Letters to the Editor
Palestine, Israel and truth
May 1, 2025
I applaud Pearls and Irritations and John Menadue for the forthright bravery of the piece 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity. Yes, it will stir outrage, and accusations of antisemitism. But whatever our loyalties or religious and political affiliations, we desperately need journalism that probes, does not cower in the face powerful interests, and tells complex and tragic truths directly and uncompromisingly.
Morag Fraser from Melbourne, Victoria
In response to: Never again-not-only-for-jews-but-for-Palestinians and all humanity
A timely wake-up call
May 1, 2025
What a pleasure to read editor-in-chief John Menadue’s 27 April ANU lecture on the question of Palestine and Israel’s criminal (genocidal) measures against it, Such is the dominance exercised over global media by pro-Israel forces that it must call for courage on Menadue’s part to be so forthright in insisting on the attribution of major criminal responsibility. Appropriate to the title “Pearls and Irritations”, Menadue offers a pearl. That in doing so he has irritated many is plain from the response to date. Furthermore, however shocking, Menadue is on the side of international law. The International Criminal...
Gavan McCormack from Canberra, ACT
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
The indestructible pillars of bipartisanship
May 1, 2025
That will never change because at different times it suits both (all) of them. Whenever we talk (only talk) of reform, this one never even gets a mention.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Neoliberalism causes cost-of-living crisis
Bravo, John Menadue
May 1, 2025
I just want to join with many others in congratulating John Menadue on his fine speech in support of Palestine and humanity at the ANU. John's clear principled stand makes me proud to be associated with P&I. As for the response of The Australian newspaper, I wonder whether there is anyone on their staff with a grasp of such a fundamental (and conservative) tenet as respect for one's wise elders.
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
Time to end colonialism and for our govt to assert itself
May 1, 2025
After 40 years of working in the South Australian public service, I have no doubt that neoliberalism has been a failed experiment. The major indicator is that the roles of the public and private sector have become so entwined that it is hard to tell them apart. In very basic terms, the role of the private sector is to make a profit and the role of governments is to regulate for the good of Australia and Australians. Australia, for all its multiculturalism, remains a colony of the UK and, more recently, of the US, as demonstrated by AUKUS...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-us-has-never-been-a-reliable-ally-of-au
P&I speaks the truth about the genocide in Gaza
May 1, 2025
Pearls & Irritations has become indispensable for penetrating the misinformation of the mainstream media. It confirms Noam Chomsky’s analysis of the “necessary illusions” and thought control in our “free” press. With the genocide in Gaza, the importance of Pearls & Irritations was aptly described by George Orwell: We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty ... If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.
Peter Slezak from Sydney, NSW
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
Will there be people available to do the caring?
May 1, 2025
Thank you Professor Kathy Eager for outlining the issues facing older people and the incoming government which will implement aged care reform. One issue facing older recipients of aged care packages is finding people to carry out the care. Here is an example from one older person. This 89-year-old woman has been informed she can have someone to clean the home she shares with her older and ailing husband. Big sigh of relief you might imagine. However, there are no cleaners available in her area. Why? She has learned that the cleaners have all gone to NDIS, which...
Janet Grevillea from Lake Macquarie
In response to: Aged care reform in 2025:An agenda for the next Australian Government
Very well said
May 1, 2025
Let’s welcome John Menadue’s angry words about the Murdoch press and others who have been able to treat the genocidal turpitude of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza with Nelsonic blind eyes. Although these people may now be getting off lightly, the time will surely come when ignominy will pay them a terrible visit, and the sooner the better.
Paddy Gourley from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Message from the editor-in-chief: Genocide is not newsworthy in The Australian
Truth about Australia finally revealed
May 1, 2025
The Indonesian media garners and recycles news on its southern neighbour, largely from the Oz legacy press. Till now, few readers across the archipelago would have known of our lively independent journalism, so it was generous of The Australian to give Pearls and Irritations a free plug. John Menadue's powerful commentary might have gone unnoticed, but for the pro-Israel Murdoch media making a meal out of his ANU speech. In doing so, the paper has revealed to the secular Republic, with more Muslims than any other state, a truth about our nation. A writer of John's...
Duncan Graham from Perth, WA
In response to: Message from the editor-in-chief: Genocide is not newsworthy in The Australian
Neoliberalism causes cost-of-living crisis
May 1, 2025
Both the major parties (and even the Greens) embrace economic neoliberalism. This sees the federal government acting like a household, with household-like budget constraints. And on this view, budgets should therefore be balanced, or even in surplus. This, however, causes private debt to increase, which in turn causes the cost-of-living crisis, such as we have now. We need instead to change focus and to balance the economy, not the budget, with carefully targeted deficits, even deficits in perpetuity, if necessary. Despite neoliberal scaremongering, it is a fact that our currency-issuing federal government is not like a household. It...
Terry Gibson from Canberra
In response to: Who will better manage the economy: Labor or the Coalition?
At last, some honesty on Gaza
May 1, 2025
John Menadue’s lecture to an ANU audience on 27 April is the best statement I have yet seen on the appalling genocide unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank. The personal historical perspective gives it added weight, history which most commentators have been determined to ignore. John’s honesty stands in stark contrast to the Israeli Government/Zionist propaganda which the bulk of Australia’s mainstream media have almost exclusively fed to the community since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. Bias for which the MSM should hang their heads in shame. And then there is the utter hypocrisy of...
Ian Dunlop from Gordon, NSW
In response to: Never Again” not only for Jews but for Palestinians and all humanity.
Taking aim at Israel's hypocrisy
April 30, 2025
Thank you, thank you, thank you, John Menadue for the text of your speech delivered at the Palestinian rally at the ANU on 27 April – “Never Again” not only for Jews,Israel's awful hypocrisy but for Palestinians and all of humanity. Disappointing, but not surprising, that it didn’t find its way in the mainstream media. Like most of our politicians, they are cowering under pressure from Israel and its enablers, here and abroad. Your piece says it all, and is arguably the finest ever delivered on the awful hypocrisy and complicity on the part of Western governments when...
Sara Dowse from Canberra, ACT
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
Truth telling
April 30, 2025
Thank you for the journal, your frank and fearless reporting, and your leadership.
Bob Beadman from Darwin
In response to: Message from the editor-in-chief: Genocide is not newsworthy in The Australian
Timely reminder of mainstream media's propaganda
April 30, 2025
John Menadue’s article on 30 April, in response to The Australian’s disgraceful excuse for journalism on the matter of Israel’s destruction of Palestine, is a timely reminder of just how much propaganda masquerading as news Australians are exposed to. In its distorted and inflammatory coverage of a “Vote for Humanity” event at ANU on 27 April at which Menadue spoke, The Australian has helped perpetuate the carnage in Gaza and the oppression of Palestinian people. Just as the practice of medicine itself (and much, much more) is under direct attack in Gaza, with more than 1000 healthcare workers...
Sue Wareham from Cook, ACT
In response to: Message from the editor-in-chief: Genocide is not newsworthy in The Australian
Hitting the right spot
April 30, 2025
John Menadue should be commended for displaying the sort of courage, outspokenness and commitment to international law and human rights that is so conspicuously absent in the mainstream media and among our political representatives. His many articles in Pearls and Irritations, and his recent speech at the ANU, are reminders of what political courage looks like in an era of political cowardice and complicity in cruelty. He calls out the endless atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people for what they are – a genocide. He is unequivocal about the complicity of silence that surrounds Australia’s response to what...
Dr Richard Hill from Gold Coast, Queensland
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
Intellectual and moral clarity
April 30, 2025
Words cannot express my gratitude to John Menadue for his indefatigable and invaluable work against the genocide of Palestinians. At a time when the compliant media has reacted with either deafening silence or lies, John has continued to speak up, with exceptional intellectual and moral clarity. When dealing with the so-called Israel/Hamas war, mainstream media is replete with distorted framing and deceitful reporting. The so-called journalists have dehumanised Palestinians and manufactured consent for the genocide. We are fortunate to have Pearls and Irritations and other sources of independent journalism.
Sawsan Madina from Sydney, NSW
In response to: Message from the editor-in-chief: Genocide is not newsworthy in The Australian
Exceptional leadership from John Menadue
April 30, 2025
Should “vested interests” alone decide what's newsworthy? We have John (and the late Susie) Menadue to thank for the very existence of P&I where not only public policies can be aired, or thoughtful opinions about them, but also critical global matters – and their consequences. Could Susie and John possibly have anticipated how essential P&I would become to serious readers as we face the most devastating moral failure of our time (along with failing adequately to slow global warming)? A failure fully enabled and endorsed by Western powers and media? The coverage that P&I has given to...
Stephanie Dowrick from Darwin CBD, NT
In response to: Message from the editor-in-chief: Genocide is not newsworthy in The Australian
Will 2025 be the canary in the climate coalmine?
April 30, 2025
Our planet is heating more rapidly than expected, with 2024 proving, contrary to most expectations, warmer than the El Nino-powered 2023. There will be many reasons why this is happening, including ever-increasing carbon pollution, reduced sulphate cooling and the shrinking global icecaps. If, as David Spratt predicts, 2025 is warmer again, then this will portend a dangerous trend accelerating our environmental deterioration. Urgent action would be required on a global scale. In that case, COP31, in 2026, will hold critical significance. Should Australia, with the Pacific Islands, win the right to host this event we will have the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: 2025 is the crunch year in the scientific contest about accelerated warming
Woe is me
April 30, 2025
I am a very ordinary man aged 83 and for the life of me I cannot understand the savagery evident in this world, not only Israel against the Palestinians, but also in the Sudan, Russia and Ukraine. Humanity has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. We forget that if a man gaisn the whole world but loses his soul, he is a loser. I weep for the parents whose children have been murdered in the name of a God who doesn’t seem too concerned. Israel has just celebrated the Passover which, at its core, is a...
Brian Robertson from Maleny QLD 4552
In response to: Message from the editor in chief
If I were mentor to Albanese or Dutton...
April 29, 2025
Alison Broinowski succintly offered a heartfelt picture of clarity and courage related to Australia's alternative posture in the world. Meanwhile the voters, more or less resigned to reactive mediocrity from our leaders, will munch on their democracy sausages on Saturday and vote indifferently for Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Where has the Australian vision gone Albo and Dutto? Can you pick a single onshore item related to climate, generational inequality and student debt, long-term power generation, real housing solutions or future disaster management goals that anyone will remember you for after you cash in your super? After the speeches...
Donald Clayton from Bittern Victoria 3918
In response to: If I were Foreign Minister...
Trump can stop one war today
April 29, 2025
John sums up the issue of Palestine deftly Yesterday, Donald Trump made another forlorn plea to Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine. Yesterday also saw a young Palestinian boy flung through the air by an Israeli bomb on his house, killing everyone in his family but him and his mother. He was seen sitting shellshocked mere minutes later in the rubble that had been his house. This is the war that Trump does have the power to stop today. What is it about him that makes him unable to be moved by the sight of...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
John's passion and scrupulous honesty!
April 29, 2025
My respect for John Menadue continues to grow daily as his transparent honesty, compassion and courage evident in speaking the truth are a beacon of light in an ever darkening world!!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: 'Never again' not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity
World trade rules need fixing
April 28, 2025
Freer world trade and rules to support it have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of dire poverty on the Asian side of the Pacific. Freer trade has benefitted millions of Australians by way of cheaper prices, but it has also reinforced the view that the planet’s resources are unlimited, and we have some sort of human right to consume far more than other people. On a planet with eight billion others, we are resource greedy in our energy use, in our habitual waste of materials, and in our ability to look the other way when natural environments...
Neil Hauxwell from Moe Victoria
In response to: China's two 'secret weapons' in the tariff war
Lest we forget to remember
April 28, 2025
Douglas Newton’s poignant words speak to the truth of war: it’s the political leaders who declare it and it’s the people who die and suffer as a consequence. I know ANZAC is special to Australians, but I stopped going to the dawn service when I found myself standing behind a bunch of teenage boys wearing Australian flags as superman capes. They were at a ceremony honouring those who fell fighting against the very nationalism they were personifying. As a multicultural society, I’d like to see the fallen of all nations respected in the march, including those against whom...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Anzac voices - voices of warning
Some further funds for schools
April 28, 2025
If I were the relevant minister, I would make the tax-deductible donations to schools' building and library funds be put into a central pot to be shared equally between all schools around Australia. Otherwise, end the tax-deductibility of such donations. Why should private schools' extravagant and lavish facilities essentially be subsidised by taxpayers (through foregone revenue) while public schools have barely serviceable ones? There's nothing stopping private school parents and alumni donating to upgrade their schools' facilities – just not at the opportunity cost of everyone else.
K M from Canberra
In response to: A school debate that didn’t happen
Clarity in delegations of government power
April 28, 2025
May I add a thought to Andrew Podger’s suggestions? A number of federal public servants exercise enormous power over us as their fellow citizens. This power is often delegated, by a minister, or a more senior public servant. So there should be an easily accessible website which contains a full list of current delegations, the name of the delegate, the start and end date of the power, and the legal extent of the power. After the Scott Morrison multiple ministry episode, the same should apply to the certificates of ministerial appointment issued by the governor-general. Does the legal...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: If I were the minister assisting the PM on the public service
Neighbours in our global neighbourhood
April 28, 2025
Thank you, Abul. Again, you've kept us up-to-date with the latest developments on an issue vital to Australian responsibility. This helps us become sensitive to our immersion within the massive people movements of our globe and also those in our immediate South West Pacific neighbourhood. Yet, we are left with the question of why the parties, whose endorsed MPs will maintain control of both government and Opposition benches in Parliament, remain so stringently silent about these complex affairs of our neighbours and neigbourhood. Why aren't the issues you describe so well raised? Are they afraid of admitting a lack...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Why has there been no discussion of asylum-seekers in this campaign?
Author credentials
April 28, 2025
First, welcome to P&I. You are now editor of a very valuable site and I wish you well. I have noticed that there has recently been articles published like the one above where the author is not identified. I believe it is important to know the identity of all of the entries so that we can understand the position from which they write.
John Thompson from Seymour, Victoria
In response to: Various
Greens policies: extreme or widely supported?
April 28, 2025
Michael Keating writes, the Greens are too extreme for many voters. It is reasonable for him to highlight this as it does seem to be a common sentiment. But how true is it? First, assuming that there are some voters who think that the policies of the Greens, or at least some of them, are too extreme, I’d like to see rigorous research that clarifies which policies such voters are referring to and how many believe that each one is too extreme. My prejudice, which I’d be happy to see disproven by evidence, is that most people who say...
Peter Sainsbury from Sydney
In response to: A minority Labor Government's policy agenda – Part 1
Minority government, methane and that pledge
April 28, 2025
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, through their Doomsday Clock, identifies nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies as the three most significant threats to humanity. So, given the absence of climate change from the election, Michael Keating’s conclusion that “it should be possible for a minority Labor Government to reach agreement on improved policies affecting government integrity and procedures, the environment and climate change” is encouraging. But Keating is mistaken to write, “fossil fuels only create emissions when burned, not when they are dug up.” Both the gas and coal industries leak methane (fugitive emissions) and in...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn, Vic
In response to: A minority Labor Government's policy agenda – Part 1
Employment services system not fit for purpose
April 28, 2025
This is one of the most lucid comments on the employment services I have seen. It sets out precisely what the problems are and how they might be resolved. It is an indictment of both Labor and the LNP (and particularly the former as the supposed party of the workers) that neither has ever seemed to have analysed these problems (or maybe they have and shoved the results in too hard or too inconvenient cupboard). Let's hope that someone in the major parties reads this and starts proposing changes to the current situation.
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: if-i-were-minister-for-employment-services-no-more-bastardry-dressed-up-as-polic
Do fossil fuels only create emissions when burned?
April 28, 2025
Michael Keating writes many great articles: but I am nitpicking here! He wrote, But fossil fuels only create emissions when burned, not when they are dug up. I beg to differ. Both in onshore and offshore contexts, the extraction process itself, before the gas is used by customers, leaks a surprisingly large proportion of the gas targeted. This varies by location and technology used, but is rarely negligible. I suggest a fact-check!
David Gray from Perth, WA
In response to: A minority Labor Government's policy agenda – Part 1
A real vote-changer
April 24, 2025
I have been concerned about the lack of realistic choices in this election. The interchangeable nature of the big two for me means this article is a vote changer. If there were more widespread knowledge of what is happening with our defence spending/industry, I believe more people may change their vote. Oh well, it’s only two weeks and then Albo and Dutts can go back their shared biweekly home BBQ and their jokes about the naïveté of the electorate.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: aukus-is-more-than-nuclear-submarines-and-t
Take the UK and US out of AUKUS
April 24, 2025
“Trump thinks this is about trade. China knows it’s about sovereign independence, resisting the foreign bully and its determination to never again be at the mercy of foreign powers.” This is a lesson Australia could well learn. It has never detached itself from the apron strings of the UK or the US. It has always been content to hide behind its sporting achievements.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/china-fightcan/
The right to protest is gone
April 23, 2025
As we sit back and watch our right to protest being eroded by both parties, only our vote is left. In this farce of an election, where most independents are preference-gathering, disgruntled, ex-members of the big two (really one), it is difficult to find out the policies/leanings of the rest. What will it take to motivate apathetic voters to get up and vote for change? An informal vote is not an answer and should not be encouraged. Once again, as in times of crisis, the right has resurrected the ever-present suggestion of conscription. Maybe that will be enough...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: beyond-fear-and-false-choices-why-loyalty-t
Desperation, thy name is...
April 23, 2025
An excellent article. Hits the nail on the head. Too timid and too worried about shadows rather than being bold. The events of the last few days, with Peter Dutton now practically mounting a scare that China is going to blockade us with its military, are getting so extreme it put me in mind of a bolder Labor leader heading into the 1983 election. When Malcolm Fraser stated, If Labor wins this election, your money will be safer under the bed, Hawke, to great laughter, responded: Under the bed? But there's no room, isn't that where all the communists...
Wes Mason from Gisborne
In response to: Crossbench pressure will lift and improve Albo's game
Vance’s mental mindloops
April 23, 2025
One can only wonder at J.D. Vance’s mental mindloops in arranging an audience with the late Pope Francis. He seems unaware of the monstrous behaviour of his regime in consigning his fellow human beings to CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo or Terrorism Confinement Centre) in El Salvador, a country named, ironically, after Jesus Among the prisoners deported (with Protestant US politician Kristi Noem in front of them, seemingly approving their incarceration without trial), were many of his fellow Roman Catholics. Pope Francis also, like so many of us including the US Conference of [Catholic] Bishops, cared deeply about...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Pope Francis dies at 88 after final appeal for Gaza ceasefire
Appeasing Israel is a Faustian bargain
April 23, 2025
The article referred to is a direct, powerful exposition of the situation to which we have devolved in the face of the relentless Israeli destruction of Palestinians. Human decency has been supplanted by the lust for electoral success. While this is less than surprising for the LNP — despite the actual humanity displayed back in the days of Fraser et al — it is a massive abandonment of the basic principles that once were a part of the Labor credo. We have a mountain of irrefutable evidence in the history of Germany post-World War II that a state...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Silence is no response to slaughter, so at least recognise Palestine
The map says it all
April 22, 2025
Before even reading this article, I found the map said it all. The Union Jack trumped the Southern Cross. If a third/fourth-generation Australian like myself finds it offensive, think how the non-Anglos in our multicultural country feel, Understand why, after leaders like Howard, Abbott etc, we still have that flag and the LNP selects Dutton for their next PM. Now read the article. Vote as you see the flag. It’s a democracy.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: one-side-two-or-many-how-to-develop-ties-wi
Remember J-Tariff?
April 22, 2025
J-Tariff was an off-peak circuit which charged a cheaper rate to encourage the use of electricity during low demand, largely at night. When coal-powered alternators were unable to shut down, they were run during uneconomical periods of low demand. Now the uneconomical times are during the day and the power providers want to charge the solar providers (householders) to add to the grid. I doubt if they are charging corporate solar providers. Providers have never had more flexibility in the electronic and telecommunications control of equiptment eg J-Tariff had mechanical/electrical time clocks. In the age of capitalism...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: baseload-power-is-functionally-extinct
Election sleight of hand
April 22, 2025
Describing Kim Beazley as “well meaning“ pretty much describes the way he has fooled his way through his public life, second only to Anthony Albanese who, if he pulls off a win, will surely be the great Australian “nice guy but...” (not that I’m any fan of Peter Dutton). Everything about this election, from the constant guessing when it would be held to the sad passing of the pope has been about keeping the voters in the dark. We have seen publicly-funded electioneering by the major parties for 12+ months before the election was announced with all the talk...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-great-election-silence
Make a profit. Trust me, I’m from the private sector
April 22, 2025
The wall between the public sector and the private sector has been well and truly broken . The crossing of that line is at the core of every crisis Australia/the world is now facing. Everything from the health crisis to the climate crisis is a result of the blurring of this line. Failing to understand this most basic principal of society is at the core of every issue we now face. Put simply, the job of the private sector is to make a profit and the job of government is to govern for the good of all society....
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: if-i-were-health-minister
Men as primary child-carers
April 22, 2025
My husband and I swapped primary earner roles when the youngest of our three children was 18 months old. It took me a long time to realise they existed in practical silence. No chatter that women do instinctively with children, teaching language and communication. My youngest is now a silent man. I agree with sharing responsibilities, but some parental eduction is required to make well-rounded humans.
Paulette Jones from Redland Bay
In response to: There is no future without children
How about public housing, Minister Pawson?
April 17, 2025
Housing Minister Hal Pawson is certainly ready to get on with the job! However, I am surprised that his approaches to solving the appalling unavailability of adequate rental housing are all market-based: expanding Build to Rent and increasing rent assistance. I'm no economist, but it seems to me that government helping renters to pay excessive private rents is a convoluted way of solving the problem. I hope such a competent minister will not be afraid to consider public housing as an important element of housing provision. Surely, we have learnt that market mechanisms cannot solve every problem? The...
Richard Barnes from Canterbury 3126
In response to: If I were housing minister…
The Enemy
April 17, 2025
Thank you for reposting Peter Varghese's AFR article, which I wouldn't otherwise have seen. Could you also please pursue some other perspectives? With his strong international affairs credentials I hesitate to question what I have missed or failed to grasp in the underpinning narrative about The Enemy to us, that is China. It's not as if we are located where Taiwan is, for example, or even — say — Singapore which hasn't seemed to have taken sides. I struggle to understand the underlying animosity towards China in a discussion of next steps in what he says is becoming a...
K M from Canberra
In response to: The Trump effect is a wrecking ball, and we’re in the blast zone
Politics with Michelle Grattan
April 17, 2025
After many decades of listening to the reds under the bed sub-text in Australian journalism, it is totally refreshing to see that others more capable than me can see the reality that our interests, in all aspects, are those of our region. If only such common sense was displayed, in what to my mind is a totally discredited Australian media outlook that is Sino-phobic and completely blind to the hysteria, lies and machinations of our good friend, the US. Their interests should certainly not be ours.
Robin Wingrove from WA
In response to: Politics with Michelle Grattan
'Temu Trump' strikes yet again!
April 16, 2025
There have been times in the past when I thoroughly disagreed with a lot of what Ross Gittins wrote. This is not one of those occasions. His article explains exactly why Peter Dutton should not ever be let near the nearest Canberra roundabout to The Lodge. Dutton's pathetic claims on 15 April about the Indonesian revelations, suggesting it is a failure on the part of the prime minister, the defence minister and the foreign minister not to know about a questionable report in an aviation journal, when even the Indonesian defence minister and/or foreign minister were unaware, is...
Wes Mason from Gisborne
In response to: Memo to Dutton - Good Economic Managers don't try to panic the punters
National security in the years ahead
April 16, 2025
I have concerns that Australia is moving in the wrong direction. I feel we should replace AUKUS with a more future-based military need, which I feel is not against China. Australia has skills that are not being utilised to develop drone technology, for instance, as well as anti-drone technology. My concerns about buying from the US is that American equipment is usually so poorly designed. Also, any foreign-designed software system is often built with backdoors that enable the equipment to be disabled. (The Ukranians discovered this during their drone attack on Russian shipping). I feel Australia needs to...
Doug Foskey from Tregeagle
In response to: The Trump effect is a wrecking ball, and we’re in the blast zone
Time to end public-private partnerships in the health sector
April 16, 2025
Good to hear Hamish McDonald on ABC Radio Sydney on 16 April running through with Stephen Duckett the many and various steps that have to be taken for the public sector to acquire Northern Beaches Hospital from Healthscope. Healthscope have offered to dissolve their ownership, but there is a Canadian investor who will no doubt want their money back. But how about we stop doing this with public-private partnerships? How about, instead of getting the ambulance to the bottom of the cliff, we start at the top and don't go into these PPP arrangements in the first place?...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia, NSW
In response to: If I were Health Minister