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Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
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Letters
October 4, 2025

Erasing Gaza's ecosystem

Israel is rightly known for its technological prowess, not least when it comes to making war.

September 26, 2025

Nepal is the latest of Asia’s unfinished revolutions that keep politics stuck in a loop

Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina begins with the famous line, “all happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”.

September 10, 2025

Vale Adrian Buzo (1948–2025)

In August 2025, the historian, diplomat, linguist, and Korean Studies pioneer, Dr Adrian Buzo passed away after a long battle with illness.

September 4, 2025

Erasing Gaza's ecosystem

Israel is rightly known for its technological prowess, not least when it comes to making war.

October 1, 2025

'Died of a delusion' – the fate of modern civilisation?

The collapse of modern human civilisation is inevitable. Anyone who doesn’t accept that knows no history.

September 29, 2025

Bob Brown's latest book is a breath of fresh air

Bob Brown’s latest book,  Defiance, is a salubrious breath of a tall peppermint native forest. It’s not a hard book, but rather only hard to heed for some.

September 12, 2025

The retreat of social democracy and the rise of the hard right

From Warsaw to Melbourne, from Berlin to Texas, the streets of many OECD countries are witnessing anti-immigration rallies and the surge of far-right populism.

September 22, 2025

1 in 3 Australians in their late 60s are still working, new HILDA survey shows

Australia has seen a dramatic transformation of retirement over the past 20 years, with more Australians delaying retirement than ever before, reshaping expectations for later life.

September 17, 2025

The rise of China and learning the correct lessons from history

Given that the only certainty in international affairs these days is uncertainty, we should probably be circumspect about projecting how the world might look decades down the track — let alone how our current moment might be portrayed in the rearview mirror of history.

September 23, 2025

Lies and hypocrisy are now the truth

Many governments that call themselves democratic and law-abiding are not. The United States has set the pace in the hypocrisy stakes for years. Its fascist tendencies are now clearly on display.

July 21, 2025

Spare more than a thought for Iran’s protesters

Members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ask the world to take notice of impressively brave protests against a cruel and repressive Iranian regime.

September 19, 2025

Five ways to keep kids safe in Australia’s health system

One in five Australians is a child, but too often kids’ healthcare is inconsistent, fragmented, and not designed with their needs front and centre.

July 31, 2025

It shouldn't have taken this much for mainstream voices to start speaking up about Gaza

Israel’s top human rights group B’Tselem has finally declared that Israel is committing genocide, as has the Israel-based Physicians for Human Rights.

September 24, 2025

Devouring the earth may decide our future

Every day, the food you eat and resources you use cost the planet at least 12 kilos of lost topsoil.

July 28, 2017

TED TRAINER. Terrorism and Our Empire: Some Neglected Questions.

There is a very strong tendency to avoid asking some key questions about terrorism, thereby maintaining various myths and delusions that prevent a number of unpleasant realities from being faced up to.

July 26, 2017

LOUIS COOPER. President Trump's 17-page list of changes to the North American Free Trade agreement [NAFTA] are causing some political problems for Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

NAFTA came into force on January 1 1994. It replaced the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA’s basic premise was to ignore the international borders and reduce or eliminate tariffs for much of the trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico. For the most part, it has been beneficial to the North American economies and the average citizen,  but harmful to a small minority of workers in industries exposed to trade competition.

August 4, 2017

DAVID CHARLES. The Australian media's emphasis on the downsides of technological change has implications for innovation, growth and living standards.

There is systematic tendency in Australia compared to many countries in Asia for the mainstream media to place greater emphasis on the potential downsides of technological change rather than the upsides.

August 4, 2017

JULIAN CRIBB: When optimism spells disaster...

One of the most dangerous threats to the human future in this, the Age of Perils, is … optimism.

August 2, 2017

HANS J OHFF. Horse for Courses: Nuclear and Diesel-Electric Submarines

Arguing for a review into nuclear-powered submarines former PM Abbott laments that ‘the RAN will take delivery of a class that will have less power, less range, less speed and less capability … and that it will come into service about a decade later than would be optimal at a time when strategic circumstances are changing against us.’

August 3, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN. The bi-partisanship shame of refugee policy

What possessed Filippo Grandi, the relatively new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to go public last week, having a go at Australia for our government’s treatment of unvisaed asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat? He repeated UNHCR’s demand that Australia terminate offshore processing of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island and that we not outsource our responsibilities to others. 

July 28, 2017

TIM LINDSEY. Jokowi’s dilemma: turning Islamists into civil rights heroes?

Indonesia’s emergency law, enacted in response to the growing disruptive influence of Islamist hard-liners, could be a blow to the open, liberal democracy that Indonesian reformers have been trying to build ever since the fall of Soeharto in 1998. And it has the ironic result of forcing civil society groups that are usually against the hard-liners into their camp.

July 13, 2017

JOHN AUSTEN. Does Infrastructure Australia understand its ideas for public transport franchising?

A recent report by Infrastructure Australia recommends franchising state public transport services, with Commonwealth incentives for so doing. It claimed that this would realise around $16 bn of financial savings, which could be spent on infrastructure. The report assumed there to be inherent but undisclosed inefficiencies in state government services, without providing evidence of such inefficiencies.

July 24, 2017

CESAR JARAMILLO. Canada's opposition to the nuclear weapons ban treaty has degraded its reputation on disarmament, at home and abroad. An open letter to Justin Trudeau on the banning of nuclear weapons

Dear Mr. Trudeau,

You recently dismissed this year’s multilateral process to negotiate a legal prohibition of nuclear weapons as “useless.” I’m afraid you were misinformed: it was anything but.

July 27, 2017

IAN MCAULEY. Dutton's new super ministry: will it make us safer?

The Government’s proposed “Home Affairs” mega ministry, if it concentrates resources and public attention on Islamic terrorism, could make us less safe from other threats to our public safety.

July 26, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. Germany’s Ostpolitik in the Modern Era

Germany recognises that there is a fundamental shift in the economic, political and military balance of power to the east.  It is now flexing its political muscle to match its economic might.

July 25, 2017

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Government policies have made us less safe.

The establishment of an enlarged Department of Home Affairs under the ministerial control of Peter Dutton is an unnecessary mistaken policy.  

August 6, 2025

US’ deceitful tactic will have wide consequences

Richard Cullen says the Pentagon launched illegal attack on Iran while Trump claimed commitment to diplomacy.

September 20, 2025

Key policies for the energy transition

This week the federal government is expected to release its 2035 greenhouse gas emissions target. However, more important than the target itself are policies needed to achieve substantial, effective, rapid emission reductions.

September 5, 2025

Ambassador for war crimes denial

Arguably the most inflammatory Japanese diplomat ever despatched to Australia, former ambassador Yamagami Shingo, is at it again.

August 29, 2025

How the ALP built the market that is destroying public schools

Australia’s public school system is in crisis, underfunded, residualised, and struggling to retain teachers.

August 20, 2025

Requiem for liberalism: Palestine and the exposure of Western ideals

Continued enabling by ostensibly liberal democratic governments of the ongoing genocide in Gaza (where increased condemnation remains unmatched by tangible actions to end the carnage) reveals more than the hypocrisy of those who purport to represent us.

August 23, 2025

Still talkin’ ’bout My Generation

The first time I heard The Who’s My Generation_, I was a teenager and it sounded like a punch in the face._

August 25, 2025

Palestinian statehood without liberation

Why are European countries shifting towards recognising Palestinian statehood at this late stage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza? Three Al Shabaka policy analysts weigh in.

July 25, 2025

The new pricing scam: How surveillance pricing exploits us all

Imagine booking an Uber ride on your shiny new iPhone 16, only to discover it costs $10 more than the same trip booked on your friend’s older Android.

July 23, 2025

Time to clarify the scope for bipartisan cooperation in a new Federal Parliament

It would be wise if the Prime Minister and the new Leader of the Opposition were to meet early in this new Federal Parliament to clarify what they think is the desirable and possible scope for bipartisan cooperation.

July 16, 2025

More than 5800 Gaza children diagnosed with malnutrition in June: UNICEF

“Children’s bodies are wasting away,” the agency said. “This is not just a nutrition crisis. It’s a child survival emergency.”

September 8, 2025

China hysteria masks Australian insecurity

The recent China panic stories raging across the Murdoch media, the Nine newspapers, the ABC and even the usually steadier Guardian are remarkable.

July 31, 2025

'How Israel defends itself matters'

Remember that declaration? It was a clear assertion from the Australian Government that the Israeli military response to the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 must have civilised limits.

August 18, 2025

A focus on consumption is the wrong way to go

In many countries around the world, from China to the US to Australia, there is concern that people are not spending enough of their money. They are saving it.

September 26, 2025

I am ANTIFA

I am ANTIFA. Or so says President Donald Trump, branding me and millions like me as terrorists in the same breath he decries “fake news” and “radical left” bogeymen.

July 11, 2017

TONY KEVIN. Hamburg G20 : Much was achieved

Angela Merkel’s firm and statesmanlike chairmanship steered the Hamburg G20 to a content-rich, global economics and climate change-dominated leaders’ declaration https://www.g20.org/gipfeldokumente/G20-leaders-declaration.pdf.  

September 22, 2025

Gaza – a new springboard for Western imperialism

Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rallies often begin their speeches linking the suffering of the people of Gaza to that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, highlighting the shared pain and the roots of resistance to colonialist occupation and ongoing oppression.

August 15, 2025

Recognition of Palestine only a start

Prime Minister Albanese’s announcement on 11 August that Australia will recognise the state of Palestine is a dramatic break with the past.

August 13, 2025

Australian Jewish Association accused of hate campaign: Landmark legal action launched

The Australian Jewish Association and its charity arm, the Australian Jewish Association Tzedakah Incorporated, are facing a landmark legal challenge after more than a year of alleged racial and religious vilification targeting Palestinians and Muslims.

August 27, 2025

Asia’s response to a leaderless trading system

Policy uncertainty reshapes trade slowly and then suddenly. The investments that build trade relationships are long-term choices.

October 2, 2025

Palestine, hate and the fantasy of White Australia

Last week, as the prime minister confirmed Australia would recognise Palestine, far right protesters still hit Melbourne’s streets.

October 1, 2025

Prime Minister’s Literary Awards winners 2025: investigating power, privilege and inequality

Michelle de Kretser has won the fiction prize in the  2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. It’s her second major prize this year for her ambitious, experimental novel  Theory and Practice, which won the 2025 Stella Prize (and was  shortlisted for the Miles Franklin).

August 19, 2025

After the genocide in Gaza

So what happens next, sports fans, fellow Australian citizens? Now that Israel is starting to run out of Palestinian children and women to kill, hospitals to smash, and people to starve.

July 17, 2025

Antisemitism and abuse of power

In order to understand that word it is necessary to de-construct it and to understand its origin and history.

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