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Jack WaterfordThe Sydney Morning Herald |
The US midterm backlash against Donald Trump offers Anthony Albanese no reprieve at home, where Pauline Hanson is weaponising grey corruption,...
The good news for Anthony Albanese from the US congressional midterms is that he need not even contemplate changing the government's default...
The attack on Helen Haines has sharpened concern about political violence but the deeper problem is a political culture increasingly poisoned by...
The outbreak of grief after the attack on Helen Haines was genuine and spontaneous. Dr Helen Haines is the real thing in a world where Australians...
The outbreak of grief after the attack on Helen Haines was genuine and spontaneous. Dr Helen Haines is the real thing in a world where Australians...
Josh Frydenberg may be entertaining a return to federal politics, but finding a seat is only the beginning. His record, Liberal Party divisions and...
Only three of the past 10 federal treasurers made it through to being prime ministers. Subscribe now for unlimited access. Login or signup to continue...
Canberra needs better health, education, debt management and city planning long before it needs a new stadium, especially on one of the national...
I expect that ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr will moderate his enthusiasm for a stadium on Commonwealth Avenue, even if the land in question is being...
Labor’s shift to the right has opened political space on its left. If the Greens seriously want to become an alternative party of government, they...
The new aspiration of the Greens to be seen as an alternative party of government, rather than as a left-wing prod on the Labor Party flank is a...
The new aspiration of the Greens to be seen as an alternative party of government, rather than as a left-wing prod on the Labor Party flank is a...
Australia’s push on AI and social media regulation has put it at odds with Washington. The disagreement offers a rare glimpse of a foreign policy...
America has been a particularly annoying notional ally and former friend over recent months. But what would be the point of complaining? President...
America has been a particularly annoying notional ally and former friend over recent months. But what would be the point of complaining? President...
Labor’s new migration restrictions respond to public concerns about immigration, but tighter visa rules alone cannot resolve deeper anxieties about...
Good policy makes good politics, Paul Keating used to say. The converse is not necessarily true. When the making of policy is subordinated to mere...
Repeated reversals and broken promises are feeding a broader collapse of trust that reaches from economic policy to government transparency and...
Anthony Albanese has acquired another cross to bear over recent months. It's one that will dog him, the more so for having come up in both One...
The Albanese government may be adept at negotiating with insiders, but its failure to explain decisions and engage voters is deepening public...
It's about time that the government stopped telling citizens that it feels and understands their pain. Subscribe now for unlimited access. Login...
Soon after I joined The Canberra Times 54 years ago, as a copyboy, I was taken aside by a senior journalist and allocated a discreet, clandestine and...
Religious conservatives have long sought influence within the ACT Liberal Party. Their efforts under Zed Seselja offer a cautionary tale about...
Religious conservatives have long sought influence within the ACT Liberal Party. Their efforts under Zed Seselja offer a cautionary tale about...
I have been waiting for some time for someone to notice the remarkable congruence between allegations of a cult of Opus Dei zealots seeking to take...
If Anthony Albanese wants Labor to remain in power for the long haul, it will need to offer more than competent management, says Jack Waterford....
Anthony Albanese is not busy stealing Liberal Party policies and shifting his party to the right simply because he admires Tory politics and...
Making housing affordable for younger Australians will require lower land prices and a major increase in housing supply. But the rush to build risks...
It seems to be dawning on some voters and political players that if housing is to be made affordable for young Australians, the price of land must...
Australia needs a migration policy based on workforce reality, not populist fear, racial resentment or a political race to match One Nation’s...
It is too much to hope and expect that an Albanese Labor government would implement a liberal immigration and refugee policy simply because it was the...
A new round of royal commissions and public inquiries may expose not only corruption and mismanagement, but the deeper erosion of public trust in...
Australia may be moving into chickens-coming-home-to-roost time. It is now royal commission and public inquiry season. Those in reasonable prospect...
Labor’s cautious path to a third term may be electorally defensible, but avoiding a fundamental argument with Pauline Hanson leaves both Hansonism...
Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party have set their course for facing the next federal election. It's not a bold strategy, but it's a...
Fred Hollows’ trachoma program exposed appalling Aboriginal health conditions and helped drive the growth of community-controlled health services....
In 1975, an Aboriginal friend in the federal Health Department, Gordon Briscoe, invited me to ask his department questions about the prevalence of...
The royal commission must confront hatred and violence against Jewish Australians while preserving free speech, political criticism of Israel and...
The royal commission into anti-Semitism and social cohesion has heard convincing evidence that Jewish Australians have encountered increasing levels...
The coming NSW ICAC hearings are only part of a deeper problem. Entrenched factional power, gambling interests and political cowardice are corroding...
I cannot pretend to be terribly surprised or shocked to learn that the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is to soon hold public hearings...
It’s too late for Starmer, but Albanese has two years to take a bold stance against Hansonism and explain to the public his own plan. The fall of...
The fall of Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister of the British Labour government is full of meaning for his friend Anthony Albanese as Australian prime...
Australia’s support for the US-Israeli war on Iran has again exposed the reflexive subservience of Australian foreign policy, tying the country to...
It may be a while before the full dimension of the military defeat of the United States and Israel by Iran can be assessed. Subscribe now for...
It may be a while before the full dimension of the military defeat of the United States and Israel by Iran can be assessed. Subscribe now for...
Pauline Hanson’s rise cannot be countered by facts, logic or clever campaign tactics alone, because One Nation’s appeal is rooted in disgust,...
Pauline Hanson is a handful for all the politicians opposing her, and not one of her rival political leaders has her measure in debate. Particularly...
Australia’s crisis of trust is being deepened by opaque lobbying, revolving-door appointments, weak accountability and an insider culture that gives...
The guardians of the public accounts, particularly in the public service, have never manifested much intense interest in white collar crime of the...