tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/four-corners-3678/articlesFour Corners – The Conversation2024-02-20T06:09:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238572024-02-20T06:09:16Z2024-02-20T06:09:16Z8 ways Woolworths and Coles squeeze their suppliers and their customers<p>To hear the Woolworths and Coles chief executives speak on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-19/super-power-the-cost-of-living-with-coles-and-woolworths/103486508">Four Corners</a> this week, you’d think their industry was highly competitive.</p>
<p>For instance, Woolies’ chief Brad Banducci said:</p>
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<p>this community over here, there will be three Coles stores within two kilometres of it, at least one ALDI store, a series of independents, ability to within 24 hours have a quarter of our store delivered by Amazon – it’s an incredibly competitive market</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, Coles’ chief Leah Weckert said:</p>
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<p>there are quite often comparisons that are made between the UK and Australia, but Australia has about a third of the population, and we operate stores on a geographic footprint 30 times the size, those considerations need to be taken into account </p>
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<p>Between them, Coles and Woolworths control <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-20/woolworths-coles-supermarket-tactics-grocery-four-corners/103405054">65%</a> of Australia’s grocery market. Aldi has just 10%, and independents such as IGA have the rest. </p>
<p>Four Corners reported that meant that, on average, for every $10 Australians pay for groceries, $6.50 is spent at Coles and Woolworths, and just $1 at Aldi. In the United Kingdom, there are five major chains vying for a cut of that $10. </p>
<p>But having a large market share isn’t the same as unreasonably using it. </p>
<p>This week’s Four Corners set out eight ways in which Coles and Woolworths are said to use their market power, each of which will be examined by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/inquiries-and-consultations/supermarkets-inquiry-2024-25">inquiry</a> into supermarkets.</p>
<p>Many hurt their suppliers more than their customers.</p>
<h2>1. Squeezing farmers</h2>
<p>Hundreds of farmers have little choice but to sell their crops to the big two, and little choice but to accept whatever is offered.</p>
<p>One cherry farmer sent 15 tonnes of cherries to Coles – an entire semi-trailer load. He hoped to receive A$90,000. </p>
<p>Instead, he was told the fruit was not up to standard and was only able to get $5,800 on the seconds market.</p>
<p>He said when Coles is dealing with thousands and thousands of pieces of fruit, it can pick out ten pieces and say the consignment is no good.</p>
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<p>so that is power, that’s market power when you can simply reject something for no great reason</p>
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<p>The behaviour described might amount to “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_and_Consumer_Act_2010">misuse of market power</a>” under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. </p>
<h2>2. Demanding money to accept price increases</h2>
<p>Four Corners told the story of a supplier who asked to be paid 5% more and was told the request would be approved only if he paid Coles A$25,000.</p>
<p>The lump sum was for promotions. </p>
<p>It said the Coles buyer’s initial desire to keep prices low for the consumer had been “quickly forgotten”.</p>
<p>The supplier said if he wasn’t prepared to do what the supermarket wanted, there was “a lot of intimidation”.</p>
<p>The tools used included deleting suppliers’ products from sale, forcing customers to buy their competitors’ products. </p>
<p>While this behaviour appears not to be illegal, it might worry the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.</p>
<h2>3. Charging for Coles Radio</h2>
<p>Four Corners said suppliers wanting to do business with the big two were asked to pay for in-house advertising. </p>
<p>It quoted the cost of a full-page ad in Woolworths’ Fresh Magazine at $30,000, and the cost of a four-week spot on Coles radio at $28,000.</p>
<p>Suppliers were also expected to meet the cost of special discounts rather than the supermarket. That means suppliers need to set their recommended retail price at a higher level than was needed in order to offer periodic discounts.</p>
<p>While quite legal, this behaviour has the effect of forcing up general prices. It would be illegal if it misrepresented ordinary prices. </p>
<h2>4. Matching prices</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of prices being changed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576669/original/file-20240220-20-rnn4ko.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&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>The supermarket giants monitor each other’s pricing very closely. If one changes its prices, the other follows.</p>
<p>A former category manager for Coles and Woolworths said if one put up a price, the other would quickly follow.</p>
<p>He said if you did five shops in Woolworths and five in Coles and spent around a hundred dollars, there would only be a few cents difference.</p>
<p>The behaviour might be the result of intense price competition of the kind the Commission wants to encourage, or it might be the result of an implicit understanding between the big two not to compete on price, something the Commission will be keen to determine.</p>
<h2>5. Blaming inflation</h2>
<p>Woolworths’ latest <a href="https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/content/dam/wwg/investors/reports/2023/f23-full-year/Woolworths%20Group%202023%20Annual%20Report.pdf">annual report</a> shows its cost of doing business was flat, but its profit margin from selling groceries climbed from 5.3% to 6%, which meant an extra $318 million in profits.</p>
<p>An industry insider told Four Corners that the big two used “the cover of inflation” to raise prices, something each denied.</p>
<p>Woolworths said its price increases were legitimate, pointing to increases in the price of fertiliser, international freight, wages, and the cost of disruptions in obtaining goods.</p>
<p>Even if unjustified, there is nothing illegal about raising prices, unless false representations are made about the reasons, which is something the Commission will want to examine. </p>
<h2>6. Banking land</h2>
<p>An industry insider told Four Corners the big two buy up “spoiler sites” years before they even get approvals to build.</p>
<p>If they get the green light, it’s a new supermarket. If not, they’ve kept their rivals out.</p>
<p>In one growing community west of Brisbane, Woolworths bought more than 6 hectares of land over 11 years. But a supermarket is still years away.</p>
<p>German supermarket giant Kaufland abandoned plans to enter the Australian market in 2020. Media reports said a lack of suitable sites was one factor.</p>
<p>The Commission would be hard-pressed to find such behaviour was illegal unless it was able to make a case that it significantly lessened competition.</p>
<h2>7. Dark stores</h2>
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<p>Delivery and click-and-collect orders sometimes come from “dark stores” without customers in which stock pickers work at speed in what can be stifling heat.</p>
<p>“There is an industry standard of a pick rate of about 180 items per hour,” one stock picker said. “Our warehouse, particularly during busy periods, will push you to go above and beyond that, which might be 210, 220.”</p>
<p>In the past, the names of pickers who fell behind were displayed in red.</p>
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<p>Every summer there’s people who feel dizzy, every summer there’s people whose sweat’s just dripping off them and they want to sit down, but you get a 15-minute break in a five-hour shift</p>
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<p>While not infringing on competition law, such behaviour might breach industrial laws. The Commission is likely to find it beyond the scope of its inquiry.</p>
<h2>8. A conduct code with no penalty</h2>
<p>Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims, described the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct as a “joke” because it had no penalties. </p>
<p>He said it was like having a speed limit of 60 kilometres an hour with no penalty for driving at 80.</p>
<p>Woolworths conceded it hadn’t received a single complaint under the grocery code of conduct in the past year. Asked why, chief executive Brad Banducci said Four Corners should ask suppliers.</p>
<p>Only one continuing supplier agreed to appear in the program on the condition that the appearance was anonymous.</p>
<p>The Commission is certain to recommend that the code be given teeth.</p>
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<h2>Over to the Commission</h2>
<p>The Competition and Consumer Commission’s investigation is likely to confirm that Australian supermarkets have some of the highest profit margins in the world, deriving in large part from their high market share.</p>
<p>At issue will be what this enables them to do to their suppliers and customers.</p>
<p>The Commission will publish an <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/inquiries-and-consultations/supermarkets-inquiry-2024-25">issues paper</a> this month and report to the government in August.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-prices-are-so-high-8-ways-retail-pricing-algorithms-gouge-consumers-223310">Why prices are so high – 8 ways retail pricing algorithms gouge consumers</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanjoy Paul 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>Suppliers and customers are squeezed harder in Australia than in other countries because Coles and Woolworths control 65% of the market.Sanjoy Paul, Associate Professor, UTS Business School, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114262023-09-13T20:06:09Z2023-09-13T20:06:09Z‘I just find it very hard to talk about it without getting emotional’: top journalists reveal their trade secrets to Leigh Sales<p>Journalist Samantha Maiden <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/66th-walkley-award-winners-announced/">won Australia’s top award in journalism</a>, the Gold Walkley, in 2022 for her coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/man-to-face-court-over-alleged-rape-of-brittany-higgins-165763">the Brittany Higgins case</a>. When talking to Leigh Sales about the experience of covering this story, for Sales’ new book, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Storytellers/Leigh-Sales/9781761106965">Storytellers</a>, she found herself in tears. </p>
<p>“Brittany Higgins was obviously a massive story and maybe it is the most important story I will ever write,” she says. “I just find it very hard to talk about it without getting emotional. I don’t have any complaints, but it has dominated my life for nearly two years.”</p>
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<p><em>Review: Storytellers – Leigh Sales (Scribner)</em></p>
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<p>Higgins came to her with the story, Maiden explains, because she’d pointed out on the ABC’s Insiders that political staffers don’t have the same access to unfair dismissal laws as other workers. Higgins felt this demonstrated an understanding of their “fragile” working conditions.</p>
<p>“She also felt that I would not be cowed by the government; she was very concerned about how the government would react so she wanted someone who was going to be fearless and not intimidated easily.”</p>
<p>“If you break enough stories,” says Maiden, “it becomes a bit of a self-saucing pudding, because people seek you out.”</p>
<p>Journalists can have a reputation for being cynical and tough, but many of those featured in Storytellers talk about the emotional impact of the job.</p>
<p>Tracy Grimshaw, for instance, who has interviewed thousands of people, including international celebrities and world leaders, tells Sales her most memorable interview was with a policewoman from regional Australia.</p>
<p>Shelly Walsh had left her two children with her parents overnight while she worked a night shift. When she returned to collect them, she discovered her father had killed her mother and the children. He then attacked her with an axe.</p>
<p>“First of all, she found her mother,” Grimshaw recounts. </p>
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<p>Then she had to use her wits […] her father’s saying, “Do you want a cup of tea?” And she’s thinking at a hundred miles an hour, “Where are the kids? Where are the kids?” I get chills up my spine as I talk about it […] I’ll never forget Shelly telling the story. God, it was traumatic. She was so honest, so unvarnished and so brave to tell her story. That is the interview that will always stay with me. Always.</p>
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<p>Grimshaw’s anecdote, like Maiden’s reflections, are among many that highlight the privilege – and responsibility – that come with the distinctive job of journalism.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Tracy Grimshaw will always remember her ‘traumatic’ interview with ‘unvarnished’ Shelly Walsh.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-story-leigh-sales-ordinary-days-and-crafting-empathy-between-the-lines-107890">Inside the story: Leigh Sales, ordinary days and crafting empathy ‘between the lines’</a>
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<p>Storytellers is a series of conversations between Sales and more than 30 experienced Australian journalists about “questions, answers and the craft of journalism”.</p>
<p>Sales herself has had a diverse career as a journalist, starting in 1993 in local news for Channel 9 Brisbane, before moving to the ABC in 1994. She was the ABC’s Washington correspondent in the early 2000s, and has anchored Lateline and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/730">7.30</a>. </p>
<p>She says she’s fascinated by new ways of thinking about and practising journalism, but the basics of the craft are unchanged. She’s also committed to the ideal of objective journalism, as she made clear in recent public comments.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leigh Sales was at 7.30 for 12 years.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Last weekend, she told a Women in Media conference in Sydney she was worried about the blurring of activism and journalism, and the loss of “independent journalism”.</p>
<p>“I’m so big on things like setting aside your own opinion and trying to go into things with an open minded mindset,” she said.</p>
<p>In her introduction to the new book, Sales argues an extraordinary amount of experience and knowledge has been drained from newsrooms in recent years, due to staffing cuts. Storytellers is an attempt to fill that gap. </p>
<h2>Where do story ideas come from?</h2>
<p>The focus is “entirely on the practicalities of the craft”, aiming to answer questions such as: Where do story ideas come from? How do you make contacts? What does a good voiceover sound like? How do you make a one-minute video story compelling? How do you know when to interrupt a politician during an interview?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546879/original/file-20230907-2445-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&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>Sales is not convinced university journalism courses are covering this sort of content. My own experience of working in journalism education is that tertiary courses are highly practical. But Storytellers contains plenty of valuable insights and lessons, to complement and confirm what is taught to aspiring journalists. </p>
<p>Whether the book will interest a wider readership is harder to predict. While emphasis is on storytelling, there’s a lot about process, particularly in regard to broadcast journalism. It might be too much detail for some. The question-and-answer format can be a bit clunky at times, but the idea is for the reader to see how Sales formulates her questions and “learn from her approach”.</p>
<p>The line-up of top journalists featured is testament to Sales’ own reputation and extensive experience. With talent as smart and articulate as novelist and feature writer <a href="https://theconversation.com/boy-swallows-universe-theatrical-adaptation-of-hit-novel-blends-pain-with-nostalgia-to-astonishing-effect-166748">Trent Dalton</a>, investigative reporter Kate McClymont, Teachers’ Pet podcast creator <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-clear-victory-for-dogged-investigative-journalism-chris-dawson-found-guilty-of-murdering-wife-lynette-in-1982-189625">Hedley Thomas</a> and SBS Insight host <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/may/25/three-things-with-kumi-taguchi-it-truly-hurts-my-heart-that-i-didnt-look-after-piglet-well-enough">Kumi Taguchi</a>, Sales could not really go wrong.</p>
<p>Storytellers is divided into ten sections, including news reporting, foreign correspondence, interviewing, anchoring, and commentary and analysis. Some of the most engaging parts of the book relate to interviewing. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kate McClymont talks to Barrie Cassidy about her journalism career.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The art of the interview</h2>
<p>It’s fascinating to see how these professionals approach and interact with the people they interview. </p>
<p>Grimshaw is included in the chapter dedicated to interviewing, as are <a href="https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/laurie-oakes">Laurie Oakes</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/people/richard-fidler/7689816">Richard Fidler</a>. They’re all veteran interviewers with quite different styles. But almost all the journalists in the book discuss their interviewing approaches and practices.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/interested-curious-and-empathetic-michael-parkinson-helped-bridge-the-gap-between-australia-and-england-211824">Interested, curious and empathetic, Michael Parkinson helped bridge the gap between Australia and England</a>
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<p>Feature writer and novelist Trent Dalton adds some humour with his unorthodox techniques for getting interview subjects to talk about sensitive topics. Sales put it to him that a journalist can “pretty much ask anything if you preface it with ‘I hope I don’t seem insensitive, and you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to’”. To which Dalton replies: </p>
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<p>Oh Leigh, that is powerful. I phrase that sentence in so many different ways. Sometimes I’ll say that like, “Mate, please tell me to fuck off” or “Listen, I know this is so hard to talk about. But if you don’t mind, I think we might be able to go to places that mean a lot to people.”</p>
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<p>Several of the journalists say they’re often surprised by people’s willingness to be interviewed. This aligns with <a href="https://theconversation.com/interviews-with-journalists-can-seem-daunting-but-new-research-shows-80-of-subjects-report-a-positive-experience-200821">research</a> that’s found most people are receptive to giving a news interview and that the benefits of the experience tend to outweigh the negatives.</p>
<p>Award-winning Sydney Morning Herald investigative reporter <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/by/kate-mcclymont-hvede">Kate McClymont</a>, who has exposed corruption in politics, unions and sport, has been able to persuade many reluctant sources, including criminals, to be interviewed over the years.</p>
<p>While she acknowledges she’s “gonna piss people off” and that’s part of her job, she says it’s crucial to treat everyone with respect. “People are very skeptical about journalists and feel that we just use and abuse them,” she says. “If you try to make people feel as though you value and appreciate even the smallest things they have done for you, it helps.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-plagued-journalists-have-traded-their-independence-for-access-resulting-in-a-kind-of-political-pornography-189124">In Plagued, journalists have traded their independence for access, resulting in a kind of political pornography</a>
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<p>Storytellers demonstrates how diverse and exciting the job of journalism can be. Many of the journalists recount being at history-making events such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/9-11-conspiracy-theories-debunked-20-years-later-engineering-experts-explain-how-the-twin-towers-collapsed-167353">September 11 terrorist attacks</a> in the United States, or the <a href="https://theconversation.com/boxing-day-tsunami-balancing-social-and-physical-recovery-35155">Boxing Day tsunami</a> of 2004.</p>
<p>Journalism can be demanding and challenging. And it requires a lot of courage. Former Four Corners executive producer <a href="https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/marian-wilkinson">Marian Wilkinson</a> talks about the knot she feels in her stomach before a big story breaks – and the repercussions that follow. </p>
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<p>The person who’s the subject of the story will come back at you […] powerful people almost always fight – a lawsuit, defamation threats, it goes on and on – and often quite viciously.</p>
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<p>While acknowledging the demands of the job and the <a href="https://dartcenter.org/">trauma that can be associated with it</a>, Storytellers’ overriding message is that to be a journalist is a privilege. </p>
<p>“There’s no job like journalism,” veteran Channel Seven reporter <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/award-winners/chris-reason-lindt-cafe-siege/">Chris Reason</a> tells Sales. “There’s no job that gives you the passport to get to the sorts of places, incidents, moments in our community and our history that journalism provides.”</p>
<p>For many of Sales’ subjects, the best part of being a journalist is the interactions with people. And often the most profound conversations and exchanges are with “ordinary” people. </p>
<p>As Grimshaw says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They’re always the interviews that are far more revelatory to me than celebrities or politicians. It’s how ordinary people navigate the extraordinary that keeps me doing the job.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Shine 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>Leigh Sales’ new book shares the insights of more than 30 prominent and experienced Australian journalists, including Laurie Oakes, Samantha Maiden and Trent Dalton, about their craft.Kathryn Shine, Associate Professor, Journalism, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120182023-08-23T03:23:05Z2023-08-23T03:23:05ZAs ABC chair, Ita Buttrose stood up for the broadcaster’s independence. It’s time others did the same<p>Ita Buttrose <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/ita-buttrose-will-not-seek-second-term-as-abc-chair-20230822-p5dye6.html">has announced</a> she will not seek a second term as ABC chair, which means her term will expire in March 2024. </p>
<p>Buttrose’s appointment as chair of the ABC in February 2019 was tainted by being a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/09/two-media-executives-and-lawyer-passed-over-for-ita-buttrose-as-abc-chair-foi-confirms">captain’s pick</a>” on the part of then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, yet at crucial moments she was to prove a strong defender of the ABC’s independence against the predations of his government.</p>
<p>It was the issue that came to define her tenure. It had also brought down her predecessor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-inquiry-finds-board-knew-of-trouble-between-milne-and-guthrie-but-did-nothing-114752">Justin Milne</a>. The manner of her appointment continued the Coalition’s contemptuous disregard of the independent merit-based selection process for ABC board appointments, and she inherited a board stained by political patronage.</p>
<p>Four of the seven non-executive directors already there had been <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/who-needs-the-abc-9781922310927">appointed outside the merit system</a> by Mitch Fifield as minister for communication.</p>
<p>Buttrose herself put ABC independence at the centre of her commitments. In a sharp departure from Milne’s temporising approach to government pressure, <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/statements/statement-by-ita-buttrose-abc-chair-on-the-publics-right-to-know">Buttrose stated</a> soon after her appointment: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will fight any attempts to muzzle the national broadcaster or interfere with its obligations to the Australian public. Independence is not exercised by degrees. It is absolute. </p>
</blockquote>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ita-buttroses-appointment-as-new-abc-chair-a-promising-step-in-the-right-direction-112683">Ita Buttrose's appointment as new ABC chair a promising step in the right direction</a>
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<p>Within months, this declaration was put to the test when the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC headquarters in Sydney as part of an investigation into who had leaked information about alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Buttrose <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-07/ita-buttrose-says-afp-raid-on-abc-was-designed-to-intimidate/11189200">attacked the police raid</a> as a clear attempt to intimidate journalists. </p>
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<p>In November 2020, it was put to the test again. Four Corners broadcast a program called <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2003H040S00">Inside the Canberra Bubble</a>. In it Rachelle Miller, a former staffer to acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge, said she had had an affair with him. She also alleged that Christian Porter, who was to become attorney-general, had been seen cuddling a staffer of another minister in a Canberra bar in 2017. Porter denied the claim.</p>
<p>On November 30, Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher wrote to Buttrose demanding answers within 14 days to 15 questions mostly about the program’s impartiality.</p>
<p>On the 14th day, December 14 2020, Buttrose <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/14/abc-chair-ita-buttrose-accuses-government-of-political-interference-in-draft-letter-to-paul-fletcher">sent him a reply</a>, hitting back hard. She dismissed the 15 questions and accused the government of a pattern of behaviour that “smacks of political interference”. </p>
<p>The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, subsequently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/extreme-and-unrelenting-abc-four-corners-team-claim-pressure-to-stop-federal-mps-investigation-20201109-p56cu">told a Senate estimates committee hearing</a> that Buttrose had seen the program before it went to air and had supported the decision to broadcast it.</p>
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<p>Then in late February 2021, Four Corners <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-26/pm-senators-afp-told-historical-rape-allegation-cabinet-minister/13197248">broke a related story</a> saying the Australian Federal Police had been notified of a letter sent to Scott Morrison detailing an alleged historical rape by a cabinet minister in the federal government. </p>
<p>In early March, Christian Porter <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-03/christian-porter-denies-historical-rape-allegation/13206972">outed himself</a> as the cabinet minister referred to, and strongly denied the allegation.</p>
<p>He sued the ABC for defamation but the ABC defended it vigorously and he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/abc-christian-porter-discontinue-defamation/100179392">discontinued the action</a>. </p>
<p>In late 2021, Buttrose went on the attack again, this time over an attempt by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg to launch a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s complaints process, while an internal inquiry into the same issue was already on foot. She <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/abc-chair-ita-buttrose-andrew-bragg-political-interference/13631096">called it out</a> as a “partisan political exercise” and Bragg’s effort foundered. </p>
<p>It is clear that far from behaving like a Liberal Party stooge, Buttrose has stood up courageously for the ABC’s independence, as she said she would. That will be an important part of her legacy.</p>
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<p>Yet she has not been able to imbue the organisation’s editorial leadership with the same spirit. This was shown in two recent cases where editorial independence was again under attack.</p>
<p>The first concerned the coverage of King Charles III’s coronation in May. For about 45 minutes in the lead-up to the ceremony, the ABC ran a panel discussion about the contemporary relevance of the British monarchy to Australian lives. The nine guests on the program included Stan Grant, a Wiradjuri man and celebrated ABC journalist.</p>
<p>The panel discussion provoked a backlash and drew about 1,800 complaints to the ABC. After investigating these, the ABC ombudsman found the program had not breached the ABC’s editorial policies.</p>
<p>Much of the backlash focused on Grant, and in late May he stepped aside from his role as moderator of Q+A on ABC television, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">writing in his ABC column</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He has since left the ABC and taken up a position at Monash University.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grants-treatment-is-a-failure-of-abcs-leadership-mass-media-and-debate-in-this-country-206080">Stan Grant's treatment is a failure of ABC's leadership, mass media, and debate in this country</a>
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<p>It was not until Grant announced his decision to step back from Q+A that the head of the ABC’s news division, Justin Stevens, finally <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/22/abc-news-chief-regrets-not-defending-stan-grant-earlier-amid-racist-attacks">made a public statement</a> in Grant’s defence, apologising for not having done so “ten days earlier”. Anderson’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/21/abc-boss-apologises-to-stan-grant-after-host-said-he-felt-unsupported-in-face-of-racist-attacks">apology to Grant</a> in a staff email had come only one day sooner.</p>
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<p>The second case concerns Nicole Chvastek, an experienced journalist who, until March, had presented ABC Radio Victoria’s Statewide Drive program for almost a decade.</p>
<p>Her career ended abruptly in July after a 17-month saga set in motion by a complaint from a National Party politician, Darren Chester, telephoned directly to a senior ABC executive in Sydney. It concerned the way Chvastek had covered the Morrison government’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/19/against-the-foil-of-the-morrison-government-dominic-perrottets-flood-response-has-been-pragmatic">handling of flood relief payments</a> to victims in northern NSW: those who lived in the National seat of Page got more, initially, than those in the neighbouring Labor-held seat of Richmond.</p>
