Letters to the Editor
A joyous and solemn occasion
August 7, 2025
A really heartwarming celebration by Alison of the solidarity demonstrated on Sunday by a massive and truly heterogeneous multicultural event. It represents civilisation at its best, compassionate, concerned, prepared to stand up for the values our leaders so often promote, but so much less frequently demonstrate. Minns demonstrated those leadership failures pretty clearly in his opposition to the expression of the people's will. His position on the genocide occurring in Gaza has brought shame on the political party whose membership simply doesn't share his timidity and lack of moral leadership. Thank you Alison for a wonderful summary of...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Watermelons in the rain
We have the knowledge, we lack the will
August 7, 2025
Irene Watson quotes Aime Cesaire: A civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilisation to introduce her study of South Australia’s algal bloom. The causes she cites are of pollution: carbon building in the atmosphere bringing increased water temperatures, and nutrient-laden run-offs in the water feeding algal growth. Enabled through weak environmental legislation which, as she says, is always subservient to economic interests, the over-exploitation of our natural environment foretells its continuing decline: floods, droughts, heatwaves, famines, fish kills, extinctions, and more. The problems we face in South Australia are just the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Algal bloom: first peoples ngamath-sea country
Palestinian statehood
August 7, 2025
It is interesting that most Australian anti-genocide commentators, who have recently written about the shift in Western countries such as France, Canada and the UK to recognise Palestine, and urge Australia to follow suit, do not seem to consider the views expressed by non-Western commentators located on the ground in the Middle East, who discuss such issues in depth in publications such as The Cradle, Middle East Eye, Palestine Chronicle and Mondoweiss, for example. These commentators, who have in-depth experience and detailed knowledge of regional affairs, are very wary of the fine print in the proposals of Macron, and...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: Palestine recognised
Competitive Neutrality – the obstacle
August 7, 2025
Has the author, Stewart Sweeney, not heard of Competitive Neutrality? It is a policy adopted by all levels of Australian Governments — in the late 1990s — that prohibits us using such competitive advantages as we — through our governments — may possess in competition with the private sector; it would be unfair. I believe that it was the adoption of this policy — backed by I know not what — that caused local authorities to stop providing social housing and today explains the convoluted finances of the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Restoration Fund. We...
Colin Cook from Henley Beach
In response to: Bringing government back - but not all the way
We must act on Northern Territory outrage
August 7, 2025
The Northern Territory, like the past to which it belongs, is indeed another country. The barbarity with which children are treated there — incarcerated in large numbers from as young as 10 years old, tortured with spit-hoods and solitary confinement — shames us all. The Gooda/White Royal Commission called for the closure of the Don Dale youth detention centre by 2018 – yet it remains open to this day. The abominations simply continue. It is a waste of time for do-gooders from the South to importune the Territory authorities. I have previously written to all doctor and nurse federal...
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: Is the NT Government knowingly endangering First Nations children?
Deficits don't threaten future generations
August 7, 2025
The article Tax, productivity growth and equality is based on the false premises that taxes directly pay for federal government spending and that federal government deficits have to be repaid. Modern Monetary Theory informs us that all federal government spending is new spending and that federal taxation merely takes money out of the economy. There is no debt to be paid back by anyone to any other party in respect of the federal government deficit. The federal government deficit is simply the currency that the Australian Government has spent into the economy that hasn't yet been taxed out...
Gregory Olsen from Bundanoon, NSW
In response to: Tax, productivity growth and equality
The ethics of war: What happens at the end of wars?
August 6, 2025
Eighty years ago, the American bomber the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Why? The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. During World War II, Allied air forces dropped approximately 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany, much of the intense bombing towards the end of the war, when the Allies already knew they had won the war. Cities like Dresden and Hamburg were flattened, most of those killed were civilians. Why? War is a...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia
In response to: Palestine recognised
Correcting Richard Llewellyn's letter
August 6, 2025
I'm happy to correct Richard on the points he raised. The US Navy describes the Catalina flying boat as an antique in a wartime newsreel; The life of the Catalina was deemed over at the outbreak of WWII. Veteran Philip Dulhunty and others described it to me as doomed to the scrapyard before it was saved. For colour, which you criticise, I refer you to RAAF Catalina gunner Cyril Payne's hilarious description of his friend Lenny on an early flight using the wrong shute to poo down with the result spraying all over the interior. This...
Robert Cockburn from Sydney
In response to: Flying Boat vs Atom Bomb
Endloesung?
August 6, 2025
I have admired the many pieces Paul Heywood-Smith has written on Palestine. And also the contributions of many others. I have hoped that John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations wasn’t just an echo chamber, but that its powerful facts and writings were influencing general public opinion. But, alas, now I think we are watching Benjamin Netanyahu and the government of Israel preparing for the Endloesung (final solution) for Gaza and the West Bank. Some say the world won’t allow it. Well, it has allowed the 60,000 deaths of the last 20 or so months in Palestine to occur with no...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Palestine recognised
Aussie economists aren’t realistic about carbon
August 6, 2025
Felicity Deane’s article repeats the familiar daydream of economic experts” – carbon-pricing best tackles climate change. Case by case, it’s true carbon-pricing schemes can “reduce emissions” or at least reduce the “growth rate”. Back at macro level, so what? Sure, the US has genuinely reduced emissions – largely via coal-to-gas switching. The EU has had an ETS since 2005, but it doesn’t even cover half their emissions. Their emissions-reduction factors are coal-to-gas and more renewables. The power of the ETS itself is debatable. Meanwhile, China gets an indulgent UN pass to burn far more coal than the rest...
Stephen Saunders from O'Connor
In response to: Economists want a carbon price comeback – but does Australia have the political courage?
Conditional recognition of Palestine mere words
August 6, 2025
Reports of 60,000 Gaza violent deaths ignore (a) those blown to bits, (b) those buried under rubble, and (c) the hundreds of thousands dying from imposed deprivation and disease but uncounted because barely surviving, ill, exhausted and traumatised relatives did not risk being killed or injured and carry the dead bodies tens of kilometres in the heat to physically register their deaths with authorities. However, expert epidemiologists published in the leading medical journal The Lancet expertly assessed 64,260 violent deaths after nine months, and by 25 April 2025 about 136,000 violent deaths, this indicative of 544,000 deaths from deprivation...
Gideon Polya from Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria
In response to: Palestine recognised
Who is leading whom?
August 6, 2025
The danger that comes with activating cells of influence that have hitherto remained in the background is that those cells now have to reveal themselves. Zionism worldwide, but seemingly especially within Europe and the Anglosphere, is facing this problem. To counter growing outrage over Israeli actions in Palestine, a small minority has had to reveal just how much lobbying power it has within most, if not all, branches of government. They have forgotten that leading from behind is only possible by remaining behind, and by maintaining an at least deniable, if not invisible, existence. By stepping forward, they take...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Israel activates its cells – the Kostakidis case
A pivotal moment for change
August 6, 2025
Australia should immediately commit to recognise Palestine as a sovereign and independent state on pre-1967 lines, as almost 150 of the 193 UN countries have already done. Recognition of a Palestinian state is solely a bilateral issue between Australia and Palestine. Israel itself does not declare its own borders; indeed, it claims the territory of other states. As Francesca Albanese reminds us, the international community stands atop a precipice. The status quo since 1967 has been disastrous. For the last 668 days, we have watched a live-streamed settler-colonial genocide. Nothing will change unless we heed the clarion call...
James Schofield from London
In response to: Palestine Recognised
Catalina were Australia's long-range bombers
August 5, 2025
Robert Cockburn is quite correct about the role of the Catalina flying boat as Australia's long-range bombers in the Pacific. However, and with respect, some of his descriptions are rather more colourful than factual. They were not saved from the scrapyard, nor were they antiques. Their wings were not canvas - only the control surfaces (ailerons and flaps) were bagged, the rest was conventional aluminium construction. But their exploits he has well covered and I recommend strongly Sir Richard Kingsland's autobiography Into the Midst of Things for much more authentic information. Sir Richard flew the very first...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Hiroshima anniversary – RAAF flying boat vs atom bomb
Please reintroduce readers' comments on P&I
August 5, 2025
Please reintroduce readers' comments to your invaluable articles. I gather you treat such an initiative as a pain in the butt, because, as a longstanding consumer of P&I, I've noted this feature has come and gone at various stages in the growth of P&I. In my humble opinion it adds significantly to the strength of an article. You only have to look at any edition of The New York Times — where there can be many thousands of comments on an article — to see how it adds to the story, both in terms of reader engagement and often...
Paul Montgomery from Mansfield
In response to: The US is a very foreign country
We must be vigilant against both traditional and unconventional threats
August 4, 2025
I’m writing to respond to the discussions surrounding Australia’s defense strategy, especially in light of Angus Houston’s comments in the Defence Strategic Review. While some argue that Australia faces minimal risk of a land invasion, we must consider historical lessons, particularly from World War II. Japan’s decision not to invade Australia was a significant strategic error. Their resources were stretched, and focusing on Australia would have jeopardised their campaigns in Southeast Asia. Today, Australia’s enhanced military capabilities and strong alliances, particularly with the US, create formidable deterrents against potential aggressors. However, we should contemplate unconventional threats, such as...
Lawrence Lyons from Rockhampton
In response to: Does China really want to invade Australia?
The evil of antisemitism and other equal evils
August 4, 2025
Yes, yes, antisemitism is an evil and must be eradicated. It has no place in a civil society. But at the same time it is not any greater evil than any other prejudice that besmirches our society. For Jillian Segal to elevate antisemitism above all other evils like racism, Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination, which only those who have experienced can comprehend their widespread harm, is unbecoming. In particular, it is unbecoming to associate antisemitism with criticism of the genocide perpetrated by the Netanyahu Government. What is incomprehensible to most people is, knowing what the Jewish...
Jon Jovanovic from hobart
In response to: Humanitarian propaganda conceals the real famine in Gaza
Courage and Albanese?
August 4, 2025
All sentient, compassionate and justice-loving people can only hope that our prime minister will finally provide the same honour to the name Albanese as Francesca Albanese has done at enormous costs to herself and her family. Courage can be infectious!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: ALP members demand more from PM on Palestine
AUKUS and Gilbert and Sullivan
August 4, 2025
Fowler indeed did a wonderful job, as I have said in these pages in the past, but he also succeeds in evoking images of infantile cupidity and stupidity as so beautifully portrayed in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. He is rather dunder-headed. Still distinctly, he's a duck. The Gondoliers. A perfect summary of the Dodgy Brothers character played by Scott Morrison.
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Nuked: The submarine fiasco that sank Australia’s sovereignty
Confucian commitment and the dam
August 4, 2025
This is a very informative and carefully thought-out article. The question of Chinese intentions is raised with respect to potential concerns of India and Bangladesh. Those concerns can and will be dealt with by China as it deals with all such issues, by good-faith negotiations and through the five principles of peaceful co-existence that China has adopted in the Sino-Indian Agreement of 1954. These underlie China's foreign policy generally.They are mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and co-operation for mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence. China...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: China is building the world’s biggest hydropower dam. Why is India worried?
Speaking the unspeakable
August 4, 2025
Leonie has admirably summarised the facts that the Western media has been burying for the last 80 years. Memory, as far as the persecution of the Palestinian people is concerned, is a very dangerous thing to possess. The Zionist cabal have spent that entire time erasing the memory of what they have been doing to the Palestinian people for that entire time. But truth in the end will out. as George Santayana so memorably wrote, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In this case, the people who have been condemned to repeat their...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Palestinians have a history of oppression long before 7 October, 2023
P&I lets us down with Al Jazeera article on Syria
August 4, 2025
I feel sure that most Pearls and Irritations readers are anti-war. P&I can make us more alert to insidious war propaganda and so better able to take a stand for peace and humankind’s survival. Yet, P&I posted an article by Al-Jazeera's Mat Nashed that dealt with the recent fighting in Suwayda, Syria, and the Israeli response. When it comes to Syria, Al-Jazeera is basically a mouthpiece for the foreign policy of Qatar, whose royal family provided billions of dollars toward the phony war in Syria, as it’s described by Jeffrey Sachs. Qatar is known for its links...
Susan Dirgham from Melbourne
In response to: Sectarian tension, Israeli intervention: What led to the violence in Syria?
When the chips are down, the people unite
August 4, 2025
It is difficult to disagree with Cynthia in her summary of the poison informing those who equate criticism of Israel with that much abused word, antisemitism. It is difficult for ordinary citizens of the world to grasp the depth and extent of the daily atrocities being carried out by the members of the most moral army in the world. It is as difficult for them to comprehend the active participation in this daily barbarity by the mainstream media and their servile journalists and editors. In countries around the world, people have finally had enough and are massing in their...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Jewish safety and the weaponisation of antisemitism
Time to move on
August 4, 2025
Thank you, Hiba Farra. The Israeli Government warns against “rewarding Hamas”. What about “rewarding the perpetrators of 70 years of attempted ethnic cleansing”? Rather than continue with the barbarism of ancient Middle Eastern religious disputes with their “chosen people” idiocies and holy texts that call for women to be killed for burning incense and fathers being told to kill their kiddies to prove their blind obedience to a jealous, homophobic God with anger management problems, it’s time to adopt the social values that are accepted around the world many thousands of years later. Is it possible for the...
Neil Hauxwell from Moe Victoria
In response to: Australia speaks of normalising Israel, My family is living through genocide
The Australian Government's choice
August 4, 2025
In the conclusion of his profoundly significant article, Hiba Farra, noted that The Australian Government has a choice: stand with justice, or stand in the way. The Albanese Government has never been interested in matters of justice on any matters, domestic or external. Its focus is entirely on policy and associated funding which serves its careerist interests, nothing else. It has long since made a choice. It now seeks to protect that choice in its own interests by all means available in relation to evading accountability for complicity in genocide.
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: Australia speaks of normalising Israel. My family is living through its genocide
The real antisemitism
August 4, 2025
I am so tired of the Zionists claiming antisemitism where if they really looked at the term would realise what they are committing is antisemitic. It usually refers to the peoples of the Levant and includes Palestinians, as well as the ancestors of Noah. Semitic people or Semites is a term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia.
Melody Kemp from Balmoral Brisbane
In response to: Australian journalist in court accused of ‘antisemitism’
Show some leadership, Albo and Penny
August 3, 2025
Trump's real estate dealmaker mate Witkoff completed his GHF-curated no famine here tour of Gaza last week, while NSW's Chris Minns whinged about the the sheer inconvenience of Sunday's pro-Palestine demo on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Meanwhile, Albo and Penny Wong are guardedly preparing to recognise Palestinian statehood, given the state is one of appalling human horror, rubble and expended American supplied ordinance. Hiba Farra eloquently and heart breakingly makes the point from the perspective of his own family's experience. Come on Albo, show us something resembling visibilty, courage and leadership on Palestine. By the same token, Penny...
Donald Clayton from Bittern 3918 Victoria
In response to: Australia speaks of normalising Israel. My family is living through its genocide
Is the tide really turning ?
August 3, 2025
Is the tide turning or is this yet another example of political opportunism... wedge the other party? We need to ask ourselves this question before we vote in a system where PR election promises are deliberately vague to limit criticism when they are not delivered.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: US Senate Dems vote to block arms sales to Israel – the tide is turning, says Bernie Sanders
Why two?
August 3, 2025
My question has always been “why two bombs?” Even if the bomb had been the clincher, surely the evidence from one city should have been enough for the Japanese high command? Was it because some in the US wanted to try both a uranium and a plutonium bomb, and here was the opportunity?
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 end the war?
No-one is OK and some will never forget
August 3, 2025
When you consider the number of Holocaust survivors still alive, what comes to mind is the feelings the Holocaust generates amongst those who didn’t directly experience the genocide and what actions the Holocaust generate and justifies. Now add the time long ago when God promised a “homeland. Consider how many years of retaliation by Palestinian victims and survivors the world will suffer once the boot is on the other foot. Even if Netanyahu’s grand plans succeeds, as history has shown, there are sufficient non-resident Palestinians scattered across the globe for these atrocities never to end. Is...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: No-one is okay
Author swallows BRI debt-trap canard
August 3, 2025
Some interesting material here, but spoiled by the author swallowing the canard about China's Belt and Road initiative being better described as a debt trap for countries taking part. This suits the anti-China agenda of the US and others in the West, but is at odds with reality. Any AI search will show how BRI has helped low-income nations in Africa, Southeast Asia and Central Asia build or upgrade roads, ports, rail links and power stations, helping accelerate economic activity, trade and connectivity. Yes, there have been challenges, with for example some countries risking default, which critics...
John Wallace from CARLTON NORTH
In response to: No Indonesian high-speed rail wizardry for Oz
Endless growth is reckless
August 3, 2025
Mark Diesendorf’s article The principal barrier to a rapid energy transition makes for sobering reading. With clear calculations, he shows that unless we significantly curb the growth of global energy consumption, renewables won’t replace fossil fuels fast enough to counter climate change. His solution? A steady-state economy based on reduced energy demand and planned degrowth. The IEA says global energy intensity — energy used per unit of GDP — must fall 4% annually to reach net zero, double the 2010–2019 rate. But how do we get there? In Pearls and Irritations (May), Diesendorf outlined five steps: demote GDP...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: The principal barrier to a rapid energy transition
Again, the Prince of Wales?
August 1, 2025
Rather ironic for the British to send HMS Prince of Wales to project power into the South China Sea. That has been tried before in the 1940s, not too successfully.
John Queripel from Newcastle
In response to: Britain’s back, China’s the target. We’ll likely pay the price again
Climate crisis
August 1, 2025
Chris Young has helpfully reminded us of the splendid analysis of our climate crisis, Too Hot to Handle: The Scorching Reality of Australia's Climate-Security Failure, published 15 months ago by the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group. Presumably that analysis was too acute and its ramifications too compelling for the government to acknowledge publicly and respond to with a coherent set of policies. But this sobering dose of reality is what the nation needs as panic sets in about the cost of shifting from fossil-fuel power generation to the transmission of clean energy. There's no doubt that cost is daunting...
Tom Knowles from Parkville Vic 3052
In response to: Time for a moonshot?
Innovation and vision
August 1, 2025
While the US war machine yet again loses more wars from afar, its tech industries continue to conquer the world, surreptitiously invade particularly the English-speaking world with their internet, movies, fads, maps and language etc. The tech industries' prime concern is that each advancement is built on those that went before and dare I say that there is another country that has been very good at that and continues to take the lead. This is one area where, for a relatively low cost (hackers do it all the time) with constant innovation, even the smallest of countries/people can be...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: How Trump’s vision of a single-minded China containment has failed
Genocide?
August 1, 2025
I have been waiting in vain for something like a Four Corners investigative analysis of whether Israel is committing genocide in the Middle East. No doubt the message has gone out from management, don’t ask such embarrassing questions – there are some things we don’t want to know.
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: 'Our media refuse to call out genocide in Gaza'
Time for a moonshot
July 31, 2025
Jennifer Goldie has highlighted one of the major security risks that we and other countries face from the consequences of our changing climate, bringing an immediacy to last year’s call from the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group. This risk of mass movement of people is also recognised in the UN’s 2025 Global Risks Report. Currently, there are some 123,200,000 forcibly displaced people worldwide. This means 1 person in every 67 is displaced as the result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and more. Floods, droughts and rising sea levels are expected to increase the number of displaced people...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: How will the Earth cope with a billion refugees?
AI: Embrace or ban it
July 31, 2025
“These evolving technologies have unprecedented capabilities to rapidly analyse huge volumes of information, often identifying unique new patterns.” Why then are they not used to stop hackers and scammers attacking our everyday lives? Why then aren’t they used to stop our children watching inappropriate material on the internet instead of passing ineffectual laws that will only serve to make lawyers rich and the courts full? Are governments so scared of AI that they won’t use it for the good of society? What is the real story? What do they know? What aren't they telling us? Has...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: It’s time to talk about AI and national security
Australia is playing a cynical game re Palestine
July 30, 2025
Bob Carr in his article suggests that Australia should follow the French in their stated plan to recognise Palestine in September. This ignores the reality that for Macron this is a combination of theatre and self-protection, not a serious proposal at all. More than 140 nations already recognise Palestine, representing the vast majority of UN member states. The fact that Macron has consulted closely with Mahmoud Abbas, the aged leader of the Palestinian Authority, an organisation which works closely with Israeli military forces against Palestinians in the West Bank, and an organisation which has no credibility among Palestinians...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: Mass Palestinian starvation as a weapon of war
You don’t need a bulldust detector, Ross...
July 30, 2025
You don’t need a bulldust detector, Ross; a reality check would give the same result. Any economic modelling that doesn’t factor the impact of climate change is delusional. The almost seasonal floods and coral bleaching across tropical Queensland threaten the economic viability of that region’s tourism, agriculture, aquaculture and horticulture industries. The South Australian algal bloom, now in its sixth month, has destroyed the commercial and recreational fisheries, along with the marine aquaculture industry of that state. Tasmanian salmon farms, along with the rest of the aquaculture sector is struggling with increasing water acidification and temperatures. On land, droughts...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria, 3101
In response to: Roundtable warning: When they say ‘modelling’ grab your bulldust detector
$30b is chicken feed if it is for Defence
July 30, 2025
“The last quote was $30 billion for fast rail between Newcastle and Sydney. This is cheap for a rail link that would be used regularly and could be expanded, when you consider the cost of submarines and the fact that past Defence white elephants have never fired a shot in defence of Australia. That is, if they are ever delivered. This figure would be cheap even if we don’t buy the latest from China for fear of them spying on our kangaroos and cows in the bush.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: No Indonesian high-speed rail wizardry for Oz
Tide turning on government climate accountability
July 29, 2025
In 2013, Dutch environmental group Urgenda and 900 citizens sued their government to force stronger climate action. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled the government had a legal duty to cut emissions by at least 25% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Since then, similar attempts in Australia — by eight children and two Torres Strait Elders — have failed. In both cases, judges said it was for governments, not courts, to act. But the legal tide may be turning. The International Court of Justice recently issued only its fifth-ever unanimous advisory opinion, declaring that all nations...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: 'New era of climate accountability': ICJ says nations have legal duty to combat
It’s not about getting re-elected
July 29, 2025
The one point missing from this article is that Sussan Ley is a woman. A woman surrounded by old, white, male dinosaurs. As we saw when Julia Gillard was leader of the Labor Party, there was a lack of support for her, none of the old Union “one out, all out“ mentality. Long after the unions had abandoned their “once they're married, they should stay home and look after the kids“ position of the 1950s, the party allowed Tony Abbott to ambush her without the support they would have given even a prime minister from a different faction. Even...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Ley must be saved from drowning over net zero
A job in the humanities
July 29, 2025
Gareth Evans, as usual, touches a nerve. Universities often claim they are cancelling humanities courses to focus on programs that lead directly to employment. But this is misleading. Humanities enrich every kind of work. In some professions, they are not just relevant – they are essential. One such profession is that of the civil celebrant. Celebrants must be skilled in public speaking and creative writing and possess a deep understanding of human nature. Their work draws on music, literature, poetry, story creation, storytelling, choreography, and symbolism – all core components of the humanities. Ceremonies are fundamental to...
Dally Messenger from DOCKLANDS
In response to: Evans gobsmacked by change in ANU plan
Ley must be saved from drowning under Waterford
July 29, 2025
Matt Kean’s UN climate-guru Simon Stiell is swanning around Australia again. Claiming his “blueprint” can unleash “colossal” rewards to “protect” workers. They and Jack Waterford badger Sussan Ley. Embrace the “science” of “net zero” or else. Yet all the graphs confirm that population, GDP, consumption, emissions, CO2 levels, and land/sea temperatures are all growing. That the emissions of this perpetual-growth can miraculously “net” to zero is vanity not science – no friend of workers or equality. No brake on Australia's perpetual war-on-the-environment. Despite easily-protected borders and untold energy-riches, Australia delivers extreme population pressures, very high energy prices, and...
Stephen Saunders from O'Connor
In response to: Ley must be saved from drowning over net zero
The same law for everyone?
July 29, 2025
Australian citizens who go to Israel, serve with the IDF and then return home should be treated exactly the same as those Australian citizens who went to support Islamic State in Syria then returned home. We are all equal before the law. Aren't we?
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Australia urged to investigate Australians in Israeli forces for Gaza war crimes
Our PM is beyond contempt
July 29, 2025
Anthony Albanese has been thoroughly bought by the pro-Israel lobby and aligns us with genocide by sticking with our good ally the US. The murders would have stopped long ago, but for the steady supply of US bombs. As for the hostages ... when has Albanese ever mentioned the thousands of Palestinians held without charge for years in Israeli prisons? Why hasn't Albanese noticed that, of released hostages, Israelis are far better cared for? What of Hamas, once promoted by Netanyahu? Hasn't Albanese looked at the alternative media that we are looking at? What possible threat could come from...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Israeli Knesset hosts conference on plan to 'Occupy Gaza' and 'Relocate Gazans'
It started with the Nakba
July 28, 2025
Pearls and Irritations continues its good work in presenting humanitarian voices objecting to Israeli actions in Gaza. An even more through examination of current opposition sentiment in Israel itself can be found in a weekly round-up at Conflicts Forum. However, all these articles miss one crucial point. None of them anchor their interpretation of the current situation in Gaza in the Nakba. Israel came into being on the stolen land and destroyed the lives of the occupants of Palestine, the Palestinian people. They were evicted, killed when they objected, and the survivors were herded into enclaves, Gaza being the...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Message from the Editor
To counter the albatross of Gaza
July 28, 2025
The use of severe restrictions governing the release of medicine, food and water to the traumatised residents of Gaza continues unabated. Public reaction swings from horror in much of the world to seeming indifference in much of the West to outright glee in Israel. On Israel's northeast, it now controls all of the Golan Heights. This opens the road into Syria, and secures for Israel both water and, through Afek Oil and Gas, oil and gas deposits. These energy reserves are similar to the coveted undersea deposits located off Gaza. Israel seems to be set on expansion through...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: On Jillian Segal’s report into combating antisemitism