Writer
Jack Waterford
John Waterford AM, better known as Jack Waterford, is an Australian journalist and commentator.
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Liberals throw out their Doctrines and Dogma
The Prime Minister, the head of Treasury and the present or former Chief Medical Officer may each be experts within their fields, but none of their guesses about when Coronavirus will loosen its grip on the nation’s economic throat are any better than yours or mine, or the throwing of a dice. Continue reading »
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Corona-crisis calls for imagination, not panic, parsimony and punishment.
Tertiary education, including universities, was badly hit (to complete government indifference, even delight.) The cultural sector was punished — and a good deal more than sport. Lobbyists for pubs and clubs have had a field day with compliant governments. Continue reading »
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Are we but twiddling thumbs while waiting for a vaccine?
Spare a thought for Scott Morrison during these still early days of the struggle to rescue Australia, and Australians, from the effects of Coronavirus. Continue reading »
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Deliberately missing the opportunities
There were – are – people who have seen great social and philosophical opportunities in the disruption caused by the pandemic, quarantine, closures of business, and mass unemployment rendered somewhat less painful by massive government spending and new income maintenance schemes. Continue reading »
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Australia’s courts and senators are not of an accountability mind
What would happen if an Australian senate committee, dominated by Labor and the Greens and an independent, decided by majority to demand the tax return of a coalition minister, perhaps in pursuit of allegations of abuse of power for some personal gain? Continue reading »
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One cannot say that the law is above our politicians
The US Supreme Court has many things in common with the Australian High Court, including some reputation for containing the odd sexual harasser, but most Australians are thankful that they have not come to be regarded as pawns of the president or party which put them on the court for life. Continue reading »
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China won’t care what we think or do about Hong Kong
One can look at the future of the seven million people of Hong Kong only with the deepest foreboding. Continue reading »
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Our lapdogs yap from a safe distance
The western world will probably see the absorption of Hong Kong, or Taiwan, as something that affects its national interests, in a way that the fate of Tibetans and Uighars does not. Continue reading »
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Dirty Dyson demolishes his own reputation
It seems impossible that the reputation of Dyson Heydon, retired High Court judge and one-time royal commissioner, will ever recover from the trashing it got this week. Continue reading »
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Judge Dyson, moving in the lower circles of hell
If Dyson Heydon is guilty of the sexual harassment allegations made against him, most people would agree that he deserves what he gets. Continue reading »
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Law can’t hide hypocrisy, lying and double dealing
Forty years ago, Justice Anthony Mason, later Chief Justice of the High Court, made it clear that mere embarrassment — or the avoidance of being found to be a hypocrite — is not enough to justify the protection of the courts when the government is involved. Continue reading »
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Justice impossible with secret trials
Over in the United States, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump, John Bolton, has a book about to hit the newsstands. It is very critical of, and indiscreet about, his former boss. It shows Trump double dealing with China, approving, not disapproving of its persecution and detention of the Uighars, and seeking China’s Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Punishing the ‘undeserving’ – the robo-debt fiasco
Heaven knows how the ultimate costs of the robo-debt fiasco will pan out. So far the Commonwealth has announced that it is paying back about three-quarters of a billion to nearly 400,000 people whose rights were trampled upon. Continue reading »
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No public interest, it seems, in watching public money burn
The political cynic could easily imagine a string of reasons for ignoring calls for a royal commission or other inquiry into the robo-debt debacle. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Morrison has all of the flexibility in the world
No modern Australian prime minister has faced the political, economic and social challenges of Scott Morrison. But it’s a funny sort of crisis because no prime has ever had such access to the extra resources he can call to bear — if he wants to. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. The size of the COVID deficit is a political, not an economic choice
We have had an obsession with the balanced budget and with at least the aim of a reduction of government debt, at least since John Howard blew the Budget in 1983-84, then, more than a decade later, discovered a $5 billion “black hole” in the last Keating Budget. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Trump: the man who made America little again
Donald Trump, who campaigned on making America great again has presided over — indeed caused — an enormous fall in American prestige, moral authority and effective power in the world. It may still have, by far, the most military power, and enormous economic resources, but the practical management of the Covid-19 crisis invites only derision. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Shooting ourselves in the boot again
The announcement of the international inquiry to be conducted into international management of the Covid-19 pandemic did not achieve any of the particular purposes initially said to justify Australia’s putting its head above the parapets and attracting China’s ire for doing so. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Dutton fights from the flank
The Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, was rarely to be found when the discussion was fixing on how a cruise liner entered our borders and spread Coronavirus and Covid-19 across the continent – perhaps the most serious breach of quarantine and biosecurity since federation. But that reticence has not stopped a non-stop barrage of Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Good policy comes from loud debate, not good manners
It took only a question about some fresh developments with the Sports Rorts affair for the prime minister to note, sourly, that it was back to politics as usual. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Digesting the cases being missed
As we cautiously begin to lift the lockdown, if we don’t know who the silent carriers are, how can they play an active role in keeping the community safe? Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Asymptomatic Covid cases will give us our next waves
As the Prime Minister and Premiers look to relax COVID-19 restrictions, we still need to be wary of the significant proportion of asymptomatic cases. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. We intended Covid inquest idea as an insult – for no good reason
There is nothing wrong with thinking that there would be an appropriate moment for an extensive international scientific review of the arrival of the 2019 coronavirus. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Spies and non-combatants rehearsing war dances
It is becoming fairly obvious that there is a significant group within Australian government that is spoiling for a major confrontation, perhaps to skirmish level with China. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. The snares of proclaiming victory against the virus
With success beyond all expectations in the struggle to contains the coronavirus in Australia, one might imagine that the next task before the prime minister is discerning that exact moment at which it is appropriate to roll back the various forms of social distancing and quarantine so as to concentrate on rebuilding the economy. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Still fighting with one hand tied behind our back
Americans have so epically mismanaged the coronavirus that it is difficult to look to it for lessons. The same might be said of most of the nations of western Europe, including Britain. But the blame lies more on their politicians than on their scientists. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. A matter of clout, and of egos
When Bret Walker is trying to find out who can be held responsible for Ruby Princess stuff-ups, he will probably look for his own team of investigators, even at the risk of tripping over others with fingers in the accountability pie. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Has Gladys got Peter, or Scott in the cross-hairs?
Peter Dutton has been heard – usually whistling to the dogs – but not much seen over recent weeks, and there have been some who have ventured to suggest that his coyness may have something to do with the Ruby Princess debacle – the one, and the most important boat he failed to stop. Were Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD. Prosecution as an obstacle race
Many people who had opinions about Pell’s guilt or innocence will retain them despite the High Court’s decision. Whether they fall on one side or another, there are several words of caution: Continue reading »
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JACK WATERORD. A free and innocent Pell, but not a martyr to any cause
The jubilation in some quarters, and the dismay and despair in others when the High Court unanimously ordered a judgment of acquittal of Cardinal George Pell on child sexual abuse charges was entirely predictable, if only because the case has become, in spite of every effort, the symbolic battleground for Catholic Church accountability for such Continue reading »