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

Australia unprepared for worsening wild weather, ex-emergency chiefs warn (The New Daily)

Concerned former fire and emergency chiefs have warned of increasingly catastrophic extreme weather events and demanded action on climate change. The group of 23 ex-top brass fired a salvo against Prime Minister Scott Morrison as well as state and territory governments in a signed joint letter issued in Melbourne on Wednesday.

JOHN MENADUE. We need a national summit to promote trust in politics. An edited repost

At the forthcoming election the Liberal Party will be asking, Who do you trust Scott Morrison or Bill Shorten? Scott Morrison repeated it yesterday many times. This seems odd for a leader who most reminds me of salesman, Donald Trump. But that aside the issue of trust in our politicians and our political institutions is a major national concern.

RONNIE KASRILS. I fought South African apartheid. I see the same brutal policies in Israel.

As a Jewish South African anti-apartheid activist I look with horror on the far-right shift in Israel ahead of this months elections, and the impact in the Palestinian territories and worldwide.

PAULINA GUZIK. Church in Poland struggles to address clerical sex abuse crisis

A penitential liturgy for the crimes of sex abuse in the industrial city of d on March 28 signaled an about-face for the Polish Church.Two weeks earlier, the leaders of the countrys bishops conference held a press conference where they criticized zero tolerance as an ideology with Nazi roots. In d, Archbishop Grzegorz Ry expressed exactly the opposite - a victims first approach, in-sync with Pope Franciss latest guidelines.

BRIAN COYNE The genius of Rupert Murdoch and why we all need to pay attention...

This is in response to the recent New York Time's commentary on the Empire of Rupert Murdoch, P&I 5th April. Murdoch's insight has been passed to many of the publishers of commercial media and political parties. It has damaged society and there's no easy way for it to be countered.

JOHN MENADUE The myth that the Liberals are better economic managers?

Scott Morrison in today's announcement of the election date said once again that 'Labor cannot manage money' In an earlier post I argued that the economy is a means to an end. It is not an end in itself. The economy must ensure and hopefully advance the health of our planet and our society. Unfortunately the Government sees the economy as paramount. It believes that this will play to its strength. But the facts do not show that the Liberals are better economic managers.

The economy is a means to an end. It is not an end in itself.

Bill Clinton said its the economy, stupid. He was wrong, although in later years he spoke more wisely about putting people first.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ. GDP is not a good measure of wellbeing it's too materialistic (Project Syndicate)

Just under 10 years ago, the National Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress issued its report, Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesnt Add Up. The title summed it up: GDP is not a good measure of wellbeing. What we measure affects what we do: if we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing. If we focus only on material wellbeing on, say, the production of goods, rather than on health, education, and the environment we become distorted in the same way that these measures are distorted; we become more materialistic.

KERRY O'BRIEN. We can't let ourselves off the hook (Part 2)

Part 2 of a speech delivered at The Walkley Fund for Journalism Dinner in Sydney on Friday April 5, 2019. Every year at the Walkley Awards, we honour a craft that holds power in its various manifestations big and small, to account. We should also, all be prepared to reflect on our own failures.

CONCERNED CATHOLICS OF CANBERRA. A Catholic future - Out of hope not fear.

Opponents of reform of the Catholic Church in Australia risk doing enormous further damage to the church and its own community, a former member of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse , Robert Fitzgerald AM, says.Mr Fitzgerald is to address a forum of the Concerned Catholics of Canberra Goulburn group next Tuesday, 16 April, on the theme Governance for our Church Out of hope, not fear. He says that while many in the church are grieving and struggling, now is the time to listen, reflect and act.

KERRY O'BRIEN. We can't let ourselves off the hook (Part 1)

Part 1 of a speech delivered at The Walkley Fund for Journalism Dinner in Sydney on Friday April 5, 2019. Forty-three years ago I went to the Philippines for the ABCs Four Corners, to cover a disaster storya tsunami that hit the island of Mindanao, killing 8,000 people. After witnessing close up the nature of President Ferdinand Marcoss brutal despotism, I stayed on to tell another story, of how Marcos had used martial law, which hed introduced ostensibly to deal with the threat of communist insurrection, to establish a dictatorship under which a powerful oligarchy of obscenely wealthy familiesthe so-called...

ALBERT VAN DIJK. Australias 2018 environmental scorecard: a dreadful year that demands action (The Conversation).

Environmental news is rarely good. But even by those low standards, 2018 was especially bad. That is the main conclusion from Australias Environment in 2018, the latest in an annual series of environmental condition reports, released today. Every year, we analyse vast amounts of measurements from satellites and on-ground stations using algorithms and prediction models on a supercomputer. These volumes of data are turned into regional summary accounts that can be explored on our Australian Environment Explorer website. We interpret these data, along with other information from national and international reports, to assess how our environment is tracking.

JIM STANDFORD. Wages: Oops, They Did It Again! (The Australia Institute)

You would think that after 5 consecutive years of wage forecasts that wildly overestimated actual experience, the government might have learned from its past errors and published a wage forecast more in line with reality. But not this government.

MICHAEL NIMAN. Weaponised Social Media Is Driving the Explosion of Fascism (Truthout)

Social media platforms give governments, extremists, haters and propagandists the ability to excite and incite hate amplified by algorithms.

The New York Times 'How Rupert Murdoch's empire of influence remade the world'.

On Wednesday 3 April 2019, The New York Times published a 20,000 word article about the influence o the Murdoch family, (Rupert, James and Lachlan) and the developing divisions within it. See link below to the New York Times article.

JOHN MENADUE. The anti- China 'think tank' receives farewell largesse from the Coalition

In this week's budget the Australian Strategic Policy Institute received an enormous increase in government funding from $3.528m in 2017/18 to $20m in 2018/19.( Budget Papers -3.1.2 Grants ,Tables 39 and 40) .If the grant is for more than one year why is it all lumped together in 2018/19. Is it because ASPI fears that a new government might reduce it's funding,as well it should.? The ASPI is not an 'independent' think tank that it claims to be. It is 'joined at the hip' to the US defence/arms and intelligence complex and an enthusiastic supporter of almost all things...

YELENA BIBERMAN, JARED SCHWARTZ. Pakistan is ready for stability in Afghanistan (East Asia Forum).

The Afghan government has an unexpectedly ardent advocate in current peace negotiations between the United States and TalibanPakistan. This surprising supporter has been providing sanctuary to the Taliban, thereby placing a pricey bet on its alleged proxys recapture of Afghanistan following a US withdrawal. The Talibans refusal to negotiate with the government in Kabul is a major obstacle to the peace process. But Pakistan is now pressuring the Taliban to meet with Afghan officials.

AMANDA McKENZIE. Labors climate policy announcement: not perfect, but a significant advance.

In the lead-up to the federal election, the ALP has made climate change a focus of its campaign and has provided significant opportunities to strengthen climate action in Australia. However, if elected, the ALP would need to rapidly ratchet up these policies to ensure the scale and speed of transition that is required.

BEN SAUL. Stop talking tough Prime Minister and start caring for Aussie children (SMH 3.4.2019)

With the defeat of the Islamic States last stronghold in Syria, governments worldwide are grappling with how to deal with the innocent family members of foreign terrorist fighters. The Prime Minister has proclaimed that he will not put one Australian life at risk to extract the children of Australians who were involved.

TIM COSTELLO. The Foreign Aid Program continues to be treated like an ATM

Despite delivering a budget surplus, the Coalition has chosen to keep aid at its least generous level.This is not surprising from a government who have lost sight of our nations role as a global neighbour and treated our aid program like an ATM.

WARWICK McKIBBIN. How should technocrats count the true cost of climate?

A bad model with transparent assumptions is better than arbitrary analysis based on wishful thinking, writes Warwick McKibbin.Published in AFR on 26 March 2019

JOHN MENADUE. The Australian Pharmacy Guild continues to dud taxpayers and patients.

In last night's budget the Government had been proposing to deliver cheaper medicines by doubling the number of medications that could be dispensed from a single prescription for conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. Taxpayers and patients would have benefitted but true to form the Pharmacy Guild lobbied the government and Minister Hunt ran for cover. It happens time and time again with the public interest ignored.

H.K. COLEBATCH. Telling stories about elections.

The reports of the NSW elections have been very interesting, but more for what they show about the way we tell stories about elections than for how well they explain the process and its outcome. There seems to be a struggle between two stories a dominant one about a public drama culminating in an act of collective choice, and a subordinate one known about, but little-used about the structures which channel political activity. Which of these is the real story of the elections?

MARK RAGG. Christchurch: Some of the media examines its role (Croakey).

The awful murder of about 50 people in Christchurch has prompted a flurry of questions around a central theme why? Does the rise of nationalism play a part? Is racism more acceptable now that 20 years ago? What role is played by the dark corners of the web, which hate speech is reinforced and amplified? What is the responsibility of social media giants like Twitter and Facebook? And what is the role of mainstream media, which has an enormous impact on how we see the world and each other.

GARRY EVERETT. Inertia or Inability?

Inertia or inability? How best to describe the response of the Australian Catholic Bishops to findings of the Royal Commission into the Sexual abuse of Minors? Admittedly the case of Cardinal Pell has dominated the media of recent weeks, but as Paul Collins observed in these columns recently, the response of the Bishops to this case, has been muted, and characterised by expressions of incredulity and lament.The Cardinal Pell case was prosecuted outside the workings of the Royal Commission, and should in no way be regarded as the final chapter of the Churchs response to the Commission. General reform in...

JOHN MANT. It's not less population but better planning.

Its not the excessive population growth, its the failures of city planning, it is said in defence of high immigration levels.Planning has been a mess for a long time. But in NSW there may be signs of hope with the Greater Sydney Commission now reporting to the Premier.

DANIELLE WOOD. Intergenerational theft. (The Conversation).

The tens of thousands of young people who were protesting at the school climate strike two weeks ago know that they are being left a stinking great environmental mess to clean up. But I suspect that many are yet to appreciate that this is not the only mess theyll be left with.

DAVID SMITH. Warrants for genocide

The killing of 50 Muslims in two Christchurch mosques is the largest massacre of a minority group in the west since at least 1961. On October 17 of that year, Paris police opened fire on thousands of Algerians demonstrating against the French war in their homeland and the curfews imposed on Muslim Algerian workers. Police threw Algerians from bridges into the Seine, where many drowned. The exact number of deaths is disputed; some historians concur with the official account of 40 deaths, while others place the death toll at more than 100.

MICHAEL LEAHY. Can the institutional Catholic Church be saved? Getting it back on Mission.

The Catholic Church throughout the world is facing its greatest crisis since the Protestant Reformation, and particularly in the Australian Church. Already reeling from the exposure by a Royal Commission of crimes of clerical paedophilia and episcopal cover-ups, it has now been hit with the conviction on five such charges of its most senior leader, Cardinal George Pell. The credibility of the institutional Church, as provider of loving care to the vulnerable such as children, and announcer of Gods word to a world yearning for moral and spiritual leadership in meeting challenges like climate change, violent conflict and unequal distribution...

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. Why Australia is the best place to be an online racist.

When no name pulled the trigger over one hundred times as he sluiced his way through the congregations at two Christchurch mosques, nothing he did was new. It was bigger, perhaps more successful, and maybe better planned than his role models had been able to realise, but his actions were entirely predictable.

MARTIN WOLF. The Brexit delusion of taking back control (Financial Times 27.3.2019)

From Beijing, where I now am, the UK looks small. It also looks as if it has fallen into the hands of lunatics engaged in an astonishing act of national self-harm.

BEN POBJIE. Why 'Q&A' Is A Complete Waste Of Time (10 Daily).

With Tony Jones announcing his imminent departure from Q&A, it seems timely to take a good look at the little political panel show that his calm stewardship turned into a ratings semi-behemoth for the ABC.

CHARLES MOREROD The Church under pressure: Reform or counter-reform? Throughout history there has been no change in the Church without at least some external pressure

Bishop Charles Morerod, who is recognized as one the leading intellectuals among the Catholic hierarchy of Europe, recently told La Croix the Church reforms itself under the influence of seemingly adverse forces. The 57-year-old Swiss Dominican, head of the Diocese of Lausanne-Genve-Fribourg since 2011, was referring to the sexual abuse crisis and how it is putting pressure for change on the Catholic Church. Mounting pressure is a key factor to consider in the debates within the Church about the institutional reforms that are needed to address how bishops have failed in handling sex abuse cases. But this pressure on the...

JOHN MENADUE. Labors proposed Australian Health Reform Commission is a welcome start.

For many years several of us in Pearls and Irritations have argued that we need an independent and professional health commission to lead an informed public discussion on health issues and recommend to the Commonwealth Government and COAG on how to improve our health system. In world terms we have a good system, but it is really unchanged since the Hawke government in 1983 introduced Medicare which was based on the Whitlam governments Medibank of 1975.

DANNY DAVIS. Super power: why the future of Australian capitalism is now in Greg Combets hands (The Conversation).

Right now Greg Combet is arguably the most powerful man in Australia. Earlier this month the former trade unionist and federal politician declared his intention to transform Australian business. His radical idea: to promote the concept of long-term value.

TERRY MORAN. The next long wave of reform where will the ideas come from? Part 2

I want to talk about what I am going to describe as a mission - Australia's next long wave of reform. It is the third wave of reform which must bring us to a compact on the big ideas which will drive policies and programs at all levels of government and within our national community for a generation. It should give effect to consistent Australian attitudes on government and democracy described by Rebecca Huntley in the latest Quarterly Essay, citing CPD's research prominently.

JAMES ONEILL. Australian defence strategy still locked in a past era

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald (25 March 2019) the coalition government, if re-elected, would spend $2.5 billion on an air defence system. The object of the expenditure is said to bolster Australias capacity to intercept enemy aircraft. The new system will also defend against helicopters, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems.

TERRY MORAN. The next long wave of reform where will the ideas come from? Part 1

I want to talk about, what Im going to describe as a mission Australias next long wave of reform. It is this third wave of reform which must bring us to a compact on the big ideas which will drive policies and programs at all levels of government and within our national community for a generation. It should give effect to consistent Australian attitudes on government and democracy described by Rebecca Huntley in the latest Quarterly Essay, citing CPDs research prominently.

WILLIAM GRIMM MM. Schoolyard bullies in the sacristy. Sexual abuse by clergy should be blamed on emotionally immature men, not homosexuality or celibacy

Half a century ago, the bishops' conference of the United States commissioned an interdisciplinary study of the priesthood in that country. Key parts of it were led by two priests who at the time were celebrities in the Catholic community, Andrew Greeley the sociologist and Eugene Kennedy the psychologist. (Disclosure: as a seminarian I was office assistant to Kennedy in the early stages of the study.)

JOO-CHEON THAM. Weve let wage exploitation become the default experience of migrantworkers (The Conversation, 21.03.18)

Australias Fairwork Commission has so far this year examined more than a dozen cases of wage theft. Those cases involve hundreds of workers and millions of dollars in underpayments. And its just the tip of the iceberg.

GRAHAM HUNTER. A nationwide approach to Climate Change is possible.

Under the Paris Climate Agreement, all countries acknowledged that the total of their current targets for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases was insufficient to avoid dangerous climate change. They agreed to enhance the targets progressively. Developed countries are to lead the way. All countries have been invited to submit their new targets to a UN climate summit in September this year. This could be an opportunity for a new Australian national approach to climate change.

LAURA TINGLE. Scott Morrison said all the right things after Christchurch attack, but his history tells another story (ABC News 22.03.19)

New Zealand artist Ruby Jones shared a simple drawing online last week after the massacre in Christchurch.It depicts a Muslim woman being embraced by another woman in grief . This is your home and you should have been safe here, the message says.It is an image that has gone viral online and now adorns buildings all over Christchurch. Morrison has a history of low shots. He has form in this sort of politics.

JUDITH BETTS. Dutton, the media and framing Lebanese migration as Frasers mistake

Events in Christchurch have prompted a long-overdue examination of our own tolerance of the dog whistling and hate speech our politicians and the right-wing media have engaged in for years now. But research conducted by a colleague, Dr Mehal Krayem, and I after Duttons comments in 2016 found that it was not just the right-wing media who have a case to answer. Our mainstream media have also failed to challenge politicians such as Dutton and right-wing commentators like Bolt, Devine and Henderson, over their inflammatory and misleading comments, in this case about Lebanese migration.

DANIEL P. HORAN. Francis of Assis's model for church reform may help in the abuse crisis

There is a famous story about St. Francis of Assisi that takes place early in his experience of ongoing conversion to live a more committed Christian life. According to those friars who knew St. Francis during his lifetime and documented their stories of him in an early Franciscan text known as The Legend of the Three Companions, one day he was walking by the country church of San Damiano and felt led by the Holy Spirit to enter and pray before the crucifix hanging there. As he was praying, the crucifix spoke to him in a tender and kind voice:...

ADRIAN PISARSKI. Tackling the Housing Crisis Properly Requires a National Housing Strategy

There is a plethora of well-intentioned research and opinion aimed at solving Australias growing housing crisis, including Labors proposed reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. However, to be really effective, all of this must be considered in the context of a new national housing strategy. Only by taking that sort of holistic approach can we transform Australias housing system to be fit for the 21st Century.

ISABELLA HARDING. How would I sum up the youth climate strike in Melbourne last Friday ?

If I had to sum up the youth climate strike in Melbourne last Friday in one word, it would be empowering. If I had to sum it up in three words, they would be empowering, inspiring and disappointing.

LINDA BRISKMAN. Let's disentangle free speech and hate speech in the media.

We are all seeking answers to the heartbreaking mass murder of Muslims in Christchurch. It assuages consciences if we can attribute blame that absolves us as a collective of non-Muslim Australians. There are many nonetheless who cannot be let off the hook. The media is one.

HAJO DUKEN. The Brexit crisis - devil's work and people's contribution - are the voters to blame?

Britain is in panic. The public realises that the Brexit crisis is self-inflicted and anger and frustration with MPs from all sides is palpable. MP bashing is now in vogue. The collective and individual responsibility of the vast majority of MPs for the Brexit mess seems to be established. House of Fools and muppets are some of the milder judgments. However, isnt there an inconvenient question looming: under which circumstances do voters need to accept responsibility in a democracy?

CRISTA PONGRATZ-LIPPITT. Renowned reformer: 'Church has 5 years for a complete turnaround or it's over'

Father Helmut Schller of Austria says the sex abuse crisis shows urgent need to 'desacralize' the Catholic priesthood and empower the laity. .

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