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

JOHN MENADUE. Scott Morrison claims again quite wrongly that he stopped the boats. (ABC News 30.4.2019)

In the leaders' debate in Perth, Scott Morrison said:I fashioned a policy to deal with [boat arrivals in Australia] and we fixed it.

GEORGE MONBIOT. Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse (The Guardian)

No one is coming to save us. Mass civil disobedience is essential to force a political response.

JOHN MENADUE. Political leadership . Morrison or Shorten?

We are regularly polled about who is the best leader as if it a popularity contest. That is not what leadership is about. And leadership and charisma are quite different. Good leadership is about facing the country or group up to the hard issues. Without clearly defining why and how we need to change and creating some disequilibrium there will be no worthwhile change. Climate change is the great issue we face. Steady and focussed leadership is essential.

SOPHIE HARDEFELDT. Political parties international trade policies

For the last 20 years the global trade and investment regime has been used to institutionalise neoliberalism, establishing international rules and norms through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and bilateral trade and investment agreements that increase the power of global corporations while undermining human rights and the environment.

VACY VLAZNA. The Sarafand Massacre and Anzac Cover-up, Part 1

In the early winter of 1918, the wheat, barley and sesame fields of Sarafand al-Kharab lay fallow. Oranges, figs, almonds and olives had been harvested, the summer honey stored. At night the goats and sheep were brought into the warmth of the adobe brick houses.

JOHN MENADUE. The Greens-- good policies and poor politics.

The Greens have correctly directed criticism at the cruel policies of the ALP and the Coalition on refugees in Manus and Nauru. They are also rightly critical of the major parties on climate change.But on both issues the Greens have not been very helpful .

KASY CHAMBERS. Anglicare Australias latest Rental Affordability Snapshot paints a grim picture

Anglicares just released 10thRental Affordability Snapshot provides sobering evidence of just how hard it is for those on lower incomes, including those on the most generous government benefits (the Age Pension), to be able to afford to rent a property, let alone have any hope of one day becoming a home owner. What is desperately needed is an increase in the supply of social housing.

ISABELLE REINECKE. How strategic litigation can strengthen our democracy

Australian politics is becoming increasingly polarised. Policy decisions are made for short term political gain against the advice of experts, and democratic checks and balances are being degraded. Strategic litigation is a tool that can be used to cut through the politics and surface the facts - even for causes that vested interests with deep pockets are stacked against. But litigation is costly. A new organisation, Grata Fund, is working with philanthropy and crowdfunding to provide financial assistance to help private citizens push back against unfair laws and policies through the courts.

IOLA MATTHEWS. Bridging the gender pay gap, one case at a time (Sydney Morning Herald 26 April 2019)

The path to more equal pay for women is one issue that could be significantly affected by the result of the forthcoming federal election.

RON WITTON. Zionism and Terra Nullius: a haunting parallel between Israel and Australia

When I was growing up in Sydney in the 1950s, I knew that I came from a Jewish family and I was aware of the little blue and white Jewish National Fund money boxes collecting funds for Israel. Recently I have remembered a phrase from my childhood, A land without a people for a people without a land which I had unquestioningly accepted as justification for the establishment of Israel.

FRIDAY FORUM. Easter Sunday's suffering in Sri Lanka - seeking and finding answers

The Friday Forum, Sri Lanka TheFridayForum isan informal and self-financed group dedicated to democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law. Ithas for over five years sought to alertthe public on issues concerningthe rights of the citizen. We work ona non-partisan basis and have been critical of both the Government and Opposition.

JOHN MENADUE. The scourge of lobbyists is part of our political malaise. An update

Lobbyists are back in the news but it looks as if the scourge of lobbyists will continue in Canberra if Bill Shorten wins the next election. There is no sign that the ALP, like the Coalition is prepared to curb the way lobbyists are corrupting public policy in Australia.. The media reports that lobby firms are taking on labor staffers so that they can influence a future Labor Government. And ex Labor, Liberal and National ministers figure prominently in major lobbying firms.

ANDREW SALMON. South Korea unveils national strategy for 5G (Asian Times)

South Korea expects to create 600,000 new quality jobs by 2026 thanks to fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile technologies, and hopes to leverage its first-mover advantage in the sector globally, a senior government official said on Monday.

SAUL NEWMAN. The Australian Government funds both pro- and anti-alcohol research efforts

Revelations in The Guardian on Good Friday, Former CSIRO researcher accuses science agency of pro-alcohol research, about the pro-alcohol bias of Australias premier scientific organisation the CSIRO have been made by a former employee in a letter recently published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet (End government support for pro-alcohol research). Dr Saul Newman has questioned the CSIROs enthusiasm for pro-alcohol research in the face of the significant and growing evidence of the magnitude of harm caused by the consumption of alcohol in Australia. Below he expands on his concerns.

MARC HUDSON. In Australia, climate policy battles are endlessly reheated (The Conversation)

This article is part of a series examining the Coalition governments record on key issues while in power and what Labor is promising if it wins the 2019 federal election. It might feel like the past decade of climate policy wars has led us into uncharted political waters. But the truth is, weve been sailing around in circles for much longer than that.

MELISSA SWEET. What might Greta Thunberg tell the Australian Parliament? (Croakey)

This week, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, who must surely go down in history as one of the great champions for global health, addressed the British Parliament.

GRAEME STEWART. Major holes in Medicare.

For a very large and growing number of poorer Australians, the high out-of-pocket expenses for medical care in Australia to which Ross Gittins refers (SMH Prevention is better than cure, April 24), are tearing major holes in the safety net Medicare was designed to provide to us all, rich and poor.

JOHN MENADUE. Jobs at Adani or on the Great Barrier Reef.

There are very strong grounds for Australia to phase out the mining of steaming coal as soon as possible and certainly not to promote new coal projects such as Adani. Our planet is increasingly at risk. Protecting the Great Barrier Reef is likely to save and promote more jobs than the few jobs in prospect at Adani. Tourism is a growth industry of the future. Coal mining is a declining and dying industry.

PAUL ELIE. What do the Churchs victims deserve?

The Catholic Church is turning to outside arbiters to reckon with its history of sexual abuse. But skeptics argue that its legacy of evasion continues.

TIM WINTON. Our leaders are ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. It's unforgivable (The Guardian)

Humanity survived the cold war because no one pushed the button. On climate change, the button has been pushed again and again.

JOHN MENADUE. Best we forget the Frontier and Maori Wars. An update

The Frontier Wars were the most destructive and decisive in our history. The first war we fought alongside 'New Zealanders' was not at Gallipoli in 1915 but in the Maori Wars in the middle of the nineteenth century. Yet both wars are ignored by the Australian War Memorial. The AWM promotes myths about the wars it chooses to remember, the imperial wars.

ANDREW FROST. Alternative Histories,the ANZAC legend re-imagined on canvas

The assumption of ANZAC as the foundation of conservative Australia has been used to mobilise popular sentiment into dubious alliances in wars of questionable purpose.In this context, Rodney Poples latest exhibition, Shell Shocked, has urgency. His paintings are a vehicle for questioning more than a century of myth-making.

DIRK DE BRUYN. Re-visiting Gallipoli

I am talking with Turkish filmmaker Kken Ergun at the Rotterdam International Film Festival about a documentary that all Australian and New Zealand audiences should see. Heroes is about the mythologizing of trauma, of the First World War campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula (or anakkale). Ergun includes interviews at the monuments with the April 25 pilgrims and tourists that reveal shared moments and differences.

EVA COX. The trust deficit a seriously neglected election issue

At the forthcoming election the Coalition will be asking Who do you trust, Scott Morrison or Bill Shorten? Morrison repeated it yesterday many times. This seems odd for a leader who most reminds me of another salesman, Donald Trump. But that aside, the issue of trust in our politicians and our political institutions is a major national concern. (John Menadue,'We need a national summit to promote trust in politics'.)

JAMES ONEILL: When Better than at an Election to Have a Serious and Overdue Debate About Defence and Foreign Policy Objectives?

The current election cycle presents a golden opportunity to have a serious discussion about Australias defence and foreign policies. These have been notably lacking from both major parties.

SCOTT BURCHILL: There are leaks and then there are leaks

The arrest of Julian Assange in London for his activities as head of WikiLeaks has renewed the publics focus on the role of whistleblowers, and the prosecution of journalists who embarrass governments by exposing their lies, corruption and crimes.

DAMIEN WILLIAMS. We need to keep temperature to a 1.5 degree increase... a letter to the Hon. Mark Dreyfus MP

Labors attempt to find the middle ground in its climate policy pays lip service to the warnings that credible scientists are making on the need for drastic cuts to fossil fuel emissions by 2030. The partys position, outlined by the federal member for Isaacs, Mark Dreyfus, in a letter to his constituents , misses the opportunity to make a case for a 1.5 degree target as a reasonable and urgent policy goal.

MARRYANNE SLATTERY AND ROD CAMPBELL. Debugging the Watergate complex (The Australian Institute, April 2019)

Interpreting the responses to #Watergate by the Prime Minister and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources

JOHN MENADUE. Easter and the banality of evil. An edited repost

Our policies towards asylum seekers that are cruel,evil and immoral,depend on our first dehumanising and then demonising them. Ministers,even the Prime Minister have recently reminded us that some of them are rapists and murderers.They infer that they are not like us and do not deserve empathy and protection. It is an attempt to chloroform our consciences.

TIM BEAL. The clash of diasporas.

On 11 April New Zealands spy chiefs, as the media labelled them, gave evidence to the Justice Select Committee of Parliament. Rebecca Kitteridge, director-general of the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), and Andrew Hampton, director-general of the Government Security Communications Bureau (GCSB), gave dark warnings to MPs about foreign interference in NZ politics. China was not mentioned in the public session though that was clearly the thrust and no doubt they were more explicit when the session was closed to the public and media. It was a scene which is frequently, and increasingly, being played out in a similar fashion elsewhere,...

PATTY FAWKNER SGS. Vague wanting. Our lives, yours and mine, are too precious to fritter away on lukewarm commitments and half-hearted vows.

Do you want God? The retreat directors question to me, a young nun preparing to renew her vows as a Good Samaritan Sister, was uncharacteristically blunt. The much-revered Benedictine priest must have picked up something in my attitude during our daily one-on-one encounters.

JOHN MENADUE. Appealing to our Better Angels. A repost from 30 June 2011

In an appeal to Secessionists in his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln appealed to the better angels of our nature. Today we lack the bi-partisan leadership on refugees that would appeal to our better angels. I have yet to hear Julia Gillard make an informed case for generosity towards refugees who are amongst the most vulnerable people in the world. She competes with Tony Abbott to show how tough she can be. Tony Abbott in his opportunism appeals to our darker angels. The Holy Family was indeed lucky when it fled as refugees to Egypt that the Pharaoh did not...

BEVAN RAMSDEN. Do the US Marines in Darwin pose a risk to our peace and security?

A recent US war exercise involving US Marines landing, capturing and securing an island off the coast of Okinawa is touted as a new US military strategy to use in its challenge to China in the South China Sea. Is the imbedding of US marines in war exercises on HMAS Adelaide, which has been fitted with amphibious landing gear, part of US strategy to involve Australia in future hostile actions in the South China Sea ?

GREG JERICHO. The Coalition boasts about economic management. Wheres the evidence? (The Guardian 16.4.2019)

This is the only government since Fraser's that hasn't presided over an improved standard of living.

EMILE NAKHLEH. Washington hawks clamouring to attack Iran

Those pushing for regime change in Iran are overestimating the Iranian peoples dislike of their theocratic regime and are mistaking that dislike for a willingness to embrace a foreign invader. Like the Bush Administration with Iraq, the Trump Administration appears to have given little or no strategic thought to the future of Iran beyond any possible removal of the clerical regime. If attacked, Iran has the capability to retaliate against its neighbours, in a war that could easily spread across the region. The security challenges that Iran continues to pose will be best addressed by policy that is formulated using...

ANDREW CHUBB. Chinas assertive maritime policy is older than Xi (East Asia Forum)

The toughening of Chinas policies in the South and East China Seas is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of Xi Jinpings foreign policy. But while it is true that the PRC has become more assertive in its maritime disputes under Xi, China had already been on such a trajectory since 2006. Many changes in Chinas maritime dispute behaviour under Xi may be better understood as continuities.

H.K. COLEBATCH. Whats wrong with the APS?

The Thodey review has stimulated a wide variety of diagnoses of whats wrong with the APS, but one has been missed. Could it be that its problem is hubris?

GARRY EVERETT. Worse things than dying.

In Eric Bogles haunting song : And the band played Waltzing Matilda, there is the heart-wrenching line sung by the young soldier who has just had both legs blown off by a Turkish bomb. He sings:And when I saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead. Never knew there were worse things than dying.

GRAEME WORBOYS. Celebrating Kosciuszko's 75th anniversary.

The 75th anniversary of the establishment of Kosciuszko State Park falls on Good Friday, 19 April 2019. The Park was famously established by Premier William McKell to protect the nationally important mountain water catchments, to restore soil erosion caused by burning off and over-grazing by stock and to provide opportunities for visitor use and enjoyment. Kosciuszko is one of the Australias greatest national parks; it is a National Heritage Property protecting priceless Australian heritage and receives more than 1 million visits a year. The Park enjoyed 74 years of bipartisan support for conservation until regressive 2018 legislation was passed to...

SAM BYFORD. Huawei chairman accuses American critics of hypocrisy over NSA hacks (The Verge 27.2.2019)

Huaweis rotating chairman Guo Ping has gone on the offensive this week at Mobile World Congress, following continued pressure on US allies to drop the Chinese telecoms giant over national security fears.

HAL PAWSON and BILL RANDOLPH. On housing, theres clear blue water between the mainparties (The Conversation, 12 April 2019)

Labors bold stance on housing tax reform and investment makes this one of the likely policy flashpoints in the coming election campaign. How does the Coalition governments housing record stand up to scrutiny? What would be in prospect in a third Liberal-National term? And exactly what is Labors alternative pitch?

MEGHAN SULLIVAN. Envisioning the Afterlife. The problem with Lazarus.

During Lent, Christians are asked to think much more concretely about our short, precarious lives. We swear off chocolate, alcohol, or, in my case, swearing itself.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said greenhouse gas emissions have turned around by 1.1 billion tonnes under the Coalition. Is he correct? (ABC News)

The Morrison Government has for months argued Australia is on track to meet its international greenhouse gas emissions abatement targets in a canter.

JOSHUA J. McELWEE. In new letter, Benedict blames clergy abuse on sexual revolution, Vatican II theology.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has published a new letter blaming the continuing Catholic clergy abuse crisis on the sexual revolution, developments in theology following the Second Vatican Council, and modern society's aversion to speaking about God.

DAVID MACILWAIN. Two Australians in trouble abroad.

The law to censor violent content rushed through Parliament last week connected dots between two Australians abroad, when Julian Assange was extradited from Ecuadorian territory, in London. I examine the linkages.

RICHARD FLANAGAN. Have we, Australia, become a country that breeds mass murderers with our words? (The Guardian 14.4.2019)

We are better than our politicians' dark fears. We are not their hate. We are optimistic about a country built on openness.

TIM LINDSEY. Indonesia goes to the polls: rematch or replay? (University of Melbourne, 15 April 2019)

Indonesia goes to the polls on 17 April, with the same presidential candidates as five years ago: the incumbent, Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi), a self-made former furniture exporter and former governor of Jakarta, and Prabowo Subianto, a former general who was once a son-in-law of Soeharto, the authoritarian former president who ruled for three decades until 1998.

GIDEON LEVY. Israel's new wretched republic.

On Tuesday, the Second Republic of Israel was born. It will be different from its predecessor. The First Republic chalked up impressive achievements, accompanied by lies and deceptions. The Second Republic will dispense with any pretense.

GEOFF HARCOURT. Sluggish Wages Growth

Recent comments on sluggish wages growth in Australia trace their origins back to the Accord introduced in the early 1980s. It is also argued that the Accord was a precursor to the introduction of the neo-liberal era in Australia. I was one of the academic pioneers of the Accord. A group of us were led by the late Eric Russell; we were backing up Ralph Williss voice crying in the wilderness arguments in political circles. Joe Isaac took a similar stance.

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