January 20, 2025

Overcoming Australia's Euro centric Anglo cultural paradigm and symbiotic military alliance with the U.S.

The ABC should be the voice of reason in Australia’s society, and that reason should loudly proclaim that Australia is in the middle of Asia and it is in its self interest to act in accordance with that geographical fact.

February 6, 2024

Are Australian government ministers complicit in genocide?

The 26 January findings of the International Court of Justice relating to South Africas genocide claim against Israel, do not only have bearing on that state, but they trigger the obligation to prevent genocide required of all 153 state parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention, including Australia.

November 13, 2023

Tuvalu: Paradise lost?

The recent treaty with Tuvalu opens the way for a more generous treatment of Pacific people.

March 29, 2023

President Xis peace plan for Ukraine: plausible and implausible

At first sight, the Chinese Presidents twelve proposals to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine appear plausible. Claims about common interests are supported by references to parties working together for peace and security, abiding by international humanitarian law, sustaining an existing world economic system and insisting that nuclear weapons not be used.

March 23, 2023

The Federal Labor Caucus did not endorse AUKUS

The $368 billion AUKUS deal raises many more questions than we have had answered to date.

October 14, 2022

Weekly roundup: IMF spreads gloom, Reserve Bank observes imminent demise of capitalism

Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

March 10, 2022

The slide to war with Russia. Part 1 & 2...First posted on October 26, 2016

_God Created war so the Americans could learn geography**

January 5, 2025

ABC editorial bias for ‘revolution’ in Syria and its implications

If only for Australia’s own security concerns, the strict application of ABC Editorial Policies in regard to Syria is vitally important. For the ABC to display bias for radical Islamist groups cannot bode well for us. It contravenes Australian beliefs and values meant to unite us.

January 2, 2025

Best of 2024: The cut-through message: wind, solar and pumped hydro are all we need, and cheaper

Wind, solar and pumped hydro energy storage can provide all the electrical energy we need, on demand, cheaply, quickly, with minimal carbon emissions. This is the message that will cut through the energy confusion. The clean energy debate is hampered by widespread lack of awareness of off-river pumped hydro energy storage. It is the third leg of the clean energy tripod. It uses mature technologies and there are abundant suitable sites.

March 16, 2024

The remnants of war lessons unlearnt

Im walking around the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Ive looked at the military aircraft in the front courtyard which looms large but doesnt yet give too much away of what the Vietnam War was all about. It feels very American with each piece of used equipment stamped with U.S. Army and U.S. Airforce. But then comes the hammer blow.

December 21, 2023

Economic outlook will 2024 be a hard, soft or no landing?

On the Australian economy, bulls and bears cannot both be right. 2024 will decide the fate of both economies and markets, a hard, soft or no landing.

November 21, 2023

The price to Labor for supporting Israeli war crimes and apartheid

What rejoicing greeted the Federal Election result last year, when the corrupt and callous Coalition, under Scott Morrison, was swept from office. Surely now Australians would get political leadership whose priorities would align with their own. Instead, theyve had to stand and watch as Australias federal government a Labor government has given unconditional support to the Israeli occupation forces to slaughter Palestinians in their thousands.

January 30, 2023

Please support Pearls and Irritations: It operates on the faint memory of the smell of an oily rag

On the faint memory of the smell of an oily rag, John Menadues Pearls and Irritations public policy journal daily publishes a range of opinion and insights that shames the lack of diversity in our much bigger and better resourced media.

December 26, 2022

Whats not to like about nuclear fusion?

Recently the mass media have bombarded us with hype about a breakthrough in controlled nuclear fusion.

December 16, 2021

Fossil fuels: the campaign to force PR agencies to clean up their act

The links between advertising agencies and the oil and gas industry are coming under increasing pressure through name-and-shame tactics.

April 4, 2025

Dutton wants to know if you’re better off now. It’s a trick question

For most people, the simple answer to Peter Dutton’s repeated question — are you better off today than you were three years ago? — is “no, I’m not”.

November 24, 2024

ICC arrest warrants: Moral Equivalence?

One thing that reasonable people can agree with in the outraged and outrageous Israeli and American reactions to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against two Israeli leaders and one (presumably dead) Palestinian leader is that there can be no moral equivalence between the Israeli government and Hamas.

January 21, 2024

Albanese is undermining the hard work of previous Labor Governments

Labors Defence and Foreign policies are increasingly pushing away party true believers writes Wayne Ryan, Life Member of the ACT Labor Party branch.

January 11, 2024

Coalition, pro-nuclear lobbyists, argue Australia needs nuclear energy; oppose renewables

Proponents for a nuclear energy industry in Australia increased their media activity following the announcement of the AUKUS agreement. Their campaign has been taken up by the Coalition.The international campaign reached acrescendo during the COP28 climate meeting.

January 6, 2024

Two grievous Australian policy mistakes-Israel and China

Where fear of China is involved there is no conscience for the mistakes of the past. Nor can we expect any sensibility in the plans for the future.

January 2, 2024

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price among most trusted politicians

The latest Roy Morgan Most Trusted & Distrusted Leaders research has bad news for Anthony Albanese but worse news for Peter Dutton.

October 26, 2023

Taking a stand for Peace

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) has produced a petition opposing the Force Posture Agreement which is enabling US militarisation of Australia in preparation for the US to support/launch war from the Australian continent against China. The e-petition to parliament is an instrument for peace calling for the termination of the Force Posture Agreement.

October 21, 2023

Australias Covid-19 response inquiry: towards an integrated national disaster strategy?

The terms of reference for the Inquiry into the Commonwealth Government Covid-19 Response were released on the 21 September. Ostensibly the inquiry is to identify lessons learned to improve Australias preparedness for future pandemics. However, what if the next pandemic is nothing like Covid? And how prepared are we for other potential disasters?

January 15, 2023

Prince Harrys outrage, spare a thought

Amidst the despair unfolding in the world, buying Prince Harrys Spare means youve been fooled into taking something seriously instead of discarding it at first sight.

December 19, 2022

Nobel recipients humanity is in stark contrast to Putins bestiality

During days preceding a festive period, the world watches the contrast between the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipients hopes for humanity and the bestiality of a Russian Presidents war in Ukraine. Representing their respective civil society organisations in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, three brave individuals have been rewarded for their human rights-based opposition to the dictators Putin and Lukashenko.

November 25, 2022

Housing crisis: Can a universal basic income solve homelessness?

Chalmers first budget critiqued; Why does Australia have a rental crisis?; and Razzhigaeva explores whether a universal basic income can help address homelessness. Read on for the latest monthly digest of articles on housing affordability and homelessness.

November 1, 2022

Sinophobia, Russophobia, mutations of the same political virus

There is no doubt that Russias invasion of Ukraine is a serious war crime regardless of several provocations, including NATOs eastward expansion and the role of the United States in the 2014 Maidan coup. Even so, the West is in no position to lecture Russia on sovereignty violations.

January 18, 2022

Omicron wave has exposed the battle lines of a new 'ethics' war

From my Omicron sickbed, I am watching my healthcare colleagues deal with a true disaster, writes Paul Komesaroff.

March 20, 2025

The MAGA answer to DEI is a return to the golden days of exclusion

When the New York Times reported on a tense Cabinet meeting in the White House, it became clear that one of the few members to take on the DOGE boss, Elon Musk, was Sean Duffy, Trump’s new transportation secretary. Although a number of cabinet secretaries were neither accustomed to nor happy with the scorched-earth approach to government efficiency that Musk’s fresh-faced goons were undertaking, they were reluctant to speak openly against Musk.

January 4, 2025

John Pilger: Afflictor of the powerful

During a lifetime of extraordinary journalism on both paper and the screen, John Pilger, who died one year ago on Monday, showed the world the suffering caused by US-led aggression in mostly poor nations that had the temerity to hinder Washington’s path to global dominance.

October 8, 2024

Australia poised to enter another US-led Middle East war

With less than two months to go, voters may go to the American polls while their nation is at war. If they do, there is a significant chance that Australia will be dragged in, and in accordance with imperial tradition be sent to fight in the Middle East.

November 24, 2023

As another workforce review launches, what does the latest OECD health stocktake reveal?

The Federal Government has announced a review of current policies and programs that aim to promote a more equitable distribution of the health workforce.

October 15, 2023

Against the tide: Defence secrecy in a modern age of openness

In the 1970s a study was undertaken into aspects of management in the Department of Defence. When an honest, conscientious and mildly critical report was provided to the Departments Secretary, Sir Arthur Tange, he scrawled CRANSTON on its front page and gave the relevant file a stiff security classification.

October 4, 2023

On equality, business needs to get its own house in order

Business is always telling governments, and the rest of us, that Australia would perform much better if we and our rulers took their advice.

February 16, 2023

The Teals and Australias international situation

We know little of the views of Teals on foreign and strategic issues. There are some big issues coming, on which they will need to focus.

February 21, 2022

US Indo-Pacific Strategy is built on false assumptions about ASEAN

The agenda of the new US Indo-Pacific Strategy for Southeast Asia is based on false assumptions and ignores fundamental differences between them and the U.S.

November 18, 2021

Climate change strategy must be adaptable to withstand new era

If the new climate change strategy is to succeed, it will need to be a living document, to be adapted and enhanced.

January 18, 2025

Our case against AUKUS is more relevant than ever

Next Monday, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.

January 7, 2024

Covert forces and the overthrow of Edward Gough Whitlam: The series

The dismissal of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by Queen Elizabeths Vice-Regal representative, Sir John Kerr, was an extraordinary event. For almost fifty years a debate has raged about why the Governor-General took the unprecedented action he did on 11 November 1975. This five-part series puts a spotlight on the on the external events that were in play at the time

November 8, 2023

Enduring Peace: Three questions for the Australian Foreign Minister on Gaza

With the Australian government refusing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, what is Australia actually doing to bring about the two state solution and a just and enduring peace called for by Foreign Minister Penny Wong this week?

October 1, 2023

Armenians need Australias help again

A campaign of ethnic cleansing, or what the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has warned may qualify as Genocide, is currently taking place against the 120,000 indigenous Christian Armenian population of Artsakh (aka Nagorno Karabakh). A historic Christian Armenian enclave within the borders of todays Azerbaijan, its Armenian population has been subjected to a nine month blockade and a subsequent brutal military assault that has left hundreds killed and tens of thousands as refugees.

March 13, 2023

Lobbyists are undermining public trust in our political institutions

Four Corners has once again highlighted that Lobbyists are most prolific in Canberra. Lobby firms infest Barton and Kingston. It is easy walking distance to Parliament House, the National Press Club and the major departments. A real LobbyLand with the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Medical Association, Lockheed Martin, the Australian Pharmacy Guild, the Business Council of Australia and many more.

March 8, 2023

Responding to the campaign to ban me from Adelaide Writers Week

Ukraine was the first purported reason that I should be disinvited or canceled. Although I know the real reason is that Zionists fear our voices, as all colonisers fear native agency.

December 31, 2022

Terry Irving, The fatal lure of Politics: the life and thought of Vere Gordon Childe

Certainly the best biography I read in 2022 and possibly the best non-fiction book in any genre, is Terry Irving’s comprehensive and incisive examination of the varied and controversial life of archaeologist, political theorist and leftist practitioner Vere Gordon Childe.

December 29, 2022

Australia flies into The Thucydides Trap

America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber was unveiled by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. It is the latest expression of the Thucydides Trap which postulates an inevitable war between America and China.

December 15, 2022

30 years on, Keatings Redfern speech demands we back the Voice: Watch it here

On the 30th anniversary of former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s historic Redfern Speech, First Nations Australians are still waiting for the vision it articulated to be realised.

October 24, 2022

Sharper focus on flood education and community engagement needed

The flooding in eastern Australia over recent weeks has been serious and in some areas it has seemed never-ending.

October 8, 2024

The extraordinary warring states history of the global West

History confirms how the present, destructive militaristic culture of the US-led Atlantic alliance stands on the shoulders of well over a thousand years of Western immersion in extraordinary levels of horrific warfare.

April 2, 2024

Portents of a nuclear war on a burning planet

The 24 hours media news cycle clouds the minds of people, perpetrators and hapless victims alike, to the future dimension, whether that of future generations or of the natural world itself.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal