The Guard units are here to train alongside partner nations, showcasing the crucial role of space in modern military operations and highlighting the DoD’s commitment to peace through strength.
“The whole point of this is to show them what the Space Force can do for commanders,” said Lt. Gabrielle Zamojski, 216 EWS, space operator. “When we come out to exercises and show them different space systems, they can see what the electromagnetic warfare spectrum is and what the space link can look like.”
The Guard units brought two systems to Cobra Gold: Honey Badger and Kraken. These systems passively observe and characterize signals in the space domain. “This is the first time my unit has supported this exercise and we’re slowly getting more Space Force integrated into it this and other exercises as well,” said Zamojski. “We’re a new branch, and we’re plugging into more exercises to highlight our strategic value to our allies and partners.”
This training enhances interoperability with ally and partner nations and demonstrates the Space Force’s dedication to working as part of the Joint force.
The countries involved in the space joint multinational component command for the exercise are the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and Japan.
“I am learning a lot about the space environment out here and this exercise is a great learning opportunity for space operators to go out and integrate with different nations while working on different types of missions from what we normally do at our home units,” said Senior Airman Michael Caravalho, 150 EWS, space operator. “Once they see what we can do, I can explain in detail the type of work I am doing and how the systems work together to accomplish the overall mission.”
Joint Exercise Cobra Gold demonstrates the U.S. commitment to the region by building interoperability, multilateral cooperative arrangements, advancing common interests, and a commitment to our allies and partners in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
The U.S. DoD’s participation in Cobra Gold showcases the critical role of Joint Force space professionals in supporting global security objectives, demonstrating the value of their unique skills and experience in the space domain.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
For the past three weeks the arts have been dominated by a recent decision made by the board of Creative Australia. On February 7 it was announced Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino had been chosen as the artistic team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2026.
One week later, the board announced Sabsabi and Dagostino would no longer be representing the country because their selection would cause “a prolonged and divisive debate”.
This about-turn represents a low point in the relationship between artists and their funding body, Creative Australia.
Creative Australia (known as the Australia Council until 2023) has historically endured many attacks from the public, the media and political parties. This past weekend, for example, The Weekend Australian published three different stories critiquing Creative Australia and its arts funding processes.
While the amount of money Creative Australia receives is minuscule in relation to overall government spending (in 2023–24 it received A$258 million), the arts themselves enjoy a profile much greater than their monetary value.
So how does Creative Australia operate? And what does this decision on Sabsabi mean for its relationship with artists?
What is the peer review system?
Funding decisions at Creative Australia are based on two key principles: peer review, and arm’s length funding.
Peer review means decisions on who is funded are made by artists and arts workers with a deep understanding of the artform at hand.
Arm’s length funding means that, while the government funds Creative Australia, artists are supported free from direct political intervention.
The Australia Council, established in 1975, was originally structured around several artform boards, made up of peers from each of the artform sectors. These peers were given the task of overseeing their artforms and making funding decisions. Peers were selected by the government, usually after nomination by the Australia Council, and served terms of between two to five years.
Membership of an artform board was seen as an honour as well as a duty by those selected: a way of influencing funding decisions, but also a way of giving back to the sector.
As a result of an internal review in 2012, the process of peer decision making changed dramatically. The Australia Council in 2013 removed the artform boards (with a couple of exceptions) and introduced an ad hoc peer system where individuals were asked to self-nominate if they wanted to be part of the selection process. Staff then chose individuals, from a large pool of peers, to sit on a panel for each funding round.
As a result of the 2013 reforms the relationship with the minister for the arts was also changed. Up till then, the minister only had the power to appoint the members of the Australia Council board and the members of the various artform boards. In 2013 the act was changed so the minister could also give policy direction to the Australia Council.
In 2019, another category of selector was introduced. Industry advisors advise on multi-year funded applications, with the final decision made by Creative Australia staff.
The changing make-up of decision makers
The membership of the Australia Council’s governing board was historically more politicised, but its members were also often leading figures in the field.
The chair position was usually a leading figure from the arts and cultural field, including writers Donald Horne, Rodney Hall and Hilary McPhee, and music specialist Margaret Seares.
In the 2000s this changed under the Howard government, with the re-framing of the arts as businesses. This led to the appointment of business-people onto the board, particularly as chairs. Chairs this century have included business leaders David Gonski, James Strong, Rupert Myer and now Robert Morgan.
This meant priorities other than artform quality were introduced into the overall decision making.
The Venice Biennale process
Australia has been participating in the Venice Biennale since 1954.
Until 2019 there was a commissioner responsible for the selection of the Australian artist. The role was occupied by notable individuals in the arts world, such as philanthropist and art collector Simon Mordant. Artists would be individually invited by the commissioner to be the Venice representative.
In 2019 the Australia Council took over the role, and the process changed to an application system where artists were assessed by a panel of experts, before the final representatives (such as Sabsabi and Dagostino for 2026) were selected from a shortlist of six.
While all of the details of what happened in the lead up to rescinding Sabsabi’s invitation are unknown, some facts have been laid out: The Australian published an article criticising his selection; Coalition arts spokesperson Claire Chandler asked about his selection in Question Time; and Arts Minister Tony Burke phoned Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette.
That night, Collette and the board decided Sabsabi’s invitation would be rescinded.
Who gets a say in the arts?
It seems now the funding model that Australia has created for the arts may no longer be serving the artists. The board’s decision following Burke’s phone call to Collette calls into question the principles of peer review and arm’s length funding.
The structure and decision-making processes of Creative Australia should now be reviewed as a matter of urgency. The peer system works remarkably well if structured appropriately. At present it would seem it is not.
Artists deserve a body that defends their rights, so they are not sacrificed for political needs.
Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council(SA). She also worked at the Australia Council in the 1980s.
Covering period of Thursday 6th – Monday 10th March – Autumn is in full swing, and it is starting to feel like it. MetService is forecasting a chilly night for the North Island tonight (Thursday), followed by a weekend that brings a mix of sunshine and cloudier periods, with a lingering crispness in the air. While showers are expected late Friday into Saturday across many parts of the country, there will still be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of clearer weather.
Parts of the South Island woke up to their coldest temperatures of the year so far this morning, with inland Canterbury dipping below zero and the Canterbury Plains and Christchurch recording lows around 3°C . The cooling trend continues overnight into Friday morning for the North Island, where single-digit temperatures are expected, and even frosts possible for parts of Waikato and the Central Plateau.
MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane says, “Friday morning is shaping up to be one of the chilliest starts the North Island has seen in a while, so an extra layer may come in handy!”
Despite the cool mornings, Friday and the weekend will feature periods of sunshine, with temperatures in Auckland rebounding to the mid-20s after a chilly spell. However, a southwesterly to southeasterly wind will keep a slight nip in the air for many across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Showers are also in the mix for parts of the South Island on Friday and Saturday, with the North Island seeing some wet weather on Saturday, particularly in the lower and eastern regions. Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti/Gisborne could even see a few thunderstorms on Saturday. By Sunday and Monday, settled weather returns to most of the South Island under a ridge of high pressure, while the eastern and lower North Island continues to see a few showers. Elsewhere in the North Island, conditions are expected to remain dry.
“It will be a mixed bag at times, so it’s worth making the most of the clear spells when they come,” Makgabutlane advises.
Meanwhile, many of us will be thinking about our friends and whānau across the ditch as Tropical Cyclone Alfred continues its westward track, bringing severe weather to Brisbane and the Queensland coast. MetService is closely monitoring the system, but at this stage, it is not expected to have a direct impact on Aotearoa New Zealand’s weather. Updates on Alfred’s progress can be found on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s website.
The Trump presidency is turning much of the world order on its head. Tne United States president is arm-twisting Ukraine, playing nice with Russia, and using protection as an economic and political weapon.
The Australian government is pessimistic about escaping American tariffs on aluminium and steel when a decision is announced next week. Meanwhile, the message from the US is clear: we need to boost defence spending.
To discuss Trump Mark 2 on the world stage and what that means for Australia, we’re joined by James Curran, professor of modern history at the University of Sydney.
Curran says,
One gets the sense that we are looking at the kind of tectonic plates of world politics shifting before our very eyes.
Trump is about might is right. He does have an expansionary view of American power in the western hemisphere if we are to judge him by his statements on the Panama Canal and Greenland. But I think more broadly, his interpretation of American power is to simply “get out of America’s way”.
In terms of economic implications, [it’s] a confirmation that we are looking at the permanence of protectionism in the United States. This administration, along with the Biden administration and the first Trump administration, have been putting a wrecking ball through the multilateral trading system and the WTO. And that is certainly a not a good thing for free trade and for countries like Australia.
Curran explains what America’s expectation that countries need to spend more on defence would mean for Australia,
This has been the great concern, if you like, over a number of years – that Australia has got defence on the cheap, that it’s put so much of its national wealth into the middle class and welfare and infrastructure and developing the nation that it’s been able to rely on the American blanket of protection while it pursues its prosperity.
So if [defence spending] is to rise to 3% [of GDP], then that’s going to mean, firstly, a concentration on what are the lower cost alternatives to defend this continent? And secondly, where will the trade offs come? What will be sacrificed from the national budget? And what political leader in this country will front the Australian people and squarely and honestly and earnestly have a conversation about these dramatic strategic circumstances and why greater sacrifice is required from Australians to enable a higher defence expenditure.
Is the Trump world the new normal, or will this be over when Trump eventually leaves the White House?
I’m a little bit sceptical about this idea that we grit our teeth and close our eyes and hope that the nightmare is over in four years time. There is a really big question mark over how America can snap back in terms of its institutional robustness. The pressure that the courts, the media and the Congress are under. Does this all just snap back in four years time? Do we really think that either a Republican or a Democrat successor to Trump will ride into Washington, down Pennsylvania Avenue in a glittering chariot of liberal internationalism? To say everyone shouldn’t worry because the liberal international order is back and it’s gleaming and it’s working.
I really think this is up to America’s allies, both in Europe and in East Asia, to continue to protect as many of those rules and those institutions that have worked so well for so many of us, as much as they possibly can.
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.
Source: United States Senator for Commonwealth of Virginia Mark R Warner
WASHINGTON –Today, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) released the following statement on Trump administration’s short-sighted plan to slash over 80,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs:
“Our nation’s veterans have served our country valiantly and we owe it to them to take care of them when they come home. The Department of Veterans Affairs serves nearly 10 million veterans nationwideproviding quality health care, disability services, and financial and career counseling. In recent years, with legislation like the PACT Act, we have made significant improvements to delivering quality care to these heroes. This move by the Trump administration would completely erase that progress. Eliminating over 80,000 jobs would not only decimate our workforce, but would hurt the veterans who too often struggle to access the benefits they have earned. To put it simply: our veterans deserve better, and I’m going to fight this move tooth and nail.”
STEVE MARTIN [HOST]: And in our news this morning has been a story about a major funding announcement for the Western Freeway, Western Highway as well. The sections towards Melbourne that will be upgraded, there are bridges in the west which will be subject of some of this. And the area of the Western Highway around Warrenheip is also being talked about. Catherine King is the federal member for Ballarat, but also the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. And Catherine King is our guest this morning. Minister, good morning.
CATHERINE KING [MINISTER, MEMBER FOR BALLARAT]: Good morning, Steve. How are you?
STEVE MARTIN: Very well. $1.1 billion you’re announcing this morning for the Western Freeway and the Western Highway. Can you just explain what the money goes towards?
CATHERINE KING: Yeah, I can. So the first thing is that the Victorian Government and the Federal Labor Government have undertaken a business case along the Western Highway. In particular, the areas that we’ve been concerned about is around where there’s been significant housing development between Melton and Caroline Springs. And you see that really significant bottleneck that’s occurring there. The West Gate Tunnel will help alleviate some of that, but the road really is not in a condition to deal with the volume of traffic there. And we of course know there continue to be problems along the whole corridor. So we’re announcing today $1.1 billion to go into the Western Highway. A billion of that is focused on the Melton and Caroline Springs area to try and alleviate that congestion, 100 million to go towards trying to find a solution for Brewery Tap Road, that Warrenheip area where we know there’s a very dangerous intersection. We’ve had multiple complaints about that, multiple near-misses, and know that needs to be resolved. We continue to do the work. There’s already a billion dollars committed to the west, and so there’s projects right the way along the corridor. But we’re adding in an additional project today around fixing some couple of the bridges around the west, which again, are proving to be bottlenecks. And they are around the Dimboola Bridge, over the Melbourne Adelaide railway line and the Dadswell Bridge over Mount William Creek floodplain. So both of those bridges getting money for upgrades as well.
STEVE MARTIN: Okay, can I just ask, is this money that is allocated and locked in, or is this dependent on an election outcome?
CATHERINE KING: No, we are making this as a decision of government. So we are not in an election campaign yet. We are governing, and so this is a decision of government. So that will appear in the pre-election financial outlook, which is how the- what the state of the books are before the election. So that will appear there. Of course, there are risks that if there is a change of government, that a new government makes a different decision and is obviously- when we’re seeing that they’re looking for cuts, that these sorts of things can get cut. But these are in the budget. They are a decision of government.
STEVE MARTIN: Okay. When you mentioned it could be cut, in a similar manner to what you had to do around November 2023, where you had to cut back- I think it was about $80 billion worth of promises, including ones on the Western Freeway at that stage for- I think it was the M80 Ring Road to Ferris Road.
CATHERINE KING: Yeah. Well, what I had to do is that what we’d seen is a really, to be blunt, pretty appalling management of the infrastructure investment pipeline. What they’ve done is used it, frankly, to stand up and make election announcements without having any idea about how much the cost of projects were going to be, and not doing the planning work alongside the Victorian state government, and really using it to- you know, to pork barrel, to be frank. And so what we’ve had to do is really look at the pipeline, do planning work first, do business cases, get a good understanding of what is needed and also what the costs of projects are. So we didn’t cut $80 billion because that’s in fact almost the entire infrastructure investment program. We cut projects that had no hope of proceeding because they were woefully underfunded and also just hadn’t been done in conjunction with Victorian state government.
So I think there was $50 million that was allocated there, 50 million to the quarter. But no, it had- it sat there on the books for years not having any work done on it. So what we’ve done here is we’ve done the planning work, done the business case, got a fairly good understanding of what’s needed and are now working with the Victorian government, you know, hand-in-glove really to make sure we can actually deliver these projects along the highway.
STEVE MARTIN: When would we see works commence? Because I believe the bridge is different in the far west to some of the other work. And you did mention that for Warrenheip and Brewery Tap Road, that’s a planning process. So when will people start to see works happening, do you think?
CATHERINE KING: Well, there’s some safety works that can happen pretty quickly and they can be around shoulder widening and certainly making sure that we’ve got the- you know, mostly the highways covered by barriers. But, you know, some of the shoulder widening that may be needed, some of the resealing work that can happen fairly quickly. But obviously when you’re talking about things like overpasses or new interchanges, they are significant pieces of work, and they do require some planning to make sure that they can be delivered. So, you know, our view is the money is available, we’ll make the money available the minute the project is ready to go. But again, you have to do these things properly. And we’re in the hands of the Victorian Government when it comes to the delivery.
STEVE MARTIN: I did have a question that came in specifically from our team in western Victoria, just wanting to know a bit more about the bridges in the west. The Dimboola Bridge upgrades, they’re asking specifically when that might be rolled out. But as you just said, there is still some work to be done before this begins. Is that right, Catherine King?
CATHERINE KING: Well, in terms of those two projects. So the total cost of those, it’s a 50/50 project with the state government. So it’s a $12.2 million project. They will match that project. That’s expected to commence in 2025 with an estimated completion date of ‘26. So it’s meant to actually be starting this year in relation to those two projects. They were – have already been in planning for a while, so we know what we want to do there. So those projects should come on train fairly quickly.
STEVE MARTIN: Rightio Catherine King, thanks for your time this morning.
CATHERINE KING: Terrific to be with you, Steve.
STEVE MARTIN: Catherine King is the Federal Member for Ballarat, but also, of course, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.
Source: United States Senator for Vermont – Bernie Sanders
WASHINGTON, March 5 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), alongside Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), today asked for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass a series of straightforward resolutions condemning Russia’s illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The senators offered six resolutions clarifying that the United States stands with the people of Ukraine in defense of their democracy and condemns the dictator Vladimir Putin’s crimes against humanity. Republicans rose in opposition to every one.
The senators’ resolutions are statements of fact and principle, backed by evidence and long-standing American foreign policy, including:
Clarifying that Russia started the war againstUkraine.
Condemning Putin and Russian forces for their widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Condemning Russia’s forcible abduction of at least 20,000 Ukrainian children and calls for their return to their families.
Reaffirming the support of the United States for Ukraine’s sovereignty in the face of Russia’s invasion.
Restating a simple but fundamental principle of international law and global stability: that you do not take the territory of another country by force.
Demanding that Putin immediately withdraw Russian forces from Ukraine, cease his attacks, and end this terrible war.
Sanders’ remarks on the Senate floor were livestreamed here and are available below.
I am here tonight with colleagues who have worked extremely hard to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine and to defend democracy in that country and, in fact, throughout the world.
And I thank my colleagues for getting on the floor this evening and for the resolutions that they will be bringing forth.
M. President, I am not a historian. But I do know that for the last 250 years, since the inception of our great country, despite our imperfections, the United States has stood in the world as a symbol of democracy. And all over the world people have looked to our country as an example of freedom and self-governance to which the rest of the world could aspire. People have long looked to our Declaration of Independence and Constitution as blueprints for how to establish governments of the people, by the people and for the people.
M. President, tragically, all of that is now changing. As President Trump moves this country towards authoritarianism, he is aligning himself with dictators and despots who share his disdain for democracy and the rule of law.
Just last week, in a radical departure from long-standing U.S. policy, the Trump administration voted against a United Nations resolution which clearly stated that Russia began the horrific war in Ukraine.
That U.N. resolution also called on Russia to withdraw its forces from occupied Ukraine, in line with international law. The resolution was brought forward by our closest allies, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and dozens of other democratic nations. Ninety-three countries at the U.N. voted YES on that resolution.
Rather than side with our long-standing allies to preserve democracy and uphold international law, President Trump voted with authoritarian nations like Russia, North Korea, Iran and Belarus to oppose the resolution. Many of the other opponents of that resolution are undemocratic nations propped up by Russian military aid.
But it wasn’t just the U.N. vote. Pathetically, President Trump also told an outrageous lie, claiming that it was Ukraine that started the war, not Russia. He also called President Zelensky a dictator, rather than the leader of a democratic nation, as he is.
M. President, as we discuss Ukraine tonight, it is terribly important that we not forget who Vladimir Putin is and why he is no friend of the United States, and why we should not be in an alliance with him against Ukraine.
Putin is the man who crushed Russia’s movement towards democracy after the end of the Cold War. Putin is a man who steals elections, murders political dissidents and crushes freedom of the press. He has maintained control in Russia by offering the oligarchs there a simple deal: If they grant him absolute power and share the spoils, he would let them steal as much as they wanted from the Russian people. The result: while the vast majority of the Russian population struggles economically, Putin and his fellow oligarchs stash trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens.
And so today, 26 years after he took power, Putin is the absolute ruler of Russia. And I think as everyone knows, Russia’s elections are blatantly fraudulent. A sham.
And Putin is the man who sparked the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II.
More than three years ago, on February 24, 2022, Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law. Russian land, air and naval forces have attacked and occupied territory across Ukraine.
Since that terrible day, more than a million people have been killed or injured because of Putin’s war. Putin’s forces have massacred civilians and kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children, bringing them back to Russian “re-education” camps. These atrocities led the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 as a war criminal. That’s who we are allying ourselves with.
And still, today, Russia continues its attacks, raining down hundreds of missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities. Russian forces illegally occupy about 20 percent of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
M. President, this war could end today if Putin gave up his outrageous effort to conquer a neighboring country. The war could end today. The killing could stop right now, if Putin gave that order.
And that, simply, M. President, is what my resolution says to Vladimir Putin: Stop the killing. Obey international law. Withdraw your forces and cease your attacks on Ukraine. And I, honestly, don’t understand how anyone in the United States Senate could object to that simple demand.
M. President, now, more than at any time in recent history, it is imperative that the Senate come together in a bipartisan manner to make it clear that we stand for democracy, not authoritarianism; that we stand for international law, not conquest by force; and that we stand with Ukraine and fellow democracies throughout the world, and not with the murderous dictator of Russia.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Germany’s important election last week struggled to make the news cycle, even on Germany’s own Deutsche Welle(DW), Germany’s equivalent of Britain’s BBC. Especially (but not only) in the international media, most of the focus was on a single party (AFD, Alliance for Germany) that was never going to have the most votes and was (almost) never going to become part of the resulting government.
Germany is the world’s third largest national economy, and traditionally dominates the politics of the European Union; an important example of this dominance was the Eurozone financial crisis of the first-half of the 2010s; a crisis that was (unsatisfactorily) resolved, thanks to a problematic and controversial program of fiscal austerity.
At present, Germany, like New Zealand, is experiencing an economic recession. (Provisional annual economic growthwas -0.2% in 2024 and -0.3% in 2023.) The cause is similar, too, in both countries: the same ‘balance the Budget’ mentality that gave the world the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Election Result
The ‘winner’ of the German election was the CDU/CSU Alliance (see Wikipedia for a better presentation of the results), which works a bit like the Liberal/National Coalition in Australia. (The Christian Social Union functions in Bavaria much like Australia’s National Party functions in rural Queensland.) CDU/CSU (like National in New Zealand) comfortably prevailed with 28.5 percent of the vote, entitling that alliance to 33 percent of the seats in the Bundestag (Parliament).
The new Chancellor (equivalent to Prime Minister) will be Friedrich Merz; a 69-year-old version of our own Christopher Luxon, as far as I can tell. He is strongly anti-Putin and pro-Israel. He has come to power well and truly under the international media radar; and will be in a strong position to exert near-absolute power, given that he will always be able to turn to the AFD (who got more votes than the Social Democrats; 20.8%) for support in the Bundestag for any measure that is not palatable to Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats. In the new Parliament, the Greens and the Left merely make up the numbers.
Merz’s Christian Democrats will form a coalition government with the losing SPD (Social Democratic Party, like Labour in New Zealand) who came third with 16.4 percent of the vote; 19 percent of the seats. Together these two parties of the establishment centre hold 52% of the new parliament, despite having less than 45% of the vote. (The outgoing minority government was a centrist coalition of the SPD and the Greens; the election was held early because the ACT-like Liberal Party – the FPD, Free Democrats – withdrew from the coalition. The FPD vote shrunk from 11.4 percent in 2021 to just 4.3 percent of the vote this time.)
The result in Germany proved to be very much like that of the United Kingdom in 2024: a slide in support for the two major parties (‘the establishment centre’), a consolidation of power to the self-same establishment centre, and a shift of that establishment centre to the right. (See my chart in Germany’s stale (and still pale) political mainstream, Evening Report 27 February 2025, for a timeline of decline.) While both countries technically underwent a change of government, in both countries the establishment has entrenched its power, and in both countries the political assumptions of the power centre have shifted to the right.
Clearly this is problematic for democracy, because historically disastrous popular support for the ‘broad church’ parties of the establishment centre has coincided with increased power to those parties, as well as policy convergence between them. Further, based on legislative electoral requirements, neither Germany nor the United Kingdom (nor the United States for that matter) will have a new government until 2029. At a time when a week is a long time in international politics, 208 weeks is an eternity. World War Three, a distinct possibility, may be in its second or third year by then.
Voting System
Germany represents the prototype upon which New Zealand’s MMP voting system is based. There are some differences though, and some recent changes.
Germany calls its all-important ‘party vote’ the ‘second vote’, disguising its importance. It is possible that many German voters do not fully appreciate its significance. The electorate vote is called ‘first vote’, and winners (by a plurality, not necessarily a majority) are elected ‘directly’. The second (party) vote is understood as a top-up vote to ensure proportionality.
Party lists are regional in Germany. And ‘ethnic parties’ may get special privileges.
In one respect the German version is more proportional than the New Zealand version of MMP, in that it no longer allows overhang MPs. (However, the most recent result is not proportional in the important sense that two parties together with less than 45% of the vote have 52% of the seats.) In MMP, one can easily imagine an overhang situation being frequent if the ‘major’ parties, which win most electorates, only get between 16% and 29% of the party vote.
In 2013, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court decided that overhang seats were too big a threat to proportionality. So, they introduced ‘levelling seats’. In effect, it meant that if one party gets an overhang, then all parties get an overhang. The result was, in 2013, that a parliament that should have had 598 members (Deputies) ended up with 631, an effective overhang of 33. In 2017 that effective overhang grew to 111, and to 137 in 2021.
For 2025, they decided to abandon overhang representation altogether, by not guaranteeing direct election through the first vote. And they fixed the size of the Bundestag to 630 Deputies, up from a base-size of 598.
If the new German system was in place in New Zealand in 2023, then two of the Te Pati Māori electorate seats from 2023 would have been forfeit, going instead to second placed candidates; proportionality in 2023 entitled Te Pati Māori to four seats, not the six which they have. However, we should note that, if New Zealand was using the present German version of MMP, there would be no special Māori electorates, but the Māori Party would be exempt the five percent party threshold. Ethnic-privileged parties in Germany are incentivised to focus on the party vote, not the electorate vote. In Germany there is a Danish ethnic party (South Schleswig Voters’ Association) which is exempt the threshold. Its leader, Stefan Seidler, did not win his electorate. But his party got 0.15% of the nationwide vote, meaning it qualified for 0.15% of the 630 places in the Bundestag; one seat, for him.
New Zealand voters seem to have more tactical and strategic political nous than do German voters. Thus, it has been very rare for a party in New Zealand to miss out qualifying for Parliament because of getting between 4% and 5% of the party votes (noting that both countries operate a 5% disqualification threshold). In Germany, party-vote percentages just below 5% are not uncommon. In New Zealand, voters, conscious that they want to play a role in coalition-building, actively help parties near the threshold to get over the line. (Indeed, I voted New Zealand First in 2023, because I was 99.9% sure that the only post-election coalition options would be National/ACT or National/ACT/NZF; I favoured the three-party alternative, so I used my vote strategically to help block a National/ACT government.)
Indeed the latest German result was a bit like the latest New Zealand result, but with a party resembling New Zealand First (BSW) getting 4.972% of the vote, so getting no seats at all. BSW getting just a few more votes would have meant a substantial erosion of the two-party power result which eventuated. It is extremely difficult for new non-ethnic parties to get elected in Germany.
In 2025, two parties scored just under five percent of the vote. As well as the BSW, the (ACT-like) Free Democrats who had been part of the previous government, and who had indeed precipitated the early election, scored 4.3%. Indeed, fifteen percent of the votes were ‘wasted’ – that is, cast for ultimately unsuccessful parties. In New Zealand the wasted vote is typically around four percent. Indeed, this high wasted vote turns out to be a more serious challenge to proportionality in German than uncompensated overhang seats.
Both Germany and New Zealand have the contentious (in New Zealand) ‘electorate MP’ rule; the rule that’s misleadingly dubbed in New Zealand as the ‘coat-tail’ rule. (Misleading, because most MPs come in on the coat-tails of their party leadership, and always have.) In Germany the rule is stricter than in New Zealand. In order to avoid disqualification by getting less than 5% of the party vote, New Zealand requires that the party get one electorate MP. In Germany the rule (initially the same as New Zealand), since 1957 has been a requirement for three electorate MPs. In Germany in 2021, the Left Party got 4.87% of the vote and three electorate MPs; they just squeezed in, on both criteria!
Overall, United States’ Vice-President JD Vance’s pre-election comments about democracy in Germany were valid. German politics continues to exclude the non-establishment parties of both the right and the left, despite support for these parties having been increasing for a while, and now representing the majority of German voters.
Media Framing
German television electoral coverage, if DW is anything to go by, is superficial; indeed, is quite insensitive to the national and local dramas taking place. I watched the coverage live. In the hour before the Exit Poll results were announced, the discussion barely mentioned the potential dramas taking place, despite both the BSW and FDP parties pre-polling only just under the five percent threshold. The state of the economy was mentioned in a perfunctory way; clearly it was not a big issue for the political class on display.
At 6 o’clock exactly, the exit-poll results were read out, as if they were the election result. As indeed they turned out to be, more-or-less; the same as the pre-election polls. The subsequent uninterested attitude towards the actual counting of the votes was disappointing. There had been a bit of this in the 2024 UK election as well; as if the exit poll was the election result. In the UK case, Labour’s actual result (for the popular vote) was well under the exit poll result, while the Conservatives did significantly better than their exit poll tally; those facts, though, were for the nerds and psephologists.
In my observation, early votes and exit polls favour the parties supported by the political class; election day votes much less so. So, in New Zealand in 2023 it was initially looking like there would be a two-party coalition of the right. But, to the attentive, as the night wore on, the National Party percentage fell from 41% to 38%, meaning that NZF would have to be included in any resulting coalition.
I suspected something quite similar would happen in Germany, and I was only partially wrong. The exit poll results, and the subsequent counts, were presented to just one decimal place; indeed, the presentation of the numbers was very poor throughout. So, it was hard to see to what extent BSW was improving as the votes were counted.
In the exit poll, two parties – FPD and BSW – were shown as being on 4.7%, and the AFD was on 19.5%. So, the two 4.7% parties were largely written out of the subsequent discussion. We did see an early concession by the FPD, who – representing a segment of the political class – understood the polling dynamics rather well. And we did see the AFD’s Alice Weidel being asked if she was disappointed to get under 20%. Ms Weidel put on a brave face, but she did seem disappointed. When the votes were actually counted, her party got 20.8% exactly on Weidel’s prior expectations.
BSW was completely ignored. There was simply no interest in the possibility that they might reach the 5% threshold, even when the vote count had them upto 4.9%. In the end BSW reached 4.972%; so close! Out of sight, out of mind! In the official results the BSW were lumped with ‘Other Parties’. The DW election panel were too unaware to make any comments about the party itself, its philosophies, or how its possible success might influence the process of forming a coalition government. (Of particular importance was that, with just a few more votes, BSW might have given Eastern Germany a voice in a three-way coalition government.)
For DW, their perennial concern is the place of Germany within Europe and the World; they had little time to give the outside world a glimpse into the domestic lives and politics of ordinary Germans. And we heard nothing about the ‘ethnic vote’, the privileged Denmark Party notwithstanding. I suspect that many if not most of the recent immigrants who do much of the work in Germany either could not vote or did not vote. The election was about them, not for them; denizens, not citizens.
However, DW did invite on a gentleman who mildly focussed the attention of the discussants by suggesting that one of the priorities of the new Chancellor – Friedrich Merz – would be to acquire nuclear weapons! I don’t think the rest of the world had any prior insights into that; ordinary Germans were probably equally in the dark.
Who is Friedrich Merz? Who knows? It turns out that he dropped out of politics for a while, to play a leading role in BlackRock, the international acquisitions company which until recently owned New Zealand’s SolarZero (refer Update on SolarZero Liquidation by BlackRock, Scoop, 29 January 2025). Our media told us that the election was all about the “far-right” AFD Party; that is, the far non-establishment-right. We in New Zealand heard nothing about the far establishment-right; the shadowy man (or his party). Some now fear Merz will be an out-and-out warmonger. Even Al Jazeera, which can be relied upon to cover many stories about places New Zealand’s media barely touches (and in a bit more depth), had the portraits of Olaf Scholz and Alice Weidel on the screen, on 22 February, the day before the election, despite the certainty that Merz world become the new Chancellor.
In that vein, I heard a German woman interviewed in Christchurch, on RNZ on 25 February. She, disappointed with the election result, spent her whole edited four minutes railing about the AFD, as if the AFD had won. There was no useful commentary, by her or RNZ, of the actual result of Germany’s election.
Are we so shallow that we don’t care; that some of us with the loudest voices only want to rail against a non-establishment party, and to see the democratic support for alternative parties as being somehow anti-democratic?
East Germany
People of a certain age in New Zealand will remember the former East Germany; the DDR, German ‘Democratic’ Republic. Most people in Germany itself will have had knowledge of it, including the Berlin-based political staff of DW who were mostly in their thirties, forties and fifties. But the ongoing issues of Eastern Germany were barely in their mindframes.
In Eastern Germany – the former DDR – (especially outside of Berlin), support for the AFD was close to 40%, for BSW over 10%, and the Left much higher than in Western Germany. In the former East Berlin (which I visited in 1974), the Left seems to have been the most popular party. Support in the East for the establishment parties combined was between 25% and 30%, and with a lower turnout.
BSW, it turns out, is Left on economic policy and Right on social policy. And, in the German discourse, is categorised by the political class as ‘pro-Putin’. If BSW had got 5% of the vote, Merz could have tried to bring them into his government; or Merz might have turned to the Green Party instead of a ‘pro-Putin’ party. But I cannot see even the German Greens being able to govern as a junior partner to a belligerent establishment-right CDU-led government. BSW’s failure to get 5% of the vote may turn out to be one of the great ‘might-have-beens’ of Germany’s future history.
As JD Vance stated, this Eastern German situation poses a danger for democracy in Germany and in Europe. Eastern Germany is where the German state is at its most vulnerable. The majority of voters there have voted for ‘pro-Putin’ parties; and, significantly, parties prioritising the problems of economic failure over the big-politics of extranational power-plays.
The new German government, it would seem, is set to aggravate (or, at best, ignore) the problems of Germany’s ‘near-East’, while setting out to inflame the problems of Europe’s ‘far-East’.
The Debt Brake
This is Germany’s equivalent of Ruth Richardson’s 1994 ‘Fiscal Responsibility Act’ (now entrenched in New Zealand law and lore). This is the major single reason why New Zealand has had so many infrastructure problems this century, and why so many young men and families emigrated to Australia in the 1990s, with some of these emigrants coming back to New Zealand in recent years as ‘501s’.
The Merkel debt-brake is the self-inflicted single major reason why many European economies are in such a mess today; and Germany in particular. Germany is congenitally deeply committed to all kinds of financial austerity, with government financial austerity being the most ingrained. Rather than circulating as it should, money is concentrating. The debt-brake is “a German constitutional rule introduced [in 2009] during the Global Financial crisis to enforce budget discipline and reduce [public] debt loads in the country” (see Berlin Briefing, below).
Germany still has a parliamentary session under the old Parliament, before the new parliament convenes. Michaela Küfner (see Berlin Briefing, below) suggests the possibility that the old “lame duck” Parliament could remove the debt-brake from the German constitution, because she sees the make-up of the new more right-wing parliament as being less amenable to address this ‘elephant in the room’. Seems democratically dodgy to me, even talking about pushing dramatic constitutional legislation through a ‘lame duck’ parliament; like Robert Muldoon, pushing through a two-year parliamentary term for New Zealand in the week after the 1984 election!
(Two-year parliamentary terms are not unknown, by the way; the United States has a two-year term for its Congress. This is almost never mentioned when we discuss the parliamentary term in New Zealand. In the United States at present, there will be many people for whom the 2026 election cannot come fast enough; an opportunity to reign-in Donald Trump.)
Future German relations with the United States
On 27 February (28 Feb, New Zealand time) – before the fiasco in the White House on 28 February – I watched Berlin Briefing on DW. This programme is a regular panel discussion of the political editorship of Deutsche Welle.
The context here is that Friedrich Merz made an important speech the evening after the election; a speech that had the Berlin beltway – “people behind the scenes here in Berlin” – all agog. Merz said: “For me the absolute priority will be strengthening Germany so much so that we can achieve [defence] independence from the United States.”
The discussion proceeded as follows:
“How important is this anchoring in Nato of the idea of the United States as ‘The Great Protector’?” Nina Haase, DW political correspondent: “I don’t think there’s a word, ‘massive’ is not enough; people behind the scenes here in Berlin … they talk about are we going to part with the United States amicably or are we going to become enemies [my emphasis] … Europe has relied on the US so much since the Second World War is completely new thinking; just to prepare for a scenario with, if you will, would-be enemies on two sides; in the East with Russia launching a hybrid attack and then [an enemy] in the West as well.” They go on to talk about the possible need for conscription in Germany.
The political correspondents were talking like bourgeois brat adult children who had expected that they should be able to enjoy a power-lifestyle underwritten by ‘big daddy’ always there as a financial and security backstop; and just realising that the rug of entitlement might be being pulled from under them. Michaela Küfner (Chief Political Editor of DW) goes on to talk about an “existential threat from the United States”, meaning the withdrawal (and potential enmity) of the great protector. “Like your Rich Uncle from across the ocean turning against you”, she said.
Nina Haase: “Pacifism, the very word, needs to be redefined in Germany … Germans are only now able to understand that you have to have weapons in order not to use them.” She was referring to earlier generations of pacifists (like me) who saw weapons as the problem, not the solution.
Ulrike Franke: “Everything needs to change for everything to stay the same”, basically saying Germany itself may have to pursue domestic Rich Uncle policies to maintain the lifestyles of the (entitled) ten percenters.
Michaela Küfner, towards the end of the discussion: “The AFD is framing [the supporters of] the parties which will make up the coming coalition as the political class who we will challenge”. And she noted, but only at the very end of the long discussion, that the effectively disenfranchised people in Eastern Germany are “a lot more Russia-friendly”.
Maybe Merz has a plan to build employment-rich munitions factories in Eastern Germany, to address both his security concerns and the obvious political discontent arising from unemployment and fast-eroding living standards? But Merz will have to abandon his innate fiscal conservatism before he can even contemplate that; can he do a Hoover to Hitler transition? Rearmament was Hitler’s game; his means to full employment after the Depression.
Implications for Democracy
I sense that Friedrich Merz will become the face of coming German politics, just as Angela Merkel once was, and as Trump and Starmer are very much the faces of government in their countries; becoming – albeit through democratic means – similar to the autocrats that, in Eastern and Middle-Eastern countries, they [maybe not Trump] rail against.
We might note that if we look carefully at World War One and World War Two, the core conflict was Germany versus Russia. Will World War Three be the same? And which side will ‘we’ (or ‘US’) be on? In WW1 and WW2, we were on Russia’s side. (Hopefully, in the future, we can be neutral with respect to other countries’ conflicts.)
Democracy is under strain worldwide. The diminishing establishment-centre – the political and economic elites and the people with secure employment and housing who still vote for familiar major parties – is clinging on to power, and for the time-being remains more powerful than ever in Europe.
In the Europe of the early 1930s, it was the Great Depression as a period of abject political failure that resulted in the suspension of democracy. All the signs are that the same failures of democratic leadership – worldwide from the 1920s – will bring about similar consequences.
For democracies to save themselves, they should bring non-establishment voices to the table. In 2025. Germany will be another important test case, already sowing the seeds of political failure. We should be wary of demonising the far non-establishment-right while lionising the far establishment-right.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Markela Panegyres and Jonathan Strauss in Sydney
The new Universities Australia (UA) definition of antisemitism, endorsed last month for adoption by 39 Australian universities, is an ugly attempt to quash the pro-Palestine solidarity movement on campuses and to silence academics, university workers and students who critique Israel and Zionism.
While the Scott Morrison Coalition government first proposed tightening the definition, and a recent joint Labor-Coalition parliamentary committee recommended the same, it is yet another example of the Labor government’s overreach.
It seeks to mould discussion in universities to one that suits its pro-US and pro-Zionist imperialist agenda, while shielding Israel from accountability.
The UA definition comes in the context of a war against Palestinian activism on campuses.
The false claim that antisemitism is “rampant” across universities has been weaponised to subdue the Palestinian solidarity movement within higher education and, particularly, to snuff out any repeat of the student-led Gaza solidarity encampments, which sprung up on campuses across the country last year.
Some students and staff who have been protesting against the genocide since October 2023 have come under attack by university managements.
Some students have been threatened with suspension and many universities are giving themselves, through new policies, more powers to liaise with police and surveil students and staff.
Palestinian, Arab and Muslim academics, as well as other anti-racist scholars, have been silenced and disciplined, or face legal action on false counts of antisemitism, merely for criticising Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine.
Randa Abdel-Fattah, for example, has become the target of a Zionist smear campaign that has successfully managed to strip her of Australian Research Council funding.
Intensify repression The UA definition will further intensify the ongoing repression of people’s rights on campuses to discuss racism, apartheid and occupation in historic Palestine.
By its own admission, UA acknowledges that its definition is informed by the antisemitism taskforces at Columbia University, Stanford University, Harvard University and New York University, which have meted out draconian and violent repression of pro-Palestine activism.
It should be noted that the controversial IHRA definition has been opposed by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) for its serious challenge to academic freedom.
As many leading academics and university workers, including Jewish academics, have repeatedly stressed, criticism of Israel and criticism of Zionism is not antisemitic.
UA’s definition is arguably more detrimental to freedom of speech and pro-Palestine activism and scholarship than the IHRA definition.
In the vague IHRA definition, a number of examples of antisemitism are given that conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, but not the main text itself.
By contrast, the new UA definition overtly equates criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism and claims Zionist ideology is a component part of Jewish identity.
The definition states that “criticism of Israel can be anti-Semitic . . . when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel”.
Dangerously, anyone advocating for a single bi-national democratic state in historic Palestine will be labelled antisemitic under this new definition.
Anyone who justifiably questions the right of the ethnonationalist, apartheid and genocidal state of Israel to exist will be accused of antisemitism.
Sweeping claims The UA definition also makes the sweeping claim that “for most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity”.
But, as the JCA points out, Zionism is a national political ideology and is not a core part of Jewish identity historically or today, since many Jews do not support Zionism. The JCA warns that the UA definition “risks fomenting harmful stereotypes that all Jewish people think in a certain way”.
Moreover, JCA said, Jewish identities are already “a rightly protected category under all racial discrimination laws, whereas political ideologies such as Zionism and support for Israel are not”.
Like other aspects of politics, political ideologies, such as Zionism, and political stances, such as support for Israel, should be able to be discussed critically.
According to the UA definition, criticism of Israel can be antisemitic “when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions”.
While it would be wrong for any individual or community, because they are Jewish, to be held responsible for Israel’s actions, it is a fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister Yoav Gallant for Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But under the UA definition, since Netanyahu and Gallant are Jewish, would holding them responsible be considered antisemitic?
The implication of the definition for universities, which teach law and jurisprudence, is that international law should not be applied to the Israeli state, because it is antisemitic to do so.
The UA’s definition is vague enough to have a chilling effect on any academic who wants to teach about genocide, apartheid and settler-colonialism. It states that “criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions”.
What these are is not defined.
Anti-racism challenge Within the academy, there is a strong tradition of anti-racism and decolonial scholarship, particularly the concept of settler colonialism, which, by definition, calls into question the very notion of “statehood”.
With this new definition of antisemitism, will academics be prevented from teaching students the works of Chelsea Watego, Patrick Wolfe or Edward Said?
The definition will have serious and damaging repercussions for decolonial scholars and severely impinges the rights of scholars, in particular First Nations scholars and students, to critique empire and colonisation.
UA is the “peak body” for higher education in Australia, and represents and lobbies for capitalist class interests in higher education.
It is therefore not surprising that it has developed this particular definition, given its strong bilateral relations with Israeli higher education, including signing a 2013 memorandum of understanding with Association of University Heads, Israel.
All university students and staff committed to anti-racism, academic freedom and freedom of speech should join the campaign against the UA definition.
Local NTEU branches and student groups are discussing and passing motions rejecting the new definition and NTEU for Palestine has called a National Day of Action for March 26 with that as one of its key demands.
We will not be silenced on Palestine.
Jonathan Strauss and Markela Panegyres are members of the National Tertiary Education Union and the Socialist Alliance. Republished from Green Left with permission.
Released by: Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Water
The Minns Labor Government is trialling Fishheart; a state-of-the-art temporary fish passage technology in the Lower Darling-Baaka River near Menindee, western NSW.
The goal of this initiative is to test options to connect the Northern and Southern Basin and reduce the accumulation of fish, as part of the Government’s response to the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer (OCSE) independent review into the March 2023 mass fish kill.
The NSW Government continues to make good progress in addressing the recommendations identified in the OSCE report, with 10 of the 26 actions we’ve committed to now complete and the remaining 16 underway funded under the $25 million Restoring the Darling-Baaka River Program.
One of the key actions the NSW Government has committed to is a $6.52 million trial of new temporary fish passage technology at Menindee.
Australian native fish need to migrate to feed, breed and seek new habitat but due to the introduction of barriers to fish passage, like dams and weirs, fish migration pathways have been impacted.
Currently in the Lower Darling-Baaka, fish can only migrate upstream as far as Lake Wetherell and Menindee Main Weir. The Fishheart unit is a floating hydraulic fishway system designed to assist fish moving over existing barriers. Construction commenced to install the Fishheart unit to the Lake Wetherell outlet regulator in December 2024.
Work continued over the summer, with the technology being lowered into the Lower Darling-Baaka River in late January 2025. Calibration and testing of the Fishheart is currently underway.
The Fishheart unit works by attracting fish into the fishway and then using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and collect fish in the chambers, counting fish, gathering data before moving fish up and over barriers like the Lake Wetherell outlet regulator.
This is the first time that this innovative technology will be trialled at this scale on Australian inland freshwater fish and builds on Fishheart’s work in Europe and the USA that has shown plenty of promise.
The aim of the project is to test options to connect sections of the river, thereby helping move some fish out of the Menindee town weir pool to complete their life cycle and reducing the biomass and associated risks for water quality and fish kills.
Fisheries Scientists from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Fisheries will conduct the monitoring program, using underwater sonar and video capture technology, plus trapping activities under appropriate permits.
Minister for Agriculture and Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty said:
“This is the first time that this fishway technology will be trialled under Australian conditions at this scale and on native inland freshwater fish and it demonstrates the commitment of the Minns Labor Government to address environmental issues using innovative approaches, especially in western NSW.
“While there is no one size fits all solution to restore fish passage in the Lower Darling-Baaka River or the Menindee Lakes system, this project aims to use innovative science, data and infrastructure as we promised to do.
“Construction has been progressing through very hot days out at Menindee and we are grateful to all the personnel for their efforts in ensuring the fishway can get operational as soon as possible.
“The Fishheart will be trialled for three breeding seasons, to measure its effectiveness in Menindee. But overseas experiences provide strong indicators for success, for moving fish through the fishway safely and hopefully reduce the risks of future fish kills in the Lower Darling-Baaka.”
Minister for Water Rose Jackson said:
“It’s fantastic to see the fish passage being trialled in Menindee which is one of the innovative infrastructure solutions proposed to prevent future fish deaths.
“We pledged to take decisive action on water quality in the Darling-Baaka to improve fish health and we are delivering on this promise, with a six-month progress report now available to show the community where we are up to.
“So far, we have developed new water quality triggers, overhauled our emergency response plans, continued to upgrade monitoring and added additional resources while also exploring state-of-the-art infrastructure solutions such as the tube fishway and microbubble technology.
“I’m encouraged by the progress in a short space of time, which the Chief Scientist himself has acknowledged publicly, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
“The reality is this is an incredibly complex river system with significant challenges that won’t go away overnight, but we are in a much stronger position to respond to changing conditions than ever before, and we are undoubtedly moving in the right direction.”
Headline: Precautionary school closures in Northern NSW as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches
Published: 5 March 2025
Released by: Minister for Education and Early Learning, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education
Schools across the North Coast of NSW will be non-operational for the next two days to safeguard students and staff as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches.
Due to potential impacts of the cyclone, including a heightened risk of flooding, more than 230 public schools, 29 Catholic schools, five independent schools and 16 TAFE campuses, along with two additional TAFE campuses being used as evacuation centres, are closed. The closures are expected to impact schools from Wednesday 5 March, through to Friday 7 March 2025.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to cross the coastline north of Brisbane as a Category 2 cyclone late on Thursday or early Friday.
Substantial flooding is expected with up to a metre of rain forecast to fall in southern Queensland and north-eastern NSW over several days.
Because of these risks, families have been asked to not send children to school for the next two days.
At this stage schools are expected to resume operations on Monday 10 March 2025.
