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The Albanese government today introduced long-awaited legislation to parliament which is set to revolutionise Australia’s cyber security preparedness.

The legislation, if passed, will be Australia’s first standalone cyber security act. It’s aimed at protecting businesses and consumers from the rising tide of cyber crime.

So what are the key provisions, and will it be enough?

What’s in the new laws?

The new laws have a strong focus on victims of “ransomware” – malicious software cyber criminals use to block access to crucial files or data until a ransom has been paid.

People who pay a ransom do not always regain lost data. The payments also sustain the hacker’s business model.

Under the new law, victims of ransomware attacks who make payments must report the payment to authorities. This will help the government track cyber criminal activities and understand how much money is being lost to ransomware.

The laws also involve new obligations for the National Cyber Security Coordinator and Australian Signals Directorate. These obligations restrict how these two bodies can use information provided to them by businesses and industry about cyber security incidents. The government hopes this will encourage organisations to more openly share information knowing it will be safeguarded.

Separately, organisations in critical infrastructure – such as energy, transport, communications, health and finance – will be required to strengthen programs used to secure individuals’ private data.

The new legislation will also upgrade the investigative powers of the Cyber Incident Review Board. The board will conduct “no-fault” investigations after significant cyber attacks. The board will then share insights to promote improvements in cyber security practices more generally. These insights will be anonymised to ensure the identities of victims of cyber attacks aren’t publicly revealed.

The legislation will also introduce new minimum cyber security standards for all smart devices, such as watches, televisions, speakers and doorbells.

These standards will establish a baseline level of security for consumers. They will include secure default settings, unique device passwords, regular security updates and encryption of sensitive data.

This is a welcome step that will ensure everyday devices meet minimum security criteria before they can be sold in Australia.

A long-overdue step

Cyber security incidents have surged by 23% in the past financial year, to more than 94,000 reported cases. This is equivalent to one attack every six minutes.

This dramatic increase underscores the growing sophistication and frequency of cyber attacks targeting Australian businesses and individuals. It also highlights the urgent need for a comprehensive national response.

High-profile cyber attacks have further emphasised the need to strengthen Australia’s cyber security framework. The 2022 Optus data breach is perhaps the most prominent example. The breach compromised the personal information of more than 11 million Australians, alarming both the government and the public, not to mention Optus.

Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke says the Cyber Security Act is a “long-overdue step” that reflects the government’s concern about these threats.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also acknowledged recent high-profile attacks as a “wake-up call” for businesses, emphasising the need for a unified approach to cyber security.

The Australian government wants to establish Australia as a world leader in cyber security by 2030. This goal reflects the government’s acknowledgement that cyber security is fundamental to national security, economic prosperity and social well being.

Minister for Cyber Security Tony Burke says the creation of a new cyber security act is long overdue.
Mick Tsikas/AAP

Broader implications

The proposed laws will enhance national security. But they could also present challenges.

For example, even though the laws place limitations on how the National Cyber Security Coordinator and Australian Signals Directorate can use information, some businesses might still be unwilling to share confidential data because they are worried about damage to their reputation.

Businesses, especially smaller ones, will also face a substantial compliance burden as they adapt to new reporting requirements. They will also potentially need to invest more heavily in cyber security measures. This could lead to increased costs, which might ultimately be passed on to consumers.

The proposed legislation will require careful implementation to balance the needs of national security, business operations and individual privacy rights. Läs mer…

Senator Fatima Payman, launching her new political party Australia’s Voice, is pitching strongly at the large number of voters who are disillusioned with the big parties.

“Australians are fed up with the major parties having a duopoly, a stranglehold over our democracy. If we need to drag the two major parties kicking and screaming to do what needs to be done, we will.”

Payman, who stresses she is not forming a Muslim party, quoted both Gough Whitlam and Robert Menzies in introducing the new group.

She said the party was “for the disenfranchised, the unheard, and those yearning for real change”. But she was short on any detail, saying policies and candidates would come later.

Payman quit the Labor party to join the crossbench after disciplinary action that followed her crossing the floor over Gaza. A senator from Western Australia, she doesn’t face the voters until the election after next.

It has previously been flagged the party intends to field Senate candidates as well as run in some lower house seats. Its strategist is so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery, who works for Payman. Druery had success in promoting micro-party candidates running for upper houses in the past, but tightened federal electoral rules mean it will be an uphill battle to get a senator elected for the new party.Payman told a news conference on Wednesday: “This is more a movement than a party. It’s a movement for a fairer, more inclusive, Australia. Together we will hold our leaders accountable and ensure that your voice – Australia’s Voice – is never silenced.”

Payman invoked “the great Gough Whitlam” when he said, “There are some people who are so frightened to put a foot wrong that they won’t put a foot forward”.

“This comment made in 1985 applies so much to the current Labor Party who has lost its way,” Payman said.

Looking also to the other side of politics she said: “Australia’s Voice believes in a system where people come first, where your concerns are not just heard but acted upon. We reject the status quo that serves the powerful and ignores the rest, the forgotten people as Robert Menzies put it.”

She said after spending countless hours listening to Australians, the message she’d heard had been “a growing frustration”.

“A feeling of being left behind, of shouting into a void, only for their concerns to fall on deaf ears.

”So many of you have told me, with emotion in your hearts. ‘We need something different We need a voice’.

”It is this cry for change that has brought us here today. Because we can no longer sit by while our voices are drowned out by the same old politics. It’s time to stand up, to rise together, and to take control of our future.”

Underlining the party would be inclusive, Payman said, “This is a party for all Australians. We’re going to ensure that everyone is represented, whether it’s the mums and dads who are trying to make ends meet, or the young students out there, or whether it’s the grandparents who want to have dignity and respect as they age.” Läs mer…

Artistic director Rafael Bonachela’s latest work for the Sydney Dance Company, momenta, had its Melbourne premiere on October 8 at the Playhouse Theatre in the Arts Centre.

Bonachela says that he wanted the full-length work to represent both momenta – the plural form of momentum from the Latin movimentum – and moments.

And it does exactly that.

The work is a maelstrom of macro and microcosmic momentums, capturing mundane and monumental moments.

The 17 dancers move through unmarked yet distinct worlds of perpetual motion.

Sometimes they are suggestive of atoms under a microscope that collide and react, constantly forming new molecules and compounds. They randomly meet each other in physical entanglements, only to move on in a moment to another cluster of moving bodies.

Other times they evoke the relentless rolling of the sea with waves of unison movement. These repetitively sweep in one line after another through the bodies as they traverse across the stage.

Still other times they stand in distinct separation in a grid pattern with minimal but identical movements that beat like a collection of pumping hearts.

The movement never stops. It gains momentum.

Bodies connected in momenta.
SDC/Pedro Greig

The dancers become human and through a series of duets we encounter the momentum of relationships.

A solo from within the crowd shows us the secret internal flows of emotion that are a relentless apsect of the human experience.

Using lighting, one intimate scene seems to capture the flickering motion of old grainy film. It briefly transports the audience back in time to a voyeuristic peep show.

Damien Cooper’s lighting design acts as the narrator throughout, directing our attention to small sections of the action or opening the whole stage. The lights are rigged on a large horizontal circle over one side of the stage. It starts near the stage’s surface and moves incrementally, upward scene by scene, sometimes tilting at angles. It is suspended and moves silently until it is no longer visible, at which point it begins its decent.

The colour palette of the lighting – whites, yellows, browns, greens and blues – changes the mood from hot to cool, soft to hard, today to yesterday.

Choreographer Rafael Bonachela based on the work on concepts of momentum, force, time and space.

Elizabeth Gadsby and Emma White’s costumes are mostly neutral tones with some black accent pieces. They provide almost nude surfaces on which the lighting plays. As the work progresses some of the costumes of the male dancers are removed as they appear bare-chested, even more naked, implying an increasing emotional exposure.

The dancers show extraordinary vulnerability, athleticism and stamina.

There is a consistency and persistence to the movement quality in momenta: sweeping, sliding, extending and contracting in cyclical patterns which contain traces of elements of the patterns that came before them.

It is breathtaking.

At times warm lighting washes over the dancers.
SDC/Pedro Greig

Nick Wales’ score has the same cyclical nature with repeated music motifs. The score is varied in an imitation of life and includes musical solos on viola and piano, contrasted with orchestral pieces and percussive and electronic elements.

In momenta’s penultimate scene dancers spread out evenly across the stage and dance in unison. The scene is very light but with a black background when suddenly silver sparkles begin to fall from above. There is a powerful sense of both the universe and the universal.

This cuts to a final intimate and human solo exquisitely danced by Piran Scott. In and out of the light, he slides and turns and rolls sometimes with propulsion, other times with suspense.

He brings us back to ourselves. Perpetually in motion.

The Sydney Dance Company’s momenta is on until October 12 at the Arts Centre, Melbourne. Läs mer…

Elephant numbers are surging in southern Africa, with fewer natural predators, reduced hunting pressure and feeding by farmers and tourist operators.

While this is good for elephants, it’s making life harder for humans who live near them. These huge herbivores can raid crops and destroy large trees in national parks with impunity, causing problems for farmers and land managers alike.

Traditional solutions aren’t ideal. Culling is controversial, and building fences strong enough to deter elephants is very expensive.

But there’s another option: a fence made of scent. We have explored how specific plant scents can stop wallabies from eating native seedlings. The technique works on Australian herbivores. Would it work for southern Africa’s much larger elephants?

Our new research put this idea to the test. We mimicked the scent of a shrub known as common guarri (Euclea undulata), which elephants avoid eating, and built a Y-shaped maze for elephants. We placed the scent on one side of the Y and left the other side scent-free.

The results were clear – our elephants voted with their trunks and avoided the stinky side. This suggests scent could play a useful role in fending off hungry pachyderms.

Elephants roam complicated landscapes. To find out where to go next and what to eat, they often rely on their sense of smell.
Patrick Finnerty, Author provided (no reuse)

How can elephants be a problem?

The world has three species of elephant. The small Asian elephant is endangered while the even smaller African forest elephant, which lives in rainforests in West Africa and the Congo Basin, is critically endangered.

But the largest species, the African savannah elephant, is bouncing back in southern Africa from decades of poaching and habitat loss.

This is great on a conservation front. But it brings fresh problems. As elephant herds expand, they increasingly come into conflict with people – especially farmers. Losing a year’s crop to hungry elephants is devastating. When farmers try to stop them, the elephants can attack and even kill.

In large numbers, elephants can damage the natural environment like other herbivores – but even more so. In South Africa’s Kruger National Park and other wild places, their enormous appetites have reshaped whole plant communities. The plants elephants like disappear, while those they don’t spread. Elephants also destroy large trees and prevent the growth of new ones.

Oranges unable to be sold by Zimbabwean farmers are dumped, which attracts elephants and fuels population growth.

As elephant numbers grow, desperate farmers and land managers have scrambled for solutions. Killing problem elephants has been a common fix. But the practice now faces strong public opposition. Fencing is costly and usually impractical for lower-income farming areas. Other deterrents, such as using flashing lights and annoying sounds to scare off the pachyderms have had mixed success.

Curiously, elephants are scared stiff of bees. This knowledge has been used effectively by Kenyan farmers, who install beehives around their fields. Studies have shown the technique deters up to 80% of elephants. This method has limits, though, as there are only so many bees an area can sustain and maintaining hives takes work.

The scent defence

To deter an elephant, it helps to think like an elephant. We’ve long known carnivores rely heavily on scent to find prey. But scent is very important to herbivores too, as our team has explored. Herbivores rely on smell to tell them which plants to eat and which to avoid.

In Australia, we have used this knowledge to artificially replicate the scent of boronia pinnata, a flowering shrub which swamp wallabies avoid. These wallabies are the local native equivalent of deer in their eating habits – they eat many different plants, including tree seedlings land managers would rather they did not.When we put vials of boronia scent next to vulnerable native seedlings in Sydney’s Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, we found these seedlings were 20 times less likely to be found and eaten by pesky wallabies.

Researchers have found similar scent “misinformation” tactics substantially reduced how many eggs from threatened birds were eaten by invasive predators such as ferrets, cats and hedgehogs in New Zealand, while others have found it can reduce losses of wheat grain to house mice in Australia.

But would this approach work on elephants? We were hopeful. We know elephants can smell water from afar. Better still, elephants have the strongest sense of smell of any land animal.

We went to South Africa to test it out.

Our entire research team, including humans and elephants.
Patrick Finnerty, CC BY-NC-ND

A proof of concept

We set up our experiment at the Adventures with Elephants tourism and research centre north of Johannesburg, which is home to six semi-tame elephants.

Here, we built a large maze shaped like a Y to let us test our idea in a controlled and safe environment. This is essential when working with temperamental animals weighing up to six tonnes.

From almost ten meters away, elephants had to choose which path through the Y to follow using only their sense of smell. Plants and odour vials were hidden down each arm of the maze, ensuring the animals were not using vision to choose. Both exits to the maze contained lots of leaves and stems of the jacket plum (pappea capensis), a tree elephants love to eat. On one side of the Y, we placed a single glass vial containing just 1 millilitre of a mixture mimicking the smell of common guarri.

It took just 1 ml of this scent to nudge elephants to go elsewhere.
Patrick Finnerty

The results were exciting. Time and time again, the elephants avoided the side where the artificial odour was present.

An elephant stands at the top of the Y maze, scents the unpleasant plant on the right arm, and chooses to walk down the left arm.

Scaling up

Our results suggest using scent could provide a practical way we could avoid human-elephant conflicts and help people protect crops and national parks at a larger scale.

Combining artificial odours with existing control measures such as fencing or beehives could offer more accessible and cost-effective methods to live alongside elephants.

What’s next? We aim to scale up this research in the hope of creating a practical, versatile and cheap tool which people in elephant territory can use to protect crops, trees, and houses from these giant herbivores.

We acknowledge our research co-authors, Clare McArthur and Peter Banks (University of Sydney) Adrian Shrader (University of Pretoria) and Melissa Schmitt (University of North Dakota), and Paul Finnerty for help designing and constructing the maze. We also thank Sean Hensman and the staff at Adventures With Elephants, South Africa, for allowing us to conduct our study on their premises. Läs mer…

Aboriginal children living in remote communities have the highest rate of skin sores, or impetigo, in the world. Almost one in two have skin sores at any one time.

Skin sores are a highly contagious bacterial skin infection that may be itchy and painful, but often go unnoticed by children. Parents are more likely to be concerned about the pus and thick crust that develops.

Scabies, another skin infection, also disproportionately affects children in remote Indigenous communities in Australia (as many as one in three).

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Aboriginal children are 34 times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to be admitted to hospital with skin infections in their first year of life. Untreated, these skin infections can lead to other health issues including sepsis, rheumatic fever and kidney disease.

With this in mind, we’ve been working for the past five years with nine communities in the Kimberley region on a comprehensive skin health program. Each of the communities has a remote health-care clinic staffed by a mix of nurses, Aboriginal health workers and doctors.

Today, we’ve published two new studies outlining the progress we’ve made to reduce skin infections in children in these communities. Since we started the program, rates of skin sores have halved from around four in ten children to around two in ten.

The SToP program

We partnered with Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations and schools in the Kimberley region and co-designed a program called SToP. It stands for “See, Treat and Prevent”.

Our initial focus was going to be on diagnosing and treating skin sores and scabies. However, community members highlighted the need to incorporate a strong focus on prevention and health promotion too.

The SToP model included training health-care workers in the remote health clinics, community members and school staff to recognise skin infections. The health-care workers were also trained to provide the latest evidence-based treatment for patients with skin sores and scabies.

The prevention activities included recording a hip-hop video with children, developing eight unique healthy skin books in local languages, and yarning with community members. They consistently highlighted the importance of investing in environmental health, including housing maintenance to support healthy living.

Local children recorded a hip-hop video to promote healthy skin.

As part of the SToP program, and to track its results, more than 770 children aged zero to 15 years received regular skin checks over four years from 2019 to 2022. We visited each of the nine communities up to three times each year and completed more than 3,000 skin checks.

One limitation of our research is that the trial was completed during COVID. Regional travel bans forced it to pause for several months in 2020.

The primary aim was to reduce the burden of skin sores by half in school-aged children. We also tracked impetigo and scabies burden in younger children up to age four, and overall clinic presentations for skin infections.

Our results, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health today, confirm skin sores decreased in school-aged children in the first year and improvements were sustained throughout the trial.

Across all communities, skin sores reduced from four in ten children at the start of the study to two in ten children by the end. Most of this reduction occurred in 2019 when skin checks started.

Scabies also declined, but was found in less than one in ten children throughout the study.

The program has reduced skin infections among children in these communities.
The Kids Research Institute Australia

The skin checks were the most important and likely most effective part of the study. Community members want these to continue for all age groups, to extend beyond just the children involved in the study.

Presentations to the remote health clinics for skin infections in each community increased during the trial and stayed high. This suggests the community involvement and focus on healthy skin was reaching all age groups.

Despite training and resource development, uptake of the recommended treatments at the clinic was low.

We predicted at the start of the study that using treatment as prevention, supported by training on the latest evidence-based treatments available, would be the most effective strategy. This turned out to not occur at all. High turnover of clinic staff and longstanding treatment preferences may be the reason.

A holistic approach

While our research has been published today, the results were first presented to community members in 2023. More than 85 community members were able to share their interpretation of the SToP results with us. They strengthened the story we’ve been able to tell in our published papers.

The second paper, in eClinical Medicine, provides a comprehensive, multi-methods evaluation of the trial. Through this process, community members and service providers helped our research team understand the trial results and the critical factors for success.

Future studies should continue to partner with local Aboriginal communities and enable community voices to inform all aspects of the research.

The SToP trial brought together Western medical approaches with community voices to better inform skin disease control where the burden of skin sores and scabies was high. The results have been positive.

We hope there will be future opportunities to implement activities like this in more Indigenous communities across Australia. As a starting point, a variety of SToP resources are available to access. The healthy skin books have been shared with other communities to translate into local contexts and languages.

The skin is the largest organ of the body and always visible. Improvements in skin health can prevent other, more serious health consequences, while also contributing to overall wellbeing. Läs mer…

The Australian construction industry has long been facing a crisis of serious defects in apartment buildings. In the past, alarming incidents such as the Sydney Opal Tower evacuation and the Melbourne Lacrosse fire signalled systemic problems in construction.

The same problem persists today. One recent report shows serious defects in apartment buildings in New South Wales have more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.

As the Albanese government fast-tracks its five-year plan to build 1.2 million dwellings, this number will likely worsen.

We’ve researched the pressures the construction industry feels and how that can result in unsafe apartments, and what can be done to make housing like this better for everyone.

Why are we in this situation?

Serious defects endanger lives, cost building and insurance firms millions of dollars, and put pressure on regulators. Typical responses involve increased regulation, but the lack of change in apartment quality shows increased regulation is not enough. Behavioural and cultural changes are needed.

We found the poor quality of apartment buildings is often the result of deeply entrenched patterns of unprofessional behaviour across the industry. These often arise as professionals face pressures to cut costs in an industry notorious for its low profit margin.

We also found this pressure is exacerbated by aggressive competition, work overload, exploitation and a toxic culture.

As pressures mount, professionals’ decision-making becomes increasingly fraught. For example, many professionals we interviewed largely believe they must choose between profit and quality.

There are no simple answers to this age-old conundrum. However, our study shows a way forward.

What did we find?

Our three-year study funded by the Australian Research Council is the first in Australia to extensively investigate 12 building professions struggling to navigate and resolve this perceived dilemma.

Teams from four Australian universities conducted desktop reviews, analysed professional codes of conduct, interviewed 53 professionals and conducted six focus group discussions. After two years of analysis and model development, we published our industry technical report and presented our findings to practitioners in NSW and Queensland.

We have empirical evidence that shows profitability and quality do not have to be mutually exclusive. We have uncovered powerful, innovative but ad hoc strategies showing businesses can reconcile both.

One builder we profiled, a multinational company and a market leader in apartment construction, took a pioneering approach to this dilemma.

For many years, the company’s strategy was to build as quickly and cheaply as possible to save money. However, these savings were ultimately lost because they found they had “[…] made some money at the time, but we basically spent it all fixing things that we didn’t build that well”.

The company re-examined its business model and developed a new strategy that reconciled profitability, quality and professional behaviours.

The company analysed where the majority of their defects arose from and there were five key areas including:

balcony waterproofing
shower construction and waterproofing
fire wall installations
penetrations through fire walls
brick masonry construction.

They then built prototypes of high quality construction for each of these typical building elements. They found their prototypes addressed defects while also integrating different technical standards.

The company then informed their clients, subcontractors and suppliers that “this is how we will build from now on”. Over time, it became apparent their strategy supported skills training while also improving long-term financial sustainability.

These prototypes are now showcased at a centre in NSW. Subcontractors, architects, engineers, designers, professional associations and other supply-chain actors regularly visit.

The company now conducts training for quality based on these prototypes and reports that since the establishment of this strategy, defects have been reduced by 85%.

Our empirical evidence shows these strategies drive quality and long-term financial sustainability.

Safer homes nationwide

This strategy does not have to be limited to a few large companies.

In our report, we provide a plan to ensure safer, more financially sustainable building practices can be rolled out across the industry. It relies on collaboration across sectors.

Best-practice companies in each state, like the one in NSW, would come under a national umbrella. Commonwealth and state governments would initiate the effort by identifying the best examples in different states. Together, they could focus on design, construction quality and on innovative materials, standards and ways to build safely and cost-effectively.

Having best-practice example companies would help weed out apartment defects.
Shutterstock

With positive role models to follow, other companies can improve. This would instil a mindset and culture of leadership, accountability and responsibility across the sector. More coherent standards would be embedded across the industry would ensure workers at all levels are no longer siloed.

Education and training organisations would progressively incorporate these new standards. Over time, the workforce would rebuild knowledge and skills that are perceived to have largely disappeared.

It’s important to ensure clients help drive this too. By mandating or incentivising companies with safer supply chains, there’s a commercial imperative to do better.

Professional associations also have a role to play. They can support these efforts further by creating resources and advocating for best practice.

Making apartments safer requires a shift in the thinking of the entire construction industry. There are inventive ways to align quality with profitability. We must challenge the assumption that they are always irreconcilable. Läs mer…