Top 5
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Indonesia’s nickel supremacy: China’s backing and Australia’s decline
Australia is no longer competitive in the nickel market, largely due to Indonesia’s recent domination in the sector. This domination strategy has been carefully planned by Indonesia as it looks to boost its downstream industrial policy in critical minerals processing with the backing of Chinese investments. Continue reading »
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The moral world falls at the end game in Rafah
People in the West are Gaza-war weary. You see it in fewer reports, articles and commentary. It is an understandable by-product of the complicity-cum-impotence of Western civilisation in the face of Israeli barbarism. Continue reading »
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Why do Chinese EVs meet so much resistance?
There was a time when the world looked to China to reduce its emissions. China was, they quite rightly pointed out, one of the globe’s worst polluters. Continue reading »
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Silencing Francesca Albanese
It was with a sense of disgust rather than despair that I read in the Jerusalem Post this week: “‘Antisemitic’ UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese banned from Israel.” We’re being gas-lighted again and this is a chance to push back against the narrative that to support victims of Israel is to somehow be antisemitic. Continue reading »
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Untruths, the CIA, and Whitlam’s dismissal
A highly regarded commentator on national security, Paul Dibb, has written an astonishing article in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist on January 15 – astonishing because it is riddled with major errors. Continue reading »
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Climate chaos: world overheats while Europe faces a new Ice Age
The hottest January ever recorded in human history has passed, with barely a nod from governments worldwide and international media. For a full year, the Earth has now exceeded the +1.5 degrees danger level set by the Paris Agreement in 2015. And 2024 may be hotter still, US scientists are warning. Continue reading »
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The Australian Parliament fails to uphold international law preventing genocide in Gaza
The Australian Parliament failed to recognise its responsibilities last week when Greens Leader Adam Bandt, responding to the International Court of Justice interim ruling to prevent genocide, initiated a vote for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Continue reading »
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2024 Election: Indonesia’s Prabowo will not rule in anyone’s shadow
On 14 February, Indonesia holds simultaneous elections for the presidency and national and regional legislatures. The runes suggest the current Defence Minister, Prabowo Subianto is on track to be the next President. He will not be boring. Continue reading »
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Podcast: Time for radical tax reform on climate change, housing affordability
In the first of Pearls and Irritations’ new podcast series, Peter Martin interviews Ross Gittins on 50 years at the Sydney Morning Herald and the radical tax reform necessary to address climate change and Australia’s housing affordability crisis. Continue reading »
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‘Head-spinning upset’ as Imran Khan’s PTI wins most seats in Pakistani election
Independent candidates affiliated with the jailed former prime minister’s party staged a shock upset despite allegations of widespread electoral fraud led by Pakistan’s military. Continue reading »
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Charging for aged care at home – splitting hairs and shifting loads
A number of commentators have proposed that the Aged Care Funding Taskforce would, and indeed should, recommend increasing user charges. With particular reference to services delivered through Commonwealth Home Care Program (CHSP), this step would be achieved by splitting care services and ordinary daily living supports; the former would be subsidised and clients would pay Continue reading »
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11,500 children have been killed in Gaza. Horror of this scale has no explanation
Two hundred and sixty names of babies whose age was 0; names of babies who didn’t get to celebrate their first birthday, nor will they ever celebrate anything else. Continue reading »
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The Nord Stream Pipelines and the perils of containment
The sabotage in the Baltic Sea was the result of a long-standing US policy of driving a wedge between Russia and Western Europe. Continue reading »
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Is there a problem with Australia’s approach to human rights in the PRC?
Human rights in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are under increased threat. The PRC government ignores international representations. This begs the question: should Australia even attempt to intervene? What do we risk by doing so? The easy course would be to do the minimum and restrict our representations to cases where Australian citizens and Continue reading »
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Hold the outrage
We need to be careful with the outrage over the sentencing of Yang Hengjun in China. Continue reading »
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Too late? Climate change denial and the rise of fascism
“… but they can be sure that they won’t be recorded for their crimes in history — because there won’t be any history” (Noam Chomsky, 2023, in a letter to the author) Continue reading »
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We can’t rely on developers to fix the housing crisis
If you were running the state suffering the very worst of Australia’s housing disaster, a state where the number of public and community housing dwellings actually went backwards last financial year, you might want to grab any and every opportunity to ease the crisis – but you’re not running New South Wales. Continue reading »
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The death of Lowitja O’Donoghue
Lowitja O’Donoghue was a great Indigenous woman. A very great one. Continue reading »
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A looming China-US collision – can détente come to the rescue?
The call issued by Bob Carr and Gareth Evans for a ‘comprehensive détente between the US and China is timely and constructive. But as with all things to do with peace and war, the issues are complex and the way forward strewn with difficulties. Continue reading »
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Open letter to Prime Minister Albanese on the urgent situation in Gaza and the freeze of UNRWA funds
IPAN, the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, is inviting organisations and individuals throughout Australia to sign the open letter to the Prime Minister on Gaza and their freezing of funds to UNRWA. Continue reading »
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Mid term Aged Care Report card: 5/10 – must try harder
The election of the Albanese Labor government was met with a strong sense of optimism among people who had been lobbying for aged care reform for years. Finally, a government prepared to address the systemic issues that had plagued the sector since the Howard government neo-liberal reforms decades before. Alas, it was not to be. Continue reading »
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Stripped bare: The Albanese government’s support for genocide
It is now very obvious that the Albanese government is determined to assist Israel in ensuring that the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are undermined and rendered unworkable. Continue reading »
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The Empire is in free fall
By 2021 it was apparent that we were witnessing the accelerating but creeping collapse of the American Empire. That collapse has passed an inflection point – the Empire is now in free fall. Continue reading »
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Medicare turns 40: since 1984 our health needs have changed but the system hasn’t. 3 reforms to update it
Forty years ago, Medicare as we know it today was born. It was the reincarnation of the Whitlam government’s Medibank, introduced in 1975 but dismantled in stages by the Fraser Liberal government. Continue reading »
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Labor overcomes a bad dose of stage (3) fright. Is this the change we have been waiting for?
“Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.” John Lennon Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison: A blight on Australian politics
Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s departure from parliament is a vulgar reminder about where Australian politics went grossly wrong, and where its vulnerable, already trimmed sovereignty went. Continue reading »
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Détente: Towards a balance of power between the USA and China
Former Foreign Ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, other former Cabinet Ministers, former State Premiers, a Nobel Laureate, diplomats, writers, academics and human rights advocates are among 50 Australians supporting an appeal to establish détente between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. Continue reading »
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Can Kim Williams fix turmoil at the ABC?
With the announcement last week of Kim Williams as the new ABC Chair, it’s timely to consider not only what needs to be done to address recent controversies but, more broadly, what we as a society want from our major public media institution and what is needed for it to thrive. Continue reading »
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Australia’s role in further collective punishment on Gazans
Israel has for years been determined to cut aid to the refugees both in Gaza and the West Bank. Continue reading »
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Why I believe what I believe about the Chinese Revolution
Late last year, a colleague sent me a letter decrying some of my writings about China, notably the last newsletter of 2023. This newsletter is my response to him. Continue reading »