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Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
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  • Letters
September 20, 2025

Foolhardy prison expansion

The opening of yet another large prison in Australia, this time in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley, is foolhardy.

August 4, 2017

It's high noon on the roof of the world

The territorial standoff in the Himalayas is a lose-lose proposition for both India and China.

August 8, 2025

Gendered violence in war isn’t a flaw. It’s a feature

When people ask, “Why are children always the first to suffer in war?” I find myself thinking about Gaza.

September 3, 2025

Reining in vice-chancellor and executive pay: Restoring governance in public universities

In recent years — especially since the COVID-19 pandemic — executive pay in Australian public universities has drawn increasing public and political scrutiny.

August 11, 2025

NSW Premier and the right to protest

Great Labor leaders are usually good communicators, persuasive, with a commanding presence.

August 4, 2025

Palestinians have a history of oppression long before 7 October, 2023

It would seem that most journalists and political commentators remain stuck on the terrible attack by the Hamas brigades (formally Islamic Resistance Movement) into Israel on 7 October 2023.

October 3, 2025

PR firms are spreading climate misinformation on behalf of fossil fuel companies. Could Australia stop them?

Have you heard offshore wind farms kill whales? ( They don’t.) Or that electric vehicles catch fire more often than petrol cars? (It’s the  opposite.) Perhaps you’ve heard “natural” gas is clean? (It can be  worse than coal.)

August 26, 2025

'Betrayal of humanity': Nearly half of 383 aid workers killed last year were in Gaza

“No state should be above the law,” said Younis Alkhatib of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. “The international community is obliged to protect humanitarians and to stop impunity.”

August 6, 2025

Bringing government back – but not all the way

The Albanese Government wants Australians to believe that the era of market dogma is over.

July 11, 2025

Suggesting a Nobel for Trump is a Netanyahu obscenity

Intent on stroking one another’s outsize egos, two thugs in the White House smirk at the latest ingratiation-beyond-belief feature of their alliance.

September 30, 2025

What's wrong with America's democracy? There has never been one

We cannot but sympathise with those who lament the destruction of American “democracy” as they see the rule of law dissolve before them and the once revered Constitution thrown into the wastepaper basket.

September 6, 2025

SSN AUKUS – Heading for a quagmire (Part II)

In the first part, I identified the factors mitigating against the sale of 3-5 Virginia class submarines to cover the gap until the arrival of the British designed SSN AUKUS.

August 22, 2025

Silver foxholes: A moral argument for older soldiers

The Australian Defence Force’s recruitment efforts are targeted primarily at teenagers and young adults.

September 11, 2025

Israel and the Palestinians: Just one piece of the American plan

In his P&I article ’ The Real death toll in Gaza’ posted on 5 September, John Menadue reminded us that “Israel has become a criminal state” and “Now it is committing genocide”.

September 8, 2025

The headlines Australians read – and what we’re told to feel

Most people don’t read past the headlines of news articles, either because they don’t have time or because the article itself is paywalled (for example, in Australia, News Corp and Nine websites).

July 29, 2025

The principal barrier to a rapid energy transition

With the dead-end nuclear energy scenario binned during the present reign of the Labor Government and rapid technological change facilitating renewable energy solutions, we must now come to grips with the principal non-technical barrier to a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

September 25, 2025

From Kimmel's comeback to corporate reckoning: How your wallet can topple titans

In a plot twist straight out of Hollywood, Jimmy Kimmel is back. Just one week after Disney suspended the late-night host indefinitely, the network reversed course. Why?

August 15, 2025

An open letter to the Jewish Board of Deputies

I am part of a small group of people who intended to hold an event to discuss the situation in Gaza. Shortly before our event was scheduled, the Jewish board of Deputies pressed our venue operators to cancel the event. This incursion into our right to gather was a striking example of the ethos that informs so much of the Zionist lobby’s methods of silencing any departure from what is perceived as pro-Israel lines of argument. Thus:

August 7, 2025

Can Corbyn’s new party in Britain prompt a Turnbull comeback?

When former prime minister Birgitte Nyborg started a new political party in Denmark during season 3 of Borgen, her fictional initiative reflected changing times in Denmark.

July 22, 2025

Failures in privatised care starkly illustrate the inevitable failure of neoliberalism

The failures of privatised child care and aged care have starkly illustrated the inability of markets to deliver quality service. The failure applies to all human services.

August 30, 2025

Albanese is expelling the wrong embassy

Two days after hundreds of thousands of Australians joined nationwide protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, the Albanese Government abruptly announced that it would expel Iranian diplomats.

August 5, 2025

To meet 21st century challenges, business regulation needs urgent reform

A new parliamentary term in Canberra for a re-elected government with a huge majority is a timely opportunity for long-term policy and regulatory reform. One necessary focus is the ecosystem for business success in society under 21st century conditions, in an age of existential threats.

July 16, 2025

Humanity is ‘risking catastrophe’: UN

The full spread of the impending crisis facing humanity is, at long last, emerging into daylight with the publication by the United Nations of its 2025 Global Risks Report.

September 1, 2025

Amnesty condemns abduction and arbitrary arrest of Pakistan’s top triathlete, Shahrez Khan

As Pakistan risks a mass exodus of international talent with democracy in decline, its youth refuse to give up on former cricketing legend and prime minister, Imran Khan’s vision for “justice, humanity and self-esteem".

August 23, 2025

Israel, the 'only democracy in the Middle East' – How to win elections and erase people

Israel frequently touts itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East” – a refrain echoed by Western leaders, particularly in the US and parts of Europe.

July 28, 2025

We have turned the Nagasaki 80th into a celebration of Israeli genocide

Israel’s key enablers, the G7, plus Australia and New Zealand, have succeeded in muscling Israel back onto the invite list for the commemorations in Nagasaki on 9 August. Last year Israel was excluded, triggering a refusal by these countries to attend in 2024. Does the ‘personal’ invitation that Nagasaki has just sent to Israel represent a triumph of Western diplomacy or a sick joke?

September 13, 2025

Old people are the victims of neoliberal profiteers

Being the minister for Aged Care or Seniors is hard work and it is not a glamorous portfolio.

August 18, 2025

Trump’s attacks are driving what BRICS was meant to do: encourage co-operation among non-Western powers and reduce dependence on the US

At first glance, US President Donald Trump’s renewed “America first” agenda seems aimed at the heart of the  BRICS bloc of developing nations.

August 16, 2025

What is the Yokohama Commonwealth War Cemetery and what was Australia's response to it?

Anniversary events commemorating the end of the Asia Pacific War continue to focus on populist themes of victory, defeat, military prowess, 80 years on.

December 22, 2018

TED TRAINER. The case for De-growth -- will continue to be ignored.

A De-Growth movement has emerged, mainly in Europe, in response to the fact that global levels of production and consumption are now grossly unsustainable. A vast literature documenting this has accumulated over almost fifty years.  But the official world of politicians, governments, economists and media completely ignore it and devote themselves to growing the economy … that is, to accelerating us to our doom. 

August 19, 2025

You aren't laughing now, are you?

The British media has always been populated by larger than life figures – from Northcliffe to Maxwell, Beaverbrook to Harmsworth, Barclay to Lebedev and, of course Rupert Murdoch.

July 19, 2025

Slaying the juggernauts

Barbara Preston’s recent reflection on Australia’s school funding system offers a quietly devastating insight into the paradox of public education reform._

July 18, 2025

There's nothing 'liberal' about the Liberal Party

It’s becoming increasingly untenable to describe the Liberal Party as “liberal” in either of the ways that term is used in modern politics. No wonder voters are confused about what the party stands for.

July 25, 2025

Defenders of rules-based order: not who you thought

On Tuesday, a committed group of over 1,000 activists rained on the Government’s parade, using the day of the opening of Parliament to protest Australia’s ongoing complicity in the Israeli Government’s genocidal actions in Gaza.

July 27, 2017

Talisman Sabre just confuses strategic thinking for Australia

The recent joint US:Australian Talisman Sabre joint military exercise has added further confusion to  the challenge of determining sensible Australian strategic thinking. US talk of a joint expeditionary force to combat IS terrorism in SE Asia camouflages an attempt by senior US military to draw Australia into a much closer US embrace.

September 16, 2025

New ‘thought policing’ bill may let Rubio strip passports from US citizens over political speech

“Marco Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say,” said one free speech advocate.

September 2, 2025

Western civilisation is not worth saving

Western civilisation is not worth saving. I think that’s been pretty well established by now.

August 9, 2025

Trump and Kennedy are destroying global science. Even Einstein questioned facts – but there’s a method to it

Eight months into Donald Trump’s second term as president of the US, truth and science are again under attack – with global consequences.

August 20, 2025

Dead time

According to the recent report of the Productivity Commission, the number of First Nations people in Australian prisons is at an all-time high.

August 13, 2025

Are you happy?

What do Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden have in common?

August 2, 2025

The moral correctness of a conscientious 'flotilla'

Lest anyone imagine that the recent attempt by a ship containing aid for distressed Palestinians was without precedent, they should consult a cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald of 28 July 1995 by Alan Moir.

September 4, 2025

Sprinting to stand still: Still no progress in Australia’s energy transition

August 2025: The Australian Government’s oxymoronically named Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has just published its 2025 Australian Energy Statistics Update Report.

July 26, 2025

From steam power to silicon: the unequal legacy of empire and innovation

From the steam engine to the internet, many of the world’s most significant scientific and technological advancements have emerged during the height of powerful empires. The British Empire—and more recently, the United States—have stood at the forefront of this global transformation.

July 23, 2025

Progressive patriotism fails the independence test

Anthony Albanese’s recent John Curtin oration sparked hope among some that Australia might pursue a more independent foreign policy.

July 15, 2025

A warning from the past about the United States of today

The Trump administration’s actions at home and support for horrors abroad raise the question: is America becoming a fascist police state?

September 5, 2025

As Florida ends all childhood vaccine mandates, doctors fear preventable diseases will 'come roaring back'

“Florida’s decision to erase school vaccine requirements will cause preventable illness and death,” said one immunologist. “Not just for kids in Florida, for whole communities, of all ages, across the country.”

July 30, 2025

LDP’s historic electoral defeat upends Japan’s politics

Japan’s political landscape changed significantly on 20 July 2025 with the triennial upper house elections delivering a stinging blow to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, Komeito.

August 25, 2025

Shared vision, greener together: China and Australia unlock opportunities in eco initiatives

On 9 April, Swatten, a subsidiary of Sieyuan Electric which is headquartered in Shanghai, China, made an appearance at Booth 58 of the Smart Energy 2025 expo in Sydney.

August 21, 2025

Say no to sportswashing Israel's crimes

Our governments have long been aware of the importance of sport to the national psyche.

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