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

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.

JOHN MENADUE. The Coalition has 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. Strong Independents are thriving in country electorates. Outside the metropolitan area both Coalition partners have become heavily dependent on the miners rather than farmers for money and ideas.. The Liberal and National parties are also ignoring issues of concern to country voters climate change, NBN, rural poverty and inferior health services.

MARK BUTLER. Coalition exposes its ignorance in anti-renewable stance (The Big Smoke, 21.09.18)

On Tuesday during Parliamentary Question Time, new Energy Minister Angus Taylorannounced:the (RET) target reaches a peak in 2020 and we will not be replacing that with anything.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

DENIS MULLER. Media power: why the full story of Murdoch, Stokes and the Liberal leadership spill needs to be told (The Conversation, 20.09.18)

The first German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, said there were two sights the public should not see: the making of laws and the making of sausages. To this list of enduringly nauseating spectacles we should add one more: the political machinations of media moguls.

IAN BURUMA. From Charlottesville to Chemnitz: the Wests race problem.

For obvious reasons, the sight of a German mob chasing foreigners through the streets and throwing up their arms in Hitler salutes is particularly disturbing. This is what happened recently in Chemnitz, a bleak industrial city in Saxony that was touted in the former German Democratic Republic as a model socialist city (it was called Karl-Marx-Stadt between 1953 and 1990).

JOHN MENADUE How Murdoch extracted concessions from governments.

Rupert Murdoch claims, falsely, that he has never asked a Prime Minister for anything. Yet his whole business career in three countries has been founded on threatening or seducing politicians for privileged commercial access or opportunities. I posted an article earlier this week on how he got favoured treatment from the Hawke Government for Ansett Airlines in which he was a major shareholder at the time.. Today I post extracts from an earlier article on how, with the help of the Keating Government, he got a foothold in Foxtel.in 1995.

JOHN MENADUE How Kerr, Fraser and Murdoch engineered the dismissal of the Whitlam Government. A slightly edited repost from 27 October 2015

Rupert Murdoch has form in conniving to get rid of Prime Ministers from 1975 to 2018

BRUCE GUTHRIE. The growing power of media mates (The New Daily, 20.09.18)

The news that billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes essentially war-gamed the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should appal all Australians wanting media diversity and an open and transparent polity.

KATHARINE MURPHY. AMA president calls for urgent transfer of refugee families from Nauru.

Exclusive: Tony Bartone writes to Scott Morrison saying situation is a humanitarian emergency requiring urgent intervention.

MELISSA SWEET. Please support this crowdfunding campaign, so we can cover the 4th Peoples Health Assembly #PHA4.

Please consider supporting this crowdfunding campaign to enable Dr Lesley Russell to report for Croakey from a landmark global health meeting in Bangladesh from November 15-19 the 4th Peoples Health Assembly or #PHA4.

Wentworth, Bill Shorten and refugees

What a boost it would be for humanity and decency if Bill Shorten broke with the government's refugees policy and told us during the Wentworth by-election that the ALP would no longer support the cruel and crippling policies that leave refugees and asylum seekers stranded and abused on Nauru and Manus. What is happening is not on Planet Nauru or Planet Manus. It is happening in our neighbourhood to people it is our duty to protect.

ISABELLE LANE. Six big players dominate Australias scandal-hit aged care sector (The New Daily, 19.09.18)

Agedcare providersare expected torake in$1.7 billion worth of profits in 2018-19,butreports of poor living conditionsinnursing homeshave raised concerns that the industry is putting profitbeforepeople.

JOHN MENADUE. The scourge of lobbyists is likely to continue if there is a change of government.A Repost from June 22 2018

Lobbyists are back in the news but it looks as if the scourge of lobbyists will continue in Canberra if Bill Shorten wins the next election. There is no sign that the ALP, like the Coalition is prepared to curb the way lobbyists are corrupting public policy in Australia.. The media reports that lobby firms are taking on labor staffers so that they can influence a future Labor Government.

TROY BRAMSTON. Ex-Labor leader Bill Hayden, 85, baptised into Catholic Church.

Bill Hayden, at age 85, has renounced his atheism and been baptised into the Catholic Church.

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Claim were on track to meet emissions targets is false.

Australias new energy minister Angus Taylor made a claim about carbon emissions this week thatlooked on the surface to be fantastic news, but on closer inspection is false.

JOE ASTON AND MYRIAM ROBIN. Clean hands? How five Scott Morrison supporters voted to get rid of Turnbull. (AFR 17.9.2018)

Make no mistake, this new PM stood by the last one just like he stood by the one before. Like Brutus stood by Caesar.

DAVID DODWELL. Keep Calm and carry on amid the current state of the trade war, for time is on China's side. (South China Morning Post 16.9.2018)

Over the weekend, Donald Trumps trade team invited Beijing to fresh trade talks. Almost simultaneously, tweets from the White House cast doubt on the talks. Is this good cop, bad cop tactics? Or routine erratic signalling? How is one to respond, given how much the world economy is at stake? Having mulled this conundrum carefully over the weekend, and without any attempt to discover what Beijings leaders might do, I have decided to imagine a secret internal memo from Liu He to Xi Jinping and the Beijing trade team.

ROD TIFFIN. Murdoch and Stokes

If the Liberal leadership upheaval was a Muppet show, as Scott Morrison described it, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have been revealed as its Statler and Waldorf. Muppets fans will remember the two cantankerous old men who heckled from the sidelines. The media moguls did not publicly heckle, but their behind the scenes barracking was reflected in their media.

WAYNE SWAN. Ten years after the crash, tax competition threatens global economies and democracies.

Ten years ago, the global financial system was rocked by the largest crisis since the Great Depression.

ANDREW PROBYN. What did Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have to do with the Liberal leadership spill? (ABC News, 18.09.18)

Malcom Turnbull's demise as Australia's 29th prime minister was unusual for many reasons, and truly unique for one: his was the first known prime ministership to be the subject of a billionaires' tug of war between the nation's most powerful media moguls.

JOE ASTON. Rupert Murdoch to Kerry Stokes: Malcolm has to go. (AFR 18.9.2018)

Murdoch met with Seven West proprietorKerry Stokes...... Malcolm has got to go, he told the Perth billionaire. (This abuse of power by media barons is appalling.There is strong case for Bill Shorten to propose a Royal Commission into this unacceptable abuse of power and the general failure of our main stream media on issues such as climate change. The health of our democracy is at stake John Menadue)

MEREDITH DOIG. Open Letter to Scott Morrison upon becoming Prime Minister.

Dear Prime Minister, The Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) congratulates you upon becoming the 30th Prime Minister of Australia. We have two concerns we would like to raise with you: firstly, your Governments response to the Ruddock Report, and secondly, your urging Australians to pray for rain in drought affected areas.

JAMIE LINGHAM. The changing face of Australian immigration.

Now more than ever we need to work together as a nation to address the immigration department and the mechanisms of safe passage, and put a stop to Australia's unacceptable practices and inhumane treatment of individuals.

MAUREEN DOWD. Trump Finally Makes a Friend (New York Times, 15.09.18)

The president may be shunned nearly everywhere but at the bottom of the world he has finally found a loyal mate.

ERIN ODONNELL, AVRIL HORNE. Giving environmental water to drought-stricken farmers sounds straightforward, but its a bad idea (The Conversation, 18.09.18)

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack last week suggested the government would look at changing the law to allow water to be taken from the environment and given to farmers struggling with the drought.

NICOLE GIBSON. A Letter to Canberra from a young Australian.

Each Australian story Ive heard is etched on my heart, permanently shifting my views and perspectives on leadership. I pray that you also have the humility to silence the chatter in your own minds and be inspired by the people you represent.

BIANCA BRIJNATH. Improving dementia awareness in Australias multicultural communities can mean better care for all.

Sheila holds 10 teaspoons in her hands and every time the cooker whistles, she puts one down. After 10 whistles, she switches the cooker off. The rice is done. She takes down two pots and prepares one of the five vegetable dishes she remembers. When dinner arrives at the table, there are two places set for five people but she is resolute about particular people being assigned particular plates. There is to be no intermingling or sharing of plates; everyone must know their plate and place at this table.

JIEH-YUNG LO. Reflections of a Chinese-Australian.

To ensure we remain as the worlds most successful multicultural society, it is important to get the China debate right from now on to prevent the re-emergence of sinophobia in Australia.

JOHN MENADUE. Failed leadership in church and state. Repost from 24 August 2018

Good leadership is about facing the group up to the hard issues. Without clearly defining why and how we need to change and creating some disequilibrium there will be no worthwhile change. In the AFR on September 14 2018 Laura Tingle asked 'What makes a good leader?'.That article makes a similar case to the one I outlined on 24 August 2018. See below.

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Ten years on, theres just one positive legacy of the Global Financial Crisis.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if hed only had good intentions; he had money as well.

TAMSIN SHAW. Edward Snowden Reconsidered (New York Review of Books Daily 13.09.18)

This summer, the fifth anniversary of Edward Snowdens revelations about NSA surveillance passed quietly, adrift on a tide of news that now daily sweeps the ground from under our feet. It has been a long five years, and not a period marked by increased understanding, transparency, or control of our personal data. In these years, weve learned much more about how Big Tech was not only sharing data with the NSA but collecting vast troves of information about us for its own purposes. And weve started to see the strategic ends to which Big Data can be put. In that...

HYLDA ROLFE. Protection v exploitation Uncertain outlook for National Parks in New South Wales

A common framework for crime fiction builds on the notion of a heavy character leaning on target persons in order to encourage them to fund the provision of protection from even heavier characters. Hoping for security, the targets oblige and meet more and more demands, until at last they baulk. So then the heavies appear with some attendant thuggery, and the protection turns out to be a bit of a myth. It was really only exploitation.

