NewzIntel.com

Category: Australia

  • MIL-Evening Report: The Reserve Bank has cut rates for the first time in four years. But it is cautious about future cuts

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra

    The Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on Tuesday, the first decrease in four years, saying inflationary pressures are easing “a little more quickly than expected”.

    However, the central bank said the outlook for economic activity and inflation remains uncertain, with a risk that household spending may be slower than expected.

    The reduction in the cash rate target will come as a relief to the one-third of households with a mortgage. It will help to ease the cost of living crisis for them.

    The cut from a 13-year high of 4.35% to 4.1% had been widely expected by economists and financial markets.

    The interest rate cut may help tip the scales for the government to call an early election. But recent opinion polls suggest the government still has work to do to put itself in a winning position.

    Announcing its decision, the Reserve Bank said it had “more confidence that inflation is moving sustainably towards the midpoint of the 2-3% target”.

    All four of the major banks swiftly passed on the cut in official rates to mortgage-holders. The average new housing loan is $666,000. Reducing the interest rate on this by 0.25% will mean $110 less a month in repayments (assuming a standard 30-year loan).

    It is the first change in the cash rate since November 2023 and marks the first small reversal of 13 rate increases. The central bank had hiked interest rates quickly from the near-zero emergency level during the COVID epidemic and lockdowns.

    Why did the Reserve Bank cut now?

    The interest rate cut comes after headline inflation eased, to 2.4% during 2024, within the Bank’s 2-3% inflation target range.

    However, the Bank’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, the “trimmed mean”, which excludes temporary factors such as the government’s electricity rebates, rose by 3.2% during 2024. This is just above the target range but a little less than the 3.4% the Bank had been forecasting.

    “We cannot declare victory on inflation just yet,” Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock told a press conference after the decision. “It’s not good enough for it to be back in the target range temporarily, the board needs to be confident it’s returning to the target range sustainably.”



    Read more:
    Lower inflation in the December quarter boosts chances of an interest rate cut

    The RBA and the election

    In its first meeting for the year, the Reserve Bank board rejected the notion that they should hold off changing rates because an election is approaching.

    While cutting interest rates will suit one side of politics, not cutting would have benefited the other. The impartial approach is to take the same decision as if no election were looming.

    As then RBA governor Glenn Stevens said in 2007 after raising rates during an election campaign:

    I do not think we ever could accept the idea that in an election year — which, after all, is one year out of three — you cannot change interest rates.

    How does the Reserve Bank compare with other central banks?

    Some central banks in comparable economies had already started lowering interest rates and have cut them by more than the RBA. But that is because most had raised interest rates by more.

    The Reserve Bank adopted a strategy of being more patient in returning inflation to its target, so as to limit the increase in unemployment.

    The strategy has worked. Unemployment in Australia peaked at 4.2% and is now 4.0%. By contrast, in New Zealand it is over 5% and in the euro area and Canada it is over 6%.

    The Reserve Bank hasn’t received the credit it deserves for this strong performance.

    Where to from here?

    This is the last meeting of the current Reserve Bank board. It is being replaced by a new monetary policy committee, and a separate governance board as part of an overhaul of the bank. Two new members will replace two members of the current board for its next meeting on April 1.

    The RBA board’s statement said that it “remains cautious on prospects for further policy easing”. This is central bank-speak for not rushing into further interest rate cuts.

    The RBA also noted that “geopolitical and policy uncertainties are pronounced”. This is a reference to the economic fallout from United States President Donald Trump’s policies on trade and slashing jobs.

    His proposed tariffs and deportations will increase inflation in the US and make US interest rates higher than they otherwise would be.



    Read more:
    What would a second Trump presidency mean for the global economy?

    But this does not mean interest rates need to be higher here. Indeed, a trade war would weaken the global economy, which could lead to less inflation in Australia.

    The Reserve Bank also released its updated forecasts. These show the underlying inflation rate dropping to 2.7% by June and then staying around there through 2026 and 2027.

    Unemployment is low at 4%, and below what the Bank has previously regarded as “full employment”. But it is not leading to any surge in wage growth.

    Indeed, the Bank commented that wages growth has been a little lower than it had forecast. Inflationary expectations are also well contained.

    This offers hope there may be at least one further interest rate cut later this year (and the Reserve Bank’s forecasts assume this). But borrowers should not get their hopes up that interest rates will revisit the COVID-era lows. That is very unlikely.

    John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist at the Reserve Bank.

    – ref. The Reserve Bank has cut rates for the first time in four years. But it is cautious about future cuts – https://theconversation.com/the-reserve-bank-has-cut-rates-for-the-first-time-in-four-years-but-it-is-cautious-about-future-cuts-249704

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: View from the Hill: will Albanese opt for an April election now a rate cut has him breathing more easily?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election.

    The cut is unlikely to be a major vote changer, after 13 increases. But it was absolutely vital to the government. Labor would have suffered a big knock if Michele Bullock and her board had held out.

    The cut underpins the narrative of things improving, and may put voters in a better mood. At least that’s the government’s thinking.

    But the bank is highly circumspect in its tone. It warned in its statement:

    The forecasts published today suggest that, if monetary policy is eased too much too soon, disinflation could stall, and inflation would settle above the midpoint of the target range. In removing a little of the policy restrictiveness in its decision today, the Board acknowledges that progress has been made but is cautious about the outlook.

    Speculation about the election date is a frustrating exercise, given only Anthony Albanese – and perhaps a few closest to him – knows his thinking, which could still be, as he suggested recently, “fluid”. In recent days the PM has played the tease. Periodically he talks about the intense work on budget, set for March 25; if that went ahead, it would mean a May election. But last week, he was also talking about parliament having seen its last day, which pointed to April.

    It is hard to see the logic of Albanese launching a campaign before the March 8 Western Australian election, given that would be confusing for both state and federal campaigns and put maximum pressure on Labor’s WA volunteers. If Albanese opts for April 12, he would have to call it immediately after the WA poll.

    Many in the business world would like the election done and dusted ASAP, because the pre-election period means a hiatus of sorts.

    The opinion polls can be read various ways, but as things stand, they point to a minority government.

    This is already putting pressure on crossbenchers, notably the teals, to indicate what factors they’d take into account in deciding who they’d support. The Coalition, if it reached about 72 seats (76 is a majority), would be eyeing off crossbenchers Bob Katter, Rebekha Sharkie, Allegra Spender and Dai Le as potentials to guarantee them confidence and supply. Of course that would assume they all were re-elected.

    But this is putting several carts before the horse. Much will happen in the next few weeks, whether the election is April or May. Current polls that make predictions down to individual seats should be treated with much caution.

    While the polls are presently depressing for Labor, this week’s Newspoll had a finding on inflation that might cheer treasurer Jim Chalmers. It found that less than a quarter of people believe inflation would have been lower under a Coalition government. In other words, while high prices are making voters sour, that is not necessarily directly translating into blame for Labor.

    When the campaign proper is underway, the smallest things can blow up in leaders’ faces.

    Albanese failed to remember key numbers in 2022. He had enough fat so his generally lackluster performance didn’t matter in the end. Dutton is yet to be campaign-tested. Rather disconcertingly for his handlers, in his Sky interview last Sunday he forgot deputy prime minister Richard Marles had just been in Washington.

    Meanwhile Dutton is hard at work humanising his image in a series of interviews, and the obligatory 60 Minutes family get together with Karl Stefanovic (who did the Meet the Morrisons – the Duttons-at-home came without an musical performance).

    Albanese worked hard at this before the last election, repeating over and over his story of being brought up in council housing, son of a single mother.

    Dutton’s more complicated back story involves a stint as a youngster in a butcher’s shop, buying a house at 19, an early divorce, and a failed relationship that produced a baby who became his first child in his second marriage. And of course his career as a policeman.

    One can imagine that some of these memories are painful to have to canvas in public, but the campaign’s hard heads say the public want to know all about a potential PM. So it has to be done.

    (One Dutton incident is rarely recalled these days, that involved a temporary loss of political nerve. In 2009, after a redistribution made his seat of Dickson notionally Labor, Dutton sought to jump to the Gold Coast seat of McPherson. But he was beaten in a preselection by Karen Andrews, who is retiring at this election. That forced him back to Dickson, which he then held at the 2010 election.)

    Albanese does not need to canvass his backstory as much these days but he took advantage of Valentine’s day to put out some sentimental social media fodder.

    He and fiancé Jodie (to whom he proposed on Valentine’s day last year) sat, with Toto between them, turning over cards with questions said to be posed by the public. With each question (such as “who said I love you first”) they pointed to each other or themselves.

    Opinion was divided about the video. Toto fell into the sceptics’ camp, jumping to the ground before it was finished.

    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.

    – ref. View from the Hill: will Albanese opt for an April election now a rate cut has him breathing more easily? – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-will-albanese-opt-for-an-april-election-now-a-rate-cut-has-him-breathing-more-easily-250136

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Trump’s view of the world is becoming clear: America’s interests matter more than any set of rules

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

    Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order.

    US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich Security Conference that Europe has an “enemy within”, referring to leaders who ignore their citizens’ concerns and values. He also advocated for right-wing political groups to be brought into the mainstream.

    Meanwhile, at a meeting of NATO defence ministers, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth talked about hard power, the warrior ethos and the need for NATO members to spend up to 5% of their GDPs on defence. Most have only just climbed to about 2%, the longstanding NATO guideline.

    In Poland, he reaffirmed the US commitment to the defence of Poland (and NATO) and committed to bolstering the US military presence there. So, despite the mixed messaging, the United States is not leaving Europe anytime soon.

    Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is reportedly demanding a significant levy from Ukraine as payback for US protection and support.

    The combination of remarks has left pundits and policymakers wondering – is the US-led international order, with its multilateral institutions, nearing its end?

    The demise of the rules-based order?

    The United States played a leading role in establishing the rules-based international order from the ashes of the second world war.

    Critics have decried the UN-related institutions that arose at this time. But the rules-based order is perhaps best viewed as Voltaire saw the Holy Roman Empire: “no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire”. Those proclaiming the demise of the rules-based order should be careful what they wish for.

    Such a system of trusted international exchanges barely existed prior to 1945. And while superpowers have carved out many exceptions for themselves, the rules-based order has nonetheless resulted in a time of remarkable stability and prosperity for the world.

    So, why would the United States now appear to be retreating from this arrangement? The declining centrality of US influence goes some way to explain this.

    China’s rise and the rise of Trump

    To place the current events in proper context, we need to go back 25 years, when China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

    This move was supported by and facilitated by then US President Bill Clinton in a belief that market liberalisation would eventually lead to political liberalisation.

    Since then, China’s growth has skyrocketed thanks to its ready access to global markets. But it’s retained a strong mercantilist approach, counter to the spirit of the WTO. This has generated much resentment and nervousness among Western powers about the changing global power balance.

    Since Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012, in particular, China has taken on an adversarial position to the rules-based order, following its own set of rules.

    In effect, the world got neither the political nor the trade liberalisation that it once sought from China. Rather, the rules as they applied in China (and to an extent in Russia) allowed state-owned enterprises to co-opt – if not outright steal – technology shared by their international industry partners.

    Foreign companies were squeezed out of China and had difficulty competing with lower-priced Chinese products at home.

    Trump’s rise is, in part, a reaction to these developments. During his first term from 2017–20, Trump fitfully attempted to take a retaliatory, transactional approach to international relations. Now, as he begins his second term, he has a much more clear-eyed plan of action.

    What Trump expects now

    What became startlingly clear at the Munich Security Conference was Trump’s new vision of transactional alliances with America’s traditional partners.

    In his view, the United States is not so much retreating into isolationism as much as it’s acting as a great power with its own economic interests at heart. Trump is eager for the US to assert its place in a world where spheres of influence matter as much – if not more – than any particular set of rules.

    Evidently, the US is no longer advocating for multilateralism, in which states cooperate as equals. Now, it’s focused more on multi-polarity – a world with several great powers, in which the US puts its own interests first. As Trump frequently reminds us, “America First”.

    According to this world view, allies and adversaries have equally been taking unfair advantage of:

    • America’s famous openness (notably its borders)
    • its liberal trade policies (which, according to Trump, has led to the de-industrialisation of the American heartland).

    Its allies have also taken advantage of the generosity of its security umbrella, leading to their cavalier approach to security.

    The Trump administration’s remedy to all of this involves doling out sanctimonious advice. An example of this: Vance telling European allies they should unwind their relaxed immigration policies.

    JD Vance’s speech to the Munich Security Conference.

    It’s also doling out some tough medicine, apparently trying to provoke a reaction in European capitals so they significantly increase their defence spending. This would enable the US to step back from being Europe’s security guarantor and finally undertake its long-talked-about pivot to Asia and focus on its main adversary: China.

    Russia evidently features as part of this plan. Trump appears intent to try to cleave Russia from its Chinese embrace in order to either isolate or weaken China. A hard-nosed deal with Russia over Ukraine may well be the price he’s willing to pay to make that happen.

    For America’s close security and economic partners, this presents an unprecedented challenge. The old preconceptions and expectations no longer seem to apply. What’s important now is not so much America’s shared values with Europe, it’s their overlapping interests.

    For America’s allies, as well as its adversaries, this is going to require some hard thinking and new strategies, both economically and militarily.

    John Blaxland 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.

    – ref. Trump’s view of the world is becoming clear: America’s interests matter more than any set of rules – https://theconversation.com/trumps-view-of-the-world-is-becoming-clear-americas-interests-matter-more-than-any-set-of-rules-250144

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Activist News – No to anti-protest law – Peace Action Wellington

    Source: Peace Action Wellington

    In a report released today, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has called for new standalone legislation directed at preemptively policing protest.

    “I completely reject the IPCA recommendation for a specific protest law. It will limit our fundamental rights and freedoms,” said Valerie Morse.

    “We already have a great protest law: it’s called the NZ bill of rights.”

    “Police regularly try to limit or shut down protests that are simply embarrassing or unhelpful for the government. They cannot be trusted to prioritise people’s rights at protests.”

    “I have been arrested a number of times at protests. When these charges have gone to court the judge has thrown them out. If the police had had their way these protests never would have occurred.”

    “Just because similar jurisdictions have laws about policing protests doesn’t mean that they are a good idea. The US, UK and Australia are all suffering from extreme democratic deficits – in part due to authoritarian responses like these anti-protest laws.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Reserve Bank cuts cash rate

    Source: Australian Treasurer

    Today the independent Reserve Bank of Australia Board decided to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.10 per cent.

    This is very welcome news for millions of Australians.

    This is the rate relief Australians need and deserve.

    It won’t solve every problem in our economy or in household budgets but it will help.

    Today’s result is a demonstration of the substantial and sustained progress we’ve made on inflation together.

    When we came to office, interest rates were going up, now they are going down.

    For a household with a mortgage of $500,000, this rate cut will save them $80 a month, or $960 per year.

    Under Labor, inflation is down, wages are up, unemployment is low and now interest rates have started to come down too.

    This is the soft landing we have been planning for and preparing for but we know there’s more work to do.

    Other countries have had to pay for progress on inflation with higher unemployment, growth going backwards or even a recession.

    Inflation is now almost a third of the 6.1 per cent we inherited, and that’s a testament to the efforts of all Australians.

    In its statement today, the RBA Board said we have made welcome progress on inflation and that inflationary pressures are easing more quickly than expected.

    Today’s decision and the statement from the Board gives us further confidence that the worst of the inflation challenge is behind us, but we can’t be complacent.

    Today’s decision is welcome but it’s not mission accomplished because people are still under pressure.

    The Government will maintain a primary focus on the cost of living.

    When we came to office, real incomes were going badly backwards.

    Now they’re growing again due to moderating inflation, wages growth, jobs growth and our tax cuts.

    Lower mortgage costs will also support the growth of real disposable incomes into the future.

    Australians would be thousands of dollars worse off if Peter Dutton had his way on tax cuts, wages and energy bill relief – and worse off still if he wins the election.

    The biggest risk to the progress we have made together is a Coalition government that would come after Medicare again, push wages down again, and push electricity prices up with more expensive nuclear energy.

    We’re fighting inflation, helping with the cost of living and building Australia’s future, and this encouraging decision shows our policies are making a meaningful difference.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – CBA reduces interest rates on business loans

    Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)

    The Commonwealth Bank has responded to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate decision, reducing rates on eligible business lending products.

    Commonwealth Bank will reduce interest rates by 0.25% per annum (p.a.) on eligible business lending products, following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to decrease the official cash rate by 0.25% p.a.

    CBA’s Business Bank will be reducing interest rates across its Variable Base Rate, Residential Equity Rate, and Overdraft Reference Rate, by 25 basis points.

    This reduction will apply to business lending products including Better Business Loans and Business Overdrafts. All business loan variable rate changes announced today will be effective 28 February 2025.

    CBA Group Executive Business Banking, Mike Vacy-Lyle, said: “Businesses are the lifeblood of Australia’s economy, and they’ve shown remarkable resilience in what has been a challenging environment.

    “While today’s rate reductions may provide some relief, we recognise some of our business customers are facing challenging times and we have a range of measures available for businesses facing difficulty, such as waiving merchant terminal rental fees and deferring repayments on business loans.

    “We also recognise the importance of balancing the needs of business borrowers and business depositors, and we will continue to review our pricing and make further adjustments as required.”

    For business deposit customers, CBA continues to offer a range of options for those looking for at call, notice deposit and term deposit products. CBA will be reducing the interest rate by up to 0.10% p.a. on the Business Online Saver product. The interest on 48 hours and 7-day notice Capital Growth Account remains unchanged.

    Support for small businesses customers

    A range of support options are available for business customers. These include:

    Deferred business loan repayments or debt restructuring.
    Free comprehensive cash flow tracking capabilities via a Business Cash Flow tool in the CommBank app.
    Bill Sense to help customers predicts future bills and our business insights tool called Daily IQ.

    More information is available on our website and businesses seeking support can speak to their Relationship Manager or call CBA’s dedicated Business Financial Assistance team, available 24/7, on 13 26 07.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – CBA announces interest rate reductions

    Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia

    The Commonwealth Bank has responded to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate decision.

    Following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to decrease the official cash rate by 0.25% per annum (p.a.), CBA will decrease home loan variable interest rates by 0.25% p.a.

    All home loan variable rate changes announced today will be effective 28 February 2025.

    CBA’s Group Executive, Retail Banking Services, Angus Sullivan said: “We know that cash rate increases have been challenging for our home loan customers and they are looking forward to some relief.

    “We recognise some customers will continue to need support as they manage household budgets. We strongly encourage anyone who is experiencing hardship to contact us, so we can help with a solution that suits their circumstances.

    “We are committed to ensuring our customers have the right tools, support and advice as they navigate this change. After today’s interest rate changes are effective, eligible home loan customers may choose to reduce their mortgage repayments in line with the change to their variable rate via the CommBank app, NetBank, or by messaging us directly.

    “For our savings customers, we continue to offer a range of options for those looking for both at call savings and term deposits. We will maintain our current 10-month term deposit special of 4.60% p.a. for a limited time.”

    Support for home loan customers

    A range of support options are available for home loans customers. These include:

    Estimating how much home loan repayments will be via the home loan repayments calculator. You can also estimate the impact additional payments can make to your loan balance and duration.  
    Changing the repayment amount and frequency of home loan payments. Eligible customers can reduce their mortgage repayments and align their repayment timing to when and how often they are paid via the CommBank app or NetBank.

    A range of money management support and tools are available in the CommBank app. These include:

    Spend Tracker in the CommBank app to help categorise your debit and credit card transactions, making it easier to see the impact your spending decisions have on your everyday finances.
    Category budgets to set weekly, fortnightly or monthly budgets for different categories of your spending – from entertainment to transport, eating out and shopping. You can see how your spending compares to the budget you set yourself, to help you stay on track.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: University Research – Pressure on Adelaide dolphins and other marine species across southern Australia – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University

    Marine scientists are calling for more focused management strategies and further interventions to secure the future of marine ecosystems and key fish species, as well as ‘near threatened’ dolphins and shellfish species around South Australia’s coastline.

    With ongoing pressure from human activities and climate change, three new research articles led by Flinders University experts have warned of the need for more research and regular monitoring to take into consideration rising pressure on marine ecosystems.

    Leading South Australian Whale & Dolphin Conservation scientist Dr Mike Bossley and his team have been tracking the local Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) of the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary for 34 years.

    Despite living in this highly urbanised estuary, these dolphins have shown remarkable resilience, say Flinders University researchers in a recent article in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

    The Flinders University Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL) study of Dr Bossley’s long-term data highlighted a troubling population decline between 2012 and 2020.

    Fortunately recent dolphin sightings have stabilised in 2021-24, according to Dr Bossley’s observations.

    “Despite numerous environmental and anthropogenic disturbances, the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary is a shallow, protected area and it’s likely that the dolphins are continuing to use this area for its benefits,” says Kennadie Haigh, a PhD candidate at the Flinders College of Science and Engineering.

    “It’s important to focus conservation strategies on improving the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary ecosystem and  promoting connectivity to the surrounding waters to help secure the future of these dolphins.”

    The Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary is located in Port Adelaide and was established in 2005 with the intention to protect the dolphins and the habitat that sustains them.  

    The article, ‘Long-term demographic trends of near threatened coastal dolphins living in an urban estuary’ (2025) by Kennadie Haigh, Guido J Parra, Luciana Möller, Aude Steiner and Mike Bossley was published in Ecology and Evolution First published: 06 January 2025 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70834

    Meanwhile, a second Flinders University study examined the historical exploitation of South Australian shellfish reefs – and calls for urgent interventions to restore native marine species for local ecosystem health.

    “Human and environmental stresses, as well as overfishing and dredge harvesting, have combined to significantly diminish our local multi-species shellfish reefs, which once covered more than 2600 square kilometres of the state’s coastline,” says PhD candidate Brad Martin.

    “Based on historical records, we documented 140 potential shellfish reef locations, and we estimate that over 43 million flat oysters were commercially harvested statewide between 1849 and 1915, prior to their functional extinction by the 1940s.

    “Shellfish reef decline was also influenced by environmental factors including drought and salinity issues, disease, heavy predation by marine species and sediment deposition from storms.”

    Researchers say the demise of these coastal features since colonisation should be reflected in future conservation and restoration efforts, to include these important native shellfish species in policy-setting and coastal management strategies

    See more, ‘Reviving shellfish reef socio-ecological histories for modern management and restoration’ (2025) by Brad Martin, Charlie Huveneers, Simon Reeves (The Nature Conservancy Australia) and Ryan Baring as published in Ocean and Coastal Management (Elsevier) DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2025.107540.

    In a third article published in Environmental DNA , scientists at Flinders University and South Australia’s Department of Environment and Water conducted a study in collaboration with Parks Australia to assess the best method to detect fish communities in marine ecosystems, including remote regions of the Great Australian Bight.  

    Environmental DNA (eDNA) and Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS) were assessed and compared across offshore seamounts and islands in SA’s Nuyts Archipelago marine park and the Commonwealth South West Marine Park Network.

    “Fish communities are critical indicators of ecosystem health, and comprehensive monitoring strategies are vital to effective management of marine fishes,” say Flinders University senior author Dr Michael Doane.

    The study found the two survey methods were effective and complementary in detecting different fish species.

    “By combining both methods, we gain a much fuller picture of fish communities,” says first author Ewan Burns. “eDNA excelled at detecting large pelagic species like white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii), while BRUVS revealed more bottom-dwelling fish,” he says.

    This dual approach is particularly valuable in remote, challenging environments like the Great Australian Bight, where it enables monitoring of key species – both those of conservation concern with high economic value – while providing crucial insights into reef health, researchers add.

    The third article, ‘Complementary Non-invasive Fish Monitoring Distinguishes Depth-Dependent Fish Communities’ (2024) by Ewan Burns, Vijini Mallawaarachchi, Thomas M. Clarke, Belinda Martin, Joseph D DiBattista, Jamie Hicks, Danny Brock, Elizabeth A Dinsdale, Charlie Huveneers and Michael P Doane has been published in Environmental DNA (Wiley). DOI: 10.1002/edn3.70050 First published: 21 December 2024 https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70050

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Release: ACT taps out of Treaty Principles Bill submission process

    Source: New Zealand Labour Party

    “The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said.

    “It is bad enough that ACT has put New Zealand through the expense and anguish of this doomed Bill, but to then refuse to hear oral submissions is utterly disrespectful, lazy, and it shows that this is all just a stunt by David Seymour.

    “It is outrageous that $6 million of the taxpayer’s money is being misused to promote ACT Party ideology, while Christopher Luxon stands idly by. For the ACT Party to refuse to send an MP to hear 30 of the 80 hours of submissions just adds insult to injury.

    “Thousands of New Zealanders have spent hours carefully preparing their submissions and some have been invited to submit to the select committee. Those submitters deserve to have the ACT Party listen to what they have to say. The ACT Party’s suggestion that they have more important things to do is insulting and disingenuous,” Duncan Webb said.

    Stay in the loop by signing up to our mailing list and following us on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: The power of planned burns in the state’s west

    Source: Victoria Country Fire Authority

    When we think about fighting a fire, images of firefighters spraying water on flames or helicopters dropping buckets of flame retardant often are the first to jump into our minds. But there is a vital job that occurs in the fire fight that people don’t often see.

    The work of CFA’s planned burn crews is crucial work that over this fire season has allowed for fires to be contained and saved properties and other loved assets.  

    Manager of Community Safety for the South West Region, James Haley, has been responsible for overseeing planned burn teams respond to the recent fires in the states west and said they have had massive success.  

    Planned burning is used throughout the year to reduce fuel loads, promote the growth of native grasses, and create what are called a strategic break, a pocket of land that gets burned to create a barrier that slows down the spread of a bushfire.  

    “What’s black doesn’t re-burn,” James said. 

    “As a general rule of thumb, fire reaches about three times the height of the vegetation so a fire across native vegetation is going to be a lot more manageable than a fire that might grow to six metres in height through pasture grass which can be incredibly dangerous and hard to control.” 

    This year in places like Dunkeld and Cavendish, planned burning was used to create strategic breaks along roadsides, and around homes and farms which allowed firefighters to fight the Grampians fire as winds pushed the fire out of complex and risky terrain of the Grampians National Park.  

    “We had enormous success in areas where the fire broke out of the Grampians and ran into some strategic breaks we had burned,” James said.  

    “This allowed us to contain the fire at the roadside instead of having the fire jump the road and spread to adjoining properties” 

    The other use of planned burns is to protect people’s homes and other assets.  

    “In the last couple of weeks around Cavendish and Victoria Point, we have been burning around people’s properties,” James said.  

    “The planned burns create a separation between the bush and their properties. Sometimes burning paddocks, sometimes that can mean burning around gardens, anything to create that space. All of this work is done with consultation and the consent of landowners. 

    CFA’s Planned Burn Taskforce is made up of a pool of volunteers around the state who make themselves available specifically for planned burning. 

    “They have good expertise in burnout operations,” James said.  

    “We put out the request maybe 24 hours before, that we intend to undertake burns and volunteers from all over the state drop everything to come and help. 

    “The value of these burns, particularly around homes, sheds, and other infrastructure, cannot be overstated. Multiple burns have already proven critical to fire suppression efforts.” 

    James said teams work with the community when planning these burns and it is actually a great source of comfort for communities being threatened by fire.  

    “We’ve also seen a significant positive impact with many residents reaching out for asset protection support. We have received numerous expressions of gratitude from landowners and community members for the collective effort,” James said.  

    “It really creates community confidence, creating that space where they know it can’t burn again.  

    “These communities are under an extreme amount of stress and pressure and to work with them, plan with them, and to see what they feel is important to protect is pivotal. It is not just a case of CFA alone determining what can be burnt to protect homes and other assets” 

    CFA works alongside Forest Fire Management Victoria to carry out planned burns. Planned burning is conducted by CFA brigades on behalf of and at the request of private land owners or managers of other reserves such as roads, rail corridors, council reserves, and water authority land. You can learn more about planned burns here.  

    • Photo: Noah Chislett
    • Photo: Trevor Vienet
    Submitted by CFA Media

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Watergums Creek Bridge replacement complete

    Source: Australian Ministers 1

    Wonboyn residents are benefitting from improved access, safety and resilience following the completion of the new Watergums Creek Bridge.

    Three levels of government have worked together to fund and deliver this key piece of infrastructure for the Wonboyn community.

    The Australian Government has contributed $1.24 million towards this project under its Bridges Renewal Program, while the NSW Government contributed $1 million, and the Bega Valley Shire Council delivered the project.

    The new reinforced concrete structure, with a 100-year design life, will be able to withstand bushfires and will be more flood resilient thanks to its significant additional height.

    The new bridge has been designed to withstand the Wonboyn River and Watergums Creek flood conditions, ensuring the Wonboyn community has access to key transport links.

    The new bridge:

    • replaces the existing timber bridge with a reinforced concrete structure, resilient to bushfire threats and designed to withstand greater flood forces and debris loading.
    • Includes a deck 3m higher than the previous bridge
    • includes a deck above the estimated 1% annual flood event (100-year flood event). The previous bridge was below the 20% AEP flood height.
    • has a greater resilience to natural disasters.

    Quotes attributable to the Member for Eden-Monaro, Kristy McBain MP:

    “The new bridge has already been put the test during the recent flooding event – and pleasingly it passed with flying colours.

    “It’s not acceptable to see the community of Wonboyn cut off for considerable periods of time, and I know this new bridge will be a huge benefit to the community for decades to come.

    “Congratulations to the community on its advocacy for a new bridge – I’m proud to have backed you in and delivered this project.”

    Quotes attributable to Member for Bega, Dr Michael Holland MP:

    “I’m pleased that the NSW Government has contributed to this essential project for the Wonboyn community.

    “Access to reliable transportation is a key determinant of health – it not only ensures the safety and connectivity of our communities but also provides access to critical essential services.”

    “I want to express my gratitude to the Wonboyn community for their patience as this project has come to completion.”

    Quotes attributable to Bega Valley Shire Council Mayor, Russell Fitzpatrick:

    “The opening of the new Watergums Creek Bridge marks the end of years of uncertainty for the Wonboyn community, ensuring a safer, more reliable connection to the Princes Highway.

    “For too long heavy rain meant isolation—cutting off families, businesses and emergency services. Thanks to this joint investment to improve vital infrastructure, that all changes.

    “The completion of this project stands as a testament to what can be achieved when all levels of government work together with the community’s needs at heart.

    “Today cannot pass without acknowledging the resilience of Wonboyn residents who understand better than anyone that this bridge is a lifeline, a promise their community will stay connected, no matter what.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is divestiture and how would it stop insurance companies ‘ripping off’ customers?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professor Allan Fels, Professor of Law, Economics and Business at the University of Melbourne and Monash University., The University of Melbourne

    Australia is creeping towards adding a divestiture power to its Competition and Consumer Act.

    Under such a law, the courts, on the recommendation of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, could break a firm into parts.

    Divestiture is currently used in Australia when the competition and consumer commission considers proposed mergers. Often it will only approve a merger when certain parts of the business are broken up to prevent monopolies.

    It has also been used to deal with abuse of market power by electricity providers.

    Under the proposed change, a company with substantial market power which breaches the Consumer and Competition Act may be forced to divest assets to restore balance and ensure the market is competitive. This would reduce the possibility of consumers being over-charged.

    The Coalition has already proposed breaking up the major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths which have been long-accused of price gouging customers.

    On Sunday, Coalition leader Peter Dutton signalled he was likely to introduce divestiture if elected to stop insurers from “ripping off” customers by charging exorbitant premiums or refusing to pay claims.

    Premiums have soared by 16.4% in the last year as Australia has been hit by major floods and bushfires. Climate Valuation analysts last month warned one in ten properties could be uninsurable by 2035.

    Repeating his position on Monday, Dutton said:

    If we have a situation where people are being priced out of insurance or they’re deemed an uninsurable risk when they shouldn’t be, that is a failure of the market and we’ll respond accordingly to that.

    He said insurance companies had to be responsible corporate citizens and work with their customers.

    We’re not going to have a situation where people can’t afford insurance or they’re being priced out of products.

    Previously the Morrison government enacted laws which enabled a breakup of energy companies in certain circumstances.

    Labor has not supported a divestiture power. One reason is the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association has opposed such measures.

    The case for divestiture

    In principle there is a strong case for a divestiture law.

    Monopolies and market power stem from an industry being highly concentrated. Often the only way to prevent them from misusing their monopoly is to break them up. The solution could be left to the market or to price regulation or other remedies but these do not address the source of the problem.

    A divestiture power has long existed in the United States. It was used to break up oil, cigarettes, and chemicals in the early days of antitrust law. In the mid-80s it was successfully used to break up the AT&T telephone monopoly. AT&T controlled both long distance and local calls before it was broken up.

    But divestiture is only occasionally used and only when stringent criteria are satisfied.

    Some 20 years ago the US Department of Justice proposed a breakup of Microsoft – the case was never finalised because of procedural problems. However, the Federal Court laid out many prerequisites before this drastic remedy could occur.

    The power has been used in a number of other OECD countries including the United Kingdom.

    When divesting is necessary

    There has been heavy use in Australia of divestiture powers to break up gas and electricity monopolies in the last 30 years

    And there is a strong case for making it a general remedy available for all industries, even though its use would be infrequent.

    Importantly, the availability of this sanction would provide an incentive for firms to comply with abuse of market power provisions of the competition law. These provisions are intended to stop powerful businesses from deterring competition by making it difficult for new entrants to join the market.

    The sanctions for this part of the law currently are very weak. Fines are rarely imposed and if they are, they are small and seen as a cost of doing business to be weighed up against the benefits of anti-competitive behaviour.

    Another reason is that cases take many years. For example, the ACCC case v Safeway 19 years ago took seven years before a court resolution.

    A divestiture power would make firms far more careful before breaching the law.

    Too ‘Russian’?

    Occasionally people question the desirability of this power on the grounds it is the sort of thing you would only see in a country like Russia.

    In an ABC interview last February, Prime Minister Albanese said:

    We have a private sector economy in Australia and not a command and control economy […]We’re not the old Soviet Union. What we have the power to do is to encourage competition and encouraging new entrants.

    However, most observers agree one of the big failures of the Soviet economy has been failure to divest monopolies in energy, transport and other parts of the economy.

    The Coalition’s adoption of a divestiture remedy in three industries is welcome. We need at some point to move to a divestiture power that is available for the whole economy.

    Allan Fels is a former chair of the ACCC.

    – ref. What is divestiture and how would it stop insurance companies ‘ripping off’ customers? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-divestiture-and-how-would-it-stop-insurance-companies-ripping-off-customers-250036

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: View from the Hill: will Albanese opt for an April election now that a rates cut has him breathing more easily?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election.

    The cut is unlikely to be a major vote changer, after 13 increases. But it was absolutely vital to the government. Labor would have suffered a big knock if Michele Bullock and her board had held out.

    The cut underpins the narrative of things improving, and may put voters in a better mood. At least that’s the government’s thinking.

    But the bank is highly circumspect in its tone. It warned in its statement:

    The forecasts published today suggest that, if monetary policy is eased too much too soon, disinflation could stall, and inflation would settle above the midpoint of the target range. In removing a little of the policy restrictiveness in its decision today, the Board acknowledges that progress has been made but is cautious about the outlook.

    Speculation about the election date is a frustrating exercise, given only Anthony Albanese – and perhaps a few closest to him – knows his thinking, which could still be, as he suggested recently, “fluid”. In recent days the PM has played the tease. Periodically he talks about the intense work on budget, set for March 25; if that went ahead, it would mean a May election. But last week, he was also talking about parliament having seen its last day, which pointed to April.

    It is hard to see the logic of Albanese launching a campaign before the March 8 Western Australian election, given that would be confusing for both state and federal campaigns and put maximum pressure on Labor’s WA volunteers. If Albanese opts for April 12, he would have to call it immediately after the WA poll.

    Many in the business world would like the election done and dusted ASAP, because the pre-election period means a hiatus of sorts.

    The opinion polls can be read various ways, but as things stand, they point to a minority government.

    This is already putting pressure on crossbenchers, notably the teals, to indicate what factors they’d take into account in deciding who they’d support. The Coalition, if it reached about 72 seats (76 is a majority), would be eyeing off crossbenchers Bob Katter, Rebekha Sharkie, Allegra Spender and Dai Le as potentials to guarantee them confidence and supply. Of course that would assume they all were re-elected.

    But this is putting several carts before the horse. Much will happen in the next few weeks, whether the election is April or May. Current polls that make predictions down to individual seats should be treated with much caution.

    While the polls are presently depressing for Labor, this week’s Newspoll had a finding on inflation that might cheer treasurer Jim Chalmers. It found that less than a quarter of people believe inflation would have been lower under a Coalition government. In other words, while high prices are making voters sour, that is not necessarily directly translating into blame for Labor.

    When the campaign proper is underway, the smallest things can blow up in leaders’ faces.

    Albanese failed to remember key numbers in 2022. He had enough fat so his generally lackluster performance didn’t matter in the end. Dutton is yet to be campaign-tested. Rather disconcertingly for his handlers, in his Sky interview last Sunday he forgot deputy prime minister Richard Marles had just been in Washington.

    Meanwhile Dutton is hard at work humanising his image in a series of interviews, and the obligatory 60 Minutes family get together with Karl Stefanovic (who did the Meet the Morrisons – the Duttons-at-home came without an musical performance).

    Albanese worked hard at this before the last election, repeating over and over his story of being brought up in council housing, son of a single mother.

    Dutton’s more complicated back story involves a stint as a youngster in a butcher’s shop, buying a house at 19, an early divorce, and a failed relationship that produced a baby who became his first child in his second marriage. And of course his career as a policeman.

    One can imagine that some of these memories are painful to have to canvas in public, but the campaign’s hard heads say the public want to know all about a potential PM. So it has to be done.

    (One Dutton incident is rarely recalled these days, that involved a temporary loss of political nerve. In 2009, after a redistribution made his seat of Dickson notionally Labor, Dutton sought to jump to the Gold Coast seat of McPherson. But he was beaten in a preselection by Karen Andrews, who is retiring at this election. That forced him back to Dickson, which he then held at the 2010 election.)

    Albanese does not need to canvass his backstory as much these days but he took advantage of Valentine’s day to put out some sentimental social media fodder.

    He and fiancé Jodie (to whom he proposed on Valentine’s day last year) sat, with Toto between them, turning over cards. with questions said to be posed by the public. With each question (such as “who said I love you first”) they pointed to each other or themselves.

    Opinion was divided about the video. Toto fell into the sceptics’ camp, jumping to the ground before it was finished.

    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.

    – ref. View from the Hill: will Albanese opt for an April election now that a rates cut has him breathing more easily? – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-will-albanese-opt-for-an-april-election-now-that-a-rates-cut-has-him-breathing-more-easily-250136

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Woman reported after school incident

    Source: South Australia Police

    A woman has been reported after an incident at a northeastern suburbs school earlier this month.

    It will be alleged about 3pm on Monday 3 February, the woman entered a classroom and verbally threatened a teenage girl.

    Thankfully, the student involved was not physically injured.

    Following investigations and after speaking with all parties, police have reported a 31-year-old Para Vista woman for assault.

    She will be summonsed to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court at a later date.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Love Our Lakes – How to be a happy camper around our lakes

    Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council

    “In some more remote places we’ve seen a few bits and pieces, but otherwise we haven’t seen much rubbish at all,” said Jack and Sarah, campervan tourists from Australia who’d parked up at Lake Takapō as part of a three-week South Island road trip.

    Caroline and David, from Germany, had their van parked up near Lake Ruataniwha at the southern side of Twizel.

    “In Germany, it’s super important to take care of the environment,” they said.

    “So, it’s cool to see the same thing happening here. The scenery here is crazy by the way.”

    Katrien and Femke, Dutch friends travelling near Lake Takapō, said their stay had been “super clean and nice to experience”.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Four people charged with aggravated assault following disturbance in Glenorchy

    Source: Tasmania Police

    Four people charged with aggravated assault following disturbance in Glenorchy

    Tuesday, 18 February 2025 – 2:12 pm.

    Police have charged four people in relation to a disturbance in Glenorchy about 7.20pm on Sunday.
    Police will allege the four people attended an address on Chapel Street and threated the occupants.
    No serious injuries were sustained, and the people were known to each other.
    A 19-year-old man and an 18-year-old man, both from Lutana, have been charged with aggravated assault. They were bailed to appear in court at a later date.
    Additionally, two youths have also been charged with aggravated assault. They were bailed to appear in the Youth Justice Court at a later date.
    Police would like to speak to anyone with witness information or CCTV or dash camera footage of the area around the time.
    Information can be provided to police on 131 444 or through Crime Stoppers Tasmania at crimestopperstas.com.au or on 1800 333 000 (info can be provided anonymously). Quote reference OR767019.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

    (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany. German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    Ukraine has not been invited to a key meeting between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week to decide what peace in the country might look like.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will “never accept” any decisions in talks without its participation to end Russia’s three-year war in the country.

    A decision to negotiate the sovereignty of Ukrainians without them – as well as US President Donald Trump’s blatantly extortionate attempt to claim half of Ukraine’s rare mineral wealth as the price for ongoing US support – reveals a lot about how Trump sees Ukraine and Europe.

    But this is not the first time large powers have colluded to negotiate new borders or spheres of influence without the input of the people who live there.

    Such high-handed power politics rarely ends well for those affected, as these seven historical examples show.

    1. The Scramble for Africa

    In the winter of 1884–85, German leader Otto von Bismarck invited the powers of Europe to Berlin for a conference to formalise the division of the entire African continent among them. Not a single African was present at the conference that would come to be known as “The Scramble for Africa”.

    Among other things, the conference led to the creation of the Congo Free State under Belgian control, the site of colonial atrocities that killed millions.

    Germany also established the colony of German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), where the first genocide of the 20th century was later perpetrated against its colonised peoples.

    How the boundaries of Africa changed after the Berlin conference.
    Wikimedia Commons/Somebody500

    2. The Tripartite Convention

    It wasn’t just Africa that was divided up this way. In 1899, Germany and the United States held a conference and forced an agreement on the Samoans to split their islands between the two powers.

    This was despite the Samoans expressing a desire for either self-rule or a confederation of Pacific states with Hawai’i.

    As “compensation” for missing out in Samoa, Britain received uncontested primacy over Tonga.

    German Samoa came under the rule of New Zealand after the first world war and remained a territory until 1962. American Samoa (in addition to several other Pacific islands) remain US territories to this day.

    3. The Sykes-Picot Agreement

    As the first world war was well under way, British and French representatives sat down to agree how they’d divide up the Ottoman Empire after it was over. As an enemy power, the Ottomans were not invited to the talks.

    Together, England’s Mark Sykes and France’s François Georges-Picot redrew the Middle East’s borders in line with their nations’ interests.

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement ran counter to commitments made in a series of letters known as the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. In these letters, Britain promised to support Arab independence from Turkish rule.



    Read more:
    What was the Sykes-Picot agreement, and why does it still affect the Middle East today?

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement also ran counter to promises Britain made in the Balfour Declaration to back Zionists who wanted to build a new Jewish homeland in Ottoman Palestine.

    The agreement became the wellspring of decades of conflict and colonial misrule in the Middle East, the consequences of which continue to be felt today.

    Map showing the areas of control and influence in the Middle East agreed upon between the British and French.
    The National Archives (UK)/Wikimedia Commons

    4. The Munich Agreement

    In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier met with Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler to sign what became known as the Munich Agreement.

    The leaders sought to prevent the spread of war throughout Europe after Hitler’s Nazis had fomented an uprising and began attacking the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. They did this under the pretext of protecting German minorities. No Czechoslovakians were invited to the meeting.

    The meeting is still seen by many as the “Munich Betrayal” – a classic example of a failed appeasement of a belligerent power in the false hope of staving off war.

    5. The Évian Conference

    In 1938, 32 countries met in Évian-les-Bains, France, to decide how to deal with Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany.

    Before the conference started, Britain and the US had agreed not to put pressure on one another to lift the quota of Jews they would accept in either the US or British Palestine.

    While Golda Meir (the future Israeli leader) attended the conference as an observer, neither she nor any other representatives of the Jewish people were permitted to take part in the negotiations.

    The attendees largely failed to come to an agreement on accepting Jewish refugees, with the exception of the Dominican Republic. And most Jews in Germany were unable to leave before Nazism reached its genocidal nadir in the Holocaust.

    6. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

    As Hitler planned his invasion of Eastern Europe, it became clear his major stumbling block was the Soviet Union. His answer was to sign a disingenuous non-aggression treaty with the USSR.

    Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
    German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    The treaty, named after Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop (the Soviet and German foreign ministers), ensured the Soviet Union would not respond when Hitler invaded Poland. It also carved up Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres. This allowed the Soviets to expand into Romania and the Baltic states, attack Finland and take its own share of Polish territory.

    Unsurprisingly, some in Eastern Europe view the current US-Russia talks over Ukraine’s future as a revival of this kind of secret diplomacy that divided the smaller nations of Europe between large powers in the second world war.

    7. The Yalta Conference

    With the defeat of Nazi Germany imminent, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and US President Franklin D Roosevelt met in 1945 to decide the fate of postwar Europe. This meeting came to be known as the Yalta Conference.

    Alongside the Potsdam Conference several months later, Yalta created the political architecture that would lead to the Cold War division of Europe.

    At Yalta, the “big three” decided on the division of Germany, while Stalin was also offered a sphere of interest in Eastern Europe.

    This took the form of a series of politically controlled buffer states in Eastern Europe, a model some believe Putin is aiming to emulate today in eastern and southeastern Europe.

    Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the History Council of South Australia.

    – ref. Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-isnt-invited-to-its-own-peace-talks-history-is-full-of-such-examples-and-the-results-are-devastating-250049

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australia is deporting 3 non-citizens from the ‘NZYQ’ group to Nauru. What could it do instead?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University

    Australia’s minister for home affairs announced on Sunday that the federal government has struck a deal with Nauru to “resettle” three non-citizens from what’s come to be known as the “NZYQ cohort”.

    The NZYQ cohort is a group of people released from long-term immigration detention after the High Court’s NZYQ 2023 decision.

    The court found their ongoing detention was unconstitutional where there was no reasonable prospect of removing them to another country. This led to the release of over 200 people from detention, the majority of whom had previously had visas cancelled on character grounds or had committed crimes.

    This new deal with Nauru has significant implications.

    What happened on the weekend?

    According to the home affairs minister, three people from the NZYQ group have now been granted 30-year visas by Nauru, and will soon be removed to that country.

    The minister said all three have criminal histories. One has been convicted of murder.

    Nauru may accept more people from the NZYQ cohort, referring to these people as “the first three”. The minister says he expects a legal challenge to their removal.



    Read more:
    High Court reasons on immigration ruling pave way for further legislation

    Why it is this development significant?

    Once a non-citizen has had their visa cancelled on criminal grounds, they are often deported to their country of origin after serving their prison sentence.

    However, the individuals in the NZYQ group cannot be returned to their country of origin. That could be because international law prevents Australia returning them to places where they may face harm (a principle known as “non-refoulement”).

    Or, they may have no recognised nationality and no country to accept them.

    This raises the question of what should be done with them after they complete their prison sentence.

    Up until the decision in NZYQ, people in this situation were simply kept in immigration detention. It was often almost impossible to get another country to accept them.

    The Australian government tried to get many other countries to accept the man at the centre of the NZYQ case. This person, a stateless Rohingnya man given the pseudonym NZYQ, had been convicted of a serious crime.

    The High Court noted no country had a standard practice of resettling people in situations such as this. It noted the immigration department had never successfully transferred such a person to a third country (in other words, to a place that was not Australia, and not their country of origin).

    The Nauru deal announced on the weekend is an important development, in part because it is the first significant use of new migration laws rushed through late last year.

    What do the new migration laws allow?

    These laws aimed to respond to concerns around the NZYQ cohort being released into the community.

    The new laws allow the government to transfer non-citizens to third countries, in this case Nauru, under “third country reception arrangements.”

    The details of these agreements are left entirely to the discretion of government. The laws grant broad powers to remove people and provide payments to those third countries.

    People who may be removed to a third country include those in the NZYQ group who, since the High Court decision, have been living in the community on bridging visas.

    The new laws allow the government to transfer non-citizens to third countries, in this case Nauru.
    Robert Szymanski/Shutterstock

    Why are some concerned?

    A major issue is the uncertainty surrounding the rights and support of individuals sent to Nauru.

    It’s unclear how or whether these people will be able to get housing and access to work, or how they might be treated in a country with high unemployment. Some may have family members in Australia and may be separated indefinitely from them.

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has raised significant concerns around what it calls “externalisation” of international protection obligations without adequate protection safeguards or standards of treatment.

    Externalisation, it says, can lead to

    indefinite “warehousing” of asylum-seekers in isolated places, exposing them to indirect refoulement and other dangers.

    The UN Human Rights Committee has also said that outsourcing operations to another country did not absolve Australia of accountability and its human rights obligations.

    A possible precedent

    A final concern is the precedent this agreement with Nauru sets for how other countries may treat refugees with criminal convictions.

    Australia’s model of offshore processing has already been used as a reference by other countries, including the UK.

    With the growing international debate about managing refugees with criminal convictions, this arrangement may end up being replicated elsewhere.

    The lack of safeguards for people in third countries, such as Nauru, could mean refugees and asylum seekers are transferred without proper protection, exposing them to further harm.

    How do other countries handle cases like this?

    It is not uncommon for countries to send criminal deportees to their home countries. But in situations where people are stateless or cannot be sent home due to a fear of serious harm, countries either have to allow the person to remain or seek an alternative country to send them to.

    However, it remains very hard for countries to convince other countries to accept people who have criminal convictions.

    Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prepare a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in order to hold up to 30,000 “high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States”.

    Exact details of the arrangement remain unclear and the plan has been criticised by a range of human rights groups and legal organisations.

    What are the alternatives to Australia’s Nauru plan?

    Other countries have established systems for managing non-citizens who are not entitled to protection or whose visas have been revoked due to criminal offences, ensuring they are not detained indefinitely.

    After completing their prison sentences, these individuals are typically released into the community, where domestic law enforcement handles any further offending.

    Neglecting to address offending behaviour or rehabilitation within the Australian system – whether during imprisonment, detention, or in the community – and then deporting individuals to developing countries doesn’t really solve the problem.

    It simply means we are externalising the problem to a poorer country.

    Mary Anne Kenny has received funding from the ARC. She is a member of the Migration Institute of Australia and the Law Council of Australia and an affiliate of the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. She previously was an independent advisor to the governments of Australia and Nauru as part of the Joint Advisory Committee on Nauru between 2012 – 2016.

    Lisa van Toor receives funding from Research Training Plan (RTP) scholarship for her PhD. She is currently a PhD student with the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. She previously was a Judge’s Associate in the Supreme Court of Nauru between 2018-2019. Lisa is a member of the Greens WA.

    – ref. Australia is deporting 3 non-citizens from the ‘NZYQ’ group to Nauru. What could it do instead? – https://theconversation.com/australia-is-deporting-3-non-citizens-from-the-nzyq-group-to-nauru-what-could-it-do-instead-250053

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New experiments finally prove a long-forgotten theory about how quantum particles spin

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjen Vaartjes, PhD Student, Quantum Physics, UNSW Sydney

    Dmitriy Rybin / Shutterstock

    What makes something quantum? This question has kept a small but dedicated fraction of the world’s population – most of them quantum physicists – up at night for decades.

    At very small scales, we know the universe is made up of waves and energy fields ruled by the laws of quantum mechanics, but at the scale of the everyday world around us we mostly see solid objects following the older rules of classical mechanics. When we ask what makes something quantum, we are asking where the line is between these two realms and how it can be drawn.

    In a new study published in Newton, we answer this question in a previously undiscovered way. We show that a single spinning particle can show indubitable evidence of quantum behaviour.

    The discovery of spin

    One hundred years ago, Dutch physicists Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck proposed the idea that most tiny particles never really stand still. Instead, they suggested, electrons – elementary particles that form the outer shell of atoms – behave like minuscule spinning tops.

    The spin can be either clockwise or anticlockwise, or what physicists call “spin up” and “spin down”. This binary nature of spinning electrons means that they can be used as building blocks for quantum computers.

    However, in 1925 Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck’s spinning electron proposal caused an uproar in the physics establishment. At this time, physics was shaped by illustrious names such as Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Paul Ehrenfest, who laid the groundwork for the grand theories of relativity and quantum mechanics that transformed our understanding of the universe.

    After eminent physicist and Nobel laureate Hendrik Lorentz criticised the spin theory, Uhlenbeck got cold feet and wanted to retract the paper. Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit’s mentor Ehrenfest told them to persist, writing: “You are both young enough to be able to afford a stupidity!”

    Old ideas still remain

    This kind of resistance to new ideas is not unusual in physics. As Planck put it, science progresses one funeral at a time.

    Much like the scepticism about the discovery of spinning electrons, today many physicists are educated with a misconception about how spin works. Conventional wisdom, still taught in standard textbooks, tells us that spin is a quantum property that is essential to understanding the behaviour of electrons and nuclei. But at the same time, the textbooks say the rotation of the particle is still somehow perfectly described by classical physics.

    Tsirelson’s forgotten protocol

    A similar consideration applies to another textbook system, the harmonic oscillator (e.g. a pendulum). According to a 1927 theorem by Paul Ehrenfest, the way a quantum pendulum swings is indistinguishable from a swing in the park.

    Strikingly, almost 80 years later the Russian-Israeli physicist Boris Tsirelson had an idea showing that it is possible to discern a quantum pendulum from a swing in the park, provided the quantum system is prepared in a truly quantum state. At the time, Tsirelson’s paper attracted little notice.

    Another 15 years later, the research team of Valerio Scarani in Singapore resurfaced Tsirelson’s paper from the depths of the internet. Scarani’s student Zaw Lin Htoo extended Tsirelson’s idea, proving theoretically that it actually was possible to detect quantumness in the rotation of a spin.

    Bigger particles and Schrödinger’s cat

    Our team at the University of New South Wales decided to take on the challenge and prove the quantumness of a spin in a real experiment. However, we couldn’t do it with a simple spin like an electron. Because an electron is so small, it only has two possible spin states: up and down. Again defying widespread intuition, it turns out that an electron spin can only be prepared in quasi-classical states, which obey the old textbook predictions.

    Instead we used a much larger particle, the nucleus of an antimony atom. The spin of this particle can point in eight different directions, instead of just two.

    We were able to place the atom in a so-called “Schrödinger’s cat” state, in which it is in a superposition of two widely different spin directions at once.

    We then performed the Tsirelson-Scarani protocol, which involves measuring not just the average orientation of the spin, but the positivity of it – a very different kind of measurement to what is done in standard spin resonance setups. This experiment showed unquestionable evidence for the quantumness of the antimony’s spin.

    What’s next?

    Our study is important for discovering fundamental truths about the universe, and for providing clarity on what it means to “be quantum”. However, it may also have real-life applications.

    The states that we demonstrated to be quantum with the Tsirelson-Scarani protocol are exactly the kind of thing that give quantum computation and quantum sensing an advantage over classical counterparts. In the future we will focus making the most of these systems for use in technological applications.

    Arjen Vaartjes receives funding from the Sydney Quantum Academy.

    Andrea Morello receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Defence, and the US Army Research Office.

    – ref. New experiments finally prove a long-forgotten theory about how quantum particles spin – https://theconversation.com/new-experiments-finally-prove-a-long-forgotten-theory-about-how-quantum-particles-spin-250059

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

    (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany. German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    Ukraine has not been invited to a key meeting between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week to decide what peace in the country might look like.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will “never accept” any decisions in talks without its participation to end Russia’s three-year war in the country.

    A decision to negotiate the sovereignty of Ukrainians without them – as well as US President Donald Trump’s blatantly extortionate attempt to claim half of Ukraine’s rare mineral wealth as the price for ongoing US support – reveals a lot about how Trump sees Ukraine and Europe.

    But this is not the first time large powers have colluded to negotiate new borders or spheres of influence without the input of the people who live there.

    Such high-handed power politics rarely ends well for those affected, as these seven historical examples show.

    1. The Scramble for Africa

    In the winter of 1884–85, German leader Otto von Bismarck invited the powers of Europe to Berlin for a conference to formalise the division of the entire African continent among them. Not a single African was present at the conference that would come to be known as “The Scramble for Africa”.

    Among other things, the conference led to the creation of the Congo Free State under Belgian control, the site of colonial atrocities that killed millions.

    Germany also established the colony of German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), where the first genocide of the 20th century was later perpetrated against its colonised peoples.

    How the boundaries of Africa changed after the Berlin conference.
    Wikimedia Commons/Somebody500

    2. The Tripartite Convention

    It wasn’t just Africa that was divided up this way. In 1899, Germany and the United States held a conference and forced an agreement on the Samoans to split their islands between the two powers.

    This was despite the Samoans expressing a desire for either self-rule or a confederation of Pacific states with Hawai’i.

    As “compensation” for missing out in Samoa, Britain received uncontested primacy over Tonga.

    German Samoa came under the rule of New Zealand after the first world war and remained a territory until 1962. American Samoa (in addition to several other Pacific islands) remain US territories to this day.

    3. The Sykes-Picot Agreement

    As the first world war was well under way, British and French representatives sat down to agree how they’d divide up the Ottoman Empire after it was over. As an enemy power, the Ottomans were not invited to the talks.

    Together, England’s Mark Sykes and France’s François Georges-Picot redrew the Middle East’s borders in line with their nations’ interests.

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement ran counter to commitments made in a series of letters known as the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. In these letters, Britain promised to support Arab independence from Turkish rule.



    Read more:
    What was the Sykes-Picot agreement, and why does it still affect the Middle East today?

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement also ran counter to promises Britain made in the Balfour Declaration to back Zionists who wanted to build a new Jewish homeland in Ottoman Palestine.

    The agreement became the wellspring of decades of conflict and colonial misrule in the Middle East, the consequences of which continue to be felt today.

    Map showing the areas of control and influence in the Middle East agreed upon between the British and French.
    The National Archives (UK)/Wikimedia Commons

    4. The Munich Agreement

    In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier met with Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler to sign what became known as the Munich Agreement.

    The leaders sought to prevent the spread of war throughout Europe after Hitler’s Nazis had fomented an uprising and began attacking the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. They did this under the pretext of protecting German minorities. No Czechoslovakians were invited to the meeting.

    The meeting is still seen by many as the “Munich Betrayal” – a classic example of a failed appeasement of a belligerent power in the false hope of staving off war.

    5. The Évian Conference

    In 1938, 32 countries met in Évian-les-Bains, France, to decide how to deal with Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany.

    Before the conference started, Britain and the US had agreed not to put pressure on one another to lift the quota of Jews they would accept in either the US or British Palestine.

    While Golda Meir (the future Israeli leader) attended the conference as an observer, neither she nor any other representatives of the Jewish people were permitted to take part in the negotiations.

    The attendees largely failed to come to an agreement on accepting Jewish refugees, with the exception of the Dominican Republic. And most Jews in Germany were unable to leave before Nazism reached its genocidal nadir in the Holocaust.

    6. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

    As Hitler planned his invasion of Eastern Europe, it became clear his major stumbling block was the Soviet Union. His answer was to sign a disingenuous non-aggression treaty with the USSR.

    Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
    German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    The treaty, named after Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop (the Soviet and German foreign ministers), ensured the Soviet Union would not respond when Hitler invaded Poland. It also carved up Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres. This allowed the Soviets to expand into Romania and the Baltic states, attack Finland and take its own share of Polish territory.

    Unsurprisingly, some in Eastern Europe view the current US-Russia talks over Ukraine’s future as a revival of this kind of secret diplomacy that divided the smaller nations of Europe between large powers in the second world war.

    7. The Yalta Conference

    With the defeat of Nazi Germany imminent, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and US President Franklin D Roosevelt met in 1945 to decide the fate of postwar Europe. This meeting came to be known as the Yalta Conference.

    Alongside the Potsdam Conference several months later, Yalta created the political architecture that would lead to the Cold War division of Europe.

    At Yalta, the “big three” decided on the division of Germany, while Stalin was also offered a sphere of interest in Eastern Europe.

    This took the form of a series of politically controlled buffer states in Eastern Europe, a model some believe Putin is aiming to emulate today in eastern and southeastern Europe.

    Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the History Council of South Australia.

    – ref. Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-isnt-invited-to-its-own-peace-talks-history-is-full-of-such-examples-and-the-results-are-devastating-250049

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI China: How ‘Ne Zha 2’ becomes global box office sensation

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    “Ne Zha 2,” the animated blockbuster that has dominated China’s box office, is igniting a global frenzy with its seamless fusion of traditional Chinese mythology and innovative animation storytelling.

    Children look at a poster for “Ne Zha 2” in a theater in Los Angeles County, the United States, Feb. 14, 2025. (Photo by Qiu Chen/Xinhua)

    The film was officially released in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea on Thursday and hit the big screen in North America the next day, sparking much demand. Additional releases are planned in other countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt, South Africa, Pakistan, Japan and South Korea.

    On social media, #NeZha2 is trending, with fans calling it “visually stunning” and “emotionally powerful.” The film’s IMDb rating stands at 8.3 to date, reflecting its universal appeal.

    How did the animated movie, based on ancient Chinese mythology, become an international box office sensation?

    EXQUISITE ANIMATION PRODUCTION

    “Ne Zha 2” has captivated audiences with its state-of-the-art visual effects — an area once dominated by Hollywood productions.

    By leveraging advanced technologies, such as GPU rendering and artificial intelligence, the film achieves a level of visual sophistication that rivals that of Hollywood films.

    With around 2,000 special effects shots and 10,000 special effects elements, the film’s visual grandeur has blended with traditional Chinese aesthetics, like misty landscapes inspired by traditional ink paintings, creating a visually immersive experience that resonates globally.

    The film’s technical brilliance, as seen in breathtaking sequences, such as the climactic battle at Tianyuan Ding and the transformation of Ne Zha’s physical form, exemplifies the significant advancement of China’s animation industry through the marriage of artistry and technology.

    With contributions from 138 animation studios, “the film showcases the collaborative power of China’s creative ecosystem and heralds an upgrade in both the film industry and its aesthetic standards,” noted Chen Xuguang, director of the Institute of Film, Television and Theatre at Peking University.

    People pose for photos in front of the poster of the Chinese animated feature “Ne Zha 2” at IMAX Sydney in Sydney, Australia, Feb. 11, 2025. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

    GLOBAL APPEAL

    Inspired by the 16th-century Chinese mythological novel, “The Investiture of the Gods,” “Ne Zha 2” portrays its protagonist as a rebellious boy-god blending contemporary themes of identity, resilience and social justice, a narrative that has struck a chord with global audiences.

    Emotional appeal is a critical factor. The film’s emotional core — family bonds, friendship, and societal marginalization — transcends cultural barriers. As one U.S. viewer noted, “Ne Zha’s struggle mirrors my own battles against prejudice.”

    Director Yang Yu, known as Jiaozi, has emphasized that the international success of Chinese cinema hinges on the intrinsic charm of the works themselves. “It’s about whether a script, a story and its characters can move audiences worldwide,” he said.

    “Ne Zha 2,” with its universal themes and emotional depth, is a compelling example of how Chinese cinema can achieve this.

    Robert King, a Hollywood producer, praised the film’s success in China and its cultural significance. He said “Ne Zha 2” could become a contender for international awards in multiple categories, including foreign film and animation. “This little rascal Ne Zha will resonate with Hollywood,” he said.

    This photo taken on Feb. 13, 2025 shows a projected poster for the Chinese fantasy feature “Ne Zha 2” at a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

    WIDE AUDIENCE SUPPORT

    The film, with English subtitles, has been well-received by overseas Chinese communities, whose overwhelming support — evidenced by positive social media comments and demands for more screenings — has been pivotal to its global momentum.

    For many overseas Chinese viewers, “Ne Zha 2” offers a sense of cultural pride and nostalgia, resonating deeply with their cultural identity.

    Angela Yu, from northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province and living in the U.S. for nearly 18 years, said the production was top-notch and the story captivated her every second, noting that “this is the best cure I’ve had in recent years.”

    A lady, who gave her surname as Lai, said that she was deeply moved by the film, crying and laughing while watching it.

    “Compared with the century-old Hollywood, Chinese films started late but have made rapid progress in recent years,” she said.

    It is clear that in many ways, “Ne Zha 2” is more than just a film; it’s a cultural milestone. Its success reflects the dynamism of China’s creative industries, the enduring appeal of its cultural heritage, and the potential for Chinese stories to captivate audiences all over the world.

    Having amassed over 10 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars) in global total earnings, including presales, “Ne Zha 2” is the first film to gross 1 billion U.S. dollars in a single market and the first non-Hollywood title to join the coveted billion-dollar club.

    With domestic earnings projected to surge past 15 billion yuan, the film stands poised to become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time and one of the five top-grossing films globally.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: ‘Everything’ on table to retaliate against U.S. tariffs: Canadian trade minister

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    The Canadian government is ready to retaliate against U.S. tariffs, the nation’s trade minister told Australian media on Monday.

    Mary Ng, Canada’s minister of export promotion, international trade and economic development, said during an official visit to Australia that the U.S. government’s promised tariffs will “simply create costs for Americans.”

    U.S. President Donald Trump earlier in February agreed to pause a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported to the United States from Canada and Mexico except for energy products, which will face 10 percent tariffs, for 30 days.

    Ng told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television on Monday night that Canada is ready to retaliate if the tariffs are implemented.

    “Should Canada get tariffs that are punishing, tariffs that will hurt our economy, everything will be on the table,” she said. “We will respond, and we will respond with impact.”

    The Australian government has said it is working on an exemption from U.S. 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.

    Ng, who is in Australia leading a delegation of 140 Canadian companies aiming to boost the trade relationship between the countries, told the ABC that the two countries have not yet discussed a joint response to U.S. tariffs.

    In a separate interview with Nine Entertainment newspapers, she said that Australia and Canada should continue to promote open and free trade under a system “that is underpinned by a rules-based order.”

    Ng met with Don Farrell, Australia’s minister for trade and tourism, over the weekend.

    Farrell on Thursday rejected a claim from Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, that aluminum imported from Australia is “killing” the U.S. market. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: BARC takes part in Mission Adoptable

    Source: State of Victoria Local Government 2

    Eight Victorian animal shelters, including the Bendigo Animal Relief Centre (BARC) have joined forces for Mission Adoptable – a three-day adoption drive this weekend (February 21, 22 and 23) to find animals their forever homes.

    With adoption fees reduced to $50 for cats, kittens, dogs and puppies, and $20 for small pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs, the participating shelters hope plenty of Victorians find their new furry friend.

    BARC Operations Manager Fra Atyeo said BARC is very pleased to participate in Mission Adoptable.

    “While adoption fees have been reduced, our adoption process will remain the same, and BARC will assist adoptive families to choose the right pet for them,” Ms Atyeo said.

    “All pets available for adoption from BARC have had a veterinarian conduct a health check and have had their behaviour assessed so we can match them to the best type of home possible. All cats and dogs are desexed, vaccinated, and microchipped, saving new owners hundreds of dollars.

    “There are some shelters across Victoria that are experiencing an increase in shelter numbers due to various reasons, including the current financial situation many families are experiencing.

    “Owning a pet has many health benefits as pet owners experience lower stress levels, lower incidents of depression, and lead healthier lifestyles and the reduced adoption fees through the Mission Adoptable campaign will help make healthy desexed pets available to more people.”

    The Mission Adoptable adoption rates are only valid at the following participating shelters:

    • Bendigo Animal Relief Centre
    • RSPCA Victoria (Burwood and Pearcedale)
    • The Lost Dogs’ Home
    • Shepparton Animal Shelter
    • Australian Animal Protection Society
    • Animal Aid
    • Geelong Animal Welfare Society
    • Wat Djerring Animal Facility

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: 44-2025: Scheduled Service Disruption: Friday 21 February to Sunday 23 February 2025 – BICON, DAFF messaging, SeaPest

    Source: Australia Government Statements – Agriculture

    18 February 2025

    Who does this notice affect?

    All clients required to use the department’s Biosecurity Import Conditions System (BICON) during this planned maintenance period.

    All clients submitting the below declarations:

    • Full Import Declaration (FID)
    • Long Form Self Assessed Clearance (LFSAC)
    • Short Form Self Assessed Clearance (SFSAC)
    • Cargo Report Self Assessed Clearance (CRSAC)
    • Cargo Report Personal Effects (PE)

    All…

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: West Tamar man charged with fraud and stealing from employer

    Source: Tasmania Police

    West Tamar man charged with fraud and stealing from employer

    Tuesday, 18 February 2025 – 1:22 pm.

    Police have charged a 55-year-old West Tamar man with fraud and stealing following an investigation relating to his former employment at a northern Tasmanian aged care provider.
    In December 2024 police executed a search warrant at a West Tamar address, and seized three vehicles.
    Following further investigation, a fourth vehicle was seized in Victoria last Friday.
    The man was arrested yesterday and charged with three counts of stealing, and two counts of fraud.
    He has been bailed to appear in the Devonport Magistrates Court on 19 May 2025.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australian houses are getting larger. For a more sustainable future, our houses can’t be the space for everything

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

    The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, from 100 square metres in the 1950s to 236m² in 2020. The average living space in Australian households is now 84m² per person.

    The way we live in our homes – our habits and daily routines – is also growing and changing with our housing, and the way we want to live can shape the size of our homes.

    For a more sustainable future, we need to embrace living in smaller spaces. This means not letting our houses be our primary space for every activity in our lives.

    Our homes and ‘space creep’

    Our houses first became bigger due to space creep, bringing more of the outdoors inside.

    Once, older children were delegated to “sleep outs”, or closed-in verandas, when new siblings arrived. Over time, these draughty and unheated spaces may have been converted into bedrooms, and houses were increasingly built with dedicated rooms for each child.

    Older children were often relegated to sleeping in enclosed verandas, like on this house in Cairns in 1927.
    State Library Queensland

    Our research shows space creep now also occurs even in shrinking, empty nest households. Garages and sheds are increasingly being converted into “man-caves” or rumpus rooms for tinkering, play and privacy.

    Some families we spoke with bought bigger houses because there was a separate “hobby room” for crafts or music, or separate home offices. People now see these spaces as integral to their home life, and buy or build houses with this in mind.

    Space creep is also linked to how we consume. We saw many old fridges and chest freezers in garages, allowing for greater food storage because people were concerned about having enough food in the house, needed to bulk buy items to save money, or because they tried to minimise trips to the store.

    The routines set in these spaces result in us consuming more space. As we, as a society, become used to these spaces, we feel like we should need them.

    COVID changed perceptions of how much space is needed in our homes. People living in apartments now describe them as feeling much smaller than they did before.

    Pets are increasingly viewed as part of the family: almost half of homes have a dog, and one third own a cat. This means either making or buying more space to accommodate pets, as well as more energy consumption.

    Studies have found we spend more time in our houses than in the past, but overall time spent in each space in the house is less. And while the spaciousness of our homes may afford privacy, we lose connection. If every family member is in a different room on their individual screens, we lose some of the benefits of a family room.

    Do we need more apartments?

    After children have left, many people prefer to age in their communities. Without better options of smaller, well-built homes in the same location, older people often hold onto the large family home.

    Planning rules and conventionally designed houses often do not offer the flexibility of subdividing homes that have grown too large. Smaller townhouses in the same area may be two stories with stairs, making them inaccessible for many older people. Older people need to be able to downsize without moving away from their communities, services and local area.

    And yet, it is not as simple or straightforward as everyone living in apartments or units. Some larger houses are still needed to satisfy certain needs, like multi-generational living.

    One in five Victorians want to live in apartments, but only one in ten do.
    Denise Jans/Unsplash

    A recent study found one in five Victorians would prefer to live in an apartment, but only one in ten do.

    In Australia, apartments suitable for families are rare. Students, young couples or young families see apartments as transient living places and not as a forever home, in stark contrast to how families see apartments in many cities in Europe.

    As our lot sizes decrease and our new houses increase in size, garden space is compromised to the detriment of biodiversity, shading from trees and stormwater runoff.

    Low and mid-density living that allows for smaller houses and units with backyards and apartments with generous balconies close to larger shared spaces, like parks and sports grounds, may satisfy the desire for privacy, serenity and improve physical and mental health through contact with nature, while reducing the risk of hotter urban environments.

    Changing priorities

    Transitioning from larger to smaller homes, and from houses to apartments, means shifting from a culture where we have an abundance of private spaces such as pools, home theatres and hobby rooms in our homes to shared social infrastructure.

    We need to see increased investment in social infrastructure – especially in greenfield suburbs with new developments.

    People might chose to have a bigger house so they can have a home gym, instead of a gym membership.
    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    It means investing in walkable community facilities where people can go to pursue their interests and hobbies and connect with others. Instead of a private hobby room, these activities can be brought into a public space. Instead of multiple living areas, families can share one living space or use outside shared spaces such as Men’s Sheds.

    Changes to construction laws may help protect consumers and help householders gain confidence in the monetary value of multi-unit living, by providing solutions for issues in apartments such as cladding, safety and insurance.

    Another important step may be the New South Wales Housing Pattern Book. The book, to be released this year, will contain the winning designs of an international competition for terrace houses and mid-rise apartment buildings that offer compact sized dwellings with flexible room sizes, private and public outdoor spaces and ample natural light. The designs will be able to be licenced for use by developers and home builders, and enjoy faster approval processes.

    The availability of high-quality designs for smaller spaces in connection with attractive neighbourhood places may help Australians reimagine smaller, higher density, good home living.

    Bhavna Middha receives funding from the Australian Research Council for her Discovery Early Career Research Award (2024)

    Nicola Willand receives funding for research from various organisations, including the ARC, the Victorian state government, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the Future Fuels Collaborative Research Centre and the NHMRC. She is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network charity and affiliated with the Australian Institute of Architects.

    – ref. Australian houses are getting larger. For a more sustainable future, our houses can’t be the space for everything – https://theconversation.com/australian-houses-are-getting-larger-for-a-more-sustainable-future-our-houses-cant-be-the-space-for-everything-245476

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Fish and chips shouldn’t come with a catch: how Australia can keep illegal seafood off our plates

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leslie Roberson, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland

    If you’ve ever been stopped by quarantine officers at the airport, you might think Australia’s international border is locked down like a fortress. But when it comes to trade in seafood, it’s more like a net full of holes.

    Products sourced from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing can easily slip through to unsuspecting buyers.

    Seafood is among the world’s most traded agricultural commodities. Yet illegal fishing accounts for an estimated one-fifth of all wild-caught seafood.

    This represents a serious threat to marine ecosystems, food security and even human rights. The phenomenon has been linked to organised crime, modern slavery, and the depletion of vulnerable species such as abalone and hammerhead sharks.

    The blame usually falls on countries where the fishing occurs, or where the boat is registered. But seafood markets, including processors, retailers and consumers, play a major role in driving demand. They could also play a crucial role in combating illegal fishing.

    In our new policy paper, we propose more effective controls on seafood imports.

