Archives: Letters to the Editor

Thank you Professor Kathy Eager for outlining the issues facing older people and the incoming government which will implement aged care reform. One issue facing older recipients of aged care packages is finding people to carry out the care.

Here is an example from one older person. This 89-year-old woman has been informed she can have someone to clean the home she shares with her older and ailing husband. Big sigh of relief you might imagine.

However, there are no cleaners available in her area. Why? She has learned that the cleaners have all gone to NDIS, which pays more than aged care. It is to be hoped that the ministers responsible for NDIS and for aged care consult and co-operate to sort out this problem.

Let’s welcome John Menadue’s angry words about the Murdoch press and others who have been able to treat the genocidal turpitude of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza with Nelsonic blind eyes.

Although these people may now be getting off lightly, the time will surely come when ignominy will pay them a terrible visit, and the sooner the better.

The Indonesian media garners and recycles news on its southern neighbour, largely from the Oz legacy press.

Till now, few readers across the archipelago would have known of our lively independent journalism, so it was generous of The Australian to give Pearls and Irritations a free plug.

John Menadue’s powerful commentary might have gone unnoticed, but for the pro-Israel Murdoch media making a meal out of his ANU speech.

In doing so, the paper has revealed to the secular Republic, with more Muslims than any other state, a truth about our nation.

A writer of John’s calibre publicly disowning the equivocal stance of our politicians. and confronting blatant bias, shows a quality that gives us pride:

We have leaders of conscience with views and morals untethered to the Zionist lobby who speak out frankly and forcefully.

Single thanks, Rupert.

Singular thanks, John.

Both the major parties (and even the Greens) embrace economic neoliberalism. This sees the federal government acting like a household, with household-like budget constraints. And on this view, budgets should therefore be balanced, or even in surplus.

This, however, causes private debt to increase, which in turn causes the cost-of-living crisis, such as we have now. We need instead to change focus and to balance the economy, not the budget, with carefully targeted deficits, even deficits in perpetuity, if necessary.

Despite neoliberal scaremongering, it is a fact that our currency-issuing federal government is not like a household. It can never “go broke” and can always pay any debt denominated in Australian dollars.

Two final points to consider: A government deficit results in a non-government surplus; and a government surplus results in a non-government deficit.

John Menadue’s lecture to an ANU audience on 27 April is the best statement I have yet seen on the appalling genocide unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank. The personal historical perspective gives it added weight, history which most commentators have been determined to ignore.

John’s honesty stands in stark contrast to the Israeli Government/Zionist propaganda which the bulk of Australia’s mainstream media have almost exclusively fed to the community since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. Bias for which the MSM should hang their heads in shame.

And then there is the utter hypocrisy of the Western nations, Australia included, that continue to support Israeli Government policies despite continually bleating about the inhumanity of it all. Particularly the US.

The case for independent media has never been greater.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, John Menadue for the text of your speech delivered at the Palestinian rally at the ANU on 27 April – “Never Again” not only for Jews,Israel’s awful hypocrisy  but for Palestinians and all of humanity”.

Disappointing, but not surprising, that it didn’t find its way in the mainstream media. Like most of our politicians, they are cowering under pressure from Israel and its enablers, here and abroad.

Your piece says it all, and is arguably the finest ever delivered on the awful hypocrisy and complicity on the part of Western governments when it comes to Israel’s occupation, apartheid and ongoing genocide.

Thank you for the journal, your “frank and fearless” reporting, and your leadership.

John Menadue’s article on 30 April, in response to The Australian’s disgraceful excuse for journalism on the matter of Israel’s destruction of Palestine, is a timely reminder of just how much propaganda masquerading as news Australians are exposed to.

In its distorted and inflammatory coverage of a “Vote for Humanity” event at ANU on 27 April at which Menadue spoke, The Australian has helped perpetuate the carnage in Gaza and the oppression of Palestinian people.

Just as the practice of medicine itself (and much, much more) is under direct attack in Gaza, with more than 1000 healthcare workers killed, so too is the work of those who report on it. More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. One might have expected our mainstream media to care about that, but their coverage of it has been scant.

As another speaker at the same ANU event, I witnessed no hint whatsoever of anti-Jewish feeling from the speakers or audience. On the contrary, there is a growing awareness that peace is needed for all, and genocide cannot bring that. There is a desperate need for media outlets in Australia to question the use of the increasingly abused term “antisemitism” to silence dissent.

History will judge those who, as in the 1930s, failed to condemn policies that subject a whole population to unspeakable cruelty. But that’s little comfort to those cowering from Israel’s terror right now.

When our media attack people of such impeccable credentials as Menadue, rather than seek to understand and present his views, they’re getting desperate. May his creation, Pearls and Irritations, continue to play the extremely important role it has in reporting what other outlets won’t.

John Menadue should be commended for displaying the sort of courage, outspokenness and commitment to international law and human rights that is so conspicuously absent in the mainstream media and among our political representatives.

His many articles in Pearls and Irritations, and his recent speech at the ANU, are reminders of what political courage looks like in an era of political cowardice and complicity in cruelty. He calls out the endless atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people for what they are – a genocide.

He is unequivocal about the complicity of silence that surrounds Australia’s response to what is occurring day in, day out in the occupied territory. He makes plain that no red lines appear to exist for the Australian Government or the MSM when it comes to the tragedy in Gaza – moral and legal lines that should, in any decent society, trigger condemnation and calls for international action.

Instead, Australian politics ignores the obvious and concerns itself with how to address the cost-of-living crisis while ignoring the existential cost of living for the men, women and children of Gaza.

Menadue is right to shame our silent and complicit media, who, in responding to his principled speech at the ANU, could only mock and distort.
Much to the relief of all humanitarians and advocates of international law and human rights, the community that John has created around Pearls and Irritations demonstrates a moral determination to ensure that the slaughter in Gaza will not be ignored.

How can complicit journalists and politicians ever be taken seriously again when they talk blithely about a “rules-based order” or the “rule of law”? They might well benefit from reading John’s many articles and those of other humanitarians.

They also might wish to ponder the words of Martin Luther King: “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the [supposed] good people.” My addition.

Words cannot express my gratitude to John Menadue for his indefatigable and invaluable work against the genocide of Palestinians. At a time when the compliant media has reacted with either deafening silence or lies, John has continued to speak up, with exceptional intellectual and moral clarity.

When dealing with the so-called Israel/Hamas war, mainstream media is replete with distorted framing and deceitful reporting. The so-called journalists have dehumanised Palestinians and manufactured consent for the genocide. We are fortunate to have Pearls and Irritations and other sources of independent journalism.

Should “vested interests” alone decide what’s “newsworthy”?

We have John (and the late Susie) Menadue to thank for the very existence of P&I where not only public policies can be aired, or thoughtful opinions about them, but also critical global matters – and their consequences.

Could Susie and John possibly have anticipated how essential P&I would become to serious readers as we face the most devastating moral failure of our time (along with failing adequately to slow global warming)? A failure fully enabled and endorsed by Western powers and media?

The coverage that P&I has given to the dehumanising and near-total dispossession of Palestinians at the hands of Israel’s most extreme government ever exists in stark contrast to the ethically bankrupt defence of those actions in legacy media, including the ABC. When protestors of genocide are effectively silenced by cries of antisemitism, the accounts we can read in P&I ensure that we can and do “bear witness”.

John’s own contributions are profound. He writes (and publishes P&I) as a man of faith and passion who will not be intimidated. Readers are part of this story also, not as passive “bit players”, but fully alongside. Thank you, John. Thank you, P&I.

Our planet is heating more rapidly than expected, with 2024 proving, contrary to most expectations, warmer than the El Nino-powered 2023. There will be many reasons why this is happening, including ever-increasing carbon pollution, reduced sulphate cooling and the shrinking global icecaps.

If, as David Spratt predicts, 2025 is warmer again, then this will portend a dangerous trend accelerating our environmental deterioration. Urgent action would be required on a global scale.

In that case, COP31, in 2026, will hold critical significance. Should Australia, with the Pacific Islands, win the right to host this event we will have the opportunity to lead the world in what could be the most significant conference since Paris in 2015.

Achieving this will require powerful, sustained diplomacy to achieve the early, substantial and sustained emission reductions that the planet will need to retain a habitable environment.

We need to elect a strong government now which is committed to effective climate action and which will confront these challenges with courage and determination.

I am a very ordinary man aged 83 and for the life of me I cannot understand the savagery evident in this world, not only Israel against the Palestinians, but also in the Sudan, Russia and Ukraine.

Humanity has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. We forget that if a man gaisn the whole world but loses his soul, he is a loser.

I weep for the parents whose children have been murdered in the name of a God who doesn’t seem too concerned. Israel has just celebrated the Passover which, at its core, is a celebration of the killing of its enemies’ first-born children sanctioned by its God. No wonder that I have given up.

Alison Broinowski succintly offered a heartfelt picture of clarity and courage related to Australia’s alternative posture in the world.

Meanwhile the voters, more or less resigned to reactive mediocrity from our leaders, will munch on their democracy sausages on Saturday and vote indifferently for Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Where has the Australian vision gone Albo and Dutto? Can you pick a single onshore item related to climate, generational inequality and student debt, long-term power generation, real housing solutions or future disaster management goals that anyone will remember you for after you cash in your super?

After the speeches are made on Saturday night and you have been suitably “humbled”, you really need to give us some ideas.

John sums up the issue of Palestine deftly

Yesterday, Donald Trump made another forlorn plea to Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine.

Yesterday also saw a young Palestinian boy flung through the air by an Israeli bomb on his house, killing everyone in his family but him and his mother. He was seen sitting shellshocked mere minutes later in the rubble that had been his house.

This is the war that Trump does have the power to stop today. What is it about him that makes him unable to be moved by the sight of that little boy and his mother?

Or by the knowledge that the rest of that family and 2000 other Palestinians have been murdered by Israel with Trump’s acquiescence since the partly US-brokered ceasefire was broken by Israel?

My respect for John Menadue continues to grow daily as his transparent honesty, compassion and courage evident in speaking the truth are a beacon of light in an ever darkening world!!!

Freer world trade and rules to support it have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of dire poverty on the Asian side of the Pacific. Freer trade has benefitted millions of Australians by way of cheaper prices, but it has also reinforced the view that the planet’s resources are unlimited, and we have some sort of human right to consume far more than other people.

On a planet with eight billion others, we are resource greedy in our energy use, in our habitual waste of materials, and in our ability to look the other way when natural environments are being destroyed.

Rules-based world trade arrangements are not perfect, but the ill-considered, erratic actions of President Donald Trump risk damaging the livelihoods of billions of people and driving us toward wars. The sort of “strong man” leadership cults that have infected the US, China, Russia and many smaller countries expose ordinary people to the real risk of nuclear wars, and the economic miseries of another Great Depression.

All wars, economic, military, and wars over national status, make victims of decent people around the world who love their kids, want to earn a living, and want to leave the world.

Douglas Newton’s poignant words speak to the truth of war: it’s the political leaders who declare it and it’s the people who die and suffer as a consequence.

I know ANZAC is special to Australians, but I stopped going to the dawn service when I found myself standing behind a bunch of teenage boys wearing Australian flags as superman capes. They were at a ceremony honouring those who fell fighting against the very nationalism they were personifying.

As a multicultural society, I’d like to see the fallen of all nations respected in the march, including those against whom we fought. I’m sure Vietnam vets would welcome those they fought beside in that pointless and futile American adventure. The universal soldier is not our natural enemy. It’s the greed of those who gain from war and the ignorance those who clamour their support.

Reading the diary entries from the Diggers who fought through the killing fields of World War I, I’m sure they would agree.

If I were the relevant minister, I would make the tax-deductible donations to schools’ building and library funds be put into a central pot to be shared equally between all schools around Australia.

Otherwise, end the tax-deductibility of such donations. Why should private schools’ extravagant and lavish facilities essentially be subsidised by taxpayers (through foregone revenue) while public schools have barely serviceable ones?

There’s nothing stopping private school parents and alumni donating to upgrade their schools’ facilities – just not at the opportunity cost of everyone else.

May I add a thought to Andrew Podger’s suggestions? A number of federal public servants exercise enormous power over us as their fellow citizens. This power is often delegated, by a minister, or a more senior public servant. So there should be an easily accessible website which contains a full list of current delegations, the name of the delegate, the start and end date of the power, and the legal extent of the power.

After the Scott Morrison multiple ministry episode, the same should apply to the certificates of ministerial appointment issued by the governor-general.

Does the legal maxim delegatus non potest delegare still apply, that is a delegate cannot sub-delegate? During COVID, the Health Department would not reveal who a delegate was, the ombudsman/OAIC backed them up, using mind-bending external legal advice from a firm, whose data on federal government appellants was hacked.

Some federal public service commissioners seem reluctant to enforce the Code of Values. Discussing a key position in the TV series Yes Minister, the question was were they “sound”, ie. would they rock the boat?

Thank you, Abul. Again, you’ve kept us up-to-date with the latest developments on an issue vital to Australian responsibility. This helps us become sensitive to our immersion within the massive people movements of our globe and also those in our immediate South West Pacific neighbourhood.

Yet, we are left with the question of why the parties, whose endorsed MPs will maintain control of both government and Opposition benches in Parliament, remain so stringently silent about these complex affairs of our neighbours and neigbourhood. Why aren’t the issues you describe so well raised? Are they afraid of admitting a lack of success in countering the trends? Does not their silence anticipate negative electoral consequences for their “side”?

It seems likely. But such electoral strategy opens the door of public discussion to “patriots” trumpeting superficial solutions. At this time, Australia needs a political vision that includes ourselves within our complex region, giving due respect to our polity’s role in our neighbourhood. This means respect for all our region’s indigenous people, while recognising this part of the globe is a favoured destination for many fleeing tyranny.

First, welcome to P&I. You are now editor of a very valuable site and I wish you well.

I have noticed that there has recently been articles published like the one above where the author is not identified. I believe it is important to know the identity of all of the entries so that we can understand the position from which they write.

Michael Keating writes, “the Greens are too extreme for many voters”. It is reasonable for him to highlight this as it does seem to be a common sentiment. But how true is it?

First, assuming that there are some voters who think that the policies of the Greens, or at least some of them, are too extreme, I’d like to see rigorous research that clarifies which policies such voters are referring to and how many believe that each one is too extreme. My prejudice, which I’d be happy to see disproven by evidence, is that most people who say such things have little detailed knowledge of Greens policies and might well support many of them if they did have such knowledge.

Second, I have looked at six or more election scorecards in the last week or two, admittedly all from organisations that would be considered “progressive” or “left leaning” – a general characteristic of many P&I readers, I suspect. The scorecards all come to the same conclusion which can be summarised as: on a score out of 10, the Coalition scores 0-2, Labor 3-5 and the Greens 9-10. Looks more like strongly supported policy than extremism to me.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, through their Doomsday Clock, identifies nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies as the three most significant threats to humanity.

So, given the absence of climate change from the election, Michael Keating’s conclusion that “it should be possible for a minority Labor Government to reach agreement on improved policies affecting government integrity and procedures, the environment and climate change” is encouraging.

But Keating is mistaken to write, “fossil fuels only create emissions when burned, not when they are dug up.” Both the gas and coal industries leak methane (fugitive emissions) and in Australia the extent of these emissions is significantly under-reported. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and as the World Bank writes, “Cutting methane from oil and gas production is low-hanging fruit in tackling climate change, and critical to aligning the global energy sector with a global 1.5˚C warming trajectory, as agreed in the Global Methane Pledge launched at COP26.” Australia signed the pledge in 2022, but is yet to implement a comprehensive national plan.

The Greens and Teals will “motivate” a minority Labor government to get cracking.

References

2025 Doomsday Clock Statement

Not Measured, Not Managed: Australia remains ignorant of its coal mine methane problem

This is one of the most lucid comments on the employment services I have seen. It sets out precisely what the problems are and how they might be resolved.

It is an indictment of both Labor and the LNP (and particularly the former as the supposed party of the workers) that neither has ever seemed to have analysed these problems (or maybe they have and shoved the results in too hard or too inconvenient cupboard).

Let’s hope that someone in the major parties reads this and starts proposing changes to the current situation.

Michael Keating writes many great articles: but I am nitpicking here! He wrote, “But fossil fuels only create emissions when burned, not when they are dug up.”

I beg to differ. Both in onshore and offshore contexts, the extraction process itself, before the gas is used by customers, leaks a surprisingly large proportion of the gas targeted. This varies by location and technology used, but is rarely negligible. I suggest a fact-check!

I have been concerned about the lack of realistic choices in this election. The interchangeable nature of the big two for me means this article is a vote changer.

If there were more widespread knowledge of what is happening with our defence spending/industry, I believe more people may change their vote.

Oh well, it’s only two weeks and then Albo and Dutts can go back their shared biweekly home BBQ and their jokes about the naïveté of the electorate.

“Trump thinks this is about trade. China knows it’s about sovereign independence, resisting the foreign bully and its determination to never again be at the mercy of foreign powers.”

This is a lesson Australia could well learn. It has never detached itself from the apron strings of the UK or the US.

It has always been content to hide behind its sporting achievements.

As we sit back and watch our right to protest being eroded by both parties, only our vote is left. In this farce of an election, where most independents are preference-gathering, disgruntled, ex-members of the big two (really one), it is difficult to find out the policies/leanings of the rest.

What will it take to motivate apathetic voters to get up and vote for change? An informal vote is not an answer and should not be encouraged.

Once again, as in times of crisis, the right has resurrected the ever-present suggestion of conscription. Maybe that will be enough to force some change/protest as it did with Vietnam.

Is there anyone left in Parliament who marched or stood on the side and heckled?

An excellent article. Hits the nail on the head. Too timid and too worried about shadows rather than being bold. The events of the last few days, with Peter Dutton now practically mounting a scare that China is going to blockade us with its military, are getting so extreme it put me in mind of a bolder Labor leader heading into the 1983 election.

When Malcolm Fraser stated, “If Labor wins this election, your money will be safer under the bed”, Hawke, to great laughter, responded: “Under the bed? But there’s no room, isn’t that where all the communists are hiding? I mean, the man is getting desperate isn’t he?”

Somehow, I can’t imagine Albo being that sharp. Nice, decent man and I have supported him against all the bullying calls of “weakness”, but he is not bold.

Dutton, on the other hand, is getting so desperate, to paraphrase Paul Keating (if he was prime minister now, this election would have been over weeks ago BTW), “Next he’ll be offering you a free set of steak knives.”