Australia’s roads are full of giant cars, and everyone pays the price. What can be done?

Milad Haghani, The University of Melbourne

You may have noticed — there’s a car-size inflation on Australian roads that some have nicknamed car “mobesity”.

Most SUVs and utes from a decade or two ago look small next to today’s models.

As we head for a fifth consecutive year of rising road deaths and what could be the worst year for pedestrian fatalities in nearly two decades, it’s time to look more closely at what this means.

We already know bigger cars cause greater impacts in collisions.

But what’s less discussed is whether driving one also changes how we drive – if larger vehicles make us feel safer inside them, do they also make us take more risks behind the wheel?

What’s driving this trend?

Four in five new cars sold in Australia are SUVs or utes – more than double the share of 20 years ago.

This isn’t purely consumer-driven.

With no domestic car manufacturing, Australia imports vehicles shaped by global production trends, many of which trickle down from United States policies that reward larger vehicles.

Two subtle US policy features explain why.

First, the “SUV loophole”: under US law, most SUVs are classified as light trucks, meaning they’re subject to less stringent fuel-efficiency and crash-safety standards than passenger cars.

Second, under US fuel economy rules, fuel-efficiency targets are adjusted based on the size of the vehicle’s “footprint” — the area between its wheels. In practice, this means larger vehicles are allowed to consume more fuel while still meeting the target.

Together, these rules have encouraged American manufacturers to build and sell heavier SUVs and utes.

Large vehicles can deliver significantly higher profit margins than small cars.

These trends have resulted in more bigger cars being driven on Australian roads.

The combination of high car ownership, years without fuel efficiency rules, and the luxury-car-tax exemption that many utes qualify for has made Australia a highly lucrative market for large, high-emission models.

Marketing has played a significant role too: in 2023, car makers invested about A$125 million in SUV and 4×4 advertising in Australia – a 29% increase from the previous year.

The dangers of bigger vehicles

There’s a physical mismatch between large and small vehicles that usually transfers the danger from the occupants of the bigger car to everyone else.

While the risks of being hit by a large SUV or ute might seem self-evident, the question is how much greater those risks are.

Research provides a clear answer.

Car-to-car collisions:

• Collisions between large SUVs and smaller cars show occupants of a smaller vehicle face about 30% higher risk of dying or sustaining serious injury.

• A 500kg increase in vehicle weight is linked to a 70% higher fatality risk for occupants of the lighter car.

• For every fatal accident avoided inside a large vehicle, there are around 4.3 additional deaths among other road users.

Car-to-pedestrian and cyclist collisions:

• Pedestrians struck by SUVs are about 25% more likely to sustain serious injuries and 40–45% more likely to die than those hit by smaller cars.

• For children, the outcomes are far worse: they are up to eight times more likely to die when hit by an SUV than by a small car.

• Each 10cm increase in front-end height raises the fatality risk for pedestrians by roughly 20%.

• Tall and blunt fronts (vertical or nearly upright front design) are associated with more than a 40% increase in pedestrian death when compared with low and sloped front ends.

These differences help explain why US pedestrian deaths — once on a steady decline — have climbed back to their highest level since the early 1980s.

This is while most countries have reduced pedestrian fatalities.

Bigger cars, more risk-taking?

Evidence from multiple countries suggests driving larger vehicles may lead to more confident or risk-prone behaviour:

• India: SUV owners recorded 20–25% higher risk-taking scores than sedan or hatchback drivers

• Israel: an analysis of 1.5 million speeding citations found drivers received about a quarter more speeding tickets when vehicle mass was 10% heavier

• Austria: roadside observations of 48,000 vehicles showed SUV drivers more frequently drove without seatbelts, used phones and ran red lights. Women SUV drivers showed violation rates similar to men, breaking the usual pattern of higher female caution in traffic studies

• New Zealand: field data found SUV drivers 1.5 times more likely to drive one-handed, a behaviour linked to lower perceived risk and reduced vigilance

• Germany: large-car drivers reported higher rates of traffic violations and risky driving.

Policy can make a difference

Taxes and size-dependant registration fees could potentially offset some of the extra costs of heavier vehicles on roads surfaces, congestion and emissions, or regulate demand.

Two measures would make a tangible difference:

Licence testing by vehicle class

Many drivers obtain their licence in a small sedan but can legally drive a two-tonne ute the next day. Yet, larger vehicles demand different manoeuvring skills, longer braking distances and greater spatial awareness.

Requiring a practical test in a vehicle of comparable size to what the driver intends to drive (or a streamlined license upgrade for an experienced driver when upsizing) would acknowledge that added responsibility.

The reform would also carry a symbolic message: driving a heavier vehicle comes with greater responsibility.

Penalties scaled to impact potential

A ute or SUV travelling 10kmh over the limit carries greater kinetic energy and longer stopping distance than a small sedan.

A tiered approach – where fines or demerit points scale with vehicle mass – would better reflect the disproportionate risk that bigger cars pose.

If Australia is serious about reducing road trauma, these are the kinds of targeted, evidence-based adjustments that should be considered.

Milad Haghani, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow in Urban Risk and Resilience, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → February 28, 2026

What the RBA wants Australians to do next to fight inflation – or risk more rate hikes

Meg Elkins, RMIT University

When the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board voted unanimously to lift the cash rate to 3.85% on Tuesday, the decision was driven by one overriding concern. It wants to stop the rising cost of living from becoming entrenched.

For some, like self-funded retirees, the rate rise was good news. Higher interest means their savings and term deposits will earn more. But for many others, including first home buyers who might have stretched themselves just to get a foot into the housing market, it was a very bad day.

RBA Governor Michele Bullock acknowledged that, saying:

I know this is not the news that Australians with mortgages want to hear, but it is the right thing for the economy.

She warned the alternative – letting inflation keep rising – would be even harder for more Australians.

So what’s the psychology behind the RBA raising rates now and leaving the door open to further hikes if needed? And what does the central bank hope Australians will do in response?

The price squeeze you’re feeling

There’s a striking gap between how the RBA describes the economy and how most Australians experience it.

On paper, things look healthy: unemployment is low, wages are growing.

But as Bullock acknowledged on Tuesday, the daily reality has felt very different.

The price level has gone up 20% to 25% over the last few years, and people see that every time they walk into a supermarket, or they go to the doctor, or whatever – that’s I think what’s hurting people.

That relentless price squeeze is not something you forget, even when the rate of increase starts to slow.

What’s driving inflation up?

The headline consumer price index (CPI) hit 3.8% in the year to December, well above the RBA’s target band of 2–3%. The “trimmed mean” – the underlying measure the RBA watches most closely – rose to 3.3%. Both are too high and moving in the wrong direction.

Bullock singled out three factors contributing to inflation. Each behaves differently and requires a different response.

Housing was the single largest contributor to inflation in December, up 5.5% over the year. That includes rents, which rose 3.9% (or 4.2% stripping out government rent assistance), as well as insurance, utilities, and new construction costs, which rose 3% as builders passed through higher labour and material costs.

There is an irony here. Rising interest rates are intended to cool demand, but they slow housing construction. Limited supply of housing is what’s pushing rents up in the first place.

“Durable goods” are the things we buy to last, such as cars, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions and furniture. Demand for many of those has been higher in the past year.

“Market services” are items such as restaurant meals, taxis, haircuts, gym memberships, medical appointments and holiday travel.

The RBA watches these carefully, because these are services priced by supply and demand in the domestic market. Those prices tend to be “sticky”: once they start rising, they don’t come back down easily.

Wages are also a big part of market services inflation. If the people providing those services are earning more, the cost goes up.

How rate cuts made shoppers relax

This is where the behavioural psychology gets interesting.

The RBA cut interest rates three times in 2025. Each cut sent a signal, whether intentionally or not: it’s OK to spend a bit more.

And spend we did. CommBank data shows Australians spent A$23.8 billion over the two-week Black Friday period, up 4.6% on the year before.

It’s a cautionary tale about “rational expectations”. Each rate cut potentially fuelled the belief that more would follow.

If people feel like they can afford to spend, then they spend. Businesses, sensing demand, may raise their prices to match. That’s exactly the self-fulfilling dynamic central banks worry about.

The 3 ways the RBA hopes we’ll react

When prices go up, as they have been, workers ask for bigger wage rises to keep up. To pay higher wages, businesses lift prices to protect their profit margins. Together, that can create a “wage-price spiral” that becomes very hard to break.

The RBA will be hoping Australians respond to this rate rise in three ways:

• spending less

• saving more

• not asking for big wage rises (although they’d never phrase it that way).

RBA Governor Michele Bullock described raising interest rates as “a very blunt instrument” to bring inflation down, and noted setting rates is “not a science. It’s a bit of an art, really […] We’ve just got to respond as best we can.”

The RBA can’t undo the price rises that have already happened. It can only try to slow down further increases.

Meg Elkins, Associate Professor in Economics, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → February 06, 2026

Franchise businesses have long been plagued by scandals. Domino’s is just the latest

Jenny Buchan, UNSW Sydney

The blue and red boxes with white dots are immediately recognisable as containing Domino’s pizzas. The pizza chain is Australia’s largest and is run as a franchise, with the ASX-listed public company Domino’s Pizza Enterprises holding the Australian master franchise rights.

Industry analysts IBISWorld calculate Domino’s has 4.2% of the fast food and takeaway market in Australia.

But recent reports suggest all is not well with many of the store owners, who are struggling with rising costs and declining profitability.

Troubling reports

The central issue appears to be what the federal government describes in its code of conduct as the “the imbalance of power between franchisors and franchisees”.

The Australian Financial Review has reported troubling claims in two key areas:

• Domino’s appears to have doubled the margin on the key food ingredients it sells to franchisees and increased its advertising levy, according to a letter from store owners represented by the Australian Association of Franchisees. This could reduce their profitability

• Domino’s Australian chief operating officer, Greg Steenson, reportedly encouraged franchisees in a presentation to take advantage of restructuring schemes that allow insolvent companies to continue to trade by negotiating repayment plans with the tax office and other creditors.

In a letter to Domino’s quoted in the report, the franchisees said their earnings have remained flat for 15 years, and have not kept up with inflation.

A long history of disputes

A former franchisee told a parliamentary inquiry into the franchising model the margin squeeze meant

franchisees can be ripped off by [Domino’s Pizza Enterprises] when forced to buy supplies at a higher price than they could get through their wholesalers.

He said the cost of food, labour, rent and other fixed costs had risen, but in 2019 pizzas were still sold at 1990s prices. “Nobody is left to pay for this but the franchisees,” the former owner said.

According to the Financial Review article, the cost of supplies remains a problem for franchisees. Time will tell whether Domino’s proposed 70 cent increase in pizza prices will help.

In response to questions from the Financial Review, Domino’s said the food margin had not “materially changed” in five years, despite volatility in ingredients prices.

Government reviews found the previous regulations had loopholes that did not sufficiently protect franchisees. There have been a string of high-profile disputes involving auto services company Ultra Tune, coffee chain 85 Degrees Coffee, Pizza Hut and others.

Following a 2024 inquiry, changes to the code of conduct were introduced this year.

Advertising costs on the rise

Advertising expenditure comes from what is now known as a “special purpose fund” in the code of conduct. Franchisors need to provide franchisees with disclosure about how the money is spent.

In 2017, the consumer regulator Australian Competition and Consumer Commission fined Domino’s A$18,000 for allegedly slipping on its obligations to advise franchisees about its marketing spend.

Ensuring franchisees have a genuine say in how their increased contribution is spent could help to address any imbalance of power between Domino’s and its franchisees.

Franchisees reportedly now pay 6% of their earnings to Domino’s for marketing and advertising, up from 5.35%. That is in addition to 7% of gross sales paid as royalties, and other costs for email and bookkeeping.

What insolvent means

The insolvency law for small businesses is explained by the Australian Taxation Office as a process that enables financially distressed but viable firms to restructure their existing debts and continue to trade.

The press reports say the franchisees of about 65 Domino’s stores were on repayment plans with the Australian Taxation Office. Many franchisees own two or more outlets.

Under the Corporations legislation, companies on these repayment plans may be trading insolvent, or believe they will become insolvent. Insolvent means they cannot pay their debts when they fall due. If this is the case, a key question that needs to be answered by Domino’s is whether their franchised outlets can become profitable.

In another media report, Domino’s was quoted as saying it disputed the number of stores on repayment plans, adding it was a “significantly smaller” number of franchisees.

The company was contacted for comment but did not respond before deadline.

What this means for the stores

So what does this mean for Domino’s store owners who may be trading insolvent?

Under the law, the restructuring process allows eligible small business companies:

• to retain control of the business, property and affairs while developing a plan to restructure with the assistance of a small business restructuring practitioner
• to enter into a restructuring plan with creditors.
  

If a company proposes a restructuring plan to its creditors, it is taken to be insolvent. This is a game changer for the franchisee and its creditors.

Franchisees receive protection from creditors who want to enforce rights under existing contracts. A franchisee’s creditors include suppliers, its landlord, employees, the tax office and the franchisor (in this case, Domino’s).

Currently these store owners are protected from any creditors pushing them to pay their debts. The restructuring process gives the store owners some breathing room while the debt negotiations take place.

The imbalance of power persists

Despite government inquiries and reviews, it seems the imbalance of power between the Domino’s franchisees and their franchisor persists.

But Domino’s can’t afford to stay the same. Franchisees need to make a profit. The move to enter restructuring could be a temporary band aid.

Domino’s largest shareholder and executive chairman, Jack Cowin, was appointed in July after the former chief executive left after just seven months. Cowin understands the franchised fast food sector and has pledged to lead a cost reduction program that will improve the profitability of stores.

Jenny Buchan, Emeritus Professor, Business School, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → December 04, 2025

Australian economic growth is solid but not spectacular. Rate cuts are off the table

Stella Huangfu, University of Sydney

Australia’s economy grew by a softer-than-expected 0.4% in the September quarter, slowing from 0.6% growth in the June quarter. It confirms the recovery is tracking forward but without strong momentum.

Still, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth was at a two-year high of 2.1%. That’s just above the Reserve Bank’s estimate of long-term trend growth of 2.0%.

The September quarter national accounts was the final major data release before the Reserve Bank’s meeting on 8–9 December.

The GDP result is steady enough to reassure the Reserve Bank the economy is not slipping backwards, while recent inflation data show domestic price pressures — especially in services — remain elevated. Together, the signals point clearly to a hold on interest rates next week.

All four major banks expect rates to remain on hold for many months, while financial markets on Wednesday were pricing in an 85% chance of a rate rise next year.

Across-the-board strength, led by IT

A key feature of the September quarter is the breadth of domestic growth.

In earlier quarters, much of the expansion came from the public sector — particularly government consumption and infrastructure spending — while private demand was subdued. This quarter marks a clear shift: private demand was the main driver, led by a strong lift in business investment, steady household consumption and continued public investment.

Domestic final demand rose solidly, with contributions from all major components — signalling improving confidence among both businesses and households and a more balanced base for growth than we saw earlier in the year.

Private investment led the gains, rising 2.9% – the strongest quarterly increase since March 2021.

Business investment in machinery and equipment jumped 7.6%, boosted by major data-centre projects in New South Wales and Victoria. IT-related machinery investment hit a record A$2.8 billion, double the June quarter, and aviation-related purchases also jumped. The Bureau of Statistics said in a statement:

The rise in machinery and equipment investment reflects the ongoing expansions of data centres. This is likely due to firms looking to support growth in artificial intelligence and cloud computing capabilities.

Household consumption rose 0.5%, but this was driven more by spending on essentials rather than discretionary items. A cold winter, reduced government rebates and a harsh flu season lifted demand for utilities and for health services.

Public investment grew 3.0%, after three quarterly declines. State and local public corporations led the rise through renewable-energy and water-infrastructure projects.

Coal exports are up

External conditions weakened this quarter as imports grew faster than exports.

Goods exports rose 1.3%, helped by a rebound in coal shipments and strong overseas demand for beef and citrus. Services exports were flat, as a fall in spending by overseas students offset a modest recovery in short-term tourism from China, Japan and South Korea.

Goods imports rose 2.1%, driven by demand for intermediate goods — especially diesel — and capital goods, mainly the data-centre-related equipment.

Companies drew down on inventories during the quarter, which acts as a drag on growth.

Households are saving more

Households remain central to the outlook. They are on firmer financial footing but still spending cautiously. The household saving ratio rose from 6.0% to 6.4%, helped by higher compensation of employees.

Economic growth per person (known as GDP per capita) was flat this quarter, but up 0.4% over the year. After several negative quarters, living standards appear to have stopped falling, though improvements remain modest.

Overall, households are in better shape financially but remain hesitant — a pattern that supports stability, not a consumption-led surge.

A steady result, but not enough to shift the rate outlook

Some parts of this quarter’s outcome — including the lift in machinery and aviation-related spending — are unlikely to be repeated.

For the interest rate outlook, however, the key issue remains inflation. Price pressures are still above the Reserve Bank’s target band, and services inflation has been slower to ease than anticipated. The Reserve Bank now expects a more gradual return to the 2–3% target band.

After three rate cuts earlier this year — the most recent in August — markets were expecting at least one more rate cut. That view has shifted. Sticky services inflation and a slower forecast decline mean expectations of further cuts have faded.

A steadier footing, but risks remain

The September quarter shows an economy on a steady, though still moderate, footing. Domestic demand is broad-based, investment is strong, and households have more income support — even if they remain cautious.

But this is not yet a turning point. Inflation is still above target. As Australia enters 2026, the Reserve Bank remains firmly on hold — but alert to the possibility that, if inflation stays above 3%, the next adjustment may need to be upward rather than downward.

Stella Huangfu, Associate Professor, School of Economics, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → December 04, 2025

Macquarie Technology explores JV, capital recycling for $3bn data centre

Posted by Harry Baldock : The Australian technology giant is considering “a range of potential funding alternatives” to support the project

Earlier this week, Macquarie Technology Group revealed to investors that it was exploring funding options for a new 150MW data centre campus project, aiming to meet the expected boom in demand for AI and cloud computing.

