Letters to the Editor
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
THE DEPUTY SHERRIF SYNDROME
March 8, 2024
Unfortunately for Australia, as the hegemony of our great and powerful friend and ally abates some unpalatable choices will need to be faced. Do we continue to look upon our great and powerful friend with closed eyes as our sovereignty is compromised or do we adopt the Keatingesque approach and put our national interest above everything else? It is in our national interest to be seen as a sovereign nation engaging with Asia and developing mutually beneficial relations with particular emphasis on trade. At the same time ensuring that friendly relations are maintained between the two principal powers...
Jon Jovanovic from Hobart
In response to: Traitors in our midst: Australia’s foreign interference laws are a political ruse
Those nuclear submarines
March 8, 2024
Roughly, the Virginia Class Submarines appear to have a cruise depth of about 50m. This gives them a maximum of 10m clearance across the Gulf of Carpentaria and Bass Strait. The Gulf also has a tidal range of 3m so on a bad day, the clearance would be 7m. The platform and barrier reefs also need to be factored in. There are also shallow waters between Broome and Darwin as well as those associated with the Great Barrier Reef. So, unless these submarines are fitted with wheels, they are useless for patrolling around Australia. The conclusion must be that they...
John Davies from Mullumbimby NSW 2482
In response to: Hugh White dismantles the AUKUS project By Nick Deane
Well timed article
March 8, 2024
It is about time journalists starting looking at our allies and their actions with some honesty. It seems that it is a taboo topic and yet we, as a nation, should not just accept and support everything that the US, in particular, does. Even friends should be able to call each other out when one party does the wrong things. Over time, we should assess whether both parties still share the same fundamental values or whether we have diverged in what we believe in.
Christine Rogers from Newcastle NSW
In response to: Traitors in our midst: Australia’s foreign interference laws are a political ruse
Tensions in a deeply economically linked world
March 8, 2024
The world is confronting a time of radically increased tensions between nations, and corporations, that supply essential commodities to each other. I cannot think of any period in human history where military tensions existed between parties that were economically dependent on each other. For most of human history, trade was in exotica - spices, valued metals, fish sauce from the Sea of Galilee to Rome. Desirable items, but not essential. Even the trade in lamb from Australia and New Zealand to England was non-essential - if you don't have a lamb roast on Sunday in Leicester, you still eat...
Glenn Tamblyn from Eganstown
In response to: Australian defence: from self-reliance to subsidising US war with China
Paul Heywood-Smith issues a clear call
March 8, 2024
The 10,000 strong UNIFIL force needs to be greatly augmented so a part of it is deployed along the Israel-Gaza border. A purely Israeli security force there is not really an option. Over 44 years UNIFIL work on the Israel-Lebanon border has not been perfect, but 70 countries have contributed peacekeepers to it including Iran, China, and Russia (48 currently), 11 countries have led it, and in addition there is a Maritime Security Force, which Brazil commanded for 9 of its years, and 2000 Bangladeshi sailors, for example, have served in. So clearly UNIFIL enjoys a wide degree of...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Misrepresenting the ICJ and muzzling our press - the Empire strikes back
Joe had the power to prevent it
March 5, 2024
Peter O’Keeffe says of the pogrom in Gaza: “Because it could cease immediately with a decision by one man.” Unfortunately that decision lies, and has since October lain, with one man in the US who has proved by his decisions to be very cruel. And we held such high hopes for him when he took office.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Horror in Gaza and the shallowness of Western civilisation
Climate action: way too little, way too late
March 1, 2024
‘Way too little way too late’: Gregory Andrews’ words capture the essence of the climate action that we’ve seen from successive governments. This Labor government plays to both sides - assuring us, through Chris Bowen, that they are determined to do all that they can while simultaneously, through Madelaine King, waving through a steady stream of new, sometimes huge, fossil fuel projects to placate the fossil fuel industry. The climate science has been clear for many years. Forecasts made on the basis of that science have proved to be conservative: change is coming faster, and to a greater extent, than...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Heatwaves and blackouts: Australia’s climate crisis is now
Lithium free ev batteries now in production
March 1, 2024
Daniel Bleakley’s article with the catchy title “Electric vehicles will crush fossil cars on price” lived up to expectations. The negativity coming from the electrification naysayers and those with vested interests has been full on since the announcement that Australia was finally getting fuel efficiency standards. However, while the main reason Bleakley gave for the projected reduction in EV prices was falling battery prices due to the decreasing price of lithium, I was surprised the safer, cheaper, cleaner sodium-ion batteries were not mentioned. Unlike lithium, sodium is low cost and available virtually anywhere on the planet. Two Chinese car makers...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Electric vehicles will crush fossil cars on price as lithium and battery prices
Missing in Action: Aaron Bushnell
March 1, 2024
I searched the ABC news website for Aaron Bushnell and found nothing. So I left feedback asking why this important story has not been covered. But immediately realised it's very obvious why the ABC hasn't covered this story. It's the same reason why Ms Latouf was summarily dismissed. The ABC is nothing but propaganda and no doubt feeling a little bit once burnt, twice shy. Thank you to Caitlin for publicising Mr Bushnell's protest. A protest act like self-immolation requires it to be seen. Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation in 1963 was widely publicised, the photo of it is now...
Stephen McLellan from Brisbane
In response to: Immolation: Aaron Bushnell burned himself alive to make you turn your eyes to Gaza
US Military advisors
March 1, 2024
Dr. Broinowkski’s article is timely and deserves wide distribution. But considering the number of retired US senior officers working within the Australian Defence force as consultants is it any wonder that Australian looks ever to the US in matters of defence. They include eagerness to follow the US in its military blunders, ensuring defence purchases work with the US military and of course supporting the US military-industrial complex by buying planes, tanks and submarines. I would like to see Dr. Broinowski’s analysis of the infiltration of US military into Australia’s military.
Melvyn Dickson from Malabar
In response to: Fractured consensus, fabricated facts and the truth of Western wars
Playing in the street
March 1, 2024
I spent my preschool years playing on the street in the quiet Sydney suburb of Rodd Point, where there were lots of women and children and only a few men, it being 1940's wartime. The following is from a self-published book Remembering Rodd Point: 'Our common playground was the road. There were no cars; all the fuel was needed for the war effort. Our road was covered in river stones and the only vehicles that trundled along it were the milk and bread carts. A favourite game we preschoolers played, always with an unwelcome interruption, was Throwing Stones....
Janet Grevillea from NSW
In response to: Street play: A thing of the past?
Naval expansion is expensive and unnecessary
March 1, 2024
As Gregory’s article indicates, the inclusion on our warships of larger missiles capable of travelling further shows offensive rather than defensive intent. Additionally, the Hunter class warships will involve construction by BAE corporation, which has a long and dubious global reputation of corruption and bribery. The ‘optionally-crewed’ nature of some ships relies on unproven technology and may add to the history of delayed defence projects in Australia. The naval expansion’s AUD$11.1bn cost is massive at a time of desperate need for social housing, cost-of-living relief and climate mitigation. For that money, far more people could be employed in education,...
Dr Marty Branagan from Peace Studies, UNE, Armidale NSW
In response to: Enhanced lethality but no better security: New navy gears up for war
What si truth
February 23, 2024
I have been haunted by the question: what can we trust these days. AI and social media and this pic highlight the issue. I was once a photo hobbyist and I can imagine it would not be too difficult to combine two pics into this one. Time mag once moved pyramids on its cover and created a controversy. A recent article and video of actual AI creations (in this P&I?) hugely expands the confusion. As do conspiracy theorising and alternate possibilities and plural truths argued in university halls. I cling to institutions and processes that I have trusted...
Eric Pozza from ACT
In response to: Today, every Palestinian is a target for death, extermination and genocide
The moving goalposts of COP
February 23, 2024
Jeremy Webb’s “The COP and climate change: a spent force” (21/2) conjures up that sporting metaphor of moving goalposts. With every Conference of the Parties (COP), the “net zero by 2050” target recedes. Every resolution brings a watering-down of goals. Every year the warnings from the UN Secretary General become more alarming. But COP, co-opted by fossil fuel interests, waters down the urgency rather than raises it. Quoting Professor Howden, Webb makes clear this nexus between COP and the fossil fuel lobby: resolutions are replete with weasel words such as “calls on”, “instructs”, “requests”, “transitioning away”, “orderly and equitable...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: The COP and climate change: a spent force
Further to Brian Toohey’s letter on the 1975 coup
February 23, 2024
Brian Toohey draws our attention to the US dimension of the November 1975 coup overthrowing the elected federal government. Jenny Hocking has brilliantly uncovered in the Palace Letters the role in the coup of the then Queen and then Governor-General. It is of interest that a later Attorney-General, Gareth Evans, showed an apparent lack of interest in uncovering the US dimension. In a 29 year old letter to me, Justin Brown, replying for the A-G, approved the sentence of 25 years gaol of the US whistleblower Christopher Boyce, who in his role at TRW had seen evidence...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Untruths, the CIA and Whitlam’s dismissal
Drifting off course
February 23, 2024
One of the long term problems of blogs such as P&I, and here I have in mind such outlets as Crikey and New Matilda, is they inevitably descend into expressions of in house idiosyncrasy. I have been reading P&I for much of the past decade, and have long recommended your coverage of geopolitical analysis. More recently, though you have become more wide ranging in what you cover, and in the process you have become somewhat unhinged. In today's edition, Stella Assange's comment about Navalny's death, McQueen's evocation of Taylor Swift, O'Keefe's analysis of the Israel/Gaza situation, and Michael Keating's...
malcolm harrison from Blackheath
In response to: ‘Devastating’: wife of imprisoned journalist Julian Assange mourns death of Alexei Navalny
Getting the message through
February 23, 2024
Convincing voters that we have a problem that needs a solution is difficult (Shock as warming accelerates, 1.5°C is breached faster than forecast, 17/2). The facts may be smack-in-the-face obvious to many people but unfortunately there exists a large body of people who are swayed by conservative writers in the Murdoch papers and the ever negative Coalition. Even if they think there is a problem they are easily swayed by uncosted and unfunded pie-in-the-sky solutions like nuclear and carbon capture. Those beyond that point to the odd cold and wet day as irrefutable evidence that “climate change is...
Ross Hudson from Mount Martha, Vic
In response to: Shock as warming accelerates, 1.5°C is breached faster than forecast
One cannot be an illegal occupier of his own land: Response Letter
February 22, 2024
Thank you for reaching out to me and giving me the opportunity to send a response to this most lopsided factually incorrect article based on questionable legal opinions and obviously written by a person(s) with an extreme left wing agenda and lacking knowledge on International law, and Jewish Zionist history or heritage. It is the typical warped narrative of those trying to besmirch the State of Israel and treat the Jews as foreigners or illegal settlers on their own land. We are the Jewish People and we are the rightful heirs of the G-d given land of Israel and we...
Daniel Luria from Israel
In response to: Stop Australian charitable donations to the Settler Movement in the Occupied Territories
The article headed "Israeli female soldiers celebrate the death of 12,300 children" is an appalling misrepresentation
February 22, 2024
The article headed Israeli female soldiers celebrate the death of 12,300 children is an appalling misrepresentation of the image presented. All the image shows is a group of female soldiers, with one of the group taking a selfie of the group. The carnage in Gaza, and the deaths of 30,000 militants, civilians and children is horrific. The need for a ceasefire is beyond question, but cheap shots like this one have no place in a serious discussion. Does anyone who thinks about this issue really see Israel as the sole responsible party? Is Hamas absolved of...
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Israeli female soldiers celebrate the death of 12,300 children
We need climate action sooner than a treaty
February 16, 2024
I can admire Julian Cribb’s optimism that an Earth Systems Treaty might still save a habitable environment, but I struggle to share it. As Cribb observes, “It is clear the world’s governments have neither the skills, the brains nor the moral integrity to work their way out of such a crisis – and remain obedient to their fossil fuel overlords.” Material self-interest carries huge social inertia in the face of the need for major change. The measured steps we rejected thirty years ago are now much bigger and steeper. We need major changes, globally implemented, urgently. Democracy,...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: Climate chaos: world overheats while Europe faces a new Ice Age
Reading and Public Schools: Parents have a role too
February 16, 2024
Originally I am from Switzerland. Recently I went on the website of the School I went to. Among instructions to the parents is one particular item: Reading is also expected to be done at home. The parents must make time and read with their child/children to reinforce what they had learnt in school. The school system is pressuring the parents. If we would do that here in Australia our kids would be better in reading also. Schools could ask retired people who have a good education background to come to school and to voluntary reading with kids....
Therese Saladin-Davies from NSW
In response to: Teacher bashing: Grattan joins the chorus
HAMAS has the blood of Palestinians and Israelis on its hands
February 16, 2024
HAMAS prepared for October 7th 2023 very carefully. They prepared a network of tunnels throughout Gaza and perhaps beyond. Some of those tunnels were connected to hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. They stockpiled weapons and continued firing missiles into Israel. HAMAS must have known full well that the slaughter of 1400 Israeli citizens and the taking of 220 hostages would result in severe military action against them. They could have fled to neighbouring countries and spared the people of Gaza the pain, destruction and death that was bound to come, but they chose to fight in the hope that...
Alan CLARKE from BEACON HILL
In response to: Silencing Francesca Albanese
How did we get so deeply in to the Zionist thrall?
February 16, 2024
Margaret Reynolds concise article clearly outlines our politician's inability to rise above the tribalism of party politics, but they also seem frozen in the headlights of a force more powerful than human decency. We need to know why. Social media responses to Albanese, Wong and Marles' intransigence over the Palestinian genocide have been vitriolic (when Meta allows). The comments have been scathing about Labor's callous indifference to the animalistic excesses of Netanyahu and his military force. We see a Labor Government and the likes of Dreyfus and Wong struck dumb when witnessing the obvious lies, obfuscation and determined...
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: The Australian Parliament fails to uphold international law preventing genocide
Cost of killing Gazan Palestinians
February 16, 2024
The two recent arms sales to Israel based on Presidential not Congressional authority, knowing that Israel was razing large parts of Gaza, amounted to USD 263.5 million. So with nearly 28000 Palestinians killed, that is just on $9000 per life lost. Leaving aside for a minute dead adult Palestinians of childbearing age, the 11500 Palestinian children killed means that maybe 34000 children will never be born to them. It is a totally disproportionate action by Israel, even though it was severely provoked, and an action that Joe Biden seems only now to be making feeble attempts to ameliorate, given US...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Deflect, distort, deny
The beginning of a climate change solution
February 16, 2024
Obviously Jonathan Page is furious with fossil fuel leaders who still continue pushing their product, given that lots of millions of human deaths will have resulted from FFC activity. He outlines three possible actions in Australia: charge them based on our existing law against harming society; charging Fossil Fuel Companies; or charging FFC executives. Interestingly, six years ago far-sighted climate scientist Joelle Gergis referred in her book to climate change as an intergenerational crime against humanity (Sunburnt Country, 2018, p. 226). My own family's life has also been harmed in that son Lachlan GP lost everything- patients, friends,...
Barbara J Fraser Phd from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Judgment Day: Final retribution for the ecocidal psychopaths
US Military aggression
February 16, 2024
So glad you didn't forget the US war on Grenada. Such a magnificent win against a truly formidable foe. Indeed it is their only win since WWII. Last result, a loss to some theological students in Afghanistan.
John Queripel from Newcastle
In response to: Genocidal Wars dominate US history
Tradies and weekends are safe
February 16, 2024
Credit to the Labor government for moving forward with fuel-efficiency standards. The Coalition considered it but squibbed after pressure from the car industry. As John Quiggin concludes, “The best time to introduce the policy was ten or more years ago. But the second-best time is now.” As Quiggin notes, a key aspect of the policy is that the national emissions limit does “not apply to individual cars”, but rather applies to the mix of vehicles sold. This means that the both the current and low-emissions versions of Australia’s most popular car, the petrol/diesel Ford Ranger ute, can still...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Labor’s fuel-efficiency standards may settle the ute dispute – but there are still hazards
The American Disease
February 14, 2024
In 'What's Ruining America?' columnist David Brooks is reported as blaming the country's sickness and internal division on chicken littles spreading a national contagion of pessimism. He could hardly be more off-beam. What is ruining America is the age-old condition known as imperial over-reach. A state where a country's overinflated idea of itself becomes increasingly detached from reality, leading many to doubt and even despair. America was founded upon the inalienable right of one human to pillage and enslave another, concreted in by a toxic admixture of European mercantilism and religious fundamentalism: the faith that god rewards the most...
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: What’s ruining America?
We must reclaim the common good
February 9, 2024
Tony Ward reports how social trust has deteriorated over the past 30 years in developed countries, and how growing inequality has been a key factor in this decline. A key contributor to that growing inequality has been the enthusiastic adoption by the political right of the neoliberal dogma. As Jon Tons recently observed (https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/the-social-contract-and-the-voice/) this dogma decrees “that it is both morally wrong and technically unnecessary for governments to intervene to remediate inequalities”. This philosophy encourages individualism at the expense of community. The key to social trust is, firstly, a faith in one’s fellows, and secondly an appreciation of the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Damaging social cohesion
Engaging with climate solution
February 9, 2024
David Spratt and Ian Dunlop write with authority on the devastating global heating trajectory. The science regarding the future before us if we don’t change course is clear. With due respect to the clever and dedicated scientists, many believe that global heating has now become a communications problem. Solutions are possible, but overwhelmingly humanity, particularly leaders, chooses to place our collective heads in the sand. Doomsday predictions do not entice us to action. I therefore encourage Pearls and Irritations to follow up the excellent “towards and unliveable planet” series with articles conveying the solutions. Action is the antidote to...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Towards an unliveable planet: Climate’s 2023 annus horribilis
Israel in contempt of ICJ orders
February 9, 2024
In contested proceedings, a Court may make interim orders before the final determination to prevent irreparable harm. Those orders have full force and effect whatever the ultimate decision. Breach of those orders is contempt of court. The ICJ made a number of interim orders one of which was that Israel must take immediate and effective steps to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. In response, Israel, almost immediately, called for the Defunding of the UNRWA relying on its allegations against the 12 UNRWA employees. Many western nations including the United States and Australia have...
John Curr from Brisbane
In response to: Are Australian government ministers complicit in genocide?
Rusted-on Labor voters thought they'd elected one.
February 9, 2024
Peter Henning's article is 'spot on'. . . summarising succinctly the ugly exposure of our Government's lack of moral compass. Fears of climate change and a growing awareness of the shabby nature of Scott Morrison et al's business acumen (or lack thereof) meant this Government was partially elected to address these concerns. Imagine the shock when : * Tanya Plibersek not only failed to close existing coal mines but approved the opening of new ones. * Anthony Albanese not only allowed Dutton/Morrison's Aukus deal to continue, but encouraged Richard Marles' backslapping and lockstepping with the American...
Glenda Jones from Carlton, Victoria
In response to: Stripped bare: The Albanese government’s support for genocide
Superb expose of US instigation of Pakistan coup
February 9, 2024
Jeffrey Sachs here excels in quietly recounting the dreadful history of officially denied but known to everybody US interference in Pakistan politics. Bluntly the US govt told the popular leader Imran Khan “We don’t allow your country to be neutral”. The US- compliant army and police then removed him and worse has followed since with his 10 year jail sentence for espionage, for revealing the evidence of US interference as the cause of his removal. What a dreadful warning to Australia. If we are ever to escape the deadly US embrace it will have to be by...
Tony Kevin from Canberra ACT
In response to: The US toppling of Imran Khan
Pursuing the real criminals
February 9, 2024
Thanks to Jack Waterford for writing and to John Menadue for publishing these quotations from the ACT Court of Appeal: “The decision to commence a criminal prosecution is an opaque process at the best of times”. “The open court principle stands as a bulwark against the possibility of political prosecutions by allowing public scrutiny and assessment of the actions of the respondent and the Attorney-General by reference to the evidence adduced in a criminal trial.” It took the ill-conceived persecution of Bernard Collaery to flush out this long-overdue show of spine from the justice arm of government....
Glen Davis from NSW
In response to: Oppressive secrecy needs more dashes of cold water yet
Ceasefire essential, but both side must commit to end hostilities
February 5, 2024
I think it's appropriate that the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. But a ceasefire without the release of hostages or a plan for ultimately resolving the Israel Palestine conflict is an empty plea. The killing of some 26,000 Palestinians in Gaza is an immense tragedy as is the dire situation of the population suffering unimaginable deprivation, as is the devastation of infrastructure in Gaza. But the context in which this is occurring is an attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,139 Israelis including 260 young people at a...
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Open letter to Prime Minister Albanese on the urgent situation in Gaza and the freeze of UNRWA funds
ICJ orders and suspending UNRWA
February 2, 2024
The Albanese government's utter failure to condemn Israel for its blatant breaches of all the ICJ orders, at the same time as suspending payments to UNRWA, thereby pushing 2 million refugees to the edge of starvation, seems like the grossest hypocrisy. Do they think we are so stupid we won't see it? No, I don't think they believe that. There has to be another motive. When does it stop being hypocrisy and start being intentional wrongdoing? What possible motivation is there for our so-called leaders to act in such a deliberately evil manner?
Niall McLaren from Pullenvale, via Brisbane, Qld
In response to: Stripped bare: The Albanese government’s support for genocide
A dubious line up of speakers resist renewables
January 30, 2024
Not since the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London last year has there been such a dubious line up of speakers as those for the forthcoming National Rally Against Reckless Renewables in Canberra. Speaking in London, Tony Abbott said “The climate cult will inevitably be discredited, I just hope we don’t have to endure an energy catastrophe before that happens.” In Canberra, Barnaby Joyce, Malcolm Roberts, and Matt Canavan will enlighten participants. These lads also have form when it comes to climate change and as Sophie Vorrath points out, do not even believe in setting emissions targets....
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: As earth records hottest year, Coalition digs in against climate action and renewables
ICJ interim decision on genocide in Gaza
January 30, 2024
Good on Hilary Charlesworth for being one of the 15, and for one court order, 16, judges who came down on the side of humanity on Friday 26th January.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: As Australia joins the US war on Yemen, Labor is a house divided
Humanity's Extinction Beckons
January 30, 2024
Our changing climate poses an existential threat to much of life on earth, and yet it remains the elephant in the room. Perhaps this is because this growing threat arises from gradual, albeit accelerating, rates of change. Wars, and political battles, present more immediate threats and, because they have been happening for so long, seem more manageable. David Spratt and Ian Dunlop lay out once again the enormous environmental challenges we are facing. The forecasts that they report are daunting; climate scientists are seeing existential risks appearing earlier than they had expected. The overall temperature rises we face within...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC 3127
In response to: Towards an unliveable planet: Climate’s 2023 annus horribilis
An Idea for Australia Day: Learning from Bali
January 30, 2024
A friend of mine once suggested the solution to arguments about Australia day was to keep it on 26 January but adopt the Balinese new year way of celebrating. On the afternoon before Nyepi young people from every community (banjar) parade ogoh ogoh, ghastly ugly images that now reflect some political or social point. Then before dawn, power is turned off, phone services only avaiable for emergencies, and nobody is allowed on the streets. All is silent. The people of Bali welcome their new year in silence and reflection. My friend suggested this would be appropriate for Australia,...
Owen Podger from Melolo, East Sumba, Indonesia
In response to: The case for Australia Day
The Consequences of Western Liberal Failure
January 30, 2024
Western Liberals seem incapable of learning from the generational repercussions created by ignoring past genocides. Without doubt the IDF can raze every building and kill or maim Gaza's surviving population but at what cost to Israel and its role as one of the world's democracies? It can be argued that Germany is still atoning for its genocidal actions under Nazi rule. Scarcely a week passes when the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides do not reverberate. Russia's Chechnyan genocide, the erasure of Grozny and the Western failure to act provided the Ukranian template which has ensured international opprobium for its government...
Michael Buky from NW Tasmania
In response to: Gaza is exposing Western Liberals for the frauds they are
An Australian Republic should include establishment of a Bill of Rights
January 30, 2024
In response to the article I think two important issues have been overlooked. Firstly an Australian republic should be based on a new constitution. The current one is not totally fit for purpose - as demonstrated by the recent voice referendum. It was written at a time when Aboriginal people were still considered to be non Christian and sub human, hence their ongoing enslavement. Secondly, in my view, an Australian Republic should include establishment of a Bill of Rights to apply to all citizens.
Stephen Webber from Nundah Qld 4012
In response to: Does the Australian Public Want a Republic
Ralph Evans: "China leads on renewable energy"
January 30, 2024
China Pledged to ‘Strictly Control’ Coal. The Opposite Happened. In April 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to “strictly control coal-fired power generation projects” in China. According to analysis of Global Energy Monitor data, in the two years before Xi’s pledge, the government approved 127 plants, collectively capable of producing 54 gigawatts of coal power. In the two years after, that number rose to 182 plants, with 131 gigawatts of coal power. China’s new coal power capacity has more than doubled. China opened the 1,800 kilometer Haoji Railway in 2019 — specifically to carry coal. Designed to...
Mark Eastaugh from Wilsonton
In response to: Is climate change too hard for democracy?
Authoritarian governments have even greater problems than democracies in meeting "net zero" targets
January 30, 2024
Dear Editor, Ralph Evans must have somehow missed this fact when composing his paean to authoritarian governance.... In 2022 China commissioned 50GW of coal fired power and de-commissioned 4.1 GW. And: China has the greatest number of coal-fired power stations of any country or territory in the world. As of July 2023, there were 1,142 operational coal power plants on the Chinese Mainland. This was more than four times the number of such power stations in India, which ranked second. China accounts for over 50 percent of total global coal electricity generation. Whatever the reasons...
Greg Keeley from Margaret River, WA
In response to: Is climate change too hard for democracy?
Strengthen Integrity to Save the Climate
January 30, 2024
In Australia our government faces a fossil fuel conundrum. While they may accept that carbon emissions reduction is urgent, they do so in a country whose financial viability depends to a considerable extent on fossil fuel exports funding our imports of manufactured goods. Our democracy’s integrity is significantly compromised by fossil fuel and other vested interests. Climate change cannot be tackled effectively until government integrity is restored. The government must urgently reduce the undue influences that impede healthy public debate and decision-making – eg: reforming political donations regulations to remove the disproportionate influence of major donors; reforming lobbying to...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC 3127
In response to: Is climate change too hard for democracy?
Australia's options under Labor
January 30, 2024
It seems the ALP only considers a narrow range of futures for Australia, as Americans sit in our Defence Department, Americans will crew the nuclear engine rooms of our eventual AUKUS subs, and the Pentagon will dictate the Australian Navy's every move. First, Australia will be the next Ukraine (Has any Canberra politician checked Ukraine out, lately?). Or, Australia will be the next Taiwan. Or, the next, nuclear-armed Japan. Or a Pacific Israel. But we won't be getting billions a year, to be Washington's Down Under aircraft carrier. No: we will be PAYING, billion upon billion,...
Ron Chandler from Boonah
In response to: Albanese is undermining the hard work of previous Labor Governments
The Jewish lobby or the Zionist lobby? - Words matter
January 30, 2024
There are both secular and religious Jews in Australia who are horrified by the actions of the Israeli government and military, ranging from those who have only become engaged by the current conflict, those who have opposed Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank since 1967 to those who disagree entirely with the establishment of Israel in 1948. There are also vocal groups of pro-Israel Jews who put pressure on the government and media to give unconditional support to Israel and smear any support for the Palestinian people as antisemitic. The part played by a group of Jewish...
Vivien Encel from Hilton
In response to: The US and Australia: tethered to Israel’s genocide?
ABC failure to uphold journalistic principles
January 30, 2024
I totally agree with the statement 'they (ABC sic) have failed to uphold journalistic principles and defend both independence in journalism'. I have written numerous letters of complaint to ABC news and to individual ABC Directors, pointing out their total failure to comply with their own charter regarding impartiality of reporting evident in all articles and programs dealing with Russia and Putin both before and after the start of the Ukraine war. Regardless of one's view of the conflict the ABC coverage has been totally one sided and hypocritical and many times patently false. Needless to say...
Michael Apollonov from Sydney
In response to: Independence of Journalism at risk: Antoinette Lattouf should be reinstated
Never a Truer Word Spoken!
January 30, 2024
The so-called Rule Based Law is now a myth......conveniently trotted out by ignorant and clueless politicians who have no idea what they are even talking about. The actions of the Israel Lobby - and especially those lawyers said to make up Lawyers for Israel - can only be described as appalling. With the unmitigated and unrelenting slaughter of Gazans, to suggest, as the lobbyists are, that Israel is entitled to act as it is because of what Hamas did on 7 October is disgraceful - and even disgusting! Forget about the myth of the IDF being the most...
Jeffrey Loewenstein from Tulum, Mexico
In response to: Australia’s brutal “Rules-Based International Order” is on full display in Gaza