I would progressively wind back and eliminate the $14b pa taxpayer subsidy for Private Health Insurance and use that very large sum to fund the inclusion of dental care within Medicare and increase the funding to the states for expanded specialist services in outpatient clinics at public hospitals. (more…)
John Menadue
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A night with the Vice Chancellors – the export of education services. A repost from June 19, 2015
In 2015, education services earned an export income for Australia of over $16 b. p.a. Those export services were expected to increase to $31 b. p.a. by 2020 from about 600,000 overseas students. Education was our fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. It is our major services export, ahead of tourism. (more…)
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“I learned that powerful people trample on institutions and conventions” when it suits: Podcast ABC ‘The Eleventh’, February/March 2020
After November 11 1975, I came to the conclusion that even a Governor General, some High Court Judges and a powerful media proprietor were not honourable and trustworthy. (more…)
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Best of 2022: The major parties refuse to tackle the lobbying scourge. Can the Teals and the Greens save the day?
The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge. (more…)
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Violence at home and abroad is as American as cherry pie.
We could get into a war with China is if we continue to act as a proxy or deputy sheriff for the US in the region. Despite the media hysteria, China is not a military threat to Australia or the US. (more…)
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John Menadue. Why I am still a Catholic: A repost from July 7, 2017
Cardinal John Henry Newman once said that there is nothing as ugly as the Catholic Church yet nothing as beautiful. It is hard to see that beauty at this moment. With sexual abuse it is time for sackcloth and ashes. Mysogyny is wall to wall. But I will hang on. (more…)
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Medicare reform must not just be about more money to do the same things the same way
Medicare must now focus on how health services are delivered.
When it was established in 1974, Medicare funded the way health services were delivered at that time. That delivery system has not been changed much at all since then. After fifty years the way we deliver health care needs substantial reform and updating. Our health delivery system is in a mess. (more…)
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The National Party has deserted country people on climate change, NBN, health services, and now the Voice
Farmers are the main sufferers from climate change- droughts, fires heavy rainfall and floods. The National Party has failed farmers and country people on numerous fronts. It has sold out to the miners. (more…)
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Whitlam was elected fifty years ago today: Medibank/Medicare was conceived five years before that
On a bleak Melbourne midwinter night in 1967, Medicare was conceived. The election of the Whitlam Government on December 2 ,1972 gave impetus to what was to come. Medicare was finally launched in 1975. (more…)
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Defence Strategic Review – Read all about it
According to the terms of reference Defence Security Review is now required to ensure that Defence has the right capabilities that are postured to meet the growing strategic challenges that Australia and its partner countries will face in the world in coming years. (more…)
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Xi and Albanese: Can we again seize the opportunity?
The meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Albanese could result in an overdue improvement in relations between our two countries. But real improvements will take time and a lot of goodwill. Will Richard Marles be a stumbling block?? (more…)
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China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack us
We are being led in our anti-China hysteria by the United States which is not concerned that China will attack us, or even the United States, but is concerned that its world hegemony is being challenged. (more…)
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The $530 billion junk infrastructure scandal – What the PM can do – Part 2 of 2
Sydney and Melbourne’s ‘big infrastructure build’ will soon prove Australia’s ‘big bust’. Our Prime Minister cannot aid and abet this madness. (more…)
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Exposed: Sydney, Melbourne’s $530 billion junk infrastructure scandal – Part 1 of 2
Sydney and Melbourne’s ‘big infrastructure build’ will soon prove Australia’s ‘big bust’. Our Prime Minister must not aid and abet this madness. (more…)
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Four Corners: Australia becomes US nuclear spear carrier in Asia
Four Corners last night showed how Australia is becoming ‘a proxy’ or is it ‘a patsy’ for the US in a possible conflict with China. Our actions invite a Chinese response. Sometimes I wonder why the Chinese bother about a reset in relations when we behave so foolishly at the behest of the US. China is not a threat to Australia but our ‘dangerous ally’ keeps goading China to provoke a war. (more…)
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The Pentagon builds a network in our Department of Defence amidst media silence
It is more than inter-operability and inter-changeability with the US military. Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles need to break up the American network in our Department of Defence that the Washington Post has exposed. (more…)
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Will the QUAD go the same way as SEATO and just become irrelevant?
After the election, Prime Minister Albanese hightailed it to Japan for a QUAD meeting with Jo Biden, Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida to join them in anti-Chinese posturing. (more…)
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Paul Keating has warned us that ‘our strategic sovereignty is being outsourced to another country, the US’
‘Worried about Australian sovereignty? Don’t bother, it’s gone.’ (more…)
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White Man’s Media: The Washington consensus and legacy media frames and conditions our thinking and actions. An updated repost
Western media including our own act as conveyer belts for Washington propaganda.Think.Gaza (more…)
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A conversation with Paul Keating: Australia’s strategic interests, alliances and standing up for ourselves
Not many were given a continent, says Keating on the challenges and opportunities that Australia faces. We have to stop ignoring the realities of the region in which we are positioned. (more…)
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Dr Aran Martin appointed as Editor of Pearls and Irritations
At Pearls and Irritations we are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Aran Martin to the position of Editor. (more…)
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Australia and China: A conversation with Paul Keating
La Trobe University’s Ideas and Society Program is extremely pleased to be able to invite you to an online discussion between former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, and James Curran, a Professor of History at the University of Sydney and author of Australia’s China Odyssey, on a question fundamental to the future of Australia – our relations with China and, thus, the United States. (more…)
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Pearls and Irritations adds language translations to its string
We want to speak your language. (more…)
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The Queen complained that Gough Whitlam was rude to the lesser Royals
In 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica, aboard her yacht The Britannia, the Queen told me that ‘your Prime Minister had been ‘rude’ to my family.’ I was the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time. (more…)
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The demarcations and restrictive work force practices in our health ‘system’ are a public scandal
Our eighteenth century health workforce structure needs a root and branch overhaul. But governments are too frightened to tackle health providers like doctors and pharmacists. Blue collar workers however are easy prey. (more…)
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The Defence Strategic Review – We are becoming a proxy or is it a patsy for the US in a possible conflict with China
The Defence Strategic Review must warn Minister Marles about the dangerous path he is committing Australia to. We are becoming a spear carrier for the US. (more…)
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The major parties refuse to tackle the lobbying scourge. Can the Teals and the Greens save the day?
The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge. (more…)
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In her ‘devotion to duty’ the Queen sacked an Australian PM described by Philip as a ‘socialist arsehole’
In the mammoth royal love in we are enduring, we are told about the Queen’s cordial relationship with numerous PMs. But not Gough Whitlam. That would upset our colonial mind set. We try and shut out the Queen’s implausible and misleading denial on the Whitlam sacking.
(The following is a repost from 26 January 2021). (more…)
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The Defence Strategic Review and the loss of our strategic autonomy to the US
Over the next two weeks we will be running a series of articles to focus on the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) which is headed by Sir Angus Houston and the Hon. Stephen Smith.
In becoming a US proxy, even patsy, we are on a risky and dangerous path. (more…)
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The Greens are at it again
The Greens are threatening to block the referendum on the ‘Voice’ which promises to give effect to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. (more…)