Judicial findings have significantly undermined the credibility of Walter Sofronoff’s inquiry into the Lehrmann trial, raising serious questions about bias, process and the influence of media on judicial conduct.
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Jack Waterford
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How Sofronoff became a foot soldier in a war against woke
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Patronage over principle: why Katy Gallagher’s ‘flexibility’ betrays good government
Labor once promised to end cronyism in public appointments. The government’s rejection of enforceable rules instead entrenches discretionary power, weakens accountability and undermines confidence in good governance.
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Why our government protects gambling apps but bans TikTok
Australia’s social media restrictions on children were sold as decisive action on harm. But the policy risks becoming symbolic, unenforceable, and ultimately counterproductive.
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Will there be Liberals around to take power in 2034?
The Liberal Party’s rejection of net-zero and its lack of compelling leadership or clear policy vision has left it floundering with key voter groups. Without a coherent plan to make a difference, it risks a long spell in opposition. (more…)
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Richo’s grave should be extra deep
Graham Richardson was a very successful operator of the Labor Party from the late 1970s who was distinctly short on redeeming virtues. (more…)
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It’s Ley, or virtually certain Liberal self-immolation
People closer to the action than I are suggesting that the end is nigh for Sussan Ley. They may be right; momentum is often all in these matters. (more…)
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AFP set to fight the devil among our children
The new AFP Commissioner, Krissy Barrett, would not be the first AFP Commissioner or statutory head to think that she can reinvent her job and its functions with the help of a savvy media unit. (more…)
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Albo brings peace in our time
The prospect of a military confrontation between the US and China is receding, as is the prospect of a conflict over Taiwan, according to a relaxed Donald Trump talking to Australian journalists and politicians during Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington. But even if conflict were to occur, America might not be calling on Australia, or Britain, to fight alongside it. (more…)
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Australia’s political parties are moving to their use-by date
Sooner or later Anthony Albanese or his successor will lead the Labor Government to defeat. (more…)
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How Israel lost a war by not deserving to win
It is ultimately futile and probably wicked to calculate winners and losers in a war against civilians, least of all on any sort of balance sheet weighing and measuring the value of dead bodies. (more…)
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Steerage for the Australian-PNG navy?
The mutual defence treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea could be a masterstroke for both countries, if our defence boffins could think laterally. I bet they won’t. (more…)
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Will Hastie face his manifest destiny?
Assuming that Andrew Hastie is not taken from us by the apparently imminent Rapture, he may soon come up for judgment. It is very hard to imagine him leading the Liberal Party anywhere other than over a cliff. (more…)
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The stars suggest Albo should stay at home
If I were drafting astrology advice for Anthony Albanese over the next few weeks, I would be hinting that it was the worst possible time for international travel, and that a serious bout of diplomatic flu might be the best way to secure his (and Australia’s) long-term interests. (more…)
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AFP won’t look in the mirror of a murder of one of their own
It is nearly 37 years since assistant commissioner Col Winchester, head of the ACT arm of the Australian Federal Police, was shot twice in the head soon after he drove his car into the driveway alongside his Deakin home. (more…)
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Albo is breaking the moral contract with voters
It seems impossible that the Coalition could hope to win government with policies more popular than Labor’s over the next two terms of parliament. (more…)
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When spying is subcontracted to gangsters
ASIO deserves a good deal of credit for the cool and professional way in which it gathered and collected information to demonstrate to ministers its belief that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had been behind at least two terrorist incidents in Melbourne and Sydney this year. Diplomats not alleged to have known of this have been tossed out as a result. (more…)
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Peace in Gaza needs a full accounting by both sides
Suppose that one day the states of Europe wearied of the prolonged slaughter, genocide and war crimes in Gaza and resolved to intervene to end the fighting and to bring about a settlement. (more…)
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Finance’s bleeding hearts think PwC has suffered enough
Has the Department of Finance entirely lost the plot? Has its thinking about the PriceWaterhouseCooper scandal — that the matter can now be swept under the carpet and PwC brought in from the cold — infected a police force itself compromised by its relationships with PwC? (more…)
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The long hand of your country of origin
When the Soviet communist agent Vladimir Petrov was sent to Australia by a predecessor of the KGB in 1951, he was not tasked with stealing Australian and Western defence and diplomatic secrets. (more…)
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The time has come for a Palestinian nation
The political leaders of Israel have long spoken of an existential threat. Critics, and many of its well-meaning friends have offered suggestions about the reasonable or fair thing to do. But its enemies and many of its neighbours, Israel says, want the annihilation of the very idea of the Jewish state. (more…)
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Ley must be saved from drowning over net zero
When Napoleon remarked that one should never interrupt an enemy when it was making a mistake, he was referring to the way the enemy was disposing of his troops, not about the policies and programs with which he proposed to govern. Like all the countries arrayed against him, (even, effectively, England) Napoleon didn’t do elections. (more…)
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Trump’s negotiation position diminishes as Albo sits him out
Anthony Albanese’s visit to China has exceeded everyone’s expectations, including mine, and arms him with extra weapons and arguments for when he meets President Donald Trump and United States officials, whenever that is to be. One can expect that Americans, and the advocates on The Australian will accuse him of weakening perceptions that Australia is firmly in the western camp. But he studiously said and did nothing that he has not said and done before, and one would have to parse each statement carefully to see evidence of any shift away from America, let alone movement towards the Chinese camp. (more…)
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The politics of a police criminal organisation
In 1972, police at an Aboriginal settlement at Papunya, several hundred kilometres west of Alice Springs, closed down a travelling Slim Dusty concert after some of the young men somehow got access to alcohol and became drunk. (more…)
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Engulfed in a moral panic about childcare assaults
The moral panic enveloping Australia and the ABC over the existence of child molesters in the childcare system will do this nation no good. (more…)
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Bunker busters shook us all
Iran’s grievance, moral or legal, against Israel and the United States over the bombing of nuclear sites is not assisted by the fact that Israel itself is an outlaw with nuclear bombs produced outside the system. (more…)
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Is Albo reverting to compulsive secrecy?
Anthony Albanese is falling back into the sort of bad habits that could bring him down as Labor leader. (more…)
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Nuclear subs taking on water
There is every reason for Australia to jump on board the idea of having a review of its AUKUS defence policy. (more…)
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Political parties are failing to attract new members. Not only women
Government is getting more difficult. Many voters have turned off. They are scathing of politicians and deeply cynical about their honesty and motives. (more…)
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Time again for stewards to do a moral health check-up
Was there ever anything more predictable, and more shameful than the detached and independent — and, of course, apolitical — decision by federal Environment Minister Murray Watt that damage caused to Aboriginal Australian heritage values could not weigh as heavily as the economic interest of Woodside’s Northwest Shelf project, worth billions of dollars, potentially trillions? (more…)
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Not many splashed in the short-lived teacup revolt
The squall in the great teacup of the Liberal and National Parties, and the (almost certainly temporary) suspension of the Coalition has been very diverting but will probably not matter much as the political year, or term of parliament progresses. A scrap between a badly beaten pair of parties may seem damaging in the short term, but is unlikely to change any immediate outcomes. (more…)