January 28, 2023

Pride, power and exorbitant privilege: Theres more to US decline than loss of face

It is not just pride which motivates the US elites fear of China and of multipolarity. Their exorbitant privilege rests on power conferred by hegemony. The struggle of Australia, and countries around the world, to reclaim sovereignty in resistance to that power will be difficult because so much hinges on it.

November 17, 2022

Australias path forward: 50 years of relations with China

Cooperate where we can, disagree where we must. It’s time to start the next 50 years of the Australia-China relationship on a more positive footing. Exactly as our predecessors did in December 1972.

June 12, 2021

This is leadership: Germany bids farewell to Angela Merkel

At a press conference, a female Journalist asked Merkel : We notice that you’re wearing the same suit, dont you have any other? She replied: “I am a government employee and not a model”

March 25, 2021

Good fortune and marketing briefs can't save Morrison from his recent fumblings

Seemingly blessed by that invaluable gift that Machiavelli called fortune, Scott Morrison has overcome significant setbacks to achieve Australias highest office. He overcame his dismissal as CEO of Tourism Australia, the loss of initial preselection for his seat of Cook by 82-8, to oust the pre-selected candidate on the basis of allegations against that person which, according to Wikipedia, proved to be false. Morrison was able to stand back from the Dutton challenge to Turnbull as Prime Minister, but then emerge with the top prize.

April 2, 2025

Pursuing Australia's national interests in a 'Might is Right' world

Less America. More Self-Reliance. More Asia. More Global Engagement.

January 23, 2025

Progressing to Barbarism: dichotomies, language, and media as upholders of genocide

Wearing his clearly marked press vest, and flanked by his older colleagues, 22-year-old former soccer commentator and `accidental journalist’ Abubaker Abed earlier this month i ndicted the negligence and hypocrisy of international media organisations regarding reporting of the genocide in Gaza: `You’ve seen us killed in every possible way. We’ve been immolated, incinerated, dismembered, and disembowelled. And recently we’ve been starving to death. What more ways of killing will it take for you to move and stop the hell inflicted upon us?’

January 8, 2025

The rule of the Oligarchs and Machines is here

Ordinary humanity faces an emerging threat from the combined might of the Human Elites (billionaires and the military-political class) working with perhaps the greatest power the planet has ever seen: artificial intelligence. Their combined might has the potential to totally screw us. Happy New Year everyone.

December 11, 2024

Adass Israel synagogue is not your political football

The Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, Melbourne was firebombed this week in a horrific attack.

March 22, 2024

A prayer for democratic revival in Indonesia

The quick count of Indonesias recent elections indicates the winner is previously disgraced Prabowo. Accusations abound of voting fraud, vote buying, court-rigging, and corruption within the electoral commission, and many friends are despairing of Indonesias retreating democracy. I share that concern, but I can see a potential different interpretation of the facts. My prayer, and an exerted effort by political parties and civil society, Indonesia can revive its democracy in regional elections next November.

January 20, 2024

Division, terrible suffering, and learnings about peacebuilding

Amplified by the terrible sufferings in many places, and by the divided voices, especially as regards Israel/Gaza, we have some learnings about peacebuilding that it might be timely to reflect on. Cease-fire, of course, is just a less vivid way of saying we will stop killing people we dont know.

December 14, 2023

People in Gaza are experiencing a living hell

As the death toll in Gaza from Israels bombardment and siege reaches well over 17,000 people, the Australian Government is slowly and belatedly taking steps towards ending the nightmare for the people there.

December 13, 2023

Death and destruction in Gaza

I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history.

November 13, 2023

A rude awakening: Israel's occupation shaken to the core

In the early hours of that fateful morning, October 7th 2023, the silence was broken by a wake-up call like no other. A group of Palestinian freedom fighters, young men who had never known anything but occupation, siege, and subjugation shook the Israeli Occupation foundations to the core. Like birds of prey, those fighters flew on their motorcycles over the electronic steel fence, breached that same fence on their jeeps and attacked the illegal settlements on the periphery of the besieged Gaza Strip. They killed 1400 people and captured over 200 others. The casualties were a mixture of Israeli soldiers, reservists and, of course, civilians. And the cry for Freedom and basic human dignity reverberated across the land.

October 18, 2023

Advocate of evil: Biden is complicit with Israel

As reported in the New York Times, US President Joe Biden has accepted the summons from his master and will be in Israel to physically manifest his full support for the further enhanced genocidal assault against the people of Gaza which Israel has publicly announced its intention to launch.

February 3, 2023

The new geopolitics

There is universal assent that we are in a period of geopolitical tension and flux. In a rough chronology, 1815-1914 was the era of British hegemony, the not-so-peaceful Pax Britannica.

November 29, 2022

Should WeChat be banned? Australian users say no

Banning WeChat/Weixin would mean cutting Australian users lifeline to China; it would risk further alienating an already alienated community amid the anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia. For non-Chinese WeChat users in Australia, banning the platform would deprive them of individual choice and agency.

December 11, 2021

Australian government must intervene on Julian Assange's behalf

When Australia allows the US’s pursuit of Julian Assange to continue, it tells Australians that it does not care about a free press.

October 27, 2021

The 'independent' think tank that writes its own history!

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s claims of fearless independence ring hollow as foreign governments and corporate entities shower it with money.

February 6, 2025

X-raying the architecture of empire and removing some tumours

Anyone having to deal with the health and human services industries knows how rigidly they are controlled by the Medical Model and its sister act, Compliance Surveillance. What goes unnoticed in this mechanically e-captive state of affairs is that the dominant model of assessing and accrediting the quality of care is only one approach to monitoring “patient outcomes”. There are other ways of checking and reporting on how things are going beyond the objectifying, scientistic, reductionist world of “stats”.

December 2, 2024

Australians are being corralled to take the side of a genocide

“Our [Western] media’s role is not to be a check on power, it’s to regurgitate their lies.” This system of reporting is “mood music to get their genocide done” says Journalist Matt Kennard from the Middle East Eye.

February 9, 2024

Welcome the year of the Dragon!

The Year of the Dragon is bound to be big. Among the twelve zodiac animals that mark the traditional cycle of calendar years, the dragon is the only mythical beast and the most powerful. It stands in marked contrast to the rabbit that will hand over its psychic reign on 10 February. Soothsayers may well emphasise prosperity and good fortune in their forecasts, but most people will not believe them. Those of a scientific cast of mind may discount astrological beliefs as mumbo jumbo, but they certainly affect the expectations of a large proportion of the peoples of East Asia.

January 2, 2024

Amidst horror, the screeching metal of turnstiles haunts our conscience

We tramped along streets of rubble and twisted girders of metal in Gaza these had been a home, a school and even a hospital. From one heap of rubble, a sobbing Granny ran up to me it was winter and bitterly cold. She was camped in a hollow in the bombed out ruin of her family home, where she had been the only survivor from a family of 21 people. She grabbed and hugged me and begged me to tell the world what was happening in Gaza. I made a promise to her that I would.

December 20, 2023

Embracing Palestinian statehood

R. David Harden, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obamas special envoy for Middle East peace, and Larry Garber, who served as the USAID mission director to the West Bank and Gaza have recently penned an article in the New York Times arguing that, to achieve peace and end the war on Gaza, The U.S. Must Embrace Palestinian Statehood Now.

December 3, 2023

The Washington curse

Americas huge role in international affairs is undisputed but one aspect that tends to get overlooked is the way its support of local actors tends to inflame the situation. Indigenous political forces, be they governments or regimes in power, or movements or individuals seeking power, have their own agendas and motivations. If these objectives are compatible with American strategy a relationship can appear advantageous to both sides. Proxy relationships are not confined to the US of course, but America is by far the largest and most aggressive power in the world who else even contemplates fighting a war on two, three or more fronts?

November 19, 2023

Hong Kong and a tale of three museums

Three museums in Hong Kong help us understand the complexity of Hong Kongs past and future and highlight the importance of Asia literacy in Australia.

October 2, 2023

Recognise Palestine now!

Every day that the Australian government delays recognition provides legitimacy for Israels plans to press ahead with the expulsion of Palestinians. Recognise Palestine now!

November 21, 2022

The Secure Work Bill inches Australia into the 21st Century

The world of work has changed a lot in the past half century.

November 15, 2022

Multinational tax integrity and tax avoidance by the fossil fuel industry: Part 1

This is the first instalment of a two-part series based on our recent submission to the Australian Government regarding tax transparency and the fossil fuel industry. The first part examines Australia’s global fossil fuel transnational corporations’ problems and tax practices. The second part provides recommendations for minimising their tax avoidance practices.

October 18, 2022

Australia's anti-China obsession

_Sinophobia is embedded in the Australian DNA. Canberras Vietnam War follies were an early proof.

February 24, 2022

China-Australia laser incident raises many questions

The belligerent statements by Scott Morrison and other seem blown out of proportion for political reasons and may have been motivated by the upcoming elections.

October 18, 2021

Zero chance of net zero: the human security challenge after 2050

We are condemned to a hot planet. A 4-degree warming is inevitable no matter what measures are taken, so humans must now consider how to cope with this reality.

November 9, 2024

The US election campaign: Lessons for Australia

Just like in the US , the next Australian election will be decided by the cost of living. Both the US and Australian economies have performed quite well, in difficult circumstances. However, the lesson from the US election is that both Governments need to tell their story better.

January 3, 2024

Israel and the Tour Down Under

The Israel-Premier Tech (PRT) team is clearly a vehicle for advancing Israels image, and, indeed, advancing favourable propaganda.

March 19, 2023

Two decades on, history should condemn the real butchers of Baghdad

The warmongers in the Anglophone countries of Britain, the USA and Australia today cause great concern with their AUKUS treaty and the not very subtle stirring of frenzy against China. It was similar in 2003 except that Iraq was the country being demonised.

March 11, 2023

Instrumentalist hypocrisy: concepts of territorial integrity in Ukraine and Taiwan

The different way in which the concept of territorial integrity is applied by the West in Ukraine and Taiwan sheds light on the instrumentalist hypocrisy at the heart of American foreign policy, and the role of the media in obscuring that hypocrisy.

March 17, 2022

Hong Kong's assured future beyond 2047 by China is a fillip for everybody

Local people, foreign investors and the commercial world can now put their minds at rest. It will be business as usual after 2047, not least for the common law legal system and the rule of law

October 10, 2021

The Plenary Council has been a masterclass in avoiding the real problems in the Catholic Church.

The present model of the Catholic Church has far outlasted its relevance. The time has come for all Catholics to tell Rome loudly and clearly: the monarchical model isnt fit for purpose and has to go.

August 28, 2021

Easy Lies & Influence in the $90b submarine boondoggle

No-one knew what the evaluation process involved, but it was clear the decision was political, not driven by the obligation of government to spend public funds for the best product and the best price.

March 10, 2025

Challenging 'antisemitism'

The definition of antisemitism has been hijacked and devalued, most recently in the craven acceptance by vice-chancellors that it should also cover some criticism of Israel. This article argues that the time has come to push back by actively resisting the misapplication of the term and restoring it to its proper meaning – hatred of Jewish people, not criticism of a state’s illegalities and excesses.

January 13, 2025

Lunar New Year predictions for Xi and Trump

The Year of the Snake begins on 29 January. Over the next couple of weeks, fortune tellers will flood the press with their views, each with as much weight and reliability as the mottos in fortune cookies.

October 16, 2024

How Zionism proselytises

In her recent acceptance speech as recipient of British PEN’s Pinter Peace Prize, writer Arundhati Roy made special note of President Biden’s words on his visit to Israel shortly after 7 October 2023.

March 6, 2023

Pernicious paradox: outsourcing our national security to the United States

In a recent article, the Hon. P.J. Keating berated the wretched Greg Sheridan for manifold errors in a typical The Australian Newsrag opinion piece. Only a fool provokes PJK on spurious grounds.

February 1, 2022

Biggest barrier to saving the Reef is a political class in climate denial

The Morrison government is actively supporting new coal mines and massive new gas developments that will overwhelm all other efforts.

January 4, 2025

The Hannibal Directive and mainstream media's organised forgetting

Aeschylus (525-456BC) was, as current circumstances in the Middle East and in Ukraine amply demonstrate, entirely accurate when he observed that “In war, truth is the first casualty.” At no time in history, including his own, is that observation more accurate than it is today in the digital age. Mark Twain famously noted that “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Today the truth would not have even risen from its sleep before the lie had travelled around the world.

February 16, 2024

Pulling a Swiftie

Swiftie: “A piece of sharp practice; an act of deception; a trick, esp. in the phrase to pull a swiftie”. The Australian National Dictionary.

January 10, 2024

Trump is not the only issue, America is too

The Chicken Littles wallowing in the Augean stables of the Murdochracy are obsessing about whether or not the sky will fall if Trump wins the presidential election in November. Trump is unquestionably a squalid creature – personally, morally, politically. However, he is by no means the whole story.

December 30, 2023

Abandoned sovereignty: Australia's intelligence function colonised by US

That the Albanese government could further compromise Australias sovereignty, international integrity and national interests seemed inconceivable. Yet, intelligence, a vital government function inextricably connected with independence and protecting national interest, is being penetrated and colonised by the Americans.

January 8, 2023

2022 will go down as the year of de-Westernisation

From Chinas socialist path to Latin Americas left turn and Aseans neutral stance, more countries are quietly but firmly spurning the Western world order.

November 19, 2022

Environment: 1.5 degrees is still alive (just)

The bad news: more evidence of humanitys callous disregard for the environment and our own future. The good news: sex in the moonlight is not yet dead.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal