Writer
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.
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John Menadue. Alcohol and junk food – winning at the expense of our health.
If you seriously follow almost any major Australian sport as I do, you will be conscious of the saturation alcohol and junk food advertising. And in the run up to the centenary of Gallipoli there are no holds barred to link heroes and booze… VB now have a new television advertisement filmed at Melbourne’s Shrine Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Who and for what are we fighting in Iraq.
Australia has sent troops to fight in Iraq Wars I, II and III. Our participation has been disastrous in each. The latest news tells us that in the battle to oust IS from Tikrit the victory belonged to the Shiite militia controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp. So our ‘allies’ in Iraq against IS Continue reading »
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John Menadue We still need to address the defects in our constitutional arrangements that November 11 1975 revealed.
We have rightly been remembering the achievements of Malcolm Fraser on human rights and race. But we should not forget the enormous damage that the events of November 11, 1975, did to Australian public life and trust in our institutions. Conservatives keep highlighting the shortcomings of the Whitlam governments in order to hide their complicity Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Improving health outside the health portfolio
Ministers for Health in Australia are seen very largely as ministers in charge of health services rather than health. The fact is that some major issues causing poor health or which could be the means to improve health are outside the normal health portfolio. Major health problems are caused by junk food, alcohol and tobacco. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. More problems with the Department of Health and Ageing.
On 16 March, I drew attention to a Capability Review of the Department of Health and Ageing by the Australian Public Service Commission. It set out a very worrying analysis of the overall performance of DHA. We now have a report by the Australian National Audit Office of DHA’s administration of the Fifth Community Pharmacy Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Cars are killing our cities.
At almost every election, we are being wooed with stories of more freeways to accommodated more and more cars. It is self-defeating. In our public infrastructure we waste more money on roads than on anything else. As I have argued in my re-post below, there are a whole range of policy issues that we must Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Private health insurance and funding a Medicare Dental Scheme.
In this blog I have written extensively about the damage that private health insurance (PHI) is doing in Australia. We are sleep-walking into a US style health disaster. If people want private health insurance, that is their right, but I see no reason why the taxpayer should subsidise a socially divisive and nationally damaging subsidy. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. A capability review of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DHA)
In this blog I have raised many times my concerns about the major shortcomings of DHA and the barrier it presents to improved health policy and programs… We saw it most recently over the GP co-payment. I argue that the ministerial/departmental model in health has failed and needs review… Since 2011 the Australian Public Service Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Here we go again – more mission creep in Iraq.
We seem unable to learn from the history of past centuries and decades as we plan to send another 300 Australian troops to Iraq to train forces fighting IS. To show his patriotic fervour Tony Abbott needed eight Australian flags as a backdrop for his announcement yesterday. I don’t recall seeing a Prime Minister wrapped Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Insurance – here we go again!
The Health Minister, Sussan Ley has just announced a 6.2% increase in private health insurance premiums. Increases of this order happen almost every year. Since the Howard government introduced the rebate on private health insurance in 1999, the cost of private health insurance has increased over 150%. Overall prices have increased by less than 50% Continue reading »
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John Menadue. How vested interests are subverting the public interest.
There are many key public issues that we must address. They include climate change, growing inequality, tax avoidance, budget repair, an ageing population, lifting our productivity and our treatment of asylum seekers. But our capacity to address these hard issues is becoming very difficult because of the ability of vested interests with their lobbying power Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Mother Merkel and 800,000 refugees
In September last year I posted an article about the Heroism of Angela Merkel in her generous response to asylum seekers arriving in Germany. She is holding to her course but the difficulties are increasing. The attacks on women in Cologne by men who were reported to be of Arab or North African decent on Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Is there intergenerational theft?
Yes – there certainly is, but not in the ways that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey suggest. In his National Press Club speech on February 2, Tony Abbott said ‘Reducing the deficit is the fair thing to do because it ends the intergenerational theft against our children and grand-children.’ Joe Hockey has also been talking Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Cover-up in the health system.
There is an unacceptable refusal by many in the health sector to publish data and information about how services are delivered. There is a cover-up by powerful providers who don’t want transparency and exposure about the way they work. At the Bundaberg Hospital some years ago it was clear that surgeons had little confidence in Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Privatisation – a worn-out ideology.
Voters are making it plain that they are not keen on privatisation. Economic research also tells us that the evidence in favour of privatisation is not conclusive. Conservatives claim that privately owned businesses are better managed than public ones, but I suggest that the main reason for increased productivity of businesses that are sold is Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Climate change and the rise and demise of Tony Abbott.
Opposition to climate change was the vehicle for Tony Abbott to rise to the leadership of the Liberal Party. It is now making a major factor in his demise as Prime Minister. Tony Abbott regarded climate change as ‘absolute crap’ and in December 2009 he rallied the support of the right wing of the Liberal Continue reading »
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Climate, Defence and Security, Economy, Education, Health, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, NBN, Politics, World Affairs
John Menadue. Fairness, Opportunity and Security – Filling the policy vacuum
I sense that there is great public concern that both the government and opposition keep playing the political and personal game at the expense of informed public discussion of important policy issues. We have become concerned about the trustworthiness of our political, business and media elite. Insiders and vested interests are undermining the public interest. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The nonsense about Free Trade Agreements
In his tormented defence of his government’s performance, Tony Abbott highlighted some of his so-called achievements. They included the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Japan, ROK and China. Most of the work in preparation for these agreements had been done by the Rudd and Gillard Governments, but the Abbott Government was so politically driven to Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Is the public sick of reform?
The business sector and the media have each been asking this question. It is not surprising perhaps in view of Tony Abbott’s plummeting approval rating and the election results in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. In the Australian Financial Review on 2 February 2015, Laura Tingle said ‘The biggest national question to flow from Queensland’s Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Stopping the boats and turn-backs at sea
In the Saturday Paper of January 24 this year, in an article by Mike Seccombe, two refugee advocates were quoted as saying: ‘Things like offshore processing and TPVs, mandatory detention – these sorts of measures don’t stop the boats. It’s turnbacks that stop the boats. It’s when you start dragging people back to Indonesia. That’s Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Tony Abbott at the National Press Club
In his speech today, Tony Abbott recycled many of his one-liners that we heard at the last election. Let’s examine several of them. First, he said that his government was a low-taxing government and that it would reduce the budget deficit by reducing spending, rather than increasing taxes. But the most recent mid-year economic forecast Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Freedom of speech and Charlie Hebdo
The attacks on journalists and others at Charlie Hebdo have quite rightly attracted a great deal of attention. But Charlie Hebdo can be outrageously provocative. See below this ‘Merry Christmas’ greeting which Charlie Hebdo published in its last edition of 2014. It says: Shit in the creches Finish off the handicapped Shoot all military personnel Continue reading »
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John Menadue – 30th anniversary of Medicare
This article was initially posted on 1st February last year, the 30th anniversary of Medicare. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Part 2 – what can we learn from overseas health services?
Part 2 in this series was originally posted in August last year. In my blog of 6th October on what we can learn from overseas health systems, I drew attention and warned against government subsidised private health insurance. Any growth in this industry spells trouble for a good health service. Another thing that we could Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Part 1 – what can we learn from overseas health systems?
This article was initially posted in June last year. There has recently been quite a number of articles, including in The Conversation, about what we can learn from overseas health systems. Before looking at these international comparisons, it is worth reminding ourselves that we do have a pretty good health service in Australia. It is Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Murdoch, Abbott and Credlin
In August 2013 I wrote about Rupert Murdoch’s abuse of power and his intense fascination with party politics. That blog is reproduced below. Rupert Murdoch is a frustrated politician. He loves the political game. Usually he works indirectly through ultra-loyal and uncritical editors and journalists. But new technology, particularly twitter, allows him to indulge his Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 3 – Principles for reform
In Part 1 of this series I described the areas in our health sector that need reform. In Part 2 I spoke of the obstacles, particularly those imposed by vested interests in the health sector to protect their own interests by delaying or stopping reform. In this article, I will be suggesting ways in which Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 2 – Why reform is difficult. Health ministers are in office but not in power.
In Part 1 on health policy reform I outlined the main areas where health reform is necessary. In Part 2 I examine the reasons why I think health reform is so hard. In part 3 I will consider ways in which the necessary path of health reform can be quickened. There is a major barrier Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 1 – Why reform is needed.
I will be posting three articles on health policy. This article outlines the priority areas where reform is necessary. Part 2 will explain why reform is so difficult but not impossible. The key issue is power and how it is exercised Part 3 will be about processes and governance issues that are necessary to move Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Workforce Reform.
Conservative commentators and the Business Council of Australia speak endlessly about the need for industrial and workforce reform particularly in the blue-collar area where there has already been very substantial reform and improvement. Changes in the Australian workforce have helped transform the Australian economy in the last 30 years. It was begun under the Hawke/Keating Continue reading »