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

PETER BROOKS. Tasmanian Labor takes on the gambling industry

The Tasmanian election on March 3rd will provide a watershed moment in public health not just in Tasmania but for Australia as well.

JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 1

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 predate Donald Trump . Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of Pearls and Irritations I have posted many articles, mainly by very credible Americans (Sax,Nichols,Bacevich) 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 ,intelligence and political complex that depends heavily on continual wars. We have become part...

We have to change capitalism to beat climate change, says worlds biggest asset manager

Capitalismmustchange to avertclimate change, according to thevice-chair of the worlds largest asset manager, Blackrock.

LEANNE SMITH. When did Australians stop caring about our national identity?

In 1998 I was a freshly minted law grad who felt great purpose in joining the Harbour Bridge march for the first Sorry Day. I had just begun my first real job with the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and my country was grappling with the Stolen Generation Report. It seemed the time was right for recognition and reconciliation, and I shared a sense of optimism about Australias identity and place in the world.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

On Saturday Extra this 27th January Geraldine Doogue is discussing the cost of government consultants with Julian Hill, ALP member for Bruce and businessman Tony Shepherd; Changes to gambling laws with Charles Livingstone from Monash University and Sam Duncan from the Holmesglen Institute in Victoria; Supreme Court judge and author Michael Pembroke on his book Korea: Where the America Century began and A Foreign Affair discusses reforms in Saudi Arabia, diplomacy successes in South Korea, Vladimir Putin and the anniversary of the secret police and one hundred years since Woodrow Wilsons 14 point speech with Anthony Bubalo, Lowy Institute, Kyle...

MELISSA STONEHAM. Who wins when powerful health leaders align with the gambling industry?

Last November, Australian casino giant Crown Resorts announced it had appointed former Federal Health Department head Jane Halton to its board. In the post below, Dr Melissa Stoneham laments the high profile move, asking why a health leader who had taken on the tobacco industry would now work for another industry that causes great harm to individuals and the community, and what Crown might hope to get from the appointment.

EMMA ALBERICI. Sugar tax and the power of big business: How influence trumps evidence in politics

Australia markets itself as a liberal democracy committed to the principles of equality and fairness. But in practice, those with clout or money or both can influence public policy in a way other members of the public cannot.

JOHN MENADUE. Cricket - grog and junk food!

Over the holidays I have very much enjoyed watching on television Australia winning the Ashes series, although they seem to be exhausted after the celebrations and are performing poorly in the ODI series. The visual TV coverage on Channel 9 is outstanding. The camera crews do a great job. I enhance my enjoyment by minimising the audio content. Except for the opening and closing of each session, and at the fall of each wicket, I keep my TV console on mute. Channel 9 is destroying a well-earned cricket legacy. Perhaps the loss of Richie Benaud was the beginning of the...

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Ode to Australia Day.

Ode to Australia Day (In tribute to the late John Hirst and his masterpieces Freedom on the Fatal Shore) The heroes of famed Waterloo Or great Nelsons mighty crew, If chance had gone a different way, Might well have peopled Botany Bay. The Duke himself, he called them scum Kept under by the lash and rum, Not from Etons playing fields But from povertys seething yields, So, too, our founders, if truth be told Soldiers and convicts undesirables manifold. So Dutton, Hanson: shame on your smear Better than you have by boat come here. True patriots all, for...

HARRY DEMPSEY. Will Trump snap Japans tenuous tightrope?

The unhinged madman foreign policy of US President Donald Trump means Tokyo must walk a tightrope to manage the USJapan alliance. On security policy, on trade and on North Korea, Japan will increasingly have to develop its own independent regional vision.

LEANNE WELLS. More Government tax incentives for health insurance?

While in the real world consumers struggle to meet private health care costs, health funds are hoping for yet more government help.

JOHN MENADUE. Australia Day - a progress report.

The Australia of today is vastly different to the Australia of my childhood with its widespread racism and sectarianism. It was socially suffocating. For those changes I am very grateful. There is a lot that we can be proud of. No country has integrated newcomers as well as we have. But there have been failures and remedial action yet to be taken. We are yet to be reconciled to our indigenous brothers and sisters who watched the European boat arrivals in 1788. We are yet to take our share of responsibility for the displaced and persecuted people of the world.

JIM COOMBS. Reverse Robin Hood: rob the poor to overstuff the rich.

To take but two examples, Education and Tourism, it seems our economic system is designed to service the desires of the already well-provided-for.

BERNARD KEANE. If milk prices went up like private health insurance ...

The forthcoming round of private health insurance (PHI) premium increases touted by the government as the lowest in a decade will mean premiums have risen nearly 80% since 2008, far ahead of inflation and a good demonstration of why PHI companies have racked up big profit increases in recent years.

CERIDWEN DOVEY. The mapping of indigenous massacres in Australia [New Yorker]

From New York to Cape Town to Sydney, the bronze body doubles of the white men of empireColumbus, Rhodes, Cookhave lately been pelted with feces, sprayed with graffiti, had their hands painted red. Some have been toppled. The fate of these statuesand those representing white men of a different era, in Charlottesville and elsewherehas ignited debate about the political act of publicly memorializing historical figures responsible for atrocities. But when the statues come down, how might the atrocities themselves be publicly commemorated, rather than repressed? The remainder of this article about the project to map the massacres of...

ARTHUR STOCKWIN. Explaining one-party dominance in Japanese politics.

In 1990 US scholar TJ Pempel edited a book titled Uncommon Democracies, which wrote about parliamentary democracies where a single party had been unusually dominant. These included Sweden, Italy, Israel, West Germany and Japan. Australia was also a candidate for entry to this group. Of the original members, Japan alone is left.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Canberra Times journalist Crispin Hull writes about the harm of growing inequality, particularly where it results from government policies to opt out of shared health and education services, through financial support for private schools and private health insurance, rendering public services as residual services for the poor and indigent. Esther Rajadurai of the McKell Institute has produced a major report Mapping Opportunity on widening wage and income inequality in Australia, with extensive analysis of the causes of widening inequality and fine-grained analysis of regional data. It stresses the need for policies to restore social mobility. Writing in...

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. His speech at the Graham Freudenberg Tribute Dinner- A REPOST from June 19 2017

On 2 June, the NSW Branch of the Labor Party hosted a dinner for Graham Freudenberg, former speechwriter for federal and state Labor leaders, including Arthur Calwell, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Neville Wran, Barrie Unsworth, Bob Carr and Simon Crean. This is a transcript of his speech at that dinner personal reflections and recollections of the people he has travelled with in his more than 40 years of service to the Labor Party and to Australia.

JOHN MENADUE. The ongoing spin that Tony Abbott and the Coalition stopped the boats.- A REPOST from August 3 2017

Peter Hughes and I posted two blogs in September 2015 (Slogans versus facts on boat arrivals Part 1 and Part 2) that pointed out first, that Tony Abbott kept the door open for tens of thousands of boat arrivals by opposing legislation that would have enabled implementation of the Malaysia Arrangement of September 2011. Secondly, we pointed out that Tony Abbotts role in stopping the boats was at the margins and vastly overrated.

JOHN MENADUE. A Commonwealth Hospital Benefit to replace the $11b private health insurance subsidy.- A REPOST from October 18 2117

The wasteful and unfair $ 11b per annum cost to taxpayers of the subsidy to Private Health Insurance should be abolished and the savings used in two possible ways - part funding a Medicare dental scheme and/or part funding private hospital care through a Hospital Benefit Scheme. In that Hospital Benefit Scheme, individuals could choose to access either a public or a private hospital in the same way that veterans do today.

TIM HOLLO. Democracy is in crisis. Long live democracy!

The consensus around liberal democracy is collapsing, in Australia and around the world, as citizens are being systematically disenfranchised and disconnected from our democratic role. Unless we radically reinvent and re-embrace much deeper forms of democracy, we stand to lose it altogether.

ANNE HURLEY. The Government just doesnt get it when it comes to the NBN debacle

As I was writing this article in response to Paul Buddes speculation about life following the NBN roll-out in 2020, the Government released its response to the first report of the Joint Standing Committee on the NBN. Sadly, if predictably, the Government seems to still be clinging to the forlorn hope that somehow things will work out in the end.

SHIRO ARMSTRONG. More to Australia-Japan security than bilateral defence ties.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is visiting Japan . Whatever else is said, at the top of the agenda in his discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be managing relations with the United States and China. These are the superpowers that determine and underpin economic, political and national security for Australia and Japan in Asia.

GREG WOOD. The China Australia FTA Meets the All Controlling State- A REPOST from September 25 2017

During Premier Li Keqiangs visit to Australia in March, Australia and China signed a Declaration of Intent to accelerate a review of the provisions governing services trade and investment in the bilateral China Australia free trade agreement (Chafta). So far the declaration hasnt generated frenetic activity: DFAT set a six month deadline for submissions from interested parties. Delay is a positive Beijings decisions of late point to regress in its approach to foreign investment and Australia needs to take careful stock.

John Menadue. The Coalition, Barnaby Joyce rural poverty and rural health. (Repost from 16 January 2016)

It is not surprising that independents are making headway in country electorates. But what is the ALP doing?

PETER BROOKS. Movement on out of pocket expenses.

Over the last few years much as been written on the issue of out of pocket (OOPs) medical expenses in Australia including a number of contributions in this newsletter. There has been a Senate enquiry and much coverage in the media. The issue of out of pocket expenses is not new the Grattan Institute conducted a review last year pointing out their rapid increase and that they were impacting on the most vulnerable in society . While a recent OECD Report (https://www.oecd.org//Health-at-a-Glance-2015-Key-Findings-AUSTRALIA.pdf) showed that in Australia OOPs account for 20% of expenditure on health care , slightly higher than...

PETER BRENT. Peter Dutton for Prime Minister!

Peter Dutton is a household name. Most Australians would see the inaugural home affairs minister as tough and politically incorrect proudly so tolerating no nonsense from do-gooders and bleeding hearts. He doesnt take a backward step; his often bellicose pronouncements about asylum seekers and migrants delight fans and incense opponents. Dutton has run the government side of the latest News CorpCoalition tag-team outrage campaign the one about Melbournes African crime wave. He is, perhaps, the worthiest of todays crop to assume the mantle of the legendary John Howard.

JIM COOMBS. The Economics of Stop The Boats : A sense of Proportion.

Why throw away money on preventing refugees when we should see the economic benefit they might bring ?

ANDREW LEIGH. The false economy of sacking public servants in favour of consultants.

Would you burn $1 of petrol driving to the other side of the city so you could save 50 cents filling up? Would you recommend to a friend that they buy the cheapest printer, knowing it has the most expensive ink cartridges? Do you advise family to save money by not getting the flu vaccine? Of course not. Fortunately, we're familiar with the idea of a false economy: a saving that turns out to be illusory because it eventually costs you more. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to have cottoned on to what this means for the Australian Public Service. While...

GEORGE RENNIE. Australias lobbying laws are inadequate, but other countries are getting it right- A REPOST from June 23 2017

Lobbying is a necessary component of representative democracy, yet poses one of its greatest threats.

A paraplegic woman and her elderly carer.

A well-known and respected doctor has written to me about caring for his loved wife. He outlines a compelling and human story. With his permission I share with readers his account of the burdens and cost of caring. John Menadue.

JOHN MENADUE. Domestic violence, not terrorism, is the big killer in Australia- A REOST from November 10 2017

Compared to other risks, we have little to fear from terrorism. In the last two decades only three people in Australia have died from terrorism. But there is a vividness bias in terrorism because it stands out in our minds. Importantly, a lot of politicians, businesses, stand to gain from exaggerating the terrorist threat. It is also easy news for our media. The Domestic Violence Death Review Team in NSW established by the Coroners Court has given us some chilling information that shows that domestic violence is a much more serious threat than terrorism.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Writing in The Guardian Alfred McCoy explains how the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan. In that war-torn country opium is the farmers' most viable cash crop, and the Taliban, once opposed to drugs, are now financed by the opium trade. Canberra Times journalist Crispin Hull makes a strong case for fundamental tax reform, not only to make the collection of tax fairer, but also to boost public revenue. He also puts up for consideration the idea of a universal basic income, an idea gaining currency in many European countries, including Finland and Scotland. Peter Martin...

REBECCA PEASE. The federal Climate Policy Review: a recipe for business as usual

The federal governments newly released Climate Policy Review is hugely disappointing, but far from surprising. It does not depart from what the Turnbull government has been saying for some time: it plans to loosen compliance obligations for emissions-intensive companies even further, reintroduce international carbon offsets, and implement the planned National Energy Guarantee.

STAN GRANT- We ignore our racist past-A REPOST from August 21 2017

I passed by Hyde Park this week in the heart of Sydney and looked again on the statue of Captain James Cook. It has pride of place, a monument to the man who in 1770 claimed this continent for the British crown.

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Revising history - A REPOST from June 16 2017

For octogenarians like me, the most astonishing development since the collapse of the Soviet Union is that so much of the Wests hopes for international sanity, civility and peace should now rest with, of all countries, Germany.

DYLAN McCONNELL. A month in, Tesla's SA battery is surpassing expectations.

Its just over one month since the Hornsdale power reserve was officially opened in South Australia. The excitement surrounding the project has generated acres of media interest, bothlocallyandabroad.The aspect that has generated the mostinterestis the batterys rapid response time in smoothing out several major energy outages that have occurred since it was installed.

PETER MARTIN. How billionaires get uber-rich at our expense- A REPOST from June 1 2017

The rich are different from you and me the saying goes. They have more money.But that's not the only way they are different.In the updatedFinancial Review Rich List released on Friday,45 of the richest 50 Australians are men.And they are highly likely to have made their money in real estate or finance; something government-controlled.

MARK HARRIS. Sugar tax to tackle obesity: an update.

In 2016 I wrote about the call for a sugar tax, especially on sugar sweetened drinks, to address Australias obesity problem. What has happened since then?

ANNE HURLEY. Bad advice: why Mr Turnbulls NBN is such a failure

These days you cant buy a new car without airbags and ABS brakes. The Internet of Things is transforming the way we live our lives, run our businesses and grow the crops that feed the world. Were developing autonomous vehicles and theres talk about travelling to Mars. Yet millions of Australians are being sold broadband services using 50 year old copper wires. How did this come about? Why are we letting ourselves down so badly at a time when Australia needs to transform its economy now that the resources boom has passed by and were in the 21stCentury where technology...

DAVID BLOWERS. A high price for policy failure: the ten-year story of spiralling electricity bills.

Politicians are told never to waste a good crisis. Australias electricity sector is incrisis, or something close to it. The nationsfirst-ever state-wide blackout, in South Australia in September 2016, was followed by electricity shortages in several states last summer.More shortages are anticipatedover coming summers. But for most Australians, the most visible impact of this crisis has been their ever-increasing electricity bills.

JOHN LEE. The rise of China's tech sector: the making of an internet empire.

Partone of this two-part series looks at the rise of China's digital economy, the champion firms that dominate it, and their relationship with the Chinese state. The Chinese government's online censorship and alleged cyber espionage activities have long been a focus for international media. Butwhile Beijing's heavy hand on the internet deserves attention, it is China's agile private sector that is generating advances truly felt beyond the country's borders. Backed by state industrial policy under the rubrics ofInternet Plus,Made in China 2025and theNational IT Development Strategy,China's internet/tech sector is leveraging the country's fast-growing markets to build market power and...

UCANews. Democracy showdown looms in Malaysia

Approaching elections should act as a safety valve in the multi-ethnic nation.

How America lost its faith in expertise, and why that matters. Good holiday reading

(In this article in Foreign Affairs Professor Tom Nichols points to great public ignorance in the US about the world and the role of the US. The result is disturbing.) In 2014, following the Russian invasion of Crimea, The Washington Post published the results of a poll that asked Americans about whether the United States should intervene militarily in Ukraine. Only one in six could identify Ukraine on a map; the median response was off by about 1,800 miles. But this lack of knowledge did not stop people from expressing pointed views. In fact, the respondents favored intervention in...

RICHARD TANTER. Pine Gap and a possible Korean nuclear war A REPOST from December 18,2017

The Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap is a huge and controversial US intelligence base near Alice Springs in central Australia. Again the debate is flaring over whether or not the costs of hosting the base most relevant being its challenge to Australian foreign policy autonomy, as well as being a possible or even likely nuclear target are outweighed by the benefits. Pine Gaps role in a possible Korean war raise these issues in new ways.

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The Australia Indonesia Agreement on maintaining security in 1995

The Cabinet papers for 1994/95, released on 1 January this year, made it clear that Paul Keating had sought to develop a security agreement between Australia and Indonesia in 1994. The Agreement was completed in 1995.

A Human Rights Bill 2009

A Human Rights Bill 2009

As part of our campaign for a national Human Rights Act, a Bill was drafted to 'respect, protect and promote Human Rights for Australia'. This model Bill formed the core of our group's submission to the National Human Rights Consultation, chaired by Frank Brennan SJ OA. See following draft of Human Rights Bill 2009.

JOHN MENADUE. A campaign from 2005, for a Human Rights Act for Australia.

In 2005, Susan Ryan, Spencer Zifcak, I and others, in association with New Matilda, launched a campaign for a Human Rights Act for Australia. This campaign is outlined in the following. It formed part of a submission to Frank Brennan SJ who was Chair of the Commonwealth Government, National Human Rights Consultation. As a result of the campaign, a draft Human Rights Bill 2009 was developed.

JUDE McCULLOCH, JANEMAREE MAHER, KATE FITZ-GIBBON AND SANDRA WALKLATE. Finally, police are taking family violence as seriously as terrorism.

Victoria Policerecently announcedthat family violence perpetrators will be treated as seriously as terrorists and murderers. This strategy represents a major milestone in the evolving police approach to family violence. Though family violence results in far more death and injury, terrorism is nonetheless considered Australias leading security threat. The Victoria Police strategy represents an opportunity to reset security priorities by recognising family violence as the foremost contributor to the preventable death and injury of women and children.

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