Greg Sheridan

Gregory Paul Sheridan AO (born 1956) is a right-wing Australian foreign affairs journalist and commentator. He has been the foreign editor of The Australian newspaper since 1992.

Greg Sheridan
BornGregory Paul Sheridan
22 November 1956 (age 64)
Inner-West Sydney
OccupationJournalist
NationalityAustralian
SpouseJessie
Website
Greg Sheridan - Author at The Australian

Early life

Sheridan grew up in Sydney and sporadically attended Macquarie University and the University of Sydney over several years, but never graduated, finding it difficult to deal with lecturers whom he disagreed with.[1] While unsuccessfully pursuing his university education, he became heavily involved in the conservative side of student politics. He was a close personal friend of future Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott;[2][3] the two attended the Australian Union of Students annual conference in Melbourne together, in 1977.[4] Sheridan later wrote some influential articles on the sciences academic conflict at Macquarie University.[5]

Career

Sheridan started at The Bulletin magazine in 1979. His reporting on the Vietnamese boat people, after the end of the Vietnam War, sparked a lifelong interest in Asian politics.

Sheridan joined The Australian in 1984.[6] He worked in Beijing, Washington, and Canberra before becoming foreign editor in 1992. Writing on the Asian region since the 1980s, he specialised in Asian politics, and wrote four books on the topic, and a book on Australia–U.S. relationships. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne.

Commentary

Sheridan has been a staunch supporter of closer ties between Australia and its Southeast Asian neighbours, particularly Singapore and Indonesia. In his book Hidden Agendas, journalist John Pilger accused him of being a "reliable ally" of the Suharto dictatorship while serving as the foreign editor of The Australian.[7] In particular, Pilger derided Sheridan's defence of Indonesia after the critique of Suharto's human rights records by the Clinton administration and the Australian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, following the Santa Cruz Massacre in East Timor. Sheridan said that "even genuine victims frequently concoct stories".[8]

He was a vocal critic of Prime Minister John Howard's intervention in East Timor in 1999, and during 2006 called for the removal of Mari Alkatiri as Prime Minister of that country.[9]

Sheridan supported the Australian government's Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005.[10] He also argued in 2006 that George W. Bush will be judged "one of the great presidents of the United States".[11]

In 2019 Sheridan visited Poland and Hungary, paid for by the Polish government and a conservative think-tank, the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. He wrote articles praising the Polish and Hungarian governments.[12][13]

In June 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, Sheridan commented on Sky News that there was no systemic racism in US. "Most African Americans are middle class, and they don’t suffer daily, shocking racism," Sheridan said. "I myself have lived in the United States on four separate occasions. And I never saw any racial confrontation. I never heard anyone make a racist remark."[14][15]

Sheridan has been a regular critic of the ABC. In one column he wrote "the ABC has become a relentless behemoth of unaccountable and vindictive power that persecutes designated enemies in a grievously unfair and unprofessional way" which practices "an irresponsible, vicious, bullying misuse of state power."[16]

Sheridan called columnist Andrew Bolt "the bravest man in Australia" for Bolt's defence of Cardinal George Pell who was accused of child sexual abuse.[16] In 2020 Sheridan claimed that comedian Tim Minchin's satirical song about Pell had been commissioned by the ABC. This claim was later shown to be wrong.[17]

Personal life

Sheridan moved to Melbourne in 2006. He is married to Jasbir Kaur "Jessie" Sheridan; the couple have three sons.[18]

Sheridan was given an Officer of the Order of Australia Honour in 2016, with the citation, "For distinguished service to print media as a journalist and political commentator on foreign affairs and national security, and to Australia's bilateral relationships".[19]

References
  1. Sheridan, G. (2015). When We Were Young & Foolish. Sydney: Allen & Unwin; ISBN 9781760113391, page 199.
  2. Massola, James (30 January 2015). "Tony Abbott considered appointing The Australian's Greg Sheridan to plum posting". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015.
  3. Fullerton, Ticky, INTERVIEW- A politic apprenticeship: Greg Sheridan, archived from the original on 6 March 2016
  4. Sheridan, Greg (25 July 2015). "Tony Abbott, Greg Sheridan and the 1977 AUS conference: a political baptism of fire". The Australian. News Corp Australia. Edited extract from When We Were Young and Foolish
  5. G. Sheridan, Australian physicist wins Guthrie Medal, The Bulletin 101(5239), 49-50 (1980).
  6. Craven, Peter (1 August 2015). "Greg Sheridan's memoir recalls Abbott, Carr early days". The Australian. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  7. Pilger, John (1998). Hidden Agendas. Vintage. ISBN 9780099741510. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  8. In praise of Soeharto the despot, The Sun-Herald, February 13, 2005
  9. East Timor is no failed state, Crikey, June 5, 2006
  10. Sheridan, G., and Kerin, J. "Deported activist was to teach tactics of violence", The Australian, 22 September 2005.
  11. Sheridan, Greg (14 September 2006). "A great president for these terrible times". The Australian. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  12. Robin, Myriam (22 July 2019). "Greg Sheridan's Grand European Tour". Australian Financial Review.
  13. Koziol, Michael (6 October 2019). "Why Australia's conservatives are finding friends in Hungary". Sydney Morning Herald.
  14. Meade, Amanda (5 June 2020). "Lachlan Murdoch says black lives matter – but did Greg Sheridan get the memo?". The Guardian.
  15. Yussuf, Ahmed (4 June 2020). "'Most African Americans don't suffer daily shocking racism.' Is that true?". SBS.
  16. Sheridan, Greg (16 April 2020). "ABC's groupthink on George Pell a sin against journalism". The Australian.
  17. Shelton, Lyle (30 April 2020). "Sherdian's point lost in the pile-on". Lyle Shelton.
  18. Sheridan, Greg (1999). Asian Values, Western Dreams: Understanding the New Asia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
  19. "SHERIDAN, Gregory Paul". PMC. Retrieved 17 August 2018.

Bibliography
  • (editor and co-author) Living with Dragons: Australia Confronts Its Asian Destiny (Allen & Unwin, 1995; ISBN 1-86373-880-0)
  • Tigers: Leaders of the New Asia-Pacific (Allen & Unwin, 1997; ISBN 1-86448-153-6)
  • Asian Values, Western Dreams: Understanding the New Asia (Allen & Unwin, 1999; ISBN 1-86448-496-9)
  • Cities of the Hot Zone: A Southeast Asian Adventure (Allen & Unwin, 2003; ISBN 1-74114-224-5)
  • The Partnership: The Inside Story of the US-Australian Alliance Under Howard and Bush (UNSW Press, 2006; ISBN 0-86840-922-7)
  • When We Were Young & Foolish: A Memoir of My Misguided Youth with Tony Abbott, Bob Carr, Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd & Other Reprobates (Allen & Unwin, 2015; ISBN 9-78176-0113-391)
  • God Is Good for You: A Defence of Christianity in Troubled Times (Allen & Unwin, 2018; ISBN 9-78176-0632-601)
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