Letters to the Editor
Trump, the unabashed war criminal
April 7, 2026
Jeffrey Sachs' article covers a lot of ground with its examination of the psychological motives to the actions of Trump and Netanyahu – and there is a vast quagmire to be covered. Personally, I think that Trump is closer to Mussolini than to Hitler – his braggadocio, malignant narcissism, abuse of even the most basic of societal mores while claiming to uphold Holy principles, malignancy, mendacity, avid pursuit of revenge against both actual and imagined slights, utter amorality – channels Mussolini. Netanyahu is evil. Nobody would consider Netanyahu as other than a high-functioning sociopath, leaching off virtue capital...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Trump and Netanyahu: two madmen playing God
I protested. I was not celebrating
April 7, 2026
It is becoming increasingly clear that for peace to settle across West Asia regime change in Israel has to come first. Historically they destroy, they immiserate and then they deny the proof when that's presented. The proof lies in the photos. Look at Gaza, look at Lebanon and now look at Iran. Everywhere Israel rears its head, razed buildings and dead bodies lie in windrows like dead leaves in the Autumn. That Israel's ambassador was invited to speak at the National Press Club shows us just how deeply the Zionist lobby has infiltrated the Australian political sphere. For some...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: National Press Club under fire for ‘disgraceful’ invitation to Israeli envoy
You may well ask why
April 7, 2026
“Why didn’t China develop capitalism during the Song dynasty?” ( 960 to 1279) Could it be that it has taken the western world until 2026 to recognise capitalism and its evolutionary Bastard democracy for the disaster that they are, not only for the planet but the majority of living things on the planet?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: why-china-is-always-misunderstood-and-misr
AI and education fighting against disinformation
April 7, 2026
As Anne Delaney writes, “[The inquiry into climate misinformation] has brought to light compelling evidence that misinformation and disinformation are not fringe phenomena, but structural features of today’s information ecosystem, amplified by digital platforms, political incentives and coordinated campaigns.” While Australians can feel proud that the inquiry is a world first, it did not go far enough. Without truth in political advertising laws, Australians will continue to be fed disinformation with impunity. AI-driven bots on social media now have the widest reach, but AI is also being used to fight back. It can detect fake accounts and coordinated swarms...
Raymond Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Climate misinformation inquiry stops short on reform
Albanese doesn't represent the people
April 7, 2026
Is there a way of forcing the prime minister to stand down? He is a joke, patronising, is not what I'd describe as a leader and it's time to replace him. I'm not the only one who feels this way.
Tristan Aldrich from Rivervale
In response to: Albanese's big moment a clanger – Message from the Editor
Bluey diplomacy
April 7, 2026
Albo's address to the Nation: an example of Artificial Unintelligence in action or just simple Noratory? Not everybody can be Gough, very few can be a chip off the old PJK and get away with it even slightly. However, when we needed to see Albanese actually step up to the crease and swing for some boundaries, we got a cardboard cut-out of a PM holding up a hastily-prepared sign saying: 'Normal Service Will be Resumed Shortly – we apologise for the inconvenience'. Albo, it's time to kick the Trump administration in the groinal area. No further episodes of...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Albanese's big moment a clanger – Message from the Editor
A North Korea nuke is a dangerous assumption
April 7, 2026
Connie Peck describes Annie Jacobsen's book about nuclear war as convincing. But in my view it begins with a dangerous assumption – that North Korea starts the war by sending an ICBM against Washington. This is as presumptuous as suggesting that once Iran gets the bomb, it will immediately drop one on Tel Aviv. Like all countries with nuclear weapons, Pyongyang has them for deterrence. This motive derives most strongly from the way Curtis LeMay bombed the country flat in 1951-53 in vengeance for the Chinese defeating US forces at the end of 1950 when McArthur so unwisely sent them...
Richard Broinowski from Paddington
In response to: Why we avoid thinking about nuclear war - and why we shouldn't should
Power potential
April 7, 2026
How soon before people wake up to the amount of time their car spends parked and the potential of every garage and every power pole to be a charging point for their car at off peak time, all be it at a slow charging rate?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: high-fuel-prices-are-accelerating-interest-
When the heat is really on
April 7, 2026
Further to David Spratt's – as always – excellent article Has Climate Policy-Making Gone Completely Off The Rails? [April 7, 2026]. There is an inferred presumption among politicians and others, often in the media and the progressive advocates of 'green capitalism' that humans will be able to manage or even cope in a 3-degree world. The late Will Steffen, who actually knew what he was talking about, wrote that: Some people say we can adapt due to technology, but that’s a belief system, it is not based on fact. There is no convincing evidence that a large mammal,...
Graeme Drysdale from MOUNT HELEN
In response to: Has Climate Policy-Making Gone Completely Off The Rails?'
The divide between the privileged and others
April 3, 2026
Could it be that voters are finally waking up to the void between: “The Privileged few and the rest of us; The Rich and the well-off; Those whose children attend a “Private School and with children at a private school The landowners and the farmers Those who start / benefit from wars and those who fight the wars.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-fuel-crisis-wont-save-the-coalition-it-
Will this crisis expose the truth about pricing? No
April 3, 2026
Not a quick fix for this crisis but the cost of fuel to the consumer has always been manipulated for the benefit of OPEC, shareholders and influential nations. How many times have we heard in plain sight that OPEC has raised or lowered its production to suit? OPEC Like all businesses are primarily concerned with PROFIT and without proper intervention the consumer /taxpayer will always foot the bill and rouge states will not be tolerated.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: fuel-crisis-exposes-decades-of-policy-failu
Living within the truth
April 3, 2026
Why are most Labor leaders in Australia implicitly and/or explicitly hostile to Palestinians and those who oppose the ethic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians? There is an explanation in Vaclavel Havel's 1979 meditation of political dissent - the nature of suppression and the falsehoods and intimidation that respond to dissent. Havel argued that most of us live in a lie and that, instead, it is possible to live within the truth. Most Labor leaders throughout Australia prefer to live in a lie - that there is international law, that Israel is exempt from this law and ethnic...
David Griffiths from Mordialloc VIC 3195
In response to: We dug up medics in Gaza. A year later, international law remains buried
Who lost our weekend?
April 3, 2026
Not only will we never get an apology from Scott Morrison and the ‘ruined weekend’ farce, an apology will never come from Tim Wilson, Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor who in 2019 posed gleefully in front of a hydrogen-fuelled car. Such was their contempt for electric vehicles (and the push for more renewables) that they instead promoted a most unlikely technology and promoted the myth that EVs (not petrol) would ruin our weekends. Nor will we see an explanation from Taylor or Joyce about the closing of Australian oil refineries. They could admit that, with the oligopolisation of oil, and...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Fuel crisis exposes decades of policy failure
We can cut a deal on Hormuz oil without the US
April 3, 2026
Re Mike Gilligan’s article: Trump is now saying the US doesn’t need Gulf oil, so he says it is up to us to organise supplies ourselves. Pulling together, we, the EU, China, the GCC, Japan and Korea plus other willing parties could negotiate a satisfactory deal with Iran, using our highly experienced diplomats. Trump and his forces and group of inexperienced diplomats should vacate the field and leave it to us to reach a deal with Iran, just as he has suggested.
