Letters to the Editor
A concerning absence of concern
June 25, 2025
David Spratt makes it clear that we have a whole aria of canaries singing their last in the climate coalmine. Climate scientists see the risk; climate activists encourage effective policy. But nothing will be achieved without committed government action. This crisis is evolving rapidly; time to stem its impact is short. In the absence of government action, government inaction represents an alternative action decision. Theories why Labor’s first government was reluctant to take substantial action on our changing climate include political timidity and political caution; the power of fossil fuel lobbyists and donations were others. Labor’s thumping majority...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Faster than forecast, accelerated warming creates a climate time-bomb for the Al
Meanwhile. back in Australia...
June 25, 2025
I don’t know what the statistics tell us about Australia, but I’m pretty sure Australians don’t want to go marching in lockstep with the US off to yet another illegal war. They don’t want to make our country go broke buying or building submarines that will be obsolete before they arrive and will probably never be delivered. They also don’t want to keep handing more land/bases over to the US for target practice. Australians don’t want to be in the frontline when the elephants fight and our grass is damaged. I’m sure that Australians are disappointed with...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Americans don't want Trump's illegal war on Iran
Eastern seaboard suddenly remembers WA exists
June 25, 2025
I cannot readily recall Mr Eslake advocating for redress of the GST distribution inequities affecting Western Australia prior to the implementation of the No-worse-off guarantee. To contextualise his present commentary, the accompanying table illustrates Western Australia's proportional return from its substantial contributions to federal revenue in the decade prior: | Financial Year | WA | NSW | VIC | | -------------- | ------ | ------ | ------ | | 2009–10 | $0.70 | $0.86 | $0.94 | | 2010–11 | $0.65 | $0.85 | $0.95 | | 2011–12 | $0.60 | $0.84 | $0.96 | | 2012–13 | $0.55...
Chris Picard from Perth
In response to: Is there any hope for a fairer carve-up of GST between the states?
Feeding the chooks
June 25, 2025
Poor thing, Donald. I quite enjoyed him as a candidate. I was often reminded of Joh Bjelke-Petersen's feeding the chooks when describing his news conferences. Never have I watched a greater player of the media than Donald. Then he got elected only to have President Putin call his bluff in Ukraine and President Xi call his bluff on tariffs. Fortunately for Donald, along comes Netanyahu, the Zionist lobby and his own select advisers to explain that this one's easy. We can make you great again. Just bomb Iran. When was the last time that lot got it right?
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: War is the worst thing in the world
Iranians may be guided by Ferdowsi on Fordow
June 24, 2025
I note the article by Tom Hussain on Iran’s options. Will Iranians be guided by their tenth century epic poet Hakim Ferdowsi, who wrote: “چو ایران مباشد تن من مباد بدین بوم و بر زنده یک تن مباد اگر سر به سر تن به کشتن دهیم ازآن به که کشور به دشمن دهیم “If there is no Iran, let my body not be; If only one live body is in this world, let it be me. If we put head to head and body to slaughter, Let it be to protect our...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Iran retaliating against US inevitable as window for diplomacy narrows: analysts
Breach of international law
June 24, 2025
Let’s see if I have got this right: Australia fails to condemn the US attacks on Iran despite them being a clear breach of international law. However, when Iran attacks US bases in response, Australia condemns Iran although, in this instance, it seems to me, that there is a case to be made by Iran under international law for an action in self-defence.
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Bombing Iran a clear breach of international law
Torturing the definition of Liberal Democratic
June 24, 2025
It tortures language beyond its capacity to suggest that the G7 was always a group of like-minded states that promoted liberal democratic values and supported democratic policy actions. Several of the countries involved, not excluding that US, have long since become oligarchies that rarely, if ever, reflect democratic values. Indeed, the US drafters of their Constitution deliberately set out, as they explained themselves, to limit democracy as far as they could. Public opinion poll after public opinion poll reflect what vanishingly small effect public opinion has on public policy. Democracy in the US is generally a performative art...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Trump’s disruption in Canada leaves the G7 at a crossroads
What is the point of extra taxes?
June 24, 2025
If nothing else, King Trump has proven that tariffs have minimal impact on big business and once again the general population pays the bill. One way or the other, the average person pays, be it as an increase in insurance premiums, property being uninsurable, an increase in taxes/government spending to carry out the disaster repairs/relief, homelessness bought on by their homes being burnt down, flooded or generally unlivable. The further down the food chain one is, the less likely you are to benefit/survive the horsemen of the Apocalypse, let alone the fifth and most dangerous horseman, capitalism, which...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: International survey shows 81% back forcing big oil to pay for climate destruction
The old canard of the 'rules-based order'
June 24, 2025
As always with Greg, this is an exemplar of clear and careful analysis mixed with forthright conclusions. It draws attention again to the nonsense retailed by the West of a rules-based order that has no written and universally shared set of rules outside that which is confected daily to be necessary to provide a cover for the continual breach of the rules that have been established by the world community through international law, by the dying Western empire. Make no mistake, there is no relationship between the fatuous twaddle of the rules-based order and the reality of that international...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Bombing Iran a clear breach of international law
Regime change: who has the right?
June 23, 2025
Andrew Thomas has the gall to tell us how to bring about regime change in Iran and quotes that bastion of moral genocide, Netanyahu, to reinforce his righteousness. Even more wow is that P&I publishes this example of how the Western world, led by a country not at war for just 17 years of its history, considers it has the right to determine who is allowed to rule a country anywhere in the world. Thomas seems unaware that it was British/US meddling — the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 — that gave birth to subsequent regimes, and that...
Dieter Barkhoff from Box Hill North
In response to: Regime change wouldn’t likely bring democracy to Iran. A more threatening force
Restoring diplomacy
June 23, 2025
Halfway through Fred Zhang's apt exposé of the modus operandi of News Corps' agitprop rabble-rousing with regard to China, he rightly asks: Where is the discussion about diplomacy, multilateralism, or economic interdependence as part of national resilience? Good question. But that leads to the question: Where is diplomacy? Bloated, over-reaching major political parties with a trust us outlook won't be too interested in reminding us that state-crafting responsibilities, also for international relations, are inherent in our citizenship. Trust us too often shows itself with appointments to important ambassadorial posts – where are the open statements of policy by these...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: News Corp’s China obsession: why beating the drum is easier than thinking
Running a country is a full-time job
June 23, 2025
Replying to the press gallery about cancelled meetings with Trump, Anthony Albanese should say: “He has his country to run and I have mine, we are both busy. I look forward to him taking time out of his busy schedule to ring me sometime and I will answer if I am not otherwise engaged running Australia.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Australia’s trade survival depends on beating Trump’s tariff contagion
And then there was Indonesia...
June 23, 2025
There was a time when learning Indonesian was a priority and defence against Indonesia was taught at our military academy and it still should be. With a large population living on an archipelago under the threat of climate crisis and rising seas, the time may well come when the Indonesians are looking for somewhere safe to go and the already crowded North doesn’t appear an option. While male Anglo puppet governments in Australia continue with their US/Murdoch-promoted China fixation, the lemmings march ever onward towards the cliffs.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: News Corp’s China obsession: why beating the drum is easier than thinking
Israel-Iran fuse to World War III must be cut
June 23, 2025
Eugene Doyle raises serious issues in his article, including Chinese access to oil. If we look back 84 years, Pearl Harbour was the result of the US cutting off Japanese oil supplies among other things. (Japan had been behaving badly in China for eight years, but I doubt that was the primary rationale for the embargo). Does the US want to provoke a war with China? Is it aiming to secure control of Iranian oil? It seems that Donald Trump's access to intel on Iranian uranium enrichment is superior to that of US security agencies, well, given Tulsi Gabbard's...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Centrifugal forces have been unleashed in Iran
Let need be the only school funding criterion
June 23, 2025
MAGA USA highlights two problems. To an extent, Australia's under-appreciated electoral system protects us from outcomes caused by the problematic US system. But we're heading down the same fraught educational disparity path, as spelled out by Don and Patricia Edgar. This can only end badly for Australia. The absence of adequate supports and facilities that deter some of our better teachers from working in more challenging environments is obvious. But for some schools it also means additional funding to overcome the accidents of birth that hamper some children's chances of learning, such as poverty and family history of inadequate...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Jason Clare's monumental task in education
Education funding is establishing religion
June 23, 2025
Qualifying for enrolment at religious schools requires a demonstration of commitment. In other words, religion has become a requirement for receiving a well-funded education – a clear breach of Section 116 of the Constitution, that says, The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance.. Any religion or religious observance! The Commonwealth funding of religious schools also works against laws concerning multiculturalism and discrimination. It is currently funding schools that entrench mistrust of other religions, creating biased beliefs that will divide our society for years to come. To make...
Tom Orren from Wamberal
In response to: Jason Clare's monumental task in education
Do funders of Mediazona and BBC determine bias?
June 23, 2025
The question of the funding of media outlets and the impact of funding on bias and credibility is a basic and critical one that can help us discern media bias and war propaganda. It surprises me that it is not one raised by Joseph Camilleri, who writes, According to the thorough and regularly updated analysis conducted by Mediazona in collaboration with BBC News Russian Service… A recent article in The Grayzone (BBC’s ‘independent’ Russian partner begged UK govt for funds”) points out that Mediazona was founded in 2014 by members of Pussy Riot and that leaked documents indicate that...
Susan Dirgham from Melbourne
In response to: A new cold war is sweeping across Europe – with global repercussions
The unreal predictions of climate economists
June 23, 2025
Rarely has the chasm between “economic modelling” and reality been more spectacular than in the prognostications of climate economists. William Nordhaus won a Nobel prize for work which included the assumption that the 85% of economic activity which occurs indoors will be unaffected by climate change. The summary graph in Richard Tol’s recent meta-analysis, presented to us by Peter Sainsbury, is further evidence of the utter failure of climate economic modelling: any secondary school science student knows that at six degrees of global warming, there will be no meaningful economic activity at all – yet Tol’s line of best...
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: Environment: Murray-Darling Plan delivers profits, but not environmental improve
Iran's legitimate nuclear energy interests
June 23, 2025
I find it quite astonishing that Andrew Thomas, a lecturer in Middle East Studies, repeats one of the most mendacious and persistent claims about Iran — that it has a nuclear weapons program — at this most dangerous of moments when the US and Israel have launched an unprovoked and totally illegal attack on several of Iran's nuclear installations. Not only does he repeat this false claim, thereby sharing responsibility for the escalating war, but he builds a story and case around regime change and the removal of Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as if such a discussion were...
David Macilwain from Sandy Creek, NE Victoria
In response to: Regime change wouldn’t likely bring democracy to Iran. A more threatening force
Climate hypocrisy
June 20, 2025
Oil Change International is right – with our vast coal and gas exports, Australia is a petro-state. Our hypocrisy in pretending to be a climate leader via a bid to host COP31 in 2026 is disappointing. But the bigger frustration is that we could be an electro-state, and we're squandering that opportunity because our leaders keep pandering to the fossil fuel lobby. Until environment ministers stop approving new coal and gas projects, our credibility with Pacific nations and other global climate leaders will remain weak.
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: 'Cakes of coal, volumes of gas’: Australia accused of being climate wrecker as it seeks to host COP31
Zionists are antisemites
June 20, 2025
A provocative title. But one with an undeniable truth at its core. Whilst almost all Zionists are Jews, the converse is most definitely not the case. Given the inhumane, racist and genocidal actions of the imposed Jewish settler state since 1948, being a Zionist isn't something about which an empathetic and decent human being can be proud. Indeed, the Zionists are quick to brand any critic of Israel’s actions as antisemitic. This ensures that the messenger is shot before the message is read. Such criticism is then immediately dismissed as antisemitism, inherently racist, and so of no value....
Peter Hehir from Rozelle
In response to: Speaking out from within: Jewish voices confront Israeli aggression
Clarifying Zionism
June 20, 2025
The words from the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism: For most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity fail to acknowledge that many who define themselves as Zionist are horrified at what Israel has done to Palestinians. Instead, those words will be used to imply that they all support anything Netanyahu might decide to do. I have read many posts and articles by Jewish Australians that say they are Zionist because they support the existence of Israel, not because they support the slaughter of Palestinians. We should also remember the...
Alexander Donald from Cairns
In response to: Universities and the 'definition' of antisemitism
Progressive patriotism and vision
June 19, 2025
Regardless of the efficacy of Albanese's stated positions at the NPC, I agree with John Menadue. But Patrick Gourley noted something in his article about the weasel words and waffle that has now become a staple of political oratory on both sides of politics. While Dutton's speech and delivery was completely boring and moribund, the PM's speech was laced with this rubbish. I'm sick of hearing politicians and others talk about actively responding or actively listening. Sorry, but what the hell does that mean? Is it assuring the targeted audience that they are not inertly listening or inactively doing...
Wes Mason from Gisborne
In response to: The hazards of Albanese's 'progressive patriotism'
Prescient speech by Tulsi Gabbard
June 19, 2025
Sachs and Fares sound a timely warning. US director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has just sounded a timely warning too. Nothing “bizarre” about it, as some media would have it. She said, “I recently visited Hiroshima in Japan and stood at the epicentre of a city that remains scarred by the unimaginable horror caused by a single nuclear bomb dropped in 1945, 80 years ago. Yet this one bomb that caused so much destruction in Hiroshima was tiny compared to today's nuclear bombs. As we stand here today closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Stop Netanyahu before he gets us all killed
Cometh the moment, cometh the man
June 19, 2025
Is it at all possible that Anthony Albanese is just the leader we need? The steady-as-we-go quiet achiever that we need. I hope so, because the alternative is unthinkable.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Goodbye to all that? Rethinking Australia’s alliance with Trump’s America
John Tons, it's not 'problems' that are wicked
June 19, 2025
Like “free markets” and “artificial intelligence”, problems themselves aren't living human beings, they can’t be “wicked”. That would be ministers and mandarins. Dr Kennedy got the top PM&C job by dueting with Dr Chalmers. Singing the Langton Crescent ballad of “net zero, budget repair, inflation fighting, million jobs, rising wages”, while delivering their million-plus migrants, carefree expansion in non-market jobs, and declining living standards for punters. A South Seas island with stable government, endless energy resources, and easily managed borders, ought to have low power prices, reasonably affordable housing, and negligible population-pressures. It amuses the elite to inflict...
Stephen Saunders from O'Connor
In response to: Addressing our wicked problems
WA and feds complicit in undermining net zero
June 19, 2025
Peter Sainsbury’s striking graph on gas use from 2013 to 2023 reveals a shocker: Western Australia consumes as much gas as Victoria, Queensland and NSW combined – despite having a much smaller population. How? Because 36% of WA’s gas is used by the gas industry itself just to produce LNG for export. As The Australia Institute notes, just running gas export terminals uses more gas than Australia’s entire manufacturing sector–— and over twice what households use. WA’s gas consumption and emissions have both soared over the decade, making it the biggest handbrake on Australia’s climate goals. It’s also stalling...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Environment: WA addicted to producing, burning and exporting gas
Oz government schizophrenia
June 19, 2025
Paul Keating is right to take to task the part of the federal government that this week wants to join the US in war with China. Last week, it seems we weren’t automatically joining the US in fighting China. After all, this week Trade Minister Don Farrell celebrated ChAFTA, the free trade agreement with China, at a 400-person event in Melbourne. I quote from China Daily: “Australia's Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell, praised ChAFTA for its 'substantial benefits for both Australia and China'. Since coming into force in December 2015, two-way trade has more...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Australia: A sovereign continent not for Marles to gift away
Going for less than a song
June 19, 2025
How stupid is Donald Trump? Greenland is closer, but it doesn't want to be taken over, annexed or bought... and it's got all that pesky ice and snow. Why isn't Trump turning his eyes to Australia? We've got all that Greenland has to offer without the hassle of all that freezing stuff. And our government is doing its darnedest to give us to to the US on a plate. Seems we can't wait to go to yet another unnecessary war. One thing we can be sure of though... it won't be Marles' or Albanese's children on the...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Australia: A sovereign continent not for Marles to gift away
Defence, defence and more defence
June 19, 2025
I’ve no doubt that China considers plans for defence as part of its normal governance and every country should and would be irresponsible if it didn’t . It may be that Chinese media is beholden to the Chinese Government or more likely that Australian media covers Chinese politics with such bias. But any world champion fighter will tell you that you don’t broadcast your punches and, if you do, you will lose. Richard Marles is unsuitable as Australia’s defence minister because for a start he can’t help himself broadcasting our punches, he can’t keep his mouth shut. Anthony...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: australia-a-sovereign-continent-not-for-mar
Marles implies we should dump the US
June 18, 2025
Marle's admission we are essential to American military action against China is necessarily an admission that we are a primary pre-emptive target for China to defend itself as long as we have the US as an ally. Also that we can enforce stability in the region simply by kicking the US out of Australia, including Pine Gap.
Dave Bath from Horsham, Victoria
In response to: Australia: A sovereign continent not for Marles to gift away
Manufacturing consent
June 18, 2025
A worthwhile analysis, but to get a deeper understanding it needs to have some context. In that respect, I would recommend two ground-breaking books that set out very clearly that context. The first is Taking the Risk out of Democracy by a brilliant but now sadly deceased Australian academic Alex Carey and the other, even more detailed, is Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. Both provide a compelling reason why faith in the MSM has been in constant decline for the last century: the concentration in control of that mass media...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW
In response to: Social media takes over as main source of news as trust falls
Trump is capitalism personified
June 17, 2025
As strange as it may seem, Donald Trump may be our saviour if we learn. Trump is capitalism personified. While the world watches on alarmed as the body count rises in Gaza, Trump sees it as an opportunity to build a hotel/resort, an opportunity to make a dollar for himself and his mates. He has shown that he cannot be trusted. Despite attempts to control freedom of information, regulators and the media there have enough examples of capitalistic corruption uncovered — GFC, wars, pharmaceuticals, banking royal commission, consultants and defence spending — for all to understand that the...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: nuclear-subs-taking-on-water/
Corporate law needs to factor in environmental damage
June 16, 2025
It is a mistake to allow corporations to be formed with a directive that their directors should only “act in the[ir] companies' best interests” (as the corporate law now does). Nearly all of Australia’s corporations make money without severely harming the environment. It’s time for Australia’s Parliament to impose an obligation on directors of all companies to make sure their company doesn’t cause severe harm. This can be achieved by adding just 11 words to their existing duty “to act in the best interests of the corporation. Those words are, “but not at the expense of severe damage to...
Robert Hinkley from Berry, NSW
In response to: The murky world of lobbying and the North West Shelf
Can we believe this man?
June 16, 2025
Stewart Sweeney’s article is extremely timely. Just look at the ABC news today: “Shortly after Israel's strikes on Friday, US President Donald Trump said: 'The US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran'. Nothing, that is, except it was forewarned, and that central to Israel's military capability is US funding, US hardware, US intelligence and US technology.” That highlights the seeming perfidy surrounding the US-Iran nuclear and sanctions talks. There is a a further cost to the lives of many innocent people, and the real threat of an expansion of the conflict, drawing in yet...
Geoff Taylor from Karratha
In response to: Australia’s dependence on the US does not end with Trump
Right to peaceful protest essential for democracy
June 16, 2025
John Menadue’s recommendations for a more robust, more transparent, more participative rather than heavily (allegedly) representative democracy are all sensible, reasonable and much needed. It’s a tragedy and shameful that we cannot rely on either of the major political parties to advance these reforms. In fact, we can be confident that the two major parties will conspire together to avoid most of them or render all but ineffective any that they are dragged kicking and screaming to legislate. Absent from John’s list, although it may be implied in his bill of rights, is enshrining in legislation the right...
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point
In response to: PM Albanese promises to restore trust in democracy
Cut the apron strings
June 16, 2025
Australia is a remarkably safe country. I disagree. Australia was a remarkably safe country. But since then, the US has infiltrated the ADF and associated entities; We have signed up to handing over billions for subs we won't get and couldn't operate without the US if we did get them; We have increasing numbers of US military bases and facilities on our soil; We joined the US in patrols and military exercises by land and sea perilously close to China's borders, air and sea limits; and We have been painting a bigger and bigger...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Perhaps Marles should ask the US why it is building up forces around China
Use words with care
June 16, 2025
Here’s a novel and innovative idea. Let’s stop talking about raising our defence spending, let’s stop talking about the threat from China, Russia and refugees. Let’s stop beating the drums of war in any sphere. Let’s replace words like fight, conquer and battle (eg fight against COVID, conquering inflation, battle against climate change) and start using our language to remember the power of diplomacy – based on co-operation and focused on our shared humanity. Let’s work with, co-operate on, and open dialogue about; let’s reach consensus, acknowledge our shared goals, and actually remind ourselves we are on a...
Alyssa Aleksanian from Hazelbrook
In response to: Why Australia needs a defence minister
The president has no clothes
June 16, 2025
The underlying truth barely mentioned in this article is the truth about Trump. For all his chest-beating and deal-making, world leaders see him for the joke he is. Putin and Netanyahu pay him lip service and continue to do as they please, as conquering whatever territory they choose knowing that the self-proclaimed king is naked. Meanwhile, the rest of the world leaders go about circumventing Trump's economic reforms, limiting their losses in the knowledge that it is the US that is suffering the most. Hopefully, Albanese is up to the job of putting Australia first. Mexico and Canada...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: US progressives say stop supporting 'rogue genocidal regime' as Israel wages illegal war on Iran
Harrowing climate impacts of Labor's decisions
June 13, 2025
Julian Cribb is right to point the finger at Albanese’s Labor for the human and environmental toll that approving vast carbon pollution from projects like the North West Shelf gas terminal will cause. From sea-level rise and extreme weather events, to water shortages from glacial melt and the rapid spread of vector-borne diseases, the predicted impact of Australia’s ongoing fossil fuel addiction is harrowing. And our unwillingness to seize the opportunity to become a powerful electro-state is frustrating. With a thumping majority and support from other progressive politicians, Albanese has a chance to create a real legacy of...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Go-ahead for new carbon bomb marks Australia as enemy of the region
Remember the way NZ was expelled from ANZUS?
June 13, 2025
Paul, you're quite right with most of what you say, but why not go on to suggest we need wise diplomats who will know how to tell the US that we will not only leave AUKUS, but will suspend our membership of ANZUS as long as the US continues down the Trump régime path of international demolition in the interests of real-estate deals? Of course, it would be a massive wrench for the prime minister and the member for Corio to face up to the shambles of ANZUS that resulted in 1986 when a previous Labor Government joined with...
Bruce Wearne from Ballarat Central
In response to: AUKUS: America saving us from ourselves
Honour for Morrison, dishonour for Australia
June 13, 2025
The awarding of Australia's highest honour to Scott Morrison is indeed an affront to decency. It utterly debases our entire awards system. Most of us, I imagine, fume in impotent rage and move on. But what can we say to those who were harmed — if not destroyed — by Robodebt? How can it be that their nation has no difficulty in honouring one of the chief architects of that vicious, illegal scheme, yet finds it impossible to bring its perpetrators to justice? It is one more kick in the guts from a nation which has repeatedly failed in...
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: Award for Morrison an insult to the truth
LULUCF and the Emperor’s new clothes
June 13, 2025
Emma Lovell and Jessica Allen show how Australia is hiding behind the notorious Australia clause in the 2005 Kyoto Protocol to claim substantial reductions in our carbon emissions with only little actual reduction from our major emitting industries. The Australia clause, which allows Australia to benefit from the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry Sector (LULUCF) factor, was widely criticised when Australia insisted upon it. In targetting emissions reductions in comparison to those from exceptionally high-emission years, the Howard Government set an absurdly low target for actual emissions reduction. This may be well and good in terms of...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Australia’s latest emissions data shows a giant fossil fuel problem
AUKUS is a dud club
June 12, 2025
News is splashing around about Trump launching an inquiry into AUKUS to see if it meets his America First policy. Of course, it does. We have to pay the US $368 billion (US$239 billion) over three decades for being part of the AUKUS club and, according to the contract, they don’t have to give us anything. Zip. Of course, Trump will love this contract, all the while laughing at Australia in the back rooms of the White House for signing up to such a dud deal.
Alyssa Aleksanian from Hazelbrook
In response to: Hugh White and our post-American future
Colonial minds
June 12, 2025
The Australian Government's reliance on a special relationship with the US dating back to 1942 is only part of the story. Our so-called leaders have always looked to a great and powerful friend, from 1788 on. Our leaders have never outgrown the colonial mentality. They are apparently incapable of imagining an independent Australia. The old political parties are relics of the 19th and 20th centuries. We need to get them out of our Parliament entirely. The growing numbers of independents and progressives is a start in this process, though so far they have not stepped up to international affairs.
Geoff Davies from Braidwood NSW
In response to: Hugh White and our post-American future
Hugh White sees half the elephant
June 12, 2025
I very much welcome Henry Reynolds ‘ wise exegesis on Hugh White’s essay, which I now must read. I share White’s reported view that Australia must now declare clearly to US that we will not go to war against China as the US’ ally over Taiwan. Urgently overdue. But it goes further than this, into the need to reshape our whole foreign policy world. We must reclaim Australia’s full sovereignty in this rapidly emerging multipolar world. We must truly become a friend to all and an enemy to none . We must stop demonising Russia and being trapped in...
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: Hugh White and our post-American future
Let's talk sea-level rise, shall we?
June 12, 2025
I am grateful to Julian Cribb for his focus on sea-level rise (The latest numbers indicate a rise of between 0.5 and 1.9 metres by 2100 under existing carbon emissions. This is about twice the previous estimate.) When you consider even just the implications for Australian cities, it is mind-boggling. Docklands in Melbourne, for instance, might be 12 metres above sea-level but storm surges on top of nearly two metre sea-level rise will make life unpleasant. In another letter, I mentioned the Mekong delta at 0.84 metres above current sea-level. There are huge implications for global food production....
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: Go-ahead for new carbon bomb marks Australia as enemy of the regionMerchants of
Australia is at a departure point
June 11, 2025
Ghaith Krayem lays things out re Palestine quite correctly. The latest sanctions move from Penny Wong marks a real point of departure by us and some partner nations from the US path. What is the US path? Well, the position of Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, is spelt out very clearly, unless, which is possible I suppose, he has changed his views in eight years. This from The Guardian today: “The ambassador’s position has deep roots in his evangelical Christian beliefs and longstanding support for Israeli settlement expansion. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Huckabee said: 'There is...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Palestine and the gravitational politics of erasure
No thanks and you can have mine back
June 11, 2025
I thought the biggest insult of all time was the presentation of the Queen's/King's Birthday honour to the husband of a British monarch by Tony Abbott until the presentation of an award — any award — to Scott Morrison. All the volunteers who have fought fires, cleaned up after floods, delivered food aid, worked at meals on wheels, coached kids sport, fixed farmers' burnt fences, worked sausage sizzles etc etc should respond with a great big no thanks until we stop rewarding those who do their job and get paid very well for it. Get paid very well...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Scott Morrrison – Australia's worst AO recipient