October 9, 2024

The Australian newspaper takes disinformation and morality to new lows

The Weekend Australian newspaper was awash with pro-Israel propaganda as it lined up its faithful journalists for an anti-Palestine pile on ahead of Monday’s anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack.

February 12, 2024

What's ruining America?

David Brooks describes himself as a moderate-conservative. Born in Canada but long resident in America, he is a respected, outspoken columnist for the New York Times and a range of other outlets. He has now explained what he believes is devastating America.

January 11, 2024

How you can restore functioning social democratic governance now

We need to return to being Citizens with Power to ensure fair forms of governance and reduce levels of political distrust.

December 22, 2023

Australias deeply unfair housing system is in crisis and our politicians are failing us

The fact that one of the least populated countries on Earth contains the worlds second most expensive housing is a national calamity, and a stunning failure of public policy, writes Alan Kohler, in the latest Quarterly Essay.

February 17, 2023

Pearls and Irritations: taking you places commercial media dare not go

Pearls and Irritations has become invaluable to understanding how Australia and the world actually works or doesnt work.

October 9, 2022

US hanging fire on Australias nuclear subs

High-ranking US naval official points to shipyard and labour constraints that could push delivery well beyond 2030.

March 3, 2025

Scott Morrison loses the family snapshots... again

Scott Morrison wants his family photo album back. It was mistakenly sent to an op-shop where it was bought by a customer who soon realised they’d acquired a volume of glimpses of our former PM’s life in the 1990s. Holidays in London, living it up at the Sheraton, taking a dip in a lake and recovering after a hard New Year’s Eve — these images had meaning for Morrison it seems.

February 3, 2025

‘Never Again’ but it is happening, again

“We must never forget, this must never happen again."

January 24, 2025

The Liberal party, Moira Deeming and political Christianity

In Australian politics at federal and state level, it is desirable and appropriate that politicians with a religious commitment are elected to office, while also at times keeping separate their professional roles from private convictions for the sake of constituents and members of the community who do not belong to that faith.

January 16, 2025

The great mental health experiment … and why it went so wrong

Half a century ago, governments around the world ditched their old psychiatric hospitals for something they said would work better. It didn’t.

December 14, 2024

The ABC in Hungary: why "Christianity" and "woke" are weapons of war

Some of the most dangerous people in the world right now are those normalising and sanitising fascistic politics. It was not just in the banal media discussion that preceded Donald Trump’s re-election; it can also be found at the ABC, including on Radio National lifestyle programming. One of the tropes to look for is the placing of the concept “woke” in counterpoint to “traditional” and “Christian” values.

October 10, 2024

Symbolic politics and 'terrorist' symbols

Until recent events, many Australians would not have realised that it could be a criminal offence to display the symbol of a terrorist organisation in public.

March 18, 2024

The credibility of the Gospel is at stake: Pax Christi calls on faith leaders to speak out on behalf of Gaza

Faith leaders should stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and should call on theAustralian government to condemn all violence that threatens a just future for the people of Palestine, Israel and the Middle East.

March 11, 2024

Tasmanias new electoral quota: transitional or transformative?

When Tasmanians go to the polls on March 23rd 2024, the ballot paper will have a new look to many voters. Yet, others will experience a back-to-the future feel by the return to a ballot so familiar a quarter century earlier. The ballot will reflect the changes needed to fill ten newly created seats in the House of Assembly. Consequently, voters will have to list at least seven candidates at this years poll up from numbering five for the 2021 state election to record a valid vote.

November 1, 2023

Vale Bill Hayden, a dedicated foreign minister

Bill Haydens five years as foreign minister have received some attention in the week since his death. However, theres more to say about his contribution to an independent foreign policy that allowed its diplomats to hold their heads high.

October 27, 2023

Public policy won't stand a chance under Dutton's politics - Weekly Roundup

If Dutton does to the next election what he did to the Voice referendum, public policy wont stand a chance; the Home Affairs experiment has failed; and what the French do in their spare time. Read on for the Weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

October 9, 2023

Albanese government addresses coalition-era asylum seekers surge

After around eight years of policy paralysis and the biggest labour trafficking scam abusing the asylum system in our history, a scam that was largely neglected by Home Affairs Minister Dutton and his Secretary Mike Pezzullo, the Albanese Government has announced a $160 million package to restore integrity to Australias refugee protection system.

March 13, 2023

Australian public universities: for society or for profit?

The Guardian of 3 March 2023 carries a story entitled Australian university sector makes record $5.3bn surplus while cutting costs for Covid. The sub-heading states Department of Education figures reveal all but three universities reporting a surplus, including $1bn for the University of Sydney._

December 12, 2022

War Industry in US 'celebrating Christmas early' as House passes $858 billion for Defence

“There is no justification to throw…$858 billion at the Pentagon when we’re told we can’t afford child tax credit expansion, universal paid leave, or other basic human necessities,” said the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

December 6, 2022

55% of Teal voters were Labor and Green supporters

While we worry about social media misinformation we overlook that one of the main sources of misinformation about politics is mainstream media.

August 9, 2021

We need more independents to check "power hungry" political parties

Ian Macphee, speaking to the Voices of Goldstein in a meeting to plan the ousting of Tim Wilson MP the current Goldstein representative, expressed the need for more independents in the Australian Senate and House of Representatives to check the implementation of dodgy policies by power-hungry government MPs.

March 29, 2025

Narcissism in politics to the fore

Following World War II, a branch of American intellectuals became preoccupied with the notion of totalitarianism.

February 16, 2025

Appeasement in the 21st century

Commentary around Donald Trump tends to gravitate to the delusion that he is the leader of the most powerful country on the planet. Every time we blindly accept that delusion, we reinforce it, we assume that we are powerless in the face of such a powerful country. We forget that America’s power is a product of alliances struck during the cold war. Alliances based on the principle of co-operation. That co-operation was/is based on shared values of justice, the rule of law, human rights and constitutional democracy.

November 29, 2024

Anti-Palestinian discrimination in NSW public schools

Over 4000 people have signed a petition in three days, calling for an apology for a student who was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald to have been banned from attending his Year 12 formal for wearing a keffiyeh (Palestinian scarf) at his graduation. The student is from a Palestinian background, and the scarf is traditionally worn at significant events such as graduations.

January 3, 2024

Israeli assault causing disease, hunger to rapidly spread across Gaza

“I’ve been to pretty much any conflict,” the World Food Program’s chief economist said. “And I have never seen anything like this, both in terms of its scale, its magnitude, but also at the pace that this has unfolded.”

December 13, 2023

Burnt files, lost files and denial of public access: censoring archives and the falsification of history

From the destruction of Gough Whitlams ASIO file, Sir John Kerrs burnt Royal letters of support reduced to ash in the Yarralumla incinerator, to the missing 1975 Government House guest books, these lost archives raise serious concerns about the care with which our vice-regal records are maintained, and our capacity to write a full and transparent history of the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

December 9, 2023

The Dublin riot Irelands wake-up call

You might be forgiven for thinking that the images from Ireland the other week of a burning bus and of riot police came from Belfast. After all, arson is a form of public protest we tend to associate with Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland deja vu: Theyre burning buses again). Yet the rioting we saw this time on our TV screens occurred not in belligerent Belfast but in docile Dublin. So, what was it all about?

November 19, 2022

Can T20 and Test cricket continue to exist together?

For decades there have been concerns about the viability of Tests. Do administrators, in their lust for the rivers of cash which T20 brings in, recognise the dangers of this moment in crickets history?

November 14, 2022

For African/black working class and colonised peoples, Midterm Elections in the U.S. offer no relief from war, repression and capitalist misery

The 50-year old neo-liberal agenda explains why political choices in this country provide little change that benefits the masses of people. The recent midterm election results will not bring about an improvement in the lives of the Black working class.

March 16, 2024

The forgotten war heroes of Borneo

Many Australians are aware of the assistance Papuan New Guinea locals and Timorese locals gave allied forces in World War II. But few know of the assistance Borneo locals provided to Australians during both the Japanese occupation of the island and in the Allied effort to retake it. This extract from the book, Forgotten Heroes: The true story of Sarawak people who fought and died assisting Allied forces in WWII, recalls one story.

March 15, 2025

Imagine a secure Australia post-ANZUS and AUKUS

Let’s test Hugh White’s contention, expressed in The Saturday Paper on 8 March (‘Trump’s conduct on Ukraine prompts strategic reckoning"), that Australia will perhaps sooner rather than later have to confront the end of the US Alliance.

October 21, 2024

NATO’s sin: Did eastward expansion provoke Russia’s aggression in Ukraine?

“… the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down”, as Lord Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary General, is said to have put it.

December 2, 2023

Poem: The Second Nakba

I wake up and I check The radio News I dread I hear the authoritative voice The Newsreader then Israeli government Spokesman

Terrorists, the terrorists Hiding under the Hospitals Under the Kindergartens Under the Schools The colonial narrative Always Baying for more dead

No electricity, no water No food, no shelter What will happen Hapless Gazans I worry

Starvation dehydration trauma Trauma for life Trauma for the unborn Flight desperation The Will to Live

March 29, 2023

The media normalises war-mongering: how Chinese Australians respond to talk of war in mainstream media

Early this month, the Daily Mail published a story online implying three Chinese men taking photos at the Avalon Airshow in Melbourne were spies. After complaints and anopen lettercondemning the paper for racially profiling the Chinese communities and throwing around baseless accusations, the story disappeared from the Mails site without explanation.

December 3, 2022

NSW, ACT Baptists in vote to prevent celebrations of love between LGBTQIA+ people

The NSW and ACT branches of the Baptist church have narrowly passed a resolution which prevents Baptist Christians who want to show hospitality to gay and lesbian people, and allow them, what we claim for ourselves, to celebrate their love for each other in a lifelong faithful union.

November 11, 2021

Lowy report further divides and demeans Chinese Australians

The latest Lowy Institute report sets newer migrants against established Chinese Australians, and ignores that it is a highly diverse community.

December 12, 2024

History repeats in the most chilling of ways

Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a cartoon by the irrepressible Cathy Wilcox. I gazed at the image for a long time. My first thought was that she’ll pay a price for this, and so might the Herald. And, true to form, there was indeed a strong reaction in some quarters.

January 31, 2023

The other America (Or the Three Missed Chances to avoid World War III)

Something worse than anything seen even amidst the dark years of the Cold War has awoken, Matthew Ehret writes.

January 25, 2025

Palestine protests in Australia shunned by media, but carry on

Pro-Palestine protests have been taking place all over Australia right from the time when Israel started its massacre in October 2023. But looking at the mainstream media, one would think that these marches only generate issues for the public at large and do little to educate people on the actual situation in the occupied territories.

November 25, 2024

Within the context of no context… Here comes Donny

Forty four years ago today as I am writing this (17/11/80) the harbinger of Donald Trump appeared in The New Yorker magazine. TV critic George W.S. Trow wrote a long essay (which later became a book) titled ‘Within the context of no context,’ giving notice to the world of what we now see unfolding across America in 2024, and what Australia last experienced with the 2023 No Vote for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

February 8, 2023

Australias problems with cosmetic surgery: why they have happened and how to fix them

Hardly a month goes by without a new media report (and here) of alleged scandalous conduct of some doctors who call themselves cosmetic surgeons but who lack recognised specialised surgical training. These reports have tended to focus on the harm done to patients and generally failed to explain to the public how and why the situation has arisen. While some commentators have blamed the medical profession for failing to regulate itself, this is far from the reality.

January 29, 2023

Whats in a name? Ardern's pledge

In the applause showered on Jacinda Ardern at the close of her term theres one credit missing: The NZ PM swore to never mention the name of the 2019 Christchurch mass murderer.

December 30, 2022

Democratic Socialism in Australia: reverse privatisation, embrace neutrality

Capitalism and liberal democracy are failing and destroying our world. In this, the second in a three-part series, we explore how Australia can halt the decline by reversing privatisation of public utilities and embracing a foreign policy based on neutrality.

April 2, 2025

Echoes of 500 years ago

This year marks 500 years since the end of the Peasants War in Germany (1524–25)._

December 9, 2024

Lift society's sights to the bigger issues

Our news recently has descended into minutiae of wrongdoings. The US presidential campaigns were worse, characterised by trivial he-said, she-said interactions. I fear for April 2025 in Australia and thicker layers than usual of the pseudo-statesmanship exhibited by “leaders”.

February 8, 2024

Biden re-elected could be the worst strategic outcome for Australia

It matters for Australia that Biden not be re-elected to the US presidency. A Trump administration might mean domestic chaos, violence, and division for the Republic, however, the danger is that Biden would be more likely to lead the world into catastrophic war. Another Trump imperium would be sadly the least worst, yet still terrible, alternative for the world.

January 26, 2024

Three Nos at the Memorial make no sense at all

Divisions on the Australian War Memorial Council and political pressure are putting Memorial staff in a difficult position over the depiction of Frontier Wars. This has become clearer as time passes and more evidence becomes available.

October 23, 2023

Its time for all good Australians to come to the aid of a new political party

Not long before his untimely death, Malcolm Fraser was canvassing possibilities for a new political party. He was absolutely right to note that the existing parties had lost their way. Its time to take up Malcolm Frasers cudgels, to think againand seriously about creating a new political party. A new party would need to do what the existing parties are failing to do: to make the government more representative of, and responsive to, the needs of the electorate at large, and to bring Australia back from the brink of populist authoritarianism.

November 9, 2022

Covid Hindsight: Victoria acted on nightmare potential for system collapse

The press has been spattered in recent weeks with hindsight wisdom about Australias - and particularly Victorias - handling of the pre-vaccine pandemic. The relatively easy time we are having with COVID now and the low numbers of people being hospitalised with COVID are being used to argue that earlier restrictions were unnecessary but it is crucial to remember what the world looked like when those decisions were made.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal