Letters to the Editor
Nothing inadvertent about Dutton
December 20, 2024
Your correspondent Fiona Colin says (19 Dec. 2024): The Coalition, either deliberately or inadvertently, is creating another cost: uncertainty, a commodity investors do not want. Ms Colin is too kind. The Dutton led team does nothing that is inadvertent. With the only 'policy' in the coalition's kitbag being the flakiest of all takes on nuclear energy, sowing Uncertainty and its stablemate Doubt is their path to winning the next election. Anything but a firm foundation for the future. Anyone experiencing uncertainty or doubt needs to question everything. For objective, factual answers, the further they look away from Dutton...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Costs of uncertainty
Costs of uncertainty
December 19, 2024
Michael Keating provides a useful summary of the relative costs of renewables and nuclear energy. The Coalition, either deliberately or inadvertently, is creating another cost: uncertainty, a commodity investors do not want. Last July, eighteen industry and environmental organisations, including AI Group, the National Farmers Federation, the Australian Steel Council, and the Investor Group on Climate Change, issued a joint statement: “Australia’s existing national emissions and energy targets for 2030 are critical foundations for the investment we need to deliver reliable, affordable, and clean energy. Achieving them and the deeper targets that must follow on the road to net...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Dutton’s Economic Cons
Economic Truth v's Personal Opinion
December 19, 2024
Okay! this IS my personal opinion, but it would have been hoped that as Economics Editor for the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Gittins article criticizing members of his profession was more balanced. From my understanding ALL that economists can do is provide their opinion based on both facts obtained and views that they hold as to the likely outcome of recommendations provided. It is solely a political decision as to the course that is to be taken. We all know that no matter what political party is in power, the course of action will be to obtain the...
Philip Lalor from Warnbro Western Australia
In response to: Voters blame one man for rising energy bills while companies get away with gougi
Teals can break the vested interests’ stranglehold
December 19, 2024
We have carbon polluting the atmosphere, plastic polluting the seas, healthy soil being killed by pesticides and fertilisers, forests shrinking to make way for further development. These pressures are growing exponentially as people in both the developing and developed worlds seek ever-higher standards of living. Successive governments have failed to address these crises effectively because they have been, and remain, held in thrall by powerful vested interests. Mark Diesendorf cites five key areas through which vested interests achieve state capture: political donations, election expenditure, revolving door jobs, concentrated media ownership, and neoliberalism. All, he says, are vulnerable to attack. ...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Consumption is driving global greenhouse gas emissions
Our global climate future may depend on China
December 19, 2024
‘Aggressive activist and journalist’ Patrick Mazza expresses his view that ‘China holds the world's climate future in its hands’. China is the world's biggest economy and emitter of greenhouse gases, and so is factually responsible for keeping the world close to the Paris agreed 1.5 or 2.0 degrees C limit. They continue developing coal but are now the world's fastest in growing solar and wind. Mazza concludes optimistically that ‘China has its own fate in its hands as well as the rest of the world. We hope it will take the needed action that will give us a fighting chance...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: China holds the world’s climate future in its hands
Our language about Dutton needs to change
December 19, 2024
Personally, I thought Labor should have gone for generational change after Bill Shorten's defeat in 2019. But that didn't happen. Now we're at the point where Kym Davey's article summarises so succinctly why Albanese, along with Marles and Wong, should go now, especially, but not only, with regards to Palestine and AUKUS . My gripe with Davey's article is, however, his description of Dutton. ... Dutton has proven himself an effective Opposition leader. Not any sort of Opposition that I want. We need to change that language. Dutton has been an effective wrecker of parliament and trasher...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Albo has to go
AUKUS AS A PROBLEM?
December 19, 2024
The problem with this approach is that if deterrence fails the next step is war. It invites war. Following this doctrine puts us on a war footing and in a state of heightened readiness. Everyone is deterring one another at huge expense and no benefit to the societies involved, enriching weapons manufacturers and politicians while the people live in constant danger... And the problem with that approach is that it is an argument for total unilateral disarmament. Deterrence is achieved only when a potential aggressor or invader becomes convinced that the cost to themselves of any action they take...
Ian MacDougall from Farrer, ACT
In response to: AUKUS is an intergenerational disaster.
Albanese government must join the dots - and win!
December 13, 2024
Certainly, David Spratt's title is apt and true,Climate policy is on a collision course with physical reality, (P&I, Dec 3, 2024). Spratt does an excellent job with joining the dots between fossil fuel emissions mainly causing the planet's increasing heat and climate extremes, and the lack of a strong urgent global response. He concludes that the world needs climate relevant goals and prioritising of all countries' economics and politics. The Australian federal government must act accordingly and end new fossil fuel projects and exports, plus faster transition here to solar and wind energy, storage and grid. Also, we...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Climate policy is on a collision course with physical reality
Antisemitism claims obscenely manipulated
December 13, 2024
It goes without question that the firebombing of the Adass synagogue is a foul stain on the values of fair play that Australians hold sacrosanct. However the pontification of our political leaders - especially Dutton and Albanese - suggests that there has been wholesale lobotomising of all sides of our political spectrum. Yaakov Aharon's article should be required reading before any of these 'leaders' are allowed out of bed to spruik their abysmal BS. The article lays out clearly that the Adass Jewish community does NOT support the genocide that the Zionists are conducting, and that in fact the...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Adass Israel synagogue is not your political football
Faking "social cohesion"
December 13, 2024
Several times Jeff Sparrow's article reminded me of an emerging 'concern' about “social cohesion” that attempts to silence discussion of genocide in Palestine to keep things 'peaceful' in Australia. A false peace, I suggest. Locally, various groups gather to support preferred theories. Hidden away, without moderation to determine true from false, disharmony festers unseen, unheard. For how long? In Canberra, I don't doubt Sen. Payman (P&I Podcast, Courage in public office..., 6/12/2024): Labor's caucus doesn't welcome divergent views. Without meaningful debate in parliament, outside that refereed space Labor mostly follows the US on Palestine, recent slight deviations...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: ‘A future of dust’ – Jeff Sparrow on Gaza and why, in evil times, writers have a responsibility to take sides
War criminal Netanyahu and his many illegal acts
December 13, 2024
War criminal Netanyahu has form in meddling in other country's politics. It is very disappointing that the Dutton opposition is equally opportunistic and totally uncritical of Netanyahu's devastation of Gaza and promotion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Netanyahu and most of his predecessors have manipulated US politics for years. In the last year he has tried to goad Iran. He was heavily involved with the Iraq and Syrian catastrophes.
