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Fighting for change: how much cash Olympic medallists actually win at Paris 2024

<p>As the world soaks up the glitz and glamour of Paris 2024, athletes are not just eyeing the podium – they're also thinking about the cash they might pocket. Or, in some cases, the cash they might not pocket. Because while the Olympics is a billion-dollar spectacle, the earnings for athletes can range from princely sums to pocket change.</p> <p><strong>Australia: A Gold Medal and a Discount Coupon</strong></p> <p>Let’s start with the Aussies. Winning gold at the Olympics might be the pinnacle of an athlete's career, but for Australian athletes, it also means... $20,000. Yes, you heard that right. In a land where a house deposit will likely cost you a LOT more, Aussie Olympians are basically getting paid in Monopoly money. Silver and bronze medalists get $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. That's enough for a decent holiday, but you might still need a GoFundMe for the flights.</p> <p><strong>Singapore: the million-dollar carrot</strong></p> <p>On the other end of the spectrum, athletes from Singapore are practically diving into pools of gold – like Scrooge McDuck, but in real life. A gold medal will earn them a staggering AU$1.13 million. That’s the kind of money that makes you forget about the gruelling four-year training cycle and instead think about which colour Lamborghini matches your national flag.</p> <p><strong>Hong Kong: fencing your way to riches</strong></p> <p>Hong Kong, not to be outdone, will reward its fencing champion Vivian Kong with AU$1.17 million for her gold. That’s enough to make you consider taking up fencing, even if you’re as coordinated as a baby giraffe.</p> <p><strong>Malaysia and Kazakhstan: cars and apartments</strong></p> <p>In Malaysia, winning athletes might not get cold hard cash, but they do get a new car. And in Kazakhstan, you can literally earn a place to call home – with more rooms depending on the colour of your medal. A gold gets you a penthouse, a silver a two-bedroom, and a bronze... well, maybe a studio with a view of the parking lot.</p> <p><strong>France: host with the most (ish)</strong></p> <p>The host nation, France, offers a more modest reward of $108,000 for a gold medal. That’s enough to cover a year's rent in Paris, or a really good wine collection. But let’s face it, in the land of fine dining, they might just spend it all on cheese.</p> <p><strong>New Zealand, Norway and the UK: the love of the game</strong></p> <p>Athletes from New Zealand, Norway and the UK? Well, they’ll have to make do with a pat on the back and a hearty “well done”, because there’s no financial incentive for winning a medal in these countries. Just the satisfaction of representing your nation, which, as any athlete will tell you, doesn't pay the bills.</p> <p><strong>The United States: the great divide</strong></p> <p>The US offers $37,500 for a gold medal, but that's chump change compared to the endorsement deals top athletes like swimmer Katie Ledecky pull in. She's reportedly earning $1 million a year from swimwear endorsements. Meanwhile, many other American athletes are scraping by, with some earning less than $15,000 a year. That's barely enough for a year's supply of Weet-Bix, let alone world-class training.</p> <p><strong>Jamaica: sharing the love</strong></p> <p>Jamaica’s Olympic team will share a pot of about AU$3,500 each, regardless of their results. It's the ultimate participation trophy – except it’s not enough to buy a trophy, or even a decent pair of running shoes.</p> <p><strong>World Athletics: the global jackpot</strong></p> <p>World Athletics is offering a $3.6 million prize pool for track and field events, with $76,000 per gold medalist. It's a model that some athletes, like Australia’s Arianne Titmus, think other sports should follow. After all, nothing says “thank you for your hard work” like a big, fat cheque.</p> <p>So, whether they’re racing for millions or just a modest thank you, athletes at Paris 2024 will be giving it their all. Because at the end of the day, it's not just about the money. It's about the glory, the honour, and ... well, okay, it’s mostly about the money.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram \ Shutterstock</em></p>

Money & Banking

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"Am I dreaming?": Prince William serves up burgers from food van

<p>The Prince of Wales has stunned a few unsuspecting customers of a London food truck by serving them burgers. </p> <p>In collaboration with popular YouTube channel<em> Sorted Food</em>, Prince William took part in the stunt to promote The Earthshot Prize, a mission he founded in hopes to repair the planet. </p> <p>They worked together to create a plant-based 'Earthshot burger', which they served to customers, in the clip shared on YouTube. </p> <p>As part of the stunt, Prince William first hid his identity by facing away from the customers, when it was time to serve the food, he turned around with burgers in hand to the shock of the diners. </p> <p>"My brain took three seconds to buffer - am I dreaming?" one said after seeing Prince William serving burgers. </p> <p>"I was lost for words," said another. </p> <p>"I was shell-shocked" said a third. </p> <p>The Prince of Wales also praised last year's Earthshot Prize winners, and explained that the dishes served used three of their innovations, which all represented a solution to help repair the planet. </p> <p>"For those of you who don't know, the Earthshot Prize is there to repair and regenerate the planet. Everything you see here comes from the winners from last year," he said.</p> <p>The ingredients for the burgers were sourced by Indian start-up Kheyti, who support local farmers and help shelter their crops from unpredictable weather events and pests. </p> <p>The burgers were cooked in a cleaner-burning portable stove from Mukuru Clean Stoves, which aims to reduce air pollution, and the food was served on Notpla takeaway containers made from natural and biodegradable materials. </p> <p>This is the verdict from the diners: "the best burger we've ever had."</p> <p>The Prince also joked with diners saying that the global Earthshot Prize started back when he "had hair."</p> <p>"It's designed as an environmental prize tackling the world's greatest environmental problems,"  he said. </p> <p>"We liked the idea that this is a big deal, this is like something we really need to aim for, but it's about saving the planet, not taking us to the moon."</p> <p>He added:  "And there's many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I'm like, hang on, let's not give up on this planet yet."</p> <p><em>Images: Kensington Palace/ Sorted Food YouTube</em></p>

Food & Wine

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Archibald prize finalists unveiled

<p dir="ltr"> The 2023 Archibald prize’s 57 finalists have been revealed by the Art Gallery of NSW. </p> <p dir="ltr">With portraits by an entire host of exceptionally talented artists, the award - as well as its $100,000 prize - will be presented to the best portrait of a person who is “distinguished in art, letters, science or politics” that has been painted by a resident of Australia.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 2023 competition also made history with its batch of finalists, as for the first time ever, more works by women were selected than works by men - 30 to 27. In total, the competition drew in an impressive 949 submissions. </p> <p dir="ltr">All three competitions - Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman - also saw a record number of entries and finalists by Aboriginal artists, at 101 entries and 38 finalist pieces. </p> <p dir="ltr">And while the overall winners won’t be announced until May 5, the Archibald Packing Room Prize 2023 winner has been revealed: a portrait of comedian Cal Wilson by Andrea Huelin.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I can’t tell you how happy I am to receive this,” the artist confessed after learning of her win. “It means such a lot to me as an artist from a regional centre to win.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The Packing Room Prize was selected by a team of three expert packers with 19 years of experience between them, and for the first time included two women - Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman - alongside Timothy Dale. </p> <p dir="ltr">The prize, which began in 1991 and is worth $3000, is referred to as ‘the kiss of death’ by artists when it comes to selecting the overall Archibald winner. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Andrea’s work jumped out at us as soon as it arrived,” they said of their selection. “Cal’s been such a mainstay on Australian television for two decades.”</p> <p dir="ltr">As Michael Brand - director of the Art Gallery of NSW - explained, the decision had been reached “equally” by the trio. </p> <p dir="ltr">Many other well-known faces were captured across the 57 finalists, with portraits of everyone from Cold Chisel’s Don Walker to Aboriginal activist Archie Roach, Silverchair’s Daniel Jones, NRL’s Latrell Mitchell, politicians Yvonne Weldon and Alex Greenwich, and actor Sam Neill. </p> <p dir="ltr">And for anyone who would like to admire the paintings in person, the finalists of all three competitions will be on display at the gallery from May 6 to September 3.</p> <p dir="ltr">Meanwhile, all 57 portraits are available to <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2023/">view on the Art Gallery of NSW’s website</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Art Gallery of NSW </em></p>

Art

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"This doesn’t feel right, does it?": Photographer admits Sony prize-winning photo was AI generated

<p>A German photographer is refusing an award for his prize-winning shot after admitting to being a “cheeky monkey”, revealing the image was generated using artificial intelligence.</p> <p>The artist, Boris Eldagsen, shared on his website that he would not be accepting the prestigious award for the creative open category, which he won at <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/art/winners-of-sony-world-photography-awards-revealed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023’s Sony world photography awards</a>.</p> <p>The winning photograph showcased a black and white image of two women from different generations.</p> <p>Eldagsen, who studied photography and visual arts at the Art Academy of Mainz, conceptual art and intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and fine art at the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication in Hyderabad released a statement on his website, admitting he “applied as a cheeky monkey” to find out if competitions would be prepared for AI images to enter. “They are not,” he revealed.</p> <p>“We, the photo world, need an open discussion,” Eldagsen said.</p> <p>“A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake?</p> <p>“With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.”</p> <p>Eldagsen said this was an “historic moment” as it was the fist AI image to have won a prestigious international photography competition, adding “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?</p> <p>“AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”</p> <p>The photographer suggested donating the prize to a photo festival in Odesa, Ukraine.</p> <p>It comes as a heated debate over the use and safety concerns of AI continue, with some going as far as to issue apocalyptic warnings that the technology may be close to causing irreparable damage to the human experience.</p> <p>Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pirchai said, “It can be very harmful if deployed wrongly and we don’t have all the answers there yet – and the technology is moving fast. So, does that keep me up at night? Absolutely.”</p> <p>A spokesperson for the World Photography Organisation admitted that the prize-winning photographer had confirmed the “co-creation” of the image using AI to them prior to winning the award.</p> <p>“The creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices. As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation.</p> <p>“Additionally, we were looking forward to engaging in a more in-depth discussion on this topic and welcomed Boris’ wish for dialogue by preparing questions for a dedicated Q&A with him for our website.</p> <p>“As he has now decided to decline his award we have suspended our activities with him and in keeping with his wishes have removed him from the competition. Given his actions and subsequent statement noting his deliberate attempts at misleading us, and therefore invalidating the warranties he provided, we no longer feel we are able to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him.</p> <p>“We recognise the importance of this subject and its impact on image-making today. We look forward to further exploring this topic via our various channels and programmes and welcome the conversation around it. While elements of AI practices are relevant in artistic contexts of image-making, the awards always have been and will continue to be a platform for championing the excellence and skill of photographers and artists working in the medium.”</p> <p><em>Image credit: Sony World Photography Awards</em></p>

Technology

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Better Homes & Gardens host selling her prized family hideaway

<p dir="ltr">After downsizing 20 years ago, Noni Hazlehurst looks like she’ll be doing it again after listing her home in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland for sale.</p> <p dir="ltr">The <em>Better Homes &amp; Gardens </em>host was nearing the end of her decade-long stint on the show when she swapped her Blue Mountains property for The Gables in 2002 for $749,000.</p> <p dir="ltr">With her two sons now all grown up, Halelhurst’s Tamborine Mountain property will be going under the hammer next month, as the TV presenter looks for another, smaller place to call home.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’m in the downsizing phase of my life again,” the 69-year-old said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“My family is dispersed, as families tend to do, and so it’s got too much, so it’s time.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Since she purchased it 22 years ago, Hazlehurst has put plenty of work into the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home, including updating the kitchen and bathrooms.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, the former <em>Play School</em> presenter said it was the gardens that were a “labour of love”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There was a tropical garden here already here, but I’ve put in about nine different kinds of magnolias, some huge gardenia bushes, hydrangea and jasmine,” she said.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1f07179d-7fff-4285-6a7e-252eee73fc8d"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“The jacaranda is about to pop, the agapanthus are going nuts, and there are avocado trees and two mulberry trees.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBSRkxNnqJC/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBSRkxNnqJC/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Noni Hazlehurst (@realnonihazlehurst)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“It has this rich, red volcanic soil here that is just so fertile, you can almost watch things growing. And we get proper seasons and real winters with log fires, and summer rarely gets above 30 [degrees].”</p> <p dir="ltr">Hazlehurst moved from the Blue Mountains with little knowledge of the Gold Coast area and had fallen “in love with the environment” after visiting a nearby friend’s house.</p> <p dir="ltr">Now that she’s looking for a new home, her love for the area means she won’t be looking too far.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’ve always wanted this sort of semi-rural environment, so I’ll try to replicate this but on a smaller scale,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">The property itself is described as having an “enchanted forest feel” in <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-tamborine+mountain-140849184" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the listing</a>, hidden partially by the greenery Hazlehurst put her love into.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Downsizing after raising the family here, the owner finds it time to move on, making way for a new generation to enjoy and cherish this beautiful home and garden,” the listing reads.</p> <p dir="ltr">Inside, the house boasts a “library room”, as well as high ceilings, timber floors and lattice windows, and several ornate fireplaces.</p> <p dir="ltr">The house will be auctioned through Ray White Rural at 10.30am on Friday, December 16.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f1d2b7c9-7fff-5a67-588c-6103540f0268"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Ray White / @realnonihazlehurst (Instagram)</em></p>

Real Estate

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Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker prize for Sri Lankan political satire, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

<p>Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.</p> <p>The win couldn’t come at a better time for Sri Lanka, a country once more engaged in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/06/sri-lanka-economic-crisis-protests-imf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">political and economic instability</a>, as it suffers through one of the world’s worst economic crises, with soaring inflation, food and fuel shortages, and low supplies of foreign reserves. And of course, the government was overthrown in July, after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled following mass protests.</p> <p>Karunatilaka said in his acceptance speech:</p> <blockquote> <p>My hope for Seven Moons is this; that in the not-too-distant future, 10 years, as long as it takes, Sri Lanka […] has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work.</p> </blockquote> <h2>Political black comedy</h2> <p>Karunatilaka’s novel is extraordinary – and hard to pin down. It is at once a black comedy about the afterlife, a murder mystery whodunit, and a political satire set against the violent backdrop of the late-1980s Sri Lankan civil war. It is also a story of love and redemption.</p> <p>Malinda “Maali” Kabalana, a closeted war photographer, wakes up dead in what seems to be a celestial waiting room. The setting will be familiar to many who’ve spent time in Colombo (as I have – it’s where my husband’s family is from). We open in a busy, bureaucratic office, filled with confusion, noise, a propensity against queuing – and a healthy dose of “gallows” humour. In other words, Maali is in some sort of purgatory.</p> <p>Maali soon discovers he has seven days – seven moons – to solve his own murder. This isn’t easy – he is interrupted by sardonic ghosts (often with grudges, questionable motives, and a tendency towards extreme chattiness), the violent reality of war-torn Colombo, and piecing together his memories of who he was.</p> <p>He also has seven moons to lead his official girlfriend and his secret boyfriend to a cache of photographs, taken over time, which document the horror of the war – and incriminate local and foreign governments.</p> <p>Karunatilaka’s subject matter and plot highlight, question and explore Sri Lanka’s legacy – and its continued, difficult relationship with its civil war, which spanned 1983 to 2009, though the reverberations continue. And his novel’s provocative, intimate, second-person style implicates us – the readers.</p> <p>Karunatilaka has mastered his craft as a novelist. He never once wavers from a second-person perspective that might be unwieldy (perhaps even gimmicky) in a lesser writer’s hands. The novel tells us, “Don’t try and look for the good guys, ‘cause there ain’t none”.</p> <p>It realises a combined responsibility for the tragedy of that 25-year civil war, in which the country’s colonial history is also implicated. British colonialists brought Tamil workers from South India to Sri Lanka, to work as indentured labourers on their coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Their descendants’ fight for an independent Tamil state was a strong component of the civil war.</p> <h2>Diffusing violence with humour</h2> <p>As a novelist and lover of second-person narration and a long-time follower of Karuntailaka’s accomplished work, I couldn’t be more delighted by this Booker win.</p> <p>I first came across Karunatilaka through his debut novel, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/chinaman-9780099555681" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinaman</a>, which was handed to me by my sister-in-law several years ago on a family visit to Colombo. That book taught me about cricket, but it also taught me the sardonic brilliance of Sri Lankan humour.</p> <p>Karunatilaka once again uses humour to great effect in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – to diffuse confronting moments of violence, to engage his reader, and for pure enjoyment. This novel follows a murder victim through a bloody civil war – and it’s laugh-out-loud funny.</p> <p>It’s also a tighter, more focused book than Chinaman: here is an author in control of his craft and what he wants to say with it. The Booker judges, too, praised the “scope and the skill, the daring, the audacity and hilarity” of the book.</p> <p>Karunatilaka’s winning novel took time to write. Ten years have passed since Chinaman. His skilful use of craft to tell this complicated story is testament to the idea that good books take the time they need: something that all authors know but publishers are not always willing to accept. However, Karunatilaka has been busy in that ten years, not just writing literary fiction, but writing for children – and having a family. The 47-year-old is now married with two kids.</p> <p>Karunatilaka is only the second Sri Lankan novelist to have won the Booker Prize. (The first was Michael Ondaatje in 1992 for The English Patient.) But last year, his countryman Anuk Arudpragasam was also <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/anuk-arudpragasam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shortlisted</a>, for <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Anuk-Arudpragasam-Passage-North-9781783786961" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Passage North</a>, another accomplished novel set in the aftermath of the civil war.</p> <p>I’m excited by what this means for Sri Lankan authors and the Sri Lankan publishing scene. Here is a country with stories to tell and enormous skill to tell them with: let’s hope this leads to more Sri Lankan novels achieving wide readership, success and deserved acclaim.</p> <p><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/shehan-karunatilaka-wins-booker-prize-for-sri-lankan-political-satire-the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida-192722" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></p> <p><em>Image: thebookerprizes.com</em></p>

Books

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Nobel economics prize: insights into financial contagion changed how central banks react during a crisis

<p><em>This year’s <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2022/prize-announcement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nobel prize in economics</a>, known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, has gone to Douglas Diamond, Philip Dybvig and former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke for their work on banks and how they relate to financial crises.</em></p> <p><em>To explain the work and why it matters, we talked to Elena Carletti, a Professor of Finance at Bocconi University in Milan.</em></p> <p><strong>Why have Diamond, Bernanke and Dybvig been awarded the prize?</strong></p> <p>The works by <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2022/10/popular-economicsciencesprize2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Diamond and Dybvig</a> essentially explained why banks exist and the role they play in the economy by channelling savings from individuals into productive investments. Essentially, banks play two roles. On the one hand, they monitor borrowers within the economy. On the other, they provide liquidity to individuals, who don’t know what they will need to buy in future, and this can make them averse to depositing money in case it’s not available when they need it. Banks smooth out this aversion by providing us with the assurance that we will be able to take out our money when it’s required.</p> <p>The problem is that by providing this assurance, banks are also vulnerable to crises even at times when their finances are healthy. This occurs when individual depositors worry that many other depositors are removing their money from the bank. This then gives them an incentive to remove money themselves, which can lead to a panic that causes a bank run.</p> <p>Ben Bernanke fed into this by looking at bank behaviour during the great depression of the 1930s, and showed that bank runs during the depression was the decisive factor in making the crisis longer and deeper than it otherwise would have been.</p> <p><strong>The observations behind the Nobel win seem fairly straightforward compared to previous years. Why are they so important?</strong></p> <p>It’s the idea that banks that are otherwise financially sound can nevertheless be vulnerable because of panicking depositors. Or, in cases such as during the global financial crisis of 2007-09, it can be a combination of the two, where there is a problem with a bank’s fundamentals but it is exacerbated by panic.</p> <p>Having recognised the intrinsic vulnerability of healthy banks, it was then possible to start thinking about policies to alleviate that risk, such as depositor insurance and reassuring everyone that the central bank will step in as the lender of last resort.</p> <p>In a bank run caused by liquidity (panic) rather than insolvency, an announcement from the government or central bank is likely to be enough to solve the problem on its own – often without the need for any deposit insurance even being paid out. On the other hand, in a banking crisis caused by insolvency, that’s when you need to pump in money to rescue the institution.</p> <p><strong>What was the consensus about bank runs before Diamond and Dybvig began publishing their work?</strong></p> <p>There had been a lot of bank runs in the past and it was understood that financial crises were linked to them – particularly before the US Federal Reserve was founded in 1913. It was understood that bank runs made financial crises longer by exacerbating them. But the mechanism causing the bank runs wasn’t well understood.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=405&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=405&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=405&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=509&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=509&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489027/original/file-20221010-11-on0vn4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=509&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="Police controlling an angry crowd during a Paris bank in 1904" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">A bank run in Paris in 1904.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/paris-police-hold-back-crowd-making-242294071" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Everett Collection</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p><strong>How easy is it to tell what kind of bank run you are dealing with?</strong></p> <p>It’s not always easy. For example, in 2008 in Ireland it was thought to be a classic example of bank runs caused by liquidity fears. The state stepped up to give a blanket guarantee to creditors, but it then became apparent that the banks were really insolvent and the government had to inject enormous amounts of money into them, which led to a sovereign debt crisis.</p> <p>Speaking of sovereign debt crises, the work by Diamond and Dybvig also underpins the literature on financial contagion, which is based on a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/262109" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2000 paper</a> by Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale. I worked with Allen and Gale for many years, and all our papers have been based on the work of Diamond, and Diamond and Dybvig.</p> <p>In a similar way to how state reassurances can defuse a bank run caused by liquidity problems, we saw how the then European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was able to defuse the run on government bonds in the eurozone crisis in 2011 by saying that the bank would do “<a href="https://qz.com/1038954/whatever-it-takes-five-years-ago-today-mario-draghi-saved-the-euro-with-a-momentous-speech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whatever it takes</a>” to preserve the euro.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tB2CM2ngpQg?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p><strong>The prize announcement has attracted plenty of people on social media saying we shouldn’t be celebrating Bernanke when he was so involved in the quantitative easing (QE) that has helped to cause today’s global financial problems – what’s your view?</strong></p> <p>I would say that without QE our problems would today be much worse, but also that the prize recognises his achievements as an academic and not as chair of the Fed. Also, Bernanke was only one of the numerous central bankers who resorted to QE after 2008.</p> <p>And it is not only the central bank actions that make banks stable. It’s also worth pointing out that the changes to the rules around the amount of capital that banks have to hold after 2008 have made the financial system much better protected against bank runs than it was beforehand.</p> <p><strong>Should such rules have been introduced when the academics first explained the risks around bank runs and contagion?</strong></p> <p>The literature had certainly hinted at these risks, but regulation-wise, we had to wait until after the global financial crisis to see <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/fsr/art/ecb.fsrart201405_03.en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reforms such as</a> macro-prudential regulation and more stringent micro-prudential regulation. This shows that regulators were underestimating the risk of financial crises, perhaps also pushed by the banking lobbies that had been traditionally very powerful and managed to convince regulators that risks were well managed.</p> <p><strong>If retail banks become less important in future because of blockchain technology or central bank digital currencies, do you think the threat of financial panic will reduce?</strong></p> <p>If we are heading for a situation where depositors put their money into central banks rather than retail banks, that would diminish the role of retail banking, but I think we are far from that. Central bank digital currencies can be designed in such a way that retail banks are still necessary. But either way, the insights from Diamond and Dybvig about liquidity panics are still relevant because they apply to any context where coordination failures among investors are important, such as sovereign debt crises, currency attacks and so on.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192208/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><span id="docs-internal-guid-b64a001e-7fff-6de9-427e-bf63c137d340">Written by Elena Carletti. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-economics-prize-insights-into-financial-contagion-changed-how-central-banks-react-during-a-crisis-192208" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </span></em></p> <p><em>Image: The Nobel Foundation</em></p>

Money & Banking

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Samuel Johnson portrait win Archibald Prize People’s Choice

<p dir="ltr">An emotional portrait of Samuel Johnson OAM has won the Archibald Prize 2022 ANZ People’s Choice award. </p> <p dir="ltr">The portrait, painted by Jeremy Eden, shows a solemn looking Johnson holding a black and white photograph of his sister Connie. </p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s an honour to have my painting chosen for this year’s ANZ People’s Choice award,” Jeremy said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This painting has been one I have been thinking about and wanting to make for 10 years. Sam is a storyteller at heart, and it was really important to find a way to share my own narrative while still capturing Sam’s character and emotion in the portrait.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgx4yY8MRz_/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgx4yY8MRz_/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Art Gallery NSW (@artgalleryofnsw)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“It is inspiring to see what Sam and the team at Love Your Sister have accomplished, having raised so much money for cancer research.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’ve followed Sam’s journey with the charity for many years and it’s a privilege to be able to contribute in my own way. It is amazing to be a finalist in the Archibald Prize but knowing the painting has resonated with so many people makes the experience even more meaningful.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Jeremy is also selling prints of his award-winning artwork, with 50% of the proceeds going to Sam’s charity ‘Love Your Sister’.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Art

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Benji Marshall’s incredible decision for Celebrity Apprentice prize money

<p dir="ltr">After being crowned the winner of <em>Celebrity Apprentice</em> for 2022, Benji Mashall has revealed the extraordinary way he plans to spend his prize money.</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/tv/i-didn-t-expect-that-celebrity-apprentice-2022-winner-crowned" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The former football star won</a> after raising $387,105 in the grand finale - and receiving another $100,000 from Lord Alan Sugar - making for a total of $504,000 raised for his chosen charity, Souths Cares.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, in an interview with KIIS FM’s Will and Woody show, it was revealed he called the radio hosts - and castmates on the show - shortly after the finale to thank them, though the scene never made it to air.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Something the TV show didn’t show was that Benji called me after the finale - cause I did go back to help him with the final challenge - to thank me for getting so involved in the finale,” Woody Whitelaw explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">“He’s taken $30,000 out of the money he made, and he’s putting $30,000 in Gotcha4Life.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Gotcha4Life, the charity Woody and co-host Will McMahon chose, aims to prevent suicide through programs and social connections.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-17096d16-7fff-3a29-8f91-5fd2aa200654">It was revealed that Marshall also shared the cash with several of his other castmates, with another $30,000 going to Samantha Jade’s charity Cancer Council Australia, $30,000 to Vince Colosimo’s Dementia Australia and $30,000 to Bronte Campbell’s Carers Australia, per <em><a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/benji-marshalls-incredible-act-with-celebrity-apprentice-prize-money/news-story/64b71506c77ca16f88556704e251e2af" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news.com.au</a></em>.</span></p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cea7Ahyh1ks/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cea7Ahyh1ks/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Will and Woody (@willandwoody)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">During the interview, it emerged that Marshall, Whitelaw and McMahon being castmates wasn’t the only thing they had in common - they had all picked the same charity to support too.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Before the show started, Will and I locked in Gotcha4Life as our charity. So all the money we raised was going to go to Gotcha4Lide,” Woody said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Benji was late in replying to the email with what charity he wanted to do, and his first pick was Gotcha4Life.</p> <p dir="ltr">“And Benji, you’ve raised money for an incredible charity in South Cares, and I know that’s really close to your heart … But just to compare for the poor charity of Gotcha4Life, Will and I raised $20,000 and Benji, all up, how much money did you raise?”<br />“$540,000,” Marshall said laughingly.</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/community/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Souths Cares</a> is closely affiliated with Marshall’s former club, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and supports disadvantaged and marginalised youth and their families by delivering programs that address people’s education, training, health and employment needs.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-961a3d8c-7fff-6918-e53b-9850dcd30289"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @benji6marshall (Instagram)</em></p>

Caring

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Blak Douglas becomes second ever Indigenous Archibald Prize winner

<p dir="ltr">Western Sydney artist Blak Douglas has won the 2022 Archibald Prize, taking home $100,000 along with the coveted title. </p> <p dir="ltr">The self-taught 52-year-old artist has become the second Indigenous artist to win the prize in its 101 years for his portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 2022 competition was Douglas' fifth time as an Archibald finalist, and accepting the prize at the Art Gallery of NSW ceremony, he said: "This painting represents 20 years of taking the risk of pursuing a dream [and] surrendering normalised employment. And I'm sure many of my artist colleagues can relate to that."</p> <p dir="ltr">His winning portrait depicts Karla Dickens, who he describes as a “legendary practitioner”, knee-deep in the muddy floodwaters of her hometown in Lismore, Bundjalung Country — holding a leaking pail of water in each hand, and looking grumpy.</p> <p dir="ltr">His painting reflects on the damage and after-effects of the devastating February and March floods in the Northern Rivers.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I've been up there [to Bundjalung Country] several times; it's a war zone," Douglas told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-13/archibald-prize-2022-winner-blak-douglas-karla-dickens/101060204">ABC News</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">"And so to be able to further aid some of my dearest, closest friends up there, through this win — not only metaphorically, but also financially — it's a big plus."</p> <p dir="ltr">Speaking via live video link from her home during the ceremony, Karla Dickens said she was "over the moon", and thanked her friend for "acknowledging everybody up here on Bundjalung Country that has gone through so much".</p> <p dir="ltr">"I'm so proud of you, Adam. Such a killer painting," she added.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Art

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Prized Victorian beach boxes under threat

<p dir="ltr">The popular yet pricey bathing boxes in Melbourne’s southeast are facing threats of erosion and choppy water - which could see them become inaccessible.</p> <p dir="ltr">With water lapping at the edges of the colourful Brighton beach boxes, many appear to be sandbagged and some appear to be totally inaccessible.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite that, and concerns of erosion in the area,<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/brighton-beach-boxes-in-melbourne-under-threat-due-to-tide-and-erosion-issues-c-4572768" target="_blank">locals claim</a><span> </span>that several of the 82 boxes on the foreshore have been built and sold by Bayside Council.</p> <p dir="ltr">One box was recently snapped up for a whopping $650,000, despite it being unlivable.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Well that’s the price of a house, isn’t it?” one shocked local<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/tiny-beach-box-in-mount-martha-on-melbournes-mornington-peninsula-sells-for-650k-c-4485584" target="_blank">told<span> </span></a><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/tiny-beach-box-in-mount-martha-on-melbournes-mornington-peninsula-sells-for-650k-c-4485584" target="_blank">7NEWS</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">At just 25 square metres in size, the tiny beach box would have cost $26,000 per square metre. At the same cost rate, an average-sized house would cost around $6 million.</p> <p dir="ltr">With only 120 of the colourful boxes between Mount Eliza and Portsea, the rare occasions where one hits the market sees them sell for more than $300,000.</p> <p dir="ltr">Though anyone who can afford it can purchase a bathing box in Mount Martha, the Mornington Peninsula Shire only wants local ratepayers to be able to own them.</p> <p dir="ltr">But by spending a similar amount, people can purchase a full-sized home in suburbs including Craigieburn, Deer Park, Werribee and Pakenham.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Quite often boxes along the peninsula have notes put under their doors asking if they’re for sale,” said Mark Davis from the Mornington Peninsula Beach Box Association.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There’s only so many of them and they aren’t being built anymore.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: 7NEWS</em></p>

Real Estate

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Kate and Wills attend COP26 reception, winning praise from Her Majesty

<p><em>Image: Getty </em></p> <p><span>Prince William and Kate Middleton led a royal reception as they met with world leaders at COP26 in Scotland on Monday night.</span></p> <p>The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stunned the crowd wearing co-ordinating blue outfits as they stepped out to host a reception for the Earthshot Prize Awards in Glasgow.</p> <p>The royals spoke with guests as key members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, and the winners and finalists of the first Earthshot Prize Awards, at the Clydeside Distillery.</p> <p>The couple were all smiles at the event. At one stage, Kate, 39, was seen attempting to give dead larvae – which is used as livestock feed – to her husband William, 39.</p> <p>Prince Charles, Camilla, and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson also attended the event, which was part of the broader COP26 talks.</p> <p>At the event, the guests all paused to watch and listen to the Queen’s speech as she addressed the world leaders from Windsor Castle, as she was not able to attend the event on Doctors' orders.</p> <p>She said she “couldn’t be more proud” of her son Prince Charles and grandson Prince William in their climate crisis fight – but Prince Harry was notably missed from her praise.</p> <p>The Queen also paid a touching tribute to her late husband Prince Phillip’s decades long climate fight. A spirit which she said now lives on in Charles and William.</p> <p>“It is a source of great pride to me that the leading role my husband played in encouraging people to protect our fragile planet lives on through the work of our eldest son Charles and his eldest son William,” said the Queen.</p> <p>“I could not be more proud of them.”</p> <p>The monarch said it was fitting for the COP26 talks to be taking place in Glasgow, as it was once the heartland of Britain’s industrial revolution. She paid homage to those who have enthusiastically taken on the climate crisis in their own lives, including the younger generation.</p> <p>It comes after Buckingham Palace announced this week that the Queen will only be undertaking “light, desk-based duties” as she recovers from illness. Wearing a green dress and butterfly brooch, she instead spoke to the summit via video link.</p> <p>Addressing the world leaders via video, Her Majesty added: “In the coming days, the world has the chance to join in the shared objective of creating a safer, stabler future for our people and for the planet on which we depend.</p> <p>“None of us underestimates the challenges ahead."</p> <p>“But history has shown that when nations come together in common cause, there is always room for hope.”</p> <p>The Queen also urged the leaders to “rise above the politics of the moment” and ”achieve true statesmanship” when addressing the climate crisis.</p> <p>She ended her speech telling the world leaders that “the time for words has now moved to the time for action”.</p> <p>“Of course, the benefits of such actions will not be there to enjoy for all of us here today.”</p> <p>“But we are doing this not for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children, and those who will follow in their footsteps.”</p>

Family & Pets

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Kate Middleton stuns in recycled dress for Earthshot awards

<p><em>Image: Getty </em></p> <p>The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have walked the green carpet in London for the first ever Earthshot Prize awards ceremony.</p> <p>Established by Prince William, this prize recognises those who have set up projects that help the environment and combat climate change.</p> <p>Celebrities including Emma Watson, David Attenborough, Ed Sherran, Emma Thompson and Coldplay either presented awards or performed. Attending guests were asked to “consider the environment” when choose an outfit.</p> <p>Kate Middletown stunned the crowd in a recycled Alexander McQueen dress she had previously warn to the BAFTA dinner in 2011.</p> <p>William worn a velvet green suit he had been seen in back in 2019.</p> <p>The couple arrived in an electric car, ditching the usual royal fleet of Range Rovers.</p> <p>The Earthshot Prize offers winners a huge £1 million ($1.8million AUD) cash prize to fund and scale-up their environmental projects.</p> <p>There are five categories:</p> <ul> <li>Protect and restore nature.</li> <li>Clean our air.</li> <li>Revive our oceans.</li> <li>Build a waste-free world.</li> <li>Fix our climate.</li> </ul> <p>Winners of the inaugural event include a food waste hub in Milan and the nation of Costa Rica, which is pioneering a project to pay people to restore natural ecosystems.</p> <p>Among the judges were Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett and singer Shakira.</p> <p>A Sydney team behind the ‘Living Seawalls’ project was among the list of nominees selected in the oceans category.</p> <p>In a short, pre-recorded video played to the crowd, William said: “We are alive in the most consequential time in human history.”</p> <p>“The actions we choose or choose not to take in the next 10 years will determine the fate of the planet for the next 1000,” he said.</p> <p>“Many of the answers are already out there,” he added. “But we need everyone, from all parts of society to raise their ambition and unite in repairing our planet.”</p> <p>The ceremony comes days ahead of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, which begins October the 31st.</p>

Beauty & Style

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Tragic loss for Nobel Prize winners

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Economists David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics for their development of “natural experiments” that have since been used to answer some of society’s biggest questions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The pioneering of this style of experiment has been significant for economists, who can’t use the randomised experiments or clinical trials that those in medicine and other sciences can.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Natural experiments work by using real-life situations to study the world, and have since </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-12/nobel-prize-economics-2021-winners/100531188" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">been adopted</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by other social sciences.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Good morning to 2021 economic sciences laureate David Card!<br /><br />Card’s wife Cynthia Gessele snapped this photo of him speaking to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NobelPrize?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NobelPrize</a>’s Adam Smith (which he suspected might be a made-up name) right after he had heard the news. <br /><br />Listen to our interview, coming soon. <a href="https://t.co/I93bJwikGl">pic.twitter.com/I93bJwikGl</a></p> — The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) <a href="https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/1447517204430434308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Card was recognised for findings he made in the 1990s, alongside economist Alan Krueger.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The research duo used natural experiments to reverse misconceptions surrounding minimum wage, immigration and education.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Their most significant experiment debunked the commonly held belief that wage increases resulted in job losses by studying what happened after the US state of New Jersey increased wages from $4.25 to $5.05 in comparison to neighbouring Pennsylvania, where wages stayed the same.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But Krueger, who served as a chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, took his own life in 2019 and </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/introducing-david-card-the-2021-nobel-prize-in-economics-winner-who-made-the-minimum-wage-respectable-169715" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">could not receive the award</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as Nobels aren’t awarded posthumously.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Instead, Angrist and Imbens - who also worked with Krueger - shared the prize for their contribution to “the analysis of causal relationships”.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">MIT economist Joshua Angrist shares Nobel Prize: Cited for work building the foundations of “natural experiments” in economic research, Angrist is honored along with two others in California. <a href="https://t.co/vj0F47jO6m">https://t.co/vj0F47jO6m</a> <a href="https://t.co/sXTUBwBv6v">pic.twitter.com/sXTUBwBv6v</a></p> — Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (@MIT) <a href="https://twitter.com/MIT/status/1447519773332496385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Angrist and Krueger studied the relationship between education and lifetime earnings, finding that one additional year of education was worth an increase of about 7.5 percent in earnings.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Imbens and Angrist then used natural experiments to study the relationship between cause and effect.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">It's been a busy morning for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NobelPrize?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NobelPrize</a> winner Guido Imbens and his family! After waking everyone up when they heard the news shortly before 3 a.m., <a href="https://twitter.com/Susan_Athey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Susan_Athey</a> told their kids Andrew, Sylvia, and Carleton that they could decide if they wanted to go to school or not today. <a href="https://t.co/rJjZZAbKVO">pic.twitter.com/rJjZZAbKVO</a></p> — Stanford University (@Stanford) <a href="https://twitter.com/Stanford/status/1447549033539637248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many took to Twitter to congratulate the three winners, as well as Krueger’s contributions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The Nobel today is a good time to remember and celebrate the economist Alan Krueger,” researcher Max Roser wrote on Twitter.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Krueger died two years ago. He dedicated his energy and skills to the same research that was awarded with the Nobel today.”</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">And they STILL do it, with language that everyone gets! "kungfu represents life as a journey where people have choices to make – everybody has a destiny and yet, they also have a free will. That works well for econometrics – it’s like you already have a destiny, which is y0, ..."</p> — Dr. Tammy McGavock (@tmcgav) <a href="https://twitter.com/tmcgav/status/1447569546295054342?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The conversation also turned to the importance of mental health and checking in with those around us.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Alan Krueger also taught us something even more important: Deep dark, life-ending depression can and does attack beloved, creative, prolific, widely respected people,” economist Dr Tammy McGavock tweeted.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“No one is immune.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We must check on each other. We must normalize seeking help.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The three winners split the 10 million Swedish kroner prize, with Card receiving half and Angrist and Imbens splitting the remainder.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Niklas Elmehed / Nobel Prize Outreach</span></em></p>

Money & Banking

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Revealed: 2021 Booker Prize shortlist

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The shortlist for the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction has been announced, with six authors in the running for the coveted title and £50,000 prize money.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Booker Prize is open to authors of any nationality who have published a novel in the UK or Ireland, which has been written or translated into English.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The authors were selected from the 158 novels published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Judging this year’s finalists, the panel includes historian Maya Jasanoff, writer and editor Horatia Harrod, actor Natascha McElhone, two-time Booker-shortlisted novelist and professor Chigozie Obioma, and writer and former Archbishop Rowan Williams.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ms Jasanoff, the chair of the judging panel, said “With so many ambitious and intelligent books before us, the judges engaged in rich discussions not only about the qualities of any given title, but often about the purpose of fiction itself.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are pleased to present a shortlist that delivers as wide a range of original stories as it does voices and styles.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The shortlist for the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction include:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Promise</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Damon Galgut</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Passage North</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Anuk Arudpragasam</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">No One is Talking About This</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Patricia Lockwood</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Fortune Men</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Nadifa Mohamed</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bewilderment</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Richard Powers</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great Circle</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Maggie Shipstead</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The winner will be announced on November 2.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: The Booker Prizes</span></em></p>

Books

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“Outstanding accomplishment”: Cassandra Pybus wins National Biography Award

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Acclaimed author Cassandra Pybus has won the 2021 National Biography Award and a $25,000 prize for her account of Truganini, a Nuenonne woman from Tasmania.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The award recognises the best works across the categories of biography, autobiography, and memoir writing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Judges praised </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/other-books/Truganini-Cassandra-Pybus-9781760529222" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse</span></a></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, describing it as “the standout work in an impressive field”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The restoration of its subject elevates this book. Tuganini’s voice has been lost in the self-serving narrative of modern Australia. Reclamation is an outstanding accomplishment for any subject, and a thrilling one for a woman who stood against an empire,” the judges said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The judging panel included Senior Judge Suzanne Falkiner, 2019 National Biography Award winner Rick Morton, and 2000 National Biography Award winner Mandy Sayer.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We were all impressed by <em>Truganini</em>, which combined evocative writing with scholarly research” Senior Judge Suzanne Falkiner said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Given the limitations of assembling Truganini’s biography through the contemporary accounts of third-person witnesses, and where the subject’s own voice is entirely absent, Cassandra Pybus has deftly attempted to reverse the gaze of history.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“She reveals the sexual politics at play in areas depleted of young Indigenous women by European depredations, while recognising the agency, shrewdness, and refusal to accept the roles of passive victim of Truganini and her companions.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pybus, an award-winning author and historian, made the </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/books/2021-national-biography-award-finalists-announced" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">shortlist</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> alongside five other works - including a biography of Senator Penny Wong and Archie Roach’s memoir.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Each shortlisted author received a $2,000 prize.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Truganini</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> recounts the journey Truganini took around Tasmania with missionary George Augustus Robinson, to try and end the violence between colonists and Indigenous Australia.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Allen &amp; Unwin, Cassandra Pybus / Twitter</span></em></p>

Books

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Aussie Olympians receive hefty bonuses from billionaire Harry Triguboff

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Australian athletes who took home medals from the Tokyo Olympics are set to receive an additional bonus from billionaire Harry Triguboff AO, with athletes to be awarded an extra $5,000 per medal they won.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) revealed that Triguboff, the Meriton Managing Director, donated $645,000 to the organisation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The AOC said the donation was an “unsolicited gesture” and “unexpected bonus” for Australia’s top athletes.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Thank you Harry Triguboff AO! 👉<a href="https://t.co/TXDlTlqTGv">https://t.co/TXDlTlqTGv</a><br /><br />The <a href="https://twitter.com/MeritonGroup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MeritonGroup</a> Managing Director has donated $5,000 to each of the 99 Australian Olympic Team members who won 129 medals at the Tokyo Olympics. 🥇🥈🥉<br /><br />📸 Sam Ruttyn / <a href="https://twitter.com/dailytelegraph?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dailytelegraph</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TokyoTogether?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TokyoTogether</a> <a href="https://t.co/7Ou2CI44aw">pic.twitter.com/7Ou2CI44aw</a></p> — AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) <a href="https://twitter.com/AUSOlympicTeam/status/1433379955094790148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Harry is hugely proud of what our team achieved in Tokyo, and for him to say ‘thank you’ in this way is hugely generous and most unexpected,” AOC President John Coates said in a statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The donation is per medal, so for those Olympians whose efforts were rewarded with multiple medals, it will make coming home to family and friends all the sweeter.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“On behalf of the AOC, and in particular our 99 medal winners, we say thank you Harry.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Triguboff, who has a fortune of $17.27 billion, stressed the importance of rewarding athletes during the pandemic.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are always successful at the Olympic Games. However, this time it was especially important because we are close to recession and many people have been impacted by the virus,” Triguboff said, per the AOC.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The medallists in Tokyo made us all very happy and we were glued to the television and were only thinking of our athletes during this difficult time.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The news comes as pay disparities between Olympic and Paralympic athletes have come into the spotlight, with a SBS report revealing that Paralympians do not and have ever received the same performance bonus.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">The superhumans get nothing??? That’s a disgrace. <br />“Australian Olympians who won gold at the Tokyo Games received $20,000. Our Paralympians will get zero” <a href="https://t.co/OCd93DzXIW">https://t.co/OCd93DzXIW</a></p> — 🩴 Annie Parker 🩴 #SmashThePatriarchy #FullyVaxed (@annie_parker) <a href="https://twitter.com/annie_parker/status/1431553390706925573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Prime Minister Scott Morrison has since announced that Paralympic athletes who win medals at the Games would receive the same bonuses as Olympic athletes from now on.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gold medal winners will receive $20,000, while silver and bronze medallists will be awarded $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: AUS Olympic Team / Twitter</span></em></p>

Money & Banking

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Nobel laureate delays retirement to help combat COVID

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Peter Doherty was preparing to retire in early 2020, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw him meeting with leading coronavirus experts and working on a new book about the pandemic instead.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I thought I was going to retire,” the laureate professor said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I was 79 years old, I’d just finished our last big NHMRC grant, and I was also working on a book that I’ve been working on for ages.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Professor Doherty won a Nobel Prize in 1996 after discovering how our immune cells destroy viruses, and has since revolutionised the field of immunology.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last year, he joined conference calls with senior researchers from The Doherty Institute - named in his honour - to discuss the latest findings about the deadly disease.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I haven’t been running a lab for a while, but I joined in on that, and suddenly got a sense [COVID-19] was pretty dangerous,” Professor Doherty said of the early meetings.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“My sense was I could help by being in the discussion because I’d been working on this kind of stuff for years so I have got some sort of understanding of it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Sitting on these morning discussions, I’m hearing details of what people who are running the diagnostics, evaluating the tests and so forth are doing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“And though I knew superficially about the challenge, I had no idea about the actual detail that was involved.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But his scientific work isn’t the only reason why he came to prominence during the pandemic.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In April 2020, the 80-year-old gave the internet a well-needed laugh when he accidentally asked his Twitter followers when Dan Murphys was open, mistaking the platform for Google.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Dan Murphy opening hours</p> — Prof. Peter Doherty (@ProfPCDoherty) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfPCDoherty/status/1254616358479966209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I love it. Scientists (even Nobel laureates) are human first,” one follower commented.</span></p> <p><strong>Predicting the pandemic</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scientists like Professor Doherty have been warning about the threat of a pandemic for decades.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2013, he wrote a book he jokingly described as “pandemics for dummies”, called </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It didn’t sell well because who wants to read about disease and death?”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the science in his book still holds up, Professor Doherty said he and other experts mistakenly believed a flu pandemic would be a threat.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If I’d been thinking more clearly, I would have thought about coronaviruses, and what happened with SARS,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While he did predict the economic cost of the pandemic, the use of social media, and the transition to working from home, he said COVID-19 has proved to be a “steep learning curve”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Both on the science side - we didn’t understand the virus to begin with, it’s much more complicated than we thought,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“And also the social dimension of it - I think we’ve all been grappling with that one.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I had no real understanding of the social dimension of [a pandemic], and I think you have to live through it to really understand that.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Based in Melbourne, Professor Doherty and his wife Penny joined other Melbournians in the city’s 112-day lockdown during the second wave of the virus.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s pretty scary because we’re both old,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He tried to stay cautious and still take regular walks, including some in his own backyard to avoid needing to wear a mask, where he would “stride up and down like on the deck of a ship”.</span></p> <p><strong>Looking to the future</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thinking about the next 12 months, Professor Doherty’s biggest concern is a possibility of a new variant emerging that vaccines won’t be able to protect against.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Current variants such as Delta appear to dilute the effectiveness of the vaccines but don’t prevent the immune response triggered by vaccination.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He worries that the virus could mutate in such a way that it “subverts the vaccine”, requiring scientists to modify the vaccines.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Apart from that concern, I think we’re now really on the right track,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What we absolutely need is for people to get vaccinated.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“[Herd immunity] is incremental. If you get 50 percent of the people vaccinated, you’d worry a lot less about locking down and all that sort of stuff.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“But if we can get to 80 percent vaccinated, I think we’d be in pretty good shape.”</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: The Doherty Institute / Instagram</span></em></p>

Retirement Income

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Qantas announces "mega-prizes" to Aussies getting the COVID-19 vaccine

<p>Qantas announced plans to give away a suite of "mega-prizes" to Australians who get the COVID-19 vaccine.</p> <p>The national carrier hopes the incentive scheme will boost vaccination rates and help get state and international borders reopened permanently.</p> <p>“We’re looking at having 10 mega-prizes, at least one for each state or territory, where a family of four can have unlimited free travel for a year on the Qantas and Jetstar networks,” CEO Alan Joyce revealed on<span> </span><em>Sunrise</em>.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">"We're very keen to do our bit to help with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine"<a href="https://twitter.com/Qantas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Qantas</a> CEO Alan Joyce has unveiled an unlimited travel 'mega-prize' to encourage Australians to get the jab. <a href="https://t.co/82x2lAnw0r">pic.twitter.com/82x2lAnw0r</a></p> — Sunrise (@sunriseon7) <a href="https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/1399124107447324674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <p>“In addition to that, the Accor Group have come on board and they’re offering one million Accor Points, which gives free accommodation at 400 hotels and resorts across the country.</p> <p>“We’re very keen to do our bit to help with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and we’re putting together the technology to be able to do this,” Joyce said.</p> <p>It's understood that vaccinated Australians will be able to claim their rewards and enter the mega-prize draw through the Qantas app.</p> <p>Joyce is desperate for Australians to get the vaccine as it could allow the international border to reopen.</p> <p>“We have a vested interest in this, we want to do everything we can to ensure the borders domestically open and stay open and that we get international up and running,” he explained.</p>

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