Michael West is an Australian investigative journalist. He is the founder of Michael West Media, a

news website An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the electronic publishing, online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical literature, periodical. Goin ...

specialising in investigative journalism in the areas of business, finance, tax, and energy.

Early life and education

West is the son of the late Rod West, a former headmaster of Trinity Grammar School in Sydney. His sister is

Catherine West Catherine Elizabeth West (born 14 September 1966) is an Australian-born British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, previously Hornsey and Wood Green, since 2015. A member of the Labour Party ...

, a British MP. Prior to journalism, West worked for a number of years as a

stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...

. In November 2016, he received the honorary title of

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Journalism career

West's career in journalism began at ''

The Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

''. He later wrote a column at

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

newspaper titled 'Margin Call', for which he was praised by the founder of

Crikey Crikey is an Australian online news outlet founded in 1999. It consists of a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. History Crikey was founded by the activist shareholder Stephen Mayne, a journalist and former staffer of the ...

Stephen Mayne Stephen Mayne (born 23 July 1969) is an Australian journalist, local government councillor, and self-described shareholder activist. He won the Walkley Award. Career Journalism Mayne worked for a number of media outlets and was a media advis ...

; as being 'one of the few financial journalists out there having a go at some of the business practices employed by the likes of

Macquarie Bank Macquarie Group Limited (), more commonly known as Macquarie Bank, is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group headquartered in Sydney and listed on the ASX (). Macquarie's investment banking division is Au ...

and

Babcock & Brown Babcock & Brown LP (B&B) was a global investment and advisory firm, established in 1977, based in Sydney, Australia, that went into liquidation in 2009. Babcock & Brown Securities LLC is an active investment banking firm focused on equipment an ...

'. In 2005, he won the business journalism

Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

for his article at

titled "Allstate". He later became business editor and commentator at the

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

. At the SMH his writing was particularly focused upon the Australian tax interests of multinational companies including

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. His stories about tax evasion by multinationals, and corruption in the Australian electricity sector contributed to the establishment of two Senate Inquiries. In May 2016, West was part of an estimated 30 forced redundancies made by

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media (communication), media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The ...

. In an interview, West described the situation at Fairfax as 'grim' and accused the publisher of pursuing a click-bait strategy.

Links

MichaelWest.com.au

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Michael 1962 births Australian journalists Australian newspaper editors Living people Australian newspaper publishers (people) The Sydney Morning Herald people