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Support first, questions later: Australia and the Iran war
Free speech is not absolute
April 3, 2026
What about free speech? people of all stripes exclaim, in many and varied circumstances. Free speech is not the absolute some proclaim. Morally speaking, all speech carries responsibility with it. This is recognised in law. Our hate speech laws are far from perfect but even in making such laws there is the implied as well as expressed belief that free speech does not mean anything goes. And so we have to ask, why did the National Press Club invite the Israeli Ambassador to Australia to speak on its usually respected podium? To listen to the ambassador's denial...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Free speech and antisemitism: drawing the line
Australia must abandon the US now
April 3, 2026
Albanese seems to be cautiously warming Australians up for war. Instead of reinforcing the US' bungled efforts and sacrificing our defence personnel for the sake of Zion and Trump, Australia needs to resign from AUKUS and all other US entanglements right now. Here's why: 1. All countries with US bases are complicit in US actions and obedient to US commands. Australia will never be free and independent till the bases are gone. 2. Much of our weaponry can only be used with US approval, as they can turn off the software. So our defence rests entirely on this untrustworthy former...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Support first, questions later: Australia and the Iran warA war without clear ob
Measuring learning
April 3, 2026
I write to congratulate and thank John Frew for so skilfully and succinctly articulating the missing gap in talking about education and learning. For years in senior education positions, I tried to counter the neoliberal arguments about measuring learning and have done so repeatedly and unsuccessfully. John has captured the essence of context, cultural variation and measurement. Well done John for your magnificent enunciation of the complexity and cultural non-uniformity of teaching and learning in schools that we continue to ignore in our planning. Best wishes Dr Gerald White
Gerald White from Seacliff
In response to: Half the truth: defending public education requires more honesty, not less
Climate disaster will be along any minute now
April 3, 2026
We had a 50 year lead in time, but we built border walls instead of fire breaks and water desalination plants. We bombed oil rich countries instead of switching to renewables to make oil theft unnecessary. We stockpiled weapons instead of digging dams for water storage. We subsidised miners instead of supporting our farmers. We allowed politicians to distract us with false narratives instead of pushing their noses into the issues that matter, because it was easier and we thought it was ‘their job’. We sowed resentment and division amongst ourselves over immigration when it will be ourselves, our children...
Alyssa Aleksanian from Hazelbrook
In response to: Fuel crisis exposes decades of policy failure
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
March 31, 2026
It’s almost laughable how humanity can turn its back on the existential threat presented by our dependence on fossil fuels, our pandering to our baser nature, and our worship of technology for technology’s sake. Once again Julian Cribb draws our attention to the dire straits into which we’ve blithely sailed. Maybe it was always going to be the conclusion of the human experiment. As Peggy Lee hauntingly asked back in the 1960s: Is that all there is? Now we’ve explored deep into the universe and touched the edge of infinity, is our role here on Earth done? Now we’ve...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria
In response to: The greatest danger is not war – it is planetary breakdown
Making preparations
March 31, 2026
Australia’s well known reliance on diesel fuel for long haul transportation and, its remote location at the end of global supply chains has me wondering what governments of all persuasions have been doing in recent years? Surely, with the advent of Covid, the global shocks of the Ukraine War and the increasingly erratic, shoot from the hip style politics coming out of Washington would have been red flags for someone in Canberra that we need to “war game” a range of catastrophic scenarios so if one does, God forbid, occur, there is a national blue print that can be...
Lesley Armstrong from Bathurst NSW
In response to: https://johnmenadue.com/categories/climate/
The effects of hubristic overreach
March 31, 2026
Before the current stage of the Yankee/Zionist war against Iran kicked off, the Straits of Hormuz were open to tankers regardless of their origin. All the big companies mentioned in the article were thriving. The US military umbrella was deemed sufficient to protect that status quo. Then the Yankee/Zionists attacked Iran for no good reason, killing Presidents and school children alike. Immediately Iran closed the Straits to all but non-belligerents, bombed those Gulf monarchies hosting US military bases causing a massive exodus of companies and their money toward Hong Kong, and exposed that military umbrella as being leaky. ...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Iran’s target list: taking the war to multinationals
Decent honourable Australians
March 31, 2026
As Jack so beautifully puts it, in an era of political banality we need examples of what it means to be a decent, honourable and exemplary Australian that is something for us all to strive to emulate. Mickey J was just such an Australian, as was Fred and as is Gabi. May their legacy continue to enrich us culturally, politically and socially!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Mickey J: an Australian always, quietly, making a big difference
A US creation now targeted
March 31, 2026
It should never be forgotten that the government now in Iran that Trump seems so frivolously to wish to change is a direct result of US actions to overturn the first democratically elected government in Iranian history. The US and its ailing satrap the UK overturned the government of Mossadegh in 1953 and imposed their selection on the Iranian people. That selection turned out to be one of the most vicious and violent regimes in the world at the time with its infamous SAVAK secret police who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iranians. Indeed so bad was it...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Trump’s war without purpose is everyone’s problem
Insanity and venality rule
March 31, 2026
Surely it can no longer be contested, apart from the MAGA tin-hat brigade, that the Trump Presidency is a combination of a demented infantile psychopath leading a group of incompetent, alcoholic, misogynistic, brutal religious extremists. Its capacity for rational judgement and coherent thought is literally non-existent. Hegseth is simply the archetype of this band of products of the rapidly increasing fall of the American empire!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Hegseth rebuked for bloodthirsty prayer asking God to bless Iran War
Havin' a lend?
March 31, 2026
James Curran of the US Studies Centre sounds like he was born yesterday. Though making the right noises re the madness of the US/Israeli campaign, he qualifies that by pointing to the mendacity of Iran in the region. Iranian leadership , according to Jim, is sordid, poisonous and demented, quite unlike the west's ally Saudi Arabia apparently. Presumably, such impressions, and the general public shares them, are formed by the media, how else? And in that regard the idealism of the Lipmann quotation should make us all smile if not guffaw: “[T]he news of the day as it...
Terence O'Connell from Paddington
In response to: Trump's War Without Purpose is Everyone's Problem
Time to accept the mantle of climate leadership
March 26, 2026
The news from the Senate inquiry on climate change and energy, that four senior government ministers in a position to take a climate lead are declining to present the climate challenge openly, provides confirmation that the Albanese government is reluctant to make clear the threats that we, as a nation, face. It’s not as if they needed to fear mass resistance to the idea of climate crisis: Spratt cites reports that confirm that the majority think government must do more. It’s as though the government is avoiding any sort of confrontation. We are being swept headlong towards a climate...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Silence facilitates climate disinformation, and the government is complicit
Confusion about antisemitism
March 26, 2026
The article states that those most vocal/committed to opposing genocide in Gaza in Australia, in Britain and elsewhere are not antisemitic, but are instead anti-zionist. Yet the article seems to slide into repeating the accusation that such people are antisemitic. There is reference to surveys produced by pro-Israeli lobby groups with data claiming that antisemitism is on the rise. This is propaganda which unaccountably is not refuted nor analysed. It ignores the reality that the pro-Israel lobby claim all anti-genocidal expression as antisemitism, not as anti the actions of successive Israeli governments.
keith mitchelson from queensland
In response to: The weaponisation of antisemitism is making Jews less safe
Drivers want help to buy electric trucks
March 24, 2026
Pearls and Irritations readers might be interested to know that the Australian Trucking Association (11 industry associations representing 60,000 trucking businesses and 200,000 people working in the road freight sector) backs the move to electric trucks. Before last year’s election the ATA wrote: “The science is in. The world’s greenhouse gas emissions are changing the climate, and a global effort is needed to reduce emissions. . . That’s why the next Australian Government should (among other things) encourage new truck purchasers to buy electric with a voucher scheme covering half the price gap between comparable electric and conventional truck...
Lesley Walker from Northcote
In response to: Australia’s fuel security crisis needs less diesel, not more refineries
The politics of grievance
March 24, 2026
While the Coalition may be “building their own irrelevance”, perhaps it is not via its climate-change denial, as this did not deter last weekend around 22 per cent of South Australians voting One Nation first. The fact that SA is a global leader in renewable energy was not on the minds of voters, just ‘the vibe’ of Pauline Hanson’s politics of grievance. She utterly rejects the science of climate change, believing there is insufficient evidence on which to base catastrophic predictions – never mind overwhelming scientific consensus to the contrary. The 2025 Senate inquiry on Information Integrity on Climate...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Climate denial has deep roots in Coalition politics
Lies and political sleight of hand
March 24, 2026
Once again i find myself yelling at the TV and Netanyahu . When the much praised Israeli missile defence system allowed “not one but two” missiles to hit the ground in Israel Mr Netanyahu was highly critical of the Iranians targeting civilian infrastructure he threatening retaliation I could not help but help but question when retaliation started. Pots calling kettles black . Using a team sport analogy If the other side has found a regular way past the Iron Dome defence system maybe we have gone into extra time and the other side has the ball . ...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: lies-that-fuel-war
Iran War outlook
March 24, 2026
Just a note to say thanks for all your great work. It occurs to me that this article on the Iran War may be of interest to P&I readers. https://kasperbenjamin.substack.com/p/why-the-us-will-lose-to-iran best wishes Pete
Pete Fry from Central Coast NSW 2256
In response to: https://kasperbenjamin.substack.com/p/why-the-us-will-lose-to-iranJust
ACT justice system
March 23, 2026
How unfortunate that the only view of the ACT justice system is given to us by one of the people to profit from its existence. Andrew Fraser (barrister) should declare his interest, and P&I would do well to balance Mr Fraser’s views with those of an independent and trained investigative journalist.
Greg Bray from Sydney
In response to: ACT Justice System
University funding
March 23, 2026
Governments encourage students to participate in higher education. The rationale is expressed in terms which highlight the benefits to the economy and employers. More simply put all of us benefit from a well educated and well qualified workforce. Given that we all benefit does it not follow that we should all contribute to the cost? Furthermore those who benefit most are the corporations or more crudely put those who hold 1 per cent of the wealth. It follows therefore that they should contribute the most. In an ideal world all education is 100 per cent free from cradle to grave....
john tons from adelaide
In response to: Bill Shorten's university proposal
Australia's awful unnecessary US dependence
March 23, 2026
I'm 87 yrs old, Sydney born, now a Canberran. Re world affairs, I cannot overstate my disgust at the sycophantic Australian support (by both ALP and Coalition) for the US / Israeli invasion of Iran. The Netanyahu intent (US backed) seems to be the conversion of the entire Arab region, including Iran, into Israeli / US military dependency. Aus is a Southern continent, geographically remote from Arabia – so why is Albo so desperate to please the US by giving the US and Britain billions of non-refundable Aus $ ? Has our current crop of political leaders been quietly...
Vincent Patulny from Canberra
In response to: Australia’s six pathways to the war with Iran:
The US / Israeli war on Iran and Australians at war
March 23, 2026
This war has been planned for some time with Australia implicitly involved. We could trace back our recent involvement to the visit of Herzog, Israel's President, whose stated purpose was to provide support to Australia’s Jewish community. I suggest that rather than coming as Herzog stated,“in goodwill and with a message that the people of Australia and Israel are close friends and allies since the days of old,” his visit was much more clandestine. It has been confirmed that Herzog, had a secret meeting with Australian Security Intelligence Organisation [ASIO] and Australia’s director general of security, Mike Burgess. ASIO...
Andrea Coney from Port Fairy
In response to: Australia’s six pathways to the war with Iran: Part 1
Non carbon alternative energy sources
March 23, 2026
Many would agree with Bruce Hardy's assertion that to achieve non carbon energy independence Australia is to draw upon the natural resources we have an abundance of. it's natural resources. However, to limit these to solar and wind is myopic, prejudiced and ignores other important and relevant resources such as hydropower, green hydrogen & geothermal amongst others . Recognition and promotion of these alternatives, particularly green hydrogen where is Australia is making substantial contribution, development and progress. Atomic energy is the most obvious but unbalanced and unjustified hysteria needs to be revisited and objectively debated and assessed. Perhaps...
Peter Helene from Big Hill NSW 2579 Australia
In response to: Australia's Fuel Security Crisis needs less diesel by Bruce Hardy
Gone is the illusion of sovereignty and democracy
March 23, 2026
On nowhere near the scale and at a local level but I draw your attention to the victory speech of the Premier when he said that his govt was pro business, his govt was committed to collaboration with the private sector. Like AUKUS this is a loss of sovereignty that has lead to all the problems that Australians now face – crisis' in schools, hospitals, aged care, public transport, health insurance, power generation, banking, social housing etc. All sacrificed on the alter of PROMISED lower taxes and improved services only to achieve far worse services, higher public costs, poverty and...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: aukus-so-many-questions-so-few-answers/?utm
Private health insurance isn't working
March 23, 2026
The author has hit the nail on the head by suggesting the Singapore model. It offers the fair dinkum choice in the truest sense of the free market while affording total control by the citizen. What we have is a guided and pseudo choice(s) to benefit vested interests and lobby groups. In addition,our system has the support of the political class who misguidedly subscribes to extremist free market idealogy without pragmatism. The politicians are uncomfortable learning good and beneficial ideas from ASEAN (non-western) countries despite making statements (lip service) that Oz is part of Asia and are friends...
Cjeng Toh from Melbourne
In response to: Private Health Insurance isn't working
David Solomon 1, Tom Hughes 0
March 23, 2026
Thank you, Andrew Fraser, for tickling the old memory bank. As a very young junior member of staff at the National Library, I was tasked to take and manage the NLA's bound copies of the Canberra Times to Court in the Gorton defamation case – nothing less than originals was acceptable. Barrister for the plaintiff was Tom Hughes QC – a man whose pomposity exceeded even the best of Charles Laughton in full flight. Hughes played the gallery shamelessly, with palpable arrogance. David Solomon in the witness stand; Hughes leaned forward, his robe and QC dribble-bibble swinging...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: The wisdom of David Solomon (plus priceless insights, grace and humour)
Avoiding misinformation
March 23, 2026
Producing a daily newsletter 24/7 is an enormous task and I am an admirer. However, I do not expect to read in Pearls and Irritations the same type of inaccuracies that appear in the legacy press. The following article should have received a minor edit. George Browning’s article The dangerous stories driving war in Iran contained the following statement: The stories that people and nations tell themselves have enormous consequences. Vladimir Putin tells himself that the natural jurisdiction of the Russian communist party is the area that approximates to the old Soviet Union. Anything less than that is, in his story,...
Berenice Nyland from St Kilda
In response to: The dangerous stories driving Iran
The common good
March 20, 2026
Commendable as it is, the 'common good' has a poor history in democratic institutions, the strength of which depends on vigorous debate designed to take policy battles off the street. Common good inclinations, encouraging collaborative initiatives described as corporatist, often miss out on this realisation as opponents strive towards agreement around the centre. Catholic political parties, following 'Quadragesimo Anno', were 'common good' entities, which classically failed to address complex social problems facing global polities at the time. In the US, Congress agreed to an unprecedented suspension of the Constitution to enable President Roosevelt to push through his much-needed New Deal....
Dr Michael FURTADO from Brisbane, Qld.
In response to: Reclaiming the common good from neoliberalism
The moral error of exceptionalism
March 20, 2026
In 2007 a groundbreaking work by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt burst onto the world. The Israel Lobby was the book's title, and for the first time the fact of an overpowering force at work behind the scenes in US foreign policy became mainstream. Underpinning that force is the moral error of exceptionalism. It means we do not all stand equal before the law. Historically it means we study the Holocaust but memory hole the Nakba. In the present it gives us Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran. These are war crimes and crimes against humanity, perhaps quaint...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: From hubris to holy war – the dangerous logic behind the Iran conflict
Reform taxation to strengthen social cohesion
March 20, 2026
Inheritance perpetuates financial inequality. With current taxation and policy settings this inequality is set to grow substantially over coming decades. This will encourage social instability as society is divided more permanently into the haves and have-nots. There are two ways in which this situation can be alleviated. Firstly, government must remove those taxation benefits designed to benefit those who already have capital wealth – negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Had government not foregone taxation revenue through granting those concessions, and invested equivalent amounts directly into social housing instead, our society might look very different today....
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Australia’s great wealth transfer divide isn’t between generations
Fuel security crossroads
March 20, 2026
Australia is at a crossroads of fuel security. Recent reporting by Isobel Roe shows the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is considering new levies on gas companies and reforms to resource taxation in response to the Middle East war. While taxing profits may provide short-term relief, it does not address the core issue. Australia remains dangerously dependent on imported fuel, leaving us exposed to global shocks, price spikes and supply disruptions, as seen in recent surging demand and panic buying. We have a choice in how we respond. We can look backward and consider rebuilding...
Julia Paxino from Beaumaris, Victoria 3193
In response to: Australia’s fuel security crisis needs less diesel, not more refineries
Playground politics
March 19, 2026
Australian politics has become an insular playground game of political personality gangs: jostling individuals angling to retain their seat without any thought of their constituents needs or understanding of their electorates views. Policies have become Trumpian sound bite one liners regurgitated to tamed reporters who won’t question the spin. As far as I can see, the only fully costed policies, displaying any depth or understanding of the issues, emanate from the Greens. Let’s hope they can counter the last two decades of false propaganda from the major parties, and avoid falling victim to the in-house Labor / Liberal preference deals...
Alyssa Aleksanian from Hazelbrook
In response to: Grandstanding government right off-side – Message from the Editor
Words from a forgotten man
March 19, 2026
PM Albanese has expressed his strong support for the US and Israel in their illegal war on Iran. Just to refresh his memory here's what he said about the illegal war on Iraq in 2003. Our government is about to redefine us in the eyes of the world as willing backers of US militarism… This is an unjust war without UN backing. Iraq does not represent a threat to Australia. What does that say about the sort of nation that we are? We are a multicultural nation, and yet here we are sending a message, particularly to the Islamic...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: After the Iran war, Gulf nations face tough decisions on the US
Can the government stand up to the fossil fuel lobby?
March 19, 2026
As luck would have it, the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group’s recent open letter linking climate change and “fossil fuel use and subsidies” appeared the day after The Australia Institute’s latest report on these subsidies. AI found that in 2025-26 our governments handed $16.3 billion to “some of the biggest, most profitable companies in Australia at a time when ordinary Australians are struggling with surging petrol and electricity prices”. Meanwhile, a significant majority of voters of all persuasions are calling for a 25 per cent gas export levy. A levy on big polluters – to pay for the...
Lesley Walker from Northcote
In response to: Former defence leaders say oil wars threaten our security, and climate change de
Resistance is not terrorism
March 19, 2026
At last, an Australian, Paul Heywood Smith, has been brave enough to describe Hezbollah and Hamas for what they are – resistance groups AND a media organisation has been brave enough to publish! Israeli-American activist Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son similarly refers to Hamas as ‘freedom fighters.’
Judy Attwood from Brisbane
In response to: Iran war – controlling the narrative
Action, not more reports or more expert advice
March 19, 2026
The authors of this piece can’t understand why there is so much opposition to and complacency about their dire warnings. Well, look at their three suggestions. • The first will be read as “Establish another bureaucratic body with jobs and status for our mates” • The second as “Produce a document for politicians to read” • And the third as “Create more jobs for our mates to produce more alarmist reports – that will not be acted upon so we’ll need more bureaucratic bodies and more reports” Nothing about mitigating risks (Clive Hamilton style) with, for example,...
Keith Thomas from Canberra
In response to: Former defence leaders say oil wars threaten our security, and climate change de