November 17, 2025

How did Australian universities go from free education to $50,000 arts degrees in 50 years?

Australians think students are being asked to pay far too much for their degrees. Just under half (47%) of Australians surveyed by YouGov in June 2025 believe a worker on an average income should be able to pay off the debt for a standard three-year degree within five years. When it comes to the cost of a degree, 58% believe a student should pay $5000 or less per year – less than a third of what arts students now pay.

November 2, 2025

Prince Andrew’s ‘one peppercorn’ lease exposes how little is known about royal finances

In announcing that Prince Andrew would no longer use his title or honours, Buckingham Palace hoped to shift the spotlight away from his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and the accusations of sexual abuse he has faced (and denied).

October 18, 2025

Mr Albanese goes to Washington

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on 20 October.

February 3, 2026

Making polluters pay could fix Australia’s climate problem – and its budget

A new report shows how making polluters pay will not only diminish the threat from climate change, but it can also help restore the budget and the economy.

January 18, 2026

Dangerously alive: summer, sharks and a ritual encounter with danger

A beach swim, a shark warning and a familiar summer ritual open up bigger questions about safety, fear, and what it means to feel alive.

January 28, 2026

The United States is a lawless and dangerous ally. What is Australia's Plan B?

Mark Carney’s Davos speech highlights a world in rupture, not transition. Australia needs to rethink its dependence on the United States and begin preparing a credible Plan B.

November 26, 2025

Why the trauma community must break its silence on Gaza

As Gaza reels from unimaginable physical and psychological harm, the global trauma healing community has remained largely silent. Breaking that silence is essential if therapeutic work is to remain honest, ethical and grounded in the reality clients bring into the room.

February 11, 2026

When peaceful protest is allowed to work, democracy works

Melbourne’s mass protest against the visit of Israel President Isaac Herzog showed how large, diverse crowds can assemble peacefully when police exercise restraint and common sense. Sydney’s response points to a deeper failure of judgment about protest, power and democracy.

February 1, 2026

Mark Carney – Values: an economist's guide to everything that matters

Mark Carney argues that treating price as a proxy for value has driven crises in finance, health and climate. His book offers a roadmap for rebuilding trust, fairness and resilience.

December 13, 2025

How to navigate the Support at Home maze

Australia’s revamped aged care system was supposed to streamline access and improve support. Instead, older people are confronting long waits, rising costs, confusing assessments and opaque rules that too often leave them without the help they need.

December 7, 2025

Ceding the future to China

Delivered as remarks to Brown University’s Watson School during its “China Chat” series, Chas Freeman reflects on China’s return to global prominence and the United States’ accelerating retreat from the international order it once led – and asks what coexistence looks like as power shifts in the 21st century.

October 13, 2025

Lack of China capability can only do harm to society: Our current situation is a disgrace

In March 2023, the Australian Academy of the Humanities sounded the alarm on the decline in our understanding and knowledge of China through a report on “ Australia’s China Knowledge Capability”.

January 15, 2026

Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israel to visit this country be immediately withdrawn

A call to withdraw President Herzog’s invitation, uphold international law, and defend free speech and the right to protest.

January 17, 2026

"Go ahead – make my book list": slings and arrows, and Eastwood

Shawn Levy’s Clint Eastwood biography captures the contradictions of a screen icon — and the craft behind a career still shaping popular cinema.

January 17, 2019

KIM WINGEREI. Brexit chaos - the failures of Westminster

As the Brexit chaos continues, it is worth reflecting on the background that led Britain to where it is today - with no ending in sight. The root cause lays in how the Westminster system is failing to serve the people.

January 9, 2026

Best of 2025 - Recognition of the Palestinian State without halting the genocide: A meaningless decision

Since the occurrence of the war in October 2023, which shocked the conscience of the world, bringing the Palestinian question back to the forefront of international attention, much more legitimacy has accrued to the rights of the Palestinians.

January 12, 2026

Best of 2025 - Mr Albanese goes to Washington

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on 20 October.

January 19, 2026

Gory sausage making at the Labor knackery

“Social coherence” is being invoked everywhere, but public trust is fraying. Political panic, rushed laws and weak leadership are deepening division, not repairing it.

January 16, 2026

Iran in the vortex: what's really happening

As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within.

January 6, 2026

Best of 2025 - Dreyfus leaves little legacy

In his term as attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus failed to address many big issues.

January 7, 2026

Best of 2025 - Why key leaders attended China’s military parade – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Nations “must adapt” to new power politics. Plus: Raid “will hurt” South Korea’s US investments; Trump’s strategic shift towards Pakistan; What’s next after Nepal’s 8 September massacre; Thailand gets its first minority government; Why India has the world’s biggest diaspora.

January 8, 2026

Best of 2025 - What game is he playing? The PM and AUKUS

As the Australian prime minister prepares for his visit to the UN in New York next week, Robert Macklin looks into what Anthony Albanese might be hoping for on the trilateral security deal.

January 13, 2026

Best of 2025 - Chris Sidoti on the International Court of Justice Gaza ruling

Yuji Iwasawa, president of the UN’s highest court, says international law prohibits the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare.

January 10, 2026

Best of 2025 - No justice or peace for Palestinians in Trump’s Plan

The Trump Plan is designed to reframe the issues in favour of Israel. Palestinians have been betrayed again.

January 11, 2026

Best of 2025 - A masterclass in agency: What Singapore can teach Australia about China

Singapore’s new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sat down with the ABC on 2 October and offered something rare in Australia’s China debate: clarity, confidence, and a middle-power strategy that doesn’t involve shouting or submission.

January 18, 2026

Protests and consequences: Gaza and Iran

Australians can condemn repression in Iran and still focus on Gaza, where our government’s leverage is real and our moral responsibility is direct.

January 14, 2026

Why Australia should walk away from AUKUS

Trump’s actions in Venezuela and rhetoric elsewhere confirm that the United States no longer respects international law or allied interests. Australia should rethink its strategic dependence accordingly.

February 23, 2018

Emma Alberici’s now more critical tax cuts ‘analysis’ reposted by ABC

After a bitter dispute between ABC management and their star chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, the ABC today reposted her ‘analysis’ of the Turnbull government’s plan for big corporate tax cuts.

November 17, 2025

Message from the editor

Thanks to all for the terrific response to our new venture Pearlcast which, if you haven’t caught it yet, focused on the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government.

November 9, 2025

To fix the economy, fix housing

Australia’s economy is in a post-pandemic slump. To dig us out, state and federal governments must tackle the chronic shortage of housing in our biggest cities.

October 28, 2025

Raise the double standard high

There is a famous quote with many attributions but no firm source – “Sincerity is the most important thing in politics: once you can fake that, you’ve got it made!”

February 15, 2026

Who will prosecute Geoffrey Robertson's peerless plan for peace?

In his new book Geoffrey Robertson argues the UN Security Council can no longer defend democracy and proposes a new alliance of democratic states. The diagnosis is compelling – the path forward far less clear.

January 8, 2026

Best of 2025 - Genocide betrays the living and the dead

Genocide scholars Damir Mitric and Jill Klein have deep personal and professional experience in genocide and repercussions across generations. As the world watches in horror as the genocide in Gaza continues, they bring us their story.

December 19, 2025

Pearlcast: a year that overturned the old certainties

As 2025 draws to a close, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions. But in the latest episode of our podcast Pearlcast, that impulse is firmly resisted.

October 14, 2025

Takaichi’s victory will only accelerate the LDP’s decline

If the Liberal Democratic Party’s leaders thought that dumping Shigeru Ishiba as party president and prime minister would lead to greater party unity and make the LDP more popular with the general public, they were sorely mistaken.

February 24, 2026

Capital gains tax should increase

Reducing the capital gains tax discount would make the tax system fairer, raise much-needed revenue and have little effect on housing supply, given how constrained that supply already is.

February 22, 2026

A history of assassination reveals how ‘targeted killings’ became an extension of state power

Targeted killing has shifted from a tactic governments disavowed to one they increasingly acknowledge and promote. A new history traces how assassination became embedded in modern state power.

February 21, 2026

Message from the Editor

I gasped in disbelief when I heard our Prime Minster invoke his beloved mother, when blocking the return of family members of ISIS fighters to Australia this week. He said: “My mother would have said, ‘If you make your bed, you lie in it’." And he doubled down the next day, saying of the 11 women and 23 children: “I have nothing but contempt for these people.”

February 9, 2026

Authoritarianism is undermining climate action – and time is running out

The global rise of authoritarianism is weakening climate governance just as warming accelerates and tipping points draw near. This failure now poses a direct threat to our future.

February 19, 2026

How the United States built the world’s biggest military machine

Since 1945, one country has carried out a conventional military buildup unmatched in scale, cost and global reach. Claims about recent rivals distract from the historical record of how modern military dominance was built.

January 31, 2026

Message from the Editor

Hello all – I hope you got some much-needed respite during what turned out to be a January full of grief and turmoil for so many.

November 26, 2025

Why Australia’s pro-globalisation consensus endures

Australia’s post-pandemic politics may look more divided, but fears of a rising populist backlash are overstated. Demographics, institutions and economic geography still anchor the nation’s long-standing consensus in favour of openness, migration and global integration.

November 24, 2025

Message from the Editor

First of all my thanks to those who’ve already made a donation to our end of year fundraiser. As many of you know we are absolutely independent and fund operations purely through the generosity of the Pearls and Irritations community.

October 12, 2025

The UN in Trump’s world and the implications for Australia’s independence

Unfair criticism has often been levelled at the UN. None has been so gratuitously nasty than President Trump’s 23 September 2025 General Assembly address.

February 1, 2026

Vaccination, misinformation and the damage done by US policy shifts

The United States’ retreat from evidence-based vaccination policy is accelerating vaccine hesitancy at home and abroad. As misinformation gains official backing, the consequences for public health are already becoming visible – and Australia is not immune.

January 25, 2026

Mark Carney and the middle power moment

Mark Carney’s Davos speech argues the world has entered a rupture where great powers use coercion and the old rules no longer restrain them. The challenge for countries like Australia is to face reality, apply consistent standards to allies and rivals, and build collective leverage with other middle powers. _

December 22, 2025

Message from the Editor

I hope you have had time to read our offerings on the terrible shootings at Bondi this week. Amidst a thicket of coverage, here and overseas, many readers were struggling to process the tragic events.

December 20, 2025

China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack us

Australia faces no credible military threat from China. The real danger lies in uncritical alignment with US strategy, fear-driven rhetoric and the steady erosion of national sovereignty.

October 19, 2025

Israel returns Palestinian prisoners’ bodies with ‘signs of torture, mutilation and execution’

An unknown number of Palestinians abducted by Israel died or were killed while in custody; living former prisoners have described horrific and, sometimes, deadly torture.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal