John Menadue

  • In the service of empires from Fromelles to the present day.

    See link below to article by Paul Daley in the Guardian ‘Australians didn’t sacrifice themselves at Fromelles, the British sacrificed them’.  John Menadue.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2016/jul/19/australians-didnt-sacrifice-themselves-at-fromelles-the-british-sacrificed-them?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+AUS+v1+-+AUS+morning+mail+callout&utm_term=182252&subid=18184347&CMP=ema_632

  • PHILOMENA MURRAY. Nice attack brings a difficult question into sharp focus: why France?

    If you live in France, you enjoy Bastille Day. There is a buzz in the air as you celebrate a day off in the middle of summer with your family and friends. You go to the fireworks. It is good to be in France and to remember the founding principles of the state – liberty, equality and fraternity. There is little mention of a bloody history of revolution and wars, colonialism and empire. (more…)

  • STEVE GEORGAKIS. Sport is only sport if you participate; otherwise it is a spectacle

     

    The highpoint of sport occurred more than 2,000 years ago when the ancient Greeks established an education system which placed a significant emphasis on the playing of sport and in particular the educational value of participation in sport. The central role of sport in the education system coincided with the flourishing of Greek culture which included democracy, philosophy, architecture and law. That is the Greeks had developed a sports system from the grassroots to the elite level and what characterised this system was the emphasis placed on participation. Subsequently the Greek world was overrun by the Romans who dismantled this participationary system and replaced it with spectacles. For the conquering Romans, sport became something you watched in arenas and hippodromes and usually involved some form of brutality. For the ruling Roman classes it became a way of controlling the masses and from this emerged, ‘Bread and Spectacles’. (more…)

  • FRANCIS SULLIVAN. Economic Inequality is a Wound on our Nation: Can It be Healed?

     

    The wash up from the Federal election echoes that from after the Brexit vote in the UK – voter disenchantment and protest.

    Commentators suggest this comes from electorates where the “old economy” still holds sway. Where jobs are tenuous and basic concerns on health and education are front of mind.

    Others say that the two major parties are too similar and appear unresponsive to the concerns of those who are struggling to keep up with the demands of a “globalised economy” or who have completely missed out on its benefits. (more…)

  • PETER GIBILISCO. Five years in retrospect: Life without control

     

    I look back on the last five years and come to a sad conclusion. For some considerable time, I have been losing control of my movements. But from July 2011 there has occurred a progressive loss of control that is potentially more fundamental than the biological loss of muscular power. It has not been physiological so much as social and personal. What am I referring to? July 2011, five years ago, was when I move into a group-home for people with high support needs. (more…)

  • KATHY CHAPMAN & BRIDGET KELLY. Unhealthy sport sponsorship continues to target kids.

    In the final month of the countdown to the Olympic Games, our sports stars are probably not eating and drinking the Games sponsors’ foods. Again, as in previous Olympics, the Olympic Games sponsors are Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cadburys, whose foods and drinks are not good choices for athletes due to their lack of nutrition and high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats.Unhealthy sponsorship of sport filters all the way down through sport from the elite level to Saturday morning kids’ clubs. (more…)

  • WALTER HAMILTON. Japan’s drift towards constitutional change.

     

    Last weekend’s Upper House election result has armed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party with the parliamentary numbers needed to bring about controversial changes to the Japanese constitution. It does not mean the dropping of the constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 is imminent or inevitable, but in parliamentary terms for the first time it has become possible. (more…)

  • GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. On Gough Whitlam’s 100th birthday, 11 July 2016.

    This tribute is being published as a foreword to the book ‘Not just for this life’. Wendy Guest has put together all the tributes paid to Gough Whitlam in the House and the Senate in October 2014. This tribute to Gough Whitlam will be published by the UNSW Press.

    Something very special and wonderful happened in Parliament House, Canberra, in the last week of October 2014. It began as a conventional condolence motion for a former Prime Minister – Gough Whitlam, who had died on 21 October, aged 98. It became a celebration of the political life of the nation. (more…)

  • KEN HILLMAN. Ageing and end of life issues.

    It is well known that our population is living longer. But has our health system adapted to this ageing population? Do the elderly fit into the construct of a single diagnosis? Can we identify those who are coming to the end of their life? Do we ask them if they would prefer to spend the last few months of life in hospitals? What is the impact of the increasing number of medications that they are taking? What is the impact of modern medicine on age related deterioration? (more…)

  • PETER DAY. The Parable of the Good Muslim

     

    Some right leaning Christian politicians and commentators were not satisfied when a wise man told them you should love your neighbour as yourself. “And who is my neighbour,” they asked. The wise man replied:

    A conservative Member of Parliament was walking back home from church and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, and then began beating him to within an inch of his life. Now it happened that a fellow conservative was travelling nearby, but when he saw the man and the brigands he pretended as if not to see and drove straight by. Then another devout church-goer came upon the commotion, but he too ‘turned the other cheek’ and continued on his way. But a Muslim man – a doctor – who came upon the scene was moved with compassion. He stopped his car causing the brigands to flee. He then took out his First Aid kit and proceeded to bandage the man’s wounds, comforting him with words of kindness. He then gently lifted the man into his car, laid him on the back seat, and took him to a nearby hospital. “Look after him,” he said to the medical registrar; “he has received an awful beating. I will stop by tomorrow to see if he is alright.” 

    “Which of these three do you think proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands’ hands?” asked the wise man. “The one who took pity on him,” they replied. “Go and do the same yourself.”

    ____________________________

    The parable of the Good Samaritan is far more than a nice story about human kindness. Rather, it is a sobering challenge to people who should know better: our lives must not be governed by the cultural or religious constraints of our peers – of “my tribe”; of “my nation”.

    In today’s fractured political and social climate we must be very wary of fear-mongers who invoke tribalism. Such leadership only provides fertile ground for brigands and cowards. Citizens start to feel threatened and panic sets in as people compete for a dominant identity: it us versus them, me versus you.

    Not One Nation, but rather a divided nation.

    Peter Day is a Catholic Priest in Canberra. 

     

  • ROBERT MANNE. Murdoch’s war.

    In July 2005, Robert Manne in The Monthly Essays, outlined Rupert Murdoch’s role and that of some of his senior journalists in support of the invasion of Iraq. Robert Manne notes that ‘of the 175 Murdoch owned newspapers worldwide, all supported the invasion’. The opponents of the war were described in Murdoch’s newspapers as ‘the coalition of the whining’. See transcript below of Robert’s Manne’s revelations about how monopoly press power is abused.  John Menadue

    https://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-robert-manne-murdochs-war-how-lovestruck-teenager-angry-man-and-ambitious-baron-made-

  • GARRY WOODARD. Chilcot and Australia

    Tony Blair is the most flamboyant and contentious of the trio who took the coalition of the willing into war in Iraq.

    Attention focuses on what the Chilcot enquiry has concluded about his role, and equally importantly on what are the lessons, which it promised from the outset it would draw.

    The British enquiry naturally wished to protect the confidences of Blair’s co-conspirators, who have managed, unlike Blair, to preserve an image of dignified statesmanship and confident resignation that they did, properly, what had to be done. (more…)

  • The election campaign’s other big lie: the Coalition hasn’t delivered ‘export agreements’.

     

    Pearls and Irritations has carried many articles about the exaggerated claims for free trade agreements.  That exaggeration continued during the election campaign. One of the five pillars of Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘plan for jobs and growth’ was the alleged benefits of recently negotiated FTAs.

    An increasing feature of the most recently negotiated FTAs is that Australia’s hard-won labour standards are being negotiated away through 457 visas in return for access to overseas markets and particularly China.

    Peter Martin in the SMH of July 7 highlights how little has been delivered through FTAs. See link below.

    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-election-campaigns-other-big-lie-the-coalition-hasnt-delivered-export-agreements-20160706-gpzcx3.html

  • Chilcot Report and the ‘patsy from Down Under’.

    The Chilcot Report on the UK involvement in the invasion of Iraq has just been released. In a commentary on the report, Paul McGeough in the SMH refers to John Howard as the ‘patsy from Down Under’.

    The Chilcot Report concurs with the widespread view that the invasion of Iraq set in hand the awful devastation and death that we now see continuing in the Middle East.  the rise of ISIS can be attributed to the dreadful mistakes of Bush, Blair and Howard.

    For Paul McGeough’s commentary on the Chilcot Report, see link below.

    http://www.smh.com.au/world/chilcot-report-the-mindboggling-incompetence-of-bush-blair-and-howard-laid-bare-20160707-gq06hy.html

    In the next few days, we will be carrying i Pearls and Irritations, further commentaries on the Chilcot Report and implications for Australia.  John Menadue

     

     

     

  • MARK TRIFFITT & TRAVERS McCLEOD. Stability will only be found through ideas and democratic renewal

     

    On Saturday, Australia’s political system crossed a line. From the normal messiness of democracy into fragmented incoherence. From voter unrest to potential revolt.

    The implications are clear for anyone who wants to see. Instability is no longer a one-off in Australian politics but a pattern. Out-of-touch political leadership is no longer an individual failing but systemic.

    The enemies of the major parties may no longer be each other. Their principal enemy is fast becoming the ballot box. (more…)

  • KLAAS & AAFKE WOLDRING. Has Australia now become ungovernable?

     

    While the final outcome of the 2016 election will have to wait for a few days, a Hung Parliament or a Government with a narrow majority seems likely. The outcome for the Senate will take longer but will be even more remarkable with approx. 19 Senators not representing the major parties: nine Greens and 10 others. Probably 30 Senatorial seats will go to the Coalition and 27 to the ALP. The purpose of the Double Dissolution was to reform the Senate voting system and then pass legislation that was blocked by the Cross Benches. Not only will this be unlikely now but a Coalition Government would be hard put to get much of its legislative program through the Senate. (more…)

  • KAITLIN WALSH. Come on down Malcolm! Because YOU are The Biggest Loser

     

    If revenge is a dish best served cold then surely schadenfreude is best when tasted hot and fresh. As when viewing the tattered remnants of the Turnbull camp following Saturday’s election. (more…)

  • KAITLIN WALSH. Don’t trust anyone over 30. The division that transcends race, gender and religion – and why a #SSM plebiscite could become our #Brexit

     

    The increasing vitriol between the Boomers and (mostly) Gen Y has singed more than a few nose hairs in recent years. You’d be well advised to approach any discussion between active combatants with full hazmat gear. And now the #Brexit has brought matters to a head. (more…)

  • GREIG CRAFT. Drinking and Driving: a global problem.

    Global Problem

    Alcohol, drugs and driving simply do not go together. Driving requires a person’s attentiveness and the ability to make quick decisions on the road, to react to changes in the environment and execute specific, often difficult maneuvers behind the wheel. When drinking alcohol, using drugs, or being distracted for any reason, driving becomes dangerous – and potentially lethal![1] (more…)

  • MARTIN WOLF. Brexit is probably the most disastrous single event in British history since WWII.

    In the Financial Times, Martin Wolf says that the fearmongering and outright lies of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, The Sun and the Daily Mail have won.   (more…)

  • RAY MOYNIHAN. Drug companies are buying doctors – for as little as a $16 meal.

    An important new study in the United States has found doctors who receive just one cheap meal from a drug company tend to prescribe a lot more of that company’s products. The damming findings demonstrate the value of new transparency laws in the US, and remind Australians we’re still very much in the dark about what our doctors get up to behind closed doors.

    Just published in the leading Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, this study is well worth a look for anyone interested in the hidden influences on how doctors prescribe.

    Together with a host of other recent work, it adds to the growing mountain of evidence suggesting doctors who expose themselves to marketing strategies – from seeing attractive drug reps to attending sponsored “education” – are doing patients and the wider public a grave disservice.

    Need for transparency

    The new study took advantage of a new government-run and publicly available databasewhich discloses all drug company payments to doctors. Researchers looked at how often doctors prescribed four popular brand-name drugs, and linked prescribing rates to how often those doctors received meals from the drugs’ manufacturer.

    They found that receiving just one company-funded meal was associated with a 20% increase in prescribing of Astra Zeneca’s cholesterol-lowering statin, Crestor, compared to other drugs in the same class.

    For two other heart drugs, the increase was in the order of 50%. For Pfizer’s anti-depressant Pristiq, taking one free meal was linked to a 100% increase, or a doubling of the rate of prescriptions.

    The average cost of the meals drug companies gave these doctors was between US$12 (A$16) and US$18 ($A24).

    And when doctors ate sponsored meals on more than four occasions, their prescribing of the brand-name drugs rose dramatically. Perhaps unsurprisingly, doctors who got more expensive meals tended to have bigger prescribing increases.

    Association not cause and effect

    Perhaps the most important caveat, as the study’s authors stressed, is that “the findings represent an association – not a cause and effect relationship”. Nevertheless, the results reinforce similar findings from recent studies also using the new transparency data in the US.

    In March investigative journalists at ProPublica found doctors who received drug company payments or gifts – mostly free meals – wrote scripts for brand-name drugs at much higher rates compared to doctors who didn’t take industry money.

    In May, in the journal PLOS One, researchers found almost half of the 700,000 doctors in the US had received payments from drug companies. Specialties receiving the highest industry payments had the highest prescribing costs per patient.

    And also in May, the JAMA Internal Medicine published a small study from the state of Massachusetts, similarly uncovering an association between payments from industry and modest increases in rates of prescribing brand-name statins (cholesterol-lowering medication).

    So why does this matter?

    The main concern in all the recent US studies is the unnecessary cost to patients and the health system when brand-name drugs are prescribed instead of cheaper generic alternatives.

    But perhaps the more serious concern is the danger of doctors prescribing under the influence of drug company marketing – which always favours the latest new drug, rather than what’s in the patient’s best interest.

    As The Conversation has covered recently, newer and aggressively promoted drugs can have very limited advantages over older ones, if any, and sometimes carry very serious side effects – particularly for the elderly.

    There is already evidence many older Australians are at risk of harm from taking too many inappropriate medicines – and there is a growing push to promote “de-prescribing”, which means taking people off drugs they don’t need.

    Australia still in dark

    Compared to the new transparency regime in the US, Australia has fallen way behind. Under new rules some payments to some individual doctors will have to be disclosed from this August, but there are too many loopholes.

    As a result of horse trading about the new rules – between the doctors, the drug companies and public authorities – any funding of meals costing less that A$120 will not have to be disclosed. And if doctors who have received payments don’t want their names disclosed in August, they won’t be.

    Also, all of the roughly 25,000 events, including breakfasts, lunches and dinners which doctors and other health professionals regularly attend annually, will from now on remain totally secret – until there is regulatory reform.

    Consumer groups are angry that citizens remain in the dark, and many doctors are horrified by the wining and dining of their colleagues, with some cutting their ties: refusing to see the attractive sales reps and seeking “education” elsewhere.

    Disclosure on its own is no panacea

    As others have pointed out, disclosure on its own is not a panacea, and it’s legitimate to ask why doctors should receive any free gifts or meals at all.

    Already there’s been one legislative attempt to enforce more independence between doctors and drug companies in Australia, and it is likely more will emerge in the future.

    Until then, it might be wise to inquire whether your doctor still takes the free meals – and perhaps seek your care elsewhere if the answer is yes.

    Ray Moynihan is Senior Research Fellow, Bond University.  This article was first published in The Conversation on 23 June 2016.

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

     

    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 2nd of July will need to address the greatly changed world of 2016. (more…)

  • DAVID POPE. Medicare – Eaten out from within.

     

    This cartoon by David Pope was published in The 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 gallery http://www.canberratimes.com.au/photogallery/act-news/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html.

    Medicare

     

    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 was felt to be a good deal. (more…)

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

     

    ‘The quality of a student’s 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 and the Coalition support it – or not? It’s a simple question and it would be good to hear it asked and answered publicly before the imminent Federal election. (more…)

  • 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/

    (more…)

  • 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 THOMPSON. The regional health “plan”.

    The Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, advises that, as Member for Farrer, she represents some of Australia’s most remote and disadvantaged communities and therefore understands that access to health services, as well as people’s priorities, can differ significantly to those in our capital cities. (more…)

  • PETER GIBILISCO. Friedreich’s 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 Friedreich’s Ataxia. I was diagnosed with onset at 14; now I’m 54. (more…)

  • 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.

    Other large groups operate on a commercial basis but have a religious and thus notionally not-for-profit orientation, such as the St John of God group in Western Australia.

    There are also a shrinking number of smaller independent operators trying to occupy market niches or leverage personal relationships.

    The industry doesn’t speak with one voice; different providers have competing interests. The key private sector industry body is Pathology Australia. But it doesn’t representPrimary Health Care or religious entities. (more…)