December 21, 2025

A defence of 'doing nothing'

Public safety can be strengthened without turning fear into a political performance. When protection becomes theatre, institutions weaken and social division deepens.

December 18, 2025

Climate hot takes for 2025

Scientific evidence in 2025 showed global warming accelerating faster than expected, while emissions continued to rise and climate policy lagged dangerously behind physical reality.

December 13, 2025

Don’t take it from us – here’s what great Australians think of P&I

At the time of writing, Pearls & Irritations is still $23,405 short of its critically needed fundraising target, with just four days remaining. Leading Australian thinkers explain why independent, expert-led analysis matters more than ever.

November 12, 2025

The Dismissal was a calculated conservative plot: Albanese

In a speech to mark 50 years since the day, Anthony Albanese says: “The Dismissal was a calculated plot, hatched by conservative forces which sacrificed conventions and institutions in the pursuit of power.”

November 10, 2025

Message from the editor

It has been a real pleasure to watch so many Americans enjoy what might just be a pivotal moment in American politics, with the victory of Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim and South Asian to win the office of mayor of New York.

February 11, 2026

Salt, light and the visit of Isaac Herzog

As controversy surrounds the visit of Israel’s president, Frank Brennan reflects on how Australians might respond with moral seriousness, legal clarity and a commitment to justice for all.

January 13, 2026

Another pristine new year, another human write-off

Each New Year arrives full of promise, and each is steadily dismantled by human folly. History suggests 2026 will be no exception.

January 20, 2026

Trump and Putin can still save the last nuclear arms limit

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in weeks. A simple extension could preserve limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals and buy time for deeper cuts.

October 26, 2025

Bad debt ‘cockroaches’ signal new threats to the global economy

The world appears to have forgotten a key lesson of the global financial crisis: some problems were spotted earlier, but sidelined.

October 21, 2025

If you go down to the forests today, you’re in for a big surprise (mass deforestation)

Visit many areas of state forest in parts of Victoria and you might get a shock – the forest isn’t there.

February 16, 2026

Global growth in 2026 will be led overwhelmingly by Asia

China and India are set to account for more than 40 per cent of global GDP growth in 2026, with the Asia-Pacific region responsible for nearly 60 per cent. The data confirms a long-term shift in economic power that Australia’s politics and media remain slow to recognise.

October 6, 2025

Message from the editor

If you do a Google search for the US federal health department (Health and Human Services) site, as I did this week, a big red banner pops up (over a homepage filled with happy snaps of Trump and Kennedy, and the Make America Healthy Again slogan).

January 16, 2026

Best of 2025 - Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables

Electricity prices are elevated, but anyone who claims renewable energy has driven the rise is either uninformed or is deliberately lying.

January 15, 2026

Best of 2025 - US-China power shift: a G2 world – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Trump hints at changing great-power relationship. Plus: Beijing wresting control of the global narrative; Myanmar’s scam centre raids dismissed as a smokescreen; Prabowo considers declaring Soeharto a national hero; US approves South Korean nuclear-powered submarine; China’s modern women need new men.

January 13, 2026

Best of 2025 - Modi cancels ASEAN trip, avoids meeting Trump – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Trump says he spoke to Modi but India denies call took place. Plus: Japan’s new coalition a shift to the right; Timor Leste finally gets seat at regional table; Life worse than death on Myanmar scam farm; Prabowo – control, populism and diminished accountability; Sri Lanka suffers from world’s worst plastics spill.

January 9, 2026

Best of 2025 - The poisonous chalice of recognition: A double-edged sword for Palestine

While we should not regard it as a “historical moment” or a “game changer”, the recognition does have the potential to help Palestinians lead us into a different future.

January 17, 2026

Best of 2025 - My one hope – to meet my wife and daughters again

Hamed Al-Mansi is a physical education teacher and farmer from Gaza. He is now alone in Gaza and his dearest wish is to reunite with his family. He has allowed us to publish an extract of his diary.

January 19, 2026

Best of 2025 - Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home

Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act?

January 14, 2026

Best of 2025 - Gaza under siege: The continuation of Zionist demographic cleansing policies since the 19th century

Israeli propaganda tries to present the war on Gaza as a “defensive reaction.” Yet the historical record tells a very different story: systematic genocide, the destruction of civilian life and deliberate attempts to uproot entire populations. All of this is a direct continuation of Zionist colonial policies that began in the late 19th century.

October 13, 2023

MAPW Statement on Israel and Palestine: "Assert the right of all peoples"

The current escalation in bloodshed in Israel and Palestine reflects the fact that peace cannot be built on decades of oppression; it can only be built on justice. The Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) condemns not only the recent attacks, but also the failure – despite concerns expressed by many leaders and governments around the world – to address the oppression directed over a long period towards the Palestinian people.

December 14, 2025

Degrowing the economy for people and planet

Imperialism, colonialism, racism and ecocide: the four horsemen of capitalism’s apocalypse? Climate change threatens the survival of migratory species, and China continues to dominate the supply of rare earth elements.

November 28, 2025

How 'deep links' journalism fuels pointless China panic

A former MP takes on a routine lobbying role, a Chinese university is named, and suddenly we are in national security territory. This is framing doing the work that facts do not.

February 18, 2026

US attitude towards Vietnam remains imperialist, not capitalist

Vietnam’s Communist Party leader To Lam has consolidated power and set ambitious growth targets for the country’s future. While reforms have unlocked momentum, centralisation, debt, corruption and geopolitical pressure raise questions about sustainability.

December 9, 2025

Patronage over principle: why Katy Gallagher’s ‘flexibility’ betrays good government

Labor once promised to end cronyism in public appointments. The government’s rejection of enforceable rules instead entrenches discretionary power, weakens accountability and undermines confidence in good governance.

November 21, 2025

Democracies good, China bad – and history not required

Japan and China both have legitimate security concerns. But an informed debate needs major media outlets to stop systematically erasing the historical context that shapes how the region understands current events.

October 14, 2025

How Israel lost a war by not deserving to win

It is ultimately futile and probably wicked to calculate winners and losers in a war against civilians, least of all on any sort of balance sheet weighing and measuring the value of dead bodies.

November 9, 2025

Environment: The reformed EPBC Act – will the environment or business have priority?

After six years, reforming the EPBC Act may be reaching a conclusion. Twelve environmental defenders, many Indigenous, are murdered every month. Removing four dams allowed salmon to return to an Oregon river.

October 27, 2025

The key to social cohesion

It’s often said that . Whether or not that’s true is moot – but being under financial stress is definitely bad news.

October 22, 2025

Trump is pushing allies to buy US gas. It’s bad economics – and a catastrophe for the climate

The price of partnership with the United States has changed. Washington is now using assurances of defence and trade access to pressure allies in Europe and Asia to buy more of its fossil fuels under decades-long contracts.

February 3, 2026

Trump’s tariffs and threats are pushing the world to look elsewhere

The EU–India trade deal marks more than a commercial agreement. It signals a growing willingness among major economies to reduce their exposure to US coercion and to build new trade frameworks beyond Washington’s reach.

January 16, 2026

Best of 2025 - Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war

It beggars belief that the outgoing head of the RSL, Greg Melick, has abused the quiet solemnity of Remembrance Day to lecture and berate the Albanese government on its defence policy.

January 14, 2026

Best of 2025 - Taiwan as an integral part of China: A historical, legal and geopolitical analysis

The status of Taiwan remains one of the most contested topics in modern geopolitics and one of the most misrepresented.

February 14, 2026

Lai sentenced, Beijing doubles down on HK security – Asian Media Report

China’s ‘zero tolerance’ white paper to Takaichi’s all-powerful supermajority, opposite views on India-US trade deal, why BYD is beating Tesla, Cambodia war a key to Thai PM’s victory, and the K-pop path for Bad Bunny – news, opinion and analysis from across our region

October 28, 2025

Albo brings peace in our time

The prospect of a military confrontation between the US and China is receding, as is the prospect of a conflict over Taiwan, according to a relaxed Donald Trump talking to Australian journalists and politicians during Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington. But even if conflict were to occur, America might not be calling on Australia, or Britain, to fight alongside it.

October 25, 2025

Modi cancels ASEAN trip, avoids meeting Trump – Asian Media Report

February 5, 2026

The meteoric rise of UpScrolled (and the Australian media’s silence about it)

An Australian social media platform surged to millions of users amid global concern over censorship and Gaza. Yet its rise has been largely ignored by Australia’s media.

February 1, 2026

Environment: Agricultural emissions are roasting the planet

Together, 45 global livestock companies produce more greenhouse gases than all but eight countries. Plus, crimes against nature are big business that rely on criminal networks, corrupt officials and eager customers, and global warming marches on.

December 11, 2025

Beyond the under-16 ban: online safety must be built in, not bolted on

As Australia’s under-16 social media ban comes into force, blocking access alone won’t stop online harm. Real protection depends on safety-by-design and a legal digital duty of care built into platforms themselves.

November 18, 2025

Richo’s grave should be extra deep

Graham Richardson was a very successful operator of the Labor Party from the late 1970s who was distinctly short on redeeming virtues.

November 5, 2025

Trump needs to stop weaponising hunger

“They have the authority to fully fund SNAP,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib. “It shouldn’t take a court order to get the president to stop starving families and release the funds.”

October 13, 2025

These are fighting words

As political violence escalates in the United States, chaos is spreading and democracy itself is under threat. The words of anger, ill-considered and increasingly crude, are accelerant on the American bonfire.

January 23, 2026

Culture war summer: petitions, outrage and the politics of 26 January

Right-wing campaign groups and Coalition MPs are again using Australia Day to drive petitions, wedge politics and anti-elite rhetoric. This year’s campaign is being amplified by paid digital ads, ARC grant outrage and calls to “legislate the date”.

December 15, 2025

Conflicts, corrections and confusion: pressure mounts on the NACC Commissioner

The Inspector of the NACC has received 90 complaints since 1 July. Most of these complaints concern the NACC Commissioner’s conflict of interests with Defence.

January 9, 2026

Best of 2025 - More Boomers are choosing not to retire. Why? They don’t want to

As the great bulge of babies born after World War II has moved through their life course, the world has changed to suit them and their needs.

November 8, 2025

US-China power shift: a G2 world – Asian Media Report

February 15, 2026

Environment: The energy transition is underway – nuclear is not part of it

Nuclear is going nowhere, fossils are facing a bleak future and renewables are surging to the future. A Rich Polluter Profit Tax and an Excess Profit Tax would raise over US$1 trillion each year.

January 27, 2026

Australia’s crisis debate is too small for the problems we face

Australia’s post-Bondi debate has fixated on labels and symbolism instead of causes and capacity. What Australia needs now is a bigger frame – and stronger democratic protection against social breakdown.

November 13, 2025

ASIO's Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight

In succumbing to a lust for the limelight, the ASIO director, Mike Burgess, is not making it easier for the government and citizens to retain confidence in him and the organisation he’s trying to run.

October 7, 2025

Steerage for the Australian-PNG navy?

The mutual defence treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea could be a masterstroke for both countries, if our defence boffins could think laterally. I bet they won’t.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal