Innholdsfortegnelse for 96.3 Jul-Sept 2025 i AQ: Australian Quarterly
A WORD
Congratulations Australia on sending a resounding message to a Liberal party so bereft of ideas and vision that it mistook a shambling wreckage of Abbottera obstructionism, Morrison-lite chaos, and Trumpian culture wars for a viable policy platform. Yet despite Labor’s historic win, its primary vote only rose 2%, while the Coalition’s dropped 3.2% - meaning that the overall trend away from the major parties is still in full swing. For the first time ever, more people voted for an independent or minor party than voted for the Coalition. So now can we please kill off the lazy shorthand of the ‘2-party preferred’ system? The Coalition can no longer be said to be ‘preferred’ by 2/3 of the voting population – all this does is prop up their relevance and misguided…
Time for Australia to SLAPP back
Featuring of the grievous impacts of climate change, the logo of energy company AGL was accompanied by the tagline “Australia’s Greatest Climate Liability”. Greenpeace’s signature logo on the bottom of the posters left no doubt as to who was responsible for the production and distribution. Nor was there any doubt that a new website (australiasgreatestliability.com), which bore AGL’s logo and signature colours, along with a report outlining AGL’s polluting activities, was parody. But the plainness of the intent didn’t stop AGL from threatening to sue Greenpeace for infringing its intellectual property rights. Our position was that Greenpeace was acting in a principled way, and well within our legal rights, so we declined AGL’s demand to remove the company’s branding from our campaign materials. Shortly afterwards, AGL—a multibillion-dollar company—initiated legal proceedings…
REFERENCES
Hands on the Wheel: Social Media and Youth Mental Health 1. McGorry PD, Mei C, Dalal N, Alvarez-Jimenez M, Blakemore SJ, Browne V, et al. The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health. Lancet Psychiatry. 2024;11(9):731-74. 2. Moran P, Chandler A, Dudgeon P, Kirtley OJ, Knipe D, Pirkis J, et al. The Lancet Commission on self-harm. Lancet. 2024;404(10461):1445-92. 3. Department of Infrastructure Transport Regional Development Communications and the Arts. Road deaths Australia - monthly bulletins. Online: Australian Government; 2025. 4. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Injury in Australia: transport accidents. Online: AIHW: Australian Government; 2024. 5. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Mental health: emergency departments. Online: AIHW: Australian Government; 2024. 6. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Deaths in Australia. Online: AIHW: Australian Government; 2025. 7. Grant JI.…
Hands on the Wheel: Social Media and Youth Mental Health
Much of the conversation lately has focussed on when and how young people should be permitted to access social media, often fuelled by correlational data supporting that high users of social media tend to report poorer mental health outcomes. However, decades of research have shown that several complex factors contribute to rising rates of mental illhealth, self-harm, and suicide for young people.1,2 Blaming social media alone is far too simplistic. To best support youth mental health, the environments in which young people communicate and learn need to be age-appropriate and safe. For this reason, it is online safety that must be at the centre of policy responses to social media access and the content to which young people are exposed, not just one-size-fits-all age restrictions. Young people’s use of social…
Empowering the Collective: The Fight Against Mis/Disinformation
Otherwise known as fake news, alternative facts, propaganda, problematic information, and conspiracy, mis- and dis-information are age-old phenomena, yet have become household concerns in recent years. While their definitions can hinge on intent (with misinformation understood as false content that’s spread without intent to deceive, while disinformation is deliberately deceptive and designed to cause harm)1, this framing can ignore the complexity of how information is created, shared, and consumed. The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report finds that mis- and disinformation pose the greatest immediate risks to societies For instance, someone motivated by political, economic, or ideological goals could deliberately create and distribute false information, but an unassuming person could share it believing it is true – is this an act of sharing disinformation, misinformation, or both? Also, how…
Ending HIV in Australia: Is it Possible?
In Australia, where the epidemic is comparatively well-controlled, the question is not whether we can eliminate HIV transmission but whether we will seize this unique opportunity to do so. Decades of scientific advances and community-led advocacy have brought us to the brink of achieving virtual elimination, defined as less than 91 cases per year in Australia. The Australian government aims to reach this milestone by 2030. The scientific tools are in place, but science alone is never enough. Success requires a unified, well-resourced effort that navigates the thorny intersections of evidence, policy, and the human realities of stigma, discrimination, and inequality. The Tools We Have: A World-Leading Response Australia is a global leader in the HIV response. The implementation of harm reduction programs like needle exchanges, alongside the widespread availability…
Youth Crime in Australia: Rhetoric vs Reality
In Australia, the topic of youth crime frequently dominates public discourse, often provoking strong emotions and robust political debate. From sensationalist media reports to political rhetoric, the issue has become a lightning rod for fear and anxiety about the state of society, the safety of citizens, and the future of our young people across the country. These discussions, however, often obscure the evidence, sometimes leading to policy solutions that are not only ineffective but at times counterproductive. In some instances, punitive measures aimed at reducing youth crime not only fail to address the root causes but also exacerbate the problem, leading to higher rates of reoffending. The reality of youth crime in Australia is one of steady decline over the past several decades. Far from matching the sensational media portrayals,…
