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

ATUL ANEJA. India rebalancing ties with Pakistan to open path to Eurasia

In a significant gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain shook hands and exchanged pleasantries after a press conference by the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here on Sunday.

JOHN MENADUE. Coalition legacies.

There are six major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution. Those issues are --the dire consequences following the Iraq invasion, tax cuts during the mining boom that result in continuing budget deficits and debt increases, the threat of climate change and increased carbon pollution, the NBN debacle, hostility to refugees and asylum seekers, and problems with foreign influence and political donations which are producing an anti-Chinese sentiment.

ISHAAN THAROOR. Is Trump gaslighting the world on North Korea.

Critics of President Trumproutinely accusehim of gaslighting that is, of deliberately repeating misinformation to the extent that the public starts doubting verifiable facts and believing in Trump's self-serving talking points. Trump told us after the Singapore Summit that 'I may stand before you in six months and say hey, I was wrong. I don't know that I'll ever admit that,but I'll find some kind of an excuse'

German chancellor's tense standoff with hardline interior minister "endangers existence of gvernment as substantially as the stability of the country"

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing strong pressure to tighten her countrys refugee policies to avoid the collapse of her coalition government as the heated row over the handling of migration intensifies.

KEN MOAK. US-led naval operation will not change Chinas posture.

At the 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue, the defense ministers of France and the UK announced that their governments will send warships to join those of the US in challenging Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea (Naval Today, April 6). However, they did not specify how many ships the two European powers will commit to the US-led FNOPs (freedom of navigation operations) or whether they will sail within the 19-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ), suggesting that neither country wants to irk China.

STEVE RINTOUL AND STEVEN CHOWN. Antarctica has lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years. Time is running out for the frozen continent.

Antarctica lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017, according to anew analysis of satellite observations. In vulnerable West Antarctica, the annual rate of ice loss has tripled during that period, reaching 159 billion tonnes a year. Overall, enough ice has been lost from Antarctica over the past quarter-century to raise global seas by 8 millimetres.

RANALD MACDONALD. The threat to public broadcasting in this country becomes more menacing by the day.

Those who say that the ABC will be around for years to come have their heads truly in a world of denial. On top of the Governments huge cuts to funding, with 1000 less employed today than four years ago, continual harassment and criticism, now the Federal Liberal Council meeting in Sydney (June 16) has, on a 2 to 1 vote, sought the selling off of the ABC.

ANDREW LEIGH. Rising to the challenge of inequality.

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

North Korea: Beyond Charismatic Politics, an Interview with Byung-Ho Chung

The following is an interview of Byung-Ho ChungProfessor at Hanyang University andPresident of the Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology, conducted by AAA Executive Director Ed Liebow.

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. A peace treaty to end the low-intensity guerilla campaign against the indigenous population.

Australia is a nation and a state established on grounds belonging to Indigenous owners, through a war which has never ended.

JOHN MOLONY. A review of Race Mathews, Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 18911966

Many years ago, I tried to review Ronald Knoxs lifelong study of the numerous minor sects or branches of post-Reformation Christianity. He named it Enthusiasm. Despite my own enthusiasm for the treasures amassed in the book, I was unable to write a review. The riches were so abundant and differed so much that ten reviews would not have done justice to its totality.

ANDREW HAMILTON. Triggs champions common compassion (Eureka Street 12/6/2018)

Common compassion is an aspiration more widely praised as a gift of Western Civilisation than accepted and practiced. But once government trash it with impunity we are all the losers.

KARL HOWARD. The importance of community .

Communities are a fundamental requirement for the human condition; they consist of a group of people with shared interests, similar attitudes - often with aligned social values -resulting in delegated responsibilities. A community is a product of independent actors joining together, operating in a specific habitat, whether a neighbourhood, a gym, a workplace, or a place of worship. The single key tenet is that collective identity enriches the experience of each and every person, the members of that community.

HANS ZOLLER SJ. Protecting children in the Catholic Church

The issue of sexual abuse of minors committed by clergy is constantly returning to the forefront of media attention.

ALISSA J. RUBIN. An era of French strikes is ending (AFR 13/6/2018)

Nowadays, we have people who are too rich, he said. In the United States you do not care so much about equality, but we care about it, says Bodiou, a retired civil engineer.It does not mean we all have to have the same amount of money, but we all should get the same respect.But, he adds, summing up a feeling that seems to be shared by many on the street around him: Macron does not speak to those who are poor, who sleep on the ground; he speaks to the people in the digital world, to the entrepreneurs, to the...

JOAN STAPLES. Foreign interference bills threaten civil society freedoms.

The governments urgent pursuit of foreign interference bills prior to the July by-elections aims to wedge Labor for short term electoral gain. However as Labor agrees to support the bills, yet more of our political freedoms are being destroyed at great loss to our democracy.

JOANNE McCARTHY. Australia's bishops still don't get it - things have changed (SMH 13/6/2018)

Everything changed on December 15, 2017 when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented its final report and recommendations to the Australian public.Its a shame Australias Catholic bishops missed the memo.

