Tributes
-
Albert Littler – Master Painter, trade union leader and activist
Albert Littler, a Master Painter, senior union official of the OPDU and CFMEU, and fierce advocate for the industrial rights of painters and decorators, died in September 2024, after years of suffering with asbestosis. Among Albert’s many claims to notoriety were headlines in the Herald Sun calling him an Art Bully and that he was Continue reading »
-
A tribute to Susie Menadue
The phrase “Life is changed, not ended” is profound. Used by John Menadue in his tribute last week to his wife, Susie, it speaks volumes for their shared trust that we are more than “dust”, flesh and bones, however mysterious that “more” may be. And that it is, possibly, a glimpse of that “more” that Continue reading »
-
Vale Percy Allan AM
Percy Allan AM, a regular contributor to Pearls & Irritations, and a supporter of its role as a leading public policy voice, died on Tuesday (Oct. 22) after a battle with lymphoma. Continue reading »
-
Celebrating Race Mathews
In this era of totally leader-focused election campaigning, and presidential prime ministers, it is not surprising that political biographers tend to focus almost exclusively just on those who make it to the very top. But, while it might not be a truth universally acknowledged, the reality is that whether parties actually win office, and the Continue reading »
-
John Olsen’s gift to the nation
My dear friend, the great Australian painter John Olsen was, at 77, the oldest artist to win the Archibald Prize. Continue reading »
-
Gazing at the Gorgon in Gaza
The daily witness of horrors in Gaza has provoked moral dilemmas for us all. How do we face these monstrous events, and not turn our hearts to stone? An Australian historian showed us how in 1998. Continue reading »
-
Vale Dr John Coulter
Dr John Coulter, who has died aged 93, had been suffering for months from VEXAS syndrome, an adult-onset autoinflammatory disease caused by a mutation of a gene in blood stem cells. It is perhaps ironic that he had himself worked on mutagens — the agents that cause mutations — at the Institute of Medical and Continue reading »
-
Remembering Pete Steedman
Legendary student agitator, Oz-era editor, Hawke-era Parliamentarian, union official, music industry executive and all-purpose provocateur, Pete Steedman died aged 82 on 10 July 2024 after a long battle with cancer. This is one of a number of speeches given at a memorial celebration of his life at the Melbourne Trades Hall on 7 September 2024. Continue reading »
-
A message about Noam Chomsky: an update
No doubt like many other people around the world, we have been surprised and increasingly concerned that Noam Chomsky has not commented publicly on current events for around one year; in particular, on the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. Continue reading »
-
Book hero dies
A hero of mine has died. Bernard Pivot, who did more than any other French journalist to get people to read, on Monday (6 May) joined the extinct writers he loved. A TV presenter and producer, he was 89. Continue reading »
-
The song in our hearts and of our hearts
In the end as at the beginning all that really matters is how we treat one another. Continue reading »
-
Jerusalem Peace Prize Address: The most disastrous year for Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba
Receiving the Jerusalem Peace Prize is a great honour and I am overwhelmed and humbled indeed. It is particularly poignant at this time as Palestinians in both Occupied Gaza and West Bank are suffering unbelievable, horrific hardship and brutal violations of their basic human rights, for life, for shelter, water and food. Continue reading »
-
We are all Aaron Bushnell. Don’t write him out of history
Aaron Bushnell enacted the ultimate sacrifice in the face of atrocities the likes of which have never been seen before and the grotesque, ugly western leadership enabling it to continue. Continue reading »
-
Death of a Giant for Peace: the Johann Galtung legacy
On Feb 17, aged 93, Norwegian Johann Galtung, polymath Professor of Peace Studies died. In a world riven with conflicts, whose leaders appear to know more about weaponry, destruction and murder than about peace making, Galtung‘s teaching offers a penicillin for peace, an antidote to the arms trade and to persistent violence. Continue reading »
-
Tribute to a great public sector reformer, Don Nicholls AM
My late friend and mentor Don Nicholls was one of the great public servants of NSW where he was Chief Economist and then Deputy Secretary, NSW Treasury. Continue reading »
-
A tribute to Lowitja O’Donoghue
In 2017, I was privileged to deliver the Lowitja Oration at her invitation marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. I thanked Lowitja for her national leadership, for her trust, for her hopeful example, and for her friendship. Continue reading »
-
A self-written obituary: Dr Mark John Valencia II
Mark was born and raised in the Boston area. His rough and tumble youth left an indelible mark reflected in his Boston blue collar accent, attitude and life-long membership of the Red Sox nation. He fell in love with Hawaii the moment he arrived in January 1969 to pursue a PH. D. in Oceanography at Continue reading »
-
John Pilger, maverick journalist (1939-2023)
In a speech he made in Sydney in 2011, defending Julian Assange, John Pilger recalled how it was always impressed upon him when he was young that Australia was a brave country: that we stood up to authority, and we stood up for justice. Such national myths were at best half-truths, Pilger said, but in Continue reading »
-
Corporate media leaves out the very insights that made John Pilger a man not afraid to speak truth to power
John Pilger, the investigative anti-war journalist who spoke up for China and humiliated the western corporate media, has died—and every single report on this in the western media I have seen has carefully omitted this fact. Continue reading »
-
The death of Henry Kissinger: Statement by Paul Keating
Henry Kissinger’s death draws to a close the epoch of intellectualism in foreign policy to which he was committed following his early study of and belief in a system of organised strategic balance and restraint of the kind that emerged from the Treaty of Westphalia in the 17th century. Continue reading »
-
Remembrance Day through the lens of Gaza and Ukraine
This Remembrance Day, the great juggernaut of war is crushing thousands. In Gaza and the Ukraine. In that context, we may reflect today on Australia’s role in the Great War. Continue reading »
-
Bill Hayden warned that becoming a US supplicant carried unacceptable risks
Bill Hayden rescued and resuscitated the Labor Party as a national force as certainly as I am standing before you today. We may see the likes of Bill Hayden again, but I doubt it. At Bill’s initiative, in 1983 he put into place a review of ANZUS, suggesting that Australia presenting as a sycophant or Continue reading »
-
Vale Bill Hayden, a dedicated foreign minister
Bill Hayden’s five years as foreign minister have received some attention in the week since his death. However, there’s more to say about his contribution to an independent foreign policy that allowed its diplomats to hold their heads high. Continue reading »
-
Death of Bill Hayden – A statement from Paul Keating
A modernising Treasurer, the author and founder of Medicare, the re-shaper and builder of the post-War Labor Party, Foreign Minister and finally, in high office, Governor General. Continue reading »
-
The VVV — Vietnam Veterans’ Vigil, 3 August 2023
The 3 August Vietnam Veterans’ Vigil (VVV) is separate from the 18 August government-sponsored Commemorative Service on Vietnam Veterans’ Day. Continue reading »
-
Straddling 65,000 years: Vale, Dr Yunupingu AM
It has been my privilege to know Yunupingu, and for our lives to have criss-crossed and intertwined all these years. I think that now – finally – I have answered my own puzzlement about his life’s choices. Continue reading »
-
Bruce Haigh: time for some revolutionary Australian art
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone? – Joni Mitchell Continue reading »
-
Passing of Tony Pun a great loss for all Australians
Prominent Chinese community leader, Dr Anthony “Tony” Pun died last night in Sydney, aged 77. In 1989 he came to public prominence when he lobbied then prime minister Bob Hawke to allow Chinese students to remain in Australia, in the wake of the crackdown on Chinese student protests that led to the Tiananmen Square incident. Continue reading »
-
Vale Allan Gyngell
A dear friend, amazing mentor and an invaluable China Matters board director who was instrumental to ensuring independent voices on China issues were still alive in Australia. Continue reading »
-
Vale Allan Gyngell
Perhaps now – more than ever – is the time when Australia needs outstanding foreign policy thinkers. It has lost one of its best with the death of Allan Gyngell after a short illness. Continue reading »
