Search

"If it's not broken, don't fix it": Majority of Australians favour current flag

<p>The majority of Australians want to keep the current design of the national flag, according to a survey by Roy Morgan. </p> <p>The survey asked 1312 Australians whether they thought Australia should have a new design for the national flag, and a majority (61 per cent) said they wanted to keep the current flag featuring the Union Jack, Southern Cross and Commonwealth Star. </p> <p>While many Australians believe that, "If it's not broken don't fix it" according to the survey, the majority support for the current national flag has gone down 5 per cent since 2010. </p> <p>One of the other reasons why respondents backed the current national flag was because of the historical importance and heritage of the flag. </p> <p>"Our ANZACS fought and died under this flag," one respondent to the survey said.</p> <p>Other reasons why people wanted to keep the flag the same include scepticism about alternative flags and concerns about costs of changing the designs. </p> <p>For those who wanted to change the flag, Roy Morgan said there was strong support for removing the Union Jack from the flag because of its colonial symbolism.</p> <p>"Colonial ties to the UK are an embarrassment," one respondent said.</p> <p>"We are no longer part of the empire," another wrote.</p> <p>Australians were also asked if they thought Australia should keep the Monarchy, with 57 per cent saying we should keep it, three per cent less than in 2022. </p> <p>When asked if we should become a republic, 43 per cent agreed, up three per cent since 2022. </p> <p>"Australians are even more attached to the National Flag than the Constitutional Monarchy," Roy Morgan Chief Executive Michele Levine said.</p> <p>"The results of this Roy Morgan SMS Poll on attitudes towards the current Australian National Flag and whether it should be re-designed show a clear split along political lines with the Coalition on one side, the Greens on the other side, and ALP supporters straddling the centre line with large segments advocating for a change and almost as many wanting to retain the current design," she added. </p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Legal

How hip pain led Sydney karate master to life-changing weight loss journey

<div> <p>Sydney-based karate instructor and personal trainer Glenn Stephenson knows the toll that joint pain and extra weight can take on physical activity. Despite decades of experience as a martial arts coach, Glenn found himself increasingly limited by severe hip pain and unwanted weight gain.</p> </div> <div> <p>In 2021, at 95 kilograms, the 64-year-old’s arthritis and reduced mobility affected not only his work but also his confidence. “I couldn’t move around like I wanted to, and as a master instructor, it felt wrong to be teaching students while carrying so much extra weight,” he admits.</p> </div> <div> <p>Glenn’s pain and discomfort prompted him to make a drastic change. Instead of resorting to extreme dieting, he adopted a more sustainable approach to weight loss to reduce joint and liver inflammation, and regain his mobility. He shed 20 kilograms and now walks four kilometres daily. “I can move better, my mental health has improved, and I feel more capable of guiding my students,” he says.</p> </div> <div> <p>Today, Glenn encourages others struggling with weight to take a balanced approach to fitness and health. “I look the part now, which gives me confidence as a master instructor to show my students that staying active is achievable at any age.”</p> </div> <div> <p>Dietitian Kirby Sorenson, from health platform <a title="https://www.getmosh.com.au/?utm_term=mosh&utm_campaign=Cross_Search_Brand_Mosh&utm_source=paid-search&utm_medium=adwords&utm_content=100740202037&hsa_acc=5792635568&hsa_cam=1701000406&hsa_grp=100740202037&hsa_ad=697110582898&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-295213997936&hsa_kw=mosh&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAiAxKy5BhBbEiwAYiW--5qfGzQVQBG-CmA6baVMEeP5Zmk_oB_GOstA1n2vabFrLzbeDrEEnxoCM4YQAvD_BwE" href="https://www.getmosh.com.au/?utm_term=mosh&utm_campaign=Cross_Search_Brand_Mosh&utm_source=paid-search&utm_medium=adwords&utm_content=100740202037&hsa_acc=5792635568&hsa_cam=1701000406&hsa_grp=100740202037&hsa_ad=697110582898&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-295213997936&hsa_kw=mosh&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAiAxKy5BhBbEiwAYiW--5qfGzQVQBG-CmA6baVMEeP5Zmk_oB_GOstA1n2vabFrLzbeDrEEnxoCM4YQAvD_BwE" data-outlook-id="bc4b923a-a4a3-4af0-80db-e837cd64b4c7">Mosh</a>, is encouraging Australians to ditch the Body Mass Index (BMI) in favour of more modern diagnostics to determine the risk of disease linked to higher body fat, declaring it’s unfairly categorising people as being overweight.</p> </div> <div> <p>Ms Sorenson says knowing your Body Roundness Index (BRI) as well as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) can more accurately predict the risk of diseases like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease because it works out body fat levels based on height and waist circumference, rather than the BMI method which relies on height and weight.</p> </div> <div> <p>“BMI has long been criticised for inaccurately categorising people as overweight or obese because it doesn’t differentiate between those who carry a lot of muscle and individuals with fat in the wrong places,” Ms Sorenson says.</p> </div> <div> <p>“The problem is that it only looks at overall weight, while the BRI focuses on fat held around the abdomen which is the riskiest fat in terms of overall health.</p> </div> <div> <p>Once the BRI is determined, Ms Sorenson says it can help to know your Basal Metabolic Rate, which is largely determined by your total lean mass to help determine a healthy path to maintaining a healthy weight range.</p> </div> <div> <p>“The basal metabolic rate or BMR gives you an idea of how many calories your body burns doing the bare minimum; breathing, blood circulation, brain and nerve function. It can vary greatly from person to person, which explains why individual weight loss journeys can be so different,” Ms Sorenson said.</p> </div> <div> <p>For more information visit Moshy’s online <a title="https://www.getmoshy.com.au/weight-loss/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator?srsltid=AfmBOoobS-PiI_4sJn2ykpEG6vzq6qkvQXammfLv4Rm-mS5nwll6EN0m" href="https://www.getmoshy.com.au/weight-loss/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator?srsltid=AfmBOoobS-PiI_4sJn2ykpEG6vzq6qkvQXammfLv4Rm-mS5nwll6EN0m" data-outlook-id="800f9af2-0a34-4ac4-801b-d16714c7ec2e">BMR calculator</a>.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Supplied</em></p> </div>

Body

"My heart is broken": Mariah Carey reveals sad double tragedy

<p>Mariah Carey has revealed a devastating double tragedy, as both her mother and sister passed away on the same day. </p> <p>In a heartbreaking statement to <em><a href="https://people.com/mariah-carey-mom-patricia-sister-alison-both-died-same-day-exclusive-8701561" target="_blank" rel="noopener">People</a></em>, the singer announced the deaths of her mum Patricia, 87, and sister Alison, 63, who died over the weekend. </p> <p>Carey's statement read, "My heart is broken that I've lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day."</p> <p>"I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed."</p> <p>"I appreciate everyone's love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time."</p> <p>No cause of death has been revealed for either member of the family. </p> <p>Carey famously had a turbulent relationship with her mother and sister over the years, and was estranged from Alison for three decades before her untimely death.</p> <p>In 2016, Alison, who was a recovering drug addict, made a plea to her famous sister through the Daily Mail to ask for support, saying, "Mariah I love you, I desperately need your help."</p> <p>As well as substance abuse, Alison endured homelessness throughout her life and tested positive for the HIV virus. </p> <p>Mariah opened up about complicated relationships with her mom and sister in her 2020 memoir, <em>The Meaning Of Mariah Carey</em>.</p> <p>"Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It's never been only black-and-white — it's been a whole rainbow of emotions," she explained. </p> <p>She said their relationship was a "prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration, and disappointment", however the book was still dedicated to Patricia.</p> <p>"And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could," the singer penned in the dedication. "I will love you the best I can, always."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Paul Archuleta/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p>

