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's recent articles

COLUM LYNCH and ROBBIE GRAMER.-U.S. and China Turn Coronavirus Into a Geopolitical Football (Foreigh Policy(USA) 11.3.2020)

Beijing is using the outbreak to boost its reputation for global cooperation while Washington plays the blame-Beijing game.

JOHN FEFFER.- Will COVID-19 Kill Globalisation(Counterpunch 10.3.2020)

At a dinner party in mid-February, an architect told me that he was having a problem finishing his building projects. It was the carpets.

DAILAN PUGH. We are in Serious Trouble when Rainforests Burn.

A third of northern NSW's ancient and irreplaceable rainforests burnt last year. Buffers need to be established, and weed control undertaken, to increase their resilience.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ.-Plagued by Trumpism(Project Syndicate9.3.2020)

For 40 years, Republicans have been insisting that government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.

Economic and money mismanagement

The Liberals claim they are better economic and money managers. But there is scant evidence to support that claim.

BEN DOOLEY,MOTOKO RICH and HISAKO UENO.-Anger in Japan over virus begins to focus on Prime Minister(NYT 7.3.2020)

For nearly a month, as the coronavirus has threatened the health and economy of Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been almost invisible.

JOHN MENADUE: Justices of the High Court

No wonder we have lost confidence in institutions when Justices of the High Court act improperly

MICHELLE PETERIE.-The human cost of forced relocation of immigration detainees.(The Conversation 2.3.2020)

The practice of moving detainees around Australias immigration detention network is doubly unjustifiable on economic and humanitarian grounds.

CATHIE HULL. COVID-19 Infection, Isolation and Action

I was caught unawares by being exposed to COVID-19, despite thorough knowledge of the online medical research. I am now in home isolation. If I can be caught unawares, you can too.

LAWRENCE MOLONEY. The Pell trial and its polarising aftermath.

Contributors to a site called, CCC Guys, most of whom are former seminarians, have had much to say about the Pell trials and the looming High Court decision.

NICK JANS. Post-2020 Disaster community recovery: lessons from Black Saturday

There is an abundance of evidence about what we need to do to prepare ourselves for bushfires but there is very little about the best way to encourage post disaster community recovery.

ALAN BOYD.-Spy versus spy as China eyes US bases in Australia.( Asia Times 2.3.2020)

China conducts deepwater surveys near secretive base US and Australian subs and ships use in South China Sea.

SR PATTY FAWKNER SGS. Fires, floods and the season of Lent are inextricably linked

For the sake of humanity and our planet, we cannot allow personally, communally, nationally or globally, to return to situation normal, writes Patty Fawkner.

DAVID MACILWAIN. The Beechworth Principles - setting demands for Integrity in Government

As claims the Federal Government is honestly serving and representing the people look increasingly hollow, Independent MP Helen Haines has presented a historic scheme to hold them to account in the Beechworth Principles.

RICHARD MCGREGOR.-China and Japan: Facing History By Ezra F. Vogel Belknap Press, 2019(Global Asia Book Review)

A strategic China would have seduced Japan as a way of undermining US power in Asia. Their failure to do so in all likelihood means that the US is in East Asia to stay, no matter what.

JONATHAN PAUL MARSHALL. Carbon Capture and Storage yet Again.

Despite the jaded history of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Australia, the Government has announced it will fund it rather than Renewables.

PETER EDWARDS.-Australia and the Vietnam War: 50 years on.(The Strategist 29.2.2020)

The period from the Tet offensive of early 1968 to the Moratorium demonstration of May 1970 was the turning point in the most important battlefield of the Vietnam Warthe battle for American public opinion.

DOUGLAS LONDON.-Why the Taliban will never agree to a real peace deal (NYT29.2.2020)

They know they are winning. Why would they concede anything?

MARCUS REUBENSTEIN: Please give this face a name

Western reports on COVID-19 have overwhelmingly been produced under a simple banner of China. Its a homogeneous label that ignores the human face of Chinese people everywhere.

DARON ACEMOGLU. Social Democracy beats Democratic Socialism(Project Syndicate17.2.2020)

Now that US Senator Bernie Sanders has emerged as a leading contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, his brand of democratic socialism warrants closer scrutiny.

TESS HOGUE. Living in Hong Kong through SARS and Covid 19.

I have a rotten cold. My eyes are watering, my head is pounding and I cant stop sneezing. Normally I would get plenty of rest and fluids and just wait it out.

TONY BROE & ELLEN FINLAY. Aboriginal History, Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe and the Culture Wars

Bruce Pascoes book Dark Emu (2018) has given a recent jolt to the declining History Wars and has invigorated some conservative commentators and writers to disagree with his conclusions (Marks 2020; Morton 2019).

FRANCIS SULLIVAN. New Wine, New Wine Skins.

Why it is worth staying active in the Church?

AVI SHLAIM. Palestine and the West: A century of betrayal.(M.E. EYE 17.2.2020)

Noam Chomskydescribedsettler-colonialism as the most extreme and sadistic form of imperialism.

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. Sinophobia goes viral in Australia.(ABC Religion and Ethics 20.2.2020)

Hundreds of years of racism have merged in the Australian governments response to the Corona virus.

KOBI MAGLEN. SVAs approach to improving outcomes for older women at risk of becoming homeless

Estimates suggest 300,000 Australian women aged between 45 and 65 are at risk of homelessness when they retire.

JONATHAN PAUL MARSHALL: Confusions of Australian Energy Policy

Current Australian Energy Policy is confused in both parties, but seems aimed at supporting coal, while not helping investment in Renewables

KERRY BROWN and EMMA LUO. Degrees of espionage(Chatham House/The World today 13.2.2020)

Fears are rising in countries...that China is wielding undue influence through its supposed infiltration of universities and institutions and by its spying on companies and government.

JOHN R. SABINE. A Separate Voice to Government: not the brightest of ideas

How many sound reasons does one need before concluding that something in indeed a bad idea? Perhaps even just nonsense.

DAMIEN CAVE. Fearing summer in Australia (NYT17.2.2020)

Climate change and fires force a nation to rethink the way it looks at life

DAVID MACILWAIN. Australian media and its regulator conceal the true story of chemical weapons attacks in Syria

In writing a formal complaint to the overseer of Australian media ACMA over SBS failure to broadcast news that the OPCWs claims on chemical weapons use in Syria had been exposed as fabricated, I have encountered a Kafkaesque problem only complaints on specific broadcasts can be examined..

EVA COX. Now markets have failed, let's talk about social wellbeing(The Guardian 15.1.2020)

We need to address the distrust epidemic among voters and return to the reformist urge to offer a better vision splendid

MYRIAM ROBIN. The think tank behind Australia's changing view of China.(AFR 15.2.20200

On Tuesday in the Australian Senate, Labor's Kim Carr rose to his feet, thundering about hawks intent on fighting a new cold war.

GREG McCARTHY. Searching for a humane response to the coronavirus. (EAF16.2.2020)

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has served to magnify political, economic and cultural tensions within and between Australia and China.

PETER RODGERS. Trump's peace 'vision'- be careful what you welcome.

Rather than just welcoming Trumps plan and keeping quiet, now is the time for Australia to speak up about the plans absurdities and contradictions.

RICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN.Duterte delivers deathblow to US-Philippine ties(Asia Times 12.2.2020)

Filipino leader scraps key bilateral security pact that US leverages to check China in the South China Sea

RUCHIR SHARMA. How Technology Saved China's Economy(NYT 20.1.2020)

Landing in Shanghai recently, I found myself in the middle of a tech revolution remarkable in its sweep.

DAPHNE WHITE.Voters don't vote their self interest,they vote their values.(Berkeleyside 2.1.2017)

What Democrats need to do is articulate their message in terms of metaphors that voters can understand, and stick to their core values, George Lakoff said.

MINGMING CHENG. We depend so much more on Chinese travellers now. (The Conversation 12.2.2020)

The travel bans dramatically escalate the potential economic impact of the novel coronavirus.

ROBBIE GRAMER and COLUM LYNCH.Trump Seeks to Halve U.S. Funding for WHO as Coronavirus Rages(Brookings Report 10.2.2020)

The presidents new budget would cut more than $3 billion in global health programs.

GEORGE W. GRUNDY. High Stakes Gambling

It may just be that Scott Morrison is right and nearly everyone else is wrong when it comes to climate change, but our Prime Minister is playing a very high stakes gamble with Australias future by refusing to act in the face of catastrophe

ELENA COLLINSON and JAMES LAURENCESON. China and the Coronavirus. (Australia-China Relations Institute 10.2.2020)

Is China telling us everything it knows about Coronavirus?

MARIO CAVALO. Something's not right here folks". The USA 2009 H1N1 Virus compared to China 2020 Coronavirus(China Daily8.2.2020)

This vicious, political, xenophobic racist attacks and smearing of all things China needs to stop

HANNAH AULBY. Strangling Accountability.

The Centre for Public Integrity invites you to the inaugural National Integrity Forum: Strangling Accountability.

JONATHAN PAUL MARSHALL. Barnaby Joyce and fantasies of Climate Technology

Fantasies about improved technologies, often seem to inhibit effective responses to climate change. This is illustrated through a brief commentary on Barnaby Joyces comments on climate policy after his closely failed challenge for leadership of the National Party.

EDWARD ALDEN. Smaller countries lose in the USChina trade deal(EAF 9.2.2020)

Weakening rules put smaller economies such as Canada, Australia, the ASEAN nations and Latin America in an increasingly vulnerable position.

DAVID WILLIAMSON. The Trump Card of the Right.

The political parties of the Left often still hold to the Enlightenment belief that we are rational creatures - that the person who has the best evidence based argument will win the debate. Sadly, as long as they do theyll keep losing.

CHAS SAVAGE. The summer of our discontents

The only outcome that matters is the extent to which humanity manages to limit global warming to 1.5 C. Any talk about meeting or not meeting targets that is not grounded on this outcome is trickery and sleight of hand.

DENIS MULLER. Media 'impartiality' on climate change is ethically misguided and downright dangerous.(The Conversation 31.1.2020)

In September 2019, the editor of The Conversation, Misha Ketchell,declaredThe Conversations editorial team in Australia was henceforth taking what he called a zero-tolerance approach to climate change deniers and sceptics. Their comments would be blocked and their accounts locked.

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