Category: Evening Report

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca McKetin, Associate Professor, National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

Methamphetamine – more commonly known as meth, crystal or ice – is a highly addictive, stimulant drug.

An estimated 7.4 million people in the world are dependent on it or “addicted” to it. They face multiple health risks including paranoia, feeling suicidal, heart problems, strokes, injuries from accidents, and a higher risk of early death.

But there are no medications approved anywhere in the world to treat meth dependence.

Now, a cheap, safe and readily available medicine that has been used to treat depression for years is showing promise. Our trial of mirtazapine, just published in JAMA Psychiatry, shows people who take it cut back their meth use.

Few other options

Australia has one of the highest number of people dependent on meth per capita worldwide.

As there are no medications approved for meth dependence anywhere in the world, we have few treatment options.

Currently available treatment options include counselling, detox or withdrawal and long-stay residential rehabilitation. However, access can be difficult and treatment dropout rates are high. Most people who go to rehab relapse.

More sophisticated treatments offered within the community such as contingency management, which involves setting targets and rewards for meeting them, are more effective but aren’t widely available.

Even though there are no approved medications for methamphetamine use, doctors sometimes prescribe existing medications that have shown promise in clinical trials.

Medications that are prescribed off label include prescription stimulants (methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine, modafinil), the anti-smoking treatment bupropion, the opioid-blocking drug naltrexone (including in combination with bupropion) and antidepressants.

However, these drugs may not work and may cause unnecessary side effects or safety risks.

How about mirtazapine?

Studies in recent years suggest the antidepressant mirtazapine may provide some hope.

Two studies were conducted in the United States in an outpatient research clinic in San Francisco, California. Both trials found mirtazapine reduced meth use.

These initial trials were conducted a research clinic with a small group of patients (60 and 120 respectively) who were monitored closely. Patients were at risk of HIV: men and transgender women who had sex with men. Women and people with people with depression were excluded.

So our Australian team wanted to know if mirtazapine would have the same benefit if it was used by doctors in community clinics to treat a larger and more diverse group of patients.

What we did and what we found

The Tina Trial recruited a larger and more diverse sample of 339 people dependent on meth from six outpatient clinics in Australia.

At the start of the trial, participants had used meth an average of 22 days out of the previous 28.

Half were randomly assigned to either take home mirtazapine (a 30 milligram tablet daily), or a placebo, for 12 weeks. The researchers then tracked days when participants used meth across the 12-week period.

People who received mirtazapine reduced their meth use by more than people who received the placebo (an average reduction of seven out of 28 days compared with 4.8).

So the comparative advantage of mirtazapine was modest: 2.2 days in use out of 28 days.

This benefit was apparent regardless of whether people had depression at the start of the study.

Although this reduction is small, in the absence of any alternative medication this is an important step forward.

Our research team believes mirtazapine has a direct effect on meth dependence, distinct from its ability to reduce depression.

This implies mirtazapine is acting directly on brain systems involved in drug reward, and might restore function to pathways that long-term meth use can disrupt.

Our study found no unexpected safety issues when using mirtazapine to treat meth dependence. The most common side effects were drowsiness and weight gain.

This isn’t a ‘cure’

Mirtazapine is not an instant “cure” for meth dependence. But in the absence of any approved medications for methamphetamine use worldwide, it is a critical first step in providing a medications to reduce harms from methamphetamine.

Mirtazapine is cheap, safe and readily available. Many doctors are familiar with its use to treat depression.

It is a take-home medication, making it convenient for people to use. So there is no need for daily clinic visits or close medical monitoring.

It is also “off patent”, meaning there are inexpensive generic versions.

In order for mirtazapine to be routinely prescribed for meth dependence outside a clinical trial, regulators would need to approve it for this purpose. This requires research evidence, like that provided by the Tina Trial.

In the meantime, doctors can prescribe mirtazapine off label. Guidelines on the off label prescribing of medications are available from the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

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Further information on the Tina Trial is available here.

If you have concerns about your own or someone else’s drug or alcohol use, call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015. This 24/7 hotline provides free and confidential information and support.

– ref. This common antidepressant helps people cut back on methamphetamine – new study – https://theconversation.com/this-common-antidepressant-helps-people-cut-back-on-methamphetamine-new-study-272994

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/02/this-common-antidepressant-helps-people-cut-back-on-methamphetamine-new-study-272994/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Niusha Shafiabady, Professor in Computational Intelligence, Australian Catholic University

If you’ve spent much time on TikTok recently, you may have noticed a strange new type of AI brain rot taking over: fruit dramas.

These AI-generated short dramas feature odd-looking anthropomorphic fruit characters engaging in a range of ethically problematic behaviours. Many storylines, for instance, are based around affairs, racist attitudes, and the sexual assault of women characters.

At face value, the videos come across as so bizarre and grotesque they can be hard to take seriously. That is until you realise they’re amassing hundreds of millions of views. One account called ai.cinema021, which has launched a parody series called Fruit Love Island, has more than 3 million followers.

This content is, at best, a water-guzzling affront to the art of animation and, at worst, actively helping to normalise racism and misogyny. So why does it have so many fans?

Tapping into the brain’s reward system

These videos exploit core features of human psychology. Combined with addictive platform features (such as infinite scroll), the result is an endless stream of content that keeps us engaged – even if the message is immoral, or simply ridiculous.

Short-form video feeds such as TikTok and Instagram reels operate on similar principles to those used in gambling systems. The human brain is highly sensitive to novelty and unpredictability, both of which are linked to dopamine signalling in reward learning.

When rewards are delivered unpredictably, behaviour becomes more persistent. This pattern, known as “variable reinforcement”, has long been shown to sustain repeated actions, even when rewards are inconsistent.

AI slop videos offer rapid visual novelty and unexpected emotional turns. You don’t know whether the next one will be absurd, funny, tragic, or strangely compelling.

The videos also compress big emotional experiences. A single clip may move from betrayal, to sadness, to revenge, to humour in seconds. This creates emotional volatility, which increases arousal and sustains attention.

Research shows emotionally charged content, especially when it is negative or surprising, is more likely than neutral material to get our attention.

The pull of things that feel ‘kinda wrong’

Many viewers describe a sense that these videos feel “off”. The characters are expressive, but often not fully coherent. The narratives resemble human drama, but lack internal logic.

This relates to the idea of the uncanny valley, where near-human representations produce discomfort. Importantly, these videos rarely become disturbing enough to trigger avoidance. Instead they sit in a middle zone. They are strange enough to provoke curiosity, but not uncomfortable enough to make you stop watching.

This creates cognitive tension. According to cognitive dissonance theory, people are motivated to resolve such inconsistencies. And the way to resolve tension in this case is to keep watching, in search of closure. The mind keeps asking: what is this and where is it going?

We’re also more likely to ignore the unethical messaging because of the format. The characters are highly synthetic. This makes the scenarios feel fictional – even when they reflect real social behaviours.

Research on moral disengagement shows people are more likely to relax ethical judgement when the harm appears abstract or indirect. Fruit videos with themes of betrayal, humiliation or assault can be consumed without the discomfort that would arise if real people were involved.

Influence through many minor interactions

Much like AI slop, social media algorithms don’t prioritise meaning or quality. They prioritise content that captures our attention.

Recommendation systems are driven by metrics such as “watch time”, “completion rate” and “interaction”. High engagement leads to greater visibility, which encourages the production of more similar content, creating a feedback loop.

From an AI governance perspective, these videos highlight an often overlooked risk. That is: generative systems don’t just produce content; they can gradually shape our behaviours – often without us realising. This aligns with broader concerns in AI ethics about behavioural influence and manipulative design working on a large scale.

Reclaiming your time and attention

Avoiding social media entirely is not realistic for many people. But small changes can reduce the pull of AI-generated brain rot.

One approach is to introduce a pause before scrolling to the next video. Even a brief interruption will weaken the reward loop in your brain, and make it easier to put your phone down. When you notice yourself thinking “this feels pointless” or “this is strange”, that’s the best time to stop. In some cases a digital detox might be helpful.

You can also retrain your algorithm. Quickly skip or select “not interested” on videos you don’t want to see – and replace passive scrolling with intentional viewing by seeking out specific content.

Finally, create friction. This might involve disabling automatic playback, or limiting your access to a feed, by disabling the app notification, or removing the app from your home screen.

AI fruit videos may seem trivial and absurd, but they reveal something important about the digital environment. As generative systems scale up, they will only get better at capturing and directing our attention. Understanding the psychology behind this is the first step to resisting it.

– ref. Unethical brain rot: why are millions watching AI fruits have affairs on TikTok? – https://theconversation.com/unethical-brain-rot-why-are-millions-watching-ai-fruits-have-affairs-on-tiktok-279569

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/02/unethical-brain-rot-why-are-millions-watching-ai-fruits-have-affairs-on-tiktok-279569/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Bouchard, professeure à temps partiel I Part-time professor, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Several housing developments are currently underway in Montréal incorporating community‑scale features, including walkable streets, lively commercial corridors, galleries and public spaces.

While building on infill sites already located in the heart of established cities offers many advantages, densification projects can also present complex challenges during implementation.

Drawing on my experiences working as an urban planner and teaching governance at the University of Ottawa, let’s examine emerging trends in urban development projects.

Building a neighbourhood

Several development projects currently underway in Montréal include multiple buildings as well as community facilities like parks, gardens, patios, terraces, playgrounds and sports or cultural centers.

So when did the practice of building several structures at once, together with shared community amenities, first begin? The goal of urban planning has always been to organize space, both public and private. But the balance between how these spaces are managed has been conceived in different ways, and has taken on different characteristics over time.

In North America, the commercial development of housing subdivisions expanded significantly after the Second World War. A new transportation technology came to the fore: the automobile.

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Read more: Boomburbs: The rapid rise of Toronto’s northern suburbs

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The proliferation of very low‑density housing developments from those years onward was a direct consequence of the widespread availability of cars. New York’s Levittown neighborhood is frequently cited as a key example of suburban development patterns and of the rise of housing construction as an assembly‑line process..

Suburban life was uniform and standardized, matching the mass-market approach to post-war housing. Homes were built the same for everyone, not customized for individual owners. Despite this sameness, people liked them, making them profitable and keeping developers focused on these types of houses for decades.

North American governments also encouraged developers to build suburbs by strictly enforcing zoning rules that separated housing from commercial areas and social spaces. The distances between these areas, and even to employment centres, often necessitated car ownership to get around.

In contrast, current developments in Montréal (including Canoë, Quartier des Lumières, Bridge-Bonaventure, Langelier, Quartier Molson, Esplanad-Cartier) emphasize their walkability and proximity to subway stations in their marketing to prospective buyers.

Adopting mixed-use zoning, walkability

By the late 1970s, critics were already pointing out the weaknesses of communities overly dependent on the automobile. Their concerns included sedentary lifestyles, social fragmentation, reduced community interaction, loss of farmland and various economic and environmental costs.

