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TheConversationAU
Climate change threatens Australian tourism more than is widely believed. Here’s why
Right now, Australia is one of the top five tourist destinations in the world, a distinction the World Economic Forum says it shares with only the United States, France, Spain and Japan. So important is tourism to Australia’s economy that the best estimates are it employs 655,000 people, 12 times as many as Australia’s coal industry. And most of them are employed in regional locations, where jobs are scarce. This month a report by the Zurich insurance group and the economic consultancy Mandala found half of Australia’s top 178 tourism assets were at risk from foreseeable climate change. There are reasons to believe its...
Instagram has announced it will be removing beauty filters – but the damage is done
Meta has announced third-party augmented reality (AR) filters will no longer be available on its apps as of January 2025. This means more than two million user-made filters offered across WhatsApp, Facebook and, most notably, Instagram will disappear. Filters have become a mainstay feature on Instagram. The most viral of these – which often involve beautifying the user’s appearance – are created by users themselves via the Meta Spark Studio. But the use of beautifying AR filters has long been connected to worsened mental health and body image problems in young women. In theory, the removal of the vast majority...
A looming crisis means New Zealand must rethink how it pays for aged care
The recent submissions to parliament’s Health Select Committee makes one thing clear: a crisis looms for the aged care sector in New Zealand. This crisis centres on the funding and staffing of residential aged care (ARC) and in-home care and support services. But to address the problem, the government doesn’t have to look far. Australia has changed how the sector is funded, calling on wealthier members of society to pay a fairer share of the costs. New Zealanders in aged care Last year, an estimated 32,000 people were in residential aged care. A means-tested government-funded residential care subsidy pays for most of the...
How do ecosystems collapse? Our study shows evolution plays a role – and can delay a disaster
Dying coral reefs, rainforests transforming into savannas, grasslands turning into deserts – these are ecosystem “tipping points”, boundary lines we’re desperate not to cross. In dynamic systems filled with life, these critical thresholds aren’t set in stone. Since organisms can evolve, the tipping points within these ecosystems might evolve too. Most of us think of evolution as a glacial process, too slow to witness in a single lifetime. But evolution, especially in the microbial world, can happen very quickly. Consider antibiotic-resistant bacteria that emerge within years, or the COVID-causing virus evolving new variants in mere months. When the conditions are...
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Adam Bandt on why the Greens are playing hardball on housing
The government has found many of its key measures stuck in a legislative quagmire, with both Greens and Coalition playing hardball with Labor’s plans. This week the government’s housing legislation has stalled in the Senate. The Greens are pitching for radically expanded initiatives such as scrapping negative gearing and support for controlling rent rises. Greens leader Adam Bandt joins us to talk about the immediate impasse as well as his party’s broad agenda including its demands if Labor fell into minority at the election. On why the Greens are holding up the government’s housing bills, Bandt says: Labor has refused...
The Productivity Commission wants all Australian kids to get 3 days a week of childcare – but it won’t be until 2036
The federal government has released a highly anticipated report into Australia’s childcare system. The report, by the Productivity Commission, says addressing affordability should be a priority. It recommends fully subsidised childcare for families earning under A$80,000 from 2026. The report, which was commissioned by the government, was completed at the end of June. It sets out crucial steps to achieve a “universal” childcare system in Australia. This is where all families with children under five can get three days a week of high-quality early education and care. The Productivity Commission says this should be up and running by 2036. ...
Australia desperately needs a strong federal environmental protection agency. Our chances aren’t looking good
When Labor came to power federally after almost a decade in opposition, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek pledged to turn around Australia’s worsening environmental woes, from extinctions to land clearing to climate change. While the government has made progress on climate action, protecting biodiversity hasn’t got out of the starting blocks. In the latest example of inaction, proposed laws to create an independent environmental regulator, Environmental Protection Australia, appear stalled in the Senate. Labor needs the backing of the Coalition or the Greens to push the reform through. At the time of writing, no deals looked likely. This is a real problem....
Digital health research can be positive for Indigenous people. But our study found it needs to follow these principles
Digital technologies are transforming health care for all Australians, and this includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Electronic health interventions (eHealth) can involve features such as telehealth, instant messaging and mobile apps that support health care. But testing what kinds of eHealth work for Indigenous people – and what don’t – relies on good quality research. And so far there hasn’t been strong, overarching guidance on what culturally safe eHealth looks like for Indigenous people. We reviewed 39 studies about eHealth interventions for Indigenous people. We wanted to identify what made eHealth interventions effective, beneficial and culturally safe for the Aboriginal...
What’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath? Less than you might think
Articles about badly behaved people and how to spot them are common. You don’t have to Google or scroll too much to find headlines such as 7 signs your boss is a psychopath or How to avoid the sociopath next door. You’ll often see the terms psychopath and sociopath used somewhat interchangeably. That applies to perhaps the most famous badly behaved fictional character of all – Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs. In the book on which the movie is based, Lecter is described as a “pure sociopath”. But in the movie, he’s described...
New teen accounts on Instagram are a welcome step, but real ‘peace of mind’ requires more
As Australia and other countries debate the merits of banning kids under 14 from social media, Meta has announced a significant “reimagining” of teenagers’ experience of Instagram. These new “Teen Accounts” will be set to private by default, have the maximum content and messaging restrictions possible, pause notifications at night, and add new ways for teens to indicate their content preferences. Importantly, for kids under the age of 16, changing these default settings will now require parental permission. The move, touted as giving “peace of mind” for parents, is a welcome step – but parents and guardians should use it to talk...
Will the exploding pager attack be the spark that ignites an Israel-Hezbollah war?
The alleged Israeli attack on members of Hezbollah via their pagers is another ominous development propelling the Middle East towards a full-scale regional war. It leaves Hezbollah with little option but to retaliate with the full support of the Iran-led “axis of resistance”. The sophistication and impact of targeting the pagers is unprecedented. The attack resulted in at least 11 deaths, including some of Hezbollah’s fighters, and up to 3,000 people wounded. The main aim of the attack, which US officials have reportedly said was carried out by Israel, was intended to disrupt Hezbollah’s means of communication and its command and...
Runt is a gentle, beautifully shot, and warmly humorous small town Australian story
When young Annie Shearer (Lilly LaTorre) meets a stray dog named Runt (Squid) the two become inseparable. They live in the dry Western Australian town of Upson Downs where rain hasn’t fallen in over a year. All the water in the district has been stolen upriver and stored in a dam constructed by Earl Robert-Barren (Jack Thompson) on his property, and he has made it his business to buy up every property in the district as they go broke from drought. Every property, that is, except the Shearer’s. Directed by John Sheedy and adapted from the book of the same name...
Productivity Commission charts the costly path to universal early childhood education
Big increases in government spending on child care have been recommended by the Productivity Commission, that would see families earning up to A$80,000 receive a 100% subsidy rate under the Child Care Subsidy (CCS). This would cover about 30% of families with children aged up to 12 years. The Higher Child Care Subsidy (HCCS) rate should rise to 100% for families with multiple children aged five and under in early childhood education and incomes up to $140,000, the commission recommends. It says a taper rate should apply to the subsidies, reducing the rate of subsidy ...
Gareth Evans condemns Labor timidity, tells leadership to ‘recover mojo’
A former senior member of the Hawke and Keating governments, Gareth Evans, has accused the Albanese government of political timidity, condemning its instinct to “move into cautious, defensive, wedge-avoiding mode”. In a speech on Wednesday, Evans said the government had enough first-rate ministerial talent “to be a great reforming government in the Hawke-Keating tradition”, spending political capital rather then hording it indefinitely while its value eroded. But, he said, the government had gone into a defensive mode on issues such as gambling advertising, electoral funding, census questions, the Makarrata commission and any constitutional reform, including for a republic. “Perhaps most disconcertingly...
Looking on the bright side: the risks - and rewards - of political optimism
This is an edited extract of the Wyndham City Barry Jones Oration delivered on September 18 2024 by Gareth Evans, distinguished honorary professor at ANU and former Australian foreign minister. There are plenty of reasons right now for finding the present state of the world – and to some extent Australia – anything but bright. Internationally, they include: global warming deadly conflict and atrocity crimes in Ukraine, the Middle East, Myanmar and too much of Africa the continuing worldwide misery of more than 120 million refugees and displaced persons the continuing grinding poverty, huge gains in China and India notwithstanding, of the...
Flying to a footy final? Watch your wallet. Here’s why airfares soar
Planning a flight to an AFL final is like trying to decide when and how to hop on an amusement park ride that hasn’t stopped. You don’t know where you need to be until the very last minute, and by then, it seems everyone else wants to be there too. This annual dilemma is now in sharp focus, with preliminary finals coming up this weekend. Sydney will face Port Adelaide at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday night, then Geelong will take on Brisbane in Melbourne on Saturday. Getting to these locations on the right dates can be no mean...
The harder I work, the luckier I get? What coaches, athletes and fans need to understand about luck in sport
In the world of elite sport, where everything is planned down to the last minute detail, surprisingly few are prepared to acknowledge the inherent role of luck in the outcomes of sporting contests. It is surprising because luck is a factor that has the potential to affect the outcomes of competition. It can be the difference between a premiership and an early finals exit, or a gold medal and no medal at all. It is also surprising because the notion of luck is ingrained in so many areas of sport and society – through common actions (fingers crossed, or wearing “lucky socks”),...
The government is looking to combat disinformation – but what about truth in political advertising?
The federal government has just introduced a new bill that seeks to combat disinformation and misinformation on the internet. This is a laudable measure in the context of a rise of dangerous misinformation being peddled by conspiracy theorists and fringe groups, which arguably contributed to violent events such as the Bondi stabbing. Significantly, the bill covers electoral misinformation that reaches the threshold of “serious harm”. But while digital platforms regulated by the bill will need to take steps to protect the community from electoral disinformation, political parties can still lie in their electoral ads. Why are political parties allowed to lie...
Why is the internet overflowing with rubbish ads – and what can we do about it?
It is difficult to spend any time on the internet these days without being inundated with advertisements. In Australia alone this year, online advertising has increased 9.3% and is now worth more than A$3.7 billion. That is a lot more pop-ups and promotions in our daily lives – and as data scientists and marketing specialists chase more short-term sales targets, there’s bound to be more. Not all advertising is bad – especially if it saves you money and targets your interests. But you may have noticed as you’ve scrolled through social media or read the news online recently that the...
Harris gains in post-debate US national polls, but will her gains be sustained?
The United States presidential election will be held on November 5. In analyst Nate Silver’s aggregate of national polls, Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump by 48.9–46.0. In my previous US politics article on September 9, Harris led Trump by 48.7–46.2. Joe Biden’s final position before his withdrawal as Democratic candidate on July 21 was a national poll deficit against Trump of 45.2–41.2. By the election, Biden will be almost 82, Trump is now 78 and Harris will be 60. Harris has been boosted by her performance in the September 10 debate between Harris and Trump, and she needed this boost...
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