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

Victoria Rollison. Couples counselling for Labor and Unions

When I saw the news that the Electrical Trades Union invited the Greens Adam Bandt to address their National Officers conference, and didnt invite a speaker from the Labor Party, the lyrics of Gloria Gaynors I Will Survive came to mind: I'm not that chained up little person still in love with you, and so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free, and now I'm saving all my loving for someone who's loving me. This is not a lovers spat. The ETU has felt unloved by the Labor Party for a long time. In 2010,...

Arja Keski-Nummi Andaman Disaster Regional Cooperation on Refugees

Too often in Australia we go cap in hand to the region when we have an asylum seeker or refugee problem. When our problems pass, we lose interest in regional cooperation. No wonder the region often see us as fair-weather friends. But our region faces refugee problems alongside ours. As a good neighbour we should help with the common problems we face. It is in our interest to do so as well as in the interest of regional countries. On 13 November 2015, the Huffington Post carried a story that Myanmar's Rohingya could be the world's next major...

Victoria Rollison. The Future of Australia's Trade Unions

A strong trade union movement is crucial to combating growing wealth inequality in the Australian economy. When asked in 2014 what Australia had done right to defend the economy against the chronic wealth inequality experienced in the US, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz answered: unions. He explained that Australia has been able to maintain stronger trade unions than the United States. The absence of any protection for workers, any bargaining power, has had adverse effects in the United States. You [Australia] have a minimum wage of around $15 an hour. We [the US] have a minimum wage of...

Rob Nicholls. Ziggys stardust: The NBN, net neutrality and competitive neutrality

The sound of an incumbent lobbying has the grating element of petulant mewling. When the incumbent is a state owned enterprise that is evoking arguments about net neutrality, then its time to ask the cui bono? or to whose profit? question. After all, the term network neutrality can be best summed up as a line of argument use by large businesses in their lobbying. In this case, it was the chair of the National Broadband Network Company, a business that likes to be known by its lower case initials nbn, that was flying the net neutrality kite. Ziggy Switkowski...

John Menadue. Good schools, good teachers, good students and Gonski.

On November 15, 2015, The Sun Herald carried a very encouraging story about St John's Park High School in Sydney, is principal Sue French and staff, and most importantly - its students. Quoting Ms French, the report said At .. St Johns Park High School, more than 90% of students come from a non English speaking background, while more than 100 of them are refugees. Yet for the HSC last year we had five students with ATARS over 99, 15 over 90, and 146 out of 170 students received a university offer. ... Ms French Said. ... Surprisingly, those...

Francis Sullivan. Learning As We Go: The Pope Models the Change the Church Needs

Francis SullivanABC Religion and Ethics12Nov2015 Ever since the conclusion of the recent Synod in Rome, I have been thinking about the signals of change that Pope Francis is sending. He does it in words and by his disposition. Observers at the Synod frequently commented on the informal and casual style of the Pope. He mixed easily and readily with participants. He didn't stand on ceremony and was eager for a chat - more a first among equals than some sovereign ruler. This in itself is a marked difference from previous popes. He personifies what he extols: openness,...

An Open Letter to the Minister for Health concerning Private Health Insurance.

19 November 2015 Hon Sussan Ley M.P., Minister for Health, Parliament House, ACT 2600 Dear Minister (I have signed this letter on my behalf and also on behalf of the people listed below. I will be posting this open letter on my blog early next week.) We are pleased to see that you are canvassing community and expert views on private health insurance. In discussing the community survey,recently on the ABC Breakfast Program, you said We support the public system for those who cant afford private health. That is a long way from the...

John Menadue. Minimising IS will take a while.

We have had a lot of apocalyptic talk about IS we are at war, it is a death cult, it threatens civilisation. Unfortunately these exaggerations dont help a measured and holistic response. These exaggerations play into the hands of terrorists who hope for our over-reaction and the promotion of fear. We know from experience that terrorism ebbs and flows over the years in intensity. We must be ready for the long haul. There is no doubt that IS is a threat but we need to consider carefully some important facts and to put the matter in perspective....

Royal Commissions for some.

