The Weekly

April 20, 2026

Thanks for another engaging Pearls and Irritations.

My friend George Browning ignores some of the big picture realpolitik in his piece, including that the extreme Islamist Iranian regime is an existential threat to Israel, the region and beyond through its terrorist proxies and its nuclear ambitions, Trump’s clear military success so far and its potential to reshape the Middle East for the better. Kos Samaras makes some interesting points about pivoting the Libs’ immigration policy attack to the clear negative impacts of mass migration, but perhaps misses a point that when people blame “The Government “ in surveys rather than “immigration”

Per se they are often referring to negligent immigration policies of “The Government’, and he also fails to recognise that there is both a moral imperative, as well as an electoral one, to address the serious breakdown of social cohesion since Labor was elected before and after the Bondi Massacre.

Bruce Chapman is ‘on the money” on the error of the Libs’ Job Ready Graduate Scheme but fails to mention Labor promised to reform it in the 2022 election campaign, but four years later has failed to do so - further adding to a litany of broken promises by Albanese.