• Pearl 
  • Donate
  • Get newsletter
  • Read
  • Become an author
  • Write
  • English
    • English
    • Indonesian
    • Malay
    • Farsi
    • Mandarin
    • Cantonese
    • Japanese
    • French
    • German
    • Spanish

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
  • Authors
  • Arts
    • Arts
    • Commendations
    • Education
    • Employment
    • History
    • Media
    • Reviews
  • Australia
    • Defence
    • Economy
    • Finance
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Indigenous Affairs
    • Racism
    • Religion
    • Policy
    • Politics
  • Climate
    • Climate
    • The Human Future
  • World
    • China
    • Palestine and Israel
    • USA
    • World
  • Letters
October 22, 2025

Indonesia-Australia economic partnership can power Indo-Pacific resilience

Amid intensifying great power rivalry, middle powers like Indonesia and Australia face a critical question – can economic co-operation help them hedge against strategic vulnerability?

January 14, 2025

Best of 2025 - From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine

Real peace demands Palestinian statehood, Ukrainian neutrality and the courage to defy the war lobby.

November 15, 2025

Recovering moral imagination in a time of war

There is a moment in every conflict when language collapses. Words like justice, revenge, and security are repeated so often they lose their meaning.

November 13, 2025

Nuclear arms control and the Asia-Pacific

Since the end of the Cold War, the world has become complacent about the danger of nuclear war.

October 6, 2025

Nation's innovation surge continues a long tradition

Many in the West mistakenly think that China lacks innovation, but this view is outdated.

July 26, 2016

JOHN AUSTEN. The High Court - The Williams case and transport

This article expands on previous comments that the Williams (No. 2) case is reason to reconsider Commonwealth engagement in land transport. [1]

The challenge to Government spending programs

Williams (No. 2) was the third recent challenge in the High Court to Commonwealth Government spending.

Before these three cases it was widely assumed the Government could spend as it sees fit. Governments worked on that assumption using the equivalent of Jack Sparrow’s compass to guide them; Conservative administrations set course towards rural roads, Labor steered to cities.

The three High Court cases should consign the assumption, the compass and lack of proper Commonwealth direction to the deep. [2]

November 14, 2025

In Ukraine’s Pokrovsk, narratives have collided with brutal realities

Up to 5000 Ukrainian soldiers are in danger of encirclement in the key town of Pokrovsk by a powerful Russian war machine that has ground ever so slowly forward over the past 18 months.

November 3, 2025

Clean your room

During 1937, Lang Hancock from the Mulga Downs pastoral station in Western Australia began mining and milling activities for blue asbestos (crocidolite) at the nearby Yampire Gorge.

November 5, 2025

108 years since the Balfour Declaration – a promise written in ink, fulfilled in blood

On 2 November 1917, Britain wrote with the ink of politics what it had no right to write with the ink of history.

December 1, 2025

How one death in Papua should shame a republic into action

A pregnant woman’s preventable death after being refused treatment exposes the deadly gap between health coverage and real access to care in Indonesia’s most marginalised regions.

December 11, 2025

Deleting climate science: the Trump EPA rewrites the causes of warming

The Trump administration has removed references to human-caused climate change and key scientific data from EPA websites, alarming climate scientists and health experts.

December 2, 2025

Australia’s selective justice on international law is indefensible

Australia has pledged to uphold humanitarian law and protect aid workers. But in the face of an ICJ ruling on Gaza, its own anti-terror and accountability laws remain selectively unenforced.

October 9, 2025

Statement on cancellation of Chris Hedges’ confirmed appearance at the National Press Club of Australia

AFOPA is responding to the statement published on 4 October 2025 by the National Press Club of Australia in relation to their cancellation of Chris Hedges’ confirmed appearance at the National Press Club on 20 October 2025.

November 25, 2025

The wisdom of the elders, the greed of the rich

As the planet spirals toward environmental collapse, elders like Attenborough, Earle, Hansen and Suzuki have spent decades warning us – and offering hope. But the billionaires in bunkers aren’t listening. They are too busy getting rich off our destruction.

October 20, 2025

Rooftop solar takes its biggest bite yet out of coal generators’ lunch, as home battery rebates hit 89,000

Rooftop solar on homes and businesses took its biggest bite yet out of the traditional “baseload” midday lunch on Wednesday, as the combined output hit a record of 15,597 megawatts (MW) at noon AEST.

November 27, 2025

Chip wars: how the Dutch government nearly crashed the global car industry

When the Dutch government seized Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia, it triggered a global supply scare, revealing how deeply Europe is trapped between American coercion and China’s growing technological muscle, and how vulnerable its industry has become in the Chip War.

October 23, 2025

Women are missing from peace negotiations, from strategic decision-making

There’s a new international body being set up to oversee Gaza’s future, called the “Board of Peace.” It’s part of Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, with Tony Blair already named as a leading figure.

October 15, 2025

From play to performance: Sport as the new Roman circus

Reading the recent article Is this the moment that will define cricket's future? by my former university lecturer and continued mentor, Chas Keys, reminded me how sport, once a shared expression of community, is again being redefined by money and media.

November 28, 2025

Welcome to BunkerWorld – home of the rich and fearful

From luxury bunkers to billionaire boltholes, the world’s richest are planning for collapse rather than preventing it. Julian Cribb argues this fear reveals a deeper failure of our economic system – and a stark choice for humanity’s future.

October 14, 2025

Time for a 'just peace' for all peoples in Palestine

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong took a long time just to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. And their belated declaration of Palestinian statehood is an empty gesture when we are still sending F-35 jet components to Israel.

October 24, 2025

Sir Keir's Maccabi outrage should get him the red card

Within days of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer attacking his own police force for banning the notorious Israeli Maccabi fans from attending an upcoming Europa League football match against Aston Villa, the Israeli police had to step in to shut down riots at a premier league match between Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv fans.

November 10, 2025

The Jury of Conscience finding on Gaza

_On 26 October 2025, after three days of often harrowing evidence and testimony (23 to 25 October), the members of the Jury of Conscience at the Final Session of the Gaza Tribunal, in Istanbul, presented their Statement of Findings and Moral Judgment.

November 17, 2025

Banning nuclear weapons will require love to triumph over fear

Australia joining the majority of nations and signing the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would build trust with our Asia-Pacific neighbours and strengthen the country’s credibility as a peacebuilder.

October 25, 2025

A Supreme Court showdown looms for Trump’s tariffs. Will it limit presidential power?

On 5 November, the US Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments about the legality of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. As important as the tariff issue is, the stakes are much higher than that.

October 30, 2025

ASEAN leads response to the threat of global economic disorder

Malaysia and ASEAN’s leadership in response to rising protectionism and the threat to ASEAN and global prosperity and security has so far been a masterclass, punctuated by the convening of a Leaders’ Meeting for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on 27 October 2025.

November 12, 2025

Andrew Forrest says real zero is already the 'winning business case' in three key fossil fuel guzzling industries

As the federal Coalition continues its interminable internal debate over whether net zero emissions is even a thing, let alone a thing it can get behind, new reports have found that “real zero” is both technically feasible and economically preferable to its carbon-lite alternative in numerous hard-to-abate sectors.

October 21, 2025

What a surprise spike in the unemployment rate means for interest rates and the economy

The rate of unemployment in Australia is on the rise again. Official  labour force data released on Thursday shows that in the month to September, Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped from 4.3% to 4.5%.

October 8, 2025

Do politicians ever listen to the people or only the powerful?

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ Welsh word-wiz Dylan Thomas’ angry _poem_ to his dying dad implied that the older man resisted passing. But for others, the end is welcome.

October 27, 2025

If you write, you must also act: Reflections on the limitations of writing

I’ve been thinking about failure a lot recently in the shadow of Gaza. About the failure of humans to prevent — yet again — the most serious of crimes. About the failure of politics. About the failure of international law. And about the failure of writing.

November 19, 2025

Daniel Ghezelbash: The Refugee Convention is under threat, but it is not the problem

We are at a crossroads for refugee protection. Around the world, displacement has reached record highs, with more than 122 million people forced from their homes, including over 31 million refugees.

October 16, 2025

De-Googling during a genocide: Reorienting digital life in the age of AI

I first signed up for a Gmail account at an internet cafe in Vietnam in March 2006. Like many at the time I had been a Hotmail user for years, but Gmail felt cleaner and simpler (and cooler) by comparison.

November 6, 2025

Palestine’s future: Australians are outraged

At an Australia-wide webinar on 31 October, David Spratt paid tribute to the late Ali Kazak, Palestine’s first ambassador to Australia.

October 13, 2025

South Korea's caution on US Iran aims

Just last month in New York, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister.

October 31, 2025

Leo XIV: 'Apostle of nonviolence'

Pope Leo isn’t just condemning wars, but also insisting that we “must reject the paradigm of war” itself and “prepare institutions of peace”.

October 17, 2025

Fortescue cuts hundreds of jobs in UK and Australia; EV motor making sent to China

Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals is cutting several hundred jobs in the UK and Australia following a decision to send manufacturing activities to China, including for the motors and power trains of its planned giant electric haul trucks.

October 28, 2025

The future of Palestine – What must the Australian Government do?

What must the Australian Government do to play our proper part in rebuilding Gaza and responding to the urgent needs of the Palestinian people? The Australians for Humanity webinar will pose and try and answer these questions.

December 4, 2025

Book review: Things that concentrate the mind, by Peter Baume

Drawing on a lifetime of public service and reflection, Peter Baume addresses decision-making, medicine, death, liberalism, climate change and social justice with clarity, compassion and intellectual rigour.

December 3, 2025

What charges does Benjamin Netanyahu face, and what’s at stake if he is granted a pardon?

Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a pardon while still on trial for corruption. The move raises serious questions about legal accountability, judicial independence and political survival.

October 29, 2025

Is Gen-Z the transformative generation?

There is an epochal divide opening up between Gen-Z voters (born between 1997 and 2012) and previous generations that are beginning to struggle for relevance.

October 11, 2025

The return of the KKK?

President Donald Trump is imposing a right-wing political ideology and practice that increasingly resembles what Christ Hedges has dubbed “Christian fascism".

November 21, 2025

The shadow of the Tampa

Nearly 25 years on from the Tampa crisis, Australia needs a parliamentary inquiry to lift the lid on offshore detention.

November 4, 2025

Australia can't get away with genocide

Australia repeatedly fights as the deputy sheriff in our ally’s wars. Afterwards, our contributions are forgotten and we continue to dodge blame for the disastrous results, including war crimes. Can we get away with this over Gaza?

November 20, 2025

Australians are markedly more worried about the US, but still wary about China

Australians’ concerns and mistrust of China are easing, while doubts about the US are increasing.

October 7, 2025

What are international protests revealing about Palestine, Israel and public opinion?

When I first saw the figures on international protests from October 2023 to September 2025, I was fascinated. I hadn’t realised which countries had been most active and the results surprised me.

November 26, 2025

Self-interest is now the main driver of Britain’s Asia policy

There are a great many reasons why the UK government should pay more attention to the Asia-Pacific, but that does not mean that it will.

December 9, 2025

The problem of biblical “Israel” in 2025

Words that once spoke of ancient hope now land in a world shaped by war and grief. What does it mean to sing “Israel” in Advent in 2025?

November 22, 2025

The war on Sudan: the choice is ours

International mechanisms and the international community have failed Sudan and the Sudanese people. The tragedy unfolding today was predictable, but not unavoidable.

November 11, 2025

Australia-China policy: Guardrails, not walls

An industry networking day in Canberra this week laid bare a simple truth: politics is still beating economics in Australia’s China policy.

December 5, 2025

Corruption prosecutions are choking Indonesia’s reform ambition

High-profile prosecutions of Indonesia’s technocrats are reshaping incentives across government and business. When good-faith decisions are treated as crimes, reform, investment and innovation all suffer.

  • ««
  • «
  • 468
  • 469
  • 470
  • 471
  • 472
  • »
  • »»

We recognise the First Peoples of this nation and their ongoing connection to culture and country. We acknowledge First Nations Peoples as the Traditional Owners, Custodians and Lore Keepers of the world's oldest living culture and pay respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Help
  • Donate
  • Get Newsletter
  • Stop Newsletter
  • Cancel Payments
  • Privacy Policy
Write
  • A Letter to the Editor
  • Style Guide
  • Become an Author
  • Submit Your Article
Social
  • Bluesky
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Contact
  • Ask for Support
  • Applications Under Law
© Pearls and Irritations 2025       PO BOX 6243 KINGSTON  ACT 2604 Australia