February 13, 2025

The real estate mogul

President Donald Trump is not quite the fool or the subjective (or subliminal) genius that pundits make him out to be. However, if there is one trait that his recent pronouncements point to it is that of a quintessential real estate mogul.

January 17, 2025

Another victim of the United States’ obsessive anti-China strategy

The law and politics can be callous. And it certainly has been in the case of 56-year-old Dan Duggan, a former US Marines pilot, now an Australian citizen. Five days before Christmas the federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced Mr Duggan would be extradited to the United States to face charges relating to allegations, vehemently denied by Mr Duggan, that he breached arms trafficking laws and engaged in money laundering and conspiracy offences, by training Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. On Tuesday, Mr Duggan’s family announced it was appealing Mr Dreyfus’ decision.

October 24, 2024

The treatment of detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra

So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra have been Pearls and Irritations and Canberra’s City News.

February 23, 2024

Labors complete capitulation to elite private schools.again!

A few hours of testimony before the Education Committee of Senate Estimates exposed the canker at the heart of school funding in Australia. The canker is the double standard applied to the funding of public and private schools. The Assistant Minister for Education, Anthony Chisholm, announced that a tax rort worth hundreds of millions of dollars to elite private schools would continue but refused to renounce accounting tricks that swindle public schools of billions in funding. The double standard is despicable. In effect, Labor is refusing to fully fund public schools but private school funding privileges are sacrosanct.

December 18, 2023

Reflections on the new migration strategy

The governments new migration strategy is a commendable attempt to restore some shape to immigration policy and to deal with pressing short, medium and long-term policy problems. A massive implementation effort is needed to make it work. It comes at a time of a pathetic level of public discourse on immigration issues. Institutional change is needed to get immigration fully back on track.

November 19, 2023

Apology to Bob Carr

Last week we reposted an article about anti semitism by Bob Carr that was first posted by Pearls and Irritations on June 6, 2022. We highlighted that the article was a re-post.

Some readers however did not notice that it was a re-post.

The re-post was poorly timed. It was a mistake on my part. The re-post has been taken down.

I have apologised to Bob Carr.

October 1, 2023

International students where is the strategy?

There are twice as many international students from Singapore than there are from Indonesia studying in Australian universities, although Singapore has a population of 6 million and Indonesia has a population of 277 million. In 2019 (before Covid) more students in Australian universities came from Nepal than from any SE Asian country.

January 14, 2023

Incompatible minds: A reflection on George Pell

Why did so many people dislike Cardinal George Pell? It is possibly because he had the opportunity to show leadership but chose instead to reflect power and intransigence. He could have shown compassion and been a unifying force. Instead, he will be remembered as a divisive and damaging figure.

November 18, 2022

Respected American journalist demolishes Bidens approach to China

Ive given up being amazed at how stupidly the Biden administration conducts its diplomacy with China and, by extension, Asia altogether. I spend my time now being amazed at how stupid these people assume the Chinese and other Asians to be.

November 14, 2022

The military-industrial complex wins again!

With Veterans Day in mind, I was asked as a retired U.S. military officer for a comment on the 2022 election results, which produced this:

February 7, 2025

From Bretton Woods to BRICS

In 1944 Bretton Woods established an international financial system that awarded generous economic advantages to the US. When the system failed, a group of nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, (BRICS), formed to foster a more equitable system, perhaps an alternative international currency to the US dollar.

December 29, 2024

Would greater diversity of career experience benefit SES public sector leadership?

Are you: a better coach for having played the game at highest level; a superior baron of a media corporation if you started as a desk journalist; a smarter tech billionaire for having cut code; an out-performing venture capitalist if once a failed entrepreneur; a far-sighted head of NASA if you journeyed as an astronaut; or a more compassionate general if you had combat experience?

December 23, 2024

New cardinals, an aging pope and the upcoming conclave

Again, the question arises: could Francis retire? If he were to do so, it would make papal resignations normal.

November 6, 2024

Cartoon commentary

January 18, 2024

Me and Colin Rubenstein (AIJAC)

It is hard to see how it is in Australias interests to support Israels actions in Gaza.

January 15, 2024

Oppressive secrecy needs more dashes of cold water yet

We can all be glad that judges constituting the ACT Court of Appeal in the Bernard Collaery case had a more liberal view of the need for open justice than the judge who had been set to hear the case. This was before the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, stepped in to drop the prosecution altogether. But it is too early to come to any conclusion that the oppressive overreach of national security legislation, and its threat to the justice system is over.

December 14, 2023

In Usman Khawajas boots: Silence is complicity

As usual, conservative commentators have damaged their own feet. They do not have any appreciation of the political stances adopted by people of conscience and their faux outrage provides the best publicity protestors can have. Latest to benefit from this narrow mindedness is the courageous Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja.

November 8, 2023

Legal case set to expose Australias facilitation of war crimes

Is the Albanese government aiding and abetting the Israeli military and intelligence services in actions in Gaza which are serious violations of international human rights laws?

March 25, 2023

How safe are nuclear powered submarines?

The acquisition of nuclear-propelled submarines has been enthusiastically embraced by Albanese, Dutton, most of their benches, and their collective military-industrial backing chorus. In considering where the submarines will be based, questions about radiation leaks and accidents have been shunted to a back burner.

December 7, 2022

The US is focussed on its own interests, not the people of Taiwan

Taiwans politics is tied to that of mainland China because of the unfinished business of the Chinese civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT).

June 5, 2021

Has the lesson of Guernica been forgotten?

Eighty four years ago, the much loved Spanish artist Pablo Picasso made a statement about war through a mural called Guernica named after the Basque town that bore that name. Have we forgotten his message?

March 12, 2025

Power and alienation

The hollow man thought he had power over everything, a snap of the fingers was the sound of a king.

February 24, 2025

The human cost of Trump's cuts

Too many commentators are looking at the administrative changes Donald Trump is making at USAID rather than focusing on the tragic human consequences of the underlying policy changes.

March 29, 2024

In their last redoubt, the Liberals lurch further to the right and oblivion

The Tasmanian election was a disaster for both major parties, but only Labor has a path back.

February 13, 2024

The power of play

A while ago I was reluctantly watching some television footage about the catastrophe in Gaza. To my amazement, a fleeting image appeared of two little girls, about 7 or 8, playing a hand-clapping game. I dont know what nationality the girls were, or the location of their play. They could have been Israeli or Palestinian, or one of each. We do know that for many years enlightened people in both locations have tried to encourage harmony through cross-cultural activities, including childrens play.

December 12, 2022

How sound is the Ukraine debate?

Stephen M. Walt understands the deep anger felt over the Russian invasion but believes the Ukraine debate needs to be shifted away from its distorting over-reliance on moral outrage. Walt perceives a profound need for more dispassionate thinking.

December 7, 2022

Violet Coco is right: The climate hyperthreat demands emergency action

Australia has achieved international infamy through the decision to jail climate protestor, Violet Coco, for 15 months. Allow me to add evidence to support her stance that emergency action is demanded of us to avert the climate crisis.

November 29, 2022

Disability is not a hobby: our mutual obligation to society is paid richly and in full

Why shouldnt my participation in the development of (disability) social policy through academic research and writing - voluntary or not - be viewed as a substantial contribution to Australia? I do not understand mutual obligation in the individualistic way that government and neo-liberal social policy interprets it.

January 16, 2022

West in new scramble for Africa to counter Beijing's increasing foothold

China’s economic model and willingness to engage with the continent’s leaders on a long-term basis to deliver critical infrastructure is attractive.

February 4, 2025

Another trail of tears

While there is no mistaking the happiness on the faces of the displaced Palestinians who have been allowed to return to what remains of their homes as a result of the ceasefire, no sympathetic observer could fail to fear for their futures. At least one young woman on the march has been killed by a drone.

January 5, 2025

When will the Trump Musk bromance end?

How long will Elon Musk last in the Trump orbit? Currently he seems to be ubiquitous but that presents a problem for Donald Trump and his massive ego.

March 20, 2024

Mystifying Pine Gap again

Brian Tooheys article “Untruths, the CIA, and Whitlams dismissal”, (Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2024), begins by dismissing as astonishing a recent ASPI article by former Defence Deputy Secretary Paul Dibb on Kissingers role in avoiding nuclear war, and the key part Australia played astonishing because it is riddled with major errors.

March 19, 2024

In 2022-23, onshore asylum seekers were 33% less than under Peter Dutton

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) this week published full year data on onshore asylum seekers in 2022-23 compared to 2022-21. The data highlights a post-pandemic high of 18,738 asylum applications in 2022-23 compared to 10,564 in 2021-22. That is still well below the record set under Peter Dutton of almost 28,000 asylum applications in 2017-18.

February 3, 2024

Are we letting big tech outsource our humanity?

The biggest problem with Artificial Intelligence will be the way we use it, writes Dr Richard Hil.

March 9, 2023

The Labor Essayists: Chalmers, Rudd and the failing market of schools

There are echoes of Kevin Rudds 2009 essay in Jim Chalmers recent tome. Themes of social justice, equity and fairness still resonate. But this time around, Labor needs to think beyond the lofty ideas to confront what it all means for Australias schools.

December 4, 2022

How the UK is developing the characteristics of a failed society

A new book about Birmingham and its role in shaping modern Britain illuminates how the UK moved from the worlds first industrialised nation to financialisation and deindustrialisation to many of the characteristics of a failed society.

November 25, 2022

Outrageous executive salaries: undemocratic, unethical and unproductive

The current threat to democracy in several countries is not helped at all by the growth of executive salary packages.

November 1, 2022

Roy Morgan survey: Who is the most distrusted media brand?

The latest Roy Morgan Trust and Distrust survey has listed the most distrusted media brands in Australia. Which brand came out on top?

September 18, 2021

Answers to Trump questions about attacking China and Iran

The question of who would tell Trump the truth when needed and who would stop him if he tried to go to war with anyone became increasingly urgent as his presidency unfolded. On the matter of war, we now know the answer.

March 18, 2025

Figuring out China: It’s still complicated

I visited Beijing in December for the first time since COVID, at the invitation of Renmin University and the Beijing Municipal Government. As well as attending the major conference they were hosting, I was keen to catch up with members of the network of public administration scholars I had helped to establish 15 years ago.

March 7, 2025

Russophobia and Sinophobia: projection, narcissism and denial

There is a certain cadence to decline, a rhythm of arrogance and desperation, of miscalculation and delusion. The late-stage empire, unmoored from reality yet clinging to myths of its own indispensability, lashes out at perceived threats not because they are real, but because it cannot conceive of a world in which it is no longer the gravitational centre of history. In this way, Russophobia and Sinophobia function not merely as ideological constructs, but as symptoms of systemic decay, the fever dreams of a civilisation struggling to process its own obsolescence.

February 17, 2025

Demonisation of the Palestine movement fuels anti-Muslim and Arab racism

The spate of anti-Muslim racist attacks around the country are being fuelled by the anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian policies of mainstream politicians. Political attempts to undermine the Palestine movement and bipartisan support for Israel’s genocide are causing this.

December 13, 2024

Farewell fair go, hello despair

It’s true.

The night fears have come to pass.

The evidence is too great to ignore any longer. My country, our nation, is racist.

October 10, 2024

Both personal and political: Productivity and Childcare

The federal government recently released a Productivity Commission’s Report on children’s services. It found too many changes were needed for the government to say more than that they were “looking at it”. The report is significant and was passed to the Government to guide possible reforms to its role in funding of services to deliver effective children’s care services.

March 12, 2024

Eyes on Gaza: Response to the Vietnam Memorial Canberra desecration

The deplorable vandalism of our sacred space by individuals, who, most likely have never experienced war and its consequences, staggers the imagination, writes Gavin OBrein after Eyes on Gaza was spray painted on the Vietnam war memorial, Canberra.

December 2, 2022

Overseas students visa criteria a new approach needed

One of the most important issues the Migration System Review must address is the overseas student visa system and associated pathways to permanent residence.

November 24, 2022

An open letter to Bill Gates on food, farming, and Africa

We, 50 organisations focused on food sovereignty and justice worldwide, want you to know there is no shortage of practical solutions and innovations by African farmers and organisations. We invite you to step back and learn from those on the ground.

October 17, 2020

Remembering Harold Evans (AIIA Oct 9, 2020)

Harold Evans had an indefatigable role in encouraging and expanding coverage of international affairs in the publications he edited and in the books he published. He also had great enthusiasm for hiring and fostering well-trained Australian journalists.

January 24, 2025

Australia’s experiment with drug summits

Australia’s first official meeting referred to as a ‘drug summit’ was convened on 2 April 1985 in Canberra by Bob Hawke, the then ALP Prime Minister.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal