Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
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18 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Why Medicare needs joint federal–state hospitals
Medicare’s founding promise is failing millions as jurisdictional division leaves patients stuck on waiting lists and priced out of specialist care. A shared federal–state hospital system is the missing reform.
18 January 2026
Best of 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.
18 January 2026
Best of 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.
18 January 2026
Best of 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.
18 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Making First Nations prisoners visible in Labor politics
Despite Western Australian Labor’s rhetoric on equality and Closing the Gap, incarcerated First Nations people remain politically invisible. Without formal representation and lived-experience voices in party deliberations, meaningful reform is impossible. The 2027 State Labor Conference is the moment to change that.
18 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy
As One Nation rises by recycling anti-immigration rhetoric, both major parties are fumbling their response – missing the chance to offer a clear, credible and principled long-term plan.
18 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Losing the democracy sausage vibe
The last federal election saw a sharp rise in harassment and aggression at polling places, according to submissions from around the country. From death threats to deception, the once-peaceful ritual of casting a vote is under threat – and Australia needs to act.
18 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
17 January 2026
Censorship doesn’t silence – it amplifies
Attempts to silence writers rarely erase them. More often, they expose insecurity, deepen division, and turn targets into symbols of resistance.
17 January 2026
"Go ahead – make my book list": slings and arrows, and Eastwood
Shawn Levy's Clint Eastwood biography captures the contradictions of a screen icon — and the craft behind a career still shaping popular cinema.
17 January 2026
Heatwaves, bushfires, and the words that save lives
As heatwaves and bushfire risks intensify, emergency language has shifted too. The challenge is to warn clearly without losing trust.
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Latest on Palestine and Israel
18 January 2026
Best of 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.
16 January 2026
Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion
After Bondi, New South Wales politicians want to ban words and slogans. But rushed laws could punish political speech, not protect the public.
16 January 2026
Iran in the vortex: what's really happening
As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within.
16 January 2026
Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism
For two years, we’ve been told Australia is drowning in antisemitism. Every protest for Palestinian human rights, every mural, every chant criticising Israel has been hauled up as “evidence.”
15 January 2026
Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israel to visit this country be immediately withdrawn
A call to withdraw President Herzog’s invitation, uphold international law, and defend free speech and the right to protest.
15 January 2026
Best of 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.
14 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Gaza under siege: The continuation of Zionist demographic cleansing policies since the 19th century
Israeli propaganda tries to present the war on Gaza as a “defensive reaction.” Yet the historical record tells a very different story: systematic genocide, the destruction of civilian life and deliberate attempts to uproot entire populations. All of this is a direct continuation of Zionist colonial policies that began in the late 19th century.
14 January 2026
Best of 2025 - From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine
Real peace demands Palestinian statehood, Ukrainian neutrality and the courage to defy the war lobby.
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
17 January 2026
Best of 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.
16 January 2026
Best of 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.
14 January 2026
Best of 2025 - The ABC and News Corp finally agree on something: China panic
Last week, a friend asked if I was worried about Chinese “nuclear threats.
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17 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Sudan cannot be an invisible tragedy
16 January 2026
Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism
Latest letters to the editor
A parallel invitation
Geoff Taylor — Borlu (Perth)
Pendulums swing. It's what they do.
Hal Duell — AliceSprings
The people and the common good
Chris Young — Surrey Hills, Vic
Can we discuss degrowth without the ideology?
Jenny Goldie — Cooma NSW