Mt Albert Aquatic Centre.Supplied / Community Leisure Management
Worksafe will revist an Auckland aquatic centre after a boy smashed his front teeth while on a hydroslide – the second recent injury involving the same slide.
A man was injured at the Mt Albert Aquatic Centre in late December, losing his finger when a ring caught on a bolt inside the slide, the NZ Herald reported.
Worksafe was notified following the incident.
Less than a week later, the 12-year-old boy was injured.
According to the NZ Herald, the boy was thrown around inside the slide, knocking his front two teeth on its inside joiners on 2 January.
The boy’s mother told the media outlet an emergency dental appointment the next day showed he had hit a nerve on the tooth and it “could be problematic the rest of his life”.
She said the tooth would now be “covered under ACC for life”.
WorkSafe said improvements had been made when its inspector visited the centre two days after the man was injured. But a spokesperson said an inspector would go back to the aquatic centre this month following the boy’s injury.
Auckland Council said the slide had been inspected twice within the last six months.
Head of service partner delivery, Garth Dawson, said the council would continue to work with operator Community Leisure Management and the slide manufacturer to ensure it was safe.
Community Leisure Management’s director Kirsty Knowles said it was improving signs at the hydroslide.
The NZ Herald reported the man’s finger was able to be reattached by a surgeon.
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Minister for Workplace Relations Brooke van Velden says she is looking to cut health and safety red tape for low-risk businesses.123RF
A work safety group says a new bill before Parliament is likely to increase harm to people and cause cost blowouts from accidents.
The amendment bill is the first big change proposed in a decade to health and safety laws brought in after the Pike River disaster.
The bill sets out to cut death and injury rates, and compliance costs, by focusing on the most serious critical risks and reducing confusion.
But the Institute of Safety Management said this ignored the fact most workplace harm was not at the critical end.
“All of the back injuries, the psychological harm, violence and aggression, all of the things that are the most common, the most costly and overall the most harmful, wouldn’t meet the definition of critical risk,” spokesperson Mike Cosman told RNZ on Tuesday.
The bill would increase compliance costs for firms that would need to keep checking if they qualified as “small” enough under the law to avoid managing many risks, he added.
The bill adds a new definition of critical risk and businesses would be responsible for checking if it applied to them.
The official disclosure about the bill said the law in place since 2016 put too many duties on to businesses, and the “broad nature … has led to confusion and overcompliance” with many finding it difficult to prove to regulators they were complying.
“Focusing the system on critical risks is designed to direct attention and resources towards preventing serious workplace harms and away from more minor issues,” it said.
The government aims for the bill to enable stronger approved codes of practice (ACOPs) within particular high-risk industries to help tamp down on risks. The forestry industry recently launched a new ACOP.
Cosman retorted that the bill should not take an “either-or” approach.
Most businesses wanted to do the right thing but “the clear message is if you’re a small firm, you don’t have to provide instruction, training, supervision, even PPE for your workers … unless it’s in relation to a critical risk”, he said.
“So for those firms who are looking for a way out, this will provide it.”
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has talked about dealing to the “huge culture of fear” around Worksafe by changing it to prioritise education over punishment.
However, a common theme of criticism for years had been that Worksafe was too soft and, for instance, did not go after company directors and executives enough.
Cosman said the bill reflected a dogma that compliance costs were inherently bad, rather than reflecting accurately the submissions to a nationwide roadshow and review that van Velden fronted.
“We see this as a significant missed opportunity to improve New Zealand’s patchy record on health and safety,” he said in a statement.
“These changes are likely to increase harm to workers, families, businesses, communities along with cost blowouts for the Government books in ACC, health and welfare.”
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Emmy-winning actress Catherine O’Hara, who starred in Schitt’s Creek and Home Alone, died from a blood clot in her lungs, her death certificate reveals.
The Canadian-born performer was rushed to the hospital on 30 January after having difficulty breathing at her home in the ritzy Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
The 71-year-old, who starred in Beetlejuice and more recently in Apple TV’s Hollywood satire show The Studio, was declared dead a short time later.
The actress’s death certificate said she had died of a pulmonary embolism and listed rectal cancer as a secondary factor.
O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954, where she joined the legendary comedy theater Second City, alongside Eugene Levy, with whom she would collaborate throughout her career, including on the smash TV series Schitt’s Creek.
Her break into movies came in 1980 with Double Negative – also alongside Levy, and John Candy.
In 1988, she played Winona Ryder’s stepmother in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. She would later marry the film’s production designer Bo Welch. The couple had two sons, Matthew and Luke.
But it was in 1990 that she became widely known to a global audience, as the mother of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin in Home Alone.
She would reprise the role in the film’s sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which featured a cameo from Donald Trump, decades before he would become US president.
In 1993 she collaborated again with Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The versatile comedienne also appeared in British filmmaker Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries that revel in silly spectacles of Americana, like zany dog handlers in Best in Show, vain folk singers in A Mighty Wind, and award-hungry actors in For Your Consideration
But she is perhaps best known by modern audiences for her role in Schitt’s Creek, created by Eugene Levy’s son, Dan Levy.
The role brought her an Emmy for best lead actress in 2020. She was also awarded a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.
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Police have “grave concerns” for a woman who has not been seen for six months and are considering the possibility she may have been the victim of foul play.
They say her children want their mother back and the family are desperate for answers.
Rowena Walker was reported missing by her mother on 22 October.
In an interview with RNZ, Detective Senior Sergeant Jo Carolan said the 39-year-old’s last confirmed sighting was in Christchurch on 14 August last year.
“It appears that her last digital footprint, social media, phones, etc, was on the 15th of August 2025, she’s also had no contact with any of her children since around that date, which is very out of character for her.”
Carolan said the fact Walker had been missing without any trace for six months was “hugely concerning”.
“We’re really worried about her and have grave concerns for her safety, that she may no longer be alive is a possibility that we have to consider, but we’re exploring all the possibilities in detail,” she said.
“Rowena is a vulnerable person in the community, and we have to consider the possibility that she’s been the victim of foul play. We are keeping an open mind and exhausting all lines of inquiry, including that possibility. Rowena’s mother is caring for some of her grandchildren, and it’s really important that those kids have an answer as to where mum has gone.”
Asked if police had any persons of interest, Carolan said police were “talking to a number of people” and following every lead available.
“I won’t go into specifics of that, but it is fair to say that we’re sticking to everybody who is made known to us.”
Carolan said Walker was “reasonably transient” and was known to have family and associates all over the country.
“We don’t want to rule out any region of New Zealand, if there’s, if there’s somebody who would like to talk to us, who knows something about what has happened to her, we will speak to anybody from anywhere in the country,” she said.
“We have conducted a number of inquiries with people throughout Tasman, some Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Christchurch areas, and that is going to continue for as long as necessary.”
She said the last six months had been “very hard” on Walker’s family, particularly her mother and children.
“They haven’t seen mum now for six months and don’t understand why that is, they very much want to have mum back.
“They had almost daily contact with her, and now they don’t. And it’s it’s very sad situation. We just want to find out what’s happened to Rowena, so that we can let her family know”
Carolan said there will be someone out there who knows what happened to Walker.
“We are looking for more information, and we’re interested in hearing from anybody in the community who has anything to provide, whether they think it might not be very significant. We’d rather hear about it and make that assessment for ourselves. So we appeal to everybody in the community to come forward with any information that they have.”
She said the “best case scenario” was that Walker was alive and well.
“And for whatever reason, keeping herself to herself, and I would say to her that she’s got family and friends who are extremely worried about her and kids who miss her very, very much. And if that is the case, we would appeal to her to please, reach out to somebody.”
Carolan said despite the time between her last sighting and when police were notified, detectives had “really strong lines of inquiry” with a “significant number of staff” working on the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to please contact Police online through 105.police.govt.nz or call 105, referencing file number 251022/9026.
Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
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A former Education Ministry staff member says the government’s curriculum rewrite ignored the views of many subject experts and teachers.
Waikato University academic Claire Coleman told Nine to Noon she worked on the curriculum until the middle of last year and said it was chaotic and politicised.
“There were changes, not following processes around procurement of the members of newly-appointed writing groups, getting rid of entire contributing groups and replacing them with people that had previous relationships with the minister, had conflicts of interest… being told ‘we’re not going to write this down because we don’t want people to know… so it’s not OIA-able’, essentially, that kind of behaviour,” she said.
Coleman made similar allegations during a submission to the Education and Workforce Select Committee on the government’s Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill recently.
She told Nine to Noon she started working for the ministry on a rewrite of the Arts curriculum in 2022, but that was paused in late 2023 following the change of government.
“By the time that I left in the beginning of 2025, it was evident that none of the work that we had done was going to be used and they weren’t really interested in any of our expertise,” she said.
Coleman agreed a change of government could bring a change of direction for the curriculum, but she said the process was inappropriate and the public should be concerned.
She said she assumed government ministries would follow good-faith practices involving rigourous debate but that was not the case with the curriculum rewrite.
“What I saw was a case of ‘we’re not interested in talking to the people who know, this is what we want to do and we’re going to do it regardless’ and it’s a sort of ‘my way or the highway’ approach,” she said.
Coleman said the government should have listened to a wider range of views on the curriculum.
“You need a diverse range of opinions. You need to work through all of the nuances that are in education. It is a complicated space and you need to know enough to know what you don’t know and to bring in the right people into those conversations and to rely on the expertise and that’s, I think, the point of having a ministry,” she said.
“Regardless of which direction you want this to go in or regardless of what policy you want, you draw on the best people and the best evidence that you’ve got to make that a really solid piece of work.”
Coleman said proposed law changes would give future education ministers the power to rewrite the curriculum again, but that work should be left to education experts.
Education Minister Erica Stanford was asked to comment and her office referred Nine to Noon to an Education Ministry response supplied following Coleman’s select committee appearance.
It said the ministry was responsible for writing the curriculum and worked with a wide range of local education experts, teachers and other stakeholders.
“The curriculum-writing process is rigourous and includes multiple cycles of review and refinement. It combines evidence, insights, and experiences over the last 20 years with formal feedback and input from a wide range of groups from across the education sector,” the statement said.
“Ministers have always been responsible for the curriculum sign-off as part of the process.”
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Olympic medallist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott was honoured by her team mates with a haka following her silver medal win in the Big Air event at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
It was a record third medal in the event for Sadowski-Synott, who took silver in Beijing in 2022 and bronze in Pyeongchang in 2018.
“I went and saw my family, and then I turned around and the whole team was performing a haka for me,” she said. “It was really special and meant a lot to me.”
Sadowski-Synnott described the final is hugely inspiring.
“That was incredible! It was such a high level of snowboarding, and to see the progression over the last four years and see what it takes to get on the podium now, I couldn’t be more inspired,” she said.
“I’m just really grateful to be a part of it. It’s amazing seeing all these girls from all over the world who are really passionate about snowboarding doing so well.”
Team mates perform a haka in Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s honour.Screenshot/Sky
Sadowski-Synott went into the final as the top qualifier, but a disappointing first run put the pressure on her for the rest of the competition.
She was in tenth place after the first run when she failed to stick her landing and only managed a score of 27.75, with Japan’s Kokomo Murase leading the way with a score of 89.75.
With the best two scores from the three runs counting, Sadowski-Synott needed to pull out something special to salvage her competition.
The 24-year-old completed a backside triple-cork 1440 in her second run to score 88.75 and improved to eighth, while Korean Seungeun took the lead from Murase.
The Kiwi dropped in fifth in the final run, needing another high-scoring jump and responded with a switch backside 1260, which scored 83.50 and took her to the top of the scoreboard.
She held that position until the last two competitors, with Murase finishing on 179 points compared to Sadowski-Synott’s 172.25.
Sadowski-Synnott will defend her Slopestyle title next week.
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Some people following their applications’ progress using online trackers noticed they were being held up at an Auckland mail centre before being sent to the UK.123RF
NZ Post says the volume of British passport applications is causing delays to them being sent to the UK.
A new requirement for dual nationality citizens to use a British passport to travel there took many travellers by surprise last month.
And with the deadline for the change only a fortnight away – 25 February – applications surged.
PostShop staff told customers they had to use an express service, which cost $121, to send their applications. But some people, following their packages’ progress using online trackers, noticed the applications were being held up at an Auckland mail centre before being sent to the UK.
One customer said her package was waiting In Auckland for nearly two weeks, without anyone contacting her to say there was an issue.
The tracker now showed ‘air transport planning is underway’.
But it has now apologised and said it was working to overcome the hold-up.
“Due to the increase in the number of passport applications being sent to the UK at the moment, it is taking a bit longer than usual for some of these items to move through their journey,” said a spokesperson. “We’re sorry for the delay and can assure customers that we are working as fast as possible to get these important items where they need to be.”
Staff checked that each item had complete information on its customs declaration, she said.
“This is a manual process and is taking a bit longer than usual due to the increased number we are receiving. We can assure customers that we are working through these as quickly as possible, including contacting individual customers who have missed some information off their Customs Declarations. We’re actively working on a solution to help speed this process up and get these items moving as fast as we can.”
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Max Elsmore is building a future in the construction industry after completing a certificate in carpentry at EIT Tairāwhiti.
The 20-year-old from Gisborne completed the NZ Certificate in Construction Trade Skills (Carpentry Strand) (Level 3) last year, and has recently begun a building apprenticeship with Brendan Fry Building Ltd.
“The course prepared me really well. It helped me understand what was going to be happening on site and what would be expected of me.”
Max Elsmore completed the NZ Certificate in Construction Trade Skills (Carpentry) (Level 3) last year, and has recently begun a building apprenticeship with Brendan Fry Building Ltd.
His pathway into trades began while he was in Year 12 at Gisborne Boys’ High School through the Trades Academy – a year-long trades programme for secondary students.
“That gave me a good idea of what I was actually interested in.”
After leaving school at the end of Year 12, Max spent time working in several jobs before deciding to commit to a trade career.
“I tried a few different things, but none of them really stuck. That’s when I decided to go back to EIT and get some proper knowledge behind me.”
Encouraged by discussions with EIT Assistant Head of Trades (Tairāwhiti) Tim Jagusch, Max enrolled in the NZ Certificate in Construction Trade Skills (Carpentry Strand) (Level 3) – a 36-week course focused on core building skills, tool use and worksite expectations.
He said the learning environment at EIT played a key role in preparing him for employment.
“The tutor explained things in a way I could understand, and the class was really good. We shared information and helped each other out, which made it easier to learn.”
Now in the early stages of his apprenticeship, Max says he is enjoying the challenge of working on site and learning from experienced builders.
“I’m enjoying learning everything about it. My workmates are keen to teach me, which makes it even better.”
As part of his apprenticeship, Max will continue completing theory and assessments through EIT’s NZ Certificate in Carpentry (Level 4) alongside his practical training.
For Max, the appeal of building lies in seeing projects take shape.
“Watching something being built from the ground up is pretty satisfying. Knowing you helped create something that will be there for a long time – that’s what I enjoy most.”
Looking ahead, he hopes to become a qualified builder, gain his Licensed Building Practitioner status, and eventually run his own business.
“I’d like to get qualified first, and then maybe one day have my own building business if that’s achievable.”
He encourages others considering trades training to explore study at EIT.
“It’s a great place to learn. And it’s a really good environment.”
Howard Irving, School of Trades and Technology Tutor, said Max arrived on the course genuinely eager to learn, and that enthusiasm showed from day one.
“His consistent attendance and positive attitude made him an absolute pleasure to teach. The supportive environment created by us, along with the encouragement from his fellow ākonga, helped Max thrive throughout the programme. Altogether, these factors contributed to a highly successful pre trade experience and set him up with a solid foundation for his future pathway.”
Carpet maker Bremworth earnings hit by tough trading
Company under takeover offer from owner of main rival Godfrey Hirst
Cash return to shareholders likely to be less than first estimated
Commerce Commission has concerns over proposed takeover
Shareholders in carpet company Bremworth have been told they will likely get less cash in the hand if a proposed takeover by the owner of their main competitor goes ahead.
The company has been made an offer by the world’s biggest flooring company US-based Mohawk Industries, which also owns competing brands Godfrey Hirst and Feltex.
It has offered 75 cents a Bremworth share, with the offer to be topped up by a distribution of excess Bremworth capital, which was estimated at the time between 30 and 40 cents a share, taking the total takeover price to between $1.05 and $1.15 cents a share, valuing Bremworth at between $70 million and $77m.
In an update on the proposal, the company said its earnings were struggling and it may not have as much spare cash as originally thought to pay to shareholders if the takeover goes ahead.
“The trading conditions that Bremworth has faced have been more difficult than anticipated. This has impacted Bremworth’s earnings, and resulted in a deterioration of Bremworth’s cash position.”
It said the capital return to shareholders now looked to be 20-30 cents a share, reducing the total takeover price to 95c-$1.05.
“Bremworth emphasises that this estimate is based on assumptions of market conditions, business performance and the timing of implementation. It therefore remains subject to change,” the statement said.
The takeover, which is backed by the Bremworth board, is being considered by the Commerce Commission which has issued a list of concerns including the prospect it would substantially lessen competition, impact prices, and that it might reduce choice for consumers.
The commission has extended its decision deadline to mid-March, but Bremworth said that might be pushed out again to mid-to-late May.
Bremworth said if the takeover does not proceed it was likely its finances would worsen.
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Dame Noeline Taurua and her assistant Debbie Fuller (right).PHOTOSPORT
Dame Noeline Taurua’s coaching bench will have a new look to it at the Commonwealth Games with long-time Silver Ferns assistant Deb Fuller to coach the Malawi Queens.
Fuller has been appointed as the new High Performance Netball Consultant for the Malawi Queens on a one year contract.
In an announcement on its website the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) said Fuller brought a wealth of international expertise to support the team’s preparations for the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the 2026 Africa Netball Cup.
“A highly respected figure in the global netball community, Debbie is a former elite player and an accomplished coach with over 25 years of experience in the sport. She has served as Assistant Coach for the New Zealand Silver Ferns from 2018 to 2025, contributing to significant international successes.”
“We are grateful to Jane Patterson, Interim CEO of Netball New Zealand, for allowing Debbie to support NAM in this endeavour, and for understanding our efforts in strengthening our high-performance and organizational capability under a new management structure. Netball New Zealand views this as a positive opportunity and one that aligns with its broader objectives of supporting global netball relationships.”
Fuller told RNZ her contract with Netball NZ ended in December and a friend in England connected her to the role.
“Netball NZ and Noel’s [Silver Fern coach] have been super supportive of the opportunity to work with Malawi Netball, it has been in discussion since late November last year,” Fuller said.
NAM president Vitumbiko Gubuduza said they were confident that Fuller’s strategic, athlete-centred approach will inspire players and help unlock the full potential of the Queens’ squad while training the next generation of coaches.
As head coach, Fuller will interview and select her management team, including an assistant coach and manager, who she will lead during her contract.
Patterson was announced interim CEO in mid January, following the resignation of Jennie Wyllie in December after what was a disastrous year for the national body.
Silver Ferns head coach Dame Noeline Taurua with Ameliaranne Ekenasio (L) and assistant coach Deb Fuller (R), in 2023.Andrew Cornaga / Photosport
In September, Silver Ferns’ coach Dame Noeline Taurua and her coaching team were suspended, over concerns about the high performance environment, sparked by complaints from some of the players.
Dame Noeline was later reinstated, with Netball NZ saying the two parties had agreed to embed changes to the Silver Ferns’ programme and environment.
It wasn’t clear what would happen to her long-time assistant coach Deb Fuller, or specialist coach Briony Akle.
In early January, Stephen Hotter resigned from his role as head of High Performance, which he had held since the start of 2023.
In mid January, Netball NZ also announced Chelsea Lane’s appointment as Head of Performance – Silver Ferns.
Netball NZ said Lane would help to “assemble the team that will take the programme forward” and strengthen leadership within the Silver Ferns’ high performance programme.
Fuller was re-appointed Silver Ferns’ assistant coach in 2024, a few months after Taurua reapplied and was re-appointed.
Like Taurua, Fuller went through an interview process and was up against other candidates.
In 2019 the pair pulled off a remarkable victory at the World Cup in Liverpool.
During their partnership, the duo also enjoyed two Constellation Cup victories over rivals Australia and a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Malawi, who are currently ranked eighth in the world, have been ranked as high at fifth.
Fuller is due to arrive in the country on 21 February for a training block with the Malawi Queens.
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Bronwyn Cumbo receives funding from the Australia Public Policy Challenge Grant for her research investigating possibilities and challenges to establishing New South Wales as a sustainable data centre hub.
Digital Storytelling Team does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
So compared to other seals, Australian sea lion mothers spend an extra six months or more nursing their pups. Why this is so remains a mystery.
In our latest study, we captured footage of an Australian sea lion mother taking her 11-month old pup on an 8-hour foraging trip to sea. This footage provides the first direct evidence we have that Australian sea lion mothers pass on foraging skills to their pups – which may have helped shape the unique life and reproductive patterns of this endangered creature.
What a sealcam showed
To get a closer look at how Australian sea lions rear their young, we attached an underwater camera, a GPS tracker and a dive recorder to an 8-year-old sea lion mother from the colony at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
A few days later, when the mother returned to the colony from sea, we collected the devices, downloaded the data, and took a look at the camera recording. We captured amazing footage of the mother and pup diving at sea together and foraging across different habitats such as sponge gardens, kelp reefs and large sandy plains.
We were even lucky enough to collect footage of the mother capturing a giant cuttlefish and taking it to the surface to devour, with the pup close by throughout the whole capture.
This finding suggests Australian sea lion mothers use social learning to pass on foraging skills to pups, and can demonstrate to them how to locate, capture and consume prey.
Many sea creatures learn from their mothers
This social learning of foraging behaviour from mother to offspring is well known in other marine mammals.
Bottlenose dolphin mothers teach their calves how to use sponges when they forage on the seabed. Orcas and sea otters also inherit dietary preferences from their mothers.
Still images from the camera attached to an adult female Australian sea lion, showing her pup (a) travelling across a sponge garden habitat, (b) swimming over bare sand, (c) ascending, and (d) at the surface. Angelakis et al. / Australian Journal of Zoology, CC BY-NC
Scientists have speculated before that seals may use social learning when raising pups. However, finding direct evidence of these behaviours has remained elusive.
Earlier research has suggested Australian sea lion pups require lots of experience and knowledge of foraging grounds to hunt successfully. Therefore, the extra months pups spend with their mothers may provide the opportunity for them to develop their foraging skills while accompanying them on trips at sea.
Social learning and biology
The video we collected in this study provides exciting new insight into evolutionary and ecological factors that may have helped shape the unique 18-month breeding cycle and life of the Australian sea lion. Social learning may be an important component of the development of foraging behaviour in Australian sea lion pups.
Australian sea lion mothers take sole care in raising their pups, so they are critical to the survival of the pups, and the success of Australian sea lion populations. Australian sea lions are endangered, with their populations declining by more than 60% over the last 40 years.
Continued research using underwater cameras will improve our knowledge on the unique lives of Australian sea lions. Understanding the ecology and evolutionary biology of the species is key to protecting their populations into the future.
This research was conducted by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences) and the University of Adelaide. Funding for this research was provided by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP), Marine and Coastal Hub. Additional operating costs were funded by the Ecological Society of Australia via a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenton Prosser, Partner, Government & Public Sector, Providence / Honorary Fellow, Australian National University
The number of young people in Australia prescribed medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) increased more that tenfold in 20 years, our new research shows, while it is no longer most prevalent in poorer areas.
Children living in the lowest socioeconomic postcodes used to have the highest rates of ADHD prescriptions. But this has flipped, with kids from wealthier families now most likely to be prescribed.
So does this mean ADHD prescription depends on how much your parents earn?
Not quite. Overall, the variation in prescription levels has narrowed around the national average over the last 20 years. But there is a stark difference between the most and least wealthy postcodes.
What is ADHD?
ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed disorder among Australian children. While symptoms vary from person to person, it’s associated with hyperactive and/or inattentive behaviours that cause challenges at home, school or work.
Our research team went back through two decades of national data from 2003 to 2022. We looked at official prescription records from Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which subsidises medication.
We wanted to find out how prescription rates change and differ between states and territories. We also wanted to know whether living in a wealthy or disadvantaged postcode plays a role in accessing prescription.
To look at ADHD prescriptions by postcode, we used an established way of comparing postcodes by calculating something called a “standardised medication ratio”.
If a postcode had the national average rate of prescriptions, its score was 1.0. Higher than one means more prescriptions than average, lower means fewer.
What we found
Between 2003 and 2022, the number of children aged 5–17 on ADHD medication increased from 20,147 people (0.5% of the youth population) in 2003 to 246,021 young people (or 4.2%) in 2022.
The biggest jump was in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID pandemic, when prescriptions spiked, especially for older teens (15–17 years), up by 2.1 percentage points from 3.1% in 2020 to 5.2% in 2022.
Lockdowns seem to have pushed more families to get help or at least start paying more attention to neurodivergence and learning issues.
Back in the 1990s, your chances of getting ADHD medication really depended on where you lived or how much your parents earned.
Some states, such as Queensland and Western Australia, were prescribing more than others. As our data shows, rates were higher still in Western Australia and Tasmania in 2003.
When standardising for populations (adjusting for the number of children living in a postcode), we can see how this trend varied by state and territory over the 20 years.
Over time the differences have narrowed.
This suggests clinicians are becoming more consistent in how they diagnose and treat ADHD. This is largely the result of the efforts to standardise best practices across the nation and remove the big variations of 20 years ago.
As some states and territories expand prescription to GPs, robust training and standardisation will be vital to avoid some of the past inconsistencies.
This may have been because behaviour symptoms can stand out more when schools and families have fewer resources to manage them.
But this pattern has flipped. These days, it’s the wealthiest postcodes – the top 10% – where kids are most likely to be prescribed medication.
In 2003, richer areas were least likely to have kids medicated for ADHD, with a ratio of 0.612 (remembering that 1.000 is the national standard). By 2021, they’d climbed all the way to the top with a ratio of 1.245.
At the time, seven of ten deciles had ratios between 0.948 and 1.039, while the lowest 10% of postcodes had a ratio of 0.708.
Why the switch?
It probably has a lot to do with access. Twenty years ago, we did not see today’s level of demand and the health system could largely cover the demand.
Now, getting a diagnosis can take multiple specialist appointments, psychological assessments and possibly months on a waiting list. The poorest families might face longer waits or may not pursue diagnosis and medication at all if it feels out of reach.
However this data shows that, on average, most postcodes now sit close to the national average. So, it’s only the very top and very bottom income groups that have flipped in twenty years.
The limits of the data
It’s important to note a few caveats. The data only includes prescriptions filled in the PBS system. That means prescriptions from the private medical system are not included, which means the trend in the highest postcodes may be even higher.
The study also couldn’t look at the influence of culture or ethnicity, since the data was anonymous.
And while stimulants are mainly prescribed for ADHD, a tiny number are used to treat other conditions (such as narcolepsy).
Diagnostic guidelines have shifted over the years, most notably when guidelines changed to allow diagnosis of ADHD and autism in 2013, but this did not result in a notable jump in prescriptions in our study.
The real growth came steadily over time, then sped up around COVID since 2020.
Importantly, the study didn’t look at how many repeat prescriptions were taken each year or compare individual postcodes to the national rate, so it does not speak to whether ADHD is being overdiagnosed or overmedicated in some postcodes.
What does it all mean?
Our findings show more people are accepting ADHD and getting help. This points to better acceptance of neurodivergence, more consistent care, and a society trying help all its kids thrive in new and changing times.
More standardised practices and consistent care means we’re moving away from the “postcode lottery” effect, where treatment depends too heavily on where you live.
