Archives: Letters to the Editor

What a brilliant summary by Crispin Hull.

I would only have added that he killed the chance of Australia becoming a republic in 2001, an achievement that most certainly would have occurred if Keating had won (assuming Howard would then, discredited, been replaced by a republican ‘Liberal’ such as Costello).

In doing so, he denied us the opportunity now, or rather, the prospect of having had a quarter century to grow up and mature in confidence, which likely would have resulted in us NOT getting involved in myriad foreign wars, not delving deeper and deeper into the ANZUS alliance which has become almost a religious idol for political leaders and we most likely would have a very independent foreign policy and no damn wasteful American submarines at $368bn for 0 boats.

No wonder my late father, a cartoonist, used to refer to him as “the Prime Miniature”.

Regarding the forced evacuation of the Prime Minister from The Lodge owing to a bomb threat found to be false, it is understandable that there is much gnashing of teeth in the wake of the horrific events in Bondi recently. Security forces are naturally on hyper alert.

Without wanting to diminish the threat, and as a person who attends numerous and varied dance performances and rates them, it would not surprise me if Shen Yun are struggling to sell tickets.

The national ballet company of China (Zhong Guo Ballet Wu) is a better bet if you’re looking for quality dance rather than propaganda.

No doubt Julian Cribb‘s tongue was firmly planted in his cheek in arguing that algae are smarter than politicians, nevertheless, his thesis was flawed. Algae, unlike politicians, cannot control their environment. They survived the various mass extinction events, not because they were smart, but because of the concept of survival of the fittest, that is, there were some species that were better adapted to the changed conditions and could survive and reproduce.

Nevertheless, it is an amusing thought, or depressing, if you think too much about it. How on earth do Liberals, Nationals and One Nation reject the net zero emissions by 2050 policy? Do they not read, nor have staffers that do and can advise them? Are they unaware of the James Hansen et al paper that Cribb cited, for instance, that says: “We project a global temperature record of +1.7°C in 2027, which will provide further confirmation of the recent global warming acceleration.” Global warming acceleration. If climate change is not mitigated sufficiently, we are heading to 3 or 4C warming which essentially means the end of civilisation.

My view is that politicians DO know but choose to do little because they are profoundly irresponsible; not dumb.

In a functioning democracy this appointment would not happen! In an oligarchy it is perfectly natural. As the unreformed and utterly corrupt US financial system springs leaks on a daily basis this is a perfectly to be expected appointment. It also hastens the expected denouement!

It appears from history that feudalism was followed by a long and difficult road to democracy in Britain. The road had many difficulties as the landed Aristocracy sought at every turn to halt and reverse that progress to a governance of the people, for the people and by the people.

In the end Britain ended up with a dog’s breakfast of democracy tainted by substantial remnants of Feudalism. One of these was an inherited royalty without accountability to the people but with substantial powers to frustrate the operation of that democracy, along with an upper House composed mainly of the remnants and bits and bobs of the old landed aristocracy substantially affected by genetic inbreeding.

That system was then adopted by those forming the new polity of Australia as our head of state, with lively expectations of royal honors to be showered upon them for retaining an institution already a hundred years out of date. That expectation was often satisfied by the conferral of meaningless titles to satisfy needs for recognition of submission and servility.

That such an unmerited power could dismiss a popularly elected government demonstrated the limits we had accepted on our democratic rights!!

Alison Broinowski’s brink is now crossed. The US has launched a second war within a year on Iran without Congressional approval, and while it was to meet Iran again in Vienna for further talks. Bessent was clear that the US deliberately created economic destabilisation in Iran. Further, the UK just said it would not allow UK airbases to be used by the US for a war on Iran, then allowed US F22s flying to Israel to be staged through RAF Lakenheath.

We have all seen the picture of Trump, Rubio, Vance and Ratcliffe watching a screen while 80 people were murdered by people directed by them in Venezuela, followed by seizure of control of its oil assets. Just like Iran in the early 1950s and Iraq in 2003. Now it’s Iran’s turn again, and our key trading partner, China, risks being heavily affected by seizure of control of Iran’s oil, with a possible blowback on our economy. Our government has just allowed more destruction of the world’s only jarrah forest, because it contains the critical mineral gallium. Does Iran mean we couldn’t say no to the US on gallium with FPA bases in our midst? Still for IRBO, Albo?

Janine Henry gets it exactly right in articulating the meaning of women being pigeon-holed as “difficult”. When women heard Grace Tame described as difficult, we knew it was a put-down. The Prime Minister didn’t “mis-speak” or “really mean” something else. He was putting a courageous, outspoken woman into what he deemed her proper, lesser place. I’ve bought my “Difficult Woman” tee-shirt. It’s going to get a lot of wear.

The article by Michael McKinley, rehearsing familiar pro-Russian narratives about the US “fighting to the last Ukrainian” would have been comprehensible, even if wrong, before 2025. But if Ukrainians were being dragged into a war they didn’t want, they would have settled when Trump changed sides. In fact, they understand that Putin will settle for nothing less conquest and continue to defend themselves, without the limited and grudging help they received from Biden.

The author, like Putin and Trump, can only see things through the lens of great power conflict, in which the US is pulling all the strings. This view was wrong before Trump’s alliance with Putin, but it is totally absurd now.

As much as we might wish to not accept it, the fact is that there are ‘people’ like Hanson, of the ‘I fear to be in Lakemba’ brigade.

After all, she is a carbon-based life form.

Our multicultural society is, for someone who grew up in the early 1950s when Italians and Greeks were ‘wogs’ and fit only to be employed as manual labourers, a daily joy. Evenings in Lakemba during Ramadan are just a delight – not only for culinary wonderfulness but just as a warm and wonderful evening doing living on the street.

I have a half-Indian grandson and a half-Filipino grandaughter. It offends me greatly that they might ever have to endure the stupidity of a Hansonite or (now) a LNP troglodyte.

And it offends me greatly that a number of politicians currently in power are so bigoted and racist that they employ discriminatory power to suffocate fairness, human decency and the ‘international rule of order’ in order to gain some chimerical political advantage.

Our society is deeply wounded by the sewing of the dragon’s teeth of racism, fascist suppression of free commentary and pro-humanitarian protest.

It may not yet be fatal but it hurts.

In Foster’s piece, he mentions the “news” that Alexei Navalny was ended by the Russians using Dart Frog toxin. The REAL news was that was an assertion ‘constructed’ by the British, and presented at the Munich Security Conference, with four other NATO nations standing with the British at the presser. Not a scrap of evidence to back the assertion was provided – NONE – and no questions were entertained.
Not long after Navalny expired, then Ukraine intel chief (and now Zelensky’s Chief of Staff) Budanov stated;
“I don’t like to disappoint, but Navalny died of natural causes due to a blood clot”.
If Foster had done some basic scouting around, he would have found Navalny had been on the CIA payroll from well before the Maidan coup in 2014.
And, he wasn’t a dissident, he was a rabid nationalist who had previously described Ukrainians as “cockroaches”, worthy only of being wiped out.
Just another useful idiot – to the Russophobic West.

Either everyone matters or no one matters. That sounds simple enough, but you wouldn’t know it from following the news.

For example, we have on the one hand Zionists in Israel committing murder on live-stream, and yet any criticism has to be carefully filtered to avoid the dreaded charge of antisemitism. With that obligatory filtering in mind, are there Australian citizens fighting for the IDF in Gaza? If there are, will they be welcomed home once they weary of killing Palestinians?

On the other hand we have Australian women and children being passed around like hot potatoes in Syria because no one wants to know them. This is primarily because of what their former partners and fathers allegedly once did. Did the stranded women and children even do any actual fighting or themselves commit any known crimes?

So what’s it to be? Does everyone matter, or do some matter more than others? Or perhaps “everyone” is too broad. What if we limit it to mothers. Do some mothers matter more than others?

Stella Yee’s article makes me wonder, what’s the difference between Iran’s approach and Australia’s approach on freedom of expression, free speech and the right to demonstrate? The difference is that one country’s name starts with “I” and the other’s….

Good questions sincerely asked by Andrew seem utterly unlikely to be answered persuasively by a government that can be characterised as power without purpose. Albanese seems so smitten by the idea of power that he is unable to exercise it with courageous leadership. I’d like to be wrong on this, but don’t think I will be!!

The reality is that most, if not all, of these recruits, could well be subsequently classified by future decisions of the ICC or ICJ as mercenaries and thus will subject to international law relating to the treatment of mercenaries. Many of them may have been convinced by the honeyed words of Israeli recruiters that their cause is a just one, despite the already existing conclusions of both courts and the UN General Assembly, the association of Genocide scholars, all the major world human rights groups, the Special Rapporteur and the UN Commission into what is happening in Gaza and the population of the world at large that they are committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Their apparent enthusiasm to join the slaughter of civilians is clearly outweighing any judgement on the worth of their cause.

Whoever of them that are not killed by Hamas or Hezbollah will be likely to face a justice that has been delayed but not eliminated.

Stella Yee’s article is very good. However, it has the same fault as nearly all media interest in this subject and Gaza, Palestine, the West Bank, and Israel. Anyone reading or watching the usual pieces could be forgiven for believing that these trouble started on 7 October 2023, or with the Bondi outrage.

It started almost 100 years ago when Zionist terrorist gangs fought against the British Mandate for Palestine, and terrorised the Palestinians living there since before the Romans evicted most of the Jewish population around AD70.

In 1947, following the Balfour Declaration of 1915 proposing a home for Jews in Palestine, the UN proposed a two state solution. In 1948 the Zionist Gang leaders declared unilateral independence; they could have an Israeli State immediately, and prevent a Palestinian State ever existing. This is still their policy as the statements of Netanyahu, Herzog, Motrich, and Ben Gvir make plain.

Ben Gurion, Shamir and Begin were those leaders. They became PMs of Israel.

For 90 years Palestinians have been ill-treated, murdered, imprisoned, starved, and forced to live in what amounts to a concentration camp. It is a kind of Holocaust.

Stella Yee needs to put the record straight.

Refaat Ibrahim’s article provides all the information and asks all the necessary questions. It should not be necessary to repeat the data nor the commentary.

And yet, we have not only the repugnant usual suspects of the RWNJ political coterie but the conscientiously-excised PM Albanese casting the entire families of the radicalised ISIS expatriate idiots into the pit of Hell.

Fair enough treatment for the patriarchs who took their families into the depths of harm’s way. All 35 of them.

But where is the equivalent condemnation of the more than 600 Australian Jews who joined the IDF?

The estimates of victims of murder, rape, pillage etc. committed by ISIS and the IDF are eerily similar – in fact, the genocide and war crimes figures for the Israeli assault on not just Gaza but also the West Bank and neighbouring areas exceeds the ISIS estimates by a considerable margin.

Genocide and War Crime does not become less of an assault upon humanity when it is committed by Zionist forces than when committed by others.

To broadcast otherwise opinion is either wilful ignorance or glaring racism.

Which of those descriptions best applies to our politicians?

Refaat Ibrahim does well to point out how the “ceasefire” in Palestine has reduced the world’s attention to the plight of the Palestinians. But 400 Palestinian villages were emptied of 720,000 Palestinians in the Nakba, and now after the latest war, they live in a country of widespread destruction. Northeast Palestine is being eaten up by Israeli settlers. There is a Board of Peace but without Palestinian government involvement. The area within the Yellow Line in Southwest Palestine keeps shrinking. Why the title deja vu? Well, we have habit of forgetting easily, even events in Palestine twelve years ago. I have just reread 12 pages of renowned journalist and radio host Mike Carlton’s autobiography On Air. He describes his 2014 article in the Sydney Morning Herald which criticised both Israel and Hamas over the war that year in which nearly 2300 Palestinians were killed with 70 Israeli deaths, primarily IDF members. This nevertheless led to virulent accusations of antisemitism, although not from some of his Jewish friends. Nevertheless, such was the reaction, he records that the Herald, under great pressure from some quarters, suspended his contract indefinitely. He resigned.

To hear Mark Carney speak at Davos and to follow his actions in the name of world order and Canadian sovereignty fills one with hope. To compare the political timidity – and that’s putting it mildly – of the Albanese government should fill Australians with envy and shame. Let’s hope the Canadian prime minister’s visit triggers a damascene moment in our indolent government and waken the nation’s electorate from its apathy. From its acquiesce to the shameful Morrison AUKUS sham to its indulgence of the Canberra lobbyist regime, this current administration has abdicated regard for and responsibility to the national interest, particularly to relating to climate change and its consequences.

Stella Yee, in her article on the aftermath of the Bondi shootings, exposes how wrong it was to invite the Israeli president to Australia. It has led to greater hostility between sections of our community and consequential restriction of our freedoms. By calling Herzog “the Jewish community’s head of state”, Albanese has not only insulted a large portion of Australian Jews, but he has played into the hands of antisemites who view Jews as one entity. Many prominent Australian Jews have voiced their opposition to the Israeli government and the devastation and death it has wrought in Gaza. And many more can be found amongst the protestors supporting the cause of the Palestinians.

And right on cue, Albo continues digging hole(s) that Waterford mentions, with added chocolate sprinkles.

Just today he continues his attack on the women and children trying to escape ISIS incarceration and misery, still without the slightest recognition of the now estimated 80,000 deaths by genocide in Gaza – of which around 40 per cent are now estimated to be women, children and the elderly. and that does not include the many, many thousands whose lives are now and for the future, severely crippled/shortened.

Brave, Brave Sir Albo. Who has now attacked David Pocock for daring to raise established fact of taxation inequities.

So, to assist Brave Sir Albo, here are a few suggestions for topics he could launch out on:
. Santa Claus is deeply antisemitic;
. Koalas in plague proportions are threatening the very balance of nature;
. More gas extraction will completely offset climate change;
. Herzog’s visit in fact raised the dead, healed the sick and gave sight to the blind;
. Improving financial and services support for the lower-income percentiles of Australians will collapse our future;
. Whatever happens internationally, AUKUS will save us!

I am getting tired of having to say I’m Buddhist to everyone. I was born in Sri Lanka which is a Buddhist country and I’ve extensively studied Buddhist and Hindu scripture.

I’m tired of people telling me that they like Muslims, before ascertaining my religion.

I quickly correct that I’m Buddhist and they never acknowledge this but continue their rant.

I have Muslim friends in Australia and UK, but I object to being put into their bucket.

I won’t hold out hope that you’ll do an article pointing out that not all brown people are Muslim, but seriously, it wouldn’t surprise me to meet Australians who think Indians and Sri Lankans are Muslims too.

We/they are not. Our countries have Muslim populations and they are generally managed well, but conflict between the groups inevitably occurs.

The public needs to know that we are not all Muslim. I am tired of having to constantly state I’m Buddhist.

I primarily identify as Australian as I’ve lived 99 per cent of my life here, but my alienation from mainstream Aussie culture is deepening.

Never forget he also gave Australia Tony Abbott.

John’s article has the temerity to name western responsibility for the vast growth of terrorism around the planet. Both that terrorism committed directly by the west, which incidentally has a long and bloody pedigree stretching back to the creation of those western colonial empires, and the terrorism created in the Islamic world by our hubris, greed and sheer stupidity, are direct consequences of a western racism and insidious belief in Caucasion superiority over the rest of humanity.

These are all markers of an empire in terminal decline. At several isolated historical points we could reasonably have claimed to have been a civilisational empire, but these were few and far between and were interspersed by vast periods of savagery, greed and complete moral vacuity where overwhelming primitivism gave the lie our belief that we were ever a civilisation. John has accurately assessed our responsibility for counter-violence against us. But will our “leaders” acknowledge his perspicacity or simply consign it to Orwell’s memory hole???

One thing is clear about John Howard – his approach to the world was shaped by a childhood exposed to a narrow fundamentalist Methodism. Even the rare good he did in response to the Port Arthur shootings, came out of that rigid moralism that brooked no opposition. His rule reflected a hearkening back to a mythical past that was ill-suited to the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first. Twenty-first century Australians will continue to pay for that mythologizing of a 19th century religious certitude.

Realised capital gains should be taxed at similar rates to wages, with the CGT discount abolished. Modern digital record-keeping makes this feasible.

For individuals, the government could declare an annual inflation rate (using CPI or AWE) to calculate the real gain. The tax payable would then be based on the taxpayer’s average tax rate over the previous five years – a figure easily recorded on annual assessments.

Companies and discretionary trusts should pay the company rate, which should not be cut.

Negative gearing on residential property should be abolished. Where expenses, including interest, exceed income, these losses should be quarantined and used as a deduction against the capital gain only when the property is sold.

While Bob McMullen is correct that reform is needed, piecemeal adjustments are insufficient. The CGT discount entrenches an unfair divide between income from capital and labour, widening wealth inequality. This proposal places capital gains on the same footing as wages. Taxpayers already keep detailed records of expenses related to their assets; this system merely applies that rigour consistently and equitably.

Bob McMullan’s fix for capital gains means for example an investor who makes say $100,000 capital gain over some period of time (lets say 2-3 years) may pay up to 49 per cent in tax less a 25 per cent discount= $35,000 in tax. And if real inflation (higher than the unrealistic narrow basket of goods in the inflation index) runs around say 5 per cent, that leaves capital at perhaps real value of $0000 when sold less $35000 equals $55000. Perhaps one million dollars was used to buy the property which could have earned 10 per cent plus elsewhere or $30000 or in real terms $80000. And this is a best case scenario where rent paid covers all costs. Governments for decades have been pulling back social housing spend. In pulling back incentives for investors many of the smaller and large investors may be spooked out of the market to build homes. And of course, if the investment goes sour, into the negative, unlike wage earners the investor is not “paid” for his or her risk taking and efforts. Not sure this should be a priority, better to focus on reducing out of control spending and other demand factors like excessive levels of immigration.

Dr Jamal Rifi is one of the few talking sense in the debate about the return of women and children from the Syrian camps. Politicians are running in all directions hiding from their fears of a community backlash but it seems the Australian community is more mature than politicians think it is. It is obvious that Australia will be safer if these women and children are returned. Leaving the children there to breed up as future terrorists is insane. We have already had at least two cohorts return to Australia and there is no evidence that any of them have caused any trouble since their return. After the trauma of the camps, they want to get on with life, feed and educate their children, regret their past and look forward to a rewarding future. That’s what Australia is about. Giving people a fair go .

One cannot help but continue to wish that the Coalition’s ongoing yearning for a return to the glory of Nineteenth Century Australia where there was a place for everyone and everyone knew their place, does not change.

That will guarantee their continued occupation of the Opposition benches for the foreseeable future. Then the only problem will be how to neuter the attractiveness of the imbecility of Pauline to the diminishing band of older Australians whose most in-depth of thoughts centres around the feudal monarchy, empty nationalism and unrestrained racism!

A great article by Warwick that sets out the gigantic resources devoted to the most unproductive economic activities imaginable. Given that vast expenditure one would normally expect a military covered in glory. But what do we see?

Stalemate in Korea, defeat in Vietnam, defeat in Afghanistan, defeat in Iraq, defeat in Ukraine.

Major triumphs for that military – Panama with a population of a few hundred thousand, Granada with a population of a few hundred thousand, Haiti with a population of a few million. The only major win was the first gulf war.

The wins were against opponents that were either tiny in size, population or economy and were accompanied by slaughters of civilians and /or mass damage to civilian economies.

None of these wars, invasions or bombings, and there are many more, were against an enemy of even remotely comparable size or military strength.
The other growing powers have learned serious lessons from this US favour of industrial might over long term and successful strategy. They have been clever in developing asymmetric warfare that now drains the US exchequer without anything like comparable expenditures.

All US war games around an invasion of China show a convincing win by China.

Conditional history. What a fearful prospect. Amplified by media control of the narrative, the possibility of digging down into the issues underlying the conflicts currently raging across our world now hinges on conditions. These are often imposed by one or more of the main actors in any given conflict making it difficult if not impossible to rationally discuss just how we got into such a pickle.

Why did Russia feel it necessary to attack Ukraine? Why does China bristle at the mention of an independent Taiwan? Why does Iran feel it necessary to arm itself with a fearsome array of missiles? Why did Gaza explode on October 7?

Differing opinions can often cause offence, but if we want to find a way forward we need to get past our feelings of offence, both genuine and assumed, and start talking. This will be difficult. Some ugly truths will emerge, including instances of hypocrisy, deceit and bad faith. But that’s the hole we are now in, and that’s the hole we have to dig ourselves out of if we are to enjoy any sort of future for all at all.