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

MICHAEL D BREEN. Head, Heart and future Hope.

Now there is talk about a new generation in Australian Politics. So what is new? Not the players. Not the structures, nor the rules of engagement. Could it be a more basic factor is needed? Could it be, for want of a better term, the moral infrastructure? Is this the bedrock foundation, the sine qua non for any successful rebuild? This would involve the ways in which individuals and groups regulate their behaviour.

MARK DANTA, CHUN MA, RICHARD DAY, DAVID MA. Dealing with the spiraling price of medicines: how low can it go?

New medications are increasingly expensive. In Australia, where the Pharmaceutical Benets Scheme (PBS) covers the vast majority of prescription medications, the spiraling cost of medicines has a signicant impact on the sustainability of our health system. In countries where patients are required to contribute substantially to the medicine cost, high prices can negatively inuence their health outcomes.

LYNLEY WALLIS, BRYCE BARKER, HEATHER BURKE. How unearthing Queenslands native police camps gives us a window onto colonial violence.

In 19th century Queensland, the Native Mounted Police were responsible for dispersing (a euphemism for systematic killing) Aboriginal people.

GARRY EVERETT. No Way To Start.

To be a dissenting voice is a risky business. If you oppose the prevailing orthodoxy, you are either disowned because you are wrong; or you struggle to have your voice heard, because your message is not popular.

ILAN WIESEL, LISS RALSTON, WENDY STONE. How the housing boom has driven rising inequality.

The Productivity Commission the Australian governments highly influential economic advisory body released a report titled Rising Inequality? last week. The question mark indicates its scepticism about other research findings on rising inequality in Australia. The commission responded to its own question in the reports very first heading: Over nearly three decades, inequality has risen slightly in Australia.

HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY. US-led Indo-Pacific alliance against China is an outdated idea (Nikkei Asian Review, 03.09.18)

Asia should avoid being divided by Sino-American rivalry.

CLIVE HAMILTON. None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See

Jocelyn Chey has a bee in her bonnet. In a series of articles on this blog she has repeatedly characterised my book, Silent Invasion: Chinas Influence in Australia, as anti-Chinese. In her latest attack, she claims that I engage in racial profiling, lump all Chinese-Australians together and feed into anti-Asian propaganda.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

GEOFF GALLOP. What does it mean to be educated?

In the Campion Lecture at St Aloysius College, Sydney, on 15 August 2018, Geoff Gallop, former Premier of WA, spoke about the post-truth world and the importance of understanding the role of education in our society. He said in conclusion: Over the centuries human beings have learnt much about nature and society, how to co-exist with the former and how to humanise the latter. Educated people are those who embrace this progress, act on the basis of the knowledge it creates and who seek even more. It recognises difference and seeks reconciliation rather than division and truth rather than prejudice....

MARIE SELLSTROM. Rural Australians for Refugees making a statement in rural communities.

There is a growing consciousness in rural and regional Australia..it is centred in NSW and Victoria and is spreading through Queensland to Cairns and moving south through to Tasmania and South Australia and across to Albany. It is the responsiveness of men, women and children in country Australia who support people seeking refuge and asylum on Australian shores and who are raising their voices in anger at the government's treatment of these men, women and children.

DAVID JAMES. Industry superannuation, banks, competition,capitalism and socialism

The bullish speculations by Mark Carnegie (see below) about industry super funds clawing back their share of the superannuation market from the banks, and potentially capturing a quarter of Australias mortgage and business lending, certainly got attention. It is worth some closer examination, including his claim that it would mean Australias financial system might more resemble German-style participatory capitalism, whereby workers take part in the ownership and supervision of the companies that employ them.

JOHN QUIGGIN. Our financial system only works for the 1%. It will take another crash to fix it (The Guardian, 03.09.18)

The royal commission into banks has uncovered fraud and misconduct on a massive scale, amounting to nearly $1bn and perhaps more. The usual defences of bad apples and rogue advisers have fallen apart as it becomes evident the problems are systemic, driven by relentless pressure from the top to maximise profits at all costs.

JIM COOMBS. Alternatives to the big four.

The AFR reports Mark Carnegie of the Superannuation Trustees saying that their funds could move into High Street banking as the Big Four retreat after being found with their hands in the cookie jar. Even Auspost could pile into the market !

