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Refinancing your home later in life – what you need to know

<p>There are many reasons why you may look to refinance your home. The obvious one is to lower mortgage repayments with a better rate. However, other reasons people refinance later in life include:</p> <ul> <li>unlocking equity to invest</li> <li>paying down other debts</li> <li>buying a holiday home</li> <li>funding extended travel</li> <li>launching a new business</li> <li>supporting children with a property deposit</li> </ul> <p>Regardless of why you want to refinance, the points below will help you navigate your options.</p> <p><strong>Changing lenders</strong></p> <p>It may have been a while since you last revisited your mortgage, meaning you may not be aware of current lending options and traps.</p> <p>A common trick lenders use is the so-called “headline rate” to grab your attention. However, this interest rate is typically not what you end up paying. It may only be an introductory rate for the first few months, or hefty fees attached may wipe out any savings.</p> <p>Banks aren’t the only ones offering loans nowadays. Registered non-bank lenders, fintechs and online lenders can refinance your mortgage and provide other credit services the same as any bank; they just don’t take cash deposits. Alternatively, you could explore credit unions and mutual societies.</p> <p>Also consider any shareholder benefits you may have. Most banks have done away with them now but may still honour pre-existing ones. If you change lenders, you could lose this entitlement – permanently.</p> <p><strong>Reverse mortgages</strong></p> <p>Generally, only available to people aged 60-plus, a reverse mortgage effectively allows you to unlock equity in your home without you needing to make immediate repayments.</p> <p>However, they often have strict conditions including:</p> <ul> <li>minimum borrowing amounts</li> <li>maximum borrowing ratios</li> <li>higher interest rates than standard mortgages</li> </ul> <p>Crucially, the interest accrues over time and is repaid when you sell, move or pass away. As such, your debt liability grows over time – potentially impacting your future living arrangements and how much is left for beneficiaries in your will. The Govt has the “loan equity scheme” as another option to lenders. I just want to highlight the need to be careful with reverse mortgages.</p> <p><strong>Changing homes</strong></p> <p>Rather than selling, downsizing could involve making an investment property your primary residence and then renting out your existing home.</p> <p>This approach may require you to refinance both loans simultaneously. There will also be tax considerations to work through – including Capital Gains Tax liabilities when you do sell, negative gearing, depreciation, and changes to your income tax.</p> <p>Then there are the lifestyle factors to weigh up, especially if you are moving to a different area:</p> <ul> <li>living expenses</li> <li>insurance and travel costs</li> <li>access to healthcare</li> <li>rental income</li> <li>property management expenses</li> </ul> <p>Remember that if you have a Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF), it CANNOT own any property that you directly use yourself, including your home.</p> <p><strong>Becoming Bank of Mum and Dad</strong></p> <p>Refinancing can unlock equity to support adult children with their first property deposit. However, it isn’t without its risks.</p> <p>Ask yourself honestly:</p> <ul> <li>Will this be a gift or loan?</li> <li>If a loan, under what terms? Will interest be applied? How and when will repayments be made? What if they default?</li> <li>What happens if their relationship breaks down, will you get your money back?</li> <li>How does going without that money affect your retirement?</li> <li>Do you have alternative assets to support you if your circumstances change?</li> <li>How does this affect inheritances or deposit contributions to your other children?</li> <li>Can you assist them another way without using your home equity?</li> </ul> <p>Draw up a written agreement outlining all conditions and scenarios to avoid disagreements in the future.</p> <p><strong>Pension impacts</strong></p> <p>Don’t overlook how refinancing your home could impact your pension. While your home is exempt from the means test, any income or assets you generate from unlocking equity is not.</p> <p>You could inadvertently see your pension amount reduced or your eligibility voided altogether. This would come as a nasty shock if you haven’t pre-budgeted for such a change!</p> <p><strong>Getting advice</strong></p> <p>To ensure you get the best bang for your buck when refinancing, be sure to enlist the help of a good:</p> <ul> <li>mortgage broker to source the best loans for your circumstances</li> <li>insurance broker to ensure your cover is right sized for your needs, risk and budget</li> <li>accountant to work through any tax implications</li> <li>estate planner to manage any changes</li> <li>financial adviser to keep your investments and financial strategy working for you</li> </ul> <p>Ultimately, decisions – including about refinancing – are only as good the information you have at hand. So, make sure you have all the relevant facts before signing on the dotted line.</p> <p><em><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #242424;">Helen Baker is a licensed Australian financial adviser and author of the new book, Money For Life: How to build financial security from firm foundations (Major Street Publishing $32.99). Helen is among the 1% of financial planners who hold a master’s degree in the field. Proceeds from book sales are donated to charities supporting disadvantaged women and children. Find out more at </span><a style="color: #467886;" title="http://www.onyourowntwofeet.com.au/" href="http://www.onyourowntwofeet.com.au/"><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">www.onyourowntwofeet.com.au</span></a></em></p> <p><em><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #242424;">Disclaimer: The information in this article is of a general nature only and does not constitute personal financial or product advice. Any opinions or views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of people, institutions or organisations the owner may be associated with in a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated. Helen Baker is an authorised representative of BPW Partners Pty Ltd AFSL 548754.</span></em></p>

Money & Banking

Beloved Aussie athlete found dead at just 19

<p>A tragic loss has shaken the Australian sports community following the discovery of 19-year-old triathlete Audrey Griffin’s body in a New South Wales creek.</p> <p>Griffin, a beloved athlete from the Central Coast, was found partially submerged in Erina Creek on March 23 - a discovery that came just weeks after she had competed in the ANZCO Foods Half Ironman event in Taupo, New Zealand.</p> <p>NSW Police confirmed Griffin’s body was located between the Punt Bridge and Pateman Road in Green Point, near Gosford. She was last seen at around 2am at the Gosford Hotel on Sunday morning, with her disappearance reported later that day. Authorities then found her body at around 5pm.</p> <p>A police spokesperson stated, “Following inquiries, police attended a creek along the Central Coast Highway, where they located the body of the woman in the water. A crime scene was established, and inquiries into the incident are underway by officers attached to the Brisbane Water Police District. A report will be prepared for the Coroner.”</p> <p>Reports indicate that Griffin was fully clothed when found, and a preliminary autopsy has listed drowning as the cause of death. Despite initial concerns, <em>The Central Coast Express Advocate</em> reported that her family was informed that her death is not being treated as suspicious.</p> <p>Griffin was an active member of the Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club, Terrigal Sharks Rugby League Club and a former vice-captain of Central Coast Sports College. However, her passion for triathlons stood out, with <em>Seven News</em> reporting that she completed the Half Ironman on March 1 in a time of 6:40:32, securing 23rd place in her age group.</p> <p>A makeshift memorial has been established near the creek, with flowers and messages of love from those who knew her.</p> <p>Friends and loved ones took to social media to share heartfelt tributes. One person wrote, “A beautiful girl and treasured by a lot of people! Always had a smile on her face. We will miss you. Rest peacefully.” Another friend posted, “She touched the hearts of so many people and always had a smile. Her laugh was contagious, and her goofy self always made us laugh.”</p> <p>As the investigation continues, the local community remains in mourning over the tragic loss of a young athlete with a promising future.</p> <p><em>Images: Facebook</em></p>

Caring

Albanese calls May 3 election, with cost of living the central battleground

<div class="theconversation-article-body">Australians will go to the polls on May 3 for an election squarely centred on the cost of living.</p> <p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Governor-General Sam Mostyn at Yarralumla first thing on Friday morning.</p> <p>Later he told an 8am news conference at parliament house the election choice was “between Labor’s plan to keep building or Peter Dutton’s plan to cut.</p> <p>"Only Labor has the plan to make you better off over the next three years,” he said. “Now is not the time for cutting and wrecking, punching down.”</p> <p>Less than a week after the federal budget and following an earlier delay caused by Cyclone Alfred, the formal campaign starts with government and opposition neck and neck and minority government considered a real possibility.</p> <p>But in recent days, the government has gained more momentum and Labor enters the campaign more confident than at the start of the year.</p> <p>The aggregated January-March quarterly Newspoll had the Coalition leading Labor 51-49%, but Albanese leading Peter Dutton as preferred PM 45% to 40%. A YouGov poll published March 21 had Labor and Coalition on 50-50. Polling only shows a snapshot of the present, and the campaign itself could be crucial to the election result.</p> <p>This is the fourth consecutive election launched off the back of a budget, with both sides this week bidding for voters’ support with big handouts.</p> <p>Labor pushed through legislation for its $17 billion tax cut, the first stage of which comes in mid next year. Opposition leader Peter Dutton in his budget reply promised a 12-month halving of excise on petrol and diesel and a gas reservation scheme.</p> <p>Labor goes <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2025/guide/pendulum">into the election</a> with 78 seats in the lower house, and the Coalition with 57 (counting the seats of two recent Liberal defectors). The large crossbench includes four Greens and half a dozen “teals”.</p> <p>With a majority being 76 seats in the new 150-seat parliament, the Coalition needs to win 19 seats for an outright majority. This would require a uniform swing of 5.3% (although swings are not uniform). A swing of less than 1% could take Labor into minority. The Coalition would need a swing of about 3.6% to end with more seats than the government. While all states are important if the result is close, Victoria and NSW are regarded as the crucial battlegrounds.</p> <p>If the Coalition won, it would be the first time that a first-term government had been defeated since 1931, during the great depression.</p> <p>Since the end of the second world war, while all first term governments have been reelected, each saw a two-party swing against them.</p> <p>One challenge for Albanese is that he has only a tiny majority, providing little buffer against a swing.</p> <p>The combined vote of the major parties will be something to watch, with the vote steadily declining from 85.47% of the vote just 19 years ago at the 2007 election, to only 68.28% at the 2022 election.</p> <p>Labor won the last election with a two-party vote of<br />52.13% to the Coalition’s 47.87%.</p> <p>As of December 31 2024, 17,939,818 Australians were enrolled to vote.</p> <p>The start of the formal campaign follows a long “faux” campaign in which both leaders have been travelling the length and breadth of the country non-stop, with the government making a series of major spending announcement but the opposition holding back on policy.<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/250774/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <h2>Marginal seats based on the redistribution</h2> <p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2025/03/Antony-Greens-ABC-Electoral-Pendulum.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="1535" /></p> <p><em> * Seat with a sitting ALP member ** Seat with a sitting Liberal member *** Warringah MP Zali Steggall was elected before the 2022 ‘teals’, but is regarded as one of them. <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/dat/news/elections/federal/2025/guide/FED2025_PostRedistPendulum.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antony Green's ABC Electoral Pendulum</a></em></p> <p><em>By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-grattan-20316">Michelle Grattan</a>, Professorial Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-canberra-865">University of Canberra</a></em></p> <p><em>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/albanese-calls-may-3-election-with-cost-of-living-the-central-battleground-250774">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: </em><em style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box;">Image credits: LUKAS COCH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Editorial</em></p> <div class="footer-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; background-color: #ffffff;"> </div> </div>

Legal

Population panic: how demography is used for political gain

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p>Population is far from the seemingly innocuous and bland topic of “people”. We’re not just talking people. We’re talking the very foundation of society, culture, and economy … and it’s deeply fraught. It’s also an effective political point scorer.</p> <p>Population scrutiny waxes and wanes in Australian populist and political discourse, much like many nations across the globe. <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-the-dramatic-shift-in-canadian-public-opinion-about-immigration-levels-219193">Canada</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-defends-immigration-policy-during-state-of-the-union-blaming-republicans-in-congress-for-refusing-to-act-225158">the United States</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-far-right-political-group-is-gaining-popularity-in-germany-but-so-too-are-protests-against-it-223151">Germany</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-demand-but-disempowered-why-low-skilled-migrant-workers-face-even-worse-exploitation-under-nzs-new-rules-227993">New Zealand</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-taking-back-control-of-its-borders-risks-rolling-back-human-rights-protections-230044">the United Kingdom</a> are all grappling with population issues.</p> <p>But when we talk population, it’s pretty safe to read immigration. It’s immigration that has most of the world talking, because growth for many is dominated by international movements, not local growth.</p> <p>Population growth due to immigration has fed growing fears from some quarters about a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/five-years-terror-christchurch-mosque-danger-muslim-women/103593682">replacement of the majority dominance</a> – in other words, that white people will no longer be the majority in Australia.</p> <p>Contemporary population debate has been largely ill-informed, lacking nuance and is often detrimental. Rooted in a long history of the way we talk about population, contemporary debate is best understood in context, and with facts.</p> <h2>Population dynamics and change</h2> <p>Population is most simply a <a href="https://population.gov.au/population-topics/topic-population-measurement">bunch of individuals</a> living in a specific place. Sounds boring, I know, but the reality is something much greater.</p> <p>When we start talking about what underpins population – composition, characteristics and change – it becomes clear why population is so political.</p> <p>Populations are comprised of varying characteristics – think age, sex, and geography. Characteristics like the age structure of a population have a direct impact on the workforce and economic wellbeing of a nation. A younger population means more expenditure invested in the young to ensure a strong workforce in the future. This is known as the <a href="https://www.prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/prb-demographic-dividend-evidence-1.pdf">demographic dividend</a>.</p> <p>An older population age structure, on the other hand, sees more spending on the upper end of the life course – senior people – and pressures on the workforce meeting the economic needs of the nation. This is <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/851dece969d9182cca2570ec000a2501!OpenDocument">structural ageing</a>.</p> <p>Australia’s population, like most of the world, is structurally ageing. We’re living longer and <a href="https://blog.id.com.au/2023/population/population-trends/australias-birth-rate-falls-in-2022#:%7E:text=Australia's%20birth%20rate%20has%20been,level">not replacing ourselves</a> through births. Living longer is a mark of technological success and ingenuity, and the same could be said about below-replacement births. But our success has some downsides.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" 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);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DBP0rqgSCm5/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <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> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <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 style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DBP0rqgSCm5/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Australian Bureau of Statistics (@absstats)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The trouble with below-level births and an ageing population is that the local age structure is not sufficient to meet the <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/intergenerational-report">needs of the workforce</a>. Simply, the local Australian population cannot meet the economic needs of the nation, and this has the potential to see living standards go backwards. Immigration helps offset the adverse consequences of an ageing population.</p> <p>Population change occurs due to births, deaths and migration. Commonly known as the population balancing equation, population growth is expressed as: births minus deaths plus migration.</p> <p>Immigration makes up the majority of population growth in Australia and has done so consistently since <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/profile-of-australias-population">around 2005</a>, with the exception of international border closures during COVID. Natural increase – the balance of births minus deaths – also contributes to population growth in Australia.</p> <p>However, increasing deaths and declining births means the country is expected to see <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-charts-on-how-australias-population-is-growing-and-changing-227153">natural decline by 2054</a>.</p> <h2>Population problem</h2> <p>In Australia, there has been a preoccupation with the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/profile-of-australias-population">drivers of population change</a> since colonisation. Is the nation’s population <a href="https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/postwar-immigration-drive">growing too slowly</a>? <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/237985-australia-population-27-million-milestone/">Too fast</a>? Why are women having <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-rich-countries-are-having-fewer-kids-or-none-at-all-whats-going-on-229185#:%7E:text=Simply%2C%20women%20are%20often%20not,and%20buying%20a%20first%20home.">too few children</a>? Are the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/abbott-calls-for-middle-class-women-to-have-more-children-20200128-p53vkx.html">wrong kind of women</a> having too many children? Will migrants <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-15/migrant-movement-in-australia-covid/100536114">want to come</a> to the country? Are there <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/21/migration-numbers-australia-2023-rise">too many migrants</a> coming to Australia?</p> <p>Australia is rarely not in a state of <a href="https://theconversation.com/solving-the-population-problem-through-policy-110970">population panic</a>. Population panic once stemmed from being a small population in a big country vulnerable to external military attack. Now population panic is about the pace of growth being too great, due to immigration.</p> <p>And it doesn’t take much to stoke <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/oct/18/global-population-growth-8-billion-unfdp-united-nations-warning-alarmism">population fear</a>. Population is charged and offers an easy trigger point to leverage voters. Politicians on all sides of the ideological landscape know this and use population discourse effectively for political gain.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h5CubF42DGI?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Since the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41110698">early 1900s</a>, Australia’s history has been dotted with inquiries into growth and birth rates. In fact, at the time of colonisation, the male-dominated imbalance in the colony sparked calls for more women from Britain – <a href="https://unsw.press/books/the-future-of-us/">of suitable status</a> – to help arrest high rates of hooliganism, drunkenness, and sexually transmitted infections.</p> <p>Women of standing were believed to help socialise the nation and provide essential children for nation building. Nothing much has changed really, with the Treasurer Jim Chalmers saying in the lead up to the 2024 federal budget: “<a href="https://youtu.be/JLzp53D6thg?si=p8YheMdF0-ndO9DB">It would be better if birth rates were higher</a>”.</p> <h2>So why aren’t women having babies?</h2> <p>Australian federal treasurers have expressed concerns about birth rates over many years, across different governments. Chalmers wasn’t the first and he won’t be the last bemoaning below-replacement births.</p> <p>In 2004, then-treasurer Peter Costello <a href="https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/peter-costello-1996/transcripts/doorstop-interview-treasury-place-melbourne-16">famously said</a>: “have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country”. <a href="https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2020/07/25/baby-bonus-frydenberg-costello">Josh Frydenberg, while treasurer, stated</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>I won’t go as far as to say, like Peter Costello, “one for the mother, one for the father and one for the country”. But [what] I can say is that people should feel encouraged about the future and the more children that we have across the country, together with our migration, we will build our population growth and that will be good for the economy.“</p> </blockquote> <p>In the 1940s, Australia held an inquiry into falling birth rates, and following the second world war Australians were called on to populate or perish. During the 1940s inquiry, <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1786445">women were invited to make submissions</a> reflecting how difficult motherhood was and how unsupported they were: "You men in easy chairs say ‘populate or perish’. Well, I have populated and I have perished – with no blankets.”</p> <p>Many Australians now won’t achieve their desired family size because contemporary life is simply not conducive to having children. Having no or fewer children is now a forced outcome for a growing number of Australians. The barriers to having a child are now insurmountable for far too many. Housing affordability, gender inequality, financial insecurity and climate change make for an unstable and uncertain future.</p> <p>Young Australians are carrying the burden of the nation’s future and the burden is simply too much. They have seen the generational bargain crumble and are being denied a future because of the failings of politics past.</p> <h2>Permanent versus net overseas migration</h2> <p>Among the many nuances missing from the population debate is the difference in the terminology used to refer to immigration. From a planning point of view, permanent migration is discussed; from a population perspective, net overseas migration applies. The difference between the two is stark and used in a smoke and mirrors way to hide reality or harm an opponent.</p> <p>Government has much control over permanent migration, little control over net overseas migration.</p> <p>Permanent migration refers to the cap of permanent visas granted. The permanent migration program is reviewed annually by the <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/migration-program-planning-levels">Department of Home Affairs</a> with input from select experts, peak bodies, and government.</p> <p>Permanent migration <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Budget/reviews/2023-24/Immigration">has fluctuated over the past ten years</a>, reflecting political point scoring. Under Tony Abbott’s government in 2014-15, permanent migration was just under 190,000. The permanent migration remained in the 180,000s until declining to over 160,000 in 2017-18 under Scott Morrison. Morrison also reduced permanent migration further to around 144,000 in 2021-22. In its final year, the Morrison government flagged increasing the planning level for <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/p2021-182464.pdf">permanent migration to 190,000</a>. Planning levels under the Anthony Albanese government were 195,000 and 190,000 in 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively.</p> <p>The permanent migration program ceiling is set to decline by 5,000 places to 185,000 in 2024-25 under Albanese.</p> <p>Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also announced his party would reduce permanent numbers to 140,000, seemingly linking <a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2024/05/16/leader-oppositions-budget-address-reply">housing affordability to permanent migration</a>. Dutton has also said his party would cut net overseas migration (NOM) but has since <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-08/dutton-walks-back-promise-to-cut-net-migration/10469921">backtracked on his plan</a>, possibly because he realised it couldn’t be done.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Explaining the 2024 Migration Surge</p> <p>A recent surge in net migration has become a hot topic, with politicians & media linking it to housing pressures. </p> <p>But what is Net Migration? </p> <p>And do we really have unusually high volumes of migration? <a href="https://t.co/TjzwbtGqsF">https://t.co/TjzwbtGqsF</a> <a href="https://t.co/aFHXIeC4ay">pic.twitter.com/aFHXIeC4ay</a></p> <p>— Alan Gamlen (@alangamlen) <a href="https://twitter.com/alangamlen/status/1795721881699664286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <p>Net overseas migration feeds into population estimates and is the balance of incoming minus outgoing migration. <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/migration-program-planning-levels?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZPBEWLyQJhkvB8_SaqYBSgRdV_rx4Kjy86bbkugYRsOO2cukAoD2wd5dM_aem_AcfxCup1XXR8DP4ZaRfFTFaXggVYw8b8TyNLWsw-3fIenPm_wsx7xM0zfsZHmQ2OjYi0H-YUQdLxUjQUcT47Feij#:%7E:text=Net%20overseas%20migration%20%E2%80%93%20relationship%20with,New%20Zealanders%20and%20Humanitarian%20migrants">NOM is comprised</a> of temporary and permanent migration and includes refugees, students, working holiday makers, and even Australian and New Zealand citizens.</p> <p>A cut to the permanent migration program is unlikely to affect net overseas migration numbers. NOM is set to return to <a href="https://budget.gov.au/content/bp3/download/bp3_14_appendix_a.pdf">recent historical average</a> even without reduced permanent numbers. Most people granted permanency are <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/migration-program-planning-levels?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1aJLdjyJotVfICnc2Ge8vcrJ6DMCaPC4XfDOST9owl1qS4YfBYCKYPkBw_aem_AcegFZW0_vafT8J90jDFyG8aVhMd2f0Ab_9EqE1Y38Q5vuVT5NExZi5Um2BrkpHg0odl0odbI0pDfnUE7A34PRhi">already in the country</a>. What will occur with a reduced migration program is increased temporariness. Increased temporariness has the potential to erode social cohesion, harming migrants and Australian society overall.</p> <p>Just like births, populist tactics are used when talking immigration for quick political point scoring. It works, but is it good for people?</p> <h2>Turning on ourselves</h2> <p>Demography is often used against the population in a peculiar ploy to win political points.</p> <p>Take gender. Fewer birth means less expenditure on paid parental leave and superannuation for those receiving parental leave. Announcing <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-14/federal-budget-pledges-superannuation-into-paid-parental-leave/103846312">increased</a> paid parental leave benefits and superannuation while knowing births are set to be fewer is political genius. Chalmers announced exactly this in the 2024 budget.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">BREAKING: Parliament has just passed our bill to expand Paid Parental Leave to 26 weeks. On top of that, we've announced a plan to pay super on PPL from 1 July 2025 - all part of our efforts to ensure women earn more, keep more of what they earn & retire with more as well <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/auspol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#auspol</a> <a href="https://t.co/p3p4ib6sed">pic.twitter.com/p3p4ib6sed</a></p> <p>— Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JEChalmers/status/1769541268739080507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <p>The government says it’s doing more for women and mothers, but what it’s actually doing is a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-20/paid-parental-leave-payments-saving-millions-fertility-rate/103866506">whole lot of nothing</a>. There is no substantive examination of why women are saying no to motherhood. Demographic insights have enabled an effective political sleight of hand to give the illusion of doing something when actually not doing much at all.</p> <p>Blaming population growth for the housing crisis is another stroke of political mastery. Talking tough on population (immigration) while promoting and relying on immigration is a tale as old as Australia’s ageing population. When in opposition the talk is tough; when in government, actions speak louder than words. Governments and oppositions, no matter the political leaning, make promises and then realise immigration is the economic safety raft keep the economy afloat.</p> <p><a href="https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/jim-chalmers-2022/speeches/budget-speech-2024-25">Chalmers talked tough</a> on immigration in his 2024 budget speech, pointing the finger of blame towards immigration for all manner of things,</p> <blockquote> <p>[…] we’re addressing the pressures caused by population growth, with net overseas migration next year now expected to be half what it was last year.</p> </blockquote> <p>But the government can’t take the credit for lowering NOM – nothing they did lowered the artificially high rates of NOM Australia saw post COVID border reopening. Yes, the Albanese government has introduced changes to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-tightens-student-visa-rules-migration-hits-record-high-2024-03-21/">build integrity</a> into the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-raises-minimum-savings-student-visa-warns-fake-recruitment-2024-05-08/">migration system</a>, but NOM figures were set to decline anyway. It comes down to the way it is calculated.</p> <p>Border closures in Australia saw NOM fall to <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/overseas-migration/2022-23-financial-year">-88,000 in 2020-21</a>. That’s negative nearly 90,000 people.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-9amUU" style="border: none;" title="Overseas migration in Australia from 2014 to 2024" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9amUU/1/" width="100%" height="426" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" aria-label="Interactive line chart" data-external="1"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>This was the first such decline outside wartime in Australia’s recorded history. A big deal. Temporary migrants, including students, left Australia prematurely at the onset and peak of COVID-related measures. Morrison, prime minister at the time, told international students and temporary visa holders to “go home”, while saying those with critical skills <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-03/coronavirus-pm-tells-international-students-time-to-go-to-home/12119568">could stay and contribute</a>: “For those backpackers in Australia who are nurses or doctors, or have other critical skills that can really help us during this crisis, then there will be opportunities for them”. Expendability of migrants echoed in this statement.</p> <p>What happened with the NOM during COVID closed borders was essentially a calculation reset. Higher than expected numbers of people left Australia prematurely. Students, especially, left Australia prior to their studies finishing. This resulted in greater outgoings of NOM than the recent average. NOM restarted the moment borders reopened, but because so many brought forward their exit the number of incomers weren’t balanced by the usual outflow of people.</p> <p>Taking a longer view of NOM prior to and since COVID-related measures shows smoother growth than popular media suggests. But nuance is hard to articulate in small soundbites, especially when the language of otherness is so enticing.</p> <h2>Creating the ‘other’</h2> <p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14705958231216936">The language of otherness</a> is used extensively in the population (immigration) narrative. Dutton played population bingo with his use of the word “foreign” in his 2024 budget reply speech referring to students, ending investment, and interference. Dutton also blamed migrants for road congestion and pressure on local services. His speech was a populist symphony.</p> <p>When in opposition, members of the now government also made disparaging comments about migrants. For example, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/do-we-want-migrants-to-return-in-the-same-numbers-the-answer-is-no-20200501-p54p2q.html">Kristina Keneally</a> wrote an opinion piece suggesting migrants were taking jobs from locals.</p> <p>Fear about population is easily manufactured, and once created enables a fix the playmaker can resolve. Much like a David Copperfield magic special. The trouble with these tactics is in the enormous <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/australias-population-country-birth/latest-release">diversity in Australia</a> – we risk turning on ourselves and eroding already fraying social cohesion.</p> <h2>Shaping Australia</h2> <p>Our preoccupation with population largely reflects the central place people and demography hold in the economy and very function of the nation. But we appear to have lost our heads, instead problematising the very heart of what makes us Australian: the people.</p> <p>Demography is a slow-moving train, and based on past and current trends population science can somewhat predict the future. The populist playbook results in population (namely immigration) used for political point scoring, to the detriment of the people, particularly the young.</p> <p>Australia is by no means perfect. There is much work to be done to fix the multiple crises the nation is confronted with – housing affordability, financial insecurity, gender inequality, and climate change. A sensible approach to population and immigration is needed to ensure living standards don’t go backwards. Migrants help us weather the demographic headwinds.</p> <p>Rather than use population for political gain, we need instead to harness the power of demography to solve our way out of the gigantic mess we’re in. The key is ensuring young people have a future worth living.</p> <hr /> <p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://thamesandhudson.com.au/product/how-australian-democracy-works-and-why-we-need-it-more-than-ever/">How Australian Democracy Works</a>, a new collection of essays from The Conversation on all aspects of the country’s political landscape.<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/230409/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></em></p> <p><em>By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/liz-allen-10193">Liz Allen</a>, Demographer, POLIS Centre for Social Policy Research, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em></p> <p><em>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/population-panic-how-demography-is-used-for-political-gain-230409">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p> </div>

Money & Banking

The renting trap snaring retirees – and how to avoid it

<p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">It has long been known that renting in retirement is associated with a lower quality of life. Understanding the causal factors can help you avoid a similar fate. There are many reasons why renting in retirement can be problematic. For a start, figures on how much income we need to retire comfortably usually assumes that you own your home – the cost of rent isn’t included. So, anyone using this as a guide falls well short, potentially by 20-40 per cent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Additionally:</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Rent usually eats up a larger portion of retirement income than home ownership.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Over time, rents typically keep rising while mortgage debts reduce.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Home ownership provides equity to use for other investments, further boosting retirement income.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Downsizing homeowners can make an additional superannuation contribution from the sale proceeds, which renters cannot.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Homeowners can make accessibility modifications to meet their needs as they age, like installing ramps or rails.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Homeowners have greater stability and aren’t subject to eviction (and moving costs) at short notice.</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><strong>How big a problem is it?</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Numerous studies have highlighted the growing scale of the problem faced by renting retirees. </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/renting-in-retirement-why-rent-assistance-needs-to-rise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Grattan Institute</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> recently found that “two in three retirees who rent in the private market live in poverty,” and that “most older working Australians who rent do not have sufficient savings to keep paying rent in retirement.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The rental trap is also not exclusive to low-income earners. </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://everybodyshome.com.au/resources/priced-out-priced-out-an-index-of-affordable-rentals-for-australian-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Everybody’s Home</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> recently found Australians earning $100,000 per year – above the </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/employee-earnings/latest-release" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">national median of $1,396 per week</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> ($72,592 per year) – are struggling to pay their rent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The end result is that homelessness is a growing problem for over 55s – particularly women. </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/our-focus/ending-homelessness/older-women-and-homelessness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Mercy Foundation</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> notes that homelessness among these women grew 6.6 per cent in the 2021 Census, following a huge 31 per cent increase in the 2016 Census.</span></p> <p><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><strong>What is causing it?</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Not owning your own home in retirement is obvious answer here. But there are various contributing factors that see people forced to rent later in life, including losing their home and being financially unable to replace it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">These include:</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Divorce/separation – court and legal fees, counselling costs, division of assets (including the family home).</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Pre-retirement chronic illness – time out of the workforce for both the patient and their partner to care for them, loss of income, less going into super, and higher healthcare costs.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Death of a partner – up-front bills like funeral expenses, surviving partner suddenly on a single income.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Elder abuse – an estimated </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/family-domestic-and-sexual-violence/population-groups/older-people#abuse" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">one in six older Australians experience elder abuse</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">, including 2.1 per cent facing financial abuse.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Domestic violence – fleeing abusive relationships with little or no money and assets.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Climate change – loss of uninsured home/other assets as storms, floods, cyclones, and fires increase in frequency and severity.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Scams – </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://www.nasc.gov.au/news/australians-better-protected-as-reported-scam-losses-fell-by-almost-26-per-cent" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Australians lost $2 billion to scams</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> in 2024.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Gambling – </span><a style="color: #467886;" href="https://aifs.gov.au/research/research-snapshots/gambling-participation-and-experience-harm-australia" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">46 per cent of gamblers are at risk of harm</span></a><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">, including losing their home.</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Housing unaffordability – soaring prices (and stamp duty) push home ownership out of reach.</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; color: #242424; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Women often face the brunt of these effects, disadvantaged by the gender pay gap, having less in superannuation, often having primary or sole custody of children, and having less secure employment.</span></p> <p><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><strong>How can you protect yourself?</strong></span></p> <p><span lang="EN-GB">Thankfully, there are steps we can all take to protect ourselves and our retirement:</span></p> <ul> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Get your foundations right for a strong financial footing – emergency fund, spending and investment plan, insurances, superannuation, estate planning.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Make decisions jointly – letting your partner control finances alone means more risk for you and less spending oversight.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Have contingency plans – your own bank account, independent financial and retirement plans, insurances, and back-up plans just in case.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Get into the market ASAP – even a cheap investment property far from where you live is a financial asset and a roof over your head if needed.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Consider co-ownership – if you can’t afford to buy property alone, split the purchase and ongoing costs with an adult child, sibling, or close friend. Alternatively, sub-let a room to offset the costs.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Don’t settle for less – avoid accepting an unreasonable separation settlement just to resolve things quickly.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Be alert – know the warning signs of scams, elder abuse, gambling addiction and domestic violence to avoid losing everything.</span></li> <li><span lang="EN-GB">Get independent advice – professional legal, accounting, and financial advice can help you build financial independence, create safeguards, and recover faster if disaster does strike.</span></li> </ul> <p><span lang="EN-GB">Overall, the best thing you can do is simply to act. By being proactive instead of burying your head in the sand, your future self stands a much better chance of enjoying a comfortable retirement!</span></p> <p><strong><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #242424;">Helen Baker is a licensed Australian financial adviser and author of the new book, <em>Money For Life: How to build financial security from firm foundations (Major Street Publishing $32.99).</em> Helen is among the 1% of financial planners who hold a master’s degree in the field. Proceeds from book sales are donated to charities supporting disadvantaged women and children<em>. </em>Find out more at </span></strong><a style="color: #467886;" title="http://www.onyourowntwofeet.com.au/" href="http://www.onyourowntwofeet.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">www.onyourowntwofeet.com.au</span></strong></a></p> <p><strong><em><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #242424;">Disclaimer: The information in this article is of a general nature only and does not constitute personal financial or product advice. Any opinions or views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of people, institutions or organisations the owner may be associated with in a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated. Helen Baker is an authorised representative of BPW Partners Pty Ltd AFSL 548754.</span></em></strong></p> <p><em><span style="line-height: 18.4px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #242424;">Image: Shutterstock</span></em></p> <p> </p>

Money & Banking

How long will you live? New evidence says it’s much more about your choices than your genes

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p>One of the most enduring questions humans have is how long we’re going to live. With this comes the question of how much of our lifespan is shaped by our environment and choices, and how much is predetermined by our genes.</p> <p>A study recently published in the prestigious journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03483-9">Nature Medicine</a> has attempted for the first time to quantify the relative contributions of our environment and lifestyle versus our genetics in how we age and how long we live.</p> <p>The findings were striking, suggesting our environment and lifestyle play a much greater role than our genes in determining our longevity.</p> <h2>What the researchers did</h2> <p>This study used data from the <a href="https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/">UK Biobank</a>, a large database in the United Kingdom that contains in-depth health and lifestyle data from roughly 500,000 people. The data available include genetic information, medical records, imaging and information about lifestyle.</p> <p>A separate part of the study used data from a subset of more than 45,000 participants whose blood samples underwent something called “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-022-00511-7">proteomic profiling</a>”.</p> <p>Proteomic profiling is a relatively new technique that looks at how proteins in the body change over time to identify a person’s age at a molecular level. By using this method researchers were able to estimate how quickly an individual’s body was actually ageing. This is called their biological age, as opposed to their chronological age (or years lived).</p> <p>The researchers assessed 164 environmental exposures as well as participants’ genetic markers for disease. Environmental exposures included lifestyle choices (for example, smoking, physical activity), social factors (for example, living conditions, household income, employment status) and early life factors, such as body weight in childhood.</p> <p>They then looked for associations between genetics and environment and 22 major age-related diseases (such as coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes), mortality and biological ageing (as determined by the proteomic profiling).</p> <p>These analyses allowed the researchers to estimate the relative contributions of environmental factors and genetics to ageing and dying prematurely.</p> <h2>What did they find?</h2> <p>When it came to disease-related mortality, as we would expect, age and sex explained a significant amount (about half) of the variation in how long people lived. The key finding, however, was environmental factors collectively accounted for around 17% of the variation in lifespan, while genetic factors contributed less than 2%.</p> <p>This finding comes down very clearly on the nurture side in the “nature versus nurture” debate. It suggests environmental factors influence health and longevity to a far greater extent than genetics.</p> <p>Not unexpectedly, the study showed a different mix of environmental and genetic influences for different diseases. Environmental factors had the greatest impact on lung, heart and liver disease, while genetics played the biggest role in determining a person’s risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers, and dementia.</p> <p>The environmental factors that had the most influence on earlier death and biological ageing included smoking, socioeconomic status, physical activity levels and living conditions.</p> <p>Interestingly, being taller at age ten was found to be associated with a shorter lifespan. Although this may seem surprising, and the reasons are not entirely clear, this aligns with <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140509110756.htm">previous research</a> finding taller people are more likely to die earlier.</p> <p>Carrying more weight at age ten and maternal smoking (if your mother smoked in late pregnancy or when you were a newborn) were also found to shorten lifespan.</p> <p>Probably the most surprising finding in this study was a lack of association between diet and markers of biological ageing, as determined by the proteomic profiling. This flies in the face of the extensive body of evidence showing the crucial role of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00868-w">dietary patterns</a> in chronic disease risk and longevity.</p> <p>But there are a number of plausible explanations for this. The first could be a lack of statistical power in the part of the study looking at biological ageing. That is, the number of people studied may have been too small to allow the researchers to see the true impact of diet on ageing.</p> <p>Second, the dietary data in this study, which was self-reported and only measured at one time point, is likely to have been of relatively poor quality, limiting the researchers’ ability to see associations. And third, as the relationship between diet and longevity is likely to be complex, disentangling dietary effects from other lifestyle factors may be difficult.</p> <p>So despite this finding, it’s still safe to say the food we eat is one of the most important pillars of health and longevity.</p> <h2>What other limitations do we need to consider?</h2> <p>Key exposures (such as diet) in this study were only measured at a single point in time, and not tracked over time, introducing potential errors into the results.</p> <p>Also, as this was an observational study, we can’t assume associations found represent causal relationships. For example, just because living with a partner correlated with a longer lifespan, it doesn’t mean this caused a person to live longer. There may be other factors which explain this association.</p> <p>Finally, it’s possible this study may have underestimated the role of genetics in longevity. It’s important to recognise genetics and environment don’t operate in isolation. Rather, health outcomes are shaped by their interplay, and this study may not have fully captured the complexity of these interactions.</p> <h2>The future is (largely) in your hands</h2> <p>It’s worth noting there were a number of factors such as household income, home ownership and employment status associated with diseases of ageing in this study that are not necessarily within a person’s control. This highlights the crucial role of addressing the social determinants of health to ensure everyone has the best possible chance of living a long and healthy life.</p> <p>At the same time, the results offer an empowering message that longevity is largely shaped by the choices we make. This is great news, unless you have good genes and were hoping they would do the heavy lifting.</p> <p>Ultimately, the results of this study reinforce the notion that while we may inherit certain genetic risks, how we eat, move and engage with the world seems to be more important in determining how healthy we are and how long we live.<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/251054/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hassan-vally-202904"><em>Hassan Vally</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p><em>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-long-will-you-live-new-evidence-says-its-much-more-about-your-choices-than-your-genes-251054">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p> </div>

Caring

After a century of Monday to Friday, could the 4-day week finally be coming to Australia?

<div class="theconversation-article-body">The reality of shorter working hours could be one step closer for many Australians, pending the outcome of the federal election.</p> <p>The Greens, who could control crucial cross bench votes in a hung parliament, have announced plans for a <a href="https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/greens-launch-4-day-work-week-election-policy">four-day</a> working week, with no loss of pay. They say the policy would alleviate stress and burn out, and increase women’s participation in the workforce.</p> <p>Earning the same money for fewer hours would appeal to most workers. But is it too good to be true? Could it really be rolled out cost free to all workplaces, especially to “client facing” companies and service providers?</p> <p>Or does research suggest the Greens could be onto something?</p> <h2>The Greens’ plan</h2> <p>The Greens’ policy would involve a new National Institute for the Four Day Work Week and a test case through the Fair Work Commission.</p> <p>A series of national trials would be set up in a number of different industries, whereby workers would work 80% of their normal hours, while maintaining 100% of their pay.</p> <p>According to Greens Senator Barbara Pocock, it’s a win-win for everyone:</p> <blockquote> <p>It can increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, improve recruitment and retention and give employees more time to manage their home life. This change will allow workers to create a working week that works for them.</p> </blockquote> <h2>The 100:80:100 model</h2> <p>The four-day work week being proposed in this instance is commonly regarded as the 100:80:100 model.</p> <p>It delivers 100% of the pay, for 80% of the hours, in <a href="https://www.4dayweek.com/news-posts/100-80-100-rule">return</a> for maintaining 100% of productivity.</p> <p>This is unlike other forms of shorter working weeks, which compress five days’ worth of work into four longer days. This obviously disadvantages some employees.</p> <p>Recent <a href="https://figshare.swinburne.edu.au/articles/report/Emerging_Four_Day_Work_Week_Trends_in_Australia_New_insights_based_on_interviews_with_Australian_firms_who_have_already_adopted_4DWW_arrangements_Preview_report_/26282311?file=47647063">research</a> conducted by Swinburne University of Technology involved interviews with ten Australian firms that have already adopted the 100:80:100 model.</p> <p>They were a mixture of small and medium sized private sector businesses, including management consulting firms, a shipping and logistics company, and recruitment and marketing agencies.</p> <p>The research underlined the potential for a range of positive outcomes for both employers and employees.</p> <p>Workers reported having better work-life balance, more time to complete “life administration” tasks, and more time to invest in hobbies, exercise, wellness and self-care. Bosses cited productivity gains, reduced sick days, and significant improvements in recruitment and retention rates.</p> <p>However, the 100:80:100 model is viewed with scepticism in some quarters. There is still doubt that productivity and output would be maintained, or in some cases improved, when workers are working one day fewer per week.</p> <p>Also, there could be costs associated with the implementation of this work model for front-line roles, such as retail, schools, hospitals and nursing homes. Additional workers may need to be hired, at extra expense, to cover the hours dropped by the existing workforce.</p> <h2>100 years of working 5 days a week</h2> <p>The year 2026 will mark the 100th anniversary of the five-day work week.</p> <p>It was car maker Henry Ford who <a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/henry-fords-five-day-week/">reduced</a> the working week in the United States from six days to five. Other sectors and countries followed suit. This was at a time when the average life expectancy of Australian workers was just 55 and households typically only had one bread-winner.</p> <p>Despite the time saved by the many technological breakthroughs in the past 100 years – from the photocopier, desktop computer and fax machine, to the internet, mobile phones and AI – the average Australian is now <a href="https://futurework.org.au/report/taking-up-the-right-to-disconnect-unsatisfactory-working-hours-and-unpaid-overtime/">working longer hours</a> in paid and unpaid labour than ever before.</p> <p>The Greens point out Australian society is changing. More women and carers are either in the workforce or would be encouraged into the workforce by more flexible arrangements:</p> <blockquote> <p>yet we are constrained by archaic labour laws that see the fruits of our efforts swallowed up in profits for bosses and shareholders.</p> </blockquote> <p>The role of generative AI technologies in the workplace may also deliver benefits to workers. Separate Swinburne <a href="https://figshare.swinburne.edu.au/articles/report/Generative_AI_at_work_Empowering_employee_mental_wellbeing/27252948">research</a> has revealed an increasing expectation among workers that they will receive a share in the time saved by future technologies in the form of improved work-life balance and wellbeing gains.</p> <h2>Time to enter the 21st century</h2> <p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jan/27/two-hundred-uk-companies-sign-up-for-permanent-four-day-working-week">200 UK companies</a> signed up to the 100:80:100 model, as part of a campaign to “reinvent Britain’s working week”. Large scale trials are also underway in <a href="https://4dayweek.io/country/canada">Canada</a> and several <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/02/02/the-four-day-week-which-countries-have-embraced-it-and-how-s-it-going-so-far">European</a> countries.</p> <p>The global interest in a shorter working week is not surprising, and has likely been fuelled by the COVID pandemic, which has caused workers and employers to re-imagine their working lives.</p> <p>If the Greens are in a position to leverage any balance of power after the coming election, it could be Australia’s turn to recognise the conventional five-day working week is no longer fit for purpose.<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/252379/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em>By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-l-hopkins-255434">John L. Hopkins</a>, Associate Professor of Management, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767">Swinburne University of Technology</a></em></p> <p><em>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/after-a-century-of-monday-to-friday-could-the-4-day-week-finally-be-coming-to-australia-252379">original article</a>. </em></p> <p> </p> </div>

Money & Banking

An artificial heart may save your life. But it can also change you in surprising ways

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p>This week, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/12/australian-man-survives-100-days-with-artificial-heart-in-world-first-success">doctors announced</a> that an Australian man with severe heart failure had left hospital with an artificial heart that had kept him alive until he could receive a donor heart.</p> <p>The patient, a man from New South Wales in his 40s, was not the world’s first person to receive this type of artificial heart. However, he is <a href="https://www.svhs.org.au/newsroom/news/australia-first-total-artificial-heart-implant">said to be</a> the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/australias-first-durable-total-artificial-heart-implant-announced-as-a-success">first with one to be discharged from hospital</a> to wait for a heart transplant, which he’s since had.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT<br />This machine has enabled an Australian man with severe heart failure to be the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart transplant <a href="https://t.co/6S12mINwBm">pic.twitter.com/6S12mINwBm</a></p> <p>— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1899862954155126824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote> <p>I am a philosopher and bioethicist. I <a href="https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/Phenomenology_and_Artificial_Hearts/22312204">completed my PhD</a> on artificial hearts – particularly how these implants can change people’s lives in profound ways.</p> <p>Here’s what patients and their families need to consider.</p> <h2>What is an artificial heart?</h2> <p>Artificial hearts began to be developed in the 1960s, sponsored by the United States government and funded in a similar way to space and military programs.</p> <p>In 1982, a man named <a href="https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/hero-or-victim-the-25th-anniversary-of-barney-clar">Barney Clark</a> received the Jarvik-7 total artificial heart. Doctors removed his failing biological heart and replaced it with a plastic and metal device to circulate blood to his lungs and around his body. He lived for 112 days before dying from multi-organ failure. He never left hospital.</p> <p>In the 1980s and 1990s, medical device companies began to develop alternatives to total artificial hearts. These partial artificial hearts, known as ventricular assist devices, help out a biological heart by supplementing or replacing one of its two pumping chambers.</p> <p>These are more straightforward and versatile than total artificial hearts, and can be used for earlier stages of heart failure.</p> <p>Not all artificial hearts generate a pulse.</p> <p>Artificial hearts with a pulse generally mimic the biological heart. They pump blood in the same way the heart beats, by filling with blood and squeezing to circulate blood in waves or pulses.</p> <p>But some devices continuously push blood around the body instead of pulsing. So with these continuous-flow devices neither the patient nor their health team can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11906-017-0782-6">detect a pulse</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003497524008749">In the US between 2014 and 2024</a>, almost 30,000 patients received continuous-flow ventricular assist devices. In the same period, more than 310 total artificial hearts were implanted.</p> <p>The total artificial hearts <a href="https://www.syncardia.com/syncardia-total-artificial-heart-stah.html">commercially</a> <a href="https://www.carmatsa.com/en/our_product/">available</a> today are licensed exclusively as bridging therapies – to keep people alive until a donor heart becomes available – rather than permanent implants.</p> <h2>How about the device making news this week?</h2> <p>The device in the news – the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/australias-first-durable-total-artificial-heart-implant-announced-as-a-success">BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart</a> – was developed by a US-Australian collaboration. This device is innovative, mainly because it is the first continuous-flow device designed to replace the whole heart. Designers are also aiming for it to be the first total artificial heart suitable as a permanent transplant (known as destination therapy).</p> <p>A reliable, durable and responsive total artificial heart is, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-12/sydney-hospital-artificial-heart-implant-operation-success/105036154">in the words</a> of Paul Jansz, the surgeon who implanted the device, “the Holy Grail”.</p> <p>The BiVACOR’s clinical success so far gives us reason to be optimistic about an alternative to scarce donor hearts for responding to severe heart failure.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C8231%2C5475&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C8231%2C5475&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/655013/original/file-20250313-56-4w24qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Hand holding the BiVACOR artificial heart" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">This device is designed to replace the whole heart, and for now, is licensed as a temporary implant, ahead of a heart transplant.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BiVACOR TIQ</span></span></figcaption></figure> <h2>Transplants can change lives</h2> <p>However, patients do not just resume their old lives when they leave hospital with an artificial heart.</p> <p>While the pumping component is inside their chest, there are also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BHW0ATvgFDu/?hl=en">external components</a> to manage and monitor. A thick tube perforates their abdomen and connects to an external controller unit and power supply, which the patient carries around in a bag. Controllers must be closely monitored, and batteries must be regularly recharged.</p> <p>My research showed that even a perfectly safe and reliable total artificial heart could transform patients’ lives in at least three major areas.</p> <p><strong>1. Is it part of me? Do I trust it?</strong></p> <p>Patients must <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/09638288.2020.1717648">trust, tolerate and receive sensory feedback about how the device is working</a> for it to feel like part of them. In the case of an artificial heart, this might mean the device feels responsive to exercise and the body’s needs.</p> <p>But it may be difficult for artificial hearts to meet these criteria, especially for devices that do not generate a pulse.</p> <p>Patients may also question whether their heart is located in their body, or in the controller unit. They may wonder if they even have a heart, particularly if they can’t feel a pulse.</p> <p><strong>2. Beeps and alarms</strong></p> <p>An artificial heart also changes how patients live their lives and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-024-10050-7">navigate the world</a>.</p> <p>Interruptions from <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1049732317700853">loud device alarms</a> distract patients from their normal activities. And patients must switch between mains power and batteries when they <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0147956311002718">wake in the night and need to visit the toilet</a>.</p> <p><strong>3. Marking time</strong></p> <p>Our hearts may be our <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurorobotics/articles/10.3389/fnbot.2014.00015/full">natural</a> <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0301051111000032">metronomes</a>, marking time. So removing someone’s heart rhythm can confuse their sense of time.</p> <p>The need for batteries to be recharged periodically can also reshape patients’ days.</p> <p>Waiting around for a transplant heart, or the latest software update, may change patients’ perspectives on what months and years feel like.</p> <h2>We need to give patients the whole picture</h2> <p>Artificial hearts are remarkable devices with great promise. But patients and families also deserve to know how these extraordinary treatments might change how they feel about themselves and the world.</p> <p>They need to know this before they sign up for them. Artificial hearts don’t just save lives – they also change them.<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/252165/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em>By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/pat-mcconville-2344684">Pat McConville</a>, Lecturer in Ethics, Law, and Professionalism, School of Medicine, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p><em>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/an-artificial-heart-may-save-your-life-but-it-can-also-change-you-in-surprising-ways-252165">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p> </div>

Body

5 years since COVID was declared a pandemic – how prepared are we for the next one?

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p>On March 11 2020, as COVID continued to spread rapidly around the globe, the <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19">World Health Organization</a> (WHO) officially declared a pandemic.</p> <p>More than <a href="https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths">7 million people</a> have since died from COVID. The virus, and the public health measures enacted to control it, have had far-reaching effects on societies around the world.</p> <p>Five years on, the virus continues to circulate. But, thanks to vaccines and <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10425195/">immunity acquired from infections</a>, hospitalisations and deaths due to COVID are vastly less frequent <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/latest-release">than in previous years</a>.</p> <p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/covid-19/long-covid-in-australia-a-review-of-the-literature/summary">long COVID</a> continues to have a major impact on people’s lives. Estimates suggest more than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03173-6">400 million people</a> around the world have had or are currently living with long COVID.</p> <p>At this point, Australia and the world must take the lessons of COVID – in areas from surveillance, to outbreak response, to vaccines and therapeutics – to be better prepared for the next pandemic.</p> <h2>Some areas we went right – and wrong</h2> <p>Our diagnostic laboratories across Australia were well prepared. Laboratories at the Doherty Institute diagnosed the first case of COVID in Australia and were the first to <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/212/10/isolation-and-rapid-sharing-2019-novel-coronavirus-sars-cov-2-first-patient">isolate and share the virus</a> globally in early 2020.</p> <p>At the same time, a national public health response was quickly put in place. This involved <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/73/3/e808/6044730?login=false">measures such as</a> closing borders, setting up testing centres, and limiting gatherings.</p> <p>But there are several areas where we could have mobilised more effectively.</p> <p>During the early stages of the pandemic, there were, at times, challenges with sharing data as well as biological samples and the ingredients for COVID tests between the different states and territories.</p> <p>For example, there are currently restrictions in place that limit sharing of virus strains between states and territories. But when a new strain emerges, many laboratories need access to it to evaluate their testing capabilities.</p> <p>One recommendation from an <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/commonwealth-government-covid-19-response-inquiry">independent 2024 review</a> of the federal government’s COVID response was an Australian Centre for Disease Control. An interim version was launched in early 2024 and the Australian government is investing <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/2517m-to-establish-an-independent-australian-centre-for-disease-control-cdc#:%7E:text=The%20Australian%20Government%20is%20investing,for%20Disease%20Control%20(CDC).">A$251.7 million</a> in this important initiative.</p> <p>The goal for the new centre for disease control will be to provide independent technical advice on infectious diseases to government. It will also facilitate rapid integration of data from all states and territories leading to a more unified response.</p> <p>At the start of a pandemic, we need to understand everything about the new virus and at great speed. This needs systems in place in “peace time”, ready to be mobilised in “war time”.</p> <p>Back in 2020, we had protocols ready for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0819-2">hospitalised patients</a> and <a href="https://www.remapcap.org/">intensive care units</a> to collect specimens and also start new clinical trials. But we were not prepared on many other fronts, for example to collect samples or study how COVID was transmitted in the community or in different key groups.</p> <p>Every day counts at the start of a pandemic.</p> <h2>Harnessing medical technologies</h2> <p>Relatively recent technological advances in both diagnostics (RAT tests) and vaccine development (the use of <a href="https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Messenger-RNA-mRNA">messenger RNA</a>, which gives our body genetic instructions to fight COVID) have put us in a strong position to be at the cutting edge in any pandemic response.</p> <p>Moderna, one of the two companies that pioneered the mRNA vaccines, has established its <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-mark-butler-mp/media/world-leading-moderna-vaccine-facility-opens-in-victoria">Asia-Pacific headquarters in Melbourne</a>. CSL, which made the AstraZeneca COVID vaccines in Australia and manufactures several other vaccines, has now incorporated <a href="https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/csls-mrna-covid-19-vaccine-approved-for-sale-in-japan">mRNA in its repertoire</a>.</p> <p>This capability means Australians could have immediate access to mRNA vaccines in the event of another pandemic. We could also potentially manufacture these vaccines for low- and middle-income countries in our region.</p> <p>But what if we can’t make an effective vaccine to fight a future pandemic? This is a situation we must be prepared for, as we’ve seen with infections such as HIV, where after 40 years of trying and billions of dollars spent, <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/aids-hiv-vaccine-anniversary-immunity-antibodies">we still don’t have a vaccine</a>.</p> <p>In such a situation, we will need to rely on antiviral drugs. The way we currently make antiviral drugs takes significantly longer to develop than vaccines. And although we have some <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8069527/">broad spectrum antiviral drugs</a>, the most potent antivirals are very specific – meaning one drug treats <a href="https://retrovirology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12977-022-00608-1">only one type of virus</a>.</p> <p>To be better prepared for future pandemics, many groups around the world are working on developing a library of drugs that work against whole <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-pathogen-might-spark-the-next-pandemic-how-scientists-are-preparing-for-disease-x-223193">families of viruses</a> that could cause the next pandemic.</p> <p>Another approach is to develop totally new technologies that are fully tested for one virus, but can be easily adapted to a new virus. This approach could allow more rapid deployment, as the details of safety and dosing would already be understood.</p> <p>This is one of the major goals of the recently launched <a href="https://www.doherty.edu.au/cumming-global-centre-for-pandemic-therapeutics">Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics</a> based at the Doherty Institute.</p> <p>These ambitious efforts will require global collaboration, sharing resources and engagement of the private sector.</p> <p>Once we have a vaccine or drug that works, we need agreed systems in place to ensure widespread equitable access. We fell seriously short of this goal with COVID. Some <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9878283/">low- and middle-income</a> countries received vaccines months or years later than high income countries. For treatments, <a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/paxlovid-procured-supply-vs-health-need-in-low-and-middle-income-countries-through-the-end-of-2022/">antivirals such as Paxlovid</a> were never available in many countries.</p> <p>This is one goal of an agreement led by the WHO, called the “<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/pandemic-prevention--preparedness-and-response-accord">pandemic accord</a>”, to have member states agree on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. But after years of discussion, there remains no binding agreement.</p> <h2>Preparing for the next pandemic</h2> <p>As COVID was (partly due to advances in technology) the most intensively studied pandemic in human history, we have a unique resource in the record of what happened to inform our response to any future pandemic.</p> <p>And this is likely a matter of when, not if. New infectious disease outbreaks have continued to emerge over the past five years, including mpox, which was declared a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022 and again in <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/diseases/monkeypox-mpox">August 2024</a>.</p> <p>Right now, there’s an outbreak of a new viral disease in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/27/mystery-disease-kills-more-than-50-in-drc-what-we-know-so-far">the Congo</a>, the origins of which have still <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/mysterious-congo-outbreak-likely-linked-contaminated-water-researchers-say">not been identified</a>.</p> <p>We know bats, thought to be <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7?rel=outbound">the source</a> of the coronavirus behind the COVID pandemic, carry an enormous spectrum of viruses that potentially threaten us. But new pandemics can also arise through mosquitoes and close contact with other animals.</p> <p>Pandemics are global, not national, problems. We are at a pivotal time where countries including Australia must step up their commitments to this global effort. This will need politicians to rely on the evidence and lessons learned from COVID as well as private and public investment.</p> <p>Unfortunately, five years down the track, we still have a long way to go to be prepared for the next pandemic.<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/245362/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em>Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sharon-lewin-131968">Sharon Lewin</a>, Melbourne Laureate Professor, University of Melbourne; Director, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-peter-doherty-institute-for-infection-and-immunity-2255">The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-c-doherty-169">Peter C. Doherty</a>, Laureate Professor Emeritus, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-peter-doherty-institute-for-infection-and-immunity-2255">The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity</a></em></p> <p><em>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/5-years-since-covid-was-declared-a-pandemic-were-still-poorly-prepared-for-the-next-one-245362">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: </em><a class="source" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-align: center;" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-black-printer-paper-OBmBHmrc3pw"><em>Anastasiia Chepinska/Unsplash</em></a></p> </div>

Caring

"Love you": John Farnham spotted in rare public appearance for milestone occasion

<p>Music legend John Farnham has marked a joyful occasion as he joined family and friends to celebrate his wife Jillian’s 70th birthday in Melbourne. The intimate gathering took place on Tuesday evening at the renowned Italian restaurant, Florentino, where love, laughter and music filled the air.</p> <p>Seated beside his beloved wife of 51 years, Farnham radiated happiness, enjoying the company of his closest loved ones. The evening was made even more special with heartfelt live performances and a touching photo montage that honoured Jillian’s life and the couple’s enduring love story.</p> <p>Adding a moment of lighthearted humour, accordion maestro Hans managed to elicit a grin from Farnham when he jokingly offered to play one of the singer’s iconic hits. Their son, Robert, captured the essence of the night with a heartfelt social media post, sharing a picture from the evening and the simple yet touching words: “Happy birthday 70th to mum, Love you.”</p> <p>This joyous occasion comes as Farnham, 75, continues to embrace life after receiving the “all clear” in his well-publicised battle with cancer. Having undergone a major surgery in August 2022 to remove a tumour from his mouth and reconstruct his jaw, the legendary performer has shown incredible resilience. His son James shared an update earlier this year, reassuring fans that his father was “doing really well, walking around, kicking goals... and, of course, annoying mum.”</p> <p>Jillian, whose unwavering support played a crucial role in Farnham’s health journey, previously recounted in her memoir, <em>The Voice Inside</em>, how she urged him to seek medical advice before his diagnosis. “He had a big white mass on the inside of his cheek, and you could physically see it,” she wrote. “For several months I was saying to him, ‘Let’s go see about that thing in your mouth,’ and he’d say, ‘No, it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright.’” Eventually, her persistence led him to seek medical attention, ultimately saving his life.</p> <p>Adding to the excitement in the Farnham household, the family is eagerly anticipating a new arrival. James and his partner, Tessa, are expecting a baby boy, a new chapter that fills them all with joy. James, thrilled at the prospect of fatherhood, said: “We’re all really excited, another little Farnham on the way. I can’t wait to take him up to the farm and get Dad to teach him everything he taught me.”</p> <p>For Farnham, whose music has been the soundtrack of Australian life for decades, family remains his greatest treasure. </p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

"Get under your desks!": Incredible moment tornado strikes TV studio during live broadcast

<p>Dramatic footage captured the moment an EF-2 tornado slammed into the FOX 35 television studio in Lake Mary, Florida, on Monday morning. The on-air meteorologist, Brooks Garner, swiftly ordered his colleagues to take cover as the storm bore down on them in real time.</p> <p>Garner, a seasoned meteorologist for FOX 35, remained remarkably composed as the tornado, with winds reaching up to 200km/h, moved directly toward the station. The storm was first spotted on the studio’s outdoor camera, showing it charging across Interstate 4 before closing in on the journalists inside.</p> <p>Once the wind and heavy rain obscured visibility, leaving only swirling debris on the cameras, Garner issued an urgent warning.</p> <p>“We got debris? Okay. Take shelter! Everybody in the FOX 35 building, get to your safe space. Under your desk if you’re not in a designated area. We’re catching debris right now on the roof,” he said during the live broadcast.</p> <p>As debris pounded the building, Garner repeated his instructions with greater urgency. “Seek shelter immediately! Get under your desks, guys, anchors. Under the desks. Producers, everybody get under the desks.”</p> <p>After the storm passed, Garner quickly shifted his focus back to the safety of viewers still in its path.</p> <p>“Get to the ground level, an interior room, away from the windows,” he urged. “This is a very serious situation. This is a real, live tornado. It just hit our station.”</p> <p>According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the tornado formed at 9:35am. near the southeastern edge of Wekiwa Springs State Park. The twister carved a destructive path through residential areas in Longwood, damaging homes, shattering windows and tearing off roofs.</p> <p>Officials later confirmed that at least one home collapsed. Additionally, a semi-truck was overturned with its driver and his dog inside. Fortunately, no fatalities were reported, though the region suffered widespread power outages and fallen trees. Even inside the fortified FOX 35 building, lights flickered as the tornado struck.</p> <p>Emergency crews have since been deployed to assess the damage and assist affected residents. Authorities urge locals to remain alert, as severe weather conditions persist in the area.</p> <p><em>Image: FOX 35</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Replacing stamp duty with a land tax could save home buyers big money. Here’s how

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p>Infrastructure Victoria has released a <a href="https://assets.infrastructurevictoria.com.au/assets/Victorias-draft-30-year-infrastructure-strategy.pdf">draft 30-year plan </a> outlining how the state can grow sustainably.</p> <p>It focuses on key areas like transport, housing, energy, and public services to support a growing population and improve liveability. The plan also suggests ways to make the state’s infrastructure and tax system fairer, more efficient and more sustainable.</p> <p>The plan’s recommendations are expected to cost between A$60 billion and $75 billion, mostly spent before 2035. This is around 10% of <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/national-accounts/australian-national-accounts-state-accounts/2023-24-financial-year#data-downloads">Victoria’s yearly economic output</a> in 2023-24, spread over the next decade.</p> <p>With Victoria already spending record amounts on infrastructure, and <a href="https://pbo.vic.gov.au/document/BudgetUpdateSnapshot2024-25">budget deficits forecast</a> until 2025-26, finding the money to fund social housing, transport and other projects is a key challenge. We estimate the Infrastructure Victoria proposals would add between $4 billion and $5 billion to Victorian government expenditure each year.</p> <p>Yet one of its proposals — replacing stamp duty with an annual land tax — would only cost between $1 million and $5 million to implement, but generate substantial gains for Victorian households.</p> <h2>Why replace stamp duty with land tax?</h2> <p>Stamp duty is one of the biggest barriers to moving house in Victoria and other Australian states. This tax, which people pay when they buy property, adds thousands of dollars to the cost of moving.</p> <p>In 2022-23, Victorians paid about <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/national-accounts/australian-national-accounts-state-accounts/2023-24-financial-year#data-downloads">$12 billion</a> to move house. Of this, $3 billion went to actual moving costs (like real estate services, and removalists) and $9 billion was <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/government/taxation-revenue-australia/latest-release#data-downloads">stamp duty</a>.</p> <p>That’s an effective tax rate of 300% on the true cost of moving, and in 2023 <a href="https://www.e-business.sro.vic.gov.au/calculators/land-transfer-duty">added about</a> $40,000, or 5.3%, to the cost of purchasing the average Victorian home.</p> <p>High stamp duty discourages people from relocating, even when their needs change — whether that’s moving for a new job, finding a bigger home for a growing family or downsizing after retirement. This leads to longer commutes, traffic congestion and a less efficient housing market. </p> <p>Switching from stamp duty to an annual land tax would make moving easier and spread the tax burden more fairly.</p> <p>Instead of a large, one-time tax when buying a home, all landowners would pay a smaller tax each year. This would help fund schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure more sustainably.</p> <h2>What can we learn from Canberra?</h2> <p>Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies <a href="https://www.treasury.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1618407/cops-final-report.pdf">studied a similar reform</a> in the Australian Capital Territory, where stamp duty has been gradually phased out since 2012 and replaced with higher general rates (a type of land tax).</p> <p>Each year, the ACT government sets a target for how much money it needs to raise. Landowners then pay a share of that total, based on the value of their land.</p> <p>One of the biggest benefits of this approach is that it raises money more efficiently. Unlike other taxes, land taxes don’t discourage investment or economic activity.</p> <p>The study found removing stamp duty had a big positive impact on the ACT’s economy. Around 80% of the economic boost came from removing stamp duty, while introducing land tax also had benefits. By studying transaction data from the ACT, we showed each 10% reduction stamp duty rates drove a 6% rise in property transactions.</p> <h2>Would it help housing affordability?</h2> <p>One of the main arguments for replacing stamp duty with land tax is its effect on housing prices. Economists widely agree land taxes reduce land values, which makes housing more affordable. </p> <p>However, the impact of removing stamp duty is less predictable. Our previous research found <a href="https://theconversation.com/swapping-stamp-duty-for-land-tax-would-push-down-house-prices-but-push-up-apartment-prices-new-modelling-finds-184381">the effect on house prices</a> depends on how often properties are bought and sold. Apartments, for example, tend to change hands more frequently than houses. Because of this, removing stamp duty tends to push up apartment prices more than house prices.</p> <p>Even so, the overall effect of the reform is a drop in property prices. The challenge is ensuring this price reduction is evenly spread across different types of housing.</p> <h2>A fairer tax system</h2> <p>To make the system fairer, policymakers could adjust how land tax is applied. One option is to introduce a fixed-rate component, as <a href="https://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/grants-schemes/previous-schemes/first-home-buyer-choice">proposed </a> in New South Wales. Another idea, suggested 15 years ago in the <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-10/afts_final_report_part_1_consolidated.pdf">Henry Tax Review</a>, is to base the tax on the per-square-metre value of land.</p> <p>Another key factor is housing supply. If planning laws allow more high-density housing in inner suburbs, price changes could be better managed.</p> <h2>We also need short-term solutions</h2> <p>Replacing stamp duty with land tax is a long-term reform that would take years to fully implement. The ACT, for example, planned a 20-year transition.</p> <p>If all state governments implemented this reform, we estimate Australian households would ultimately be <a href="https://www.copsmodels.com/ftp/workpapr/g-337.pdf">better off by about</a> $,1600 per household per year.</p> <p>In the short term, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-best-way-to-ease-rents-and-improve-housing-affordability-we-modelled-4-of-the-governments-biggest-programs-225446">other policies </a> could help improve housing affordability. These include increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance and rethinking first-home buyer support. These steps could complement broader tax, infrastructure and housing supply reforms.</p> <p>The Victorian government is <a href="https://engage.vic.gov.au/victorias30yearinfrastructurestrategy">seeking feedback</a> on the draft plan before releasing the final version later this year. This is an opportunity for Victorians to contribute ideas on how to shape the state’s future and ensure its infrastructure and tax system work for everyone.<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/251472/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jason-nassios-318488"><em>Jason Nassios</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/victoria-university-1175">Victoria University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-giesecke-9853">James Giesecke</a>, Professor, Centre of Policy Studies and the Impact Project, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/victoria-university-1175">Victoria University</a></em></p> <p><em>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/replacing-stamp-duty-with-a-land-tax-could-save-home-buyers-big-money-heres-how-251472">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: 7news.com.au</em></p> </div>

Money & Banking

"I'm not ready to go yet": Leading Aussie doctor given months to live

<p>Leading melanoma researcher and Australian of the Year recipient Professor Richard Scolyer has revealed that he has only months to live following the return of his brain cancer.</p> <p>Diagnosed with incurable glioblastoma two years ago, Professor Scolyer chose to <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/doctor-beats-cancer-using-his-own-treatment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">undergo an experimental immunotherapy treatment</a>, defying his initial six-month prognosis. His remarkable journey was documented in a study published in late February, detailing the innovative approach he helped pioneer. However, after undergoing surgery last week, doctors confirmed that the aggressive cancer had returned.</p> <p>“Unfortunately, there is a larger volume of quickly growing brain cancer (glioblastoma, IDH WT, unmethylated etc.) in my left brain,” Professor Scolyer shared in an emotional social media post on Monday. “The prognosis is poor. Whilst some of my recurrent tumour was removed last week, some of it couldn’t be because of its site.”</p> <p>Despite the devastating news, Professor Scolyer remains hopeful that the experimental treatment he volunteered for could pave the way for future medical breakthroughs. Alongside his colleague and friend, Professor Georgina Long, he was named a 2024 Australian of the Year for their groundbreaking work in melanoma research and immunotherapy advancements.</p> <p>“I greatly appreciate the support of all my family, friends, and colleagues who have been looking after me so well and the incredible research that has been performed,” he said. “I hope the latter will change the field and patient outcomes in the not too distant future.”</p> <p>In a heartfelt interview on <em>A Current Affair</em> with Ally Langdon on Monday, the father-of-three shared his decision to forgo further experimental treatments, choosing instead to spend his remaining time with his loved ones.</p> <p>“It could help, but my heart’s not in the same place as what it was before,” he admitted.</p> <p>“It’s not fair, but there’s a lesson for everyone … make the most of every day because you don’t know what’s around the corner.”</p> <p>“I’m not ready to go yet. I love my life,” he said. “I guess I feel lucky that I’ve been able to go for so long without a recurrence of it.”</p> <p><em>Images: A Current Affair</em></p>

Caring

Sunrise crew robbed live on air while reporting on crime wave

<p>A Seven News reporter and his camera crew were shocked to discover that they had been robbed live on air while covering a live segment from Adelaide's Rundle Mall on rising crime rates in the area.</p> <p>Journalist Hayden Nelson was reporting for <em>Sunrise</em> earlier this week when an unidentified man casually greeted the crew before stealthily making off with one of their lights in broad daylight. The theft went unnoticed until after the live broadcast had ended.</p> <p>“After the cross, he’s gone to check on the light – the stand was still there but the light itself has vanished,” Nelson later told 7News.</p> <p>Nelson and his team were baffled by the incident, particularly as they had briefly seen the man but did not suspect anything at the time. Nelson explained that, due to the nature of live broadcasting, his focus had been elsewhere. “When you’re about to go live, you’ve got an earpiece in with your director talking to you, and the sound of the presenters, you’ve got lights blaring at you,” he said, adding that the stolen equipment would be of little use to the thief.</p> <p>“To operate it they would need a broadcast-quality battery that you can only get in the industry, and it also requires a unique charger.”</p> <p>South Australian police have since released an image of a man who they believe may be able to assist with their investigation. Authorities are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 1800 333 000.</p> <p>The incident has raised concerns over security in the area, particularly as it occurred in broad daylight and during a live television broadcast.</p> <p><em>Images: Sunrise | SA Police</em></p>

Legal

Why you should revisit the classics, even if you were turned off them at school

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/johanna-harris-305384">Johanna Harris</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-catholic-university-747">Australian Catholic University</a></em></p> <p>Throughout my school years I had an exuberant, elderly piano teacher, Miss Hazel. She was one of five daughters (like me) and, like many young women of her generation, had never married her sweetheart because he did not return from the war.</p> <p>Her unabashed gusto for life and infectious, positive outlook left an indelible impression upon me. So too did the memorable fact that Miss Hazel read Jane Austen’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84979.Pride_and_Prejudice">Pride and Prejudice</a> from beginning to end once every year.</p> <p>As a younger girl I wondered about the ways Pride and Prejudice could be so important to a woman in her eighties that she would want to read it annually. Was it to do with Austen’s depiction of a family with five daughters, or to relive an endearing love story?</p> <p>Since those years I have seen, more through lived experience than through academic study, just how deeply meaningful the reading of classic books, like Pride and Prejudice, can be.</p> <figure class="align-left zoomable"></figure> <p>I no longer simply read this book for Elizabeth Bennett’s love story, but for the finely crafted replication Austen gives us of human character, with all its flaws. Hers are imaginary yet imaginably real situations, all depicted with humour and a sensitively calibrated dose of sympathy for even the most unlikeable literary figures.</p> <p>The clergyman Mr Collins, Elizabeth’s distant cousin and her rejected suitor, was always repellent for his obsequiousness but I see more readily now his self-serving nature cloaked in altruism. The haughty snobbery of Darcy’s aristocratic aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, hints at a deeper layer of sadness and fragility only rereading can illuminate.</p> <h2>Box-ticking and speed</h2> <p>When we’re at school or university we may read for speed. I remember managing my reading of Ann Radcliffe’s 432-page gothic romance <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93135.The_Romance_of_the_Forest?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=oU6912stkW&rank=1">The Romance of the Forest</a> to work out how many pages per hour I would need to read across a weekend in order to finish the novel before my university tutorial. (It was an ungodly ratio and I don’t recall much of the novel.)</p> <figure class="align-right zoomable"></figure> <p>Or we may read for the tick-box exercise of writing for assessment requirements: accumulating knowledge of a novel’s original metaphors, descriptions that best capture a prescribed theme (“belonging” or “identity”), or of poetry by which we can demonstrate a grasp of innovative metre.</p> <p>But how and why do we reread classic books, when we are not constrained by class plans or prescribed exam themes. And why should we?</p> <h2>‘Like a graft to a tree’</h2> <p>Rebecca Mead’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20924311-the-road-to-middlemarch?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Cm2E7fwgeL&rank=1">The Road to Middlemarch</a> offers a compelling exploration of one writer’s five-yearly revisitation of George Eliot’s masterpiece, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19089.Middlemarch?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=CRcxE3ftkB&rank=1">Middlemarch</a>.</p> <p>Mead first read the novel at school, and Eliot’s subtitle to the novel, “A Study of Provincial Life”, captured precisely what Mead was trying to escape at that time: provinciality.</p> <p>Eliot’s central character, Dorothea Brooke, captivated Mead as an unconventional intellectual heroine yearning for a life of meaning and significance. Mead marked out important moments with a fluorescent pen, such as when the intellectual and spiritual inadequacies of Dorothea’s husband, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edward-Casaubon">Casaubon</a>, dawn upon her. Mead writes, quoting Eliot:</p> <blockquote> <p>‘Now when she looked steadily at her husband’s failure, still more at his possible consciousness of failure, she seemed to be looking along the one track where duty became tenderness […]’ These seemed like things worth holding on to. The book was reading me, as I was reading it.</p> </blockquote> <figure class="align-left zoomable"></figure> <p>This idea of books “reading us” can sound like an odd animism. But books can prompt us to reflect on our own lives, too. Eliot makes Middlemarch almost compulsory to reread later in life: the idealism of youth captures the young reader, while the novel’s humour becomes more sympathetic as we age. To reread a novel like Middlemarch is to trace the ways we too have experienced idealism turn to illusion, or have seen the restless pursuit of change turn to a retrospective gratitude and a recognition of grace.</p> <p>Our ability to acknowledge new depths of meaning in our own lives and to recognise within ourselves a subtler sympathy for the lives of others can be articulated almost as precisely as lived experience itself. As Mead says, “There are books that grow with the reader as the reader grows, like a graft to a tree.”</p> <h2>Feeling for Lear</h2> <p>The same can be said of Shakespeare. As young readers, we won’t necessarily capture the full vision <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12938.King_Lear?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=nowKY1f5aB&rank=1">King Lear</a> offers us of the tragicomic paradoxes sometimes presented by old age. The play depicts the loss of power and control over one’s life and decision-making, the tender fragility of family relationships when the care of aged parents is suddenly an urgent question and the madness that can prevail when an inheritance is at stake.</p> <figure class="align-right zoomable"></figure> <p>Some of these things might abstractly be understood when taught to us in the classroom, but they are far more powerfully seen when revisited after we have lived a little more of that imaginably real life ourselves.</p> <p>As students we might have squirmed with discomfort at the literal blinding of Lear’s loyal subject the Earl of Gloucester (the horror of witnessing a visceral, grotesque injury).</p> <p>But as we age it is the tragedy of moral blindness that lingers, making the final scene so extraordinarily moving: “Do you see this? Look on her. Look, her lips. Look there, look there,” Lear pleads, as if to say that Cordelia, lifeless in his arms, still breathes.</p> <p>Does he really see her lips quiver? Does he really believe she lives? Is this some consolation with which he dies or is it delusion? Lear’s heart is broken. So is mine.</p> <p>Each time I revisit this final scene, the grief of Lear as a father is profoundly felt, but my heart is broken even more so by his continuing blindness; his vision (what he thinks he sees) is desperate, untrue, and ultimately meaningless.</p> <h2>Sites of discovery</h2> <p>When we read we inhabit imaginary worlds and each time the reading can be different. Philip Davis, a professor of literature and psychology <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/reading-and-the-reader-9780199683185?cc=au&lang=en&">has written</a>,</p> <blockquote> <p>Rereading is important in checking and refreshing that sense of meaning, as the reader goes back and re-enters the precise language once again.</p> </blockquote> <p>Davis points to an idea advanced by the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch, of the reader’s collection of special, memorable fragments, which serve as metaphors for the reader’s self-utterances, developed over time. These are “nascent sites for thinking and re-centring”.</p> <p>This is a similar idea to the novelist and journalist Italo Calvino’s description in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9814.Why_Read_the_Classics_?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=RALd1Dx5a9&rank=1">Why Read the Classics?</a> of the way classic books “imprint themselves on our imagination as unforgettable” and “hide in the layers of memory disguised as the individual’s or the collective unconscious.”</p> <p>Works of imaginative literature are not manuals for life, though they might along the way gift us with some wisdom; they are sites of discovery and rediscovery.</p> <p>The classic works we are introduced to at school may establish such sites for thinking about ourselves and others, but it is in rereading them as we grow older that we can better see the ways we have grown as imaginative, moral beings.<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/246147/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/johanna-harris-305384">Johanna Harris</a>, Associate Professor, Literature, Western Civilisation Program, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-catholic-university-747">Australian Catholic University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p> <p><em>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/why-you-should-revisit-the-classics-even-if-you-were-turned-off-them-at-school-246147">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Books

How to prepare for a cyclone, according to an expert

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yetta-gurtner-2337172">Yetta Gurtner</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/james-cook-university-1167">James Cook University</a></em></p> <p>Tropical Cyclone Alfred is predicted to make landfall anywhere <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-03/tropical-cyclone-alfred-landfall-thursday-live-updates/105002038">between Bundaberg and northern New South Wales</a> this week. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQ20023.html">has warned</a> it may bring severe hazards and “dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding”.</p> <p>So, how do you prepare for a cyclone – and what do you do if it’s too late to leave?</p> <h2>How to prepare</h2> <p>Your starting point is to consider the risk to yourself and everyone in your household (including pets). Consider ensuring you have:</p> <ul> <li>non-perishable food that everyone in the family will eat (enough for five to seven days)</li> <li>water for drinking and cleaning (three litres per person per day)</li> <li>medication (two weeks worth)</li> <li>toiletries and first aid kit</li> <li>pet food/supplies</li> <li>torches</li> <li>batteries</li> <li>a back up battery for your phone</li> <li>baby formula and nappies if needed</li> <li>protective clothing and closed-in shoes</li> <li>cash in small denominations</li> <li>valuable documents such as passports, title deeds, ID, insurance details, photos (these can be photographed or packed in weather-proof container or envelope)</li> <li>kids’ books, card games, board games, headphones</li> <li>anything else you may need or really value (and isn’t too heavy to carry).</li> </ul> <p>Make sure you have a grab-and-go kit that you can carry by yourself if authorities suddenly tell you to evacuate immediately.</p> <p>Conventional wisdom used to be to prepare enough supplies for three days of disruption. Now, experts recommend having enough for five to seven days. After the initial disaster there may be road blockages or supply chain problems.</p> <p>Ensure you have enough medication for a week or two, because pharmacies may take days or weeks to re-open. And remember that many medications, such as insulin, need to be refrigerated, so consider how you’d keep them cool if the power went out.</p> <p>Fill containers with water and stick them in your freezer now; they can keep your freezer cool if you lose power. They can also become drinking water in future.</p> <p>Talk to your neighbours. Do they have a generator or a camping fridge you can use? This is a great opportunity to get to know your community and pool your resources.</p> <p>Ask yourself if you have friends with whom you or a pet can stay. One of the main reasons people don’t evacuate is because they can’t bring their pets (not all evacuation shelters allow them, so check in advance).</p> <p>Consider what you can do now to prepare your house. One of the most common call-outs the SES receives is about blocked drains and gutters, so check if there’s time to clean your gutters now. You won’t be able to do it during the storm.</p> <h2>Stay informed – and don’t rely on hearsay</h2> <p>Have a plan for getting truthful information before, during and after the cyclone.</p> <p>Rely on the information provided by official sources, as they will tell you when it’s too late to evacuate or when it’s safe to come out. This is highly context-specific and will depend on where you are located.</p> <p>Get advice where possible from your local council’s <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/community/disasters-emergencies/disasters/resources-translations/local-government-disaster-dashboards">disaster dashboard</a> (most councils have one).</p> <p>It should provide information such as where to get sandbags, which roads are closed (which can affect your evacuation plan) and evacuation centre openings and locations.</p> <p>Anyone who monitors social media will see how many amateur meteorologists and maps are out there, but these are often not the best source. Always rely on official sources rather than hearsay, trending footage or amateur “experts”.</p> <p>Always have an battery-operated AM-FM radio. If power goes out, relying on your phone to track information will drain your phone battery very quickly.</p> <p>You may be able to charge it via your car or laptop, but telecommunications networks may not be active.</p> <p>So having a battery-operated radio on hand – and plenty of batteries – is crucial.</p> <h2>What if the cyclone hits while you’re at home?</h2> <p>If it’s too late to evacuate, have a plan for sheltering in place.</p> <p>Find the smallest room in your house with the least windows (which can shatter in a storm). This is often the bathroom, but it could be under the stairs. It is usually on the lowest level of the house.</p> <p>Bring your food, water, radio, blankets and supplies there. Avoid walking around the house during the cyclone to fetch things; there could be glass on the floor or debris flying around.</p> <p>It’s hard to predict how long you will need to shelter there, but it’s important not to leave until official sources say it is safe to do so.</p> <p>Cyclones come in stages. They arrive from one direction, then comes an eerie calm as the “eye of the storm” passes over. Next, the other half of the cyclone arrives. Don’t go outside during the eye of the storm, because it’s not over.</p> <p>Outside the house, there may be powerlines down, broken glass and other hazards. Don’t venture out until you get official clearance from the disaster dashboard or official sources on the radio saying it is safe.</p> <p>For <a href="https://www.ses.qld.gov.au/ses-assistance">non-life threatening emergencies</a> – such as a tree on your roof, or water running through your house – call the SES on 132 500 or register on the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/ses-assistance-qld/id704964892">SES Assistance app</a> (if you’re in Queensland). They will not come during the event itself but will come later.</p> <p>If it’s a life threatening emergency, always call triple 0.</p> <h2>After the storm</h2> <p>After the storm, consider how to make your house more cyclone-ready in future. Many houses in North Queensland are designed for cyclone zones, but not as many further south will be.</p> <p>Climate change means cyclones are likely to be more severe in future. These days, be cyclone-ready 365 days a year.<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/251251/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yetta-gurtner-2337172">Yetta Gurtner</a>, Adjunct senior lecturer, Centre for Disaster Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/james-cook-university-1167">James Cook University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: SBS News</em></p> <p><em>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-to-prepare-for-a-cyclone-according-to-an-expert-251251">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Travel Tips

"Miss you every day": Brooke Warne's tribute to Shane

<p>Brooke Warne has shared an emotional tribute to her father Shane on the three-year anniversary since his sudden death. </p> <p>Cricket legend Shane died on March 4th 2022 in Ko Samui, Thailand, at the age of 52 following a suspected heart attack.</p> <p>Brooke, 26, wrote a heart-wrenching post about her dad, saying she misses him every day since his passing. </p> <p>She shared a series of photos with her dad throughout her life, captioning her post, "3 years without you Dad ❤️‍🩹 I miss laughing with you about the little things and there is so much I want to show you🤍."</p> <p>Brooke, who is the eldest of Warne's three children, added: "I know you're always with us, I love you ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 I miss you every day."</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" 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);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DGwBd3Vz43h/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <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> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <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 style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DGwBd3Vz43h/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by B R O O K E 🍿 W A R N E (@brookewarne)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The post was flooded with comments, with Brooke's brother Jackson Warne commenting a red love heart underneath the post. </p> <p>In the years since his death, the sporting legend's children have honoured him and support the Shane Warne Legacy foundation as ambassadors.</p> <p>As the news of Shane's death first broke in 2022, Brooke admitted in a candid post that it didn't "feel real ".</p> <p>"It doesn't feel right, you were taken away too soon and life is so cruel," she said.</p> <p>"We were so similar in so many ways and I always use to joke that I got your genes and I use to joke about how much that annoyed me!! Well now I couldn't be happier and prouder that I have your genes."</p> <p>"And I was lucky and will forever be, so proud to call you my dad. I love you to infinity and back and I will miss you forever."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Family & Pets

Young couple sold almost everything to live on a cruise ship

<p>Two savvy US school teachers Monica Brzoska, 32, and Jorrell Conley, 36, have sold almost all of their possessions to live at sea.</p> <p>The couple fell in love with cruising after travelling to Mexico, Belize and Grand Cayman almost a decade ago.</p> <p>In 2023, after Monica's father fell ill, she was inspired to live the life she had always wanted. </p> <p>"Don’t wait for retirement to follow your dreams. Do it now," her mother had told her. </p> <p>That's when she and her husband made the life-changing decision. </p> <p>“Instead of coming back, why not keep booking consecutive cruises for as long as we could afford to?” Monica told <em>The Sun</em>. </p> <p>“It sounds mad, but the numbers made sense. Accommodation, food and entertainment would be included – we’d only need spending money.</p> <p>“And because we’d been on so many Carnival cruises, we’d earned access to some amazing offers.</p> <p>“If we chose the cheapest cabins, our savings from the pandemic would allow us to book eight months of cruising for $16,000 – some trips paid for in full, others with deposits.</p> <p>“We could then use the rent from our three-bedroom house in Memphis to make extra payments as needed. Many cruises start and end in the same ports, so we knew we’d be able to disembark and easily board our next ship, or otherwise fly to the port.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" 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);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQkivEJ0DS/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <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> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <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 style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQkivEJ0DS/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Monica Brzoska (@life_by_any_means)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The pair quit their jobs, sold most of their possessions and rented out their three-bedroom home in Memphis, and have been cruising for almost two years now. </p> <p>Since making the move, the couple have completed 36 consecutive cruises and visited almost 50 countries.</p> <p>“I instantly felt free,” she said. </p> <p>“People are amazed when they hear we live on ships, and I’m always happy to share the tricks we’ve learned to save money. We’ve won excursion tickets, jewellery and spa treatments in onboard raffles, while on land, we do our own tours, using local transport to explore," she said. </p> <p>However, she admitted that there are a few challenges, including missing family, but regardless "it really is a dream come true". </p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p> <p> </p>

Retirement Life

"Could not be happier": Channel 7 commentator's baby joy

<p>AFL great and Channel 7 commentator Dale Thomas and his wife Natasha have announced that they are expecting their first child together. </p> <p>The couple told family and friends over Christmas before announcing their baby joy to the public on Monday. </p> <p>“Tash and I could not be happier to be welcoming our baby into the world in August,” the former Carlton and Collingwood player said. </p> <p>“Last year started with the high of our wedding and ended with this fantastic news.</p> <p>“Telling loved ones over the Christmas period made for some wonderful memories and some brilliant reactions, and we will treasure this forever.</p> <p>“This next chapter has us both so excited.</p> <p>“As happy as we are to be sharing this great personal news, we also want to acknowledge and send big love and thoughts to those who are still waiting for their baby joy.</p> <p>“We appreciate how difficult and sensitive it can be.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" 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);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGusT0yz1zr/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <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> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <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 style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGusT0yz1zr/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Dale Thomas (@dthomas_39)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The couple also shared a video of the moment they found out they were expecting, and revealed the due date is in August on Instagram. </p> <p>"Baby Thomas, due August ❤️ We love you so, so much," they captioned the video. </p> <p>The comments were flooded with well-wishes from friends, with footy commentator Abbey Holmes writing: "YAY. Cats outta the bag!! So so so excited for you both. Bring it on xxxxxxxxxxxxxx." </p> <p>"OMFG this is the best news ever!!!! What a wonderful Monday surprise. Congratulations to the both you. Good job," added MasterChef's Khanh Ong.</p> <p>The happy news comes a year after they tied the knot in Dunkeld. </p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

"How to guarantee you’ll stay poor"

<p data-pm-slice="1 1 []">If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that being poor is just a mindset. At least, that’s the hot take from controversial Australian wealth and property guru Jack Henderson. </p> <p>Henderson recently graced his Facebook followers with a foolproof seven-step plan for staying poor. This list, boldly titled "how to guarantee you’ll stay poor", offers wisdom so profound it could only be matched by a fortune cookie written by a hedge fund manager.</p> <p>Let’s break it down, shall we?</p> <ol start="1" data-spread="true"> <li> <p><strong>Start tomorrow, never today.</strong> </p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Read every book and implement nothing.</strong> </p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Hang around other broke people.</strong> </p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Be a victim. Life is unfair.</strong> </p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Fail once and never start again.</strong> </p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Talk a big game. Do nothing you say you will.</strong> </p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Listen to other broke people’s opinions and advice.</strong> </p> </li> </ol> <p>While Henderson’s devotees lapped up this advice like an overpriced matcha latte, struggling Australians facing a cost-of-living crisis may find it slightly less helpful. After all, when the price of a head of lettuce rivals that of a luxury handbag, "mindset" isn’t always the issue.</p> <p>The Reserve Bank of Australia did throw a lifeline to homeowners by cutting interest rates on February 18, but experts say it’s about as useful as offering a band-aid to someone who’s been hit by a bus.</p> <p>As Aaron Scott, co-founder of Aussie Proptech service bRight Agent, put it: "A rate cut might sound like good news on the surface, but the reality is that it’s unlikely to make a meaningful difference for many homeowners who are already stretched to their financial limits."</p> <p>Translation: Don’t start dreaming of caviar just yet.</p> <p>Scott also pointed out that, despite the hype, one rate cut won’t do much beyond covering the cost of a daily coffee. And even then, only if you’re buying it from the budget section of the servo.</p> <p>"A single rate cut is like getting a 4-cent discount on a $2 per-litre fuel. It might make you feel good, but the saving’s gone by the time you leave the servo."</p> <p>For those currently navigating the financial minefield of rent, groceries and a mortgage that costs more than a small island in the Pacific, a single rate cut is about as helpful as Henderson’s "mindset coaching".</p> <p>Recent Roy Morgan research found that 30% of Aussie mortgage holders – 1.5 million families – are experiencing mortgage stress. And with grocery prices skyrocketing, that stress isn’t going anywhere fast.</p> <p>"On a $1.4 million loan, a 6.75 per cent loan rate dropping to 6.5 per cent will only save the mortgage holder around $107 per fortnight," Scott said.</p> <p>In other words, just enough to buy an extra carton of eggs – if they’re on special.</p> <p>As Scott so eloquently put it, "A single RBA cut is like throwing a cup of water on a bushfire – it won’t contain the raging mortgage stress pain."</p> <p>But hey, at least we’ve got mindset, right? Maybe if we all start tomorrow, read a few books and surround ourselves with equally broke friends, financial freedom will magically appear.</p> <p>Until then, we’ll just keep admiring Jack Henderson’s wisdom – because if there’s one thing he’s truly mastered, it’s the art of talking a big game.</p> <p>Now excuse me while I go manifest my way to affording rent this month.</p>

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