Family & Pets

Sam Armytage in hospital for major surgery

<p>Former <em>Sunrise </em>host Samantha Armytage has undergone major hip replacement surgery following a severe case of osteoarthritis. The 47-year-old TV personality shared her journey on Instagram on Tuesday, posting photos from St Vincent's Private Hospital in Sydney.</p> <p>Armytage revealed in a detailed caption that she had been struggling with osteoarthritis after tearing the cartilage in her right hip. This condition, a degenerative joint disease, causes the tissues in the joint to break down over time and is more prevalent among older individuals.</p> <p>Reflecting on her experience, the host of <em>The Farmer Wants a Wife</em> explained that the hip replacement was necessary to address the bone-on-bone friction and the severe osteoarthritis. Despite the challenges, she reassured her followers that her recovery is progressing well.</p> <p>"Hip, hip hooray. New hip, new me, no worries," she wrote. "A few weeks ago, I had a total hip replacement. After a very active, outdoorsy childhood (& a skiing accident 30 years ago), I'd torn all the cartilage out of my right hip. It was bone-on-bone & then became full of severe osteoarthritis. I'm so proud of how strong my body is & how well I've healed. I'm now truly bionic...& my nearest & dearest are pleased to not have to watch me limp around in pain anymore."</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/C85u8pqPlGS/?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/C85u8pqPlGS/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Samantha Armytage (@sam_armytage)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Armytage extended her gratitude to the medical staff and her loved ones, adding a touch of humour by sharing a photo of herself with a bit of Endone, a pain relief medication. She also praised her surgeon, Dr Michael Solomon, highlighting that hip replacements are common in Australia, with approximately 54,000 performed each year.</p> <p>Her post quickly garnered support from friends and fans alike. Presenter Kylie Gillies suggested a celebratory purchase, writing, "I think this deserves a new pair of Jimmy Choos …just to kick up those old heels and new hip! Glad to hear it’s gone well x" Meanwhile, singer Ricki-Lee Coulter expressed her encouragement, saying, "You’ll be dancing in no time. Sending you love xxx"</p> <p>Fans also chimed in with well wishes and supportive messages. One commented, "Good luck with the recovery and welcome to the Hip New Hip Gals Club," while another noted, "Oh a bit young for that Sam. Good luck on your recovery."</p> <p>Recovery from hip replacement surgery can be a lengthy process, often requiring dedicated physiotherapy. However, with her positive outlook and the support of her community, Samantha Armytage is well on her way to a full recovery.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Caring

How niggling hip pain led a squash coach to life-saving cancer diagnosis

<p>Melbourne squash coach and player Malcolm McClarty had been experiencing frequent pain in his right hip area for about 12 months before he mentioned it to one of his clients, a top medical oncologist, in October last year.</p> <p>The 63-year-old father-of-three coaches Professor Niall Tebbutt at the Kooyong Lawn and Tennis Club in Melbourne. </p> <p>Despite having lost his younger sister to pancreatic cancer just months earlier, Malcolm had been brushing off the pain, thinking it was a niggling sporting injury. </p> <p>Now Malcolm credits Niall, who ordered a prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), with saving his life. </p> <p>Malcolm also coaches Weranja Ranasinghe, a urologist with the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ), who has been his ‘unofficial second opinion’ throughout the journey. </p> <p>Associate Professor Ranasinghe says Malcolm’s diagnosis comes as the newly-released Lancet Commission on Prostate Cancer predicts cases worldwide will double from 1.4 million to 2.9 million by 2040. </p> <p>The USANZ says although the findings are alarming, Australia is well-placed to manage the spike thanks to availability of advanced diagnostic tools, improvements in treatments and quality control registries, but it needs to be coupled with more awareness. </p> <p>“Australia is better placed than many other nations to deal with a sharp spike in prostate cancer cases, but the urgent review of guidelines can’t come soon enough,” says Associate Professor Ranasinghe.</p> <p>“Prostate cancer is not commonly understood or spoken about, particularly amongst high-risk younger men, leaving too many in the dark about their cancer risk and that can be deadly,” he added. </p> <p>“Prostate cancer is already a major cause of death and disability, and the most common form of male cancer in more than 100 countries,” says Associate Professor Ranasinghe. “It’s the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia with over 25,000 new cases every year, and more than 11 deaths a day.”</p> <p>Malcolm was devastated to learn his cancer was aggressive Stage Four and had spread to three spots in the pelvic bone. He also experienced other symptoms including frequent and weak-flow urinating at night. </p> <p>He will begin radiotherapy, with chemotherapy on the cards as well. But his attitude is positive; he’s hoping to live for another six to 10 years. </p> <p>Malcolm’s message for other men is simple: if you’re 50 or older, get tested for prostate cancer now. He warns waiting can lead to complex and limited treatment options. </p> <p><strong>Five Risk Factors For Prostate Cancer</strong></p> <p><strong>1.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Age</strong> - the chance of developing prostate cancer increases with age.</p> <p><strong>2.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Family history</strong> - if you have a first-degree male relative who developed prostate cancer, like a brother or father, your risk is higher than someone without such family history.</p> <p><strong>3.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Genetics</strong> - while prostate cancer can’t be inherited, a man can inherit certain genes that increase the risk.</p> <p><strong>4.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Diet</strong> - some evidence suggests that a diet high in processed meat, or foods high in fat can increase the risk of developing prostate cancer.</p> <p><strong>5.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lifestyle</strong> - environment and lifestyle can also impact your risk, e.g. a sedentary lifestyle or being exposed to chemicals. </p> <p>For more information, visit <a href="https://www.usanz.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.usanz.org.au/</a></p>

Caring

Our housing system is broken and the poorest Australians are being hardest hit

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rachel-ong-viforj-113482">Rachel Ong ViforJ</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/curtin-university-873">Curtin University</a></em></p> <p>Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s <a href="https://www.anglicare.asn.au/publications/2023-rental-affordability-snapshot/">Rental Affordability Snapshot</a> by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like never before.</p> <p>In fact, if you rely on the <a href="https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/youth-allowance">Youth Allowance</a>, there is not a single rental property across Australia you can afford this week.</p> <h2>How did rental affordability get this bad?</h2> <p>Several post-COVID factors have been blamed, including our preference for <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/jun/new-insights-into-the-rental-market.html">more space, the return of international migrants</a>, and <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/news-research/news/2023/could-the-peak-in-interest-rates-signal-an-end-to-rising-rents">rising interest rates</a>.</p> <p>However, the rental affordability crisis pre-dates COVID.</p> <p>Affordability has been steadily declining for decades, as successive governments have failed to make shelter more affordable for low-to-moderate income Australians.</p> <h2>The market is getting squeezed at both ends</h2> <p>At the lower end of the rental sector, the growth in the supply of social housing persistently lags behind demand, trending at under <a href="https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/data/annual-growth-rates-social-housing-stock-and-population-2011-2020/">one-third</a> the rate of population growth.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="OA0cS" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OA0cS/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>This has forced growing numbers of low-income Australians to seek shelter in the private rental sector, where they face intense competition from higher-income renters.</p> <p>At the upper end, more and more aspiring home buyers are getting <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03085147.2021.2003086">locked out</a> of home ownership.</p> <p>A recent <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/2024-02/AHURI-Final-Report-416-Affordable-private-rental-supply-and-demand-short-term-disruption.pdf">study</a> found more households with higher incomes are now renting.</p> <p>Households earning <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/2024-02/AHURI-Final-Report-416-Affordable-private-rental-supply-and-demand-short-term-disruption.pdf">$140,000</a> a year or more (in 2021 dollars) accounted for just 8% of private renters in 1996. By 2021, this tripled to 24%. No doubt, this crowds out lower-income households who are now facing a shortage of affordable homes to rent.</p> <h2>Why current policies are not working</h2> <p>Worsening affordability in the private rental sector highlights a housing system that is broken. Current policies just aren’t working.</p> <p>While current policies focus on supply, more work is needed including fixing <a href="https://theconversation.com/governments-are-pouring-money-into-housing-but-materials-land-and-labour-are-still-in-short-supply-205471">labour shortages</a> and providing greater <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-want-and-need-more-housing-choice-its-about-time-governments-stood-up-to-deliver-it-122390">stock diversity</a>.</p> <p>The planning system plays a critical role and <a href="https://theconversation.com/confusing-and-not-delivering-enough-developers-and-councils-want-new-affordable-housing-rules-139762">zoning rules</a> can be reformed to support the supply of more affordable options.</p> <p>However, the housing affordability challenge is not solely a supply problem. There is also a need to respond to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/home-prices-are-climbing-alright-but-not-for-the-reason-you-might-think-158776">super-charged demand</a> in the property market.</p> <p>An overheated market will undoubtedly place intense pressure on the rental sector because aspiring first home buyers are forced to rent for longer, as house prices soar at a rate unmatched by their wages.</p> <p>Yet, governments continue to resist calls for winding back the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/ken-henry-australias-tax-system-in-worse-position-after-15-years/103465044">generous tax concessions</a> enjoyed by multi-property owners.</p> <p>The main help available to low-income private renters - the Commonwealth Rent Assistance scheme - is <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-billion-per-year-or-less-could-halve-rental-housing-stress-146397">poorly targeted</a> with nearly one in five low-income renters who are in rental stress deemed ineligible, while another one in four receive it despite not being in rental stress.</p> <h2>Can affordable housing occur naturally?</h2> <p>Some commentators support the theory of <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022-09/Executive-Summary-FR387-Filtering-as-a-source-of-low-income-housing-in-Australia-conceptualisation-and-testing.pdf">filtering</a> - a market-based process by which the supply of new dwellings in more expensive segments creates additional supply of dwellings for low-income households as high-income earners vacate their former dwellings.</p> <p>Proponents of filtering argue building more housing anywhere - even in wealthier ends of the property market - will eventually improve affordability across the board because lower priced housing will trickle down to the poorest households.</p> <p>However, the persistent affordability crisis low-income households face and the rise in homelessness are crucial signs filtering <a href="https://cloud.3dissue.com/122325/122578/143598/WhyNewSupplyisnotExpandingHousingOptionsfortheHomeless/html5/index.html?page=1&noflash">does not work well</a> and <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022-09/AHURI-Final-Report-387-Filtering-as-a-source-of-low-income-housing-in-Australia-conceptualisation-and-testing.pdf">cannot be relied upon</a> to produce lower cost housing.</p> <h2>Location, location, location</h2> <p>Location does matter, if we expect building new housing to work for low-income individuals.</p> <p>What is needed is a steady increase of affordable, quality housing in areas offering low-income renters the same access to jobs and amenities as higher-income households.</p> <p>The <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/housing-policy/accord#:%7E:text=The%20Accord%20includes%20an%20initial,5%20years%20from%20mid%E2%80%912024.">National Housing Accord</a> aims to deliver 1.2 million new dwellings over five years from mid-2024. But it must ensure these are “well-located” for people who need affordable housing, as suggested in the accord.</p> <p>Recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673037.2023.229051">modelling</a> shows unaffordable housing and poor neighbourhoods both negatively affect mental health, reinforcing the need to provide both affordable and well-located housing.</p> <h2>The upcoming budget</h2> <p>While the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/05_2023/payments-cra_budget_fact_sheet_fa_0.pdf">15% increase</a> in the maximum rent assistance rate was welcomed in the last budget, the program is long overdue for a major restructure to target those in rental stress.</p> <p>Also, tax concessions on second properties should be wound back to reduce competition for those struggling to buy their first home. This would eventually help ease affordability pressures on low-income renters as more higher-income renters <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8454.12335">shift into homeownership</a>.</p> <p>The potential negative impacts on rental supply can be mitigated by careful design of tax and other changes that guard against market destabilisation concerns.</p> <p>Overall, housing affordability solutions have to be multi-faceted. The housing system is badly broken and meaningful repair cannot be achieved unless policymakers are willing to confront both supply and demand challenges.<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/228511/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rachel-ong-viforj-113482">Rachel Ong ViforJ</a>, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/curtin-university-873">Curtin University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </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/our-housing-system-is-broken-and-the-poorest-australians-are-being-hardest-hit-228511">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Money & Banking

Jess Rowe explains her husband's absence from the news desk

<p>Jessica Rowe has shared the reason why her husband Peter Overton has been absent from his presenting duties on the <em>9News</em> desk for the last few weeks. </p> <p>Taking to her Instagram, Rowe explained that Overton has been at home recovering from surgery and will remain on leave for another few weeks. </p> <p>“Many of you have been missing Petee from your TV screens these past couple of weeks & have asked me where he is!” the 53-year-old began in her post. </p> <p>“Well he’s at home recovering from hip replacement surgery & getting lots of TLC. Petee will be back @9newssydney soon!”</p> <p>In her post, the former Studio 10 host shared a photo of her husband, 58, with his feet up on the bed, appearing in good spirits.</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/C5r02QYydV1/?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/C5r02QYydV1/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Jessica Rowe (@jessjrowe)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Her followers thanked Rowe for the update while also wishing the beloved news anchor a speedy recovery from the extensive procedure. </p> <p>“Oh! We miss seeing you Pete! Get well soon,” wrote one, while another commented, “Thank you we have missed Pete wondering what had happened to him. Wishing Pete all the very best for a speedy recovery.”</p> <p>“Legend! The best in the business! Hope you are back reading the news soon. Miss seeing you read the evening news so much,” wrote yet another.</p> <p>Others who had undergone the same surgery shared their words of encouragement, with one person commenting, “OMG Peter I had hip replacement surgery 5 weeks ago. Hang in there buddy it gets better I promise.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Caring

"The silence has been broken": Sad update on Molly the Magpie

<p>In the vast realm of interspecies friendships, few stories have captured the world's attention quite like that of <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/outcry-after-authorities-seize-internet-famous-magpie-from-queensland-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Molly the Magpie and Peggy the Staffordshire Bull Terrier</a>. Their unlikely bond, which blossomed into a heartwarming tale of companionship, has now taken a sorrowful turn, leaving many to question the bounds of bureaucratic decisions and the plight of animal welfare.</p> <p>Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, the compassionate duo behind Peggy and Molly's story, found themselves thrust into the spotlight as their pet dog Peggy and a wild magpie named Molly forged an extraordinary friendship. Their endearing camaraderie not only garnered a massive social media following but also led to the publication of a book celebrating their unique connection.</p> <p>However, amidst the adoration and admiration from around the globe, whispers of dissent arose. A handful of complaints prompted wildlife officers to intervene, resulting in Molly's removal from the loving embrace of Peggy and her human family. The decision, made by the environment department, cited concerns about Molly's habituation to human contact and the necessity of finding a suitable facility for the magpie.</p> <p><a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/outcry-after-authorities-seize-internet-famous-magpie-from-queensland-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The outcry that ensued</a> was swift and resounding. Supporters of Peggy and Molly decried the separation as cruel and inhumane, questioning the rationale behind tearing apart a bond so pure and cherished.</p> <p>Now Juliette Wells, in a poignant video, has shared snippets of the affectionate bond between the two, accompanied by a heartfelt poem and narration expressing the anguish of their separation and pleading for Molly's return home:</p> <p><em>"They came & told us they wanted to take you away</em><br /><em>We couldn’t even picture what that would look like ?</em><br /><em>I WILL NEVER forget that day .</em><br /><em>If Molly had a voice what would he say ?</em><br /><em>If Molly had a choice where would he stay ?</em><br /><em>The Silence has been broken</em><br /><em>People have Awoken</em><br /><em>I haven’t been placed on this earth to hide</em><br /><em>Let me soar again & be your guide</em><br /><em>In unity & Harmony you will see</em><br /><em>What the world needs right now is Peggy , Ruby & ME ❤</em><br /><em>Lets keep focused on a positive outcome ❤❤"</em></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/C5K2jt2JLlC/?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/C5K2jt2JLlC/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Peggyandmolly (@peggyandmolly)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Yet behind the facade of heartwarming footage lies an ongoing legal battle. While regulations are undoubtedly essential for the preservation of wildlife, many argue that Molly's happiness and well-being should also be considered paramount.</p> <p>In the face of adversity, the rallying cry remains: #bringmollyhome. The saga of Molly the Magpie and Peggy the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is certainly not over yet.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

"How could he do it to me?": Grandmother broken over grandson's alleged fraud

<p>In a courtroom in Perth, emotions ran high as a heartbroken grandmother awaited a reunion with her grandson, Jack Endersby. But this wasn't a typical family gathering. It was a courtroom confrontation, where Lyn Newby hoped her grandson would look her in the eye and confront the pain he allegedly caused by defrauding her of more than $320,000.</p> <p>Endersby, a 24-year-old <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-news-grandmother-lost-320000-after-investing-in-grandson-business-alleged-ponzi-scheme/e3ea6396-750c-452c-8e87-c0ef53d65ede" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused of orchestrating a Ponzi-style scheme</a> that allegedly swindled around $2 million from victims across Australia, faced the scrutiny of the law and the anguish of his own family. The accusations against him span from February 2021 to February 2024, a period during which he allegedly promised lucrative returns to investors, only to leave them empty-handed and disillusioned.</p> <p>For Newby, the betrayal cut deep. She had entrusted her grandson with a substantial sum, believing it to be an investment in his trading business, Codex Investments. His promises of monthly returns seemed enticing, but when the payments abruptly ceased, Newby's world shattered.</p> <p>"He has ruined our lives," she lamented. "How could he do it to me? I'm his grandmother." </p> <p>Endersby's arrest earlier this month marked a turning point in the unravelling of his alleged scheme. Facing 11 charges of fraud, he appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, where his family, including his mother, sought answers and reconciliation. However, Endersby remained aloof, ignoring their attempts at communication.</p> <p>In the lead-up to his court appearance, Newby expressed her desire for her grandson to acknowledge the pain he caused. "He will feel terrible when he sees me, and I want him to look me in the eye and know how much he's hurt me," she said, her anguish palpable.</p> <p>The allegations against Endersby paint a stark contrast to his earlier life. Once a telesales consultant and labourer, he purportedly transformed into a "self-taught investor" with a multimillion-dollar portfolio and a lifestyle of luxury. Flashy holidays, upscale accommodations and a Maserati adorned his newfound prosperity, allegedly funded by the deceitful machinations of a Ponzi scheme.</p> <p>As the details of Endersby's alleged deception emerged, more victims came forward, each recounting their own stories of financial loss and shattered trust. Michael Dawson, who invested in Endersby's business 18 months prior, described initial returns followed by a troubling silence. Others spoke of referral schemes that seemingly built trust but ultimately ensnared unsuspecting investors in a web of deceit.</p> <p>Amid the courtroom drama and legal proceedings, questions linger about the true extent of Endersby's alleged scheme and the lives it impacted. As he awaits his next court appearance on April 19, the echoes of broken trust and shattered dreams serve as a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of financial fraud.</p> <p><em>Images: Nine News</em></p>

Legal

Slashing salt can save lives – and it won’t hurt your hip pocket or tastebuds

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-breadon-1348098">Peter Breadon</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/grattan-institute-1168">Grattan Institute</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lachlan-fox-1283428">Lachlan Fox</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/grattan-institute-1168">Grattan Institute</a></em></p> <p>Each year, more than <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/eb5fee21-7f05-4be1-8414-8b2bba7b4070/ABDS-2018-Risk-factor-supp-data-tables.xlsx.aspx">2,500 Australians</a> die from diseases linked to eating too much salt.</p> <p>We shouldn’t be putting up with so much unnecessary illness, mainly from heart disease and strokes, and so many deaths.</p> <p>As a new <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/sneaky-salt/">Grattan Institute report</a> shows, there are practical steps the federal government can take to save lives, reduce health spending and help the economy.</p> <h2>We eat too much salt, with deadly consequences</h2> <p>Eating too much salt is bad for your health. It <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41569-018-0004-1">raises blood pressure</a>, which increases the risk of <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14240">heart disease and stroke</a>.</p> <p>About <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/risk-factors/high-blood-pressure/contents/summary">one in three</a> Australians has high blood pressure, and eating too much salt is the biggest individual contributor.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the average Australian eats far too much salt – <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.5694/mja17.00394">almost double</a> the recommended daily maximum of 5 grams, equivalent to <a href="https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/sodium-and-salt-converter#:%7E:text=We%20recommend%20adults%20eat%20less,about%201%20teaspoon%20a%20day">a teaspoon</a>.</p> <p>Australian governments know excessive salt intake is a big problem. That’s why in <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-preventive-health-strategy-2021-2030?language=en">2021 they set a target</a> to reduce salt intake by at least 30% by 2030.</p> <p>It’s an ambitious and worthy goal. But we’re still eating too much salt and we don’t have the policies to change that.</p> <h2>Most of the salt we eat is added to food during manufacturing</h2> <p>Most of the salt Australians eat doesn’t come from the shaker on the table. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7231587/">About three-quarters</a> of it is added to food during manufacturing.</p> <p>This salt is hidden in everyday staples such as bread, cheese and processed meats. Common foods such as ready-to-eat pasta meals or a ham sandwich can have up to half our total recommended salt intake.</p> <h2>Salt limits are the best way to cut salt intake</h2> <p>Reducing the amount of salt added to food during manufacturing is the most effective way to reduce intake.</p> <p>Salt limits can help us do that. They work by setting limits on how much salt can be added to different kinds of food, such as bread or biscuits. To meet these limits, companies need to change the recipes of their products, reducing the amount of salt.</p> <p>Under salt limits, the United Kingdom reduced salt intake <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16649">by 20% in about a decade</a>. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41371-021-00653-x">South Africa</a> is making even faster gains. Salt limits are cheap and easy to implement, and can get results quickly.</p> <p>Most consumers won’t notice a change at the checkout. Companies will need to update their recipes, but even if all the costs of updating recipes were passed on to shoppers, we calculate that at most it would cost about 10 cents each week for the average household.</p> <p>Nor will consumers notice much of a change at the dinner table. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/6/10/4354">Most people don’t notice</a> when some salt is removed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316622031224">from common foods</a>. There are many ways companies can make foods taste just as salty without adding as much salt. For example, they can make <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704534904575131602283791566">salt crystals finer</a>, or use <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4520464/">potassium-enriched salt</a>, which swaps some of the harmful sodium in salt for potassium. And because the change will be gradual, our tastebuds will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvac060.077">adapt to less salty foods</a> over time.</p> <h2>Australia’s salt limits are failing</h2> <p>Australia has had voluntary salt limits since 2009, but they are badly designed, poorly implemented, and have reduced population salt intake by just <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/healthy-food-partnership-reformulation-program-two-year-progress">0.3%</a>.</p> <p>Because Australia’s limits are voluntary, many food companies have chosen not to participate in the scheme. Our analysis shows that 73% of eligible food products are not participating, and only 4% have reduced their salt content.</p> <h2>Action could save lives</h2> <p>Modelling from the University of Melbourne <a href="https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/4783405/The-Health-and-Cost-Impacts-of-Sodium-Reduction-Interventions-in-Australia.pdf">shows</a> that fixing our failed salt limits could add 36,000 extra healthy years of life, across the population, over the next 20 years.</p> <p>This would delay more than 300 deaths each year and reduce health-care spending by A$35 million annually, the equivalent of 6,000 hospital visits.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/jhh2013105">International experience</a> <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16649">shows</a> the costs of implementing such salt limits would be very low and far outweighed by the benefits.</p> <h2>How to fix our failed salt limits</h2> <p>To achieve these gains, the federal government should start by enforcing the limits we already have, by making compliance mandatory. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S216183132300042X">Fifteen countries</a> have mandatory salt limits, and 14 are planning to introduce them.</p> <p>The number of foods covered by salt limits in Australia should more than double, to be as broad as those the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/604338/Salt_reduction_targets_for_2017.pdf">UK set in 2014</a>. Broader targets would include common foods for which Australia does not currently set targets, such as baked beans, butter, margarine and canned vegetables.</p> <p>A loophole in the current scheme that lets companies leave out a fifth of their products should be closed. The federal government should design the policy, rather than doing it jointly with industry representatives.</p> <p>Over the coming decades, Australia will need many new and improved policies to reduce diet-related disease. Reducing salt intake must be part of this agenda. For too long, Australia has let the food industry set the standard, with almost no progress against a major threat to our health.</p> <p>Getting serious about salt would save lives, and it would more than pay for itself through reduced health-care costs and increased economic activity.<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/213980/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-breadon-1348098"><em>Peter Breadon</em></a><em>, Program Director, Health and Aged Care, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/grattan-institute-1168">Grattan Institute</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lachlan-fox-1283428">Lachlan Fox</a>, Associate, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/grattan-institute-1168">Grattan Institute</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/slashing-salt-can-save-lives-and-it-wont-hurt-your-hip-pocket-or-tastebuds-213980">original article</a>.</em></p>

Body

“So... about the crutches”: Lisa Curry explains major health issue

<p dir="ltr">Lisa Curry has shared the details of her major health ordeal that left her in the intensive care unit. </p> <p dir="ltr">The former Olympian sparked concerns among her fans after she was snapped using crutches.</p> <p dir="ltr">Curry, 61, posted a photo alongside her two children, with her Instagram followers flocking her comments section to ask why she was relying on the crutches. </p> <p dir="ltr">Now, Curry has provided a long explanation of an accident that left her “with fractured bones”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“So … about the crutches!! Four weeks ago I had a hip replacement,” she revealed in a new Instagram post.</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/CymGyjfBQiY/?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/CymGyjfBQiY/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Lisa Curry AO (@lisacurry)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“Spent a couple of nights in ICU with low blood pressure. Lost my appetite, lost my taste for coffee even!!”</p> <p dir="ltr">She explained that the issues began during a trip in January to Canada, where she went dog sledding.</p> <p dir="ltr">“We had to cross a frozen river on a bend. The huskies went across the ice no problem but the sled slid and kept sliding,” Curry described.</p> <p dir="ltr">“You can’t let go of the sled because the dogs will keep going 😂.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“So I held on and held on until I couldn’t and eventually fell still holding onto the sled which immediately puts the brakes on, so the dogs stopped … and fell on my hip.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The former swimmer said she had been “sore all year” and spent a lot of time thinking her problems were muscular. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, she decided to undergo a CT scan when she could “barely walk”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“(The scan) showed fractured bones floating between the ball and socket joint,” she described.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I couldn’t have it operated on before our European and USA tours so just lived on painkillers for that 10-week trip.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Following the surgery, Curry said, “Each day it’s getting better and I’m now able to exercise and swim again so I’m happy about that!!”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Learning how to walk without a limp, doing simple tasks again.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“But geez, you don’t realise how many things you take for granted — putting a sock or undies on is like dressing a wriggly wet octopus!! So exhausting 😂.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Lisa went on to thank her husband for taking care of her during her recovery, as friends and fans flocked to the comments on her Instagram post to wish her well. </p> <p dir="ltr">“You won’t know yourself. I had one in April and life is good!!! Happy healing xx,” radio host Amanda Keller said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Sending healing hugs 🤗❤️,” another person wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram</em></p>