SIMON ROUGHNEEN. How Beijing is winning control of the South China Sea (Nikkei Asian Review 13/6/2018)

Erratic US policy and fraying alliances give China a free hand.

PAUL KRUGMAN. Debacle in Quebec. (New York Times, June 9,2018)

For all their pomp, most multilateral summit meetings are boring and of little consequence. I once spoke to a State Department official who had a role in putting these meetings together; he described his job as policing the nuances, which gives you an idea about how much is normally at stake.

DANIEL RUSSEL. A Historic Breakthrough or a Historic Blunder in Singapore?

Kim Jong Un May Have Outwitted Trump at the Summit.

PEPE ESCOBAR. The key word in the Trump-Kim show

By reaffirming the Panmunjom Declaration, the US President has committed to bringing its military back from South Korea and thus a complete denuclearization of the South as well as the North.

HANS HENDRISCHKE and WEI LI. Chinese investment in Australia falls as political debate hits confidence

Chinese direct investment in Australia has declined, according to a new report by the University of Sydney and KPMG. In 2017, the value of investment fell by 11% in US dollar terms, from $11.5 billion in 2016 (A$15.4 billion) to $10.3 billion (A$13.3 billion).

NICHOLAS GRUEN. All finance requires is an upgrade for the internet age

The Financial Times has published a letter from Nicholas Gruen in response to Martin Wolf's column about the Swiss 'sovereign money' referendum, previously reprinted on this blog). Mr Gruen's letter is as follows: Given the resounding no from the Swiss Vollgeld or sovereign money referendum, and notwithstanding Bob Sleepers relief, Martin Wolfs central question from last weeks column remains. A decade after the devastation, wheres the radical rethink of finance?

GARETH HUTCHENS. Australia should not join US in South China Sea operations, says retired defence chief (The Guardian 21/2/2017)

Activities in the South China Sea continue to be in the news. Published below, are comments made in February last year by Sir Angus Houston, who was formerly Australia's defence chief. John Menadue.

THE LOCAL. Italy demands apology for France's 'hypocritical' criticism on migrants.

Italy on Wednesday summoned the French ambassador and postponed planned finance talks, in an escalating diplomatic spat with France over the handling of a migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

TRAVERS MCLEOD. Fog of law in war not the Australian way

We will never forget that 100 years ago a young and brave nation on the other side of the world made history by writing our history. Lest we forget. So ended French Prime Minister douard Philippes tribute to the Anzacs in April this year at the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux.

JOHN MENADUE The media are finding Chinese under most rocks.

The campaign run by some of our security agencies and people close to them about the alleged Chinese threat is getting great support from some journalists. The latest is Andrew Greene, the security and defence reporter at the ABC who breathtakingly reported last week that A Chinese vessel, believed to be a spy ship, docked next to HMAS Adelaide in Fiji. Good god!

SOPHIE VORRATH. Martin Green Australias father of PV beats Elon Musk to Global Energy Prize.

Australias father of PV, UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green, has been awarded the 2018 Global Energy Prize, beating out a shortlist that included Teslas Elon Musk, and becoming the first Australian to win the $820,000 gong.

JULIAN BURNSIDE. The legality of off-shore detention

In 2002 Australia, along with more than 80 other nations, acceded to the Rome statute by which the International Criminal Court was created. The court is the first permanent court ever established with jurisdiction to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators and regardless of the place where the offences occurred.

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Revealed: This is how much ordinary Australians really earn. (The New Daily June 8, 2018)

Acasual glance at the news in recent months may have left youthinking the average Australian earns almost $85,000 a year. If that soundedinsanely high to you, then your instincts were bang on. An ordinary Australian earns way, way less than that. But it doesnt appear to have stopped Treasurer Scott Morrison using the figure tosell hisincome tax cuts.

RENE PFISTER. Merkel's dark view of the world we live in.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is watching with deep concern as the pillars of the postwar international order collapse. But what is she doing about it?

GREG HAMILTON. Little or no talent for getting it right.

A great Australian recently said: were a helpless audience watching an awesome spectacle, powerless to act because we havent produced leadership with the courage to match the precipitous nature of the hour. The Rev. Ted Noffs got most things right. When his own church charged him with heresy, it proved the old axiom that a good deed never goes unpunished. Unfortunately, its the daily reality of our political system.

MARIAN SAWER. Foreign donations and beyond.

In the furore over Chinese political donations, the broader electoral reform agenda can easily be forgotten. Australia was once a pioneering democracy but it has fallen behind in protecting its reputation for electoral integrity and political equality.

PAUL WALDMAN. Trumps effort to isolate us from the world is going great.

In 2013, before travelling to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, Donald Trump asked plaintively on Twitter whether Vladimir Putin would be attending, and if so, will he become my new best friend? Putin never showed, and President Trump is apparently still pining for the Russian presidents approval. Meanwhile, there may never have been a president of the United States who is so unremittingly hostile to Americas closest allies.

YANIS VAROUFAKIS. The Italian crisis was the lefts final warning: it must adopt a new, credible EU policy agenda.

Its time toexplainhow the bloc, and the euro, could be run differently, democratically and sustainably.

NORMAN BAILEY. The Russian Gordian Knot begins to unravel.

Winston Churchill famously described the Soviet Union as A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Many commentators and politicians say Vladimir Putins Russia is every bit as mysterious and enigmatic as its predecessor. An astonishing recent declaration by the president, however, at the Russian equivalent of the Davos conclave, in St Petersburg, casts a whole new light on the countrys involvement in the Middle East, which in recent years has become more and more extensive.

STEPHEN F COHEN. The Necessity of a Trump-Putin Summit.

Ten ways the new US-Russian Cold War is increasingly becoming more dangerous than the one we survived.

The missed opportunity, nine years ago, to curb foreign interference in Australian politics.

In 2009, Senator John Faulkner introduced legislation in the Senate which would have prohibited foreign political donations. The legislation was defeated by the Coalition in the Senate. A lot of 'foreign interference' in Australian political life could have been nipped in the bud if the Coalition had been serious about curbing political donations. Unfortunately, Anti-Chinese sentiment is now driving the debate on political donations. This could have been avoided. See following, second reading speech in the Senate by Senator Faulkner.

ABHISHEK MOHANTY. Renaming the US Pacific Command: Why Indo-Pacific?

In a pivotal move projecting a new set of national interests, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, barely a day before the Shangri La Dialoguebegan, announced that the US Pacific Command will now be called the US Indo-Pacific Command. The name change, seen by observers as a tactical move against Chinese military and economic hegemony in the region, is just symbolic for now, as it wont immediately result in any major alterations to the commands maritime boundaries or assets in the huge area spanning from East Africa to Americas Pacific coast.

GARRY J. EVERETT. The culture of the church - some personal experiences.

Currently the Catholic Church in Australia, and in a number of overseas countries (e.g. Chile and Ireland), is experiencing a crisis in its culture. In Australia the Royal Commission into sexual abuse of minors has described this culture as toxic. The Commission also described the culture as excessively clerical in the sense that it is based on notions of priestly power, privilege and prestige, accompanied by lack of transparency and accountability, as well as failing to engage the lay people effectively. In Rome, Pope Francis has described the culture of the Catholic Church in Chile as one of abuse and...

TIM COLEBATCH. Underestimating China.

Lets clear up any confusion about the size of the Chinese economy.

MIKE YEO. France is deploying forces to the Indo-Pacific for more than just a drill.

MELBOURNE, Australia France will be deploying a detachment of combat aircraft to the Indo-Pacific region for a major air exercise in Australia and for additional interactions with Asian air forces, as France seeks to increase its presence in the region.

MIKE WALLER. Welcome to the Panopticon: time for an Australian bill of rights?

Panopticon: a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed (Jeremy Bentham). Mr Turnbull has told Neil Mitchell security and police will be given extra power to conduct random checks at airports. Neil: Thats a big step. PM: It is. Neil: Why do we need it? PM: Dangerous times, Neil (Malcolm Turnbull, 3AW) The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding (US Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis).

JOHCHKA FISCHER. 'The U.S. President Is Destroying the American World Order'

In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer talks about the danger of war against Iran, the deterioration of trans-Atlantic relations under U.S. President Donald Trump and the serious need for Germany to invest massively in the European Union's future.

SAUL ESLAKE. The quest for 'security'. Is it rational? Has it made us safer? And at what cost? (reposted from 23/2/2018)

In November last year, I gave an address to the Royal Society of Tasmania the oldest such society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge outside of the United Kingdom at an event hosted by the Governor of Tasmania, Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC, at her official residence in Hobart. In this address I posed, and sought to answer, three questions: How significant a risk is the threat of terrorism in Australia, both in absolute terms and relative to some of the other risks and threats on our horizon? How effective in reducing that risk...

JOHN MENADUE. Joined at the hip to a dangerous ally that is almost always at war. A Repost

We are a nation in denial that we are joined at the hip to a dangerous ally. Apart from brief isolationist periods, the US has been almost perpetually at war; wars that we have often foolishly been drawn into. The US has subverted and overthrown numerous governments over two centuries. It has a military and business complex, almost a hidden state, that depends on war for influence and enrichment. It believes in its manifest destiny which brings with it an assumed moral superiority which it denies to others. The problems did not start with Trump. They are long standing and...

ABBAS NASIR. In Pakistan, the art of undermining democracy. What is Imran Khan about?

The countrys military is disempowering politicians who stray from its positions on security policy and choking the press for reporting about its critics.

DAVID EDWARDS. The Syrian Observatory - funded by the Foreign Office.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, journalist Peter Hitchenscommented last month on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR): 'Talking of war, and Syria, many of you may have noticed frequent references in the media to a body called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, often quoted as if it is an impartial source of information about that complicated conflict, in which the British government clearly takes sides. The Observatory says on its website that it is not associated or linked to any political body. To which I reply: Is Boris Johnson's Foreign Office not a political body? Because the...

STEPHEN LETTS. The GDP myth: The planet's measure for economic growth is deeply flawed and outdated.

Just as it has every three months for the past six decades, next week the Australian Bureau of Statistics will unleash a torrent of numbers that make up the national accounts.

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