Letters to the Editor
The coming energy crisis
March 12, 2026
I am grateful to Eugene Doyle for spelling out the details of the coming energy shock arising from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It's a case of batten down the hatches, though I'm not sure the Albanese government fully understands the gravity of the crisis at hand. Energy analyst Matt Mushalik wrote to his local federal MP Jerome Laxale recommending or noting the following: (1) Reduce or stop permanent migration. Every migrant will increase the length of petrol lines and demand for goods in shopping centres. (2) Diesel is most important. Government must think of priorities. Agriculture,...
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: Going for the jugular – the energy shock is coming
Albo's cowardice is painting a target on our backs
March 12, 2026
The comment by Paul Dibb that: “The joint US–Australia intelligence facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs will be by far China’s most important and time-urgent nuclear target. should send an ice-spike of fear down Albanese's backbone, if indeed he has such a thing. Many years ago, I was a student at ANU of what is now known as geopolitics and Des Ball was one of my tutors. I have written of this before but it needs repetition. Pine Gap is unquestionably a highly prime target for any entity involved in combat with the USA that has the...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: How US bases make Australia part of the Iran war
Gas companies are ripping us off
March 11, 2026
Thank you to Peter Sainsbury for shining a light on Australia’s LNG exporters, who are reaping windfall profits from conflict in the Middle East. Companies such as Santos and Woodside have played a major role in making Australia the second‑largest exporter of climate pollution globally. The resulting climate impacts – intensifying floods, fires and heatwaves – are hitting communities hard, yet the public receives very little benefit from the gas being extracted. Senator David Pocock has revealed that the beer excise brings in more revenue than the petroleum resource rent tax. This is deeply unfair. When the Albanese government curb...
Amy Hiller from Melbourne, Victoria
In response to: Environment: A hotter Middle East, a warming Arctic and heatwaves that won't ret
Australian doomcasters
March 11, 2026
The club of Australian doom forecasters that come out of the woodwork every so often to predict the end of civilisation as we know it, can always be relied upon to do their acts on cue for their masters in the MSPO (Main stream propaganda organs) and the MIC (Military-Industrial complex) when orders for new military hardware and are not doing so well and when the Murdoch and SMH/Age sewers want to frighten the bejesus out of the bewildered herd to boost their readership and to control the public mind. But like Chicken Little they have done it so often...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Three years on, where is the China war we were warned of?
Touche!
March 11, 2026
In his inimitable combative style Keating disembowels the pompous and self-aggrandising scribbler Hartcher. It really is a tribute to the incapacity of the new ownership of the SMH and The Age to cope with the role of the Fourth Estate, to hold power to account and to report honestly and without bias. Paul eviscerates them forensically!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Herald, Age news abuse shamefully exposed
Thanks to John Menadue on the 'Red Alert' anniversary
March 10, 2026
Three years since 'Red Alert' marks the third anniversary of my consigning mainstream newspapers (as they once were) to oblivion. Yes, I still read bits, so I know what others are talking about, and almost always readers' letters for a (biased) selection of community views. Free-to-air TV news is no better. (I won't mention S**.) So for factual content, expanded context, informed commentary, as little bias as possible (because we're all biased to some degree), then I choose alternative news media, all online. For me, Pearls and Irritations leads the pack. There are a few others I read more...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Message from the Editor, March 7, 2026
Robowar
March 10, 2026
Re Donald Rothwell’s article: Rubio said that the US launched an armed attack on Iran because Israel was going to. After Penny Wong’s initial hosedown, we find Australian sailors embedded in a US submarine, and our military in Bahrain involved. They are committed to Trump and Hegseth-rules war without any say from us, because (Richard Marles) we weren't warned in advance. So we couldn't say no. The submarine sinks an Iranian vessel inside Sri Lanka's EEZ, communications with the submarine going through Harold Holt station at Exmouth, WA run by our government's CASG. Not even the murder of 160 schoolgirls in Minab,...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: International law or ‘might is right’? Australia’s choice on Iran
Antisemitisim Royal Commission and free speech
March 10, 2026
I made a submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion with an emphasis on the inadequacy of the limits of the IHRA definition of antisemitism and suggested that the Royal Commission should examine, instead, the alternative Jerusalem Declaration which has an equal focus on antisemitism and free speech. Apparently the Commissioner has already declared and decided that the controversial IHRA definition is not controversial – indicating the Commission has already decided to join the campaign of Zionists and Labor government to censor free speech about Israel's apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
David Griffiths from Mordialloc, Victoria 3195
In response to: nia Bell, the head of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion,
An Australian Pledge
March 10, 2026
I wonder about the lack of respect we seem to be developing with differing opinions others hold. It was even highlighted in parliament the other day. There is also the amount of litter and rubbish that is now spreading across the land. I also have seen a lot of information on how indoctrination takes hold. So I have thought why not begin our country's own indoctrination? I'd love people's ideas – I have tried not to make it to complex. Hand on heart We Australians believe that all of us have the right to live in harmony, respecting...
Peter Bolton from nsw
In response to: An Australian Pledge
Thank you, Gareth Evans
March 10, 2026
Thank you, Gareth for your clear-eyed discussion of the nuances of legitimacy and illegality of war. I’ve been dismayed (to say the least) by the line being trod by the Australian government to not upset Donald Trump. I’ve written to the Prime Minister, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister to say the same. David Pope’s ‘tits on a bull’ cartoon expressed my sentiments very nicely. Thanks Pearls and Irritations for publishing thoughtful and challenging pieces.
Leah Nichles from Brisbane
In response to: When is an illegal war morally defensible?
Which flag Tony and Angus ?
March 10, 2026
While I don't have an intimate knowledge of T Abbott or A Taylor's family history's but on their performance in Parliament and in particular when leading the charge of Opposition for opposition sake i would be very surprised if their ancestors fought under the Southern Cross flag and not at all surprised that the fought under the Union Jack as second son commission purchased officers. I doubt they consider the Southern Cross flag as Australian and I have no doubt that they would be leading the charge against changing our out dated colonial flag and as such they should keep...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-southern-cross
Someone has put the blinkers on us
March 10, 2026
All of this recent talk of a fractured world order is not new. The United Nations-brokered Cold War was replaced by a uni-polar moment. That is now evolving into a dance of hegemons. Calls for like-minded middle powers such as Canada and Australia to find common cause make common sense. Five Eyes will remain our default setting through ties of history, culture and language, but that needn't be all we see. BRICS has also emerged as a result of the fractured world-as-was order. It offers an alternative way forward. It allows like-minded countries, including some middle and some emerging powers,...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Canada and Australia: working together – without the US
Gareth Evans on morality
March 10, 2026
Dear Gareth. As someone who has been arrested multiple times for acts of peaceful, civil disobedience, I concur with Gareth Evans that conscience and morality sometimes demand that one ignore the law, though one expects to be prosecuted regardless. That's the trade-off a moral man agrees to when he commits the offence. If you believe in your cause, then you must be prepared to wear the punishment and not care, for your cause is just. But what if governments wilfully break the law in pursuit of immoral, inhuman, despicable aims? If a government illegally maintained diplomatic, political,...
Rick Pass from Yarrawonga, Vic, Yorta Yorta country.
In response to: When is an illegal war morally defensible?
Monarchy is 'Cruel and Unusual Punishment'
March 10, 2026
Jenny Hocking convincingly lays out the social, political and constitutional problems with granting power and privilege to the members of the British royal family. But there is another side to the case against the existence of a hereditary monarchy. Quite simply, it ruins lives. Princess Margaret was forbidden to marry a divorced RAF Group Captain (who was posted overseas to get him out of the way). Prince Charles was not permitted to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles but was pressed into a contrived marriage with Diana Spencer. Prince Harry was hounded out of the royal family, in part for his choice...
Hugh Smith from Canberra
In response to: 'Rude, arrogant and entitled’: ex-Prince Andrew’s arrest is the inevitable concl
Promoting death and destruction
March 10, 2026
While in P&I Refaat Ibrahim discusses the duplicity of Israel and the US in negotiations with Iran, over in the mainstream media, The Age has the attitude-shaping headline Australia could help defend gulf states against Iran:Wong. More dishonesty. Iran is the baddie, many will believe. While the governance of Iran was – we have to say 'was' – horrific, it is reliably reported that Iran was sincere and cooperative in its cut-short negotiations. The only honest broker at the table was attacked by the other two. So, that headline ... Shouldn't we be defending Iran from attack? Isn't calling...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Diplomacy as cover – how the road to war with Iran was paved
US attacking unarmed vessels
March 10, 2026
This Iranian vessel was participating at the invitation of India in a mock battle exercise along with vessels of other friendly nations with India, including the US. As the US well knows the condition for vessels so participating is that they be unarmed to avoid errors. The US knew that but went ahead to torpedo the Iranian vessel off the coast of Sri Lanka. Hegseth's grotesque boasting about a US nuclear powered submarines attacking an unarmed vessel and killing nearly 100 sailors as though it were some sort of achievement is a monstrous illustration of the moral character of the...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Wong took it at face value (dare one ever do otherwise with the Trump administra
Yes but FIFA has given its Peace Prize...
March 10, 2026
You might point out Jack to the Parliament House insider who passed on the suggestion made by a senior and influential minister that Australia nominate the Trump for the Nobel peace Prize, that the Government's public affirmation of Socceroo participation in the forthcoming FIFA jamboree, will do enough to send the right signals to the White House, to the Felon and his gang, that Australian fealty is assured to the one who decreed (Jan 20, 2025) that his proudest legacy will be that of peace-maker. Since the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize that inauguration promise has surely been fulfilled!
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Cowardice and kowtowing risk Australia becoming the fall guy in Trump’s wars and
Free speech for some, not all
March 4, 2026
Ironic that those who champion free speech seemingly feel threatened by letters and articles submitted for publication that are critical or offer counter views. Bit like the way the Murdoch media operate.
Simon Tatz from Melbourne
In response to: General commentd
Oil wars
March 4, 2026
By abolishing environmental laws in the USA and promoting fossil fuels, Trump is going to kill 10,000s of Americans. He doesn't care. But the promotion of oil gives a clue as to who is really pulling his strings – and why he is engaged in or threatening all these new conflicts – Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Canada. It's all about oil. As usual. Only this time Trump has got it sadly wrong. By cementing the US to an oil economy he has made China the technology world leader – and the rest of the world will follow their low-cost...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Trump’s dangerous war without consent
Capital Gains Tax
March 4, 2026
Perhaps instead of reducing the CGT rate, might it be easier and more acceptable to reduce the number of properties that it can be claimed on? For instance, commence an annual reduction of the number of claimable properties from 10 and above, to eight then six then four, finally settling at two allowable properties. This would seem to leave small investors unaffected, and be more politically acceptable to them. It would also seem to be easy to implement, understandable by accountants, property owners, and politicians.
Michael Dwyer from Brisbane
In response to: How Australia should fix capital gains tax
Myth making
March 4, 2026
The sanctity of both John Howard and Tony Abbot has become an article of faith among the right. Rewrite our history so that our values are more closely aligned to that of the USA. It will result in a national lurch to the right. Were the Liberal Party to embrace the values of the Teals the wind would be taken out of the far right and we could move back to some civilised discourse that seeks to find solutions for all Australians.
john tons from adelaide
In response to: How John Howard reshaped Australia – and not for the better
Albo's mother's bed
March 4, 2026
Anthony Albanese was born in 1963. That was a hard time for a young unmarried woman to find herself unexpectedly pregnant, especially if she was Catholic. His mother was probably pressured by the nuns to give up her baby for adoption. But she didn't – she had made her bed, and she lay on it. She kept him - and he became Prime Minister of Australia. What would his mother think now, of his refusal to give 23 little Australians a chance in life like he had, and their mothers a chance to redeem themselves with love? Time...
Gayle Davies from Armidale, NSW
In response to: Albo's decision will follow him into the history books and define us too
Albanese's shallow male chauvinism is not his main failing
March 4, 2026
This article brings up the issue of Albanese's Australian legacy. It will not be pretty. Aside from the petty comments about Australian women trapped in Syria, it will also include misogynistic comments about difficult women closer to home. But Albanese's shallow male chauvinism is not his main failing. Our PM's main failing is his utter lack of imagination when looking at the broader geopolitical situation. He seems to be trapped in an outdated Anglo/Zionist interpretation of the world, ignoring a glaringly obvious sea change in global affairs. This sea change, not just generational but millennial in scope, is unfolding with us or...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Albanese’s decision will follow him into the history books – and define us too
Welcome to Albanese's dog-eat-dog lawless world
March 4, 2026
Jack Waterford rightly criticises the Prime Minister for denying their rights as citizens to the Australian women and children in Syrian detention camps. Albanese said they had made their beds so had to lie in them, so he'd obviously given the matter 'some' thought. But given he won the dubious honour of being the first world leader to voice support for the illegal US attack on Iran, you have to wonder if he gave it any thought at all. Australian and international laws might be flawed but they do serve as boundaries to behaviour beyond which people and...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Albanese’s decision will follow him into the history books – and define us too
Definition of antisemitism
March 4, 2026
As Jeffrey Loewenstein states, the adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism by the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is ‘highly contentious’. Because the definition lacks clarity and is open to conflicting interpretations, the IHRA website contains, together with the vague definition, the statement “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”. But the website also contains 11 alleged ‘examples’ of antisemitism, several of which contradict the reassuring statement. Loewenstein’s article does not discuss the specific contradictions, however I've offered an analysis in Independent Australia (30/1/2026).
Mark Diesendorf from BEROWRA HEIGHTS NSW
In response to: Royal Commission gets off on the wrong foot
What a perfect summary of the ills of Howard
March 2, 2026
What a brilliant summary by Crispin Hull. I would only have added that he killed the chance of Australia becoming a republic in 2001, an achievement that most certainly would have occurred if Keating had won (assuming Howard would then, discredited, been replaced by a republican 'Liberal' such as Costello). In doing so, he denied us the opportunity now, or rather, the prospect of having had a quarter century to grow up and mature in confidence, which likely would have resulted in us NOT getting involved in myriad foreign wars, not delving deeper and deeper into the ANZUS...
Wes Mason from Gisborne
In response to: Howard Changed Australia and Not for the better
PM's apparent Chinese bomb threat
March 2, 2026
Regarding the forced evacuation of the Prime Minister from The Lodge owing to a bomb threat found to be false, it is understandable that there is much gnashing of teeth in the wake of the horrific events in Bondi recently. Security forces are naturally on hyper alert. Without wanting to diminish the threat, and as a person who attends numerous and varied dance performances and rates them, it would not surprise me if Shen Yun are struggling to sell tickets. The national ballet company of China (Zhong Guo Ballet Wu) is a better bet if you're looking for...
Michael Stanley from 12/28 Woods Street
In response to: Shen Yun and Falun Gong – belief, propaganda and division
Politicians are irresponsible, not dumb
March 2, 2026
No doubt Julian Cribb's tongue was firmly planted in his cheek in arguing that algae are smarter than politicians, nevertheless, his thesis was flawed. Algae, unlike politicians, cannot control their environment. They survived the various mass extinction events, not because they were smart, but because of the concept of survival of the fittest, that is, there were some species that were better adapted to the changed conditions and could survive and reproduce. Nevertheless, it is an amusing thought, or depressing, if you think too much about it. How on earth do Liberals, Nationals and One Nation reject the net...
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: Is algae smarter than politicians?
Nothing to see here!
March 2, 2026
In a functioning democracy this appointment would not happen! In an oligarchy it is perfectly natural. As the unreformed and utterly corrupt US financial system springs leaks on a daily basis this is a perfectly to be expected appointment. It also hastens the expected denouement!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: ‘Arsonist as Fire Chief’: Fed appoints Wall Street lobbyist to key bank oversigh
Feudalism and favour!
March 2, 2026
It appears from history that feudalism was followed by a long and difficult road to democracy in Britain. The road had many difficulties as the landed Aristocracy sought at every turn to halt and reverse that progress to a governance of the people, for the people and by the people. In the end Britain ended up with a dog's breakfast of democracy tainted by substantial remnants of Feudalism. One of these was an inherited royalty without accountability to the people but with substantial powers to frustrate the operation of that democracy, along with an upper House composed mainly of...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: From Whitlam to Andrew – the Palace and the politics of concealment
US Israeli bad faith
March 2, 2026
Alison Broinowski’s brink is now crossed. The US has launched a second war within a year on Iran without Congressional approval, and while it was to meet Iran again in Vienna for further talks. Bessent was clear that the US deliberately created economic destabilisation in Iran. Further, the UK just said it would not allow UK airbases to be used by the US for a war on Iran, then allowed US F22s flying to Israel to be staged through RAF Lakenheath. We have all seen the picture of Trump, Rubio, Vance and Ratcliffe watching a screen while 80 people...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Iran on the brink
Thank God for difficult women!
March 2, 2026
Janine Henry gets it exactly right in articulating the meaning of women being pigeon-holed as difficult. When women heard Grace Tame described as difficult, we knew it was a put-down. The Prime Minister didn't mis-speak or really mean something else. He was putting a courageous, outspoken woman into what he deemed her proper, lesser place. I've bought my Difficult Woman tee-shirt. It's going to get a lot of wear.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Difficult women, comfortable power
Has Michael McKinley not noticed Trump?
March 2, 2026
The article by Michael McKinley, rehearsing familiar pro-Russian narratives about the US fighting to the last Ukrainian would have been comprehensible, even if wrong, before 2025. But if Ukrainians were being dragged into a war they didn't want, they would have settled when Trump changed sides. In fact, they understand that Putin will settle for nothing less conquest and continue to defend themselves, without the limited and grudging help they received from Biden. The author, like Putin and Trump, can only see things through the lens of great power conflict, in which the US is pulling all the strings....
John Quiggin from Queensland
In response to: The Russia–Ukraine war: Australia’s unanswered questions
Hansonites are amongst us and they vote
February 26, 2026
As much as we might wish to not accept it, the fact is that there are 'people' like Hanson, of the 'I fear to be in Lakemba' brigade. After all, she is a carbon-based life form. Our multicultural society is, for someone who grew up in the early 1950s when Italians and Greeks were 'wogs' and fit only to be employed as manual labourers, a daily joy. Evenings in Lakemba during Ramadan are just a delight – not only for culinary wonderfulness but just as a warm and wonderful evening doing living on the street. I have...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Let’s not turn back the clock on immigration
Assertions are not evidence of a crime
February 26, 2026
In Foster's piece, he mentions the news that Alexei Navalny was ended by the Russians using Dart Frog toxin. The REAL news was that was an assertion 'constructed' by the British, and presented at the Munich Security Conference, with four other NATO nations standing with the British at the presser. Not a scrap of evidence to back the assertion was provided - NONE - and no questions were entertained. Not long after Navalny expired, then Ukraine intel chief (and now Zelensky's Chief of Staff) Budanov stated; I don't like to disappoint, but Navalny died of natural causes due to a...
David Thompson from CLAYTON
In response to: A history of assassination reveals how ‘targeted killings’ became an extension o
Do some mothers matter more than others?
February 26, 2026
Either everyone matters or no one matters. That sounds simple enough, but you wouldn't know it from following the news. For example, we have on the one hand Zionists in Israel committing murder on live-stream, and yet any criticism has to be carefully filtered to avoid the dreaded charge of antisemitism. With that obligatory filtering in mind, are there Australian citizens fighting for the IDF in Gaza? If there are, will they be welcomed home once they weary of killing Palestinians? On the other hand we have Australian women and children being passed around like hot potatoes in Syria because no...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Bring these Australian children home, PM. They did not make their own beds
What’s the difference?
February 26, 2026
Stella Yee’s article makes me wonder, what’s the difference between Iran’s approach and Australia’s approach on freedom of expression, free speech and the right to demonstrate? The difference is that one country’s name starts with “I” and the other’s….
Stelios Piakis from NSW
In response to: Whose rights and liberties I respect
Leadership or laxity
February 26, 2026
Good questions sincerely asked by Andrew seem utterly unlikely to be answered persuasively by a government that can be characterised as power without purpose. Albanese seems so smitten by the idea of power that he is unable to exercise it with courageous leadership. I'd like to be wrong on this, but don't think I will be!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Could old rivalries spur Albanese to act on human rights?
Death or dishonour await!
February 26, 2026
The reality is that most, if not all, of these recruits, could well be subsequently classified by future decisions of the ICC or ICJ as mercenaries and thus will subject to international law relating to the treatment of mercenaries. Many of them may have been convinced by the honeyed words of Israeli recruiters that their cause is a just one, despite the already existing conclusions of both courts and the UN General Assembly, the association of Genocide scholars, all the major world human rights groups, the Special Rapporteur and the UN Commission into what is happening in Gaza and the...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Globalisation of occupation: when genocide becomes an international project
Rights and liberties
February 26, 2026
Stella Yee's article is very good. However, it has the same fault as nearly all media interest in this subject and Gaza, Palestine, the West Bank, and Israel. Anyone reading or watching the usual pieces could be forgiven for believing that these trouble started on 7 October 2023, or with the Bondi outrage. It started almost 100 years ago when Zionist terrorist gangs fought against the British Mandate for Palestine, and terrorised the Palestinians living there since before the Romans evicted most of the Jewish population around AD70. In 1947, following the Balfour Declaration of 1915 proposing a...
Terry Stanton from PORT MACQUARIE
In response to: Whose Rights and Liberties I respect by Stella Yee
Serving ISIS or IDF: no moral equivalence?
February 26, 2026
Refaat Ibrahim's article provides all the information and asks all the necessary questions. It should not be necessary to repeat the data nor the commentary. And yet, we have not only the repugnant usual suspects of the RWNJ political coterie but the conscientiously-excised PM Albanese casting the entire families of the radicalised ISIS expatriate idiots into the pit of Hell. Fair enough treatment for the patriarchs who took their families into the depths of harm's way. All 35 of them. But where is the equivalent condemnation of the more than 600 Australian Jews who joined the IDF?...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Globalisation of occupation: when genocide becomes an international project
Deja vu re Palestine
February 26, 2026
Refaat Ibrahim does well to point out how the “ceasefire” in Palestine has reduced the world’s attention to the plight of the Palestinians. But 400 Palestinian villages were emptied of 720,000 Palestinians in the Nakba, and now after the latest war, they live in a country of widespread destruction. Northeast Palestine is being eaten up by Israeli settlers. There is a Board of Peace but without Palestinian government involvement. The area within the Yellow Line in Southwest Palestine keeps shrinking. Why the title deja vu? Well, we have habit of forgetting easily, even events in Palestine twelve years ago. I...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: The ceasefire as a weapon: the genocide in Gaza continues in silence
It’s all too easy with Albanese
February 26, 2026
To hear Mark Carney speak at Davos and to follow his actions in the name of world order and Canadian sovereignty fills one with hope. To compare the political timidity – and that’s putting it mildly – of the Albanese government should fill Australians with envy and shame. Let’s hope the Canadian prime minister’s visit triggers a damascene moment in our indolent government and waken the nation’s electorate from its apathy. From its acquiesce to the shameful Morrison AUKUS sham to its indulgence of the Canberra lobbyist regime, this current administration has abdicated regard for and responsibility to the national...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Carney and Albanese and the collapse of global order?
What was Albanese thinking?
February 26, 2026
Stella Yee, in her article on the aftermath of the Bondi shootings, exposes how wrong it was to invite the Israeli president to Australia. It has led to greater hostility between sections of our community and consequential restriction of our freedoms. By calling Herzog the Jewish community's head of state, Albanese has not only insulted a large portion of Australian Jews, but he has played into the hands of antisemites who view Jews as one entity. Many prominent Australian Jews have voiced their opposition to the Israeli government and the devastation and death it has wrought in Gaza. And many...
Al Turley from Doncaster Vic.
In response to: Whose Rights and Liberties I Respect
Never stop digging, Albo
February 26, 2026
And right on cue, Albo continues digging hole(s) that Waterford mentions, with added chocolate sprinkles. Just today he continues his attack on the women and children trying to escape ISIS incarceration and misery, still without the slightest recognition of the now estimated 80,000 deaths by genocide in Gaza – of which around 40 per cent are now estimated to be women, children and the elderly. and that does not include the many, many thousands whose lives are now and for the future, severely crippled/shortened. Brave, Brave Sir Albo. Who has now attacked David Pocock for daring to raise...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Albanese’s real opponent is not Angus Taylor
Not all brown people are Muslim
February 26, 2026
I am getting tired of having to say I'm Buddhist to everyone. I was born in Sri Lanka which is a Buddhist country and I've extensively studied Buddhist and Hindu scripture. I'm tired of people telling me that they like Muslims, before ascertaining my religion. I quickly correct that I'm Buddhist and they never acknowledge this but continue their rant. I have Muslim friends in Australia and UK, but I object to being put into their bucket. I won't hold out hope that you'll do an article pointing out that not all brown people are Muslim,...
Dan Wild from Sydney
In response to: errorism – a blow back from western violence in Muslim countrieshttps://johnmena
The gift that keeps on giving
February 26, 2026
Never forget he also gave Australia Tony Abbott.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: how-john-howard-reshaped-australia-not-for-
Naming the guilty
February 26, 2026
John's article has the temerity to name western responsibility for the vast growth of terrorism around the planet. Both that terrorism committed directly by the west, which incidentally has a long and bloody pedigree stretching back to the creation of those western colonial empires, and the terrorism created in the Islamic world by our hubris, greed and sheer stupidity, are direct consequences of a western racism and insidious belief in Caucasion superiority over the rest of humanity. These are all markers of an empire in terminal decline. At several isolated historical points we could reasonably have claimed to have...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Terrorism – a blow back from western violence in Muslim countries
Mid-century fundamentalist Methodism in practice
February 26, 2026
One thing is clear about John Howard – his approach to the world was shaped by a childhood exposed to a narrow fundamentalist Methodism. Even the rare good he did in response to the Port Arthur shootings, came out of that rigid moralism that brooked no opposition. His rule reflected a hearkening back to a mythical past that was ill-suited to the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first. Twenty-first century Australians will continue to pay for that mythologizing of a 19th century religious certitude.
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: How John Howard reshaped Australia – and not for the better