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

Safdar Ahmed. A moving inside story about detainees in the Villawood Detention Centre.

Safdar Ahmed has sent to me a very moving and powerful online comic book about life in the Villawood detention centre. The press release which he issued, follows. John Menadue A new graphic novel depicts life inside the Villawood Detention Centre A documentary web-comic by Safdar Ahmed depicts the stories of asylum seekers and refugees inside Sydneys Villawood detention centre. [Villawood: Notes From An Immigration Detention Centre LINK] depicts the testimony of people from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, including men, women and teenagers. Some of those included are long-term detainees who have been detained for up...

Max Corden. Bring Back the Carbon Tax?

Mr Hockey has invited the Australian public to join in a conversation about the economy and budget issues. Here is my mildly radical contribution. There are two strong reasons for bringing back the carbon tax. Tony Abbott, when Leader of the Opposition, promised to repeal the carbon tax brought in by Prime Minister Julie Gillard. And he has fulfilled his promise. Congratulations. Now circumstances have changed: the budget deficit and public debt have turned out to be important problems in the eyes of the Government because of the somewhat unexpected decline in export prices. So Mr. Abbott or...

John Falzon Welfare reform but where are the jobs?

If by welfare we mean giving assistance to those who dont really need it and who are living off the public purse, then it is indeed time we had a comprehensive review of welfare. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the McClure Welfare Review was given the task of cutting social expenditure to those who actually do need it. If only we devoted as much effort to welfare reform for the corporates and the rich as we do for the people who struggle! If only we were able to admit that our irrational spending on those who need it least has...

Graham Freudenberg. Gough Whitlam Commemorative Oration.

You will see below what I think is a remarkable speech by Graham Freudenberg about Gough Whitlam's contemporary relevance. This oration is much longer than I normally post on this blog, but it is an outstanding oration which I am sure you will enjoy. The Whitlam Institute will also be publicising this oration. John Menadue THE WHITLAM INSTITUTE GOUGH WHITLAM COMMEMORATIVE ORATION Contemporary Relevance, comrade: Gough Whitlam in the 21st century Graham Freudenberg St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne, 4 March 2015   Let me begin by doing what I did...

John Menadue. Here we go again more mission creep in Iraq.

We seem unable to learn from the history of past centuries and decades as we plan to send another 300 Australian troops to Iraq to train forces fighting IS. To show his patriotic fervour Tony Abbott needed eight Australian flags as a backdrop for his announcement yesterday. I don't recall seeing a Prime Minister wrapped in so many flags! For centuries foreigners like the Greeks, Romans and British, thought that they could subdue Iraq to their wishes. In the process, the fragile country of Iraq has been subject to imperialism, resource exploitation, despotism and religious rivalry. The most...

Walter Hamilton. The Nationalist Siren of Destruction

Virulent, fanatical nationalism is not the answer. Its not the answer in Russia, where an opponent of Putins war on Ukraine was murdered on the streets of Moscow in broad daylight. Its not the answer in China where the ruling Communist Party needs a new raison detre after embracing capitalism without liberalism. It is not the answer in Japan, where a conservative government needs a cover for its inability to end a decades-long economic malaise. It is not the answer in South Korea, where the government wants to show its Japan-bashing credentials are just as good as those of...

Michael Breen. Home Sour Home

Fourteen women have died this year as a result of domestic violence. Australians killed by terrorists in the same period, zero. The ABC Q&A programme February 23rd on Domestic Violence had an enormous response from the viewer and studio audiences. Many thanked the ABC for broaching the matter. Many tragic first hand experiences were aired. For some this was cathartic but the unanswered questions and the visible and obscured statistics leave no doubt that this is a critical national issue. Q&A Tweet.The conversation Australia needed to have . No one from the programme nor beyond it suggests...

We should expect more.

In this article in The Guardian, Richard Flanagan, the Booker Prize winner, refers to the increasing ugliness in Australian public life. He says 'Writing my novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North I came to conclude that great crimes like the Death Railway did not begin with the first beating or murder on that grim line of horror in 1943. They began decades before with politicians, public figures and journalists promoting the idea of some people being less than people'. He makes the case that the brutality and cruelty we now see has been developing for years. I think...

Andrew Leigh. The remarkable persistence of power and privilege.

If you want to know who made up Australias elite in the nineteenth century, a useful place to look is the Australian Dictionary of Biography. In its many volumes, youll find business leaders, scientists, media barons and politicians who have featured among the upper echelons of Australian society. Now, suppose we take the first cohort of significant Australians those who died before 1880 and identify those with unusual surnames like Ebden orMaconochie. People with those names were overrepresented among the elite in the nineteenth century. Are they still at the top of society, or are they mixed...

John Menadue. Health Insurance - here we go again!

The Health Minister, Sussan Ley has just announced a 6.2% increase in private health insurance premiums. Increases of this order happen almost every year. Since the Howard government introduced the rebate on private health insurance in 1999, the cost of private health insurance has increased over 150%. Overall prices have increased by less than 50% in this period. Because private health insurance has not got the will or ability to control prices, it is a 'price taker' as economists say, it underwrites large increases in health costs particularly by private specialists. That is why we are all paying...

Stuart Harris. China is not seeking to break the rules of global order.

Australias foreign policy, and notably its relations with the US and China, has been a mix of positives and negatives under the Coalition government, as was true of the previous Labor government. This reflects the lack of a broad strategic vision of Australias geographic realities and the evolving relationships involved. Former prime ministers, Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke recognised the need for Australia to think strategically about future regional developments, and John Howardsthinking gradually moved in that direction. Such long term strategic thinking is more urgently needed today. The Asian region is changing, as are its regional...

John Menadue. How vested interests are subverting the public interest.

There are many key public issues that we must address. They include climate change, growing inequality, tax avoidance, budget repair, an ageing population, lifting our productivity and our treatment of asylum seekers. But our capacity to address these hard issues is becoming very difficult because of the ability of vested interests with their lobbying power to influence governments in a quite dis- proportionate way. Lobbying has grown dramatically in recent years, particularly in Canberra. It now represents a growing and serious corruption of good governance and the development of sound public policy. In referring to the so called...

Denis Muller. The stitch-up by The Australian.

It is an ugly spectacle when a newspaper aligns itself with the executive government in an attempt to hound from office someone who can otherwise be removed only by the Governor-General. This is what The Australian is doing, in concert with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Attorney-General George Brandis, to Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs. It is the latest in a series of campaigns the newspaper has waged against those in public life with whom it disagrees or against whom it has a grievance. However, these campaigns have usually had the advancement of The Australians own...

John Menadue. Mother Merkel and 800,000 refugees

In September last year I posted an article about the Heroism of Angela Merkel in her generous response to asylum seekers arriving in Germany. She is holding to her course but the difficulties are increasing. The attacks on women in Cologne by men who were reported to be of Arab or North African decent on New Year's Eve coloured attitudes. This unfortunate event and growing concern has resulted in Angela Merkel's approval rating dropping from a high of 75% almost a year ago to 46% now. It was always going to be difficult and leadership in this area...

Intergenerational Report and Australia's future.

In The Age on February 23, Sam Hurley from the Centre for Policy Development highlighted the importance of long-term policy priorities that will support people across all generations. He refers to the crucial issues that we must face that go beyond the one-liners about debt and deficit. See link to article below. John Menadue. http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-intergenerational-report-should-be-the-time-for-a-conversation-about-australias-future-20150223-13m59i.html

The economic potential of older people.

In the SMH on February 22, Susan Ryan, the Age Discrimination Commissioner, described how many older workers are being ignored , yet they could be making a more significant contribution to the economy and society. For article, see link below. John Menadue http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-economic-potential-of-older-people-is-being-ignored-20150222-13lfgt.html

The frontier wars - best we forget.

