Piers Akerman
Encyclopedia
Piers Akerman is a right-wing commentator and columnist for The Daily Telegraph
.
, Papua New Guinea
, Piers Akerman was raised in Perth
by his parents, John, an Australian Government doctor, and Eve Akerman (d. 2003), a newspaper columnist and reviewer in Western Australia
. He is the third son in a family of four children. The family left PNG for India
in 1951, before returning to Australia.
Akerman was raised in Perth, where he attended Guildford Grammar School
, where he remained until his expulsion, when he was "asked to leave" following a dispute with the headmaster. He spent the last few months of his schooling at Christ Church Grammar School
but did not complete his final exams.
In the US, while covering the 1974 America's Cup
at Newport, Rhode Island
, Akerman met his wife, Suzanne, a solicitor. They were married in Connecticut
several years later and have two children, Tess and Pia. They now live in Sydney.
career at Western Australia's only daily, The West Australian
. He then moved on to the short-lived Victorian newspaper Newsday and took his first News Limited
job at the Daily Mirror
in Sydney. He was briefly at The Australian
as Foreign Editor in 1983.
He worked for a time at British national newspaper, The Times
, and spent ten years as a foreign correspondent
in the United States
. On returning to Australia, he was editor of The Advertiser, Adelaide
(1988) and The Sunday Herald Sun
, Melbourne
(1990). During 1990-92 he was editor-in-chief of the Herald & Weekly Times
group in Melbourne before becoming a vice-president of Fox News, USA in 1993.
Akerman's columns were noted for raising the ire of the former leader of the Australian Labor Party
and the Federal Opposition
, Mark Latham
, among others. Latham was known to weave complaints about Akerman's writing into his speeches and, in 2002, while protected by parliamentary privilege
, publicly accused Akerman of being addicted to cocaine
well into the 1980s (see below).
Akerman is a regular panellist on ABC Television's political commentary program Insiders. He has also appeared on the ABC's political program Q&A
in 2010, including an appearance during which he accused an audience member, who had asked a question about extreme industrial relations policies of the Liberal Party of Australia
, of being "addle-headed" and not deserving of even being allowed to be in the audience.
of 9 January 2011, Akerman attacked, mid-crisis, the handling of the Queensland flood crisis, by Labor Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard
and Labor Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh
. Most controversially, Akerman criticised the army chief in charge of the flood relief efforts, Major-General Mick Slater. Slater has been widely praised by the community and political representatives of all sides, for his sensitive, rapid and compassionate handling of the Queensland natural disaster and tragedy.
. However, climate scientists from NASA
, Stanford University
and Princeton
have dismissed Singer's most recent report on global warming as "fabricated nonsense."
In a November 2006 article in The Daily Telegraph
, Ackerman quoted senior IPCC scientist John T. Houghton
as saying "Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen", attributing the quote to his 1994 book Global Warming, The Complete Briefing. However, the quote does not appear in any edition of the book. Houghton denies saying any such thing and believes the opposite to be true; he is "considering taking legal action".
The quote became widely used among climate change sceptics to argue that climate change scientists showed a propensity to exaggerate their case.
In February 2010, Ackerman responded by citing a 10 September 1995 article in which Houghton was quoted as saying “If we want a good environmental policy in the future, we’ll have to have a disaster. It’s like safety on public transport. The only way humans will act is if there’s been an accident." This was said in the context of a religious discussion in which Houghton, an evangelical Christian, surmised that global warming might well be one of those disasters sent by God to warn man to mend his ways. the Judge said "The inaccuracies of fact by the defendant [Piers Ackerman] on this topic are gross. In particular, to accuse the plaintiff of failure to attend committees that do not exist when in fact he consistently attended meetings of the Board which did consider such issues, is so extreme a misstatement of fact as to vitiate any defence of comment for any imputation based on it."
Parliament as well as the Australian Federal Parliament
, and in a Sunday Age article about him in 1991, Akerman, who is clearly overweight, replied: "My appearance belies that story, don't you think?" Akerman has, however, admitted to using cocaine in the US in the 1970s.
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
.
Brief biography
Born in WewakWewak
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak....
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, Piers Akerman was raised in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
by his parents, John, an Australian Government doctor, and Eve Akerman (d. 2003), a newspaper columnist and reviewer in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. He is the third son in a family of four children. The family left PNG for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 1951, before returning to Australia.
Akerman was raised in Perth, where he attended Guildford Grammar School
Guildford Grammar School
Guildford Grammar School, informally known as Guildford Grammar, Guildford or GGS, is an independent, day and boarding school for boys situated in Guildford, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia....
, where he remained until his expulsion, when he was "asked to leave" following a dispute with the headmaster. He spent the last few months of his schooling at Christ Church Grammar School
Christ Church Grammar School
Christ Church Grammar School is an independent, Anglican day and boarding school for boys from Pre-Primary to Year 12. Located in Perth, Western Australia, the school overlooks the Swan River at Freshwater Bay in Claremont....
but did not complete his final exams.
In the US, while covering the 1974 America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
at Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, Akerman met his wife, Suzanne, a solicitor. They were married in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
several years later and have two children, Tess and Pia. They now live in Sydney.
Career
Akerman began his mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
career at Western Australia's only daily, The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
. He then moved on to the short-lived Victorian newspaper Newsday and took his first News Limited
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...
job at the Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror (Australia)
The Daily Mirror was an afternoon paper established by Ezra Norton in Sydney, Australia in 1941, gaining a licence from the Minister for Trade and Customs, Eric Harrison, despite wartime paper rationing. In October 1958, Norton and his partners sold his newspapers to the Fairfax group, which...
in Sydney. He was briefly at The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
as Foreign Editor in 1983.
He worked for a time at British national newspaper, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, and spent ten years as a foreign correspondent
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. On returning to Australia, he was editor of The Advertiser, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
(1988) and The Sunday Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
(1990). During 1990-92 he was editor-in-chief of the Herald & Weekly Times
The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd
The Herald and Weekly Times Limited is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, who purchased HWT in 1987.-Newspapers:...
group in Melbourne before becoming a vice-president of Fox News, USA in 1993.
Akerman's columns were noted for raising the ire of the former leader of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
and the Federal Opposition
Opposition (Australia)
Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in Australia fulfils the same function as the official opposition in other Commonwealth of Nations monarchies. It is seen as the alternative government and the existing administration's main opponent at a general election...
, Mark Latham
Mark Latham
Mark William Latham , an author and former Australian politician, was leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005....
, among others. Latham was known to weave complaints about Akerman's writing into his speeches and, in 2002, while protected by parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
, publicly accused Akerman of being addicted to cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
well into the 1980s (see below).
Akerman is a regular panellist on ABC Television's political commentary program Insiders. He has also appeared on the ABC's political program Q&A
Q&A
-General:* Q&A is a media relations technique whereby public relations professionals attempt to anticipate journalists' questions on a particular issue and provide answers in order to prepare their spokespeople for press conferences and interviews...
in 2010, including an appearance during which he accused an audience member, who had asked a question about extreme industrial relations policies of the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, of being "addle-headed" and not deserving of even being allowed to be in the audience.
Attacking Queensland Flood Relief Chief, Major-General Mick Slater
In his regular column in the Sunday TelegraphSunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
of 9 January 2011, Akerman attacked, mid-crisis, the handling of the Queensland flood crisis, by Labor Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
and Labor Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh
Anna Bligh
Anna Maria Bligh is an Australian politician and the Premier of Queensland since 2007. The 2009 Queensland state election was the first time a female-led political party won or retained state or federal government in Australia...
. Most controversially, Akerman criticised the army chief in charge of the flood relief efforts, Major-General Mick Slater. Slater has been widely praised by the community and political representatives of all sides, for his sensitive, rapid and compassionate handling of the Queensland natural disaster and tragedy.
Climate change skepticism
Akerman is a climate-change sceptic who argues fiercely against any suggestion of anthropogenic global warming. He justifies his views by quoting the work of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), run by Fred SingerFred Singer
Siegfried Fred Singer is an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia...
. However, climate scientists from NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
have dismissed Singer's most recent report on global warming as "fabricated nonsense."
In a November 2006 article in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
, Ackerman quoted senior IPCC scientist John T. Houghton
John T. Houghton
As co-chair of the IPCC, he defends the IPCC process, in particular against charges of failure to consider non-CO2 explanations of climate change. In evidence to, the Select Committee on Science and Technology in 2000 he said:...
as saying "Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen", attributing the quote to his 1994 book Global Warming, The Complete Briefing. However, the quote does not appear in any edition of the book. Houghton denies saying any such thing and believes the opposite to be true; he is "considering taking legal action".
The quote became widely used among climate change sceptics to argue that climate change scientists showed a propensity to exaggerate their case.
In February 2010, Ackerman responded by citing a 10 September 1995 article in which Houghton was quoted as saying “If we want a good environmental policy in the future, we’ll have to have a disaster. It’s like safety on public transport. The only way humans will act is if there’s been an accident." This was said in the context of a religious discussion in which Houghton, an evangelical Christian, surmised that global warming might well be one of those disasters sent by God to warn man to mend his ways. the Judge said "The inaccuracies of fact by the defendant [Piers Ackerman] on this topic are gross. In particular, to accuse the plaintiff of failure to attend committees that do not exist when in fact he consistently attended meetings of the Board which did consider such issues, is so extreme a misstatement of fact as to vitiate any defence of comment for any imputation based on it."
Harassment
Akerman has had charges of sexual harassment levelled against him by employees. Five former employees, three of whom agreed to be named, said they witnessed Mr Akerman sexually harass female members of his staff. A group of female staff at The Sunday Herald met and agreed to protect each other in the office from Akerman's advances.Assault
One of the most controversial episodes in Akerman's life was his alleged threat to assault the literary editor of The Advertiser, Shirley Stott Despoja. The dispute ended before a full bench of the Supreme Court where the newspaper appealed against Stott Despoja's successful worker's compensation claim for stress-related sickleave pay. Stott Despoja alleged: "I was physically threatened by the editor while alone with him in an office in a dispute over my work." The appeal by The Advertiser was dismissed and Stott Despoja won her $4000 claim.Substance abuse
Responding to his heavy abuse of alcohol and cocaine, cited in both the New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
Parliament as well as the Australian Federal Parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
, and in a Sunday Age article about him in 1991, Akerman, who is clearly overweight, replied: "My appearance belies that story, don't you think?" Akerman has, however, admitted to using cocaine in the US in the 1970s.