March 18, 2026

AUKUS: So many questions, so few answers

The Australian public deserve to understand the implications of the Morrison/Albanese secretive, AUKUS agreement.

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!”

March 19, 2026

ACT justice system on the brink from chronic underfunding

Legal Aid, prosecutors and the courts are all under pressure, raising concerns about fairness, workload and the effective operation of the ACT justice system.

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.

October 15, 2025

Reclaiming care in the age of AI

Sixty years ago, the patient-doctor interaction was, at its best, about human beings connecting, engaging, listening, observing and caring.

October 8, 2025

Hundreds of thousands flood cities across Europe to demand end to genocide in Gaza

An estimated 250,000 people dressed in red crowded into Museum Square in Amsterdam, demanding that the Dutch government end its support for Israel.

January 24, 2026

Australia’s economic growth forecasts look upbeat – but the foundations are shaky

According to the government the economy is strengthening, but the risks are all on the downside, especially the projection that productivity will grow significantly faster than it has over the previous 15 years.

November 25, 2025

Losing the democracy sausage vibe

The last federal election saw a sharp rise in harassment and aggression at polling places, according to submissions from around the country. From death threats to deception, the once-peaceful ritual of casting a vote is under threat – and Australia needs to act.

October 29, 2025

Whitlam dismissal secrets unearthed from the archives of the Canadian governor-general

This newly uncovered material, exclusively published by Crikey, is the first indication from Sir John Kerr himself that Queen Elizabeth II approved of the position he had taken during his dismissal of Gough Whitlam.

October 9, 2025

‘Disaster season’: What is that?

Anika Wells, in announcing a meeting with three telco giants to discuss Optus’s Triple Zero emergency call system catastrophe in September, referred to the need for Australians to have confidence in the system before the coming “disaster season”. By that she meant summer. Is there really such a season?

February 3, 2026

The smouldering wreckage on Capital Hill – part 1

The Coalition’s implosion after the Bondi sitting was not a sudden accident. It exposed long-running tensions between the Liberals and Nationals, intensified by polling anxiety, One Nation’s rise and the limits of Australia’s Westminster conventions.

January 16, 2026

Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism

For two years, we’ve been told Australia is drowning in antisemitism. Every protest for Palestinian human rights, every mural, every chant criticising Israel has been hauled up as “evidence.”

December 15, 2025

Message from the Editor

As we hurtle towards the chaos of Christmas, we are taking a moment to reflect on the high and lows of 2025, and what it all means for 2026.

November 2, 2025

Notice which genocides you are and are not allowed to oppose

Do you notice how nobody’s losing their jobs or getting deported for criticising the genocidal atrocities in Sudan?

October 24, 2025

After ICJ ruling, can UN relief agency UNRWA resume full Gaza operations?

ICJ states that Israel must allow aid into Gaza, ensuring food, water, medicine, and shelter for the Palestinian population.

February 28, 2026

Message from the Editor

I tried very hard to comply with former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s call to boycott The US President’s State of the Union address this past week – but when the Al Jazeera prompt flashed up on my computer screen I caved.

January 19, 2026

Britain has banned junk food advertising to kids. There are big lessons for Australia

Britain has moved to limit junk food marketing to children, despite loopholes and lobbying. Australia still hasn’t acted.

March 12, 2026

Selective compassion in Australia’s refugee policy

Australia’s decision to grant humanitarian visas to Iranian footballers highlights how refugee policy often rewards cases that fit convenient political narratives.

February 18, 2026

Australia is finally building more social housing – but it’s still not enough

Public investment will add tens of thousands of new social housing dwellings by 2030, reversing decades of decline. But new research shows the increase will only prevent further erosion of the sector, not reduce unmet need.

January 10, 2026

Best of 2025 - Israel’s interception of the Gaza aid flotilla is a clear violation of international law

The Israel Defence Force has intercepted a flotilla of humanitarian vessels seeking to deliver aid to Gaza, taking control of multiple vessels and arresting activists, including Greta Thunberg.

November 28, 2025

Why Medicare needs joint federal–state hospitals

Medicare’s founding promise is failing millions as jurisdictional division leaves patients stuck on waiting lists and priced out of specialist care. A shared federal–state hospital system is the missing reform.

March 18, 2026

Five steps to prevent the Iran war from becoming a global catastrophe

The war involving Israel, the United States and Iran risks escalating across the Middle East and beyond unless a coordinated diplomatic settlement is pursued.

February 20, 2026

AI, productivity and the long stall in living standards

Artificial intelligence may offer the best chance to lift stagnant productivity and living standards – but without deliberate policy choices, its benefits will be uneven and limited.

October 7, 2025

Australia faces a looming crisis of older women retiring in poverty. Here’s what we can do

Australia faces a serious challenge. Despite important progress on gender equality over recent decades, a looming crisis now threatens the economic security of older women. Without urgent and bold action, we risk consigning further generations of women to poverty in retirement.

January 14, 2026

Best of 2025 - The ABC and News Corp finally agree on something: China panic

Last week, a friend asked if I was worried about Chinese “nuclear threats".

October 17, 2025

Denial and amnesia: Is the global community ready to welcome Israel back?

Analysts express concern over the rehabilitation of Israel, even as it says it has done no wrong.

February 13, 2026

An incomparable job, an honoured place as Founder

John Menadue, and the late Susie Menadue, did an incomparable job in conceiving, establishing, growing and nurturing Pearls and Irritations as a brave and independent alternative to the conformity of Australia’s legacy media.

December 14, 2025

Book extract: Understanding China: governance, socio-economics, global influence

China’s rise has reshaped global economics, lifted millions out of poverty, and challenged Western assumptions about governance. This extract from ‘Understanding China, Governance, Socio-Economics Global Influence’ argues that engagement, not confrontation, offers the only viable path forward.

December 2, 2025

Rising student visa refusals clash with plans to boost enrolments

After encouraging universities to expand overseas enrolments, the government has overseen a sharp fall in student visa approval rates – leaving institutions uncertain and applicants frustrated.

November 30, 2025

Faith that costs something: the Pope's challenge to comfortable Christianity

A new Vatican document challenges wealthy Catholics to move beyond charity toward justice, solidarity and real encounters with the poor.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal