October 8, 2022

Nuclear testing and colonisation explain Pacific Island Nations alignment with China

Pacific Island Nations encompass many countries in regions we know as Melanesia, literally, the Black Islands, from Papua New Guinea to New Caledonia, apparently so named because the inhabitants were darker skinned! Micronesia, which extends from the Philippines to Hawaii and Polynesia, geographically further south and extending to New Zealand.

January 26, 2022

It's a tough road, but minor players look like having a major role in 2022 poll

Independents are running strong at this year’s federal election, putting a hung parliament into play. The challenges they face for a successful candidacy remain high, however.

November 19, 2021

Juukan Gorge: an avoidable disaster that must never happen again

The destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites by Rio Tinto was an egregious example of how heritage protection laws have shortchanged Indigenous peoples.

April 2, 2025

Cowardly politics is robbing our children blind. It’s time to be brave

We find ourselves in an election campaign framed by immediate cost-of-living issues, with the principal contenders pandering to an electorate they believe to be interested in nothing else._

November 22, 2024

The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds...

From atop Mount Olympus, Zeus peers in perplexity through fumes of fire, dust and vehicle exhaust, toxic chemicals, roiling tempests and raging floods, idly wondering what those darned mortals are up to now…

November 17, 2022

Xi is no longer Dr Fu Manchu?

After the meeting between Xi and Albanese, we will need patient diplomacy well away from the megaphone and from vested interests in defence industries. China is here to stay and love it or hate it we must learn to live with it. The present government is looking more like it understands this.

March 3, 2022

Pope Francis is 85. Insiders are already thinking about the future leader of Catholicisms 1.34 billion adherents

If it reaches a deadlock someone from left field might emerge. But here are my tips.

February 27, 2022

Putin may be executing NATO's 1999 playbook, not Hitler's from the 1930's

The brutal reality is NATO played hardball, won in the short term but now finds itself at the receiving end as Putin decides its payback time.

February 6, 2022

Morrison pins his hopes on the complacency or ignorance of voters

We’re facing a climate calamity, yet the PM believes Australians are more focused on the next holiday than threats to their children’s future.

February 4, 2022

New variant plus our Covid-weariness frustrates pandemic control

It’s hardly surprising that a new variant has been detected in more than 55 countries, given only how little of poor countries’ populations have been vaccinated.

February 21, 2024

Podcast: The Tragedy of Gaza

John Menadue, Editor-in-Chief of Pearls and Irritations interviews former Australian Senator Margaret Reynolds on the role of the United Nations, Australian foreign policy and the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.

November 29, 2022

Defence procurement is rotten to the core: Its time for a Royal Commission

While the Robodebt fiasco is important and warrants a full scale inquiry, it is minor compared to the shocking report outlined by the Government on defence projects. The question therefore begs: are there similar or worst stories hiding in the Department of Defence?

October 26, 2022

Stan Grant and China knowledge: how do we measure up?

Stan Grants recent article on China demonstrates that our medias knowledge of China is less than adequate. We do not need to say anything about the other self-described China experts in the Australian media who are far less qualified.

January 12, 2022

Wrong way, go back: Covid response is now one of our worst policy failures

If relaxing health restrictions, even as Omicron was spreading, was designed to boost the economy, this is an own-goal for the history books.

March 28, 2024

What does Gaza stand for?

The unreasonable delay by the United States in supporting calls for a ceasefire has resulted in thousands of needless deaths that could have been prevented by a simple US vote. This obstructionism and the lack of leadership is an eternal shame for a country that purports to claim moral leadership and respect for the international rules based order.

March 23, 2024

Gaza is the holocaust reborn

Gaza now resembles Berlin at the end of WW2. A bombed out ruin, littered with the decomposing bodies of innocent civilians, entombed in the rubble of their homes. The way is now cleared for Israel to take possession of all of Gaza. To forever banish the Palestinians from their traditional homeland. And the world watches on with little more than dispassionate interest. For Israel, founded by victims of the holocaust, how the worm has turned.

March 14, 2024

AUKUS: risks, risks and more risks

Instead of actually engaging in measures to promote peace, the AUKUS governments are feeding us a racist notion that three Anglo nations targeting China from thousands of kilometres away are needed to ensure it.

