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Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
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Letters
December 7, 2025

When machines make the art, what’s left for human creativity?

As AI and automation take over more of the labour once central to artistic practice, creativity is shifting from making to selecting. The question is whether human expression survives that shift – or slowly withers.

December 12, 2025

Israeli reporters unite against government moves to curb press freedom

Hundreds of Israeli journalists gathered on Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv for an emergency conference, sounding the alarm as the government continues to advance initiatives that threaten the country’s freedom of speech and press.

October 17, 2025

What’s constraining ‘frank and fearless’ advice?

A central argument for the government’s proposed widening of exemptions under the FOI Act is the claim that the current provisions constrain the provision of “frank and fearless advice” by the public service.

November 11, 2025

ACT director of Public Prosecutions responds

The ACT DPP issues a response to an exclusive article we published last week “ We don't do that in this country': judge slams DPP" by Andrew Fraser.

November 10, 2025

Venezuela’s oil, US-led regime change and America’s gangster politics

The flimsy moral pretext today is the fight against narcotics, yet the real objective is to overthrow a sovereign government and the collateral damage is the suffering of the Venezuelan people. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

December 1, 2025

Trump wants Australian data on migrant crime

Donald Trump’s demand for Australian data on migrant crime risks reviving discredited narratives that stigmatise migrants, distort evidence and do real harm to vulnerable communities.

October 11, 2025

‘We must keep the pressure on’: Humanitarians say ceasefire doesn’t erase Gaza genocide

“This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza,” wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.

October 7, 2025

‘Ban Israeli football’: Scholars urge UEFA to bar Israel over Gaza horrors

In a letter, legal experts have underscored the killing of Palestinian footballers and a UN panel’s finding that Israel is committing genocide.

November 5, 2025

Gen Z uprisings in the Global South

Here are seven theses to begin to understand the protests that young people have led across the world and perhaps channel them in a progressive direction.

November 13, 2025

Mamdani’s victory bought hope to Gaza

Zohran Mamdani is a Ugandan-born Muslim American politician, outspoken supporter of Palestine, and the new Mayor of New York City. His victory there is a symbolic moment that reflects a deeper shift in American awareness toward global justice, especially the Palestinian cause.

December 14, 2025

Trembling before the religion of AI

We like to think we have moved beyond religion, yet our reliance on AI reveals a new metaphysics shaped by imagination, projection and fear. Adrian Rosenfeldt explores how digital systems have taken on the psychological role once held by the divine.

December 6, 2025

Australia’s school bureaucracy is growing faster than classrooms

Administrative staffing in Australia’s public education system has grown far faster than student enrolments or teacher numbers. Unless governments act, promised school funding risks being absorbed by bureaucracy rather than improving learning and wellbeing.

November 30, 2025

Ita Buttrose reflects on her life in media – well, some of it

Ita Buttrose’s memoir celebrates resilience, leadership and public service, but avoids reckoning with controversies that shaped her later career, writes Denis Muller.

November 16, 2025

‘Oh, the fog lying like a blanket over this sad town’: The Mushroom Tapes sees the humanity in an inhumane story

The Mushroom Tapes opens with a blunt refusal to accept a murder trial as spectator sport:

October 12, 2025

Bruce Beresford’s The Travellers blends opera and the outback in a heartfelt story about homecoming

Famed Australian director Bruce Beresford loves opera. If you weren’t aware of this before watching his new film, The Travellers, you most likely will be by the time the credits roll.

October 14, 2025

Keating welcomes changes to taxation of super

Yesterday the Government made some key changes to its superannuation tax scheme, after struggling to get the plan through the Senate. Paul Keating says the changes restore confidence in the retirement savings system.

October 26, 2025

‘Another unlawful extrajudicial killing’ as Trump expands boat-bombing spree to Pacific

“This is illegal and endangers America,” said one critic of Trump’s boat-bombing campaign.

October 15, 2025

How the Coalition’s right read the opinion polls

A superficial reading of the polls suggests the Liberal Party should move to the Trumpian right. This is a stupid and dangerous idea.

December 8, 2025

The quiet collapse of ‘plant-based’ fashion materials

For years, plant-based fashion materials were promoted as a sustainable breakthrough. Their rapid collapse tells a more sobering story – not about plants, but about hype, scale and transparency.

November 26, 2025

Ukraine and Europe’s weakness exposed as US and Russia again negotiate behind Kyiv’s back

Ukraine now faces military pressure, political scandal and wavering Western support – a mix that could trigger a dangerous self-fulfilling crisis.

November 1, 2025

Trump's IMO veto exposes Australia's maritime blind spot

Protecting Australia’s sovereignty was a central justification for Anthony Albanese’s critical minerals deal with Donald Trump.

December 16, 2025

Font of all knowledge? Of Rubio, Rupert and playing to type

A curious US culture-war memo about typefaces becomes a sharp lesson in readability, newspaper craft, and how badly those lessons have been forgotten in Australian journalism.

November 15, 2025

Gaza woman blinded in Israeli strike opens bakery to subsist and hope

Despite her injury, Warda Abu Jarad has started baking cookies and bread to help provide for her family.

October 25, 2025

‘Pro-Trump propagandists’ take over Pentagon Press Corps after signing loyalty pledge

Critics called the department’s announcement “deeply weird and awful”, “so Orwellian”, and “real textbook fascism beginning to end".

November 25, 2025

Where will the aged care workforce come from?

CEDA’s report on how to fix the aged care worker shortage claims migration is key – but a closer look at the data reveals a very different picture. Before we reach for new visa schemes, we need to focus on the workers already here: most are permanent residents or citizens, and many want more hours. The answers are hiding in plain sight.

December 5, 2025

Trump’s drug war on Venezuela reeks of hypocrisy

Donald Trump’s campaign against Venezuela is less about drugs than power, exposing deep hypocrisy in US policy and raising uncomfortable questions for Australia about its alliance.

December 10, 2025

Governments are hiding data and threatening democracy

From being custodians of public knowledge, governments are turning to architects of manufactured ignorance. Amid disappearing evidence, citizens are struggling to hold power to account.

November 28, 2025

ASIO’s $12.5 billion espionage bill doesn’t add up

ASIO says espionage cost Australia $12.5 billion last year. But that figure relies on assumptions, speculative scenarios and opaque data that raise serious questions about credibility.

October 8, 2025

The RBA says changing rates won’t raise house prices. I wouldn’t be so sure

The Reserve Bank has always denied that its manipulation of short-term interest rates to slow or hasten the growth in demand for goods and services plays any part in worsening the cost of home ownership. But I doubt this.

October 23, 2025

Takaichi’s victory is a milestone on the road to a new party system in Japan

In the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election held on 4 October 2025, Sanae Takaichi defied widespread expectations by defeating Shinjiro Koizumi, who had been considered the frontrunner. Former prime minister Taro Aso is being lauded as instrumental in supporting Takaichi’s upset victory.

October 6, 2025

This is not a drill: Bravery as strategy in the face of American tragedy

In recent memory, the prospect of a president preventing Congressional elections from taking effect has been unimaginable. But today, it is not at all hard to imagine that this could happen.

November 19, 2025

Migration myths

Migrants aren’t to blame for expensive houses or stress on infrastructure: in fact they’re making more contribution to our shared assets than Australians.

November 17, 2025

Mines over water: Melbourne’s largest and most important water supply catchment at risk

On 21 October 2025, the Victorian Government announced plans to protect Melbourne’s water supply catchments – the systems that deliver clean water to over five million people. It was welcome news for Australia’s largest and fastest growing city.

October 30, 2025

Getting away with murder

What happens in Australia if Israel gets away with genocide?

November 7, 2025

The press and the Dismissal – Part III

Television had come to the fore in elections during the Whitlam campaign of 1972 when increased funds were spent on advertising with slogans (“It’s time” was backed by a catchy jingle) and mainly short television grabs for the news.

December 3, 2025

The politics of forgetting: Australia, Gaza and moral silence

From the “Great Australian Silence” to Gaza, deliberate forgetting has long provided political cover for injustice. Silence, not ignorance, is the problem.

November 23, 2025

Pitch perfect: the case for backing busking

The City of Sydney is restricting busking on some streets, but in doing so it’s losing the vibrancy that comes from a community of street entertainers.

November 14, 2025

As Australia welcomes its millionth refugee, its hardline border policies endure. We can lead by example again

Any day now, Australia will welcome its millionth refugee since World War II.

October 20, 2025

Countering Trump, Pacific Islanders are leading on climate change

The leaders of the Pacific Islands are forging a united front against President Donald Trump’s climate denialism and leading the world in the battle against the climate crisis.

October 18, 2025

Keating pays tribute to former NZ leader Jim Bolger

It was sad for me to learn of Jim Bolger’s death.

November 22, 2025

Trump’s latest Epstein gambit

The next time you hear that Trump has somehow reversed his earlier resistance to releasing the Epstein files, remember that he hasn’t. He could have ordered their disclosure long ago; he never needed a congressional resolution compelling it.

October 31, 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.

November 24, 2025

Will AI kill the middle class?

When the creators of a new technology warn that it could destroy the primary engine of global growth of the past half a century, it’s worth paying attention

October 13, 2025

How anti-China witch hunts in Canada and the UK ruin lives

Security services such as London’s MI5 and Ottawa’s RCMP appear to be going after individuals and organisations out of pure antagonism and distrust against Beijing rather than having actual evidence.

January 14, 2025

Best of 2025 - Gunboat hypocrisy in the Caribbean

Even as Donald Trump crisscrosses the globe, bringing his purported peacemaking skills to parts of the world that did not even know they were at war, his administration has openly been preparing for militarised regime change in Venezuela. Neighbouring Colombia too isn’t safe.

October 23, 2025

Islamophobia in Australian schools: What the Special Envoy’s report means for education

Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, recently released his landmark report:  A National Response to Islamophobia: A Strategic Framework for Inclusion, Safety and Prosperity.

November 27, 2025

How Trump tried to sell Ukraine a diplomatic debacle

Two rival peace proposals for Ukraine have emerged – one from the US, echoing long-standing Russian demands, and another from Europe. Kyiv has rejected the US plan as written, insisting its sovereignty cannot be bargained away.

November 21, 2025

Denouement: trapped between empires - Part 6

“What you in Australia must understand is that you are more to blame than the CIA. You want this to happen, you want a certain administration in control, and you don’t want another administration in control. Do the loyalties of your intelligence services lie with your country as a whole or with the establishment in your country? In most instances, the answer you find is with the establishment.” Victor Marchetti, former CIA officer and deputy director at Pine Gap.

November 11, 2025

The black work of big oil

Now is the sinister time of year when the Barons of Big Oil gather together, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the blessing of most world leaders, to celebrate the 350 million needless deaths they plan to cause between now and 2050 in the name of profit.

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