Small policy, big impact
David Solomon

Small policy, big impact

policy politics

It's too early to predict the outcome of the election – notwithstanding the swing back to Labor reported by recent published polls. Anything could happen to change voting intentions in the last weeks of the campaign.

A message from the Editor
Catriona Jackson

A message from the Editor

Nobel prize-winning economist and former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls the Trump tariffs the biggest trade shock in history. In the immediate aftermath, incredulity and shock was widespread. The size, and wildly different levels, were not expected. And there were clearly some howlers as well. Norfolk Island (population 2188 people) with no known exports to the US, copped 29 per cent. The uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic, got 10 per cent. Angry penguin cartoons sprouted up all over the place.

Uncertainty and pessimism abound. Will fear be enough to push Dutton into office?
Frank Bongiorno

Uncertainty and pessimism abound. Will fear be enough to push Dutton into office?

Tony Abbott was once unelectable. So were Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.


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

‘Adolescence’, misogyny and the power of television
Patricia Edgar

‘Adolescence’, misogyny and the power of television

Rarely does a television series stop you in your tracks, through the heartbreaking power of its content and the creative process employed in its making. Such is the Netflix series from the UK titled Adolescence.

Labor gains lead in post-budget Newspoll; would be one seat short of majority in YouGov MRP poll
Adrian Beaumont

Labor gains lead in post-budget Newspoll; would be one seat short of majority in YouGov MRP poll

Labor’s regaining of polling momentum has continued into the first week of the formal election campaign.

Hosting the UN climate summit is far from ‘madness’ – here’s how Australia stands to benefit
Wesley Morgan

Hosting the UN climate summit is far from ‘madness’ – here’s how Australia stands to benefit

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would withdraw Australia’s bid to co-host next year’s global climate summit if the Coalition wins the federal election.

Institutionalisation: Vice-chancellors’ cowardly collusion with antisemitism lobby
Stuart Rees

Institutionalisation: Vice-chancellors’ cowardly collusion with antisemitism lobby

In response to a Senate inquiry into supposed antisemitism on Australian university campuses, the Group of Eight (Go8) vice-chancellors representing the Australian National University, Sydney, Melbourne, Monash, UWA, UNSW, Queensland and Adelaide have produced a definition of antisemitism which is to be enforced on all their respective students and staff.

Australia should inform itself as to who the real terrorists are
Alison Broinowski

Australia should inform itself as to who the real terrorists are

Australians may smirk at the embarrassment of Donald Trump’s neophyte administration over Signalgate. Particularly those old enough to remember how our allies punished Canberra for past intelligence scandals and pushed us to set up ASIO.

Where is the 'mature debate' about the health impacts of nuclear power? Informed consent matters
Margaret Beavis

Where is the 'mature debate' about the health impacts of nuclear power? Informed consent matters

There is a clear disconnect between the claims of the nuclear lobby and the real-world adverse consequences of nuclear energy. Communities, workers and indeed all Australians need accurate information about the health impacts.

Protecting the Public Estate with a fierce paradigm of care
Robbie Lloyd

Protecting the Public Estate with a fierce paradigm of care

Privatisation of the Public Estate, and Decimation of the Common Good have been part and parcel of neoliberalism’s metastasising cancer throughout our world for fifty years now. No one has been free from the tentacles of greed weaving their way through and around every aspect of our personal and communal lives.

Trump’s lying Band of Brothers
Melvin A. Goodman

Trump’s lying Band of Brothers

We know that Donald Trump is not fit to be sitting in the White House. He is a dangerously disordered president, and we have observed enough aberrant behaviour to fill a psychiatric text book.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

United Nations General Assembly votes to demand Israel end Palestinian occupation, Australia abstains
Brad Ryan

United Nations General Assembly votes to demand Israel end Palestinian occupation, Australia abstains

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its unlawful presence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.

The Melbourne synagogue fire: Antisemitism, political meddling and exceptional victimhood
Binoy Kampmark

The Melbourne synagogue fire: Antisemitism, political meddling and exceptional victimhood

In his ongoing campaign to pad and shield criticism of Israel in the conduct of its war of gross bloodletting in Gaza, Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rarely misses a beat to attack critics. It has become clear that even mere disagreement from long standing allies suggests wobbliness and tilting in the direction of antisemitism.

Trump's plan for Gaza heralds an age of naked fascism
Sawsan Madina

Trump's plan for Gaza heralds an age of naked fascism

I watched Trump's joint press conference with Netanyahu, in utter disbelief. Not that the idea, or indeed the practice, of ethnic cleansing of Palestine is new. But at that press conference the mask has fallen. Recently, fascism has been on the march everywhere, but that press conference seemed to herald an age of naked fascism.

Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?
John Stace

Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?

The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.

South Africa asks ICJ to order halt to Rafah massacre as 110,000 Gazans flee advancing Israeli troops
Pearls and Irritations

South Africa asks ICJ to order halt to Rafah massacre as 110,000 Gazans flee advancing Israeli troops

The move comes as Australia, in a significant break from Israeli and US policy, voted yes in the UN General Assembly to upgrading Palestines UN membership status. The resolution passed with 143 countries voting in favour, nine voting against, and 25 abstentions.

UN vote: Newspaper raises irrelevant questions about an ICJ decision
Paul Heywood-Smith

UN vote: Newspaper raises irrelevant questions about an ICJ decision

The exclusive 'US urges Australia over UNs Israel vote, published in Tuesdays The Australian by Ben Packham, demands a response.

ICC applies for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Sinwar
The Cradle News Desk

ICC applies for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Sinwar

The ICC chief prosecutor accused Israeli and Hamas leaders of war crimes while repeating false claims against Hamas and downplaying Israeli violence against Palestinians, writes The Cradle news desk.

Resilience amongst ruin: 12 months of genocide and resistance in Gaza
Ramia Abdo-Sultan

Resilience amongst ruin: 12 months of genocide and resistance in Gaza

Just weeks into Israels current genocide in Gaza, I spoke with my cousin as she watched the violence unfold from her home in Khan Yunis. She declared, We are used to this; it is temporary and will pass.


John Menadue

Support our independent media with your donation

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 on China

How Xi woos world business leaders as Trump intensifies trade war
Zichen Wang

How Xi woos world business leaders as Trump intensifies trade war

china economy politics world

On the morning of Friday, 28 March, Xi Jinping met representatives of the international business community at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

In every China-US war game scenario I've seen, America has lost
Chris Barrie

In every China-US war game scenario I've seen, America has lost

Global security alliances are in turmoil, and Australia needs to critically rethink its defence and foreign affairs policies.

China’s spies are here to help Albo: Anti-China Media Watch
Marcus Reubenstein

China’s spies are here to help Albo: Anti-China Media Watch

The Australian reliably informs as that in Beijing it’s “all the way with Albo for PM”; the latest Chinese ship in the proximity of Australia’s waters is both an act of aggression and proof positive that New Zealand’s scientists are among the most “clueless” creatures on earth; and Confucius Institutes have to go from Australian university campuses.


More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Peter Henning gets Gaza & Labor right

Tony Kevin — Canberra

Thank you Peter Henning. We needed such a detailed timeline of how the Labor elite is trying to destroy Senator Fatima Paymans determined drive to recall Labor to its principles on Gaza. This has been a sad and disillusioning week. Labour is doing itself immense damage and losing its voter base in seats with large immigrant-based populations. The power over the Labor Party of the alliance of Australian Zionism and the old white political power elites has been challenged by Paymans idealism and courage. The result will be very damaging to Labor at the next election: it will face...
What the nurses said

Hans Rijsdijk — Albion Park Rail

This article by Tony Kevin brings again into focus the unsavoury practices of the Zionist movement. However, I would like to hear from the two nurses at the centre of this affair. Maybe I've missed it, but I have seen no comments whatsoever from the two nurses themselves. Have they been silenced? Are they silent by choice? Why did they agree to the interview? What do they think now about their comments? Surely, their comments would be of great public interest?
A witty take on US-China Summit

WANG XIANGWEI — Hong Kong

Heard a witty take on the US-China summit concluded in San Francisco, leveraging a popular Chinese idiom: both sides admitted that they may not pee in the same pot but vowed to ensure they will not pee on each other. Thanks for reading Wang Xiangwei's Thought of the Day on China
Chinese naval codes

Geoff Taylor — Perth

Peter Cronau raises the key question: Why wouldnt Defence have been monitoring transmissions from the ships from when they were first off Queensland? Of course, the warning to aircraft would have been in plain language. But if you think of the cracking of the German Enigma code and of the Nazi high command code during WWII, how good is Defence at reading encrypted codes from other navies? After all, right now Russia, Iran and China are conducting joint naval exercises in the northwest Indian Ocean (yes, thats the one that touches Australia for thousands of kilometres), according to Al...



Latest from Al Jazeera

Mass protests in Morocco against Israel’s war in Gaza and US support
In one of the country’s largest demonstrations in months, protesters filled the streets of the capital Rabat.
In duelling Paris rallies, Le Pen condemns ‘witch-hunt’, counterprotests
The far-right politician rallies supporters after being found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds.
Turkiye’s opposition leader Ozgur Ozel re-elected as CHP party chairman
Ozel urges President Erdogan to call early election 'in November at the latest' amid widespread antigovernment protests.
Heavy floods in DR Congo’s Kinshasa leave dozens dead, destroy homes
The capital struggles as the Ndjili River overflows, leaving drivers stranded, and infrastructure collapses.
I am not a number, I am a real story from Gaza. Remember it
Ruwaida Amer talks about wrestling with the terror of constant Israeli bombardment and wondering what comes next.
Trump’s tariffs end ‘world as we knew it’: UK’s Starmer
New global tariffs imposed by the US will have 'profound' economic consequences, the British prime minister warns.