    What is illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing? (Australian Fisheries Management Authority)

    Australia’s role as a seafood-loving nation

    Australia spends considerable effort managing its own fisheries, ensuring they are legal and sustainable.

    Yet, 60 to 70% of the seafood consumed in Australia is imported.

    These imports come mainly from countries with weaker environmental regulations, more illegal activity, and greater vulnerability to labour abuse and slavery.

    Current policies leave Australia vulnerable to illegally sourced seafood. Key information, such as the fishing location or species name, is often not required under current trade measures. This means seafood products can be imported under vague labels such as “frozen fish”, obscuring their identity and origins.

    Suspect seafood products

    Certain seafood products such as shark fins are more likely to be sourced illegally for a variety of reasons, including high market value. Other riskier wild-caught products imported into Australia include:

    Most of the seafood consumed in Australia comes from overseas.
    Shine Nucha, Shutterstock

    A new border policy could help crack down on fishy imports

    Australia has made international commitments to consume sustainable seafood, in fisheries policy and through subscribing to the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Biodiversity Framework. Meeting these commitments will require being more careful about what we import from other countries. This could take the form of stricter border regulations.

    The Australian government has begun to explore trade measures aimed at denying entry to illegal or untraceable seafood products. A group of organisations was formed two years ago to support this process. While a draft report was released at the end of 2023, the final outcome remains delayed – perhaps until after the next federal election.

    To inform this process, we reviewed the existing seafood import policies and recommend eight key design criteria for improvement.

    Only the United States, the European Union, and Japan have systems in place to verify the legal origin of imported seafood. Since these are some of the world’s largest seafood import markets, their efforts are important. But their schemes all have notable flaws that Australia should avoid replicating.

    These systems are technologically obsolete, lack solid traceability and accounting mechanisms, and rely on trade documents that are often impossible to verify. Most systems are not fully electronic, resulting in shipping containers of seafood arriving with shoeboxes of paper catch certificates.

    There are no mechanisms for cooperation between countries. Crosschecking of the same certificate arriving in both France and Italy, for instance, is not yet possible. This makes it easy to reuse certificates across multiple countries, enabling trade of falsely labelled or illegally caught seafood.

    Unlawful transfer of fish between vessels is an example of illegal fishing activity.
    Richard Whitcombe, Shutterstock

    Australia’s chance to take the lead against fishy imports

    Seafood supply chains are notoriously complex. Without effective certification schemes, keeping seafood sourced from illegal fishing operations out of our market is virtually impossible.

    Although Australia’s seafood appetite is minuscule compared to the US, the EU, or Japan, it has the resources and the opportunity to create a better import control system. Such a system would involve designing an electronic platform with automated fraud detection mechanisms that tracks seafood products from the fishing boat, through the supply chain, to the Australian border. Australia can then start to close the sizeable loophole in its efforts to secure a legal and traceable seafood supply.

    Such policies would support sustainable Australian fisheries and help the country’s biggest seafood suppliers to source responsibly. Nearly every country in the world trades seafood: if countries implement smart import policies, illegally sourced seafood will become much easier to intercept.

    The authors appreciate the valuable contributions of Gilles Hosch, a fisheries expert with 25 years of experience in global fisheries compliance and seafood traceability.

    Leslie Roberson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Carissa Klein receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Rosa Mar Dominguez-Martinez receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Fish and chips shouldn’t come with a catch: how Australia can keep illegal seafood off our plates – https://theconversation.com/fish-and-chips-shouldnt-come-with-a-catch-how-australia-can-keep-illegal-seafood-off-our-plates-249481

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: YouTube hosts a lot of garbage – but the government is right to let kids keep watching it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney

    suriyachan/Shutterstock

    When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes of education and health support”. One such platform was YouTube.

    The government is currently conducting private consultations with the tech industry over how the social media ban – which won’t come into effect until at least December this year – will work, and the decision to exempt YouTube.

    Meta and TikTok have criticised the exemption. These tech giants have pointed to research which shows YouTube is the most popular social media platform among young people. They argue all social media sites used by under 16s should be held to the same standard.

    YouTube plays an important part in the digital lives of teens. It is a key source of information and entertainment for young people. At the same time, however, the video streaming platform hosts a diverse range of potentially harmful content, including content espousing misogynistic, racist, hateful and far-right ideologies.

    So is YouTube’s exemption from the social media ban justified?

    A multipurpose platform

    For many teens, YouTube is a major source of information. It offers not only entertainment, but also a sense of community.

    Young people use it to listen to and search for music and for watching television content; to keep up with news; to create their own content; for social connection; and to learn about new topics.

    YouTube has also been found to create a sense of community and boost the collective self-esteem of the LGBTQ community.

    Many organisations – such as mental health and sexual health organisations – seek to deliver important health information to young people through YouTube.

    In my research with families, parents and teens have told me YouTube is an invaluable source of information for both parents and teens. It can facilitate family bonding through co-viewing of either educational or entertaining videos.

    YouTube occupies an important place in the lives of young people. So banning them from it would cut off an important source of information, education, entertainment and connection.

    For many teens, YouTube is a major source of information. It offers not only entertainment, but also a sense of community.
    PixieMe/Shutterstock

    Recommending harmful content

    However, we also know that YouTube – like other social media sites and the internet more broadly – also contains potentially harmful content that the platform may recommend to young users.

    The algorithmic systems that recommend new videos to viewers can be difficult to study due to their opaque nature as commercially valuable IP carefully guarded by platforms.

    But from the studies that do exist, we know YouTube’s recommendation system has served content that is sexually explicit and otherwise distressing to young users.

    A recent report by Reset Tech also found YouTube’s algorithms may promote misogynistic and other extremist content to young people.

    A different design

    YouTube has in place a range of content moderation policies designed to combat these issues. For example, it takes action to prioritise in its recommendations sources from channels it deems reliable and unlikely to contain harmful content, with mixed results.

    Content that might harm young people is explicitly banned under the platform’s community guidelines.

    Of course, most social media platforms have similar restrictions in their guidelines.

    A key difference between YouTube and other social media platforms, however, is the way YouTube is designed to be used.

    Unlike Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, YouTube is not designed to be a social network. Users can and most commonly do go to the platform to passively watch videos, just as they might go to Disney+ or Netflix.

    The social media ban will apply to platforms such as Facebook, X and TikTok.
    Danishch/Shutterstock

    Striking the right balance

    The most alarming research into the impact of social media on young people suggests they are at the highest risk of harm when they are encouraged to actively rather than passively participate on social media platforms.

    Exempting YouTube from the ban strikes the right balance between recognising and valuing forms of cultural practice and consumption important to young people today and protecting them from online harm.

    But we should still continue to demand better practices from YouTube. There is always more these social media companies can do to protect their users from harm. When they fail to do so, they should be held accountable.

    While exempting YouTube from this ban, they should still be held to the highest safety standards under Australia’s Online Safety Act.

    The exemption also does not mean young people should be able to freely engage with YouTube without restriction or oversight.

    We must talk to our kids about what they watch, teach them critical thinking skills and ensure they have rich lives outside of the digital realm.

    One tangible step parents can take to reduce the risk of harm is to turn off the autoplay setting on YouTube for their kids, so videos do not stream back to back, stopping the endless flow of videos and providing an opportunity for viewers to consider what and whether they want to watch another video.

    Catherine Page Jeffery receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with Children and Media Australia.

    Joanne Gray currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council and has previously received funding for research from companies such as Meta Platforms and ByteDance.

    – ref. YouTube hosts a lot of garbage – but the government is right to let kids keep watching it – https://theconversation.com/youtube-hosts-a-lot-of-garbage-but-the-government-is-right-to-let-kids-keep-watching-it-250050

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Death following Exeter crash on 8 January

    Source: Tasmania Police

    Death following Exeter crash on 8 January

    Tuesday, 18 February 2025 – 12:10 pm.

    Sadly, police can confirm a 78-year-old woman died yesterday in Northern Tasmania.  
    The woman was involved in a crash on Main Road at Exeter on 8 January.  
    Following the crash the woman was taken to hospital in a serious condition and has since passed away. 
    Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the woman. 
    A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Pacific – Vanuatu’s earthquake won’t stop children learning – UNICEF

    Source: UNICEF Aotearoa NZ

    UNICEF supports Vanuatu’s recovery plan as thousands of children start a new school year
    Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 February 2025 – Two months on since the 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu, more than 12,000 children from affected schools are able to continue their learning during this new school year. The earthquake caused widespread damage to lives, homes, schools, and health care facilities.
    UNICEF is supporting government efforts to ensure that all children have as smooth a transition as possible back into learning, providing temporary learning spaces and materials to help children readjust. It is vital that children regain a sense of normalcy and connection, to protect them from the harmful effects of prolonged stress.
    According to the Vanuatu Ministry of Education and Training, 45 schools have been affected, with 107 classrooms sustaining varying levels of damage. 20 Early Childhood Care and Education centres were also affected. As a result, there are far too few safe classrooms for the numbers of children returning to school.
    Children must be able to learn, despite these challenges, so UNICEF and partners have provided more than 50 safe temporary learning spaces for 5,839 girls and boys. Learning materials, School-in-a-Box and Early Childhood Development kits for 2,300 children and teachers have also been provided. These learning spaces will not only provide a conducive learning environment but also serve as entry points for other essential services for children’s recovery including mental health and psychosocial support.
    Through the deployment of a child psychologist, teachers and other frontline workers are being trained to run psychosocial support activities with children. The activities are designed to help children express their feelings, and to help adults identify signs of distress, to provide counselling, and to make referrals to specialized mental health services where required.
    UNICEF is also supporting access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene practices to provide school children and teachers with a safe and supportive environment for learning. This includes quick fixes; restoring water, sanitation, and hygiene services; and the provision of WASH in school kits, which include soap and portable handwashing stations, to the affected schools. This is complemented with hygiene education materials and training to strengthen the operation and maintenance of WASH infrastructure.
    “Every child deserves to have the opportunity to learn, especially with these challenges,” said UNICEF Pacific’s Chief of Vanuatu Field Office, Eric Durpaire. “We are working with teachers and communities to enable a safe return to school for all children, under the leadership of the Ministry.”
    In the coming months, UNICEF’s recovery plan includes the rehabilitation of the classrooms that will allow children to shift from temporary learning spaces to semi-permanent or permanent structures. The plan must ensure the long-term maintenance and teacher and community resilience.
    UNICEF is working closely with the government, communities, and partners to integrate disaster-resilient designs as well as climate-adaptive measures into reconstruction efforts to reduce vulnerabilities. This includes support across essential aspects of a child’s optimal development – nutrition, health, safe water, learning opportunities and a safe and protected environment.
    Emergency response and recovery after a disaster such as this cannot be achieved alone. UNICEF acknowledges the support provided by donors including the Government of Australia, the Government of the United Kingdom as well as the United Nation’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), while acknowledging the Government of Vanuatu in ensuring that children can pack their bags for a new school year.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –