Jack Waterford
Jack Waterford is Editor-at-large, The Canberra Times
A goat in sheep's clothing?
Jack Waterford The personality, temperament, character and reliability of Tony Abbott is pretty much the primary issue that voters should be weighing up.
Bad news being wasted
Jack Waterford The somewhat confected budget ''crisis'' has provided the Gillard government with a window of opportunity for changing a game - by now almost a foregone conclusion - into a match again.
Behind Abbott's royal tug of war
Jack Waterford Tony Abbott has done us all a favour by placing anathema on the appointment of a new governor-general by the prime minister, Julia Gillard.
Black and white Year One
Jack Waterford Tony Abbott's plan to put a sub-department of Aboriginal affairs inside his own portfolio of Prime Minister and Cabinet has achieved some publicity as an evidence of his good intentions in the area.
PM who reduced a molecule to atoms
Jack Waterford Margaret Thatcher once famously said that there was no such thing as society. Later she said she was misinterpreted. Here it is in context:
Beware the hungry sharks circling in Abbott's moat
Jack Waterford In the Labor Party, they have been called tree people. The Liberals once did not have them, as such, but now also maintains a veritable forest.
Abbott's adjectival attack
Jack Waterford Tony Abbott has a plan for Australia. We have his own word for this. By contrast, he says that Labor has abandoned any plan, sense of direction or policy coherence, and is focused simply on survival...
Gummow tended his flock
Jack Waterford No lawyer makes it to the High Court without a considerable ego, ambition and ability, but few have come to the court with a stronger reputation for scholarship and learning - or with more...
The government cypher
Jack Waterford Bob Hawke thinks political parties should restrict the subjects over which they caucus and hold supporters to a combined view.
Anniversary labours in vain
Jack Waterford This is not only the month of the 100th anniversary of the naming of Canberra, but the 30th of the election of the Hawke government.
PM's dog and pony show a lost cause
Jack Waterford Julia Gillard has concluded a week's electioneering without any obvious signs of triumph.
Labor's west goes south
Jack Waterford What have people in Sydney's western suburbs got that other parts of Australia haven't got? Not much, other than a chip on the shoulder about being regarded as bogans, and a concentration of panicked...
Jack Waterford
History of a paper anniversary
Jack Waterford HEAVEN forfend that this humble organ would want to gatecrash Canberra's 100th birthday party - but in significant respects, it is also the 100th anniversary of the idea of The Canberra Times.
Jack Waterford
Schools slow with political dividends
Jack Waterford Robert Menzies got excellent political bang for his buck when, 50 years ago this year, he put the Commonwealth decisively into the field of education.
Jack Waterford
Abolish the shoddy mediocrity
Jack Waterford CANBERRA'S best birthday present to itself, and to the people of Australia, and Australia's best present to Canberra for its 100th birthday could be a vow that the city is going to become a centre of...
Jack Waterford
Will the real Julia Gillard stand up?
Jack Waterford Some people have suggested that Julia Gillard, as and effective deputy, was playing the lawyer-advocate-negotiator she was trained to be, with Kevin Rudd as her client.
Jack Waterford
Labor is inviting its own downfall
Jack Waterford Whether there will be a leadership coup against Julia Gillard, by Kevin Rudd or anyone else, I have no idea. But journalists are not making up reports of poor party morale and despair.
Jack Waterford
Hands up for lawyers' picnic
Jack Waterford I was going to make my first million by selling T-shirts carrying the message, ''I was David Eastman's lawyer.''
Jack Waterford
Local leaders must lead
Jack Waterford When 117 old men walk into the Vatican conclave soon, they will be coming not as monarchs of great archdioceses of the Catholic Church around the world, or as executives of the great departments of...
Jack Waterford
One must admire a skilled knife job
Jack Waterford The intended assassination of Gary Humphries has been a planned and premeditated political operation that invites some professional admiration.
