Why I support a carbon method for limiting the emissions from native forest logging
David Lindenmayer

Why I support a carbon method for limiting the emissions from native forest logging

Carbon offsets have rightly earned distrust, but the new Improved Native Forest Management method could protect native forests, store carbon and penalise future logging rather than delay decarbonisation.

Omar Musa’s Miles Franklin win rewards epic, ambitious writing with a global scope
Alexander Howard

Omar Musa’s Miles Franklin win rewards epic, ambitious writing with a global scope

Omar Musa’s Fierceland has won the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award, recognising a formally adventurous novel that links family inheritance, colonial violence and environmental destruction across borders.

Environment: Shoddy impact assessments satisfy fossil fuel companies and governments
Peter Sainsbury

Environment: Shoddy impact assessments satisfy fossil fuel companies and governments

Oil and gas risks in the Arafura and Timor Seas are being underplayed, small bushland remnants deserve protection, and solar’s rapid growth still has not displaced fossil fuels.


Making Indigenous incarceration strange again
Komla Tsey

Making Indigenous incarceration strange again

When too many young Aboriginal men come to see prison as a normal stage of growing up, the question is not only what has gone wrong with them – but what has happened to the society around them.

The political cartoonist is becoming an endangered species
Richard Scully, Robert Phiddian

The political cartoonist is becoming an endangered species

Fiona Katauskas’ departure from Guardian Australia points to a larger decline in permanent cartooning jobs, even as political cartoons remain vital to satire, public debate and local media culture.

Are US subs really temporary visitors?
Marcus Reubenstein

AUKUS

Are US subs really temporary visitors?

Pat Conroy’s assurances about US submarines at HMAS Stirling raise more questions than they answer about rotation, sovereignty, nuclear ambiguity and Australia’s control of its own naval base.

When leaders break the deal – Message from the Editor
Catriona Jackson

When leaders break the deal – Message from the Editor

Much of our focus this week has been on what happens when democracy, or the leaders we elect, let us down.


John Menadue

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Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

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What drives someone to be a 'Hardcore Harry'?
Adrian Rosenfeldt

What drives someone to be a 'Hardcore Harry'?

Extreme endurance events may look pointless from the outside, but they reveal a deeper cultural drive towards discipline, self-denial and achievement for its own sake.

Not really like us - a new view of Trump's America
Glenda Korporaal

Not really like us - a new view of Trump's America

Kieran Kelly’s Not Really Like Us traces a lifelong fascination with America that gives way to a more cautious view of the US as powerful, vital to Australia – and fundamentally different.

The AI arms race is putting safety last
Kenneth Rogoff

The AI arms race is putting safety last

The US and China are racing to build ever more powerful AI, but speed without safeguards risks catastrophic failure, political instability and dangers no country can contain.

“Very concerned” is not a foreign policy
Jeffrey Loewenstein

“Very concerned” is not a foreign policy

While Gaza and the West Bank remain under siege, settlement and violence, Australia’s repeated support for a two-state solution sounds increasingly hollow without action.

How East Asia’s internet cafes became a cheap urban refuge
Ken Ip

How East Asia’s internet cafes became a cheap urban refuge

Across East Asia, internet cafes are no longer just places to get online. They have become cheap accommodation, workspaces and informal safety nets for people caught between jobs, homes and futures.

Victorian Labor's collapse isn't about debt. It's about 2020
Kos Samaras

Victorian Labor's collapse isn't about debt. It's about 2020

Victorian Labor’s collapse is not only about debt, crime or infrastructure blowouts, but a delayed reckoning from communities that felt broken by lockdowns and ignored by the recovery.

Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan win is a blow to AIPAC
Ali Harb

Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan win is a blow to AIPAC

Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary marks a major defeat for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and pro-Israel spending, and could signal a wider shift in Democratic politics over Gaza.

Plug-in solar could bring renters into the renewables boom
Sophie Vorrath

Plug-in solar could bring renters into the renewables boom

New Zealand has recommended legalising plug-in solar, potentially opening rooftop-style savings to renters, apartment dwellers and others previously locked out of renewables.

Voters are not abandoning democracy – they are waiting for it to work
John Frew

Voters are not abandoning democracy – they are waiting for it to work

Australians are not tuning out of democracy; they are losing faith in a political system that produces constant conflict but too little capacity to solve the problems it contests.

Climate action starts with clearer language
David Hamilton

Climate action starts with clearer language

Many Australians are concerned about climate change but do not know how petrol, diesel and gas drive it, because climate language has become too technical, opaque and disconnected from daily life.

Can juries stay impartial in the opinion age?
Mark E Dean

Can juries stay impartial in the opinion age?

Trial by jury remains fundamental to criminal justice, but high-profile cases, media saturation and jurors’ exposure to outside commentary are testing old assumptions about impartiality.

The program that quietly evaluated me
Komla Tsey

The program that quietly evaluated me

An Aboriginal-developed program revealed that lasting social change depends not only on structural reform, but on people discovering and using the agency they already possess.

What I saw in the West Bank
Mary Robinson

What I saw in the West Bank

Former Irish president and UN human rights chief Mary Robinson says Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land is unfolding in plain sight, enabled by impunity and a lack of international political will.

Australia’s federation has survived 125 years of economic shocks
Ross Gittins

Australia’s federation has survived 125 years of economic shocks

Australia’s economic history shows that major shocks often come from overseas, but better policy settings over the past three decades have helped keep unemployment, inflation and debt under greater control.

Israel accused of erasing evidence in Gaza
Brett Wilkins

Israel accused of erasing evidence in Gaza

A new human rights report accuses Israeli forces and contractors of removing and crushing Gaza’s rubble before investigators can examine possible evidence of genocide, mass graves and unlawful killings.

India’s students reject the compliance machine
Ronan Sandhu

India’s students reject the compliance machine

India’s student protests exposed a deeper crisis: an education system built around high-stakes exams, compliance and fear is no longer delivering secure futures or good jobs.

John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Latest letters to the editor

The antidote to today’s world

Alyssa Aleksanian — Hazelbrook

In the era of intentional demolition of international law and the lazy reckless response by leaders, fuelled by greed for personal gain, I looked to popular culture to see what has caught the imaginative hope and passion of the people, regardless of race or age. You only need to do a cursory internet search on Michael Jackson to see the phenomenal impact the recent movie release of Michael has had across the globe. This renewed fever cannot be easily dismissed. Not only have younger generations realised that genuine magic can happen through music and dance, with no whiff of AI sight,...
More on the South China Sea

John Curr — MANLY QLD.

The 2016 ruling on the South China Sea is more correctly termed an Award, not a Judgement, as it was not issued by a court with binding jurisdiction over both parties. An arbitration panel’s authority rests on mutual consent. China—though an UNCLOS signatory—declined to participate, denying the panel’s jurisdiction. Consequently, the tribunal was appointed solely by the Philippines and reached its decisions on jurisdiction and merits without Chinese evidence or substantive legal submissions. While not questioning the panel's integrity, its members were selected for their known positions on contested international law issues. The result resembles a boxing victory awarded when...
Still not a light bulb moment

Hal Duell — Alice Springs

Once again it's full credit to Pearls and Irritations for publishing a controversial take on a contentious subject. After a full Presidential pardon, Tony Fauci still felt it prudent to shelter behind the fifth amendment when questioned about the origins of Covid19. Why? What was/is gain-of-function and how does it relate to Covid19? What went on, and for all we know is still going on, at the bio-labs we keep hearing about, those located in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and elsewhere? What about Wuhan, and why is it that it's always the Chinese bats that seem to have so many ways to...
Fauci has questions to answer

Jani Brodie — Melbourne

Professor Dwyer’s staunch defence of Anthony Fauci (August 5, 2026), is breathtaking in the questionable assumptions put forward, particularly in relation to the ‘gain-of-function’ research and proximal origins of the virus. A long-standing, professional relationship with Fauci should not result in uncritical assessment of his decision making process. Labelling sections of the scientific community that questioned parts of that process as ‘ignorant and vindictive’ is utterly indefensible.
Menadue hits the bullseye again

christopher baker — manly nsw

Just an appreciation of yet another perspicacious on target article from Mr Menadue...If only he had some influence on the controllers of this country. The very subject of his article is one I have been raving on about for a long time...I thank him for expressing my own thoughts much more coherently and much more thoroughly.
Nothing succeeds like excess

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

John forensically dissects the insanity of the US and UK Nuclear ships programs and their implications for the woebegone AUKUS fiasco. One dead and another decaying empire, both of whose populations are being subjected to third world living standards, are now sealing their respective demises with bankrupting prestige projects of zero value. That we are continuing to link ourselves to these duds is a measure of our own national dysfunction.
The attack on Tony Fauci beggars belief

Graeme Stewart — Avalon Beach, NSW

As a fellow immunologist and clinician scientist who has followed Tony Fauci's stellar career for more than 40 years, I endorse every aspect of John Dwyer’s analysis of the disgraceful treatment of Fauci by Republican politicians in the USA and in the right wing media, including in our country, as evidenced by the publication last week in The Australian of an opinion piece from the Institute of Public Affairs titled “Anthony Fauci was no ‘voice of science’”. Such a claim in a major newspaper beggars belief. In 2008, President George W Bush awarded Tony Fauci the highest civilian honour in...
Imposing definitions of racism will not succeed

John Turner — Inverloch, VIC

I discovered Pearls & Irritations about three years ago and I have been very impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness of the articles therein. This article on racism definitions does not disappoint. As someone who is firmly against the Israeli policies of dispossession and genocide I am bitterly disappointed at our government’s failure to support the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israel oppression and aggression. To be opposed to the Israeli Government actions and policies is not antisemitism, denying the right to the existence of a separate Israeli state is not antisemitism. The definitions the Australian Government want us...