The Tasmanian election on 19 July won’t fix the mess
John Menadue

The Tasmanian election on 19 July won’t fix the mess

A Joint Commonwealth/State Health Commission could help address health failure.

Sectarian tension, Israeli intervention: What led to the violence in Syria?
Mat Nashed

Sectarian tension, Israeli intervention: What led to the violence in Syria?

Israel continues to bomb Syria, ostensibly in support of Druze forces in the southwest, even after ceasefire is declared.

Round up the usual Chinese suspects
Fred Zhang

Anti-China Media Watch

Round up the usual Chinese suspects

It’s a big week for headlines – and an even bigger week for fear. With Prime Minister Albanese landing in China, our media wasted no time rounding up their usual suspects.


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Despite denials, Australia has exported F-35 parts to Israel
Peter Cronau,  Kellie Tranter

Despite denials, Australia has exported F-35 parts to Israel

Leaked documents show Canberra has been supplying Israel with the means to maintain F-35 fighter jets so it can continue its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Peter Cronau and Kellie Tranter report.

Headline news: Australia and China
Jocelyn Chey

Headline news: Australia and China

The People’s Daily of 16 July featured the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in top position on page one.

Navigating a bipolar world
Peter Varghese

Navigating a bipolar world

The US might yet save us from ourselves by adding conditions to the nuclear submarine agreement that no Australian Government could accept.

A memo to Albo on nuclear weapons
John Hallam

A memo to Albo on nuclear weapons

Sent by People for Nuclear Disarmament and the Human Survival Project To Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the Parliamentary Committees on Foreign Affairs and Defence and DFAT.

Even Ken Henry’s best ideas can’t fix a system addicted to growth
Stewart Sweeney

Even Ken Henry’s best ideas can’t fix a system addicted to growth

“Growth for growth’s sake is the ideology of the cancer cell.” – Edward Abbey

There's nothing 'liberal' about the Liberal Party
Ross Stitt

There's nothing 'liberal' about the Liberal Party

It’s becoming increasingly untenable to describe the Liberal Party as liberal in either of the ways that term is used in modern politics. No wonder voters are confused about what the party stands for.

The geopolitical context of Albanese's China visit
Louis Devine

The geopolitical context of Albanese's China visit

Prime Minister Albanese and I have a few things in common. We were both born on 2 March and we have both been in car accidents, and as I write this, we are both in the People’s Republic of China.

Our last, best chance – national environment laws that protect nature and power the net zero economy
Ken Henry

Our last, best chance – national environment laws that protect nature and power the net zero economy

I am addressing you today in my capacity as the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF). The ACBF is a not-for-profit, founded in 2021 to help decision-makers find means of securing the restoration of Australia’s natural environment in ways that support a thriving 21st century economy.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Despite denials, Australia has exported F-35 parts to Israel
Peter Cronau,  Kellie Tranter

Despite denials, Australia has exported F-35 parts to Israel

Leaked documents show Canberra has been supplying Israel with the means to maintain F-35 fighter jets so it can continue its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Peter Cronau and Kellie Tranter report.

An ambitious plan to combat antisemitism or an effective plan to silence Israel's critics?
Sawsan Madina

An ambitious plan to combat antisemitism or an effective plan to silence Israel's critics?

I watched the 7.30 interview with the special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, with mounting alarm. By the end of the interview, I was afraid for the future of Australia.

Israeli settlers kill, destroy and steal with impunity
Helen McCue

Israeli settlers kill, destroy and steal with impunity

This week there was another attack on a religious institution. No, not in Australia but in the ancient Christian village of Taibeh, a Palestinian village in the Occupied West Bank.

The Israel lobby stands loudly condemned for its silence
Jeffrey Loewenstein

The Israel lobby stands loudly condemned for its silence

Reflect for a moment, as you read this piece, what is happening in Gaza.

Systematic bias: how Western media reproduces the Israeli narrative
Refaat Ibrahim

Systematic bias: how Western media reproduces the Israeli narrative

If words shape our consciousness, then the media holds the keys to minds.

Jillian Segal 'won’t dictate' to husband over $50,000 to Advance
Anthony Klan

Jillian Segal 'won’t dictate' to husband over $50,000 to Advance

The special envoy seeking to dictate the nation’s speech has suggested it was her husband who was responsible for $50,000 given to far-right group Advance — and that she won’t “dictate” his actions.

More than 5,800 Gaza children diagnosed with malnutrition in June: UNICEF
Brett Wilkins

More than 5,800 Gaza children diagnosed with malnutrition in June: UNICEF

Children's bodies are wasting away, the agency said. This is not just a nutrition crisis. It's a child survival emergency.

NYT report says Netanyahu prolonged war on Gaza to stay in power
Brad Reed

NYT report says Netanyahu prolonged war on Gaza to stay in power

He pressed ahead with the war in April and July 2024, even as top generals told him that there was no further military advantage to continuing, reports The New York Times.


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 on China

Round up the usual Chinese suspects
Fred Zhang

Anti-China Media Watch

Round up the usual Chinese suspects

It’s a big week for headlines – and an even bigger week for fear. With Prime Minister Albanese landing in China, our media wasted no time rounding up their usual suspects.

Headline news: Australia and China
Jocelyn Chey

Headline news: Australia and China

The People’s Daily of 16 July featured the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in top position on page one.

Navigating a bipolar world
Peter Varghese

Navigating a bipolar world

The US might yet save us from ourselves by adding conditions to the nuclear submarine agreement that no Australian Government could accept.


John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Let's think at least three times instead!

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

Henry Kissinger once said, To be America's enemy is dangerous. To be its friend is fatal. That is one of the most accurate statements ever made about the US. All this increased defence spending is supposedly so that we can all go to sleep at night in fear and trembling of the imminent invasion by China. The question you have to ask is of the US and China, which is more dangerous to other countries? In the last 40 years, the US has been involved in dozens of armed conflicts with countries around the planet, while China has...
A duty of care to Torres Strait Islanders

John Tons — flinders university

To whom we owe a duty of care is first and foremost a moral question. A duty of care represents an ethical obligation to consider the well-being of others and act in ways that avoid causing unnecessary suffering or harm, even in the absence of enforceable laws. It is a universal principle that crops up in the moral code of all peoples in various forms. In Kantian terms, it can be described as a moral imperative. The post-WWII war crimes were prosecuted applying that moral imperative – the defence that people were only following orders was not accepted. In...
Australia is subsidising the dying US empire

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

With his usual precision, John identifies the pith and substance of the AUKUS fraud imposed upon us by the second-hand car salesman Scott Morrison. That redundant member of the Dodgy Brothers sought to wedge Labor by vastly indebting the Australian people to a US empire in rapid decline which continues its forlorn but dangerous, feckless and capricious attempts to remain relevant. He frankly didn't give a rat's ***e about the cost to ordinary Australians in lost healthcare, education, housing and public transport that would be needed over the next three decades to fund our satrapy to the US in...
Follow the money

Alyssa Aleksanian — Hazelbrook

Is it anti-Catholic to criticise Italy? Is it anti-Anglican to criticise the UK? Is it anti-Islam to criticise Indonesia? No-one in their right mind would think so. So why the ridiculous postulate that it’s antisemitic to criticise Israel? We (and journalists please pay attention) need to rigorously question these fences erected to suppress free speech. It doesn’t take much digging to reveal the money, the power and the land grab at the heart of Israel’s assault on Gaza, and, by extension, the taboo imposed by politicians and the media in openly condemning the war crimes being committed there....



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