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.
John Menadue's recent articles
9 November 2025
The Dismissal, the role of the CIA, MI6 and Austral Americans
I was familiar with many of the events leading to the Dismissal on 11 November 1975. That knowledge was greatly increased by Professor Jenny Hocking with her long and successful campaign to have the Palace letters released.
8 November 2025
Murdoch, the Dismissal and my job in Japan
Rupert Murdoch played a critical role in the Dismissal. He knew how to bring pressure on Kerr and provided strong support for Malcolm Fraser.
7 November 2025
The Prince and the Dismissal
Anthony Albanese recently told us with bated breath from Balmoral Castle that Charles is someone who is very interested in Australia”. “Interested “would be an understatement.
6 November 2025
The Queen’s implausible denial
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 pretended she did not see anything. Nonsense.
5 November 2025
The second Dismissal – the loans affair and meetings with Kerr
The second part in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue.
5 November 2025
What would Whitlam think of the Albanese Government?
Gough Whitlam’s head mandarin and Pearls & Irritations founder & editor-in-chief John Menadue shares what he sees as the lessons of the Whitlam years, one of which is that the powerful can never be trusted.
4 November 2025
Ambush and deceit
The first in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue.
24 October 2025
Albo, Trump and China: No one likes a loser
The first obvious takeaway is that our prime minister has been wise not to heed the Austral Americans urging him to get to Washington as soon as possible.
4 October 2025
No justice or peace for Palestinians in Trump’s Plan
The Trump Plan is designed to reframe the issues in favour of Israel. Palestinians have been betrayed again.
28 September 2025
Two rights experts to address Press Club on Palestine recognition
Two globally renowned figures in the field of human rights will address the National Press Club in Canberra on 1 October on the topic “Palestine recognition: necessary but insufficient”.
15 September 2025
Australia needs to diplomatically disengage from our 'dangerous ally'
It seems likely that our prime minister will meet Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.
12 September 2025
Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific
Countries of the South Pacific have good reason to encourage China and other countries to assist them with infrastructure. And there is nothing that Australia should, or could, do about it.
5 September 2025
The real death toll in Gaza
The widely “accepted” figure for Palestinian deaths in Gaza is more than 63,000. That is horrific enough , but the number is more likely nearer 300,000. And our media don’t care.
27 August 2025
For 35 years after Vietnam, we had a self-reliant defence policy. We need it again
The US is almost always at war, not in defence of values and democracy but in its “manifest destiny” as the world hegemon.
26 August 2025
John Menadue in conversation with David Marr
In a wide-ranging discussion, P&I editor-in-chief John Menadue discusses a life full of achievement driven by conviction, and nominates seeing off the White Australia policy and establishing P&I as highlights. He is speaking with David Marr on ABC Radio National's Late Night Live.
10 August 2025
The occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza was always Netanyahu’s intention
On 19 December 2023, in Pearls and Irritations I wrote: Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason. The real Israeli reason and objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long-term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba.
3 August 2025
Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 end the war?
The widely accepted moral justification for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was that they brought a quick end to the war which if continued would result in more widespread deaths and destruction.
1 August 2025
Our media refuse to call out genocide in Gaza
Through its love affair with Israel and intimidated by the Zionist lobby, our legacy media has enabled the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s apartheid regime and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land over the past century.
26 July 2025
Menadue on the dulling of the Australian conscience
Speaking with the Victorian Branch of Australian Fabians, P&I publisher, founder and editor-in-chief, John Menadue, reflects on the his life and work, the state of national leadership and public institutions including a debased mainstream media.
23 July 2025
Vale John Deeble - an architect of Medicare
Following John Menadue's refection on 50 years of Medicare this week, many have raised the contribution of John Deeble. Below is an edited version of a 2018 tribute to the man without whom the scheme would not have been possible.
21 July 2025
Fifty years since that little green card came into being
Gough Whitlam had to do plenty of hard yakka to introduce an universal healthcare system. Today, it is central part of Australia life, and one of our great policy achievements.
18 July 2025
The Tasmanian election on 19 July won’t fix the mess
A Joint Commonwealth/State Health Commission could help address health failure.
17 July 2025
Donald Trump and his minions may yet do us a favour in ending AUKUS
The US must be told that we will not be involved in any way and at any time in a war with China over Taiwan.
25 June 2025
Our white man’s media shuns Asia
We talk glibly about our future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul de sac.
18 June 2025
The bamboo ceiling is still very much in place Down Under
Our business sector lacks the skills to do business in Asia. And instead of improving, the situation is getting markedly worse.
15 June 2025
PM Albanese promises to restore trust in democracy
But his record does not give grounds for confidence. In his National Press Club address, PM Albanese referred to the trust deficit in other democracies such as the US. The clear inference is that Australia does not have a “trust” deficit.
28 May 2025
Our retreat from Asia has become a rout
On almost every measure, Australia has gone backwards on engaging with our region, and particularly with China, and it is time to do something about it.
23 May 2025
Weaponisation of ‘antisemitism’ hides primitive savagery of Palestinian genocide
As expressed in the UN General Assembly, the vast majority of the world’s governments and peoples agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and now the West Bank.
3 May 2025
'Never again' for Jews, Palestinians and all humanity
A picture is worth a thousand words.
4 April 2025
Medicare's much-needed reform held hostage by vested interests: Michael Lester in conversation with John Menadue, AO
Access to affordable primary healthcare through GPs has collapsed, forcing more people to rely on overcrowded and understaffed public hospitals. These hospitals, meant to be a last resort, have instead become the costly default option.
30 September 2022
Beijing ‘won’t be threatened’ into changing Taiwan plans, analysts say
China’s foreign ministry lodged ‘stern representations’ with the US after President Joe Biden again said American troops would defend the island if the PLA attacks.
29 September 2022
President Abbas at UNGA: Why is Israel not punished for violating international law?
Who is protecting Israel from being held accountable? Why these double standards when it comes to Israel?
26 September 2022
West’s ‘divide and rule’ culture a great threat to development
The latest 2021/22 Human Development Report was recently released. Titled “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World,” it “paints a picture of a global society lurching from crisis to crisis, and which risks heading towards increasing deprivation and injustice.” This is a big shock to those of us who aspire for a world of shared prosperity.
1 September 2022
John F. Copper: Where are the Chinese students going?
According to recent data published in China and admission reports from U.S. universities, the number of Chinese students applying for study in American institutions of higher learning in recent months has fallen markedly.
29 August 2022
Neil Hauxwell: Toward a great TAFE revival
The most important outcome from the Jobs and Skills Summit must be some federal government leadership. Our Vocational Education and Training system, including TAFE, is in urgent need of a major reset.
23 August 2022
Everett Bledsoe: The US military empire. How many US military bases are there in the world?
The Pentagon does not know how many bases it has around the world so it relies on academics to tell it. The US bases are gated communities which replicate US suburbs, shops and amenities to the exclusion of local people.
20 August 2022
Bill Armstrong: National security through community engagement. Fail to honour people and they will fail to honour you. (Lao Tsu 2000 years ago)
We are living through a change of era on planet earth. Huge changes are ongoing. There is no doubt that the recent federal election gave a mandate to the incoming Government to RESET the way we do business at many levels.
15 August 2022
Eva Bartlett: The West is silent as Ukraine targets civilians in Donetsk using banned ‘butterfly’ mines
The use of PFM-1 explosives against civilians is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions—but this evidently isn’t stopping Ukraine.
12 August 2022
Alan Pears: Climate action will drive disruptive change, but we can build on past experience…
Election May 2022 – a new beginning for climate and energy policy?
7 August 2022
Andrew Bacevich: American Imperium - Untangling truth and fiction in an age of perpetual US wars (Repost from 1/1/2018)
'Republicans and Democrats disagree today on many issues, but they are united in their resolve that the United States must remain the world’s greatest military power. In its most benign form, the consensus finds expression in extravagant and unremitting displays of affection for those who wear the uniform. Considerably less benign is a pronounced enthusiasm for putting our soldiers to work “keeping America safe.” This tendency finds the United States more or less permanently engaged in hostilities abroad, even as presidents from both parties take turns reiterating the nation’s enduring commitment to peace.'
4 August 2022
Katrina Watson: How to save General Practice
I’m a recently retired specialist doctor and I keep an eye on medical affairs. They affect all of us, especially as we get older, and people still ask what I think.
29 July 2022
Manlio Graziano - United States: the end of an illusion of omnipotence
“I do not accept second place for the United States of America.” That simple statement, delivered to rousing effect by Barack Obama in his first State of the Union, in January 2010, managed to summarize the current American strategic horizon in a single sentence.
26 June 2022
CRAIG MURRAY. Biden works to prolong Ukraine war
Why we live in a world where the goal of nations is to damage the lives of inhabitants of other nations is a question which continues to puzzle me.
1 May 2022
Peter Tait: Vote Independent? If that doesn't work, then what?
Voting independent needs careful preferencing. If your independent doesn’t get up (or you don’t have that option), you can try Active Democracy
5 April 2022
David Van Deusen: No love for Putin: No guns for Nazis in Ukraine
Ukraine in fact has a serious Nazi problem.
3 April 2022
Kathy Kelly: The people of Yemen suffer at the hands of the US, UAE and Saudi Arabia...377,000 dead
The United Nations estimated last fall that the Yemen death toll would top 377,000 people by the end of 2021. Compare that to the deaths in Ukraine! Our media shows no interest or concern.
18 March 2022
Tobias Debiel and Herbert Wulf: Escalation and de-escalation in the Ukraine War-A German perspective
Demonization and humiliation do not pave the way to the negotiating table.
4 January 2021
The shabby treatment of nurses by medical doctors.
A collection of recent articles about the dismissal of the key role of nurses by the Medical Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce. The doctor dominated Taskforce is determined not to understand that nurses hold the health system together
4 March 2019
GARRY EVERETT. Sex Only??
The recent Hollywood movie, On the basis of sex, tells the story of the first successful court case argued by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the 9th Circuit Court. The subject matter was discrimination by the Federal Tax Laws, against a man who was denied a tax concession as his mother’s carer, on the grounds that only women were regarded as carers. It was the early 1960s, and one wonders how such an antiquated view could have still prevailed in the USA legal system.
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