Caring

"He leaves a broken state behind him": Aussies react to Dan Andrews' resignation

<p>Victorian premier Dan Andrews has announced he will be resigning from his role after nine years in the job, prompting a very mixed response from Aussies. </p> <p>Andrews made the announcement on Tuesday, describing his time as premier as the “honour and privilege of my life”.</p> <p>For many Aussies, the news of his resignation came as a shock, with the announcement prompting a wave of mixed responses. </p> <p>Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto had one of the strongest reactions to the news, saying Mr Andrews had “trashed Victoria’s reputation”.</p> <p>“I wish Daniel Andrews well. But we have to face the facts. He’s leaving because Victoria, under his leadership, is falling apart,” he said. </p> <p>Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan also had little nice to say about the outgoing premier, claiming he made the state of Victoria “poorer” while in the top job.</p> <p>“I think he’ll be remembered as a very good politician, very good at politics, but I think, sadly, over time, his legacy is going to be one in which he made the state of Victoria poorer, and he made Victorians poorer,” Mr Tehan said via <em>Sky News Australia</em>.</p> <p>“While we wish him and his family well, the sad reality is it’s Victorians who are going to have to pick up the pieces of his nine years in charge of this state.”</p> <p>Throughout his time as premier, Andrews attracted his fair amount of controversy, particularly around his harsh stance on Covid lockdowns, which saw Melbourne go through one of the longest continuous lockdowns on the planet.</p> <p>One of Mr Andrews’ biggest critics, <em>3AW</em> host Neil Mitchell, was also thrilled to bid the premier farewell, telling him, “Let’s hope we don’t see you in public life again”. </p> <p>He told <em>3AW</em> Mr Andrews had done “enormous damage to Victoria” and claimed to have been predicting his resignation for months. </p> <p>“I reckon he’s been thinking for some time. He’s been out of sorts for months. He’s been making unusual political errors. He’s seemed disinterested, he’s snappy at press conferences. I’ve said on air for some months, ‘he’s thinking about getting out’,” Mitchell said, adding “It’s time for him to go”.</p> <p>Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger argued that Mr Andrews had over the years “got away with murder”, politically speaking.</p> <p>“Record debt. Small businesses are still broken and have not recovered from these extreme measures during the lockdown,’’ Mr Kroger told <em>Sky News</em>.</p> <p>“He leaves a broken, bankrupt state behind him. That’s his legacy. The financial recklessness of Daniel Andrews is unprecedented. And will take a generation to recover from."</p> <p>“Victoria will be better for Daniel Andrews having left today.”</p> <p>Despite many harsh words from his critics, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was quick to praise Andrews' time as premier. </p> <p>He wrote in a lengthy post on Facebook that it had been a pleasure working “alongside an old friend”. </p> <p>“Daniel Andrews is a person of deep conviction, great compassion and fierce determination and he brought all those qualities to his time as Premier of Victoria,” Mr Albanese said. </p> <p>“As Prime Minister, it was a pleasure for me to work alongside an old friend – and a leader of such vision and ambition. It made a huge difference to sit at the National Cabinet table with someone who believed so deeply in the power of government to change lives for the better."</p> <p>“Nearly nine years as Premier is a remarkable achievement. Dan Andrews can be proud that he didn’t waste a minute. I wish Dan, Cath and their children all the very best for their future together.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Legal

"We did it. We survived": Chezzi Denyer's emotional revelation about baby girl

<p>Chezzi Denyer is celebrating a "huge leap" made by her youngest daughter Sunday. </p> <p>Sunday, 2, was diagnosed with hip dysplasia when she was a baby and had to wear a hip brace for nine months.</p> <p>Hip dysplasia occurs when a hip joint doesn't develop properly, and if left untreated can damage the joint over time which causes hip pain and arthritis. </p> <p>Now, almost a year after getting her hip brace, Sunday is running around "unstoppable," and her proud mum took to Instagram to share the highs and lows of the past year. </p> <p>She began the post by encouraging parents who are experiencing a similar diagnosis to "hang in there." </p> <p>"The nights are long and the days even longer when you’re got a baby in a brace or a spica cast," she continued. </p> <p>"It’s absolute torment seeing your baby in pain or uncomfortable. <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">You think you won’t be able to cope.</span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> </span></p> <p>"The lack of sleep. The constant discomfort. The lump in your throat when you encourage your baby to go in for another procedure. Another general anaesthetic. The fear you feel in the pit of your stomach. Trying to keep your eyes on the end goal. </p> <p>"You need to be strong for them.</p> <p>"The heat of the cast. The pressure points. The dry sore skin you massage and moisturise where you can. And the mess. The spica cast mess and the smell…" she wrote. </p> <p>She then listed all of the medical appointments, procedures and tests they had to go through for the past year and how challenging it was having to adjust. </p> <p>“Adapting and changing your entire life for an indefinite period can be paralysing - New prams, specially created car seats, cots, mattresses, high-chairs, specially made clothes, nappies, accessories, activities.</p> <p>“Having to stop work, take leave, giving up daycare with little hope of getting your days back down the track, not being able to travel easily, having to sacrifice activities with older kids, nursing your toddler for hours unable to do much else, trying to keep them occupied when they can’t move and they’re bored… all of these might seem trivial to someone on the outside...</p> <p>“But when you’re in it, every single thing you know or you’ve learnt or even want to do must change to accommodate your hippy baby, and that too can be terrifying," she added. </p> <p>She also shared how "hard and tiring and stressful and scary" it was to take care of not only your baby, but yourself, and encouraged other parents to feel and express these emotions when they can. </p> <p>The wife of former <em>Sunrise</em> weather presenter Grant Denyer also expressed her gratitude towards all the mums that have helped her throughout this journey. </p> <p>“I remember so many experienced parents telling me that their child once was in a cast or a brace and how they remember the time well.</p> <p>“Many of those kind-hearted parents telling me their child now runs or dances etc and you wouldn’t even know… and when I was deep in it, it felt like that was a lifetime away.</p> <p>“But here we are, one year on from getting the rhino brace on, and little Sunday is running around unstoppable.”</p> <p>Although Sunday is "not out of the woods" yet as she will need an operation or two when she is around four years old, the mum of three couldn't help but express how proud she was. </p> <p>“I am celebrating this milestone with so much pride. I’m so proud of her. She’s incredibly resilient.. but I’m also proud of me. We did it. We survived.</p> <p>“We have come out the other side and we are stronger for it. And I hope that can help some other parents either going through this or about to. Xxx,” her post ended.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

All-electric homes are better for your hip pocket and the planet. Here’s how governments can help us get off gas

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/esther-suckling-1220357">Esther Suckling</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/grattan-institute-1168">Grattan Institute</a></em></p> <p>If every Australian household that uses gas went all-electric today, we would “save” more than 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next ten years. That’s because there are more than <a href="https://www.energynetworks.com.au/resources/fact-sheets/reliable-and-clean-gas-for-australian-homes-2/">5 million households</a> on the gas network, and the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/getting-off-gas">avoided emissions per home</a> ranges from 5-25 tonnes over the coming decade, depending on the location.</p> <p>Most people would spend less money on energy too. Electric appliances use less energy than gas appliances to do the same job, making them cheaper to run.</p> <p>Our <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/getting-off-gas">new report</a> shows how much most households can save by switching from gas to electricity for heating, hot water and cooking. The extra cash couldn’t come at a better time: about <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2023/may/hidden-energy-poverty">a quarter of Australian households</a> say they found it difficult to pay their energy bills this year.</p> <p>But many households face hurdles that stop them, or make it hard for them, to go all-electric. Governments could make it easier for people and bring emissions-reduction targets closer to reality.</p> <h2>Most households save by upgrading to electric</h2> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&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/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532139/original/file-20230615-29-h20bv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="A chart showing estimated savings for each household switching from gas to electricity, over 10 years, in each capital city" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Over 10 years, the estimated savings for each household switching from gas to electricity range up to $13,900 in Melbourne. It’s a flat $3,890 figure for Brisbane, rather than a range, because there’s no gas heating.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Households in Melbourne tend to use more gas than those in other mainland capitals, mainly because the winter is so cold. Our report found Melburnians who replace broken gas appliances with electric ones, or move into an all-electric home, could save up to A$13,900 over ten years. Households with rooftop solar will save even more.</p> <p>It’s a similar story in most parts of Australia except the west, where gas is relatively cheap. This mainly reflects differences in the historical development of the gas markets between the west and east coasts.</p> <p>Getting off gas could also be <a href="https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2022/december/health-risks-from-indoor-gas-appliances">good for your health</a>. Several studies link cooking with gas to <a href="https://www.nationalasthma.org.au/living-with-asthma/resources/patients-carers/factsheets/gas-stoves-and-asthma-in-children">childhood asthma</a>.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Households face a series of hurdles</h2> <p>Renters make up nearly a third of all households, and they have little or no control over the appliances that are installed. As most electric appliances cost more to buy than gas ones – and the subsequent bill savings flow to tenants – landlords have little incentive to upgrade their properties from gas to all-electric.</p> <p>Apartment living can increase the level of complexity. Multi-unit dwellings often bundle gas bills into body-corporate fees, limiting the occupants’ incentive to go all-electric. There can also be space constraints in these buildings. Centralised electric heat pumps, for example, take up more space than centralised gas water heaters.</p> <p>Then there are households that simply can’t afford the upgrade. Induction stoves and heat pumps are more expensive than their gas equivalents, by up to a combined $2,000. This initial outlay will soon be recovered by cheaper energy bills, but that doesn’t help households that don’t have the cash up front. The <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/data/taking-the-pulse-of-the-nation-2022/2023/energy-poverty">12% of households that skipped meals</a> to pay their energy bills in the past year are the most likely to remain locked into high gas bills.</p> <p>Some people also simply prefer cooking with gas. Some think induction cooktops will be no better than the poor-performing electric cooktops they may have used in the distant past. Others haven’t ever heard of a heat pump for hot water.</p> <h2>Here’s how governments can help</h2> <p>Governments, both state and federal, should lower the hurdles on the path to all-electric homes -– to reduce people’s cost of living and to cut carbon emissions.</p> <p>As a first step, state governments should ban new gas connections to homes. In 2021, more than 70,000 households joined the gas network. Trying to shift households off gas while allowing new connections is like pouring water into a bucket with a hole.</p> <p>Then, governments should provide landlords with tax write-offs on new induction stoves and heat pumps for hot water, for a limited time. After that, they should require every rental property to be all-electric. Governments should pay to upgrade public housing to all-electric, where they are the landlords. And they should pay not-for-profits managing community housing to do the same.</p> <p>The federal government should help all households to spread the cost of electric appliances over time. It should subsidise banks to offer low-interest loans for home electrification, via the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.</p> <p>And governments should set out to change people’s preferences, from gas to electric. They should embark on a multi-decade communication campaign, not unlike the campaign to upgrade from analogue to digital television in the early 2000s.</p> <p>A key challenge will be shifting people’s ideas about the best way to cook. There are precedents. In Gininderry, a new all-electric suburb of Canberra, one developer recruited chefs to run demonstrations on induction cooktops at the display village. The proportion of potential homebuyers <a href="https://ginninderry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Ginninderry-2017-Householder-Attitudes-to-Residential-Renewable-Energy-Futures.pdf">willing to consider buying an all-electric home</a> rose from 67% to 88%.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K9ytSh5TM9M?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Induction cooking with Chef David Wei at Ginninderry.</span></figcaption></figure> <h2>‘Green gas’ is no panacea: electricity is cheaper</h2> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&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/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532117/original/file-20230615-23-n0wdqe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Chart comparing the cost of hydrogen to electricity over time, showing hydrogen is more expensive and will remain so for decades" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Hydrogen is more expensive than electricity and will remain so for decades.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>The gas industry has another solution in mind: instead of switching from gas to electricity, it suggests using “green gas” -– biomethane or “green” hydrogen. Biomethane is chemically identical to natural gas, but is derived from biological materials such as food waste, sewage or agricultural waste. Green hydrogen is made by using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.</p> <p>But both options are <a href="https://theconversation.com/hydrogen-where-is-low-carbon-fuel-most-useful-for-decarbonisation-147696">too expensive and too far away</a>. Under the most generous of assumptions, green hydrogen will only become cost-competitive with electricity after 2045. And there is not enough biomethane commercially available to replace gas in households.</p> <p>Meanwhile, more than three million Australian homes already run on electricity alone.</p> <p>Getting the five million homes that use gas to the same point won’t be easy. But with good policy, it is doable. For households, and the climate, there is much to be gained.<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/207409/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/esther-suckling-1220357">Esther Suckling</a>, Research Associate, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/grattan-institute-1168">Grattan Institute</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/all-electric-homes-are-better-for-your-hip-pocket-and-the-planet-heres-how-governments-can-help-us-get-off-gas-207409">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Real Estate

"This has broken me": How Jock Zonfrillo's daughter is coping with the loss of her dad

<p>Jock Zonfrillo's wife Lauren Fried has shared a heart-breaking glimpse into her family's new reality as they continue to grieve the loss of their husband and father. </p> <p>Lauren shared an emotional picture to Instagram, capturing her two-year-old daughter Isla finding a way to keep her dad close, just weeks after his sudden death. </p> <p>The 46-year-old <em>MasterChef Australia</em> judge was was found dead in a Carlton hotel room last month, and was farewelled at a private funeral in Sydney in late May. </p> <p>Lauren posted the photo of Isla asleep in her car seat, snuggled up to her late father's grey top. </p> <p>She captioned the post, "Little Isla has started sleeping with Papa’s clothes, keeps him close."</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/Cth3_VwvpmQ/?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/Cth3_VwvpmQ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Jock Zonfrillo (posts by Loz) (@zonfrillo)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The heart-wrenching photo garnered a wave of attention and well wishes for the family, with one person writing "This has broken me. These beautiful kids..."</p> <p>Another wrote, "He is close little one, just in a different way. Love and light to your beautiful babes and strength to you Loz."</p> <p>Others shared in the coping strategy, with one person saying, "My sister did this with her fiancé too. Keep him close little one. All strength to you as you journey through the deep Mumma."</p> <p>Another commented, "My children’s father passed away almost 19 years ago. They still wear his clothes."</p> <p>The emotional post comes just days after Lauren shared an update explaining how she is helping Isla and her six-year-old brother Alfie cope with their father's death. </p> <p>Lauren posted photos of books she is reading to her youngsters to help them understand what has happened to their dad.</p> <p>"Books have been a bridge to help me explain to our little ones what has happened, what they are feeling, and that love is always around them," she explained.</p> <p>Jock is survived by Lauren, Isla and Alfie, as well as his two grown-up daughters, Ava and Sophia, from his first two marriages. </p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram</em></p>

Caring

"Broken" family's appeal after daughter missing for 7 weeks

<p>A mother has shared how her family is "broken” as she remains in the dark about what happened to her missing 14-year-old daughter who disappeared seven weeks ago.</p> <p>The family of Tasmanian girl Shyanne-Lee Tatnell has made another plea for answers after the teen vanished while walking to see a friend on April 30.</p> <p>“She’s my baby and I desperately want her back,” her mother Bobbi-Lee Ketchell told <em>A Current Affair</em>.</p> <p>The teen had moved in with her grandmother due to tension with her mother in the family home in the town of Burnie, later moving onto a youth centre in Launceston.</p> <p>She started walking from the centre along the North Esk River on the night of April 30 but never reached her destination.</p> <p>Her mother shared the agonising conversation she had with her daughter before she vanished, with Ms Ketchell urging her daughter not to break her curfew after being grounded.</p> <p>“She got upset … we had a little bit of a disagreement and then I said, ‘I love you’,” Ms Ketchell revealed.</p> <p>She confessed her daughter never said, “I love you back”.</p> <p>Her grandmother has described the young girl’s disappearance as torture.</p> <p>“You don’t just disappear off the face of the earth without something being found, some piece of clothing or footwear or phone,” her grandmother said.</p> <p>The family believe that their daughter accepted a lift from someone or was potentially “forced into a vehicle”.</p> <p>“She was rebellious and it didn’t matter what I would tell her not to do. She was firm on doing what she wanted and didn’t think of the consequences before doing it,” Ms Ketchell said.</p> <p>Police are seeking the drivers of two silver cars captured on CCTV near the area where she was last seen.</p> <p>“We actually want to discount you from any investigation, from any potential witness, so we can move on with other aspects of the investigation,” police said.</p> <p>Authorities have also highlighted that at one point the footage showed Shyanne-Lee running but said there was “no evidence” she was being chased.</p> <p>Her family have urged anyone with information to come forward.</p> <p>“Nanny loves you so much Shyanne. I need you home, your family needs you home desperately,” her grandmother said.</p> <p>“If someone has my granddaughter, you need to release her now.</p> <p>“We are a totally broken family, we’re lost without her.”</p> <p><em>Image credit: A Current Affair / Facebook</em></p>

Caring

Kendall Roy’s playlist: why hip hop is the perfect counterpoint for Succession’s entitled plutocrats

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/j-griffith-rollefson-952418">J. Griffith Rollefson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-college-cork-1321">University College Cork</a></em></p> <p>From the very first minutes of HBO’s hit drama series, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/succession-how-true-to-life-is-the-tv-series-170139">Succession</a></em>, hip hop is used to underpin, juxtapose and comment on the story of corporate intrigue, capitalist entitlement and white privilege.</p> <p>Just as a hip hop beat underscores the classical piano lines to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77PsqaWzwG0&ab_channel=HBO">the show’s theme song</a> by composer Nicholas Britell, hip hop’s swaggering braggadocio acts as a counterpoint to the Roy family’s rarefied worlds of high finance and plutocratic untouchability.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3eTTkxM8QLE?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">The first scene of Succession’s pilot episode.</span></figcaption></figure> <p>Recalling the opening scene to <em>Office Space</em> (1999) – which begins knee-deep in cringey, white boy, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XASNM1XEQPs&ab_channel=JoseHernandez">gangsta karaoke</a> – Succession’s first episode introduces wannabe-protagonist Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) with a similarly embarrassing set piece. The businessman is riding in the back of a limo, listening to <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny6hwUOFvlw">An Open Letter to NYC</a></em> by the Beastie Boys, as the hustle and bustle of Manhattan rolls by.</p> <p>But when the backing track fades, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eTTkxM8QLE&ab_channel=OpeningScenes">Kendall’s own voice is revealed</a>, thin and childish, rapping along to the lyrics about skyscrapers and Wall Street traders. This wannabe hip hop businessman persona is at the core of Kendall’s deeply conflicted character.</p> <p>This persona is in full bloom in a memorable season two episode, where Kendall performs L to the OG, a rap tribute to his father Logan Roy (Brian Cox), earning him the nickname “Ken.W.A.” from brother Roman (Kieran Culkin), a la the infamous Compton rap group NWA.</p> <p>As I explain in my book, <em><a href="https://criticalexcess.org/">Critical Excess: Watch the Throne and the New Gilded Age</a></em>, corporate board rooms and <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-real-hiphop">hip hop ciphers</a> are no longer as incompatible as they might seem. This is exemplified through American rap superstars Jay Z and Kanye West’s (now known as Ye) collaborative “<a href="https://genius.com/Jay-z-and-kanye-west-otis-lyrics">luxury rap</a>” album, <em>Watch the Throne</em> (2011).</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6dUDQTc-9kM?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Kendall rapping in season two of Succession.</span></figcaption></figure> <p>In season four, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNbfEC-AeHs&ab_channel=ob9RJ2mJhoMPHH">Kendall listens</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHiFMW8s6zk&ab_channel=JAYZ-Topic">Jay Z’s <em>The Takeover</em></a> (2001) on his way to work in the ATN news studio. It’s not surprising that Jay Z is a favourite. The rapper-turned-entrepreneur once rapped the lines: “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!” in his verse on Ye’s <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0jNu-G5Hw&ab_channel=KanyeWest-Topic">Diamonds from Sierra Leone</a></em> (2005), an attitude it’s easy to imagine Kendall aligning himself with.</p> <p>It’s also no coincidence that this dysfunctional family is named Roy, French for “king”, another link to Watch the Throne and the hustle to become “<a href="https://www.complex.com/music/2020/05/who-is-king-of-new-york">king of New York</a>”.</p> <p>Real-life media mogul family, the Murdochs, are widely believed to have <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/rupert-murdoch-cover-story">inspired <em>Succession</em></a>. But the hip hop connection is particularly uncanny. In 1995, Rupert Murdoch’s youngest son, James, bankrolled the hot new hip hop label Rawkus Records. Soon thereafter Murdoch’s News Corp bought a majority share in Rawkus and artists reportedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/11/james-murdoch-hip-hop">started complaining about unpaid royalties</a>.</p> <h2>Hip hop as Kendall’s hype music</h2> <p>Rap music is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/musimoviimag.2.1.0026">repeatedly used</a> to show Kendall’s need for a boost of confidence – a need once satisfied by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9gIa3Xqycg">his substance abuse</a>.</p> <p>Hip hop pioneer <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/krs-one-mn0000359119/biography">KRS-One</a> reportedly once likened hip hop to a “<a href="https://floodmagazine.com/42937/quelle-chris-being-you-is-great-i-wish-i-could-be-you-more-often/">confidence sandwich</a>” for its ability to help America’s forgotten underclasses find the strength to get up and fight the good fight, from enduring the daily grind to organising for a better world. But what happens when this swag burger is blaring in the ears of an out-of-touch CEO?</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GNbfEC-AeHs?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Kendall listening to Jay Z’s The Takeover.</span></figcaption></figure> <p>As the late, great Black music critic <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/176649/everything-but-the-burden-by-edited-by-greg-tate/">Greg Tate</a> suggests, hip hop has been a site of “the Elvis effect” for decades, with white artists and businessmen profiting mightily from Black creative cultures. This history stretches back to rock and roll, jazz, blues and beyond.</p> <p>The boost that hip hop gives him allows Kendall to do horrible things. This echoes the way hip hop group De La Soul describes so-called “crossover” music as a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0X2h56qlG4&ab_channel=DeLaSoulVEVO">double cross</a>” on their concept album <em>Buhloone Mindstate</em> (1993).</p> <p>As Kendall exemplifies again and again, when hip hop’s witty but often crass wordplay is decontextualised by white men, it almost always comes off as disrespectful frat boy voyeurism. Indeed, London rapper, Roots Manuva recently retweeted a nice <a href="https://twitter.com/TheWrongtom/status/1654768980828082177?s=20">case in point</a> on the eve of another high profile “succession” – King Charles III’s accession to the British throne.</p> <p>So while established rapper <a href="https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/pusha-t">Pusha T</a> has recently collaborated with Britell on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF5IU-Pyn2A&ab_channel=PushaTVEVO">a remix of <em>Succession</em>’s theme song</a> and while Jay and Ye continue to infiltrate the rarefied white spaces of corporate board rooms and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLmQ57mEGFs">seats of political power</a>, these relationships <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/176649/everything-but-the-burden-by-edited-by-greg-tate/">remain deeply asymmetrical</a>.<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/205773/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/j-griffith-rollefson-952418">J. Griffith Rollefson</a>, Professor of Music, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-college-cork-1321">University College Cork</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: HBO</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/kendall-roys-playlist-why-hip-hop-is-the-perfect-counterpoint-for-successions-entitled-plutocrats-205773">original article</a>.</em></p>

Music

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

<p>After I finished my Ph.D. in 2017, several newspaper reporters wrote about the job I’d accepted at the University of Virginia as an assistant professor of hip-hop.</p> <p>“A.D. Carson just scored, arguably, the dopest job ever,” one <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/03/virginia-ad-carson-hip-hop-professor/435032001/">journalist wrote</a>.</p> <p>The writer may not have meant it the way I read it, but the terminology was significant to me. Hip-hop’s early luminaries transformed the word’s original meanings, using it as a synonym for cool. In the 50 years since, it endures as an expression of respect and praise – and illegal substances.</p> <p>In that context, dope has everything to do with my work. </p> <p>In the year I graduated from college, one of my best friends was sent to federal prison for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. He served nearly a decade and has been back in prison several times since.</p> <p>But before he went to prison, he helped me finish school by paying off my tuition.</p> <p>In a very real way, dope has as much to do with me finishing my studies and becoming a professor as it does with him serving time in a federal prison.</p> <h2>Academic dope</h2> <p>For my Ph.D. dissertation in Rhetorics, Communications, and Information Design, I wrote a <a href="http://phd.aydeethegreat.com/">rap album</a> titled “Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions.” A peer-reviewed, mastered version of the album is due out this summer from University of Michigan Press.</p> <p>Part of my reasoning for writing it that way involved my ideas about dope. I want to question who gets to determine who and what are dope and whether any university can produce expertise on the people who created hip-hop.</p> <p>While I was initially met with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/04/clemson-university-arrests/478455/">considerable resistance</a> for my work at Clemson, the university eventually became supportive and touted “<a href="https://news.clemson.edu/clemson-doctoral-student-produces-rap-album-for-dissertation-it-goes-viral/">a dissertation with a beat</a>.”</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">A Dissertation with a Beat. 🔊🎤 🔊<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Clemson?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Clemson</a> doctoral student produces rap album for dissertation; it goes viral ➡️ <a href="https://t.co/wgiM9LS6k5">https://t.co/wgiM9LS6k5</a> <a href="https://t.co/r1lmBYXV2S">pic.twitter.com/r1lmBYXV2S</a></p> <p>— Clemson University (@ClemsonUniv) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClemsonUniv/status/845990987440652289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2017</a></p></blockquote> <p>Clemson is not the only school to recognize hip-hop as dope. </p> <p>In the 50 years since its start at <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-holiday-signals-a-turning-point-in-education-for-a-music-form-that-began-at-a-back-to-school-party-in-the-bronx-165525">a back-to-school party</a> in the South Bronx, hip-hop, the culture and its art forms have come a long way to a place of relative prominence in educational institutions. </p> <p>Since 2013, Harvard University has housed the <a href="https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/institutes/hiphop-archive-research-institute">Hiphop Archive & Research Institute</a> and the <a href="https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/faq/nasir-jones-hiphop-fellowship">Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship</a> that funds scholars and artists who demonstrate “exceptional scholarship and creativity in the arts in connection with Hiphop.”</p> <p>UCLA announced an <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-03-28/ucla-hip-hop-initiative-chuck-d">ambitious Hip Hop Initiative</a> to kick off the golden anniversary. The initiative includes artist residencies, community engagement programs, a book series and a digital archive project.</p> <p>Perhaps my receiving tenure and promotion at the University of Virginia is part of the school’s attempt to help codify the existence of hip-hop scholarship.</p> <p>When I write about “dope,” I’m thinking of Black people like drugs to which the U.S. is addicted. </p> <p>Dope is a frame to help clarify the attempts, throughout American history, at outlawing and <a href="https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/archives/online_exhibits/100_documents/1853-black-law.html">legalizing</a> the presence of Black people and Black culture. As dope, Black people are America’s constant ailment and cure.</p> <p>To me, dope is an aspiration and a methodology to acknowledge and resist America’s steady surveillance, scrutiny and criminalization of Blackness.</p> <p>By this definition, dope is not only what we are, it’s also who we want to be and how we demonstrate our being. </p> <p>Dope is about what we can make with what we are given. </p> <p>Dope is a product of conditions created by America. It is also a product that helped create America.</p> <p>Whenever Blackness has been seen as lucrative, businesses like record companies and institutions like colleges and universities have sought to capitalize. To remove the negative stigmas associated with dope, these institutions cast themselves in roles similar to a pharmacy. </p> <p>Even though I don’t believe academia has the power or authority to bestow hip-hop credibility, a question remains – does having a Ph.D and producing rap music as <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-professor-looks-to-open-doors-with-worlds-first-peer-reviewed-rap-album-153761">peer-reviewed publications</a>change my dopeness in some way?</p> <h2>Legalizing dope</h2> <p>Though I earned a Ph.D by rapping, my own relationship to hip-hop in academic institutions remains fraught. </p> <p>Part of the problem was noted in 2014 by Michelle Alexander, a legal scholar and author of “<a href="http://newjimcrow.com/">The New Jim Crow</a>,” when she talked about <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/new-jim-crow-whats-next-talk-michelle-alexander-and-dpas-asha-bandele">her concerns about</a> the legalization of marijuana in different U.S. states.</p> <p>“In many ways the imagery doesn’t sit right,” she said. “Here are white men poised to run big marijuana businesses … after 40 years of impoverished black kids getting prison time for selling weed, and their families and futures destroyed. Now, white men are planning to get rich doing precisely the same thing?”</p> <p>I feel the same way about dopeness in academia. Since hip-hop has emerged as a global phenomenon largely embraced by many of the “academically trained” music scholars who initially rejected it, how will those scholars and their schools now make way for the people they have historically excluded?</p> <p>This is why that quote about me “scoring, arguably, the dopest job ever” has stuck with me. </p> <p>I wonder if it’s fair to call what I do a form of legalized dope.</p> <h2>America’s dope-dealing history</h2> <p>In the late 1990s, I saw how fast hip-hop had become inescapable across the U.S., even in the small Midwestern town of Decatur, Illinois, where I grew up with my friend who is now serving federal prison time. </p> <p>He and I have remained in contact. Among the things we discuss is how unlikely it is that I would be able to do what I do without his doing what he did.</p> <p>Given the economic realities faced by people after leaving prison, we both know there are limitations to his opportunities if we choose to see our successes as shared accomplishments.</p> <p>Depending on how dope is interpreted, prisons and universities serve as probable destinations for people who make their living with it. It has kept him in prison roughly the same amount of time as it has kept me in graduate school and in my profession. </p> <p>This present reality has historical significance for how I think of dope, and what it means for people to have their existence authorized or legalized, and America’s relationship to Black people. </p> <p>Many of the buildings at Clemson were built in the late 1880s using “<a href="http://glimpse.clemson.edu/convict-labor/">laborers convicted of mostly petty crimes</a>” that the state of South Carolina leased to the university. </p> <p>Similarly, the University of Virginia was built by <a href="https://dei.virginia.edu/resources">renting enslaved laborers</a>. The University also is required by state law to purchase office furniture from a state-owned company that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/14/public-universities-several-states-are-required-buy-prison-industries">depends on imprisoned people for labor</a>. The people who make the furniture are paid very little to do so. </p> <p>The people in the federal prison where my friend who helped me pay for college is now housed work for paltry wages making towels and shirts for the U.S. Army.</p> <p>Even with all of the time and distance between our pasts and present, our paths are still inextricably intertwined – along with all those others on or near the seemingly transient line that divides “legal” and “illegal” dope.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-global-musical-phenomenon-turns-50-a-hip-hop-professor-explains-what-the-word-dope-means-to-him-200872" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Music

Grant Denyer shares heartwarming update

<p>Aussie TV personality Grant Denyer has shared a heartwarming update on his two-year-old daughter Sunday.</p> <p>Sunday was diagnosed with hip dysplasia in 2022 and after being confined to a hip brace for most of her life, the toddler is finally free.</p> <p>The proud dad took to Instagram, sharing a touching video of a happy Sunday running around, brace-free.</p> <p>“When the hip brace comes off after 13 months 😂 💨 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/dysplasia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#dysplasia</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/2yo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#2yo</a>,” he captioned the cute clip.</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/CqPTDMTDZ3p/?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/CqPTDMTDZ3p/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Grant Denyer (@grantdenyer)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Friends and followers flocked to the comments to celebrate Sunday’s milestone.</p> <p>“Awesome. No stopping her now,” one person wrote.</p> <p>“Wow! That's wonderful news! There was no stopping this child even with the brace on! It looks like it's done it's job after 13 very long months. She's wonderful 💖,” another said.</p> <p>“Yay. Poor thing, but I’m scared for you guys now as she has a lot of running to catch up on 😂,” one joked.</p> <p>The update comes one month after <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/so-proud-grant-denyer-announces-huge-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Denyer announced that Sunday was finally able to run</a>.</p> <p>The two-year-old had been placed in a less-limiting cast that allowed some freedom to her arms and torso.</p> <p>Denyer and his wife Chezzi have shared Sunday’s journey from the moment she was put into a full body cast and friends and fans continue to show their love and support.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

Barry Humphries suffers agonising fall

<p>Barry Humphries has shared a health update with fans after a broken hip left him in "agony".</p> <p>The 89-year-old comedian behind the character Dame Edna Everage had a drastic fall which saw him undergo surgery, and is recovering well with the help of "very painful" but regular physiotherapy. </p> <p>Dubbing himself "Bionic Bazza" after receiving a titanium hip as a result of his accident, Barry says he is recovering in a clinic in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. </p> <p>He is well on the road to recovery, and told <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/celebrity/there-s-nothing-like-a-dame-edna-for-barry-humphries-20230323-p5cuoo.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Sydney Morning Herald</em></a> he is "adamant" he will be better for his one man show later this year. </p> <p>"I sit a lot in the show, and there's a bit of pacing... I don't think it's going to be a problem, but I do have to get on with my physio," he said.</p> <p>Barry described his incident as "the most ridiculous thing, like all domestic incidents are," as he recalled, "I was reaching for a book, my foot got caught on a rug or something, and down I went." </p> <p>Humphries said he wanted to ease his fans' fears and assure them he's "on the mend" and his "trajectory is up", and also advised them to avoid breaking their hip if possible.</p> <p>"The medical bills were bloody enormous," he said.</p> <p>"I strongly advise not breaking your hip!"</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Caring

Our Partners

Over 60

News

Shop

Catalogues

Contests

Entertainment

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Property

Games

Information

Keep up to date

Search

"If it's not broken, don't fix it": Majority of Australians favour current flag

How hip pain led Sydney karate master to life-changing weight loss journey

"My heart is broken": Mariah Carey reveals sad double tragedy

Sam Armytage in hospital for major surgery

How niggling hip pain led a squash coach to life-saving cancer diagnosis

Our housing system is broken and the poorest Australians are being hardest hit

Jess Rowe explains her husband's absence from the news desk

"The silence has been broken": Sad update on Molly the Magpie

"How could he do it to me?": Grandmother broken over grandson's alleged fraud

Slashing salt can save lives – and it won’t hurt your hip pocket or tastebuds

“So... about the crutches”: Lisa Curry explains major health issue

"He leaves a broken state behind him": Aussies react to Dan Andrews' resignation

"We did it. We survived": Chezzi Denyer's emotional revelation about baby girl

All-electric homes are better for your hip pocket and the planet. Here’s how governments can help us get off gas

"This has broken me": How Jock Zonfrillo's daughter is coping with the loss of her dad

"Broken" family's appeal after daughter missing for 7 weeks

Kendall Roy’s playlist: why hip hop is the perfect counterpoint for Succession’s entitled plutocrats

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

Grant Denyer shares heartwarming update

Barry Humphries suffers agonising fall

Our Partners