November 8, 2025

10,000+ Palestinians buried beneath Gaza rubble in ‘world’s largest mass grave’

“We call on the world to send international teams to recover the bodies of the missing,” said the member of one civil society group. “We call on the world to provide the necessary equipment to recover the bodies.”

October 10, 2025

Is Greta Thunberg the lone voice for justice in our world?

As the world moves from one crisis to another and our politicians ignore the immense injustices that are happening in their nation and in the world, what do ordinary non-violent citizens do to let their politicians know they aren’t happy with their lack of moral and ethical fortitude?

February 11, 2026

Inviting a foreign president to Bondi’s commemoration divides rather than unites

Inviting a foreign head of state to commemorate an Australian tragedy blurs citizenship, religion and geopolitics – and risks undermining social cohesion at a moment that demands unity.

February 7, 2026

Inside Indonesia’s Board of Peace diplomacy on Palestine

Indonesia’s decision to join the Board of Peace places it inside a US-dominated body whose approach to Gaza risks prioritising reconstruction over sovereignty, rights and political legitimacy.

December 18, 2025

AI policy is stuck on productivity – and democracy is paying the price

Artificial intelligence is increasingly framed in terms of efficiency and growth. But that framing sidelines harder questions about power, choice and democratic governance.

December 8, 2025

Australia’s human rights report has been quietly buried

The world marks Human Rights Day this Wednesday 10 December. But a comprehensive parliamentary report calling for a national Human Rights Act remains unanswered. Its silence speaks volumes about the gap between rhetoric and action in Australia’s human rights commitments.

November 25, 2025

AI in journalism and democracy: can we rely on it?

GenAI tools are reshaping the information environment in ways most audiences never see. From the data that trains them to the labour that maintains them, their inner workings raise urgent questions for journalism and democratic accountability.

October 14, 2025

Japan's LDP coalition splits – what does this mean?

So, finally there is some room for principles in Japanese politics after all! Not much, but when it comes to the point of white having to embrace black something has to give.

October 13, 2025

Who would be a carer?

Whether because of temporary disability or permanent need, the demand for accessible “holiday” accommodation is growing with our ageing population.

November 24, 2025

Net Zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia

Net zero is not simply an environmental target. It has become a psychological and cultural anchor in a society that feels increasingly unstable.

February 9, 2026

Fairness, not just growth, is the key to productivity

As the federal government sharpens its focus on productivity, the question is not whether growth matters, but who it is for, and at what cost to justice, dignity and social cohesion.

February 23, 2026

Islamophobia and strategic blindness: Australia in the Asian century

Australia seeks deeper integration with Asia while continuing to send cultural and political signals that undermine trust among its closest neighbours. In a region shaped by Islam, history and proximity, this contradiction carries strategic consequences.

January 10, 2026

Best of 2025 - Age policy is a shambles. Where to from here? Part 1 & 2

Wherever you look, at residential aged care institutions, at retirement village life, at the home support package scheme, or talk to the people over 65 — called “the old” — living at home making no claim on the system, just coping by whatever means they can, this stage of life means grappling with overwhelming challenges.

February 6, 2026

When ecosystems fail, civilisation follows

A new UK security assessment warns that ecosystem collapse is no longer an environmental issue alone – it is a direct threat to global security, prosperity and human survival. Without urgent action, the consequences will intensify well beyond climate change.

January 9, 2026

Best of 2025 - Don’t mistake truth for hate, prime minister

Anthony Albanese says Palestinian children are taught to hate. My daughter’s first trip home proves otherwise.

October 7, 2025

World water in crisis

Almost two-thirds of the world’s rivers are in a dire condition, either drying up or supercharged with floodwaters, according to the latest report on the emerging global water crisis by the World Meteorological Organisation.

February 25, 2026

Why security-first critical mineral policy risks slowing the energy transition

Western efforts to secure critical mineral supply chains from China are increasingly driven by security logic. That approach risks raising costs, slowing decarbonisation and undermining the global energy transition.

January 17, 2026

Best of 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.

December 13, 2025

A West Bank farmer left for dead – and a system that looks the other way

A Palestinian farmer survived a near-fatal settler attack – raising urgent questions about protection, impunity, and the role of Israeli authorities.

October 9, 2025

Shadow of McCarthyism looms over controversial firing of Texas professor who taught about gender identity

Texas A&M University announced the resignation of its president, Mark A. Welsh III, on 18 September 2025, following a controversial decision earlier in the month to fire a professor over a classroom exchange with a student about gender identity.

January 12, 2026

Best of 2025 - Disarming extremism in the algorithmic age

Amelie Szczecinski is one of six talented young Australians who will travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week as part of the Global Voices project.

December 10, 2025

Ellen Hansen: At 75, UNHCR is needed more than ever – but its funding is being cut

As global displacement reaches record highs, UNHCR marks its 75th anniversary facing deep funding cuts that threaten its ability to protect refugees and save lives worldwide.

November 3, 2025

It’s official! Accounting tricks denied public schools more than $2b in funding in 2023

A new report by the National School Resourcing Board reveals that public schools lost more than $2 billion in funding in 2023 because of accounting tricks used by state governments under the Commonwealth-State funding agreements operating at the time.

October 21, 2025

The armistice of 1918 and the 'ceasefire' of 2025

Remembrance Day is coming. More accurately it is Armistice Day. The armistice between Germany and the Western Powers was signed at Compiègne in France on the morning of 11 November 1918, after four years of war. Sadly, there are heart-chilling parallels to today.

October 25, 2025

APEC: The curdled yoghurt of middle-power diplomacy

When APEC was born in 1989, it was more than another acronym. It was a moment of triumph for middle powers — Australia, Canada, South Korea, and others — asserting that the post-Cold War world could be shaped not just by the great powers but by those who knew how to manage co-operation.

November 14, 2025

Seoul’s submarine ambitions – what do they mean for the region?

South Korea is currently in final negotiations with the US on a deal that could reshape the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific: the construction of nuclear-powered submarines.

January 28, 2026

Australia, bravery and the case for an Earth System Treaty

Rising inequality, climate instability and ecological collapse are not separate crises but interacting threats that demand coordinated global action.

January 7, 2026

Best of 2025 - Albanese’s sliding doors moment on climate

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has just been handed an unflinching mirror at the Pacific Islands Forum.

October 30, 2025

The morality we need, the asylum they seek

Like many grumpy hacks from an age of lost standards, I’ve belittled colleagues’ usage of the perpendicular pronoun. We’re not the Mums needing attention – only the midwives bringing the stories of others into the world. We report and depart.

February 17, 2026

When both sides chant 'lower tax', the country pays in division

As the Coalition reasserts “lower tax” as political identity and Labor rushes to deny the high-tax label, Australian politics is losing the language needed to fund shared purpose, rebuild trust and sustain public life.

January 31, 2026

Trolling for genocide

Debate over Gaza has increasingly shifted from mainstream media into online spaces. What was meant to democratise discussion has instead become a terrain shaped by abuse, intimidation, and growing attempts to silence dissenting voices.

January 11, 2026

Best of 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.

November 21, 2025

UN Members complicit in genocide

UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese discusses why, in her most recent report, she called out more than 60 nations for their collective-crime roles in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

November 12, 2025

The coming class war against Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City should be seen as a repudiation of everything the Democrats have been doing since the DNC shafted Bernie Sanders to get Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden nominated as the party’s presidential candidates in 2016 and 2020.

October 15, 2025

Shameful distortion that lies at the heart of US conservative politics

The news of ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza is cause for great rejoicing and for giving credit where it is due. But the big questions remain: where to from here, and how did the world allow this to happen in the first place?

February 26, 2026

Remembering Robert Macklin – truth, courage and clarity

Pearls and Irritations contributor Robert Macklin has died aged 84. His brilliant writing combined political critique, historical insight and moral urgency, leaving a lasting mark on Australian public debate.

November 13, 2025

Lame duck syndrome emerging

Reality finally starts to bite in the US and it hasn’t come in a misspelt all-capital letters post Truth Social.

October 27, 2025

On No Kings day, a new America came to life

This is who we are. And this is what our country must be: people with a soul-deep love for Planet Earth and all who inhabit it.

January 14, 2026

Best of 2025 - Trump’s risky American economy

Trump’s tariffs, migration and fiscal policies are endangering the American economy, and risk destroying American claims to global leadership.

January 6, 2026

Best of 2025 - Judaism and Zionism are not the same

No doubt about it. We live in a topsy-turvy world. How Kafkaesque can it get, when some of Zionism’s most fervent supporters have been politicians like Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton or — God help us — the Mad King of Mar-a-Lago?

October 22, 2025

At best, a respite for Gazans

Reading Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan is like venturing into the world of the eccentric early-twentieth-century British cartoonist, Heath Robinson, who unwittingly lent his name as a descriptor for any “unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance".

November 28, 2025

What does Labor actually stand for in the Albanese era?

Sean Kelly’s Quarterly Essay The Good Fight asks a harder question than whether Labor is governing competently – it asks whether it still knows what it believes, and whether belief is translating into action.

November 27, 2025

After Gaza, the next target is Iran

US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in.

October 16, 2025

Remembering my Palestinian father

In these awful times of genocide and massacre, I particularly remember my late Palestinian father.

December 3, 2025

Afghanistan silence is a dangerous illusion

As Afghanistan disappears from global headlines, media neglect enables extremist resurgence, regional instability, and a deepening humanitarian crisis.

February 8, 2018

St.Vincent de Paul Society

INDEPENDENT, NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS (Three opportunities)

**Please click here** for more details.

Applications close on Monday 19 February 2018.

February 8, 2024

Jewish Council of Australia launches to provide expert voice on antisemitism and racism in Australia

A dynamic coalition of Jewish scholars, historians, human rights lawyers, and writers has joined together to establish the Jewish Council of Australia.

January 30, 2026

Australia’s sugar shame: why we’re falling behind in the fight for our health

Australia once led the world in confronting tobacco harm. On sugar consumption – a major driver of obesity and chronic disease – more than 100 countries are now ahead of us, and health ministers face a critical test.

January 15, 2026

Best of 2025 - The second Dismissal – the loans affair and meetings with Kerr

The second part in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal