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. The Liberal and National parties have deserted country people on climate change, NBN and more.

Both the Liberal and National parties are taking a drubbing from country voters. A while back it was New England and Lyne. More recently it has been Indi and Wagga Wagga.

DANIEL WARNER. The Martin Ennals and Victorian Prize winners contrast with Australia's policies against human dignity.

Australia's refugee policies have been condemned for violations of the detainees' human rights. The recent winners of two prestigious prizes, both detained on Manus, are further proof of the international community's condemnation andhighlight the shocking plight of those sequestered on Manus and Nauru.

JOHN MENADUE. Julie Bishop Style and substance?

Julie Bishop did leave a positive impression with her interlocutors. She did present well. But the media seemed to mis understand that there should be much more to being foreign minister. Just compare her 'achievements' along side Gareth Evans.

MARGARET BEAVIS. Selling weapons to Saudi Arabia - your taxes at work.

How many Yemeni children have to die from the famine before Australia stops selling weapons to the Saudis, who are coordinating the blockade that is causing mass starvation? In November last year Save the Children reported that 85,000 children have died from acute malnutrition, and last week the UN reports the situation has worsened.Not only does the Australian government boast of its weapons deals with Saudi Arabia, but also it has emerged the Australian government is heavily subsiding companies involved in these sales. For example, Electro Optic Systems, which makes weaponry enables remote operation of cannon, machine guns and missile...

KELSEY MUNRO AND ALEX OLIVER: Polls apart: how Australian views have changed on 'boat people'. (Lowy Institute 19.2.2019)

Since 2005, the annual Lowy Institute Poll has been tracking the attitudes of Australians to foreign policy issues and their place in the world. The issue of boat people, unauthorised asylum seekers, irregular maritime arrivals, refugees the politics is so contested that it is difficult to find a neutral term has been a lightning rod in Australian politics since 2001. The issue of boat people, unauthorised asylum seekers, irregular maritime arrivals, refugees the politics is so contested that it is difficult to find a neutral term.

MEKERE MORAUTA. Australia Should Come Clean on Intentions Behind Paladin Contract.

The money spent by Australia on Manus is not aid, In fact it disadvantaging PNG because it's helping corruption. Public Statement by Rt Hon Sir Mekere Morauta, former Prime Minister and Member for Moresby North-West Port Moresby, 19 February 2019

OISN SWEENEY. Lessons from the Murray-Darling disaster run deeper than water.

Environmental mismanagement runs deeper than the ecological tragedy gripping the Murray-Darling Basin. Recent policy decisions around native forest logging in NSW follow the same pattern of ignoring science and favouring extractive industry over the public interest.

DAVID WALLACE-WELLS. Time to panic (The New York Times).

The planet is getting warmer in catastrophic ways. And fear may be the only thing that saves us.

JOSEPH E STIGLITZ. How Can We Tax Footloose Multinationals? (Project Syndicate)

Apple, Google, Starbucks, and companies like them all claim to be socially responsible, but the first element of social responsibility should be paying your fair share of tax. Instead, globalization has enabled multinationals to encourage a race to the bottom, threatening the revenues that governments need to function properly.

KERRY BREEN, M TAFFY JONES. Mandatory reporting: Health ministers still have their heads in the sand.

There are a number of unsatisfactory elements of the so-called national scheme for regulating doctors (and all health professionals) but the most problematic from day one in 2010 has been the requirement for mandatory reporting of ill doctors by their treating doctors. As we reported here in 2017, the state and territory health ministers chose to reject unambiguous advice provided by their consultant, Mr Kim Snowball, who conducted an independent review of the national scheme. He advised the ministers in 2015 that the National Law (to) be amended to reflect the same mandatory notification exemptions for treating practitioners established in...

PEPE ESCOBAR. US elites remain incapable of understanding China

A new report on US policy toward China launched by the Asia Society in New York is another example of how supposedly bipartisan US intellectual elites, instead of offering impartial advice, do little more than parrot Washingtons talking points, failing to admit they know nothing of substance about the existential threats posed by Russia and China.