I have posted many blogs about our refusal to acknowledge the frontier wars, when we suffered the largest death toll in war in our history in relation to our population at the time. In the SMH on February 12, see link below, Tim Flannery draws our attention to the valour of 52 indigenous people who were killed near Casterton, Victoria, in the 1840s. The victors write history! These heroes have been largely expunged from our history. There were no rewards for those who were defending their homelands in the battle known as 'Fighting Hills'. John Menadue http://www.smh.com.au/comment/we-shouldn8217t-forget-the-sacrifice-of-our-aboriginal-warriors-20150212-13bzib.html

Mark Triffitt and Travers McLeod. Don't blame micro-parties or the Senate.

Paul Keating famously labelled the Senate unrepresentative swill. Similar sentiments while not as colourful are being voiced by those frustrated with the blocking power of the Senates micro-parties. In a recent Australian Financial Review survey, leading corporate CEOs called for major reform to the Senate. At one level it is not hard to understand why. The Senate in general, and the minor and micro-parties that hold the balance of power in particular, were instrumental in gutting the Abbott governments budget at a time when reform is pressing. Criticism of their power over policy will likely...

John Menadue. Is there intergenerational theft?

Yes there certainly is, but not in the ways that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey suggest. In his National Press Club speech on February 2, Tony Abbott said Reducing the deficit is the fair thing to do because it ends the intergenerational theft against our children and grand-children. Joe Hockey has also been talking up issues of intergenerational theft in preparation for the release of the fourth Intergenerational Report (IGR). He says we will fall off our chairs when we see the numbers in the report. Apparently the government plans an advertising campaign to tell us how...

Brian Johnstone. The forgotten children. The ethical dimension.

Professor Gillian Triggs, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, has found that by reason of its policy of the continued retention of children of asylum seekers, Australia has been and remains in breach of its international obligations. This applies to both major political parties. The legal argument is clear and has not been refuted. The best the Prime Minister could offer was bluster, condemning the report as a transparent stitch-up. Australia's Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson conceded that retaining children in detention was not in anyones interest, but provided no justification for continuing the detention. The Report of the...

Tony Kevin, Tony Abbotts crassness could cost the Bali duo their lives.

Let me first declare my biases. I believe that I honour and respect Indonesias values and culture. I oppose the death penalty in general. In this case, I would welcome an outcome that saved the lives of the last two members of the Bali Nine who now face execution In Indonesia, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, for the offence of smuggling drugs out of Indonesia in 2005. I believe every life saved from deliberate violent death affirms and enriches our collective humanity; and that the quest for consistency of action is the enemy of mercy. I also believe the murky...

John Menadue. Cover-up in the health system.

There is an unacceptable refusal by many in the health sector to publish data and information about how services are delivered. There is a cover-up by powerful providers who don't want transparency and exposure about the way they work. At the Bundaberg Hospital some years ago it was clear that surgeons had little confidence in surgeon, Jayant Patel. But they sat on their hands and did little to protect the public. It was left to nurses to blow the whistle and risk their careers. Judge Geoffrey Davies AO spoke of this problem in an address last October to...

John Menadue. Privatisation a worn-out ideology.

Voters are making it plain that they are not keen on privatisation. Economic research also tells us that the evidence in favour of privatisation is not conclusive. Conservatives claim that privately owned businesses are better managed than public ones, but I suggest that the main reason for increased productivity of businesses that are sold is not privatisation but the deregulation of the market, offered at the same time or in anticipation of privatisation. Essential Report in early February this year asked interviewees about their attitude to privatisation. Their responses to questions were as follows. Selling off public...

Peter Day. Life is sacred, but ....

The other is no longer a brother or sister to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life and my comfort In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesnt affect me; it doesnt concern me; its none of my business! (Pope Francis) I had the misfortune recently of watching the Four Corners investigation into live-baiting in the greyhound industry trainers were filmed using live rabbits, piglets and possums to instil the blood lust in dogs in order to improve their chasing/racing...

Mary Chiarella. Luke Foley - Nurse-led clinics and primary health care.

In 2011 I gave the last Oration for what was originally the NSW College of Nursing in the Great Hall of Sydney University. In it I advocated for nurses to be able to work to full scope of practice, particularly in the area of primary and preventive health care, in order to alleviate demands on our overstretched hospital systems. Given we currently have a significant oversupply of nurses in this country, especially in our new graduate population, this seems like an excellent time to deploy nurses into some of these roles, long overdue in Australia but commonplace in other parts...

Warwick Elsche. Abbott and Credlin.

It was on again all last week. Apart from the uncertain future of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, all political talk was of Peta Credlin his Chief of Staff and unquestionably the most talked of, written about, high profile staffer in living memory maybe ever. Over more than five years in Opposition and Government, the Prime Minister himself has lauded her importance in his office and the influence she wields on him and his decision making. Apart from normal duties she has been rewarded with the role of vetting Cabinet Papers from all Ministers, unheard of in previous...

The Forgotten Children.

Jill White. Nurse Led Clinics for NSW.

Luke Foley great! Congratulations on committing to nurse led clinics as part of to a primary health care strategy to increase access to community based health care. The four nurse led clinics promised last week are a welcome adjunct to the current but often overstretched GP services. The ACT has led the way in nurse led clinics with the first, based in an emergency department, being evaluated as providing high quality safe and appropriate care; however where there was also easy access to medical care there was the risk of over-servicing lessening the cost effectiveness. So with...

Marie Coleman. Human Rights Commission and the forgotten children.

In February 2015 the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse found that Cardinal George Pell, the former Archbishop of Sydney, had placed the churchs financial interests above his obligation to a victim of childhood sexual abuse. In February 2015 the Prime Minister of Australia, supported by his Ministers, has launched a blistering attack on a distinguished legal scholar and President of the independent statutory Australian Rights Commission, for a report which has found that both the Labor and Coalition Governments have failed to protect children in mandatory detention from abuse and mental and physical harm. Professor Gillian Triggs...

Climate change - If only!

Last Saturday David Cameron, the British PM, Nick Clegg, the Deputy PM and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Ed Milliband, Leader of the British Labour Party, signed a joint pledge on climate change. The three leaders agreed on three particular pledges 'To seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal which limits temperature rises to below 2 degrees centigrade.' 'To work together, across party lines to agree carbon budgets' 'To accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation.' If only Tony...

John Menadue. Climate change and the rise and demise of Tony Abbott.

Opposition to climate change was the vehicle for Tony Abbott to rise to the leadership of the Liberal Party. It is now making a major factor in his demise as Prime Minister. Tony Abbott regarded climate change as absolute crap and in December 2009 he rallied the support of the right wing of the Liberal Party led my Nick Minchin to overthrow Malcolm Turnbull as the leader. His victory margin was one vote. Malcolm Turnbull had been negotiating with Kevin Rudd for a bipartisan commitment on an emissions trading scheme. But with the leadership in his grasp and...

Don't arm Ukraine.

In July last year, Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop were eager to commit Australian police and Australian troops to Ukraine in the aftermath of the shooting down of MH17 by Russian separatists. Their plan didn't work out as they hoped. I have carried blogs by Richard Butler and Cavan Hogue about the geopolitical risks of NATO and the West expanding to the border of Russia. As the war in Ukraine is now escalating, there have been increasing calls within the US for the arming of the Ukraine. John Mearsheimer in the New York Times of February 8 presents...

Peter Day. The Lucky Country

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross, We'll toil with hearts and hands To make this Commonwealth of ours Renowned of all the lands. For those who've come across the seas, We've boundless plains to share. With courage let us all combine To advance Australia fair. (Our National Anthem, Verse 2) The nature of politics these past few years, especially that practiced by the two main parties, reminds one of a bitter marriage struggle one destined for the courts. So consumed have mum and dad been by their anger, by their need for revenge,...

Mercy, judgement, confession and reconciliation.

