November 10, 2024

Political void: The end of the Wharf

Forty (40) years ago, the ALP ran its national conference at what was then called Noah’s Lakeside Hotel, with uranium, Timor, taxation, David Combe and south-west Tasmania prominent in discussions. But, who is this meeting up on the dancefloor after the day’s debates and double-crossings?

March 1, 2024

Pearls and Irritations in the Pearl River Delta

Pearls and Irritations is widely read outside Australia. In particular, its content is now reviewed by certain media writing and presenting in Chinese in Hong Kong.

October 9, 2023

'Do we have the right to struggle for freedom?'

Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti tells Fareed that Hamas’s attack on Israel was a response to the Israeli occupation, and that Palestinians, like Ukrainians, are fighting for their freedom.

January 9, 2022

Failure to communicate? PM's media strategy may need a reset

Morrison’s chances of another election victory may be undermined by his eroding plausibility and overly heavy reliance on the Murdoch media.

March 26, 2025

No such ceasefire

As the latest ceasefire has predictably ended, will the world start taking notice of the Palestinians again? There’s been a stark absence of coverage in mainstream media of the ongoing decimation of Gaza and the West Bank. I imagine the average citizen believes it’s all okay now, the onslaught has ended and there’s nothing more to worry about. Nothing to see here, folks. Phew, the Palestinians are safe.

February 8, 2025

The rules based order – is it over? What’s next?

It is becoming much clearer, if it ever was, that President Donald Trump doesn’t much believe in the “rules based system”. If he does or did, he wouldn’t be firing off salvos of tariffs as if they were missiles intended for another purpose.Which, of course, they are.

December 24, 2024

From the sidelines to the helm: The Global South’s turn to lead climate policy

2024 will mark the hottest year in recorded history as global production of fossil fuels reaches record highs. Climate-related natural disasters continue to devastate the planet in the form of unprecedented floods, droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires, with marginalised and Indigenous communities, situated in the Global South, exposed to its worst impacts.

October 22, 2024

We need PM Ishiba's NATO like we need a hole in the head...

It is difficult to reconcile new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s expressions of concern for the security of his country with his advocation of an Asian version of NATO.

March 28, 2024

AUKUS and military escalation Who pays and who benefits?

On 12th March, IPAN ACT held a webinar in Canberra entitled AUKUS and Military Escalation Who pays and who benefits? View the must-watch speeches from Alan Behm, Hugh White, Sue Wareham and Michelle Fahy below.

March 21, 2024

If TikTok is banned in the US or Australia, how might the company or China respond?

TikToks owner is once again navigating troubled waters in the United States, where the US House of Representatives has issued an ultimatum: divest or face shutdown within six months.

December 11, 2023

Do political donations win government tenders for the Big Four?

A recent submission to a Senate inquiry by the Centre for Public Integrity claimed that in the decade to 2023 companies making political donations were 2.49 times more likely to win procurement contracts than non-donors, and that the value of contracts won by donor companies was on average 4.4 times the value of contracts won by non-donors. Centre Director Geoff Watson SC told The Guardian that the people who are making these donations are not fools and are doing it for a reason. The data demonstrates that the donations achieve their purpose because theyre receiving more government work. Its as simple as that. Spoiler alert: its not.

March 21, 2023

The AUKUS orchestra, Julian Assange and Iraq

On Saturday, March 18, a small rally to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War gathered in a park outside the Lismore Memorial Baths.

March 6, 2023

Neo-colonial dreams: Australia eyes the Indian education market

Over the last week or so, Australian politicians and representatives of the university sector got busy pressing flesh in India, hoping to open avenues that have largely remained aspirational. It was timed to coincide with G20 talks in New Delhi, which has seen a flurry of contentious meetings traversing security, economics and education, all taking place in the shadow of the Ukraine War.

December 17, 2024

European deportation of Syrian refugees - a sign of the times

Millions of Myanmar refugees could be next if Junta falls

December 10, 2024

The biggest delegation at plastic treaty talks? Plastic industry lobbyists

“Allowing fossil fuel and petrochemical companies to exert their influence in these negotiations is like letting foxes guard the henhouse,” said one campaigner.

November 24, 2024

It can’t happen here

The novel It Can’t Happen Here, written by Sinclair Lewis was published in 1935 during the rise of fascism in Europe. It tells the story of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear, and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via a self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force.

April 4, 2024

Unaligned - or undecided? Prabowo, China and US

This week Prabowo Subianto has been in Beijing at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. Its the Indonesian president-elects first major overseas trip after winning the 14 February election. No come-soon card yet from Washington, so Chinas getting in first. Should we be worried? Duncan Graham reports:

November 25, 2023

A Bangladeshi workforce enslaved by greed and power

Millions of workers in the multi-billion-dollar garment industry are being exploited, activists say.

January 14, 2023

Why I am still a 'Methodist'

John Menadues dignified and powerful defence of his adopted Catholic faith (Why I am Still a Catholic reissued 24 December 2022) is made at the expense of his (very respectful) renunciation of the Methodism in which he was brought up.

February 25, 2025

Circularity can revive caring and compassion while sustaining the paradigm of care

Peanut Butter is a staple diet for many of us living busy lives and seeking tasty nutrition in a jar. And for those like me who love Bega’s brand of (Smooth) PB (see how it naturally aligns with ‘Personal Best’?), we can be doubly proud that the Australian-owned company behind this brand is part of a global movement working to sustain our Earth, and us all. Why? Because they’re exercising a paradigm of care in corporate business and NREM (Natural Resource and Environmental Management).

February 27, 2024

Denmark finds 'Deliberate Sabotage' of Nord Stream - but ends probe with no charges

The country is the second U.S. ally in the past month to end an investigation into the pipeline explosions.

February 18, 2024

Lies, damned lies and Israeli propaganda

The smoke and dust had only just settled from the armed incursion by Hamas in the Gaza envelope of neighbouring Israel on October 7 when the IDF began releasing eyewitness stories of Hamas beheading of babies and the rape and mutilation of women. These alleged horrific acts were immediately picked up by Israels enablers in the western media and so the world went into cataclysmic shock. Israel was a victim once more.

March 22, 2023

AUKUS and Military Keynesianism

The nexus between war and capitalism has been extensively explored by historians, particularly those on the political left such as Gabriel Kolko. It is one of the reasons why the term state capitalism, rather than market capitalism, is a more accurate description of the economic structures of advanced industrial societies. War, or more often the threat of it, has long been a necessary economic stimulus.

March 18, 2021

Fear and Loathing: Australian media on China and Covid-19

_The way various segments of the Australian media report on Chinas COVID-19 experience reflects these medias own fears and anxieties and their political, ideological, and cultural positions. More credible media outlets in Australia have mostly framed Chinas efforts in political and ideological terms.

March 19, 2025

Submitting to, or trying to placate, bullies never works

Europeans are doing it, the great bruiser Doug Ford is doing it, Mark Carney is gearing up to do it – even Keir Starmer is doing it. But it’s a dance our very own prime minister isn’t doing.

November 3, 2024

I’m still dreaming of a Blak Xmas stamp

In 1962, a columnist with the Melbourne Herald noted that a 16th century sculpture of Madonna and Child would be on that year’s Christmas stamp. He went on to praise ‘Our Lady of the Aborigines’ as ’a real Australian Madonna and Child,’ before asking, ‘How about it for next year?’

April 2, 2024

While war rages in Gaza, the West Bank has undergone a metamorphosis

Israel has seized the opportunity to intensify the occupation, with mass arrests of Palestinians, hundreds killed, a host of new illegal settler outposts and roads.

March 12, 2024

2,000 healthcare workers in Northern Gaza face starvation during Ramadan

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that 2,000 healthcare workers in the northern Gaza Strip will begin the month of Ramadan without suhoor (the pre-dawn) or iftar (breakfast) meals. Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement: Medical teams are working around the clock in northern Gaza and have nothing to eat.

February 5, 2024

A tribute to Lowitja ODonoghue

In 2017, I was privileged to deliver the Lowitja Oration at her invitation marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. I thanked Lowitja for her national leadership, for her trust, for her hopeful example, and for her friendship.

October 11, 2023

Julian Assange could be dying: Yanis Varoufakis

I visited Julian the other day at Belmarsh Prison for the second time. Britain’s Guantanamo. He spends 23 hours every day, for 3 years in solitary confinement. This is an attempt not to break him but to kill him.

October 10, 2023

David McBride and the Afghan files trial

Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride is facing a secret trial on November 13 that could result in him serving a life sentence for leaking classified information that formed the basis of The Afghan Files, a 2017 ABC expos revealing allegations of misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

February 13, 2023

Syria under the American whip: sanctions that kill

The western sanctions weapon is not new to Syria, but since 2019 it has become a lethal one, destroying entire Syrian sectors and killing its people.

February 11, 2025

Why Trump 2.0 still can't win the trade war with China

On the third day after Donald Trump announced the imposition of 25% and 10% tariffs on imported Canadian and Chinese goods respectively, Canada yielded and co-operated with Trump’s demands, in exchange for a one-month suspension of the agreement by the US.

October 20, 2024

Etiquette tips for awed commoners

Being vital deportment behavioural protocols in the face of British flapdoodle.

October 7, 2024

Palestine – The lessons of East Timor

History teaches us that Palestine, as with East Timor, will be free. Writes Peter Job in Declassifed Australia.

March 30, 2024

Children drumming in Gaza

__I cannot even begin to understand how governments can fail to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. They know - absolutely know - that Palestinian children are dying in droves. The children are killed by bombs, maimed, traumatised, experience amputations without anaesthesia, and they are starving. _

December 27, 2023

We spend billions on wellness crap. Why?

Alternative’ medicines and therapies comprise the biggest scam in the country. But if you think that industry is going to be cleaned up … you’re joking.

November 5, 2023

Cyborg Rats and Genocide: Daily Telegraph plumbs new depths of sinophobia

Its not a good start to any media article when the sub headline contains an editorial error, but this headline which reads Chinese minister invited to AI summit helped create cyborg rats: Wu Zhaohui has also been decribed [sic] as man whose fingerprints are all over the Uyghur genocide indicates that the once world-renowned Daily Telegraph has entered an era of sensationalism and amateurism.

March 24, 2023

Averting the grandest collision of all time

If Thucydides were asked about what’s happening in relations between the US and China today, what would he say? That was the question posed to me at the Davos World Economic Forum in January. I responded that he would say that this is a classic Thucydidean rivalry in which the two parties are right on script, each competing to show which can best exemplify the typical rising and ruling power—leaving him on the edge of his seat anticipating the grandest collision of all time.

February 10, 2023

The myth of meritocracy: Resisting the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report

The vehemence with which the medical profession opposes any moves on behalf of nurses and other health professionals to move legitimately into Primary Health Care in their own right is telling. A system in which some professional groups spend an inordinate amount of time propping up the work of another is not to be abandoned lightly.

January 9, 2023

The zombification of US national security

A recent New York Times commentary by conservative columnist Bret Stephens asks this question: “Are We Sleepwalking Through a ‘Decisive Decade’?” To which he answers resoundingly, in so many words, yes.

December 18, 2024

Australia’s biotech future amid the US BIOSECURE Act: Why China matters

The BIOSECURE Act, recently passed by the US House of Representatives, seeks to decouple the US from China’s biotech ecosystem by restricting federal funding to US firms that collaborate with major Chinese biotech players like WuXi AppTec and BGI Genomics. This legislative push reflects growing concerns over national security, intellectual property (IP) protection, and supply chain resilience in critical life sciences sectors. However, for Australia, the implications of the BIOSECURE Act extend beyond the US-China rivalry, highlighting the need to rethink its biotech strategy through deeper engagement with China.

October 27, 2024

'No propaganda on Earth can hide the wound that is Palestine'

‘I refuse to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be.’

February 9, 2024

China extends full diplomatic recognition to Taliban in blow to US

The diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan on January 31, 2024 by China must be bracketed with two other far-reaching regional policy moves by Beijing in the post-cold war era the Shanghai Five in 1996 later renamed as Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001 and the Belt and Road Initiative announced by President Xi Jinping in 2013.

January 28, 2024

The Deglobalisation Myth

Notwithstanding calls to divert supply lines from China this is not happening except for America.

November 8, 2021

$1.6b handout to Telstra's Andy Penn to head off the Chinese

Why was Telstra slotted $1.6b by the Morrison government to buy Digicel, and how is it Telstra shares slumped by one-third during the bull market?

December 31, 2024

The public service: back in from the cold

The Albanese government has begun to rebuild Australia’s shattered Public Service. The government’s fate depends significantly on it – but there’s much still to do.

December 28, 2024

That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be

“That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.” This is a line by fantasy author PC Hodgell, though it’s often misattributed to Carl Sagan.

February 10, 2024

ASEAN can add momentum to Australias call for US-China detente

Australias former foreign minister Bob Carr and 49 others are supporting an appeal for easing of hostility between the two superpowers. The Asean leaders meeting in Melbourne could provide a platform for discussions on peace security and boosting areas of cooperation with China and the US.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal