Tag Pearls and Irritations
By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations The Australian Secret Intelligence Service was established in 1950 to conduct spying overseas and morally repulsive covert operations. It had a slow start, but in the 1970s it sent three staff to Chile to… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations. Government ministers and senior officials are conditioning Australians to become frightened, very frightened. The Home Affairs minister Clare O’Neil warns they face a “dystopian future” from cyber-crime, foreign interference and threats to our democracy…. Continue Reading →
By Allan Patience: Pearls and Irritations Hard core supporters of Australia’s alliance with America – in Australia, the USA, and in the UK – were no doubt thrilled by Anthony Albanese’s full-throated defence of the AUKUS deal at the ALP’s… Continue Reading →
By Mike Scrafton: Pearls and Irritations. That the Albanese government could further compromise Australia’s sovereignty, international integrity and national interests seemed inconceivable. Yet, intelligence, a vital government function inextricably connected with independence and protecting national interest, is being penetrated and colonised… Continue Reading →
The Russian ‘revolt’ that wasn’t strengthens Putin’s hand. The Biden administration had a glorious few days. The ongoing disaster in Ukraine slipped from the headlines to be replaced by the “revolt,” as a New York Times headline put it, of Yevgeny Prigozhin,… Continue Reading →
By Julian Cribb: Pearls and Irritations Bruce Haigh, who died on April 7, was a diplomat, an adventurer, an artist and writer, a humanist, a romantic and a man with a deep love of his country, who mourned its fading… Continue Reading →
By Mike Gilligan: Pearls and Irritations The risks for Australia in joining another “failed” American war, this one contrived to crush China, are worse than even-money, and climbing. The consequences verge on existential. Australia’s wartime Prime Minister John Curtin wrote to… Continue Reading →
From Pearls and Irritations. In an interview with the World Socialist Web Site, renowned Australian investigative journalist John Pilger has warned that the “US is close to getting its hands on” the courageous WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. Last month, British Home… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations. The US dominates the Pacific Islands to an extent China can never hope to achieve. With Australia’s support, the US is now engaged in an arms build-up in its Pacific territories and de-facto colonies… Continue Reading →
By Bruce Haigh: Pearls and Irritations. Australia’s ruling Liberal National Party coalition, led by the mendacious Morrison, is in a bad place. Morally bankrupt, it is destructive, by default and design. Many have followed, both blindly and with intent, and… Continue Reading →
Pearls and Irritations Who among us, eighteen months ago, could have believed the mess this country is now in? Few can doubt Australia is at a turning point in its history. The debacle is writ large. The current Cabinet reshuffle will please… Continue Reading →
By Greg Barns: Pearls and Irritations This week Australian citizen Julian Assange’s long running battle against extradition to the United States where he faces espionage legislation charges relating to his publication in 2010 of material that revealed war crimes by… Continue Reading →
By Jack Waterford: Pearls and Irritations Scott Morrison has repeatedly reiterated that all decisions in relation to Coronavirus public health measures have been taken in accordance with medical advice. But the advice itself has frequently been considerably less than transparent,… Continue Reading →
By Jack Waterford: Pearls and Irritations. Perhaps a day will come when the champion rorters, liars, and conscious mis-managers of public resources are before a serious corruption commission and out on their ears. The political and administrative dominance of the… Continue Reading →
By Jenny Hocking: Pearls and Irritations A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government. It’s not just the endless graft and largesse – the million-dollar contracts to Liberal linked companies, the generously (mis)allocated ‘grants’ to coalition seats, the personal… Continue Reading →
By Jack Waterford: Pearls and Irritations Some prime ministers are more practised liars than others. Some can confuse, distract and prevaricate in such a way as to strangle the truth. Morrison, however, is a special case. He does not seem… Continue Reading →
By Alison Broinowski with Pearls and Irritations When Joe Biden is in the White House and Donald Trump is back in his tower or at his resort, some things about the Trump years will be missed. As newly elected leaders… Continue Reading →
By Jack Waterford with Pearls and Irritations One would have to go back to the 1970s to find the nation so ill-served. All the more so as politicians have politicised national security, and reverted to 1960s games of gathering and… Continue Reading →
By Duncan Graham with Pearls and Irritations Thou woldest han oure labour al for noght. The hye god, that al this world hath wrough Seith that the workman worthy is his hyre. Geoffrey Chaucer: The Summoner’s Tale. What fools we journalists are… Continue Reading →