Writer
Jack Waterford
John Waterford AM, better known as Jack Waterford, is an Australian journalist and commentator.
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Did unlamented Pezzullo dream of taking the Chinese surrender in Beijing?
I have never had much regard for Mike Pezzullo, and my regard is lower for the disclosures this week of Nine and Fairfax journalists of his secret email correspondence with politicians he thought he might be able to influence. As any number of people have said, his position is untenable, and he must look forward Continue reading »
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Let’s avoid more Covid disasters. The public already knows who to blame
During Australia’s Covid-19 pandemic response, some companies received billions in contracts made without tender, sometimes by ministerial intervention. It would be too much, of course, to hope that anything the inquiry into the pandemic response does to address this issue will be taken up with any enthusiasm by the Albanese government. It seems to have Continue reading »
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Australia’s secretive defence establishment: the real enemies of truth and freedom
Australia, with fewer secrets to hide, is more compulsively secretive than the US, China or NATO. Continue reading »
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Dutton has made himself the Voice target
It may be too late for supporters of the Yes cause at the referendum to retrieve their initially majority support among the population. Continue reading »
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Labor’s weakness for little rorts
When Labor next loses state office in NSW, it will almost certainly be entirely its own fault. One might have expected that the party’s twelve years in the wilderness would have taught it something about restraint, and about the risks of reverting to its ancient, and traditional ways. Not a bit of it. Continue reading »
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Climate and housing left on the 2063 agenda
The Albanese government is tiptoeing as if it has all the time in the world. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese is paralysed and failing to grasp the moment
A good many people who worked hard for a Labor government are now astonished at its lack of ambition. More nagging for those who have dreamed of Labor in action has been the complete refusal to countenance any shift in national security policy, in human rights law, in planning aggression against China, and in a Continue reading »
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Sofronoff endorses the status quo on rape cases
Recently we have heard the alleged victim in the Bruce Lehrmann case discuss how she felt herself, in effect, defiled again by her treatment by the justice system. Nothing Walter Sofronoff has written in his inquiry into the case could cheer her. Nor would it engender any confidence in future better treatment for any other Continue reading »
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Shane Drumgold, despite his alleged sins, is an unlikely master villain
In the Sofronoff inquiry, Counsel Assisting, Ms Erin Longbottom went straight for the jugular of Shane Drumgold, prosecutor in the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial. She made mincemeat of him. By the end of her display of complete dominance, he was a shattered wreck. He had withdrawn his suggestions of political interference, softened his criticism of Continue reading »
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Flesh and bones on the corruption menu
Spare a thought for the National Anti-Corruption Committee which has so many juicy cases before it that there is a substantial chance that it might have to pass on investigating some of the serious sources of potential corruption around the nation. Continue reading »
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Integrity is what they do, not what they pretend
Integrity, accountability and stewardship are, post the Robodebt royal commission, to be the watchwords of the hour. The cynic will note that the agencies to oversee changing the culture are those which did most, in word and deed, to create, foster and promote the old culture, and that not one of them has publicly examined Continue reading »
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Don’t count on much post-Robodebt ‘reform’
The Holmes report into the Robodebt scandal gives the Albanese government all the authority and mandate it needs for root and branch reform of the public service, including a spill of its senior leadership. Continue reading »
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Making Voice a referendum on the Labor government
By the time of the referendum on the Voice, No campaigners look likely to have turned it into a referendum on the Albanese government, and, probably into “wokeness.” It may be a tragedy if they do, whether for First Australians or the nation generally, because it will inevitably exacerbate divisions in the community. Continue reading »
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NSW ICAC findings sound warning to federal ministers
As the National Anti-Corruption Commission is opening for business, some ministers tend to believe that the mere fact of winning government gives them an unlimited licence to distribute public loot to their friends, constituents and major donors. The silence and complicity of senior public servants in response to such misgovernment is one of the great Continue reading »
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Voice needs a serious rattle of spears
The biggest risk to the success of the referendum on Aboriginal recognition is the Albanese government’s lack of resolution. It has strongly promoted the voice, successfully in parliament, but far less effectively within the broader community. There is a serious prospect that the various proponents of the No case will win by default, mostly because Continue reading »
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Our law and order violate women
Every woman in Australia, and not a few men, should experience a shiver of apprehension about the Bruce Lehrmann case. Continue reading »
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An inquiry of self-limited curiosity
Senator Linda Reynolds is suggesting that she might seek to take her complaints of ill-treatment during the controversy of the Bruce Lehrman rape allegation to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission. That would include, we gather, allegations that Senator Katy Gallagher was briefed by the alleged victim and her boyfriend before the allegations had been made Continue reading »
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Catholics should go where the government isn’t
I do hope that the Catholic Church remains closely involved in providing health care to Canberra citizens, particularly the poorer ones, after the takeover by the government of Calvary public hospital. Indeed I suspect it could be making for itself, and Canberra citizens, greater treasure in heaven if it got entirely out of the provision Continue reading »
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Sending the cops into PwC is the tamest possible response to fraud on the taxpayer
The idea of sending the PriceWaterhouseCoopers scandal off for criminal investigation by the Australian Federal Police is such a thoroughly bad idea that one might imagine that it had been recommended by one of the major consultancies, perhaps PwC itself. Continue reading »
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How PwC monetises its insider secrets
The crisis in which PricewaterhouseCoopers finds itself is a useful illustration that the problem of politicians and bureaucrats becoming lobbyists, and of the revolving door syndrome are far from the only ones besetting integrity in public administration. The widespread use of supposedly independent consultants, many with deep and intractable conflicts of interest, is undermining good Continue reading »
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Can Labor remain a winner simply by being less worse?
It would be a fatal mistake for Labor to think that it represents the values and aspirations of its primary constituencies. It doesn’t. It is just that it misrepresents them slightly less than the coalition. Continue reading »
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Ex-politicians who go over to the enemy
It has been only in recent times that we have had former prime ministers taking up positions in foreign countries, even working for foreign governments. It ought to be regarded as deeply shameful, and more than somewhat disloyal. If our public stewards cannot be trusted to do the right thing, it becomes necessary to control Continue reading »
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Budget must show what we are invested in
In three weeks or so, a little after the second Labor budget, the Albanese government will mark its first year in office. Continue reading »
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Dutton gives voice to Jacinta Price
Peter Dutton has staked his political future on Jacinta Price, his new shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs, a woman of less than 10 months experience in Parliament, none of which have been spent in government. Continue reading »
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Home Affairs’ culture of getting things wrong
The minister for Home Affairs and the department have been given extraordinary powers, including significant power to hurt and oppress others. For good or ill, the legislature has authorised and permitted their determined cruelty to asylum seekers over many years, their beliefs about stripping citizenship from our nationals, deporting our home-grown criminals and establishing the Continue reading »
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Albanese should take the Voice to the people
The gutsy thing for Anthony Albanese to do in the wake of the coalition’s decision to vote “no” in the Voice referendum would be to carry on virtuously with the ballot, taking such advantage as he can from the Liberals’ decision to break the heart of more than half the country. But the inspired response Continue reading »
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Public servants contemplating abolition of the people
For a public servant of my acquaintance, the new and emerging problem of public administration is dealing with what she called activists and advocates. Continue reading »
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The shame of missing a national mood
At least until the 1964 Freedom Rides, Australia had a Jim Crow system every bit as bad as in the American South. Continue reading »
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Albanese a pale shadow of Keating, even on subs
Paul Keating did all Australians, and all the world, an important favour over the past week. Continue reading »
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We don’t need subs or war with China
The pussies in Labor are reluctant to differ by a millimetre from the coalition on defence, foreign affairs and national security lest they be accused of treason. Continue reading »