May 4, 2021

India's Coronavirus emergency tells a story poorly understood

The blanket and punitive travel ban for Australians returning from India is neither justified, nor does it make much sense in the efforts to curb the spreading of the virus. The Indian Coronavirus emergency is also raising many questions of the policies imposed around the world during the pandemic.

January 25, 2021

Fundamental purpose of superannuation is to provide adequate retirement incomes, not finance bequests

The priority for retirement incomes policy is to ensure that retirement savings are used efficiently to generate an adequate income. Until this occurs, there should be no change in the legislated increases in the compulsory superannuation guarantee contribution rate.

January 21, 2021

Ideology triumphs over evidence: Morrison government drops the ball on banking reform

Weakening responsible lending laws is a bad look for the federal government. It has the hallmarks of political opportunism, with Morrison and Frydenberg using the Covid crisis to be a friend of business at the expense of consumers.

January 6, 2021

Ian Robinson: Changing one word doesnt fix the National Anthem but makes it worse

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is deluded if he thinks changing one word can fix our deeply flawed National Anthem. There are too many things wrong with it. Tinkering around the edges cannot save something that is rotten at the core.

December 22, 2020

WikiLeaks as a resistance to the US or any empire

In all liberal democracies, Australia included, national self-regard resists identification with the harsh implications of reliance on, or celebration of, military force unless it can be viably represented as defence of freedom, just war, or wars against unspeakable Others.

November 29, 2020

Is Morrison finally nearing the tipping point on climate?

He would rather forego his parliamentary pension than admit it, but our prime minister is unobtrusively softening his hardline stance on climate change.

November 15, 2020

Ministers at a very public bar

In the old days, no one called parliament house a toxic bubble. The more usual term was a smorgasbord, a sumptuous spread provided by the men hoping to get their ends in, which meant almost all of them.

October 12, 2020

Why Was Immigration Compliance Activity Tanking Pre-Covid?

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and his Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo are well known for their gratuitous cruelty. But does that mean they have been effective at maintaining immigration compliance and control?

August 27, 2024

How China moved from a command to a free market economy and is now restoring socialism

This short history of China over the last three decades is mainly based on the first of a three part series in the SCMP. It describes how the adoption of neo-liberalism by President Deng made China rich but also created social problems that President Xi is trying to fix.

July 18, 2024

UNRWA must not be criminalised by the Israeli Parliament

The conflict in Gaza has created both a humanitarian crisis and a public health emergency. Both are still worsening. Yet despite this, Israel is moving to declare UNRWA (United Nations Relief Work Agency) a terrorist organisation. This would massively reduce the ability of UNRWA to deliver (already totally inadequate) food, health care and shelter to the starving people of Gaza.

May 19, 2024

Environment: CO2 emissions still increasing

CO2 emissions continued to increase in 2023 with now little chance of global warming staying under 1.5oC. Planting trees is part of the solution but only in the longer term. Even Hollywood is getting the message.

May 1, 2024

The Albanese government needs to come clean on its support for Israel's war crimes

Israel’s crimes against humanity, war crimes and its acts of genocide against the Palestinian people are, without a doubt, the most horrific acts committed by a ‘democracy’ since the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. Yet despite this fact the Australian government refuses to warn or investigate whether any Australian citizens or companies are involved directly or indirectly, in the commission of these atrocities.

September 17, 2023

The China Threat: Can we escape the historical legacy of Anti-Chinese Racism?

How ironic that mainstream newspapers and conservative commentators should lambast former prime minister Paul Keating for living in the past when he denounced the AUKUS agreement and the Labor governments fulsome support of it. It was, of course, the AUKUS agreement itself, entered into by Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden in 2022, that was the real blast from the past. Their declared solidarity in confronting what they defined as Chinese assertiveness echoed white mens defensive transnational identifications of more than 120 years ago when first faced with the rise of Asia.

September 1, 2022

Pakistan floods -The wealthy pollute the world and the poor suffer

_Global capitalism is a giant poverty producing machine, masterful in its methods of pitting the poor against the very poor or flinging crumbs to the wretched so that they dissipate their energy fighting one another.

June 26, 2022

A good ally is not a faithful well-armed dog but a thoughtful calm advisor reflecting its own national interests

_As the Australian prime minister heads for the Nato summit in Madrid on 29-30 June, there is churn in the global strategic situation. The Albanese government has thus far taken strongly supportive positions towards US policy in both Asia and Ukraine. We are supporting flawed postures.

May 5, 2022

If I were the minister for the public service in a new government

Improving the capability of the APS, and making best use of it, is the responsibility of all ministers with the Prime Minister being responsible for setting the overall climate.

April 25, 2021

Technology not taxes is a slogan not a policy

True to form, Scotty from marketing has given us a slogan trumpeting technology not taxes and not a real policy for dealing with climate change.

January 2, 2021

US allies may tempt fate in South China Sea

China is feeling increasingly cornered–both politically and militarily in the South China Sea. The presence of US allies navies and in particular the joining of US FONOPs there will exacerbate that sense of desperation and perhaps prompt a kinetic response from China. They need to weigh carefully the consequences of tempting fate in the South China Sea.

December 16, 2020

Bad Gig: industrial relations reform bill delivers flexibility for employers

When one-third of casuals work full-time hours, almost 60% have been with their employer for more than a year, and more than half cannot choose the days they work, is the flexibility of a casual job really for the benefit of employees?

December 7, 2020

The failing pursuit of school success in NSW

Yes, it was announced in a Sunday newspaper, but this is serious: The NSW Department of Education will intervene in public schools that fail to meet performance targets in priority areas such as HSC and NAPLAN results, and other measures of success.

December 16, 2019

OSCAR ROMERO. Advent Readings from a Modern Martyr

The whole person must be saved: body and soul, individual and society.

June 27, 2024

The sun sets on the American empire: the perils of containment

Much water has flown under the bridge since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the collapse of communism, and America’s triumphalist proclamation of a new world order. Three decades later America’s global dominance is under challenge as never before.

May 14, 2024

Labor’s Future Gas Strategy: The greatest capitulation of any Australian government to the fossil fuel industry

Australians should be clear that the “Future Gas Strategy” released last week is not in the national interest. It represents the greatest capitulation of any Australian government to the demands of the fossil fuel industry.

May 7, 2024

"Malicious government": One Israeli citizen’s journey after 7 October

What follows is the end of a journey by one citizen of Israel - a retired high-ranking IDF officer - who has had his view of the world vastly altered by events since October 7.

July 26, 2023

The long hand of history: Political Polarisation in the US- Part 2

We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government, everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrats traitorous America Last policies, we are done. So said Marjorie Taylor Greene in a tweet in February this year. Greene is a Republican Member of Congress and could be running mate for Donald Trump.

May 30, 2023

Mainstream media need to focus on peace

The fact that Australia is sleepwalking towards a catastrophic war against China has received very welcome and responsible coverage in Pearls and Irritations and other non-mainstream media. The head-in-the-sand stance adopted by much of the mainstream media stands in stark contrast. The most recent example of the latter was a 15-page supplement in The Canberra Times (CT) on 17 May Our Next Steps, on the Defence Strategic Review. It was a most shameful collection of war-mongering articles and images.

July 31, 2022

Teal is important but blood red international issues are dangerously neglected

The Whitlam Government took office with public support for fundamental changes in our approach to our region, to embrace reality. The Albanese government is tangled in the neocon skirts of Morrison and Dutton.

September 13, 2021

Go hard, go early. But the PM prefers a go slow on key issues

The Treasury advice to government at the time of the Global Financial Crisis was to go hard, go early with counter-measures, and that has since become an accepted model when confronted with an unexpected, major, crisis.

August 30, 2021

Who cares what the focus groups say?

As we brace ourselves for a looming federal election campaign, its likely were going to be treated to another unedifying demonstration of why politics should not be treated like the marketing of commercial brands.

October 20, 2020

COVID 19 and the transformation of Victoria - Part 1

As Melbournians waited with bated and unbated breath for the announcement last Sunday about relief from the Stage Four lockdown, the pressure that has been increasing dramatically for the past month has eased. Will a new normal be reached?

February 26, 2020

MICHAEL KEATING. How good is the labour market?

_The Australian economy has been stagnating for the last five years, with annual GDP growth averaging only 2 per cent, and only 1 per cent for the last four quarters ending last September.

September 16, 2024

Sudan’s nightmare: 150,000 civilians killed

UN estimates suggest 2.5 million people will die by the end of 2024 and six million by 2027. World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on the world to “wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through”.

September 3, 2024

Stewards should have an early look at this roughie racehorse

We can all be grateful that the acting auditor general Rona Mellor has decided to take at least a sideways glance into Commonwealth speculation, alongside a similar bet by the probably outgoing Queensland government, in an American horse in the great quantum computing race. I know nothing to say that there is anything intrinsically dodgy about the “investment,” and it is probably by now a fait accompli. But there are ample warning signs that a lot of bad government thinking is involved, and every prospect that Albanese’s foolish “picking winners” strategy will produce any number of similar fresh “initiatives” as we approach the next election.

August 15, 2024

The global collapse of parenting and the rise of the device

Over ten years ago, I wrote an article for the Guardian that argued it was time to slay a sacred cow: that the internet is a force for good. Many advised me against writing it, saying it would be read as the views of a laggard, but it became one of the most-read articles published by the Guardian that year.

April 25, 2024

From imperial romance to practical security history

At the levels of public ritual and private observance, the ANZAC narrative is much about processing loss and assuaging grief. But let us recall here its nature as an imperial romance, and what that might mean for our place in the multi-polarity of the current world order?

August 23, 2023

Pat Conroy and the sexuality underpinning AUKUS

The sexual connotation of support for AUKUS should be obvious. An apparent fascination with phallic symbols as large as nuclear submarines, plus language describing how to dominate and penetrate enemies shows notions of security which reflect a top down, masculine interpretation of power.

May 1, 2023

National Defence takes Australia closer to war with China

The 2023 Defence Strategic Review has recommended Australia adopt a new strategic conceptual framework dubbed National Defence that incorporates a strategy of denial. This approach is tied to a broader concept of collective security in the Indo-Pacific and is aligned with Americas framework for integrated deterrence of China. National Defence is consistent with American force structure designs to develop the northern Australian expanse as an increasingly important base of operations for force-projection.

August 19, 2022

U.S.-China fight to lead planet earth will be decided within 15 years

The clock is ticking on which of the two superpowers will gain primacy over the planet a lead which will last indefinitely, becoming unassailable, a stunning new study shows

U.S. leadership over the planet would lead to a colonial model as seen in recent centuries, with the west assertively pushing its values, says a book by a top London geopolitical expert

Chinese leadership will lead to a multipolar world, given Chinas lack of interest in spreading its system of governance to other countries, and preference for trade over militarism.

January 13, 2021

Planting booby traps for Joe Biden in Taiwan

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dying days of Donald Trumps presidency, announced on 9 January that all contact guidelines regulating when and how US officials could interact with their Taiwan counterparts were null and void."

December 28, 2020

Media Manipulation from WWII to today

Theres a place for the rogue journalist who refuses to be manipulated and managed by the military. A place that has been explored extensively by Australian journalist and war correspondent Wilfred Burchett.

September 17, 2024

Kamala still facing electoral college hurdles

Kamala Harris was, to my mind, a clear winner of the first debate between herself and Donald Trump. As things stand, however, I reckon that Trump must be still regarded as the favourite to win a majority of the state electoral college votes, and thus become the next president. I hope I am wrong, but on the evidence as I see it, including regular tasting of a fair sample of American perspectives, this is an election still capable of serious surprises.

September 4, 2024

Will Australia be off to war in the Middle East again?

There is a disturbing void in Australian political debate about the prospects of another regional war in the Middle East.

May 31, 2024

China and US should seize the opportunity of Shangri-La Dialogue for military talks amid tensions

Chinese Minister of National Defence Dong Jun is set to visit Singapore from May 31 to June 2 to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue at the Shangri-La Hotel.

April 17, 2024

Podcast: Herzl's Nightmare — one land, two peoples

Paul Collins interviews former Australian Ambassador to Israel, Peter Rodgers, on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Zionist movement and the creation of the Israeli state, and the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

April 13, 2024

The forgotten Palestinians in Syria

The Syrian Civil War was the longest and most complex geopolitical conflict to emerge out of the Arab Spring, thus creating a complicated legacy for leftist analysts to interrogate. In this interview, exclusive for Counterpunch, former United Nations special rapporteur, and international relations scholar Richard Falk, breaks down Palestine and Syria and the history and politics of that refugee crisis from the left.

September 28, 2022

Defence Strategic Review-Prometheus bound China the constrained superpower

Several contributors to this series have argued that China should not be seen as a military threat to Australia. Their arguments are based on historical, political, and cultural grounds, or all three. Henry Kissinger in his 2011 book On China concluded similarly.

September 23, 2021

With US democracy under threat from within, AUKUS puts Australia in danger

With the AUKUS treaty, Australia may have hitched its fate to a nation soon to be led by people who make Trump seem competent. Britain and Australias democracies are under threat; Americas future is in dire peril.

January 20, 2021

Australian government's refusal to recognise 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winners a stain on decency

On 22 January, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will put nuclear weapons in the same category as other banned inhumane weapons including biologic and chemical weapons, cluster bombs and antipersonnel land mines. This was largely the work of ICAN, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Arms.

January 11, 2021

Trump thuggery exploited political fault lines

Fault lines beneath US politics explain the fragility of democracy and the invasion of the Capitol building. Like a thug armed with high explosives, President Trump exploited each weakness and lit the fuse to guarantee an explosion.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal