Launching Pearlcasts
The 50th Anniversary of the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government
We kick off with a topic close to our hearts, the 50th anniversary of the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government. We have three of the best sources in the nation taking part: our editor-in-chief John Menadue – the living link to the scandal and the nation’s top public servant at the time; Jenny Hocking, author of The Palace Letters and Australia’s pre-eminent Dismissal historian; and Brian Toohey, the journalist who has dug deepest into the darkest elements of the events.
Go to Pearlcasts
27 November 2025
The inflation myth propping up private school privilege
Private schools regularly blame inflation for rising fees, yet funding arrangements mean they are largely compensated for cost increases. Their fee-setting power widens the resource gap while feeding back into inflation itself.
27 November 2025
Independent media is essential – and we urgently need your help
We urgently need your financial support. We have raised only $78,000 towards our goal of $250,000 by mid-December.
27 November 2025
The Dismissal at 50: Albanese condemns the past but avoids real reform
Anthony Albanese condemned the 1975 Dismissal as a partisan ambush. Yet he refuses to pursue the constitutional reforms needed to prevent another vice-regal intervention. Australia remains exposed, and neither government nor public sentiment seems ready for the changes required.
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27 November 2025
Gaza’s economy has collapsed beyond recognition
Gaza’s economy, society and basic infrastructure have been almost entirely wiped out. With 90 per cent of people displaced, food systems destroyed and schools and hospitals in ruins, reconstruction is becoming harder by the day.
27 November 2025
Non-aligned and successful: Indonesia’s lesson for Australian foreign policy
Australia’s new security agreement with Indonesia comes at a critical moment. Jakarta’s non-aligned tradition offers lessons for a country still tied to a lopsided alliance with the US.
27 November 2025
How Trump tried to sell Ukraine a diplomatic debacle
Two rival peace proposals for Ukraine have emerged – one from the US, echoing long-standing Russian demands, and another from Europe. Kyiv has rejected the US plan as written, insisting its sovereignty cannot be bargained away.
27 November 2025
After Gaza, the next target is Iran
US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in.
27 November 2025
Australia’s Christmas double standards on Palestine
As Palestinians face another winter of displacement and bombardment, Australia celebrates Christmas while ignoring its own obligations under international law. If recognition of Palestine is to mean anything, the government must act – not look away.
27 November 2025
Chip wars: how the Dutch government nearly crashed the global car industry
When the Dutch government seized Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia, it triggered a global supply scare, revealing how deeply Europe is trapped between American coercion and China’s growing technological muscle, and how vulnerable its industry has become in the Chip War.
27 November 2025
Nature doesn't have an offset account
Australia’s climate and biodiversity laws rely heavily on offset markets that treat ecosystems as interchangeable. But nature is not fungible, and the growing evidence of unique, localised species shows why offset systems are structurally incapable of protecting what is irreplaceable.
26 November 2025
Why the trauma community must break its silence on Gaza
As Gaza reels from unimaginable physical and psychological harm, the global trauma healing community has remained largely silent. Breaking that silence is essential if therapeutic work is to remain honest, ethical and grounded in the reality clients bring into the room.
Latest on Palestine and Israel
25 November 2025
The ceasefire that isn’t: 400 violations in 40 days
Israel has violated the ceasefire in Gaza hundreds of times since October, using vague or unverified justifications to carry out strike in a recurring pattern of escalation and impunity.
23 November 2025
The UN embraces colonialism: the Security Council and the US Gaza plan
The Security Council's backing of the Trump plan for Gaza ignores international law, punishes the Palestinians, and rewards those responsible for genocide.
21 November 2025
UN Members complicit in genocide
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese discusses why, in her most recent report, she called out more than 60 nations for their collective-crime roles in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
20 November 2025
UN approval of Gaza ‘Stabilisation Force’ slammed as ‘Denial of Palestinian self-determination’
CodePink said the plan “will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison.”
18 November 2025
Gaza winter catastrophe repeating in tents that resist neither wind nor rain
The seasons change, but for those fighting for survival through wet winters and baking summers in Gaza's tents, the suffering remains.
17 November 2025
Israeli settler attack on West Bank mosque draws international condemnation
Calls for justice grow as Israeli settlers set Hajja Hamida Mosque ablaze in latest attack on Palestinians in West Bank.
16 November 2025
Trump’s ploy at the UN is American imperialism masquerading as a peace process
The Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-crafted resolution at the UN Security Council aimed at eliminating the possibility of a State of Palestine.
15 November 2025
Gaza woman blinded in Israeli strike opens bakery to subsist and hope
Despite her injury, Warda Abu Jarad has started baking cookies and bread to help provide for her family.
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
26 November 2025
Self-interest is now the main driver of Britain’s Asia policy
There are a great many reasons why the UK government should pay more attention to the Asia-Pacific, but that does not mean that it will.
22 November 2025
US wants Seoul’s subs to counter China – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Washington sees global role for South Korean navy; the military cements government control in Pakistan; Palestine is an obstacle to Trump’s new Middle East plan; Japan prepares for drawn-out dispute with China; why South Korea is turning its back on coal power; and boot camps for beauty queens.
21 November 2025
Democracies good, China bad – and history not required
Japan and China both have legitimate security concerns. But an informed debate needs major media outlets to stop systematically erasing the historical context that shapes how the region understands current events.
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Latest letters to the editor
Failure to address climate change
Fiona Colin — Melbourne
Climate, numbers, targets and anxiety
Richard Barnes — Melbourne
Excluding nature from economics is irrational
Jenny Goldie — Cooma NSW
Rediscovering political parties
Bruce Wearne — BALLARAT CENTRAL