Archives: Letters to the Editor

Geoff Watson’s totally magnificent summation of the whole Nelson/armament manufacturers relationship in the ABC 4 Corners presentation on 10 March, was for me the quintessential moment of the whole program.

I refer those who have not read it to do so: Dr. Nelson is, for sure his greatest asset.

But the whole issue of the Australian War Memorial accepting and acknowledging “donations” from armament manufacturers is a truly rotten cancer on our society. What do the armament manufacturers gain from these substantial sums of money? Don’t for a moment think there is no benefit they seek in so “donating”.

The benefit bought is that of creating an association with the perceived goodness of the Anzac cloak. Sweeping their malignant business under the majestic carpet of the “Anzac Legend”, of valour, sacrifice, mateship, and defence of our nation.

For a deeper dive, read this.

Fanciful stuff? Chase down what companies have “donated” in up to several $100ks of sums, and what companies have received mega-million $$ contracts from the Australian Government.

Much better, and more reliable return than betting the farm on crypto.

And for Nelson, a grand job indeed.

“Teals” started as random strangers across Australia who saw Indi’s success and dared to imagine a more engaged and effective MP representing them.

Community independents weren’t looking for a career in politics. But Liberal disdain for women encouraged, not thwarted, them. While current community independents are mostly women, they have so many male supporters that gender balance will likely arrive eventually.

It’s insulting to suggest community independents and their supporters think primarily only of their own area. Major drivers are climate change, integrity in government and a better deal for women. Hardly local. Kooyong supporters proudly say their MP, Monique Ryan, worked with Bill Shorten to improve the NDIS, is a member of the Select Committee on Nuclear Energy, had significant influence in reducing HECS debts, while “at the same time” being on the front line in Kooyong.

Woldring’s failure of imagination shows when insisting we must have “genuine majority government”. Minority governments worked in the past. The mixed-composition crossbench is the true Opposition in the current parliament, the Liberals’ repetitive “No” contributing nothing.

So why not even more community independents? Individuals pooling ideas, debating them, coming to consensus decisions works elsewhere. Trying it in government couldn’t be worse than what we’ve got.

Peter Cronau raises the key question: Why wouldn’t Defence have been monitoring transmissions from the ships from when they were first off Queensland?
Of course, the warning to aircraft would have been in plain language.

But if you think of the cracking of the German Enigma code and of the Nazi high command code during WWII, how good is Defence at reading encrypted codes from other navies? After all, right now Russia, Iran and China are conducting joint naval exercises in the northwest Indian Ocean (yes, that’s the one that touches Australia for thousands of kilometres), according to Al Jazeera.

This is a place where an Australian naval officer currently commands a joint naval task force, although at the moment it is reportedly a force without an Australian ship. And last year a three-ship Iranian naval group reportedly circumnavigated the globe.

May I suggest your satire detection equipment is not functioning? In compelling scorn and condemnation from the galleries of gullibility, this (Mr. Doyle’s original) clinical exercise in tongue-in-cheek sarcasm renders a simultaneous take-down of Facebook as anything reliable for fact-based journalism. Whither scepticism – already a crime?

I cast my mind back over all those war movies that I have had the misfortune to have watched over my 73 years and I’m thinking of a remake of Hogans Heroes.

From our present group of federal members, I have no hesitation in picking one for the role of Colonel Klink. Who is most suited for the uniform? What’s yours?
I will leave you to think on Gomer Pyle and McHale’s Navy.

Building knowledge and understanding, first and foremost of nature and ecology, has been a critical element in humanity’s development of farming, and of the villages, towns and cities — and ultimately civilisations — that subsequently evolved during the past 11,700 years of favourable, stable climate.

Another factor in the spread of civilisation has been mankind’s innate aggression, and desire to control and conquer. This factor, as personified by Donald Trump, is now threatening to destroy a lot of the knowledge that we hold, and are building, about the environmental health of our planetary home, and about what we must do to address its ailments.

Trump’s rejection of climate knowledge and understanding, and his drive to deny that knowledge to his people, is the leading light of a broader climate-denial movement fostered, and to a considerable extent financed, by the fossil fuel industry – the primary driver of those ailments.

Ignorance may be bliss, but it can also be dangerous. Climate science knows that we are on the cusp of an environmental crisis tipping beyond our control. We need humanity to understand the threats that we face, and accept the urgent steps we must take to counter those.

To paraphrase Peter Arnett’s “…unnamed American major…” after the battle of Bến Tre 1968 – “It became necessary to destroy democracy to save it”. Brute force in Romania and Georgia negated the popular will.

In the EU, la Macaroon’s outsmarting himself paralysed parliament in France.

In Ireland, FF/FG, played musical chairs for the last six years and continue doing so after last year’s election, preventing the party with a majority of voters from forming government.

In the Netherlands, since 2023 the usual suspects have played the same game to keep out Geert Wilders.

In February, Germany is reduced to using the same worn-thin carbon paper as a shield against the AfD.

Here the “Labor Government” has relied upon the LNP to pass more than 90% of legislation to obviate crossbench amendments.

Buffalo Springfield (1966): “There’s something happening here/what it is ain’t exactly clear/There’s a man with a gun over there/Telling me I got to beware/battle lines being drawn/people speaking their minds/Paranoia strikes deep/Into your life it will creep/It starts when you’re always afraid/Step out of line, the men come and take you away..”

A LibLab “national salvation” government after May if voters continue to get it wrong. Couldn’t happen here… could it?

One would have thought, or expected, exactly what we got – that our mainstream media would report exactly as it did upon discovery of “that” caravan in Dural. It’s a bit hard to break the habit of a century. When did anyone last read a positive article about any Arab, Middle-Eastern or otherwise, Muslim or otherwise, in the MSM?

We still get scant reporting on how bad it is for the oppressed of Palestine. What P&I reader has learned more about the genocide in Palestine from the MSM than from P&I itself, Bisan on Instagram, Al Jazeera and the like? Very few, I’d wager.

The pro-Israel lobby and Holocaust industry have it sewn up. Israel good. Palestine bad. Any and all criticism of Israel is antisemitism. Politicians bought. History turned on its head. There is a loooong way to go for justice and peace.

Everything old is new again. It may be true that “you can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time“ works well until you stop teaching history in schools and you control what little history is taught.

The books are burning but ex-prime ministers live forever.

Whoosh?? On the other hand, Dr Patience’s response to Eugene Doyle is so totally deadpan that I can’t completely discount the possibility that I, and no doubt many others, have been counter-whooshed. Hyperwhooshed, if you prefer.

If so, well played, sir! But next time, could you give us just a slight clue, so that the more astute among us can pick it up? Unless, of course, there was one, but I was insufficiently astute to detect it. In which case, colour me embarrassed.

It’s not Australia that should be afraid by abandonment, it is Britain and the US. When push comes to shove, Australia has always been there for both countries, whereas they have never been there for Australia.

Read the history of the fall of Singapore and the Burma rail and even The Rats of Tobruk. Australia was a convenient hiding place (overpaid, over-sexed, and over here) for the US until their war machine got going.

Even when it came to building the bomb, Australia was there for both of them with design and testing. We have shown before what we are capable of designing and building in time to stand alone as a peaceful trading partner to all.

This article is highly contentious. Apart from the dubious claim that it draws from a “leaked” account of some in-depth exploration of the leaders’ personalities; the account which it offers is reflective of an old-fashioned and simplistic Freudianism, long discredited.

Were Starmer and Macron subjected to interviews by a range of relevant experts? Most likely not. We should be extremely cautious about these kinds of sensationalised “exposes”.

The Balkan wars of the 1990s should have been a salutory reminder of the extent to which the failure to screen post-war migrants has undermined our social cohesion. Croats and Serbs had kept the WWII atrocities alive to the point where a new generation displays the same hostility to fellow Australians. Right-wing politics in Australia continues to be infected with a strong undercurrent of racism.

When conservative politics relies on these fascist tropes, we all lose. In an uncertain world, we need our political parties to draw on the very best of their origins. There is some evidence that the Teals have not been infected with the fascist heritage that has come to characterise the Liberals.

What a choice we have facing us, folks! Spineless/gutless versus brainless/heartless. I’d add soulless to the latter, except that it’s not anatomical, strictly speaking. Does it getter any better than that? Let’s hope that electable Plan Bs are on the menu in most electorates.

No one stole American jobs. Neoliberal big business magnates sent them offshore where they paid even less for labour than they did to the US working poor. All for greater profit. Thus the dire straits of US jobs and manufacturing in 2025.

As for Australia having no levers to pull: Pine Gap, Tindall, Darwin, Exmouth ….

But those “values“. We must acknowledge the US as one of the most violent countries on earth. Internally the NRA and the death it wreaks. Externally we participated in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan for no gain, only loss to us and the countries we attacked … to satisfy the US. But we rarely acknowledge the destruction wrought by the US in Central and South America, north Africa, and now ongoing in Palestine. Not to mention big business coercion: grow this size potatoes, these coffee beans, …

The powerful US military-industrial lobby and Murdoch media have forever fooled our politicians, military, media and large swathes of the population. The US will only ever look after itself. It’s time to rebel, cut the ties, live independently as the mature country we can be if not shackled to the US and values we do “not” share.

Under the Nationality Act of 1920 (Cth), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders born after 1 January 1921 were deemed to be British subjects. This only applied to the then future Indigenous people, not the then existing population. Under the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 (Cth), those Indigenous people who were British subjects were automatically deemed to be Australian citizens, along with the non-indigenous population. In the 1967 Referendum, Australian citizenship was granted to all Indigenous people, regardless of date of birth.

The issue of voting is more complex. Prior to Federation, some of the Australian colonies permitted their indigenous population to vote. Others didn’t. With Federation, voting rights were granted to the Indigenous population only if they had been able to vote prior to Federation. In 1949, the federal government extended voting rights to any Indigenous person who had served in the armed forces. This did not apply to those states who had not yet granted voting rights to their indigenous population. Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962, all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were given the option of enrolling and voting in federal elections. Unlike other Australians, this was not compulsory.

Any suggestion that it is un-Australian to criticise Australian politicians for their actions or inactions would probably be met with actions ranging from the rolling of eyes to shrieks of derisive laughter. The media and available books suggest that similar criticisms of American politicians are not un-American and the same philosophies or freedoms seem to be applicable in Britain. Then, those are apparently democratic countries, or hold themselves out to be.

Why are criticisms of Israeli politicians regarded as un-Israeli, other than that those politicians have invented and weaponised a special word for un-Israelianism? If mere objective criticism is to be taken as un-Israeli then, of course, one must contemplate a reasonably logical assumption, that Israeli governance is not democratic, in which case, why should it not be criticised?

(Is the expression “un-Israelianism” sufficiently cynical to warrant an accusation of antisemitism?)

The political and mass media crusade to sanctify the genocide being perpetrated by the Zionist Netanyahu government of Israel is too slowly being peeled back, exposing the unconscionable power of the Zionist industry in Australian society.

We passed over the extremely suspect arson of the Adass synagogue with far too little serious examination of the circumstances and background of Zionist activity (especially Mossad’s known history of “false flag” operations).

Now we have — at last — some irrefutable evidence that “antisemitism” is being weaponised in defence of the Zionist genocidal abomination with the AFP announcement that the “Dural Bomb Caravan” was no more than a hoax generated wearing a “terrorist” cloak.

The political conflagration that erupted following the initial reports exemplifies the craven obeisance to the Zionist industry that is ripping the heart out of social cohesion, not just for those identifying with Palestinian ethnicity, but also the growing community of Jews who seek a decent and humane resolution of the situation in Palestine.

We must repudiate and condemn the noxious emanations that will, if unchecked, condemn Israel to the same international opprobrium as landed on Germany post 1944. All decent Jews deserve a better future.

Thank you to Peter Sainsbury for highlighting the serious and multifaceted environmental problems that result from salmon farming in Tasmania. The industry is a revolting demonstration of corporate and political greed.

According to the Australia Institute, the three multinational corporations behind industrial salmon farming pay no company tax (despite selling more than $4 billion worth of fish since 2019) to literally leave their crap in Tasmania’s beautiful waters. And Anthony Albanese has just promised $37 million to support this industry.

Disturbingly, both major political parties have demonstrated that they are beholden to the salmon industry, even though it offers little to the Tasmanian economy and is at increasing risk of disease and death dilemmas as the oceans warm due to climate change. We desperately need leaders who offer solutions to this unsustainable and fishy business.

The Roman Inquisition silenced Galileo because his realisation that the Earth orbited the Sun was contrary to the church’s interpretation of biblical texts.

Now Donald Trump is slashing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and ordering the removal from the internet of all research relating to climate change, because he believes climate change is a hoax.

The Roman Inquisition did not change the movements of the planets by silencing Galileo. President Trump will likewise not change climate science by simply denying that the problem exists. Silencing Galileo did not harm our solar system at all, it simply slowed our learning about it. But President Trump can, if he prevents essential actions to preserve our climate, unleash those tipping point forces which are even now threatening to destabilise our environment.

While, in the world of science and rationality, researchers globally are making efforts to safeguard existing climate data from Trump’s purging, his destruction of continuing research capacity must have enduring, substantial implications. Our environment is already tipping, slipping beyond our ability to secure a liveable environment. We need the president to update his MAGA philosophy – please: Make America Green Again.

Very pleased to see someone suggest that public attacks on Jewish Australians who express concerns about Israel’s killing of Palestinians might be considered antisemitism – especially when it is made clear they are being attacked specifically because they are Jewish.

At the very least some of the language quoted should meet the official threshold for hate speech.

The same loud members of the Israel lobby continue to try to erase the word Palestine from Australian usage. A previous P+I article entitled “Crossword clues and bullying” refers to a demand for an apology when “Palestine” was the answer to the clue “The Holy Land”. Worse is a Palestinian Australian and junior reporter being yelled at by a sub-editor “Palestine does not exist…”. How is that not hate speech?

We need formal guidance that can be relied upon by public figures and organisations, both for use of terms such as “antisemitism” and “Israel lobby” and to guide responses to forceful assertions that are believed to be wrong in fact.

A recent decision by the National Gallery to cover up Palestinian flags in a tapestry indicates the success of the campaign to delete Palestine. We need to fight back.

When you have a health problem with your back, you go to a chiropractor. If it’s a muscular issue, you go to a physiotherapist. If your teeth are playing up, then you visit a dentist. A surgeon is always a last resort, unless you like knives.

In the US with its gun laws, if you’ve got a gun you need to shoot things.

With defence from the top to the bottom, from Marles down, they are always looking for an excuse to put their uniform on to play with their toys, blow things up and shoot people.

In the history of Australia, there have been times when we have truly needed the brave members of the ADF, and I thank them, but I am aware of how few of them suffered in the actual defence of Australia.

Once again, all the talk is about wars that we have little need to be involved in, ignoring the threat that is on our doorstep.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much good to be said about the current state of the US and certainly not AUKUS.

So what is the answer to this? According to this letter? Go back to the “mother country”! As if Europe, let alone Britain, has anything to offer for Australia’s defence. After their clear deceit of the Russians following the Minsk accords, the Europeans in their paranoia can’t seem to bring themselves to try and make peace with Russia, but to prepare for another war. I would say they are in no position to offer others advice on defence.

Like Paul Keating once said, our security should be within Asia, not from Asia. But it seems that it is better to cuddle up to a country that is perpetually at war, rather than to get closer to a country that hasn’t been in a war since 1945 and is about to become the largest economy in the world.

The old Sinophobia simply refuses to die (and, of course, is continuously fuelled by the right-wing press and politicians). There seems to be no one who can see this future in Asia. Australia: great country, small minds.

The commentary on the upcoming date of the next election has become a major diversion from the real work of the Parliament and has given more advantage to the major parties.

The PM and the leader of the Opposition have been campaigning at taxpayers’ expense for the past 12 months. They should be forced to donate their frequent flyer points (I suspect they get plenty) to those suffering most due to the cost of living crisis.

Given the opportunity to program a natural disaster in Queensland, NSW Labor would have jumped at the chance to limit Dutton’s trips out of his own backyard and get the independents out of the news.

“Yes won in the 1967 referendum, which gave Indigenous Australians citizenship and the right to be counted in the census.”

Not quite. Firstly, it certainly did not give “Indigenous Australians citizenship”. That had happened for all Australians with the Citizenship Act of 1949.

Secondly, Indigenous people were counted but were not included in the census figures used to determine federal electoral boundaries, because they mostly did not have the right to vote.

However by the time of the 1967 referendum, all Indigenous people had the right to vote and the anomaly had to be removed. To do the previous, the federal government also had to be given explicit powers to legislate regarding “Aborigines” which it did not have before.

At the time some people no doubt thought that were giving “equal rights” but that was not really the case. (The Australian Constitution is somewhat lacking in explicit “Rights”!)

A video in Five Minute scroll 100 shows US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wearing the Ash Wednesday badge of Christianity on his forehead, a cross of ash, while threatening to annihilate thousands more people in Southwest Palestine.

His price for not doing this? Release the remaining hostages without moving to Phase 2 of the US brokered and “guaranteed” ceasefire agreement. Even though he knows that Donald Trump publicly and very recently in Washington gave Benjamin Netanyahu carte blanche to recommence taking Southwest Palestine.

That means restarting the genocide, which Netanyahu would do the moment the last hostage is handed back. And Trump has backed that with US$4 billion worth of extra arms, including many two-tonne bombs. So Mr Rubio, have a heed to Yeshuah’s teachings behind the badge you so openly parade on your forehead. And not those in the book of Joshua.

Dear John M., Thank you, thank you, thank you. For me and my reading, this article is so absolutely long overdue and well merrited. Just bang-on. “The Chinese Hawks” … being our government(s), politicians, general press, way too many of our 26 million and a lot of the rest of the world need to get your (our) drift.

FYI … I have a daffy P.A.C. mate (Red) who belongs to the above group. I’m sure there are plenty of my S.P.O.C. (Blue) blokes in the same boat. Our poorly educated prime minister must learn word for word and understand what you have written in the article… and pronto. And then act on that knowledge. Thank you again ever so much for nailing it.

My life changed many years ago, and knowledgeably for the better I believe, when our Australian government dragged me into our military for two years during the American War In Vietnam. It opened my eyes politically for the first time.

Wishing you health, and sincere condolences on the loss of your Susie.

Michael Keating’s article shows that he’s firmly stuck in the two-party system, unable to get his head around what community independents are – that “independent” means what it says and that, in government, it can and does work. When every vote they make is evidence-based and community considered, why would community independents effectively write a blank cheque to guarantee supply to one party or the other before knowing what is on the table after the election?

Once they know who they are dealing with (Will there be an upset in Dickson? We live in hope!) and what assurances the party leaders are willing to give regarding issues important to community independents, only then can a considered decision be made re supply. If you can’t guess climate, environment, integrity, transparency, evidence-based solutions regarding all the things that make up “cost of living”, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Once a party has been guaranteed supply, it will have to work for every supportive vote thereafter. But there will be no chaos. Unlike the Greens, community independents are pragmatic. Look at their past voting records, amendments moved and private members bills introduced. Bring on more community independents, better government, better outcomes!

Excellent article, Mr Menadue. It would be a very good thing indeed if those MPs who are predicted to hold the balance of power after the forthcoming election were to use as a bargaining chip the commitment to re-examine everything to do with AUKUS and our ties (i.e. relinquished sovereignty) to the US military-industrial complex.

The examiners must “not” include anyone at all from said US military-industrial complex or their lackeys in our tertiary education institutions.

Let’s all suggest this to our MPs! We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I have zero tolerance for the obvious lies the ABC has been broadcasting.

You know what would send their ratings through the roof? Telling the truth.

You know what will keep ABC struggling to get off the floor? Continuing to lie to us.