Letters to the Editor
Heartfelt thanks
January 30, 2024
Dear Editors, my heartfelt thanks that you decided to post the link. It was a great tonic to listen to this conversation, about which I had not been aware. I subscribe to P&I, because when I joined the public service long ago I recall the great admiration and respect when my seniors spoke of John Menadue. P&I is important for our public discourse and more so now. The LNL program is a gem to be treasured, thank you! ZC
Zulaikha Chudori from RED HILL
In response to: The LNL program on Menadue
ABC Impartiality
January 30, 2024
The ABC newsroom 1940. Staff directive 'No journalist is permitted any bias on the matter of German Forces moving into France. Coverage must be impartial.'
John Queripel from Newcastle
In response to: Impartiality: The bigger Joke in Journalism
But this is what we do...
January 30, 2024
Have you noticed that the news is not talking about Israel's bombing of the Palestinians anymore? We are not hearing about the situation because it is unpalatable. We are only hearing about the bad people in Yemen and how they are disrupting shipping. We are in for a rough ride in 2025.
Louise O'Brien from Sydney Australia
In response to: In Gaza the west is enabling genocide
NATO, and now EU, efforts to expand into Asia
January 30, 2024
So far the attempt to open a NATO office in Tokyo has been blocked by a France which very rightly points out how the NATO charter restricts its concerns to Europe. But that has not stopped the militaristic minded NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, from insisting the ‘security’ of Asia and the Indo-Pacific also come within the orbit of NATO concern. ‘Security is no longer regional; security is global,” he said during a panel discussion at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. And now we are supposed to believe that for the EU which is charged solely...
Gregory Clark from Japan
In response to: False flag: Asian NATO under a new guise
Australia Day
January 30, 2024
Australia Day! Much has been said about Australia Day, Invasion Day, Survival Day. Whichever way we look at it, it doesn’t stack up as a National Day of Celebration. And let us not forget what we’re celebrating on January 26th each year, the theft of land from the First Nations! I’m afraid that’s not my cup ‘o’ tea. Nor is coming up with any other day that may tickle anybody’s fancy. We CANNOT have a National Day of Celebration until we become a united nation. At present we are a divided nation! And we will remain so until...
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Wattle Day: A natural choice for Australia Day’s ideals of diversity and resilience
Incisive analogy
January 19, 2024
What an incisive analogy by Peter O'Keeffe! Yes, indeed, just imagine if the headline were about the British wreaking destruction and the death of 14,000 in Belfast in order to destroy the IRA. There is no comeback to that. I hope Peter submits his analogy in letters to the editors of the major daily newspapers across Australia -- and that they have the moral courage to print it.
Richard Manderson from NARRABUNDAH
In response to: Diplomacy, morality and media have failed the people of Gaza, by Peter O’Keeffe,
Sacking of ABC journalist
January 19, 2024
MSM is essentially singing with one conforming voice here, even our two public broadcasters ABC and SBS. When I write to them to indicate such I get gobbledygook back. Most journalists are cowered with good reason clearly. For a land which produced such journalist giants as Wilfred Burchett, John Pilger (RIP) and Julian Assange, it is disgraceful.
John Queripel from Newcastle
In response to: Antoinette Lattouf should be reinstated
Dreaming of a culture of humanity
January 19, 2024
Tricontinental Institute reminds us that even though we live in a time of escalating anthropogenic global heating and appalling violence in the Middle East, human strength remains (“We need to reverse the culture of decay and march on the street for a culture of humanity” 14/1). Our collective sorrows, stemming from loss of life and loss of a stable climate, have resulted in significant mass protests. Across the globe, people are standing up for their beliefs and for human rights. If enough of us publicly take a stance for peace and equity, and stand up to fossil fuel interests, maybe,...
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: We need to reverse the culture of decay and march on the street for a culture of humanity
Aged Care Overboard
January 19, 2024
We should not be surprised by this back-to-the-future approach to Aged Care, though. When Minister Wells proclaimed at the National Press Club that the boomers are coming, it was so reminiscent of previous government Ministers and Prime Ministers bleating a warning about the boats are coming. I half-expected her to add stop the boomers. All that remains now is for someone to accuse older Australians of throwing their bedpans overboard, or even worse, having WMOs, weapons of mass obstruction. I wonder which Minister will have a model of a walking frame on their desk with the inscription, I stopped the...
Brian Corless from Gerringong. NSW
In response to: Proposed New Aged Care Act leaves gaps in rights.
Climate Chaos
January 19, 2024
Andrew, Thanks for your article. Unfortunately, I believe that most of what you say will come to pass, but I also believe that it may happen even quicker than most anticipate. This of course includes our pathetic governing bodies who are in the pockets of the fossil fuel lobby. The main reason why I say that our demise may occur sooner than most expect is that our dilemma: that population and resource consumption continues to increase while we endeavour to maintain our current standard of living. Going forward, in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, we must...
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Changing weather patterns
We Must Break The Fossil Fuel Shackles Now
January 12, 2024
Julian Cribb captures the essence of humankind’s carbon emissions folly with devastating clarity. We are using money, an infinitely-creatable resource which ultimately exists only in our imaginations, to exploit our real, finite planet. As Cribb observes, we will run out of planet before we run out of money. Those industries and governments who ignore or deny the climate science may not agree, but the science and the planet are realities that remain unmoved by their wishful thinking. Last year’s final IPCC report was crystal clear: we must move away from fossil fuels, start no new fossil fuel projects. ...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: We are exhuming the teeming Dead
Holbrook and USUKA
January 12, 2024
The siting of an Oberon class submarine in a town 400 kilometres from the sea appears to be a metaphor for current governmental thinking. Decommissioned in 1994 HMAS Otway did not appear to hinder the southward movement of North Vietnamese troops, the development of nuclear missiles by North Korea, or indeed any other developments in East Asia during its thirty years in service under the sea or sitting in dry dock. Lining up the three countries involved in current submarine planning by powerfulness, it seems the first two – the US and UK- are huge financial beneficiaries, paid...
Tony McLean from Springwood, Blue Mountains
In response to: AUKUS and an Aggressive US Imperium, its vast reach, its mind paranoid
Proposed New Aged Care Act. Shonky deal.
January 12, 2024
The proposed new Aged Care Act is somewhat like trying to flog an old bomb. The Sales spiel glosses over the truth. “It’s rebuilt by experts and rebranded by consultants. It’s practically brand new. It’s been painted, seatbelts installed, spruced it up a bit. Ok, we haven’t touched the engine, it’s a bit small, and it’s got a couple of dents we might knock out if you point them out. We removed some of the accessories especially the aircon, because you would use it too much if you were comfortable, and it’s expensive to run, but it will...
Lesley Forster from Donnybrook WA
In response to: Proposed new Aged Care Act leaves gaps in rights
The nuclear option: Peter Dutton’s bid for power
January 12, 2024
Thank you to Mark Diesendorf for his cool-headed and informative piece on why nuclear is no good for Australia. The facts speak for themselves. The political ‘debate’ about the “oppose renewables” aspect, however, needs constant attention. As we saw at COP28, the nuclear lobby was touting for business. Members of the Opposition joined with 22 countries whose main task appears to have been to “commit to mobilise investments in nuclear power, including through innovative financing mechanisms”. The World Nuclear Industry Status Report noted a 4 percent decrease in global nuclear production; it fell to 9.2 percent, its lowest...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Coalition, pro-nuclear lobbyists argue Australia needs nuclear energy
November 11, 1975 vs January 6 2021
January 12, 2024
The outstanding work by Jenny Hocking to unmask the Palace Letters brings into sharp focus how one attempted open partly armed revolution in the US was unsuccessful while the other revolution in Australia 45 years before, conducted largely in secret, was successful. Our revolution involved the Queen, the then Governor General, then leading judicial figures and the then Opposition Leader. Just which way the Army would have leaned if there had been a violent response we don’t know, although the recent decision about the duty of Afghanistan alleged war crimes whistleblower David McBride offers a clue. It was determined...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The Search for the Palace Letters: a Remarkable Documentary
DVD The Search for the Palace Letters
January 12, 2024
This is an important historical record, in fact, it is a record that requires constant and immediate access for the Australian public most of whom do not know any other means of accessing this information/video. The ABC is the public's access to the historical record on the events of 1975 and has, I believe, an obligation to provide transmission at all times if such a documentary is available. On searching your accessible records I was unable to find any record of this video and so resort to a letter not only requesting access, but requesting this video be...
Kerry Heubel from Sydney
In response to: The Search for the Palace Letters
People power to the rescue
January 12, 2024
It was uplifting to start 2024 with such a good news story. That is, over the course of 2023, renewable energy supplied nearly 40% of electricity demand in Australia, nearly halfway to the government’s target of 82% by 2030. Furthermore, this was up from 35% the year before. But clearly to get to 82%, increases of more than five% per annum are needed. Interestingly, the capacity of roof top solar increased 21% from 2022 to 2023. Another type of power, people power, is driving the transition. The estimated total annual potential for rooftop solar is 245 TWh, almost...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Australia nears half-way mark to 82% renewables
It’s peace USA, UK , France fear most
January 12, 2024
Being a relative novice to the war games arenas I can only conclude and agree with the article by; x UK commoner, Colin, that the importance of weapons production and sales has overtaken any foreign oil, resources needs. And that to keep it simple it’s PEACE that UK fear most. Weapons have use by dates and “foreign policy” covers everything to ensure they are used elsewhere? Once The initial horror and disbelief that this is so, dissipates the conclusion is that we, in the west, are the terrorists. Mysteriously Even the 9/11 attack never went near weapons manufacture...
J Hunt from Alstonville Plateau
In response to: Not a ‘windfall’ more a ‘guided weapon’
Shrewd dealings
January 12, 2024
Fair go, mate, asking the bunch of glove puppets and rubber ducks in Canberra to deal shrewdly with anything is a bit above their pay grade, isn't it?
Niall McLaren from Pullenvale, via Brisbane, Qld
In response to: Trump is not the only issue, America is too
ABC missed the Genocide
January 12, 2024
If the ordinary person in Australia relied on their public broadcaster or their politicians to keep them aware of an important period of history, they would be left uninformed. The ABC morning news will tell you about silly people jumping off a cliff at Mt Martha and that the town of Rochester was spared an overnight flood, but there would be no update that Israel had slaughtered even more Palestinian babies; dropped phosphorus bombs on civilians to burn through the skin to the bone; limited food aid through the only in-road access point so that people are starting to...
Glenda Jones from Carlton 3053
In response to: A cry from the heart
SE Australia Global Warming impacts from 1990s
January 12, 2024
La Niña was a main contributing oceanic climate driver to record rainfall during the multi-year La Niña phases of 2010–2012 and 2020–February 2023. Also, contributing was a favourable negative IOD phase in both periods. Added to those oceanic climate drivers were favourable atmospheric climate driver phases of the SAM favouring deep, moist onshore air from the Coral and Tasman Seas, and the SOI, which is a measure of the strength of the tropical Pacific trade winds. Attribution pointed to the dominant climate drivers as complex interactions between these climate drivers with global temperature, and above average global and Tasman...
Milton Speer from Sydney
In response to: Australia’s changed climate: The Bureau’s yearly reminder
We must recover the common good
January 12, 2024
A new political idea can address a societal need for a short time, but when the idea solidifies into an ideology it becomes doctrinaire and inflexible. And so with neo-liberalism: initially liberating, it has for the past few decades, as John Tons observes, decreed “that it is both morally wrong and technically unnecessary for governments to intervene to remediate inequalities”. As a result we see growing social inequalities: the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, ever-increasing intergenerational inequity, and the debacle of The Voice. The idea that any tax should be increased, or new tax introduced, to better balance...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: The social contract and The Voice
Why was Whitlam not angrier?
January 12, 2024
Jon Stanford's detailed re-examination of the Whitlam dismissal leads to the inevitable conclusion that the many forces which truly feared his government had the luck to find a willing political assassin in John Kerr, abetted by perhaps partly ignorant accomplices in Malcolm Fraser, Reg Withers and others. It is clear that without Kerr, the dismissal simply could not have happened. What I cannot understand is Whitlam's relative silence on the affair. It is possible that he did not initially realise how outrageously Kerr had been influenced in his actions. But with time - eg when he received the US...
Richard Barnes from Melbourne
In response to: Covert forces and the overthrow of Edward Gough Whitlam: The series
The Australian's ongoing climate disinformation
January 12, 2024
How refreshing that former editor-in-chief of The Australian, David Armstrong, should publish the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual mean temperature anomaly graph (1910-2023) and write “This little graph provides persuasive evidence that Australia is not just experiencing bad weather: the climate has changed.” Recently, The Australian newspaper has tried to undermine both the Bureau and the CSIRO on climate matters. The latest assault came from Peter Ridd when he disparaged the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies both linked to JCU. Earlier, Ridd had claimed that coral is the “least endangered...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Australia’s changed climate: The Bureau’s yearly reminder
Beauty in our world
January 12, 2024
The positive message from Bishop Huggins is that amidst the trauma that we see in the images posted relentlessly, there needs to be room to also reflect on both the personal and the wider world and the beauty that exists there. In Judaism there is the idea of tikkun olam, healing the world. It is a responsibility that all have, but it doesn't just focus on the fractures. It has to be done with an understanding of how things might be. And that means appreciating our own experience of satisfaction, joy, love and beauty.
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Flourishing democracy: Australia and a 2024 of beauty
Check your facts.
January 12, 2024
While I agree with the gist of Peter O'Keefe's article, I urge him to get his facts straight regarding this preposterous statement; 'The atrocities committed on 7 October 2023 by the military wing of Hamas, exceed in scale, intensity and barbarity anything previously done in Israel or Palestine.' For a start, has O'Keefe heard of Deir Yassin - one of over 400 Palestinian villages and towns ethically cleansed, where rape and massacres abounded - in 1948? Has he heard of Shatila, or, do the deaths via repeated bombing campaigns against Gaza with its countless usage of internationally banned weapons,...
dieter barkhoff from Box Hill North
In response to: Things that may not be said about the Israeli atrocities
WA GST revenue vs NSW pokies Revenue
January 12, 2024
The article in question reads as fairly myopic, with tunnel vision. No mention of royalty offsets, no mention how NSW collects nearly as much pokies revenue as WA royalties, but the pokies revenue is not included in the GST calculation - WA should be rewarded for not allowing the pokies scourge if nothing else. Also, WA is the size of Western Europe and needs to spend on infrastructure to enable the king flow of revenue to all. WA is not getting endless underground rail networks and so on to anywhere near the same scale as Vic or NSW....
Gareth Smith from Perth
In response to: WA’s $40 billion fraud on the rest of us
ALP cooperating with US intelligence conceivable
January 12, 2024
It is jolting to read from this excellent journal over and over of your surprise. The apparatchiks of the ALP repeatedly silenced those of us taking the risks of grassroots action pointing to the role of the US. Which of you criticised and made known Beazley's role as an arms dealer and President of Lockheed Martin for example. Remember, the ALP voted for the change in the Pine Gap Legislation following the win by the PINE GAP 4 in the NT courts. Only Scott Ludlam, and the other Greens voted against this legislation warning that the USA was...
Margaret pestorius from Brisbane
In response to: Scrafton - Abondoned Sovereignty
Additional Extraordinary Australian Journalist
January 12, 2024
The late Phillip George Knightley also deserves a special mention, especially considering his investigative journalism covering United Distillers and thalidomide and the Vestey family companies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Knightley
Bernard Corden from Spring Hill
In response to: Three extraordinary Australian journalists: Burchett, Pilger and Assange
Bit Sized But Brilliant
January 12, 2024
Remember the film clip that went viral on the net? The Palestinian family who went to a wedding, or similar, and came back to find their home, and its contents, had been hijacked. Stolen. With no shame. And the excuse that the Israeli thief came up with? If I don't take it, someone else will. Is this a society? Is this a culture? Is this Jewishness? I don't think so. It's greed and it happens because nobody dares stop it. And our leaders still mutter about 'Israel defending itself' and 'the two state solution'. Get...
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle WA
In response to: The Israel Supporter & The Sandwich
It's about a healthy mindset
January 12, 2024
Not everything to do with wellness needs to work. Some of it might just have a feel good factor. If it can put people on the right path, create a wellness mindset, then people will take up doing some of the things that really do work FOR THEM. They will take an interest and do research, try different things out, some of what they go with will be a total waste of money, but they are very likely to stick with some of the good stuff. Take it from someone who has being doing Pilates for around 3 hours...
Louise O'Brien from Sydney Australia
In response to: We spend billions on wellness crap
US Sanctions are not working
January 12, 2024
The US can clearly see that China's economy will soon be larger than America's and that, within a decade, they will be technologically ahead of the US, but their is little the US can do about it. The US is doing all the propaganda it can to get everyone to still believe in them and support their world hegemony, as it slowly dwindles . Some US figureheads are declaring, with a straight face, that the US will go to war with China within five years, which is just laughable. The Americans are keeping up the mantra in the hope...
Louise O'Brien from Sydney Australia
In response to: The future will be decided by economics
John Pilger - a great journalist
January 12, 2024
I dug out my copy of Distant Voices as a way of paying tribute to John this morning. Vale.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Vale John Pilger
Why Israel envies the Palestinians so much.
January 12, 2024
I visited Israel in the mid eighties and was confronted by the Israeli informed stereotype of the lazy, ill-educated Arab, uninterested in improving the land and water that provided their food. I lazily failed to search for any contrary evidence until reading comments by Gazans much more recently in social media. In contrast to the stereotype, they were smart, switched on to technologies and the world around them, educated, ambitious for themselves and their country, passionate, and vitally connected with their family and friends. Tragically, many of them would ask if they would wake up the following morning. The...
Jill Dixon from Melbourne
In response to: Why Israel hates the Palestinians so much.
US/Israeli strategy for the Middle East
January 12, 2024
If you look at US history and The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, that brought an official end to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), you realise the US and Israel are trying to repeat history but this time it's in the Middle East. They need a couple more steps to put this all into play. They need a normalisation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia so that Israel is responsible for Saudi Arabia security, and the later can be told to sit on the sidelines and do nothing or join in on Israeli's side when the land takeover begins. ...
Louise O'Brien from Sydney Australia
In response to: Hopeful pearls for peace
Media bias
January 12, 2024
Each night in its coverage of the Gaza violence SBS monotonously intones the line when referring the Hamas, 'Hamas is recognised as a terrorist organisation by many states, including Australia.' What is the purpose of this? It represents a failure to apply non-subjectivity to reporting a news item. It clearly causes a bias to the rest of the news item. I have written to them calling for them to desist. I suggest other do also.
John Queripel from Newcastle
In response to: Big Media outlets lack balance on Gaza
So called “private” schools
January 12, 2024
As a past Business Manager of a large public school, I find it disgraceful that we continue to have the most unequal education system in the OECD! Far from being “Independent”, these highly privileged “Private” schools are obtaining more and more government funding while the public schools are getting less. It has to stop, and the present federal government has to act to restore some justice to the system.
Jeanne Hart from Maryborough Victoria
In response to: Private schools had biggest decline in PISA results
Theological reform . . . an oxymoron?
January 12, 2024
The 'elephant in the room' when discussing 'theological reform' is this: Considering that the entire history, of Christology, from even before the very beginnings of an institutional 'church' has been riven with 'theological disputes' many of which remain unresolved and swept under the ecclesiastic rug, out of sight out of mind; but the question remains, always there but never spoken: Is theology even a valid human intellectual endeavor or just the extreme of human intellectual vanity? For if the foundations of 'tradition' are all theological, that being a human intellectual interpretation of scriptural materials, WHAT has been revealed by...
robert landbeck from Dedham, Me
In response to: The need for theological reform
The new Holocaust - Israel's genocidal war on Gaza
January 12, 2024
For an article with promise, Alison Caddick has sadly fallen for Israel's greatest lie - that it is the victim of a 'genocidal' attack by the Palestinian resistance, rather than the Palestinian people as victims of a new Holocaust. One must only look at the graveyard of cars destroyed by Apache helicopters to see who was responsible for most or almost all of the civilian deaths of October 7th, and consequently treat with great scepticism Israel's claims of a Hamas 'atrocity' committed against innocent Israelis, and the ballooning claims of rapes and abuse then carried out. Then one should start...
David Macilwain from NE Victoria
In response to: Gaza and the Unspeakable
More than theology
January 12, 2024
Dear Michael - let's look to 'nature-consciousness on which all can focus, not just 'theology' development. Were all in this together! See, for example the guidance of someone like Thomas Berry.
Len Puglisi from Burwood East
In response to: The need for theological reform
A new study may have strengthened the COP28 text
January 12, 2024
David Spratt and Ian Dunlop provide a telling review of COP28, the most recent UN climate conference. While it is true that the heavily modified text assumes it is possible to “negotiate with the laws of nature” and that physics doesn’t care, it is also true that there is no better process. At least Spratt and Dunlop haven’t suggested one. But they are right to be angry and alarmed like the scientists they quote. It is infuriating, particularly for Pacific Island nations, that in the hottest year on record, as we nudge the feared 1.5-degree anomaly, that...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: COP28 a “tragedy for the planet” as Stockholm Syndrome took hold
Do Australians want a bigger or better Australia?
January 12, 2024
When Gough Whitlam opined that Australia would not need nor should it have a population of over 15 million, no one called him a xenophobe or racist. Net overseas migration ran at around 70,000 per annum through the periods of government by Prime Ministers, Whitlam, Fraser, and Hawke-Keating. Yet, there was never a clamour for an expanded immigration policy. Successive polls have found that the great majority of Australians don’t want the ‘Big Australia’ policy that proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the Rudd prime ministership. According to TAPRI, 70% of Australians wanted...
Peter Strachan from Cottesloe
In response to: Is Albanese on track to deliver proposed net migration reductions?
Vale Mark Valencia
January 12, 2024
Readers will miss Mark's thoughtful and provocative commentaries on China and Australia-China relations. Jocelyn Chey
Jocelyn Chey from Sydney
In response to: Vale Mark Valencia
Criminal conviction review
December 22, 2023
So far, I haven’t succeeded in interesting the WA attorney general in setting up a Criminal Conviction Review Commission. Even where new facts or new science emerges after a case, there seems to be no onus on the state to correct the conviction. And yet WA has had cases of a lab failing to meet standard DNA protocols. It has had one case where some evidence appeared to indicate time runs backwards. . It would probably be better if CCRC’s were composed of jurists from another state. It was concerning to see a judge the other day say that the...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Kathleen Folbigg’s wrongful convictions: Quashed, but why did they happen?
On calls for genocide.
December 22, 2023
I should point out that allegations that the slogan From the river to the sea represents calls for genocide of Israel mean that the well-known song, Advance Australia Fair is unquestionably a call for an all-white Australia.
Niall McLaren from Pullenvale, via Brisbane, Qld
In response to: Hamas, Gaza and the continuing Zionist project
Knowing China - Australia must learn how to engage
December 22, 2023
Teow Loon Ti is quite correct in stating that “…China is knowable…”., however the statement that “…Australia was not a party to China’s century of humiliation….”, is not correct. From its colonial era to post Federation, the Australian population, has been hostile to the presence of Chinese. There are numerous documented examples of violent incidents, commencing in the 1850's, perpetrated on Chinese gold miners in Australia by non-Chinese immigrants resulting in martial law being applied following the Lambing Flats Riot of 1861 and the creation of the White Australia policy and legislation post Federation. Anti-Chinese violence occurred also in China....
Peter Gumley from Northern Rivers, NSW
In response to: Saving Australia from China?
Israel's Transition to Tyranny
December 22, 2023
The World at large watches as Israel's tyrannical government continues its genocidal project in Gaza. Onlookers are either justifiably horrified, vocally admiring or perhaps casually dis-interested in this tragedy as nothing meaningful is done to halt the vengeful bloodshed of innocents by the Israeli Defense Force. Few in Western communities appreciate the historic developments that enabled the creation of modern Israel and to this end Western mainstream media has submitted to the Zionist lobby groups that shape the false narrative of the reality that is currently on display in Gaza. (one could argue that a similar paradox exists for the...
Peter Gumley from Northern Rivers, NSW
In response to: Death and Destruction in Gaza
Ending the Revolutions - Historical Errors
December 22, 2023
Dear Editor, Contrary to what Dr Kildea claims in April 2021, Northern Ireland has not been engaged in a civil war for the past 45 or so years. Further he claims/implies in his article that the troubles in northern Ireland are as a result of Partition in 1921 and are therefore somehow linked to the 1916 revolution. The fact of the matter is the troubles of the 1960's started in 1968 not because of some desire to have a united Ireland but because a peaceful demonstration by Bernadette Devlin and her Peoples Democracy group attempted to walk in protest...
Patrick Darley-Jones from Luddenham, NSW
In response to: Ending the revolutions: Easter rising and the partition of Ireland
CIS was not created by Atlas
December 19, 2023
We are surprised that John Menadue would publish a piece like this https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/secrecy-and-the-climate-disinformation-industry/ relying on mere innuendo and false statements. For the record: 1: The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) was not created by Atlas. CIS was started before Atlas in Greg Lindsay’s back garden. 2: all our research is on the public record. We are not ‘trying to hide’. Further, our research is externally peer-reviewed. 3: our only carbon research to date has recommended a carbon tax. 4: we do not receive, and have never received, funding from Atlas.
Karla Pincott from Australia
In response to: Secrecy and the climate disinformation industry
Addressing intergenerational injustice
December 15, 2023
The UN Child Rights Committee states that “children have a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”. Yet, as David Shearman explains, Australia’s young people are burdened with air pollution from burning fossil fuels, and a climate and environment that is in a state of severe decline (“Amendment of the Climate Change Act will offer a future for young people” 9/12). Most remain unaware that 12 per cent of all childhood asthma cases are due to cooking with gas in the home. And that 11,000 Australians die prematurely from traffic exhaust air pollution. The impact of fine particulate matter...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Amendment of the Climate Change Act will offer a future for young people
Pathway to Paris
December 15, 2023
Optimists still argue that the Paris Agreement is not dead. We heard them at Dubai, repeating over and over that we must keep 1.5 alive. But what if the odds don’t favour the Dunlop/Spratt double saviour solution? A study done recently by Professor Jacqueline Peel of the Melbourne Law School for the Climate Council discusses some of the stumbling blocks which litter Australia’s pathway to observance of Paris. The main one is our failure to recognise climate change as a matter of national environmental significance (MNES) in association with the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Protection Act. Is it too late...
John Gare from Kew East, Victoria
In response to: The Paris Agreement is dead. Australia must change its strategic priorities
If Tony Abbott thinks, few care about what
December 15, 2023
At COP28, King Charles said, “We are seeing alarming tipping points being reached” and we are “dreadfully far off track as the global stocktake report demonstrates.” Noel Turnbull wonders what Tony Abbott thinks. It’s not hard to guess. At the inaugural conference of the ultra-conservative Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, just before COP28, Abbott said “The climate cult will inevitably be discredited …” Although Abbott is a staunch catholic, the US-based National Catholic Reporter described him as “a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the UK's main climate science denial group.” He is even at loggerheads with Pope Francis who...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: What does climate denialist Abbott think of the monarchy now?
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
December 15, 2023
The humanitarian catastrophe that has befallen the people of Gaza has to be addressed. It cannot wait until the war stops. That means water, food, medical supplies and sanitation requirements need to get to them urgently. A Berlin-type air lift is needed to accomplish this purpose. The west has the resources and the technical means for this and could relieve the suffering. We need to demonstrate our independence and our solidarity with the innocent and the vulnerable.
Bill Clements from Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
In response to: ‘Apocalyptic’ horror in Gaza called ‘total failure of our shared humanity’
PLEASE TELL ME IT ISN'T TRUE
December 15, 2023
In a recent issue which had Keating's opinion of Kissinger and several high quality articles on public policy, l was disturbed to ready Brian Toohey's piece on Hawke and Coombe. I don't want this to be true, because if it is true, my opinion of the loveable larriken transmutes into old sleaze bag. There seemed to be a lot of hearsay. Also nasty stuff about Teamsters and mafia. Would it be possible to get more fact checking for items such as this? It in some ways lowers the tone of what is a terrific and much...
christopher godfrey from sydney
In response to: ASIO and the KGB: New information on Hawke v. Combe By Brian Toohey
"Homo Moronicus" and the climate heating crisis
December 15, 2023
In 1962 I was trying to decide whether to enrol in science or in medicine at University of Sydney. My father’s cousin Peter Funk, a CSIRO atmospheric scientist, was sending up helium balloons from Aspendale in Melbourne to measure the changes in CO2 concentration at various heights. He told me that atmospheric CO2 was rapidly increasing and was a powerful greenhouse gas, and that its source was humanity’s burning of fossil fuels. He predicted all the effects of the climate heating crisis that we see today. Paul Ehrlich of Population Bomb fame has renamed Homo Sapiens “Homo Moronicus” and I...
John Merory from Melbourne Ivanhoe East 3079
In response to: Climate change terror: Dubai’s COP-out denial conference
Voice referendum lite
December 15, 2023
THE rejection of The Voice referendum has implications beyond the bifurcation of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. First-Nation Australians and NZ Maori, as much as with indigenous peoples the world over, given the dalliance with authoritarianism - dictatorship even - in America and Europe. But the NO votes represent an unconscious and internalised reversion to type of Australia and its people more than realised. They reflect the resistance of elements of the Australian character lurking beneath the surface. Four aspects make up this Australian character, which obscure the lineal continuity of its history. The same racism, populism, masculinity, and secularism inform...
K.C. Boey from Rowville VIC 3178
In response to: The ALP and NZ's U-turn on Indigenous affairs
Spineless Cowards and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
December 15, 2023
While Ross may be keeping his eye on NZers, mine will be on the ball. The ball in this case is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Senator Lidia Thorpe’s bill before the Senate on December 6th was defeated 10 votes to 27 with the major parties combining to sink the bill. This act of bastardry (I’m being polite) by the Federal Government exposes them for what they really are: spineless cowards! At a time when this Government had a chance to save face and show a semblance of leadership, they dogged it! ...
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: The ALP's and NZ's U_turn on Indigenous affairs
We need an Earth Systems Treaty for our children
December 15, 2023
We Baby Boomers have lived in the belief that developing a richer standard of living, an ever-more-comfortable quality of life, is the greatest gift we will leave to our children and grandchildren. But in our desire for more, and richer, we have built this gift through using ever-more fossil fuels. Our politicians, with few exceptions, have found it easier to continue the easy, but finite, path of fossil fuel use than to confront the urgent challenge of major transition, which would come at some short-term economic cost to their electorates. Politicians who support transition too often succumb to the mantra...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC 3127
In response to: Humanity declares war on its children
BDS campaign against Israel
December 15, 2023
Australia’s superannuation funds have over $3.5 trillion under management. Industry funds are increasingly questioning Board performance, especially remuneration recommendations. The representative structure of industry fund boards — employers, members, and independent directors — suggests a reflection of the priorities of those constituencies, albeit within the directors’ fiduciary duties to the fund and its beneficiaries. Given the increasing realisation by the general public of the horrific, not to mention illegal, mass slaughter of the Palestinian population in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces, fund members should expect something more than a purely financial, politically neutral”, position from those who manage our retirement...
John McCombe from Merrijig, Vic.
In response to: As genocide unfolds, what can you do? Boycott. Divest. Sanction.
An observation on misidentifying women of colour
December 15, 2023
Alicia Vrajlal's article was enlightening. Not only for shining a light on the prejudices women of colour in professional roles still face; but is also shows very clearly that most journalists don't fact check, they don't check even the simplest things in their own articles. Just get it written, get it published and the consequences be damned. Realistically, it must be cheaper for media outlets to print falsities and then issues apologies for printing garbage; than it is to hire quality staff who can pick these mistakes up before they go into print.
Steve M from Brisbane
In response to: Dear The Australian: Not all brown people are the same
Unconscionable profits funding universal wellbeing
December 15, 2023
Accountants cannot report unconscionable profits that are more than the incentive to invest. This is because accounting doctrines do not require the time horizon of investors to be reported. What is not reported cannot be taxed. Introducing boomerang ownership gets around this problem. The tax incentive would provide shareholders quicker, bigger, less risky profit sooner, on condition that they changed the corporate constitution to allocate a small fraction of their equity by book entry each year to a citizen stakeholder account. This would allow local citizens to become endowed with shares each year. The government would gain new tax...
Dr Shann Turnbull from Paddington, Sydney, Australia
In response to: Unconscionable profits
Keating on Kissinger
December 15, 2023
However, this slight throwaway paragraph Public commentary will attest to the controversial decisions that Henry Kissinger made in respect of a number of regions in the world, and in his demise, we will probably hear more of that was an extraordinary dismissal of the immense damage done by Kissenger. Millions of people and many thousands of communities were devastated as a result of his actions on behalf of the USA. On balance, who did he really serve and benefit? History will not be kind, nor should it be.
Lorraine Osborn from COFFS HARBOUR
In response to: The death of Henry Kissinger: Statement by Paul KeatingBy Paul Keating
A question of counting?
December 15, 2023
I refer to the 'journalism' outlined in this article and cannot but stand dumbfounded by not just the audacity of the perpetrators but the willing ignorance of many. I would like to offer an example in support. As of 10:20am Saturday morning, I read the latest ABC News article with updates on the Israel-Gaza war. The first section is about the number of deaths since the ceasefire has ended. 178. Gone is all reference to the horrifying tally (constantly reported like bloody sports scores) that reached over 14,000 just a week ago. It should be...
Steve M from Brisbane
In response to: Only journalists who support the Gaza war can report “objectively” on it…
Big Oil and big lies
December 15, 2023
Smoke, mirrors and disinformation indeed. (Analysis exposes big oil P & I 1/12/2023) The International Energy Agency(IEA) has recently called out the oil sector for its reluctance to properly acknowledge the climate damage of its product, and its meagre investment (said to be 1%) in clean energy. The OPEC Secretary General, Mr Haitham Al Ghais, in reply, argued for equality of opportunity among energy sources. Cigarette makers are now obliged to warn customers of the effects of smoking. Oil merchants need a similar calling to account. Exxon Oil, one of the companies still pushing back on renewable energy sources, was...
Elaine Hopper from BLACKBURN 3130
In response to: Analysis exposes big oil disinformation efforts ahead of COP28 By Jake Johnson
Let’s put Covid deaths into context
December 15, 2023
Dear Editor, The ABC reports that: COVID-19 entered the top five in 2022, with most deaths occurring during the Omicron wave. It's the first time an infectious disease has been a leading cause of death in more than 50 years. (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-27/covid-in-abs-leading-causes-of-death-data-heart-disease-/102906350) The virus was responsible for more than one in 20 deaths in 2022, making it the third-leading cause of death behind coronary heart disease and dementia. The latest causes of deaths report from the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which is released once per year, said COVID-19 accounted for 9,859 of 190,939 deaths last year. Leading causes of death...
Bruce George from NSW
In response to: Australia is not giving everyone a fair shot
Marise Payne and the inquiry into Covid
December 15, 2023
Broinowski referred to Marise Payne as Malcolm Turnbull's Foreign Minister in the context of her call for an inquiry into the source of COVID. In fact, Payne was appointed by Turnbull as Defence Minister and later appointed as Foreign Minister by Scott Morrison, who is not mentioned in the article. It was under Morrison that she called for the inquiry. Broinowski also conjectures that the Chinese assumed she was put up to this by Trump following her visit to Washington, and then says it was very likely so, since Australia's exports to China suffered and America's did not. This appears...
Vivien Encel from Hilton WA
In response to: Who are the five eyes loyal to?
Our democracies must change to meet the climate crisis
December 15, 2023
Chandan Nair sets out with exquisite clarity the fundamental weakness that the developed world faces in our fight against our changing climate. Democracies with regular election cycles focus politicians on populist policies and short-term fixes. Politicians will not court unpopularity through imposing hardship on their electors; click-bait-hungry media exacerbate this problem. As Chandan Nair says: ‘... climate change and other existential threats make for good slogans, but weak manifestoes’. Our world is close to a tipping points brink. If humanity is to survive we need effective solutions urgently to transition our world to a more sustainable basis. Our democracies have...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIV 3127
In response to: Governments must take drastic action on climate, not pander to the public, or we're all doomed to boil
Australia, UK and USA are militarising the Indo-Pacific
December 6, 2023
China and several Asian countries maintain that under international law, foreign militaries are not able to conduct military and intelligence-gathering activities, such as reconnaissance flights, in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ). Yet the USA and Australia insist that under UNCLOS their navies and air forces have that freedom in any economic zone without needing to notify the host country. But new deals negotiated by Washington with Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau means the USA can stop navies and air forces from other countries entering their EEZs. Australia needs to decide whether its EEZ is not to be...
Percy Allan from Australia
In response to: Colonies of the US empire: Will the Cocos Islands become the new Diego Garcia?
Slaughter of the Innocents
December 1, 2023
Somehow, despite the ugliness that is in the world and the sense of futility amongst those of us who try to find the 'why' of the ugliness and how we can possibly hope to combat it, we believers still feel that tiny tickle, identified and beautifully expressed by Emily Dickinson. “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all John Menadue's piece touched me in many ways. Mostly his despair, his disbelief over the brutal savagery of an aggressor that...
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle, WA
In response to: SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME
Hamas attacks were not 'by the Palestinian people'
December 1, 2023
I must lodge a complaint about the use of the words - ... the October 7th military raid on Israel by the Palestinian people. I find this extremely offensive and wholly misleading. I am a strong advocate for the Palestinian cause and usually find Paul Heywood-Smith's work most stimulating. But I think this is an unacceptable statement. Hamas unleashed an atrocity, a war crime on a large number of persons - many civilians, many children, many non combatants. If this could be in any way viewed as a military raid it was an illegal one and most...
Royce BENNETT from Baxter
In response to: Blood: The bitter harvest of breaching Resolution 2334
Concerning climate predictions
December 1, 2023
Many articles cite low temperature changes like 1.5 degrees. I am not a climate scientist but I used avaliable data in an effort to predict how much temperature was expected to rise if all fossil fuels were used up at the current pace. Available data led me to conclude that it would take 200 years and that the temperature rise would be at least 10 degrees C. But more likely higher. I included the effects of permafrost and decrease in earth albedo due to melting ice. I think it is useful to point out that kind of concrete problem so...
Peter Grafström from Sweden
In response to: Environment: 1.5 degrees of warming in 10 years
Criticism of Israel is not Antisemitic
December 1, 2023
Critics rightly argue the Israeli government should be held accountable for its policies, decisions and for the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. But let us not confuse opposing policies of the Israeli government, or advocating for the rights of Palestinians, with antisemitism. Jews are not a race, this categorisation is wrong and dangerous. According to SBS Cultural Atlas, Israel’s population reports the following religious affiliations Jewish (74.3%), Muslim (17.8%), Christian (1.9%), Druze (1.6%) other religions (4.4%). To speak of antisemitism in relation to the genocide of Palestinian peoples, is incorrect. To speak out against Israel is an anti-Israeli...
Andrea Coney from Port Fairy
In response to: Antisemitism and criticism of Israel: open letter to Julian Leeser MP
Women’s Voice
December 1, 2023
The regular contributors to Pearls and Irritations are mostly older men. Their insights are deep, wise and always appreciated. However when an edition is all men, no women contributors, it’s time to review processes. It’s time. Women’s voice is important.
Carol Kiernan from Melbourne
In response to: Pearls and Irritations
The ongoing battle to keep Australia a petrostate
December 1, 2023
Noel Turnbull expresses concern about the Australian government’s nonchelance regarding recent global temperature records. As he puts it, the government is “busily approving new fossil fuel developments which probably make it impossible to reach even the derisory targets the government has pledged.” The likely omission of a climate trigger in the revised EPBC Act is more evidence that the government is “terrified of offending almost anyone”. But a recent development provides some hope. The government will underwrite 9GW of storage and 23GW of variable renewable generation doubling the renewable energy capacity on the grid. Right on cue, Murdoch journalist Terry...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: What was Parliament doing as the earth boiled?
Australians: letting all ‘n’ sundry know the score
December 1, 2023
Australians
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Australia's three wars
Can an Australian soldier disregard orders if they believe that order to be unlawful?
December 1, 2023
After reading John Jiggens’ article about David McBride, I find myself confused, and so am looking for an answer from people who might know. I was under the impression that an Australian soldier can disregard orders if they believe that order to be unlawful under international law? Is this not exactly what McBride was doing? Or am I dreaming?
Greg Dudgeon from Box Hill South
In response to: Crown successfully overturns Nuremberg war crimes principles in Australian court
A minor dissension
December 1, 2023
In an otherwise excellent open letter to Julian Leeser, a letter that needs to be read by everybody who supports Israel in its unconscionable campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people, I have only one small note of dissent. In his opening paragraph he says the attack by Hamas was ‘inhumane and without warrant.’ It might be argued that the attack was inhumane, after all people were killed or captured, but ‘without warrant’, I don’t think so. As Browning so go gently argues, the people of occupied Palestine have endured decades of dehumanising treatment. Under such circumstances I...
Richard Creswick from 17 Mike, via Darwin, NT
In response to: An open letter to Julian Leeser
My Lai massacre in Vietnam
December 1, 2023
Dear Editor, I am horrified at the decision made by the Court. The soldiers are fodders and have no brain. Seriously. Never mind most atrocities have been done by soldiers. I like to remind the top people at the court about My Lai in Vietnam. Some soldiers did the most despicable thing to innocent people. Exactly the same and only when a courageous journalist let the world know about the atrocities were some soldiers taken to task. I hope this ruling can be overturned. We need to stop power hungry people in this world.
Therese Saladin-DAvies from NSW
In response to: Crown successfully overturns Nuremberg war crimes principles in Australian court
McMullen misses major factor: Biden’s incompetence
December 1, 2023
Did Bob McMullen, whose political nous is unquestionable, watch video media coverage of Biden’s erratic public behaviour during Xi visit for APEC? Biden was embarrassingly all over the place as George Galloway noted. Scathingly. This can only get worse over next 12 months . The man is a hollow shell . Of course Trump will be President, barring concocted disqualification or assassination. Australian government elites had better get used to it.
Tony kevin from Canberra
In response to: Real Possibility of a Trump Presidency
Relationship to Asia
December 1, 2023
With over 20% of Australians having Asian heritage there are strong links to the region plus there are many thousands of expatriates living and working in Asia. But Dutton shamelessly channels Howard, Abbott and Morrison in dog whistling and fear mongering at every opportunity and he does a lot of damage both here and in relationships with our neighbours.
Tony Simons from Balmain NSW 2041
In response to: Our national failure to equip ourselves for Asia
The success of lobbyists is widening the Gap
December 1, 2023
As John Menadue put it in September last year, “Regulation of the way we manage lobbying in Australia is an even more important issue than a National Integrity Commission. The lobbying of governments around the world by the fossil fuel industry is a major reason for the Climate Emergency we now face.” At COP27 in Egypt, there were 636 representatives of oil and gas industries, a rise of more than 25 per cent on the previous year. When tabling her Lobbying (Improving Government Honesty and Trust) Bill, Monique Ryan the Member for Kooyong explained how the lobbying Code of Conduct...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: The Federal lobbying code is toothless and it has failed
A Vile Article
December 1, 2023
For years I have read Pearls and Irritations which has arrived in my inbox quietly on Sunday mornings. Many articles have been thought provoking as the writers' opinions have challenged some of my beliefs and understandings of various topics and ideas as good journalism should. However, this morning's article has crossed the line. The belief that 'It (Israel) should be expelled from the community of nations': How is this sage advice going to improve the current situation if Israel is excommunicated from the world stage? If you want to give space on your web site to such...
Debbie Scholem from Sydney, Australia
In response to: Does Israel Have a Right To Exist?
Supporting sensible climate policy
December 1, 2023
As a fellow concerned parent, I admired and supported Gregory Andrews’ brave hunger strike for climate action. Even the most optimistic emissions reductions scenario presented by the UN offers just a 14 per cent chance that humanity will keep global heating below a ‘safer’ 1.5 degrees. Given this, the Albanese government’s continued support for gas, approval of four coal mines, and unwillingness to rein in native forest logging is unacceptable. Climate change impacts are already hurting communities across Australia. What will life be like for our children? Andrews’ five demands of the federal government – ending fossil fuel subsidies, an...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Restoring democracy to avoid climate collapse
Indefinite Detention and the NZYQ case
November 27, 2023
The case was not an academic exercise. It concerned the fate of numerous foreigners from multiple countries, many of them hardened criminals; exactly how many, the Solicitor-General was unable to say. One thing is sure: indefinite immigration detention was not unlawful when the matter came before the High Court. Its legality was established by the High Court itself 20 years ago in the case of Al-Kateb. If the High Court were now minded to take the exceptional step of reversing that decision – doing violence to the doctrine of precedents which is one of the foundation stones of common...
Henry Litton from NSW, Australia
In response to: High court launches full frontal assault on indefinite immigration detention
Do international agreements mean anything?
November 17, 2023
In response to John Pilger’s excellent article, I point out that 25 years ago Australia signed the Rome Statute setting up the International Criminal Court which can investigate war crimes. Among its provisions there is this: “Article 68 Protection of the victims and witnesses and their participation in the proceedings 1. The Court shall take appropriate measures to protect the safety, physical and psychological well-being, dignity and privacy of victims and witnesses…” Now one would imagine that our prosecutorial authorities in Canberra would feel some inclination to honour the principles which the Australian government has espoused by...
Geoff Taylor from Riverton WA
In response to: “We Are Spartacus”: Resistance and the unmoving shadow of war
The entire Public Health System is now enslaved to “The System”
November 17, 2023
The issues outlined in this outstanding article are sadly not only attributed to Aged Care. Indeed the entire Public Health System is now enslaved to “The System” where Patient Care is dictated by policies and procedures rather than the needs of the individual. He is indeed, sadly, correct in his Yes Minister analogy. The Bureaucratisation of health care has refocused the attention of healthcare providers on computers and systems that demand constant attention and input; more than many patients receive. It is only a matter of time before the complaints and concerns regarding Aged Care are applied more broadly...
Anne Blunn from Greenway ACT
In response to: The care economy: Aging is not a disease- who knew?
Ugly Christian Apocalyptic beliefs
November 17, 2023
For the past year, I have researched the shooting deaths of two young cops and a concerned neighbour in Wieambilla in the Western Downs of southern Queensland in December 2022. This cruel, arbitrary ugly event has been deemed by ASIO as the work of religiously-motivated extremists, not Islamic but Christian ones. The three killers were shot to death by police, just as they expected to be. Ex-PM Scott Morrison, a happy-clapper born-again Christian, pouncing around with the UK's ex-PM Boris Johnson in Israel, is better than anything Laurel and Hardy's scriptwriters could come up with. Tonight on X...
John Kerr from Coburg
In response to: Scott Morrison’s heartless yearning for Armageddon
Mitigation and Australia
November 17, 2023
When the Hawke government was elected in the early 1980’s, BHP Steel was contemplating shutting down steel production in Australia. The minister, Button, proposed a modernisation capital injection, that BHP wouldn’t repay if they could not be made profitable . It worked, despite Australia being a very small part of world production. Right now, to replace fossil fuels, Australia has to triple its electricity production, because not only coal, but oil and gas use, need to be replaced by renewables. As the generating cost is currently about $0.10 per kW.hr for coal, $0.05 for onshore wind, and $0.025 for...
Noel Thompson from Sydney (Riverview)
In response to: Climate policy: the widening reality gap
END TIMES AND ARMAGEDDON WELCOMED
November 17, 2023
Reb Halabi's excellent expose on Scott Morrison's religious zealotry taking precedence over rational thought made for chilling reading. I was brought up in an extremist Christian Zionist group and can verify that unquestioned adherence to their fanatical beliefs in the End Times, the Rapture and Armageddon is a given. While Mr Morrison may strenuously deny there is any conflict of interest, in his heart he knows that should his beliefs be at odds with matters of global importance, his religious convictions will always win. Look no further than Australia's embarrassing and dangerous prevarication on genuine commitment to climate...
Joy Nason from MONA VALE, 2103 NSW
In response to: Scott Morrison's heartless yearning for Armageddon
Immigration: economy, politics or survival?
November 17, 2023
Abul Rivzi has pinpointed the viciousness that will envelop political discourse on the current half-million figure of new immigrants, and the ensuing social disharmony that will follow as the right-wingers give new impetus to the race card. Is it now time to consider the more critical issue of what might constitute a sustainable population for Australia, given the frequency with which water usage keeps re-emerging as a critical issue across most of the continent? The economy is the main driver of argument about immigration, which has spilt over to social cohesion occasionally since World War II. This...
Tony Tucker from Leichhardt NSW
In response to: Net migration of 500,000 guarantees an ugly immigration election
Whales and misinformation
November 17, 2023
Mr Dutton’s recent statements about off-shore wind turbines endangering whales and dolphins have been shown to be based on disinformation. It has been reported that a Facebook post, stating that a paper supporting the ‘evidence’ for harm to whales had been published in respected publication Marine Policy. As soon as the fake was flagged by Marine Policy staff, the Facebook page disappeared. Research from InfluenceMap shows that “anti-climate groups are using Facebook’s advertising platform and unique targeting abilities to spread disinformation, intentionally seeding doubt and confusion around the science of climate change.” And more generally in the US, ‘think tanks’...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Divide and fool: The Coalition’s misinformation campaign
A witty take on US-China Summit
November 17, 2023
Heard a witty take on the US-China summit concluded in San Francisco, leveraging a popular Chinese idiom: both sides admitted that they may not pee in the same pot but vowed to ensure they will not pee on each other. 双方承认：尿不到一个壶里，但承诺：不尿到对方身上。 Thanks for reading Wang Xiangwei's Thought of the Day on China
WANG XIANGWEI from Hong Kong
In response to: Biden forgets that the c-in APEC stands for cooperation
The critical mass is getting close to defeating the Israeli and Western propaganda machines
November 15, 2023
I have been observing the current intransigent and wonderful opposition to the Israeli and Western propaganda machines. What the grass roots opposition signifies is the growth of a massive international opposition to the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. And what it reminds me of is the beginnings of the opposition to the Vietnam War. The same lying and mendaciousnes on the part of the ruling elites, and the same visceral and informed reaction and opposition to the lying about the barbarism engaged by these ruling elites. What is significant in this current...
John Ebel from Melbourne, VIC
In response to: Gaza and ‘the graveyard for children’: the moral decline of Western politics
These Children Could Be My Children
November 13, 2023
I am the mother of Palestinian children. I married into the ancient and highly respected Al Ramini family from Jenin. Our children, born in the west, have deep brown eyes, soft brown skin and they stand tall and proud and relish their Palestinian background. I am grateful that they have this heritage, but I am also so very grateful that they have never known the appalling deprivation of everything to do with being a human being that has befallen so many young people looking just like them, with all the hopes and dreams, just like them, but who were born...
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle, WA
In response to: Israel's Hideous Final Solution
Revelation is not canonical in the Orthodox Church
November 10, 2023
The Orthodox Greeks, who were actually close enough to recall the nutter who wrote Revelations on the Greek Island of Patmos, decided that it was NOT a canonical work and would not be read in Orthodox churches.
Paul Malone from Ocean Grove
In response to: Scott Morrison’s heartless yearning for Armageddon
What we need now is a clear declaration of peace
November 10, 2023
The hopes expressed in the article 'Australia-China relations: Diplomacy and a win without a fight', are hopeful indeed, for good relations with China are essential for our economic prosperity, yet Mr Albanese has made a foolish decision without debate and very little consultation, to confirm the previous Government’s decision to arm Australia with a few submarines which are specifically designed for a fight with the very country our economy depends on, and with which Australia has no major quarrel. Cancelling that submarine deal would send a very clear message to China rather than the ambiguous message currently being sent....
Bruce George from Candelo Southern NSW
In response to: Australia-China relations: Diplomacy and a win “Without a Fight
Fearless article calling out Penny Wong
November 10, 2023
It's as though the Labor party thinks it doesn't need its grassroots anymore. The Labor party (through the public statements of Penny Wong, Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles) has taken a stance supporting the United States' hardline Zionists and that has translated into a cruel military support for the occupiers. I'm not the only previously rusted-on Labor supporter who will never ever vote Labor again. I will find a person of principle in my electorate as opposed to a party. Collectively, Australia has blood on their hands and it will NEVER wash it off. The Zionists have...
Gladys Johns from Carlton, Victoria
In response to: Israel does not have the right to ‘defend itself’
We Must Break Labor's Faustian Climate Policy
November 10, 2023
Mike Scrafton demonstrates the Faustian bargain that our government is making with their approach to combatting climate change. Labor focusses on transitioning to become ‘a renewable energy superpower’, and at the same time, and in the face of the urgent demands in the IPCC’s 2023 report, approves new coal, oil and gas projects to boost fossil fuel production. These steps build short-term prosperity, and so underpin the government’s popularity and therefore its re-election prospects, but they keep our carbon emissions far too high. The price to be paid for these, as the planet continues to warm, will be borne...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic 3127
In response to: Climate policy: The widening reality gap
Climate Inertia
November 10, 2023
While I agree with much of Mike's article Climate policy: the widening reality gap I prefer a more basic approach. Our whole economy is based on neoliberal principles and as such the only way forward is to trash the planet! Furthermore, we will never rein in greenhouse gas emissions while our population continues to increase, it is inconceivable! In Australia we are running out of water, but we continue to import people to the detriment of our economy, the environment and our well-being.
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Climate policy: the widening reality gap
Stopping the massacre in Gaza
November 10, 2023
The US has the diplomatic, military and economic might to stop the Israeli attack, which has now gone well past a proportionate response to the Hamas attack. To do so is vital for all of Palestine’s citizens including the women and children, and also for Israelis particularly those held hostage, and not just those near Gaza. Why doesn’t the US do so? A multinational force to take over to keep the peace, as ex Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has proposed, should follow, preferably set up under the provisions of the UN Charter, but set up anyway, if...
Geoff Taylor from Riverton WA
In response to: The moral complexities of bombing a concentration camp full of children