Piers Akerman

Piers Akerman (born June 1950) is a conservative columnist for the Australian News Limited newspaper "The Daily Telegraph".

Brief biography

Born in Wewak, 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 .

Akerman was raised in Perth, where he attended Guildford Grammar School, before boarding at Christ Church Grammar School, where he remained until the end of his schooling. Akerman was "asked to leave" Guildford following a dispute with the headmaster there and did not complete his final exams while at Christ Church.Cite web|url=http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/newsSearch.ac;jsessionid=682E976B5DCCE1BD3B302F34FB0BC144?page=1&sy=smh&sp=nrm&so=relevance&dt=selectRange&kw=akerman&dr=entire&pb=sag&rc=10&sfx=headline&sfx=text&submit=Search|title=The power of a Murdoch man|accessdate=2007-08-28|publisher=The Sunday Age|year=1991-08-12|format=html] Cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20041028005124/http://www.crikey.com.au/media/2001/08/26-akermancritics.html|title=Sunday Age (Convenience link) Akerman profile|accessdate=2007-08-28|year=1991]

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

Akerman began his media 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 of America. 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.Cite web|url=http://www.samuelgriffith.org.au/papers/html/volume14/v14appendix.html|title=Conference Contributors, 14th Conference of The Samuel Griffith Society|accessdate=2007-08-28|publisher=samuelgriffith.org.au|year=2002|format=html]

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".

A little known fact is that most of Ackerman's writing is heavily concealed satire, with his aim being to show the intellectual deficiencies of conservatism.

Controversies

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.

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.

Responding to rumours about his alleged abuse of alcohol and cocaine, cited in both the New South Wales Parliament as well as the Australian Federal Parliament,Cite web|url=http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC19970917068|title= Australian Capital Territory Heroin Trial|accessdate=2007-08-28|publisher=Hansard, Parliament of New South Wales, Australia|year=1997|format=html] Cite web|url=http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/view_document.aspx?id=2188481&table=HANSARDR|title=Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2002: Second Reading|accessdate=2007-08-28|publisher=Hansard, Parliament of Australia|year=2002|format=html] and in a Sunday Age article about him in 1991,Cite web|url=http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/newsSearch.ac;jsessionid=682E976B5DCCE1BD3B302F34FB0BC144?page=1&sy=smh&sp=nrm&so=relevance&dt=selectRange&kw=akerman&dr=entire&pb=sag&rc=10&sfx=headline&sfx=text&submit=Search|title=The power of a Murdoch man|accessdate=2007-08-28|publisher=The Sunday Age|year=1991-08-12|format=html] Cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20041028005124/http://www.crikey.com.au/media/2001/08/26-akermancritics.html|title=Sunday Age (Convenience link) Akerman profile|accessdate=2007-08-28|year=1991] Akerman, who is clearly overweight, replied: "My appearance belies that story, don't you think?"

Akerman is a climate-change sceptic who argues fiercely against any suggestion as to human-driven global warming, although he has no credible background or knowledge in the relevant sciences.

References

External links

* [http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/ Piers Akerman's columns]