Current trends toward mixed‑use zoning and walkability can be traced back to the ‘80s, when North American urban planners began organizing the New Urbanism movement. Some of the movement’s principles:

• The belief that good design creates strong communities.

• Promoting mixed‑use development and placing particular emphasis on high‑quality urban design.

• An appreciation for the compact urban form of pre‑automobile cities (as opposed to low‑density sprawl).

• Support for transit‑oriented urban design.

• A preference for mid‑rise buildings (associated with pre‑industrial urbanism) over skyscrapers (associated with modernist planning).

• Valuing and enhancing urban heritage.

• Promoting the redevelopment of historic urban neighbourhoods, particularly those affected by deindustrialization or poverty.

• Supporting more participatory design practices that involve a range of stakeholders.

Although Canadian cities have continued to build suburbs on their outskirts, several initiatives now aim to encourage urban development and infill projects.

Many municipal governments are reconsidering and rolling back the regressive zoning policies they once enforced. The consensus has shifted so much that the federal government has even offered direct funding to municipalities as an incentive to adopt policies that support greater urban density.

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Read more: Dense, compact urban growth is favoured by mid-sized Canadian cities

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These fundamental questions about mixed‑use development are accompanied by important design details that help make cities pleasant and human‑scaled.

Modernist developments of the “Tower on the Park” type have often included lawns with pedestrian paths. But these pedestrian facilities tended to regard walking primarily as a recreational activity alongside green space.

In contrast, today’s urban densification projects are more socially oriented, making it possible to walk or bike to shops, community centres, schools and other everyday destinations. New developments place community spaces close to commercial amenities like grocery stores and make them more accessible for people who want to walk, cycle or use public transit.

Addressing gaps in established urban areas

The infrastructure costs associated with urban sprawl have also encouraged municipalities to recognize the development potential of unused or underused land within their cities. But planning and developing these kinds of sites can be more complex than building on peripheral greenfield land, precisely because they are located within existing urban areas.

Montréal’s Molson site, for example, benefits from historic buildings, but it’s challenging to rethink a place that previously served industrial purposes.

Urban redevelopment can entail significant costs, such as the time and resources required to remediate industrial contamination, carry out archeological assessments or consult with affected stakeholders. Redeveloping urban land parcels may also involve more complex governance arrangements, depending on former ownership and the relevant land‑use rights.

Although these infill sites are close to existing road networks, public transit, and other infrastructure, the costs of connecting them to these systems remain.

For example, in the case of the Namur‑Hippodrome project in Montréal, developers have been reluctant to build the roads, sewers and other infrastructure needed to serve the site, preferring that this work be carried out by government.

This situation reminds us that, ultimately, developers are for‑profit companies that weigh the costs and benefits of projects in terms of their own expenditures rather than broader social objectives.

A more diverse urban form

For several years, cities have aimed to create more diverse and appealing urban spaces, featuring varied building heights, destinations and housing types. A thoughtful mix of public and private spaces encourages community interaction and provides natural “eyes on the street,” enhancing the sense of safety. Montreal’s new developments are designed to be vibrant, lively and community-focused.

The creation of social spaces aims to encourage positive social interactions and prevent feelings of anonymity or disconnection during the regular course of daily activities.

The Molson project includes a large park along the banks of the St. Lawrence River. The Esplanade-Cartier project has emphasized social amenities, featuring not only a pedestrian street but also a “project house” with a community garden on the rooftop terrace. Rooftop gardening is already well established in Montréal commercially, but this project is among the first community garden on the roof of a private building in Québec.

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Read more: Growing pains: An Ontario city’s urban agriculture efforts show good policy requires real capacity

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Embracing the complexity of cities

Building within already developed areas can be complex. The 10-year consultation and planning process for the Namur-Hippodrome project in Montréal is one example, but there are others.

Just a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill, the redevelopment of the Lebreton Flats in Ottawa has been promised for decades. The process of developing the Ookwemin Minising residential neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront has been underway since 2017.

The numerous urban densification projects currently underway in Montréal indicate a growing recognition that suburban development models lacked diversity.

Today’s projects aim to place new housing near vibrant cultural and commercial corridors. While elements of the 15-minute neighborhood concept — such as mixed-use zoning that encourages walking and transit — aren’t new, stakeholders seen to be embracing New Urbanism principles in planning, design and construction. It’s clear there’s been a shift in thinking about what makes a neighbourhood desirable.

– ref. Neighbourhoods are changing as cities prioritize diversity, connectivity and livability – https://theconversation.com/neighbourhoods-are-changing-as-cities-prioritize-diversity-connectivity-and-livability-279426

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/02/neighbourhoods-are-changing-as-cities-prioritize-diversity-connectivity-and-livability-279426/

By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

Thousands took to the streets of the capital Nouméa on Tuesday — hours ahead of a scheduled French Parliament debate in the National Assembly in Paris to discuss the French Pacific territory’s political future.

An estimated 2500 came in support of local Association Un Coeur, une Voix (UCUV–One Heart, One Voice) to oppose the prospect of the next local elections (to elect New Caledonia’s three provinces) being held under the current “frozen” electoral roll, which excludes people who have not resided in New Caledonia before 1998 or their direct descendents.

During a one-hour peaceful march in downtown Nouméa, the participants were brandishing tricolour blue-white-red flags and other placards denouncing what they described as “second-class citizens” treatment and their perceived condition of self-styled “victims of history”.

The march was designed to send a clear message to French MPs ahead of debates on New Caledonia later this week.

“I’m sorry for using harsh words, but it’s like we’re being robbed [of our rights],” UCUV president Raphaël Romano told local Radio Rythme Bleu.

“And now we have those MPs who are going to decide for us. They’re going to use New Caledonia for their own national political gains . . .  and make a mess”.

“If [MPs] can’t find an agreement, then they should let New Caledonians choose.

“It’s a shame for democracy, it happens nowhere else in the world”, Romano told local media.

His movement is strongly supported by several prominent pro-France parties, including Le Rassemblement and Les Loyalistes.

He said the situation affected all ethnic communities in New Caledonia.

“Those who can’t vote are men and women from all walks of life, all ethnic groups who live together in peace, every day,” he said.

“It’s hard enough to try and recover from the May 2024 riots, where people have lost their businesses and their job.”

The 2024 riots caused 14 deaths and more than 2 billion euros (almost NZ$4 billion) in material damage.

They were also initially triggered by peaceful protests against a plan to have the French constitution modified, especially regarding the electoral restrictions.

The protests turned violent and out of control in Nouméa on the very day debates started in Paris.

The “freeze” was enforced in 2009, as part of the Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998.

Originally designed as a temporary measure, the restriction currently excludes up to 40,000 people, many of them born in New Caledonia.

One gathering took place on Tuesday, including in the outer Loyalty Islands of Lifou, while another demonstration is scheduled on Wednesday, in Koné (North of the main island, Grande Terre).

The voting restriction measure was originally included in the 1998 Nouméa Accord as a measure to prevent any erosion of New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak population’s voice.

The proposed text derives from talks held between New Caledonia political stakeholders and the French government.

This was on two occasions: in the small city of Bougival in July 2025 and later in January 2026 in Paris, at the French Presidential Élysée Palace and the French Ministry of Overseas Territories, Rue Oudinot.

Hence the name of Bougival-Élysée-Oudinot (BEO) for a text and an expanded project.

But the BEO text, in August 2025, was unequivocally opposed by the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), the main component of the pro-independence movement.

Other participating parties — pro-France and pro-independence (two pro-independence members of FLNKS have since split to create their own “UNI” [Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance]) — have since maintained their commitment to the BEO process, including their legislative adaptation (in the form of a Constitutional Amendment and an “organic Law, which would de facto become New Caledonia’s constitution).

The project also envisions the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, with a correlated “New Caledonia nationality” available to people who are already French citizens.

The FLNKS later explained it saw these, as well as a planned process of transfer of more powers from Paris to Nouméa, as just a “lure” of independence.

Reacting to the UCUV march, FLNKS said the “freeze” was ruled constitutional by France’s Constitutional Council in September 2025 and could only be changed if a “consensual” agreement was found.

But FLNKS considers the BEO-derived text “is not a logical continuation of the Nouméa Accord”.

The BEO-derived Bill, if adopted, could eventually replace the Nouméa Accord.

But it is now still undergoing legislative process.

The French Senate endorsed it on February 24, with a comfortable right-wing majority.

But this week, the same text is to be debated in the Lower House of Parliament, the National Assembly, which has been divided since the July 2024 French national snap election following President Macron’s decision to dissolve Parliament.

Current predictions are that since there is no clear majority within the Lower House, the Bill, which comes in the form of a Constitutional Amendment (with the capacity to replace the Nouméa Accord) is likely to be rejected.

The opposition to the current right-wing group comes from the left (far-left La France Insoumise -LFI-, the Socialists (who say the Bill is “heavy with threats and dangers”), the Communists, the Greens) and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN).

Last week, the Constitutional Bill came before the National Assembly’s Law Committee and suffered an initial rejection.

Parliamentary debates in the National Assembly are scheduled to begin on Wednesday (1 April 2026, Paris time) and could last for the next three days.

‘Barrage’ of three thousand amendments
Some opposition parties, especially the democratic and republican left (GDR, Gauche démocrate et républicaine, to which the pro-independence New Caledonian Kanak MP Emmanuel Tjibaou belongs) have already filed on the agenda a “prior rejection motion” to withdraw the Bill.

Some of those expressed strong reservations because the process and ensuing Bill was opposed by FLNKS and that, therefore, there was no unanimity.

Meanwhile, since last week, in a previously used barrage tactic, LFI has also filed over 3000 amendments.

Restrictions still apply under Nouméa Accord — French Constitutional Council
UCUV has been fighting for years to defend their rights, in front of what they term a “denial of democracy”.

Last year, they took their case to the French Constitutional Council, which ruled that in the present situation, the electoral roll “freeze” for local elections was part of the Nouméa Accord which was part of the French Constitution.

UCUV president Raphaël Romano said they now have no other option but to take their case before the European Court of Human Rights, even though they admit their hopes are “very weak”.

He said the deadline was 4 April 2026.

If the Constitutional Bill is rejected by Parliament, a new proposed calendar for implementation will automatically become obsolete.

And local provincial elections that have already been delayed three times since May 2024 will have to be held not later than 28 June 2026, instead of the proposed December this year.

If the BEO-derived text is rejected, then the Nouméa Accord applies again and the planned provincial elections will have to be held under the restricted — “frozen” — electoral roll system.

“The provincial elections will not be held under a frozen electoral roll. It’s just not possible”, Romano said.

Deadlock, imbroglio: what now?
Other possible alternative scenarios could include re-submitting a new, revised Bill, dedicated to the electoral roll, or organising a “consultation”, a de facto referendum with eligible New Caledonians.

Under the French parliamentary principle of the “shuttle”, the text could be sent back to the Senate.

Under the BEO text, people eligible for voting at local provincial elections can either be born in New Caledonia or having resided there for an uninterrupted 15 years (for the first five years of enforcement, then the minimum residence period would be reduced to 10 uninterrupted years).

From the French government’s point of view, an agreement on New Caledonia’s institutional future is the only solution to bring back stability and economic “visibility” for local and foreign investors.

“Everything is on the table to get things moving”, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told French media last week.

Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou is still advocating for the benefits a parliamentary approval would bring to New Caledonia in terms of a “framework” for economic recovery.

France has earmarked some 2 billion euros in a “refoundation” pact, structured to put the economy, social services and the crucial nickel mining industry back on track, provided necessary reforms are carried out.

“Let’s give a chance to this process, because in New Caledonia, the alternative to an open political process is never quiet: it’s uncertainty and, over there, it always ends up weakening civil peace,” she told Parliament last week.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/02/thousands-take-to-noumea-streets-ahead-of-french-parliament-debate-on-new-caledonia/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday will announce interest-free loans for businesses hit by the fuel crisis, in a speech also promising the crisis won’t divert the government from economic reform in the budget.

The loans will help truckies, freight companies and fuel and fertiliser producers. This comes after cuts in excise and the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge and moves to assist small business were also announced this week.

Albanese, addressing the National Press Club in a speech released in part ahead of delivery, will say the May 12 budget will be “our government’s most important budget to date and it will be our most ambitious. It has to be.”

His message will go some way to reassuring those who fear the prime minister might want to scale back reform ambitions of treasurer Jim Chalmers for the budget, given the crisis and accommpanying uncertainty.

But Albanese says: “economic reform that drives growth, boosts productivity, tackles inflation and lifts living standards is always necessary.

“And in times of uncertainty such as this, it is urgent.”

The Labor government was investing in economic resilience well before this crisis, he says.

“For our government, international uncertainty is not an excuse to delay, or hold back reform – it is the reason we must press ahead.

“Because we will not generate the same prosperity or create the same opportunities, if we continue to rely on an economic model designed in a different time and built for a more predictable world.

“Nor can we go back to those days.”

“Anyone who pretends that the solution to housing or jobs or wages or health is to somehow to recreate the 1950s or 60s, or whatever time they imagine everything was hunky dory, is simply not being fair dinkum.

“Australia will not find our future security in the past. Or by copying approaches from overseas.

“We have to invest in it, build it and create it for ourselves.”

Albanese says while planning for a more resilient Australia, “our number one priority remains helping people with the cost of living”. That balance would be struck in the budget.

The interest-free loans will be provided under the government’s $1 billion Economic Resilience Program.

“No government can promise to eliminate the pressures this crisis will impose. But we can be a buffer against the worst of it,” Albanese says.

“Providing this stability and security amidst uncertainty does not mean standing still while the world changes around us.

“It means anticipating and creating change, true to Australian values and in Australia’s interests.

“Because if people feel like the economy is not working for them, if they’re putting in the effort but not seeing the reward, if planning for the future feels like a luxury, then government cannot provide stability, just by keeping things as they are.”

– ref. Albanese to announce interest-free loans for businesses hit by fuel crisis – https://theconversation.com/albanese-to-announce-interest-free-loans-for-businesses-hit-by-fuel-crisis-278793

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/02/albanese-to-announce-interest-free-loans-for-businesses-hit-by-fuel-crisis-278793/

By Russel Norman

One day in October 2023 I was walking down the supermarket aisle when I saw greenwashing in plain sight.

Fonterra’s Anchor butter was sitting in the chiller with a prominent claim on the packaging that it was Grass Fed.

I knew that Fonterra cows were fed on millions of tonnes of palm kernel. So I decided to do something about it. And today we finally won that battle.

Today, after Greenpeace sued Fonterra under the Fair Trading Act, Fonterra has published a statement admitting its “100% New Zealand Grass Fed” claim breached section 9 of the Act.

Section 9 makes it illegal to “engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or is likely to mislead or deceive.” Fonterra has undertaken to not use this label again.

Thus Fonterra, New Zealand’s largest company, a multinational with $26 billion a year in turnover, was today forced to admit it has been deceiving its customers about a key claim it makes about its products — “100% New Zealand Grass Fed”.

Fonterra’s deception
While Fonterra was telling its customers that its Anchor brand butter was “100% New Zealand Grass Fed”, they were telling their milk suppliers that they could feed their dairy cows up to 3kg of palm kernel every day.

That works out at around 20 percent of all the food that a dairy cow eats. In practice dairy producers are probably on average providing about 6 percent to 8 percent of a New Zealand dairy cow’s diet from palm kernel, though it could be up to 20 percent in individual cases.

Palm kernel is one of the products of the palm industry in Malaysia and Indonesia — yes, the same palm industry that is destroying the last of the Southeast Asian tropical rainforests.

A million tonne deception
So on the one hand Fonterra was telling New Zealanders that they should buy Fonterra products because they are natural, 100 percent from New Zealand grass, while at the same time it was giving the green light to its milk suppliers to feed dairy cattle palm kernel from offshore.

And not just a little bit, I mean millions of tonnes of palm kernel.

In fact, Fonterra’s milk suppliers are using so much palm kernel that New Zealand is the world’s largest importer of palm kernel, at around two million tonnes per year, most of which is fed to dairy cattle.

During the period when Fonterra used the “100% New Zealand Grass Fed” label (they state from December 2023 to April 2025), New Zealand imported around three million tonnes of palm kernel, at a cost of around $800 million. Of this, around two and a quarter million tonnes went to Fonterra suppliers.

So not only was Fonterra deceiving their customers that their butter was “100% New Zealand Grass Fed”, but they were doing it on a massive scale. 

It looked like a huge lie in plain sight by New Zealand’s largest company. Someone had to do something.

Off to the Commerce Commission
So standing in the chiller aisle of the supermarket I had an idea — I should complain to the Commerce Commission, as it was a breach of the Fair Trading Act. It was deceptive and misleading advertising.

The Commerce Commission is responsible for the Fair Trading Act so surely they would care that New Zealand’s largest company was misleading millions of New Zealanders about a key claim of their products.

So I sent off my complaint in November 2023, received an automated acknowledgement, and then I waited. And waited.

Finally in June 2024 I chased them up and in July 2024 managed to get a zoom meeting with the relevant Commission investigator. The investigator explained that they had done some kind of investigation and had connected with Fonterra but they were planning to take zero enforcement action. Nothing.

So eight months after my original complaint, with zero effort by the Commerce Commission to contact me, I discovered they planned to do nothing about it.

I was pretty annoyed so I decided to make an Official Information Act (OIA) request to the Commerce Commission to find out what they had done.

Commission wrote Fonterra a letter, Fonterra carried on
And this is where it starts to get pretty interesting. The OIA showed that Commerce Commission investigators had actually done some investigating. Moreover, they had concluded that the label was likely to mislead consumers.

The Commerce Commission wrote to Fonterra in March 2024 stating that the label “may lead consumers to form an overall impression that the cow’s diet comprises of [sic] 100% grass… A reasonable consumer… may not … be aware that up to 8% of a cow’s diet may consist of supplemental non-grass feed… the use of PKE may not be clear to a reasonable consumer.”

If the Commerce Commission found the label was misleading, hence in breach of the Fair Trading Act, what would they do?

The Commission letter to Fonterra stated that “we do not intend to further investigate the complaint made against you at this time”.

So… the Commission wrote them the letter, and nothing else.

Fonterra received the Commerce Commission letter in March 2024 giving the commission’s opinion that the label was likely to be misleading but stating that the commission would take no further action.

And what did Fonterra do? Fonterra just kept using the label.

Greenpeace takes legal action against Fonterra
In late September 2024, we had had enough of the greenwashing by Fonterra and the failure of the Commerce Commission to take action and we initiated legal action ourselves.

Aside from the deceptive advertising issue, Greenpeace has campaigned on palm kernel for years. Palm kernel is driving tropical rainforest destruction in Southeast Asia as well as providing the feed for intensive dairy agribusiness in New Zealand, which is polluting fresh water and producing climate emissions.

We want the dairy industry to cut out palm kernel, and we want New Zealand consumers to know that Fonterra’s dairy products are driving rainforest destruction.

We sued them under the Fair Trading Act, doing the work that the Commerce Commission had failed to do.

This is no small matter for a New Zealand NGO to take on a $26 billion a year multinational corporation. Fonterra employed the law firm Chapman Tripp against us, the biggest law firm in the country.

If we were to lose the case and have costs awarded against us, it could have been disastrous, as both sides knew.

Fonterra stops using the deceptive label
And guess what? In April 2025, six months after we lodged our legal action, Fonterra quietly stopped using the deceptive and misleading “100% New Zealand Grass Fed” label.

And then finally in March 2026, as the court hearing date approached, Fonterra agreed to an out of court settlement in which they admitted they had breached section 9 of the Fair Trading Act by engaging in deceptive and misleading advertising. And they agreed not to use the label again.

We finally made Fonterra admit that they were using tonnes of palm kernel and that their milk is most certainly not 100 percent New Zealand Grass Fed.

Fonterra has a choice about how its milk is produced. It chooses to accept milk produced with palm kernel, chooses to accept destroying rainforests, killing orangutans and birds of paradise.

Multinational corporations are just machines for making money – we need to regulate them
Fonterra deliberately chose to use that misleading label back in December 2023. Presumably they did this to sell more of their products, to maximise profits.

Fonterra chose to keep using the label even after the Commerce Commission told them they thought it was likely to mislead consumers. It was only when Greenpeace took legal action against them that they were forced to change.

Fonterra spouts a lot of nonsense about how it cares for the environment or New Zealanders or whatever. But they are just a machine for making money for their shareholders. The practical benefit of all the corporate talk about “caring” is to avoid proper government regulation.

If we want to align the activities of multinational corporations with society’s values then we have to regulate them, as they will not do it themselves. By design, large corporations do not have “values”. They are just machines for making money, and whether they make money by destroying nature, or not, only depends on the laws under which they operate and whether those laws are enforced.

The Commerce Commission let the biggest corporation in the country get away with deceiving consumers – a deception that was millions of tonnes in size and repeated weekly to every New Zealander who walked down a supermarket aisle. And so that corporation just carried on doing it.

Greenpeace stood up and we won. But it shouldn’t have been up to us.

The role of the government is to act in our collective interest by regulating corporations, not only to make sure they don’t deceive consumers, but to protect a stable climate, to protect the biodiversity of our planet, and indeed to protect life on Earth.

Dr Russel Norman is executive director of Greenpeace Aotearoa. Republished from Greenpeace Aotearoa with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/02/the-supermarket-trip-that-led-to-fonterra-admitting-its-100-new-zealand-grass-fed-claim-is-misleading-and-deceptive/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned Australians to brace for difficult months ahead, but pledged the government will protect them as well as it can, in an address to the nation on the impact of the Middle East War.

Albanese said he wanted to be “upfront” about the situation.

“The months ahead may not be easy”, he said.

“Australia is not an active participant in this war, but all Australians are paying higher prices because of it.

“And the reality is, the economic shocks caused by this war will be with us for months.”

In his address, Albanese said it was the Australian way for people to want to do their bit, and suggested “simple ways” they could.

“You should go about your business and your life, as normal. Enjoy your Easter.

“If you’re hitting the road, don’t take more fuel than you need – just fill up like you normally would.

“Think of others in your community, in the bush and in critical industries.

“And over coming weeks, if you can switch to catching the train or bus or tram to work, do so.

“That builds our reserves and it saves fuel for people who have no choice but to drive.

“Farmers and miners and tradies who need diesel, every single day.

“And all those shift workers and nurses, who do so much for our country.”

He said on Monday National Cabinet had adopted the National Fuel Security Plan to keep Australia moving and make sure it was prepared for the future “so that if the global situation gets worse and our fuel supplies are seriously disrupted over the long term, we can coordinate the next steps together”.

The government was working to bring the price of fuel down, to make more fuel here and keep it on-shore, and to get more fuel into the country, Albanese said.

“These are uncertain times.

“But I am absolutely certain of this: we will deal with these global challenges, the Australian way.

“Working together – and looking after each other.”

– ref. Albanese warns Australians coming months ‘may not be easy’ – https://theconversation.com/albanese-warns-australians-coming-months-may-not-be-easy-278788

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/albanese-warns-australians-coming-months-may-not-be-easy-278788/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Australia’s failure to fully use the skills of its permanent migrants is an “enormous waste” for the economy, former Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson has warned, calling for urgent action in the May budget to free up this talent.

Nearly half of all permanent migrants were working below their skill level, Parkinson said in a Wednesday address.

The former senior public servant led a review of migration for the Albanese government, presented in 2023 and concluding that the migration program, including permanent and temporary arrivals, was not fit for purpose.

In what amounted to an indictment of the government’s failure to follow through, he said this finding had been accepted by government and stakeholders but not enough had been done since to fix problems.

The debate about numbers, where people came from or what they believed “obscures the more tractable, and politically easier issue to solve” relating to the skilled permanent migration program.

This program involved two parts.

“Part one is getting the right skilled migrants into the country. That is the migration system: what are our needs, today and into the future, and then ensuring our visa settings, our selection criteria, the operation of the points test, the core skills list, processing times and so on, all work together to address those needs.

“The Migration Review canvassed this in depth, pointing the way forward – little, if anything, seems to have been done in response.

“Part two doesn’t get the same attention.

“It is what happens after those skilled migrants have been granted the pathway to permanent residency/citizenship. In particular, whether Australia will let them use the skills they were brought here to contribute.

“That is the skills and qualifications recognition and occupational licensing system.

“It is where enormous economic value is currently going to waste, largely unnoticed.”

Parkison said Australia prevented migrants, including those already in the country, from working at their full capacity.

“We have a multi-step, multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional assessment and licensing process that was never designed as a system. It just accumulated, layer by layer, over decades.

“It is like a river, clogged by mud, sludge and garbage over decades. But a river that can be reshaped and cleaned away by a flood of common sense and good policy.”

“No matter where you sit on the size of the migration program debate, you have to recognise that a more immediate question is whether Australia is getting the economic value it should from the skilled people it has already invited here, and those it will invite in the future.”

Supporting the Activate Australia’s Skills campaign – a campaign backed by business, union, and community organisations for reform of Australia’s complex and burdensome skills recognition system – Parkinson said an independent skills and qualifications recognition commissioner was needed.

This would be a statutory function overseeing an end-to-end recognition system, from visas to occupational licences to employment.

“It would identify system barriers and propose solutions while never reducing Australia’s rightly high standards.

“It turns a patchwork of individual assessing bodies into a system, with shared objectives that works in the public interest to ensure an adequate supply of talent to address the nation’s skill shortages

“Every functioning system requires good governance with the right incentives.

“This governance framework would help facilitate harmonisation across states and territories to reduce the variation in licensing requirements for the same occupation in different jurisdictions.”

– ref. Nearly half our permanent migrants are working below their skill level: former Treasury Secretary – https://theconversation.com/nearly-half-our-permanent-migrants-are-working-below-their-skill-level-former-treasury-secretary-279206

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/nearly-half-our-permanent-migrants-are-working-below-their-skill-level-former-treasury-secretary-279206/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Baka, Honorary Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Canada; Adjunct Fellow, Olympic Scholar and Co-Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Research Centre, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University

Quite a few crocodile tears have been shed on the issue of the rowing and canoeing venue of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics.

The reason for the controversy is the proposed venue – Rockhampton’s Fitzroy River.

The tidal river is prone to flooding and is also home to crocodiles.

While the Queensland government is adamant the venue will host rowing and canoeing, others are nervous.

So, what are the pros and cons, and who will have the final say?

Disagreements among decision-makers

The river has a deep-rooted rowing history dating back to 1863 and has hosted significant events such as the 2009 Australian Masters Championships.

Last week, Queensland deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie reinforced the river will host rowing and canoeing events in 2032.

But World Rowing and the International Canoe Federation are conducting studies and feasibility assessments, and have not yet thrown their full support behind the venue.

Officials from both governing bodies toured the venue in February with members of the 2032 organising committee.

Several Olympians, including Australian rowing legend Drew Ginn, have expressed concerns about the fairness of holding the rowing in a tidal river. Competitors in some lanes could be disadvantaged due to varying current conditions caused by tides, flooding and water depth.

Ginn said:

I think it’s just embarrassing that we’re doing it. Imagine the 100m sprint having a (runner) in lane six going forward, and on lane one going backwards and thinking that’s fair for athletes. Rivers flow, rivers flood, we know the course up there has real issues around this – that’s ok for a local regatta … but it’s not ok for the Olympic Games.

As well as concerns about currents and flooding, the river is also home to crocodiles, although official Queensland government statistics show no crocodile attacks on humans have been recorded here – only sightings.

President of Brisbane’s organising committee Andrew Liveris dismissed concerns about the crocodiles:

There are sharks in the ocean and we still do surfing […] creatures below the water – that’s a bit kind of ‘Hollywoodish’.

Supporters of the Fitzroy River

Key decision makers – the Queensland government, the Brisbane organising committee headed by Liveris and the Games Infrastructure and Coordination Authority – want the Olympics and Paralympics to be regionalised.

Rockhampton fits into this plan. It was a state election promise and part of the original proposal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which encourages hosts to take a decentralised approach.

Both the 2024 Paris summer games and 2026 Milano Cortina winter games demonstrated a successful model of decentralised venues, with ongoing socio-economic legacy for residents.

Out of the 17 proposed new or upgraded venues for the 2032 games, there are nine in regional areas.

Recreational and elite athletes train on the river and Australian training camps were held there before the Tokyo and Paris games.

While some argue the river has technical challenges due to its bends and currents, course adaptations are always possible – for example, for the 2028 Los Angeles games, the course length has been reduced from the standard 2,000 metres to 1,500m.

The arguments against

It will be expensive to dredge the river and widen it as well as costs for security, seating and other added amenities. The total has been estimated at $500 million but upgrades have not yet commenced.

Many Olympians are not in favour of this site, claiming it is not an Olympic-calibre venue.

A separate athlete’s village will need to be built, and competitors in these two sports will be isolated from the main action down south, about 640 kilometres away.

Suggested alternative venues are in Moreton Bay and the Queensland State Rowing Centre in the Gold Coast.

Moreton Bay in particular has shown interest in hosting. As it is only a one-hour drive from Brisbane, Moreton Bay would be more centralised and logistically easier to manage.

The Gold Coast venue is also close to Brisbane and is a well-used facility. Both would still require significant expenditure to upgrade, but possibly less costly than Rockhampton.

There is also a proposal to relocate to Penrith in New South Wales – the rowing site of the Sydney 2000 games. This is not a realistic alternative given the Queensland government’s investment and promised games legacies.

Then there is of course the crocodiles. Media hype on this angle is strong, although fears may be overblown, as no human attacks have been reported and the venue hosts community and school rowing regularly.

It’s almost decision time

Venues and the sports program for the games must be confirmed this year. This gives a six-year timeframe to adequately complete construction and prepare for the games.

The IOC, World Rowing and the International Canoeing Federation will have the final say – the IOC will likely discuss it at board meetings in May and June.

It appears leaving rowing and canoeing in Rockhampton is the most likely option at this point in time.

But history tells us, when it comes to finalising Olympic venues, key decision-makers rarely all paddle in the same direction.

– ref. Is the Fitzroy River a suitable venue for the Brisbane Olympics, given it’s home to crocodiles? – https://theconversation.com/is-the-fitzroy-river-a-suitable-venue-for-the-brisbane-olympics-given-its-home-to-crocodiles-279213

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/is-the-fitzroy-river-a-suitable-venue-for-the-brisbane-olympics-given-its-home-to-crocodiles-279213/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vibhu Arya, PhD Student, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney

From October 1, 2026, Australians will no longer pay a fee for debit, prepaid and credit payments using eftpos, Mastercard and Visa cards. The Reserve Bank of Australia estimates the change could save consumers around A$1.6 billion a year.

The case for change sounds simple enough: one price, no add-ons, no surprises at the end of a transaction.

But credit card companies, banks, restaurants and others are already warning they could raise fees and prices in other areas once card surcharges are banned.

That means we could see costs shifting, rather than falling.

How a card payment actually works

Most people experience paying by card as a direct exchange with a shop. Behind that tap, several other parties are quietly collecting their share before your money reaches the shop.

When you pay at a cafe, your bank approves the transaction and releases the funds. The cafe’s bank receives that money on the business’s behalf. Between them sits the card network – usually Visa or Mastercard – routing the payment from one to the other.

Then there’s the payment service provider, the company behind both the software processing the transaction and the physical device you tapped your card on.

Each of them charges for what they do. When a business applies a surcharge on card payments, it’s trying to claw back some of these costs.

The single largest charge is the interchange fee, currently capped at 0.8% of your purchase for credit cards and 0.2% for debit cards, paid to banks.

The Reserve Bank regulates most of these fees (other than the payment service provider fees) and its October changes aim to bring down those costs.

(These changes won’t apply to American Express cards or “buy-now pay-later” like Afterpay, which will be looked at in a separate public consultuation starting in mid-2026.)

What’s changing from October

From October 2026, surcharges on most debit and credit card transactions will be banned.

Interchange fees paid to banks will be capped below their current levels. For credit cards, those fees will drop from 0.8% to 0.3%.

And for debit cards, the fee will drop from the current rate of either 10 cents or 0.2%, down to either 8 cents or 0.16% (whichever is lower).

That’s expected to cost banks an estimated $660 million a year.

The Reserve Bank (RBA) decision was based on a clear principle: what the price tag says should be what the customer pays, regardless of how they choose to pay.

The RBA said they were responding to “strong feedback” from a public survey, which found three-quarters (76%) of people wanted surcharges to end.

Which consumers look set to pay more

The RBA estimates a surprisingly low share of merchants – just 16% in 2024/25 – add surcharges for card payments. But that’s doubled since 2022, making it harder for consumers to avoid unexpected, costly surcharges.

The central bank acknowledges that from October, businesses that have had surcharges “may increase their advertised prices to cover the cost of accepting card payments”. But it expects those price rises “to be negligible”.

In practice, the RBA is saying that if you pay a card surcharge at your local cafe today, expect its prices to rise slightly in October, once surcharges are banned. If you always pay by credit card now, you might not notice any difference then.

But if you’re in the minority of Australians who pay with cash, or insert a debit card into the eftpos machine to pay lower surcharges, you could end up paying slightly more at some businesses from October than you do now.

The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association has said:

We expect menu prices will increase on October 1 and for any business that does not pass costs on, their profit will drop. Consumers will now pay $5.10 for a coffee that used to cost them $5.08, and the biggest losers are cash payers.

Australian banks have also said they may have to make up their losses with higher card fees, higher rates or shorter interest-free periods.

Lessons from overseas

The European Union and United Kingdom banned card surcharges back in 2018, arguing it would save consumers money and avoid nasty surprises at the checkout.

Past studies from the Netherlands showed that when extra card fees are removed, people are more likely to pay by card. Widely-cited research by economists David Evans and Richard Schmalensee explains that in payment systems, when pricing changes like this, the costs don’t disappear – they just move around.

The real lesson from what the EU has done is that beyond banning surcharges, you also need to give people better options to avoid card payments completely.

Other countries like India, China, Brazil and Singapore have already made it easier to pay without a card than Australia.

Hard choices for smaller businesses

The RBA’s move to cap interchange fees should ease some cost impacts, both for consumers and for business. The RBA estimates businesses will save $910 million through lower interchange fees.

For larger businesses, the new interchange cap is largely beside the point. Their transaction volumes already gave them the leverage to negotiate rates directly with card networks – well below the ceiling the RBA has now set.

According to the RBA, 89% of large businesses are not surcharging customers now.

The RBA says most small businesses will be better off from October, as 85% of small merchants don’t add a surcharge now.

For smaller businesses that have had surcharges – like a local pharmacy or independent grocer – the good news is their overall card fees will now be lower. But they won’t vanish entirely.

That leaves them with limited choices: absorb a hit to margins, or lift prices.

What to expect in October

From October, paying by card will feel cleaner. One price, no additions. That will feel like a genuine improvement.

But a simpler checkout is not necessarily the same as a cheaper one.

Whether shopping actually becomes less expensive is a different question – partly depending on whether you’re someone who’s been avoiding surcharges by paying with cash, but also on how banks and businesses respond by raising other prices.

– ref. Banning card surcharges will make paying simpler – but not necessarily cheaper – https://theconversation.com/banning-card-surcharges-will-make-paying-simpler-but-not-necessarily-cheaper-279662

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/banning-card-surcharges-will-make-paying-simpler-but-not-necessarily-cheaper-279662/

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 1, 2026.

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Should the parliament decide if Australia goes to war?
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Australia is tightening the rules on children’s privacy – here’s how it will work
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Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/er-report-a-roundup-of-significant-articles-on-eveningreport-nz-for-april-1-2026/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Townsend, Lecturer in War Studies, UNSW Sydney

As the war in Iran heads into its second month, the conflict has escalated rapidly. The effects are being felt around the world, and there is no clear sign of it ending.

So far, the Australian government has said it will not commit troops to the conflict.

But if it were to take such a step in the future, what would that involve?

Australian involvement in the conflict

Iran responded to US-Israeli airstrikes by lashing out against its regional neighbours in the Gulf. Gulf states requested military assistance to defend against Iranian attacks, and the Albanese government agreed to provide air-to-air missiles, a surveillance aircraft, and 85 supporting personnel.

The government has carefully emphasised the defensive character of its commitment, in line with the right to collective self-defence outlined in Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Still, legal experts have pointed out that the distinction between defensive and offensive operations means little. Australia is involved in the conflict, even if it does not partake in offensive operations against Iran.

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Read more: Australia is sending an aircraft and personnel to the Middle East. Does this mean we are entering the war?

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But if we do go to war, how does it happen?

If the Australian government decides to commit troops to the war, it will not need to consult parliament before doing so.

Australia’s war powers provisions are quite detailed. But, simply put, there are two key documents that determine who exercises war powers in Australia.

The first is the Constitution, which gives war powers to the governor-general as commander-in-chief of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

The second is the Defence Act 1903, which gives the defence minister the power to direct the ADF.

In both, war powers are the prerogative of the executive, the branch of government that puts the law into action. The executive comprises the king (who is represented by the governor-general), the prime minister, and their ministers.

In practice, the National Security Committee of Cabinet (NSC) specifically exercises this power. The NSC deals with the “highest-priority, highest-risk and most strategic national security matters of the day”.

NSC decisions do not need to be endorsed by the broader Cabinet, and the executive is not required to consult parliament first. It must, however, inform parliament and facilitate debate as early as possible.

The process is similar in other Commonwealth nations, including New Zealand and Canada.

The situation in the United States is different. The US constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, but the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Essentially, Congress initiates war, and the president directs the armed forces once authorised by Congress.

In practice, many presidents have deployed troops without Congress’ approval, including in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. This led Congress to pass the War Powers Resolution in 1973 to curb presidential war powers. Presidents continued to commit troops without congressional approval, and Congress has proven less willing or able to assert authority in these situations.

Responding to the current conflict, Congress debated President Donald Trump’s authority to attack Iran, but efforts by Democrats and some Republicans failed, as they had in the aftermath of recent US operations in Venezuela.

Proposals for reform in Australia

Since 1985, numerous bills have been introduced in the Senate. All sought to limit executive war powers by requiring parliamentary approval to deploy the ADF in war or warlike operations. None succeeded.

While Defence Minister Richard Marles ordered a parliamentary inquiry into war powers in 2022, he told the committee the decision to commit troops to war was “within the prerogative powers of the executive” and should remain so. Ultimately, the inquiry affirmed the executive authority of prime minister and Cabinet to decide on matters of war. It also rejected the introduction of a parliamentary veto.

This has not stopped the Greens from again calling for war powers reform amid the Iran conflict.

The Greens want the execution of war powers to be contingent on a vote in both houses of parliament – and they say public opinion is on their side. So, what do Australians think about the issue?

What do Australians think?

A national poll by Essential Research in April 2023 found 90% of those surveyed thought parliamentary approval should be required to go to war. This is the figure the Greens have cited in their current bid for reform.

Last year, the War Studies Research Group asked Australians what they thought about war powers as part of a larger national survey on public attitudes towards the ADF. The survey involved 1,500 people and was conducted from late February to early March 2025 as part of our work to measure public attitudes towards the ADF.

Overall, 76% of respondents agreed the government should always be required to consult parliament before committing the ADF to war. Of those, 37% strongly agreed, while less than 5% disagreed.

Notably, the survey indicated a remarkable consensus across Australia. 70% or more of almost all demographic cohorts supported parliamentary involvement. This included gender, age, location, income, education, military background, and nationality.

Majority agreement also held across political preference lines, with highest approval levels among respondents who voted Labor (81%) and Independent (82%).

Where to from here?

Despite the Greens’ efforts and broad public support for war powers reform, the major parties have favoured the status quo and will continue to do so.

As Labor Senator Raffaele Ciccone informed the Senate last week:

The Albanese government supports the continuation of current arrangements that govern the deployment of the Australian Defence Force to overseas engagements.

While the government remains committed to keeping the parliament updated on matters of war, it is unlikely war powers reform will occur.

– ref. Should the parliament decide if Australia goes to war? – https://theconversation.com/should-the-parliament-decide-if-australia-goes-to-war-279446

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/should-the-parliament-decide-if-australia-goes-to-war-279446/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; Victoria University

For all their claims of military success in their war with Iran, the United States and Israel have yet to clearly define their rationale for starting the conflict, their goals and their exit strategy.

With the Iranian regime having mounted a robust response, the Middle East has been plunged into an unnecessary confrontation with no end in sight.

When US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started this war a month ago, they didn’t have a clear understanding of the nature of the Iranian regime and its defensive capability.

They didn’t expect Tehran to counter their offensives with an unprecedented level of preparedness, striking US bases across the Persian Gulf and hitting Israel hard.

Nor did they anticipate Tehran would close the Strait of Hormuz, partially or fully, to cause a shortage of oil and gas with severe consequences for the global economy.

Driven by an embrace of military power, they acted on a belief that American and Israeli might from the air and sea would force the Islamic government to quickly capitulate, enabling the Iranian people to instigate a favourable regime change – something that has not transpired.

With a military victory now looking increasingly elusive, Trump will need to pivot to a diplomatic solution – and force Netanyahu to comply.

Why Iran has proven so resilient

Prior to the war, the Islamic government was under enormous domestic pressure and international criticism for its suppression of widespread public protests that left thousands of Iranians dead.

The regime was also struggling to come to terms with Israel’s degradation of its regional affiliates, Hamas and Hezbollah in particular, not to mention the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria.

While distrustful of Trump, it felt compelled to enter into negotiations with the US once more for a viable settlement of its controversial nuclear program. In late February, the chief mediator, the Omani foreign minister, said a deal was within reach.

When the US and Israel attacked instead, it gave the Islamic government a different sort of opportunity: it could demonstrate the resilience it had spent decades building.

Iran’s system of authority, governance and security was structured to withstand the loss of its leaders and commanders. The regime had shown this in the 1980s in the face of stiff internal opposition, the eight-year war with Iraq, US efforts to contain it and regional hostility.

The Islamic government has also managed to survive despite its theocratic impositions, frequent public uprisings and domestic and foreign policy shortfalls. The reasons for this include:

• the belief of many Shia Muslims in revolutionary Islamism

• its combination of ideological rigidity and pragmatic flexibility, and

• a dedicated and entrenched security, intelligence and administrative apparatus whose survival is dependent on the regime’s survival.

While many Iranians have wanted to see the back of the Islamic government, most are still very proud of their cultural and civilisational heritage. They don’t like to see Iran being subjected to outside aggression, destruction and humiliation.

A war of endurance

This explains why many Iranians have rallied around the flag, as they have historically done against outside aggression.

Knowing it cannot match the firepower of the US and Israel, the Islamic government has shown ingenuity in creating a “mosaic defence” strategy of asymmetrical warfare. This entails adapting and responding to US military weaknesses (for instance, by targeting US bases in Persian Gulf countries with drones and missiles) and decentralising its command structure so leaders can quickly be replaced when they are killed.

The regime has been assisted by Russia and China with supplies of dual-use technologies and revenue from oil imports. Russia has also reportedly been giving Iran intelligence on the location of US assets in the region.

And although Iran’s regional affiliates have been degraded, they are still capable of backing the Islamic Republic in the conflict. Both Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis have entered the war by targeting Israel. The Houthis may also attempt to disrupt shipping through the Red Sea.

In short, the Iranian government is resolved to deny the US and Israel a victory at all costs. Given this, the conflict has become a war of endurance.

A deal is the only way out

How long the US, Israel and Iran stay in the fight is a matter of conjecture. However, as the situation stands, the space for a diplomatic resolution has very much tightened. Iran has not shown a desire to back down, and the US and Israel are not united in their goals.

Trump may eventually settle for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program and a potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, given the costs of the war and his falling poll numbers in a year of mid-term elections.

But Netanyahu seems adamant in his pursuit. He wants to destroy the Islamic government and weaken the Iranian state as a regional actor.

What is increasingly clear is the war is unlikely to end by military means. The only way forward is a negotiated settlement. The onus will therefore fall on Trump to pull Netanyahu into line and take the lead on trying to strike a deal.

Some analysts have already concluded that no matter how the war ends, Iran is prevailing.

– ref. Trump underestimated Iran’s resilience. Now there is only one way out of the war – https://theconversation.com/trump-underestimated-irans-resilience-now-there-is-only-one-way-out-of-the-war-279667

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/trump-underestimated-irans-resilience-now-there-is-only-one-way-out-of-the-war-279667/

COMMENTARY: By Audrey van Ryn

Museums around the world present the story of war in different ways. The Imperial War Museum in London includes military history, the Holocaust, women’s roles in the two world wars, wartime artwork and the political issues of the time.

This museum records both civilian and military experiences, looking at the impact of war on people’s lives. Its Crimes Against Humanity section has a continuous film about genocide and ethnic violence in our time.

The Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam focuses on the Dutch experience during the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany during World War Two, and features personal stories of those who lived during that period.

National museums in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh musealise the memory of the 1947 Partition in different, selective ways, with oral history, survivor testimonies, and personal artefacts to document the displacement and trauma of the subcontinent’s division.

How does our own war museum remember war?

Visitors to Auckland’s War Memorial Museum find that the top floor is dedicated to the memory of New Zealand soldiers killed in World Wars One and Two.

The WWI Hall of Memories contains a sanctuary, used for commemoration. In this space are medals and badges of units in which men and women from the Auckland Province served, and British badges that acknowledge those who joined British units.

Roll of honour
In the WWII Hall of Memories, carved into marble is the permanent roll of honour of men and women from the Auckland Province who died in both World Wars, and in Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam.

The Scars on the Heart exhibition covers New Zealand’s civil wars of the 1840s and 1860s, the Anglo-Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, the Asian wars and New Zealand’s involvement in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Items on display include letters, diaries, photos, clothing and firearms.

There is a recreation of a bivouac shelter at Gallipoli and a Western Front trench from WWI.

This year, the greatest number of active armed conflicts since the end of the Second World War is taking place. The Doomsday Clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight on January 27 — the closest it has ever been to midnight.

Funding for nuclear weapons programmes is increasing and the New START treaty, the nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia has expired, with US President Donald Trump having no interest in renewing arms limitation agreements.

Remembering the destructive and tragic consequences of war should be central to the role of museums in their telling of stories about war. However, unfortunately, around the same time as the recent removal of asbestos from the museum, some of these vital stories have been removed.

They include evidence of civilian war trauma installed in the 1990s by then head curator Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Pugsley to show impacts of war on civilians. Another removal has been the 1968 “Letter from a Vietnam Hospital” by the New Zealand surgeon and surgical team leader in Vietnam, Dr Peter Eccles-Smith, and a photo of a woman and a child who were victims of the Nagasaki atomic bomb in 1945.

No record of NZ nuclear protests
There is also no longer any text or photos showing New Zealand’s official protests against French nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll in the South Pacific.

In addition to the reinstatement of these particular items, a more encompassing telling of stories about war at Auckland Museum than at present could include the portrayal of New Zealand’s resistance to international wars, the work of civilian and army medical personnel, photos of injured soldiers and civilians, photos and placards of anti-war demonstrators, stories of conscientious objectors, portrayals of victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and photos and stories about the nuclear-free movement in NZ and the Pacific, including the fateful journey of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior across Oceania into Auckland Harbour.

Auckland Museum’s 2025 plan included “Enabling commemoration opportunities to reflect the community while exploring themes of conflict and peace; and commitment to broadening our commemorative narrative to be inclusive of diverse experiences and events relevant to our communities.”

This year is 30 years since the International Court of Justice declared that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally contradict international law. Next year, 2027, will be the 40th anniversary of NZ’s nuclear-free legislation, a fitting time for Auckland Museum to launch an exhibition that could include NZ’s official and civil society opposition to nuclear weapons.

Veteran peace activists hope to forge a constructive working relationship with Auckland Museum to help portray people’s experience of war more fully, and create a peace gallery to tell the story of NZ’s peace history.

Audrey van Ryn is a peace activist and writer. In 2009, she created the Auckland Peace Heritage Walk on behalf of the United Nations Association of NZ. She is currently secretary of Community Groups Feeding the Homeless.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/how-museums-can-remember-war-while-honouring-civilian-trauma-and-resistance/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the nation at 7pm Wednesday night on the Middle East war, the fuel crisis and the government’s response to it, and what Australians can do in response.

In his pre-Easter address, which will be carried by all television channels, Albanese’s message to the public will be that it should be business-as-usual over the holiday period.

Prime ministerial addresses-to-the-nation are rare but have been used during COVID and the Global Financial Crisis.

United States President Donald Trump will address the American people on Thursday Australian time.

In a fresh government announcement in response to the fuel crisis, small businesses hit by fuel issues will get more flexibility with their tax obligations.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said businesses unable to meet their tax obligations because of fuel supply problems will be able to receive temporary relief from the Australian Taxation Office.

This will include more generous payment plans, remission of interest and penalties, and support in varying PAYG instalments where taxable income has turned down.

The tax office will also limit some compliance action for the worst affected industries. Some debt collection may also be paused.

To help small business access credit more easily and faster, the Small Business Responsible Lending Obligation exemption will be extended for another ten years.

This obligation requires lenders to make rigorous checks of borrowers’ financial situation to ensure that the loan is not unsuitable. During COVID small businesses were accorded an exemption. This was due to run out in October.

The government said the extension would “ensure small businesses aren’t slugged with additional regulatory burdens and delays when accessing loans”.

Chalmers announced the changes at a news conference with representatives of big business, small business and the banks.

Meanwhile the federal government is still waiting for the states to sort out arrangements relating to the extra GST revenue they will receive from higher fuel prices.

They agreed at national cabinet on Monday to provide some GST relief but are still working on the detail.

Chalmers told his news conference: “I’m not going to take shots at them. I’m not going to be part of a kind of unseemly brawl about this.”

“But we don’t want to see this drag out for ever. We don’t want to see the states and territories at war over this. We want to see the relief flow to motorists.”

– ref. Albanese to address the nation on the Middle East war and fuel crisis – https://theconversation.com/albanese-to-address-the-nation-on-the-middle-east-war-and-fuel-crisis-279208

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/albanese-to-address-the-nation-on-the-middle-east-war-and-fuel-crisis-279208/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University

Australia’s privacy laws have been woefully out of date for a long time – not fit to address the realities of the digital world.

As part of the long overdue update, the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act in 2024 directed the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to develop a code to better protect the privacy of young Australians in the digital world.

This is urgently needed. By the time a child turns 13, around 72 million pieces of data will have been collected about them.

This week, the OAIC published a draft of the Children’s Online Privacy Code, which is now open for public comment.

What’s in the code?

The code’s scope is much wider than just social media. It encompasses most online services, spaces and platforms that children use. Importantly, it also includes services that may contain children’s personal data but are used by adults.

Everything from educational platforms to infant tracking apps will be subject to the code. The best interests of the child are embedded in it, and services will be expected to interpret and implement it.

Data minimisation

This specifies children’s personal data can only be collected by online services where there’s a clear and direct purpose for that collection, and that data should only be kept while it’s necessary to perform that purpose.

Any further data collection requires explicit consent requested in a way that’s age-appropriate for the child.

This ensures platforms only request what’s actually mission critical. The onus is on services to delete that personal data as soon as it’s not needed, to help prevent children’s data being caught up in data breaches.

The right to delete

Where platforms and services hold children’s personal data, children will now have a clear and explicit right to request that data is deleted.

The “right to be forgotten” has been on privacy advocates’ wishlist for decades. It recognises individuals own their own data and should maintain control over it where possible.

Geolocation transparency

When children consent to having their geographic location tracked by digital devices and services, or their parents consent to this on their behalf for those under 15, children regardless of age will be notified when tracking services are sharing that information.

Geolocation data can be particularly tricky, even within families. While some might find location tracking helpful, others view it as intrusive surveillance.

Ensuring it’s at least transparent to children will help ensure they’re active and aware participants in these services.

Age-appropriate explanations

Saying you’ve read an app’s terms of service or privacy policies is one of the most common white lies told.

That’s mostly because these are long, impenetrable, almost unreadable documents. When children are asked to consent to share their data, the code specifies the explanation for this request must be understandable and age-appropriate. If the request is aimed at a child who might be ten, the explanation needs to be clear to the average ten-year-old.

This is vital. Not only does it allow children to make better choices, it also increases their digital literacy as they make meaningful choices about their own data.

As part of this, deceptive design elements that might trick children into sharing personal data are explicitly not allowed.

We can expect pushback from big tech

There will undoubtedly be considerable pushback from big technology platforms about the scope of the code. It seeks to disrupt business as usual, and requires that children’s data is only collected for specific purposes, with explicit consent, and retained for as little time as possible.

That’s the opposite of the “grab and keep as much data for as long as possible” logic that drives most tech companies and platforms today. Big data is still imagined to be the big oil of the digital world. Private, personal data is among its most valued forms. Artificial intelligence companies are even more thirsty for that personal data to train their systems.

We’ll need more digital literacy

For children under 15, the code relies on parental consent. That consent is visible to children, which is important in keeping them informed. However, there’s work to do to equip every parent with the tech literacy they need to make informed choices with their children.

In some cases, children don’t easily have a parent or carer to turn to. For children in the most at-risk and challenging situations, there may be difficulties in ensuring that the consent process really can work in children’s best interest.

In our Manifesto for a Better Children’s Internet, colleagues and I from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child offer a roadmap for an internet better aligned with children’s needs and experiences.

Crucially, we argue there should be more focus on protecting children within the digital environment, rather than from it.

Maximising children’s opportunities in the digital world means trying to make as many digital spaces available to them, while ensuring those spaces are designed to be as safe and age appropriate as possible.

The Children’s Online Privacy Code is set to make an important contribution in achieving that aim. It recognises children’s right to participation as much as their right to protection.

What happens next?

The OAIC has launched a Privacy for Kids website, which offers age-appropriate explanations of the code for children and adults.

It provides a variety of tools and age-appropriate resources to allow children and adults to offer their thoughts on the draft code. That consultation is open until June 5 this year.

After responding to the public consultation, the final version of the code must go live by December 10 2026.

– ref. Australia is tightening the rules on children’s privacy – here’s how it will work – https://theconversation.com/australia-is-tightening-the-rules-on-childrens-privacy-heres-how-it-will-work-279661

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/australia-is-tightening-the-rules-on-childrens-privacy-heres-how-it-will-work-279661/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Damien O’Meara, Lecturer, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University

This month’s streaming slate is packed with bold, conversation-starting TV, from an expose of the toxic manosphere, to a Netflix comedy featuring a very horny Rachel Weisz. If you’re feeling nostalgic, there’s even an old classic from French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda. So settle in and get watching!

Homebodies

SBS On Demand

When Nora (Claudia Karvan) breaks her leg, her son Darcy (Luke Wiltshire) – a trans man – returns home to see her for the first time since he came out. It doesn’t take long before Darcy realises there’s another presence in his childhood home: a ghost of his younger pre-transition self, Dee (Jazi Hall).

Homebodies gives space for an exploration of the challenging, interpersonal relationship between Darcy and his mother through the haunting of an unresolved rift. Refreshingly, this is done without Darcy ever doubting his understanding and acceptance of himself.

[embedded content]

Dee is a haunting of something left behind. This includes some obvious aspects: she uses Darcy’s deadname and she/her pronouns. But Dee also represents a version of Darcy where his existence was not yet a consideration. In the moments where he clashes with Nora, it seems like Dee is a manifestation of what his mother wants him to be.

In some ways that feels true, but Dee is also part of a past Darcy is not acknowledging. Dee is not just a dramatic foil to allow for the exposition of how Darcy came to this place in his life. Rather, he is sharing that journey with who he was before it started.

The value of such conversations stems from the authenticity behind the story. From writer and director AP Pobjoy, Homebodies strikes an effective balance in its specificity, while feeling like a story audiences will be able to connect with in big or small ways.

– Damien O’Meara

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Read more: Homebodies: bold TV about a trans man, his mother and the conversations they never had

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Vladimir

Netflix

The new Netflix limited series Vladimir centres on erotic desire. It’s a story about “limerence”, a psychological state first identified by American psychologist Dorothy Tennov, in which a person’s thoughts and fantasies become dominated by another, and are accompanied by an overwhelming, obsessive desire for that feeling to be returned.

Rachel Weisz plays M, an English professor who develops an intense fixation on a newly arrived colleague, the self-consciously handsome Vladimir (Leo Woodall). M comes across as disturbingly shallow until it becomes clear her fixation has incapacitated her. As the show unfolds, it seems her imagined intimacy with Vladimir might be more enthralling than reality could deliver.

[embedded content]

M’s husband John (John Slattery), also a professor, is suspended for sexual misconduct involving students. When pressured to say what she thinks, M dismisses the opportunity to support the young exploited women, instead saying “it was another time”. This refrain of providing generational justifications and avoiding accountability is emphasised throughout the series.

M divulges directly to the camera (in one of many instances of breaking the fourth wall) that middle age has rendered her invisible. However, despite menopausal asides about chin hair, she is too beautiful for us to believe this. It’s more likely her students no longer connect with her outdated ideas.

This adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s provocative 2022 debut novel Vladimir is likely to divide audiences, but its discomfort is compelling and original. I highly recommend it.

– Lisa French

Harry Styles. One Night in Manchester

Netflix

The “one night only” music performance is relatively new for streamers like Netflix, but quite an established format for its broadcast predecessors; think Elvis’ 68 Comeback Special, for example. And like Elvis, Styles is a master of mainstream pop music, perfectly pitched at an intersectional audience and dripping with charisma.

From his One Direction roots in the early 2010s, to becoming a fully fledged solo icon, One Night In Manchester showcases Styles’ latest album Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally. It’s a huge event for parent record company Columbia Records (owned by Sony Music Entertainment).

[embedded content]

One Night is staged to bring Styles’ multi-stadium persona back to a relatively small audience, providing intimacy and immediacy for those watching at home. The performance is supported by incredible musicians such as the House Gospel Choir. And unlike the ’68 leather-clad Presley, Styles himself appears relatively understated – save for some delightful (if not daggy) dancing and swift movements from lead singer to piano, guitar and synth.

The audience in the room play a vital part too. Their singalongs to Aperture and Dance No More make these new songs sound like canon, while close-ups of fans embracing older hits such as Sign Of The Times remind us how good music can continue to connect us.

– Liz Giuffre

Scarpetta

Prime Video

Chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta first emerged in Patricia Cornwell’s 1990 debut novel Postmortem, and has appeared in nearly 30 books since then. So it’s no surprise Prime Video’s decision to adapt the mystery-thriller series for TV has been eagerly awaited by fans. Unfortunately, Scarpetta is muddled at best – and a hot mess at worst.

The series unfolds over two timelines. In the present day, Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman) is called to a crime scene where the naked body of a female victim is bound and displayed. Flashbacks to 30 years earlier reveal a young Scarpetta (Rosy McEwen) on the hunt for a serial killer with a similar modus operandi. The suggestion that she may have got the wrong man back in 1998 threatens to blow up her career.

The ethical implications of this are never properly explored, however, as the series focuses instead on the fraught dynamics of Scarpetta’s present-day family. These include her vodka-swilling, histrionic sister Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis), tech-genius niece Lucy and, quite bafflingly, a chatbot imitating Lucy’s dead wife.

[embedded content]

Careening between soapy family drama and police procedural, Scarpetta suffers from serious bloat. And despite its bizarre AI subplot, it is curiously dated especially in its treatment of gender politics: the misogyny the young Scarpetta navigates is significantly diluted, while the series’ treatment of female victims recalls the sensationalism of pre-#metoo shows such as Law & Order: SVU.

The 90s might be having a revival, but Scarpetta’s failings suggest some things are best left in the past.

– Rachel Williamson

Vagabond

Mubi

I was delighted to see Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi, or “without roof or law”) return to MUBI as part of its ongoing Agnès Varda collection. Having only seen the film once, years ago, I was eager to rewatch one of Varda’s (countless) masterpieces. Like earlier titles such as Cleo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) and Le Bonheur, Vagabond is a daring display of narrative filmmaking.

True to Varda’s distinctive style, the film probes the limits of cinematic storytelling. Infusing documentary elements – such as testimonial-like sequences and cleverly placed fourth wall breaks – Vagabond stitches together the story of Mona, a rebellious young drifter who, in the film’s opening sequence, is discovered frozen to death in a ditch.

[embedded content]

Backtracking from this initial encounter, Varda explores the enigma of Mona through the characters she encountered during her final weeks, crafting a fragmentary portrait of the young woman via flashbacks, memories and impressions. As other characters discuss their brief encounters with Mona, their testimonies often reveal more about social prejudices and taboos than they do about her.

Mona’s psychological interiority remains a mystery, as the viewer is only led to speculate upon the circumstances that led to her futile reality. Subverting the prominent trope of the male drifter, Varda does not sensationalise the protagonist’s circumstances. Rather, she presents both an opaque and brutal portrait of loneliness and liberty, humanism and cruelty.

– Oscar Bloomfield

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

Netflix

By now most of us have encountered the “manosphere” – the online ecosystem that repackages misogyny, anti-feminism and male grievance into a form of “self-improvement”.

Journalist Louis Theroux has further lifted the lid on this dangerous ideology in his new documentary, Inside the Manosphere, which exposes some of the key individuals driving this culture. In his measured and sometimes risky style, Theroux traces not only the rhetoric of so-called “high-value men”, but also the business model that sustains them. The result is both illuminating and unsettling.

[embedded content]

Through interviews and the influencers’ own content, we see the defence of a regressive gender hierarchy and attempts to restore it. All the while, subscription “academies” set up by leading figures convert young mens’ insecurities into income.

Running alongside the hustle narrative is a thread of conspiratorial thinking. Interviewees invoke the “matrix” as a metaphor for institutional systems trying to keep men compliant, and blind to alternative paths to power.

While the documentary doesn’t dive too deep into the real-world harms of the manosphere (on both women and young men), it does provide some important context for the rise of misogynistic attitudes in our schools and workplaces. Theroux is right to suggest we all are, in some sense, now living inside the manosphere.

– Steven Roberts

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Read more: Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere exposes the business model of misogyny

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– ref. Alpha males, Harry Styles, and going mad with desire: what to watch in April – https://theconversation.com/alpha-males-harry-styles-and-going-mad-with-desire-what-to-watch-in-april-278987

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/alpha-males-harry-styles-and-going-mad-with-desire-what-to-watch-in-april-278987/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Tiller, Ethical, Legal & Social Adviser in Public Health Genomics, Monash University

The Australian parliament is set to pass legislation today to ban life insurers from using genetic test results to discriminate against people applying for life insurance.

Once the law comes into effect in about six months, it will apply to all new life insurance contracts. These include for death cover, income protection, disability and trauma/critical illness cover.

So what does the new legislation mean for people taking out life insurance later this year? How about travel insurance or health insurance?

Here’s what we know, don’t know and need to clarify.

What’s changing with life insurance?

The new law will prohibit life insurers from using “protected genetic information” in underwriting.

Protected genetic information includes all health information that predicts or infers someone’s risk of future disease based on the results of genetic testing. In other words, life insurers cannot deny you cover or charge you higher premiums if you took a genetic test that predicted a higher risk of cancer, for example.

The definition does not include someone’s actual diagnosis (even if that was via a genetic test). The same goes for someone’s family history of disease, which can still be used by life insurers when underwriting. So if you or your sibling have been diagnosed with cancer, that could still be legally taken into account.

Underwriting is the process some insurers undertake when assessing the risk you bring as an insured person. They ask many questions when you apply for cover to gather information for underwriting.

Life insurance is usually risk-rated (except with some group insurance through superannuation). This means people with different risk profiles can receive different terms – including different premium costs, having things excluded from their cover, or having insurance rejected altogether.

Life insurers can ask about the medical history of an applicant or their first-degree relatives (parents, siblings or children). This isn’t restricted to conditions that still have symptoms. Any medical history at any stage is relevant.

You must answer in “good faith” when you apply for cover. This includes a requirement to “not make a misrepresentation” about matters relevant to your life insurance application.

If you conceal health information from a life insurer, or deliberately mislead them about your health history, this is “fraudulent nondisclosure”. This can lead to policies being voided, meaning they have no effect at all, and all premiums paid over time are forfeited.

How about travel insurance?

Travel insurance is also risk-rated, and travel insurers can ask for health information in deciding whether to offer cover, its cost and/or exclusions.

Travel insurance will not be subject to the new laws, which are restricted to life insurance. This means travel insurers are legally allowed to consider genetic test results to assess your future risk of disease as part of their underwriting.

When you apply for cover, travel insurers will mainly ask about your personal medical history (including pre-existing conditions and procedures you’ve had). Your family history may become relevant in certain circumstances (such as where you have a hereditary medical condition).

Is health insurance the same?

Health insurance in Australia is community-rated, meaning it pools risk across groups of people, rather than underwriting individuals.

So health insurers cannot deny cover or charge a higher premium based on personal or family history of disease, or other health risk factors.

But they can vary premiums based on where you live, and depending on the level of your cover (gold, silver or bronze).

Health insurers can take risk into account by applying waiting periods. This doesn’t affect the cost of premiums, but if you have an existing medical condition, a health insurer can offer you a policy but not cover any treatment for that condition until you have been insured for no more than 12 months. For psychiatric, rehabilitative or palliative care, the period is no more than two months, even for pre-existing conditions.

For health insurance, a pre-existing condition is defined as:

an ailment, illness or condition; and in the opinion of a medical practitioner appointed by the insurer […], the signs or symptoms of that ailment, illness or condition existed at any time in the period of 6 months ending on the day on which the person became insured under the policy.

This means you must disclose any condition for which signs or symptoms existed in the six months before your application. This doesn’t include childhood conditions that no longer have signs or symptoms.

However, it is the medical adviser appointed by the health insurer who ultimately decides this, not you or your doctor. The best advice is to answer questions honestly, and provide letters of evidence from your doctor if any potential uncertainty arises.

One aspect that does need clarification, though, is genetic testing. If you’ve had a genetic test to diagnose a condition with signs or symptoms, you must disclose this to a health insurer and they can apply a waiting period.

However, if the genetic test indicates a risk of future disease – such as the BRCA1 gene variant which increases the risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer – the situation is murkier.

While medically, a person with a BRCA1 variant does not have any signs or symptoms of cancer, health insurers could categorise this as a pre-existing condition and apply a 12-month waiting period for preventive care. This might include a preventive mastectomy, for example. Regulatory clarification on this issue would be helpful.

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If you have a dispute about premiums or cover, and your insurer has not adequately addressed them, you can complain to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority about life or travel insurance, and to the Commonwealth Ombudsman about health insurance.

– ref. How your health (and genetic results) affects your life, travel and health insurance – https://theconversation.com/how-your-health-and-genetic-results-affects-your-life-travel-and-health-insurance-270572

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/how-your-health-and-genetic-results-affects-your-life-travel-and-health-insurance-270572/

COMMENTARY: By Lim Tean

US President Donald Trump has been obsessed with seizing Iran’s Kharg Island for more than 35 years — way before he became a politician. In 1990, he wrote in an American newspaper that the United States should seize Kharg.

Trump thinks that by seizing Kharg, he would get hold of Iranian oil, which he has admitted he wants badly. Either he is deliberately misleading the world or he is not well informed.

Kharg is nothing more than a loading terminal. It is a small island, only about 90 sq km in size, some 28 km from the Iranian mainland.

It’s main advantage is that it is surrounded by very deep waters which allows what are known as Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) to come alongside and load huge quantities of crude oil. A VLCC can easily load up to 2 million barrels of crude.

At today’s price of US$116 per barrel, the value of the cargo would exceed $232 million.

Kharg itself is not an oilfield. It does not produce crude. Every drop of oil which is stored in its many storage tanks are piped there from the mainland through underwater pipes.

All the Iranian oil fields are on the mainland. Now that the Iranians have known well in advance that Trump might seize the island, do you know what they will do? They will turn off the spigot.

No more oil flow
No more oil will flow from the mainland to the island. What oil there is stored in the tanks on the island would have been loaded onto vessels which would have departed Kharg.

I am willing to put a wager that if the Americans seize the island, they will not find any oil. Maybe there will be some residue left in the tanks but the amounts would be so miniscule that in law it would be known as de minimis.

Trump can seize the island and I am sure the Iranians will allow him to do so. But what will happen after that?

The marines and the paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division will be slaughtered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). I pity the American mothers and wives who will be receiving the bodies of their sons and husbands.

Iranian missiles and drones will descend on the American troops like fire and brimstone. There is absolutely no way the Americans can hold the island. The Iranians know this and have dared the Americans to come because they know that it is an invitation to hell for the enemy.

The trouble with the Americans is hubris. They think the rest of the world can easily be walked over by their unbeatable marines and other elite troops.

Napoleon too thought that his Old Guards or Imperial Guards were invincible until they came up against the British Grenadier, Coldstream and Scots Guards at Waterloo. And for the first time ever in the Napoleonic Wars, the agonising cry from the French generals of “En arriere!“ meaning “backward” or “retreat” was heard in the ranks of this legendary unit.

Best trained, fanatical
When the Americans face the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, whether at Kharg or Hormuz, they will be coming up against some of the best trained and fanatical soldiers in the world, who are equipped to the hilt with modern weaponry.

All their generals are veterans of the bloody 8 year Iran-Iraq war. If there are soldiers who know what war is, it is the IRGC.

And to me it is the height of absurdity for the Americans to think that they can accomplish their missions with only about 17,000 ground troops.

I think the scale of the slaughter is going to be gut-wrenching and awful. It will be the modern day equivalent of the battle of Cannae where Hannibal destroyed the entire Roman army, killing 80,000 enemy soldiers in a single day and taking another 10,000 as prisoners.

In 1980, America was humiliated when their military helicopters floundered in the failed Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission to extract the embassy hostages. Nearly half a century later, I fear America will again be humiliated in Iran.

Lim Tean is a Singaporean lawyer, politician and commentator. He is the founder of the political party People’s Voice and a co-founder of the political alliance People’s Alliance for Reform.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/why-trumps-fantasy-obsession-with-kharg-island-may-lead-to-disaster/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jemma Geoghegan, Professor and Webster Family Chair in Viral Pathogenesis, University of Otago

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 – particularly the 2.3.4.4b lineage – has transformed the global disease landscape over recent years.

What was once largely a poultry disease causing occasional severe illness in humans is now a multi-species threat, affecting wild birds, mammals and increasingly, entire ecosystems.

Despite more than five years without incursion, H5N1 2.3.4.4b is edging closer to New Zealand, raising questions about how long our isolation will hold.

Importantly, spillover events – when a virus jumps between species – have become more common, with large outbreaks reported among poultry and dairy cattle in North America.

Human infections remain rare and are mostly linked to close contact with infected animals. But every spillover event gives the virus another chance to evolve, even without sustained human-to-human transmission.

Why hasn’t it reached Oceania yet?

The current H5N1 strain is unprecedented in both scale and scope.

Its host range now spans hundreds of bird species and an increasing number of mammals, including foxes, mink, cattle and marine mammals. This expansion reflects increased exposure and the virus’s ability to adapt to new hosts.

Geographically, the virus has spread across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and, more recently, the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions, with sustained transmission among wild bird and mammalian populations.

Yet Oceania has so far remained free of H5N1 2.3.4.4b. This is largely due to geography and bird migration patterns. Many migratory birds that carry H5N1 move along northern hemisphere flyways and do not typically reach New Zealand.

However, New Zealand hosts large numbers of migratory birds via the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, including shorebirds that can carry avian influenza viruses, although they are considered a lower-risk reservoir.

There is also the possibility of a “growing our own” problem. Low pathogenic influenza viruses circulate naturally in wild birds in New Zealand. Under the right conditions, particularly in poultry, these can evolve into highly pathogenic forms.

This risk is not hypothetical. A recent poultry outbreak in New Zealand caused by an H7N6 subtype likely arose from local low pathogenic viruses in wild birds.

While distinct from H5N1 incursion, the consequences could be similarly devastating. Although this outbreak was contained to a single farm, it underscores how quickly events could escalate if early transmission is not controlled, stretching resources and prolonging response efforts.

Given the close proximity of New Zealand’s poultry and cattle populations, transmission to dairy cattle could challenge our key primary industries. This has happened independently on several occasions in North America.

Risks to New Zealand’s wildlife

New Zealand’s wildlife is particularly vulnerable to H5N1. Many native species are already under pressure from habitat loss, climate change and introduced predators.

The arrival of a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus would add a new and potentially severe threat, particularly for small or isolated populations.

Taonga species, including seabirds, shorebirds and endemic waterfowl, may be especially at risk. New Zealand wildlife has had little to no exposure to these viruses, and therefore limited opportunity to develop any resilience.

Species that breed in dense colonies, such as tītī, albatross and penguins, could be particularly vulnerable to rapid spread and mass mortality events.

The risks are not confined to birds. The impact of H5N1 2.3.4.4b on marine mammals has been severe. This is well illustrated by the plight of elephant seals.

Recent deaths of northern elephant seals in critical breeding colonies in California are concerning, but the impact of the virus on southern elephant seals threatens the viability of populations in South America and the sub-Antarctic.

Transmission between marine mammals may be important, highlighting risks to other vulnerable populations.

Southern elephant seals and pakake, the New Zealand sea lion, share similar habitats, including beaches in New Zealand’s South Island. An outbreak of H5N1 in breeding colonies in the sub-Antarctic and populations in Otago and Rakiura could set back recent conservation efforts.

Why vigilance is NZ’s best protection

Vaccination has been explored internationally, particularly in poultry, as a way to reduce disease burden and transmission.

In New Zealand, precautionary vaccination programmes have been implemented for a small number of taonga species held in captivity.

However, vaccination is not currently a practical or effective option for free-ranging wildlife populations. As such, prevention and early detection remain the primary tools available.

Wildlife surveillance has increased in recent years, including targeted sampling of wild birds and environmental monitoring at high-risk sites. To date, there is no evidence of H5N1 2.3.4.4b in New Zealand.

However, surveillance systems are limited in their ability to detect rare or early incursions. Ongoing vigilance, including public reporting of sick or dead wildlife, will be critical for early detection and response.

Ultimately, New Zealand’s strongest defence remains time and preparedness

The country’s geographic isolation has bought it a window to strengthen surveillance, improve coordination across wildlife and agricultural sectors and build public awareness. But that window will not remain open indefinitely.

The global trajectory of H5N1 suggests that incursion is a matter of when, not if.

Ensuring rapid detection, strong biosecurity measures and the capacity to scale interventions will be critical to limiting impacts on Aotearoa’s wildlife, primary industries and ecosystems.

– ref. A high-risk bird flu strain is circling the globe. How prepared is NZ? – https://theconversation.com/a-high-risk-bird-flu-strain-is-circling-the-globe-how-prepared-is-nz-278541

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/01/a-high-risk-bird-flu-strain-is-circling-the-globe-how-prepared-is-nz-278541/