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Pokies? Lotto? Sports betting? Which forms of problem gambling affect Australians the most?

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alex-russell-133860">Alex Russell</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-browne-97705">Matthew Browne</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-rockloff-569">Matthew Rockloff</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a> Gambling, especially sports and race betting, is a hot political issue at the moment. This is largely due to the recommendations from a 2023 report from a nonpartisan federal government committee, chaired by the late Peta Murphy, called <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Policy_and_Legal_Affairs/Onlinegamblingimpacts/Report">You Win Some, You Lose More</a>. This report <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Policy_and_Legal_Affairs/Onlinegamblingimpacts/Report/List_of_recommendations">recommended</a> “the Australian government, with the cooperation of the states and territories, implement a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling”. This has led to lots of debate and controversy. Recently, Peter V’landys, head of the NRL and Racing NSW, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/nanny-state-nrl-afl-storm-the-field-over-gambling-ads-20240920-p5kc2q.html">claimed</a> lotteries were more harmful than race and sports betting combined, citing independent statistics. Let’s explore the relative harm of different types of gambling and see if this claim holds up. <h2>Australians love a punt</h2> Gambling is widespread in Australia, with <a href="https://www.gamblingresearch.org.au/publications/second-national-study-interactive-gambling-australia-2019-20">more than half of adults</a> engaging in at least one form each year. According to the <a href="https://www.gamblingresearch.org.au/publications/second-national-study-interactive-gambling-australia-2019-20">latest national data</a>, lotteries are the most common type (40% of Australians buy a ticket annually), followed by race betting (17%), pokies (16%), scratchies (15.7%) and sports betting (9.6%). However, the popularity of a gambling form doesn’t necessarily reflect its harm. Different gambling activities have distinct characteristics. Two key factors mean that some gambling forms are more harmful than others: the speed of gambling and bet size. Pokies allow for frequent, small bets, with spins every three seconds. Race and sports betting can involve much larger sums and betting that is relatively fast, but still slower than pokie spins. Sports betting, in particular, is getting faster with in-play betting and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30386964/">microbetting</a>. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hI_XFOc4is0?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption>Poker machines, or ‘pokies’ are the biggest single source of gambling losses in Australia.</figcaption></figure> Lotteries, on the other hand, are much slower-paced. People typically spend a small amount on tickets and wait for a draw to find out if they’ve won. Although it’s possible to spend a lot on tickets, <a href="https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/statistics/theme/society/gambling/australian-gambling-statistics">people tend not to</a>, unlike with faster gambling forms. The average spend on pokies among the 16% who play them is around $4,782 per year, compared to an average spend on lotteries of $377 per year. These are averages. Most won’t spend these amounts but some will spend far more, which raises the average amount. V’landys’ claim about lotteries being more harmful than race and sports betting was based on “independent statistics”. He said that of 100 people seeking help from a gambling hotline, 70 had issues with pokies, 15 with lotteries, eight with race betting, four with sports betting, and three with casinos. We were unable to verify these figures – if anyone has the data, we’d love to see the research to assess them. However, we do have publicly available data. <h2>What the data say</h2> The NSW GambleAware website’s <a href="https://www.gambleaware.nsw.gov.au/-/media/ghs-annual-activity-report-2020-21.ashx?rev=e070f9c8bdbf4031816a852f27246c54&hash=C5FC3AA23BE5F2EF69D551A5E2292BA9#:%7E:text=Of%20the%20clients%20receiving%20counselling,36.9%25%20of%20all%20female%20clients.">2020-21</a> report shows that of 2,886 people seeking help, 73.3% identified pokies as their primary form of gambling, while only 13 people (less than 1%) listed lotteries. Race betting accounted for 13.1%, and sports betting for 7.9%. These patterns were consistent with <a href="https://www.gambleaware.nsw.gov.au/about-us/corporate-documents">previous years</a>. People who experience problems also usually take part in more than one form of gambling, as the NSW report showed. When these secondary gambling activities were considered, sports betting was cited by 35.5%, race betting by 33.5%, pokies by 19.5%, and lotteries by 13.7%. <h2>What we discovered</h2> The best evidence on gambling problems and harm comes from large-scale prevalence studies, typically commissioned by governments and conducted by independent researchers. These studies offer high-quality insights into how each gambling form contributes to problems. While one prevalence study is great, our team recently combined data from seven national and state-based prevalence studies. This resulted in a very high-quality dataset that we can use to study this question. In <a href="https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2006/12/1/article-p182.xml">our analysis</a>, we used statistical techniques to show how strongly each gambling form is associated with problems. These techniques give us regression coefficients, which are just numbers that tell us how strong the association is. A higher number means a stronger association between that form and gambling problems. The most problematic form was pokies (coefficient = 0.147), followed by casino games (0.136), sports betting (0.068) and race betting (0.038). Lotteries, with a coefficient of 0.001, were the least problematic and were not statistically significant even in our large sample. As you might guess from such a low number, there’s very little relationship between lotteries and gambling problems. <h2>What about prevalence?</h2> Prevalence matters too – while pokies were most strongly associated with problems, the number of people participating in each gambling form is also important. Let’s consider an analogy – a car that gives out a lot of exhaust fumes. That car is harmful, but if virtually no one owns one, then it’s not going to account for much pollution. The same idea applies for gambling forms. If a gambling form is very harmful but very few people do it, it doesn’t account for many problems in the population. It works the other way, too – if there is a very clean type of car that many people drive, they also won’t add up to much pollution. Similarly, if we have gambling forms that have very little association with problems, it won’t add up to many problems in the population, even if lots of people take part. The regression coefficients tell us how problematic each gambling form is. Prevalance tells us how many people do it. When we combine these two bits of information, we can work out the degree of problems in the community that come from each form. When we did this, pokies were responsible for 52-57% of gambling problems in the community. Sports and race betting each contributed 9-11%, with a combined total of around 20%. Lotteries accounted for just 0.1-1% of problems. Even if we include scratchies as part of lotteries, this only adds another 2-5% of problems, still far below sports and race betting. <hr /> <iframe id="quxHH" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: 0;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/quxHH/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <hr /> <h2>The real issue</h2> What’s the takeaway? Lotteries are widely played but are not typically associated with much harm. Sports and race betting, despite having fewer participants, are more harmful due to their faster pace and the potential for large, frequent bets. Lotteries involve slower betting and lower spending, making them much less risky. If we aim to reduce gambling harm in our community, the focus should be on pokies, which are widespread in pubs and clubs <a href="https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2006/12/3/article-p721.xml">outside WA</a>, casino games and race and sports betting. These forms have features that make them far more harmful than slower-paced gambling like lotteries.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/240665/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alex-russell-133860">Alex Russell</a>, Principal Research Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-browne-97705">Matthew Browne</a>, Senior Lecturer in Statistics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-rockloff-569">Matthew Rockloff</a>, Head, Experimental Gambling Research Lab, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a> Image credits: Shutterstock This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pokies-lotto-sports-betting-which-forms-of-problem-gambling-affect-australians-the-most-240665">original article</a>. </div>

Money & Banking

"Unidentified life form" found off New Zealand coast

Ah, the deep sea, where the mysteries of the ocean lurk in the shadows, waiting to be discovered by intrepid marine scientists armed with nets, trawls and a healthy dose of confusion... Recently, a team of brave souls embarked on a journey off the coast of New Zealand, armed with curiosity and a fervent desire to find Nemo's distant relatives. What they found, however, was not just Nemo's cousins – but a veritable treasure trove of potential new species. Or at least, they think so. In a saga that could rival any aquatic adventure film, the scientists stumbled upon approximately 100 potential new species, including one particularly enigmatic life form that has left them scratching their heads in bewilderment. Initially mistaking it for a sea star – or perhaps a particularly flamboyant sea cucumber – they now suspect it might be a deep-sea coral. Or a cosmic jellyfish. Or a lost prop from a sci-fi movie. The possibilities are as endless as the ocean itself. Dr Michela Mitchell, a taxonomist with a penchant for the dramatic, declared it could be "a whole new group outside of the octocoral." Because why settle for identifying just one species when you can potentially create an entire taxonomic order? Dr Daniel Moore, another member of the expedition and self-proclaimed captain of the confusion ship, confessed, "We can't even describe it to family." One can only imagine the perplexed expressions at family gatherings as they attempt to explain their latest discovery: "Well, it's sort of like a sponge, but not really. And it might have tentacles. Or wings. We're not entirely sure." Their research vessel, the Tangaroa, became a floating laboratory of befuddlement as they collected nearly 1,800 samples from the abyssal depths. Armed with modified sleds and a healthy dose of optimism, they trawled the ocean floor, hoping to snag the elusive creatures that lurked below. "It was true exploration, very exciting," Dr Moore boasted, his enthusiasm undiminished by the fact that they still couldn't definitively identify half of what they'd found. Among their discoveries was a new species of fish, dubbed the "eelpout", which was "instantly recognised as being different to the others." Because, apparently, it had a flair for the dramatic and refused to conform to traditional fish norms. In a surprising revelation, Dr Moore admitted, "Finding new vertebrates is rare." One can only assume that the eelpout, upon hearing this declaration, puffed out its chest (or whatever passes for a chest in fish anatomy) and proclaimed itself the king of the ocean. As the expedition came to a close, the scientists reflected on the vastness of the ocean and the infinitesimal fraction of its inhabitants they had encountered. With only 240,000 species identified out of an estimated 2.2 million, they realised they had barely scratched the surface. Or, in this case, the sea floor. And so, armed with their nets, their sleds, and their unshakeable sense of optimism, the intrepid scientists set sail once more, ready to delve deeper into the mysteries of the ocean and perhaps stumble upon another baffling creature that defies explanation. After all, what's science without a little bit of confusion? Image: Ocean-Census | NIWA

International Travel

How drag as an art form sashayed from the underground and strutted into the mainstream

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-w-marshall-1195978">Jonathan W. Marshall</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720">Edith Cowan University</a> Recent protests against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/11/im-just-trying-to-make-the-world-a-little-brighter-how-the-culture-wars-hijacked-drag-queen-story-hour">drag queen story hours</a> are the latest in a series of actions targeting the increased prominence of displays of LGBTIQ+ culture in the public arena. But drag artists have been strutting their stuff in speakeasies, cabarets and films for a long time now. <h2>The long history of cross-dressing</h2> There is a long global history of cross-gendered performance. In the West, this included <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803105532521;jsessionid=B8A5B8C5FE0EBAEDAB763E0AC1405EEA">“travesty” roles</a>, “<a href="https://www.planethugill.com/2013/08/en-travestie-curious-tradition-of.html">breeches parts</a>”, pantomime dames and their cousins in <a href="https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=gradreports">blackface – “wench” – parts</a>, variety halls and Shakespearean performances. There’s also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnjxz">Japanese kabuki (onnagata)</a>, Beijing opera, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1124189">Samoan fale aitu and fa’afafine performances</a> and more. All share something with drag – cross-dressing and various forms of gender play and/or reversal – but none is quite the same as what we know today. Legal restrictions on gendered clothing have existed in places like Europe, China and Japan through to modern times – though the focus was more on class than gender. The wearing of men’s pants by women was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/at-last-women-of-paris-can-wear-the-trousers-legally-after-200yearold-law-is-declared-null-and-void-8480666.html">technically illegal in France</a> until 2013. Centuries earlier, it contributed to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BYbasO034">prosecution of Joan of Arc by church courts</a>. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-BYbasO034?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>The emergence of drag</h2> Something like contemporary drag <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203411070/changing-room-laurence-senelick">appeared in the West from the late 18th century</a>, blending early burlesque (disrespectful comedy, not necessarily bawdy) with nascent queer culture (clubs, speakeasies and other semi-underground meeting places where same-sex-attracted individuals socialised). By the time the 20th century rolled around, drag artists, particularly in the US, offered beauty tips, attempted to engage in sponsorships or sold stylishly posed <a href="https://wislgbthistory.com/people/peo-l/leon_francis.htm">postcards</a> and <a href="https://ourcommunityroots.com/?p=13079">souvenirs</a>, closely recalling advertisements aimed at female consumers. Since much early drag made fun of women in general, and women of colour in particular, the form has hardly been a consistent force for good. Drawing on blackface minstrelsy, British panto and college revues, drag from the 1950s increasingly featured female impersonators offering hyperbolic, over-the-top and often disrespectful portraits of feminine characteristics. So called “glamour drag” was designed, in the words of artist Jimmy James, “to take people totally away from the ugly realities … and transport them to the realm of the magical” through fabulous dresses, hair and sequins. This became the dominant form of drag in the West, particularly in Australia – although there was also a vibrant counter-culture. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9dOrfO2gVs">Danny La Rue</a> camped it up on the stages of Britain and the US, touring Australia in the late 1970s, while <a href="https://dangerousminds.net/comments/ridiculous_a_little-known_drag_tv_role_by_charles_ludlam_1983">Charles Ludlam</a> made the difficult transition from outrageous drag to main stage theatre and back, losing none of his style. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9dOrfO2gVs?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>From the queer underground to the straight mainstream</h2> Key to the crossover of drag from an underground principally LGBTIQ+ phenomena to the cis mainstream was the increasingly flamboyant manifestation of popular music – such as glam, hair metal, disco and new wave. The exultant 1978 video for disco star Sylvester’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD6cPE2BHic">You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)</a>, for example, introduced audiences to the concept of “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/does-realness-actually-mean-surprising-heartbreaking-history/">realness</a>” as she inhabited different costumed personas. Sylvester was a former member of the avant-drag troupe the Cockettes and her clip was shot at London’s gay disco The Embassy. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gD6cPE2BHic?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> “Rock camp” performance found its perfect expression in <a href="https://youtu.be/4plqh6obZW4">The Rocky Horror Picture Show</a> stage show in 1973, directed by Australian queer theatre legend Jim Sharman. Its comedic celebration of gender fluid performance and sexuality helped make drag and related forms mainstream. Also crucial was Jennie Livingston’s 1990 film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/24/burning-down-the-house-debate-paris-is-burning">Paris is Burning</a>, documenting the competitive balls (drag races) mounted by working class LGBTIQ+ African-Americans and Latinos in New York, some of whom (but not all) identified as trans. Performers at the balls competed to exhibit “realness” – not only in gender terms, but employment and social position: “executive realness”, “butch queer”, “banjee girl” and “military”. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4plqh6obZW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> Madonna famously recruited performers from Paris is Burning (Jose Gutierez and Luis Camacho from House Xtravaganza) to assist in the choreography for her video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJQSAiODqI">Vogue</a> and then her Blond Ambition tour, skyrocketing the international renown of these practices. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9SqvD1-0odY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Drag landmarks</h2> Prior to The Rocky Horror Picture Show gracing the stages of London and Sydney, Kings Cross had seen the foundation of legendary drag revue <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G6aDpxhWlg">Les Girls</a>, running from 1963-93. This show was led by Carlotta, who took her girls on tour, and became the inspiration for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgFDIinCeYI">Priscilla Queen of the Desert</a>. “Alternative cabaret” also thrived. Notables included Australia’s truly outrageous Reg Livermore, the bizarre fantasies of Lindsay Kemp or the incredible Moira Finucane. Finucane’s brilliant early “gender fuck” performance as <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-765293824/view?sectionId=nla.obj-769278625&partId=nla.obj-765310182#page/n6/mode/1up">Romeo</a> involved an arrogant, moustachioed and convincingly male performer who undressed to reveal Finucane, who then pleasured herself with a feather boa. Australians might also remember the wonderful Pauline Pantsdown’s drag satire <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4tZRZSGxcE">I Don’t Like It</a> in 1998. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0G6aDpxhWlg?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> Topping it off was the huge success of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1353056/">RuPaul’s Drag Race reality TV show</a> in 2009. Producers were onto a winner: fabulous clothes, the highs and lows of competition and a scintillating array of would-be stars, presided over RuPaul, looking never less than fabulous. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PDe8zJvyF54?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Lessons from the history of drag</h2> The glamorous, hyper-feminine artist remains the most popular model of drag. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was these paragons of camp femininity who were chosen to read to children in libraries, first in <a href="https://www.dragstoryhour.org/about">San Francisco in 2015</a> and then internationally. These glitter, glam and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340774905_Balirano_G_2020_Of_Rainbow_Unicorns_The_Role_of_Bonding_Queer_Icons_in_Contemporary_LGBTIQ_Re-Positionings">rainbow unicorns</a> seemingly conquered the globe. But more outré drag queens, drag kings and “genderfuck” performers never ceased toiling away in the underground. <a href="https://canadianart.ca/features/the-showstoppers/">Drag is changing</a>. If we are to look to history for lessons, I’d like to see story time presented by the successors to Divine (one of John Waters’ collaborators, whose <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfirqQJC3I0">1984 appearance on Countdown</a> marks one of the strangest moments in Australian television) or transgender superstar <a href="https://revolverwarholgallery.com/superstars/warhol-superstar-candy-darling/">Candy Darling</a>. Now that would be a story time education to remember.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205650/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-w-marshall-1195978">Jonathan W. Marshall</a>, Associate Professor & Postgraduate Research Coordinator, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720">Edith Cowan University</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-drag-as-an-art-form-sashayed-from-the-underground-and-strutted-into-the-mainstream-205650">original article</a>.

Art

Mental health issues the most common long-term health condition in Australia

<div> <div class="copy"> When the 2021 census went out to all Australians on August 10 last year, it introduced a question asking about people’s diagnosed long-term health conditions. Now, the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-conditions-and-risks/health-census/latest-release" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first data from the census</a> has been released and, maybe unsurprisingly, it tells us that mental health conditions are the most prevalent long-term health conditions affecting Australians today. Over eight million people – about one-third of the population – reported having a long-term health condition. But mental health surpassed all other chronic illnesses in prevalence, with over 2.2 million people disclosing that they have a mental health condition. That’s roughly 1 in 12 Australians. These findings highlight a need to invest in not only physical healthcare, but to take urgent action in Australia’s mental health system to meet the increasing demand for services. “When it comes to mental healthcare, we’re just at the beginning of ensuring that we have good, high-quality services available, and the staff for them,” says Dr Tamara Cavenett, president of the Australian Psychological Society (APS). “And I think that the data actually shows that we’re not managing Australian’s mental healthcare in the way that we should,” <h2>Gendered perceptions</h2> “When you work in the mental health field, it’s not surprising that it’s such a prevalent long-term health condition,” says Dr Madelyne Bisby, a postdoctoral research fellow at the eCentreClinic at Macquarie University, a specialist research clinic providing online mental health treatments. In fact, according to <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/first-insights-national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing-2020-21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">insights</a> from the first cohort of the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/first-insights-national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing-2020-21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing</a> (NSMHW) – also conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics – in 2020-21 there were 3.4 million Australians aged 16-85 years (17%) who saw a health professional for their mental health. But delving a little deeper into the census data reveals that roughly 60% of Australians diagnosed with a mental health condition were women, highlighting long-standing gendered differences in how people perceive mental health – and how they ask for help. “As a clinical psychologist, we often see more women than we do men,” explains Bisby. “What they feel comfortable reporting can quite possibly reflect the stigma that still exists around saying that you have an issue around your mental health if you’re male,” adds Cavenett. “And we also know that the traditional services that we provide for men aren’t necessarily tailored to working with men.” According to Cavenett these findings highlight the need for more research into how treatments and services can be tailored to make men feel more comfortable to seek out help. <h2>The pandemic and mental health</h2> The highest proportions of diagnosed mental health conditions were seen in people aged 20-34 years, supporting findings from the NSMHW that younger Australians (16-34 years) are more likely to experience high or very high levels of psychological distress than older Australians. “We know that adolescence and young adulthood is the time when a lot of mental health disorders do emerge for the first time,” explains Bisby. But Cavenett also thinks that the trend might reflect mental health issues created or <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/mental-health-during-covid/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic</a>, in terms of a lack of employment opportunities and social interaction. “What we know is that social contact is much more necessary the younger that you are. That doesn’t mean that it’s not important when you’re older, but that the need and the frequency is much higher in a younger age group,” says Cavenett. “One of the key features of lockdown is that it takes away a lot of people’s coping resources, a lot of the things they do to stay mentally well – seeing friends in person, being able to go out and be social, and do the things that really bring meaning and value to your life,” adds Bisby. These higher proportions of diagnosed mental health conditions may also reflect changing attitudes towards mental health in younger Australians – revealing a greater willingness to respond to and report mental health issues in the age group. “They’re certainly comfortable accessing help and saying that they have a problem,” says Cavenett. “But it’s also causing a much greater demand on the system and the supply of psychologists to actually provide services. And that’s a real worry.” <h2>Demand is increasing, but not the supply</h2> The 2021 census is finally providing national data on long-term health conditions across the entire population, and this will be critical in informing delivery of healthcare services to all Australians. “There’s a greater emphasis on chronic health conditions now as well, which is super important,” says Bisby. But the data underlines a need for government to make a greater investment in supporting mental healthcare in particular, especially in the training of new psychologists to meet an increasing demand. <a href="https://psychology.org.au/about-us/news-and-media/media-releases/2022/unpaid,-underfunded-and-overworked-psychologists-o" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to the APS</a>, only 35% of the Government’s psychology workforce target listed in the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/nmhspf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Mental Health Service Planning Framework</a> is being met. What does this mean in practice? According to Cavenett, in a pre-pandemic world only around one in 100 psychologists had closed their books to new patients. But now, that number is down to one in three. “If you try and attempt to make an appointment with a psychologist, you’ve got a far less chance today of being able to get one in a reasonable and a timely fashion,” explains Cavenett. It takes 6-8 years of training to become a psychologist in Australia, but Cavenett says students are dropping out after five or more years of study because training places are so scarce due to a lack of higher education funding. “Until that’s addressed, we are essentially looking at increasing demand over time – and less and less psychologists able to meet that demand,” concludes Cavenett. Image credits: Getty Images  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=196520&title=Mental+health+issues+the+most+common+long-term+health+condition+in+Australia" width="1" height="1" /> </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/mental-health-conditions-australia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Imma Perfetto. </div> </div>

Mind

Yet again, the census shows women are doing more housework. Now is the time to invest in interventions

The Australian Census numbers have been released, showing women typically do <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/AUS/download/GCP_AUS.xlsx">many more hours of unpaid housework</a> per week compared to men. It’s not a new development. In <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/home/2016+Census+National">2016</a>, the “typical” Australian man spent less than five hours a week on domestic work, while the “typical” Australian woman spent between five and 14 hours a week on domestic work. Before that, the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/c0e6e1069c8d24e9ca257306000d5b04!OpenDocument">2006 census</a>showed, again, that more of the domestic workload is shouldered by women. So, in the 15 years since the Australian Census <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/census-to-count-unpaid-work-20060226-ge1ty0.html">started collecting</a> unpaid housework time, women are shown to do more than men. Every. Single. Time. What is unique about these latest census numbers is Australians filled out their surveys during one of the greatest disruptors to work and home life – the COVID pandemic. <h2>Pandemic pressures</h2> We have a breadth of <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=EHPbrxgAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">research</a> showing the pandemic disrupted women’s – especially mothers’ – work and family lives, in catastrophic ways. Economic closures knocked women out of employment at <a href="https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/the-policy-lab/projects/projects/worsening">higher rates to men</a>, forcing them to rely more heavily on their savings and stimulus payments to make ends meet. All this while managing intensified housework, childcare and homeschooling. The <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/59/1/1/286878/Research-Note-School-Reopenings-During-the-COVID">transition</a> to remote and hybrid learning meant mothers, not fathers, reduced their workloads to meet these newfound demands. Fathers picked up the slack in the home – doing <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-forced-australian-fathers-to-do-more-at-home-but-at-the-same-cost-mothers-have-long-endured-154834">more housework</a> at the start of the pandemic and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1097184X21990737">holding it</a> over time. Yet, as my colleagues Brendan Churchill and Lyn Craig <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12497">show</a>, fathers increased their housework but so did mothers, meaning the gender gap in that time remained. So, while men should be applauded for doing more during the unique strains of the pandemic, we <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12727">show</a> mothers were the true heroes of the pandemic, stepping into added labour at the expense of their health and well-being. Quite simply, the pandemic placed unparalleled pressures on Australian families. So it is perhaps no surprise our surveys are showing <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-juggle-is-real-parents-want-greater-flexibility-in-return-to-office-20220325-p5a820.html">Australians are burnt out</a>. (As discussed in <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-give-mum-chocolates-for-mothers-day-take-on-more-housework-share-the-mental-load-and-advocate-for-equality-instead-182330">previous articles</a>, the chore divide in same-sex relationships is generally found to be more equal. But some critiques suggests even then, equality may suffer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/upshot/same-sex-couples-divide-chores-much-more-evenly-until-they-become-parents.html">once kids are involved</a>.) <h2>Time for action</h2> So, where to now? We pay upwards of <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/1B9C46E8DBFC05FFCA25847D0080F9A2?OpenDocument">$640 million dollars</a> every five years to document Australia through the census. And, in each of these surveys we find the same result – women are doing more housework than men. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-men-theres-no-such-thing-as-dirt-blindness-you-just-need-to-do-more-housework-100883">parallels decades of research</a> showing women do more housework, even when they are employed full-time, earn more money and especially <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00479.x">once kids hit</a>the scene. Men have increased their <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-21635-5_2">housework</a> and <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/aifs-conference/fathers-and-work">childcare contributions</a> over time and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00113921211012737?journalCode=csia&fbclid=IwAR0Vgrre91fTarMY_EFLmDl1iJk7hPms6p3FhfM0E0y52Bbe9bZqmJ7Gs1A">younger men want</a> to be more present, active and attentive in the home. Simply put: men want to step into greater care giving and women are suffering from “doing it all”. We have documented these trends for decades – enough. Now it is time for action. <h2>Creating a fair future</h2> These are the critical questions we are asking through <a href="https://www.unimelb.edu.au/futureofwork">The Future of Work Lab</a> at the University of Melbourne – how do we create a future that is fair to everyone, including women and mothers? A few key projects illuminate some of the next steps towards clear interventions. The first is to provide Australian families with a comprehensive safety net to support their care-giving lives. All of us will be, at some point, called upon to care for a loved one, friend, family member or colleague. At these moments, work becomes difficult and housework demands soar. So, providing <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-were-serious-about-supporting-working-families-here-are-three-policies-we-need-to-enact-now-105490">care-giving resources</a> beyond just paid time off is critical. This underscores the need for <ul> <li>universal free high-quality childcare</li> <li>paid caregiver leave, and/or </li> <li>better and longer term cash payments for caregivers.</li> </ul> Second, we need comprehensive policies that allow <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/flexible-families-workplace-equality">men to step</a> into care-giving roles without fear of retribution and penalty at work. Australians work more <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AVE_HRS">annual hours</a>, on average, than their Canadian and United Kingdom counterparts, working hours more similar to the overwork culture of the United States. And, only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/28/only-one-in-20-fathers-take-primary-parental-leave-in-australia">one in 20 Australian fathers</a> take paid parental leave following childbirth, an abysmal rate relative to other high-income countries. We can do better. The pandemic created the space for many men to step into larger care-giving roles with great pleasure and showed workplaces that flexible work is feasible. Next, the Australian workplace must become more supportive of men’s right to care. <h2>Unpaid domestic work and the mental load</h2> Finally, we must redress the challenges of unpaid domestic work and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/planning-stress-and-worry-put-the-mental-load-on-mothers-will-2022-be-the-year-they-share-the-burden-172599">mental load</a> on women’s physical, mental and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13668803.2021.2002813">economic health and well-being</a>. Perhaps tech holds some solutions. The demand is clearly there with some super impressive women building out concrete tech solutions to reduce the mental load and unpaid domestic work - like <a href="https://getmelo.app/">Melo’s mental load app</a> or <a href="https://www.yohana.com/">Yohana’s virtual concierges</a>. Others are using old tech solutions – like <a href="https://www.fairplaylife.com/the-cards">Eve Rodsky’s Fair Play</a> cards – to help couples equalise the often unseen, and undervalued household chores. We are working on a research project to understand the impact of these different resources on families’ unpaid domestic loads and lives more broadly. The census is valuable in showing us we remain unchanged. But, now, is a time to invest in intervention and innovation to make us better versions of ourselves into the future. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/yet-again-the-census-shows-women-are-doing-more-housework-now-is-the-time-to-invest-in-interventions-185488" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Home Hints & Tips

Labor forms majority government after securing 76 seats

The Labor party has secured a majority government in the federal election after gaining the 76 seats they needed in order to govern in their own right. The formation of the Labor majority government means the party will not have to negotiate with an expanded crossbench in order to get legislation through the lower house. The majority government was formed as Labor MP Josh Burns was reelected in the Melbourne seat of Macnamara, bringing the seat count to the target number of 76. Given the Coalition was so far behind on the seat count, having lost legacy seats to teal independents, it was practically impossible the Liberal and National parties could use the crossbench to form a minority government. The crossbench will have 16 members, with an ideological spectrum that ranges from Queenslander Bob Katter on the right to the Greens on the left. Sources have suggested that it is likely that the new government will strike deals with the teals, independents and Greens to strengthen the passage of its legislation. Labor still needs to find a new deputy leader in the Senate to replace Kristina Keneally, who lost the seat of Fowler to independent candidate Dai Le in an embarrassing loss. The Labor caucus will determine who will serve in the cabinet when it meets later on Tuesday. The proportion of Left and Right members on the frontbench will be determined based on how many seats each faction wins. Image credits: Getty Images

News

Three unconventional forms of travel you should try if you can’t go abroad this summer

There has never been a better time to rethink the traditional vacation. International tourism <a href="https://unctad.org/news/global-economy-could-lose-over-4-trillion-due-covid-19-impact-tourism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has been decimated</a> by the pandemic, and it is likely <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/research/articles/210624-economic-research-asia-pacific-s-recovery-regains-its-footing-12010263" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to be difficult</a> for the travel industry to recover in the near future.Short-term, uncertainty around leisure travel continues. COVID-19 restrictions have limited international travel opportunities to a confusing patchwork of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recommendations</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restrictions</a>. Tourists travelling for Euro 2020 have been linked to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/who-warns-third-coronavirus-wave-europe-2021-07-01/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spikes in COVID-19 cases</a>. Australia has re-imposed regulations on domestic and international travel to try and manage the virus’s spread.Long-term, we need to make tourism more sustainable. Aviation contributes <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200218-climate-change-how-to-cut-your-carbon-emissions-when-flying" target="_blank" rel="noopener">around 5%</a> of annual human-made global warming. Tourism also needs to be more inclusive. In the UK, just 1% of the population take <a href="https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/policy-positions/aviation-and-climate-change-our-position" target="_blank" rel="noopener">20% of flights abroad</a>.Given this situation, familiar assumptions about what vacations should look like are overdue a reset. Our current model contributes to climate change. It confines the benefits of tourism to a few positives, while the negative impacts are felt by many. And it may be unavailable for the foreseeable future.Alternative tourism approaches are available, however. But rather than being about money, they focus on mindset. They are the ways in which philosophy can help us to rethink tourism and explore options which may be more accessible and sustainable to us overall.Tourism is something that takes us <a href="https://www.unwto.org/glossary-tourism-terms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out of the usual</a>. Stepping outside of everyday routines gives us a chance to relax. Doing something unfamiliar provides opportunities to learn. But you don’t need to travel long distances to reap the benefits. We can access the unfamiliar close to home:Micro-domestic tourismThis refers to tourism that takes place within a confined space. This might be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0047287512467700?casa_token=a14z3S6HohsAAAAA:kq0-81ZjUqvQbkNHNpdrPmP6NDQqsp1-hUfaGlVTW5Z5tvX5t61AK9t0RtboR6hAPHZ0MFdxi-4E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inhabitants of small islands</a> taking a trip from one side to another, for example. Or even visiting a holiday home that is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0160738386900265" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in sight of your main house</a>. Even tiny journeys can take you into an entirely different headspace.Somewhere close by can be unfamiliar. A particular footpath never followed, or an unknown part of town. Entering such spaces provides the chance to leave behind the accustomed. It gives people the change to relax, rethink, and reconnect with themselves and others. Psychological rather than geographic distance is what counts.<figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409917/original/file-20210706-13-tvpryb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Silhouettes of people making shapes by a light in a tent at night" /><figcaption>Somewhere close by can be unfamiliar. <a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/silhouettes-children-playing-camping-tent-night-1629935020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dmitry Naumov/Shutterstock</a></figcaption></figure>Virtual travelIt may even be possible to take a vacation <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200330-covid-19-virtual-travel-during-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">without leaving the house</a>. Virtual travel involves entering digital landscapes. These may be recreations of physical spaces, such as the <a href="https://www.virtualuffizi.com/explore-the-uffizi.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Uffizi Gallery</a> in Florence, Italy. Alternately, they may be imagined worlds in themselves, such as <a href="https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/best-open-world-games/3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open world games</a>.<figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409919/original/file-20210706-25-1qbqfw9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Person playing Animal Crossing on a Nintendo Switch" /><figcaption>The Animal Crossing Nintendo game provided a great deal of escapism for people during the first lockdown. <a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bangkok-thailand-march-21-2020-man-1711683874" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wachiwit/Shutterstock</a></figcaption></figure>Virtual travel gives convenient access to emotionally and intellectually stimulating spaces. Animal Crossing, for example, became <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/may/13/animal-crossing-new-horizons-nintendo-game-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hugely popular during 2020</a>. Players could use games like these to escape confinement and travel to a safe and relaxing space. Shared with online friends, virtual tourism can <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/rave-animal-crossing-new-horizons/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">help to combat</a> the stress, boredom and isolation of lockdown.PsychogeographyFinding alternative tourist destinations may not be a case of travelling somewhere new at all. The unfamiliar can be found in our everyday surroundings. Our houses, neighbourhoods and workspaces shape how we think and act. However, it’s our familiarity with these spaces that make us <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/2015/06/familiarity-breeds-contempt-why-do-we-get-bored-and-what-point-boredom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insensitive to</a> their effects.<a href="http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Psychogeography</a> can resensitise us to these environments. It involves a series of techniques originally developed by philosopher <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/14/Dead_Bored_Debords_Dead" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guy Debord</a> which he called <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychogeography-a-way-to-delve-into-the-soul-of-a-city-78032" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dérive</a>. These practices can help us to become more conscious of our surroundings and how they make us feel and behave.<figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410114/original/file-20210707-17-1h1s8cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Woman closing her eyes with a picture of a sunset photoshopped onto her black hair" /><figcaption>Psychogeography encourages people to engage with physical and in some cases digital spaces that are taken-for-granted. <a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/double-multiply-exposure-portrait-dreamy-cute-1458773024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sun ok/Shutterstock</a></figcaption></figure>Psychogeography involves <a href="https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drifting through spaces</a> both physically and mentally. This means following the flow of whatever landscape you’re in with no particular purpose. The idea is to see what interests you on the day, following those instincts, and finding out where they take you. Wandering and wondering can lead to surprising places. The <a href="https://deriveapp.com/s/v2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dérive app</a> can be downloaded to give this a go.Micro-domestic tourism and virtual travel teach us that we don’t have to go far from home to explore the unfamiliar. Psychogeography, meanwhile, encourages us to re-engage with physical, and perhaps digital, spaces that are taken for granted. In doing so, the unfamiliar may be rediscovered.COVID-19 has encouraged us to embrace new forms of tourism. Domestic tourism is booming in the UK. Likewise, virtual travel is gaining appreciation. Game-based <a href="https://www.shortlist.com/news/video-game-travel-guide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">holiday hotspots</a> have long been known to fans. However, more mainstream consumers are picking up on the potential. Rough Guides, the well-known travel guide books, recently launched a <a href="https://www.roughguides.com/articles/introduction-to-the-rough-guide-to-xbox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guidebook</a> to the X-box games console, for example.New tourism habits are <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/6/22215786/video-games-covid-19-animal-crossing-among-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">likely to remain</a>, now that people have had the opportunity to discover that it can be more than the long-haul. A growing realisation that wanderlust can be satiated <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/heres-what-post-pandemic-travel-might-look-like.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">close to home</a> will be a good thing for re-balancing an industry that has over-emphasised financially and ecologically expensive travel.<img style="border: none !important;margin: 0 !important;max-height: 1px !important;max-width: 1px !important;min-height: 1px !important;min-width: 1px !important;padding: 0 !important" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163776/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brendan-canavan-228682" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brendan Canavan</a>, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-nottingham-1192" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Nottingham</a>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-unconventional-forms-of-travel-you-should-try-if-you-cant-go-abroad-this-summer-163776" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.Image: Getty Images

Domestic Travel

Pre-term babies less likely to form relations

Premature babies are less likely to form romantic relationships, have sexual relations or experience parenthood as adults than those who go full term, new research shows. <div class="copy"> That’s likely due, at least in part, to pre-term birth being associated with being more often withdrawn and shy, socially excluded and less willing to take risks in adolescence, says a team from the UK’s University of Warwick. As such, they add, more needs to be done in schools and by parents to encourage social interactions when young. Their meta-analysis of data from up to 4.4 million adult participants shows that those born preterm (before 37 weeks’ gestations) are 28% less likely to be in a romantic relationship, 22% less likely to become parents, and 2.3 times less likely to ever have a sexual partner. The situation appears even worse for those born very (<32 weeks) or extremely preterm (<28 weeks). Those in the latter category are 3.2 times less likely to ever having sexual relations, for example. On the upside, the meta-analysis suggests the where adults born pre-terms do have friends or partners, the quality of those relationships is at least as good as for full-term adults. “The finding that adults who were born pre-term are less likely to have a partner, to have sex and become parents does not appear to be explained by a higher rate of disability,” says lead researcher Marina Goulart de Mendonça, from Warwick’s Department of Psychology. “Rather pre-term born children have been previously found to have poorer social interactions in childhood that make it harder for them to master social transitions such as finding a partner, which in turn is proven to boost your wellbeing.” The study’s <a rel="noopener" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6961" target="_blank">findings</a> are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=25931&title=Pre-term+babies+less+likely+to+form+relations" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> </div> <div id="contributors"> <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/pre-term-babies-less-likely-to-later-form-relationships/" target="_blank">This article</a> was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/nick-carne" target="_blank">Nick Carne</a>. Nick Carne is the editor of Cosmos Online and editorial manager for The Royal Institution of Australia. Image: Getty Images </div>

Relationships

Salman Rushdie announces novella in unusual form

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial book The Satanic Verses, has <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/latestnews/salman-rushdie-serialises-novella.html" target="_blank">announced</a> he will be writing his next book on the newsletter platform Substack. The newsletter is called <a rel="noopener" href="https://salmanrushdie.substack.com/p/welcome-to-my-sea-of-stories?showWelcome=true" target="_blank">Salman’s Sea of Stories</a> in a reference to his 1990 novel <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/haroun-and-the-sea-of-stories.html" target="_blank">Haroun and the Sea of Stories</a>, and will be where his new book The Seventh Wave will be published, along with short stories, essays and other works. Speaking to The Guardian, Rushdie revealed that The Seventh Wave totals at 35,000 words and is about a “film director and an actor slash muse written in the style of New Wave cinema”. According to his website, most of his work will be free to access. However, a paid subscription is needed to access additional works, including The Seventh Wave, which will be released in weekly instalments. “The point of doing this is to have a closer relationship with readers, to speak freely, without any intermediaries or gatekeepers,” his website reads. “There’s just us here, just you and me, and we can take this wherever it goes. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride. I’ll try to make it fun.” Image: salmanrushdie.com

Books

Question on Census form ‘insensitive’ to women

<div class="post-body-container"> <div class="post_body" style="height: auto; max-height: none; overflow: hidden;"> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> One question on the Census form has outraged and upset many people and been labelled "insensitive" to women. The statistics show 25 percent of Australian pregnancies end in miscarriage so for any women who’ve experienced this, the Census question about how many babies has a person given birth to, proved to be greatly upsetting. Molli Sarafov from Western Sydney recently lost her son to stillbirth and so when the question came up on the Census form she said she was caught off guard. The Census form asked: “How many babies has (name) ever given birth to?” The form said you can “exclude adopted, foster and step children.” But Sarafov, from western Sydney, said the question was greatly upsetting to her: “I was in tears,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to write and I tapped the button for more information, but that just said something about how the ABS was trying to record statistics on the age of fertility of women, so didn’t help anyone in my situation answer the question.” Red Nose co-chief executive Jackie Mead agreed the question was insensitive saying: “It was worded so poorly and could be so offensive to so many women, including the many who have lost a baby.” “Sadly, one in four Australian pregnancies end in miscarriage and one in 135 ends in stillbirth. This is an issue that affects so many women,” she said. “Many women have told us today they are upset and confused about the abrupt way this question was worded and many were left in tears while completing their Census,” Mead added. Social media fielded more complaints Others complained about the question on social media. “Thanks to census, for two days I’ve been reminded society views me as a woman without children,” one woman wrote. “Where’s the question asking how many babies have men created? Also what about women who have lost children during pregnancy?” Another person wrote: “Census asking me how many babies I’ve popped out feels like a dig at my uterus. Might as well ask the penis owners how many times they’ve impregnated someone.” Another woman posted: “I was asked how many babies I’d given birth to on the census so naturally I expected my husband would be asked how many children he’s fathered. Spoiler: he wasn’t.” Most people in Australia submitted the Census on Tuesday evening of this week. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said it received 6.2 million forms as of 8 am on Wednesday morning. Out of those forms, about 126,000 were submitted on paper and the rest online. Those who didn’t submit their forms will be contacted by the ABS by email or in regional areas, by door knocking. Image: Getty Images </div> </div> </div>

Caring

Exactly what happens if you lie on the Census

Tonight is Census night and every Australian needs to fill in the forms. And while mistakes can and do happen, deliberate lies are met with stern consequences. Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) asks every household to fill in a Census form on the same night to get a snapshot of Australia as a whole. We use this information when formulating future policies for the country’s health, education, transport and infrastructure needs. This year, it’s expected 75 per cent of households will complete their forms online, to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines, because a high percentage of the country is currently in lockdown. Our last Census in 2016 was the first time we’ve attempted to submit our census forms online and this year is the second time. Officials from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are bracing themselves for online cyber attacks because in our last Census in 2016, we experienced major problems with online hackers. So much so, this time the government has hired ‘friendly hackers’ to test if the site is vulnerable. Can I choose not to fill in the census form? Filling in the census form is mandatory and if you don’t take part, you will be fined $222. If you go to the ABS website it says: “The Census is compulsory. Everyone who is staying in your household on Census night must be included. This includes visitors and babies. The website continues stating: “You can be fined if you refuse to complete the Census or submit an incomplete form.” Under the Census and Statistics Act 1905, you can be issued a Notice of Direction, which directs you in writing to complete the Census. Can I be fined if I make a mistake on the Census? The Census form asks a lot of specific questions about yourself including how much money you make and how much your rent or mortgage costs. Because these questions as so specific, it’s possible you could make a mistake and the ABS has assured people they won’t be punished if they make a mistake. However, if the ABS feels you’ve lied on purpose, this will be treated in a far different manner. What happens if I lie on the Census form? The ABS makes it clear that it’s an offence to: “…provide false or misleading statements or information.” The penalty for lying on the Census form is a fine of up to $2220. <img style="width: 24px; height: 24px;" src="/umbraco/nothing.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/1af16fbdfdcf489bb264d62e9b3bc0b7" /><img style="width: 333.49609375px; height: 500px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7842983/person-on-computer-um.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/1af16fbdfdcf489bb264d62e9b3bc0b7" /> Will the information I enter be safe? Even though online hackers attacked the ABS website in 2016, they didn’t get hold of any of the data. The ABS says the information you give is not shared with any other government departments or agencies such as the police, Australian Taxation Office or Centrelink. The ABS is legally bound to protect the privacy of everyone and will not release information in a way which will identify any individual or household. If Census staff were to break these laws they can face penalties of up to $26,400 or imprisonment for up to two years - or both if confidentiality is broken. After 18 months the ABS destroys all the names and after 36 months they destroy all the addresses. However, they won’t do this if you tick the option for your information to be stored in the National Archives of Australia. If you do this, your information will be held for 99 years and then released publicly in a kind of time capsule. What if I can’t submit my form online? Some people may find it difficult to submit their census form online if they don’t have a computer or an Internet account. The ABS will check which households haven’t completed the form after Census night and those households who haven’t responded will receive reminder letters and visits from Census staff In cities, this type of follow up will mostly be through the mail, so if you can’t submit the form online, you will have received a letter from the ABS which has some instructions on it for submitting your form. This letter also supplies the ABS 24-hour automated hotline on 18000 130 250 and you can call this number and request a paper Census form is sent out to you. Once this form arrives in the mail, fill it in and post it back to the address supplied. Call the ABS 24-hour automated hotline on 1800 130 250 if you need help to submit your Census form tonight. Image: Getty Images

Legal

“Never get into an argument with a fool”: Dan Andrews’ fiery return to form

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has used his first press conference to thank his supporters and make a dig at the "vile rumours" being spread about the circumstances relating to his injury. The premier was back at work on Monday after spending 111 days recovering from broken ribs and spinal damage due to falling on wet stairs in March. Mr Andrews thanked his colleagues, medical professionals and his family for the continuous support during his recovery. "It's great to be back after a lengthy absence, one that was required in terms of a very serious injury," he said. "I want to thank Cath and the kids, I want to thank my medical team, I want to thank every Victorian that has sent me cards and notes and best wishes. "I want to thank Deputy Premier James Merlino who has done an astounding job." During the time of his accident, some details about Mr Andrews' condition was unknown, causing a Liberal MP to ask a series of questions about who owned the holiday home where Mr Andrews and his family were staying, who called the ambulance, and whether police had interviewed the premier. Mr Andrews said despite releasing a statement yesterday about his injury in his own words, putting an end to the "vile stories" about the incident may not be possible. However, the premier did not appear fazed by the "fools" who spread misinformation about his injury. "People who make up their own facts, you're best not really to get into an argument with them," he said. "It's very difficult to win those arguments. People know me, they know my work, they know my background. They know that I love my family and I love my state. "Never get into an argument with a fool." The premier said the "vile, wicked" rumours circulating had been "very hurtful" to his family. "It is very, very hurtful when kids are being taunted at school," he said. "It is very hurtful when you see some of this stuff printed. And I'm not speaking for myself. I'm speaking on behalf of my family." Now that he's back, Mr Andrews is ready to help Victorians. "I have spent four months doing rehab, not getting fit to get out, but getting fit and healthy to get back to work for the people of Victoria," he said. "That's what I'm doing, and that's what I'll do for as long as the people of Victoria want me to do that important work." Mr Andrews said he had booked the holiday home for a week, which he paid for himself. He was on official leave at the time of his fall.

News

ALDI shoppers form dozens-long queue for unlikely item

A shopper shared a surprising photo of a queue that "went the length of the store" while she was trying to get into her local ALDI. Mum Maria revealed the "crazy" scene at ALDI's annual "Back To School" Special Buys sale. Many look forward to this sale as it started nationally on Wednesday, January 13th. “Another crazy day at ALDI,” wrote Maria on the <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1034012533313136" target="_blank">Aldi Mums</a> Facebook page. “Back to school sale. People everywhere, line up to the end of the store.” <img style="width: 500px; height:281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7839476/aldi.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/78fd6fccb97b43b29905c5a858238c7a" /> People are eager to get their hands on the store's popular $14.99 school shoes, especially with the pandemic tightening budgets around the nation. Other shoppers agreed that busy scenes were the norm at their local ALDI stores. “Yes, I had to line up for half an hour to pay,” said one. Added another: “I was 3rd in line but the woman who was first took every box of the white double strap jogger.” Some were quick to point out the lack of social distancing at the stores. “Hope they were all wearing masks,” said one. “I wanted to go but thought social distancing and COVID are more important.”

Money & Banking

Brooke Shields heads into 2020 in stunning Blue Lagoon form

Brooke Shields is heading into 2020 with a homage to one of her iconic 1980 roles. Two days before the year ended, the 54-year-old actress and model took to Instagram to showcase her toned body. In the picture, Shields could be seen standing on the beach wearing navy blue bikini. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6rOA7tADF5/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6rOA7tADF5/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">another blue lagoon 💙</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/brookeshields/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Brooke Shields</a> (@brookeshields) on Dec 29, 2019 at 3:46pm PST </div> </blockquote> “Another blue lagoon,” she wrote on the caption, referring to the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon where she played the lead role of Emmeline Lestrange. The star also shared another photo on New Year’s Eve from her vacation. The selfie showed the former Calvin Klein model posing in front of a mirror in a bikini set and hat. “Ready to spend the last day of the year at the beach!” the caption read. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6wAbRMAPtm/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6wAbRMAPtm/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Ready to spend the last day of the year at the beach! 👙 @adoreme</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/brookeshields/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Brooke Shields</a> (@brookeshields) on Dec 31, 2019 at 12:24pm PST </div> </blockquote> Shields shared that she has been staying in shape with gym exercises. “It’s been a long road from my knee surgery last year to now – I’ve learned so much about my body and I’m excited to share more of my wellness journey with you,” she wrote on Instagram.

Body

How magpies can form friendships with people

Can one form a friendship with a magpie – even when adult males are protecting their nests during the swooping season? The short answer is: “Yes, one can” – although science has just begun to provide feasible <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7677/">explanations</a> for friendship in animals, let alone for cross-species friendships between humans and wild birds. Ravens and magpies are <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed56/208789711b6c939fcbe29383dd9115876925.pdf">known</a> to form powerful allegiances among themselves. In fact, Australia is thought to be a <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/mu/MU01039">hotspot</a> for <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/270/1530/2207.short">cooperative behaviour</a> in birds worldwide. They like to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16701226">stick together</a> with family and mates, in the good Australian way. Of course, many bird species may readily come to a feeding table and become tame enough to take food from our hand, but this isn’t really “friendship”. However, there is evidence that, remarkably, free-living magpies can forge lasting relationships with people, even without depending on us for food or shelter. When magpies are permanently ensconced on human property, they are also far less likely to swoop the people who live there. Over 80% of all successfully breeding magpies live near human houses, which means the vast majority of people, in fact, never get swooped. And since magpies can live between 25 and 30 years and are territorial, they can develop lifelong <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/book/3880/">friendships with humans</a>. This bond can extend to trusting certain people around their offspring. A key reason why friendships with magpies are possible is that we now know that magpies are able to recognise and remember individual human faces for many years. They can learn which nearby humans do not constitute a risk. They will <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7130/">remember</a> someone who was good to them; equally, they remember negative encounters. <h2>Why become friends?</h2> Magpies that actively form friendships with people make this investment (from their point of view) for good reason. Properties suitable for magpies are hard to come by and the competition is fierce. Most magpies will not secure a territory – let alone breed – until they are at least five years old. In fact, only about 14% of adult magpies ever succeed in breeding. And based on extensive magpie population research conducted by R. Carrick in the 1970s, even if they breed successfully every single year, they may successfully raise only seven to eleven chicks to adulthood and breeding in a lifetime. There is a lot at stake with every magpie clutch. The difference between simply not swooping someone and a real friendship manifests in several ways. When magpies have formed an attachment they will often show their trust, for example, by formally introducing their offspring. They may allow their chicks to play near people, not fly away when a resident human is approaching, and actually approach or roost near a human. In rare cases, they may even join in human activity. For example, magpies have helped me garden by walking in parallel to my weeding activity and displacing soil as I did. One magpie always perched on my kitchen window sill, looking in and watching my every move. On one extraordinary occasion, an adult female magpie gingerly entered my house on foot, and hopped over to my desk where I was sitting. She watched me type on the keyboard and even looked at the screen. I had to get up to take a phone call and when I returned, the magpie had taken up a position at my keyboard, pecked the keys gently and then looked at the “results” on screen. The bird was curious about everything I did. She also wanted to play with me and found my shoelaces particularly attractive, pulling them and then running away a little only to return for another go. Importantly, it was the bird (not hand-raised but a free-living adult female) that had begun to take the initiative and had chosen to socially interact and such behaviour, as research has shown particularly in primates, is affiliative and part of the basis of social bonds and friendships. <h2>Risky business</h2> If magpies can be so good with humans how can one explain their swooping at people (even if it is only for a few weeks in the year)? It’s worth bearing in mind that swooping magpies (invariably males on guard duty) do not act in aggression or anger but as nest defenders. The strategy they choose is based on risk assessment. A risk is posed by someone who is unknown and was not present at the time of nest building, which unfortunately is often the case in public places and parks. That person is then classified as a territorial intruder and thus a potential risk to its brood. At this point the male guarding the brooding female is obliged to perform a warning swoop, literally asking a person to step away from the nest area. If warnings are ignored, the adult male may try to conduct a near contact swoop aimed at the head (the magpie can break its own neck if it makes contact, so it is a strategy of last resort only). Magpie swooping is generally a defensive action taken when someone unknown approaches who the magpie believes intends harm. It is not an arbitrary attack. When I was swooped for the first time in a public place I slowly walked over to the other side of the road. Importantly, I allowed the male to study my face and appearance from a safe distance so he could remember me in future, a useful strategy since we now know that magpies remember human faces. Taking a piece of mince or taking a wide berth around the magpies nest may eventually convince the nervous magpie that he does not need to deter this individual anymore because she or he poses little or no risk, and who knows, may even become a friend in future. A sure way of escalating conflict is to fence them with an umbrella or any other device, or to run away at high speed. This human approach may well confirm for the magpie that the person concerned is dangerous and needs to be fought with every available strategy. In dealing with magpies, as in global politics, de-escalating a perceived conflict is usually the best strategy.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83950/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gisela-kaplan-2401">Gisela Kaplan</a>, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-new-england-919">University of New England</a> This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/magpies-can-form-friendships-with-people-heres-how-83950">original article</a>.

Relationships

This form of social media is ruining the world of travel

Prolific UK travel blogger Amelia Liana has come under fire for posting what appear to be doctored images of herself in fabled locales around the world. Her Instagram followers were quick to spot that there was something missing from an image of her purportedly gazing out at the New York City skyline from the top of the Rockefeller Centre - the Freedom Tower that was built four years ago. "That's not what NYC looks like," one commenter wrote. "And your reflection in the mirror isn't reversed. It's just copied and pasted on top." Experts from The Times picture desk confirmed that an image of the 26-year-old blogger had been superimposed over an old image of New York. It wasn't the first time the London-based blogger had been called out for manipulating images. A photograph seemingly of her at the Taj Mahal in India also attracted unwanted attention, with followers pointing to the notably absent crowds and scaffolding, and a flock of birds which appeared to have been edited in. But Liana, who has nearly 450,000 followers on Instagram, contends that all her photos are taken in real locations, although she concedes that she "may use all available techniques to enhance, sharpen or smarten" her images. "I feel a great bond with you, my followers, and I would never wish to deceive you..." she says on her website. "I am striving for authenticity as well as giving you imagery that is stylish, progressive and inspiring." If she has manipulated her images, she is far from alone. Travel bloggers, or social media "influencers" as many like to be known, often enhance their images in an effort to paint themselves and the places they visit in the best light. Doing so isn't always just an ego boost. Those that gain enough followers are often given free flights and accommodation, companies happy to pick up the bill - and pay them - to endorse their brands, products and services. But in an era in which media organisations globally are accused of perpetuating "fake news", should bloggers be allowed to post images which are tantamount to ads without disclosing their backers? Faking it to make it Vince Frascello, a self-professed adventurer, traveller and photographer who has posted numerous pictures of his travels around New Zealand on his website and social media, believes the main problem lies in influencers portraying pictures or stories as authentic when they're not. "Almost everyone edits photos and there is nothing wrong with that, however when you try to pass off a photo as a genuine representation of a location, scene or experience and it's edited beyond a reasonable standard, you fall into a grey area of shady manipulation." Frascello, who has 14,600 Instagram followers, doesn't have a problem with influencers editing and staging photos if they're upfront about it. "But when you begin to mislead your followers, or even get financial compensation to pass an advertisement off as a "real scene", well you're just being a... when it really comes down to it." Sam Deuchrass, a photographer and University of Otago student with nearly 40,000 Instagram followers, also believes manipulated images can amount to misrepresentation. "Photographers and influencers have to be careful so that they are promoting the particular scene in a manner that was actually experienced at the time. If the night sky was amazing and the milky way was shining bright then by all means showcase that. However, don't Photoshop a fake scene in just for the likes." Faking it, he says, promotes unrealistic ideals which followers may strive to emulate, inevitably leading to disappointment. Deuchrass believes it is the desire to stand out from the crowd on social media - as well as increasing competition among influencers - that motivate people to manipulate images. "With social media becoming increasingly saturated with people posting similar photos to each other, whether that's to say they have visited a certain location or just to fit in with their follow list, a new desire to be different to everyone has emerged." Influencers addicted to the "high" of social media success Brando Yelavich, who describes himself as "a creative adventurer who carries a GoPro", argues that many bloggers who manipulate images are simply making the most of their medium. "I look at Instagram as a canvas and content creation as the paint. There are a lot of staged and edited shots out there, but I wouldn't say that's a problem. Personally, I like to be authentic and raw as my goal is to inspire. I wouldn't try to pass off anything that's not." But that doesn't mean Yelavich, who has 13,200 Instagram followers, won't edit his images to maximise their visual appeal. "Photos often don't look as good until I put up the brightness and make them more vibrant etc. You'd have to be silly not to realise that everyone does that." Like the others we spoke to, Yelavich believes that influencers' main responsibility to their followers is to be true to them. He can see how Liana's images could be construed as misleading, but thinks she could have avoided this if she had been clear that she was creating an "artist's impression" of the places she depicted. "From an aesthetic point of view, those are beautiful images. But I do think it's wrong to be unauthentic to an audience that's inspired by your lifestyle. Lying to thousands of people is wrong... You have to ask yourself is she really travelling to these locations or is she sitting at her computer at home? Instagram has created a lot of people who pretend to be something they're not." Yelavich likens Instagram to a drug, saying the more you put out there and the more likes and followers you amass as a result, the more you want to keep doing it. "You do get a real dopamine release, a real high," he says. Carmen Huter, an Austrian based blogger now based in New Zealand with 57,200 Instagram followers, says she can see how people get "carried away" with new photo editing technologies in their quest to create stand-out images. "I think photography is a form of art and the beauty of art lies in the eye of the beholder. With that in mind, no form of dishonesty should ever be awarded and I strive to depict my experiences in the most authentic, natural way possible. I personally don't use Photoshop." Near "impossible" to be discovered without extra help All the bloggers we spoke to agreed that the life of an influencer is much harder than it looks, largely due to the huge amount of competition. Frascello said it's almost impossible to make a living unless you're a "beautiful blonde bikini babe" happy to sacrifice your morals by stealing photos, or are just plain lucky. "However if you can generate unique and special content, honestly connect with your followers and continue to push yourself to be the best, you might just make it." It's a sentiment each of the other bloggers we spoke to concurred with. "The market is highly competitive, but quality content will always succeed in the end," Huter says. Do you think Instagram is ruining the world of travel? Written by Lorna Thornber. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank">Stuff.co.nz</a>.

International Travel

Census data reveals housework divide

Data from the 2016 census suggests there’s still a divide between the amount of unpaid domestic housework typical Australian men and women are doing each week. The figures suggest women still assume the lion’s share of the housework, between five and 14 hours a week, with men contributing less than five hours of work. Writing for The Conversation, University of Melbourne Sociology lecturer Dr Leah Ruppanner said, “Before we write these off as the bemoans of well-resourced first world problems, it is important to note that housework and the mental labour associated with its organisation have real and long-term economic consequences, particularly for women's employment.” Fairfax columnist Jessica Irvine also touched on the controversy this morning, writing, “But the fact remains: when it comes to domestic drudgery, Australia's women are still picking up the slack.” So, who are the 2.5 million laziest men in Australia? Irvine writes, “I obtained a postcode-by-postcode breakdown of the Aussie men contributing no domestic work in Australia. “Taking the crown – after excluding postcodes with fewer than 100 people – is the postcode of 5106 in Adelaide, home to Parafield Airport, a major pilot training facility, and a neighbouring suburb. “In second place, the Singleton Military Area in NSW, is home to 319 souls, of whom just 14 are women. Two thirds of the men here said they did no unpaid housework – I guess all that bed making and shoe polishing is part of the job – although zero women said the same. Two other military compounds, including HMAS Cerberus on the Mornington Peninsula and Blamey Barracks at Kapooka, near Wagga Wagga in NSW, also rank in the top 10. It's hard to label serving military men and women as "lazy". “Rounding out the list are three West Australian mining towns, including Barrow Island, home to the Gorgon Gas project and two universities, University of Queensland and University of NSW.” What are your thoughts? Do you believe household labour is equally distributed between the genders? Or is there more work to do?

Home & Garden

Beachgoers form human chain to save family caught in rip

A family caught in a rip off Florida’s Gulf Coast have been saved by 80 beachgoers who formed a human chain and selflessly waded into the dangerous current. The remarkable images, reported by the Panama City News Herald, depict the chain stretching into the deep water, where nine people gasped for their lives. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> A Human Chain Of 80 People Saves 9 Beachgoers <a href="https://t.co/uXfS4TcDPb">https://t.co/uXfS4TcDPb</a> — TURN OREGON RED 🇺🇸 (@LindaRockers) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindaRockers/status/884870104357380096">July 11, 2017</a></blockquote> “I honestly thought I was going to lose my family that day,” Roberta Ursrey, who ran into the rough water to save her children. “It was like, ‘Oh God, this is how I’m going.’” Another one of the brave beachgoers, Jessica, told the Herald that they went in after the family, while instructing others to connect with them in a chain. “It was the most remarkable thing to see,” Simmons told the Herald. “These people who don’t even know each other and they trust each other that much to get them to safety.” It’s a lovely story, but a reminder to always be vigilant at the beach. Hero image credit: Facebook / Rosalind Beckton

Caring

History made in Census findings on Australia's leading religion

The results from the 2016 Census are in and they’ve painted an interesting picture of the religious landscape in Australia, contradicting many scare campaigns. For the first time in Australian history the number of people claiming to have “no religion” has overtaken Catholics, rising from 22.6 per cent to 29.6 per cent. Those identifying as Catholic dropped from 25.3 per cent to 22.6 per cent. Christianity in total still made up 52 per cent of the population, with Islam (2.6 per cent) and Buddhism (2.4 per cent) the next most common religions reported. The results also saw a spike in those who did not answer the religious question, the only non-compulsory one in the Census, which was up slightly to 9.6 per cent. The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) said this is a clear sign that it’s time to take religion out of policics, with president Kylie Sturgess telling <a href="http://www.news.com.au/" target="_blank">News.com.au</a>, “This includes policy on abortion, marriage equality, voluntary euthanasia, religious education in state schools and anything else where religious beliefs hold undue influence. “That has to stop. Politicians, business leaders and influencers take heed: this is an important milestone in Australia’s history. Those who marked down ‘No religion’ deserve much more recognition. We will be making our opinions known, and there’s power in numbers.” What are your views on the Census results?

Family & Pets

Results from 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical" Australian is

Nicholas Biddle is an Associate Professor of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. In a country as diverse as Australia, it is impossible to identify a set of characteristics that defines us. However, with today’s release of data from the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/home/2016+Census+National" target="_blank">2016 Census</a>, it is possible to identify some of the common characteristics, how they vary across states and territories, and how they are changing over time. Australia undertakes a compulsory long-form census – where detailed information across several areas is required of every individual respondent – every five years. So, what did we learn from the first set of results? According to the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/5E54C95D3D5020C6CA2580FE0013A809?OpenDocument" target="_blank">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> (ABS): The 2016 Census has revealed the ‘typical’ Australian is a 38-year-old female who was born in Australia, and is of English ancestry. She is married and lives in a couple family with two children and has completed Year 12. She lives in a house with three bedrooms and two motor vehicles. Australia is getting a bit older; the typical Australian <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features30April+2013" target="_blank">in 2011</a> was aged 37. How do today’s results vary across Australia? First, age varies by state and territory. With variables like age, we often find the “typical” value by taking the median. In essence, we (statistically) line everyone up from youngest to oldest, and find the person who is older than half the population but younger than the other half. In Tasmania, the median age among 2016 Census respondents was 42. But in the Northern Territory, it was 34. Those in Australian Capital Territory were also quite young (median age 35), whereas those in South Australia were relatively old (40). The NT population’s relatively young age is influenced by the very high proportion that identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. While we don’t have updated estimates for that proportion (either for the NT or nationally), the data released today show that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is quite young. The median age nationally is 23. New South Wales and Queensland have the youngest Indigenous population, with a median age of 22. This release also tells us something about the different migrant profiles across Australia. Nationally, the most common country of birth for migrants is England. And the median age of migrants is much older than for the Australian-born population (44 compared to 38). The most common country of birth for migrants living in Queensland was New Zealand; in Victoria it was India; in NSW it was China. There may not be too many more censuses until the most common migrant nationally was not born in England. Ahead of the forthcoming federal budget, there has been a lot of media and policy attention on <a href="https://theconversation.com/affordable-housing-finger-pointing-politics-and-possible-policy-solutions-75703" target="_blank">housing affordability</a>. Today’s release of census data points to some subtle differences across Australia that may influence policy responses. Nationally, the most common tenure type is owning a three-bedroom home with a mortgage. In Queensland, however, renters make up a roughly equal share of the population. But, in Tasmania and NSW, more people own their own home outright. And in the NT, renting is the most common tenure type. In a finding that won’t surprise many, the typical female does a <a href="https://theconversation.com/census-2016-women-are-still-disadvantaged-by-the-amount-of-unpaid-housework-they-do-76008" target="_blank">bit more unpaid work</a> around the house than the typical male. The most common category for males is less than five hours a week. The most common for females is five to 14 hours. We won’t know how this compares to paid work for a while yet – or whether these differences vary depending on age. What future releases will tell us The profiles released today offer us limited information. But the census remains one of Australia’s most important datasets. When detailed data are released in June and then progressively throughout the rest of 2017, we will be able to dig deeper into small geographic areas or specific population groups. We will be able to ask if there are pockets of Australia with significant socioeconomic disadvantage, and if it is worsening. We will be able to hold governments accountable for the progress we have made on the education, employment and health outcomes of the Indigenous population. And we will be able to test whether the languages we speak, the houses we are living in, and the jobs that we are doing, are changing. But those questions rely on a high-quality census. The attention on the 2016 Census until now has been mostly negative. There was increased concern related to <a href="https://theconversation.com/census-2016-should-you-be-concerned-about-your-privacy-63206" target="_blank">data privacy</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/censusfail?lang=en" target="_blank">the failure</a> of the online data entry system on census night, and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-09/abs-staff-say-data-undermined-by-funding-cuts/5801844" target="_blank">staff cuts</a> at the ABS. In <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/CO-108?opendocument&navpos=620" target="_blank">October 2016</a>, the ABS estimated the response rate to the 2016 Census was more than 96%, and that 58% of the household forms received were submitted online. But what <a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-the-census-undercount-what-matters-is-bias-63997" target="_blank">matters more</a> than how many people filled in the census and how they did it is whether the responses given were accurate. We therefore need to see a lot more interrogation of the data before taking the results at face value, but we can remain cautiously optimistic. The ABS will be hoping that now some data is released, attention will shift to what the results tell us about Australian society. It is to be hoped the data will be robust, the insights will be newsworthy, and policy and practice will shift accordingly. We won’t know this for sure until the first major data release of data June 27 – the data released today were just a sneak peak. Written by Nicholas Biddle. First appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation.<img width="1" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/76004/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation"/></a>

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