Nicholas Stuart

Last updated

Nicholas Stuart is an Australian journalist who is currently a columnist with The Canberra Times and editor-in-chief of ability.news . He is the author of three books about Australian politics.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Early life

Stuart is the child of Ron Stuart, a research officer with the Reserve Bank of Australia, and his wife Ruth.

Stuart's father was offered a position in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (then a dependent territory of Australia) when Nicolas was 4 years old and he was brought up in Port Moresby until the age of 10. After travelling the world for a year, the family moved back to Sydney, where he attended Sydney Grammar School. Stuart studied Arts/Law at Sydney University where he was a member of the Sydney University Regiment of the Australian Army Reserve. Stuart then studied for an MA in War Studies at King's College London in 1984. [1]

Career

When he returned to Australia the next year Stuart became a cadet radio news journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, gaining wide reporting experience. He later reported on politics and international events for the Radio Current Affairs programs "AM" and "PM", before moving to the ABC TV environmental program "A Question of Survival".

He covered the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen protests in China before becoming the ABC's Indochina Correspondent, based in Bangkok. Stuart was critically injured in a vehicle accident in Bangkok in late 1990 when he was left in a coma. [2] He later returned to work in Bangkok and covered the 1992 demonstrations that led to the fall of the military-backed government of the country. He received a High Commendation issued by the Walkley Award judges that year. However, the ABC believed he had not properly recovered from his accident and was recalled to Australia. After working for a period in the Corporation's International Operations division, he later left the ABC.

Stuart accompanied his wife, Catherine McGrath, to Singapore where she was based as an ABC correspondent in 1995. McGrath later became Chief Political Correspondent for ABC Radio; Political Editor for Television Australia; and Chief Political Correspondent for SBS Television.

When they returned to Canberra Stuart began writing as a columnist with The Canberra Times. Stuart's newspaper column specialises in coverage of strategic and defence issues [3] reflecting his time in the Army Reserves and MA studies.

Books

His unauthorised biography of Kevin Rudd ("Kevin Rudd - an unauthorised political biography") [4] has been described by Monash University's Senior Lecturer in Economics Nick Economou as "requisite reading for observers of Australian national politics". [5] The book has been assessed as a fair, balanced and generally positive treatment of Rudd. [6]

Within a month of the election of the new Labor government Stuart published another 96,000 word book ("What Goes Up") analysing the last term of the Howard government and identifying the significant factors that resulted in the change of government at the 2007 election. [7] This has received similar positive reviews in the Sydney Morning Herald , The Australian , and The Age newspapers. [8]

Less than one month after the fall of Kevin Rudd Stuart published his third book, "Rudd's Way". [9] This book describes reasons why the ALP decided to remove Rudd from the leadership, making him the only successful Labor prime minister never to face re-election.

Involvement with disability issues

Stuart has become increasingly involved with disability issues, initially as a Director and later President of the National Brain Injury Foundation of Australia. [10] As a result he became an ex-officio Director of Brain Injury Australia between 2011 and 2014. [11] In 2013 Stuart was elected as a Director of The House with No Steps, then Australia's second-largest provider of services for people with a disability. [12]

He is currently editor-in-chief of the website ability.news which is dedicated to providing relevant information about disability issues and the NDIS to the broader community.

Fellowships

In 2015 Stuart was a Press Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge. [13]

In 2016 Stuart received a Churchill Fellowship to study long-term recovery after head injury. [14]

Related Research Articles

Paul John Kelly is an Australian political journalist, author and television and radio commentator from Sydney. He has worked in a variety of roles, principally for The Australian newspaper and is currently its editor-at-large. Kelly also appears as a commentator on Sky News Australia and has written seven books on political events in Australia since the 1970s including on the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Recent works include The March of Patriots, which chronicles the creation of a modern Australia during the 1991–2007 era of prime ministers, Paul Keating and John Howard, and Triumph & Demise which focuses on the leadership tensions at the heart of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments of 2007 to 2011. Kelly presented the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV documentary series 100 Years – The Australian Story (2001) and wrote a book of the same title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Garrett</span> Australian musician and activist

Peter Robert Garrett is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Rudd</span> Prime Minister of Australia (2007-2010; 2013)

Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June 2013 to September 2013. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Rudd has been the 23rd and current ambassador of Australia to the United States since 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Macklin</span> Australian politician

Jennifer Louise Macklin is an Australian former politician. She was elected to federal parliament at the 1996 federal election and served as the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2001 to 2006, under opposition leaders Simon Crean, Mark Latham and Kim Beazley. After the ALP won government at the 2007 election, she held ministerial office under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, serving as Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2007–2013) and Minister for Disability Reform (2011–2013). She retired from parliament at the 2019 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindsay Tanner</span> Australian politician

Lindsay James Tanner is a former Australian politician. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he represented the seat of Melbourne in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2010 and served as Minister for Finance in the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Fitzgibbon</span> Australian politician

Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon is a retired Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022, representing the New South Wales seat of Hunter. He served as Minister for Defence (2007–2009) in the first Rudd government and Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (2013) in the second Rudd government. He was also Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives (2010–2013) in the Gillard government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Carr</span> Australian politician

Kim John Carr is an Australian former politician who served as a Senator for Victoria between 1993 and 2022. Representing the Labor Party, he was a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 Australian federal election</span> Election for the 42nd Parliament of Australia

The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The election featured a 39-day campaign, with 13.6 million Australians enrolled to vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Shorten</span> Australian politician (born 1967)

William Richard Shorten is an Australian politician and former trade unionist serving as the current Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. Previously, Shorten was leader of the opposition and leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2013 to 2019. A member of parliament (MP) for the division of Maribyrnong since 2007, Shorten also held several ministerial portfolios in the Gillard and Rudd governments from 2010 to 2013.

Faceless men is a term from Australian politics. The term is generally used to refer to men and women who exert political influence and are not elected representatives to state, territory or federal legislative bodies, yet are elected representatives to bodies that determine political party policies. However, the political tactic of elected representatives canvassing party members for support on policies varies widely amongst Australian political parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Howard</span> Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007

John Winston Howard is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, having previously served as the treasurer of Australia from 1977 to 1983 under Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the second-longest in Australian history, behind only Sir Robert Menzies. Howard has also been the oldest living Australian former prime minister since the death of Bob Hawke in May 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Garnaut</span> Australian economist

Ross Gregory Garnaut is an Australian economist, currently serving as a vice-chancellor's fellow and professorial fellow of economics at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of numerous publications in scholarly journals on international economics, public finance and economic development, particularly in relation to East Asia and the Southwest Pacific.

The Australia 2020 Summit was a convention, referred to in Australian media as a summit, which was held over 18-19 April 2008 at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long-term strategy for the nation's future". Announced by the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the summit drew limited bipartisan support from Brendan Nelson and the opposition Coalition parties and ran as 10 working groups of 100 participants. There were 1002 delegates in attendance to discuss ten "critical areas". Ideas and proposals were invited from all members of the community and an official website was set up to accept submissions.

Nicholas Economou is an Australian political scientist. He is a regular commentator in the media on Australian politics, being published in a wide range of Australian and international newspapers. He has also done commentary work for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill</span>

A spill of the leadership of the Liberal Party of Australia took place on 15 September 2008. At a ballot on 16 September, Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull defeated the incumbent leader Brendan Nelson 45 votes to 41.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudd government (2007–2010)</span> An administration of the Australian government

The first Rudd government was the executive Government of Australia formed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The Rudd government commenced on 3 December 2007, when Rudd was sworn in along with his ministry. This took place just nine days after the defeat of the Howard government, which was a Coalition of members of the Liberal and National parties, at the 2007 federal election. The Rudd government concluded on 24 June 2010 when Rudd, under pressure from an impending leadership caucus ballot, stepped down from the leadership of the ALP and was succeeded by his deputy, Julia Gillard. Rudd was re-elected leader of the Labor Party in 2013 and served a second term as prime minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Australian federal election</span> Election for the 44th Parliament of Australia

The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party of Australia and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia, led by Warren Truss, defeated the incumbent centre-left Labor Party government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a landslide. It was also the third time in history that a party won 90 or more seats at an Australian election. Labor had been in government for six years since being elected in the 2007 election. This election marked the end of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government and the start of the 9 year long Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Liberal-National Coalition government. Abbott was sworn in by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, as Australia's new Prime Minister on 18 September 2013, along with the Abbott Ministry. The 44th Parliament of Australia opened on 12 November 2013, with the members of the House of Representatives and territory senators sworn in. The state senators were sworn in by the next Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on 7 July 2014, with their six-year terms commencing on 1 July.

Christopher Gerald Uhlmann is an Australian journalist and television presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross McMullin</span> Australian historian (born 1952)

Ross McMullin is an Australian historian who has written a number of books on political and social history, as well as several biographies.

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.

References

  1. ""Plasticity: My Story"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Nicholas Stuart (17 July 2007). "An ill-equipped military raises doubts about future". The Canberra Times.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. Nicholas Stuart (2007). Kevin Rudd: an unauthorised political biography. Melbourne: Scribe. ISBN   978-1-921215-58-2.
  5. Nick Economou (2007). "Kevin Rudd: An Unauthorised Political Biography by Nicholas Stuart" (PDF). Reviews in Australian Studies. 2 (8).
  6. Stuart, Nicholas (2 July 2007). Kevin Rudd | Book | Scribe Publications. ISBN   9781921215582.
  7. Nicholas Stuart (2008). What Goes Up Behind the 2007 Election. Melbourne: Scribe. ISBN   978-1-921215-86-5.
  8. "ABC Retail Partners & FAQ's".
  9. Nicholas Stuart (2010). Rudd's Way: November 2007 - June 2010. Melbourne: Scribe. ISBN   978-1-921640-57-5.
  10. "About". 15 March 2013.
  11. http://www.braininjuryaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/BIA-AnnualReport-2013.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  12. "Aruma's Board | Aruma". 9 April 2018.
  13. https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018-10/wolfson-review-web-2015.pdf (p.15)
  14. "Stuart, Nic 's Fellowship Profile | WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST". Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.