Many of you would have heard P&I publisher, founder and editor-in-chief John Menadue in conversation with David Marr on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live last Wednesday evening. If not you can catch it any time. We will publish a transcript.

In a wide-ranging and energetic discussion, John covered much territory – from the Vietnam War, his days as secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, with Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, his days running News Limited and later Qantas, as ambassador to Japan and more. When pressed to nominate highlights over a distinguished and multifaceted career, he nominated two: finally seeing off the White Australia policy, and establishing Pearls and Irritations. We are very fortunate that a man of John’s calibre and wit decided to dedicate his 80s and 90s to another round of public service, serving P&I readers.

There are so many things to like in the conversation; my favourite part was midway through.

Asked if he retained a fundamental faith in persuasion he said: “There’s a lot of ways in which we could despair today. But I hope I’ve kept the passion … and the determination to correct and reform what I see. …. I remain optimistic. I’m not going to despair. … I could keep raging about the dying of the light, but hopefully I can age gracefully … and give way, and encouragement to people who will take my place.”

As David said, John is not planning to go anywhere, and is certainly not retiring. His determination that things can get better, and that we all have a duty to pursue that end, runs through all we do at P&I and will continue to do so.

Many P&I readers attended rallies for Palestine in over 40 Australian cities on Sunday, with huge turnouts. I was in Melbourne, where Nine News estimated 100,000 hit the streets. The diverse and unified crowd made it very clear that Australia should take the strongest possible action, including imposing sanctions on Israel.

On Saturday, John Warhurst took us on a journey through what the Catholic church is doing and not doing on Gaza, and Kate McGeorge discussed the rare political attributes of patience, listening and deep thinking, and noted them as a sign of political maturity in our prime minister.

This morning, Greg Barns asks why we are not leaping to the defence of the prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Court in the face of serious threats.

Until next week.