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Category: Features

  • MIL-Evening Report: How do candidates skirt Chinese social media bans on political content? They use influencers

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fan Yang, Research fellow at Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society., The University of Melbourne

    This election, social media has been a major battleground as candidates try to reach younger voters. As Gen Z and Millennials now make up the dominant voter bloc in Australia, securing their support is more electorally important than ever.

    This effort has also played out on Chinese social media platforms, namely WeChat and RedNote. Thousands of Australians use these apps, often as a main source of news.

    The RECapture research team has been tracking political activity on these platforms for years. Between October 2024 and April 2025, we observed 319 Liberal Party advertisements, 68 Labor Party advertisements, and 258 ads from independent candidates on WeChat. More than 20 Australian politicians used RedNote for self-promotion. Both platforms are becoming increasingly popular among politicians.

    But there’s a catch: political communication on these apps is either banned or hidden. So how do candidates work around the rules?

    We’ve found they use influencers and third parties, blurring the lines between authorised political advertising and undisclosed campaigning.

    Skirting the rules

    Platforms such as Facebook and Google maintain public ad repositories to document political advertising.

    On WeChat and RedNote, however, such content is not formally registered or subject to public scrutiny.

    Since 2019, WeChat has been a key platform for Australian politicians trying to reach Chinese-Australian voters.

    From 2022 onwards, our research has observed the rising political popularity of RedNote, driven by its low entry barriers and emphasis on visual content.

    Chinese app RedNote is increasing in popularity.
    Shutterstock

    In January, a shift of US-based users from TikTok to RedNote further elevated the platform’s prominence. Now, candidates of all stripes are using it.

    But WeChat bans political advertisements and campaigning. RedNote uses shadowbanning (the covert hiding of specific content) to limit the visibility of political accounts.

    As a result, political figures in democracies globally often bypass these restrictions by working with Chinese-language media or influencers to reach Chinese-speaking voters.

    This tactic enables political messaging outside platform and regulatory oversight. It undermines transparency and accountability in political communication.

    How do political ads work on WeChat?

    Political advertising on WeChat isn’t transparent. WeChat requires official account registration through Chinese businesses recognised by Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent.

    In Australia, Chinese-language media outlets serve as intermediaries. They distribute political campaign materials on behalf of candidates.

    Political advertising on WeChat is presented in three main formats:

    • embedded within articles

    • as sponsored content

    • and as short videos distributed via WeChat’s Channel function.

    Advertising costs are typically negotiated between media outlets and campaign teams, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the outlet’s influence and the ad’s target demographic.

    Spending on political ads on WeChat isn’t disclosed anywhere, so it’s very hard to track how much money is being spent this way.

    What do these ads look like?

    For example, we identified Scott Yung, a Liberal candidate for Bennelong, and Andy Yin, a former Liberal Party member now running as an independent for Bradfield. They both published between two and eight political advertisements on WeChat daily in April.

    These ads were in addition to their self-promotional content and other campaigning activities via short videos.

    This content sometimes includes celebrity endorsements. In 2019 and 2025, respectively, Yung and Yin used third-party media and marketing companies based in China to recruit celebrities to endorse their campaigns.

    However, such strategies are criticised domestically due to concerns about potential “Chinese influence” and perceived links to the Communist Party of China.

    But behind the public political ads lies a semi-private form of campaigning.

    By attaching a QR code to their political ads, candidates direct their campaigns to private group chats, enabling a more targeted form of engagement (observed in the case of Liberal candidate for Reid Grange Chung’s sponsored content).

    What about RedNote?

    Non-Chinese Australian politicians often get around shadowbans on RedNote by signalling their connection to Chinese communities through symbolic gestures. This includes posts showcasing their visits to Chinese restaurants or photos taken at Lunar New Year community events.

    Candidates of Chinese background often highlight their connections with prominent white Australian politicians, such as former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard, to show their standing and political credibility within the party.

    Discussions of party policies, especially controversial ones such as Australia-US-China relations, are rare. When they do occur, they are often selectively focused on matters of concern to Chinese migrants or those deemed safe for discussion on RedNote.

    Chinese-Australian candidates often organise their offline campaign events to target Chinese-Australian influencers. The influencers then disseminate relevant content on RedNote.

    As a result, candidates rely on content creators, influencers, supporters, migrant businesses and Chinese-language media outlets to promote their campaigns.

    Regulations falling by the wayside

    Candidates usually follow authorisation disclosure rules on their English social media pages.

    These rules, however, are often disregarded on RedNote or WeChat.

    Candidates often outsource their campaigning work to Chinese media and marketing agencies. This means the candidates have minimal oversight of the activities taking place on these platforms, raising concerns about whether electoral regulations may be inadvertently violated in the process.

    We’ve found instances of unauthorised pages of politicians and candidates that have gone unnoticed by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

    These are hard to find because the content is largely shadowbanned. If users or the AEC searched a particular candidate’s name, they wouldn’t be able to find much.

    In April, the AEC advised rules around authorising this sort of content. It said electoral communications distributed by people or organisations that are not political entities still require authorisation if monetary or gifts-in-kind transactions are involved.

    The AEC’s guidance further says political parties should include an authorisation if they repost collaborative content. The general principle is: “when in doubt, authorise it”.

    The key challenges here are identifying who collaborates with whom, on which platform, how content is remixed, and whether the collaboration is voluntary or involves monetary or in-kind transactions.

    The AEC doesn’t actively monitor Chinese social media platforms. This makes enforcing any regulations almost impossible.

    Given how much political candidates are using these apps, there needs to be better regulatory oversight of what happens on them.

    We thank researchers Robbie Fordyce and Mengjie Cai for their contributions to this project.

    The project is funded by the Susan McKinnon Foundation between 2024 and 2025.

    Dan Dai, Luke Heemsbergen, and Stevie Zhang do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How do candidates skirt Chinese social media bans on political content? They use influencers – https://theconversation.com/how-do-candidates-skirt-chinese-social-media-bans-on-political-content-they-use-influencers-253847

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Who would win in a fight between 100 men and 1 gorilla? An evolutionary expert weighs in

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Professor in Geochronology and Geochemistry, Southern Cross University

    Hung Hung Chih/Shutterstock

    The internet’s latest absurd obsession is: who would win in a no-rules fight between 100 average human men and one adult male gorilla?

    This hypothetical and strange question has taken over Reddit, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Some argue that humans once hunted mammoths so, clearly, we would win. Others point out that a silverback gorilla can lift close to 1,000kg and could throw a grown man like a rag doll.

    To be honest, it’s not really a question we need to answer – and yet, as usual on the internet, everyone has an opinion.

    But, beyond the jokes and memes, this silly debate provides an opportunity to reflect on human evolution. What are the real strengths of our species? What have we sacrificed? And what can a gorilla, our majestic, powerful and endangered distant cousin, teach us about our own nature and evolution?

    Gorillas and humans: two branches of the same evolutionary tree

    Gorillas are one of our closest living relatives. Along with chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans, they belong to the great apes or Hominidae family. Chimpanzees share about 98.8% of their DNA with us, while gorillas come a close second, sharing around 98.4%.

    The last common ancestor between humans and gorillas lived roughly 10 million years ago, and it is also the same ancestor for chimpanzees.

    Since the evolutionary split, humans and gorillas have followed very different paths. Gorillas have adapted to dense forests and mountainous terrains, while humans have evolved to live in the open, but realistically to multiple and various environments.

    Despite the substantial difference in ecological niches, humans and gorillas share many traits, such as opposable thumbs, facial expressions, complex social behaviours and emotional intelligence.

    Mastering forest power

    In the recent Dune saga, to win, Duke Leto Atreides wanted to develop “desert power”. Well, gorillas have mastered forest power.

    And let’s be clear – in terms of raw power, the gorilla wins every time. An adult male silverback can weigh more than 160kg and lift about a tonne without going to the gym every day. Their upper-body strength is shocking. And that’s no evolutionary accident – it’s the result of intense competition between males, where dominance determines mating.

    Additionally, gorillas are extremely tough and resilient, yet gentle and calm most of the time. Gorillas, like many primates, have a strong social intelligence. They use a variety of vocalisations, gestures and even chest drumming to communicate across distances.

    They have shown the ability to use sign language, mourn their dead, and demonstrate empathy, attesting to sophisticated cognitive skills.

    Trading muscles for minds

    A fight between 100 men and one gorilla might lead to a lot of dead men, but we all know that men will come with weapons, strategies, drones, fire and other clever tricks.

    Humans are not physically strong in comparison to many other mammals. Our strength as a species is our adaptability and our ability to collaborate in very large groups.

    Our brains are, on average, three times larger proportionally than those of gorillas. This fantastic evolutionary adaptation has allowed us to develop abstract thinking and symbolic language, but most of all, to pass and build on complex knowledge across generations.

    And this is our greatest superpower, our ability to cooperate across vast groups, far beyond the average gorilla social unit, which usually ranges from a few family members up to a group of 30 individuals.

    Humans’ evolutionary history has led to trading brute force for social, cultural and technological complexity, making us Earth’s most versatile and dangerous species.

    So, who’s the winner?

    In a one-on-one brawl, the gorilla can make “human-mash” with one hand. There is no contest when discussing brute force and bare hands.

    But humans fight dirty. Judging by our evolutionary success, humans would likely lose many battles but ultimately win the fight. Mountain gorillas were not on the brink of extinction in the 1980s without our help.

    Our species has spread across all continents, all terrains, and all climates. We have reshaped ecosystems, walked on the Moon, and developed advanced technologies. But gorillas are another kind of success rooted in harmony with their environment, physical grace, and quiet strength.

    Perhaps the real takeaway message isn’t who wins in a fight, but to realise that two very different and yet very close cousins have walked two separate evolutionary roads, each in their own distinct way. And both are nature’s triumph and accomplishment.

    Renaud Joannes-Boyau receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Leakey Foundation, National Geographic, and the European Research Council.

    – ref. Who would win in a fight between 100 men and 1 gorilla? An evolutionary expert weighs in – https://theconversation.com/who-would-win-in-a-fight-between-100-men-and-1-gorilla-an-evolutionary-expert-weighs-in-255621

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The global costs of the US-China tariff war are mounting. And the worst may be yet to come

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kai He, Professor of International Relations, Griffith University

    The United States and China remain in a standoff in their tariff war. Neither side appears willing to budge.

    After US President Donald Trump imposed massive 145% tariffs on Chinese imports in early April, China retaliated with its own tariffs of 125% on US goods.

    US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this week it’s up to China to de-escalate tensions. China’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said the two sides are not talking.

    The prospect of economic decoupling between the world’s two largest economies is no longer speculative. It is becoming a hard reality. While many observers debate who might “win” the trade war, the more likely outcome is that everyone loses.

    A convenient target

    Trump’s protectionist agenda has spared few. Allies and adversaries alike have been targeted by sweeping US tariffs. However, China has served as the main target, absorbing the political backlash of broader frustrations over trade deficits and economic displacement in the US.

    The economic costs to China are undeniable. The loss of reliable access to the US market, coupled with mounting uncertainty in the global trading system, has dealt a blow to China’s export-driven sectors.

    China’s comparative advantage lies in its vast manufacturing base and tightly integrated supply chains. This is especially true in high-tech and green industries such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar energy. These sectors are deeply dependent on open markets and predictable demand.

    New trade restrictions in Europe, Canada and the US on Chinese electric vehicles, in particular, have already caused demand to drop significantly.

    China’s GDP growth was higher than expected in the first quarter of the year at 5.4%, but analysts expect the effect of the tariffs to soon bite. A key measure of factory activity this week showed a contraction in manufacturing.

    China’s economic growth has also been weighed down by structural headwinds, including industrial overcapacity (when a country’s production of goods exceeds demand), an ageing population, rising youth unemployment and persistent regional disparities. The property sector — once a pillar of the country’s economic rise — has become a source of financial stress. Local government debt is mounting and a pension crisis is looming.

    Negotiations with the US might be desirable to end the tariff war. However, unilateral concessions on Beijing’s part are neither viable nor politically palatable.

    Regional coordination

    Trump’s tariff wars have done more than strain bilateral relationships; they have shaken the foundations of the global trading system.

    By sidelining the World Trade Organization and embracing a transactional approach to bilateral trade, the US has weakened multilateral norms and emboldened protectionist tendencies worldwide.

    One unintended consequence of this instability has been the resurgence of regional arrangements. In Asia, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), backed by China and centred on the ASEAN bloc in Southeast Asia, has emerged as a credible alternative for economic cooperation.

    Meanwhile, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) continues to expand, with the United Kingdom joining late last year.

    Across Latin America, too, regional blocs are exploring new avenues for integration, hoping to buffer themselves against the shocks of resurgent protectionism.

    But regionalism is no panacea. It cannot replicate the scale or efficiency of global trade, nor can it restore the predictability on which exporters depend.

    Looming dangers

    The greater danger is the world drifting into a Kindleberger Trap — a situation in which no power steps forward to provide the leadership necessary to sustain global public goods, or a stable trading system.

    Economist Charles Kindleberger’s account of the Great Depression remains instructive: it was not the presence of conflict but the absence of leadership that brought about the global economy’s systemic collapse.

    Without renewed global coordination, the economic fragmentation triggered by Trump’s tariff wars could give way to something far more dangerous than a recession – rising geopolitical and military tensions that no region can contain.

    The political landscape is already fraught. The Chinese Communist Party, for instance, has long tethered its legitimacy to the promise of eventual unification with Taiwan. Yet the costs of using force remain prohibitively high.

    Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent designation of China as a “foreign hostile force” have sharpened tensions. Beijing’s response has been calibrated – military exercises intended more as a warning than a prelude to conflict.

    However, the intensifying trade war with the US may become the final straw that exhausts Beijing’s patience, leaving Taiwan as collateral damage in a US-China final showdown.

    A role for collective leadership

    China alone is neither able nor inclined to assume the mantle of global leadership. Its current focus is more on domestic priorities – sustaining economic growth and managing social stability – than on foreign policy.

    Yet, Beijing can still play a constructive role in shaping the international environment through its cooperation with Europe, ASEAN and the Global South.

    The objective is not to replace American hegemony, but to support a more multi-polar and collaborative system — one capable of sustaining global public goods in an era of uncertainty.

    Paradoxically, a more coordinated effort by the rest of the world may ultimately help bring the US back into the fold. Washington may rediscover the strategic value of engagement — and return not as the sole leader, but as an indispensable partner.

    In the short term, other states may seek to gain an advantage from the great power standoff. But they should remember that what begins as a clash between giants can quickly engulf bystanders.

    In this volatile landscape, the path forward does not lie in exploiting disorder. Rather, nations must cautiously advance the shared interest in restoring a stable, rules-based global order.

    Kai He receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. The global costs of the US-China tariff war are mounting. And the worst may be yet to come – https://theconversation.com/the-global-costs-of-the-us-china-tariff-war-are-mounting-and-the-worst-may-be-yet-to-come-254583

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is WA Health having final say over edits of Paramedics ‘censorship’? Yes. But it’s necessary

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jan Cattoni, Lecturer, Screen Production, CQUniversity Australia

    Australian reality TV debuted in 2006 with Bondi Rescue. The show featured a winning formula of sun, surf, heroes and danger. It sparked many similar programs featuring police, helicopter crews and paramedics.

    Paramedics (2018–), as the title suggests, follows Australian paramedics at work, and airs on Nine. Previous seasons focused on staff of Ambulance Victoria and SA Ambulance. The latest season, being filmed now in Perth, follows paramedics of St John Ambulance Western Australia.

    Last week, the ABC reported WA Health has issued a directive that filming must end “at the time of entering a hospital ramp” and no filming is to happen at hospitals.

    They also stipulate “vision that is used to negatively portray the WA Health system, including but not limited to perceived capacity constraints, is not permitted to be used”.

    This move drew criticism from WA Shadow Health Minister, Libby Mettam, and WA president of the Australian Medical Association, Michael Page, who claimed it amounts to censorship of healthcare delivery issues, in particular issues of “ramping” – ambulances waiting outside emergency departments until space becomes available.

    I created and directed the reality series Chopper Rescue (2009–11) for ABC, following real rescue helicopter crews saving lives in regional and remote north Queensland. Here’s what to consider when it comes to obtaining permissions to record factual television shows like these.

    Sharing stories

    These shows occupy a complex position between service provision and entertainment, creating inherent conflicts of interest.

    I developed the concept for Chopper Rescue from dual perspectives: as a filmmaker and as an experienced PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) nurse who had participated in many retrievals.

    I wanted to share stories of the incredible rescue crews: unassuming individuals undertaking extensive training, available 24/7. They might just happen to be the person sitting on the train opposite you travelling home after an all night saga.

    I wanted audiences to appreciate how lucky we are to have such services.

    From my first experience retrieving a child from a small regional clinic in the middle of the night, I was struck by the human drama and visual spectacle. Flying low at dawn over a sleeping city and safely delivering a sick child to expert care adhered to a perfect narrative structure.

    The success of shows like Chopper Rescue and Paramedics depends on the willingness of professionals to share their knowledge, and of those being rescued agreeing to have their stories aired. The most successful shows are a partnership, where those in front of the camera are able to exercise some agency in how they are represented on screen.

    By the time viewers see such content, multiple layers of permission have been negotiated.

    Seeking consent

    The most complex negotiation is the access agreements with organisations who have jurisdiction over the entities involved. For Paramedics, agreements would have been negotiated with St John’s Ambulance and WA Health.

    Such agreements always include conditions to protect individuals and professional reputations.

    Production companies must obtain signed consent from everyone identifiable onscreen. This is a complicated process when filming in emergency departments where multiple personnel might be attending to critically unwell patients.

    Production release forms typically assign worldwide rights to use recordings, while indemnifying the company against claims. Individuals can request variations, such as viewing content before release, but this requires understanding this option exists. Ethical documentary practice would explore individuals’ options at the time of signing the release.

    If someone doesn’t consent, their face is typically blurred. This highlights the tension between legal and ethical practice: blurring of identity meets legal requirements, but overlooks an individual’s choice not to participate.

    Then there is the case of organisational access agreements. Post production facilities are intense spaces where editors, directors and producers make decisions about episodes, creating perfect cuts and dramatic effects. What’s often missing in the edit suite is professional knowledge to determine whether a scene, while being dramatically successful, might contain actions by a professional that could be viewed critically by peers.

    There is little scope for the acknowledgement of human error once a show is aired, but human error occurs – particularly in high stakes situations.

