Melissa Sweet

1 week ago | croakey.org | Melissa Sweet

Children and young people want to be centrally involved in developing more effective responses to domestic, family and sexual violence, according to Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, CEO of Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS). Boyd-Caine reports below on the recent ANROWS national conference, which had the theme, Listen, Learn, Act: Centring Children and Young People to End Violence.

1 week ago | croakey.org | Melissa Sweet

Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Ageing, and Disability and the NDIS, has some serious heavy lifting ahead, and The Health Wrap identifies several key priorities for the Albanese Government’s attention. Meanwhile, as turmoil continues in science and health spheres in the United States, an average of 350 people are dying there every week from COVID-19, and many countries are actively recruiting American scientists.

1 week ago | croakey.org | Melissa Sweet

The use of deep fake images to target Kamilaroi athlete Jaime Chapman highlights many issues of concern about artificial intelligence (AI), and also raises wider questions about sexism and racism in sport, according to Macquarie University researchers Dr Tamika Worrell and Dr Innez Haua. Tamika Worrell and Innez Haua write:Elite athlete Jaime Chapman has repeatedly been targeted by the sharing of images of her, without her consent, across social media.

2 weeks ago | croakey.org | Melissa Sweet

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has called on the Albanese Government to do more to address the “escalating humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and to work toward a just and sustainable peace, reports The Zap this week. The column also covers global health developments, including the world-first Pandemic Agreement and a new paper investigating inequalities in mental health. Diverse perspectives on a range of contentious health and aged care reforms are also highlighted.

2 weeks ago | croakey.org | Melissa Sweet

Reports are emerging from the NSW floods of residents saying they were given little warning “of the catastrophe that was approaching”. Politicians cannot make the same claims about the catastrophic effects of climate change, which are increasingly felt across Australia, and which include extreme rainfall events. For years, scientific, medical and health agencies and leaders have called for urgent action to phase out fossil fuels, and for governments to invest in mitigation and adaptation efforts.