tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/deakin-university-757/articlesDeakin University2024-03-28T00:03:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265122024-03-28T00:03:01Z2024-03-28T00:03:01ZThe US is suing Apple for anti-competitive behaviour. But the company’s walled-off tech ecosystem has driven its bold innovation<p>With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. </p>
<p>Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive tech ecosystem. Now, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has alleged this ecosystem is <a href="https://www.theverge.com/24107581/doj-v-apple-antitrust-monoply-news-updates">harming competition and innovation</a> through Apple’s unique market power. </p>
<p>The department’s lawsuit will face a few big hurdles. Perhaps chief among them: many of the “anti-competitive” systems Apple has built are the very things that enable the bold innovation they’re famous for. </p>
<h2>The charges</h2>
<p>Apple is the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-to-open-broad-new-antitrust-review-of-big-tech-companies-11563914235?mod=article_inline">latest modern major US tech firm</a> to face investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour by the US government. </p>
<p>The DOJ explains its <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.544402/gov.uscourts.njd.544402.1.0_3.pdfv">lawsuit</a> through five consumer-relatable examples of where Apple’s iPhone ecosystem stifles competition: </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A samsung phone open to WeChat on the phone's app store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584652/original/file-20240327-18-d3fjtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The department blames Apple’s closed tech ecosystem for a lack of US competitors to ‘super apps’ like WeChat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kazan-russian-federation-jun-15-2018-1149046790">Allmy/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<ol>
<li><p>the inability to give “<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-03-25/did-apple-kill-super-apps-like-wechat-justice-department-thinks-so">super apps</a>” like WeChat full functionality on iPhone</p></li>
<li><p>restrictions on game streaming apps</p></li>
<li><p>a <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/what-apples-promise-support-rcs-means-text-messaging?ref=platformer.news">functionality divide</a> between “blue bubble” and “green bubble” friends on iMessage</p></li>
<li><p>poor connectivity between non-Apple smartwatches and iPhones</p></li>
<li><p>digital wallet technology that locks out third parties.</p></li>
</ol>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-apple-amazon-google-and-meta-facing-antitrust-lawsuits-and-huge-fines-and-will-it-protect-consumers-221501">Why are Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta facing antitrust lawsuits and huge fines? And will it protect consumers?</a>
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<p>In the US and other jurisdictions, the tech giant has already <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/apple-concedes-to-european-banks-amid-concern-on-new-rba-payment-power-20240122-p5ez45">taken steps</a> to address some of these concerns.</p>
<p>However, the DOJ stresses these complaints aren’t exclusive or exhaustive. They’re examples to show where Apple’s “closed” ecosystem locks customers into what Apple has built.</p>
<h2>Private innovation requires private infrastructure</h2>
<p>One problem for the DOJ is that the tech world has been left to private design for 30 years. Enjoying strong growth and innovation has meant relying on private infrastructure. </p>
<p>Having the most disruptive ideas might draw consumer attention, but vast infrastructures keep them as customers (for example, <a href="https://openai.com/blog/openai-and-microsoft-extend-partnership">OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft</a>). </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.deakin.edu.au/faculty-of-arts-and-education/research/critical-digital-infrastructures-and-interfaces">research group</a> considers how digital innovations come to shape the “infrastructures” that guide our increasingly digital lives.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="An appple lightning connector and a USB C connector" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584657/original/file-20240327-28-6dl957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite its long insistence on ‘lightning’ connectors, Apple had a major hand in developing USB-C technology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/charging-cables-phone-on-black-background-1919745620">Ivan_Shenets/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Consider Apple’s influence on the mundane and technical, such as <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2015/03/14/apple-invent-usb-type-c/">USB-C technology</a>. Or surprising cultural shifts, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/07/apple-airpods-launch-problems-with-wireless-headphones">Airpods</a>. And even how iPhone technology <a href="https://medium.com/@ignaziomottola/the-history-of-instagram-ff266eb75427">effectively launched Instagram culture</a>.</p>
<p>The DOJ’s core argument is that Apple’s business model has now shifted from leading innovation to gatekeeping its cultural-technical infrastructures. </p>
<p>Such shifts are not necessarily planned evils. Infrastructure can lead to further infrastructure with novel benefits: it is no accident internet fibre cables <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/how-railroad-history-shaped-internet-history/417414/">follow old rail lines</a> on land and telegraph cables undersea. </p>
<p>Over time, though, a combination of cultural-technical infrastructures built up by a powerful company can monopolise a market. To know that story’s end game, <a href="https://doctorow.medium.com/boeing-spirit-and-jetblue-a-monopoly-horror-story-c69fd6586afd#:%7E:text=Bill%20Clinton%27s%20administration%20oversaw%20the,dropping%20out%20of%20the%20sky.&text=As%20Matt%20Stoller%20says%2C%20America,but%20has%20no%20say%20over.">think Boeing</a>.</p>
<h2>Defining Apple’s monopoly</h2>
<p>Another problem for the DOJ is it will be hard to define the market that Apple allegedly monopolises or attempts to. Use of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/sherman-anti-trust-act#:%7E:text=The%20Sherman%20Anti%2DTrust%20Act%20authorized%20the%20federal%20government%20to,foreign%20nations%22%20was%20declared%20illegal.">1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act</a> on firms requires such a definition. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1770830966669344908"}"></div></p>
<p>It makes sense the department is using this act against Google, which controls <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share">more than 90%</a> of the search market. But Apple’s market share is far lower – not even a majority of mobile phone sales worldwide.</p>
<p>To get around this, the department argues the market that Apple does have is unique. Apple is famously good at creating its own markets – rehashing familiar things (hard drives and MP3 files) to make novel products (iPods) that “just work” for consumers and suppliers.</p>
<p>Apple’s competitive edge is creating the exclusive platforms it’s now being pursued for. </p>
<p>As many will remember, before the iPhone, browsing the internet on a phone wasn’t a thing. Before iTunes, digital music was a pain or illegal. </p>
<p>For millions of Apple fans across the US, the DOJ’s logic is a hard sell. </p>
<h2>A highly trusted middleman</h2>
<p>Notably repeated in this lawsuit is the need for “<a href="https://www.electronicmarkets.org/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/Issues/Volume_09/Issue_01-02/V09I1-2_Strategies_for_Internet_Middlemen_in_the_Intermediation-Disintermediation-Reintermediation_Cycle.pdf">disintermediation</a>”, which means removing the “middlemen” who take a cut between customers and suppliers.</p>
<p>The DOJ alleges Apple acts as such a middleman by imposing on consumer choice – whether by restricting Apple’s interoperability with other products, or charging a <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/01/08/the-cost-of-doing-business-apples-app-store-fees-explained">30% fee</a> (the so-called <a href="https://www.insightpartners.com/ideas/do-you-have-to-pay-the-apple-tax-its-complicated/#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CApple%20Tax%E2%80%9D%20is%20a%20slang,subject%20to%20a%2030%25%20surcharge">Apple Tax</a>) to do business on Apple’s platforms. </p>
<p>The challenge is that in a world of bad actors on the internet (evil or incompetent), people actually seem to love Apple’s capacity to intermediate. </p>
<p>The company’s strict control of its apps, products and services enables growth across its platforms and has given it a <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/apple-long-a-champion-of-consumer-privacy-and-security-now-sits-at-a-crossroads/">reputation</a> for being an exceptional “middleman” for privacy, usability and other consumer concerns. </p>
<p>For example, Apple’s wallet launched to <em>not</em> transmit credit card numbers to merchants, who <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_breaches">regularly suffer data breaches and leaks</a>. It <a href="https://birchtree.me/blog/digital-wallets-and-the-only-apple-pay-does-this-mythology/">offered an intermediary solution</a> where evil (and <a href="https://www.applicoinc.com/blog/happened-currentc-platform-innovation-fails/">incompetent</a>) actors abound.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="person pays using an Apple watch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584653/original/file-20240327-18-4jjhqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apple Wallet securely completes transactions without sharing credit card details with a merchant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/person-paying-cafe-smart-watch-wirelessly-1298158189">Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The department’s <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.544402/gov.uscourts.njd.544402.1.0_3.pdf">claim</a> this practice creates an “additional point of failure for privacy and security” is incoherent.</p>
<p><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/specialprojects/protectingfinancialstability/timeline">An extensive history of cybercrime incidents</a> around the world shows that for consumers, credit card companies and merchants, holding customer data becomes a liability, as well as an asset. </p>
<p>During the pandemic, Apple’s trusted ability to intermediate also fostered the success of “<a href="https://developer.apple.com/exposure-notification/">Exposure Notification</a>”, a privacy-preserving contact tracing system that kept personal exposure data away from governments and other parties.</p>
<p>But in other areas, the department argues that Apple has leveraged this reputation in self-serving ways. </p>
<p>Fortnite developer Epic Games’ <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/23/apple-versus-epic-games-fortnite-app-store-saga----the-story-so-far">ongoing stoush</a> with Apple over policies to charge 30% on in-app purchases is one key example. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="App store icon, epic games icon, both on a phone screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584663/original/file-20240327-18-jr4bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Epic Games sued Apple after being kicked off the App Store for adding a direct billing mechanism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/app-store-vs-epic-games-concept-1967268796">mundissima/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Many developers would likely have followed Epic in trying to get their customers cash out of Apple’s grasp, if not for <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-in-apples-war-on-developers-users-are-the-biggest-losers/">fear of retribution</a> from Apple. </p>
<p>Yet, Epic Games largely <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/23/apple-versus-epic-games-fortnite-app-store-saga----the-story-so-far">lost to Apple</a> in US courts, and this year the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals. This loss may have compelled the DOJ to act.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/apple-google-and-fortnites-stoush-is-a-classic-case-of-how-far-big-tech-will-go-to-retain-power-144728">Apple, Google and Fortnite's stoush is a classic case of how far big tech will go to retain power</a>
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<p>Even the success of this lawsuit won’t necessarily bring about useful change at Apple or for the consumer. </p>
<p>In Europe, the tech giant has already demonstrated an expert capacity for “<a href="https://proton.me/blog/apple-dma-compliance-plan-trap">malicious compliance</a>” – after meeting the European Union’s new <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-markets-act-ensuring-fair-and-open-digital-markets_en">Digital Markets Act</a> policy in such bad faith that its solution barely works and is now being <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1689">re-investigated</a>. </p>
<p>Overall, it’s not that Apple is necessarily, well, a “bad apple”, but that “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1344546/dl?inline">Apple vs USA</a>” allows us to think different about what really drives innovation in modern tech.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226512/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Heemsbergen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Department of Justice will have to prove that Apple’s ‘closed’ platforms have hurt rather than helped its customers.Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2258922024-03-27T19:07:45Z2024-03-27T19:07:45ZHow can schools make sure gifted students get the help they need?<p>Earlier this month, the New South Wales government <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/every-school-in-nsw-to-offer-gifted-education-programs-20240313-p5fc94.html">announced</a> it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. </p>
<p>This comes amid concerns gifted school students are not achieving their potential. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/education-data-and-research/cese/publications/literature-reviews/revisiting-gifted-education">previous review</a> in 2019 estimated that 10% of the state’s students were gifted but that <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/plan-to-help-state-s-gifted-students-thrive-20190607-p51vnx.html">up to 40%</a> of those students were not meeting their potential. Other studies have suggested <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12492">about 50%</a> of gifted students are underachieving.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00169862231222225">new research</a> found teachers tend to focus their tailored approaches toward helping students performing below standard, rather than their gifted peers. Our study also looks at how gifted students can be better supported at school. </p>
<h2>What does ‘gifted’ mean?</h2>
<p>There are lots of different ways to be gifted and different definitions of a gifted child. </p>
<p>Gifted students are generally understood to have <a href="https://www.aaegt.net.au/about-giftedness">natural abilities</a> well above their peers of the same age. This roughly puts them in <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/meeting-the-needs-of-gifted-and-talented-students">the top 10%</a> of their age group.</p>
<p>Many Australian school systems, such as <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/high-potential-and-gifted-education/HPGE-policy-information#Gagn%C3%A9's3">NSW</a> and <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/high-ability-toolkit/Pages/defining-high-ability.aspx">Victoria</a>, base their understanding of gifted students on the work of Canadian educational psychologist Françoys Gagné. </p>
<p>Gagné says giftedness occurs across various domains, from intellectual to physical, creative and social-emotional. </p>
<p>Signs a child may be gifted <a href="https://www.aaegt.net.au/about-giftedness">include</a> reading or manipulating numbers before they start school, being very knowledgeable about topics of interest, and making connections easily. Gifted students can also have an acute interest in social justice, a mature sense of humour and enjoy hypothesising. Or they may show advanced skill in the arts or sporting activities.</p>
<p>A student is seen as underachieving when there’s a significant mismatch between their ability and their performance in assessments.</p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00169862231222225">Our research</a> was a scoping review looking at 38 studies from 2000 to 2022. It examined what teachers and schools have done to meet the needs of high-achieving students. A scoping review is a study that maps out all the available evidence on a topic.</p>
<p>The review included studies from around the world, including Australia, the United States, England, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Singapore. </p>
<p>It found while teachers try to meet all students’ needs, their tailored efforts tend to be geared towards supporting students who are not meeting basic standards. </p>
<p>This means gifted student may not get sufficient help at school to support their own particular needs. Instead, they may be directed simply to work on their own or take on “class helper” roles if they finish their tasks early. </p>
<h2>How can gifted students be supported?</h2>
<p>Teachers of course need to have the time, resources and school support to get to know each individual student and to offer appropriate programs. </p>
<p>Provided teachers have these things, our study identified multiple teaching approaches that can have a positive impact on gifted students. They can be used in both primary and secondary schools. </p>
<p>The emphasis is on collaborating with students, tailoring content for individual students and being flexible. Some specific approaches include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>exploring a topic in greater depth or breadth with a student </p></li>
<li><p>assigning tasks that specifically tap into a student’s interests </p></li>
<li><p>giving open-ended tasks that allow for problem-solving</p></li>
<li><p>giving students a choice in how a topic should be investigated </p></li>
<li><p>having students work through the curriculum at a faster pace </p></li>
<li><p>skipping content if a student has already mastered it</p></li>
<li><p>encouraging students to explore topics across different disciplines (for example, studying a novel as a piece of literature, from a historical perspective and as a basis on which to explore a health issue raised in the text)</p></li>
<li><p>providing access to role models and experts to extend learning.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>There are other reasons students can underachieve</h2>
<p>It is also important to note there are other reasons why gifted students may not meet their potential. </p>
<p>There <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12492">may be issues</a> with a student’s confidence at school or motivation. Or they may have attitudes towards teachers or school that negatively impact their learning.</p>
<p>Or they may not be identified as gifted, if they come from a <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-981-13-3041-4_14.pdf">socioeconomically disadvantaged or culturally diverse background</a>, or if they have a <a href="https://childmind.org/article/twice-exceptional-kids-both-gifted-and-challenged/">disability</a> such as dyslexia or autism that makes schooling challenging. </p>
<p>Very <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/13/4/421">narrow definitions</a> of “gifted” may also mean students are not picked up as high-achieving if they don’t perform above expected in certain assessments.</p>
<p>If parents think their child is showing signs of being gifted they should contact their child’s teacher or school to talk about specific support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Nicholas provides professional learning courses on behalf of Deakin University for the Victorian Department of Education on the teaching of high-ability school students.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Skourdoumbis provides professional learning courses on behalf of Deakin University for the Victorian Department of Education on the teaching of high-ability school students.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ondine Bradbury provides professional learning courses on behalf of Deakin University for the Victorian Department of Education on the teaching of high-ability school students.</span></em></p>New research finds teachers tend to have tailored approaches to help students performing below standard, but not for their gifted peers.Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin UniversityAndrew Skourdoumbis, Associate Professor in Education, Deakin UniversityOndine Bradbury, PhD Candidate, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2242542024-03-26T16:40:09Z2024-03-26T16:40:09ZWant to quit vaping? There’s an app for that<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579066/original/file-20240229-21-z0wh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-tattoos-on-arms-hands-2271193519">SeventyFour/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More Australians than ever are vaping, according to recently released data.</p>
<p>The National Drug Strategy Household Survey <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/b8b298cc-6d3f-4ab0-a238-9bd63f300c09/national-drug-strategy-household-survey-2022-2023.pdf?v=20240229072409&inline=true#:%7E:text=interpreted%20with%20caution.-,Use%20of%20illicit%20drugs%20increases%2C%20driven%20by%20hallucinogens,million%20people%20had%20done%20so.">shows</a> the proportion of Australians aged 14 and over who, in 2022–2023, said they currently vaped was 7%. In 2019 it was just 2.5%. Users are most likely to be aged 18-24.</p>
<p>As we learn more about the potential harms of vaping, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/4/1/3">many</a> will be keen to quit.</p>
<p>But because vapes have only been widespread in recent years, there is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460321000836">limited evidence</a> on how to go about quitting. With the addictive nature of nicotine-containing vapes, it can also be hard to stop vaping on your own.</p>
<p>Could apps be the answer? The <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/730101/australia-smartphone-ownership-by-age/">vast majority</a> of young people have a smartphone. And we know apps have helped people <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2770816">quit smoking</a>. So why not use apps to help people quit vaping?</p>
<p>But which apps are best? And which app <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/7/e11926/">features</a> should you look for? Our <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2024/1/e55177">recently published study</a> gives us some clues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/could-messages-from-social-media-influencers-stop-young-people-vaping-a-look-at-the-governments-new-campaign-224621">Could messages from social media influencers stop young people vaping? A look at the government's new campaign</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We tested 30 apps</h2>
<p>We searched the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores in May 2023 to identify apps available in Australia claiming to help people quit vaping.</p>
<p>We then made a shortlist of 20 iOS apps and ten Android apps to assess for:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2015/1/e27/">quality</a> (including ease of use, how it engaged users, appearance, and the information it conveyed)</p></li>
<li><p>the potential to <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/1/e11130">change behaviour</a> (including setting goals, making an action plan, identifying barriers, monitoring progress and giving feedback).</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-teen-is-addicted-to-vaping-how-can-i-help-them-quit-and-manage-their-withdrawal-symptoms-208586">My teen is addicted to vaping. How can I help them quit and manage their withdrawal symptoms?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Here’s what we found</h2>
<p>The highest rated app overall was the iOS app <a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/quit-smoking-stop-vaping-app/id1641262016">Quit smoking. Stop vaping app</a>. This had 19 out of 21 features known to help people change behaviour.</p>
<p>The highest rated app for Android devices was <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.despdev.quitsmoking&hl=en_US">Quit Tracker: Stop Smoking</a>, with 15 behaviour change features. </p>
<p>The highest rated app for both <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.instaquit.app&hl=en_US">Android</a> and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quitsure-quit-smoking-smartly/id1523992725">iOS users</a> was the QuitSure Quit Smoking Smartly app. This had 15 behaviour change features for iOS users and 14 for Android users.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Quit vaping app" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579068/original/file-20240229-20-gjbt99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This ‘Quit smoking. Stop vaping app’ had the most features known to help people change behaviour.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-teens-vaping-what-should-i-say-3-expert-tips-on-how-to-approach-the-talk-196205">My teen's vaping. What should I say? 3 expert tips on how to approach 'the talk'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So what should I look for?</h2>
<p>There are key <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/7/e11926/">app features</a> to look for in an app that could help you change your behaviour. These features also apply to apps helping people to quit alcohol, or to take more exercise, for instance. These features include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>full customisability</strong>, allowing individuals to tailor the app to their needs</p></li>
<li><p><strong>goal setting</strong>, allowing individuals to create their own goals, monitor their progress, then update them over time. This is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00915/full">more likely</a> to lead to positive behaviour change</p></li>
<li><p><strong>external help</strong>, allowing users to access more help or advice, directly from the app</p></li>
<li><p>apps that are <strong>easy to use</strong> or navigate, so users are more likely to stick with the app.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But not all apps we assessed scored highly on these. On average, apps only had about nine out of 21 behaviour change features. And only 12 of the 30 apps included a goal-setting feature.</p>
<p>The overall quality of the apps was moderate – scoring about three out of five. While apps were easy to use and navigate, we found they were not always transparent in who funded or developed them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-apps-and-influencers-are-changing-the-way-we-sleep-for-better-or-for-worse-211749">How apps and influencers are changing the way we sleep, for better or for worse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Future apps</h2>
<p>Earlier research shows quit smoking apps <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/7/e11926/citations">rate higher</a> for their potential to change behaviour than ones to quit vaping.</p>
<p>In one study, researchers found more than half of users of one quit smoking app were still not smoking <a href="https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e51658">after a month</a>.</p>
<p>So app developers could look at quit smoking apps to identify strategies and features to develop or update quit vaping apps.</p>
<p>App developers need to create apps with comprehensive goal-setting features. These apps need to be trialled or tested by the developer, users or an external party. This is important as, to our knowledge, no publicly available app has undergone such testing.</p>
<p>As many young people vape to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460322001319?via%3Dihub">relieve stress or anxiety</a>, future apps could provide extra features, such as meditation, cognitive behaviour therapy and relaxation.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1617300430966382594"}"></div></p>
<p>Apps need to align with current <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/tobacco/Publications/e-cigarette-young-people-guide.pdf">guidelines</a> on how to quit vaping, so evidence-based messaging is consistent. Unfortunately, information and guidelines on quitting vaping are in their infancy and vary across different countries or jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Developers also need to ensure they disclose who owns and paid for the app. Is it a commercial company, a research group, a government agency, or a not-for-profit? We found it difficult to tell during our analysis.</p>
<p>Last of all, quit vaping apps need to be updated and improved over time, to iron out bugs, make improvements as the evidence changes, and to respond to changes in how users behave.</p>
<p>In an ideal world, we’d see partnerships between app developers, people who vape, researchers and experts in health behaviour change to develop and update quit vaping apps – ones with the highest chance of actually shifting people’s behaviour.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>We wish to thank Lilian Chan, Rebecca Cerio, Sandra Rickards, Phillipa Hastings, Kate Reakes and Tracey O’Brien from Cancer Institute NSW for their assistance with this research.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona McKay has previously received funding from Cancer Institute NSW (which funded this study) and VicHealth.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Dunn has previously received funding from Cancer Institute NSW and VicHealth, and currently receives funding from VicHealth. </span></em></p>Here’s what to look for when you’re browsing for apps.Fiona McKay, Associate Professor of Health Equity, Deakin UniversityMatthew Dunn, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265062024-03-26T05:37:12Z2024-03-26T05:37:12ZIf uni marks are going up, does that mean there’s a problem?<p>In 1894, Harvard University commissioned a report on grading standards, <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mic.20130080">due to concerns</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Grades A and B are sometimes given too readily – Grade A for work of no very high merit, and Grade B for work not far above mediocrity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More than a century later, the fear of declining academic standards continues. In Australia, there are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/distinctions-with-a-difference-top-grades-double-for-students-at-state-s-biggest-unis-20230628-p5dk6x.html">ongoing media reports</a> about universities awarding increasing numbers of high grades. Evidence has also been found in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2015.1019450">United Kingdom</a> and the <a href="https://amacad.org/sites/default/files/academy/multimedia/pdfs/publications/researchpapersmonographs/Evaluation_and_the_Academy.pdf">United States</a>. Some US studies suggest grade averages have been steadily increasing since at least <a href="https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2134/jae.1977.0029?casa_token=orjvRdYkto4AAAAA:oKoTK7wh6Ew3WHhFzise5SSyevXxSFb1q3dn6-KYVwxhZKADfxlBbWis-SQj-_P1j0ijw861SJFCi10z">the early 1960s</a>.</p>
<p>This week, a report by academics at the University of Sydney <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/distinction-the-new-credit-grade-inflation-puts-uni-integrity-at-risk-20240321-p5fe7i.html">found</a> a 234% increase in the number of high distinctions awarded to students at the university between 2011 and 2021 (the university notes it changed its grading model in 2012).</p>
<p>Education experts call this “<a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Grade_Inflation/EZcMBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">grade inflation</a>”. It is often presented as a negative, a sign of lowering standards. However, this is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2020.1795617">only one way</a> to look at the phenomenon of marks going up.</p>
<h2>What are grades for?</h2>
<p>Behind concerns about grade inflation are assumptions about what grades are and what they are meant to do. </p>
<p>Several decades ago, assessment used to be “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305498870130207">norm referenced</a>”. This means the performance of students was measured against their peers. In this system, the best students get high distinctions, the worst fail and there’s a bell curve in between. This holds true regardless of the quality of the teaching and the capability of the students.</p>
<p>A high distinction in this system communicates you were one of the best students. It’s a commodity valuable primarily because of its rarity, like a gold medal at the Olympics. It says nothing about what you are capable of, because your performance was entirely judged against what your peers could do.</p>
<p>But norm referenced assessment has since gone out of fashion. In Australia, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2021L00488/latest/text">Higher Education Standards Framework</a> now requires students to be assessed against predetermined standards. If a student meets the standard for a high distinction, they get one. </p>
<p>The mark of high distinction signals they met a very high standard. The performance of their peers does not matter. If there’s a particularly strong student cohort, or improvements to teaching, more people get high grades.</p>
<h2>There has been a change in assessment</h2>
<p>Grades are the product of assessment, so significant changes to assessment in recent years may also have driven grade inflation. </p>
<p>On top of the move towards standards-based assessments, many universities now give students rubrics (or scoring guides) before they begin their work. </p>
<p>These guides tell students how their work will be graded. So it’s no surprise they can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-023-09823-4">lead to significant improvements</a> in student performance. If we tell students <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-017-0220-3">what good work looks like</a>, they are more likely to be able to do it and achieve higher grades.</p>
<p>Similarly, there is growing attention given to the quality of <a href="https://feedbackforlearning.org/">feedback practices in higher education</a>. We know feedback is a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03087/full">significant part</a> of student learning. </p>
<p>So, in a standards-based grading system, where grades are directly tied to student learning outcomes, this improvement in performance should naturally translate to higher grades.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-change-the-way-universities-assess-students-starting-with-these-3-things-203048">We need to change the way universities assess students, starting with these 3 things</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Other explanations</h2>
<p>There are other explanations for why grades have been going up. </p>
<p>Since 1979, some academics have been arguing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220485.1975.10845408?casa_token=AoFRErzj3dsAAAAA:O310Pi2mHLhWq9Mal8-hAdZMiu041H220fWXPnmM81N1NYgj6uIa_MFizxF1E6uoKEIxIh9HV7Gnyw">student evaluations</a> drive grade inflation.</p>
<p>This refers to the increasing practice of universities asking students for feedback on their lecturers and tutors, which in turn has an impact on academics’ career progression. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220485.1988.10845263?casa_token=25386ZE1GdkAAAAA:aiiwHSCB8nI2CVtsGirDUTRS5C1vQdtR9Acts3cW-YuCNO2Z_rnNos8OLsr7ZHcPCMabpZUDgm9IQw">logic is</a>, if teachers give students a better grade they will get better evaluation scores. </p>
<p>But while there is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2020.1821866?casa_token=U5gWb3TdiQIAAAAA%3A9yUPDxfPlhoNUnxQn2cxBQO9UqXvJDMAI93YoxCq-WHozax3tsFYupBKd8_Wku3Gh4aL1CEJnZlBOA">some correlation</a> between students who get better grades giving better scores to their teacher, it’s not clear if this is a causal link. It might be that successful students like their teachers more, or perhaps students learn more from people they think are good teachers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-have-developed-a-way-to-screen-student-feedback-to-ensure-its-useful-not-abusive-and-academics-dont-have-to-burn-it-185041">We have developed a way to screen student feedback to ensure it's useful, not abusive (and academics don't have to burn it)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Grade improvement’</h2>
<p>Society depends on universities to produce competent graduates and grades are one signal of competence. </p>
<p>But we need to be careful about equating rising grades with declining academic standards. </p>
<p>If better teaching is enabling students to meet a higher standard then <a href="https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/sites/default/files/basic-page-supplementary-materials-files/2002-kohn-dangerous_myth_of_grade_inflation.pdf">it’s not grade inflation</a>, it’s actually “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2020.1795617">grade improvement</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Dawson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, the federal Department of Education, education technology hub EduGrowth, and online assessment companies Turnitin and Inspera.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Corbin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education experts call it ‘grade inflation’. This comes amid reports of more high distinctions being awarded at some Australian universities.Phillip Dawson, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin UniversityThomas Corbin, Research fellow, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2203342024-03-25T19:06:03Z2024-03-25T19:06:03Z‘Everyone was groomed’: Anne Manne’s story of Newcastle’s paedophile priest network centres on a ‘kidnapped’ childhood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583928/original/file-20240324-28-b7dee7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=299%2C0%2C3694%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Church abuse survivor Steven Smith as a boy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation/Josh Eckstein, Unsplash/Black Inc.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2017, the <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/case_study_42_-_findings_report_-_the_responses_of_the_anglican_diocese_of_newcastle_to_instances_and_allegations_of_child_sexual_abuse.pdf">Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse</a> found that within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle, priests had perpetuated crimes of abuse for at least 30 years. Serious allegations were mismanaged, misplaced or ignored. Crimes were minimised. “Abusive and predatory” behaviour was wrongly portrayed as “consensual”. </p>
<p>In her new book, <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/crimes-cross">Crimes of the Cross</a>, journalist Anne Manne provides an intricate and compelling account of how multiple diocesan clergy and leaders covered up allegations, protected priests who were known perpetrators and failed to care for survivors. </p>
<p>Manne builds on the groundbreaking work of Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy, whose investigations, starting in 2006, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/dogged-journalist-would-not-walk-away-from-abuse-victims-20140825-1082mu.html">led to the establishment of the 2012 royal commission</a>. Manne’s writing is informed by a variety of source materials, including interviews with McCarthy and various survivors, and evidence from the royal commission.</p>
<p>On the first page, Manne warns us this story is about a “sinister paedophile ring of priests demonic in their cruelty”, supported by “a ‘grey network’ of protectors”. These protectors – clergy and lay people – staffed helplines, were on professional standards committees, mismanaged or ignored complaints, and never reported criminal activity to police.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Crimes of the Cross – Anne Manne (Black Inc.)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>At least six priests associated with the diocese and one lay reader <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/unredacted-case-study-no-42.pdf">have been convicted</a> of child sex offending. Other priests were identified as “prolific” abusers, but not convicted in their lifetime.</p>
<p>Crimes of the Cross centres the stories of survivors. Their testimonies are retold with sensitivity, although explicit and distressing detail is provided at times (including in the opening pages). </p>
<p>Manne’s work concentrates primarily on one survivor – Steven Smith – who, from the age of ten, was repeatedly abused by a priest, Father George Parker. This happened over five years, from 1971 to 1975 – the year Parker was transferred to nearby Gateshead, where the abuse (initially) continued. </p>
<p>The 1971 arrival of Parker, then aged 30, is presented as a disruption to Smith’s happy and carefree childhood. Smith told Manne his childhood summers were spent in Bush Creek, “fishing and swimming”.</p>
<p>Despite this, Smith told Manne his parents’ marital problems made his family vulnerable. Their life revolved around the church community. At first, Smith felt proud of Parker’s attention to him. </p>
<p>However, when he became an altar boy, “everything changed” and the abuse started. Assaults happened at church, in the car with Parker, driving between churches, when his mother sent him to visit the rectory, and when Parker would pull him out of school, no questions asked. Smith said he was abused “fortnightly”; he was raped “hundreds of times”. His abuse, he said, was a “kind of kidnapping”.</p>
<p>Manne writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a psychologist’s report years later stated that Steve had gone through one of the most extreme cases of sexual abuse that she had ever encountered.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583921/original/file-20240324-22-gnijq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Steven Smith.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Black Inc.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through Smith’s and other stories, Manne explores how criminals such as Parker hid behind a “mask” of priesthood, and perpetrated crimes that significantly harmed the lives of those they targeted. She shows the human cost of bad policy and delayed justice.</p>
<p>Smith’s personal story of surviving abuse and campaigning for justice is at the centre of the book, which is divided into five chronological parts. </p>
<p>Shame and fear of social isolation can prevent a survivor from disclosing abuse. “Steve was a bright spark of a kid who saw with sharp clarity the social world around him,” Manne writes. </p>
<p>“He knew the consequences for his mother and family should the situation be made public – shame, expulsion from the church, ostracism from the community.” </p>
<p>While Steve did tell his mother about the abuse in 1975 (on the way home from Gateshead), he would not report it to police until February 2000.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, Smith disclosed to an Anglican helpline – where he spoke to a priest, Graeme Lawrence, who would later be <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6735734/former-anglican-dean-graeme-lawrence-and-the-vortex-of-clerical-child-sexual-abuse/">convicted of sexually assaulting</a> a 15-year-old boy in 1991.</p>
<p>In 2000, Smith reported Parker to the police. A trial against Parker was held in 2001, but when the defence team presented an alibi for him, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-13/priest-dies-weeks-after-child-abuse-charges-reinstated/8178476">the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew the charges</a>. In late 2016, the charges were reinstated. The trial was delayed as Smith gave evidence at the royal commission. Parker died in January 2017, before facing court.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/royal-commission-report-makes-preventing-institutional-sexual-abuse-a-national-responsibility-88564">Royal commission report makes preventing institutional sexual abuse a national responsibility</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Seeking justice</h2>
<p>The second section, Team Church, describes a missed opportunity for justice. After Smith made the police report, Parker was charged and a trial was set for August 2001. </p>
<p>Manne recounts how diocesan staff made efforts to withhold information. For instance, staff, including Lawrence, had “exact records” of when and where clergy had been employed, as it was contained in parish yearbooks. </p>
<p>However, Manne notes when the detective working on the case asked for information about when Parker had been at Gateshead church, “no one in the Anglican Church told him of the existence of these records”. As as result, the detective “was preparing to frame the charges for 1974 – the wrong year”.</p>
<p>The case was no-billed and would not be reopened until after the royal commission.</p>
<p>Manne also shows how the diocese failed to provide pastoral care. Sadly, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2018.1458329">this is not uncommon</a> in cases of abuse in church communities. </p>
<p>In fact, Manne suggests the well-documented failings of Catholic leaders may have worked to obscure what was happening in the Anglican diocese. </p>
<p>Newcastle journalist Joanne McCarthy – who was <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2013/03/28/accidental-crusader-how-a-regional-reporter-prompted-a-royal-commission/">instrumental</a> in reporting instances of abuse within Catholicism – told Manne she didn’t initially understand “how bad child sexual abuse was in the Anglican church”. </p>
<p>In 2016, Manne herself had been trying to get at the “inner workings of the secret, mysterious Catholic committees” who were “responsible for cover ups” when she heard about the public hearings investigating the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. </p>
<p>Within the diocese, staff appeared more interested in protecting the institution than responding to survivors. Some refused to hand parish records to police. Legal representatives used aspects of Steve’s history – not disclosing to his own father, being diagnosed with mental illnesses – against him. Manne astutely notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is common for survivors of child sexual abuse to suffer anxiety, depression and PTSD. Steve’s admission to a psychiatric hospital could have been interpreted as evidence he had been sexually abused. Instead, it was used to undermine his credibility. He was “mad”, it was implied, his testimony unreliable and not to be believed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Manne suggests while Steve was “denigrated in court”, there was “a reservoir of trust and goodwill towards the church”. But this reservoir was not limitless. </p>
<p>Towards the end of this section, Manne’s attention shifts to the mishandling of allegations in the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-03/peter-hollingworth-apologises-child-sex-abuse-royal-commission/7135446">Anglican Diocese of Brisbane</a>. This points to the reality that both abuse and inadequate institutional responses have been widespread. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-cares-for-men-like-brian-houston-the-hillsong-leaders-rise-and-fall-is-a-gripping-story-but-how-was-it-allowed-to-happen-222810">'Who cares for men like Brian Houston?' The Hillsong leader's rise and fall is a gripping story, but how was it allowed to happen?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Denying what ‘ostensibly good men’ do</h2>
<p>While Steve’s experiences propel the book, Manne’s lens is wider. She considers how successive diocesan leaders and staff continued to mismanage complaints and to direct sympathy towards the abusing priests and the institution, rather than the many victim-survivors. </p>
<p>This allows Manne to clearly show the abuse perpetrated by priests was not isolated, nor random events committed by one “bad” man (or even a few bad men). Rather, there was a network of abusers and enablers, as well as systemic failures that allowed the church to become a “cover” for criminal activity. At the centre of the story, Manne states, there is “the denial of what ‘ostensibly good men’ do”.</p>
<p>A pivotal chapter, titled “The Wolf Hiding in Plain Sight”, uncovers the criminal activities of one of these “ostensibly good” men. </p>
<p>In late 2009, Manne tells us, Lawrence – by now the dean of the cathedral – was reported for sexual misconduct with an underage boy (in the early 1980s) to Michael Elliot, an ex-policeman who had been hired by the diocese to deal with sexual abuse complaints. </p>
<p>Lawrence, a powerful, controlling figure, had shaped diocesan culture and “groomed a whole city” for decades. Manne explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By grooming, a paedophile creates compliant, trusting people who simply won’t believe accusations of sexual misconduct. Presenting oneself as a very caring priest establishes the “halo effect”, a reservoir of admiration and goodwill, whereby people see the abuser as beyond reproach, enabling them to hide in plain sight. Grooming creates a network of defenders who can be mobilised when needed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Lawrence’s case, this mobilisation resulted in pushback against Brian Farran – the then Bishop of Newcastle – after Lawrence was defrocked in 2012 due to the sexual abuse allegations against him. </p>
<p>Lawrence’s supporters saw the professional standards unit, which Elliot headed, as troublemakers. Smith and Elliot received death threats, Elliot’s car and home were “repeatedly vandalised”, and his dog went missing.</p>
<p>Manne writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you thought you were dealing with a Christian community, the death threats and intimidation, the vandalism of cars and homes, seems completely shocking. But if you reframed and realised that hidden within the church was a paedophile ring – then it became unsurprising.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Throughout, Manne demonstrates that abuse of power was a key element in the decades of criminal activity within the diocese. At the same time, recognition of survivors was slow. “For many in the church, it was easier to preserve good memories and dismiss survivors as liars.” </p>
<h2>Why weren’t survivors believed?</h2>
<p>The final section of the book asks important questions. Why was the abuse covered up? Why weren’t children believed? Manne’s analysis is both insightful and chilling. She reflects:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The desires of the paedophiles were heinous but simple. The cover-ups by the church hierarchy were dreadful, but you could see the logic: the protection of reputation, avoidance of scandal, fear of losing their income, houses and careers should they turn whistleblower. But the laity – what did [they] get out of it?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why were everyday churchgoers invested in protecting the institution?</p>
<p>Stepping into Newcastle Cathedral, Manne finds an answer. She imagines “the tall figure of Dean Graeme Lawrence sweeping along in his white lace and gold brocade robes, and how, amid this grandeur, a congregation might feel close to God”. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583923/original/file-20240324-24-roymtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>So much of this story, she writes, is about “status and the pursuit of social significance”. People were invested in their image of Lawrence, she concludes. Supporting powerful figures within the church gave regular parishioners a place and purpose. </p>
<p>And that, she presumes, was what Lawrence wanted: “There was no better way to groom a child, their family, and community than by using the altruistic mask of a priest.”</p>
<p>To point out the hypocrisy and systemic failings nested within the diocese, Manne turns to the Christian parable of the Good Samaritan, <a href="https://www.commongrace.org.au/parables_the_good_samaritan">which tells</a> “the story of a person who was attacked, robbed and left half dead on the side of the road”. </p>
<p>In the story, two religious leaders ignore the man, while a social outsider (a Samaritan) stops, sees the injured man and provides care. Manne compares abuse survivors to the person lying beaten on the side of the road, and accuses many clergy and lay people of having “averted their eyes”, just as the leaders in the parable did. </p>
<p>Some, she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>were so focused on gaining social significance, on clawing their way up the church hierarchy, that they forgot the radical egalitarianism at the heart of the teaching of Jesus. They forgot especially what Jesus told the disciples about children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Manne’s reading of the situation breaks my heart, but perhaps that’s the point.</p>
<p>As she draws her book together, she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For some in the church there was a complete failure of moral imagination – an inability or refusal to acknowledge the soul murder of abuse victims. Why this blindness? The answer is terrible. <em>Because the victims were children</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the balance of power, everything was in the favour of powerful men like Lawrence and Parker. Children, who had nothing, were silenced, ignored and shamed. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dassi-erlich-and-her-sisters-were-easy-pickings-for-predators-with-their-abuser-malka-leifers-conviction-and-a-new-book-they-take-control-220325">Dassi Erlich and her sisters were 'easy pickings for predators'. With their abuser Malka Leifer's conviction – and a new book – they take control</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Go on fighting</h2>
<p>Manne closes her book with a somewhat positive take: “Steve never stopped being a fighter.” She gives Smith the final words: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If something is wrong, it’s wrong. You have just got to go on fighting. Don’t ever give up.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As I reached the final pages, I was drained. I cannot begin to fathom the energy survivors such as Smith had to summon to go on fighting – in some cases for 20, 30, 40 years. Over lifetimes.</p>
<p>Manne’s book is certainly an emotionally difficult read, but it is also incredibly important. She highlights the lasting personal and social consequences of abuse, as well as woefully insufficient responses and victim-blaming cultures. She bears witness to the experience of survivors and to their fight for justice. </p>
<p>Yes, every churchgoer, every youth worker, everyone employed by a church – indeed everybody – should read this book. But read it with care (and perhaps with a friend) and pace yourselves: the story it tells is devastating.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosie Clare Shorter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Crimes of the Cross tells how clergy and leaders in the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle covered up allegations, protected abusive priests and failed to care for survivors.Rosie Clare Shorter, Research fellow, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2261172024-03-24T19:06:49Z2024-03-24T19:06:49ZWe’ve taken smoking from ‘normal’ to ‘uncommon’ and we can do the same with vaping – here’s how<p>Vaping is a pressing public health issue. While adult smoking rates continue to fall, vaping rates are rising. Some 7% of adults now <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q559">vape daily</a>, up nearly three-fold since 2019. Most alarmingly, the rate of current vape use – on a daily, weekly or monthly basis – among 18-to-24-year-olds has climbed from 5% in 2019 to 21% in 2023. </p>
<p>Nicotine, especially in high doses, is known to be <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-18-e-cigarettes/18-6-the-health-effects-of-e-cigarette-use/18-6-2-health-effects-of-e-cigarette-use-during-adolescence#_ENREF_4">harmful to brain development</a>. Vaping products also contain more than 200 chemicals, some of them known carcinogens. </p>
<p>While the research on long-term health harms of non-therapeutic vaping is still emerging, there is an urgent need for governments to act in the interests of public health.</p>
<h2>Historical parallels</h2>
<p>We have confronted youth nicotine addiction before. Lessons can be learned from Australia’s decades-long, world-leading efforts to control tobacco.</p>
<p>Firstly, global tobacco organisations <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-18-e-cigarettes/18-1-the-ecigarettemarket">now control</a> the vaping industry. Like smoking historically, vapes are aggressively marketed to young people.</p>
<p>In 1969, in the early years of tobacco control, <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-1-prevalence/1-3-prevalence-of-smoking-adults">36% of adults smoked daily</a>, but prevalence was declining. Tobacco companies sought new young buyers for their products. They <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-push-to-end-tobacco-advertising-in-the-1970s-could-be-used-to-curb-gambling-ads-today-200915">flooded television and radio with advertising</a>, which rapidly drove up youth smoking. We are seeing the devastating effects today of tobacco-induced disease.</p>
<p>Anti-tobacco advocates in 1971 pressured a reluctant Commonwealth government to ban tobacco advertising. They used celebrity-studded, satirical television adverts showing smoking’s health harms, drumming up media attention, and lobbied politicians using international data showing the powerful effect cigarette advertising had on promoting youth smoking. </p>
<p>On the back of growing public outrage, politicians eventually <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-push-to-end-tobacco-advertising-in-the-1970s-could-be-used-to-curb-gambling-ads-today-200915">banned tobacco advertising on television and radio by 1977</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-push-to-end-tobacco-advertising-in-the-1970s-could-be-used-to-curb-gambling-ads-today-200915">How the push to end tobacco advertising in the 1970s could be used to curb gambling ads today</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The rise of the Quit campaigns</h2>
<p>Despite this success, more was needed to drive down smoking. In 1978, the Commonwealth government and the NSW Department of Health funded a <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/287/6399/1125">“Quit for Life” campaign</a> in northern NSW to discover how best to help smokers to quit.</p>
<p>It revealed that memorable ads – notably the famous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCkx610Gn6M&ab_channel=Freeman">“Sponge” ad</a> – combined with counselling and medical assistance were most effective. </p>
<p>“Quit”-branded campaigns were then rolled out in Western Australia (1982), Sydney and Melbourne (1983) and South Australia (1984). </p>
<p>The first Quitline providing guidance on accessing support was trialled in Sydney. In Victoria, a dedicated organisation, <a href="http://www.quit.org.au">Quit</a> Victoria, was established in 1985. From 1987, it received funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), using revenue from cigarette taxes.</p>
<p>Each campaign relied on the same tools: anti-smoking education complemented by a Quitline and other practical support for smokers to quit.</p>
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<h2>Banishing smoking from public space</h2>
<p>Tobacco companies pivoted to sport sponsorship in the 1980s to keep their brands in public view. In response, anti-smoking advocates pushed to close legislative loopholes allowing this “sports-washing”, and Quit Victoria began sponsoring sport.</p>
<p>But the problem of youth smoking <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10552-008-9127-8">re-emerged due to a lack of co-ordinated national action</a>. By the mid-1990s, smoking prevalence among young people <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-1-prevalence/1-6-prevalence-of-smoking-teenagers">was back at 30%</a>. </p>
<p>Advocates pushed for a nationwide education campaign using a consistent message: “<a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/12/suppl_2/ii9.short">Every cigarette is doing you damage</a>”. A nation-wide Quitline service was launched, as were new anti-smoking regulations, including smoke-free areas, stronger health harm warnings on cigarette packs, and increased taxation. <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-1-prevalence/1-6-prevalence-of-smoking-teenagers">Youth smoking rapidly decreased</a>.</p>
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<p>However, success was not guaranteed, and advocates continued pressing. Through the early 2000s, <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-11-advertising/11-9-retail-promotion-and-access">each state progressively banned</a> point-of-sale tobacco advertising, including the visual display of packs. </p>
<p>A Commonwealth-led agreement with the states to co-ordinate their laws led to a nationwide indoor smoking ban from July 1 2007. And, in a world first, the Gillard government <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/a-decade-on-from-plain-packaging-what-is-the-result-20210709-p588e7.html">legislated the plain packaging</a> of tobacco, finally removing all tobacco branding.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-restrictive-vaping-and-tobacco-policies-are-fuelling-a-lucrative-and-dangerous-black-market-225279">Australia's restrictive vaping and tobacco policies are fuelling a lucrative and dangerous black market</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Three major lessons</h2>
<p>This history offers important lessons for the vaping crisis: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>the importance of a multi-pronged strategy, which includes stressing that vaping is addictive and unhealthy, and evidence-based advocacy to government </p></li>
<li><p>the need to provide appropriate supports to help people quit</p></li>
<li><p>a consistent, national approach targeting people of all ages, especially young people, before they become nicotine-dependent.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Tobacco-control efforts were evidence-based, from the science of smoking’s health harms, to the power of cigarette advertising on youth, to the best response strategies.</p>
<p>Public education campaigns about the harms of vapes must also be evidence-based and sophisticated in their targeting of vaping’s appeal.</p>
<p>More than four decades of “Quit” campaigning show the value of complementary resources, including counselling and medical support. Practical supports to help people to stop vaping should be strengthened wherever needed. </p>
<p>Finally, the Commonwealth must continue to lead. The laws implemented by federal Health Minister Mark Butler on March 1 2024 enforce the existing ban on the import of all unregulated vapes, nicotine and non-nicotine alike. The <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-mark-butler-mp/media/world-leading-vaping-legislation-introduced-to-parliament?language=en">second phase of laws</a> promised by the Commonwealth on March 21 enforces existing retail bans that have been widely flouted. It requires the states to assist.</p>
<p>This is a complicated issue of public policy because — despite what some opponents have suggested — <a href="https://simonchapman6.com/2024/03/17/vaping-theology-22-prohibition-has-never-worked-at-any-point-in-history-for-any-other-illicit-substance/">vapes are not prohibited, but regulated</a>. This means they are accessible by prescription for their original intended use: to quit smoking.</p>
<p>To make this work, the Commonwealth must encourage states to enforce bans. It must press for consistent laws across the country regarding the enforcement of vape-free areas. It must also seek a national approach to ensuring doctors and other healthcare providers have up-to-date evidence on prescribing therapeutic e-cigarettes for people seeking to quit smoking.</p>
<p>The health minister should be commended for the strong steps he has taken to tackle non-therapeutic vaping. The government should also take comfort in the knowledge it has the legacy of Australia’s considerable success in tobacco control on its side. </p>
<p>However, a challenge lies ahead with a politically motivated opposition and a Greens cross-bench. Both misrepresent current policy as “prohibition” when it is merely regulation to keep vapes away from young people. </p>
<p>We’ve taken smoking from “normal” to “uncommon”. We can do the same with vaping when these laws come into full effect, providing states and territories are equipped to enforce them.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This piece originally stated the rate of daily vaping among 18-to-24-year-olds has climbed from 5% in 2019 to 21% in 2023. In fact, 21% is current use – either daily, weekly or monthly.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn Holbrook receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Kehoe receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is an employee of Cancer Council Victoria.</span></em></p>Australia’s anti-smoking public health campaign has been hugely successful, and it offers lessons on how to tackle the rise in vaping.Carolyn Holbrook, Associate Professor in History, Deakin UniversityThomas Kehoe, Historian, Cancer Council VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2264762024-03-24T11:00:02Z2024-03-24T11:00:02Z¿Por qué el Estado Islámico habría atacado a Rusia y qué significa para la amenaza terrorista global?<p>Parece casi seguro que el brutal ataque
a una multitud rusa que se disponía a ver un concierto de rock en Moscú el viernes por la noche fue un <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-attack-islamic-state-russia-terror-crocus/32874123.html">atentado terrorista islamista</a>. </p>
<p>Al menos 133 personas murieron y decenas más resultaron heridas después de que hombres armados con armas automáticas <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/moscow-concert-attack-live-updates-rcna144768">irrumpieran</a> en el Crocus City Hall de Moscú y abrieran fuego, provocando una estampida.</p>
<p>El Estado Islámico <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/22/europe/crocus-moscow-shooting/index.html">reivindicó la autoría</a> del atentado, <a href="https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/islamic-state-claims-moscow-attacks">inicialmente</a> a través de su canal de comunicación Amaq y después directamente. El <em>modus operandi</em> del atentado coincide también con <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html?smid=url-share">anteriores</a> ataques del Estado Islámico. </p>
<p>Se ha informado ampliamente de que el atentado fue obra de <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/23/world/moscow-shooting">Estado Islámico Jorasán</a> (ISIS-K), una <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/gunmen-open-fire-on-moscow-concert-hall-crowd-set-building-on-fire-20240323-p5feng.html">rama</a> establecida en 2015 en Afganistán. </p>
<p>Entonces, ¿quién es este grupo, por qué atacaría a Rusia y qué significa esto para la amenaza terrorista global?</p>
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<h2>¿Qué es el ISIS-K?</h2>
<p>ISIS-K es la rama del Estado Islámico que con más constancia y energía ha intentado atentados terroristas en toda Europa, incluso en <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/23/theres-little-reason-to-doubt-attack-on-moscow-venue-was-by-islamic-state">Rusia</a>. El ISIS-K ha <a href="https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/islamic-state-claims-moscow-attacks">planeado</a> unos 21 <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/one-year-islamic-state-worldwide-activity-map">atentados</a> en nueve países en el último año, frente a los ocho del año anterior. </p>
<p>El ISIS-K estuvo sometido a una enorme presión por parte de las fuerzas especiales afganas y las tropas estadounidenses antes de la retirada total de Estados Unidos de Afganistán en 2021. Aunque esa presión ha continuado bajo el régimen talibán, ISIS-K ha <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/us/politics/isis-k-moscow-attack.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&module=&state=default&region=footer&context=breakout_link_back_to_briefing">crecido en fuerza</a> en los últimos años, con varios miles de combatientes que ahora operan en casi <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/04/islamic-state-khorasan-province-is-a-growing-threat-in-afghanistan-and-beyond/">cada</a> una de las 34 provincias de Afganistán. </p>
<p>Si el ISIS-K es realmente responsable del atentado de Moscú, debemos prepararnos para nuevos intentos de atentado, no sólo en Rusia, sino en toda Europa.</p>
<p>Las autoridades europeas han detenido a agentes del ISIS-K en múltiples ocasiones. Tras años de advertencias de que el Estado Islámico estaba reconstruyendo la capacidad y la determinación para reanudar una campaña terrorista internacional, el atentado del viernes demuestra que la amenaza es inmediata y sustancial.</p>
<p>A principios de este mes, los EE.UU., junto con otras cinco naciones, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html?smid=url-share">compartieron</a>
informaciones de inteligencia sobre ISIS-K planeando ataques en Moscú. Sin embargo, el presidente Vladimir Putin y el Kremlin <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/22/europe/crocus-moscow-shooting/index.html">rechazaron estas advertencias la semana pasada</a>, por considerar que formaban parte de un intento de desacreditar a Rusia. </p>
<p>El atentado se produce en el peor momento posible para el despótico dirigente ruso, tras su exitosa “campaña electoral” para reclamar un mandato de seis años más en el poder. </p>
<p>Quizá por ello, el <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/world/europe/moscow-attack-putin.html">discurso televisado de Putin</a> del sábado, de cinco minutos de duración, en el que culpó a Ucrania, llegó tan tarde.</p>
<p>Aún no sabemos <a href="https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1771461905053360366">si el Kremlin seguirá culpando a Ucrania u Occidente del atentado</a> o si pasará a aceptar que el responsable fue el Estado Islámico. </p>
<p>En cualquier caso, es probable que responda con una ola de violencia, tomando medidas enérgicas contra las comunidades minoritarias musulmanas de Rusia en la región del Cáucaso Norte y más allá.</p>
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<h2>¿Por qué atacarían a Rusia?</h2>
<p>Tanto el Estado Islámico en general como el ISIS-K en particular llevan mucho tiempo proclamando su intención de atacar Rusia. </p>
<p>Han <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-23/what-is-isis-k-moscow-terror-attack/103623852">citado</a> la ocupación militar de Afganistán por parte de Rusia en la década de 1980 y su largo historial de represión de las comunidades musulmanas en Rusia, especialmente en el Cáucaso Norte. También han citado el papel de Rusia como salvavidas del brutal régimen de Bashar al-Assad en Siria.</p>
<p>Pero también es probable que fueran <a href="https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/islamic-state-claims-moscow-attacks">la oportunidad y la disponibilidad de personal</a> lo que llevó al grupo a seleccionar un objetivo blando en Moscú. </p>
<p>El Estado Islámico llevó a cabo múltiples <a href="https://twitter.com/azelin/status/1771276860237709441">atentados</a> en Rusia entre 2016 y 2019, mientras que varios complots más fueron desbaratados entre 2021 y 2023. </p>
<p>Muchos de los militantes del ISIS-K <a href="https://eurasianet.org/iran-attack-signals-growing-central-asian-role-in-iskps-external-ops">detenidos</a> en toda Europa, incluida Rusia, en los últimos dos años han sido ciudadanos rusos y personas procedentes de Asia Central con vínculos con Rusia.</p>
<p>Las detenciones más recientes se produjeron este mes, cuando las autoridades rusas afirmaron haber impedido un atentado planeado contra una <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-neutralized-isis-cell-plotting-attack-moscow-synagogue-2024-03-07/">sinagoga</a> en Moscú.</p>
<p>Y el mes pasado, un ciudadano ruso acusado de tener vínculos con el Estado Islámico fue detenido en <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-detains-russian-citizen-accused-being-member-islamic-state-2024-02-29/">Polonia</a>, mientras que otro fue <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkey-arrests-russian-nuclear-plant-islamic-state-probe-sources-say-2024-02-13/">detenido</a> trabajando en una instalación nuclear en construcción en Turquía. </p>
<p>En los últimos años, la inmensa mayoría de los <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/islamic-state-khorasan-expainer/31431763.html">atentados</a> perpetrados con éxito por el ISIS-K han tenido lugar en Afganistán, y muchos de ellos se han dirigido contra la comunidad Hazara, musulmana chiíta minoritaria. </p>
<p>Por ejemplo, el grupo lanzó un atentado suicida masivo frente al <a href="https://theconversation.com/kabul-bombings-a-dark-day-for-afghanistan-and-joe-biden-and-a-harbinger-of-worse-to-come-166883">aeropuerto de Kabul</a> en agosto de 2021, en medio de la caótica evacuación de Kabul, que se saldó con la muerte de unos 170 civiles y 13 militares estadounidenses. </p>
<p>El ISIS-K también perpetró un <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/blast-in-kabul-kills-2-russian-embassy-staff-/6731342.html">atentado contra la embajada rusa</a> en Kabul en septiembre de 2022, en el que murieron al menos seis personas.</p>
<p>En enero de este año, ISIS-K <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-explosions-soleimani-death-anniversary/32758522.html">lanzó</a> un atentado suicida masivo en Kerman, Irán, matando a casi 100 personas en una ceremonia para conmemorar el cuarto aniversario del asesinato del general Qassem Soleimani. </p>
<h2>¿Qué le espera a Putin y a la amenaza terrorista en general?</h2>
<p>Los atentados terroristas, incluidos los perpetrados en regímenes brutales como Irán o Rusia, son trágicos ataques contra personas corrientes que no tienen la culpa de las políticas de los gobiernos bajo los que se ven obligados a vivir.</p>
<p>Cuando son atacados, los regímenes autoritarios tienden a responder con represalias brutales que probablemente conduzcan a ciclos de violencia, con menos moderación y responsabilidad que en el caso típico de las operaciones antiterroristas en sociedades abiertas. </p>
<p>El atentado del viernes por la noche en Moscú fue una pesadilla, pero lamentablemente es probable que el horror sea sólo el principio.</p>
<p>Independientemente de la respuesta que decidan dar Putin y el Kremlin, el atentado nos recuerda que la amenaza terrorista que suponen grupos como el Estado Islámico y Al Qaeda está aumentando de nuevo. Tras cinco años operando principalmente en Asia occidental, Oriente Próximo y África, estos grupos suponen ahora una amenaza renovada para Occidente.</p>
<p>El continuo <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/23/theres-little-reason-to-doubt-attack-on-moscow-venue-was-by-islamic-state">crecimiento</a> tanto de ISIS-K como de al-Qaeda bajo el gobierno talibán en Afganistán debería preocuparnos mucho más de lo que hemos estado reconociendo.</p>
<p>El atentado del viernes es un claro recordatorio de que no debemos mirar hacia otro lado y seguir lavándonos las manos ante cualquier intento de mejorar las cosas en Afganistán. No hay respuestas fáciles, pero dar la espalda y no hacer nada sólo empeorará la situación.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Barton no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>Tras cinco años operando principalmente en Asia Occidental, Oriente Próximo y África, los grupos terroristas islamistas vuelven a cobrar fuerza en Occidente.Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation; Scholar -In-Residence Asia Society Australia, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2264642024-03-23T23:29:15Z2024-03-23T23:29:15ZWhy would Islamic State attack Russia and what does this mean for the terrorism threat globally?<p>It appears almost certain the brutal assault on a Russian crowd settling down to watch a rock concert in Moscow on Friday night was an Islamist terrorist <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-attack-islamic-state-russia-terror-crocus/32874123.html">attack</a>. </p>
<p>At least 133 people were left dead and scores more were injured after gunmen with automatic weapons <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/moscow-concert-attack-live-updates-rcna144768">stormed</a> the Crocus City Hall in Moscow and opened fire, triggering a stampede.</p>
<p>Islamic State <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/22/europe/crocus-moscow-shooting/index.html">claimed responsibility</a> for the attack, <a href="https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/islamic-state-claims-moscow-attacks">initially</a> through its Amaq media channel and then directly. The modus operandi of the attack also fits with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html?smid=url-share">previous</a> Islamic State attacks. </p>
<p>It has been widely reported the attack was the work of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/23/world/moscow-shooting">Islamic State Khorasan</a> (ISIS-K), a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/gunmen-open-fire-on-moscow-concert-hall-crowd-set-building-on-fire-20240323-p5feng.html">branch</a> established in 2015 in Afghanistan. </p>
<p>So who is this group, why would they attack Russia and what does this mean for the broader terrorism threat?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-terror-blast-highlights-success-and-growing-risk-of-isis-k-regional-strategy-220586">Iran terror blast highlights success – and growing risk – of ISIS-K regional strategy</a>
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<h2>What is ISIS-K?</h2>
<p>ISIS-K is the Islamic State branch that has most consistently and energetically attempted terrorist attacks across Europe, including in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/23/theres-little-reason-to-doubt-attack-on-moscow-venue-was-by-islamic-state">Russia</a>. ISIS-K has <a href="https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/islamic-state-claims-moscow-attacks">planned</a> some 21 <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/one-year-islamic-state-worldwide-activity-map">attacks</a> in nine countries in the past year, up from eight the previous year. </p>
<p>ISIS-K had been under tremendous pressure from the Afghan Special Forces and American troops before the United States full withdrew from the country in 2021. Although that pressure has continued under Taliban rule, ISIS-K has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/us/politics/isis-k-moscow-attack.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&module=&state=default&region=footer&context=breakout_link_back_to_briefing">grown in strength</a> in recent years, with several thousand fighters now operating in almost <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/04/islamic-state-khorasan-province-is-a-growing-threat-in-afghanistan-and-beyond/">every</a> one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. </p>
<p>If ISIS-K is indeed responsible for the Moscow attack, we should prepare for further attempted attacks – not just in Russia but across Europe.</p>
<p>European authorities have arrested ISIS-K operatives on multiple occasions. After years of warnings that Islamic State was rebuilding the capacity and resolve to resume an international terrorist campaign, Friday’s attack shows the threat is immediate and substantial.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-string-of-assassinations-in-afghanistan-point-to-isis-k-resurgence-and-us-officials-warn-of-possible-attacks-on-american-interests-in-next-6-months-201852">A string of assassinations in Afghanistan point to ISIS-K resurgence – and US officials warn of possible attacks on American interests in next 6 months</a>
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<p>Earlier this month, the US, together with five other nations, had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html?smid=url-share">shared</a> intelligence they had of ISIS-K planning for attacks in Moscow. But these warnings were, as recently as last week, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/22/europe/crocus-moscow-shooting/index.html">rejected</a> by President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin as being part of an attempt to discredit Russia. </p>
<p>The attack comes at the worst possible moment for Russia’s despotic leader, in the wake of his successful “election campaign” to claim a mandate for a further six years in power. </p>
<p>And it is perhaps for this reason that Putin’s five-minute televised <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/world/europe/moscow-attack-putin.html">address</a> on Saturday, in which he directed blame toward Ukraine, came so late.</p>
<p>We don’t yet know whether the Kremlin will continue to <a href="https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1771461905053360366">blame</a> Ukraine or the West for the attack, or if it will pivot to accept Islamic State was responsible. </p>
<p>Either way, it’s likely to respond with a wave of violence, cracking down on Russia’s Muslim minority communities in the North Caucasus region and beyond.</p>
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<h2>Why would they target Russia?</h2>
<p>Both Islamic State in general, and ISIS-K in particular, have long proclaimed their intention of striking Russia. </p>
<p>They have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-23/what-is-isis-k-moscow-terror-attack/103623852">cited</a> Russia’s earlier military occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and its long history of crackdowns on Muslim communities in Russia, particularly in the North Caucasus. They have also cited Russia’s role in providing a lifeline to the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.</p>
<p>But it was also likely <a href="https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/islamic-state-claims-moscow-attacks">opportunity and personnel</a> that led the group to select a soft target in Moscow, as much as anything else. </p>
<p>Islamic State carried out multiple <a href="https://twitter.com/azelin/status/1771276860237709441">attacks</a> in Russia from 2016–19, while several more plots were disrupted from 2021–23. </p>
<p>Many of the ISIS-K militants <a href="https://eurasianet.org/iran-attack-signals-growing-central-asian-role-in-iskps-external-ops">arrested</a> across Europe, including in Russia, over the past two years have been Russian nationals and people from Central Asia with links to Russia.</p>
<p>The most recent arrests occurred this month when Russian authorities claimed they prevented a planned attack on a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-neutralized-isis-cell-plotting-attack-moscow-synagogue-2024-03-07/">synagogue</a> in Moscow.</p>
<p>And last month, a Russian national accused of having Islamic State links was arrested in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-detains-russian-citizen-accused-being-member-islamic-state-2024-02-29/">Poland</a>, while another was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkey-arrests-russian-nuclear-plant-islamic-state-probe-sources-say-2024-02-13/">arrested</a> working at a nuclear facility under construction in Turkey. </p>
<p>In recent years, the vast majority of successful ISIS-K <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/islamic-state-khorasan-expainer/31431763.html">attacks</a> have been in Afghanistan, with many targeting the minority Shia Muslim Hazara community. </p>
<p>For instance, the group launched a massive suicide bombing outside the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kabul-bombings-a-dark-day-for-afghanistan-and-joe-biden-and-a-harbinger-of-worse-to-come-166883">Kabul airport</a> in August 2021, in the midst of the chaotic evacuation of Kabul, which resulted in around 170 civilians and 13 US military personnel being killed. </p>
<p>ISIS-K also carried out a <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/blast-in-kabul-kills-2-russian-embassy-staff-/6731342.html">bombing of the Russian Embassy</a> in Kabul in September 2022, killing at least six.</p>
<p>In January of this year, ISIS-K <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-explosions-soleimani-death-anniversary/32758522.html">launched</a> a massive suicide bombing in Kerman, Iran, killing nearly 100 people at a ceremony to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. </p>
<h2>What next for Putin and the broader terrorism threat?</h2>
<p>Terrorist attacks, including those in brutal regimes like Iran or Russia, are tragic assaults on ordinary people who are not to blame for the politics of policies of the governments they are forced to live under.</p>
<p>When attacked, authoritarian regimes tend to respond with brutal reprisals that are likely to lead to cycles of violence, with less restraint and accountability than is typically the case with counter-terrorism operations in open societies. </p>
<p>Friday night’s attack in Moscow was nightmarish, but sadly the horror is likely to be just the beginning.</p>
<p>Regardless of how Putin and the Kremlin choose to respond, the attack comes as a reminder that the threat of terrorism posed by groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda is now on the rise again. After five years of mostly operating in western Asia, the Middle East and Africa, these groups now pose a renewed threat to the West.</p>
<p>The continued <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/23/theres-little-reason-to-doubt-attack-on-moscow-venue-was-by-islamic-state">growth</a> of both ISIS-K and al-Qaeda under Taliban rule in Afghanistan should concern us much more than we have been acknowledging.</p>
<p>Friday’s attack is a clear reminder we should not look away and continue to wash our hands of any attempt to improve things in Afghanistan. There are no easy answers, but turning away and doing nothing will only make the situation worse.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-we-expect-from-six-more-years-of-vladimir-putin-an-increasingly-weak-and-dysfunctional-russia-224259">What can we expect from six more years of Vladimir Putin? An increasingly weak and dysfunctional Russia</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Barton receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is engaged in a range of projects funded by the Australian government that aim to understand and counter violent extremism in Australia and in Southeast Asia and Africa.</span></em></p>After five years of operating mostly in western Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Islamist terror groups are again growing in strength in the West.Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation; Scholar -In-Residence Asia Society Australia, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2261222024-03-20T19:04:04Z2024-03-20T19:04:04Z‘How long before climate change will destroy the Earth?’: research reveals what Australian kids want to know about our warming world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582994/original/file-20240320-16-lx7lnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C19%2C6374%2C4224&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-boy-taking-photos-land-burnt-1563856276">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day, more children discover they are living in a climate crisis. This makes <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext">many children feel</a> sad, anxious, angry, powerless, confused and frightened about what the future holds. </p>
<p>The climate change burden facing young people is inherently unfair. But they have the potential to be the most powerful generation when it comes to creating change.</p>
<p>Research and public debate so far has largely <a href="https://www.hhrjournal.org/2014/07/climate-change-childrens-rights-and-the-pursuit-of-intergenerational-climate-justice/">failed to engage</a> with the voices and opinions of children – instead, focusing on the views of adults.
<a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(24)00100-3">Our research</a> set out to change this. </p>
<p>We asked 1,500 children to tell us what they wanted to know about climate change. The results show climate action, rather than the scientific cause of the problem, is their greatest concern. It suggests climate change education in schools must become more holistic and empowering, and children should be given more opportunities to shape the future they will inherit.</p>
<h2>Questions of ‘remarkable depth’</h2>
<p>In Australia, research shows <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264546580_Children's_Fears_hopes_and_heroes_Modern_childhood_in_Australia">43% of children</a> aged 10 to 14 are worried about the future impact of climate change, and one in four believe the world will end before they grow up.</p>
<p>Children are often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.853">seen as</a> passive, marginal actors in the climate crisis. Evidence of an intergenerational divide is also emerging. Young people report feeling <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378023001103">unheard</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718520302748?via%3Dihub">betrayed by older generations</a> when it comes to climate change. </p>
<p>Our study examined 464 questions about climate change submitted to the <a href="https://curiousclimate.org.au/schools/">Curious Climate Schools</a> program in Tasmania in 2021 and 2022. The questions were asked by primary and high school students aged 7 to 18.</p>
<p>The children’s questions reveal a remarkable depth of consideration about climate change.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-well-does-the-new-australian-curriculum-prepare-young-people-for-climate-change-183356">How well does the new Australian Curriculum prepare young people for climate change?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="teenagers hold signs at rally" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582991/original/file-20240320-30-u8t2vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The vast majority of children worry about climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-united-kingdom-15th-february-1315212515">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Kids are thinking globally</h2>
<p>The impacts of climate change were discussed in 38% of questions. About 10% of questions asked about impacts on places, such as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With the rate of climate change, what will the Earth be like when I’m an adult?</p>
<p>What does the melting of glaciers in Antarctica mean for Tassie (Tasmania) and our climate?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These questions demonstrate children’s understanding of the global scale of the climate crisis and their concern about places close to home.</p>
<p>How climate change will affect humans accounted for 12% of questions. Impacts on animals and biodiversity were the subject of 9% of questions. Examples include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Will climate change make us live elsewhere, eg underwater or in space?</p>
<p>What species may become extinct due to climate change, which species could adapt to changing conditions and have we already seen this begin to happen?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Approximately 7% of questions asked about ice melting and/or sea-level rise, while 3% asked about extreme weather or disasters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="four children in school uniforms reading book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6262%2C4694&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582988/original/file-20240320-30-1bimcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children wonder what Earth will look like when they are adults.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/row-multiethnic-elementary-students-reading-book-143878204">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘What can we do?’</h2>
<p>Action on climate change was the most frequent theme, discussed in 40% of questions. Some questions involved the kinds of action needed and others focused on the challenges in taking action. They include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How would you make rapid climate improvements without sacrificing industry and finance?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Around 16% of questions asked about, or implied, who was responsible for climate action. Governments and politicians were the largest group singled out. Other questions asked about the responsibilities of schools, communities, states, countries and individuals. Examples include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What can I do as a 12-year-old to help the planet, and why will these actions help us?</p>
<p>If the world knows about climate change, why has not much happened?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some 20% of questions suggested action by specific sectors of the economy. This included stopping using fossil fuels and moving to renewable energy or nuclear power. Some suggested action related to food, agriculture or fisheries.</p>
<h2>Existential worries</h2>
<p>In 27% of questions, students raised existential concerns about climate change. This reveals the urgency and frustration many children feel.</p>
<p>The largest group of these questions (15%) asked for predictions of future events. Some 5% of questions implied the planet, or humanity, was doomed. They included:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Will all the reefs die?</p>
<p>How long before climate change will destroy the Earth?</p>
<p>How long will we be able to survive on our planet if we do nothing to try to slow down/reverse climate change?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Why is Earth getting hot?</h2>
<p>Scientific questions about climate change made up 25% of the total. The largest group related to the causes and physical processes, such as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What causes the Earth to get hotter due to climate change?</p>
<p>Would our world be the same now if the Industrial Revolution hadn’t happened?</p>
<p>How do they know the climate and percentage of gases, such as methane, in the 1800s?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What all this means</h2>
<p>Our analysis indicates children are very concerned about how climate change affects the things and places they care about. Children also want to know how to contribute to solutions – either through their own actions or influencing adults, industries and governments. Children asked fewer questions about the scientific evidence for climate change. </p>
<p>So what are the implications of this?</p>
<p>Research shows that where climate change is taught in schools, it is primarily <a href="http://www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Siperstein-JSE-Nov-2015-Hope-Issue-PDF.pdf">represented as</a> a scientific and environmental issue, without focus on the social and political causes and challenges.</p>
<p>While children need information about the science of global warming, our research suggests this is not enough. Climate change should be integrated into all subjects in the curriculum, from social studies to maths to food. </p>
<p>Teachers should also be trained to understand climate challenges themselves, and to identify and support students suffering from climate distress.</p>
<p>And children must be given opportunities to get involved in shaping the future. Governments and industry should commit to listening to children’s concerns about climate change, and acting on them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-tend-to-be-very-gentle-how-teachers-are-navigating-climate-change-in-the-classroom-212370">'I tend to be very gentle': how teachers are navigating climate change in the classroom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chloe Lucas received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article, as part of the Curious Climate Schools program. She is also funded by the Australian Research Council. Chloe is a member of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the Institute of Australian Geographers and the International Environmental Communication Association, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Australian Geographer.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Earl-Jones received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article, as part of the Curious Climate Schools program. She is also funded by Westpac Scholars Trust and the Australian Commonwealth Government Research Training Program. She is a member of the Institute of Australian Geographers. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabi Mocatta received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office (now re-named Renewables, Climate and Future Industries Tasmania) for the research and engagement reported here. She is also President of the Board of the International Environmental Communication Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gretta Pecl receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment, Department of Primary Industries NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet (Tasmania), the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation, and has received travel funding support from the Australian government for participation in the IPCC process. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Beasy received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article, as part of the Curious Climate School program. She is a member of the Centre of Marine Socioecology and the Australian Association of Environmental Education. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Kelly receives funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, and the Centre for Marine Socioecology at the University of Tasmania.</span></em></p>The result shows climate change education in schools must become more holistic and empowering, and children should be allowed to shape the future they will inherit.Chloe Lucas, Lecturer and Research Fellow, School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences. Coordinator, Education for Sustainability Tasmania, University of TasmaniaCharlotte Earl-Jones, PhD Candidate, University of TasmaniaGabi Mocatta, Research Fellow in Climate Change Communication, Climate Futures Program, University of Tasmania, and Lecturer in Communication, Deakin UniversityGretta Pecl, Professor, at IMAS and Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of TasmaniaKim Beasy, Senior Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of TasmaniaRachel Kelly, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOCI) Consortium, Memorial University, Canada, and Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256682024-03-17T19:01:29Z2024-03-17T19:01:29ZWhy is toddler milk so popular? Follow the money<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582110/original/file-20240315-28-i7q9zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C997%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/toddler-hands-holding-cup-white-fresh-2057012747">FotoDuets/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toddler milk is popular and becoming more so. Just over a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jhn.12851">third of Australian toddlers</a> drink it. Parents <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01933-X/fulltext">spend</a> hundreds of millions of dollars on it globally. Around the world, toddler milk makes up nearly half of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mcn.13097">total formula milk sales</a>, with a 200% growth since 2005. Growth is expected to continue.</p>
<p>We’re concerned about the growing popularity of toddler milk – about its nutritional content, cost, how it’s marketed, and about the impact on the health and feeding of young children. Some of us voiced our concerns on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-12/toddler-milk-nutrition-benefits-marketing-parents/103517864">ABC’s 7.30 program recently</a>.</p>
<p>But what’s in toddler milk? How does it compare to cow’s milk? How did it become so popular?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gOFTZmptaN0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">We shared our concerns about toddler milk and what this means for parents and children.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/misleading-food-labels-contribute-to-babies-and-toddlers-eating-too-much-sugar-3-things-parents-can-do-194168">Misleading food labels contribute to babies and toddlers eating too much sugar. 3 things parents can do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is toddler milk? Is it healthy?</h2>
<p>Toddler milk is marketed as appropriate for children aged one to three years. This <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10140693/">ultra-processed food</a> <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/nutrition-and-packaging-characteristics-of-toddler-foods-and-milks-in-australia/1C6BA80843B773FC058BD3087D1A22BA">contains</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>skim milk powder (cow, soy or goat)</p></li>
<li><p>vegetable oil</p></li>
<li><p>sugars (including added sugars)</p></li>
<li><p>emulsifiers (to help bind the ingredients and improve the texture)</p></li>
<li><p>added vitamins and minerals.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Toddler milk <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/nutrition-and-packaging-characteristics-of-toddler-foods-and-milks-in-australia/1C6BA80843B773FC058BD3087D1A22BA">is usually</a> lower in calcium and protein, and higher in sugar and calories than regular cow’s milk. Depending on the brand, a serve of toddler milk can contain as much sugar as a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/nutrition-and-packaging-characteristics-of-toddler-foods-and-milks-in-australia/1C6BA80843B773FC058BD3087D1A22BA">soft drink</a>. </p>
<p>Even though toddler milks have <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-019-01950-5">added vitamins and minerals</a>, these are <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/373358/9789240081864-eng.pdf?sequence=1">found in and better absorbed</a> from <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/synthetic-vs-natural-nutrients">regular foods and breastmilk</a>. Toddlers do not need the level of nutrients found in these products if they are eating a varied diet. </p>
<p>Global health authorities, including the <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/373358/9789240081864-eng.pdf?sequence=1">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), and Australia’s <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/the_guidelines/n56_infant_feeding_guidelines_150917(1).pdf">National Health and Medical Research Council</a>, do not recommend toddler milk for healthy toddlers.</p>
<p>Some children with specific metabolic or dietary medical problems might need tailored alternatives to cow’s milk. However, these products generally are not toddler milks and would be a specific product prescribed by a health-care provider. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.choice.com.au/babies-and-kids/feeding-your-baby/first-foods/articles/are-toddler-milks-necessary">Toddler milk</a> is also up to <a href="https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-022-00765-1">four to five times</a> more expensive than regular cow’s milk. “Premium” toddler milk (the same product, with higher levels of vitamins and minerals) is more expensive. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/undernourished-stressed-and-overworked-cost-of-living-pressures-are-taking-a-toll-on-australians-health-223625">cost-of-living crisis</a>, this means families might choose to go without other essentials to afford toddler milk.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman holding blue plastic spoon of formula powder over open tin of formula, milk bottle in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toddler milk is more expensive than cow’s milk and contains more sugar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/powder-milk-blue-spoon-on-light-779728180">Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/8-everyday-foods-you-might-not-realise-are-ultra-processed-and-how-to-spot-them-197993">8 everyday foods you might not realise are ultra processed – and how to spot them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How toddler milk was invented</h2>
<p>Toddler milk was created so infant formula companies could <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/nutritionlibrary/breastfeeding/information-note-cross-promotion-infant-formula.pdf?sfvrsn=81a5b79c_1">get around rules</a> preventing them from advertising their infant formula. </p>
<p>When manufacturers <a href="https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(21)01197-7/abstract">claim benefits</a> of their toddler milk, many parents assume these claimed benefits apply to infant formula (known as <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/nutritionlibrary/breastfeeding/information-note-cross-promotion-infant-formula.pdf?sfvrsn=81a5b79c_1">cross-promotion</a>). In other words, marketing toddler milks also boosts interest in their infant formula.</p>
<p>Manufacturers also create brand loyalty and recognition by making the labels of their toddler milk look similar to their infant formula. For parents who used infant formula, toddler milk is positioned as the next stage in feeding.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-feeding-with-formula-heres-what-you-can-do-to-promote-your-babys-healthy-growth-106165">If you're feeding with formula, here's what you can do to promote your baby's healthy growth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How toddler milk became so popular</h2>
<p>Toddler milk is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article-abstract/82/3/425/7172846?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">heavily marketed</a>. Parents <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37203416/">are told</a> toddler milk is healthy and provides extra nutrition. Marketing <a href="https://uconnruddcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2909/2020/09/Infant-Formula-and-Toddler-Milk-Brief_9-23-19.pdf">tells parents</a> it will benefit their child’s growth and development, their brain function and their immune system.</p>
<p>Toddler milk is also presented as a <a href="https://uconnruddcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2909/2020/09/Infant-Formula-and-Toddler-Milk-Brief_9-23-19.pdf">solution</a> to fussy eating, which is common in toddlers.</p>
<p>However, regularly drinking toddler milk could increase the risk of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kathy-Cowbrough-2/publication/44645020_Feeding_the_toddler_12_months_to_3_years--challenges_and_opportunities/links/53e2409e0cf2d79877aa22e5/Feeding-the-toddler-12-months-to-3-years--challenges-and-opportunities.pdf">fussiness</a> as it reduces opportunities for toddlers to try new foods. It’s also sweet, needs no chewing, and essentially displaces energy and nutrients that whole foods provide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Toddler wearing bib with food smeared on face" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toddler milk is said to help fussy eating, but it may make things worse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-girl-toddler-picking-her-food-492304303">zlikovec/Shutterstock</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-tell-if-your-kids-fussy-eating-phase-is-normal-92118">How to tell if your kid's 'fussy eating' phase is normal</a>
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<h2>Growing concern</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-04-2022-who-reveals-shocking-extent-of-exploitative-formula-milk-marketing">WHO</a>, along with public health academics, has been raising concerns about the marketing of toddler milk for years.</p>
<p>In Australia, moves to curb how toddler milk is promoted have gone nowhere. Toddler milk is in a category of foods that are <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2008B00660/asmade/text">allowed to be fortified</a> (to have vitamins and minerals added), with no marketing restrictions. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission also <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-to-reauthorise-agreement-to-not-advertise-infant-formula-seeks-submissions-on-toddler-milk-advertising">has concerns</a> about the rise of toddler milk marketing. Despite this, there is no change in how it’s regulated.</p>
<p>This is in contrast to <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/topics/pregnancy-birth-and-baby/breastfeeding-infant-nutrition/marketing-infant-formula">voluntary marketing restrictions</a> in Australia for infant formula.</p>
<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01933-X/fulltext">enough evidence</a> to show the marketing of commercial milk formula, including toddler milk, influences parents and undermines child health.</p>
<p>So governments need to act to protect parents from this marketing, and to put <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01933-X/fulltext">child health over profits</a>. </p>
<p>Public health authorities and advocates, including us, are calling for the restriction of marketing (not selling) of all formula products for infants and toddlers from birth through to age three years.</p>
<p>Ideally, this would be mandatory, government-enforced marketing restrictions as opposed to <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/topics/pregnancy-birth-and-baby/breastfeeding-infant-nutrition/marketing-infant-formula">industry self-regulation</a> in place currently for infant formulas.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/essays-on-health-how-food-companies-can-sneak-bias-into-scientific-research-65873">Essays on health: how food companies can sneak bias into scientific research</a>
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<h2>We musn’t blame parents</h2>
<p>Toddlers are eating <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.13097">more processed foods</a> (including toddler milk) than ever because time-poor parents are seeking a convenient option to ensure their child is getting adequate nutrition.</p>
<p>Formula manufacturers have used this information, and created a demand for an unnecessary product. </p>
<p>Parents want to do the best for their toddlers, but they need to know the marketing behind toddler milks is misleading.</p>
<p>Toddler milk is an unnecessary, unhealthy, expensive product. Toddlers just need whole foods and breastmilk, and/or cow’s milk or a non-dairy, milk alternative.</p>
<p>If parents are worried about their <a href="https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/nutrition-fitness">child’s eating</a>, they should see a health-care professional.</p>
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<p><em>Anthea Rhodes, a paediatrician from Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer McCann is a researcher with the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), a co-chair of the Infant and Toddler Foods Alliance, and a member of the Public Health Association of Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karleen Gribble is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia, the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative, the Australian Breastfeeding Association, the Infant and Toddler Food Research Alliance and the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Hull is a member of, and volunteers for, the Australian Breastfeeding Association and is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia. She is also an executive on the Infant and Toddler Food Research Alliance. Naomi is the National Coordinator for the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Australia.</span></em></p>Toddler milk is high in sugar and can leave toddlers reluctant to try new foods. It’s also heavily marketed to time-poor parents. We’re worried.Jennifer McCann, Lecturer Nutrition Sciences, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin UniversityKarleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney UniversityNaomi Hull, PhD candidate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256802024-03-14T19:25:21Z2024-03-14T19:25:21ZCould ADHD drugs reduce the risk of early death? Unpacking the findings from a new Swedish study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581833/original/file-20240314-23-yi6tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8192%2C5457&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-beautiful-woman-taking-tablet-glass-2177446101">Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can have a considerable impact on the day-to-day functioning and overall wellbeing of people affected. It causes a variety of symptoms including difficulty focusing, impulsivity and hyperactivity. </p>
<p>For many, a diagnosis of ADHD, whether in childhood or adulthood, is life changing. It means finally having an explanation for these challenges, and opens up the opportunity for treatment, including medication.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-stimulants-actually-work-to-reduce-adhd-symptoms-215801">ADHD medications</a> can cause side effects, they generally improve symptoms for people with the disorder, and thereby can significantly boost quality of life.</p>
<p>Now a <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2816084">new study</a> has found being treated for ADHD with medication reduces the risk of early death for people with the disorder. But what can we make of these findings?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1768034305169654267"}"></div></p>
<h2>A large study from Sweden</h2>
<p>The study, published this week in JAMA (the prestigious journal of the American Medical Association), was a large cohort study of 148,578 people diagnosed with ADHD in Sweden. It included both adults and children.</p>
<p>In a cohort study, a group of people who share a common characteristic (in this case a diagnosis of ADHD) are followed over time to see how many develop a particular health outcome of interest (in this case the outcome was death). </p>
<p>For this study the researchers calculated the mortality rate over a two-year follow up period for those whose ADHD was treated with medication (a group of around 84,000 people) alongside those whose ADHD was not treated with medication (around 64,000 people). The team then determined if there were any differences between the two groups.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/adhd-medications-have-doubled-in-the-last-decade-but-other-treatments-can-help-too-191574">ADHD medications have doubled in the last decade – but other treatments can help too</a>
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<h2>What did the results show?</h2>
<p>The study found people who were diagnosed and treated for ADHD had a 19% reduced risk of death from any cause over the two years they were tracked, compared with those who were diagnosed but not treated. </p>
<p>In understanding this result, it’s important – and interesting – to look at the causes of death. The authors separately analysed deaths due to natural causes (physical medical conditions) and deaths due to unnatural causes (for example, unintentional injuries, suicide, or accidental poisonings).</p>
<p>The key result is that while no significant difference was seen between the two groups when examining natural causes of death, the authors found a significant difference for deaths due to unnatural causes.</p>
<h2>So what’s going on?</h2>
<p>Previous studies have suggested ADHD is associated with an increased risk of <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2789090?">premature death</a> from unnatural causes, such as injury and poisoning.</p>
<p>On a related note, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32662370/">earlier studies</a> have also suggested taking ADHD medicines may reduce premature deaths. So while this is not the first study to suggest this association, the authors note previous studies addressing this link have generated mixed results and have had significant limitations.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-stimulants-actually-work-to-reduce-adhd-symptoms-215801">How do stimulants actually work to reduce ADHD symptoms?</a>
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<p>In this new study, the authors suggest the reduction in deaths from unnatural causes could be because taking medication alleviates some of the ADHD symptoms responsible for poor outcomes – for example, improving impulse control and decision-making. They note this could reduce fatal accidents.</p>
<p>The authors cite a number of studies that support this hypothesis, including research showing <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/124/1/71/71653/Do-Stimulants-Protect-Against-Psychiatric?redirectedFrom=fulltext">ADHD medications</a> may prevent the onset of mood, anxiety and <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/104/2/e20/62430/Pharmacotherapy-of-Attention-deficit-Hyperactivity?redirectedFrom=fulltext">substance use disorders</a>, and <a href="https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(19)31274-0/abstract">lower the risk</a> of accidents and criminality. All this could reasonably be expected to lower the rate of unnatural deaths.</p>
<h2>Strengths and limitations</h2>
<p>Scandinavian countries have well-maintained national registries that collect information on various aspects of citizens’ lives, including their health. This allows researchers to conduct excellent population-based studies. </p>
<p>Along with its robust study design and high-quality data, another strength of this study is its size. The large number of participants – almost 150,000 – gives us confidence the findings were not due to chance.</p>
<p>The fact this study examined both children and adults is another strength. Previous research relating to ADHD has often focused primarily on children.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hormones-and-the-menstrual-cycle-can-affect-women-with-adhd-5-common-questions-210627">How hormones and the menstrual cycle can affect women with ADHD: 5 common questions</a>
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<p>One of the important limitations of this study acknowledged by the authors is that it was observational. Observational studies are where the researchers observe and analyse naturally occurring phenomena without intervening in the lives of the study participants (unlike randomised controlled trials). </p>
<p>The limitation in all observational research is the issue of confounding. This means we cannot be completely sure the differences between the two groups observed were not either partially or entirely due to some other factor apart from taking medication.</p>
<p>Specifically, it’s possible lifestyle factors or other ADHD treatments such as psychological counselling or social support may have influenced the mortality rates in the groups studied.</p>
<p>Another possible limitation is the relatively short follow-up period. What the results would show if participants were followed up for longer is an interesting question, and could be addressed in future research.</p>
<h2>What are the implications?</h2>
<p>Despite some limitations, this study adds to the evidence that diagnosis and treatment for ADHD can make a profound difference to people’s lives. As well as alleviating symptoms of the disorder, this study supports the idea ADHD medication reduces the risk of premature death. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this highlights the importance of diagnosing ADHD early so the appropriate treatment can be given. It also contributes to the body of evidence indicating the need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-rising-mental-health-problems-but-a-shortage-of-services-group-therapy-is-offering-new-hope-214711">improve access</a> to mental health care and support more broadly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225680/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hassan Vally does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The study found people with ADHD who took medication had a lower risk of dying from unnatural causes than those with ADHD who were not taking medication.Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240642024-03-14T19:24:44Z2024-03-14T19:24:44ZWhat washing machine settings can I use to make my clothes last longer?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581554/original/file-20240313-30-b0w0se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=194%2C310%2C4780%2C3135&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-accidentally-dyeing-laundry-inside-washing-236885413">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Orbiting 400 kilometres above Earth’s surface, the astronauts on the International Space Station live a pretty normal social life, if not for one thing: they happily wear their unwashed clothes <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/nasa-glenn-interns-take-space-washing-machine-designs-for-a-spin/">for days and weeks at a time</a>. They can’t do their laundry <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Keeping_your_underwear_clean_on_the_Moon">just yet</a> because water is scarce up there.</p>
<p>But down here on Earth, washing clothes is a large part of our lives. <a href="https://bigee.net/media/filer_public/2013/03/28/bigee_domestic_washing_machines_worldwide_potential_20130328.pdf">It’s estimated</a> that a volume of water equivalent to 21,000 Olympic swimming pools is used every day for domestic laundry worldwide.</p>
<p>Fibres from our clothes make their way into the environment via the air (during use or in the dryer), water (washing) and soil (lint rubbish in landfill). Most of this fibre loss is invisible – we often only notice our favourite clothing is “disappearing” when it’s too late.</p>
<p>How can you ensure your favourite outfit will outlast your wish to wear it? Simple question, complex answer.</p>
<h2>Washing machines are not gentle</h2>
<p>When you clean the filters in your washing machine and dryer, how often do you stop to think that the lint you’re holding <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-laundry-releases-microfibres-weighing-the-equivalent-of-1-500-buses-each-year-199712"><em>was</em>, in fact, your clothes</a>?</p>
<p>Laundering is harsh on our clothes, and <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250346">research confirms this</a>. Several factors play a role: the type of washing machine, the washing cycle, detergents, temperature, time, and the type of fabric and yarn construction. </p>
<p>There are two types of domestic washing machines: top-loader and front-loader. Mechanical agitation (the way the machine moves the clothes around) is one of the things that helps ease dirt off the fabric.</p>
<p>Top-loaders have a vertical, bucket-like basket with a paddle, which sloshes clothes around in a large volume of water. Front-loaders have a horizontal bucket which rotates, exposing the clothes to a smaller volume of water – it takes advantage of gravity, not paddles.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person selecting a program on a front loader washing machine panel with buttons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581556/original/file-20240313-26-zgawjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Washing machine programs tend to be carefully programmed to ensure minimal damage to the garments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-using-washing-machine-5591460/">RDNE Stock Project/Pexels</a></span>
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<p>Top-loading machines <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12541-010-0047-7">tend to be more aggressive</a> towards fabrics than front-loaders due to the different mechanical action and larger volumes of water. </p>
<p>Washing machine panels also present many choices. Shorter, low-temperature programs <a href="https://clevercare.info/more-eco-temperature-tips">are usually sufficient for everyday stains</a>. Choose longer or <a href="https://iprefer30.eu/animations/UK/wash-brochure-uk.pdf">high-temperature programs</a> only for clothing you have concerns about (healthcare uniforms, washable nappies, etc.).</p>
<p>Generally, washing machine programs are carefully selected combinations of water volume, agitation intensity and temperature recommended by the manufacturer. They take into consideration the type of fabric and its level of cleanliness.</p>
<p>Select the wrong program and you can say goodbye to your favourite top. For example, high temperatures or harsh agitation may cause some fibres to weaken and break, causing holes in the garment.</p>
<h2>Some fabrics lose fibres more easily than others</h2>
<p>At a microscopic level, the fabric in our clothes is made of yarns – individual fibres twisted together. The nature and length of the fibres, the way they are twisted and the way the yarns form the fabric can determine how many fibres will be lost during a wash.</p>
<p>In general, if you want to lose fewer fibres, you should wash less frequently, but some fabrics are affected more than others. </p>
<p>Open fabric structures (knits) with loose yarns <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98836-6">can lose more fibres</a> than tighter ones. Some sports clothing, like running shirts, are made of continuous filament yarn. These fibres are less likely to come loose in the wash. </p>
<p>Cotton fibres are only a few centimetres long. Twisted tightly together into a yarn, they can still escape.</p>
<p>Wool fibres are also short, but have an additional feature: scales, which make wool clothes much more delicate. Wool fibres can come loose like cotton ones, but also tangle with each other during the wash due to their scales. This last aspect is what causes wool garments to shrink when <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/004051756403400303">exposed to heat</a> and agitation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tangle of white fibres in a loose web." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581557/original/file-20240313-22-s1rv88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cotton fibres under a microscope, magnified 100 times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fibres-under-microscope-100x-1013172277">Dr. Norbert Lange/Shutterstock</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/laundry-is-a-top-source-of-microplastic-pollution-heres-how-to-clean-your-clothes-more-sustainably-217072">Laundry is a top source of microplastic pollution – here's how to clean your clothes more sustainably</a>
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<h2>Go easy on the chemicals</h2>
<p>The type of detergent and other products you use also makes a difference.</p>
<p>Detergents contain a soap component, enzymes to make stains easier to remove at low temperature, and fragrances. Some contain harsher compounds, such as bleaching or whitening agents.</p>
<p>Modern detergents are very effective at <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-living/laundry-and-cleaning/laundry-detergents/review-and-compare/laundry-detergents">removing stains such as food</a>, and you don’t need to use much.</p>
<p>An incorrect choice of wash cycles, laundry detergent and bleaching additives could cause disaster. Certain products, like bleach, can <a href="https://site.extension.uga.edu/textiles/textile-basics/understand-your-fibers/">damage some fibres like wool and silk</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, research on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749120366872?via%3Dihub">fabric softeners and other treatments</a> <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0233332&type=printable">continues</a> – there’s no one-size-fits-all answer about their potential impact on our clothes.</p>
<h2>Just skip laundry day</h2>
<p>So, how to ensure your clothes last longer? The main tip is to wash them less often.</p>
<p>When it’s time for a wash, carefully read and follow the care labels. In the future, our washing machines will <a href="https://www.teknoscienze.com/tks_article/trends-in-laundry-by-2030/">recognise fabrics and select the wash cycle</a>. For now, that’s our responsibility.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-your-clothes-last-longer-its-good-for-your-bank-account-and-the-environment-too-201823">How to make your clothes last longer – it's good for your bank account and the environment too</a>
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<p>And the next time you throw your shirt into the dirty laundry basket, stop. Think of the astronauts orbiting above Earth and ask yourself: if they can go without clean laundry for a few days, maybe I can too? (Although we don’t recommend just burning your dirty undies, either.)</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandra Sutti has received research funding from the Australian Research Council, the Marine Bioproducts Cooperative Research Centre, the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre and by companies participating in associated projects such as the ARC Research Hub for Functional and Sustainable Fibres and the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Green Chemistry, as well as from industry partners associated with these grants, such as HeiQ Pty Ltd, Xefco Pty Ltd, C. Sea Solutions Pty Ltd (trading as ULUU) and Simba Global Pty/Ltd. Alessandra is a paid member of the HeiQ Innovation Advisory Board, is a member of the American Chemical Society and serves as a volunteer member on Standards Australia ME-009 Committee (Microplastics). She collaborates closely with The GLOBE Program (through GLOBE Italy), The University of California Berkeley and San Francisco State University, co-developing microplastics monitoring protocols and is involved in environmental education programmes.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amol Patil is engaged at the ARC Research Hub for Functional and Sustainable Fibres, a collaboration between Deakin University, the Australian Research Council and industry partners such as Simba Global Pty Ltd, Xefco Pty Ltd, HeiQ Pty Ltd, and Sea Solutions P/L (trading as ULUU). He is also working on a joint project sponsored by HeiQ-Marine bioproducts (MBCRC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maryam Naebe is the recipient of Discover Natural Fibre Initiative Innovation Award. She has received funding through competitive grants and industry projects including Australian Research Council ARC Research Hub, ARC Discovery Project, Australian Wool Innovation, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Cotton Incorporated (USA), Ford Motor Company (USA).
</span></em></p>Next time you do your laundry, think like an astronaut – wash your clothes as little as possible.Alessandra Sutti, Associate Professor, Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin UniversityAmol Patil, Reseach Engineer, Deakin UniversityMaryam Naebe, Associate professor, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252792024-03-12T01:27:27Z2024-03-12T01:27:27ZAustralia’s restrictive vaping and tobacco policies are fuelling a lucrative and dangerous black market<p>Australia currently has the most restrictive tobacco and vaping policies in the developed world. Australian smokers are taxed at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2023/may/04/australia-tobacco-tax-is-among-the-highest-in-the-world-and-is-about-to-get-higher">one of the highest rates</a> among comparable nations, with taxes set to <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/smokers-hit-with-3-3b-tobacco-tax-increase-20230502-p5d4vb">further increase</a> at rate of 5% per year. Meanwhile, Australia is the <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/ladocs/submissions/82844/Submission%2032%20-%20Australian%20Association%20of%20Convenience%20Stores%20(AACS).pdf">only country</a> to have a prescription model for accessing vaping products. </p>
<p>These policies have begun to attract international attention. The UK government, for example, recently announced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/06/jeremy-hunt-tax-vaping-products-raise-tobacco-duty">increased taxes on tobacco and vaping products</a>, while the Labour opposition has <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/05/vaping-prescription-labour-government-ecigarettes/">vowed to emulate Australia’s prescription model</a> if it wins this year’s election. </p>
<p>Australia’s policies have been <a href="https://www.phrp.com.au/issues/march-2023-volume-33-issue-1/reigniting-tobacco-control/">backed by some medical experts</a> as a means to drive down and eventually eliminate smoking and vaping. There has been much <a href="https://www.cancer.org.au/media-releases/2022/cancer-council-warns-urgent-intergovernmental-action-is-essential-to-stop-an-epidemic-of-e-cigarette-use-among-young-people">alarm</a> around youth vaping, in particular. </p>
<p>While arguably well-intentioned, the increasing taxes and restrictions on cigarettes and vaping products have resulted in an unintended and dangerous outcome – the rise of a lucrative and expanding black market for these products.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-government-launches-war-on-vaping-declaring-it-the-number-one-behavioural-issue-in-high-schools-204760">Albanese government launches war on vaping, declaring it the 'number-one behavioural issue in high schools'</a>
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<h2>Tobacco ‘war’ unfolding in Victoria</h2>
<p>Emerging black markets tend to attract established organised crime groups, which have the capacity to use violence to enforce contracts, collect debts and threaten competitors. </p>
<p>Over the past six months, for instance, there have been <a href="https://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/8541181/four-teens-arrested-over-tobacco-war-firebombings/">more than 40 firebombings</a> of stores selling illicit tobacco and vapes across Victoria. In October, police said the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12606833/Craigieburn-driveby-Melbournes-tobacco-war-Comanchero.html">killing of Melbourne man in a drive-by shooting</a> was also linked to the underworld war over illegal tobacco products. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/22/earn-or-burn-the-firebombings-and-underworld-conflicts-exposing-australias-illicit-tobacco-trade#:%7E:text=4%20months%20old-,'Earn%20or%20burn'%3A%20the%20firebombings%20and%20underworld%20conflicts,exposing%20Australia's%20illicit%20tobacco%20trade&text=Before%20the%20firebombings%20comes%20the,their%20business%20will%20be%20torched.">Reports of standover tactics and extortion</a> targeting tobacco shop owners are also on the rise. </p>
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<p>According to police, this serious criminal activity is being committed at the <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/victoria-news-police-arrest-alleged-ringleader-of-melbourne-tobacco-wars-thats-led-to-dozens-of-arson-attacks/3bcfd073-5087-4650-8953-1fae702defb5">behest of rival criminal networks</a> who are engaged in a “turf war” for control of the lucrative trade.</p>
<p>Since October, police have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/13/tobacco-wars-victoria-police-turning-the-corner-in-battle-against-arson-attacks-as-more-arrests-made">searched almost 70 stores</a> believed to be involved in the illegal tobacco trade, seizing more than 100,000 vapes with an estimated street value of A$3.2 million, along with 3.2 million cigarettes. </p>
<p>While most of the violence associated with the black market appears to be taking place in Victoria, this is a national problem. Last month in Sydney, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-06/nsw-health-tga-raid-e-cigarettes-vapes-vaping-sydney-tobacco/103430412">health authorities seized over 30,000 vapes and 118,000 cigarettes</a> with a estimated street value of $1.1 million. </p>
<p>These numbers may sound impressive, but they represent a drop in the ocean of the total black market. Authorities <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/victorias-illegal-vape-market-worth-up-to-500-million/video/3048f28cd78094b601d0e17255034c82">estimate</a> the size of the illicit vape market could be worth up to $500 million in Victoria alone. </p>
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<h2>The economics of the black market</h2>
<p>The black market for illicit tobacco and vaping products has been driven by economic forces on both the supply and demand side. </p>
<p>On the demand side, smokers are <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/alcohol/alcohol-drug-use-interactive-data">disproportionately concentrated among lower socio-economic groups</a>. Many are unable or unwilling to pay the ever-increasing prices for cigarettes. </p>
<p>People who vape are also largely rejecting the government’s prescription model, with 87% reporting they <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/b8b298cc-6d3f-4ab0-a238-9bd63f300c09/national-drug-strategy-household-survey-2022-2023.pdf?v=20240229072409&inline=true">source their vapes illegally</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=98%2C0%2C2897%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581136/original/file-20240312-26-gmqam6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Vaping rates are on the increase, particularly among younger adults.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-smokes-new-vape-pod-system-1525671461">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This demand is only likely to increase as cigarette prices increase further and prescription vapes become even less appealing with the introduction of <a href="https://adf.org.au/insights/vaping-changes-australia/">new flavour restrictions</a>. </p>
<p>On the supply side, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1745-9125.12202">economic models</a> suggest traffickers of illicit products are attracted to opportunities that present the lowest risks and highest rewards. </p>
<p>Similar to drugs like cocaine, the importation of illicit tobacco offers attractive profits. The difference is that while importing large quantities of cocaine can lead to <a href="https://www.cdpp.gov.au/crimes-we-prosecute/serious-drugs/importing-and-exporting-drugs-or-precursors">substantial prison sentences</a>, the penalties for the importation of illicit tobacco <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/about-ato/tax-avoidance/the-fight-against-tax-crime/our-focus/illicit-tobacco">are not as severe</a>.</p>
<p>Vapes are similarly low risk and highly profitable. They can be purchased wholesale from China for as <a href="https://www.made-in-china.com/products-search/hot-china-products/Wholesale_I_Vape.html">little as $2.50</a> and sold “on the street” in Australia for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-04/parent-pleads-for-help-to-deal-with-vaping-teens-as-governments/102296538">more than ten times that amount</a>. </p>
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<h2>The limits and dangers of prohibition</h2>
<p>These economic realities suggest it is unlikely law enforcement agencies will be able to effectively tackle the black market under current government settings. </p>
<p>The Australian Border Force is already stretched beyond capacity tackling the booming <a href="https://www.acic.gov.au/publications/illicit-drug-data-report/illicit-drug-data-report-2020-21">illicit drug market</a>. So, even if eight out of ten consignments of illicit vapes are intercepted at the border (an unrealistically high proportion on the best of days), the two that make it through are sufficient for traffickers to make a profit.</p>
<p>And while law enforcement agencies have made inroads with arrests of black marketeers and seizures of their products, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17440570701739702">these are often quickly replaced</a> so trafficking operations can continue unabated.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-bad-is-vaping-and-should-it-be-banned-197913">How bad is vaping and should it be banned?</a>
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<p>As previous examples of prohibition on alcohol and other drugs have demonstrated, the dangers of black markets extend beyond systemic violence. Other harms include the influx of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/25/toxic-chemicals-found-in-vapes-seized-from-nsw-schools-and-retailers">inferior and adulterated products</a>, which can pose even more health risks than legal tobacco products. Young people also have greater access to vapes as black market retailers <a href="https://www.cancer.org.au/media-releases/2023/alarming-new-data-reveals-9-in-10-teens-find-access-to-illegal-vapes-easy">ignore restrictions on sales to minors</a>. (It should be noted, though, that many retailers may be doing so under duress.) </p>
<p>Added to this is the risk of criminalisation of consumers. A teenager in NSW was recently <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/teens/dont-touch-him-wild-scenes-as-teen-scuffles-with-police-during-arrest-over-vape/news-story/2edb9243d66eb0b49c9a5875b7ee9425">arrested</a>, for example, following an altercation with police over his possession of a vape. </p>
<p>Then there is the lost tax revenue from tobacco goods sold under the counter, which the Taxation Office <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/about-ato/research-and-statistics/in-detail/tax-gap/tobacco-tax-gap/latest-estimates-and-findings">estimated</a> at $2.3 billion in 2021-22.</p>
<p>The Australian public and policymakers, as well as other countries considering emulating our policies, need to be mindful of these risks and the implacable economic forces that are driving the black market.</p>
<p>Australia’s tobacco and vaping policies have transformed two largely legal and peaceful markets into increasingly dangerous and uncontrolled ones. The situation could even get worse in the absence of meaningful legislative reform, enhanced multi-agency cooperation, nationally consistent policy platforms and the winding back of some restrictions. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315257341-26/economics-drug-prohibition-drug-legalization-jeffrey-miron">history of prohibition</a> has taught us time and again, there is a “sweet spot” in restricting the sale of harmful products – one that limits access and reduces harm, but is not so onerous as to create a large black market. The violence unfolding on our streets suggests our current tobacco and vaping polices are failing to strike this balance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Martin has received funding from the Australian Institute of Criminology and the National Health and Medical Research Centre for research into illicit markets. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Bright receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Institute of Criminology.</span></em></p>Black markets tend to attract established organised crime groups, which have the capacity to use violence to enforce contracts, collect debts and threaten competitors.James Martin, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Deakin UniversityDavid Bright, Professor of Criminology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238392024-03-11T19:14:12Z2024-03-11T19:14:12ZPrefabricated and build-to-rent houses could help bring rents down<p><em>This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/housing-series-2024-153769">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>Australia’s rental vacancy rate has hit a historic low of close to zero. The latest estimate from SQM Research is <a href="https://sqmresearch.com.au/graph_vacancy.php?national=1&t=1">1.1%</a>. The latest estimate from the property listing firm Domain is <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/research/vacancy-rates-february-2024-1266500/">0.7%</a>.</p>
<p>As would be expected with hardly any of Australia’s rental properties vacant and available for rent, rents have soared – at first in 2022 only for <a href="https://theconversation.com/rent-crisis-average-rents-are-increasing-less-than-you-might-think-189154">newly advertised</a> properties, and later for properties in general as measured by average rents.</p>
<p>The Bureau of Statistics measure of average capital city rents climbed <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release">7.3%</a> throughout 2023. It would have climbed by more – by 8.5% – had the bureau not taken account of the increased rent assistance in the May budget, which depressed recorded rents by 1.2%.</p>
<h2>Demand surged while new supply sank</h2>
<p>Vacancy rates have fallen and rents have climbed because the demand for living space has <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/brief/why-does-australia-have-rental-crisis-and-what-can-be-done-about-it">surged</a>; at first in the aftermath of lockdowns as Australians sought accommodation with <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/mar/renters-rent-inflation-and-renter-stress.html">fewer housemates and more home office space</a>, and later as borders reopened and Australia’s population swelled.</p>
<p>At the same time, the number of dwellings completed dived in response to shortages of both labour and materials.</p>
<p>Before COVID about 50,000 new dwellings were completed per quarter. Since then, completions have rarely exceeded <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/building-and-construction/building-activity-australia/latest-release">45,000</a>.</p>
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<h2>Tweaking tax concessions would do little to help</h2>
<p>While the Australian Greens are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/16/greens-are-targeting-tax-breaks-for-investors-to-make-buying-a-home-affordable-for-renters-max-chandler-mather-says">pressing</a> the government to wind back capital gains tax concessions and limit <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/review/tax-white-paper/negative-gearing">negative gearing</a> in order to wind back home prices, there’s little reason to think the changes would do much to reduce rents.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/about-ato/research-and-statistics/in-detail/taxation-statistics/taxation-statistics-2020-21/statistics/individuals-statistics#Table8Individuals">Half</a> of all Australian landlords negatively gear by making a net loss on rental income in order to profit later from concessionally taxed capital gains. Attacking these tax concessions would be likely to cause some of them to reconsider being landlords.</p>
<p>But if they sold, more renters would be able to buy and stop renting, leaving the balance of renters and properties for rent little changed. </p>
<h2>Rent assistance and caps won’t much help either</h2>
<p>While there is popular support for increasing rent assistance, and while it has <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release">materially cut rents paid</a> over the past year, it won’t create more rental properties.</p>
<p>Very big increases in rent assistance might even lift rents further by increasing the amount renters are able to pay. However, the effect is unlikely to be big because Commonwealth rent assistance is <a href="https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/who-can-get-rent-assistance?context=22206">restricted to welfare recipients</a>.</p>
<p>Rent caps or freezes don’t increase supply either, and run the risk of encouraging a <a href="https://theconversation.com/rent-freezes-and-rent-caps-will-only-worsen-not-solve-australias-rental-crisis-208099?notice=Article+has+been+updated.">black market</a> in bidding to pay rents over the legally sanctioned cap.</p>
<h2>What’s needed is more homes, in the right places</h2>
<p>The government’s new <a href="https://www.housingaustralia.gov.au/housing-australia-future-fund-facility-and-national-housing-accord-facility">Housing Australia Future Fund</a> and associated agreements are intended to support the delivery of 20,000 new social and 20,000 new affordable homes over the next five years.</p>
<p>Separately, the Commonwealth and the states have agreed to an ambitious target of <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/meeting-national-cabinet-working-together-deliver-better-housing-outcomes">1.2 million</a> “new well-located homes” over the next five years, up from <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/building-and-construction/building-activity-australia/latest-release">918,200</a> over the past five years.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth has set aside <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/meeting-national-cabinet-working-together-deliver-better-housing-outcomes">A$3 billion</a> for “performance-based funding” to the states paid at the rate of <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-national-cabinet-brisbane">$15,000</a> for each new well-located home they deliver in excess of their share of 1 million new homes in five years.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/national-cabinets-new-housing-plan-could-save-renters-billions-211696">National Cabinet’s new housing plan could save renters billions</a>
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<p>If the states and territories are able to deliver 1.2 million homes over five years rather than 1 million, <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-cabinets-new-housing-plan-could-fix-our-rental-crisis-and-save-renters-billions-211696">Grattan Institute analysis</a> suggests rents will be 4% lower than they would have been.</p>
<p>NSW is displaying the sort of initiative that will be needed. The state is allowing developers of projects worth more than A$75 million to build <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/supporting-affordable-housing-construction">taller buildings</a> with more accommodation as long as they use 15% of the floor space for affordable housing. </p>
<p>NSW is also allowing <a href="https://www.millsoakley.com.au/thinking/radical-break-with-past-planning-policies-to-boost-housing-supply/">denser development</a> within 400 metres of 31 train stations.</p>
<h2>Build-to-rent would help</h2>
<p>In Australia, most rental properties (even apartments) are owned by individual so-called “mum and dad” investors.</p>
<p>Overseas in the United States and Europe, they are more likely to be owned by corporations who build <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/analysis/brief/what-build-rent">entire blocks</a> to lease. </p>
<p>These corporations are more concerned about long-term returns than individual owners who want the flexibility to sell, so they tend to offer long-term leases on better terms.</p>
<p>In last year’s budget the government offered build-to-rent tax rules which the Property Council of Australia says could create <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-07/what-are-solutions-to-australias-housing-crisis-build-to-rent/102143802">thousands of extra homes</a>.</p>
<p>On one hand, they are unlikely to be homes for low-income renters. Developers require commercial returns. On the other hand, an increasing number of renters have high incomes.</p>
<p>The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute says while in 1996 households with incomes worth $140,000 a year or more in today’s dollars accounted for only 8% of renters, by 2021 they accounted for <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/analysis/news/more-rich-are-renting-while-low-income-renters-face-greater-stress">24%</a>. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-help-to-buy-scheme-will-help-but-it-wont-solve-the-housing-crisis-224956">The government's Help to Buy scheme will help but it won't solve the housing crisis</a>
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<h2>Pre-fabs could also help, and more apprentices</h2>
<p>Another thing that would help is encouraging the use of prefabrication to cut construction times and costs, using locally sourced materials. </p>
<p>Prefabricated homes were used to house <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/postwar-melbourne-needed-homes-and-workers-snail-kits-gave-us-both-20200819-p55n4o.html">migrants</a> after the second world war. More recently they have been used to house <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/17/modular-homes-on-way-to-accommodate-new-south-wales-flood-victims">NSW flood victims</a>.</p>
<p>They will still require skilled builders and tradespeople, who are in short supply. Only about half of enrolled <a href="https://masterbuilders.com.au/builders-welcome-targeted-support-for-apprentices/">apprentices</a> complete their training, and the dropout rate has been climbing.</p>
<p>The government has announced an <a href="https://www.dewr.gov.au/australian-apprenticeships/strategic-review-australian-apprenticeship-incentive-system">in-depth review</a> of Australia’s system of apprenticeship support. It’s due to report later this year.</p>
<p>It might also help to prioritise the migration of <a href="https://www.afr.com/property/residential/foreign-tradies-wanted-to-fix-housing-shortfall-20240108-p5evrb">tradespeople</a>. It’s hard to build more homes in the right places, but that’s what we need.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-prefab-building-revolution-can-help-resolve-both-the-climate-and-housing-crises-220290">A prefab building revolution can help resolve both the climate and housing crises</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223839/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ameeta Jain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia builds only 45,000 new homes per quarter. If we really want to fix the rent crisis we’ll have to build more.Ameeta Jain, Associate Professor, Deakin Business School, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2241502024-03-06T19:14:59Z2024-03-06T19:14:59ZOscar contender Poor Things is a film about disability. Why won’t more people say so?<p><em>Readers are advised this article includes an offensive and outdated disability term in a quote from the film.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/">Poor Things</a> is a spectacular film that has garnered critical praise, scooped up awards and has <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2024">11 Oscar nominations</a>. That might be the problem. Audiences become absorbed in another world, so much so our usual frames of reference disappear. </p>
<p>There has been much discussion about the film’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/24/bound-gagged-poor-things-feminist-masterpiece-male-sex-fantasy-oscar-emma-stone-ruffalo#:%7E:text=In%20the%201970s%2C%20pornographers%20jumped,but%20it%20is%20not%20feminist.">feminist potential (or betrayal)</a>. What’s not being talked about in mainstream reviews is <a href="https://letterboxd.com/reelreviewdude/film/poor-things-2023/">disability</a>. This seems strange when two of the film’s main characters are disabled.</p>
<p>Set in a fantasy version of Victorian London, unorthodox Dr Godwin Baxter (William Dafoe) finds the just-dead body of a heavily pregnant woman in the Thames River. In keeping with his menagerie of hybrid animals, Godwin removes the unborn baby’s brain and puts it into the skull of its mother, who becomes Bella Baxter (Emma Stone).</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/poor-things-meet-the-radical-scottish-visionary-behind-the-new-hit-film-220080">Poor Things: meet the radical Scottish visionary behind the new hit film</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is Bella really disabled?</h2>
<p>Stone has been praised for her ability to embody a small child who rapidly matures into a hypersexual person – one who has not had time to absorb the restrictive rules of gender or patriarchy. </p>
<p>But we also see a woman using her behaviour to express herself because she has <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-can-all-help-to-improve-communication-for-people-with-disabilities-101199">complex communication barriers</a>. We see a woman who is highly sensitive and responsive to the sensory world around her. A woman moving through and seeing the world differently – just like the fish-eye lens used in many scenes. </p>
<p>Women like this exist and they have historically been <a href="https://theconversation.com/by-naming-pennhurst-stranger-things-uses-disability-trauma-for-entertainment-dark-tourism-and-asylum-tours-do-too-185581">confined</a>, studied and monitored like Bella. When medical student Max McCandless (Ramy Youssef) first meets Bella, he offensively exclaims “what a very pretty retard!” before being told the truth and promptly declared her future husband.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1742450376346099962"}"></div></p>
<p>Even if Bella is not coded as disabled through her movements, speech and behaviour, her onscreen creator and guardian is. Godwin Baxter has facial differences and other impairments which require assistive technology. </p>
<p>So ignoring disability as a theme of the film seems determined and overt. The absurd humour for which the film is being lauded is often at Bella’s “primitive”, “monstrous” or “damaged” actions: words which aren’t usually used to describe children, but have been used to describe disabled people <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo5974359.html">throughout history</a>. </p>
<p>In reviews, Bella’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/movies/poor-things-review.html">walk and speech</a> are compared to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/01/poor-things-review-yorgos-lanthimos-emma-stone">characters like the Scarecrow</a> in The Wizard of Oz, rather than a disabled woman. So why the resistance?</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘She is an experiment. Her brain and her body are not quite synchronised.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/by-naming-pennhurst-stranger-things-uses-disability-trauma-for-entertainment-dark-tourism-and-asylum-tours-do-too-185581">By naming 'Pennhurst', Stranger Things uses disability trauma for entertainment. Dark tourism and asylum tours do too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Freak shows and displays</h2>
<p>Disability studies scholar <a href="https://ewspring2017.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/6/6/25669479/garland-thomson--politics.of.staring.pdf">Rosemarie Gardland-Thomson writes</a> “the history of disabled people in the Western world is in part the history of being on display”. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, when Poor Things is set, “freak shows” featuring disabled people, <a href="https://theconversation.com/frozen-in-time-the-casts-of-indigenous-australians-who-performed-in-human-zoos-are-chilling-124982">Indigenous people</a> and others with bodily differences were extremely popular.</p>
<p>Doctors used freak shows to find specimens – like <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1341524/">Joseph Merrick</a> (also known as the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080678/">Elephant Man</a> and later depicted on screen) who was used for entertainment before he was exhibited in lecture halls. In the mid-1800s, as medicine became a profession, observing the disabled body shifted from a public spectacle to a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/69099637/ELIZABETH_STEPHENS_Anatomy_as_Spectacle_Public_Exhibitions_of_the_Body_from_1700_to_the_Present">private medical gaze</a> that labelled disability as “sick” and pathologised it.</p>
<p>Poor Things doesn’t just circle around these discourses of disability. Bella’s body is a medical experiment, kept locked away for the private viewing of male doctors who take notes about her every move in small pads. While there is something glorious, intimate and familiar about Bella’s discovery of her own sexual pleasure, she immediately recognises it as worth recording in the third person: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve discovered something that I must share […] Bella discover happy when she want!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The film’s narrative arc ends with Bella herself training to be a doctor but one whose more visible disabilities have disappeared.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">What does ‘disability coding’ mean? You see it in films including Forrest Gump and Poor Things.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Framing charity and sexual abuse</h2>
<p>Even the film’s title is an expression often used to describe disabled people. The <a href="https://www.yacvic.org.au/ydas/resources-and-training/together-2/values-and-ideas/two-models-of-disability/#TOC-3">charity model of disability</a> sees disabled people as needing pity and support from others. Financial poverty is briefly shown at a far-off port in the film and Bella initially becomes a sex worker in Paris for money – but her more pressing concern is sexual pleasure. </p>
<p>Disabled women’s sexuality is usually seen as something that needs to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/26/disabled-australian-women-face-forced-sterilisation-abortion-and-contraception-health-groups-say">be controlled</a>. It is frequently assumed disabled women are either hypersexual or <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2019.1647148">de-gendered and sexually innocent</a>.</p>
<p>In the real world disabled people experience much higher rates of abuse, including sexual assault, than others. Last year’s <a href="https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/">Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability</a> found women with disability are nearly twice as likely as women without disability to have been assaulted. Almost a third of women with disability <a href="https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/system/files/2023-09/Final%20Report%20-%20Volume%203%2C%20Nature%20and%20Extent%20of%20Violence%2C%20abuse%2C%20neglect%20and%20exploitation.pdf">have experienced sexual assault</a> by the age of 15. Bella’s hypersexual curiosity appears to give her some layer of protection – but that portrayal denies the lived experience of many. </p>
<h2>Watch but don’t ignore</h2>
<p>Poor Things is a stunning film. But ignoring disability in the production ignores the ways in which the representation of disabled bodies play into deep and historical stereotypes about disabled people. </p>
<p>These representations continue to shape lives. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-shame-and-pleasure-of-masturbation-poor-things-gets-girls-early-sexual-feelings-right-220662">The shame and pleasure of masturbation: Poor Things gets girls’ early sexual feelings right</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The absurd humour which the film is being lauded for is often at Bella’s ‘primitive’, ‘monstrous’ or ‘damaged’ actions: words which have been used to describe disabled people throughout history.Louisa Smith, Senior lecturer, Deakin UniversityGemma Digby, Lecturer - Health & Social Development, Deakin UniversityShane Clifton, Associate Professor of Practice, School of Health Sciences and the Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231972024-03-05T01:45:10Z2024-03-05T01:45:10ZIn his entertaining cancer memoir, Peter Goldsworthy explores the ‘necessary narcissism’ of illness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579734/original/file-20240304-18-q0yp5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3994%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation, Jeff Estanislao</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Illness memoir is based on a tension between the general and the particular. The writer presents (to use a medical term) as both representing all sufferers of a particular malady – in this case, myeloma – and a unique individual experiencing a specific, unrepeatable event. Peter Goldsworthy, who is both a GP and a prize-winning writer, is better equipped than most to engage with this tension. </p>
<p>Indeed, one of the reasons <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-cancer-finishing-school-9781761340772">The Cancer Finishing School</a> is so exciting (if I can use such a word in this context) is because it so effectively deals with this. It ties together the experiential and the abstract, the intellectual and the embodied, and the everyday and the extraordinary (not to mention other tensions more specific to cancer, such as between rationalism and magical thinking).</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review – The Cancer Finishing School by Peter Goldsworthy (Penguin)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Myeloma is a type of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-go-wrong-in-the-blood-a-brief-overview-of-bleeding-clotting-and-cancer-76400">blood cancer</a> that develops in the bone marrow and is both “an incurable disease” and a “good cancer to get”. </p>
<p>His memoir follows a simple narrative arc, familiar to illness memoirs (or “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119270/">autopathography</a>”) : diagnosis (accidentally via a scan of a problematic knee); treatment (with chemotherapy); hospitalisation (for a stem-cell transplant); and the return home (for recuperation). </p>
<p>And yet, Goldsworthy, the good writer-doctor that he is, makes this familiar journey utterly compelling. The reasons for this are, to use a term favoured by doctors, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multifactorial">multifactorial</a>. </p>
<p>At one level, Goldsworthy’s account is gripping because the simple facts are inherently interesting. Stem-cell transplant is an extraordinary medical procedure – half science-fiction, half medieval trial by ordeal – involving liquid mustard gas and the killing off of the patient’s bone marrow. This process, Goldsworthy notes, has the alarming mortality rate of 10% after 200 days.</p>
<p>The chemotherapy is also, perhaps surprisingly, fascinating. In this instance, it employs a steroid hormone called <a href="https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/medicines/brand/amt,2956011000036100/dexmethsone">dexamethasone</a> to counter the side effects of the chemotherapeutic agents. Dexamethasone produces periods of intense creativity and activity in Goldsworthy. Recreating “Dex bliss” is the source of much febrile inventiveness in the first third of The Cancer Finishing School.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/living-with-complex-illness-and-surviving-to-tell-about-it-anna-spargo-ryans-chronic-optimism-189135">Living with complex illness and surviving to tell about it: Anna Spargo-Ryan's chronic optimism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A time of intense living</h2>
<p>But “good material” is not in itself enough. Goldsworthy puts a lot of effort into representing what we might call the phenomenological intensity of not just the “dex” mania, but the entire “journey” of cancer. </p>
<p>Faced with the prospect of death, Goldsworthy recounts a time of intense living, and he gives a powerful sense of what that experience was like bodily and emotionally (a distinction that dexamethasone profoundly calls into question). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579735/original/file-20240304-18-fy5cnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>And while Goldsworthy’s style is characteristically unfussy, the memoir is filled with an equally characteristic intense use of word play, anecdotes and motifs that criss-cross the narrative. These give the work a complex structural harmony. </p>
<p>Sometimes those motifs might more accurately be called riffs, and such riffing is continuous with Goldsworthy’s marvellous use of jokes. Jokes, writes Goldsworthy, “are useful forward scouts when entering enemy territory, especially the no-go areas of my own head”. At another level, then, Goldsworthy’s memoir is absorbing because it is so entertaining. </p>
<p>That is not to say Goldsworthy “merely” deals with the sombre in comic terms. He can face the dark night of the soul square on, but the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/seriocomic">serio-comic</a> is his habitual mode of attack. This mode is one that allows for important insights, borne out of an impressively nuanced and authoritative attention to its subject. For instance, Goldsworthy considers the “necessary narcissism” of illness in the following terms:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For once everything is about you – you might die, after all. The stakes don’t come higher. I have seen it in my patients too often to judge it. Like a rat in a loaf, the mere knowledge that you have cancer eats out a bigger and bigger space for itself in your brain: a mental black hole that consumes ever more energy, attention, worry, love and conversation, often uselessly. In short: the knowledge you have cancer can be a kind of cancer itself. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The nonjudgmental reference to patients is significant. While an individual’s reckoning with mortality is usually thought of in terms of a solitary person, one of the compelling features of The Cancer Finishing School is how Goldsworthy powerfully renders his experiences as inherently concerned with others. </p>
<p>Goldsworthy’s self is very much a “relational” one: part of a network of carers, family members (especially his partner, Lisa), friends and patients who fill the pages with their own stories, insights and jokes. </p>
<p>Some of the family and friends are well known, such as the Nobel laureate (and fellow citizen of Adelaide) <a href="https://theconversation.com/j-m-coetzees-provocative-first-book-turns-50-this-year-and-his-most-controversial-turns-25-210891">J.M. Coetzee</a>, the celebrated American writer Joan Didion (whose appearance makes for one of the book’s comic highpoints) and the late poet <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-his-last-poems-les-murray-offers-a-gentle-gracious-bow-of-farewell-and-just-a-few-barbs-176535">Les Murray</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-les-murray-a-witty-anti-authoritarian-national-poet-who-spoke-to-the-world-116186">Vale Les Murray, a witty, anti-authoritarian, national poet who spoke to the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These worthies all have terrific walk-on parts, though they are, perhaps inevitably, outplayed by Goldsworthy’s patients, whose stories braid his own experience of illness. These stories are sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking. I am haunted by the bereaved woman who hangs a wetsuit in her kitchen so she might glimpse it and momentarily think the figure is her dead son.</p>
<p>Goldsworthy makes it clear he is not exploiting these patients: he changes ages, names, genders and so on, and receives permission from those who are still alive to give it. And while it is important that these things are acknowledged, the most powerful element of such stories, when it comes to a virtual “ethics clearance” from the reader, is the evident sense of respect that accompanies these literary representations.</p>
<p>If anyone comes off badly in these stories, it is Goldsworthy himself. This is ultimately a work about education, after all, and Goldsworthy’s anecdotes are usually concerned with important lessons (in humanity, in humility).</p>
<p>Education, like illness, is a kind of journey, and Goldsworthy skilfully employs the tropes of schooling and roaming throughout The Cancer Finishing School. One of the notable aspects of Goldsworthy’s illness memoir is how self-conscious it is with regard to metaphor. He shows how the realm of the literal (illness, bodily death) swarms (to be metaphorical) with metaphor. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579736/original/file-20240304-30-zwaosm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Ever since <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/illness-as-metaphor-and-aids-and-its-metaphors-9780141187129">Illness as Metaphor</a> (1978), by Susan Sontag (who suffered and ultimately died from cancer), certain metaphors have been viewed with suspicion when it comes to cancer – mostly obviously, that of cancer-as-battle. </p>
<p>Metaphor can, of course, have pernicious effects, but as Anita Wohlmann demonstrates, in <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-metaphor-in-illness-writing.html">Metaphor in Illness Writing: Fight and Battle Reused</a> (2022), “even when a metaphor appears problematic and limiting, it can in fact be reused and reimagined in unexpected and creative ways”. </p>
<p>This revisionary power is, of course, the power of literature generally. But it has a special intensity when it comes to memoirs about cancer. Unlike cancer, the generative force of writing is life-affirming: a beneficial unfurling, rather than a terminal metastasising. This is made apparent in Goldsworthy’s case through the way he constantly shows the value – social, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialogic">dialogic</a> – of story. </p>
<p>Stories are as valuable to the speaker as they are to the listener. As Goldsworthy ruefully writes about first being diagnosed with cancer: “When the writing’s on the wall, it helps to get it down”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David McCooey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Award-winning, much-loved Australian writer Peter Goldsworthy is better equipped than most to write an illness memoir: he’s also a GP.David McCooey, Professor of Writing and Literature, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2237332024-03-04T19:22:13Z2024-03-04T19:22:13ZDreading footy season? You’re not alone – 20% of Australians are self-described sport haters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579440/original/file-20240303-24-8u9369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=198%2C33%2C7150%2C4528&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the winter AFL and NRL seasons about to start, Australia’s sporting calendar is once again transitioning from its quietest to busiest period. </p>
<p>For many, the return of the AFL and NRL competitions is highly anticipated. But there is one group whose experience is very different: the approximately 20% of Australians who hate sport. </p>
<p>We are currently conducting research to better understand why people feel this way about sport and what their experiences are like living in a nation where sport is so <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1329878x15616515">culturally central</a>. We have completed surveys with thousands of Australians and are now beginning to interview those who have described themselves as “sport haters”. </p>
<h2>Australia, a ‘sports mad’ nation</h2>
<p>Australia has long been described as a “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14660970902955588">sports mad nation</a>”, a reasonable assertion given the Melbourne Cup attracted crowds of <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2178266">more than 100,000 people</a> as far back as the 1880s.</p>
<p>Australia’s sport passion is perhaps most evident today from the number of professional teams we support for a nation of 26 million people, one of the highest per capita <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Heath-Mcdonald/publication/326140082_Are_Sport_Consumers_Unique_Consumer_Behavior_Within_Crowded_Sport_Markets/links/5e9465fd92851c2f529c4322/Are-Sport-Consumers-Unique-Consumer-Behavior-Within-Crowded-Sport-Markets.pdf">concentrations</a> in the world. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1365191195647877124"}"></div></p>
<p>In addition to our four distinct football codes – Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union and soccer – we have professional netball, basketball, cricket and tennis. In all, there are more than <a href="https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/kb/structure-of-australian-sport">130 professional sport teams in Australia</a> today (across both genders).</p>
<p>Australia also hosts – and Australians attend – major sport events at a rate wildly disproportionate to the size of our population and economy. <a href="https://www.blackbookmotorsport.com/news/f1-australian-grand-prix-record-crowd-melbourne-albert-park/">Formula One</a>, the <a href="https://ausopen.com/articles/news/record-breaking-australian-open-ao-2024-numbers">Australian Open</a>, the <a href="https://nbl.com.au/news/nbl-sets-new-season-attendance-record">National Basketball League</a>, the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-attendance-records-tumble-as-fans-flock-back-to-footy-20230902-p5e1ib.html">National Rugby League</a> and <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/64-of-aussie-population-watched-matildas-new-deakin-research-claims-797902">Matildas</a> have all recently broken attendance or television viewership records.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-barassi-line-a-globally-unique-divider-splitting-australias-footy-fans-185132">The Barassi Line: a globally unique divider splitting Australia's footy fans</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why people hate sport</h2>
<p>The ubiquity of sport in our culture, however, conceals the fact that a significant portion of people strongly and actively dislike sport. Recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14413523.2023.2233342">research</a> by one of the co-authors here (Heath McDonald) has begun to shine light on this cohort, dubbed “sport haters”.</p>
<p>Sport haters account for approximately 20% of the Australian population, according to two surveys we have conducted of nearly 3,500 and more than 27,000 adults. Demographically, this group is significantly more likely to be female, younger and more affluent than other Australians. </p>
<p>Their strong negative sentiments are reflected in the most common word associations <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14413523.2023.2233342">study participants</a> used to describe sport. In the case of AFL, these were: “boring”, “overpaid”, “stupid/dumb”, “rough”, “scandal” and “alcohol”.</p>
<p>While the reasons for disliking sport vary from person to person, research shows there are some common themes. The first is in childhood, where negative experiences participating in sport or attending games or matches can lead to a life-long dislike of all sport. As one professed sport hater said in an <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMen/comments/1zxfyt/guys_who_do_not_like_sports_can_you_explain_why/">online forum devoted to men who don’t like sport</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My brother would force me to play soccer against my will all the time as children. I think that is where my resentment for physical sport comes from because the choice was taken away from me by my twat of a brother.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sport hatred can also derive from social exclusion or marginalisation. Sport has historically been a male-centric domain that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277539587900525">celebrates</a> masculinity and can lead to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-20/taylor-swift-effect-sports-fandom-nfl/103486274">toxic behaviour</a>, which can exclude many women and some men. </p>
<p>Sport has also had to overcome racism, perhaps most symbolically visible by AFL player Nicky Winmar’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-17/nicky-winmar-indigenous-afl-racism-anniversary/102222960">iconic protest</a> in 1993. In addition, individuals with a disability still face <a href="https://www.sportaus.gov.au/integrity_in_sport/inclusive-sport/understanding-our-diverse-audiences/people-with-disability#:%7E:text=People%20with%20disability%20receive%20the,than%20adults%20who%20don't.">barriers</a> that result in lower rates of sport participation. </p>
<p>Here, the current <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-20/taylor-swift-effect-sports-fandom-nfl/103486274">Taylor Swift effect</a> is noteworthy. The singer’s attendance at National Football League games, including the Superbowl, resulted in huge spikes in television viewership. Through her association, Swift helped make the sport more <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096969892300317X#bib122">psychologically accessible</a> for many women and girls.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="TiktokEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.tiktok.com/@thetoddkale/video/7328856199506513183?embed_source=71929435%2C121374463%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank\u0026refer=embed\u0026referer_url=www.smh.com.au%2Fsport%2Fnfl%2Fthe-taylor-effect-more-women-than-ever-are-watching-nfl-it-s-bringing-in-a-huge-profit-20240130-p5f0zr.html\u0026referer_video_id=7328856199506513183"}"></div></p>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AvjrDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT125&dq=Contesting+national+Culture&ots=1_lQuBpKK7&sig=dMb-5s0PgpUumUTSFeEKZiNq0dg#v=onepage&q=Contesting%20national%20Culture&f=false">cultural dominance</a> of sport also fuels its detractors, with many critical of sport’s media saturation and its broader social and even political prioritisation. (The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-16/macquarie-point-stadium-dominates-election-campaign-day-one/103473124">debate in Tasmania</a> over the controversial AFL stadium proposal is a good case in point.)</p>
<p>From a media perspective, Australia’s particularly strict <a href="https://theconversation.com/regardless-of-the-rules-sport-is-fleeing-free-tv-for-pay-and-it-might-be-an-avalanche-154640">anti-siphoning</a> laws have ensured that sport remains front and centre on free-to-air television programming. </p>
<p>Sport’s cultural dominance also fosters resentment for overshadowing people’s non-sporting passions and pursuits, as well as creating societal out-groups. Journalist Jo Chandler’s <a href="https://libraryedition.smedia.com.au/lib_a/Default.aspx#panel=document">2010</a> description of moving to Melbourne is no doubt shared by many:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the workplace, to be unaligned is deeply isolating. Team tribalism infects meetings, especially when overseen by male chiefs. In shameful desperation, I’ve played along.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In life, it’s fairly easy to avoid most products you might dislike. But given sport’s ubiquity, simply tuning out is sometimes not an option.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-eve-of-an-aflm-grand-final-like-no-other-can-the-shadow-of-the-pandemic-make-us-strive-for-something-better-167792">On the eve of an AFLM grand final like no other, can the shadow of the pandemic make us strive for something better?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The Anti-Football League, a club for haters</h2>
<p>In 1967, two Melbourne journalists, Keith Dunstan and Douglas Wilkie, launched an anti-sport club in response to this growing cultural dominance. In his founding address to the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7584522/Football_is_a_Fever_Disease_Like_Recurrent_Malaria_and_Evidently_Incurable_Passion_Place_and_the_Emergence_of_an_Australian_Anti_Football_League">Anti-Football League</a>, Wilkie made clear who the club was for: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>All of us who are tired of having football personalities, predictions and post mortems cluttering our newspapers, TV screens and attempts at alternative human converse – from beginning-of-morning prayers to the last trickle of bed time bathwater – should join at once.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1319729053180583936"}"></div></p>
<p>Membership quickly reached the thousands. Soon, a Sydney branch was launched, bringing national membership to a high of around 7,000. According to sport historian Matthew Klugman, members found joy in being “haters”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>…they wanted to find a shared meaning in their suffering, not to extinguish it, but to better enjoy it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This led to some curious rituals, with members ceremonially cremating footballs or burying them. An Anti-Football Day was also launched, taking place on the eve of the Victorian Football League Grand Final. </p>
<p>The club would go on to experience periods of both prosperity and hiatus over the years, but has been dormant since <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/vale-keith-dunstan-gentle-footy-hater-cyclist-and-master-of-words-20130911-2tklh.html">Dunstan’s death</a> in 2013.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1573431131147730944"}"></div></p>
<p>With eight more years to go in Australia’s so-called “<a href="https://this.deakin.edu.au/career/golden-decade-of-sport-ahead-for-australia">golden decade of sport</a>”, which began with <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/womensbasketballworldcup/2022">2022 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney</a> and culminates with the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, it may be time sport haters to start a new support group. </p>
<p>If you consider yourself a sport hater, and are interested in contributing your experience to our ongoing research, please provide your contact information <a href="https://researchsurveys.deakin.edu.au/jfe/form/SV_a4CqHyqipjYj5SC">here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heath McDonald is a consultant to a range of professional sport teams in the AFL, NRL and cricket. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hunter Fujak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research sheds light on the reasons why many people dislike sport in a sport-mad nation.Hunter Fujak, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin UniversityHeath McDonald, Dean of Economics, Finance and Marketing and Professor of Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246432024-03-04T01:25:27Z2024-03-04T01:25:27ZYour face for sale: anyone can legally gather and market your facial data without explicit consent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579102/original/file-20240301-28-tzp738.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=956%2C85%2C6119%2C4218&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/futuristic-technological-scanning-face-beautiful-woman-1554013514">Kitreel/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The morning started with a message from a friend: “I used your photos to train my local version of Midjourney. I hope you don’t mind”, followed up with generated pictures of me wearing a flirty steampunk costume.</p>
<p>I did in fact mind. I felt violated. Wouldn’t you? I bet Taylor Swift did when <a href="https://theconversation.com/taylor-swift-deepfakes-new-technologies-have-long-been-weaponised-against-women-the-solution-involves-us-all-222268">deepfakes of her hit the internet</a>. But is the legal status of my face different from the face of a celebrity?</p>
<p>Your facial information is a unique form of personal sensitive information. It can identify you. Intense profiling and mass government surveillance <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/05/06/as-orwells-1984-turns-70-it-predicted-much-of-todays-surveillance-society/?sh=38a97b4e11de">receives much attention</a>. But businesses and individuals are also using tools that <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/creepy-and-invasive-kmart-bunnings-and-the-good-guys-accused-of-using-facial-recognition-technology/h08q8evb1">collect</a>, <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/how-clearview-ai-unleashed-a-global-dystopia-20230929-p5e8lc">store</a> and modify facial information, and we’re facing an unexpected wave of <a href="https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img">photos</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-sora-a-new-generative-ai-tool-could-transform-video-production-and-amplify-disinformation-risks-223850">videos</a> generated with artificial intelligence (AI) tools.</p>
<p>The development of legal regulation for these uses is lagging. At what levels and in what ways should our facial information be protected? </p>
<h2>Is implied consent enough?</h2>
<p>The Australian <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A03712/latest/text">Privacy Act</a> considers biometric information (which would include your face) to be a part of our personal sensitive information. However, the act doesn’t <em>define</em> biometric information. </p>
<p>Despite its drawbacks, the act is currently the main legislation in Australia aimed at facial information protection. It states biometric information cannot be collected without a person’s consent. </p>
<p>But the law doesn’t specify whether it should be <a href="https://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/fact-sheet-consent">express or implied consent</a>. Express consent is given explicitly, either orally or in writing. Implied consent means consent may reasonably be inferred from the individual’s actions in a given context. For example, if you walk into a store that has a sign “facial recognition camera on the premises”, your consent is implied. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A poster at a supermarket that says camera technology trial in progress, partially obscured by a couple of bins." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578587/original/file-20240228-28-ns24xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An inconspicuous sign that flags camera technology trial is in progress counts as implied consent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Margarita Vladimirova</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But using implied consent opens our facial data up to potential exploitation. <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/consumers-and-data/data-collection-and-use/how-your-data-is-used/articles/kmart-bunnings-and-the-good-guys-using-facial-recognition-technology-in-store">Bunnings, Kmart</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/19/woolworths-expands-self-checkout-ai-that-critics-say-treats-every-customer-as-a-suspect">Woolworths</a> have all used easy-to-miss signage that facial recognition or camera technology is used in their stores.</p>
<h2>Valuable and unprotected</h2>
<p>Our facial information has become so valuable, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/24/australian-federal-police-afp-pimeyes-facial-recognition-facecheck-id-search-engine-platform">data companies such as Clearview AI and PimEye</a> are mercilessly hunting it down on the internet <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/i-got-my-file-from-clearview-ai-and-it-freaked-me-out-33ca28b5d6d4">without our consent</a>.</p>
<p>These companies put together databases for sale, used not only by the police in various countries, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/24/australian-federal-police-afp-pimeyes-facial-recognition-facecheck-id-search-engine-platform">including Australia</a>, but also by <a href="https://www.clearview.ai/developer-api">private companies</a>. </p>
<p>Even if you deleted all your facial data from the internet, you could easily be captured in public and appear in some database anyway. Being in someone’s TikTok video <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-14/tiktok-video-maree-melbourne-flowers/101228418">without your consent</a> is a prime example – in Australia this is legal.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1547794543726055425"}"></div></p>
<p>Furthermore, we’re also now contending with generative AI programs such as Midjourney, DALL-E 3, Stable Diffusion and others. Not only the collection, but the modification of our facial information can be easily performed by anyone. </p>
<p>Our faces are unique to us, they’re part of what we perceive as ourselves. But they don’t have special legal status or special legal protection.</p>
<p>The only action you can take to protect your facial information from aggressive collection by a store or private entity <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/lodge-a-privacy-complaint-with-us">is to complain</a> to the office of the Australian Information Commissioner, which may or may not result in an investigation.</p>
<p>The same applies to deepfakes. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will consider only activity that applies to trade and commerce, for example if a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/18/accc-takes-meta-to-court-over-facebook-scam-ads-depicting-australian-identities">deepfake is used for false advertising</a>. </p>
<p>And the Privacy Act doesn’t protect us from other people’s actions. I didn’t consent to have someone train an AI with my facial information and produce made-up images. But there is no oversight on such use of generative AI tools, either. </p>
<p>There are currently no laws that <em>prevent</em> other people from collecting or modifying your facial information.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/so-youve-been-scammed-by-a-deepfake-what-can-you-do-223299">So, you've been scammed by a deepfake. What can you do?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Catching up the law</h2>
<p>We need a range of regulations on the collection and modification of facial information. We also need a stricter status of facial information itself. Thankfully, some developments in this area are looking promising.</p>
<p>Experts at the University of Technology Sydney have proposed a comprehensive legal framework for <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/human-technology-institute/projects/facial-recognition-technology-towards-model-law">regulating the use of facial recognition technology</a> under Australian law.</p>
<p>It contains proposals for regulating the first stage of non-consensual activity: the collection of personal information. That may help in the development of new laws.</p>
<p>Regarding photo modification using AI, we’ll have to wait for announcements from the newly established government <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/husic/media-releases/new-artificial-intelligence-expert-group">AI expert group</a> working to develop “safe and responsible AI practices”.</p>
<p>There are no specific discussions about a higher level of protection for our facial information in general. However, the government’s recent <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protections/publications/government-response-privacy-act-review-report">response to the Attorney-General’s Privacy Act review</a> has some promising provisions. </p>
<p>The government has agreed further consideration should be given to enhanced risk assessment requirements in the context of facial recognition technology and other uses of biometric information. This work should be coordinated with the government’s ongoing work on Digital ID and the National Strategy for Identity Resilience. </p>
<p>As for consent, the government has agreed in principle that the definition of consent required for biometric information collection should be amended to specify it must be voluntary, informed, current, specific and unambiguous. </p>
<p>As facial information is increasingly exploited, we’re all waiting to see whether these discussions do become law – hopefully sooner rather than later.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: we have amended a sentence to clarify Woolworths use camera technology but not necessarily facial recognition technology.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margarita Vladimirova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our facial information is sensitive – yet companies and individuals can collect, sell and manipulate it without our consent. Australian law must change to protect us all.Margarita Vladimirova, PhD in Privacy Law and Facial Recognition Technology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2234462024-03-03T23:36:20Z2024-03-03T23:36:20ZWhy move species to islands? Saving wildlife as the world changes means taking calculated risks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577775/original/file-20240225-16-eqqb33.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C10%2C1400%2C799&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_barred_bandicoot#/media/File:Perameles_gunnii_-_Gould.jpg">John Gould/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The eastern barred bandicoot was once found in abundance across the basalt plains of western Victoria. But habitat destruction and predation by introduced red foxes drove the species to the brink of extinction on the mainland.</p>
<p>Establishing populations in fenced reserves was critical in providing insurance against extinction. To further increase bandicoot numbers to provide long-term security against extinction, we needed more fox-free land.</p>
<p>A bold plan was hatched: move the species to where the predators weren’t. Introduce them to Victoria’s <a href="https://www.penguins.org.au/about/media/latest-news/taking-action-to-find-and-remove-phillip-island-fox-threat/#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CA%20combined%20effort%20between%20the,25%20years%20of%20dedicated%20effort.">fox-free</a> Phillip and French islands.</p>
<p>Six years later, the bandicoot made conservation history, as the first species in Australia <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2022/02/eastern-barred-bandicoot-how-the-little-diggers-rebounded/">to be reclassified</a> from <em>extinct in the wild</em> to <em>endangered</em>. </p>
<p>Why don’t we translocate all endangered species to islands? The technique can be effective, but can come with unwanted consequences. </p>
<h2>The surprising benefits of translocation</h2>
<p>Eastern barred bandicoots are ecosystem engineers. As they dig for their dinner of worms, beetles, bulbs, fungi and other foods, their industrious work <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-little-bandicoot-can-dig-up-an-elephants-worth-of-soil-a-year-and-our-ecosystem-loves-it-132266">improves soil quality</a>, and in turn, the health of vegetation. </p>
<p>So when we translocate threatened species, we can get a double win – a rapid increase in their populations and restoration of lost ecosystem functions.</p>
<p>Australia’s landscapes look very different than they did before European colonisation around <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077">230 years ago</a>. </p>
<p>Industrialised farming, introduced predators and habitat destruction and fragmentation are driving <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-re-counted-australias-extinct-species-and-the-result-is-devastating-127611">biodiversity decline and extinctions</a>. As species die out, ecosystems lose the vital functions wildlife perform. Without them, ecosystems might not operate as well or even collapse – a little like a poorly serviced car engine. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/losing-australias-diggers-is-hurting-our-ecosystems-18590">Losing Australia's diggers is hurting our ecosystems</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>We feel the loss most acutely when we lose <a href="https://theconversation.com/beavers-and-oysters-are-helping-restore-lost-ecosystems-with-their-engineering-skills-podcast-198573">keystone species</a> on which many other species depend, such as oysters and bees. Restoring these functions can improve biodiversity and the sustainability of food production. For instance, encouraging owls to return to farmland <a href="https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2023.1182137">can cut</a> the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/mouse-plague-bromadiolone-will-obliterate-mice-but-itll-poison-eagles-snakes-and-owls-too-160995">damaging rodent poisons</a>, as owls eat thousands of mice and rats yearly. </p>
<p>Before colonisation, industrious digging mammals and their soil excavations were <a href="https://theconversation.com/mourn-our-lost-mammals-while-helping-the-survivors-battle-back-36126">extremely widespread</a>. Regrettably, introduced foxes and cats have made short work of many of Australia’s diggers. Six of 29 digging species are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mam.12014">now extinct</a>, including the lesser bilby, pig-footed bandicoot and desert rat-kangaroo. Many others are endangered. </p>
<h2>Could translocation save more species?</h2>
<p>Conservationists have successfully translocated species such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-endangered-species-western-swamp-tortoise-11630">western swamp tortoise</a>, the <a href="https://www.australianwildlife.org/wildlife/shark-bay-mouse/">Shark Bay mouse</a>, and <a href="https://denr.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/255082/quolltranslocation_final.pdf">northern quolls</a>.</p>
<p>New environments don’t necessarily need to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/cats-wreak-havoc-on-native-wildlife-but-weve-found-one-adorable-species-outsmarting-them-132265">predator-free</a>. The eastern barred bandicoot is thriving on Phillip and French Island, in the presence of feral and domestic cats. The key is there are no foxes. </p>
<p>Many islands are now being thought of as conservation arks, able to provide <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/wr17172">safe havens</a> for several threatened species at once. Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia’s largest, is <a href="https://www.sharkbay.org/restoration/dirk-hartog-island-return-1616/#:%7E:text=These%20include%20the%20Shark%20Bay,boodie%20and%20the%20western%20grasswren.">now home</a> to reintroduced western quolls, dibblers, mulgaras and other small mammals, as well as two translocated hare-wallaby species. </p>
<h2>Why is translocation not more common?</h2>
<p>The technique can work very well – but it can also backfire. </p>
<p>In the 1920s, conservationists undertook the first translocation in Australia by moving koalas to Phillip and French Island – the same Victorian islands now a refuge for bandicoots. While this protected koalas <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-once-killed-600-000-koalas-in-a-year-now-theyre-australias-teddy-bears-what-changed-219609">from hunting pressure</a>, koala populations exploded, and the tree-dwelling marsupials ate themselves <a href="https://theconversation.com/victorian-koalas-are-eating-themselves-out-of-house-and-home-38585">out of house and home</a> in some areas. </p>
<p>In 2012, conservationists began introducing Tasmanian devils to Maria Island, just off Tasmania’s east coast. They wanted to conserve a healthy population free from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/tasmanian-devils-look-set-to-conquer-their-own-pandemic-151842">contagious facial tumour</a> which has devastated their populations. On Maria Island, the devils became <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-22/tasmanian-devils-decimate-wildlife-on-maria-island/100234550">too successful</a>, wiping out the island’s penguin and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320720306935">shearwater</a> populations. </p>
<p>You can see translocations aren’t a silver bullet. We have to carefully consider the pros and cons of any such conservation intervention. Ecosystems <a href="https://theconversation.com/species-dont-live-in-isolation-what-changing-threats-to-4-marsupials-tell-us-about-the-future-200990">are complex</a>. It’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01298-8">not easy to predict</a> what will happen to an ecosystem if we introduce a species new to the area. </p>
<p>The decision to translocate a species is a value judgement – it prioritises one species over the broader ecosystem. Opponents of translocation <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320711001728?via%3Dihub">question whether</a> we are doing the right thing in valuing efforts to conserve a single species over the innate value of the existing ecosystem. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/so-you-want-to-cat-proof-a-bettong-how-living-with-predators-could-help-native-species-survive-170450">So you want to cat-proof a bettong: how living with predators could help native species survive</a>
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<h2>What’s the best approach in future?</h2>
<p>Translocation is not the end goal. Islands cannot support the vast array of threatened species in Australia. </p>
<p>The end goal is to establish and expand threatened species populations on the mainland in fenced reserves before eventually reintroducing them to the wild where they will encounter introduced predators. </p>
<p>Research is being done to explore how we can make this work, such as: </p>
<p>1) <strong>Predator-savvy wildlife:</strong> some native species may be <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13406">able to adapt</a> to living alongside introduced predators – with some help. For example, conservationists have exposed semi-captive bilbies to small numbers of feral cats with the aim of increasing their wariness and ultimately boosting their chances of survival. Results have been encouraging. </p>
<p>2) <strong>Building ecosystem resilience:</strong> we know more intact native ecosystems can reduce the chance of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2009.01941.x">damage from invasive species </a>. That means re-establishing native ecosystems could boost their resilience.</p>
<p>Moving a species from its home is a bold and risky decision. It’s critical local communities and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-knowledge-is-lost-when-a-species-disappears-its-time-to-let-indigenous-people-care-for-their-country-their-way-172760">First Nations groups</a> are consulted and able to guide discussions and any eventual actions. </p>
<p>For their part, governments, land managers and conservationists must think more broadly about how we might best conserve species and ecosystems in a rapidly changing world. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/threatened-species-recover-in-fenced-safe-havens-but-their-safety-is-only-temporary-200548">Threatened species recover in fenced safe havens. But their safety is only temporary</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223446/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Rendall receives funding from the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action. Anthony is a member of the Australian Mammal Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Coetsee works for Zoos Victoria, a not-for-profit zoo-based conservation organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aviya Naccarella is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia, Australian Mammal Society and Royal Zoological Society of NSW.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action. Euan is a Councillor within the Biodiversity Council, and a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and the Australian Mammal Society.</span></em></p>Translocation may have been the key to survival for the eastern barred bandicoot but it might not be the golden ticket for every species.Anthony Rendall, Lecturer in Conservation Biology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin UniversityAmy Coetsee, Threatened Species Biologist, The University of MelbourneAviya Naccarella, PhD Candidate, Deakin UniversityEuan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224982024-03-01T01:15:46Z2024-03-01T01:15:46Z‘An odd work that has borne the brunt of my grief’: the serenity and the grit of Stanislava Pinchuk’s The Theatre of War<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579075/original/file-20240301-26-i9mxdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C1908%2C1072&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Theatre of War video still, Stanislava Pinchuk, image courtesy of the artist.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Through a nuanced exploration of place, time, and memory, a new video work invites audiences to reflect on landscape and its relationship to the echoes of conflict. </p>
<p>Stanislava Pinchuk’s three-channel installation The Theatre of War uses a diverse range of performers, people and locations, interlacing the introductory passages of Homer’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-homers-iliad-80968">The Iliad</a> across three films which contend with grief, memory and place.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-homers-iliad-80968">Guide to the classics: Homer's Iliad</a>
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<h2>A compelling story</h2>
<p>Pinchuk is a Ukrainian-Australian artist who grew up in Melbourne and now resides in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her body of work traces the shifting topographic landscapes of war zones across the world. Her pieces range from large-scale <a href="https://stanislavapinchuk.com/artwork/thewinedarksea/">sculpture</a> to <a href="https://stanislavapinchuk.com/artwork/fallout/">data-maps</a> and <a href="https://stanislavapinchuk.com/artwork/sarcophagus/">tapestries</a>, and incorporate drawing, film, tattoo and installation.</p>
<p>At the launch event for this new work on display at ACMI, Pinchuk spoke compellingly of the time the work took to compose, the support she received, and the grief that surrounded it. Commissioned in 2019, the making of The Theatre of War was interrupted by the COVID pandemic, and deeply inflected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Headshot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Artist Stanislava Pinchuk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Hartley</span></span>
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<p>Describing the piece as “an odd work that has borne the brunt of my grief”, Pinchuk shared memories of months in combat training with the Ukrainian army, where she and the soldiers would spend one minute of silence each day for those who had died. </p>
<h2>A carefully constructed sonic world</h2>
<p>In the darkened exhibition space, we sit facing three screens with three films in different locations and contexts. </p>
<p>In a Sarajevo theatre, six female performers in traditional costume take their seats on a stage. At the tomb of Homer on the island of Ios, a long path to a craggy isthmus overlooks the Mediterranean, where two young people perch on the rocky bluff. In a remote and destroyed village in the United Kingdom, masked and armed Ukrainian soldiers engage in very realistic combat training: boots, guns and all. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A carving of Homer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Theatre of War video still, Stanislava Pinchuk, image courtesy of the artist.</span>
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<p>Each film has its own discrete audio which makes for random or purposeful intersection. The soldiers, in full battle gear, run drills, shouting to clear rubble-filled rooms and firing off automatic weapon rounds as the choir’s singing swells and the wind gusts. Ammunition and cartridge cases clink as the opening lines of the Iliad – “Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles, Peleus’ son!” – are repeated in text and voice across the three screens: from a smiling chorister and then like a radio broadcast to the soldiers as they move through the destroyed landscape. </p>
<p>At times the films synchronise sets of still, detailed images: discarded bullet casings in the dust, a nose ring, a kneeling soldier. Long fingernails holding a mobile phone, a laughing singer, the metal discs of her head piece dangling. A shoe, a necklace, a freighter in the blue mist. The work builds to a sonic crescendo as the sounds of sirens and songs intersect with the bluster of automatic weapon fire echoing across the concrete bunker. At Homer’s grave, the scene is an azure, infinite sea.</p>
<h2>Storytelling at the heart</h2>
<p>The Theatre of War is rich, resonant and thoughtful. There is an essence of storytelling at its heart which coheres the work, reminiscent of Pinchuk’s interest in Homer’s universal, timeless themes of migration, battle, loss and yearning.</p>
<p>At times, extreme closeups of lines and wrinkles on hands and lips remind us of the resilience and the frailty of the body in war. There is a potent metaphor of landscape in the work: as a geographic descriptor, certainly, but also as a container for memory, and as a way to think about the terrain of bodies. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women singing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Theatre of War video still, Stanislava Pinchuk, image courtesy of the artist.</span>
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<p>There is something vulnerable and arresting about the faces, hands and legs in the work, which are variously marked, lipsticked, wrinkled or pierced. We are reminded of the traces that life leaves on our bodies, as well as the traces through time from ancient stories of war to modern, horrific ones: how innocent people become, as Homer describes, “the spoil for dogs and birds of every kind”. </p>
<p>I am struck by my own inadequate set of understandings as I view this work. I feel lucky, privileged, deeply moved. I notice my attention to the details, the physical bodies, the half hidden bits and pieces, but also the challenge established by the artist in the creation of three films viewed concurrently. Where do I look, and for how long? What is important? What might I miss?</p>
<p>Pinchuk has created a work which is somehow serene and gritty in equal measure. A meditation on memory and sadness, it considers, with compassion and courage, the ways in which places bear witness to history. The Theatre Of War asks us, compels us, to look.</p>
<p><em>Stanislava Pinchuk: The Theatre of War is at ACMI, Melbourne, until June 9.</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-russia-ukraine-war-has-caused-a-staggering-amount-of-cultural-destruction-both-seen-and-unseen-221082">The Russia-Ukraine War has caused a staggering amount of cultural destruction – both seen and unseen</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Hunter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through a nuanced exploration of place, time, and memory, this new video work invites audiences to reflect on landscape and its relationship to the echoes of conflict.Kate Hunter, Senior Lecturer in Art and Performance, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.