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

HANNAH PIERCE & MADDIE DAY. State and territory governments are taking on alcohol marketing

NSW and Tasmania are lagging behind the other states and territories in restricting outdoor alcohol advertising but no jurisdiction is taking action to restrict alcohol advertising in sports stadiums.

JOHN MENADUE What is a health service for?

A health service should be run in the interests of the public.Unfortunately any worthwhile reforms of our health sector to benefit the public are usually vetoed by providers with their special interests.

KISHORE MAHBUBANI. The Year Ahead 2020(Project Syndicate 26.12.2019)

The international order has lagged dangerously behind shifting global power dynamics. If leaders do not start addressing the contradictions soon, the most likely result is crisis or even conflict and even more dangerous contradictions.

GREG BARNS and LISANNE ADAM: JULIAN ASSANGE - THE LONG ROAD TO EUROPE

Julian Assanges fight against extradition to the United States from the UK highlights breaches of his rights under European human rights law. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is likely to take a very dim view of the United States conduct because to allow extradition would breach a number of Mr Assanges human rights. But it is a long road to the EctHR.

TIM BUCKLEY. Energy transition presents high risks and big opportunities for Australia

As one of the three largest fossil fuel-export nations globally, Australias economy is exceptionally exposed to the current massive energy disruption occurring in markets around the world. At the same time, massive opportunities exist for Australia to take advantage of the energy transition.

KATE GRIFFITHS,DANIELLE WOOD and TONY CHEN.Big money and the 2019 election (The Conversation 4.1.2020)

Amid the ongoing bushfire and coronavirus crises and the political kerfuffle surrounding the Nationals and Greens youd be forgiven for missing the annualrelease of the federal political donations datathis week.

JONATHAN PAUL MARSHALL: Siemens and Adani

German company Siemens has decided to support the Adani Carmichael mine, by providing a signalling system for the rail line. However, their justification seem more about fulfilling their recently signed contract, than preserving a functional ecology, or discovering the problems with business deals in advance.

JOHN MENADUE. We are paying to protect an industry that no longer exists( A repost)

We see it almost every day in the media; rent-seekers extracting benefits for themselves through political influence and lobbying at the expense of the broader community. It has very little to do with markets.

TOM BURTON. Gaetjens makes a mockery of public service standards.(AFR 3.2.2020)

The head of the Prime Minister's Department,Phil.Gaetjens,has effectively green-lighted behaviour that would not be tolerated in the public service he leads.

ANNE TWOMEY. What is the 'palace letters' case and what will the High Court consider?(The Conversation 4.2.2020)

Thedismissal of the Whitlam governmentin 1975 remains as controversial as ever. Its last chapter is to be decided in theHigh Court when it hears a case brought by historian Jenny Hocking seeking public access to the lettersbetween the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, and the queen.

PRIYA CHACKO. Indias changing and Australias paying no attention(EAF 1.2.2020)

With bilateral trade negotiations stallingand India choosingnot to jointhe Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, attention has shifted away from economics and towards defence and security cooperation as the key to building a closer relationship between Australia and India.

PAUL BARRY. The News Corp. denial on Climate Change.(Media Watch 3.1.2020)

Passionate denial that the bushfires should make us act on climate change runs right across the Murdoch media in this country reaching an audience of millions.

JENNY PRABHU. WHAT IS IT THAT WE SEE, BUT DO NOT WANT TO SEE?

Is it in our thirst for more of everything?

TESSA BOYD-CAINE. After the hoses,can we work together?

An example of the kind of collaboration that is possible was formed in response to the enthusiastic but initially uncoordinated pro bono legal response to the Black Saturday fires. Bushfire Legal Help, as it was called at the time, brought together the key players in pro bono legal assistance to coordinate that response, ensuring the help that was on offer was directed to where it was of most use.

MINXIN PEI. The Coronavirus is a Disease of Chinese Autocracy(Project Syndicate 28.1.2020)

When Chinas leaders finally declare victory against the outbreak of the new and deadly coronavirus, they will undoubtedly credit the Communist Party of China's leadership. But the truth is just the opposite: the party is again responsible for this calamity.

TOM GREENWELL. Less choice, less affordability: the private school subsidy paradox

Its become an annual ritual: the media reports on private school fee rises, then the various school spokespeople dig out last years talking points and its on againuntil next year. But there is more and it goes back a long way. The biggest news of all is that the decades-long expansion of public funding to private schools has done the opposite of what its proponents claim.

PETER BROOKS. Governments new out-of-pocket medical costs website - a missed opportunity

The long-awaited Australian Department of Health website designed to provide Australians with information on specialist medical costs, which went live on 30 December 2019, is (so far at least) a significant missed opportunity.

ELEANOR FLYNN et al. Australian Catholic Women still listening for leadership from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

As a group of women who seek the equality of Women in the Australian Church, Womens Wisdom in the Church (WWITCH) are appalled by the recent abolition of the stand-alone Council for Australian Catholic Women, and the closure of the Office for the Participation of Women in the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC).

GREGORY CLARK. Tokyo-Moscow Territorial Games.

Its not often that a world leader, or anyone else for that matter, gets unknowingly to celebrate the funeral for something dear and departed from him.

BARNEY FORAN. Its the economy stupid, but lets make it fit for purpose

Media rants on our summer firestorms blame the lack of fire preparedness or a tardy emissions policy. To nudge Australia out of harms way over the next fifty years requires systemic and harmonious change over six big areas: implementing local firecare systems, more taxes to pay for it, enacting the social contract to bring us all along, building in fire resistance, developing a fit-for-purpose economy and finally, driving the first five by more benign personal consumption patterns.

EMILLIAN KAVALSKI and NICHOLAS ROSS SMITH.Putins reforms may model Deng Xiaoping.(SCMP 27.1.2020)

After 20 years, Putin may be looking to protect his legacy by negotiating a controlled power handover in Russia, retiring from day-to-day administration while keeping a firm hand on policy direction as Russias father figure much as Chinas Deng Xiaoping did

GEOFF HARCOURT and PETER KRIESLER. Secular economic stagnation around the world

Secular stagnation refers to the long-run (or secular) tendency for growth rates to stagnate in advanced capitalist economies associated with high unemployment and excess capacity.

HAGAI El-AD. Netanyahu Exploits the Holocaust to Brutalize the Palestinians (Haaretz23.1.2020)

Netanyahu didn't invent the idea of leveraging the Holocaust for political gain. Yet he is taking even that low to new depths, stripping Palestinians of basic human rights in the name of the survivors of the Holocaust

ANDREW WONG. Logging Makes Bushfires Worse

In the wake of the recent bushfires, the logging industry wants to thin Australias forests to reduce fire hazard. But their plan is likely to make the fire hazard far worse. Could there be another agenda at work?

RICHARD FLANAGAN. How a nation adapts to its own murder.(NYT 27.1.2020)

Australia is going up in flames and its government calls for resilience while planning for more coal mines.

CHRIS McDONNELL. Many Years on from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On Saturday January 27th the Red Army came from the East and entered Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camp to liberate those still alive. The unfolding horror from the camps began.

JOHN CARMODY. Australia Day. We cannot allow our future to be based on falsity and denial

Perhaps because, by its very nature, establishing a colony at Port Jackson in 1788 was theft of another peoples land, Australia seems to have been a racist society from the beginning and to have remained so.

JOHN MENADUE. Who is responsible for 'Commonwealth emergency management"?

The role of the Department of Home Affairs is clear

HAJO DUKEN. Monarchy vs Republic - Two decades later and still debating the wrong questions

Two decades after the failed referendum, it seems that the debate about Australia becoming a republic is still stuck in the 20th century ignoring everything that has happened since.

VACY VLAZNA. On Becoming Australian: A Migrant Story, Part 2

Co-host of ABC Minefield, Scott Stevens astutely, impeccably summed up the generosity inherent in The Uluru Statement of the Heart.

TONY COADY. Bouncer barrages, Bodyline and the Laws of Cricket Revisited

In Pearls and Irritations ( September 2, 2019) I wrote about the way that the long-standing intimidatory bowling of bouncers in international Test cricket is both clearly in conflict with the Laws of cricket in spite of being widely practiced, relished by most commentators, and ignored by umpires.

VACY VLAZNA. On Becoming Australian: A Migrant Story, Part 1

Australia is an unresolved crime scene

BRUCE DOVER. The Foxification of the Murdoch media in Australia.

The ructions inside the Murdoch empire last week when youngest son, James made a very rare but very public criticism of the family companies news coverage of climate change in the wake of the Australian bushfires shines a revealing light on what is likely to be the continued Foxification of our local media.

JON BLACKWELL and KERRY GOULSTON. Aspects of Australian healthcare reform (part 3 of 3) Big problems and big opportunities

In the first of this 3 part series, we outlined the shortcomings and achievements of our efforts to plan and implement Healthcare Reform in NSW some years ago. In the second paper, we outlined the more recent approach in Denmark, which had a wider and more inclusive Reform Plan. In this third paper, we stress the enormous difficulties currently facing all Australians needing healthcare both now, and in the years ahead, and propose a way forward.

GRAEME WORBOYS: Kosciuszko: Post 2020 fire responses

In January 2020 severe bushfires burnt parts of Kosciuszko National Park impacting its National Heritage listed catchment wetlands, fauna and flora values.

TONY COADY Bouncer barrages, Bodyline and the Laws of Cricket Revisited

In Pearls and Irritations ( September 2, 2019) I wrote about the way that the long-standing intimidatory bowling of bouncers in international Test cricket is both clearly in conflict with the Laws of cricket in spite of being widely practiced, relished by most commentators, and ignored by umpires.

MILES LITTLE. The decency of the commons

Bushfires have devastated this country, yet have allowed us to see the best of human motives and actions. They have also exposed us to disappointments, further loss of trust in governance and a sense of insecurity.

JON BLACKWELL and KERRY GOULSTON. Aspects of Australian healthcare reform (part 2 of 3) Learning from Denmark

In the first of this 3 part series, we described some partially successful NSW government healthcare reforms in Greater Metropolitan Sydney, and identified shortcomings in their planning and implementation. In this second part, we look at radical reforms to the Danish healthcare system, commencing in 2007, and some of the outcomes of those changes.

ROB PURDON. Insuring against future bushfires

This summers bushfires are a tragedy. There has been massive habitat loss, and we all want to help those who have lost their properties and businesses. But climate change means that we are facing a new normal.

GRAEME WORBOYS: Ive never seen anything like this before

Catastrophic fires in Australia in 2019/2020 burnt millions of hectares, lives were lost and property burnt. Huge walls of fire, ember attacks and spot fires burnt through super dry bush and other lands. Ive never seen anything like this before was a regular response.

JON BLACKWELL and KERRY GOULSTON. Aspects of Australian healthcare reform (part 1 of 3) Some history

This is the first of three papers. It deals with the history of some healthcare reforms in NSW in 2001, their scope and outcomes. The second will comment on similar but in many ways different and more successful healthcare reforms in Denmark, which has a similar population to the Greater Metropolitan Sydney Area. The third will discuss the present difficulties in implementing meaningful healthcare reforms in Australia.

JOHN KEANE. Australia.out of luck

Is the Lucky Country running out of luck? Natural disaster or political disaster?

PAUL WALDMAN. There are no heroes in the Trump Administration.(Washington Post 18.1.2020)

There will be hundreds of books written about this dreadful period in our history, and one of the questions well have to grapple with is this: How should we judge those around President Trump? The ones who helped him, who enabled him, or even just failed to stand up to him?

WENDY HAYHURST. Why adequate and affordable housing matters to productivity

A growing body of research is demonstrating the adverse productivity impacts of inadequate or unaffordable housing in Australia (and elsewhere).

CHRIS DENNIS. A burning country.

Our country hangs its head in shame.

KEVIN TOLHURST.- We have already had countless bushfire inquiries (The Conversation 16.1.2020)

As our country battles the most extensive fires of our lifetime, there are increasing calls for aroyal commissioninto the states and territories preparedness and the federal governments response to the disaster.

GHADA KARMI.- Palestinian Rights.(LRB 5.12.2019)

A Palestinian State-Constantly Dangled, Endlessly Receding

DAVID BENTLEY HART. The Enchantments of Mammon (A book review)

Capitalism is the coldest and most stupefying of idolatries: a faith that has forsaken the sacral understanding of creation as something charged with Gods grandeur, flowing from the inexhaustible wellsprings of Gods charity, in favor of an entirely opposed order of sacred attachments

PETER RODGERS: Human rights in Xinjiang and Gaza.(A Repost 22.10.2019)

US and Australian responses to Chinas maltreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Israels blockade of Gaza reveal glaring double standards. But no worse perhaps than those of many Muslim states hungry for Chinas largesse.

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