Writer
Jack Waterford
John Waterford AM, better known as Jack Waterford, is an Australian journalist and commentator.
-
ANZUS and NATO are kaput and Trump doesn’t care
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have proven too gutless, so far, to speak frankly to Australians about the implications of the imposition of new tariffs by the US, the first of many, to be imposed on Australia. They have expressed some ritual regrets and said it was a poor reward for their sycophantic grovelling over Continue reading »
-
Are America’s values our values anymore?
No issue in the forthcoming election is as important as Australia’s international identity and the crisis in the Western alliance about its senior partner, the United States. The alliance is fragmenting and, it appears, President Trump is daring Europe to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression independently. He wants NATO members to double their defence spending Continue reading »
-
The public is slow to believe the best of politicians
Peter Dutton deserves a little sympathy as he indignantly denies any conflict of interest or impropriety over his purchases of banking shares and real estate. Many people always believe the worst of politicians, particularly if there is any suggestion of abuse of position, making money on the side, or personal enrichment. Dutton has pointed to Continue reading »
-
Silence is golden for a smart independent
Any Teal or independent standing for the House of Representatives at the election would be well advised to keep schtum about their cards in the upcoming poker game. All will depend on the numbers and negotiations with the major parties and each other following the election. Indeed, any one of them who cannot resist the temptation Continue reading »
-
Teals should hammer unfinished integrity agenda
The Commonwealth minister in charge of electoral matters, Senator Don Farrell is a traditionalist. It was entirely in line with parliamentary traditions that recent “reforms” to electoral laws have been on the nose. Like parliamentarians’ pay rises being smuggled through in bipartisan mutual esteem at the end of late night sessions, changes to the electoral Continue reading »
-
Yes, let’s have an inquiry into the smelly Dural caravan affair
The Dural caravan affair stinks to high heaven. If I were Anthony Albanese, I would bow, with every appearance of reluctance, to Peter Dutton’s demands for an inquiry. Far from shrouding this inquiry with a cloud of secrecy of the sort so beloved by the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and his department, I would opt for Continue reading »
-
Who’s tough enough not to pull the AUKUS trigger?
A time may come when someone must write the history of Labor’s 2025 historic electoral triumph over the Coalition, and the “rope a dope” strategies and tactics which took Opposition leader Peter Dutton in, then spat him out. If it all comes to pass, students of Labor history will note that it was two key Continue reading »
-
Will public servants become agents of the party rather than the state?
One of the strong points Anthony Albanese made before the last election was that Scott Morrison had virtually abandoned honest government, good government, accountable government and transparent government. Continue reading »
-
Laurel-less Biden limps for the exit. Will Albanese be next?
Joe Biden’s inaction and diffidence has made him a party to Israel’s atrocities. Continue reading »
-
A clear and present danger to the peace of the world
Donald Trump is still to be sworn in for his second term, but is already confirming that he remains a menace to world peace, security and stability. Continue reading »
-
Steering without a compass or a map
In 1971, Time magazine decided that it might do a friendly cover story on newly installed Liberal prime minister, Billy McMahon, and asked for co-operation from his media office. The office asked that questions be submitted in writing. This was not from mistrust of Time – indeed the office was deeply conscious of what Jane Continue reading »
-
Whipping up Aboriginal enthusiasm
Here’s a sad prediction for 2025. By the end of next year, more states and territories will have dropped the age of criminal responsibility to 10, and adopted punitive laws based on slogans such as Queensland’s “you do the crime, you do the time” for juvenile as well as adult offenders. The greatest proportion will Continue reading »
-
Few voters think they have benefitted much from Labor in government
It goes almost without saying that much of the ordinary economic commentary ahead of the election, whether in the Murdoch media, the Fairfax media and the ABC, as well as among the senior bureaucracy and the business community (including Reserve Bank governors), will proceed on the assumption that any money spent on subsidies, tax breaks Continue reading »
-
To defeat Dutton, Labor needs inspiration and leadership from its ‘mortal enemy’ – the Greens
Dutton’s nuclear plans provide an opportunity for a campaign Labor could win. But it won’t be won without girding for war. The need for some political alliance is greater given that neither Albanese nor his senior ministers, and the party organisation, have shown themselves up to serious political struggle on climate change. Continue reading »
-
Albo’s pre-emptive kowtow to an imagined Westminster
The Labor Party would like it to be understood that they would prefer that voters give their second preference to the Liberal Party or the National Party, ahead of any Greens, Independents or members of loose groupings such as the Teals. Elders of the party believe that the two-party system – which they consider to Continue reading »
-
Does Albo even deserve to win?
Not since Alaska has the US won a nation so cheaply. Continue reading »
-
Distorting elections: Australia’s professional politicians feather their own nests
The ALP is full of legends – of which many old party folk are defiantly proud – of political skullduggery. There have been stuffed ballot boxes, and mysteriously disappearing ones, and forged minutes of branch meetings. Continue reading »
-
Labor, party of the comfortably housed, needs the Greens
Labor needs the Greens. It seems to calculate that the Greens have no choice about preferencing them. That might once have seemed logical, but it is by no means certain when Labor’s defence policies are anathema to many Greens, when Labor policies on refugees and immigration are indistinguishable from the coalition’s, and when their climate Continue reading »
-
Like Kamala, Albanese doesn’t seem to get it
This was a mood election; It was not a referendum about Kamala Harris. Nor was it a referendum of Donald Trump’s character. Continue reading »
-
Albanese’s limp self-defence aggravated the damage of Qantas allegations
And the National Anti-Corruption Commission loses its appeal. Continue reading »
-
Keeping the public in the dark: Is it time to scrap the NACC and start again?
The National Anti-Corruption Commission has recently issued its first substantial, if highly redacted report clearing a former Department of Home Affairs officer of any suspicion of corruption over a million dollars or more of payments from her son, himself a former home affairs officer who had obtained, without an open tender a contract to provide Continue reading »
-
ACT Labor holds on, but are wheels coming off the Albanese re-election campaign?
Albanese once said his purpose in life was to “fight Tories.” In government he has done little more than surrender to them. Continue reading »
-
ACT’s Barr will struggle to overcome belief he has been in power too long
This ACT election is not an election about policies. Nor, by itself, about significant changes to the style of government. Continue reading »
-
Australia poised to enter another US-led Middle East war
With less than two months to go, voters may go to the American polls while their nation is at war. If they do, there is a significant chance that Australia will be dragged in, and in accordance with imperial tradition be sent to fight in the Middle East. Continue reading »
-
If we can’t have vision, let’s have boldness and strength of purpose
One should never feel sympathy for a politician caught in a rule-in rule-out game. Perhaps the period should be after the eighth word, but there is something spectacularly dumb about foreclosing on policy options even when they are not under active contemplation, narrowing the range of debate and allowing its terms to be set by Continue reading »
-
Public Service Commission is an enemy of the public and the public interest
Irony does not seem to be the strong point of the Public Service Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer. During the very moments while explaining why Kathryn Campbell had failed her public service ethics examinations, he was committing much the same sort of sin. This was when he was unconvincingly explaining why he could not, should not, Continue reading »
-
Kamala still facing electoral college hurdles
Kamala Harris was, to my mind, a clear winner of the first debate between herself and Donald Trump. As things stand, however, I reckon that Trump must be still regarded as the favourite to win a majority of the state electoral college votes, and thus become the next president. I hope I am wrong, but Continue reading »
-
It’s now too late for Labor to fix its re-election problems
This week I was practising my argument about a feeling that Albanese Labor has by now left it too late to retrieve its position before the next federal election is due. This was after it was revealed that the economy is on life support and that Labor’s best argument about being a superior economic manager Continue reading »
-
Stewards should have an early look at this roughie racehorse
We can all be grateful that the acting auditor general Rona Mellor has decided to take at least a sideways glance into Commonwealth speculation, alongside a similar bet by the probably outgoing Queensland government, in an American horse in the great quantum computing race. I know nothing to say that there is anything intrinsically dodgy Continue reading »
-
Labor on the AUKUS battleground
One of Lyndon Johnson’s sage pieces of political advice was that one should never get into a piss fight with a skunk. Kamala Harris should take note. But so should Anthony Albanese, who is inadequately equipped for an argument over AUKUS and the submarine deal with his predecessor Paul Keating. Continue reading »
