Latest news with #UniversityofNewcastle
Japan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Swiss glacier collapse is a lesson on climate disaster management
A Swiss mountain slope bursting and unleashing a cascade of rocks and ice over an idyllic Alpine village last week was a chilling image, but also the symbol of a well-managed climate crisis. The collapse of the Birch glacier in the Swiss Alps was an expected disaster. Authorities and scientists had been monitoring the area closely and when the first signs of instability started to appear, over a week before the event, they evacuated the town of Blatten, on the valley below the glacier. The landslide obliterated about 90% of the village and one person is missing, according to Swiss authorities. "It was the least worst scenario — any loss of property or homes is a tragedy, but they were prepared for it,' said Rachel Carr, a glaciologist at the University of Newcastle in the U.K. "We can at least manage the threat of the loss of life, we need to at least do that.' Yet not all countries are able to respond as effectively to such disasters. Billions of people globally live downstream from glaciers and at least 15 million are directly exposed to floods from glacial lakes bursting, according to a 2023 research paper co-authored by Carr. Glaciers have melted at the fastest pace on record this decade, leading to an increase of lakes that can burst any time, unleashing hundreds of tons of rocks and ice, together with landslides and floods that destroy everything on their path. "We see the highest risk in the Himalayas and the Andes, where people have a strong dependence on subsistence agriculture,' said Carr, speaking on the phone from Bhutan. A lake outburst or a glacier collapsing can "take out their yaks, their grazing land and their capacity to generate food and money for years to come.' Police control the entry to the village where a crumbling glacier partially collapsed and tumbled in Blatten, Switzerland on Monday. | REUTERS Human settlements in many high mountain areas are days away from the nearest road, so bringing in materials to rebuild can take years, said Carr, whose current research focuses on helping set up sensors to monitor glaciers in Bhutan, one of the world's few carbon negative countries, which also has some of the fastest-retreating glaciers in the world. Glaciers are a thick layer of ice that has eroded the mountain for centuries. They often act like a containment wall, holding rocks and mud together. When the glacier melts, it becomes thinner until eventually it can't hold the mountain anymore and it collapses. At the same time, permafrost, the frozen ground present in high mountain environments, is thawing fast, making terrains more unstable. These events are made worse by climate change, and they played a role in the collapse of the Birch glacier, said Jean-Baptiste Bosson, a glaciologist and the director of nature preservation non-profit Marge Sauvage. Establishing a direct link between the event and climate change is difficult, if not impossible, but it seems likely that it played a role in the event, Swiss researchers said in a note. When Birch collapsed, Bosson was in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, attending the first-ever United Nations-sponsored glacier conference. Suddenly, glaciologists there saw their field of study become front page news and felt like the calls for action they had been repeating for decades would be listened to. Debris and the rest of the village of Blatten, now submerged by the obstructed river Lonza, after the huge Birch Glacier collapsed and a massive landslide in the Swiss Alps on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI The conference ended with a final declaration highlighting the need to protect glaciers as climate change advances, and to monitor them to prepare for hazards. It also called on governments and finance institutions to fund these efforts and contribute to a glacier preservation fund coordinated by the U.N. Tajikistan made an initial contribution of $100,000 and no additional funding has been announced, although several countries have expressed interest, according to a spokesperson from the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization. "I'm a bit disappointed — there are no heads of state here' beyond Tajikistan's, Bosson said. "Glaciers are melting and we have to do something, but no one put on the table real, effective solutions.' Wealthy countries including France or Switzerland have their own programs and are watching dozens of glaciers with drones, satellites, sensors and measurements on the ground. Even with these advanced methods it's impossible to predict which glacier will collapse next, said Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. "I would pay a lot of money in order to be able to answer this question,' Farinotti said. "We don't know why this particular glacier happened to fall down at that particular moment in time.' The vast amounts of data and images from the collapse of the Birch glacier will allow researchers to reconstruct the event, he said. "But we are not able to predict one of these the same way we can predict meteorological conditions three days ahead because the conditions are so complex. We try hard, though.' Authorities can do more than monitoring. In France, the Tete-Rousse glacier is under watch since scientists discovered the equivalent of twenty Olympic swimming pools of water were held underneath the ice. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people in the Haute Savoie region could be affected if that glacier collapses, according to local media. Over the past 15 years, some water has been pumped from underneath the glacier, an alarm system has been set up across the valley and construction in vulnerable areas has been restricted. Swiss authorities were already thinking about next steps just hours after Blatten was engulfed in ice and rock. At a press conference with emergency authorities in the area last Wednesday, the mayor of Blatten, Matthias Bellwald, appeared moved as he addressed journalists and the community. "The village is under rubble, but we will rebuild it,' Bellwald said. "This will take a long, long time, we will require help and support, but the glacier can't collapse twice.'
United News of India
3 days ago
- Science
- United News of India
Rare gas detected on distant exoplanet sheds light on planet formation: study
Sydney, June 2 (UNI) Astronomers have detected silicon monoxide gas in the atmosphere of a planet 850 lightyears from Earth, the first time the gas has ever been observed on any planet, including those in the solar system. According to a press release from the University of Newcastle in Australia on Monday, the research offers unprecedented insight into the formation and atmospheric chemistry of exoplanet WASP-121b, also known as Tylos. The planet, discovered in 2015, is an ultra-hot gas giant similar in size to Jupiter but far hotter, with temperatures exceeding 2,500 degrees Celsius, the release said. The international team, led by Tom Evans-Soma from the University of Newcastle and involved 18 institutions across Australia, Germany, the United States, Britain and India, used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to observe Tylos continuously for 40 hours, which is the most comprehensive observation ever made of an exoplanet completing a full orbit, it said. Over 3,500 exposures, about one every minute, were captured, allowing researchers to analyze both the dayside and nightside atmospheres, said the study published in Nature Astronomy. While expected molecules like water vapor and carbon monoxide were found, the surprising detection of silicon monoxide and methane, rare on such hot planets, challenges existing atmospheric models, Evans-Soma said. The study suggests Tylos formed in a cold, distant region rich in ice and rocky material before migrating closer to its star, where intense heat vaporized the rocks into silicon monoxide, a planet born in ice and forged in fire, he said. Though Tylos is uninhabitable, the study advances the search for Earth-like planets by improving techniques to detect potential signs of life in distant atmospheres, he added. UNI XINDUA AKT SSP
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Tiny Pebbles Created One of The Most Extreme Worlds in The Galaxy
The tiny pebbles left over from a star's formation fed the growth of one of the strangest, wildest worlds humanity has ever known. It's a famous one, Tylos, or WASP-121b, a gas giant exoplanet some 880 light-years away, so close to its host star that its atmosphere is filled with clouds of vaporized metal. Now, new observations show that this world – one of the most studied in the Milky Way – was constructed from the dust and rocks that circled the star, back when the system was still in its early formative years. The smoking gun? Silicon monoxide – clouds of vaporized rock. Using JWST, a team of astronomers identified the molecule in the exoplanet's atmosphere, in addition to water, carbon monoxide, and methane. "The relative abundances of carbon, oxygen, and silicon offer insights into how this planet formed and acquired its material," explains astronomer Thomas Evans-Soma of the University of Newcastle in Australia, who led the research. Tylos is around 1.75 times the radius but only 1.16 times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting a yellow-white star named Dilmun that's 1.5 times the radius of the Sun, on a breakneck orbit of just 30 hours. It's so close to the star that it's literally evaporating, its atmosphere puffed up by the intense heat. As it whips around Dilmun, Tylos passes between us and it, which means it's in the perfect configuration for study. Some of the star's light passes through the exoplanet's puffy atmosphere and becomes altered by the molecules therein as it goes. Astronomers can painstakingly study these tiny signals to figure out which molecules are responsible for the alterations. Tylos is what is known as a hot Jupiter – gas giant worlds in bogglingly close proximities to their host stars. They're something of an open question: they can't form in those close orbits, because the radiation and winds from the star would stop the gas from accumulating. The leading explanation is that they form farther away and migrate inwards. The first detection of silicon monoxide in an exoplanet's atmosphere was described in a paper published in 2022. It's a very difficult and rare molecule to detect. But it's the combination of molecules in the atmosphere of Tylos that helped Evans-Soma and his team figure out the exoplanet's birthplace. Stars are born from dense clouds of molecular gas. As they spin, material arranges itself in a disk that spools into and feeds the growing star. Once the star is powerful enough to push away the material with its winds, its growth is cut off, and the material that's left in the disk clumps in small pebbles of dust and ice that stick together and grow to form planets. At closer proximities to the host star, ice sublimates into gas. This is known as the ice line or the snow line, and different ices have different sublimation points. Studying the ratios of the molecules in the atmosphere of Tylos, the researchers concluded that the exoplanet formed at a distance from its star where methane was in its vapor form, but ice remained frozen. In the Solar System, that distance is out between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus. Dilmun is hotter than our Sun, so the distance would be even greater for Tylos – suggesting that it had to migrate a long way to get to its current position. It's also some of the best evidence yet for how hot Jupiters form and evolve. But there's another mystery. The methane was detected on the exoplanet's nightside, which faces permanently away from Dilmun. Methane is unstable at high temperatures, and would be undetectable on the scorching dayside. As it moves around into the nightside, it's expected to remain undetectable at the same altitude. The plentiful abundance, therefore, of methane high in the nightside atmosphere of Tylos suggests some interesting atmospheric processes going on. The researchers think it's vertical mixing – strong updrafts carrying methane from deep in the atmosphere to the upper atmosphere, where it can be detected by JWST. "This challenges exoplanet dynamical models, which will likely need to be adapted to reproduce the strong vertical mixing we've uncovered on the nightside," Evans-Soma says. Although we've peered at Tylos more than most of the nearly 6,000 exoplanets confirmed to date, the strange, melting world still has a lot to teach us about planets in the Milky Way. The research has been published in Nature Astronomy. Haunting Image Shows The Moon Deimos From The Surface of Mars Stunning Images Reveal The Sun's Surface in Unprecedented Detail The Universe's Most Powerful Cosmic Rays May Finally Be Explained
The Advertiser
3 days ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
We're trading repairs for housing affordability
SINCE 2022, there have been regular flooding events occurring along the entire Australian east coast, from north Queensland through NSW to Victoria. They have resulted in tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. Houses damaged and destroyed in the Lismore floods of 2022 are still being repaired or rebuilt so that their owners can live in them once more. Flood events since then have occurred in Cairns, Ingham, Townsville, Brisbane, Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Taree, the Hunter Valley, the Sydney Basin and areas down the south coast into Victoria. That's all within just two and a half years. All areas hit by such disasters require renovation and rebuilding of people's homes. In the most recent floods, authorities estimate 10,000 houses have been affected. Thousands of tradespeople are engaged in the repair and reconstruction of these homes. With so many tradespeople occupied in these rebuild programs as disasters keep coming, the workforce required to construct the large numbers of new houses to address the general housing shortage just doesn't exist. Trying to train substantial numbers of new tradespeople to address the scale of the shortage seems impossible. It is reasonable to presume that more disasters, such as floods and fires, will provide plenty of ongoing reconstruction work and take large numbers of tradespeople away from new home builds. In two or three years, I expect they will still be repairing and rebuilding homes in Kempsey and Taree. Substantially reducing immigration into Australia for a number of years to allow a catch-up in the workload is required. The problem with that, of course, is that to maintain our economy and standard of living, it is reliant on an ever-increasing level of migration into this country. Many people would be surprised by how important it is to have a high level of immigration occurring on a constant basis. It's very much like an ongoing Ponzi scheme. If you stop, the whole system (economy and living standard) goes into decline. Things are bad enough now, but I believe house prices are going to go up substantially, while availability will plateau, or at least not increase substantially. THE Davidson Report found Newcastle council meetings were too long and overly political, from what I understand. So, at the first council meeting after the report, it felt like all the party politicians lined up to spend two hours attacking the lord mayor. One hour was devoted to recognising the University of Newcastle. It's not that hard to recognise; it's huge. Perhaps a positive is that our elected party politicians are now all voting together, albeit on everything, to drive out any 'non-party' views. They seem united in backing the opposite of lord mayor Ross Kerridge to me. Wow, maybe party politics is dead in Newcastle. HERE go the Boomers again, trying to kill off a proposed tax on super accounts over $3 million. They were successful in defeating changes to negative gearing, franking credits and capital gains tax concessions, so why not? This is a generation for whom university was free, jobs were plentiful, houses were cheap and for many, an era of two-income households. A lot of wealth was created. They are also being supported by the taxpayer in retirement and have their hands out for whatever is on offer. This comes at a terrible cost to younger generations, who see the future as a continual struggle and unfairly carry the tax burden. We have real poverty in Australia, with children who go without, which limits their potential. We have homelessness growing, and people living with insecurity over food, housing and healthcare. It is not good enough and can only be addressed through fair and sweeping tax reform. The Labor government has six years to turn the growing inequality gap around and we must all pay where we can afford to do so. The vulgar displays of wealth in this country show a cohort who have not paid enough tax and don't seem to think they owe society, from which they have done very well, any recompense. The pressure on public hospitals, schools, social housing and welfare is not sustainable. End the bleating from those who can afford to pay. TWO recent opinion pieces made some good points. One by Mark Kenny on party politics, and another on super changes by Jack Thrower. Thrower is an economist with the Australia Institute, which claims to be non-partisan. It was started by former Greens candidate Clive Hamilton and its director, Richard Denniss, is a former senior strategic advisor to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who taught at the Newcastle University and the Australian National University (ANU). Mark Kenny also writes for The Canberra Times, a left-centre paper. He is a professor at ANU and a former Fairfax and ABC employee. He is the director of the National Press Club. Their opinions are relevant, but thanks to the Herald, we can look at those opinions with more insight. Mind you, if you want a left-wing opinion, on just about anything, you can get it from the ANU. Even if the City of Newcastle was considered high performing, clearly some common sense is missing in the hard rubbish collection section ("Flooding leads to fight over rubbish", Newcastle Herald 23/5) if poor residents affected by flooding are told to wait and take their rotting rubbish inside. How about organising a priority collection for them? I'm sure those not affected by flooding could wait another week. It's not rocket science. MICHAEL Hinchey is spot on ("The centre is where you must hold", Letters, 28/5). The near-defunct Coalition needs to stop pandering to the climate change deniers (an ever-diminishing minority) and state clearly and categorically that they accept the reality of anthropomorphic climate change. Until they do so, they'll remain an anachronistic irrelevant force in Australian politics. Did 'Macadamus' predict the Coalition band getting back together? They won't pull a crowd, but they don't have to; the band just has to sit back and watch Albo turn into Milli Vanilli. I WONDER if Steve Barnett ("Insurgents are survivors somehow", Letters, 27/5) knows he is talking about old Israeli propaganda, suddenly replaced by 'Hamas is using the food to buy weapons.' From who? The surrounding Israeli Army. Then it changed to 'They are using it to buy war materials'. What, rubble? Then it morphed into selling it to get money from Palestinians. Why, when they can just take the money? None of these things can happen if there is enough food in Gaza to begin with. TO those who pen long, biased political dissertations, I say there's none so blind as those who do not want to see. SINCE 2022, there have been regular flooding events occurring along the entire Australian east coast, from north Queensland through NSW to Victoria. They have resulted in tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. Houses damaged and destroyed in the Lismore floods of 2022 are still being repaired or rebuilt so that their owners can live in them once more. Flood events since then have occurred in Cairns, Ingham, Townsville, Brisbane, Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Taree, the Hunter Valley, the Sydney Basin and areas down the south coast into Victoria. That's all within just two and a half years. All areas hit by such disasters require renovation and rebuilding of people's homes. In the most recent floods, authorities estimate 10,000 houses have been affected. Thousands of tradespeople are engaged in the repair and reconstruction of these homes. With so many tradespeople occupied in these rebuild programs as disasters keep coming, the workforce required to construct the large numbers of new houses to address the general housing shortage just doesn't exist. Trying to train substantial numbers of new tradespeople to address the scale of the shortage seems impossible. It is reasonable to presume that more disasters, such as floods and fires, will provide plenty of ongoing reconstruction work and take large numbers of tradespeople away from new home builds. In two or three years, I expect they will still be repairing and rebuilding homes in Kempsey and Taree. Substantially reducing immigration into Australia for a number of years to allow a catch-up in the workload is required. The problem with that, of course, is that to maintain our economy and standard of living, it is reliant on an ever-increasing level of migration into this country. Many people would be surprised by how important it is to have a high level of immigration occurring on a constant basis. It's very much like an ongoing Ponzi scheme. If you stop, the whole system (economy and living standard) goes into decline. Things are bad enough now, but I believe house prices are going to go up substantially, while availability will plateau, or at least not increase substantially. THE Davidson Report found Newcastle council meetings were too long and overly political, from what I understand. So, at the first council meeting after the report, it felt like all the party politicians lined up to spend two hours attacking the lord mayor. One hour was devoted to recognising the University of Newcastle. It's not that hard to recognise; it's huge. Perhaps a positive is that our elected party politicians are now all voting together, albeit on everything, to drive out any 'non-party' views. They seem united in backing the opposite of lord mayor Ross Kerridge to me. Wow, maybe party politics is dead in Newcastle. HERE go the Boomers again, trying to kill off a proposed tax on super accounts over $3 million. They were successful in defeating changes to negative gearing, franking credits and capital gains tax concessions, so why not? This is a generation for whom university was free, jobs were plentiful, houses were cheap and for many, an era of two-income households. A lot of wealth was created. They are also being supported by the taxpayer in retirement and have their hands out for whatever is on offer. This comes at a terrible cost to younger generations, who see the future as a continual struggle and unfairly carry the tax burden. We have real poverty in Australia, with children who go without, which limits their potential. We have homelessness growing, and people living with insecurity over food, housing and healthcare. It is not good enough and can only be addressed through fair and sweeping tax reform. The Labor government has six years to turn the growing inequality gap around and we must all pay where we can afford to do so. The vulgar displays of wealth in this country show a cohort who have not paid enough tax and don't seem to think they owe society, from which they have done very well, any recompense. The pressure on public hospitals, schools, social housing and welfare is not sustainable. End the bleating from those who can afford to pay. TWO recent opinion pieces made some good points. One by Mark Kenny on party politics, and another on super changes by Jack Thrower. Thrower is an economist with the Australia Institute, which claims to be non-partisan. It was started by former Greens candidate Clive Hamilton and its director, Richard Denniss, is a former senior strategic advisor to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who taught at the Newcastle University and the Australian National University (ANU). Mark Kenny also writes for The Canberra Times, a left-centre paper. He is a professor at ANU and a former Fairfax and ABC employee. He is the director of the National Press Club. Their opinions are relevant, but thanks to the Herald, we can look at those opinions with more insight. Mind you, if you want a left-wing opinion, on just about anything, you can get it from the ANU. Even if the City of Newcastle was considered high performing, clearly some common sense is missing in the hard rubbish collection section ("Flooding leads to fight over rubbish", Newcastle Herald 23/5) if poor residents affected by flooding are told to wait and take their rotting rubbish inside. How about organising a priority collection for them? I'm sure those not affected by flooding could wait another week. It's not rocket science. MICHAEL Hinchey is spot on ("The centre is where you must hold", Letters, 28/5). The near-defunct Coalition needs to stop pandering to the climate change deniers (an ever-diminishing minority) and state clearly and categorically that they accept the reality of anthropomorphic climate change. Until they do so, they'll remain an anachronistic irrelevant force in Australian politics. Did 'Macadamus' predict the Coalition band getting back together? They won't pull a crowd, but they don't have to; the band just has to sit back and watch Albo turn into Milli Vanilli. I WONDER if Steve Barnett ("Insurgents are survivors somehow", Letters, 27/5) knows he is talking about old Israeli propaganda, suddenly replaced by 'Hamas is using the food to buy weapons.' From who? The surrounding Israeli Army. Then it changed to 'They are using it to buy war materials'. What, rubble? Then it morphed into selling it to get money from Palestinians. Why, when they can just take the money? None of these things can happen if there is enough food in Gaza to begin with. TO those who pen long, biased political dissertations, I