October 26, 2021

US continues pursuit of Assange, and Canberra neglects its moral obligation to protect him

Surely the Australian government should leverage the AUKUS pact to save Julian Assange from the US government.

December 21, 2024

The Australo-German conundrum

Australia and Germany are quite literally a world apart, and expecting to find many parallels between the two countries might appear counter-intuitive. But as secondary powers in the Anglo-American sphere of influence, many of the resulting challenges the two nations face are indeed identical. Most significantly, the severe curtailment of national sovereignty by a foreign power.

December 12, 2024

AUKUS is an intergenerational disaster. It will cause long term detriment to Australia's security

Australia is a part of a hostile military alliance directed at China. “Interoperability” or “interchangeability” means we’re now a US pawn, tied to its coattails. So that’s the job of every Australian: push for more information, keep talking about why AUKUS is an utter disaster and why it commits us to a costly and dangerous trajectory.

January 18, 2024

In Gaza, the West is enabling the most transparent genocide in human history

This is extraordinary because the states supporting Israel, above all the United States, have claimed the high moral and legal ground and lectured the states of the Global South about the importance of the rule of law.

December 8, 2022

Labor's Chris Minns fails tests of principle and courage on Violet Coco and Shaoquett Moselmane

The treatment of Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, a staunch supporter of the Chinese community and of Palestinians, and the sentencing of environmental protester Deanna Violet Coco to fifteen months in jail and refusal of bail have been tests of principle and of courage in public life. NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has failed the test.

October 1, 2022

Death penalty: Singapore's ongoing killing spree

Singapore continues to risk its reputation as leader in arbitration in the region through its use of the death penalty, primarily, for minor drug offences. This goes against the overwhelming global trend towards abolition of the death penalty and tarnishes Singapores reputation as a jurisdiction committed to upholding fair trial guarantees.

March 18, 2022

China's Ukraine dilemma

China has clearly been vacillating about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, abstaining from votes in the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly and in various public pronouncements avoiding any reference to war or invasion.

January 26, 2022

The US-funded 'think tank' pushing Australia towards war

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is irrationally hostile towards China and has unprecedented influence over Australian defence policy.

November 9, 2021

The French disconnection: Australia's dysfunctional diplomacy

The alarming deterioration of relations between French leader Emmanuel Macron and Scott Morrison was driven by arrogance and ignorance on the Australian side.

March 13, 2025

Catriona Jackson appointed editor of Pearls and Irritations

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Catriona Jackson as the editor of Pearls and Irritations from 17 March.

January 18, 2025

Gaza ceasefire, the missing pieces

Palestinians and Israelis are breathing sighs of relief that after fifteen months of killing, famine, torture and destruction across Gaza, the Israeli Netanyahu government and representatives of Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire.

November 28, 2024

Australia: The epicentre of US power projection in the Indo Pacific

Australia has willingly become the “epicentre of the projection of US power in the Indo-Pacific”. It does not make Australia safer. It makes Australia the epicentre for any retaliation to that projection of power.

March 13, 2024

Webs and deceit: The politics of AUKUS

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!

February 22, 2024

A letter to Julian Assange

Dear Julian, Were holding you in our hearts. I had a strong dream about you recently. It was clear and simple. You were free; walking in the streets of Melbourne. It was lunchtime on a sunny day. You were happy and relaxed and all passers by were friendly and glad to see you. May this dream come true. I sense that it will.

January 7, 2024

We are being groomed for war with China

Orchestrated components are coming together to enable the US to recruit Australia in future wars of choice. Our media must begin to ask questions about the crude but successful ways the Australian people are being groomed to provide passive or enthusiastic consent.

March 24, 2023

Insanity: governments betray what climate science demands

No one knows what was on the mind of Labour leaders discussing emission limits while approving near one hundred new coal mines and gas wells, thus betraying future generations and eroding the life support systems of the planet.

March 8, 2023

Understanding the Austral-Americans

Embedded within the foreign policy debate in Australia is the claim that an epochal shift of Copernican significance is underway. So disturbing is this transformation in world politics seemingly from light to darkness, from joy to woe that its troubling possibilities have dissolved the sense of national self.

February 27, 2023

Richard Marles and the betrayal of Australian sovereignty

Its clear that Australian sovereignty is being seriously, perhaps fatally, imperilled by the policies of successive Australian governments populated by Australians with divided loyalties.

January 5, 2023

Acquiring B-21s to attack Chinese Pacific bases ignores strategic reality

B-21s for Australia? Not on the basis of defending against a Chinese base in Australias nearer region.

Defence policy often proceeds under a number of heroic and muddled assumptions. Most likely, the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) will also. These must be tested.

November 1, 2022

Undue Influence: Defence a tangle of overlapping interests

The federal governments secret hiring from 2015 of numerous former US Navy officials to advise on Australias submarine procurement was exposed by The Washington Post a fortnight ago.

March 25, 2022

In Asian Media: Imran Khan hits turbulent point in Pakistan politics

In Asia Media: Blinken draws an admission from Myanmar; US has big problem in India; food security a looming concern; South Korea logs a sad COVID record; and HK food goes back to basics

November 22, 2021

Derring-do Dan: Victoria's decent 'dictator' should take back the initiative

The premier could turn the tables on critics by demanding explanations about the Morrison government’s favouring of NSW and other pandemic missteps.

January 18, 2021

Murdoch son raps media for toxic politics (Financial Times, Jan 18, 2020)

James Murdoch has castigated the US media for the toxic politics threatening American democracy, saying proprietors are as culpable as politicians who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies.

February 10, 2025

Renewed US-China tensions are trouble for Australia’s economy

Trump 2.0 is in full swing, and tariffs are emerging again as a policy of choice for the president. Trump has imposed or threatened tariffs against all of the US’s top trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.

January 9, 2025

American-Israeli bombs destroy Australian food aid in Gaza

Last Sunday, (5 January) an American-Israeli guided missile deliberately attacked and destroyed an Australian-funded food aid storage facility in the area of Deir al-Balah in Gaza. It is, in effect, an attack on Australia. Where is the government’s condemnation?

December 15, 2024

The dismemberment of Syria is a crime

What we are witnessing is not just the end of a regime but quite possibly the destruction of the Syrian state. We are being told by the Western media that we should join Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden and the Europeans in celebrating what risks being the creation of yet another failed state in the Middle East/West Asia.

November 10, 2024

They will never return

I keep thinking Thinking about Palestinians People who have lost their lives Now tens if not hundreds of thousands

November 5, 2024

The BRICS Summit should mark the end of neocon delusions

Simply put, the majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony, and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates.

February 20, 2024

The COP and climate change: a spent force

The latest update by the ANUs Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions has issued another frank, distressing prognosis. Professor Howden a vice chair of the IPCC and director of the ANU Institute warns that the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is not going to deliver global temperatures under 1.5C.

October 13, 2023

Dark money is distorting the Voice debate

The Voice campaign has revealed how much Dark Money is distorting our political debates. But will proposed reforms of money in politics crush the independents?

March 21, 2023

Marles... At least get the spin on the subs right!

As the Government seeks to respond to an increasing number of questions about what it extolls as the game-changing decision to purchase nuclear powered submarines (SSNs) it has been tweaking the spin about the reasons it has taken for this budget shaking decision.

March 20, 2023

Albanese a pale shadow of Keating, even on subs

Paul Keating did all Australians, and all the world, an important favour over the past week.

November 7, 2021

The case for an Australian heroin trial: strong then, even stronger now

Australia once declined the opportunity to take a fresh, effective tack against heroin addiction. We should not lose a second chance.

November 3, 2021

Why the 'war on drugs' and law enforcement is ultimately futile

A national drug policy based heavily on attempts to interrupt supply has been an expensive failure and urgently needs reform.

February 26, 2025

Cultural McCarthyism in Australia: The new battleground for artistic freedom

McCarthyism — the infamous anti-communist witch hunt of the 1950s — is thought of as a dark chapter in American history, where accusations alone could destroy careers, reputations, and entire artistic movements. Figures such as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, playwright Lillian Hellman, and actor John Garfield saw their careers derailed, with many blacklisted from the industry. That frightening era is upon us again with elements of the pro-Israel lobby and governments working over weak cultural institutions such as Creative Australia to ban artists.

January 22, 2025

A five-minute scroll

A new day in the world. Israel rewrites history by criminalising the truth of events of October 7, 2023. In the US, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivers a sermon for the ages to the new President, whose thoughts on Gaza were recorded from the Oval Office. Meanwhile Australia’s media is called out for its lack of balance.

February 12, 2024

2024 Election: Indonesias Prabowo will not rule in anyones shadow

On 14 February, Indonesia holds simultaneous elections for the presidency and national and regional legislatures. The runes suggest the current Defence Minister, Prabowo Subianto is on track to be the next President. He will not be boring.

February 8, 2024

Gaza and the future of the Two-State Solution

There can be no meaningful peace without full recognition of Palestinian sovereignty. Only new leadership and new vision, on both sides, will help.

January 27, 2024

Doomsday clock stays at 90 seconds to midnight: Still poised on the brink, closer than we've ever been

Nuclear risk reduction, abolition, more, urgent than ever.

November 18, 2023

Environment: NASA climate scientist criticises colleagues reluctance to agitate

James Hansen claims that climate scientists have been too slow to ring the alarm bells. Not so, says Michael Mann. International climate treaties are booming post-Paris. Putting trousers on a starfish.

February 14, 2023

Asylum Seeker policy: compromise has finally led to decency

Six years ago, John Menadue, Robert Manne, Tim Costello and I agreed that Australias refugee and asylum seeker policy was in a complete mess. The trouble started with the 2013 election campaign when Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott tried to outdo each other, pledging that the boats would be stopped and that anyone headed for Australia without a visa would never be permitted to settle here.

January 4, 2023

Does the Taiwan issue have to be a mnage trois?

The rising tension over Taiwan is not the making of either of the two Chinese parties to the dispute. After all, the fundamental problem has been the same since its inception. It was an unfinished civil war between two political factions, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, over control of the country after World War II. Matters became more complicated when the United States decided to involve itself in the conflict.

December 10, 2022

Environment: No reasonable prospect of keeping 1.5 alive

Not one of over 1200 computer simulations provides a reasonable chance of global warming being under 1.5oC in 2100. Climate protester jailed for 15 months in NSW.

November 18, 2022

Hung Parliament on the cards in Malaysian election?

Malaysia goes to the polls on Saturday 19 November after two years of political turmoil that has seen two governments and three Prime Ministers fall.

November 5, 2022

Whats next for Xis China?

The Western media have done Xi a great favour: they have bestowed upon him low expectations. Many Western observers, including thoughtful ones, believe that the great China growth story is over, because China is now ruled by an incompetent and isolated leader. Xi will shatter their expectations.

October 31, 2022

War crimes whistleblower McBride faces life sentence: Must watch interview!

Last week, the moral fibre of Australias political and judicial system was put to its latest test when war crimes whistleblower David McBride was put on trial. He faces up to 50 years in prison. Watch McBride tell his remarkable story here.

October 16, 2022

US promoting nuclear war anxiety to extend scope of government

In the late 1960s I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. It was a time of strong anti-war sentiment among students opposed the war in Vietnam.

January 12, 2025

After the Trump inauguration

American presidential inaugurations traditionally nurture a sense of unity, pride and aspiration — drawing on the quality of American oratory brought to mind by John Kennedy and Barack Obama — that causes emotions to soar.

December 5, 2024

Survival of a people: Threats to Palestine’s existence as Israel kills 45,000

Israeli leaders insist that all the people of Gaza are Hamas. In the same breath, Prime Minister Netanyahu boasts that victory in his war depends on the complete annihilation of Hamas, by which he presumably means a whole people?

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal