Laurie Oakes | |
|---|---|
 Oakes in 2014 | |
| Born | 14 August 1943 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Retired journalist and author |
| Years active | 1964–2017 |
Laurie Oakes (born 14 August 1943 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is an Australian former journalist. He worked in the Canberra Press Gallery from 1969 to 2017, covering the Parliament of Australia and federal elections for print, radio, and television.
Oakes was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, the son of Wes and Hazel Oakes. His father worked for BHP as an accountant. When Oakes was six years old, his father was transferred to Cockatoo Island, a small island off the coast of Derby, Western Australia, where there was an iron ore mine. He began his schooling at a one-teacher school with only 20–30 children. [1] Oakes later moved back to New South Wales and attended Lithgow High School. [2] [3] He graduated in 1964 from the University of Sydney while working part-time with the Sydney Daily Mirror .
At the age of 25 he was the Melbourne Sun's Canberra Bureau Chief and while working for that paper he began providing political commentaries for the TV program, Willesee at Seven. In 1978 he began The Laurie Oakes Report, a televised political journal. In 1979 he joined Network Ten and worked there for five years. He has since written about politics for The Age in Melbourne and the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney. He commentated for several radio stations. [4]
In 1980 he obtained a draft copy of the Australian federal budget before it was delivered in Parliament. [5]
In 1997, Oakes used leaked documents to report on abuse of parliamentary travel expenses, which ended the careers of three ministers, several other politicians and some of their staff. [4] More recently he used leaked documents showing the Rudd Government ignored warnings from four key departments about its Fuelwatch scheme. [6]
Oakes has been a weekly contributor to various Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) owned media outlets, including the former Channel 9 television program, Sunday . He has also been a regular reporter for Nine News . [7] He wrote a weekly column for The Bulletin magazine until it ceased publication in January, 2008. Oakes then wrote for news.com.au publications until his retirement. [8]
He announced his retirement date as 18 August 2017. [9]
In a 2004 interview, Oakes said: "My personal politics are pretty much in the middle, I would think. I've voted both ways at various times. I don't know if perceptions about my politics influence whether people will be interviewed. [Paul] Keating used to boycott the program every now and again; not because he thought I was a Liberal but because he thought I wouldn't toe the line. Paul believed in rewards and punishment." [10]
Oakes has been nicknamed the "Sphere of Influence" by Crikey. [11]
In 1998 Oakes won the Walkley Award for journalistic leadership, and again in 2001 for television news reporting. [4] He claimed the Gold Walkley in 2010 for his reporting of Labor leaks during the federal election campaign. [12] In 2010, Oakes won the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award. [13]
In 2011, Oakes was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame. [14]
He delivered the 2011 Andrew Olle Media Lecture. [15]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)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.
The Australian, with its Saturday edition The Weekend Australian, is a broadsheet newspaper 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.
The Gold Walkley is the major award of the Walkley Awards for Australian journalism. It is chosen by the Walkley Advisory Board from the winners of all the other categories. It has been awarded annually since 1978.
Jana Bohumila Wendt is an Australian Gold Logie award-winning television journalist, reporter and writer.
Darryl William McInnes is an Australian film and television actor and writer. He is best known for his roles as Senior Constable Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers, as Max Connors in SeaChange, and more recently as TV boss Lindsay Cunningham in The Newsreader and Dr. Roy Penrose in NCIS: Sydney.
Stephen Mayne is an Australian journalist, local government councillor, and self-described shareholder activist. He won the Walkley Award.
Alan Graham Ramsey was an Australian journalist and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald from 1986 to 2008. In a career spanning 56 years, he worked for The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and the Australian Associated Press; covering the Vietnam War, Australian politics, and writing columns and opinion pieces. He was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2017.
Hugh Riminton is a Sri Lankan-born Australian foreign correspondent, journalist and television news presenter. He is currently national affairs editor and occasional presenter of 10 News First. He previously co-anchored Ten Eyewitness News with Sandra Sully until February 2017.
Glenn Milne is a Canberra journalist and political commentator. He worked for News Limited as a columnist for The Australian newspaper and as a writer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He is a former chief political correspondent for the Seven Network where he reported for Seven News and often conducted interviews on Sunday Sunrise. He has also been political editor of The Australian.
Michael Veitch is an Australian author, actor and broadcaster, best known for his roles on the sketch comedy television shows The D-Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal, as well as for his books on World War II aviation, marine science and travel.
Frank William Walker is an Australian journalist and non-fiction writer. He writes non-fiction books, mostly on military history including about the British nuclear tests at Maralinga, in South Australia.
Philip Dorling is a writer and journalist who has also served as an Australian public servant and political adviser. He is a visiting fellow at the School of Humanities and Social Science, University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
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.
Christopher Gerald Uhlmann is an Australian former journalist and television presenter.
Rebecca Louise Wilson was an Australian sports journalist, radio and television broadcaster and personality, known for the comic television talk sports show The Fat, in which she appeared regularly with host Tony Squires. She was a panellist on numerous television programs including Beauty and the Beast, Sunrise and The Footy Show. She worked in both the newspaper and television industries for over 20 years and won a Kennedy Award in 2013.
John Mellors was a former senior Australian public servant. Between 1994 and 1997 he was Secretary of the Department of Administrative Services.
Norman Swan is a Scottish-born Australian physician, journalist and broadcaster.
Annika Smethurst is an Australian journalist. She is the state political editor for The Age newspaper in Melbourne.
James Massola is an Australian journalist and author, currently the National Affairs Editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Klaxon is an independent Australian news website, run by investigative journalist Anthony Klan. It specialises in exposing corruption and misconduct by businesses and governments.
