Letters to the Editor
Start with bringing our ships and planes home
February 14, 2025
We could explain to the Australian public why our ships and planes are surveilling in international waters/airspace off the coast of China. Would we tolerate it in international waters off our coast?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-need-for-australia-to-act-independently-and-be-freed
Do we read the documents we talk about?
February 13, 2025
Of all historical documents, The Balfour Declaration must hold the record for being the most often referred to and the least often read. The document reads: His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people . . . it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. The Declaration talks about a national home, in Palestine, for the Jews, while the...
Ian Bruce from Darlinghurst, NSW 2010
In response to: Israel and the dark legacy of Sir Mark Sykes
God and gender duality
February 13, 2025
One consideration to add to Eric Hunter’s excellent article on ‘Why doesn’t God save the day?’ is the apparent automatic assumption it is a male figure. No doubt it originates from ancient days when domination relied more on direct physical prowess rather than projectiles delivered from a distance. Any deity is likely to be a figurehead to all and not defined by gender. Perhaps there is a message in the recent amplified status by transgender people which may lead the faithful beyond the confines of conflict.
Tony McLean from Springwood, Blue Mountains
In response to: Why doesn't God Save the Day
Ita, a dose of integrity?
February 12, 2025
Perhaps Cold Chisel should alter the lyrics to their song Ita. or maybe they were just being sarcastic all along? Is her integrity the reason that another person of integrity, Scomo, picked her?
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: ABC cowardice vs Zionist blitzkrieg
Why only now see the reality?
February 12, 2025
Peter Varghese has finally recognised that the US has become a selfish bully and that its capacity to champion “our great strategic project” against China is in doubt. He says that while we should continue to enjoy the security from hanging out with the bully, it would be wise given US unpredictability “to recognise what we should have known all along” that we can’t leave our defence to others”. (Is this an apology for inability to advance this view when he was DFAT secretary?) What brings Varghese to his realisation are Trump’s statements about expanding US territory and...
John Wallace from Melbourne
In response to: Trump’s Gaza grab shows America is no better than China
Taiwan and Gaza
February 11, 2025
The situation with Taiwan and Gaza is not comparable. A total of 146 countries recognise Palestine (including Gaza) as a sovereign state that has never belonged to America or Israel. Almost every country recognises Taiwan as part of China (12 don't). Even America does. Those running Taiwan are not the original inhabitants, but forcibly overran it after losing a civil war. I believe that provoking China over Taiwan has more to do with China's massive economic growth than spreading freedom and democracy and mythical fairy stories of the rules-based order. Ask the previous inhabitants of Diego...
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: Trumps Gaza grab shows America is no better than China.
From the river to the sea
February 11, 2025
From the river to the sea is condemned as a racist and hateful policy. Given that it should be banned from Likud's founding documents, campaigns, and policies.
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: The future from the river to the sea remains bleak
Our future is in our hands
February 11, 2025
Peter Sainsbury illustrates a frightening truth. Australia, and for that matter, the rest of the world, is chasing its tail trying to reach net zero targets. The reason is multifaceted, but the underlying solution is simple; take the ominous consequences of global warming seriously and act accordingly. The question then becomes: is Australia capable of curbing its consumeristic lifestyle to haul in what is fast becoming runaway atmospheric warming? At this stage, we’ve shown no inclination to do so. Our business leaders and politicians seem yoked to population growth, which only compounds greenhouse gas emissions, but to be honest,...
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria 3101
In response to: Environment: Australia unlikely to play its proper part in keeping warming under
A golden opportunity for a determined government
February 11, 2025
Peter Sainsbury shocked me with his heading Environment Australia unlikely to play its proper part in keeping warming under 1.5 degrees C. Our PM and team should stick boldly to the decarbonising science; and try harder to explain to MPs and voters that this is the only true, effective path for a livable future on Earth. That path would also likely beat Dutton's nuclear energy as far too late, costly and with forever deadly radioactive waste. I consider that our government has a golden opportunity to make a strong stand now for doing the right thing for...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Environment: Australia unlikely to play its proper part in keeping warming under
Trump’s Gaza grab: America is no better than China
February 11, 2025
Peter Varghese's article has a number of factual inaccuracies which I would like to point out. 1. The so-called rules-based order crafted by the US mentioned in his essay is nothing but a self-serving way of relating to the world solely in its interests. The US never signed up to the United Nations' international Charter of Law. 2. Taiwan has been recognised internationally — even by the US — as being part of mainland China. This is not the case as far as Panama, Greenland, nor for that matter, Gaza. Thus the comparison is invalid.
Pamela Rothfield from Edithvale, Victoria
In response to: Trump’s Gaza grab shows America is no better than China
Peter Varghese's swipe at China
February 11, 2025
Peter Varghese's article takes a totally unneccesary swipe at China. China may be a one-party state, but it has managed to lift its population out of the depths of poverty into a modern welfare state. He may not like China's authoritarian regime (neither do I, by the way), but a huge majority of Chinese citizens elected it and it has the respect of most of its population. On the other side, America is rapidly evolving into a rogue state where might is right and money is king are the only criteria that matter. I am not a military expert,...
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Trump's Gaza grab shows America .....
What’s really on the nose is politics
February 11, 2025
Forget about Musk or any other of the small, medium or large businesses; what is really on the nose is politics. The job of business is to make a profit and everything they do or say is, and should be, about making a profit. No matter how big or small they are, if it isn’t about making a profit they will not survive/prosper. The problem is that our politicians and our politics have lost sight of their job which is to govern without fear or favour for the good/betterment of all Australians without fear of not being re-elected....
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: musk-a-perfume-on-the-nose
Right-wing Advance and our elections
February 11, 2025
The right-wing lobby group Advance played a not insignificant role against the Voice, and it mounted a concerted campaign to defeat the sitting Greens candidate in Prahran’s recent by-election in Victoria. Advance is partly funded by a Liberal Party investment group which donated $500,000 in the last financial year. It was disturbing to read that the Victorian Electoral Commission felt obliged to seek a Supreme Court injunction against Advance for repeatedly defying election campaign rules. Disturbing not because of the actions of the VEC, but the response from Advance, who accused the VEC of “heavy-handed overreaction to Australians participating...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Australian electoral prospects
Tell 'im 'e's dreamin'
February 11, 2025
Bob McMullan's piece reads like he's trying to convince himself that Labor isn't doing as badly as it is. Whatever else is happening in the world, however bad the opposition is, by any measure Labor is a disappointment, at best. On climate and the environment it has performed particularly poorly, the backdown on gambling reform was pathetic, and not subjecting the whole AUKUS deal to thorough scrutiny was an abdication of responsibility. The list goes on. Talk to anyone vaguely interested in politics and the refrain is the same. Albanese is an inadequate prime minister, timid, spineless, lacking...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Australian electoral prospects
Well-written report
February 11, 2025
Congratulations on a well-written article. I am a 62-year-old white Australian and have to agree with all aspects of the article. Particularly with the outside influences aggravating the Australian public who are not very smart or introspective in the first place. The problem is how do you make a politician who is left- or right-wing and probably being paid in some manner by the perpetrators to see clearly the falsity that is obvious? A great article.
Michael Hagen from PROSERPINE
In response to: Australian society has never really been a cohesive entity, it may be unravellin
Trump saves the subs
February 10, 2025
What Australia needs: Another Trump light bulb moment where he decides that Biden/Morrison did a dumb deal (he may well take our money and tell us to p*** off but in the long run thatwill be cheaper). A hung parliament in which Dutton won’t work with the independents. Richard Marles to lose his seat. The Future made in Australia to kick in. It is standard Trump/defence business practice to quote low and once the build reaches critical mass the customer has no choice but to hold on and pay up and go along for...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: aukus-ssn-a-flawed-plan-heading-for-the-wrong-destinatio
ABC cowardice vs Zionist blitzkreig
February 10, 2025
The Lattouff court case exposes, once again, the craven subservience of Australian Government, its instrumentalities, and of course, the mainstream media (aka the Murdochracy). So much dissembling, so much obfuscation, so much plain BS. So much genuflection to the obscene demands of the Zionist lobby. Ita Buttrose, a person of (questionably, but let that pass) veneration, reduced to the status of a messenger of the gods of the Zionist Lobby industry. Since when has it been a personal opinion, attacking Israel to quote, with attribution, the stated finding of a respected international organisation? Since when has it been...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale 2575 NSW
In response to: Arab organisations slam ABC over refusal to acknowledge Lebanese race
Rough road to a sustainable future
February 10, 2025
Hope in a crisis is the drowning man’s straw: people grasp it, however unlikely it may seem, and cling to it. So it is with the climate crisis. We have scientists arguing powerfully, passionately, for the urgent action that we still need to preserve a liveable Earth. This gives hope, in the face of ever-worsening expectations. Trainer argues that those hopes are doomed, unable to overcome the greed of capitalism before capitalism itself collapses under its own internal contradictions. He pins his hopes, instead, on small, self-sufficient, co-operative groups. The approach he advocates for — he calls it The...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: The situation – and why we can’t fix it
Comcare prosecution over Robodebt turned down
February 10, 2025
Comcare referred a case about Robodebt under S.19.2 of the Commonwealth Occupational Health and Safety Act to the CDPP. That section covers the duty of care to those affected by the work of a person (natural or corporate) in control of a business or undertaking, and includes the Commonwealth government. Comcare says the CDPP declined to prosecute because it saw little chance of a conviction.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: ‘Before, during and after’: Deception at the heart of Australia’s anti-corruptio
Escalators and headlines
February 10, 2025
Ever since Donald Trump took that elevator ride in 2015, he has made an art form of generating headlines. He says something outrageous and then watches as the world's media and assorted pundits put him on the front page. They buy into it time after time after time. They're doing it now. Own Gaza? With neither US military nor US money being used? How will that work? The Palestinians have resisted Israel. Why would they not resist the Yanks? Also, no Arab or Muslim nation has indicated any willingness to accept two million disgruntled migrants. And why would...
Hal Duell from ALICE SPRINGS
In response to: Trumps plan for Gaza heralds an age of naked fascism/
Weasel word BS is alive and well in universities
February 10, 2025
I just thought I'd let you know that I stopped reading this article as soon as I got to the bit where it says McKay wants secretary and senior-level public service remuneration to be 'well calibrated to the correct private sector analogues'. What is it with academics that they must twist language into some sort of contortions to make a point? Why couldn't this bloke McKay, who is obviously an idiot, just say he wants senior-level public servant pay to mirror the private sector, or to be similar to the private sector? Well calibrated to the correct...
Wes Mason from Gisborne
In response to: Public Servant's Pay
It's time for a balanced parliament
February 10, 2025
The mystery will always remain: Why did Albanese appease his Coalition opponents while haemorrhaging votes from his supporters? Moving on, I suggest Dutton and the LNP would be infinitely worse. The Trump playbook, divisiveness, lack of policies and policy detail, lack of transparency, lies and personal attacks on opponents at both federal and electorate level - no good lies down that path. So the big question is: What are we going to do about it? Please... vote deliberately for a hung/balanced parliament. Community independents have already shown teeth and backbone in calling the major parties to account....
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: ‘Before, during and after’: Deception at the heart of Australia’s anti-corruptio
Disappointed with our leaders
February 10, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed this article and share Barb's disappointment in our political leaders. Australia seems to be going off course. The tragedy is that in a recent election, Bill Shorten tried to offer solutions to many of her concerns, but was unsuccessful with many short-sighted Australians. When Murdoch controls 80% of the media and has other ideas, many of his readers are misled about the precarious situation. Murdoch's minions and lackeys are pushing a separate dangerous and backward agenda. The legacy media meekly wades in the swamp. The other tragedy is that our political system is broken and not...
Tim Reeve from 52 Bungaloe Ave Balgowlah 2093
In response to: Comment re Barb Dadd's article " Where is the real choice"
The collapse of the capitalism model
February 7, 2025
Ted Trainer's article provides a timely warning that the current model of greed encased in capitalism is nearing its logical end. I have been involved in the recycling and zero waste movements and their refinement over the last 35 years. Despite highlighting the urgent need for change little happens. Every time a move is made to minimise the harm to the environment, such as plastics recycling, container recovery, alternate energy or safer and improved quality food production, the current capital model steals the concept and incorporates it into the greed structure to generate more income for the current investment...
Gerry Gillespie from Queanbeyan NSW
In response to: The situation - and why we can't fix it
Trump's diaspora
February 6, 2025
Reading P&I on Trump's latest mad plan to resettle the inhabitants of Gaza somewhere else so he can build hotels and golf courses, I was struck by an historic parallel. The last chap to try this was Sargon II, boss of Assyria, who came down on the local inhabitants like a wolf on the fold, his cohorts gleaming in purple and gold and scattered them to the four winds, an event known in Jewish history as the diaspora. That was 2750 years ago and led directly to the present mess that is Israel/Palestine. So if Trump has his...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: Trump’s plan for Gaza heralds an age of naked fascism
Yes Minister 2
February 6, 2025
For some time, my teacher mate sang the virtues of the US system where the president got to tap into the expertise of highly credentialled people from all around the country when appointing heads of departments and I must admit that I didn’t disagree with him. Then came Trump who unashamedly appointed mates. So much for that idea. In Australia, with its ongoing war against anything old that works, we too started to appoint highly paid (unlike with workers where qualifications and capability are not portional to the amount you're paid) experts as heads of departments on contract....
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: public-servants-pay-lambies-on-the-money
Understanding intent in genocide
February 6, 2025
Gerard Gill's statement: intent being determined by multiple statements from officials is legal fantasy. Intent is established by acts or omissions, not by words. If a reasonable person would understand that there was a strongly probable, indeed, near certain consequence of an act or omission, that establishes intent. She who deliberately puts death cap mushrooms in the beef Wellington commits murder, (allegedly). The act proves intent. If a reasonable person would understand that a near certain consequence of Israel's obliteration of Gaza, cutting off water, food, medical supplies, the use of starvation as a means of warfare, the...
Rick Pass from Glen Iris, Victoria
In response to: Lone soldiers, lone wolves: Are IDF returnees a security threat?
The X factor
February 6, 2025
I have been banned from X and am unable to peruse any five-minute scroll items. X claims I have sent prohibited comment to it for which I am banned. I have never used X. I responded to their ban email by saying I have never wanted to be treated as a user of X and am happy to be excluded by them. However, if the five-minute scroll continues to use them as material, I will not be able in future to be able to access it. I have been a user of P&I for over 10 years...
William Bradley from SOUTH MELBOURNE
In response to: five minute scroll
Trump removal of support for climate action and aid
February 6, 2025
What if China decided to fund the organisations (humanitarian aid, climate change support) from which Trump has withdrawn support? What a coup this would be! How would Trump react? I feel the Chinese are now rich enough to take this up. If they did so, how would the Western powers react? It would really change the world's perception of China.
Doug Foskey from Tregeagle
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/strong-leaders-versus-inspiring-leaders-australias-curre
There is a real choice at this election
February 6, 2025
Contrary to Barb Dadd's pessimism, I believe there is a real choice at the coming federal election and that is the Australian Greens. The Greens have policies which address all the issues that concern the author and I encourage your readers to check the Australian Greens website for a thorough summary of Greens' policies. The Greens have been criticised by many commentators for blocking Labor-initiated legislation in the Parliament, but in all cases they have been trying to improve that legislation so that it is more effective and delivers greater benefits to the community as a whole and particularly...
Les Mitchell from Port Macquarie NSW
In response to: Where is the real choice when it comes to the election?
Unhinged proposals for Gaza
February 6, 2025
Like Larry Stillman, most of us don't want to see a rise in hate towards any group of people here. But for Donald Trump to reiterate a plan during Netanyahu's visit that Palestinians should just vacate Southwest Palestine is unhinged. What can that do but create even greater tensions, with their spillover in Australia and elsewhere? What then will he propose for Northeast Palestine? Hitler's plans for Poland to provide Lebensraum have an eerie echo in Trump's statements. Jewish organisations in Australia, which are hopefully fundamentally driven by moral imperatives, would be best served by proposing a much...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: No community can be blamed for the actions of a few individuals
DeepSeek
February 6, 2025
The response to DeepSeek was predictable. It is stolen, it is untrue, it is expensive, it is a psyops exercise and, if not any of these, then it is a threat to Western civilisation that deserves to be blocked immediately. And in a typical response, the CIA promptly did a massive DDoS attack on it using Vault 7, its cyberwar weapon.
Andrew Nichols from Otepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa NZ
In response to: Western commentators still unable to see the advances in China
How the Chinese system deals with the next phase
February 6, 2025
I watch as the US rushes towards the abyss, taking the Western world and the planet and democracy with it. With limited news coverage, I admire what China and the Chinese system of government has achieved. The world cheered at the fall of the Soviets and their communist system, not realising that the US and its ongoing worldwide wars and capitalism was in decline. Some thought that a benevolent dictatorship was the ideal government; the US is racing towards dictatorship without benevolence. I have no doubt that the rise of Chinese manufacturing and technology has had a positive...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: Western-commentators-still-unable-to-see-the-advances-in
They didn't come to pillage
February 6, 2025
They didn't come to pillage, claims the woman who pillaged thousands of taxpayers' dollars.
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: coalition mindlessness and the colonising of Australia
Significant differences between Labor govt and Dutton LNP
February 6, 2025
It is inaccurate to use the popular and populist formulation all politicians — or parties — are the same. Labor may have been disappointing on international matters – continued AUKUS expensive folly, failure to stand up to the ruling Israeli false narrative etc. Yet it has achieved many reforms: prescription costs, improved bulk billing support, after-hours medical centres, childcare costs, childcare training, apprentice training, numerous industrial relations reforms, housing developments (after a long Greens delay), support for renewables, moves towards Gonski levels in public education, reducing HECS debt, WFH right to disconnect etc etc Populist anti-political thought fosters...
Stephen Alomes from Melbourne
In response to: Where is the real choice when it comes to the election?
Is the Old Testament Christianity?
February 6, 2025
Growing up in a Protestant Christian household, I have been unable to understand the emphasis/equal billing given to the Old Testament teachings at church. Christian teachings such as those mentioned get barely a mention in and out of churches while the vengeful god of the Old Testament is often quoted. “Eye for an eye”etc I see the big players in the Old Testament as the “Who do you think you are“ class. So often the real Christian, caring, sharing, non-judgmental people remain working hard, at the bottom, caring for the needy, wearing their old suits and dresses, never qualifying...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: The-widows-mite-a-call-to-justice-not-sacrifice/
Limitation of 'physics emulating' economics
February 5, 2025
In connection with Ross Gittins important article Want more economics students? Drop the obsession with maths the more fundamental question is the utility of this approach in the social sciences to ape the gold standard for being a science — assumed to be physics — by describing the area under study via mathematical relationships. The blog of Real World Economics Review, as well as posting items on current economics matters, also has those that address the weaknesses in mainstream economic mathematical modes. Lars Syll is a regular and pertinent contributor on this issue; most recently How evidence is...
Bob Aikenhead from Victoria
In response to: Want more economics students? Drop the obsession with maths
Exposing the IDF's AI-enabled barbarity
February 5, 2025
As background to Keith Mitchelson's timely alert about the recent NYT article, P&I readers will find a report from April 2024 by Yuval Abraham in +972 magazine (online) of great interest. Interviews with IDF members who had served in Gaza detailed the use of two software systems used to murder Palestinians. Lavender collated data from numerous sources to provide target lists, while Where's Daddy? provided location detail for the actual attack. As with the NYT report the full article should be read by all.
Bob Aikenhead from Victoria
In response to: Why did the IDF reveal all to The New York Times?
The elephant in the nuclear room
February 4, 2025
The fate of nuclear energy in a hung parliament is just one more article that fails to address the forever problem of nuclear waste. Until such time as nuclear proponents can 100% guarantee safe and forever disposal of nuclear waste, they shouldn't bother to leave their drawing boards.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The fate of nuclear energy in a hung parliament
Do economists know anything about economics?
February 4, 2025
Watching a variety of economists on a variety of TV shows, I have my doubts if economists know anything about the economy or if any two economists or politicians agree on anything. None of them seem to understand even the most basic concept that if you don’t have an income you can’t build / do / supply / repair anything. Take it as a given that nobody wants to pay taxes and everybody wants services . No matter how you dress it up, whatever you promise has to be paid for either by taxes, loans or substandard services....
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: want-more-economics-students-drop-the-obsession-with-mat
NYT were not the first
February 4, 2025
Like almost all your articles, this one deserves a much wider readership than it will probably get. However I'd like to mention that it is in error in its claim that the NYT were the first to report this. It may be true they were the first to interview those particular anonymous IDF soldiers but the claims made have been reported in a number of independent media outlets. In particular, I remember reading such reports in +972 magazine [www.972mag.com], an Israeli publication run as a co-operative with both Jewish and Palestinian staff and contributors, who were also the first...
Terry Constanti from Annandale NSW
In response to: Why did the IDF reveal all to The New York Times?
What about Robodebt?
February 3, 2025
Your correspondent from Gladstone Park informs us that hackers got into his Centrelink account and stole his pension. He postulates that this would not have happened under a conservative government. We all sympathise with him and lament the stress this crime has caused him; but, has he forgotten Robodebt where the Conservative government itself did the stealing, leading to the suicides of far too many?
Paul Fergus from Croydon 2132
In response to: Mainstream media fails to mention positive labor policies
The biggest hoax of all is democracy
February 3, 2025
We don’t live in a democracy, we live in a capitalist society and have done since the beginning of the illusion of democracy. There have been short-lived periods of democratic waves of revolution barely tolerated by the old money. The climate revolution is drawing to a close as the oligarchs take back control to defend their mega money income streams. The old money media and mining moguls of the past have integrated the modern day Internet and tech moguls. We are yet to see which tech billionaires will survive . The rapidly emerging Trump dictatorship is all part...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: hoaxes-that-gush-for-winners-and-trickle-down-for-losers
Our human footprint
February 3, 2025
In 1969, those who watched the “one giant leap for mankind” witnessed the end product of America’s determination to outsmart the Russians. Exactly how did “mankind” benefit from making that eternal shoe print on the moon? It was a huge engineering undertaking, but as Peter Sainsbury points out, nothing like the feat we must pull off to keep Earth habitable. With no adversary to compete against except our greed, Rupert Murdoch suggests those living in areas of coastal erosion and rising seas simply retreat. Musk has given up on Earth and is going to live on Mars. Trump promises...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Environment: one giant leap for mankind was nothing
Are the right questions being asked?
February 3, 2025
It is politically expedient to argue children should be punished for their crimes. But more needs to be studied on the reasons those children behaved they way they did. Too often those studies are dismissed for being soft on those kids – that more discipline is needed. But the environment in which they begin life may hinder social development and the acquisition of goals (not gaols). More studies could gain knowledge on their family life, community life, education that reaches out to them, inclusively, and health services that also ensures they eat well. Were any of the children belted...
Ian Bowrey from Hamilton South
In response to: Youth Justice - punishment or prevention
Labor government achievements
February 3, 2025
Reading Jenny Hocking’s article about positive achievements of the Labor government, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps one of its positive achievements has been to make it easier for criminals to hack into the my.gov.au site and steal the money of pensioners. Last year on 7 November, my Centrelink account was hacked and my aged pension was stolen. By contrast if I were to take an extra dollar from Centrelink that I was not entitled to, I could be certain that I would be caught. But the hacker can be sure that he will never be caught ....
Vikein Mouradian from Gladstone Park
In response to: Mainstream media fails to mention positive labor policies
Time for compassionate change
February 3, 2025
I agree with Sue Barrett's article. I have felt for some time that we seem to be approaching an apocalypse such as was seen in the Great Depression: a tiny majority controlling the world's wealth (spoken a a whitey who is comfortable!). I have been saying for years that there needs to be another compassionate change in society such as was seen during the ´Flower Power´ revolution of the 1970s. During that time, we established Medicare, free tertiary education, and many other social reforms that since seem to be openly derided (whilst the commentors still accept the largess of...
Doug Foskey from Tregeagle
In response to: Humanity’s operating system has been infected By Sue Barrett
DeepSeek challenges US capitalism
February 2, 2025
In their article on DeepSeek, Wanning Sun and Marina Yue Zhang fail to understand the most important aspect of DeepSeek – it is open source. They repeat the irrelevant criticism that as it stands, politically sensitive words and questions seem to be no-go areas. As it is open source, its source code is available for anyone and the updated versions will simply remove this problem. What terrifies the American elite most is that DeepSeek yet again shows that the Chinese economic model can out-perform the American proprietary form of capitalism. DeepSeek is the latest example but the writing...
Paul Malone from Ocean Grove
In response to: DeepSeek’s success challenges assumptions about Chinese tech companies – and the
Let's all agree to survive
February 2, 2025
I just read Sustainable Population Australia's latest newsletter which aptly included a repeat of Julian Cribb's climate information in P&I, on 30 December 2024. Cribb's list of 10 catastrophic risks ranged from forest loss to misinformation. He summarised the list essentially as too many humans wanting too much from our planet Earth. He also urged us to specifically agree to survive; and to consider updates on the Earth System Treaty which will be issued in P&I during 2025. How wonderful to have such help; it may be our very salvation.
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: 2024 – a dire year for Human Survival
The impact of colonisation: A couple of not so minor points
January 31, 2025
1. The author says: ... the taking of [Aboriginal] children from their parents by governments [continued] into the 1970s.] If only that were true. It continues to this day. 2. Jacinta Price (for so she called herself when she sent me a text during the referendum) proves that every group has fools in its midst. How she can think British colonisation has had no lasting negative effects. is beyond me. I'd have thought the numbers of Indigenous children in out of home care and jail and having a shorter life expectancy than their non-Indigenous counterparts might have...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: John Howard and British colonisation of Australia
The Trump way?
January 31, 2025
This analysis by Brian Lawrence puts Labor's position on the lowest paid workers in a clear light. They don't seem to care about them. This is disturbing for 2 reasons. Firstly, Labor seems to have abolished roots, i.e. the low paid workers for the more lucrative middle class. I suppose: Labor no more. Secondly, this looks exactly why the Democrats got such a flogging in the USA. Apart from being immoral it also seems to be utterly stupid. With an attitude to its former base like this Labor doesn't deserve to win.
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Labor has unfinished business on tax – Its 2024 tax cuts have failed low-paid workers
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