The Abbott government established a Royal Commission to harass trade unions and in the process to damage the ALP. But what we are hearing in this Royal Commission is really small beer by some union hacks. It is small scale compared with the massive tax avoidance by multinational companies in Australia that is being revealed. Yet the government has refused to establish a Royal Commission to examine the activities of these multinationals who are depriving Australia of billions of dollars of tax revenue. A Royal Commission would be very useful to flush out this very serious national problem. ...

Prince Charles and John Kerr an odd pair

Prince Charles has been mobbed by regal enthusiasts in his recent visit to Australia. Opinion polls tell us a different story. The latest poll conducted by Essential Research tells us that if Prince Charles became King Charles, 51% would prefer a republic. Only 27% would support King Charles being our head of state. There seems to be a wide acceptance that the accession of King Charles to the British throne will give a real boost to republicanism in Australia. Prince Charles has some form in intervening in Australian public affairs. Professor Jenny Hocking, in her recent book...

Bruce Wearne. Politics for Government or Politics for Politics?

At the election of December 1975, the Australian electorate confirmed the sacking of the Whitlam Government. It was an implicit thumbs up! to Malcolm Fraser and those on his side of politics. Whatever the actual cause of the constitutional crisis that engulfed Australian politics, the result of that election meant an implicit electoral endorsement of the conduct of Malcolm Fraser and his side in that crisis. These were the parliamentarians who were elected to get us beyond the political instability they had engineered. Well may we remember Its time! Those events of 40 years ago continue to resonate today....

Peter Day. Hatred won't stop me patting the dog.

Hatred wont stop me patting the dog By Peter Day New York, London, Bali, Madrid, Israel, Beirut, Egypt, Nigeria, Sydney, Paris: on and on it goes, the list of nations and cities left bereft after yet another act of terror. It puts ones inner-being out of whack; could even threaten to derail ones sense of humanity. Where to from here in the face of such deep seated hatred and barbarity? Where to from here as the canopy of powerlessness descends? The dogs snoring in the sun next to my courtyard flyscreen Must remember to keep patting him. Must...

John Menadue. Why Cayman Islands?

I must confess I was surprised to learn that Malcolm Turnbull uses a hedge fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. The story has come and gone without much examination. Conflicts of interest In the SMH of 24/25 October 2015, the veteran journalist Alan Ramsey highlighted what Malcolm Turnbull told the parliament about his hedge fund in the Cayman Islands. Malcolm Turnbull had said In order to avoid conflicts of interest [in Australia] almost all of my and my wifes investments and theyre all disclosed are in overseas managed funds, which means that I and Lucy...

Thanks to Jake Bailey and Christchurch Boys High School.

Just one week before his final school assembly, Christchurch Boys High School's Head Boy, Jake Bailey, was told that he may not have long to live. The 18 year old NZ student was bed-ridden and absent from school for three weeks while undergoing treatment for aggressive cancer. But during his final school prize-giving ceremony he managed to give an inspirational speech from his wheelchair. None of us get out of life alive, so be gallant, be great, be gracious and be grateful for the opportunities you have Jake told his audience. The school listened in silence...

Greg Smith- Tax Reform and Change Leadership

If we look at the tax reforms of the past we can observe a few clear problems that are accumulating from design compromises. We replaced narrow indirect taxes with a broader GST, but the GST base is narrower than consumption and the trend over the past 15 years is for a relative decline in GST revenues. This has been partly offset for the States by higher mining royalty revenues, but these are now weakening. Other indirect taxes imposed on narrow bases have declined even more dramatically than the GST. These are structural weaknesses that will not be overcome by...

Ian Richards. Australias new submarine.

Jon Stanfords article Australias new submarine: what is its mission? is spot on. The trouble with Defence planning and White Papers is that they all start off with what in my early days in the Navy was called a Staff Requirement. This thing, this equipment or ship is what we require. The first chapter of a Defence White Paper should be How much money have we got! The bureaucratic Canberra attitude to money is that it just comes. A very competent technical Admiral once said to me in my days as Deputy Chief Ian, are you saying we...

Ian Marsh. Will privatised schools and hospital drive public sector efficiency?

One of the first substantive announcements of Treasurer Scott Morrison concerned the privatisation of schools, hospitals and community services that are provided by State governments. He enthusiastically endorsed this 2012 Commission of Audit recommendation: Given the size of the human services sector (which is set to increase further as Australias population ages), even small improvements will have profound impacts on peoples standard of living and quality of life. Morrison pointed to the greater efficiency and effectiveness that a competitive regime can deliver. There is no doubt that market mediated competition can drive performance. The private sector provides daily evidence of...

Malcolm Turnbull's NBN is off the rails.

Paul Budde comments in his BuddeBlog on 6 November 2015 'If you abandon national FttH (fibre to the home)you also undermine the infrastructure required by the new economy. ... The MTM [multi technology mix] leads to the Balkanisation of infrastructure in Australia and will favour companies such as Telstra and TPG. ... The NBN Co will remain bleak from a financial position. ... All of this becomes an even sadder story day by day, as at the same time it becomes clear that the trumped up costs of an FttH-based NBN were wrong. ... The second rate roll out is...

John Taylor. Investing in Hedge Funds in Tax Havens: Legal? Ethical?

If the aim of Labors attack on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy for using hedge funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands was to damage his credibility with the public, it appears to have missed the political mark. This article considers whether investing in hedge funds in tax havens is both legal and ethical. Advantages of offshore funds in tax havens Investing in US companies via a hedge fund enables Australian individuals and organisations to make investments over a much larger, more diverse, and more frequently changed portfolio than would be possible by directly investing...

Bob Kinnaird. The high price of Labor's capitulation on ChAFTA

Labor's capitulation in supporting the treaty-status ChAFTA has profound ramifications that go far beyond the China deal. Labors support for ChAFTA has all but guaranteed the permanent surrender of Australian sovereignty over key parts of our migration program and laws, and the permanent loss of rights of Australian citizens and permanent residents to jobs in Australia. The Labor and Coalition leaderships both know this but have not told the Australian people or the Australian Parliament. Labors decision to pass the treaty-status ChAFTA unchanged effectively ensures the permanent removal of the Australian government and Parliaments right: To...

Christmas gift idea - Pearls and Irritations in print

Orders are now open for Fairness, Opportunity and Security: Filling the Policy Vacuum, edited by John Menadue and Michael Keating, and published by ATF Press. The book is a collection of the special policy series of blogs that was published earlier this year. At last week's launch, Fairfax economics columnist Ross Gittins said of series: 'I hope this project of turning them into a book will make them even more accessible and more widely read. They certainly deserve to be.' Topics include Democratic Renewal, the Role of Government, Foreign Policy, the Economy, Retirement Incomes, Population/migration/refugees, Communications and...

Tony Kevin. Time for review of our foreign policy.

Why Australia need to get its head around great power multipolarity. Most Australians think of foreign policy as an esoteric, wonky field. Beyond special-cause activists, few Australians give much thought to our foreign policy choices. One who does is Professor Ramesh Thakurat the Australian National University. He does serious academic work on issues like UN peacekeeping, Security Council powers and responsibilities, the global responsibility to protect human rights , and changing great power balances. His opinion piecewritten a year ago is pertinent to this essay. In 1985-1990, as the defeated and dysfunctional Soviet Union eked out its sad...

Peter Gibilisco. Friendship and Service Provision Ethos for People with Disabilities

In this article I want to discuss an aspect of the standardised procedures set by service providers in facilities that serve people with disabilities. More to the point, I am keen to explore how this affects the ethos of service delivery for people with severe or profound physical disabilities within such shared supportive accommodation. Let me be utterly frank. The ethos of service delivery, in this house where I live, has lacked key attributes that are necessary for caring for people with disabilities. Admittedly, I have sought to draw attention to this deficit by a constant effort to raise...

John Menadue. The third man in the sacking of Gough Whitlam

In a series of books and articles, Professor Jenny Hocking has provided conclusive evidence that Sir Anthony Mason was even more important than Sir Garfield Barwick in assisting John Kerr in the sacking of Gough Whitlam. It is scandalous and almost beyond belief that two senior members of our High Court were secretly collaborating with the Governor General to sack a Prime Minister who had a clear majority in the House of Representative With a born to rule superiority, some people lecture us about the importance of conventions and traditions, the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary,...

John Menadue. The new squatters are taking over more public land.

On a wide front developers and other commercial interests are moving into our public parks, gardens and beaches. They are our new squatters and the community is feeling powerless in the face of this invasion. In earlier blogs I outlined the historic encroachment of private interests on our 'public commons' - the land and facilities we share as citizens. In Sydney, there are many glaring examples of how the new squatters are moving onto public land. Darling Harbour has been developed to within an inch of its life. Instead of a spacious recreation area we now have...

Quigley, former CEO of NBN, attributes $15 b. cost blow out to Turnbull's Multi Technology Mix.

For comment by Renai LeMay, see link to his blog delimiter.com.au below: https://delimiter.com.au/2015/11/05/quigley-releases-detailed-evidence-showing-mtm-nbn-cost-blowout/ John Menadue.

Ranald Macdonald. In journalism we trust - or do we?

Journalists from the safe fortress of their own news outlets attacking the professional integrity of their competitors is a no-win situation. The consequences are far-reaching. Doyen of Australian journalism, Laurie Oakes got it right recently at the Melbourne Press Club when he quoted Tom Stoppard (the noted British playwright) who said A free press needs to be a respected press. ..I think he is right, Mr. Oakes said. Thats because, if were going to safeguard the utmost freedom to report, if were going to win political arguments ...., we need the public behind us. Most people in...

Steve Hatfield-Dodds. Australians can be sustainable without sacrificing lifestyle or economy.

A sustainable Australia is possible but we have to choose it. Thats the finding of a paperpublished today in Nature. The paper is the result of a larger project to deliver the first Australian National Outlook report, more than two years in the making, which CSIRO is also releasing today. As part of this analysis we looked at whether achieving sustainability will require a shift in our values, such as rejecting consumerism. We also looked at the contributions of choices made by individuals (such as consuming less water or energy) and of choices made collectively by society...

John Menadue. The Dismissal. How John Kerr saved Malcolm Fraser forty years ago,

In my post on 27 October 2015- The Dismissal - Forty years on. A smoking gun I pointed out that Jenny Hocking in her recent book confirmed what I had always assumed that John Kerr had given Malcolm Fraser a clear indication of support. In her book The Dismissal Dossiers; Everything You Were Never Meant to Know About November 1975 MUP. Jenny Hocking points out quite clearly from material she has discovered that John Kerr was in regular and secret telephone contact with Malcolm Fraser in the week before the dismissal. That really is a smoking gun. In...

John Menadue. The unfairness and waste in health. Private Health Insurance is the real culprit.

Medibank Pte has been in dispute with the Calvary Hospital Group and now with UnitingCare over performance in their hospitals. At last our largest private health insurance company, MBP has come to understand that the private providers, hospitals and doctors, are really in control. These private providers determine the quality of care and its cost. The PHI companies like MBP are really powerless to control both the quality and cost of healthcare. They need to lift their game .But they are in a bind. The problem that the MBP faces is precisely the same problem as the US...

John Menadue. Malcolm Turnbull and the NBN mess

As Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull had two major responsibilities. They were the public broadcasters, ABC and SBS, and the NBN. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the ABC needs rebuilding after the harsh budget cuts and termination of the Australian Network contract while Malcolm Turnbull was the minister. The plight of the NBN is much more serious. Consider comments by people who have followed this issue very closely. In this blog on 10 September 2015, headed The NBN; why its slow, expensive and obsolete, Rod Tucker, Laureate Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne...

John Menadue. Abbott lectures London on how to stop the boats.

Tony Abbott has been at it again, this time in London, claiming that he stopped the boats and that Europeans should follow suit. It is an oft repeated untruth that he stopped the boats. His one-liners are not supported by the facts. But the lie is deeply imbedded. Last month, Peter Hughes and I posted two articles on Slogans vs Facts on boat arrivals. Part 1 was entitled How Tony Abbott helped to keep the door open for people-smugglers. Part 2 was entitled Tony Abbott did not stop the boats Let me briefly summarise a few facts from...

Mark Gregory. The new PM and the NBN. 'An expensive lemon'

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is now delayed by between five and ten years and will cost significantly more over a 20 year lifetime due to the governments decision to shift from a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) fixed access network to the Multi-Technology Mix (MTM) approach that includes Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC). The malaise that the telecommunications industry finds itself in has been exacerbated by the efforts of the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who, as the Minister for Communications, spent two years doing very little whilst telling everyone that he was on...

John Menadue. Malcolm Turnbull and rebuilding the ABC

Our new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull has a chance to repair the damage that was done to the ABC when he was the minister in charge. Malcolm Turnbull was unable to stop Tony Abbotts cultural war on the ABC which was aided and abetted by Rupert Murdoch. Today, Friends of the ABC published an advertisement in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald calling on the public to support the rebuilding of the ABC (and protect SBS). This advertisement highlights the recent damage that has been done to the ABC Severe cuts to the budget. Terminating the ten...

Erica Feller. Good democracy is challenged by mass migration.

Mass migration in a globalised world might well turn out to become, not least from the perspective of democracy, one of the overarching and defining challenges of our time. Syria and the exodus of millions of Syrians to neighbouring states and beyond is currently bringing this home in the starkest of ways. The autonomous sovereign nation state is still the central feature of current political architecture, regardless of ethnicity, creed, religion or political philosophy. Borders classically mark it out. Political systems built around autonomy and sovereignty are increasingly becoming out of kilter with the changes wrought by globalisation. ...

Marie Coleman. The FTB cuts have been softened, but they're still a con

The Turnbull Government might be trying to scale back the size of its planned Family Tax Benefit cuts, but the fact is they still hit the poor hardest and ask them to foot the budget repair bill, writes Marie Coleman. After a year of the Senate blocking its radical changes to parental benefits, the Government has tried another tack this week. On Tuesday the Turnbull Government introduced revised welfare legislation to Parliament that scales back some of the tougher Family Tax Benefit cuts first flagged in the 2014 budget. Under the new plan, the Family Tax Benefit (FTB)...

Next week's launch of the Blog's book 'Fairness, Opportunity and Security'

You are invited to the launch of Fairness, Opportunity and Security: Filling the Policy Vacuum, edited by John Menadue and Michael Keating, and published by ATF Press. The book is a collection of the special policy series of blogs that was published earlier this year. Topics include Democratic Renewal, the Role of Government, Foreign Policy, the Economy, Retirement Incomes, Population/migration/refugees, Communications and the Arts, Security internal and Human Rights, Security, Health, Development of Human Capital, Environment, Indigenous affairs, Welfare and Inequality. Among the authors are Ken Henry, Ian Marsh, Stephen FitzGerald, Cavan Hogue, Richard Butler,...

Robert Brown Two concerns about the governments response to the financial system inquiry.

Its been a big week for the Australian financial services industry. Firstly, there was the unusual decision by the big banks to raise mortgage interest rates in an economic environment which would normally result in no change or even a drop in rates, claiming with some justification that new capital adequacy requirements forced them to do it. Secondly, there was the governments generally positive response to the recommendations of Financial System Inquiry chaired by former CEO of the Commonwealth Bank, David Murray. While I am supportive of most of the governments responses, there are at least two that concern...

Ranald Macdonald. The ABC and SBS are under attack.

Now is the time to support the ABC and SBS and the reasons are clear for all to see. Our new Prime Minister has the chance of reversing decisions made during the Abbott leadership but with him as the Communications Minister. Public broadcasting is under attack in many countries. The BBC has been particularly targeted by the Murdoch media in the UK to devastating effect by a grateful Conservative Government. In the USA support has been cut by Republican State leaderships and here in Australia surprise, surprise the Murdoch factor has resulted in the ABC...

Derk Swieringa. Ka-ching - The interest of the Labor Party in poker machines in the ACT.

This article is prompted by the recent ABC program 'Ka-Ching' which details the subtle mechanisms that are programmed into poker machines to make them addictive. It reminded me of the clever engineers at VW who were able to program software into their cars to cheat pollution testing. Let me also declare my personal experience of the havoc caused to families by poker machine addiction. My late mother in law blew her last $60,000 of retirement savings on mainly poker machine gambling. A close friend's sister in law committed suicide after she gambled away her own daughters' savings. Sadly, there...

Sam Bateman. US muddle in South China Sea.

Strong calls continue to be made in Washington for the US Navy to increase its freedom of navigation (FON) activities in the South China Sea. This is despite apparent differences of view between the Pentagon and the White House about the wisdom of such action. The US has done little in 2015 to ease concerns about whether it knows what its doing in the South China Sea. If anything, the rhetoric coming out of the Pentagon, and the US Navy in particular, has become stronger.While extensive land reclamations in the South China Sea have not helped Chinas image, none of...

Richard Woolcott. Foreign policy priorities for Malcolm Turnbull - focus on the region, get out of the Middle East, and other ..

This can be an exciting time for Australia in that there is a coincidence of the need for long overdue foreign policy adjustments and the appointment of Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister. He has said he intends to be a forward-looking Prime Minister for the 21st Century. This is indeed encouraging but success will call for skilful negotiation in Cabinet and strong leadership over time. Mr Turnbull will have much more in common with Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, than he would have had with defeated PM Harper. They will meet later this year at the G20 and at CHOGM....

David Combe. Tony Abbotts soul-mate has gone.

After the second longest campaign in Canadian history 11 weeks finally Federal Election Day for Canadians had arrived on Monday, October 19. When I was moving to Canada 30 years ago, Gough Whitlam said to me that There are no two peoples in the world who are so similar, have so much in common, and get on better than Australians and Canadians. For some months, I could not see it, but after 4 years I knew it to be so trueexcept that the Scottish heritage of Anglophone Canadians makes them more reserved in expressing what they really...

Ian Richards. The Submarine Menace

Way back in the 1980s, then Defence Minister Kim Beasley gave birth to the greatest industrial White Elephant in the history of our nation - the establishment of the submarine construction facility in Adelaide,South Australia. So much has been written and said about the Collins Class submarine construction project that I do not need to elaborate upon it. Suffice it to say that it was succinctly described in the media as a disaster. It would be hard to find many who would disagree. Politicians of both persuasions have since that time prostituted their principles in pursuit of their holy...

John Menadue. Coal is good for humanity! The Tony Abbott story continues.

The messenger may have changed, but apparently not the message. Only this week our new Prime Minister said Can I simply say, the governments policies are unchanged An obvious example of this unchanged policy is that Malcolm Turnbull has agreed to the go-ahead of the $16 b. Carmichael Coal Project in central Queensland. This is despite the stand he used to make that burning fossil fuels was a major contributor to carbon pollution and climate change. To reinforce that policies are unchanged and picking up where Tony Abbott left off Malcolm Turnbulls new Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg, tells...

Dean Ashenden. What is to be done about Australian schooling?

Dealing with high and rising social and cultural segregation is the real challenge of school reform. Over the past two or three months alone, no fewer than five prominent individuals and organisations have tried to answer an increasingly vexing question: what is to be done about Australian schooling? Australia, these various commentators agree, is among the school reform dunces of the Western world. While other countries forge ahead (the argument goes) we are stuck. Some schools and school systems government, independent or Catholic and some curriculum areas have done better than others, but since around the...

Peter Gibilisco and assisted by Bruce Wearne. A Special Minister for Disability.

Disability support and policy is currently undergoing much needed reform. Such reforms highlight the attenuated life chances of people with disabilities and how these can be mitigated by policies that emphasize the inclusion of people with disabilities into the social life of us all. There is much public money being spent on getting things right, and indeed many lives are at stake. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a wide sweeping reform that seems to be trying its utmost to significantly improve the lives of all people with disabilities however severe or profound these may be. There is a...

John Menadue. Is Malcolm Turnbull sacrificing his principles?

The polls show most Australian voters have welcomed Malcolm Turnbulls election as Prime Minister. I did. It is very early days, but I am concerned by signs that he is bowing very much to the right wing of his own party and former Abbott supporters rather than spelling out clearly his own policies that we heard about for years. He told the Parliament today 'Can I simply say the government's policies are unchanged' A strong leader imposes his views on the organization he leads and not the other way around. In the longer term, Malcolm Turnbull cant please...

The Synod on the Family - What's really happening?

Editorial (No.10, October 2015, updated 16/10/2015) Catholics for Renewal. The 14th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Rome, 4-25 October 2015 The vocation and mission of the family in the Church The Synod on the Family - What's really happening? The Synod on the Family has completed two of its three weeks. The final week will be critical, but already there are some positive signs of the Spirit at work. Will the College of Bishops recognise its isolation from the people of God and the need to ensure that the Churchs teachings and governance are...

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