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
11 November 2025
The Second Dismissal
In an extract from The Double Dismissal, Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking, distinguished fellow of the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University, and Dr Matt Harvey, senior lecturer at Victoria University of Technology, describe the chaos that led to two dismissals on 11 November.
11 November 2025
After Trump goes home
If anyone had any lingering doubts about the change in the world order, the sight of President Trump pumping his fist into the air at the doorway of Air Force One, before turning his back on Asia to fly home, they should be put to bed now.
11 November 2025
It’s Ley, or virtually certain Liberal self-immolation
People closer to the action than I are suggesting that the end is nigh for Sussan Ley. They may be right; momentum is often all in these matters.
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11 November 2025
Whitlam and the White House – Part 2
“Australia and the territories under its control have become increasingly important to the US defence and space establishments in recent years as a site for satellite tracking stations, nuclear test detection facilities, space research and related activities. With ample space, relatively advanced technology, political stability and conservative government, Australia has become a uniquely desirable base for both military and civilian programs involving operations in the Southern Hemisphere.” – White House position paper, 1962, quoted in Brian Toohey, Secret.
11 November 2025
ACT director of Public Prosecutions responds
The ACT DPP issues a response to an exclusive article we published last week We don't do that in this country': judge slams DPP by Andrew Fraser.
11 November 2025
The black work of big oil
Now is the sinister time of year when the Barons of Big Oil gather together, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the blessing of most world leaders, to celebrate the 350 million needless deaths they plan to cause between now and 2050 in the name of profit.
11 November 2025
Environmental reforms: Opportunities that must not be missed
The Australian Parliament has another opportunity to reform laws that will address the huge array of issues confronting the degradation of Australia’s environment.
11 November 2025
Graham Richardson's environmental legacy
In the week that Labor is struggling to pass its environmental legislation, the death of Graham Richardson is a reminder that, as Labor environment minister, he oversaw the passage of the biggest suite of environmental legislation put forward by any minister or government before or since.
11 November 2025
Australia-China policy: Guardrails, not walls
An industry networking day in Canberra this week laid bare a simple truth: politics is still beating economics in Australia’s China policy.
11 November 2025
Bannon tells GOP: ‘Seize the institutions’ of government now or we’re 'going to prison’ after 2028
“Steve Bannon motivating Democratic voters,” said one historian in response to comments by the former Trump White House adviser.
10 November 2025
‘Mr Whitlam’s style’ – Part I
“I had no contemporary political heroes. I preferred Labor values to Liberal ones. I believed in a mixed economy. I disliked the people who’d got us into the Vietnam war. I was grateful to those who’d got us out. I admired Gough Whitlam, but not as much as he did.”
Latest on Palestine and Israel
8 November 2025
10,000+ Palestinians buried beneath Gaza rubble in ‘world’s largest mass grave’
“We call on the world to send international teams to recover the bodies of the missing,” said the member of one civil society group. “We call on the world to provide the necessary equipment to recover the bodies.”
8 November 2025
Making them pay: Wielding influence in a world with no shame
One of the upshots of US support for Israeli criminality over the past two years has been the cowardly position adopted by US supplicant states who feel wedged by realpolitik and morality.
7 November 2025
OFFICIAL – Israel’s proposed death-penalty law is a war crime
Not satisfied it seems with the continued genocide of Palestinians, Israel is now looking to execute Palestinian prisoners by introducing a death penalty law.
6 November 2025
Lancet study shows more than 3m years of human life lost in Israeli assault on Gaza
“To speak of three million years of human life erased is to confront the true scale of this atrocity – generations of children, parents, and families wiped out,” said the head of a US advocacy group.
6 November 2025
Palestine’s future: Australians are outraged
At an Australia-wide webinar on 31 October, David Spratt paid tribute to the late Ali Kazak, Palestine’s first ambassador to Australia.
6 November 2025
Israel, lies and videotape
We have heard a lot in the last two years and one month about Jewish Australians feeling unsafe or intimidated.
5 November 2025
108 years since the Balfour Declaration – a promise written in ink, fulfilled in blood
On 2 November 1917, Britain wrote with the ink of politics what it had no right to write with the ink of history.
4 November 2025
The West’s double game on Gaza
In the aftermath of the attacks of 7 October 2023 and for months afterwards, Western governments that have been long-standing supporters of Israel — including the Australian Government — invoked “self-defence” to justify the severity of Israel’s response.
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
11 November 2025
After Trump goes home
If anyone had any lingering doubts about the change in the world order, the sight of President Trump pumping his fist into the air at the doorway of Air Force One, before turning his back on Asia to fly home, they should be put to bed now.
11 November 2025
Australia-China policy: Guardrails, not walls
An industry networking day in Canberra this week laid bare a simple truth: politics is still beating economics in Australia’s China policy.
10 November 2025
‘Hawkish’ interpretations rise as US-China discourse gets lost in translation
In an echo of the Cold War, mistranslations are testing already strained nerves in Washington and Beijing.
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Latest letters to the editor
Lack of conviction when it comes to Palestine
Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041
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