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
25 November 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.
17 November 2022
Xi and Albanese: Can we again seize the opportunity?
The meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Albanese could result in an overdue improvement in relations between our two countries. But real improvements will take time and a lot of goodwill. Will Richard Marles be a stumbling block??
10 November 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.
6 November 2022
Nord Stream: Europes self destruction
Unless you are given to parlour games that never end, it is nearly impossible to avoid concluding that the U.S. was either directly responsible for the Nord Stream I and II sabotage or supervised those who were.
3 November 2022
The $530 billion junk infrastructure scandal - What the PM can do - Part 2 of 2
Sydney and Melbournes big infrastructure build will soon prove Australias big bust. Our Prime Minister cannot aid and abet this madness.
2 November 2022
Exposed: Sydney, Melbournes $530 billion junk infrastructure scandal - Part 1 of 2
Sydney and Melbournes big infrastructure build will soon prove Australias big bust. Our Prime Minister must not aid and abet this madness.
31 October 2022
Four Corners: Australia becomes US nuclear spear carrier in Asia
Four Corners last night showed how Australia is becoming 'a proxy' or is it 'a patsy' for the US in a possible conflict with China. Our actions invite a Chinese response. Sometimes I wonder why the Chinese bother about a reset in relations when we behave so foolishly at the behest of the US. China is not a threat to Australia but our 'dangerous ally' keeps goading China to provoke a war.
28 October 2022
The Pentagon builds a network in our Department of Defence amidst media silence
It is more than inter-operability and inter-changeability with the US military. Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles need to break up the American network in our Department of Defence that the Washington Post has exposed.
27 October 2022
Retired US generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince, other foreign governments
More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel including scores of generals and admirals havetaken lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression, according to a Washington Post investigation.
26 October 2022
Always opposing the last war but not the current one: notes from the edge of the narrative matrix
Those who hate Russia the most are the ones who embody everything they claim to hate about it: they're all pro-war, pro-censorship, pro-propaganda, pro-trolling operations, and support Ukraine in banning political parties and opposition media. They are what they claim to hate.
25 October 2022
Extraordinary intervention by Jeffrey Sachs at the Athens Democracy Forum!!!
Watch Professor Jeffrey Sachs describe the US as the most violent country in the world and then get shockingly shut down at the Athens Democracy Forum.
23 October 2022
Gas export tax would help to fix Australia's energy crisis, says Dr Ken Henry
The dire state of Australia's domestic electricity market,and our lack of investment in renewables, has been a mess of our own making, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said.
22 October 2022
The profoundly stupid narrative that nuclear brinkmanship is safety and de-escalation is danger
Of all the face-meltingly stupid narratives that have been circulated about the US proxy war in Ukraine, the dumbest so far has got to be the forthcoming budget should be judged principally in terms of how well it sets us up to solve these fundamental fiscal problems facing the nation.
20 October 2022
Will the QUAD go the same way as SEATO and just become irrelevant?
After the election, Prime Minister Albanese hightailed it to Japan for a QUAD meeting with Jo Biden, Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida to join them in anti-Chinese posturing.
20 October 2022
Australia needs an honest conversation about tax and budgets and Jim Chalmers is ready to talk
Jim Chalmers is a wily operator. Ahead of delivering his first budgetnext Tuesday, he has given himself room to do the things a treasurer needs to do.
20 October 2022
How the US military/business complex works. Jobs in Saudi for the Generals
The government fought us for two years to keep these records a secret, said one Washington Post journalist. We sued, and won.
18 October 2022
Paul Keating has warned us that 'our strategic sovereignty is being outsourced to another country, the US'
'Worried about Australian sovereignty? Don't bother, it's gone.'
18 October 2022
The market has failed to give Australians affordable housing, so dont expect it to solve the crisis
The federal Labor government has promised to craft anational housing and homelessness planand to fundnew social housing, returning Canberra to a field it all but abandoned for a decade. A new Productivity Commissionreportis scathing about current arrangements and calls for far-reaching change.
18 October 2022
The flaws and fantasies of the new Biden doctrine
The US presidents new National Security Strategy is ambitious and delusional about Americas role in the world.
18 October 2022
The non-West coalesces
Something recently happened in Vienna, where the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, now known as OPECPlus with the inclusion of the Russian Federation, convened for its first in-person session since 2020. It is something of epochal importance, though you will not know this if you rely solely on the reports carried in our corporate-owned media.
17 October 2022
Terror on Crimea Bridge and Russia unleashing shockn awe
The western narrative of a 'losing Russia' has just been decimated by Moscow's blitzkrieg against Ukraine and its foreign-backed terror operations.
16 October 2022
White Man's Media: The Washington consensus and legacy media frames and conditions our thinking and actions. An updated repost
Western media including our own act as conveyer belts for Washington propaganda.Think.Gaza
16 October 2022
Pictures and words: The manipulative uses of images and language in Ukraine
12 OCTOBERI have been reading for some days, mostly in independent publications whose credibility I am not in a position to assess, about what goes on in the territories Ukrainian troops have recently retaken. It seems that what ensues very quickly are violent campaigns of reprisals wherein those whose sympathies lie with Russia are called collaborators and subject to assassination or arrest.
16 October 2022
COVID-19 border policies strengthen Japans Insular mindset
From April to August 2020, Japan implemented a re-entry ban for all foreign nationals, including permanent residents, with some exceptions. This came as a shock to many who considered Japan home since they found themselves either trapped outside the country or unable to leave to see sick family members or attend funerals.
16 October 2022
How the Wests sanctions on Russia boomeranged
When President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, he began two very different wars. One was a military conflict in which the Russian armed forces have suffered repeated defeats, from the failure of the initial invasion to the successes of the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
15 October 2022
When will the stars shine again in Burkina Faso?
This is a tale from far away about tribulations and upheavals in countries adjacent to the Sahara desert. It has direct relevance to Australia in that much of the upheaval arises from the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011 by NATO or more particularly France and the United States.
14 October 2022
Iranian and Turkish moves to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation challenges US hegemony
The SCO can further its goal of challenging the wider Western-dominated ecosystem and prevent Washington from setting the global agenda.
13 October 2022
A conversation with Paul Keating: Australias strategic interests, alliances and standing up for ourselves
Not many were given a continent, says Keating on the challenges and opportunities that Australia faces. We have to stop ignoring the realities of the region in which we are positioned.
12 October 2022
US rejection of Moscow's offer for peace talks is utterly inexcusable
It is absolutely pants-on-head gibbering insanity that these direct negotiations are not already presently underway.
11 October 2022
Ukraines revenge on the West
As the balance of power shifts again in Ukraine, its reverberations will impact the very unity of the EU project.
10 October 2022
Jeffrey Sachs urges dialogue amid rising Taiwan-China tensions
Jeffrey Sachs, who has been named this year's Tang Prize laureate for Sustainable Development, has urged Taiwan and China to commit to dialogue to find a peaceful resolution in the midst of rising tensions between the two sides.
10 October 2022
How the US, not just Russia, helped bring the world closer to nuclear war
The West has effectively been challenging Russias right to be a hegemonic power. What if the proxy US campaign in Ukraine doesnt lead to Russian regime downfall but instead to a desperate Putin using nuclear weapons?
10 October 2022
Watch Stella Assange slap the mustache off John Bolton's war criminal face
Stella Assange just delivered a beatdown on one of her husband's persecutors that was so scorched-earth demolishing I feel like I need a cigarette after watching it.
10 October 2022
Dr Aran Martin appointed as Editor of Pearls and Irritations
At Pearls and Irritations we are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Aran Martin to the position of Editor.
9 October 2022
US hanging fire on Australias nuclear subs
High-ranking US naval official points to shipyard and labour constraints that could push delivery well beyond 2030.
8 October 2022
How Israel practices apartheid
Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Israel has built and reinforced a single regime of rule to ensure Jewish Israeli supremacy and domination over the indigenous Palestinian people, who are politically and geographically fragmented into different categories in which they have lesser, little, or no rights in comparison to Israeli Jews depending on their status (second-class citizen, subject to military rule, or refugee). This is textbook apartheid.
7 October 2022
Jeffrey Sachs: The US or its ally may have sabotaged Nord Stream.
Why does the US star economist suspect the USA and not Russia to be behind the leaks in the gas pipelines?And what awaits the German economy now?His answers.
6 October 2022
It's only a 'Conspiracy Theory' when the US Government is accused of the likely sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines
The western political/media class has been dismissing as conspiracy theories all claims that the US is likely responsible for last month's sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, even while levelling the exact same accusations against Russia without ever using that term. Which probably says a lot about the way that label has been used over the years, if you think about it.
6 October 2022
We wont recognise the annexation
Does any country buy Israels self-righteousness it doesnt recognise the annexation of the four provinces at a time when Israel is trying to persuade world leaders to recognise its own annexations.
5 October 2022
Nothing's more important than avoiding nuclear war
Avoiding nuclear war is the single most important agenda in the world. The single most important agenda in history. It is more important than your political faction. It is more important than how Vladimir Putin makes your feelings feel. It is more important than anything else.
4 October 2022
Australia and China: A conversation with Paul Keating
La Trobe Universitys Ideas and Society Program is extremely pleased to be able to invite you to an online discussion between former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, and James Curran, a Professor of History at the University of Sydney and author ofAustralia's China Odyssey, on a question fundamental to the future of Australia - our relations with China and, thus, the United States.
4 October 2022
Peace, prosperity are ASEAN watchwords
Southeast Asian nations must call out US attempts to destabilise the region with anti-China rhetoric.
3 October 2022
Who profits from Pipeline Terror?
The War of Economic Corridors has entered incandescent, uncharted territory: Pipeline Terror. A sophisticated military operation that required exhaustive planning, possibly involving several actors blew up four separate sections of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) gas pipelines this week in the shallow waters of the Danish straits, in the Baltic Sea, near the island of Bornholm.
2 October 2022
The Palace Lunch
Stuart Revill, then Manager of ABC London, wrote a letter to his mother-in- law, Ethel Brunton Gibb on the occasion of being invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch, c. 1978.
2 October 2022
Memo to the Productivity Commission: fixing inequality is the key to productivity
Every five years the Productivity Commission is charged with examining everything that can be done to lift Australias productivity.
1 October 2022
US hypocrisy knows no limits on war crimes by US presidents
President Bidens condemnation of Russia at the UN on Wednesday, where he claimed Russia had violated the UN Charter by invading Ukraine, a country he ludicrously said posed no threat to its larger neighbour, is epic hypocrisy coming from the leader of a country that not long ago invaded and destroyed Iraq based on a total fraudulent claim asserting that country was developing or even already had weapons of mass destruction.
30 September 2022
In The Australian Wars, Rachel Perkins dispenses with the myth Aboriginal people didnt fight back
First Nations people please be advised this article mentions colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
29 September 2022
The best journalists are persecuted and despised
The best western journalists are overwhelmingly despised while the worst are acclaimed millionaires. Western civilisation is built on lies, dependent on lies, powered by lies. Don't seek widespread approval. It's worthless.
29 September 2022
Beijing wont be threatened into changing Taiwan plans, analysts say
Chinas foreign ministry lodged stern representations with the US after President Joe Biden again said American troops would defend the island if the PLA attacks.