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

JOAN STAPLES: Incredulous disbelief at Gary Johns to head charities regulator.

The appointment of Gary Johns last week as director of the regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), has created incredulous disbelief and concern amongst NGO leaders. For decades, Johns has been proactive in criticising the public advocacy of NGOs and even their very existence.

MARGARET BEAVIS. Will the Nobel Peace Prize change Australias double speak?

On December 10th the 2017 Nobel Peace Prizewas awarded to ICAN the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons - which was founded here in Melbourne in 2006. The Nobel Committee made the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.

ROSS BURNS. The Art of the Pushover

There are perhaps no negotiations more fraught, or with higher stakes, than those surrounding Israel-Palestine. Has the self-professed worlds greatest deal-maker dropped the ball after making his first major play in the region?

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Looming in the New Year is debate over the Governments anti-lobbying legislation, dressed up as a move against foreign influence. Fairfax journalist Peter Martin warns that if the Coalition gets its way, when the next election comes around charities would be prevented doing anything that may be seen as attempting to influence how people vote. (The Murdoch media, although it is foreign-owned, and the Minerals Council would still be fee to influence how people vote, because they are not charities.) ABC political reporter Anna Henderson comments on the governments appointment of former Keating-era Labor MP Gary Johns as the new...

GRAHAM HAND. No, Gladys, build it and they will not come

The NSW Government has announced it will knock down and rebuild Allianz Stadium at Moore Park at a cost of $700 million and the Olympic Stadium at Homebush, only 17 years old, at a cost of $1.6 billion. However, there is little business case evidence that new stadiums would make a material difference to attendances at football games, although Sports Minister, Stuart Ayres argues, With better quality facilities, more people will come and attend matches.

PETER BROWNE. Historian of the present.Ken Inglis

When I visited Ken Inglis early last month, a few weeks before he died, I found him engrossed in the days edition of the Sunday Age. It was perhaps eighty years since hed begun reading the papers as a schoolboy in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Preston, and during that time hed become one of Australias most highly (and warmly) regarded historians. But his passion for the press his fascination with the way it recorded the history of the present, as the historian Timothy Garton Ash calls it was undiminished. And not just newspapers on the table beside...

KATHARINE BETTS AND BOB BIRRELL. How do Australian voters view the level of immigration? TAPRI and Scanlon compared

There has been growing controversy about Australias level of overseas immigration. In the year to March 2017 Australias population is estimated to have grown by a massive 389,100, some 231,000, or 60 per cent of which was due to net overseas migration. For the last few years around two thirds of the net growth in migrants have been locating in Sydney and Melbourne.

LARRY JAGAN. Suu Kyi should heed Pope's suggestion on UN role

Pope Francis' visit to Myanmar last week was an overwhelming success and may provide the much needed spark to ignite the government's peace process and its efforts to bring reconciliation to the country's violence-torn western region of Rakhine. The Pope's message was loud and clear: the only way forward for Myanmar was love and peace, the title used for his visit.

FRAN BAUM. Beyond the social determinants: a manifesto for wellbeing

Last week the Australian Health Policy Collaboration launched their Health Tracker by socioeconomic status, which is a report card on the health of adult Australians in relation to chronic diseases, risk factors and rates of death, by quintiles of disadvantage.

TIM COSTELLO. A striking lack of ambition.

The Turnbull Government's white paper on Australian foreign policy has raised as many questions as it has provided answers. Much comment has focused on its failure to resolve, or even point to a resolutionof, the tension between Australia's unwavering adherence to US hegemony and the undeniable rise of China as a global and regional power.

PETER GOSS. How to achieve excellence in Australian schools: a story from the classroom

A new Gonski review is examining how to achieve educational excellence for Australias 3.8 million school students. The success of the review will ultimately depend on whether its recommendations lead to better practice in the classroom. And the best way for policy makers to improve classroom practice is to develop a more adaptive education system.

ROSS GWYTHER. A sledgehammer for a walnut ?

Unbeknown to most Australians, a court case has been underway in Alice Springs over the past few months with implications far and wide. Employing a sixty year old law drafted during the height of the anti-communist 1950s in Australia, the Federal Government has called for seven years jail for each member of a small group of people known as the Pine Gap Peace Pilgrims, whose only offence was singing and praying in the grounds of Pine Gap in 2016.

JOHN MENADUE. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Agents of influence,presumably Chinese are in the news. But the really important agents of influence are organisations linked 'hip to hip' to the US and its military/industrial complex. One of these is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute which is an enthusiastic supporter of almost all things American. It pretends it is an independent think tank. Yesterday Bob Carr commented that ASPI and the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney both express 'consistently pro American positions' while receiving funding from 'US corporations including armaments companies' See below an earlier slightly edited post of mine concerning ASPI .

JOAN STAPLES. Government targets international philanthropy for civil society.

A Bill expected to be introduced by the Government this week, may deliberately create confusion by linking foreign donations to political parties, with foreign donations to civil society organisations. It is expected to propose banning both.

FRAN MARTIN. Overstating Chinese influence in Australian universities

Both Australias national government and its security agency ASIO have expressed concerns over the influence that the Chinese government exerts on Chinese student groups studying at Australian universities. They have also accused Beijing of using those groups to spy on Chinese students in Australia.

DONELLA JOHNSTON. Why women should run the Catholic Church.

You know an idea is starting to become mainstream when you read about it in the Australian Womens Weekly.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Australian shareholders should be told of climate risk to profits, says think tank Triple J did the right thing: we need a new Australia Day - Henry Reynolds in The Conversation Banks warned of 'regulatory action' as climate change bites global economy - the Guardian Why South Australia must, and will, lead world on renewables - RenewEconomy Stephen Hawkings promotes smart drugs - Jon Stewart in Forbes magazine Behrouz Boochani exposed Australia's evil on Manus. The shame will outlive us all | Richard Flanagan - the Guardian. The cost of living is soaring: look...

MICHAEL LAMBERT. The Productivity Commission on Improving Productivity and Health Reform PART 2 OF 2.

In part 1 yesterday, I outlined the five key areas or themes where the Productivity Commission believes that reform is essential and would deliver major benefits to individuals, the community and the economy. These five themes are summarised below.

BRUCE WEARNE A Suggestion to the Ruddock Committee

The discussion of Freedom of Religion in relation to proposed changes to the Marriage Act should not avoid analysis of how the current Act refers to a wedding ceremony's monitum. The Marriage Act decrees that the Monitum must be announced when a marriage is conducted by one authorised to do so. But how now will a new monitum function under the proposed changes to the Act? How will the Acts view of the wedding ceremony be configured?

DAVID WATTERS AND COLLEAGUES. An open letter to the Australian Parliament regarding the health of asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island

(The following letter appeared in the MJA Insight on 27 November 2017) WE are senior Australian clinicians who write in our individual capacity to express our concerns about the ongoing health and well-being of the former detainees still based on Manus Island and now in alternative accommodation. They, like all human beings, have a universal right enshrined in the United Nations charter to health and well-being. Their political and citizenship status should not affect this right. All politicians regardless of their political party should respect the human right to health and themselves be strong advocates of health...

MIKE WALLER. The Royal Commission we really need - into Australia's public administration.

As Terry Moran has recently pointed out, our system of public administration is in serious trouble. The last fundamental look at Australian federal public administration was some forty years ago - the Coombs Royal Commission. We urgently need a successor to Coombs forensic and thoughtful approach, but this time addressing the necessary reforms of all levels of government.

TERRY MORAN. Back in the game. Part 2 of 2.

Active and effective government I want to highlight two messages from the attitudes research that I referred to in Part 1. First, the health of our democracy cant be divorced from the health of our public institutions and our public sector.Second, getting back in the game means investing in an Australian Public Service (and a Victorian Public Service) that can think for itself, not smothering it with a dominant microeconomic paradigm that no longer works and the community no longer supports.

MICHAEL LAMBERT: The Productivity Commission on Improving Productivity and Health Reform. Part 1 of 2.

The Productivity Commission (hereafter the Commission) has recently released a very substantial and potentially important report, Shifting the Dial, and associated supporting papers. It was produced in response to a reference from the Treasurer for the Commission to investigate the state of productivity improvement and ways that government can enhance productivity performance. This is to be a five yearly review. The report is a most welcome contribution to public sector reform with major potential benefits to the community and represents a strategic and fundamental approach to public sector reform.

BENJAMIN VENESS. NSW commits to improving health of doctors-in-training

NSW has finally committed to addressing systemic problems with medical training in a bid to improve the mental health of doctors-in-training.

Myanmar Is Not a Simple Morality Tale

In this article published in theNew York Timeson November 25, 2017, Roger Cohen writes about the dilemma of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. He comments 'The West made a saint of Daw Aung San SuuKyi. The Rohingya crisis revealed a politician.'

TERRY MORAN Back in the Game Part 1 of 2

The policy pendulum is swinging away from a consensus on the primacy of light touch regulation of markets, the unexamined benefits of outsourced service delivery, a general preference for smaller government, and a willing ignorance of public sector values and culture because theyre not always compatible with efficiency as viewed by Treasuries. Replacing this consensus is an increasing acceptance of a larger role for government, including involvement in service delivery, more effective regulation and bolder policy initiatives.

LYN GILBERT. Healthcare-associated infections are important and often avoidable.

Hospital, where you go to get better, can have the opposite effect and high on the list of hazards is infection acquired while there. Progress has occurred but more needs to be done. IT opens up great possibilities for scaling mountains of data that could improve patient welfare and save wasted money.

HANS J. OHFF. Nukes, the strategic advantage or otherwise.

In a reply to Paul Dibbs and Richard Brabin-Smiths piece Australia's management of strategic risk in the new era,Hugh White observes : 'so much of the investments were now committing to in massive warship programs make no sense. [The] ADF that could defend Australia independently from China would be very different from the ADF today, and the country and economy that could sustain such a force on protracted operations would be very different too. Australias learned defence planners and strategist know that the corollary of a decline in US global supremacy is the continuing rapidrise of China and a more...

ELIZABETH EVATT. Why not protect all our rights and freedoms?

The proposal to legislate for freedom of thought ,conscience and religion, as provided in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a half measure which would leave other rights and freedoms without equivalent protection. And it may not produce the result which is aimed at.

ROSS BURNS. Syria: the Task Ahead

The next attempt to hold UN-sponsored talks in Geneva with the main parties to the Syrian conflict is due to begin this week. With the defeat of ISIS on the ground, what hope is there that a clearer picture will emerge on whether the conflict might be reaching its final stages?

TIM LINDSEY. Will Indonesias fugitive Speaker escape again? The elites war on the Anti-Corruption Commission continues.

Indonesians have been riveted for the last two weeks by a bizarre series of events that finally led to the arrest late last week of Setya Novanto, the speaker of the DPR, Indonesias national legislature.

RICHARD KINGSFORD. Policy holes drain the life out of Murray-Darling rivers.

We are often told by some politicians and irrigation lobbyists not to worry about our rivers Australia is a land of droughts and flooding rains and ever it was thus. After all, Murray-Darling rivers surely fixed themselves when the 2010 and 2011 floods broke the seven year Millennium Drought. This tired old talking point is wrong unequivocally demonstrated by reductions in river flows and thousands of hectares of dead river red gums. Critics of environmental flows for rivers argue that the so-called poor state of the rivers is nothing more than a figment of the imagination of...

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

The only argument about housing prices seems to be whether they will crash or fall slowly. Paul Keating warns of a possible Minsky moment a sudden and spectacular crash. A paper published by Ben Phillips and Cukkoo Joseph of ANU, going into regional detail, finds that there is already an oversupply in some inner-city regions, but suggests that oversupply in itself is unlikely to reduce prices to any significant extent in the short term. Core Logic reports that auction clearance rates in Sydney and Melbourne have been on a noticeable downward trend over the last twelve months. Wayne...

JIM COOMBS. Is Parliamentary Reform needed?

When we contemplate the hopelessness of our national (and state) politics now, we are tempted, like John Menadue, to think that tinkering with the machine will turn a clapped out jalopy into a Roller. It is more likely the quality of the driver that is the problem.

JOHN MENADUE. 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.

Yesterday, the government released the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. A group associated with Pearls & Irritations made a submission in the preparation of the White Paper:Submission on foreign policy white paper - filling the void. The media release concerning the White Paper follows. That media release also carries a link to the full White Paper. Next week Pearls and Irritations will be reviewing and commenting on the White Paper

EVA COX. Unhealthy Tribalism

The marriage equality survey has re-enforced the tribal type divides that now seem increasingly endemic in our socially defined political differences. Like most Western democratic nations, we are finding that the traditional views about voters as predictable blocs of left and right or class based voting groups are becoming increasingly less relevant. The growth of factions and fraction are displacing the comfortable labelling of party loyalists or simple categories. To add to the confusion, categories such as radical and conservative have also become less useful to define what people are thinking.

STEPHEN LONG. The Adani lobbyist and Labor insider who smoothed the way for the mega mine

Adani's lobbyists resigned recently after a job well done. Key points: Lobbyists made 33 contacts with Queensland politicians or their staff for Adani 60 per cent of meetings the Queensland Premier held with lobbyists were for Adani Adani lobbyist played key role in Labor's 2016 federal election campaign

PETER RODGERS. Mohammad bin Salman - Saudi Arabia's reformer or wrecker?

Perhaps as a child Mohammad bin Salman watched too much Superman. Now, as Saudi Arabias Crown Prince, hes dashing hither and thither, ostensibly remaking the royal family, the country and the region. In his wake theres profound confusion, national austerity mixed with personal profligacy, imprisoned billionaires, bruised egos, civil war, fractured alliances, recovered loot and many crossed fingers. Will MbS (as he is invariably dubbed) end the Kingdoms addiction to oil and change its lazy economic ways? Will he force Iran and its backers to pull their heads in, acknowledge Saudi suzerainty and the joy of regional peace and Trumpism?...

GREG WOOD. The Australian Dream: Many Belts Many Roads.

The ALP has indicated that, if elected, it will consider positively Chinas so called One Belt One Road initiative. The ambition of BRI is vast. It would reshape global trade, transport and logistics in a China-centric way to meet that countrys requirements, contribute to it becoming the worlds pre-eminent economy and, ultimately, its dominant power. It fits with President Xis articulation of the Chinese Dream, the national rejuvenation of China as the Middle Kingdom, the communist party front and centre of that objective. Is Labor on the right path? If the Chinese have a dream do we need an Australian...

PATTY FAWKNER. The mystery of death and life

Death and dying have been in my thoughts. Not only in November when the Christian tradition especially remembers the dead. Not only since July when my mother died. But constantly throughout the year because of two books which offered me wisdom and insight into the mystery of death and life.

Justice Peter McClellan says Police had an 'understanding' to protect churches from scandal

POLICE inSydney and Melbournehad an understanding..for many years aboutprotecting church figures accused of child sex allegations, royal commission chair Justice Peter McClellan will say in a speech in Melbourne on Tuesday. This is an article written by award winning journalist Joanne McCarthy

JOHN MENADUE Parliamentary reform and democratic renewal.

Most Australians have little trust in our parliament and in our members of parliament. Parliament has not responded to changes in community attitudes and aspirations. With the end of the two-party dominance it is inevitable that the parliament will be permanently in gridlock with no government controlling the Senate. We need an independent enquiry to consider parliamentary reform and ways to breath life again into our democratic institutions. That reform would be good politics as well as good policy for the leader who would recognize the problem, listen and embrace the need for change.

NEW YORK TIMES. Refugees on Manus Island trapped far from home, farther from deliverance

Refugees Trapped Far From Home, Farther From Deliverance www.nytimes.com The New York Times sent journalists into a contested detention camp in Papua New Guinea to investigate Australias refugee policy, and the resistance rising against it.

We have been reading and listening to ...

Trumps attack on the media and truth are disturbing, says Joseph Stiglitz (the Guardian) Paul Keating warns that, without imagination, the economy is lost. (Mark Kenny - the Canberra Times) Writing in the Canberra Times last weekend, Crispin Hull reminds us of the history of upheaveals from the French Revolution to the recent support for far-right populists when the wealthy elites fail to pay a reasonable share of taxes so that the broad mass of society gets decent education, health and housing.. Capitalism must be saved from its own self-destructive forces. Qld Labor ups the...

SOPHIE VORRATH. CBA challenged for "weakest climate policy," dirtiest investments.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has made $6 billion worth of new loans to coal, oil and gas projects in the 20 months since committing to the Paris climate agreement, a new document has shown more than four times the amount it loaned to renewable energy projects over that period.

ERIC WALSH. After Turnbull?

Will someone please provide Malcolm Turnbull with a fiddle; something to occupy our leader while his party and possibly his government burn.

Tamie Fraser, Patron of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre delivers a message to Peter Dutton

From twitter:

RICHARD TANTER. The nuclear ban treaty, Pine Gap and the Nobel Peace Prize.

The world is worrying about nuclear weapons more than at any time since the frightening days of Reagan and Brezhnev, and with good reason. We are all hoping that Kim Jong-un is rational with no ambition for suicide. And at the same time, we are reduced to hoping that the American military will constrain Donald Trumps impulses to reach for the nuclear launch button. Leading politicians in South Korea and Japan are talking up the need for their own nuclear weapons, and Donald Trump is not saying no. So, its hardly surprising that 122 countries voted at the United Nations...

PAUL FRIJTERS. Advance Australia Fair: ignore the other national histories on offer.

National history is the story that binds us who make up the nation into a single entity with a collective memory. It has a purpose and as such we can choose what historical events and realities to put into that story, whilst forgetting the rest. Of the four main current contenders for our national history, I think we should pick Advance Australia Fair as the only truly useful one.

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