Griffith University researchers are part of a new trial to turn human urine into fertiliser in city parklands, reshaping the future of wastewater infrastructure.
Under the $2 million ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NICE), researchers from Cities Research Institute (CRI) are investigating the economic feasibility and practically of converting human urine to fertiliser as well as any potential health risks and the public response.
Chief Investigator Associate Professor Cara Beal from Cities Research Institute
“It’s a concentrated supply of all the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium needed for plant growth and is surprisingly clean compared to other waste,” she said.
“Current methods to create fertiliser pull nitrogen out of the atmosphere in an energy intensive process with a massive carbon footprint. As a society, if we are to get to net zero carbon emissions we are going to have to move away from synthetic fertilisers.
“Phosphorus on the other hand is mined, with supplies forecast to last no more than 100 years, so it makes no sense to flush these essential nutrients down the toilet.”
NICE aims to change the wastewater industry by creating an unprecedented, city-scale circular flow of nutrients based on urine separation and processing at building level, to produce safe and effective liquid fertilisers.
“We’re workingto determine the value of urine-based fertiliser and the impact it can have on soil and plant production,” Associate Professor Beal said.
“Human urine contains most of the nitrogen we consume, about ten grams per litre and about a gram of phosphorus, making it a perfect source of nutrients to grow crops we eat, in an ongoing sustainable cycle.”
Historically, humans used urine as both a fertiliser and a cleaning agent. But more recently, for the past 100 years up to 1970’s, farmers used combined human waste as a fertiliser on fields.
“Only recently have humans become squeamish about recycling the waste we produce to grow essential food crops and other plants,” Associate Professor Beal said.
“Part of our research will investigate why we have become uncomfortable with the idea of harvesting urine for fertiliser, and how we can temper this concern.
“The public and regulatory authorities have legitimate concerns around potential health issues the technology could pose, with the antibiotics, drugs, hormones and other chemicals we consume that end up in our waste streams.”
The team will assess the health risks and how to positively engage both public and regulatory authorities around the safety and efficacy of the nutrient extraction technology to trap the good nutrients from urine we want to reuse, while simultaneously removing all the unwanted chemicals.
“Designing wastewater infrastructure to tackle urban intensification, waterways pollution and climate change is important on a national and global scale,” said Associate Professor Beal said, who played a leading role in designing such urine separation systems for Currumbin Ecovillage.
Other Hub research partners include University of Technology Sydney (lead organisation), University of Melbourne, Western Sydney University and University of Southern Queensland.
The world is becoming increasingly urbanised, and the population is constantly growing. Today, more than half of us live in cities, placing them at the forefront of some of our biggest challenges — from public health to climate change.
Goal 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — Sustainable Cities and Communities — is focused on addressing these complex issues. As part of the UN’s blueprint for a better future, this goal aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
Professor Carolyn Evans, Vice Chancellor and President, Griffith University
Welcome, Paul and Cheryl. Well, do you want to start off by telling us what’s on stage live in a little bit?
Professor Paul Burton, Director of Cities Research Institute Well, so it’s about making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. So it’s pretty wide ranging and pretty ambitious, especially given that most of the world’s population now lives in cities or other settlements. So we’re living in places that the SDG 11 and its components apply to. So, yes, it’s pretty broad ranging I’m a town planner by background, and in a sense, none of this is new to us. We’ve been pursuing – we didn’t call them sustainable development goals or Millennium Goals – but we’ve been pursuing that kind of agenda for maybe 150 years, not necessarily with great success, but you know, where we’re on that journey and this gives us an extra fillip, a bit of a boost, which is welcome.
Professor Carolyn Evans And Cheryl, we say cities, we could be talking modern megacities with millions, tens of millions of people. We could be talking about areas with large slum populations, cities that have existed for hundreds of years. So really wide variety. So how do we get our head around a universal goal that applies to such diverse environments?
Professor Cheryl Desha, School of Engineering and the Built Environment It’s a toughie. And we’re all on the same planet very small planet hanging in a really quite a vast amount of nothingness. So when we look in from from space and see Planet Earth talking about cities gives us a frame of reference. So it’s a way of us being able to bring together ideas and apply them and the context of cities and could be any of those that you just talked about. The opportunity for resilience involves cities working together around the planet. There are about 195 countries around the world. I have to look that one up, 195 and orbit two actual active member states of the United Nations. So inside that organising, I’m an engineer. So inside that organisation, then we’ve got really amazing ways to make a difference in a logical planned organisation.
Professor Carolyn Evans And if the world was a bit more organised and planned that, it would be great. As Paul says, we’ve been trying to plan or engineer to do this for a long time. But we’re not necessarily doing so well on things like green spaces, public transport or sensible transport or so forth. What do we need to be doing differently to get better results?
Professor Paul Burton I mean, just following up what Cheryl was saying, I think the challenge with the goals is to downsize scale them to particular places because the principles are fine at a global scale. But when you downscale them and apply them in your setting, that’s when you have to recognise that it’ll be a bit different. So what we need, what’s appropriate and needed in Brisbane is not the same as Beirut or Da Nang or Mumbai.
So in terms of green space, I’d have to say that actually in where we are, the major cities, Brisbane, the gold coast, we don’t have a problem with green space. I mean, half of the footprint of the Gold Coast where I mainly work is not built upon and it probably won’t be. Brisbane is a very green city, so we’re actually quite good on that front. Could we make our green space better? Absolutely. Could we value it a bit more highly and a bit more systematically putting an economic value on it because we know that it green spaces in all their forms. They deliver what we call ecosystem services. So they clean the air, they cool the environment, they help us capture water. And when we put an economic value on it, then maybe we’re in a better position to stop it being converted unnecessarily into a built environment. On the transport front, again, we sometimes say, Oh, the congestion is really bad. I got stuck for 10 minutes on the M1. I mean, again, you try to get from one side of Jakarta to the other or commute from the suburbs to central Moscow and it’s a different order of congestion. So actually here in terms of public transport provision, again, it could be better. But, you know, we’ve got Cross River Rail on the books, we’ve got the Brisbane Metro on the Gold Coast, we’ve got the Gold Coast Light Rail. They’re the start of what will become really good systems. So we’re pretty well-endowed here. But that doesn’t mean that in other parts of the world, in other cities, they’ve got some serious challenges that we simply don’t we don’t have here. So we’re very fortunate.
Professor Cheryl Desha It’s it’s a mindset thing too, isn’t it, Paul? I think as we deal with those localized place based solutions for green space, for example, or transit activated corridors, where you might have smaller nodes of development, where people can still get to what they need and be surrounded by green space, being able to do that actually shifts our mindset into much larger scale challenges around climate change adaptation in where cities are positioned, how they relate to the periphery, where it be the beach or the mountains or grasslands. When we do it at a local scale and get success from that, I think it really helps us as human beings know that we can make a difference at scale.
Professor Paul Burton So, I mean, the other thing I’d just say is that you’re absolutely right about mindset. The biggest mindset, I think that we have to change and we are changing it slowly, but surely in Australia is our preoccupation with and commitment to owning and driving petrol fuel vehicles you know, I mean it’s a relatively recent phenomenon, but we’re absolutely wedded to it and it’s almost like, you know, our most significant human rights is the right to own a vehicle to drive on a congestion free road to park for nothing wherever we want to go. And that’s got to change. It’s funny because it’s utterly unsustainable.
Professor Cheryl Desha We didn’t even have fridges until mid-last century and yet we think that it’s just something that easy now every day. And David Suzuki talks about us being in the most unbelievable bubble of abnormality this century. And if we look to the past, things like the boulevards in Europe provided amazing examples of where people could come and be together in environments that had a backdrop or a stage of nature and get their wellbeing needs met, and then apply that to the beautiful art and explosion of science and art in that era. Yeah, today we have our fridge and we have our car and I think this is the best there is,
Professor Carolyn Evans Although there’s also some of these were places designed very much for middle and upper class to have their enjoyment. Well, they outsourced a lot of the misery, you know, into really parts of the cities or the countries that were well,
Professor Paul Burton The French in particular. You know, they the rich said, we’re going to stay in the center and make it nice and we’re going to push the poor to the fringes, to the bone.
Professor Carolyn Evans And that story didn’t end so well, but we still have that way into the three large areas around the planet.
Professor Cheryl Desha That we have a billion people still living in abject poverty in slums. And they’re quite close, often adjacent to the really amazing cities that are espousing green space and and opportunities for doing well by doing good. So I think there’s in that organisation of things as an engineer, I think there’s opportunities, even in places that are very close together to learn from neighbours where the climate is the same. Geography is largely the same. It’s just that the human populations experience is really different.
Professor Carolyn Evans And Cheryl, you do a lot of work on emergencies. And as Paul said, many of us live in cities now. And again, that’s a relatively recent phenomenon. And emergencies impact on cities a bit differently to why that might impact on other environments. We’ve all been living through that globally with COVID. What have we learned from COVID? How could we apply that to other situations and thinking about resilient cities in the future?
Professor Cheryl Desha Really good question. And they when we’re dealing with disasters or emergencies and we have we had the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction, and that’s been really helpful internationally through the UN and other mechanisms to help us understand what we can do in an emergency and how we can recover.
We talk about preventing, preparing and then responding and recovering, and that’s a cycle that we’re in. The past is full of stories of acute times of that where we’ve been able to recover enough and feel good and then face the next disaster on coming. The difference with COVID is that we’ve had this chronic and global experience of the same disaster and that has resulted over the last couple of years in a very deep sense of fatigue among our decision makers, among our population, people dealing with isolation and confinement, and then dealing with a lot of bereavement and grief. That overlay on emergency management is quite new in its scale. And I think moving forward with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and 11 in particular requires us to deal with wellbeing and that context of resilience in recovering in the face of ongoing adversity. And that’s a really different situation. But we can get inspiration from nature. So my actually my research area of studies, biomimicry, so it’s innovation inspired by nature. You know, nature does that all the time. Nature is full of ongoing diversity every single day. And critters like the prairie dogs when, when they are faced, you know, every day that a challenge for them, they have a leader that stands on a little hill. And when they see indicators of disaster, they alert and the rest of the pack stops enjoying themselves and runs or does whatever they’re preprogramed to do to have that kind of either automatic, whether it be sensors or human based in terms of leadership, letting us know when we really do need to be worried and act and then allowing us to enjoy our lifestyles that we remember and we want to return to in a way that meets the planet’s needs. You know, greenhouse gas emissions, air travel are a little unsettling in terms of looking ahead. Can we do relaxation without traveling as much and have those prairie dog like instincts of group culture is, I think, a really key consideration in going forward with our SDGs.
Professor Carolyn Evans It’s a great example. And and in that broader ecosystem, of course, one of the plays off in universities is a role for universities in cities and well, I hope there is at least say there is. But what is that role?
Professor Paul Burton I mean, absolutely. I mean, I’m on on three counts. Firstly, in the the education and the training, professional development that we provide. I mean, certainly in our areas of, say, planning, architecture, civil engineering, construction management, things like that, that’s absolutely critical. Then in terms of the research that we do. And that research, of course, feeds into an informal aims on teaching, which is good, but also informs, we hope, policy and practice. But a third area which I think is sometimes a bit under-appreciated but I’ve always thought is absolutely critical is is for an engaged university, is to make our spaces. And we’ve got some fantastic spaces and and we invest big money creating fantastic spaces, that we can then bring people here to have informed and thoughtful conversations, perhaps in contrast to the kind of shouty conversations. Well, they’re not even conversations that the dialog that’s had on social media. We can bring people together to address those issues, to be confronted with alternatives, but in a respectful and a thoughtful and a kind of academic way and if if we are willing and able to do that and we’ve got the facilities to do that, then I think that’s a that’s a great supplement and a complement to our teaching and our research
Professor Cheryl Desha That the opportunity there to people, I think, is to remember that universities are enabled by the public and the taxpayers money and in doing the university machinery of day to day for teaching and learning, we also have an opportunity to be a civic university in being there for decision makers and leaders. So, you know, being a place for a retreat and to be able to do that deep thinking, supported by the academics, providing the evidence base really critical. And then to be able to do scenarios and planning ahead in a place away from the office.So, you know, you’ve got your talent and your facilities working together for me in terms of emergency management, that actually lends itself also to disaster response Universities often have quite large campuses, sometimes there in the city and and out of the city, being able to go somewhere as a physical retreat to then be able to have mindful response that enables our decision makers.
Professor Paul Burton I think it’s really critical role that universities can and we can model and demonstrate good practice. You know, in in what we build and how we run our buildings and manage our operations as well. So, you know, because otherwise if we’re bringing people in and saying, let’s have a conversation about living more sustainably, but it’s evident from our environment. Well, and that’s a problem. So we ask but but I think we’re good, you know, and our commitment to the SDGs as is, you know, an excellent demonstration of, you know, living what we’re practicing, what we’re preaching.
Professor Carolyn Evans And so final question for each of you. If you could do one thing one thing differently that would make our cities better, what would your priority people?
Professor Paul Burton Well, actually, I think it’s it it builds on what I’ve just said. It’s it’s actually about creating structures that allow a diverse range of people with different views and different priorities legitimately held to come together and have conversations about the futures that they want to see. And want to create and the futures that they’re worried about and want to avoid. Because when it comes to as a planner, too often it’s at the very end of the process. You get a notice that your neighbour is proposing to do something. You say, I don’t like the sound of that. I’m going to go and protest and complain in a sense, it’s too late. Then we should have had the conversations earlier when we were having a discussion about the south east Queensland Regional Plan.
It’s difficult to get people out of their out of their living rooms to talk about something like that. It’s easier to get them out when it’s, you know, I’ve got a proposal to put a car wreck as you yard on your next door neighbour’s lot. So bringing people together to provide a foundation to talk about our futures I think would. That’s the foundation that we need. Thank you.
Professor Carolyn Evans Cheryl?
Professor Cheryl Desha I’m going to be an engineer, Paul. I’m going to say as an engineer and as a human being, I think at the source of transformation for our cities is energy that the conversation around energy. When I talk to my kids about why we rely on a static power station hundreds of kilometers away to generate energy from coal, that’s really quite inefficient.
And then string it to the cities on these tiny poles with wires that are subject to flooding and fire problems. They look at me and say that that’s a really silly solution. Why don’t they do something else? So having distributed energy systems with microgrids peppered around the place that are all backing each other up in that looking after your neighbour. So let’s face that is run on renewables it has the smarts of our digital technology. Isn’t it a fabulous coincidence that as we deal with the impacts of our humanity over the last 200 years, with the impacts of climate change, we are also blessed with the innovation and technology that we have been able to do along the same time frame, our ability to do digital twins, which means basically modelling a city on a computer to then be able to simulate and model scenarios to work out what the best opportunity is before we build it. That’s going to save us. I think in terms of the short time frame that we have between now and mid-century to get things adjusted appropriately to stop that increase.
Professor Paul Burton And going back to what we were saying about variation, I mean, we can look you can go and see distributed energy grids and networks working effectively in some of the poorest areas in Dakar in Bangladesh now. So we can learn not to think that we’ve got all the answers and they can learn from us. We can learn they’re doing it, and they’ve been doing it for some time.
Professor Cheryl Desha They’re doing it and they’ve got their mobile phone and they mesh, they’re monitoring what they’re using and they’re managing it. And that measuring and monitoring is so critical for us to do at a city scale. So that would be that being able to have our energy system transformed so that we can still get around in our cars that might be alternatively powered and use things like trackless trams and other technology that’s not so imposing on the landscape. To do that, I think will give our kids hope that we can get things right and we can do that within the next decade.I have no doubt.
Professor Carolyn Evans Well, it’s great to finish on a note of hope. So Cheryl Desha, Paul Burton thank you very much for taking time today to discuss Sustainable Development Goal number 11.
Carolyn graduated with degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne and a doctorate from Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Carolyn taught law at Oxford and Melbourne Universities. Prior to commencing at Griffith, Carolyn held the positions of Dean of Law, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Graduate and International) at the University of Melbourne. Carolyn works in the areas of law and religion and human rights and was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship in 2010 to work on comparative religious freedom.
In 2019, Carolyn was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and became a member of the organisation, Chief Executive Women. In 2019, she became Chair of the Innovative Research Universities group.
Paul Burton is Professor of Urban Management and Planning, Griffith University. Paul trained and worked as a Town Planner in London in the 1970s before joining the School for Advanced Urban Studies at the University of Bristol in 1980 to carry out research for my PhD on the redevelopment of London’s Docklands.
Paul joined Griffith University as Professor of Urban Management and Planning and is currently Director of the Cities Research Institute at Griffith University. I was a founding member of Regional Development Australia, Gold Coast and currently serve as Vice President of the Queensland division of the Planning Institute of Australia.
Professor Cheryl Desha is the Engagement Director (Industry) for the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia). She is also Theme Leader for the “Digital Earth and Resilient Infrastructure” research agenda, Cities Research Institute (CRI).
Inequalities, based on issues such as gender, disability, age, race, income and opportunity, persist across the world — both within and between countries. Beyond the very real impacts that inequalities have on people’s day to day lives, they limit social and economic development, and reduce our ability to effectively address global crises.
Goal 10 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is focused on reducing inequalities, acknowledging that we can’t make a better world if we exclude any part of the population.
Professor Carolyn Evans, Vice Chancellor and President, Griffith University
Well, thank you both for joining us today. Caitlin, you’re going to start off by giving us just a high level overview of what Sustainable Development Goal number 10 is all about.
Professor Caitlin Byrne, Director, Griffith Asia Institute Sure. So Sustainable Development Goal 10 is really all about reducing inequalities between and within countries so if we think about it for individuals, for families, communities. This is really about making sure all individuals have access to the social economic and political opportunities they need to really live their life to the fullest potential regardless of their age, their race, sex, ethnicity, religion, origin, economic status.
