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
3 January 2024
China and Australia once were allies
With QUAD and maybe JAUKUS, Japan is anxious to recruit us and others as spear carriers against China. The anti-China cause is long standing in Japan.
29 December 2023
The future will be decided by economic influence, not military dominance
America is falling into a trap. It thinks the future will be decided by military dominance, despite losing one war after another. China, on the other hand, recognises that the future will be decided by economics. (A repost from October 2023).
29 December 2023
On China/Australia relations the language has improved but there has not been much change of substance
A major problem for a settler society like Australia is to reconcile our history and our geography. In the last 10 years we've lost ground in reconciling the two.
28 December 2023
China's EV boom has caught Japan, South Korea and Germany asleep at the wheel!
China will need Australian iron ore and coking coal for its booming EV industry.
1 December 2023
The US cherry picks international laws that suit it
Defence Minister Marles, always singing from the same tired US song book, fails to recognise the difference between international law and a rules based international order (RBIO) that the US preaches. And there is a big difference. RBIO is code for US rules.
29 November 2023
Suffer the little children to come unto me
Well, not so if they are Palestinian children that Israelis keep killing time and time again. It is part of what Israelis calls 'mowing the grass'.
26 November 2023
Colonies of the US empire: Will the CocosIslandsbecome the new Diego Garcia?
The 2000 residentsof Diego Garcia were forcibly removed to make way for a giant US military base. Will the same happen to the Australian residentson the Cocos Islands that lies south of Sumatra in the Indian ocean?
22 November 2023
White Mans Media: The Chinese warship sonar incident
What a feast of anti-China stories we have had again from the Coalition and our media over the incident between HMAS Toowoomba and a Chinese PLA-N destroyer.
19 November 2023
Apology to Bob Carr
Last week we reposted an article about anti semitism by Bob Carr that was first posted by Pearls and Irritations on June 6, 2022. We highlighted that the article was a re-post. Some readers however did not notice that it was a re-post. The re-post was poorly timed. It was a mistake on my part. The re-post has been taken down. I have apologised to Bob Carr.
12 November 2023
Our national failure to equip ourselves for Asia
Very few of the people briefing Anthony Albanese have much knowledge or experience of Asia. Many are Austral Americans as Paul Keating rightly calls them.
2 November 2023
A briefing for Prime Minister Albanese for his discussion with President Xi
You will receive briefings from many of your advisors, including from the Office of National Intelligence. My experience is that intelligence agencies have a lot of information but they often have poor judgement. The framing of issues by our intelligence agencies very often reflects the views and habits of the US and the Anglosphere.
29 October 2023
The US doesn't hold the world together. It breaks it apart
The US is the 'essential nation', the 'indispensable nation', its leadership 'holds the world together'. This is the boastful humbug that President Biden gave us on his return from Israel, where he again affirmed his complicity with Israel in its decades of occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine. The US assumes a moral superiority it denies to others.
4 October 2023
The future will be decided by economic influence, not military dominance
America is falling into a trap. It thinks the future will be decided by military dominance, despite losing one war after another. China, on the other hand, recognises that the future will be decided by economics.
23 September 2023
Murdoch stepping down - Don't believe it!
Rupert Murdoch is addicted to media and politics. He will be continually looking over Lachlan's shoulder.
14 August 2023
Australian multiculturalism: Our greatest achievement?
In a broad sense Australian multiculturalism describes the cultural and ethnic diversity of Australia. Over a half of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. I contend that Australian multiculturalism is our greatest achievement, but it has always been fraught with tension. The challenge of immigration and multiculturalism has been and remains, do we stay comfortably as we are or do we risk something for a better future for ourselves and others?
29 July 2023
A growing string of Pearls and just as many Irritations: P&I needs your support
In 2017, Pearls and Irritations had a half a million views. By the end of 2022 we had more than 5.3 million views and we have already surpassed 3.3 million views heading into the second half of 2023. We receive more than 400,000 monthly views, and frequently many more.
12 July 2023
A Human Rights Act for Australia
In 2005 we commenced a campaign for a Human Rights Act for Australia. In 2009 as part of our campaign a Bill was drafted to 'respect, protect and promote Human Rights for Australia'. This model Bill formed the core of our group's submission to the National Human Rights Consultation, chaired by Frank Brennan SJ OA. Unfortunately the Rudd Government rejected the proposed Human Rights Act. Will Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and the Albanese government once more take up the challenge of reform?
9 June 2023
Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the war?
In 2016, President Obama visited Hiroshima. He was the first US President to do so since the bombing in 1945. He said that he would not be apologising for the dropping of the bomb and would not try and second-guess President Harry Truman's decision.
22 May 2023
Who started the trade war with China?
There is a sharp contradiction at the heart of the Albanese governments attempt to stabilisetrade with China, whilst at the same time preparingfor war with China in support of the United States.
15 May 2023
White Mans Media: Anti-China media beat ups continue
This time overpossible Chinese naval bases in the South Pacific.
5 May 2023
Will the Albanese Government revive the values that underpinned Medicare?
Or will it fiddle around the edges like the Rudd/Gillard Governments?
26 April 2023
We are being seduced into war again by the US, this time over Taiwan
The US must be told that we will not be involved in any way in a war with China over Taiwan.
20 April 2023
Why dental care was excluded from Medicare and why it should now be included (an edited repost)
In 1974, the Whitlam Government decided to exclude dental care from Medicare for two reasons. The first was cost. The second was political. Whitlam felt that combatting the doctors would be hard enough without having to combat dentists as well. Forty-six years later, with Australia much richer and the proven success of Medicare, it is now time for dental care to be progressively included in Medicare.
18 April 2023
A tainted Defence Strategic Review
P&I Editorial: Conflicts of interest at the heart of AUKUS and the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) including the principal author of the DSR benefitting from US State Department funding designed to build support for AUKUS and the US alliance - demand independent investigation.
31 March 2023
AUKUS: a collection of views not found in our Washington dominated media
AUKUS: signed and sealed by the Liberal government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australia will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated by our own government.
29 March 2023
The Iraq war, the Murdoch war and media culpability: Twenty years on...
The media here thought the terrorism over past decades in Australia fell from the deep blue sky and had no relationship to the help John Howard gave to George Bush in the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Twenty years after that invasion, the Australian media continue to fail us badly over its coverage of the Middle East wars, China, terrorism and the continuing human disaster and political and sectarian confusion.
14 March 2023
AUKUS and the drive to war with China: Special Issue
A Labor government has puts guns before butter how extraordinary! Today, Pearls and Irritations has taken the unusual step of devoting our issue line up entirely to articles on the drive to war with China and the disastrous commitment of $368 billion dollars of Australias public funding to nuclear submarines.
13 March 2023
Lobbyists are undermining public trust in our political institutions
Four Corners has once again highlighted that Lobbyists are most prolific in Canberra. Lobby firms infest Barton and Kingston. It is easy walking distance to Parliament House, the National Press Club and the major departments. A real LobbyLand with the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Medical Association, Lockheed Martin, the Australian Pharmacy Guild, the Business Council of Australia and many more.
12 March 2023
The Australian retreat from Asia is becoming a rout
Eleven years ago I gave the speech below. I was then pessimistic about our understanding of Asia. The situation has got markedly worse since then, writ large in the unremitting attacks on China stemming from ignorance and parochialism, particularly in our White Man's Media.
17 February 2023
The Abdication of Australian Sovereignty
Reducing the risk of Australia becoming trapped in an American war in Asia, again, requires the Australian government to give notice now to the United States that it wishes to withdraw from the Force Posture Agreement.
17 February 2023
The Japanese Ambassador in Canberra is being withdrawn
Journalists Matthew Knott and Andrew Tillett and other anti China hawks cultivated by Yamagami-san will be particularly disappointed that they will lose their anti China news feed as well as their sushi and sake.
10 February 2023
The US sees China through the dark mirror of its own unbridled aggression
As China grows and prospers many in the US want us to believe that China will follow the same path that the US itself pursued-global military aggression, the overthrow of numerous governments around the world and persecution of minorities at home.
20 January 2023
Defend independent media: Pearls and Irritations needs your support
Pearls and Irritations needs your financial support to keep improving and growing.
18 January 2023
The Iraq war, Fallujah and Jim Molan
The late Jim Molan will be remembered for many things. Few will remember him for the widespread violence by Coalition troops under Molans command during the brutal assault on Fallujah and other Sunni cities during the illegal occupation of Iraq in late 2004.
11 January 2023
Influential Japanese want us to join them in their long standing hostility to China
And the Japanese Embassy in Canberra is leading the anti China campaign in Australia. Penny Wong should have a serious discussion with the Ambassador.
6 January 2023
Medicare must be patient and not provider centred
When it was established in 1974, Medicare funded the way health services were delivered at that time. That delivery system has not been changed much at all since then. After fifty years the way we deliver health care needs substantial reform and updating. Our health delivery system is in a mess.
4 January 2023
AUKUS: a collection of views not found in our Washington dominated media
AUKUS: signed and sealed by the Liberal government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australia will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated by our own government.
1 January 2023
Best of 2022: China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack us
We are being led in our anti-China hysteria by the United States which is not concerned that China will attack us, or even the United States, but is concerned that its world hegemony is being challenged.
30 December 2022
Best of 2022: Defence Strategic Review - Read all about it
According to the terms of reference Defence Security Review is now required to ensure that Defence has the right capabilities that are postured to meet the growing strategic challenges that Australia and its partner countries will face in the world in coming years.
29 December 2022
Best of 2022: If I were the Minister for Health
I would progressively wind back and eliminate the $14b pa taxpayer subsidy for Private Health Insurance and use that very large sum to fund the inclusion of dental care within Medicare and increase the funding to the states for expanded specialist services in outpatient clinics at public hospitals.
29 December 2022
A night with the Vice Chancellors the export of education services. A repost from June 19, 2015
In 2015, education services earned an export income for Australia of over $16 b. p.a. Those export services were expected to increase to $31 b. p.a. by 2020 from about 600,000 overseas students. Education was our fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. It is our major services export, ahead of tourism.
28 December 2022
"I learned that powerful people trample on institutions and conventions" when it suits: Podcast ABC The Eleventh, February/March 2020
After November 11 1975, I came to the conclusion that even a Governor General, some High Court Judges and a powerful media proprietor were not honourable and trustworthy.
27 December 2022
Best of 2022: The major parties refuse to tackle the lobbying scourge. Can the Teals and the Greens save the day?
The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge.
26 December 2022
Violence at home and abroad is as American as cherry pie.
We could get into a war with China is if we continue to act as a proxy or deputy sheriff for the US in the region. Despite the media hysteria, China is not a military threat to Australia or the US.
23 December 2022
John Menadue. Why I am still a Catholic: A repost from July 7, 2017
Cardinal John Henry Newman once said that there is nothing as ugly as the Catholic Church yet nothing as beautiful. It is hard to see that beauty at this moment. With sexual abuse it is time for sackcloth and ashes. Mysogyny is wall to wall. But I will hang on.
7 December 2022
Medicare reform must not just be about more money to do the same things the same way
Medicare must now focus on how health services are delivered. When it was established in 1974, Medicare funded the way health services were delivered at that time. That delivery system has not been changed much at all since then. After fifty years the way we deliver health care needs substantial reform and updating. Our health delivery system is in a mess.
2 December 2022
The National Party has deserted country people on climate change, NBN, health services, and now the Voice
Farmers are the main sufferers from climate change- droughts, fires heavy rainfall and floods. The National Party has failed farmers and country people on numerous fronts. It has sold out to the miners.
1 December 2022
Whitlam was elected fifty years ago today: Medibank/Medicare was conceived five years before that
On a bleak Melbourne midwinter night in 1967, Medicare was conceived. The election of the Whitlam Government on December 2 ,1972 gave impetus to what was to come. Medicare was finally launched in 1975.