Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Health Coalition Aotearoa

Health Coalition Aotearoa now formally recognises gambling as its fourth commercial determinant of harm, alongside tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food.

Health Coalition Aotearoa, an advocacy organisation for public health, made the decision at its Annual General Meeting on 14 September.

It will partner with the Problem Gambling Foundation to build the evidence base for better regulating the industry. See Annual Report 2026.

According to the Ministry of Health's latest Economic and Social Costing of Gambling in Aotearoa New Zealand 2023/24 report, gambling harm costs New Zealand an estimated $4.2 billion annually, through impacts including poorer physical and mental health, financial hardship, damaged relationships and wider costs to whānau and society.

That harm falls hardest on Māori and Pacific whānau, and increasingly on Asian communities, keeping families locked in poverty and widening inequalities that prevention work elsewhere is trying to close.

Meanwhile, new regulation paves the way for 15 new online casino licences that could operate in Aotearoa.

The Problem Gambling Foundation says kids are already talking about bets at school and young people, who are trying to quit, report receiving phone calls from operators encouraging them back in.

“Gambling harm keeps whānau in poverty, widens inequality, and increasingly reaches our young people through products designed to sit in their pockets,” says Jason Alexander interim co-chair Health Coalition Aotearoa.

“Across the Tasman, Australia is moving to tighten gambling advertising and reduce its presence around sport. Here, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction – opening the door wider to the gambling industry when we should be reducing its reach and the harm it causes.”

Health Coalition Aotearoa and the Problem Gambling Foundation are calling on government to properly regulate gambling advertising and licensing before this expansion goes further and are jointly building the evidence to make that case impossible to ignore.

Source: Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

GP registrars will test AI-supported simulated consultations in a new pilot designed to give them more opportunities to practise safely, receive timely feedback and build confidence.

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) is partnering with Gestalt to trial the New Zealand-developed tool with a targeted group of registrars, including a cohort of International Medical Graduates.

College Chief Executive Toby Beaglehole says the pilot will test where AI adds genuine value to specialist general practice training, while keeping educators, clinical judgement and human connection at its core.

“AI could give registrars more opportunities to practise and learn. We need evidence that it works in the real training environment, and that it supports the standards and relationships at the heart of general practice,” Mr Beaglehole says.

“This pilot will show us where the technology helps, where it does not, and what safe, useful adoption looks like.”

Registrars will complete simulated consultations on Gestalt’s platform and receive individualised feedback, creating additional opportunities for independent practice between facilitated sessions.

Gestalt Co-Founder, Chief Executive and College Fellow Dr Alastair Dunne says the platform is designed to extend the learning already provided by medical educators.

“Practice, feedback and reflection are critical to developing clinical skills,” Dr Dunne says. “This partnership will test how AI can give learners more of those opportunities alongside established education programmes.”

The College will assess registrar engagement, user experience and educator feedback before deciding whether AI-supported learning should have a wider role in its training programmes.

About the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is the professional body and postgraduate training organisation for specialist general practitioners and rural hospital doctors in Aotearoa New Zealand. The College works to support a skilled, sustainable and equitable primary care workforce for the benefit of patients, whānau and communities.

About Gestalt

Gestalt is a New Zealand-built clinical reasoning practice platform that helps medical learners rehearse consultations with simulated patients, work through differential diagnoses, and receive structured feedback grounded in clinical sources. Designed as a supplementary learning tool for medical schools and training providers, Gestalt aims to give learners more safe, repeatable opportunities to practise clinical reasoning between supervised teaching sessions and clinical placements.

Source: University of Auckland (UoA)

Wednesday 16 September 2026

New research from the University of Auckland has overturned international understandings about a brain disease that typically affects men of Filipino descent.

Lead author of a recently published paper Dr Adelie Tan and senior author Dr Malvindar Singh-Bains spent four years carrying out the largest-ever study of brain tissue from people with X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism (XDP).

The scientists from the University of Auckland Centre for Brain Research examined donated brain tissue from 18 men who died with the disease and 10 healthy people.

XDP is a severe movement disorder caused by a mutation of the TAF1 gene.

It typically affects men of Filipino descent, often striking when they are in their twenties or thirties, says Singh-Bains.

XDP symptoms are a mixture of parkinsonian symptoms and dystonia. The parkinsonian symptoms include tremors, unusually slow movement, rigidity, inability to hold the body upright, and a shuffling gait that can lead to frequent falls.

In many patients, the more concerning symptoms are dystonia, characterised by involuntary muscle spasms that often begin in the eyes, jaw, or neck, before spreading to other parts of the body.

The degenerative brain disease can cause difficulty with speaking, swallowing and coordination, and leaves many unable to walk.

The study is groundbreaking in providing the first clear evidence of a ‘signature’ of XDP in the brain, offering insights that will be vital for developing treatments in the future, says Singh-Bains.

Traditionally, XDP was thought to be largely driven by degeneration of the striosomes, which are clusters of neurons in a brain region called the striatum. Striosomes govern the interface between emotions and physical actions.

The Auckland team discovered the disease affects the matrix of the striatum far more than was previously thought.

The matrix makes up more than 80 percent of the striatum. It surrounds an anthill-like maze of tunnels containing striosomes.

“The matrix regulates movement, so our findings make sense of the movement symptoms of XDP,” says Singh-Bains.

The team also discovered distinct brain-chemical patterns in people who died at a young age from the disease, compared with those who had XDP for decades before their death.

“This is the first study that gives a detailed view of what happens as patients live longer with the disease – no one else in the world has done that.

“Different treatments might be needed at the start of the disease than in the late stages.”

While XDP is a unique disease, aspects resemble Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and motor neuron diseases, says Singh-Bains.

“That means research on XDP helps shine a light on all these disorders.”

The discovery of a clear signature in the XDP brain will aid scientists trying to replicate the disease in lab-grown brain cells and animal models.

The Auckland team’s ultimate goal is to establish a foundation of anatomical knowledge that might one day help scientists develop drugs that can relieve the symptoms of XDP, prevent its onset, or delay its impacts, says Singh-Bains.

Existing treatments have limited success for some patients, but don’t help others, she says.

About eight years ago, Singh-Bains, Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, and Associate Professor Henry Waldvogel from the Centre for Brain Research and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital helped set up the XDP Brain Bank in the Philippines, which provided tissue for the study. The Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank at the University of Auckland provided healthy brain tissue for comparison.

While sharing her knowledge in the Philippines, Singh-Bains witnessed the devastating impacts of XDP.

The island of Panay in the Philippines has a population of approximately 4.5 million and about six out of every 100,000 people there suffer from XDP.

Mothers who carry the gene that causes the disease have no symptoms, but many carry a burden of blame and guilt for passing the gene to their sons, she says.

The livelihoods of many families are shattered when young men are struck down by XDP and can no longer work and provide for their partners, children and older generations, says Singh-Bains.

“My main motivation is the families who have to watch their loved one’s health decline and can’t do anything about it.

“I went through a similar journey when my mum was diagnosed with cancer and I was helpless to stop it.

“The people struggling with XDP look to us for answers and we want to be able to give them some,” she says.

Source: New Zealand Superannuation Fund

16 September 2026

Continued outperformance by global equity markets helped boost the value of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (the Fund) to $94.4 billion at the end of the 2026 financial year, $9.3 billion up on where it finished a year earlier.

Jo Townsend, CEO of fund manager the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation (the Guardians), said the result was a satisfying one and followed strong performances by the Fund in the previous two years.

Fund returns of 14.17 percent (after costs and before NZ tax) for the 12 months to 30 June 2026 were well ahead of the 2.71 percent return on 90-Day Treasury bills for the same period but lagged the Reference Portfolio benchmark by 0.1 percentage points.

The Reference Portfolio is a notional, passively-managed portfolio of global equities and bonds that is used to determine the amount of value added by the Guardians’ active investment strategies. Eighty percent of the Reference Portfolio is in global equities, while the Fund contains a much broader range of assets.

Ms Townsend said the Fund’s portfolio, which spans timber, real estate and private market investments as well as listed companies, had performed exceptionally well in delivering such a strong result in the current market.

“In the short term, a concentrated portfolio can achieve strong results; however, over the long-term, we firmly believe a more diversified portfolio is better suited to our mandate.”

Ms Townsend said the Fund’s returns over the past 20 years clearly demonstrated that, generating $22 billion over and above the passive benchmark.

“To put it another way, during that period the Fund has achieved an annual average return of 9.68 percent, as opposed to the Reference Portfolio's annual average return of 8.19 percent,” Ms Townsend said.

Earlier this year, the Guardians announced it had lowered the Fund’s long-term expected annual return from 7.8 percent to 7.2 percent.

Ms Townsend said that decision reflected the Guardians’ view that returns on equities were likely to decrease in the future and a reduction in the Fund’s active risk budget.

“Returns for US equities over the past couple of years are close to double annualised returns for the past 20 years, so we would expect there to be some reversion to the mean at some point,” she said.

Ms Townsend said lowering the expected return did not affect the Fund’s benchmarks.

“We will continue to be judged according to whether we deliver more value for taxpayers than would be generated by the Government using the Fund’s assets to pay down debt, and whether our long-term returns outperform a passive strategy with an equivalent risk appetite.”

The forecast value of the Fund is one of several inputs used by Treasury to calculate the amount the government is required to contribute to the Fund and when withdrawals can begin.

Ahead of this year’s budget, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said updated population projections and new inflation forecasts, along with the slower expected growth rate for the Fund, meant withdrawals were now forecast to commence in 2054.

Ms Townsend said the Fund was already making a positive contribution to the Crown’s balance sheet.

“Over the past year, we were again New Zealand’s largest taxpayer. Treasury forecasts that for the next five years our tax payments will exceed the Government’s required capital contribution by more than $1 billion a year, with the difference expected to top $2 billion in 10 years’ time.”

FY26 RESULTS – ALL NUMBERS PROVISIONAL AND UNAUDITED

Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand

New Zealand has today welcomed home the final contingent of personnel deployed to North America to assist with wildfire response efforts.

Since July, Fire and Emergency New Zealand has led three contingents of firefighters and incident management specialists to the United States and Canada. The “Bravo deployment” who returned today was the largest of the three, comprising 57 people who worked on several large fires, mostly in Washington State.

In all, 68 Kiwis have been deployed in the last eight weeks as part of joint Australia-New Zealand contingents under our long-standing mutual assistance arrangements with the USA and Canada.

The NZ Defence Force, Department of Conservation and the forestry industry have all contributed personnel alongside Fire and Emergency’s own volunteers and paid staff.

Fire and Emergency National Commander Megan Stiffler says that sending our people overseas to help in time of need is more than just being a good global citizen. “The experience that they have gained in complex, large scale firefighting and incident management will be of huge benefit to our own capability.”

Fire and Emergency is preparing for a heightened risk of wildfire over the coming months, due to the Super El Niño predicted to affect the southern hemisphere.

“We are readying ourselves for the likelihood of challenging operating conditions across New Zealand,” Megan Stiffler says. “This is likely to include elevated wildfire risk, periods of severe weather, prolonged dry conditions in many areas, and increased potential for significant incidents requiring sustained operational response.”

Source: ChildFund New Zealand

New research has found that 78% of water samples tested from public and community water sources, including schools, were classified as unsafe or high risk on the outer island of Tamana in Kiribati.

ChildFund New Zealand’s research also found that half of surveyed households reported at least one household member experiencing a waterborne illness during the previous six months.

ChildFund New Zealand CEO Josie Pagani says the findings are a stark reminder of how precarious safe water access remains for families on remote Pacific islands.

“It's a failure of infrastructure, rather than a shortage of water. The good news is that it's fixable,” says Josie Pagani.

The assessment was conducted in collaboration with ChildFund Kiribati, UNICEF, Kiribati government agencies and the Tamana Outer Island Council.

The household survey represents approximately 30% of all households on Tamana.

Of the samples taken from public wells and rainwater tanks:

• 52% were classified as unsafe
• A further 26% were classified as high risk or possibly unsafe
• Only 22% were classified as safe
• Only 24% of households said they always had enough water for drinking, cooking, washing, and sanitation

Much of the infrastructure needed to capture and store rainwater requires repair.

“We don’t always have to create new projects. We can fix what’s already there, especially in schools where children are drinking water that is unsafe.”

The findings come as El Niño strengthens rapidly across the tropical Pacific. Tamana’s water security is vulnerable to both prolonged dry periods and extreme weather. Groundwater can become more saline during prolonged dry conditions and can also be contaminated following storms, flooding and seawater intrusion.

ChildFund Kiribati has identified priority rehabilitation needs and is working to determine options for future repairs and investment, alongside improved access to spare parts and technical support, continued water-quality monitoring and practical education about water treatment and handwashing.

“The encouraging part is that most of these problems have practical solution. A repaired gutter, a working tap, or access to the right spare part can be the difference between a family drinking safe water or not,” says Josie Pagani.

Source: Alliance Party

Alliance Party immigration spokesperson Hon. Matt Robson says Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and leader of the New Zealand First party seems determined to prove Samuel Johnson’s dictum that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.

Matt Robson says New Zealand First’s recent attacks on migrants are cynical electioneering that wraps the anti-democratic politics of bigotry in the flag.

“It is an old and ugly trick for politicians to seek votes through migrant-bashing policies.

“Mr Peters is introducing Trumpian, MAGA-style politics into the election campaign as he tries to distance himself from his role in the failed policies of the coalition government.

“Equal legal rights are a New Zealand value. Policies that strip fundamental appeal rights from migrants and refugees do not uphold that principle.”

Matt Robson says it is not a New Zealand value to deny citizenship to children of New Zealand residents.

“What comes next for New Zealand First – identity badges for migrants and refugees to be worn at all times?

“Why should taxpaying permanent residents have to wait ten years before being able to apply for citizenship? What evidence is there that this group of New Zealand residents is somehow disloyal?”

Matt Robson says former Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage was a permanent resident without New Zealand citizenship.

“Was he disloyal to New Zealand?

“These MAGA-inspired, anti-migrant rants are the product of divisive and cruel politics that should be swept out of Parliament at the coming election.”

Matt Robson says the Alliance will campaign for positive not divisive immigration policies.

Note – About Hon. Matt Robson

Mr Robson is a former MP for the Alliance and Progressive parties, and was a Cabinet minister in the 1999–2002 Labour–Alliance coalition government. He is co-producer of the recent documentary Last Man Standing, on the life and times of Jim Anderton. Matt works as an immigration lawyer in Auckland and is actively supporting the relaunched Alliance Party.

Source: Propstore

Guitars from & used by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Radiohead, Elvis Presley, Mötley Crüe and Pink Floyd feature among the highlights of Propstore’s Music Live Auction

Propstore, one of the world’s leading entertainment memorabilia auction houses, has announced a standout collection of guitars set to feature in its upcoming Music Live Auction, taking place in the UK across two live days on October 1 & 2, 2026. The collection brings together rare, stage-played, studio-used and autographed guitars connected to some of the biggest names in music, including Noel Gallagher, Elvis Presley, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx and Pink Floyd.

The guitars form part of an auction featuring over 800 lots of rare and sought-after music memorabilia, with a combined estimated value of approximately £3 million and bidding available to collectors worldwide.

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Leading the guitar highlights is Noel Gallagher’s photo-matched custom Nash Telemaster, owned and stage-played during Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ 2016 summer tour, and estimated at £40,000 – £80,000. Custom-built for Gallagher by Nash Guitars, the instrument was played at shows across Europe before Gallagher donated it to a 2021 charity auction benefiting The Edge’s Music Rising charity. The guitar was subsequently autographed by Gallagher.

Also offered is Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s photo-matched 1963 Gretsch Tennessean, used during the band’s 2006 US tour and the recording of In Rainbows, estimated at £15,000 – £30,000. The guitar appears in photographs from the album’s recording sessions and was acquired from Greenwood’s collection via one of Radiohead’s guitar technicians.

An exceptionally rare prototype Gibson Montana Elvis Presley SJ-200 acoustic guitar, one of only two produced, is estimated at £15,000 – £30,000. Developed as a proposed third commemorative Elvis Presley model, the project was abandoned after just two prototypes were made, with the other understood to have remained in Gibson’s possession.

Further highlights include Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx’s photo-matched, stage-used Schecter J-4 bass guitar, played at Wembley Stadium in 2023 and autographed and inscribed by Sixx, estimated at £6,000 – £12,000; and a custom Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon artwork Fender Stratocaster, autographed by David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, estimated at £5,000 – £10,000.

The auction will take place live over two days on October 1 & 2, 2026, with bidding available online, by telephone, and via absentee bids for collectors worldwide.

Propstore will also be hosting a special public free exhibition at The Cumberland Hotel, London from September 24 – 27, 2026, where fans and collectors will have the chance to see highlight lots up close, before they go under the hammer. Find out more about the event.

Auction registration is open, and the full catalog is available at: Propstore Music Live Auction catalog.

Top items to be sold at the Propstore auction (with pre-sale estimates) include:

1. NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS (2016) Noel Gallagher’s Photo-Matched, Owned and Autographed Custom Nash Telemaster Guitar, Stage-Played During Summer 2016 Tour est. £40,000 – £80,000 ($52,800 – $105,600)
2. ELVIS PRESLEY Prototype “Elvis Presley” Gibson Montana SJ-200 Acoustic Guitar, One of Two Made est. £15,000 – £30,000 ($19,800 – $39,600)
3. RADIOHEAD Jonny Greenwood’s Photo-Matched Gretsch 6119 Atkins Tennessean Guitar, Used During 2006 US Tour Soundcheck and Recording of In Rainbows est. £15,000 – £30,000 ($19,800 – $39,600)
4. MÖTLEY CRÜE Nikki Sixx’s Photo-Matched, Autographed and Inscribed Stage-Used Schecter J-4 Bass Guitar est. £6,000 – £12,000 ($7,920 – $15,840)
5. PINK FLOYD David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason-Autographed Custom Fender Stratocaster The Dark Side of the Moon Artwork Guitar est. £5,000 – £10,000 ($6,600 – $13,200)

Mark Hochman, Propstore’s Music Specialist, commented on the upcoming event: “Guitars have an incredible ability to connect fans directly with the artists and music they love, and this selection brings together some really special examples. From Noel Gallagher’s stage-played Telemaster and Jonny Greenwood’s guitar used during the making of In Rainbows, to the remarkable Elvis prototype and instruments connected to Mötley Crüe and Pink Floyd, each has its own story and significance. It’s a real privilege to bring them to fans around the globe as we offer them at Propstore as part of this October’s Music Live Auction.”

About Propstore

Founded in 1998 by film enthusiast Stephen Lane, Propstore has grown from a collector’s passion project into one of the world’s foremost authorities on entertainment memorabilia. The company bridges the worlds of film, art, and collecting—offering access to authentic screen-used props, costumes, and production artefacts that bring cinematic history to life.

Working in close partnership with many of the world’s leading film studios, production companies, and entertainment brands, Propstore curates exclusive auctions and sales throughout the year, giving fans and collectors unparalleled access to items direct from the source.

Since 2014, Propstore has hosted globally acclaimed live auctions featuring artefacts from the greatest moments in film and television. Alongside its flagship events, Propstore also runs regular online auctions and studio collaborations, with more than 2,000 items available for immediate purchase at www.propstore.com.

Source: BestBrokers.com

As governments navigate trade disputes, shifting alliances, and an increasingly fragmented global economy, the size of a country’s economy is only part of the story. While the United States and China continue to dominate the global economy, a very different picture emerges when you look at GDP per capita. To provide more details, I am reaching out with a recent comparison of the countries projected to have the highest economic output per person in 2026, revealing a ranking led by Ireland, Switzerland, and Singapore.

To identify the countries with the highest GDP per capita this year, the team at BestBrokers analysed IMF data covering 2026 GDP per capita at current prices in U.S. dollars. We ranked countries by projected economic output per resident and compared results across major economies, European countries, and smaller, high-income markets. You can access all data used for these calculations on Google Drive via this link.

The analysis shows that Ireland is projected to have the world’s highest GDP per capita in 2026, at $140,186, followed by Switzerland at $126,177, and Singapore at $107,758. Norway and the United States complete the top five, with GDP per capita of $105,877 and $94,430, respectively. However, GDP per capita does not necessarily reflect the average income of residents, as multinational company activity, corporate profits and differences in taxation can significantly influence national output.

Europe dominates the upper end of the ranking, with Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria also featuring among the world’s highest-income economies by this measure.

These Are the Countries with the Highest GDP per Capita in 2026:

• Ireland: $140,186 per person
• Switzerland: $126,177 per person
• Singapore: $107,758 per person
• Norway: $105,877 per person
• United States: $94,430 per person
• Denmark: $83,445 per person
• Netherlands: $79,918 per person
• Australia: $75,648 per person
• Sweden: $70,676 per person
• Israel: $69,804 per person

Key highlights from the report:

• Ireland has the highest GDP per capita in the world this year, with projected economic output of $140,186 per person in 2026. The country stands well ahead of Switzerland, which ranks second at $126,177, while Singapore takes third place at $107,758.
• Europe dominates the world’s highest GDP per capita rankings, with Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden all featuring in the top 10. Germany ranks 13th globally with $65,303 per person, while the UK and France produce $61,056 and $52,083 in GDP per person, respectively.
• The United States remains the world’s largest economy by total output in 2026, but ranks fifth in GDP per capita at $94,430. This illustrates the difference between economic size and output per resident: a country can lead the world in total GDP without having the highest GDP per capita.
• Several smaller economies outperform much larger countries on a per-person basis. Singapore, Norway, and Ireland all rank above the United States in GDP per capita, despite having substantially smaller populations. Meanwhile, Qatar records $68,138 per person, and the United Arab Emirates reaches $54,214, demonstrating the strong position of several resource-rich and globally connected economies.
• Eastern Europe continues to trail the wealthiest European economies, but there are notable differences across the region. Slovenia ranks highest among the listed Eastern European countries at $40,630 per person, followed by Czechia at $39,795. Poland records $31,336, while Romania and Bulgaria reach $25,693 and $23,848, respectively. These figures underline the substantial differences in economic output per resident across Europe.

‘GDP per capita offers an interesting snapshot of where economic output is concentrated, but it should not be mistaken for a direct measure of household prosperity. Ireland’s position at the top of the ranking, for example, needs to be understood in the context of its multinational-heavy economy. The same applies to resource-rich countries, where energy revenues can lift national output without necessarily translating into higher disposable incomes for everyone.

What the ranking does show clearly is that economic strength is not confined to the world’s largest countries – several smaller economies continue to generate exceptionally high output per resident. Ultimately, GDP per capita is most useful when viewed alongside household incomes, purchasing power and the wider distribution of wealth.’

– comments Alan Goldberg, data analyst and author at BestBrokers.

GDP per capita should not be confused with personal wealth or disposable income. The measure divides a country's total economic output by its population and can be influenced by multinational businesses, exchange rates, commodity revenues and population size. It remains a useful way to compare economic output per resident, but it does not tell the whole story about how comfortably people live or how wealth is distributed.

More details about the countries with the highest GDP per capita in 2026, along with the full methodology behind these findings, can be found in the full report. All data gathered and used for the analysis is available on Google Drive via this link.

Source: Flinders University

16 September 2026

In today’s urbanised and highly engineered world, good mental health and wellbeing are in big demand.

With an aim to promote better crops and health from the ground up, a group of scientists from the Grounded Minds Consortium at Flinders University and Deakin University will present a series of free online webinars this month to mark ‘Soil Yourself September.’

The series aims to raise awareness of the importance of soil for food systems, biodiversity and climate resilience. Its role in human health and the emerging soil-food-gut-mental health connection will also be highlighted.

Starting this week, the Soil Yourself September 2026 series brings together scientists, practitioners and educators to showcase the wonders of soils for the health of people and planet.

You can book tickets to join the online sessions at at the links below:

• Thursday 17 September @ 6pm – Flinders University’s Alex Taylor: ‘The sounds of the underground – soil ecoacoustics’ and @ 7pm Flinders University researcher Dr Craig Liddicoat: ‘Restoring soil microbiomes to restore human health’
• Friday 18 September @ 6pm – Deakin University researcher Emma Todd: ‘An introduction to the gut microbiome and its relationship to mental health’
• Monday 21 September @ 6pm – Flinders University’s Dr Riley Hodgson: ‘Ecosystem restoration from the ground up’ and @ 7 pm – Flinders University PhD candidate Kate Matthews: ‘How soil education can change the way we view landscapes’
• Tuesday 22 September @ 6 pm – Deakin University’s Dr Carmen Vargas: ‘Improving planetary health through sustainable food systems’ and @ 7 pm – Flinders University Dr Alyce Martin: ‘How our diet shapes our gut health at a microscopic level’
• Wednesday 30 September @ 6 pm – Deakin University’s Dr Aydin Enez: ‘Transforming waste for healthier soils: the biochar story’.

“In our modern urban world, it can be easy to overlook how deeply our health and wellbeing are intertwined with the ecosystems around us,” says Flinders University microbial ecologist Dr Jake Robinson, from the College of Science and Engineering. “But growing interest in healthier lives, alongside greater ecological awareness, is beginning to bring those connections back into focus.”

Industrialised foods and poor diet are among the leading causes of illness and premature death, driving heart disease, diabetes, cancer and even the most common being mental disorders, depression and anxiety.

“Our highly processed ‘western’ diet is also undermining our gut microbiome and we have seen a rise in allergic and autoimmune conditions, as well as emotional and neurodevelopmental disorders in children, including anxiety, ADHD and autism, which we think are connected.”

In a recent communication published in the journal Nutritional Psychiatry, Dr Robinson and Deakin University Food and Mood Centre director Professor Felice Jacka claim the world is facing a ‘polycrisis’ of escalating neuropsychiatric disorders, chronic disease, ecosystem degradation and failing food systems.

These challenges are deeply interlinked, reflecting a broader disconnection between human health and soil health, says Professor Jacka.

“Our group of research and industry partners are committed to revolutionise the food system so it can sustainably enhance mental health and wellbeing and planetary health, through a focus on improving the global food system,” she says.

“This new research in microbiome science, nutritional psychiatry, agriculture and soil ecology will bridge the missing links between soil, food and mental and brain health in humans.”

The Grounded Minds Consortium features a transdisciplinary group of experts in gut and mental health, microbiome, bioinformatics, agricultural and soil ecologists.

It aims to branch out across Australia, and to include industry and other partners in the UK and beyond, to showcase the close ties between a healthy mind and body, along with more sustainable farming practices that focus on enhancing production from the soil.

Presentations from the 2025 Soil Yourself September can be viewed online.

The new article – The Grounded Minds Consortium: Researching the soil, gut, brain, and mind connection (2026) by Jake M Robinson, Rubén Fernández-Rodríguez, Aydin Enez, Alyce M Martin, Damien Keating, Timothy R Cavagnaro, Craig Liddicoat, Wolfgang Marx, Martin F Breed, Feargal J Ryan, Steven Allender, Carmen Vargas, Rebecca K Golley, Stuart McAlpine and Felice Jacka – has been published in a short article in Nutritional Psychiatry DOI: 10.1016/j.nupsyc.2026.100023.

Acknowledgements: Dr Jake Robinson has published a series of books, including Invisible Friends: How Microbes Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us. Also see the Nature. Gut. Nature website. Professor Felice Jacka was recently awarded the 2026 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award as Laureate for Asia and the Pacific.