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. Postcard from Denmark on the Nordic Success
For holiday reading, you may be interested in this repost. I have been interested for many years in the economic and social success of the Nordic countries, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Together they have a population of about 26 million. But what triggered my recent interest and decision to visit Denmark was the sheer Continue reading »
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John Menadue. What does Labor stand for. Part 1
You might be interested in this repost . It was part 1 of a six part series. Part 6 will be reposted tomorrow. John Menadue Labor’s constituency The Labor primary vote has declined from about 45-50% fifty years ago to 35-40% today. Labor has lost its clear identity with the ‘working class’ and what it Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Co-payments and the government’s attack on general practice.
You might be interested in this repost. A strong primary health care system based on general practise is the key to a sustainable health service. Unfortunately the government is doing its best to weaken general practice. Primary care offers the best prospect of improved quality of care and increased efficiency, particularly through new Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Be careful what you wish for.
You may be interested in this repost. John Menadue Be careful what you wish for. With the Victorian election result the Labor Party may be hoping to see the demise of Tony Abbott in the New Year. But it should be careful what it hopes for. Gough Whitlam successfully crippled Billy Snedden as the Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Mission creep in Iraq again
I have reposted below my blog of September 1 last year about the developing pattern of mission-creep in Iraq. Now, four months later, we are seeing it happening again. Last week in Iraq Tony Abbott made it clear that Australia was receptive to any further requests to send more Australian military to Iraq. Tony Abbott, Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Getting back on the front foot.
The tide is turning on climate change. It is going out on Tony Abbott and Rupert Murdoch. They will never admit it but the efforts of the Rudd and Gillard Governments will be vindicated. It is time for the ALP to really go onto its front foot on climate change. In recent months they have Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Australia and the White Man’s Media
I have said many times that a person from Mars who read and listened to Australian media would conclude that we are an island parked off London or New York with little relationship to Asia. Our news and media coverage is so derivative, relying heavily on the BBC, CNN and other news and entertainment houses Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Is the state being captured by special interests?
In his recent book, ‘The Origin of Political Order and Political Decay’ Francis Fukuyama of ‘End of History’ fame, focuses on how even developed and democratic societies can be captured by powerful vested interests. He suggests that this has happened in the US with the coalition of extremists in big business, the Republican Party and Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our love affair with cars.
We are infatuated by the convenience of our cars, particularly at holiday time. There are clearly major economic and social benefits but the costs both economic and social are going to become much more apparent. How can we continue to realise the benefits of car travel, but minimise future costs. There are enormous political problems Continue reading »
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John Menadue. What a remarkable thing to say!
As reported in the SMH of December 22/21 this year, Dyson Haydon, who heads the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, said the following in respect of Julia Gillard. Her ‘intense degree of preparation, her familiarity with the materials, her acuteness [and] her powerful instinct for self-preservation made it difficult to judge her Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Capitalism and the fall of communism
In this blog on 5 November I drew attention to an article by the Economics Editor of the Guardian Larry Elliott. In that article Elliott said “As the Berlin Wall fell, checks on capitalism crumbled.” The principal thesis of that article was that with the end of communism capitalism became more aggressive and less inhibited. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The accident prone Julie Bishop.
I have written before about Julie Bishop’s mistakes as Foreign Minister despite the media spin that she has successfully generated. Those articles were: ‘Julie Bishop – Substance and Style’ on the 18th November; and ‘Julie Bishop -‘Undiplomatic, politically partisan and wrong’ on 22 November. Just recall her foolish attack on President Obama over the Great Continue reading »
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John Menadue. What does it mean?
We have all been moved by the outpouring of grief and emotion by the deaths in Martin Place, the school children killed in Peshawar and eight children murdered in Cairns. The flood of floral tributes has been remarkable. We saw it only a few days earlier with the untimely death of Phillip Hughes. There was Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Normalising Crime.
I was astounded when I read what Archbishop Antony Fisher told The Australian last week. The report said ‘Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric has proclaimed that families are more likely than priests to abuse children and rejected a church report that linked celibacy to sexual abuse. Archbishop of Sydney Antony Fisher said that celibacy could Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The Sydney seige and social misfits. Will we ever learn?
I posted the following blog ‘Will we ever learn?’ on 27 October this year. Amongst other things it highlighted the domestic risks that would result from the Abbott Government’s decision to join the war in Iraq and Syria. Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association has today described the hostage taker and killer as a Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The dog’s breakfast in co-payments has got worse.
The government is trying to dump its co-payment mess on to doctors. If doctors decide not to absorb the reductions in the Medicare rebate, many will pass it on to patients and dramatically reduce bulk billing. What a mess! In justification for their ill-considered GP co-payment in the budget, the Minister for Health Peter Dutton Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Temporary Protection Visas and the Senate cross-bench.
I wish that the Rudd, Gillard and Abbott Governments had done things very differently on refugee policies. But faced with the impasse at the present time, I welcome the compromise arrangement which the government has negotiated with the senate cross benches – two senators from the Palmer Group, Nick Xenophon, Ricky Muir, Bob Day and Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Tony Abbott did not stop the boats.
The data just does not support the never-ending claims by Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison that they stopped the boats. The under-resourced and uncritical media accepts the Coalition’s line. I will come to the recent data, but first the evidence is clear that action by the Coalition along with the Greens in the Senate to Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Outsourcing and redundancy at the ABC.
Mark Scott has expressed concern at the pain being felt by staff losing their jobs and careers. He announced that he and his senior team would take a pay freeze for a year. When it was pointed out that there would not be sufficient staff left to fill the program schedule, some senior manager apparently Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our Environment Minister is not going to Lima
Almost all countries will have their climate change or environment ministers at the UN Climate Change Conference which commences this week in Lima, Peru. This conference is in preparation for the crucial conference on climate change in Paris next year. But our Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, will not be there. Tony Abbott is sending his Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Why the ABC is unique and important.
The BBC is the most successful public broadcaster in the world. It is a good model, not to copy but to adapt to our own needs and circumstances. Lord Reith who was Director General of the BBC 1927-38 pithily described the BBC’s purpose in three words…educate, inform and entertain. He was famously determined that the Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The smoko continues.
In April 2012 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 Asia was Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The scholarship is the real issue.
Freya Newman has been placed on a two year good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded for accessing the computer system of the Whitehouse Institute of Design concerning a ‘scholarship’ awarded to Francis Abbott. Overwhelmingly the media coverage has been about Freya Newman and very little about the substantial issue, the ‘scholarship’. The substantial issues Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The ABC should stop kicking own goals.
There is not much doubt in my mind that the budget cuts to the ABC are part of a vendetta against the ABC and to oblige Rupert Murdoch who intensely dislikes quality competition. The ABC is the most trusted media organisation in the country and News Corp is the least trusted. But the ABC looks Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our ‘best friend’ in Asia is in trouble.
Japan now faces its fourth recession since 2008. The Japanese economy has contracted in 13 of the last 27 quarters. In effect, there has been no growth for six years. The Japanese economy has been moribund for two decade. So far Abenomics is not delivering as Prime Minister Abe had hoped. His attempt at money-creation Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Move over Joe Hockey
The Julie Bishop media blitz continues. But will it flame out like the media blitz of her namesake, Bronwyn Bishop who was also touted by the media as a possible Liberal leader over a decade ago. Like Julie Bishop now and Bronwyn Bishop then, they had amazing free runs in the media. But in the Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Capitalism, inequality and taxation.
In his challenging series last week on ‘Is capitalism redeemable’ Ian McAuley drew attention to how growing inequality is the cause not only of serious social concerns, but it is also presenting us with some quite serious economic problems. There is not much doubt that in the US, the growing tax concessions for the wealthy Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Murdoch and Abbott vs ABC.
This is a repost of a blog which I initially posted on December 19 last year. Tony Abbott has a debt to repay to Rupert Murdoch for the extremely biased support he received in the last election. With the help of Senator Cory Bernadi, Tony Abbott is now following the Murdoch Media line in attacking Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Undiplomatic, politically partisan – and wrong!
Julie Bishop has decided to take on the President of the United States over his comments to an audience at the University of Queensland on the state of the Great Barrier Reef. It shows immaturity to jump in so quickly to defend what I think is the indefensible by attacking others without any real basis. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Julie Bishop – substance and style
According to opinion polls, Julie Bishop’s standing has climbed. In Harper’s Bazaar she has been described as the Woman of the Year. It is suggested that she could be a leadership contender… But how much substance and how much achievement has there really been. How has Australia’s foreign policy interests been advanced? Before looking at Continue reading »