DAVID FRUM. This Is a Constitutional Crisis (The Atlantic 5/9/2018)

A cowardly coup from within the administration threatens to enflame the presidents paranoia and further endanger American security. Impeachment is a constitutional mechanism. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment is a constitutional mechanism. Mass resignations followed by voluntary testimony to congressional committees are a constitutional mechanism. Overt defiance of presidential authority by the presidents own appointeesnow thats a constitutional crisis.

JOHN MENADUE. Why dental care was excluded from Medicare and why it should now be included

In 1974, the Whitlam Government decided to exclude dental care from Medicare for two reasons. The first was cost. The second was political in that Gough Whitlam felt that combatting the doctors would be hard enough without having to combat dentists as well. Forty-four years later, with Australia much richer and the proven success of Medicare, it is now time for dental care to be progressively included in Medicare.

LUCIANA PORFIRIO, DAVID NEWTH, JOHN FINNIGAN. Climate change will reshape the worlds agricultural trade.

Ending world hunger is a central aspiration of modern society. To address this challenge along with expanding agricultural land and intensifying crop yields we rely on global agricultural trade to meet the nutritional demands of a growing world population.

MARTIN WOLF. Why so little has changed since the financial crash (Financial Times)

Here I am back again in the Treasury...but with one great difference. In 1918 most people's only idea was to get back to pre-1914. No one today feels like that about 1939. That will make an enormous difference when we get down to it. The financial crisis was a devastating failure of the free market followed by a period of rising inequality within many countries.

ANGUS WHYTE. A farmers perspective on the drought.

As someone who is dependent on Mother Nature for a living, climate is very much a front and centre issue for all farmers.I graze livestock on semi-arid, native rangeland pastures in western NSW; the numbers we graze is dependent on the amount of pasture we grow, which of course relies on sufficient rainfall. Heres what I think about the drought.

JAMES GOLDGEIER, ELIZABETH SAUNDERS. The Unconstrained Presidency.

Checks and Balances Eroded Long Before Trump.

HOWARD DAVIES. Was the financial crisis wasted?

As the 10th anniversary of the start of the global financial crisis approaches, a wave of retrospective reviews is bearing down on us. Many of them will try to answer the Big Question: Has the financial system been fundamentally reformed, so that we can be confident of preventing a repeat of the dismal and destructive events of 2008-2009, or has the crisis been allowed to go to waste?

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration --- New York Times 5 September 2018

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting...

BRIAN COYNE. Rupert Murdoch and the increasing division in society

Following the sensational demand from Archbishop Vigano for the resignation of Pope Francis, Michael Sean Winters wrote a commentary in National Catholic Reporter wondering if the right wing in the Church was about to launch a schism. The following commentary by the editor of catholica, Brian Coyne, was written suggesting all of society is heading for division and schism at the moment and our Australian mate Rupert Murdoch has to take much of the blame.

EUGENE ROBINSON. Why Trump is so frantic right now.

President Trumps incoherence grows to keep pace with his desperation. These days, he makes less sense than ever a sign that this malignant presidency has entered a new, more dangerous phase.

BRUCE WEARNE. Thinking About Our Political Blurring of Parliamentary Boundaries!

The first time I voted in a federal election was in December 1972. I had just graduated from university. In three undergraduate years, as a member of the turbulent Monash Association of Students, I had learned that there was deep artificiality in a political view that reduces debate to two sides. I cast my inaugural vote knowing that if the McMahon Liberal-Country Coalition were returned, I would have a National Service obligation to deal with. But then they lost to Gough Whitlams Labor and conscription was scrapped.

PETER WOODRUFF. Open letter to Pope Francis on The Pope as a Game Changer

Dear Pope Francis, Greetings from Australia. I am a priest who worked for many years in parishes in poor barrios of Lima, Peru. I am now retired in Melbourne, Australia.

PETER WHITEFORD. Dont believe what they say about inequality. Some of us are worse off (The Conversation)

If you were going to reduce a 150-page Productivity Commission examination of trends in Australian inequality to a few words, it would be nice if they werent ALP inequality claims sunk, or Progressive article of faith blown up or Labor inequality myths busted by commission.

PAUL BONGIORNO. The spectre of Tony Abbott hangs over Scott Morrison (New Daily, 04.09.18)

Prime Minister Scott Morrisons desperate attempts to draw a line under the leadership coup that brought him to power are doomed to failure.

BATES GILL. Australias Political Division at Home Undermines Its Leadership Abroad.

Fractious domestic politics have made it all but impossible for the country to formulate coherent policy on critical regional and global issues.

GARRY EVERETT. Have we learnt nothing?

In the work of the recent Royal Commissions of Inquiry in Australia, into the sexual abuse of minors, and the banking and financial institutions, two glaring similar findings presented themselves. The institutions involved were neither transparent nor accountable for their actions. It remains to be seen whether, following the excoriating assessments by the Commissions, the institutions have learned any lessons, and whether we the public have been duped by the decisions of those who imposed penalties.

MEDIA ALERT: Appeal lodged against Federal Court Decision in Palace Letters case.

Professor Jenny Hocking has lodged an appeal against the decision of the Federal Court last month in Jennifer Hocking v. Director-General, National Archives of Australia. The Court ruled that the Palace letters, between the Governor - General, Sir John Kerr, and the Queen relating to Kerrs dismissal of the Whitlam government, are personal not Commonwealth records, continuing the Queens embargo of them.

WILLIAM CASE. UMNOs ethnoreligious order is not gone just waiting.

Malaysias new Pakatan Harapan government rode to power on a pledge to clean up Malaysias foul politics. It was wise to focus on the UMNO-led Barisan Nasionals transgressions: Pakatans appeal lay less in its own glowing imagery and manifesto than in the electorates widespread contempt for the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the now opposition Barisan Nasional coalition.

DEREK ABBOTT. The Way We Live Now.

In 1988, with the Hawke government successfully carrying through a program of profound economicreform while avoiding the social divisiveness that characterised Margaret Thatchers not dissimilar policies in Britain, and with John Howards toe in the water on a return to White Australia decisively rejected by his own party and the community at large, it was possible to envisage a future for Australia as a tolerant, socially inclusive, good international citizen.

NICK KILVERT. Fossil record points to 'major transformation' of Australian ecosystems in next 100 years.

If the world continues on a business-as-usual trajectory on climate change, global ecosystems including Australia's will undergo a major transformation over the next century.

STEPHEN LONG. The reality is new coal power is not the answer for cheaper electricity bills (ABC News, 03.09.18)

The tipping point's been reached: renewable energy is now a cheaper source of power for Australia's future electricity needs than coal.

DAVID SHULMAN. The Last of the Tzaddiks.

In the somewhat exotic Jewish home in Iowa where I grew up, it was axiomatic that there was an intimate link between Judaism and universal human rights. Like nearly all Eastern European Jewish families in America, my parents and grandparents were Roosevelt Democrats, to the point of fanaticism. They thought that the Jews had invented the very idea, and also the practice, of social justice; that having started our history as slaves in Egypt, we were always on the side of the underdog and the oppressed; that the core of Judaism as a religious culture was precisely this commitment to...

BEHROUZ BOOCHANI. Australia needs a moral revolution (the Guardian 31.08.18)

Five years ago, on a boiling hot day, Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison entered Manus Prison. A number of refugees who represented various groups were invited to meet with him. In that meeting, the refugee representatives found themselves being threatened Morrison pointed his finger at them and yelled: You have no chance of coming to Australia and you must return to your countries. I depict this exact scene and its aftermath in my book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison.

GABRIELLE CHAN. Climate change making drought worse, farmers' federation chief says.

Fiona Simson says people have been tiptoeing around the subject for too long and it is time for a national strategy.

JOHN MENADUE Is money behind the Coalition's addiction to coal?

It is clear to almost everyone that new coal fired generators will be not only very polluting but much more expensive to operate than the generation of power from renewables. But the Coalition keeps pressing the case for coal . Some months ago our new Prime Minister even threw lumps of coal around the Parliament to promote coal. Coal makes no environmental or efficiency sense. But it may make selfish political sense to promote coal in return for political donations from wealthy miners. In an interview with Emma Alberici on the ABC,Alex Turnbull said there is an undue...

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

GARRY WILLS. The Priesthood of The Big Crazy (The New York Review of Books, 23.08.18)

The grand jury report of Catholic priests predations in Pennsylvania is enough to make one vomit. The terrifying fact that hundreds of priests were preying upon over a thousand victims in that state alone makes one shudder at the thought of how many hundreds and thousands of abusers there are elsewhere in the nation, elsewhere in the world. It is time to stop waiting for more reports to accumulate, hoping that something will finally be done about this. Done by whom? By the church? If the church is taken to mean the pope and bishops, nothing will come of nothing....

ALESSANDRO DEMAIO. An evidence-based five-point plan to tackle child obesity in Australia.

Few challenges are a greater threat to the health of Australians than obesity. Weight gain has now become the normthe biological and social path of least resistance. Within a decade and without significant government intervention, more Australians are expected to be obese than normal weight. Opportunities to stem the tide of obesity do exist we have the evidence and largely we know what to do. Here is an evidence-based five-point policy plan, a lifeSPANS approach, that focuses on our kids to move the health agenda forward.

PETER SMALL. National Party and Climate

Why farmers who are at the forefront of the impact from climate change, continue to support the National Party, a party of climate sceptics? After a week of unfathomable machinations in Canberra, a decade of climate wars and the death of five Prime Ministers we are no nearer to a policy on climate or energy than we were 10 years ago. As a 77 year old farmer, who has lived amongst Country and then National Party and Liberal supporters all my life, I will try and shed some light on this complex and intriguing issue.

TRISTAN EDIS. Turnbull was knifed by a lie: Renewables are already bringing prices down.

Australia has replaced yet another Prime Minister mid-term via a leadership coup.

WALEED ALY. Duttons au pair drama shows hypocrisy of immigration policy (SMH 31/8/2018)

As a discretionary and humanitarian act to an individual with ongoing needs, it is in the interests of Australia as a humane and generous society to grant this person a tourist visa. Thats Peter Dutton, then immigration minister, in the official document by which he intervened to allow an au pair to enter the country. And what an incredible sentence it is! A humanitarian act. An individual with ongoing needs. A humane and generous society. So a tourist visa? What humanitarian situation serious enough to require intervention from the immigration minister himself can be relieved...

JANE CADZOW. The watchman - Scott Morrison (Sun Herald, 3 November 2012)

Accused of inflaming racism, Scott Morrison insists people have the wrong idea about him. Jane Cadzow meets the Liberals immigration spokesman. This article was published in the Sun Herald on 3 November 2012 . In his maiden speech in 2008 Scott Morrison said 'From my faith, I derive the values of loving kindness, justice and righteousness'

DAVID GOLDMAN. Europe, Japan, China and Russia line up against US.

Investment patterns are shifting in response to Americas new assertiveness.

CNN Interview with New York Mayer BILL de BLASIO (DEM) on Rupert Murdochs media

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to RELIABLE SOURCES. Im Brian Stelter. If you asked New York Citys mayor what lies behind a lot of the negativity and the divisiveness creeping this nation, hes got a simple answer for you. He says it's the media empire of Rupert Murdoch thats at fault. Bill de Blasio has long been a critic of the hometown New York Post newspaper. Murdoch has owned it for years. He says it's right-wing propaganda. Now, hes also been talking about Fox News as well, of course on a week when Laura Ingraham's hateful comments...

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Climate change action off the agenda under Morrison government.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has unveileda new energy policy focused exclusively on reducing electricity prices, in a strong signal the Morrison government will abandon all efforts to lower carbon emissions.

NEAL BLEWETT. Establishing, defending and improving Medicare.

Neal Blewett AC delivered the Hayden Oration at Ipswich on 15 August 2018. Neal Blewett as Minister for Health from 1983 under the Hawke government, and later Minister for Community Services and Health, implemented the Medicare universal health scheme, disability services, campaigns to reduce tobacco and alcohol abuse, and a national strategy to combat AIDS/HIV. They were all remarkable achievements. In this oration, Neal Blewett records the development of Medicare and the unremitting hostility of conservative politicians, the AMA and others to Medicare. From page 11 of the oration, he outlines how Medicare could be strengthened and expanded...

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