Letters to the Editor
Defence against who, what?
March 20, 2025
The first step in this is to identify who we need to defend our selves against and it’s not China The second step is to clarify if the US would rush to our aid if the others were to attack us. I doubt if the answers is an unqualified yes. The third step is to adjust our defence policy to suit the above. Australian interests first. Why not link the rent on all US bases to the equivalent of 100% tariffs on Australian goods going into the US and let the president bargain them down? He likes...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: pine-gap-no-price-could-ever-be-right
Australia officially the 52nd state of the US
March 20, 2025
Is anybody else thinking of the benefits of becoming the 52nd state of the US? As it stands, we have all the disadvantages and none of the benefits. Think of the saving on AUKUS alone. Then there are the tariffs, some actual Australian news on TV, Greg Norman can come home: the list is endless. If we are quick, we could get the 51st spot ahead of Canada.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: pine-gap-no-price-could-ever-be-right
ADF active on Israel’s side against Palestine
March 19, 2025
I refer to Les MacDonald’s article which notes the much-proclaimed IRBO, now in serious doubt in the US after Trump defied Judge Boasberg. Now our ADF as leader of Combined Task Force 153 is involved in Operation Hydranth to degrade the capabilities of the effective government of Yemen, the only country which is standing up to the mass murder and enforced starvation and infrastructure degradation in Southwest Palestine by the US and Israel. So we are now actively supporting Israel militarily by trying to ensure materiel reaches Israel via the Red Sea. Does CTF 153 command the USS aircraft...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The West’s ‘international community’ and the other 85% of humanity
Labor, hypocrisy and appeasement of genocide
March 19, 2025
Why do we have to keep on beating this drum? Today, (18 March) the reports are in of Israel's resumption of unrestrained blitzkrieg upon the Palestinian people. At least 200 have been blown to fragments. This is now such commonplace news that it doesn't even rank as headlines in the media. Just another article towards the front of the on-line opening page. Up there alongside a report of one (not recent) murder in Australia – a sad event certainly, but can we please have some sense of proportion? Penny Wong urges all parties' to respect the ceasefire. Only...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Murder of Rachel Corrie
Not even Hollywood could write this script
March 19, 2025
There’s no doubting Trumpian America is an unstable democracy and an untrustworthy ally. Students of history would have by now picked up the similarities between other people who have come to power via democratic process and taken their nation down a disastrous path. Probably the most studied being Adolf Hitler. The division of Ukraine and the mooted annexation of Canada and Greenland ring warnings for their similarity to Stalin and Hitler dividing Poland, and Germany’s invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia. The number of further parallels is eery. Often overlooked was that Germany’s industrial and commercial elite assumed they...
John Mosig from Kew, Melbourne 3101
In response to: The Manichean moment is over
Liebler and Mossad
March 19, 2025
Concerning Susan Rutland’s attempt to diminish Isi Leibler’s role as an Israeli agent of influence that her biography of the late Australian Zionist leader documents: at p. 219 she writes concerning the late Australian Prime Minister, “…..Fraser knew he would always find him at home and would visit him on a Friday evening. They would review the situation in the course of drinks until late into the night, and, on occasion, Fraser would ask Isi to 'convey confidential information to Mossad'.” In her response to Manne, Rutland seems to deny this evidence of Liebler's actual relationship to Mossad.
Martin Munz from MURWILLUMBAH
In response to: Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s Isi Leibler was a ‘covert agent of Israe
The real murderers in Southwest Palestine
March 19, 2025
I note Stuart Rees' account of the meeting in Glebe. The MSM seem unable to say it today, but the US, which brokered the ceasefire in Southwest Palestine, is clearly an accessory to the renewed mass murder of civilians yesterday, despite no breach of the ceasefire terms by the government of Southwest Palestine. We shouldn’t be, sadly, surprised. Trump promised this renewed attack very recently and is fully backed by Hegseth and presumably Rubio.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Anatomy of a public meeting: genocide a key election issue
ANZUS and NATO kaput: Australia keeps blinkers on
March 18, 2025
I almost agree with everything Jack Waterford says. My disagreement is with his view of America. The US hasn't changed. Trump has merely removed its thick veneer of caring about the rest of the world. When, as Waterford reminds us, in the one true test of ANZUS commitments — Indonesia’s invasion of Irian Jaya in 1963 — the US told Australia bluntly that it stood by Indonesia we chose to keep wearing blinkers rather than recognise the truth. As we still do. Yes, our friends and allies will wake up before our political leaders summon up their courage. They are...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: ANZUS and NATO are kaput and Trump doesn’t care
What are the consequences of not acting on climate?
March 18, 2025
I don't know if my MP was one of those who was briefed on the contents of the Office of National Intelligence assessment of climate-related security risks and I won't ask, tempting her to break a confidence. But take a wild guess! On 19 February 2025, Kooyong MP Dr Monique Ryan held a Town Hall meeting, Climate change and Australian security: a conversation with Admiral Chris Barrie. The person in conversation with the retired admiral was the author of the article to which this letter is a response, David Spratt. To say it was eye-opening would be an understatement....
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Government refuses to articulate ‘frankly terrifying’ security risks
Moving beyond the ONI report towards adaptation
March 18, 2025
Thank you for David Spratt’s article. Eight days ago the French government, recognising the seeming inevitability of temperature rise, published a plan for adaptation, firstly to 2.7 degree C rise, then to 4 degree C. Here our government, supposedly committed to open government, doesn’t even publish the ONI risk analysis.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Government refuses to articulate frankly terrifying security risks
Democracy isn't just for when we like the outcome
March 18, 2025
Many thanks to Eugene Doyle for bringing the political events in Romania to my attention. I was unaware. And also for his accurate analysis of the problems of not just what's been happening there but the silence that has accompanied it across Europe and beyond. If we believe in democracy and the election was fair, we can't dump the results just because we don't like the outcome. Trump's actions before and after the 2020 election have emboldened others to reject election outcomes and bystanders to keep quiet. What happens to community members when they become parliamentarians? And even...
Peter Sainsbury from Sydney NSW
In response to: EU welcomes its first dictatorship
Welcome, Catriona
March 18, 2025
Welcome, Catriona and congratulations on your appointment. We, the loyal servants and readers of Pearls and Irritations, look forward to your strong, insightful and committed leadership of this invaluable journal. Especially one that re-arms us with the moral courage required if we are to tackle existential threats. Best of luck.
