Pearlcast EP 1

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
Keating on the malevolence and brutality of The Dismissal
Niki Savva,  Paul Keating

THE DISMISSAL AT 50

Keating on the malevolence and brutality of The Dismissal

Paul Keating had just been appointed to his first ministry when the governor-general brought it all crashing down on November 11. The former prime minister is interviewed by Niki Savva.

This Russian victory really is one for the little guy
Andrew Fraser

This Russian victory really is one for the little guy

The Castle remains good law in Australia. Almost three decades since the battling suburban solicitor Dennis Denuto introduced us all to the high legal concept of “the vibe of the thing”, the High Court has broadly endorsed the classic movie’s basic contention: a man’s home is his castle.

The integrity of our media matters – please support Pearls and Irritations
John Menadue,  Catriona Jackson

The integrity of our media matters – please support Pearls and Irritations

We continue to see powerful interests shape the headlines and spread misinformation faster than facts in current times. That's why your support of what we do matters.

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Trick or treaty? Don't know, can't say
Duncan Graham

Trick or treaty? Don't know, can't say

The Indonesian print media covering the one-day visit of President Prabowo Subianto to Australia this month has dazzled its readers with some splendid insights into a serious issue.

Gaza woman blinded in Israeli strike opens bakery to subsist and hope
Rory Sullivan

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.

China-phobia in Australia is endangering the country’s security
Allan Patience

China-phobia in Australia is endangering the country’s security

The toxic roots of China-phobia are deeply embedded in modern Australia’s cultural history. It has a firm grip on the minds of many of Australia’s policy wonks, politicians, media commentators, and the general public.

Defending the BBC
Stuart Rees

Defending the BBC

Legal threats against the BBC over an edited interview highlight that an independent, taxpayer-funded, public broadcaster is anathema to Trump and his administration.

The ‘othered’ genocide: Sudan’s suffering and the world’s indifference
Jared O. Bell

The ‘othered’ genocide: Sudan’s suffering and the world’s indifference

Sudan is enduring the largest humanitarian crisis on earth, with more than 25 million people needing urgent assistance and nearly nine million displaced as entire cities are reduced to rubble.

Recovering moral imagination in a time of war
Roger Chao

Recovering moral imagination in a time of war

There is a moment in every conflict when language collapses. Words like justice, revenge, and security are repeated so often they lose their meaning.

Tackling vehicle emissions – the next big climate task
Samuel Marks

Tackling vehicle emissions – the next big climate task

Reducing transport emissions is fast approaching as the next big issue in Australia’s climate debate.

The Whitlam agenda – the one thing we left out
Laurie Patton

THE DISMISSAL AT 50

The Whitlam agenda – the one thing we left out

Fifty years ago, the Whitlam Government was swept from power, leaving a policy legacy unmatched by any administration, before or since.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Gaza woman blinded in Israeli strike opens bakery to subsist and hope
Rory Sullivan

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.

Recovering moral imagination in a time of war
Roger Chao

Recovering moral imagination in a time of war

There is a moment in every conflict when language collapses. Words like justice, revenge, and security are repeated so often they lose their meaning.

The boy who cried antisemitism
Judith Treanor

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.”

Building a strategic movement for Gaza
Sara Abdelmawgoud

Building a strategic movement for Gaza

I’ve spent the past two years deeply involved in actions, campaigns and community organising for Gaza. But as the so-called ceasefire begins and talk of ‘peace plans’ fills the headlines, I find myself asking a harder question: what now?

10,000+ Palestinians buried beneath Gaza rubble in ‘world’s largest mass grave’
Brett Wilkins

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.”

Making them pay: Wielding influence in a world with no shame
Jaron Sutton

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.

OFFICIAL – Israel’s proposed death-penalty law is a war crime
Greg Barns

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.

Lancet study shows more than 3m years of human life lost in Israeli assault on Gaza
Jessica Corbett

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.

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

China-phobia in Australia is endangering the country’s security
Allan Patience

China-phobia in Australia is endangering the country’s security

The toxic roots of China-phobia are deeply embedded in modern Australia’s cultural history. It has a firm grip on the minds of many of Australia’s policy wonks, politicians, media commentators, and the general public.

China’s new climate targets show progress but lack ambition
Jorrit Gossens

China’s new climate targets show progress but lack ambition

On 24 September 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China’s updated targets for combatting climate change at the UN Climate Summit.

After Trump goes home
Geoff Raby

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.

John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations

Indigenous political candidates face less voter bias than parties might think: new research
Josh Holloway,  Duncan McDonnell,  Michelle Evans

Indigenous political candidates face less voter bias than parties might think: new research

China’s new climate targets show progress but lack ambition
Jorrit Gossens

China’s new climate targets show progress but lack ambition

The boy who cried antisemitism
Judith Treanor

The boy who cried antisemitism

As Australia welcomes its millionth refugee, its hardline border policies endure. We can lead by example again
Daniel Ghezelbash,  Jane McAdam

As Australia welcomes its millionth refugee, its hardline border policies endure. We can lead by example again

Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables
Ian McAuley

Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables

Seoul’s submarine ambitions – what do they mean for the region?
Jeffrey Robertson

Seoul’s submarine ambitions – what do they mean for the region?

The Global South is drowning in climate debt
Jawad Khalid

The Global South is drowning in climate debt

In Ukraine’s Pokrovsk, narratives have collided with brutal realities
Eugene Doyle

In Ukraine’s Pokrovsk, narratives have collided with brutal realities

Building a strategic movement for Gaza
Sara Abdelmawgoud

Building a strategic movement for Gaza

‘Extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances' - Part 4
Jon Stanford

THE DISMISSAL AT 50

‘Extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances' - Part 4

Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war
Paul Keating

Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war

ASIO's Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight
Paddy Gourley

GOURLEY ON GOVERNMENT

ASIO's Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight

Latest letters to the editor

Melick: Modelling a modern major-general

Richard Llewellyn — Colo Vale

PJK rarely misses the bullseye when he launches a broadside, and this does not suggest otherwise. I have watched Melick's performance with a mixture of mirth and despair – and I was a senior member of staff when Ruxton was the RSL stooge on Council. Ruxton, for all his idiosyncrasies, was far preferable to Melick. As another of the recent coterie of ex-Army Reserve majors-general we have witnessed exhibiting all the competence of some notable British senior Army commanders of World War I vintage, it beggars the imagination as to why that career path should be considered an...
Albanese fakes a policy connection with Whitlam

Peter Henning — Melbourne

Anthony Albanese’s panegyric on Gough Whitlam identifies many of the Whitlam Government’s achievements. But if it is an attempt to paint an image of his own government as fitting the visionary Whitlam mould, it does the opposite, because it reminds us of the stark policy differences which amount to a rejection by the Albanese Government of all that Whitlam stood for. Where Whitlam broke the shackles of imperial control, ploughed resources into public education, the creation of universal healthcare and other major social reforms, and sought to create an independent and more egalitarian Australia, the Albanese Government seeks to...
Pinocchio and the growing nose

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

I don't know if others have noticed that every time Mike Burgess appears in public, which is a rapidly growing and unpleasant phenomenon, his nose appears to be getting bigger. Like his puppet master Scott Morrison, his propensity for calumny, exaggeration and outright fabrication of threats that only ASIO can discover and eliminate is rampant. He can of course get away with it as the leader of an organisation that has no oversight of the truth or otherwise of what it says. He regularly fails to produce a jot of evidence for his claims that would stand any chance...
A matter of cautious hope

Hal Duell — Alice Springs

I agree that Zohran Mamdani's victory has brought hope, not just to the Gazans but to all who have grown appalled by the apparent inability of our current crop of leaders to address the underlying issue of inequality. I suspect that this victory in New York City was aided by social media, and as a consequence I foresee a concerted effort to bring that avenue of public discourse under greater control. I feel the hope this article mentions has to be tempered by two considerations. The first is, what now? Consider the dog who, having chased the car,...

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Employment 39 Finance 4 Health 1542 History 71 Immigration 974 Indigenous Affairs 385 Israel Palestine 1432
Media 1881 Pearlcast 3 Podcast 43 Policy 222 Politics 18587 Racism 17 Religion 1239
Review 37 The Human Future 67 Our Top Five Each Week 2220 USA 595 World 1502

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