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

William H. Overholt- Biden cannot counter China with a team that lacks expertise

President Biden's foreign policy team says China is the priority, but the team lacks China expertise. Other than trade experience at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Bidens Cabinet has no China expertise.

The vaccine roll out is a much bigger debacle than the NBN rollout

The vaccine roll out is a much bigger debacle than the NBN rollout

Australia is suffering from a defense information dearth

Australias defence reporters are being denied access to senior Department of Defence officials under a clampdown imposed by new Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

Being open, despite the past: article by Russian President Vladimir Putin

An article by the President of Russia has been published in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit and is timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic war.

Can the success of the NHS vaccination rollout in the UK be applied in other areas of healthcare?

The success of the NHS covid-19 vaccination programme shows the benefits of national leadership and local delivery in healthcare. Working at speed and scale, the programme put in place a service delivery model that delivered a standard offer to the public with the aim of achieving equity in vaccine delivery and zero waste. The question now is whether these lessons can be applied in other areas of care as the NHS embarks on restoring non-covid services, arguably the biggest challenge in its history.

Militarism has become the norm. We now even have an Army Lieutenant General heading the vaccine roll out

Militarism has become the norm. We now even have an Army Lieutenant General heading the vaccine roll out

What a reflection this is on the standing of the Australian Public Service and the Morrison Governments lack of interest in a robust and well functioning civil society. We invariably turn to the military.

Oliver Stone on the US Military, Industrial, Money, Media and Security Complex with never ending wars and death (Video)

Our failure in Asia as viewed nine years ago. The situation is now far worse.

Our failure in Asia as viewed nine years ago. The situation is now far worse.

Nine years ago, in the speech below, I was pessimistic about our understanding of Asia and our future. The situation has got markedly worse since then.

Julian Assange and the collapse of the rule of law

Chris Hedges gave this talk at a rally Thursday night in New York City in support of Julian Assange. John and Gabriel Shipton, Julians father and brother, also spoke at the event, which was held at The Peoples Forum.

Moral bankruptcy and cruelty inthe treatment of the Biloela Family.

The government is hiding behind legislation as a reason for not doing anything. This is truly a morally bankrupt position as anyone who understandsImmigration law knows.

Deepfake maps could really mess with your sense of the world

Satellite images showingthe expansion of large detention camps in Xinjiang, China, between 2016 and 2018 provided some of the strongest evidence of agovernment crackdownon more than a million Muslims, triggering international condemnation and sanctions.

The use of US armed forces abroad, 1798-2020, by US Congressional Research Service: 20 July, 2020

This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its Armed Forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes.(Covert activities are not included)

Letter regarding Afghan staff who have worked for the Australian Government in Afghanistan

Dear Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration, The undersigned are a group of Australians who have worked in the Indo Pacific in government, business and the media from the sixties until the present day.

What has the US done that China hasn't?

It might be the right time to make a list a list of things China did not do.

The French submarine boondoggle is Australias biggest defence blunder. Our tame corporate media hardly noticed.

For the first time in over five years of delay and evasion the Secretary of Defence has at last told us that the Government is looking at an alternative to the French submarine. Our corporate media has failed to hold the government to account in its scandalous handling of the $90 billion French submarine purchase. For five years, the media has failed us. It is now rewarded in the new Media Code with 90% of the tax on Google and Facebook to be handed over to the three failing monopoly media companies.

Intelligence agencies have helped precipitate the crisis in our relations with China (An updated post)

In Max Suich's outstanding series in the Australian Financial Review,on16,17and18 May, on how we got into the pointless confrontation with China there is no doubt that much of the 'intelligence' came from US sources and that our naive and China ignorant intelligence agencies tagged along and served up US intelligence dressed up as their own. But in the end the Australian Government is responsible for the mess.

Israeli deceit and US complicity in attacks on Palestinians

Israeli deceit and US complicity in attacks on Palestinians

'We are the only people on Earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier.'..Hanan Ashrawi 'America is behind this war and I am ashamed to be an American'...Anthony Hopkins.

Understanding Beijings motives regarding Taiwan, and Americas role

John Culver retired in 2020 after a distinguished 35-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency. During that time, he analyzed East Asian affairs, including security, economic, and foreign policy dimensions. As national intelligence officer for East Asia from 2015 to 2018, he drove the intelligence communitys support to top policymakers on East Asian issues. He routinely participated in meetings at the White House, with leaders throughout the United States government, and with foreign government officials. In a conversation with Brookings Senior Fellow and interim Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies Ryan Hass, the two discussed the risk of future conflict in...

Be not afraid: Daniel Berrigan and his fearless nonviolence, at 100

Five years since his death and 100 since his birth, legendary priest, author, poet and activist Daniel Berrigan continues to offer wisdom and insight on living a life of creative nonviolence.

The repeated lie that Abbott and Morrison stopped the boats has become a 'fact'. It is just not true.

Our corporate media will not acknowledge that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison did notstop the boats. Despite clear evidence, the Canberra Press Gallery fell for the spin. With a tame media and cooperation by the military, the big lie was repeated time and time again and became accepted as fact. This was all before Donald Trump and his big lies.

U.S. Foreign Policy Flow Chart

Here's a handy U.S. foreign policy flow chart.

Melissa Parke successfully settles defamation case against pro-Israeli commentator

Melissa Parke has successfully settled defamation legal proceedings with pro-Israeli commentator Colin Rubenstein over his claims that Parke had been anti-Semitic in her remarks on Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

Lobby Land. The power of the health lobby. Health ministers may be in office but they are not in power. An update.

The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers- the health lobby. A succession of Australian health ministers Liberal and Labor for three decades have failed in any serious health reform. We have been going around in circles. It is very depressing. The new shadow minister Mark Butler could succeed as Minister if he can find a way to manage and neutralise the provider/lobbyists. But not otherwise. And don't look the the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing for much help. It was State Premiers, State Health Ministers and State Health officials who drove the fight against the...

Statement in support of LGBTIQA+ Catholics

The Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (ACCCR) issues this statement in support of LGBTIQA+ Catholics, their families and friends following the ill-informed statement from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in which it bans the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex.

Why has there been a spike in anti-asian hate? The NY Times answers their own questions

A collage of panic-inducing anti-China headlines from the New York Times and other major publications can be seen as a factor in the rise of anti-Asian hate seen in western countries.

Marise Payne and Kurt Campbell believe their own propaganda about economic coercion by China

The Australian Government and our tame media complain continually about China's 'economic coercion of Australia. But the conflict with China has in many cases been provoked by Australia. The US has not looked at the facts and stumbles in blindly.

Will the Alaska meeting ease tensions or worsen relations between the US and China?

There is an important face to face meeting between the US and China on Thursday in Alaska. But our media seems disinterested.

QUAD: A public relations exercise to disguise Big Pharmas obstruction and to combat Chinese vaccine successes

QUAD: A public relations exercise to disguise Big Pharmas obstruction and to combat Chinese vaccine successes

QUAD (US, Japan, India and Australia) was regarded as a strategic bloc to contain China. However, the recent virtual meeting between President Biden and Prime Ministers Suga, Modhi and Morrison ,whilst highlighting the provision vaccines to the region was really about curbing Chinese vaccine successes- an expression of soft power.

The Iraq war, the Murdoch war and media culpability

The Iraq war, the Murdoch war and media culpability

The media here thought the terrorism in Australia fell from the deep blue sky and had no relationship to the help John Howard gave to George Bush in the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. The Australian media continue to fail us badly over its coverage of the Middle East wars, terrorism and the continuing human disaster and political and sectarian confusion.

Why dental care was excluded from Medicare and why it should now be included (an edited repost)

In 1974, the Whitlam Government decided to exclude dental care from Medicare for two reasons. The first was cost. The second was political. Whitlam felt that combatting the doctors would be hard enough without having to combat dentists as well. Forty-six years later, with Australia much richer and the proven success of Medicare, it is now time for dental care to be progressively included in Medicare.

The French submarine boondoggle isAustralias biggest defence blunder and compounded by media failure

The French submarine boondoggle isAustralias biggest defence blunder and compounded by media failure

Our corporate media has failed to hold the government to account in its scandalous handling of the $90 billion French submarine purchase. For five years, the media has failed us. It is now rewarded in the new Media Code with 90% of the tax on Google and Facebook to be handed over to the three failing monopoly media companies.

Our C18th health workforce structure is riddled with demarcations, inefficiencies and antique work practices. (An edited repost)

Casual workers are fair game but the government is not prepared to tackle the very serious workforce inefficiencies in our large and growing health sector.

Two decades after 9/11, US war machine is in 85 countries

Since 2018, the US has provided counterterrorism training or assistance in 79 nations and its troops have carried out bombing or ground attacks in 10 countries, according to a new interactive map. Meanwhile, China has one official overseas base, in Djibouti.

Japanese Ambassador rapped over the knuckles by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

But did he get the message?

What is the Japanese Embassy in Canberra up to?

Is it trying to stoke anti-China sentiment in Australia?

People in glass houses should be careful about throwing stones

A group of Australian journalists in their never-ending hostility to China keep throwing stones at China for human rights breaches in Xinjiang, but largely ignore Australian and other breaches. Their ignorance of China explains a lot.

Australia: Clinging to a declining and aggressive US. An updated repost

Declining empires never go gracefully. And neither will the US empire addicted as it is to a belief in its exceptionalism and its grounding in aggression both at home and abroad. The attack on the US Capitol reminds us how fragile our ally is. The civil war is unfinished business.Western media have sought to minimise this constitutional crisis- a democratic blip and nothing more! Joe Biden will smooth a few rough edges but he wont do much to arrest the decline. He will keep telling us that 'America is back' and leading again!

Murdoch and his role in the Trump Presidency

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd dissects Rupert Murdoch's role in creating the Trump presidency. Donald Trump may have lit the match that detonated his country's turmoil but it was Rupert Murdoch who diligently crammed the joint full of explosives.

Chinas vision of hegemony: the view from India - Vijay Gokhale

China speaks of the community of the shared future for mankind, and winwin cooperation; it plays balance-of-power politics and acts in ways that take advantage of others in adversity. Chinas aim is to establish its supremacy in areas of productive technology, trade networks and financing options in ways that shut out competition.

Rupert Murdochs faulty memory. (edited repost from 21 Dec, 2016)

Rupert Murdoch has asserted many times that he has never asked anything from a prime minister yet the Guardian has proof that contradict that claim, as do I.

How Murdoch, Abeles twisted the arm of the Hawke Government to help Ansett at the expense of Qantas. (Edited and reposted from 1.1.2019))

Rupert Murdoch repeatedly says that he has never asked a prime minister for anything. That is quite brazen. I know, from personal experience, that this claim is just not true.

The Matthew Fisher Sarcoma Research Fund

My granddaughter Naomi's husband, Matt Fisher, died of an aggressive sarcoma cancer earlier this month. He was aged 39. The sarcoma was diagnosed in February last year. A research fund has been established to promote research at the Garvan Institute. Would you consider making a donation?Click here.

Media concentration in Australia and the Murdoch damage

It is important that any arrangements made for Facebook/Google/Twitter to pay media companies for content are made transparently and equally available to ALL online media publishers who meet (a very low) bar and wish to participate.No government should ever facilitate the handing over of money to tax shy oligopolies.

The love affair that made America grate

Between rides and walks on the Trump Golf Course and embracing at the White House, Murdoch and Trump have debauched democracy.

The Murdoch-Trump love affair

Theres a term for what happened at the Capitol this week: whitelash (Politico 9.1.21)

The whiplash from the Georgia elections to the storming of the Capitol mirrored a familiar pattern in US history of Black advancement followed by white backlash.

What do our political leaders stand for?

Good government must be based on broadly shared values that inspire and enthuse us.

Words matter: Was the attack on the Capitol a rally, protest or insurrection? (Center for Public Integrity)

What happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6?Depends on whom you ask. To some, the attack by hundreds of mostly white men and women was an insurrection. To others it was a coup.

Drug policy reform series - a repost

Attached is a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series on Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series is designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies.

<