Letters to the Editor

The propaganda of American might

February 2, 2026

Americans' belief in their exceptionalism is deeply grounded in their culture. As a boy I loved American movies where the main character overcame great odds to win. This theme continued being depicted in western movies and action movies whether decimating foreigners, terrorist or aliens from space. I have not watched these for years turned off by the constant propaganda that might is right, regardless of laws. What triggered my dislike is the constant presence of the American flag in scene after scene. The flag appears on mastheads, on walls, on desks, on shoulder flashes, on badges - every one impressing...

Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South

In response to: The United States is a lawless and dangerous ally. What is Australi's Plan B?

Tactical voting by Labor voters

February 2, 2026

David Solomon's article doesn't mention the possibility of a different kind of tactical voting by Labor voters. I'm a lifelong ALP supporter living in Grayndler, the PM's ultra-safe electorate, and I voted Teal 1, Albo 2, not because I wanted the Teal candidate to be elected but because I support stronger environmental and conservation policies than those of the government.

John Small from Marrickville, NSW

In response to: What Labor’s review reveals about tactical voting and the Teals

But what about Pine Gap?

February 2, 2026

A good article. We certainly need to pay attention to what other Middle Power nations are saying and doing. We could all do with watching Mark Carney's speech more than once and letting its truths sink in. But what about Australia's elephant in the room? Pine Gap and other military establishments under the control of a foreign power? Canada apparently has no US military bases and very few military personnel stationed there. How many active military personnel are based in Australia? Non-alignment will always be impossible while foreign powers control strategic infrastructure or operate out of our country.

Penny Lee from Western Australia

In response to: A declining empire – and how Australia should adapt

Translation problems

February 2, 2026

I note with approval Ramzy Baroud’s article. It seems we have serious truth or translation problems. Take the Hebrew phrase describing events over the weekend “Yisral harga od 31 bani adam be'eza.” An Israeli government translation would be “Israel continues to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza.” But the translation outside Israel (unless maybe it was being processed by Trump’s White House) would be “Israel kills another 31 people in Gaza.”

Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)

In response to: A war without headlines

A passive electorate may revolt

January 27, 2026

Anthony Albanese is a 20 year survivor in politics. He has learned to alter his opinions to suit the political environment. He gained the chalice cup as PM and wants to retain it. He covers his actions in secret cabinet meetings and controls what is disclosed to the public. He is afraid of voter opposition. He must diffuse critics. He wants the voters to be passive recipients of his legislation. So he legislates hate speech laws to give him the power to disrupt free speech that might cause him upset. (Rather Trumpian?) So if I stand on the roadside...

Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South

In response to: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this one ticks every box - Greg Bar

Future industries – a question mark?

January 27, 2026

Back in the 1950s, the wool industry provided wealth for the nation. It employed shearers and stockmen and other farm workers to build shearing shed s and fence lines. And the property owners paid taxes. Then synthetics became in vogue and the wool industry crashed. We built factories and built cars then removed tariffs and they crashed. We discovered iron ore, gas and coal and they provided funds for governments while avoiding to pay taxes. In a generation or two that extraction racket will collapse as countries respond to climate change. What will replace them? Who is making plans...

Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South

In response to: Australia looks like a winner – but we’re losing where it counts by Stewart Swee

The courage to join Canada

January 27, 2026

Australia should sign up to Canada's third way trading block which has 1.5 billion people. At the same time withdraw from AUKUS and never sign up to the Board of Peace. But I doubt Albanese has the courage and leadership skills to do so.

Tony Simons from Balmain NSW

In response to: “Take the sign out of the window” – Carney on power, coercion and middle states

Could you imagine

January 27, 2026

Profound thanks are in order. This is an inspiring article. Simple truth so often is. And the question, Could you imagine the Nakba being taught in our schools? That Jepke Goudsmit’s hauntingly beautiful Lament is not included as a preamble to our new hate speech laws is an opportunity missed. Pearls and Irritations, you are a beacon on our media horizon.

Hal Duell from Alice Springs

In response to: Reflections of an Arab Australian on the new 'hate speech' laws

Target too wide?

January 27, 2026

The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism laws establish a highly politicised administrative process for declaring Prohibited Hate Groups without judicial oversight. Organisations which advocate engaging in conduct constituting a hate crime, including hate crime conduct engaged in outside Australia, may be declared a Prohibited Hate Group Offences of directing, recruiting for, funding or even supporting such a group carry 7-10 year prison sentences. A UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) found Israel has committed acts that amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza. Major Australian Jewish organisations like the Executive Council of Australian Jewry actively...

John Curr from MANLY

In response to: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this one ticks every box

Australia’s climate action still falls short

January 27, 2026

Peter Sainsbury’s overview of Australia’s climate risk in the decade since the Paris Agreement is timely and helpful. The obvious question, however, is how Australia’s response compares with that of similar countries. Our decarbonisation record is mixed. Australia leads the world in rooftop solar uptake, and some states have achieved exceptionally high shares of renewable electricity. Nationally, emissions targets of net zero by 2050 and a stronger 2035 goal are now legislated. Yet compared with our OECD and G20 peers, Australia still ranks among the highest for per-capita emissions, remains heavily dependent on coal and gas, and lacks a...

Ray Peck from Hawthorn

In response to: Environment: It’s official - Australia’s extreme weather events will get more se

Trump's promotion of fossil fuels

January 23, 2026

This was the most confronting article by Julian Cribb I have read, and there have been a few. Clive Hamilton once wrote of his Oh Shit moment with regards to climate change. I had mine in Vietnam last year travelling around the vast Mekong delta, a massive rice-growing area, when I found it was only 84cm above current sea-level, but seas are expected to rise by that amount or more before the end of the century. There are huge implications for food security and displacement of people. In this context, US President Trump's systematic dismantling of the Inflation Reduction...

Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW

In response to: De-icing the Earth: a fatal decision

In defence of Rudd

January 23, 2026

Nowhere in the press has it been made explicit: Kevin Rudd was sent to Washington, precisely because he is the leading expert on the US-China relationship. 40 years’ experience on China, including as a professional diplomat, with a doctorate from Oxford on Xi Jingping’s worldview, isn’t coincidental. It points directly to why he was chosen to represent Australia to the United States at a time where they still claimed to respect the rules-based international order. His status as a ‘Labor mate’ was a nice bonus for his posting, not the rationale. Yes, Trump’s new worldview makes that all irrelevant...

Mark Wilson from Canberra

In response to: Greenland is why Rudd’s DC replacement must be a diplomat

Great article, however...

January 23, 2026

The IHRA definition of antisemitism will cause a lot of angst for those offering opinions to and then the conclusions of the Royal Commission. Opinions offered to the Royal Commission will be judged in accordance with levels of education and understanding of the histories of Zionism, Israel, Palestine, Balfour Declaration, Sykes-Picot Agreement, different religious perspectives together with the actions of the Israeli Parliament, the Likud Party and the Israeli IDF and settlers whose primary objective, a Palestine free of ALL Palestinians, and any action carried out by them to achieve this objective is acceptable, no matter how inhumane or ethically...

Bill Morris from Western Australia

In response to: Gory sausage making at the Labor knackery

Why we think Manichean

January 23, 2026

Eugene Doyle is on the money with the outing of Manichean thinking. But why is it so prevalent and so unchallenged? Born Bad by James Boyce traces the influence of Manicheanism on Augustine and so on the western world via the notion of Original Sin. Augustine won the theological politics of the day over Pelagius. A win for a conservative, controlling church and the rest is a western world history believing as a matter of faith that all descendants of Adam must be regarded as being of a 'perverted' or 'depraved' nature. Boyce traces this corrosive, destructive doctrine throughout western...

Michael Breen from Robertson NSW

In response to: Why the "good vs evil" keeps failing us

Carney’s courage ignores most of the world

January 23, 2026

Congratulations to Mark Carney for his stirring Davos speech. It's difficult to disagree with anything he said but, as frequently occurs with me, it's what isn't said that causes me problems. Carney talks repeatedly about 'great powers' (US and China presumably, Russia is hardly a great power at present) and 'middle powers', the rest of the wealthy, western, capitalist regime, I assume; the ones that have to greater and lesser degrees benefited from the structures and processes of the system of international relations established since world war two. There is not a single mention by Carney of the...

Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point

In response to: “Take the sign out of the window” – Carney on power, coercion and middle states

The infamous Rowland law

January 23, 2026

Thank you Greg Barns. This Rowland law was passed with utter contempt for the parliamentary committee system which is there to allow public input. She was asked three times on ABC TV to elaborate and obfuscated. Only a handful of the reported 7000 submissions were published by the PJCIS. Although all federal legislation is supposed to pass through a human rights filter, not this time it seems. Both the IGIS and the HRC made submissions, yet I don’t believe their views were actioned; still, I have asked them. S.114.4A (5) is bad law as they and I pointed out in...

Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)

In response to: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this on

Trump – a third term is not enough

January 23, 2026

While U.S. citizens and the rest of the world were speculating about how Donald Trump would circumvent the U.S. constitution which unequivocally denies him a third Presidential term, Donald Trump was cobbling together the “Board of Peace” with himself named in its constitution as chairman for life (or until he resigns). He has enlisted 30 countries to the Board of Peace. Trump has expressly eschewed International Law and disregards United Nations resolutions and principles with alacrity. It seems plain to me that this is Trump’s move to retain power as emperor of a US empire with the support...

John Curr from MANLY

In response to: The man who puts his name on everything

On the other hand

January 20, 2026

The other comment that could be made about both Eastwood and Wayne is that their impressive domination of the violent western style film industry could well be seen as re-enforcing the gun culture that now takes 50,000 Americans mostly children, every year. Promoting a violent male approach to masculinity may well be the source of US dysfunction today. Just a thought!!

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: "Go ahead – make my book list": slings and arrows, and Eastwood

Climate crisis is real; the doubt is manufactured

January 20, 2026

Climate scientists have sounded the alarm for decades, yet some still choose to ignore, the danger. Former Deputy Director of the NSW Emergency Service and member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, Chas Keys notes that there is even resistance to the “catastrophic” fire danger warning introduced after the devastating 2009 Black Saturday fires. Those warnings were pushed by the emergency leaders who fought those fires. Many were shocked at the ferocity and behaviour of fires in recent years. They understood the risk, recognised the influence of a changing climate, and chose language carefully to cut through scepticism and...

Ray Peck from Hawthorn

In response to: Heatwaves, bushfires, and the words that save lives

Obesity isn't just about junk food

January 20, 2026

Before the 1990s, Australia had neither an obesity nor a diabetes problem. That should prompt the concerned to ask what changed? Maybe our food regulators have been asleep at the wheel, maybe there there is more high processed and junk food available today. But how does anybody know if they don't consider just how much sugar and other questionable foods we ate back then? We definitely didn't go to the gym every day. Obesity is also a side-effect of antidepressants and psychotropics, which Australia also consumes phenomenal numbers of. Why, exactly? It is also a stress reaction. Why...

Stephen Lake from Moss Vale NSW

In response to: Britain has banned junk food advertising to kids. There are big lessons for Aust

Some honesty about "globalise the intifada", please

January 20, 2026

Chris Minns repeatedly accused protesters of chanting “globalise the intifada”. A woman said on television that protesters chant “gas the Jews”. I have attended the Palestine Action Group’s protests dozens of times, and I have never chanted “globalise the intifada” (or heaven forbid, “gas the Jews”), or heard anyone else chant them. The most I ever heard of “globalise the intifada” came from the lips of the Premier, who has greatly succeeded in popularising it. Anyone attending these rallies will find that protesters are mostly seniors, families with prams and small children, nurses, Jews, teachers, union members, students,...

C Wong from Edgecliff

In response to: Some honesty about "globalise the intifada", please

Treaties are not deals

January 20, 2026

It's good that James Curren's advice is in the aether as Government and its Prime Minister ponder a replacement in Washington. But what he writes about the US change suggests that the Prime Minister is now in an extremely awkward position. I refer to Trump's invitation to him (and to the NZ PM as well) to be part of the delusionary riviera Peace Team for Gaza. No, it might just be worthwhile for the Australian Government and our PM not to bother too much about a Washington replacement at this time. Let it be a low priority task that...

Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL

In response to: Greenland is why Rudd’s DC replacement must be a diplomat

A parallel invitation

January 16, 2026

It seems only fair – I have asked the government of Palestine through its embassy to extend an invitation to our vice head of state, Sam Mostyn, to visit Palestine.

Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)

In response to: Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israe

Pendulums swing. It's what they do.

January 16, 2026

The Palestinians living in Gaza have been subjected to a two-year military assault on men, women and children, denial of food (starvation), denial of basic medical care, insufficient water supply, inadequate emergency shelter to replace the destroyed buildings, and a relentless barrage of excuses attempting to justify these crimes. (I cannot be party to silencing writers, P&I 15 Jan) To say these things is not antisemitic. It is simply pointing out the glaringly obvious. It is impossible in our connected world to livestream genocide and pretend it's not happening. Free speech is one of the pillars supporting our Australian...

Hal Duell from AliceSprings

In response to: I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I resigned as director of A

The people and the common good

December 17, 2025

Today’s capitalism may have a more benign face than in past centuries, but there remain global corporations of great power and rapacious attitudes; major fossil fuel corporations exemplify this. For them ecocide – whether from environmental destruction, or from the poisonous prevalence of plastics – seems a necessary, if unfortunate, by-product if they are to continue powering the world with their gas, oil and coal. These corporations must know that they will not survive at scale without radically changing their outputs to fit a world centred on sustainability but, rather than urgently redirecting their substantial reserves to embrace the...

Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic

In response to: Degrowing the economy for people and planet

Can we discuss degrowth without the ideology?

December 17, 2025

It may well be that imperialism, colonialism, racism and ecocide are the four horsemen of capitalism's apocalypse, but all this ideology is clouding the issue. What we need is degrowth, both of the economy (certainly in industrialised countries) and of population. If you degrow the economy but the population continues to grow, then people get poorer. We need degrowth because the world is in overshoot. We have consumed too many resources and produced too many wastes. This is reflected in climate change and plummeting biodiversity. We have to restore balance, though that might not be possible until the population...

Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW

In response to: Degrowing the economy for people and planetAustralia’s cost-of-living crisis has

Getting submarines, or funding the US to get them

December 17, 2025

US nuclear submarines are phenomenally complex machines. Their advanced technology (reactor plants, sonar arrays, combat systems) requires intensive and meticulous maintenance. The public shipyards responsible for major overhauls and refuelling (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, Pearl Harbor) have been plagued by ageing infrastructure and equipment, critical skilled labor shortages and a massive backlog of deferred maintenance. This has dramatically extended maintenance periods. It's not uncommon for planned availabilities to run years over schedule, drastically lowering the operational availability rate. In the last decade, this rate has been devastatingly low for attack submarines. Add to that new construction delays (Virginia...

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: AUKUS meets reality – what's not in the AUSMIN Media Release (Part 1)

Vast educational inequality

December 17, 2025

As the parent of a teacher in an underprivileged public school I could not agree more with Allan. One of the fundamental characteristics that distinguishes a civilised and vibrant society is the extent to which it prioritises the education of its children. On that metric Australia is one of the biggest dunces on the planet. We not only deliberately entrench a vast educational inequality by massive funding to private schools, but guarantee a low standard of educational achievement for the bulk of our population by vast under-funding of our most needy public schools. This has, and continues to create,...

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Australia’s teachers – undervalued and overburdened

Thank you, George Browning

December 17, 2025

Thank you, George Browning, for your courage in articulating what many of us are thinking but too reticent to express. There has been a rise in antisemitism in Australia over the past two years. Of that there is no doubt. Our hearts go out to our Jewish Australians who have been the targets. Australian Jews are suffering horrifically and so unjustly by the rise of an antisemitism which has its genesis not in the policies of the Albanese Government as Netanyahu asserts. Its the genocidal actions of the Israeli Government under Netanyahu's Presidency against innocent Palestinians which have precipitated...

Judy Henderson from Repton

In response to: Blame, grief and responsibility after Bondi

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept

December 15, 2025

Re the contradictions Stuart Rees notes: How many Australians enjoyed the spectacle of Richard Marles standing alongside US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington this week. I guess he had to do it for the sake of Aukus, and to “preposition” (meaning what?) US troops in Australia. But the US military has just been alleged by some senior US figures to be complicit in the murder of Colombian fisherman Alejandro Carranza, and the killing of 93 other civilians on the high seas including two survivors of a US Navy strike. Who gave the orders and the rules of engagement...

Geoffh Taylor from Borlu (Perth)

In response to: 2025 in Review: Bullies and sycophants, cowardice on high, courage from below

Why ignore the historical context of the war in Ukraine?

December 15, 2025

The historical contexts of the current war in Ukraine are simply ignored in this article as if they don’t exist. First, there is a complex web of centuries-old shared cultural, linguistic, religious, social, economic and strategic interests between Russia and Ukraine. Second, Russia will never forget that Operation Barbarossa by German forces against the Soviet Union in 1941 targeted Ukraine as a major strategic objective. Third, the US, France, UK and Germany made security assurances throughout 1990-91 to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch” further after the USSR endorsed German reunification, which led Gorbachev to...

Peter Henning from Melbourne

In response to: Trump’s Ukraine peace deal would leave the country vulnerable to future Russian

Hard Times

December 15, 2025

Les Macdonald's recent letter covering the Wang Fuk Court tragedy in Honk Kong entitled 'Let the facts speak for themselves' left me reflecting on Thomas Gradgrind, the fictional character and notorious school board superintendent in Hard Times by Charles Dickens. The rigid and persistent pedagogue was obsessed with cold facts and numbers, and his adolescent pupils were treated as machines, or pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with facts. Replication and transfer of data is not learning. It is merely indoctrination, and the conundrum is discussed extensively by Henry Giroux and the late Paulo Freire....

Bernartd Corden from Spring Hill QLD 4000

In response to: Beijing warns foreign media in Hong Kong over crossing ‘red lines’

Australia is over-governed

December 15, 2025

I agree with Allan Patience. Australia is over-governed. Abolishing upper houses in the states would save an enormous amount of money. And Tasmania should become a federal territory. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund shows how Australia fails to follow the example of successful countries. Expertise should be pooled to take advantage of experienced people nation-wide. This would benefit the whole country. Melbourne needs the expensive infrastructure Patience criticises, but not funded by cutting other essential services. Funds would be available by implementing Patience’s ideas. The revision of the federation is urgent.

Elizabeth Sprigg from Melbourne

In response to: Too many states, too little nation: time to fix the federation

Sometimes a cool head is needed

December 15, 2025

Just a word to commend and thank Terry Fewtrell for his clearly argued and cool response to the Vatican's recent release on the ordination of women to the deaconate. My response was less cool and rational. More like a shaking of the head and a grimace bordering on cynicism at such facile arguments put forward in the Vatican statement, I too paused over the reference to “a rupture of the nuptial meaning of salvation.” Risible indeed. Ridiculous. It seems that only the male species was created in God's likeness, God who is neither male, nor female, etc. etc. Funny,...

Anne Benjamin from Dharug Country, Toongabbie NSW

In response to: Why the Vatican’s latest word on women deacons has angered reformers

All power to the climate litigators

December 15, 2025

Ernst Willheim, honorary professor in the ANU College of Law, asks whether Australia has grasped the implications of the International Court of Justice’s ruling that States have an international duty to prevent climate harm. It was a rare unanimous decision by the ICJ and a remarkable achievement for the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. Dr Liz Hicks, University of Melbourne environmental-law lecturer, warns the ruling creates significant liability risks for Australia because it is one of the world’s largest fossil-fuel exporters. After the ICJ opinion, the UN intervened as amicus curiae in an Australian case for...

Ray Peck from Hawthorn

In response to: What the ICJ’s climate law decision means for Australia

We have a bludger crisis

December 15, 2025

What we have is a non productive bludger crisis. No matter where you scratch you will find that those making the big money are doing it off the backs of those most in need. It's the developers who are benefiting from the shortage of affordable housing getting unsuitable (flood prone etc) land rezoned, building regulations altered, complain when they have to contribute to the upgrade of infrastructure all the time, vilifying anyone who opposes them because they have too big a property, likes trees, is too old living in a big house, is a tradie who wants a little...

Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA

In response to: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12/reflections-on-the-cost-of-living/?utm_sour

Contrasting approaches

December 15, 2025

In his '2025 in Review', Professor Stuart Rees begins with an attack on President Trump, an easy – and albeit often legitimate – target. Most of his article relates to the genocide in Gaza. Professor Rees rightly refers to the cowardice of western leaders in not calling it out. However, he appears to place the blame for the crimes of the Israeli government on 'religious zealots' who 'have undue influence in the Israeli cabinet'. He is not critical of Zionism itself, which is ultimately responsible for the genocide and wider wars in the Middle East. Reference to the...

Susan Dirgham from Viewbank

In response to: 2025 in Review: Bullies and sycophants, cowardice on high, courage from below

Ignoring WA's disproportionate contribution

December 15, 2025

Mr Eslake’s recent critique of Western Australia's GST arrangements exemplifies (yet again) Mark Twain's famous observation about statistics being used to mislead rather than inform. The author selectively focuses on GST growth rates while ignoring the fundamental issue: Western Australia's disproportionate contribution to national wealth. Whether WA is a “powerhouse” or not, is merely a device to generate soundbites from NSW pollies and Murdoch commentators. The real issue is whether the GST distribution system should penalise states for resource endowments and economic efficiency. The 2018 reforms simply addressed a system that had become punitive to the point...

Chris picard from Perth

In response to: Western Australia is rich, but it's not the economic powerhouse it claims to be

Capitalism is irreparable

December 15, 2025

Jason Hickel is right to excoriate the capitalist system, and Peter Sainsbury is right to quote Hickel at length. Capitalism has delivered riches to the wealthy of the world, but only through 500 years of unconscionable colonial exploitation of most human beings on the planet and a century of massive exploitation of the planet's resources. The wealthier each of us is, the greater the legacy of ruin we and our forebears have created. Without erecting massive psychological barriers, we would be overwhelmed by the dissonance between who we are and what we have done. Can the capitalist beast...

Richard Barnes from Naarm / Melbourne

In response to: Degrowing the economy for people and planet

It's not "a Vatican document"

December 15, 2025

The seven-page letter by retired Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi is not an official document from the Vatican. It is a report of anonymous votes by unnamed members of a commission established by Pope Francis in 2020 that met twice in 2021 and 2022 met again in February 2025 with reviewing documents submitted in response to synodal considerations of women deacons. It affirms the magisterial fact that the restoration of women to the ordained diaconate is a matter for continued synodal discussion.

Phyllis Zagano from Hempstead, NY, USA

In response to: Vatican document

A sane government would listen

December 15, 2025

A government that truly cares about our aged and recognises that its current path is one directed largely by unaware bureaucrats and significant provider interests, would listen to someone with Kathy's expertise in aged care funding. But I guess that is a vain hope!!

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: A beginners guide to Australian aged care policy in 2025

Let the facts speak for themselves

December 11, 2025

There is a simple solution to the conundrum of free speech versus the spreading of lies. All reportage must use as its base established facts. The problem for the West in its untrammelled pursuit of a freedom to spread whatever nonsense the western elites wish to see accepted by the bewildered herd, is that the public space in that West is saturated by lies, distortions, fabrications, mendacities and deceit spread deliberately by the mainstream media to keep them confused and afraid. That has worked brilliantly for those elites for the last 80 years and they see no reason to...

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Beijing warns foreign media in Hong Kong over crossing ‘red lines’

And have a guess who is responsible?

December 11, 2025

No prizes for guessing which part of the world is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the illegal sanctions imposed and therefore the vast majority of the deaths and suffering of the rest of the world's children. You guessed it! It is the West that so values human rights, justice and compassion!!

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Sanctions kill like wars – and children pay the price

Memo to Albanese: still a little left to destroy

December 10, 2025

I suppose we all should pity our PM Albanese – with so much of the founding DNA of Labor left shattered, there is still much to do to obliterate every trace of decency, fairness, ethical conduct, socially responsible legislation, international relations and intelligent defence procurement strategy by his government. Busy, busy, busy. Defending egregious travel expenditure by Anika Wells is just a stool sample from the sullage pit that encompasses the current legislative program of our current government. Increased mining approvals, gas extraction boondoggles, gambling reduction side-hustles, socially decent protest restrictions, sidestepping our signed-up-to responsibilities to combat genocide...

Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale

In response to: Australia’s trust deficit is a failure of governance

Climate and the pursuit of capital

December 10, 2025

Peter Sainsbury, who generously credits Bill Gates with “unlimited access to information and experts” is right to conclude with a ‘fail’ for Gates “for your faith in the market and capitalism (even though you never use the word) as the routes to salvation”. After basing a decade-long warning of climate disaster on that same access to information and experts, Gates now says “we should measure success by our impact on human welfare more than our impact on the global temperature.” As Peter says, why not do both? No doubt the impact on human welfare through his global vaccination...

Fiona Colin from Melbourne

In response to: Bill Gates knows the climate and poverty facts but misses the politics

What about property investment rates?

December 10, 2025

Keating states that population growth has been no faster in the last six years than previously over the last several decades, so the pressure of demand for new dwellings is no higher than we were readily able to accommodate in the past. This ignores the fantastic growth in property investment rates (a demand side issue). In the 1999-2000 FY there were 1.16 million Australians who owned at least one investment property. By 2021-22 that number had doubled to 2.26 million, far outstripping the population growth rate. A recent AIHW report supports this, stating: Over the past two...

Jaron Sutton from Melbourne

In response to: Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has a housing problem

Housing: you can't ignore the demand factor

December 10, 2025

Michael Keating, in arguing that our housing problem is about supply and not demand, writes that Australian population growth has been no faster in the last six years than previously over the last several decades, so the pressure of demand for new dwellings is no higher than we were readily able to accommodate in the past. It may be true that the average population growth rate of the last six years is more or less in line with the average of the last three decades or more. However, because there is an ever-bigger base, the actual numbers grow, if...

Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW

In response to: Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has a housing problem

Debt and disregard

December 10, 2025

While here in SA Party Pete racks up the debt on innumerable sporting events and festivals with complete disregard for debt, taxes, emissions, the parklands, traffic congestion / inconvenience (almost half a year set up /down for a car race that is more attended for the nightly rock concerts than the race) etc – all very reminiscent of Caesar who built the colosseum to distract the masses and promote class warfare and war in general . Meanwhile the other almost half of our elected representatives are so wedded to opposition that they have decided that opposing themselves is the main...

Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA

In response to: victoria-government-unfussed-by-gp-debt/?ut

Seeking the truth about the war in Ukraine

December 10, 2025

On the war in Ukraine, Canadian academic James Horncastle writes much as almost all western mainstream commentator might: Ukraine good; Russia bad. Like so many others given a mainstream platform, he appears to support an ongoing war until a Ukrainian victory and the destruction of Russia. But does he have genuine concerns for Ukraine, its citizens, and the truth? I'd urge Pearls and Irritations readers to consider US ambassador Chas Freeman's address on the war that he presented to the 'East Bay Citizens for Peace' in September 2023. It's lengthy; it challenges mainstream western thinking on the war, but...

Susan Dirgham from Viewbank

In response to: Trump’s Ukraine peace deal would leave the country vulnerable to future Russian

So little regard for local government ?

December 10, 2025

A thought provoking article. Sadly local government was like a tacked on afterthought. If you look around your local area through local eyes without the bias promoted by self interests in state governments you can't help but see what a good job local governments do with limited resources – in general the parks and gardens etc are a credit to your local council. Parks, playgrounds etc are an indicator as to what a good job they do for local interest. Take the time to regularly visit your local park to see who is doing the maintenance and restoring the area...

Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA

In response to: australias-federation-is-staggering-under-t

Moral and intellectual vacuity personified

December 8, 2025

An opposition so bereft of a vision of a future for Australia in a rapidly changing world that their only appeal to the citizen is a return to an imagined idyll that ignores entirely the reality of that past . Australia desperately needs an opposition that can hold a government to account for its many failures to even seek to achieve a resolution to the vast policy failures of that less-than-glorious past!

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Coalition’s Australian values test is the ultimate dog whistle

Rogue actors

December 8, 2025

For a book detailing the involvement of the CIA with drugs, Alfred W McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is well-researched and convincing. When reading it many years ago, I realised that while it was possible for the CIA to amas a quantity of heroin through the use of not-so-hidden labs in Southeast Asia, a distribution network was needed to move that product. What was then known as the Mafia had such a network. Despite an increasingly thin veneer of 'a rules-based international order' and 'a shinning light on the hill,' the USA is becoming exposed as...

Hal Duell from Alice Springs

In response to: America’s justification for attacking Venezuela: Part 1 – a calculated insult to

Silence expands under pressure

December 8, 2025

The silence, of course, extends to the whole Australian governing class whichever mainstream party holds power at any level, federal, state and even local. The silence has being progressively reinforced across all Australian media, not just the mainstream, although the mainstream has always heavily censored or cut information about what is occurring in West Asia which is in any way critical of Israel. Fear of litigation, loss of employment, career and financial security, are now entrenched in widening the circle of silence. Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suits against people like Mary Koskakidis are designed to promote...

Peter Henning from Melbourne

In response to: The politics of forgetting: Australia, Gaza and moral silence

Moral silence or deliberate obfuscation?

December 8, 2025

Jaron Sutton’s article is for any genuinely moral government a call for explanation and remediation. For exactly the circumstances he exposes we are unlikely to see that from Albanese and Wong. The official Australian government lack of action to support justice for Palestinians and hope for Israelis for a future not castrated by the shame of clearly having committed genocide is a matter of national shame for us. When the history of Australia dealing with the Israeli genocide upon Palestinians is documented, Dreyfuss' name will appear as one who absolutely lacked the courage or decency to speak out for...

Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale

In response to: The politics of forgetting: Australia, Gaza and moral silence

Voters know perfectly well the duopoly will never allow low migration

December 8, 2025

There not being a single useful number in Peter Hughes’ immigration snow-job, let me try to give him a hand. Big Australia means net-migration averaging in the 200,000s, which has only happened after 2005. Mass migration, no matter how much SA Liberal Senator McLachlan may shudder, means the 400,000s. As per Albanese Labor. Normal or historical net-migration is 80,000, give or take. In every reliable poll during or since COVID, voters (remember them, Peter?) want lower or much lower immigration than what they now have. Voters know perfectly well the duopoly will never allow low migration. That’s why...

Stephen Saunders from O'Connor

In response to: Australia’s immigration 'debate' is rhetoric, not policy

Too much of a good thing

December 8, 2025

It is sad that Mainul Haque felt a necessity to defend migrants. Most of us encounter migrants every day, for instance my doctor is Chinese and my dentist Zimbabwean, and I'm grateful for their expertise and care. Nevertheless, I worry about poaching skilled workers from countries that have borne the cost of educating them but not benefited from their skills because they are over here. Migrants bring diversity which is mostly a good thing. When overseas conflicts are played out here, for instance, between Jews and Palestinians, it is not a good thing. And most migrants are good people...

Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW

In response to: Fear versus facts: why migrants strengthen Australia

Rights for humans (male and female)

December 8, 2025

Before our government draws up a bill to introduce a Human Rights Act in Australia, it needs to reverse the amendments made in 2013 to the Sex Discrimination Act. In 2013 the Gillard government withdrew from the Act the words women and men and introduced the notion of gender identity, which, in practice, has come to take precedence over sex. One outcome is that the Human Rights Commission has ruled that it is illegal for lesbians to advertise lesbian events as female only. Another court ruling has been that Giggle, an online app for women, cannot insist on a...

Janet Grevillea from Lake Macquarie

In response to: Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home

Schweitzer saw it – why can’t we?

December 8, 2025

Our ever-growing population puts pressures on our housing industry to provide ever more accommodation. Calls to increase housing density – particularly in the major cities – are met with howls of protest from those whose amenity would be compromised by being overlooked by neighbours. This leads to urban expansion – in small towns as well as cities – as farmland or woodland is absorbed into the urban dream. The result is continued loss of the natural environment that our wildlife needs, to support the growing urban environment of taxpayers and ratepayers, with little consideration of the impact this continuing degradation...

Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic

In response to: Could we have a rational debate on immigration?

The Australian government chooses complicity

December 8, 2025

Helen McCue gives a long list of aid agencies barred from Israel. But the relevant part of her article is the last paragraph. McCue says ... it seems that our government continues to enable Israel’s impunity with its silence regarding Israels banning of INGOs and further refers to lack of moral clarity. I'd drop the it seems that and refer simply to both Wong and Albanese's amorality when it comes to Palestine. Words will never stop Israel, not formal declarations nor fake pious weasel words nor Trump's peace plan to build a Palestinian Riviera.Just look at the ceasefire that...

Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122

In response to: Israel’s NGO rules are shutting out humanitarian aid from Gaza

None of our business

December 8, 2025

This is an excellent explanation that AUKUS is not only a vast waste of taxpayers' money, but also that it it will produce nothing for Australia except the bitterness of our major trading partner and the world's emerging hegemon. That the subs involved might be used to advance the American continued desire to interfere in purely internal Chinese matters is an added and powerful reason to exit from it!

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Marles’ Defence overhaul raises an awkward question: why AUKUS at all?

Reflections on decline

December 8, 2025

This is a beautifully put together magnum opus on the self imposed decline of empire. One can differ on the details but the direction and conclusions are spot-on.

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Ceding the future to China

AI guardrails need a better scorecard in Australia

December 5, 2025

AI is far bigger than the answers to our entertainment needs and our home computer internet searches. It has moved faster than our gee whiz reactions to the available interactive platforms and it is impacting increasingly on our collective freedom, our workplaces, our bodies, our livelihood and the emerging structure of our society. That's why Sue Barrett's heads up piece on an existing and apparently agreed ethics framework for AI in the form of Steve Davies MEET framework is so bloody important! Industry Minister Tim Ayers' casual no guardrails response to AI ethics, using the MEET package was...

Donald Clayton from Bittern Victoria

In response to: A practical answer to Australia's AI ethics vacuum.

Could we have a rational debate on immigration?

December 5, 2025

Peter Hughes writes that there 'is absolutely nothing wrong with having a debate on immigration'. Indeed not. He failed, however, to make a rational contribution to such a debate. He was too busy demonising those who question very high immigration levels as those who come out of the Trump camp. Some of us regard Trump as anathema yet can still question the economic, social and environmental effects of hyper-migration that has been the case post-Covid. Unlike Hughes, some of us can distinguish between reasonable immigration rates and unreasonable ones - or unsustainable ones if you prefer. And the bottom...

Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW

In response to: Australia’s immigration 'debate' is rhetoric, not policy

Sir Humphrey and international law

December 2, 2025

The sick joke that is the Australian government's infantile fear of the Israeli lobby reeks of the approach of Sir Humphrey to its responsibilities. Express in-principle moral commitments, but find all sorts of fraudulent reasons why in practice it will not do anything to implement those principles. Can anyone seriously imagine that Gough is not spinning in his grave when he sees the moral cowardice involved??

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Australia’s selective justice on international law is indefensible

A simple solution

December 2, 2025

Important questions are raised in this article about the reliability of AI in putting together accurate information for an article by journalists. There is a simple solution which I use extensively and that is to ask your questions of AI and follow that with a question as to the sources from which that information is gathered. It is then vital to double check the veracity of those sources and the way in which the information provided by those sources has been gathered and verified. It won't guarantee that you will get everything right, but will minimise the chance...

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: AI and the news: how it helps, fails, and why that matters

Can he stay or will he go

December 2, 2025

I don't think the prospect of President Trump running again in 2028 is a serious consideration. The twenty-second amendment of the US Constitution clearly limits presidential terms to two. To get around that would require a countering constitutional amendment. That would require approval by two-thirds of the US Senate and House of Representatives as well as approval by three-fourths of the 50 states. That seems to me to be highly unlikely. I suppose there is a mathematical chance an amendment could happen, but far more likely is another impeachment process kicking off after next year's mid-terms with the extrajudicial...

Hal Duell from Alice Springs

In response to: Charting Trump's decline

Government funding of private schools should be phased out

December 1, 2025

I am not opposed to private schools but parents should pay the fees. In 1964 private schools began to receive government funding that has resulted in a two-tiered education system. Government schools are not adequately funded and cannot always provide a top quality education to all students, including sporting facilities, music schools, camps, etc. because the money to do so is syphoned off to private schools which can offer these facilities. In most OECD countries, parents send their children to government schools, and there are very few private schools. Australia is a divided nation because of this system. This...

Elizabeth Sprigg from Glen Iris, Victoria

In response to: The inflation myth propping up private school privilege

The simple way to stop tax avoidance

December 1, 2025

Michael Keating is right, our government needs more revenue to fund important programs, and the fairest way to get it is to tax all those who are currently paying less than their fair share. This is done via the legal loophole called ‘tax deductibility’ to reduce their 'taxable income'. Every company operating in Australia takes advantage of this, but none do it better than the transnationals. By organising over-priced, inter-company loans, they can shift the profits they earn here to any tax haven in the world. They must think we are stupid… and we are. The solution is as...

Tom Orren from Wamberal

In response to: Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform

A secure future – can only the uber-rich apply?

December 1, 2025

Will we see pangs of regret from the billionaires of fossil fuels and AI, sheltering in their luxurious secure bunkers, when they think of all the places in the outside world that they’d love to visit – or revisit – which are now unreachable because of climatic deterioration, widespread famine, anarchy, or AI’s mastery of the world? Bunkerworld encapsulates the grotesque reality today where the super-wealthy grow ever richer through exacerbating mega-threats like global warming and AI, in the face of existential risks that are well-known and documented, and then buy accommodation in ultra-safe, ultra-secure bunkers to shelter themselves...

Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic

In response to: Welcome to BunkerWorld – home of the rich and fearful

Albanese’s disgusting, trite vision for society

December 1, 2025

Albanese’s vision – “holding nobody back and leaving nobody behind” – has a superficial appeal: the most vulnerable have enough for a life of dignity, and the innovators, investors and boundary pushers reap the limitless rewards of their foresight and industry. Perfect, two popular cons (the rising tide and trickle down effects) rolled into one. But the mantra’s appeal is purely superficial. It ignores the reality of a very rigid, highly stratified society in which society’s directions are set by select few who happily experience most of the beneficial and least of the harmful consequences. All societal decisions involve...

Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point

In response to: Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform

A wedding and innumerable funerals

December 1, 2025

Brad Reed’s article is yet another exposition of the staggering slaughter of Palestinians by the actions of the genocidal Zionist forces – the Israeli government, the IDF, the Settlers. The estimated ‘body count’ is nearly twice that officially reported by Palestinian sources – and likely to be a massively conservative reckoning of the holocaust that the Zionists have wrought upon the Palestinians. In September, IDF commander Herzi Halevi confirmed over 200,000 Gaza casualties since October 7 2003. We took the gloves off, he said – insinuating that previously the Zionist forces had been restrained! Restraint such as that the...

Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale

In response to: Gaza’s true death toll could be 126,000 or even higher

Rethink the national grid

December 1, 2025

In SA in another technology time and space the then Liberal premier in effect nationalised the electrical supply when he created the Electricity Trust of South Australia. On many levels a great success particularly on ensure reliable electricity supply all across the state . Like many state and federal institutions the gradual sell off of ETSA has also been a great success in saving cash strapped state governments over the years, but that money pot is broken and more importantly the technology has improved . The national energy situation has changed and we constantly hear about the limits...

Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA

In response to: real-zero-real-economy-the-greenplexity-war

Tax on cash flows would be an easy win

December 1, 2025

Apart from the unfair distortions in our tax regime, like negative gearing and capital gains concessions, a most obvious source of significant revenue is from the large number of multinationals (probably all of them) who shift profits off-shore by charging immense fees to their local entities. The Productivity Commission presented the government with a neat solution to this, namely a 5 per cent tax on cash flows. Profits are so easily manipulated by companies that there is one set of accounts for shareholders and one set for the ATO. Revenue is not distinguishable and should be the basis of...

Graham Shepherd from East Melbourne

In response to: Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform

Greening the desert

December 1, 2025

This was a good summary of the issues around food security which the CCP have been working on for decades. But it misses the considerable efforts that are being undertaken in greening the vast deserts that comprise more than a quarter of China's land area. These projects are aimed at turning these deserts into productive land for crops and protein production. Efforts so far have been relatively limited scale but are gradually ramping up and will in decades to come add considerably to achieving the goal of food self-sufficiency.

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: How soybeans became a fault line in China’s food security

“Tell him he's dreaming”

December 1, 2025

Better still “Tell him nothing and take him nowhere.

Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA

In response to: trump-wants-australian-data-on-migrant-crim

Sinister semiotics

November 28, 2025

Further to the recent article from Marian Sawer and subsequent letter from Margaret Callinan it is worth taking a look at the front cover of this week's edition of The Spectator Australia entitled 'Drill, baby, drill.' It features a pasquinade of a distraught looking opposition leader attempting to construct her own gallows using a substandard drill with menacing caricatures of Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie hovering in the background. The sinister semiotics is reminiscent of those deplorable red top rag headlines – Gotcha (The S*n, 1982) and The Truth (The S*n, 1989), which were published by the scrofulous...

Bernard Corden from Spring Hill QLD 4000

In response to: Losing the democracy sausage vibe

Failure to address climate change

November 25, 2025

Adrian Rosenfeldt offers a philosophical perspective on the current brouhaha over ‘net zero’: the “net zero project” reflects “the deeper human philosophical desire for certainty rather than scientific necessity”…“What appears to be a neutral scientific framework rests on a false metaphysics: the belief that complex, uncertain realities can be mastered through perfect measurement and fixed ideals.” The “neutral scientific framework” offered nations a rallying point and a goal on which to agree and work towards. This was not “false metaphysics”, more like nuts-and-bolts peace treaties, trade agreements and international cooperation agreements. It was not “moral arithmetic” but painstaking, historical...

Fiona Colin from Melbourne

In response to: Net zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia

Climate, numbers, targets and anxiety

November 25, 2025

Let us be clear: unless we, humankind, act urgently and radically, we will soon experience societal collapse. We will certainly experience existential anxiety as we starve, seek shelter and battle over dwindling resources. I agree that numbers and targets are unhelpful, but not in the sense that the author intends; they allow our leaders to pretend to act while kicking real action down the road, and to create false comfort in the face of the worsening crisis. They allow us to count “land not cleared” as a reduction in CO2 emissions; to include future “carbon capture” at scale in...

Richard Barnes from Melbourne

In response to: Net Zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia

Excluding nature from economics is irrational

November 25, 2025

Julian Cribb reminds us of the quote from that great Canadian environmentalist, David Suzuki: “Nature, the air, the water, the soil, the biodiversity that allows us to live (are) not in the economic system.” Excluding nature from economic thought is indeed irrational. Cribb also cites William Ripple who warned in 2017 that: “We are jeopardising our future by not reining in our intense material consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth as a primary driver behind many threats. This was agreed wisdom 50 years ago yet seems to have been forgotten. Consumerism and population growth are applauded...

Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW

In response to: The wisdom of the elders, the greed of the rich

Rediscovering political parties

November 25, 2025

Jack Waterford's discussion helpfully identifies how diverse efforts across the land, of those elected to our various Parliaments with Liberal Party endorsement, are seeking a path that will not only get them back on Treasury Benches, but unite their party. Presumably the political party membership of such Parliamentarians will be confirmed by Liberals winning Government. The party's raison d'etre will have been achieved. But in the meantime, does the Liberal Party lose its character as a political party when it defines itself in terms of such a goal? Jack says: Liberals need a plan to make a difference. Is...

Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL

In response to: Will there be Liberals around to take power in 2034?

Rizvi's crocodile immigration-tears

November 25, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/our-politicians-continue-to-fail-us-on-immigration-policy/ There goes Abul Rizvi again. Shucks, if only we had a “long term immigration plan”. But we do have a plan. Despite the propaganda from Abul and Tony Burke especially, Australia can and does manage visa flows and net-migration numbers to suit itself. Canada and NZ have made recent and sharp immigration corrections, reaping the benefits in rental and housing affordability. Cruelly for voters, Australia deliberately went the wrong way. After 1.2 million net-migration over 2022-25, we’ve an astonishing near-50 per cent surge in house prices, plus all-time lows in rental affordability. Ouch. In annual terms,...

Stephen Saunders from O'Connor

In response to: Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy

Liberal campaign tactics worse than their policies

November 25, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/losing-the-democracy-sausage-vibe/ Tim Wilson's Goldstein win and narrow Liberal losses elsewhere risk that Liberal tactics will be repeated in future. Democracy is endangered if that happens. Marian Sawer's article captures the flavour of it. Mark Dreyfus's speech in Parliament is the best summary I've read. Personal submissions are gritty and distressing. But nothing matches being there as a volunteer in Kooyong (or worse, Goldstein), or being re-traumatised attending the JSCEM hearing on 12 November. Listen to the audio on the APH YouTube Channel. Voices lift emotion off the flat page of transcript. Listening to only the first speaker might be...

Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122

In response to: Losing the democracy sausage vibe

The secret business of Nauru offshore detention camps haunts us still

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/the-shadow-of-the-tampa/ The secret business of Nauru offshore detention camps haunts us still. Thank you Julie Macken for the reminder of where it all began when Tampa hove into view and political machinations began. The facts revealing that NZ bikies are now on the Australian Government payroll overseeing offshore detention caused barely a ripple with a public inured to harsh policies towards non- citizens. What is even worse is that Australia’s toxic treatment of refugees and others has spread and is being adopted and proposed by nations as diverse as UK and EU countries. Australia has led...

Pamela Curr from Brunswick

In response to: The Shadow of the Tampa

It's all about the kompromat

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/trumps-latest-epstein-gambit/ I agree with the assertion that the Epstein Files Transparency Act is a gambit. Firstly, it calls for only the unclassified files to be made public. Secondly, with an inquiry launched by the Department of Justice into some of the more well-known associates of Epstein, any documents relating to them will be held back. I think there is an elephant in this room. The issue is not who got on the Lolita Express to fly to that under-age island, as titillating as that may be, but rather who was Jeffery Epstein working for? Who amassed all...

Hal Duell from Alice Springs

In response to: Trump’s latest Epstein gambit

The Pirates of Penzance and nuclear subs

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/us-wants-seouls-subs-to-counter-china-asian-media-report/ It is hard to restrain a contemptuous laugh when continually confronted by the comic opera style of US modern Major Generals like Admiral Caudle. That one South Korean Nuclear sub could make any conceivable difference to the inability of the US to frustrate the growth of China is nonsensical. The same applies to the Australian nuclear submarines that may, if ever, get delivered in a decade or two's time. With the complete farce that is the current US and UK naval shipbuilding industries and the rapid expansion of the wholly defensive and vast Chinese fleet, the chances...

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: US wants Seoul’s subs to counter China – Asian Media Report

Everything and nothing

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/two-trump-peace-plans/ It is stretching language to a point at which it becomes meaningless to suggest that these are peace plans. A more accurate description of them is Orange Donald Press Releases. Neither contains a realistic assessment of the situation in Ukraine and Gaza and neither takes into account the wishes of the Ukrainian and Palestinian peoples. They are theatrics from an Administration unable to deal with reality. It would seem that various parties to both conflicts may agree with the more benign and meaningless terms, (which incidentally comprises the vast bulk of both) but disagree violently on others....

Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041

In response to: Two Trump peace plans

Norway is not the role model we need

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/environment-can-australia-be-trusted-with-the-2026-cop/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=61b37e7a62-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-61b37e7a62-745219603 Norway is often promoted as a role model for clean energy and a clean environment and social harmony. This view is faulty. According to the International Energy Agency, as of 2023, Norway ranks approximately 10th in the world for per capita carbon emissions from fossil fuel exports. Norway's per capita emissions are about 7.86 tons of CO₂ per year. This positions Norway among the higher emitters, primarily due to its significant oil and gas production. Like Australia, Norway heavily subsidies its fossil fuel industry (energypolicytracker.org). Norway has made significant public financial commitments to fossil fuels, particularly in...

Cid Mateo from Brinja-Yuin Country, Eurobodalla, NSW

In response to: No COP for Australia. No tears from me. By Peter Sainsbury.

Trump getting ready for mid-term elections

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/5-reasons-trumps-economy-stinks-and-10-things-the-dems-should-do-about-it/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=4dd8fe4e19-Weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-4dd8fe4e19-671545744 The US military's killing of boats full of people off the coast of Venezuela is Trump's way of getting America ready for the mid-terms. The message is - when I give the order to break the law you follow orders. Bombing and killing civilians without a trial in international waters is illegal. US military personnel who are against breaking the law will leave and those who will agree to follow illegal orders, from the top down, will stay. For Trump to retain power, he needs to win the mid terms which under a fair election he...

Louise O'Brien from Sydney NSW

In response to: Five reasons Trump’s economy stinks and 10 things the Dems should do about It

Greenhouse gas pollution and climate change

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/coalition-politicians-cannot-accept-the-threat-of-climate-change-they-should-resign/ I’d like to thank the author of the article for the work that he does in this space. When referring to climate change, emissions, net zero and the like, may I suggest that we always add the cause: greenhouse gas (GSG) pollution. We need to emphasise these problems are caused by pollution. The key word is pollution. It is shocking that when National Party and Liberal Party politicians say they are abandoning net zero by 2050, their core voters, the farmers and small business owners cannot understand that it means their farms and their goods...

Con Karavas from Adelaide, South Australia

In response to: Coalition politicians who can't accept the threat of climate change should resig

Flurries of futile fee policy fluctuations

November 24, 2025

Penny Lee from Perth

In response to: How did Australian universities go from free education to $50,000 arts degrees i

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