Writer
Jack Waterford
John Waterford AM, better known as Jack Waterford, is an Australian journalist and commentator.
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Time is running out for Labor to show it deserves to win government
Labor needs a charismatic leader to win an election from opposition. But Anthony Albanese has eschewed the larrikin personality that got him to the top. Continue reading »
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Are Albanese and Labor really ready to govern?
Anthony Albanese has avoided many potential conflicts with the government. But that cleverness has helped obscure what, if anything, he stands for. Continue reading »
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Failure to stand up to the Nationals makes Liberal leaders the real villains
The modern Liberal Party created the conditions where the Nationals can threaten the Coalition at any time in pursuit of its own agendas. Continue reading »
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National Party is extorting the government for money and favours on climate change
After all the grandstanding, the National Party will make a deal on climate change policy. They are for sale. Continue reading »
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Partisan political favouritism on trial in Berejiklian’s ICAC case
When former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian faces an ICAC hearing, we might finally have a debate on whether we can call politicians doing favours for political or personal mates “corruption”. Continue reading »
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In 50 years, Australia has never bought the best submarine for its needs
As always, when it comes to submarines, the latest Australian deal has more to do with the Morrison government’s election strategy than national security. Continue reading »
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To protect its interests, Australia should be a better neighbour rather than a US lapdog
Australia has lost considerable credit as an international citizen in recent years, in part because of meanness with aid, but also because of its retreat from multinational systems, including combined action on climate change. Continue reading »
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Coalition’s game of chicken with China for political advantage
Does Australia continue to provoke and insult China not so much to hurt our biggest trading partner as to motivate our most important ally – the United States – to maintain a strong economic and military presence in the area? Continue reading »
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A premature victory over Covid could be ruinous
With Commonwealth-state politics at play over the vaccine rollout, Scott Morrison will likely face state premiers entering the federal election campaign, pitching their popularity against his record. Continue reading »
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Vaccines: poor design, poor execution and Morrison failure
The prime minister has appointed an army general to lead the pandemic response, but we still don’t know when Australians will be able to declare victory over the virus. Continue reading »
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It is not obvious that Morrison would win a public relations battle with the states
Given the vaccine rollout debacle, Scott Morrison would struggle to convince voters he has handled the pandemic better than state premiers. Continue reading »
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Can Morrison sell his risky plan as a ‘contract with the Australian people’?
This year Morrison has not done much that will win him credit over the premiers. That’s because of his own mistakes. Continue reading »
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History, or a royal commission, will not be kind to Morrison
Not a single woman or man on the governing side of Australian politics has had the guts or integrity to criticise the practices, and apparent working standards and ethics, of the Morrison government. In public that is. Continue reading »
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Morrison has the smell of political death about him.
It is the fate of the modern political leader that they die by their own hand. At least according to the obituarists and the historians. Continue reading »
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One could always rent the Nationals. A generation ago the process was called “churching the old whore”, but now you can buy them freehold
Many of the Nationals’ representatives, from Joyce down, would give no better service if they were actually openly on the payroll. The hydrocarbon energy lobbies are of course, as much international as they are Australian-owned and controlled. Continue reading »
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The National Party in the service of the mining lobby.
The National Party has ceased to be a political party in the ordinary sense of the word. Instead it has become a wholly owned subsidiary of big mining and energy lobbies. Continue reading »
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Morrison worries real conservatives even as he pleases business
It is not in the ordinary business community — among those with whom the coalition normally measures its stocks — that a strong sense of urgency about getting rid of the Morrison government runs strong. Many of these have done well under the Morrison government– and the Turnbull and Abbott governments which preceded it. Even Continue reading »
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The Morrison ship of state might be better scuttled
A significant number of Australians of essentially conservative disposition are getting to the point of thinking that the most urgent and important political priority of the next 10 months — even above completing the war against Coronavirus — should be the disposal of the Morrison government. It is urgent, they think, because the Australian model Continue reading »
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Commonwealth timidity on the big issues.
Federal Labor has become as timid about reform — particularly in the “big” Commonwealth fields such as the economy, or taxation, and tertiary education — as is the conservative government. It doesn’t dare say anything on defence and foreign affairs — or social justice — for fear of being wedged. Continue reading »
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Premiers, not Albanese, are throwing Morrison out the window
It has long been a fundamental article of Labor belief that the federal structure of the Australian nation, along with bicameral legislatures, were put into Australian constitutions to slow or frustrate radical change and Labor agendas.The Commonwealth system is increasingly sclerotic, the politicians less brave, or less focused on good policy, good government and the Continue reading »
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PM’s focus on short-term fixes and politicisation of every conflict
Increasingly people realise that Morrison is full of bullshit, even (or especially) when he is being sincere. Continue reading »
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Did we all over-estimate what Scott Morrison had to offer?
The prime minister is acquiring a reputation as a liar and a deceiver. Worse, his agenda is usually suspect. Continue reading »
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Let’s re-imagine Anzac Day and phase out ADF and RSL’s ownership
More than a million Australians wore military uniform in World War II, and nearly 40,000 died. In the 76 years since, around 110,00 Australians have served in military operations abroad, with fewer than 1000 dying on active service. The greatest proportion of these was in Vietnam more than 50 years ago. There, as in Afghanistan Continue reading »
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Patriotism needs more active, more suspicious citizenship
“Whose side are you on?” prime minister Tony Abbott once publicly asked the ABC when he felt that it was not sufficiently representing Australian propaganda, not to mention his own point of view, in some dispute with other nations. Continue reading »
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It’s time for Labor to capitalise on Morrison’s inadequacies
We are not yet in election mode and can assume that both parties are reserving their campaign strategies and tactics for the end. But at the moment, Morrison and the coalition will have defeated themselves. Continue reading »
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We have seen Morrison’s best, and it wasn’t much
The prime minister Scott Morrison is in a lot of trouble again. He will probably get out of it, with just a few more bruises and scratches, but the clock is running down on his leadership. Continue reading »
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Rot starts from the top
Scott Morrison encapsulates the retreat from values, the lack of regard for truth, for decency and the long-term public interest. Those he leads or those in the public service obliged to do his will can hardly be blamed for using his example as their inspiration. Continue reading »
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National Party greed was once restrained by Liberals
We ought to be asking questions about the mysterious failure of public service systems to hold any senior public official to account for anything, let alone to punish or dismiss. Continue reading »
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After the pandemic war, no political point in refighting the battles
Anthony Albanese has become too fond of saying that Scott Morrison had two big jobs this year – to roll out the vaccine, and to fix quarantine, and that he’s failed with both. The next election will not be a report card on how the coalition managed the pandemic, but about the future. Continue reading »
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What has Australia gained from the crisis the pandemic represented?
This time last year, I was arguing that Morrison would be judged at the next election not by his success in managing the pandemic, but by his success in reviving the economy. I think it is largely his fault that he is now about six months behind schedule in leading Australia out of the pandemic, Continue reading »
