Gerard Henderson (born 1945) is an Australian author,

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (periodical), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the ...

and political commentator noted for his right-wing

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

views. He founded and is the executive director of The Sydney Institute, a privately funded Australian current affairs forum.

Education and earlier career

Henderson was educated at Melbourne's Catholic,

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

-run Xavier College, one of the city's elite private schools. He went on to study arts and law at the prestigeous

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

during the second half of the 1960s. He later completed a PhD. Henderson taught at the

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and La Trobe universities before working for four years on the staff of Kevin Newman in the

Fraser government The Fraser government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. It was made up of members of a Liberal–Country party coalition in the Australian Parliament from November 1975 to March 1983. Init ...

. He moved to the Department of Industrial Relations in 1980; from 1984 to 1986 he was chief-of-staff to

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) 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. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...

, during which time Howard was deputy leader, then leader, of the

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia (LP) is the prominent centre-right political party in Australia. It is considered one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberal Party was fo ...

. The Keating government appointed Henderson to the board of the Australia Foundation for Culture and the Humanities. Later, the

Howard government The Howard government refers to the Government of Australia, federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal Party of Australia, Li ...

appointed him to the Foreign Affairs Council. He was one of the people invited to

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...

Australia 2020 Summit 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". Ann ...

held in April 2008.

Works

For several years, Henderson had a weekly column in ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

''. He also writes "Media Watch Dog", a weekly compendium of media criticism, written from the perspective of a blue heeler named Nancy. In December 2013, his column moved to ''The Weekend Australian'', which also carries Media Watch Dog. He has written several books. * ''Mr Santamaria and the Bishops'' (Hale & Iremonger, 1982; ) * ''Australian Answers'' (Random House Australia, 1990; ) * ''Gerard Henderson Scribbles On'' (Wilkinson Books, 1993; ) * '' Menzies' Child: The Liberal Party of Australia'' (HarperCollins, 1994; second edition 1998: ) * ''A Howard Government? Inside the

Coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

'' (HarperCollins, 1995; ) * ''B. A. Santamaria'' (HarperCollins, 2005; ) * ''Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man'' (MUP, 2015; ) * ''Cardinal Pell, the Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt'' (Connor Court Publishing, 2021; )

Media appearances

In 1994, Henderson profiled former prime minister

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the Australian Labor Party, leader of the La ...

for the ABC TV program ''

Four Corners Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...

''. He was a regular political commentator on radio, and appeared occasionally on '' Insiders'', another ABC TV program. In early 2020, Henderson was dropped from the show after new host

David Speers David Gordon Speers (born 9 September 1974) is an Australian journalist and host of ''Insiders (Australian TV program), Insiders'' on ABC (Australian TV channel), ABC TV. Previously he was political editor at Sky News Australia, as well as ho ...

reportedly wanted to try new conservative voices amid claims from sources in the ABC that Henderson failed to sufficiently engage with issues during panel discussions.

Views

In 2006, Henderson said

had lost the ongoing culture wars, writing, "In my view, there is only one area where the Coalition has failed to have a significant impact – namely, in what some have termed 'the culture wars'."
Henderson has supported the movement for Australia to become a republic.Republicans may feel entitled to sneer, but it won't help their cause
Gerard Henderson's Weekly Column, 29 March 2014

References

External links

Gerard Henderson columns
in ''

''
Media Watch Dog archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Gerard 1945 births Living people Journalists from Melbourne Bloggers from Melbourne Australian columnists The Australian journalists Australian public servants People educated at Xavier College University of Melbourne alumni Conservatism in Australia Australian republicans Academic staff of the University of Tasmania Academic staff of La Trobe University People from Balwyn, Victoria