The Conversation Yearbook 2018: 50 standout articles from Australia’s top thinkers

203 Pages·2018·2.35 MB·English

by  John Watson

THE
CONVERSION
YEARBOOK
2018
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited Level 1, 715 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria
3053, Australia [email protected]
www.mup.com.au
First published 2018
Text © remains with the identified original authors, 2018
Design and typography © Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2018
This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent
amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or
process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.
Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or
organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.
Text design and typesetting by Typeskill Cover design by Mary Callahan Design
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
9780522873368 (paperback)
9780522873375 (ebook)
Contents
Introduction
Misha Ketchell, Editor, The Conversation
Chapter One Exploring the Evidence
Young blood: Magic or medicine?
David Irving, University of Technology Sydney
Five things we wouldn’t know without NAPLAN
Peter Goss, Grattan Institute
FactCheck: Has Australia’s net debt doubled under the current
government?
Mark Crosby, Monash University; Phil Lewis, University of Canberra
Curious Kids: What causes windy weather?
Andrew B. Watkins, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
I’m not overweight, so why do I need to eat healthy foods?
Alessandro R. Demaio, EAT Chief Executive Officer
Some women feel grief after an abortion, but there’s no evidence of
serious mental health issues
Kirsten Black, University of Sydney
FactCheck: Is Australia’s population the ‘highest-growing in the
world’?
Liz Allen, Australian National University; Tom Wilson, Charles Darwin
University
Chapter Two Leadership Matters
‘Balmain basket weavers’ strike again, tearing the Liberal Party apart
Judith Brett, La Trobe University
The high costs of our destructive coup culture
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Climate policy is a fiendish problem for governments—time for an
independent authority with real powers
Peter C. Doherty, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Part of what Australians think is good leadership might just be Anglo
traits
Dan Caprar, University of Sydney Business School
Closing the gap on Indigenous education must start with commitment
and respect
Peter Buckskin, University of South Australia
Vice-chancellors’ salaries are just a symptom of what’s wrong with
universities
Kristen Lyons, The University of Queensland; Richard Hil, Griffith
University
Why the world should be worried about the rise of strongman politics
Tony Walker, La Trobe University
Chapter Three Life on the Margins
‘Just a piece of meat’: How homeless women have little choice but to
use sex for survival
Juliet Watson, RMIT University
Homelessness: Australia’s shameful story of policy complacency and
failure continues
Hal Pawson, UNSW; Cameron Parsell, The University of Queensland
What it’s like to be a ‘black economy’ worker
Miriam Vandenberg, University of Tasmania
Villages wiped out: Why infectious diseases are so much more harmful
to isolated peoples
Maxine Whittaker, James Cook University
Wollemi pines are dinosaur trees
Cris Brack, Australian National University
How an alien seaweed invasion spawned an Antarctic mystery
Adele Morrison, Andy Hogg and Ceridwen Fraser, Australian National
University; Erik van Sebille, Utrecht University
Discovered: A huge liquid water lake beneath the southern pole of
Mars
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland
Chapter Four The Power of Words and Images
When literature takes you by surprise: Or, the case against trigger
warnings
Stephanie Trigg, University of Melbourne
Sexist abuse has a long history in Australian politics—and takes us all
to a dark place
Denis Muller, University of Melbourne
Barracking, sheilas and shouts: How the Irish influenced Australian
English
Howard Manns and Kate Burridge, Monash University
The horror and pleasure of misused words: From mispronunciation to
malapropisms
Roslyn Petelin, The University of Queensland
How imagery and media coverage influence our empathy for strangers
Dan Crimston, The University of Queensland
Chapter Five Navigating a Changing World
Overcoming our mistrust of robots in our homes and workplaces
Alan Finkel, Australia’s Chief Scientist
China’s Social Credit System puts its people under pressure to be
model citizens
Meg Jing Zeng, University of Zurich
Growing cities face challenges of keeping the masses moving up, down
and across
Andrea Connor and Donald McNeill, Western Sydney University
With apartment living on the rise, how do families and their noisy
children fit in?
Sophie-May Kerr, University of Wollongong
Protecting your kids from failure isn’t helpful—here’s how to build
their resilience
Mandie Shean, Edith Cowan University
Australian Ninja Warrior and the death of style and grace in sport
Alastair Blanshard, The University of Queensland
A bird’s-eye view of New Zealand’s changing glaciers
Andrew Lorrey, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research;
Andrew Mackintosh and Brian Anderson, Victoria University of
Wellington
As humans change the world, predators seize the chance to succeed
Bill Bateman, Curtin University; Trish Fleming, Murdoch University
Chapter Six Work, Pay and Prices
Working four-day weeks for five days’ pay? Research shows it pays off
Jarrod Haar, Auckland University of Technology
Why we don’t need to prepare young people for the ‘future of work’
Shirley Jackson, University of Melbourne
A silent career killer—here’s what workplaces can do about
menopause
Ruth McPhail, Griffith University
FactCheck: GetUp! on the impact of US corporate tax cuts on wages
Fabrizio Carmignani, Griffith University; Janine Dixon, Victoria University
FactCheck: Does South Australia have the ‘highest energy prices’ in
the nation and ‘the least reliable grid’?
Dylan McConnell, University of Melbourne; David Blowers, Grattan
Institute
Chapter Seven Confronting Our Past
Jesus wasn’t white: He was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew.
Here’s why that matters
Robyn J. Whitaker, University of Divinity
‘Western civilisation’? History teaching has moved on, and so should
those who champion it
Rebecca Cairns, Deakin University
Friday essay: On the trail of the London thylacines
Penny Edmonds and Hannah Stark, University of Tasmania
A brief history of fake doctors, and how they get away with it
Philippa Martyr, University of Western Australia
Friday essay: The ‘great Australian silence’ 50 years on
Anna Clark, University of Technology Sydney
Time to honour a historical legend: 50 years since the discovery of
Mungo Lady
Jim Bowler, University of Melbourne
Chapter Eight Questions of Identity
A sports car and a glitter ball are now in space—what does that say
about us as humans?
Alice Gorman, Flinders University
Tourists are stuck at the airport, but erupting Mt Agung has a deeper
significance for the Balinese
Graeme MacRae, Massey University
First reconciliation, then a republic—starting with changing the date of
Australia Day
Maggie Walter, University of Tasmania
A DNA test says you’ve got Indigenous Australian ancestry. Now
what?
Elizabeth Watt and Emma Kowal, Deakin University; Shaun Lehmann,
Australian National University
How the everyday commute is changing who we are
David Bissell, University of Melbourne
Introduction
Misha Ketchell
Editor, The Conversation
As I write this introduction Australians are still scratching their heads over the
premature departure of yet another prime minister. There is now among us a
generation of voters who have not seen an Australian prime minister complete an
entire term. Not Kevin Rudd. Not Julia Gillard. Not Tony Abbott. Not Malcolm
Turnbull.
Australia is gripped by what has been dubbed a ‘coup culture’, one so
entrenched it threatens our democracy and treats voters like a ‘gullible audience
for a low-grade reality show’, as Michelle Grattan observes. This hyperactive
political cycle reflects a troubling new reality in which personality politics and
an increasingly partisan media make considered policy development all but
impossible.
Turnbull’s demise is a case study. He was dumped after trying to introduce
the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), a middle-of-the-road policy widely
supported within the business community and criticised from the left as being
manifestly inadequate to meet Australia’s emission target under the Paris