The Descent of Man

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Charles Darwin (1809 – 82):
The [marked] variability of all the characteristic differences between the races [of man] indicates that these differences cannot be of much importance …
[For,] had they been important, they would long ago have been either:

• fixed and preserved, or
• eliminated.

In this respect man resembles those forms, called by naturalists protean or polymorphic, which have remained extremely variable, owing … to their variations being of an indifferent nature, and consequently to their having escaped the action of natural selection.
(On the Races of Man, The Descent of Man, 1871)


David Wilson (1949) [Evolutionary Biologist]:
Jewish history is not as simple as a displaced people struggling to survive amidst hostile neighbors.
Jewish groups survived and even prospered through specific activities and relationships with different elements of their host nations. …

A common pattern was for Jews to form an alliance with one gentile segment of the host nation, usually the ruling elite, to exploit another gentile segment, such as the peasantry.
Far from being anti-Semitic, the ruling elite would attempt to protect the Jews from the rest of the resentful host population. …

The non-Jew had no fear that the Jew would take a partisan stand in the struggle between the rulers and the ruled, who bore the economic yoke of the political privileges enjoyed by the rulers.
(J Katz, Tradition and crisis: Jewish society at the end of the middle ages, 1961)

The Jew’s outsider status was an advantage as far as the rulers were concerned.
(Darwin's Cathedral, 2002)

Steven Grosby

Professor of Religion, Clemson University

During the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, there were those who thought that the divisions of humanity were ‘given’ in the sense that they were an unavoidable consequence of racial differences.
For example, the French diplomat Arthur de Gobineau (1816 – 82) argued:

• that humanity was divided into different races; and …
• that these races determined the distinctiveness of the culture of one civilization from that of another.

[It] was Gobineau who developed … the view that the decline of a civilization was the inevitable result of the mixing of one race with another.
This view was subsequently extended by the anti-Semitic Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855 – 1927), who believed in the existence of a pure Aryan race.
The most hideous historical expression of these racialist views was the anti-Semitism of German Fascism, which asserted that the ‘blood’ of the Jews defiled the supposedly pure and superior Aryan race.
Such racialist views about the ‘natural’ divisions of humanity into permanent physical types have been shown to have no scientific basis whatsoever, as genetic variability may be greater within a race, than between races.
These views have, deservedly, been rejected today by all serious analysts.

(Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2005, p 99)


The Descent of Man

Radial Bleach

Goliath vs David

The Wolf of Woy Woy

From Reagan To Trump

The Pit of Despair

Gas Superprofits

Faith Based Medicine

RoboTheft: Ripping off the Poor

David Pocock

The Upward Surge of Mankind

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The point is … that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
Greed is right, greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, [for] knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.

— Oliver Stone (1946), Wall Street, 1987.

One Small Step

(Secrets of the Universe)

Jimmy Carter (1924):
We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization. …
We cast this message into the cosmos. …
This is a present from a small distant world …
We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. …
We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.
This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.
(The Golden Record, Voyager Spacecraft, 1977)

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857 – 1935):
Earth is the cradle of humanity.
But one cannot live in the cradle forever.
(1903)

Herbert Wells (1866 – 1946):
A day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.
(The Discovery of the Future, Nature, 65:326, 1902)

Georges Lemaître (1894 – 1966):
Standing on a cooled cinder, we see that slow fading of the suns, and we try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds.

Ralph Emerson (1803 – 82):
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!
(Nature, Chapter 1, 1836)


Mark Alfano [Associate Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University]:
[We] find that people who are open-minded, who score

• low on intellectual arrogance, and
• high on a disposition to criticize their own in-groups,

are simultaneously better at:

• rejecting unwarranted conspiracy theories, [eg about COVID, and]
• accepting true, or warranted, conspiracy theories, like that Osama Bin Laden plotted 9/11.

(Trust and scepticism in a post-truth world, ABC The Philosopher's Zone, 30 September 2022)

The Taiwan War

Measuring What Matters

Goofy was a communist

Capitalism vs Democracy

Innoculation

Grassroots Democracy

Theory of mind in birds

Surviving the police

Dress Code Violation

Ghost in the Machine

The Price of Civilization

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Greed is Good

Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006):
I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.
(Jordan Ellenberg, Less Like Sweden, How Not To Be Wrong, Part 1, Chapter 1, Penguin, 2014)


Foundation for Young Australians:
Over the past 15 years:

• incomes of the top 10% have grown [25% faster] than the bottom 90%.
• Incomes of the top 1% have grown [twice as fast as the bottom 90%, and]
• incomes of the top 0.1% have grown 2.8 times faster than the bottom 90%.]

(The New Work Order, 4 September 2015, pp 8 & 26)


Nicolas Herault & Francisco Azpitarte [Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research]:
[The] direct effect of tax-transfer policy reforms [in Australia] accounts for half of the observed increase in income inequality between 1999 and 2008 …
(Understanding changes in the distribution and redistribution of income: A unifying decomposition framework, Review of Income and Wealth, 12 December 2014)


George Megalogenis (1964):
This is the part of the Great Recession we did not avoid.
We had imported the AMERICAN DISEASE of budget-busting TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH.
(p 39)

Both sides of politics have fallen for the line that in order to maintain our record run of prosperity you have to squeeze:

• the employee,
• the student,
• the single parent,
• the consumer

— anyone, really who

• does not run a business, or
• own an investment property.

(p 27)

Business has convinced itself that globalisation means it owes no obligation to society other to generate profit.
(p 26)

[Indeed, business has, if anything,] become more presumptuous since [the 2008 global financial crisis:]

• Give us a cut in the company tax rate.
• Fund it with an increase in the GST.

There is NO economic logic here …
(Balancing Act: Australia Between Recession and Renewal, Quarterly Essay, Issue 61, February 2016, p 27)


Josh Frydenberg (1971):
I was thinking yesterday, as [Jim Chalmers (1978)] was coming into the chamber — fresh from his ashram deep in the Himalayas, barefoot, robes flowing, incense burning, beads in one hand, wellbeing budget in the other — what would the yoga position be that the member for Rankin would assume?
(Hansard, 27 February 2020)

Labor and @JEChalmers want to replace responsible economic management with a yoga mat, beads and a “wellbeing budget”.
(26 February 2020)

[A "well-being" budget is] laughable …
Labor hasn't delivered a surplus since 1989 so it should surprise no one they're going to look around for some other way to measure economic output.
('Laughable': Josh Frydenberg rules out adopting Jacinda Ardern-inspired 'wellbeing budget', SBS News, 20 February 2020)


Peter Martin (1958):
In an important way, Chalmers first "wellbeing budget" will have more rigour than any of the budgets prepared by Frydenberg or any of his predecessors. …
Introducing measurables wouldn't be about supplanting GDP, but about including it along with other measures of prosperity as outcomes against which the budget could be assessed, along with measures of health, the environment, gender, children's welfare, and the welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
It would let us see whether we are making progress or going backwards on the environment … living standards, inequality, health and other things, and what the budget is doing about it.
(Why Labor's first 'wellbeing' budget will have more rigour than any before it, The Conversation, 19 July 2022)

Things To Be Afraid Of

Hell on Earth

How Not To Be Human

The Working Homeless

Well-being budget

Inflation Panic

Alan Kohler (1952):
Some people might … have to sell the house because they can't afford to make the repayments.
And god help them if they have to go and rent, because there's just no rental properties available and rents have gone up far more than interest rates have gone up.
Rents in Adelaide and Brisbane are up 13% to 14% in 12 months … that's if you can get a place.
(ABC News Daily, 5 October 2022)

Tax cuts funded by welfare cuts

Conservatives love tax cuts

Blowing the budget on $9,000 bonuses for the rich

Broken Promises

No Taxes, No Services

How civlized you want to be?

Richard Denniss:
[Out] of the 38 OECD nations, [Australia has] got the 10th lowest tax in the developed world [— $115 billion dollars per year less than the OECD average.]
[Tax] is the price [you] pay for a civilized society …

(Jeffrey Smart (1921 – 2013), Labyrinth, 2011)

What Do You Care About?

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Created Equal

We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal …

— United States Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776.


ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL,
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

— George Orwell (1903 – 50), Animal Farm, 1945.

(Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard, Why We Hate, 2019)

January 6

Liz Cheney

Woman:
I don't think [Donald] was responsible for inciting violence or an insurrection.
I guarantee you, if it was an insurrection … the Capitol would've burned down. …
It wasn't a violent, intentional … like we saw all summer with the riots of 2020.
We're totally ignoring all of that and focusing on this one, this one incident. …

Woman 2:
My problem with January 6th is if you're going to go after … Trump and whoever was involved with that, you better go after the other side just as hard, because my city burned and nobody did anything. …

Man:
[Cheney's] done a lot of, a lot of great things, but she lost all of my trust … and all of my respect when she went after … former President Trump …
(Taking on Trump, ABC Foreign Correspondent, August 2022)

The Evolution of Tribalism

Peter Dutton

In God We Trust

Robert Menzies (1894 – 1978):
Human nature is at its greatest when it combines

• dependence upon God with
• independence of man.

(The Forgotten People, 22 May 1942)

John Calvin (1509 – 64):
Not only should we behave obediently toward those leaders who perform their office uprightly and faithfully as they ought, but also it is fitting to endure those who insolently abuse their power, until freed from their yoke by a lawful order.
For as a good prince is proof of DIVINE BENEFICENCE for the preservation of human welfare, so a bad and wicked ruler is His whip to chastise the peoples’ transgressions.

Morrison's Trump Card

One Man Government

Morrison's Defense

Autocracy vs Cabinet Government

John Tolkien (1892 – 1970):
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
(The Lord of the Rings, 1968)

Tax Cuts For The Rich, Spending Cuts For The Poor

[Our] administration favors the many instead of the few
This is why it is called a democracy

— Pericles (c495 – 29 BCE), Funeral Oration, Athens, 431 BCE.


[The] primary role of the state in classical Liberalism is to protect private property …

— Arthur Goldwag, Isms and Ologies, 2007, p 35.

Stan Grant (1963):
The average wealth of the top 20% in Australia is 90 times that of the lowest 20%.
That is an unsustainable situation that will lead to:

• the extremities,
• the tribal warfare,
• the ugliness,
• the populism

— that tears apart so many other democracies.
(Australia’s inequality crisis)


Matthew 25:29:
For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance;
but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
(RSV, 1946.)


Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004):
[Government] is not the solution …
Government is the problem.
(First Inaugural Address, 1981)


Margaret Thatcher (1925 – 2013):
There is no such thing as society.
There are [only] individual men and women, and there are families.


Richard Tawney (1880 – 1962):
Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows.
(Equality, 3rd Edition, 1938)


Isaiah Berlin (1909 – 97):
[Total] liberty for wolves is death to [lambs.]
[Total] liberty of the powerful [and] the gifted, is not compatible with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and less gifted. …
Equality may demand the restraint of the liberty of those who wish to dominate … in order

• to make room for social welfare,
• to feed the hungry,
• to clothe the naked,
• to shelter the homeless,
• to leave room for the liberty of others, [and]
• to allow justice or fairness to exercised.

(The Pursuit of the Ideal, The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas, 1990)


John Howard (1939):
… I would like to see an Australian nation that feels comfortable and relaxed about three things:

• I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about their history;
• I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about the present; and
• I'd also like to see them comfortable and relaxed about the future.

Conservatives love tax cuts

Tax cuts for the rich

Blowing up the economy

Tickle down economics

Who is the better economic manager?

What Do You Care About? Prisons or Schools?

If you care about the economy, defence, law and order, and preserving the traditional social order, vote conservative.
If you care about the economy, health, education, welfare, social justice, and the environment, vote progressive.


Progressive or Conservative? Public Goods or Private Gain?

If you prefer a society more like those of a Scandinavian country, vote progressive.
If you prefer a society more like the United States, vote conservative.


Pro-Rich Policies

• Stage 3 tax cuts for the rich.
• Funding of private schools.
• Generous superannuation tax breaks for high income earners.
• Trickle down economics (a rising tide lifts all boats).
• Privatization and deregulation.
• Attempt by the Abbott government to repeal the post-GFC financial advice (FOFA) legislation in 2016 (required advisors to act in the best interests of their CLIENTS); weakening of the post-GFC / banking royal commission responsible lending laws by the Morrison government in 2021.

Brodie Haupt:
The key changes [to the responsible] lending laws include:

• Removing responsible lending obligations from the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, with the exception of small amount credit contracts and consumer leases.
• Ensuring that authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) will continue to comply with Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA) lending standards requiring credit assessment and approval criteria.
• Protecting consumers from the predatory practices of debt management firms by requiring them to hold an Australian Credit License (ACL) when they are paid to represent consumers in disputes.
• Allowing lenders to rely on the information provided by borrowers, replacing the current practice of 'lender beware' with a 'borrower responsibility' principle.

(How we borrow money is about to change - here's what it means for you, Money Magazine, 22 January 2021)

Anti-Poor Policies

• Austerity (spending cuts for the poor).
• Defunding of public schools (axing of the bulk of the Gonski needs-based education funding).
• The unlawful RoboDebt scheme.
• Opposition to raising the minimum wage.
• Abolition of universal health care by Fraser government in 1981.
• Punishing the unemployed even though relatively high unemployment is deliberately engineered by government to keep wages down (and inflation low).

Anti-Human / Minority Rights Policies

• Attacks on Gillian Triggs, the Human Rights Commission, and the Racial Discrimination Act.
• Attempts to override state discimination protections with a federal religious anti-discrimination act.
• Federal funding for the Safe Schools LGBTIQ anti-bullying program ceased by the Abbott government in 2016.
• Outlawing of gay marriage by the Howard Government in 2004.
• Hardline refugee policy (repealing the medivac bill, attempted deportation of the Biloela family).

Resistance to Accountable and Transparent Government

• Opposition to an effective federal integrity commission
• Hostility to public broadcasting (defunding / privitazation of the ABC, stacking the ABC board with arch-conservatives).
• Hollowing out and intimidation of the public service in favor of private consultancies.
• Stacking public bodies, such as the AAT and the Human Rights Commission, with conservative political appointees, many with no legal training.

Anti-Environment Policies

• Repeal of the carbon price by the Abbott government in 2014.
• Pro-fossil fuel / anti-clean energy policies.

Peter Dutton (1970):
What the Liberal Party stands accused of is, not continuation of [the] climate wars, it's the ability to POORLY MARKET what we've achieved …
I'm sure climate was an element for some people, particularly in inner city seats, but in many other seats, there were other issues that were at play.
The thought that we lost the election because of one issue … just doesn't make any sense.
(Defining Dutton: Can the Liberals succeed under Peter Dutton?, ABC Four Corners, September 2022)

Barbara Norman [Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Canberra]:
So what's happened since [2013?]
The defunding of the of National Adaptation Centre.
The abolition of the Climate Commission.
The defunding of adaptation research in CSIRO, … the Bureau of Meteorology, and universities …
[The] systematic dismantling of many programs to assist local and regional communities to adapt to a changing climate.
(What's the future without planning?, ABC Ockham's Razor, 29 May 2022)

Pro-Defence / Anti-Foreign Aid Policies

• Plan to buy $170 billion nuclear powered submarines instead of $30 billion conventional submarines.
• Abolishing of AusAID by the Abbott government in 2014; falling overseas development assistance.

Anti-Science Policies

• Declining funding for scientific research and public universities.
• Climate science denial.

The Second Coming of Matthew Guy (1974)

Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition and the Liberal Party of Victoria

… I believe the acceptance as the norm of high TAXation, both commercial and personal, must end. …
A simple, basic rule for every Victorian government should be that it makes every effort not to TAX the community more than is necessary to run the affairs of the state — that is the Liberal Way.
The Liberal philosophy is and always has been about reducing the TAXation burden …
Victoria will not maintain a competitive position if … we continue to trundle along as a cool-climate, highly TAXed, and over-regulated economy. …
… Victoria should be aiming to be the lowest TAXing state in Australia … as a key weapon in maintaining an economic edge over … other economies in the Asia-Pacific region. …
If we were to provide future generations with just one tool for long-term social and economic success, it would be … keeping Victoria the lowest TAXing state in Australia …
The Liberal Party stands as a beacon of hope to all those Victorians who know that we will not succeed by being a high-TAXing, overregulated, cool-climate economy near the bottom of the world …

… I want to state loudly and proudly to this chamber that I am a Christian. …
[What] has concerned me over a number of years is the growing acceptance of ridicule and denigration of the Christian church in … the entertainment industry, the media and even … within government. …
I am dumbfounded that some contemporary movies … questioning the authenticity of the Bible can be painted off as reasoned fact. …
As we approach Christmas … I hope the teaching to our young of THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS is never lost or banned by overzealous, POLITICALLY CORRECT politicians or bureaucrats.
I for one will be most vocal against any moves to lessen the significance of the church within our society. …

Ever since I was a boy I have loved state politics and had a deep desire to participate in it as a state parliamentarian. …
I am proud to say that my first full-time job in politics was with former Premier Jeff Kennett.
He and his government worked exceptionally hard to restore the confidence of a beaten and comatose economy.
(Maiden Speech, Legislative Council, Victorian Parliament, 19 December 2006, pp 36‒9)

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Peter Dutton (1970)

The fight for a better place in which to live is today made even more difficult for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that … the POLITICALLY CORRECT seem to have a disproportionate say in public debate today.
The silent majority, the forgotten people … are fed up with bodies like

• the Civil Liberties Council, …
• the Refugee Action Collective, and …
• the DICTATORSHIP of the trade union movement. …

[We must] not be deterred by those who would seek to drive their own hidden agendas.
It is my aim to use my experience both in small business and in law enforcement to provide … a more practical view on some of the issues and problems experienced in these areas.
[I am] proud to be part of a government … determined to ensure a balanced workplace, not only for employees but also for EMPLOYERS. …

In society today we are experiencing unacceptable crime rates, causing older Australians to barricade themselves in their homes, all in the name of safety. …
[It is] obvious that … the courts are not representing the views … of the broader community.
Time after time we see grossly inadequate sentences being delivered to criminals whose civil rights have far exceeded those of the victim and others in our society. …
Australians are fed up with the Civil Liberties Council … who appear obsessed with the rights of criminals yet do not utter a word of understanding or compassion for the victims of crime.
Their motives are questionable and their hypocrisy breathtaking. …

[As] a police officer … I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who, frankly, barely justify their EXISTENCE in our sometimes OVER TOLERANT society. …
We are seeing an alarming number of households where up to three generations—in many cases by choice—have never worked in their lives, and a society where in many cases rights are demanded but no responsibility taken.

(Maiden Speech, House of Representatives, Australian Parliament, 13 February 2002)

Public Decency

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Hanged, drawn and quartered:
To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 …
The convicted traitor was …

• hanged (almost to the point of death),
• emasculated,
• disembowelled,
• beheaded, and
• quartered (chopped into four pieces).

His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors.
For reasons of PUBLIC DECENCY, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
(Wikipedia, 19 July 2022, emphasis added)


John Barilaro (1971) {18th Deputy Premier of NSW, 2016– 21]:
[Barilaro's] attempt at a post-political career as the New South Wales trade commissioner to the United States resulted in a political scandal … after a series of embarrassing disclosures over [his] creation of the highly paid role prior to his departure from Parliament, and the role of NSW Government ministers and public servants in the process.
That process saw the originally successful applicant fired from her public service job. …
He ultimately won the job and had his position confirmed but the scandal erupted in the middle of 2022 and he quit prior to moving to New York.
The issue was referred to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, and minister Stuart Ayres resigned from his cabinet role over the matter.
(Wikipedia, 8 August 2022)


Vitamin D:
Vitamin D3 [cholecalciferol] supplementation has been tentatively found to lead to a reduced risk of death in the elderly, but the effect has not been deemed pronounced, or certain enough, to make taking supplements recommendable. …
High blood levels appear to be associated with a lower risk of death, but it is unclear if supplementation can result in this benefit.
Both an excess and a deficiency in vitamin D appear to cause abnormal functioning and premature aging.
The relationship between serum calcifediol concentrations and all-cause mortality is "U-shaped": mortality is elevated at high and low calcifediol levels, relative to moderate levels.
(Wikipedia, 9 August 2022)


Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001):
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that something so mind-bogglingly useful [as the Babel fish] could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this:

'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing.'

'But, says Man, the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it?
It could not have evolved by chance.
It proves you exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'

'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and vanishes in a puff of logic.

(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979)

Simon Chapman

Green Army: Persons of Interest

I am a cigarette with a life attached.

— Raymond Carver (1938 – 88)

Simon Chapman (1951)

Smoking kills 19,000 Australians a year, more than 4,000 before retirement age, more than those who die from breast, cervical and skin cancer, AIDS, suicide, alcohol and road crashes combined.
(p 192)

Globally, an estimated 4 million people die each year from tobacco-related illness, compared to 2.7 million from malaria and 2.8 million from AIDS.
After malnutrition (5.9 million in 1990) and violence and injury (5.8 million), tobacco claims more deaths than any other single cause.

(Smoke Signals, 2016, p 141)


Simon Chapman [Director of Research, School of Public Health, University of Sydney]:
[According to] internal tobacco industry documents [the price of cigarettes] is the single greatest determinant of smoking in the community. …

[They also] show that the main purpose of [cigarette additives] is to make smoking more palatable for young people.
[A] lot of work has gone [into reducing] 'throat grab' [‒ that initial coughing you get when you first start smoking.]
[Menthol] acts as a sort of a gentle local anaesthetic in the throat, which makes [smoking] easier, particularly for young women, who tend to favour menthol cigarettes …

Robert Proctor:
[Smoking] is not like drinking …
[It's] like being an alcoholic.
Only about three per cent of people who drink are addicted, whereas 80 to 90 per cent of people who smoke are addicted. …
[Smoking] is not a recreational drug …

[The] cigarette pack itself [is] the last bastion of advertising.
The cigarette pack [is] like a micro-ad …
[Cigarettes are an undifferentiated product, they're] basically all … the same.
[From a marketing viewpoint, the packaging is the] product. …

Simon Chapman (1951):
[If you] open any tobacco industry trade magazine [there is] page after page of advertisements from packaging companies, talking about how packaging is front and centre of branding …
[The package] is the centre of the advertising effort.

There's been a lot of experimental evidence by people showing young people different versions of packs and asking them which ones that they would prefer.
[They] always say that they don't like the plain-packaged ones, they want the nice looking packs …
[It's] a no-brainer.
[The] next generation of kids will grow up never having seen a packet of carcinogenic products packaged in a beautiful box.

(Plain packaging of cigarettes, ABC Rear Vision, 19 October 2011)

Would you like to know more?

E-cigarettes

Banks E, Yazidjoglou A, Brown S, Nguyen M, Martin M, Beckwith K, Daluwatta A, Campbell S & Joshy G

Among non-smokers, there is currently strong evidence that use of e-cigarettes is harmful to health overall, with multiple health harms and no health benefits identified in this population. …
There is no available evidence as to how e-cigarette use affects clinical mental-health outcomes. …
There is strong evidence that e-cigarettes increase combustible smoking uptake in non-smokers, particularly youth …

Use of e-cigarettes results in inhalation of a complex array of chemicals originating from:

• the e-liquid,
• chemical reactions in the heating coil and the device itself.

These include:

• nicotine,
• solvent carriers (propyleneglycol, ethylene glycol and glycerol),
• tobacco-specific nitrosamines,
• volatile organic compounds,
• phenolic compounds,
• flavourings,
• tobacco alkaloids,
• aldehydes,
• free radicals,
• reactive oxygen species,
• furans, and
• metals.

Toxicological studies indicate that exposure to these substances can result in adverse health effects. Nicotine is highly addictive and there is evidence from basic human and animal studies that it adversely affects:

• cardiovascular measures, and
• brain development and functioning. …

Nicotine e-cigarettes are highly addictive, underpinning increasing and widespread use among children and adolescents in many settings. …

There is conclusive evidence that:

• e-cigarettes and their constituents cause poisoning, injuries and burns and immediate toxicity through inhalation, including seizures …
• their use leads to addiction, and that
• they cause less serious adverse events, such as throat irritation and nausea.

There is conclusive evidence that the use of e-cigarettes can cause [EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury)] among smokers and non-smokers … with

• half of cases related to THC in conjunction with vitamin E acetate, and
• 14% in patients reporting the use of nicotine-delivering products only …

(Executive Summary, Electronic cigarettes and health outcomes: systematic review of global evidence, Report for the Australian Department of Health, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Canberra, April 2022, pp viii‒xiv, emphasis added)

Wind Turbines

There is currently no published scientific evidence to positively link wind turbines with adverse health effects. …
The evidence on shadow flicker does not support a health concern. …
[Wind] turbines of contemporary design … produce very low levels of infrasound. …
The risk of blade glint from modern wind turbines is … very low.
[The] closeness of the electrical cables counters the electromagnetic field [generated by wind turbines], as does shielding with metal armour. …
[Evidence is limited, therefore] it is recommended that relevant authorities take a precautionary approach and continue to monitor research outcomes.

(NHMRC Public Statement, July 2010)

Table 3 (Adapted): Typical A-weighted sound levels for different sources
Activity	Sound pressure level (dBA)
Busy general office	60
Car travelling at 64km/h at 100m	55
Typical wind farm (at moderate wind speed 7 m/s)*	40 ± 5
Background noise in rural area at night	30 ± 10
*Based on sound level measurements taken from multiple resident locations near two Victorian wind farms, at distances 500–1,000 m from the nearest turbine.

(p 8)