Author Submission,  Paddy Gourley

GOURLEY ON GOVERNMENT

A deserved defeat for Albanese on freedom of information

Thanks to the Leader of the Opposition, Ms Ley, the Government’s disgraceful attempt to squeeze the life out of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act is as dead as a herring. In an elegant note in The Canberra Times of 13 October in which Ms Ley fillets the Government’s attempt to narrow the scope of the FoI Act and says “The Opposition will stand firmly against these changes.” Thus, the Coalition and cross-benchers in the Senate are primed to flush the Government’s proposals away. The Prime Minister had urged the non-government parties to “Engage constructively with this reform….because...

Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice
Paul Heywood-Smith

Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice

The ceasefire plan in Gaza has dominated our news in recent days and weeks. One aspect of the plan is the obligation of Israel in the first phase to release a number — a large number — of Palestinian prisoners.

Takaichi’s victory will only accelerate the LDP’s decline
Gerald Curtis

Takaichi’s victory will only accelerate the LDP’s decline

If the Liberal Democratic Party’s leaders thought that dumping Shigeru Ishiba as party president and prime minister would lead to greater party unity and make the LDP more popular with the general public, they were sorely mistaken.


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How Israel lost a war by not deserving to win
Jack Waterford

How Israel lost a war by not deserving to win

It is ultimately futile and probably wicked to calculate winners and losers in a war against civilians, least of all on any sort of balance sheet weighing and measuring the value of dead bodies.

Disarming extremism in the algorithmic age
Amelie Szczecinski

YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS

Disarming extremism in the algorithmic age

Amelie Szczecinski is one of six talented young Australians who will travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week as part of the Global Voices project.

Keating welcomes changes to taxation of super
Paul Keating

Keating welcomes changes to taxation of super

Yesterday the Government made some key changes to its superannuation tax scheme, after struggling to get the plan through the Senate. Paul Keating says the changes restore confidence in the retirement savings system.

Trump’s sham peace plan
Chris Hedges

Trump’s sham peace plan

There will be no peace in Gaza. Only the temporary absence of war.

Japan's LDP coalition splits – what does this mean?
Gregory Clark

Japan's LDP coalition splits – what does this mean?

So, finally there is some room for principles in Japanese politics after all! Not much, but when it comes to the point of white having to embrace black something has to give.

The half-life of humiliation and the hunger for revenge
Peter Blunt

The half-life of humiliation and the hunger for revenge

The trauma, humiliation and rage of those that survive are concomitants of the indiscriminate killing with impunity and the deracination of innocent men, women and children by the invaders and occupiers of a country.

Time for a 'just peace' for all peoples in Palestine
Peter Slezak

Time for a 'just peace' for all peoples in Palestine

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong took a long time just to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. And their belated declaration of Palestinian statehood is an empty gesture when we are still sending F-35 jet components to Israel.

The West’s crucial strategic failures
Les MacDonald

The West’s crucial strategic failures

The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that once believed they were eternal. Camille Paglia.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice
Paul Heywood-Smith

Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice

The ceasefire plan in Gaza has dominated our news in recent days and weeks. One aspect of the plan is the obligation of Israel in the first phase to release a number — a large number — of Palestinian prisoners.

How Israel lost a war by not deserving to win
Jack Waterford

How Israel lost a war by not deserving to win

It is ultimately futile and probably wicked to calculate winners and losers in a war against civilians, least of all on any sort of balance sheet weighing and measuring the value of dead bodies.

Trump’s sham peace plan
Chris Hedges

Trump’s sham peace plan

There will be no peace in Gaza. Only the temporary absence of war.

Time for a 'just peace' for all peoples in Palestine
Peter Slezak

Time for a 'just peace' for all peoples in Palestine

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong took a long time just to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. And their belated declaration of Palestinian statehood is an empty gesture when we are still sending F-35 jet components to Israel.

Childhood on hold: Growing up too soon in Gaza and beyond
Meg Schwarz

Childhood on hold: Growing up too soon in Gaza and beyond

UNICEF has called Gaza the “most dangerous place in the world to be a child.” It estimates every single child in Gaza will need mental health support.

Celebrate the ceasefire, but don’t forget: Gaza survived on its own
Ahmad Ibsais

Celebrate the ceasefire, but don’t forget: Gaza survived on its own

Western leaders now claim credit for peace, but Gaza’s survival belongs to its people alone.

‘We must keep the pressure on’: Humanitarians say ceasefire doesn’t erase Gaza genocide
Stephen Prager

‘We must keep the pressure on’: Humanitarians say ceasefire doesn’t erase Gaza genocide

“This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza,” wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.

Van Jones and the moral vacancy of American commentary on Gaza
Ziyad Motala

Van Jones and the moral vacancy of American commentary on Gaza

The US pundit’s dead Gaza baby joke was not a slip of the tongue, but a window into a media culture that trivialises Palestinian suffering and deflects responsibility.


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

The West’s crucial strategic failures
Les MacDonald

The West’s crucial strategic failures

The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that once believed they were eternal. Camille Paglia.

Lack of China capability can only do harm to society: Our current situation is a disgrace
Colin Mackerras

Lack of China capability can only do harm to society: Our current situation is a disgrace

In March 2023, the Australian Academy of the Humanities sounded the alarm on the decline in our understanding and knowledge of China through a report on “Australia’s China Knowledge Capability”.

How anti-China witch hunts in Canada and the UK ruin lives
Alex Lo

How anti-China witch hunts in Canada and the UK ruin lives

Security services such as London’s MI5 and Ottawa’s RCMP appear to be going after individuals and organisations out of pure antagonism and distrust against Beijing rather than having actual evidence.


John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Extremism and fanaticism of every kind

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

I hope that Amelie has an enriching experience at the UN and strongly support the intent of her work to eliminate extremism and fanaticism of every kind on social media. The most serious kind is that promoted by various regimes around the world, not the least of which are Israel and the US. The algorithms that allow this state-sponsored extremism are far and away the most dangerous. That is because the wealth and influence of these state sponsors vastly outweighs that of the many invaded and occupied communities and cultures around the world marginalised by the Western-created algorithms...
The abiding consequences of criminality

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

This is a careful and comprehensive analysis of why those invaded and bastardised by the West in the apocryphal name of spreading democracy remain unconvinced by the fraud!
Neoclassical pseudo-science

Geoff Davies — Braidwood NSW

Further to Evan Jones’ sensible defence of the political economy versus neoclassical economics, he quotes neoclassicist Warren Hogan Jr implying the positive role of the scientific method for the latter. I spent four decades as an actual scientist (studying the Earth) and more time digging into the horrors of mainstream economics. Hogan’s claim is laughable. Neoclassical economics is built on flagrantly unrealistic assumptions, such as that we can all predict accurate probabilities of all future possibilities, that we are selfish competitors and there are no social interactions (in fact, humans are highly social), and that there are no economies...
Eugene Doyle: Magisterial analyst

Keith Mitchelson — brisbane

May I compliment you for your superior analysis of 7 October 2023? I have not read of movements of Hamas in Israeli territory before. Hamas killed Israeli soldiers while overwhelming military bases, and some were also killed when kibbutzim and Nova Rave were attacked. Yet, if the more than 3000 Hamas insurgents could overwhelm the IDF bases so comprehensively, so quickly, and if murder was their intention, surely many more Israeli deaths could have resulted. Similarly, the unknown thousands (?) of Palestinians also did not murder. They were all very inefficient killers. Likely, Hamas came to capture Israelis...



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