In June this year, Liberal MP Julian Leeser introduced a bill in Federal Parliament for a Commission of Inquiry into Anti-semitism at Australian Universities (2024). According to Leeser, the Australian Human Rights Commission, tasked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with carrying out a general inquiry into racism, including anti-semitism, was unsuitable due to its support Continue reading »
Top 5
I write as a child of Holocaust survivors because I am disturbed by the demagoguery engaged by the leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, labelling hapless Palestinian refugees as potential terrorists. I quote from The Guardian article: “Peter Dutton has compared Hamas to the Nazis in an opinion piece that calls the registered terrorist organisation Continue reading »
American supplied Israel bombs killed at least 100 people as they stood while performing Fajr (dawn) prayers at the Al-Tabin school in the Daraj area of Gaza City on August 10th. This is the latest of numerous schools attacked in the last month, illustrating a clear pattern of killing and maiming. Continue reading »
Defence Minister Marles’s love for the the US is so dewy-eyed as to defy parody. Foreign Minister Wong is far more beady-eyed, and instinctively wary of over-commitment to America’s view of itself, but has been unwilling to rock the boat. Politics played a significant part in the birth of AUKUS in Australia, and politics both Continue reading »
John Menadue AO eminent former public servant, ambassador and businessman – now independent founder, publisher and Editor in Chief of the online public policy journal ‘Pearls and Irritations‘ – offers an in depth conversation about how Australian public policy is making us more vulnerable in dangerous geopolitical times, by compromising pursuit of our sovereign interests, Continue reading »
Humanity is facing its greatest emergency, a crisis consisting of many, interlinked, catastrophic risks, the Roundtable on the Human Future has declared. At present humanity has no way to deal with such a crisis – and a global plan of action is urgently needed, it said. “The threats are now arriving together. Their collective scale Continue reading »
It was quite a surprise when I noticed last week that we had posted so many articles over 13 years. The 20,000 articles (listed here) include over 700 of my own. A selection of these, about 100, is now published in an eBook, ‘Summing Up’. When we launched Pearls and Irritations I wrote all the Continue reading »
“All States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. […] Continue reading »
The essential difference between Senator Fatima Payman and the rest of the federal Labor caucus – and the Coalition caucus as well – is that she opposes genocide and wants the federal parliament to take effective action against it. She is a minority of one in the federal Labor-Coalition political class. Everything that has occurred Continue reading »
The purpose of this paper is to help promote discussion about the ways in which the efficiency, effectiveness and capability of the Australian Public Service (APS) and its integrity can be improved, and the standing of the APS as a key institution in Australia’s democratic system can be restored. Competent democratic government in the public Continue reading »