Letters to the Editor
If only First Nations had guns
January 31, 2025
Some time ago, author Jarred Diamond wrote a book about why colonialism worked. The books title is Guns, Germs and Steel. If indigenous people in Australia had their own guns then Phillip would have sailed back to England. It was the guns, germs and steel that enabled white people to colonize others and to feel superior to all other indigenous peoples around the world. The only time colonizing did not work was when the invader went to a new country only to discover that another white colonizer was there before them and could put up a fight with...
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: John Howard and British colonisation of Australia
Foul and repeat, foul and repeat
January 31, 2025
It is for me, and I imagine for many, many others, a matter of by now well-matured grievance and anger that we are STILL having this same discussion after so many months. That Dutton and the LNP and also the Zionist Lobby continue to screech invective at every opportunity and at ever-increasing volume, is a given - this is part and parcel of the socially divisive and politically opportunistic Eretz Israel industry. No doubt, dividends would be paid from grateful investors in prime beachfront development of the Gaza Strip when those pesky Palestinians have been eradicated forever. Business...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Help defend the Jewish Council’s anti-racism work against Murdoch press smear ca
Public servants are there to support the community
January 31, 2025
Jack’s articles are informative, but In the end, I would hope that public servants are there to support the community, or public or society rather than the state. Following “the state” just allows people to say “ I was just following orders”, don’t you think? I appreciate, also, that if you accept that point, it gets complicated because different people have different ideas of what makes up a community, and what sustains it. Andrew Hitchman
Andrew Hitchman from Newcastle, NSW, Australia
In response to: Will public servants become agents of the party rather than the state?
The third possibility
January 31, 2025
At last, someone has mentioned the unmentionable - the third possibility. I have been astonished and irritated that, till now, nobody else has dared to mention it, but now, finally, Paul Heywood-Smith has put his head above the parapet. It has been seven weeks since the Adass synagogue fire, and at least according to the public record, the AFP and VicPol have made no arrests and appear to have few clues as to who was responsible. Or if they do, they're not willing or able to say. If the perpetrators had been either bumbling amateur neo-Nazis, or bumbling amateur...
Alan Wilson from Adelaide
In response to: Antisemitism: a vehicle for engendering anti-Palestinian racism
Support for Sarah Schwartz
January 31, 2025
I was shocked to read in yesterday's Australian a fierce diatribe by Marcia Langton against a recent event at the Queensland University of Technology. Ms Langton took aim in particular at the presentation by Sarah Schwartz, using terms including shocking, deluded and anti-Semitic. I thank the Jewish Council of Australia and Pearls & Irritations for giving readers some background to this sordid story. I urge readers to hit the keyboards, and to add the Australian's letters page to their list.
Richard Barnes from Melbourne / Naarm
In response to: Help defend the Jewish Council’s anti-racism work against Murdoch press smear campaign
Welfare: cheaper than perks given the uber-wealthy
January 31, 2025
If The Voice campaign taught me anything it's that Indigenous people aren't listened to. Consultations were/are brief FIFO visits with virtually no say in solutions imposed from afar. I'm reminded of Another Country narrated by David Gulpilil (SBSon-demand), graphically showing every white-man do-gooder intervention taking a community backwards. It should be compulsory viewing for every non-indigenous Australian. Perhaps annually - on Australia Day. As for sit-down money .... Indigenous people are no more lazy than the rest of us. Referencing the Gulpilil film, I wonder did compulsory training programs lead to anything satisfying or meaningful for Indigenous people? If...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: After the theft of a continent, welfare benefits beat work
Why are we so easily conned?
January 31, 2025
How depressing that Greg Latemore has thrown in the towel just before the election. With Albanese doing nothing to lift his game and his chances, are we going to let Dutton, aka Trump 2.0 Lite, walk away with the prize? Labor has been a huge disappointment on the big ticket items: climate change, gambling, tax reform, neutering the NACC. But it has done quite well on important but nevertheless second-tier issues. Googling Albanese and Labor's achievements produces a quite impressive list. But the attributes that made Albanese Leader of the Opposition are not ones that have made a good...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: I’m going ‘Trump sober’ in 2025
Wokism
January 31, 2025
An excellent article Sue. Wokism is about the essential an best human values, but they construe it as weakness, a mistake to be despised. But you do not identify the fundamental cause of the problem, and so many good critics of the system fail to do so. That is simply capitalism. It is a system driven by self interest and greed, the quest for limitless wealth via processes that cannot do other than drive out compassion and concern for the other, accumulate wealth in the hands of the winners, thus empowering them to increase control of the political system, and...
Ted Trainer from Sydney
In response to: Humanity’s operating system has been infected
Join your local chapter of TA
January 31, 2025
It was going to join my local chapter of TA Trump Anonymous until I found PA Politics Anonymous they seem to be affiliated with AA Alcoholics Anonymous as they all have the same prayer. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change , the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference I heard there was a DA Democracy Anonymous but it was found to be an illusion.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: I’m going ‘Trump sober’ in 2025
The Hollow man
January 31, 2025
Thank you Peter Henning for your superb article (The Hollow man seeks to Lower the Temperature 24 Jan). The analytics of the US election are quite clear. More people voted for someone not named Trump, than someone named Trump. His victory was 1.5% - one of the smallest in US history. He won by 3 million votes. Harris lost 6 million Democrat voters that could not bring themselves to vote for her due to the Gaza war and her government’s complicity. Those 6 million voters, that voted for Biden last election, would have won her the election. With these...
Alyssa Aleksanian from Hazelbrook
In response to: The Hollow man seeks to Lower the Temperature
Refaat, the death toll may be even higher
January 31, 2025
Dear Refaat I am not sure if you saw the recent data recalibrated by the Lancet, one of the worlds most eminent medical journals. They calculated the death toll has been underestimated by 20%, and more likely to be 64,000, most of which are women, children and elders. That constitutes war crime. The Lancet also concluded that the number is set to rise drastically as bodies are brought out of the rubble. Also not counted as we cannot predict how many will be effected are respiratory failure caused by asbestos and silica. The IDF use specially designed tank...
Melody Kemp from Brisbane
In response to: The war didn’t end with a ceasefire
The Christian right in Australia
January 24, 2025
It is excellent to again see Lucy Hamilton’s investigative work, this time concerning the rise and rise of the Christian Right and, specifically, that of Moira Deeming in Victoria. We should be alert and alarmed, given its enormous influence in American politics, from abortion and LGBTQI+ rights to the war on Gaza. Moira Deeming, mentored by right-wing commentator Peta Credlin, is the latest example of the intersection between church and state. The ‘culture wars’ have been waged for decades, not by the ‘woke’ left but by activists seeking to bend the arc of a moral universe towards their...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: The Liberal party, Moira Deeming and political Christianity
Future generations need a flourishing ecosystem
January 24, 2025
Climate tipping points are imminent. Climate extremes will overwhelm us with increasing frequency as politicians continue to shirk the challenge of addressing their underlying causes. We live in a world of eternal growth, where standards of living are expected to rise unfailingly. But growth comes at the expense of the environment: old-growth forests depleted for agriculture, mammalian extinctions, fish stocks depleted, and ever-greater pollution – carbon accumulating in the atmosphere, plastics choking the seas. Humanity may be our planet’s dominant species, but we are just one element of its ecosystem. We are changing the balance of that ecosystem...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Extreme events, causation and politics
how stupid is America's ruling class?
January 24, 2025
Trump's election has made the role of the ruling class even more obvious but there is the danger that we may see that as a Trump abberation rather than a feature of western democracy. Both Democracts and Republicans are beholden to plutocrats; Hilary Clinton's throwaway line referring to Trump supporters as 'deplorables' reveals that attitude. Throughout the West politicians routinely invoke the social contract but one of the arguments for that contract is that the parties to the social contract ‘must be situated reasonably, that is fairly or symmetrically with no one having superior bargaining advantages over the...
john tons from adelaide
In response to: how stupid is America's ruling class?
Say NO to "mutual obligation" - in any guise
January 24, 2025
That unemployed people are burdened with mutual obligation 'work' is an abomination. To suggest that volunteering be part of that coercive package is an oxymoron that adds insult to injury. A small number of people are either incapable or simply don't want to work. The truth is, the vast majority of unemployed people do want a job. These people are forced to jump through so many time-consuming Centrelink hoops. Adding mutual obligation eats into job search time and energy of the majority merely to satisfy a lust for vengeance towards the few. If there's real work to be...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Reimagining public housing: the transformative potential of Centrelink’s Voluntary work program
Jews are not responsible for the war in Gaza
January 24, 2025
The article in today's P&I, Beware misguided attempts to protest the horrific Israeli genocide by David Lockwood, is a quite appalling article that essentially holds Jews in Australia who support Israel as bearing some responsibility for the war in Gaza. It also trivialises the antisemitism that is occurring almost daily in Australia. It even manages to trivialise the labelling of the fire-bombing of the Adass Synagogue as an act of terrorism. Conflating the antisemitism in Australia with the war in Gaza isn't simply political comment, it gaslights the lived experience of Jews in Australia and discounts the seriousness of what...
Harold Zwier from Melbourne
In response to: Beware misguided attempts to protest the horrific Israeli genocide
David Lockwood is making assumptions re attacks
January 24, 2025
David Lockwood, in his article on the anti-semitic attacks against synagogues, says, we can assume that both these incidents of vandalism (sorry, ‘terrorism’) were misguided attempts to protest against the Israeli genocide against Palestine. That assumption may be correct, but it is also possible that the extreme right or nazis were responsible, hoping to encourage disharmony in the community. All the anti- semitic attacks must be condemned and certainly don't help the Palestinian cause. Not completely out of the question is that some may have been done by zionists or their supporters, hoping that Palestinian supporters will be...
Kath Kelly from Canberra
In response to: Beware misguided attempts to protest the horrific Israeli genocide
The Genocide will Continue if Morale Improves
January 24, 2025
Alison Broinowski's prediction is a statement of the inevitable rather than a possible future scenario. Everything we have seen coming from the Netanyahu government / the IDF since 07/10/2024 is primary evidence for her forecast. Netanyahu's entire future depends upon his retaining the political leadership of Israel and by that, avoiding the Damoclean sword of almost certain guilty verdicts in regard to his personal corruption - let alone his status as a designated war criminal by the ICJ. Almost as a side note to the news coverage of the first release of Israeli hostages was a mention that...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW 2575
In response to: Netanyahu intends to attack Gaza as soon as hostages are released
It's always the Palestinians' fault... Not!
January 24, 2025
I've always respected Jack Waterford's writing but this ... the war on Gaza ... was consciously started by Hamas, which ... has long been provoking Israel, … brought me up short. Hamas consciously started this genocide? (It's not a war.) Please show me the proof. Long provoking Israel? How convenient to ignore almost a century of provocation by Israel itself and its predecessor terrorist groups. Compared to the combined Israel-US might, anything Hamas could inflict is an irritation in comparison. The Palestinian death toll has always far exceeded Israel's. There were, and are, thousands upon thousands of Palestinian hostages,...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthron VIC 3122
In response to: Laurel-less Biden limps for the exit. Will Albanese be next?
We need to look in the mirror
January 24, 2025
No wonder China looks at us with contempt. ... the PRC has a dark history of human rights abuses. Before criticising China, and not justifying Chinese abuses, maybe we should get our own house in order. Australian abuses include our treatment of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, the way we treat refugees and asylum seekers, our jailing of people with mental health issues rather than providing medical care, and, most recently, clamping down on those protesting Israeli genocide. Just for starters. I concede that our journalists aren't muzzled by the government. The Murdoch press has its own 'useful'...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Vassal states of the imperial order pay homage to their US master
Balanced coverage of hostage release
January 24, 2025
We celebrate the release of hostages, be they Israeli or Palestinian. But watch the MSM to see if they give the same granular coverage to both. So far I have seen 33 released Israeli hostages and their pictures and one Palestinian. We know the length of captivity for the Israelis, but what are the most and least lengths for the Palestinians? And Israeli troops are reportedly still murdering people in the northeast part of Palestine. That must stop.
Geoff Taylor from Riverton
In response to: Gaza ceasefire deal: Egypt and Qatar pushing for Marwan Barghouti’s release
Into the neoliberal darkness
January 24, 2025
We are seeing the dying days of the USAmerican empire. But don't blame Trump... or those who voted for him. They are the natural end-point of neoliberalism which could have and should have been seen and warded off decades ago. But everyone went along with Gordon Gecko: Greed is good. Au contraire, greed is death. We are staring it in the face. Countries like Australia should cut the apron strings while we've got a chance. But given the state of the politicians of our two major parties, our chances of going down with the US ship are high. Proof?...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Confidential letter to Trump on AUKUS
Gaslighting Australian Jews
January 22, 2025
This article is really offensive. It’s gaslighting Australian Jews. The writer offer little understanding of the diversity and debate within the Jewish community, seemingly reducing those who oppose what is going on to a few thousand people, and then making claims about what we are supposed to believe or be. The phraseology used is awful. The writer asserts that there is “[No] identity between Jews (and those of Jewish origin) and the Israeli state. By attacking the former, goes the argument, you are attacking the latter. But there is no such identity”. What right does the writer...
Larry Stillman from Australia
In response to: Beware misguided attempts to protest the horrific Israeli genocide
History as a starting point
January 20, 2025
Kari McKern's contribution (https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/a-garden-of-civilisations/) is the latest in a long line of excellent contributions to P&I advocating for a sensible and promising way forward for the world society, a society of civilisations cooperating and developing for mutual benefit. However, we are not starting from scratch, and if I may make an analogy with mathematics, it is one thing to find a general solution to a differential equation describing the time dependence of a variable; a specific solution depends on the initial condition. What practically all of the laudable proposed solutions for the evolution of the world society ignore is the...
Erik Aslaksen from Australia
In response to: A garden of civilisations
MUCH TO BE DONE NOW
January 20, 2025
The sight of the Palestinian people returning to see what is left of their shattered homes is heartbreaking. The priorities now must be to make sure the people are fed, clothed, accommodated and their kids go to school. This must start now, even it only goes on for 6 weeks. But it's important to be optimistic. Talks are ongoing in Oslo on a 2 state solution. How long they will take no one knows. The first trucks with food and medical aid are already rolling into Gaza. The ceasefire is a start, and a good start. There is much to...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia
In response to: Gaza ceasefire deal: Hamas, Egypt and Qatar pushing for Marwan Barghouti’s release
The One Day of the Year
January 20, 2025
In the 60s Alan Seymour's iconic play, The One Day of the Year, depicted the unease many Australians felt about the way in which Anzac Day was marked, with remembrance and camaraderie being overshadowed by widespread drunken over-indulgence. Since then we have matured significantly with Anzac Day now accorded the respect and solemnity the occasion deserves. However as our One Day of the Year, January 26th, approaches, once again, feelings of disquiet, unease, even shame, persist amongst a significant section of the Australian community. This contentious issue continues to metastasize, a cancer eating away at social cohesion. And now...
Ian Buchan from Kincumber South
In response to: Australian Social Cohesion Under Threat
Stop the talking. Start the action.
January 20, 2025
The US is very happy putting other people’s children in the firing line to defend its empire. AUKUS is not about an independent defence policy for the Australian people, it is about locking Australia into US war plans with China. There is widespread criticism of government short-termism, largely because the two major parties only ever fix their eyes on winning the next election. But criticism is all it is. When is wailing going to turn into action? This is particularly necessary re AUKUS and all it entails because long term could well be only a small number of electoral...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Our case against AUKUS is more relevant than ever
Not dead yet
January 20, 2025
Thanks for your article, Neil. It brought back memories of growing up in Housing Commission in Moe, I'm now a proud owner/co-builder of what some people call a 'substandard shed' in my rural area of the Top End NT. You're right, we're a dying breed. We're proud, strong and committed to using re-used, recycled and repaired materials from landfill and second-hand building suppliers and - we're finding it harder and harder to find what we need to repair and maintain our beloved homes. We don't want to use new materials, especially when they're made from pollutive, synthetic materials....
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: An Australian endangered species – Owner builders
Sanctity of Sovereignty - Ukraine
January 17, 2025
Dear Pearls and Irritation, The common use of war, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whitewashes the profound sanctity of sovereignty. An invasion, the only term that can be used about Ukraine, trashes the sanctity. The sanctity expresses the territoriality of all people. All of humankind has a vested interest in no invasion succeeding. Because of the sanctity, for the safety and security of all, geopolitical reasons, of an invader, are irrelevant. The starting point for resolution, there is no other, is the return of all territory, to Ukraine, before the taking of Crimean...
Graeme Tychsen from NSW
In response to: Ukraine War: President Trump confronts a decision
Pyrocene perception and the politics of Palestine
January 17, 2025
Chris Hedges records the selective and avoidant behaviour of humanity related to the consequences of the petrolium age and the march South of the pyrocene from Siberia and Canada to Los Angeles. Sadly this selective perception and behaviour extends well beyond climate into our relations and political reactions at this time. Consider global reactions to the climate driven fires in Los Angeles with 100,00 displaced, at least 25 dead at this time and victims sifting through donations of food and water. Australians for its part offered firefighters and materiel support almost immedately through our federal government. By contrast...
Donald Clayton from Bittern, Victoria
In response to: Entering the ‘Pyrocene’: Devastation in California is the harbinger of the apocalypse
Has UN ceded responsibility for aid to Palestine?
January 17, 2025
Re Chris Gunness’s article UNRWA’s expulsion from Jerusalem will seal Israel’s illegal annexation: Whilst I sadly agree with the substance of this article, I cannot agree with this statement which seems to be based on this hyperlinked article: ‘the senior UN leadership has adopted the position that the responsibility to deliver aid is Israel’s as the occupying power’. This statement might be seen to be loosely aligned to the title of the UN article but not to its contents - intriguing.
Judy Attwood from Brisbane
In response to: UNRWA’s expulsion from Jerusalem will seal Israel’s illegal annexation
Mature debate on nuclear health risks is essential
January 17, 2025
Margaret Beavis is a recently retired GP and Melbourne University educator on nuclear energy and ill health. She would like a really true 'mature debate' on nuclear. Here are her four main health arguments against the Coalition's nuclear hope. One, there is clear evidence that children living within 5 km of a nuclear plant doubled their rate of developing leukemia. Two, workers near a nuclear plant also risk dying from cancer. Three, in Australia, radiology is actually limited to avoid causing cancer. Four, the reality of continuing fossil fuels when they are the main cause of the climate crisis,...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Where is the ‘mature debate’ about the health impacts of nuclear power?
Opening our eyes
January 17, 2025
With every [Israeli war crimes] case, Israel will learn that the decades-long US vetoes and blind Western protection and support will no longer suffice. And the US and all countries that went and still go along with the US position will be forced to accept that they are responsible for the start and continuation of this genocide. That every bit of Jewish/Israeli violence leading to and since the establishment of Israel was provoked by Palestinian 'terrorism' , as presented in all our news media, will be shown to be the lie that it has always been. We will...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The fall of Israeli impunity: The world is starting to hold Tel Aviv accountable
One to 50,000
January 17, 2025
Thank you to Scott Burchill for a prescient analysis. While the deaths of 50,000 Gazans as well as the maltreatment of many of those captured by the Israeli army can’t rouse him to action, I note that Anthony Albanese (and Peter Dutton btw) have come out all guns blazing over the reported death of one Australian in Russia. Yet we couldn’t even find a translator of Hebrew for the voice recordings crucial to the Binskin inquiry into Australian Zomi Frankcom’s death at the hands of the Israeli army.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: How the Israel Palestine narrative changed in Australia
Tackle the root causes of climate policy blindness
January 17, 2025
David Spratt accuses the Government of ‘climate policy blindness’. This debilitating condition affects both Labor and the Coalition. They suffer because they each have too much to lose by opening their eyes to the stark climate future that we face. This blindness enables them to continue to give support to, and accept substantial donations from, the fossil fuel industry, and may ease concerns among some about their employability post-parliament. We must attack this blindness by addressing its roots: for example strictly limit political donations, and establish a fair ‘cooling-off’ period for retiring politicians before they take up lucrative private-sector...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Climate and security risks? Shhh, says the Albanese Government
Could the election results give some indication?
January 17, 2025
Recently I've been wondering if the forthcoming election might give an indicative answer to just how large or small the influential Jewish lobby (AIJAC and the like) is within the Jewish community itself. Reading her bio at the end of her excellent article (Ice Hockey Australia branded antisemitic....), I thought another one when I read that Cathy Peters is Jewish. There are a lot of Jewish people who oppose the genocide in Gaza, no doubt at great personal cost in some cases. In terms of influence, money talks ... right across the spectrum of groups, causes, industries, ethnicities. That's...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Ice Hockey Australia branded antisemitic as it red flags Melbourne tournament
Our Dogs Do Not Deserve to be so badly Disparaged
January 17, 2025
Dear Editor, An Objection As a passionate Animal Activist who also greatly cares about Social & Environmental justice I found the title of this article offensive to our poor dogs who do not deserve to be so badly insulted by being associated with / and describing these so unethical immoral people who have no shame. Dogs are such beautiful Sentient Beings and should not be denigrated in this way - nor should any other animal species. There are better more apt negative descriptions to be used ( eg scum) without harming the image and reputations of...
Elizabeth Attard from Melbourne
In response to: When leaders act like dogs: A time without shame
Risk of Nuclear Power Generation
January 17, 2025
I was interested in the Medical drawbacks of Nuclear Energy. However, another issue is heat generation. With the uNclear (Nuclear) policy, one fact that has not been considered is the need for cooling. These proposed Nuclear plants will be larger than the Coal plants they replace. This requires a large amount of cooling water. The waste heat is released into this body of water which raises the lake water temperature. This raising temperature causes changes in the ecology of the lake to the detriment of the natural balance. Comparing Nuclear to other forms of energy generation such as...
Doug Foskey from Tregeagle
In response to: Medical issues of Nuclear power: Ecology issues too.
ABC bias? Not so simple
January 14, 2025
I note Richard Bean’s analysis of interviews on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program suggesting pro-Israel bias in the ABC. I wish to share a letter I wrote to the ABC in November 2023, seeking clarification about a two-part discussion on “Big Ideas” entitled “Newsroom ethics and the Israel-Gaza war” which, I suggested, could plausibly be interpreted as having a panel skewed against the Israeli perspective. This is obviously not intended to be a systematic rebuttal of Bean’s piece. It is simply one counter-example intended to complicate the picture presented in Bean's study, and to indicate that ABC...
Andrew Wirth from Australia
In response to: Palestinian voices silenced: 14 months of ABC’s RN Breakfast Coverage
Truth in democracy
January 13, 2025
We don’t live in a democracy we live in a capitalist society. The greatest threat to our so-called democracy is our political system. The rise of the right, the war on woke, divide in communities along religious, racial, economic grounds, the preparation for war, the power of the billionaires, the loss of truth are all signs of a failed system. These issues are not isolated to the US, but remember where you saw it first and the constant bombardment of US politics in all media is not news, it’s come join us. It will not be until we...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Which-party-is-the-more-competent-economic-manager-labor
How come so much influence?
January 13, 2025
Refaat Ibrahim tries to describe in words the horror of the last 15 months in Gaza. A serious question which arises is how one section of a religious group, and a small one at that in world terms, is able to exercise so much control over the foreign policy of the governments of secular states such as the US, UK, Australia and Germany. Surely the Holocaust, terrible though it was, can’t explain that stranglehold.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Gaza: The modern coliseum of humanity’s dark legacy
Out with the aged
January 13, 2025
Well, the government certainly does not think so. My husband is a young 85-year-old. Two years ago he mislaid his Australian passport, he needed to travel to visit a family member so he asked for a replacement. To his astonishment, DOHA refused to give him one. He has retained eight Australian passports, all giving his nationality as Australian and confirming him to be a citizen of Australia. He was not born in Australia, he arrived aged two as an evacuee with his mother in 1942, both British subjects. He was educated in Geelong, called up for National service...
Sarah Riach from Melbourne
In response to: Is there much life after age-80
Which party is the more competent economic manager?
January 13, 2025
Thank you for the Michael Keating article adding more evidence to debunk the myth that Liberals are better economic managers than Labor. John Menadue addressed this myth in his 11 April 2019 article. That article highlighted the enormous damage that the Howard/Costello Government did by “locking in negative gearing concessions and generous treatment of capital gains which have been at great cost to the government in lost revenue. They also introduced tax-free superannuation benefits, family trust concessions, franking credit rebates and a whole series of decisions on spending and tax that have caused continuing budget difficulties. Menadue also...
John Woodlock from Arundel Qld
In response to: Which party is the more competent economic manager – Labor or Libera
Not only racists oppose high immigration
January 12, 2025
Thanks to Noel Turnbull for summarising the findings of The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Social Cohesion Mapping 2024 Report. I don't agree, however, with the suggestion that we should be troubled that 49% of people (now) say the number of immigrants is too high (a significant increase from previous surveys). There are many non-racist reasons for opposing too high a level of immigration. These include concerns about how big a population Australia's natural resources can support; concerns about the impact of rapid population growth on our housing crisis; concerns about the exploitation involved in many of Australia's migration pathways;...
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: Australian social cohesion under threat
The Tour Down Under
January 11, 2025
I wrote to various government officials regarding the above tour, but did not receive a response. However I received a response from Santos, which I am not allowed to copy to you, but will paraphrase as follows: Thanks for the letter. Santos realise that this is a sensitive topic and sympathise with those who are affected by events in the Middle East. Because this race is under the umbrella of Union Cycliste Internationale, the Israeli team is required to receive an invitation to participate. Thanks for my letter. What a cop-out!
Pamela Rothfield from Edithvale, Victoria
In response to: The illegality of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the Tour Down Under
Social cohesion
January 11, 2025
A striking statement from Noel Turnbull: the worldwide phenomenon that people suffering from financial hardship are more likely to have negative attitudes to migrants, immigration and different religious faiths to themselves “explains much about the Dutton appeal”. Peter Dutton is a divider. He is an (albeit paler) imitation of Trump, master of division via hate and blame. Dutton might attempt to rehabilitate his reputation over the next few months, or double down. Either way, his record stands: walking out of Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations, the “African gangs” accusation, jokes about rising sea levels in the Pacific Island...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Australian social cohesion under threat
Commercial in-confidence? Not with taxpayers' money
January 11, 2025
A decreasing number of attendees at the Adelaide 500 complain about Victoria stealing our Grand Prix. That’s largely because there is a decreasing number of attendees and those numbers are including the attendees at the post-race concerts. I'm told that SA Treasury advised against renewing the contract. The last three times the previous Liberal Government listened the Labor Government reinstated it. When there was a protest for it, more people attended to save a stately home from road works than to reinstate the car race. Rumour has it as part of a Party Pete factional deal to get...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: melbournes-formula-1-grand-prix-what-price-public-accoun
Things need to change around here
January 11, 2025
The Morrison and Albanese governments have effectively handed sovereignty, independent decision-making, as well as a blank cheque to the United States. In other words, Australian wealth will be transferred to the United States, for the benefit of the United States, whilst Australia and Australians wear the costs. Win or lose at the coming election, Albanese has to go. We need a new generation of politicians to rise up and say Enough is enough to slavish devotion to all things USAmerican. We need politicians who will ensure that our common wealth is not shipped off-shore by multi-nationals who pay little...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Hotel California: Time to check out
Weasel words on behalf of Penny Wong
January 11, 2025
When any and every attempt at a political solution is ignored by the Israeli Government, if no action is taken, nothing will change until the last Gazan is wiped from the face of the earth. Australia's response is an utter disgrace, as exemplified by the letter sent on behalf of Penny Wong and the plan for our attorney-general to go to Israel to repair Australia's friendship with that country. It was fine, and effective, to boycott South Africa on account of its apartheid regime. Surely nothing less than BDS should be our minimum action in regard to Israel...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The illegality of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the Tour Down Under
Bishop Browning's values
January 11, 2025
I am not a religious person, but I really appreciated reading Bishop Browning's assessment of Christian values and the contrast with a Conservative's self-interest. The world would be a better place if we took more notice of people like Bishop Browning.
Michael Keating from Barton
In response to: Awake O Sleeper
Gaza 'Moratorium'
January 11, 2025
I must have read dozens of excellent articles on these pages, including this one, on various aspects of the situation in Gaza and the Middle East, yet the slaughter of Palestinians continues with barely a murmur from the Australian Government. We need to take our opposition further. I suggest using the anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s and early 70s as a model (yes, I was there!). A nationwide, co-ordinated, Moratorium would be a good first step. (As well as individual state-based committees, there was also a National Co-ordinating Committee). The immediate aims of this Moratorium would include, at...
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Israel’s total destruction of a whole healthcare system threatens us all
Stand up, Australia!
January 11, 2025
Countries will find greater agreement with the late Henry Kissinger’s much quoted warning on international relations: 'It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy but to be America’s friend is fatal'.” We could tear up every agreement ever signed and not give them another cent, if Australia (or any country) is in strife, the US will help if it's in the interests of the US. And if it's not in the interests of the US, we'll be on our own, no matter what agreements have been signed, promises made, or how many squillions of dollars we've sent or...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Will 2025 bring the world a G3?
LA and Gaza
January 11, 2025
Looking at aerial shots of fire-stricken parts of LA, what other place in the world does it remind you of? Yes, Gaza. Destroying food aid, including Australian, in Gaza is reprehensible, but the full scale of destruction there, as we know is, sadly, much much greater. Both Gaza and LA are very sad events, one brought about by Biden and the US’ over the top response to 7 October, and the other, LA, so far as we know, by natural events. We mourn the huge loss of life in Gaza, and are thankful that the loss of life in...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: American Israeli bombs destroy food aid in Gaza
The ABC's reporting on Syria dumbs us down
January 10, 2025
My complaint letter to the ABC in response to one of Eric Tlozek’s news report from Damascus was critical of Tlozek’s reporting, certainly, as Gayle Davies suggests in her letter (6/1/25). As an ABC correspondent in the Middle East (and as one who appears to speak Arabic), Tlozek should be aware of the dangers confronting Syria now that HTS is in charge and thousands of armed ‘jihadists’, many of them foreigners, are roaming Syria. A genocide on the scale of Rwanda’s could be committed in coming months. We should not be blind to this possibility. As for the...
Susan Dirgham from Melbourne
In response to: ABC editorial bias for ‘revolution’ in Syria and its implications
Helen McCue speaks for many
January 9, 2025
Dr Helen McCue, the views expressed in your article are most definitely not yours alone. They are the views of many Australians who, disgusted, sickened and angered by the duplicitous and mealy-mouthed words and actions of our government, long for our nation to make a stand for peace, for justice and for compassion. How can we live happily in Australia knowing that so many people in Gaza are being killed, bereaved, maimed, starved and left to suffer their pain?
Janet Grevillea from News South Wales
In response to: American-Israeli bombs destroy Australian food aid
Be more like Norway
January 9, 2025
The headline alone was enough for me to think about Norway. Not surprising, as I grew up there in the 50s and 60s. I went to the very best secondary school in the country, not because my parents had money, they didn't, but because I had good primary school results. I had the same German teacher as the present King Harald. When I migrated to WA in 1966, as an unworldly lad of 19, it took me three months to start wondering what was this nonsense (being polite here) of digging iron ore out of the ground, loading it...
David Stonier-Gibson from Highett, VIC
In response to: If only… 22 reasons to regret Australia’s missed opportunities
Fly on the wall at the Dreyfus-Netanyahu meet-up
January 9, 2025
Greg Barns and fellow P&I contributors raise serious questions about this trip. I am trying to imagine what is being said. “Look Bibi, socially cohering to you is getting very difficult for us in Oz. As the point man for the IRBO in Oz, I’d have to arrest you if you visited. I did manage to get one of your men, who is also an Aussie, off a charge of being an alleged accessory to a war crimes case over killing 50000 people, which was privately brought in Oz, although I did allow another Aussie to go to jail...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Dreyfus’ trip to Israel makes a mockery of Labor’s foreign policy
Participating willingly in genocide
January 9, 2025
It is difficult, if not impossible, to morally defend the political cowardice displayed by Australian politicians and their inherent racism, when they fail utterly to condemn what the world recognises as the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing when committed by the criminal Zionist state of Israel. The Albanese Government remains so terrified of the Zionist lobby in Australia that it has been prepared to sacrifice any claim it might have had to moral rectitude, in pursuit of its continuation in a power without moral purpose!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Dreyfus’ trip to Israel makes a mockery of Labor’s foreign policy
ASPI is a think tank? Are you serious?
January 9, 2025
James Curran's article provides much to consider. However, I hasten to query why we continue to characterise this organisation as other than what it so evidently is – a lobbying entity for the armament manufacturers / AKA military-industrial complex. Uniquely (I hope), given the almost automatic post-political career step for ministers for defence into armament manufacturers' employ — either directly or as a lobbyist — we have the nauseating burden of being the taxpayer support base for the whole wretched affair of creating evermore opportunity for said armament manufacturers to increase profits. War per se is not...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW 2575
In response to: Marching blindfolded into the new Cold War
As always, one law for the rich and one for the poor
January 8, 2025
We may have abolished the wonderful British tradition of transportation except for refugees or maybe we have run out of places to transport the poor. The legal system is very much biased towards those with the money to pay. How often do our politicians and their staffers end up in goal ? I am aware of cases where the poor for a similar charge have been convicted and completed their sentence before a politician has been convicted or sentenced (Then I think they are only fined a sum which they could afford). How many royal commissions into deaths...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: will-bail-in-victoria-get-a-battering-under-battin/
US has infinite capacity to incite trouble
January 8, 2025
Irrespective of the nature of the Assad regime, if the stories I read are correct then this seems to be another al-Qaeda associated mob ushered in with the help of the CIA. It seems that the capacity of the US to incite trouble anywhere in the world has no limitations.
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: An Islamist regime takes shape in Damascus
Think tanks and political parties
January 8, 2025
Thank you James – your statement ASPI was created by the Howard Government in 2001 to provide contestable advice on Australian defence policy” has me wondering about the advice related to the 2004 decision to join the illegal Iraq coalition. But other matters come to mind as well: your words had me thinking further about my sense of the persistent decline, if not absence, of political education that should be a political party’s mandate. Shouldn’t that be where the contest is joined? How and why have our major parties capitulated into seeing themselves as “social engineers”? Peter Varghese...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Marching blindfolded into the new Cold War
Excellent essay by Joe Lauria
January 8, 2025
Joe Laurie’s essay is a model of scrupulous accuracy . It is an epitaph to the cruelty and mendacity of US policies on Ukraine under three past presidents Obama, Trump and Biden that have led to over a million dead Ukrainian soldiers and many dead civilians , broken families, and a broken country. The only solution — Lauria prudently does not go here, though he accepts the facts that Russia has won the war — is for the incoming Trump administration to work sincerely with Putin without playing more Cold War games to bring about real and permanent peace...
Tony Kevin from Canberra Australia
In response to: A history of humiliation
The West's latest failed 'March on Moscow'
January 8, 2025
After three years, Ukraine has been shredded. Russia is winning the war with an enhanced military, a robust economy, an established and supported leader and a respected position in the world. In opposition, we have a Europe reeling from sanctions blowback, recessions looming and EU nation states' leaders falling by the wayside. And so they should, having abandoned Europe's source of reliable and cheap energy, the energy that fuelled Europe's economic well-being NATO is looking like a busted flush. Nuclear is an option, but given the proven success of Russia's countering every weapons system supplied to date...
Hal Duell from ALICE SPRINGS
In response to: A history of humiliation
The Hannibal Directive
January 6, 2025
Les MacDonald states that Virtually nothing has been reported by the media, with the exception of an Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Al Jazeera, about the Israeli military Hannibal Directive, which has been a closely guarded secret of the IDF military for decades. The ABC published a very good article on this very subject on 7 September 2024. The article can be accessed here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-07/israel-hannibal-directive-kidnap-hamas-gaza-hostages-idf/104224430 It received some acknowledgement on X at the time, but I haven't seen any reference or follow-up to it in the mainstream media.
Terry Reilly from Victoria
In response to: The Hannibal Directive and mainstream media’s organised forgettinghttps://johnme
There are other options for ending Ukraine War
January 6, 2025
Russia will not leave Ukraine a broken state under Western protection (Beebe’s third suggested option). Russia will go on fighting and steadily capturing more territory for as long as Kiev keeps fighting and attempting acts of sabotage, terrorism, or drone or missile attacks into Russia. Russia will negotiate while it fights, but only when Kiev accepts the realities of Russia’s firm negotiating position: neutral Ukraine pledged never to join NATO, no Western security guarantees, human rights protections for ethnic Russians, Russian speakers and for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Beebe wrongly suggests both sides must concede ground in a...
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: The Ukraine war is lost. Three options remain.
R&D challenges
January 6, 2025
The article by John H. Howard was of particular interest. He found that the nation needs a co-ordinated, cohesive and strategic approach to R&D. He cited findings of successive reports in support. His article omitted comment on Australian industry’s structure and ownership. Both remain significant factors. The 150% tax concession for IR&D was introduced in 1985 to induce industry to raise its performance. The decline in IR&D suggest that it was ineffective. Its detractors predicted this. Nevertheless, the government was persuaded of the need to raise IR&D and exploit the findings of publicly funded basic research, while limiting...
John McKenna from GARRAN ACT
In response to: 25 years of reviews and policy statements: What do they reveal...
AUKUS: a trojan horse?
January 6, 2025
It's becoming clearer by the day that the much vaunted but sketchily detailed AUKUS submarines are never going to happen, and never were going to happen, that they simply can't be delivered as indicated. They're simply the sugar coating to justify the always real intent and that is to turn Australia into a fully fledged [however, how many, and whenever they like] US/UK military base, with us picking up the tab for all necessary infrastructure. It's already quietly happening and don't be surprised if [included in the sweetheart deal] we agree to begin taking all US/UK [and maybe...
James Dirou from Surfers Paradise
In response to: John Menadue Pearls and Irritations articles
ABC reporting on Syria – editorial bias
January 6, 2025
With respect, I think Susan Dirgham's complaint to the ABC, mainly targeting Eric Tlozek' s reporting, is a little unfair. It is a bit much to expect a reporter on the ground in Syria, reporting on the immediate situation, but limited to less than five-minute slots on the TV news, to provide as detailed a commentary as Ms Dirgham expects. Her own perspective is longer, derived from her years of living and teaching in Damascus, and she rightly thinks the subject deserves more background and analysis. It's a job for an hour long Foreign Correspondent or similar, on both...
Gayle Davies from Armidale
In response to: ABC editorial bias for ‘revolution’ in Syria and its implications
Send in the clowns
January 6, 2025
While I have never been able to understand US democracy/politics and certainly don’t understand all things Trump, I fail to understand how he can take up so much space in Australian / world news. More recently I have come to understand that he is the great Western world diversion . Nothing to see here! Particularly in Australian politics. With the uS picking yet another unwinnable fight with China, funding genocide in Gaza and sacrificing the Ukraine etc Trump may just be the leader the US / world needs particularly with his love of all dictators (Putin, Musk...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: The-ukraine-war-is-lost-three-options-remai
Two articles I'd like to read and share widely
January 6, 2025
Following Donald Wilson's article, I would like two ideas further developed. 1. Regional tensions with China – What exactly are these? What are real, based on what China has said and done? What have arisen in response to (a) US verbal threats to and about China? (b) US military activity in the general area? and (c) US military activity in Australia specifically? What are baseless? 2. The desirability of Australia being a truly sovereign state, not tied to any other by unequal agreements of any kind – with reference to our military agreements certainly, but with particular reference...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Can true nuclear independence be achieved without ending the US Alliance?
Important article spoiled by rightwing commentator
January 6, 2025
I read with interest this article about the attack on USS Liberty by the Israeli Defence Force on 8 June 1967. Included with the article is an interview conducted by Candace Owen with a retired US sailor who was aboard the Liberty at the time of the attack. While the interview includes some revelatory details about the attack, its credibility is marred by Candace Owens’ clear anti-semitism expressed in the second half of the interview. There is a clear theme of miraculous intervention by a Christian God that pervades the interview. It would have served the veracity of the...
Therese Doyle from Newcastle
In response to: Pretext for war: Interview of a USS LIBERTY survivor
Cocos Islands
January 6, 2025
I would like the US to move their military base out of Darwin because it makes the capital a target. Darwin has already been built three times and its buildings need to be able to withstand a category 4 cyclone. Darwin was bombed during WW2 because the US had a military base in the country. Given the US is likely to use its military bases in Australia, during a regional conflict, without our knowledge or agreement, I would prefer they did not use somewhere that is expensive for us to rebuild.
Louise OBRIEN from Wollstonecraft
In response to: Will the Cocos Islands become like Diego Garcia, hijacked by the US?
Murdoch and much of the Western media
January 6, 2025
I never buy any media owned by News Limited, nor do I read any of their online news sites. Foxtel had to be sold because it was losing money. After the 6 January in the US, the Biden administration asked the UK government to put the boot into Murdoch, which they did by re-opening the News of the World inquiry, due to new information that came to light. The legal case between Murdoch and his children means that once he is dead, News Limited may actually change. It is time for Kim Williams to kick the...
Louise OBRIEN from Wollstonecraft
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/best-of-2022-white-mans-media-the-washington-consensus-a
American obsessions
January 6, 2025
Breakfast at 6am and flick on the radio. . .RN has the steady monotonous drone of a Boston bloke explaining about the snow/ice in his driveway; switch to ABC Radio News and yet another American accent droning. I gave up and wrote a short text of complaint and continued breakfast in silence. Kym Davey has explained this phenomena succinctly. We are a sovereign state and have an ABC chartered right to receive impartial news from our own domain instead of this slavish submersion in the brittle, crumbling culture of USA. America is not our friend We also...
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: Best of 2024: ‘Disingenuous theatre dressed up as major news’: Why the ABC is lo
Good retrospective
January 6, 2025
Thank you Andrew for your retrospective. It's helpful to be reminded of the serious failure that arose from our Government's willing compliance with the US claim that the invasion was a necessary unilateral action. As it happened, such a rationale, two years later, was taken by Fiji's coupster when the RFMF took power from Laisenia Qarase's democratically elected government. And then we saw the sad procession of some duly qualified jurists from Australia and New Zealand seeking employment in the illegal regime. And that to this day casts a pretty dark shadow over the jurisprudence that is taught in...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: The release of the 2004 Iraq War cabinet papers and what we were not told
Time to support the ABC
January 6, 2025
If we are to keep a public broadcaster like the ABC in this country, it needs public support not constant carping criticism that because ABC TV1 has a number of shows with an obvious tabloid bias, the whole of the ABC is rubbish. This is not true and so wrong! ABC TV 1 does have a number of shows with a tabloid bias but that is not the whole of the ABC, a big diverse organisation that has to address the needs of our modern multicultural Australia. ABC 24 and ABC Radio have good news services and are fostering...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia
In response to: The ABC is already doing the Devils work
Biden’s Gaza vs New Orleans
January 6, 2025
Joe Biden recently claimed that he was sufficiently in command of his faculties to have contested the 2024 election after all. So it is not unfair to hold him principally responsible for backing, diplomatically militarily and financially, the murder of nearly 50,000 people in Gaza, 40 times those killed by Hamas on 7 October 2023. A large percentage, especially women and children, would not have been Hamas operatives. By all means the FBI should investigate the New Orleans mass murder, but in a fairer world they would also investigate Joe Biden and his key advisers for their role in...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: 450 Days of Genocide: Israeli Occupation Burns Hospitals, Cold Ravages the Displ
Our immigration commentary is governed by White Man’s Media
January 1, 2025
In the case of Australia, the great multicultural nation, the views of WMM are reflected in the hierarchy of our immigration, refugee and foreign policy. Migrants from Commonwealth (cricket playing): most desirable by a street, Islanders ( rugby playing ) particularly in QLD and NSW followed by selected Europeans. The rest are cannon fodder for the present leader of the opposition any time he wants to stir up a vote winning racist headline. We won’t even bring home Australian journalists and citizens for fear of upsetting Murdoch.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: White-mans-media-the-washington-consensus-a
Murdoch Royal Commission – when?
January 1, 2025
If only this great piece of journalism by John Menadue could make its way into the homes and eyes of all Australians, there may be enough interest generated to finally get our weak leaders to call for a Royal Commission into the Murdoch media influence in this country.
Gary Rollinson from Tanah Merah Logan City, Qld
In response to: White Man's Media
The ABC is already doing the Devil's Work
December 31, 2024
Paddy Gourley's contributions are always a source of joy and admiration to me; he brings such gravitas and subtle prodding of both the amusement and the need-to-know neurons. But I admit to amazement at his description of the (current) ABC as the most trusted source of news. I bet he can't say that without biting his tongue, it must be so far in his cheek. No longer, Amigo... Kim Williams' speech to the Press Club was — surely — an audition as a writer for the next Blackadder series? More bullshit than a Texas Rodeo paddock. And...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Va;e NSW 2575
In response to: Gina Rinehart, Kim Williams and the ABC
Plibersek could demonstrate political integrity
December 30, 2024
Binoy Kampmark characterises the Environment Minister role as being the fossil fuel industry’s closeted defender in government, talking environmental conservation while supporting its destruction. While her environmental reputation hung in shreds after her willingness to grant licences to new and expanding fossil fuel projects, Minister Plibersek seems to have worked in good faith with Sarah Hanson-Young and David Pocock to negotiate amendments to pass the Nature Positive Bill, before the PM intervened. The PM also pre-empted his minister in Tasmania when he gave his whole-hearted support to the salmon farming industry, which threatens the imminent extinction of the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Jesting on the environment: Australian mining gets a present
Was Einstein wrong?
December 29, 2024
Bill Uren using Einstein's phrase subtle is the Lord to not so subtly introduce a message retelling the absurd and incoherent claims of Christianity, is not something Einstein would have approved of. Einstein believed the foundations of faith (Jewish and Christian) were built on myth rather than truth. He dismissed the idea of an anthropomorphic God as well as the Bible, as human creations and strongly rejected the idea of a chosen (Jewish) people. He was right about the bending of the rays of a star. Was he wrong about the Feast of Christmas?
John Bracht from Canberra
In response to: A Christmas Meditation: 'Subtle is the Lord'
Let’s get this right: democracy is a diversion
December 28, 2024
After writing this I will go back to read this article. Let’s get this right: Democracy is a diversion. Hardly a day goes by when we aren’t bombarded with the virtues of democracy as a diversion from the fact that democracy does not exist. Democracy has replaced religion as the opiate of the masses, an illusion, a diversion from the day-to-day realities of CAPITALISM. The realities of a greed-driven society who, like casinos, are happy for the odd mug punter to have a spectacular win so all the other mug punters keep betting. Like all greed-driven systems that...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: lets-get-this-right-israel-is-not-a-democracy
Communication, not conflict...
December 25, 2024
I would like to convey my appreciation to Refaat Ibrahim for the sentiments expressed in the biography attached to his piece published on Christmas morning. At a time when so many leaders prefer bombs to diplomacy, his faith in the power of the written word is heartening. Thanks Refaat!
Gail Abbott from Armidale, NSW, Australia
In response to: Gaza lights candles during Christmas
The Earth is sick, humanity is the disease
December 24, 2024
Earth’s health is declining. Its seas are over-fished, and filling with plastic; its forests are shrinking as they are cleared for farming and development. Its soils are dying from the effects of fertilisers and pesticides used to feed more people than the planet can sustain. Its atmosphere is polluted with ever-increasing carbon dioxide and methane, which is heating the planet and destabilising the climate. Consequently our icecaps are melting, the Gulf Stream is slowing, and our forests’ capacity to absorb carbon is shrinking as forests shrink. As the icecaps melt, arctic permafrost is melting allowing trapped methane to escape....
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Barack Obama wants us to care about the oceans
Einstein used the concept of god objectively
December 24, 2024
Einstein used god in a culture-speak manner. He never referred to a higher being as His God. This article is totally out of order. I guess that's what hardline Christians do best. . .manipulate the words from eminent people and grasp at verbal straws and inflate them, in order to prove a nonsensical claim.
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: A Christmas meditation: ‘Subtle is the Lord’
ABC coverage of the Gaza war
December 24, 2024
Richard Bean’s article summarises well the bias in the ABC’s presentation of the continuing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and Golan Heights. In addition, the obliteration of the people of Gaza is no longer as newsworthy as it once was as the mainstream media move on to Syria and Christmas time trivia, again failing to give proper coverage to Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and Syria and the appropriation of Syrian territory. I no longer watch ABC discussion and news reporting of Palestine as it invariably involves no hard-hitting critique of the slaughter of innocent...
Bob Pokrant from Fremantle
In response to: Palestinian voices silenced: 14 months of ABC’s RN Breakfast Coverage
Spare us this
December 24, 2024
What an appalling ramble from Bill Kelty. I'll mention only four points. 1. The environment, climate change and Indigenous rights are big issues for the future. No. They were issues decades and more ago. If they're not issues for now, there will be no future. 2. No mention of excess salaries and rapidly rising company profits. These come at the expense of workers. A fair day's pay comes before excessive executive salaries and dividends. Tax reform is essential. We need to check our greed. 3. AUKUS – what about Australia's lack of sovereignty? We must examine...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Best of 2024: The Labor Party has lost its way
Converting us to a better world
December 24, 2024
Three cheers for John Frew!!! Is there anything in our troubled world that hasn't got some form of greed at its base? Why are Gina Rinehart and Rupert Murdoch never satisfied? (How sad are they?!) You really can't pay tax on the balance above $3m (or whatever it is) on your super? So someone can eat? How long do you think you're going to live that you need all that? You need how many toilets for a family of four? I could go on and on and on and on and ..... People say...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Reframing wealth: A stark disconnect between wealth and poverty
Opportunity cost of AUKUS
December 24, 2024
AUKUS at $368 billion (and like all military projects it will probably double) has then an opportunity cost of around one million houses, or 12,000 primary schools or 4000 secondary schools, or 400,000 hospital beds. Puts it into sharp perspective. All for a phantom threat.
John Queripel from Kotara NSW
In response to: Reframing wealth: A stark disconnect between wealth and poverty
Trashing of reputation of institutions
December 23, 2024
Well-regarded independent institutions, which provide medical services and food aid at risk to themselves, have had their reputations trashed and labelled as antisemitic for reporting what they are dealing with. Anyone with the most basic knowledge of data collection must have some Idea of how one-sided the conflict is and make some comparison to the evil regimes that have been in the past.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: no-longer-possible-to-defend-the-slaughter-of-over-40000
More 'whys' for Angela
December 23, 2024
Angela Smith's whys should be necessary reading for every self-respecting journalist. But there is an important why not mentioned in Angela's article. Israel's occupation of much Palestinian territory is illegal under international law. Just look at the many resolutions passed by the UN that have simply been ignored by Israel. The Israeli argument that it is allowed to defend itself against Palestinian attacks. But in fact this is not the case here. How can a country justify relying on self-defence when it is illegally occupying Palestinian lands? One would think that Palestine is perfectly within its rights to...
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Reporting on a genocide: Questions for the legacy media
Climate change: who really cares ?
December 23, 2024
Climate change. Just another headline, just another diversionary rant for our politicians, just another look at me moment at some overseas climate convention. When there were still borders in Europe, I was stopped to get my passport stamped and the border guard asked me to turn off my car because of the pollution. Here we are years later driving bigger petrol guzzling resource wasting monster twin cab/cars than ever, we park by the side of the road with motors running for the air conditioning, texting on our phones. The sale of EVs are at best stagnant, no tax advantage...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: is-humanitys-destiny-wintons-dystopian-world/
No man is an Island
December 23, 2024
Dr Geoff Davies asks “What are the five most precious things in my life?” Whatever the answers, all hinge on our willingness to see ourselves not as atomised, self-sufficient (and possibly selfish) entities, but part of a society. Sixteenth century poet John Donne, in ‘No Man is an Island’, wrote: “If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less”. The poet could not have foreseen 21st century sea level rise but the principle holds: some may prefer to think we are insulated from the consequences of climate change. However, the prospect of, say, vastly increasing...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Barrack Obama wants us to care about the oceans
Norfolk Island's problems are its alone
December 23, 2024
While there are lingering colonial problems on both the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island, please do not put these two into the same basket as the fractious Norfolk Island situation! I visited Norfolk Island exactly one year ago, and I am somewhat familiar with its issues. I can only speak about the Cocos Islands, having lived there, having learned Cocos Malay and having written a book about the islands, their history and culture. It is so very, very different from Norfolk Island! Cocos' major issue is the lack of a vote at state level. Almost all...
Pauline Bunce from Perth, WA
In response to: Imperial Australia Still Lives
Racism, Australian style
December 23, 2024
It is all very well to pass anti-racism laws, but until they apply to politicians' impact on their place in the parliament and their pay packets, there is not much point to the laws as it is often senior politicians who are stirring up the racist violence with their racist biases.
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: chinese-australian-and-chinese-american-views-on-news-a-
Facts about AUKUS
December 23, 2024
A very good summary of the facts, as opposed to the propaganda, about AUKUS. I would also recommend the recent book by Andrew Fowler entitled NUKED. It comprises a really excellent detailed look at the fraud and hype generated by politicians and the armaments industry to substantiate the vast theft from Australians that this shonky Morrison project represents!
Les Macdonald from Balmain
In response to: Fear-mongering claims masquerading as facts
Top questions Angela
December 20, 2024
Top questions Angela! But just as importantly, the legacy media need to put the puppet-master, the US, under the microscope. It is well worth looking up Brown University’s record of US “interventions”.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Reporting on a genocide: questions for the legacy media
A new, secular flag for Israel?
December 20, 2024
One step to eliminating the problem of equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and Judaism with Zionism would be to change the Israeli flag. Give up the religious symbol it bears and choose something without religious reference. I have no doubt that there are anti-Semites about. But equally, given the general ignorance and/or disinterest in all things political in Australia, I have no doubt that there are people who know nothing of Israel's 20th C history in Palestine. Thanks to sparse and selective reporting in the long term and sometimes even now, all such people know is Israel = persecution and...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn
In response to: Zio-Judeo-Conflation? No Thanks!