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: A message from the new editor, Catriona Jackson
Handling a BRICS Indonesia and Trumpery
March 18, 2025
In Five-Minute Scroll 105, Adam Bandt talks sensibly of withdrawing from AUKUS. In China Daily, this is what Fajar Hirawan has to say about Indonesia, which straddles many of our sealanes, joining BRICS: “Maritime co-operation is another strategic dimension of Indonesia's BRICS membership. Indonesia's Global Maritime Fulcrum vision aligns with BRICS' interests in securing critical sea routes, enhancing trade efficiency and improving maritime security. Co-ordinated efforts between BRICS countries can enhance regional security in the 'Indo-Pacific' region, particularly in areas such as the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait, which are crucial to global trade.” That, taken...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: A five minute scroll
Uninformed or uninterested ?
March 17, 2025
Why is our TV news made up of 25% US politics, 25% China bashing, 10% share prices, 15% sport, 10% prediction of the timing of the next election and a little bit of news? Increasingly I hear that people get their news from YouTube and other freedom of speech nutters. TV and news articles such as this showing the innovation and adaption by China are few and far between. China may not be a democracy, but show me a country that is. Australia isn’t and the US certainly isn’t a democracy. If the first weeks of the new...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: smart-appliances-smarter-economy-reviving-chinas-growth-
Time to make polluters pay
March 17, 2025
Has anyone heard from Richard Hill? He last wrote after Cyclone Alfred rattled his windows, believing we’re in an escalating apocalyptic scenario. He’s not wrong – past greenhouse gas emissions linger for decades, global emissions keep rising, and land, air, and ocean temperatures hit record highs. Meanwhile, Trump emboldens conservative climate sceptics like Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce, who oppose emissions targets and deny human-induced climate change. Simultaneously, Chris Uhlmann, Peter Ridd, and Matt Canavan dismissed Alfred as just another cyclone. Ridd even claimed there’s no need to worry since houses are now better built. Deniers like these must...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Give us a break, Alfred
AUKUS, Trump and independence
March 17, 2025
Senator David Shoebridge of the Greens shows in this essay that he is one of the few clear thinking federal parliamentarians brave enough to express their views on sensitive alliance matters . Together with John McCarthy recently, and Cameron Leckie and Jack Waterford elsewhere, Australia has resources now for a timely root and branch review of our strategic options. A within-government White Paper would be useless, the official system is too indoctrinated to the subservient ally status quo. We need independent expert outside thinking now. There has never been a better time, straight after our federal election.
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: AUKUS Trump and independence
Hear, hear, Jack Waterford
March 17, 2025
Jack Waterford gets it absolutely right (again) in his perspicacious observations about Australia and the US alliance. It is very concerning to me that Waterford's analyses are accessible to only a fraction of mainstream Australians compared with those who regularly receive their so-called information from Murdoch and his ilk. Well said, Jack, and thank you to Pearls and Irritations for regularly disseminating his work.
Neil Dwyer from Wanniassa, A.C.T.
In response to: Are America’s values our values anymore?
Australia needs to be transactional too
March 17, 2025
Who will answer the question, What are the benefits to Australia of hosting US military bases? I especially enjoyed the conciseness of the last paragraph of Michael Sullivan's article.
Peter Gillam from Turramurra
In response to: Imagine a secure Australia post-ANZUS and AUKUS
Facts are important in this debate
March 17, 2025
Michelle Berkon writes that to criticise and refute Zionism in terms that accurately reflect its nature as a settler colonial, supremacist, apartheid, genocidal project is simply fact. Criticism may contain facts, but criticism is not of itself fact. If the fact being referred to is the nature of Zionism, then it should be clear that it is an expressed opinion – not fact. Indeed, it's an opinion that paints any Zionist as inherently evil. As Berkon states further on, I unequivocally call for Zionism to be officially declared a racist ideology, for Zionist speech to be outlawed as hate...
Harold Zwier from Melbourne
In response to: Why is Israel such a big deal?
Thanks, Damien
March 17, 2025
I’m the first to admit that my most-used descriptors for Trump — such as Entitled Egomaniacal Arsehole — lack much in the way of academic usefulness, so thank you, Damien, for clearing so much of the linguistic fog around commentary on the one- man threat to the to the US, the planet and its people. So few words from you to bring so much additional clarity to in such a vital public debate.
Neil Hauxwell from Moe Vic
In response to: Sultanistic or neo-fascist? President Trump and 21st century ideology
Ignoring the real issues
March 17, 2025
Attempting to classify the brand of lunacy or megalomania that besets Donald Trump may be great fun for academics and will undoubtedly yield several neologisms and a flood of learned articles. But it will not save humanity from the universal emergency now approaching at dreadful speed. A business-as-usual hothouse Earth combined with a toxic, collapsing environment, deepening scarcities of water, soil and food, fresh pandemics, overpopulation and the assault on civil society by the billionaire tech bro fraternity, are coming together to ensure civilisational collapse before 2050. Maybe worse. Against this, all Trump's antics, however bizarre are but...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Sultanistic or neo-fascist? President Trump and 21st century ideologyhttps://j
Nonsense
March 14, 2025
All the China bashing is nonsense. Why would China want to invade anywhere for the resources when it is so much cheaper and efficient to send bulk carriers and legitimately buy the material?
Philip Rice from Rivervale
In response to: Any old Chinese port in a storm: Anti-China Media Watch
Trump will not help the cause of peace
March 14, 2025
i thought this was generally an excellent article. However, I can't see Trump increasing peace in the world, as the author claimed. Trump stated that he intends to remove the Palestinian people from Gaza. Also, at the press conference after his meeting with Netanyahu,he responded to Netanyahu saying I will end the war by winning the war by promising to give Netanyahu billions of dollars worth of powerful bombs capable of massive destruction that even Biden had latterly refused to give him. To give Israel the means to annihilate the Palestinian people in Gaza is hardly conducive to...
Beverley Dight from Canberra
In response to: Who's who in the war business
Industrial research
March 14, 2025
This article demonstrates why R&D and industrial innovation have done so poorly in Australia, with investment in building the case for developing a dynamic innovatin system, economy and society – in which greater investment in R&D would make sense as the best we can come up with as a proposal for a way forward. It is not difficult to see where the problem lies. When I started my career as an engineer in the US, industrial research was synonymous with Bell Labs, IBM, Xerox, Dupont, Corning, Hewlett-Packard, Westinghouse, GE, and so on; the great inventions and innovations took place...
Erik Aslaksen from Allambie Heights
In response to: A poor start to the strategic examination of R&D
A case for AI control
March 14, 2025
AI: Will taking the emotion from the equation explain why prices rise but the comparative value remains the same? Why can some people regularly afford a new Rolls Royce why other people can only ever afford a second-hand Toyota? I doubt AI will have the compassion to fix it .
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: maybe-the-inflation-surge-didnt-happen-the-way-weve-been
Geoff Watson blasts the surface
March 14, 2025
Geoff Watson's totally magnificent summation of the whole Nelson/armament manufacturers relationship in the ABC 4 Corners presentation on 10 March, was for me the quintessential moment of the whole program. I refer those who have not read it to do so: Dr. Nelson is, for sure his greatest asset. But the whole issue of the Australian War Memorial accepting and acknowledging donations from armament manufacturers is a truly rotten cancer on our society. What do the armament manufacturers gain from these substantial sums of money? Don't for a moment think there is no benefit they seek in so...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: On Brendan Nelson
Woldring, do more homework. Teals aren't a party
March 13, 2025
Teals started as random strangers across Australia who saw Indi's success and dared to imagine a more engaged and effective MP representing them. Community independents weren't looking for a career in politics. But Liberal disdain for women encouraged, not thwarted, them. While current community independents are mostly women, they have so many male supporters that gender balance will likely arrive eventually. It's insulting to suggest community independents and their supporters think primarily only of their own area. Major drivers are climate change, integrity in government and a better deal for women. Hardly local. Kooyong supporters proudly say their...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Minority government – a problem of the current electoral system
Chinese naval codes
March 13, 2025
Peter Cronau raises the key question: Why wouldn’t Defence have been monitoring transmissions from the ships from when they were first off Queensland? Of course, the warning to aircraft would have been in plain language. But if you think of the cracking of the German Enigma code and of the Nazi high command code during WWII, how good is Defence at reading encrypted codes from other navies? After all, right now Russia, Iran and China are conducting joint naval exercises in the northwest Indian Ocean (yes, that’s the one that touches Australia for thousands of kilometres), according to Al...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Australia’s defence: Navigating US-China tensions
Satire detection monitor has been disabled
March 13, 2025
May I suggest your satire detection equipment is not functioning? In compelling scorn and condemnation from the galleries of gullibility, this (Mr. Doyle's original) clinical exercise in tongue-in-cheek sarcasm renders a simultaneous take-down of Facebook as anything reliable for fact-based journalism. Whither scepticism – already a crime?
Peter Warner from California, USA
In response to: Psychobabble is just that!
A game of pin the tail on the donkey
March 13, 2025
I cast my mind back over all those war movies that I have had the misfortune to have watched over my 73 years and I’m thinking of a remake of Hogans Heroes. From our present group of federal members, I have no hesitation in picking one for the role of Colonel Klink. Who is most suited for the uniform? What’s yours? I will leave you to think on Gomer Pyle and McHale's Navy.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: no-apologies-over-fabricated-terror-plot-from-pollies-or
The dangerous bliss of ignorance
March 13, 2025
Building knowledge and understanding, first and foremost of nature and ecology, has been a critical element in humanity’s development of farming, and of the villages, towns and cities — and ultimately civilisations — that subsequently evolved during the past 11,700 years of favourable, stable climate. Another factor in the spread of civilisation has been mankind’s innate aggression, and desire to control and conquer. This factor, as personified by Donald Trump, is now threatening to destroy a lot of the knowledge that we hold, and are building, about the environmental health of our planetary home, and about what we must...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Noicide: advent of a new Dark Age
In order to save democracy...
March 13, 2025
To paraphrase Peter Arnett's ...unnamed American major... after the battle of Bến Tre 1968 – It became necessary to destroy democracy to save it. Brute force in Romania and Georgia negated the popular will. In the EU, la Macaroon's outsmarting himself paralysed parliament in France. In Ireland, FF/FG, played musical chairs for the last six years and continue doing so after last year's election, preventing the party with a majority of voters from forming government. In the Netherlands, since 2023 the usual suspects have played the same game to keep out Geert Wilders. In February, Germany...
Allan Kessing from SYDNEY
In response to: Is Romania’s stolen election what’s in store for ‘democracy’ in the West?
Why are we surprised about reporting on the caravan fiasco?
March 13, 2025
One would have thought, or expected, exactly what we got – that our mainstream media would report exactly as it did upon discovery of that caravan in Dural. It's a bit hard to break the habit of a century. When did anyone last read a positive article about any Arab, Middle-Eastern or otherwise, Muslim or otherwise, in the MSM? We still get scant reporting on how bad it is for the oppressed of Palestine. What P&I reader has learned more about the genocide in Palestine from the MSM than from P&I itself, Bisan on Instagram, Al Jazeera and the...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: No apologies over fabricated terror plot from pollies or lobby groups
Only the names and faces have been changed
March 12, 2025
Everything old is new again. It may be true that “you can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time“ works well until you stop teaching history in schools and you control what little history is taught. The books are burning but ex-prime ministers live forever.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/the-forgotten-fascists/
Whoosh??
March 12, 2025
Whoosh?? On the other hand, Dr Patience's response to Eugene Doyle is so totally deadpan that I can't completely discount the possibility that I, and no doubt many others, have been counter-whooshed. Hyperwhooshed, if you prefer. If so, well played, sir! But next time, could you give us just a slight clue, so that the more astute among us can pick it up? Unless, of course, there was one, but I was insufficiently astute to detect it. In which case, colour me embarrassed.
Alan Wilson from Adelaide
In response to: Psychobabble is just that!
Who abandoned whom?
March 12, 2025
It’s not Australia that should be afraid by abandonment, it is Britain and the US. When push comes to shove, Australia has always been there for both countries, whereas they have never been there for Australia. Read the history of the fall of Singapore and the Burma rail and even The Rats of Tobruk. Australia was a convenient hiding place (overpaid, over-sexed, and over here) for the US until their war machine got going. Even when it came to building the bomb, Australia was there for both of them with design and testing. We have shown before what...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SAV
In response to: australias-china-diplomacy-is-it-ready-for-a-world-witho
Psychobabble is just that!
March 12, 2025
This article is highly contentious. Apart from the dubious claim that it draws from a leaked account of some in-depth exploration of the leaders' personalities; the account which it offers is reflective of an old-fashioned and simplistic Freudianism, long discredited. Were Starmer and Macron subjected to interviews by a range of relevant experts? Most likely not. We should be extremely cautious about these kinds of sensationalised exposes.
Allan Patience from Newport 3015
In response to: Keir Starmer's psychiatric report leaked
Lest we forget
March 12, 2025
The Balkan wars of the 1990s should have been a salutory reminder of the extent to which the failure to screen post-war migrants has undermined our social cohesion. Croats and Serbs had kept the WWII atrocities alive to the point where a new generation displays the same hostility to fellow Australians. Right-wing politics in Australia continues to be infected with a strong undercurrent of racism. When conservative politics relies on these fascist tropes, we all lose. In an uncertain world, we need our political parties to draw on the very best of their origins. There is some evidence that...
John Tons from adelaide
In response to: The Forgotten Fascists
An anatomical election
March 12, 2025
What a choice we have facing us, folks! Spineless/gutless versus brainless/heartless. I'd add soulless to the latter, except that it's not anatomical, strictly speaking. Does it getter any better than that? Let's hope that electable Plan Bs are on the menu in most electorates.
Alan Wilson from Adelaide
In response to: Discombobulating the media election campaign coverage
Kidding ourselves: Were America's values ever ours?
March 12, 2025
No one stole American jobs. Neoliberal big business magnates sent them offshore where they paid even less for labour than they did to the US working poor. All for greater profit. Thus the dire straits of US jobs and manufacturing in 2025. As for Australia having no levers to pull: Pine Gap, Tindall, Darwin, Exmouth .... But those values. We must acknowledge the US as one of the most violent countries on earth. Internally the NRA and the death it wreaks. Externally we participated in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan for no gain, only loss to us and the countries...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Are America’s values our values anymore
Referendum granted citizenship to all Indigenous people
March 11, 2025
Under the Nationality Act of 1920 (Cth), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders born after 1 January 1921 were deemed to be British subjects. This only applied to the then future Indigenous people, not the then existing population. Under the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 (Cth), those Indigenous people who were British subjects were automatically deemed to be Australian citizens, along with the non-indigenous population. In the 1967 Referendum, Australian citizenship was granted to all Indigenous people, regardless of date of birth. The issue of voting is more complex. Prior to Federation, some of the Australian colonies permitted their indigenous...
Malcolm Chalmers from Cleveland QLD
In response to: Is it the US electoral sytem that is at fault
Criticising politicians
March 11, 2025
Any suggestion that it is un-Australian to criticise Australian politicians for their actions or inactions would probably be met with actions ranging from the rolling of eyes to shrieks of derisive laughter. The media and available books suggest that similar criticisms of American politicians are not un-American and the same philosophies or freedoms seem to be applicable in Britain. Then, those are apparently democratic countries, or hold themselves out to be. Why are criticisms of Israeli politicians regarded as un-Israeli, other than that those politicians have invented and weaponised a special word for un-Israelianism? If mere objective criticism is...
Adrian Potter from Adelaide
In response to: Challenging ‘antisemitism’
Political and media lies are poisoning society
March 11, 2025
The political and mass media crusade to sanctify the genocide being perpetrated by the Zionist Netanyahu government of Israel is too slowly being peeled back, exposing the unconscionable power of the Zionist industry in Australian society. We passed over the extremely suspect arson of the Adass synagogue with far too little serious examination of the circumstances and background of Zionist activity (especially Mossad's known history of false flag operations). Now we have — at last — some irrefutable evidence that antisemitism is being weaponised in defence of the Zionist genocidal abomination with the AFP announcement that the Dural...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Challenging ‘antisemitism’
Dodgy fishy business
March 11, 2025
Thank you to Peter Sainsbury for highlighting the serious and multifaceted environmental problems that result from salmon farming in Tasmania. The industry is a revolting demonstration of corporate and political greed. According to the Australia Institute, the three multinational corporations behind industrial salmon farming pay no company tax (despite selling more than $4 billion worth of fish since 2019) to literally leave their crap in Tasmania’s beautiful waters. And Anthony Albanese has just promised $37 million to support this industry. Disturbingly, both major political parties have demonstrated that they are beholden to the salmon industry, even though it...
Amy Hiller from Kew, VIC
In response to: Environment: Albanese sacrifices the marine environment for Tasmanian votes
Trump's denial won't change climate reality
March 11, 2025
The Roman Inquisition silenced Galileo because his realisation that the Earth orbited the Sun was contrary to the church’s interpretation of biblical texts. Now Donald Trump is slashing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and ordering the removal from the internet of all research relating to climate change, because he believes climate change is a hoax. The Roman Inquisition did not change the movements of the planets by silencing Galileo. President Trump will likewise not change climate science by simply denying that the problem exists. Silencing Galileo did not harm our solar system at all, it simply slowed...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Downsizing of NOAA: consequences for the planet
Defining hate speech
March 10, 2025
Very pleased to see someone suggest that public attacks on Jewish Australians who express concerns about Israel's killing of Palestinians might be considered antisemitism – especially when it is made clear they are being attacked specifically because they are Jewish. At the very least some of the language quoted should meet the official threshold for hate speech. The same loud members of the Israel lobby continue to try to erase the word Palestine from Australian usage. A previous P+I article entitled Crossword clues and bullying refers to a demand for an apology when Palestine was the answer to...
Alexander Donald from Cairns
In response to: Challenging ‘antisemitism’
Keep the ADF out of strategic thinking
March 10, 2025
When you have a health problem with your back, you go to a chiropractor. If it's a muscular issue, you go to a physiotherapist. If your teeth are playing up, then you visit a dentist. A surgeon is always a last resort, unless you like knives. In the US with its gun laws, if you’ve got a gun you need to shoot things. With defence from the top to the bottom, from Marles down, they are always looking for an excuse to put their uniform on to play with their toys, blow things up and shoot people. ...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: aukus-the-central-point-of-strategic-failure/
Same old, same old
March 10, 2025
Unfortunately, there isn't much good to be said about the current state of the US and certainly not AUKUS. So what is the answer to this? According to this letter? Go back to the mother country! As if Europe, let alone Britain, has anything to offer for Australia's defence. After their clear deceit of the Russians following the Minsk accords, the Europeans in their paranoia can't seem to bring themselves to try and make peace with Russia, but to prepare for another war. I would say they are in no position to offer others advice on defence. Like...
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Waking up to a new world order: How America’s casual betrayals threaten AUKUS
Any election reform must include fixed terms
March 10, 2025
The commentary on the upcoming date of the next election has become a major diversion from the real work of the Parliament and has given more advantage to the major parties. The PM and the leader of the Opposition have been campaigning at taxpayers' expense for the past 12 months. They should be forced to donate their frequent flyer points (I suspect they get plenty) to those suffering most due to the cost of living crisis. Given the opportunity to program a natural disaster in Queensland, NSW Labor would have jumped at the chance to limit Dutton's trips...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: this-undemocratic-law-should-be-overturned/
The 1967 referendum was not quite what some think
March 10, 2025
“Yes won in the 1967 referendum, which gave Indigenous Australians citizenship and the right to be counted in the census. Not quite. Firstly, it certainly did not give Indigenous Australians citizenship. That had happened for all Australians with the Citizenship Act of 1949. Secondly, Indigenous people were counted but were not included in the census figures used to determine federal electoral boundaries, because they mostly did not have the right to vote. However by the time of the 1967 referendum, all Indigenous people had the right to vote and the anomaly had to be removed. To do...
Michael Rogers from New South Wales
In response to: Is it the US electoral system that is at fault?
Rubio’s Christianity badge and mass murder
March 10, 2025
A video in Five Minute scroll 100 shows US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wearing the Ash Wednesday badge of Christianity on his forehead, a cross of ash, while threatening to annihilate thousands more people in Southwest Palestine. His price for not doing this? Release the remaining hostages without moving to Phase 2 of the US brokered and “guaranteed” ceasefire agreement. Even though he knows that Donald Trump publicly and very recently in Washington gave Benjamin Netanyahu carte blanche to recommence taking Southwest Palestine. That means restarting the genocide, which Netanyahu would do the moment the last hostage...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: A five minute scroll
Yes... The AUKUS chickens are coming home to roost
March 10, 2025
Dear John M., Thank you, thank you, thank you. For me and my reading, this article is so absolutely long overdue and well merrited. Just bang-on. “The Chinese Hawks” … being our government(s), politicians, general press, way too many of our 26 million and a lot of the rest of the world need to get your (our) drift. FYI … I have a daffy P.A.C. mate (Red) who belongs to the above group. I'm sure there are plenty of my S.P.O.C. (Blue) blokes in the same boat. Our poorly educated prime minister must learn word for word and understand...
James Scammell from Bowden, Adelaide, South Australia
In response to: The AUKUS chickens are coming home to roost, already By John Menadue Mar 7, 2025
Getting your head around community independents
March 10, 2025
Michael Keating's article shows that he's firmly stuck in the two-party system, unable to get his head around what community independents are – that independent means what it says and that, in government, it can and does work. When every vote they make is evidence-based and community considered, why would community independents effectively write a blank cheque to guarantee supply to one party or the other before knowing what is on the table after the election? Once they know who they are dealing with (Will there be an upset in Dickson? We live in hope!) and what assurances the...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Minority government: what will it look like?
Striking a 'balance of power' bargain
March 10, 2025
Excellent article, Mr Menadue. It would be a very good thing indeed if those MPs who are predicted to hold the balance of power after the forthcoming election were to use as a bargaining chip the commitment to re-examine everything to do with AUKUS and our ties (i.e. relinquished sovereignty) to the US military-industrial complex. The examiners must not include anyone at all from said US military-industrial complex or their lackeys in our tertiary education institutions. Let's all suggest this to our MPs! We've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The AUKUS chickens are coming home to roost, already
ABC ratings
March 10, 2025
I have zero tolerance for the obvious lies the ABC has been broadcasting. You know what would send their ratings through the roof? Telling the truth. You know what will keep ABC struggling to get off the floor? Continuing to lie to us.
Caroline McArthur from Central West
In response to: Fool or Fabricator-ABC in the spotlight
Trump: end point and springboard
March 10, 2025
I wholeheartedly agree with the title of Michael McKinley's article. But I disagree that Trump’s victory was not inevitable. If not Trump, someone incredibly similar, summarising McKinley's delicious adjectives with the inadequate deranged, was bound to emerge. Trump (or similar) is the natural endpoint of the neo-liberalism that started at least in the late 18th, early 19th century. That manufactured disaster hollowed out the US so that all the money weighing at the top could not be upheld by the masses of poor and ignorant the system created beneath it. It was inevitable that someone cherishing money and power...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: We can see clearly now: We’re closely allied to a fascist regime and so must rea
The dumbed down ABC News
March 10, 2025
Of course, ABC News isn't worth a crumpet. It was captured by the Liberals years ago. Shades of Murdoch prevail. Its last remaining effort at genuinely informative news programming ended with the death of The Drum. Online, it waved the flag of mediocrity with its recently redesigned website, designed for the next step after Play School but content not up to Play School standards. Only Laura Tingle is worth reading.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Fool or fabricator? ABC in the spotlight
Forced labour?
March 10, 2025
So the country with the highest prison population in the world, where slavery is still legal (when convicted of an offence, refer to the 13th Amendment) and where torture and forced labour are rampant to profit private companies in those prisons criticises China for exaggerated and or debunked policies imposed to stamp out terrorism. Until recently, even the US classed Uyghur groups as terrorists. Perhaps China should have killed everything as is happening in Gaza and Trump could have moved the Palestinians there! (sarcasm intended!)
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: Media paladins of fortress Australia
Independents' support – decide after election.
March 10, 2025
I disagree with Michael Keating's view that democracy is best served by independents deciding which party they will support before the election. The minor parties and independents are seeking to represent their electorate and their ability to advance the policies they are promoting cannot be determined until after the election. Their ability to be independent would be eroded if they had to decide which party to support before the election – and erode their independence.
Keith Altmann from Woodend, Victoria
In response to: Minority government: what will it look like?
Accountability, accountability and more accountability
March 10, 2025
If we learn nothing from the Trump saga it is that democracy and accountability go hand in hand. To achieve that freedom of information legislation needs to be beefed up, regulatory bodies need funding without government interference, the Auditor-General needs to be funded sufficiently to do its job and the recommendations made by all of these bodies need to be vigorously acted upon as do the recommendations of royal commissions. We certainly need to revise some of the outdated parliamentary practices: Parliamentary terms extended from three to four-year fixed terms; Limit parliamentarians tenure to two consecutive...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: we-can-see-clearly-now-were-closely-allied-to-a-fascist-
Taz, Taiwan and the Donbas
March 10, 2025
I agree with Edward Down – the ABC reporters are either the world's most ignorant or most complicit and compromised in the media outlets beyond the Benighted States of Murdochracy. (Honourable exception – John Lyons, now kicked upstairs as Global Correspondent after calling B/S on the beheaded babies in ovens and mass rape of 7 October which even the government of Israel has long acknowledged to be untrue hasbara. The Merkin Isle is approx. 250ks from Australia, Taiwan is 160kms from China. Both straits are international waters as the so-disant freedom of navigation provocations of the US and...
Allan Kessing from SYDNEY
In response to: Fool-or-fabricator-abc-in-the-spotlight
Invasion – massacre of sovereignty
March 10, 2025
An invasion, the massacre of sovereignty, which is the starting point, of freedom and well-being, of all humankind, must always be rejected. There can never be tolerance, let alone reward, of an invasion. Sachs' view is, therefore, untenable. Peace in Ukraine requires restoration of its territory, to the pre-2014 boundaries. All of humankind is duty bound to see to this restoration.
Graeme Tychsen from NSW
In response to: Letter Sachs - Jeffrey Sachs: Negotiating a lasting peace in Ukraine
Challenging antisemitism
March 10, 2025
I must have read a dozen articles decrying the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza and how opposition in Australia to Israel's actions is being muzzled, particularly by false claims of antisemitism. However, life/death in Gaza goes on. It is time to begin to ramp up the level of protest, turn words into action; learn from Vietnam protests in the 1960s/70s (yes, I was there!) and begin a campaign of mass civil disobedience culminating in a symbolic day of protest, a Moratorium. (Unfortunately the presence of a modern day Jim Cairns in the Labor Party has long gone). ...
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Challenging ‘antisemitism’
A little friendship goes a long way
March 7, 2025
Awkward to say and impossibly flawed; Scott Morrison’s deception should have been reviled by the Opposition in both chambers and the decision reversed by the Australian Labor Party when it came to power. Along with an apology to the French Government and people. Now we’re perceived as a vassal of the Trumpian States of America and have become its milking cow. Another fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. From the brouhaha that erupted when three Chinese warships circumnavigated Australia and fired off a few practice shots, you’d have thought the sky had fallen in, which, in itself, would have...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria, 3101
In response to: The AUKUS chickens are coming home to roost, already
Independent candidates must remain independent
March 7, 2025
A hung parliament is, to the major parties, the Damoclesian sword. They portray minority government as the end of our democracy. Decades ago the major parties commanded more than 90% of the vote. At the last election they held 68% of the vote between them; this share is expected to reduce further at the coming election. If the major parties want a greater share of the vote they must better reflect the people’s will in their policies and in their government. But these parties have compromised their policies to accommodate vested interests. The community-based independents’ movement has flourished to...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Minority government: what will it look like?
The AUKUS chickens are coming home to roost
March 7, 2025
Empires in decline are often very dangerous. They are even more dangerous if they are led by a cabal of ill-informed people who have a sense of entitlement coupled with a belief of their infallibility. We should learn from the US' actions in Europe; it has proved to be an unreliable ally. It will be no different for us. Our objective should be to chart an independent course.
John Tons from adelaide
In response to: The AUKUS chickens are coming home to roost, already
Pedestrian Council of Australia: two editions
March 6, 2025
Sam Varghese may have been speed-reading, to miss my reference to the PCA as the old one, not the current one in the letter he seeks to explain. The PCA to which I referred was this one. May I quote: The Wheelchair Council of Australia (formerly the PCA) is a road safety lobbyist who seeks to promote wheelchair as a transport mode. [1] The chairman and sole member is Harold Scruby. The current PCA is an entirely different body and I believe does excellent work in the community, unlike its predecessor. This is no nitpicking matter:...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/letters_to_editor/correction-about-pedestrian-council-of
Four and a half eyes?
March 6, 2025
Further to this article, the US has now said it will cut off access to US intelligence if Britain supports Ukraine militarily. Do we assume that the same applies to us in Oz now that our PM has indicated military peacekeeping support? Will Five Eyes be reduced to four and a half for us too?
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Albanese is as misinformed on the US alliance as live-fire drills
Correction about Pedestrian Council of Australia
March 5, 2025
In a letter published in this section, reference was made to the Pedestrian Council of Australia and it was described as having just one official. This is incorrect and I apologise for the error. The Council is a registered charity (which by law must have more than one member) and owns and manages National Walk Safely to School Day and Walk to Work Day, both of which have been going for over 25 years.
Sam Varghese from Melbourne
In response to: Due diligence, wherefore art thou?
Brits got in first for Ukrainian minerals...
March 5, 2025
I have only one thing to add to this very interesting article by Eugene Doyle... and I've posted a link below to Alex Krainer, who reckons the distinctly anti-Russian Keir Starmer had already sewn up a deal with Volodymyr Zelenskyy (in January) before Zelensky dangled a similar deal in front of the US. A UK/Ukrainian 100-year deal for minerals etc and Ukrainian port facilities in exchange for UK billions towards security and boots on ground. If this is so, it would go a long way towards Trump's testy exchanges and final disdain of a fellow who steadfastly refused to...
Glenda Jones from Carlton, Victoria
In response to: Ukraine deal: Beware of Americans bearing gifts
Private sector opportunism: Doing what they do best
March 5, 2025
Until we acknowledge that the job of the private sector is to make a profit, we will never get on top of this problem. The private sector is nothing if not opportunistic. Take the present housing crisis. The regulations that governed housing in our state have been thrown out the window (with the help of state governments). SA may not be as prone to flooding as our northeastern states. Bush fires are another thing, but wait. Houses are being built on school ovals, prime farming, market garden land swamps ETC without the supporting infrastructure. There are more high-rise...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-real-truth-on-productivity-the-bosses-arent-trying-h
Productivity lessons forgotten
March 5, 2025
When studying production engineering in the 1960s, it was assumed that labour productivity could be improved by 1.5% a year. Clipboards and stopwatches gave way to Kaizen and continuous improvement in the 1990s with real improvements in productivity. In concentrating on technology alone, today's bosses overlook the gradual improvements achieved by dedicated input and shop floor co-operation with commensurate sharing of productivity gains.
Geoffrey Irwin from Ettalong Beach, NSW
In response to: The real truth on productivity: Ross Gittins
What medical service?
March 5, 2025
I can't say I was pleased to read Don and Patricia Edgar's article. Grateful, yes, and sick of the lack of care from those adhering to the medical practitioners industry instead of the oath to heal and care for the those in need of healing and caring. There's no bulk-billing GPs in the rural area I live in, only those with mixed billing. And... yes, indeed, they look you up and down whether you're on an aged or disability pensioner or not and they assess whether they'll get instant money or not. With me, they get nothing but contempt....
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: Medical Skullduggery
Self regulation
March 5, 2025
When you can't trust your Parliament to self regulate, why would you expect industry to self regulate and follow its own voluntary code of conduct? The difference is that one of the main jobs of Parliament is to regulate for the good of all Australians. “Democracy may not be the best form of government but it’s better than all the other forms that have been tried“. That quote like our system of government needs regular updating, but how do you do it without political interference? I think that a benevolent dictatorship is the answer and I’m putting my...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: What-happens-if-no-party-achieves-a-parliamentary-majori
A plea for a little more compassion
March 5, 2025
Thank you Melody Kemp for giving me the language to comment on the Bankstown nurses – angry fantasies. Who hasn't wished (aloud even) the annihilation of the schoolyard or office bully, by the most gruesome means imaginable? Thousands of people daily are unlucky enough to stumble across someone ready to exploit their vulnerabilities down the rabbit hole that is the internet. Yes, what the nurses said was stupid and repulsive when they fell into the trap of a master manipulator. But what must they have gone through either directly, indirectly or both in their so far short lives to...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: To add to what Tony Kevin wrote…
No Other Land – A 'must see' film
March 5, 2025
The film No Other Land is brilliant and heartbreaking. For me, it raises the question about what must be done to the consciences of IDF members that they can look their fellow human beings in the eye and treat them so barbarically, even to the point of cold- blooded murder. It should be noted that this is not set in Gaza but the occupied territory of the West Bank. Interestingly, when I went to check this on Google maps the village of Masafer Yatta doesn't exist. This film has struggled to be shown in the US. It's not...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: A five-minute scroll: No Other Land winning an Oscar underlines how Western publ
History repeating...
March 4, 2025
While platforms like ChatGPT are ostensibly “free to use”, they ... will very soon start charging a subscription fee without end. All those AI enticements scattered over our screens like confetti are not there to be helpful but to set us up to be fleeced (some more). Welcome, DeepSeek! Q: What do Marie Antoinette and Donald Trump have in common? A: They are figureheads for the end point of utterly corrupt systems of government. We know what came after the former. What will we create to come after the latter? These questions brought to you from...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The AI that Silicon Valley fears: How DeepSeek democratised innovation
Let's not go from bad to worse
March 4, 2025
This is brilliant... scary stuff written with humour – shared on social media and with fellow Community Independent friends and colleagues. My big fear at this point is that people who are so legitimately disappointed with Albanese will be tempted to vote Liberal, ignoring the monumental disaster that would befall us. Not only Dutton and his empty policies, but his vacuous Liberal colleagues as well. My hope is that we will get a significantly increased crossbench, including a goodly number of Community Independents, and that, not too long after the election, Albanese will bid us adieu, willingly or...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Dutton unplugged? Bolt for the long grass… More Dutton stuff-ups!
'I saw three ships a sailing by'
March 3, 2025
Semitic refers to a family of languages Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and some ancient languages (Oxford dictionary Encyclopaedia Brittanica etc ) Abuse of those people is antisemitic. What is the acceptable word to describe the behaviour of elected representative and their followers in the ongoing abuse of China? I’m old enough to remember when some words were common, but are now unacceptable. How bad does the commentary have to be before you qualify for your own acceptable word/descriptor even if it is a shared one?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-chinese-invasions-begins-anti-china-media-watch/
Free speech on campuses
March 3, 2025
I went to an all-boys Catholic High School in Brisbane in the 1960s. Immediately after High School I enrolled at University of Queensland in 1968. At that time, I was exposed daily on campus to the anti-Vietnam protests that were in full swing. They certainly made me uncomfortable and threatened my belief system; it was one of the best thing that ever happened to me!
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: People’s inquiry into campus free speech on Palestine to shine a light on repres
Nuclear subs and the Adelaide dolphin sanctuary
March 3, 2025
Thank you for posting this article about the government's report to address the environmental impacts of constructing nuclear submarines at Osborne, Port Adelaide, noting it is open for public consultation. We did a lovely kayaking tour recently in the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary – a part of the Port Adelaide area. It encompasses a 10,000 year-old mangrove forest and marine park that is home to around 30 resident bottlenose dolphins, with another 400 transient dolphins that visit at various times – all wild, as well a number of threatened and migratory birds. I don't feel confident that the building...
K. Wang from Canberra
In response to: AUKUS ‘impact assessment’ report ignores nuclear sub risks in SA
If you're not with us, you're against US
March 3, 2025
What a friend we have in the US! If you're not with us, you're against us. If you are with us, you might be against us one day. If we are with you we might be against you one day has become we will be your friend at a price. We’re moving in today. Sit down, shut up and pay up (US$ or bitcoin).
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: there-will-always-be-an-enemy
Exit AUKUS now
March 3, 2025
I love and am so grateful for P&I but that doesn't mean I agree with every word or idea published. Assuming other fans are like me, some probably don't — yet — share Dr Patience's views in his Trump 2.0 article. Thus, for any such readers, the statement It is possible ... Trump (hence America) won’t care about Australia at all. .... Canberra’s timorous commitment to the ridiculous AUKUS agreement, for example, becomes ever more quixotic as Trump and his team up-end old alliances and the global order. is not direct enough. For current unbelievers and doubters, plain English...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Trump 2.0 and the crisis in Australia’s delusional middle power imagining
AUKUS – Australia's marine defence albatross
March 3, 2025
Rescinding our commitment to AUKUS should be given priority, before we throw more good money after bad. to gain nothing. AUKUS will never serve Australia's strategic interest. The arrangement is now on shaky ground with one of its co-partners deranged by power-lust and self-centred ambition. In no way does it buy US allegiance. NATO is a case in point. The projected delivery date was always shaky (early 2040s for merely the first of the fleet – come in spinner. Furthermore, with up to $368 billion hypothecated to AUKUS until the mid-2050s, what social investment will be compromised to...
Roz Averis from Adelaide, SA
In response to: Trump 2 and Australia's delusion middle power imagining
Healthy profit in government's hands
March 3, 2025
Health is an essential service, and undeniably costly. So, currently, are electricity and water supply. When the latter were taxpayer-owned and government-operated, these services were offered to consumers, domestic, commercial and industrial, at affordable rates – yet government still made a profit. This revenue was thus able to cross-subsidise services that were not operated for profit but were relatively costly to provide, for example, health and education. Seems like a no-brainer. I'd love to see the billions we're spending on AUKUS alternatively invested in utility buy-back and reinstatement of government-owned enterprises. This might just help attract investment by reducing...
Roz Averis from Adelaide, SA
In response to: To make Medicare well again our leaders must treat these worrying symptoms
To add to what Tony Kevin wrote...
March 3, 2025
I want to thank Tony Kevin for his clarity and insights about the Bankstown nurses. Many years ago I worked in mental health. Though the work changed over time, the learning didn't. I saw what the nurses were saying as angry fantasies.. and admit that at times I have has similar thoughts about people that get under my skin. For instance, I have been wishing Trump's injury required more than a sanitary napkin on his ear. It was clear to me that the agent was a smooth-talking manipulator who not only led the nurses on but then exposed them...
Melody Kemp from Balmoral Brisbane
In response to: What the Bankstown Hospital nurses’ affair teaches us
Query about the definition of antisemitism
March 3, 2025
This is more a question than a letter. The article 'What can one say about Israel without being called an antisemetic?' by Sawsan Madina raises such great questions. Who was consulted? How were they chosen? and many more. These questions should be answered, but I am not sure who or what organisation would be willing or able to do so. I would hope that Pearls could follow up. This definition stifles so much commentary that should be heard.
Wendy Logan from Croydon North, 3136
In response to: What can one now say about Israel without being smeared as an antisemite?By Saw
But what about Pine Gap?
March 3, 2025
Fifty years ago I learned of the existence of Pine Gap. I personally agree that we should be responsible for our own international policy, especially in our own geopolitical region. And, our own security. But what would, or could, we do about bases like Pine Gap? I appreciate there may be benefits for us in having this facility in the middle of our country. But it would also, surely, be a major impediment to us forging a truly independent relationship with any nation that might one day be an American target. I'd be most grateful if someone could...
Penny Lee from Perth
In response to: The fragility of Australia’s security
Levy has said what needs to be said
March 3, 2025
I agreed with everything Daniel Levy says: that Bob Marley's song that the people of the world are one love, one heart is a very beautiful way of saying we are all people. We are all born equal. Also since Netanyahu has said he intends to resume the war, and the West Bank is being ethnically cleansed, it is imperative that countries of goodwill send peace-keeping forces under the auspices of the United Nations to the occupied Palestinian Territory to ensure the Palestinian people aren't erased, The reconstruction of Gaza and the resumption of vital services should take place...
Beverley Dight from Canberra
In response to: Daniel Levy: We are all people, we are all born equal
What democracy? What trees? It’s a parking lot
February 28, 2025
We don’t live in a democracy! One of the basics of democracy is the separation of church and state. Take a look around to see how few places that’s happening. The separation of church and state should always have included the separation of state and corporations. The majority of crises the world is facing are as a result of the failure of the separation of government and corporations. For example, because of the misbehaviour of the banking sector we had the global financial crisis, with government bailing out the banks because they are to big to fail. This...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: barking-up-the-wrong-tree
Due diligence, wherefore art thou?
February 28, 2025
I see the forthright Senator Sarah Henderson has besmirched the Jewish Council of Australia as a fringe organisation. I am sure we would all welcome the chance to examine the due diligence she has undertaken to determine that — for instance — the AJAIC is undeniably a representative organisation. Call me cynical, but I remember a time when the spokesman for the (old, not the current one) Pedestrian Council of Australia was trotted out as the resident expert and mouthpiece for every Australian who walked on the streets. A much-talented man whose name I could never be bothered...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Sarah Henderson says
Civil defence response to attack on Oz sub bases
February 28, 2025
It sounds as if the assessment doesn’t deal either with the civil defence response needed if a nuclear-tipped hypersonic missile targets Osborne, or for that matter, Garden Island and Henderson in WA. The federal government seems to be of the view that such a response is a state government matter, but so far I have been unable to find out what the WA government’s civil defence plan for a nuclear strike on the sub facilities is.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: AUKUS ‘impact assessment’ report ignores nuclear sub risks in SA
Invite the flotilla to visit Fremantle
February 28, 2025
There’s still time to invite the Chinese flotilla to visit Fremantle, and show our goodwill. The Morrison Government invited a three-ship flotilla to visit Sydney in 2019, and the invitation was accepted.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The Chinese invasion begins: Anti-China Media Watch
Trigger-happy individuals
February 28, 2025
Are they the same trigger-happy people with missiles that shot down Iran Air flight 655, killing 290 passengers, covering it up and awarding the captain and crew a medal? Not the Chinese or Russians, but those peace-loving Americans!
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: The Chinese invasion begins: Anti China media watch
Islamophobia
February 28, 2025
I'd like to see the universities adopt a similar definition for Islamophobia; i.e., among other things, criticisms of the actions of Islamic states such as Iran and Afghanistan would be considered Islamophobic and subject to the same kind of penalties. Somehow I don't see this happening. Who is creating division?
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: What can one now say about Israel without being smeared as an antisemite?
A different approach to antisemitism
February 28, 2025
How can Israel be the only country immune from criticism? Could we look differently at what is making some Jewish people so fearful at criticism of Israel's genocide such that they demand unjustifiable laws banning that criticism? Yes, antisemitism is unpleasant, even hurtful, but paralysing fear-making? The slings and arrows, real and metaphorical, hurled at Jewish Australians have been no worse than post-war Italians and Greeks suffered, Catholics of my childhood, Vietnamese refugees some decades ago, more recent migrants and refugees from Afghanistan and the Middle East, none of whom have had the special consideration given to the Jewish...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Jewish Council slams Uni adoption of dangerous, politicised and unworkable antis
Congratulations to Judith, Suzie and Michelle
February 27, 2025
Fantastic protest by Judith, Suzie and Michelle. It exposes the complete hypocrisy of several aspects or our society. You are all brave heroes/heroines.
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point
In response to: Police and synagogue attendees shaken to the core by democracy
Former right-wing warrior goddess from micronation
February 27, 2025
Of course, China wants to blow the shit out of us. I used to defend Western civilisation, but now I just want the final solution to white nerds that cool lefties want. I have to hate myself and my race and become genosuicidal for you lefties. Everything my grandpa worked for will be taken away by Chinese and laidback movements. Well, let's just blow up Europe and give it to the Chinese. Maybe if Russia nuked England and took away the monarchy and stopped them from using elaborate ornate coats of arms in favour of simplistic Americanistic logos, while...
Athena Urabbanakis from Urabbaparcensia
In response to: I just hope china blow us all up so you cool lefties get what you want
A suffering and patient God
February 27, 2025
May I venture another response to Eric Hunt’s question “what does God think?” One answer is: Who am I to speak for God? Read the book of Job and ask Him yourself. Christians, however, have is an obligation to proclaim “good news”. So let me try. First, we proclaim that creation is good. This cannot mean the absence of pain. But if you had the power to switch off the universe with its good and evil, would you do it? Neither does God, mercifully. Second, we acknowledge that God sees the pain and experiences it. This is...
Anthony Asher from Sydney
In response to: Why doesn't God save the day
Are we facing a new era of imperialism?
February 27, 2025
The only way the US would defend our shores is if we ceded our sovereignty to its emperor. We are a defenceless minnow in a sea of turmoil: because of the AUKUS pact; this must be blindingly obvious to the rest of the world. Viewed from the Trump Tower, the prospect of annexing a large, unexploited and underpopulated land mass, rich in rare earths and minerals and other highly desirable commodities, must be compelling, if not irresistable. Australia, the western front and largest island state in the US of A. Any deal on defence will never be to...
Roz Averis from What US wants must serve as a warning to others
In response to: What US wants for Ukraine must serve as a warning to others