However, the flip in highest diagnosis ratios from the poorest postcodes to the richest means we still need to look closely at access and equity of treatment.
Yogi Vidyattama had previously received funding from Mental Health Australia on access to mental health care in Australia.
Brenton Prosser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
At 2,500 km long, the Murray is Australia’s longest river. It provides 3 million people with drinking water and irrigates around 1.5 million hectares of farmland.
But this intensive use has come at a cost: the lower Murray — defined as the River Murray downstream of the Darling River and its meandering creeks and floodplains — is now dangerously environmentally degraded.
In mid January, the lower Murray was listed as a critically endangered ecological community under Australia’s nature laws. This means there’s an extremely high chance its native ecosystems will become extinct within the immediate future, in as little as ten years. The Macquarie Marshes in northern New South Wales, one of the largest inland wetlands in south east Australia, was listed as endangered on the same day.
The health of the lower Murray matters greatly. It is the lifeblood for a large swathe of southern Australia and supports a diverse range of unique plants and animals, local economies and the well-being of people that love and rely on it.
Connecting the basin to the sea
The lower Murray is one of a growing number of Australian ecological communities at risk of becoming extinct. These communities include all the plants and animals co-existing in an area, in some cases for millions of years.
The lower Murray winds through expansive floodplains, limestone gorges and swamplands as it flows 830 kilometres downstream from its junction with the Darling River to the sea near Goolwa.
The internationally recognised lower reaches of the river, including Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and the Murray Estuary, connect the vast Murray-Darling Basin with the ocean. This includes the famous Coorong, the setting of the book Storm Boy which captured the hearts of Australians and showed us the glory of a rich wetland landscape full of abundant fish and birdlife.
The lower Murray near Waikerie, in South Australia’s Riverland. Charlie Zukowski, CC BY-ND
Less water, less life
The lower Murray supports a wealth of native Australian fauna. But the development of weirs and barrages since the twentieth century to regulate the water level and divert water for irrigation have dramatically altered the flow of the river.
This regulation has supported increased European settlement, trade, and agriculture along the river, setting the scene for the region as we know it today.
Nowadays, inflow to the Lower Lakes is about half of what it once was prior to European settlement. In those days, the river experienced flows the plants and animals needed, which connected floodplains to the river and flushed the whole Murray-Darling Basin.
However, river regulation has drastically altered the water flow and ecology of the lower Murray. The destruction of native vegetation, poor water quality and invasive species such as foxes and carp have also taken their toll.
It is increasingly clear the lower Murray region is changing at a rapid rate, to a drier and warmer climate with less flow and more extreme droughts.
To a casual observer, these lower stretches of the Murray appear to be doing okay. The river typically has water, thanks in part to how it is managed, and it still experiences big replenishing floods.
You can still catch an iconic Murray cod (pondi in Ngarrindjeri language), and the pelican (ngori in Ngarrindjeri) still effortlessly roams the Coorong. But look more closely and the danger signs are clear.
The Lock 4 weir on the lower Murray, near Berri in South Australia. The locks and weirs regulate water flow and boats. Nick Whiterod, CC BY-ND
Signs of a slow death
Many wetlands on the floodplain have dried up, depriving native animals of their homes, and the several-hundred-year-old river red gums are dying. Poor water quality and algal blooms are now common threats in the lower Murray lakes and Coorong.
The true state of the lower Murray became evident during the Millennium Drought of the 2000s. Between 2007 and 2010, no flow was discharged out the Murray Mouth , with floodplain wetlands drying and the water level of the Lower Lakes dropping to below sea level. This caused the drying of the habitats of freshwater animals and exposed acidic sediments in the Lower Lakes.
The Coorong became hypersaline — five times as salty as the ocean — above what most animals and plants could survive. The Millennium Drought led to the near ecological collapse of Lower Lakes and Coorong, and hints at what the future may hold if the lower Murray ecological community becomes extinct. An extinct river is one so fundamentally degraded that it no longer functions as it should. Everything relying on it suffers or disappears.
Protecting the river
The lower Murray ecological community was first listed as threatened in 2013, before losing that status later the same year. It was nominated again in 2023 with a rigorous, science-based assessment, and was approved in mid January 2026.
Recovery will take considerable effort. Australia’s independent Threatened Species Scientific Committee undertook the lower Murray’s assessment, and gave advice to federal Environment Minister Murray Watt, who made the final decision.
This listing is a wake-up call. The conservation advice identifies what actions are needed to protect and restore the river, lakes and wetlands. These include connecting with communities so the recovery becomes a shared responsibility, and greater research and monitoring to guide management.
The listing does not halt existing activities such as agriculture. But major new developments must now consider impacts on the ecological community, including its critical habitats and key species. Returning water to the Murray through the Commonwealth’s water for the environment program has been important, and must continue as the review of the Murray Darling Basin Plan takes shape.
Beyond more water for the river, complementary measures such as creating fish ladders and reducing invasive species will be needed to give the environment a fighting chance.
Pelicans of the Lower Lakes perch on a jetty. Nick Whiterod, CC BY-ND
Nick Whiterod works for the Goyder Institute for Water Research, Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM) Research Centre, which is funded by the national government to deliver research in the CLLMM region. He is the chair of the New South Wales Fisheries Scientific Committee.
Margaret Shanafield receives research funding from the Australian Research Council, National Water Grid, and Goyder Institute. She is currently an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow.
Thomas Prowse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
University study is a major commitment and is quite different to high school. This big new phase of life can feel both daunting and exciting.
But many first years don’t have anyone they can ask for advice on transitioning from school to uni, or may be the first in their family to go to uni.
Reaping the benefits of uni doesn’t happen through hope or just turning up to lectures – you need to ask questions, and be an active, independent learner.
Over the last two decades, I have taught thousands of first year students from various disciplinary backgrounds. I regularly teach a large first year academic writing class, and have designed and managed undergraduate arts courses for nearly half a decade. Providing these evidence-based tips in the early weeks of study helps students take control and set them up for success.
Uni lecturers generally expect students to devote ten to 15 hours of study to each subject each week.
If you’re enrolled in three or more subjects, your studies are almost equivalent to a full-time job.
You might spend this time:
reading the subject materials (study guides, textbook chapters, set readings)
going to lectures
attending tutorials/seminars/workshops
working on assessment tasks
reading widely and reflecting on what you’ve read
regularly checking online learning management systems (such as Blackboard, Moodle or Canvas) for updates and discussion.
So, what do you need to know to survive and thrive as a first year at uni?
1. Do the readings before class, and attend
Reading ahead of time will help you get familiar with what will be taught and identify tricky things to listen out for.
Prepare some questions on these trouble spots to ask in class. It’s likely your classmates will have the same queries.
Showing up helps you stay informed about the subject content and housekeeping, like due dates and how to tackle assignments. Some classes require you to attend or participate to pass.
Going to lectures and tutorials, and having dedicated study hours gives structure and purpose to your day, which help you adjust to university life and stay on track.
2. Keep up. It’s easier than catching up
The study timetable outlines what topics and readings will be covered weekly. Put that timetable somewhere you can see it often. Letting your readings and work pile up can become pretty scary. Missing lectures and ignoring your work will make life harder than it needs to be.
Much of uni study success is about being organised. Your lecturers will have devised the most appropriate order in which to teach you new information.
Prioritise your readings and remember you might have to read them a few times to grasp the content – this is normal in academia.
3. Take notes in class and on your textbooks
This means you can record your interpretation and understanding of what the lecturer is saying while it’s being said.
Your understanding of a topic is really tested when you paraphrase it into your own words.
Once you’ve made your in-class notes, write them up while they’re fresh in your mind. To improve retention, opt for handwriting these rather than typing. You might have to block out some time directly after class for this.
Your textbook and readings are not designed to remain pristine. Write notes in the margins, circle important words and phrases, and use sticky notes.
4. Use positive reframing
When you’re working through new material, it’s easy to succumb to the overwhelm and start directing a lot of negative energy towards it.
Learning a new skill involves shifting from controlled processing to automatic processing. Initially it takes lots of time and mental effort to develop a new skill. With practice, it gets easier.
Your time at uni is about more than just achieving good marks. It is about cultivating your curiosity.
5. Keep a glossary of terms and practise what you’ve learnt
Each week you’ll be learning new terms and concepts. Keeping a log of these as you learn them, giving a brief definition and example or two, will make revision easier.
Work these new terms into your assignments to show your marker you’ve engaged with the subject materials.
Some subjects have weekly exercises and activities to help you understand and consolidate the topic. Take these seriously and use them to revise.
6. Know what’s expected
Yes, you need to know when assignments are due. But you also need to know the university policies and guidelines around things such as asking for an extension, plagiarism, AI use, and conduct. If in doubt, ask your lecturers.
Part of becoming a good student is about taking responsibility for your learning, showing initiative and independence.
Sophia Waters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The global economy is bracing for major job disruption as artificial intelligence (AI) advances and spreads across industries. Experts have been warning about this shift for years, and fiercely debating whether the benefits of an AI revolution will outweigh the cost of mass displacement in the workforce.
Few sectors expose this tension as clearly as agriculture. Pressure on farming is intensifying. Global food demand is projected to rise by 35–56% by 2050, driven by population growth, urbanisation and changing diets.
This helps explain why AI is increasingly promoted as a productivity solution to produce more food with fewer inputs, under more volatile conditions.
Yet on farms, enthusiasm for AI is often tempered by caution. And that caution is not simply about whether jobs will disappear. A deeper concern is risk, and who bears responsibility if the technology fails.
Technological change
Agriculture is not a controlled environment. Farming is biological, dynamic and deeply context-dependent, shaped by weather, soils, ecosystems and animal behaviour. Because of this complexity, AI is (and will continue to be) rarely used to replace people outright. Instead, it automates specific tasks.
Automation has been a big part of the farming story for decades, long before AI arrived on the scene. From mechanised harvesting and GPS-guided tractors to automated milking systems and variable-rate fertiliser application, technology has gradually changed how farms operate.
But AI is different. Rather than replacing farmers, AI is mainly being used to support decision-making in environments that are too complex, variable and context-dependent to be fully automated.
Most current uses of AI support monitoring and optimisation: detecting crop stress from satellite imagery, predicting irrigation needs, tracking livestock behaviour or flagging disease and weed risks. Farmers and farm workers still interpret the information and decide how to respond.
A clip from an ABC Science documentary showing AI robots being used in cattle farming.
AI is automating tasks, not whole jobs
Our previous research with colleagues from CSIRO’s Data61 explored the future of Australia’s agricultural workforce, showing how digital and automated technologies are changing how farm work is done rather than removing the need for people. Demand is growing for skills in decision-making, oversight and technology management, particularly as labour shortages persist. However, adoption of advanced technology in farming remains limited, especially among small producers.
It’s a similar story internationally. For example, in the United States, only around 25% of farms used advanced technology by 2019, with adoption of automatic steering and machinery guidance systems more common on larger operations. These technologies automate specific tasks and can reduce fatigue, but they do not eliminate farm operators.
Across other industries, evidence from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows about 60% of jobs in advanced economies are exposed to AI.
Separate findings from the OECD indicate AI exposure is primarily at the task level, with only about 27–28% of employment currently in occupations at high risk of full automation.
