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

RAMZY BAROUD. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinian Christians that Nobody is Talking About (CounterPunch 31-10-19)

Palestines Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The worlds most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel.

ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS. Government Inaction may be a significant cause of Australias World-Leading Cancer Rates

Australia has the highest rate for cancer according to the World Cancer Research Fund[1]. At 468 /100,000 we are 7% ahead of NZ (who have 438), 33% ahead of the US (352), 40% ahead of Canada (334), 47% ahead of the UK (319), 59% ahead of Sweden (295) and 89% ahead of Japan (248)[2]. It might also be noted that Australia has gone from a rate of 383 in 1982 to 468 in 2019, a 22% increase.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE. Crown has an AGM, amidst the scandals

Crown Resorts Limited has been under siege recently. Multiple inquiries are currently underway across multiple jurisdictions. Allegations include breaches of money laundering regulations, use of the casino by criminal figures, including an arms dealer the subject of UN sanctions, and that immigration and customs requirements have been effectively waived for high rollers from overseas, including some with Interpol red notices for criminal activity.

CRISTY CLARK. Clean ocean win shows it's worth dreaming big. In a time when bad news abounds, it is welcome that someone's audacious plan to tackle a seemingly insurmountable environmental problem is having success

In 1997, oceanographer and boat captain Charles Moore made a shocking discovery. After deciding to cut through the North Pacific Gyre on his way back to California from Hawaii, Moore gazed into the ocean and, instead of pristine waters, found a vast vortex of floating plastic debris.

UN expert: Israeli occupation longest in modern world (Middle East Monitor 23-10-19)

A UN human rights investigator on Wednesday called the Israeli occupation in Palestine the longest occupation in the world, Anadolu reports.

Christopher Findlay. Can cooperation prevent the descent of a digital Iron Curtain? (East Asia Forum, 27 October 2019)

Fifth-generation mobile network technology (5G) offers higher speeds and greater capacity. This is critical for cutting-edge technologies such as autonomous vehicles and applications of virtual reality. The development of 5G is also expected to drive innovation towards many things not yet imagined. It is likely to be truly transformative. Chinese technology firm Huawei has significant market shares in the components required for 5G telecommunications networks. Huawei is an industry leader because of its research and development spending. It offers competitive pricing, leading technology and global standards.

TIM COSTELLO. Crown- a private company masquerading as a public one that is above the law?

The annual Crown Resorts AGM last week should have been a moment for admission to shareholders by the Board that they were in trouble and a moment toreassure investors that they had strategies to address a burning platform. Instead, they blamed everyone but themselves.

RANDALL HEYN-LAMB. Episcopal Church officially bars investments in companies benefitting from the Israeli occupation (Mondoweiss 24-10-19)

This week, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church adopted a human rights investment screen related to Israel and Palestine and will sell its holdings in Motorola Solutions, Caterpillar, Inc., and the Israel Discount Bank.

SADHBH WALSHE. How Brexit Put a United Ireland Back on the Map (The New York Review of Books 22-10-19)

The Irish have long been said to have a way with wordsand there has been no shortage of them expended in the argument over the possibility of a Brexit-induced reinstatement of a border partitioning the island of Ireland. Since the 2016 referendum, numerous books have been published on the subject; thousands of newspaper articles have been written; famous Irish actors have taken to reciting poems to plea on the borders behalf; and the border itself has a popular Twitter account, providing daily commentarysometimes wry, sometimes ragingon the debate about its future.

TERRY FEWTRELL Plenary Council - Faith and Hope in Abundance

Catholics are growing restless with their bishops. A Plenary Council process is underway to review the state of the church in Australia. But Catholics are increasingly wary, amid fears attempts are being made to stifle calls for reform from ordinary Catholics.

JOHN MENADUE. We should stop pretending that the Coalition is a good economic or business manager

The Coalition, supported by our corporate media and billionaires like Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer, claims that it is the superior manager. This claim has become part of the public mindset. But the evidence shows that the Coalition is a very poor manager. Its priority is not to resolve problems or manage them well, but to play a political game to win votes.

PAUL MILLS. Australia: Aligned and Independent

Last week as American vehicles withdrew troops from Northern Syria they were pelted with potatoes and rocks by outraged and betrayed Kurds.

WILLIAM ASTORE. Killing Me Softly With Militarism (Common Dreams 24-10-19)

The militarization and decay of democracy in America.

LINDA BURNEY. The Way Forward on Uluru 2019 Frank Walker Memorial Lecture

I think there are three things we can learn from Frank Walkers life and legacy. First, his willingness to make personal sacrifices for fairness and justice. Second, his pragmatism to know the best possible outcome when you see it, and to not let it go. Third, to be able to provide a calm and sensible voice in the midst of emotion and hysteria. These lessons are no more relevant than to the current national discussion about the Uluru Statement, constitutional recognition and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

DAVID MORE. Has Health Minister Hunt Been A Bit Too Clever By Half On The #myHealthRecord?

Health Minister Hunt was probably hoping that loosing the recent election would allow him to escape having to work out what to do with the problem child of the MyHealthRecord. He and his party won and now he has to work out what to do next!

JOHN MENADUE. The National Party has deserted country people on Climate Change, NBN, Health Services and more.

The Nationals have a serious problem. It is not just a problem of Michael McCormack's beige leadership and being pushed aside by Scott Morrison on key country issues like the drought. It has failed on numerous policy fronts.

JEREMY SMITH. Our Climate Crisis

While local drought-affected communities are declaring a climate emergency, present proposals to mitigate the impacts of drought fail to address the real crisis. They do not recognise that this drought is not just another variation on normal conditions, but a step towards a new climate. More radical and comprehensive planning and action are required.

LUCY ROBINSON. Climate protests have roots that go deep into the rich history of British social change (The Guardian 13-10-19)

Extinction Rebellion draws on a radical lineage that brings together a range of beliefs and ages.

NICOLAS SENEZE. A book sheds light on mismanagement of Vatican's funds. Journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi reveals the tripling of the Holy See's budget deficit and how reforms are sabotaged by a Curia that opposes any control

Is the Vatican facing a payment crisis? Despite the denials by a Vatican finance manager on Tuesday in a interview with L'Avvenire, journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, however, said the risk will become real by 2023. His latest book, Giudizio Universale (Last Judgment), has just been published in Italy.

PETER MILLER. How big alcohol is trying to fool the Australian public about alcohol guidelines

Over recent weeks, the alcohol industry has been drumming up media discussion about Australias guidelines on alcohol consumption, which are under review by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), with new draft guidelines expected to be released for public comment in November.

JOHN PONTIFEX. Nationalism, authoritarianism and militant Islamism: across Asia, the faithful are facing a perfect storm

When an elderly Christian woman in a village in Indias Tamil Nadu state was beaten by extremists, her attackers defended their actions by saying that she had defiled the road by walking on it during a Hindu festival. A dozen Christians who tried to rescue her were also injured when the extremists threw stones at them.

DAVID ROWE. Truth goes to the knackery. (AFR 23.10.2019)

BRUCE CHAPMAN. Drought Policy: A Different Way

It is said that little is certain in life except death and taxes. In contemporary Australian public policy debate we can add another inevitability: that during terrible droughts governments will spend large amounts of taxpayer resources to address farmers legitimate anxieties concerning the effects.

MARGARET PERIL AND MARGARET BEAVIS Is your super funding nuclear weapons?

Many people have welcomed the widespread divestment from tobacco by superannuation funds, but would be shocked to know their retirement savings are invested in nuclear weapons companies. In Sydney and Melbourne this week, the Quit Nukes nuclear weapon free finance campaign will kick off. Quit Nukes aims to raise awareness amongst superannuation companies and encourage them to no longer invest in nuclear weapons.

SAX INSTITUTE. How politicians who become lobbyists can be bad for our health

The steady flow of politicians and government staffers switching sides to lobby for powerful food, alcohol and gambling companies poses a serious threat to public health, experts warn in new research published by the Sax Institute.

PETER RODGERS. These days, who' want to be a human right?

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.

JAMES E. CONNELL. Clergy mandatory reporter laws to protect children from abuse or neglect in the USA

Many, but not all, of the fifty States of the USA have statutes that prevent members of the clergy (of whatever faith) from reporting to civil authorities information about child abuse or neglect that the clergy person acquires in a confidential setting. An effort to repeal or revise these statutes is underway and this effort is rooted both in the sense of urgency placed on the subject by the American people and in a critical moral value that is being violated.

LINDA BOTTERILL. A national drought policy should be an easy, bipartisan fix. So why has it taken so long to enact a new one? (The Conversation 10-10-19)

In a country as dry as Australia, surely it is a no-brainer that we have in place a coordinated, national drought response that can be rolled out the same way that the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangementsare triggered when the country experiences cyclones, floods or bushfires.

ROGER BAYLISS. HMAS Watson redevelopment. Why in a National Park?

The Department of Defence is planning a $430 million plus upgrade of its naval training facility at South Head in Sydney. The project will be examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and requires endorsement by Parliament. There is scant rationale for locating the Navys training base in this highly confined national park area. The site is incapable of expansion should training capacity need increasing. The training facility would be better located at any number of alternative locations.

JOHN MENADUE. The failure of the National Party on rural poverty and rural health.

Country electorates have the most disadvantaged people, the poorest health and inferior health services. But the National Party does very little about it.

GREG CLARK. The Day I met the Emperor in Waiting

The request came from out of the blue. A neighbor in rural Chiba whose wife had royal family connections had sent a message via her husband that the crown prince, Naruhito, want to talk with me. He was said to have had read an article I had written for a Nagano prefecture regional newspaper about Japans little known Southern Alps. He himself was planning a trip to the area. Would I and my wife be willing to visit him and have chat about it?

HAROLD LEVIEN. Our economic downturn

The Government has failed to respond to Australias continuing economic downturn despite both increasing unemployment last measured at 720,000 and underemployment of 1.14 million.

ERIC SIDOTI. Morrison's unsettling religiosity - Part 2

God bless Australia. Scott Morrison chose these three words to close his acceptance speech on winning the miracle election. In doing so he has taken Australia into unchartered territory.

JUDITH IRELAND. Backstage in Canberra: who is lobbying our MPs? (SMH 12.10.2019)

Lobbying is big business and a part of life in Canberra, especially when Parliament is sitting. How does it work?

JOHN MENADUE. A Repost: Drug policy reform series

See link below to a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series in Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series was designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies. The NSW Premier has told us again and again that she is not interested in drug reform. She wants to appear tough as more and more people die as a result of her policy failures.

ERIC SIDOTI. God Bless Scomo Part 1: The Pentecostals Are Coming?

Scott Morrisons billing as Australias first Pentecostal PM has generated torrents of commentary. Much of the interest is driven by an assumption that the PMs religious preferences herald the rise of this strange, big C conservative megachurch steamroller as a wielder of political influence. The first thing to say is that the attention to Morrisons Pentecostalism has tended to be over-simplified and risks missing the point.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE. Guns and money: How the pokies' proponents channel the NRA image (Monash University 8-10-19)

Whenever Australians learn of a mass shooting in the US, we tend to feel relieved and maybe a little smug that our political leaders were sensible enough to restrict gun ownership after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

MARYANNE SLATTERY. The only thing as certain as drought in Australia is the stupid call to build new dams (The Guardian, 15 October 2019)

In Australia, the only thing as certain as drought is the subsequent calls by politicians to build new dams. Right on cue, the prime minister announced a $1bn commitment for new dams on Sunday.

IAN JOHNSON. The Eastern Jesus. A review of R.S. Sugirtharajah's "Jesus in Asia"

Over the past few years, the authorities in Beijing have given churches across the country orders to Sinicize their faith. According to detailed five-year plans formulated by both Catholic and Protestant organizations, much of this process involves the predictable palaver of state control: to actively practice core values of socialism, love the motherland passionately, support the leadership of the Communist Party, obey the law and serve society.1

NICOLA McGARRITY, JESSIE BLACKBOURN. Australia has enacted 82 anti-terror laws since 2001. But tough laws alone cant eliminate terrorism (The Conversation 30-9-19)

This is part of a new series looking at the national security challenges facing Australia, how our leaders are responding to them through legislation and how this is impacting society. Read other stories in the series here.

KELLIE TRANTER Australia's appetite for Hypersonics

While the media were understandably distracted by Secretary Espers comments on deploying intermediate range conventional weapons in the Pacific region in the lead up to the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in August, documents produced pursuant to Freedom of Information laws reveal our governments longer running enthusiasm to deepen our cooperation with the United States on hypersonics.

SETH FRANTZMAN. Smoke Signals in the Next Middle East War (7 October 2019, Tablet)

Irans attack on Saudi Arabias oil fields was a warning to Israel in an escalating regional war A bit over two weeks before the cruise missiles and drones detonated in Saudi Arabias strategic oil fields, igniting massive explosions that would take out more than half of the countrys daily oil exports, a group of Hezbollah activists emerged on Aug. 22 from a hill overlooking the Golan Heights. They carried with them drones, which malfunctioned when they tried to use them, apparently as a result of Israeli military actions. They were being watched by Israeli surveillance, which caught them trudging...

JOHN BRADLEY. The alliance between America and Saudi Arabia is over (The Spectator 28-9-19)

We are witnessing the beginning of a new geopolitics in the Middle East

MARK O'CONNOR FMS. Letters from the Synod. There are new steps: Prophetic voices amaze and energise in first week of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region

I am sure some of you might remember that fine Australian film Strictly Ballroom. In it, there was an epic struggle going on. On the one hand, there were those convinced that there is only one model of ballroom dancing and hence their insistent and non-compromising mantra: No new steps.

PAUL DALEY. Captain Cook's legacy is complex, but whether white Australia likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and oppression (The Guardian 3-10-19)

British and Australian regret over Cooks treatment of Indigenous people would go a long way to enhancing understanding of the continents shared history

MIKE WALLER. Restoring trust in our Westminster system: politicians heal yourselves

Politics in the US and the UK represent the death of shame in democratic government. To be caught lying in todays populist, post truth world of tribal politics is seemingly, at worst, a peccadillo. Legitimacy is now based on the will of the people (as the leaders interpret it), not by the standards they hold themselves to, or accountability to Parliament.

JOHN MENADUE. Expanding naval bases in central Sydney does not make sense.

The Navy is proposing a $500 million expansion of its training facility at HMAS Watson which is adjacent to the historic South Head National Park. There are good defence, urban, economic and social reasons why naval facilities at Garden Island , Watsons Bay and elsewhere in Sydney harbour should be progressively re-located, probably to northern Australia.

PRINCE CHARLES, THE PRINCE OF WALES. John Henry Newman: The harmony of difference

When Pope Francis canonises Cardinal John Henry Newman tomorrow, the first Briton to be declared a saint in over forty years, it will be a cause of celebration not merely in the United Kingdom, and not merely for Catholics, but for all who cherish the values by which he was inspired.

SCOTT BURCHILL. Decoding Australian foreign policy

Some assistance is required for those trying to understand contemporary Australian foreignpolicy these days, especially those looking for consistency, principles and ethics which seemall too illusive. Below is a brief guide, one that generally holds regardless of whether theLNP or ALP is in power.

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