FRAN BAUM and TOBY FREEMAN. Time for the reform of primary health care in Australia: a ten-point plan (Croakey, 12.09.18)

12 September)marks 40 years since the World Health Organization member countries gathered for the International Conference on Primary Health Care in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and signed off on the declaration of Alma-Ata.

JOHN MENADUE. The urgent need for democratic renewal. We don't trust the major parties

Australians are sick and tired of politicians. The community is deserting the major political parties in droves.Most recently we have seen it in Longman and Wagga. We have lost trust in our major political parties and most particularly the Liberal and National Parties in recent months. In the 1980s we embraced economic change and reform. It was necessary but painful for some. Today we need democratic reform and renewal. Like the 1980s, it is necessary but it will be painful for some. After the next election we need a government that will assist us in major democratic renewal....

JOHN MENADUE. Beyond the political rhetoric,hard hats and akubras what do our political leaders really believe.

Power does reveal substance. It tells us quite quickly about the values that drive political parties and political leaders. Scare tactics are always a sure sign that the values and policy cupboard is bare.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

JOSEPH NYE. The two sides of American exceptionalism (Project Syndicate, 5.09.18)

In July, I joined 43 other scholars of international relations in paying for a newspaper advertisement arguing that the US should preserve the current international order. The institutions that make up this order have contributed to unprecedented levels of prosperity and the longest period in modern history without war between major powers. US leadership helped to create this system, and US leadership has long been critical for its success.

Bishop Long and other religious leaders denounce asylum-seeker policy.

Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv. has joined other faith leaders in denouncing Australia's indefinite detention of refugees and asylum-seekers on Nauru and Manus Island.

LYNDSAY CONNORS. Latest OECD Education report should spark a reality check.

According to the OECDs 2018 Education at a Glance report, one measure that places Australia in an extreme position internationally is its high proportion of private funding across the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. And Australia is certainly out on a limb when it comes to the public/private funding mix for private schools.

PETER JANSSEN. Wealth gap remains under Thai junta rule.

PM Prayut Chan-ocha vowed to tackle the kingdom's politicized income inequality but has failed to pass a redistributive land tax that would hit elite holdings

GARRY WILLS. Resistance Means More Than Voting (New York Review of Books Daily, 10.09.18)

When former president Barack Obama called on the nation to oppose Donald Trump at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign last week, he said there was only one way to do it, by voting. This was a criticism of the internal resistance supported by the anonymous op-ed writer in The New York Times. Obama said that people who secretly arent following the presidents orders are not defending democracy: These people are not elected. Theyre not accountable.

NICK DEANE Invictus and the arms manufacturers connection.

The Invictus Games will be familiar to all who watch the ABC, their promoter and sponsor. The Games will be taking place in Sydney in October, the participants being injured service personnel from 18 countries.But why are major arms manufactures 'official supporters'?

ISHAAN THAROOR. The White Houses new attack on the international system.

In his first major policy address since joining the White House in April, national security adviser John Bolton offered a particularly aggressive demonstration of President Trump's America First agenda. He threatened the International Criminal Court, a U.N.-mandated body based in The Hague, with punitive measures should it pursue an investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. He warned that the United States would ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the country, sanction their funds in the U.S. financial system and punish any company or government that complies with an ICC investigation into Americans.

MATT FLYN. The longevity dividend: how ageing populations could boost economic productivity.

People are generally living longer than previous generations across most parts of the world. Rising life expectancy is a result of advances in medicine as well as improving living standards and healthier lifestyles. But while this should be celebrated for social reasons, is it beneficial in economic terms? Does the increase in the older population create an economic burden on society or can older people be mobilised to enhance the productivity of communities in which they work and live?

HAMISH McDONALD. Australia takes immigration debate to a new low. (Nikkei Asian Review 5/9/2018)

In early August, the population of Australia reached 25 million, according to the government's statistics bureau -- more than three times its size in 1948, when I came into the world as one of 7.7 million Australians. Unlike a lot of my compatriots, I'm happy about the expansion and hope there will be many more Australians in years to come, from all kinds of ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. Most of us in the outer Sydney suburb where I grew up in the 1950s were descendants or children of migrants from the British Isles. Every Monday morning...

VIC ROWLANDS. The Education funding battle and public education.

When then minister Simon Birmingham accepted the recommendations of the Gonski 2 Education funding model it was a courageous attempt to redress the mistakes of the past. His replacement post Turnbull by Dan Tehan sent a message that the traditional powerful education lobbies are still well and truly the influential players. It doesn't auger well for government schools which historically end up the greatest loser because their primary source of revenue, the states, cannot or won't match the federal largesse and they don't have the capacity of the non government sector to game the system.

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