David Burchell is a senior lecturer in humanities at the University of Western Sydney [1] [2] and a regular columnist for The Australian . He has also contributed articles to the Australian Financial Review and Griffith Review . [3]
Burchell is the author of several books on Australian politics and the Australian Labor Party, including Western Horizon: Sydney's Heartland and the Future of Australian Politics (Scribe Books, 2003); co-author of The Prince's New Clothes: Why do Australians Dislike Their Politicians? (UNSW Press, 2002); and Labor's Troubled Times (Pluto Press, 1991). [4]
Burchell was also a regular contributor to Counterpoint , a weekly ABC radio program (discontinued) and enduring podcast from Radio National, hosted in its final years by Amanda Vanstone.
His daughter, Elle Burchell, was an editor of the University of Sydney literary journal Hermes.
The Australian, with its Saturday edition The Weekend Australian, is a daily newspaper in broadsheet format published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership as of September 2019 of both print and online editions was 2,394,000. Its editorial line has been self-described over time as centre-right.
Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams, is an Australian humanist, social commentator, ex-broadcaster, public intellectual, and farmer. He hosted Late Night Live, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program on Radio National from 1991 to 2024. He also writes a weekly column for The Weekend Australian.
Stephen Francis Smith is an Australian former politician and diplomat serving as the 26th and current high commissioner of Australia to the United Kingdom since 2023. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was the federal member of Parliament (MP) for the division of Perth from 1993 to 2013, serving in the Rudd and Gillard governments as minister for Foreign Affairs from 2007 to 2010, minister for Trade in 2010 and minister for Defence from 2010 to 2013.
Robert James Ellis was an Australian writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Robert Hughes and Mungo McCallum. He lived in Sydney with the author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank; they had three children.
Gregory Paul Sheridan is an Australian foreign affairs journalist, author and commentator. He has written a number of books on politics, religion and international affairs and has been the foreign editor of The Australian newspaper since 1992. He is a regular commentator on Australian television and radio, including for the ABC and Sky News Australia. The ABC describes Sheridan as "one of Australia's most respected and influential analysts of domestic and international politics."
Barry Owen Jones is an Australian polymath, writer, teacher, lawyer, social activist, quiz champion, and former politician in the Australian Labor Party. He campaigned against the death penalty throughout the 1960s, particularly against the execution of Ronald Ryan. He is on the National Trust's list of Australian Living Treasures.
Andrew Keith Leigh is an Australian politician, author, lawyer and former professor of economics at the Australian National University. He currently serves as the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury as well as the Assistant Minister for Employment. He briefly served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013 and then served as Shadow Assistant Treasurer from 2013 to 2019. He has been a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2010 representing the seat of Fraser until 2016 and Fenner thereafter. Leigh is not a member of any factions of the Labor Party.
Ross Andrew Fitzgerald is an Australian academic, historian, novelist, secularist, and political commentator. Fitzgerald is an Emeritus Professor in History and Politics at Griffith University. He has authored or co-authored forty-five books, including three histories of Queensland, two biographies, works about Labor Party politics of the 1950s, with other books relating to philosophy, alcohol and Australian Rules football, as well as ten works of fiction, including nine political/sexual satires about his corpulent anti-hero Professor Dr Grafton Everest.
William Peter Coleman was an Australian writer and politician. A widely published journalist for over 60 years, he was editor of The Bulletin (1964–1967) and of Quadrant for 20 years, and published 16 books on political, biographical and cultural subjects. While still working as an editor and journalist he had a short but distinguished political career as a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1968–1978 for the Liberal Party, serving both as a Minister in the State Cabinet and in the final year as Leader of the New South Wales Opposition. From 1981–1987 he was the member for Wentworth in the Australian House of Representatives.
Peter van Onselen is an Australian academic, author, and commentator and a political journalist.
Reginald John Burchell was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Fremantle from 1913 to 1922, initially for the Australian Labor Party and after the 1916 Labor split for the Nationalist Party.
Brynllyn David Griffiths is a poet and writer, who has worked in Britain and Australia. His poems are often concerned with the ocean and the history of Wales.
Antonio De Paulo "Tony" Buti is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing the seat of Armadale since 2 October 2010, when he was elected in a by-election.
Margaret Simons is an Australian academic, freelance journalist and author. She has written numerous articles and essays as well as many books, including a biography of Senate leader of the Australian Labor Party, Penny Wong and Australian minister for the environment Tanya Plibersek. Her essay Fallen Angels won the Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism.
A leadership spill in the Australian Labor Party, the party then forming the Government of Australia, took place on 26 June 2013 at 7:00pm AEST. Prime Minister Julia Gillard called a ballot for Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party live on Sky News Australia at 4:00pm, following persistent leadership tensions. She stated that she would retire from politics if she lost the vote, while calling on any would-be challengers to pledge to do the same if they lost. In a press conference held shortly after Gillard's announcement, backbencher and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that he would challenge Gillard, whilst also pledging to step down if he did not win the vote. At the ALP caucus meeting, Rudd was elected Leader of the Labor Party, with the caucus voting 57–45 in his favour.
Rebecca Huntley is an Australian author and researcher on social trends. She holds degrees in law and film studies and a PhD in gender studies.
Bevan Ernest Lawrence, a retired Western Australian barrister and Liberal political campaigner, is the older brother of Carmen Lawrence, a former Labor premier of Western Australia. In the 1980s he was a convenor of two notable lobby groups that influenced the course of government at federal and state levels.
Laura Margaret Tingle is an Australian journalist and author.
Francis Robert Bongiorno is an Australian historian, academic and author. He is a professor of history at the Australian National University, and was head of the university's history department from 2018 to 2020. Bongiorno is the President of the Australian Historical Association.
Kerry-Anne Walsh is an Australian author, former journalist and political commentator. She is also the author of the award-winning book, The Stalking of Julia Gillard. She also wrote another book, Hoodwinked: How Pauline Hanson Fooled a Nation.