Letters to the Editor
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 am 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. Mostly at night. 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...
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
Tobacco, not alcohol, causes most harm in Australia
April 15, 2025
Ross Fitzgerald correctly asserts that alcohol is a significant sources of illness, trauma, premature death and social distress for users and people close to them. However, in terms of its harm, alcohol is not by far Australia’s most dangerous drug. While the proportion of the Australian population that smokes tobacco has fallen dramatically, tobacco is still the drug which causes the most illness and premature death. In terms of disease burden in Australia (as measured with DALYs which combines premature death with years living with a disability), in 2024 tobacco was the top behavioural risk factor and alcohol was...
Peter Sainsbury from Sydney
In response to: For an alcoholic, abstinence is the surest path to long-term recovery
Not enough children or too many people?
April 15, 2025
In this article, the Edgars assume that by having more children we can maintain society as it is today. In the seventies when the Paul R. Ehrlich published The Population Bomb there were 2.5 billion people on Earth. It was a time of massive famines in Africa. Ehrlich warned that we had reached the limit of what the natural world could support without borrowing from the future. Young women, like I was then, concerned for others and the planet, adopted the meme replacement only. My husband and I had two children. It was considered immoral to have more...
Robyn Friend from Launceston
In response to: There Is No Future Without Children
Clues to a Dutton Government
April 15, 2025
Jack Waterford, while fairly critical of Peter Dutton, omits the latest clue to the nature of a Dutton-led Australia. Jacinta Price, full of confidence, announced to a campaign rally on 12 April that the Coalition would Make Australia Great Again. Dutton decided to go for broke at the ensuing press conference and gave Price free rein. She doubled down, saying ideologically-driven Labor was ruining the country, she would do an “audit” of government waste and “reset” the curriculum. Price openly aligns with far-right group Advance, which is committed to Australia being “centred once more on the founding freedoms of...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Federal Election: A different type of beauty contest
Population – it's all in the numbers
April 15, 2025
I am seeing an imbalance in articles extolling the virtues of immigration to Australia. There is no doubt that we benefit in so many ways, culturally, socially, via innovation, investment and economically. However, there appears to be little consideration of the cost of an increasing population. The question is, what is the right number and mix? World population growth is the single biggest contributor to greenhouse gasses and global heating. Growing populations encroach on prime agricultural land, they require more water and energy. They displace wildlife and reduce the areas available for outdoor recreation. Growing populations require a massive...
Geoff Rohan from Canberra ACT
In response to: If I was Immigration Minister I would develop a population plan: Abul Rizvi
Belgrano, war crime?
April 14, 2025
I'm not defending any war or actions, wish we could end them all today. However, the sinking of the Belgrano has never been declared a war crime except by a few groups of anti-war protesters. Even the captain, Hector Bonzo, stated years later, It was not a war crime but an act of war.
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: submarines-are-not-instruments-of-peace-a-q
Lack of transparency at Four Corners
April 14, 2025
Reading Marcus Reubenstein's article made the penny drop. I watched the Four Corners program and had felt very uncomfortable with the overly hawkish reporting. Where was the balance, I thought. In fact, the ABC had omitted to let the viewers know that this was an American production (PBS), was from last year and had been edited. Shame on the ABC.
Einion Thomas from Woombah NSW 2469
In response to: ABC has Four Corners with just one angle: Anti-China Media Watch
Australia unlikely to hold inquiry into AUKUS
April 14, 2025
Years ago I had the opportunity to make a submission to the UK inquiry on Iraq headed by Lord Chilcot. Our own government never held one. Today readers of P and I have the opportunity to make submissions on AUKUS to the UK parliamentary inquiry, as our own parliament has shown no signs of opening up the debate. Here is the portal. Good on the SMH for pushing for an Australian inquiry, but don’t hold your breath.
Geoff Taylor from Perth, WA
In response to: AUKUS turning point – Sydney Morning Herald calls for review
Trump's days in the White House may well be numbered
April 14, 2025
I do not believe Donald Trump is going to be in office for very long. Vance is being quiet because he suspects this to be the case. Yes, Australia needs to get rid of AUKUS and buy military weapons from a range of suppliers, including Japan and the EU. We need weapons for defence, not ones that help us join the US in more wars. As soon as Labor wins the election, they need to start taxing mining companies that are getting our resources free. The money needs to be used to build housing and lots of it....
Louise O'Brien from Sydney Australia
In response to: Trump
New defence minister needed after election
April 14, 2025
It is good to see the persistent P&I campaign on this key strategic and economic matter bearing fruit. I would say that the recent public interventions by Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating were also crucial. Reviewing AUKUS is now clearly on the mainstream agenda for the next government. We need a new defence minister as part of a desirable post-election reshuffle. Richard Marles is too compromised; he is a US defence industry mouthpiece now.
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: AUKUS turning point – Sydney Morning Herald calls for review
The end of genuine, independent analysis on Syria in P&I?
April 11, 2025
Many Australians may agree with Barb Dadd’s views on Syria as they have been pushed by the mainstream media for 14 years. However, that should not be a reason to give them an airing on P&I when John Menadue, P&I’s founder, has made a point of wanting to tackle the issues swept aside by mainstream media. He wrote, Consistently, Pearls and Irritations publishes informed analysis and commentary on issues that matter to Australians… If you google Pearls and Irritations + Syria, you will find a long list of articles on Syria by analysts such as Dr Jeremy Salt (former...
Susan Dirgham from Melbourne
In response to: Where is Assad now? And why do the world's worst men get away with it?
It's time to rethink socialist principles amid the ruins of neoliberalism
April 11, 2025
Most of the social problems we now face in this country have slowly evolved since the rise of neoliberalism. I say slowly evolved because neoliberalism has profited by leaching the fat from government-built projects of the past e.g the PMG, Telstra and the NBN. How many times can one government-built institution be sold off? (I’m told the retrieval of the copper PMG network is still profitable) How many times can these privatised companies come back with their hands out to fix no reception black spots? In South Australia, the them LNP premier bought a variety of electricity supply companies...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: It’s time to rethink socialist principles amid the ruins of neoliberalism
Trump is like a bee in a bottle
April 10, 2025
Re Wang Wen’s article today. The tariff war has seemingly been more or less staved off for 90 days for most countries except for China, only hours after being activated. In which time, according to Donald Trump, US$2 billion has already been collected. Why the pause? Well, according to Trump, “[he] thought that people were getting a bit yippy, a little bit afraid.” “It looked pretty glum, I guess they say it was the biggest day in financial history. He said: ”I know what the hell I’m doing”. “No other president would have done what I did. ”World...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Will there be a war between China and the US?
Was Assad really responsible for chemical attacks on his own people?
April 10, 2025
This article begins with the following unproven allegations: Remember Bashar al-Assad? The man who crushed his own people under a mountain of rubble and fear? Who turned peaceful protests into mass graves, dropped barrel bombs on neighbourhoods, and used chemical weapons on children? Seymour Hersh, among many, many others, including UN investigators, who refused to sign the trumped-up report on the so-called chemical attacks, have proven that the lies about Assad were equal to the charge that Saddam had WMDs. Why does Pearls and Irritations publish these US claims, crap and propaganda?
Dieter Barkhoff from Melbourne
In response to: Where is Assad Now?
Perhaps reading the truth might answer some of Barb’s questions
April 10, 2025
No doubt Barb Dadd writes with the best of intentions but linking Bashar al-Assad to some of the world’s worst villains is wide of the mark. Assad was a victim of the United States' wrong-headed desire for regime change to benefit its national resource exploiters to the detriment of the host country. To that end it armed rebel Muslim extremist groups and set them to undermine the Assad regime. Russia supported Assad (who headed a secular Christian country). But with the aid of US weaponry, the Muslim extremists were able to oust Assad, replacing his regime with a...
Richard Creswick from Virginia, via Darwin
In response to: Where is Assad now?and why do the worlds worst men get away with it?
Article fails to address its title
April 10, 2025
I am surprised that John Stace's article fails to consider informed media commentary about the degree of involvement of the Israeli military in the events immediately following the Hamas breakout and attacks which occurred on 7 October, 2023. There was no mention of the Israeli military's Hannibal doctrine or of the role of the military's helicopter gunships in the violence which occurred after the attacks commenced, or of their impact on Israeli party-goers attending the rave event that had been curiously relocated to the very edge of Gaza and inadequate security offered for the event. There was no...
Bruce Foskey from Blackwood, Vic
In response to: Was Israel Complicit in the 7 October 2023 Massacre?Article
Trump’s irresponsible insouciance
April 9, 2025
Bob Douglas’ article raises the existential threats facing us. Yet Trump has just boosted coal and is ending any US green plan. His latest statement that [any resulting sea level rise] will increase the amount of waterfront property is just mindblowingly stupid and callous. In parts of the Pacific, it threatens to sink all property.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Can our human species be rescued?
Is this WIN News article true?
April 9, 2025
I have not seen any confirmation of the veracity of this article in the mainstream media. I have checked Snopes who also cannot trace its veracity. If it is actually happening, why isn’t it all over the media? I would really like to know the truth and not some dreamt-up thought bubble analysis. Editor's note: Not sure what you consider to be a reliable publication, but you can read a similar story on Bloomberg. There has been a genocide going on in the Gaza Strip for more than a year, but one does not see coverage...
Jaqui Fitch from Sydney
In response to: US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5B trade overnight
If I were Albanese...
April 9, 2025
If I were Anthony Albanese, I would say that Peter Dutton has no policies of his own, that all his policies are copied from Trump and that you only have to look at the US to see what will happen in Australia if Dutton is elected. If I were running as an independent, I would promise to cut all ties with the US, cancel all contracts and accords, and remain friendly, but not friends. Before you ask why should Albanese have the same policy, remember this is a small target election. But I would adopt the independent position...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: if-i-were-the-minister-for-health
Should we now look to join BRICS?
April 9, 2025
Now that ANZUS is superseded and presumably AUKUS is as dead as can be, we should be looking for a group of friends who are more naturally connected to Australia. Geographically – Indonesia, Malaysia,Thailand, Vietnam. Trade – China, and India. British background – South Africa Perhaps we are more naturally associated with BRICS and now is a good time to open some diplomatic dialogue about Australia joining this organisation. It would presumably take about five years for such work to bear fruit. BRICS appears to be a very tolerant organisation so we should fit in rather nicely....
Graham Revill from Chelsea, Victoria
In response to: Keating says Trump’s tariffs mean death knell for NATO and ANZUS
Donald Trump and climate change
April 8, 2025
While we are all seriously concerned about Donald Trump's tariff war, we need to take even more seriously, his recurrent war against climate change action. His withdrawal for a second time from the global agreement on climate change action, and his interest in the promotion of company profits (including fossil fuel companies), should be deeply concerning to our nation’s leaders. The world is already suffering deeply, from droughts, floods and fires, that are influenced by fossil fuel emissions. Our two major Australian political parties are divided on climate change action. While one is committed to renewables and batteries, with...
Em Prof Bob Douglas AO from Bruce, ACT
In response to: Trump’s tariffs deliver a harsh truth for Australia
Members of RCEP are worst hit by tariffs
April 7, 2025
All but three of the countries you cite as being mostly heavily affected by US tariffs, are members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which includes China and Australia. We’ll just have to put more effort into that. There is also still APEC, but I guess the US’ membership of that is effectively ended by Trump, and Russia’s membership is problematic.
Geoff Taylor from Perth, Western Australia
In response to: A message from the editor
Never get between bullies in a fight
April 4, 2025
I agree that climate is a major game and sinking archipelagos (Indonesia etc) are a major issue. To paraphrase the leader of the opposition, will they be swimming to a crowded north or empty south? It’s all very nice to say that in every war game attended, the US lost but there is no mention of how allies (friends) in a bully brawl are the first to suffer. If it came to a nuclear war, the main players will not bomb each others. if they do so it will only be as a last resort. Australia will be...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: In every China-US war game scenario I've seen, America has lost
On the subject of tariffs
April 4, 2025
What is the position on tariffs on the supplies (I presume) Australian businesses sell to the multitude of US bases and embassy in our country on our soil? I understand their embassy is considered to be on their soil. I think Australia has no jurisdiction over their ships and subs and don’t know about their troops barracked in our bases and Pine Gap. What they eat there is top secret, though I believe there once was a booming market in US muscle cars coming in via a secret installation near Alice Springs. .
Bob Pearce from Canberra
In response to: Keating says Trump’s tariffs mean death knell for NATO and ANZUS
It is time to take BRICS seriously
April 4, 2025
Thank you for Paul Keating’s article. For me, I wonder, can I buy from Australia’s Antarctic Program a robotic penguin made in Heard Island, now subject to Trump’s new tariff on electrical and mechanical equipment from that place? But seriously, he is quoted saying today in The Guardian that he now expects other nations will come crawling to him. That is not a successful approach to a bully. By the way, has Trump actually formally withdrawn the US from the WTO, which would seem to be a prerequisite to his announcement on tariffs yesterday? A very recent P and...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Keating says Trump’s tariffs mean death knell for NATO and ANZUS
Rigging the US market
April 4, 2025
Ever since markets have existed — over 5000 years — unscrupulous individuals have known how to rig them. The usual trick is to drive prices up, sell out to promote a crash, then buy in at disaster prices – and get very rich. Amazingly, America, that cynosure of smart business, does not seem to get the Trump gameplan: it is to crash the US economy so his billionaire mates can swoop in and snap up the best pieces at bargain basement prices. Stock exchanges usually have strict rules against this behaviour – but there is no law that...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Trump’s tariffs mean death knell
Has the world gone mad?
April 4, 2025
Paul Keating is right to question thevalidity of any treaty with the US. There’s every indication that America, socially and economically, is now in the grip of a pirate gang of fanatics hellbent on assaulting any order that sits outside their credulous world image and shown they’ll plundering what they can from whomever they can, even their fellow Americans, in total disregard of the consequences. The evidence is clear. Scattergun targeted tariffs have overturned the global economic barrow. Internal descent has been punished financially and government functionality dismantled. Trumpian puppeteers have control of social media, and the constitutionally authorised...
John Mosig from Melbourne
In response to: Keating says Trump’s tariffs mean death knell for NATO and ANZUS