We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.
1 of 3
Air pollution has emerged as a small but important risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline, experts say – and Australia likely has a false sense of security about how clean our own air is.
One of Australia’s leading dementia epidemiologists says she would no longer live on a busy road after watching the science linking air pollution and dementia strengthen over the past two decades.
Professor Kaarin Anstey.Credit:Nick Moir
She’s even come to worry about cyclists pedalling along the side of highways.
“All the observational studies keep showing a cognitive decline is associated with high levels of air pollution,” says Professor Kaarin Anstey, director of the University of NSW Ageing Futures Institute and senior principal research scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia. “There has been study after study.”
In the early 2000s, researchers in heavily polluted Mexico City first discovered an association between children living in more polluted areas and inflammation of the brain.
Subsequent studies have now shown a small but consistent association with neurodegeneration in children and adults across small neighbourhoods and large countries.
Read more here.
The High Court will hear an appeal from Facebook regarding a decision involving the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The appeal was sought after the Federal Court rejected the social media giant’s claim it does not conduct business in Australia and store Australian information.
The High Court of Australia in Canberra.Credit:Andrew Meares
The Australian Information Commissioner is suing US-based Facebook Inc, now known as Meta, and Facebook Ireland over the alleged breaching of 311,000 Australian user’s privacy.
The Australian regulator alleges Facebook Inc “committed serious, and/or repeated interferences with privacy in contravention of Australian privacy law”.
But the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant argued these laws do not apply to Facebook Inc, as the Facebook Ireland subsidiary was conducting the Australian business.
Further, Facebook Inc argued it did not collect or store people’s personal information in Australia.
Noel Hutley SC, acting for Facebook, argued the Federal Court was incorrect in its definition of “carrying on business” in Australia.
Facebook is appealing a decision in Australia’s highest court.Credit:Shutterstock
He told the High Court Facebook Inc did not have a commercial presence in Australia or a contract with Australian users.
Instead, he said, Australians had a commercial relationship with Facebook Ireland which runs all operations outside of the United States.
Ruth Higgins SC, acting for the regulator, argued Facebook Inc receives revenue from Facebook Ireland for the data processes it provides which therefore established a commercial relationship.
“These activities were integral to Facebook Inc’s commercial pursuits,” she said.
AAP
The Australian Republic Movement will reignite its campaign from the end of next week as it looks to capitalise on the brewing national debate after the Queen’s death.
ARM national director Sandy Biar said the organisation would be “ramping up” its campaign from Friday next week, following the official day of mourning in Australia on Thursday.
Queen Elizabeth II with then-prime minister Julia Gillard at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting banquet in Perth on October 28, 2011.Credit:Andrew Meares
“Despite suspending our campaign during the mourning period, we’ve never seen anything like the sign-ups we’ve seen during this time, but it is appropriate that we pay due respect to The Queen and that our campaign remains suspended until the mourning period is concluded,” Biar said.
Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard restated her long-held view that the Queen’s death would put Australia on the pathway to becoming a republic.
“I always thought that when the Queen did leave us that it would cause a period of reflection. I thought that here, in the UK, [as well],” Gillard told ABC TV.
But she said there was no need to rush the process as she backed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s view that it was “too soon” to begin the debate.
Read more here.
A battle to include sexual orientation and gender questions in the next census will go to the Human Rights Commission.
April Long, who identifies as non-binary, says they felt excluded when answering the 2021 survey with their partner, Kelly, given there was no question about sexual orientation. The 65-question census also asked a difficult question about the rainbow family’s baby Kaison.
April Long, left, with their partner Kelly Coelho and son Kaison. Long, who identifies as non-binary, has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission regarding the most recent census.
“Kaison has two mums – I’m mumma and Kelly is mummy – but the form asked where Kaison’s mother and father were born,” Long said.
“Our initial reaction was shock. We were unable to complete it accurately. It didn’t capture us. It made us feel invisible and it didn’t count us.”
Long, a chief executive for a non-profit addiction program provider, says they’ve filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission alleging that the failure to properly count LGBTIQ+ people in the census amounted to unlawful discrimination.
Equality Australia, which joined as a co-complainant, says Long’s experience was replicated thousands of times on census night.
“The fact is we still don’t know how many LGBTIQ+ families there are in Australia, nor where they are located,” Equality Australia’s legal director, Ghassan Kassisieh, said in a statement.
The complaint alleges the ABS and the assistant treasurer – who at that time was Liberal MP Michael Sukkar – engaged in deliberate conduct that meant the statistics bureau “could not follow its own guidance” on the collection of data on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. Current assistant treasurer Stephen Jones has been contacted for comment.
The ABS says it is committed to ensuring everyone can participate in the census and help deliver high-quality data for communities and noted the government of the day determined census topics. The organisation was “disappointed” to hear of Long’s concern and would work with them and Equality Australia, a spokesperson said in a statement.
The bureau will consult with LGBTIQ+ communities and other stakeholders to understand data needs and potential topics and test any proposed changes for the 2026 census.
AAP
As apparently endless crowds drifted through the royal grounds of London, queuing to lay flowers and messages of reverence around Buckingham Palace for their late Queen, they were blessed by the sight of white swans gliding serenely on the lake of St James’s Park.
These graceful creatures, it happens, are among King Charles III’s new possessions. It’s one of the peculiar royal prerogatives passed to him on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
A swan in St James’s Park, near Buckingham Palace, London.Credit:PA
By ancient right, almost all the wild, or unmarked, swans of England – at least, those quiet and beautiful snow-white birds known as mute swans – are “owned” by each successive British monarch.
Charles can add to his personal wildlife protectorate whales, dolphins and sturgeon that come close to the shore of England, too.
Read the full story here.
Public health experts are increasingly optimistic the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight.
The World Health Organisation has advised the pandemic could soon be over, with the weekly number of global deaths continuing to decline.
Professor Tony Blakely.Credit: Supplied
Epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely says it feels like the end.
“We are in a much better position now, we have a lot of immunity from vaccines and natural infection,” he told Radio National earlier this morning.
“If we don’t see anything much different from Omicron come along in the next six months or so, I think we are looking pretty good.”
Jane Halton, who chairs an association called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said while COVID-19 deaths are underestimated the numbers are looking positive.
Professor Halton said while the virus is unpredictable it is “amazing” that almost two-thirds of the global population has been double vaccinated.
“If we don’t see another particularly nasty variant I think people will be feeling quite optimistic,” she told ABC host Patricia Karvelas.
The latest national data on COVID-19 cases and deaths will be released this afternoon. It will be the first time the figures are released on a weekly basis. (NSW’s numbers are already in, with 17,229 new coronavirus cases and 115 deaths over the past week.)
The new reporting method was announced after national cabinet decided to reduce the isolation period for COVID-19 patients from seven to five days.
However, only those without any symptoms will be allowed to leave isolation after the shorter time frame.
AAP
Australia’s unemployment rate is unlikely to stay at its near 48-year low of 3.5 per cent, according to the Reserve Bank.
“Not so long ago people said, ‘Well, we get the unemployment rate in Australia down to five. Great outcome.’ And I had been hopeful that we could do better than that,” Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said during today’s appearance before parliament’s economics committee.
“[And] here we are at 3.5 [per cent].”
The unemployment rate has fallen dramatically since mid-2020 and has slowed to around 2.5 per cent. Australian Bureau of Statistics data from yesterday shows it has since risen by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5 per cent, the same level it was in June.
The unemployment rate is normally the last key economic indicator affected by the Reserve Bank’s hikes, and some economists believe there are now hints it could be reacting to that tightening.
During today’s hearing, Lowe said there are indications the unemployment rate is not at a neutral level.
“I’m doubtful of whether we can sustain 3.5, because the feedback we’re getting from [our] businesses liaison program… 3.5 per cent unemployment, it’s just way, way, too hard to find workers. But you never know.”
Woodside’s final federal environmental submission for its $30 billion Browse gas project has failed to include a commitment to bury up to 107 million tonnes of CO2 that just last month chief executive Meg O’Neill said was essential for the company to meet its climate goals.
Yesterday, the Perth-based $64 billion oil and gas producer released its responses to almost 20,000 submissions on the plan to develop the remote Browse gas fields off WA’s north-west coast and pipe the gas 900 kilometres to its ageing North West Shelf plant near Karratha.
Woodside’s Pluto LNG plant near Karratha WA.Credit:Woodside
Back in August, Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill told this masthead that technical studies on burying the CO2 in a Browse field called Calliance had been “very positive”.
However, the final federal environmental impact statement for Browse says burying the reservoir CO2 is currently considered a “high-risk, high-cost” option and – while still being looked at – is not part of the base plan.
More on this issue here.
Almost 1 per cent of adults in the Northern Territory are in prison at any one time, a rate among the highest in the world, with Indigenous people significantly over-represented.
A new report from the Justice Reform Initiative says incarceration rates in the region are four times the Australian average for adults and five times higher for children.
Prisoner numbers have grown by more than 30 per cent over the past decade, with the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in prison rising by 34 per cent.
Indigenous people are significantly over-represented, accounting for 85 per cent of all inmates despite making up only 26 per cent of the NT population.
Almost three-quarters of people in prison have been locked up before, and 35 per cent are being held while unsentenced.
Children on remand regularly account for more than 80 per cent of all young people in custody, the report says.
The executive director of the Justice Reform Initiative, Dr Mindy Sotiri, says there is a clear need for greater investment in policies and programs to break the cycles of disadvantage which keep bringing people back to prison at enormous cost to taxpayers.
AAP
This is the question on many people’s minds, particularly those with mortgages: how high will the official cash rate go?
RBA governor Philip Lowe cannot say definitively (as he said earlier, the cash rate depends on a host of data). But he has provided some strong direction during his appearance before a federal committee:
[What] I can say is that the midpoint of our inflation target at the moment is 2.5 per cent. So if inflation averages over the next 10 years, 2.5 per cent, you would expect that the cash rate at average is at least 2.5 per cent as well.
So the interest rate should at least average the midpoint of the inflation target. I suspect it should even average higher, and that because if there’s productivity growth in the economy that should lead to a higher real interest rate.
But I think we will cycle around some number between 2.5 and 3.5, it’s hard to be specific, and will cycle up and down that with the economic cycle.
With a current cash rate of 2.35 per cent, Lowe said the RBA is close to that range but still on the low side.
As for whether people can expect official interest rates to go back down to nearly zero, Lowe said that would be unlikely.
“Well, I hope they don’t return lower, because that would mean the economy’s weak. We would only see rates come back down to close to zero if we had a sharp downturn again.”
1 of 3
Copyright © 2022