Letters to the Editor
Old economist wakes up - better late than never
March 22, 2024
Well, bugger me, who would ever have thought that fluffy irrelevant concepts such as power, ethics, equity, human wellbeing, relationships, communities, social justice, long term consequences, contingency & multiple and multidirectional causality & different perspectives (systems thinking), and (surely not, this really is going too far) unions and worker-power might be important?? Some idiot will soon be promoting the idea that a sprinkling of humanity might not go amiss. Marx was an economist who was extremely well read in philosophy, history and sociology. Just saying, Angus. Heres an interesting exam question: 'Individuals and communities have additional obligations to...
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point
In response to: Questioning ones views as circumstances evolve can be a good thing
Reflections on P&I
March 22, 2024
P&I is a splendid offering, and we should all pay tribute to the leadership of John Menadue and his editorial team. I have rarely stepped back from an article and not learnt something new. I find Ian McAuley's weekly wrap is an excellent snapshot of recent past events and prescient about future events (is that tautology?) - thoughtful and wide-ranging. Many thanks to you all and your contributors Kind Regards Erik
Erik Kulakauskas from Port MacQuarie
In response to: How to fix capitalism in Australia Weekly Roundup
Albanese Must Lead Boldly
March 18, 2024
Ian Dunlop urges a green economy and reconsideration of a carbon price and asks PM to back them. Dunlop summarises his three main reasons: *the globe's increasing heat; *the consequent unliveable future; *Australia's first-ever climate-risk assessment reveals extreme conditions of lack of water and food et al. Dunlop concludes by directly asking, PM, do you have the vision and courage to inform the community about climate risk? If Albanese does, he must lead Australia boldly and fast with both policies.
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: What will it really take to become a Renewable Energy Superpower?
HEU: ANCIENT WISDOM, MODERN LESSONS
March 18, 2024
On 15 March Pearls and Irritations published an article by Sue Wareham entitled AUKUS: risks, risks and more risks. The proposed AUKUS submarines, she declares, undermine efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons because they will be powered by weapons grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU), which is nuclear bomb fuel. HEU: Highly Enriched Uranium. Three letters casually typed into scientific or military reports anywhere in the world these days. But in fact the acronym would gain much valuable significance from one quick addition: a simple exclamation mark. HEU! Latin literature records that many a Roman gasped...
Frances Letters from Australia
In response to: AUKUS: risks, risks and more risks
We must pay for pollution
March 15, 2024
Peter Sainsbury writes that the overall reduction in CO2 emissions after the introduction of a carbon pricing scheme is around 0-2 per cent per year (Environment: Putting a price on carbon: is it worth all the trouble? Pearls and Irritations, 3/3). Given the long-standing support for a price on carbon as a solution to climate pollution, this is deeply troubling. Even more so when we acknowledge that the global north now needs to reduce emissions by 11 per cent per year between now and 2030 to even have a 50 per cent chance of holding warming to 1.5 degrees....
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Environment: Putting a price on carbon: is it worth all the trouble?
MH370 - ex airline pilot agrees with your story
March 15, 2024
I agree with your theory about this matter. If I was to speculate about the reason this theory has been mostly ignored by most media and politicians, I suggest that airlines and politicians would like to convince the flying public that such deliberate action by a pilot is impossible, however ever since 9/11 flight deck doors have been made impregnable and locked, except for crew leaving the flight deck for breaks (including using toilet), passenger or crew liaison, or entry to the flight deck by cabin crew providing food and drink or visiting the pilots to discuss operational matters (such...
Paul Simpson from Brocklesby NSW
In response to: Hiding in plain sight Malaysian Airlines flight 370
Alcohol banned in parliaments
March 15, 2024
Alcohol availability in Parliament House Canberra is a throwback to one hundred years ago when Parliament House was a destination in this vast country for those who came from further afield. With Commonwealth Federation in 1901, parliamentarians travelled to Melbourne then Canberra after 1926, resided in hotels and conferred at the workplace for obvious reasons of distance. Home away from home required a flow of alcohol and catering to make life more comfortable. Parliament House in Canberra was no doubt modelled on gentlemens clubs e.g. Melbourne Club - with bar service - which suited the mode of...
Dorothy Button from St Kilda West
In response to: POLITICIANS AT EVERY LEVEL NEED TO LOSE THEIR BOOZE
Danger using Pine Gap in Negotiations with the US
March 15, 2024
Recent revelations of the role the CIA played in the dismissal of Whitlam after he threatened to close Pine Gap will have dampened Labour's willingness to use it to negotiate a better deal with the US over the ANZUZ treaty. Albanese, Marles, and Wong have clearly shown their complete lack of interest in rocking the boat and are demonstrating their awareness and fear of the ruthlessness of the US when it comes to real threats to their security apparatus. The reality is the Coalition and the right wing press would have an absolute field day if Labour had the...
Robert Galland from Parkesbourne
In response to: Penny in Thunderland: Through the lurking glass
The Power of the Dog
March 15, 2024
Clearly what has been underestimated in Albaneses case is the power of the dog. This error in judgment at the ballot box is now coming back to bite us all, while Albanese is still riding high, minting property sales and making matrimony. His true character and that of his party is now emerging through their actions out of the camouflage of their words and social media slinging. Sadly unless you can say this by pointing at words on a screen while dancing on TikTok, or produce a mocking meme then a large portion of voters will never...
A Reader from Sydney
In response to: Underestimating Albanese
Will AUKUS Outlast Trump
March 15, 2024
And pure politics at that. Morrison wanted a khaki election. He was unhappy with the French sub-deal and he needed the splash to go along with Dutton's anti-China rhetoric as Minister for Defence. Aukus was a solution with such a long time frame that no one could ever predict it would actually eventuate, nor its ultimate cost. Boris Johnson needed to rejuvenate his defence shipyards. Biden wanted a long-term moderate approach to China and to reinvigorate those inefficient sub- yards on the US East Coast. It was Biden who asked Morrison if he had a bipartisan arrangement and...
Bill Brown from HOLT
In response to: How did Australia get seduced by AUKUS?
Australia responsible for the bleaching of its own reef
March 15, 2024
In 2023, the hottest year since records began, the level of heat stress and mortality in northern hemisphere reefs was so severe that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was forced to update its Global Alert System to Alert Level 5 (after 20 Degree Heating Weeks) signifying a risk of near complete mortality (more than 80 per cent of corals). Shockingly, reefs in Florida Keys experienced 22 Degree Heating Weeks. By 5 March 2024, Australias Great Barrier Reef had experienced 14 Degree Heating Weeks and was approaching Alert Level 4. Hardly surprising given that in February 2024, the...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Top science body warns of worst coral bleaching event in history
Hear me Roar
March 15, 2024
The Women's Politics Conference was a forerunner to many other women's initiatives over the next four or so decades. Margaret Whitlam fiercely defended her husband's commitment to women's equality at the Conference. She also defended the male team running the show. When asked why remote community Indigenous women were not invited and why no childminding arrangements were made for children of women invited to the conference, she stated that the budget for the conference didn't stretch to paying for rural and remote women living great distances from the capital cities to travel. She said when she was young, she...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: The 8th of March is our Womens Day
The Teals Have Revived Representative Parliament
March 8, 2024
Caroline Fitzwarryne predicts the end of party politics now that the community-based Teals have displaced senior politicians who had compromised their own integrity to support bad policy in the name of party solidarity. Governments express frustration at having to work with minor parties or independent MPs. In doing so they forget that it is the parliament as a whole that represents the will of the people. The Lower and Upper Houses each present a reflection of the people's wishes. If the governing party lacks sufficient members in either House to govern in its own right it must work...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: The end of party politics
THE DEPUTY SHERRIF SYNDROME
March 8, 2024
Unfortunately for Australia, as the hegemony of our great and powerful friend and ally abates some unpalatable choices will need to be faced. Do we continue to look upon our great and powerful friend with closed eyes as our sovereignty is compromised or do we adopt the Keatingesque approach and put our national interest above everything else? It is in our national interest to be seen as a sovereign nation engaging with Asia and developing mutually beneficial relations with particular emphasis on trade. At the same time ensuring that friendly relations are maintained between the two principal powers...
Jon Jovanovic from Hobart
In response to: Traitors in our midst: Australias foreign interference laws are a political ruse
Those nuclear submarines
March 8, 2024
Roughly, the Virginia Class Submarines appear to have a cruise depth of about 50m. This gives them a maximum of 10m clearance across the Gulf of Carpentaria and Bass Strait. The Gulf also has a tidal range of 3m so on a bad day, the clearance would be 7m. The platform and barrier reefs also need to be factored in. There are also shallow waters between Broome and Darwin as well as those associated with the Great Barrier Reef. So, unless these submarines are fitted with wheels, they are useless for patrolling around Australia. The conclusion must be that they...
John Davies from Mullumbimby NSW 2482
In response to: Hugh White dismantles the AUKUS project By Nick Deane
Well timed article
March 8, 2024
It is about time journalists starting looking at our allies and their actions with some honesty. It seems that it is a taboo topic and yet we, as a nation, should not just accept and support everything that the US, in particular, does. Even friends should be able to call each other out when one party does the wrong things. Over time, we should assess whether both parties still share the same fundamental values or whether we have diverged in what we believe in.
Christine Rogers from Newcastle NSW
In response to: Traitors in our midst: Australias foreign interference laws are a political ruse
Tensions in a deeply economically linked world
March 8, 2024
The world is confronting a time of radically increased tensions between nations, and corporations, that supply essential commodities to each other. I cannot think of any period in human history where military tensions existed between parties that were economically dependent on each other. For most of human history, trade was in exotica - spices, valued metals, fish sauce from the Sea of Galilee to Rome. Desirable items, but not essential. Even the trade in lamb from Australia and New Zealand to England was non-essential - if you don't have a lamb roast on Sunday in Leicester, you still eat...
Glenn Tamblyn from Eganstown
In response to: Australian defence: from self-reliance to subsidising US war with China
Paul Heywood-Smith issues a clear call
March 8, 2024
The 10,000 strong UNIFIL force needs to be greatly augmented so a part of it is deployed along the Israel-Gaza border. A purely Israeli security force there is not really an option. Over 44 years UNIFIL work on the Israel-Lebanon border has not been perfect, but 70 countries have contributed peacekeepers to it including Iran, China, and Russia (48 currently), 11 countries have led it, and in addition there is a Maritime Security Force, which Brazil commanded for 9 of its years, and 2000 Bangladeshi sailors, for example, have served in. So clearly UNIFIL enjoys a wide degree of...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Misrepresenting the ICJ and muzzling our press - the Empire strikes back
Joe had the power to prevent it
March 5, 2024
Peter OKeeffe says of the pogrom in Gaza: Because it could cease immediately with a decision by one man. Unfortunately that decision lies, and has since October lain, with one man in the US who has proved by his decisions to be very cruel. And we held such high hopes for him when he took office.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Horror in Gaza and the shallowness of Western civilisation
Climate action: way too little, way too late
March 1, 2024
Way too little way too late: Gregory Andrews words capture the essence of the climate action that weve seen from successive governments. This Labor government plays to both sides - assuring us, through Chris Bowen, that they are determined to do all that they can while simultaneously, through Madelaine King, waving through a steady stream of new, sometimes huge, fossil fuel projects to placate the fossil fuel industry. The climate science has been clear for many years. Forecasts made on the basis of that science have proved to be conservative: change is coming faster, and to a greater extent, than...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Heatwaves and blackouts: Australias climate crisis is now
Lithium free ev batteries now in production
March 1, 2024
Daniel Bleakleys article with the catchy title Electric vehicles will crush fossil cars on price lived up to expectations. The negativity coming from the electrification naysayers and those with vested interests has been full on since the announcement that Australia was finally getting fuel efficiency standards. However, while the main reason Bleakley gave for the projected reduction in EV prices was falling battery prices due to the decreasing price of lithium, I was surprised the safer, cheaper, cleaner sodium-ion batteries were not mentioned. Unlike lithium, sodium is low cost and available virtually anywhere on the planet. Two Chinese car makers...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Electric vehicles will crush fossil cars on price as lithium and battery prices
Missing in Action: Aaron Bushnell
March 1, 2024
I searched the ABC news website for Aaron Bushnell and found nothing. So I left feedback asking why this important story has not been covered. But immediately realised it's very obvious why the ABC hasn't covered this story. It's the same reason why Ms Latouf was summarily dismissed. The ABC is nothing but propaganda and no doubt feeling a little bit once burnt, twice shy. Thank you to Caitlin for publicising Mr Bushnell's protest. A protest act like self-immolation requires it to be seen. Thch Qung c's self-immolation in 1963 was widely publicised, the photo of it is now...
Stephen McLellan from Brisbane
In response to: Immolation: Aaron Bushnell burned himself alive to make you turn your eyes to Gaza
US Military advisors
March 1, 2024
Dr. Broinowkskis article is timely and deserves wide distribution. But considering the number of retired US senior officers working within the Australian Defence force as consultants is it any wonder that Australian looks ever to the US in matters of defence. They include eagerness to follow the US in its military blunders, ensuring defence purchases work with the US military and of course supporting the US military-industrial complex by buying planes, tanks and submarines. I would like to see Dr. Broinowskis analysis of the infiltration of US military into Australias military.
Melvyn Dickson from Malabar
In response to: Fractured consensus, fabricated facts and the truth of Western wars
Playing in the street
March 1, 2024
I spent my preschool years playing on the street in the quiet Sydney suburb of Rodd Point, where there were lots of women and children and only a few men, it being 1940's wartime. The following is from a self-published book Remembering Rodd Point: 'Our common playground was the road. There were no cars; all the fuel was needed for the war effort. Our road was covered in river stones and the only vehicles that trundled along it were the milk and bread carts. A favourite game we preschoolers played, always with an unwelcome interruption, was Throwing Stones....
Janet Grevillea from NSW
In response to: Street play: A thing of the past?
Naval expansion is expensive and unnecessary
March 1, 2024
As Gregorys article indicates, the inclusion on our warships of larger missiles capable of travelling further shows offensive rather than defensive intent. Additionally, the Hunter class warships will involve construction by BAE corporation, which has a long and dubious global reputation of corruption and bribery. The optionally-crewed nature of some ships relies on unproven technology and may add to the history of delayed defence projects in Australia. The naval expansions AUD$11.1bn cost is massive at a time of desperate need for social housing, cost-of-living relief and climate mitigation. For that money, far more people could be employed in education,...
Dr Marty Branagan from Peace Studies, UNE, Armidale NSW
In response to: Enhanced lethality but no better security: New navy gears up for war
What si truth
February 23, 2024
I have been haunted by the question: what can we trust these days. AI and social media and this pic highlight the issue. I was once a photo hobbyist and I can imagine it would not be too difficult to combine two pics into this one. Time mag once moved pyramids on its cover and created a controversy. A recent article and video of actual AI creations (in this P&I?) hugely expands the confusion. As do conspiracy theorising and alternate possibilities and plural truths argued in university halls. I cling to institutions and processes that I have trusted...
Eric Pozza from ACT
In response to: Today, every Palestinian is a target for death, extermination and genocide
The moving goalposts of COP
February 23, 2024
Jeremy Webbs The COP and climate change: a spent force (21/2) conjures up that sporting metaphor of moving goalposts. With every Conference of the Parties (COP), the net zero by 2050 target recedes. Every resolution brings a watering-down of goals. Every year the warnings from the UN Secretary General become more alarming. But COP, co-opted by fossil fuel interests, waters down the urgency rather than raises it. Quoting Professor Howden, Webb makes clear this nexus between COP and the fossil fuel lobby: resolutions are replete with weasel words such as calls on, instructs, requests, transitioning away, orderly and equitable...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: The COP and climate change: a spent force
Further to Brian Tooheys letter on the 1975 coup
February 23, 2024
Brian Toohey draws our attention to the US dimension of the November 1975 coup overthrowing the elected federal government. Jenny Hocking has brilliantly uncovered in the Palace Letters the role in the coup of the then Queen and then Governor-General. It is of interest that a later Attorney-General, Gareth Evans, showed an apparent lack of interest in uncovering the US dimension. In a 29 year old letter to me, Justin Brown, replying for the A-G, approved the sentence of 25 years gaol of the US whistleblower Christopher Boyce, who in his role at TRW had seen evidence...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Untruths, the CIA and Whitlams dismissal
Drifting off course
February 23, 2024
One of the long term problems of blogs such as P&I, and here I have in mind such outlets as Crikey and New Matilda, is they inevitably descend into expressions of in house idiosyncrasy. I have been reading P&I for much of the past decade, and have long recommended your coverage of geopolitical analysis. More recently, though you have become more wide ranging in what you cover, and in the process you have become somewhat unhinged. In today's edition, Stella Assange's comment about Navalny's death, McQueen's evocation of Taylor Swift, O'Keefe's analysis of the Israel/Gaza situation, and Michael Keating's...
malcolm harrison from Blackheath
In response to: Devastating: wife of imprisoned journalist Julian Assange mourns death of Alexei Navalny
Getting the message through
February 23, 2024
Convincing voters that we have a problem that needs a solution is difficult (Shock as warming accelerates, 1.5C is breached faster than forecast, 17/2). The facts may be smack-in-the-face obvious to many people but unfortunately there exists a large body of people who are swayed by conservative writers in the Murdoch papers and the ever negative Coalition. Even if they think there is a problem they are easily swayed by uncosted and unfunded pie-in-the-sky solutions like nuclear and carbon capture. Those beyond that point to the odd cold and wet day as irrefutable evidence that climate change is...
Ross Hudson from Mount Martha, Vic
In response to: Shock as warming accelerates, 1.5C is breached faster than forecast
One cannot be an illegal occupier of his own land: Response Letter
February 22, 2024
Thank you for reaching out to me and giving me the opportunity to send a response to this most lopsided factually incorrect article based on questionable legal opinions and obviously written by a person(s) with an extreme left wing agenda and lacking knowledge on International law, and Jewish Zionist history or heritage. It is the typical warped narrative of those trying to besmirch the State of Israel and treat the Jews as foreigners or illegal settlers on their own land. We are the Jewish People and we are the rightful heirs of the G-d given land of Israel and we...
Daniel Luria from Israel
In response to: Stop Australian charitable donations to the Settler Movement in the Occupied Territories
The article headed "Israeli female soldiers celebrate the death of 12,300 children" is an appalling misrepresentation
February 21, 2024
The article headed Israeli female soldiers celebrate the death of 12,300 children is an appalling misrepresentation of the image presented. All the image shows is a group of female soldiers, with one of the group taking a selfie of the group. The carnage in Gaza, and the deaths of 30,000 militants, civilians and children is horrific. The need for a ceasefire is beyond question, but cheap shots like this one have no place in a serious discussion. Does anyone who thinks about this issue really see Israel as the sole responsible party? Is Hamas absolved of...
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Israeli female soldiers celebrate the death of 12,300 children
We need climate action sooner than a treaty
February 16, 2024
I can admire Julian Cribbs optimism that an Earth Systems Treaty might still save a habitable environment, but I struggle to share it. As Cribb observes, It is clear the worlds governments have neither the skills, the brains nor the moral integrity to work their way out of such a crisis and remain obedient to their fossil fuel overlords. Material self-interest carries huge social inertia in the face of the need for major change. The measured steps we rejected thirty years ago are now much bigger and steeper. We need major changes, globally implemented, urgently. Democracy,...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: Climate chaos: world overheats while Europe faces a new Ice Age
Reading and Public Schools: Parents have a role too
February 16, 2024
Originally I am from Switzerland. Recently I went on the website of the School I went to. Among instructions to the parents is one particular item: Reading is also expected to be done at home. The parents must make time and read with their child/children to reinforce what they had learnt in school. The school system is pressuring the parents. If we would do that here in Australia our kids would be better in reading also. Schools could ask retired people who have a good education background to come to school and to voluntary reading with kids....
Therese Saladin-Davies from NSW
In response to: Teacher bashing: Grattan joins the chorus
HAMAS has the blood of Palestinians and Israelis on its hands
February 16, 2024
HAMAS prepared for October 7th 2023 very carefully. They prepared a network of tunnels throughout Gaza and perhaps beyond. Some of those tunnels were connected to hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. They stockpiled weapons and continued firing missiles into Israel. HAMAS must have known full well that the slaughter of 1400 Israeli citizens and the taking of 220 hostages would result in severe military action against them. They could have fled to neighbouring countries and spared the people of Gaza the pain, destruction and death that was bound to come, but they chose to fight in the hope that...
Alan CLARKE from BEACON HILL
In response to: Silencing Francesca Albanese
How did we get so deeply in to the Zionist thrall?
February 16, 2024
Margaret Reynolds concise article clearly outlines our politician's inability to rise above the tribalism of party politics, but they also seem frozen in the headlights of a force more powerful than human decency. We need to know why. Social media responses to Albanese, Wong and Marles' intransigence over the Palestinian genocide have been vitriolic (when Meta allows). The comments have been scathing about Labor's callous indifference to the animalistic excesses of Netanyahu and his military force. We see a Labor Government and the likes of Dreyfus and Wong struck dumb when witnessing the obvious lies, obfuscation and determined...
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: The Australian Parliament fails to uphold international law preventing genocide
Cost of killing Gazan Palestinians
February 16, 2024
The two recent arms sales to Israel based on Presidential not Congressional authority, knowing that Israel was razing large parts of Gaza, amounted to USD 263.5 million. So with nearly 28000 Palestinians killed, that is just on $9000 per life lost. Leaving aside for a minute dead adult Palestinians of childbearing age, the 11500 Palestinian children killed means that maybe 34000 children will never be born to them. It is a totally disproportionate action by Israel, even though it was severely provoked, and an action that Joe Biden seems only now to be making feeble attempts to ameliorate, given US...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Deflect, distort, deny
The beginning of a climate change solution
February 16, 2024
Obviously Jonathan Page is furious with fossil fuel leaders who still continue pushing their product, given that lots of millions of human deaths will have resulted from FFC activity. He outlines three possible actions in Australia: charge them based on our existing law against harming society; charging Fossil Fuel Companies; or charging FFC executives. Interestingly, six years ago far-sighted climate scientist Joelle Gergis referred in her book to climate change as an intergenerational crime against humanity (Sunburnt Country, 2018, p. 226). My own family's life has also been harmed in that son Lachlan GP lost everything- patients, friends,...
Barbara J Fraser Phd from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Judgment Day: Final retribution for the ecocidal psychopaths
US Military aggression
February 16, 2024
So glad you didn't forget the US war on Grenada. Such a magnificent win against a truly formidable foe. Indeed it is their only win since WWII. Last result, a loss to some theological students in Afghanistan.
John Queripel from Newcastle
In response to: Genocidal Wars dominate US history
Tradies and weekends are safe
February 16, 2024
Credit to the Labor government for moving forward with fuel-efficiency standards. The Coalition considered it but squibbed after pressure from the car industry. As John Quiggin concludes, The best time to introduce the policy was ten or more years ago. But the second-best time is now. As Quiggin notes, a key aspect of the policy is that the national emissions limit does not apply to individual cars, but rather applies to the mix of vehicles sold. This means that the both the current and low-emissions versions of Australias most popular car, the petrol/diesel Ford Ranger ute, can still...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Labors fuel-efficiency standards may settle the ute dispute but there are still hazards
The American Disease
February 14, 2024
In 'What's Ruining America?' columnist David Brooks is reported as blaming the country's sickness and internal division on chicken littles spreading a national contagion of pessimism. He could hardly be more off-beam. What is ruining America is the age-old condition known as imperial over-reach. A state where a country's overinflated idea of itself becomes increasingly detached from reality, leading many to doubt and even despair. America was founded upon the inalienable right of one human to pillage and enslave another, concreted in by a toxic admixture of European mercantilism and religious fundamentalism: the faith that god rewards the most...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Whats ruining America?
We must reclaim the common good
February 9, 2024
Tony Ward reports how social trust has deteriorated over the past 30 years in developed countries, and how growing inequality has been a key factor in this decline. A key contributor to that growing inequality has been the enthusiastic adoption by the political right of the neoliberal dogma. As Jon Tons recently observed (https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/the-social-contract-and-the-voice/) this dogma decrees that it is both morally wrong and technically unnecessary for governments to intervene to remediate inequalities. This philosophy encourages individualism at the expense of community. The key to social trust is, firstly, a faith in ones fellows, and secondly an appreciation of the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Damaging social cohesion
Engaging with climate solution
February 9, 2024
David Spratt and Ian Dunlop write with authority on the devastating global heating trajectory. The science regarding the future before us if we dont change course is clear. With due respect to the clever and dedicated scientists, many believe that global heating has now become a communications problem. Solutions are possible, but overwhelmingly humanity, particularly leaders, chooses to place our collective heads in the sand. Doomsday predictions do not entice us to action. I therefore encourage Pearls and Irritations to follow up the excellent towards and unliveable planet series with articles conveying the solutions. Action is the antidote to...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Towards an unliveable planet: Climates 2023 annus horribilis
Israel in contempt of ICJ orders
February 9, 2024
In contested proceedings, a Court may make interim orders before the final determination to prevent irreparable harm. Those orders have full force and effect whatever the ultimate decision. Breach of those orders is contempt of court. The ICJ made a number of interim orders one of which was that Israel must take immediate and effective steps to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. In response, Israel, almost immediately, called for the Defunding of the UNRWA relying on its allegations against the 12 UNRWA employees. Many western nations including the United States and Australia have...
John Curr from Brisbane
In response to: Are Australian government ministers complicit in genocide?
Rusted-on Labor voters thought they'd elected one.
February 9, 2024
Peter Henning's article is 'spot on'. . . summarising succinctly the ugly exposure of our Government's lack of moral compass. Fears of climate change and a growing awareness of the shabby nature of Scott Morrison et al's business acumen (or lack thereof) meant this Government was partially elected to address these concerns. Imagine the shock when : * Tanya Plibersek not only failed to close existing coal mines but approved the opening of new ones. * Anthony Albanese not only allowed Dutton/Morrison's Aukus deal to continue, but encouraged Richard Marles' backslapping and lockstepping with the American...
Glenda Jones from Carlton, Victoria
In response to: Stripped bare: The Albanese governments support for genocide
Superb expose of US instigation of Pakistan coup
February 9, 2024
Jeffrey Sachs here excels in quietly recounting the dreadful history of officially denied but known to everybody US interference in Pakistan politics. Bluntly the US govt told the popular leader Imran Khan We dont allow your country to be neutral. The US- compliant army and police then removed him and worse has followed since with his 10 year jail sentence for espionage, for revealing the evidence of US interference as the cause of his removal. What a dreadful warning to Australia. If we are ever to escape the deadly US embrace it will have to be by...
Tony Kevin from Canberra ACT
In response to: The US toppling of Imran Khan
Pursuing the real criminals
February 9, 2024
Thanks to Jack Waterford for writing and to John Menadue for publishing these quotations from the ACT Court of Appeal: The decision to commence a criminal prosecution is an opaque process at the best of times. The open court principle stands as a bulwark against the possibility of political prosecutions by allowing public scrutiny and assessment of the actions of the respondent and the Attorney-General by reference to the evidence adduced in a criminal trial. It took the ill-conceived persecution of Bernard Collaery to flush out this long-overdue show of spine from the justice arm of government....
Glen Davis from NSW
In response to: Oppressive secrecy needs more dashes of cold water yet
Ceasefire essential, but both side must commit to end hostilities
February 4, 2024
I think it's appropriate that the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. But a ceasefire without the release of hostages or a plan for ultimately resolving the Israel Palestine conflict is an empty plea. The killing of some 26,000 Palestinians in Gaza is an immense tragedy as is the dire situation of the population suffering unimaginable deprivation, as is the devastation of infrastructure in Gaza. But the context in which this is occurring is an attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,139 Israelis including 260 young people at a...
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Open letter to Prime Minister Albanese on the urgent situation in Gaza and the freeze of UNRWA funds
ICJ orders and suspending UNRWA
February 2, 2024
The Albanese government's utter failure to condemn Israel for its blatant breaches of all the ICJ orders, at the same time as suspending payments to UNRWA, thereby pushing 2 million refugees to the edge of starvation, seems like the grossest hypocrisy. Do they think we are so stupid we won't see it? No, I don't think they believe that. There has to be another motive. When does it stop being hypocrisy and start being intentional wrongdoing? What possible motivation is there for our so-called leaders to act in such a deliberately evil manner?
Niall McLaren from Pullenvale, via Brisbane, Qld
In response to: Stripped bare: The Albanese governments support for genocide