<p>The details of Chvastek’s case have been <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/08/03/nicole-chvastek-abc-directive/">traversed elsewhere</a>. It remains only for me to declare that for eight and a half years I was a guest on her program discussing media issues, and the charge of misconduct arising from Chester’s complaint was not upheld.</p>
<p>In both cases, at the most senior levels of ABC editorial leadership there was a failure of an editor’s first responsibility, which is to provide a safe environment within which staff can do good journalism.</p>
<p>There have been many <a href="https://www.abcfriendsvic.org.au/demoralisation_liberal_party_strategy_on_the_abc">analyses</a> of how nine years of Coalition government attacks demoralised the ABC. But with Buttrose’s departure now on the horizon, it is time for others at the top to stand up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I was a guest on Nicole Chvastek's ABC Radio Victoria Statewide Drive program for eight and a half years discussing media issues. I declare this in the article itself.</span></em></p>Buttrose’s tenure as chair was tainted by being a Morrison government ‘captain’s pick’, but she nonetheless defended the ABC against tat government’s predations.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2095222023-07-12T07:18:53Z2023-07-12T07:18:53ZHealth research must be ethical – we can do more to make sure that’s the case for young trans people and their families<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536990/original/file-20230712-19-dj3dfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C25%2C5565%2C3707&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>Monday’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/blocked:-the-battle-over-youth-gender-care/102587506">Four Corners</a> program on gender affirming care highlighted <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-10/transgender-children-westmead-hospital-research-four-corners/102568570">concerns about research</a> undertaken with 79 young trans people and their families who sought help at the Children’s Hospital Westmead. </p>
<p>Since the Four Corners episode, the New South Wales health minister has announced a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/sydney-childrens-hospital-gender-research">review</a> of the scientific evidence related to health care for young trans people. </p>
<p>One family who took part in the research featured in the ABC program expressed shock and distress at how they and others in their community were represented and how the study was framed when it was published. The research suggested links to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-10/transgender-children-westmead-hospital-research-four-corners/102568570">family trauma and dysfunction</a> and high rates of “desistance” (defined in the research as the resolution or disappearance of gender-related distress). </p>
<p>The program raised important questions about ethical research. What are the obligations of researchers and ethics committees to ensure the best outcomes? How can we ensure ethical principles for young trans people and their families are met – especially when they might see research as one of few avenues for accessing care? How do young trans people and their families know when they should or shouldn’t sign up?</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/family-support-protects-trans-young-people-but-their-families-need-support-too-202743">Family support protects trans young people – but their families need support too</a>
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<h2>Obligations and oversight</h2>
<p>In Australia, a <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/research-policy/ethics/human-research-ethics-committees">human research ethics committee</a> must assess research conducted with people before it’s given the go-ahead. These committees are often located in universities, government departments and hospitals. They include a chairperson, members of the public and people with expert knowledge and current experience in research. </p>
<p>Ethics committees aim to ensure research proposals meet <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/national-statement-ethical-conduct-human-research-2007-updated-2018">ethical principles and guidelines</a>. These say research should be respectful, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003138556-15/australians-diverse-sexual-orientations-gender-identities-cristyn-davies-kerry-robinson-atari-metcalf-kimberley-ivory-julie-mooney-somers-kane-race-rachel-skinner">culturally safe</a> and undertaken in the best interest of the individuals and communities. </p>
<p>Marginalised communities, in particular, need culturally safe research. This includes trans young people, many of whom <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-words-can-harm-young-trans-people-heres-what-we-can-do-to-help-176788">experience</a> anxiety and depression as a result of stigma and discrimination. </p>
<p>Ensuring research participants are culturally safe means they feel accepted and are socially, emotionally and physically protected from harm when participating in health research. <a href="https://connect.springerpub.com/content/book/978-0-8261-6921-1/part/part01/chapter/ch01#:%7E:text=Cultural%20safety%20emphasizes%20patient%2Dcentered,day%20%E2%80%93%20especially%20people%20of%20color.">Cultural safety</a> includes recognising research participants may have more than one marginalised identity, such as young Aboriginal trans people or young trans people with a disability. </p>
<p>Researchers and ethics committees also must ensure research <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-code-responsible-conduct-research-2018">is conducted ethically</a>. Doing research responsibly includes being open and honest in developing, undertaking and accurately reporting research findings. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-words-can-harm-young-trans-people-heres-what-we-can-do-to-help-176788">Yes, words can harm young trans people. Here's what we can do to help</a>
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</p>
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<h2>What about young trans people and their families?</h2>
<p>“Do good”, “do no harm”, and “nothing about us without us” are fundamental ethical principles. Accordingly, it is expected research with young trans people and their families is undertaken ethically, responsibly and with integrity. </p>
<p>Young trans people and their families need to be involved throughout the research process. Partnerships must be established before research proposals are submitted to ethics committees for approval. Working in partnerships with trans children, young people, their families, and communities builds mutual trust, respect, and accountability.</p>
<p>When young trans people and their families are not meaningfully included as research partners, research findings can be misinterpreted. This can cause harm to young people and their families. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.why.org.au/">Wellbeing, Health & Youth</a> <a href="https://www.why.org.au/index.php/why-research/ethics-of-engagement/WHY-engagement-framework">engagement framework</a> co-produced with young people from different marginalised groups presents a set of values and practical questions for researchers that promote ethical engagement with young people. These include looking at how co-design can create an approach that is youth-centred, strengths-based and focused on
maximising opportunities for health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>When engagement includes mutual trust and accountability, diversity and inclusion, and equity and responsiveness, participants and their loved ones are unlikely to feel shock at how their experiences are presented. </p>
<h2>How can young trans people and their families assess research ethics?</h2>
<p>Participants should be presented with clear information about what the study will involve and the implications of participation. Before deciding on whether to participate in research, young trans people and their families should know their <a href="https://www.transhub.org.au/respect#your-rights-in-a-research-setting">rights in research settings</a> including the right to complain and what happens to their personal data if they withdraw. </p>
<p>Helpful questions to ask before consenting to participate in research include: </p>
<ul>
<li>do the researchers have expertise in trans children and young people’s health?</li>
<li>what organisations do they work for?<br></li>
<li>why are they doing the research? </li>
<li>how connected are they to the communities they are researching? </li>
</ul>
<p>Participation in research should be a choice. It should not involve any kind of coercion, such as feeling that not participating in the research would mean a person would not get the same access to gender-affirming health care. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C10%2C1723%2C1136&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young person wearing makeup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C10%2C1723%2C1136&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536988/original/file-20230712-29-abu8rn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&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">Young person Brock was interviewed by Four Corners and is receiving gender-affirming care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-10/transgender-children-westmead-hospital-research-four-corners/102568570">ABC Four Corners: Mat Marsic</a></span>
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<h2>Robust research is needed</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-words-can-harm-young-trans-people-heres-what-we-can-do-to-help-176788">Young trans people</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/family-support-protects-trans-young-people-but-their-families-need-support-too-202743">their families</a> experience <a href="https://www.telethonkids.org.au/projects/past/trans-pathways/">significant marginalisation and health inequity</a>. </p>
<p>Robust research is vital to reducing this health inequity and improving the health and wellbeing of young trans people. </p>
<p>To ensure this research is of the highest standard, ethics committees must have the expertise to uphold ethical principles in research involving trans children and adolescents. They may need more training and should seek independent guidance from subject experts, including from people with lived experience. </p>
<p>As the Four Corners program shows, high-quality guidelines specifically for research with trans people, including children and adolescents, are urgently needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cristyn Davies reports voluntarily being co-chair of the Human Rights Council of Australia; co-chair of the Child and Youth Special Interest Group for the Public Health Association of Australia; a board director of the Australian Association of Adolescent Health; an ambassador to Twenty10 Incorporating the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service of New South Wales; and co-chair of the research committee for the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Skinner is affiliated with the NSW Ministry of Health, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Australian Association of Adolescent Health, Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine, Australian Professional Association of Transgender Health</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sav Zwickl works for the Trans Health Research Group, Department of Medicine (Austin Health), The University of Melbourne and is affiliated with the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry H. Robinson 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>How can we ensure ethical research principles for young trans people and their families are met – especially when they might see research as one of few avenues for accessing care?Cristyn Davies, Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of SydneyKerry H. Robinson, Professor in Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney UniversityRachel Skinner, Professor in Paediatrics, University of SydneySav Zwickl, Trans Health Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2021482023-03-20T06:39:51Z2023-03-20T06:39:51ZFirst Australian charged with war crime of murder in Afghanistan<p>The first arrest has been made following the Brereton inquiry into allegations that Australians committed war crimes in Afghanistan. </p>
<p>Former SAS soldier, Oliver Schulz, 41, has been remanded in custody after his arrest by police in regional NSW. </p>
<p>He is expected to appear in Downing Centre Local Court. </p>
<p>The arrest follows a joint investigation between the Office of the Special Investigator and the Australian Federal Police. </p>
<p>The man is charged with the war crime of murder under the Criminal Code Act. In a joint statement the OSI and the AFP said: “It will be alleged he murdered an Afghan man while deployed in Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force.” The maximum penalty is life in prison. </p>
<p>The OSI was set up in 2021 as part of the response to the Brereton report. The OSI and the police are jointly investigating allegations of criminal offences by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. </p>
<p>The Brereton inquiry into Australian Special Forces’ misconduct in Afghanistan reported in 2020. It found “credible information” of 23 incidents in which one or more non-combatants or prisoners of war “were unlawfully killed by or at the direction of members of the Special Operations Task Group, in circumstances which, if accepted by a jury, would be the war crime of murder”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan 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 arrest follows a joint investigation between the Office of the Special Investigator and the Australian Federal PoliceMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1858672022-06-29T05:42:35Z2022-06-29T05:42:35ZHow can we reverse the vaping crisis among young Australians? Enforce the rules<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471498/original/file-20220629-14-emka1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C997%2C661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">E-cigarettes and vape products are illegally imported into Australia. Some claim not to contain nicotine, but do.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/suffolk-uk-may-18-2019-new-1613347117">Simon Collins/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>ABC TV’s Four Corners this week <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/vape-haze:-the-new-addiction-of-vaping/13948226">reported</a> how unlawful sale of e-cigarettes in Australia is out of control. </p>
<p>The program highlighted the effects on young people, in particular, including how easy it is for them to buy the products.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1539762788876181505"}"></div></p>
<p>How did this slow-moving public health train wreck unfold in broad daylight, almost a <a href="https://www.cancer.org.au/blog/extreme-caution-needed-on-electronic-cigarettes">decade after</a> the Cancer Council warned it was coming?</p>
<p>The answer is poor or non-existent enforcement of good laws.</p>
<h2>A growing problem</h2>
<p>The use of all harmful substances in young Australians is <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/alcohol-tobacco-and-other-drugs">declining</a> – except for e-cigarettes and <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/national-drug-strategy-household-survey-2019/data">smoking in men</a> aged 18-24.</p>
<p>Lifetime use of e-cigarettes <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/national-drug-strategy-household-survey-2019/data">increased</a> by 46% between 2016 and 2019 in non-smokers aged 18-24 – a huge spike in the use of a harmful substance in just three years.</p>
<p>Last week, an updated statement from the National Health and Medical Research Council <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/all-topics/electronic-cigarettes/ceo-statement">reflected</a> increasing concerns from public health officials about the growing uptake of e-cigarettes, particularly by young people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="E-cigarettes: get the facts, public health campaign" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471496/original/file-20220629-16-zlvpua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public health officials are concerned about the growing use of e-cigarettes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/all-topics/electronic-cigarettes/ceo-statement">NHMRC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-damning-review-of-e-cigarettes-shows-vaping-leads-to-smoking-the-opposite-of-what-supporters-claim-180675">A damning review of e-cigarettes shows vaping leads to smoking, the opposite of what supporters claim</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>But aren’t these illegal?</h2>
<p>Anyone using a nicotine e-cigarette without a valid doctor’s prescription has obtained the product unlawfully. Its importation was unlawful, as was its storage, sale and promotion.</p>
<p>Yet, as the Four Corners program showed, this is happening on an industrial scale. Merchants with a profit motive are promoting <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-damning-review-of-e-cigarettes-shows-vaping-leads-to-smoking-the-opposite-of-what-supporters-claim-180675">addictive products</a>, with no regard for the health of young people. </p>
<p>Retailers and online entrepreneurs are clearly not complying with current laws. And these laws are not being enforced.</p>
<h2>We need to target importation</h2>
<p>E-cigarettes are <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-18-harm-reduction/indepth-18b-e-cigarettes/18b-1-the-ecigarettemarket">not manufactured</a> in Australia. If their destination is not a pharmacy or someone with a valid prescription, their importation is <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/nicotine-vaping-products-compliance-and-enforcement">unlawful</a>.</p>
<p>But it is clear, from the number of illegal e-cigarettes available in Australia, the federal government is not enforcing its own importation rules.</p>
<p>Attempts to amend <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_reg_es/cianr2020202000791723.html">regulations</a> to further restrict imports were proposed in 2020. This would have enabled the Australian Border Force to intercept illegal e-cigarette imports.</p>
<p>However, the government assured the community that requiring all
non-tobacco nicotine products to only be available on prescription (<a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/nicotine-vaping-product-access">schedule 4 of the Poisons Standard</a>) would achieve the same result. It <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/nicotine-vaping-product-access">said</a> this would protect young people from e-cigarettes.</p>
<p>It’s almost nine months since this came into effect in October 2021. Yet young people, in increasing numbers, are accessing e-cigarettes.</p>
<p>The scheduling standard and the rules underpinning it are clearly being ignored. The federal government must revisit proposals to allow interception of illegal e-cigarettes at the border or find another mechanism to block them.</p>
<h2>We need to target their sale</h2>
<p>Retailers and wholesalers are also breaking rules set out in <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/tga-confirms-nicotine-e-cigarette-access-prescription-only">official advice</a> from the Therapeutic Goods Administration and corresponding information on state government <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/tobacco/Pages/e-cigarettes.aspx">websites</a>. </p>
<p>New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/20220516_00.aspx">has warned</a> that nicotine e-cigarette traders, other than pharmacies, could face prosecution, heavy fines and even jail.</p>
<p>Yet tobacconists, convenience stores and vape shops are still breaking the rules.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rows of e-cigarettes for sale" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471510/original/file-20220629-22-quxfkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">E-cigarettes and vaping products can be sold in plain view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kievukraine27-october2018-buy-new-vape-juice-1217375503">hurricane hank/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>State and territory governments must enforce their laws, especially those being broken in plain view. Authorities can impose substantial fines for offenders, which would not only deter unlawful trade, it would fund additional enforcement.</p>
<p>There are also laws for the bulk storage and transport of schedule 4 poisons, such as nicotine. Four Corners showed how readily a film crew could expose breaches of these laws.</p>
<h2>If young people can find them, so can the authorities</h2>
<p>Young people told Four Corners they can access products without a prescription from online entrepreneurs importing, storing and selling nicotine e-cigarettes. </p>
<p>Seizing illegal imports will eventually dry up their supply, but there will be stockpiles. </p>
<p>If school children can access these suppliers and their products with a quick search on their smartphones, authorities can also find them and put them out of business.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vaping-is-glamourised-on-social-media-putting-youth-in-harms-way-159436">Vaping is glamourised on social media, putting youth in harm's way</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What needs to happen next?</h2>
<p>E-cigarette use in young Australians is a crisis, but is fixable. The federal government must stop illegal imports, the states and territories must end the unlawful retail, wholesale and interstate trade.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-damning-review-of-e-cigarettes-shows-vaping-leads-to-smoking-the-opposite-of-what-supporters-claim-180675">harms of e-cigarettes</a> are severe and far outweigh any modest benefits; there are laws to protect young people from them. </p>
<p>If the crisis worsens, more people will ask, how did this happen? The answer will be simple: governments made good laws, but they did not enforce them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-safest-to-avoid-e-cigarettes-altogether-unless-vaping-is-helping-you-quit-smoking-123274">It's safest to avoid e-cigarettes altogether – unless vaping is helping you quit smoking</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Grogan is employed by the Daffodil Centre, a joint cancer research venture between Cancer Council NSW and the University of Sydney. He is an investigator on a current research project on e-cigarette use in young people jointly funded by the NSW Government and the Minderoo Foundation, with in-kind support from Cancer Council NSW.</span></em></p>If the crisis worsens, more people will ask, how did this happen? The answer will be simple: governments made good laws, but they did not enforce them.Paul Grogan, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The Daffodil Centre, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1800232022-03-25T03:24:27Z2022-03-25T03:24:27ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Sarah Ferguson on reporting from Ukraine<p>As the devastating war in Ukraine continues, Michelle Grattan speaks with ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson about her experiences in reporting her Four Corners episode Despair and Defiance – how she was able to capture this story – and her views on where the conflict is likely to go from now.</p>
<p>Sarah and her team presented a raw portrayal of the conflict and its human toll in Kyiv and elsewhere.</p>
<p>“[In reporting] so much of these things comes down to simple practicalities. Can you get food? Can you get a driver? Can you get out? And once we’d got all of those things in place, we were good to go.”</p>
<p>Ukranian officialdom knows how vital it is to get its story to the world. Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “has understood the importance of telling people the story of what’s happening.”</p>
<p>“The Russians actually shelled people during the evacuations and fired on people. […] The Russians aren’t observing the sort of conventions of war where civilians are able to be evacuated. So getting them out and witnessing that was unquestionably dangerous. It was a dangerous place to be.”</p>
<p>Caught in this horrific situation, ordinary Ukrainians can do little but just think “from day to day” rather than contemplate the future. “‘If I can get through today, what is my plan for tomorrow?’ […] The fear of what lies ahead is so grim that the human can’t – you can’t live with that amount of fear. So in order to function, you keep your horizon nearer.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan 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>Michelle Grattan speaks with ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson about her experiences reporting from Ukraine, how she was able to capture this story, and her views on where the conflict is likely to go from nowMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762562022-03-03T19:10:40Z2022-03-03T19:10:40ZFriday essay: ‘fair game’, racial shame and the women who demanded more<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449681/original/file-20220303-19-34usfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club last month.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sexual politics is difficult terrain for young people to navigate. Desire, threat and insecurity are a powerful combination in the most benign circumstances, even before teenagers were drenched in social media harassment and ubiquitous porn. </p>
<p>Outside the privileged cloister where we tested the limits, my generation of assertive young women were surprised to realise we represented a visceral threat to
those men who chose to remain unmoved by the new politics that took the personal seriously.</p>
<p>The chilling reality of this confronted me not long after I arrived in Cairns in 1975, on the first leg of my journey to interview the bush poets scribbling away in Far North Queensland. </p>
<p>As I stood waiting for my brand new suitcase to appear on the baggage trolley towed from the plane, I fell into easy banter with a cowboy from central casting. He didn’t offer to carry my luggage but followed me to the hire car desk. His insistent attention put me on alert. I brushed him off, then made my way to the car park and onto the highway to town. Phew.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There were six unsolved murders on the Bruce Highway ‘horror stretch’ in six years. Image: Bruce Highway, Brisbane – Gympie, Queensland State Archives.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The threat had felt real. I had absorbed the reports of the Bruce Highway horror stretch a little further south. Six unsolved murders in six years, and another two just months earlier. I locked all the doors of the little Mazda, wound the windows up tight, and kept an eye on the rear-vision mirror until I pulled into the motel, checked into my room and drew the curtains. </p>
<p>Then the cowboy’s harassment really started. First a phone call, then a knock on the door, angry pacing outside the room, another call and banging on the window. I rang reception to complain and was told to get over it. No one was sent up the stairs to tell him to get lost or that they would call the police.</p>
<p>The message was clear: women were fair game. It seemed like hours before he gave up. I was exhausted. In the morning, I gobbled the cardboard cereal and white toast pushed through the breakfast hatch, drank the pot of Robur tea, paid the bill and dashed to the car park. Then I locked myself in the car. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was a bundle of nervous energy. It scarcely dissipated on the hour-long journey through the stifling heat of the pre–wet season, down the palm-fringed tropical coast to Innisfail. I was too afraid to stop, though I desperately wanted to have a swim, even in crocodile- and stinger-infested waters. I worried that if I did, the angry cowboy – or some of his mates – might reappear. I had read enough newspaper reports to know that young women disappeared on remote country roads.</p>
<p>There was nothing exceptional about my experience. Everyone I knew had a similar story, or worse. The legacy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-course-australia-was-invaded-massacres-happened-here-less-than-90-years-ago-55377">a violent frontier</a> could not be wished away and did not just evaporate. It echoed through the generations, finding new targets. Modern Queensland was still pumped up with the testosterone-fuelled aggression that had marked its founding.</p>
<p>After I returned from my road trip, a friend told me she had seen brutal violence against women in some towns in Far North Queensland – assaults that were organised and condoned, the perpetrators beyond the reach of the law. </p>
<p>It was, we would now say, structural. Not just a few bad eggs, but a system that treated young women as chattels. In her town, not far from my uncomfortable experience, gangs of men and boys routinely identified a female target at a public event and enticed her outside. They called the gang rape a “train” and convinced themselves, and the police, that the woman was “asking for it”. The traumatised victims were <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1259316">rarely believed</a>, the legal system seemingly designed to humiliate, shame and silence them.</p>
<p>When we helped journalists from the National Times with the research they needed to travel to the town and report what was going on, an ancient mechanism of control in new garb was fully revealed. </p>
<p>Within no time at all, similar stories bubbled up out of other country towns. After the horror of these organised attacks was reported, the campaign to ensure that the victims of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment-whats-the-difference-93411">sexual assault</a> were treated with respect in Queensland gained new momentum. One of the only two women in the state parliament made it an issue.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julianne Schultz in the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rosemary Kyburz was a Liberal MP who would do all she could to ensure these assaults did not go unpunished. Within a couple of years, the law changed a little. </p>
<p>Inquiries, reports, submissions and debates followed, and changes continued to be made for decades as the legacy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-misogyny-and-why-mens-aggression-to-women-is-so-often-expressed-through-sex-157680">embedded misogyny</a> revealed itself over and over. Sexual abuse could no longer be dismissed with the mocking laugh that had once accompanied it. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, nearly 50 years on, the law still works against female victims. The suppressed anger that many women carry burst to the surface of public life when another generation of young women, led by Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins and <a href="https://theconversation.com/shes-a-slut-sexual-bullying-among-girls-contributes-to-cultural-misogyny-we-need-to-take-it-seriously-157421">Chanel Contos</a>, declared Enough is enough. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-change-making-history-making-noise-brittany-higgins-and-grace-tame-at-the-national-press-club-176252">Making change, making history, making noise: Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A few weeks after International Women’s Day 2021, in cities and towns around Australia, women and men, many who hadn’t marched for decades, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402">took to the streets</a> in response to the revelations of sexual abuse in Parliament House. The echo of past protests reverberated around the nation. It had not taken long for the 800,000 women who had been added to the electoral roll in 1903 to become a wellspring of conservative votes for decades, but the polls suggested they would be no longer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.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">International Women’s Day protests 2021, Melbourne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthrkac/">Matthrkac/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A right, not a gift</h2>
<p>The animating idea of the women’s movement – that equality was a right, not a gift or a political deal – transformed interpersonal relations, and crept into workplaces and schools. Language changed, expectations were recalibrated, and before long, behaviour followed. But it did not happen overnight and did not happen without a struggle. The ban on married women working in the public service <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/the-long-slow-demise-of-the-marriage-bar/">had been lifted</a>
only two years before I started high school.</p>
<p>At that time, women were still the exception in the professions, paid one-third less than men and denied access to superannuation. In 1973, a few million dollars was made available by the federal government for the first time to support childcare and some support for women’s refuges followed. It was tiny by today’s standards but it transformed lives.</p>
<p>Four years later, the editor of the Courier-Mail drew my first serious job interview to a halt: “What it is with you girls, why do you all want to be journalists, what’s wrong with teaching and nursing?” I didn’t bother to turn up for the second interview after the editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, which still featured women in bikinis on the front page, said, “If you’re a pretty girl, come on down; if not, don’t bother.” </p>
<p>Soon the patter became more sophisticated. As Max Walsh, the editor at the Australian Financial Review, had told me at my job interview – in a pub – women would work twice as hard for half the money as men, and he thought they’d be more able to extract secrets from businessmen than male journalists. </p>
<p>A few years later, in the early 1980s, when I was armed with a clipping-book full of front-page stories and some experience in television, the head of current affairs at ABC TV baited me for an hour before dismissing me, asking, “What makes you think you are pretty enough to be on television?” Belittling and shaming were
still ready tools of choice to put women in their place.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4188%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman sits on bench, wrapped in coat and scarf, and stares at statue" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4188%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author in Geneva, 1980.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The year before my experience at the ABC’s Gore Hill headquarters, the High Court had ruled that Ansett Airlines could not discriminate against a woman who was otherwise qualified to be a pilot. I had reported on <a href="https://timeline.awava.org.au/archives/397">Deborah Wardley’s case</a> for years as her prospective employer invented one excuse after another to block her – women weren’t strong enough; unions would object; menstrual cycles, pregnancy and childbirth would jeopardise safety and increase costs. The court ruled on technicalities, not on principle. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1980 advertisement for Ansett airlines. In March 1980, Reginald Ansett lost his High Court appeal against pilot Deborah Wardley’s discrimination case, using the then-new Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 1977.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a group of older mentors urged me to make a complaint about my treatment at the ABC, the cost seemed higher than any possible reward. I kept my notes and moved on; revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold.</p>
<p>It took until 1983 for Australia to sign <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cedaw.aspx">the 1979 United Nations convention</a> designed to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. Legislation followed in 1984, but its principal proponent, the Labor senator Susan Ryan, was subjected to bitter personal and public attacks. </p>
<p>At the big rallies in Canberra, anxious and angry Women Who Want to be Women pushed to the front to protest the changes. Some 80,000 people signed petitions opposing the relatively modest sex discrimination bill. Although key Liberal leaders supported it, the right wing of the party was bitterly opposed. It <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/sex-discrimination-uncertain-times">marked the beginning of a split</a> that would dog the party for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Senator Susan Ryan, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Fernon/National Museum of Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402">Friday essay: Sex, power and anger — a history of feminist protests in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Susan Ryan was a feisty campaigner, so the vicious onslaughts only increased her resolve. Women’s rights were on the way to becoming human rights, talent was no longer sifted by sex, but the extent of the opposition stunned her. </p>
<p>The Australian legislation passed with the support of some Liberal members of parliament who defied their party and crossed the floor to vote with the government. </p>
<p>Women did not have a secure footing in the dominant political party, as deputy Liberal leader and foreign minister Julie Bishop and Liberal MP Julia Banks found in the internal party confrontation that ousted Malcolm Turnbull and replaced him with Scott Morrison. As <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/power-play-by-julia-banks/9781743797204">Julia Banks declared</a> in the House of Representatives, as she prepared to leave in 2018, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Often when good women call out or are subjected to bad behaviours, the reprisals, backlash and commentary portrays them as the bad ones: the liar, the troublemaker, the emotionally unstable or weak, or someone who should be silenced.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Tell us the story again about the newspaper job interview in the pub,” my teenaged daughter and her friends would say, at the turn of the century, each time we drove down Broadway past the old Fairfax building towards Sydney University. “Can you believe it?” the girls would chuckle. </p>
<p>Then they too entered the workforce and realised that the more subtle but deadening hand of sexual discrimination was still doing its evil work, now hidden behind laws and lofty rhetoric. Change rarely proceeds in a linear manner, but the trend was clear.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-madness-of-julia-banks-why-narratives-about-hysterical-women-are-so-toxic-163963">The 'madness' of Julia Banks — why narratives about 'hysterical' women are so toxic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Assertive women, brutal political attacks</h2>
<p>When Wayne Goss appointed Canadian-born Leneen Forde as Queensland’s governor in 1992, she was only the second woman governor in Australian history. She had fallen in love with the son of former Australian prime minister Frank Forde and, like countless young brides, moved to Australia full of hope and expectation. She was shocked by what she discovered. Brisbane in the mid-1950s was a poor country town. The appliances she had taken for granted were considered luxury mod cons. A woman’s place was in the home. But when her husband died 11 years later, this was no longer an option for her. </p>
<p>With five young children to support, she began studying law and five years after her husband’s death started work as a solicitor, eventually becoming the queen’s representative in a state named for another. </p>
<p>Queensland, despite the gender of its name, was a place where men prevailed and women were meant to know their place. Matt Foley challenged this when, as the state’s attorney-general, he decided that merit, not gender, would determine judicial appointments. </p>
<p>My former English teacher, Roslyn Atkinson, by then a distinguished barrister who had been the inaugural president of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and deputy chair of the state’s Law Reform Commission, despite outraged protests from the old guard, became one of Foley’s first Supreme Court appointments in 1998.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roslyn Atkinson, inaugural president of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and deputy chair of the state’s Law Reform Commission.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within a few years, despite bitter heckling from those who were still convinced that “merit” meant “men”, seven of the state’s 24 Supreme Court judges were women, and a woman was president of the Queensland Court of Appeal. Years later it was still driving the press mad. The Courier-Mail would roll out articles anonymously reporting lawyers who knew women were just not up to it. These eminently well-qualified women were derided as “Matt’s Girls”.</p>
<p>In September 2015, Justice Catherine Holmes became the state’s first female chief justice. This was a change that would not easily slide back. The reaction to these newly assertive women was no less brutal in politics. </p>
<p>When Labor’s Anna Bligh became the first popularly elected female premier in Australia in 2009, the misogyny that later blighted Julia Gillard’s prime ministership had an off-Broadway tryout in Brisbane. Bligh’s resolute leadership during the 2011 floods, like Gillard’s ability to navigate a hung parliament, counted for little. Her determination to privatise ports, roads, trains and coal terminals was not welcomed by traditional Labor voters. Union-sponsored billboards on major thoroughfares mocked her, the press despised her, and a vicious whispering campaign prevailed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anna Bligh became the first popularly elected female premier in Australia in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/djackmanson/">David Jackmanson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 2012 election was a disaster for Labor: the party went from holding 51 seats to seven. Electoral tides in Queensland are often more dramatic than normal swings on the carefully calibrated Australian electoral pendulum. It was a relatively short-lived win for the blokes who had felt they were born to run the state. It lasted just one term. </p>
<h2>A female perspective</h2>
<p>In 2020, the victorious Annastacia Palaszczuk became the first woman to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-wins-queensland-election-as-greens-could-win-up-to-four-seats-148715">re-elected premier for a third time</a>. Under her administration, women occupied an unprecedented number of positions of power in what was once the most macho state. It was a long way from the 1970s. </p>
<p>In 2021, most of the ministers in her cabinet were women, as were the governor, chief justice, police commissioner, chief medical officer, head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and six of the state’s seven university vice-chancellors.</p>
<p>Second-wave feminists had sometimes wondered, in the abstract, what would happen as occupations were dominated by women. Would that mean the profession had lost status? Was equality realised when mediocre women exercised as much achieved power as mediocre men had always done? </p>
<p>But as Palaszczuk’s legislation to introduce a Queensland bill of rights, legalise abortion, outlaw coercive control, enable voluntary euthanasia and better define consent laws showed in a few short years, a female perspective could change the agenda. </p>
<p>And it could drive some men mad. This was a profound cultural and political change that had nothing to do with detachment from the “mother country”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-our-utopia-careful-what-you-wish-for-165314">Friday essay: Our utopia ... careful what you wish for</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fault lines</h2>
<p>Race and gender discrimination are inextricably linked and have long been defining Australian fault lines. Female convicts – “whores”, in the view of some commanders and male prisoners – were outnumbered at least three to one and were shared among the men in what <a href="http://juliemccrossin.com/afr1.pdf">Anne Summers has described</a> as “imposed sexual slavery”. But <a href="https://bookshop.nla.gov.au/book/defiant-voices-how-australias-female-convicts-challenged-authority-1788-1853.do">many were</a> fiercely independent battlers who wanted a better life for themselves and their children and were prepared to challenge authority.</p>
<p>Similarly, the Cammeraygal woman <a href="https://www.barangaroo.com/about/the-place/history/barangaroo-the-woman">Barangaroo</a>, who became Bennelong’s wife after her first husband died from smallpox, set the bar high. She was an independent woman, a fierce hunter and provider who saw little reason to compromise with the new arrivals. She once famously attended an official dinner at Government House in traditional garb, her naked body painted in white clay, a bone through her nose. </p>
<p>She died in 1790, so was spared the distress of witnessing the brutal and demeaning treatment of her sisters and generations of others as the fight over the bodies of Aboriginal women became a recurring metaphor of settlement. Some formed loving relationships with settlers, others became leaders, but many were treated as chattels, emotionally destroyed as their children were taken away, their men emasculated.</p>
<p>Australia was and is a deeply male society. For those with enough determination and a strong sense of self-worth, frontier life encouraged a certain female fearlessness that is still evident. </p>
<p>It is clear in the stars that shine abroad: writers and thinkers like Germaine Greer, Geraldine Brooks, Anne Summers and Kate Manne; scientists like the Nobel-winning Elizabeth Blackburn; actors like Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Rachel Griffiths and Margot Robbie, who luminously fill the world’s screens; educators including Jill Ker Conway and Patricia Davidson; and anthropologists Genevieve Bell and Marcia Langton.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="woman smiling, holding newspapers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Germaine Greer holding newspapers, 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Hennessy/NLA nla.gov.au/nla.obj-149859225</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ever since pastoralists recruited single men, not wanting to be encumbered by the additional expense of providing for families, the political economy of Australia has been built on the primacy of male labour, male power and male control. The native-born and immigrant populations grew in the 19th century, but it took the
deaths of more than 60,000 men in the first world war for women to become the majority, although the generational loss reverberated for decades. </p>
<p>Women remained, in Anne Summers’ famous phrase, either “damned whores or God’s police”. Sexualised taunting was and still is the bedrock of abuse likely to rain down on Australian women who speak their mind, provide professional advice, demand more and expect R.E.S.P.E.C.T., as Aretha Franklin sang. Still, nothing fires up the angry Twitterati quite like women making otherwise unremarkable comments about their rights and expectations.</p>
<h2>‘One of the most racist towns in the country’</h2>
<p>The intersection of these discriminations was on proud, unapologetic display when, in 1977, I flew three hours west of Brisbane to Cunnamulla. </p>
<p>Peter Manning, then the editor of Nation Review, had commissioned me to report on a community that had been characterised as one of the most racist towns in the country for the independent newspaper. As I had learned from my weeks on the road talking to bush poets, travelling alone on this assignment would have been foolhardy, so I accompanied two of my friends. Wayne Goss and Matt Foley were working for the Aboriginal Legal Service at the time, and they had a slate full of meetings and court hearings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shops on a street, in a isolated town" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jane Street, Cunnamulla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland State Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the time, Cunnamulla was home to 1500 people (about, according to the signpost), seven pubs and seven draperies, and unemployment was officially running at 25%. Eight of every ten Aboriginal people were without work. It was a town where grog ruled, dozens of children were malnourished, and the grief from scores of infant deaths each year was overwhelming. </p>
<p>As the plane touched down, the local man sitting next to me asked where I was staying. The Club, I said. He spoke in the leering, patronising way I had come to expect in my travels through the state, setting the tone for the following week. As we left the plane he reassured me that I would be safe: “They don’t let the darkies into the Club Hotel.”</p>
<p>Cunnamulla is one of a handful of outback Australian towns that has a grim, larger-than-life reputation. Wilcannia, in the far west of New South Wales, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-in-wilcannia-a-national-disgrace-we-all-saw-coming-167348">briefly won national attention during the pandemic</a>, is another. Both towns had had their reputations unfairly tarnished, as the requests of their leaders were persistently ignored and dismissed. It has long been easy to ignore those who live beyond the Great Dividing Range.</p>
<p>Not long after William Landsborough described the potential of the land he observed around what became Cunnamulla – as he crossed the continent from north to south in search of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills – the south-west of Queensland was rapidly divided into vast stations. </p>
<p>Squatters soon claimed the mulga-clad countryside and murderous incursions became the norm. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814">Native Police</a> were stationed in the Cunnamulla township. Reports of the killings in the 1860s were so shocking that they provoked the Anglican bishop of Sydney to establish a mission. He had been outraged by a squatter’s jape that if he had “known how useful they might be he wouldn’t have killed so many blackfellows”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814">How unearthing Queensland's 'native police' camps gives us a window onto colonial violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="row of uniformed men in horses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police riot squad and mounted Native Police, circa 1890s, Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland State Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The unprepossessing settlement on the banks of the Warrego River about 800 kilometres due west of Brisbane is an unlikely entry in the compendium of noteworthy places. Its murderous history was conveniently forgotten and replaced with a pastoral fantasy. Maybe the mouth-pleasing ring of the name helped. Henry Lawson thought it suggested pumpkin pies. He immortalised the Cobb & Co. coach
stop in his story <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C239056">The Hypnotised Township</a>, but described the town as a place of “troubled slumbers”. </p>
<p>Years later the Aboriginal poet <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/authors/herb-wharton">Herb Wharton</a>, who was born near Cunnamulla, won international acclaim when he broke the hypnotic silence. He turned the settler stories on their heads and told the droving tales of Murri stockmen and women. He and his sister Hazel McKellar then recorded the tales of massacres, including the one their grandmother had survived. </p>
<p>Still, the “Cunnamulla Fella”, who lived on damper and wallaby stew and was conjured by country singer Slim Dusty, is the figure who endures as a statue in the town. A selfie with the “Fella” is a tick on the roaming grey-nomad bucket list.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poster created by the supporters of Aboriginal human rights justice during the period prior to the parliamentary reform of the Australian Constitution in 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Farley</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An ugly reality</h2>
<p>Dark histories haunt places and often recur in other uncanny manifestations. Some may consider the Cunnamulla Fella a charming artefact of a bygone age, but there was nothing charming about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/out-of-sight-out-of-mind---1969/2833724">Out of Sight, Out of Mind</a>, the depiction of the town by ABC’s Four Corners program in 1969. </p>
<p>This film, broadcast just two years after the referendum that brought First Nations people into the mainstream, was one of those moments when current affairs television excelled. It brought the shameful reality of life in fringe camps into middle-class loungerooms. </p>
<p>The pale, well-spoken journalist was doing a good job, but looked like a creature from another planet, dropped in to share his outrage. It was an excoriating portrayal of the wrongful conviction of an Aboriginal woman, and of the shocking conditions in the two town camps that were home to descendants of the Kunja people who had once been shot and poisoned by graziers.</p>
<p>Audiences around the country reacted with fury. “I’m praying for [mayor] Jack Tonkin’s soul in purgatory,” one wrote, “but I don’t like my chances.” ABC management prohibited the sale of the program to the BBC; the picture it painted was too ugly for international consumption.</p>
<p>The broadcast prompted an immediate political response: money suddenly became available to build 26 fibro houses scattered through the town. When I visited eight years later, the houses were built and only the remnants of the camps remained. The community links that had given life in the settlement its own coherence had dissipated; drunkenness had become the destructive norm. </p>
<p>The angry racism that once fuelled the frontier wars still had full-throated voice. Like so many outback towns, Cunnamulla seemed to be dying. “You have to blame it on something, what better than the boongs,” one angry newcomer told me.</p>
<p>Those I met on that short trip felt no need to hide their fury. The media had destroyed their town. “We were doing the right thing by the blacks until Four Corners came along,” one self-appointed spokesman berated me when I attended a dinner organised by the Rotary Club. </p>
<h2>‘I just want a fair go for the white fella’</h2>
<p>The anger in the room bubbled up as they listened to social worker Matt Foley’s talk. When it came time for questions, the local solicitor chairing the meeting passed around handwritten notes: “tone it down”, “no aggressive questions”, “calm down”. The back and forth continued until well after midnight. Then, like a storm that had passed, the tone changed. “We’re still friends, aren’t we?” the man who had most aggressively blamed the media at the start of the evening asked as he wandered off to his car. He should not have been driving.</p>
<p>In the morning a taxi driver who had been part of the angry group the night before nearly ran me over and then demanded I get into his car for a tour of the camps and the new houses. He knew who to blame. As we drove along the uncurbed streets he pointed to one rundown house after another:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Black house, white house, black house … I hope you are going to give those bastards heaps … I just want a fair go
for the white fella. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the previous six months there had been nearly 300 convictions for drunkenness: 163 Aboriginal men and 58 women; 55 white men and two women. “You can’t live here without drinking,” my not-so-friendly taxi driver declared.</p>
<p>Four of the women I met stood out and have remained with me ever since. One was the doctor’s elderly receptionist. When I knocked, she answered the door to the surgery armed with a paper knife. “You learn to expect anything, and prepare yourself,” she said as she put the blade in a drawer. </p>
<p>Another was a tough, damaged woman who owned one of the three pubs that served Aboriginal people. She had installed a metal cage along the bar. “I don’t know why the blacks drink here. I like them, but I’ve lost control. I don’t care how much I lose, I’m selling this place,” she told me. </p>
<p>Outside her pub a young woman, who looked at least 20 years older than she was, grabbed my arm and repeated, over and over,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m just a black mongrel bastard. I got no one, I got nowhere to go, I’m just a black mongrel bastard.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/non-indigenous-australians-shouldnt-fear-a-first-nations-voice-to-parliament-176675">Non-Indigenous Australians shouldn't fear a First Nations Voice to Parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hazel McKellar’s reforming energy</h2>
<p>The most outstanding person in the town was <a href="https://www.magabala.com/collections/hazel-mckellar">Hazel McKellar</a>. She was the antithesis of what <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4305785-the-spectre-of-truganini-1980-boyer-lectures">Bernard Smith would later describe</a> as the “tragic muse” of Australian arts, the “old Aboriginal woman surviving precariously as a fringe dweller in some unknown country town”. She was a handsome, intelligent woman who, since returning to Cunnamulla after working as a housemaid on stations, had devoted herself to holding her community together as external and internal forces conspired to pull it apart.</p>
<p>Even in progressive circles, the prevailing image of Aboriginal people in the late 1970s was as victims – people with little agency or authority, people who had been damaged or destroyed. </p>
<p>Hazel McKellar did not fit this stereotype. She had big ideas and was prepared to pull whatever levers she could to realise them. She wanted a different school curriculum so children could learn about their culture, something the local school’s principal thought “might be helpful for slow learners”. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of the 440 students at the primary school were Aboriginal, but the experience of their forebears was not evident in the curriculum. In Year 5 social studies, as the principal helpfully explained, “We teach the kiddies about explorers and the opening up of Australia.”</p>
<p>Hazel McKellar’s advocacy for including cultural knowledge was ahead of the zeitgeist. Within a few years she was writing books that captured this knowledge. Her brother Herb Wharton had put the old brigade on notice through his poetry, which they celebrated; they may not have liked what he said, but they understood his language. </p>
<p>During those intense few days in 1977, Hazel and I talked about the immediate past, but not the longer past that had shaped it. Her focus was on the future. She campaigned relentlessly for improvements to health, housing and education, and for a cultural and community centre. </p>
<p>“It’s the little things that niggle, like knowing there is only one white family in town whose kids will come to an Aboriginal kid’s party,” she told me. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve just learnt to not go where I am not wanted. It used to make me angry, and I still resent it at times, but you have to accept it, I guess. But it’s only us who are keeping this place going.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Settled in the Dreamtime’</h2>
<p>By 2019, the map of south-west Queensland was closer to what it would have looked like about 170 years earlier, when Thomas Mitchell had swept through the region identifying land suitable for cattle. The aerial view of the region from the National Native Title Tribunal’s map now shows a vast patchwork of native title lands, and many places of significant cultural heritage. To the west and south of Cunnamulla, 200,000 square kilometres of land has been returned to traditional
owners.</p>
<p>When Hazel McKellar told me in 1977 that it was only her people who would keep the area going, neither of us could have anticipated this transformation. By 2021, the sign at the entrance declared Cunnamulla a “Heritage Town”, “Settled in the Dreamtime”. </p>
<p>The ancient stories of the land and its people, once a cause of such embarrassment and shame, had become a source of pride and inspiration. Anonymous trolls may rage on Twitter, but no one would say out loud the things that they had once said to me, notebook in hand, spellchecking names as I jotted down their comments.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/read-listen-understand-why-non-indigenous-australians-should-read-first-nations-writing-78925">Alexis Wright</a> is a Waanyi woman who grew up in Cloncurry, more than 1000 kilometres north-west of Cunnamulla, at the other end of the Channel Country that regulates the cycles of life in the vast inland. It is the town where Scott Morrison tramped through the cemetery looking for his great-great-aunt Dame Mary Gilmore’s graveyard. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexis Wright.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victor Long</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2007, Wright became the second First Nations writer to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award for her magisterial novel <a href="https://giramondopublishing.com/books/carpentaria/">Carpentaria</a>, then won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for fiction – the first Aboriginal author to do so. It was recognition that would have been inconceivable 30 years earlier. </p>
<p>The celebration of her remarkable book was, inevitably, tinged by politics. On the eve of her win in June 2007, the Howard government launched its Northern Territory
Intervention, when troops and public servants were sent into remote First Nations communities. The softly spoken author was asked about the intervention and replied with passionate denunciation: there were real problems of abuse in some communities, but a unilateral intervention without consultation could not be the solution. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198">Ten years on, it's time we learned the lessons from the failed Northern Territory Intervention</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The gestation of Carpentaria had taken many years, as Wright had tried to bring to the page the stories and ways of being she had heard from the old people. Every major publisher rejected the opus before Ivor Indyk at Giramondo Press recognised the novel’s unique brilliance. </p>
<p>In an astonishingly original way, Wright tells hitherto invisible stories and captures the spirit of a different way of storytelling. Her stories wove back on themselves, rich with magic, symbolism, grit and determination; they turned time and place and the conventions of English literature inside out and made her a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. </p>
<p>The profound change embodied in the accolades she continues to receive, and the insights she shares about the idea of Australia, have very little to do with anxiety about detachment from Britain. Her novels, like many others, better answer the question Who are we? than any politician has for decades. As has happened before and will happen again, by making the political personal and turning it into culture, Wright encourages a new, fit-for-purpose understanding to emerge.</p>
<h2>Culture changes</h2>
<p>In 1890, another Queensland novelist, Arthur Vogan, wrote <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59771/59771-h/59771-h.htm">The Black Police</a> about the massacres in the state’s Channel Country and his shocked reactions to the way they were applauded by settlers. </p>
<p>It was a surprising popular success. Although local newspapers bristled with reports of deaths from incursions, it was a contentious subject, and one that made for a challenging novel. The critics were scathing, but it struck a nerve and was reprinted several times. </p>
<p>Arthur Vogan lost his job as a journalist, just as Carl Feilberg had done a decade before following his campaign against the Native Police in The Queenslander. Like Feilberg, Vogan also realised he was on a blacklist and had to leave. He moved as far away as he could—to Perth—and gave up writing for some time.</p>
<p>He was one of many authors punished for writing an “anti-Australian” novel. This was a smear that would be spread thickly for decades. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ruth Park.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1947, Ruth Park was subjected to an organised campaign of threats and vilification for the life she portrayed in Surry Hills in <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/harp-south-ruth-park/">The Harp in the South</a>, which had won a competition run by the Sydney Morning Herald. Subscription cancellations and letters <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460713501/books-that-made-us/">poured in to the editor</a>, all asking different versions of the same question: “Why should Australia, with all her beauty to choose from, have to go to the sewer for her literature?”</p>
<p>Ruth Park also retreated. She left the country amid a chorus of criticism and only returned years later. Now her novels are on school reading lists, Wikipedia lists the dozens of prizes she won, and in 2006 she was recognised in The Bulletin’s list
of the hundred most influential Australians. Culture changes, and as it does, once unpalatable truths can be said out loud and challenge and correct ill-informed angry outbursts.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/politics-government/The-Idea-of-Australia-Julianne-Schultz-9781760879303">The Idea of Australia</a> by Julianne Schultz (Allen & Unwin)</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Julianne Schultz will talk about The Idea of Australia, in conversation with Peter Mares, <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-idea-of-australia-julianne-schultz-peter-mares-in-conversation/">at ACMI on Friday 11 March</a> at 6pm. Free, bookings required. The event will be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8C4iP3fuQ">livestreamed online</a> via ACMI’s YouTube channel. She will also be <a href="https://linktr.ee/julianneschultz">speaking at various events</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julianne Schultz 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’s political economy was built on the primacy of (white) male labor, male power and male control, writes Julianne Schultz. Women have changed this culture - but still risk abuse when speaking out.Julianne Schultz, Professor of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1771662022-02-15T10:47:42Z2022-02-15T10:47:42ZThe future of Alan Tudge ‘still in process’, according to Prime Minister’s Office<p>Alan Tudge faces the sack from the frontbench over seeking to promote his lover while they were in an undisclosed relationship, according to a Channel 10 report on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Channel 10 journalist Peter van Onselen said the investigation into allegations by ex-staffer Rachelle Miller that Tudge was emotionally, and on one occasion physically, abusive towards her had not supported her claim.</p>
<p>But according to van Onselen, the inquiry by Vivienne Thom had pointed to the promotion, and this could be used to dismiss him on the grounds of breaching the ministerial standards code.</p>
<p>Scott Morrison ordered the investigation late last year after Miller made her claims, which took further earlier allegations she made against Tudge in an ABC Four Corners program in 2020. Miller did not participate in the inquiry.</p>
<p>Tudge stood aside from his position as education minister pending the outcome of the investigation. Morrison has had the report since late January.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Morrison said “the matter is still in process”.</p>
<p>It was being undertaken “without prejudice to ensure it is being dealt with fairly,” the spokesman said.</p>
<p>He said Stephanie Foster, a deputy secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, had told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday she intended to release the report.</p>
<p>“The Prime Minister supports her view and approach,” the spokesman said.</p>
<p>Foster told the hearing the department had advised that if the government wanted to provide the report to Tudge and Miller, the department should consult those who provided the inquiry with confidential information.</p>
<p>Foster said the Commonwealth had told Miller “that, to the extent that it was within the Commonwealth’s power to release the report, it would but that we had to be conscious that there may be third-party concerns to take into account”.</p>
<p>Asked in an estimates hearing about the Channel 10 report, Senate leader Simon Birmingham said: “We’re not going to respond to a news report in a way that undermines the rights of those who engaged in a review process.</p>
<p>"We want to ensure that review is concluded and Mr Tudge and Ms Miller receive the findings of Dr Thom, which will be more substantive than that [media] report if it is accurate.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile at Tuesday’s government parties meeting, Morrison stressed his troops must be focused in the run up to the election. “You haven’t seen me as focused as I can be yet.” </p>
<p>“We have a job to do - I’m going to do mine, I need you to do yours. I need you to focus on your seats.”</p>
<p>As it continued its attacks on Anthony Albanese’s credentials on national security, the government homed in on its legislation to make it easier to cancel visas of people convicted of serious crimes.</p>
<p>Speaking on 2SM, Morrison said Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally “wants people who have been convicted of domestic violence to stay in the country because the judge gave them a soft sentence”.</p>
<p>He said the government had cancelled 10,000 visas since it first came to office, 4,000 just since the 2019 election.</p>
<p>But criminals were using a loophole to help them stay when the government tried to cancel their visa, Morrison said.</p>
<p>He said if a judge gave them a sentence of less than two years for crimes such as domestic violence, assaulting police officers, concealing child abuse offences or date rape, even though the crime carried a two-year sentence, they could appeal against the decision to cancel their visa.</p>
<p>“Anthony Albanese likes to talk about […] whose side is he on – well he is clearly on the side of criminals. And if that’s what side he wants to choose, well, he can explain that to the Australian people.” </p>
<p>Labor has said the legislation is not necessary, because the immigration minister has adequate powers already. However in parliament on Tuesday, minister Alex Hawke pointed to a limitation on his power. </p>
<p>This limitation would give Labor a way out, to prevent being wedged, if it wants to take it and support the legislation. </p>
<p>The legislation will be debated in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The Senate is not sitting so it could not be considered there before the very brief budget sitting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan 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>Alan Tudge faces the sack from the frontbench over seeking to promote his lover while they were in an undisclosed relationship, according to a Channel 10 report on Tuesday.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1576012021-03-23T03:37:42Z2021-03-23T03:37:42ZAlmost 90% of sexual assault victims do not go to police — this is how we can achieve justice for survivors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391036/original/file-20210323-13-qrzg8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Monday night, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/dont-ask,-dont-tell/13268122">Four Corners</a> investigated how Brittany Higgins’s alleged rape at Parliament House was kept quiet for almost two years. </p>
<p>Once again, it highlighted the huge barriers to justice faced by victims of sexual assault. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1373931272284762117"}"></div></p>
<p>This comes barely a week after tens of thousands of Australians marched, demanding justice and an end to the harassment and mistreatment of women within federal parliament and beyond. </p>
<p>With sexual violence in the media spotlight on a daily basis, we need to reflect on how far we have come — and what still needs to be done — to achieve justice for victim-survivors.</p>
<h2>Almost 90% of women don’t go to police</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/2016">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a>, one in five Australian women and one in 20 men have experienced sexual assault since the age of 15. Most assaults occur in private spaces, and most are against women by a man known to them. </p>
<p>Yet, almost <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/0375553f-0395-46cc-9574-d54c74fa601a/aihw-fdv-5.pdf.aspx?inline=true">nine in ten women</a> (87%) do not contact the police.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cjwl.29.1.36">are worried</a> their experience won’t be taken seriously. They also worry they will face repercussions, whether personally, professionally or from the perpetrator themselves, if they report the assault.</p>
<h2>What survivors want</h2>
<p>According to Australian research, <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.242732698194592">victim-survivors say they want</a> to have their experience heard, to have the wrong against them acknowledged, and to know that something will be done to stop the perpetrator from harming others. </p>
<p>Sadly, we know often the opposite occurs. Whether it is workplaces and other organisations responding to sexual harassment and/or sexual assault, or <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/653101">formal responses</a> in our criminal justice system, victims are often left feeling silenced and sidelined. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-assault-what-can-you-do-if-you-dont-want-to-make-a-formal-report-to-police-155948">Sexual assault: what can you do if you don't want to make a formal report to police?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But a formal report to police is not the only option. There are alternative ways a victim-survivor can either seek support or talk about what happened to them. There’s a <a href="http://www.1800respect.org.au">national helpline</a>, and sexual assault counselling services in every state and territory.</p>
<p>Some states also have an option for victims to make an anonymous or confidential informal report to police. Importantly, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-assault-what-can-you-do-if-you-dont-want-to-make-a-formal-report-to-police-155948">research shows</a> a positive experience making an informal report can encourage a victim-survivor to report formally.</p>
<p>Another option, currently under consideration by the Victorian Law Reform Commission, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-i-had-to-say-mattered-how-can-we-provide-justice-for-sexual-assault-victims-beyond-criminal-trials-150075">restorative justice</a>. In broad terms, this allows a victim and a perpetrator to meet with expert support to acknowledge the impacts of the crime and find a way to repair the harm. </p>
<h2>Reforming laws around consent</h2>
<p>Of course, these alternative ways of responding to sexual assault do not mean we should ignore the formal criminal justice processes. There are ways to improve it — and the last several weeks have demonstrated the urgent need to do so.</p>
<p>Many measures are needed, and one of them is <a href="https://rasara.org/rapelawreform">reform to consent law</a>. Criminal law is left to the states and territories, and so, confusingly, there are many definitions of consent across Australia. </p>
<p>In response to the confusion, as well as the low threshold for accused persons to claim they had a reasonable belief there was consent, advocates, academics and survivors are calling for affirmative consent laws. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-law-doesnt-go-far-enough-to-legislate-affirmative-consent-nsw-now-has-a-chance-to-get-it-right-125719">Australian law doesn't go far enough to legislate affirmative consent. NSW now has a chance to get it right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Affirmative consent requires consent to be actively given by actions and/or words before, and continuously throughout, a sexual act. Under such laws, consent <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1748895819880953">cannot be inferred</a> from the behaviour of another person, such as what they were wearing or that they (supposedly) flirted with the perpetrator prior to the rape. Instead, a perpetrator must show they took active and reasonable steps to make sure the other person was consenting. </p>
<p>Yet, most Australian states do not currently require a person to take such active steps to determine another’s consent. Both the <a href="https://www.lawreform.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Reports/Report%20148.pdf">New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://www.qlrc.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/654958/qlrc-report-78-final-web.pdf">Queensland</a> Law Reform Commissions recently failed to recommend the inclusion of active steps in proposed rape law changes.</p>
<h2>More education for police, juries</h2>
<p>There is a host of other concrete changes that can improve justice for victims of sexual assault. </p>
<p>Other possible measures include greater <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093854820921201">training for police</a> investigating sexual assaults. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Police on patrol in Melbourne." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391041/original/file-20210323-15-4qz2kw.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are alternatives to making a formal report to police, but improvements to the way police handle sexual assault are also needed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also independent victim legal representation in sexual assault trials, initiatives to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1365712716655168?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.1">reduce the trauma</a> of giving evidence for victim-survivors, along with inclusion of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1350/ijep.2005.9.4.239?casa_token=AgI0JWo2PZIAAAAA:LYj_yoBXL6EmlFJ1doNFMlmdNpxF6Bd0IogC2KGTDWBRbcs633yJ8hRGsCDnkYP2wz6AAwyxO4oxZbk">expert testimony</a> on the nature of sexual violence, and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1365712718807225?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3">education for potential jury members</a>. </p>
<h2>Changing our broader culture</h2>
<p>The ongoing national public conversation about sexual violence has made a further problem abundantly clear. </p>
<p>Too often bystanders, who had an opportunity to either intervene or provide support to a victim, <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-metoo-we-need-bystander-action-to-prevent-sexual-violence-91741">do nothing</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters at the March 4 Justice in Hobart." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391039/original/file-20210323-19-6iwcgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tens of thousands of Australians marched on March 15 to call for justice for victim-survivors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Blakers/ AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The National Community Attitudes Survey on Violence Against Women <a href="https://20ian81kynqg38bl3l3eh8bf-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/The-2017-NCAS-key-findings.mp4">shows us</a> many Australians blame victims, minimise abuse, and excuse the actions of perpetrators. </p>
<p>We can all do better to educate ourselves on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-respond-to-an-allegation-of-sexual-assault-45333">how to respond supportively</a> if a colleague, friend or loved one discloses that they are a victim of sexual violence. We can also speak up and challenge victim-blaming attitudes when we see them, whether it is at the office, at the sports club, at the pub, or at a family BBQ. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-culture-why-our-community-attitudes-to-sexual-violence-matter-31750">Rape culture: why our community attitudes to sexual violence matter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sex and respectful relationships <a href="https://rasara.org/relationships-and-sex-education-project">education</a> needs to start early, be consistent, inclusive, positive about sex and sexuality, and promote consent as a normal practice in all our interactions with others. </p>
<h2>Modelling respect</h2>
<p>But if the past few months have taught us anything, it is the importance of leadership that models respect: both for victim-survivors and for women generally. </p>
<p>Sadly, the best laws and the best prevention education in the world may not be enough to create lasting change if our leaders and institutions don’t also step up, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaqpoeVgr8U&ab_channel=AustralianArmy">stop walking past</a> sexual violence, and set a new standard for respect and justice.</p>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Powell receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Australia's National Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS). Anastasia is also a member of the board of directors of Our Watch, Australia's national organisation for the prevention of violence against women and their children.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Flynn receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Criminology Research Council and Australia's National Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Burgin is the chair of Rape & Sexual Assault Research & Advocacy (RASARA), a not-for-profit organisation advocating for rape law reform and comprehensive relationship and sex education across Australia. </span></em></p>Victim-survivors want to have their experiences heard and the wrong against them acknowledged — sadly, the opposite often occurs.Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT UniversityAsher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash UniversityRachael Burgin, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1545432021-02-05T02:37:16Z2021-02-05T02:37:16ZChau Chak Wing’s $590,000 defamation win shows investigative journalism is risky business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382400/original/file-20210204-24-1fpfiag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C5326%2C3796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Pavlich/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What are the biggest domestic news stories you remember from the last few years? </p>
<p>Apart from all the natural disasters, I think of <a href="https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2013/09/the-prince">stories about George Pell</a>, the coverage that led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-investigative-journalist-adele-ferguson-on-the-disappointing-banking-royal-commission-and-how-she-works-with-whistleblowers-115460">Banking Royal Commission</a>, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-11/killings-of-unarmed-afghans-by-australian-special-forces/8466642?nw=0">SAS in Afghanistan</a> and because I am a law nerd, the reporting on former High Court Justice <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dirty-dyson-former-judge-heydon-s-nickname-at-oxford-amid-fresh-harassment-claims-20200623-p555df.html">Dyson Heydon</a>. </p>
<p>Many of these stories are the product of investigative journalism. This is not the sort of “journalism” you see in a tabloid rag or a late-night rant on Sky News. It is the type of high-quality journalism that takes time and patience.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://en.unesco.org/investigative-journalism">United Nations</a>, investigative journalism is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the unveiling of matters that are concealed either deliberately by someone in a position of power, or accidentally, behind a chaotic mass of facts and circumstances — and the analysis and exposure of all relevant facts to the public.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Investigative journalism is not about making friends</h2>
<p>In many cases, investigative journalism means calling out wrongdoing. Predictably, those on the receiving end of journalists’ investigations may not like it.</p>
<p>For example, last November, the ABC’s Four Corners aired “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-10/canberra-bubble-youtube/12866758?nw=0">Inside the Canberra bubble</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Attorney-General Christian Porter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382415/original/file-20210204-16-1lda945.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">Attorney-General Christian Porter was the subject of a Four Corners’ investigation in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The included allegations of MPs, including Attorney-General Christian Porter, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-09/four-corners-investigation-christian-porter-alan-tudge/12862632">behaving inappropriately</a> towards female staff. </p>
<p>In response, Porter <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/11/10/porter-legal-action-four-corners/">flagged legal action</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>given the defamatory nature of many of the claims made in [the] program, I will be considering legal options.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of those options is to sue the ABC, and the journalists behind the story, in defamation.</p>
<h2>Chau Chak Wing</h2>
<p>Another powerful man who was on the receiving end of a Four Corners story is Chau Chak Wing.</p>
<p>In 2017, Four Corners reported on the dealings of the Chinese-Australian <a href="https://chauchakwingfoundation.com/biography">businessman and philanthropist</a>. </p>
<p>Over the years, Chau has donated huge sums of money to various charitable causes and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/universities-political-parties-opt-to-keep-chau-chak-wing-donations-20180524-p4zh9g.html">political parties</a> in Australia.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/power-and-influence-promo/8579844">Power and Influence</a>” program implied Chau had used his power to pursue China’s interests in Australia <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-05/asio-china-spy-raid/8589094">in an improper way</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="ABC's Brisbane headquarters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382413/original/file-20210204-24-1h6pnv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Four Corners program on Chau Chak Wing aired in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The story was a culmination of a joint investigation by the ABC and Fairfax (now owned by Nine), and involved investigative journalist <a href="https://www.nickmckenzie.com.au/">Nick McKenzie</a>, among others.</p>
<p>Chau sued the ABC, Fairfax and McKenzie in defamation. Earlier this week, he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-02/chau-chak-wing-wins-defamation-case-against-abc/13111934">had a big win</a>, with the Federal Court awarding him $A590,000 in damages.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2021/2021fca0044">Justice Steven Rares decided</a> the program conveyed the idea Chau had knowingly bribed a United Nations official, and was a member of the Chinese Communist Party, among other things. The allegations in the program were “seriously defamatory”, justifying a large damages award.</p>
<p>Chau has never been charged with any criminal offence and there is no suggestion by The Conversation or the author that he has engaged in any criminal conduct.</p>
<h2>Isn’t truth a defence?</h2>
<p>It is. Australia’s <a href="https://www.artslaw.com.au/article/the-new-uniform-defamation-laws/">uniform defamation laws</a> have a “<a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/da200599/s25.html">defence of justification</a>”, which means you are not liable if you can prove the substantial truth of what you have said.</p>
<p>In the Chau case, the Federal Court <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FCA/2018/1340.html">decided in 2018</a> the media defendants couldn’t rely on justification. The defendants appealed, <a href="https://jade.io/article/656814">and lost</a>. The reasons were technical, but to summarise: the defendants could not show they could prove the facts to justify the program. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cutting-the-abc-cuts-public-trust-a-cost-no-democracy-can-afford-140438">Cutting the ABC cuts public trust, a cost no democracy can afford</a>
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<p>At one stage of the proceedings, the media defendants relied on a defence called “<a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/da200599/s30.html">qualified privilege</a>”. This is like a public interest defence, which might help in cases where you report something defamatory out of some duty. </p>
<p>The media defendants abandoned their qualified privilege defence in 2020. The defence requires the conduct of the defendant was “reasonable in the circumstances” — they may have been worried the judge would not have thought they were reasonable.</p>
<h2>Law reform ahead to protect public interest journalism</h2>
<p>Chau’s case highlights the difficult situation facing Australian investigative journalists. They want to uncover dirt, but in doing so expose themselves to significant litigation risk. And if they get it wrong, that risk can come back to bite them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-outdated-defamation-laws-are-changing-but-theres-no-revolution-yet-143532">Australia's 'outdated' defamation laws are changing - but there's no 'revolution' yet</a>
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</p>
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<p>Journalists need to have the facts to support not just what they say explicitly, but what their work implies. This requires a lot of work and time, and is not helped by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/nov/27/news-corp-australia-cuts-more-jobs-at-end-of-brutal-year-for-media">significant job losses</a> in the media industry. Reporters’ time is precious. But so are reputations.</p>
<p>A new defence will make journalists’ lives easier. In 2020, the states and territories agreed to <a href="https://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/justicepolicy/Pages/lpclrd/lpclrd_consultation/review-model-defamation-provisions.aspx">reform the uniform defamation laws</a>. Although the agreed amendments are <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/no-excuse-to-delay-new-defamation-laws-nsw-20210128-p56xh0">not yet in force</a>, they should be in 2021.</p>
<p>The changes include a new defence of “publication of matter concerning an issue of public interest”.</p>
<p>This defence will allow the media to rely more heavily on editorial judgement in publishing their investigative work. The defendant will not be liable if they “reasonably believed that the publication of the matter was in the public interest”.</p>
<p>Would this have made a difference in the Chau case? Perhaps. </p>
<p>But even once this new law is in force, journalists will still need to tread carefully. As long as they are speaking truth to power, investigative journalism will remain a risky business.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Douglas is a consultant at defamation litigation firm Bennett + Co. He is a member of the ALP. </span></em></p>Journalists need to have the facts to support not just what they say explicitly, but what their work implies.Michael Douglas, Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1511972020-12-01T03:15:13Z2020-12-01T03:15:13ZGovernment puts 15 questions to ABC chair Ita Buttrose over ‘Canberra Bubble’ program<p>The Morrison government is confronting the ABC board over the Four Corners’ “Inside the Canberra Bubble” expose, demanding chair Ita Buttrose answer 15 questions about the program within 14 days.</p>
<p>The program featured Rachelle Miller, a former staffer to minister Alan Tudge, saying she’d had an affair with him, and also alleging minister Christian Porter, now attorney-general, was seen cuddling a staffer of another minister in a Canberra bar in 2017. Porter denied the claim.</p>
<p>The complaint, sent from Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, is the latest in a series over the years from the Coalition.</p>
<p>Buttrose, who was appointed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, strongly defended the ABC in a recent speech, describing it as “one of the lynchpins of our democratic society. It is not designed to make those under scrutiny feel comfortable. It exists to provide checks and balances and hold those in power to account, and as such it is the voice, and therefore the embodiment, of Australian democracy”.</p>
<p>Fletcher refers to evidence given to a Senate committee by ABC managing director David Anderson last month. He said at the time, “the chair has seen the program and supports the decision to publish it”. He was giving evidence hours before the program aired.</p>
<p>In his letter, Fletcher asks why the board considers it appropriate to compromise the privacy of the ministers by dealing extensively with aspects of their personal lives in the way the program did.</p>
<p>He also questions the failure to report denials by the woman in the bar of the alleged nature of that incident and of any relationship with Porter. (Porter has said the woman denied off the record to Four Corners the characterisation of the bar incident.)</p>
<p>Fletcher asks why the board judges the personal lives of politicians newsworthy.</p>
<p>“Does the board consider that it is consistent with the duty of impartiality that the program deals with allegations solely against Liberal MPs? Does the board say that there are no such relationships involving Labor, Green or independent politicians?” he asks.</p>
<p>“Why should an objective observer not conclude that the program evidenced clear bias against the Liberal Party, with this bias evident in the choice of persons interviewed, the making of specific allegations in the face of clear factual denials, and the fact that the program failed to investigate or report on conduct engaged in by Labor, Greens or independent politicians?”</p>
<p>Miller had lodged a formal with the Department of Finance about her treatment while working for Tudge and subsequently, when she worked for Michaelia Cash. </p>
<p>Below is the full list of Fletcher’s questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Why does the board consider it is appropriate that the privacy of the attorney-general and minister Tudge (the ministers) should be compromised by the way in which the program deals extensively with aspects of their personal lives? How is this consistent with the stated importance of respect for privacy in the code of practice, including whether intrusion into private lives was proportionate in the circumstances?</p></li>
<li><p>How is it consistent with the code of practice’s reference to fair treatment and impartiality for the ABC to include in the program extensive materials regarding conduct over a quarter of a century ago by someone who was then a university student and even a school student?</p></li>
<li><p>The managing director told the Senate committee that all relevant information had been provided to the ministers who were the subject of the program. Is the board satisfied that this statement is true? What inquiries did the managing director make before making that statement?</p></li>
<li><p>Does the board consider it is consistent with the duty of accuracy and impartiality and the principle of fair and honest dealing that the program failed to report that the woman the subject of the alleged incident in the Public Bar and the subject of the alleged relationship with the attorney-general denied both these allegations to those preparing the program?</p></li>
<li><p>In light of these denials by the woman, does the board believe it was appropriate for the program to present statements by Senator [Sarah] Hanson-Young as purportedly corroborating Ms Miller’s allegations?</p></li>
<li><p>On what basis did the program determine that the claims concerned the same woman? Should the ABC have asked the woman whether she had spoken to Senator Hanson-Young? If the ABC did not ask this of the woman, does the board consider this to be consistent with its duties relating to accuracy and impartiality and the principle of fair and honest dealing?</p></li>
<li><p>Why does the board consider it appropriate and in the public interest that this woman’s privacy should be compromised by this program? How is the program, and the allegations contained within it, consistent with the stated importance of respect for privacy in the code of practice?</p></li>
<li><p>Why, in the judgement of the board, are the personal lives of politicians newsworthy?</p></li>
<li><p>If the board’s answer to the previous question is that the ministerial code makes it so, then:</p>
<p>a. which of the conduct alleged in the program does it say breached the ministerial code?</p>
<p>b. what is the relevance to the ministerial code of the allegations extensively made in the program concerning conduct by the attorney-general at several stages of his life before he became a minister?</p></li>
<li><p>Why in the judgement of the board is the existence of a consensual relationship between a politician and a staff member that occurred prior to the introduction of the ministerial code considered newsworthy?</p></li>
<li><p>Does the board consider that it is consistent with the duty of impartiality that the program deals with allegations solely against Liberal MPs? Does the board say that there are no such relationships involving Labor, Green or independent politicians?</p></li>
<li><p>How is it consistent with the duty of impartiality that the program did not disclose to viewers the strong political affiliations, opposed to the Liberal Party, of some of those who commented, including a lawyer long aligned with the labour movement, Mr Josh Bornstein and a former candidate for Labor preselection, Ms Jo Dyer?</p></li>
<li><p>How is it consistent with the duty of impartiality that the mix of those interviewed for the program was overwhelmingly weighted towards those either politically hostile towards the Liberal Party or personally hostile towards or motivated by animus against the ministers?</p></li>
<li><p>Why should an objective observer not conclude that the program evidenced clear bias against the Liberal Party, with this bias evident in the choice of persons interviewed, the making of specific allegations in the face of clear factual denials, and the fact that the program failed to investigate or report on conduct engaged in by Labor, Greens or independent politicians?</p></li>
<li><p>Why should an objective observer not conclude that the program demonstrates a failure by the board in its duty under <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/abca1983361/s8.html">section 8 of the ABC Act</a> to ensure that the gathering and presentation of news and information by the ABC is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism?</p></li>
</ol><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan 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>Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has written to ABC chair Ita Buttrose demanding 15 questionsMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1498192020-11-10T19:04:07Z2020-11-10T19:04:07ZIs Canberra having a #metoo moment? It will take more than reports of MPs behaving badly for parliament to change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368502/original/file-20201110-16-p0gx9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C483%2C5492%2C3209&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sex and politics is a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/world/australia/barnaby-joyce-resigns.html">well-established theme</a> of political life. </p>
<p>Often the debate comes back to whether or not politicians <a href="https://theconversation.com/soft-voters-scathing-about-turnbulls-handling-of-sex-in-politics-focus-group-research-93196">deserve private lives</a>. The short answer is yes, of course. But this question is also misleading.</p>
<p>Too often the scandals arise out of political workplaces. While it might be Liberal Party ministers in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/porter-rejects-allegations-of-inappropriate-sexual-behaviour-and-threatens-legal-action-after-four-corners-investigation-149774">spotlight this time</a>, this is not a problem exclusive to the Coalition. It is pervasive across political systems in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/09/luke-foley-harassment-scandal-engulfs-australian-politics">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/conduct-in-parliament/gwqc-inquiry-report-11-july-2019_.pdf">worldwide</a>. </p>
<p>Amid fresh allegations of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-09/four-corners-investigation-christian-porter-alan-tudge/12862632">MPs behaving badly</a>, we need to look past the personal drama of each individual story and consider what they tell us about the wider structures in which politicians and their staff operate. </p>
<h2>Minister-staff dynamics</h2>
<p>Political staff are not public servants. They are employed under <a href="https://maps.finance.gov.au/guidance/federal-elections/mops-act-employees">separate legislation</a> and are hired and fired at the discretion of their boss — the minister, shadow minister or MP. </p>
<p>Staffers’ duties are poorly defined, and can range from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07907184.2010.497636">emotional support</a> to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713649346">high level policy work</a>. Their employment can be terminated with no notice (although this is currently <a href="https://maps.finance.gov.au/employment/bargaining-commonwealth-members-parliament-staff-enterprise-agreement-2020-23/mops-enterprise-agreement-2020-23-government-proposals">under review</a> in the latest enterprise bargaining agreement). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/porter-rejects-allegations-of-inappropriate-sexual-behaviour-and-threatens-legal-action-after-four-corners-investigation-149774">Porter rejects allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and threatens legal action after Four Corners investigation</a>
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<p>There is little oversight over who MPs appoint, with involvement from party leaders typically <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/credlins-star-chamber-rewarding-liberal-party-loyalists-20131004-2uzyu.html">viewed as interference</a>. Indeed, there is little oversight of the work of political advisers generally — they cannot be summoned to appear before parliamentary committees. </p>
<p>Theoretically, ministers are responsible for their staff, but as we increasingly see, advisers can also be shields for their ministers, <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/awu-leak-michaelia-cashs-media-adviser-david-de-garis-urged-to-reveal-all-20190211-h1b3le">resigning </a> when things go wrong. </p>
<p>While it may not be illegal or even immoral, the issue at stake here is a power imbalance. It is hard to argue sexual relations within this work environment could meet our modern standard of a mutually consensual relationship. Even if things start well, what happens if they end badly? </p>
<h2>Political advisers turn into politicians</h2>
<p>What happens in political offices matters for many reasons. Beyond creating safe workplaces, it also has an impact on who rises through the political ranks. </p>
<p>Evidence from across <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Special-Advisers-they-what-matter/dp/1849465606">Westminster systems</a> shows politicians increasingly have a background in political <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2012.646708?src=recsys&journalCode=fjls20">advising</a> before they are elected. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young businesswoman looking out window." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368518/original/file-20201110-19-xaanwl.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">Many MPs do time as political advisers before they are elected.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emerging evidence also suggests a stint as an adviser is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032321719853459">increasingly</a> associated with the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/68/2/332/1445317?redirectedFrom=fulltext">probability</a> of selection to safe seats and, later, ministerial office. </p>
<p>Why? Because politics is a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pa/article/66/4/685/1400970">networks</a> game. And as politics has become more professionalised, the skills political staff obtain are seen as more important than skills gained via community organising or pathways through party membership.</p>
<p>We already know this has a disproportionate impact on women. Women were less likely to gain experience via their party machines and are less likely to be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032321719853459">promoted to the most senior ranks</a> of political offices.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-code-of-conduct-may-not-be-enough-to-change-the-boys-club-culture-in-the-liberal-party-121365">Why a code of conduct may not be enough to change the boys' club culture in the Liberal Party</a>
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<p>The type of work they do in political offices tends to be of a lower status, less strategic and with less access to ministers. Put another way, they are less likely to get the valuable experience they require to move forward in their careers and less likely to have seniority and power in the office.</p>
<p>Adding any unwanted sexual advances, or relationships which fail, place yet another barrier for young female staff. This was reflected in the case of two Liberal staffers who came forward with <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/completely-disempowered-liberal-staffers-speak-up-after-alleged-sexual-assaults-20190729-p52bnw.html">claims of sexual assault</a> in 2019.</p>
<h2>Parliament House is a workplace</h2>
<p>It is true federal parliament is an atypical work environment: it is more intense than most and is more likely to breed a dimension of co-dependence with support staff than most other professions. </p>
<p>But parliament’s status as the seat of government does not make it “special” and therefore, beyond community standards. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="House of Representatives chamber" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368505/original/file-20201110-19-1dwj73a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parliament House is an atypical work environment, but it still needs to meet community standards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If anything, public expectations suggest politicians are held to a higher standard than most managers. This is because there is a recognition politicians are disproportionately powerful and influential. MPs regularly affirm their legitimacy by claiming to represent everyday Australians. This means they need to reflect community standards.</p>
<p>This trade-off between ministers’ privileges and responsibilities are reflected in the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/government/statement-ministerial-standards">Statement of Ministerial Standards</a> which begins with two principles:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ethical standards required of Ministers in Australia’s system of government reflect the fact that, as holders of public office, Ministers are entrusted with considerable privilege and wide discretionary power.</p>
<p>In recognition that public office is a public trust, therefore, the people of Australia are entitled to expect that, as a matter of principle, Ministers will act with due regard for integrity, fairness, accountability, responsibility, and the public interest, as required by these Standards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Importantly, the same dynamics that may result in sexual harassment for some staff, may also result in bullying for others. This is because the core issue is the asymmetry of power in the ministerial-staffing relationship, compounded by the intensity of the work environment and complicated by gender relations. All staff deserve better.</p>
<p>Currently, an inadequate complaints process, <a href="https://maps.finance.gov.au/workplace-bullying-and-harassment-policy-and-procedure-mops-act-employees-and-parliamentarians">run by the Department of Finance</a>, makes it difficult for staff to come forward if they feel they have been mistreated at work. It has only recently added sexual harassment and the complaints procedures are opaque.</p>
<p>There needs to be clearer and more effective mechanisms for all staff to seek support and redress.</p>
<h2>What could we learn from around the world?</h2>
<p>Both the United Kingdom and Canada have introduced new complaints mechanisms. The Canadian parliament has adopted a <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/About/StandingOrders/Appa2-e.htm">code of conduct</a> and a complaints procedure. The UK Parliament has a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmcode/1882/1882.pdf">behaviour code</a> and complaints hotline. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/westminster-progress-on-toxic-culture-still-too-slow-two-years-on-inappropriate-behaviour">both schemes</a> have come in for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-code-of-conduct-may-not-be-enough-to-change-the-boys-club-culture-in-the-liberal-party-121365?fbclid=IwAR2wOikS7CM1izZaDAFtMZpAsCyz9LV9oP0W9yvAedtxYJx4yf6lwB9ndKk">criticism</a>, ultimately because they do not fully address the imbalance between MPs and complainants. </p>
<p>This points to the fact that too much of the emphasis is on women (and junior staff) to cope, adapt or seek out resolutions after something has already happened. </p>
<p>Really, what is required is a deeper cultural change that sees parliament treated like any other workplace. </p>
<h2>What happens now?</h2>
<p>Is this Canberra’s #metoo moment? We should not get our hopes up. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-has-changed-the-media-landscape-but-in-australia-there-is-still-much-to-be-done-111612">#MeToo has changed the media landscape, but in Australia there is still much to be done</a>
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<p>Without effective enforcement of the current ministerial code of conduct, which prohibits relationships with their staff, an adequate complaints process that does not disadvantage complainants and clear leadership that signals the need to shift the culture within parliament, it may not be.</p>
<p>After all, can Australians trust their politicians if there appears to be one rule for some and a different rule for others? Everyone needs to abide by, and be seen to abide by, the same rules and standards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marija Taflaga 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>It is true federal parliament is an atypical work environment. But that does not make it “special” and therefore, beyond community standards.Marija Taflaga, Lecturer, School of Political Science and International Relations, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1246342019-11-10T18:57:31Z2019-11-10T18:57:31ZReading progress is falling between year 5 and 7, especially for advantaged students: 5 charts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300772/original/file-20191107-10910-1jn8jms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are we failing to challenge the reading
skills in advantaged students?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a hidden problem with reading in Australian schools. Ten years’ worth of NAPLAN data show improvements in years 3, 5 and 9. But reading <em>progress</em> has slowed dramatically between years 5 and 7. </p>
<p>And, somewhat surprisingly, the downward trend is strongest for the most advantaged students.</p>
<p>Years 5-7 typically include the transition from primary to secondary school. Yet the reading slowdown can’t just be blamed on this transition, because numeracy progress between the years has <em>improved</em>. So, what is going wrong with reading?</p>
<h2>Reading base camp is higher each year</h2>
<p>Progress in reading is like climbing a mountain. The better your reading skills, the higher you are. The higher you are, the further you can see. And the further you can see, the more sense you can make of the world. </p>
<p>Like a real mountain, the reading mountain must be tackled in stages. <a href="https://www.nap.edu.au">NAPLAN</a> – the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy – provides insight into those stages, by measuring reading skills at years 3, 5, 7 and 9. </p>
<p>The good news is that the average level of reading skills of year 3 students – reading base camp – is getting higher. </p>
<p>To make the results easier to interpret, I’ve converted the NAPLAN data into the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/widening-gaps/">equivalent year level</a> of reading achievement. For instance, in 2010, children in year 3 were reading at equivalent year level 2.6 when they sat NAPLAN. This means they were four-and-a-half months behind a <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/910-Mapping-Student-Progress-Technical-Report.pdf">benchmark</a> set at the long-run average for metropolitan non-Indigenous students.</p>
<p>By 2019, the mean reading achievement among all year 3 children was equivalent to year 3.0, meeting this benchmark. </p>
<p>Over ten years, the improvement has been worth about five months of extra learning.</p>
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<h2>Reading progress improved in years 7-9</h2>
<p>There is more good news in secondary school. Recent cohorts have made better progress between years 7 and 9 than earlier cohorts. My best estimate is that learning progress has increased by almost three months of learning over this two-year stage of schooling. </p>
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<p>Students in years 3-5 haven’t made the same gains. But (if anything) they are heading in the right direction.</p>
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<h2>But progress in years 5-7 has fallen</h2>
<p>Something is going wrong between year 5 and 7. Students are making <em>six months</em> less progress than they used to. It’s not that they are getting worse at reading; they just aren’t climbing as fast as previous cohorts.</p>
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<p>This drop in reading progress can’t simply be attributed to the transition from primary to secondary. Among other things, numeracy progress during this stage of schooling has increased by about six months since 2010.</p>
<p>It’s as if students have started skipping a term in each of their final two years of primary school, but only in English, not in maths. And not all groups of students are affected equally.</p>
<h2>Advantaged students are affected the most</h2>
<p>Reading progress has slowed the most for students from advantaged backgrounds. For instance, students whose parents are senior managers make ten months less progress from year 5 to 7 than earlier cohorts. </p>
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<p>Interestingly, the student groups with the biggest slowdown in years 5-7 have also shown the most improvement in year 5 reading. </p>
<p>This pattern – big gains in year 5 that evaporate by year 7 – rules out poor early reading instruction as a cause. This reading problem isn’t about <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/phonics-975">phonics</a>, but a failure to stretch students in upper primary school. </p>
<p>My analysis also shows:</p>
<ul>
<li>the years 5-7 reading slump is happening in every state and territory</li>
<li>Queensland and Western Australia had big drops in years 5-7 reading progress in 2015, the year those two states moved year 7 from primary to secondary </li>
<li>students from English-speaking backgrounds are affected more than those who don’t speak English at home</li>
<li>neither gender nor Indigenous status affects the strength of the slowdown.</li>
</ul>
<h2>So, what is going on?</h2>
<p>Maybe some primary school teachers focus more on helping students reach a good minimum standard of reading, and not on how far they go. This fits with the trend in year 5; no need to push hard if students are already doing well. </p>
<p>But it doesn’t explain the large drop in progress in Queensland and WA the year they shifted year 7 to secondary school.</p>
<p>Maybe schools push hard on literacy and numeracy until students have done their last NAPLAN test in that school. This would help explain the 2015 drop in reading progress for Queensland and WA, but not the divergent picture for reading and numeracy progress, including in the Queensland/WA change-over year. </p>
<p>Maybe students are reading less as technology becomes ubiquitous. This could explain the difference between reading and numeracy. But why would it reduce progress between years 5 and 7 but not between years 3 and 5 or 7 and 9? </p>
<p>Increased use of technology also fails to explain the sudden slump in <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/education/schools/programs/year7">Queensland</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-26/year-7-shift-to-high-school-feature/3913606">WA</a> in 2015.</p>
<p>Other potential explanations need to explain the complex pattern of outcomes, including the fact the reading slowdown is so widespread even while numeracy progress is going the other way.</p>
<p>My best guess is that some advantaged primary schools focus on literacy and numeracy until the year 5 NAPLAN tests are done, but then switch to project-based learning, leadership or year 6 graduation projects. These “gap year” activities don’t displace maths hour (which drives numeracy progress) but may disrupt reading hour or other activities that build reading skills. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, disadvantaged primary schools are very aware of the need to keep building their students’ reading levels to set them up for success in secondary school.</p>
<p>This story is speculative, but it fits the data. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Education system leaders need to figure out what is happening in reading between years 5 and 7, and quickly. They should look closely at upper primary years, as well as the transition to secondary school. This is much more subtle than a traditional back-to-basics narrative.</p>
<p>In the meantime, teachers in years 5, 6 and 7 should be aware their students are making less progress than previous cohorts, and focus on extending reading capabilities for students who are already doing well. All students deserve to climb higher on their reading mountain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p>Years 5-7 typically include the transition from primary to secondary but the reading slowdown can’t just be blamed on this, because numeracy progress has improved. So what’s going on with reading?Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1206052019-07-18T11:45:00Z2019-07-18T11:45:00ZAustralian writer Yang Hengjun is set to be charged in China at an awkward time for Australia-China relations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284697/original/file-20190718-116552-czxlm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C2%2C931%2C715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charges against Yang appear to relate to his work as a writer and blogger in which he has been sharply critical of the Chinese regime. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/yanghengjun/photos/pcb.1346540698705144/1346540675371813/?type=3&theater">Facebook </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s relations with China will be further complicated by the news that Australian citizen <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-18/yang-hengjun-set-to-face-charges-of-endangering-the-state/11322704">Yang Hengjun</a> is set to be charged with endangering state security.</p>
<p>This is a serious charge that carries the penalty of at least three years in jail.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-chinese-authors-detention-raises-important-questions-about-chinas-motivations-110433">Australian-Chinese author's detention raises important questions about China's motivations</a>
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<p>Yang’s wife Yuan Xiaoliang was notified earlier today that her husband would be charged, a day before the six-month deadline determining whether he is to be released, charged or have his detention extended.</p>
<p>Charges against Yang appear to relate to his work as a writer and blogger in which he has been sharply critical of the Chinese regime. He developed a large following on Chinese social media and on Twitter, and his criticisms will have infuriated Chinese authorities.</p>
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<p>Yang was arrested after he returned to China earlier this year with his family. He has been held in a Beijing state security prison since then, without access to lawyers, and denied contact with his family.</p>
<p>Australian attempts to secure access have been rebuffed.</p>
<h2>Canberra’s relations with Beijing</h2>
<p>China’s decision to charge Yang comes at an awkward moment in relations between Beijing and Canberra.</p>
<p>Australia this week was obliged to step up its consular efforts to persuade China to allow <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/uighurs-in-australia-go-public-to-pressure-china-to-release-family-members">Uyghur families</a> to leave Xinjiang to be reunited with their Australian families.</p>
<p>This followed broadcast an ABC four Corners program that <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/tell-the-world/11311228">drew attention</a> to the plight of Uighurs in Xinjiang. Up to a million out of a population of 11 million in the region are reported to be in “re-education” camps.</p>
<p>This has drawn <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/china-is-brainwashing-uighur-children-how-much-longer-will-the-world-look-away/2019/07/13/3eccef86-a1bf-11e9-bd56-eac6bb02d01d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.33b9def361ac">outrage globally</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-forced-labour-expose-shows-why-you-might-be-wearing-slave-made-clothes-115462">Four Corners’ forced labour exposé shows why you might be wearing slave-made clothes</a>
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<p>China’s official media <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/uyghur-china-response-four-corners-xinjiang-detention/11316752">responded harshly</a> to the ABC program and to criticism of China’s treatment of Uyghurs more generally. The Global Times newspaper, which tends to reflect a hardline nationalist view, accused critics of “recklessly attacking” China.</p>
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<p>Yang’s case reflects China’s extreme sensitivity to criticism.</p>
<p>This episode won’t help Australia’s efforts to get its relationship with China on more stable footing after several years of difficulties. </p>
<p>China had objected to criticism of its attempts to interfere in Australian domestic politics via Chinese nationals associated with Beijing. This led to a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/ciobo-breaks-freeze-on-visits-to-china-with-trip-to-shanghai">freeze on visits</a> to China by Australian political leaders. While that freeze has thawed, tensions remain.</p>
<h2>Chinese laws affect other western democracies</h2>
<p>Australia is far from alone among western democracies whose citizens have fallen foul of opaque and arbitary Chinese law and legal procedures.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/16/canadians-detained-in-china-charged-with-espionage">Canada</a> is wrestling with the cases of two of its citizens who have been held without charge since last year. China has accused the pair of stealing state secrets.</p>
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<p>This is a serious charge that can result in the death penalty.</p>
<p>The two Canadians were detained after the arrest at Vancouver airport of Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei. Meng is appealing attempts by the United States to extradite her to face charge of fraud.</p>
<p>This is a highly contentious issue, and one that is complicating relations between Washington, Ottawa and Beijing.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/avoiding-the-china-trap-how-australia-and-the-us-can-remain-close-despite-the-threat-118991">Avoiding the China trap: how Australia and the US can remain close despite the threat</a>
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<p>Apart from arresting the Canadians accused of stealing state secrets, China has also taken aim at Canada economically. It has stopped Canadian rapeseed oil imports, dealing a hefty blow to a multibillion dollar canola industry.</p>
<p>What the Canadian arrests, and now that of an Australian writer, demonstrates is that relations with China are unlikely to become less complicated. Rather, it is likely they will become more so.</p>
<p>Among challenges for countries like Australia is how to quarantine issues of mistreatment of its citizens and broader human rights abuses, from the functioning of broad-ranging bilateral relations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walker 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>Yang’s detainment is set to further complicate Australia’s relationship with China.Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1205742019-07-18T09:00:55Z2019-07-18T09:00:55ZAustralian universities must wake up to the risks of researchers linked to China’s military<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284670/original/file-20190718-116552-19ch995.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two universities are conducting internal reviews of research collaborations linked to the suppression and surveillance of the Uyghur minority in western China.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two Australian universities, University of Technology Sydney and Curtin University, are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-16/australian-unis-to-review-links-to-chinese-surveillance-tech/11309598">conducting internal reviews</a> of their funding and research approval procedures after <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/tell-the-world/11311228">Four Corners’ revealed their links</a> to researchers whose work has materially assisted China’s human rights abuses against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-uyghurs-and-why-is-the-chinese-government-detaining-them-111843">Uyghur minority</a> in Xinjiang province.</p>
<p>UTS, in particular, is in the spotlight because of a major research collaboration with CETC, the Chinese state-owned military research conglomerate. In <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/news/media-contacts/uts-statement-four-corners">a response to Four Corners</a>, UTS expressed dismay at the allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang, which were <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/05/01/chinas-algorithms-repression/reverse-engineering-xinjiang-police-mass-surveillance">raised in a Human Rights Watch report earlier this year</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, UTS has been aware of concerns about its collaboration with CETC for two years. When I met with two of the university’s deputy vice chancellors in 2017 to ask them about their work with CETC, they dismissed the concerns.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-forced-labour-expose-shows-why-you-might-be-wearing-slave-made-clothes-115462">Four Corners’ forced labour exposé shows why you might be wearing slave-made clothes</a>
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<p>According to a report for the Jamestown Foundation, CETC openly <a href="https://jamestown.org/program/a-model-company-cetc-celebrates-10-years-of-civil-military-integration/">declares</a> that its purpose is “leveraging civilian electronics for the gain of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army).” Similar concerns had been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/03/csiro-cooperation-with-chinese-defence-contractor-should-raise-questions">raised</a> about CETC’s military links and its work with the CSIRO.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/alex-joske">Alex Joske</a>, now an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and I had also uncovered a pattern of widespread research collaborations between academics at Australian universities and Chinese scientists and corporations connected to China’s armed forces and security services. </p>
<p>Along with UTS, ANU and UNSW are the most heavily invested. Some of the collaborations have been partly funded by the Australian Research Council. Some of our research was published in <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-university-boosting-chinas-military">June</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-universities-are-helping-chinas-military-surpass-the-united-states-20171024-gz780x.html">October</a> 2017.</p>
<p>Some universities challenged over their associations have reacted defensively. Responding to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/19/faustian-bargain-defence-fears-over-australian-universitys-100m-china-partnership">story</a> questioning the wisdom of UNSW’s huge commitment to a China-funded “Torch Technology Park”, DVC Brian Boyle <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/general/chinese-partnerships-are-vital-universities-and-global-research">dismissed</a> the evidence and suggested the criticisms were motivated by xenophobia.</p>
<p>When UTS teamed up with CETC in 2016 to collaborate on research projects worth A$10 million in its <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/news/tech-design/uts-centre-promote-research-and-commercialisation">CETC Research Institute on Smart Cities</a>, CETC was already working with the Chinese state to improve the world’s most comprehensive and oppressive system of surveillance and control of its citizens.</p>
<p>CETC is upfront about its Smart Cities work, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Invasion-Clive-Hamilton-ebook/dp/B079WWT29L">saying it includes</a> “public security early warning preventative and supervisory abilities” and “cyberspace control abilities.” A report by the official Xinhua news agency in 2016 noted that CETC’s work on smart cities “integrates and connects civilian-military dual-use technologies.”</p>
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<h2>Defence controls</h2>
<p>When asked about their collaborations with Chinese experts in military and security technology, universities have typically responded that all of their research proposals comply with the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2012A00153">Defence Trade Controls Act</a>, which restricts the export of technologies, including IP, deemed sensitive.</p>
<p>They were able to tick the right boxes on the relevant forms because it was possible to describe the planned research as “civilian.” But even well-informed amateurs know that the traditional distinction between civilian and military research no longer applies because major civilian technologies, like big data, satellite navigation and facial recognition technology, are used in modern weapons systems and citizen surveillance.</p>
<p>At the urging of President Xi Jinping, China’s government has been rapidly <a href="https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey">implementing a policy of “civilian-military fusion.”</a></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/patriotic-songs-and-self-criticism-why-china-is-re-educating-muslims-in-mass-detention-camps-99592">Patriotic songs and self-criticism: why China is 're-educating' Muslims in mass detention camps</a>
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<p>UNSW scientists <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117712005777#!">have collaborated with experts</a> from the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT), a top military research centre, on China’s Beidou satellite system, which has many civilian as well as military uses, including tracking the movements of people and guiding missiles.</p>
<p>Joske found that some two dozen NUDT-linked researchers have passed through UNSW as visiting scholars or PhD students in the last decade. A further 14 have passed through ANU. Some have backgrounds working on classified Chinese defence projects. </p>
<p>Having visited and studied at Australian institutions, these researchers, who hold rank in the People’s Liberation Army, return to China with deep international networks, advanced training, and access to research that is yet to be classified. In many cases, <a href="https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey">a clear connection can be drawn</a> between the work that PLA personnel have done in Australia and specific projects they undertake for the Chinese military.</p>
<p>The same can be said for companies like CETC that take research output from Australian researchers and apply it to the security and surveillance technology used across China.</p>
<p>“Orwellian” seems inadequate for the types of surveillance and security technologies being implemented in China. Facial recognition scanners have even been <a href="https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-public-toilets-facial-recognition-xi-jinping">set up in toilets</a> to allocate the proper amount of toilet paper. The state tells you whether you can wipe your backside.</p>
<h2>Fixing the system</h2>
<p>Some universities <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-universities-are-helping-chinas-military-surpass-the-united-states-20171024-gz780x.html">pass the buck by saying</a> that the department of immigration is responsible for any security concerns when assessing visa applications for researchers. (Now the authorities are doing more checks, but the universities are grumbling because visas for Chinese scientists are taking too long.)</p>
<p>The universities’ refusal to accept any responsibility tells us there is a cultural problem. Most university executives believe that international scientific collaboration is a pure public good because it contributes to the betterment of humankind — and, of course, the bottom line. </p>
<p>So asking them more carefully to assess and rule out some kinds of research goes against the grain.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-world-has-a-hard-time-trusting-china-but-does-it-really-care-119807">The world has a hard time trusting China. But does it really care?</a>
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<p>All of this suggests that the system is broken. The fact remains that Chinese military scientists and researchers at companies like CETC have been returning to China with improved knowledge of how to build better weapons and more Orwellian surveillance systems. </p>
<p>American universities are now alive to the problem <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2171823/us-medical-school-bars-foreign-scientists-over-intellectual">by looking much more closely</a> at the China links of scientists working in the US. So, in April 2018, it was reassuring to see the Australian minister of defence, Marise Payne, <a href="https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-releases/defence-trade-controls-act-review">commission</a> an inquiry into the effectiveness of the defence trade controls regime.</p>
<p>However, when it came time, the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/publications/reviews/tradecontrols/Docs/DTC_Act_Review_Final_Report.pdf">report</a> failed to recognise Australia’s new security environment, especially the risks posed by China’s aggressive program of acquiring technology from abroad. It accepted the university view that the system is working fine and, apart from a few recommended adjustments to the existing Defence Trade Controls Act, kicked the can down the road.</p>
<p>In short, defence and security organisations, who can see how the world has changed, lost out to those who benefit from an open international research environment, one that has been heavily exploited by Beijing for its own benefit. </p>
<p>In the US, federal science funding authorities <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/exclusive-major-us-cancer-center-ousts-asian-researchers-after-nih-flags-their-foreign">have been sending the message</a> that continued funding will be contingent on universities applying more due diligence to the national security impacts of their overseas research collaborations. We can expect to see something similar in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clive Hamilton 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>China’s aggressive program of acquiring technology from abroad should be a cause of concern for Australian universities. Yet, our system of vetting research collaborations is clearly broken.Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics, Centre For Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics (CAPPE), Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1166662019-05-07T20:07:35Z2019-05-07T20:07:35ZAre international students passing university courses at the same rate as domestic students?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273045/original/file-20190507-103082-2nloc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For bachelor degrees, the pass rates between international and domestic students are similar. But a more complex picture emerges in the postgraduate space.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monday night’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/cash-cows/11084858">ABC Four Corners</a> program alleged several universities were admitting international students without the English-language skills needed to successfully complete their courses, effectively setting them up to fail.</p>
<p>Such claims have been made so often, including by <a href="https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2015-media-releases/icac-says-universities-should-consider-key-initiatives-to-reduce-corruption-risks-in-international-student-industry">government</a> <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/Publications/Parliamentary-Reports/Investigation-into-how-universities-deal-with-inte">agencies</a>, that there is little doubt problems exist. But just how widespread these problems are is hard to assess. One potential method is to look at the pass/fail rates of international students.</p>
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<p>In responding to Four Corners, Chair of Universities Australia, Professor Margaret Gardner, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/universities-lowering-english-standards/11063626">said</a> international and domestic students had similar pass rates. If international students were admitted without the necessary language skills we would expect them to fail at higher rates than their domestic classmates.</p>
<h2>Success of undergraduate international students</h2>
<p>In 2016, international bachelor students <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/mapping-australian-higher-education-2018/">failed 15% of all the subjects they attempted</a>, compared to a 14% fail rate for domestic students. These are figures for commencing students, which means for the year they were admitted. Later-year students have lower fail rates. </p>
<p>Although international students overall fail a larger share of the subjects they take than domestic students, this is at least partly because they mostly take IT, engineering or commerce courses. These fields have above-average fail rates for domestic students too, suggesting they are difficult or admission requirement issues affect both international and domestic students. </p>
<p>To fairly assess international student performance it’s best to look at comparisons within these courses. </p>
<p>In recent years international and domestic bachelor-degree IT commencing students have failed subjects at similar rates. In each case, more than 20% of all subjects were failed. Although fail rates are trending down, both student groups have strikingly high fail rates. </p>
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<iframe title="Proportion (%) of undergraduate IT subjects failed –&nbsp; international vs domestic students&nbsp;" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/93n4M/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
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<p>In engineering bachelor-degree courses, fail rates for both domestic and international students are lower than in IT and do not show strong trends in recent years. Again, there is not much difference between domestic and international students. </p>
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<iframe title="Proportion (%) of undergraduate engineering subjects failed – international vs domestic students&nbsp;" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VmSR7/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="312"></iframe>
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<p>Business-related courses are the most popular choice for international students. Fail rates fluctuate, with international students less likely than domestic students to fail early this decade, and more likely to fail in recent years. But the differences are not large. </p>
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<iframe title="Proportion (%) of undergraduate commerce subjects failed –&nbsp; international vs domestic students&nbsp;" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FHAYs/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
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<p>For undergraduates, we are not seeing the big differences in fail rates we would expect if English-language abilities were a serious problem for international students. But it’s a more complex story when it comes to postgraduate students.</p>
<h2>Postgraduate fail rates for international students</h2>
<p>International postgraduate commencing enrolments are growing more quickly than undergraduate enrolments. In 2017, commencing undergraduate students only just outnumbered postgraduates. This might raise concerns universities have dropped their entry requirements too far to achieve growth in postgraduate enrolments.</p>
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<iframe title="Number of international students starting courses at Australian universities" aria-label="Interactive line chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9Pvcg/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
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<p>In IT, we can see that, in recent years, international commencing postgraduate students have consistently failed a higher proportion of subjects than domestic students. In some years, the differences between them were quite large. However, fail rates were much lower than for undergraduate IT students.</p>
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<iframe title="Proportion (%) of postgraduate IT subjects failed –&nbsp; international vs domestic students&nbsp;" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8wGWG/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
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<p>In engineering, until 2012, international students usually had lower fail rates than domestic students, but since then international students have begun failing larger proportions of their subjects while domestic students have generally become less likely to fail. </p>
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<iframe title="Proportion (%) of postgraduate engineering subjects failed –&nbsp; international vs domestic students&nbsp;" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DxTzn/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
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<p>In commerce, both domestic and international students have become more likely to fail since the early years of this decade. International students have consistently failed a higher proportion of their subjects. </p>
<iframe title="Proportion (%) of postgraduate commerce subjects failed –&nbsp; international vs domestic students&nbsp;" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/iq9kw/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Since 2012, fail rates for all three postgraduate fields have been higher than they were in the preceding years. Probably not coincidentally, a downward enrolment trend ended that year, and the current boom started in 2013. </p>
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<h2>English language requirements may be too low</h2>
<p>Although the data does not tell a completely consistent story, we can see the possible effects of lower entry requirements, particularly in the postgraduate numbers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1516/OverseasStudents">Since 2012</a>, regulation of international student visas has generally become less strict. Much of the checking on international students is <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/education-program/what-we-do/simplified-student-visa-framework">done by the universities</a>.</p>
<p>Official <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/student-500#Eligibility">English-language requirements for a student visa</a> have never been high. For example, one of the main English language testing organisations <a href="https://www.ielts.org/ielts-for-organisations/setting-ielts-entry-scores">recommends a score of 7 on its 1-9 scale</a> for academic courses. Yet the minimum score needed for a <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/student-500#Eligibility">student visa is only 5.5</a>. No university in Australia has a general English-language entry requirement above 6.5, although some specific courses have tougher requirements. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-english-entry-standards-for-international-students-wont-necessarily-translate-to-success-110350">Higher English entry standards for international students won't necessarily translate to success</a>
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<p>Although fail rates are important indicators, especially for international students paying high fees to attend Australian universities, on their own they cannot prove admission requirements are satisfactory, because other concerns have been raised around international students. </p>
<h2>Cheating and soft marking may influence fail rates</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www-tandfonline-com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2018.1462788">major student survey</a>, in which international students made up 15% of the total sample, 33% of the students who confessed to cheating were international students. </p>
<p>Student attitudes to cheating were not very different between international and domestic students. But for international students the consequences of failure can be more serious. They could lose their visa and return home with little to show for their family’s investment. This creates an incentive to cheat.</p>
<p>In a parallel <a href="https://www-tandfonline-com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2018.1462789">survey of academic staff</a>, more than two-thirds had suspected submitted work was not written by the student. In most cases, it was their knowledge of the student’s English abilities that led to this suspicion. </p>
<p>So, international student pass rates could be inflated by plagiarism if it is not detected or not proved. In the Four Corners program, one academic claimed his refusal to mark work he thought was plagiarised led to his contract with the university not being renewed.</p>
<p>Another reason why international pass rates could be inflated is the claim of “soft marking”. A <a href="https://issuu.com/nteu/docs/sotus_2017_report_1_overview">union survey in 2017</a> found 28% of academics agreed with the proposition: “I feel pressure to pass full-fee paying students whose work is not good enough”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-unis-should-take-responsibility-for-corrupt-practices-in-international-education-40380">Australian unis should take responsibility for corrupt practices in international education</a>
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<h2>Government policy responses</h2>
<p>The government has not ignored these issues. It is acting to <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/tackling-contract-cheating">restrict commercial cheating</a>. It <a href="https://www.tenders.gov.au/?event=public.atm.show&ATMUUID=FBFED0A8-F33A-88A8-9F90291DD8DC3CE8">has commissioned research</a> into how different entry paths into university affect international student outcomes. <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/regulatory-information/pages/regulatoryinformation.aspx">Special consumer protection provisions</a> have been in place for international students for a long time. </p>
<p>But like the universities, the government is dazzled by international student dollars and has focused on <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/tehan/continued-growth-international-education-sector">international education as an export industry</a>. </p>
<p>With so many issues around international education entry requirements such as those raised by Four Corners, <a href="https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/news/new-study-goes-deeper-international-student-exploitation">exploitation</a> of international students, and broader <a href="https://tapri.org.au/research-reports/">population and</a> <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/not-quite-australian">migration issues</a> – the next government will need to take another look at how the various competing priorities are balanced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton 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>International and domestic students have similar pass rates at the undergraduate level, but this shouldn’t be our only concern.Andrew Norton, Higher Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1113442019-02-11T19:15:27Z2019-02-11T19:15:27ZWe don’t know how many asylum seekers are turned away at Australian airports<p>The immigration department doesn’t keep a record of how many people apply for asylum at Australian airports, and how many are turned away. Documents released under <a href="https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/policies_and_procedures_regardin#incoming-14213">Freedom of Information</a> show a lack of accountability and oversight by Australian immigration officials with regard to people who request asylum at airports. </p>
<p>This means the ultimate decision to admit or deny an asylum seeker entry into Australia rests with the Border Force official who interviews them. Without oversight, an asylum seeker could be turned away and sent back to a country where they may be at harm, after being interviewed behind closed doors and without access to lawyers.</p>
<p>Last week, ABC’s Four Corners reported that two Saudi women were turned back at Sydney Airport after letting customs officers know they intended to apply for asylum. This has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-04/border-force-accused-of-targeting-saudi-women-traveling-alone/10768036">led to concerns</a> Australian Border Force officers may be deliberately targeting and blocking Saudi Arabian women, who they suspect may apply for asylum, from entering the country.</p>
<p>Until 2014, a person could apply for a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1415a/15bd040">permanent protection visa</a> before being cleared at customs, also known as immigration clearance. However, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1415a/15bd040">amendments passed in 2014</a> mean those stopped before being cleared can only apply for a three-year temporary protection visa or a five-year safe haven visa.</p>
<p>Had the two women not disclosed their intention to seek asylum at the airport, they would generally have been cleared at customs and allowed to enter Australia. They would be able to apply for a permanent protection visa after leaving the airport.</p>
<p>But by making an asylum claim at the airport, they were subsequently detained and then deported from Australia without a chance to apply for protection, or access to lawyers, in violation of Migration Act.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-04/border-force-accused-of-targeting-saudi-women-traveling-alone/10768036">ABC report</a> suggested at least 80 Saudi women have sought asylum in Australia in recent years, many of them fleeing Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship laws, which allow their husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles and sons to control their lives.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-women-escaping-family-violence-overseas-considered-refugees-109509">Are women escaping family violence overseas considered refugees?</a>
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<p>A response from the Department of Home Affairs to a Freedom of Information request for the number of individuals who have made protection claims before, or at, immigration clearance at airports since 2008, said:</p>
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<p>the location of the applicant in Australia at the time of lodgement … is not relevant to the assessment of the applicant’s asylum claims, and therefore is not recorded in the Department’s database. As such, the Department does not hold existing documents as falling in the scope of the request.</p>
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<p>But this can’t be correct given the disparity between the safeguards available before and after an asylum seeker clears customs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258179/original/file-20190211-174867-1nsfsmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&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">Asylum seekers who have passed through customs can appeal their application for protection if it is rejected in the first instance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Australia has non-refoulement obligations under the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 Refugee Convention</a>, various <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwins8GohLPgAhUJaI8KHV2xDOIQFjAKegQICRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohchr.org%2FDocuments%2FIssues%2FMigration%2FGlobalCompactMigration%2FThePrincipleNon-RefoulementUnderInternationalHumanRightsLaw.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2OmHfjn4_PdtJdathcFztA">human rights treaties</a> and customary international law. These prohibit the return of asylum seekers to places where they would face certain types of persecution or harm. </p>
<p>This extends to returning asylum seekers to transit countries where they may fear harm, or be at risk of being returned to their home country where they fear harm.</p>
<p>As part of the non-refoulement obligation, Australia must fairly and efficiently assess the claims of any person who applies for asylum under its territory or jurisdiction. Australia may not remove, or refuse admission at the border to, an asylum-seeker while considering that individual’s claim. </p>
<p>The demarcation of immigration clearance zones, or international zones has no consequence to Australia’s obligations under international law.</p>
<p>The Department of Home Affairs sets out the procedures to follow when an asylum claim is made at immigration clearance. The policies – which cannot be accessed publicly, but we have provided <a href="https://imgur.com/a/81vHmiI">screenshots here</a> – require that “if the person raises protection related claims, the interviewing officer should interview the person for a second time and explore the protection claims”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-australia-decides-who-is-a-genuine-refugee-72574">Explainer: how Australia decides who is a genuine refugee</a>
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<p>If the person “makes a <em>prima facie</em> protection claim that is not considered to be ‘far-fetched and fanciful’, they are considered to be a person who potentially engages Australia’s non‑refoulement obligations” and must be permitted to enter Australia.</p>
<p>We do not know whether the department followed its own policies in the case of the two Saudi women. The interviews took place behind closed doors, and the minister has not made a comment on the cases. Even if the policy was followed, it still leaves much discretion to the interviewing officer. </p>
<p>There are no clear standards that must be followed when determining whether a claim meets the threshold of not being “far-fetched and fanciful”. The words are not found in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00046">Migration Act</a>, or the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018C00957">Migration Regulations</a>, which govern migration determinations.</p>
<p>If Australia returned these women without a proper consideration of their asylum claims, it will be in breach of its international obligations. The failure to keep or share these statistics compounds the lack of accountability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Hirsch is a Senior Policy Officer at the Refugee Council of Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Ghezelbash is a Special Counsel at the National Justice Project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Jefferies 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’s immigration department doesn’t keep a record of the number of people applying for asylum at airports. This means there is no oversight over the treatment of those seeking protection.Asher Hirsch, PhD Candidate, Monash UniversityDaniel Ghezelbash, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie UniversityRegina Jefferies, Scientia PhD Scholar, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045542018-10-08T07:08:28Z2018-10-08T07:08:28ZStop worrying and trust the evidence: it’s very unlikely Roundup causes cancer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239671/original/file-20181008-72103-8as2pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Roundup is the most common weed killer used worldwide.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The common weed killer <a href="http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html">Roundup</a> (glyphosate) is back in the news after a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/dying-cancer-patient-awarded-a395m-in-monsanto-roundup-case-20180811-p4zwww.html">US court ruled</a> it contributed to a man’s terminal cancer (non-Hodgkin lymphoma). Following the court’s order for manufacturer Monsanto to compensate the former school ground’s keeper US$289 million, more than 9,000 people are reportedly also suing the company.</p>
<p>In light of this, Cancer Council Australia is calling for <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-11/cancer-council-monsanto-should-come-clean/10109760">Australia to review glyphosate’s safety</a>. And tonight’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/">Four Corner’s</a> report centres around Monsanto’s possible cover-up of the evidence for a link between glyphosate and cancer.</p>
<p>Juries don’t decide science, and this latest court case produced no new scientific data. Those who believe glyphosate causes cancer often refer to the 2015 report by the <a href="http://publications.iarc.fr/Book-And-Report-Series/Iarc-Monographs-On-The-Evaluation-Of-Carcinogenic-Risks-To-Humans/Some-Organophosphate-Insecticides-And-Herbicides-2017">International Agency for Research on Cancer</a> (IARC) that classified the herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.</p>
<p>IARC’s conclusion was arrived at using a narrower base of evidence than other recent peer-reviewed papers and governmental reviews. Australia’s regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (<a href="https://apvma.gov.au/">APVMA</a>), reviewed the safety of glyphosate after IARC’s determination. It’s <a href="https://apvma.gov.au/node/13891">2016 report</a> concluded that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>based on current risk assessment the label instructions on all glyphosate products – when followed – provides adequate protection for users.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29136183">Agricultural Health Study</a>, which followed more than 50,000 people in the US for over ten years, was published in 2018. This real world study in the populations with the highest exposure to glyphosate showed that if there is any risk of cancer from glyphosate preparations, it is exceedingly small. </p>
<p>It also showed that the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is negligible. It is unclear to what extent this study was used in the recent court case.</p>
<h2>What did the IARC and others find?</h2>
<p>Glyphosate is one of the most used herbicides worldwide. It kills weeds by targeting a specific pathway (the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikimate_pathway">shikimic acid pathway</a>) that exists in plants and a type of bacteria (eubacteria), but not animals (or humans). </p>
<p>In terms of short-term exposure, glyphosate is less toxic than table salt. However, it’s chronic, or long-term, exposure to glyphosate that’s causing the controversy. </p>
<p>Pesticides and herbicides are periodically re-evaluated for their safety and several studies have done so for glyphosate. For instance, in 2015, Germany’s <a href="https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/the_bfr_has_finalised_its_draft_report_for_the_re_evaluation_of_glyphosate-188632.html">Federal Institute for Risk Assessment</a> suggested glyphosate was neither mutagenic nor carcinogenic.</p>
<p>But then came the IARC’s surprising classification. And the subsequent 2015 review by the <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/4302">European Food Safety Authority</a>, that concluded glyphosate was unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard, didn’t alleviate sceptics. </p>
<p>The key differences between the IARC’s and other reports revolve around the breadth of evidence considered, the weight of human studies, consideration of physiological plausibility and, most importantly, risk assessment. The IARC did not take into account the extent of exposure to glyphosate to establish its association with cancer, while the others did.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/council-workers-spraying-the-weed-killer-glyphosate-in-playgrounds-wont-hurt-your-children-54831">Council workers spraying the weed-killer glyphosate in playgrounds won't hurt your children</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Demonstrating the mechanism</h2>
<p>Establishing whether a chemical can cause cancer in humans involves demonstrating a mechanism in which it can do so. Typical investigations examine if the chemical causes mutations in bacteria or damage to the DNA of mammalian cells.</p>
<p>The studies reviewed by IARC, and the other bodies mentioned, that looked at glyphosate’s ability to produce mutations in bacteria and to mammalian cells were negative. The weight of evidence also indicated glyphosate was unlikely to cause significant DNA damage.</p>
<h2>Animal studies</h2>
<p>Animal studies are typically conducted in rats or mice. The rodents are given oral doses of glyphosate for up to 89% of their life spans, at concentrations much higher than humans would be exposed to. </p>
<p>Studies examined by the <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/4302">European Food Safety Authority</a> included nine rat studies where no cancers were seen. Out of five mouse studies, three showed no cancers even at the highest doses. One study showed tumours, but these were not dose dependent (suggesting random variation, not causation) and in one study tumours were seen at highest doses in males only. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239674/original/file-20181008-72130-z8h3sq.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">Glyphosate works by disrupting a pathway that exists in plants but not animals or humans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This led to the European Food Safety Authority’s overall conclusion that glyphosate was unlikely to be a carcinogenic hazard to humans.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://monographs.iarc.fr/iarc-monographs-on-the-evaluation-of-carcinogenic-risks-to-humans-4/">IARC</a> evaluation included only six rat studies. In one study, cancer was seen but this wasn’t dose dependent (again suggesting random variation). They evaluated only two mouse studies, one of which was negative for cancer and that showed a statistically significant “trend” in males. </p>
<p>The IARC thus concluded there was sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animals but there was no consistency in tumour type (mouse vs rat) or location.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-common-garden-chemicals-a-health-risk-65643">Are common garden chemicals a health risk?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Human studies</h2>
<p>This is an enormous field so I can only briefly summarise the research. The <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/4302">European Food Safety Authority </a> looked at 21 human studies and found no evidence for an association between cancer and glyphosate use. The <a href="https://monographs.iarc.fr/iarc-monographs-on-the-evaluation-of-carcinogenic-risks-to-humans-4/">IARC</a> looked at 19 human trials and found no statistically significant evidence for an association with cancer. It did find three small studies that suggested an association with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (not statistically significant).</p>
<p>As already mentioned, the large Agricultural Health Study found no association between cancer and glyphosate in humans. And the 2016 review by Australia’s regulator concluded glyphosate was safe if used as directed.</p>
<p>It’s possible the animus towards Monsanto and genetically modified organisms may have influenced the recent juries’ decision far more than any science. However, these materials <a href="http://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/topic/20170608_glyphosate_statement.pdf">had no impact on the scientific findings</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Musgrave has previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council to study adverse reaction to herbal medicines and has previously been funded by the Australian Research Council to study potential natural product treatments for Alzheimer's disease. He has collaborated with SA water on studies of cyanobacterial toxins and their implication for drinking water quality. He does not consult or work for any Agricultural crop company. He did give an invited talk at the 5th South Australia Weeds Conference, for which he received a rather nice muffin and a free cup of coffee.</span></em></p>A US court recently ruled the weed killer Roundup contributed to a former gardener’s cancer. Juries don’t decide science. The weight of evidence shows Roundup has little association with cancer.Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1033362018-09-19T05:39:11Z2018-09-19T05:39:11ZHow our residential aged-care system doesn’t care about older people’s emotional needs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237000/original/file-20180919-158222-1ykjw04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most aged-care residents don't feel like they are loved or belong in their facility.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>All humans have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">fundamental needs</a>. These are physiological (food, drink, clothing, sleep), safety (emotional security, physical safety, health), love and belonging (friendships, community), esteem (respect, dignity) and self-actualisation (accomplishment, personal development). </p>
<p>For people living in Australia’s residential aged-care facilities, these needs are often not met.</p>
<p>Most residents do not feel they are loved or belong in the facility. Like aged-care resident Neda Borenstein, whose secret camera footage broadcast on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-17/who-cares/10258290">ABC’s Four Corners</a> showed her singing the Australian national anthem in bed while she waited more than three hours to be changed. “I’m just a number,” Neda told her carer when she finally returned to help her up.</p>
<p>Less than one-third of residents <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/56/5/855/2605345">we interviewed</a> said they were friends with another resident. This means most don’t have the social support associated with friendships. Most residents said they felt socially isolated, which is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25222636">associated with poor well-being</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajag.12325">2016 study</a> of residents’ lived experiences in an aged-care facility found many felt they had little dignity, autonomy or control. Outside of meal and structured activity times, people with dementia spend most of their time <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26155723">stationary</a>, alone and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24755476">doing very little or nothing</a>. </p>
<p>One study looking at <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-6612.2003.tb00460.x">interactions between residents and their carers</a> showed residents were alone 40% of the time they were observed. When staff were present, they mostly did not engage verbally, emotionally or physically with the resident. </p>
<p>Aged-care facilities can also feel psychologically unsafe to residents.
Residents with dementia may be locked in <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-no-need-to-lock-older-people-into-nursing-homes-for-their-own-safety-73954">secure units</a> or physically restrained, using mechanisms such as bedrails or restraining belts. </p>
<p>Residents sometimes don’t get along. They might argue yell, swear, pinch, hit or push each other. We don’t have good data about how often resident-to-resident verbal and physical aggression happens, but it can result in injury and even <a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-between-residents-in-nursing-homes-can-lead-to-death-and-demands-our-attention-87087">death</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-between-residents-in-nursing-homes-can-lead-to-death-and-demands-our-attention-87087">Violence between residents in nursing homes can lead to death and demands our attention</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The consequences of unmet needs?</h2>
<p>Residents can react negatively when their needs are not met. They become bored, sad, stressed, cranky, anxious, depressed, agitated, angry and violent. </p>
<p>In people with dementia, we used to call these reactions “behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia” (BPSD). But people with dementia have been pointing out these are <a href="https://kateswaffer.com/2018/08/13/rethinking-dementia-care-banbpsd/">normal human responses</a> to neglect, not symptoms of dementia. Almost all (90%) aged-care residents display one or more of these <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11376467">negative reactions</a>. </p>
<p>In many facilities, staff “manage” such reactions with the use of sedating antipsychotic medications. But clinical guidelines recommend looking at the reasons people may be reacting that way and addressing those before medication.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/needless-treatments-antipsychotic-drugs-are-rarely-effective-in-calming-dementia-patients-103103">Needless treatments: antipsychotic drugs are rarely effective in 'calming' dementia patients</a>
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<p>Half of nursing home residents have <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/aged-care/depression-in-residential-aged-care-2008-2012/contents/table-of-contents">symptoms of depression</a>, and a third have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29154158">symptoms of anxiety</a>. More than half of residents have been found in studies to behave in ways that might suggest they no longer wish to live. This includes <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12028220">refusing food or medication</a>, one-third of residents having <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4232590/#R10">suicidal thoughts</a> and a small number of nursing home residents actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-australians-living-in-nursing-homes-take-their-own-lives-92112">taking their own lives</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-australians-living-in-nursing-homes-take-their-own-lives-92112">Too many Australians living in nursing homes take their own lives</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why does Australian aged care fail to meet fundamental human needs?</h2>
<p>We might not be spending enough on aged care to enable providers to meet fundamental human needs. Australia spends about <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/aged-care/report/26-aged-care-appendixd.pdf">1% of its GDP</a> on long-term care – less than the OECD average of 1.5%. </p>
<p>Private investment in aged care is growing, as have residential aged care profits, but it’s a <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-hard-to-make-money-in-aged-care-and-thats-part-of-the-problem-103339">difficult industry in which to make money</a>. Insufficient funding translates to insufficient staff and less skilled staff. Our <a href="https://theconversation.com/aged-care-funding-creates-dependency-and-lowers-well-being-of-residents-45157">funding system rewards dependency</a>, and there are no funding incentives for providers to improve the psychological well-being of residents, or go beyond that to help them flourish.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237001/original/file-20180919-146148-a2ub6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friendships are an important part of healthy ageing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People looking for a nursing home don’t have any independently provided information by which to compare quality or performance. </p>
<p><a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/ensuring-quality/quality-indicators/about-the-national-aged-care-quality-indicator-programme">The National Quality Indicator Program</a> – a program for measuring care in residential aged-care facilities that began in 2016 – was meant to provide information for people trying to compare facilities on clinical indicators of care quality. </p>
<p>But participation in the program is voluntary for providers. Neither quality of life nor emotional well-being indicators are included in the suite of quality indicators (even though one has been trialled and found to be suitable). We also don’t know if or when the data might be published.</p>
<h2>What is needed?</h2>
<p>We need a fundamental shift in community, government, service provider, staff and regulatory expectations of what residential aged care does. Our model of aged care is mainly about clinical care, while neglecting emotional care.</p>
<p>For instance, friendships are a unique social interaction that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764295039002008">facilitate healthy ageing</a>, but many residents <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/56/5/855/2605345">told us</a> that the social opportunities in their nursing home did not align with their expectations of friendship.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/loneliness-is-a-health-issue-and-needs-targeted-solutions-96262">Loneliness is a health issue, and needs targeted solutions</a>
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<p>We need our model of care to be a model of a home. In a home everyone contributes, has a say in what happens in the home (such as the menu, interior design, routine and functions), is able to invite their friends to their home for a meal, and can leave during the day and come back at night. A home is a safe place, where people are loved and nurtured, and where they can be active and fulfilled.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103336/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee-Fay Low receives funding from the NHMRC and the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW and has previously received funding from the Australian Department of Health, NSW Health, the Dementia Collaborative Research Centres, and Alzheimer's Australia (now Dementia Australia). She has current collaborations with residential aged care providers including The Whiddon Group, Scalabrini Aged Care, and HammondCare, and dementia advocacy organisations such as Dementia Australia and Dementia Alliance International. She is a member of advisory groups for the Australian Department of Health, Australian Aged Care Quality Agency.</span></em></p>Older people living in residential aged care often have few friends, no meaningful interactions and feel socially isolated. Most people are depressed and some may no longer wish to live.Lee-Fay Low, Associate Professor in Ageing and Health, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1033392018-09-17T20:11:57Z2018-09-17T20:11:57ZIt’s hard to make money in aged care, and that’s part of the problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236602/original/file-20180917-158246-140h7r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rules make it hard to make reasonable money providing a reasonable service.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/royal-commission-aged-care-quality-and-safety">Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety</a> on Sunday, responding to concerns about the sector one day before an <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/who-cares/10243888">ABC Four Corners program</a> which was to air them. </p>
<p>Aged care is where the <a href="http://cepar.edu.au/sites/default/files/Aged_care_in_Australia_Part_I.pdf">challenges of population ageing</a> are most apparent and where policy choices have direct impact on the lives of Australians.</p>
<p>So, it’s not surprising that the system is under increasing scrutiny. Various reviews have looked at different aspects of aged care since 2011 when major reforms were first ushered in, including into <a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/quality/review-of-national-aged-care-quality-regulatory-processes">quality</a>, <a href="https://ahsri.uow.edu.au/aged-care-funding-project/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=nccc">public financing</a>, <a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/reform/aged-care-workforce-strategy-taskforce">workforce</a>, and the overall <a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/reform/aged-care-legislated-review">progress of reforms</a>. </p>
<p>The outcomes all point to similar conclusions. Responding to the needs of older, often vulnerable, Australians is an extremely complex business. But it is also one in which making money is tough. The danger is that a combination of cost pressures, profit incentives, and inadequate oversight encourage or force providers to cut corners.</p>
<h2>How providers make money</h2>
<p>Most funding for aged care comes from government. Direct government expenditure on the overall system was about A$17 billion in 2016-17, with A$12 billion going to residential care. </p>
<p>The users of residential care topped this up with A$4.5 billion of their own money, via regulated fees that are capped for users who pass a generous means test. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/essential-reading-to-get-your-head-around-australias-aged-care-crisis-103325">Essential reading to get your head around Australia's aged care crisis</a>
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<p>But costs of care are high. Providers spend more than A$11 billion on staff, yet those staff aren’t highly paid. This is in part because they are mainly females, who face an unremitting gender pay gap.</p>
<h2>The pause that hurt</h2>
<p>The Aged Care Financing Authority <a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/reform/aged-care-financing-authority/2018-acfa-annual-report-on-funding-and-financing-of-the-aged-care-sector">reports</a> that profits are climbing over the long term but are precarious year-to-year. </p>
<p>The residential industry saw profits fall by 4% to 5% in 2016-17, partly because of a pause and then a <a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1426/f/documents/08_2018/acfa_sixth_report_2018_text_fa3.pdf">scaling back of the indexation</a> of government funding.</p>
<p>Although one quarter of residential care providers made losses in 2016-17, two thirds continued to record profits.</p>
<h2>Bigger centres</h2>
<p>The tighter funding was justified as a measure to drive efficiency, but it provided further impetus to the longer term trend of big providers to merging with or taking over the small ones. While the number of care places has climbed 8% in four years, the number of providers has shrunk 13%. </p>
<p>One reason why unprofitable providers remain in the market is because they are, by definition, not-for-profit. So the system relies heavily on good will. While still dominant, they have lost share to private, for-profit providers, some of which have the advantage of economies of scale or capital ownership structures that allow them to <a href="http://anmf.org.au/documents/reports/ANMF_Tax_Avoidance_Full_Report.pdf">pay less tax</a>. </p>
<p>While some of those listed on the Australian Securities Exchange saw drops in their share prices in recent years, the sharp declines when the Royal Commission was announced may reflect investor concern about the risk of greater scrutiny of the relationship between their profits and quality of care.</p>
<h2>Uncertain quality</h2>
<p>It will be open to the Royal Commission to examine how these trends are affecting the quality of care. </p>
<p>The government influences the quality of care in other ways that might attract the interest of the Royal Commission. It sets standards and helps design the incentives that discipline the market. </p>
<p>The standards cover indicators including management, the health and personal care of residents, resident lifestyle, and resident safety. They have been enforced by initial accreditation, subsequent re-accreditation, self-reporting, the examination of complaints and (until recently) pre-announced visits.</p>
<p>In 2017 the government announced a move to unannounced visits after evidence suggesting that some were “staged” in order to present the centre “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2018/February/nursing_home_quality_and_compliance_visits">in the best possible light</a>”.</p>
<p>In July 2018 the government began charging for unannounced visits, raising what it expects to be <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2018/February/nursing_home_quality_and_compliance_visits">A$10 million a year</a>.</p>
<h2>It’s hard to switch</h2>
<p>Consumers can themselves apply market pressure on poor performers, and it is increasingly possible through a move to so-called <a href="https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/help-home/home-care-packages/consumer-directed-care-cdc">consumer directed care</a>, where care recipients or their carers are given a budget and the ability to decide how to spend it. If one provider turns out to deliver poor services, they can switch and spend their money elsewhere. </p>
<p>But the transaction cost of switching can be high. The process isn’t easy for users experiencing cognitive decline and there’s not always another centre or service to switch to. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>The Royal Commission will expose much. For providers, it will be an opportunity to examine their operations to ensure that efficiencies and profits don’t come at the cost of quality. For government, it will be a chance to examine how its funding mechanism, regulations, enforcement and market design are working out in practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafal Chomik works for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research which receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Amid concerns about their quality of care, aged care providers are getting bigger or getting out.Rafal Chomik, Senior Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/973722018-05-30T20:01:26Z2018-05-30T20:01:26ZSpecialists are free to set their fees, but there are ways to ensure patients don’t get ripped off<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220904/original/file-20180530-120514-ekemsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Specialists making their fees publicly available is one way to rein in rogue practices.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monday’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/mind-the-gap/9809314">Four Corners program</a> drew attention to the issue of high fees charged by some specialist doctors, causing large out-of-pocket expenses for Australian patients. The program included examples of patients paying out-of-pocket fees totalling in the tens of thousands for hip replacements, prostate and breast cancer surgery. </p>
<p>While the ABC made the problem of specialist overcharging seem huge, the program did rely mostly on anecdotal evidence for the claims it made.</p>
<p>So, how big is this problem really, and what can we do about it?</p>
<h2>How specialist fees work</h2>
<p>Firstly we have to understand how specialist fees work and why this can lead to large out-of-pocket costs. </p>
<p>The Australian government funds consultations with, and procedures carried out by specialist doctors – outside public hospitals – through the <a href="http://www.mbsonline.gov.au/internet/mbsonline/publishing.nsf/Content/Home">Medicare Benefits Schedule</a>. Medicare sets a schedule fee for such consultations and procedures. The fee is indexed to rise each year, apart from <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-30/medicare-rebate-freeze-what-you-need-to-know/7458796">the past five years</a> where these fees have been frozen. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220909/original/file-20180530-120511-1eqqg1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&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">Medicare subsidises specialist doctor’s fees up to a point, but the gap the patient pays depends on what fee the doctor sets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>The Medicare rebate is a percentage of the schedule fee; for instance 75% for specialist items, 100% for certain GP items. But the schedule fee doesn’t restrict doctors from charging a higher fee (the gap), which may or may not be covered by health insurance for in-hospital items. </p>
<p>Health insurance in Australia can’t cover doctors’ fees for out-of-hospital consultations. Doctors are free to charge whatever fee they like; there is no restriction on their pricing.</p>
<p>Medicare <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/annual-medicare-statistics">publishes some data</a> about bulk-billing rates and out-of-pocket costs. From this, we know only around 35% of specialists observe the schedule fee with an average out-of-pocket of A$75 in 2016/17. Worryingly, this average fee grew by nearly 6% from the previous financial year. But, these figures are nowhere near the extreme cases highlighted on Four Corners.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-specialists-get-paid-so-much-and-does-something-need-to-be-done-about-it-74066">Why do specialists get paid so much and does something need to be done about it?</a>
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<p>Relatively little is published about the highest fees. One <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/206_04/10.5694mja16.00653.pdf">recent study</a> with access to data on the distribution of fees for specialist consultations showed that at the 90th percentile, out-of-pocket costs were between A$85-$212, across all specialties. This is just for initial consultations – total costs for operations (which may include anaesthetist’s fees and other costs) are substantially higher. </p>
<p>So while we know the cases highlighted on Four Corners are not representative of the average specialist, or even of the some of the higher-charging doctors, out-of-pocket costs for private specialists are still high and rising at twice the rate of inflation. </p>
<p>So, what can be done to keep a lid on these price rises?</p>
<h2>Transparency and incentives</h2>
<p>The first potential solution is price transparency. Hopefully the government is seriously contemplating a system that would mandate all doctors publish their fees on a publicly accessible website. </p>
<p>On Four Corners, the Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, indicated this step is seriously being considered by the <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/health-mediarel-yr2018-hunt002.htm">advisory committee on out-of-pocket costs</a> that he is leading. It would be reassuring to see statements from ministers and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) to give this idea some real traction.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/many-australians-pay-too-much-for-health-care-heres-what-the-government-needs-to-do-61859">Many Australians pay too much for health care – here's what the government needs to do</a>
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<p>And while transparency would be a good step, it still ignores the fact Australia is an outlier in allowing doctors such unfettered freedom to set prices as they see fit. </p>