In the Australian Parliament debate concerning possible executions in Bali, Shadow Foreign Minister, Tanya Plibersek, spoke about the second chance that her husband had received. Her husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter, is now a senior NSW public servant. He had been a drug dealer in the early 1980s. Tany Plibersek commented 'I imagine what would have happened if he had been caught in Thailand instead of Australia where the crime was committeed. ... What would the world have missed out on? They would have missed out on the three most beautiful children we had together. They would have missed out on a...

John Menadue. Fairness, Opportunity and Security - Filling the policy vacuum

I sense that there is great public concern that both the government and opposition keep playing the political and personal game at the expense of informed public discussion of important policy issues. We have become concerned about the trustworthiness of our political, business and media elite. Insiders and vested interests are undermining the public interest. Money is unduly influencing political decisions. There is gridlock on important issues like climate change and taxation. After a near death experience Tony Abbott has said the he is open to new thinking and ways of governing. 'Good government begins today' Time will...

Melanie Noden. The Forgotten Children.

Earlier this week, a damning report by the Australian Human Rights Commission into children in detention was tabled, alleging extensive human rights violations. The Report clearly spells out the negative physical and psychological impact that policies of indefinite detention have on children and brings to light the concerns that many people already have about the treatment of asylum seeker children in Australias care. The Report recommends that a royal commission needs to be established to examine the breach of the Commonwealths duty of care, focussing in particular on the use of force against children in detention, and allegations of...

David M Neuhaus SJ. The Future of Christians in the Middle East. Part 2.

Christian institutions and discourse In the Exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI, The Church in the Middle East, the Pope pointed to the preeminent role of the Christian institutions in the mission of the Christians in the Middle East. For many years, the Catholic Church in the Middle East has carried out her mission through a network of educational, social and charitable institutions. She has taken to heart the words of Jesus: As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me (Mt 25:40). The proclamation of the Gospel has been...

David Neuhaus SJ. The future of Christians in the Middle East. Part 1.

Christians in the Middle East must be a voice for justice, peace, pardon, reconciliation and selfless love. The fear that dominates the experience of many Christian communities can only be overcome by understanding, dialogue and faith, all of which are necessary to maintain the Christian presence in the Middle East. In one of his pastoral letters to the Christian faithful in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah wrote: Your first duty is to be equal to the situation. However complicated or difficult it is, you should try to understand it. Take all the facts into...

Walter Hamilton. Ships and Boats and Please Explains

If the main aim of building ships in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy were to keep locals in work, then the South Australian-based Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) would be a pretty good model. It spent around $400 million on salaries last year, about half its budget. If the aim, however, is to build on time, on budget, and to obtain value for money for Australian taxpayers, ASC would be a terrible model. South Australian spruiker Senator Nick Xenophon and others are on the warpath against competition from Japan, ahead of the long-delayed decision on supplying the next generation...

Feathers ruffled in the Department of Immigration nest.

In the e-magazine, The Mandarin, Stephen Easton has reported that 'highly experienced bureaucrats have vacated the Department of Immigration and Border Protection since its amalgamation with Customs began last year. ... There are signs confidence in the Department is low among Immigration bureaucrats, including some of Australia's most committed and experienced experts. Deputy secretaries Liz Cosson, Wendy Southern and Mark Cormack have all handed in their resignations. ... At least two First Assistant Secretaries have also jumped ship.' This story can be found by clicking on the link below. http://www.themandarin.com.au/21226-feathers-ruffled-hawks-take-immigration-nest/

John Menadue. The nonsense about Free Trade Agreements

In his tormented defence of his governments performance, Tony Abbott highlighted some of his so-called achievements. They included the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Japan, ROK and China. Most of the work in preparation for these agreements had been done by the Rudd and Gillard Governments, but the Abbott Government was so politically driven to get some achievements on the board that it eagerly signed up to these three agreements. Andrew Robb, the Minister for Trade, described these three agreements as The biggest transformational initiatives in public policy since the floating of the Australian dollar thirty years ago....

Greece didn't fail, but the EU's debt moralising did.

It is often said that if you owe the bank $1 million you have a problem. But if you owe the bank $1 billion, the bank has a problem! The EU has that sort of problem with Greece. Joseph Stiglitz, in a recent article (see link below) sets out the problems which the EU now faces. This article was originally published in AlterNet. John Menadue http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/468065/greece-didn-t-fail-but-the-eu-debt-moralising-did

John Attia, John Duggan. Why the government would have us pay more for poorer health.

The Coalition government has been claiming that Australias public health system is unsustainable since the 2014 budget. But its plans for the health system actually reflect the underlying belief that user-pays health systems are better despite evidence to the contrary. Less than a year and a half into the Abbott governments first term, were on our second health minister and the third iteration of some kind of plan to introduce a co-payment for seeing a doctor. Despite widespread and vocal opposition to its plans, the government remains committed to introducing this price signal into the public health system....

Rosemary Breen- Living water in Myanmar

I listened to Rosemary Breen from Inverell speak at my local church about the work she is doing in Myanmar to help poor villagers get access to clean water. She was inspiring and challenging. We all know that polluted water is a cause of dysentery, diarrhoea, infant mortality and early deaths across all age groups. Rosemary Breen decided she would do something about it. If you could help financially you could greatly improve the health of many young people and reduce the death rate. My own parish contributed well over $20 000 in a Christmas appeal. As each tank...

John Menadue. Is the public sick of reform?

The business sector and the media have each been asking this question. It is not surprising perhaps in view of Tony Abbotts plummeting approval rating and the election results in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. In the Australian Financial Review on 2 February 2015, Laura Tingle said The biggest national question to flow from Queenslands historic 2015 election result is not whether the Prime Minister will survive, but whether, after 30 years, voters have had enough of political rhetoric about reform and change and whether both sides of politics back away from ambitious reform as a result. Perhaps...

Rod Tiffen. Murdoch blames Credlin

Does Red Rupe have any remaining red beliefs? Murdoch was called Red Rupe by his fellow Oxford students in the early 1950s. He had a bust of Lenin on his mantle, was a member of the Labour Club and generally espoused the need for radical change. Many thought that his stance was more posturing than any deep seated set of intellectual commitments. Later, and especially from the time he went to live in New York in 1974, his beliefs have tended towards the far right - neo-liberal economics and hawkish foreign policies - and there is a solid, indeed simplistic,...

John Menadue. Stopping the boats and turn-backs at sea

In the Saturday Paper of January 24 this year, in an article by Mike Seccombe, two refugee advocates were quoted as saying: Things like offshore processing and TPVs, mandatory detention these sorts of measures dont stop the boats. Its turnbacks that stop the boats. Its when you start dragging people back to Indonesia. Thats what we saw in 2002-03. Thats what weve seen again now. and The one thing that stops people is sending them back. If you look back, the way they stopped the outflow from China in 1994, it was by interdiction. The same from Haiti to...

Brian Johnstone. The Right to Freedom of Speech

During his flights to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, Pope Francis spoke of the massacre of the staff of a French magazine Charlie Hebdo and others at a kosher supermarket, which killed 17 persons. The attack was in reprisal for satirical depictions of the prophet Muhammad. One cannot make war [or] kill in the name of ones own religion, that is, in the name of God, Francis said. To kill in the name of God is an aberration. But, the Pope added, freedom of speech does not imply total license to insult or offend anothers faith. Every religion has...

War on terror leads to unusual friendships.

Paul McGeough in the SMH of January 31 draws attention to our dubious links to Middle East countries that have appalling human rights records. Our Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, having given advice to Prime Minister Abbott on a knighthood on Prince Philip decided that he need not be in Australia for Australia Day, but went off to the funeral of the late King of Saudi Arabia. What a strange order of priorities! See link below. http://www.smh.com.au/world/war-on-terror-leads-to-unusual-friendships-20150128-12xntq.html

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