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.

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Gaza winter catastrophe repeating in tents that resist neither wind nor rain
Refaat Ibrahim

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.

Emergency powers and tariffs: The US Supreme Court’s test of the President’s authority
Gary Sampson

Emergency powers and tariffs: The US Supreme Court’s test of the President’s authority

The Supreme Court is set to decide on the limits of executive power – and that decision will have practical implications for Australia.

Richo’s grave should be extra deep
Jack Waterford

Richo’s grave should be extra deep

Graham Richardson was a very successful operator of the Labor Party from the late 1970s who was distinctly short on redeeming virtues.


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Sudan cannot be an invisible tragedy
Abang Anade Othow

Sudan cannot be an invisible tragedy

The end of violence must be a first step in the Sudan Civil War. And Australia has a key role to play.

50,000 march to celebrate death of fossil fuel industry at COP30
Jon Queally

50,000 march to celebrate death of fossil fuel industry at COP30

An estimated 50,000 people took to the streets of Belém do Pará, Brazil, on Saturday to demand a just transition toward a more renewable energy system and egalitarian economy.

‘My Viceroy’ - Part 5
Jon Stanford

‘My Viceroy’ - Part 5

I thought it no bad thing that the public in Australia and, perhaps, also those in other monarchical Commonwealth countries, not excluding Britain, should have been reminded that the Crown possessed reserve powers.”  Sir John Kerr to the British High Commissioner to Australia, December 1975.

‘Good neighbours are essential’: the history behind the Indonesia-Australia security treaty
Greg Barton

‘Good neighbours are essential’: the history behind the Indonesia-Australia security treaty

Indonesia and Australia signed a landmark bilateral security treaty last week. But from the outset, Australia has enjoyed warm relations with its giant neighbour.

Nuclear testing threatens global stability
John Tilemann,  John Carlson

Nuclear testing threatens global stability

Gareth Evans, Robert Hill, and Larissa Waters are among the Australian signatories of a statement calling on Trump to clarify that the US will not resume nuclear explosive testing.

Beyond machete bans and new laws – tackling youth violence
Roger Chao

Beyond machete bans and new laws – tackling youth violence

Victoria's machete ban sends an important signal, but the real enemy is disconnection, the absence of belonging, purpose, opportunity and hope.

The last Boomer
Stewart Sweeney

The last Boomer

Somewhere around 2085, give or take a few years, the last baby boomer will die. But their story is not, in the end, a story about age.

How did Australian universities go from free education to $50,000 arts degrees in 50 years?
George Williams

How did Australian universities go from free education to $50,000 arts degrees in 50 years?

Australians think students are being asked to pay far too much for their degrees. Just under half (47%) of Australians surveyed by YouGov in June 2025 believe a worker on an average income should be able to pay off the debt for a standard three-year degree within five years. When it comes to the cost of a degree, 58% believe a student should pay $5000 or less per year – less than a third of what arts students now pay.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Gaza winter catastrophe repeating in tents that resist neither wind nor rain
Refaat Ibrahim

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.

Israeli settler attack on West Bank mosque draws international condemnation
Al Jazeera Staff

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.

Trump’s ploy at the UN is American imperialism masquerading as a peace process
Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

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.

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.”


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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Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

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Latest letters to the editor

A spotlight can be blinding. Ask any rabbit

John Mosig — Kew, Victoria

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/forecasting-the-impact-of-sino-indian-relations-on-changing-world-order/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=0bbf855fd9-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-0bbf855fd9-744841694 While Ronald Keith makes many good points, there’s reason to feel there’s some he’s misinterpreted. When it comes to China recognising world order, the annexation of Tibet, the invasions of India (1962) and Vietnam (1979), the expressed intention of annexing Taiwan, and its belligerence in the South China Sea, suggests China accepts only a Chinese world order. Mentioning the percentage of world population without reference to greenhouse gas emissions also warrants review. Emissions from China and India make up 40 per cent of the global output. It hardly looks as though they’re aligning themselves with COP decrees...
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...



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In a letter, BBC Chair Samir Shah argued there remains 'no basis for a defamation case' against the British broadcaster.
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Seoul calls for inter-Korean military negotiations to prevent accidental clashes and ease tensions with Pyongyang.