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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Efron, Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne

The Victorian government has announced it will train 150 GPs to diagnose and start treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and children.

This decision could shorten wait times and lower costs for people yet to be diagnosed. It will also bring Victoria in line with most other Australian states.

But how will it all work?

How do we currently diagnose ADHD?

Diagnosing ADHD requires a comprehensive assessment. This allows the doctor to understand a person’s medical history and the impact of their symptoms on how they function in different settings, for example at school or in social situations.

Then the patient has to learn to manage their ADHD, with the support of professionals such as psychologists and occupational therapists. This might mean modifying aspects of their lifestyle such as sleep, nutrition or exercise.

They may also be given strategies to help them cope at school, home or work, such as scheduling regular rest breaks.

Stimulant medication is often prescribed to help the patient focus better and to reduce impulsive behaviours.

About 6% of boys and 2% of girls under 12 in Australia are prescribed ADHD medications. This figure rises to 9% of boys and 5% girls aged 12–17 years, and 2–3% in adults.

Currently in Victoria, GPs can continue prescribing ADHD medication to a patient if a specialist (such as a paediatrician or psychiatrist) has already made a diagnosis.

At the moment Victorian GPs need a government permit to continue prescribing and the patient must be reviewed by a specialist every two years.

A costly condition

In many parts of Australia, parents wait months or even years to get an appointment with a paediatrician to be assessed for ADHD and related conditions. This is the case in both the public and private health-care systems.

These long wait times can lead to delayed diagnoses in children, which means delays in starting treatment. This can result in ongoing problems such as inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, which can have a major impact on learning, relationships and social functioning.

There is also the financial burden on families on getting assessments and diagnoses for ADHD from a specialist.

Similarly, Victorian adults who wish to be assessed for ADHD must see a psychiatrist. This need for specialist appointments makes the diagnosis process more costly than your average GP visit.

One benefit of involving GPs in ADHD care is that this should free up appointments with paediatricians and psychiatrists for people with ADHD or other conditions.

So, how will this training work?

Following the Victorian government’s decision, GPs can undertake additional training to diagnose and treat ADHD in patients aged six years and above. This includes prescribing medication alongside other non-medication care options such as behavioural therapy.

This accredited training program will be overseen by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

So far, the Victorian government has committed A$750,000 towards training an initial 150 GPs by September 2026.

Across Australia, ADHD-specific training for GPs varies between states. However, the RACGP is also involved in delivering training to GPs in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales.

What’s happening in other states?

Queensland has been the frontrunner in GP-managed ADHD care. Since 2017, Queensland GPs have been able to both diagnose ADHD and prescribe stimulant medication for children. As of December 2025, they can also treat adults with ADHD.

In June 2025, the WA government committed A$1.3 million to train GPs to diagnose and treat ADHD in patients aged ten and older. The first group of 65 local GPs is expected to be trained by the end of 2026.

Since September 2025, GPs in NSW have been able to prescribe stimulant medications to patients with an existing ADHD diagnosis, aged six years and older. However, they must first apply to become a “continuation prescriber” and meet certain criteria.

As of 2026, South Australian GPs can access additional training to diagnose ADHD and prescribe medication to both children and adults, without the need for specialist appointments.

Governments in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have also committed to revise their policies around ADHD care.

The Northern Territory remains the only Australian jurisdiction that has not announced ADHD-related reforms.

Read more:
GPs will be a great help for managing ADHD medications. But many patients will still need specialists

Issues to watch out for

ADHD assessment must consider a range of factors. Most patients with ADHD have one or more other conditions. Common ones in children include learning difficulties, anxiety and autism spectrum disorder.

And in some people, ADHD symptoms might actually be caused by something else, such as sleep deprivation, depression, learning disorders or trauma.

Medication can be extremely helpful to manage symptoms. But patients taking medication need to be regularly reviewed to ensure the medication is having the desired impact. GPs must also monitor any side effects to make sure they are not too severe.

On the whole, this policy change has the potential to improve access to medical care for Victorians with ADHD. However, we must give careful consideration to the details of the training, implementation and supports available.

Daryl Efron has received research grants from the Medical Research Future Fund, National Health and Medical Research Council, Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund (Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions), and the Victorian government Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

Nadia Coscini is currently the paediatrician on the Royal Children’s Hospital/Murdoch Children’s Institute/ North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network ADHD shared care feasibility study which is funded by the North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network. Nadia also receives funding for a postgraduate PhD scholarship through the NHMRC (No. 2031478).

– ref. More GPs will be able to diagnose and treat ADHD – and experts say it’s a positive step – https://theconversation.com/more-gps-will-be-able-to-diagnose-and-treat-adhd-and-experts-say-its-a-positive-step-274959

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/05/more-gps-will-be-able-to-diagnose-and-treat-adhd-and-experts-say-its-a-positive-step-274959/

Essay by Keith Rankin.

A great academic campus? But note the roof of the Concentrix building.

A Green Way?

Or was it the 1990s’-built Languages Building?

Whoops, there goes Concentrix!

Hard Yakka. Auckland’s answer to the Christchurch Cathedral

Two days before present

The Martians have landed:

One Day before present: going, going, …

Unitec Stadium and Gymnasium (and there were state-of-the-art Squash Courts with a café popular with business staff and students). Once the home of Auckland basketball and netball. And the Auckland Blues – and business staff – trained at the gym, not so long ago.

Back to today:

Ouch, from late 2006 to early 2014 that was my modern state-of-the art workplace and teaching place!

Literally the home of the Schools of Communications and Business. Over those years, I had three offices in that building, and many great memories; and sad memories, too, losing two colleagues.

Near the Carrington Campus main entrance on Carrington Road South; erasing 1900s’ as well as 1990s’ history.

Penman House; only the pine tree remains.

(Who today knows where ‘norfolk pines’ originated? Hint, it’s a place not far away which been erased from our travel maps, despite being a Unesco World Heritage site. I was lucky enough to fly there from Auckland in 2024, when it was still possible. One of these trees is the signature tree at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.)

See this and other easily googled material about Robyn Hyde’s 1930s’ sanctuary. Fortunately, local MP Helen White was able to save a few heritage mementos from the house, just in the nick of time.

Oakridge House in June 2024 and in October 2024

Is that an oak tree? Sadly the Unitec Arboretum and Sanctuary Gardens have also gone. At least there are still oaks and norfolks in the Carrington precinct.

Oakridge House became the main sanctuary (especially 2017 to 2019) for the School of Business in the years after Unitec’s flagship business building was tenanted to IBM (in 2012, in an opaque high-level deal) and soon after was abandoned by IBM and became the Concentrix Call Centre. (I understand that the aim of the 2012 eviction was for Unitec to make money through renting out some of its key assets to lucrative high-tech tenants; the template was the University of Ballarat in Australia, with QUT Kelvin Grove being the template for a high level tertiary campus without being ‘saddled with’ heritage and green spaces which government accounts would construe as a ‘lazy asset’.)

There are very few photos of Oakridge House in the public domain; Unitec itself has been remiss in this aspect of the documentation of its past. Here is one poignant photo that I found, in an advertisement labelled “chimney demolition”.

Finally, below, is the former Childcare Centre and another former workplace. (My son attended the demolished childcare centre in the foreground. He was proud to have been a ‘Unitec student’. My 2016 office was in the former building in the distant background.)

Unitec has now formally merged with Manukau Institute of Technology. It is reputedly going to become a site for city edge tenement housing; some of it, but not all, ‘social housing’. The precinct will need schools, given that nearby schools Gladstone Primary and Mount Albert Grammar are amongst the most oversubscribed schools in the country. It takes little imagination to see that the remnants of Unitec at Mt Albert eventually will become a school (or schools), and that the ongoing Unitec presence of the new Tamaki Institute of Technology (it will probably be called something else) will be at the Henderson ‘campus’, a highrise sandwiched between the Waitakere District Court and the Henderson Library.

Q How do you acquire a small Polytech? A. Establish a large Polytech, then wait.

See Unitec’s extreme financial distress detailed in documents, RNZ, 4 September 2018. Unitec punched above its weight, when it could. Let’s hope that it has not been completely forgotten, by 2050.

And see my yesterday’s photo-essay on Scoop: Carrington: a site for sore eyes.

————-

Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/05/keith-rankin-essay-carrington-precinct-aka-unitec/

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 5, 2026.

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Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/05/er-report-a-roundup-of-significant-articles-on-eveningreport-nz-for-february-5-2026/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania

This year’s Winter Olympics will be held in northern Italy, starting on Friday.

They will be the most spread out in history: the two main competition sites – Milan and the winter resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo – are more than 400 kilometres apart.

Some 3500 athletes from 93 countries will compete in 16 sports for 245 gold medals.

What’s happening at the 2026 games?

