Israel-Gaza: Has Albo finally found his backbone?
Peter Rodgers

Israel-Gaza: Has Albo finally found his backbone?

Every day since 7 October 2023 Israel has killed, on average, 92 Palestinians. It has injured and maimed countless thousands more.

Bridging now to next – seeking to rise from the ashes of the Voice referendum
Frank Brennan

Bridging now to next – seeking to rise from the ashes of the Voice referendum

During this Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June), with the theme Bridging Now to Next, the nation is aware that there is still unfinished business on the national agenda when it comes to the due recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Thirty-five richest Republicans set to 'line their own pockets' while taking food, healthcare from millions
Jessica Corbett

Thirty-five richest Republicans set to 'line their own pockets' while taking food, healthcare from millions

The Trump tax scam is a grift for the ultra-rich, including those who are in charge of passing this legislation themselves, and a betrayal to hardworking Americans everywhere, said the head of Accountable.US.


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

Environment: Freshwater systems and grasslands, forgotten nature and climate heroes
Peter Sainsbury

Environment: Freshwater systems and grasslands, forgotten nature and climate heroes

Human activities are pushing many freshwater fish toward extinction globally and in Australia.

Jerry Falwell and the Christian culture wars
David Rosen

Jerry Falwell and the Christian culture wars

In May 1979, Jerry Falwell invited a select group of Christian conservative leaders to a strategic planning retreat at his Lynchburg, VA, estate.

Sydney Harbour Bridge walk – unsuspected joy and hope
Frances Letters

Sydney Harbour Bridge walk – unsuspected joy and hope

At the end of reconciliation week it is time to look back at a extraordinary event. While Aboriginal people remained quiet and uncomplaining, most of our leaders showed very little interest in them. And average Australians, they believed, were right behind them. Didn’t social media and talkback radio prove that?

Gaza: The day of reckoning is coming
Scott Burchill

Gaza: The day of reckoning is coming

The attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 licensed the very worst psychopathic tendencies, both within Israel and among its uncritical supporters throughout the diaspora.

'A big deal': Bowen says hosting COP31 will lift Australia’s standing and help accelerate renewables shift
Anne Delaney

'A big deal': Bowen says hosting COP31 will lift Australia’s standing and help accelerate renewables shift

Australia’s bid to co-host the United Nations COP31 climate talks in 2026 with Pacific nations has been described by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen as a “remarkable opportunity” to restore Australia’s international climate leadership and help shape the global clean energy conversation.

Brian Schmidt on securing Australia’s sovereign research capability
Brian Schmidt

Brian Schmidt on securing Australia’s sovereign research capability

Brian Schmidt and Richard Holden addressed the National Press Club jointly this week. The following are full transcripts of the speeches. Let me take you back to February 1940 to the University of Birmingham. World War II had just broken out, and 38-year-old Marc Oliphant, an Australian-born physicist, who went on later in life to found the ANU Physics department and the Australian Academy of Science, had just had his lab invent the modern microwave resonant cavity, that could create incredibly intense radio-waves in a device of a size such that you could hold it in your hands.

Richard Holden on securing Australia’s sovereign research capability
Richard Holden

Richard Holden on securing Australia’s sovereign research capability

Richard Holden and Brian Schmidt addressed the National Press Club jointly this week. The following are full transcripts of the speeches. The Economic Value of Ideas Beginning in the 1990s, economists developed a framework for articulating the economic value of ideas.

Freer movement: Pacific priorities for Labor in its second term
Stephen Howes

Freer movement: Pacific priorities for Labor in its second term

Is the Labor Government going to take aid more seriously, and think more globally, in its second term?

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Israel-Gaza: Has Albo finally found his backbone?
Peter Rodgers

Israel-Gaza: Has Albo finally found his backbone?

Every day since 7 October 2023 Israel has killed, on average, 92 Palestinians. It has injured and maimed countless thousands more.

Gaza: The day of reckoning is coming
Scott Burchill

Gaza: The day of reckoning is coming

The attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 licensed the very worst psychopathic tendencies, both within Israel and among its uncritical supporters throughout the diaspora.

Why Australia should recognise Palestinian statehood
Gareth Evans

Why Australia should recognise Palestinian statehood

The question for the Australian Government is, how can we most constructively persuade Israel to change course?

In the name of humanity, the barbarism in Gaza must stop
Richard Falk,  Chandra Muzaffar,  Joseph Camilleri

In the name of humanity, the barbarism in Gaza must stop

Over the last 18 months, the world has witnessed undiluted militarised cruelty targeting the entire population and the supportive natural habitat of Gaza – with not so much as an ounce of mercy or compassion, let alone justice, or sensitivity to issues of ecological viability.

Time to go beyond words on Gaza
Damien Kingsbury

Time to go beyond words on Gaza

With Israel compounding the misery of the people of the Gaza Strip through its latest operation, Australia has finally come to a point of condemnation.

On lone-wolf attacks: past, present and emerging
Allon J Uhlmann

On lone-wolf attacks: past, present and emerging

Ninety-nine years ago, on 25 May 1926, a man in his late forties walked down the street in the Latin Quarter in Paris.

Palestinian genocide: No more selective indignation
Alison Broinowski

Palestinian genocide: No more selective indignation

Australians are joining the chorus of outrage at Israel’s escalating carnage in Gaza and the West Bank. They include Jewish Australians, but few of our political representatives.

Australia still doing little as the Gaza genocide gets worse
Greg Barns

Australia still doing little as the Gaza genocide gets worse

Australia doesn’t mind imposing sanctions on nations or groups it regards as being deserving of punishment for their nefarious activities, Russia, Iran and Zimbabwe to name a few.


John Menadue

Support our independent media with your donation

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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Latest on China

China-US trade deal: The 'win' belongs to globalisation
Zhao Bochao

China-US trade deal: The 'win' belongs to globalisation

In a breakthrough for global trade, China and the United States concluded ice-breaking talks in Geneva with a deal to temporarily roll back tariffs and create a new bilateral consultation mechanism.

Our retreat from Asia has become a rout
John Menadue

Australia in Our Region

Our retreat from Asia has become a rout

On almost every measure, Australia has gone backwards on engaging with our region, and particularly with China, and it is time to do something about it.

China’s calm response to US’ impulsive tariffs gets noticed
Richard Cullen

China’s calm response to US’ impulsive tariffs gets noticed

Shortly after China and the United States announced tariff adjustment measures in Geneva, Switzerland, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Aron Solomon argued in a Newsweek article that the US now has an administration that “governs not with strategy, but with impulse”.


More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Skullduggery vs science

Geoff Taylor — Perth

Re Samantha Hepburn’s article: The Swiss village of Blatten was flattened by a collapsing glacier the day Murray Watt approved the North West Shelf gas project. The hanging glacier in Chile no longer hangs. The Manning River very recently reached its highest flood level ever. Whole villages in the Pacific face extinction by flooding. There have been terrible bushfires in the US, Portugal, Canada and Australia. Where are you coming from Mr Watt? In WA, we have just seen the science on pollution damage to the rock art from the existing gas plant deliberately manipulated by, or through,...
Scrap DIV 296 super tax

Alex Teoh — ACT

Tell the government to scrap the DIV 296 Super legislation. Replace it with a new one that sets the limit of all TSB — Total Superannuation Balance — to a maximum of $3 million. Any excess must be taken out, or face a heavy penalty at personal tax rate of 49.5% + Medicare Levy. After all the Liberal Party, under John Howard and Peter Costello, legislated unlimited accumulations of super balances with the most generous concessions.
Israel and Netanyahu are only partly to blame

Howard Debenham — Maroochydore, Queensland

I cannot at all understand the insistence of Western leaders and influencers in focusing so much blame on Israel and Netanyahu for the horror of Gaza and the plight of the Palestinian people … when they know damned well that this holocaust is being controlled by the Americans and can thus be stopped or moderated b them at any time. And of course, the statehood question can also be resolved for the Palestinians by a stroke of the American pen. Clearly, they prefer to dump it all on Israel (despite the effect this is having on the global...
Helping young people with mental ill-health

Stephen Lake — Moss Vale NSW

Most mental ill-health, whoever experiences it, is preventable. That means that it does not have to happen at all. It is not in most cases genetic or neurological in origin, but is instead caused by ambient determinants – anything from bullying to financial and employment distress to lack of hope in a desirable and sustainable future to childhood abuse and trauma, which in all of its foms accounts for an exceptionally high incidence of problems throughout life. None of this is usually considered, and prevention usually means waiting until somebody needs help, which isn't prevention at all, but at...



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