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
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.
28 September 2022
President Abbas at UNGA: Why is Israel not punished for violating international law?
Who is protecting Israel from being held accountable? Why these double standards when it comes to Israel?
25 September 2022
Pearls and Irritations adds language translations to its string
We want to speak your language.
25 September 2022
Wests divide and rule culture a great threat to development
The latest 2021/22 Human Development Report was recently released. Titled Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World, it paints a picture of a global society lurching from crisis to crisis, and which risks heading towards increasing deprivation and injustice. This is a big shock to those of us who aspire for a world of shared prosperity.
25 September 2022
The US empire is accelerating toward global conflict on two fronts
The situation is very serious. Since 1700 three people have tried to take Moscow: Karl XII who lost his Swedish empire, Napoleon who lost his, Hitler who lost his... and now NATO / AUKUS, in which we are mindlessly participant. The US budget year begins with 830 billion for defence, 600 billion for nuclear refurbishment. Not news in Australia.
24 September 2022
Xi and Putin vow mutual support, but military backing unlikely, analysts say
Leaders of China and Russia agree to expand cooperation in areas such as trade and agriculture, but no mention of armed forces.
24 September 2022
Biden keeps pledging direct US war with China over Taiwan
The president of the United States has once again committed the US military to direct hot war with China in the event of an attack on Taiwan, a commitment that was once again walked back by his White House handlers.
23 September 2022
What drives the Chinese Party of China to success?
Editor's note: Since its founding more than 100 years ago, the Communist Party of China has led the country in making remarkable achievements at home as well as contributing to global development and peace. Combining political theory and practice to make those remarkable achievements, the CPC has set a great example for the world. Three experts share their views on the CPC's governance philosophy with China Daily.
23 September 2022
Vanguard behind the country's achievements
The past century has witnessed the Communist Party of China leading a revolution, founding the People's Republic and relentlessly pursuing economic development and social change for the better. The Chinese people have changed their fate, made great contributions to humankind, and are now on way to realising national rejuvenation.
23 September 2022
Leadership has improved China's global standing
China is facing the most immoral and unprecedented attacks from myriad quarters because of its ability to remove the obstacles to its economic growth at a time when almost all other countries are encountering economic downturn, which began with the global financial crisis.
22 September 2022
Caitlin Johnstone: It's not okay for grown adults to say the Ukraine invasion was "unprovoked"
On a recent interview with the Useful Idiots podcast, Noam Chomsky repeated his argument that the only reason we hear the word unprovoked every time anyone mentions Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the mainstream news media is because it absolutely was provoked, and they know it.
21 September 2022
The Queen complained that Gough Whitlam was rude to the lesser Royals
In 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica, aboard her yacht The Britannia, the Queen told me that your Prime Minister had been rude to my family. I was the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time.
19 September 2022
After Queen Elizabeth II's death, Indigenous Australia can't be expected to shut up. Our sorry business is without end
When the Queen first visited Australia in 1954, my mother almost did not get to see her.
16 September 2022
The demarcations and restrictive work force practices in our health 'system' are a public scandal
Our eighteenth century health workforce structure needs a root and branch overhaul. But governments are too frightened to tackle health providers like doctors and pharmacists. Blue collar workers however are easy prey.
16 September 2022
Caitlin Johnstone: Ukraine crawling with CIA & Co
The previously unthinkable idea that the U.S. is at war with Russia has been gradually normalised, with the heat turned up so slowly that the frog doesnt notice its being boiled alive.
15 September 2022
The Defence Strategic Review - We are becoming a proxy or is it a patsy for the US in a possible conflict with China
The Defence Strategic Review must warn Minister Marles about the dangerous path he is committing Australia to. We are becoming a spear carrier for the US.
15 September 2022
Symon Hill: 'Who elected him' and the arrest that followed
I was arrested after asking who elected him? at the proclamation of King Charles. What other freedoms can be suppressed in the name of monarchy? Who else will be arrested under the vile Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act?
13 September 2022
The major parties refuse to tackle the lobbying scourge. Can the Teals and the Greens save the day?
The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge.
12 September 2022
In her 'devotion to duty' the Queen sacked an Australian PM described by Philip as a 'socialist arsehole'
In the mammoth royal love in we are enduring, we are told about the Queen's cordial relationship with numerous PMs. But not Gough Whitlam. That would upset our colonial mind set. We try and shut out theQueens implausible and misleading denial on the Whitlam sacking. (The following is a repost from 26 January 2021).
7 September 2022
The Defence Strategic Reviewand the loss of our strategic autonomy to the US
Over the next two weeks we will be running a series of articles to focus on the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) which is headed by Sir Angus Houston and the Hon. Stephen Smith. In becoming a US proxy, even patsy, we are on a risky and dangerous path.
4 September 2022
The Greens are at it again
The Greens are threatening to block the referendum on the 'Voice' which promises to give effect to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
3 September 2022
Donald Rothwell: Is Australia in danger of becoming the USs deputy sheriff in the South China Sea?
Recent comments by Defence Minister Richard Marles about Australia, China and the international law of the sea raise the spectre of Australia acting as an Indo-Pacific deputy sheriff for the United States, enforcing the rules-based international order.
3 September 2022
Jon Richardson: NATO and Ukraine: once more into the breach
Professor Graeme Gill has written a detailed response to my own article in P and I on NATO and the origins of war in Ukraine. I argued the latter were to be found in Russias post-imperial angst and domestic authoritarianism rather than in any threat presented by NATO expansion or Western policies.
3 September 2022
Caitlin Johnstone: It's gross to live under the US empire and spend your time criticising Russia and China
The other day an Australian journalist was giving me a hard time for not criticising Russia and China the way I go after the US empire, calling me morally bankrupt for not criticising all governments equally. He said the ethical thing to do would be to criticise the US, but also criticise the governments the US doesn't like for balance.
1 September 2022
Graham Maddox: The undermining of conventions on responsible government by Kerr and Morrison
The solicitor-generals response that Morrisons secret swearing of himself into five extra government portfolios was not illegal has done us no favours. On the 7.30 Report, Laura Tingle announced that Stephen Donaghues findings were not about the legality or constitutionality of the findings, although Donahues report did go on to say that the principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined.
1 September 2022
Ruan Zongze: US must stop sleep walking in the Taiwan Strait
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China. Taiwan is part of Chinas territory. Although the two sides have been politically against each other for a long time, Chinas state sovereignty and territorial integrity has never been split.
1 September 2022
Joelle Gergis: Friday essay: I feel my heart breaking today a climate scientists path through grief towards hope
I have spent hundreds of hours trawling through countless UN reports and scientific papers until my eyes sting and I can no longer absorb any more information. I feel overwhelmed and saturated with sorrow. As a sensitive person with a difficult background, sometimes I find the reality of the world we live in unbearable. I just cant understand why we inflict so much pain on each other and our planet.
31 August 2022
John F. Copper: Where are the Chinese students going?
According to recent data published in China and admission reports from U.S. universities, the number of Chinese students applying for study in American institutions of higher learning in recent months has fallen markedly.
29 August 2022
Caitlin Johnstone: US invades Syria, kills people, claims self-defence
The US is an occupying force who is there without the permission of the Syrian government, without having been attacked by Syria, and without any valid claim to be defending itself from anyone in Syria.
28 August 2022
Neil Hauxwell: Toward a great TAFE revival
The most important outcome from the Jobs and Skills Summit must be some federal government leadership. Our Vocational Education and Training system, including TAFE, is in urgent need of a major reset.
27 August 2022
News Corp - How a rogue organisation operates. A repost from 27 October 2017
What power always does is reveal.
26 August 2022
Gough, Rupert and the London job.
The prime minister was spotted at the media empires Holt Street offices on Wednesday, when, were told, Albo, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marlesand Foreign Affairs MinisterPenny Wongmet News Corp cochairmanLachlan Murdoch and senior editors of the media empires Australian mastheads.(SMH 26 August 2022)
25 August 2022
Ann Marie Murphy: Ukraine war highlights differences between Indonesian and US foreign policy frameworks
To many Americans who view Russias invasion of Ukraine as an unprovoked war that must be opposed, Indonesias high levels of public support for Russia may be perplexing. But divergent US and Indonesian views should not come as a surprise. The United States and Indonesia tend to perceive international events and one another through distinct ideological and normative frameworks due to their different international positions and historical experiences.
22 August 2022
Everett Bledsoe: The US military empire. How many US military bases are there in the world?
The Pentagon does not know how many bases it has around the world so it relies on academics to tell it. The US bases are gated communities which replicate US suburbs, shops and amenities to the exclusion of local people.
22 August 2022
Jon Richardson: No, NATO expansion didnt cause the war in Ukraine
Russias invasion of Ukraine in February has met with opprobrium in most quarters. At the same time, commentators of diverse stripes still argue that Western policies, particularly NATO expansion, should bear part or much of the blame for these events.
22 August 2022
Jessica Corbett: Pentagon contractors in Afghanistan pocketed $108 billion over 20 years
Military contracting obscures where and how taxpayer money flows, and makes it difficult to know how many people are employed, injured, and killed, said the Costs of War Project report's author.
21 August 2022
John Queripel: The blind side to western wars and western war crimes
The calls mount for the Russian leader to be dragged before a War Crimes Tribunal, while everyone from international sporting bodies to businesses and banks is busy sanctioning Russia. Yet, the three world leaders responsible for the illegal Iraq war of 2003 have still not been held to account
21 August 2022
Dismantling global white privilege: Book by Chandran Nair-Equity for a post-western world
One of the few uplifting political trends of the past decade has been the growing strength of movements for gender equality and, even more surprisingly, the demand for racial justice. But a higher-level structure of discrimination governs both racism and sexism: The global dominance of a white power elite in virtually every arena of human activity.
21 August 2022
Sarah Raymundo: Why the US pivot to Asia means war for Filipinos
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Philippines to meet the newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. just as the Rim of the Pacific exercise, or RIMPAC, ends. As the worlds largest maritime military exercises, RIMPAC has intensified the militarisation of the Asia-Pacific region since 1971 and has further strengthened the alignment of the newly-minted Marcos Jr. regime with U.S. military interests.
20 August 2022
The truth about Gough Whitlam, Murdoch and China
With more than 90,000 views, this interview that Jordan from the Friendly Jordies conducted with John Menadue in 2020 was received with much praise from viewers. This dude is like 70 and he gets the current landscape more than people half his age, writes one, This man is a primary source, if I ever have to write a history essay on Aussie politics in the 70's I have this interview right here I can quote, writes another.
20 August 2022
Caitlin Johnstone: China threatens the US Empire, not the US
So many empire apologist arguments depend on pretending the US empire doesn't exist; pretending the US is just a normal country sitting there minding its own business.
19 August 2022
Bill Armstrong: National security through community engagement. Fail to honour people and they will fail to honour you. (Lao Tsu 2000 years ago)
We are living through a change of era on planet earth. Huge changes are ongoing. There is no doubt that the recent federal election gave a mandate to the incoming Government to RESET the way we do business at many levels.
16 August 2022
Northern Australia is becoming a US military colony
Julia Gillard delivered a gushing speech to the American Congress in March 2011. Then eight months later she agreed to US Marines in Darwin.
16 August 2022
Marwan Bishara: Why Israel hates the Palestinians so much
Israels hatred of the Palestinians is shaped and driven by three basic sentiments.
15 August 2022
Adrian Lipscomb: Aspirational ethics the trojan horse of benchmarks?
I want to apologise for my actions. Ive let my team down. Ive let my family down. Ive let the country down!
15 August 2022
Caitlin Johnstone: When will foreign leaders like Xi and Putin start asking to speak to America's REAL Government and not Joe Biden?
Australia is becoming functionally just a US military base with kangaroos.
14 August 2022
Barilaro-State government overseas offices are waste of money
The States should stick to their knitting and stop deluding themselves about their overseas role.