Letters to the Editor
Revelations and Evaluations - Working with Fraser
November 24, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/working-with-pm-fraser-parting-words-part-5-malcolm-fraser/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=61b37e7a62-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-61b37e7a62-744912623 Following the outstanding insights of The Dismissal podcast, I wasn’t expecting another feast for thought so soon. John Menadue’s just-concluded series on working as Malcolm Fraser’s senior bureaucrat is required reading, especially to those of us who took decades of persuading about Fraser’s humane vision. Curiously, Mr Menadue’s writing, despite its plain spoken directness of style, is deeply moving. He frames, with detail & clarity, Fraser’s record as a human rights fighter of historic distinction in and out of government. As he emphasises, this was not some career re-definition or image makeover by a defenestrated ex-pm....
Daniel Dennis from New Farm, Brisbane
In response to: Working with PM Fraser - parting words - Part 5 - Malcolm Fraser
Whitlam was correct!
November 24, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/how-did-australian-universities-go-from-free-education-to-50000-arts-degrees-in-50-years/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=4dd8fe4e19-Weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-4dd8fe4e19-745269477 George Williams' timely article is a fascinating account of the impact of Neoliberalism on 'our' tertiary education system. Despite what Neoliberalists argue, education is a merit good – the nation gains more from the collective result than the overall cost. Whitlam was correct about fees. Concomitant with their performance to date, I don’t see this government doing anything meaningful. Instead of increasing by inflation, the costs of a degree and an individuals' HECS debt could be reduced by 5 per cent year on year. I am telling my grandchildren that if they want to attend...
Dr Bruce Moon from Tweed Heads West
In response to: How did we get from free...
The failure of privatisation
November 24, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/letters_to_editor/2025/11/the-political-class-cant-be-trusted-to-implement-democratic-policy-agendas/ Scratch the surface only a little and you will find that all the social issues we are now facing can be traced back to the privatisation of public services and public utilities – a process that has never delivered on the promised results. Privatisation became politically fashionable because of at every election we have the catch cry of “if you elect them they will put up taxes / no we wont resulting in insufficient revenue without selling off assets which eventually end up with a government bail-out because the assets have been bled dry and cant afford...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: https://johnmenadue.com/letters_to_editor/2025/11/the-political-class-cant-be-tr
There’s more to net zero than metaphysical anxiety
November 24, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/net-zero-and-the-metaphysics-of-anxiety-in-australia/ We have a finite planet with finite resources. The chemistry of those resources requires some absolute, measurable rebalancing to sustain a liveable climate. To preserve a sustainable environment we must achieve absolute reduction of atmospheric carbon pollution. Without setting clear and scientifically credible targets we will never achieve those goals. The absolute goal that we must achieve hasn’t changed; the scale of that challenge increases day by day as insufficient policy action is taken. As we have seen, over the course of this century and before, the longer governments delay, the bigger the task ahead becomes. ...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Net Zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia
Working with China
November 24, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/australian-universities-and-china/ Richard Cullen’s article points out negative effects of parts of the Australian establishment’s attitude to China. I can remember when over 30 years ago many here were keen to assist in China’s development. eg. Zhengzhou province adopted the Australian model of OHS law. Working from a Chinese government plan for OHS 1990-2020, we were successful in a proposal to the Chinese Ministry of Labour for VET training in OHS.(Unfortunately WA authorities canned it because we had used personal contact, not official channels). However we did later succeed in publishing our textbook on OHS in Chinese through a...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: The China shift: Australia's universities in an age of suspicion
The Fourth Estate or just propagandists?
November 21, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/democracies-good-china-bad-and-history-not-required/ Fred, I think, is a bit too charitable to these so-called authoritative voices of of the fabled Fourth Estate. The truth is they know the history but as Orwell so presciently wrote, they have deliberately consigned it to the memory-hole. These turgid propaganda mills are the outstanding practitioners of double-speak and double-think. The sad part is the journos who churn out this pablum may in some instances want to tell the truth but know that doing so will drastically curtail their career and the ability to put food on the table. Some of course revel in the...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Democracies good, China bad – and history not required
Get on with it!
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/trumps-ploy-at-the-un-is-american-imperialism-masquerading-as-a-peace-process/ Another good article by Sachs and Fares. It is, as I write, 769 days since the deadly Hamas assault, and 41 days since the second “ceasefire” (major reduction in mass murder of non-combatants). This is Donald’s announced plan. I select points 7 and 15. Re 7, UNRWA says aid is still a third of that required. The plan doesn’t envisage green and red zones. The immediate deployment of an International stabilisation force (ISF), even though the need was foreseeable months ago, hasn’t happened. So there is the plan but there needs to be, urgently, an action timetable....
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Trump’s ploy at the UN is American imperialism masquerading as a peace process
International condemnation... Really?
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/israeli-settler-attack-on-west-bank-mosque-draws-international-condemnation/ So there's been international condemnation of Israel's latest atrocities. Really? I didn't hear a murmur from Australia, let alone anything remotely like any sort of condemnation. But what's the point of condemnation anyway? The UN and others say words like unacceptable, strongly condemn and held accountable. But they're all a sick joke, aren't they? Israel just keeps on committing genocide knowing no one will do anything to stop them. I won't be here to see it but I do wonder how history will whitewash Australia's do-nothing stance, while continuing to trade in arms with Israel. Because...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Israeli settler attack on West Bank mosque draws international condemnation
Machiavelli on steroids
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/richos-grave-should-be-extra-deep/ A superb critique of the malignancy that was Graham Richardson that metastasised throughout the Party from the NSW Right. He was heartily detested by Whitlam as a man on the make whose only interest was in personal advancement and personal gain. He is no loss to a nation that might wish to aim for honesty and integrity in public life. Richo epitomised what can happen to political parties when taken over by apparatchiks of the Machiavellian kind.
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Richo’s grave should be extra deep
Boys from the black stuff
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/a-search-for-purpose-vision-and-identity-in-australian-universities/ Further to John H Howard's recent article I would contest that Johns Hopkins remains a model for research-intensive universities, especially after the role of Dr Paul Wheeler and its School of Medicine in the controversial black lung program back in 2013.
Bernard Corden from Spring Hill, Brisbane QLD 4000
In response to: A search for purpose, vision and identity in Australian universities
Housing: it comes down to supply and demand
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/migration-myths/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=2140ca9104-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-2140ca9104-645461111 Sorry Ian McAuley, when it comes to housing it's basically a question of supply and demand. And most of the demand comes from population growth, of which net overseas migration (NOM) makes up three quarters (315,900 of 423,400 people in the year ending March 2025). Natural increase should be coming down because of below replacement fertility (TFR is currently 1.5 births per woman). However, because of the influx of young adult migrants, natural increase remains above 100,000 annually. So, the main way to reduce demand is to get NOM down to a point at which it is...
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW
In response to: Migration myths
The continued relevance of momento mori!
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/emergency-powers-and-tariffs-the-supreme-courts-test-of-the-presidents-authority/ The fundamental problem for the dying US empire is that of every dying empire. As it sickens from its own internal contradictions it increasingly turns to conjurers and sorcerers in the belief that by doing so the chosen conjurer can produce a magical solution to the malignancy within. As logic and rationality are unable to address the ideological and factual contradictions that infest the public space the increasingly desperate population turn to who they believe offers a magical solution to the coming collapse. The intellectual midget Donald Trump believes it is only he that, through his...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Emergency powers and tariffs: The US Supreme Court’s test of the President’s aut
Boomers have been a disappointing generation
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/the-last-boomer/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=dde7a9f598-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-dde7a9f598-583172987 I like Sweeney’s article about Boomers and agree with much of it, particularly his critique of capitalism. However, I cannot agree with his whitewashing of the Boomer generation’s responsibility (or rather irresponsibility) for what has happened during our lifetimes (I was born in 1951). As a generation we do bear much of the responsibility. In many ways Boomers were handed life on a plate by our parents who had suffered the depression and WWII and were determined to create a better life for their kids, summed up by the creation of welfare states and the development of...
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point
In response to: The last Boomer
Demented posturing
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/nuclear-testing-threatens-global-stability-according-to-leading-asia-pacific-advocacy-group/ As the reality of increasing US inability to continue to impose itself upon the rest of humanity begins to sink in to the fevered and disordered mind of the Orange Donald, he desperately seeks to find a way to remain the boss. As his other efforts in sanctions, tariffs and funding of rogue states and stealing the assets of other states all appear to be failing to halt the US decline, the threat of the US nuclear arsenal probably seems to the far right boneheads of the Neo-Con movement in the US who he seeks counsel from,...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Nuclear testing threatens global stability
Some politicians: for Richo, for poorer
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/richos-grave-should-be-extra-deep/ Jack, Jack, Jack (sigh). Richo is probably (though many of us would want more concrete proof than just a coffin with a body in it) dead. Now is hardly the time to smack us around the ears with accurate reporting, succinct analysis and realistic conclusions. No, surely it's time to go with the Albo vibe and ignore the fact that Richo was the paradigm grifter. Just because Richo made an art form of turning public office into private career upwards mobility should not beget repudiation of the idea that the societal role of a politician should...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Richo’s grave should be extra deep
The political class can't be trusted to implement democratic policy agendas
November 20, 2025
https://ohnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/richos-grave-should-be-extra-deep/ To extend this analysis a bit further, one question is whether the Labor-Coalition political class and its right-wing offcuts are close to permanent and irrevocable disconnection from anything resembling “representative democracy”, and where that will lead. It is increasingly apparent that broad sectors of Australian society increasingly understand that the political class at federal-state levels cannot be trusted to implement basic democratic policy agendas, because their “small target” commitments guarantee that they can pursue policies and expenditure of public funds however they like. Those expenditures serve the interests of a small group of Australians, increase socio-economic...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: Richo’s grave should be extra deep
A justified and honourable conversion
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/coalition-politicians-cannot-accept-the-threat-of-climate-change-they-should-resign/ As Chair of the Australian Coal Association Ian was an intrepid and effective spokesperson of the coal industry when I knew him back in the 80s when I ran the NSW Maritime Services Board. He was always an engaging and intelligent spokesperson for that industry. His Damascene conversion to a climate activist over the last couple of decades I have followed with interest as I always saw him as a person who allowed his common sense and acute intelligence to tell him that the industry to which he had devoted a considerable part of his life was...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Coalition politicians who can't accept the threat of climate change should resig
Anymore need to be said.
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/the-last-boomer/ Interesting read but not convinced. The baby boomer parents suffered the depression and a war and yet went onto build Australia. They gave a home to their children, fed them, clothed them and provided an education and what did they get in return: rock and roll, long hair and protests. The boomers became the me generation and dropped the ball. Even in retirement they blackmailed their way to be treated better than royalty. Of all the things their parents were able to give them it lacked: “EMPATHY”.
aale hanse from riverina
In response to: The last Boomer
More people. A solution or a big problem.
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/migration-myths/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=2140ca9104-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-2140ca9104-670405568 Migration is an issue, as my article “More people. A solution or a big problem” demonstrates. Whilst it’s true that pausing immigration here won’t alter the number of people on the planet, it would show the rest of the world that Australia recognises that every nation, including us, contributes to the climate crisis, and that regardless of where we live we all have a moral responsibility to address this existential threat. The global climate crisis is driven by overpopulation. The problem is that there are too many people on the planet. That is an undeniable fact....
Peter Hehir from Rozelle
In response to: Migration myths
Regional existential abatement for young Australia
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/china-phobia-in-australia-is-endangering-the-countrys-security/ Whilst I agree with Patience's expression of dismay against racism towards Chinese emanating from the Murdochracy and other right leaning bodies, I must stress the importance of tackling the root of the issue head on. The people's Chinese Revolution led to the breakaway of Taiwan as forced by the nationalist Kuomintang, who the US backed (now, not so much for 'democracy', unless you've seen pigs fly, but for microprocessors), and Australia continues to militarily align with the US. China has expressly stated they want Taiwan back under the Chinese umbrella and America aggressively defends their capitalist partner....
Sean Carville from Naarm
In response to: Allan Patience, China-phobia in Australia is endangering the country’s security
Albo and co also need to take note on climate
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/coalition-politicians-cannot-accept-the-threat-of-climate-change-they-should-resign/ The Coalition are, by far, the worst offender on climate inaction, but the Labor Government need to take serious note. They are not totally innocent on climate. It's time to accelerate Labor's renewable transition. Ongoing subsidies for fossil fuels are Twentieth-Century politics. The planet's physics says It's time for climate action well before 2035. The ongoing legislative review of the EPBC Act needs to get serious on climate, to include climate triggers and old growth forestry logging moratoriums. Both appear to be ruled out in the current EPBC legislative review. Moreover, It's time for...
Rex Gunton from Richmond NSW 2753
In response to: Coalition politicians who can't accept the threat of climate change should resig
Climate denialists - shills or fools
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/coalition-politicians-cannot-accept-the-threat-of-climate-change-they-should-resign/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=2140ca9104-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-2140ca9104-668405231 Those who still peddle climate denialism are either shills or fools. Their rejection of the need for climate action is not rooted in a denial of the science, but in the conviction that their wealth can insulate them and that the most devastating costs will be borne by others less fortunate—both nations and individuals. To them I say – You are wrong. Taxes and insurance premiums will skyrocket to rebuild infrastructure shattered by storms and fires or infrastructure will degrade into ruins. Wars over dwindling resources will consume the globe creating waves of mass migration...
John Curr from MANLY, Queensland
In response to: Coalition politicians who can't accept the threat of climate change should resig
Colonialism re-affirmed
November 20, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/un-approval-of-gaza-stabilisation-force-slammed-as-denial-of-palestinian-self-determination/ What can one say about this dog's breakfast of a solution to the genocide in Gaza? The entire construction of it is colonialism revived and given a modern face. No power for the people of Palestine except at some time in the possible future, but with the mandate and composition of the body supposedly oversighting this farce indicating clearly where power will lie. If anyone believes that if HAMAS is dis-armed the Israelis won't then proceed to complete the genocide I have a really nice bridge to sell them. Israel has ignored the various ceasefires in the...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: UN approval of Gaza ‘Stabilisation Force’ slammed as ‘Denial of Palestinian self
A spotlight can be blinding. Ask any rabbit
November 17, 2025
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/forecasting-the-impact-of-sino-indian-relations-on-changing-world-order/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=0bbf855fd9-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-0bbf855fd9-744841694 While Ronald Keith makes many good points, there’s reason to feel there’s some he’s misinterpreted. When it comes to China recognising world order, the annexation of Tibet, the invasions of India (1962) and Vietnam (1979), the expressed intention of annexing Taiwan, and its belligerence in the South China Sea, suggests China accepts only a Chinese world order. Mentioning the percentage of world population without reference to greenhouse gas emissions also warrants review. Emissions from China and India make up 40 per cent of the global output. It hardly looks as though they’re aligning themselves with COP decrees...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Forecasting the impact of Sino-Indian relations on changing world order
Melick: Modelling a modern major-general
November 14, 2025
PJK rarely misses the bullseye when he launches a broadside, and this does not suggest otherwise. I have watched Melick's performance with a mixture of mirth and despair – and I was a senior member of staff when Ruxton was the RSL stooge on Council. Ruxton, for all his idiosyncrasies, was far preferable to Melick. As another of the recent coterie of ex-Army Reserve majors-general we have witnessed exhibiting all the competence of some notable British senior Army commanders of World War I vintage, it beggars the imagination as to why that career path should be considered an...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war
Albanese fakes a policy connection with Whitlam
November 14, 2025
Anthony Albanese’s panegyric on Gough Whitlam identifies many of the Whitlam Government’s achievements. But if it is an attempt to paint an image of his own government as fitting the visionary Whitlam mould, it does the opposite, because it reminds us of the stark policy differences which amount to a rejection by the Albanese Government of all that Whitlam stood for. Where Whitlam broke the shackles of imperial control, ploughed resources into public education, the creation of universal healthcare and other major social reforms, and sought to create an independent and more egalitarian Australia, the Albanese Government seeks to...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: The Dismissal was a calculated conservative plot: Albanese
Pinocchio and the growing nose
November 13, 2025
I don't know if others have noticed that every time Mike Burgess appears in public, which is a rapidly growing and unpleasant phenomenon, his nose appears to be getting bigger. Like his puppet master Scott Morrison, his propensity for calumny, exaggeration and outright fabrication of threats that only ASIO can discover and eliminate is rampant. He can of course get away with it as the leader of an organisation that has no oversight of the truth or otherwise of what it says. He regularly fails to produce a jot of evidence for his claims that would stand any chance...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: ASIO's Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight
A matter of cautious hope
November 13, 2025
I agree that Zohran Mamdani's victory has brought hope, not just to the Gazans but to all who have grown appalled by the apparent inability of our current crop of leaders to address the underlying issue of inequality. I suspect that this victory in New York City was aided by social media, and as a consequence I foresee a concerted effort to bring that avenue of public discourse under greater control. I feel the hope this article mentions has to be tempered by two considerations. The first is, what now? Consider the dog who, having chased the car,...
Hal Duell from Alice Springs
In response to: Mamdani’s victory bought hope to Gaza
Infantilism as a national value
November 13, 2025
Our national inability, cultured in us by Great Britain and the US, to bell the cat of our continued infantile need for mummy or daddy to tell us what to think and do, remains. If what happened to us in 1975 happened in a country we had been taught to hate or fear, we would have called if what it was – a coup!! But to acknowledge that happened in Australia would challenge our childish need for mummy or daddy to tell us what just happened. It relieves us of need to make a decision for ourselves....
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW2041
In response to: After 50 years, it’s time we called it a coup
Only Arabic?
November 13, 2025
Curiously, I see only Chinese text when the Vic bail ads come up while watching BBC or other English language programs on SBS. Not Arabic. This is presumably because my SBS individual profile indicates I view many Chinese language programs on SBS. So I suspect the author’s experience is likely a matter of individual viewer profiling by SBS, not collective racial profiling. Perhaps the author should seek confirmation or denial (and correction if appropriate)?
John Fitzgerald from Melbourne
In response to: Only Arabic: When 'multicultural' media turns to racial profiling
White empire redux
November 13, 2025
The RSL has for over a hundred years been an organisation committed to a white king and country. it continues to reflect the fantasy of the medieval British values of a brutal, but long dead, racist empire. It’s no surprise that it continues to promote the delusion of white supremacy over the “yellow peril” when the world has moved on and China is now the peaceful but immensely powerful emerging hegemon. Apparently, they still need the confected enemy to continue to scare the public s***less so they happily continue to fund a military to re-fight the Second World...
Les Macdonald from Balmain nsw2041
In response to: Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war
No gavels
November 13, 2025
Your article was very interesting and well-written but please do not use pictures of gavels in articles about our courts. There is not a court in Australia where any judge or magistrate uses a gavel. It is an Americanism which tends to show how much those who use it do not know about Australian courts and it misleads the public. Try a wig, the scales of justice or anything but do not make our judges and magistrates look like auctioneers.
Philip Walker from Canberra
In response to: We don’t do that in this country: Judge slams DPP
Whitlam dismissal
November 12, 2025
Thanks John for your article. Just heard Paul Kelly on ABC's Conversations airbrush the possibility of any CIA involvement in the last 20 seconds of the program... seems a lot of wilful fear of public examination of the claims even at 50 years!
Darryl Halden from ORANA
In response to: The Dismissal, the role of the CIA, MI6 and Austral Americans
An adroit Albanese?
November 12, 2025
Geoff Raby suggests in his interesting and informative article that Albanese has been “adroit” in his “diplomatic positioning of Australia with both the Trump administration and China’s leaders”, while Australia’s defence and foreign ministers “appear to be both out of step and out of time”. This assessment deserves more detailed clarification and explanation on the points of difference between Albanese, Wong and Marles. Where are the signs of tension or disagreement, given the strong evidence of unity re AUKUS, US bases, massive funding of the US military, special deals on mineral resources, closer relations with the UK, NATO,...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: After Trump goes home
What can be done?
November 11, 2025
What can be done about the “Conclave of the Pernicious”? COPs have been increasingly co-opted by fossil fuel companies, their apologists, and those who are unapologetic. The big four — US, China, Russia and India — who could make a huge contribution if they cared to, are absent. Though it must be said that China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, also leads the world on renewable energy, installing more wind turbines and solar panels last year than the rest of the world combined. Australia believes it has good credentials, even as we continue to cave to those...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: The black work of big oil
Security services and government allegiance
November 11, 2025
Jon Stanford makes a good case for Gough Whitllam. But I disagree with his view on Whitlam's sacking of ASIS head Bill Robertson in 1975. Whitlam had to ask Robertson twice to shut down ASIS work for the CIA in Chile seeking to install the murderous General Pinochet by destabilisation. (A future female Chilean government member had to escape here). Then in 1975 Foreign Minister Don Willesee had not been briefed that ASIS was running a spy in East Timor. Whitlam had every right to be angry. It was this sacking, not the petroleum nationalisation loans affair that Malcolm...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: Mr Whitlam’s style - Part I
Whitlam's dismissal and the CIA
November 11, 2025
Many thanks for the great analysis by Brian Toohey regarding the US imperial project in Australia. The article is revelatory about the sheer reach of US intelligence gathering in this country, not just in its power over Australian control of its foreign policy settings but the US assumptions about how far it could intrude with impunity into our politics process. We have always connived in keeping a dependency relationship in place. It is no wonder the US has been able to take for granted our mirroring of US military interventions, not for a moment needing to doubt our automatic...
Daniel Dennis from New Farm, Brisbane
In response to: Untruths, the CIA, and Whitlam’s dismissal
Lack of conviction when it comes to Palestine
November 10, 2025
The likelihood of Australia doing the right thing and setting up its own Gaza Tribunal is next to zero. Our mainstream parties are so s**t scared of the Israeli lobby that their moral consciences have been placed in a safe for removal only when easier and more congenial issues can be confected. Any Australian politician who seeks to tell you we are moral leaders when it comes to the holocaust of the 21st century is either mentally unstable or lying. We are, in fact, morally absent without leave!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: The Jury of Conscience finding on Gaza
Language rendered meaningless
November 10, 2025
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride, The which in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. Shakespeare, Henry IV Jeffrey Sachs has been extraordinarily successful in making us aware of the continuous and deliberate torture of the English language by the US political leadership in pursuit of its centuries long desire to rule the world. Like Humpty Dumpty, they have misused language to that end. They inherited that damnable propensity from the British who finessed the art in their rule of a globe spanning empire by dividing humanity at every turn. A...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Venezuela’s oil, US-led regime change and America’s gangster politics
1984 in the 'defence' industry
November 10, 2025
As we rapidly approach the point at which the dying West will actually fall off the cliff it has been constructing for itself for the last 30 years, we see the usual accompaniments of empire death. Frantic efforts to convince ourselves that our lashing out in all directions is actually evidence of our continued grasp of the levers of power, finding increasing numbers of relatively powerless others who we can identify as threatening our glorious civilisation and the election of increasingly unhinged leaders who reflect that civilisational decline. The most obvious of those signs is our belief that...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: The defence myth
Colonialism sanitised and disinfected
November 10, 2025
Tony Abbott is a man displaced in time and place. His approach to the world derives from an 18th century Great Britain imperialism and colonialism of the white Caucasian superior being category. He would have fitted perfectly into the feudal and monarchical fabric of that time as a loyal example of the courtier dedicated to serving his monarch in the lively expectation of honours to be bestowed for faithful service to unaccountable power. Abbott must find life in the 21st century wholly unattractive in its inclination to see pomp and circumstance as retrograde and its propensity to strip away...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Tony Abbott’s history of Australia wants us to be proud of men like him
We can learn too
November 10, 2025
Professor Andrew Podger certainly had an interesting visit to China and his wide ranging report is appreciated but did he draw the right conclusions? He noted the strengthening of authoritarian control, notwithstanding improvements in public services. He goes on to note strengthened party control, the famous China firewall, ubiquitous face-recognition cameras; then comments, And yet, the forums I attended reveal… continued effort to improve services to the public and their efficiency. How can this be? Maybe, just maybe, there has been an 'authoritarian dictat' to improve services to the public! Unthinkable. The unqualified statement, The overall (Chinese)...
Colin Cook from Henley Beach, SA
In response to: 'Stabilising' relations with China while differences widen
A true insiders podcast on the 50th
November 10, 2025
Just when it seemed most everything had been said and all insights revealed about the events of 11 November 1975, along comes a most illuminating podcast on the crisis. I eagerly await Part Three of the outstanding 'Pearlcast' (extra kudos for the charming name) on the Dismissal, which should be compulsory listening for everyone interested in our past and future politics. I'd long wondered whether the prime minister was told what was overheard from the Lynch/Fraser whispers about what was in store the next day and, if so, what Whitlam made of the remarks. The specific naming of the...
Daniel Dennis from New Farm, Brisbane
In response to: The Dismissal - Podcast / Pearlcast
Knighting Prince Philip
November 10, 2025
Respect men like him? We haven't forgotten the Australia Day barbecue stopper of 2015.
Bob Beadman from Darwin
In response to: Tony Abbott’s history of Australia wants us to be proud of men like him
CIA coup numbers
November 10, 2025
John Menadue’s article “The Dismissal, the role of the CIA, MI6 and Austral Americans” provides strong evidence of US hostility towards the Whitlam Government and efforts to undermine it. Unfortunately, its own credibility is undermined by claiming that “In the Cold War, the US/CIA attempted to overthrow 72 foreign governments” . This appears based on an 2018 article by Lindsay O’Rourke that listed 72 overt or covert operations of all kinds, including support for anti-communist parties or dissidents that can hardly be called attempts to overthrow governments. Plus hazy plans that were never implemented. An accurate figure is...
Andrew Watson from Canberra
In response to: The Dismissal, the role of the CIA, MI6 and Austral Americans
ASIO's betrayal
November 10, 2025
This article could not have been more timely, given the current transparent and direct participation of ASIO as a player in the Australian political arena, openly endorsing stringent restrictions on basic civic and democratic rights of ordinary Australians to oppose the destruction of the rule of law. The public statements and speeches by ASIO boss Mike Burgess during 2025 have revealed a clear political position prejudicial to basic democratic values and opposition to international law. Two examples will suffice. In August, Burgess cited Israeli sources as a basis for advising Albanese that Iran was responsible for “antisemitic”...
Peter Henning from Melbourne
In response to: The Dismissal, the role of the CIA, MI6 and Austral Americans
Murdoch ordure
November 7, 2025
Of all the exports Australia has managed over the last 80 years, the most significant and most laudable is one of the biggest ordure farmers on the planet, Rupert Murdoch. The fact that we exported him to the largest faecal farm on the planet is not coincidental. The sheer volume of the excrement that he so copiously distributes across the planet has made a remarkable contribution to the spreading of the accompanying diseases of ignorance, fear and xenophobia that are bringing the Western experiment to an undignified end. We have become so swamped by this excrement that we...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: When in doubt, blame China (every News Corp headline needs a villain)
Defence money thrown away again?
November 7, 2025
I note that according to the mainstream media, Defence Minister Marles first heard of the plan to build nuclear submarines for Korea in the US through the media. But what is of particular interest today in the submarine space is the news that retiring Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead headed a secret nuclear submarine taskforce from February 2021 onwards, that is seven months before France was blindsided. Presumably, in that seven months, we still had people beavering away with Naval Group on advanced design work and letting contracts for the French non-nuclear boat. The French, for their part, were busy...
Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)
In response to: South Korea, Canada and a middle-power submarine: Can Australia join?
Feudal Australia
November 7, 2025
Gough Whitlam was a courageous and principled leader, unlike so many of his peers, who wanted Australia to grow up and cut the apron strings from a remnant of Middle Ages feudalism that was, and is, the British Royal family. That family is the most significant reason for the failure of Britain to come into the 20th, let alone the 21st century. As it sinks into well-deserved irrelevance, we should not forget its bastardry in removing an Australian Government elected by the people of Australia.
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: The Prince and the Dismissal