<p>Other comparable systems where doctors receive fee-for-service payments such as France and Canada, don’t allow their doctors freedom to charge as they like. In 2010, Australia was <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/5kmfxfq9qbnr-en.pdf?expires=1527645664&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=DBD13F453B4AB88AAC0D90081B5A1D93">identified as the only country</a> in the OECD that allowed doctors complete price freedom. </p>
<p>While a complete overhaul of our health system is unlikely in the short-term, we could still make progress in the existing system. A radical solution could use some of the power of the Medicare Benefits Schedule to give specialists financial incentives to keep their prices low. </p>
<p>This might seem like a tricky concept to implement, but it’s actually been done before, and successfully, with the so-called “bulk-billing incentives” for GP consultations. Introduced in the mid 2000s, these incentives pay an extra rebate of A$6-$9 to GPs for each bulk-billed consultation where patients pay no out-of-pocket fee. </p>
<p>These incentives seem to be at least partly responsible for a large increase in the bulk-billing rate <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-were-just-67-of-gp-visits-bulk-billed-when-tony-abbott-was-health-minister-17652">over the past 15 years</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-are-bulk-billing-rates-falling-or-at-record-levels-72278">FactCheck: are bulk-billing rates falling, or at record levels?</a>
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<p>Similar “schedule fee incentives” could be introduced for specialists, which pay an extra Medicare rebate if the total fee is within some acceptable range. For example, specialists could be paid an extra incentive of A$10 if their total fee is no more than 10% higher than the schedule fee.</p>
<p>The amounts and conditions could be changed over time in response to how the market reacts to these changes. As shown by the impact of the bulk-billing incentives, the incentive amount might not have to be high to have a substantial impact in keeping prices low.</p>
<p>While not a silver bullet, radical reforms should be considered to mitigate the rise in specialist out-of-pocket fees before a full-blown crisis emerges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Sivey receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Australia is the only country in the OECD that allows specialists complete freedom to set their own fees. This puts patients at risk – but the government can help protect them.Peter Sivey, Associate Professor, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/958732018-05-02T20:21:16Z2018-05-02T20:21:16ZSweet power: the politics of sugar, sugary drinks and poor nutrition in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217234/original/file-20180502-153914-ycxkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The sugar industry has a lot of influence over health policy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unhealthy diets and poor nutrition are leading contributors to Australia’s burden of disease and burgeoning health-care costs. In 1980, just 10% of Australian adults were obese, <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-statistics/behaviours-risk-factors/overweight-obesity/overview">today that figure is 28%</a> – among the highest in the world. </p>
<p>And yet, as shown on Monday night’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/tipping-the-scales/9712342">Four Corners’</a> episode – which was a stunning expose of food, nutrition and health politics in Australia – successive governments have done little to address it.</p>
<p>What the program highlighted was as important as what it did not. It showed a clear need for a sugar-sweetened beverage tax and a national strategy with a comprehensive package of measures to reduce obesity. </p>
<p>What we also urgently need (and which wasn’t noted in the program) is a <a href="https://www.phaa.net.au/documents/item/1987">national nutrition policy</a>, based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines, to promote healthy diets and good nutrition more broadly. It is long overdue – we haven’t had one since 1992. </p>
<p>Arguably the most important reason for why none of this currently exists is the gorilla in the policy-making room: the political might of Big Food to undermine support for policy reform. Why does Big Food hold such a powerful grip on Australian food and nutrition policy?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hidden-sugars-are-pushing-up-your-daily-dose-24417">How 'hidden' sugars are pushing up your daily dose</a>
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<h2>The political power of Big Food</h2>
<p>The Four Corners program is consistent with our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312645434_Generating_political_priority_for_regulatory_interventions_targeting_obesity_prevention_An_Australian_case_study">prior research</a> showing that Big Food’s power to obfuscate, delay and undermine food and nutrition policy reform stems from several sources. These include its economic importance as an industry and employer, access to and influence with political decision makers, and the adoption of self-regulatory codes (for instance on marketing and food labelling) as a means to pre-empt, and substitute for, government regulation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fat-nation-the-rise-and-fall-of-obesity-on-the-political-agenda-72875">Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda</a>
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<p>Many tactics used by these transnational, economic titans sway public policy against what health research shows is the best way forward. Among these are lobbyists disputing the evidence base, companies like Coca-Cola funding research to confuse the science and deflect blame away from dietary intake, and donations by companies to political parties to gain access and influence. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217236/original/file-20180502-153888-t618px.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&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">Companies like Coca-Cola have in the past funded research to influence the results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Four Corners showed Big Sugar’s power also comes through its economic and political importance in the swing “sugar states” of Northern Australia. It came as no surprise to hear from George Christensen – member for one of these states, Dawson – that a sugar tax will impact on the sugar industry (in his electorate) but do “absolutely nothing to impact on obesity”. </p>
<h2>Evidence for a sugar tax</h2>
<p>Geoff Parker, CEO of the Australian Beverages Council, told Four Corners that policymakers have not implemented a sugary drinks tax because they “look to the evidence base”. That such a tax is overly-simplistic – it would be a “silver bullet and white knight” solution to a complex problem. This tactic of disputing the evidence and obfuscating it with claims of complexity is a lobbying classic.</p>
<p>Let’s be clear – comprehensive <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/84/2/274/4649477#110943487">systematic reviews</a> <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e7492">clearly demonstrate</a> a link between free dietary sugars, sugary drink consumption and obesity. So much so that in 2015, the <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/149782/9789241549028_eng.pdf?sequence=1">World Health Organisation</a> made a “strong recommendation” to limit free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake (12 teaspoons per day for the average sized adult). </p>
<p>By far the main source of free sugars in the Australian diet – <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4364.0.55.011">an estimated 81%</a> – comes from energy-dense, nutrient poor “discretionary” (junk foods). <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4364.0.55.011">Over half</a> of free sugars is estimated to come from sugary drinks.</p>
<p>With regards to sugary drinks taxes, the evidence is strong and continues to grow. Such taxes work to drive down consumption, incentivise manufacturers to put less sugar in their products, and generate revenue for investment in public health programs.</p>
<p>An evaluation of Mexico’s sugary drinks tax, for example, demonstrates a <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.h6704.long">clear reduction</a> in <a href="https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/sugar-sweetened-beverage-purchases-declined-in-two-years-after-mexican-soda-tax-passed/">sugary drink</a> purchases since the tax was introduced in 2013.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-world-can-learn-from-mexicos-tax-on-sugar-sweetened-drinks-56696">What the world can learn from Mexico's tax on sugar-sweetened drinks</a>
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<p>Of course a sugary drinks tax is no silver bullet. It is just one intervention among several that would act synergistically to drive health-promoting changes throughout the food supply and consumer food environment. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>A sugar tax is a good start for tackling the obesity problem. Australia is lagging behind the <a href="http://www.ijhpm.com/article_3431_e907f46cc80d9d0205449cc5e81a6990.pdf">28 jurisdictions with such a tax already in place</a>. But it is only one among many actions needed to prevent obesity. Obesity is in-turn only one among several nutrition problems that will need to be tackled if Australia’s overall disease burden is to be reduced. </p>
<p>Going forward, the most effective and efficient activity to promote good nutrition and prevent diet-related diseases, is a coherent national nutrition policy based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-how-much-sugar-is-it-ok-to-eat-57345">Health Check: how much sugar is it OK to eat?</a>
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<p>Such a policy will involve governments, nutrition scientists, industry and civil society working together across the food system – from food production through to retail – to promote consumption of five food group foods and the avoidance of discretionary foods. </p>
<p>Big Food should be consulted in relation to policy implementation. But it should not have a seat at the policy-making table nor a role in setting Australia’s food and nutrition policy agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Baker receives funding from the World Health Organization. He is an unpaid member of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Report and an unpaid Fellow of the Lancet Commission on Obesity. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Lawrence receives funding from the World Health Organisation and the Australian Research Council, and is a paid board member of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ).</span></em></p>Australia needs a sugar tax, as part of a broader national nutrition policy, to combat the obesity crisis. And the sugar industry is getting in the way.Phillip Baker, Alfred Deakin Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin UniversityMark Lawrence, Professor of Public Health Nutrition, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862212017-10-24T19:04:15Z2017-10-24T19:04:15ZTurnbull’s government must accept responsibility for delivering an equitable NBN for all Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191604/original/file-20171024-30605-ctcvsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NBN delivery is variable across different states, but also within the same local council areas. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hobart-australia-2015-april-11-installation-269134148?src=vSMPh0s7Weau-C2OI-SBEw-1-7">from www.shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Monday night Four Corners asked Australia to consider “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077900">What’s wrong with the NBN?</a>”. </p>
<p>Prior to the episode airing, a lot of the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-says-the-nbn-was-a-mistake-and-may-never-make-money-20171022-gz63yo.html">debate</a> focused on the NBN’s business model, and that it may not be profitable. </p>
<p>I, however, am not sure if the financial returns need be our biggest concern when referring to public service and critical infrastructure. My answer to the question “what’s wrong with the NBN?” is quite simple: the NBN is inequitable. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nbn-how-a-national-infrastructure-dream-fell-short-77780">The NBN: how a national infrastructure dream fell short</a>
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<h2>A “train wreck”</h2>
<p>This week started with a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-says-the-nbn-was-a-mistake-and-may-never-make-money-20171022-gz63yo.html">fiery speech</a> delivered by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. He said the NBN was a mistake, blamed the former Labor government for the set up, and described the NBN’s business model as a “calamitous train wreck”. </p>
<p>Turnbull’s remarks triggered a number of responses, including one from former Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. He attached responsibility of NBN’s failure to the current government, as they “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/kevin-rudd-blames-malcolm-turnbull-for-nbn-train/9078228">changed the model completely</a>” compared to the original design.</p>
<p>More broadly, the Four Corners <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077900">program itself</a> created mixed reactions on social media. It was criticised for being “weak”, and not “challenging enough”, but also praised as “exceptional”.</p>
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<p>I find it incredibly frustrating to see a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nbn-how-a-national-infrastructure-dream-fell-short-77780">national critical infrastructure project</a> diminished to political ping pong. In my opinion, bipartisan commitment is required in order to deliver an equitable NBN for all Australians. </p>
<h2>Inequity from the start</h2>
<p>Introduced by Labor, the original NBN was <a href="http://ministers.treasury.gov.au/DisplayDocs.aspx?doc=pressreleases/2009/036.htm&pageID=003&min=wms&Year=&DocType">announced in April 2009</a>. The plan was to provide terrestrial fibre network coverage for 93% of Australian premises by the end of 2020, with the remaining 7% served by fixed wireless and satellite coverage. In other words, Labor’s NBN was mainly equitable in terms of the advanced technology adopted across the board.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-the-nbn-and-australias-digital-divide-78911">Three charts on: the NBN and Australia’s digital divide</a>
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<p>However, <a href="http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJCIS.2015.072156">research on the early NBN rollout</a> pointed out the issue of timing. Even under the most optimistic estimations, it was going to take over a decade to build the nation-wide infrastructure. So, there were always questions about who was going to get the infrastructure first, and who had to wait over a decade for a similar service.</p>
<p>The results of the 2013 Federal election changed the fate of the NBN. The elected Coalition government decided the NBN rollout should transition from a primarily fibre-to-premises model to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/malcolm-turnbull-directs-nbn-to-mixed-technology">mixed-technology model</a>.</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175122/original/file-20170622-3031-jt1gt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&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="attribution"><span class="source">Various/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p><em>FTTP = fibre to the premises; FTTN/FFTB = fibre to the node/basement;
HFC = Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial</em></p>
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<p>This added to the complexity of the NBN, and created new layers in the inequality concerns around the NBN. In the Coalition’s NBN, many could be waiting quite some years and yet still only receive a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2013/02/21/3695094.htm">lower quality level of access to the service</a>.</p>
<h2>Inequity in 2017</h2>
<p>Now we’re past the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/nbn-co-reaches-halfway-mark-early-thanks-to-shrinking-target-20170706-gx5r9t.html">halfway point of NBN delivery</a>, and inequality of the service is clear at two levels. </p>
<h3>Large scale</h3>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-the-nbn-and-australias-digital-divide-78911">Recent research</a> shows there is a clear digital divide between urban versus regional Australia in terms of access to the NBN. Regional Australia is missing out, both in terms of pace and quality of delivery in the mixed-technology model. This pretty much means that <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/nbn-fail-a-threat-to-lives-economy-ng-b88538329z">WA</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-03/nt-government-warns-nbn-over-technically-inferior-satellite/8411308">NT</a> are the worst off parts of the nation, because of the spread and dominance of regional and remote communities within them.</p>
<h3>“Fine grain” scale</h3>
<p>As described on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077900">Four Corners</a>, mixed-technology NBN within local government areas and neighbourhoods means some people are better off than others. </p>
<p>Some receive fibre-to-premises service while others have fibre-to-node. The quality of the service also depends on how far someone lives and works from a node, which basically suggests even people on the same fibre-to-nodes service could have varied level of (dis)satisfaction with their internet and phone services. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07293682.2015.1019754">Research published in 2015</a> captured some of the frustrations on the ground at the local government level. Differing qualities of internet services available were perceived to have direct implications for local economic development, productivity, and sense of community at the local level.</p>
<p>The two layers of NBN inequality mean that while some customers may be happy with their NBN, many experience a frustrating downgrade of service after moving to the NBN. This may help explain the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/nbn-complaints-to-ombudsman-soar/8808376">increase in the number of NBN complaints</a> across the nation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lack-of-internet-affordability-may-worsen-australias-digital-divide-new-report-81823">Lack of internet affordability may worsen Australia’s digital divide: new report</a>
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<h2>Let’s start moving forwards</h2>
<p>Politicising the NBN and blaming one party over another has been part of the national misfortune around the NBN. But, I believe, the inequality of the NBN is part of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13563470903021100">a bigger trend in infrastructure decision making in Australia</a> that fails to fully account for the socioeconomic implications. Other examples of this trend are seen in major (controversial) transport projects around the nation (e.g. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-18/government-adamant-on-east-west-link-revival-/7426330">East West Link</a> in Melbourne, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/21/westconnex-sydney-tunnel-faces-growing-community-opposition">WestConnex</a> in Sydney).</p>
<p>Current and future Australian governments must accept responsibility, and find a way forward for the NBN that is built on the notion of equitable service. </p>
<p>We can start with questions such as who needs the service the most, and who can do the most with it. These two questions refer to the social inclusion and productivity implications of the NBN.</p>
<p>The NBN, as a publicly funded national infrastructure project, has to be equitable to be a truly nation building platform. As long as it is failing some, it is failing us all as a nation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86221/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tooran Alizadeh 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 NBN has to be equitable to be a truly nation-building platform. As long as it is failing some, it is failing us all in Australia.Tooran Alizadeh, Senior Lecturer, Director of Urban Design, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/854612017-10-10T05:58:00Z2017-10-10T05:58:00ZThe chemicals in firefighting foam aren’t the new asbestos<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189506/original/file-20171010-4228-13qfcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Firefighting foams used to contain large quantities of PFAAs chemicals, but their use has been phased out.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week’s ABC <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/contamination/9032140">Four Corners episode</a> investigated contamination at defence force sites and surrounding aquifers with chemicals called perfluoroalkyl acids or PFAAs. Around 18 sites are reported to be affected, with the concern being the PFAAs have entered groundwater and contaminated water used for drinking, cleaning and watering plants for human consumption. </p>
<p>PFAAs include compounds such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorooctanoic_acid">perfluorooctanoic acid</a> (PFOA) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorooctanesulfonic_acid">perfluorooctane sulfonate</a> (PFOS), which have been used in a wide variety of applications. In the case of the defence force, the application was in firefighting foams. These contained large quantities of PFFAs which then entered the soil and stormwater drains. </p>
<p>PFAAs are persistent organic pollutants which are not readily broken down and can accumulate in the environment including in food, although most people are exposed to PFAAs from drinking water. Once in the body, these compounds persist for a long time. For instance, it <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/pfoa-pfos-provisional.pdf">takes around five years</a> for half of an ingested dose of PFOA to be removed. So, these compounds have the potential to reach levels which can affect our health.</p>
<p>As a result the use of these compounds started to be <a href="http://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/health-and-safety-tips/water-quality-treatment-tips/perfluorooctanoic-acid-and-perfluorooctanesulfonic-acid-in-drinking-water">phased out in 2000</a>, although the defence department did not completely replace the PFAA firefighting foams <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-09/defence-admits-delay-in-informing-residents-of-contamination/9027706">until 2012</a>. While PFAAs are ubiquitous in the environment, data from the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/index.html">US National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals</a> shows their levels have consistently fallen in line with the phase-out of their use.</p>
<p>There are several potential health concerns. The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention listed PFOA and PFOS as persistent organic pollutants, linking <a href="http://chm.pops.int/TheConvention/POPsReviewCommittee/Meetings/POPRC11/POPRC11Documents/tabid/4573/">them to six human diseases</a>. These include cancer, low birth-weight, effects on the heart and blood vessels and on the immune system. But what does “linking” actually mean and how strong is the evidence?</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189507/original/file-20171010-4256-1a45cge.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">The concern is that PFAA chemicals have seeped into the ground and drinking water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<h2>How strong is the evidence?</h2>
<p>The evidence comes from animal studies, human community studies, and studies of industrial workers exposed to high environmental levels. The strength of the evidence depends on a number of factors. </p>
<p>There is presumptive evidence that PFFAs could have health effects. PFFAs (particularly PFOA and PFOS) bind to a class of receptors for fats called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peroxisome_proliferator-activated_receptor">peroxisome proliferator receptors</a>. These can alter fat metabolism, and potentially have effects on heart function and foetal development.</p>
<p>However, the effects on the peroxisome proliferation receptors in rodents occur at concentrations typically a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/toxsci/kfn166">thousand times higher</a> than average human blood concentrations and around 100 times the blood concentrations in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17605032">contaminated workers</a>. And human receptors are less sensitive than mouse receptors, so mouse and rat studies may overestimate human toxicity.</p>
<h2>Cancer</h2>
<p>This is the risk most people are worried about, and there is good evidence in rats long-term exposure to high levels of PFOA induces benign liver tumours (called adenomas), Leydig cell adenomas (tumours associated with ovaries and testes), rare types of pancreatic tumors (called acinar cell tumours), and that PFOS also induces liver adenomas. But the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/10408444.2014.905767">relevance of this evidence to humans</a> is limited. </p>
<p>It’s important to note activation of peroxisome proliferation receptors plays a role in these actions, and the lower responsiveness of these receptors activated in rodents are not present in humans. </p>
<p>A recent review of all the available epidemiological (exploring incidence across populations) studies, including community and worker exposure, of the association between PFAAs and cancer found <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/10408444.2014.905767">studies were inconsistent</a> in terms of both degree of exposure, dose-response and site of cancer. One study found exposure to PFOA <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24468211">decreased the incidence of bowel cancer</a>. Overall the review noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Taken together, the epidemiological evidence does not support the hypothesis of a causal association between PFOA or PFOS exposure and cancer in humans.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Low birthweight</h2>
<p>As with cancer, there is reasonable evidence <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24968374">PFAA exposure in animals</a> produces low birth weight. However, the concentrations animals were exposed to were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28617200">100-1000 times greater</a> than high human exposure. </p>
<p>Despite some early suggestive studies, more comprehensive human epidemiological studies have failed to find significant effects on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19049861">birth weight</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22370857">birth outcomes</a> or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23825166">growth and development</a> to at least seven years of age. </p>
<p>It is also unlikely there is any causal relationship between <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27268162">PFAA exposure and fertility</a>.</p>
<h2>Cardiovascular (heart and blood vessels) disease</h2>
<p>There is very limited evidence that PFAAs affect the heart and blood vessels. There is some limited evidence that there may be effects on cholesterol levels (consistent with their effects on peroxisome proliferation activation receptors), but these effects <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/01480545.2011.582502">are small and may be of doubtful significance</a>. </p>
<p>Some epidemiological studies suggested there may be an <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1356533">association between PFAAs and cardiovascular disease</a>. Again, these are limited by the possible interference of other lifestyle factors, one-time measurements of PFAAs which may not reflect overall exposure, and limitations in how cardiovascular disease was reported. Overall whether PFAAs cause cardiovasular disease is not well established. </p>
<p>You can see a pattern here. Animal models exposed to high levels of PFAAs have suggestive indications of disease, but evidence in the exposed human population is equivocal or negative. This is true for several proposed effects, such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4819831/">immune system dysfunction</a>.</p>
<p>I previously discussed a cardiovascular study <a href="https://theconversation.com/perfluorooctanoic-acid-does-it-really-cause-heart-disease-9324">here</a> and an immune system study cited in the Four Corners report <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-health-at-risk-from-fish-and-frying-pans-5000">here</a>.</p>
<h2>Estimating risk</h2>
<p>While hard evidence of PFAAs and significant human disease is elusive, we should not be cavalier about the risk and try to minimise our exposure to them as a matter of course.</p>
<p>This is where the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/contamination/9032140">Four Corners report</a> is important. Even if the risks are low, they have been placed on people who rely on the aquifers without their consent.</p>
<p>Th information provided to affected consumers has been inconsistent as well. A reported statement by a defence employee that “[PFAAs are] the new asbestos” was unnecessarily alarmist, given what we know about the risk. However, in their tardiness in informing the public, the defence department has damaged, potentially irretrievably, any trust in statements they make.</p>
<p>It is hard to find concrete values for the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/Environment/PFAS/docs/General/PSPReports/PSPTindal.pdf">levels of contamination in various aquifers</a> in question. While some areas exceed the current safety values, trying to estimate the risk to people exposed is difficult. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/ohp-pfas-hbgv.htm">reference consumption values</a> have built-in safety margins, typically <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/pfoa-pfos-provisional.pdf">50 times lower than the levels that have no effect in animals</a>, which as we have seen, overestimate cancer risk in humans. Several sites appear to be within the margin of safety, but others appear to be well outside the 50-times margin. </p>
<p>But really, that is beside the point. Regardless of the risk, residents should have been informed in a timely manner of the contamination. As a result of the department’s reticence and anodyne statements about health, residents are unnecessarily alarmed and will have lost trust in any health messages.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Musgrave receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council to study adverse reaction to herbal medicines and has previously been funded by the Australian Research Council to study potential natural product treatments for Alzheimer's disease. He has collaborated with SA water on studies of cyanobacterial toxins and their implication for drinking water quality.</span></em></p>This week’s ABC Four Corners episode investigated contamination at defence force sites and surrounding aquifers with chemicals called perfluoroalkyl acids or PFAAs. Around 18 sites are reported to be affected…Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.