Jack Waterford
John Waterford AM, better known as Jack Waterford, is an Australian journalist and commentator.
Jack's recent articles
3 January 2022
Slow learner: ill-advised Morrison set to repeat end-of-year pratfalls
The holidays should be a chance for some contemplation about the Prime Minister's strategy and tactics, as well as about urgent tasks of government.
21 December 2021
Minister, it's a minefield: is Dutton playing chicken in the Taiwan Strait?
Part 2: Perhaps Australia is acting to a script agreed in Washington seeking to increase Chinas uncertainty about how the US will respond.
20 December 2021
War without winners: Taiwan presents a trap for both China and US
China could contemplate seizing the island to demonstrate American decline. But world reaction to such a breach of the peace would likely be great.
14 December 2021
States can supplant outsource-happy Canberra as ideas engine room
There is a great opportunity for honest discussion of more efficient and effective divisions of power and responsibility, writes Jack Waterhouse.
13 December 2021
Perrottet prognosticates: imaginative premiers will revitalise federal system
The NSW premier is a fecund source of ideas about the future of the federation. And he believes the states should be at the forefront of reform.
7 December 2021
Morrison's mistakes may be the making of a better system of governance
As the nation contemplates life beyond the Coalition, it becomes possible to imagine a retreat from over-powerful government, writes Jack Waterford.
6 December 2021
It's time for Morrison to consider his legacy as electoral wilderness looms
The prime minister may not be able to save his electoral skin, but he can help the Coalition to become a competent opposition, writes Jack Waterford.
30 November 2021
For the prime minister, self-delusion now an ingrained tic
Scott Morrison isn't the only chronic liar in politics. He might not even be the worst. But he's doing further damage by refusing to admit any error.
29 November 2021
How Scott Morrison is trashing the Liberal brand
Scott Morrison's personality and style has infected the whole government the sclerosis and the lack of flexibility on general positions is now built-in.
23 November 2021
Steady on ranters, Victoria is not descending into totalitarianism
The ''crowd'' has not spoken. Media interests, and the Coalition, have no sure instinct for what voters think about pandemic management.
22 November 2021
Derring-do Dan: Victoria's decent 'dictator' should take back the initiative
The premier could turn the tables on critics by demanding explanations about the Morrison government's favouring of NSW and other pandemic missteps.
16 November 2021
Labor must be more spirited for voters to know what it stands for
If a Labor campaign cannot cause any enthusiasm or aspects of a mass movement among younger voters, Labor is doomed to lose the next election.
15 November 2021
Labor could lose the election and it just might deserve to
You might think Labor is poised to win the next election, but it's doing everything it can to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
9 November 2021
Clown but not out: foreign policy failures won't wing Morrison
Despite his French frolics and Glasgow flameout, this PM will rely on domestic optimism when he chases his second poll win.
8 November 2021
Move on, mate: Morrisons performance demeaned us all
Our leader's many flaws make even more urgent the need for an integrity watchdog, which would shoot down his blustering evasions.
2 November 2021
Three years after Hayne, the robber barons are back in charge
In banking scandals, Crown casino and half a dozen other such disasters, the cover-up begins with government, now skilled at evading accountability.
1 November 2021
A bitter bet: Crown reigns supreme, safe from effective oversight
Packer makes a convenient scapegoat for the disgrace of Melbourne's casino. But an inherently dirty enterprise won't be fixed by a board of cleanskins.
26 October 2021
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.
25 October 2021
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.
19 October 2021
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.
18 October 2021
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.
12 October 2021
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.
4 October 2021
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.
14 September 2021
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.
13 September 2021
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?
7 September 2021
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.
6 September 2021
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.
31 August 2021
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.
30 August 2021
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. Thats because of his own mistakes.
24 August 2021
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.
23 August 2021
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.
17 August 2021
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.
16 August 2021
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.
10 August 2021
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 the pandemic has led to an explosion of public cash going into it -- and without much in the nature of red tape or accountability.
9 August 2021
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 of government of law, by law and under the law might be destroyed if it is allowed to go on much longer.
3 August 2021
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 doesnt dare say anything on defence and foreign affairs -- or social justice -- for fear of being wedged.
2 August 2021
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 public interest.
27 July 2021
PMs 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.
26 July 2021
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.
20 July 2021
Lets re-imagine Anzac Day and phase out ADF and RSLs 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 from which we have recently departed, history will judge our intervention as a defeat.
19 July 2021
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.
13 July 2021
Its time for Labor to capitalise on Morrisons 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.
12 July 2021
We have seen Morrisons best, and it wasnt 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.
6 July 2021
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.
5 July 2021
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.
29 June 2021
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 hes failed with both. The next election will not be a report card on how the coalition managed the pandemic, but about the future.
28 June 2021
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, and that this has reduced his political opportunities. Had he done as well as, say, Israel or Spain in organising vaccines - and he could have - he could be thinking of an election towards the end of this year. It looks as if he...
22 June 2021
Housing politics dominated by the interests of the already-housed
The housing market is not effectively closed to most young women and men by accident. House prices keep growing not so much by excess demand but because of the rewards we give investor buyers, the advantages in place for those already in the market and the tax and other advantages of owning a house, whether for ones own family or as an investment. First home buyers will always be at the back of the queue while others have such advantages and they dont.
21 June 2021
Old Canberra a model of cheap land and government housing
Canberra was once in a position to show how ordinary working Australians could get into the housing market at a fair price. That fair price, in todays terms, was about a third of current prices.