So that’s important, but it’s also important between nations and SDG 10 is actually also about making sure that all nations have an equal place at the table, that they can be represented in conversations about global policy, that they have access to finance, to address really big issues like climate change, for example, and that they can be equally represented on issues around migration.
So it’s a big SDG. It covers a lot of ground and is pretty complex as well. I think it gives us a big challenge to think about.
Professor Carolyn Evans So incredibly important address, but quite difficult when you start thinking of all the moving parts. What are some of the things we need to start doing if we’re going to achieve the goals set out in instigating?
Associate Professor Andreas Chai,Head of Department in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith Business School Well, as you said, it’s a really complex picture. I think in terms of tackling inequality, we have to really carefully consider what the different dimensions of inequality are into generational or regional inequality. And thinking about some key instruments that can really cut to the core of some of those intractable and complex problems. A key issue that’s come up in the literature is tackling the taxation system. It’s been recognised for the last decade that we need to look beyond income tax as the key hit key taxation mechanism to combat inequality. One of the big issues is that among the very wealthy, most of their forms of income come from capital. So for example, rent. So one big proposal that’s on the table is to talk about land taxes, to try and capture more equally some of those streams of wealth that tend to magnify inequality.
I think that also the other big issue is intergenerational inequality, because some inequality in the system to some degree reflects risk and risk taking. So that to some degree is acceptable. But the inter-generational inequality, that’s a really key issue. So in terms of tackling intergenerational inequality, a lot of emphasis is given to education as a key to improve social mobility and making sure that different regions have access to things like schools, education and decent energy.
Professor Carolyn Evans And of course, another form of inequality or talk about inequality within a society is really important. But as you pointed out, there’s also inequality between different countries in different societies. And we have Australia sitting as a relatively rich developed country in the Pacific with a lot of our neighbours who are in quite a different position, as are some of our Asian nations. What’s the role of Australia in countries like Australia in achieving a stage 18 on a global level?
Professor Caitlin Byrne Absolutely critical. And I think recognising that differential between where nations are and the kinds of needs and interests that different nations will have, depending on the context they’re in, it is quite critical. And we’ve seen this play out just recently through the G20 and through the climate change conference at COP26, where I think there is a growing recognition among developed nations that we can’t all be responsible to the same degree for global policy issues that we actually have to think about.
What do developing nations need to improve the opportunities, the systems, the structures in place within their context that will allow them to improve development outcomes, give individuals the kind of access to education, to health services, to infrastructure. So particularly now where we see these really pressing global challenges, where we do have to work together, we have to think about the differential there, how different nations contribute differently to solving the problem.
It doesn’t make any one nation less accountable or less important in that system. But I think Australia certainly does have to play a role, a leadership role, a collective leadership role. And it’s not just about how we engage others, it’s about how we bring others to the table. So making sure Pacific Island nations, other small island developing nations or landlocked developing nations, making sure they have a seat at the table, they have adequate representation that we listen to the issues that they’re faced with.
That’s a really important part of of actually delivering on this SDG and making sure that the policy interventions we actually collectively agree to are right and can have impact
Professor Carolyn Evans There’s some of these really difficult issues we’re facing. And you mentioned climate change. Obviously, a cop just having wound up recently. The impact can increase existing inequalities that developed nations have often benefited from putting carbon into the atmosphere. And yet the first on the front line in terms of the downside can be developing nations and our Pacific neighbours. A good example of this. So how do we try and make sure that as we face these challenges, we do it in a way that doesn’t just double down on existing inequalities between nations?
Professor Carolyn Evans Yeah, that’s really important. And I think again, it comes back to listening to those interests and needs of developing nations of making sure we don’t then put an onus on them to actually address inefficiencies and inequalities that actually developed nations have been responsible for. So it is about really addressing some of the structures in the global operating system, if you like, rethinking the way that we think about the response to global challenges like climate change. But it’s also about taking some pretty big steps forward in addressing things like, you know, how we consume coal how we actually think about the emissions that we’re all putting into the atmosphere.
And developed nations have to do more in that space. Clearly, I think in Australia’s case we need to be doing a lot more and address.
Professor Carolyn Evans One of the other big challenges of the day has been covered say in Australia’s case. What impact has COVID had on equality or inequality?
Associate Professor Andreas Chai Yeah, look, it’s a really mixed bag in some cohorts and segments of society COVID 19 has been terrible. It’s basically meant that entire cities have been shut down, people have lost their jobs, there’s been some support, but not much. So in some segments and regions we really see things deteriorating quite badly But for other regions and segments, they’re doing quite well. Think about working from home white collar work. And if we look at house prices they have rocketed. So clearly there, it’s sort of almost like a two speed economy where some people are doing really well and some people are really suffering so in terms of the impact of COVID 19 on income inequality, it’s really complex. I think there are two very interesting opportunities to tackle inequality, which COVID 19 has sort of presented.
The first one is working from home because what it’s meant is that there’s been this migration of people from big cities such as Melbourne and Sydney to more regional areas like Toowoomba and the Gold Coast, and that it really is a fundamental sea change in, let’s say, preferences for people to move to smaller towns. All of a sudden with COVID. 19 people are really seriously thinking about the benefits of living in a small town. That has been a huge intractable problem that no amount of Federal Government money could fix and now it’s sort of happening on its own. So that’s really exciting if we can get that right. I think there could be very positive outcomes for some of the smaller regional towns.
The other issue is actually the closure of migration has sort of led to labor shortages in unexpected areas such as agriculture, sort of the fruit pickers, but also engineers. And what that means is that it’s really forcing us to think about how we can up-skill the people, the next generation, to really get into those critical areas in ways that we haven’t had to think about before.
Because we’ve always been able to write out another visa for someone from overseas to come. This is kind of forcing us to think, okay, what do we do if we have to rely on people here to do those critical jobs? And I think that’s a really important issue that we should not ignore post COVID in society because we can use migration to solve some of the problem.
Professor Carolyn Evans But of course, the cutting off of migration has caused some problems in the region and globally as well.
Professor Caitlin Byrne Oh, absolutely. It’s and I think we’ve seen, you know, that mixed bag in really different ways. But certainly for Asia and the Pacific, you know, we’ve seen the impact of COVID has meant inequalities have just kind of expanded income disparities between the very rich and the very poor have really widened right across the region. Whereas prior to COVID, we had started to see the rising middle class, more people coming out of poverty. The impact of COVID has been to set us back and you know, small, micro and small businesses have really taken a hit, particularly in South East Asia, but also thinking about our Pacific Island neighbours who rely so much on tourism. You know, they have really felt the impact of this, and it will be a long impact. We haven’t even started to recover. So how Australia also thinks about its neighbours and thinks about the assistance we provide? We have an overseas development assistance budget I think of about $4 billion this year. Now that’s positive and much of that will go towards health care, medical supplies, health care and vaccine distribution. As well as economic recovery. I would say though, that we also have a defense budget of $44.6 billion. So there’s a real disparity in the way we think about some of these issues.
Professor Carolyn Evans And what’s the role that universities might be able to play in trying to help us achieve this goal?
Professor Caitlin Byrne Well, here I’m positive. I think universities have a have a really important quite a critical role, actually, first and foremost as educators. And some of that is formal in the classroom. Much of it is informal in the way that we engage with our communities, with industry. I think we’re also facilitators. We can we can bridge conversations that are quite difficult between government, between governments and with industry and with community. We can also advocate and I think, you know, based on the spirit of critical thinking, and inquiry, we’re really well-placed to to lay out the issues, to present an evidence base for the kinds of issues we’re seeing around inequality. And the kinds of solutions and targeted interventions that might work.
Associate Professor Andreas Chai Yeah, I think, you know, that’s absolutely right. I see universities as the answer to this common issue that’s in the media. There’s always a question, what can government do to solve this problem? But universities are part of the social capital fabric of Australia that really can work, as Caitlin was saying on an institutional level, work with partners like private health networks, work with the NGO sector, bring our knowledge to the table and really forge connections that otherwise would not have been touched because the government’s too busy or people don’t think about it. So one, a really good example is the Queensland Council of Social Services and we’ve worked with them to improve their Cost of Living Report, which kind of sheds light into the regional inequality around Queensland. And that was done with the help of Griffith students and working with them in places like Logan through the Logan. Logan community, we can sort of start to really build those connections that otherwise would have gone missing. And I think the universities should really play a role there just to bring people together, share our knowledge and help empower people to come up with the right solutions to reduce socio economic disadvantage.
Professor Carolyn Evans It’s great. It’s a different way of looking at a business school too, isn’t it, where you come from, sometimes seen as drivers of inequality, that it’s just about have people get rich but actually you are saying you can use the skills that we teach in business schools to help create a much more equal society.
Associate Professor Andreas Chai Absolutely, absolutely. I think that that, you know, the the idea that a business school is there to promote more business is just out of date these days. And we see corporations all around Australia getting really serious about their environmentally and social responsible commitments. And the Griffith business school can really help facilitate that. Understand how they can make an impact and improve their social return on investment.
Professor Carolyn Evans And so that’s great. We’ve got some cause for optimism from business and business schools. Have them finishing with you. What makes you feel optimistic about inequality and how we might be able to tackle that?
Professor Caitlin Byrne I think the other part of this is what young people are looking for. You know, we play a role in shaping the next generation of leaders for our region and for our local communities. And more and more young people are looking for us to deliver, you know, really thoughtful, sustainable globally oriented kind of education and research that helps them think about the kinds of challenges they will be facing. So that gives me great cause for hope and optimism going forward.
Professor Carolyn Evans Wonderful. Catlin Byrne, Andreas Chai. Thank you both very much for your time discussing SDG 10.
Carolyn graduated with degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne and a doctorate from Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Carolyn taught law at Oxford and Melbourne Universities. Prior to commencing at Griffith, Carolyn held the positions of Dean of Law, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Graduate and International) at the University of Melbourne. Carolyn works in the areas of law and religion and human rights and was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship in 2010 to work on comparative religious freedom.
In 2019, Carolyn was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and became a member of the organisation, Chief Executive Women. In 2019, she became Chair of the Innovative Research Universities group.
Professor Caitlin Byrne is Director, Griffith Asia Institute. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (AIIA) and Faculty Fellow of the University of Southern California’s Centre for Public Diplomacy (CPD). Caitlin’s research is focused on Australian diplomacy with a special interest in Australia’s engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. Most recent research projects explore the role of leadership, soft power and public diplomacy-including people-to-people connections developed through international education, culture and sport-in developing Australia’s regional influence, relationships and reputation.
Associate Professor Andreas Chai is Head of the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics at the Griffith Business School and an applied microeconomist specialised in the area of household behavior with application to measuring poverty, energy poverty, financial hardship and climate change adaptation.
He has completed projects for APEC, the United Nations, NCCARF, IP Australia and the Queensland government. He has previously worked at the Commonwealth Treasury (Canberra) and the Productivity Commission (Melbourne).
When our reliance on supermarkets is seriously disrupted – for example, by spikes in demand due to panic buying or the flooding of distribution centres – we are left with few alternatives. Supermarkets are central to our everyday lives, but they have also become symbols of our vulnerability in times of disruption.
The COVID-19 crisis has caused us to rethink many things we took for granted. This includes the plentiful supply of a great variety of food at relatively stable prices in our supermarkets.
Until recently, if we thought about food security at all, it was more likely to conjure images of malnutrition in countries of the global south rather than empty supermarket shelves.
Supermarkets were a 1930s success story that began during the Great Depression. The world’s first supermarket, King Kullen, opened with the enduring principle of “Pile it high, sell it low!” King Kullen became the standard model of supermarket operations with globally interconnected supply chains.
While this model epitomised the trend of globalisation, during the second world war more local food production was encouraged in the form of “victory gardens”. These made a significant contribution to food security during the war years. It was a demonstration of what can be achieved in times of crisis.
An Australian government ‘Grow your own’ campaign billboard from 1943. NAA C2829/2
‘What if’ questions help us build resilience
Contingency planning is about being clear on your Plan B or Plan C if Plan A hits trouble. It’s about asking the “what if” questions. As a planning tool, this enables systems to build resilience to disruption by identifying other pathways to achieve desired outcomes.
The difference between now and the 1930s is that today we are vastly more connected at a global scale. Within our food-supply chains, we can use the knowledge that comes from this greater connectivity to ask different “what if” questions.
For example, what if a pandemic and a severe weather event overlapped, disrupting critical transport infrastructure? How could we adapt?
Or what if several Australian states experienced serious disruptions to food supply at the same time? How could we ensure timely resupply?
Recent experiences of empty supermarket shelves remind us of the importance of such questions.
Greater self-sufficiency is sensible and practical. Australia’s National Strategy for Disaster Resilience makes clear that we should understand the risks we live with – in this case, our deep-seated and often unquestioned dependency on long food-supply chains.
Strategies to prepare for the next crisis
These questions highlight the need to think about ways to complement and enhance existing arrangements for supplying food. Our research identifies several immediate opportunities to promote shorter food-supply chains and devise contingency food plans:
2. Local businesses can embed contingency arrangements to ensure access to locally produced food within their business continuity plans, building greater capacity to keep business and local economies operating in difficult times.
3. Supermarkets can advocate for and support shorter food-supply chains by sourcing food products locally where possible and championing “buy local” campaigns.
4. An active undertaking to identify and map the regional food bowls of each city and township will support contingency plans.
5. Local councils can help make it possible to grow much more of the food we need, even in relatively dense towns and cities. This can range from potted herbs on apartment balconies, through to broccoli in suburban backyards to intensive farming operations in big industrial estate sheds or rooftops. Municipal parks that feature little more than lawn can devote some space to community gardens, while more rigorous land-use planning regimes can protect market gardening near urban centres.
Local in Logan
Logan, situated between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, is a major population growth corridor in South-East Queensland. Our work in the ‘Digital Earth and Resilient Infrastructure‘ of the Cities Research Institute, partners with the Logan City Council and Griffith University’s Yunus Centre. We aim to enhance more robust local food access options for Logan’s most vulnerable community members and support the vibrant and culturally diverse identity of this major growth corridor.
Societies have faced significant food and health crises over the centuries. Now, though, we have almost real-time data on food production, stocks and supply chains. Would it not be sensible to strengthen local food systems that can complement our supermarkets and global networks?
If we don’t do this, the only lesson we will have learned from the coronavirus crisis is to start hoarding baked beans, toilet paper and hand sanitiser as soon as we first hear of a looming disaster.
Dr Kimberley Reis is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Built Environment at Griffith University. Kim leads the project on Local Food Resilience and Contingency at the Cities Research Institute. Kim’s research in local food resilience is critical in a world of ongoing impacts from severe weather events and pandemic conditions. As a Planner, Policy Analyst and Sociologist, her research reshapes the way local food is planned by communities, business and local governments.
Professor Cheryl Desha is the Engagement Director (Industry) for the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia). She is also Theme Leader for the “Digital Earth and Resilient Infrastructure” research agenda, Cities Research Institute (CRI).
Paul Burton is Professor of Urban Management and Planning, Griffith University. Paul trained and worked as a Town Planner in London in the 1970s before joining the School for Advanced Urban Studies at the University of Bristol in 1980 to carry out research for my PhD on the redevelopment of London’s Docklands.
Paul joined Griffith University as Professor of Urban Management and Planning and is currently Director of the Cities Research Institute at Griffith University. I was a founding member of Regional Development Australia, Gold Coast and currently serve as Vice President of the Queensland division of the Planning Institute of Australia.
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Our Gold medal winning Olympic swimmers are among a raft of Griffith University connections awarded 2022 Australia Day honours.
Recent Griffith Public Health graduate Emma McKeon OAM, who won seven medals in Tokyo, including four Gold and three Bronze, has also been awarded a Member (AM) in the general division, for significant service to swimming as a Gold medallist at the Tokyo Olympics. McKean was also awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2017 for her efforts at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Fellow Olympian and dual Business and Psychological Science degree student Zac Stubblety Cook, who won Gold in the men’s 200m Breaststroke and Bronze as a member of the men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay in Tokyo, has been awarded a medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division, for his service to sport at the Games.
Medals (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division have also been awarded to swimmer Chelsea Hodges, who won Olympic Gold in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay and is undertaking a nursing degree in addition to her sporting pursuits, and to Griffith Business student Meg Harris, who took Gold in the Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay.
Tokyo Gold medal winning Paralympic athlete Madison de Rozario, currently studying a Bachelor of Business at Griffith and MBA candidate and kayaker Jessica Fox who took Gold and Bronze in Tokyo.
Griffith alumni awarded honours this year also include:
Nicholas (Nick) Marshall OAM—Completed M Musculoskeletal Sports Physiotherapy 2014 (Also named 2020 Griffith University Outstanding Alumnus and currently engaged as a part-time Physiotherapist in Griffith Health Clinics while also delivering clinical education to students in clinic)
Michael (Jack) Robert BryceOAM — Completed BSC Env 1988
Dr Lenore Marcella Coltheart OAM — Completed PHD 1984
Dr Susan Elizabeth DavisOAM — Completed BA Humanities 1982
Roslyn May English OAM — Completed GCert Public Admin 1996
Vanessa Jane HolbenPSM — Completed B Crim & Crim Justice 2000
Jasmina Joldic PSM — Completed M Public Admin 2014
Assistant Commissioner Brian Desmond Connors APM– Completed MA In Public Sector 2015
Foundation Chair and Head of Pathology since 2004 at what is now Griffith’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, Professor Alfred King-yin Lam has been named a Member (AM) in the general division, for significant service to tertiary education, to research, and to pathology.
Professor Alfred Lam AM receives his Award at Government House
Professor Lam has produced more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and is also the Deputy Director of Griffith’s Centre for Environment and Population Health.
The Honourable Samuel Sydney Doumany, an Honorary Fellow at Griffith’s Institute for Glycomics, received Member (AM) in the general division, for significant service to parliament and politics in Queensland, and to the community.
Among his political achievements, he was a former Deputy Parliamentary Leader of the Queensland Liberal Party, Member for Kurilpa 1974-1983, former Minister for Welfare 1978-1980 and Attorney-General and Minister for Justice 1980-1983.
Adjunct Professor, Menzies Health Institute Queensland since 2014, Emeritus Professor Marianne Clare Wallis has been awarded Member (AM) in the general division, for significant service to tertiary education, to nursing, and to research.
A Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, Professor Wallis AM served as the Foundation Chair, Clinical Nursing Research at Griffith, 2000-2011 and was the Chief Investigator, National Health and Medical Research Council’s Centre for Excellence in Nursing Interventions for Hospitalised Patient, 2010-2015.
The late Mrs Pamela Hope Mam, who was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith in 2018, has been honoured with Member (AM) in the general division, for her significant service to the Indigenous community of Queensland through nursing.
She co-founded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service, Brisbane in 1973. In 2015, Griffith named The Aunty Pamela Mam Indigenous Nursing Scholarship in her honour.
Dr Peter Stephen Ellis, Adjunct Professor, Forensic Medicine and Pathology, School of Environment and Science at Griffith since 2008, was honoured with a Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the general division.
He was recognised for his service to medicine as a forensic pathologist.
Vice Chancellor and President of Griffith University Professor Carolyn Evans said recognition like this inspired the wider University community.
“The individuals recognised in these awards have demonstrated outstanding achievements across a variety of fields and a deep commitment to their community,” Professor Evans said.
“After such a difficult start to 2022, it is wonderful to take a moment to celebrate their contributions and congratulate them on their awards.”
“They are an inspiration to the next generation of students and show the difference that members of the Griffith community can make in the world.”
Griffith University students will finally return to the Indo-Pacific after COVID-19 forced eagerly anticipated New Colombo Plan (NCP) Mobility Program internships and exchanges online for two years.
The 2022 NCP Mobility Program funding of $902,000 has been awarded to Griffith by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
It will support 189 students across all disciplines – from those studying dentistry and humanities to sciences and accounting – to participate in internships, exchanges, and study tours in 40 countries in the region, like Fiji, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea.
Vice President (Global) Professor Sarah Todd said while the program had continued through the pandemic in an innovative online format, it was exciting to know that students would soon be able to participate in-person.
“Over the past couple of years, we have seen some great innovation in terms of virtual international internships and other virtual mobility experiences, but it is really exciting to think that Griffith students will again be able to travel as part of their degree and enhance their understanding of the world and how they can contribute to it,” Professor Todd said.
“The funding received from DFAT, through the NCP, means that we can financially support students to experience life first-hand in another part of the Indo-Pacific region.
“Funding has been received for a variety of programs, which means a wide range of opportunities is available to Griffith students, either in their specific academic area, or as part of a multidisciplinary program.”
“Students who take part in the mobility program will be encouraged to engage in activities like cooking and language classes, K-Pop karaoke and film writing,” she said.
“By immersing themselves in these experiences, it allows the students to properly experience their host country and its culture to the fullest.”
Bachelor of Asian Studies student Willow Perhouse recently completed a six-week internship with The Australian Chamber of Commerce (AustCham) Korea, the peak body representing the Australia — Korea business community.
Willow Perhouse (top left).
“It was a pleasure to work alongside the AustCham Korea team and learn more about their role in Australia-Korea bilateral ties, especially during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Australia and Korea working together diplomatically,” she said.
“I have learnt many new skills and made lots of valuable connections during my time interning with AustCham Korea.”
Dr Haefner said participation in the NCP Mobility Program helped give students a competitive edge after finishing their studies.
“It is important for students to bolster their ability to perform well in dynamic workplaces and in varying cultural settings,” Dr Haefner said.
“These experiences are an excellent way to foster Asia-literacy and strengthen ties within the region.
“Students will develop their knowledge and skills, while establishing professional networks and enhancing their employability outcomes.”
Australia’s dramatic fall in the latest World Corruption Perceptions Index reinforces the need for urgent reform that is based on research and includes bipartisan solutions for the design of a new federal integrity commission, according to Griffith University accountability expert Professor A J Brown.
On the 100-point scale, ranking countries from cleanest to most corrupt, Australia fell a further four points, placing it at 73, and in 18th place. A decade ago Australia enjoyed a score of 85 and was ranked seventh.
Professor AJ Brown delivers the Henry Parkes oration.
“The promised national integrity commission becoming bogged down in partisan political debate, due to government confusion over what scope and powers are needed to strike the right balance, has clearly fed into this outcome,” Professor Brown said.
TI Australia CEO, Serena Lillywhite cited the “unfinished business” of government commitments to establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission over three years ago, as underscoring the “need to act decisively to tackle corruption and restore trust and confidence in government and our democratic institutions”.
Griffith University research points to new solutions for the design of the commission, with ways of improving safeguards and ensuring due process — including protection of reputations — without compromising the full royal commission-style powers needed by an effective anti-corruption agency.
“New, best practice public hearing powers can ensure such a commission is not turned into a kangaroo court, and controls on the publication of initial complaints — but not ultimate outcomes — can strike the right balance,” Professor Brown said.
Serena Lillywhite, CEO Transparency International
He said the issue was set to play out in the federal election, with the Prime Minister and Attorney-General indicating they planned to stick with a model with no public hearing powers for corruption issues involving parliamentarians and 80 per cent of the federal public sector, despite a first 20 per cent of the sector being already subject to those powers.
Professor Brown said other challenges include the inability of whistleblowers to directly access the proposed commission, despite Assistant Attorney-General Senator Amanda Stoker having outlined historic commitments to better whistleblower protection at Griffith’s recent National Whistleblowing Symposium.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Professor Brown said, adding that how Australia fares in future indexes will likely hinge on whether all parties properly heed the research supporting new solutions — before the election and after.
Griffith University has partnered with TI on corruption measurement and national integrity research for more than 20 years.
Professor Brown is also a global board member of TI, which produces the widely cited index.
A tongue-in-cheek editorial about the death of the Great Barrier Reef undermined efforts to build action on climate change and amplified conflict, a new study in Media International Australia has found.
Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Tasmania used Google Trends to trace the re-emergence of the idea of a ‘dead Reef’ back to the article ‘An obituary for the Great Barrier Reef’ by Rowan Jacobsen in a 2016 Outside magazine.
“The imagined spectacle of a dead reef, triggered by a single article in a niche magazine in America, devolved into a sideshow of climate change politics back home here in Australia.”
“The way the reef is communicated about is critical to public understanding and political action on climate change.”
Using Google Trends to measure when the idea of a ‘dead Reef’ occurred in public sentiment and Google News to dissect how the idea was conveyed, the researchers demonstrate how the reported annihilation of the reef was used by different interests for their own ends.
Associate Professor Kerrie Foxwell-Norton, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and Griffith Climate Action research program.
“Politicians, for example, scampered to reassure Australians and the world that the reef was indeed still alive and beautiful,” said Dr Claire Konkes from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Social Change.
“While in the public sphere, climate science deniers and those advocating for climate action collided over the impacts of global warming to Reef health.”
Dr Foxwell-Norton said Australian mainstream news reporting data showed the amplification of this message was generally used to serve political and financial interests to discredit claims for action on climate change and as part of a public platform for the repetition of Australia’s ‘climate wars’, now centred on the Great Barrier Reef.
“As general audiences struggled to separate the satire from the science, global digital communication networks spread the confusion and climate change deniers in the Australian news media used the confusion to their advantage.
“Tourism industries who are especially reliant on international arrivals, were impacted by this satirical communication as potential visitors took news of the Reef’s passing as fact.”
The global reach of communication networks makes it easy for messages created in a one context to be misinterpreted and misunderstood in another.
“While satirical representations of climate crisis can cause an emotional response that stimulates interest and action, apocalyptic messages of ecological crisis, like that of Jacobsen’s dire reef obituary, can also paralyse action,” Dr Foxwell-Norton said.
“This is particularly unhelpful in an era of climate change denialism and digital media, where audiences are aware of climate change but already perplexed about their ability to respond.”
“The greatest impact of the satirical imagining of a dead Reef was to confuse audiences, enflame divisions, harm local Reef communities/businesses and, stall Australian action on climate change, which is so urgently needed.”
Western attitudes towards aging, physical and social impediments and impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are some of the factors responsible for high suicide rates in older adults, according to new research from Griffith University.
While the global rates of suicide in older individuals was found to have declined between 1998 and 2017, the findings published in Nature Aging consider the current issues facing older populations (such as the global pandemic) and highlight unreported cases of ‘silent suicide’ and overly simplistic approaches to suicide prevention.
“While suicide in old age has declined, this was probably not due to anti-suicide programs but to improved access to health assistance and better quality of life,” Professor De Leo said.
“Nevertheless, suicide among older adults still has high rates.
“Frailty, physical illness, loss of autonomy and dependency, together with loss of a partner and friends are important risk factors for suicide in old age. Loneliness is destined to become a social epidemic and a major contributor to suicide ideation, and the pandemic has exacerbated both social isolation and loneliness.
“Also, ageism is currently a powerful barrier to the proper care of older adults. We need to fight it much more aggressively than what we are currently doing.”
Cases of ‘silent suicide’, such as those due to voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED), are generally not registered as suicide cases, according to Professor De Leo, “even if VSED is a true suicide case, given that the person’s intention is to die”.
Studies that specifically clarify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rates of death from suicide among older adults are not available yet; however, the research found it was conceivable that the pandemic had a negative impact on suicide in old age.
The 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Hong Kong was associated with an increase in the number of suicides in old age, especially in women. Compared to previous years, the increase was 30% of the expected numbers.
Professor De Leo proposes an integration of social prescriptions with pharmacotherapy for older adults at risk of suicide as promising lines of intervention, which he said would require better consideration and more research effort to understand and implement.
“The fight against stigma and the ageist way of thinking, which is pervasive in society, including among health professionals, must be pursued with great vigour,” he said.
“Additionally, successful aging requires promoting a culture of resilience and adaptation to the different stages of life as well as to the changes that come with advancing age.
“Promoting human rights of older people is an essential step in the path leading to this success.”
Griffith University has rolled out the welcome mat for thousands of international students as they begin arriving in South-east Queensland following the easing of travel restrictions.
Several thousand current and new Griffith students are expected to arrive in the next two months, joining those already here after Australian international border restrictions were removed in mid-December.
“We are incredibly pleased to finally welcome international students back to the country and our campuses in 2022,” Griffith Vice Chancellor and President Professor Carolyn Evans said.
“Almost 1800 Griffith students have spent the past two years studying remotely overseas, waiting patiently to return to Australia to complete their studies and placements.”
“We also expect a sizeable number of new students to join us, including those who have been unable to start studies or held off applying until travel to Australia became possible.
“Our international students are an integral part of campus culture, helping to ensure a wealth of diversity, experience and understanding that really makes Griffith a vibrant and unique community.”
Professor Evans said the University was proud of the incredible efforts of its international cohort, which kept the faith and stuck it out, in the midst of a global pandemic.
“It’s testament to their resilience and persistence in these trying times since early 2020,” Professor Evans said.
“It has been a long time coming but it is great to be planning activities and the support that will be offered as new and returning students join us across our campuses,” Griffith Vice President (Global), Professor Sarah Todd, said.
“Preparations are underway across many of our academic programs, as well as English language support services, to ensure that students who have been studying online while they were offshore can seamlessly join classes with their colleagues on campus.
“There has also been great support and a willingness to welcome international students back by our local communities in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with employers particularly keen to benefit from the skills that international students bring with them to a range of businesses, including hospitality and the healthcare sector, where there are considerable staffing shortages.”
Dr Kimberley Reis