Events are organised into broad categories, including ice sports (such as figure skating and curling), skiing and snowboarding (including moguls and halfpipe), Nordic events (such as cross-country and ski jumping) and sliding events (including skeleton and luge).

For the Milan Cortina games, the program has added eight new events designed to increase variety and gender parity.

The most significant addition is the sport of ski mountaineering, often referred to as “skimo”.

The sport requires competitors to ski uphill, transition to walking up steep climbs and then descend on skis.

The program will be the most gender-balanced winter games to date, with 47% women participation mainly thanks to the introduction of women’s double luge and a women’s large hill event in ski jumping.

While the Winter Olympics have been held in 21 cities in 13 different countries, climate change may limit the number of future host locations.

How the Winter Olympics began

The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.

Current events such as figure skating and ice hockey were actually included in the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920.

Following the success of these events, and support from the father of the modern Olympics Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to hold a separate winter competition in 1924.

This competition was known as the “Winter Sports Week of the 8th Olympiad” and was retroactively recognised as the first Winter Olympics in 1926.

Many of the early Winter Olympics were held in the same year as the summer games – and in the same country.

While the Summer and Winter Olympics have not been held in the some country since 1936, they were held in the same year until 1992.

The IOC then altered their schedule so the summer and winter games were held on alternating even-numbered years.

IOC officials hoped this change would increase the importance of the winter games, which had been regarded as less important than the summer event.

This decision meant the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, were held only two years after the 1992 winter games in Albertville, France.

The next Olympics were the 1996 Summer Olympics, then the 1998 Winter Olympics.

This alternating format continues to this day.

Australia at the Winter Olympics

Australia’s first winter Olympian was speed skater Ken Kennedy in 1936.

Since then, Australia has competed in every Winter Olympics and its team has grown from one athlete in 1936 to more than 50 in recent games.

Speed skater Colin Coates has represented Australia at the most winter games: six times between 1968 and 1988.

It took 58 years for Australia to claim its first Winter Olympic medal in 1994. Steven Bradbury, Richard Nizielski, Andrew Murtha and Kieran Hansen won bronze in the 5,000m short track speed skating relay.

Bradbury also famously won Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in the 1,000m speed skating in 2002.

Australia has won 19 Winter Olympic medals, including six gold.

It has achieved most success in freestyle skiing events such as aerials and mogul, led by multiple medal winners Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila.

Australia’s medal chances in 2026

Australia heads into these games with realistic medal chances in a small number of sports where it has consistently punched above its weight. This may seem surprising for a country better known for beaches than snow but targeted investment and athlete pathways have paid off.

Australia’s strongest gold medal hope is in freestyle skiing moguls, a fast downhill event where athletes ski over steep bumps while performing two jumps.

Jakara Anthony, who won gold in Beijing in 2022, has dominated international competitions since then, regularly winning World Cup events – the highest level of competition outside the Olympics.

Aerial skiing has also emerged as a genuine medal opportunity for Australia.

Laura Peel has continued her strong international form with recent World Cup gold, while Danielle Scott has also topped the podium this season.

With two athletes consistently winning at the highest level outside the Olympics, Australia is a genuine podium contender in this discipline.

Snowboarding also offers strong chances.

In snowboard halfpipe, riders launch out of a giant ice channel and perform aerial tricks while being judged on height, difficulty and style. Scotty James has been among the world’s best for almost a decade and has won multiple World Championship medals.

Australia is also building serious depth through younger athletes such as Valentino Guseli, who has already claimed World Cup gold and is emerging as a genuine podium contender.

In women’s monobob, Bree Walker’s recent World Cup gold shows Australia is now a genuine contender in one of the games’ newer disciplines.

In skeleton, where athletes race head-first down an icy track at speeds exceeding 120 kilometres per hour, Jaclyn Narracott won silver in 2022 – Australia’s first sliding sport medal. Another podium finish is possible for her.

Beyond these core medal prospects, sports such as short track speed skating could also feature in Australia’s medal mix if athletes peak at the right time, with potential for 2026 to rival Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics to date.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Milan Cortina Winter Olympics: history, new events and Australian medal chances – https://theconversation.com/milan-cortina-winter-olympics-history-new-events-and-australian-medal-chances-271834

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/05/milan-cortina-winter-olympics-history-new-events-and-australian-medal-chances-271834/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Scanlan, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Law; Academic Co-Lead, CSAM Deterrence Centre, University of Tasmania

In the 2024–25 financial year alone, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received nearly 83,000 reports of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), primarily on mainstream platforms. This was a 41% increase from the year before.

It is in this context of child abuse occurring in plain sight, on mainstream platforms, that the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, requires transparency notices every six months from Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and other big tech firms.

The latest report, published today, shows some progress in detecting known abuse material – including material that is generated by artificial intelligence (AI), live-streamed abuse, online grooming, and sexual extortion of children and adults – and reducing moderation times.

However, the report also reveals ongoing and serious safety gaps that still put users, especially children, at risk. It makes clear that transparency is not enough. Consistent with existing calls for a legally mandated Digital Duty of Care, we need to move from merely recording harms to preventing them through better design.

What the reports tell us

These transparency reports are important for companies to meet regulatory requirements.

But the new eSafety “snapshot” shows an ongoing gap between what technology can do and what companies are actually doing to tackle online harms.

One of the positive findings is that Snap, which owns SnapChat, has reduced its child sexual exploitation and abuse moderation response time from 90 minutes to 11 minutes.

Microsoft has also expanded its detection of known abuse material within Outlook.

However, Meta and Google continue to leave video calling services such as Messenger and Google Meet unmonitored for live-streamed abuse. This is despite them using detection tools on their other platforms.

The eSafety report highlights that Apple and Discord are failing to implement proactive detection, with Apple relying almost entirely on user reports rather than automated safety technology.

Apple, Discord, Google’s Chat, Meet and Messages, Microsoft Teams, and Snap are not currently using available software to detect the sexual extortion of children.

The biggest areas of concern identified by the commissioner are live video and encrypted environments. There is still insufficient investment in tools to detect live online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Despite Skype (owned by Microsoft) historically implementing such protections before its closure, Microsoft Teams and other providers still fail to do so.

Alongside the report, eSafety launched a new dashboard that tracks the progress of technology companies.

The dashboard highlights key metrics. These include the technologies and data sources used to detect harmful content, the amount of content that is user reported (which indicates automated systems did not catch it), and the size of the trust and safety workforce within the companies.

How can we improve safety?

The ongoing gaps identified by the eSafety Commissioner show that current reporting requirements are insufficient to make platforms safe.

The industry should put safety before profit. But this rarely happens unless laws require it.

A legislated digital duty of care, as proposed by the review of the Online Safety Act, is part of the answer.

This would make tech companies legally responsible for showing their systems are safe by design before launch. Instead of waiting for reports to reveal long-standing safety gaps, a duty of care would require platforms to identify risks early and implement already available solutions, such as language analysis software and deterrence messaging.

Beyond detection: the need for safety

To stop people from sharing or accessing harmful and illegal material, we also need to focus on deterrence and encourage them to seek help.

This is a key focus of the CSAM Deterrence Centre, a collaboration between Jesuit Social Services and the University of Tasmania.

Working with major tech platforms, we have found proactive safety measures can reduce harmful behaviours.

Evidence shows a key tool, which is underused, is warning messages that deter and disrupt offending behaviours in real time.

Such messages can be triggered when new or previously known abuse material is shared, or a conversation is detected as sexual extortion or grooming. In addition to blocking the behaviour, platforms can guide users to seek help.

This includes directing people to support services such as Australia’s Stop It Now! helpline. This is a child sexual abuse prevention service for adults who have concerns about their own (or someone else’s) sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children.

Safety by design should not be a choice

The eSafety Commissioner continues to urge companies to take a more comprehensive approach to addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse on their platforms. The technology is already available. But companies often lack the will to use it if it might slow user growth and affect profits.

Transparency reports show us the real state of the industry.

Right now, they reveal a sector that knows how to solve its problems but is moving too slowly.

We need to go beyond reports and strengthen legislation that makes safety the standard, not just an extra feature.

The author acknowledges the contribution of Matt Tyler and Georgia Naldrett from Jesuit Social Services, which operates the Stop It Now! Helpline in Australia, and partners with the University of Tasmania in the CSAM Deterrence Centre.

Joel Scanlan is the academic co-lead of the CSAM Deterrence Centre, which is a partnership between the University of Tasmania and Jesuit Social Services, who operate Stop It Now (Australia), a therapeutic service providing support to people who are concerned with their own, or someone else’s, feelings towards children. He has received funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology, the eSafety Commissioner, Lucy Faithfull Foundation and the Internet Watch Foundation.

– ref. Big tech companies are still failing to tackle child abuse material online – https://theconversation.com/big-tech-companies-are-still-failing-to-tackle-child-abuse-material-online-274857

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/05/big-tech-companies-are-still-failing-to-tackle-child-abuse-material-online-274857/