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 JENSEN. Nigerian farmers are under attack, so why don't we hear about it? (ABC NEWS, 02.08.18)

We've heard a lot lately about white South African farmers being killed in farm murders. But another group of African farmers are being killed in far greater numbers and we've barely heard a whimper.

BERNARD SHIU. Canberra announces opt out of My Financial Record.

Today, the department of treasury announced a My Financial Record will be created for everyone unless you tell them you dont want one by 15/10/2018.

JOHN MENADUE. Brexit means Brexit or does it? Repost from September 13 2016

After the surprise referendum vote 52-48 for the UK to leave the EU, the new Prime Minister, Teresa May, rejected any suggestion of a new referendum or parliamentary intervention to reverse the advisory referendum result. She said Brexit means Brexit. I am sure that she was genuine . To repudiate the referendum result so early after a heated public debate would have been out of the question. But if a messy exit process goes on and on, and it could, the political, economic and social dynamics in the UK in two or three years time could be quite...

'Matter of death and life': Espionage in East Timor and Australia's diplomatic bungle (Lateline, 26.11.15)

East Timor's most senior leaders have accused Australia of committing a crime and acting immorally after a spying scandal that rocked the relationship between the two countries.

PETER DAY. No womb in the Inn.

Too often the issue of abortion is couched in terms of womens rights only Its my body. Its my choice back off!

James Wimberley Coal crash in India

Tony Abbott told us that coal was good for humanity. More recently the federal resources and energy minister Josh Frydenberg told us that there was a strong 'moral case' to export coal to countries such as India. That has more to do with coalition politics than any logic. Now India is moving rapidly away from coal as John Quiggin points out in his blog which was derived from James Wimberley....see below (John Menadue)

OMRI BOEHM. Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?

Last week, Israels government pushed through Parliament a new law calling Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people. That statement may sound like a truism and in some respects it is one but the implications of it officially being made are monumental.

JIM COOMBS. Man Up.

The facts cannot be more obvious, so when will us smarties tell the world: The neo-liberal (what the hell does that mean) idea of unrestrained business and minimal government, i.e., no regulation of shonks, see banks, insurance companies, labour hire firms, gambling enterprises, franchise swindlers, Uber et al sucking off at the margin, does not work for the majority of our people, in particular the poor, the weak and the old, while making those shonks rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.

MURRAY HEASLEY. On witch-hunts and the Kiwi way: the proposed New Zealand Historical Abuse in State Care Royal Commission.

The New Zealand government is currently evaluating the terms of references and scope of its royal commission into child abuse. It is likely to exclude faith-based institutions on the grounds that the State was not directly involved in their operations. The New Zealand bishops withheld any support of involvement until a letter in late March 2018.

CHARLES A. KUPCHAN AND EDWARD ALDEN. Trump Is Poised to Do Irreparable Harm to World Trade (Foreign Affairs 24.07.18)

During his trip to Europe this month, U.S. President Donald Trump derided his NATO counterparts over defense spending, undermined British Prime Minister Theresa May by second-guessing her approach to Brexit, and then groveled before Russian President Vladimir Putin. A firestorm of controversy has ensued. But at least the trans-Atlantic security alliance emerged intact from Trumps trip. That we breathe a sigh of relief at NATOs mere survival reveals just how low the bar has sunk during the Trump era.

RUTH ARMSTRONG and TRENT YARWOOD . Staying in or opting out: My Health Record goes viral for all the wrong reasons (Croakey, 17.07.18)

Ruth Armstrong writes: After years of relative obscurity and sluggish engagement, Australias attempt at transitioning the population to the use of individual digital health records via My Health Record was all anyone could talk about yesterday.

GEORGE MONBIOT. Invisible Hands (Guardian 19.07.18)

Dark money is undermining our democracies, and its never darker than when channelled through lobby groups masquerading as think tanks. (We could readily substitute the Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK for the sham 'think tank' in Australia the Institute for Public Affairs...John Menadue)

CHANNEL 9 -The likely new owners of Fairfax show their skill

GIDEON RACHMAN. Revenge on the US is sweet for Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president draws satisfaction from embarrassing America.

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID. Khan is saying the right things, but can he really deliver?

The ex-cricketer has already triumphed over 22 years of adversity, but there will be more pain ahead as he tackles an ailing economy and security issues

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

ANDREW LEIGH. Rising to the challenge of inequality. (Repost from 18/6/2018)

Thomas Piketty and his colleagues have used new data to track inequality and sharpen the choices we face.

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Revealed: Australias most climate-conscious super funds

This week 23-year-old Queenslander Mark McVeigh made headlines when he revealed he was suing his super fund, REST, for failing to disclose how it was preparing for the investment risks of climate change.

PROFESSOR LYNDALL RYAN. Massacres on Australias colonial frontier climb to 250 (Media Release, University of Newcastle)

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander massacres verified and recorded on an online digital map has risen to 240, following an influx of valuable information and evidence from regional communities around Australia.

IAN BURUMA. American fascism: Reading the signs of the times (Asian Times, 13.07.18)

Comparing todays demagogues with Adolf Hitler is almost always unwise. Such alarmism tends to trivialize the actual horrors of the Nazi regime and distracts attention from our own political problems. But if alarmism is counterproductive, the question remains: At what point are democracies truly in danger? What was unimaginable only a few years ago a US president insulting democratic allies and praising dictators, or calling the free press enemies of the people, or locking up refugees and taking away their children has become almost normal now. When will it be too late to sound the alarm?

BRUCE GUTHRIE. Nines takeover of Fairfax is a bad deal for democracy (New Daily 26.07.18)

Within hours of the announcement of Nines takeover of Fairfax Media Iwont insult readers by calling it a merger Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was singing its praises.

JOHN MENADUE. Who is in charge of Australia's relations with China? The Australian Prime Minister or ASIO? (Repost from 28/5/2018)

ASIO is on a roll in co-ordinating the attack on China and its alleged covert operations in Australia. Only last Friday we learnt that super patriot Andrew Hastie, formerly an officer in SAS and currently Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, cleared his parliamentary speech with ASIO but not his own Prime Minister. That is extraordinary for a person supposedly in parliamentary charge of supervising the activities of ASIO.

JOHN CARMODY. Current British Politics.

Political time seems absurdly compressed at present. Everywhere. It used to be that a week is a long time in politics: currently, in Britain, even a day seems long and bafflingly eventful. Writing about those events let alone actually understanding them seems almost impossible. Is it because modern politics induces otherwise sensible people to rampage into irrationality? Around the world, the art of the possible has become the indulgence of zealotry, the yearning for monoculture and scorn for compromise.

ALAN BOYDE. Australia spy trial carries hidden dangers (Asian Times)

Whistleblowers who exposed Australia's eavesdropping on Timor Leste during oil and gas negotiations go on trial this week in a free expression test case.

JOHN MENADUE. The facts don't show that Liberals are better economic managers. (Repost from 7/4/2018)

Malcolm Turnbull has made it clear that his mantra of Jobs-and-Growth will be at the forefront of his campaign in the next election. This week he will be talking about the growth of a million jobs in 5 years, but there is nothing really remarkable in that on average over the last 15 years about 200,000 new jobs have been created each year. Further, it is less impressive because our population is growing by about two million every five years.

JOHN MENADUE. Our security agencies are not accountable. (Repost from 29/5/2018)

To cover up illegal activities in East Timor, the government has embarked on a campaign to charge whistle-blowers. The wrong people are being charged. The performance and integrity of our security services is a serious national problem. These are particular problems for agencies which operate in secret and with few public checks. We have seen that they are prepared to upstage ministers and undermine governments on key public issues like relations with China at the moment. There is no effective supervision in the public interest as the Hastie/Lewis mess illustrates. Governments must make our security services accountable. But they...

Australia: Dont Prosecute for Exposure of Misconduct (Human Rights Watch)

Whistleblowing Former Spy, Lawyer Face Hearing for Revealing Bugging Operation

VINCENT CHEOK. Understanding China and the Chinese - An Australian Perspective - Part 2.

America First is not necessarily Australia First. That is, leaving aside the biological or human tendencies to be tribal or sectarian etc, in my opinion, the Australian perspective, mindset and psyche as to how China and the Chinese are viewed must obviously be different from the Americans. It is and must in fact be based on our Australian historical experience and relationship and our close geographical and time zone proximity with China and the Chinese.

JOHAN LIDBERG. When whistleblowers are prosecuted, it has a chilling effect on press freedom in Australia.

Fear is a tricky thing. Its often hard to distinguish between what is real and perceived danger. US President Donald Trump, being more comfortable with autocrats than democratic leaders, is arguably a real danger to the world order.

VINCENT CHEOK. Understanding China and the Chinese - An Australian Perspective - Part 1.

My parents were Hakka Chinese from Malaysia. I came to Australia as a minor in 1968 and have been here ever since. The first time that I knew I was special as a Chinese was when I was working in a rural town in South Australia over Christmas 1968 while waiting for my matriculation results. An old lady encountered me on Main Street and tapped me solidly on the shoulder. I immediately thought I was being reprimanded. Touch a Chinaman for good luck! - she said with great rapturous glee and hilarity, and then rushed off.

EU, Japan put Trump on defensive with historic trade deal (Asia Times, 17.07.18)

The two countries were expected to sign deal on Tuesday, sending a message that free trade lives on despite US protectionism.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

ROSS BURNS. From Deraa to Deraa.

Syrias seven-year conflict is favouring those who play the long game.

BARACK OBAMA ... to young people, keep believing, keep marching, keep building, keep raising your voice (Nelson Mandela Lecture)

And while globalization and technology have opened up new opportunities and driven remarkable economic growth in previously struggling parts of the world, globalization has also upended the agricultural and manufacturing sectors in many countries. Its also greatly reduced the demand for certain workers, has helped weaken unions and labors bargaining power. Its made it easier for capital to avoid tax laws and the regulations of nation-statescan just move billions, trillions of dollars with a tap of a computer key.

MALISE RUTHVEN. God on Our Side.(New York Review of Books)

A comment by a young Muslim man who had studied at an American university sets the tone for the impressively far-ranging Crusade and Jihad. The bottom line, he tells William Polk, is that no Muslim ever tried to enslave or slaughter your people. You might think of the attack on the World Trade Center, 9/11, as a counterattack. It was terrible and most of us are ashamed of it, but just rememberit killed about 25 hundred people whereas imperialists killed at least 25 million of our relatives and tried to destroy our way of life and our religion. Do you...

RICHARD ECCLESTON. The housing divide

House prices may havefinally peaked, at least in Melbourne and Sydney. But a slight cooling in some overheated cities makes little difference to overall housing affordability in Australia, which hasdeclined significantly over the past two decades.We need a new, nationally coordinated approach to housing policy in order to ensure that the vast majority of Australians have access to the suitable, affordable and secure housing they deserve.

JOHN MENADUE Why are Australian defence correspondents so quiet about complaints to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on the use of Australian and Latin American mercenaries by UAE in the war against Yemen (Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK)

ANCILE Avocats French law firm filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the use of an army of mercenaries trained in the UAE and sent to participate in the ongoing war in Yemen.

PATTY FAWKNER. How power has hijacked the parable of the Good Samaritan.

We can easily highjack the parable of the Good Samaritan, says Sister Patty Fawkner, if we dont see it within the context of the overarching message of the Bible.

MARTIN WOLF. How we lost America to greed and envy (The Financial Times 18 July 2018))

The US president is hostile to the core values the country used to stand for.

Kim Jong-un says "Me too"

I meant wouldn't denuclearize.

STEPHEN BELL. How rising inequality is stalling economies by crippling demand (The Conversation 17.07.18)

Aggregate demand is being hit by the concentration of income growth among the top earners and is now a drag on economic growth.

PATRICK LAWRENCE. Whats going to happen when Assad wins the war in Syria? (Asian Times, 17.07.18)

Given the unexpected pace of events in recent weeks, the end of Syrias seven-year agony appears to be very near. It is now all but certain that Bashar al-Assads government will win its long war against Sunni jihadists and their foreign supporters. The focus in Syria is already turning from conflict, casualty counts, and displacement to reconciliation, resettlement, and reconstruction.

JOHN GEHRING. Catholic evolution on L.G.B.T. rights (New York Times International Edition 07/07/18)

Pope Francis has struck a more welcoming tone, but the church still needs tangible institutionalized reform.

BRAD CHILCOTT. Its not size that matters, its what you do with it.

Members of the Australian Parliament are rich. All of them - from the $200m Prime Minister down to the backbencher earning $203 020 a year and regardless of political affiliation - are in the top 0.5% of the richest people in the world. Although Senator Lucy Gichuhi believes her annual income is not a lot of money its still four times Australias median salary ($55 063) - which means that 50% of Australian adults live off less than a quarter of the Senators earnings. Shes not doing it tough.

DAVID VAUX, PETER BROOKS, SIMON GANDEVEA. Weakened code risks Australias reputation for research integrity (The Conversation, 29.06.18)

In 2018, Australia still does not have appropriate measures in place to maintain research integrity. And recent changes to our code of research conduct have weakened our already inadequate position.

ROBYN MOLONEY. Learning languages early is key to making Australia more multilingual (The Conversation 3/7/2018)

Simon Birmingham recentlyannouncedthe government will invest an additional A$11.8 million in a successful preschool language learning program. Some300 languagesare spoken in Australia. In the Greater Sydney area alone, nearly40% of householdsspeak a language other than English and many children of these households attend weekendcommunity language learning. But, in New South Wales for example,less than 10%of secondary students make it through to a final end of secondary school examination (Higher School Certificate) in an additional language. Areportof Chinese learning shows of all the learners who start Chinese study 96% have dropped out by senior secondary level. The additional...

PEPE ESCOBAR. Chinas silky charming of Arabia (Asian Times, 11.07.18)

President Xi Jinping has promised more than $23 billion in loans and aid to Arab states, as Beijing ramps up ties with the Middle East; this includes aid for Palestine; Beijing foresees importing a whopping $8 trillion from Arab states up to 2025.

JOHN QUIGGIN. Australia's failed energy policy needs more than just a Band-Aid (the Guardian 13.07.18)

The ACCC report is a mishmash of cognitive dissonance and half-baked suggestions for fixing the unfixable.

PETER DAY: The Endarkenment

God is dead, God is Dead! A new Enlightenment has dawned. Bow to its three pillars: Reason, Science, Humanism.

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