Letters to the Editor
The failure of Peter Slezak's words
April 3, 2025
Peter Slezak writes, In fact, there has never been any antisemitism at our rallies, at universities or anywhere in Australia in my lifetime. Peter knows very well that there is, and was, antisemitism in Australia, but he chooses, not merely to discount it, but to reject it entirely. If he was speaking at a different rally and had said, In fact, there has never been any Islamophobia at our rallies, at universities or anywhere in Australia in my lifetime, people in the Muslim community would be shocked at the ignorance of such a statement. Perhaps that's the...
Harold Zwier from Melbourne
In response to: Peter Slezak’s speech to the University of Technology Sydney rally on 26 March
Reject fearful militarism
April 3, 2025
Gareth Evans writes I totally accept that defence planning always has to be based on worst case assumptions. This voter doesn't accept that. I reject preoccupations with power and weapons. To varying degrees, I fear, loathe and despise them. I like it that Evans puts his argument in tension with decency and prudence, but he doesn't include ethics, neutrality or pacifism. Too many Labor pollies have gotten their jollies from guns and being power hungry.
Henry Sheerwater from Taroona
In response to: Pursuing Australia’s national interests in a ‘Might is Right’ world
Albanese should have left before it’s too late
April 1, 2025
The thing that Labor should have learnt from the US election is to jump ship early, get out before you're told to go (not that Dutton has the charisma of Trump) , and take the subs with them. Albanese and Marles should have stood aside for Chalmers and Plibersek straight after the failure of the Voice vote. Albanese, the loyal workhorse, and Marles, a tin soldier more worried about how his ADF uniform looks than working, neither capable of being dynamic leaders, should have walked all over Dutton, the broken dynamo from the past. But they haven’t! That...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: labors-in-with-a-fighting-chance-but-mu
Only global government can save us from ourselves
March 31, 2025
Growing up in the sixties, under the threat of nuclear annihilation, our mantra was we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time. It is our generation, and our offspring, who now govern our planet and its major institutions. We’ve never lost that mantra. As Julian Cribb shows, in the decades since we have, through our unsustainable consumption and lack of concern for the environment which hosts us, so damaged our environment that it could become virtually uninhabitable. The rapidly shrinking glaciers, which provide so much of the fresh water on which we, and other...
Chris Young from Surrrey Hills, Victoria
In response to: Delete the Earth
Columbia's capitulation costs
March 31, 2025
This capitulation by US universities will surely have them plummetting down the global rankings.
Andrew Nichols from Dunedin, Aotearoa
In response to: Ivy League Convulsions - will we be next?
Australia buys Brooklyn Bridge (submarines )
March 31, 2025
This informative story in The Guardian makes one wonder how a spirited tabloid might have headlined it. Perhaps, “Slippery US submarine team collects the loot, then delivers a ‘sorry Bruce’ message to Down Under chumps. Have I got a deal for you? I've got a vote for the party that dumps the deal.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: trashed-74
The need for submarines
March 31, 2025
Peter Briggs presents a strong case for the value and advantage of nuclear submarines over conventional submarines as well as their advantages for an island nation. However the article needs to be read in the context of what is critical to the security of this country and how best to address that. The greatest immediate threat to our security is the impact of global warming and Australia's defence resources should be focused on that. Nuclear submarines are not likely to be part of Australia's naval defence fleet until the 2040s, if ever. Meanwhile, we face extreme weather events which...
Les Mitchell from Port Macquarei NSW
In response to: Why does Australia need submarines? By Peter Briggs
Why Australia needs Australian submarines
March 31, 2025
A convincing article. I’m convinced, Now convince me why they need to be nuclear. Where do we store the waste? Why we need to buy them from the US? Most importantly, why have we waited until the locally made product was so far past its use-by-date that we find ourselves in our current dilemma? Looks to me like our ADF and politicians have got it very wrong, given a lifecycle of 25 years before major refit. That’s five LNP and three Labor governments and a lot of generals who haven’t done their well-paid jobs.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: why-does-australia-need-submarines
Pacifism and neutrality
March 31, 2025
I particularly like Marcus Rubinstein's sceptical stance regarding expectations of war, and especially the calls Australia should respond with armaments. I have read with concern the reports of China's intentions regarding imminent invasion of Taiwan. I feel pity for those who could be invaded, and living in apprehension, and wonder about the extent of China's war pose. Could it possibly be as bad as the US? No, says Rubenstein. I know that only neutrality and pacifism could make me proud to be Australian. Peter Briggs's argument for AUKUS is laudable for its quiet rationality, but it recreates and...
Henry Sheerwater from Taroona
In response to: Anti-China Media Watch
Hooray for Barb Dadd!
March 31, 2025
Yes indeed, mainstream politics and politicians aren't working, and we the people might could should withhold payment. But take it a little further, perhaps? Party politics is largely broken, and Lib and Lab parties have long existed in order to hold power. Hence, Anthony Albanese said early in this term, I intend to be in power a long time and Keir Starmer undermined Jeremy Corbyn and then triumphantly declared, Labour is not the party of protest. Party politics has destroyed democracy all over the world. Party politics is illegitimate and due to be abolished. Vote independent!
Henry Sheerwater from Taroona
In response to: Who’s really the boss? Taking back control of government
Hegseth’s tatts and the Christchurch shooter
March 31, 2025
The five-minute scroll 105 notes the bombing of Yemen. Some years ago the Christchurch shooter killed 51 Muslim worshippers. His inscriptions in Georgian channeled 400-year-old battles against Muslims in eastern Europe. At the beginning of this week of 24 March, 53 were killed in Yemen by US air weaponry. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly has tattoos including one channeling the 1000-year-old Crusader fight against Muslims, and one with the word “kafir”, meaning an unbeliever in Muslim eyes. In an “accidentally” released Signal message, he was shown to be ordering actions which would inevitably cause similar killings, but...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: A five minute scroll
Climate security risks abound
March 28, 2025
Thank you to David Spratt for highlighting the issue of Climate Change and National Security. As independent Senator David Pocock has suggested, the government sitting on the Office of National Intelligence’s Climate Risk Assessment report since early 2023 is “recklessly negligent” (“Exclusive: Secret briefings on climate national security risk”, The Saturday Paper, 15/3). The public deserve to be informed and have the ability to hold the government accountable to act on such reports. Commendably, independent MP Dr Monique Ryan recently hosted what was considered to be the first public forum about Climate Change and Security in Australia. Former Chief...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Government refuses to articulate 'frankly terrifying' security risks
Queens and WA land rights
March 28, 2025
David Lee’s article brings back memories of what could have been from just over 40 years ago. Senator Susan Ryan got a bill through the Senate for land rights in Queensland in 1982-3. Here in WA we in the Aboriginal Treaty Support Group crafted a land rights act for WA based on Senator Ryan’s bill. Senator Michael Macklin, Australian Democrats, was having it prepared by parliamentary counsel and announced in the Canberra Times in November 1982 so that it would be introduced. The WA Burke government introduced a much watered down bill in the mid-80s, but it failed to...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Gove and the native title revolution
The democratic police state of Australia
March 28, 2025
For whatever arguably good reason these laws are passed they eventually apply to any other good cause that the public may be protesting about. Any curtailing of our right to peaceful protest moves us closer to the dictatorial/fascist states we see on our nightly news and the violence that invariably follows them. We have sufficient laws about damage, graffiti, violence and freedom of speech without politicising everything and every opinion. My concern is not that we have too many public servants, it’s that we have too many politicians with nothing better to do than pass laws only...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: behind-australias-antisemitism-hoax
American attitude to China
March 27, 2025
Jimmy Stewart made many movies. In 1960, he made The Mountain Road, set in China in 1944, when America was supposedly helping China against Japan. Stewart's character slowly developed an antipathy to the people he was helping and the final scenes escalate as the innocent Chinese villagers become collateral damage in his attack against Chinese brigands. (Yes, some Chinese fought anyone with whom they crossed paths). Some say it was Stewart's anti-war movie, but I cannot help but notice comparisons with American attitudes to Asians, especially Chinese, today. A lot of collateral damage can be expected if a...
Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South
In response to: Australia-China relations: A question of trust
What did you do in the war, Daddy?
March 27, 2025
We boomers asked our fathers what they did in WWII. How many children of this generation will ask their parents what they did during the Palestinian genocide when the major victims of WWII did their level best to wipe Palestine and Palestinians off the map? I suggest there won't be any equivalent of the many Holocaust memorials. Not enough people care to see that the same and worse is happening now, committed by the descendants of those memorialised in those museums. They won't want to be shamed in the future. We haven't made a mark on our government...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The last chapter of the genocide
What budget? What democracy?
March 27, 2025
If nothing else, the recent events and behaviour of both major parties proves to me that we don’t live in a democracy and never have and that there is little point in a budget. The weeks leading up to the budget should be parliamentary leave without pay. What point is a budget when without any transparent discussion in Parliament the then prime minister can sign off on $300 billion and counting that wasn’t included in their own last budget? How can the present prime minister actively pursue the commitment of Australian troops to a peace-keeping force or the...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-fundamental-problem-at-the-heart-of-defence-policy/
Future of Americans loyal to Trump working in DIO
March 26, 2025
Jack Waterford presents a masterly piece of analysis. In P and I on August 3, 2023, Mike Scranton described the setting up of the Combined Intelligence Centre (CIC-A) within DIO, which includes US intelligence analysts. Well, Alan Kohler in ABC online on Monday called the Trump presidency a regime. We have our Australian Government Personnel Security Adjudicative Standard, which among other items includes loyalty to Australia. In view of the loyalty of US citizens to Mr Trump and the rapid changes for the worse in both US internal and external policies, what should happen about the American analysts...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: We can’t unscramble the AUKUS and ANZUS eggs
Titanic struggle for the climate
March 26, 2025
The World Meteorological Organisation’s just-published ‘State of the Global Climate 2024’ report makes sobering reading. While the world is not yet beyond the possibility of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees, achieving this will need a co-ordinated global effort. The report shows many climate risk markers at dangerous levels. The WMO say that they ‘are intensifying efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services to help decision-makers and society at large be more resilient to extreme weather and climate’. At the same time, as Bruce Thom reported, Donald Trump is reversing American climate policies, downsizing the National...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: ‘Never happened before’: WMO finds past 10 years have been 10 hottest on record
Five-minute scroll provides invaluable information
March 26, 2025
I would like to commend the Pearls and Irritations team that gives us A five-minute scroll. I often find the information given invaluable. Today was no exception. I also call on the international community to do more to prevent the erasure of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. Apathy and indifference kills. Albert Einstein pointed out that the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and do absolutely nothing.
Beverley Dight from Canberra
In response to: A five-minute scroll
I’m forever blowing thought bubbles
March 25, 2025
Where do our First Nations People fit into this discussion? They may well want to send us all home with our First Nations/Australian dual citizenship. Would it require a referendum to fix and how much is budgeted by our superior economic manager leader of the oppose everything party?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: dutton-has-no-idea-about-the-constitution
Dutton has no idea about the Constitution
March 25, 2025
Peter Hughes' excellent article in response to the usual thought bubble that emanates from Peter Dutton's 'pea brain amply illustrates why the latest is a horrible idea. In response, one has to ask how this would manifest itself as an amendment; Would it add another sub-paragraph to s51 or would it (like the failed Communist Party referendum of the 1950s, equally ill-considered) be a new section 51A and exactly what would it say? If the point is to stop antisemitism or anti-islam or similar persecution, would it mention these by name? If it were to focus on the...
Wes Mason from Gisborne, Victoria
In response to: Devaluing Australian citizenship
The population has exploded
March 25, 2025
In his rambling complaint about forecasting, Stan Glaser overlooks one salient detail: Ehrlich, broadly, got it right. When he wrote The Population Bomb in 1967 there were 3.4 billion humans and today there are 8.2 billion. The bomb exploded by 241%. However, in 1967 nobody foresaw the success of the Green Revolution in sustaining the boom in numbers. Ehrlich predicted famine, because that was what was happening in overpopulated countries at the time – but not the success in doubling the world food supply. His book was intended as a caution — as it still is — of...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: The science of being absolutely wrong
The state with power to grant citizenship
March 25, 2025
Peter Hughes' article warns, cogently, against Dutton's thought bubble about giving ministers power to strip Australian citizenship from criminal dual nationals who have served their time. One aspect of citizenship law that Hughes only alludes to is the fact that a person's right to citizenship is determined solely by the country granting citizenship. Consequently, a minister deciding to remove the citizenship of a dual national cannot be sure the person actually remains a dual national. It is quite possible the other country has already taken its citizenship from the person. In that event, the minister would be...
Paul Fergus from Croydon NSW
In response to: Devaluing Australian citizenship
A better way to determine our defence needs
March 25, 2025
Paddy Gourley presents a superb novel idea: Australian defence spending should be calculated on the basis of a careful definition of the kind of country we want to be, a clear-eyed analysis of our strategic circumstances and the risks it poses and an assessment of the extent to which those risks can be negated or satisfactorily minimised by military power used in concert with whatever reliable allies are prepared to associate themselves with us. The world's greatest warmonger and seller of arms, currently involved in genocide in Palestine and led by a deranged president, should not participate in any...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Kim Beazley bombs out
Stuart, be more precise, please!
March 25, 2025
As far as we are aware, among the cohort currently sitting in the federal parliament, only two independents (Lydia Thorpe and Fatima Payman) and the Greens MP and Senators have clearly taken a principled stand in support of the Palestinians, calling for a boycott of the Israeli State in all areas (economic, military, cultural, academic, sport) and appeared as speakers in the frequent pro-Palestinian rallies. So Stuart Rees — rather than only advocating a vote for humanity, for human rights, for support of candidates who uphold the rulings of the International Court of Justice that a plausible Israeli genocide...
Michel and Anne Beuchat from Balwyn North
In response to: A moral precipice challenge – Vote for humanity
Atrocious defence of Falun Gong
March 25, 2025
I cannot believe you would publish this utter garbage. The man is such a liar and his characterisation of Jerry is defamatory. To suggest Jerry is too stupid to be able to research what falun gong, the epoch times and the new tang dynasty are an insult to your readers. I'm astounded you gave this China hater the oxygen to spread this poison. The CCP? Only racists and bigots refer to them by that. If you can't find the countries name as the PRC or their political party, the CPC, then you know the person is being vengeful. ...
Dean Smith from Melbourne
In response to: Defending-human-rights-will-win-the-hearts-of-the-chinese
US Israel game plan support from Israeli newspaper
March 25, 2025
Further to Stuart Rees and Margo Reynolds’ incisive article, it is chilling to read an Israeli newspaper opinion on the weekend which recommends a “political solution” envisaging the total depopulation of Southwest Palestine. Further, it advances the view that those two million people can easily be accommodated elsewhere.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: A moral precipice challenge-vote-for-humanity
Albert Roman on Falun Gong
March 24, 2025
I read the recent article by Albert Roman with a sense of deja vu, as, back in 2021, when P&I published a piece I submitted providing the other side of the widely promulgated West Good-China Bad narrative I was described, in a counter article, as an entitled expatriate totally out of touch with the real people of Hong Kong, words not disimilar to those used by Roman to describe Jerry Grey's status as a long-term resident of PRC. And just as Painter who had enjoyed a short period in HK and so considered himself to be an expert on...
Bob Rogers from Hong Hong
In response to: Defending human rights will win the hearts of the Chinese people
Last week it was antisemitism, who’s next?
March 24, 2025
Last week it was antisemitism, this week it is Islamophobia. A new poll must have been released. One of them is being driven by a group of racist white supremacists among us.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: new-report-reveals-islamophobia-in-australia-reaching-cr
Can Barrow make AUKUS-SSN as well?
March 24, 2025
Paddy Gourley mentions again the cost of the USUKA (Aukus) subs. According to Sky yesterday, reporting on Keir Starmer’s visit to the UK’s nuclear sub factory at Barrow, “the visit highlighted ongoing challenges facing the UK's aging nuclear submarine fleet, which has been forced to extend its typical three-month patrols to much longer durations due to maintenance delays and the postponed delivery of replacement vessels. The current fleet has now exceeded its intended 25-year service life.” So where, when and how does the AUKUS-SSN work fit in? Or are we going to give Britain too a three quarters of...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Kim Beazley bombs out
Pool the national risk
March 24, 2025
Ross Gittins’ suggestion for some form of a regional diaspora for flood-prone centres like Lismore might be technically correct. The Insurance Council of Australia wants $30 billion spent on mitigation. Even if both were immediately implemented by government, they are still long-term programs. Property owners need premium relief now. The unsustainably punitive premiums reflect the insurance industry’s targeting large regions with small populations to bear the brunt of costs, a methodology dictated to us by international reinsurers. The federal government Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation originally established to provide reinsurance for terrorism events post 9-11 was expanded to pick...
John Devaney from Townsville
In response to: Outlook for House Insurance is much worse than we're being told
The very model of a modern major linguist
March 24, 2025
Paddy Gourley's incisive article, of course, teases the memory of us old lags: Beazley was nick-named Bomber in his time as defence minister. It was a rather good fit; just as Biggles was for Nelson and Poodles for Pyne. All of them have gone on to bigger and better things, one way or another. Paddy is absolutely en pointe that Beazley's defence (see what I did there??) of his attachment to several armament manufacturers is somehow linked to a safer defence of Australia, is irrelevant to the matter at hand – and it is irrelevant to the purpose...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Kim Beazley Bombs Out
Diplomacy
March 24, 2025
John White's article in linking Trump, Putin and Netanyahu shows no regard to the relevant histories. The history of the Ukraine conflict goes right back to the break-up of the USSR and many events since then: eg Putin's 2007 Munich speech, Minsk 1 and,2 and Istanbul and Boris Johnson. Netanyahu presides over the horrific and ongoing attempt to exterminate the Palestinian people. He and his government are better described as Zionist. There are many Jewish people opposed to their actions. To imply that the US and Russia are now aligned is untrue – there is brinkmanship going on...
John Mateljan from Geraldton
In response to: The Limits of Diplomacy
Response to Binoy Kampmark's article
March 24, 2025
I enjoyed reading Binoy Kampmark's article. I thought it was spot on. Brave-sounding talk by Australian Big Men about Australian participation in another Coalition of the Willing, as Kampmark notes, Particularly, in Australia’s case, such a foolhardy promise shows that governments are willing to contemplate sending troops to conflicts they ill-understand and have no direct strategic value to them. As others have said, any such plan would need UN Security Council approval, which would be highly unlikely, given Russia's veto power in the UNSC. Unlike the USSR (which did not turn up to veto a proposal for UN participation...
Richard Morris from Sydney NSW
In response to: Coalitions of the deluded: Starmer’s Ukraine peace plan
Another original thought bubble
March 24, 2025
In the quest for my vote: the party that links the solar feed-in tariff to the wholesale price of electricity would go a long way to getting my vote and I don’t have solar panels. And it will have an effect on the solar panel take-up rate and the cost of living for the 30% of households with exisiting panels, although some may see it as middle class welfare
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: dutton-blames-renewables-for-rising-power-prices-but-bil
Peter Sainsbury's weekly articles
March 24, 2025
I don't know if a letter to the editor is the appropriate way to do it, but I couldn't see how else to contact you. I just wanted to let you know that I've been reading P&I for some time and I think Peter Sainsbury's weekly articles are extraordinarily good. Please pass on my thanks to the author.
Paul Rees from Brisbane
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/environment-building-nuclear-involves-killing-more-peopl
To recover Australia’s sovereignty, vote strategic
March 24, 2025
If the aim is to have independents in government at any cost, then I would agree with the strategy of giving preferences to any and all independent candidates ahead of the major parties. However the aims and behaviours of some independents are heinous compared to the behaviour of the majors. Giving them a higher preference would be to accept that I'm OK if they get elected. I cannot see how that would be a good strategy.
Danny Stevens from Kenmore Queensland
In response to: To recover Australia’s sovereignty, vote strategically
Beazley a lackey of the US imperium
March 24, 2025
Paddy Gourley's excellent article shows Kim Beazley to be another lackey of the US imperium. Given his key role in Gillard agreeing to the rotation of US troops through the NT, I have often wondered if he is a CIA asset. But then I think they don't need to appoint him covertly as he is already on the payroll of the US war industry. No longer revered if he ever was.
Malcolm Spry from Point Piper
In response to: Kim Beazley bombs out
Scratch one in the race whom to vote for
March 24, 2025
I'm yet to decide whom to vote for! I do know who I won't be voting for! I won’t be voting for the party that has no original policies, the party that only mimics the policies trumpeted out of the US. I will be voting for the party that puts Australia and Australians first and I’m still to decide on that.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: to-recover-australias-sovereignty-vote-strategically/
Admiral Barrie and Australia's best interests
March 22, 2025
Admiral Barrie is no left-wing radical. He is a former chief of the Australian Navy. Many consider him the bad boy of Operation Sovereign Borders as he was the leader of that for a number of years. But he is a careful strategic thinker in Australia's interest and any politician should take note of what he is saying. He is not the only one saying it. I have seen and heard comments from others of his generation in the public service who are saying that Australia should move away quickly from our former relationship with the US and look...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia
In response to: To recover Australia's sovereignty
Who is Australia?
March 21, 2025
“With, China, its values differ from ours and we may well feel that our own (imperfect) democracy is preferable to Chinese socialism.” Is it? Do the systems actually differ so much? It could be argued that Medicare is a socialist system, as are the PBS , NDIS, superannuation and even our tax system. How often do we hear: “Why should I contribute to someone else’s medical bills?“ “They should pay more tax“; They are bad economic managers, and will increase taxes“; “We support Medicare“. These are a source of constant conflict between the parties, a diversion, and these...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Australian-China-relations-a-question-of-trust
This article misses the obvious
March 21, 2025
The author has also missed the obvious: that the Australian and Chinese foreign ministers met at the G20 summit to clear the air. Also that the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, when interviewed by Channel 7 in Perth, said the flotilla circumnavigating Australia was for friendly purposes. I find the authors comment One of the most frustrating aspects of 'dealing' with China is the importance of what is not said very unfriendly. You don't deal with people. You converse with them. Also I have found from conversing with the Chinese, such as when I have had coffee with a...
Beverley Dight from Canberra
In response to: China flotilla reporting misses the obvious
Trump behind UN official’s death
March 20, 2025
I note the first two entries in this scroll. Why do writers keep saying it is Israel without including the US? Trump is clearly an accessory to the killing of the UN worker, and all the others in Palestine since the ceasefire. It has been clearly stated by Al Jazeera that Netanyahu got Trump’s nod. A nod from the US, supposedly a guarantor to the ceasefire, as are Egypt and Qatar. It is time the UN moved its headquarters from the US to neutral territory.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: A five minute scroll 108
Homeless problem
March 20, 2025
The homeless problems discussed in this article are entirely manageable by the government (state or federal). One of the (federal?) ministers recently said unequivocally that the decision of where to spend money is a matter of priority. Money can, of course, only be spent once. Providing shelter to the homeless is obviously not a priority (as is bringing the unemployment benefits above the poverty level). Writing it like this, one would think, would raise outrage. What more can be important than providing shelter for those who cannot afford it but need it? But no, barely a comment is...
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Homeless shelters are needed urgently
Rebuttal to Martin Hardie's claims
March 20, 2025
Martin Hardie may wish the best for Timor-Leste. But rather than address Dili’s lack of economic sustainability, he makes critical factual mistakes. Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Fund pays for most government spending and drives the economy. The $18.5 billion fund no longer receives oil revenues and has a finite life, as the 2024 budget statement states. Hardie claims: “Dogma casts the fund as a sacred idol, not to be touched for development, only preserved for some distant future.” He is wrong. Sustainable withdrawals are meant for budget expenditure and are a legislated requirement. This pays for development of the...
Damien Kingsbury from Melbourne
In response to: Timor-Leste and its Australian critics: A credibility gap exposed
Australia-China relations: A question of trust
March 20, 2025
Jocelyn Chey’s comment on Australia-China relations published in P&I on 20 March is among the best I have seen on the subject. I found myself in agreement with every word, but would like to draw attention to two points specifically. One is the importance of trust in the relationship. Some specialists say trust does not matter in bilateral relations, what matters is interests and practicality. While this is quite rational in terms of a “realist” international relationship, the human element is, for me, what makes a relationship special. Personally, I look back on and value friendships and cultural exchanges....
Colin Mackerras from Brisbane, Queensland
In response to: Australia-China Relations: A question of trust
Defence against who, what?
March 20, 2025
The first step in this is to identify who we need to defend our selves against and it’s not China The second step is to clarify if the US would rush to our aid if the others were to attack us. I doubt if the answers is an unqualified yes. The third step is to adjust our defence policy to suit the above. Australian interests first. Why not link the rent on all US bases to the equivalent of 100% tariffs on Australian goods going into the US and let the president bargain them down? He likes...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: pine-gap-no-price-could-ever-be-right
Australia officially the 52nd state of the US
March 20, 2025
Is anybody else thinking of the benefits of becoming the 52nd state of the US? As it stands, we have all the disadvantages and none of the benefits. Think of the saving on AUKUS alone. Then there are the tariffs, some actual Australian news on TV, Greg Norman can come home: the list is endless. If we are quick, we could get the 51st spot ahead of Canada.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: pine-gap-no-price-could-ever-be-right