The new campus would require between $2.5 billion and $3 billion in capital, excluding land value.

Speaking to investors on Tuesday, CEO David Tudehope said that the company was currently exploring its options for financing the data centre build out at the optioned location. One possibility would be to recycle capital by selling off a stake in the company’s more mature data centre assets. Alternatively, Macquarie could also partner with a third-party to create a joint venture.

“Funding for the new campus […] will come from recycled capital from the existing data centres and/or a development partnership,” said Tudehope, as reported in the Financial Review. “Both of those ideas are quite common overseas but are less common in Australia.”

The tech company has already struck a deal for the required land in Sydney for $240 million earlier this year, to be funded through cash reserves and debt.

Macquarie has been investing in data centres since 2018, with its flagship project taking place at the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus in Sydney. Phase 1 of the site’s development, known as Sydney IC3 East, was completed in 2020, providing over 12MW of capacity. Phase 2, will see the site scaled further with the construction of the IC3 Super West data centre, bringing total capacity to 65MW.

Construction on C3 Super West began last year and is expected to be complete by Q3 2026. Macquarie extended its loan facilities to $450 million last year to facilitate this expansion.Combining these existing assets with the planned 150MW would make Macquarie one of the largest data centre providers in Australia. Macquarie Technology explores JV, capital recycling for $3bn data centre

Read More........ → December 04, 2025

TPG suffers data breach impacting 280,000 customers

Posted by Harry Baldock : Attackers reportedly hacked into an order management system from TPG’s subsidiary, the broadband provider iiNet Australia’s TPG has become the latest telco to suffer a major cybersecurity breach this weekend, with data having been exfiltrated from its ISP subsidiary, iiNet.

The breach occurred on August 16, where reports suggest it was quickly detected and contained. Nonetheless, the attack reportedly compromised around 280,000 active email addresses; 20,000 active landline phone numbers; 10,000 iiNet customer names, street addresses, and phone numbers; and 1,700 modem setup passwords.

“We unreservedly apologise to our iiNet customers impacted by this incident,” TPG said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange. “We will be taking immediate steps to contact impacted iiNet customers, advise of any actions they should take and offer our assistance. We will also contact all non-impacted iiNet customers to confirm they have not been affected.”

No sensitive customer information, like bank details or personal identity documents, was impacted by the breach, as this data was not stored in the iiNet order management system.

“We do not currently have any evidence to suggest an impact to our broader systems or other customers,” TPG said.

TPG says it is working closely with the Australian Cyber Security Centre, National Office of Cyber Security, Australian Signals Directorate, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to better understand the breach and take appropriate action.

Investigations into how the attackers gained access to these systems are underway, with early indications suggesting that account credentials had been stolen from an employee.

The first half of this decade has not been kind to TPG when it comes to cybersecurity. The company’s Hosted Exchange service, which provides email hosting for iiNet and Westnet business customers, was notably hacked at the end of 2022, impacting around 15,000 business customers. The attackers appeared to be accessing customers’ cryptocurrency and financial information.

Investigations into this attack are still ongoing.

Both attacks combined, however, still pale in comparison to that experienced by TPG’s rival Optus in 2022, when bad actors gained access to the data of up to 10 million of the company’s current and former customers. Illegally obtained information included customers’ names, dates of birth, home addresses, and more.

While a ransom of $1.5 million was initially demanded for the return of the data, the attacker ultimately backed down, allegedly deleting the stolen data due to the unwanted attention it garnered from law enforcement.Keep up with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter TPG suffers data breach impacting 280,000 customers | Total Telecom

Read More........ → November 12, 2025

Time to move beyond billboards: Australia’s tourism strategy needs to embrace the personal

boxiang Xiao/Unsplash Katharina Wolf, Curtin University

Australia continues to rely on billboard-style and cinematic advertising to promote itself as a destination. This approach, used for decades, presents a national image built around iconic sites and curated visuals.

While this style may appeal to tourism bodies because of the celebrity-fronted content and central control, it is increasingly out of step with how modern travellers plan their journeys.

In 2025, travellers are scrolling TikTok, watching Instagram reels, and browsing peer reviews. Tourism campaigns should meet people where they are.

Authenticity beats curated content

Social media is a central source of travel inspiration, particularly for Gen Z and millennials, according to a global survey of 20,000 respondents across all age groups.

Almost 90% of young travellers discover new destinations through TikTok, and 40% say they have booked a trip directly because of something they saw on the platform.

What matters most is not just reach, but trust.

Influencers shape behaviour from desire to booking and post-trip sharing. Their impact rests on perceived authenticity. Real people telling stories resonate more than stylised ads.

Storytelling sits at the heart of this shift, and tourism providers can engage in this form of storytelling, too. Airbnb’s Host Stories campaign invites hosts to share personal narratives through short videos and blog posts.

By highlighting real hosts and their daily lives, marketing moves beyond selling places and instead emphasises authentic, locally rooted connections that resonate with travellers.

It introduces travellers to places through personal experience, grounded in local knowledge and genuine connection.

User-generated content builds trust

A 2025 study found user-generated content enhances emotional connection and perceived authenticity with potential tourists.

Stumbling on a friend’s holiday photo or a short travel video in their feed can increase the appeal of a destination. Unlike traditional advertising, which requires deliberate placement, peer content can influence simply by appearing in everyday browsing.

Australia has used participatory storytelling before. One powerful example is Tourism Queensland’s 2009 Best Job in the World campaign, which invited applicants from around the world to compete for a six-month caretaker role on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. All they had to do was submit a short video explaining why they were the right candidate.

The campaign went viral, attracting over 34,000 applicants from 200+ countries, millions of website hits and global media overage.

Its success was driven less by who eventually got the job and more by the anticipation and unusual premise. It stood out because of simplicity and inclusivity, inviting real people to be part of the narrative.

Yet, 16 years on, Australia’s national tourism campaigns still rely on cinema ads, billboards and polished TV commercials built around icons such as Uluru and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

From storytelling to story-sharing

The long-running Inspired by Iceland campaign consistently encourages locals to share authentic travel memories, cultural insights and personal stories.

Iceland Hour, launched in June 2010, saw schools, parliament and businesses pause for a coordinated social media push. Citizens and international supporters posted more than 1.5 million positive, personal messages across social media in a single week.

The campaign helped rebuild confidence after the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption, and contributed to a 20% year-on-year rise in tourist arrivals.

Finland’s Rent a Finn campaign, launched in 2019, embraced a similarly human-centred approach. Showcasing ordinary people rather than cinematic landscapes, the campaign reached 149 countries, contributed €220 million in additional tourism revenue and reinforced Finland’s reputation as the “world’s happiest country”.

The United Kingdom’s Great Chinese Names for Great Britain campaign in late 2014 invited Chinese audiences to propose Mandarin nicknames for 101 British landmarks.

Suggested names, such as “Strong Man Skirt Party” for a kilted parade or “Stone Guardians” for Hadrian’s Wall, were featured on Google Maps and Wikipedia.

The campaign attracted more than 13,000 submissions, sparked widespread engagement on Chinese social media and was followed by a 27% increase in visits from China. It was worth an estimated £22 million boost to the UK economy.

Storytelling as a sustainability strategy

Participatory storytelling is not only more engaging, it can also be more sustainable.

Japan’s Hidden Gems campaign redirects tourist traffic away from overcrowded areas like Kyoto and Tokyo by spotlighting lesser-known destinations through locally led narratives. These stories promote slower travel, distribute benefits more evenly and reduce pressure on fragile ecosystems.

Australia faces a similar challenge. Our global image is still anchored to a handful of spectacular but vulnerable icons.

Yet tourism is about more than selfies in front of sandstone or coral. By inviting regional communities and visitors to tell their stories, we could shift attention beyond brochure highlights and encourage deeper, more diverse engagement.

There is also a strong economic case for prioritising emotional connection. Research shows when travellers form personal bonds with a place – through memorable, localised experiences – they are more likely to return, recommend it to others and stay longer.

Tourism is a relationship, not a product

Visitors are not passive consumers of postcard moments but active contributors to a shared story.

Australia’s tourism strategy should reflect this. This could mean amplifying visitor photos and videos on official platforms, inviting local communities to co-design campaigns, and drawing on authentic user-generated content rather than polished advertising and cinematic masterpieces.

That means letting go of perfection, embracing authenticity and trusting that the people who come here, as well as the people who live here, have stories worth sharing.

Katharina Wolf, Associate Professor in Strategic Communication, Curtin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → November 01, 2025

Solar-Powered Cars Race Across Australian Outback – with Fins to Also Harness the Wind

The Brunel Solar team from the Netherlands celebrates victory in Adelaide – credit, Charlie Bliss, Tim Hanley, Riley Williams, Julian Modra, Michael Hurren & Reece Calvert from Swift Hound.

At the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, innovators and motorsport experts competed to race solar-powered cars 2,000 miles across the Australian Outback.

Reminiscent of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, when Interwar Period engineers tried to balance speed, maneuverability, and durability with wild designs, some of which eventually became road-standard, the World Solar Challenge hopes to push engineers to develop sustainable solutions to challenges facing electric automotion today.

This year, the spirit of innovation and problem solving was pushed even further, as along with racing from Darwin to Adelaide, the challenge took place in the wintertime, with 20% less sun than in other Australian seasons.

When looking at the cars, the first thing one notices is how much they look like aircraft carriers—a necessity for fitting enough solar panels to charge the batteries.

The other boat-like design is their narrow undercarriage and hull-shaped sides which help make them more aerodynamic. Much of the actual horsepower of an average car comes from pushing the air out of its way. The more aerodynamic a car, the less wind it must move, and the less energy it consumes.

This year however, even with these radical body shapes, the contests have had to push further the bounds of aerodynamism and efficiency.

“Fins are the flavor of the month, or certainly the flavor of this event,” said one organizer.

Indeed many of vehicles sported one or even two hi-tech fins. The Millennium car from the University of Michigan team uses its fin like a combination of the rudder and sail on a boat, generating forward thrust while also stabilizing it in crosswinds.

“This event is very relevant to look at the future,” said Bridgestone Vice President Hiroshi Imai, in a report from Reuters. “Even near-future technology may come from this kind of event.”

The Dutch team Brunel Solar eventually won the race, arriving in Adelaide 34 hours after leaving Darwin. Their car, the Nuna 13, had not one but two fins, which it used to achieve higher speeds without extra energy consumption. Solar-Powered Cars Race Across Australian Outback – with Fins to Also Harness the Wind

Read More........ → September 04, 2025

Bunnings has toppled Woolworths as Australia’s most ‘trusted’ brand – what makes us trust a brand in the first place?

Think of some of the world’s biggest brands: Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Apple. With what do you associate them? Are they positive associations? Now consider, do you trust them?

Brand trust is a measure of how customers feel about a brand in terms of how well the brand delivers on its promises. Trust is an important measure for any organisation, large or small.

Whether or not customers trust a brand can be the difference between choosing that brand’s products or services over another.

In Australia, Woolworths held the title of our most trusted brand for three and a half years. But recent cost-of-living pressures have put supermarkets in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Roy Morgan Research’s most recent trust rankings show Woolworths has slipped to number two, handing its crown to hardware behemoth Bunnings.

It’s clear that trust is fragile and can be quickly squandered when brands lose touch with those they serve.

So what makes us trust a brand in the first place? And why do we trust some more than others?

What makes us trust a brand?

According to customer experience management firm Qualtrics, brand trust is

the confidence that customers have in a brand’s ability to deliver on what it promises. As a brand consistently meets the expectations it has set in the minds of customers, trust in that brand grows.

There are many ways to go about measuring brand trust. A typical first step is to ask lots of people what they think, collating their general opinions on product quality and the brand’s customer service experience.

This can be strengthened with more quantifiable elements, including:

• online ratings and reviews
• social media “sentiment” (positive, negative or neutral)
• corporate social responsibility activities
• philanthropic efforts
• customer data security and privacy.

Some surveys go even deeper, asking respondents to consider a brand’s vision and mission, its approaches to sustainability and worker standards, and how honest its advertising appears.

Is this a real and useful metric?

The qualitative methodology used by Roy Morgan to determine what Australian consumers think about 1,000 brands has been administered over two decades, so the data can be reliably compared across time.

On measures of both trust and distrust, it asks respondents which brands they trust and why. This approach is useful because it tells us which elements factor into brand trust judgements.

Customer responses about the survey’s most recent winner, Bunnings, show that customer service, product range, value-for-money pricing and generous returns policies are the key drivers of strong trust in its brand.

Here are some examples:

Great customer service. Love their welcoming staff. Whether it’s nuts and bolts or a new toilet seat, they have it all, value for money.

Great products and price and have a no quibble refund policy.

Great stock range, help is there if you need it and it is my go-to for my gardening and tool needs. Really convenient trading hours, and their return policy is good.

In addition to trust, there are three other metrics commonly used to assess brand performance:

• brand equity – the commercial or social value of consumer perceptions of a brand

• brand loyalty – consumer willingness to consistently choose one brand over others regardless of price or competitor’s efforts

• brand affinity – the emotional connection and common values between a brand and its customers.

However, trust is becoming a disproportionately important metric as consumers demand that companies provide increased transparency and exhibit greater care for their customers, not just their shareholders.

Why do Australians trust retailers so much?

Of Australia’s top ten most trusted brands, seven are retailers – Bunnings, Woolworths, Aldi, Coles, Kmart, Myer and Big W.

This stands in contrast with the United States, where the most trusted brands are predominantly from the healthcare sector.

So why do retail brands dominate our trust rankings?

They certainly aren’t small local businesses. Our retail sector is highly concentrated, dominated by a few giant retail brands.

We have only two major department stores (David Jones and Myer), three major discount department stores (Big W, Target and Kmart) and a supermarket “duopoly” (Coles and Woolworths).

It’s most likely then that these brands have been enjoying leftover goodwill from the pandemic.

As Australia closed down to tackle COVID-19, the retail sector, and in particular the grocery sector, was credited with enabling customers to safely access food and household goods.

Compared with many other countries, we did not see a predominance of empty shelves across Australia. Retailers in this country stepped up – implementing or improving their online shopping capabilities and ensuring physical stores followed health guidelines and protocols.

Now, with the pandemic behind us and in an environment of high inflation, the big two supermarkets face growing distrust and a public inquiry.

Lessons from the losers

After two high profile disasters, Optus finds itself the most distrusted brand in Australia.

Its companions in the “most distrusted” group include social media brands Meta (Facebook), TikTok and X.

Qantas, Medibank Private, Newscorp, Nestle and Amazon also made the top 10.

The main reason consumers distrust brands is for a perceived failure to live up to their promises and responsibilities.

For example, worker conditions at multinational firm Amazon are seen by some consumers as a reflection of questionable business practices.

Other brands may have earned a reputation for failing to deliver the basics, like when chronic flight delays and cancellations plagued many Qantas customers.

Lessons from the winners

On the flip side, consumers have rewarded budget-friendly retailers with increased trust in the most recent rankings.

Aldi, Kmart and Bunnings have improved their standing as trusted brands, no doubt in part because they have helped many Australian consumers deal with tight household budgets.

As discretionary consumer spending continues to tighten, we may see a more permanent consumer shopping shift towards value for money brands and discounters.

Trust is a fragile thing to maintain once earned. As we move through 2024, Australian companies must pay close attention to their most important asset – strong relationships with those they serve.

Louise Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing, University of Tasmania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → February 11, 2025

The LA fires have prompted a reckoning for the insurance industry – Australian premiums could soar as a result

Paula Jarzabkowski, The University of Queensland; Katie Meissner, The University of Queensland; Rosie Gallagher, The University of Queensland, and Tyler Riordan, The University of Queensland

A series of wildfires in Los Angeles County have caused widespread devastation in California, including at least 24 deaths and the destruction of more than 12,000 homes and structures. Thousands of residents have been evacuated, and the danger isn’t over yet.

Some estimates have put the cost of the damage and economic loss at between A$400 billion and A$450 billion, of which only A$32 billion is insured.

This is a stark illustration of the insurance protection gap – the difference between insured and uninsured losses. As California rebuilds, it means the bill for uninsured losses will fall on the property owners themselves and public funds.

These catastrophic fires should ring alarm bells in Australia, where global ripple effects are likely to force up our own insurance premiums. Most importantly, we must grapple with and prepare for the grim prospect of our own similar disaster.

Uninsurable homes

California’s insurance protection gap has grown as the state experiences increasingly devastating wildfires year-on-year.

In response to growing risk, escalating insurance claims, and rising reinsurance and construction costs, at least a dozen of the largest property insurers, making up 80% of the Californian market, have withdrawn from offering wildfire coverage or have restricted new policies.

In March 2024, State Farm, the United States’ largest property insurer, announced it would not be renewing about 72,000 policies in selected California postcodes deemed too risky to insure for wildfire.

These included 1,626 homes in Pacific Palisades, the scene of one of the most damaging recent fires.

For insurers, it’s simply becoming too expensive to do business in California.

What are the other options?

This has led to surging demand for alternative protection options. One, the California FAIR Plan, is a state-legislated collaboration between insurers.

The FAIR plan exists to provide a wildfire policy for those who have had policies refused by other insurance companies. But it’s a deliberately “bare-bones” policy.

Homeowners who want cover for additional structures, for theft and liability, or for other perils need to buy an additional top-up.

Residential payouts are capped at US$3 million (A$4.8 million), leaving many people underinsured.

Demand for the California FAIR Plan has skyrocketed since 2019, up 164%.

This increased demand for protection and the billions of dollars in loss we’ve just seen have raised concerns these wildfires may bankrupt California’s insurer of last resort.

The insurance protection gap is not unique to California. Some 15% of Australian households already face extreme insurance stress – a situation in which it costs four weeks or more of pretax income to buy an insurance policy.

Insurance for insurers

Premiums in Australia may soar even higher after the LA wildfires. Here’s why.

To cover large-scale losses like the 2022 floods in Australia, insurance companies buy a reinsurance policy in the global market. Essentially, they take out their own large insurance policies to help pay out the mass claims after a disaster.

The cost of global reinsurance capital goes up around the world as risk rises, losses increase, and the costs of reconstruction rise. Reinsurance payments for wildfire in California will therefore create a ripple effect in all insurance markets.

The global reinsurance market isn’t the only thing likely to push premiums higher in Australia. There’s also our own climate uncertainty and increasing risk of disaster.

Future extreme weather and the losses it may cause are becoming harder to predict. Where uncertainty rises, so do premiums, as insurers and reinsurers increase their capital reserving for potential losses.

Alarmingly, California’s crisis is a reminder that wildfires are not just a problem in rural areas or on the fringes of cities. Furthermore, these losses can even occur in winter, not just during the “wildfire season”.

A timely warning

Australia may have been fortunate enough to avoid a catastrophic citywide fire so far. But the intensification of bushfire seasons could ultimately create a similar insurance crisis here.

We’ve had our own sobering warnings in the past.

The 2003 Canberra bushfires destroyed more than 500 homes in suburban areas. In 2021, the Wooroloo fire destroyed 86 homes on Perth’s northeastern fringe.

In 2019, the Gospers Mountain mega-blaze came dangerously close to advancing on Sydney’s urban heart. A timely southerly wind change held it back.

It pays to check your coverage

What are the implications of this disaster for Australian insurance policyholders? Are there any meaningful actions we can take?

First, insured Australians should check what their policy covers and what is excluded. Greater clarification over exclusions was recommended in a recent parliamentary inquiry into the 2022 floods.

Meanwhile, policyholders should review the terms and conditions in their product disclosure statement (PDS). If you’re unsure about what a particular policy covers, contact your insurer prior to renewal.

Beyond checking or upgrading coverage, Australians can take steps to make their homes more bushfire resilient.

Last year, the Resilient Building Council partnered with the federal government to launch a free app homeowners can use to assess their fire resilience and earn premium reductions from participating insurers by making improvements.

Above all, Australians need to be aware that under a changing climate, we may be more at risk from fire than we realise, even in our biggest cities.

Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor in Strategic Management, The University of Queensland; Katie Meissner, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland; Rosie Gallagher, Postdoctoral research fellow, UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, and Tyler Riordan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → January 20, 2025

Australia sets goal of ending HIV transmission by 2030

Canberra, (IANS): The Australian government has set a goal of ending the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the country by 2030.

The Minister for Health Mark Butler on Thursday released Australia's ninth National HIV Strategy for 2024-2030, describing it as a final step towards achieving the elimination of HIV transmission in Australia, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Through this strategy, we establish a path to be the first country to virtually eliminate HIV transmission by 2030," the strategy said.

According to the strategy, HIV diagnoses in Australia declined by 33 per cent between 2014 and 2023.

It estimated that the population-wide prevalence of HIV in Australia in 2023 was 0.14 per cent.

"In the 40 years since HIV/AIDS reached Australia, we have made remarkable progress," Butler said in a statement.

The strategy said that if the transmission of HIV is eliminated in Australia, the country's response will shift to supporting people with the virus to live healthy lives.

Butler pledged that nobody with HIV would be left behind and that Australia would continue offering high-quality care to all people living with HIV.Australia's first National HIV strategy was launched in 1989. Australia sets goal of ending HIV transmission by 2030 | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........ → December 10, 2024

91% of Australian teens have a phone – but many are not keeping their identity and location secure

Yeslam Al-Saggaf, Charles Sturt University and Julie Maclean, Charles Sturt University

Most Australian teenagers have their own smartphone. According to a 2023 survey, 91% of young people between 14 and 17 owned a phone.

At the same time, there is huge community concern about young people being exposed to harms online – this includes the content they consume and the interactions they might have.

But there is also concern about their privacy and security. A 2023 UK study found teenagers are overly optimistic about the degree to which they can protect their personal information online.

This is a problem because smartphones can communicate information such as identities and locations when settings are not figured correctly.

Our new project – which has been funded by the eSafety Commissioner and will soon be available online – looked at how to teach students to be safer with their phones.

What are the risks?

Without changing the default settings, a phone (or smart watch, laptop or tablet) can share information such as full names, current locations and the duration of their stay in those locations. This makes it easy for others with basic IT knowledge to create profiles of someone’s movements over time.

Children are at particular risk, as they often connect to free public Wi-Fi networks. They may also be more likely to exchange photos with strangers online and accept social media friend requests without caution.

This also puts them at increased risk of having their identity or money stolen or coming into contact with people who may wish them harm.

Our research

Our project was conducted in seven high schools in regional New South Wales between August 2023 and April 2024.

First, we set up network sensors in two schools to monitor data leakage from students’ phones. We wanted to know the extent to which they were they giving away names and locations of the students. This was conducted over several weeks to establish a baseline for their typical data leakage levels.

Next, we gave 4,460 students in seven high schools lessons in how smartphones can leak sensitive information and how to stop this. The students were shown how to turn off their Bluetooth and switch off their Wi-Fi. They were also shown how to change their Bluetooth name and switch off their location services.

We then measured data leakage after the lesson in the two schools with network sensors.

We also conducted a survey on 574 students across five other schools, to measure their knowledge before and after the lesson. Of this group, about 90% of students owned a smartphone and most were aged between 14 and 16.

What did we find?

We found a significant reduction in data leakage after students were given the lessons.

At the two schools we monitored, we found the number of identifiable phones fell by about 30% after the education session.

The survey results also indicated the lessons had been effective. There was an 85% improvement in students’ “knowledge of smartphone settings” questions.

There was also a 15% improvement in students’ use of a safer, fake name as their smartphone name after the lessons – for example, instead of “Joshua’s phone”, calling it “cool dude”.

There was a 7% increase in concern about someone knowing where they were at a particular point in time, and a 10% increase in concern about someone knowing what their regular travel route to school was.

However, despite their enhanced understanding, many students continued to keep their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings enabled all the time, as this gave them convenient access to school and home Wi-Fi networks and headphone connections. This is an example of the “privacy paradox” where individuals prioritise convenience over security, even when aware of the risks.

How can students keep their phones safe?

There are three things young people – and others – can do to keep their smartphones safe.

1. Switch off services you don’t use

Phone owners should ask themselves: do I really need to keep all the available services on? If they are not using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or location services (such as Snap Map, where you share your location with friends), they should turn them off.

As our research indicated, young people are unlikely to do this because it is inconvenient. Many young people want to connect to their headphones at all times so they can listen to music, watch videos and talk to friends.

2. Hide the device

If teens can’t switch off these services, they can at least de-identify their device by replacing their real name on the phone with something else. They can use a name parents and friends will recognise but will not link them to their other data.

They can also hide their device by not giving away the type of phone they are using (this can be done in general settings). This will prevent cyber attackers from linking their phone to the security vulnerabilities with their make of phone.

3. Control each app

Ideally, students should also go in and check smartphone settings for individual apps as well – and turn off services for apps that don’t require them. It is now easy to find out which apps have access to location services and your phone’s camera or microphone.

Yeslam Al-Saggaf, Professor in Computing, Charles Sturt University and Julie Maclean, Researcher in Computing, Charles Sturt University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → November 06, 2024

Australia’s fertility rate has reached a record low. What might that mean for the economy?

Jonathan Boymal, RMIT University; Ashton De Silva, RMIT University, and Sarah Sinclair, RMIT University

Australia’s fertility rate has fallen to a new record low of 1.5 babies per woman. That’s well below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 needed to sustain a country’s population.

On face value, it might not seem like a big deal. But we can’t afford to ignore this issue. The health of an economy is deeply intertwined with the size and structure of its population.

Australians simply aren’t having as many babies as they used to, raising some serious questions about how we can maintain our country’s workforce, sustain economic growth and fund important services.

So what’s going on with fertility rates here and around the world, and what might it mean for the future of our economy? What can we do about it?

Are lower birth rates always a problem?

Falling fertility rates can actually have some short-term benefits. Having fewer dependent young people in an economy can increase workforce participation, as well as boost savings and wealth.

Smaller populations can also benefit from increased investment per person in education and health.

But the picture gets more complex in the long term, and less rosy. An ageing population can strain pensions, health care and social services. This can hinder economic growth, unless it’s offset by increased productivity.

Other scholars have warned that a falling population could stifle innovation, with fewer young people meaning fewer breakthrough ideas.

A global phenomenon

The trend towards women having fewer children is not unique to Australia. The global fertility rate has dropped over the past couple of decades, from 2.7 babies per woman in 2000 to 2.4 in 2023.

However, the distribution is not evenly spread. In 2021, 29% of the world’s babies were born in sub-Saharan Africa. This is projected to rise to 54% by 2100.

There’s also a regional-urban divide. Childbearing is often delayed in urban areas and late fertility is more common in cities.

In Australia, we see higher fertility rates in inner and outer regional areas than in metro areas. This could be because of more affordable housing and a better work-life balance.

But it raises questions about whether people are moving out of cities to start families, or if something intrinsic about living in the regions promotes higher birth rates.

Fewer workers, more pressure on services

Changes to the makeup of a population can be just as important as changes to its size. With fewer babies being born and increased life expectancy, the proportion of older Australians who have left the workforce will keep rising.

One way of tracking this is with a metric called the old-age dependency ratio – the number of people aged 65 and over per 100 working-age individuals.

In Australia, this ratio is currently about 27%. But according to the latest Intergenerational Report, it’s expected to rise to 38% by 2063.

An ageing population means greater demand for medical services and aged care. As the working-age population shrinks, the tax base that funds these services will also decline.

Unless this is offset by technological advances or policy innovations, it can mean higher taxes, longer working lives, or the government providing fewer public services in general.

What about housing?

It’s tempting to think a falling birth rate might be good news for Australia’s stubborn housing crisis.

The issues are linked – rising real estate prices have made it difficult for many young people to afford homes, with a significant number of people in their 20s still living with their parents.

This can mean delaying starting a family and reducing the number of children they have.

At the same time, if fertility rates stay low, demand for large family homes may decrease, impacting one of Australia’s most significant economic sectors and sources of household wealth.

Can governments turn the tide?

Governments worldwide, including Australia, have long experimented with policies that encourage families to have more children. Examples include paid parental leave, childcare subsidies and financial incentives, such as Australia’s “baby bonus”.

Many of these efforts have had only limited success. One reason is the rising average age at which women have their first child. In many developed countries, including Australia, the average age for first-time mothers has surpassed 30.

As women delay childbirth, they become less likely to have multiple children, further contributing to declining birth rates. Encouraging women to start a family earlier could be one policy lever, but it must be balanced with women’s growing workforce participation and career goals.

Research has previously highlighted the factors influencing fertility decisions, including levels of paternal involvement and workplace flexibility. Countries that offer part-time work or maternity leave without career penalties have seen a stabilisation or slight increases in fertility rates.

The way forward

Historically, one of the ways Australia has countered its low birth rate is through immigration. Bringing in a lot of people – especially skilled people of working age – can help offset the effects of a low fertility rate.

However, relying on immigration alone is not a long-term solution. The global fertility slump means that the pool of young, educated workers from other countries is shrinking, too. This makes it harder for Australia to attract the talent it needs to sustain economic growth.

Australia’s record-low fertility rate presents both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, the shrinking number of young people will place a strain on public services, innovation and the labour market.

On the other hand, advances in technology, particularly in artificial intelligence and robotics, may help ease the challenges of an ageing population.

That’s the optimistic scenario. AI and other tech-driven productivity gains could reduce the need for large workforces. And robotics could assist in aged care, lessening the impact of this demographic shift.

Jonathan Boymal, Associate Professor of Economics, RMIT University; Ashton De Silva, Professor of Economics, RMIT University, and Sarah Sinclair, Senior Lecturer in Economics, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → October 24, 2024