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.
Listen to Episode 1 Listen to Episode 2
9 November 2025
The Dismissal, the role of the CIA, MI6 and Austral Americans
I was familiar with many of the events leading to the Dismissal on 11 November 1975. That knowledge was greatly increased by Professor Jenny Hocking with her long and successful campaign to have the Palace letters released.
9 November 2025
To fix the economy, fix housing
Australia’s economy is in a post-pandemic slump. To dig us out, state and federal governments must tackle the chronic shortage of housing in our biggest cities.
9 November 2025
Environment: The reformed EPBC Act – will the environment or business have priority?
After six years, reforming the EPBC Act may be reaching a conclusion. Twelve environmental defenders, many Indigenous, are murdered every month. Removing four dams allowed salmon to return to an Oregon river.
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9 November 2025
Rewriting Soeharto's story
Indonesian conservatives are rewriting the 32-year history of the late second president Soeharto, a former army general, champion of corruption and destroyer of democracy.
9 November 2025
Tony Abbott’s history of Australia wants us to be proud of men like him
Former prime minister (and journalist) Tony Abbott has published a political history of Australia.
8 November 2025
Murdoch, the Dismissal and my job in Japan
Rupert Murdoch played a critical role in the Dismissal. He knew how to bring pressure on Kerr and provided strong support for Malcolm Fraser.
8 November 2025
AUKUS and nuclear propulsion proliferation in the Asia-Pacific
President Trump recently announced support for South Korea’s plans to build nuclear-powered submarines.
8 November 2025
US-China power shift: a G2 world – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Trump hints at changing great-power relationship. Plus: Beijing wresting control of the global narrative; Myanmar’s scam centre raids dismissed as a smokescreen; Prabowo considers declaring Soeharto a national hero; US approves South Korean nuclear-powered submarine; China’s modern women need new men.
8 November 2025
Revealed: Secret plans to introduce media censorship in Australia
Moves to restrict just what journalists can report on defence and intelligence matters are underway – and journalists need to get up to speed fast.
8 November 2025
How Zohran Mamdani’s ‘talent for listening’ spurred him to victory in the New York mayoral election
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, has been elected as New York City’s mayor. He became the first New York mayoral candidate to win more than a million votes since 1969, and looks set to secure more than 50% of the total vote.
8 November 2025
Computer still says no to Queenslanders wearing seatbelts
The ACT Government has just announced that from 3 November, “ACT traffic cameras will detect and issue infringements for seatbelt offences.
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.
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6 November 2025
Trump turns the tables on Taiwan
When the razzle dazzle of the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with the mercurial US president is forgotten and the huge sigh of relief that nothing went wrong subsides, questions will be asked about what all the puffery achieved.
6 November 2025
‘Stabilising’ relations with China while differences widen
The Albanese Government’s stabilised China policy faces the test of deepening ideological and strategic divides.
1 November 2025
Understanding Australia-China research mobility
Australia’s research partnership with China is a significant component of its scientific output, particularly in engineering, technology and applied sciences.
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Murdoch ordure
Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041
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