say there's none so blind as those who do not want to see. SINCE 2022, there have been regular flooding events occurring along the entire Australian east coast, from north Queensland through NSW to Victoria. They have resulted in tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. Houses damaged and destroyed in the Lismore floods of 2022 are still being repaired or rebuilt so that their owners can live in them once more. Flood events since then have occurred in Cairns, Ingham, Townsville, Brisbane, Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Taree, the Hunter Valley, the Sydney Basin and areas down the south coast into Victoria. That's all within just two and a half years. All areas hit by such disasters require renovation and rebuilding of people's homes. In the most recent floods, authorities estimate 10,000 houses have been affected. Thousands of tradespeople are engaged in the repair and reconstruction of these homes. With so many tradespeople occupied in these rebuild programs as disasters keep coming, the workforce required to construct the large numbers of new houses to address the general housing shortage just doesn't exist. Trying to train substantial numbers of new tradespeople to address the scale of the shortage seems impossible. It is reasonable to presume that more disasters, such as floods and fires, will provide plenty of ongoing reconstruction work and take large numbers of tradespeople away from new home builds. In two or three years, I expect they will still be repairing and rebuilding homes in Kempsey and Taree. Substantially reducing immigration into Australia for a number of years to allow a catch-up in the workload is required. The problem with that, of course, is that to maintain our economy and standard of living, it is reliant on an ever-increasing level of migration into this country. Many people would be surprised by how important it is to have a high level of immigration occurring on a constant basis. It's very much like an ongoing Ponzi scheme. If you stop, the whole system (economy and living standard) goes into decline. Things are bad enough now, but I believe house prices are going to go up substantially, while availability will plateau, or at least not increase substantially. THE Davidson Report found Newcastle council meetings were too long and overly political, from what I understand. So, at the first council meeting after the report, it felt like all the party politicians lined up to spend two hours attacking the lord mayor. One hour was devoted to recognising the University of Newcastle. It's not that hard to recognise; it's huge. Perhaps a positive is that our elected party politicians are now all voting together, albeit on everything, to drive out any 'non-party' views. They seem united in backing the opposite of lord mayor Ross Kerridge to me. Wow, maybe party politics is dead in Newcastle. HERE go the Boomers again, trying to kill off a proposed tax on super accounts over $3 million. They were successful in defeating changes to negative gearing, franking credits and capital gains tax concessions, so why not? This is a generation for whom university was free, jobs were plentiful, houses were cheap and for many, an era of two-income households. A lot of wealth was created. They are also being supported by the taxpayer in retirement and have their hands out for whatever is on offer. This comes at a terrible cost to younger generations, who see the future as a continual struggle and unfairly carry the tax burden. We have real poverty in Australia, with children who go without, which limits their potential. We have homelessness growing, and people living with insecurity over food, housing and healthcare. It is not good enough and can only be addressed through fair and sweeping tax reform. The Labor government has six years to turn the growing inequality gap around and we must all pay where we can afford to do so. The vulgar displays of wealth in this country show a cohort who have not paid enough tax and don't seem to think they owe society, from which they have done very well, any recompense. The pressure on public hospitals, schools, social housing and welfare is not sustainable. End the bleating from those who can afford to pay. TWO recent opinion pieces made some good points. One by Mark Kenny on party politics, and another on super changes by Jack Thrower. Thrower is an economist with the Australia Institute, which claims to be non-partisan. It was started by former Greens candidate Clive Hamilton and its director, Richard Denniss, is a former senior strategic advisor to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who taught at the Newcastle University and the Australian National University (ANU). Mark Kenny also writes for The Canberra Times, a left-centre paper. He is a professor at ANU and a former Fairfax and ABC employee. He is the director of the National Press Club. Their opinions are relevant, but thanks to the Herald, we can look at those opinions with more insight. Mind you, if you want a left-wing opinion, on just about anything, you can get it from the ANU. Even if the City of Newcastle was considered high performing, clearly some common sense is missing in the hard rubbish collection section ("Flooding leads to fight over rubbish", Newcastle Herald 23/5) if poor residents affected by flooding are told to wait and take their rotting rubbish inside. How about organising a priority collection for them? I'm sure those not affected by flooding could wait another week. It's not rocket science. MICHAEL Hinchey is spot on ("The centre is where you must hold", Letters, 28/5). The near-defunct Coalition needs to stop pandering to the climate change deniers (an ever-diminishing minority) and state clearly and categorically that they accept the reality of anthropomorphic climate change. Until they do so, they'll remain an anachronistic irrelevant force in Australian politics. Did 'Macadamus' predict the Coalition band getting back together? They won't pull a crowd, but they don't have to; the band just has to sit back and watch Albo turn into Milli Vanilli. I WONDER if Steve Barnett ("Insurgents are survivors somehow", Letters, 27/5) knows he is talking about old Israeli propaganda, suddenly replaced by 'Hamas is using the food to buy weapons.' From who? The surrounding Israeli Army. Then it changed to 'They are using it to buy war materials'. What, rubble? Then it morphed into selling it to get money from Palestinians. Why, when they can just take the money? None of these things can happen if there is enough food in Gaza to begin with. TO those who pen long, biased political dissertations, I say there's none so blind as those who do not want to see. SINCE 2022, there have been regular flooding events occurring along the entire Australian east coast, from north Queensland through NSW to Victoria. They have resulted in tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. Houses damaged and destroyed in the Lismore floods of 2022 are still being repaired or rebuilt so that their owners can live in them once more. Flood events since then have occurred in Cairns, Ingham, Townsville, Brisbane, Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Taree, the Hunter Valley, the Sydney Basin and areas down the south coast into Victoria. That's all within just two and a half years. All areas hit by such disasters require renovation and rebuilding of people's homes. In the most recent floods, authorities estimate 10,000 houses have been affected. Thousands of tradespeople are engaged in the repair and reconstruction of these homes. With so many tradespeople occupied in these rebuild programs as disasters keep coming, the workforce required to construct the large numbers of new houses to address the general housing shortage just doesn't exist. Trying to train substantial numbers of new tradespeople to address the scale of the shortage seems impossible. It is reasonable to presume that more disasters, such as floods and fires, will provide plenty of ongoing reconstruction work and take large numbers of tradespeople away from new home builds. In two or three years, I expect they will still be repairing and rebuilding homes in Kempsey and Taree. Substantially reducing immigration into Australia for a number of years to allow a catch-up in the workload is required. The problem with that, of course, is that to maintain our economy and standard of living, it is reliant on an ever-increasing level of migration into this country. Many people would be surprised by how important it is to have a high level of immigration occurring on a constant basis. It's very much like an ongoing Ponzi scheme. If you stop, the whole system (economy and living standard) goes into decline. Things are bad enough now, but I believe house prices are going to go up substantially, while availability will plateau, or at least not increase substantially. THE Davidson Report found Newcastle council meetings were too long and overly political, from what I understand. So, at the first council meeting after the report, it felt like all the party politicians lined up to spend two hours attacking the lord mayor. One hour was devoted to recognising the University of Newcastle. It's not that hard to recognise; it's huge. Perhaps a positive is that our elected party politicians are now all voting together, albeit on everything, to drive out any 'non-party' views. They seem united in backing the opposite of lord mayor Ross Kerridge to me. Wow, maybe party politics is dead in Newcastle. HERE go the Boomers again, trying to kill off a proposed tax on super accounts over $3 million. They were successful in defeating changes to negative gearing, franking credits and capital gains tax concessions, so why not? This is a generation for whom university was free, jobs were plentiful, houses were cheap and for many, an era of two-income households. A lot of wealth was created. They are also being supported by the taxpayer in retirement and have their hands out for whatever is on offer. This comes at a terrible cost to younger generations, who see the future as a continual struggle and unfairly carry the tax burden. We have real poverty in Australia, with children who go without, which limits their potential. We have homelessness growing, and people living with insecurity over food, housing and healthcare. It is not good enough and can only be addressed through fair and sweeping tax reform. The Labor government has six years to turn the growing inequality gap around and we must all pay where we can afford to do so. The vulgar displays of wealth in this country show a cohort who have not paid enough tax and don't seem to think they owe society, from which they have done very well, any recompense. The pressure on public hospitals, schools, social housing and welfare is not sustainable. End the bleating from those who can afford to pay. TWO recent opinion pieces made some good points. One by Mark Kenny on party politics, and another on super changes by Jack Thrower. Thrower is an economist with the Australia Institute, which claims to be non-partisan. It was started by former Greens candidate Clive Hamilton and its director, Richard Denniss, is a former senior strategic advisor to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who taught at the Newcastle University and the Australian National University (ANU). Mark Kenny also writes for The Canberra Times, a left-centre paper. He is a professor at ANU and a former Fairfax and ABC employee. He is the director of the National Press Club. Their opinions are relevant, but thanks to the Herald, we can look at those opinions with more insight. Mind you, if you want a left-wing opinion, on just about anything, you can get it from the ANU. Even if the City of Newcastle was considered high performing, clearly some common sense is missing in the hard rubbish collection section ("Flooding leads to fight over rubbish", Newcastle Herald 23/5) if poor residents affected by flooding are told to wait and take their rotting rubbish inside. How about organising a priority collection for them? I'm sure those not affected by flooding could wait another week. It's not rocket science. MICHAEL Hinchey is spot on ("The centre is where you must hold", Letters, 28/5). The near-defunct Coalition needs to stop pandering to the climate change deniers (an ever-diminishing minority) and state clearly and categorically that they accept the reality of anthropomorphic climate change. Until they do so, they'll remain an anachronistic irrelevant force in Australian politics. Did 'Macadamus' predict the Coalition band getting back together? They won't pull a crowd, but they don't have to; the band just has to sit back and watch Albo turn into Milli Vanilli. I WONDER if Steve Barnett ("Insurgents are survivors somehow", Letters, 27/5) knows he is talking about old Israeli propaganda, suddenly replaced by 'Hamas is using the food to buy weapons.' From who? The surrounding Israeli Army. Then it changed to 'They are using it to buy war materials'. What, rubble? Then it morphed into selling it to get money from Palestinians. Why, when they can just take the money? None of these things can happen if there is enough food in Gaza to begin with. TO those who pen long, biased political dissertations, I say there's none so blind as those who do not want to see.
The Advertiser
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
'Hospitals may close and surgery fees may rise': Healthscope crisis deepens
Patients of Newcastle and Hunter Valley private hospitals should be prepared for surgery fees to rise during Healthscope's receivership, a health economist says. Management could increase surgery fees for patients to make the company more attractive to buyers, University of Newcastle Professor Francesco Paolucci said. "Hospitals may close. They belong to a failing group that's $1.6 billion in debt." He found it hard to believe that "they have any facility operating at a profit". Professor Paolucci said a buyer of Healthscope "may look at the lack of profitability and intervene as companies do". As well as possible hospital closures and rising fees, scenarios could include a restructure and changing the type of care provided. "The truth is nobody knows at this point," he said. A Healthscope spokesperson said "there will be no changes to any patient fees and charges". The company rejected "any speculation regarding hospital closures". Receiver McGrath Nicol's intention was to "transition all hospitals to new ownership, with no plans for hospital closures or redundancies". Healthscope said its 37 hospitals "all remain open and operating on a business-as-usual basis with no impact on staff, doctors or patient care". Professor Paolucci said Healthscope's failure highlighted that "overall healthcare funding in Australia is inadequate, inefficient and obsolete". "The way in which funding is organised is incredibly irrational." He said the federal and state governments could raise taxes, the Medicare levy, GST and/or deficits to boost healthcare funding. "This would be throwing money at the problem, but these are not long-term solutions. They're not efficient or politically attractive," he said. "They do not change behaviour or create incentives in the system." He said another option was to change the country's healthcare model. "Labor had a great result at the election. They are in a position to reform the healthcare system." With the status quo, he said "you have providers [like insurers and hospitals] constantly arguing for what they think is the right price". "Instead, you could have an entity that actively buys healthcare for people, which we don't have now. "That would create a framework to bargain on prices with a degree of competition to keep prices down." He said this approach would use "modern economics to make healthcare better organised". "It would take the politics out of it," he said. He said this method was a form of insurance, but different to the private health insurance now on offer. "You basically have insurance now to claim some of your costs. The insurance companies are not active in purchasing care for you," he said. "When you get sick and need elective care, you have to find your own hospital. Then you call your insurance company and ask the cost and if it's covered. "It's a badly conceived system. Insurers have been benefiting for many years without doing much at all." He said a major missing element was "full coverage of the costs an individual faces". "We're far from the health insurance of the Dutch, German and Swiss, who buy insurance and know they won't have to pay anything. "If they do have to pay anything, they know in advance." Patients of Newcastle and Hunter Valley private hospitals should be prepared for surgery fees to rise during Healthscope's receivership, a health economist says. Management could increase surgery fees for patients to make the company more attractive to buyers, University of Newcastle Professor Francesco Paolucci said. "Hospitals may close. They belong to a failing group that's $1.6 billion in debt." He found it hard to believe that "they have any facility operating at a profit". Professor Paolucci said a buyer of Healthscope "may look at the lack of profitability and intervene as companies do". As well as possible hospital closures and rising fees, scenarios could include a restructure and changing the type of care provided. "The truth is nobody knows at this point," he said. A Healthscope spokesperson said "there will be no changes to any patient fees and charges". The company rejected "any speculation regarding hospital closures". Receiver McGrath Nicol's intention was to "transition all hospitals to new ownership, with no plans for hospital closures or redundancies". Healthscope said its 37 hospitals "all remain open and operating on a business-as-usual basis with no impact on staff, doctors or patient care". Professor Paolucci said Healthscope's failure highlighted that "overall healthcare funding in Australia is inadequate, inefficient and obsolete". "The way in which funding is organised is incredibly irrational." He said the federal and state governments could raise taxes, the Medicare levy, GST and/or deficits to boost healthcare funding. "This would be throwing money at the problem, but these are not long-term solutions. They're not efficient or politically attractive," he said. "They do not change behaviour or create incentives in the system." He said another option was to change the country's healthcare model. "Labor had a great result at the election. They are in a position to reform the healthcare system." With the status quo, he said "you have providers [like insurers and hospitals] constantly arguing for what they think is the right price". "Instead, you could have an entity that actively buys healthcare for people, which we don't have now. "That would create a framework to bargain on prices with a degree of competition to keep prices down." He said this approach would use "modern economics to make healthcare better organised". "It would take the politics out of it," he said. He said this method was a form of insurance, but different to the private health insurance now on offer. "You basically have insurance now to claim some of your costs. The insurance companies are not active in purchasing care for you," he said. "When you get sick and need elective care, you have to find your own hospital. Then you call your insurance company and ask the cost and if it's covered. "It's a badly conceived system. Insurers have been benefiting for many years without doing much at all." He said a major missing element was "full coverage of the costs an individual faces". "We're far from the health insurance of the Dutch, German and Swiss, who buy insurance and know they won't have to pay anything. "If they do have to pay anything, they know in advance." Patients of Newcastle and Hunter Valley private hospitals should be prepared for surgery fees to rise during Healthscope's receivership, a health economist says. Management could increase surgery fees for patients to make the company more attractive to buyers, University of Newcastle Professor Francesco Paolucci said. "Hospitals may close. They belong to a failing group that's $1.6 billion in debt." He found it hard to believe that "they have any facility operating at a profit". Professor Paolucci said a buyer of Healthscope "may look at the lack of profitability and intervene as companies do". As well as possible hospital closures and rising fees, scenarios could include a restructure and changing the type of care provided. "The truth is nobody knows at this point," he said. A Healthscope spokesperson said "there will be no changes to any patient fees and charges". The company rejected "any speculation regarding hospital closures". Receiver McGrath Nicol's intention was to "transition all hospitals to new ownership, with no plans for hospital closures or redundancies". Healthscope said its 37 hospitals "all remain open and operating on a business-as-usual basis with no impact on staff, doctors or patient care". Professor Paolucci said Healthscope's failure highlighted that "overall healthcare funding in Australia is inadequate, inefficient and obsolete". "The way in which funding is organised is incredibly irrational." He said the federal and state governments could raise taxes, the Medicare levy, GST and/or deficits to boost healthcare funding. "This would be throwing money at the problem, but these are not long-term solutions. They're not efficient or politically attractive," he said. "They do not change behaviour or create incentives in the system." He said another option was to change the country's healthcare model. "Labor had a great result at the election. They are in a position to reform the healthcare system." With the status quo, he said "you have providers [like insurers and hospitals] constantly arguing for what they think is the right price". "Instead, you could have an entity that actively buys healthcare for people, which we don't have now. "That would create a framework to bargain on prices with a degree of competition to keep prices down." He said this approach would use "modern economics to make healthcare better organised". "It would take the politics out of it," he said. He said this method was a form of insurance, but different to the private health insurance now on offer. "You basically have insurance now to claim some of your costs. The insurance companies are not active in purchasing care for you," he said. "When you get sick and need elective care, you have to find your own hospital. Then you call your insurance company and ask the cost and if it's covered. "It's a badly conceived system. Insurers have been benefiting for many years without doing much at all." He said a major missing element was "full coverage of the costs an individual faces". "We're far from the health insurance of the Dutch, German and Swiss, who buy insurance and know they won't have to pay anything. "If they do have to pay anything, they know in advance." Patients of Newcastle and Hunter Valley private hospitals should be prepared for surgery fees to rise during Healthscope's receivership, a health economist says. Management could increase surgery fees for patients to make the company more attractive to buyers, University of Newcastle Professor Francesco Paolucci said. "Hospitals may close. They belong to a failing group that's $1.6 billion in debt." He found it hard to believe that "they have any facility operating at a profit". Professor Paolucci said a buyer of Healthscope "may look at the lack of profitability and intervene as companies do". As well as possible hospital closures and rising fees, scenarios could include a restructure and changing the type of care provided. "The truth is nobody knows at this point," he said. A Healthscope spokesperson said "there will be no changes to any patient fees and charges". The company rejected "any speculation regarding hospital closures". Receiver McGrath Nicol's intention was to "transition all hospitals to new ownership, with no plans for hospital closures or redundancies". Healthscope said its 37 hospitals "all remain open and operating on a business-as-usual basis with no impact on staff, doctors or patient care". Professor Paolucci said Healthscope's failure highlighted that "overall healthcare funding in Australia is inadequate, inefficient and obsolete". "The way in which funding is organised is incredibly irrational." He said the federal and state governments could raise taxes, the Medicare levy, GST and/or deficits to boost healthcare funding. "This would be throwing money at the problem, but these are not long-term solutions. They're not efficient or politically attractive," he said. "They do not change behaviour or create incentives in the system." He said another option was to change the country's healthcare model. "Labor had a great result at the election. They are in a position to reform the healthcare system." With the status quo, he said "you have providers [like insurers and hospitals] constantly arguing for what they think is the right price". "Instead, you could have an entity that actively buys healthcare for people, which we don't have now. "That would create a framework to bargain on prices with a degree of competition to keep prices down." He said this approach would use "modern economics to make healthcare better organised". "It would take the politics out of it," he said. He said this method was a form of insurance, but different to the private health insurance now on offer. "You basically have insurance now to claim some of your costs. The insurance companies are not active in purchasing care for you," he said. "When you get sick and need elective care, you have to find your own hospital. Then you call your insurance company and ask the cost and if it's covered. "It's a badly conceived system. Insurers have been benefiting for many years without doing much at all." He said a major missing element was "full coverage of the costs an individual faces". "We're far from the health insurance of the Dutch, German and Swiss, who buy insurance and know they won't have to pay anything. "If they do have to pay anything, they know in advance."
