Jack Waterford

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. 

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Spare a thought for Scott Morrison during these still early days of the struggle to rescue Australia, and Australians, from the effects of Coronavirus. (more…)

 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. (more…)

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?

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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.

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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 last week.

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If Dyson Heydon is guilty of the sexual harassment allegations made against him, most people would agree that he deserves what he gets. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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 distraction. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

It is becoming fairly obvious that there is a significant group within the Australian government that is spoiling for a major confrontation, perhaps to skirmish level with China. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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 I he, however, I would be thinking of coming out of retirement, and quickly. (more…)