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NEW information:

Assessment Task Requirements

Outcome 2:

Construct a sustained and reasoned point of view on an issue currently debated in the media.

Assessment Task & Conditions:

PART 1 - A written statement of intention to accompany the student's own oral presentation, articulating the intention of decisions made in the planning process, and how these demonstrate understanding of argument and persuasive language.

Weighting - 10 out of 40 (10% of Unit 4)

Length of written responses is approximately 900-1200 words (EAL 800-100 words)

Length of spoken responses is approximately 4-6 minutes (EAL 3-5 minutes)

PART 2 - A point of view presented in oral form using sound argument and persuasive language. The point of view should relate to an issue that has appeared in the media since 1 September of the previous year.

Weighting - 30 out of 40 (30% of Unit 4)

The issue cannot be the same as the issue selected for study in Outcome 2, Unit 3.

Length of the statement of intention is approximately 300-500 words (ALL students)

Satisfactory Completion:

Construct a sustained and reasoned point of view on an issue currently debated in the media.

Students must present a point of view in oral form.

Work must be completed mainly in class and within a limited timeframe.

To achieve this outcome the student will draw on key knowledge and key skills:

KEY KNOWLEDGE:

an understanding of arguments presented in texts

the ways authors construct arguments to position audiences, using sound reasoning and use of evidence, and persuasive use of spoken language

the conventions of discussion and debate the structures and conventions appropriate for spoken texts that present an argument

the conventions for the acknowledgment of sources in spoken texts

the conventions of spelling, punctuation and syntax of Standard Australian English.

KEY SKILLS:

apply the conventions of oral presentation in the delivery of spoken texts

apply the conventions of discussion and debate

develop reasoned arguments in oral form

conduct research to support the development of arguments on particular issues and acknowledge sources

accurately and appropriately where relevant

gather, organise and synthesise information and ideas into a reasoned argument

select evidence to support particular positions

plan texts that present a point of view, taking account of the context and audience in determining the selected

content and approach, and articulate the intention of their decisions in written form

develop, clarify and critique ideas presented in their own arguments through discussion and writing

draft, review and rehearse spoken texts that support the presentation an argument, critically analysing their own developing texts

apply the conventions of spelling, punctuation and syntax of Standard Australian English accurately and appropriately

EXAMPLES OF SPEECHES

PLANNING your POV speech

1. CONTENTION - your overall approach

Where do you stand on the issue? Why? Express this in a clear and concise sentence.

Avoid generic statements such as 'Greyhound racing is bad'. This is a vague and a general opinion, NOT a contention. A contention on this issue would to sound something like 'The cruel and abusive practice of greyhound racing should be banned immediately'.

2. PURPOSE - what's your CORE message?

What do you want your imagined audience to think, feel or do?

Do you wish to inform or educate them? To create alarm? To effect change?

Your purpose should be closely related to your contention.

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Assessment Task Requirements Outcome 2: Construct a sustained and reasoned point of view on an issue currently debated in the media. Assessment Task & Conditions: PART 1 - A written statement of intention to accompany the student's own oral presentation, articulating the intention of decisions made in the planning process, and how these demonstrate understanding of argument and persuasive language.

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There needs to be greater legislation around the concussion rules in sport

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There needs to be greater legislation around the concussion rules in sport

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Should the government require pet licences?

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Should the government require pet licences?

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The plight of the live music industry in Australia

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The plight of the live music industry in Australia

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Raising the criminal age of responsibility

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Raising the criminal age of responsibility

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"Key to our concerns is the need to ensure that adequate measures are implemented well in advance of proposed reforms to ensure that the government's intent in driving this legislative change, is met.

"This will only be achieved through adequate funding, resourcing and the practical implementation of social and support resources to match the needs of young people caught up in criminal offending, and the police who will be called upon to respond to the incidents they are involved in."

Symes said when the age of criminal responsibility was eventually lifted to 14, there would be exceptions for children aged 12 and 13 who commit certain serious crimes. She said it was too early to determine what those offences would be, but suggested murder and terrorism.

She said the time frame to raise the age needed to be realistic.

"If we can do it earlier than [2027], that would be great. I want to be realistic about this," she said.

"You raise the age to 12 next year, we want to make sure we're testing the systems, we want to make sure that the safety net is there before we risk dissolving the justice system safety net."

Legislation for the first stage of reform will be introduced in the Victorian parliament later this year. It will also overhaul and strengthen doli incapax - the legal construct that children under the age of criminal responsibility were incapable of forming criminal intent - following the work of an independent review panel.

Currently, if a child is aged over 10 years but under 14, there is a common law presumption of doli incapax. But legal experts for decades have warned it is not functioning as it should.

The Australian Law Reform Commission in 1997 conducted a comprehensive review of children's legal rights and acknowledged doli incapax could be problematic, while the Australian Human Rights Commission three years ago said it was concerned the legal safeguard was failing to protect some of the most vulnerable children aged between 10 and 14.

Symes on Wednesday said work would be undertaken to determine how doli incapax could be strengthened. She suggested police may be required to prove a child had the mental capacity to know their behaviour was seriously wrong when charging alleged offenders.

There are no children aged between 10 and 12 in custody in Victoria. Of the eight children aged 13 or 14 who are in custody, all of them are on remand. One of them is Indigenous.

Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said Aboriginal communities had been fighting for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14 for years and there was no need to delay any longer.

"There is no reason that the government cannot fully implement this reform before the next election. The government has been working on this reform for almost a decade through the federal process, and many inquiries and reports have provided a clear plan for implementation," Waight said.

Federation for Community Legal Centres chief executive Louisa Gibbs said while she was pleased to see Victoria moving towards a "more humane" justice system, the government's announcement fell short of expert advice.

"Research tells us that children below the age of 14 have not yet reached the stage of brain development where they can be held criminally responsible," Gibbs said.

"What's more, engagement with the criminal legal system, including incarceration at a young age, has a damaging impact on children's wellbeing and growth, with long-term implications, such as potential disability, suicide risk and increased risk of longer-term imprisonment as an adult."

Symes made the announcement on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of the country's attorneys-general on Friday.

Shadow attorney-general Michael O'Brien said the opposition was not against criminal justice reform but that there had to be some form of accountability for children, particularly in circumstances where the child did have the capacity to form criminal intent.

"Where is the accountability? If a child who knowingly commits a crime isn't going to be legally accountable, how are they going to be held accountable? How are they going to be set on the right path? The government hasn't answered those questions," O'Brien said. "Or does the government believe there shouldn't be any accountability under any circumstances for any crime committed. To us, that's not a sensible approach."

Greens MP Tim Read said the government's announcement on Wednesday was inadequate and the age of criminal responsibility should have been raised to 14 sooner.

"We can do better than this," Read said. "They don't need four years to do this. Kicking it into the next term of government is unnecessary."

The Standing Council of Attorneys-General started reviewing the imprisonment of children in late 2018 in response to concerns Australia was not in line with the rest of the world, where the most common age of criminal responsibility is 14.

The Northern Territory passed legislation last year to lift the minimum age to 12, while the ACT is preparing to introduce laws into parliament to raise the age to 12, and then to 14 in two years.

Symes said Victoria's preference was for national consistency, but acknowledged all states would be on different timelines.
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Age of criminal responsibility raised to 12 by end of next year

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"Key to our concerns is the need to ensure that adequate measures are implemented well in advance of proposed reforms to ensure that the government's intent in driving this legislative change, is met.

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Youth (under 18) should have a curfew in place.

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Youth (under 18) should have a curfew in place.

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Famous Speeches & Audio | HISTORY Channel

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Witness famous speeches and hear timeless words spoken by historical figures. Listen to recordings of speeches online on history.com

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New guidelines on concussion for community sport recommended by AIS | ABC News

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Molly the magpie singing with joy as video of long-awaited reunion with canine best friend released

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After more than six weeks apart, the Insta-famous magpie and its best dog friends are back together at home on the Gold Coast — singing and sunning themselves like old times.

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In short: After a 17-year run, the Caloundra Music Festival has been cancelled for 2024.

The festival director said rising costs and a tough economic climate were to blame.

What's next? Musicians are calling for better public support for the industry by buying tickets or spreading the word.

The Australian music industry has suffered another damaging blow after the cancellation of a major event on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Organisers of the Caloundra Music Festival announced on Tuesday morning that the event would not go ahead this year.

The festival typically attracts more than 30,000 patrons and generates about $3 million for the local economy.

It is the second music event to be axed in the region in as many months.

In February, organisers of Groovin the Moo announced they were cancelling all six regional festivals, including the Sunshine Coast, just eight days after tickets went on sale.

Splendour in the Grass 2024 was also scrapped last month.

Caloundra Music Festival director Richie Eyles said there were a number of factors behind the decision not to run the October event.

"The economy is probably the biggest one," he said.

"People are doing it tough, disposable income is not there, and ticket sales, concerts, festivals are one of the first things to go."

Mr Eyles said the costs associated with hosting large-scale events had also risen significantly.

"The only sensible decision we could have made at this point in time was to cancel this year's event because the numbers didn't add up. But let's hope that's not the way it stays," the festival director said.

"We've been on a great ride for the past 17 years at Caloundra and we've put on some fabulous artists and great memories.

"We've all got our fingers crossed for a return in 2025."

'Ripple effect' through the industry

The Sunshine Coast's annual Big Pineapple Music Festival is still on track to be held in October following a three-year hiatus.

Festival director Mark Pico said he was "gobsmacked" to hear the Caloundra event would not be going ahead.

"It's heartbreaking because you know what they have to do to try and make it over the line every year," Mr Pico said.

"You know the history that's gone into making their event so special. It's horrible.

"There's kind of panic all throughout the industry.

"Many bands we've spoken to that are from overseas are too scared to come over for this year.

"Economics is one thing, but then there are all these other parts that make a festival come together that are not lining up at the moment. There's a ripple effect."

Mr Pico said his event relied predominantly on Australian acts, and it had also made changes to adapt to the tough economic climate.

"We have to move with the environment and expect maybe a few less numbers, but we've got time," Mr Pico said.

"You can't be stupid and sail into a cyclone full steam ahead going 'we're going to be unscathed here'."

Keeping music alive

The Caloundra Music Festival has been a launch pad for many local artists, including Andrea Kirwin who first performed there in 2014.

"I'd just released my first album. Playing Caloundra Music Festival was and is a big deal for local acts," Ms Kirwin said.

The artist and music producer said many in the industry had been forced to find other work due to the ongoing uncertainty.

"It's got to be something we address as a whole to make it more sustainable," she said.

"I think the old model might be changing, the idea that people will spend that kind of money on a weekend and be able to sustain doing that for multiple events a year.

"I think people are looking for an experience where they can feel closer to the artists. Smaller venues might do better coming out of this."

Mr Pico said the public also needed to support their favourite events, either by buying tickets or spreading the word.

"Because if you don't it possibly won't be there next year, and there'll be a giant hole in your social calendar," he said.

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Another major festival silenced as 'panic' ripples through music industry

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The Australian music industry has suffered another damaging blow after the cancellation of Queensland's long-running Caloundra Music Festival.

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It seems a plague of "Sephora Tweens" have been raiding available stocks of Drunk Elephant skin treatments at the makeup shop before mature consumers can get them. Deprived, older women have declared intergenerational war.

Yes. Another one.

A TikTok video battle is now in place, with Generation Alpha firing salvoes that are met punch-for-punch by every online generation that isn't dead. A child shakes a vial of Protini Polypeptide Cream above their head, bellowing: "From my cold, dead hands!" An elder responds: "You can come for me, but you'll never get my Glow RecipeWatermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops™!"

OK, I made those last bits up, but the online fight is real and - I cannot stress this enough - I really hate this timeline.

The immediate question raised by the Sephora Tween War is, of course, "were pocket television studios a good idea?" which one single minute of TikTok convinces me to answer "no" and very loudly.

Beyond this are thornier questions about adults, and influence, and the spaces that adult greed and paranoia end up shovelling children into.

The sudden generational rivalry for product acquisition is a symptom of a staggering recent expansion of the beauty market. According to McKinsey, between the years 2020 and 2022, global sales of beauty products increased by nearly $100bn. I have no doubt that this is because we were all trapped inside and relentlessly observing our ashiness and pallor as we tried Zoom meetings in lieu of work, friends and family. Was it the lack of seeing anyone we didn't already live with that encouraged us to try on new versions of ourselves? Yes. I changed hair colour four times, lost 20kg, refreshed all my skincare to suit my new "home confinement" lifestyle and turned over an entire pallet of makeup colours. A hundred billion dollars says that I wasn't alone.

Let's sit with the sad possibility, for a moment, that TikTok has become far more interesting than the rest of their lives

Kids, we may forget, were also trapped inside, with us and with TikTok - and neither pandemically addled entity were in any sound psychological state for consistently responsible child-minding at the time.

It is not news that kids copy the adults around them; they do it to learn, and to build social bonds of recognition and familiarity. They eagerly copy the adults they admire, especially those whose example offers them a channel of ambition or aspiration. As a child, I made myself a "utility belt" hung with kitchen utensils and a cape from a tablecloth because I wanted to be Batman. Who am I to criticise the girls as young as eight improvising ways to smear themselves in retinols because the hero available to them is a TikTok Skinfluencer? At that age, I would have given anything for a Batmobile, even if I was going to crash it immediately into a wall.

There is criticism due, but not for the kids. It's for the adults who are profiteering from the sale of retinol and other skincare ingredients that are harmful to children. It's for an adult culture pushing omnipresent messages to children that the worst thing that could ever, ever happen to you is to age. The point has been made that children viewing makeup and skincare videos are being fed the same advertising as adult consumers; if adults struggle to resist it, how, possibly, could a kid? And why would an advertiser wish to desist, when revenue from a skincare market for children and babies - actual babies - is expected to grow at rate of 5.74% each year, as per business intelligence platform Statista.

What could make one desist except a strong regulatory environment, which can and should hold TikTok, YouTube and all the rest responsible for platforming content that poses risks to health and safety, even if they don't film the videos themselves. Without appropriate safety warnings, no, it's not fit for view or sale. Maybe we could also try enforcing some industry codes of practice on the suppliers and retailers of this stuff. There's even a crazy logic that suggests, hey, maybe if older consumers are on TikTok complaining they can't get products at the stores, brands don't have to give a child an inflammatory disorder to avoid hurting themselves in the capitalism.

There's an uncomfortable broader cultural responsibility, too. It's to give kids more to do than "buy things at the mall" and offer more figures to aspire to than "an impressive applier of moisturiser". It's to consider that maybe bulldozing and then commodifying every public space accessible to kids has also limited the adventures and realms of experience available to them. Let's sit with the sad possibility for a moment that TikTok has become far more interesting than the rest of their lives.

In fact, the Sephora Tween War itself may be the most not-for-sale fun some of these kids have had in years. Because if kids copy us and their offline childhood obsessions are anti-ageing niacinamide treatments and Sephora mall outings, maybe - just maybe - we, as their elders, have become a bit dull ourselves.

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'Sephora tweens' are raiding Drunk Elephant - and we only have ourselves to blame | Van Badham

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A TikTok video battle is now in place, with Generation Alpha firing salvoes that are met punch-for-punch by every online generation that isn't dead

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Youths need to know more about local political issues

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Youths need to know more about local political issues

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After almost three weeks, the Alice Springs youth curfew is over.

The emergency measure was introduced on March 27 in the wake of a series of violent incidents, including an attack on an Alice Springs pub and a brawl involving up to 150 people.

It meant between 6pm to 6am, young people under the age of 18 couldn't enter the CBD without a "lawful purpose".

Initially slated for 14 days, the measure was extended last week to cover the rest of the school holiday period.

And today at 6am, after weeks of feverish media attention and growing calls from community leaders for long-term action, the curfew has lifted.

Chief Minister Eva Lawler on Tuesday morning described the measure as "highly successful", although she also conceded it took "a high number of resources" to enforce.

Here's a look back at what we learned.

The curfew was divisive

The measure has triggered mixed reactions, lauded as a "circuit-breaker" by some and a "punitive", "knee-jerk" response by others.

Many residents told the ABC it made the embattled town feel quieter and safer and gave Alice Springs a much-needed respite.

Others said the curfew was "unfair" to young people, with some concerned it could further criminalise children and teenagers.

The legality of the curfew, which was implemented after the government invoked emergency powers, was also called into question by the Northern Territory Police Association.

However, the NT Government insisted it acted lawfully with no formal legal challenges made against the curfew to date.

How were kids affected?

The curfew was introduced ahead of the Easter long weekend and the NT's school holiday period, impacting the lives of nearly 7,000 young people in the outback town.

Young people were not allowed to be in the declared "high risk" area unless they had a valid reason, such as work, sport or making their way home.

Kids found in the no-go zone without a lawful reason were taken home or to another "safe place" by authorities but could not be forced to stay there.

And with the NT reporting the highest rates of youth homelessness and family violence in the country, there were concerns children were on the streets at night because they had nowhere else to go.

Ms Lawler said police had reported a "reduction in domestic violence" over the curfew period.

Several young people told the ABC they felt the curfew tarred all Alice Springs young people with the same brush, and unfairly punished them for the actions of a few kids "running amok in town".

Armani Francois, 18, was stopped by police while escorting younger family members through the streets, describing the interaction as "intimidating".

No arrests reported by police so far

Police and Territory Families outreach workers have engaged with hundreds of young people in the high-risk area since the curfew was declared.

The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency was concerned the measure would lead to a "criminalisation of young people", as those who refused to leave the CBD could be charged.

So far, police have yet to announce any arrests.

The ABC requested further current data from NT Police - including the number of kids officers engaged with over the three-week curfew - but it did not respond before deadline.

They are expected to provide an update with information later today.

Ms Lawler said young people in Alice Springs responded "really, really well" to the restrictions.

On the first night of the curfew, she said around 50 to 60 kids were on the street, but there were only about 15 on the street when the curfew lifted.

All agree it was only a short-term measure

With the curfew wrapping up, attention is now turning to possible long-term solutions to crime and antisocial behaviour in the region.

Central Australian leaders say action is needed not just in Alice Springs, but in remote communities right across the Red Centre.

Donna Ah Chee, chief executive of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, says alcohol is a major factor behind unrest in the town and is calling for better policing at local bottle shops.

She also urged the introduction of "responsibility agreements" for families of repeat youth offenders, which would quarantine parents' welfare payments and remove repeat offenders from unsafe households.

Arrernte man and Children's Ground chair William Tilmouth argued governments needed to step away from "top-down approaches" and better empower Indigenous Australians to access meaningful employment.

And Blair McFarland, who runs a youth link-up service in Alice Springs, called for NDIS coordinators in each remote community to provide care for those with specialist needs, particularly those with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

Could we see another curfew imposed in future?

It's unclear, but the NT government has left the door open to calling another one in future.

"If [a spike in crime] happens again, I'm more than happy to bring in a curfew elsewhere in the Northern Territory," Ms Lawler said.

The Country Liberal Party has also voiced support for the measure.

Ms Lawler denied the curfew was an attempt to win back popular support ahead of the NT election in August.

But any future legal challenge could impact the chance of introducing another curfew.

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The youth curfew in Alice Springs has ended. So what did we learn?

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The now-expired Alice Springs youth curfew has triggered mixed reactions, lauded as a "circuit-breaker" by some and a "punitive", "knee-jerk" response by others. Here's a look back at what we learned.

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In short: New guidelines on dealing with concussion in junior and community sport have been released.

They recommend athletes rest for 14 days after a concussion before returning to contact training and 21 days before returning to competitive contact sport.

The guidelines bring Australia into line with the UK and New Zealand.

New concussion guidelines for junior and community sport recommend athletes wait three weeks before resuming competitive contact action.

The guidelines, released today, were developed by the Australian Institute of Sport [AIS] in co-operation with Sports Medicine Australia, along with doctors and physiotherapists.

They align with guidelines adopted in the UK and New Zealand.

Under the framework, athletes would be able to return to light exercise 24-48 hours after suffering a concussion but would have to wait 14 days without symptoms before returning to contact training.

A minimum period of 21 days has been recommended before athletes return to competitive sport.

The guidelines also prioritise the concussed person's return to work or school over a return to competitive contact sport.

AIS chief medical officer David Hughes said people associated concussion with high-level sport, but that was not always the case.

"Ninety-five per cent of concussions are not occurring in the elite level," he told ABC News Breakfast.

"Everybody sees the elite level in their lounge room ... from multiple angles, close-up and all that, and it causes a lot of the alarm. And we know there is alarm and concern not just in the sports sector but in the Australian community."

Parents wanted certainty over concussion response

Dr Hughes said the feedback from parents and people involved in junior and community sport was that there was no consistency in concussion guidelines across sports.

"We hear stories all the time from teachers ... they have, say, a 15-year-old playing a particular sport for their school, they suffer a concussion, the school tries to do the right thing by following the concussion protocol for that particular sport, they then find out that the same person is playing two other sports external to the school that have different return-to-play protocols," he said.

"It causes a lot of stress and anxiety and can cause strain between teachers and parents and the student and we need to do away with that.

"We need to have one set of guidelines that are followed by all sports at the youth and community level."

Australian Sports Commission CEO and former swimmer Kieren Perkins said having consistent guidelines across Australia, the UK and New Zealand was a considerable achievement.

"I am proud that Australia, along with the UK and New Zealand, is leading the world in concussion guidelines for youth and community sport, ensuring sport remains a safe and welcoming environment for all," he said.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the new advice would be reassuring for parents.

"They've watched the stories about the impact on some of our best-known sports stars who played at an elite level, but they also see this happen on the sporting grounds every weekend when their kids are playing," he told ABC News Breakfast.

"They want to know what to do, and now we have some advice about what to do."

One of the new recommendations is that a "concussion officer" be appointed in school and community settings to co-ordinate the response to a concussion incident.

"Having concussion officers in sporting clubs to make sure that people are followed up, referred to their GP, I think is also really important," Mr Butler said.

The guidelines can be accessed through a website set up by the AIS and the Australian Sports Commission.

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New head-knock guidelines urged for junior, community sport as most concussions 'not occurring in the elite level'

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New guidelines have been released giving parents and sporting groups clarity over how to deal with concussion in junior and community sport.

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Australian Animal Protection Society wants to see licences for pet ownership

Animals rights advocates say education will end impulse buying of animals

Victorian state budget included $18.6 million for animal welfare initiatives

Plans to improve Victoria's pet rehoming sector will improve the quality of life for thousands of cats and dogs, animal welfare groups say.

A state taskforce led by Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick made 17 recommendations to the government, which could lead to a mandatory rehoming policy for suitable cats and dogs used in research and teaching.

A review of regulations, specifically focused on a retirement age for those animals, was also endorsed.

The taskforce also called for protections to minimise the use of euthanasia for animals with treatable or manageable health conditions.

The recommendations are designed to establish consistent standards of care for rehoming, Melbourne-based animal rights group the Australian Animal Protection Society said.

That group also wants to see regulations go further.

'I would love to see people have a licence to own a pet,' the society's general manager Megan Seccull said.

'If you have to go through some sort of education program to understand exactly what's involved in having a pet, that will then cut out impulse buying.'

RSPCA Victoria made submissions to the inquiry, leading to a number of recommendations in the report.

'As a socially conscious shelter, RSPCA Victoria believes transparency, including animal fate data reporting, collaboration and continuous improvement of standards are vital to ensure all animals are treated humanely,' chief executive Liz Walker said.

'RSPCA Victoria supports the regulation of rehoming groups to help ensure all animal care organisations are transparent and adhere to the same standards.'

The Lost Dogs Home, which rehomed 4,758 pets last year, also welcomed the support.

There is still much to do with the help of donors, supported and dedicated staff and volunteers, a spokeswoman said.

Last month's budget included $18.6 million for animal welfare initiatives.

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Australian pet owners may soon need a licence just to own a cat or dog

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A taskforce has made 17 recommendations to the Victorian government it hopes will end the impulse buying of pets and wants to see people need a licence before they can own a cat or dog.

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In short: A new report from arts investment and advisory body Creative Australia has delved into the current state of play of Australia's music festivals.

It found that only 56 per cent of music festivals in 2022-23 were profitable, and that young audiences are no longer the sector's primary market.​

What's next? Creative Australia will undertake further research "to better understand the broader ecosystem that underpins live music".

More than one-third of Australian music festivals are losing money as they face skyrocketing operational costs and dwindling younger audiences, according to a new report from Creative Australia.

Billed as the first widespread report of its kind, Soundcheck: Insights into Australia's music festival sector delves into the cultural, social and economic impacts of Australian music festivals, and paints a clear picture of the landscape as it stood in the 2022-23 financial year.

Spanning the 535 music festivals held nationwide in that time - that's almost 1.5 festivals per day - the 116-page report reflects the scope, scale and diversity of the Australian music festival landscape.

Given the highly publicised recent struggles festivals have faced, it's timely research that looks to help Australian audiences and funding bodies understand the challenges these events face.

How much money do music festivals make?

Just 56 per cent of music festivals reported a profit in the 2022-23 financial year, with more than one third of festivals reporting a deficit and eight per cent breaking even.

The median average cost to stage a music festival is $3.3 million, and those events that do make a profit pull in a median average of $731,569 per event.

When looking at the mean average of the same data, though, that figure skyrockets to $2.6 million - confirming that some festivals are in a much better financial position and stand to gain far more than some of their contemporaries.

For instance, the highest profit for a festival surveyed for this data was $47.4 million, while the smallest profit was just $20,000.

What are the biggest challenges festivals face?

Rising operational costs had the most severe impact on almost half of festival organisers (47 per cent) - overheads like artist fees, production, suppliers, freight, transportation and insurance.

Other major barriers included a lack of funding and grants, as well as extreme weather events. Almost one third of festivals said skyrocketing insurance costs were a major challenge.

Australian live music venues' public liability insurance policies increased 10-fold in the past financial year, climbing from $20,000 per year to as much as $120,000.

One festival organiser noted that necessary event cancellation insurance costs had "pretty much doubled" since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The excess used to be like a standard commercial policy, which is like $4,000 or $5,000. Our excess for this year is $250,000."

Another organiser said navigating insurance paperwork had become an "absolute minefield" after making the tough call to cancel their festival.

"We had to wait until the morning of the show to make the final determination to cancel, otherwise there's the possibility that the insurance company could have said we could have worked out other alternatives.

"You're left with this real balancing act of, do you let your patrons know ... who may have been booking accommodation, may have been getting drivers, getting babysitters, outlaying some money to attend the festival?"

The rising costs of securing police and security was another sore point. More than a quarter of festivals noted the challenges of navigating police and security requirements, and the difficulties of dealing with different government and council regulations across different states and jurisdictions.

"There's not enough consistency," said one logistics/operations worker from New South Wales.

"Whether you do an event in the metro area, or you do an event in Newcastle, or you do an event down the South Coast, or whatever the case may be, all these authorities have different expectations in regards to what they want from security and from the event. That makes it hard because some of the implications are more costs for the event promoter."

By contrast, most festivals found health, medical and liquor licensing requirements were the least challenging regulatory challenge, with around seven per cent reporting these elements had an impact.

Ongoing festival cancellations have created a vicious cycle where the more events pull the plug or lose headliners last-minute, the more hesitation it creates in the wider market - from both the industry and from punters holding off on purchasing tickets.

Who's buying festival tickets?

While music festival revenue comes from various avenues - from corporate sponsorship to hospitality services to merchandise and more - it's ticket sales that determine the ultimate feasibility of a music festival.

There is some good news on that front, with average ticket sales in 2022-23 higher than pre-COVID levels.

The average festival sold 8,116 tickets in 2018-19, which ballooned to 9,506 for 2022-23, indicating that the industry is slowly recovering from the decimating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research suggests that young people are no longer the main consumer of music festivals, nor are they attending as much as they have in the past.

The 18-24-year-old group is no longer the biggest ticket-buying demographic, with people in their mid-to-late twenties overtaking them. The younger crowd slumped from 41 per cent of all ticket buyers in 2018/19 to 27 per cent in 2022/23.

Genre specific events faring better

The report arrives amid a feast or famine crisis for the Australian music festival scene.

There's been a growing list of festival cancellations, from major events like Splendour In The Grass, Groovin The Moo and Mona Foma, to newer players like This That, Summerground,  Vintage Vibes, Tent Pole, Valleyways, Costal Jam and more.

Amid those reports, however, genre-focused events - such as Good Things, Knotfest, Listen Out, CMC Rocks - are still proving popular, and summer staples - like Laneway Festival, Beyond The Valley and Field Day - are adapting to current challenges with great success.

The vast majority of Australian festivals predominantly feature homegrown line-ups, with four out of five acts being Australian. The most popular genre offering was electronic music, accounting for almost a quarter of Australian festivals. Other popular genres included rock (21 per cent) country (19 per cent) and indie (17 per cent).

Georgie McClean of Creative Australia says she hopes this research will serve as both a tool for those in the industry, as well as a way to exhibit the contributions music festivals make to Australia's creative sector.

"We hope this report will help us to better understand the role and contribution of festivals within the broader creative industries as they face multiple challenges.

"To inform the future work of Music Australia, we will be undertaking further research into how Australians discover, engage with and consume music, in order to better understand the broader ecosystem that underpins live music including festivals."

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More than one-third of Australian music festivals are not profitable, according to new data

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While one music festival took a profit of almost $50 million, only 56 per cent of similar events are profitable, new research from Creative Australia has found.

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Part of Lilly Parker's daily routine is spent pursuing the kind of "beautiful dewy skin" she sees online.

The Gold Coast teenager is among a growing number of young women who have high-end skincare products at the top of their Christmas wishlists.

Emerging from retailer Mecca Maxima, the 14-year-old can't put her finger on what it is about the products sold inside that appeal to her.

"It just looks cool," she says.

For her mother, Sarah, the answer is clear-cut - clever marketing through social media influencers.

"Lilly's had an interest in 'Drunk Elephant', which we just went and had a look at," Ms Parker says.

The popular skincare brand has products ranging in price from $25 for a single tube up to $738 for an entire rainbow of brightly coloured creams and cleansers.

"I've said to her: 'You might be seeing it all over TikTok with girls your age who are wearing it, but it's not appropriate for you and we're not buying it,'" Ms Parker says.

Cleanse. Moisturise. Protect

Dermatologist Leona Yip says many of her patients and friends had sought her advice after feeling pressured into buying their children high-end skincare products promoted by so-called skinfluencers.

Dr Yip says tweens and teenagers consuming "skinfluencer" content need to be reminded social media stars make money through their posts.

"They're not doing it because they know the science behind skincare or they know anything about skin health," she says.

Dr Yip says some of the products promoted to teenagers can do more damage than good.

She says anti-ageing serums containing retinol and other harsh irritating ingredients are completely unsuitable for young skin.

"These ingredients can cause skin irritation, affect the skin barrier, and cause more problems with skin sensitivity and in some cases may even flare acne-prone skin," she says.

"In that age group, there are three basic steps of skin care: cleansing, moisturising and sunscreen."

For teenagers prone to acne breakouts or oily skin, Dr Yip says supermarket and pharmacy products are more cost-effective and more suitable.

"They work really well - be guided by the pharmacist, or your GP, or dermatologist who can point you in the right direction," Dr Yip says.

"It does not need to be a $100 cream."

Rewarding attractiveness

Nakita Evans, 15, admits she spends a lot of time watching Get Ready With Me (#GRWM) videos and beauty content created by influencers.

Her mother, Kasey, says it's a costly fascination.

"She wants the latest stuff and the latest trends and it's always expensive keeping up with everyone," Ms Evans says.

Griffith University's Veya Seekis researches body image in young people and says the psychological cost of social media beauty content may outweigh the financial impact.

Dr Seekis says the rise of #GRWM videos and skinfluencers is concerning, particularly on platforms like TikTok that appeal to audiences as young as 11 or 12 years old.

She says many influencers use editing tools or filters to alter their appearance, unwittingly or otherwise, setting unrealistic benchmarks for the tweens and teenagers that form their audience.

"When they consume this kind of content, it brings to the forefront what attractiveness does and how it is rewarded in society," she says.

"Unfortunately, what that does is it triggers anxiety [and] sometimes even appearance shame."

Drowning in content

In a study published in February, Dr Seekis analysed the psychological effects watching seven minutes of TikTok beauty content had on young women (aged 17 to 25) compared to those who watched either self-compassion videos or neutral content for the same amount of time.

"The ones exposed to the beauty content had higher appearance anxiety, higher appearance shame, higher negative mood, and they were more likely to compare themselves to the women or girls creating the content," Dr Seekis says.

She says on a platform like TikTok, which has a complex algorithm able to recognise what its users like to see, seven minutes could easily be served up in a single session.

"When someone pauses on a video, even for a few seconds, they [TikTok] push more and more of that similar content so that the person's feed just drowns in it," Dr Seekis says.

"And the more that they're exposed to it, the more likely they are to compare themselves to it, to experience some level of anxiety, some level of shame, and even body dysmorphic concerns."

Finding a balance

Gold Coast mother Belinda Eckstein says her daughter, Ellie, had recently started showing more interest in skincare and make-up, fuelled by competition and conversation among her friends.

She says the reach of online influencers is also starting to take effect.

"Being 11 [years old], we still try and control that social media [use] but it's definitely creeping in," Ms Eckstein says.

She says she is trying to teach Ellie that "expensive is not always the best".

"Going with the simple things and looking after yourself, I think, is the key rather than trying to keep up with the expectations."

Research has shown the harm some teenagers experience after watching beauty videos can be reduced by consuming "body neutrality" content that highlights ability rather than appearance.

"We're finding that just viewing 10 minutes of body neutrality content can increase body satisfaction, mood, and self-compassion," Dr Seekis says.

"There is content out there that can be helpful."

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Health professionals warn the expensive skincare products your tween wants for Christmas could be harming them

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Social media "skinfluencers" selling the promise of dewy skin are driving tween and teenage interest in expensive skincare products, but experts warn pursuing the kind of perfection seen online can have long-lasting consequences.

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Neelima Choahan, Michelle Wakim, Joseph Baronio, with graphics by Sharon Gordon

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Should 16-year-olds like Stella and Jayla be allowed to vote?

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Sixteen-year-olds can learn to drive, get a job, pay taxes and be on the Organ Donor Register, but they are considered too young to vote. Should they also have a stake in deciding their future?

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The Northern Territory government has extended a youth curfew for the Alice Springs CBD until the territory's school holidays end next Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, the chief minister, Eva Lawler, announced the curfew would now remain in place until 6am on 16 April.

The two-week youth curfew was imposed on 27 March when the NT government declared an emergency following reports of escalating violence in the red centre.

The declaration bans people under the age of 18 from entering the town centre between 6pm and 6am without a valid reason.

Critics of the curfew have labelled it a "kneejerk reaction" and questioned its legality. It was initially intended to end on Wednesday but has been extended to run beyond the school holiday period, which concludes on Monday. School holidays tend to bring an influx of young people into Alice Springs from surrounding communities.

The curfew was originally intended as a "circuit breaker" but Lawler said it was important for the town not to lose momentum.

"We're taking a common sense approach to improving community safety in Alice Springs," she said.

"Work is being done right now to ensure that the community is prepared for when the curfew ends and we continue to have a strong presence from police, Territory Families and the Department of Education."

Lawler met with the Territory Emergency Management Council and local stakeholders on Monday to discuss how the town would make the transition out of curfew.

The police minister, Brent Potter, said police would continue to work closely with Territory Families and other agencies once the curfew is lifted.

The initial 14-day curfew was imposed as part of an emergency declaration to quell an increase in violence in the desert town.

Rising tensions were inflamed by the death of an 18-year-old man in a car accident in early March.

Hostilities between families exploded when a large group attacked the Todd Tavern, leaving a $30,000 damage bill.

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Brawls continued later in the evening as family members mourned the death, with up to 150 people clashing in town camps.

Officers made several arrests and seized more than 50 weapons, including spears, axes and clubs.

Lawler called the emergency declaration the next day, imposing the curfew and deploying an extra 58 police officers to the town.

South Australian police officers will also be deployed to Alice Springs to support their Territory counterparts.

The NT opposition called on the government to extend the curfew until the end of April and give police more teeth to hold parents accountable.

"The curfew can't just be a drop-off service, forcing our police to run around in circles," the shadow treasurer, Bill Yan, said.

"It has to be a curfew with consequences."

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Alice Springs youth curfew to be extended by six days to cover Northern Territory school holidays

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NT chief minister Eva Lawler says rules barring children from entering town's CBD at night will remain until 16 April

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VCE Oral Presentation: A Three-Part Guide to Nailing It

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We’ve all been there. You’re moments away from having to deliver your 5-6 minute long oral to all of your classmates and your teacher, and you’re still trying to memorise that one bit that you just can’t seem to get down pat. It sucks.

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‘I don’t care what the rest of my life looks like’: Riewoldt happy to see AFL players no longer thinking like he did

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St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt praises Nathan Murphy and Angus Brayshaw for being “pioneers” of an era where players put their health and wellbeing first.

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NSW authorities are investigating the discovery of hundreds of butchered horses on a property in the state's south.

Wagga Wagga City Council said it was leading the investigation with NSW Police and other agencies after reports horse carcasses had been dumped around a dry creek bed near Wagga Wagga.

It said more than 500 horses appeared to have been slaughtered over a long period of time.

"It is estimated that there are in excess of 500 horse carcasses," council's general manager Peter Thompson said in a statement.

"Some of these carcasses were no more than skeletal remains while others were killed relatively recently.

"Once the extent of the operation had been identified, NSW Police and other state government agencies began collecting evidence for possible offences and regulatory actions under a range of NSW state government legislation."

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More than 500 horse carcasses found at NSW property

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The Wagga Wagga City Council says the horses appear to have been slaughtered over a long period of time, with some killed "relatively recently".

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On Wednesday, after a day of fevered speculation, Splendour in the Grass announced it was cancelling this year's festival, just a week after tickets went on sale. The long-running camping festival was set to return to the North Byron Parklands in New South Wales in July, headlined by Kylie Minogue, Future and Arcade Fire. But "unexpected events" were to blame, Splendour's co-chief executives Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco said in their only statement. They said the festival would be "taking a year off" while conspicuously not committing to returning in 2025 (Splendour did not respond to Guardian Australia's requests for further comment for this article).

The news was another blow to Australia's already embattled festival scene, coming a month after the regional festival Groovin The Moo cancelled all six dates because of insufficient ticket sales. These cancellations happened during a summer in which numerous festivals faced extreme weather conditions, including Pitch and Golden Plains in Victoria and Womadelaide in South Australia. Against this backdrop, Splendour's decision has left the industry reeling.

Before Splendour's cancellation, I was speaking to people in the Australian festival space to ask why multi-genre festivals are failing to attract ticket buyers. The responses include: a scarcity of available and willing headline artists in the global market; a squeeze on budgets as the Australian dollar weakens; generation Z's preference for sure-thing headline shows; and a growing trend towards festivals that offer a sense of community, not just collective experience.

But every conversation came to the same conclusion: there's no one definitive thing that got us here.

Headline headaches

"Gone are the days when people read from top to bottom of a lineup," says an Australian festival promoter, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. "In media and on socials, it's really the top artists driving most of the heat."

For Splendour, one of those top artists was mired in controversy. Five people have made allegations of sexual misconduct against Arcade Fire's frontman Win Butler (Butler has denied the allegations and no charges have been laid against him). Groovin The Moo, meanwhile, arranged its lineup alphabetically to sidestep the headliner debate.

"It's really difficult for any festival in Australia to secure what people consider headline talent right now," the festival promoter says. "Previously, between 60 to 70% of offers you made would confirm, and now it's probably like 20 to 30%."

The Grammy award-winning singer Lizzo headlined Splendour in the Grass 2023. Photograph: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

They point to "a multitude of factors" behind this change, including artists prioritising a booming touring market in the US or simply choosing to stay home for their mental health.

"If fans are asking why a festival didn't book a certain artist, it's not because they somehow didn't think of them," the promoter adds. "If the artist makes sense stylistically, there's no way they haven't had an offer out at some stage."

Punters, meanwhile, "are looking at the top two or three artists to decide if it's something they need to see", the promoter says. "The Groovin The Moo lineup wasn't bad, but with Billie Eilish on top it would've been a totally different story."

Money troubles

Other observers point to the ballooning operational costs for post-pandemic festivals, which makes competing for expensive headliners especially risky. (Some point to the end of the Australian government's Rise fund, which gave festivals an injection of funds after Covid-19.) As Mitch Wilson, managing director of the Australian Festival Association, told Triple J's Hack on Wednesday: "Australian festivals are really struggling at the moment because of the strength of the Australian dollar - it's actually not that attractive at the moment, given where the dollar is at, for an artist to come all of this way, and travel costs are through the roof."

Notably, Secret Sounds, the Australian company behind Splendour, is majority owned by the US giant Live Nation, which reported its biggest profits yet in 2023.

"In Australia, as elsewhere, there's been an increasing market concentration and dominance of three major multinationals, one of which is Live Nation," says Ben Green, a researcher at Griffith University who specialises in live music crisis and change. "You might think if anyone could keep a festival going, it's the world's biggest promoter. However, you can also expect a distant, multinational corporate group to be guided by the brutal facts of the financial situation in a given year, and might place that above the long-term strength of the brand and the local impact."

The Groovin the Moo festival in Bendigo in 2023. Photograph: Jordan Munns

While cost-of-living concerns might explain the turn away from expensive tickets, recent blockbuster tours from Taylor Swift, Blink-182, Pink and especially Fred Again (whose surprise Australia tour sold 100,000 tickets - two Splendours' worth - in 24 hours) tell a different story.

"A major artist in a major venue is a safe bet," Green says. "People know if they buy a ticket for Taylor Swift in a stadium, it's actually going to go ahead at the time and date that's been promised. Whereas it's understandable that people may have lost confidence in outdoor events in particular."

'Australian artists are copping it'

This fervour around international headliners has had a profound impact on Australian artists vying for festival bookings. Julia Robinson, Aria's head of policy and advocacy, says it's incredibly hard at the moment for Australian artists to cut through. While overall music sales grew by 10% in 2023, only three singles in the top 100 were by Australian artists.

"Music here is valuable, but directing more of that value to Australian musicians continues to be a challenge in such a crowded market," Robinson says. "Right now, it means the festival market - a critical part of the Australian music ecosystem - is forced to operate in effective market failure, paying increasingly high fees while contending with the same financial difficulties faced by all Australian businesses."

Maggie Collins, the executive director of the Association of Artist Managers Australia, echoes this sentiment. "Australian artists are copping it from all angles," she says. "Anecdotally, Australian acts who are programmed on Splendour take their entire fee and spend it on production, because it's a platform to perform in front of thousands of people who may never have been interested in seeing them. That's how Splendour is regarded by artists and their teams."

While Collins hopes there's a positive to follow this "dark turn", for now she says "the artist management community is just a bit shocked". "It's like we're on a treadmill that keeps going faster and faster, but we keep falling behind."

But both Robinson and Collins agree that reconnecting Australian fans with local artists will help, so they can start building the audiences that will make them headline-level drawcards.

Festivalgoers at the 2023 Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay. Photograph: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

A clear trend in the last few years has been a growing appetite for smaller, genre-specific festivals over the multi-genre affairs that were once a rite-of-passage for Australian festivalgoers and would reliably sell out on the basis of their broad appeal. (The most iconic festival of this class, Big Day Out, bowed out in 2014.) This year's Groovin The Moo was set to span indie rock to old-school hip-hop, while Splendour's 2024 lineup was ambitiously varied, including buzzy acts like Girl in Red, Omar Apollo, Turnstile and Lizzy McAlpine alongside proven locals G Flip and Tash Sultana.

Emal Naim is one of the founders of Festco, whose new festival Souled Out sold out 15,000 tickets at its first stop in Sydney. Headlined by Summer Walker, Bryson Tiller and PartyNextDoor, its lineup was laser focused on contemporary R&B.

"We target a demographic of people that have never been targeted before in this country," Naim says. "Going to a multi-genre festival for a specific talent can be hard to justify, but our audience gets to see everyone on their Spotify playlist." This contraction is increasingly true in the dance music world, too, with the likes of Stereosonic and Future Music Festival making way for smaller subgenre-specific events such as this weekend's Melbourne offshoot of the Dutch house and techno festival Dekmantel.

Of course, the forces behind Splendour's woes are not specific to Australia - as evidenced by Coachella experiencing its slowest-ever ticket sales in 10 years.

"If Coachella can't put together a lineup that people are happy with, what chance do we have in Australia where a dollar is worth half the amount?" the festival promoter says.

Across all my conversations, it's clear the industry at large was rooting for Splendour's success as a bellwether for what's to come for Australia's festival scene. The path forward now is more uncertain than ever.

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First Groovin the Moo, now Splendour: why are Australia's music festivals falling over?

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The industry is reeling as a 'multitude of factors' combine to hurt ticket sales - and the path forward appears uncertain

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There is an increasing online discourse about whether children as young as 10 should be subject to age restrictions from active skincare at stores like MECCA and Sephora.

The so called 'Sephora Kids' trend has gone viral online, with some posts getting between four and six million views. The term refers to children in their tweens (before 13) and early teens, going into beauty stores to get their hands on viral items from high end brands like Drunk Elephant and Summer Fridays.

These brands have been so popular with adults online that it seems to have filtered down to the children too. It makes them feel older to be ' in the know' on skincare, and if we're honest, every child wants to feel mature before their time.

Youngsters feel influenced to need these products from a skincare perspective, but also to earn the 'status' factor of owning the 'next big thing'.

The same hysteria doesn't seem to apply to skincare staples that adults love but that do not come in high end, colourful packaging. For example, they're clamouring for Drunk Elephant, but skimming over unassuming packaging with brilliant formulas (Embryolisse, CeraVe and Cetaphil come to mind). The fan-level obsession continues to compound as the algorithm steadily feeds them the same content, again and again, reinforcing norms that young people use high end, adult skincare.

The truth is that many young people cannot afford to purchase these formulas, yet there is so much pressure to 'keep up with the Joneses'. The reality looks starkly different to what you see online.

The same goes for the rumours that 10-year-olds are leaving Sephora and MECCA counters in chaos, making 'skincare smoothies' by mixing different products together and wrecking testers. While it certainly has happened, many young shoppers do know how to behave correctly in a store.

While there are always caveats, maybe it's time to go a little more gently on our young people?

The youth skincare craze is influencer-fueled hype, yes, but didn't we all fall victim to that as young people? Just like owning the best Barbie, getting a collector's Pokemon card or owning every type of Impulse body mist on the market, skincare has become the next 'it' thing that the kids will pester their parents to own for the purpose of social status.

I certainly remember needing Lancôme Juicy Tubes as an 11-year-old.

It's also not a good idea to discourage children from skincare altogether, as there are so many benefits to it. Go-To Founder Zoe Foster Blake explored the topic in a recent TikTok, saying, "If you have a tween or a teen in your world, you can help them actually get it right. We have an opportunity here to encourage this idea of looking after your skin - not because it's trendy, not because the bottles are cute - but because it can create self-confidence and create really strong skincare habits that will take them [forwards] for decades and decades."

"It's never too young to start good skincare habits, and that can be as simple as SPF." She's actually created a tween/teen page on the Go-To site to help parents navigate the skincare landscape with more ease.

@gotoskincare
What does Go-To founder, Zoe, recommend for tween and teen skin? A simple routine that focuses on keeping faces clean, hydrated, and protected from the sun. No spicy actives. No expensive peptides. Just gentle, nourishing products to help tweens and teenagers build good skincare habits. TWEENS Gentle gel cleanser (Go-To Juicy Gel) Face oil or moisturiser (Go-To Face Hero) SPF TEENS Gentle skin clearing cleanser (Go-To Properly Clean) BHA toner/exfoliant (Go-To Clarifying exfoliant) Oil free moisturiser (Go-To Lightweight Moisturiser) SPF #teenskin #gotoskincare #tweenskin
♬ original sound - Go-To Skincare

LeeAnne Leslie, the manager for education and training at Alpha-H agrees that skincare habits can be good to start early.

"Starting a basic routine early helps to develop the lifelong habit of caring for and protecting the skin. The same as teaching children to regularly brush their teeth, prevention, when it comes to the skin is key," she explains, adding not too let it go too far.

"Retaining the integrity of young skin and not compromising the skins protective barrier is vital. A gentle twice daily cleanse with a pH balanced non foaming cleanser, applying SPF each morning and a simple moisturiser for evening is enough," she advises.

That's not to say there isn't a problem with young people using active skincare that is much too harsh for their skin. From high percentage vitamin C, and vitamin A (retinol) to peeling face masks, young skin does not need these drastic steps, and it may impair their skin barrier, actually causing problems, rather than fixing them.

It's absolutely true that young people need to be schooled and guided in the world of skincare. But is that MECCA and Sephora's job? Is a kid-friendly section or age bans on certain products really needed? Or is it more about parents taking an active role in their children's approach to beauty standards and beauty purchasing?

No young person should feel like they need a retinol before they even have wrinkles. No young person should be using harsh peeling masks to minimize pores they don't have. This is an education piece for young people, an opportunity, as Foster-Blake says, to bring them along the ride and steer them in a direction that will benefit them.

We must also consider the teens who do suffer from acne and other skin problems (rosacea, psoriasis), that may need more specialized care. Access to actives like salicylic acid, malic acid, or advice on heavier occlusive moisturisers could be essential to this demographic - even if they are still young.

Still, Leslie recommends a simple routine. "A gentle cleanser that respects the skins naturally occurring pH and protecting the skin each day with SPF is important," she says. "A targeted spot treatment that helps reduce any redness and works to inhibit the spread of acne causing bacteria on the skin's surface can really help as well."

Leslie cautions that skincare alone can sometimes not be enough to deal with problem skin, and that seeing a doctor or dermatologist may also be advisable. "Acting sooner rather than later when dealing with teenage acne can help minimise the potential risk of atrophic (indented) scarring."

She says that the twenties are the best time to start leaning into more active skincare, when our skin's natural exfoliation processes start to slow down.

But, does that mean that a '20 and up age limit' is the way forwards?

It stands to question that if age limits are brought in, there will be older sisters and naughty aunts aplenty, marched into Sephora on behalf of their younger loved ones. There's no allure quite like being told something is not allowed. It may seem like the answer, but restrictions are arguably an arbitrary step in stemming the actual problem. Removing the product doesn't change the hyperfixation, only education and guidance can.

Of course, there is no one size fits all approach. We'd argue that it is up to parents to bring their children with them on the journey and ensure that their only knowledge of skincare is not built off what they see online alone.

Talk to them about ingredients, get clued in on the ones to avoid. Go scavenger hunting for the cutest, cleanest products to help them glow and feel 'adult' without hurting their skin. It could actually be kind of fun.

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Should There Be Age Restrictions At Sephora Or MECCA? | marie claire

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An increasing number of viral posts are covering how bad it is that young people are buying from MECCA and Sephora. Here we dissect why that is, and how it can be brought under control.

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A single Melbourne hospital had almost 250 injured e-scooter riders taken to its emergency department with injuries last year, with intoxication, speed and not wearing a helmet the biggest risk factors.

A study at the Royal Melbourne hospital revealed it had seen 247 riders and nine pedestrians due to e-scooter crashes last year. Two-thirds of the injured riders were not wearing helmets, while just over one-third said they had been drinking.

Of the hospitalisations, 21 experienced major trauma and one later died from a brain injury.

The study, which estimated the total hospital cost to be $1.9m, has sparked calls by senior emergency department doctors for tighter regulations on scooters to prevent debilitating injuries and death.

Dr Sarah Whitelaw, an emergency physician from Australian Medical Association Victoria, said the figures were confronting.

She said face and head injuries were common and could leave people with "functional lifelong scars".

"It's heartbreaking for us to hear from our patients that they just had no idea they could get so badly injured," she said on Wednesday.

"These e-scooter injuries are on top of the motor vehicle accidents, so they're not replacing injuries - they're adding to the burden on the health system."

Half of those who went to the hospital suffered injuries to their head, face or neck, and most patients were young - with an average age of 29 - and male (68%).

Almost 89% of injuries came from riders falling off their scooter.

Whitelaw said the Royal Melbourne hospital was still recording a significant number of e-scooter injuries in its emergency department, about 30 to 40 a month.

"If you consider that across the whole of Australia, it's quite horrifying," she said.

"The fact that these are potentially preventable injuries and they are taking up the time and hospital beds when we have such a huge elective surgery backlog."

Victoria's e-scooter trial began in February 2022, with 1,500 Lime and Neuron vehicles initially deployed across three council areas - Melbourne, Port Phillip and Yarra. The trial was extended for a third time in October and the state legalised private e-scooters on public roads in March.

The study did not specify if injuries were from rides using hired scooters or privately owned scooters.

Injures at Royal Melbourne hospital jumped from five in February 2022 to 40 in December last year.

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Whitelaw said the cost to the system was likely to be three times the amount estimated by the study, as it only examined emergency department, hospitalisation and surgery costs.

"It doesn't include ambulance transfer, rehabilitation, physiotherapy or lost income," she said.

Whitleaw called for tighter regulation including e-scooter curfews, intoxication tests on phones and national investment in data collection of injuries.

"We're truly at the very beginning of the e-scooter and the e-mobility device wave in Australia. So we need to take the opportunity to prepare," she said.

Under the state's trial, scooter riders must be aged 16 or over and must ride only on shared paths or on roads with a speed limit up to 60km/h. They must wear a helmet and must not exceed 20km/h, use a mobile phone or be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Critics of the trial have pointed to scooters being ridden dangerously on the footpaths - a hazard for elderly people and people with a disability - and left strewn on the footpath.

A transport department spokesperson said the trial was extended to ensure there was comprehensive data to make a decision about e-scooters.

"The data ... has shown that while there has been an increase in injury, this is primarily due to the significant growth in e-scooter use, and injury rates are similar to those for bikes," the spokesperson said.

A Neuron spokesperson said e-scooters had been embraced in Melbourne.

"Feedback has been extremely positive and the vast majority of people ride responsibly, with over 99.99% of trips ending safely and without incident," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Lime said 99.9% of trips taken on the platform ended without incident.

"Following the legalisation of private e-scooters, this study shows that shared schemes, in terms of public safety, are the best way to introduce micromobility to the community," the spokesperson said.

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Emergency doctors call for tighter controls on e-scooters as Melbourne injuries skyrocket

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Injuries presenting to Royal Melbourne hospital jumped from five in February 2022 to 40 in December last year after Victoria's e-scooter trial began

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For years, youth crime has been impacting communities across Australia. This week things escalated in Alice Springs, and the NT government's put a curfew in place there so under 18s aren't allowed out at night. So will it bring crime rates down?

Also, the cancellation of Splendour in the Grass has everyone wondering: is this the end of music festivals in Australia? We ask a major player in the game.

Plus, a think tank has crunched the numbers on unpaid placement hours social work students do and thinks it has a solution for how to pay them.

Guests:
Dr Terry Goldsworthy, associate professor in criminology, Bond University
Fil Palermo, co-founder and director, Untitled Group

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are curfews the answer to youth crime in australia?

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‎Hack: Are curfews the answer to youth crime in Australia? on Apple Podcasts

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For years, youth crime has been impacting communities across Australia. This week things escalated in Alice Springs, and the NT government's put a curfew in place there so under 18s aren't allowed out at night. So will it bring crime rates down? Also, the cancellation of Splendour in the Grass has...

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In short: A new study by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute has found a blood protein that could help detect delayed concussion recovery in children.

About one in 16 children will have a concussion by the time they reach 10 years of age but experts say that figure could be higher.

What's next? Further trials and additional funding is needed.

Karen Payne says she'll never forget the sight of her daughter Mackenzie lying unconscious on the netball court.

"It was terrifying," she said.

A stray blow from another player caused her to fall and hit her head, leaving 16-year-old Mackenzie out cold for a minute

"When I woke up, I couldn't see out of my eye and I was lying in a pool of my own blood. I felt dizzy, confused and everything became a blur," Mackenzie said.

But while she was only out for a minute, the following months of her life were turned upside down.

"I felt very confused, very foggy, I couldn't really understand much, I couldn't process information or retain [it]," she said.

She had suffered a concussion that would ultimately take months to recover from.

"It was really hard ... I wanted to feel normal but I just couldn't no matter how hard I tried," she said.

"I couldn't think properly, it was almost like there was nothing going on in my head before I spoke or did anything.

"All I wanted was to be back on the netball court. I didn't understand at the time how much of a long-term impact concussion can have."

Previously, it has been impossible to know which children would recover quickly from concussion and which would have a delayed recovery.

But Melbourne researchers now believe they've found a breakthrough that could let them predict it.

The blood protein that could predict the future

Melbourne researchers say they have discovered a blood protein that could help detect children with ongoing concussion symptoms weeks after an injury.

Researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) said levels of a protein called Alpha-1-antichymotrypsin (alpha-1-ACT) appeared significantly lower in children who had a delayed recovery from injury.

According to MCRI, one in five children will have had a concussion by the time they are 16.

Professor Vicki Anderson said about 70 per cent of children will recover within two weeks but 30 per cent will have long-term symptoms, with half never seeking out medical care.

"We want to identify those [30 per cent] because our research shows that the earlier we start to support those kids with either education around concussion or our interventions, the better that they do," she said.

The latest study used a finger prick to test a sample of blood from children who had experienced a concussion.

The results were then compared against children who had not suffered a concussion as well as children who had suffered other injuries that were not related to the brain.

"We've been able to link lower levels of this particular protein associated with slower recovery," Professor Anderson said.

"Potentially in the future, if we can replicate those findings, it will tell us very early on when kids come into the ED or when they they go to their GP, they'll be able to identify this particular protein and then make sure that young person has more intensive care intervention and support along the way to try and reduce that long term recovery."

Ms Anderson said it would still be a few years before the tests are conducted outside of a research setting but it could make an immediate difference with treatment.

"It's a very easy method. It could be done on the sidelines of sport, it could be done by the school nurse and so on," she said.

Fellow researcher Ella Swaney said having a tool to detect a child recovering poorly would have a large impact on treating concussion.

"Every child recovers from a concussion very differently," Ms Swaney said.

"The really important thing right now is identifying them and ensuring they receive the treatment that they need."

Ms Swaney said the study is the first of its kind in the world, but more testing still needed to be done.

Expert says findings could be a game changer

Senior research fellow in neurotrauma at Curtin University and the Perron Institute, Sarah Hellewell, labelled the findings as "significant".

"Brain injury researchers collectively around the world have been searching for a marker like this because there's no way yet to tell what someone's recovery will be like," she said.

"This will give us a way to potentially say we really need to pay more attention to this child who needs further care and consideration and perhaps we can even point them towards more directed treatment and care to help them with their recovery."

The study would need to be replicated in larger groups, and if the findings are consistent it could be applied in a public setting.

"Once we can see that we're getting consistent findings across different studies and different study populations then we can start to implement this and say is this something we can do in a hospital," Dr Hellewell said.

She said it was an exciting development and could improve the outcomes for people who suffer long term effects from concussions.

"Being able to use a marker like this will really be a game changer to be able to give people realistic expectations about their recovery and to get them early intervention as well," Dr Hellewell said.

Ms Payne said the findings would give parents peace of mind so they can better support their children.

"It's not going to change the fact that they've got concussion but at least parents will know whether this is something that will be a couple of weeks ... or whether it will be something a little bit more long term," she said.

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'I wanted to feel normal but I couldn't' - Mackenzie is one of many children suffering long-term impacts of a concussion in sport

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Mackenzie was knocked unconscious during a netball game and suffered a concussion that she says still affects her today. New research could help identify which children will have long-term symptoms so early intervention can take place.

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Yesterday Splendour In The Grass, arguably the big Kahuna of Aussie music festivals, announced its 2024 event had been cancelled .

It's not the only one. The announcement follows the cancellation of Groovin' the Moo 2024 and Falls Festival 2023, among plenty of others. ﻿

As someone who has regularly attended Aussie music festivals over the years, the news is devastating - but not shocking.
Kylie reacts to Splendour in the Grass cancellation.﻿
While Splendour's organisers announced they would do their best to bring the event back in 2025, it seems Australian music festivals may be on their way out.

Groovin' The Moo cited low ticket sales as the reason for cancellation, but Splendour hasn't shared quite as much detail - simply that the 2024 event would no longer be going ahead because of "unexpected events."

"If festivals are on their way out, it's not just the events suffering - it's the Australian music scene as a whole"﻿

While most people seem to be blaming the downfall of Aussie music festivals on the cost of living crisis, I think it goes a little deeper.

For Splendour itself, it all seemed to go downhill following 2022's 'Splendour in the Mud', when the grounds were ravaged by rain, storms and thousands upon thousands of people dredging up the ground. ﻿
Aussie musician's dire warning after iconic festival cancelled.
I was there that year and let me tell you, it was an experience.

Tents were flooded, every step you took had to be carefully calculated to make sure you weren't going so fast that you would slip, but also not so slow that you would get stuck, and worst of all, Friday's acts were all cancelled.

This meant the organisers had to hand out a lot of refunds and, I'm assuming, lose a lot of money in the process.

Since then, the Splendour festival lineups haven't been what they used to be.

Over the years, I've seen some huge acts such as ﻿The Strokes, SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, Childish Gambino and Tyler The Creator at the Byron Bay Parklands.

Even other smaller, one-day music festivals used to draw in huge international names.

At Laneway 2022 I saw Pheobe Bridgers and Fredagain; Spilt Milk has treated us to acts such as The Wombats and Post Malone; Grapevine brought The Kooks to our shores.

Even CMC Rocks has brought in names that go beyond just country music fans, such as Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson, Zac Brown Band and Hardy. ﻿

These international acts used to be the drawcards of the Australian festival industry, and while we also have incredible local talent - Spacey Jane, Flume, Lime Cordiale and Dom Dolla, just to name a few ﻿of the many - there's only so many times we can see the same names on lineup after lineup and still get excited about it.
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Where I would pinpoint the downfall of these festivals is the fact they're giving us lineups with less international acts and smaller headliners, but still expecting us to pay the same price we did three years ago, when some of the world's biggest names were set to take the stage.

Obviously, cost of living comes into this and we're all being a little more careful where we spend our money. But personally, if I was seeing lineups the likes of what we had a few years ago, I'd be doing my best to get the cash together for a ticket, some accommodation and all the other expenses that go along with attending an event like this.

It's not just the attendees who are affected, either - it's the smaller, less-known local acts that rely on these events to draw the crowd in with a big headliner, so they can take to the stage in front of a bunch of people who are being introduced to their music for the first time.

It's how some of Australia's most well-known music acts became who they are today. ﻿
The Crown star weighs in on Princess of Wales controversy﻿
If festivals are on their way out, it's not just the events that are suffering - it's the Australian music scene as a whole.

I'm sure there's more going on behind the scenes preventing organisers from being able to afford headliners the way they used to, such as higher overheads and increased public liability insurance costs, more unpredictable weather events in the wake of climate change﻿ and, of course, the effects of COVID on the events industry as a whole.

But surely there is a way to increase funding into the public arts and entertainment sector to ensure the future of the Australian music industry.

For now, it seems we have to say goodbye to some of the events we've loved in the past, and hold on to hope not only that they return, but that others, such as Spilt Milk and Beyond The Valley, don't suffer the same fate. ﻿

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'I'm a music festival lover - this is why we're not buying tickets any more'

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Splendour in the Grass is just the latest Australian music festival to be cancelled - and it's a grim sign ...