Tony Simons from Sydney
In response to: The Melbourne synagogue fire: Antisemitism, political meddling and exceptional victimhood
Politics and religion don't mix
December 13, 2024
One can only condemn the arson attack on the Ripponlea synagogue. The worshipping congregation there, as elsewhere, is hampered by the government of Israel hijacking their faith for political purposes: a religious symbol (Star of David) on the national flag; the declaration of Israel as a Jewish state. Plus the definition of anti-semitism that includes criticism of Israel - a nonsense since no state is perfect. Then there are those ignorant of history, not knowing that the century old trouble in Palestine is about land, not religion. And those who are rabidly anti any religion. It's a heady mix...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Attack on Ripponlea Synagogue: As faith leaders we stand together
Government Policy
December 13, 2024
Policy, policy, policy!!! As Australia continues to wallow in an economic morass of its own making, the howling of the Banshees for the Reserve Bank to do something is deafening. Howl as they might, however, it will make not one iota of difference!! Governments make policies, the Reserve does not! The Federal Government of Australia has been making poor decisions for many years (about 50) when it comes to economics and with the rum lot in power at present there is more to come. The raising and/or lowering of interest rates is an extremely poor substitute for poor...
John Bentley from TONGALA
In response to: To avoid recession, cut interest rates next week
Pre-industrial levels are not 'safe levels'
December 6, 2024
David Spratt and Ian Dunlop proceed on the basis of 'Drawing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels back to safe, near pre-industrial levels'. Unfortunately this level, vaguely denoted as 'near pre-industrial' is not safe. At this level, GHGs will still increase in the atmosphere as they have done for some 6-7 thousand years. Reducing emissions to pre-industrial levels reduces global warming but does not eliminate it. All land ice will still melt but at a slower rate. We still, eventually, destroy our ecological niche.
Chris Warren from Canberra
In response to: Climate policy is on a collision course with physical reality
Who does Australia "need", not deserve, as our PM?
December 6, 2024
Jack Waterford sums up Albanese's failings comprehensively. Dutton is his own walking advertisement of awfulness. So ….Questions to ask before voting: What's behind each leader? Policies, values, talent? How long have current politicians been in office? Time for generational change, new ideas, new perspectives? The National Party? Enough said for the P&I audience! Would Labor or LNP work better in a hung parliament? How pragmatic, consultative, flexible are The Greens? The community independents? The remaining odds and sods? Have these various cross-benchers been cooperative or obstructionist during the current parliament? What have they contributed?...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Does Albo even deserve to win?
Be bold, Michael Keating
December 3, 2024
Come on Michael Keating, be bold. Instead of the cost-of-living is the dominant political issue, how about growing inequality is the dominant political issue! Instead of maybe we will need to adapt to a society ... less demanding that productivity and living standards should always continue to increase, how about the planet simply cannot sustain current Western living standards Look at the facts you discuss Michael, and spell it out: - GDP is a catastrophic measure of societal well-being, and increasing GDP is the antithesis of what we need - increased productivity might be useful,...
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: Are you better off? If not, why not? Productivity, income distribution and the cost of living crisis
Australia does not need a Trump Government
December 3, 2024
The media ran an advertising campaign comparing Peter Dutton to Donald Trump which saw Climate 200’s donations surge by $380,000. Supporters were asked if they ‘want to feel different on our election night’ in an advertisement with half of Trump’s face and half of Dutton’s. The last thing we need in this country is a government anything like that of a Trump Government. Australia is very different to America. We have a different political structure and a different political history. People in Australia are better educated than they are in the US, especially compared with the US Southern...
Jennifer Haines from Glossodia
In response to: Does Albo even deserve to win?
Refugee status determination - the key issue
December 3, 2024
Having worked closely with Asylum Seekers for 14 years I must highlight a key problem with the recent Migration Bill changes - the uncritical assumption that the refugee status determination process is professional and fair and sensitive to changing realities. That assumption is simply not true. There are hundreds of innocent victims of the demonstrably flawed process, and many of these will be vulnerable to further unspeakable suffering if these changes are implemented. For example ASF17 whose case was recently determined by the High Court is an Iranian citizen who was held in immigration detention for a decade. He...
Graeme Swincer from McCracken
In response to: ‘Dark day for humanity’ as Australia chooses cruelty in Migration Bill changes
We miss the obvious on productivity growth
December 3, 2024
Our continuing belief that the comparatively small percentage of the world's population that is constituted by the West is the only relevant point for comparison can often obscure the obvious. If we extend those comparisons to countries outside the West which are achieving significantly greater rates of productivity growth we might see causes more clearly . China is an example. Productivity growth in a relatively mature and advanced economy is intimately related to the percentage of GDP that is constituted by Capital Investment. The Western economies generally hover around 20 to 25 percent of GDP in recent years being...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Are you better off? If not, why not?: Productivity, income distribution and the
Move over, career politicians
December 3, 2024
In a setting reminiscent of Monopoly, but dealing in real lives and real money, Binoy Kampmark describes our politicians as insecure little boys paying for the empty promise of useless AUKUS baubles in order to maintain the friendship of a narcissist incapable of unfailing loyalty to another. It's time to get rid of career politicians, feathering their nests now while also having an eye to greater future prizes. The forthcoming election gives us the chance to elect even more community independent MPs. Those we now have show what ordinary people with a wealth of experience in the real world...
Margaret Caĺinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Another nail in the coffin for Australia’s phantom defence needs
Winners and losers
December 3, 2024
We are losers under the current system. Once the students leave school they will be expected to function in our society - they will be mixing with people from all walks of life. One of the benefits of a desegrated school system is that students can experience our diversity in a supportive environment. This in turn will enable them to be more tolerant and appreciative of diversity. Creating social silos undermines the ability of students to fully appreciate the value of diversity.
john tons from adelaide
In response to: Australia’s school system: winners and losers?
Stephen Downes replies: "ABC delighted to be trivial"
December 3, 2024
I’m delighted that Sally Jackson, communications ‘lead’ at ABC NEWS, has corroborated indirectly my revealing (ABC News’ death rattle) the trashy triviality of the revamped broadcaster’s online front page. She’s clearly pleased that in September and October ABC NEWS ‘overtook’ that bastion of digital unimportance, news.com.au. In October, she says, 11.7 million read ABC NEWS online for an average of 31 minutes. Unfortunately, she doesn’t say what pieces were most read. Was it an article like the ones I cited in my piece, the one about hoof-like shoes, the hot news about a priest who lost his job...
Stephen Downes from WATSONIA NORTH
In response to: ABC News' death rattle
Correcting a common mistake
December 1, 2024
There is a common misconception that Anthony Albanese established the Parliamentary Friendship group with Palestine. This is not true. He was one of the founding committee members.
Ali Kazak from Canberra
In response to: The politics of ignoring genocide
Redesigned ABC website overtakes News.com.au as top online news publisher
November 29, 2024
Hi John, Someone shared with me the link to Stephen Downes' column on the ABC NEWS website: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/abc-news-death-rattle/ Some relevant data it might be worth noting for readers: Since the redesigned ABC NEWS website launched in August it overtook news.com.au to be the top Australian online news publisher in September and again in October. In October the audience was 11.7 million people and the average read time across the month was a very high 31 minutes. Regards, Sally Jackson Communications Lead, ABC NEWS
Sally Jackson from Australia
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
ABC Blues?
November 29, 2024
I heartily enjoyed Stephen Downes review of the re-vamped ABC News website as it generally reflected my reaction to it. What dreck is this? The point I made directly to the ABC (through their feedback section) was that i hope the level of journalism won't degrade to News.com.au levels since they are making the website look a whole lot like News.com.au. I too find the For You section condescending and patronising. I don't read the ABC because they cover my interests; I read the ABC (less and less) to get news and current information. And this move to...
Steve M from Brisbane
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
Murdoch will not win
November 29, 2024
I, too, made a futile complaint to the ABC about its lower primary school level news presentation and, on my phone at least, swipe right to try again for better news. It's a pity that when younger people need to know, on current evidence, the ABC will not be there to inform them. But Murdoch and his LNP puppets will not win. Alternative media are thriving with quality rising to the top. It's where quality journalism and expert commentators go when Murdoch thinks he has killed them off. Yes, Murdoch has undeniable influence. But when anyone starts to think,...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
Government must commit to renewable energy shift
November 29, 2024
PM Albanese is refusing to commit to a strong emissions reduction target before our federal election in February or May. Regardless, Australia's new target is due by the end of February. So Superpower Institute director Ross Garnaut is urging Labor to develop our renewable energy economy for far greater profits than fossil fuels. And Sophie Vorrath is also urging Australia to help the world shift to renewable energy. Really, it is more than time for these actions.
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Renewables superpower or climate coward? Albanese needs to make a choice before election
Let's indeed "play peace"
November 29, 2024
I hope many P&I readers will pay close attention to this excellent article. It has a lightness of touch but its truths couldn't be more weighty. We should be - and could be - a remarkable center for PEACE in the Asia/Pacific area, taking a far less subservient posture in relation to the corrupt and fast-fading war empires beloved on the LNP and of R Marles (to Labor's shame). We should be - could be - learning FROM Indonesia, encouraging our best and brightest to do many job swaps, to include knowledge of Indonesia in their professional education, and to...
Stephanie Dowrick from Darwin, NT 0800
In response to: War games? Let's play peace
Contempt of the LNP and Dutton in particular
November 29, 2024
I have no idea if this letter will ever be published, but I can only refer to the LNP and Dutton in particular as the contemptible scum of Australia. They have no shame what so ever and are proud to place politics above human life and dignity. It is as if they are proud of the hate they generate. I could add more, much more but it would not add any more clarity than what I have already said. I just wonder what sewer does Dutton want to drag this country into just to satisfy his own political agenda.
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: Denial of Australian visa to anti-Palestinian racists disturbs some Liberal Party leaders
The US political system: An American plutocracy
November 29, 2024
America has been a plutocracy for some time. As Warren Buffet said he pays less tax than his secretary which shows that the tax regime has been corrupted. Congressmen spend 70% of their time fund raising so that they are compromised by lobbyists and vested interests. The health sector costs twice that of Australia. Big Pharma, Insurers and the medical profession have caused major distortions with a much worse outcome for patients.
Tony Simons from Balmain 2041
In response to: The US political system and its capitalist, imperialist agenda has failed
"Local" ABC radio encourages law and orders fear
November 29, 2024
ABC TV news has it's failings but the push to localise radio is leading to local law and order panic. Melbourne Radio news now leads and often contains little else than the daily police briefings - burglaries and home invasions, gang violence and brawls, car accidents and chases, stabbings, suspicious fires, and deaths. There is no context or comparison with other times, months or years, leading to possibly misplaced fear and loathing. The ABC must do better.
megan stoyles from aireys inlet
In response to: ABC News’ death rattle
Israel bashing almost every week
November 29, 2024
I am fed up to the back teeth seeing relentless journalism about what Israel is doing to its neighbours. I have a more realistic appraisal. Like in the Middle Ages in Catholic Europe, Iran controls its citizens with religion, fear and scapegoats, mostly Jews. Their influence and control is so strong that Muslims in Sydney are wont to proclaim similar hatred. What we rarely hear is that Jews in all Middle Eastern and North African countries have been forced to flee for their own safety. Israel (and to a small extent USA) is the only country that will...
Peter Linu from Sydney
In response to: Defending the U.S. from the Israel Lobby
Even the Guardian bows to the Zionist Lobby
November 29, 2024
With deep regret and very considerable disgust, I need to point out that The Guardian Australia - despite its protestations of 'Independence' - peddles the very same disinformation as permeates the Zionist Lobby propaganda. Since the ABC on-line news has become on a par with a second-rate in-flight magazine or perhaps The Open Road for decent content and accurate investigative reporting, I have regarded TGA as the only viable option for widespread content news. However, look at most articles about the Israel vs. Palestine/Lebanon/Iran situation and you will find, more often than not in the first few paragraphs,...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: “Absolute savagery”: What is stopping Australia from holding Israel to account?
Our Malthusian demise is only deferred
November 29, 2024
Julian Cribb puts our global environmental crisis into an eloquent historical perspective. His portrait of humanity’s evolution over thousands of years captures the short-sighted, selfish culture which now dominates our world. Thomas Malthus foretold, in his 1798 ‘Essay on the Principle of Population’, how our population would inevitably outgrow our food supply. Population would be naturally limited by plague, famine, and war. We have, for the past 226 years, held Malthus’ prediction at bay through medical science, agricultural science, and the UN, but our Malthusian demise has been deferred rather than defeated. Humanity’s numbers continually increase, and our lifestyle...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds…
Carbon dumping should be called out
November 29, 2024
Carbon capture and storage, or carbon dumping, is absolutely a con trick. As Peter Sainsbury rightly acknowledges, despite decades of trying, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis “not one single CCS project has ever reached its target CO2 capture rate”. And carbon dumping accounts for just 0.1 per cent of carbon pollution that enters the atmosphere each year. Pumping carbon dioxide back underground is hardly a planet stabilising proposition. How about we stop digging the fossil fuels up in the first place? Multinational corporations and the governments that subsidise and support them to...
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Environment: Carbon capture and storage - what's the real goal?
Keating's Banana Republic
November 25, 2024
Contrary to the comment piece by Neil O’Keefe, Treasurer Paul Keating’s 1986 Banana Republic comment in a radio interview with John Laws was not a calming statement designed to avoid panic in the markets. It was a foolish panic-stricken reaction to disturbing Balance of Payments (BoP) figures that showed a large increase in Australia’s current account deficit. The comment caused the Australian dollar to immediately plunge by 3 cents. This came on top of a 1 cent fall in the dollar following the actual release of the BoP figures. The silly off-the-cuff remark required Prime Minister Bob Hawke,...
Paul Malone from Ocean Grove
In response to: Is the USA a Banana Republic
Cribb article deserves a Walkley award
November 22, 2024
I have long admired Julian Cribb's writing but this article deserves an award - a Walkley award no less. He conveys the urgency of the planetary crisis in a way that goes beyond merely stating the facts. We need such a wake-up call what with more and more climate change-charged extreme weather events and loss of habitat causing biodiversity to decline. The 1972 book Limits to Growth warned that civilisation would crash by the 2040s should we continue on the current path and we are certainly seeing the beginnings of such a collapse even now.
Jenny Goldie from Cooma NSW (temporarily in Adelaide)
In response to: The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds…
For whom the bell tolls
November 22, 2024
It's a statement we often see at the end of mini bios of P&I authors: The views expressed here are his own. But this time it struck me as poignant. Isn't this exactly what Mr Guppy's sad article was saying? The views are 'his', not shared by enough people in our vast country to be able to say these are our views. Certainly not shared by our LabLib parliamentary leaders, keeping in sweet with our US masters and being fêted by Israel. The few do what we can but, so far, we are powerless when up against our own...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Gaza rots the soul
Miller’s latest
November 22, 2024
The US’ Miller now says the US voted against a ceasefire because there are seven US citizens among the hostages, and the ceasefire wouldn’t cover hostages. Yet the ceasefire proposal last April would have released these seven Americans. Are they more valued now than they were then? Instead we have had a Bidenectomy to excise the Palestinians, backing an Israel which views them as a malignant cancer. All the while it has been winken (at the Israeli excesses while pretending the US has no control over them), Blinken (handwringing), and nod (to the deaths of over 150,000 Palestinians, and...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Gaza rots the soul
Silence is complicity -- Einstein
November 22, 2024
Every accusation a confession -- but also a distraction, incitement or form of silencing during genocide. P&I offers a beacon of truth, alongside other independent online journalists of principle, that informs and updates those who refuse to look away in the face of an illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes being committed by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. This daily testimony adds to the evidence needed to one day prosecute those responsible. The legacy media and ABC have failed us at every turn. As have our politicians. But perhaps Mr...
Annee Lawrence from Sydney
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Naive and inaccurate
November 22, 2024
Andrew Podger’s article ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East (November 19) is naive and inaccurate. Full disclosure: I have written for P&I since November 2022; I operated as editor for six weeks between August and September this year. Podger thinks P&I is a news publication. It is not. Publisher John Menadue has clearly described it as a public policy journal. Yet he criticises P&I for not separating news from opinion – something which is the norm for news organisations. He expects P&I to follow the conventions of the Australian Press Council when it...
Sam Varghese from Melbourne
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
ABC Lies By Omission
November 22, 2024
3 Days ago the ABC reported that a Russian missile had struck a civilian building killing 10 people. What it failed to report was that the missile was sent off course by a Ukrainian AD missile. A friend who lives in Odessa, Helen Jones, tells me that people in Odessa are far more fearful of Ukrainian AD missiles that Russian ones, because the Russian missiles are aimed at military targets. The ABC report failed to mention anything about the Ukrainian missile.
Joy Ringrose from Pomona, Qld
In response to: "Disingenuous News Dressed Up As Theatre"
Middle class ism the answer to our problem
November 22, 2024
As a Married at 19 Father at 20 retired 72 year old regular visitor to the local yacht cub I am well placed to see what the divide between the haves and the have nots looks like . I worked and watched with waves migrants worked long hours grew veggies at home and made good largely for their children. I believe the answer is middle classism and Government should promote it. The bigger the divide between the haves and the have nots the more the divide is noticed and exploited by both sides . The stronger the divide...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: When the system fails
So obscene but I fear it will get worse
November 22, 2024
Has there ever been a more shameful time to be an Australian? Thanks to Morrison and Albanese, we have literally sold our sovereignty to the US in that we are paying for the facilities at their bases on our soil about which we will not be informed, let alone have a say. And now, thanks to Albanese, Wong and Dutton, what tattered shreds of moral fibre remained have completely disappeared with their parroting the US black is white lie about violent Israeli football fans in Amsterdam. In spite of the film and eye-witness evidence, for heaven's sake. Where...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The Amsterdam incident exposes Australian supine and servile dishonour and dishonesty
Ending the Banality of Evil--Stand up and Question
November 22, 2024
Many of us have long suspected that opposition to the genocide against the Palestinians is more widespread than reported. But it is encouraging to see evidence of this opposition. Well done P&I. when the banality of evil was expressed in reporting the Adolf Eichmann trial, it was said that the root of this banality was a lack of questioning. Michael Davis PhD
michael davis from Mullumbimby
In response to: The Labor Government is morally moribund and scornful of international law
Indexation not the main game
November 21, 2024
Dear John. Thank you for your kind comments. Indexation has been applied to student loan debts since 1989. Recent high inflation has drawn attention to indexation, both how it is calculated and when it is applied. High indexation has certainly an issue - I hope I didn’t give the impression that I was dismissing it entirely - but in my view it is not the main game, which is the size of the debts to which indexation is applied. Indexation is much less of an issue in more normal inflationary environments; you’re not the first person to...
Damian Coburn from Australia
In response to: Indexation the killer
"Fairness and balance" in reporting genocide?
November 20, 2024
I am shocked by Andrew Podger's invocation of the slogan Fair and Balanced - formerly used by Fox News, to criticise Pearls and Irritations' coverage of Israel's disproportionate response to Hamas' crimes of October 7th, 2023. No surprise of course, that the Press Council, on whose board Mr Podger has sat, and whose standards he recommends, is funded by News Corporation. Israel itself has ensured that reporting from the Middle East is neither fair nor balanced by killing more journalists reporting from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon since October 7 2023, than have been killed since the...
Gayle Davies from Armidale NSW
In response to: "Fairness and balance" in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Magnificent
November 20, 2024
John, Thank you for your simply magnificent response to Andrew Podger's total misconception of the momentous crimes being committed under Netanyahu's direction, and his fundamental ignorance of the role of an independent editor and commentator. Sincerely - Peter O'Keeffe
Peter O'Keeffe from Australia
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
How serious is Mr. Podger about the integrity of journalism?
November 20, 2024
I found the recent contribution by Andrew Podger to P & I, Fairness and balance in P & I reporting on the Middle East—putting it as politely as I can—to be curious. Not so politely, I might have used the description ‘paternalistic’ or, worse, the piece as one expressing “mock concern’ from one on high. Podger expresses sympathy for an impoverished electronic outlet’s built-in obstacle when it comes to meeting the standards to which respectable journalists hold themselves. He stresses the need to keep facts separate from opinion and to be fair and balanced, that is, to represent the...
Harry Glasbeek from Canada
In response to: ‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Why would Walter Silvester lie?
November 20, 2024
Dear John, I have a problem with a story that appeared in P & I on 03/11 by Val Noone entitled Fake news, Melbourne 1966: about Pallottine Priest Father Walter Silvester. My problem is this: my wife's first husband was a former Pallottine Priest and was a close friend of Silvester's. He says Silvester was reluctant to talk about his U-Boat experiences but he did in private conversations tell him the story about them, including his version of saving the Russian sailors. He believes strongly that Silvester would not have lied to him as a close friend and...
Ian Robinson from Australia
In response to: Fake news, Melbourne 1966: migrant German priest was a U-boat commander who defied Hitler
The ABC, death by a Thousand Cuts
November 19, 2024
A very necessary and timely analysis of why the ABC is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the major policy debates within Australia. In pursuit of a small target strategy to avoid further cuts and interference in content production by ultra-sensitive governments it is achieving what those governments wanted: acquiescence and collaboration!!!
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: “Disingenuous theatre dressed up as major news”:
Elect them and they will put up taxes manta
November 19, 2024
I often watch foreign movies and marvel at the infrastructure in other countries and marvel at how they can build it and we can’t. How we once did but now can’t. The standard answer is always we are a large country with a small population, we can’t build fast rail but we did build rail to link the capital cities all the way to Perth. We did build Telecommunications infrastructure to link the capital cites and Australia to the world. We did build Roads now a private company builds Toll roads and makes monstrous profits collecting tolls. The...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Detaching Australia from the death grip of the United States
Israel must be right, always
November 19, 2024
Andrew Podger's article proves the overwhelming success of the Israeli PR machine. The MSM offers no balance about the Middle East conflict - all we hear is October 7, October 7, October 7. John Menadue's response says it all really - if you need to know only Israel's side of the conflict (and amazingly that of most West countries including our own) stick with the Israeli hasbara, the ABC, Murdoch and 9. If you want to know what is actually happening stick with P & I.
John Dash from Spence, ACT
In response to: "Fairness and Balance" in P & I reporting on the Middle East
Australia should encourage Taiwan to reunite with China peacefully
November 19, 2024
I would suggest most Australian Chinese consider Taiwan as part of China and that a reunification of Taiwan with China is inevitable. The reunification can be peaceful or forced, but the Chinese will not kill the Chinese (Taiwanese). Australia should encourage Taiwan to reunite with China peacefully instead of provoking Taiwan to declare independence unilaterally. Australians like to consider Asian nations as enemies, first Indonesia, then Japan, and now China. Asian nations are on the rise; they are more powerful and will be more assertive. None of them express any desire to be enemy of Australia....
Stephen Wong from 5 Knight Place, Castlecrag, NSW, 2068
In response to: AUKUS, the China threat and Chinese-Australian communities
The State of Palestine
November 19, 2024
If we can define Palestine as historic Palestine, or all the land south of Lebanon, north of Egypt and between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, then, yes, a State of Palestine is the best idea. This new entity would be based on one adult/one vote, full equality before the law and the right of return granted to all those displaced during and since the original Nakba. Any plan to split, or to keep split, historic Palestine (this bit for me, that bit for you) is as doomed to eventual failure as is the current arraignment.
Hal Duell from ALICE SPRINGS
In response to: Act now: The case for UN membership for Palestine is overwhelming
Many were prepared to arm themselves
November 19, 2024
Admittedly, I'm of the political left and still maintain the rage I felt when Whitlam was illegally removed from governing Australia. I call it The Dismissal, yet have always considered it a coup. Whitlam had faults. After all he was a man. He and his government also made some mistakes that his devotees frowned at BUT Whitlam was a statesman and carried out reforms that were almost revolutionary. He was a threat to the US and UK and he took most things in his gigantic stride. When he made his monumental speech, there were thousands of Australians -...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: Coups are not electorally disqualifying, just look at the dismissal
They don’t care
November 19, 2024
Geoff Davies reminds us of the contempt with which the fossil fuel industry treats the planet, and its residents. Add the new administration in the USA to those fossil fuel magnates and the full catastrophe is revealed. Trump’s pick for Energy secretary Wright is critical of clean energy “liberal and left wing groups” for their “top down approach”. He happens to have interests in Australia’s Beetaloo Basin. It is hard to see how Wright’s company Liberty Energy, backer of Empire Energy, in partnership with Tamboran, is not the exemplar of a “top down approach”. They received $28.7 million in ‘grants’...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: They spit in our faces
Fairness and Balance
November 19, 2024
Dear Editor, I read the recent article by Andrew Podger, “Fairness and balance in P&I reporting on the Middle East” and John Menadue’s response with keen interest (see: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/fairness-and-balance-in-pi-reporting-on-the-middle-east/) . It provides a civil but acute exchange, which immediately made me recall Edgar Snow, the remarkable American author of the best-seller, “Red Star Over China”, first published in 1937. Snow was regularly criticized for lack of balance in his reporting on the rise of fascism, which prompted this reported response: “In this international cataclysm brought on by fascists it is no more possible for any people...
Richard Cullen from Hong Kong
In response to: Fairness and balance in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Tomorrow never comes
November 15, 2024
Ask, in Spain, when a job will be done, and you will be told ‘manana’ – meaning tomorrow. Ask again the next day: same answer. Tomorrow never comes. Manana is clearly the mantra for our governments when asked about when they’ll tackle our climate crisis effectively. They might take modest steps to take the heat out of environmental protests, but then they let the issue slip. Grasping the climate nettle might have been pretty straightforward thirty years or more ago, when the crisis now unfolding before our eyes was predicted by so many environmental scientists; but it would have...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Environmental breakdown: We have been warned
Australia must be bold on climate
November 15, 2024
Geoff Davies' basic point is that the big fossil fuel corporations in Australia will do anything to protect and increase shareholder return including murder. His solutions are most interesting, but I'm adding some practical measures. At the current UN COP29 on climate, our Australian team must be bold and strong for ending both our fossil fuel subsidies and exports (via punishing levies and incentives for renewables); plus increasing rich countries' funding for clean energy in poor countries. Back home, during the next few pre-election months, the federal government must then also develop a bold, strong mandate by adding...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: To save the planet: Disable this global consumer-corporate machine
Indexation the killer
November 15, 2024
For context, here is a tweet I wrote on November 3: My 27yo daughter's #HECS debt is now about 20% greater than when she finished her bachelor's degree at UTS, and she has been making payments on it since 2020 — so quite obviously is battling just to keep up, let alone get on top of it. #auspol Damian Coburn's excellent contribution on the government debt load our children carry did not specifically mention the indexation of the debt to CPI rises, but my daughter is adamant that they are the killer. Was indexation always in place?...
John Hampshire from Hurlstone Park
In response to: One cheer for student loan changes
Protecting the powerful
November 15, 2024
We have seen instance after instance of the government protecting the powerful and hand-wringing (if lucky) over the powerless. Can someone explain the latest mind-exploding mystery to me as to why it proposes not to publish the sealed chapter from the Robodebt Royal Commission believed to have referred six public servants for criminal or civil prosecution (essentially quashing any further proceedings against anyone responsible for the unlawful scheme where people had died), yet refused to drop criminal charges against Richard Boyle who was able to reveal government misconduct (thus protecting the government and the public)?
K Ma from Australia
In response to: The Discarded
Just who are the elites?
November 15, 2024
Let’s be clear, the ‘elites’ which the right is in the habit of conjuring up as the root of our problems are exemplified by the plutocrat cabal attending Trump’s after party, including Gina Rinehart, Elon Musk and crypto currency hopefuls. They are the moguls who direct from their boardrooms the trillion dollar global arms market. The fossil fuel barons, such as Elnur Soltanov, Chief Executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29, who hawk their wares even from inside the COP29 energy forum. They are the CEOs of fossil fuel companies whose main job is to protect their interests and keep profits flowing to...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Like Kamala, Albanese doesn’t seem to get it.
The Australian cringe
November 15, 2024
The cultural cringe that forced so many of our artists half a century ago to head to both the UK and the US in order to demonstrate their talent, and have it first accepted by those beyond our shores, is at the heart of the current 'thinking' that drives our defence policy. The mindset that we just aren't good enough is alive and well. There isn't any justifiable reason to continue to hang on to America's apron strings. We are a nation in our own right. Our national security would be far better served if we were to maintain...
Peter Hehir from Rozelle. Sydney
In response to: Australians pierce the foreign policy propaganda of both major political parties
Probing our ignorance
November 15, 2024
Thank you Paul for your perceptive reading of such perceptive polling which requires us now to go deeper to find the right questions to probe how the dissenting sentiment identified by the Herald Resolve poll, for all its virtue, ignores how we are already inked in to the major military dust-up in which we don't want to be involved! IOW: thanks for reiterating this point but now we set ourselves to plumb why our Commonwealth has to deal with our own persistently deep and ongoing political ignorance about our own fearful and precarious place in the South West Pacific....
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Australians pierce the foreign policy propaganda of both major partiesAre we not
China Relations- Follow the Money
November 15, 2024
In reviewing various countries relation with China in many countries and states there is a clear tension between politicians and the business community. The United States is a prime example. If one believed the pronouncements of government and the mainstream media, relations are so poor that war is just around the corner if not imminent. This is borne out by the record profits of US defence contractors. One might also conclude that the Chinese economy is on the verge of collapse. The reality is very different. Recent trade figures published by CGTN showed trade values in the first ten months...
Barry Trembath from Rozelle, NSW
In response to: Does Australia Really Want to be the Spear Projecting Western Power
It's time to re-read Gore Vidal's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
November 8, 2024
Dear editor, I was very surprised by the election result in the US, like everybody else I know. But then it started to make a kind of sense. There are a whole lot of people out there who are angry and resentful. They are angry at the US government, and have had enough very negative dealings with various government agencies to start reiterating Trump's rhetoric about the 'deep state'. They don't see the educated and professional middle classes coming to their aid, so all of Kamala's promises about being a president 'for everybody' would have been met with disbelief...
David Holm from Taipei
In response to: Trumping Australia
Australia must choose a safe climate future
November 8, 2024
I appreciated David O’Halloran’s humour and insights into the deeply disturbing outcome of the US election. In particular, I agree that it is imperative that Australia, a nation ravaged by the impacts of climate change, commits to leading on climate solutions. Our renewable energy superpower potential has long been touted. Perhaps this moment offers a renewed opportunity for us to exemplify ourselves on the global stage and, in so doing, build our own more self-reliant future. It is up to the Australian public to heed the warning the US offers and to elect representatives who will prioritise the...
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: When life gives you oranges.......
The Discarded
November 8, 2024
Noel what you have said others have been saying the same and for a long time. As an example I recall John Menadue saying much the same on more than one occasion. Neo-liberalism has a lot to answer for and a vile outcome of it can be found in Robo-debt. Here was a government policy aimed at dehumanizing a group of people in order to obtain political advantage. I refer to this group as The Discarded. But The Discarded are the result of neo-liberalism and its advocates just walked away from Robo-debt and left The Discarded to pick up...
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: If you think the immediate future under Trump is horrific, just imagine the alte
Manned submarines are the past
November 8, 2024
A perceptive summary by John of the collective delusional propaganda cocoon in which we in Australia and the West more generally continue to live. That cocoon comforts us with the reassuring belief that a technology that is already four hundred years old (submarines) will ensure our dominance into a future of vast and largely unknowable technological change. With the advent of inexpensive unmanned underwater submersibles and the vast leaps being made in underwater detection of increasingly huge manned submarines, by the time we get these subs, assuming we ever do, they will be the aircraft carriers of today. Increasingly...
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Does Australia really want to be the “tip of the spear”, projecting Western power
The implosion of a hollowed out regime?
November 8, 2024
In May, before she and Macron met Xi, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted trade with China that's “fair and not distorted”. Well hello, isn't that the free market in action, if another country can sell goods cheaper than you? Now, Trump wins. Together, these events should have been the anticipated end point of free market, neo-liberal economics and its “survival of the fittest” individualism masked as “freedom”. US law allows millions to be crushed by the wealth of a tiny minority, paid less than living wages by those who get rich at their expense. Little...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Who should be the next emperor of the violent global imperium?
Brian Toohey is right about Rudd
November 8, 2024
Brian Toohey is spot on about Rudd. Rudd has never been a balanced character in almost anything. His bravado about China vastly exceeds his willingness to don the khaki to engage China on the battlefield he imagines.
Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Recall Rudd
Fossil fuel approvals undermine credibility
November 8, 2024
As Noel Turnbull revealed, the latest Zurich-Mandala Climate Risk Index found that “half of Australia’s tourism sites and airports are currently in the highest three climate risk categories.” However, while tourism is a significant employer, it is not a key industry on which life depends. Food, water and shelter are needed to survive and in its report, Food Fight: Climate change, food crises & regional insecurity, the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group concluded that “Australia is ill-prepared for the security implications of climate-change enhanced global food crises” and recommended that “an urgent review should be undertaken of Australia’s food...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: What the insurance experts say about Queensland’s climate plans
Thanks, Margaret Reynolds
November 8, 2024
Margaret Reynolds' call for Australia to take real action against Israel was a valuable contribution. She shows the power of lucid, well-evidenced, humane and balanced arguments, rather than strident and skewed positioning. Thank you.
Helen Swift from Perth, W.A.
In response to: The Australian Government must impose sanctions on Israel NOW
Democracy in America
November 8, 2024
Dear Editor, Humphrey McQueen's recent article appears rather incongruous with Alexis de Tocqueville's much referenced worldview.
Bernard Corden from Spring Hill Brisbane
In response to: What’s this American democracy crap?
"WTF just happened?"
November 8, 2024
Did the beginning of the end of neo-liberalism just happen? One can hope. The US result looks like the ultimate endpoint if the wealth of a commonwealth is not evenly enough distributed. The Democrats can be thankful they were voted out of office. Obscenely wealthy Marie-Antoinette was beheaded! Not that the Republicans are any less to blame. Trump won't help those left-behind but, by voting, the left-behinds look like destroying the system. We can but hope that out of the ruins something better will come. Could it happen in Australia? Once, we had proper essential and social services....
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: If you think the immediate future under Trump is horrific, just imagine the alternative
Social Media self-censors Evidence of Genocide
November 6, 2024
The deletion / non-reporting of irrefutable facts of Zionist genocidal activities is not restricted to the MSM. In many MSM publications, X [nee Twitter] is heavily used to carry articles, photographs and videos of events of all descriptions. I think there is a reasonably widespread belief that, despite the absence of any form of 'authentication' (actual or de facto) of sources, the broad scope of reporting would cover the gamut of facts.. Absolutely, it is not so. I have seen now two cases in about the last fortnight of something reported on 'X' (and referred in P&I '5-Minute...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Val;e
In response to: Anomie: Enabled by Western media, Israel’s lies have become a galloping cancer
Susie's contribution to humanity
November 4, 2024
My sincere condolences to you, John, and your family for the passing of Susie. What a force you both have been in the fight for humanity and justice in our troubled world. I trust the support of your family and the readers/contributors of P&I will somehow soften the grief that you must surely be feeling. I think we all wish we could have known Susie.
Reb Halabi from Australia
In response to: Vale Susie Menadue
The persecuted become the persecutors
November 4, 2024
Reb Halabi like many of us is appalled about how white has become black in Palestine. With what is going on in places like Beit Lahiya in north Gaza right now, it seems that the so-called “generals’ plan” formulated by Gadi Eisenkot, and the Dahiya doctrine are operational right now. Mass murder by the day, full scale destruction of buildings and infrastructure, separation of men from women and forced dispossession, depopulation and forced marches. The bitter irony is that Israeli is taking out on the Palestinians what European Jews experienced from the Nazis. Reinhard Heydrich, who headed the Wannsee...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The alpha and omega of tyranny
Know the difference
November 4, 2024
An excellent article from Cameron Leckie. But for too many people - especially politicians an journalists - the takeaway first base starting point has to be this, in big bold letters... ... the ‘rules-based order’ is a euphemism for empire. Specifically, the imperial-system led by the United States as opposed to the international system centred on the United Nations and International Law. Anyone not knowing and understanding that difference is at very real risk of very poor decision making.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: At the altar of the rules-based order
Netanyahu is not the problem
November 4, 2024
In his Pearls and Irritations item of 4 November - ‘Netanyahu has been leading the United States into disaster … ‘ - Jeffrey Sachs, has put the boot on entirely the wrong foot. He is not alone, simply joining the like chorus of otherwise knowledgeable commentators who should know better. Seen against a more informed backdrop of American behavior in the Middle East where it has, since the installation of its Shah in Iran in the 1950’s, stirred an egregiously infamous cauldron of death, destruction and dispossession from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, the current behavior of Netanyahu should be...
Howard Debenham from Australia
In response to: Netanyahu has been leading the United States into disaster after disaster after disaster
The remarkable courage and strength of MND patients
November 1, 2024
Since I retired on the mid north coast of NSW, I have been a palliative care volunteer for 10 years. During that time I have sat with three MND patients for many months, all of whom displayed remarkable courage and strength like Susie. My aunt in England took 12 months to die of MND and her distraught doctor husband flew to Australia to assure us it is not heredity. I hope others who have watched love ones die slowly of this disease will find comfort like I do from this knowledge. I have been told since the...
Sherry Stumm from Rainbow Flat, NSW, 2430
In response to: Vale Susie Menadue
We must overcome climate apocalypse scepticism
November 1, 2024
Julian Cribb has highlighted the apocalyptic threats that the world faces, within the present century and possibly within the current decade, from the Arctic ice melt, and from the slowing ‘Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation’ (the ‘Gulf Stream’) as a result of increasing global warming from our ever-growing carbon emissions. These threats are real, and their likelihood increases daily. Why, therefore, is the world doing so little to prevent them? Dorian Lynskey posits, in his book ‘Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell about the End of the World’, that we ignore apocalyptic alarms because we have become enured...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: When the oceans run amok: “We ought not to ignore such clear indicators of an imminent collapse
Native forest logging is ecocide
November 1, 2024
Thank you to Professor David Lindenmayer for multiple strong evidence-based arguments supporting a rapid end to native forest logging in NSW (“The NSW native forest logging industry is unsustainable – a fast transition out is needed now”, 19/10). That any form of logging is occurring in any native forest, anywhere in Australia in 2024 is utterly absurd and should arguably be punishable as ecocide. Trouble is, if Victoria’s situation is anything to go by, even if we did receive a commitment from the NSW government to end native forest logging, rogue logging would continue under other guises. We...
Amy Hiller from Kew, VIC
In response to: The NSW native forest logging industry is unsustainable – a fast transition out is needed now
My deepest condolences
November 1, 2024
Dear John, We have not met, nor Susie. May I offer my deep condolences to you and your family with Susie's death. My wife, Jenny's father, a Sydney surgeon, and my uncle died similarly. And, with my wife having secondary progressive MS, separately, I also understand very well the role of caring you would have undertaken. I do not know how you managed to do both so well. Best wishes as you navigate the future. And all the while benefiting our heritage exposing national and international truths. Warm regards, Philip Gardiner
Philip Gardiner from Moora, Western Australia
In response to: Vale Susie Menadue
Wild Weather Is Already Upon Us
November 1, 2024
I am an 81 yr old semi-retired Trauma Therapist and former Maritime Rescue Worker who was aware twenty five years ago that it would be better to move inland away from the sea. My Cranial Osteopath sent this article to me because while he silently treats me, I sometimes burble on about The Gulf Stream. I cannot help it and have been saying since 2005 that If the melt from Greenland cools the Gulf Stream there will be instant Ice Age in the UK. I'm a positive thinking person yet sometimes I burst out with things...
Maria Polmeer from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Australia
In response to: When The Oceans Run Amok
Gong irony
November 1, 2024
While working in Home Affairs, I requested Secretary Pezzullo’s permission to nominate the soon-to-retire Assistant Secretary of the Multicultural Affairs Branch for an Order of Australia award. She had spent some twenty years leading Australian multicultural policy and contributing to community relations, for which she was universally respected. She had her own remarkable migrant and personal journeys, contributed strongly to a local Canberra community organisation, and raised her children (I believe) as a single mother. A person of integrity, high standards and inspiring energy. The Secretary’s response was a surprising ‘no’. He told me that excellent and dedicated public...
Richard Manderson from Canberra
In response to: The bell has tolled for Pezzullo’s gong
Voluntary end-of-life refusal of fluids and food
November 1, 2024
Brian Polkinghorne's suggestion of fasting as a peaceful way to die deserves amplification. Voluntary refusal of fluids and food (VRFF) forms a major part of the late Rodney Syme’s posthumously published book, “A Completed Life” (available through the public library system in South Australia). Syme was a euthanasia advocate who spent many years consulting with and helping people avoid unnecessary suffering at end-of-life. He considered VRFF to be a humane and legal end-of-life strategy in situations where the dying person is ineligible for Voluntary Assisted Dying because they are not mentally competent enough to sign the paperwork or...
Peter Schulz from St Agnes
In response to: Another perspective on end-of-life
Vale Susie Menadue
November 1, 2024
My sincerest condolences to John and his family. Life indeed will not be the same - but although I never had the pleasure of meeting Susie, I think she would have been delighted with the success of P&I and pleased to know how many people benefit from it's articles through knowledge, interest and real (as opposed to fake) reporting in articles. Thank you for helping to develop and produce P&I; rest in peace - and my warmest wishes to Susie's family.
Barbara der Kinderen from Gulmarrad NSW 2463
In response to: Vale Susie menadue
Condolences
November 1, 2024
Ambassador Menadue, My condolences to the passing of Susie Menadue. One’s life partner is irreplaceable. Susie built Pearls and Irritations with you. I believe she would want you John to expand and advance the service in memory of Susie. Sincerely, Warief D. Basorie Depok, Indonesia
Warief Basorie from Depok City, Indonesia
In response to: Vale Susie Menadue
Labor hasn't done it on its own
November 1, 2024
Labor has gone from promising in Opposition to end the swindle to denying it exists in government. A variation on disappointment with Labor on education continues across many areas. And in some cases wouldn't have gone as far as Labor did had it not been for Independents pushing for more and in the end Independents standing up and saying changes still haven't gone far enough. The Independents don't often get credit for any improvements because no one sees them talking to Labor (or Liberal or Greens) MPs on the phone, at meetings, and face-to-face inside the hallowed but...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Labor’s amendments to the Education Act fail to ensure full funding of Public Schools
Livin' in the Land of the Sycophants
November 1, 2024
What with all the media song ‘n’ dance Charlie’s back in the land of the sycophants Thought it would a be a cake walk Until a girl called Lidia spotted her chance She harangued poor Charlie with wrathful critique He with no paddle was way up shit creek All the while under the international media glare The torrent of abuses from colonialists so bleak The continued refusal of moolawa to tell the truth The stolen children, the persecution of our youth The lock ‘em up and throw away the key mentality Murder, rape, genocide crimes of humanity so...
John Bentley from TONGALA
In response to: Lidia, I’m angry, too
Call it what it is
October 25, 2024
Isn't it time we called the situation in Palestine what it really is? It's not only Israel committing genocide, it is ISRAEL AND THE USA who are JOINTLY committing genocide. We would not be seeing what we are seeing now if the USA stopped supplying Israel with arms and funding. The USA is 100% complicit. We should all be calling on the Prime Mister to condemn the actions of both Israel and our master, oops, ally, the USA. Plus, Australia should implement BDS immediately. We did it for South Africa. What is our justification for not...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza
Always listen to mother.
October 25, 2024
King Charles’ mother made a hugely influential speech in 2011 at a state banquet in Dublin Castle, starting in Gaelic “A Uachtaráin, agus a chairde — President and friends. Pitjantjatjara is one of the most spoken and studied Aboriginal languages. What an impression the king would have made if he had started his speech at Parliament House with “Nyuku malpa palya, nganana manta milmilpatjara ngaranyi” - “My good friends, we are standing on sacred ground”. Craig Brown Eaglehawk Neck TAS
Craig Brown from EAGLEHAWK NECK
In response to: Thank goodness for Lydia Thorpe
Thank you for Susie
October 25, 2024
Dear John Menadue, We do not know you personally. But we feel we do; for your humanity, your determination to open the eyes and the hearts of your fellow Australians and for your love of truth. May we, therefore, offer you our deepest condolences for the passing of your partner in life and in idealism, Susie. You say that Pearls and Irritations would not have ever been launched and allowed to prosper without her; that she was the pearl and you were the irritation. What a splendid combination you made. And what a loss you must be feeling....
Jafar & Sandra Ramini from Fremantle WA
In response to: Vale Susie Menadue
US armed forces had the power to stop the massacre
October 25, 2024
I can only echo B’Tselem’s call. If we set some sort of crude realpolitik calculus of maximum proportionate response to October 7 of 5000 Palestinian lives, then by late 2023, US forces, and if necessary others, should have been deployed to stop further escalation and prevent Israel implementing the Dahiya doctrine. 42000 lives would have been saved (175000 if the journal Nature estimate is correct), as well as many years of reconstruction, and no spread to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Sadly, the Biden administration failed to take the lead and act to restore peace, and create...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza
Robertson KC suggests a simple solution
October 25, 2024
Take away messages in the article were: “But what if we don’t need a head of state at all?” And again “.... do we really need a head of state at all?” “Rather than sovereignty resting in a monarch – whether elected as a president or inherited as a king – sovereignty should rest with the people through their parliament.” Geoffrey Robertson KC in his article in the SMH, 13 Sept 2022, “Australia has no need for a head of state, royal or not” suggests that without changing how our PM is appointed, he/she becomes our...
Con Karavas from 0418 181 717
In response to: Our vision of a republic must be an all-encompassing one
Politicians and media shunning the truth
October 25, 2024
With political leaders and the media calling Lidia Thorpe's actions before the king disrespectful, I'm pleased someone stood up and stood out to speak truth of Australia's past and present in this setting. The takeover of Australia wasn't respectful to First Nations people - at least she wasn't violent, which is more than could be said for the actions of settlers in the name of the crown. And how far did being polite and gracious (Uluru Statement and the Voice referendum) get Australia's First Nations peoples towards justice? The king and queen are direct beneficiaries of colonisation, exploitation...
K Ma from Australia
In response to: Thorpe unmasks the coloniser who visited genocide on Australia’s First Nations
The horror of being Australian
October 25, 2024
This article puts yet more Murray river salt in the wound of being Australian, of being represented by such abhorrent moral vacuums. It is clear that Albanese and his wise monkeys will not do anything we can be proud of, and instead, here we are again - the bland residents of a great blank embarrassment - nodding in bleary eyed stupidity ... we are indeed, a land of racist losers.
Marguerite Bunce from France
In response to: As US puppets the Australian political class rejects international humanitarian
Shards of hope amongst the horror
October 25, 2024
I have Jewish friends and treasured memories of growing up with unbreakable friendships with wonderful people of Jewish ethnicity. I am daily filled with sadness and anger about the evil that the Netanyahu government, the IDF and the ultra-Zionists are prosecuting against now not just the Palestinians but also Lebanese and Iranian peoples. I have also some Palestinian and many Lebanese friends. Shortly after the first Israeli attacks on Beirut, I rang one of my closest Lebanese mates to ask: 'Did you lose any of your family or someone close?' His reply: 'None of my family, but...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale
In response to: Professor Ilan Pappe talks about Zionism