around the world are seeing increased rates of bleaching. OIST/Flickr, CC BY

Up to 90% of warm water coral reefs are predicted to disappear when global warming reaches 1.5℃. That would be a dire situation, but far less serious than at 2℃, when the destruction of coral reefs would be almost total (greater than 99% destruction).

How do 1.5℃ and 2℃ compare?

Impacts on both human and natural systems would be very different at 1.5℃ rather than 2℃ of warming. For example, limiting warming to 1.5℃ would roughly halve the number of people globally who are expected to suffer from water scarcity.

Seas would rise by an extra 10cm this century at 2℃ compared with 1.5℃. This means limiting global warming to 1.5℃ would save up to 10.4 million people from the impacts of rising seas.

At 1.5℃ rather than 2℃:

up to 427 million fewer people will suffer food and water insecurity, climate risks, and adverse health impacts
extreme weather events, heat-related death and disease, desertification, and wildlife extinctions will all be reduced
it will be significantly easier to achieve many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, including those linked to hunger, poverty, water and sanitation, health, and cities and ecosystems.

How does the 1.5℃ target fit with the Sustainable Development Goals?

The Sustainable Development Goals aim for a world in which people can be healthy, financially stable, well fed, have clean air and water, and live in a secure and pleasant environment. Much of this is consistent with the goal of capping global warming at 1.5℃, which is why the IPCC notes there are synergies if the SDG initiatives and climate action should be explicitly linked.

But some climate strategies may make it harder to achieve particular SDGs. Countries that are highly dependent on fossil fuels for employment and revenue may suffer economically in the transition towards low-carbon energy.

Carefully managing this transition by simultaneously focusing on reducing poverty and promoting equity in decision-making may help avoid the worst effects of such trade-offs. What works in one place may not work in another, so strategies should always be locally appropriate.

Where next?

Limiting global warming to 1.5℃ will require a social transformation, as the world takes rapid action to reduce greenhouse gases. The effects of climate change will continue to shape the world we live in, but there is no doubt we will be far better off under 1.5℃ than 2℃ of global warming.

The choices we make today are shaping the future for coming generations. As the new report makes clear, if we are serious about the 1.5℃ target, we need to act now.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the substantial contribution to authorship of this article by of Lamis Kazak, an Australian National University Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (Sustainability) student, as part of a Science Communication Internship with the Climate Change Institute.

– ref. New UN report outlines ‘urgent, transformational’ change needed to hold global warming to 1.5°C – http://theconversation.com/new-un-report-outlines-urgent-transformational-change-needed-to-hold-global-warming-to-1-5-c-103237]]>

Australia has two decades to avoid the most damaging impacts of climate change

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain Stewart, Analyst, ClimateWorks Australia

The long-awaited special report on the science underpinning the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5℃ has been released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It tells us that hitting this goal will be challenging, but not impossible. And it highlights the benefits of hitting the target, by pointing out that global warming will be vastly more damaging if allowed to reach 2℃.

The report says that for a 66% chance at limiting global warming to 1.5℃, an additional 550 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (or its equivalent) can be emitted globally from the beginning of 2018. Increasing the risk to a 50% chance at limiting global warming to 1.5℃, that figure becomes 750Gt CO₂e.

Based on previous calculations, Australia’s fair share of the global carbon budget is roughly equivalent to 1%. That would put Australia’s remaining carbon budget at 5.5Gt and 7.5Gt for a 66% and 50% chance, respectively.

The simplified trajectory below shows that Australia would therefore need to reach net zero greenhouse emissions by 2038 for a 66% chance of limiting global warming to 1.5℃, and by 2045 for a 50% chance.

ClimateWorks Australia, Author provided

In practical terms, this gives Australia two decades to deliver on our part, for a good chance of avoiding the most devastating impacts of a warming climate. Globally, we must reach net zero greenhouse emissions by 2047 for a 66% chance of limiting global warming to 1.5℃, and by 2058 for a 50% chance. Australia will have to hit net zero before it is achieved globally because we currently have among the highest per person emissions, so our decarbonisation trajectory needs to be steeper.

But Australia’s emissions are rising

From 2006 to 2013, Australian emissions decreased, but they have since begun to rise again. As shown in ClimateWorks Australia’s recently released report, Tracking Progress, we are not yet on track meet our current Paris commitment of cutting emissions by 26-28% relative to 2005 levels by 2030. Nor are we on track to reach net zero.

Yet our research also showed we have the potential to get back on track. There have been recent periods when sectors of our economy have cut carbon at or near the pace required to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Reaching net zero from here will require rapid, economy-wide action, including:

increasing the share of renewable electricity
improving energy efficiency
electrifying transport and industry where possible
switching to lower-emission fuels such as gas
land use changes (reforestation, reduced land clearance, and best practice farming).

There are already many examples of these kinds of approaches. For example, since 2010, solar photovoltaic prices have fallen by around 70% and battery prices by around 80%, while uptake rates have surpassed expectations. This has been the result of research, investment, government incentives, shifting consumer preferences, and economies of scale.

Consumers are beginning to embrace trends such as electric vehicles and 3D printing, and we can expect more technological disruptions throughout the economy such as building optimisation, smart grids, and solar-hydrogen, which all have the potential to reduce emissions significantly.

The goal is still in reach (just)

The new IPCC report is adamant that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5℃ is still achievable – despite previous fears that it is already out of reach. Yes, it is tight, but the challenge is in going faster, not the lack of solutions.

Crucially, the report also points out that 2℃ of global warming would be vastly more damaging than 1.5℃, and that 2℃ cannot be treated as a “safe” limit.

At 2℃, the report predicts it is “very likely that there will be at least one sea-ice-free Arctic summer per decade”. In contrast, holding warming to 1.5℃ rather than 2℃ would protect an extra 10.4 million people from rising sea levels.

Some of these people are our neighbours in Pacific Island nations, many of which are implementing some of the most ambitious climate policies in the world. For low-lying countries and island states, the reality is “1.5 to stay alive”.

Australia’s climate at stake

Closer to home, the impacts of climate change on Australia will continue to manifest themselves in extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and bushfires. Increasing impacts are expected to extend to water, food and even border security, creating the potential for millions of climate refugees in our region before the end of the century.

As a wealthy, emissions-intensive country with abundant natural resources, in a region highly vulnerable to climate impacts, Australia should take its Paris climate targets very seriously. Australia has the means to become a regional leader in climate action, positioning ourselves as a “clean energy superpower” and helping our neighbours work towards becoming carbon-neutral.

There are many examples within Australia of commitments already made to reach net zero emissions. States and territories representing 80% of Australia’s emissions – along with the federal opposition – have committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Tasmania has already reached net zero. The ACT has legislated to do so by 2045.

Other organisations have also pledged to go carbon-neutral or use 100% renewable energy, including multinational companies, major cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, and universities.

These initiatives prove that setting targets for emissions reduction actually ignites action. The IPCC’s new report sets us perhaps the most important target of all: the world must hit net zero emissions by mid-century if we are to stand a good chance of avoiding the worst impacts of global warming.

– ref. Australia has two decades to avoid the most damaging impacts of climate change – http://theconversation.com/australia-has-two-decades-to-avoid-the-most-damaging-impacts-of-climate-change-104409]]>

The UN’s 1.5°C special climate report at a glance

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Hopkin, Section Editor: Energy + Environment, The Conversation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report today on the impacts of global warming of 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels.

The report outlines the considerable challenges of meeting the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃, the global effort needed to achieve the target, and the consequences of not.

The highlights of the report are presented below:

– ref. The UN’s 1.5°C special climate report at a glance – http://theconversation.com/the-uns-1-5-c-special-climate-report-at-a-glance-104547]]>

A Melbourne-flavoured rendition of 16 Lovers Lane celebrates The Go-Betweens’ stellar songs

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandy Stefanakis, Sessional lecturer in music education, Deakin University

Review: 16 Lovers Lane, Melbourne Festival.

The Go-Betweens’ 1988 album, 16 Lovers Lane, was a bit of a sleeper when released. Over time, however, it has achieved critical acclaim to the point where the song Streets of Your Town was placed first in a recent Songs of Brisbane poll conducted by The Guardian.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the album’s release, members of the band have been performing its finely crafted songs in some of Australia’s major cities. On stage in Melbourne, original group members Lindy Morrison, Amanda Brown and John Willsteed were joined by Dan Kelly, Danny Widdicombe and Luke Daniel Peacock.

The presence of some of our very finest songwriters as special guests at this event – including Jen Cloher, Paul Kelly, Dave Graney and Laura Jean – was homage to the regard in which the band’s writers, Robert Forster and the late Grant McLennan, are held. Indeed Paul Kelly spoke about how he had “mined” the duo’s ideas as much as he could. In other fields, such a confession might be regarded with outrage, but for musicians, providing inspiration for others is the highest accolade one can receive.

Still, the role of the instrumentalists, the incredible constancy of Morrison’s drumming, the multi-instrumental and vocal work of Brown and the fine guitar playing of Willsteed contributed equally to the Go-Betweens’ unique style. Although many describe their work as epitomising the sound of the 1980s, it was always idiosyncratic, with its mix of poetic lyrics and folk/rock sound combined with the vocal edginess spawned by such bands as Talking Heads.

This concert provided an opportunity for greater vocal clarity, allowing the sentiments of song narratives to come to the fore. The impact was heightened by the detailed attention to the instrumental arrangements of each song.

Jen Cloher spoke about her own band’s performance of Love Goes On in various parts of the world where it is often recognised and instantly embraced. it opened the concert and Cloher’s vocal richness combined with the fullness of the band, set the scene for a warm, nostalgic experience.

Jen Cloher performing Love Goes On in 2017.

Rob Snarski sang the haunting Quiet Heart and Danny Widdicombe’s beautiful clean lead sound was a standout, as was Snarski’s brief improvisation on mouth organ.

There was something exquisite about Paul Kelly interpreting my favourite song on the album, Was There Anything I Could Do? The lyrics are about a partner who takes off, exploring the world, taking some life punts and engaging in a range of belief systems, while her lover wonders what could have been done to discourage this adventurousness. The answer, of course, is “zip”. Amanda Brown’s fabulous violin forays into the wilderness in response to Kelly’s voice of yearning attested to this fact. It was a lovely interplay.

Not only were most participants in this feast of an evening songwriters, but many, were also multi-instrumentalists. Laura Jean, like Amanda Brown, is classically trained and plays an array of instruments. She sang Streets of Your Town. The music is up-tempo and has a cyclic feel to it. The shades of lyrical darkness – of battered wives and butcher’s knives get lost in the optimism of the music. Laura’s vocal interpretation was strong and John Willsteed’s intricate acoustic guitar work a standout.

At the time the album was being written, McLennan’s relationship with Brown was ardent and many of his songs explore his feelings. Brown was the subject of The Devil’s Eye, a beautiful love song about being separated by distance. It was poignantly sung at the concert by Brown, and backed with simple, largely acoustic accompaniment sans drums and bass. Dan Kelly and Luke Daniel Peacock, as with many of the performances, worked wonders with finely balanced vocal harmonies.

Rob Snarski performing at the concert. Prudence Upton

Romy Vager and Rob Snarski’s collaboration on Apology Accepted, with fabulous steel pedal guitar and violin was also a standout. And Dave Graney has a voice which has a greater similarity to Forster’s than others performing, which he used truly on Dive for Your Memory. Clare Moore supported on vibes while Brown reproduced the distinctive oboe riff resplendent on the original.

Though Cattle and Cane is not on the 16 Lovers Lane album, it is a pivotal Go-Betweens song. It is also a deceptively difficult song, but was interpreted superbly by Alex Gow. The sustained complex rhythm demanding so much of Morrison on drums was highly memorable.

The concert ended with John Willsteed taking a photo of the audience who stood as one to applaud the musicians.

16 Lovers Lane was staged as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

– ref. A Melbourne-flavoured rendition of 16 Lovers Lane celebrates The Go-Betweens’ stellar songs – http://theconversation.com/a-melbourne-flavoured-rendition-of-16-lovers-lane-celebrates-the-go-betweens-stellar-songs-104556]]>

World politics explainer: Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Laurenceson, Deputy Director and Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), University of Technology Sydney

This article is part of our series of explainers on key moments in the past 100 years of world political history. In it, our authors examine how and why an event unfolded, its impact at the time, and its relevance to politics today.

By orchestrating China’s transition to a market economy, Deng Xiaoping has left a lasting legacy on China and the world.

After becoming the leader of the Communist Party of China in 1978, following Mao Zedong’s death two years earlier, Deng launched a program of reform that ultimately saw China become the world’s largest economy in terms of its purchasing power in 2014.

Last year it accounted for 18.2% of total global purchasing power, compared with 15.3% for the United States.

What happened?

A major turning point was the 3rd Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which took place in December 1978. For the three decades prior, production in China was structured around a central planning model: collectivised agriculture in rural areas and state-owned industrial firms (SOEs) in urban regions. The prices of goods and services were also fixed by the government rather than determined by supply and demand.

Deng recognised that the outcomes produced by the planned economy were poor, with more than 60% of the population living in poverty. That’s why he launched a series of measures such as opening up the economy to foreign trade and investment.

He summarised his distinctly pragmatic rather than ideological approach to development with the phrase, “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice”.

Under Deng, the market wasn’t given free rein immediately. There was no reform of the “big bang” variety seen in former centrally-planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe.

Rather, in the words of Barry Naughton, China’s economy was simply allowed to “grow out of the plan”.

For example, state-owned firms were not sold off to private entrepreneurs at the outset. Rather, privately-owned companies were permitted to emerge alongside SOEs. This gave Chinese consumers choices and the competition forced SOEs to become more responsive to market demand and efficient in their production practices.

The impact of the reforms

The outcomes of Deng’s reforms have been without historical peer.

Deng Xiaoping billboard stating Wikicommons/Brücke-Osteuropa

The latest data put the proportion of China’s population living in poverty at less than 1%. Of course, despite hundreds of millions being lifted out of poverty, this does not mean that all Chinese are rich: average incomes are still only around one-third of those in Australia.

The reasons Deng’s reforms proved successful can be traced back to two key factors.

The first is policy logic.

John McMillan and Barry Naughton showed that the newly-emerged private sector played a crucial role in improving the Chinese economy’s overall efficiency.

Another key consideration was that China benefited from its starting point.

Jeffrey Sachs and Wing Thye Woo pointed out that in 1978, most Chinese people were poor and living in rural areas. Compared with other centrally-planned economies such as the former Soviet Union, this made the task of shifting labour from producing low-productivity agricultural output to higher productivity industrial goods easier.

Just how far along the path to a market economy has China come?

That depends on the measure and the part of China’s economy under focus.

Last month, Meixin Pei, a professor at Claremont McKenna College in the United States, pointed to China’s state sector as evidence its economic growth would slow. He wrote that China’s economy was “nowhere near as efficient as that of the US”. And the “main reason for this is the enduring clout of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which consume half of the country’s total bank credit, but contribute only 20% of value-added and employment”.

Yet, perhaps unwittingly, Pei makes an important observation. SOEs may account for one-fifth of China’s value-added output and employment. But that means four-fifths now comes from Deng’s private sector.

Contemporary relevance

Careful work by Nicholas Lardy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics has concluded that by 2011, China’s public sector, including SOEs, only employed 11% of China’s labour force. As a comparison, in 2013, Australia’s public sector accounted for 18.4% of total employment. In other words, at an aggregate level and in terms of employment, the private sector is more prominent in China than in Australia.

An OECD study in 2010 found that 87% of China’s 523 industrial sectors were highly competitive. They observed that this compared favourably with international standards, including with the US.

Commentators like Minxin Pei are correct that China’s SOEs do benefit from government policy support, such as cheap loans from state-owned banks.

But the data nonetheless point to China’s private sector being hyper-competitive in the sense that despite such discriminatory policies, the sector as a whole has continued to thrive.

In a 2016 paper for a Reserve Bank of Australia conference, Nicholas Lardy highlighted that in terms of output growth, profitability and indebtedness, private Chinese industrial firms outperform SOEs by a wide margin.

The prominent and vibrant role the private sector plays in China today means that its economic growth may be more sustainable than some of its critics imagine.

That said, the pace of economic reform has slowed under current Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, who took over in 2012.

Arguably the slowdown dates back even further. For example, in terms of subjecting Chinese firms to increased competition from overseas firms, China’s trade-weighted average tariff in 2000 stood at 14.7%. After entering the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, this fell dramatically to 4.7% by 2005. Since then, no further progress has been made. In fact, in 2016 the figure was higher at 5.2%.

Similarly, four decades after Deng began to allow foreign investment into the manufacturing sector, other parts of China’s economy, particularly the so-called “commanding heights” of the economy such as energy, telecommunication and finance, remain curtailed or off limits entirely. Overall, China is less open to foreign investment than high-income countries and many emerging markets as well.

This lack of reciprocity is at least partly responsible for much of the international community’s criticisms of China’s economy today. Jason Young, the Director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre wrote last week that the current US-China trade war is really a “dispute over what models of political economy are deemed fair and legitimate economic policy-making in today’s highly-integrated global economy”.

Over the past decade, around one-third of the world’s economic growth has emanated from China. Countries like Australia have been leading beneficiaries, with China buying $116 billion last year.

China’s economic growth, and therefore the world’s, will be more assured if Deng’s reform legacy is reclaimed by China’s current crop of leaders. Just announced tariffs cuts and new openings for foreign investment are steps in that direction.

– ref. World politics explainer: Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power – http://theconversation.com/world-politics-explainer-deng-xiaopings-rise-to-power-103032]]>

Travelling overseas? What to do if a border agent demands access to your digital device

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katina Michael, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society & School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University

New laws enacted in New Zealand this month give border agents the right to demand travellers entering the country hand over passwords for their digital devices. We outline what you should do if it happens to you, in the first part of a series exploring how technology is changing tourism.

Imagine returning home to Australia or New Zealand after a long-haul flight, exhausted and red-eyed. You’ve just reclaimed your baggage after getting through immigration when you’re stopped by a customs officer who demands you hand over your smartphone and the password. Do you know your rights?

Both Australian and New Zealand customs officers are legally allowed to search not only your personal baggage, but also the contents of your smartphone, tablet or laptop. It doesn’t matter whether you are a citizen or visitor, or whether you’re crossing a border by air, land or sea.

New laws that came into effect in New Zealand on October 1 give border agents:

…the power to make a full search of a stored value instrument (including power to require a user of the instrument to provide access information and other information or assistance that is reasonable and necessary to allow a person to access the instrument).

Those who don’t comply could face prosecution and NZ$5,000 in fines. Border agents have similar powers in Australia and elsewhere. In Canada, for example, hindering or obstructing a border guard could cost you up to C$50,000 or five years in prison.

A growing trend

Australia and New Zealand don’t currently publish data on these kinds of searches, but there is a growing trend of device search and seizure at US borders. There was a more than fivefold increase in the number of electronic device inspections between 2015 and 2016 – bringing the total number to 23,000 per year. In the first six months of 2017, the number of searches was already almost 15,000.

In some of these instances, people have been threatened with arrest if they didn’t hand over passwords. Others have been charged. In cases where they did comply, people have lost sight of their device for a short period, or devices were confiscated and returned days or weeks later.

On top of device searches, there is also canvassing of social media accounts. In 2016, the United States introduced an additional question on online visa application forms, asking people to divulge social media usernames. As this form is usually filled out after the flights have been booked, travellers might feel they have no choice but to part with this information rather than risk being denied a visa, despite the question being optional.

There is little oversight

Border agents may have a legitimate reason to search an incoming passenger – for instance, if a passenger is suspected of carrying illicit goods, banned items, or agricultural products from abroad.

But searching a smartphone is different from searching luggage. Our smartphones carry our innermost thoughts, intimate pictures, sensitive workplace documents, and private messages.

The practice of searching electronic devices at borders could be compared to police having the right to intercept private communications. But in such cases in Australia, police require a warrant to conduct the intercept. That means there is oversight, and a mechanism in place to guard against abuse. And the suspected crime must be proportionate to the action taken by law enforcement.

What to do if it happens to you

If you’re stopped at a border and asked to hand over your devices and passwords, make sure you have educated yourself in advance about your rights in the country you’re entering.

Find out whether what you are being asked is optional or not. Just because someone in a uniform asks you to do something, it does not necessarily mean you have to comply. If you’re not sure about your rights, ask to speak to a lawyer and don’t say anything that might incriminate you. Keep your cool and don’t argue with the customs officer.

You should also be smart about how you manage your data generally. You may wish to switch on two-factor authentication, which requires a password on top of your passcode. And store sensitive information in the cloud on a secure European server while you are travelling, accessing it only on a needs basis. Data protection is taken more seriously in the European Union as a result of the recently enacted General Data Protection Regulation.

Microsoft, Apple and Google all indicate that handing over a password to one of their apps or devices is in breach of their services agreement, privacy management, and safety practices. That doesn’t mean it’s wise to refuse to comply with border force officials, but it does raise questions about the position governments are putting travellers in when they ask for this kind of information.

– ref. Travelling overseas? What to do if a border agent demands access to your digital device – http://theconversation.com/travelling-overseas-what-to-do-if-a-border-agent-demands-access-to-your-digital-device-104314]]>

Peer mentoring program shows promise for preventing African youth violence

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kwadwo Adusei-Asante, Senior Lecturer, Edith Cowan University

Recent episodes of violence among Australian youth of African descent have been a topic of mounting concern for politicians, the police and African communities alike.

The Australian public is divided on the issue. Some believe these violent acts are isolated cases that are being hyped by the media to create moral panic. Others argue that authorities are downplaying concerns over so-called “African gangs” and question the integration of all African migrants in Australia.

According to ABS data, Sudanese people have the highest imprisonment rate per capita of any ethnic group in Australia. But incarceration has not been an effective deterrent in reducing crime – many young people reoffend after returning to the community as they lack relevant support systems and opportunities to reintegrate.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has proposed a more radical solution to the problem – deporting criminal offenders. Some parents and guardians have resorted to sending their children back to Africa to keep them out of trouble.

A new peer-oriented approach

But there may be another, less drastic way forward – peer mentoring.

Peer mentoring is considered an effective vehicle for communicating values to young people as they are more apt to listen and learn from like-minded youths in their communities rather than authority figures.

In 2017, the non-profit Organisation of African Communities of Western Australia (OAC-WA) launched the Stop the Violence Project (STVP), whose mission is to identify youths in the African community at risk of committing crimes and match them with peer mentors who can steer them out of trouble.

The program is being implemented in two phases. Phase One was dedicated to training 18 young Africans between the ages of 18 and 29 to become peer mentors.

This training involved a six-month program where they learned about WA criminal law, conflict resolution, the importance of self-esteem and identity, the history of African migration to Australia, the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse, financial management, the value of formal education and leadership skills.

The program is now in Phase Two, which involves the mentors going out to their respective communities to share violence prevention and conflict resolution techniques. A second batch of mentors is currently being recruited, as well.

The first induction of mentors in the Stop the Violence Project. Author provided

Cultural differences revealed

Edith Cowan University has designed an evaluative case study to examine the impact of the program. In the first part of the study, focus groups have been conducted with program facilitators and mentors before and after their training.

The discussions have so far focused on the nature of violence committed by African youths, the impact the program has had on the mentors’ lives and the readiness of the mentors to engage with their peers.

The study identified three main forms of violence occurring among African youth: inter-African country violence (for example, conflicts between sporting clubs of different African countries at sporting events); inter-ethnic or tribal conflict; and fights between groups over specific territory in their communities.

This helped the mentors understand the dynamics underpinning violence in their communities and develop more effective strategies for combating it.

The focus groups also revealed that many mentors were themselves unaware what types of behaviours constituted a crime in Australia. As a couple of the mentors explained to us:

I didn’t know that touching a person could be a crime and the law is against it … back home, we touch people freely … but it’s not OK here.

I knew about resolving conflict, but I would do it my own way, which usually involved the use of force. But the facilitators … explained them systematically in a way that made sense and is very applicable to us. I have learned that before violence breaks out, it goes through stages before escalating into aggression.

The mentors are now beginning their outreach into their communities. The impact of the mentoring on their peers will be evaluated, particularly where the peers are under 18.

Some of the mentors are organising seminars and workshops for their peers, at times also including their parents, the WA police and other community organisations. One mentor has launched cultural dance sessions as a way of keeping young people off the streets, while another is running a support program for African youths who have returned from detention, to help them reintegrate into the community.

Overall, the mentors report that they feel better equipped now to relate with their peers, recognise when an innocuous argument is likely to lead to violence and deescalate tensions when they do arise.

At first when I see violence about to start or people arguing I was confused and didn’t know what to do. But I have learned techniques to calm them down.

A positive impact in other communities

Peer mentoring programs have proven effective in preventing youth violence in other countries. According to one survey, at-risk youths who took part in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program in the US were 32% less likely to hit another person, 46% less likely to start using drugs, and 27% less likely to start drinking alcohol. The program also showed other benefits, such as better school attendance and improved relationships with parents.

Another study looking at a Youth Inclusion Program in the UK found a 62% decrease in arrest rates and a 27% reduction in suspensions from school among a test group of 50 at-risk youths.

Our hope is the Stop the Violence project can achieve similar positive outcomes in Perth and perhaps be replicated in other communities in Australia. This depends, of course, on the outcome of the pilot program and the continued support from the community and funding from the government.

Our findings so far suggest we are on the right track, and Australian youth of African descent will be far better at communicating positive conflict resolution to their communities than tough-on-crime politicians.

– ref. Peer mentoring program shows promise for preventing African youth violence – http://theconversation.com/peer-mentoring-program-shows-promise-for-preventing-african-youth-violence-103828]]>

Indigenous people with disability have a double disadvantage and the NDIS can’t handle that

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Avery, PhD Student, University of Technology Sydney

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began a full national rollout in July 2016 with a fundamental objective to give those with a disability choice and control over their daily lives. Participants can use funds to purchase services that reflect their lifestyle and aspirations. Two years on, how is the scheme faring?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with severe disability face many barriers to fully accessing the support offered by the NDIS. This group of people has already experienced long-standing isolation and are particularly vulnerable to being left behind, again.

The prevalence of disability among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is twice that experienced by other Australians. It is more complex in terms of more than one disability or health issue occurring together, and it is compressed within a shorter life expectancy.

The latest NDIS quarterly report states 9,255 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are participating in the NDIS (roughly 5.4% of the total). Though, being a “participant” means they have been signed up to an insurance policy. It doesn’t necessarily mean the policy has been paid out. And many others aren’t on the scheme at all.

Indigenous status of active participants with an approved plan, according to the NDIS. NDIS Quarterly Report/Screenshot

There are an estimated 60,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia with a severe or profound disability. In 2014-15, around 45% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over said they experienced disability – 7.7% of whom needed assistance with core activities some or all of the time.

My recent research shows Indigenous people who live with disability experience far greater inequality when it comes to social, health and well-being, compared to other population groups. This includes Indigenous people without disability, and people with disability who are not Indigenous.

Many struggle with basic survival needs

My research consisted of statistical data and the personal testimonies of 47 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability. It showed the NDIS isn’t accommodating the unique needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability.

People in one Aboriginal community said while the NDIS was providing support packages – in some cases at around A$50,000 per person per year – these were not translating into actual expenditure as there weren’t any disability services in the community that NDIS participants could purchase.

Members from another Aboriginal community pointed out that some families needed food and blankets because they were homeless and hungry. But while the NDIS is legislated to provide “reasonable and necessary” supports, food and blankets don’t meet the requirements of the definition. As one Aboriginal community Elder said:

Swags and blankets are something that our families ask for all the time, help with making sure that they’ve got somewhere warm and safe to sleep, and that’s a real practical thing […] And now the NDIS is saying ‘No, we don’t buy swags and blankets for people. That’s not reasonable and necessary’. But if you’ve got nowhere to sleep, of course blankets and swags are necessary.

This wheelchair couldn’t survive the conditions in Alice Springs. Author provided

In another community, wheelchairs provided to people with a mobility impairment weren’t suitable for an environment with no footpaths and where the heat can sometimes melt away the tyres.

This image shows what happens when a wheelchair designed for an urban environment is used in remote Australia.

We also spoke with people who said the houses built for them under a remote housing scheme didn’t have disability access in mind. In the Aboriginal community where the below photo was taken, we were told if people with disability came over, they would have to be lifted over a ledge and around the house so they could join in.

These cases highlight an unfolding design fault of the NDIS: if a person with a disability doesn’t have survival basics, the scheme falls short in its capacity to ensure the choice, control and independence it was set up to achieve for people with disability.

Disability access is missing in houses built under the remote housing scheme. Author provided

Social policies must work together

Proponents of the NDIS might point out it is designed as an insurance scheme and not intended to provide welfare. Basics such as blankets and food would be more the purview of the Closing the Gap framework to address Indigenous disadvantage.

But the NDIS and Closing the Gap live on two separate government islands, with no bridge in between. The NDIS is a market-based scheme devoid of a strategy that fills the gaps in basic public structure that make markets work. Nor does it have a plan to develop a workforce to meet the demand for disability services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Meanwhile, despite the link between disability and social inequality, there is no reference to disability in any of the Closing the Gap targets.

Addressing the core public infrastructure needed to make the NDIS work in remote communities, or developing the workforce to meet the demand for disability supports in the hard-to-reach markets are not quick fixes. We need a longer term strategic approach that focuses on community development to overcome the sustained inequality that comes with being both Aboriginal and living with disability.

– ref. Indigenous people with disability have a double disadvantage and the NDIS can’t handle that – http://theconversation.com/indigenous-people-with-disability-have-a-double-disadvantage-and-the-ndis-cant-handle-that-102648]]>

Trust Me, I’m An Expert: Cyclone season approacheth, but this year there’s a twist

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeleine De Gabriele, Deputy Editor: Energy + Environment

Australia has just had its driest September on record, and the second driest month ever: the only drier month was April 1902.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s tropical cyclone outlook is out today. It’s predicting a weaker-than-normal tropical cyclone season this year but if one hits – and it’s likely one will – it’ll bring water to rain-starved soil that will soak it up and reduce the flooding risk.

Wes Mountain speaks to forecaster Andrew Watkins, who explains how the forecast works, why a cyclone could help some farms, and how to keep safe this cyclone season.

We’ve never gone through a tropical cyclone season without at least one hitting our coast, but Australia’s past may no longer be a reliable guide to our future.

In her book Sunburnt Country: the history and future of climate change in Australia, scientist Joelle Gergis maps Australia’s climate over thousands of years. While we’ve always been a land of extremes, rapid warming since 1950 is starting to alter our weather patterns.

Dr Gergis told Madeleine De Gabriele about creating the most comprehensive history of Australia’s climate ever, and why she still has hope for the future.

Credits

Free Music Archive: Podington Bear, Clouds, Rain, Sun

ABC: Morrison talks drought relief on first day as PM

Free Music Archive: Blue Dot Sessions – El Tajo

Free Music Archive: Blue Dot Sessions – Arizona Moon

– ref. Trust Me, I’m An Expert: Cyclone season approacheth, but this year there’s a twist – http://theconversation.com/trust-me-im-an-expert-cyclone-season-approacheth-but-this-year-theres-a-twist-104309]]>

VET needs support to rebuild its role in getting disadvantaged groups into education and work

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Simon, Teacher in adult and vocational education, Charles Sturt University

This article is part of a series on the Future of VET exploring issues within the sector and how to overcome the decline in enrolments and shortages of qualified people in vocational jobs. Read the other articles in the series here.

In 1974, a review of the VET sector set out an agenda for the future of the vocational education and training sector. It emphasised education and social inclusion in work as key functions of the sector, rather than mainly its “manpower role”.

In the ensuing decades, this emphasis has been overturned. The vocational education and training system of today is industry-led. It is funded primarily to achieve employment outcomes.

VET’s role in skill development and educating those who engage in the range of occupations that contribute to Australia’s economy is critical. But we also need to strongly support the role VET plays in getting disadvantaged groups into education and work.

Previous social inclusion policies

Social inclusion in this case reflects the federal government’s social inclusion principles, established in 2010. These were created to ensure people have the resources, opportunities and capabilities they need to learn, work and have a voice.

Social inclusion initiatives are designed for groups generally identified as possibly experiencing disadvantage, who require extra support to succeed in education and work. Students with a disability, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD), Indigenous students and students from low SES backgrounds, women, and people from rural, regional or remote locations or communities are among those who might need this support.

Disadvantaged groups, such as students with a disability or who come from rural communities, may need more help to get into education and work. from www.shutterstock.com

The then Labor government established a National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) in 2009. Its task was to provide training ministers with advice on how to reform VET to ensure disadvantaged students achieved improved outcomes from participating in VET. Such outcomes include securing a job or further study.

NVEAC drafted the Equity Blueprint in 2011. This set out the advisory committee’s advice to ministers on what reforms were needed to ensure the VET system could support all learners to achieve their potential, no matter what their circumstances.

These reforms were designed to be long-term, as system-wide reform takes time. Suggested reforms included:

a new, more sustainable funding model for VET (including increased federal investment)
measuring and reporting on disadvantaged students’ progress and achievement to keep providers accountable
a national framework for building the capability of VET teachers to better train and support all students
listening to the voice of the learner so their actual needs and concerns would be addressed, including types of courses on offer, facilities and how they learn
investment in teaching foundation skills (such as literacy and numeracy) as a priority, and to do it better
embedding career, pathway and transition planning and advice into the VET and school systems to better support students into employment.

Unfortunately, the Equity Blueprint was not implemented. With a change of government in 2013, NVEAC was disbanded.

Where are we now?

The VET sector has been increasingly marketised. This marketisation is seen in cuts to government funding of VET and the shifting of responsibility for funding post-school vocational education onto students.

VET providers including TAFE, which has traditionally provided programs to meet the specific needs of disadvantaged groups, have increasingly cut access and Certificate I and II courses. It’s these low-level courses that can provide the initial skills and confidence needed to enter the workforce or to progress to an industry-recognised qualification.

Despite some acknowledgement by state and territory governments in their annual planning documents that there’s still a role for VET in meeting its obligation to equity and community service, funding has not fully reflected this. When restructures of the system are designed and money is tight, equity programs are often the first on the chopping block.

Equity programs are usually first on the chopping block when money is tight. from www.shutterstock.com

For example, the current restructure of TAFE NSW has cut many of the educationally qualified staff who designed and delivered outreach and support programs for students. This has meant reducing numbers of specialist staff for culturally and linguistically diverse students and those with disabilities.

Outreach programs provide opportunities for students to undertake relevant courses in their communities. This addresses both student and community needs.

Equity groups left out

National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) figures show a decline in the participation of several equity groups in recent years. They include people from remote and very remote areas, those in the most socio-economically disadvantaged group, female students and students in the youngest age group (15 to 19).

The fact many of these equity groups were targeted in the VET FEE-HELP scandals has possibly also undermined confidence in a VET pathway for these students.

Disadvantage often reaches into many aspects of a learner’s life, and that needs to be recognised and understood. Understanding issues around motivation to learn and social disadvantage is necessary.

How motivated a student is informs how much time and effort they put into their study. Factors such as low socio-economic status, language barriers or hurdles, and competing responsibilities at home can have negative effects on motivation to learn.

An NCVER study identified five effective strategies for supporting learners who become disengaged from study:

address the overall barriers and challenges experienced by students, which might include home life and socio-economic concerns as well as learning issues
provide appropriate teaching that meets students’ specific needs, such as team teaching with professionals who have tertiary qualifications as well as experience in literacy and numeracy, or giving students additional support while studying a vocational course
be flexible in the delivery of programs such as outreach programs so they’re delivered where students feel most comfortable, in community settings and at times that meet their parental and caring responsibilities
offer ongoing support beyond VET, which might include counselling, careers advice and further training in foundation skills
provide students with pathways to further study and/or work through VET providers, government agencies and community groups working together.

What needs to happen now

While VET has the capacity to offer socially inclusive educational programs, for successful and sustainable outcomes the training provider must also be able to work with other agencies supporting learners. A VET course is not the end of the journey. Government agencies and community groups can provide funding to ensure the VET qualification leads to meaningful work.

But success for many students is not just measured through completions and attainment of a qualification or job. When we talk about success here, it’s more in terms of less tangible outcomes such as building confidence, self-respect, life skills and engagement with their communities.

To rebuild this role, VET needs sustainable investment. Supporting disadvantaged learners is successful when it’s an institution-wide commitment.

Such support requires the commitment of all levels of government, not only to ensure VET retains this capacity, but so there’s an obligation of social inclusion that goes beyond the classroom. It should also build strong relationships with employers and communities.

– ref. VET needs support to rebuild its role in getting disadvantaged groups into education and work – http://theconversation.com/vet-needs-support-to-rebuild-its-role-in-getting-disadvantaged-groups-into-education-and-work-101390]]>

Starstruck charts a nation’s transformation via a century of film stills

By The Conversation -

October 8, 2018

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Judith Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in Australian Studies, Flinders University

A major thematic exhibition showcasing more than 280 film stills, costumes and casting books is on display in Adelaide. Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits, co-curated by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery, encompasses more than a century of Australian film making.

This exhibition acts as an awakening force, occasioning reflective thought, with films like Caddie (1976), My Brilliant Career (1979), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Wog Boy (2000), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), Ten Canoes (2006) and The Sapphires (2012) signalling significant historical changes caused by catastrophic events and/or major socio-cultural attitudinal shifts.

Sam Neill and Judy Davis photographed by David Kynoch on the set of My Brilliant Career (1979) with director Gillian Armstrong. Courtesy Margaret Fink, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

The headshots and stills in Starstruck act as mnemonics for moments in Australian history. As Hayden White has written, “The historical evidence produced by our epoch is often as much visual as it is oral and written in nature.”

These film stills testify to a century that includes massive rupture (the two World Wars), and other more gradual changes (for example, the continuing impact of migration in Australia and mainstream Australian acceptance of the harsh reality of the Stolen Generations).

Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan and Everlyn Sampi as Daisy, Gracie and Molly photographed by Matt Nettheim in Rabbit-Proof Fence, 2002. Courtesy Phillip Noyce, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

Others are testament to continuing social and ideological contestations: the snakes and ladders progressive/regressive nature of Australian feminism from the 1970s until now, and the more recent, often toxic, exchanges a propos of gay marriage, not to mention the ever burgeoning celebrity culture that focuses on “stars”, successively held up as social exemplars, then routinely cut down as tall poppies.

Also on show in a darkened gallery space at the Samstag Museum is Rolf de Heer and Molly Reynolds’s sombre moving image work, The Waiting Room. It’s fitting that these two exhibitions are being showcased in Adelaide, where the South Australian Film Corporation was established in 1972 by the visionary Dunstan government. Since then, the corporation has acted as a catalyst by commissioning numerous film productions while developing a solid infrastructure (some of which has since been dismantled) to underpin the Australian film industry’s ongoing vigour.

Early works

Significant early works in the exhibition include a 1919 still from The Sentimental Bloke, a silent film based on what Phillip Butterss has described as “C.J. Dennis’s verse narrative about a larrikin street-fighter and his nervous courtship of Doreen, a young woman who pastes labels in a pickle factory. It’s still the best-selling book of Australian verse. Since its publication in October 1915 more than 300,000 copies have been sold in upward of 60 editions.”

Lottie Lyell as Doreen and Arthur Tauchert as ‘The Bloke’, The Sentimental Bloke, 1919. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

As both book and film, The Sentimental Bloke offers a biting commentary on class in Australia. Given the Bloke’s historical – and continuing – significance, it’s surprising that it’s only represented by a single image in this exhibition.

A portrait of Louise Lovely, 1921, attributed to Glen MacWilliams. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

Among other important early works is a photographic portrait of the Sydney-born actress Louise Lovely (1895-1980), who is recognised as the first Australian woman to forge an international acting career in the United States, later reigniting it in Australia.

Lovers and Luggers (1937), which focused on the pearling industry, and was filmed on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, became famous owing to the glamorous Shirley Ann Richards’s portrayal of a sometime-androgynous vamp.

Shirley Ann Richards’ Lorna Quidley in Pearling Lugger, Lovers and Luggers, 1937. Courtesy Cinesound Movietone Productions, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

This is immortalised in an extraordinary movie still in which she’s wearing a man’s safari suit while somehow also managing to strike a provocatively seductive pose.

The actor Chips Rafferty meanwhile, found his service in the RAAF reinforced his stature as a film star when in 1940 he had the leading role in Forty Thousand Horsemen. Revered not only as an actor, he came to be regarded as an archetypal figure of white Australian masculinity. This was well before the later incarnations of Jack Thompson and Paul Hogan.

Our more recent past

Nicole Kidman as Rae Ingram in Dead Calm (1989) holding a spear gun, photographed by Jim Sheldon. Courtesy Kennedy Miller Mitchell, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

In 1989, a young Nicole Kidman launched her career in the Phil Noyce thriller Dead Calm, a gripping psychodrama that largely takes place aboard a yacht. In this film, Kidman really had to act, displaying naked emotion and vulnerability, while gradually building her character to the point where she taps into an inner strength enabling her to take on her murderous, psychotic persecutor.

Kidman’s hardened stare, along with the defiant posture she’s assumed in Sheldon’s photograph, hand clasping a harpoon, evince the young woman’s convincing transition.

The year 1994 saw the emergence of two films that have become Australian classics: Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Both films struck a chord with Australians, unselfconsciously using Aussie humour as a magnet and a weapon. A photograph in the show of Hugo Weaving as Mitzi in Priscilla captures a moment expressed succinctly by Bernadette (Terence Stamp) in conversation with Felicia (Guy Pearce): “That’s just what this country needs: a cock in a frock on a rock.”

Hugo Weaving as Mitzi, photographed by Elise Lockwood in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 1994. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, courtesy of Rebel Penfold-Russell.

Where was I when…?

The photographic stills of more recent films act as an evocative force at the individual level (“What was happening in my life at the time I saw Rabbit-Proof Fence? and/or “Who accompanied me to that film?”). These images are also conduits for broader sociopolitical enquiry and reflection on Australia’s national history (“Did that film change my views on post-contact Aboriginal history?”), affording greater visibility to subjugated groups.

Certain directors and actors have also played significant roles in that national awakening and ensuing discussion, for example Gulpilil, Deborah Mailman, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving, Raymond Longford, the Chauvels, Bruce Beresford, Gillian Armstrong, Nick Giannopoulos, Rachel Perkins, Scott Hicks, Wayne Blair, Jennifer Kent and others. The contemporary pantheon of Aboriginal, women, migrant and LGBTIQ directors and actors attest to this.

Many of the stills on display in Starstruck are photographs taken by Australia’s greatest photographers, including Robert McFarlane and Lisa Tomasetti.

Toni Collette photographed by Robert McFarlane as Muriel trying on a wedding dress by in Muriel’s Wedding, 1994, directed by P J Hogan. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Courtesy House and Moorhouse Films.

Also on display is Matt Nettheim’s fine portrait of Geoffrey Rush as Sir Basil Hunter in the Fred Shepisi-directed film based on Patrick White’s novel, The Eye of the Storm. The long, patrician face of Hunter/Rush, wearing a ruminative expression, is brilliantly juxtaposed against the crass happy-smiley face of the entrance to Sydney’s Lunar Park.

A hanging offence?

Greg Rowe as Storm Boy holding Mr Percival photographed by David Kynoch in Storm Boy, 1976. Courtesy South Australian Film Corporation, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

My only two beefs with Starstruck – a marvellous exhibition in many respects – are with “the hang” and absence of even a rudimentary chronology. Many of the photographic exhibits are exhibited too closely to one another, to some extent denying the integrity of the individual images – which are in themselves works of art. It must be said that this is a result of the curatorial approach taken by the Canberran curators, and not down to the Samstag Museum.

The crowded nature of the works on display is a minor criticism, however, in comparison with the fact that the curators have taken a thematic approach that’s largely ahistorical. While the works in Starstruck are loosely grouped into rather porous thematic categories, there’s no real attempt to establish a chronology. Some viewers – including this one – will regard this as an opportunity lost.

But prospective visitors should be undeterred by this. Starstruck is a marvellous exhibition offering a form of visual ethnography attesting to the dramatic transformations that have taken place in Australian society over the past century.

Accompanying Starstruck at the Samstag is Molly Reynolds and Rolf de Heer’s The Waiting Room, a virtual reality installation. The Waiting Room – a meditation on the fragile state of planet earth – presents a significant counterpoint to Starstruck’s anthropocentric preoccupations. While at one level it’s an elegant, lyrical piece, it offers a dark prognosis for the future, declaring homo sapiens to be the ultimate villain of the piece. The Waiting Room is a work for our times.

Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits and The Waiting Room continue until Friday 30th November 2018, at the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Hawke Building, City West precinct, University of South Australia. Entry is free.

– ref. Starstruck charts a nation’s transformation via a century of film stills – http://theconversation.com/starstruck-charts-a-nations-transformation-via-a-century-of-film-stills-103324]]>

Palu quake and tsunami sweeps away key Indonesian human rights activism

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 8, 2018

Palu mayor Rusdy Mastura (seen on the billboard), apologised in 2012 for the mass killings of Communists in Indonesia, becoming the first and only Indonesian official to do so. This paved the way for family and victims of the massacre to receive aid. Image: Ulet Ifansasti

ANALYSIS: By Dr Vannessa Hearman

When the earthquake and tsunami hit the city of Palu, Central Sulawesi, last weekend, they not only brought wreckage and death. The twin disasters also swept away efforts by activists and the municipal administration to support the survivors of Indonesia’s violent anti-communist purges in 1965-1966.

In the rest of the country, such survivors are still very marginalised.

In Palu, a city of some 350,000 inhabitants and the capital of Central Sulawesi province, activists had convinced local government leaders to work with them in helping these survivors.

Palu is the only place in Indonesia where a government leader has made an official apology to the victims of the anti-communist violence in the area. Some nine days after the devastating natural disaster, the fate of some of those activists is still unknown.

Indonesian people lived under Suharto’s New Order authoritarian regime between 1968 and 1998, when the president was forced to resign. From 1965-66, the army, under Suharto, spearheaded anti-communist operations that killed half a million people and led to the detention of hundreds of thousands.

-Partners-

The army blamed Indonesia’s Communist Party (PKI) for the murder of seven army officers on the night of 30 September and in the early hours of 1 October, 1965, by a group calling itself the Thirtieth September Movement. The 53rd anniversary of these events coincided with the terrible disaster in Central Sulawesi.

The Palu earthquake and tsunami aftermath … fate of many 1965-1966 “purge” human rights activists unknown. Image: Tempo – Search for quake, tsunami victims to stop on Thursday as death toll tops 1760

In 2012, the Palu mayor, Rusdy Mastura, apologised to the victims of the anti-communist violence. He pledged to provide assistance to them and their families in the interests of “equality, openness and humanitarian considerations”.

In his speech, Mastura recalled how, as a boy scout in 1965, he had been tasked with guarding leftist detainees.

Victims of abuses
Mastura was speaking at an event organised by local human rights group, SKP-HAM (Solidaritas Korban Pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia, Solidarity with Victims of Human Rights Abuses).

SKP-HAM was founded in 2004. Its best-known leader is the dynamic secretary, Nurlaela Lamasitudju, the daughter of local Islamic cleric, Abdul Karim Lamasitudju.

SKP-HAM is part of the national Coalition for Truth and Justice (Koalisi Pengungkapan Kebenaran dan Keadilan, KKPK).

In 2012, the KKPK held several public events and community “hearings”, dubbed the “Year of Truth Telling”, to pressure the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to rehabilitate the victims of the violence.

In April 2012, Yudhoyono was reported as having expressed his intention to apologise to victims of human rights abuses committed during the Suharto New Order regime.

Yudhoyono’s promised apology never materialised. However, the “Year of Truth Telling” events yielded some important gains in Palu.

Following his apology, the SKP-HAM lobbied Mastura to deliver on his promises by providing healthcare and scholarships. A mayoral regulation and a Regional Action Plan for Human Rights (Rencana Hak Asasi Manusia, Ranham) were promulgated to enable this.

Autonomy laws
These local government instruments have been made possible through Indonesia’s regional autonomy laws.

The mayoral regulation also established a committee to oversee human rights protection and restoration of victims’ rights. On May 20, 2013, Palu was declared a “Human Rights Aware City”.

Each year, the city holds a series of human rights-related events.

In May 2015, the Palu City Regional Planning Body oversaw the process of checking and verifying the identity of victims and their needs, using the information compiled by human rights groups as a base.

A trailblazing city
SKP-HAM had collected 1200 testimonies about the 1965-66 violence from victims in the area. From these testimonies, it had created and uploaded to YouTube short films of survivors’ testimonies.

It had also published a book about the 1965-66 events in Sulawesi, in collaboration with Indonesian author, Putu Oka Sukanta. Mastura wrote the book’s preface.

The group supported weaving cooperatives involving women survivors and ran a café and meeting space, Kedai Fabula, at its office in Palu. In partnership with religious groups and the municipal administration, members of the group organised social activities to involve abuse survivors in the life of the city.

The activities of SKP-HAM Palu is a reminder of what has been lost. It was a trailblazing city whose achievement in human rights advancement provided a model for the rest of the country.

The people of Palu, with a great deal of assistance, will rebuild, but we still wait for more news from the city.

SKP-HAM leader, Lamasitudju, survived the earthquake and tsunami. With a sprained ankle and having lost several family members in the disaster, she is volunteering to collect and provide information regarding the situation in Palu.

Indonesia needs groups like SKP-HAM that campaign for inclusiveness and equal rights to survive into the future.

Dr Vannessa Hearman is a lecturer in Indonesian studies at Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory. She is a member of the Asian Studies Association of Australia Council. Charles Darwin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. Asia Pacific Report republishes this article under a Creative Commons licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: An Embarrassing week for National

By Bryce Edwards -

October 7, 2018

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: An Embarrassing week for National

Published 5 October [caption id="attachment_13635" align="alignright" width="150"]

Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption] “Embarrassing” is the word of the week for the National Party. Leader Simon Bridges applied the term in various ways to MP Jami-Lee Ross, when explaining that Ross’ personal circumstances required his temporary departure from Parliament. Bridges described Ross’ personal situation as “perhaps actually embarrassing. A lot embarrassing, potentially”. [caption id="attachment_15887" align="alignleft" width="300"]

National Party Leader, Simon Bridges.[/caption] It was then Bridge’s turn to be embarrassed when the focus quickly shifted to why Bridges insisted on using that term, before later retracting it. Some saw it as a sign of incompetence and a lack of empathy for the beleaguered Ross, and others saw it as a sign that Bridges was somehow signalling that the departing MP is in fact connected with the leak inquiry, or is suffering from mental health issues. As most commentators have said, the timing of Ross’ departure and the leak inquiry is either unfortunate or very telling. It’s natural that speculation has fallen on Ross as being the leaker within National who was trying to undermine his leader. And Audrey Young reported that “Jami-Lee Ross is among a handful of National MPs who have been quietly suspected as a potential leaker among colleagues for some time”, and therefore “the timing of his time-out from politics is cruel. Because if he is not the leaker, many people are left wondering whether he is” – see: Timing of Jami-Lee Ross’ departure from Parliament raises questions. Bridges had no choice, according to Young, but to announce in his press conference that Ross’ departure is unrelated to the inquiry, regardless of whether he is under suspicion. But she points out that if it turns out Ross is eventually announced as being involved in the leak, then “he would be in the best place to endure the fallout – away from potentially unforgiving colleagues and the limelight.” It seems possible, therefore, that Bridges’ repeated use of the term “embarrassing” about Ross was consciously or unconsciously designed to intimate that, although Bridges was formally saying that his departure was unrelated, it was in fact highly-related. [caption id="attachment_18102" align="alignleft" width="300"]

National Party MP, Jami-Lee Ross.[/caption] There has been a backlash against Bridges for his use of the word “embarrassing”. According to Newshub’s Duncan Garner, Jami-Lee Ross was also very unhappy about it. Garner says: “A senior source inside the National Party got hold of me yesterday to say Jami-Lee Ross, who stood down for personal reasons, is ‘highly pissed off’ with Bridges for saying the matter was embarrassing” – see: Jami-Lee Ross ‘pissed off’ with Simon Bridges’ ’embarrassing’ comment – source. According to Garner, “The source went on to say what is embarrassing is National’s internal polling which has Bridges’ internal favourability collapsing”. The National leader has now expressed regret, telling reporters: “I regret it, I think it was a poor choice of words” – see Newshub’s Simon Bridges speaks to media on Jami-Lee Ross, regrets calling MP’s issues ’embarrassing’. The same article also reports that “The investigation commissioned from PwC by National, is expected to report back in as little as a week. Bridges said today he expected it would be made public.” Garner refers to a lengthy phone conversation with the National leader about the use of term “embarrassing” and whether there was a connection between the leaks and Ross: “Bridges got stern during the chat when he said Ross isn’t the leaker of his travel expenses and this is not some kind of manufactured cover up in advance of the investigation… He almost pleaded with me to believe that” – see: Simon Bridges’ ’embarrassing’ comment breached Jami-Lee Ross’ privacy – Garner. There were other bizarre things said by Bridges at his press conference, such as: “You think you know your colleagues very well, but you don’t always know everything that’s going on”. Mike Hosking responds to this statement about Ross, saying: “What do we take out of that? We take out of that, he’s done something wrong”, and therefore Bridges “made matters a hundred times worse” – see: Bumbling Simon Bridges has made Jami-Lee Ross saga so much worse. Hosking also speculates on Ross’ own statement about his need to put family and kids first: “which is [normally] code mainly for an indiscretion, or as the British so eloquently put it, you’ve been playing away.” Bridges “looked spooked, rattled, and ill-prepared. Hence his bumbling performance” says Hosking. But perhaps that was simply because the situation is incredibly untidy: “So none of the speculation is surprising, and the pressure is now on National to make this look a lot tidier than it appears. Unless, of course, it can’t be tidied. Unless, of course, we have our leaker.” And he says that Bridges response to journalist’s questions about Ross’ innocence was “Not at all convincing.” Veteran political commentator Richard Harman has thrown more petrol onto the fire, reporting further details. He conveys rumours that “Ross was being advised by National Party board member, Glenda Hughes”, who has previously helped other beleaguered MPs such as Todd Barclay – see: The Jami Less Ross affair. Harman also puts a lot of attention on the claims of Winston Peters to know who the leaker is. The statement of Peters in Parliament a couple of weeks ago is reported: “Peters continued: ‘There are members over there that should be very nervous’. Peters was standing in his usual position, two seats below Ross but on the other side of the House. He then said “I won’t look at them” and then he turned to face where Ross had been sitting. He then said: “Or look where they should be, because if I do, then the suspicion will be cast on them without us getting the reward for disclosure.” Harman draws attention to a blog post from Cameron Slater, which also deals with Peters and the leak in more detail – see: Winston to Bridges: “…reveal to the public who the leaker is, or I will”. Slater concludes: “I believe that Winston Peters does know who the leaker is. It is pretty much an open secret now among National people. I understand that the leaker has admitted as such to some Young Nationals in Auckland. I also know now who it is, and that is from many sources, all saying the same name. The clock is ticking. Observant and well informed journalists will also know as the leaker is now being shunned by caucus.” All of this has turned into something of a disaster for Simon Bridges this week. Newspaper editorials have been scathing. The New Zealand Herald says about the inquiry: “This can not end well for National” – see: Simon Bridges’ stellar rise has struck bumbling block. The editorial notes that “Ross, in his own public comments, implied his problems might not be confined to health.” But it’s Bridges who gets the worst evaluation: “The way an Opposition leader handles problems in his or her party provides an insight to their credentials for a more important job. So far, Bridges is not passing the test” – see: Simon Bridges’ stellar rise has struck bumbling block. The Press also draws attention to Paula Bennett’s description of Ross’ personal situation as “traumatic”, which it says “again could increase public speculation and curiosity” – see: How to turn an opportunity into a disaster. The newspaper complains that Bridges hasn’t dealt with Ross’ departure with “maturity and discretion” and expresses surprise that he used the word “embarrassing” about his MP “not once, not twice, but three times.” It concludes that Bridges “looks like a man who knows his days as leader are numbered.” Leftwing political commentator Chris Trotter also sees the end in sight for Bridges, telling Duncan Garner yesterday that “When you see politicians gripped by this kind of paranoia, you know that things are very bad inside their party because why else would they be looking over their shoulder all the time?” – see: ‘Smell of death’ following Simon Bridges – Chris Trotter. Trotter elaborates: “National is entering that terrible deadzone where all eyes are only on the leader – not on policy, not on the party, the deadzone that Labour lived in for nine long years.” The article also reports that Trotter believes “Bridges’ days could be numbered, with hints of a plot to roll him forming”. The political editor of Stuff has some similar analysis: “Bridges’ pursuit of National’s travel expenses leaker is shaping up as one of those pivotal moments by which his leadership will be defined. If there were seeds of doubt in Bridges judgement before among his MPs, they must have blossomed into full grown dismay that Bridges’ decision to order an inquiry keeps blowing up in his face” – see Tracy Watkins’ Simon Bridges’ judgment call coming back to haunt him. Finally, for some light relief from the National Party leader, watch the three-minute video of him doing comedy, which aired last night on the Jono and Ben show – see: Simon Bridges pranks customers at supermarket checkout.]]>

Dear Toni Street

By Barbara Sumner -

October 7, 2018

Column: Barbara Sumner –

Dear Toni Street
Congratulations on the arrival of your child born through a surrogate. I have read of your frustration at the hoops you must jump through to now adopt him.
Thank you for lending your profile in support of a petition to update the Adoption Act 1955. By doing so, you are raising awareness of the inadequacies of this act.
The petition describes the Adoption Act 1955 as outdated, complicated and not clearly understood.
As a person adopted under that act, I would add that it is an archaic, moralistic and cruel piece of legislation.
The guise was saving children from the shame of illegitimacy. The real purpose was to provide children for infertile married couples.
As you have discovered, it is wholly unsuited to contemporary family building.
But in reading through the petition, I am struck by one thing. This call for change appears to encode the worst consequences of the 1955 act.
The act legalised the grafting of one family line onto another and the erasure of the family of origin. All family ties, whakapapa and genealogy were severed.
Back then the assumption was the child was a blank slate. The baby handed to worthy adopters was little more than dough to mould and shape as they saw fit. The very idea of inherited traits, of quirks and complexities, was anathema.
The act required a child to have two birth certificates. The first showed the mother’s name and held this as a state secret. Even after the introduction of the misnamed Adult Adoption Information Act 1985, the father’s name was often redacted.
The second public certificate showed the names of the adopters as natural parents. Nothing on this document hinted that the child was acquired through adoption.
Today this same concept is at the heart of the petition.
Intending parents with children created through assisted reproductive techniques want to be listed as parents from the day the child is born.
They want no legal reference to egg donors, sperm donors or surrogates.
Tell me, how is that different from the old severing of all ties? How is this different from birth certificates that list adopters as natural parents?
The 1955 act supports the rights of the parents over those of the people they adopt. Today’s new parents seem to be trying to achieve the same thing. Only they want it with less fuss, less red tape and less cost.
That person you’ve created is a sweet bundle in your arms for such a brief moment. As they grow are they not entitled to the same rights of heritage that you enjoy?
So what are we to do?
Assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy and all the complexities are here to stay.
If heritage means anything, how do we enshrine it in a document as simple as a birth certificate? How do we also recognise the central role of the commissioning or intending parents?
First, we must commit to ending all secrecy, not only in the home but also in legislation.
Then we must provide a birth certificate that details all those involved. To do that we need a new vocabulary.
Something like this might work.
Fictive kin: Unrelated by birth or marriage, fictive kin have an emotionally significant relationship with a child, with all the characteristics of a family relationship.
If you create a child using outsourced gametes you are the fictive or commissioning kin.
Where one person in a couple is related genetically to the child, they would appear as lineal kin.
Lineal kin: Lineal kin are the man and the woman whose donated or purchased gametes created the child. They represent your child’s direct ancestors.
Affinal kin: Affinal kin is most often used to describe those related to you by marriage. But the term seems appropriate to describe the surrogacy relationship.
The woman whose blood runs through your child’s veins, whose uterus their fingers brushed against to form fingerprints, whose smell and voice and heartbeat your child know like their own, should be recognised as a new form of affinal kin.
When a surrogate is also a genetic mother, then she should appear on a birth certificate as lineal and affinal kin
These new terms allow for the complexities of assisted reproductive technologies. With the tradition of a married mother and father long gone, they allow for diverse forms of family.
But most importantly they provide the person created with a genuine and authentic life.
The secrecy of the Adoption Act 1955 has fueled the disenfranchisement of thousands of New Zealanders. It has cast them as second class citizens with no rights to their own histories.
This extends to their collateral kin, that is, lineal siblings, their nieces, nephews, cousins and descendants.
So, Toni, I’m 100% with you in wanting this act overturned.
It is time we built a new family tree. One with a lineal trunk, with collateral kin forming the branches, while affinal and fictive kin are the leaves and fruit upon that tree.
Together they make up the actual life of the person you create.
What matters most is that you tell the truth.
Once we enshrine a person’s most basic right to authenticity at the core of new legislation, all other contractual issues can be resolved.
How hard can that be?

Footnotes:

1. The petition represents a single view. The Adoption Act 1955 has impacted the lives of more than 100,000 New Zealand mothers, their children and the people who acquired them.

Any change to the Adoption Act 1955 without a full inquiry into forced adoptions would be a further crime against the humanity of every one of us caught up in this act.

2. The need to provide a secure home for a child with no kin to care for them will always present a requirement for society. This care should take the form of Enduring Guardianship. All ties are preserved, all needs for security for both the child and the people acting as parents are also maintained.

– ref. Dear Toni Street – https://www.sadiesumnerbooks.com/blog/2018/10/7/dear-toni-street

Memo NZ: ‘Get on the right side of history’ over West Papua

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 7, 2018

ralph-regenvanu-v-daily-post680wide-jpg — ]]>

Vanuatu says New Zealand should get on the right side of history and support West Papuan self-determination. However, reports James Halpin of Asia Pacific Journalism, Indonesian diplomacy with its Pacific allies Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea are defiantly undermining Pacific “solidarity” on the issue. Vanuatu’s Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu has called on New Zealand to get on the right side of history when it comes to West Papua. Reaffirming Prime Minister Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas’ remarks at the UN General Assembly late last month, Regenvanu told Asia Pacific Report that the “people of West Papua have never had the opportunity to exercise their right of self-determination, which is an unalienable right under international law, and they must be given that opportunity”. Vanuatu was one of three countries – four less than in 2016 – whose leaders gave UN strong messages in support of West Papuan self-determination. READ MORE: Background to the 1969 Act of Free Choice [caption id="attachment_12231" align="alignright" width="300"] ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNALISM STUDIES – APJS NEWSFILE[/caption] Independence for Vanuatu was achieved from the co-colonisers France and the United Kingdom in 1980. West Papua had been a colony of the Dutch New Guinea but was annexed by Indonesia after a paratrooper “invasion” in 1962 followed by a UN-supervised vote in 1969 described by critics as fraudulent. Asked why Vanuatu has taken the lead in advocating for West Papua, Regenvanu says: “We take this position because of our historical solidarity with the people of West Papua – we were once together and the struggles as colonies trying to become independent; we achieved ours and we will not forget our brothers-and-sisters-in-arms who have not got theirs.” Forum failure For Prime Minister Salwai and Regenvanu, the recent Pacific Islands Forum was a failure at gaining Pacific support for West Papuan self-determination. “We are disappointed at the position of Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Australia to vocally oppose self-determination for West Papua. We are pleased that most other countries support self-determination, however.” Regenvanu also criticises New Zealand for not following the advice that it gives to Pacific Island countries. New Zealand should, “actively support with actions on this issue the ‘international rules-based order’ it is always promoting to PICs”. The Melanesian Spearhead Group, which shares an ethnicity with the people of West Papua, has also failed at achieving solidarity over the issue. “PNG and Fiji have strong ties to Indonesia and work actively to ensure the MSG does not address the issue.” End colonialism call Prime Minister Salwai introduced the issue of West Papua to the UN General Assembly this year. Prime Minister Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas addressing the UN General Assembly about West Papua. Video: UN “For half a century now, the international community has been witnessing a gamut of torture, murder, exploitation, sexual violence, arbitrary detention inflicted on the nationals of West Papua perpetrated by Indonesia.” “We also call on our counterparts throughout the world to support the legal right of West Papua to self-determination.” For Prime Minister Salwai, it is an issue of justice and equality for the people of West Papua, “I would like to get back to the principles in the charter of the United Nations to reaffirm that we believe in the fundamental rights of human beings in dignity and worth of the human person and in equality of rights between men and women and nations large and small.” Prime Minister Salwai has been the flag bearer of West Papuan self-determination. His aim is for West Papua to be placed back onto the decolonisation list under the UN charter. However, Prime Minister Salwai was supported by two other Pacific leaders, Marshall Islands’ President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands, and Enele Sopoaga of Tuvalu. Sopoaga said: “The United Nations must also engage with the people of West Papua to find lasting solutions to their struggles.” Constructive engagement President Heine staid that Pacific Island countries supported constructive engagement on the issue. At the 2016 UN General Assembly, seven countries stated their supported for West Papuan self-determination. These were: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga, Palau. Decolonisation has become an important part of foreign relations in the Pacific with the New Caledonian independence vote on November 4. After hundreds of years of European colonisation, the UN has provided a platform for and facilitated the self-determination of indigenous peoples across the world. The Indonesian delegation denounced Vanuatu at the UN General Assembly just days ago. The Indonesia delegation used the entirety of their second right of reply in the general debate to deplore Vanuatu’s support for West Papuan self-determination. “Although being disguised with flowery human rights concern, Vanuatu’s sole intention and action are directly challenging the internationally agreed principles of friendly relations between state, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” UN General Assembly Vice-President Muhammad Kalla said on behalf of his country. UN General Assembly Vice-President Muhammad Kalla giving his speech. Video: UN He said: “Like any other country, Indonesia will firmly defend its territorial integrity.” The Indonesian representative, Aloysius Taborat, said: “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the cardinal rule in the relation among nations and in the United Nations”. However, critics say Indonesia’s handling of West Papua’s vote in the 1969 Act of Free Choice “was rigged” so that West Papua would vote to join Indonesia. Therefore, many see hypocrisy in Indonesia’s words, including in their reputation over press freedom. Human rights abuses are a common occurrence in West Papua, according to human rights organisations. Simply raising the West Papuan flag can result in 15-years imprisonment. James Halpin is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies course at AUT. He is filing articles in the Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies paper. ]]>

Loss of MSF mental health carers from Nauru heightens fears for children

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 7, 2018

Doctors Without Borders staff at a display tent during Nauru’s 50th independence celebrations in January. Image: MSF

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Health and human rights advocates fear the mental ill-health of refugees on Nauru could worsen following the Pacific government’s move to scrap a vital support service.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF – Médecins Sans Frontières) was told on Friday its free psychological and psychiatric services, provided to both Nauruans and refugees since November 2017, were “no longer required”.

The medical aid agency was given 24 hours to cease operations which is comprised of a clinic at the Republic of Nauru Hospital and home visits.

The organisation indicated a desire to find a way to continue its work, reports Australian Associated Press.

“At this stage MSF wishes to reiterate our strong commitment to providing quality mental health care to all those in need on the island,” a spokesperson said.

-Partners-

“We are extremely concerned that the health of our patients may be affected by this decision and urge the authorities to grant us permission to continue our lifesaving work.”

The abrupt dismissal follows a report by two prominent Australian refugee organisations saying most refugee children on Nauru are experiencing life-threatening mental health problems, including not eating or drinking and showing suicidal symptoms.

An Australian protest over deteriorating conditions for children at the Nauru detention centre. Image: Al Jazeera

‘Add to distress’
Advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition said MSF’s absence would “add enormously to the distress among asylum seekers and refugees” because the Australian government’s contracted mental health care provider, International Health and Medical Services, was “stretched to breaking point”.

The Department of Home Affairs said on Saturday MSF’s dismissal was a matter for the Nauruan government and that it would continue to provide “appropriate healthcare and mental health support to refugees and asylum seekers through contracted service providers”.

MSF uses more than 30,000 doctors, nurses and other mostly volunteer personnel to provide medical aid in more than 70 countries.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

]]>

Climate change advocacy calls for more ‘action’ response to Ardern’s UN plea

By Pacific Media Centre -

October 7, 2018

jacinda-ardern-at-un-680wide-jpg — Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently addressed the UN General Assembly about the reality of climate change in the Pacific, and the threat inaction holds for the island nations. Maxine Jacobs reports for Asia Pacific Journalism that while climate and energy commentators welcome her leadership, they call for an even stronger “action” approach.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s challenge to United Nations members last month to reflect on the impact climate change is having on the Pacific has been welcomed by social justice advocates.

But they would like to see the rhetoric matched by even stronger action to give the world its “best shot”.

The Prime Minister spoke of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands as the Pacific’s most at risk nations which have contributed least to global emissions but are facing the full force of their consequences.

ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNALISM STUDIES – APJS NEWSFILE

“Our actions in the wake of this global challenge remains optional, But the impact of inaction does not,” she told the UN.

“If my Pacific neighbours do not have the option of opting out of the effects of climate change, why should we be able to opt out of taking action to stop it?”

Ardern said that in the South Pacific there was a reality of rising sea levels, increases in extreme weather events and negative impacts on water supply and agriculture.

-Partners-

“For those who live in the South Pacific, the impacts of climate change are not academic, or even arguable.

‘Grinding reality’
“We can talk all we like about the science and what it means … but there is a grinding reality in hearing someone from a Pacific island talk about where the sea was when they were a child, and potential loss of their entire village as an adult.”

[embedded content]
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s speech at the United Nations. Video: UN

Although New Zealand represents less than 0.2 percent of global emissions, the Prime Minister then vowed to “play our part” in continuing to decrease in emissions and support the global climate change battle.

Goals have been set of:

• 100 percent renewable energy generation by 2035;
• zero emissions by 2050;
• a halt on offshore oil and gas exploration permits;
• a green infrastructure fund to encourage innovation, and
• a 10-year plan to plan one billion trees.

“These plans are unashamedly ambitious [but] the threat climate change poses demands it.”

Real commitment
A few days before her address to the UN in New York, the Prime Minister announced a $100 million increase to its global climate finance – an increase from $200 million, which will be spread in $25 million blocks over four years.

The Prime Minister said the additional funding would focus on practical action, helping Pacific states to build resilience and adapt to climate change.

“The focus of this financial support is on creating new areas of growth and opportunity for Pacific communities. We want to support our Pacific neighbours to make transition to a low carbon economy without hurting their existing economic base.”

The Prime Minister said she planned to bring greater attention to the impact of climate change alongside Pacific leaders and ensure global awareness of the cost of inaction.

“We recognise our neighbours in the Pacific region are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“We have a responsibility to care for the environment in which we live, but the challenge of climate change requires us to look beyond our domestic boarders.”

Communications accounts manager for the Ministry for the Environment, Karen Goldsworthy, says two thirds of the global climate funding would be going towards Pacific nations to help adapt to their warming climate.

“We recognise that New Zealand alone cannot fix the challenge climate change poses to our region: it is a global problem that requires a global solution.

“New Zealand will continue to work actively to contribute to an effective global response to climate change through which Pacific resilience improves … and lose work more widely to encourage ambition through our leadership.”

A global model
Renewable energy and climate change consultant Dr Bob Lloyd, a former director of energy studies at Otago University, says New Zealand’s commitment to climate change is a show of leadership to the rest of the world of what is achievable.

Lloyd called New Zealand a small-scale model of what can be achieved on a global scale, however this issue is one which cannot be resolved by one small nation.

“It’s up to countries like Australia, New Zealand, Europe and unfortunately the US to bring their emissions down.

“The big dilemma at the moment is that a lot of the poor countries want to increase their emissions and they’re not going to consider bringing their emissions down unless the big countries bring their emissions down first.

“The other onus is on the rich countries to actually help the poor countries come down, which means they need to transfer money to them to achieve their goals.”

Lloyd said the extra $100 million from New Zealand towards the global climate change fund was a good effort but would not have a huge impact. To achieve emissions reductions, developing countries would need trillions of dollars.

“The amounts of money which are needed just for the Pacific region – which are tiny compared to the rest of the world – are enormous,” he said.

Putting over ideas
Although Lloyd, a self-proclaimed pessimist, thinks the world would not be able to outrun climate change he does not want to stop people from giving it their “best shot”.

“Without some countries trying, then the poorer countries and other countries will give up completely, so I think it’s extremely good that Jacinda is putting these ideas over and they’re trying to help as much as possible.

“She’s doing a remarkable effort. It’s also enthusing government. I was pleasantly surprised at how much influence Jacinda and the Labour Party is having on both New Zealand and internationally.”

Dr Kevin Clements, the foundation professor of Otago University’s National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS) and current director of the Japan-based Toda Peace Institute, says the Prime Minister’s plea for climate change awareness has powerful emotional and normative appeal, but at the end of the day it is a numbers game.

“Every little bit helps. New Zealand’s voice on its own isn’t going to change Donald Trump or the behaviours of the major US multinational companies, but on the other hand it’s all part of creating a normative order which acknowledges the centrality of climate change and what it’s doing to us.”

Dr Clements says the Pacific is feeling the brunt of global emissions and has little capacity to do anything about it. However, the moral weight of New Zealand and the South Pacific can help larger nations become more proactive.

The Prime Minister advocating for climate change issues humanises her, says Dr Clements, but she needs to be stronger to be seen as a serious political leader on these issues.

“She really needs to make sure she’s coupling her soft power appeal and her own personal charisma with some hard-headed arguments and evidence based research so she is seen both as a wonderful human being but equally as a hard-headed negotiator on the issues that matter.”

Maxine Jacobs is a postgraduate student journalist on the Asia Pacific Journalism Studies course at AUT University.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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