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

RENA PEDERSON. Target the Generals, Not The Lady (American Interest 11.10.18)

Despite the outcry, Aung San Suu Kyi does not deserve most of the blame for the tragedy unfolding in Myanmar. The Nobel Foundation got it right.

RICHARD ROBISON. The crisis of the Right in Australia: the liberals are gone and the hard-right can never triumph.

Now that the dust has settled after the coup that toppled former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull it is clear that this was more than a tale of revenge and malice within the Liberal Party. But while Turnbulls son, Alex Turnbull, might be right in his assessment that the Liberal Party has been taken over by extremists on the hard right, he is mistaken if he thinks that the Party can be brought back from the brink and its small-L liberal credentials restored.

JEFFREY D SACHS. Killer politicians: Curtain of deniability lifting (Asia Times 25.10.2018)

Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest? asked Henry II as he instigated the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in 1170. Down through the ages, presidents and princes around the world have been murderers and accessories to murder, as the great Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin and Walter Lunden documented in statistical detail in their master workPower and Morality. One of theirmain findingswas that the behavior of ruling groups tends to be more criminal and amoral than that of the people over whom they rule.

GARRY EVERETT. Critical yeast in critical times.

The title of this piece is taken from an address by Bishop Vincent Long, to the Concerned Catholics of Canberra, on the 11th of September this year. The Bishop had been invited to outline his vision for a Catholic Church, in the post Royal Commission (into sexual abuse) era. He addressed the topic by focussing in three reflections.

NASSIM KHADEM. Why Australian company directors have started caring about climate change.

For the first time Australian company directors have nominated climate change as the number one issue they want the federal government to address in the long term, according to a survey of more than 1,200 company directors.

ALEX TURNBULL. Coalition embraces economic vandalism with worst possible energy policy (The Guardian 27.10.2018)

When I saw the governments latest energy policy proposal, I was disappointed but not surprised. Just a few weeks ago I was speaking with a few utilities analysts and players, wargaming the absolute worst thing a party with just a few months to live could do to Australias energy policy and how far they could roll back some commendable progress to date. What we came up with revolved around the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommendations. They were very sensible but we figured they had substantial scope for selective and perverse implementation. At one point, we joked about...

OLIVER YATES. Scott Morrison needs to realise Liberals are prepared to lose the election over climate change.

After Wentworth the government should know how passionate Liberal party members are about the environment. This article was published by The Guardian on the 23rd of October 2018.

Louise Adler reviews 'Bibi: The turbulent life and times of Benjamin Netanyahu' by Anshel Pfeffer (the Australian Book Review)

In 1901 the cultural Zionist Israel Zangwill, borrowing a phrase from Lord Shaftesbury, declared, Palestine is a country without a people, the Jews are a people without a country. That clich has continued to influence the impasse in the Middle East for almost a century.

MARTIN WOLF. Latest climate change report shows inaction is shameful (Financial Times 25 October 2018)

It is five minutes to midnight on climate change. We will have to alter our trajectory very quickly if we wish to have a good chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. That was a goal of the Paris agreement of 2015. Achieving it means drastic reductions in emissions from now. This is very unlikely to happen. That is no longer because it is technically impossible. It is because it is politically painful. We are instead set on running an irreversible bet on our ability to manage the consequences of a far...

BRAD CHILCOTT. The deck is stacked against average Australians

Corporations exist to deliver profits to their shareholders. Unions exist to deliver fair wages, access to benefits like annual and sick leave to workers and to ensure workplaces are safe for all employees.

GREG AUSTIN: A repost-Australia, Israel and the Pentecostal PM

Israel may prove to be the biggest winner from the prime ministership of Scott Morrison. Events this week raise not only a legitimate question about the degree of political influence being exercised by Israel in Australia but also a question about Morrisons political common sense.

SHAUN HANNS. There is no clear empirical basis for the current policy against resettling those on Manus and Nauru in Australia.

The following policy piece by Shaun Hanns has been sent to all Federal Members of Parliament. (John Menadue) I am writing to you as a concerned private citizen using publicly available data. However I was, until recently, an officer of the Department of Home Affairs and that this has informed my views. I have spent the past five and a half years working as a protection obligations decision maker. Essentially my role was to interview asylum seekers, assess the risk they faced and decide if they were entitled to refugee status. This has impacted my views in two ways....

JOHN MENADUE. Pentecostalism, Jerusalem, the Prime Minister and the Assistant Treasurer

The Prime Minister has denied that his proposal, or was it just a thought bubble, to transfer the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, has anything to do with my faith or my religion. If so, it is in striking contrast to the views of many other Pentecostalists who strongly assert that a united Israel with Jerusalem as its capital presages the second coming of Christ. His Assistant Treasurer, Stuart Robert, also a Pentecostalist is a tour leader for visits to Israel.

REG LITTLE. Australian universities and China.

Comment on Australian universities and China needs to correct the universal Western oversight of the reality that Chinas past, present and future can only be understood in the context of its unique classics and millennia of recorded history.

Shinzo Abes China visit will push infrastructure and sea ties to counter US tensions (South China Morning Post, 20.10.18)

First visit to Beijing by a Japanese prime minister since 2011 expected to bring economic cooperation that prepares the way for warmer political relations.

GABRIELLE CHAN. Anyone but Nats': Rural figures come out against Barnaby Joyce and Nationals. (The Guardian 24.10.2018)

Prominent rural advocates have become increasingly vocal over a potential return of Barnaby Joyce to theNational partyleadership as the prospect of a concerted independent push in rural areas gains momentum after the Wentworth byelection.

BEN HILLMAN. Xinjiang and the "Chinese Dream".

Since ethnic riots broke out in Urumqi in 2009, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has steadily turned Xinjiang into a provincial police state. Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities are being closely surveilled and detained by security forces.

TONY KEVIN. What Aust Govt should do about the Khashoggi murder and other great Saudi crimes of state.

I believe Khashoggi was coldly and brutally murdered in a symbolic and deliberate medieval deterrent state punishment in a Saudi consulate on foreign soil. Australia should declare the Saudi Arabian Ambassador here persona non grata, and should withdraw our Ambassador in Saudi Arabia.

GARY SANDS. VaticanChina relations are warming up, but at what cost?

The Vatican is drawing closer to China. With the signing in September 2018 of a provisional agreement on the long-contested appointment of bishops in China, many are questioning what this development means for Catholicism in China and for the Vaticans ties with Taiwan. This article was published by East Asia Forum on the 23rd of October 2018.

JOHN MENADUE. Privatisation is a clear example of the failure of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism puts markets and companies before society and the public interest. That is why after 23 successive years of economic growth there is a widespread sense that the economy is working for a privileged few and at the expense of the many. The growing popular sense of resentment and unfairness is not at all surprising. A key feature of neo liberalism has been privatisation.It has mostly failed the majority but brought large unearned benefits for a few.

Australians oppose Trumps decision to declare Jerusalem Israeli capital.

A special Roy Morgan SMS Survey taken on December 14-15 2017 shows a large 76% of Australians opposed to US President Donald Trumps decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel with only 24% of Australians expressing support for Trumps decision earlier this week. This article was published by Roy Morgan on the 16th of December 2017.

VIJAY PRASHAD. Khashoggi saga takes spotlight off Yemen tragedy.

By now, few doubt that Jamal Khashoggi is dead. It is most likely that the Saudi journalist who once advised kings and billionaires was killed by an interrogation team sent from Saudi Arabia to meet with him in Turkey. This article was published by Asia Times on the 18th of October 2018.

MICHAEL TOMASKY. Fighting to Vote.

If you grew up, as I did, in the 1960s and 1970s, watching (albeit through a childs eyes) the civil rights movement notch victory after victory, you could be forgiven for thinking at the time that that happy condition was normal. By high school, in the late 1970s, I began reading some history and learning about the struggles people endured to win the right to vote in this country. I thought then that these battles were over and done and wonthat a new consensus had been achieved. This article was published by The New York Review of Books on...

LYNDSAY CONNORS. Morality, marketing or a strange convergence of both?

In the final weeks of the run-up to the Wentworth by-election, the Prime Minister promised rapid amendments to anti-discrimination law to remove the freedom of private schools to expel students on the basis of their sexuality, his own fears of gender whispering in public schools that he claimed had driven him to enrol his children in a private religious school being cast aside with such haste that it took some sections of the private school sector by surprise.

MARTIN HIRST. Whos got the energy mix to win the Victorian state election?

As the Victorian election looms, energy prices are a critical issue for voters. The Liberals espouse scrapping the renewable energy target and lifting the ban on onshore gas extraction. Labor has its program for expanding wind and solar. Voters have a clear choice on energy and climate but have been presented with a false dichotomy: cheap and dirty versus clean and expensive. Will voters buy it? Academic and journalist,Dr Martin Hirst,looks at the facts and reports that, whoever prevails, wholesale power prices are falling anyway.

DEBRA VERMEER. 70 years since six Good Samaritans set sail for Nagasaki.

Seventy years ago this month, six Good Samaritan Sisters set sail for Nagasaki, Japan, to respond to the need of the people there in the wake of the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. For Sister Mary Constable, 99, of Sydney, it was one of the defining experiences of her life.

JOHN MENADUE. Wentworth wipe-out!

The only surprise in Wentworth was the scale of the Liberal Party collapse. Spin and marketing by the Prime Minister was easily recognised. The poor product could not be hidden. Within twenty four hours of the debacle both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer told us that there would be no change of policy,particularly on climate change. They both have tin ears. The outstanding result for Kerryn Phelps shows once again the reservations electors have about the performance of our major parties. Their vote continues to decline. Strong independents in safe Coalition seats could have a field...

ROSS BURNS. Moving to Jerusalem

If you wanted to launch a thought bubble to see if there was any room for manoeuvre on Australia long-standing position on the central Middle East issues, would you do it the way chosen by PM Morrison this week? Certainly not if you wanted to justify it in the context of Australias commitment to a two state solution. A decision to follow Trumps move of the American embassy to Jerusalem would essentially ditch any outcome based on negotiations between the two parties, handing Israel in advance most of the key points of a final status outcome.

HUGH EAKIN. The Khashoggi Killing: Americas Part in a Saudi Horror (New York Review, 18.10.18)

In the spring of 2012, I made an extended visit to Saudi Arabia to report on the effects of the Arab Spring there. The arch-conservative oil monarchy was pursuing a robust counter-revolution, but the uprisings had brought new energy to reformers across the region. I was curious to see how Saudis themselves saw their countrys future.

PETER VARGHESE. Australian Universities and China. Part 2 of 2

My remarks today are very much a personal perspective, drawing on my past engagement with China as a foreign policy practitioner and informed by my current role, but it is not an official University of Queensland position. Today I wish to talk about what China means to Australian universities: what are the issues we face, how best to think about the relationship with China and, importantly, how do we manage risks while expanding opportunities.

GEORGE MONBIOT. As the fracking protesters show, a peoples rebellion is the only way to fight climate breakdown.

Our politicians, under the influence of big business, have failed us. As they take the planet to the brink, its time for disruptive, nonviolent disobedience. This article was published by The Guardian on the 18th of October 2018.

HENNY SENDER. The weaponisation of the dollar risks rebounding on the US.

One consequence of the America First policies will be to create a bipolar financial world.

STEPHEN HOWES. Bringing in backpackers is not the right way to get more workers onto farms.

Suddenly, getting workers onto farms is a top political priority. Over the weekend, and again in parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans to get more backpackers working on farms.

DAVID WOLPE. The Japanese Man Who Saved 6,000 Jews With His Handwriting.

What the astonishing Chiune Sugihara teaches us about moral heroism.

PETER VARGHESE. Australian Universities and China. Part 1 of 2

My remarks today are very much a personal perspective, drawing on my past engagement with China as a foreign policy practitioner and informed by my current role, but it is not an official University of Queensland position. Today I wish to talk about what China means to Australian universities: what are the issues we face, how best to think about the relationship with China and, importantly, how do we manage risks while expanding opportunities.

JOHN MENADUE. Have we got to a tipping point in our cruelty to refugees?

Recent developments suggest we might be prepared at last to act with humanity and decency. Prime Minister Scott Morrison seems to be interested in taking up with New Zealand its long-standing offer to take 150 refugees from Manus and Nauru.

Let us stop the Queen's death watch (Editorial SMH 18.10.2018)

The visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Australia has been delightful, especially since the happy surprise that they are expecting a baby. Back in Britain, however, there is reportedly growing impatience at Australia's uncomfortable impasse on whether to become a republic.

GAY ALCORN. 'Australia is in trouble': majority media and lobbying destroy trust in politics, Garnaut says.

Economist Ross Garnaut tells conference the independent centre is being drowned out by business interests,main stream media and lobbyists.

JIM RUTENBERG. Reality Breaks Up a Saudi Prince Charmings Media Narrative.

Just six months ago, American media outlets presented a sunny-side-up portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia as he made a good-will tour of New York, Hollywood and Silicon Valley and dining with Rupert Murdoch.

JIEH-YUNG LO. Morrison attempts his own Australia-China reset.

When you see a Prime Minister wonder into a marginal seat, you know a federal election is on the horizon. Scott Morrison did just that at the start of this month when he joined local member David Coleman in the ultra marginal seat of Banks. The purpose: to reconnect with the electorates large Chinese-Australian population and at the same time send a message to our largest trading partner.

RICHARD DENNISS. Trumps tax cuts will increase inequality. Australia shouldn't follow his lead.

The fiscal policies of conservatives like Trump and Scott Morrison are eating away at the fabric of society.

JULIE INGERSOLL. Why Trumps evangelical supporters welcome his move on Jerusalem (the Conversation, 08.12.17)

President Trumps announcement on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel received widespread criticism. Observers quickly recognized the decision as related not so much to national security concerns as to domestic U.S. politics and promises candidate Trump made to his evangelical supporters, who welcomed the announcement..

Trudeau refuses to let 'politics slip into decision on Huawei (Globe & Mail, 16.10.18)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa refuses to let politics slip into the decision to allow Huawei equipment into Canadas next-generation mobile networks even as the U.S. and Australia have barred the Chinese telecom giant on grounds of national security. The Prime Ministers comments come just days after two U.S. senators took the unusual step of publicly urging the Liberal government to ban Huawei from Canadas 5G networks. Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that Canadas telecommunication safeguards are insufficient to address the risks posed by the Shenzhen company. They both sit on the U.S....

BERTIL LINTER. Chinas shifting view on the Korean Peninsula (Asian Times, 10.10.18)

As US-China relations deteriorate on various fronts, the last thing Beijing wants is for North Korea to fall into Washington's sphere of influence

Divisive: Former RBA governor Bernie Fraser turns on neoliberalism (the New Daily, 17.10.18)

Former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser has called for a radical rethinkto policy-making, saying the way to a fairer, more equal society is with a pragmatic approach.

SOPHIE VORRATH. Coalition backing big coal over climate, says Sachs: Unbelievably irresponsible.

US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs has slammed the Australian federal government as unbelievably irresponsible for its inaction on climate change, and suggested that policy progress in the Coalition alongside the current US Trump administration has been held hostage by major fossil fuel interests.

MEDIA WATCH TRANSCRIPT (Paul Barry). News Corps contempt for climate science revealed in its coverage of last weeks IPCC report

Hello, Im Paul Barry, welcome to Media Watch. And last weeks dramatic report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change really sounded the alarm on the future of our planet, with scientists predicting the Great Barrier Reef could be wiped out by 2050 if we dont act to slow down global warming.. Why does News Corp hold climate science in such contempt?...Presumably because Rupert Murdoch is a non believer....and not just in Australia. Back in 2012,America's Union of Concerned Scientists audited News Corp's coverage in the US and concluded:Representations of climate science on Fox News Channel and in...

WILLIAM PESEK. In Asia, ghosts of crises past return amid Trumpian trade war.

In a region where traces of the 2008 and 1997-98 carnage linger, Washingtons assault on Asias biggest growth engine could ignite another disaster.

SHIRO ARMSTRONG. Japans high stakes diplomacy with the US and China. (East Asia Forum 14.10.2018)

Japan is now fully embarked on navigating a course through the economic and national security minefield that lies between the United States and China.

<