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

NILE BOWIE. The world according to Mahathir.

Malaysian premier is re-emerging as a strident yet pacifist spokesman for the non-aligned interests of the developing world.

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Morrisons willingness to tell brazen untruths proves he is just like Donald Trump (the New Daily, 03.09.18)

Australias new prime minister Scott Morrison showed this week he has masteredone of US President Donald Trumps most amazing tricks: the ability to make claims he and every one else knows are complete nonsense and to make them with total impunity.

Overreaction in the South China Sea when US influence is waning and Chinese influence is rising

The present and recent Australian Governments seem to have become victims of their own China and Russia phobias.

MARTIN WOLF. Donald Trump is wrong: China is not Mexico (Financial Times)

When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. This tweet of March 2 set out the aims and means of Donald Trumps trade policy.

DAVID BOOTH, JOHN TURNBULL. The backflip over Sydneys marine park is a defiance of science.

The New South Wales governments decision to back away from establishing no-fishing zones in waters around Sydney leaves significant question marks over the plan, which is open for public consultation until September 27.

JOHN MENADUE. We all owe a lot to great teachers.

Recently I chatted with a friend about how much we all owe to some teachers and mentors. So I decided to share, with a few minor changes, what I wrote about twenty years ago about two teachers to whom I owe a great debt. They turned my life around.

Susan Reid reviews 'Adani and the War Over Coal' by Quentin Beresford and 'The Coal Truth' by David Ritter (Australian Book Review, October 2018

Who can forget the image of Scott Morrison, as federal treasurer, juggling a lump of lacquered coal in parliament on 9 February 2017? Appearing pretty chuffed with his own antics, Morrison urged people not to be afraid. Eighteen months later, the jester is now prime minister. His ascension results from one of the most undignified and ill-conceived political coups in Australias political memory. The Liberal Party clambers from the rubble of its bitter internal ruptures with the same foot soldiers of big coal even more prominent.

NICK BRYANT. How right-wing Scott Morrison became Australias sixth prime minister in 11 years.

Its a measure of how far Australian conservatism has turnedtowards the Trumpian that Morrison was considered the mainstream candidate.

JAMES FERNYHOUGH Scott Morrison is either lying about carbon emissions, or just plain ignorant (the New Daily, 02.10.18)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia is on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target in a canter. But itsnot, and Mr Morrison is either being blindly optimisticor he is an outright liar. More fake news from Scott Morrison.

JOHN MENADUE Morrison and Trump are experts in fake news

Scott Morrison keeps telling us that he stopped the boats. As I have said many times that is just not true. It is fake news. But the lie has been so uncontested by the media for so long it is hard to nail the lie.Perhaps being careless in the first place the media now finds it hard to admit error Our public life whether it be about refugees or climate change has been so debased it is becoming hard to sort fact from fiction .

PETER WHITEFORD. Relax. The divide between the taxed and the taxed-nots isnt new and doesnt buy elections.

Might government benefits, and government employment, be a self sustaining machine one in which those who benefit from government payments deliver the votes needed to ensure they continue?

STEPHEN LONG. Tesla battery proves a leading source of dispatchable power, AEMO says .

Scott Morrison said it would be about as useful for the electricity system as the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour or the Big Prawn at Ballina in NSW. He has a habit with fake news.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE. Keeping the mates at arm's length in the gambling industry.

The Grattan Institutes report on access and influence in Australian politics, Whos in the room?, comes at a time when the reputation of politicians and the political system seems to be plumbing new depths.

DAVID ISAACS. Pervasive refusal syndrome and Nauru

Fatima was a happy child who loved school and was a top student. She was 11 years old when she took to her bed, stopped eating and drinking, covered her head with the sheet, stopped washing and started wetting the bed. For months she would not or could not get out of bed and had to be carried to the toilet. She would not speak to her parents or friends. After over 5 years on Nauru, almost half her life, she had lost control of her destiny, had lost all hope and had lost the will to live. When she...

REG LITTLE. Rethinking Australian Strategic Thinking on China.

Disarray and confusion amongst the values, ideals, narratives and mythologies of the English-speaking peoples will increasingly press Australia to choose between a familiar past tending to decline and disarray and a challenging and daunting China-focused future.

GERALDINE DOOGUE, AMY DONALDSON. Bill Hayden explains why he decided to be baptised.

Apart from being Australia's second longest-serving governor-general and introducing the first version of Medicare, Bill Hayden is probably best known for being a vocal and even hostile atheist.

JOHN ELDER. Gas leak: Government tries to release its greenhouse news on the quiet.

The Morrison government stands accused of trying to sneak-release the latest greenhouse gas emission figures theyve gone up, again by making them public on the eve of the footy grand finals.

PAUL BONGIORNO. No Friend But The Mountains

When John Minns asked me to help launch No Friend But The Mountains in Canberra I was honoured, because I was aware of Behrouz Boochanis journalistic work in The Saturday Paper. Now that I have read the book I am humiliated.

JOHN GOSS. Health care is getting cheaper (unless you need a specialist, or a dentist) (the Conversation, 28.09.18)

Public and private health expenditure amounted to 10.3% of gross domestic product in 2016-17, almost exactly the same percentage as in 2015-16, according to figures released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

NICK BISLEY. The risks of a new Cold War between the US and China are real: heres why (the Conversation, 26.08.18)

Donald Trump is making good on his trade war rhetoric with China, announcing tariffs on a further US$200 billion worth of goods from the PRC. As China promises retaliation, the warmth of the Mar-a-Lago summit of April 2017 is a thing of the past. When this is added to the wide-ranging tensions such as the disputes over barely habitable rocks in the East China Sea, tensions over the competing claims in the South China Sea, and the spectre of nuclear catastrophe on the Korean Peninsula, the sense of geopolitical risk is as palpable as it is frightening.

JOHN THOMPSON. Private schools don't pay rates and taxes.

While most attention is focussed on the level and distribution of funds paid directly to non-government schools by the Commonwealth Government, little attention is given to the very substantial financial concessions and benefits that the private school system obtains from all levels of government in Australia. The millions of dollars of revenue foregone by local, state and Commonwealth Governments in relation to non-government schools as a result of their anachronistic status as charities are simply not taken into account when funding decisions are made. This post uses one Victorian municipality to identify the type of financial benefits provided to private...

KERRY GOULSTON. A personal view on our current treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

There is growing concern across Australia about the current policy for Asylum Seekers and Refugees, particularly those on Nauru and Manus Island.

DOUG TAYLOR. Uniting Church launches new decriminalisation campaign.

Australias first pill testing trial took place earlier this year in Canberra at a music festival. 128 people attending the festival provided pills for testing and two of these pills were found to contain potentially deadly substances. These pills were then disposed of and the event was fatality-free.

JOHN WOINARSKI, CHRIS DICKMAN, RICHARD KINGSFORD and SARAH LEGGE-We must strengthen, not weaken, environmental protections during drought or face irreversible loss.

Australian rural communities face hardships during extended drought, and it is generally appropriate that governments then provide special support for affected landholders and communities. However, some politicians and commentators have recently claimed that such circumstances should be addressed by circumventing environmental laws or management by, for example, reallocating environmental water to grow fodder or opening up conservation reserves for livestock grazing. But subverting or weakening existing protective conservation management practices and policies will exacerbate the impacts of drought on natural environments and biodiversity.

CHRISTOPHER SHEIL, FRANK STILWELL. Inequality stocktake ... or snowjob by the Productivity Commission?

The Productivity Commission has issued a new report called Rising Inequality? A Stocktake of the Evidence. However, when looking at the distribution of wealth in Australia, it turns out not to be a stocktake of the evidence at all. Rather, it creates some new evidence that is inconsistent with the established sources of inequality data.

NILE BOWIE. Mahathir has an Islam problem.

New premier wants Malaysia's brand of Islam to reflect mercy, justice and compassion, a stance his conservative opponents have seized on as too soft and lenient.

AARON PATRICK. Did 41 Australian soldiers die in Afghanistan for a failed war? (AFR 27.9.2018)

Australia's bloodiest war ended 100 years ago in melancholy victory.Australia's most recent war may end in a delayed defeat, raising an awful question: what did 41 Australian soldiers die for?

ANN DAVIES. ABC board members appointed by Fifield despite being rejected by merit-based panel (the Guardian, 28.09.18)

The Coalitions much touted merits-based nominations process for ABC board appointments has been ignored or circumvented in recent years.

ANATLOE KALETSKY. The US Will Lose Its Trade War with China.

In handicapping the US-China conflict, Keynesian demand management is a better guide than comparative advantage. In principle, China can avoid any damage at all from US tariffs simply by responding with a full-scale Keynesian stimulus.

GRATTAN INSTITUTE Whos in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics.

Many business sectors depend heavily on government favours and regulations. They include miners,property developers,road contractors,liquor and gambling industries. Not surprisingly they are the largest political donors who seek favourable government approvals.

MARIE COLEMAN. Fixing the Women problems: Retirement Incomes, Parental Leave, and the Gender Pay Gap.

With a statement imminent from Minister for Women Kelly ODwyer, Labor has announced modest changes to improve Paid Parental Leave ( $400 million over the out years) and proposed new measures to diminish the gender pay gap. Both measures should contribute to the position of older women in retirement. The P.M. says he doesnt oppose the gender pay gap measures while being concerned that revealing ones wage to a co-worker could provoke bad feelings (!)

PATRICK MAGUIRE. Why Corbyn is promising a green jobs revolution (New Statesman)

The Labour leader's promise to create 400,000 new skilled jobs is a direct pitch to Brexit Britain and an implicit criticism of Gordon Brown and New Labour.

GRATTAN INSTITUTE. Special deals for special interests. Packers casino licence

How rent seekers and lobbyists work - The Casino Licence In February 2012, James Packer proposed building a hotel-casino on the Sydney Harbour foreshore at Barangaroo. The NSW premier and opposition leader were quick to back the idea, saying it would bring jobs and tourists to Sydney. Both major parties ignored the public interest.

BRUCE WEARNE. What can we infer from the more than four month delay in releasing the Ruddock Panels Report?

According to the Governments web-site, the Religious Freedom Review received over 15,500 submissions. In political terms the review was established so that Parliament and the citizens of this country could have qualified juridical advice about the prevailing situation across this Commonwealth and thus how subsequent public debate should proceed, particularly in terms of the consequences that will follow on from the change to the Marriage Acts definition of lawful marriage as enacted in legislation last December. It is now over 9 months since that legislation was passed and now it is over 4 months since the Reviews report was handed...

PETER SMALL. National Party and Climate Change, Part 2.

If we accept the premise that humans are rational beings and have a reason for doing what they do, then in my first article I tried to throw some light on what motivated the National Party, and the Coalition, to have the policies they have or dont have on climate. In summary I suggested this was a result of the decline of membership and branch structure and the resultant decline of influence by the rank and file on policy. The belief in there being votes in differentiating their brand from the Greens and city lefties. The power of Canberra lobbyists...

BRUCE KAYE. The Prime Ministers Pentecostal Christianity and neo liberalism.

Will Scott Morrison really be able to exercise the office of Prime Minister properly while belonging to a Pentecostal church that is said to have a prosperity gospel that promises wealth and health to believers? Guilt by association is always a bad place to start. Nothing is wrong with facts that are relevant. Actually, this is an issue for us all about the freedoms and constraints by which we live in this nation.

BRIONY DOW. Do we need a Royal Commission into Aged Care?

With the recent announcement of a Royal Commission into Aged Care, debate is raging in the aged care sector and beyond as to whether it is really needed.

DANIELLE WOOD. ScoMo can get a quick win by cleaning up Canberra's murky dealings (Australian Financial Review, 204.09.18)S9

Scott Morrison needs to pull a policy rabbit out of a hat and he needs to do it quickly. At best, he has eight months to convince a sceptical public the Coalition can be trusted to run the country. But fortunately for the new PM, there is a bunny in plain sight. Policies to improve our political institutions are popular with the public, cost next to nothing and would enhance the quality of Australian government.

GRATTAN INSTITUTE Whos in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics.

On almost any measure Australia lags behind other comparable countries in managing the lobbying scourge

PAUL DALEY. 'Wholesale massacre': Carl Feilberg exposed the ugly truth of the Australian frontier.

The real settler and pioneering stories of Feilbergs Queensland were confronting and frightening.

MICHAEL SAVAGE. Ministers warn harder EU exit risks breaking up Britain (the Guardian, 23.09.18)

Theresa May is being warned by cabinet colleagues that a shift towards a harder Brexit will hasten the break-up of the UK, amid a renewed attempt by Brexiters to secure a clean split from the European Union.

JOHN FALZON.Morrisons mantra is choice. But what real choice do the poor and homeless have?

Everyone was walking past, refusing to meet her eyes. She wasnt asking for somewhere to live. She wasnt even asking for something to live on. All she was asking for was just enough to buy some breakfast. But everyone just kept walking past and the angrier she got the wider the berth they gave her and the faster they moved past her.

CHRIS FOTINOPOULOS. Bigotry is bad business, so why not let the consumer decide?

Take a drive along any arterial road in Australia and youre likely to pass dwellings dedicated to various deities with its congregants practising their brand of faith free of external interference. Apart from the exclusive varieties, most churches are open to anyone seeking respite from secular life. But as much as most churches are welcoming, they are free to exclude anyone who disrespects church ethos. Just as I can ask an unruly guest to leave my home, so too can a church official determine who leaves Gods home.

GRATTAN INSTITUTE Special deals for special interests -Catholic School funding

How lobbyists work to advantage Catholic schools at the expense of state schools .

KATE GRIFFITHS, CARMEL CHIVERS, DANIELLE WOOD. Influence in Australian politics needs an urgent overhaul heres how to do it (The Conversation, 23.09.18)

Public policy should be made for all Australians not just those with the resources or connections to lobby and influence politicians. And mostly it is. But sometimes bad policy is made or good policy is dropped because powerful groups have more say and sway than they should.

ROBERT MANNE. This pains me, but it's time to compromise on Australia's cruel asylum seeker policy (the Guardian, 23.09.18)

In the past 30 years Australia has crafted an almost uniquely cruel asylum seeker policy. Our only competitor is the proudly illiberal Hungary. When Malcolm Turnbull outlined our current policy to Donald Trump in their notorious telephone conversation, the US president was mightily impressed. You are worse than I am. No more evidence about the character of Australias asylum seeker policy is required.

TREVOR KENNEDY. Consultants are a blight on government and business.

It is, at the very least, arguable that consultants have become toxic weeds in business and government in Australia.

LYNDSAY CONNORS. Coalition recycles old nonsense with business-as-usual schools deal (the Guardian, 22.09.18)

The prime ministers announcement of an extra $4.6bn in funding over the next decade for private schools makes no sense.

LAURA TINGLE. People grumble about political leaders, but there's a deeper malaise afoot (ABC News, 17.09.18)

People always grumble about political leaders. But there is a deeper malaise afoot now.

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