Your say: week beginning July 13

0 July 12, 2026 21:07

On questioning the nation’s strategic concerns about China, becoming a non-aligned nation and AI reducing total working hours: an edited selection of your views.

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Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at [email protected].

Monday July 13

“In an article about the Australia-Fiji Defence Pact, the writer states that “Australia has legitimate strategic concerns about China.” But she, like many other geopolitical commentators, does not spell out exactly what these concerns are. Does China have strategic designs on Australia? If so, in what way? Is there a possibility of China strangling Australia by blocking sea access to the rest of the world? If so, how and why? These questions have not been openly addressed or discussed, even though billions are being spent on preventing these unarticulated threats.“

Ranjan Yagoda

“The US aggression in the South China Sea obliged China to show military strength. Donald Trump’s stupid policy of asserting military dominance in the Pacific is only asking China to exert itself. China is our biggest trading partner while the US under Trump is a world financial gangster. Australia should become a non-aligned nation and get on with fighting global warming and get out of AUKUS.”

Raymond Martin, Bomaderry NSW

“Productivity is a euphemism for reduced human labour. Less than a decade ago, futurists were saying the AI would create more high quality job opportunities than it replaced. But only a few years later they had completely reversed that view. Now the combination of increasing use of specialised robotics for repetitive tasks, also in tasks that require exacting precision, plus AI information provision and decision making will massively reduce total working hours.”

Paul Loring

Tags: Academic Journalism, The Conversation, The Conversation Academic News