Uneven gains
The productivity promise of AI and other types of digitalisation in agriculture is genuine. In practice, however, these gains are uneven.
Evidence shows adoption and benefits vary widely by farm size, crop type, region, and access to capital, data and skills. It also risks leaving some farmers behind due to poor connectivity and limited digital access, constraining their use of data-driven and AI-enabled tools.
This is where the core tension lies. When AI-supported decisions succeed, efficiency improves. When they fail, humans carry the consequences.
For example, if an irrigation system mistimes watering, the farmer bears the yield loss or soil damage. If a particular crop disease is missed, a whole season’s income may be wiped out.
AI systems do not absorb financial loss, regulatory scrutiny or reputational damage. Farmers and advisers do. This dynamic is central to our research through the Australian government’s Soil CRC program on how easy it is for farmers to actually adopt these new technologies.
That work shows farmers assess technologies not just on technical performance, but on how they affect business risk, autonomy and accountability.
The future of farming
AI will continue to reshape Australian agriculture. The most important question is not whether it replaces farm jobs, but who carries the risk when AI becomes part of everyday decisions.
If AI is designed to genuinely support human judgement, backed by shared accountability and proper assurance, it can make farming safer, more resilient and more skilled.
If not, it risks quietly increasing exposure for those already operating at the edge of uncertainty.
Productivity gains are possible. But they will only be realised and socially accepted when AI systems are designed not just to optimise outcomes, but to protect the people who live with the consequences.
Sophia Duan receives research funding through multiple competitive research programs. Research supported by the Australian government Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program relates to the broader research discussed in this article. She does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.
David A. Fleming-Muñoz has received research funding from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, CSIRO, and the Greater Melbourne Foundation. He does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.
Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune and Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty
In January, over the course of three days, Bruce Springsteen wrote, recorded and released the political protest song Streets of Minneapolis.
The song’s release was a matter of urgency and reflects Springsteen’s fury towards the Minneapolis immigration enforcement operation from the United States Department of Homeland Security with around 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and agents.
Last month, Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed by ICE in separate incidents. In his lyrics, Springsteen names them as a memorial tribute, “citizens [who] stood for justice”. He refers to ICE as “King Trump’s private army”.
Springsteen marches in the footsteps of protest songs from legendary artists such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan who raised their lyrical voices in a direct response against injustice.
The Dust Bowl migrants
On January 30 Tom Morello, the guitarist with social activist rock band Rage Against the Machine, held a benefit concert to support the families of the Minneapolis ICE shooting victims.
Morello described it as “a concert of solidarity and resistance to defend Minnesota” and against “the rising tide of the state of terror”.
Springsteen was a surprise guest artist. In addition to performing Streets of Minneapolis he played his 1995 song, The Ghost of Tom Joad.
Tom Joad is a character in John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, about the Dust Bowl migrants from Oklahoma. During the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl migrants left Oklahoma and travelled west, forced off the land by drought and the intensive farming methods. Springsteen’s song describes “the new world order” where homelessness, policing and inequality prevail.
Woody Guthrie also sang about Tom Joad on his 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads. Guthrie travelled south to California with migrants who scraped a living working in others’ fields and picking fruit in others’ orchards.
Tom Joad is a working class man who stands up to authority through the call for collective action. Guthrie’s two songs about the character featured on Guthrie’s first and most successful recording, bring national attention to the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers.
When Robert Zimmerman left his parental home in Hibbing, Minnesota, to reinvent himself in New York as Bob Dylan, he achieved his desire to meet Guthrie.
One of Dylan’s very early compositions was The Death Of Emmett Till, which he performed for a Congress on Racial Equality benefit concert in 1962. It didn’t appear on an album until the compilation album Broadside Ballads, Vol.6, in 1972, under his pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt.
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally murdered in 1955 by two white brothers in Mississippi. His murder, and their acquittal by an all white jury, caused public outrage, and became a catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. Emmett Till has been memorialised in many songs, but Dylan’s focus, with an accusation in the lyrics that the jury “helped the brothers”, is the most well-known tribute.
Dylan went on to write many songs for the civil rights movement and anti-war songs such as Blowin’ In The Wind, Masters of War and A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, all on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963).
The Vietnam War
In 1970, Neil Young composed Ohio about the murder by Ohio National Guard of four protesters against the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University. The song was recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young but the studio version only appeared on the 1974 compilation, So Far.
The activist rock song became an anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Young’s horror toward the killing of protestors motivated him to write and record the song quickly, with a rush to release it.
The song got radio play, but was banned by some stations for its anti-war sentiments. Within three weeks of the shooting, it reached number 14 on the Billboard charts. The opening lyrics, “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we’re finally on our own”, remarks on a heightened state of alert for ordinary people.
Trump’s America
The title of Lucinda Williams’ first overtly political album, 2025’s World’s Gone Wrong, echoes Dylan’s 1993 album, World Gone Wrong.
Music magazine Uncut called it a “compelling, compassionate, state of the nation address”.
The album focuses on the destruction of civil society in Trump’s America. Something’s Gotta Give is a song of anger and disillusionment with America. Black Tears connects present day America to its long history of injustice with the lyrics “400 years is long enough, How long will [Black tears] rain down?”.
Jesse Welles’ song Join ICE is a satirical recruitment song, adopting the tone of a recruitment pitch to expose the abuse of power “If you’re lackin’ control and authority, come with me and hunt down minorities,” he sings.
Popular music, especially in America, has always been bound up with political commentary.
But it hasn’t always been on the side of the oppressed. Written and sung by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, The Ballad Of The Green Berets, supporting the United States Army Special Forces in Vietnam, was number one on the Billboard singles charts for five weeks in 1966.
Can a Trump acolyte manage a similar feat about ICE?
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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