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

JOHN MENADUE. Brexit and a failure of leadership a sad, sad day.

There are lessons for many, including Australia, in Brexit and in the demise of David Cameron. That demise resulted from a failure of leadership. He pandered to the extremist Eurosceptic in his party. Instead of dismissing them and telling them politely to jump in the Thames and showed leadership in what he believed in the UK in Europe he offered them a plebiscite that gave a platform to little Englanders on so-called sovereignty and immigration.

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Foreign policy issues during and after the July 2Election

The Turnbull Government and the Shorten Opposition have focussed on domestic issues in the election campaign. This is understandable but in the longer term the Government elected on the 2ndof July will need to address the greatly changed world of 2016.

DAVID POPE. Medicare - Eaten out from within.

This cartoon byDavid Popewas published inThe Canberra Times. I posted this cartoon on social media today, with links to your blog article. The cartoon was, in part, inspired by your posts. Too often, a good thousand words is worth more than any picture. Thank you for them. David Pope. See link to David Pope's galleryhttp://www.canberratimes.com.au/photogallery/act-news/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html.   Warren Buffett described private health insurance in the US as the 'tapeworm in the US health system'.

ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS. Medicare- Did the Liberals try to abolish it?

This is a current question with Shorten claiming that the Liberals are trying to privatise it and Turnbull calling this a Labor lie. What is the truth? The answer is in the history of Medicare funding. Medibank was set up by the Whitlam government and the bulk billing frees were set at 85% of the AMA Most Common Fee. The 15% was a discount but saved doctors a lot of costs and all their bad debts. They got slightly less, but the clerical and hassles saved by simply sending the paperwork, and later the computer message to the Medicare computer...

LYNDSAY CONNORS. The schools funding question that Turnbull needs to answer

The quality of a students education should not be limited by where the student lives, the income of his or her family, the school he or she attends or his or her personal circumstances. This is the statement of moral purpose set out in the preamble to current legislation, the Australian Education Act 2013, where it underpins the funding arrangements put in place by the previous Labor government, based on the 2011 Gonski Review. Bill Shorten has made clear that it is a principle that he and his party support (as do the Greens). Do Malcolm Turnbull...

National Foundation of Australian Women. What are they saying to women? Election 2016

In the link below, NFAW analyses the party policies that are being presented at this election which are of interest and concern to women. http://www.nfaw.org/what-are-they-saying-to-women-election-2016/

SIMON SCHAMA. Brexit vote a choice between the past and the future.

In this article from the Financial Times, Simon Schama (BBC's 'A History of Britain') provides an historical and relevant background as to why the UK should remain as part of Europe. He highlights the narrow mindedness and divisiveness of those who favour leaving the EU. His comments also have relevance for Australia in the divisive and short-sighted debate that we have seen on refugees. See link to article : https://next.ft.com/content/7c7f2dbe-3474-11e6-bda0-04585c31b153

JOHN MENADUE. Privatisation and the hollowing out of Medicare

Malcolm Turnbull says that the Coalition will never, ever, privatise Medicare. Given the wide public support for Medicare and Malcolm Turnbulls way with words his attempted rebuttal is not surprising. But the Coalition has been eroding Medicare from within for a decade and a half since John Howard. The vehicle for this erosion is private health insurance (PHI) and the government is facilitating this process with the $11 billion p.a. taxpayer funded subsidy to support private health insurance. And the ALP does not seem to care. It scarcely ever mentions the damage of PHI. Is it scared of...

JOHN THOMPSON. The regional health plan.

The Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, advises that, as Member for Farrer, she represents some of Australias most remote and disadvantaged communities and therefore understands that access to health services, as well as peoples priorities, can differ significantly to those in our capital cities.

PETER GIBILISCO. Friedreichs Ataxia and my Miraculous Journey with Education

My life to date has been unduly constrained by the enforcement of standardised practices, stereotypes and official policies designed to uphold the primary care of people with Friedreichs Ataxia. I was diagnosed with onset at 14; now Im 54.

BRUCE BAER ARNOLD. How Pathology Australia advocates for 'patient care' to achieve big corporate profits.

Each time we go for a blood test to investigate or keep track of an illness, or have a tissue sample from a Pap test or suspicious mole sent off for analysis, the wheels of the pathology industry are put to work. Pathology in Australia is big business. One company draws an annual revenue of almost A$4 billion. And a proportion comes from the public purse, via Medicare rebates. The industry features a handful of very large corporations including giants Sonic and Primary Health Care that typically use multiple brands, giving a misleading sense of competition....

GREG WOOD. FTAs and Australian democracy and future governance.

Andrew Robbs response to concerns that Australias recent spate of free trade agreements were being negotiated in secret was to claim that trade negotiations have always been conducted that way. That comment contains a splinter of truth but a plank of misinformation. Once, not lately, trade ministers routinely informed Parliament on Australias aims, progress, and problems in important trade negotiations. More importantly, trade negotiations were much narrower in scope, solely concerned with the tariffs and quotas affecting trade in physical goods. The international trade agenda expanded in the WTO Uruguay Round. The ambit of Australias FTAs is wider...

MARK GREGORY. Labor's NBN plan shows it listened to critics of the current broadband rollout.

Labors broadband plan includes few surprises and fulfils Opposition Leader Bill Shortens commitment to responsibly increase the construction of fibre to the premises (FTTP). At the same time, it would ensure the completion of the National Broadband Network (NBN) is not delayed further. It shifts the focus back to providing Australia with broadband infrastructure that would slowly arrest the countrys slide in the global broadband rankings. Importantly, this would help business compete in the global digital economy. Under Labors broadband plan, NBN Co would connect an additional two million premises to the NBN with FTTP rather than the...

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. In the general election, do you think the government's and the ALP's foreign policies are sound?

This was a question asked of me by the Australian Institute of International Affairs. My answer is 'No' for the following reasons.

FAZAL RIZVI. Migration Aint What It Used to Be

That Asian-Australians are making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy is a fact that can no longer be contested. This contribution is of enormous significance, especially as Australia seeks to become integrated into the regional economy. The issues of how this contribution might be mapped and enhanced are examined in a report released by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA). The report provides a discussion of the business opportunities that Asian Australians have, as well as the challenges they face. It also provides a discussion of how Australia, and its major institutions, might address these challenges. The...

EVAN WILLIAMS. 'Money Monster'. Film Review

It occurred to me watching Money Monster that George Clooney is Hollywoods Malcolm Turnbull. Think about it. Both are rich and famous. Both are smart, good-looking and smooth-talking. Both exude confidence and charm. Like Malcolm, George has no difficulty persuading us that in any unforeseen emergency hes the one who can save us from chaos or disaster, even a budget deficit or a dreaded hung parliament. But Clooney is something more. Hes one of that rare species the old-style Hollywood leading man. A generation ago we had Cary, Gregory, Charlton, Spencer, Burt and the rest, all in their prime....

WARWICK ELSCHE. Shorten should play to Labor's strength.

For more than 60 years, since opinion polling became important in shaping election strategies, there has been for the Australian Labor Party one awkward but stubborn consistency. Rightly or wrongly the Australian Electorate, with very isolated and brief exceptions, has always preferred and trusted the non Labor side of politics, the Liberal-National Party Coalition, as managers of the National economy. Incredibly, the present Government, which came to power on the strength of a supposed debt and deficit calamity retains that favoured regard on economic issues despite the fact that it has, in just three years added more than...

JOHN MENADUE. Julie Bishop Foreign Minister or Senior Consular Officer

Foreign ministers can hide their failures more easily than other ministers because foreign affairs has no serious domestic constituency. Appearances on the public and world stage can also hide a lack of substance - for a while. But the failures of Julie Bishop are now clear. Most of her media appearances are now about consular problems Australians involved in airline crashes, terrorism, or other disasters. Normally these matters would be left to officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. But our foreign minister doesnt want to miss these media opportunities. It is easier than explaining...

PETER DAY. Despite alcohol and gambling in sport, let us never forget 'the backyard'.

Sport is a majestic thing. Just like our imaginations, it takes us to so many good places.The backyard: where gran and grandson become batting partners in a fiercely fought family Test Match.The beach: where sand and water gently accommodate the thrills and spills of diving and catching and tackling and throwing.The family home: where mums and dads bed becomes a make-shift trampoline; a safe place in which we learn how to fall.The oval: where the football and the netball and the tennis ball connect us to team mates for the first time.

PETER WHITEFORD. Where is social welfare in the election campaign.

The federal governments largest single ticket spending item welfare has failed to rate a mention in the election campaign. It is the $152 billion elephant in the room. It accounts for around 35 per cent of total government spending. And it affects in one way or another most Australian adults lives. But beyond childcare policy, where is the discussion and debate about the Australian social welfare system in the election campaign?

