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

GWYNNE DYER. New Zealand vs. Australia: Terrorism and the difference (Japan Times 19.03.19)

LONDON - Extreme right-wing terrorism, mostly of the white nationalist variety, is becoming as big a problem as Islamist terrorism in many places. Thats certainly the case in the United States, where the U.S. Government Accounting Office calculated last year that 119 Americans have been killed by Islamist extremists since the 9/11 attacks, and 106 Americans by far-right extremists.

ALAN PEARS. Electric vehicles thrill school children

My grandchildren were too young to go to the 'school strike' last Friday. But on Saturday they experienced the excitement and reality of a zero carbon future at the Electric Vehicle Expo.

COLIN HAWES. Why Defamation Lawsuits Are Crucial for Protecting Rule of Law: A Comment on the Chau Chak Wing Case

Following the recent success of Dr. Chau Chak Wings defamation lawsuit against Fairfax and John Garnaut, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie stated that the judgment will be carefully analysed: The ability to report freely and fairly on national security is a vital part of our democracy, and we are concerned about the impact that defamation laws in Australia are having on responsible journalism that informs Australians about important national security issues. One can only hope that Hastie and related national security hawks do actually read the Federal Courts 100-page meticulously reasoned judgment before jumping to conclusions about protecting democracy...

KATHERINE McKERNAN. Sydneys rough sleeping problem - no rest for any of us!

Sydneys incidence of rough sleeping, just the extreme manifestation of the broader problem of homelessness, remains on the increase and has been so for a number of years. Set against the backdrop of a booming NSW economy, ironically riding the stamp duty boom of a rampant property market, it is a sad indictment on the effectiveness of government responses to homelessness. As the people of NSW once again head to the ballot box, it is time that politicians of all persuasions showed determination and unity in solving this problem.

ALAN KIRKLAND. Government gives in to mortgage broking lobbyists

Unintended consequences. It's the clich consumer groups like CHOICE are used to hearing from industry groups every time a major review recommends a change that would put people before profits.

PETER DAY. To Light a Candle or Curse the Dark: The Cardinal Dilemma

Foolishly, indulgently, Christian mercy does not depend on remorse, repentance, or even whether it is deserved. It takes the initiative in willing the good of the other.

JOHN MENADUE. The crazed Brendan Tarrant did not operate in a vacuum. (See Postscript)

We now see the dreadful consequences in Christchurch of Islamophobia. There has been widespread hate speech against Muslims promoted not just by white extremist groups but also by politicians and the media.

LOUISA MENADUE. Striking For Our Future.

On the 15th of March, I was one of the thousands of students from Australia who participated in school strikes for climate. Students from 105 countries worldwide are striking for climate because climate action is imperative. So many seem to view climate change as something far away that will have little effect on their lives, and for those of you old enough, maybe it is. However, for those of us with our lives still ahead of us, the climate crisis will devastate the world we live in. We have twelve years to stop the climate from worsening, and that requires...

RICHARD KINGSFORD. Policy holes drain the life out of Murray-Darling rivers.

This press statement by Professor Richard Kingsford outlines what needs to be done to protect the Murray-Darling rivers and the communities that rely on them in the lead up to the NSW state election.

ANDREW J BACEVICH. The US foreign policy establishment (The American Conservative).

The only way we'll defeat the foreign policy establishment is if the Left and Right can be brought together.

TERRY FEWTRELL. Canberra Catholics lay out church reform agenda.

Inclusive, transparent, accountable, non-clericalist and humble characteristics not usually associated with the Catholic church, but ones the church must adopt. That is the view of a large group of Canberra Catholics in a submission to the churchs Plenary Council being organised in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis.

MARC HUDSON. Game over for the Nationals on climate change? Spruiking for miners instead?

The National Partys battles over climate policy are becoming ever louder, ever more ludicrous. The consequences of thirty years of climate denial and spruiking for mining may finally tear the party apart.

DAVID SPRATT: Existential risk, Neoliberalism and UN Climate Policymaking Part 2

International climate policymaking has failed to avoid a path of catastrophic global warming. Two often-overlooked causes of this failure are how climate-science knowledge has been produced and utilised by the United Nations twin climate bodies and how those organisations function. Part 2 of 2.

DAVID SPRATT: Existential risk, Neoliberalism and UN Climate Policymaking Part 1

International climate policymaking has failed to avoid a path of catastrophic global warming. Two often-overlooked causes of this failure are how climate-science knowledge has been produced and utilised by the United Nations twin climate bodies and how those organisations function. Part 1 of 2.

GENEVIEVE LLOYD. Strong Borders and Bad Butchers

The appraisal of current political rhetoric on asylum seeker and refugee policies can be a challenging exercise. Think, for example, of the ideal of strong borders, which has come to act as a benchmark for the recognition of contemporary realities so obvious that it seems unthinkable to call it into question; and so politically potent that the mere mention of softness on border protection is enough to suggest unfitness to govern. Yet, in this context, it is by no means clear from what exactly our strong borders are supposed to offer protection. Nor is it clear why the slightest...

HAJO DUKEN. The Brexit crisis devils work and peoples contribution the peoples vote: democracy or arson?

Most people, both in Britain and the rest of the world, would by now agree that Brexit has proven to be the most important single issue Britain has faced since WWII with significant (if not life-changing) consequences for many generations to come. Many would also agree that it has been the management of Brexit (rather than the decision for Brexit itself) that has manoeuvred Britain into its biggest crisis since WWII. Surprisingly, however, the root causes of this mess are rarely discussed.

PM, stop the cynical charade on asylum-seeker boats (The Age Editorial).

Are there no bounds to the Coalition governments cynicism, mismanagement and disregard for fiscal responsibility and human dignity when it comes to refugees and people seeking asylum?

MARILYN HATTON. Why Im not leaving the Catholic Church despite everything

Im not leaving the Catholic Church, despite the shocking breaking of trust, the horror, the hurt and the un-Christ like behavior and the damage our decision-makers have done to our Church members and our practice of faith. Im staying because I do not want our Church, with all its potential for good in the world to be reduced to a small exclusive celibate male sect. Christs gift of faith will be denied to millions unless we can find a way to radically change the status quo. The Churchs own data reflects its shrinking numbers.

PETER RYAN. CEDA urges Morrison Government to back Labor tax changes (ABC News).

An independent economic think tank is urging the Morrison Government to do the politically unthinkable ahead of an expected May election and back Labor's plans to end unsustainable tax breaks.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN. Why stay?

Since the conviction of Cardinal Pell I have been asked why I remain a Catholic.It is an obvious question. The extent of criminal behaviour and the active cover up by bishops and religious leaders of perpetrators has been breath taking. Ordinary Catholics have been played as mugs by the Church leadership. Why stay?

ALAN PEARS. Beyond the Climate Chaos

It seems our politicians live on a different planet from the rest of us. The government's climate position is untenable and morally irresponsible, while the opposition's is still marginal. Humanity and the planet are in serious trouble. Strong action is economically sensible, practical and morally responsible.

JOHN MENADUE. The facts on boat arrivals that the media won't face

From September 2015, almost four years ago, Peter Hughes and I have pointed out repeatedly that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison triggered the surge in boat arrivals from September 2011 and did not stop the boats as they claim from December 2013 when Operation Sovereign Borders commenced.

ERIKA FELLER. Bridging the divide on refugee policy

Australias refugee policies are rarely outside the political and public discourse. This is even more so now with a Federal election looming. Everyone has an opinion. The shades are many and the starting points for any discussion are wide apart.

MAX COSTELLO. Christmas Island, an update.

MAX COSTELLO. At his recent, expensive, tropical island media conference, the Prime Minister gave two reasons for reopening the Christmas Island detention centre. One: all the mainland centres are full. Two: Christmas Island, a hardened centre, is needed to protect mainland Australians from 57 adverse characters offshore. Since the first reason is an outright lie and the second implied that mainland hardened centres are non-existent or insecure, all he really conveyed was shameless mendacity. Then there are the issues of massive cost, medical inadequacy, and executive government sabotage of the legislatures law. Its time to expose the real reasons for...

JEFFREY SACHS. Green New Deal is feasible and affordable. (CNN online, 26.2.2019)

There are three main ideas of theGreen New Deal Resolution introduced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey.

MAX COSTELLO. The real reason Christmas Island is being reopened.

Although Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter have said why Christmas Islands immigration detention centre will be reopened, the PMs words were uninformative, and A-G Porters explanation was untrue.

JOHN MENADUE. Some Coalition legacies that a new government must confront

There are several major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution. Those issues are the growing existential threat of climate change, the dire consequences following the Iraq invasion, tax cuts during the mining boom that result in continuing budget deficits and debt increases, the NBN debacle, hostility to refugees and asylum seekers, and problems with foreign influence and political donations .

PETER RODGERS: Alive in Israel - the ghost of Richard Nixon?

Are we watching the end of the Netanyahu era? The Prime Minister opted for an early election but then had serious charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust levelled at him by Israels Attorney General. Netanyahus response was straight out of Trumps playbook, hed rather trash the place than admit fault. That all lies with the Bolshevik media and its fellow travellers.

MICK PALMER. A summit on drug decriminalisation.

In describing in her findings arising from a wide ranging inquest into six fatal opioid overdose events, current illicit drug policy as futile and likely to exacerbate drug related harm, the NSW Deputy State Coroner, Harriet Grahame, urged the NSW Government to have the courage to commit to conducting a summit on drug decriminalisation.

RICHARD BARCHAM. National Party bets on feral horses in NSW elections

Kosciuszko National Park has become collateral damage in the New South Wales National Party battle for re-election. The natural values of the park, in Deputy Premier John Barilaros marginal seat of Monaro, face imminent destruction by feral horses.

LEANNE WELLS. Modest step in response to egregious specialist fees.

The announcement of Federal Government plans to establish a website listing medical specialist fees may seem a modest response to a problem that causes financial distress to many patients already struggling with their physical pain.

PETER BROOKS. Will teenagers involvement in the climate change debate be a game changer?

March 15 has been flagged as a coordinated day of school strikes by teenagers around the world. Let us hope that they will start a new movement to bring home the urgency for real action around the world, but particularly in Australia, to ensure that our children, grandchildren and all future generations do actually have a planet to live on! So, let us all support them they surely deserve it.

EMANUEL PASTREICH. Fractured governance fractures the Hanoi summit (Korean Times, 3 March 2019)

The sudden cancellation of the joint statement on February 28 at the end of the Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, was one of the most complex and contradictory historical events in my memory. Of course the adlib briefing by Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo immediately after was not complex at all. It was a banal show for the media that avoided talking about much of anything other than process.

JOHN MENADUE. As PM, Bill Shorten could help offer cheaper cars without any cost to the budget

The Australian Motor Industry Federation and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries have successfully lobbied the Australian government to continue restrictions on the imports of second-hand vehicles. We are paying a large price for protecting an industry that no longer exists,our auto manufacturing sector

LORENA ALLAM AND NICK EVERSHED. The Killing Times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront.

The truth of Australias history has long been hiding in plain sight.The stories of the killing times are the ones we have heard in secret, or told in hushed tones. They are not the stories that appear in our history books yet they refuse to go away.

ROBERT MANNE. The myth of the great wave (The Saturday Paper, 2 March 2019)

This article originally appeared in The Saturday Paper. It is as certain as anything in politics can be that during the next three months, as the federal election looms, the Morrison government will claim time and again that if Australians want to prevent a new wave of asylum seekers on boats they have no choice but to vote for the Coalition.

GARRY EVERETT. Sex Only??

The recent Hollywood movie, On the basis of sex, tells the story of the first successful court case argued by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the 9th Circuit Court. The subject matter was discrimination by the Federal Tax Laws, against a man who was denied a tax concession as his mothers carer, on the grounds that only women were regarded as carers. It was the early 1960s, and one wonders how such an antiquated view could have still prevailed in the USA legal system.

JOHN MENADUE. Drownings at sea and 'the more boats that come the better'

To divert attention from the politicking and cruel treatment of asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru, Scott Morrison tells us that Coalition policy is designed to stop drownings at sea. That is rank hypocrisy. It is nothing of the sort. Its 'boats policy' is crass and cruel party politics.

ROBERTO SAVIANO. The migrant caravan: made in USA.

The migrant caravan that left Honduras and headed north toward the US last October is the largest flight from drug trafficking in history. Though the phenomenon of Central American caravans isnt new, never before have thousands of people decided to flee from criminal organizations in such numbers. It is, in a sense, the biggest anti-mafia march the world has ever seen.

PETER OHARA. My Lunch with French Secret Service Agents Who Sank Rainbow Warrior.

Dateline: 1986 in the remote South Pacific. For thirty years French atomic bombs were exploded in atoll islands of the Tuamotus archipelago in French Polynesia. I was Qantas area manager based in the capital Papeete. A dream job some would say, and interesting times in that hub of political agitation. Lunch with French secret service agents following the infamous Rainbow Warrior debacle was certainly not in my job description.

MARTIN WOLF. The US debate on climate change is heating up (Financial Times 21.2.2019)

Might the US move from being a laggard to a leader in tackling global climate change? Two recent announcements the economists' statement on carbon dividends and the Green New Deal suggest that it might. Intellectually, these proposals are from different planets. But they could be a basis for something reasonable. More important, influential people at least agree that for the US to stand pat is unconscionable.

CHAS W. FREEMAN JR. After the trade war, a real war with China

[T]he greatest danger of a [real] Sino-American war is Taiwan. Taiwan is a former Chinese province that was recovered from its Japanese occupiers by Nationalist China at the end of World War II. In 1949, having been defeated everywhere else in China, Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist forces retreated to it.

MOTOKO RICH. We Are Koreans: Diaspora in Japan Looks to Trump-Kim Summit With Hope (New York Times).

Every time Jiro Oshima wants to see his siblings, he must travel to North Korea.

DAVID HUTT, PHNOM PENH. Vietnams new view of an old war (Asia Times).

Hanoi marked the 40th anniversary of its bloody 1979 border war with China with unprecedented candor, a revisionist reflection of declining contemporary ties

STEPHEN de WEGER. Clerical sexual abuse of adults. Another blind spot.

In 2013, after working as a research assistant project into clergy sexual abuse of children, I decided to undertake an exploratory study into clergy sexual misconduct against adults. During this study I came across what I believe should be a strategic document regarding the understanding of the clergy sexual abuse crisis we are witnessing right now - Sipes 11-point thesis. (The late Dr Richard Sipe was a note US psychotherapist and acknowledged expert in the psychosexuality of Catholic clerics).

FRANCIS SULLIVAN. Pell conviction blows apart bishops' mantra

Yesterdays announcement of the conviction of Cardinal George Pell has been shattering for many and a relief for others. The fact that the most senior cleric in Australia has been found guilty is devastating on many levels. Not the least because he was such a high-profile proponent for the safeguarding children in the church and its provision of compensation to victims.

BARNEY ZWARTZ. George Pell has fallen, but the cardinal's legacy casts a long shadow

So Cardinal George Pell by far Australia's best-known church leader of the past 25 years, the highest-ranked Australian ever at the Vatican, a confidant of prime ministers faces a jail sentence for child sexual abuse. The dispenser of God's grace (through the sacrament) has surely reached the nadir of human disgrace.

JOHN MENADUE. Hospitals should be the last resort, not the first resort.

Politicians, the media and the public focus on iconic hospitals rather than health. We have too many hospitals and too many hospital beds. We need to focus health improvement not in hospitals, but in primary care in the community general practice, community clinics and at home. The expensive and wasteful hospital frenzy must end.

GEORGE MONBIOT. Dark money is pushing for a no-deal Brexit. Who is behind it?

Modern governments respond to only two varieties of emergency: those whose solution is bombs and bullets, and those whose solution is bailouts for the banks. But what if they decided to take other threats as seriously?

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