Letters to the Editor
Move over, career politicians
December 3, 2024
In a setting reminiscent of Monopoly, but dealing in real lives and real money, Binoy Kampmark describes our politicians as insecure little boys paying for the empty promise of useless AUKUS baubles in order to maintain the friendship of a narcissist incapable of unfailing loyalty to another. It's time to get rid of career politicians, feathering their nests now while also having an eye to greater future prizes. The forthcoming election gives us the chance to elect even more community independent MPs. Those we now have show what ordinary people with a wealth of experience in the real world...
Margaret Caĺinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Another nail in the coffin for Australia’s phantom defence needs
Winners and losers
December 3, 2024
We are losers under the current system. Once the students leave school they will be expected to function in our society - they will be mixing with people from all walks of life. One of the benefits of a desegrated school system is that students can experience our diversity in a supportive environment. This in turn will enable them to be more tolerant and appreciative of diversity. Creating social silos undermines the ability of students to fully appreciate the value of diversity.
john tons from adelaide
In response to: Australia’s school system: winners and losers?
Stephen Downes replies: "ABC delighted to be trivial"
December 3, 2024
I’m delighted that Sally Jackson, communications ‘lead’ at ABC NEWS, has corroborated indirectly my revealing (ABC News’ death rattle) the trashy triviality of the revamped broadcaster’s online front page. She’s clearly pleased that in September and October ABC NEWS ‘overtook’ that bastion of digital unimportance, news.com.au. In October, she says, 11.7 million read ABC NEWS online for an average of 31 minutes. Unfortunately, she doesn’t say what pieces were most read. Was it an article like the ones I cited in my piece, the one about hoof-like shoes, the hot news about a priest who lost his job...
Stephen Downes from WATSONIA NORTH
In response to: ABC News' death rattle
Correcting a common mistake
December 1, 2024
There is a common misconception that Anthony Albanese established the Parliamentary Friendship group with Palestine. This is not true. He was one of the founding committee members.
Ali Kazak from Canberra
In response to: The politics of ignoring genocide
Redesigned ABC website overtakes News.com.au as top online news publisher
November 29, 2024
Hi John, Someone shared with me the link to Stephen Downes' column on the ABC NEWS website: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/abc-news-death-rattle/ Some relevant data it might be worth noting for readers: Since the redesigned ABC NEWS website launched in August it overtook news.com.au to be the top Australian online news publisher in September and again in October. In October the audience was 11.7 million people and the average read time across the month was a very high 31 minutes. Regards, Sally Jackson Communications Lead, ABC NEWS
Sally Jackson from Australia
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
ABC Blues?
November 29, 2024
I heartily enjoyed Stephen Downes review of the re-vamped ABC News website as it generally reflected my reaction to it. What dreck is this? The point I made directly to the ABC (through their feedback section) was that i hope the level of journalism won't degrade to News.com.au levels since they are making the website look a whole lot like News.com.au. I too find the For You section condescending and patronising. I don't read the ABC because they cover my interests; I read the ABC (less and less) to get news and current information. And this move to...
Steve M from Brisbane
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
Murdoch will not win
November 29, 2024
I, too, made a futile complaint to the ABC about its lower primary school level news presentation and, on my phone at least, swipe right to try again for better news. It's a pity that when younger people need to know, on current evidence, the ABC will not be there to inform them. But Murdoch and his LNP puppets will not win. Alternative media are thriving with quality rising to the top. It's where quality journalism and expert commentators go when Murdoch thinks he has killed them off. Yes, Murdoch has undeniable influence. But when anyone starts to think,...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
Government must commit to renewable energy shift
November 29, 2024
PM Albanese is refusing to commit to a strong emissions reduction target before our federal election in February or May. Regardless, Australia's new target is due by the end of February. So Superpower Institute director Ross Garnaut is urging Labor to develop our renewable energy economy for far greater profits than fossil fuels. And Sophie Vorrath is also urging Australia to help the world shift to renewable energy. Really, it is more than time for these actions.
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Renewables superpower or climate coward? Albanese needs to make a choice before election
Let's indeed "play peace"
November 29, 2024
I hope many P&I readers will pay close attention to this excellent article. It has a lightness of touch but its truths couldn't be more weighty. We should be - and could be - a remarkable center for PEACE in the Asia/Pacific area, taking a far less subservient posture in relation to the corrupt and fast-fading war empires beloved on the LNP and of R Marles (to Labor's shame). We should be - could be - learning FROM Indonesia, encouraging our best and brightest to do many job swaps, to include knowledge of Indonesia in their professional education, and to...
Stephanie Dowrick from Darwin, NT 0800
In response to: War games? Let's play peace
Contempt of the LNP and Dutton in particular
November 29, 2024
I have no idea if this letter will ever be published, but I can only refer to the LNP and Dutton in particular as the contemptible scum of Australia. They have no shame what so ever and are proud to place politics above human life and dignity. It is as if they are proud of the hate they generate. I could add more, much more but it would not add any more clarity than what I have already said. I just wonder what sewer does Dutton want to drag this country into just to satisfy his own political agenda.
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: Denial of Australian visa to anti-Palestinian racists disturbs some Liberal Party leaders
The US political system: An American plutocracy
November 29, 2024
America has been a plutocracy for some time. As Warren Buffet said he pays less tax than his secretary which shows that the tax regime has been corrupted. Congressmen spend 70% of their time fund raising so that they are compromised by lobbyists and vested interests. The health sector costs twice that of Australia. Big Pharma, Insurers and the medical profession have caused major distortions with a much worse outcome for patients.
Tony Simons from Balmain 2041
In response to: The US political system and its capitalist, imperialist agenda has failed
"Local" ABC radio encourages law and orders fear
November 29, 2024
ABC TV news has it's failings but the push to localise radio is leading to local law and order panic. Melbourne Radio news now leads and often contains little else than the daily police briefings - burglaries and home invasions, gang violence and brawls, car accidents and chases, stabbings, suspicious fires, and deaths. There is no context or comparison with other times, months or years, leading to possibly misplaced fear and loathing. The ABC must do better.
megan stoyles from aireys inlet
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
Israel bashing almost every week
November 29, 2024
I am fed up to the back teeth seeing relentless journalism about what Israel is doing to its neighbours. I have a more realistic appraisal. Like in the Middle Ages in Catholic Europe, Iran controls its citizens with religion, fear and scapegoats, mostly Jews. Their influence and control is so strong that Muslims in Sydney are wont to proclaim similar hatred. What we rarely hear is that Jews in all Middle Eastern and North African countries have been forced to flee for their own safety. Israel (and to a small extent USA) is the only country that will...
Peter Linu from Sydney
In response to: Defending the U.S. from the Israel Lobby
Even the Guardian bows to the Zionist Lobby
November 29, 2024
With deep regret and very considerable disgust, I need to point out that The Guardian Australia - despite its protestations of 'Independence' - peddles the very same disinformation as permeates the Zionist Lobby propaganda. Since the ABC on-line news has become on a par with a second-rate in-flight magazine or perhaps The Open Road for decent content and accurate investigative reporting, I have regarded TGA as the only viable option for widespread content news. However, look at most articles about the Israel vs. Palestine/Lebanon/Iran situation and you will find, more often than not in the first few paragraphs,...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: “Absolute savagery”: What is stopping Australia from holding Israel to account?
Our Malthusian demise is only deferred
November 29, 2024
Julian Cribb puts our global environmental crisis into an eloquent historical perspective. His portrait of humanity’s evolution over thousands of years captures the short-sighted, selfish culture which now dominates our world. Thomas Malthus foretold, in his 1798 ‘Essay on the Principle of Population’, how our population would inevitably outgrow our food supply. Population would be naturally limited by plague, famine, and war. We have, for the past 226 years, held Malthus’ prediction at bay through medical science, agricultural science, and the UN, but our Malthusian demise has been deferred rather than defeated. Humanity’s numbers continually increase, and our lifestyle...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds…
Carbon dumping should be called out
November 29, 2024
Carbon capture and storage, or carbon dumping, is absolutely a con trick. As Peter Sainsbury rightly acknowledges, despite decades of trying, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis “not one single CCS project has ever reached its target CO2 capture rate”. And carbon dumping accounts for just 0.1 per cent of carbon pollution that enters the atmosphere each year. Pumping carbon dioxide back underground is hardly a planet stabilising proposition. How about we stop digging the fossil fuels up in the first place? Multinational corporations and the governments that subsidise and support them to...
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Environment: Carbon capture and storage - what's the real goal?
Keating's Banana Republic
November 25, 2024
Contrary to the comment piece by Neil O’Keefe, Treasurer Paul Keating’s 1986 Banana Republic comment in a radio interview with John Laws was not a calming statement designed to avoid panic in the markets. It was a foolish panic-stricken reaction to disturbing Balance of Payments (BoP) figures that showed a large increase in Australia’s current account deficit. The comment caused the Australian dollar to immediately plunge by 3 cents. This came on top of a 1 cent fall in the dollar following the actual release of the BoP figures. The silly off-the-cuff remark required Prime Minister Bob Hawke,...
Paul Malone from Ocean Grove
In response to: Is the USA a Banana Republic
Cribb article deserves a Walkley award
November 22, 2024
I have long admired Julian Cribb's writing but this article deserves an award - a Walkley award no less. He conveys the urgency of the planetary crisis in a way that goes beyond merely stating the facts. We need such a wake-up call what with more and more climate change-charged extreme weather events and loss of habitat causing biodiversity to decline. The 1972 book Limits to Growth warned that civilisation would crash by the 2040s should we continue on the current path and we are certainly seeing the beginnings of such a collapse even now.
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW (temporarily in Adelaide)
In response to: The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds…
For whom the bell tolls
November 22, 2024
It's a statement we often see at the end of mini bios of P&I authors: The views expressed here are his own. But this time it struck me as poignant. Isn't this exactly what Mr Guppy's sad article was saying? The views are 'his', not shared by enough people in our vast country to be able to say these are our views. Certainly not shared by our LabLib parliamentary leaders, keeping in sweet with our US masters and being fêted by Israel. The few do what we can but, so far, we are powerless when up against our own...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Gaza rots the soul
Miller’s latest
November 22, 2024
The US’ Miller now says the US voted against a ceasefire because there are seven US citizens among the hostages, and the ceasefire wouldn’t cover hostages. Yet the ceasefire proposal last April would have released these seven Americans. Are they more valued now than they were then? Instead we have had a Bidenectomy to excise the Palestinians, backing an Israel which views them as a malignant cancer. All the while it has been winken (at the Israeli excesses while pretending the US has no control over them), Blinken (handwringing), and nod (to the deaths of over 150,000 Palestinians, and...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Gaza rots the soul
Silence is complicity -- Einstein
November 22, 2024
Every accusation a confession -- but also a distraction, incitement or form of silencing during genocide. P&I offers a beacon of truth, alongside other independent online journalists of principle, that informs and updates those who refuse to look away in the face of an illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes being committed by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. This daily testimony adds to the evidence needed to one day prosecute those responsible. The legacy media and ABC have failed us at every turn. As have our politicians. But perhaps Mr...
Annee Lawrence from Sydney
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Naive and inaccurate
November 22, 2024
Andrew Podger’s article ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East (November 19) is naive and inaccurate. Full disclosure: I have written for P&I since November 2022; I operated as editor for six weeks between August and September this year. Podger thinks P&I is a news publication. It is not. Publisher John Menadue has clearly described it as a public policy journal. Yet he criticises P&I for not separating news from opinion – something which is the norm for news organisations. He expects P&I to follow the conventions of the Australian Press Council when it...
Sam Varghese from Melbourne
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
ABC Lies By Omission
November 22, 2024
3 Days ago the ABC reported that a Russian missile had struck a civilian building killing 10 people. What it failed to report was that the missile was sent off course by a Ukrainian AD missile. A friend who lives in Odessa, Helen Jones, tells me that people in Odessa are far more fearful of Ukrainian AD missiles that Russian ones, because the Russian missiles are aimed at military targets. The ABC report failed to mention anything about the Ukrainian missile.
Joy Ringrose from Pomona, Qld
In response to: "Disingenuous News Dressed Up As Theatre"
Middle class ism the answer to our problem
November 22, 2024
As a Married at 19 Father at 20 retired 72 year old regular visitor to the local yacht cub I am well placed to see what the divide between the haves and the have nots looks like . I worked and watched with waves migrants worked long hours grew veggies at home and made good largely for their children. I believe the answer is middle classism and Government should promote it. The bigger the divide between the haves and the have nots the more the divide is noticed and exploited by both sides . The stronger the divide...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: When the system fails
So obscene but I fear it will get worse
November 22, 2024
Has there ever been a more shameful time to be an Australian? Thanks to Morrison and Albanese, we have literally sold our sovereignty to the US in that we are paying for the facilities at their bases on our soil about which we will not be informed, let alone have a say. And now, thanks to Albanese, Wong and Dutton, what tattered shreds of moral fibre remained have completely disappeared with their parroting the US black is white lie about violent Israeli football fans in Amsterdam. In spite of the film and eye-witness evidence, for heaven's sake. Where...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The Amsterdam incident exposes Australian supine and servile dishonour and dishonesty
Ending the Banality of Evil--Stand up and Question
November 22, 2024
Many of us have long suspected that opposition to the genocide against the Palestinians is more widespread than reported. But it is encouraging to see evidence of this opposition. Well done P&I. when the banality of evil was expressed in reporting the Adolf Eichmann trial, it was said that the root of this banality was a lack of questioning. Michael Davis PhD
michael davis from Mullumbimby
In response to: The Labor Government is morally moribund and scornful of international law
Indexation not the main game
November 21, 2024
Dear John. Thank you for your kind comments. Indexation has been applied to student loan debts since 1989. Recent high inflation has drawn attention to indexation, both how it is calculated and when it is applied. High indexation has certainly an issue - I hope I didn’t give the impression that I was dismissing it entirely - but in my view it is not the main game, which is the size of the debts to which indexation is applied. Indexation is much less of an issue in more normal inflationary environments; you’re not the first person to...
Damian Coburn from Australia
In response to: Indexation the killer
"Fairness and balance" in reporting genocide?
November 20, 2024
I am shocked by Andrew Podger's invocation of the slogan Fair and Balanced - formerly used by Fox News, to criticise Pearls and Irritations' coverage of Israel's disproportionate response to Hamas' crimes of October 7th, 2023. No surprise of course, that the Press Council, on whose board Mr Podger has sat, and whose standards he recommends, is funded by News Corporation. Israel itself has ensured that reporting from the Middle East is neither fair nor balanced by killing more journalists reporting from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon since October 7 2023, than have been killed since the...
Gayle Davies from Armidale NSW
In response to: "Fairness and balance" in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Magnificent
November 20, 2024
John, Thank you for your simply magnificent response to Andrew Podger's total misconception of the momentous crimes being committed under Netanyahu's direction, and his fundamental ignorance of the role of an independent editor and commentator. Sincerely - Peter O'Keeffe
Peter O'Keeffe from Australia
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
How serious is Mr. Podger about the integrity of journalism?
November 20, 2024
I found the recent contribution by Andrew Podger to P & I, Fairness and balance in P & I reporting on the Middle East—putting it as politely as I can—to be curious. Not so politely, I might have used the description ‘paternalistic’ or, worse, the piece as one expressing “mock concern’ from one on high. Podger expresses sympathy for an impoverished electronic outlet’s built-in obstacle when it comes to meeting the standards to which respectable journalists hold themselves. He stresses the need to keep facts separate from opinion and to be fair and balanced, that is, to represent the...
Harry Glasbeek from Canada
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Why would Walter Silvester lie?
November 20, 2024
Dear John, I have a problem with a story that appeared in P & I on 03/11 by Val Noone entitled Fake news, Melbourne 1966: about Pallottine Priest Father Walter Silvester. My problem is this: my wife's first husband was a former Pallottine Priest and was a close friend of Silvester's. He says Silvester was reluctant to talk about his U-Boat experiences but he did in private conversations tell him the story about them, including his version of saving the Russian sailors. He believes strongly that Silvester would not have lied to him as a close friend and...
Ian Robinson from Australia
In response to: Fake news, Melbourne 1966: migrant German priest was a U-boat commander who defied Hitler
The ABC, death by a Thousand Cuts
November 19, 2024
A very necessary and timely analysis of why the ABC is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the major policy debates within Australia. In pursuit of a small target strategy to avoid further cuts and interference in content production by ultra-sensitive governments it is achieving what those governments wanted: acquiescence and collaboration!!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: “Disingenuous theatre dressed up as major news”:
Elect them and they will put up taxes manta
November 19, 2024
I often watch foreign movies and marvel at the infrastructure in other countries and marvel at how they can build it and we can’t. How we once did but now can’t. The standard answer is always we are a large country with a small population, we can’t build fast rail but we did build rail to link the capital cities all the way to Perth. We did build Telecommunications infrastructure to link the capital cites and Australia to the world. We did build Roads now a private company builds Toll roads and makes monstrous profits collecting tolls. The...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Detaching Australia from the death grip of the United States
Israel must be right, always
November 19, 2024
Andrew Podger's article proves the overwhelming success of the Israeli PR machine. The MSM offers no balance about the Middle East conflict - all we hear is October 7, October 7, October 7. John Menadue's response says it all really - if you need to know only Israel's side of the conflict (and amazingly that of most West countries including our own) stick with the Israeli hasbara, the ABC, Murdoch and 9. If you want to know what is actually happening stick with P & I.
John Dash from Spence, ACT
In response to: "Fairness and Balance" in P & I reporting on the Middle East
Australia should encourage Taiwan to reunite with China peacefully
November 19, 2024
I would suggest most Australian Chinese consider Taiwan as part of China and that a reunification of Taiwan with China is inevitable. The reunification can be peaceful or forced, but the Chinese will not kill the Chinese (Taiwanese). Australia should encourage Taiwan to reunite with China peacefully instead of provoking Taiwan to declare independence unilaterally. Australians like to consider Asian nations as enemies, first Indonesia, then Japan, and now China. Asian nations are on the rise; they are more powerful and will be more assertive. None of them express any desire to be enemy of Australia....
Stephen Wong from 5 Knight Place, Castlecrag, NSW, 2068
In response to: AUKUS, the China threat and Chinese-Australian communities
The State of Palestine
November 19, 2024
If we can define Palestine as historic Palestine, or all the land south of Lebanon, north of Egypt and between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, then, yes, a State of Palestine is the best idea. This new entity would be based on one adult/one vote, full equality before the law and the right of return granted to all those displaced during and since the original Nakba. Any plan to split, or to keep split, historic Palestine (this bit for me, that bit for you) is as doomed to eventual failure as is the current arraignment.
Hal Duell from ALICE SPRINGS
In response to: Act now: The case for UN membership for Palestine is overwhelming
Many were prepared to arm themselves
November 19, 2024
Admittedly, I'm of the political left and still maintain the rage I felt when Whitlam was illegally removed from governing Australia. I call it The Dismissal, yet have always considered it a coup. Whitlam had faults. After all he was a man. He and his government also made some mistakes that his devotees frowned at BUT Whitlam was a statesman and carried out reforms that were almost revolutionary. He was a threat to the US and UK and he took most things in his gigantic stride. When he made his monumental speech, there were thousands of Australians -...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: Coups are not electorally disqualifying, just look at the dismissal
They don’t care
November 19, 2024
Geoff Davies reminds us of the contempt with which the fossil fuel industry treats the planet, and its residents. Add the new administration in the USA to those fossil fuel magnates and the full catastrophe is revealed. Trump’s pick for Energy secretary Wright is critical of clean energy “liberal and left wing groups” for their “top down approach”. He happens to have interests in Australia’s Beetaloo Basin. It is hard to see how Wright’s company Liberty Energy, backer of Empire Energy, in partnership with Tamboran, is not the exemplar of a “top down approach”. They received $28.7 million in ‘grants’...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: They spit in our faces
Fairness and Balance
November 19, 2024
Dear Editor, I read the recent article by Andrew Podger, “Fairness and balance in P&I reporting on the Middle East” and John Menadue’s response with keen interest (see: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/fairness-and-balance-in-pi-reporting-on-the-middle-east/) . It provides a civil but acute exchange, which immediately made me recall Edgar Snow, the remarkable American author of the best-seller, “Red Star Over China”, first published in 1937. Snow was regularly criticized for lack of balance in his reporting on the rise of fascism, which prompted this reported response: “In this international cataclysm brought on by fascists it is no more possible for any people...
Richard Cullen from Hong Kong
In response to: Fairness and balance in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Tomorrow never comes
November 15, 2024
Ask, in Spain, when a job will be done, and you will be told ‘manana’ – meaning tomorrow. Ask again the next day: same answer. Tomorrow never comes. Manana is clearly the mantra for our governments when asked about when they’ll tackle our climate crisis effectively. They might take modest steps to take the heat out of environmental protests, but then they let the issue slip. Grasping the climate nettle might have been pretty straightforward thirty years or more ago, when the crisis now unfolding before our eyes was predicted by so many environmental scientists; but it would have...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Environmental breakdown: We have been warned
Australia must be bold on climate
November 15, 2024
Geoff Davies' basic point is that the big fossil fuel corporations in Australia will do anything to protect and increase shareholder return including murder. His solutions are most interesting, but I'm adding some practical measures. At the current UN COP29 on climate, our Australian team must be bold and strong for ending both our fossil fuel subsidies and exports (via punishing levies and incentives for renewables); plus increasing rich countries' funding for clean energy in poor countries. Back home, during the next few pre-election months, the federal government must then also develop a bold, strong mandate by adding...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: To save the planet: Disable this global consumer-corporate machine
Indexation the killer
November 15, 2024
For context, here is a tweet I wrote on November 3: My 27yo daughter's #HECS debt is now about 20% greater than when she finished her bachelor's degree at UTS, and she has been making payments on it since 2020 — so quite obviously is battling just to keep up, let alone get on top of it. #auspol Damian Coburn's excellent contribution on the government debt load our children carry did not specifically mention the indexation of the debt to CPI rises, but my daughter is adamant that they are the killer. Was indexation always in place?...
John Hampshire from Hurlstone Park
In response to: One cheer for student loan changes
Protecting the powerful
November 15, 2024
We have seen instance after instance of the government protecting the powerful and hand-wringing (if lucky) over the powerless. Can someone explain the latest mind-exploding mystery to me as to why it proposes not to publish the sealed chapter from the Robodebt Royal Commission believed to have referred six public servants for criminal or civil prosecution (essentially quashing any further proceedings against anyone responsible for the unlawful scheme where people had died), yet refused to drop criminal charges against Richard Boyle who was able to reveal government misconduct (thus protecting the government and the public)?
K Ma from Australia
In response to: The Discarded
Just who are the elites?
November 15, 2024
Let’s be clear, the ‘elites’ which the right is in the habit of conjuring up as the root of our problems are exemplified by the plutocrat cabal attending Trump’s after party, including Gina Rinehart, Elon Musk and crypto currency hopefuls. They are the moguls who direct from their boardrooms the trillion dollar global arms market. The fossil fuel barons, such as Elnur Soltanov, Chief Executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29, who hawk their wares even from inside the COP29 energy forum. They are the CEOs of fossil fuel companies whose main job is to protect their interests and keep profits flowing to...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Like Kamala, Albanese doesn’t seem to get it.
The Australian cringe
November 15, 2024
The cultural cringe that forced so many of our artists half a century ago to head to both the UK and the US in order to demonstrate their talent, and have it first accepted by those beyond our shores, is at the heart of the current 'thinking' that drives our defence policy. The mindset that we just aren't good enough is alive and well. There isn't any justifiable reason to continue to hang on to America's apron strings. We are a nation in our own right. Our national security would be far better served if we were to maintain...
Peter Hehir from Rozelle. Sydney
In response to: Australians pierce the foreign policy propaganda of both major political parties
Probing our ignorance
November 15, 2024
Thank you Paul for your perceptive reading of such perceptive polling which requires us now to go deeper to find the right questions to probe how the dissenting sentiment identified by the Herald Resolve poll, for all its virtue, ignores how we are already inked in to the major military dust-up in which we don't want to be involved! IOW: thanks for reiterating this point but now we set ourselves to plumb why our Commonwealth has to deal with our own persistently deep and ongoing political ignorance about our own fearful and precarious place in the South West Pacific....
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Australians pierce the foreign policy propaganda of both major partiesAre we not
China Relations- Follow the Money
November 15, 2024
In reviewing various countries relation with China in many countries and states there is a clear tension between politicians and the business community. The United States is a prime example. If one believed the pronouncements of government and the mainstream media, relations are so poor that war is just around the corner if not imminent. This is borne out by the record profits of US defence contractors. One might also conclude that the Chinese economy is on the verge of collapse. The reality is very different. Recent trade figures published by CGTN showed trade values in the first ten months...
Barry Trembath from Rozelle, NSW
In response to: Does Australia Really Want to be the Spear Projecting Western Power
It's time to re-read Gore Vidal's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
November 8, 2024
Dear editor, I was very surprised by the election result in the US, like everybody else I know. But then it started to make a kind of sense. There are a whole lot of people out there who are angry and resentful. They are angry at the US government, and have had enough very negative dealings with various government agencies to start reiterating Trump's rhetoric about the 'deep state'. They don't see the educated and professional middle classes coming to their aid, so all of Kamala's promises about being a president 'for everybody' would have been met with disbelief...
David Holm from Taipei
In response to: Trumping Australia
Australia must choose a safe climate future
November 8, 2024
I appreciated David O’Halloran’s humour and insights into the deeply disturbing outcome of the US election. In particular, I agree that it is imperative that Australia, a nation ravaged by the impacts of climate change, commits to leading on climate solutions. Our renewable energy superpower potential has long been touted. Perhaps this moment offers a renewed opportunity for us to exemplify ourselves on the global stage and, in so doing, build our own more self-reliant future. It is up to the Australian public to heed the warning the US offers and to elect representatives who will prioritise the...
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: When life gives you oranges.......