ROD TUCKER. How do Labor and the Coalition differ on NBN policy?

As hinted in earlier announcements by Shadow Communications Minister, Jason Clare, Labors much-anticipated policy for the National Broadband Network released Monday commits the party if elected to move away from the Coalitions fibre to the node (FTTN) network and transition back to a roll-out of fibre to the premises (FTTP). This was the central pillar of Labors original NBN. The FTTN roll-out will be phased out as soon as current design and construction contracts are completed. This is a major shift away from the Coalitions focus on FTTN technologies, which was a key part of their...

GEORGE RENNIE. How interest groups influence politicians and the public to get what they want.

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. This is the first article in our series on the strategies, political alignment and policy platforms of ten lobby groups that can influence this election.

JOHN THOMPSON. Private health insurance seek to extend tentacles.

The recent report of the Inquiry into Chronic Disease Prevention and Management in Primary Health Care by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health has been somewhat overshadowed by the current election campaign. One of the terms of reference of the Inquiry required the Committee to consider the role of private health insurers in chronic disease prevention and management.

EVAN WILLIAMS. Who do the Liberals hate most in this election?

In our brave new world of digital gadgetry, awash with empty slogans and blighted by ever-shrinking attention spans, is there any prospect of rational political debate in this election? A pervading mood of paranoia seems to be the new norm. Who do the Liberals hate most in this campaign? Bill Shorten? The unions? The Greens? The left-wing media? In varying degrees they detest them all. But no organisation arouses deeper contempt in conservative breasts greater fear and loathing, more paranoid suspicion and distrust than the ABC. Why should this be so? For many conservatives, the national broadcaster...

BOB KINNAIRD on China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA)

An opinion piece in yesterdays Financial Review by James Laurenceson dismisses union concerns on ChAFTA - Don't believe Chinese worker Free Trade Agreement scaremongering, 9/6/16. It warrants a response. Laurencesons claims do not stand up to scrutiny. They concern firstly the Chinese installers on the 400 visas, the subject of John Menadues blogbelow. Laurenceson fails to mention the fundamental point that ChAFTA granted LMT-exempt entry to Chinese workers in this installers and servicers category, for the first time in our FTA history.

JOHN MENADUE. Free Trade Agreements. The Abbott and Turnbull Governments were told but wouldnt listen. They went further and attacked those who expressed concerns.

The ink was hardly dry on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) before we learned about labour market exploitation under the agreement.

BRAD CHILCOTT. The war on generosity - rewards for meanness!

An interesting aspect of the Coalitions suggestion that the ALP had committed to restoring $19 billion to the Australian Aid budget is that pro-Aid campaigners themselves had previously only mentioned $11 billion of cuts. That is, they intentionally inflate the level of cuts to more powerfully demonstrate their commitment to balancing the budget on the backs of the worlds poor. While politicians and Australias humanitarians war over the dollar figures in the forward estimates theres another battle thats less about our national budget and more about our national character - a war on generosity.

A war on women. Protection denied, abuse condoned on Nauru.

the news from Manus and Nauru gets worse by the day. Inhumanity is imposed in our name. Nauru and Manus are unsustainable. I have yet to meet anyone who will admit that what is happening is right or defensible. See link below 'Protection denied, abuse condoned; women on Nauru at risk'. This searing story is authored by Wendy Bacon, Pamela Curr, Carmen Lawrence, Julie Macken and Claire O'Connor. Please pass on to friends and colleagues.   http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5624aa24e4b0bca6fa63ec33/t/5754f2f327d4bd54e0327996/1465185083858/Women_on_Nauru_WEB.pdf

KAITLIN WALSH. Nick Xenophon are your ears burning? Maybe they should take a leaf from your book (not put a target on your back)

If once upon a time my enemys enemy was my friend, then bizarrely enough it now seems that my friends enemy is my friend. Confused? Me too. I think I liked it better the way it was before. Over the weekend, we had the coalition, Labor and that well known bastion of social good, the Australian Hotels Association (AHA), united against ISIS? Donald Trump? No. Nick Xenophon.

ANDREW LEIGH. Why the government's company tax cut is a carnival sideshow.

In the 1890s, Texan cowboy Clark Stanley began marketing a new product at medicine shows. A man who could kill rattlesnakes with his bare hands, Stanley promised people that his rattlesnake extract would bring relief from rheumatism, sprains, swelling, back pain and toothache. It wasnt until 1917 that Stanleys operation was finally shut down, with a court finding that the product not only didnt provide a cure; it wasnt even made from snakes. And so the term snake oil was born. Ive been thinking about Clark Stanley since budget night, as Coalition leaders have boldly claimed that...

JULIE COLLINS. How can we achieve reconciliation? Myall Creek offers valuable answers.

This weekend, hundreds of people will make the pilgrimage to the small town of Bingara on the NSW North West slopes and plains, for the annual commemoration of the Myall Creek Massacre. The memorial site, just out on the Delungra Road, marks the site of the massacre of 28 unarmed women, children and old men that occurred there on June 10, 1838. This is a place where terrible things occurred, a place shunned and avoided by locals, especially Aboriginal people, for over 150 years.

LESLEY BARCLAY. Diagnosing rural health gaps in the election.

It is timely as the federal election approaches to consider whether all Australians are getting the healthcare they need. Approximately 30 per cent of Australians live in rural and remote areas. Arguably they do not get a fair go in relation to their healthcare compared to the rest of us. Rural and remote Australians are disadvantaged by social circumstances that influence their health status and ripen them for avoidable chronic disease when compared to counterparts in Australias major cities.

DAVID PEETZ. The penalty rates time-bomb is ticking.

A looming decision on weekend penalty rates presents problems for both major parties in the lead-up to Australias federal election. The Fair Work Commission seems likely to hand down its decision in the controversial case soon after the federal election. Nobody knows what the commissions decision on penalty rates in the retail and hospitality industries will be. There seem to be more tea-leaf readers predicting it will cut Sunday penalty rates to match Saturday rates than who think it will make no changes. If so, employer organisations would be happy, but many retail employees will be worse off....

JOHN MENADUE. Best we forget. We commemorate Australians who died in foreign wars in foreign lands, but not Australian aborigines who died in defence of their own country.

Yesterday, in a moving ceremony, the remains of 33 Australians who were buried in military cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore were returned to Australia. Our Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, and Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, were at Richmond airbase to witness the repatriation of 33 Australians who had died in foreign lands. What a contrast this is to our refusal to acknowledge the 30,000 aborigines who died, not in wars in foreign lands but in defending their homelands where they had lived for hundreds of generations.

FAZAL RIZVI. The benefits to Australia of our Asian diasporas which now constitute over 17% of our population.

That Asian-Australians are making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy is a fact that can no longer be contested. This contribution is of enormous significance, especially as Australia seeks to become integrated into the regional economy.

KAITLIN WALSH. The conundrum of engagement and ending the blame game. Any takers?

Political outsider Kaitlin Walsh, self-proclaimed ordinary person, rakes over the pallid entrails of our body politic. And considers what might shut Mathias Cormann up.

JACQUELINE PEEL. Are the Coalition and Labor on the same page for emissions trading?

Climate change policy has been a noticeable absentee from political debate in the current Australian federal election campaign. Recent news reports, however, suggest this silence masks secret bipartisanship on the need for an emissions trading scheme or ETS to help bring down Australians emissions of greenhouse gases. Labors commitment to introduce an ETS if elected in July is well-known: the party has in fact pledged to establish two such schemes a specific ETS for the electricity sector and a wider economy ETS with emissions caps set in line with Australias international climate change commitments under the Kyoto...

TIM SOUTPHOMMASANE. Bamboo ceiling and race relations.

Many of us have good reason for thinking that the state of our race relations is under challenge. We frequently see stories about people being racially vilified on public transport, and our recent public debates are punctuated by controversies about race. We know racism is a reality in contemporary Australian society. About 20 per cent of Australians say they have experienced racial or religious discrimination of some kind. About 11 per cent say they have been excluded from social activities or the workplace because of their race. About 5 per cent say theyve been physically assaulted because of their...

EVAN WILLIAMS. Chasing Asylum. Film Review.

I rate it among the best Australian documentaries ever made If you want to see Chasing Asylum, Eva Orners brilliant new Australian documentary, my advice is to hurry along. At last count it was showing on just two screens in Sydney, and when I went along to the Dendy in Newtown on a recent Sunday afternoon usually a good time for ticket sales I was directed upstairs to a little cinema at the end of a long corridor to find the place half full. The ads are promoting it as The film the Australian Government doesnt want you...

JOHN O'DONOGUE: On Compassion - even for people who are 'different'

Compassion distinguishes human presence from all other presence on the earth. The human mind is one of the most gracious gifts of creation. The human mind is the place where nature gathers at its most intense and at its most intimate. The human being is an in-between presence, belonging neither fully to the earth from which she has come, nor to the heavens toward which her mind and spirit aim. In a sense, the human being is the loneliest creature in creation. Paradoxically, the human being also has the greatest possibility for intimacy. I link compassion immediately with intimacy. Compassion...

CHRISTIAN DOWNIE, HOWARD BAMSEY. Election 2016: do we need to re-establish a department of climate change?

With a federal election looming, Australias top mandarins will once again be turning their minds to the incoming government briefs, the so-called blue book if the Coalition is returned and the red book if Labor is elected. High on the agenda will be the organisation of the bureaucracy and it wont get any trickier than climate change. A question for an incoming government will be whether to re-establish a Department of Climate Change? And if not, what should be done?

EVAN WILLIAMS: Who cares what the papers say?

In the first week of Malcolm Turnbulls interminable election campaign, the Murdoch press surprised its readers by advocating support for Labor. Hows that again? Had Rupert had a change of heart? Well, not exactly. But it certainly looked that way when his Sydney tabloid, the Daily Telegraph, under the headline Save Our Albo, urged voters in Anthony Albaneses suburban Sydney seat to keep Albo in the job. It turned out that the Greens an even greater threat to civilisation than the ALP were threatening to unseat Albo in a preference deal with the Liberals. Luckily this dire plot...

JOHN MENADUE. Is the Coalition better able to manage our borders?

For many years senior journalists have been telling us, or at least accepting the spin, that conservatives are better economic managers. I dont think there is evidence to back that claim as several writers have pointed out in this blog. The other area where many senior journalists have been even more gullible is the acceptance of the claim that conservatives are better able to manage our borders. Again I dont think this view can be sustained. Journalists are now under-resourced to do their job properly, but on an issue so much debated as border protection, they should examine...

Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the war?

Today, President Obama is visiting Hiroshima. He will be the first US President to do so since the bombing in 1945. He said that he will not be apologising for the dropping of the bomb and will not try and second-guess President Harry Truman's decision. The widely accepted moral justification for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was that they brought a quick end to the war which if continued would result in more widespread deaths and destruction. There is an argument that what the Japanese military feared most of all was not the bombing of civilians but...

PETER BROOKS. Mind the gap in doctors' fees - it is all around us

John Thompson reminds us of the total lack of transparency in fees charged by doctors in Australia. Surgeons report shows the ineffectiveness of private health insurers to control health costsPosted on 07/05/2016 by John Menadue So can we dissect this further. What is in a medical fee well may you ask. When you go to your doctor you may see a fees schedule on the reception desk or you may have received a letter from the receptionist / practice manager indicating that you will be responsible for certain fees over and above what you will get back...

BILL AND BARBARA CLEMENTS: Refugees and round-ups.

The Paris Metro station of Bir Hakeim, not far from the Eiffel Tower, serves both the Australian Embassy and a monument that was erected in 1994 to commemorate the mass round-up of Jews, brought to the Velodrome dhiver (an indoor cycle track known as the Vel dhiv) which formerly occupied the site. The Australian Embassy in Paris is built on railway yards across from that Vel dHiv site.

MARK GREGORY: Leaks from NBN were in the public interest. The response was designed to hide the NBN mess.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) was meant to be a nation building project that positioned Australia as a leader in the global digital economy, but it has become a political football and as every day passes, Australias future prospects in the global digital economy are diminishing.

ANN GILROY RSJ: A Response to Pope Franciss Commission on Women Deacons

Women Religious welcome any development in Church that responds to women's repeated call to have an equal share in the decision-making. Pope Franciss proposal to set up a Commission to study the possibility of having women deacons, while not yet a decision to change a structure, is offering Catholic women a frisson of promise.

JOHN MENADUE. Attacks on refugees tell us more about Malcolm Turnbull than Peter Dutton.

Power doesnt always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true of power, is that power always reveals. Robert Caro. Peter Dutton has form, so his comments about refugees although disgraceful are not that surprising. The big disappointment has been Malcolm Turnbull who described Peter Dutton as an outstanding immigration minister. Instead of a firm rebuke from our Prime Minister, Dutton got praise and with his winsome way with words Malcolm Turnbull even suggested that Peter Dutton was being demonised.

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