Letters to the Editor
Finally, the facts on Chinese growth
June 14, 2024
Congratulations Michael Keating on the brilliant article laying out the facts about Chinese growth and strategic development over the past 40 years. I began seeing with my own eyes 15 years ago the rate at which China was rapidly going green while the west was mostly in denial. Julia Gillard was right - this will be the Asian century - and hopefully we can still tag along. Neil O'Keefe
NEIL O'KEEFE from HEATHCOTE VIC 3523
In response to: Clutching at straws: America will not maintain its economic dominance
Dangers of Neutrality
June 14, 2024
Those politicians who may be inclined towards Australian neutrality pursue that inclination at the risk of their careers or worse as the experiences of Gough Whitlam and Imran Khan prove. https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/the-us-toppling-of-imran-khan/
John Curr from Brisbane
In response to: Neutrality would keep us out of a U.S. – China war
Doomsday clock
June 14, 2024
I was surprised at how much the doomsday clock had varied since 1947. The Sachs article gives the US presidential timeline but not the Russian or Chinese equivalents. So much depends on leaders. I wonder if as well as the UN building in NY there was an equivalent United People's building across the road how different the years since 1947 would have been. Are the ICC and the ICJ the beginnings of people power as opposed to leaders' power?
Gary Barnes from mosman nsw
In response to: Presidents who gamble with nuclear Armageddon
We must recover the common good
June 14, 2024
In the minds of those concerned for the salvation of life on earth the focus has been on securing an urgent transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy. This is certainly critical. Our government is supporting this transition, for good immediate reason, as a great commercial opportunity. Geoff Davies has identified that the energy transition alone will be insufficient to achieve a truly sustainable society. The other, at least as important, is to make the transition back from our market-based, neo-liberalism enhanced society to the more socially cohesive and caring society which reclaims the commons, and prioritises the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Death machine: striking at the heart of the planetary problem
A spade is a spade, (unless it's Israeli . . )
June 14, 2024
The analogy Gillian Cowlishaw makes with domestic violence’s insidious control mechanisms is a perfect analogy for the truth manipulation that Israel has quietly been building and cementing into political structures worldwide over decades. The real victim, Palestine is repeatedly over-written by well-funded and loud false narratives. Australian Zionists, under the umbrella of the Jewish faith have been allowed to heckle and harass any truth tellers with information from that beautiful, ancient country of Palestine, by dismissing the teller and insisting that they alone control the story and the Jewish people must always be seen as the victims. Appallingly the...
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: Coercive control — by country
Brave voices should be applauded
June 14, 2024
The Jewish Council of Australia is to be commended and applauded for their brave and principled stance on the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel's far-right national government insults our intelligence and compassion by continually seeking to dilute their murderous actions by calling them 'unintended' or 'a tragic mistake', or that such outrages are 'under review'. The Jewish Council of Australia quite rightly, and unequivocally, calls for Australia to hold Israel to account in the same way that Russia and some of its citizens are held responsible for the illegal invasion of Ukraine....
Robert Harwood from West Hobart
In response to: Rafah massacre demonstrates urgent need to cut ties and sanction Israel
Biden’s bombs burn babies
June 14, 2024
Biden’s bombs burn babies. There have been further murders by Israel in the day since. But so far, the reaction from the US and Australia and the world is not “enough is enough” as it was when Kim Phuc ran down a Vietnamese street with her back covered in flaming napalm. Buddhist monk Thich Tri Qang self-immolated to try to stop the Vietnam War, and US serviceman Aaron Bushnell has done the same this year over Gaza. Yet as of today Antony Blinken is still telling us that the “red line” for decisive US intervention hasn’t been crossed....
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: American-Israeli bombs incinerate women and children in Gaza’s ‘safe zone’
We need leaders who rise to the climate challenge
June 14, 2024
‘Lifestyle’ has been the major gain for the great majority of people since 1945. This has led the rampant consumerism which has us ‘using more resources than the world has to offer’. It is the political risk of compromising this lifestyle that prevents populist democratic governments from reining in our changing climate. This inability threatens to destroy the world which has evolved over the past sixty million years; this is the world we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. Violet Coco is intelligent, informed, passionate and provocative. She sees the critical state of our climate and environment, and...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Full spectrum resistance: we need militant teams who are willing to destroy the death machine
Bias in the Letters pages
June 14, 2024
... the denying of Israel’s Gazan starvation strategy (a longstanding affair) may have been too much for the normally acquiescent letters editors to bear. I wrote letters to The Age from 1999 until 10 May, 2024, and agree 100% with author Evan Jones's comment. It was extremely difficult to get any letter published that refuted outright errors of fact previously published in the letters pages on the Voice to Parliament, or that expressed alternative views on China, defence or Gaza. I still don't know why the anti-Voice brigade got such a free run. But for the rest, if you're...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn, VIC
In response to: The AIJAC propaganda machine
Daniel Duggan
June 14, 2024
Thank you to Mary Kostakidis for spelling out some of the injustice being inflicted on Dan Duggan and his family. With the name Dreyfus there is a cruel irony that the federal Attorney General seems unwilling to put a stop to the inhumane treatment. Yours sincerely, Bill Holley
William Holley from Mayfield NSW
In response to: Living in fear: Can Australia protect its citizens from our dangerous American a
We cannot leave transition to our children
June 14, 2024
Andrew Glikson highlights once again how humanity is facing an existential crisis as our environment decays. Too many are either ignoring these imminent threats or denying the need for substantial, uncomfortable actions to prevent them. These attitudes are likely rooted in the comforting words from successive governments – either that climate science is ‘crap’ and must be ignored, or that they accept the science and have the issues in hand so don’t worry. But actions are not being taken fast enough. The Climate Change Minister seems to be making some progress, but his colleague in the Environment Ministry...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Tracking toward a greenhouse atmosphere and acid oceans
Biden Administration Stands Self-Indicted
May 29, 2024
There can be no more definite proof that for the USA, any claim of upholding 'the International Rule of Law' is utterly and shamelessly a complete and arrogant falsehood than the recent responses to the Gaza situation. Within a few hours of the ICJ announcing a decision to determine the legality - or otherwise - of the actions of the leaders of the Israeli government in the context of war crimes and genocide, Joe Biden frothed his opposition, calling it 'outrageous'. Eminent international justices trenchantly disagree, and the international community increasingly protests strongly the Israeli government/military matrix genocide being...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Horrendous images of burnt children after Israel bombs Rafah refugee camp
The degree of obedience of a soldier
May 24, 2024
Thank you for the article. Inevitably there would be a confrontation between the legal system, the tenants of mission command and the degree of obedience required of a soldier in a democracy. As you pointed out the Nuremburg Trials rejected slavish obedience to orders as the reason for behaviours and actions. For the Germans each soldier is now obliged, continuously, to reassess their decisions, behaviour and actions on the constitutionality, legality and morality of their mission or task. A soldier does so to avoid the abuses of human rights that have been repugnant features of the past. They...
Thomas Basan from Canberra
In response to: Justice miscarried: The unanswered questions of the McBride verdict
The role of the Greens
May 24, 2024
In their excellent podcast, Allan Patience and Joe Camilleri paint a bleak picture of the state of Australian politics. Rightly, they bemoan the inability of the second-rate politicians within the two major parties to address the ravages of forty years of neoliberalism, and respond to the challenges of climate catastrophe and social inequality. Rightly, they recognise that the machinery of government is controlled by powerful corporate and security interests. Yet they mention the Greens and Independents only cursorily, to dismiss their possible roles and never return to them. I cannot understand this. Patience and Camilleri want people with ideas,...
Richard Barnes from Canterbury, Victoria
In response to: The bleak picture of Australian politics: this is how we change
Dien Bien Phu and Vietnam war protests
May 24, 2024
The excellent article re the Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu, is illuminative. Those who would seek more information are recommended to read Lucien Bodard's 'The Quicksand War'. Of great import is the information that it was an American military officer who drove Ho Chi Minh into Hanoi, in an American Jeep, proclaiming through a bullhorn 'Here is your new leader' ( paraphrased.) Bodard chronicles the vast corruption serial south Vietnamese governments, supported by - guess who - the USA. Just as today we see the USA flagrantly ignoring any semblance of the 'International Rule of Order'...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Ðiên Biên Phú at 70: The best journalists report from “the other side”
Finally, facts against the almighty Hasbara b.s.
May 24, 2024
It was very heartening to read Evan Jones' brave article, pushing back against the overwhelming media deluge by the pro-Israel community. The propaganda (Hasbara) that they spew out is extremely well-funded and quite ruthless. AIJAC’s decades-long pronouncements highlight that its personnel dwell in a parallel universe. It is a record of high-class charlatanry. How can AIJAC personnel, all well-educated, construct a fabulous version of a subject on which they devote their waking hours? The media has been generally happy to oblige AIJAC’s threadbare homilies. A commentator with the experience and intellect of Evan Jones reveals the shallowness...
Glenda Jones from Carlton, 3053 Victoria
In response to: The AIJAC propaganda machine
It's just the budget to win the next election
May 24, 2024
More members of the Coalition are likely to be replaced by 'teals' at the next Federal Election because the Coalition is largely irrelevant. Labor just needs to stay in office, hence the budget that just tinkered but did not make big changes. They did commit to building more housing which is good news. Murdoch's News Limited is being brought down to size. In the UK's investigators have found that the News of the World's illegal behaviour was much more than they initially realised, and more people are going to be held accountable, which will damage them further. This...
Louise O'Brien from Wollstonecraft
In response to: Jim Chalmers’ 2024 budget ignores that humans are social beings
The US has lost key states
May 24, 2024
Thanks to Israel's genocide in Gaza, the Saudis are not doing a normalisation agreement with Israel. The US tried to do a Plan B with the Saudis, which was an AUKUS type deal, but they have also walked away from that as well. This is of major strategic importance. The Saudis have signed up with the BRICS. Looks like India is refusing to sign an AUKUS deal as well. They currently buy around half of their military weapons from Russia and are refusing to change on this. Being a 'QUAD' member is largely meaningless. The US Petrodollars...
Louise O'Brien from Wollstonecraft
In response to: America's geopolitical position
Peacekeeping force for Gaza
May 24, 2024
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh’s plea for more action by the ICJ is backed by a current call from the 22 state Arab League for a multilateral peacekeeping force in Gaza. As Algeria is a member of both the League and the Security Council, it is to be hoped that Algeria’s Foreign Minister, Ahmad Attah, proposes setting up such a force by the Council. Our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, should encourage him to do so urgently.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: As 700,000 civilians flee Rafah, our shared humanity compels the indication of further ICJ provisional measures
Gaza genocide
May 24, 2024
Thank you for telling the true, whole (for this period of our lives) story. I have heard/read snippets of these but not the concise whole. I did not know about Marwan Barghouti (for me more to learn). In connection to his story, John, mentioned Nelson Mandela. I would put the very sad story of Navalny here too.
Judith Gamper from Kambah ACT 2902
In response to: Gaza genocide protests by students shame the elites in the Westen world
We must break the power of lobbying and donations
May 17, 2024
The fossil fuel industry will never cooperate to bring about their own demise. Rather they seek to prolong and maximise their fossil fuel production, disregarding the ever-more-apparent risks that their emissions are producing. They cloak the need for emissions reduction in the panacea of carbon capture and storage – a technology with limited application and little proven success. The IPCC made clear, in its final report, that no new fossil fuel projects can be authorised. This decree, in Australia, seems to have energised the industry to push for authorisation of major new gas projects. The Future Gas Strategy is...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Labor’s Future Gas Strategy: The greatest capitulation of any Australian gover
Pushers of war for corporate gain
May 17, 2024
While always showing us corporations who benefit from the spoils and even threat of war, why not expose the real pushers of war for corporate gain…..the weapons industries. Oil gains feature but without weapons industries having war, where would they get profits for jobs and shareholder gains? It seems the reliance on weapons production is too big to ever let it stop. USA UK produces and sells weapons far more than any other nation, and it’s hard to sell a product without a user, it seems the producer has needs met by ‘whatever it takes”. It’s not really...
Julie Hunt from Alstonville Plateau, NSW 2477
In response to: corporatocracy
The US hegemon
May 17, 2024
I absolutely agree with this article, however it is anethema to politicians of all colours and most of the populace because of their perceived need to hold hands with someone stronger, as it was with the UK at one time. It is sad that most think we need someone to 'have our back' when there has been no guarantees of that - ever. It is only the self interest of hegemons that gives the impression of 'support'. To be independent of hegemony would show other countries that we are confident of our place in the world and will...
Leigh Bunting from Adelaide
In response to: Three compelling reasons to exit ANZUS
Betrayal X 2
May 17, 2024
Labor has betrayed us on both climate and AUKUS/Defence. Send in more Teals to act on the former and please Teals act on the latter. As it currently stands, as climate catastrophe races towards us and we prepare for war as a puppet of the US, we are doomed without immediate action.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn
In response to: Future Gas Strategy is a betrayal of promised Climate and Environmental Policies
We should all support an Earth Systems Treaty
May 17, 2024
I first read about Julian Cribb's climate book How to Fix a Broken Planet- Advice for Surviving the 21st Century (2023) last year in P&I (July 22/2023). I was most impressed by how comprehensive it is. To solve the main threats to our world, it proposes ten globally agreed and legal solutions, the Earth System Treaty (EST), on which all UN countries should take action. The first action is to ban nuclear weapons. Cribb seemed ecstatic as he wished it well, It is a milestone to our becoming one people on one planet. So it is disappointing to read...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: To avoid human population collapse, We must transform Society
Yes, Minister. Listen to the kids
May 17, 2024
And now - it's back to the NT. A Labor government here is trying to pee higher than the CLP pretenders. 'Tough Love', More police, More prisons. And the next step for these retributive recidivists? Reintroduce mandatory sentencing?? The only thing that stops these kiddies' power games is that someone in their circle of friends and family is caught in the Act and sentenced mandatorily. The new police minister here wants all homeless people herded up and dumped in the bush. But then again, he's helping clear the bush so ... It's all sounding gaza-ish, isn't it?
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: No, Minister. It's you who should be in court
“Future Made in Australia"
May 17, 2024
The horrible thing about Albo's Future Made in Australia is the complete lack of imagination in lifting it from Biden's 2021 “Future Made in America”. Why are Australian governments so secondhand and second-rate?
Paul Andrew from Adelaide
In response to: Accepting reality: the future will not be made in Australia
A valuable contribution
May 17, 2024
Thank you. Thank you.
Patrick Widows from Margate. Tasmania
In response to: Negativity and the Budget. Philip Huggins
Cognitive dissonance over climate catastrophe
May 17, 2024
A Guardian survey of hundreds of top climate scientists indicates only six percent think the 1.5C goal is achievable. Nearly eighty percent warn of dire consequences, a “semi-dystopian” future of wider famine, mass migration and conflict driven by dwindling basic resources. An agreement signed last year between Tuvalu and Australia was a world-first bilateral agreement on “climate mobility” (The Conversation, 11/11). Australia has, commendably, created migration pathways for people from Tuvalu who face the existential threat of rising sea levels. Yet in the context of the Federal government’s gas strategy announcement, our commitments to the Pacific nations are sounding...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: 77% of top Climate Scientists think 2.5°C of warming is coming – and they’re horrified
Ceasefire guarantee or red line of blood?
May 17, 2024
The text of the Gaza ceasefire agreement published on Al Jazeera says that the US, Egypt and Qatar are the guarantors. Hamas has accepted it. So it is time the guarantors stepped up to the plate and took active steps to stop the continuing small mass murders and the Majdanek-inspired “900 calories per day keeps people quiet” approach of the Ben-Gvir Smotrich real government of Israel. The Biden red line, which is not a red line according to Blinken, is nothing but a trail of blood running across the sea from Gaza to Washington.
Geoff Taylor from Riverton
In response to: Israel’s willing executioners
Hope now rests on very thin ice
May 10, 2024
77% of IPCC climate lead scientists, as reported by the Guardian this week, see that we will, almost inevitably, be facing catastrophic global temperature rise within the foreseeable future. This news, together with the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group’s newly-published report “Too Hot To Handle”, underscores Adrian Glikson’s despairing preview of humanity’s seemingly inevitable demise in the Earth’s forecast sixth mass extinction. Thirty years ago we had the information that we needed, as a species, to recognise, accept, and overcome this threat. Regretfully governments, with fossil fuel industry encouragement, opted instead to focus on other pressing issues that allowed...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills , Vic
In response to: The Orwellian rules-based climate
EEZ rules
May 10, 2024
I was enlightened by this article as to the rules for entering an EEZ. The question begs as to why HMAS Hobart was in that particular area (enforcing sanctions on DPRK sounds a bit thin), so what were their orders and on whose authority. If the orders came from the UN, then China's reaction is overblown. If we are lapdogs to US orders then that is different. I can understand that the EEZ borders in the Yellow Sea are tight but maybe there are other factors at work such as the Chinese/DPRK at-sea goods transfers are being hindered...
Leigh Bunting from Adelaide
In response to: China dropped a flare near an Aussie copter in its EEZ. What’s wrong with that?
Blinken and the mote and beam
May 10, 2024
As the Chinese saying goes; for every finger the US points outward, three fingers point inward. This parallels the biblical story of seeing the mote in your neighbour’s eye but not the beam in your own. Which is very much the case with Anthony Blinken’s latest claim that Hamas is holding up a ceasefire in Gaza. The reality is that it has been possible since the early stages of this conflict for Joe Biden to bring it to a halt, with diplomatic, military and financial pressure. He didn’t, and the deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians lie squarely on him, as...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The State Department report on human rights
The US empires' Days are numbered
May 10, 2024
The US Government now spends more on interests payments to service it debt than on defence, which is the tipping point when an empire is finished. Every year the US Government continues to spend well beyond its means. Thanks to US sanctions, where over 50 percent of the world's population is living under some type of sanction, much of the world is moving away from using the US dollars and TWIFT for trade. Together the euro and yuan have the ability to replace the US dollar, and many countries are trading in their own currencies. In the near future...
Louise O'Brien from Wollstonecraft
In response to: Australias-national-defence-strategy-where-ideology-trump
Australia's American lenses
May 10, 2024
ABC Nightlife between Phil Clark and Michael Pascoe mid-week discussed the 'nest of spies' reported in 2021 by ASIO DG Mike Burgess, who is happy to cast shade on China and Russia, but which was reported this week via the Washington Post to have been from India. The MSM seems to have made virtually nothing of it with government and opposition spokespeople quoted on the good relationship Australia has with the world's biggest democracy and defence partner India - everyone has moved on. But imagine the response if the spy ring turned out to have been from China. As Pascoe...
Ka Ma from Australia
In response to: Our Biggest China Lie
Avani Dias and The Australian
May 3, 2024
Sam Varghese makes a cogent argument for exposing News Corps' white blindfold approach to journalism. I'd suggest the fact that she's a woman would also be a factor. And then there's the potential for The Australian (or any of the other rags that News Corp - I hesitate to say - publishes) to aggravate Modi and News Corps' potential for making any money there. Nothing like ethical standards.
Erik Hoekstra from Leura
In response to: If Avani Dias had been white, would Murdoch media have ignored her India ban?
Lest we forget -- Who should we commemorate?
May 3, 2024
What should we commemorate? The quest for peace in our lifetime. Those who champion alternatives to war. The right to want the commemoration of war money to go into mental health services, which are desperately needed due to, in part, the continuation of war at all costs. Those who champion the rights of children, especially those on the fringes, the victims of war, and First Peoples. Those who stand up for the countless women tortured daily, and all too many killed by those who know them. We should commemorate the women who stood up and aired the need for...
Jessica Perini from Everleigh
In response to: ‘Impactful projection’, 1915 style: Lest we forget Anzac Cove
Lest we forget -- beyond ANZAC
May 3, 2024
6 am and I can hear them gathering. Every year since COVID began, our neighbours have insisted on an ANZAC Day service in our street. The bugles blare at the rising of the sun. New Zealand and Australian anthems are sung. “For those who’ve come across the seas ...” And I turn over in my bed and rage. My adopted grandpa, he was one of them. I do not denigrate his years of service. Nor the beliefs he held. It is the sanctification of the period that irks me to the core. This act has been made saintly. An...
Jessica Perini from Everleigh
In response to: ‘Impactful projection’, 1915 style: Lest we forget Anzac Cove
Terrorism: let’s call it out
May 3, 2024
Terrorism: “the use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”. Enculturated from birth into a patriarchal system, most see gender politics as simply ‘how it is’ or may not perceive it at all. While many instances of violence against women are instances of controlling behaviour, it does not require women to act in any particular way in order for that violence to occur. It is in some respects an invisible threat which nevertheless has the effect of causing women - and some men - to at least be ever-mindful of their behaviour in...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Why is violence against Australian women not rated as terrorism
Every morning I wake early, Gaza is my first thought
May 3, 2024
Every morning I wake early, Gaza is my first thought. I am not alone, I’d wager many of our deadbeat politicians, if they could be honest and they can’t-evidently, also wake early thinking of Gaza. Thank you for publishing this piece-it’s perfect and I am weeping. Our corrupt media is entirely complicit-it is utterly shameful.
Link from Wiradjuri
In response to: Weeping for Gaza
Future Made In Australia (Michael Keating article)
May 3, 2024
Like so many democracies, Australia is struggling with the “Guns, Butter, Future Growth” dilemma, as Paul Kennedy wrote in “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”, back in 1998. Part of the reason for that struggle is that the importance of “Pure science” is often not recognized, as Janeway wrote in “Capitalism in the age of Innovation”. Australia has reduced its spending on pure science, even medical science, as part of its response to the lower taxes, currently at 27% of GDP, way below most developed countries except USA (24%). Now our exports of Iron Ore, coal,...
Noel Thommpson from Sydney, NSW, 2066
In response to: A Future Made In Australia:Can it work and what are the risks
In a parallel universe
May 3, 2024
According to some physicists there exists a multitude of parallel universes. In one of these: * Palestine is recognised, but Israel is not, because ‘there was yet to be a negotiated agreement’ including, i.a., a finalised border for Israel; * Armed Israeli groups such as the IDF and settler groups were designated as terror organisations because of their attacks on citizens in the West Bank; * The Israel governing body was not recognised because many of its members were opposed to a two-state solution and supported violence to achieve their goals. * Israelis were being evicted from their land,...
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Australia’s recognition of the State of Palestine an overdue move
US Demands China stop Supplying Russia in Ukraine
May 3, 2024
“US Secretary of state visits China and demands the Chinese stop supplying Russia arms for their war in the Ukraine” as reported on SBS world news . I wonder how it would be reported If the Chinese Secretary of state went to the USA and demanded that the US stop supply Israel weapons for use in the Palestine genocide - I wonder how the US would react?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: War on Gaza a cruel month of massacres
An eminence grise in his own lunchtime
May 3, 2024
Finally got to view the Sarah Ferguson / Mike Pezullo interview. Jack Waterford treated Pezullo more kindly than he deserves; it is really very hard to see Pezullo as any more than a Dodgy Brothers plastic statuette of Arthur Tange. Kissinger redux he might think of himself but he's only about $0.30 in the $ there.
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: The Anti-China War Book: Pezzullo hears the call again
Measures That Matter, Matter
May 3, 2024
Our politics seem still dominated by short-term thinking – the result of our short federal election cycle. Chelsea Hunnicutt’s call to remind the Treasurer about his promised Measures That Matter is welcome. Short-term policy to provide short-term benefits is really just a more sophisticated form of pork barrelling. This Labor government needs to raise its vision above the daily fray, to demonstrate that it has some vision of the world that lies well beyond the next election. We have a moral responsibility to provide a secure world for future generations. The great majority of voters have a vested interest...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: As we approach the Federal budget, whatever happened to ‘Measuring What Matters’
Israel's historical mythology and Arab Jews
May 3, 2024
Dear Jeff Kildea I agree wholly with the gist and thrust of your article. However, I must take you up on an aspect of Israel's historical Mythology - namely that the Arab Jews were 'kicked out' of the lands they had lived in for several generations - the largest population of Jews in the world in ad 750 lived in Iran, and in 1948 there were 150,000 in Tehran alone. There are still over 8000 living there. The gist of my proof comes from Israelis I have known - one, Ed Marcus, who along with his brother...
dieter barkhoff from Box Hill North
In response to: The Belfast Good Friday Agreement – a model for Palestine?
Corals warn humanity to speed energy transition
May 3, 2024
I am very much afraid that climate expert Julian Cribb is correct that the world's corals are in deep trouble due to fossil fuel emissions bleaching them; so in effect they are warning us: The corals are telling us our time on Earth may well be up, if we do not heed the warnings they provide. That is, are humans intelligent enough to survive... or not? (Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing, P&I, Apr 19, 2024). Why on Earth can't all fossil fuel companies simply accord with the very critical climate science and reform fast to making their profits...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing
Cautious Terrorism
May 3, 2024
Gareth Evans writes of Australia being 'the latest of formerly cautious countries' now wanting statehood for Palestine. 'Cautious' is not the word I would use for the shameful conduct of Australia in condoning genocide by the Israeli government and IDF top brass. Australia supports state-sanctioned terrorism by supplying ADF personnel and war machines and parts to help Israel murder yet more Gazan women and children. It's hard for me to condemn Hamas for defending Gazan rights for oppressed people while our 'cautious' politicians bury their heads in the sand to not see or hear the cries of...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: The Urgency of Palestinian Statehood
SEZs are the answer
May 3, 2024
While the above article uses the Korean model of industrial development, the elephant on the page is China which is by far the most relevant and current example of how industrial development can happen successfully led by Government. Ironically, the To Boldly Go article features the Australian proposed legislation “Future Made in Australia” which more resembles Made in China 2025 than Korean. Special Economic Zones can be owned and controlled by Government where Australian private enterprises (not foreign multinationals) can manufacture exclusively for export thereby not distorting the domestic market . As such each SEZ can specialise and...
Brian Lynch from Brisbane
In response to: ‘To Boldly Go’—but not so far as to replace the private sector
Labor has left the building
May 3, 2024
Given Labor's stance on Gaza and AUKUS, I can no longer preference them when I vote. This means in the next federal election I'll probably squander my vote as my electorate is safe Labor, and I'll never preference the Libs. For the next state election though, we have the best voting system of optional preferential voting so the equally disappointing Minns government will miss out. It's galling that Labor seems to think it can move so far to the right and we just have to suck it up.
Jack B. Nimble from Villawood NSW
In response to: Dutton plays to his base while Albanese neglects his
Palestinian state
May 3, 2024
It seems one of the major arguments against the recognition of a Palestinian State is the borders of such a State have not been agreed to. Surely, then, this is also true of Israel. Logic would suggest we should immediately refuse to recognise the State of Israel.
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: A state of Palestine? Outrage as US backs perpetual occupation and oppression
We trust truth over 'news as entertainment'
May 3, 2024
Ranald McDonald’s selectivity is confounding. He implores Australian media to defend free speech and encourage honesty. Yet he agrees that under the scrutiny of a court of law, our media was found to be truthful to its readership (in the successful “truth’ defences in two recent attacks on press reliability: Ben Roberts Smith and Bruce Luhrmann), nevertheless he still encourages us to copy America and change our constitution to protect freedom of speech; questionable when the US government just passed a bill denying free speech if Israeli interests are involved. Why doesn't he address the journalistic injustices of:...
Glenda Jones from Carlton 3053
In response to: The media must surely act now to rebuild public confidence
Be both alert and alarmed
April 19, 2024
Time to be both alert and alarmed. The Great Barrier Reef is facing its fourth mass bleaching. Deteriorating oceanic conditions presage further damage. Reefs globally are facing the same existential threat. Should they die, many species which depend on these reefs will follow; our environment will experience cascading extinctions. While climate change denial may have reduced in recent years, its stable-mate - climate action procrastination - is thriving. Our government makes such gestures to control carbon emissions as it can negotiate with, among others, the fossil fuel industry. Government talks up its actions, but they remain insufficient for the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: XR blocking arteries of capitalism labelled “catastrophic inconvenience”
Recognising Palestine
April 19, 2024
Larry Stillman's argument for recognising Palestine as a first step to peace in the region, with which I largely agree, includes one possible scenario involving a condominium. This brought to mind the condominium established by France and Great Britain in the then New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, in 1906, lasting to independence in 1980. Those who lived through it usually referred to it as the pandemonium. The aftermath of the chaos was still evident when I lived there in the early 1990s, and it's hard to see how such an arrangement would work in a much more fraught...
Erik Hoekstra from Leura
In response to: Why Australia should recognise Palestine
Gender theory exists
April 19, 2024
Francis Sullivan, 'gender theory' exists. It is taught in universities (reference Judith Butler) and in schools. It is embraced by our governments, the public service, corporations and sporting bodies. Workers are afraid to criticise it for fear of losing their jobs. The mass media, including the ABC, censor criticism of it. In 2013 the government amended the Sex Discrimination Act to accord with it. Discrimination on the basis of sex was replaced by discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and the words 'sex', 'man' and 'woman' were deleted. The result is that people are not permitted to advertise...
Janet Grevillea from New South Wales
In response to: Pope Francis has abandoned transgender Catholics
We ARE part of the problem!
April 18, 2024
Larry Stillman and Harold Zwier write 'We urge the Australian government to maintain its support for Israel, for Palestine and a negotiated settlement to the conflict through recognition of Palestine'. Whilst few could argue with the substance of their joint article, the suggestion that the Australian government should 'maintain its support for Israel', given the acts of genocide currently being perpetuated by Israel, is a position that can't and shouldn't be justified, morally or politically. The only way to shift Netanyahu's and Israel's intransigent position, that Israel is and will forever remain the sole state, is for Australia...
Peter Hehir from Rozelle. Sydney
In response to: Why Australia should recognise Palestine
We must stop mining fossil fuels.
April 15, 2024
Dr David Shearman has long campaigned to end fossil fuel mining in Australia. He is highly qualified and was a co-founder of Doctors for the Environment Australia in 2001. He quotes the scientific fact that For every thousand tonnes of fossil fuels mined, one person dies. This leads to the utterly abhorrent statistic of 540,000 deaths annually as a consequence of using fossil fuels. Obviously it must not continue. However, at present gas in Australia is being hailed generally as a transitional fuel to the clean energy future. But Shearman describes it as damaging especially to children in...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: The Government must abandon its gas policy
Fossil fuel users can pollute in secret
April 15, 2024
All life on the surface of our planet shares a common atmosphere. Long lived pollutants injected into our atmosphere are shared with flora and fauna on the Earth’s surface, and potentially with water dwelling life. At this point in our planet’s history, the most important long lived pollutant is carbon dioxide, which not only stays in the biosphere for many many human generations, it also dissolves in oceans where it interferes with the chemistry of natural processes. Carbon dioxide is of course the primary driver of global heating. Almost all the carbon dioxide added to our atmosphere in the...
David Hamilton from North East Tasmania
In response to: Fossil fuel’s war on protest
The real battle to save NDIS is about people
April 15, 2024
The true failure of this NDIS Bill will be revealed in the likely extensive amendments . This misguided article fails to provide an analysis of real cost saving. Instead the rationing of NDIS supports could cause cost increases, due to serious health breakdown, compared to the disallowed $500 piece of equipment for independence costing years of a support worker. Reduced therapy could mean the difference between a future taxpayer or a lifetime on welfare. It is the incompetent NDIA and the not fit for purpose PACE IT system that is the real threat. It is shameful that the Agency...
Shirley Humphris from Geelong
In response to: At last, the battle to save the NDIS has begun
We need to see what lobbyists do
April 12, 2024
Democracy should be government by the people, for the people. As John Menadue’s submission makes clear, what we have is too often government by vested interests in favour of vested interests. Coming from senior government and military positions, lobbyists may be better informed than politicians and staffers; they may be better connected. Lobbyists outnumber those in government, and their numbers are growing. There is no visibility for who they lobby, when, about what. They are credited with resisting essential reforms for our climate, our environment, our tax system and more. They are clearly a cost-effective investment for the interests...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: The lobbying scourge
The only planet
April 12, 2024
I'm never sure if you lift me up with your spot-on cartoons but you certainly keep me alive and kicking!
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: The Wrong Planet
Nuclear Smoke and Fossil Fuel Mirrors
April 12, 2024
I do not believe there is any real conviction in the Liberal's policy of going down the nuclear path for Australia's base load. It is being done deliberately though. It is being put out there to further stifle any hope, in the short term, of a unilateral will in the Australian government to adopt a fast renewable energy transition. Where does it originate from? Considering the political, corporate and media interests promoting this faux policy, you need look no further than the fossil fuel industry. They are the rabbits digging the rabbit hole. This deliberate talking...
Henk Plaggemars from Sellicks Beach
In response to: Peter Dutton’s nuclear power policy is a ‘suicide note’
The whisper of an eternity beyond
April 12, 2024
And yet in all our hearts, that single entity doing good, there is the whisper of an eternity beyond what is too much blood and bone and ‘rubbles’ and grief and infant death. Palestine has shown us, there is more that unites us than our leaders who divide us and it is eternal and unyielding. Take heart Mr Leunig, we do. Link X
Link @L1I9N6K4 from Wiradjuri
In response to: The Wrong Planet
Shame on Labor
April 12, 2024
This is especially relevant given the role of Dr H. V. Evatt as both a Labor leader and UN president. One has to wonder what this eminent figure in both Australian and world history would think if he were alive to witness the flaccid and gutless response, by the current federal ALP administration, to war crimes currently being perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Indeed, is there any such thing as an independent Australian position? A position that acknowledges that deliberate targeting of women, children, the vulnerable in medical care, the elderly, NGOs, and...
Robert Harwood from West Hobart
In response to: Australia's disgraceful diversion of responsibility over Gaza war crimes
Infinite growth equals infinite stupidity
April 12, 2024
Imagine a goldfish bowl with one fish in it. Along comes an economist with a theory that the bowl can hold an infinite number of fish provided it is managed correctly. The aquarium manager embraces this concept with glee and greed because more fish means more money and worldly goods. A filtration system is installed and the citizens hail the wonders of science. Four fish now live comfortably in a space that previously only housed one. The tank is cleaned out daily, the fish are fed a special diet of high nutrient but non-polluting food, an aeration...
Paul Simpson from Brocklesby
In response to: The guiding criminal lie in economics
Albanese and killing of Zomi Frankcom
April 12, 2024
On face value, it is appalling that it takes the death of an Australian to prompt Albanese and Wong to stand up to Israel when the massacre of 32000 Palestinians fails to do so. Perhaps however, Albanese is cognisant of similarities between two countries in that they both have settler colonial origins. Both have histories of oppressing and trying to wipe out the original inhabitants. The referendum on the indigenous voice just one week after the Hamas attack, saw to this country’s shame, 60% of Australians rebuff the opportunity to accept what was done to First Nations people...
Michael Hassett from Blackburn
In response to: For Albanese, one Australian life matters more than 32,000 dead Palestinians
One State: The Only Future for Palestine - Israel
April 12, 2024
Indeed, given that Zionism has always seen the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland as a key objective, one could say that the two state solution has always been a fraud. Kanck’s suggestion of a one state solution has merit and is, as she has said, the only way out of this intolerable mess. Readers of P&I who would like to explore this idea could do no better than to pick up a copy of Ghada Karmi’s “One State: The Only Democratic Solution for Palestine – Israel” published in 2023 by Pluto Press. Born in Jerusalem in 1939, Karmi...
Paul Vellacott from Ipswich, Qld
In response to: The One State Solution
First they came for Palestine
April 12, 2024
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. —Martin Niemöller First they came for the mosques and I did not speak out because I am a christian
Bob Pearce from Adelaide South Australia
In response to: The one state solution
The fragility of existence
April 12, 2024
Peter Sainsbury (Environment: Australia publishes its first Climate Risk Assessment, 7/4) once again challenges us to look climate change in the face. Australia is vulnerable in many ways, not least to high temperatures and heat waves. According to the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience reports In Australia, “heatwaves are more deadly than any other natural hazard and predicted to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change”. The Lancet medical journal last year reported that heat-related illnesses and deaths “are rising as the world warms, and forecasts “a 370% surge in yearly heat deaths by mid-century if...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Environment: Australia publishes its first climate risk assessment
Arrogance and Absolute Lies
April 12, 2024
It has been obvious from the start of this whole dreadful mess that the Israeli government and the IDF have lied blatantly and with contemptuous arrogance for the intelligence of the rest of the world. I have been copied in to communiques from some senior ex-IDF personnel and other highly-ranked Israelis that shows clearly that these lies are also being perpetrated by Netanyahu and the IDF top command on to its populace via manipulation / cenorship / physical force and even murder of media resources. Over many years, the world agonised about whether the average German citizen truly realised...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Shattered wards, ill-timed hernias, and the moral bankruptcy of a nation
Population - an insidious problem
April 5, 2024
Michael Keating’s perfunctory dismissal of population growth not having any bearing on housing is incorrect. Overpopulation is an insidious problem, it’s the main driver of war, climate change, famine, homelessness, &c. The global population of over 8 billion people is consuming more than 1.8 times the resources of the planet. While the Australian landmass may seem vast to many, the resource that constrains population growth among others is water. Despite Australia’s wet summer, Australians are using more water than can be replenished as ground water supplies slowly diminish. The transition to a fully renewable energy regime will take...
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Housing affordability and equality: part 2
Shameful oil and gas realities
April 5, 2024
In an era of accelerating global heating it is vital to shine a light on the oil and gas industry (“Environment: Oil and gas making massive profits now but stormy waters ahead”, Pearls and Irritations, 17/3). Despite the International Energy Agency clearly stating back in 2021 that there is no need for any new investment in fossil fuels, gas and oil production is still expanding. That energy export companies who produce oil and gas contribute just one per cent of global clean energy investment shows where the priorities of these companies remain. Although both dire climate predictions and economics point...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Environment: Oil and gas making massive profits now but stormy waters ahead
Deaths in Gaza and Ukraine
April 5, 2024
Peter Rodgers writes in the above article that the UN states 10,582 Ukrainian civilians were killed in the two-year period to February 2024, while barely six months into the Gaza war 31,000 plus Palestinians have died at the hands of the IDF (which includes a disputed number of Hamas fighters). The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is horrific, but this comparison is incorrect and diminishes the impact of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. The U.N. has stated several times that its figure of verified deaths is just the “tip of the iceberg” because Russia has not allowed...
Jon Richardson from Canberra
In response to: Australia must recall its ambassador to Israel and condemn the horror of Gaza
Unity of Life
April 2, 2024
We will not find God and transcendence in a cynically consumerist and secularist world, and not in the insipid, self-engrossed church. When Stan clearly relates First Nations beliefs with Christianity and he speaks about meeting hatred with love, he is speaking the truth. “My people can teach the world to love Don’t mistake our love for weakness, it is our strength.” In Christ we are called to love each other, there is no colour, sex, slavery, all Christians are equal parts of the body of Christ in the world. If Christians are alive to God, they will remember why we...
Frederic Richter from Townsville, Queensland
In response to: Stan Grant on Good Friday, Easter, and God’s absence in our suffering world
Can Tanya Plibersek give us a sustainable future?
April 2, 2024
First Nations peoples nurtured their environment as it nurtured them. Colonists came to exploit a new resource, giving little thought to sustainability. Colonialism brought capitalism in its wake, depleting our resources of land and sea through whaling, mining and farming. This attitude may have moderated in recent times, but the capitalist compulsion still holds sway. Our environment has been degraded to the point where many species risk extinction, and we emit far more carbon than our environment can absorb. Graeme Samuel’s report describes clearly the dangerous position this leaves us in. David Shearman highlights that we are living with...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: EPBC Act reform must offer a sustainable future based on science
Security Council needs to back up its resolution
March 28, 2024
The Security Council has the powers under Article 42 of the UN Charter to ask countries to contribute to an armed force to enforce the ceasefire. It should use it if there is not prompt compliance with the resolution by both Israel and Hamas.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Moral cowardice hinders pleas for a Common Humanity in Gaza
Tony Abbott and news corp
March 28, 2024
A well needed reminder. Tony Abbott nominated to Fox Corporation board of directors. (SMH 6 months ago). We need to remind Australian readers of this enormous bias and travesty of our “free press”
Carl Hallstrom from Blue mts nsw
In response to: Tony Abbott nominated to Fox Corporation board of directors
So Ashamed
March 28, 2024
We are not a country of a fair go as long as our government refuses to think for itself about the situation in Gaza and Palestine as a whole. There is no possible acceptable rationale for the settlements in the West Bank or for the horrifying wholesale suffering inflicted on Gaza in the name of 'self defence'.
Penny Lee from Western Australia
In response to: A terrorist state and a declining US empire wage genocide
U.S. ENTRAPMENT OF AUSTRALIA
March 28, 2024
We still see ourselves as an appendage of the Anglosphere entrapped in South East Asia with Asians, especially the Chinese, coveting our Continent. We are still obsessed with the fear of encroaching Yellow Peril-itis. The response to this irrational view of ourselves and of our neighbours has led our leaders to hysterically cling to; initially Great Britain, which as the fall of Singapore exposed was not Great anymore, to then equally hysterically, to the apron strings of the U.S. Our blinkered leaders on both sides of politics continue by surrendering our sovereignty to the Americans, in pursuit of America's...
JON JOVANOVIC from HOBART
In response to: Australia entrapped in war against China for America
Why does my tax fund discrimination?
March 26, 2024
The always worth reading Jack Waterford says: 'In the modern era, schools and other church social services are heavily funded by the state. [...] But when ... they take the government dollar (and could not continue without it) they have less right to complain if the state insists that they conform to the ordinary laws of the nation.' It isn't just the government's dollar, it's all taxpayers' dollars, my dollar! I object enormously to the tax I pay funding discrimination based on some people's 'beliefs' - well, based on anything but especially unsubstantiated 'beliefs'. I believe in the tooth...
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point, Sydney
In response to: We now need, it seems, a Voice for bigots
We can see the future, and it's bleak.
March 22, 2024
Julian Cribb joins the dots of the challenges that humanity is facing. While there are many threats to life on our over-burdened, under-protected planet, they could each be managed by an intelligent species prepared to see and accept the reality that each presents. As Cribb notes, this capacity is being forever undermined by those with the wealth and power to tell the people that these claims of risk are exaggerated or wrong; that everyone should just continue either to live as they like to now, or at most make modest changes to their lifestyles as if any gesture of...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: The next World War has started
The Australian threat analysis may be faulty
March 22, 2024
Australia seems to be perceiving a threat to its territorial integrity but without any major strategic threat to itself from any of the neighbours. Does Australia have any unsolvable threat such as territorial claims from any of its neighbours or regional countries? There are no evidence of any such dispute. Yes, there are a few issues relating to trade, mostly initiated by Australia. Consequently, China had blocked import some of Australian agricultural products. Australia for some unknown reasons has entered the US-China competition in the Solomon Islands and the other Pacific islands. Australia siding with US would...
Venkataraman Mahalingam from NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh India.
In response to: It’s a huge policy failure that Australia can’t defend itself
Please, please, please ...
March 22, 2024
Please, please, please let us exit from AUKUS as soon as possible. I don't know a single person who thinks it's a good idea or even believes it could ever happen. I anticipate a massive vote for Independents in the next election.
Penny Lee from Western Australia
In response to: “I told you so”: No Aussie subs in 2030s, total reliance on the Yanks
Understanding (some/most) Jewish people
March 22, 2024
The Jewish film Israelism shows how Jewish children in the US are educated to see Israel as the enemy. They are given talking points to answer criticisms of Israel but no history to give them understanding. This film shows some young Jewish people who, after visiting Israel, sometimes serving in the IDF, began to unravel when what they learned didn't match the reality they saw and experienced. Some referred to it as being lied to. They now support Palestinians. Highly recommended for all non-Jewish people, especially those who support Palestine, to enhance understanding of the Jewish mind-set when it...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn, VIC
In response to: When good people do bad things Roslyn Ross Mar 17, 2024
Is Susan Abulhawa's story a fair assessment?
March 22, 2024
I have long believed that the treatment of the Palestinian People has been unfair, frankly outrageous. So I am naturally someone who would be sympathetic to the opinions in Ms Abulhawa's article. Given its headline, I expected it to be partisan and that's OK provided it's based in facts and reasonable interpretations of what is happening. Of course Ms Abulhawa, who has friends and relatives in Gaza, is disgusted by what is being done there by the Israel Defence Force. But as I read the article, I began to wonder about the author, and there is plenty to be...
Stephen Morey from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
In response to: History will record that Israel committed a holocaust
Fear and Wrongdoing
March 22, 2024
Mother was a true thinker and always challenged the status quo. I had been musing on awful events in the world and what was behind them. She thought for a moment and then responded with one word. Fear. This struck a chord for me. Since then her insight has proven true. Fear is what makes good people do bad things. Knowing this often helps me focus not on the manifestation but the context of unacceptable behavior. As the Tao tells us, Ever desireless, one can see the mystery, ever desiring, one sees the manifestations. Our reaction to wrongdoing comes...
Bryn Watkins from York WA
In response to: When Good People Do Bad Things
Old economist wakes up - better late than never
March 22, 2024
Well, bugger me, who would ever have thought that fluffy irrelevant concepts such as power, ethics, equity, human wellbeing, relationships, communities, social justice, long term consequences, contingency & multiple and multidirectional causality & different perspectives (systems thinking), and (surely not, this really is going too far) unions and worker-power might be important?? Some idiot will soon be promoting the idea that a sprinkling of ‘humanity’ might not go amiss. Marx was an economist who was extremely well read in philosophy, history and sociology. Just saying, Angus. Here’s an interesting exam question: 'Individuals and communities have additional obligations to...
Peter Sainsbury from Darling Point
In response to: Questioning one’s views as circumstances evolve can be a good thing
Reflections on P&I
March 22, 2024
P&I is a splendid offering, and we should all pay tribute to the leadership of John Menadue and his editorial team. I have rarely stepped back from an article and not learnt something new. I find Ian McAuley's weekly wrap is an excellent snapshot of recent past events and prescient about future events (is that tautology?) - thoughtful and wide-ranging. Many thanks to you all and your contributors Kind Regards Erik
Erik Kulakauskas from Port MacQuarie
In response to: How to fix capitalism in Australia – Weekly Roundup
Albanese Must Lead Boldly
March 18, 2024
Ian Dunlop urges a green economy and reconsideration of a carbon price and asks PM to back them. Dunlop summarises his three main reasons: *the globe's increasing heat; *the consequent unliveable future; *Australia's first-ever climate-risk assessment reveals extreme conditions of lack of water and food et al. Dunlop concludes by directly asking, PM, do you have the vision and courage to inform the community about climate risk? If Albanese does, he must lead Australia boldly and fast with both policies.
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: What will it really take to become a Renewable Energy Superpower?
HEU: ANCIENT WISDOM, MODERN LESSONS
March 18, 2024
On 15 March Pearls and Irritations published an article by Sue Wareham entitled “AUKUS: risks, risks and more risks”. The proposed AUKUS submarines, she declares, “undermine efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons because they will be powered by weapons grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU), which is nuclear bomb fuel.” HEU: Highly Enriched Uranium. Three letters casually typed into scientific or military reports anywhere in the world these days. But in fact the acronym would gain much valuable significance from one quick addition: a simple exclamation mark. “HEU!” Latin literature records that many a Roman gasped...
Frances Letters from Australia
In response to: AUKUS: risks, risks and more risks
We must pay for pollution
March 15, 2024
Peter Sainsbury writes that “the overall reduction in CO2 emissions after the introduction of a carbon pricing scheme is around 0-2 per cent per year” (“Environment: Putting a price on carbon: is it worth all the trouble?” Pearls and Irritations, 3/3). Given the long-standing support for a price on carbon as a solution to climate pollution, this is deeply troubling. Even more so when we acknowledge that the global north now needs to reduce emissions by 11 per cent per year between now and 2030 to even have a 50 per cent chance of holding warming to 1.5 degrees....
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Environment: Putting a price on carbon: is it worth all the trouble?
MH370 - ex airline pilot agrees with your story
March 15, 2024
I agree with your theory about this matter. If I was to speculate about the reason this theory has been mostly ignored by most media and politicians, I suggest that airlines and politicians would like to convince the flying public that such deliberate action by a pilot is impossible, however ever since 9/11 flight deck doors have been made impregnable and locked, except for crew leaving the flight deck for breaks (including using toilet), passenger or crew liaison, or entry to the flight deck by cabin crew providing food and drink or visiting the pilots to discuss operational matters (such...
Paul Simpson from Brocklesby NSW
In response to: Hiding in plain sight – Malaysian Airlines flight 370
Alcohol banned in parliaments
March 15, 2024
Alcohol availability in Parliament House Canberra is a throwback to one hundred years ago when Parliament House was a destination in this vast country for those who came from further afield. With Commonwealth Federation in 1901, parliamentarians travelled to Melbourne then Canberra after 1926, resided in hotels and conferred at the workplace for obvious reasons of distance. Home away from home required a flow of alcohol and catering to make life more comfortable. Parliament House in Canberra was no doubt modelled on gentlemen’s clubs e.g. Melbourne Club - with bar service - which suited the mode of...
Dorothy Button from St Kilda West
In response to: POLITICIANS AT EVERY LEVEL NEED TO LOSE THEIR BOOZE
Danger using Pine Gap in Negotiations with the US
March 15, 2024
Recent revelations of the role the CIA played in the dismissal of Whitlam after he threatened to close Pine Gap will have dampened Labour's willingness to use it to negotiate a better deal with the US over the ANZUZ treaty. Albanese, Marles, and Wong have clearly shown their complete lack of interest in rocking the boat and are demonstrating their awareness and fear of the ruthlessness of the US when it comes to real threats to their security apparatus. The reality is the Coalition and the right wing press would have an absolute field day if Labour had the...
Robert Galland from Parkesbourne
In response to: Penny in Thunderland: Through the lurking glass
The Power of the Dog
March 15, 2024
Clearly what has been underestimated in Albanese’s case is the power of the dog. This error in judgment at the ballot box is now coming back to bite us all, while Albanese is still riding high, minting property sales and making matrimony. His true character and that of his party is now emerging through their actions out of the camouflage of their words and social media slinging. Sadly unless you can say this by pointing at words on a screen while dancing on TikTok, or produce a mocking meme then a large portion of voters will never...
A Reader from Sydney
In response to: Underestimating Albanese
Will AUKUS Outlast Trump
March 15, 2024
And pure politics at that. Morrison wanted a khaki election. He was unhappy with the French sub-deal and he needed the splash to go along with Dutton's anti-China rhetoric as Minister for Defence. Aukus was a solution with such a long time frame that no one could ever predict it would actually eventuate, nor its ultimate cost. Boris Johnson needed to rejuvenate his defence shipyards. Biden wanted a long-term moderate approach to China and to reinvigorate those inefficient sub- yards on the US East Coast. It was Biden who asked Morrison if he had a bipartisan arrangement and...
Bill Brown from HOLT
In response to: How did Australia get seduced by AUKUS?
Australia responsible for the bleaching of its own reef
March 15, 2024
In 2023, the hottest year since records began, the level of heat stress and mortality in northern hemisphere reefs was so severe that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was forced to update its Global Alert System to Alert Level 5 (after 20 Degree Heating Weeks) signifying a risk of near complete mortality (more than 80 per cent of corals). Shockingly, reefs in Florida Keys experienced 22 Degree Heating Weeks. By 5 March 2024, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef had experienced 14 Degree Heating Weeks and was approaching Alert Level 4. Hardly surprising given that in February 2024, the...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Top science body warns of worst coral bleaching event in history
Hear me Roar
March 15, 2024
The Women's Politics Conference was a forerunner to many other women's initiatives over the next four or so decades. Margaret Whitlam fiercely defended her husband's commitment to women's equality at the Conference. She also defended the male team running the show. When asked why remote community Indigenous women were not invited and why no childminding arrangements were made for children of women invited to the conference, she stated that the budget for the conference didn't stretch to paying for rural and remote women living great distances from the capital cities to travel. She said when she was young, she...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: The 8th of March is our Women’s Day
The Teals Have Revived Representative Parliament
March 8, 2024
Caroline Fitzwarryne predicts the end of party politics now that the community-based Teals have displaced senior politicians who had compromised their own integrity to support bad policy in the name of party solidarity. Governments express frustration at having to work with minor parties or independent MPs. In doing so they forget that it is the parliament as a whole that represents the will of the people. The Lower and Upper Houses each present a reflection of the people's wishes. If the governing party lacks sufficient members in either House to govern in its own right it must work...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: The end of party politics