The department has a stock of essential products ready to be dispatched to support our school communities, including gloves, paper towels, pump soap, tissues, toilet paper, bottled water and personal insect repellents. Additional blow-drying units and air purifiers are also available.
The Department of Education also requires all early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to operate safely, including during extreme weather events, and is contacting services in affected regions.
The Department urges services to assess the risk of severe weather in their community and if necessary, activate their emergency plans and procedures. We encourage services to follow the advice of local authorities and the SES.
The SES has asked families to prepare their homes for strong winds, by putting away loose items around their home, trimming trees away from properties and not parking vehicles under trees or powerlines.
Never drive, walk, ride through, play or swim in flood water, and any avoid unnecessary travel. Download the Hazards Near Me App to stay across the latest warnings and information.
Call the NSW SES on 132 500 if you need emergency assistance in floods and storms. In a life-threatening emergency, call Triple Zero (000) or visit www.ses.nsw.gov.au
Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:
“As our communities prioritise their safety and prepare for the arrival of Cyclone Alfred, we are ensuring teachers, students and school staff are not unnecessary placed in harm’s way by attending school.
“Keeping our students and families safe must always be our top priority.
“While we usually do not advocate for the closure of schools and places of learning, in these circumstances, an abundance of caution can be what keeps our community safe.”
Minister for Emergency Services Jihad Dib said:
“It is important that at this critical time we plan ahead, and we are asking the community to keep their children home from school.
“Please follow the advice of emergency services and continue to check the NSW State Emergency Service website for the latest information and, if you haven’t already, download the Hazards Near Me App which includes the latest warnings and information.
“The NSW Government is doing all we can to prepare ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred crossing the coast later this week and we are asking the community to take steps now to ensure that they are prepared.”
Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education Steve Whan said:
“Our number one priority is the safety and wellbeing of our staff, students and their families.
“We are incredibly grateful to our team of dedicated TAFE NSW staff who have a wonderful track record of supporting their communities by ensuring campuses can be turned into evacuation centres during natural disaster events.”
Deputy Secretary of Public Schools Deborah Summerhayes said:
“The department is taking a safety-first approach. We know a lot of our North Coast communities have been through difficult periods in recent years – with the 2022 floods still fresh in their memories.
“That’s why we are planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
“We want to do everything we can to ensure our school communities are well supported and our staff and students are safe.”
Europe is warmed by heat from ocean currents, which move water from the warm tropics to the colder North Atlantic. Once the warm, salty water from the tropics reach the polar region, they cool enough to sink to the depths and flow back towards the Southern Ocean.
This enormous system of currents is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Climate scientists are increasingly worried about the AMOC, which appears to be slowing down.
While there’s still debate over whether the AMOC has weakened over the last decades, climate models consistently show the AMOC will significantly weaken over the coming century due to the increase in heat-trapping atmospheric greenhouse gases. As more heat stays in the system, the ocean heats up and ice melts, adding fresh water to polar oceans. The overall effect is to slow these currents. The AMOC could weaken 30% by 2060.
A weaker AMOC would mean big changes in Europe, which benefits directly from the warmer waters it brings. But it would also change the climate in the Southern Hemisphere. Our new research shows a weakening of the AMOC would lead to a large change in rainfall patterns, leading to wetter summers in northern Australia and a drier New Zealand year-round. Indonesia and northern Papua New Guinea would also become drier.
Running AMOC?
In the Earth’s long history, the AMOC has gone through many periods of weakening. These were most common during ice ages, when glaciers expanded, but they also occurred during periods as warm as today.
To reconstruct past climates, researchers use data from ice cores, marine sediment cores and speleothems (mineral deposits in caves such as flowstone and stalagmites), as well as simulations performed with climate models. These data show a weaker AMOC strongly affected the climate in the Northern Hemisphere. When flows of warmer water faltered, sea ice expanded in the North Atlantic, while Europe endured colder, drier conditions and the northern tropics became drier.
If the AMOC weakens significantly, it will mean major change for Northern Hemisphere nations. Average temperatures could actually drop 3°C in Western Europe.
At present, the AMOC’s flows of warmer water give European nations more pleasant climates and keeps ports ice free, while the Canadian side of the North Atlantic has a much more severe climate.
What does it mean for the Southern Hemisphere?
Data from ice cores and marine sediment cores also showed Antarctica and the Southern Ocean became warmer during these past AMOC weakening events. Until now, we haven’t understood what an AMOC weakening would mean for rainfall in the Australasian region.
To find out, we ran climate model simulations with the Australian Earth system model, ACCESS-ESM1.5. Our modelling reveals a complex and regionally varied response, primarily shaped by large-scale atmospheric changes.
As the AMOC weakens, it sets off a chain reaction in the oceans and atmosphere which alter rainfall and temperatures across Australasia.
A weaker AMOC would affect ocean temperatures, cooling surface waters in the northern hemisphere and warming waters in the southern hemisphere. This would push the Intertropical Convergence Zone – a belt of heavy rain near the equator – further south.
This means areas such as northern Papua New Guinea and Indonesia will get less rain, while northern Australia will cop wetter summers.
Next, a warmer south equatorial Atlantic triggers atmospheric waves – large-scale movements of air that travel across the globe. These waves lower air pressure over northern Australia, pulling in more moisture and making summer rainfall even heavier.
At the same time, a weaker AMOC disrupts the usual tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean dynamics, altering wind patterns and pressure systems in the Southern Hemisphere. High pressure systems shift southward, affecting storm tracks. The overall effect is fewer storms reaching southern Australia and New Zealand, leading to drier winters.
Last, as the Atlantic currents peter out, heat builds up in Southern Hemisphere oceans rather than being carried to the poles. This results in hotter summers, particularly in southern Australia and New Zealand.
Deluges and droughts
It’s likely we will see these important currents weaken this century, bringing major change to both hemispheres.
Those in Australia and New Zealand are likely to see a magnification of some existing climate shifts, such as a drier south and wetter north.
Policymakers and resource managers need to prepare for a future where water becomes an increasingly uncertain resource.
In the north, more rain over summer could mean a greater reliance on water storage and flood mitigation. In the south, drier conditions may force increased water use efficiency and drought planning.
In New Zealand, a year-round drying trend could challenge farm productivity and hydropower generation. Long-term water management will be critical.
What happens in the North Atlantic doesn’t stay there. It ripples through the atmosphere and oceans, with far-reaching consequences.
Himadri Saini receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Laurie Menviel receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Some of Australia’s major professional sports – such as the Australian Football League (AFL) and its clubs, the National Rugby League (NRL) and its clubs and Cricket Australia – are treated as not-for-profits. This means they do not pay income tax.
Not-for-profits and charities
The not-for-profit sector in Australia consists of about 600,000 organisations, 59,000 of which contributed $43 billion to Australia’s economy in 2010 (2010 is the most recent available data).
Some not-for-profit organisations receive special designation as charities and must have a charitable purpose that benefits the public.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is aware of more than 200,000 entities that receive one or more tax concessions. But only 61,010 are registered charities.
Professinal sports and tax
Within the regulation of not-for-profits exists professional sport.
Sports receive an exemption from income tax if, under section 50-45 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, a club or association encourages or promotes a game or sport.
In addition, the organisation must not conduct business for the purpose of profit for members.
The sports exemption does not differentiate between professional and community (or amateur) sport, as is the case in New Zealand, where charities and taxation law limit a sports charity to an amateur organisation.
Therefore, major Australian professional sports are considered not-for-profits and do not pay income tax.
None of these entities are registered charities.
This raises questions of fairness: these organisations receive revenue that ranges from tens of millions of dollars in the case of clubs to hundreds of millions and even billions for leagues.
When the sports exemption was introduced in the 1950s, it was designed to assist small community clubs. This might include the local golf club that operates on a public course and has operating revenue of $10,000, or the local tennis or football club with similar revenues.
The big business of pro sports
In recent years, the revenues of professional sport have ballooned, primarily due to lucrative broadcasting deals.
Also, the AFL and NRL receive a percentage of the income of betting agencies, reportedly $30 million a year for the AFL and $50 million for the NRL.
Half of the NRL clubs are sponsored by betting companies and three NRL stadiums are named after betting agencies.
Some non-Victorian AFL clubs, such as Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney, have gambling sponsorships, but Victorian clubs have signed up to the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s “Love the Game, Not the Odds” program.
This reliance on sports betting revenues raises issues as to the public benefit of these organisations and whether they should receive tax exemptions.
The issue of unrelated business income (the income a not-for-profit earns from commercial activities not related to its charitable purpose), especially from gambling and poker machines, raises concerns.
North Melbourne was the first Victorian AFL club to sell its poker machines in 2008. In 2016, it was the only club without pokies.
Collingwood sold its machines in 2018 and Hawthorn sold its two poker machine venues in 2022. But Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and St Kilda earned a collective $40 million from poker machines in 2022/2023.
The profits of poker machines by Victorian AFL clubs can be distinguished from sports clubs in New South Wales, where not less than 0.75% of poker machine profits must be distributed to charities under community development and support expenditure.
Poker machine venues are a considerable source of revenue in the NRL. In 2021, rugby league received $9.8 million from regional licensed clubs – $7.28 million to grassroots rugby and $2.52 million to NRL clubs.
Metropolitan venues gave $29.67 million to rugby league – $17.09 million to grassroots rugby and $12.58 million to NRL clubs.
A possible solution
Unrelated business income tax (UBIT) is a tax on the unrelated business income of not-for-profits. Related business income for a not-for-profit is membership fees and services directly related to the members such as restaurants or meals.
However, the major source of unrelated business income for sports are sponsorship and income from gambling companies and poker machines.
In the context of professional sport, a UBIT would fairly treat leagues and clubs, which increasingly engage in commercial activities outside their charitable activities, with a public benefit without removing the tax exemption.
For example, a UBIT would tax the profits of clubs with poker machines. It would also tax some of Australia’s most profitable professional sports clubs and leagues for revenue not related to promoting the sports.
It would also help distinguish between “real” not-for-profits and professional sports.
In doing so, it would also create a fair regulatory environment for the operation of for-profit and not-for-profit businesses.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage has been entered on the New Zealand Heritage List Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 1 historic place.
The 2.1-metre-high bas-relief sculpture depicts a life-sized Kate Sheppard, flanked by five other influential suffragists. The artwork was created for the 1993 commemorations of the momentous achievement of New Zealand women gaining the right to vote one hundred years earlier.
The creation of the memorial was a true group effort, much like the original 19 th century suffrage campaign. In June 1990, 44 women representing many women’s groups and organisations met to discuss how they could celebrate the upcoming centenary. One outcome was the establishment of the Kate Sheppard Memorial Appeal Committee.
The national memorial was partially funded through a public campaign. Supporters of the fundraising appeal had their names recorded on a Time Capsule Scroll (reminiscent of the suffrage petition) which was placed inside the Memorial. Fundraising was so successful that there were extra funds which established a Kate Sheppard Memorial award.
The Kate Sheppard Memorial Appeal committee developed a clear concept and invited sculptors to submit a design. They were looking for a bas-relief and asked that there should be “a deeper relief and a focal position for Kate Sheppard whose importance in the fight for women’s suffrage cannot be exaggerated.”
The committee eventually selected South Canterbury artist, Margriet Windhausen. In her Maungati studio, Windhausen first sculpted the work with clay, from which she made a polyester resin mould, which was filled with wax to become the positive impression. The impression was then cut into pieces for casting at a foundry in Invercargill. After casting, these were then welded together, cleaned and sandblasted. Windhausen said of the six main figures at the centre, “I wanted the faces and the stance of the figures to be timeless for I believe it’s important these women should be able to speak to us today as contemporary women… They both look out at the audience and beyond into the future.”
Although Kate Sheppard takes the central spot, the other five women flanking her demonstrate the shared nature of the suffrage campaigns. These women are: Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, of Taitokerau who requested the vote for women from Te Kotahitanga, the Māori Parliament; Amey Daldy, a foundation member of the Auckland Women’s Christian Temperance Union and president of the Auckland Franchise League; Ada Wells, of Christchurch, who campaigned vigorously for equal educational opportunities for girls and women; Harriet Morison, of Dunedin, vice president of the Tailoresses’ Union and a powerful advocate for working women; and Helen Nicol, who pioneered the women’s franchise campaign in Dunedin. The text panels identify other key individuals.
The presence of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia is significant. Her inclusion reflects the broader story of the impacts of colonial settlement on Māori. While Māori women and Pākehā women shared similar concerns in late 19th century New Zealand, such as the harms of alcohol, their situations differed. Many Māori women saw their prior rights eroding under colonial rule. Land issues were a key problem, and Māori women were vocal in raising concerns that so much of their lands and resources was being taken into colonial ownership. When Te Kotahitanga, the Māori Parliament, was established in 1892, Māori women were involved and able to speak from its inception.
Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia brought forward a motion to Te Kotahitanga that women be allowed to vote and stand in the Māori Parliament in 1893, but deferral of the motion meant this wasn’t put in place until 1897. By this time, all women – Māori and Pākehā – had already been granted the right to vote in national elections.
For Ngāi Tūāhuriri and for the descendants of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, the memorial is a maumahara, a memorial to wāhine toa who successfully helped shape the end of both Māori and Pākehā women’s suffrage in Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial history.
Heritage Listing Advisor at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Robyn Burgess, says, “There’s something very inviting about this memorial. In Christchurch there are only two memorials of women, and one of those is Queen Victoria, up high on a column, representing the empire. Unlike the male statues, where men are presented larger-than-life, up high on plinth, the Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage is at ground level, near life-size and accessible. Its position encourages visitors to interact closely with the sculpture.”
The site of the memorial, tucked away behind the Municipal Chambers on Oxford Terrace, might seem too modest a spot for a national memorial. But the location has some very significant connections. The first colonial timber building on the Municipal Chambers site had been the Land Office or Survey Office, built in the early 1850s. This Land Office, like others around the country, was associated with Pākehā land acquisition through colonial settlement, which was one of the reasons why Māori women sought to become active in the political sphere.
Kate Sheppard and her husband Walter would also have been directly associated with the timber municipal buildings and its 1886 brick replacement. Ada Wells, one of the women on the memorial, entered this brick building as the first woman member of the Christchurch City Council in 1917. In 1921 Elizabeth McCombs entered this same municipal building to begin a 12-year term on the Christchurch City Council, subsequently becoming, in 1933, New Zealand’s first woman Member of Parliament. The memorial also looks across to the Canterbury Provincial Chambers Building, where the National Council of Women held their first meeting in 1896 and planned their lobbying for further reforms.
The memorial sculpture was unveiled on 19 September 1993 in a special ceremony attended by up to 3000 people. As Governor General, Dame Catherine Tizard unveiled the memorial, doves were released, accompanied by choirs. The crowds then enjoyed a street party along Worcester Boulevard.
Today, the Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage is a place of gathering and reflection. Each year on Suffrage Day, 19 September, the Christchurch Branch of the National Council of Women still hold a celebration commemoration. “We feel that this is the best place to reflect and to acknowledge the many women who have gone before us, who have worked to advocate for issues that are important to women and girls in our communities. Kate and the other women on the memorial inspire us to keep pushing towards our aim of true gender equality,” says the co-president of Christchurch branch of NCW, Louise Tapper. “It is always an honour to be able to lay white camellias, the symbol of women’s suffrage, at the foot of the memorial each Suffrage Day.”
Robyn Burgess, who conducted the research for the heritage recognition has been impressed at the positive response from the public. “We have had 18 submissions, all of them positive, and many from organisations and interest groups. People see this as a very significant memorial not only for Christchurch, but for all of Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Tairangahia a tua whakarere; Tātakihia ngā reanga o āmuri ake nei | Honouring the past; Inspiring the future.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga is the leading national historic heritage agency for Aotearoa New Zealand, operating as an autonomous Crown Entity. Our mission is to identify, protect, and promote heritage – Kia mōhiotia atu, kia tiakina, kia hāpaingia ā tātau taonga tuku iho.
We actively engage with communities, foster partnerships, and provide valuable resources to support those who are passionate about exploring, learning, and connecting with our rich cultural heritage. For more information, please visit our website atwww.heritage.org.nz
Residents of Katherine will have more opportunities to walk or cycle through their community thanks to funding from the Albanese Government.
The Katherine Town Council will receive $756,000 under the government’s Active Transport Fund to build the Zimin Drive Shared Pathway.
The project will see the construction of a 2.4-metre wide, 5.7 kilometre-long, shared bicycle and pedestrian sealed pathway along Zimin Drive.
This will provide a safer, healthier travel option between the Stuart and Victoria Highways, looping around Katherine South.
The Albanese Government is making our cities and regions even better places to live, building social infrastructure, connecting place and designing healthier, more liveable towns.
Our new Active Transport Fund is one part of this, providing safe and accessible transport options that are good for the planet and good for ourselves.
The Active Transport Fund supports the government’s commitment to invest in infrastructure planning, design and construction that improves safety outcomes for vulnerable road users under the National Road and Safety Strategy 2021-2030.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King:
“The Albanese Government is investing in active transport infrastructure, to make it safer and easier to walk, cycle or push a pram to work, school or anywhere else.
“We’re ensuring more opportunities for the people of Katherine to be more active and connected by providing better ways for them to walk and cycle across town.”
Quotes attributable to Federal Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour:
“Students, pedestrians and cyclists will now have a far safer way to travel in Katherine.
“We are making the community of Katherine healthier and more liveable by improving active travel connections to create opportunities for moving around town using physical activity
Source: Australia Government Ministerial Statements
The Albanese Government is delivering $250 million to accelerate the pace of Australia’s growing domestic Low Carbon Liquid Fuels (LCLF) industry.
This funding is part of the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund and will be provided as grants to support pre-commercial innovation, demonstration and deployment.
Low carbon liquid fuels can be produced sustainably from waste, biomass such as agricultural feedstocks, or renewable hydrogen.
Australia’s domestic LCLF industry will focus on supplying sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel in liquid fuel-reliant sectors, including transport (aviation, heavy vehicle, rail and maritime), mining, agriculture and construction.
The development of low carbon fuels will drive economic growth and jobs in regional areas, including supporting diversification in agriculture, making good use of excess feedstock from crops, sugarcane and waste products such as tallow.
CSIRO projects that a LCLF industry could contribute between AUD $6 billion to $12 billion annually in direct economic benefits, with greater gains from regional co-benefits including diversified income streams for farmers and regional communities.
LCLFs not only help decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors of the economy but provide Australia with sovereign capability and resilience at a time of increasing international uncertainty.
Alongside the $250 million for low carbon liquid fuels, the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund is providing $500 million for clean energy technology manufacturing capabilities including electrolysers, batteries and wind towers.
The Fund – a key element of the Future Made in Australia plan – will ensure Australia can maximise the economic and industrial benefits of the international move to net zero and secure Australia’s place in a changing global and strategic landscape. Funding is administered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
The investment in a wider domestic LCLF industry builds on the momentum of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Funding Initiative.
This Sustainable Aviation Fuel Funding Initiative has seen the Albanese Government invest in $33.5 million across five projects to date, including LCLF production facilities in Bundaberg and Townsville, and enabling the supply of sustainable aviation fuel at Brisbane Airport.
Funding from the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund is subject to the legislated Future Made in Australia Community Benefits Principles. The Albanese Government established these principles to ensure public investment and the private investment it attracts, has a direct and tangible benefit for local workers and businesses.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen:
“The Australian Government is backing clean, green low carbon liquid fuels as an important part of our move towards net zero and long-term fuel security.
“Australia has the know how and skills to meet the crucial task of decarbonising hard to abate sectors such as aviation, heavy transport and mining that rely on liquid fuels.
“Investing in a Future Made in Australia means delivering the industries that will provide high end jobs, many in the regions, for future generations.”
Quotes attributable to Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King:
“We know that industries vital to our national prosperity, like the transportation of people and goods across our vast land, are carbon intensive and hard to abate.
“That’s why we’re investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop – right here in Australia – the low carbon liquid fuels of the future that will reduce their environmental impact without preventing their operation or expansion.
“We have all the ingredients in Australia to be a global clean energy superpower, and the Future Made in Australia fund will help bring that potential to reality.”
WATERLOO, Ontario and ATLANTA, March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Descartes Systems Group Inc. (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX) announced its financial results for its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter (Q4FY25) and year (FY25) ended January 31, 2025. All financial results referenced are in United States (US) currency and, unless otherwise indicated, are determined in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
“Fiscal 2025 was another year of growth for Descartes, highlighted by the addition of numerous complementary services to the Global Logistics Network,” said Edward J. Ryan, Descartes’ CEO. “We believe these investments can help shippers, carriers, and logistics services providers manage the increased uncertainty and complexity that’s recently been introduced to the global trade environment. Our customers benefit from our diversity in international and domestic supply chains, our expertise with tariffs, sanctions and other global trade issues, and our expansive roster of connected trading partners as they navigate a quickly evolving trade landscape.”
FY25 Financial Results As described in more detail below, key financial highlights for Descartes’ FY25 included:
Revenues of $651.0 million, up 14% from $572.9 million in the same period a year ago (FY24);
Revenues were comprised of services revenues of $590.2 million (91% of total revenues), professional services and other revenues of $55.1 million (8% of total revenues) and license revenues of $5.7 million (1% of total revenues). Services revenues were up 13% from $520.9 million in FY24;
Cash provided by operating activities of $219.3 million, up 6% from $207.7 million in FY24. Cash provided by operating activities was negatively impacted in FY25 by the payment of $25.0 million in contingent acquisition consideration for previously completed deals, which was not accrued for at the time of acquisition;
Income from operations of $181.1 million, up 27% from $142.8 million in FY24;
Net income of $143.3 million, up 24% from $115.9 million in FY24. Net income as a percentage of revenues was 22%, compared to 20% in FY24;
Earnings per share on a diluted basis of $1.64, up 22% from $1.34 in FY24; and
Adjusted EBITDA of $284.7 million, up 15% from $247.5 million in FY24. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues was 44%, compared to 43% in FY24.
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues are non-GAAP financial measures provided as a complement to financial results presented in accordance with GAAP. We define Adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation (for which we include related fees and taxes) and other charges (for which we include restructuring charges, acquisition-related expenses, and contingent consideration incurred due to better-than-expected performance from acquisitions). These items are considered by management to be outside Descartes’ ongoing operational results. We define Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues as the quotient, expressed as a percentage, from dividing Adjusted EBITDA for a period by revenues for the corresponding period. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues to net income determined in accordance with GAAP is provided later in this release.
The following table summarizes Descartes’ results in the categories specified below over FY25 and FY24 (dollar amounts in millions):
FY25
FY24
Revenues
651.0
572.9
Services revenues
590.2
520.9
Gross margin
76
%
76
%
Cash provided by operating activities*
219.3
207.7
Income from operations
181.1
142.8
Net income
143.3
115.9
Net income as a % of revenues
22
%
20
%
Earnings per diluted share
1.64
1.34
Adjusted EBITDA
284.7
247.5
Adjusted EBITDA as a % of revenues
44
%
43
%
(*) FY25 cash provided by operating activities was negatively impacted by the payment of $25.0 million in contingent acquisition consideration for previously completed deals, which was not accrued for at the time of acquisition but was paid due to post-acquisition performance exceeding expectations at the time of acquisition
Q4FY25 Financial Results As described in more detail below, key financial highlights for Q4FY25 included:
Revenues of $167.5 million, up 13% from $148.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 (Q4FY24) and down from $168.8 million in the previous quarter (Q3FY25);
Revenues were comprised of services revenues of $156.5 million (93% of total revenues), professional services and other revenues of $10.7 million (6% of total revenues) and license revenues of $0.3 million (1% of total revenues). Services revenues were up 15% from $135.7 million in Q4FY24 and up 5% from $149.7 million in Q3FY25;
Cash provided by operating activities of $60.7 million, up 19% from $50.8 million in Q4FY24 and up 1% from $60.1 million in Q3FY25;
Income from operations of $47.1 million, up 27% from $37.0 million in Q4FY24 and up 3% from $45.8 million in Q3FY25;
Net income of $37.4 million, up 18% from $31.8 million in Q4FY24 and up 2% from $36.6 million in Q3FY25. Net income as a percentage of revenues was 22%, compared to 21% in Q4FY24 and 22% in Q3FY25;
Earnings per share on a diluted basis of $0.43, up 16% from $0.37 in Q4FY24 and up 2% from $0.42 in Q3FY25; and
Adjusted EBITDA of $75.0 million, up 14% from $65.7 million in Q4FY24 and up 4% from $72.1 million in Q3FY25. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues was 45%, compared to 44% in Q4FY24 and 43% in Q3FY25, respectively.
The following table summarizes Descartes’ results in the categories specified below over the past 5 fiscal quarters (unaudited; dollar amounts, other than per share amounts, in millions):
Q4 FY25
Q3 FY25
Q2 FY25
Q1 FY25
Q4 FY24
Revenues
167.5
168.8
163.4
151.3
148.2
Services revenues
156.5
149.7
146.2
137.8
135.7
Gross margin
76
%
74
%
75
%
77
%
76
%
Cash provided by operating activities*
60.7
60.1
34.7
63.7
50.8
Income from operations
47.1
45.8
45.9
42.4
37.0
Net income
37.4
36.6
34.7
34.7
31.8
Net income as a % of revenues
22
%
22
%
21
%
23
%
21
%
Earnings per diluted share
0.43
0.42
0.40
0.40
0.37
Adjusted EBITDA
75.0
72.1
70.6
67.0
65.7
Adjusted EBITDA as a % of revenues
45
%
43
%
43
%
44
%
44
%
(*) Q2FY25 cash provided by operating activities was negatively impacted by the payment of $25.0 million in contingent acquisition consideration for previously completed deals, which was not accrued for at the time of acquisition but was paid due to post-acquisition performance exceeding expectations at the time of acquisition
Cash Position At January 31, 2025, Descartes had $236.1 million in cash. Cash increased by $54.8 million in Q4FY25 and decreased by $84.9 million in FY25. The table set forth below provides a summary of cash flows for Q4FY25 and FY25 in millions of dollars:
Q4FY25
FY25
Cash provided by operating activities
60.7
219.3
Additions to property and equipment
(2.1
)
(6.8
)
Acquisitions of subsidiaries, net of cash acquired
(3.7
)
(290.2
)
Payment of debt issuance costs
(0.1
)
Issuances of common shares, net of issuance costs
2.5
12.4
Payment of withholding taxes on net share settlements
–
(6.7
)
Payment of contingent consideration
–
(9.2
)
Effect of foreign exchange rate on cash
(2.6
)
(3.6
)
Net change in cash
54.8
(84.9
)
Cash, beginning of period
181.3
321.0
Cash, end of period
236.1
236.1
Conference Call Descartes’ executive management team will hold a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results at 5:30 PM ET on Wednesday, March 5. Designated numbers are +1 289 514 5100 or +1 800 717 1738 for North America Toll-Free, using Passcode 45440#.
Replays of the conference call will be available until March 12, 2025, by dialing +1 289 819 1325 or Toll-Free for North America using +1 888 660 6264 with Playback Passcode: 45440#. An archived replay of the webcast will be available at https://www.descartes.com/who-we-are/investor-relations/financial-information.
About Descartes
Descartes (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG) is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, security and sustainability of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, track and help improve the safety, performance and compliance of delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world’s largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world. Learn more at www.descartes.com, and connect with us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).
This release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”) that relates to Descartes’ expectations concerning future revenues and earnings, and our projections for any future reductions in expenses or growth in margins and generation of cash; our assessment of the potential impact of geopolitical events, such as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine (the “Russia-Ukraine Conflict”), and between Israel and Hamas (“Israel-Hamas Conflict”), or other potentially catastrophic events, on our business, results of operations and financial condition; continued growth and acquisitions including our assessment of any increased opportunity for our products and services as a result of trends in the logistics and supply chain industries; rate of profitable growth and Adjusted EBITDA margin operating range; demand for Descartes’ solutions; growth of Descartes’ Global Logistics Network (“GLN”); customer buying patterns; customer expectations of Descartes; development of the GLN and the benefits thereof to customers; and other matters. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions including the following: global shipment volumes continuing at levels generally consistent with those experienced historically; the Russia-Ukraine Conflict and Israel-Hamas Conflict not having a material negative impact on shipment volumes or on the demand for the products and services of Descartes by its customers and the ability of those customers to continue to pay for those products and services; countries continuing to implement and enforce existing and additional customs and security regulations relating to the provision of electronic information for imports and exports; countries continuing to implement and enforce existing and additional trade restrictions and sanctioned party lists with respect to doing business with certain countries, organizations, entities and individuals; Descartes’ continued operation of a secure and reliable business network; the stability of general economic and market conditions, currency exchange rates, and interest rates; equity and debt markets continuing to provide Descartes with access to capital; Descartes’ continued ability to identify and source attractive and executable business combination opportunities; Descartes’ ability to develop solutions that keep pace with the continuing changes in technology, and our continued compliance with third party intellectual property rights. These assumptions may prove to be inaccurate. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Descartes, or developments in Descartes’ business or industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, Descartes’ ability to successfully identify and execute on acquisitions and to integrate acquired businesses and assets, and to predict expenses associated with and revenues from acquisitions; the impact of network failures, information security breaches or other cyber-security threats; disruptions in the movement of freight and a decline in shipment volumes including as a result of contagious illness outbreaks; a deterioration of general economic conditions or instability in the financial markets accompanied by a decrease in spending by our customers; the ability to attract and retain key personnel and the ability to manage the departure of key personnel and the transition of our executive management team; changes in trade or transportation regulations that currently require customers to use services such as those offered by Descartes; changes in customer behaviour and expectations; Descartes’ ability to successfully design and develop enhancements to our products and solutions; departures of key customers; the impact of foreign currency exchange rates; Descartes’ ability to retain or obtain sufficient capital in addition to its debt facility to execute on its business strategy, including its acquisition strategy; disruptions in the movement of freight; the potential for future goodwill or intangible asset impairment as a result of other-than-temporary decreases in Descartes’ market capitalization; and other factors and assumptions discussed in the section entitled, “Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results” in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities commissions across Canada, including Descartes’ most recently filed Management’s Discussion and Analysis. If any such risks actually occur, they could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In that case, the trading price of our common shares could decline, perhaps materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management’s current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. We do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.
Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures – Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues
We prepare and release quarterly unaudited and annual audited financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. We also disclose and discuss certain non-GAAP financial information, used to evaluate our performance, in this and other earnings releases and investor conference calls as a complement to results provided in accordance with GAAP. We believe that current shareholders and potential investors in our company use non-GAAP financial measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues, in making investment decisions about our company and measuring our operational results.
The term “Adjusted EBITDA” refers to a financial measure that we define as earnings before certain charges that management considers to be non-operating expenses and which consist of interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation (for which we include related fees and taxes) and other charges (for which we include restructuring charges, acquisition-related expenses, and contingent consideration incurred due to better-than-expected performance from acquisitions). Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues divides Adjusted EBITDA for a period by the revenues for the corresponding period and expresses the quotient as a percentage.
Management considers these non-operating expenses to be outside the scope of Descartes’ ongoing operations and the related expenses are not used by management to measure operations. Accordingly, these expenses are excluded from Adjusted EBITDA, which we reference to both measure our operations and as a basis of comparison of our operations from period-to-period. Management believes that investors and financial analysts measure our business on the same basis, and we are providing the Adjusted EBITDA financial metric to assist in this evaluation and to provide a higher level of transparency into how we measure our own business. However, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues are non-GAAP financial measures and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues should not be construed as a substitute for net income determined in accordance with GAAP or other non-GAAP measures that may be used by other companies, such as EBITDA. The use of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues does have limitations. In particular, we have completed seven acquisitions since the beginning of fiscal 2024 and may complete additional acquisitions in the future that will result in acquisition-related expenses and restructuring charges. As these acquisition-related expenses and restructuring charges may continue as we pursue our consolidation strategy, some investors may consider these charges and expenses as a recurring part of operations rather than expenses that are not part of operations.
The table below reconciles Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues to net income reported in our audited Consolidated Statements of Operations for FY25 and FY24, which we believe is the most directly comparable GAAP measure.
(US dollars in millions)
FY25
FY24
Net income, as reported on Consolidated Statements of Operations
143.3
115.9
Adjustments to reconcile to Adjusted EBITDA:
Interest expense
1.0
1.4
Investment income
(11.5
)
(9.7
)
Income tax expense
48.3
35.2
Depreciation expense
5.6
5.5
Amortization of intangible assets
69.4
60.5
Stock-based compensation and related taxes
21.1
17.1
Other charges
7.5
21.6
Adjusted EBITDA
284.7
247.5
Revenues
651.0
572.9
Net income as % of revenues
22
%
20
%
Adjusted EBITDA as % of revenues
44
%
43
%
The table below reconciles Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues to net income reported in our unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations for Q4FY25, Q3FY25, Q2FY25, Q1FY25, and Q4FY24, which we believe is the most directly comparable GAAP measure.
(US dollars in millions)
Q4FY25
Q3FY25
Q2FY25
Q1FY25
Q4FY24
Net income, as reported on Consolidated Statements of Operations
37.4
36.6
34.7
34.7
31.8
Adjustments to reconcile to Adjusted EBITDA:
Interest expense
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.3
Investment income
(1.9
)
(2.9
)
(2.7
)
(4.1
)
(3.4
)
Income tax expense
11.4
11.9
13.6
11.5
8.3
Depreciation expense
1.5
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.4
Amortization of intangible assets
19.4
17.5
17.4
15.0
15.1
Stock-based compensation and related taxes
5.4
5.6
5.8
4.3
4.7
Other charges
1.6
1.8
0.2
3.9
7.5
Adjusted EBITDA
75.0
72.1
70.6
67.0
65.7
Revenues
167.5
168.8
163.4
151.3
148.2
Net income as % of revenues
22
%
22
%
21
%
23
%
21
%
Adjusted EBITDA as % of revenues
45
%
43
%
43
%
44
%
44
%
The Descartes Systems Group Inc. Consolidated Balance Sheets (US dollars in thousands; US GAAP)
January 31,
January 31,
2025
2024
ASSETS
CURRENT ASSETS
Cash
236,138
320,952
Accounts receivable (net)
Trade
53,953
51,569
Other
16,931
12,193
Prepaid expenses and other
45,544
33,468
352,566
418,182
OTHER LONG-TERM ASSETS
24,887
24,737
PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT, NET
12,481
11,552
RIGHT-OF-USE ASSETS
7,623
6,257
DEFERRED INCOME TAXES
3,802
2,097
INTANGIBLE ASSETS, NET
321,270
251,047
GOODWILL
924,755
760,413
1,647,384
1,474,285
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY
CURRENT LIABILITIES
Accounts payable
20,650
17,484
Accrued liabilities
79,656
91,824
Lease obligations
3,178
3,075
Income taxes payable
9,313
6,734
Deferred revenue
104,230
84,513
217,027
203,630
LEASE OBLIGATIONS
4,718
3,903
DEFERRED REVENUE
978
1,464
INCOME TAXES PAYABLE
5,531
6,153
DEFERRED INCOME TAXES
34,127
21,101
262,381
236,251
SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Common shares – unlimited shares authorized; Shares issued and outstanding totaled 85,605,969 at January 31, 2025 (January 31, 2024 – 85,183,455)
568,339
551,164
Additional paid-in capital
503,133
494,701
Accumulated other comprehensive loss
(50,497
)
(28,586
)
Retained earnings
364,028
220,755
1,385,003
1,238,034
1,647,384
1,474,285
The Descartes Systems Group Inc. Consolidated Statements of Operations (US dollars in thousands, except per share and weighted average share amounts; US GAAP)
January 31,
January 31,
January 31,
Year Ended
2025
2024
2023
REVENUES
651,000
572,931
486,014
COST OF REVENUES
158,574
138,295
113,326
GROSS MARGIN
492,426
434,636
372,688
EXPENSES
Sales and marketing
73,692
68,161
56,573
Research and development
95,497
84,103
70,353
General and administrative
65,248
57,373
49,710
Other charges
7,466
21,649
5,441
Amortization of intangible assets
69,399
60,501
60,177
311,302
291,787
242,254
INCOME FROM OPERATIONS
181,124
142,849
130,434
INTEREST EXPENSE
(1,004
)
(1,363
)
(1,167
)
INVESTMENT INCOME
11,513
9,666
4,461
INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES
191,633
151,152
133,728
INCOME TAX EXPENSE (RECOVERY)
Current
53,402
41,223
28,248
Deferred
(5,042
)
(5,978
)
3,244
48,360
35,245
31,492
NET INCOME
143,273
115,907
102,236
EARNINGS PER SHARE
Basic
1.68
1.36
1.21
Diluted
1.64
1.34
1.18
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES OUTSTANDING (thousands)
Basic
85,443
85,068
84,791
Diluted
87,323
86,818
86,451
The Descartes Systems Group Inc. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (US dollars in thousands; US GAAP)
Year Ended
January 31,
January 31,
January 31,
2025
2024
2023
OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Net income
143,273
115,907
102,236
Adjustments to reconcile net income to cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation
5,589
5,474
5,225
Amortization of intangible assets
69,399
60,501
60,177
Stock-based compensation expense
19,962
16,480
13,667
Other non-cash operating activities
23
114
53
Deferred tax expense (recovery)
(5,042
)
(5,978
)
3,244
Changes in operating assets and liabilities
(13,932
)
15,182
7,793
Cash provided by operating activities
219,272
207,680
192,395
INVESTING ACTIVITIES
Additions to property and equipment
(6,743
)
(5,563
)
(6,071
)
Acquisition of subsidiaries, net of cash acquired
(290,204
)
(142,700
)
(115,561
)
Cash used in investing activities
(296,947
)
(148,263
)
(121,632
)
FINANCING ACTIVITIES
Payment of debt issuance costs
(53
)
(43
)
(1,118
)
Issuance of common shares for cash, net of issuance costs
12,391
9,272
1,730
Payment of withholding taxes on net share settlements
The Albanese Labor Government is building Australia’s future, boosting our nation’s productivity and connecting our region’s communities by investing in our highway network.
We’re investing $1.1 billion to upgrade Victoria’s Western Freeway – the major highway connecting Melbourne to Adelaide, and our regions to both cities.
This brings our total investment in the Western Freeway corridor to $2.1 billion.
Approximately 86,000 vehicles travel the Western Freeway stretch between Melton and Caroline Springs every single day, with this figure expected to rise to approximately 113,000 by 2031.
It’s a critical transport route for passengers and freight, which links with major freight routes throughout the state including Midland, Sunraysia, Pyrenees, Henty and Wimmera Highways.
The investment will go towards improving capacity and safety along the freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs, with upgrades to be identified and prioritised between the Australian and Victorian governments from the jointly funded business case being finalised by the Victorian Government.
$100 million will be allocated towards planning and early works to upgrade the intersection of the freeway with Brewery Tap Road in Warrenheip.
In addition, we’re providing $6.1 million towards two bridge strengthening upgrades between Stawell and the South Australian border.
The Albanese and Allan Governments will undertake bridge strengthening works at the Dimboola Bridge over the Melbourne-Adelaide Railway Line and Dadswells Bridge over the Mt William Creek Floodplain, reducing transit times and providing better efficiency of freight movements between rural industries and manufacturers, while allowing for industry growth and regional development.
Construction of these bridge upgrades is expected to commence in 2025 and end by 2026.
The Albanese Government remains dedicated to working for all Australians by delivering nationally significant infrastructure projects that enhance productivity and resilience, improve liveability, and promote sustainability.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King:
“We’re investing in the transport projects that matter most to Victorians, delivering a rail link to Melbourne Airport, fixing our regional and suburban roads, and strengthening our busiest freeways.
“We’re investing $2.1 billion in the Western Freeway corridor, $7 billion in the Melbourne Airport rail link, and $1 billion in a suburban road blitz because we care about our cities, our suburbs and our regions.
“The Liberals and Nationals starved Victorians of infrastructure funding over their decade in government, and we won’t let that happen again.”
Quotes attributable to Federal Member for Gorton Brendan O’Connor:
“Those who regularly travel on this stretch of the Western Freeway know full well how much this $1 billion investment is needed.
“The Liberals ignored this for nine years while the traffic got heavier and the road conditions worsened.
Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development
The Albanese Labor Government is building Australia’s future, boosting our nation’s productivity and connecting our region’s communities by investing in our highway network.
We’re investing $1.1 billion to upgrade Victoria’s Western Freeway – the major highway connecting Melbourne to Adelaide, and our regions to both cities.
This brings our total investment in the Western Freeway corridor to $2.1 billion.
Approximately 86,000 vehicles travel the Western Freeway stretch between Melton and Caroline Springs every single day, with this figure expected to rise to approximately 113,000 by 2031.
It’s a critical transport route for passengers and freight, which links with major freight routes throughout the state including Midland, Sunraysia, Pyrenees, Henty and Wimmera Highways.
The investment will go towards improving capacity and safety along the freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs, with upgrades to be identified and prioritised between the Australian and Victorian governments from the jointly funded business case being finalised by the Victorian Government.
$100 million will be allocated towards planning and early works to upgrade the intersection of the freeway with Brewery Tap Road in Warrenheip.
In addition, we’re providing $6.1 million towards two bridge strengthening upgrades between Stawell and the South Australian border.
The Albanese and Allan Governments will undertake bridge strengthening works at the Dimboola Bridge over the Melbourne-Adelaide Railway Line and Dadswells Bridge over the Mt William Creek Floodplain, reducing transit times and providing better efficiency of freight movements between rural industries and manufacturers, while allowing for industry growth and regional development.
Construction of these bridge upgrades is expected to commence in 2025 and end by 2026.
The Albanese Government remains dedicated to working for all Australians by delivering nationally significant infrastructure projects that enhance productivity and resilience, improve liveability, and promote sustainability.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King:
“We’re investing in the transport projects that matter most to Victorians, delivering a rail link to Melbourne Airport, fixing our regional and suburban roads, and strengthening our busiest freeways.
“We’re investing $2.1 billion in the Western Freeway corridor, $7 billion in the Melbourne Airport rail link, and $1 billion in a suburban road blitz because we care about our cities, our suburbs and our regions.
“The Liberals and Nationals starved Victorians of infrastructure funding over their decade in government, and we won’t let that happen again.”
Quotes attributable to Federal Member for Gorton Brendan O’Connor:
“Those who regularly travel on this stretch of the Western Freeway know full well how much this $1 billion investment is needed.
“The Liberals ignored this for nine years while the traffic got heavier and the road conditions worsened.
HANOVER, N.H., March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ledyard Financial Group (LFGP), based in Hanover, New Hampshire, today announced that Josephine Moran, President and CEO, along with Peter Sprudzs, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present live at the Banking Virtual Investor Conference hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on March 6th, 2025.
DATE: March 6th TIME: 1:30 PM ET LINK:https://bit.ly/41IXZ1t Available for 1×1 meetings: March 7th, 10th, and 11th.
This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.
It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.
2024 net income of $3.3 million exceeded 2023 results.
Total assets ended at $950 million, up 11% over the prior year.
Loans grew 38% and client deposits grew 32%, notably exceeding comparable industry growth rates.
Credit reserves increased 35% or $1.0 million, to $3.8 million.
Assets under management rose 10% and related revenue rose 12% over 2023.
About Ledyard Financial Group Ledyard, a full-service bank with a $2.1 billion wealth management division (Ledyard Wealth Management), has a mission to help individuals and businesses make clear, confident decisions about how to save, borrow and manage their finances. The bank’s unique combination of expert advice, leading-edge financial solutions and personal attention represent the highest standard of client advocacy and responsiveness.
About Virtual Investor Conferences® Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.
Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.
CONTACTS: Ledyard Financial Group Peter Sprudzs EVP, Chief Financial Officer (603) 640-2665 InvestorRelations@ledyard.bank
Virtual Investor Conferences John M. Viglotti SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access OTC Markets Group (212) 220-2221 johnv@otcmarkets.com
SAN DIEGO, March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI), a leading provider of advanced data analytics solutions, and Seven Feathers Casino Resort are pleased to announce the successful deployment of the QCI Enterprise Platform. This collaborative effort marks a significant milestone in data management and analytics for Seven Feathers Casino Resort, positioning them at the forefront of cutting-edge technology in the gaming and hospitality industry.
The implementation of the QCI Enterprise Platform at Seven Feathers Casino Resort has been meticulously executed, with all data successfully verified for accuracy and security. This achievement showcases the commitment of both QCI and Seven Feathers Casino Resort to providing the most advanced and reliable data analytics capabilities available.
Jay Ellenberger, General Manager of Seven Feathers Casino Resort, expressed his enthusiasm for this milestone, stating, “The successful deployment of the QCI Enterprise Platform represents a significant step forward in our commitment to providing exceptional experiences for our guests. With QCI’s innovative solutions, we are able to make more informed decisions, tailor our services, and ultimately elevate the level of satisfaction among our valued patrons.”
Andrew Cardno, CTO of Quick Custom Intelligence, commented on the partnership, saying, “We are delighted to collaborate with Seven Feathers Casino Resort and support their mission to deliver world-class experiences. Our QCI Enterprise Platform is designed to empower organizations like Seven Feathers with actionable insights derived from data, and we are excited to see our technology driving innovation and success within their operations.”
The deployment of the QCI Enterprise Platform at Seven Feathers Casino Resort reinforces QCI’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that drive business growth and enhance customer experiences. This partnership exemplifies how organizations in the gaming and hospitality industry can leverage data analytics to gain a competitive edge and create memorable moments for their guests.
ABOUT Seven FeathersCasino Resort Discover the ultimate getaway at Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Southern Oregon! With a modern gaming floor, award-winning dining, luxurious River Rock Spa, and top-notch entertainment, it’s the perfect blend of excitement and relaxation. Enjoy a 300-room hotel, heated pool, and exceptional service. Seven Feathers—where fun and comfort meet! Visit us at www.SevenFeathers.com
ABOUT QCI Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI) has pioneered the revolutionary QCI Enterprise Platform, an artificial intelligence platform that seamlessly integrates player development, marketing, and gaming operations with powerful, real-time tools designed specifically for the gaming and hospitality industries. Our advanced, highly configurable software is deployed in over 250 casino resorts across North America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Latin America, and Europe. The QCI AGI Platform, which manages more than $35 billion in annual gross gaming revenue, stands as a best-in-class solution, whether on-premises, hybrid, or cloud-based, enabling fully coordinated activities across all aspects of gaming or hospitality operations. QCI’s data-driven, AI-powered software propels swift, informed decision-making vital in the ever-changing casino industry, assisting casinos in optimizing resources and profits, crafting effective marketing campaigns, and enhancing customer loyalty. QCI was co-founded by Dr. Ralph Thomas and Mr. Andrew Cardno and is based in San Diego, with additional offices in Las Vegas, St. Louis, Dallas, and Tulsa. Main phone number: (858) 299.5715. Visit us at www.quickcustomintelligence.com.
ABOUT Andrew Cardno Andrew Cardno is a distinguished figure in the realm of artificial intelligence and data plumbing. With over two decades spearheading private Ph.D. and master’s level research teams, his expertise has made significant waves in data tooling. Andrew’s innate ability to innovate has led him to devise numerous pioneering visualization methods. Of these, the most notable is the deep zoom image format, a groundbreaking innovation that has since become a cornerstone in the majority of today’s mapping tools. His leadership acumen has earned him two coveted Smithsonian Laureates, and teams under his mentorship have clinched 40 industry awards, including three pivotal gaming industry transformation awards. Together with Dr. Ralph Thomas, the duo co-founded Quick Custom Intelligence, amplifying their collaborative innovative capacities. A testament to his inventive prowess, Andrew boasts over 150 patent applications. Across various industries—be it telecommunications with Telstra Australia, retail with giants like Walmart and Best Buy, or the medical sector with esteemed institutions like City Of Hope and UCSD—Andrew’s impact is deeply felt. He has enriched the literature with insights, co-authoring eight influential books with Dr. Thomas and contributing to over 100 industry publications. An advocate for community and diversity, Andrew’s work has touched over 100 Native American Tribal Resorts, underscoring his expansive and inclusive professional endeavors.
The Albanese Government has reinforced its commitment to building a better future for children with disability or development delay by investing another $600,000 in toy libraries.
Toy libraries offer families and carers an affordable way to borrow toys, puzzles and games that support children’s early learning and development through play.
With this additional funding, our investment in Toy Libraries Australia now totals $2.3 million, supporting more than 280 toy libraries across the country.
Today’s announcement will enable 30 toy libraries to extend their opening hours and offer low-sensory borrowing sessions. It will help some toy libraries hold specialised play sessions, train volunteers and buy specific toys, to better include families. A new specialist mobile service will also be set up to support toy libraries across Western Australia.
Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth visited Unley Toy Libraries in Adelaide, South Australia today, which has a huge range of toys for children with disability.
“This continued investment reinforces the Albanese Labor Government’s commitment to the early years and supporting Australian children with disability or development delay and their families,” Minister Rishworth said.
“We know that all children learn through play, and toy libraries really help parents and carers to nurture children’s early development with tools and activities they may not otherwise have access to.
“Children with disability or developmental delay and their families deserve to have cost-effective and accessible specialist sensory, fine motor and gross motor skill toys for play. This funding will ensure that toy libraries are more accessible across the country and properly equipped for all children.
“We are proud to support organisations like Toy Libraries Australia, that empower and embrace children with disability to enrich their learning to achieve their full potential.”
Toy Libraries Australia CEO, Debbie Williams welcomed the additional Australian Government funding.
“Families tell us that children with disability need additional support to access a toy library,” Ms Williams said.
“That could be more space to move around, less sensory stimulus, or one-on-one time with the toy librarian. Additional sessions will allow toy libraries to meet these diverse needs and provide an inclusive and accessible service for all.”
More than 50,000 families and 80,000 children access toy libraries every year. Memberships are usually as low as $2 a week.
The facilities mean many families don’t have to buy large ranges of expensive toys for their children.
The funding is delivering on an election commitment and supports families and children, and their development. It is in line with the Government’s commitment to the Early Years.
“The move to reduce the eligibility age for free bowel cancer screening to 58 is ‘need, not race’ in action, and will save lives,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“ACT campaigned against targeting services based on race, because this practice was unfair, inefficient, and led to perverse outcomes.
“Bowel cancer screening was a classic example. In 2022, Labour set a lower eligibility age for Māori/Pacific people accessing the National Bowel Screening Programme.
“However, bowel cancer does not discriminate on race. Māori and Pacific peoples have a similar risk of developing bowel cancer compared to other population groups at a given age.
“It was true that a higher proportion of bowel cancers occur in Māori and Pacific peoples at a younger age, but that is because the overall demographics of those groups are younger. It has always been age that determines bowel cancer risk, not race.
“Today, the Government has repurposed Labour’s funding to deliver an eligibility age of 58 for all population groups, down from the previous default of 60.
“This is ‘need, not race’ in action. ACT campaigned on it, we secured it in our coalition agreement, the Minister of Health pushed officials, and the result was (after having to go overseas for the advice) that we can have good things and deliver wider health benefits to all New Zealanders.
“It shows, when you use real science and real statistics you don’t have to be racist. The previous government got the science and statistics wrong, and practiced racism. We abhor racial discrimination and we’re proud to be part of seeing the back of it.”
New York, March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GraniteShares today announced plans to amend the names and leverage factors for some of its short and leverage ETFs (the “Funds”). The change in leverage factor results in a modification of the investment strategy.
Effective May 04, 2025, the Funds will aim to replicate +2, -2 or -1 times the daily variations of their underlying stocks. One of the Funds already trades on the NASDAQ. The Fund’s CUSIP and ticker are not expected to change.
TICKER SYMBOL
CURRENT FUND NAME
NEW FUND NAME
CURRENT LEVERAGE FACTOR*
NEW LEVERAGE FACTOR*
AMCL(1)
GraniteShares 1x Short AMC Daily ETF
GraniteShares 2x Long AMC Daily ETF
-100
%
200
%
ARML(1)
GraniteShares 1x Short ARM Daily ETF
GraniteShares 2x Long ARM Daily ETF
-100
%
200
%
GMEL(1)
GraniteShares 1x Short GME Daily ETF
GraniteShares 2x Long GME Daily ETF
-100
%
200
%
MSTP(1)
GraniteShares 1x Short MSTR Daily ETF
GraniteShares 2x Long MSTR Daily ETF
-100
%
200
%
CONI(2)(3)
GraniteShares 1x Short COIN Daily ETF
GraniteShares 2x Short COIN Daily ETF
-100
%
-200
%
TSS(2)
GraniteShares 1.25x Short TSLA Daily ETF
GraniteShares 1x Short TSLA Daily ETF
-125
%
-100
%
CURRENT FUND NAME
CURRENT INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
NEW INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
GraniteShares 1x Short AMC Daily ETF (1)
The Fund seeks daily inverse investment results of -1 time (-100%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC).
The Fund seeks daily investment results of 2 times (200%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC).
GraniteShares 1x Short ARM Daily ETF (1)
The Fund seeks daily inverse investment results of -1 time (-100%) the daily percentage change of the ADR of Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM).
The Fund seeks daily investment results of 2 times (200%) the daily percentage change of the ADR of Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM).
GraniteShares 1x Short GME Daily ETF (1)
The Fund seeks daily inverse investment results of 1 time (-100%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME).
The Fund seeks daily investment results of 2 times (200%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME).
GraniteShares 1x Short MSTR Daily ETF (1)
The Fund seeks daily inverse investment results of 1 time (-100%) the daily percentage change of the common stock MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR).
The Fund seeks daily investment results of 2 times (200%) the daily percentage change of the common stock MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR).
GraniteShares 1x Short COIN Daily ETF (2), (3)
The Fund seeks daily inverse investment results of -1 time (-100%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of Coinbase Global, Inc. Class A (NASDAQ: COIN).
The Fund seeks daily inverse investment results of -2 times (-200%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of Coinbase Global, Inc. Class A (NASDAQ: COIN).
GraniteShares 1.25x Short TSLA Daily ETF (2)
The Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of -1.25 times (-125%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of Tesla Inc, (NASDAQ: TSLA).
The Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of -1 time (-100%) the daily percentage change of the common stock of Tesla Inc, (NASDAQ: TSLA).
(1) Issued under the registration statement dated October 25, 2024 (2) Issued under the registration statement dated October 18, 2024 (3) Fund currently traded on NASDAQ
Capitalized terms and certain other terms used in this Supplement, unless otherwise defined in this Supplement, have the meanings assigned to them in the Prospectus.
About GraniteShares
GraniteShares is an independent ETF issuer headquartered in New York City.
GraniteShares current ETF offering is presented below:
Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus or summary prospectus with this and other information about the Funds, please call (844) 476 8747 or visitwww.graniteshares.com. Read the prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing.
The investment program of the funds is speculative, entails substantial risks and include asset classes and investment techniques not employed by more traditional mutual funds.
PRINCIPAL FUND RISKS (see the Prospectus for more information)
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The Government has agreed to progressively lower the age of eligibility for bowel cancer screening tests to align with Australia.“Today, I am pleased to announce that we are taking the first step by lowering the age to 58, with redirected funding of $36 million over four years. “This means free bowel screening will become available to all New Zealanders from the ages of 58 to 74,” Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Lowering the age of eligibility from 60 to 58 will see 122,000 Kiwis eligible for free tests in the first year and save hundreds of lives over the coming decades.“This is the first significant step we are taking to align our screening rate for bowel cancer with Australia as funding and access to additional colonoscopy resource becomes available.“The changes announced today are projected to prevent an additional 771 bowel cancers and an additional 566 bowel cancer deaths over the next 25 years.“Advice from the Ministry of Health clearly states that lowering the age to 58 for all New Zealanders will save even more lives than the previous government’s approach to lower the age to 50 for Māori and Pacific Peoples only.“Under our approach, we will be able to prevent 218 additional cancers and 176 additional deaths over 25 years in comparison to the settings proposed by the previous government.“This also aligns with the Government’s policy of ensuring that healthcare is delivered on the basis of need. “The evidence is clear: by delivering this first step for all New Zealanders, more lives will be saved. “The Government has also approved additional funding for targeted initiatives that aim to increase screening rates among population groups with low rates. Improving early detection of bowel cancers can be lifesaving, and this significant investment will be a game-changer for under-screened populations. “New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer globally. Every year, more than 3,300 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in New Zealand. Tragically, more than 1,200 Kiwis die from the disease. “We are committed to improving cancer detection and treatment for Kiwis. Last year we announced a $604 million uplift over four years to enable thousands more Kiwis to access life-saving cancer drugs.”“We will continue to deliver better outcomes for people with cancer as a result of the changes announced today.“By expanding eligibility for free bowel cancer screening tests, we will enable Kiwis to detect cancer earlier, undertake treatment, and ultimately save lives,” Mr Brown says.
The Albanese Labor Government is delivering $11 million in grants to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language education in primary schools as part of its commitment to Closing the Gap.
More than 40 communities across Australia will benefit from 26 projects under the First Nations Languages Education Program through community-driven collaborations to teach local languages.
The initiative recognises that each community will have different aspirations and needs for teaching and sustaining First Nations languages.
The two-year projects will support the development of more than 100 trainee language educators and partnerships with more than 70 schools.
The Program has been developed in partnership with First Languages Australia (FLA), the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
The Program aims to progress Target 16 of Closing the Gap, to support a sustained increase in the number and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages being spoken.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:
“This is all about strengthening the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
“It’s important we safeguard and strengthen local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in community.
“That’s why we’re providing funding to help more young Australians develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the first languages and cultures of this country.”
Quotes attributable to Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy:
“As a proud Yanyuwa Garrwa woman, I know the importance of languages in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, the world’s oldest continuing cultures.
“This investment in community led organisations will mean more First Nations languages are taught in schools, ensuring they thrive into the future.”
Quotes attributable to First Languages Australia CEO, Beau Williams:
“The First Nations Languages Education Program has empowered communities to design projects tailored to what they need, using the knowledge, people and resources they have available.
“The program is a great investment in community led organisations and initiatives and will contribute to the revitalisation and maintenance of our languages.”
Quotes from program participants
Applicant- South Australia
“Our language has not been used as an everyday language for some time. There are no fluent speakers, only two speakers confident in the use of grammar structures, and 10-12 speakers with pronunciation skills.
“Within the next five years, it is hoped that there will be enough language teachers for our language to be taught as a language in primary classrooms within the region.
“It is our hope that a broader and larger part of the community will be able to connect to the language stolen from their ancestors and them. They will have the opportunity to teach it to their children and their grandchildren.
“We will be able to reconnect with our way of passing on knowledge from Elders and old ones to our young people.”
Applicant- Queensland
“Our language is a highly endangered language, with less than 10 elderly speakers remaining and three speakers working on this project. We recall our childhood, when we started going to school the government took our language away from us, we weren’t allowed to speak our language at school. Now, the school is helping us to bring our language back as part of healing and walking together as a community.”
DLNR News Release – STUDENT FILM SHOWCASE BRINGS FOCUS TO CLIMATE ACTION, March 5, 2025
Posted on Mar 5, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom
STATE OFHAWAIʻI
KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI
DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
KA ‘OIHANA KUMUWAIWAI ‘ĀINA
JOSH GREEN, M.D. GOVERNOR
DAWNCHANG CHAIRPERSON
STUDENT FILM SHOWCASE BRINGS FOCUS TO CLIMATE ACTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2025
HONOLULU — The Sustainability Film Series: Student Film Showcase, an event highlighting action and engagement around climate change mitigation, takes place this Sunday, March 9, at the Doris Duke Theatre in Honolulu. Community members are invited to attend free of charge.
The Sustainability Film Series, presented by the Hawaiʻi State Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission (CCMAC) in collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Institute for Sustainability and Resilience, the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series and the Honolulu Museum of Art, showcases a selection of short films on climate action created by students from the School of Cinematic Arts at UH Mānoa.
Following the screenings there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers, offering an opportunity for the community to engage with the creative minds behind the films.
The series explores contemporary topics and aims to inspire public engagement on important social and environmental issues impacting Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region. Through thought-provoking films and a lively panel discussion, the event seeks to build connections among students and the broader community to support cooperative action toward lasting climate change solutions.
Event details:
Date and Time: Sunday, March 9, 5:00 p.m.
Location: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Museum of Art
NEWS RELEASE: DBEDT REDUCES HAWAI‘I ECONOMIC GROWTH RATE TO 1.7 PERCENT FOR 2025
Posted on Mar 5, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom
STATE OF HAWAIʻI
KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ANDTOURISM
KA ʻOIHANA HOʻOMOHALA PĀʻOIHANA, ʻIMI WAIWAI A HOʻOMĀKAʻIKAʻI
RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS DIVISION
JOSH GREEN, M.D. GOVERNOR
KE KIAʻĀINA
JAMES KUNANE TOKIOKA
DIRECTOR
KA LUNA HOʻOKELE
EUGENE TIAN
CHIEF STATE ECONOMIST
DBEDT REDUCES HAWAI‘I ECONOMIC GROWTH RATE TO 1.7 PERCENT FOR 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2025
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) released its first quarter 2025 Statistical and Economic Report today. In the report, DBEDT adjusted its economic growth projections for 2025 to 1.7 percent, lower than the 2.0 percent projected in the previous quarter. The downward adjustment was mainly due to the expected slowdown in tourism growth, higher projected consumer inflation and increasing policy uncertainty at the national and international levels. Economic growth is expected to reach 2.0 percent in 2026 and to continue steady growth to 1.8 percent in 2028. The labor market is expected to remain stable, with low unemployment.
The resilience of Hawaiʻi’s economic growth in the next few years will rely on the strong performance of construction, real estate, health care, professional services, and the continued recovery of tourism.
Economic Recovery Status
As measured by real gross domestic product (GDP), Hawai‘i’s economy rebounded to exceed pre-pandemic (first three quarters of 2019) levels by 1.5 percent during the first three quarters of 2024. Hawai‘i’s overall economy was fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels by the third quarter of 2023. By comparison, the U.S. economy has been fully recovered since the first quarter of 2021. Hawaiʻi was the second-slowest state in terms of economic recovery from the 2019 COVID recession. The U.S. economy was 12.6 percent higher than the 2019 level for the same indicator during the same period.
While tourism-related sectors (Accommodation, Transportation, Retail Trade, Recreation, and Food Services) have only recovered to 94.5 percent of pre-pandemic levels as of the third quarter of 2024, non-tourism sectors have shown firm growth. Compared to real GDP in the last quarter of 2019, the Information sector has grown by 35.1 percent; the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector by 25.0 percent; the Agricultural sector by 14.9 percent, and the Health Care and Social Assistance sector by 12.9 percent. The Wholesale Trade, Utilities, Accommodation and Food Services, and Other Services sectors are still below real GDP levels for the first three quarters of 2019.
Compared to 2019, statewide non-agriculture annual average payroll jobs were still short by 20,900 jobs in 2024. However, Construction annual average payroll jobs were above 2019 levels by 4,000 jobs, Health Care and Social Assistance by 2,900, and Private Educational Services by 700. Job counts in all other sectors were still lower than the levels in 2019. Retail Trade lost the most jobs at 6,900, followed by Financial Activities at 3,200, and Accommodations at 3,000.
During 2024, total visitor arrivals recovered 93.3 percent from the levels of 2019. Visitors from the U.S. increased by 6.7 percent, while international visitor recovery was 64.9 percent. The recovery rate of Japanese visitors was 45.7 percent and for Canadian visitors, the recovery rate was 80.2 percent.
Visitor arrivals to the island of Maui during 2024 were 76.6 percent of the level in 2019. Arrivals to O‘ahu were at 94.5 percent and arrivals to Hawai‘i Island were at 98.0 percent of the same period 2019 levels. Visitor arrivals to Kaua‘i were flat between the two periods.
Construction Industry Continues Booming
Statistics in the construction industry were great in 2024 and will have positive impacts on activities in 2025 and beyond. DBEDT estimates that construction activity in 2025 will be stronger than previously expected for several reasons:
The value of all building permits approved in 2024 increased by 27.1 percent from 2023 and most of these projects will be under construction in 2025.
The number of residential housing units authorized in 2024 increased by 78.1 percent as compared with 2023, and it was the highest in the past 17 years.
Construction completed as measured by the state contracting tax base increased 20.3 percent during the first 10 months of 2024 from the same period in 2023. DBEDT estimated that total construction value in 2024 could be over $14 billion.
Based on preliminary estimates, construction industry payroll jobs increased 9.2 percent in 2024 as compared with 2023.
A significant number of government construction projects are either ongoing or in the pipeline to be started.
More than 1,000 hotel units are either under construction or will start construction, with plans to open in 2025 and 2026.
Home Sales and Prices Continue Increasing
After declining 26 percent in 2023, Hawai‘i home sales as recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances increased 15.1 percent during 2024. Sales of single-family homes increased 14.3 percent and sales of condominium homes increased 15.9 percent. The average sale price of single-family homes was $1,093,445 during 2024, representing an 8.1 percent increase compared to 2023. The average sale price for condominium homes was $797,674, representing an increase of 5.7 percent from the year before.
Tourism Industry Growth is Likely to Slow Down
According to the airline schedules, total air seats to the state will decrease by 1.1 percent during the first 10 months of 2025. The decrease is mainly due to the decrease in flights from international locations, especially from Japan. The number of air seats on international flights is expected to decrease by 5.5 percent during the first 10 months of 2025 as compared with the same period in 2024. Air seats will decrease 5.5 percent from Japan, decrease 5.1 percent from Canada, and decline 3.2 percent from the Other Asia market, but will increase 1.7 percent from the Oceania market (Australia and New Zealand).
The number of scheduled air seats from the continental U.S. is flat during the first 10 months of 2025, an increase of a mere of 0.1 percent. While air seats from the U.S. East will increase 2.7 percent, seats will decrease by 0.2 percent from the U.S. West market. Part of the decrease in the air seats from the U.S. West market is the result of flight consolidations between Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines after their merger.
Labor Market Remains Stable
In 2024, the unemployment rate decreased 0.1 percentage point from the previous year’s 3.0 percent, to reach 2.9 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hawai‘i was among the 17 U.S. states without statistically significant unemployment rate changes from December 2023 to December 2024 (seasonally adjusted). Hawai‘i’s unemployment rate was the 10th lowest in the U.S. during 2024.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Hawai‘i’s non-agricultural wage and salary jobs averaged 645,800 jobs, an increase of 10,400 jobs or 1.6 percent from the same quarter of 2023. In 2024, average non-agricultural wage and salary jobs increased 0.9 percent or 5,500 jobs from the previous year. The job increase in the fourth quarter of 2024 was due to job increases in both the private sector and the government sector. In that quarter, the private sector added about 8,600 non-agricultural jobs compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The number of jobs increased the most in Construction, which added 3,400 jobs or 8.9%, followed by Health Care and Social Assistance, which added 2,100 jobs or 2.8 percent, Food Services and Drinking Places, which added 1,900 jobs or 2.9 percent, Professional and Business Services, which added 1,400 jobs or 2.0 percent, and Accommodations, which added 700 jobs or 1.8 percent in the quarter.
The average number of weekly initial unemployment claims was 1,090 during 2024, lower than the weekly average experienced in 2019 at 1,200. All counties have seen decreased and stable unemployment claims, but the average weekly unemployment claims for Maui County numbered 204 during 2024, 42 percent higher than the 2019 level of 144.
DBEDT expects that the labor market conditions will remain stable and that the unemployment rate will improve slightly in 2025.
Consumer Inflation Remains High
Honolulu consumer inflation, as measured by the Honolulu Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U), was 4.4 percent in 2024, 1.4 percentage points higher than the state’s inflation rate in 2023. This measurement was 1.5 percentage points above the 2.9 percent U.S. inflation rate.
In 2024, Honolulu consumer inflation was mainly driven up by Housing which increased 7.1 percent compared to 2023, and Food and Beverages (3.8 percent). Housing normally accounts for 50 percent of Honolulu consumer inflation.
In January 2025, the Honolulu consumer inflation rate was at 4.1 percent, still higher than the U.S. consumer inflation at 3.0 percent. Honolulu consumer inflation in January 2025 was mainly in transportation (+6.8 percent), housing (+4.4 percent), and food and beverages (+4.4 percent).
National and International Economic Conditions
U.S. real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter a year ago, according to the latest estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Real GDP increased 2.8 percent in 2024 from the 2023 annual level.
Policy uncertainty with respect to the imposition of tariffs and potential trade wars have negatively impacted the U.S. and global outlook for growth and inflation.
According to the most recent (February 2025) economic projections by the top 50 economic forecasting organizations published in Blue Chip Economic Indicators, U.S. economic growth is expected to be 2.2 percent in 2025 and 2.0 percent in 2026.
In February 2025, compared to January 2025, the Blue Chip International Consensus Forecasts for economic growth have been revised downward for 2025 in Canada and for the European countries. It was revised upward (0.1 percentage point) for Japan. The projected Japanese exchange rate was maintained at around 148.1 yen per dollar in 2025.
The Federal Reserve kept its fed funds rate (FFR) target unchanged at its January 28-29 FOMC meeting. The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rates twice last year, reducing the Federal Funds rate by 75 basis points to a range of 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent. The market expectations of the future number and magnitude of cuts by the Federal Reserve have been reduced in recent surveys. Inflation expectations have also been revised upward.
Forecasting Results
In the newly released report, DBEDT predicts that the economic growth rate for Hawai‘i, as measured by the year-over-year percentage change in real GDP, to slow down to 1.7 percent in 2025, reflecting policy uncertainty at the national and international levels. Economic growth is expected to reach 2.0 percent in 2026 and will show steady growth to around 1.8 percent in 2028.
Visitor arrivals are projected to increase by 1.0 percent in 2025 and will grow at a stable pace of around 2 percent each year between 2026 and 2028. Full recovery in arrivals will not happen until 2028 when 10.4 million visitors will come to the state. Visitor spending is projected to be $21.3 billion in 2025 and is expected to increase to $23.7 billion by 2028.
Non-agriculture payroll jobs are expected to grow by 1.2 percent in 2025, with growth of 1.1 percent, 1.0 percent and 0.9 percent in 2026, 2027, and 2028, respectively. A full recovery of non-agriculture payroll jobs is expected to occur in 2027, when the total will reach 658,800 jobs, surpassing the 2019 total of 658,600.
The state unemployment rate is expected to be 2.9 percent in 2025 and will improve to 2.7 percent in 2026, and 2.6 percent in 2027 and 2028. Personal income is expected to grow at 4.9 percent in 2025, 4.8 percent in 2026, 4.6 percent in 2027 and 4.5 percent in 2028.
As measured by the Honolulu Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers, inflation is expected to be at 3.9 percent in 2025, which is higher than the projected U.S. consumer inflation rate of 2.7 percent for the same year. Hawai‘i consumer inflation is expected to decrease to 2.9 percent by 2028.
Hawai‘i’s population is expected to increase by 0.2 percent each year for 2025 and 2026 and at 0.3 percent each year for 2027 and 2028.
Statement of DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka
While the domestic and international economic outlook has become more uncertain, we expect Hawai‘i’s economy to demonstrate resiliency. In addition to firm performance in the construction industry, we will continue to see growth in other industries including professional services and healthcare. We expect that the tourism industry will continue to recover in the next few years, even if at a slower pace than previously anticipated.
With the income tax reform and the increase in the supply of affordable housing, we expect that living in our state will be more affordable and support our state’s workforce formation and retention.
The full report is available atdbedt.hawaii.gov/economic/qser/.
# # #
Media Contacts:
Dr. Eugene Tian
Research and Economic Analysis Division
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism Phone: 808-586-2470 Email:[email protected]
Laci Goshi
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
You can doubt just about anything. But there’s one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now.
This idea came to characterise the philosophical thinking of 17th century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about.
But what exactly are thoughts? This is a mystery that has long troubled philosophers such as Descartes – and which has been given new life by the rise of artificial intelligence, as experts try to figure out whether machines can genuinely think.
Known for his proposition ‘cogito, ergo sum’ (‘I think, therefore I am’), Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a leading figure in early modern philosophy and science. Wikimedia
Two schools of thought
There are two main answers to the philosophical question of what thoughts are.
The first is that thoughts might be material things. Thoughts are just like atoms, particles, cats, clouds and raindrops: part and parcel of the physical universe. This position is known as physicalism or materialism.
The second view is that thoughts might stand apart from the physical world. They are not like atoms, but are an entirely distinct type of thing. This view is called dualism, because it takes the world to have a dual nature: mental and physical.
To better understand the difference between these views, consider a thought experiment.
Suppose God is building the world from scratch. If physicalism is true, then all God needs to do to produce thoughts is build the basic physical components of reality – the fundamental particles – and put in place the laws of nature. Thoughts should follow.
However, if dualism is true, then putting in place the basic laws and physical components of reality will not produce thoughts. Some non-physical aspects of reality will need to be added, as thoughts are something over and above all physical components.
Why be a materialist?
If thoughts are physical, what physical things are they? One plausible answer is they are brain states.
This answer underpins much of contemporary neuroscience and psychology. Indeed, it is the apparent link between brains and thoughts that makes materialism seem plausible.
There are many correlations between our brain states and our thoughts. Certain parts of the brain predictably “light up” when someone is in pain, or if they think about the past or future.
What explains these correlations? One answer is that our thoughts just are varying states of the brain. This answer, if correct, speaks in favour of materialism.
Why be a dualist?
That said, the correlations between brain states and thoughts are just that: correlations. We don’t have an explanation of how brain states – or any physical states for that matter – give rise to conscious thought.
There is a well-known correlation between striking a match and the match lighting. But in addition to the correlation, we also have an explanation for why the match is lit when struck. The friction causes a chemical reaction in the match head, which leads to a release of energy.
We have no comparable explanation for a link between thoughts and brain states. After all, there seem to be many physical things that don’t have thoughts. We have no idea why brain states give rise to thoughts and chairs don’t.
Scans can show when and where our brains ‘light up’, but a clear connection between thoughts and brain states eludes us. Shutterstock
The colour scientist
The thing we are most certain about – that we have thoughts – is still completely unexplained in physical terms. That’s not for a lack of effort. Neuroscience, philosophy, cognitive science and psychology have all been hard at work trying to crack this mystery.
But it gets worse: we may never be able to explain how thoughts arise from neural states. To understand why, consider this famous thought experiment by Australian philosopher Frank Jackson.
Mary lives her entire life in a black-and-white room. She has never experienced colour. However, she also has access to a computer which contains a complete account of every physical aspect of the universe, including all the physical and neurological details of experiencing colour. She learns all of this.
One day, Mary leaves the room and experiences colour for the first time. Does she learn anything new?
It is very tempting to think she does: she learns what it’s like to experience colour. But remember, Mary already knew every physical fact about the universe. So if she learns something new, it must be some non-physical fact. Moreover, the fact she learns comes through experience, which means there must be some non-physical aspect to experience.
If you think Mary learns something new by leaving the room, you must accept dualism to be true in some form. And if that’s the case, then we can’t provide an explanation of thought in terms of the brain’s functions, or so philosophers have argued.
Minds and machines
Settling the question of what thoughts are won’t completely settle the question of whether machines can think, but it would help.
If thoughts are physical, then there’s no reason, in principle, why machines couldn’t think.
If thoughts are not physical, however, it’s less clear whether machines could think. Would it be possible to get them “hooked up” to the non-physical in the right way? This would depend on how non-physical thoughts relate to the physical world.
Either way, pursuing the question of what thoughts are will likely have significant implications for how we think about machine intelligence, and our place in nature.
Sam Baron receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Frogs and other amphibians rely on the surrounding environment to regulate their body temperature. On hot days they might seek shade, water or cool spaces underground. But what if everywhere is too hot?
There is a limit to how much heat amphibians can tolerate. My colleagues and I wanted to work out how close amphibians are to reaching these limits, globally.
Our new research, published today in Nature, shows 2% of the world’s amphibians are already overheating. Even when they have access to shade and moisture, more than 100 species are struggling to maintain a viable body temperature.
If global temperatures rise by 4°C, nearly 400 species (or 1 in 13 amphibians) could be pushed to their limits. However, this assumes access to shade and water, so it’s probably an underestimate. Habitat loss, drought and disease will likely make even more amphibians vulnerable to heat stress.
Here is why that matters — and what we can do about it.
Finding the missing pieces of the puzzle
The critical thermal maximum is the temperature beyond which an ectothermic (“cold-blooded”) species simply cannot function.
In laboratory experiments, it is defined as the temperature that renders the frog or salamander unable to right themselves when flipped on their back, or when they start having muscular spasms.
At this temperature, they are incapacitated and unable to escape. If amphibians stay under those conditions for extended periods, they will eventually die.
First, we searched the scientific literature for data on heat tolerance in amphibians and compiled a database. This database covers more than 600 species, but that’s only 7.5% of amphibians on Earth. Knowledge of the heat tolerance of amphibians from tropical regions and the Global South is especially sparse.
To build a global picture, we needed to fill those gaps. We used statistical models to predict the heat tolerance of species missing from the database.
Think of it like solving a puzzle: if a piece is missing, we can make an educated guess of what it looks like, based on the pieces around it.
By using what we know about a species’ biology and how its relatives cope with heat, we can predict how much heat it is likely to tolerate. With this approach, we estimated heat tolerance limits for more than 5,000 amphibian species — around 60% of all known species.
We then compared each species’ tolerance limits to temperatures experienced over the past decade, as well as future conditions under different climate scenarios. That allowed us to see which species could be pushed over the edge by extreme heat events.
We found 2% of amphibians (about 100 species) are probably already overheating. This is an optimistic scenario, assuming they always have access to shaded and humid conditions. In reality, many amphibians live in disturbed habitats, where shade and water are in short supply.
If global temperatures rise by 4°C, the number of vulnerable species jumps from 2% to about 7.5%. That’s nearly a fourfold increase, meaning almost 400 species — 1 in 13 amphibians — could be pushed to their heat tolerance limits.
We also found some interesting regional patterns. In the southern hemisphere, tropical species are most exposed to overheating. However, in the northern hemisphere, species outside the tropics often face higher risk. This underscores how local temperatures and species-specific tolerance limits matter more than just the distance from the equator, challenging common assumptions about the greater vulnerability of tropical species.
Local extinctions — where a species can no longer survive in a particular area — may occur if extreme heat events become too frequent. Amphibians often cannot just hop to cooler places. Many cannot relocate to different areas because they depend on specific wetlands, steams and ponds to breed and feed. If these habitats disappear or become too hot, some amphibians may have nowhere else to go.
Dense vegetation and reliable water sources act like natural air conditioners for amphibians. Our results show that if amphibians can stay hydrated and cool, many can survive heatwaves. Yet climate change is rapidly making these moist refuges more scarce.
With increasing deforestation, habitat disturbance, and droughts, amphibians are losing their ability to cope with the heat. Active efforts to protect, restore, and connect forested areas and wetlands are increasingly needed to boost their chances of survival.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is also crucial. It’s clear every fraction of a degree counts. Keeping climate warming as low as possible will reduce the risk of sudden, widespread overheating events, not only for amphibians but also for countless other species.
But if we protect and restore forests, wetlands, ponds, and streams — and reduce carbon emissions — many species may stand a chance.
More research on amphibians is needed. Our statistical models help us predict which species are most at risk, but these predictions cannot replace on-the-ground research.
By studying these species directly, we can better understand the threats they face and optimise conservation efforts. This is particularly needed in the lesser-studied areas of South America, Africa and Asia.
Amphibians have been around for millions of years. They are part of our cultural heritage and play vital roles in balancing ecosystems. Let’s not lose them to a climate crisis we hopefully still have time to fix.
Patrice Pottier works as a postdoctoral researcher for The University of New South Wales, Sydney. This research was funded by a UNSW Scientia PhD scholarship. Patrice Pottier is also a board member of the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE).
