Andrew Rule

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Andrew Rule (born 8 April 1957) is an Australian journalist who specialises in crime.

Contents

Early life

Andrew Rule was born in country Victoria in 1957, later attending high school in Sale. He dropped out of journalism at RMIT before completing an arts degree at Monash University.

Career

Rule started aged 17 as a reporter for The Gippsland Times and Maffra Spectator. He subsequently worked for The Age , The Sun News-Pictorial , The Herald , Sunday Age , Herald Sun , and at radio station 3AW. [1]

The Murders of Margaret and Seana Tapp was a cold case that Rule has worked to bring renewed attention to in articles for both The Age and Herald Sun. [2] [3]

Rule wrote an authorised biography of Australian media proprietor and billionaire Kerry Stokes to counter bad press from an unauthorised work by Margaret Simons that included testimony from an abandoned family. [4]

In 2021, Rule was involved in a controversy where he falsely accused the late former Labor Premier Neville Wran of corruption. The reports on which his commentary and claims were based were found to be false in an ABC Editorial Review. [5]

Personal life

Rule is married to Di Rule who ran as a Liberal Party candidate for Seymour in the 1999 state election and Burwood in the 2002 state election. [6] [7] His wife was accused by political opponents of benefiting from sinecures when she was appointed to a Victorian government board after serving as a long-time staffer for former Liberal leader and Premier Ted Baillieu. [8]

Books

Rule has authored a number of books:

Underbelly

With John Silvester, he co-wrote the Underbelly series of books about crime which were subsequently adapted into a TV series. [9] [10]

Awards

Rule is an inductee in The Australian Media Hall of Fame. [1] He was also twice (1994; 2001) the recipient of the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award. In 2001, he won the Gold Walkley award for his story Geoff Clarke: Power and rape .

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References

  1. 1 2 Club, Melbourne Press. "Andrew Rule". MPC - Hall Of Fame. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  2. Silvester, Andrew Rule and John (18 June 2010). "A mother, her daughter and a murder case that got away from all". The Age. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  3. "Vile crime that fell through the cracks". NewsComAu. 9 August 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  4. Malcolm Knox (18 October 2013), "Billionaire's forgotten family speaks out", The Age
  5. Ep 30 - ABC Ghost Train review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 30 August 2021, retrieved 14 September 2021
  6. "Rupert, Hitler, 1983, beat-ups ... doesn't all this sound familiar?". Crikey. 17 April 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  7. Melbourne, National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of. "Rule, Di - Woman - The Australian Women's Register". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  8. Tomazin, Farrah (2 February 2013). "'Jobs for mates' crosses Parliament". The Age. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  9. Alex Sinnott (16 September 2010), "Age journalist tells his tale", The Age
  10. Andrew Rule, Harper Collins, 2014