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

Joined at the hip, Mr. Turnbull goes to Washington this week. Part 2 of 2. 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 denied to others. As the US goes into relative economic decline, it will ask allies such as...

MICHAEL PEMBROKE. North Korea: Why negotiations can't wait for denuclearisation

Few people know the true story of the Korean War; few understand the reasons for North Korean bitterness toward the United States; most are unaware of the extent to which Washington shares responsibility for the creation and perpetuation of the mutual hostility that has persisted for almost 70 years.

JOHN WATKINS. An ode to nurses: hospital stay highlights immense compassion and skill

In hospital this week after surgery, I learnt some things I already half knew. That I don't cope well with pain, that time slows down in the middle of the night, (I swear I saw the hands of the clock in ICU move backwards sometime after 3am) and that nurses are a most precious resource, more valuable to our nation than iron ore and more deserving of recognition and celebration than our Test cricket team. Then I read the Herald's warnings about a long-term recruitment crisis in nursing and was disturbed by the news that nurses were virtually priced out...

MARC HUDSON. Its 20 years since privatisation lit the spark under South Australias livewire energy politics

February 17, 2018, marks the 20th anniversary of a momentous day in South Australian energy politics. The then premier, John Olsen, announced that, despite repeated promises during the previous years state election campaign, his Liberal government would be putting the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) up for sale.

LINDA JAKOBSON ET AL. China and Australia Relations-Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security

I am grateful to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) for this opportunity to comment on the Bill. Please note that this submission is a duplicate of my submission to the PJCIS regarding the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2017.

NICK SEDDON. Democracy in danger. Or, how to get GetUp.

Proposed amendments to the Electoral Act if enacted will profoundly constrain or shut down political advocacy that is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy.

KEN HILLMAN. Patient safety, a new perspective.

Patient safety in acute hospitals is often described in limited terms such as infection rates and pressure areas without considering that many people gain little or no benefit from being admitted there in the first place. We also ignore the impact on patient safety when management make decisions such as closing hospital wards, prolonging waiting lists and reducing front line health care delivery.

JIM COOMBS. Trickle Down My Hat !

The orthodoxy of the Neoliberal Economics(Lets call it Nasty prehistoric Unfair capitalism, NPUC for short) asserts in the face of universalcontradictory evidence, that giving capitalism free reign benefits the poor and the weak. Pull theother one!

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Writing in the Canberra Times John Warhurst examines the wealth of the Catholic Church, a topic that has come to prominence in terms of its capacity to provide monetary compensation to victims of sexual abuse. Phillip Adams interviews Professor Shae McCrystal of the Law Faculty at the University of Sydney, on Australias industrial relations system. McCrystal explains developments leading up to present arrangements and problems with the Fair Work Act. She calls for restoration of aspects of the twentieth century arbitration system to compensate for workers loss of bargaining powers. The Australian Government should consider setting up, or...

EMMA ALBERICI. There's no case for a corporate tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it.

There is no compelling evidence that giving the country's biggest companies a tax cut sees that money passed on to workers in the form of higher wages.

ERIC WALSH. Down the Trump rabbit-hole; a review of "Trumpocracy" (David Frum) and "Fire and Fury" (Michael Wolff)

Donald Trump, no longer a tyro as the President of the United States, has already rated himself one of the most successful ever occupants of the esteemed office.

The media, the Iraq war and Fallujah

The Australian media continues to fail us badly over its coverage of the Middle East wars, terrorism and the continuing disaster of ISIS. That failure began with the invasion of Iraq . Unlike important overseas media, no Australian media has admitted or apologized for its failure in the coverage of the Iraq war and its consequences. As is often the case, our media was embedded in the ADF in support of Coalition policy. The political class sticks together. News Corp media has been most at fault.

IAN BUCKLEY. Homo sapiens' catastrophic prospects: why and how wise remedies so long resisted.

Proposed here is whether the wise counsel of Jesus of Nazareth, Adam Smith, George Kennan and legions of other insightful souls might well provide a sound basis for solutions to the worlds self-made catastrophic disasters - a vitally crucial issue demanding action before point of no return overtakes all.

ALAN GYNGELL. The management of Australias engagement with China is the most important issue in Australian foreign relations.

In 2016, Australias bilateral trade with China in goods and services topped AU$155 billion (US$122 billion), growing three times faster than world trade as a whole. China was Australias largest export market and largest source of imports. It was also the largest source of foreign investment for the third consecutive year.

RICHARD KINGSFORD. The Darling River up the creek without a political paddle.

Once again, the Senate is poised this week to decide the future policy course of the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin. The critical decision for senators is whether or not to accede to the recommendation by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority that environmental flows in the Darling Rivers catchments be cut by seventy billion litres a year. The Greens are opposed and Labor is wavering while seeking a deal on the promise of delivering four hundred and fifty billion litres to the River Murray. The Darling River could once again be the poor sibling of the Murray-Darling family.

BILL ROWLINGS. Secret committee wants more power, but what about ASIO?

The Australian Parliaments most secret committee is angling for more powers and the ability to conduct its affairs live on TV, just like in the USA.

BERNARD KEANE. Joyce has always been a dud and should never have been deputy PM.

It was Tony Abbott who bestowed the appellation best retail politician in the country on Barnaby Joyce. Even now, some continue to preface their comments about him by claiming he is possessed of some form of political genius. It is true that Joyce has been successful at the time-honoured Nationals tactic of demanding handouts for farmers despite a complete lack of policy rationale (beyond Joyces personal and, given recent events, now ironic vision of Australian agriculture as a rural idyll of white heterosexual families). Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on irrigation infrastructure and concessional loans to farmers...

PETER BUCKSKIN. Closing the gap on Indigenous education must start with commitment and respect.

There were angry rumblings atlast weeks meetingof Indigenous leaders and the Prime Minister and in theClose the Gap Campaign Steering Committee Report. They will get significantly louder with todays release of the 10th Annual Closing the Gap Report.

JOSHUA GILBERT- Partnerships in Agriculture- the time for mutual collaboration and respect

Farmers have a natural affinity with their land. The farm is the home of their familys dreams and aspirations; the page upon which they write their stories of passion and love; their life; their livelihood; their heart.

RAY MOYNIHAN. Beware the hype on genomics and precision medicine.

Last weeks landmark report on personalised medicine plays down potential for harm and oversells uncertain benefits.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Are we heading for another Saturday Night Massacre? - Woodward and Bernstein. The wall Street correction is a financial phenomenon, only loosely connected to the real economy. As ABC Business Editor Ian Verrender explains, markets and particularly Wall Street disconnected from economic fundamentals years ago. High American share values have been driven by years of easy monetary policy, and more recently by Trumps fiscal recklessness. Mild monetary tightening has caused a panic. Just in time for Valentines Day, the ABC has kicked off its new program The Economists with a session on the economics of love....

Women in Tehran protest head scarves

Recently Iranian women started a movement all over the country especially in Tehran . They stand on a platform, take their scarves off and drape them over a street sign. It is in protest again the Islamic dress code . In Tehran, 28 women have been caught and gaoled so far . The first woman arrested did it in Tehran's Revolution Street so they are called The Girls of Revolution Street. See photos.

JIM COOMBS. What makes good government?

Recently in P & I the question has been raised as to how we can get better government parliamentary reform, more professional public service, changes in economic policy and so on. But it is the answer to the question above which seems to have got lost.

JIM DOWLING. Did Aussies really vote for these sociopaths?

I walked into the kitchen the other day and our illustrious defence industries minister Chris Pyne was on the radio answering a question relating to the recent horrific suicide bombing in Kabul which left 100 dead and 250 wounded. Aussies making more weapons seemed to be the answer!

PAUL RODAN. Colleges of Advanced Education.

Roger Scotts trilogy on the state of higher education raised a number of important issues, several of which might have led me to the keyboard, but his observations about the former colleges of advanced education (CAEs) seem particularly worthy of further comment.

JONATHAN GREEN. Media complicit in the rise of political trolls

There's an arresting moment early in Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury in which Steve Bannon explains the mechanics of alt-right politics.

PETER DRYSDALE AND JOHN DENTON. Australia must move beyond Cold War thinking

Searching for evidence of Chinese influence in Australia? Look no further than the census. Around 1.2 million people declared themselves of Chinese heritage. About 600,000 were born in mainland China. And while recent coverage of alleged Chinese influence in Australian politics might suggest otherwise, the Australian-Chinese community is not a dagger pointed at the heart of Australian democracy it is a diverse community with every right to participate in the political process.

St.Vincent de Paul Society

INDEPENDENT, NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS (Three opportunities) Please click here for more details. Applications close on Monday 19 February 2018.

DON AITKIN. Whose universities are they, anyway?

Roger Scotts extended rebuttal of Ross Gittinss excoriation of money-grubbing universities, and the publication of three books about the recent past and possible future of higher education, suggest that all is not well in academe. While all has never, at least since the end of the second world war, been well in academe (the AVCC first used the word crisis in 1947), may be true that the level of tension within higher education is notably high. The three books are Glyn Daviss The Australian Idea of a University, Stuart Macintyres No End of a Lesson, and my own Critical Mass....

GEORGE RENNIE. Why businesses want the ear of government and are willing to pay for it

Every February, the Australian Electoral Commission releases data on political donations for the previous financial year. The data routinely show that among the ffbiggest corporate political donors are mining, infrastructure and defence companies and groups.

LINDY EDWARDS. There is much we don't know about political donations.

The big story about this week's political donations disclosures is how little they really tell us. Over the last decade the major parties have routinely only transparently disclosed 10-20% of their incomes as donations.

QUENTIN GRAFTON, ET. AL. The Murray Darling Basin Plan is not delivering theres no more time to waste

More than five years after the Murray Darling Basin Plan was implemented, its clear that it is not delivering on its key objectives.

ROBERT WILLIAMSON. New medicine will transform Australia's health system.

Medicine is changing. In Australia a baby born today will live, on average, for 90 years or more. The common infectious killer-diseases have been eliminated. The treatment of cancer is becoming a success story, far different from the horror with which cancer was viewed by my parents and their generation in the 1950s. Heart disease still kills people, but often in their 80s and not their 50s. The new medicine will put together information from a persons DNA, their environment and diet, their habits and choices, and meld this into the new medicine, a medicine that will try to use...

JOHN MENADUE Talking free trade and practising protection.

Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop often talk about the importance of free trade and what they have done in numerous free trade agreements. The benefits of these have been exaggerated, but there have been some marginal benefits. But the continual habit of rent seekers who seek protection tells a different story-such as the second-hand car sector.

JOHN MENADUE. Infrastructure, rent-seekers and lobbyists.

As our mining boom has receded, Australia has seen unprecedented sums flow to transport infrastructure projects -mostly in our two biggest cities. But we have a real mess on our hands.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

In an article in the Fairfax Press, Clancy Yeates points out that Australias big banks have slashed loans to fossil fuel companies by almost a fifth in 2017, including a 50 per cent drop in their coal mining exposure. On last weekends Saturday Extra, Geraldine Doogue interviewed Laura Dassow Wallis, author of Henry David Thoreau: A life. There is a common image of Thoreau as a hermit in the wilderness, but Wallis dispels this image. He was thoroughly connected with society, and was deeply concerned with the way, as capitalism advanced, public land was being taken from the community...

JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 5

Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to what Malcolm Fraser called our dangerous ally, an ally almost always at war. The risks pre-date Donald Trump. Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of P & I I have posted many articles about the US and its almost perpetual involvement in war. I repost an article below American Imperium - Untangling truth and fiction in an age of perpetual war by Andrew Bacevich.

JOHN MENADUE. Its time for a Human Rights Act for Australia -A repost

In Pearls and Irritations recently, Elizabeth Evatt (Why not protect all our rights and freedoms?) called for a Human Rights Act to protect all our rights and freedoms and not just freedom of religion. The issue of freedom of religion is being examined by Phillip Ruddock and his expert panel. This issue is also being examined by a Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

JOHN THOMPSON. Private health insurers discriminate against country people

Private health insurers have asked the Commonwealth Government to prevent patients paying for public hospital services through their private health insurance (PHI). This would be grossly unfair for those people in non-metropolitan Australia who are enticed into PHI through the Medicare Levy Surcharge, but have no private hospitals in their region. More basically, the Government should abolish its $10 billion subsidy to PHI, and direct the savings to funding private hospitals more efficiently and equitably.

JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 4

Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to the US, an ally that is almost always at war. The risks pre-date Donald Trump. Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of P & I, I have posted many articles about the US almost perpetual involvement in war, the overthrow of foreign governments and a powerful military and industrial complex that depends for its profitability on continuing wars. I repost below an article by Professor Tom Nichols 'How America lost its faith in in expertise and why that matters'...

SAUL ESLAKE. Defenders of housing status quo create 'alternative facts'.

The release last month of (albeit heavily redacted) Treasury advice to the Turnbull Government on the likely effects of the policies the Labor Opposition took to the 2016 election regarding negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount once again highlight the extent to which those defending the status quo in this area are willing to create their own alternative facts in order to promote their arguments.

GEORGE RENNIE. The Revolving Door at the Infrastructure Club

The revolving door of politics represents a particularly difficult problem for modern democracies. And when senior public servants leave their positions to work as lobbyists for the infrastructure industry an industry that takes a lions share of government spending, and is afforded substantive protection from scrutiny by commercial confidentiality that problem grows substantially.

JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 3

Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to what Malcolm Fraser called our dangerous ally, an ally almost always at war. The risks, disasters and dangers pre-date Donald Trump. Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of P & I, I have posted many articles about how America has never had a decade without being at war, how it has subverted and overthrown numerous foreign governments and has a military, industrial, and intelligence and political complex that depends on continual wars. We have become part of that complex. ...

DAVID JAMES. Welcome to the Matrix of materialism

A visitor from before the 20th century would be stunned to see the extent to which the world is now dominated by materialism. It has many dimensions.

JOHN MENADUE. we are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 2

Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to what Malcolm Fraser called our 'dangerous ally', an ally almost always at war.. The risks, disasters and dangers pre date Donald Trump. Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of Pearls and Irritations I have posted many articles about how America has never ever really had a decade of peace.how it has subverted and overthrown numerous governments and has a large military,business,intelligence and political complex that depends on never ending wars. Following the repost yesterday of an article by Andrew...

I have watched and mourned as NSW national parks have been run into the ground

MICHAEL MCFADYEN. Over the past 40 years I have visited probably more national parks in NSW than 99 per centof the population, both for work and recreation.

HENRY SHERRELL. Assessing the effect of recent 457 visa policy changes

On 18 April 2017, the Turnbull Government announced the abolition and replacement of the 457 visa program. A number of new visa eligibility criteria were introduced immediately, and formal abolition will follow on 1 March 2018, when the 457 visa is set to be replaced by the Temporary Skilled Shortage (TSS) visa.

GREG WOOD. The TPP-11 : Discarding Australias Sovereignty

The latest iteration of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) now comprises 11 countries, the US not included given President Trumps strongly stated, but not explained, aversion. The agreements revised text wont be made public until signature, scheduled to take place in Chile in early March. Wisely, the ALP Opposition in our Federal Parliament has said that it will make its judgement on it only after seeing that text. However it is clear that Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions remain in the revised agreement, though apparently they have been tweaked.

JOHN MENADUE War and militarisation has become our new norm.

War and militarisation has become ever present in so much of our public life.

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