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 PHIBBS. we must call governments out on this 'Game of Homes'.

When politicians say supply will fix the problem, ask them why it hasn't worked yet. And also send them a copy of the graph from Chapter 1 of any first-year economics text book showing that price is the result of the interaction of supply and demand.

LESLEY HUGHES. Angry summers are the new normal. Our climate is on steroids.

The occurrence of the extreme summer experienced in NSW, for example, was at least 50 times more likely than would have been the case without climate change.

JOHN MENADUE. A little bit of honesty would go a long way in energy policy.

We really do need some honesty from the media on energy policy. The fact is that Coalition policies have failed for at least eight years and are largely responsible for our pending crisis. Media cover-ups for failed Coalition policies will not change that fact.

FAZAL RIZVI. What students learn about Asia is outdated and needs to change.

While we readily recognise the new Asia to be culturally dynamic, and changing rapidly, we have yet to develop a more sophisticated understanding of Asia-Australia relations - and indeed also of the discourse of Asia literacy.

GEOFFREY ROBINSON. The Royal Commission.

I am convinced that there must be a full and open discussion of all aspects of the Church if we are ever to put this scandal behind us. Quite simply, we need a different church. The Royal Commission was not constrained by any Church laws or teachings and so came much closer to the heart of the problem.

FRANK STILWELL and CHRISTOPHER SHEIL. The IMF is showing some hypocrisy on inequality

The IMF should practice what it preaches when it comes to inequality.

JOHN MENADUE. Failed Leadership in Church and State!

From my experience and observation good leadership is about creating disequilibrium and a process to galvanise the group to change. Without disequilibrium there will be no worthwhile change.

JOHN QUIGGIN. The case for renationalising Australia's electricity grid.

The public debate over the problems of electricity supply displays a curious disconnect. On the one hand, there is virtually universal agreement that the system is in crisis. After 25 years, the promised outcomes of reform cheaper and more reliable electricity, competitive markets and rational investment decisions are further away than ever.

GARRY EASTMAN. Response to Jack Waterford: We need a Catholic Yom Kippur, and a serious sacrifice.

There are now no survivors or parents of survivors on the Commission nor are there any on the Australian Towards Healing or Melbourne Response agencies for handling complaints by victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The same criticism applies to the Truth, the Justice and Healing Council and the newly created company, Catholic Professional Standards Ltd.

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The US has 'wasted $6 trillion' in the Middle East without achieving any success.

In a statement on 27 February President Trump said that the United States had spent $ 6 trillion in the Middle East and had got nowhere . It had produced a mess and a hornet's nest . In a conflict United States must always be winning ,or not fighting at all.

PAT POWER. The Royal Commission and the need for reform.

Despite all the warnings, I dont know of anyone who has not been shocked by what has emerged from the Royal Commission. For twenty years or more, we have heard accounts of abuse, sometimes very close to home. But somehow the magnitude of it all has been almost beyond comprehension.

PAUL CLEARY. How Australia wasted the mining boom.

The countries that have mastered the development of their resources, most notably Norway, worked out long ago that to truly prosper in the long run, the citizens who own these assets are entitled to share in the super profits derived from extracting their finite resource wealth.

TIM LINDSEY. Jokowi Lite: The Indonesian presidents non-visit

The relationship between our two countries is now back on a more normal diplomatic footing for the moment but we need to do better than that if we are to make the most of our proximity to this gigantic nation of 270 million that considers itself now rising.

NICOLE GURRAN and PETER PHIBBS. Housing policy is captive to property politics, so don't expect politicians to tackle affordability.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls recent warnings that house prices would fall steeply under a Labor government confirm the underlying politics of housing policy in Australia. The default position for politicians is to sound concerned about housing affordability, but do nothing.

NICOLE GURRAN & PETER PHIBBS. How the Property Council is shaping the debate around negative gearing, taxes.

We see their spokespeople quoted in the papers and their ads on TV, but beyond that we know very little about how Australias lobby groups get what they want.

DOUG CAMERON. Commonwealth can, and must, do more on housing and homelessness

The failure of the market to provide housing for all who need it is compounded by several political failures.

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Policy for now and the future.

The United States has led Australia into one lost war ( Viet Nam),two ongoing losing wars ( the second invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan ) and,most recently, into the dubious operations in Syria opposing Assard . Russia ,China and Iran will not allow Assard to be removed and,as Ross Burns has so well argued,Australia would be prudent not to involve itself in this complex conflict .

GREGORY CLARK. Amazing1964Hasluckrequest toMoscowforhelp overVietnam

In 1964,I was witness to another independentCanberra initiative overVietnam. It was a bizarre attempt by thenExternal Affairs minister,Paul Hasluck, to persuade Moscow to joinwith the West in Vietnam tostop alleged Chinese aggression.

JOHN MENADUE. Medical specialists high fees and poor accountability.

So much of the public attention is on care in general practice, but specialist healthcare has some very serious problems. The first is excessive remuneration of many specialists. In some cases it could only be described as greed. The second is the lack of accountability for care by many specialists and the unwillingness of their organisations to tackle the problem.

BRIAN COYNE. The randomness and chanciness of life...

In this short essay, Brian Coyne, explores how much randomness and chance play in the outcomes we experience in life. He asks how much we are influenced by the Christian biblical mythology that an afterlife where the first will be last the last will be first helps us cope with the inherent unfairness and injustice that is the outcome of randomness and chance in life.

DAVID JAMES. Trump's pro-globalisation critics miss the key questions

The most pressing question: Is the global system there to serve people, or are people there to serve the global system?They also never address a central contradiction of globalisation: that capital is free to move, but for the most part people are not, unless they belong to the elite ranks. The inevitable backlash has begun.

HAROLD LEVIEN. Solving our Housing Problem.

Housing investors have largely crowded out first-home-buyers from the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets. The Coalition Government has not simply failed to address this problem; its policies have been the principal cause.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE. South Australia's gambling tax highlights the regulatory mess of online betting.

The South Australian government will introduce from July a point-of-consumption tax to claw back some of the gambling tax revenue it is seeing disappear over the border.The new tax is a reasonable response to a growing problem, and probably wont send bookmakers to the wall. But it does highlight the current regulatory mess surrounding how we tax internet wagering in Australia.

JIM COOMBS. Do We choose reason and proportion or Economic Reform ?

So long as government vacates the field, the balance between rich and poor lurches further towards the rich. 8 individuals control half of the worlds wealth. Is that Balance or proportionate ?

WAYNE SWAN. Coalition energy policy.

Its a lost decade we couldnt afford on climate change and energy policy but when the consequences are felt in years and decades to come, its incumbent upon us all not to forget the political opportunists and charlatans who led us down this path.

PETER DAY. 'The smell of the sheep' (Pope Francis)

It should be noted that the intention of this reflection is not to play 'the man' (bishops, clerics), but rather 'the ball' (church governance, culture): to shine a light on a deeper and systemic illness that needs root and branch reform. Without such reform we will continue to produce fertile ground for the abuse of power, of which sexual abuse is a catastrophic symptom.

TONY KEVIN. Update on Trump impeachment possibilities, and reaction in Moscow

The US liberal media onslaught on Donald Trumps claimed absolute unsuitability for the US presidency continues. In every possibly way, Trump is being dissected forensically and brutally.

CAROLYN WHITZMAN. States drag feet on affordable housing, with Victoria the worst.

Moral panic over recent increases in visibly homeless people in central Melbourne has brought to the fore the critical shortage of affordable housing across the metropolitan areas of Australias wealthiest cities. But living on the street is only the tip of the iceberg. Many more households are living in insecure and/or overpriced accommodation. Their plight is due to an undersupply of appropriately priced, sized and situated rental housing.

PETER GIBILISCO. Where are the public intellectuals like Hugh Stretton.

The worst kind of bad social science, Stretton argues, purports to select the things to be explained, and the ways of explaining them, without resort to values and valuation

PETER PHIBBS and NICOLE GURRAN. Why housing supply shouldn't be the only policy tool politicians cling to.

If politicians were serious about the affordability crisis, they would be trying to support the important but underfunded affordable housing sector. Better targeting tax breaks towards new and affordable rental housing, rather than fuelling demand for existing homes, would also help. But until our politicians can see past supply slogans we can expect very little policy change.

WALTER HAMILTON. Fake news triumphant

Japans Shinzo Abe, US President Donald Trump and Russias Vladimir Putin have a great deal in common, particularly their aversion to being exposed to a free press.

STEVE GEORGAKIS and JADE WARD. The first week in February 2017: A Landmark for Womens Football Codes

Histories are silent on any real influence that women have had on their respective sport. This is because involvement in these sports have historically emerged from the connotations that such sports were about providing opportunities for men to develop a masculine character.

KAREN WILLIS AND SOPHIE LEWIS. Increased private health insurance premiums don't mean increased value.

A topic of discussion at many barbecues this summer will inevitably be private health insurance. Is it worth it? Do we need it? Every year it gets more expensive. The average 4.8% increase in premiums just announced will have more Australians raising these questions, and debating with their friends how much they value choice of doctor, reduced waiting times for elective surgery, and having a private room when in hospital.

KATHLEEN McPHILLIPS. Royal commission hearings show Catholic Church faces a massive reform task.

In research prepared for the Royal Commission, 7% of priests were identified as perpetrators. By far the worst offenders were in religious orders: for example, over 40% of John of God Brothers, 22% of Christian Brothers and 20% of Marist Brothers were identified as alleged perpetrators. These figures are particularly shocking because the rate of disclosure of abuse by victims is generally held to be under 20%.

TIM AYRES. What We Leave Behind: The Case for Universal Inheritance, including an inheritance tax.

Older Australians are enjoying a growing share of Australias wealth; the wealth of younger Australians has stagnated. Structural changes to the labour market threatens to leave more young people in low wage, precarious work than any generation before them, and they face increasing debt and declining social mobility.

Catholic Church and the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It would be easy to write the problems off as a few 'bad apples'; however, the problems that have brought the [Catholic] Church to the very edge of disaster and beyond, trashing its reputation as a moral leader, were never just because of a few bad apples. The problems were institutional and cultural.

EVAN WHITTON. How English law does not try to find the truth.

An Australian judge, Russell Fox, said justice means fairness, and fairness requires a search for the truth otherwise the wrong side may win. English law is the only legal system in the world which does not search for the truth.

STEPHEN LONG. Malcolm Turnbull's turnaround on renewable energy, from pro-carbon price to clean coal

What a stunning turnaround. The man who lost the leadership by fighting to introduce a carbon price is now railing against renewable energy.

Local boy makes good!

Michael Kelly SJ, a regular correspondent for Pearls and Irritations, met with Pope Francis on February 9. In the photo below Pope Francis greets Father Michael Kelly SJ, executive director of ucanews.com on the occasion of receiving the English edition of La Civita Cattolica, at the Vatican February 9 (Photo L'Osservatore Romano)

JAMES CARROL. Pope Francis is the anti-Trump.

Who would have thought that, on an elemental point of liberal democracy, the United States could take instruction from the white-robed man in Rome? And who would have thought that liberal democracy itself could have a stake in the unfinished struggle for the soul of the Catholic Church?

RYAN MANUEL. Belt and road: less than meets the eye

The recent unravelling of world affairs has seen many argue that China may lead closer global economic cooperation. Xi Jinpings recent speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos encouraged this rather surprising turn of events. Xi opined that protectionism, populism, and de-globalisation were increasing and that this increase would hinder closer global economic cooperation. His remedy was more economic development, closer links between countries and what he called the Belt and Road initiative.

Conservatives push carbon tax to address climate crisis.

Conservatives push carbon tax to address climate crisis ByJohn Uptonon 9 February 2017 Climate Central With President Trump and Republicans in Congress moving swiftly to repeal regulations that slow global warming, a group of prominent conservatives on Wednesday touted a different potential solution a carbon tax that pays cash dividends to Americans.

CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. The security threat from climate change

The Turnbull Governments decision to continue to back coal is not just bad economics, it also makes no sense from a national security perspective as the worsening impacts of climate change threaten international stability.

DAVID PEETZ. Why everybody knows CEOs are overpaid, but nothing happens.

That CEOs are overpaid is something, as Leonard Cohen would say, everybody knows; including the directors and shareholders who ultimately decide their pay. Yet firms are unwilling to do anything about it, because to do so would damage internal relations, undermine status and run against the norms of the system. (This is a repost from an article first posted on October 24, 2015.)

MICHAEL LESTER. Draining the swamp : the Businessman President

Donald J Trump is called the businessman President. The ethics and practices of private business, and the nature and business models of activities undertaken, are arguably, neither consistent with the established accountabilities of corporate governance nor with the innovative future of the digital economy.

STEVE GEORGAKIS. Gilchrist and Australias national sport, Cricket?

Until recently cricket is a sport that has rarely engaged other minority cultures, such as Indigenous Australians or newly arrived migrants. In fact, unlike other sports such as Australian Rules football, cricket has been resistant to broaden its base. ...The more multicultural Australia became, the more insular cricket became. ...The integrity stops with the baggy green and the sport sells its soul to the junk food and alcohol industry.

DENNIS ALTMAN. Bringing Nauru and Manus refugees to Australia is a win-win win. If the PM is bold enough.

Ultimately this argument is about a small number of people who risked their lives in the belief that Australia would provide sanctuary and a better life. In admitting them, Australia could demonstrate basic humanity, close the camps and remove an irritation from its alliance with the United States. Its a win-win for a PM bold enough to challenge the dominant rhetoric of both major parties.

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Why is the government still pushing the Trans Pacific Partnership.

An important matter facing Australia is how to find a sound balance between China's relations with neighbouring countries and with the United States. This has become a strategic issue in the region. So far China seems to be handling it more effectively than the United States.

JOHN MENADUE. We are losing our sense of community

Markets are displacing society and community. Exclusion is winning out over inclusion.

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