Pearls and Irritations – Public policy journal
John Menadue. Publisher and Founder. Support our independent media with your donation. Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.
Two paramount human-made existential threats: Nuclear weapons …
2 days ago · Tilman Ruff AO is immediate past Co-President and a board member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Nobel Peace Prize 1985); and co-founder and founding international and Australian Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the first to an entity born in Australia.
AUKUS, the China threat and Chinese-Australian communities
1 day ago · One, nearly three-quarters of Australians (71 percent) said they believed that ‘China is a security threat to Australia’ reflecting a continuation of views from 2023 and 2022. This figure indicates that there is a significant and persistent anxiety about the People’s Republic of China (PRC) among the Australian public.
All articles - Pearls and Irritations
NATO and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a recent Pearls and Irritations article Jon Richardson has sought to make the argument that the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO played no part in Russia’s 2022 invasion but that this was a product of Russian imperialism. Why supporters of this line of argument seek to attribute the invasion to ...
John Menadue, Author at Pearls and Irritations
John Menadue. John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas. Articles. Politics, Top 5, World Affairs.
While you weren’t looking: Meeting China in Sydney
Oct 12, 2024. While elsewhere the China discourse in the Australian media may have been on geopolitical tensions and defence and security concerns, community leaders, students and academics from seven universities in Australia and 15 universities in China and Taiwan met in Parramatta on the campus of Western Sydney University a few days ago.
Summing up - Pearls and Irritations
Summing up. The world and its people are facing serious local and global challenges. Climate change, economic instability, limits to free speech, threats to independent media reporting, and increasing social inequality all signal the breakdown of democratic systems across the world. Our political institutions and leaders are failing us with ...
On green growth land, we meet each other - Pearls and Irritations
On green growth land, we meet each other. By Zijian Qi. Sep 19, 2024. As the curtain of the Paris Olympics fell, I was thinking of the first Olympics I had experienced and reported back in 2000 when I was a Chinese correspondent based in Canberra. That experience and those of many other people after the Sydney Olympics showcase that two of the ...
American reflections on global hegemony - Pearls and Irritations
Aug 29, 2024. Some US commentators are advocating a recalibration of America’s full-spectrum global posture, while others, including Condoleezza Rice, energetically beg to differ – naturally for the good of the world. One apparent example from the first category (recalibration) is a recent essay in the journal, Foreign Policy, by Michael Hirsh.
Rescuing hospitals - Pearls and Irritations
Nov 1, 2024 · Average same-day cases cost less than one-tenth of overnighters. Over a decade, the number of overnight patients rose by 10% nationally but same-day numbers went up by 50%. Public hospitals are cherry-picking patients because of cost. Building costs are scandalously high. In today’s dollars, state governments have spent almost $4 million per ...