Writer
John Menadue
John Menadue is the publisher of Pearls & Irritations. He has had a distinguished career both in the private sector and in the Public Service.
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Lobby Land. The power of the health lobby. Health ministers may be in office but they are not in power. An update.
The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers- the health lobby. A succession of Australian health ministers Liberal and Labor for three decades have failed in any serious health reform. We have been going around in circles. It is very depressing. The new shadow minister Mark Butler could succeed as Minister if… Continue reading »
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Why has there been a spike in anti-asian hate? The NY Times answers their own questions
A collage of panic-inducing anti-China headlines from the New York Times and other major publications can be seen as a factor in the rise of anti-Asian hate seen in western countries…. Continue reading »
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Marise Payne and Kurt Campbell believe their own propaganda about economic coercion by China
The Australian Government and our tame media complain continually about China’s ‘economic coercion of Australia. But the conflict with China has in many cases been provoked by Australia. The US has not looked at the facts and stumbles in blindly…. Continue reading »
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Will the Alaska meeting ease tensions or worsen relations between the US and China?
There is an important face to face meeting between the US and China on Thursday in Alaska. But our media seems disinterested…. Continue reading »
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QUAD: A public relations exercise to disguise Big Pharma’s obstruction and to combat Chinese vaccine successes
QUAD (US, Japan, India and Australia) was regarded as a strategic bloc to contain China. However, the recent virtual meeting between President Biden and Prime Ministers Suga, Modhi and Morrison ,whilst highlighting the provision vaccines to the region was really about curbing Chinese vaccine successes- an expression of soft power…. Continue reading »
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Abbott and Morrison did not stop the boats, but the media collaborated in the spin
Our corporate media will not acknowledge that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison did not stop the boats. Despite clear evidence, the Canberra Press Gallery fell for the spin. With a tame media and cooperation by the military, the big lie was repeated time and time again and became accepted as fact. This was all before… Continue reading »
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The Iraq War, the Murdoch War and media culpability
The media here thought the terrorism in Australia fell from the deep blue sky and had no relationship to the help John Howard gave to George Bush in the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. The Australian media continue to fail us badly over its coverage of the Middle East wars, terrorism and the continuing… Continue reading »
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Why dental care was excluded from Medicare and why it should now be included (an edited repost)
In 1974, the Whitlam Government decided to exclude dental care from Medicare for two reasons. The first was cost. The second was political. Whitlam felt that combatting the doctors would be hard enough without having to combat dentists as well. Forty-six years later, with Australia much richer and the proven success of Medicare, it is now… Continue reading »
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The French submarine boondoggle is Australia’s biggest defence blunder and compounded by media failure
Our corporate media has failed to hold the government to account in its scandalous handling of the $90 billion French submarine purchase. For five years, the media has failed us. It is now rewarded in the new Media Code with 90% of the tax on Google and Facebook to be handed over to the three… Continue reading »
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The failed monopoly media is being entrenched in the new media code
Our media has been tamed by corporate interests. Like the Coalition it is the handmaiden of these corporate interests…. Continue reading »
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Our C18th health workforce structure is riddled with demarcations, inefficiencies and antique work practices. (An edited repost)
Casual workers are fair game but the government is not prepared to tackle the very serious workforce inefficiencies in our large and growing health sector…. Continue reading »
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Japanese Ambassador rapped over the knuckles by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
But did he get the message?… Continue reading »
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What is the Japanese Embassy in Canberra up to?
Is it trying to stoke anti-China sentiment in Australia?… Continue reading »
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People in glass houses should be careful about throwing stones
A group of Australian journalists in their never-ending hostility to China keep throwing stones at China for human rights breaches in Xinjiang, but largely ignore Australian and other breaches. Their ignorance of China explains a lot…. Continue reading »
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Australia: Clinging to a declining and aggressive US. An updated repost
Declining empires never go gracefully. And neither will the US empire – addicted as it is to a belief in its ‘exceptionalism’ and its grounding in aggression both at home and abroad. The attack on the US Capitol reminds us how fragile our ally is. The civil war is unfinished business.Western media have sought to… Continue reading »
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Murdoch and his role in the Trump Presidency
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd dissects Rupert Murdoch’s role in creating the Trump presidency. “Donald Trump may have lit the match that detonated his country’s turmoil but it was Rupert Murdoch who diligently crammed the joint full of explosives.”… Continue reading »
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Take on News Corp at your peril: how a rogue organisation operates (repost from 27 Oct, 2017)
The way News Corp operates must be traced to Murdoch himself for he has told us that ‘for better or worse (News Corp) is a reflection of my own thinking, my character and my values’. … Continue reading »
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Rupert Murdoch’s faulty memory. (edited repost from 21 Dec, 2016)
Rupert Murdoch has asserted many times that he has never asked anything from a prime minister yet the Guardian has proof that contradict that claim, as do I. … Continue reading »
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The Queen’s implausible denial on the Whitlam sacking (repost July 21, 2020)
It beggars belief that the Queen did not know that John Kerr was planning to sack Gough Whitlam. She may not have known the detail of the coup in progress, but she knew the substance. But like Lord Nelson she pretends she did not see anything. Nonsense.She is trying to mislead us.That is not surprising… Continue reading »
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How Murdoch, Abeles twisted the arm of the Hawke Government to help Ansett at the expense of Qantas. (Edited and reposted from 1.1.2019))
Rupert Murdoch repeatedly says that he has never asked a prime minister for anything. That is quite brazen. I know, from personal experience, that this claim is just not true…. Continue reading »
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The Matthew Fisher Sarcoma Research Fund
My granddaughter Naomi’s husband, Matt Fisher, died of an aggressive sarcoma cancer earlier this month. He was aged 39. The sarcoma was diagnosed in February last year. A research fund has been established to promote research at the Garvan Institute. Would you consider making a donation? Click here…. Continue reading »
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Media concentration in Australia and the Murdoch damage
It is important that any arrangements made for Facebook/Google/Twitter to pay media companies for content are made transparently and equally available to ALL online media publishers who meet (a very low) bar and wish to participate.No government should ever facilitate the handing over of money to tax shy oligopolies…. Continue reading »
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The love affair that made America grate
Between rides and walks on the Trump Golf Course and embracing at the White House, Murdoch and Trump have debauched democracy…. Continue reading »
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What do our political leaders stand for?
Good government must be based on broadly shared values that inspire and enthuse us…. Continue reading »
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Drug policy reform series – a repost
Attached is a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series on Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series is designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies…. Continue reading »
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Asian language learning in Australia was a disgrace 40 years ago. It is now much worse.
An important issue we worked on in the Department (of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs) was foreign language learning. We set the pace in the early 1980s, with not many supporters. I felt quite lonely…. Continue reading »
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The perils of outsourcing (privatisation) – a repost
In Pearls and Irritations last year we posted articles about the serious erosion in the quality of care and services in many fields – disability care, vocational education and training, child care and particularly aged care, where more than 650 older people have died in private, for-profit “homes”. All too often service quality has been… Continue reading »
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How Murdoch extracts concessions from governments. Consider how he got control of Foxtel!
Rupert Murdoch claims, falsely, that he has never asked a Prime Minister for anything. Yet his whole business career in three countries has been founded on threatening or seducing politicians for privileged commercial access or opportunities…. Continue reading »
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The smoko continues
In April 2012 the late Greg Dodds and I posted an article on this blog ‘The Australian Century and the Australian smoko’. We argued that while we responded well to the opportunities in Asia for over a decade in the 1980s, we went on ‘smoko’ from the mid-1990s. There was widespread complacency and fear of… Continue reading »