    Access agreements and filming protocols ensure edited content is reviewed by those familiar with the setting. In the case of the new season of Paramedics, this responsibility will fall to WA Health.

    Is this censorship? Yes. Is it necessary? I would say yes, given these shows offer entertainment, not expository documentaries.

    Our human vulnerability

    There is another hidden risk for those being rescued: the presence of cameras capturing professionals at work.

    Awareness that millions might be watching on can potentially distract paramedics, doctors and pilots – with potentially disastrous consequences.

    And what about patients’ rights to receive assistance without the presence of microphones and cameras? Can we assume that patients are informed in advance that they may be filmed and have the option to decline? Clear protocols for filming are essential to ensure such patient rights are protected.

    As a filmmaker, I recognise the appeal of these shows. Viewers access normally restricted spaces, witnessing emergency calls and human drama. Such moments can be potent, allowing reflection on our human vulnerability. The educational potential is also significant, sharing important information about health conditions and interventions.

    It is unclear whether similar restrictions were requested in other states, but there is nothing unusual in WA Health seeking conditions to film in their facilities.

    However, to specifically exclude ambulance ramping has potentially left them vulnerable to criticism, rather than requesting general content approval.

    Jan Cattoni 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. Is WA Health having final say over edits of Paramedics ‘censorship’? Yes. But it’s necessary – https://theconversation.com/is-wa-health-having-final-say-over-edits-of-paramedics-censorship-yes-but-its-necessary-255417

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What’s the difference between a tantrum and a meltdown?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shawna Mastro Campbell, Assistant Professor Clinical Psychology, Bond University

    Volurol/Shutterstock

    If you live with young children, there’s a good chance you’ve been on the receiving end of a child yelling, screaming, crying, throwing or hitting things.

    But how do parents know what is typical and age-related boundary pushing, what is a tantrum and what is a meltdown?

    What’s the difference anyway?

    What’s a tantrum?

    In general, a tantrum is considered behavioural. The child has learned that the behaviour (like screaming or crying in defiant protest) can help them get what they want.

    The behaviour may be a natural reaction for a child who is still learning how to regulate their emotions.

    Sometimes, the outcome a child wants is a parent’s attention. So if a parent yells and negotiates with their child, this can reinforce tantrums and make them more likely in the future.

    Once a child has obtained the desired outcome, the behaviour can decrease in the short term. But as the child has learned a tantrum is an effective way to get what they want, this may contribute to further tantrums in the long term.

    What’s a meltdown?

    A meltdown relates to having difficulty in regulating (usually distressing) emotions. We may still see the same types of behaviours and emotional outbursts as those in a tantrum. But a dysregulated child in a meltdown typically cannot de-escalate quickly, and offering a desired outcome is of little comfort.

    Usually, a meltdown happens because a child’s brain is overwhelmed, overloaded or under-resourced (for instance, if they are tired, hungry and don’t have skills to stay regulated). Their nervous system kicks into an “out of control” state of emotional dysregulation. In this situation, their brain is not yet able to learn, engage in rational discussion, or meaningfully apologise.

    Sometimes behaviours start as tantrums, quickly spiral into a feeling of being emotionally out of control, before a shift to “meltdown”.

    This can be especially relevant for children who are neurodevelopmentally divergent, such as autistic children or children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who may have less capacity to regulate their emotions.

    How to react?

    Dealing with tantrums and meltdowns involves parents being responsive, and labelling and understanding their child’s emotions.

    Empathy is the key to defusing big emotions and strengthening relationships. An empathetic response allows your child to feel connected to an understanding parent, which can de-escalate a conflict.

    For instance, if your child is crying and yelling after you tell them to power off the iPad before dinner, you might say:

    I can see you were enjoying watching that. It’s really tricky to stop doing something we like, like watching Bluey. I struggle to switch off my favourite show, too. But, it is time for dinner, so we will turn off the iPad now.

    How we hold boundaries is also important. For example, you might respond to a meltdown that includes hitting or throwing things with:

    You are allowed to be upset but you are not allowed to hurt me, hurt yourself, or our house.

    Not all behaviour is dangerous – such as swearing, using a silly voice, or using toilet-talk (saying things like “poo”). So it’s OK to pick your battles and ignore those behaviours by looking or turning away and not responding.

    However, if you are worried your child might harm themselves or someone else – perhaps by running away, or climbing on a table – an appropriate reaction is to ensure physical safety and say:

    It is my job to help you keep your body safe, so I’m going to help you make a safe choice.

    Dinner time! You know what usually happens next, a tantrum. But you can defuse the situation with some empathy.
    Steve Heap/Shutterstock

    What not to do

    Being harsh to yourself or worrying about strangers judging your parenting won’t help end the tantrum or meltdown any quicker.

    Distracting your child is rarely effective while a tantrum or meltdown is happening. This might even give children the impression they should avoid their feelings.

    Decades of research has also shown using forms of physical punishment such as smacking does not deter problematic behaviour, and contributes to worsening mental health in the short and long term.

    How about preventing tantrums and meltdowns?

    We cannot avoid tantrums or meltdowns entirely. Having intense emotions is part of normal child development. It is also not possible to always respond perfectly. Trying to meet your child’s needs for connection and boundary setting most of the time is “good enough”.

    But praising appropriate behaviour is the key preventative buffer against tantrums and meltdowns. You can also admire the unique and special qualities in your child.

    Both increase the quality of your relationship, let your child know what types of behaviour are appropriate, and makes them feel good about themselves – and you.

    Are you overwhelmed?

    Having patience for children having a tantrum or meltdown while their brain develops can be a challenge. But in the short term, you can be empathetic towards your child and yourself by saying:

    My child is learning, and so am I.

    For a longer-term perspective, say:

    This is a phase.

    If you feel overwhelmed, quick strategies can mean the difference between responding with empathy and boundaries, or reacting with accidental reinforcement, such as yelling or giving in. Try:

    • taking a few deep, slow breaths

    • counting to five before reacting

    • taking a break – make a cup of tea, get a drink of water

    • checking if you are tired, hungry, or have an unmet need

    • saying nothing if you have nothing nice to say

    • labelling your own feelings, and describing what you are going to do to calm down.

    Susan Rowe is a current member of the Gold Coast Primary Health Network Clinical Advisory Council.

    Shawna Mastro Campbell 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. What’s the difference between a tantrum and a meltdown? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-tantrum-and-a-meltdown-245762

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: 3 years on from the ‘integrity’ election, how is Australia tracking on corruption reforms?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Democracy Deputy Program Director, Grattan Institute

    Taras Vyshnya/Shutterstock

    At the last federal election, the then opposition leader Anthony Albanese pledged to “change the way politics operates in this country”. Integrity was a key issue in 2022, and Australians voted for a change of government and a wave of independents who championed anti-corruption reforms.

    Labor’s election commitments included a federal corruption commission “with teeth” and the powers to hold public hearings. The new government was subsequently held to account by crossbenchers who were elected on platforms of integrity and honesty in politics.

    Three years on, how much progress has been made on those promised changes?

    Australia has made significant headway on some of these fronts, while others are still in progress or have stalled. Whoever forms government after Saturday will need to stay the course on many of these reforms and lift its game on others.

    Corruption watchdog

    Australia now has a National Anti-Corruption Commission(NACC), a huge reform for public accountability.

    However, compromises were made on the promised model, most notably that the Commission only has the power to hold public hearings in “exceptional circumstances”.

    The NACC has been fairly quiet in its first two years in operation – not surprising given the time it takes to establish itself and wade through a mountain of potential investigations.

    But it did raise its head above the parapet with a decision not to investigate the Robodebt royal commission referrals, which drew so many complaints the decision was independently reviewed, and subsequently reversed.

    It is too soon to assess the success of the NACC, but we have seen some improvement in Australia’s Corruption Perceptions Index in recent years, which is at least partly attributed to its establishment.

    Other progress

    The Albanese government has also made progress on reducing vested-interest influence in our politics. Under the Electoral Reform Bill passed in February this year, Australians will now get better and more timely information on political donations. The new caps on electoral expenditure put a ceiling on the fundraising “arms race”.

    These are important steps forward. But the bill also takes a step back. It favours incumbents, which will make it harder for new entrants to contest elections. The changes don’t come into effect until July 1 next year, so there is still time for the next parliament to amend the rules.

    Finally, progress was made on appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which Labor claim had become highly politicised by the Morrison government.

    That tribunal was abolished and replaced with a new body, the Administrative Review Tribunal.

    Where are we now?

    On the eve of the 2025 election, Australia’s institutions are generally strong, outperforming many of our international peers.

    But we cannot afford to be complacent. The global context is increasingly alarming, with the international rules-based order under siege. Democracy is more fragile than ever.

    Australians generally trust that government will protect lives in an emergency, and that it takes decisions based on evidence. But they are more sceptical when it comes to corporate influence in politics, and misuse of public office for personal or political gain.

    5 priorities for action

    There are several things the next government can do to maintain trust and confidence in our institutions.

    The first is to stay the course on the NACC as it builds trust with the Australian people. This will take time, and increased public engagement, particularly through its corruption prevention outreach.

    Second, amending the recent electoral reforms would level the playing field for new candidates. The total cap of $90 million for electoral expenditure by a political party is too high. And the per-seat cap of $800,000 is too low, advantaging incumbents over new entrants, who typically need to spend more to
    introduce themselves to their electorates.

    There are also loopholes in the legislation that benefit the major parties by allowing the donations cap and disclosure threshold to apply separately to each branch of a party.

    Third, it would be timely to take a closer look at government advertising. Parliament should tighten the rules to ensure that taxpayer-funded advertising can’t be used to spruik the government of the day.

    Fourth, the government has the opportunity to build on the abolition of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, by extending best-practice processes to all public appointments. And it should make public grants processes more open and competitive.

    These reforms would support confidence in our institutions, ensure taxpayers get better value for money, and reduce opportunities for “jobs for mates” and “pork-barrelling”, which are particularly corrosive to public trust.

    Finally, the government can do more to reduce vested-interest influence in politics. Ministerial diaries should be published to improve transparency of lobbying activity.

    Gambling is one example of a powerful industry swaying policy in its favour. Consumer protections to prevent gambling harm are weak, despite the compelling case for reform. Government should be taking action in the public interest.

    Collectively, these reforms would have very little budgetary impact. But they could substantially improve confidence in our policy-making institutions, which should be a clear priority for whoever forms government after Saturday.

    The Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute’s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities as disclosed on its website.

    – ref. 3 years on from the ‘integrity’ election, how is Australia tracking on corruption reforms? – https://theconversation.com/3-years-on-from-the-integrity-election-how-is-australia-tracking-on-corruption-reforms-255635

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Savvy athletes and new technology are flipping traditional sports marketing on its head

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Cairney, Professor and Head of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences; Director, The Queensland Centre for Olympic and Paralympic Studies, The University of Queensland

    Not so long ago, life was pretty simple for sports leagues and teams when it came to connecting with fans: the contests and athletes were the stars of the show, with the on-field action covered and celebrated by sports media accordingly.

    Things are rapidly changing.

    Sport used to primarily be about performance, competition and entertainment. Now, sport and the athletes who play it are often dynamic media platforms.

    This paradigm shift is being driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, immersive technology and the creator economy. Each exposes anomalies in the old model and demands a new framework for how sport is consumed, valued and organised.



    Read more:
    The social media games: why sports teams and leagues aren’t just competing on the field

    A changing landscape

    In today’s modern sporting landscape, many leagues, teams and even mega-events are fully functioning media companies.

    Athletes are both product and producer.

    They not only generate performance-based content (highlights, stats) but also personal narratives, political positions, or cultural influence.

    They are creators and media entities in the full sense — with their own brands, platforms and followers.

    Professional leagues and events must reckon with the power shift these actions imply.

    There is extraordinary opportunity in leveraging athletes’ identities for deeper fan engagement. But there is also caution: narratives may not always align with league and team/owner agendas.

    Consider some recent examples.

    Former No. 1-ranked women’s tennis player Naomi Osaka used her platforms to create a brand that spans fashion, media and activism.

    Her 2021 withdrawal from the French Open, which she announced on her own terms on social media, stemmed from her decision to skip post-match press conferences to protect her mental health.

    Osaka’s move highlighted both the opportunity created by authentic, athlete-driven engagement and the challenge it posed to traditional tournament control.

    In 2024, Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese baseball phenomenon, offered a different but related case.

    A dominant pitcher and elite hitter, Ohtani signed a record-breaking US$700 million (A$1.1 billion) contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the most lucrative deal in baseball history.

    Since joining the Dodgers, he has tightly curated his public image, favouring controlled, self-managed media content over traditional press access.

    His control over access and messaging means the Dodgers and Major League Baseball can’t fully shape his story.

    Ash Barty’s post-retirement career offers a compelling Australian parallel.

    Since stepping away from tennis in 2022 while ranked No. 1, Barty has carefully balanced commercial endorsements, a memoir and media appearances.

    Like Osaka and Ohtani, Barty’s example speaks to a new form of athlete agency: one where narrative control, emotional transparency and strategic silence all play a role in reshaping sport’s public conversation.

    All these cases illustrate a shifting paradigm — where athletes are no longer just performers but powerful media outlets, often with more influence than the familiar institutions they represent.

    The influence of AI

    This opens important questions around ownership, intellectual property, image rights and the ethical stewardship of public platforms.

    It also means if athletes, players and leagues are media companies, monetisation is a function — but not the sole purpose. Successful media ecosystems don’t just sell content, they also build belonging.

    This means investing in and influencing community, culture and shared values — not just launching branded apps, paid streaming services, or spin-off content that extend the brand.

    AI, in this context, becomes a community-builder, not just a recommendation engine. Its ability to support personalised experiences and micro-segmented fan journeys allows for mass intimacy: experiences that feel deeply individual yet can be scaled broadly.

    With the help of data and machine learning, leagues and teams can now deliver mass customisation not just of products but of experiences and narratives — tailoring highlight reels, merchandise, content and even storylines for each fan. This shift enables a deeper, more emotional form of engagement.

    The National Basketball Association (NBA)’s upgraded app and NBA ID platform bring this to life, using Microsoft Azure AI to serve fans personalised highlight reels, real-time stat overlays and exclusive content based on their favourite teams and players.

    These “fan journeys of one” show how leagues can turn data into connection — building not just audiences but communities, powered by AI.

    As to what the future may hold, some key questions in this space are:

    • How does AI reshape the power dynamics between leagues, athletes and fans?
    • What new business models will emerge when the fan is also a co-creator?
    • Can AI be used to foster social good through sport, not just drive engagement metrics?

    This ongoing tension between “brand-dom” (controlled or innovative messaging) and “fandom” (grassroots, emotionally driven engagement) will continue to evolve as technology also evolves.

    Sport’s future won’t just be something we watch — it will be shaped by fans, athletes and technology working together, and it will keep changing faster than ever.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Savvy athletes and new technology are flipping traditional sports marketing on its head – https://theconversation.com/savvy-athletes-and-new-technology-are-flipping-traditional-sports-marketing-on-its-head-254596

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Feuding mob families, mind control and a murder at the White House: what to watch in May

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexa Scarlata, Lecturer, Digital Communication, RMIT University

    Disney+/Prime/Netflix/Paramount+/The Conversation

    It’s May! Where did the year go? It must be all the amazing TV we’re watching that’s making the time whiz by. This month’s lineup of expert picks is packed with standout shows across all genres.

    Whether you’re in the mood for laugh-out-loud comedies, powerful historical fiction, or sci-fi that will leave your brain rattling for days, there’s something binge-worthy waiting for you.

    MobLand

    Paramount+

    Lately, I’ve found myself counting down the days each week for a new episode of MobLand to drop on Paramount+ on Sunday afternoon. The crime series is executive produced (and the first two episodes directed) by Guy Ritchie, and stars Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren – along with a heavyweight supporting cast – in a story about two rival mob families in London.

    When tensions escalate after a night out, Hardy’s “fixer” character, Harry, works to keep the peace between the Harrigans and the Stevensons – be it with a quiet word or brutal force.

    MobLand is as twisty, gruesome and fun as we’ve come to expect from Ritchie’s popular gangster titles. But while others have been regularly criticised for their lack or limited portrayal of female characters, MobLand benefits from the scheming and swearing of the inimitable Helen Mirren as matriarch Maeve Harrigan, and the quiet fury of Joanne Froggatt as Harry’s wife, Jan, as she tries to force the enforcer into marriage counselling.

    The series has been a huge success for Paramount+ in Australia – becoming the largest launch in the platform’s history. And while some may find the weekly episode drop frustrating, for me it adds to the suspense.

    – Alexa Scarlata

    The Residence

    Netflix

    Faced with Donald Trump, show makers turn to alternative visions of leadership. The latest: a gay president, who is only a bit of a player, in a ridiculously entertaining picture of a crime within the White House.

    At a US state dinner for visiting Australian Prime Minister Stephen Roos (Julian McMahon), the dead body of the chief usher is discovered, and the world’s greatest detective, Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), is called in. Not only is Cupp an avid bird-watcher, she is also an Agatha Christie devotee who likes to assemble all her suspects for a prolonged denouement.

    The Residence is full of oblique references to current US politics. One former senator, Al Franken, plays a fictional senator named Aaron Filkins. And Tripp Morgan (Jason Lee), US President Perry Morgan’s odious brother, has several real-life precursors.

    The series is also a guide to the White House itself, complete with the sort of lavish detail we’d expect from Shondaland productions. And it’s nice to see Netflix acknowledging Australians. Even if they couldn’t persuade Hugh Jackman to actually show up, there’s plenty of other home-grown talent – including cameos by Kylie Minogue.

    – Dennis Altman

    Last One Laughing UK

    Prime Video

    Last One Laughing is a battle royale for stand-ups. Ten comedians, one room, surrounded by cameras. Laugh once and they’re warned. Laugh again, and they’re out. Last comic left wins.

    An international TV phenomenon in 29 countries, the latest season is from the United Kingdom, hosted by Jimmy Carr and featuring comedians like Bob Mortimer, Sara Pascoe and Joe Lycett.

    Comedy takes time, but laughter can take less than a moment. Richard Ayoade nearly catches out two players when, asked what his childhood hobbies were, he replies: “I don’t know. I cried a lot?”

    Last One Laughing doubles our laughs. We watch the actual joke, we get it, we laugh. And then we see comedians desperately trying not to laugh – but we know that they get the joke too! And so we get an unexpected second look at the joke.

    Last One Laughing helps us understand why we laugh at our own jokes, why we can’t always explain what’s funny, and why gags don’t need words. We’re watching professional comedians get the joke (as we do!) without laughing (as we expect?) but we know that it’s all OK. And, however briefly, we glimpse the world anew.

    – Fergus Edwards



    Read more:
    We’re hardwired to laugh – this is why watching comedians try to be the ‘Last One Laughing’ is so funny

    Dying for Sex

    Disney+

    Based on a popular podcast by Molly Kochan and Nicki Boyer, Dying for Sex is a funny, raunchy, heartfelt exploration of pleasure and death.

    When Molly (Michelle Williams) finds out her cancer is back and this time it is terminal, she seeks out sexual desire and satisfaction in unusual places, making profound discoveries along the way.

    The show is rated R for good reason: the depiction of sexual acts is graphic, but not exploitative or voyeuristic. Rather it embraces the messiness of having a body that is dying but seeking joy.

    While Molly’s sexual adventures feature heavily (and explicitly), the heart of the show is Molly’s friendship with Nicki (Jenny Slate), which feels achingly real. Molly and Nicki are long-term friends, as such they adore and encourage each other’s idiosyncrasies and perceived flaws.

    Williams is luminous and well-matched with Slate, who brings a levity and longing to caring for her best friend and supporting her new goals. Despite its relatively short runtime of just eight 30 minute episodes, we are treated to nuanced renderings of Molly’s complex relationships with her mother (Sissy Spacek), husband (Jay Duplass) and neighbour (Rob Delaney).

    Dying for Sex is infuriating and heartbreaking, as well as absurdly funny – kinda like death.

    – Jessica Ford

    Black Mirror, season seven

    Netflix

    The seventh season of Black Mirror is an ominous return to the dark world of modern technology. This season comprises six new episodes, two of which are sequels to episodes from previous seasons.

    Common People is a powerful opening to the season, starring two of the most famous actors to appear throughout. Amanda (Rashida Jones) and Mike (Chris O’Dowd) are an ordinary suburban couple struck by tragedy in the form of a serious medical emergency – a narrative turn that is compounded by an unexpected departure from Jones and O’Dowd’s comedic reputations. The collapse of their life reaches greater and greater depths, before culminating in a horrifying final scene.

    The other five episodes of the season are not as dismal. USS Callister: Into Infinity, in particular, provides some resolution that the earlier episode USS Callister had not. Plaything, the sequel to the interactive film Bandersnatch, echoes USS Callister’s interest in video gaming, but takes its invasion of human life to an even more powerful conclusion. Bête Noire similarly toys with the idea of mind control.

    Hotel Reverie and Eulogy are quieter episodes, and not as overtly critical of technological advance as the others. Both are very moving, and like Common People, are interested in the lengths one might go to for the people they love.

    Black Mirror’s seventh season is both a warning and a guide for how to be human – and how not to.

    – Jessica Gildersleeve

    The Wheel of Time, season three

    Prime Video

    The Wheel of Time is Prime’s most recent entry into the increasingly popular epic fantasy genre. Despite a lacklustre first two seasons, season three finally rewards fans for their patience.

    Adapted from Robert Jordan’s sprawling 14-book series, the new season begins full throttle with a violent battle between the all-female One Power-wielding Aes Sedai. While some episodes lag due to overly complicated exposition and agonising character development (just embrace the wolf already, Perrin), for the most part showrunner Rafe Judkins maintains the propulsive momentum established in the spectacular opening.

    Episode four, The Road to the Spear, is a standout sure to please die-hard Jordan fans and new audiences alike. Cinematic in scope, the episode faithfully recounts Rand (Josha Stradowski) and Moiraine’s (Rosamund Pike) journey to Rhuidean in the Aiel Waste where Rand is confirmed as the Dragon Reborn.

    Pike continues to provide much-needed gravitas as the steely Moiraine and Stradowski is a revelation. It doesn’t hurt that the episode makes good use of its deliciously vampy leather-clad villain Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe).

    No doubt references to Jordan’s expansive lore might continue to baffle some viewers. However, the sumptuous costumes, increasingly assured performances and modernised relationships suggest the series has finally found its footing.

    Long may The Wheel of Time continue to turn.

    – Rachel Williamson

    The Narrow Road to the Deep North

    Prime Video

    The Narrow Road to the Deep North stands as some of the most visceral and moving television produced in Australia in recent memory, marking a new accessibility and confidence to director Justin Kurzel.

    Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi/Ciarán Hinds) is a doctor sent to World War II. Captured during the Battle of Java he is taken as a prisoner of war (POW), where he is forced to lead his Australian soldiers on the building of the Burma-Thailand Railway.

    Rather than an executor of violence, he is a pacifist and victim. Ultimately he has to make peace with his own trauma and guilt of survival when many around him perished – some of whom he knowingly sent to their inevitable death to ensure his own survival.

    Faithfully adapted from Richard Flanagan’s novel in a screenplay by Shaun Grant, this production effectively creates interchanging timelines (seamlessly edited by Alexandre de Francesch) including prewar, war and postwar, and then flashes forward to Dorrigo in his mid-70s.

    Structurally immaculate, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is not defined by its brutal torture of the POWs or comradeship of the starving soldiers (though they are powerful to watch). Instead, it points us towards the quieter visions of characters having to sit alone with their distorted memories.

    Contemporary television is rarely this good.

    – Stephen Gaunson



    Read more:
    Contemporary television is rarely as good as The Narrow Road to the Deep North

    Andor, season two

    Disney+

    Andor returns for a second season, as we follow the early days of the Rebel Alliance leading up to events in Rogue One.

    One year after the events of season one, we open with Cassian (Diego Luna) impersonating an Imperial test pilot so he can steal a prototype Imperial ship. After stealing the ship, he must navigate a ragtag brigade whose infighting becomes violent.

    Elsewhere on planet Mina-Rau, Bix (Adria Arjona) and other undocumented farm workers await Cassian’s arrival with the ship. Over on Chandrila, Imperial Senator Mon (Genevieve O’Reilly) navigates the diplomacy of her daughter’s wedding while continuing to discreetly support the rebellion.

    The most chilling scenes in the opening episodes are perhaps those that show Imperial supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) attend a top-secret meeting where they strategise how best to cleanse the population of Gorman so they can mine a rare mineral.

    As film academic Daniel Golding notes in an article about how Andor takes on the era of Trump 2.0, showrunner Tony Gilroy takes inspiration from several real world revolutionary events. Given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s assault on Gaza and Trump’s increasing authoritarianism, it will be interesting to see how the revolution in this season continues to reflect real-world precarity.

    I recommend refreshing your memory of season one before diving in, as the new season’s complexity relies on considerable assumed knowledge.

    – Stuart Richards

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Feuding mob families, mind control and a murder at the White House: what to watch in May – https://theconversation.com/feuding-mob-families-mind-control-and-a-murder-at-the-white-house-what-to-watch-in-may-255222

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Are side hustles really a way to escape the rat race, or just passion projects for a privileged few?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Farrugia, ARC Future Fellow, School of Education, Deakin University

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Is a “side hustle” really the only thing separating you from the life you desire? Listening to some influencers on social media could certainly have you thinking so.

    Side hustles encompass a range of self-directed entrepreneurial activities undertaken while also working a job. For young people with limited access to capital, they’re the most accessible opportunity to engage in entrepreneurship.

    Yet, we still know very little about who takes them on and why, and what kind of impact they have on working life in economies like Australia.

    Our new report – Side Hustles – How Young People Are Redefining Work – presents the first wave of findings from an ongoing three-year, mixed-methods study that seeks to answer these questions.

    In our first year of data collection, we surveyed 1,497 side hustlers aged 18-34 and interviewed a further 68. Our findings raise questions about the merits of entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment or a pathway to financial freedom.

    What makes a side hustle?

    To be included in our project, a young person had to be employed, but also carrying out some form of entrepreneurship.

    We defined entrepreneurship as self-directed economic activity, where the side hustler has some measure of control over when they work, who they work for and what they charge.

    The most popular side hustle among participants was selling goods (42.9%). Others included:

    • services such as gardening, dog-walking or moving furniture (29.2%)
    • creating media content (16.5%)
    • creative work such as graphic design or photography (11.3%).

    Side hustling could include some “gig work” through online platforms, but only when these platforms allow workers to negotiate prices with clients and make choices about their work. As such, we excluded rideshare and food delivery drivers from the project.

    Gardening services were one common side hustle.
    Ultraskrip/Shutterstock

    Projects for the privileged

    While some people may assume that young people start a side hustle out of financial stress, we found side hustlers are actually a relatively privileged cohort.

    They are a well-educated group. Almost two-thirds of our sample had university degrees and many of the remainder were studying. They also generally report their financial wellbeing as comfortable.

    Why is this? Side hustles often don’t make much money, cost money to set up, and carry risk – all of the hallmarks of entrepreneurship.

    Median hourly earnings from their side hustles are less than what they would make working in retail or hospitality, and on average they are about 50% what they make in their main job.

    As one e-commerce side-hustler put it:

    If I really put my time and energy into the consideration, I would say we’re not making much money at all […] It’s just something I enjoy doing in my free time.

    Their side-hustle earnings are also uncertain: 65% say they are unsure what their earnings will look like in three months.

    In other words, you need to be financially secure already to even contemplate a side hustle.

    Passion over pay

    Side hustles don’t make enough to help someone who is really financially struggling, and they are unlikely to be a pathway out of the employment “rat race”.

    Despite this, our participants are overwhelmingly satisfied with their side hustles and say they have good work-life balance. So what motivates them?

    Side hustlers often earned less than they would taking on a second job.
    BAZA Production/

    The top motivation reported in our study is passion and enjoyment. Side hustlers say they want work that relates to their interests and enjoy the autonomy and flexibility that a side hustle allows.

    Even though side hustles are often less profitable than a second job, the second-highest motivation was still money.

    That’s likely because they offer a way of making some supplementary income in a way that is flexible and autonomous.

    They’re often a source of “play money”. One 33-year-old man with an e-commerce side hustle told us:

    If I was to pick up a second job, like […] Uber driving at night time, I won’t be happy, I’ll be tired, I’ll be stressed out trying to do that

    Whereas, I think because I’ve got the passion for it here, I’m happy to do it because, like I said, I’m doing it at my own pace.

    Pressure to be productive

    Our research suggests that rather than being a pathway out of unemployment, side hustles actually represent a broader social and economic trend: more and more of young people’s lives are being encompassed by work.

    Interviewees frequently talked about feeling like they needed to make their time outside of work productive in some way. For some, it was as though they could not justify leisure time unless it was financially profitable.

    One participant told us:

    You obviously want to enjoy life and have a bit of a chill time, but some days you just go like, “What am I doing? Just sitting at home and just relaxing watching Netflix or whatever. I should probably be out there making more money”.

    Blurring work life boundaries?

    Most participants were also not very concerned about growing their side hustles into businesses.

    Instead, they aspired for balanced working lives with a side hustle offering passion, flexibility and autonomous work, and paid employment supporting them financially and offering the option of a traditional career.

    They also did not necessarily see the time spent on their side hustles as work, being much more personally invested and self-directed in their side hustles than in their paid jobs.

    But this means that much of their “leisure” time looks very much like work, and more and more of their lives are dedicated to being productive.

    David Farrugia receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Brendan Churchill receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Kim Allen receives funding from the ESRC

    Stephanie Patouras 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. Are side hustles really a way to escape the rat race, or just passion projects for a privileged few? – https://theconversation.com/are-side-hustles-really-a-way-to-escape-the-rat-race-or-just-passion-projects-for-a-privileged-few-255002

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: When it comes to health information, who should you trust? 4 ways to spot a dodgy ‘expert’

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University

    Surface/Unsplash

    When it comes to our health, we’re constantly being warned about being taken in by misinformation. Yet for most of us what we believe ultimately comes down to who we trust, including which “experts” we trust.

    The problem is that not everyone who presents themselves as an expert is actually an expert. And an expert in one area isn’t necessarily an expert in everything.

    The reality is that we often rely on superficial cues to decide who to trust. We’re often swayed by how confidently someone speaks, their perceived authority, or how compelling their story sounds. For some, it’s simply the loudest voice that carries the most weight.

    Even if we feel we have some understanding of science, few of us have the time or the capacity to verify every claim made by every so-called “expert”.

    So how can we distinguish credible experts from those that are not? Here are four things I look out for.

    1. Dodgy experts don’t acknowledge uncertainty

    One thing that separates trustworthy experts from dodgy ones, is their humility. They have a healthy respect of the limitations of science, the gaps in the evidence, and even the limitations of their own expertise.

    And importantly, they communicate this clearly.



    Read more:
    Uncertain? Many questions but no clear answers? Welcome to the mind of a scientist

    In contrast, one of the most common characteristics of the dodgy expert is they are misleadingly certain. They often present issues in overly simplistic, black-and-white terms, and they draw conclusions with misplaced confidence.

    This, of course, is part of their appeal. A neat clear-cut message that downplays uncertainty, complexity and nuance can be persuasive – and often even more persuasive than a messy but accurate message.

    One of the clearest examples of unfounded certainty was the confident claim by some “experts” early in the pandemic that COVID was no worse than the flu, a conclusion which ignored uncertainties in the emerging data.

    2. The dodgy experts doesn’t strive to be objective

    Credible experts follow a well-established and disciplined approach when communicating science. They present their understanding clearly, support it with evidence, and endeavour to remove emotion and bias from their thinking.

    A core principle of scientific thinking is striving for objectivity – and language reflects this. Experts generally aim to provide high-quality information to assist the public to make informed decisions for themselves, rather than manipulating them to reach specific conclusions.

    Dodgy experts often rely on overly emotional language, inject political agendas, or resort to personal attacks against critics in order to elicit strong emotions. This is a powerful tool for manipulating opinions when the evidence is lacking.

    One of the most harmful examples of this is the use of emotional testimonials by dodgy experts who claim people have “beaten cancer naturally”, offering false hope and often leading patients to abandon proven treatments.

    3. Dodgy experts cherry-pick evidence

    Despite what those seeking to mislead you would have you believe, scientists only reach consensus when a large body of high-quality evidence points in the same direction.

    So one of the most crucial skills experts possess is the ability to critically evaluate evidence. That means understanding its strengths and weaknesses, assessing its reliability, and synthesising what the full evidence base indicates. This task requires a deep understanding of their area of expertise.

    Dodgy experts don’t do this. They tend to dismiss inconvenient evidence that contradicts their narrative and readily embrace flawed, or even discredited, studies. In short: they often cherry-pick evidence to suit their position.

    Unfortunately, this tactic can be hard to spot if you don’t have an understanding of the full evidence base, which is something dodgy experts exploit.

    Scientists only reach consensus when a large body of evidence points in the same direction.
    Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock

    A red flag that you are being misled by a dodgy expert is when there is a clear over-reliance on a single study, despite its low quality.

    Perhaps the most well-known example of cherry-picking is the way dodgy experts rely on a single, discredited study to push the false claim that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine causes autism, while ignoring the vast body of high-quality evidence that clearly shows no such link.



    Read more:
    Monday’s medical myth: the MMR vaccine causes autism

    4. Dodgy experts don’t change their mind when the evidence changes

    Dodgy experts are often rigidly attached to their beliefs, even when new evidence emerges.

    In contrast, genuine experts welcome new evidence and are willing to change their views accordingly. This openness is often unfairly portrayed as weakness, but it reflects an expert’s desire to understand the world accurately.

    A striking example of this is the shift in our understanding of stomach ulcers. For years, ulcers were blamed on stress and spicy food, but that changed when Australian gastroenterologist and researcher Barry Marshall, in a bold move, swallowed Helicobacter pylori to demonstrate its potential role.

    His self-experiment (which is generally not recommended!) was the first step in a broader body of research that ultimately proved bacteria, not lifestyle, was the primary cause of ulcers. This ultimately led to Marshall and his colleague pathologist and researcher Robin Warren being awarded a Nobel Prize.

    As this example highlights, when presented with the evidence, clinicians and scientists acknowledged they’d got the underlying cause of stomach ulcers wrong. Clinical practice subsequently improved, with doctors prescribing antibiotics to kill the ulcer-causing bacteria.

    This is how science informs practice so we can continually improve health outcomes.

    In a nutshell

    True expertise is marked by intellectual humility, a commitment to high-quality evidence, a willingness to engage with nuance and uncertainty, flexibility, and a capacity to respectfully navigate differing opinions.

    In contrast, dodgy experts claim to have all the answers, dismiss uncertainty, cherry-pick studies, personally attack those who disagree with them, and rely more on emotion and ideology than evidence.

    Hassan Vally does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. When it comes to health information, who should you trust? 4 ways to spot a dodgy ‘expert’ – https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-health-information-who-should-you-trust-4-ways-to-spot-a-dodgy-expert-253437

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Playing politics with AI: why NZ needs rules on the use of ‘fake’ images in election campaigns

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Isaacs, Lecturer, Anthropology, University of Waikato

    Laurence Dutton/Getty Images

    Seeing is no longer believing in the age of images and videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI), and this is having an impact on elections in New Zealand and elsewhere.

    Ahead of the 2025 local body elections, voters are being warned by overseas politicians and local experts not to automatically trust that what they are looking at is real.

    Deepfakes – images or video created with the use of AI to mislead or spread false information – were used in last year’s United States presidential election. Early in the campaign, a deepfake voice clip impersonating then president Joe Biden told voters not to cast a ballot vote in New Hampshire’s primaries.

    There have also been concerns about the role of deepfakes on the campaign trail in Australia. The Labor Party, for example, released an AI-generated video of opposition leader Peter Dutton dancing on its TikTok account.

    But the worry is not just that deepfakes will spread lies about politicians or other real people. AI is also used to create “synthetic deepfakes” – images of fake people who do not exist.

    Using artificially generated images and videos of both real and fake people raises questions around transparency and the ethical treatment of cultural and ethnic groups.

    Cultural offence with AI isn’t a hypothetical concern. Australian voters have found some AI used in political advertising to be “cringe” and culturally clumsy, with one white female politician using auto-tuned rapping in her campaign.

    Australians have also reported an increase in deepfake political content. The majority were unable to detect AI content.

    Several countries including Australia and Canada are considering laws to manage the harms of AI use in political messaging.

    Others have already passed legislation banning or limiting AI in elections. South Korea for example, banned the use of deepfakes in political advertising 90 days before an election. Singapore has banned digitally-altered material misrepresenting political candidates.

    While New Zealand has several voluntary frameworks to address the growing use of AI in media, there are no explicit rules to prevent its use in political campaigns. To avoid cultural offence and to offer transparency, it is crucial for political parties to establish and follow clear ethical standards on AI use in their messaging.

    Existing frameworks

    The film industry is a good starting point for policymakers looking to establish a clear framework for AI in political messaging.

    In my ongoing research about culture and technology in film production, industry workers have spoken about New Zealand’s world-leading standards on culturally aware film production processes and the positive impact this had on shaping AI standards.

    Released in March 2025, the New Zealand Film Commission’s Artificial Intelligence Guiding Principles takes a “people first” approach to AI which prioritises the needs, wellbeing and empowerment of individuals when developing and implementing AI systems.

    The principles also stress respect for matauranga Māori and transparency in the use of AI so that audiences are “informed about the use of AI in screen content they consume”.

    The government’s Public Service AI framework, meanwhile, requires government agencies to publicly disclose how AI systems are used and to practice human-centred values such as dignity and self-determination.

    AI in NZ politics

    Meanwhile, the use of AI by some of New Zealand’s political parties has already raised concerns.

    During the 2023 election campaign, the National Party admitted using AI in their attack advertisements. And recent social media posts using AI by New Zealand’s ACT party were criticised for their lack of transparency and cultural sensitivity.

    An ACT Instagram post about interest rate cuts featured an AI generated image of a Māori couple from the software company Adobe’s stock photo collection.

    Act whip Todd Stephenson responded that using stock imagery or AI-generated imagery was not inherently misleading. But he said that the party “would never use an actor or AI to impersonate a real person”.

    My own search of the Adobe collection came up with other images used by ACT in its Instagram posts, including an AI generated image labelled as “studio photography portrait of a 40 years old Polynesian woman”.

    There are two key concerns with using AI like this. The first is that ACT didn’t declare the use of AI in its Instagram posts. A lack of transparency around the use of deepfakes of any kind can undermine trust in the political system. Voters end up uncertain about what is real and what is fake.

    Secondly, the images were synthetic fakes of ethnic minorities in New Zealand. There have long been concerns from academics and technology experts that AI generated images reproduce harmful stereotypes of diverse communities.

    Legislation needed

    While the potential for cultural offence and misinformation with faked content is not new, AI alters the scale at which such fakes can be created. It makes it easier and quicker to produce manipulative, fake and culturally offensive images.

    At a minimum, New Zealand needs to introduce legalisation that requires political parties to acknowledge the use of AI in their advertising. And as the country moves into a new election season, political parties should commit to combating misinformation and cultural misrepresentation.

    Bronwyn Isaacs is a member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

    – ref. Playing politics with AI: why NZ needs rules on the use of ‘fake’ images in election campaigns – https://theconversation.com/playing-politics-with-ai-why-nz-needs-rules-on-the-use-of-fake-images-in-election-campaigns-255415

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Donald Trump has cast a long shadow over the Australian election. Will it prove decisive?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

    Donald Trump is everywhere, inescapable. His return to power in the United States was always going to have some impact on the Australian federal election. The question was how disruptive he would be.

    The answer is very – but not in the ways we might have thought.

    As soon as Trump was elected president, the political debate in Australia focused on whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would be best suited to managing him – and keeping the US-Australia security alliance intact.

    Initially, at least, this conversation was predictable.

    The Coalition looked set to continue an ideological alignment with Trumpism that had flourished under the prime ministership of Scott Morrison. Dutton prosecuted the argument that given his party’s experience with the first Trump administration, it would be better placed than Labor to handle the second.

    Albanese, meanwhile, appeared caught off guard by Trump’s victory and timid in his response.

    But as has become all too clear, the second Trump administration is radically different from the first. That has rattled the right of Australian politics and worked to Labor’s advantage.

    A turning point at the White House

    In January, the Coalition announced that NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price had been appointed shadow minister for government efficiency – a direct importation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being led by Elon Musk in the US.

    In a barely disguised imitation of the Trump administration’s attacks on “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) measures, members of the Coalition, including Price, singled out Welcome to Country ceremonies as evidence of the kind of “wasteful” spending it would cut.

    When the Coalition seemed to be riding high in the polls, Dutton, too, nodded at “wokeism” and singled out young white men feeling “disenfranchised”.

    Soon after, however, this began to change. The first few weeks of Trump’s second term were marked by a cascade of executive actions targeting trans people, climate action and immigration. Trump and his new appointees began the process of radically reshaping the United States and its role in the world.

    In February, polling by the independent think tank The Australia Institute found Australians saw Trump as a bigger threat to world peace than Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    And then Volodymyr Zelensky went to the White House.

    The Ukrainian president was humiliated in an Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, laying bare how the administration was willing to treat the leader of an ally devastated by a war it hadn’t started.

    Trump’s territorial threats towards Canada and Greenland, in addition to his dismissive statements about European allies, shattered the long-held assumptions about the US as a force for stability in the world.

    MAGA ideology isn’t ‘pick and choose’

    After this incident, Dutton was careful to distance himself from Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine. He even went so far as to say that leadership might require “standing up to your friends and to those traditional allies because our views have diverged”.

    Similarly, influential Coalition powerbroker Peta Credlin wrote in The Australian:

    it’s hard to see America made great again if the Trump administration’s message to the world is that the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.

    Therein lies the bind for the Coalition – an ideological alignment with “Make America Great Again” cannot be fully reconciled with a nationalism that puts Australian interests first.

    MAGA ideology is all-or-nothing, not pick-and-choose.

    During the election campaign, the Coalition attempted to walk the path of “pick-and-choose”. And Labor quite successfully used this against them. Assertions the opposition leader was nothing but a “Temu Trump”, or “DOGE-y Dutton”, stuck because they had at least a ring of truth to them.

    The opposition’s pledge to dramatically reduce the size of the public service, for example, was clearly linked to Musk’s efforts at DOGE to take a chainsaw to the public service in the US. This idea has been deeply unpopular with Australian voters, and the Coalition has faced innumerable questions about it.

    For all the talk of “shared values” and how essential the US alliance is to Australian security, this campaign shows that Australia is not like America.

    Most Australians concerned about Trump’s impact

    When Trump’s tariffs arrived on “Liberation Day” in early April, both leaders claimed they were best placed to negotiate.

    Albanese insisted Australia had got one of the best results in the world, while Dutton asserted, without evidence, that he would be able to negotiate a better one.

    More broadly, the Trump tariffs have contributed to a growing sense of unease in the electorate.

    A recent YouGov poll found that 66% of Australians no longer believe the US can be relied on for defence and security. According to Paul Smith, the director of YouGov, this is a “fundamental change of worldview”.

    In the same poll, 71% of Australians also said they were either concerned or very concerned Trump’s policies would make Australia worse off.

    While neither party has signalled it would make a fundamental shift in Australia’s alliance with the US if elected, that doesn’t mean changes aren’t possible.

    Independents and minor parties may well play a significant role in the formation of the next government. Some, like Zoe Daniel and Jacqui Lambie, are increasingly vocal about the risks the Trump administration poses to Australia.

    A limit to Trumpism’s appeal

    As election day approaches, many of the assumptions driving conventional Australian political thinking are under pressure.

    Labor’s recovery in the polls, and the Liberals’ election win in Canada, suggest assumptions about the dangers of incumbency might have been misplaced. The dissatisfaction with incumbent governments last year may have had more to do with unresponsive political parties and systems.

    There’s evidence emerging, instead, that in more responsive democracies with robust institutions like Australia and Canada, Trumpism does not have great appeal.

    The idea that “kindness is not a weakness” may yet prove to be a winning political strategy.

    Emma Shortis is Director of International and Security Affairs at The Australia Institute, an independent think tank.

    – ref. Donald Trump has cast a long shadow over the Australian election. Will it prove decisive? – https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-has-cast-a-long-shadow-over-the-australian-election-will-it-prove-decisive-255422

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australians are warming to minority governments – but they still prefer majority rule

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Biddle, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

    Minority governments have been part of Australia’s political history since Federation.

    In the country’s early decades, Prime Ministers Edmund Barton, Alfred Deakin, Chris Watson, George Reid and Andrew Fisher all led without commanding a majority in the House of Representatives. Since the second world war, majority governments have become the norm at the national level, underpinned by the two-party system of Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition.

    Minority government has been rare, with the notable exception of Julia Gillard’s Labor government from 2010 to 2013. However, at the state/territory level, minority governments are far more common.

    The 2025 federal election could mark another shift. While Labor has pulled ahead in the polls over the course of the campaign, a minority government remains a real possibility.

    Even if a slim majority is achieved, the trend of falling primary votes for both major parties suggests minority governments could become more common in the years ahead.

    We have examined new data from more than 3,600 respondents in the March/April wave of the 2025 Election Monitoring Survey Series (EMSS) from the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at the ANU. The results shed light on how Australians feel about the prospect of minority government, and how these attitudes could shape political expectations.

    Australians are more accepting of minority governments

    When respondents were asked whether they found the idea of a minority government acceptable, more said they did (39.3%) than said they did not (32.6%).

    This pattern is especially strong among Labor voters, minor party supporters, and those undecided about their vote. Only among Liberal voters was a minority government viewed more negatively, with a majority (51.8%) saying it would be unacceptable.

    These findings suggest that minority government does not present the widespread illegitimacy and inefficiency to the electorate that is sometimes claimed by political leaders.

    Fears of instability, but hopes for accountability

    Despite growing acceptance, Australians are divided about the likely consequences of a minority government.

    When asked whether a minority government would make politics more unstable or more representative and accountable, the country was split. About 42.7% expected more instability, while 37.6% expected greater representativeness. Another 19.6% believed it would make no real difference.

    Again, partisan divides are stark. Coalition voters overwhelmingly expect instability (62.3%), whereas minor party supporters are more optimistic about minority government delivering better accountability.

    These mixed expectations suggest while many suspect minority government will be a rocky ride, most expect little to no change. This is in contrast to recent claims a return to minority government would either further damage democracy or revitalise it by forcing change.

    Public supports reforms to make minority government work

    If a minority government emerges post-election, institutions will need to adapt. Some changes will be legislative, others cultural, some political.

    Recognising the challenges that minority governments can bring, Australians are supportive of modest reforms to help them function more effectively.

    Nearly half (47.6%) support establishing an independent body to oversee power-sharing agreements between major parties and crossbench MPs. A significant share (42.7%) also back requiring minority governments to sign formal agreements with the independents or minor parties they rely on.

    These preferences suggest Australians are pragmatic: if minority governments are to become more common, they want safeguards and structures to ensure stability and transparency.

    Trust varies across parties – and independents score well

    Australians remain relatively confident in key institutions, particularly when compared to the polarisation in other democracies. Trust is also a key factor in how Australians view different political actors in a minority government setting.

    When asked how much trust they have in different groups to act responsibly in a minority parliament, Labor emerges with the highest broad trust levels (50.4%), compared to the Liberal Party (43.0%). The Greens are the least trusted (35.7%). Trust in Independents is relatively high (45.7%).

    It is also interesting to note recent research tracking trends in non-major party voting. These find the Greens are increasingly likely to win seats from the ALP, while the Independents are more likely to win seats from the LNP.

    This matters. Who holds the balance of power has implications for maintaining trust in government. These results would indicate that if independents hold the balance of power, it may not undermine, but may actually contribute to, broader trust.

    A preference for majority rule remains

    Despite growing openness to minority governments, Australians still show a strong attachment to the traditional model of majority government in the House of Representatives.

    When asked whether “stable and effective government requires a majority of seats for one of the two major parties within the House of Representatives”, 53.8% agreed or strongly agreed. Only 16% disagreed.

    Support for this statement was strongest among Coalition voters (70.9%), but even a majority of Labor voters (54.7%) agreed. Only among minor party voters was disagreement more common.

    This result is not unexpected. Both major parties assertively campaign that major party majority provides the continuity, the stability and the certainty the country needs. It is worth noting these results were recorded in the lead up to a federal election.

    This result should also be set against over three decades of minority in the Senate.

    These findings suggest Australians prefer majority government (qualified by a desire for accountability) over minority government (particularly if that majority is led by their own party!).

    It will be interesting to track these attitudes in future EMSS should a minority government occur after May 3.

    What it means for the 2025 election – and beyond

    The 2025 federal election could be a turning point. If Labor wins a majority, it may delay a broader shift toward minority government politics. But if another minority parliament emerges, it will test the resilience of Australia’s political institutions and the evolving attitudes of voters.

    Australians appear ready to give minority government a chance – but they want it to work.

    Our only concrete reference point is the Gillard government. It was recognised for its negotiation, legislative success and running full term, but widely viewed as a political failure. What this revealed is the importance of minority government that adopts a pragmatic, inclusive and flexible approach to governance.

    Whatever the result, Australian electoral trends tell us minority governments are no longer the outlier they once were in Australian politics. Voters, political leaders, and importantly public institutions may need to adapt to a new norm in Australian politics.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Australians are warming to minority governments – but they still prefer majority rule – https://theconversation.com/australians-are-warming-to-minority-governments-but-they-still-prefer-majority-rule-255416

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How does consciousness work? Duelling scientists tested two big theories but found no winner

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Bayne, Professor of Philosophy, Monash University

    cdd20 / Unsplash

    “Theories are like toothbrushes,” it’s sometimes said. “Everybody has their own and nobody wants to use anybody else’s.”

    It’s a joke, but when it comes to the study of consciousness – the question of how we have a subjective experience of anything at all – it’s not too far from the truth.

    In 2022, British neuroscientist Anil Seth and I published a review listing 22 theories based in the biology of the brain. In 2024, operating with a less restrictive scope, US public intellectual Robert Kuhn counted more than 200.

    It’s against this background that Nature has just published the results of an “adversarial collaboration” from a group called the Cogitate Consortium focused on two prominent theories: global neuronal workspace theory and integrated information theory.

    Two big theories go head to head

    With so many ideas floating around and inherently elusive subject matter, testing theories has been no easy task. Indeed, debate between proponents of different theories has been vigorous and, at times, acrimonious.

    At a particularly low point in 2023, after the initial announcement of the results Cogitate has formally published today, many experts signed an open letter arguing that integrated information theory was not only false but doesn’t even qualify as scientific.

    Nevertheless, global neuronal workspace theory and integrated information theory are two of the “big four” theories that dominate current discussions of consciousness. (The others are higher-order representation theories, and the local re-entry – or recurrency – theory.)

    The theories are hard to summarise, but both tie consciousness to the activity of neurons in different parts of the brain.

    Advocates of these two theories, together with a number of unaligned theorists, generated predictions from the two theories about the kinds of brain activity one would expect to be associated with consciousness.

    Predictions and results

    The group agreed that integrated information theory predicts conscious perception should be associated with sustained synchronisation and activity of signals in a part of the brain called the posterior cortex.

    On the other hand, they said global neuronal workspace theory predicts that a process of “neural ignition” should accompany both the start and end of a stimulus. What’s more, it should be possible to decode what a person is conscious of from activity in their prefrontal cortex.

    The posterior cortex consists of the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. The prefrontal cortex is the front part of the frontal lobe.
    Refluo/Shutterstock

    These hypotheses (among others) were tested by “theory-neutral” teams from across the globe.

    The results were not decisive. Some were in line with predictions of one or other of the theories, but other results generated challenges.

    For example, the team failed to find sustained synchronisation within the posterior cortex of the kind predicted by integrated information theory. At the same time, global neuronal workspace theory is challenged by the fact that not all contents of consciousness could be decoded from the prefrontal cortex, and by the failure to find neural ignition when the stimulus was first presented.

    A win for science

    But although this study wasn’t a win for either theory, it was a decisive win for science. It represents a clear advance in how the consciousness community approaches theory-testing.

    It’s not uncommon for researchers to tend to look for evidence in favour of their own theory. But the seriousness of this problem in consciousness science only became clear in 2022, with the publication of an important paper by a number of researchers involved in the Cogitate Consortium. The paper showed it was possible to predict which theory of consciousness a particular study supported based purely on its design.

    The vast majority of attempts to “test” theories of consciousness have been conducted by advocates of those very theories. As a result, many studies have focused on confirming theories (rather than finding flaws, or falsifying them).

    No changing minds

    The first achievement of this collaboration was getting rival theorists to agree on testable predictions of the two theories. This was especially challenging as both the global workspace and integrated information theories are framed in very abstract terms.

    Another achievement was to run the the same experiments in different labs – a particularly difficult challenge given those labs were not committed to the theories in question.

    In the early stages of the project, the team took advice from Israeli-US psychologist Daniel Kahneman, the architect of the idea of adversarial collaborations for research.

    Kahneman said not to expect the results to change anyone’s mind, even if they decisively favoured one theory over another. Scientists are committed to their theories, he pointed out, and will cling to them even in the face of counter-evidence.

    The usefulness of irrationality

    This kind of irrational stubbornness may seem like a problem, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right systems in place, it can even help to advance science.

    Given we don’t know which theoretical approach to consciousness is most likely to be right, the scientific community ought to tackle consciousness from a variety of perspectives.

    The research community needs ways to correct itself. However, it’s useful for individual scientists to stick to their theoretical guns, and continue to work within a particular theory even in the face of problematic findings.

    A hard nut to crack

    Consciousness is a hard nut to crack. We don’t yet know whether it will yield to the current methods of consciousness science, or whether it requires a revolution in our concepts or methods (or perhaps both).

    What is clear, however, is that if we’re going to untangle the problem of subjective experience, the scientific community will need to embrace this model of collaborative research.

    I’m a co-director with Liad Mudrik of CIFAR’s “Brain, Mind, and Consciousness” program.

    – ref. How does consciousness work? Duelling scientists tested two big theories but found no winner – https://theconversation.com/how-does-consciousness-work-duelling-scientists-tested-two-big-theories-but-found-no-winner-255610

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amal Elawady, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University

    A downburst blasts Bangkok, Thailand, in 2017. Natapat Ariyamongkol/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    From a distance, a downburst can look like a torrent of heavy rain. But at ground level, its behavior can be far more destructive.

    When a downburst’s winds hit the ground, they shoot out horizontally in all directions, sometimes with enough force to shatter windows and overturn vehicles.

    These winds behave in complicated ways, particularly in cities, as our latest research shows. Downburst winds can deflect off tall buildings, increasing the pressure on neighboring buildings’ windows and walls. The result can blow out glass and chip off facade. Even buildings designed to survive hurricanes can suffer major damage in a downburst.

    As engineers, we study downbursts with the goal of designing buildings, components such as solar panels and windows, and infrastructure such as power lines that can stand up to that powerful force. To do this, informed by field measurements, we create our own powerful downbursts using a hurricane simulator known as the Wall of Wind at Florida International University.

    An illustration of how the winds of a downburst fan out in open space. In a city with tall buildings, the wind can deflect off buildings, causing damage in unexpected ways.
    NASA/Wikimedia Commons

    What is a downburst?

    Downbursts can be as destructive as tornadoes, but their winds develop in a very different way.

    A downburst forms when a thunderstorm pulls cooler, heavier air down from high in the atmosphere. As this rain-cooled air rushes downward, it gains speed. Once it slams into the ground, it has nowhere to go but outward, sending strong winds in all horizontal directions.

    Dust in the air shows the curling rotation of a downburst’s winds.
    NOAA

    The wind speed in a downburst can reach over 150 miles per hour. That’s the strength of a Category 4 hurricane and strong enough to knock down trees and power lines, damage buildings and flip vehicles.

    These winds also rotate, but not in the same way tornadoes do. Downburst winds are typically considered straight-line winds, but they rotate around a horizontal axis as the wind curls upward after hitting the ground. Tornadoes, in contrast, spin around a vertical axis.

    Powerful storm systems known as derechos are often made up of multiple downburst clusters, each containing many smaller downbursts, sometimes called microbursts.

    Recreating Houston’s downburst in a warehouse

    On May 16, 2024, a derecho hit Houston with a downburst that was so strong, it blew out windows in several high-rise buildings that had been built to survive Category 4 hurricanes. The winds also pried off chunks of buildings’ facades.

    Two months later, Hurricane Beryl hit Houston with similar wind speeds, yet it left minimal damage to the downtown buildings.

    When a downburst hit downtown Houston on May 16, 2024, it shattered windows on some sides of buildings but not others, and not always in the line of the storm. The damage offered clues to how downbursts interact with tall buildings.
    Cécile Clocheret/AFP via Getty Images

    To understand how a downburst like this can be so much more destructive – and what cities and building designers can do about it – we simulated both the Houston downburst winds and Hurricane Beryl’s winds in the Wall of Wind.

    The test facility is equipped with a dozen jet fans, each almost as tall as the workers who run them and powerful enough to simulate a Category 5 hurricane. Our team used these fans to recreate powerful downburst winds that hit horizontally with the maximum wind speeds near ground level. Then, we put several models of buildings to the test to see how roofs, windows, facades and the structures of power lines reacted under that force.

    How the Wall of Wind’s fans mimic a downburst’s horizontal force.

    In the Houston derecho, a downburst hit downtown with 100 mph winds. It cracked some lower windows, likely with blowing debris, but it also caused widespread unexpected damage midway up some of the buildings.

    The Chevron Building Auditorium actually suffered the most damage on a side that wasn’t directly in the line of the storm but was facing another tall building. That left some intriguing questions. It suggested that the way the buildings channel the wind may have created a strong suction that blew out windows midway up the tower. Another burning question is whether building design codes are outdated when it comes to how well their cladding can stand up to these localized winds.

    Using the Wall of Wind, we were able to test those pressures on models of the Houston buildings and see how downburst winds increased the pressured on a tall building model with excessive forces near the ground level.

    The ability to simulate these winds is important for improving engineers’ understanding of the differences in how downbursts and other wind events exert force on buildings. The results ultimately inform building standards to help create more resilient and better-protected communities.

    Building better power lines

    Big storms, like downbursts, can also take down power lines.

    Power lines extend hundreds of miles between cities and states, making them more susceptible to a hit from a localized severe storm, such as a downburst. If one of the towers falls, it can cause a chain reaction, like dominoes falling one after another. That can knock out power for large numbers of people.

    The derecho that hit Houston with a downburst also crumpled transmission towers in Texas.
    AP Photo/David J. Phillip

    With colleagues, we have been testing transmission towers and multispan power-line systems under downburst and hurricane winds to understand how these structures respond, with the goal of developing better construction techniques. That work has helped to update the American manual for the design of power lines, which engineers use for designing safer, more storm-resilient transmission towers.

    What’s next

    Low-rise and mid-rise buildings are also vulnerable to downbursts, but the effects are less well understood. Downburst winds are most intense between 10 and 300 feet above the ground, meaning the roofs and walls of some low-rises can be hit with intense horizontal wind.

    Recent building codes have offered design guidelines to help ensure these buildings can withstand tornadoes. However, the way downbursts rotate in a short time around a building or a community of buildings puts pressure on the walls and the roof in different ways. Similar to straight-line winds, we expect high suction on the roof. Due to their short duration, varying wind direction and intense wind speed, downbursts may also cause excessive vibrations and varying pressure distribution on the roof components.

    How microbursts form.

    We’re now testing downburst damage to low- and mid-rise buildings to better understand the risks and help highlight changes that can make buildings more resilient.

    As populations grow, cities are adding more buildings. At the same time, powerful storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. Understanding the effects of different types of storms will help engineers construct high-rises, low-rises and power lines that are better able to withstand extreme weather.

    Amal Elawady receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Fahim Ahmed, Mohamed Eissa, and Omar Metwally do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-downburst-these-winds-can-be-as-destructive-as-tornadoes-we-recreate-them-to-test-building-designs-254931

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Election Diary: post-election rate cut and phone call from Trump in the pipeline

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

    It used to be de rigueur for the prime minister and opposition leader to turn up to the National Press Club in the final week of the election campaign. But now Liberal leaders are not so keen.

    Scott Morrison gave it a miss in 2022, although he was there in 2019. Nobody expected Peter Dutton, who has often been reluctant to face the Canberra press gallery in the past three years, to front the club this week.

    It’s also happened in the past that a leader has said something significantly newsworthy during the Q&A session on these final big occasions.

    Bob Hawke, days away from becoming prime minister in 1983, flagged he would be willing to break election promises if he found, on reaching office, that fiscal circumstances were different from what was anticipated. They were, and he did.

    Anthony Albanese on Wednesday made his appearance, but he was not going to grab a headline with anything unexpected.

    He delivered a spirited stump speech concentrating on everything Labor is offering voters – improvements to Medicare, tax cuts all round, and much else. He played and replayed his familiar mantra about nobody being left behind or held back. When it came to questions, the prime minister defended and deflected.

    Are Australians better off than before he was elected? Well, they’d be worse off if Dutton had had his way.

    Will whoever is in government need to increase the tax base in the next decade? “We’ll have not one but two income tax cuts.”

    Would he consider a compromise on Labor’s plan to tax unrealised capital gains on some superannuation balances? “We have our policy.”

    Is there something he regrets from the last three years? “I don’t pretend to be perfect.” So no regrets? “I’m not saying that at all.”

    What he is saying is that the final sprint of the campaign is not the time to enter the confessional.

    With the polls, and even most Liberals, at least privately, expecting Albanese to still be PM next week, whether in minority or majority government, he knows he has two challenges in these last days: to avoid being caught on any sticky paper, and to continue to project a sense of momentum by going full tilt (Labor people remember Bill Shorten easing up just before polling day in 2019). He is visiting every state, before he votes in his home electorate of Grayndler where, he indicated, his talisman dog Toto will accompany him to the polling booth on Saturday.

    Before his press club appearance, Albanese had encouraging news from the latest consumer price index quarterly figures, which showed underlying inflation falling to 2.9%. This points to another cut in interest rates.

    Westpac said, “Inflationary pressures have moderated, and the door is open for a rate cut in May”.

    The Reserve Bank doesn’t meet until May 19-20, but the prospect of a cut can be a mood lifter for stretched households – just as the pre-campaign February decrease was.

    Also able to be cast positively, US President Donald Trump, who has proved elusive in the face of the government’s attempts to get him to pick up the phone to discuss a tariff deal, confirmed a call would come. Asked whether he would speak to Albanese about trade, the president said, “they are calling, and I will talk to him, yes.”

    There is no detail of whether, or what, deal could be in the offing, but Trump, by signalling the call, has given (inadvertently) another bit of help to the government in an election in which the “Trump factor” has played all Albanese’s way.

    Instead of the press club, Dutton had done an hour’s “Ask Me Anything” appearance on Tuesday with Paul Murray on Sky, taking around a dozen viewers’ questions. It was an easy, friendly gig, directed squarely at his base. That might be one thing if he’s seeking the preferences of those voting One Nation or Trumpet of Patriots, but it is not where the middle-ground swinging voters are.

    In this last week, Dutton has put his anger at a section of the media on display. Earlier in the week he lashed out at the ABC, Guardian and “other hate media”.

    On Wednesday he doubled down, in a bit of pointed but embittered humour on FM radio when quizzed on tips for a good election night party. “I think alcohol is the first essential ingredient, I’m sure of that. Responsible drinking as well, but not watching the ABC would be a good start. For any young ones listening at home, forget the ABC.”

    Dutton’s disdain for the ABC is long-standing and well-known. But in an election campaign, why he thinks it is a good tactic to expose it so blatantly is a mystery. It shows questionable judgement and a lack of discipline.

    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. Election Diary: post-election rate cut and phone call from Trump in the pipeline – https://theconversation.com/election-diary-post-election-rate-cut-and-phone-call-from-trump-in-the-pipeline-255615

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: People’s mental health goes downhill after repeated climate disasters – it’s an issue of social equity

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ang Li, ARC DECRA and Senior Research Fellow, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne

    Across Australia, communities are grappling with climate disasters that are striking more frequently and with greater intensity. Bushfires, floods and cyclones are no longer one-off events. And this pattern is predicted to worsen due to climate change.

    As it becomes more common to face climate disasters again and again, what does this mean for the mental health and wellbeing of people affected?

    In a new study published today in the Lancet Public Health, we found experiencing repeated disasters leads to more severe and sustained effects on mental health compared to experiencing a single disaster.

    What we did in our study

    We drew on ten years of Australian data (2009–19) from the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey.

    Specifically, our study involved data from 1,511 people who experienced at least one disaster. We tracked them from the year before the first disaster, at the first disaster, and, where applicable, each subsequent disaster, and a few years after each disaster.

    We also included 3,880 people who did not experience disasters during this time but shared similar demographic, socioeconomic, health and place-based characteristics for comparison.

    We measured exposure to climate disasters based on whether respondents reported a weather-related disaster (for example, flood, bushfire or cyclone) damaged or destroyed their home in the previous year.

    The mental health outcomes were measured using two questionnaires commonly administered to assess depression and anxiety disorders (the 5-item mental health inventory) and psychological distress (the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale).

    Cumulative effects

    Our results show mental health declines became more severe with repeated disasters.

    The graph below plots the mental health trajectories for everyone in our study who experienced at least one disaster, and the control group who did not experience any disasters. We looked at a maximum of three disasters in the study due to data availability.

    It shows experiencing one disaster led to a decline in mental health during the disaster year, followed by a recovery to pre-disaster levels in the post-disaster period.

    However, with repeated disasters, mental health trajectories declined further and it took longer to recover to pre-disaster levels.

    We also found experiencing an additional disaster close to a previous disaster (for example, one or two years apart) was linked to greater mental health declines than disasters that were spaced further apart.

    Some risk factors

    We observed that certain factors consistently shaped mental health outcomes. For instance, having social support was consistently a protective factor, while having a long-term health condition consistently increased the risk of poorer mental health. This was true regardless of the number of disasters someone experienced.

    On the other hand, some risk factors became stronger with each disaster. In particular, households with lower incomes, those in rural areas, and younger people appeared to experience greater effects of cumulative disasters.

    There are some limitations to our research. For example, the data we had did not detail the type or severity of each disaster. It also was limited in what it could tell us about the mental health effects of three or more disasters.

    Nonetheless, our study provides novel insights into the mental health consequences of multiple climate disasters. This highlights the need for better support for communities facing an increasing number of emergencies.

    Our findings also align with other studies that have observed increasing risk to mental health with multiple disasters.

    At the same time, our findings add a new perspective by showing how trajectories can change over time. People’s mental health often recovers to pre-disaster levels after a single disaster, but repeat disasters can delay or halt this recovery.

    Why might repeated disasters lead to worse mental health?

    Repeated disasters, especially when they occur in close succession, can lead to cumulative stress driven by trauma and uncertainty. This can create a reinforcing cycle. People already facing social disadvantages – such as poor health and low income – are more likely to be exposed to disasters. In turn, these events disproportionately affect those facing existing disadvantages.

    The result is a compounding effect that can contribute to worsening mental health outcomes and slower recovery over multiple disasters. This means disasters are an issue of social equity and must be considered in efforts to reduce poverty and improve social outcomes, as well as health outcomes.

    Repeated disasters in particular can drain financial, social and community resources. They can exacerbate existing strain on household savings, disrupted social ties due to displacement, and reduced access to services after disasters – especially in rural areas.

    What can we do to support people through multiple disasters?

    We need to transform the way we think about disasters. It’s estimated children born today will experience up to seven times the number of extreme weather events across their lifetimes than someone born in 1960.

    We are starting to get a better picture of what people need to recover from climate disasters. Our research points to the need for clinical services (for example, GPs) to screen for past disaster exposures in mental health assessments.

    Emergency services need to plan services to reach at-risk groups during disasters. They also need to ensure recovery planning considers the effects of past disasters, for example by making sure support programs are not just tied to one disaster, but can be used across multiple.

    The current approach to emergency services that looks at “one disaster at a time” doesn’t work anymore. As the climate continues to change, we urgently need to consider the effects of multiple disasters in public health, welfare and disaster services.

    Ang Li receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Claire Leppold 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. People’s mental health goes downhill after repeated climate disasters – it’s an issue of social equity – https://theconversation.com/peoples-mental-health-goes-downhill-after-repeated-climate-disasters-its-an-issue-of-social-equity-254475

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Older Australians are also hurting from the housing crisis. Where are the election policies to help them?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Victoria Cornell, Research Fellow, Flinders University

    shutterstock beeboys/Shutterstock

    It would be impossible at this stage in the election campaign to be unaware that housing is a critical, potentially vote-changing, issue. But the suite of policies being proposed by the major parties largely focus on young, first home buyers.

    What is glaringly noticeable is the lack of measures to improve availability and affordability for older people.

    Modern older lives are diverse, yet older people have become too easily pigeonholed. No more so than in respect to property, where a perception has flourished that older people own more than their fair share of housing wealth.

    While the value of housing has no doubt increased, home ownership rates among people reaching retirement age has actually declined since the mid-1990s.

    Older people can also face rental stress and homelessness – with almost 20,000 homeless people in Australia aged over 55. Severe housing stress is a key contributing to those homelessness figures.

    It’s easy to blame older Australians for causing, or exacerbating, the housing crisis. But doing so ignores the fact that right now, our housing system is badly failing many older people too.

    No age limits

    Owning a home has traditionally provided financial security for retirees, especially ones relying on the age pension. This is so much so, that home ownership is sometimes described as the “fourth pillar” of Australia’s retirement system.

    But housing has become more expensive – to rent or buy – for everyone.

    Falling rates of home ownership
    combined with carriage of mortgage debt into retirement, restricted access to shrinking stocks of social housing, and lack of housing affordability in the private rental market have a particular impact on older people.

    Housing rethink

    Housing policy for older Australians has mostly focused on age-specific options, such as retirement villages and aged care. Taking such a limited view excludes other potential solutions from across the broader housing system that should be considered.

    Furthermore, not all older people want to live in a retirement village, and fewer than 5% of older people live in residential aged care.

    More than 20,000 older Australians are homeless, blamed in part on severe housing stress.
    Michael Heim/Shutterstock

    During my Churchill Fellowship study exploring alternative, affordable models of housing for older people, I discovered three cultural themes that are stopping us from having a productive conversation about housing for older people.

    • Australia’s tradition of home ownership undervalues renting and treats housing as a commodity, not a basic need. This disadvantages older renters and those on low income.

    • There’s a stigma regarding welfare in Australia, which influences who is seen as “deserving” and shapes the policy responses.

    • While widely encouraged, “ageing-in-place” means different things to different people. It can include formal facilities or the family home that needs modifications to make it habitable as someone ages.

    These themes are firmly entrenched, often driven by policy narratives such as the primacy of home ownership over renting. In the past 50 years or so, many have come to view welfare, such as social housing, as a last resort, and have aimed to age in their family home or move into a “desirable” retirement village.

    Variety is key

    A more flexible approach could deliver housing for older Australians that is more varied in design, cost and investment models.

    The promises made so far by political parties to help younger home buyers are welcome. However, the housing system is a complex beast and there is no single quick fix solution.

    First and foremost, a national housing and homelessness plan is required, which also involves the states and territories. The plan must include explicit consideration of housing options for older people.

    Funding for housing developments needs to be more flexible in terms of public-private sector investment and direct government assistance that goes beyond first home buyer incentives.

    International models

    For inspiration, we could look to Denmark, which has developed numerous co-housing communities.

    Co-housing models generally involve self-managing communities where residents have their own private, self-contained home, supported by communal facilities and spaces. They can be developed and designed by the owner or by a social housing provider. They can be age-specific or multi-generational.

    Australian policy makers could look to the success of social housing developments in Copenhagen, Denmark.
    ToniSo/Shutterstock

    Funding flexibility, planning and design are key to their success. Institutional investors include

    • so-called impact investors, who seek social returns and often accept lower financial returns

    • community housing providers

    • member-based organisations, such as mutuals and co-operatives.

    Government also plays a part by expediting the development process and providing new pathways to more affordable ownership and rental options.

    Europe is also leading the way on social housing, where cultural attitudes are different from here.

    In Vienna, Austria, more than 60% of residents live in 440,000 socially provided homes. These homes are available for a person’s entire life, with appropriate age-related modifications permitted if required.

    At over 20% of the total housing stock, social housing is also a large sector in Denmark, where the state and municipalities support the construction of non-profit housing.

    Overcoming stereotyes

    Our population is ageing rapidly, and more older people are now renting or facing housing insecurity.

    If policymakers continue to ignore their housing needs, even more older people will be at risk of living on the street, and as a result will suffer poor health and social isolation.

    Overcoming stereotypes – such as the idea that all older people are wealthy homeowners – is key to building fairer, more inclusive solutions.

    This isn’t just about older Australians. It’s about creating a housing system that works for everyone, at every stage of life.

    Victoria Cornell is employed by Flinders University, and received The AV Jennings Churchill Fellowship to investigate alternative, affordable models of housing that could help older Australians to age-in-place

    – ref. Older Australians are also hurting from the housing crisis. Where are the election policies to help them? – https://theconversation.com/older-australians-are-also-hurting-from-the-housing-crisis-where-are-the-election-policies-to-help-them-255391

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Inflation is easing, boosting the case for another interest rate cut in May

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

    Daria Nipot/Shutterstock

    Australia’s headline inflation rate held steady at a four-year low of 2.4% in the March quarter, according to official data, adding to the case for a cut in interest rates at the next Reserve Bank board meeting in May.

    A key measure of underlying inflation closely watched by the RBA fell to 2.9%, returning to within the 2-3% inflation target band for the first time since 2021.

    Food and beverages, tobacco, education and housing were the main contributors to the rise in the headline Consumer Price Index.

    Financial markets are pricing in a quarter-percentage point cut in the cash rate to 3.85% in May.

    The inflation report was the last piece of major economic data before Saturday’s federal election.

    Prices are still rising, just at a slower rate

    A fall in inflation does not mean prices are falling. Overall, prices are continuing to rise, but at a slower pace.

    Moreover, prices continue to rise at a higher rate for some things people notice most, such as meat, fruit and vegetables. Concerns about the high cost of living will not go away. But it is good news for households that prices are now rising less than wages, which are growing by 3.2%.

    Some of the CPI components rising fastest are services such as health, which rose 4.1% in the year to March, and education, up 5.7%.

    Rents increased by 5.5% over the year, still rapid but less than in 2023 and 2024. The movements differed across the country. Rents were up almost 9% in Perth but fell in Hobart.

    New home prices only rose by 1.4% over the year as project-home builders made promotional offers to attract buyers in a more subdued market.

    Some of the recent fall in inflation represents the effect of government measures such as temporary electricity rebates and lower public transport fares. These represent some relief for households from cost-of-living pressures. But they may obscure trends in underlying inflationary pressures.

    The Reserve Bank’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, the trimmed mean measure, removes such impacts by excluding items with the largest price movements up or down. This measure of inflation has fallen to 2.9%, back within the central bank’s target, from 3.3%.

    Green light for an interest rate cut

    Headline inflation is around the middle of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% medium-term target band. The large 1% quarterly increase in the June quarter of 2024 will drop out of the next annual calculation. So inflation may soon be below the bottom of the band. This has been forecast by Westpac’s economics team (headed by former RBA assistant governor Luci Ellis), for example.

    In its most recent published forecast the Reserve Bank expected inflation to be 2.4% in June. So it may be pleased to see it already there for two quarters. It would also be relieved to see the underlying rate back within the target band.

    In February, Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock conceded the bank had arguably been “late raising interest rates on the way up”. It did not want to be late on the way down.

    At its April 1 meeting, the Reserve Bank board called the May 19-20 meeting “an opportune time to revisit the monetary policy setting with the benefit of additional data about inflation” and other factors.



    Read more:
    Reserve Bank holds rates steady, cautious about the economic outlook

    Global economic outlook darkens

    The outlook for global economic activity has weakened as the US’s trade war with China has escalated. The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global economic growth in 2025 from 3.3% to 2.8%.

    The negative outlook for the global economy and rising business uncertainty certainly adds weight to the case for an official interest rate cut. It would help Australian businesses weather a possible downturn.

    Tariff rises will push up inflation in the US. But there is a bipartisan commitment in Australia not to engage in retaliatory tariff increases. This means there will not be any such inflationary impetus here.

    Indeed, as Bullock pointed out in her April press conference, if China diverts exports that are effectively blocked from entering the US to Australia, then the US tariffs may lower inflationary pressures here.

    Concerns about the inflationary impact of a weaker Australian dollar have eased in recent days. The currency has rebounded to 64 US cents from its early April low of 59.5 US cents.

    The Reserve Bank will, as always, consider a wide range of information in deciding whether to cut interest rates in May. But the single most important piece of information is now giving it the green light.

    Market economists expect another couple of rate cuts in 2025 after May, depending on the impact of the erratic US economic policies on the global economy.

    What does it mean for the election?

    After the CPI release, Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted core inflation was at a three-year low. “This is a powerful demonstration of the progress that Australians have made together in the economy,” he said.

    Chalmers will be hoping the Reserve Bank and the electorate share his view. Labor is more likely to be re-elected if voters regard the cost-of-living pressures as abating.

    John Hawkins was previously a senior economist in the Reserve Bank.

    Stephen Bartos 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. Inflation is easing, boosting the case for another interest rate cut in May – https://theconversation.com/inflation-is-easing-boosting-the-case-for-another-interest-rate-cut-in-may-255116

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Which Roman emperor was most like Donald Trump?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Edwell, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Macquarie University

    SvetlanaVV/Shutterstock

    Something tells me US president Donald Trump would love to be a Roman emperor. The mythology of unrestrained power with sycophants doing his bidding would be seductive.

    But in fact, Roman emperors were heavily constrained by institutions, the economy and popular mood. Yes, some challenged and sidelined the institutions of their day – but this often sparked a powerful backlash.

    As someone who’s studied Ancient Rome for years, I’ve recently been asked which Roman emperor was most like Donald Trump. In some ways he’s a pastiche of several Roman leaders.

    Julius Caesar

    Of course, Julius Caesar was never an emperor. He was a military leader and politician when the Roman Republic was in its death throes.

    While Trump has no military experience, some have compared him with Caesar.

    English classicist Mary Beard explains the appeal of this comparison for Trump’s foes and supporters alike.

    The Roman Republic was originally a system of shared political authority. The Senate, the people and elected magistrates shared power.

    But in the first century BC, powerful and charismatic figures became more prominent. The old power-sharing arrangements broke down.

    Caesar was the ultimate populist who overthrew the conventional means of Republican government.
    Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Caesar was the most significant of these figures. He was the ultimate populist who overthrew the conventional means of Republican government. Due to his military successes, vast fortune and enormous popular appeal, Caesar broke the system entirely.

    Caesar fast-tracked the development of executive power in one person. This doomed the Roman Republic itself.

    Trump has also sidelined key institutions and increased the powers of singular executive government. Threatening judges and the chair of the Federal Reserve are further examples of over-reach.

    Trump draws on popular appeal to escape ramifications for these actions. His TV career, political rallies and domination of the news cycle contribute to a cult of personality.

    Caesar paid the ultimate price for concentrating executive power in himself. He was stabbed to death by a group of angry senators. The republic, however, was beyond saving.

    Caesar and the Roman Republic were different to Trump and America. Caesar was a blue-blood patrician, which Trump isn’t. Rome had its most powerful centuries ahead of it, while America is in decline.

    Octavian: the man who became Augustus

    Caesar didn’t manage the transition from Republic to autocracy. It was his nephew, Octavian, who did that.

    After more than a decade of civil wars following Caesar’s murder in 44 BCE, Octavian became Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE) or emperor.

    While he claimed to restore the republic, Augustus exercised ultimate power over the army, political institutions and the courts. He finished the process Caesar and others began, dominating the Senate and once-powerful positions such as consulships.

    Augustus’ domination of the entire political system draws parallels with Trump. Some observers liken Trump to Augustus. They see similarities in Trump’s intimidation of institutions (including the courts and media) that provide checks on presidential power.

    Augustus also developed a cult of personality, which is a feature of Trump’s rise.

    Nero: from populist to pariah

    Nero (54–68 CE), a colourful successor of Augustus, employed advisors with no political backgrounds. Epaphroditus, for example, was a former slave who became Nero’s secretary. He controlled the flow of information to and from the emperor. He became very wealthy and was intensely loyal to Nero.

    Trump has shown similar instincts. Think of the wide-ranging powers to cut government programs granted to Elon Musk and his inexperienced team.

    Like Trump, Nero could entertain a crowd. He publicly sang and recited poetry, which previous emperors never did. The elites detested this but the broader population loved it. Nero also put on lavish palace banquets.

    But by the time of his death by suicide aged 30, Nero had isolated everyone.

    It’s too simplistic, though, to say Trump is a Nero, as others have done. Trump remains connected to a large support base, as evidenced by his two presidential election victories.

    Like Trump, Nero could entertain a crowd.
    Ivan Moreno sl/Shutterstock

    Roman emperors were constrained by institutions

    While Roman emperors dominated the institutions of state, they were still constrained by them. Some who fell foul of the army, the most important state institution, met ignominious ends.

    In 217 CE, the unpopular emperor Caracalla was knifed by a soldier while relieving himself.

    Emperor Caracalla was eventually stabbed by a soldier while relieving himself.
    Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1940/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Emperor Severus Alexander was murdered in 235 CE by his own troops while clutching his mother’s knees.

    Some speculate the US army might intervene to protect the Constitution against Trump. But the army’s relationship to the US government is more complex than in ancient Rome.

    Some emperors became unpopular due to their arrogance toward the Senate, court officials and their own bodyguards.

    In 96 CE, Domitian was killed in a conspiracy of the court chamberlain. His death was cheered by many due to his autocratic style.

    And Emperor Commodus, once popular due to his eccentric antics and public games, was murdered by a champion wrestler in 192 CE. His mistress, Praetorian prefect and court chamberlain arranged it. The Senate declared Commodus a public enemy.

    The creeping power of executive authority

    The over-reach of executive authority will likely define Trump’s second term. But there are many constraints he can’t ignore. Some of the most powerful operate outside America. Bond-holders, of whom China is the second largest, are a notable example.

    The eventual displeasure of support bases may hasten the demise of the Trump phenomenon. I sincerely hope it doesn’t end with the brutality some of the emperors met with.

    Executive over-reach and intimidation of key institutions may permanently damage America’s reputation. In the case of ancient Rome, we know the outcomes. What comes next in America is the great unknown.

    Peter Edwell receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Which Roman emperor was most like Donald Trump? – https://theconversation.com/which-roman-emperor-was-most-like-donald-trump-254573

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is your child anxious about going on school camp? Here are 4 ways to prepare

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Micah Boerma, Researcher, School of Psychology and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland

    Nitinai Thabthong/Shutterstock

    One of the highlights of the school year is an overnight excursion or school camp. These can happen as early as Year 3.

    While many students are very excited about the chance to go away with their classmates, some may experience anxiety and even fear about being away from home and their usual routines.

    Anxiety disorders are the second most common mental disorder among children and adolescents in Australia. One in 14 young people are affected.

    Separation anxiety (fear or dread about being separated from caregivers) is the most common anxiety disorder amongst young people in Australia. This affects about 4% of young people aged four to 17. Students with anxiety may refuse to attend the camp. Or they may go and not participate in activities or have periods of intense anxiety.

    While these trips are a small part of a young person’s school year, positive and negative experiences can form important beliefs about their self-confidence and independence.

    Here are four ways to prepare your anxious child to attend and enjoy camp.

    1. Understand the anxieties

    Anxiety isn’t a one-size-fits-all condition. For one child, it may be the fear of not fitting in or the dread of being homesick. For another, it may be the fear of being away from parents, believing something bad will happen.

    So the first step is to really listen to a child about their anxietty.
    Asking open-ended questions, such as “what is the one thing about going to camp that worries you most?” can help to determine their core fear.

    When they tell you, avoid jumping in quickly to reassure them they “will be fine”. This can feel dismissive and invalidate their concerns.

    Instead, reflect what you hear so they feel understood. For example, “I hear you a really worried about what it will be like to spend the night away from us. You’ve never done this before.”

    Ask your child what they are worried about. Maybe it’s a certain activity on camp.
    Andrew Angelov/Shutterstock

    2. Understand the ‘cycle of avoidance’

    Anxious people tend to overestimate the likelihood of something terrible happening and underestimate their ability to cope if it occurred.

    When a young person sidesteps something scary, they feel initial relief. But this avoidance prevents them from learning the feared situation may not be as dangerous as think. Importantly, they do not get the opportunity to test their coping skills and build confidence. This inadvertently increases their anxiety.

    It can help to talk to your child about how avoiding camp might feel better in the short term but it makes fun activities – such as sleepovers or trips – harder in the future.

    4. Build the ‘bravery muscle’

    You also might want to talk about how you can build the “bravery muscle”.

    This involves gradually exposing a child to their fears and building confidence in their ability to cope. This way fears lose their power.

    Start with easier tasks. For example, if the main worry is “something bad will happen to mum and dad if I am not with them at night”, start with your child staying with a grandparent while you go out for dinner. Then you could try staying overnight at a grandparent or a trusted friend’s house.

    You can also pair these tasks with coping tools. Your child could do a breathing exercise or a grounding excercise, where they focus on things around them, rather than the thoughts and feelings distressing them.

    When organising these tasks, it is crucial parents acknowledge the distress their child might experience, while communicating their confidence the child can do it.

    Celebrate every effort and task completed, no matter how small.

    You could prepare for camp with a sleepover somewhere else.
    NataliyaBack/Shutterstock

    4. Make a plan with school

    Parents and caregivers are not in this alone. So make sure you talk to your class teacher or year group leader if you haven’t already. Some helpful tips are:

    • organise a “camp buddy” for the bus ride or to share a tent/room with

    • organise a “go-to” teacher for your child to gain support from during camp

    • access information about the accommodation and activities as soon as possible so you can practice. This could include your child camping in a tent with a friend, bike riding, or bush walking.

    It’s not expected the steps above will erase your child’s anxiety entirely – that is not realistic. But they can give them coping tools to face their anxiety and come out the other side stronger. School camps can be an exciting experience where a young person may discover they are braver than they thought.

    Micah Boerma 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. Is your child anxious about going on school camp? Here are 4 ways to prepare – https://theconversation.com/is-your-child-anxious-about-going-on-school-camp-here-are-4-ways-to-prepare-252290

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Locked up for life? Unpacking South Australia’s new child sex crime laws

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xanthe Mallett, Criminologist, CQUniversity Australia

    Melnikov Dmitriy/Shutterstock

    It’s election time, which means the age old “tough on crime” rhetoric is being heralded by many politicians aiming to score votes.

    Opposition leader Peter Dutton is pushing for a national public sex offender register. Currently only Western Australia has a registry that is open to the public.

    In South Australia, Premier Peter Malinauskas brought in tougher child sex offender laws earlier this week.

    What are these new laws in SA?

    Under these new laws, serious child sex offenders are to be permanently locked up or electronically monitored, if they reoffend.

    Automatic indefinite detention is a significant change.

    Previously, the South Australian attorney-general could apply to the Supreme Court to request an offender be indefinitely detained, if the offender was considered to remain a danger to children and could not be rehabilitated.

    The courts would then decide if they would grant the request, basing their decision on medical and other expert evidence.

    The changes in SA mean those found guilty of a second serious sexual offence against anyone younger than 17 now receive automatic indefinite detention.

    To be considered for release under the new law, an offender needs to show they can control their sexual instincts – so the onus is on them to prove they are not at risk of reoffending.

    To achieve this, two court-selected psychologists would have to provide reports demonstrating the offender was both willing and able to resist committing further sex offences.

    And if they are ever released, they will be electronically monitored for the rest of their lives.

    In addition, registered child sex offenders would be banned from working with anyone under 18.

    The new law also strengthens “Carly’s Law”, which focuses on reducing the sexual grooming of children online by adult predators.

    Inconsistencies across Australia

    The age of legal consent is 16 across Australia, except SA and Tasmania, where it is 17.

    In 2024, an Australian Institute of Criminology report highlighted many of the inconsistencies across the country, including terminology and definitions of sexual offences, despite efforts to achieve national regularity.

    Each state and territory approaches the problem of child sexual abuse differently.

    In NSW, for example, sentencing for child sexual offences has increased over time. This reflects societal expectations given what we know now about the long-term, traumatic consequences of victimisation.

    However, one consideration in sentencing in NSW is whether the sentence could have a “crushing” effect on the offender, and whether they may be entitled to an “element of mercy”.

    Certainly, a full life sentence is a significant departure from this position.

    Why now?

    There is little doubt this is a political move, as these changes were first promised by Labor in the build-up to the 2022 SA election.

    Then in January 2025, Labor announced it planned to introduce them in March – right before the federal election.

    On the face of it, toughening laws aimed at reducing sexual violence against children is a good thing. No one would argue.

    However, the legislation has been fast-tracked in the wake of a number of cases where those previously convicted of a sexual offence against a child reoffended.

    One such case is Dylan Lloyd, who is alleged to have assaulted a 12-year-old girl while she travelled alone on a train. Lloyd had previously been convicted of assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 2021, and since then more alleged victims have come forward to police.

    Cases such as Lloyd’s are preventable, as in this case Lloyd should still be imprisoned. This is one step forward. But consistency across states is needed and the long-term consequences need considering more fully.

    Whether these laws will have the desired deterrent effect has not been answered.

    We need to ensure personal and societal factors affecting crime rates, and which influence peoples’ attitudes and behaviours, are not overlooked.

    Will the laws be good for the community?

    These changes do have the potential to have a meaningful impact, but changing the behaviour of potential offenders is far more complex.

    Potential offenders usually don’t consider the law. At a micro level, their behaviour is most affected by biological and psychological factors, including alcohol, drug addiction and mental health issues, as well as social and environmental factors.

    In addition, there are numerous human rights and constitutional issues with permanent detention or lifelong monitoring, and the SA government may be walking into a legal minefield now they have removed the possibility of parole.

    It would be better to allow judges options for discretion, as the context in which the offending happened is crucial in determining the likelihood of someone being successfully rehabilitated.

    Mandatory full life sentences ignore the fact many sex offenders can be successfully rehabilitated.

    One study in Queensland, which considered local and global evidence, indicated sexual recidivism can be significant reduced when offenders complete sex offender treatment programs.

    Although it costs money to run these programs, the savings outweigh the costs of ongoing incarceration – particularly if we consider indefinite detention.

    Black-and-white laws with little room for movement produce unintended and harmful outcomes.

    It will be interesting to see how the new laws in SA play out in court and if any other states and territories follow suit.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Locked up for life? Unpacking South Australia’s new child sex crime laws – https://theconversation.com/locked-up-for-life-unpacking-south-australias-new-child-sex-crime-laws-255429

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why do dogs eat poo? A canine scientist explains

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mia Cobb, Research Fellow, Animal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne

    nygi/Unsplash

    When miniature dachshund Valerie was captured after 529 days alone in the wilds of Australia’s Kangaroo Island, experts speculated she survived partly by eating other animals’ poo.

    While this survival tactic may have saved the resilient sausage dog, it highlights a behaviour that makes many dog owners cringe.

    This type of “recycling” is surprisingly common in our canine companions. But why would dogs, even those with full food bowls, choose to indulge in such a revolting habit?

    Here’s why some dogs can’t resist a faecal feast, known more technically as coprophagia.

    What is coprophagia?

    Coprophagia or coprophagy is the scientific term for eating faecal matter (poo). It’s a behaviour displayed across a number of animal species.

    Around half of all dogs try eating poo at some stage – either their own, another dog’s, or other animals’. Research suggests about one in four dogs have made it a regular habit.

    In wild canids like foxes and wolves, mothers will eat their puppies’ stools to keep dens clean and reduce scents that might attract predators.

    It’s also thought that eating fresh faeces could reduce the likelihood of intestinal parasites being spread, offering an evolutionary benefit to our dogs’ wild counterparts.

    Modern dogs still actively clean their puppies’ poo away in the first few weeks of life, a behaviour that puppies observe and can learn.

    Licking away ‘waste’ from their puppies is a normal maternal behaviour in dogs.
    Anurak Pongpatimet/Shutterstock

    Nutritional factors

    As unpalatable as it might seem to us, poo still contains considerable nutrients that offer valuable compounds as a food source when times are tough.

    Dogs do have different preferences to us in terms of texture, taste and odour of their food, so we should not be hasty to dismiss what might appeal to them.

    Medical reasons

    The links between diet, gut flora and diseases that might influence behaviours like coprophagia are still emerging. At this stage, there seems to be no apparent link with age or diet.

    There could be underlying health reasons for your dog seeking out a sneaky snack, so do mention it to your vet and get a health check if your dog is known to frequent the kitty litter box, for example.

    Punishment in toilet training, living conditions that don’t provide enough to do or room to explore (like kennel facilities), and psychological distress have all been linked to dogs eating their own poo.

    Shelters and kennel facilities are often built for hygiene and safety, not to keep dogs’ minds and bodies active.
    Evgenii Bakhchev/Shutterstock

    A strain on relationships

    Our typical response to seeing dogs eat any kind of poo ranges from disgust to concern. At best it makes us less likely to want a lick to the face, at worst it can really strain our human-animal bonds.

    One study from the United Kingdom showed that dogs eating their own poo after rehoming was in the top ten reasons for the adoption failing in the first four weeks when dogs were returned to the shelter.

    Dogs can potentially transmit parasites and bacteria to humans through licking, regardless of whether they eat poo. This serves as a good reminder to ensure your dog receives appropriate parasite control and encourage all household members to follow good hygiene practices, like washing hands before eating.



    Read more:
    Is it okay to kiss your pet? The risk of animal-borne diseases is small, but real

    Help, my dog keeps eating poo

    While Valerie’s tale of survival shows us coprophagia may be life-saving in extreme situations, most of our doggo companions aren’t facing wilderness survival challenges.

    Thankfully, coprophagia is often manageable.

    Understanding why our dogs might eat poo – whether based on evolutionary instinct, medical issues or psychological triggers – can help us address this canine behaviour with compassion rather than just disgust.

    If your dog indulges often, providing appropriate stimulation through regular exercise, social connection with people and other dogs, offering toys and safe chews can help. Sometimes, a trip to the vet might be needed to rule out any underlying health issues.

    Offering fun activities is one way to reduce the chance of your dog eating poo.
    Kojirou Sasaki/Unsplash

    Dogs reprimanded for toileting accidents might eat the evidence to avoid future punishment, creating a new problem behaviour. Instead, rewarding your puppy or dog for toileting in the right location (and giving them frequent opportunities to do so) is likely to establish toileting routines you will approve of, making coprophagia less likely.

    By the same token, dogs can’t eat what isn’t left lying around. Regular poo-pickups in your yard, dog park, kitty litter box and other likely locations will remove temptation and help set your dog up for success.

    If Valerie has taught us anything, it’s that what might be considered our dogs’ most revolting habits are actually remarkable adaptations that deserve our understanding and empathy, even if we can’t rally enthusiastic support.

    Mia Cobb 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. Why do dogs eat poo? A canine scientist explains – https://theconversation.com/why-do-dogs-eat-poo-a-canine-scientist-explains-234361

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Sick of eating the same things? 5 ways to boost your nutrition and keep meals interesting and healthy

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle

    Loquellano/Pexels

    Did you start 2025 with a promise to eat better but didn’t quite get there? Or maybe you want to branch out from making the same meal every week or the same lunch for work almost every day?

    Small dietary changes can make a big difference to how you feel, how your body functions and health indicators such as blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

    You can meet your nutrient needs by eating a range of foods from the key food groups:

    • vegetables and fruit
    • protein (legumes, beans, tofu, meats, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds)
    • grains (mostly wholegrain and high-fibre)
    • calcium-rich foods (milk, yoghurt, cheese, non-dairy alternatives).

    But you also need a variety of foods to get enough vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients from plant foods. Phytonutrients have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and other functions that help keep you healthy.

    Use these five dietary tweaks to boost your nutrient intake and add variety to what you eat.

    1. Include different types of bran to boost your fibre intake

    Different types of dietary fibre help improve bowel function through fermentation by gut microbes in the colon, or large bowel. This creates larger, softer bowel motions that then stimulate the colon to contract, leading to more regular bowel movements.

    Add different types of dietary fibre – such as oat bran, wheat bran or psyllium husk – to breakfast cereal or add some into recipes that use white flour:

    • psyllium husk is high in soluble fibre. It dissolves in water forming viscous gel that binds to bile salts, which get excreted and your body is then not able to convert them into cholesterol. This helps lower blood cholesterol levels as well as with retaining water in your colon, making bowel motions softer. Soluble fibre also helps slow the digestive process, making you feel full and slows the normal rise in blood sugar levels after you eat

    • wheat bran is an insoluble fibre, also called roughage. It adds bulk to bowel motions, which helps keep your bowel function regular

    • oat bran contains beta-glucan, a soluble fibre, as well as some insoluble fibre.

    Try keeping small containers topped up with the different fibres so you don’t forget to add them regularly to your breakfast.

    Psyllium husk is high in soluble fibre, which dissolves in water and slows digestion.
    Shawn Hempel/Shutterstock

    2. Add a different canned bean to your shopping list

    Dried beans are a type of legume. From baked beans to red kidney beans and chickpeas, the canned varieties are easy to use and inexpensive. Different colours and varieties have slightly different nutrient and phytonutrient profiles.

    Canned beans are very high in total dietary fibre, including soluble fibre and resistant starch, a complex carbohydrate that resists digestion in the small intestine and then passes into the colon where it gets fermented.

    The body digests and absorbs the nutrients in legumes slowly, contributing to their low glycemic index. So eating them makes you feel full.

    Regularly eating more legumes lowers blood sugar levels, and total and LDL (bad) cholesterol.

    Add legumes to dishes such as bolognese, curry, soups and salads (our No Money No Time website has some great recipes).

    3. Try a different wholegrain, like buckwheat or 5-grain porridge

    Wholegrain products contain all three layers of the grain. Both the inner germ layer and outer bran layer are rich in fibre, vitamins and minerals, while the inner endosperm contains mostly starch (think white flour).

    Wholegrains include oats, corn (yes, popcorn too), rye, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, brown rice and foods made with wholegrains, like some breads and breakfast cereals such as rolled oats, muesli and five-grain porridge.

    Wholegrains aren’t just breakfast and lunch foods. Dinner recipe ideas include tuna and veggie pasta bake,
    chicken quesadillas and buckwheat mushroom risotto.

    4. Try a different vegetable or salad mix every week

    A review of the relationship between plant-based diets and dying of any cause followed more than half a million people across 12 long-term studies.

    It found people who ate the most plants had a lower risk of dying during the study and follow-up period than those who ate hardly any.

    Add a rainbow coleslaw to your meal.
    Kiian Oksana/Shutterstock

    Try adding a new or different vegetable or salad item to your weekly meals, such as rainbow coleslaw, canned beetroot, raw carrot, red onion, avocado or tomatoes.

    Or try a stir-fry with bok choy, celery, capsicum, carrot, zucchini and herbs.

    The more variety, the more colour, flavour and textures – not to mention phytonutrients.

    5. Go nuts

    Cashews, walnuts, almonds, macadamias, pecans and mixed nuts make a great snack.

    (Peanuts are technically a legume because they grow in the ground but we count them as nuts because their nutrient profile is very similar to the tree nuts.)

    You have to chew nuts well, which means your brain receives messages that you are eating and should expect to soon feel full.

    Nuts are energy-dense, due to their high fat content. A matchbox portion size (30 grams) contains about 15 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein and 740 kilojoules.

    While some people think you need to avoid nuts to lose weight, a review of energy restricted diets found people who ate nuts lost as much weight as those who didn’t.

    My colleagues and I at the University of Newcastle have created a free Healthy Eating Quiz where you can check your diet quality score, see how healthy your usual eating patterns are and how your score compares to others. You can also get some great ideas to make your meals more interesting .

    Clare Collins AO is a Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, NSW and a Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) affiliated researcher. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow and has received research grants from NHMRC, ARC, MRFF, HMRI, Diabetes Australia, Heart Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, nib foundation, Rijk Zwaan Australia, WA Dept. Health, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Greater Charitable Foundation. She has consulted to SHINE Australia, Novo Nordisk, Quality Bakers, the Sax Institute, Dietitians Australia and the ABC. She was a team member conducting systematic reviews to inform the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines update, the Heart Foundation evidence reviews on meat and dietary patterns and current Co-Chair of the Guidelines Development Advisory Committee for Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Obesity.

    – ref. Sick of eating the same things? 5 ways to boost your nutrition and keep meals interesting and healthy – https://theconversation.com/sick-of-eating-the-same-things-5-ways-to-boost-your-nutrition-and-keep-meals-interesting-and-healthy-245672

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Peace in our time? Why NZ should resist Trump’s one-sided plan for Ukraine

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of Otago

    GettyImages Getty Images

    Is it possible to reconcile increased international support for Ukraine with Donald Trump’s plan to end the war? At their recent meeting in London, Christopher Luxon and his British counterpart Keir Starmer seemed to think so.

    Starmer thanked New Zealand for its “support” for a “coalition of the willing” that would safeguard the implementation of a potential peace deal concluded by the Trump administration.

    But unless something drastically changes in the near future, all the signs point to the US president envisaging a Ukraine peace settlement on Russian president Vladimir Putin’s terms.

    According to that view, peace can only be achieved if Ukraine is prepared to accept that territories wholly or partially annexed by Russia now belong to Moscow.

    In 2014, Russia seized Crimea on the Black Sea. Following the illegal 2022 invasion, Russia claimed four parts of eastern and southern Ukraine as its own – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and the Zaporizhzhia region.

    At the same time, Trump’s peace deal includes a provision that rules out NATO membership for Ukraine. This meets a key Russian demand that seeks to deny Ukraine’s sovereign right to choose its own security arrangements.

    According to Trump, Putin’s major concession is the promise that Russia will not annex the rest of Ukraine – something Moscow has been trying to do for the past three years.

    To accept this, however, liberal democracies such as New Zealand and Britain would be tacitly signalling they share common values and interests with the Trump administration and its apparent enthusiasm for a geopolitical partnership with Putin’s dictatorship.

    And in some ways, Trump’s Ukraine peace initiative is a bigger challenge for New Zealand than it is for Britain.

    Keir Starmer and Christopher Luxon speak to the media during a visit to a UK military base training Ukrainian troops, April 22.
    Getty Images

    Lessons of the past

    Like Britain, New Zealand fought in two world wars in the 20th century to advance, among other things, certain key international principles. These included state sovereignty and a prohibition on the use of force to change borders, principles subsequently enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

    But unlike Britain, New Zealand is a relatively small state that does not have a veto in the UN Security Council to protect its interests. Consequently, it is even more dependent on an international rules-based order for its security and prosperity.

    For New Zealand, Trump’s current Ukraine peace plan is a clear and present danger because it would set such a terrible precedent.

    Under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons (left over from when it was part of the Soviet Union) in return for assurances from Russia, the US and UK that recognised Ukrainian independence and the inviolability of its existing borders.

    The Trump administration’s plan, however, insists Ukraine must accept the illegal and partial dismemberment of its territory to attain peace with Russia.

    Rewarding Russian aggression in this way is tantamount to a failure to learn the historical lessons of the 20th century. In particular, it seems to forget the period during the 1930s when Britain tried in vain to appease an expansionist Nazi regime in Germany.

    Trump’s peace plan basically endorses the idea that “might is right” and that it is fine for great powers or big countries to steal land from smaller countries.

    Adjusting NZ foreign policy

    In Trump’s top-down world view, multilateral institutions and international law are regarded as superfluous at best and an enemy at worst.

    In such a world, relatively small powers such as New Zealand, with “no cards to play” at the top table, must either submit to the dominance of great powers (including the US) or suffer the consequences.

    Moreover, there is a real risk that Trump’s stance toward Putin’s regime will be viewed as weakness by China, Russia’s most important backer. This could embolden Beijing to increasingly assert itself in the Indo-Pacific, including the Pacific Islands region, where New Zealand has core strategic interests.

    Trump’s plan for Ukraine brings into sharp focus what has already been evident from other recent trends: a domestic slide toward autocracy in Washington, the unilateral imposition of tariffs, and territorial threats against close allies Canada and Denmark.

    As European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put it, “The West as we knew it no longer exists.”

    The transactional nature of Trump’s leadership – including that peace in Ukraine can be bought with mineral rights and territorial trade-offs – suggests the US can no longer be relied on to provide a security guarantee for liberal democracies in Europe or elsewhere.

    The current New Zealand government needs to find the self-confidence and resolve to admit Trump is backing Putin’s imperial project in Ukraine. And it needs to adjust its foreign policy accordingly.

    This does not mean Wellington should weaken its traditional friendship with the US.

    On the contrary, many Americans might expect and welcome the prospect of New Zealand clearly and publicly standing against their president’s dangerous alignment with an authoritarian regime at Ukraine’s expense.

    Robert G. Patman 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. Peace in our time? Why NZ should resist Trump’s one-sided plan for Ukraine – https://theconversation.com/peace-in-our-time-why-nz-should-resist-trumps-one-sided-plan-for-ukraine-255495

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘A living collective’: study shows trees synchronise electrical signals during a solar eclipse

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monica Gagliano, Research Associate Professor in Evolutionary Biology, Southern Cross University

    Zenit Arti Audiovisive

    Earth’s cycles of light and dark profoundly affect billions of organisms. Events such as solar eclipses are known to bring about marked shifts in animals, but do they have the same effect on plants?

    During a solar eclipse in a forest in Italy’s Dolomites region, scientists seized the chance to explore that fascinating question.

    The researchers were monitoring the bioelectrical impulses of spruce trees, when a solar eclipse passed over. They left their sensors running to record the trees’ response to the eclipse – and what they observed was astonishing.

    The spruce trees not only responded to the solar eclipse – they actively anticipated it, by synchronising their bioelectrical signals hours in advance.

    This forest-wide phenomenon, detailed today in the journal Royal Society Open Science, reveals a new layer of complexity in plant behaviour. It adds to emerging evidence that plants actively participate in their ecosystems.

    Lead author Monica Gagliano discusses the research findings.

    Do trees respond collectively?

    The research was led by Professor Alessandro Chiolerio of the Italian Institute of Technology, and Professor Monica Gagliano from Australia’s Southern Cross University, who is the lead author on this article. It also involved a team of international scientists.

    A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, fully or partially blocking the Sun’s light.

    An eclipse can inspire awe and even social cohesion in humans. Other animals have been shown to gather and synchronise their movements during such an event.

    But scientists know very little about how plants respond to solar eclipses. Some research suggests the rapid transitions from darkness to light during an eclipse can change plant behaviour. But this research focuses on the responses of individual plants.

    The latest study set out to discover if trees respond to a solar eclipse together, as a living collective.

    Alessandro Chiolerio and Monica Gagliano at the site of the study.
    Simone Cargnoni

    What the research involved

    Charged molecules travel through the cells of all living organisms, transmitting electrical signals as they go. Collectively, this electrical activity is known as the organism’s “electrome”.

    The electrical activity is primarily driven by the movement of ions across cell membranes. It creates tiny currents that allow organisms, including humans, to coordinate their body and communicate.

    The researchers wanted to investigated the electrical signals of spruce trees (Picea abies) during a partial solar eclipse on October 25, 2022. It took place in the Costa Bocche forest near Paneveggio in the Dolomites area, Italy.

    The study took place in the Dolomites in northeast Italy.
    Monica Gagliano

    The scientists set out to understand the trees’ electrical activity during the hour-long eclipse. They used custom-built sensors and wired them to three trees. Two were healthy trees about 70 years old, one in full sun and one in full shade. The third was a healthy tree about 20 years old, in full shade.

    They also attached the sensors to five tree stumps – the remnants old trees, originally part of a pristine forest, but which were devastated by a storm several years earlier.

    For each tree and stump, the researchers used five pairs of electrodes, placed in both the inner and outer layers of the tree, including on exposed roots, branches and trunks. The electrodes were connected to the sensors.

    This set-up allowed the scientists to monitor the bioelectrical activity from multiple trees and stumps across four sites during the solar eclipse. They examined both individual tree responses, and bioelectrical signals between trees.

    In particular, the scientists measured changes in the trees’ “bioelectrical potentials”. This term refers to the differences in voltage across cell membranes.

    The scientists attached electrodes and sensors to the trees to monitor their electrical activity.
    Zenit Arti Audiovisive

    What did they find?

    The electrical activity of all three trees became significantly more synchronised around the eclipse – both before and during the one-hour event. These changes occur at a microscopic level, such as inside water and lymph molecules in the tree.

    The two older trees in the study had a much more pronounced early response to the impending eclipse than the young tree. This suggests older trees may have developed mechanisms to anticipate and respond to such events, similar to their responses to seasonal changes.

    Solar eclipses may seem rare from a human perspective, but they follow cycles which can occur well within the lifespan of long-lived trees. The scientists also detected bioelectrical waves travelling between the trees. This suggests older trees may transmit their ecological knowledge to younger trees.

    Such a dynamic is consistent with studies showing long-distance signalling between plants can help them coordinate various physiological functions in response to environmental changes.

    The two older spruce trees in the study had a much more pronounced early response to the impending eclipse than the young tree.
    Zenith Audiovisual Arts

    The researchers also detected changes in the bioelectrical responses of the stumps during the eclipse, albeit less pronounced than in the standing trees. This suggests the stumps were still alive.

    The research team then used computer modelling, and advanced analytical methods including quantum field theory, to test the findings of the physical experiment.

    The results reinforced the experimental results. That is, not only did the eclipse influence the bioelectrical responses of individual trees, the activity was correlated. This suggests a cohesive, organism-like reaction at the forest scale.

    The researchers also detected changes in the bioelectrical responses of the stumps during the eclipse.
    Zenit Arti Audiovisive

    Understanding forest connections

    These findings align with extensive prior research by others, highlighting the extent to which trees in forest ecosystems are connected.

    These behaviours may ultimately influence the forest ecosystem’s resilience, biodiversity and overall function, by helping it cope with rapid and unpredictable changes.

    The findings also underscore the importance of protecting older forests, which serve as pillars of ecosystem resilience – potentially preserving and transmitting invaluable ecological knowledge.

    This research is featured in a documentary, Il Codice del Bosco (The Forest Code), premiering in Italy on May 1, 2025.

    The findings underscore the importance of protecting older forests. Pictured: the Dolomites region.
    Zenith Audiovisual Arts

    Monica Gagliano received funding for this research from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

    Prudence Gibson 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. ‘A living collective’: study shows trees synchronise electrical signals during a solar eclipse – https://theconversation.com/a-living-collective-study-shows-trees-synchronise-electrical-signals-during-a-solar-eclipse-255499

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  • MIL-Evening Report: The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago today, yet films about the conflict still struggle to capture its complexities

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scarlette Nhi Do, Sessional Academic, The University of Melbourne

    Scene from Apocalypse Now (1979) Prime Video

    The Vietnam War (1955–1975) was more than just a chapter in the Cold War.

    For some, it was supposed to achieve Vietnam’s right to self-determination. For others, it was an attempt to found a nation-state independent of both capitalist and communist influences.

    In the 50 years since the war ended, the stories we’ve heard about it have struggled to convey these many different views. Cinema – in Hollywood and in Vietnam – offers some insight into this struggle, which we continue to face today.

    A war by any other name

    The war is known by many names, and each one highlights the different objectives of the forces involved.

    For the United States, “The Vietnam War” was one battleground against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. To prevent communism from spreading, the US sent resources to establish the Republic of Vietnam (known informally as South Vietnam) as its proxy. It had already used this strategy with West Germany and South Korea.

    The Communist Party of Vietnam thought of US involvement as a form of colonialism.

    By calling the conflict “the sacred resistance against the US to salvage the country” (Cuộc Kháng Chiến Chống Mỹ, Cứu Nước), or “the American war” (Chiến Tranh Mỹ) for short, the communist party encouraged the perception of the war as a stepping stone towards Vietnam’s full independence following Chinese imperialism (circa 111 BCE–939 CE), French colonialism (1862–1954) and Japanese occupation (1940-45).

    The communist objective was to “liberate” South Vietnam from the US and its puppet administration, and reunify the country. This is why, in Vietnam, April 30 is called “Reunification Day” or “Independence Day”, to commemorate the communists’ victory in capturing Saigon.

    However, former citizens of South Vietnam call April 30 the “Day of National Mourning” (Ngày Quốc Hận), as it marks the Republic’s defeat and the beginning of decades of political persecution and refugee displacement. Although the South Vietnamese were pluralistic in their political beliefs, they were united in their anti-communism.

    For them, the conflict was “the Civil War” (Nội Chiến), fought between communists and anti-communists over the future of Vietnam. After the Republic fell, many grieved (and still do) the vision of what South Vietnam could have become.

    Apocalypse then

    While the US eventually lost control over South Vietnam, it continued to influence how Vietnam was thought of in the West through Hollywood.

    Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s classic novel, Heart of Darkness.
    Shutterstock

    In the 1970-80s, Vietnam War films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1987) established these directors as household names.

    The films focus on US soldiers’ psyche and discontent with incompetent leadership, pushing the Vietnamese people and their struggles for independence into the background. They frame the war as something done to American society, rather than something the US orchestrated.

    This victimhood fostered what became known as “the Vietnam syndrome” – an unofficial condition in American mindset characterised by feelings of woundedness and a loss of trust in the capability of the US.

    In Vietnam, early communist-controlled cinema in the north depicted the Vietnamese as an oppressed people who must band together to defeat Western corruption. Wartime films such as Along the Same River (1959) and 17th Parallel, Days and Nights (1972) leaned into melodramatic love stories to allegorise the divided Vietnam as separated lovers who must be reunited.

    As directors in the north slowly gained some freedom from the communist party, films increasingly dealt with the war’s immense impact and questioned the party’s ability to bring about the classless society it had promised. The Girl on the River (1987) and Living in Fear (2005) are two good examples.

    Living in Fear (Sống trong sợ hãi) trailer.

    Meanwhile, filmmakers in the south were independents who occasionally collaborated with the state or military, as seen with the classic 1971 film Faceless Lover (also known as Warrior, Who Are You?).

    South Vietnamese people saw film as a medium to negotiate their fledgling national identity. For them, it was important to establish and safekeep an identity that was distinct from the “foreign ally” (the US) and the “domestic foe” (the communists).

    This is why films from the south often portrayed love triangles, where the hero must choose between the vessels of modern Vietnamese femininity and Western excess. Some examples include Afternoon Sun (1972) and Late Night’s Dew (1972).

    Apocalypse now

    New perspectives on the war are emerging as historically marginalised groups gain footing in Western media. And some of these challenge early portrayals.

    Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods (2020) was the first major production to show the war through Black American veterans’ eyes. Hollywood neglected to do this, despite the over-representation of Black soldiers in conscription, combat and casualties during wartime.

    Although Da 5 Bloods still fails to account for the Vietnamese’s fight for self-determination, it acknowledges Black Americans’ and the Vietnamese people’s mutual suffering under white supremacy.

    One independent feature from a son of refugees, Journey from the Fall (2006), conveys the resentment many exiled South Vietnamese people feel towards the communist party. It also explores the trauma of leaving Vietnam by boat and resettlement in the US.

    Most recently, the 2024 TV series The Sympathizer, adapted from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel, moved the needle by probing at complex issues such as wartime loyalty, complicity and authenticity.

    Communist narratives persist

    In Vietnam today, the scale of communist party-funded movies has grown immensely, with many films resembling Hollywood blockbusters. But the messages have become more conservative.

    Films such as The Scent of Burning Grass (2012) and The Legend Makers (2013) continue to support the communist party narrative by omitting South Vietnam’s anti-communist objective. They also undermine women’s contributions to the war efforts, whereas earlier films put women at the centre of community organisation.

    A new generation of filmmakers is challenging these narratives through collaboration with international production companies and distributors. Features such as Viet and Nam (2024) experiment with film form to show the true costs of war, including the widening wealth disparity in Vietnam, and the lengths many would go to close this gap.

    Viet and Nam trailer.

    Scarlette Nhi Do 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. The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago today, yet films about the conflict still struggle to capture its complexities – https://theconversation.com/the-vietnam-war-ended-50-years-ago-today-yet-films-about-the-conflict-still-struggle-to-capture-its-complexities-253837

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Housing affordability is at the centre of this election, yet two major reforms seem all but off-limits

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Garrow, Editorial Web Developer

    This federal election, both major parties have offered a “grab bag” of policy fixes for Australia’s stubborn housing affordability crisis. But there are still two big policy elephants in the room, which neither side wants to touch.

    The first is negative gearing. This can apply to business losses relating to any investment. But in the context of housing, it allows property investors to claim annual losses incurred renting out an investment property as deductions against their taxable income.

    Proponents argue this boosts the supply of rental housing by encouraging investment. Critics say it’s an unfair tax break that disproportionately benefits the wealthy while driving up house prices.

    This situation has been controversial for a long time. The Hawke government tried to implement major reforms in the 1980s but these were reversed soon afterwards.

    The second “elephant”, which some economists argue “put a rocket under” housing prices, is the 50% capital gains tax discount for assets held for longer than a year. This was introduced by the Howard government at the turn of the millennium.

    In 2019, the then Labor leader Bill Shorten learned the hard way what can happen when you bring negative gearing and capital gains tax reform to an election as part of a “big target” platform. Yet these tax concessions remain highly contentious.

    Whom do they benefit most? Are they behind the housing crisis? Is keeping them fair on the rest of us? We invited four experts to unpack this debate. Here are the elements they told us are most crucial:

    Digital Storytelling Team 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. Housing affordability is at the centre of this election, yet two major reforms seem all but off-limits – https://theconversation.com/housing-affordability-is-at-the-centre-of-this-election-yet-two-major-reforms-seem-all-but-off-limits-241262

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Trump says diversity initiatives undermine merit. Decades of research show this is flawed

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paula McDonald, Professor of Work and Organisation, Queensland University of Technology

    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    US President Donald Trump declared earlier this year he would forge a “colour blind and merit-based society”.

    His executive order was part of a broader policy directing the US military, federal agencies and other public institutions to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

    Framing this as restoring fairness, neutrality and strength to American institutions, Trump argued DEI programs “discourage merit and leadership” and amounted to “race-based and sex-based discrimination”.

    In Australia too, debates over gender quotas and “the war on woke” have repeatedly invoked meritocracy as a rallying cry against affirmative action.

    The narrative of rewards going to the most qualified people is compelling. Yet decades of research show this is flawed. Far from being the great equaliser, an uncritical reliance on “merit” can perpetuate bias and inequality.

    The myths of meritocracy

    The merit rhetoric invokes the ideal of a neutral, objective system rewarding talent and effort, regardless of identity.

    In theory, merit-based evaluations such as exams, performance reviews, employee recruitment processes and competitive bids, should be impartial.

    In practice however, there are several myths associated with the notion of merit.

    1. Merit is purely objective or unbiased. In the employment context for example, studies show that even so-called objective and standardised cognitive or aptitude tests can systematically favour men due to the type of questions asked.

    Decision-makers may unknowingly redefine merit to fit whoever already belongs to a favoured group. A study of elite law firms, for example, found male applicants were rated as more qualified than identical resumes from women.

    This is known as “plasticity of merit”, meaning the criteria of excellence can bend to preference, all while appearing objective.

    Supposedly merit-based judgments can reflect unconscious bias, or comfort with candidates who fit a traditional mould. Over time, preference may be given to a particular type of candidate irrespective of their actual contribution. Privilege and prejudice can be baked into merit-based evaluations.

    2. Merit can be separated from social and historical context. Meritocracy or the so-called meritocratic promise assumes a level playing field, where everyone competes under the same conditions.

    In reality however, past inequalities shape present opportunities. What counts as merit is dynamic and socially shaped, not an eternal universal standard.

    For example, during the second world war there was a shortage of male workers. Qualities women brought to jobs previously held by men such as capacity for teamwork were suddenly deemed meritorious. But these same qualities were downgraded when the men returned.

    Merit is often defined in masculine terms. For example, physicality or hyper-competitive traits have long been seen as prerequisites for military service and policing.

    Merit is often defined in masculine terms commonly associated with military, policing and firefighting services.
    Charnsitr/Shutterstock

    This alignment of masculine norms with standards of merit has been termed “benchmark man”.

    Science careers too were built in an era when women were largely excluded. They were predicated on long-hours work and total availability – requirements that clash with caregiving responsibilities. The result is women in STEM careers leave or are pushed out.

    3. Outcomes are the result of personal choice or deficiencies, not structural barriers. Meritocracy carries a moral narrative: those at the top earned their place while those left behind didn’t measure up or chose not to compete.

    Research shows, for example, that when women don’t advance, it’s explained as lifestyle choices, or they lack ambition, or have opted out to prioritise caregiving.

    This narrative wilfully overlooks the structural constraints impacting choices. When a woman “chooses” a lower-paying, flexible job, it may be less about preference than inadequate social supports.

    By accepting unequal outcomes as the natural result of individual choices, institutions can conveniently obscure disadvantage and discrimination and erase responsibility to correct inequities.

    How the merit mandate undermines equality

    Trump’s vision is to remove equity initiatives and programs that monitor or encourage fair hiring and promotion, cease training that alerts employees to hidden biases, and fire or reassign DEI staff.

    This is conceptually flawed and will actually entrench the very biases and barriers that have kept institutions unequal.

    In the military, for example – an area highlighted by Trump – leaders have recognised they need to foster more inclusive cultures.

    For years, defence forces have grappled with sexual harassment, recruitment shortfalls and retention of skilled personnel. In Australia, the Australian Defence Force undertook major reviews to identify violent and sexist subcultures, understanding a more inclusive force is a more effective force.

    Yet Trump’s order bars the Pentagon from even acknowledging historical sexism in the ranks.

    Favouring the in-group

    Removing equity measures under a banner of neutrality means hiring and promotion will increasingly rely on informal networks and subjective judgements. These can tilt in favour of the in-group – usually white, male and affluent.

    DEI initiatives can increase representation of women, or people from diverse racial or cultural backgrounds, in an organisation or occupational group.

    However, without challenging the norms of merit, or without broadening the definitions of talent and leadership, people in those groups may continue to feel like outsiders.

    Australian experts and business leaders increasingly acknowledge objective merit is mythical.

    Redefining merit

    Fair rewards for effort can improve performance. However, we need to stop pitting merit against diversity. True fairness requires acknowledgement structural inequality exists and bias affects evaluations.

    Organisations need to re-imagine merit in ways that work with inclusion, rather than against it. This includes refining hiring and promotion criteria to focus on competencies that are measurable and relevant.

    Paula McDonald currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Trump says diversity initiatives undermine merit. Decades of research show this is flawed – https://theconversation.com/trump-says-diversity-initiatives-undermine-merit-decades-of-research-show-this-is-flawed-255100

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Renewables, coal or nuclear? This election, your generation’s energy preference may play a surprising role

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magnus Söderberg, Professor & Director, Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research, Griffith University

    Christie Cooper/Shutterstock

    In an otherwise unremarkable election campaign, the major parties are promising sharply different energy blueprints for Australia. Labor is pitching a high-renewables future powered largely by wind, solar, hydroelectricity and batteries. The Coalition wants more gas and coal now, and would build nuclear power later.

    So how might these two competing visions play out as Australia goes to the polls this Saturday?

    Research shows clear generational preferences when it comes to producing electricity. Younger Australians prefer renewables while older people favour coal and gas. The one exception is nuclear power, which is split much more on gender lines than age – 51% of Australian men support it, but just 26% of women.

    While many voters are focused squarely on the cost of living, energy prices feed directly into how much everything costs. Research has shown that as power prices rise, the more likely it is an incumbent government will be turfed out.

    Coal, renewables or nuclear?

    About half of young Australians (18–34) want the country powered by renewables by 2030, according to a 2023 survey of energy consumers. Only 13% of the youngest (18–24) group think there’s no need to change or that it’s impossible. But resistance increases directly with age. From retirement age and up, 29% favour a renewable grid by 2030 while 44% think there’s no need or that it’s impossible.

    On nuclear, the divide is less clear. The Coalition has promised to build Australia’s first nuclear reactors if elected, and Coalition leader Peter Dutton has claimed young people back nuclear. That’s based on a Newspoll survey showing almost two-thirds (65%) of Australians aged 18–34 supported nuclear power.

    But other polls give a quite different story: 46% support for nuclear by younger Australians in an Essential poll compared to 56% support by older Australians. A Savanta poll put young support at just 36%.

    There’s a gender component too. The demographic most opposed to nuclear are women over 55.

    Younger voters remain strongly committed to environmental goals – but they’re also wary of cost blowouts and electricity price rises. Some see nuclear as a zero emissions technology able to help with the clean energy transition.

    Older Australians are more likely to be sceptical of nuclear power. This is likely due to nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl as well as the prospect of nuclear war during the Cold War.

    It’s an open question how robust support for nuclear would be if the Coalition was elected and began the long, expensive process of construction. New findings by the National Climate Action Survey shows almost 40% of Australians would be “extremely concerned” if a nuclear power plant was built within 50 kilometres of their homes and another 16% “very concerned”.

    These energy preferences aren’t just found in Australia. In recent research my co-authors and I found a clear divide in Sweden: younger favour renewables and nuclear, older favour fossil fuels. Why the difference? Sweden already gets about 40% of its power from nuclear, while renewables now provide about 40% of Australia’s power.

    We found younger Swedes strongly favoured renewables – but also supported nuclear power, especially when electricity prices rose. That is because nuclear is perceived to stabilise the supply of electricity. They wanted clean energy, as long as it was reliable and affordable. Our study found older people were not necessarily pro-fossil fuels, but were more focused on keeping energy affordable – especially for businesses and industry.

    When electricity prices rose in Sweden, our survey respondents broadly became less concerned about climate change and more likely to be favourable to nuclear energy.

    In Australia, the cost of the clean energy transition has crept up. While solar and wind offer cheap power once built, there are hidden costs.

    If electricity prices keep rising, we should expect to see declining support for the clean energy transition.

    Overcoming the energy divide

    During Australia’s decade-long climate wars from roughly 2012 to 2022, climate change was heavily politicised and energy became a political football. Under a Coalition government in 2014, Australia became the first nation to abolish a carbon tax.

    Labor took office in 2022 pledging to end the climate wars and fast-track the clean energy transition. But the Coalition has opened up a new divide on energy by proposing nuclear power by the 2040s and more gas and coal in the meantime.

    This election, the cost of living is the single biggest issue for 25% of voters in the ABC’s Vote Compass poll. But climate change is still the main concern for about 8% of voters, energy for 4% and the environment 3.5%. Here, Coalition backing for fossil fuels and nuclear may attract some older and younger voters but repel others. Labor’s renewable transition may attract younger voters but lose older energy traditionalists.

    Energy preferences could play out through a cost of living lens. Parties pushing too hard on green policies this election risk alienating older voters concerned about rising costs. But going nuclear would be very expensive, and keeping old coal plants going isn’t cheap. Downplaying climate action or dismissing nuclear outright could alienate some younger Australians, who are climate-conscious and energy-savvy.

    Policymakers should resist framing energy as a zero-sum game. There is a path forward which can unite generations: coupling ambitious climate targets with pragmatic policies to protect consumers. Transitional supports such as energy rebates, time-of-use pricing or community-scale renewables and batteries can soften any economic impact while building public trust.

    Our research suggests electricity price rises can quickly erode support even for well-designed energy policies.

    As Australia navigates a complex and costly transition, keeping both younger and older generations on board may be the greatest political – and moral – challenge of all.

    Magnus Söderberg 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. Renewables, coal or nuclear? This election, your generation’s energy preference may play a surprising role – https://theconversation.com/renewables-coal-or-nuclear-this-election-your-generations-energy-preference-may-play-a-surprising-role-253832

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –