Letters to the Editor
Commercial in-confidence? Not with taxpayers' money
January 11, 2025
A decreasing number of attendees at the Adelaide 500 complain about Victoria stealing our Grand Prix. That’s largely because there is a decreasing number of attendees and those numbers are including the attendees at the post-race concerts. I'm told that SA Treasury advised against renewing the contract. The last three times the previous Liberal Government listened the Labor Government reinstated it. When there was a protest for it, more people attended to save a stately home from road works than to reinstate the car race. Rumour has it as part of a Party Pete factional deal to get...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: melbournes-formula-1-grand-prix-what-price-public-accoun
Things need to change around here
January 11, 2025
The Morrison and Albanese governments have effectively handed sovereignty, independent decision-making, as well as a blank cheque to the United States. In other words, Australian wealth will be transferred to the United States, for the benefit of the United States, whilst Australia and Australians wear the costs. Win or lose at the coming election, Albanese has to go. We need a new generation of politicians to rise up and say Enough is enough to slavish devotion to all things USAmerican. We need politicians who will ensure that our common wealth is not shipped off-shore by multi-nationals who pay little...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Hotel California: Time to check out
Weasel words on behalf of Penny Wong
January 11, 2025
When any and every attempt at a political solution is ignored by the Israeli Government, if no action is taken, nothing will change until the last Gazan is wiped from the face of the earth. Australia's response is an utter disgrace, as exemplified by the letter sent on behalf of Penny Wong and the plan for our attorney-general to go to Israel to repair Australia's friendship with that country. It was fine, and effective, to boycott South Africa on account of its apartheid regime. Surely nothing less than BDS should be our minimum action in regard to Israel...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The illegality of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the Tour Down Under
Bishop Browning's values
January 11, 2025
I am not a religious person, but I really appreciated reading Bishop Browning's assessment of Christian values and the contrast with a Conservative's self-interest. The world would be a better place if we took more notice of people like Bishop Browning.
Michael Keating from Barton
In response to: Awake O Sleeper
Gaza 'Moratorium'
January 11, 2025
I must have read dozens of excellent articles on these pages, including this one, on various aspects of the situation in Gaza and the Middle East, yet the slaughter of Palestinians continues with barely a murmur from the Australian Government. We need to take our opposition further. I suggest using the anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s and early 70s as a model (yes, I was there!). A nationwide, co-ordinated, Moratorium would be a good first step. (As well as individual state-based committees, there was also a National Co-ordinating Committee). The immediate aims of this Moratorium would include, at...
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Israel’s total destruction of a whole healthcare system threatens us all
Stand up, Australia!
January 11, 2025
Countries will find greater agreement with the late Henry Kissinger’s much quoted warning on international relations: 'It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy but to be America’s friend is fatal'.” We could tear up every agreement ever signed and not give them another cent, if Australia (or any country) is in strife, the US will help if it's in the interests of the US. And if it's not in the interests of the US, we'll be on our own, no matter what agreements have been signed, promises made, or how many squillions of dollars we've sent or...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Will 2025 bring the world a G3?
LA and Gaza
January 11, 2025
Looking at aerial shots of fire-stricken parts of LA, what other place in the world does it remind you of? Yes, Gaza. Destroying food aid, including Australian, in Gaza is reprehensible, but the full scale of destruction there, as we know is, sadly, much much greater. Both Gaza and LA are very sad events, one brought about by Biden and the US’ over the top response to 7 October, and the other, LA, so far as we know, by natural events. We mourn the huge loss of life in Gaza, and are thankful that the loss of life in...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: American Israeli bombs destroy food aid in Gaza
The ABC's reporting on Syria dumbs us down
January 10, 2025
My complaint letter to the ABC in response to one of Eric Tlozek’s news report from Damascus was critical of Tlozek’s reporting, certainly, as Gayle Davies suggests in her letter (6/1/25). As an ABC correspondent in the Middle East (and as one who appears to speak Arabic), Tlozek should be aware of the dangers confronting Syria now that HTS is in charge and thousands of armed ‘jihadists’, many of them foreigners, are roaming Syria. A genocide on the scale of Rwanda’s could be committed in coming months. We should not be blind to this possibility. As for the...
Susan Dirgham from Melbourne
In response to: ABC editorial bias for ‘revolution’ in Syria and its implications
Helen McCue speaks for many
January 9, 2025
Dr Helen McCue, the views expressed in your article are most definitely not yours alone. They are the views of many Australians who, disgusted, sickened and angered by the duplicitous and mealy-mouthed words and actions of our government, long for our nation to make a stand for peace, for justice and for compassion. How can we live happily in Australia knowing that so many people in Gaza are being killed, bereaved, maimed, starved and left to suffer their pain?
Janet Grevillea from News South Wales
In response to: American-Israeli bombs destroy Australian food aid
Be more like Norway
January 9, 2025
The headline alone was enough for me to think about Norway. Not surprising, as I grew up there in the 50s and 60s. I went to the very best secondary school in the country, not because my parents had money, they didn't, but because I had good primary school results. I had the same German teacher as the present King Harald. When I migrated to WA in 1966, as an unworldly lad of 19, it took me three months to start wondering what was this nonsense (being polite here) of digging iron ore out of the ground, loading it...
David Stonier-Gibson from Highett, VIC
In response to: If only… 22 reasons to regret Australia’s missed opportunities
Fly on the wall at the Dreyfus-Netanyahu meet-up
January 9, 2025
Greg Barns and fellow P&I contributors raise serious questions about this trip. I am trying to imagine what is being said. “Look Bibi, socially cohering to you is getting very difficult for us in Oz. As the point man for the IRBO in Oz, I’d have to arrest you if you visited. I did manage to get one of your men, who is also an Aussie, off a charge of being an alleged accessory to a war crimes case over killing 50000 people, which was privately brought in Oz, although I did allow another Aussie to go to jail...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Dreyfus’ trip to Israel makes a mockery of Labor’s foreign policy
Participating willingly in genocide
January 9, 2025
It is difficult, if not impossible, to morally defend the political cowardice displayed by Australian politicians and their inherent racism, when they fail utterly to condemn what the world recognises as the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing when committed by the criminal Zionist state of Israel. The Albanese Government remains so terrified of the Zionist lobby in Australia that it has been prepared to sacrifice any claim it might have had to moral rectitude, in pursuit of its continuation in a power without moral purpose!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Dreyfus’ trip to Israel makes a mockery of Labor’s foreign policy
ASPI is a think tank? Are you serious?
January 9, 2025
James Curran's article provides much to consider. However, I hasten to query why we continue to characterise this organisation as other than what it so evidently is – a lobbying entity for the armament manufacturers / AKA military-industrial complex. Uniquely (I hope), given the almost automatic post-political career step for ministers for defence into armament manufacturers' employ — either directly or as a lobbyist — we have the nauseating burden of being the taxpayer support base for the whole wretched affair of creating evermore opportunity for said armament manufacturers to increase profits. War per se is not...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW 2575
In response to: Marching blindfolded into the new Cold War
As always, one law for the rich and one for the poor
January 8, 2025
We may have abolished the wonderful British tradition of transportation except for refugees or maybe we have run out of places to transport the poor. The legal system is very much biased towards those with the money to pay. How often do our politicians and their staffers end up in goal ? I am aware of cases where the poor for a similar charge have been convicted and completed their sentence before a politician has been convicted or sentenced (Then I think they are only fined a sum which they could afford). How many royal commissions into deaths...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: will-bail-in-victoria-get-a-battering-under-battin/
US has infinite capacity to incite trouble
January 8, 2025
Irrespective of the nature of the Assad regime, if the stories I read are correct then this seems to be another al-Qaeda associated mob ushered in with the help of the CIA. It seems that the capacity of the US to incite trouble anywhere in the world has no limitations.
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: An Islamist regime takes shape in Damascus
Think tanks and political parties
January 8, 2025
Thank you James – your statement ASPI was created by the Howard Government in 2001 to provide contestable advice on Australian defence policy” has me wondering about the advice related to the 2004 decision to join the illegal Iraq coalition. But other matters come to mind as well: your words had me thinking further about my sense of the persistent decline, if not absence, of political education that should be a political party’s mandate. Shouldn’t that be where the contest is joined? How and why have our major parties capitulated into seeing themselves as “social engineers”? Peter Varghese...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Marching blindfolded into the new Cold War
Excellent essay by Joe Lauria
January 8, 2025
Joe Laurie’s essay is a model of scrupulous accuracy . It is an epitaph to the cruelty and mendacity of US policies on Ukraine under three past presidents Obama, Trump and Biden that have led to over a million dead Ukrainian soldiers and many dead civilians , broken families, and a broken country. The only solution — Lauria prudently does not go here, though he accepts the facts that Russia has won the war — is for the incoming Trump administration to work sincerely with Putin without playing more Cold War games to bring about real and permanent peace...
Tony Kevin from Canberra Australia
In response to: A history of humiliation
The West's latest failed 'March on Moscow'
January 8, 2025
After three years, Ukraine has been shredded. Russia is winning the war with an enhanced military, a robust economy, an established and supported leader and a respected position in the world. In opposition, we have a Europe reeling from sanctions blowback, recessions looming and EU nation states' leaders falling by the wayside. And so they should, having abandoned Europe's source of reliable and cheap energy, the energy that fuelled Europe's economic well-being NATO is looking like a busted flush. Nuclear is an option, but given the proven success of Russia's countering every weapons system supplied to date...
Hal Duell from ALICE SPRINGS
In response to: A history of humiliation
The Hannibal Directive
January 6, 2025
Les MacDonald states that Virtually nothing has been reported by the media, with the exception of an Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Al Jazeera, about the Israeli military Hannibal Directive, which has been a closely guarded secret of the IDF military for decades. The ABC published a very good article on this very subject on 7 September 2024. The article can be accessed here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-07/israel-hannibal-directive-kidnap-hamas-gaza-hostages-idf/104224430 It received some acknowledgement on X at the time, but I haven't seen any reference or follow-up to it in the mainstream media.
Terry Reilly from Victoria
In response to: The Hannibal Directive and mainstream media’s organised forgettinghttps://johnme
There are other options for ending Ukraine War
January 6, 2025
Russia will not leave Ukraine a broken state under Western protection (Beebe’s third suggested option). Russia will go on fighting and steadily capturing more territory for as long as Kiev keeps fighting and attempting acts of sabotage, terrorism, or drone or missile attacks into Russia. Russia will negotiate while it fights, but only when Kiev accepts the realities of Russia’s firm negotiating position: neutral Ukraine pledged never to join NATO, no Western security guarantees, human rights protections for ethnic Russians, Russian speakers and for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Beebe wrongly suggests both sides must concede ground in a...
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: The Ukraine war is lost. Three options remain.
R&D challenges
January 6, 2025
The article by John H. Howard was of particular interest. He found that the nation needs a co-ordinated, cohesive and strategic approach to R&D. He cited findings of successive reports in support. His article omitted comment on Australian industry’s structure and ownership. Both remain significant factors. The 150% tax concession for IR&D was introduced in 1985 to induce industry to raise its performance. The decline in IR&D suggest that it was ineffective. Its detractors predicted this. Nevertheless, the government was persuaded of the need to raise IR&D and exploit the findings of publicly funded basic research, while limiting...
John McKenna from GARRAN ACT
In response to: 25 years of reviews and policy statements: What do they reveal...
AUKUS: a trojan horse?
January 6, 2025
It's becoming clearer by the day that the much vaunted but sketchily detailed AUKUS submarines are never going to happen, and never were going to happen, that they simply can't be delivered as indicated. They're simply the sugar coating to justify the always real intent and that is to turn Australia into a fully fledged [however, how many, and whenever they like] US/UK military base, with us picking up the tab for all necessary infrastructure. It's already quietly happening and don't be surprised if [included in the sweetheart deal] we agree to begin taking all US/UK [and maybe...
James Dirou from Surfers Paradise
In response to: John Menadue Pearls and Irritations articles
ABC reporting on Syria – editorial bias
January 6, 2025
With respect, I think Susan Dirgham's complaint to the ABC, mainly targeting Eric Tlozek' s reporting, is a little unfair. It is a bit much to expect a reporter on the ground in Syria, reporting on the immediate situation, but limited to less than five-minute slots on the TV news, to provide as detailed a commentary as Ms Dirgham expects. Her own perspective is longer, derived from her years of living and teaching in Damascus, and she rightly thinks the subject deserves more background and analysis. It's a job for an hour long Foreign Correspondent or similar, on both...
Gayle Davies from Armidale
In response to: ABC editorial bias for ‘revolution’ in Syria and its implications
Send in the clowns
January 6, 2025
While I have never been able to understand US democracy/politics and certainly don’t understand all things Trump, I fail to understand how he can take up so much space in Australian / world news. More recently I have come to understand that he is the great Western world diversion . Nothing to see here! Particularly in Australian politics. With the uS picking yet another unwinnable fight with China, funding genocide in Gaza and sacrificing the Ukraine etc Trump may just be the leader the US / world needs particularly with his love of all dictators (Putin, Musk...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: The-ukraine-war-is-lost-three-options-remai
Two articles I'd like to read and share widely
January 6, 2025
Following Donald Wilson's article, I would like two ideas further developed. 1. Regional tensions with China – What exactly are these? What are real, based on what China has said and done? What have arisen in response to (a) US verbal threats to and about China? (b) US military activity in the general area? and (c) US military activity in Australia specifically? What are baseless? 2. The desirability of Australia being a truly sovereign state, not tied to any other by unequal agreements of any kind – with reference to our military agreements certainly, but with particular reference...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Can true nuclear independence be achieved without ending the US Alliance?
Important article spoiled by rightwing commentator
January 6, 2025
I read with interest this article about the attack on USS Liberty by the Israeli Defence Force on 8 June 1967. Included with the article is an interview conducted by Candace Owen with a retired US sailor who was aboard the Liberty at the time of the attack. While the interview includes some revelatory details about the attack, its credibility is marred by Candace Owens’ clear anti-semitism expressed in the second half of the interview. There is a clear theme of miraculous intervention by a Christian God that pervades the interview. It would have served the veracity of the...
Therese Doyle from Newcastle
In response to: Pretext for war: Interview of a USS LIBERTY survivor
Cocos Islands
January 6, 2025
I would like the US to move their military base out of Darwin because it makes the capital a target. Darwin has already been built three times and its buildings need to be able to withstand a category 4 cyclone. Darwin was bombed during WW2 because the US had a military base in the country. Given the US is likely to use its military bases in Australia, during a regional conflict, without our knowledge or agreement, I would prefer they did not use somewhere that is expensive for us to rebuild.
Louise OBRIEN from Wollstonecraft
In response to: Will the Cocos Islands become like Diego Garcia, hijacked by the US?
Murdoch and much of the Western media
January 6, 2025
I never buy any media owned by News Limited, nor do I read any of their online news sites. Foxtel had to be sold because it was losing money. After the 6 January in the US, the Biden administration asked the UK government to put the boot into Murdoch, which they did by re-opening the News of the World inquiry, due to new information that came to light. The legal case between Murdoch and his children means that once he is dead, News Limited may actually change. It is time for Kim Williams to kick the...
Louise OBRIEN from Wollstonecraft
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/best-of-2022-white-mans-media-the-washington-consensus-a
American obsessions
January 6, 2025
Breakfast at 6am and flick on the radio. . .RN has the steady monotonous drone of a Boston bloke explaining about the snow/ice in his driveway; switch to ABC Radio News and yet another American accent droning. I gave up and wrote a short text of complaint and continued breakfast in silence. Kym Davey has explained this phenomena succinctly. We are a sovereign state and have an ABC chartered right to receive impartial news from our own domain instead of this slavish submersion in the brittle, crumbling culture of USA. America is not our friend We also...
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: Best of 2024: ‘Disingenuous theatre dressed up as major news’: Why the ABC is lo
Good retrospective
January 6, 2025
Thank you Andrew for your retrospective. It's helpful to be reminded of the serious failure that arose from our Government's willing compliance with the US claim that the invasion was a necessary unilateral action. As it happened, such a rationale, two years later, was taken by Fiji's coupster when the RFMF took power from Laisenia Qarase's democratically elected government. And then we saw the sad procession of some duly qualified jurists from Australia and New Zealand seeking employment in the illegal regime. And that to this day casts a pretty dark shadow over the jurisprudence that is taught in...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: The release of the 2004 Iraq War cabinet papers and what we were not told
Time to support the ABC
January 6, 2025
If we are to keep a public broadcaster like the ABC in this country, it needs public support not constant carping criticism that because ABC TV1 has a number of shows with an obvious tabloid bias, the whole of the ABC is rubbish. This is not true and so wrong! ABC TV 1 does have a number of shows with a tabloid bias but that is not the whole of the ABC, a big diverse organisation that has to address the needs of our modern multicultural Australia. ABC 24 and ABC Radio have good news services and are fostering...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia
In response to: The ABC is already doing the Devils work
Biden’s Gaza vs New Orleans
January 6, 2025
Joe Biden recently claimed that he was sufficiently in command of his faculties to have contested the 2024 election after all. So it is not unfair to hold him principally responsible for backing, diplomatically militarily and financially, the murder of nearly 50,000 people in Gaza, 40 times those killed by Hamas on 7 October 2023. A large percentage, especially women and children, would not have been Hamas operatives. By all means the FBI should investigate the New Orleans mass murder, but in a fairer world they would also investigate Joe Biden and his key advisers for their role in...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: 450 Days of Genocide: Israeli Occupation Burns Hospitals, Cold Ravages the Displ
Our immigration commentary is governed by White Man’s Media
January 1, 2025
In the case of Australia, the great multicultural nation, the views of WMM are reflected in the hierarchy of our immigration, refugee and foreign policy. Migrants from Commonwealth (cricket playing): most desirable by a street, Islanders ( rugby playing ) particularly in QLD and NSW followed by selected Europeans. The rest are cannon fodder for the present leader of the opposition any time he wants to stir up a vote winning racist headline. We won’t even bring home Australian journalists and citizens for fear of upsetting Murdoch.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: White-mans-media-the-washington-consensus-a
Murdoch Royal Commission – when?
January 1, 2025
If only this great piece of journalism by John Menadue could make its way into the homes and eyes of all Australians, there may be enough interest generated to finally get our weak leaders to call for a Royal Commission into the Murdoch media influence in this country.
Gary Rollinson from Tanah Merah Logan City, Qld
In response to: White Man's Media
The ABC is already doing the Devil's Work
December 31, 2024
Paddy Gourley's contributions are always a source of joy and admiration to me; he brings such gravitas and subtle prodding of both the amusement and the need-to-know neurons. But I admit to amazement at his description of the (current) ABC as the most trusted source of news. I bet he can't say that without biting his tongue, it must be so far in his cheek. No longer, Amigo... Kim Williams' speech to the Press Club was — surely — an audition as a writer for the next Blackadder series? More bullshit than a Texas Rodeo paddock. And...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Va;e NSW 2575
In response to: Gina Rinehart, Kim Williams and the ABC
Plibersek could demonstrate political integrity
December 30, 2024
Binoy Kampmark characterises the Environment Minister role as being the fossil fuel industry’s closeted defender in government, talking environmental conservation while supporting its destruction. While her environmental reputation hung in shreds after her willingness to grant licences to new and expanding fossil fuel projects, Minister Plibersek seems to have worked in good faith with Sarah Hanson-Young and David Pocock to negotiate amendments to pass the Nature Positive Bill, before the PM intervened. The PM also pre-empted his minister in Tasmania when he gave his whole-hearted support to the salmon farming industry, which threatens the imminent extinction of the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Jesting on the environment: Australian mining gets a present
Was Einstein wrong?
December 29, 2024
Bill Uren using Einstein's phrase subtle is the Lord to not so subtly introduce a message retelling the absurd and incoherent claims of Christianity, is not something Einstein would have approved of. Einstein believed the foundations of faith (Jewish and Christian) were built on myth rather than truth. He dismissed the idea of an anthropomorphic God as well as the Bible, as human creations and strongly rejected the idea of a chosen (Jewish) people. He was right about the bending of the rays of a star. Was he wrong about the Feast of Christmas?
John Bracht from Canberra
In response to: A Christmas Meditation: 'Subtle is the Lord'
Let’s get this right: democracy is a diversion
December 28, 2024
After writing this I will go back to read this article. Let’s get this right: Democracy is a diversion. Hardly a day goes by when we aren’t bombarded with the virtues of democracy as a diversion from the fact that democracy does not exist. Democracy has replaced religion as the opiate of the masses, an illusion, a diversion from the day-to-day realities of CAPITALISM. The realities of a greed-driven society who, like casinos, are happy for the odd mug punter to have a spectacular win so all the other mug punters keep betting. Like all greed-driven systems that...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: lets-get-this-right-israel-is-not-a-democracy
Communication, not conflict...
December 25, 2024
I would like to convey my appreciation to Refaat Ibrahim for the sentiments expressed in the biography attached to his piece published on Christmas morning. At a time when so many leaders prefer bombs to diplomacy, his faith in the power of the written word is heartening. Thanks Refaat!
Gail Abbott from Armidale, NSW, Australia
In response to: Gaza lights candles during Christmas
The Earth is sick, humanity is the disease
December 24, 2024
Earth’s health is declining. Its seas are over-fished, and filling with plastic; its forests are shrinking as they are cleared for farming and development. Its soils are dying from the effects of fertilisers and pesticides used to feed more people than the planet can sustain. Its atmosphere is polluted with ever-increasing carbon dioxide and methane, which is heating the planet and destabilising the climate. Consequently our icecaps are melting, the Gulf Stream is slowing, and our forests’ capacity to absorb carbon is shrinking as forests shrink. As the icecaps melt, arctic permafrost is melting allowing trapped methane to escape....
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Barack Obama wants us to care about the oceans
Einstein used the concept of god objectively
December 24, 2024
Einstein used god in a culture-speak manner. He never referred to a higher being as His God. This article is totally out of order. I guess that's what hardline Christians do best. . .manipulate the words from eminent people and grasp at verbal straws and inflate them, in order to prove a nonsensical claim.
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: A Christmas meditation: ‘Subtle is the Lord’
ABC coverage of the Gaza war
December 24, 2024
Richard Bean’s article summarises well the bias in the ABC’s presentation of the continuing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and Golan Heights. In addition, the obliteration of the people of Gaza is no longer as newsworthy as it once was as the mainstream media move on to Syria and Christmas time trivia, again failing to give proper coverage to Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and Syria and the appropriation of Syrian territory. I no longer watch ABC discussion and news reporting of Palestine as it invariably involves no hard-hitting critique of the slaughter of innocent...
Bob Pokrant from Fremantle
In response to: Palestinian voices silenced: 14 months of ABC’s RN Breakfast Coverage
Spare us this
December 24, 2024
What an appalling ramble from Bill Kelty. I'll mention only four points. 1. The environment, climate change and Indigenous rights are big issues for the future. No. They were issues decades and more ago. If they're not issues for now, there will be no future. 2. No mention of excess salaries and rapidly rising company profits. These come at the expense of workers. A fair day's pay comes before excessive executive salaries and dividends. Tax reform is essential. We need to check our greed. 3. AUKUS – what about Australia's lack of sovereignty? We must examine...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Best of 2024: The Labor Party has lost its way
Converting us to a better world
December 24, 2024
Three cheers for John Frew!!! Is there anything in our troubled world that hasn't got some form of greed at its base? Why are Gina Rinehart and Rupert Murdoch never satisfied? (How sad are they?!) You really can't pay tax on the balance above $3m (or whatever it is) on your super? So someone can eat? How long do you think you're going to live that you need all that? You need how many toilets for a family of four? I could go on and on and on and on and ..... People say...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Reframing wealth: A stark disconnect between wealth and poverty
Opportunity cost of AUKUS
December 24, 2024
AUKUS at $368 billion (and like all military projects it will probably double) has then an opportunity cost of around one million houses, or 12,000 primary schools or 4000 secondary schools, or 400,000 hospital beds. Puts it into sharp perspective. All for a phantom threat.
John Queripel from Kotara NSW
In response to: Reframing wealth: A stark disconnect between wealth and poverty
Trashing of reputation of institutions
December 23, 2024
Well-regarded independent institutions, which provide medical services and food aid at risk to themselves, have had their reputations trashed and labelled as antisemitic for reporting what they are dealing with. Anyone with the most basic knowledge of data collection must have some Idea of how one-sided the conflict is and make some comparison to the evil regimes that have been in the past.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: no-longer-possible-to-defend-the-slaughter-of-over-40000
More 'whys' for Angela
December 23, 2024
Angela Smith's whys should be necessary reading for every self-respecting journalist. But there is an important why not mentioned in Angela's article. Israel's occupation of much Palestinian territory is illegal under international law. Just look at the many resolutions passed by the UN that have simply been ignored by Israel. The Israeli argument that it is allowed to defend itself against Palestinian attacks. But in fact this is not the case here. How can a country justify relying on self-defence when it is illegally occupying Palestinian lands? One would think that Palestine is perfectly within its rights to...
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Reporting on a genocide: Questions for the legacy media
Climate change: who really cares ?
December 23, 2024
Climate change. Just another headline, just another diversionary rant for our politicians, just another look at me moment at some overseas climate convention. When there were still borders in Europe, I was stopped to get my passport stamped and the border guard asked me to turn off my car because of the pollution. Here we are years later driving bigger petrol guzzling resource wasting monster twin cab/cars than ever, we park by the side of the road with motors running for the air conditioning, texting on our phones. The sale of EVs are at best stagnant, no tax advantage...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: is-humanitys-destiny-wintons-dystopian-world/
No man is an Island
December 23, 2024
Dr Geoff Davies asks “What are the five most precious things in my life?” Whatever the answers, all hinge on our willingness to see ourselves not as atomised, self-sufficient (and possibly selfish) entities, but part of a society. Sixteenth century poet John Donne, in ‘No Man is an Island’, wrote: “If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less”. The poet could not have foreseen 21st century sea level rise but the principle holds: some may prefer to think we are insulated from the consequences of climate change. However, the prospect of, say, vastly increasing...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Barrack Obama wants us to care about the oceans