JOHN CARMODY. The federal Parliament reasserts its authority - and the Speaker's.

It was reassuring to see that, in a previously unrecognised consequence of the Morrison Governments slip into minority status, the Commonwealth Parliament recently asserted its authority over the feckless Executive and, at the same time, enhanced the authority of the Speaker. That would have been significant at any stage but, at a time when both polls and commentators have been saying, ominously, that the Australian people have been losing their faith in democracy and yearning for a strong leader, that declaration of the importance of Parliament has been reassuring.

SCOTT BURCHILL. Australian minds have not been decolonised.

Australia has never been properly decolonised, particularly in both the political and psychological senses, as most states which came into existence during the 20th century were. This has had a profound effect, not only on the way aboriginal Australians have been treated by settlers from around the world. It has also contributed to a lack of sympathy for those who have had to fight for their political independence elsewhere.

DEMETRI SEVASTOPULO AND DAVID BOND . UK National Cyber Security Centre says Huawei is manageable risk to 5G( Financial Times London 18.2.2019

British intelligence has concluded that it is possible to mitigate the risk from using Huawei equipment in 5G networks, in a serious blow to US efforts to persuade allies to ban the Chinese supplier from high-speed telecommunications systems.

MARILYN HATTON. Pray and light a candle for our church in crisis.

For years a small but expanding number of Catholics in Australia have beenappealing for church reform and have struggled to gain attention from our bishops. Our prayers and entreaties for change in the clerical, male-dominated cloisters have fallen on unattentive ears.

LAURA TINGLE. Senior bureaucrats send a message to the Government and the Opposition (ABC 19.2.2019)

The political significance of his [Mr Pezzullo's] interventions are twofold the first is that it makes clear the security establishment does not believe the legislative changes, of themselves, will spark a wave of new boat arrivals. The second is that, just as Mr Lewis and Mr Pezzullo were sending a clear message to the Government to stop using their advice for political purposes, they are sending a message to Labor as the alternative new government that as long as they maintain a tough rhetorical and policy line on border protection, there is no reason to believe...

JILL MARGO. Why Denmark is reducing hospitals while we are building more. (AFR 19.2.2019)

About 15 years ago, we realised the solution to these problems is not more hospitals but to think about how we can deliver healthcare in a different way, says Hans Erik Henriksen, CEO of Healthcare DENMARK. We aim to deliver as many services as possible through primary healthcare, municipalities, health centres and outpatient clinics and as little healthcare as possible from our hospitals.

PETER BROOKS. Will Labor Really Be Brave On Health Reform - Response To National Press Club Address By Catherine King.

The major challenges that beset our health system are well articulated with the obvious commitment to strengthening Medicare, making it fairer and tackling some of the major funding deficits introduced over the past decade such as the Medicare rebate freeze. The major and anticipated announcement of the establishment of the Australian Health Reform Commission is very welcome but will it bring real change to the health system. Will preventive care and public health be funded appropriately, will we start to focus on health systems instead of just on hospitals. Lets hope so. The system needs real and probably disruptive...

ALAN PEARS. The Politics of Confusion on Achieving the Paris Commitment

Will Australia meet the governments Paris climate commitment? Experts disagree, while the government avoids explaining exactly how it will achieve its goal. This creates confusion and conflict, which suits the government in the lead-up to the election. Lack of information and widespread disruptive change mean it is not yet possible to make a definitive judgement. The government must, as a matter of urgency, explain in detail the assumptions, policies and expected outcomes underpinning its claim that it will meet the 2030 Paris commitment at a canter.

PATRICK JORY. Explaining a Thai royals aborted electoral debut (East Asia Forum).

On 8 February 2019, Thai Raksa Chart (a Thai political party aligned with exiled, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) made the bombshell announcement that it was nominating King Vajiralongkorns elder sister, Ubolratana, as its candidate for prime minister. Late that same night, the King issued a royal command, almost as explosive, effectively forbidding the nomination.

EKA KURNIAWAN. Indonesia's next election is in April. The Islamists have already won. (New York Times 14.2.2019)

When Joko Widodo, the incumbent presidentof Indonesia, last year chose Maruf Amin as his running mate for the general election this April, it became clear that Indonesian politicsis now backedinto a corner. Mr. Maruf is an Islamic cleric and scholar, and Mr. Joko was perhaps hoping to dampen attacks from conservative and radical Islamic groupsthathave called him anti-Islam (even though he is Muslim himself). Instead, he has built a Trojan horse for his opponents outside the walls of his own city. The presidential race, in which Mr. Joko is again facingPrabowo Subianto, aex-army general and former son-in-law ofthe dictator Suharto,...

PAUL BONGIORNO. Did Scott Morrison miss his Tampa moment? (The New Daily 18.2.2019)

The question playing on the minds of nervous Coalition MPs is whether Scott Morrison has missed his Tampamoment. Should the embattled Prime Minister have seized the moment of last weeks humiliating government defeat in Parliament to have called an immediate election?

BRUCE LINDSAY. Reflections on the Murray Darling Basin Royal Commission

The headline findings of the Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin unlawfulness, incompetence, regulatory capture are spectacular. Despite its strong scientific base, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been undermined by the power of vested interests and a general ambivalence toward rivers. But responses to the Commissioners report by governments, opposition parties, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, private sector organisations and even members of the community have been critical and/or dismissive. There is still time to save the river but the political system may be too broken to fix it.

MOBO GAO. The Chinese United Front Strategy: Its History and Present.

Amidst the fear of political interference of the Chinese government there is often a reference to one organ of the Chinese State, i.e., the United Front (UF). In some Australian news stories about the China, UF is sometimes dangled to the unsuspecting Australian public as an all-purpose threat in the same way the Red under the Bed was used to scare the living daylight out of a fearful child. Asa recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald shows, suggesting a whiff of connection with the UF on the part of both Chinese diasporic members and Australian politicians could justify as...

BARRY CASSIDY undercuts Liberal scare campaign over boats. (ABC Insiders)

This time the Coalition has over reached

KERRY GOULSTON. Healthcare Reform at last?

Will meaningful and significant reform of the Australian health care system occur at last? Will there be bipartisan political support for the initiatives proposed by Labor? 2019 could be the year that delivers.

MARIE McINERNEY. Labor would set up Aust Health Reform Commission if it wins 2019 poll (Croakey).

Labors announcement on Wednesday that it would establish a permanent Australian Health Reform Commission has been welcomed though all eyes will of course be on the detail and the funding commitments to emerge in the leadup to the next federal election.

JOHN MENADUE. Scott Morrison did not stop the boats.

The myth is repeated time and time again that Scott Morrison ,the Coalition and Operation Sovereign Borders stopped the boats. They did not. But if you tell a lie time and time again people will believe it. It is a marketing trick that Scott Morrison has learned well. I expect that many in the media will continue the myth about the stopping of the boats. Perhaps being careless in the first place the media finds it embarrassing to now admit error. Sorry if I keep repeating myself but facts are facts. As a US Senator put it 'everyone...

MARY CROCK AND DANIEL GHEZELBA. It's high time we stopped playing politics with migration laws.

Ordinary Australians are tired of the casual cruelty of hard-line border control policies.The medical evacuation bill was introduced by Dr Kerryn Phelps to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island can access the medical care they require.The bill was passed because our elected representatives, too, recognise that enough is enough.

RUTH ADLER. Brexit uncertainties fuel speculation on Irish unification referendum

With weeks remaining until the 29 March deadline for a deal on Brexit, there is speculation that failure to reach agreement will result in increased momentum for a referendum on Irish unification under the Good Friday Agreement. Several Cabinet Ministers in Theresa Mays government are reportedly seriously concerned about the prospect, with one describing it as very real. Another has expressed concern that the British government risks sleepwalking into a border poll. Such a referendum would, however, be unlikely to succeed at the present time.

DIANNE HERIOT. New Zealand and Federation. (Parliamentary Library Flag Post 25.1.2019)

While New Zealand participated in theAustralasian Federation Conferenceconvened in Melbourne in 1890, it had little real enthusiasm for the prospect of federating with the Australian colonies. AsSir John Hall, thenPremier of New Zealand and one of two New Zealand delegates to the Conference, observed: Nature has made 1200 impediments to the inclusion of New Zealand in any such Federation in the 1,200 miles of stormy ocean which lie between us and our brethren in Australia.That does not prevent the existence of a community of interests between us. There is a community of interest, and if circumstances allow us at a...

LINDSAY HUGHES. Saudi Arabia's Ballistic Missile Programme: The Tip of the Iceberg.

It was recentlyreportedthat Saudi Arabia could be working towards developing a nuclear-capable ballistic missile programme. The fact that the news came as a surprise was, arguably, the biggest surprise of all. Saudi Arabia had made it clear, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and ex-Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, that it would acquire nuclear weapons if its regional rival, Iran, did. The issue now is not whether Riyadh wishes to acquire ballistic missiles nuclear capable or not but whether it has the technological expertise to manufacture them, or the ability to acquire them. The main question arising from this...

JOHN MENADUE. Getting behind the lies, fake news and spin on refugees and asylum seekers. (Michael West's blog 13.2.2019)

It is remarkable that mainstream media, without exception, continues to ignore the facts on asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat and air. Michael West has written on the subject today in his blog. See Michael's article reprinted below.

CHRISTIAN SORACE. From the Outside Looking In: A Response to John Garnauts Primer on Ideology (Made in China, 7.2.2019)

An introduction by Mobo Gao,Chair of Chinese Studies, Department of Asian Studies, University of Adelaide. The article below is a response by Christian Solace, an American academic, to a speech given at an internal Australian government seminar in August 2017 by the respected Australian journalist John Garnaut who was once an advisor to a former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. It has to be pointed out that Solace does not argue, in this response to the Garnaut speech, that we the West should not be critical of the CCP and the Chinese governance for their repressive policies and instances of abuses...

SHEILA A. SMITH. US policy in Asia heads from bad to worse.

If the past year is any indication of the year ahead, US policy in Asia will be erratic and self-serving. The beginnings of anIndo-Pacific strategynotwithstanding, the Trump administration continues to work out its issues with countries in the region bilaterally and sporadically.

JOHN MENADUE . Heath ministers may be in office but they are seldom in power

The Rudd/Gillard governments muddled through on health policy. There was very little to show in the way of useful reform,with one exception.That was plain packaging of cigarettes. The record is not encouraging, and will not be better in future if the next health minister spends her time smoodging powerful providers . Necessary health reforms are hard. Without determined Prime ministerial and health minister leadership nothing much will change.

SANDRA MORRISON, INGRID HUYGENS. Explainer: the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi (The Conversation).

The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealands foundation document. On February 6, 1840, the treaty was signed by representatives of the British Crown and Mori chiefs who acted on behalf of their hap (sub-tribes). Mori are indigenous to New Zealand, with historical ties and common narratives extending to Polynesia. The signing of the treaty confirmed formal European settlement in New Zealand. But debate and confusion have continued ever since regarding the exact meaning of the treaty text.

PAUL BONGIORNO. Scott Morrison has formally hit the panic button. (The New Daily 12.2.2019)

Scott Morrison is desperately in need of a circuit breaker. Something dramatic to save his government and pull off an unlikely election win. The opinion polls are stubbornly stuck in wipeout territory, the latest Newspoll just confirming the trend not only since August, but since the last federal election in 2016. Nothing is working, not even the promise of a million new jobs.

JOHN MENADUE. Asylum seekers are pouring into Australia in record numbers by air, but the media and politicians are not interested in the facts.

Our discussion on asylum seekers is ill-informed .It is a disgrace. Our politicians and our media have failed us. This was made obvious to me yesterday on Insiders. Do Christopher Pyne and Phillip Corey think we are fools. They were both pushing the cruel partisan Coalition line on refugees and boats. Both see refugees not as people but as political opportunities to be exploited. With boat arrivals stopped, people smugglers have turned to the air to bring asylum seekers to Australia in record numbers. .Peter Dutton and the media have turned a blind eye to this breakdown in our...

MARTIN KETTLE. A special place in hell? Donald Tusk didnt go far enough.

Not only were the Brexiters clueless: they didnt give a stuff about Ireland. But this will come back to haunt the Tories

JEFFREY D. SACHS. Trump's Syria withdrawal is a chance for peace.

From Donald Trumps point of view, a US-installed Syrian puppet regime that would push out Russia and Iran is neither central to US national security nor practicable. And, here, Trump is right for a change.

KERRY MURPHY. Interdicting refugees not protecting refugees

In the first Four Corners program of 2019 [1], Sophie McNeil reported on the major hurdles placed in the way of Saudi women getting to Australia to make a refugee claim. McNeil interviewed not just Rahaf Mohammed, who was quickly resettled in Canada, but others who are now in Australia seeking asylum. They told of other Saudi women who had been prevented from getting to Australia by either the Saudi Government or Australian Border Force officers.

TED EGAN. Matthew Flinders: Conditor Australis.

Two items are prominent in the news at the moment: Matthew Flinders remains have been unearthed at Euston Station, London; and there is heated debate in Australia about the most appropriate day to recognise as Australia Day.

ERNST WILLHEIM. Secret Trials: The illegal bugging of the Timor Leste Cabinet and the extraordinary prosecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K

Australians reading about secret trials in foreign countries tend to content themselves in the belief that in Australia we have an open court system and an independent judiciary. After all, freedom of speech, the rule of law and an open and independent court system are basic bulwarks of our democracy. Arent they? This brief paper challenges that comfortable assumption.

RICHARD DENNISS. Our regulators fail to protect the vulnerable from the greedy. Let's find out why. ( A repost from 19 September 2018)

Neoliberalisms best trick was convincing us that empowering citizens to shop around would deliver better services at a lower cost.

JOHN MENADUE. How and why corporate regulators have failed us. And not just bank regulators.

The surge yesterday in bank shares was no surprise. Investors at least concluded that Kenneth Hayne 's slap on the wrist would not really disturb the bank's business model. His report did not go to the heart of the abuse, the vertical integration of financial product and financial advice. The conflict of interest will remain. I did not expect much from the Hayne Royal Commission. I was not disappointed. But it was good theatre. For me the most important revelation was the way people behave when incentives are all there to get rich quick starting with greedy bank CEOs...

LIZ HANNA. A warming Australia spells serious trouble for human health

Climate change. Global warming. A hotter planet. A hotter Australia. Yet few are asking the difficult question of how hot is too hot?. We have so many elephants in the room at present that the room is getting pretty crowded, but as we are barrelling towards 1.5oC of planetary warming since pre-industrial times, the how hot is too hot elephant is definitely in the room. We need to let it out and examine heat tolerance.

HARI KUNZRU. Fool Britannia (The New York Review of Books).

From the ill-conceived Brexit referendum onward, Britains governing class has embarrassed itself. The Remain campaign was complacent, the Leave campaign brazenly mendacious, and as soon as the result was known, most of the loudest advocates for severing ties with the European Union ran away like naughty schoolboys whose cricket ball had smashed a greenhouse window. Negotiations have revealed the pitiful intellectual limitations of a succession of blustering cabinet ministers, the leader of Her Majestys Most Loyal Opposition doesnt appear to want to oppose, and the prime minister has engineered her own humiliation by starting the countdown to Brexit without a...

MARJORIE COHN. The US Is Orchestrating a Coup in Venezuela (Truthout).

As Venezuelas second president, Simon Bolivar, noted in the 19th century, the US government continues to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty.

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