November 20, 2024

The Amsterdam incident exposes Australian supine and servile dishonour and dishonesty

The subservience of the Labor-Coalition political class to Washington is now almost complete. It is no longer possible to consider the Albanese-Dutton political groupings as anything other than propagandists for US imperial interests. This has been apparent for some time, but it has now reached the stage of making John Howard’s role as “deputy sheriff” appear as a form of forceful independence.

October 24, 2024

Earth's water cycle off balance for 'First Time in Human History'

“We must reshape our shared relationship with water, across borders and cultures, for sustainable, impactful, and just transitions,” says the global commission behind a new report.

January 24, 2024

The January riots in Papua New Guinea

On 10 January, Port Moresby was rocked by riots, looting and arson on an unprecedented scale. Rioting also occurred in Lae and several other towns. More than twenty people died and there has been extensive damage to property.

November 7, 2024

South Korean support for own nuclear arsenal grows as confidence in U.S. wanes

Public distrust in the reliability of the U.S. nuclear umbrella has sharply increased, with a majority of South Koreans now supporting the development of their own nuclear weapons, a recent survey shows.

October 2, 2022

The Palace Lunch

Stuart Revill, then Manager of ABC London, wrote a letter to his mother-in- law, Ethel Brunton Gibb on the occasion of being invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch, c. 1978.

January 18, 2022

Big Media's diet of deceit and diversions

A small group of elites determines what ordinary people do not see or hear.

March 6, 2025

The creeping crisis we're ignoring

As Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto steers his giant nation closer to China it’s worth recalling Paul Keating three decades ago: “No country is more important to Australia than Indonesia.”

December 5, 2024

The continuing ‘struggle for Syria’

The dramatic ‘rebel’ advance into Aleppo dominates the headlines. In history rather than headlines, however, the importance of current events shrinks into relativity, as the ‘West’ and its regional allies have been tearing apart, or trying to tear apart, Syria for more than a century. This is what the journalist and historian Patrick Seale called “the struggle for Syria” back in the early 1960s.

November 8, 2024

Does Australia really want to be the "tip of the spear", projecting Western power?

AUKUS, increasingly seen as a dud deal, though an expensive one, with a $368 billion price tag, stands as the clearest example of the cognitive dissonance besetting the Australian body politic.

February 2, 2024

New Zealand goose-steps towards the moral abyss

With its decision to suspend or pause funding to the United Nations key organisation that is providing assistance to Gazas famished, desperate population, New Zealand could open itself up to a charge of participating in a genocide.

October 7, 2023

Israel's shadowy nuclear weapons program must be subjected to IAEA safeguards: Qatar

Tel Aviv is estimated to have up to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the sole possessor of non-conventional arms in West Asia.

November 14, 2022

After decades putting the brakes on global action, does Australia deserve to host UN Climate Talks with Pacific nations?

As theCOP27 climate talksgot underway in Egypt this week, climate and energy minister Chris BowenannouncedAustralia would bid to co-host the annual United Nations climate summit with Pacific island nations in 2026.

March 10, 2025

Waking up to a new world order: How America’s casual betrayals threaten AUKUS

The Australia-UK-US partnership had 15 shiny minutes in the global media spotlight recently when Donald Trump became characteristically baffled by its mention. I say “characteristically” because the current POTUS is more gaffe-prone than his predecessor, having exchanged policy development and public debate for a personal _revenge tour._

January 11, 2025

Melbourne's Formula 1 Grand Prix: What price public accountability?

The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix has already cost Victorians in excess of one billion dollars and will have cost us an estimated $3 billion by the time the contract ends in 2037.

October 10, 2024

Can this Odd Couple survive?

Before debating with Democrat VP candidate Tim Walz, the Republican nominee JD Vance _said_ the contestants’ views matter little because voters go for the top of the ticket, not the bottom.

February 21, 2024

It's the OCCUPATION, stupid: What have Australian journalists got against Palestinians?

In 2007 I visited Palestine with my late husband Hal Wootten AC, QC, the founding Dean of the Law School at the University of New South Wales and well-known for his pursuit of justice. Hal was determined to understand the conflict from both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives, and he collected a substantial library on middle-east history. Then, undaunted at the age of 85, he lived in Ramallah for three months, travelling widely and speaking to many Palestinians and Israelis.His conclusion could be summarised (to adapt Bill Clinton’s words); “It’s the OCCUPATION, stupid”.

January 15, 2024

Dangerous missionary: Biden's fanaticism is a threat to peace everywhere

President Bidens fanaticism represents a threat to Australias interests. His statements need to be taken literally and seriously. While Americas allies and partners may prefer a Biden re-election, that outcome might be the worst result for global stability and peace.

January 14, 2024

Drawing a line in the sand, and speaking up for abolition of the prison industrial complex

In all our lives we get to a point where we have to draw lines in the sand. Sometimes those lines are in the relationships we forge, and sometimes they are in the movements we occupy. Many criminalised people struggle with drawing those lines. For many of us, our boundaries and lines havent been respected in our past boundaries have been violated by people in our family, by organisations, or by the state.

November 17, 2023

Indonesia's soldiers: Back where they don't belong

In Indonesia old soldiers never die; they just infiltrate civic affairs, then grab jobs from the worthy and talented young, slowing the economy.

October 14, 2023

A week of golden negativity

Last week was China’s “Golden Week”. It is so called because it is the longest holiday of the year, with the period of Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day fused into one marathon stint.

January 7, 2023

The dangerous omission in the Jan. 6 report: Intelligence failure

The Jan. 6 committees work investigating the Capitol insurrection has been incredibly impressive. Investigators have uncovered new and damning information about Donald Trumps culpability in the violence of Jan. 6; theyve reinvented the congressional hearing format to tell a dramatic story and grip the attention of a distractible public; and theyve shown just how capable a congressional committee can be when given the chance.

November 30, 2022

Yes, the Chinese protests are about politics and freedom. But they are also about what COVID might do if it is let loose now

While a lot of attention has been given to the unprecedented protests in China about the dynamic zero COVID policy, not much has been written about the wider political context, and particularly the young people leading the protests.

March 16, 2025

When patients are harmed in hospital, issues aren’t always fixed to avoid it happening again

Recently, the media has reported several cases of serious “adverse events”, where babies, children and an adult experienced harm and ultimately died while receiving care in separate Australian hospitals.

March 9, 2025

We can see clearly now: We’re closely allied to a fascist regime and so must realign

Donald Trump’s election to the presidency is a Gift. Notwithstanding that it, and his subsequent behaviour, has induced involuntary bowel movements and Acute Disorientation Syndrome throughout the policy-making establishments of the Western alliance, his advent is not, therefore, without its merits if we are the richer for it.

January 5, 2025

Pretext for war: Interview of a USS LIBERTY survivor

Anyone who is not aware of the Israeli attempt to sink the aptly named USS Liberty in 1967 – and even those who are well acquainted with this brutal and deadly attack – should find it very worthwhile to watch the remarkable interview of a Liberty survivor at the link transmitted below, which, encouragingly, has attracted more than three million views during its first two days online.

October 12, 2024

October 7: One year later, are we any closer to truth?

07/10/2023 has assumed much of the gravitas and the horror of 09/11/2001. In the aftermath of each, the world has/had viewed the potential for international warfare with extreme trepidation and with good reason.

January 18, 2024

Zionism and the academy

The University is a place of questioning, investigation, reason and discovery. The University is corruptible and perennially corrupted, yes, but always open to such endeavours.

October 23, 2023

Genocide: Israel uses cover of Gaza crisis to Judaise Area C

An aside to what is happening in Gaza is events occurring in the West Bank, where there has been little focus. Reports in recent days have drawn attention to attempts by settlers read the Israeli government to Judaise Area C and to push Bedouins out of the West Bank.

October 8, 2023

Australia concludes China decoupling impossible after carrying out series of classified studies

Australian authorities conducted three separate internal studies in the past eight years to determine whether the commodity-exporting nation could completely diversify its supply chains from China but all said the task was impossible, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

January 3, 2023

Weve reached peak Zelensky. Now what?

After the farcical, almost psychotic over-promotion, Robert Freeman says the only place for the Ukrainian president to go from here is down. And, that is surely coming. Soon.

November 27, 2022

Maligned in western media, Donbass forces are defending their future from Ukrainian shelling and fascism

Smeared, stigmatised, and lied about in Western media propaganda, the mostly Russian-speaking people of the Donbass region were being slaughtered by the thousands in a brutal war of ethnic cleansing launched against them by the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv, which the U.S. installed after the CIA overthrew Ukraines legally elected president in a 2014 coup.

November 12, 2024

A contrived myth? North Korean troops battling the Ukrainians in Kursk

At the beginning of World War I, when the British Expeditionary Force in France was being battered by the advancing German army there was great anxiety in Britain. Then the Russians magically came to the rescue.

March 29, 2024

Egypt sells out Palestinians for $10 billion loan package

Despite public protestations, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is helping Israel transfer 1.4 million Palestinians from Rafah to tent cities in the Sinai Desert.

March 19, 2024

The failure of Western on-the-ground war reporting

On the ground reporting by Western media of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been weak.

January 30, 2024

WOMAD headliner Ziggy Marley raised $60 million for an IDF now committing genocide

Renowned reggae artist, Ziggy Marley, the headline artist at WOMADelaide 2024 (World Music Adelaide), is an outspoken supporter of Israel even during its current genocidal operation in Gaza. In 2018, fans worldwide were shocked by his attendance at a star studded benefit for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). This event raised $60 million for a military that had already received more than $120 billion dollars from the US government since the end of World War II. WOMADs values are in stark contrast to the actions of their headline performer.

January 11, 2024

"Don't worry, we have your back" - think again...

If the countries in the East Asian region allied to the United States think that the US has their back and therefore they are safe, think again.

December 17, 2023

We all know about JobKeeper, which helped Australians keep their jobs in a global crisis. So how about HomeKeeper?

Bipartisan support for temporary extra government spending to preserve businesses and jobs through JobKeeper was one of the few positive outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

November 29, 2023

Imagine the outrage if Al Jazeera agreed Hamas could vet its footage?

US corporate media outlets allow IDF to vet ‘all materials’ from embedded reporters in Gaza. “Israel is killing the journalists that expose their crimes, then bribing the journalists that cover for them,” said one critic.

October 12, 2023

Netanyahus cries for revenge

Terrible violence and massive loss of life in this latest Palestine/Israel conflict is tragic and regrettable, but commentary from western politicians and their media backers is also tragic. The US rush to generate sympathy for Israel, and with scant regard for the traumatised citizens of Gaza, repeats years of thoughtless commentary that depicts the more powerful nation, Israel, as always, the victim and a people under siege as terrorists.

February 3, 2025

Trump's MAGA and the new Pax Americana

In the short period since his election, President Trump has started to tear down the edifice of western rules-based law and international order. Ironically this is the international political and economic system of which the USA has been its main beneficiary, definer and enforcer, and over which it has engaged in conflicts and wars around the world since the end of the second world war.

February 2, 2025

The missing story of the adulteress: censorship, power, and the bible

By grappling with the history of the story of the adulteress, we are reminded to approach Scripture critically, aware of how it has been shaped and reshaped to suit power. In doing so, we ensure that its calls for justice, equity, and mercy are not silenced but remain central to our understanding of faith and humanity.

January 14, 2025

Judge threatens to break the UK's wall of secrecy around Assange's persecution

After nine years of legal battles, a British judge has finally challenged the wall of secrecy erected by British and Swedish authorities around the legal abuse of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

December 1, 2024

Australia at war - again, again and again

Every year or so Australia gets a bulky new book about an Australian war, military action, hero or some other military matter written by what is known as ‘storians.

March 6, 2024

Remember their last words

A few days ago, on 25 February, US serviceman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington in protest at the US and Israels genocidal actions in Gaza. His last words on this Earth, as the fire consumed him, were: Free Palestine!

March 4, 2024

Show us the money! APUs Australian Universities Accord response (Part 1)

The Australian Universities Accord Final Report (the Final Report) was made publicly available on 25 February 2024 by the Federal Minister for Education, the Hon. Jason Clare MP. It contains 47 recommendations for the reform of Australias higher education system over the next few decades. As one of us noted shortly after the Accords interim report was published on 20 July 2023, that document provided little cause for optimism that either the Accord panel or Minister Clare were particularly concerned with addressing the systemic problems that currently plague Australias dysfunctional, inequitable and authoritarian higher education system.

February 14, 2024

Day X approaches: Your silence is compliance

Where are all our rock stars? The battle for your freedom is raging. Led by Australias own Julian Assange, from behind his grey cell walls. Day X, Julians final appeal (20-21st Feb 24), is just around the corner and the global community rally behind him to make sure his keepers know the whole world is watching. Yet there is one section of this community on mass that seem to be missing the youth.

February 6, 2024

Why is Christian persecution often met with indifference?

It has never been more dangerous to be a Christian than today. According to the newly released 2024 World Watch List an authoritative survey by Open Doors, an organisation that supports persecuted Christians 365 million Christians, or one in seven, are at high or extreme risk of persecution every day because of their faith.

February 1, 2024

Letter from Damascus: The impact of sanctions

A Syrian friend in Damascus was commissioned to translate Bridge of Clay, a tender, beautiful novel by Australian author Markus Zusak. As it is not an easy novel for a Syrian who has never lived in Australia to translate, my friend and I have had quite a few WhatsApp calls to discuss tricky bits in it; for example Ive described backyards with Hills Hoist clothes lines.

December 16, 2023

Israel's first unanimous war

We’ve never before had a war like this, a war of complete consensus, a war of total silence, a war of blind support; a war without objection, without protest, without refusal to serve, without opposition, neither in the beginning or in the middle. A unanimous war, with wall-to-wall approval excluding the Arab citizens of the state, who have been prohibited from objecting and without question marks or even any doubts.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal