Archives: Letters to the Editor

It is stretching language to a point at which it becomes meaningless to suggest that these are peace plans. A more accurate description of them is Orange Donald Press Releases. Neither contains a realistic assessment of the situation in Ukraine and Gaza and neither takes into account the wishes of the Ukrainian and Palestinian peoples. They are theatrics from an Administration unable to deal with reality.

It would seem that various parties to both conflicts may agree with the more benign and meaningless terms, (which incidentally comprises the vast bulk of both) but disagree violently on others. As they have been put together without seeking the advice and views of key parties to each they are unlikely to survive past the signing ceremony if that ever happens.

Like everything Trumpian they are empty of content and meant for the evening news!

Norway is often promoted as a role model for clean energy and a clean environment and social harmony. This view is faulty.

According to the International Energy Agency, as of 2023, Norway ranks approximately 10th in the world for per capita carbon emissions from fossil fuel exports. Norway’s per capita emissions are about 7.86 tons of CO₂ per year. This positions Norway among the higher emitters, primarily due to its significant oil and gas production. Like Australia, Norway heavily subsidies its fossil fuel industry (energypolicytracker.org). Norway has made significant public financial commitments to fossil fuels, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Norway’s subsidies for fossil fuels are substantially higher than those for renewable energy, with fossil fuel support being around five times greater than that for clean energy initiatives.

Australia needs to look beyond Norway for a cleaner energy and climate future. Sweden is worth a look. It has a number of environmental taxes including a carbon tax since 1991.

The US military’s killing of boats full of people off the coast of Venezuela is Trump’s way of getting America ready for the mid-terms. The message is – when I give the order to break the law you follow orders. Bombing and killing civilians without a trial in international waters is illegal.

US military personnel who are against breaking the law will leave and those who will agree to follow illegal orders, from the top down, will stay.

For Trump to retain power, he needs to win the mid terms which under a fair election he will lose. Trump will put the military on the streets in states the democrats are likely to win and they will harass supporters and voters. People will be killed including Democrat candidates.

America is headed for a mess.

I’d like to thank the author of the article for the work that he does in this space.

When referring to climate change, emissions, net zero and the like, may I suggest that we always add the cause: greenhouse gas (GSG) pollution. We need to emphasise these problems are caused by pollution.

The key word is pollution.

It is shocking that when National Party and Liberal Party politicians say they are abandoning net zero by 2050, their core voters, the farmers and small business owners cannot understand that it means their farms and their goods and services are going to be polluted. They cannot understand that their parties do not care about the waters, soils, oceans and atmosphere that they depend on, it’s the fossil fuel industries the politicians are protecting by allowing them to pollute. History should teach the voters that toxic waste sent down rivers never ended well.

It will be more long winded, for example, net zero GHG pollution emissions and climate change caused by GHG pollution, however the key word pollution will have an impact.

Hopefully the MSM journalists can also be pushed to use the word pollution when writing and talking about things like net zero emissions.

Having lived through all the changes described, I found this summary of the changes in fee policies over the decades very informative. I have stashed it for future reference. Thank you George Williams.

Following the outstanding insights of The Dismissal podcast, I wasn’t expecting another feast for thought so soon.

John Menadue’s just-concluded series on working as Malcolm Fraser’s senior bureaucrat is required reading, especially to those of us who took decades of persuading about Fraser’s humane vision. Curiously, Mr Menadue’s writing, despite its plain spoken directness of style, is deeply moving. He frames, with detail & clarity, Fraser’s record as a human rights fighter of historic distinction in and out of government.

As he emphasises, this was not some career re-definition or image makeover by a defenestrated ex-pm. What the post-Fraser Liberals never forgave him for – that he failed to institute treasury’s economic rationalist blueprint & consequently 1975 – 1983 were ‘wasted years’ – has always overlooked the fundamental truth that he understood economic Darwinism and rejected it.

Mr Menadue mentioned that the sight of Fraser’s dedication to Gough in his book gifted just before his passing brought him near to tears. Frankly I had a welling of similar emotion reading these lines. His poignant description of how these two remarkable antagonists found a deep and touching friendship after the most epochal political battle in our history is itself an astonishing story.

George Williams’ timely article is a fascinating account of the impact of Neoliberalism on ‘our’ tertiary education system.

Despite what Neoliberalists argue, education is a merit good – the nation gains more from the collective result than the overall cost. Whitlam was correct about fees.

Concomitant with their performance to date, I don’t see this government doing anything meaningful. Instead of increasing by inflation, the costs of a degree and an individuals’ HECS debt could be reduced by 5 per cent year on year.

I am telling my grandchildren that if they want to attend a university away from home (and hence incurring accommodation and food costs), it is now cheaper to get an undergraduate degree in Europe than Australia!

Scratch the surface only a little and you will find that all the social issues we are now facing can be traced back to the privatisation of public services and public utilities – a process that has never delivered on the promised results.

Privatisation became politically fashionable because of at every election we have the catch cry of “if you elect them they will put up taxes / no we wont” resulting in insufficient revenue without selling off assets which eventually end up with a government bail-out because the assets have been bled dry and cant afford to fail.

We have been fooled into believing in market forces which may work at the tradie, shop keeper end of town, but at the sharemarket end of town it only serves to make a very limited group of billionaires who can afford to buy government.

We have a finite planet with finite resources. The chemistry of those resources requires some absolute, measurable rebalancing to sustain a liveable climate. To preserve a sustainable environment we must achieve absolute reduction of atmospheric carbon pollution. Without setting clear and scientifically credible targets we will never achieve those goals.

The absolute goal that we must achieve hasn’t changed; the scale of that challenge increases day by day as insufficient policy action is taken. As we have seen, over the course of this century and before, the longer governments delay, the bigger the task ahead becomes.

At the end of the day we can achieve a sustainable environment within a range of atmospheric settings; the idea of ‘net zero by 2050’ is simply a clear target to focus global attention.

To ascribe the significance of net zero to metaphysical anxiety downplays the significance of the absolute reality of climate science. This is not a philosophical debate; it’s crucial to passing a liveable world on to our grandchildren.

Richard Cullen’s article points out negative effects of parts of the Australian establishment’s attitude to China.

I can remember when over 30 years ago many here were keen to assist in China’s development. eg. Zhengzhou province adopted the Australian model of OHS law. Working from a Chinese government plan for OHS 1990-2020, we were successful in a proposal to the Chinese Ministry of Labour for VET training in OHS.(Unfortunately WA authorities canned it because we had used personal contact, not official channels). However we did later succeed in publishing our textbook on OHS in Chinese through a Chinese press house. I was then able to provide the translator with a three month sabbatical studying OHS in Australia.

And subsequent to that was involved in assisting in the publishing in the international press of possibly the first open inquiry into an industrial accident, the Wenzhou high speed rail accident. A later one was on a bridge collapse. For our part we learnt of some Chinese ideas for OHS, such as the safety room at the entrance to a coal mine.

Were we wrong to collaborate? No, of course not. And it also led me to study Chinese, which re-orients your thinking.

Fred, I think, is a bit too charitable to these so-called authoritative voices of of the fabled Fourth Estate. The truth is they know the history but as Orwell so presciently wrote, they have deliberately consigned it to the “memory-hole”. These turgid propaganda mills are the outstanding practitioners of “double-speak” and “double-think”.

The sad part is the journos who churn out this pablum may in some instances want to tell the truth but know that doing so will drastically curtail their career and the ability to put food on the table. Some of course revel in the role of missionary for misinformation and indoctrination. It may be the only thing that gives meaning to their otherwise pointless existence, Others still actually believe the historically blind banalities that emerges from their callow psyches.

It needs to be remembered that the clearly stated intention of the social elites of Western culture for the last century has been to control the populace by controlling the narrative. That is the function of these organs of indoctrination. What they disseminate is largely the inverse of reality and truth!!

Another good article by Sachs and Fares.

It is, as I write, 769 days since the deadly Hamas assault, and 41 days since the second “ceasefire” (major reduction in mass murder of non-combatants). This is Donald’s announced plan. I select points 7 and 15. Re 7, UNRWA says aid is still a third of that required. The plan doesn’t envisage green and red zones. The immediate deployment of an International stabilisation force (ISF), even though the need was foreseeable months ago, hasn’t happened. So there is the plan but there needs to be, urgently, an action timetable.

Indonesia is training and readying 20,000 troops and Jordan’s King Abdullah, a key figure, has just visited Indonesia. Other nations must contribute now. Civil expertise in reconstruction is needed alongside military. Education and health aid too. Regardless of the deaths inflicted by and on both sides, it is time sanity prevailed, supported by the ISF. Once the ISF is in place, as well as the other human resources and money, attention then needs to broaden to include the issues in Northeast Palestine (the West Bank).

So there’s been “international condemnation” of Israel’s latest atrocities. Really? I didn’t hear a murmur from Australia, let alone anything remotely like any sort of condemnation.

But what’s the point of condemnation anyway? The UN and others say words like “unacceptable”, “strongly condemn” and “held accountable”. But they’re all a sick joke, aren’t they? Israel just keeps on committing genocide “knowing” no one will do anything to stop them.

I won’t be here to see it but I do wonder how history will whitewash Australia’s do-nothing stance, while continuing to trade in arms with Israel. Because it’s not hard to stop that trade. It’s not difficult to BDS.

It rather makes Australia complicit in this genocide.

A superb critique of the malignancy that was Graham Richardson that metastasised throughout the Party from the NSW Right. He was heartily detested by Whitlam as “a man on the make” whose only interest was in personal advancement and personal gain. He is no loss to a nation that might wish to aim for honesty and integrity in public life.

Richo epitomised what can happen to political parties when taken over by apparatchiks of the Machiavellian kind.

Further to John H Howard’s recent article I would contest that “Johns Hopkins remains a model for research-intensive universities”, especially after the role of Dr Paul Wheeler and its School of Medicine in the controversial black lung program back in 2013.

Sorry Ian McAuley, when it comes to housing it’s basically a question of supply and demand. And most of the demand comes from population growth, of which net overseas migration (NOM) makes up three quarters (315,900 of 423,400 people in the year ending March 2025). Natural increase should be coming down because of below replacement fertility (TFR is currently 1.5 births per woman). However, because of the influx of young adult migrants, natural increase remains above 100,000 annually.

So, the main way to reduce demand is to get NOM down to a point at which it is in balance with supply of new infrastructure and services. The recent slight decline has helped but there is still a huge backlog of housing that must be addressed. So, NOM needs to come down still further until every new and old Australian is housed properly.

It’s not the whole story of course. There is energy and environment. Growing human populations encroach on the habitats of other species, including the koala. They make it more difficult to reach our greenhouse emission reduction targets. Feeding ever more people often means cutting down forests for pasture or cropland.

At some point we have to stop growing.

The fundamental problem for the dying US empire is that of every dying empire. As it sickens from its own internal contradictions it increasingly turns to conjurers and sorcerers in the belief that by doing so the chosen conjurer can produce a magical solution to the malignancy within.

As logic and rationality are unable to address the ideological and factual contradictions that infest the public space the increasingly desperate population turn to who they believe offers a magical solution to the coming collapse.

The intellectual midget Donald Trump believes it is only he that, through his futile and incoherent actions, can solve the riddle. As a well established real-estate flim-flam artist he has also managed to convince a frightened population that his malignant narcissism will do the trick.

He, and the desperate population he has mesmerised with his infantile posturings, have simply forgotten the ancient Roman truism that he is a mere mortal without the God-like powers necessary to reverse inevitable civilisational collapse. Sadly the lesson must be learned the hard way!

I like Sweeney’s article about Boomers and agree with much of it, particularly his critique of capitalism. However, I cannot agree with his whitewashing of the Boomer generation’s responsibility (or rather irresponsibility) for what has happened during our lifetimes (I was born in 1951). As a generation we do bear much of the responsibility.

In many ways Boomers were handed life on a plate by our parents who had suffered the depression and WWII and were determined to create a better life for their kids, summed up by the creation of welfare states and the development of human rights. In the 60s we rebelled and promised so much. But what did we do (as a generation, not every individual) as we gained a voice and power?

We sat back, joined book clubs and built up our super balances. We were passive while malign forces changed the world as Sweeney describes. Worse, some who had benefited from our parents’ determination embraced neoliberalism and actively pulled up the ladder behind us.

Now we are expecting the next generations to suffer the consequences of our passivity and sort it all out.

Boomers will go down as one of the most disappointing generations ever.

As the reality of increasing US inability to continue to impose itself upon the rest of humanity begins to sink in to the fevered and disordered mind of the Orange Donald, he desperately seeks to find a way to remain the boss.

As his other efforts in sanctions, tariffs and funding of rogue states and stealing the assets of other states all appear to be failing to halt the US decline, the threat of the US nuclear arsenal probably seems to the far right boneheads of the Neo-Con movement in the US who he seeks counsel from, to be just the ticket.

Reality must intrude at some point when even he can see that the Russians and possibly the Chinese have developed weaponry in recent years which the US has no answer for. They have done this because unlike the US which is entirely reactive, they have planned for just such a development by a predictable bully as this.

Like almost everything else the US currently threatens it is an empty gesture without substance. Mere Donald theatrics to distract the masses.

Jack, Jack, Jack (sigh).

Richo is probably (though many of us would want more concrete proof than just a coffin with a body in it) dead. Now is hardly the time to smack us around the ears with accurate reporting, succinct analysis and realistic conclusions.

No, surely it’s time to go with the Albo vibe and ignore the fact that Richo was the paradigm grifter. Just because Richo made an art form of turning public office into private career upwards mobility should not beget repudiation of the idea that the societal role of a politician should be the advancement of the quality of life of one’s electorate.

Just means you have ethics. Poor fool you.

Way back in the early 90s I used to regularly dine of a Friday evening at a restaurant in Kingston, enjoying the pavement ambience with my partner. Our favorite table by happenstance was beside Richo’s favourite table.

Give him his due: Richo gave not a shit about who knew of his machinations. People with a functioning conscience needed to tune out his existence in order to eat.

https://ohnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/richos-grave-should-be-extra-deep/

To extend this analysis a bit further, one question is whether the Labor-Coalition political class and its right-wing offcuts are close to permanent and irrevocable disconnection from anything resembling “representative democracy”, and where that will lead.

It is increasingly apparent that broad sectors of Australian society increasingly understand that the political class at federal-state levels cannot be trusted to implement basic democratic policy agendas, because their “small target” commitments guarantee that they can pursue policies and expenditure of public funds however they like.

Those expenditures serve the interests of a small group of Australians, increase socio-economic inequality, strengthen industrial stagnation and irrelevance, and plough money into the Trump administration.

As Chair of the Australian Coal Association Ian was an intrepid and effective spokesperson of the coal industry when I knew him back in the 80s when I ran the NSW Maritime Services Board. He was always an engaging and intelligent spokesperson for that industry.

His Damascene conversion to a climate activist over the last couple of decades I have followed with interest as I always saw him as a person who allowed his common sense and acute intelligence to tell him that the industry to which he had devoted a considerable part of his life was one of the principal causes of the climate change that threatens human survival.

He speaks with an acute understanding of the issues and with a real commitment to an intelligent solution to this existential issue. He needs to be listened to.

Interesting read but not convinced.

The baby boomer parents suffered the depression and a war and yet went onto build Australia. They gave a home to their children, fed them, clothed them and provided an education and what did they get in return: rock and roll, long hair and protests.

The boomers became the me generation and dropped the ball. Even in retirement they blackmailed their way to be treated better than royalty.

Of all the things their parents were able to give them it lacked: “EMPATHY”.

Migration is an issue, as my article “More people. A solution or a big problem” demonstrates.

Whilst it’s true that pausing immigration here won’t alter the number of people on the planet, it would show the rest of the world that Australia recognises that every nation, including us, contributes to the climate crisis, and that regardless of where we live we all have a moral responsibility to address this existential threat.

The global climate crisis is driven by overpopulation. The problem is that there are too many people on the planet. That is an undeniable fact. One that is understood by a great many of us. Bringing in more people just worsens our situation and signals that we either don’t understand, or don’t care, about the impact that artificially increasing our population has.

This isn’t about race, or GDP, tax revenue, or statistics; it’s about a recognition that Malthus, Cousteau, Boulding and Attenborough are right. The mania for growth isn’t a solution; it’s a major part of the problem.

And it may well end up killing us all.

Whilst I agree with Patience’s expression of dismay against racism towards Chinese emanating from the Murdochracy and other right leaning bodies, I must stress the importance of tackling the root of the issue head on.

The people’s Chinese Revolution led to the breakaway of Taiwan as forced by the nationalist Kuomintang, who the US backed (now, not so much for ‘democracy’, unless you’ve seen pigs fly, but for microprocessors), and Australia continues to militarily align with the US. China has expressly stated they want Taiwan back under the Chinese umbrella and America aggressively defends their capitalist partner.

Our military alignment with the US and the growing regional prowess of China, has led us to become piggy in the middle. What is truly needed is a direct conversation with the US, who firmly believe that we will back them up if they blow a gasket. China is not a direct threat to us, however, we cannot have this conversation with the US if the decision is made by these larger powers to go to war. The conversation needs to be had now with the US to abate this existential threat, before it is too late for younger Australians.

The Coalition are, by far, the worst offender on climate inaction, but the Labor Government need to take serious note. They are not totally innocent on climate.

It’s time to accelerate Labor’s renewable transition.

Ongoing subsidies for fossil fuels are Twentieth-Century politics. The planet’s physics says It’s time for climate action well before 2035.

The ongoing legislative review of the EPBC Act needs to get serious on climate, to include “climate triggers” and old growth forestry logging moratoriums. Both appear to be ruled out in the current EPBC legislative review.

Moreover, It’s time for the national tax system to send strong signals to individuals and corporations to act in accord with reducing emissions.

Labor needs to ask itself a basic question – is its climate policy position closer to the LNP or The Greens? – with respect to the EPBC Act reform, especially following the LNP’s net zero backflip and apparent overt support for fossil fuels.

Australia needs to get serious about planning to leave our export dependence on coal and other fossil fuels before these fuels leave Australia!

The recent announcement by South Korea to totally exit coal power generation by 2040 should be a national wakeup call.

Those who still peddle climate denialism are either shills or fools.

Their rejection of the need for climate action is not rooted in a denial of the science, but in the conviction that their wealth can insulate them and that the most devastating costs will be borne by others less fortunate—both nations and individuals.

To them I say – You are wrong.

Taxes and insurance premiums will skyrocket to rebuild infrastructure shattered by storms and fires or infrastructure will degrade into ruins. Wars over dwindling resources will consume the globe creating waves of mass migration of desperate people. Exploding poverty and deprivation will fuel crime and civil unrest. Your desire for security will have you cowering behind gated walls.

Fascist governments will systematically dismantle individual rights, including yours. You will have to navigate the entrenched corruption that fascism breeds.

For what you have wrought, your children will rightly despise you and, any vestige of humanity you retain will drive you into a sea of self-loathing.

What can one say about this dog’s breakfast of a solution to the genocide in Gaza? The entire construction of it is colonialism revived and given a modern face. No power for the people of Palestine except at some time in the possible future, but with the mandate and composition of the body supposedly oversighting this farce indicating clearly where power will lie.

If anyone believes that if HAMAS is dis-armed the Israelis won’t then proceed to complete the genocide I have a really nice bridge to sell them. Israel has ignored the various ceasefires in the past, has lied and carried out murderous attacks both on the Palestinians and Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran whilst negotiations were supposedly underway.

Their Zionist political ideology has been deliberately linked to the most extreme parts of the Torah and their belief that “their” God has given them approval to do whatever they want to whomever takes their fancy. HAMAS will not, and should not disarm before a gold plated guarantee of the elimination of the Israeli ability to finish the genocidal job they have been working towards for 80 years.

While Ronald Keith makes many good points, there’s reason to feel there’s some he’s misinterpreted. When it comes to China recognising world order, the annexation of Tibet, the invasions of India (1962) and Vietnam (1979), the expressed intention of annexing Taiwan, and its belligerence in the South China Sea, suggests China accepts only a Chinese world order.

Mentioning the percentage of world population without reference to greenhouse gas emissions also warrants review. Emissions from China and India make up 40 per cent of the global output. It hardly looks as though they’re aligning themselves with COP decrees to stabilise the planet’s atmosphere as part of a universal solution to climate warming, or the benefit of their citizens.

America’s 12.6 per cent is equally unhelpful, but then, so is much of Donald Trump’s chaotic administration.

If we’re going to accept a new “World Order”, which is quite an easy position to take, we should overlay it with some political reality, question the evidence and use some living history as a template. Nations will always act in their own interests. China has already buffered its western flank with the Russian alliance; a non-aggression pact with Modi’s India would buffer its southern flank. Ringing any bells yet?

PJK rarely misses the bullseye when he launches a broadside, and this does not suggest otherwise.

I have watched Melick’s performance with a mixture of mirth and despair – and I was a senior member of staff when Ruxton was the RSL stooge on Council. Ruxton, for all his idiosyncrasies, was far preferable to Melick.

As another of the recent coterie of ex-Army Reserve majors-general we have witnessed exhibiting all the competence of some notable British senior Army commanders of World War I vintage, it beggars the imagination as to why that career path should be considered an advantage for inclusion in any organisation.

Wikipedia indicates that Melick, gained his reputation as a heavy hitter from time spent managing cadets, organising materiel supply and being a major (pun intended) driving force for his brigade’s successes in Army games. He certainly wears medals aplenty, though for what I am not cognisant. Possibly folding blankets.

Mind you, as an ex-cadet from the early 1960s, none but the brave would take on the role of commander. Australia barely survived us.

However, being the head of the RSL is more fitting for determining strategy for expanding poker machine revenue than Australia’s defence.