December 6, 2022

Australia and the suspended U.N. Inspection

It always helps to have your own house in order before criticising anothers. With other nations, Australia has in recent times been a constant critic of the human rights record of numerous nations, particularly that of China. However, it was Australia itself who last month was subject to a critical report from the U.N. Committee Against Torture.

November 20, 2021

Sunday environmental round up.

COP26 is finished but are we any closer to reducing emissions? Global temperatures rising and supplies of fresh water falling.

January 19, 2025

End, end the Gaza genocide

Worshippers of Death, They will remain such, In the annals of human history. Never forgiven, Never forgotten, For the genocide, They perpetrated! …

January 10, 2025

Trump pressures Panama Canal and Greenland to secure UNSC votes

Many people have been understandably astonished by Donald Trump’s recently proclaimed desires to “take back” the Panama Canal “in full, quickly and without question” and to take over the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland.

December 21, 2024

Western Media: an echo chamber for the US "Uighur Genocide" narrative

Let me directly address the narrative pushed by the United States and its allies regarding the alleged “genocide” of Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province. This narrative is not only riddled with inconsistencies but reeks of the same imperialist strategies the U.S. has employed for decades to destabilise dozens of nations and advance its own geopolitical ambitions.

October 16, 2024

US arms dealers witness 'record profits' from Israel's year-long genocide in Gaza, war on Lebanon

The US and Israel’s ongoing military escalation across West Asia has helped the aerospace and defence industry outperform expectations.

January 25, 2024

Look whos committing genocide according to American media

China is guilty by investing in infrastructure, providing free education and forcing tourists to pay to enter Xinjiangs most sacred mosque.

January 23, 2024

US military pays $300M to divert Australian communication cable through Diego-Garcia

The US military paid $300 million to divert an Australian undersea communication cable to Oman through Diego-Garcia, writes Phil Miller, as facilities at a UK GCHQ surveillance station in the Middle Eastern country have been upgraded ahead of a potentially devastating new war with Iran over Israel.

December 5, 2023

Russia has learned not to trustAmericasfalsepeace overtures

Western capitalsnowopenlyacknowledge the reality that their proxy war in Ukrainehasrun out ofsteam.Desperatenew policydirectionsare beingdiscussedin NATO circles. But a decision to end the war will be taken only byMoscow.

October 30, 2023

Paying tax is good and, for better government, we should pay more

On Friday, a former top econocrat did something no serving econocrat is allowed to do, and no politician is game to do: he set out the case for us to pay higher, not lower, taxes.

January 11, 2023

Qassem Soleimani in Venezuela: The lesser known motive behind his assassination

Why was Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani assassinated by the US? His visit to Venezuela in 2019 may provide some answers.

December 18, 2022

Israel and the rise of Jewish fascism

The mask is being lifted from the face of Israels apartheid state, exposing a grinning deaths head that portends the obliteration of the few restraints against killing Palestinians.

November 22, 2022

Chinese geopolitical inroads into central Asia are coming at Russias expense

At the recent Commonwealth for Independent States (CIS) summitheld on October 14 in Astana, Kazakhstan, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon expressed previously inconceivable remarks.

March 8, 2025

Falun Gong leaders disprove immortality by inconveniently dying

According to US Congressman Scott Perry, I’m part of an online strategy designated by Xi Jinping in December of last year to fight Falun Gong’s growth. If only I were that important!

February 19, 2025

Beware of Zionist entrapments: Manufacturing the antisemitism narrative gone wrong

Zionist lobby groups have been in an unholy alliance with complicit media outlets to fabricate antisemitism narratives since the start of the Gaza genocide in order to silence supporters of Palestine.

October 20, 2024

Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest donates $10m for Gaza aid

Australian billionaire, Andrew Forrest, announced an additional $10 million donation in October through his Minderoo Foundation to support urgent humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

April 5, 2024

Europes identity crisis

As European leaders continue to import a version of U.S. militarism, rearmament will cost the Continent its postwar social contract.

February 11, 2024

Genocidal wars dominate US history

US politicians and others are always boasting about the US being the greatest in just about any category you can think of from the record for eating hot dogs in a given time to their so-called democracy.

November 24, 2023

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

March 5, 2023

Why should Australian submarines prowl off the coast of China?

Jon Stanfords response to Brian Tooheys criticism of his promotion of nuclear submarines for Australia deserves a response.

February 15, 2023

Dire climate crisis requires shift to Make it 16 voting

Government action must lead the way by having 16 and 17 year olds vote at the next national election. Let us copy the Make it 16 campaign in NZ.

March 27, 2025

The return of the zombie in South Korea

Han Duck-soo, the impeached South Korean Prime minister (and former acting president), has just had his impeachment reversed, and is now acting president again.

December 4, 2024

Dógè Vu: Deregulation on a massive scale. What could go wrong?

The selection of Elon Musk as a government efficiency bureaucrat (in DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency) is heralded as an innovative disruption to improve public service.

November 16, 2024

Donald Trump fancies himself a skilled dealmaker, but Middle East peace might be beyond him

Donald Trump’s re-election as the US president last week comes at a time of extreme volatility in the Middle East.

January 1, 2024

WAs $40 billion fraud on the rest of us

Jim Chalmers has just added $11 billion to the cost of Western Australias dodgy GST deal. Its an extraordinary case of political extortion. But is it even legal? And will WA have to give the money back?

December 21, 2023

Hong Kongs resilient legal system can withstand interference from foreigners

Although the trial of the former media magnate Jimmy Lai Chee-ying on charges involving sedition and collusion with foreign forces, was scheduled to begin on Dec 18, there were last-minute attempts from abroad to disrupt it.

December 13, 2023

Politicalisation is a bipartisan problem: Victoria's Labor Government joins the club

The most disappointing part of the Victorian Ombudsmans report on alleged politicisation of the public sector is the nothing to see here response by the Secretary of the Premiers Department, Jeremi Moule. Perhaps this is not surprising given Victoria, like so many other jurisdictions in recent years, has appointed someone closely associated with the First Minister and the current Government to head the First Ministers Department and take on the formal role of head of the public service.

October 7, 2023

Five things that the west doesnt understand about Chinas foreign policy

Chinas capacity to surprise western politicians was demonstrated recently, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping was unexpectedlyabsentfrom the G20 summit. There were a few reasons why this G20 might have been less important for Xi, including the rising influence of theBrics(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) partnership.

November 8, 2022

Melissa Parke accepts the Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize

The Jerusalem Peace Prize, awarded this year on 4th November in Melbourne, is an initiative of Australians for Palestine and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network.

February 9, 2025

Media avoid drawing line between Trump's 'Gaza plan' and ethnic cleansing

When Donald Trump proposed recently to “clean out” Gaza of its entire population, you might have thought what you heard was a plan to “ethnically cleanse” Palestinians from their lands – I mean, it’s right there in that word. But not according to most of the media.

October 29, 2024

What media aren't telling us about BRICS

Former Goldman Sachs Chief economist Jim O’Neill is credited with coining the acronym BRICS to describe the building block which has grown from an original four countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and later, joined by South Africa, from the initials of which, he gave it the name.

December 22, 2023

The Khawaja Debacle: Freedom of expression for the Boxing Day test?

Usman Khawaja played an important batting role in Australias recently finished demolition of Pakistan in the first Test in Perth. The ongoing controversy, however, around his writings on his cricket boots and black armband as a protest display have raised questions about the relations of sport and politics and the role of sporting and other institutions in policing what their players can or cannot do by way of using their vocational positions to promote what they believe to be pressing socio-political issues. Below I explore some of the roots of this significant dispute.

November 28, 2023

World on the brink: Australia must act on Ban Treaty

With the world on the brink, Australia must take new initiatives on Ban Treaty, nuclear risk reduction.

November 6, 2023

Troubling tenure again: Would ministers appoint permanent mates?

The system of fixed term contracts for department heads is not in itself the cause of the recent debacles of Robodebt and Home Affairs. Restoring permanent appointments for departmental heads is unthinkable, not least because the former system rested upon powerful public service boards, now abolished everywhere. We could not restore such bodies even if we wanted to. Would some ministers then appoint permanent mates?

October 27, 2023

A Western disease of cause-and-effect amnesia

The savage Israeli reaction to the suggestion by UN Secretary-General, Antnio Guterres, that some Hamas actions may be a response to 56 years of Israeli repression was extraordinary. We have long known about Israeli sensitivity to criticism. But this brings things to a new level. Cannot Israel accept even some of its own responsibility for the Hamas response?

December 16, 2024

Moral philosopher Raimond Gaita on Israel, Gaza and the student protests

Few events have caused such deep fractures in our community as the Hamas attacks on October 7, and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza. Moral philosopher and writer Raimond Gaita wrestles with the moral and ethical dimensions of this conflict to try to make sense of the incomprehensible.

November 15, 2024

"The world’s greatest deceivers": Andrew Forrest takes aim at Woodside and Exxon

It didn’t take long after Donald Trump and the Republicans swept the polls in the US elections for the Australian fossil fuel industry and its political enablers to do what they like to do best: Celebrate a victory at the expense of the rest of the world.

March 10, 2024

Why does the West abound with misreaders of China's economy?

As 2024 marks the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, whether this mythical creature should be named “Dragon” or “Loong” in English has puzzled many and stirred heated discussions.

January 13, 2024

How terrorism is handled in different places

Terrorism is a global problem, we could talk all day and night about whether a terrorist is a freedom fighter, an oppressed person struggling for recognition or a cold-blooded murderer but whatever the reasons, everyone must agree; innocent people deserve protection from terrorists.

December 9, 2023

The people's pavillion

The third preview of the ABC acquired documentary; Saving Bondi Pavilion was screened in the NSW Parliament theatrette on the 28th of November. It detailed the successful fight to prevent the privatisation/commercialisation of one of our treasured national icons.

December 6, 2023

As you read this, physicians are amputating childrens hands, arms and legs without anaesthesia

Doctors without Borders (the French volunteer organisation Mdecins Sans Frontires [MSF]) has written a poignant letter to the United Nations Security Council imploring for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as hospitals are turned into Morgues.

February 14, 2023

Pearls and Irritations has never been more necessary

Pearls and Irritations is essential reading for anyone interested in public policy analysis.

March 29, 2021

Womens passion and anger isnt enough to force lasting change

It is said that early in the catalogue of Morrisons mismanagement of recent issues that some of his advisers asserted the matters that had come to the fore - alleged rape, the safety of women in parliament and in the wider world - was a doctors wife sort of issue, of intense interest only to the female chattering classes, with little bite in the main electorate, particularly among women predisposed to vote conservative.

April 4, 2025

The Frontier is the way ahead for the War Memorial

“Sacrifice”, the ABC Four Corners episode of 10 March, was a train-wreck for the Australian War Memorial. Its spokespersons came across as dismissive, timid, or too clever by half. The critics of the Memorial, however, were passionate, regretful, and, in the case of Geoffrey Watson SC from the Centre for Public Integrity, downright angry.

January 3, 2025

Netanyahu as an American stooge

The war about Israel and its right to exist is not really between Israel and the leading terrorist militias whose aim is to destroy Israel. It is now, more clearly than ever, between the US and Iran.

November 5, 2024

History cannot excuse the crimes of the present

One of Mark Twain’s more celebrated aphorisms is that ‘history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme’. Witty, no doubt, but it doesn’t seem quite adequate to Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, its longstanding, settler-led expansion into the West Bank, or the implausible use of history to justify current policy.

January 31, 2024

The Australia-US relationship right or wrong?

The likely nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for Novembers US presidential election has many asking whether Australia should remain as committed to its close relationship with the US as it has been. Setting aside that a vocal minority has long questioned Australias commitment to the relationship, two matters make this time around different to Trumps election in 2016.

March 8, 2023

Red Alert? Follow the money instead: ASPI is a front for US propaganda

What is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), what are its sources of funding, and why does it so consistently advocate for positions favourable to the United States and the weapons industry? Follow the money trail.

February 15, 2024

Being back home in China for Lunar New Year feels different

An undutiful daughter’s atonement trip after four years.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal