Piers Akerman (born 12 June 1950) is an Australian columnist and conservative commentator for the conservative Sydney newspaper
''The Daily Telegraph''.
Biography
Akerman was born in
Wewak,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
, the third son in a family of four children
of John, an Australian Government doctor, and
Eve Akerman (d. 2003), a newspaper columnist and reviewer.
The family left PNG for
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in 1951, before returning to
Perth, Western Australia
Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
.
He attended
Guildford Grammar School, where he remained until his expulsion, when he was "asked to leave" following a dispute with the
headmaster
A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school.
Role
While s ...
. He spent the last few months of his schooling at
Christ Church Grammar School
Christ Church Grammar School is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Single-sex school, single-sex Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary and Secondary school#Australia, se ...
but did not complete his
final exams.
Career
Akerman worked for a time at British national newspaper, ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', and spent ten years as a
foreign correspondent in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. On returning to Australia, he was editor of ''
The Advertiser'',
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
(1988) and ''
The Sunday Herald Sun'',
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
(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
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
, USA in 1993.
Mark Latham
Mark William Latham (; born 28 February 1961) is an Australian politician and media commentator who is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He previously served as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the ...
was known to weave complaints about Akerman's writing into his speeches.
Periodically, Akerman was a regular panelist on
ABC Television's political commentary program ''
Insiders'', until his 16 June 2013 participation. This incident involved unfounded allegations about the then Prime Minister's de facto partner. Akerman had also appeared on the ABC's political program ''
Q&A''.
Controversies
Climate change denial
Akerman is a
climate change denier
Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...
with a history of public opposition to a
carbon price
Carbon pricing (or pricing) is a method for governments to mitigate climate change, in which a monetary cost is applied to greenhouse gas emissions. This is done to encourage polluters to reduce fossil fuel combustion, the main driver of climat ...
. He approvingly quotes the work of the
Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), run by
Fred Singer.
In a November 2006 article in
''The Daily Telegraph'', Akerman mis-quoted senior IPCC scientist
John T. Houghton saying "Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen", attributing the quotation to his 1994 book ''Global Warming, The Complete Briefing''. The mis-quote became widely used among
climate change deniers to argue that climate change scientists showed a propensity to exaggerate their case. However, the mis-quote does not appear in any edition of the book. Houghton denied saying any such thing and believes the opposite to be true, commenting "I would never say we should hype up the risk of climate disasters in order to get noticed." In February 2010, Akerman responded by citing a September 1995 article in which Houghton was correctly quoted as saying "If we want a good environmental policy in the future, we'll have to have a disaster", adding that this passage was not much different to the misquotation Houghton had distanced himself from. A subsequent report by
Media Watch noted that Houghton's full remark did not carry the same meaning: "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."
Sexual harassment
Five former employees, three of whom agreed to be named, have said they witnessed Akerman "sexually harass" female members of his staff, according to a 1991 story in ''
The Sunday Age''.
Assault threat
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 sick leave 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 $4,000 claim.
Defamation
In 2006, former director of NRMA Richard James Talbot was awarded a $200,000 defamation payout plus costs. In regards to one point the judgment read "The inaccuracies of fact by the defendant
kerman
Kerman (; ) is a city in the Central District (Kerman County), Central District of Kerman County, Kerman province, Kerman province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district.
History
Kerman was founded as a def ...
on this topic are gross".
LGBT rights
In March 2018 Akerman suggested that
gay people need to apologise for
child sex abuse.
Same-sex marriage
In 2017, Akerman wrote that there were more pressing issues worrying Australians than voting on the issue of
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
.
In 2018 he called the victory of the YES in
Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey by the Australian Government designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the Australia Post, postal service between 12 Septe ...
"a victory for left's hate".
References
External links
Piers Akerman's columns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akerman, Piers
1950 births
Living people
Australian newspaper editors
Australian political journalists
Journalists from Western Australia
People from East Sepik Province
The West Australian
People educated at Guildford Grammar School