January 24, 2024

Hamas account of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: In their own words

Western readers will be familiar with the Israeli Governments account of the attacks by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis. They will also be familiar with the Israeli governments response that has now killed over 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza. On January 19th, 2024, Hamas released their public account of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the events that followed. It is reproduced below:

January 19, 2024

False flag: Asian NATO under a new guise

The United Nations Command provides the US with the perfect camouflaged vehicle for a global military alliance against China and North Korea.

January 7, 2024

Israels genocide betrays the Holocaust

If we forget the lessons of the Holocaust, we forget who we are and what we are capable of becoming.

December 17, 2023

A fatal blow for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

The latest Japanese political scandal involving at least four top government ministers and numerous junior officials is widely seen as a fatal blow to the prime minister Fumio Kishida already dogged by a weak image and record low popularity polls.

December 11, 2023

No peace to keep: outsiders cannot drive an end to the occupation

Some years ago I reached the conclusion, reluctantly, that there was no longer a realistic prospect of achieving a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

November 25, 2023

The Rabbi and Corporal Hijack

I met Rabbi Kurt Stone on a bus trip in Europe in 1985, when I was immediately struck by his journalistic pedigree - he covered the Patty Hearst arrests live on radio from underneath a car as bullets flew above.

December 29, 2022

A night with the Vice Chancellors the export of education services. A repost from June 19, 2015

In 2015, education services earned an export income for Australia of over $16 b. p.a. Those export services were expected to increase to $31 b. p.a. by 2020 from about 600,000 overseas students. Education was our fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. It is our major services export, ahead of tourism.

November 12, 2022

Environment: COP meetings keep happening; emissions keep rising

Four reports and Greta Thunberg highlight the failure of 30 years of COP meetings to slow climate change.

November 4, 2022

Familiar and surreptitious ways to war

We have recently learned that Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton secretly installed senior US military officers in Australias Defence Department, at taxpayers’ vast expense, and it appears that the present Government is complicit in perpetuating this arrangement.

November 21, 2021

Liberals fear-mongering wont be effective: former Australian diplomat

_The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade claims that it “promotes and protects Australia’s international interests to support our security and prosperity.” I believe it has failed in this objective.

February 24, 2025

Australian liquid fuel security risks and the role of transport electrification

Air Vice Marshal John Blackburn RAAF (retired) noted in his 2014 report on fuel security that Australia only had sufficient stores to supply service stations and hospital pharmacies for three days, retail pharmacies and chilled/frozen goods transport for seven and dried goods for eight. The social and economic consequences of such a collapse in our public and private road transport would be profound and pervasive.

February 12, 2025

An open letter to ABC chairman Kim Williams

Dear Mr Williams, In June 2024, on assuming the chair of the ABC, you expressed a desire to see the organisation develop a clearer sense of purpose aligned with its charter and, having gained clarity about its purpose, it should seek to understand how that purpose can be embodied in its offerings.

December 4, 2024

Absent justice: Australia’s Afghanistan war crimes investigations thin out

Small to middle-sized states often crow at undertaking what are vulgarly described as “world firsts”. Australia is certainly one of them, with governments and news outlets keen to announce on a weekly basis that something never previously done has been initiated, implemented, or discovered. A closer inspection shows such declarations to be premature.

December 21, 2023

Abject failure: COP28 is sealing the globe into climate armageddon

Chris Bowen would have us believe that actually mentioning the words fossil fuels and a transition away from them was a turning point in the history of COP negotiations. What is he smoking?

November 13, 2022

Nine Network perpetuates tired, politicised, militaristic discourse on refugees

As Principal Solicitor at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, my team and I meet people seeking asylum every day. We see their suffering as they struggle to access basic rights in an intimidating and often hostile system, and we see the effect on them of vilification and exclusion in public discourse.

October 10, 2022

US revives Monroe Doctrine to provoke China, defend hegemonism

After the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan on August 2, 2022, her compatriots continued to stoke regional tensions. They have sought to provoke China at every opportunity, hoping to trigger a response. Whereas their rhetoric has been inflammatory, their hypocrisy has been blatant.

October 9, 2022

Western anti-China rhetoric reeks of hypocrisy

The direction from whence comes most of the anti-China rhetoric in the world today is hardly surprising. It reeks of hypocrisy.

January 17, 2022

Intolerance and political violence: a threat to US, and a worry for Australia

Biden could be succeeded by a democratically elected illiberal administration beholden to violent and bizarre supporters.

March 25, 2024

Letter to Penny Wong - Australian Jewish Democratic Society: sanctions on Israel

Countless numbers of Gazans are facing or dying from famine, while Israel continues to make extreme statements and settler violence against Palestinians continues. There is outrage in the Australian community about Israels actions. It is time for Australia to act on its severe concerns. The AJDS calls for the Australian Government to ban the importation of Israeli goods and services from the Occupied Territories and to cancel the contract for the purchase of $900 million of Elbit systems for Hanwha Defence Australia. These actions would send a clear message to the Israeli government while not threatening its security.

February 15, 2024

Does closing the loopholes matter?

Three big things have happened with the passage of the_second half of the Closing Loopholes Bill_ through Federal Parliament on Monday.

December 30, 2023

India bids to guard its reputation as elections loom

Increasingly, organs of the state are used to harass critics of the government.

November 4, 2023

Environment: Plant trees but not to halt climate change

Lots of good reasons to plant trees but stopping climate change isnt one. Krill abundant but not for long unless we change our ways. Fossil fuels cause conflict and always have.

October 20, 2023

Australia has shown itself to be a selfish nation that lacks empathy

As an Australian with First Nations and coloniser blood running through my veins, Ive always believed in the promise of a fair and just Australia, one that can celebrate our 65,000 years of history, reconcile our colonial past and build a better future for all. But the Voice referendum has cast a shadow on that vision. It has revealed a darker side of our nation one driven by selfishness and fear. And one where we allow ourselves to be sucked in by misinformation and social media algorithms.

December 30, 2022

Best of 2022: Defence Strategic Review - Read all about it

According to the terms of reference Defence Security Review is now required to ensure that Defence has the right capabilities that are postured to meet the growing strategic challenges that Australia and its partner countries will face in the world in coming years.

March 31, 2025

The Sisyphean task of the Royal Australian Navy to maintain and operate the submarine capability

How will the Royal Australian Navy, the federal government, and the Australian defence industrial base support three submarine classes concurrently: the Collins Class life of type extension (LOTE), the Virginia class sustainment support, and the design and construction of the AUKUS Class nuclear-powered submarines? My assessment, this is an insoluble task.

October 21, 2024

Sanitising genocide

The Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) has just published “ The Most Moral Army”- an excoriating review of Israel’s continuous reliance on deceitful medical imagery to disinfect its horrific abuse of power in Gaza.

October 6, 2024

Is Arctic methane stoking the climate crisis?

The vast wildfires now ravaging the world’s northernmost regions herald rising danger for all humanity, no matter where we live.

December 28, 2023

China's EV boom has caught Japan, South Korea and Germany asleep at the wheel!

China will need Australian iron ore and coking coal for its booming EV industry.

March 2, 2023

The ninth anniversary of the Ukraine war

We are not at the 1-year anniversary of the war, as the Western governments and media claim. This is the 9-year anniversary of the war. And that makes a big difference.

January 30, 2023

Japan failed peace state?

A little over 75 years ago, a Japan-designed Asia-Pacific community collapsed, leaving not only Japan itself but much of the region in chaos, millions dead, cities in ruins.

January 19, 2022

Djokovic case highlights need for change in how we check vaccination status

With international travel ramping up, changes to passenger visa checks should already be in place and could’ve prevented the Djokovic debacle.

January 25, 2025

Reality hits home: “Ukraine is running out of Ukrainians,” says US Secretary of State

Back at the very start of the war retired US Ambassador Chas Freeman, an eloquent critic of many aspects of his government’s international conduct, warned that the US was prepared “to fight to the last Ukrainian”. Some want to prove him right. Others want to save the remaining young men of Ukraine.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal