Letters to the Editor
A passive electorate may revolt
January 27, 2026
Anthony Albanese is a 20 year survivor in politics. He has learned to alter his opinions to suit the political environment. He gained the chalice cup as PM and wants to retain it. He covers his actions in secret cabinet meetings and controls what is disclosed to the public. He is afraid of voter opposition. He must diffuse critics. He wants the voters to be passive recipients of his legislation. So he legislates hate speech laws to give him the power to disrupt free speech that might cause him upset. (Rather Trumpian?) So if I stand on the roadside...
Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South
In response to: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this one ticks every box - Greg Bar
Future industries – a question mark?
January 27, 2026
Back in the 1950s, the wool industry provided wealth for the nation. It employed shearers and stockmen and other farm workers to build shearing shed s and fence lines. And the property owners paid taxes. Then synthetics became in vogue and the wool industry crashed. We built factories and built cars then removed tariffs and they crashed. We discovered iron ore, gas and coal and they provided funds for governments while avoiding to pay taxes. In a generation or two that extraction racket will collapse as countries respond to climate change. What will replace them? Who is making plans...
Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South
In response to: Australia looks like a winner – but we’re losing where it counts by Stewart Swee
The courage to join Canada
January 27, 2026
Australia should sign up to Canada's third way trading block which has 1.5 billion people. At the same time withdraw from AUKUS and never sign up to the Board of Peace. But I doubt Albanese has the courage and leadership skills to do so.
Tony Simons from Balmain NSW
In response to: “Take the sign out of the window” – Carney on power, coercion and middle states
Could you imagine
January 27, 2026
Profound thanks are in order. This is an inspiring article. Simple truth so often is. And the question, Could you imagine the Nakba being taught in our schools? That Jepke Goudsmit’s hauntingly beautiful Lament is not included as a preamble to our new hate speech laws is an opportunity missed. Pearls and Irritations, you are a beacon on our media horizon.
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Reflections of an Arab Australian on the new 'hate speech' laws
Target too wide?
January 27, 2026
The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism laws establish a highly politicised administrative process for declaring Prohibited Hate Groups without judicial oversight. Organisations which advocate engaging in conduct constituting a hate crime, including hate crime conduct engaged in outside Australia, may be declared a Prohibited Hate Group Offences of directing, recruiting for, funding or even supporting such a group carry 7-10 year prison sentences. A UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) found Israel has committed acts that amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza. Major Australian Jewish organisations like the Executive Council of Australian Jewry actively...
John Curr from MANLY
In response to: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this one ticks every box
Australia’s climate action still falls short
January 27, 2026
Peter Sainsbury’s overview of Australia’s climate risk in the decade since the Paris Agreement is timely and helpful. The obvious question, however, is how Australia’s response compares with that of similar countries. Our decarbonisation record is mixed. Australia leads the world in rooftop solar uptake, and some states have achieved exceptionally high shares of renewable electricity. Nationally, emissions targets of net zero by 2050 and a stronger 2035 goal are now legislated. Yet compared with our OECD and G20 peers, Australia still ranks among the highest for per-capita emissions, remains heavily dependent on coal and gas, and lacks a...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Environment: It’s official - Australia’s extreme weather events will get more se
Trump's promotion of fossil fuels
January 23, 2026
This was the most confronting article by Julian Cribb I have read, and there have been a few. Clive Hamilton once wrote of his Oh Shit moment with regards to climate change. I had mine in Vietnam last year travelling around the vast Mekong delta, a massive rice-growing area, when I found it was only 84cm above current sea-level, but seas are expected to rise by that amount or more before the end of the century. There are huge implications for food security and displacement of people. In this context, US President Trump's systematic dismantling of the Inflation Reduction...
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: De-icing the Earth: a fatal decision
In defence of Rudd
January 23, 2026
Nowhere in the press has it been made explicit: Kevin Rudd was sent to Washington, precisely because he is the leading expert on the US-China relationship. 40 years’ experience on China, including as a professional diplomat, with a doctorate from Oxford on Xi Jingping’s worldview, isn’t coincidental. It points directly to why he was chosen to represent Australia to the United States at a time where they still claimed to respect the rules-based international order. His status as a ‘Labor mate’ was a nice bonus for his posting, not the rationale. Yes, Trump’s new worldview makes that all irrelevant...
Mark Wilson from Canberra
In response to: Greenland is why Rudd’s DC replacement must be a diplomat
Great article, however...
January 23, 2026
The IHRA definition of antisemitism will cause a lot of angst for those offering opinions to and then the conclusions of the Royal Commission. Opinions offered to the Royal Commission will be judged in accordance with levels of education and understanding of the histories of Zionism, Israel, Palestine, Balfour Declaration, Sykes-Picot Agreement, different religious perspectives together with the actions of the Israeli Parliament, the Likud Party and the Israeli IDF and settlers whose primary objective, a Palestine free of ALL Palestinians, and any action carried out by them to achieve this objective is acceptable, no matter how inhumane or ethically...
Bill Morris from Western Australia
In response to: Gory sausage making at the Labor knackery
Why we think Manichean
January 23, 2026
Eugene Doyle is on the money with the outing of Manichean thinking. But why is it so prevalent and so unchallenged? Born Bad by James Boyce traces the influence of Manicheanism on Augustine and so on the western world via the notion of Original Sin. Augustine won the theological politics of the day over Pelagius. A win for a conservative, controlling church and the rest is a western world history believing as a matter of faith that all descendants of Adam must be regarded as being of a 'perverted' or 'depraved' nature. Boyce traces this corrosive, destructive doctrine throughout western...
Michael Breen from Robertson NSW
In response to: Why the "good vs evil" keeps failing us
Carney’s courage ignores most of the world
January 23, 2026
Congratulations to Mark Carney for his stirring Davos speech. It's difficult to disagree with anything he said but, as frequently occurs with me, it's what isn't said that causes me problems. Carney talks repeatedly about 'great powers' (US and China presumably, Russia is hardly a great power at present) and 'middle powers', the rest of the wealthy, western, capitalist regime, I assume; the ones that have to greater and lesser degrees benefited from the structures and processes of the system of international relations established since world war two. There is not a single mention by Carney of the...
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point
In response to: “Take the sign out of the window” – Carney on power, coercion and middle states
The infamous Rowland law
January 23, 2026
Thank you Greg Barns. This Rowland law was passed with utter contempt for the parliamentary committee system which is there to allow public input. She was asked three times on ABC TV to elaborate and obfuscated. Only a handful of the reported 7000 submissions were published by the PJCIS. Although all federal legislation is supposed to pass through a human rights filter, not this time it seems. Both the IGIS and the HRC made submissions, yet I don’t believe their views were actioned; still, I have asked them. S.114.4A (5) is bad law as they and I pointed out in...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this on
Trump – a third term is not enough
January 23, 2026
While U.S. citizens and the rest of the world were speculating about how Donald Trump would circumvent the U.S. constitution which unequivocally denies him a third Presidential term, Donald Trump was cobbling together the “Board of Peace” with himself named in its constitution as chairman for life (or until he resigns). He has enlisted 30 countries to the Board of Peace. Trump has expressly eschewed International Law and disregards United Nations resolutions and principles with alacrity. It seems plain to me that this is Trump’s move to retain power as emperor of a US empire with the support...
John Curr from MANLY
In response to: The man who puts his name on everything
On the other hand
January 20, 2026
The other comment that could be made about both Eastwood and Wayne is that their impressive domination of the violent western style film industry could well be seen as re-enforcing the gun culture that now takes 50,000 Americans mostly children, every year. Promoting a violent male approach to masculinity may well be the source of US dysfunction today. Just a thought!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: "Go ahead – make my book list": slings and arrows, and Eastwood
Climate crisis is real; the doubt is manufactured
January 20, 2026
Climate scientists have sounded the alarm for decades, yet some still choose to ignore, the danger. Former Deputy Director of the NSW Emergency Service and member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, Chas Keys notes that there is even resistance to the “catastrophic” fire danger warning introduced after the devastating 2009 Black Saturday fires. Those warnings were pushed by the emergency leaders who fought those fires. Many were shocked at the ferocity and behaviour of fires in recent years. They understood the risk, recognised the influence of a changing climate, and chose language carefully to cut through scepticism and...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Heatwaves, bushfires, and the words that save lives
Obesity isn't just about junk food
January 20, 2026
Before the 1990s, Australia had neither an obesity nor a diabetes problem. That should prompt the concerned to ask what changed? Maybe our food regulators have been asleep at the wheel, maybe there there is more high processed and junk food available today. But how does anybody know if they don't consider just how much sugar and other questionable foods we ate back then? We definitely didn't go to the gym every day. Obesity is also a side-effect of antidepressants and psychotropics, which Australia also consumes phenomenal numbers of. Why, exactly? It is also a stress reaction. Why...
Stephen Lake from Moss Vale NSW
In response to: Britain has banned junk food advertising to kids. There are big lessons for Aust
Some honesty about "globalise the intifada", please
January 20, 2026
Chris Minns repeatedly accused protesters of chanting “globalise the intifada”. A woman said on television that protesters chant “gas the Jews”. I have attended the Palestine Action Group’s protests dozens of times, and I have never chanted “globalise the intifada” (or heaven forbid, “gas the Jews”), or heard anyone else chant them. The most I ever heard of “globalise the intifada” came from the lips of the Premier, who has greatly succeeded in popularising it. Anyone attending these rallies will find that protesters are mostly seniors, families with prams and small children, nurses, Jews, teachers, union members, students,...
C Wong from Edgecliff
In response to: Some honesty about "globalise the intifada", please
Treaties are not deals
January 20, 2026
It's good that James Curren's advice is in the aether as Government and its Prime Minister ponder a replacement in Washington. But what he writes about the US change suggests that the Prime Minister is now in an extremely awkward position. I refer to Trump's invitation to him (and to the NZ PM as well) to be part of the delusionary riviera Peace Team for Gaza. No, it might just be worthwhile for the Australian Government and our PM not to bother too much about a Washington replacement at this time. Let it be a low priority task that...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Greenland is why Rudd’s DC replacement must be a diplomat
A parallel invitation
January 16, 2026
It seems only fair – I have asked the government of Palestine through its embassy to extend an invitation to our vice head of state, Sam Mostyn, to visit Palestine.
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israe
Pendulums swing. It's what they do.
January 16, 2026
The Palestinians living in Gaza have been subjected to a two-year military assault on men, women and children, denial of food (starvation), denial of basic medical care, insufficient water supply, inadequate emergency shelter to replace the destroyed buildings, and a relentless barrage of excuses attempting to justify these crimes. (I cannot be party to silencing writers, P&I 15 Jan) To say these things is not antisemitic. It is simply pointing out the glaringly obvious. It is impossible in our connected world to livestream genocide and pretend it's not happening. Free speech is one of the pillars supporting our Australian...
Hal Duell from AliceSprings
In response to: I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I resigned as director of A
The people and the common good
December 17, 2025
Today’s capitalism may have a more benign face than in past centuries, but there remain global corporations of great power and rapacious attitudes; major fossil fuel corporations exemplify this. For them ecocide – whether from environmental destruction, or from the poisonous prevalence of plastics – seems a necessary, if unfortunate, by-product if they are to continue powering the world with their gas, oil and coal. These corporations must know that they will not survive at scale without radically changing their outputs to fit a world centred on sustainability but, rather than urgently redirecting their substantial reserves to embrace the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Degrowing the economy for people and planet
Can we discuss degrowth without the ideology?
December 17, 2025
It may well be that imperialism, colonialism, racism and ecocide are the four horsemen of capitalism's apocalypse, but all this ideology is clouding the issue. What we need is degrowth, both of the economy (certainly in industrialised countries) and of population. If you degrow the economy but the population continues to grow, then people get poorer. We need degrowth because the world is in overshoot. We have consumed too many resources and produced too many wastes. This is reflected in climate change and plummeting biodiversity. We have to restore balance, though that might not be possible until the population...
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: Degrowing the economy for people and planetAustralia’s cost-of-living crisis has
Getting submarines, or funding the US to get them
December 17, 2025
US nuclear submarines are phenomenally complex machines. Their advanced technology (reactor plants, sonar arrays, combat systems) requires intensive and meticulous maintenance. The public shipyards responsible for major overhauls and refuelling (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, Pearl Harbor) have been plagued by ageing infrastructure and equipment, critical skilled labor shortages and a massive backlog of deferred maintenance. This has dramatically extended maintenance periods. It's not uncommon for planned availabilities to run years over schedule, drastically lowering the operational availability rate. In the last decade, this rate has been devastatingly low for attack submarines. Add to that new construction delays (Virginia...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: AUKUS meets reality – what's not in the AUSMIN Media Release (Part 1)
Vast educational inequality
December 17, 2025
As the parent of a teacher in an underprivileged public school I could not agree more with Allan. One of the fundamental characteristics that distinguishes a civilised and vibrant society is the extent to which it prioritises the education of its children. On that metric Australia is one of the biggest dunces on the planet. We not only deliberately entrench a vast educational inequality by massive funding to private schools, but guarantee a low standard of educational achievement for the bulk of our population by vast under-funding of our most needy public schools. This has, and continues to create,...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Australia’s teachers – undervalued and overburdened
Thank you, George Browning
December 17, 2025
Thank you, George Browning, for your courage in articulating what many of us are thinking but too reticent to express. There has been a rise in antisemitism in Australia over the past two years. Of that there is no doubt. Our hearts go out to our Jewish Australians who have been the targets. Australian Jews are suffering horrifically and so unjustly by the rise of an antisemitism which has its genesis not in the policies of the Albanese Government as Netanyahu asserts. Its the genocidal actions of the Israeli Government under Netanyahu's Presidency against innocent Palestinians which have precipitated...
Judy Henderson from Repton
In response to: Blame, grief and responsibility after Bondi
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept
December 15, 2025
Re the contradictions Stuart Rees notes: How many Australians enjoyed the spectacle of Richard Marles standing alongside US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington this week. I guess he had to do it for the sake of Aukus, and to “preposition” (meaning what?) US troops in Australia. But the US military has just been alleged by some senior US figures to be complicit in the murder of Colombian fisherman Alejandro Carranza, and the killing of 93 other civilians on the high seas including two survivors of a US Navy strike. Who gave the orders and the rules of engagement...
Geoffh Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: 2025 in Review: Bullies and sycophants, cowardice on high, courage from below
Why ignore the historical context of the war in Ukraine?
December 15, 2025
The historical contexts of the current war in Ukraine are simply ignored in this article as if they don’t exist. First, there is a complex web of centuries-old shared cultural, linguistic, religious, social, economic and strategic interests between Russia and Ukraine. Second, Russia will never forget that Operation Barbarossa by German forces against the Soviet Union in 1941 targeted Ukraine as a major strategic objective. Third, the US, France, UK and Germany made security assurances throughout 1990-91 to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch” further after the USSR endorsed German reunification, which led Gorbachev to...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: Trump’s Ukraine peace deal would leave the country vulnerable to future Russian
Hard Times
December 15, 2025
Les Macdonald's recent letter covering the Wang Fuk Court tragedy in Honk Kong entitled 'Let the facts speak for themselves' left me reflecting on Thomas Gradgrind, the fictional character and notorious school board superintendent in Hard Times by Charles Dickens. The rigid and persistent pedagogue was obsessed with cold facts and numbers, and his adolescent pupils were treated as machines, or pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with facts. Replication and transfer of data is not learning. It is merely indoctrination, and the conundrum is discussed extensively by Henry Giroux and the late Paulo Freire....
Bernartd Corden from Spring Hill QLD 4000
In response to: Beijing warns foreign media in Hong Kong over crossing ‘red lines’
Australia is over-governed
December 15, 2025
I agree with Allan Patience. Australia is over-governed. Abolishing upper houses in the states would save an enormous amount of money. And Tasmania should become a federal territory. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund shows how Australia fails to follow the example of successful countries. Expertise should be pooled to take advantage of experienced people nation-wide. This would benefit the whole country. Melbourne needs the expensive infrastructure Patience criticises, but not funded by cutting other essential services. Funds would be available by implementing Patience’s ideas. The revision of the federation is urgent.
Elizabeth Sprigg from Melbourne
In response to: Too many states, too little nation: time to fix the federation
Sometimes a cool head is needed
December 15, 2025
Just a word to commend and thank Terry Fewtrell for his clearly argued and cool response to the Vatican's recent release on the ordination of women to the deaconate. My response was less cool and rational. More like a shaking of the head and a grimace bordering on cynicism at such facile arguments put forward in the Vatican statement, I too paused over the reference to “a rupture of the nuptial meaning of salvation.” Risible indeed. Ridiculous. It seems that only the male species was created in God's likeness, God who is neither male, nor female, etc. etc. Funny,...
Anne Benjamin from Dharug Country, Toongabbie NSW
In response to: Why the Vatican’s latest word on women deacons has angered reformers
All power to the climate litigators
December 15, 2025
Ernst Willheim, honorary professor in the ANU College of Law, asks whether Australia has grasped the implications of the International Court of Justice’s ruling that States have an international duty to prevent climate harm. It was a rare unanimous decision by the ICJ and a remarkable achievement for the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. Dr Liz Hicks, University of Melbourne environmental-law lecturer, warns the ruling creates significant liability risks for Australia because it is one of the world’s largest fossil-fuel exporters. After the ICJ opinion, the UN intervened as amicus curiae in an Australian case for...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: What the ICJ’s climate law decision means for Australia
We have a bludger crisis
December 15, 2025
What we have is a non productive bludger crisis. No matter where you scratch you will find that those making the big money are doing it off the backs of those most in need. It's the developers who are benefiting from the shortage of affordable housing getting unsuitable (flood prone etc) land rezoned, building regulations altered, complain when they have to contribute to the upgrade of infrastructure all the time, vilifying anyone who opposes them because they have too big a property, likes trees, is too old living in a big house, is a tradie who wants a little...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12/reflections-on-the-cost-of-living/?utm_sour
Contrasting approaches
December 15, 2025
In his '2025 in Review', Professor Stuart Rees begins with an attack on President Trump, an easy – and albeit often legitimate – target. Most of his article relates to the genocide in Gaza. Professor Rees rightly refers to the cowardice of western leaders in not calling it out. However, he appears to place the blame for the crimes of the Israeli government on 'religious zealots' who 'have undue influence in the Israeli cabinet'. He is not critical of Zionism itself, which is ultimately responsible for the genocide and wider wars in the Middle East. Reference to the...
Susan Dirgham from Viewbank
In response to: 2025 in Review: Bullies and sycophants, cowardice on high, courage from below
Ignoring WA's disproportionate contribution
December 15, 2025
Mr Eslake’s recent critique of Western Australia's GST arrangements exemplifies (yet again) Mark Twain's famous observation about statistics being used to mislead rather than inform. The author selectively focuses on GST growth rates while ignoring the fundamental issue: Western Australia's disproportionate contribution to national wealth. Whether WA is a “powerhouse” or not, is merely a device to generate soundbites from NSW pollies and Murdoch commentators. The real issue is whether the GST distribution system should penalise states for resource endowments and economic efficiency. The 2018 reforms simply addressed a system that had become punitive to the point...
Chris picard from Perth
In response to: Western Australia is rich, but it's not the economic powerhouse it claims to be
Capitalism is irreparable
December 15, 2025
Jason Hickel is right to excoriate the capitalist system, and Peter Sainsbury is right to quote Hickel at length. Capitalism has delivered riches to the wealthy of the world, but only through 500 years of unconscionable colonial exploitation of most human beings on the planet and a century of massive exploitation of the planet's resources. The wealthier each of us is, the greater the legacy of ruin we and our forebears have created. Without erecting massive psychological barriers, we would be overwhelmed by the dissonance between who we are and what we have done. Can the capitalist beast...
Richard Barnes from Naarm / Melbourne
In response to: Degrowing the economy for people and planet
It's not "a Vatican document"
December 15, 2025
The seven-page letter by retired Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi is not an official document from the Vatican. It is a report of anonymous votes by unnamed members of a commission established by Pope Francis in 2020 that met twice in 2021 and 2022 met again in February 2025 with reviewing documents submitted in response to synodal considerations of women deacons. It affirms the magisterial fact that the restoration of women to the ordained diaconate is a matter for continued synodal discussion.
Phyllis Zagano from Hempstead, NY, USA
In response to: Vatican document
A sane government would listen
December 15, 2025
A government that truly cares about our aged and recognises that its current path is one directed largely by unaware bureaucrats and significant provider interests, would listen to someone with Kathy's expertise in aged care funding. But I guess that is a vain hope!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: A beginners guide to Australian aged care policy in 2025
Let the facts speak for themselves
December 11, 2025
There is a simple solution to the conundrum of free speech versus the spreading of lies. All reportage must use as its base established facts. The problem for the West in its untrammelled pursuit of a freedom to spread whatever nonsense the western elites wish to see accepted by the bewildered herd, is that the public space in that West is saturated by lies, distortions, fabrications, mendacities and deceit spread deliberately by the mainstream media to keep them confused and afraid. That has worked brilliantly for those elites for the last 80 years and they see no reason to...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Beijing warns foreign media in Hong Kong over crossing ‘red lines’
And have a guess who is responsible?
December 11, 2025
No prizes for guessing which part of the world is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the illegal sanctions imposed and therefore the vast majority of the deaths and suffering of the rest of the world's children. You guessed it! It is the West that so values human rights, justice and compassion!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Sanctions kill like wars – and children pay the price
Memo to Albanese: still a little left to destroy
December 10, 2025
I suppose we all should pity our PM Albanese – with so much of the founding DNA of Labor left shattered, there is still much to do to obliterate every trace of decency, fairness, ethical conduct, socially responsible legislation, international relations and intelligent defence procurement strategy by his government. Busy, busy, busy. Defending egregious travel expenditure by Anika Wells is just a stool sample from the sullage pit that encompasses the current legislative program of our current government. Increased mining approvals, gas extraction boondoggles, gambling reduction side-hustles, socially decent protest restrictions, sidestepping our signed-up-to responsibilities to combat genocide...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Australia’s trust deficit is a failure of governance
Climate and the pursuit of capital
December 10, 2025
Peter Sainsbury, who generously credits Bill Gates with “unlimited access to information and experts” is right to conclude with a ‘fail’ for Gates “for your faith in the market and capitalism (even though you never use the word) as the routes to salvation”. After basing a decade-long warning of climate disaster on that same access to information and experts, Gates now says “we should measure success by our impact on human welfare more than our impact on the global temperature.” As Peter says, why not do both? No doubt the impact on human welfare through his global vaccination...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Bill Gates knows the climate and poverty facts but misses the politics
What about property investment rates?
December 10, 2025
Keating states that population growth has been no faster in the last six years than previously over the last several decades, so the pressure of demand for new dwellings is no higher than we were readily able to accommodate in the past. This ignores the fantastic growth in property investment rates (a demand side issue). In the 1999-2000 FY there were 1.16 million Australians who owned at least one investment property. By 2021-22 that number had doubled to 2.26 million, far outstripping the population growth rate. A recent AIHW report supports this, stating: Over the past two...
Jaron Sutton from Melbourne
In response to: Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has a housing problem
Housing: you can't ignore the demand factor
December 10, 2025
Michael Keating, in arguing that our housing problem is about supply and not demand, writes that Australian population growth has been no faster in the last six years than previously over the last several decades, so the pressure of demand for new dwellings is no higher than we were readily able to accommodate in the past. It may be true that the average population growth rate of the last six years is more or less in line with the average of the last three decades or more. However, because there is an ever-bigger base, the actual numbers grow, if...
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has a housing problem
Debt and disregard
December 10, 2025
While here in SA Party Pete racks up the debt on innumerable sporting events and festivals with complete disregard for debt, taxes, emissions, the parklands, traffic congestion / inconvenience (almost half a year set up /down for a car race that is more attended for the nightly rock concerts than the race) etc – all very reminiscent of Caesar who built the colosseum to distract the masses and promote class warfare and war in general . Meanwhile the other almost half of our elected representatives are so wedded to opposition that they have decided that opposing themselves is the main...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: victoria-government-unfussed-by-gp-debt/?ut
Seeking the truth about the war in Ukraine
December 10, 2025
On the war in Ukraine, Canadian academic James Horncastle writes much as almost all western mainstream commentator might: Ukraine good; Russia bad. Like so many others given a mainstream platform, he appears to support an ongoing war until a Ukrainian victory and the destruction of Russia. But does he have genuine concerns for Ukraine, its citizens, and the truth? I'd urge Pearls and Irritations readers to consider US ambassador Chas Freeman's address on the war that he presented to the 'East Bay Citizens for Peace' in September 2023. It's lengthy; it challenges mainstream western thinking on the war, but...
Susan Dirgham from Viewbank
In response to: Trump’s Ukraine peace deal would leave the country vulnerable to future Russian
So little regard for local government ?
December 10, 2025
A thought provoking article. Sadly local government was like a tacked on afterthought. If you look around your local area through local eyes without the bias promoted by self interests in state governments you can't help but see what a good job local governments do with limited resources – in general the parks and gardens etc are a credit to your local council. Parks, playgrounds etc are an indicator as to what a good job they do for local interest. Take the time to regularly visit your local park to see who is doing the maintenance and restoring the area...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: australias-federation-is-staggering-under-t
Moral and intellectual vacuity personified
December 8, 2025
An opposition so bereft of a vision of a future for Australia in a rapidly changing world that their only appeal to the citizen is a return to an imagined idyll that ignores entirely the reality of that past . Australia desperately needs an opposition that can hold a government to account for its many failures to even seek to achieve a resolution to the vast policy failures of that less-than-glorious past!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Coalition’s Australian values test is the ultimate dog whistle
Rogue actors
December 8, 2025
For a book detailing the involvement of the CIA with drugs, Alfred W McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is well-researched and convincing. When reading it many years ago, I realised that while it was possible for the CIA to amas a quantity of heroin through the use of not-so-hidden labs in Southeast Asia, a distribution network was needed to move that product. What was then known as the Mafia had such a network. Despite an increasingly thin veneer of 'a rules-based international order' and 'a shinning light on the hill,' the USA is becoming exposed as...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: America’s justification for attacking Venezuela: Part 1 – a calculated insult to
Silence expands under pressure
December 8, 2025
The silence, of course, extends to the whole Australian governing class whichever mainstream party holds power at any level, federal, state and even local. The silence has being progressively reinforced across all Australian media, not just the mainstream, although the mainstream has always heavily censored or cut information about what is occurring in West Asia which is in any way critical of Israel. Fear of litigation, loss of employment, career and financial security, are now entrenched in widening the circle of silence. Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suits against people like Mary Koskakidis are designed to promote...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: The politics of forgetting: Australia, Gaza and moral silence