Letters to the Editor
Our democracies must change to meet the climate crisis
December 15, 2023
Chandan Nair sets out with exquisite clarity the fundamental weakness that the developed world faces in our fight against our changing climate. Democracies with regular election cycles focus politicians on populist policies and short-term fixes. Politicians will not court unpopularity through imposing hardship on their electors; click-bait-hungry media exacerbate this problem. As Chandan Nair says: ‘... climate change and other existential threats make for good slogans, but weak manifestoes’. Our world is close to a tipping points brink. If humanity is to survive we need effective solutions urgently to transition our world to a more sustainable basis. Our democracies have...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIV 3127
In response to: Governments must take drastic action on climate, not pander to the public, or we're all doomed to boil
Australia, UK and USA are militarising the Indo-Pacific
December 6, 2023
China and several Asian countries maintain that under international law, foreign militaries are not able to conduct military and intelligence-gathering activities, such as reconnaissance flights, in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ). Yet the USA and Australia insist that under UNCLOS their navies and air forces have that freedom in any economic zone without needing to notify the host country. But new deals negotiated by Washington with Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau means the USA can stop navies and air forces from other countries entering their EEZs. Australia needs to decide whether its EEZ is not to be...
Percy Allan from Australia
In response to: Colonies of the US empire: Will the Cocos Islands become the new Diego Garcia?
Slaughter of the Innocents
December 1, 2023
Somehow, despite the ugliness that is in the world and the sense of futility amongst those of us who try to find the 'why' of the ugliness and how we can possibly hope to combat it, we believers still feel that tiny tickle, identified and beautifully expressed by Emily Dickinson. “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all John Menadue's piece touched me in many ways. Mostly his despair, his disbelief over the brutal savagery of an aggressor that...
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle, WA
In response to: SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME
Hamas attacks were not 'by the Palestinian people'
December 1, 2023
I must lodge a complaint about the use of the words - ... the October 7th military raid on Israel by the Palestinian people. I find this extremely offensive and wholly misleading. I am a strong advocate for the Palestinian cause and usually find Paul Heywood-Smith's work most stimulating. But I think this is an unacceptable statement. Hamas unleashed an atrocity, a war crime on a large number of persons - many civilians, many children, many non combatants. If this could be in any way viewed as a military raid it was an illegal one and most...
Royce BENNETT from Baxter
In response to: Blood: The bitter harvest of breaching Resolution 2334
Concerning climate predictions
December 1, 2023
Many articles cite low temperature changes like 1.5 degrees. I am not a climate scientist but I used avaliable data in an effort to predict how much temperature was expected to rise if all fossil fuels were used up at the current pace. Available data led me to conclude that it would take 200 years and that the temperature rise would be at least 10 degrees C. But more likely higher. I included the effects of permafrost and decrease in earth albedo due to melting ice. I think it is useful to point out that kind of concrete problem so...
Peter Grafström from Sweden
In response to: Environment: 1.5 degrees of warming in 10 years
Criticism of Israel is not Antisemitic
December 1, 2023
Critics rightly argue the Israeli government should be held accountable for its policies, decisions and for the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. But let us not confuse opposing policies of the Israeli government, or advocating for the rights of Palestinians, with antisemitism. Jews are not a race, this categorisation is wrong and dangerous. According to SBS Cultural Atlas, Israel’s population reports the following religious affiliations Jewish (74.3%), Muslim (17.8%), Christian (1.9%), Druze (1.6%) other religions (4.4%). To speak of antisemitism in relation to the genocide of Palestinian peoples, is incorrect. To speak out against Israel is an anti-Israeli...
Andrea Coney from Port Fairy
In response to: Antisemitism and criticism of Israel: open letter to Julian Leeser MP
Women’s Voice
December 1, 2023
The regular contributors to Pearls and Irritations are mostly older men. Their insights are deep, wise and always appreciated. However when an edition is all men, no women contributors, it’s time to review processes. It’s time. Women’s voice is important.
Carol Kiernan from Melbourne
In response to: Pearls and Irritations
The ongoing battle to keep Australia a petrostate
December 1, 2023
Noel Turnbull expresses concern about the Australian government’s nonchelance regarding recent global temperature records. As he puts it, the government is “busily approving new fossil fuel developments which probably make it impossible to reach even the derisory targets the government has pledged.” The likely omission of a climate trigger in the revised EPBC Act is more evidence that the government is “terrified of offending almost anyone”. But a recent development provides some hope. The government will underwrite 9GW of storage and 23GW of variable renewable generation doubling the renewable energy capacity on the grid. Right on cue, Murdoch journalist Terry...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: What was Parliament doing as the earth boiled?
Australians: letting all ‘n’ sundry know the score
December 1, 2023
Australians
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Australia's three wars
Can an Australian soldier disregard orders if they believe that order to be unlawful?
December 1, 2023
After reading John Jiggens’ article about David McBride, I find myself confused, and so am looking for an answer from people who might know. I was under the impression that an Australian soldier can disregard orders if they believe that order to be unlawful under international law? Is this not exactly what McBride was doing? Or am I dreaming?
Greg Dudgeon from Box Hill South
In response to: Crown successfully overturns Nuremberg war crimes principles in Australian court
A minor dissension
December 1, 2023
In an otherwise excellent open letter to Julian Leeser, a letter that needs to be read by everybody who supports Israel in its unconscionable campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people, I have only one small note of dissent. In his opening paragraph he says the attack by Hamas was ‘inhumane and without warrant.’ It might be argued that the attack was inhumane, after all people were killed or captured, but ‘without warrant’, I don’t think so. As Browning so go gently argues, the people of occupied Palestine have endured decades of dehumanising treatment. Under such circumstances I...
Richard Creswick from 17 Mike, via Darwin, NT
In response to: An open letter to Julian Leeser
My Lai massacre in Vietnam
December 1, 2023
Dear Editor, I am horrified at the decision made by the Court. The soldiers are fodders and have no brain. Seriously. Never mind most atrocities have been done by soldiers. I like to remind the top people at the court about My Lai in Vietnam. Some soldiers did the most despicable thing to innocent people. Exactly the same and only when a courageous journalist let the world know about the atrocities were some soldiers taken to task. I hope this ruling can be overturned. We need to stop power hungry people in this world.
Therese Saladin-DAvies from NSW
In response to: Crown successfully overturns Nuremberg war crimes principles in Australian court
McMullen misses major factor: Biden’s incompetence
December 1, 2023
Did Bob McMullen, whose political nous is unquestionable, watch video media coverage of Biden’s erratic public behaviour during Xi visit for APEC? Biden was embarrassingly all over the place as George Galloway noted. Scathingly. This can only get worse over next 12 months . The man is a hollow shell . Of course Trump will be President, barring concocted disqualification or assassination. Australian government elites had better get used to it.
Tony kevin from Canberra
In response to: Real Possibility of a Trump Presidency
Relationship to Asia
December 1, 2023
With over 20% of Australians having Asian heritage there are strong links to the region plus there are many thousands of expatriates living and working in Asia. But Dutton shamelessly channels Howard, Abbott and Morrison in dog whistling and fear mongering at every opportunity and he does a lot of damage both here and in relationships with our neighbours.
Tony Simons from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Our national failure to equip ourselves for Asia
The success of lobbyists is widening the Gap
December 1, 2023
As John Menadue put it in September last year, “Regulation of the way we manage lobbying in Australia is an even more important issue than a National Integrity Commission. The lobbying of governments around the world by the fossil fuel industry is a major reason for the Climate Emergency we now face.” At COP27 in Egypt, there were 636 representatives of oil and gas industries, a rise of more than 25 per cent on the previous year. When tabling her Lobbying (Improving Government Honesty and Trust) Bill, Monique Ryan the Member for Kooyong explained how the lobbying Code of Conduct...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: The Federal lobbying code is toothless and it has failed
A Vile Article
December 1, 2023
For years I have read Pearls and Irritations which has arrived in my inbox quietly on Sunday mornings. Many articles have been thought provoking as the writers' opinions have challenged some of my beliefs and understandings of various topics and ideas as good journalism should. However, this morning's article has crossed the line. The belief that 'It (Israel) should be expelled from the community of nations': How is this sage advice going to improve the current situation if Israel is excommunicated from the world stage? If you want to give space on your web site to such...
Debbie Scholem from Sydney, Australia
In response to: Does Israel Have a Right To Exist?
Supporting sensible climate policy
December 1, 2023
As a fellow concerned parent, I admired and supported Gregory Andrews’ brave hunger strike for climate action. Even the most optimistic emissions reductions scenario presented by the UN offers just a 14 per cent chance that humanity will keep global heating below a ‘safer’ 1.5 degrees. Given this, the Albanese government’s continued support for gas, approval of four coal mines, and unwillingness to rein in native forest logging is unacceptable. Climate change impacts are already hurting communities across Australia. What will life be like for our children? Andrews’ five demands of the federal government – ending fossil fuel subsidies, an...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Restoring democracy to avoid climate collapse
Indefinite Detention and the NZYQ case
November 27, 2023
The case was not an academic exercise. It concerned the fate of numerous foreigners from multiple countries, many of them hardened criminals; exactly how many, the Solicitor-General was unable to say. One thing is sure: indefinite immigration detention was not unlawful when the matter came before the High Court. Its legality was established by the High Court itself 20 years ago in the case of Al-Kateb. If the High Court were now minded to take the exceptional step of reversing that decision – doing violence to the doctrine of precedents which is one of the foundation stones of common...
Henry Litton from NSW, Australia
In response to: High court launches full frontal assault on indefinite immigration detention
Do international agreements mean anything?
November 17, 2023
In response to John Pilger’s excellent article, I point out that 25 years ago Australia signed the Rome Statute setting up the International Criminal Court which can investigate war crimes. Among its provisions there is this: “Article 68 Protection of the victims and witnesses and their participation in the proceedings 1. The Court shall take appropriate measures to protect the safety, physical and psychological well-being, dignity and privacy of victims and witnesses…” Now one would imagine that our prosecutorial authorities in Canberra would feel some inclination to honour the principles which the Australian government has espoused by...
Geoff Taylor from Riverton WA
In response to: “We Are Spartacus”: Resistance and the unmoving shadow of war
The entire Public Health System is now enslaved to “The System”
November 17, 2023
The issues outlined in this outstanding article are sadly not only attributed to Aged Care. Indeed the entire Public Health System is now enslaved to “The System” where Patient Care is dictated by policies and procedures rather than the needs of the individual. He is indeed, sadly, correct in his Yes Minister analogy. The Bureaucratisation of health care has refocused the attention of healthcare providers on computers and systems that demand constant attention and input; more than many patients receive. It is only a matter of time before the complaints and concerns regarding Aged Care are applied more broadly...
Anne Blunn from Greenway ACT
In response to: The care economy: Aging is not a disease- who knew?
Ugly Christian Apocalyptic beliefs
November 17, 2023
For the past year, I have researched the shooting deaths of two young cops and a concerned neighbour in Wieambilla in the Western Downs of southern Queensland in December 2022. This cruel, arbitrary ugly event has been deemed by ASIO as the work of religiously-motivated extremists, not Islamic but Christian ones. The three killers were shot to death by police, just as they expected to be. Ex-PM Scott Morrison, a happy-clapper born-again Christian, pouncing around with the UK's ex-PM Boris Johnson in Israel, is better than anything Laurel and Hardy's scriptwriters could come up with. Tonight on X...
John Kerr from Coburg
In response to: Scott Morrison’s heartless yearning for Armageddon
Mitigation and Australia
November 17, 2023
When the Hawke government was elected in the early 1980’s, BHP Steel was contemplating shutting down steel production in Australia. The minister, Button, proposed a modernisation capital injection, that BHP wouldn’t repay if they could not be made profitable . It worked, despite Australia being a very small part of world production. Right now, to replace fossil fuels, Australia has to triple its electricity production, because not only coal, but oil and gas use, need to be replaced by renewables. As the generating cost is currently about $0.10 per kW.hr for coal, $0.05 for onshore wind, and $0.025 for...
Noel Thompson from Sydney (Riverview)
In response to: Climate policy: the widening reality gap
END TIMES AND ARMAGEDDON WELCOMED
November 17, 2023
Reb Halabi's excellent expose on Scott Morrison's religious zealotry taking precedence over rational thought made for chilling reading. I was brought up in an extremist Christian Zionist group and can verify that unquestioned adherence to their fanatical beliefs in the End Times, the Rapture and Armageddon is a given. While Mr Morrison may strenuously deny there is any conflict of interest, in his heart he knows that should his beliefs be at odds with matters of global importance, his religious convictions will always win. Look no further than Australia's embarrassing and dangerous prevarication on genuine commitment to climate...
Joy Nason from MONA VALE, 2103 NSW
In response to: Scott Morrison's heartless yearning for Armageddon
Immigration: economy, politics or survival?
November 17, 2023
Abul Rivzi has pinpointed the viciousness that will envelop political discourse on the current half-million figure of new immigrants, and the ensuing social disharmony that will follow as the right-wingers give new impetus to the race card. Is it now time to consider the more critical issue of what might constitute a sustainable population for Australia, given the frequency with which water usage keeps re-emerging as a critical issue across most of the continent? The economy is the main driver of argument about immigration, which has spilt over to social cohesion occasionally since World War II. This...
Tony Tucker from Leichhardt NSW
In response to: Net migration of 500,000 guarantees an ugly immigration election
Whales and misinformation
November 17, 2023
Mr Dutton’s recent statements about off-shore wind turbines endangering whales and dolphins have been shown to be based on disinformation. It has been reported that a Facebook post, stating that a paper supporting the ‘evidence’ for harm to whales had been published in respected publication Marine Policy. As soon as the fake was flagged by Marine Policy staff, the Facebook page disappeared. Research from InfluenceMap shows that “anti-climate groups are using Facebook’s advertising platform and unique targeting abilities to spread disinformation, intentionally seeding doubt and confusion around the science of climate change.” And more generally in the US, ‘think tanks’...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Divide and fool: The Coalition’s misinformation campaign
A witty take on US-China Summit
November 17, 2023
Heard a witty take on the US-China summit concluded in San Francisco, leveraging a popular Chinese idiom: both sides admitted that they may not pee in the same pot but vowed to ensure they will not pee on each other. 双方承认：尿不到一个壶里，但承诺：不尿到对方身上。 Thanks for reading Wang Xiangwei's Thought of the Day on China
WANG XIANGWEI from Hong Kong
In response to: Biden forgets that the c-in APEC stands for cooperation
The critical mass is getting close to defeating the Israeli and Western propaganda machines
November 15, 2023
I have been observing the current intransigent and wonderful opposition to the Israeli and Western propaganda machines. What the grass roots opposition signifies is the growth of a massive international opposition to the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. And what it reminds me of is the beginnings of the opposition to the Vietnam War. The same lying and mendaciousnes on the part of the ruling elites, and the same visceral and informed reaction and opposition to the lying about the barbarism engaged by these ruling elites. What is significant in this current...
John Ebel from Melbourne, VIC
In response to: Gaza and ‘the graveyard for children’: the moral decline of Western politics
These Children Could Be My Children
November 13, 2023
I am the mother of Palestinian children. I married into the ancient and highly respected Al Ramini family from Jenin. Our children, born in the west, have deep brown eyes, soft brown skin and they stand tall and proud and relish their Palestinian background. I am grateful that they have this heritage, but I am also so very grateful that they have never known the appalling deprivation of everything to do with being a human being that has befallen so many young people looking just like them, with all the hopes and dreams, just like them, but who were born...
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle, WA
In response to: Israel's Hideous Final Solution
Revelation is not canonical in the Orthodox Church
November 10, 2023
The Orthodox Greeks, who were actually close enough to recall the nutter who wrote Revelations on the Greek Island of Patmos, decided that it was NOT a canonical work and would not be read in Orthodox churches.
Paul Malone from Ocean Grove
In response to: Scott Morrison’s heartless yearning for Armageddon
What we need now is a clear declaration of peace
November 10, 2023
The hopes expressed in the article 'Australia-China relations: Diplomacy and a win without a fight', are hopeful indeed, for good relations with China are essential for our economic prosperity, yet Mr Albanese has made a foolish decision without debate and very little consultation, to confirm the previous Government’s decision to arm Australia with a few submarines which are specifically designed for a fight with the very country our economy depends on, and with which Australia has no major quarrel. Cancelling that submarine deal would send a very clear message to China rather than the ambiguous message currently being sent....
Bruce George from Candelo Southern NSW
In response to: Australia-China relations: Diplomacy and a win “Without a Fight
Fearless article calling out Penny Wong
November 10, 2023
It's as though the Labor party thinks it doesn't need its grassroots anymore. The Labor party (through the public statements of Penny Wong, Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles) has taken a stance supporting the United States' hardline Zionists and that has translated into a cruel military support for the occupiers. I'm not the only previously rusted-on Labor supporter who will never ever vote Labor again. I will find a person of principle in my electorate as opposed to a party. Collectively, Australia has blood on their hands and it will NEVER wash it off. The Zionists have...
Gladys Johns from Carlton, Victoria
In response to: Israel does not have the right to ‘defend itself’
We Must Break Labor's Faustian Climate Policy
November 10, 2023
Mike Scrafton demonstrates the Faustian bargain that our government is making with their approach to combatting climate change. Labor focusses on transitioning to become ‘a renewable energy superpower’, and at the same time, and in the face of the urgent demands in the IPCC’s 2023 report, approves new coal, oil and gas projects to boost fossil fuel production. These steps build short-term prosperity, and so underpin the government’s popularity and therefore its re-election prospects, but they keep our carbon emissions far too high. The price to be paid for these, as the planet continues to warm, will be borne...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic 3127
In response to: Climate policy: The widening reality gap
Climate Inertia
November 10, 2023
While I agree with much of Mike's article Climate policy: the widening reality gap I prefer a more basic approach. Our whole economy is based on neoliberal principles and as such the only way forward is to trash the planet! Furthermore, we will never rein in greenhouse gas emissions while our population continues to increase, it is inconceivable! In Australia we are running out of water, but we continue to import people to the detriment of our economy, the environment and our well-being.
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Climate policy: the widening reality gap
Stopping the massacre in Gaza
November 10, 2023
The US has the diplomatic, military and economic might to stop the Israeli attack, which has now gone well past a proportionate response to the Hamas attack. To do so is vital for all of Palestine’s citizens including the women and children, and also for Israelis particularly those held hostage, and not just those near Gaza. Why doesn’t the US do so? A multinational force to take over to keep the peace, as ex Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has proposed, should follow, preferably set up under the provisions of the UN Charter, but set up anyway, if...
Geoff Taylor from Riverton WA
In response to: The moral complexities of bombing a concentration camp full of children
Ali Kazak has exposed the ugly history of Zionism
November 3, 2023
Originally the establishing of Israel was just a Zionist land grab, and the separation of states by distant powers a result of a racist disdain for the Arab culture. But it's now more sinister because the stakes are much higher. Obviously ethnic cleansing is the way forward for an oil-hungry US and Israel. So, thanks to the complicity of ABC reporters and journalists and most western Governments, we are following the US/Zionist playbook in order to effect a genocide. How can people like Sarah Ferguson be gullible and brutish enough to demonise the Palestinians? For heaven's...
Gladys Jones from Carlton 3053
In response to: An open letter to ABC Managing Director David Ande
Crematorium Threatens Endangered Habitat
November 3, 2023
Peter Sainsbury notes that the second pillar of the World Resources Institute requires that we protect remaining natural and semi-natural ecosystems from conversion and degradation. All conversion and degradation of forests, grasslands and forests should stop by 2030 at the latest. Yet ACT Planning has given the provisional go-ahead for an unneeded, destructive crematorium complex on the boundary of the Callum Brae Nature Reserve that will destroy critically endangered trees as well as threaten an important wildlife corridor and biodiversity including the swift parrot and the Small Ant-blue Butterfly. Friends of Callum Brae Nature Reserve, a community group,...
Pamela Collett from Canberra ACT
In response to: If Green Growth is the Answer, Humanity needs a new question
Call Them By Their Names
November 1, 2023
Writer Jessie Boylan has stuck a chord that stays irrevocably in the mind. 8306 Palestinian deaths so far. Deaths that used to be 8306 lives. People. Men, women and many, many children who had names and families and hopes and dreams. By quoting them as numbers, without names or faces they become statistics of war. Collateral damage, that will just crumble in the dust. And the silence of our leaders is deafening. I am numb.
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle
In response to: We are the Silence: How words bear witness in life and in death
When reporting wars, the mass media cannot help themselves
November 1, 2023
Conservative Australian politicians have a debilitating pre-occupation with the ‘objectivity’ of the ABC. Needless to say, what they really cannot stand is when the simple truth about their policy stances produces its own criticism. Far from being pro-left however the ABC is overly cautious not to offend the right. Such caution is particularly evident at times of war. In 1991, the outcry over the ABC’s reporting of the first Gulf War was such that the Backchat program ran a special edition to help clear the air. The options were that the ABC was reporting objectively or that it was...
Tony Smith from Australia
In response to: Objectivity serves the powerful, and silences the oppressed
The war is just beginning
November 1, 2023
Julian Cribb has pulled together several disturbing scientific reports on climate. They should have the world on a war footing but other wars have taken prominence. In 2022 annual global mlitary spending reached US$2.2 trillion. And according to Cribb, US$1 trillion per annum is also spent on government subsidies to fossil fuel companies. Furthermore, McKinsey claims the world needs to spend another US$3.5 billion per annum on emissions reduction to achieve net zero by 2050. The spending deficit could be achieved by diverting the military spending and the subsidies to emissions reduction. But are we smart enough...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Hallucinatory world: Governments blind as catastrophes besiege civilisation
A Comment on Tim and Simon’s Twist
October 31, 2023
Since reading the 2017 Indonesian law on elections I have wondered when there would be a challenge to its provision that prevented anyone under the age of 40 to stand for election for President or Vice President. And the outcome of the fourth challenge to the Constitutional Court mentioned by Tim Lindsey and Simon Butt is not so outstanding, except in the way that the decision was made. I am glad to see Tim Lindsey and Simon Butt acknowledging the integrity of Justice Sadli Isra. It will not bode well if his honest and open statement in his dissenting...
Owen Podger from Australia
In response to: A twist in Indonesia’s presidential election does not bode well for the country
Two peoples, an equal claim to self determination and sovereignty
October 31, 2023
Unlike some of the contributing writers to Pearls and Irritations on the Israel/Palestine conflict in general and the current situation of the Hamas attack and the Israeli retaliation in particular, I find Peter Roger's article Netanyahu's War presents some realistic and evenhanded analysis of some negative aspects of Israeli and Hamas policies and the possible worst outcomes for both the long suffering Gazan victims and also the many Israeli victims. I believe all the pleading and threats by the international agencies, and by hawks and doves from both sides who live outside the disputed land will not...
Michael Dorembus from Malvern East
In response to: Netanyahu's War
Finally the uncensored truth. . .
October 31, 2023
If you paint your enemy as depraved and not even fit to live, then you will be supported in 'cleaning them up'. The systematic degradation of the Palestinian population has been brilliantly 'stage-managed' by the Zionist state. They have described the Arab peoples as animals and not fit to govern themselves. The Palestinians have endured this barrage of insults and oppression and restrictions over decades and even been branded as 'not fit to live'. And now, the western press has the audacity to question their pain. . . and that surely makes them complicit in this contemporary genocide.
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: How can you sleep at night Anthony?
The UNSC must act now on Israel's invasion of Palestine
October 27, 2023
The UN Security Council may, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, determine the existence of a threat to the peace and to decide what measures shall be taken to maintain or restore international peace and security. In recent days, we have been informed that cruise missiles and drones were launched from Yemen in the direction of Israel but were shot down by the US Navy and that Israeli warplanes have struck targets inside Syria after rockets were launched towards northern Israel. Meanwhile 7,000 people, about a third of whom were children, are said to have been killed...
James Schofield from Aylesbury
In response to: The outside world must walk Israel back from the abyss. It cannot be part of the choir of incitement
We all need a mirror
October 27, 2023
Ali Kazak says… If Western countries are concerned for peace in the Middle East, then all they have to do is to make Israel accountable, recognise Palestinian people’s inalienable right to return to their homeland, to be equal with Jews and exercise their self-determination. I then add “And apologise!!” Now you have described our First Nations peoples' plight. How did the Voice fail, and Australians not see this? We all need a mirror.
David Farrands from Melbourne
In response to: Blindly supporting Israel
The No vote was racist
October 27, 2023
I would like to take issue with what Fr Frank has stated in his article about the Voice. The statement that The NO vote is not indicative of a racist or stupid nation is factually incorrect. For the past 8 weeks or so, Door knocking, Letterboxing and standing at Pre-polling booths in the Port Stephens electorate it is of general consensus from all who stood beside me that a majority of voters in general were either from mildly angry to those who were objectively hostile. We received threats of violence, intimidation by big burly tradies towards a...
PETER DOWLING from RAYMOND TERRACE
In response to: Frank Brennan: Rejected by the people who dispossessed and colonised them
Australia is selfish and lacks empathy. Ignorant too!
October 27, 2023
As reported in The Conversation recently, the research, practice and teaching of Australian history is in a parlous state, and getting worse. The 2nd last paragraph 'Why is this a problem?' is highly germane to Anderson's argument, but the whole article partly explains why much of Australia is ignorant of it's history, and is getting worse. Ignorance is probably another reason that the lies and misinformation disseminated by 'No' proponents apparently were believed and acted upon by many when voting. Better historical awareness should have made the 'If you don't know, vote No' slogan laughable, as it was...
Karen Sydow from Ballarat, Vic
In response to: Australia has shown itself to be a selfish nation that lacks empathy
Nuclear waste and our oceans
October 27, 2023
Thanks to Peter Sainsbury for another excellent piece “Environment: Oceans to the rescue: 7 watery ways to reduce greenhouse emissions” (22/10). Given the latest push from the Coalition to introduce nuclear power in Australia, nuclear waste could be added to the list of toxins polluting our oceans. “The first operations involving sea disposal of radioactive wastes took place in 1946 in the Northeast Pacific, about 80 km off the coast of California. During the 48-year history of sea disposal, 13 countries have disposed of approximately 140 PBq (140 x 1015 Bq) of radioactive wastes into the oceans” (International Atomic...
Fiona Colin from Malvern East
In response to: Environment: Oceans to the rescue: 7 watery ways to reduce greenhouse emissions
Smoke and mirrors policies
October 27, 2023
Would the U.S. and others (such as Australia) who are not calling for an immediate ceasefire, end to blockades and a workable and sustainable two-state solution - effectively condoning the forthcoming (continuing) ethnic cleansing / expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza - be willing to accept the million or so displaced from northern Gaza or, indeed, all Gazans who could well eventually be annihilated or left to die? Given their effective support for Israel's desire to have Gaza, they should be willing to resettle all Gazans in their own countries.
Kam M from Canberra
In response to: Support the strong, suppress the weak
Blaming Judaism is beyond reasonable comment
October 20, 2023
In the P&I article by Paul Heywood-Smith of 20/10/2023 regarding the hospital bombing in Gaza, it is stated: I rather think that a more likely scenario is that a government which believes that it is entitled to steal another people´s land because that land was given to the Jewish people by God, might also be persuaded that God also authorised the occasional white lie if same would assist in the recovery of the land that God had earlier given. I don't have a problem with Israel being criticised, even when I believe it's over the top, but really,...
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Western reporters’ shameful cover-up of Israel’s hospital massacre: A postscript