Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating says Donald Trump’s neo-Monroeism has made it clear that America now calls only the Western hemisphere home. (more…)
Category: Politics
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‘It’s back to the (fossil fuel) future for Peter Dutton’
It’s only the first week – and if you thought Peter Dutton’s election campaign looks chaotic, dishevelled, and thin on policy substance, you’re right.
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In every China-US war game scenario I’ve seen, America has lost
Global security alliances are in turmoil, and Australia needs to critically rethink its defence and foreign affairs policies. (more…)
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Dutton wants to know if you’re better off now. It’s a trick question
For most people, the simple answer to Peter Dutton’s repeated question — are you better off today than you were three years ago? — is “no, I’m not”. (more…)
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China’s spies are here to help Albo: Anti-China Media Watch
The Australian reliably informs as that in Beijing it’s “all the way with Albo for PM”; the latest Chinese ship in the proximity of Australia’s waters is both an act of aggression and proof positive that New Zealand’s scientists are among the most “clueless” creatures on earth; and Confucius Institutes have to go from Australian university campuses. (more…)
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Australian election 2025: Status quo or what?
Voting in federal or state elections has invariably posed a dilemma ever since my family and I qualified as citizens almost a quarter-century ago, at a ceremony where we were handed out miniature editions of the New Testament alongside the sausage sandwiches. (more…)
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The Frontier is the way ahead for the War Memorial
“Sacrifice”, the ABC Four Corners episode of 10 March, was a train-wreck for the Australian War Memorial. Its spokespersons came across as dismissive, timid, or too clever by half. The critics of the Memorial, however, were passionate, regretful, and, in the case of Geoffrey Watson SC from the Centre for Public Integrity, downright angry. (more…)
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Appreciating being in Australia and resolving to make the best of our opportunities
That we live in one of the best contemporary democracies is to be appreciated.
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James Curran’s closing remarks to the Sovereignty and Security Conference on 31 March
The sense of urgency and rapid change that has pervaded the discussion today [31 March] has not obscured the fact that, as we know, this issue of the abrupt change in the relationship with the United States has been coming since at least Trump’s first term. And really from the disaster of Iraq and the 2008 global financial crisis. (more…)
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Peter Slezak’s speech to the University of Technology Sydney rally on 26 March
Remarks made by UNSW academic Peter Slezak at a rally at UTS on 26 March, have attracted considerable negative coverage in the Murdoch media. [The Australian and The Daily Telegraph]Pearls And Irritations is carrying the full text of the speech so that readers can make up their own minds.
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Dutton appears to be slowly losing ground
Peter Dutton was edging towards possibly towards winning the forthcoming election. But lately he has been moving further and further away from that. It’s possible he might still win, but it looks increasingly unlikely. (more…)
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Debt and deficit: Labor’s budget naysayers ignore the cold hard facts
The independent economist and former Treasury officer Chris Richardson, the leader of Treasury-in-Exile and thus chief apostle of fiscal rectitude, does the country a favour with his eternal campaigning to keep budget deficits and public debt levels low. (more…)
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Will Australia’s media do better at cracking down on lies this election? The signs aren’t good
Populism uses the freedoms of democracy against democracy. In particular, populists use freedom of speech to promote hate, incite prejudice, intensify social division and spread lies. (more…)
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Peter Dutton: The man who would be PM
It should never have been the case. Peter Dutton, leader of the Coalition opposition, is in with a chance to win the 3 May Australian election. (more…)
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Israeli practices exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The Gaza Strip has witnessed catastrophic humanitarian crises during the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation. The war has caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, leading to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and essential services. (more…)
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The importance of excellent Independent MPs
I joined the Liberal Party when it was liberal. After Malcolm Fraser lost the 1983 election, the head office of the Victorian Division was dominated by a few men with strong business interests and a conviction that government should not interfere with the way business operates. Social issues did not seem to be important. (more…)
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The West and inconvenient memory: The destruction of history
“Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past and historians are the people who produce it.” – Eric Hobsbawm (more…)
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The personification of politics
Reducing the complexities of international politics to the idiosyncratic personalities of world leaders suggests the Western media believes concision is an antidote to the short attention spans of readers, viewers and listeners. They may be right about this. (more…)
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Cowardly politics is robbing our children blind. It’s time to be brave
We find ourselves in an election campaign framed by immediate cost-of-living issues, with the principal contenders pandering to an electorate they believe to be interested in nothing else. (more…)
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Pursuing Australia’s national interests in a ‘Might is Right’ world
Less America. More Self-Reliance. More Asia. More Global Engagement. (more…)
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Australians for Humanity pushes for votes against Israeli genocide
Australians for Humanity is a coalition of interested parties seeking to have Australia and Australians respond to the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians and the declared Israeli intent to ethnically cleanse Palestine and proceed to the annexation of Gaza, the West Bank and parts of Lebanon and Syria. (more…)
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Immigration policy and the federal election
Peter Dutton is desperate to talk about immigration during the current election campaign. That will largely be about pointing fingers at Labor, sometimes misleading fingers as he did during his budget reply and not providing details of his own policies. (more…)
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Public funding for government schools outstrips the rest: claim
Trevor Cobbold is well known in education circles for selectively presenting funding data to lead readers to a pre-conceived conclusion. (more…)
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No surprises, but strategic circumstance weighs heavily on China’s ‘Two Sessions’
China’s 2025 ‘Two Sessions’ emphasised stability and strategic focus, avoiding major surprises despite the volatile global landscape.
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Echoes of 500 years ago
This year marks 500 years since the end of the Peasants War in Germany (1524–25). (more…)
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Ursula and the steel porcupine
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has called for the EU to turn Ukraine into a “steel porcupine” and for Europe to undertake a massive rearmament. (more…)
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Labor’s in with a fighting chance, but must work around an unpopular leader
The Albanese Government has a fighting chance of winning the 2025 election, but will need to achieve in five weeks of campaigning what it hasn’t in three years in office. That is, work out a narrative explaining what it’s about and that can persuade Australians to back it for a second term. (more…)
