16 June 2025
Australian society and the conflict for Palestine
Australia’s symbolic actions on Palestine may not change the course of the conflict, but they matter deeply at home.
16 June 2025
Message from the editor
It has been a big couple of weeks at Pearls and Irritations, featuring some of the biggest issues we have pursued strongly in the past few years: the AUKUS defence deal and the genocide in Palestine, both reaching turning points.
16 June 2025
The public service under Albanese Mark 2: The good news and the bad
The appointment of Steven Kennedy to PM&C and Jenny Wilkinson to Treasury is welcome news for several reasons.
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16 June 2025
There's something about Jacqui Lambie
Jacqui Lambie is no Cameron Diaz but the title of one of Diaz’s most loved films, There’s Something about Mary, might be a useful way of thinking about her. There is, after all, definitely something about Jacqui.
16 June 2025
Is Marles the right fit for defence?
P&I readers don't need to be told that Defence Minister Richard Marles is floundering when trying to make security links with Indonesia seem as though they've never been in better shape.
16 June 2025
Trump's tariffs look exceptionally bad for Taiwan
The direct impact of the extraordinary, “Liberation Day” US tariff regime is bad for Taiwan. The indirect effects may prove to be graphically worse.
16 June 2025
Misgivings in the heart of the defence state
On a quiet Wednesday night in Adelaide recently about 50 people met in a church hall to share concerns about the militarisation of their schools and universities.
16 June 2025
Prefab collaboration between Australia and China could help tackle housing shortages
Imagine a Lego city, swiftly assembled yet unshakeably strong, its steel modules secured to solid foundations and reinforced with seismic bracing, expertly engineered for both speed and strength.
16 June 2025
Australia's dependence on the US does not end with Trump
Malcolm Turnbull’s recent Foreign Affairs essay, America’s Allies Must Save Themselves, is a good intervention in the debate about Donald Trump’s impact on global order.
15 June 2025
PM Albanese promises to restore trust in democracy
But his record does not give grounds for confidence. In his National Press Club address, PM Albanese referred to the trust deficit in other democracies such as the US. The clear inference is that Australia does not have a “trust” deficit.
15 June 2025
Why Australia needs a defence minister
The Virgina class submarine has been repurposed since the Republicans took the White House. So, Australia’s biggest ever military project has entered another stratosphere of farce.
Latest on Palestine and Israel
16 June 2025
Australian society and the conflict for Palestine
Australia’s symbolic actions on Palestine may not change the course of the conflict, but they matter deeply at home.
15 June 2025
Sanctioning Ben-Gvir and Smotrich is but a tiny, sad step in ending the Gaza massacre
Alas and alack! Woe be unto us, for we have sinned: Five countries have imposed sanctions on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The war in Gaza will now stop immediately, and maybe the occupation, too, certainly the apartheid.
13 June 2025
A naval force to escort humanitarian aid is an act of peace
In honour of a brave Gazan fisherwoman Madleen Kulab, the international aid boat of the same name was turned back to an Israeli port.
12 June 2025
Why does international justice fail to prosecute war criminals in Gaza?
Is documentation enough to achieve justice? Since the onset of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, human rights organisations have relentlessly documented severe violations.
12 June 2025
Genocide by starvation
This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most.
11 June 2025
Palestine and the gravitational politics of erasure
What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only a genocide of lives, but a systematic campaign to obliterate a people’s cultural identity, memory and future.
9 June 2025
Palestinian genocide gets some big-screen time
Films and the internet are proving to be a valuable way for the message of the Palestinian struggle to be publicised.
8 June 2025
Gaza conditions 'worse than hell on Earth': Red Cross chief
We cannot continue to watch what is happening, said Mirjana Spoljaric. It's surpassing any acceptable legal, moral, and humane standard.
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 PDFLatest on China
16 June 2025
Prefab collaboration between Australia and China could help tackle housing shortages
Imagine a Lego city, swiftly assembled yet unshakeably strong, its steel modules secured to solid foundations and reinforced with seismic bracing, expertly engineered for both speed and strength.
14 June 2025
The cultural and linguistic roots of protest in China
In 1760, the newly established Qing Dynasty was looking to expand Chinese territory by claiming the region of Xinjiang. Many Chinese intellectuals and scholars opposed this.
14 June 2025
Observations from Xinjiang
Having been fortunate enough to have made three separate trips to Xinjiang over 15 years, I believe some observations may be of interest to P&I readers.
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Latest letters to the editor
The president has no clothes
Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA
Harrowing climate impacts of Labor's decisions
Amy Hiller — Kew
Remember the way NZ was expelled from ANZUS?
Bruce Wearne — Ballarat Central
Honour for Morrison, dishonour for Australia
Richard Barnes — Melbourne