His editorial charter clearly states at which end Pearls and Irritations is batting: “We do not aim for ‘balance’ in our editorial position,” Menadue writes. “We have a clear point of view on such issues as climate, racism, care for the vulnerable, war and relations in our region, particularly relations between the United States, China and Australia.”

As you might have guessed, that point of view is from the left – but it is not always so clear. In too often enabling opinion to represent itself as fact or evidence, the website lets down itself and its readers.

And I presume that to install ‘balance’ within quotation marks, seeks to signal to readers that ‘balance’ is not necessarily a concept to be taken absolutely at its word.

That’s a real shame because to confuse, say, fact with opinion is to be careless about both.

The simple expedient of tagging articles as opinion, analysis, explainer or commentary (or otherwise) could even preclude the adoption of a tag indicating ‘fact’ because when all else tells what it is, fact stands for itself.

Anyway, I didn’t get out of bed this morning to have a go at John Menadue because what he and his huge stable of writers has achieved with Pearls and Irritations is by any measure exceptional.

In Recent Notes 46, I offer some very brief extracts from today’s issue mainly to illustrate the value of what Mr Menadue, and his newish editor Catriona Jackson (no relation), to Papua New Guineans who may be intrested in world and regional affairs from an Australian perspective (but not from the right).

Dr Alison Broinowski AM (former Australian diplomat) in If I were foreign minister: “Australia would extensively consult our Southeast Asian and South Pacific neighbours about peaceful cohabitation, not confrontation, with China. The government would no longer ignore or rebuff diplomatic initiatives from China that endorse such aspirations.”

Jack Waterford AM (former editor Canberra Times) in Aussie cardinals in short supply: “The [Catholic] church has long been in head-on conflict with an open and secular society. Too often it looks inward, with concern for the rights and privileges of its leaders, rather than outward, focused on the physical and moral welfare of people who are, or were, their flock…. We do not know yet whether Francis succeeded in stacking the conclave with progressives able to outvote traditionalists. Not all his appointments have been progressives, and some have been discreet about their views, even as they have loyally obeyed the pope during his lifetime. Cardinals, like judges, do not always do what is expected of them.”

Morag Fraser (former editor of Jesuit magazine Eureka Street) in Six Easter Days: “For nigh on three days I’ve been watching crowds milling in St Peter’s Square, so many people, smiling or crying as they walked out of churches, or crowded the streets of Buenos Aires, Manila, Dili, Port Moresby, and Indian and African cities with names I scarcely recognise, all honouring a humble man. I wonder at my own surprise at such a universal outpouring. There has been joy in it too, a heartfelt recognition of a complicated life lived well, in the service of others – the kind of leadership Christians espouse but often don’t practise. And when they do practise it, they are not always thanked.…”

Elena Collinson (Manager Research Analysis at the Australia-China Relations Institute) in Framing the future: Australia’s China policy: “Labor and the Coalition both emphasise sovereignty and the national interest in their public messaging on the PRC, but diverge in tone and strategic emphasis. Labor leans towards stability and diplomatic management, while the Coalition projects strength through more explicit security framing…. Labor maintains strategic ambiguity and prioritises multilateral deterrence, while the Coalition signals closer alignment with US deterrence efforts…. Whichever party wins the 2025 election, it will confront a foreign policy landscape defined by intensifying strategic competition and heightened expectations for decisive leadership.”

Richard Dunley et al (Lecturers in History, University of NSW) in Only a third of Australians support increasing defence spending: “National security issues have been a constant feature of this federal election campaign. Both major parties have spruiked their national security credentials by promising additional defence spending…. Successive governments have emphasised the rapidly deteriorating strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region. This has led to much debate over whether Australia should increase its defence spending – and by how much…. The idea of deploying the ADF to support our allies and partners overseas, including in the event of a conflict, saw greater division among respondents….. Two-thirds favoured deploying troops to support our allies overall.”

Julia Conley (staff writer, Common Dreams) in 84 of world’s coral reefs hit by worst bleaching: “Another ocean heatwave last year threatened Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, eight years after nearly half of the coral in some northern parts of the 1400-mile reef was killed by a mass bleaching event. But recent major bleaching events affecting specific reefs have not compared to the current widespread devastation in the world’s oceans. ‘Reefs have not encountered this before,’ Britta Schaffelke, co-ordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, told The Guardian. ‘With the ongoing bleaching it’s almost overwhelming the capacity of people to do the monitoring they need to do’.”

David Solomon (former Queensland Integrity Commissioner and journalist) in Are voters really dumb: “According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the proportion of people — mostly voters — with university degrees and other related qualifications more than doubled in the 21st century – and going back 30 years, almost trebled.... Sixty years ago, it was one of the proudest boasts of Sir Robert Menzies that he had initiated Commonwealth funding to expand Australia’s university system. These days the party he founded seems attracted to the Trump policy of reducing the funding for universities and controlling their activities.”

Eugene Doyle (New Zealand writer) in The fall of Saigon, 1975: “As scholars say: Memory shapes national identity. If your cultural products — books, movies, songs, curricula and the like — fail to embed an appreciation of the war crimes, racism, and imperial culpability for events like the Vietnam War, then, as we have proven, it can all be done again…. Here we are 50 years later in the midst of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, with the US fuelling war and bombing people across the globe. Isn’t it time we stopped supporting this madness?”

David Spratt (Research Coordinator, Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration) in 2025 is the crunch year: “Unlike the 1997-98 and 2015-16 El Ninos, which were followed by global cooling of more than 0.3°C and 0.2°C, respectively, we expect global temperature in 2025 to remain near or above the 1.5°C level…. The Pipeline paper warns that ‘we are in the early phase of a climate emergency’ and that acceleration in warming is ‘dangerous in a climate system that is already far out of equilibrium. Reversing the trend is essential — we must cool the planet — for the sake of preserving shorelines and saving the world’s coastal cities’.”