Gerard Henderson
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Gerard Henderson (born 10 September 1945) is a conservative Australian newspaper columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is also Executive Director of the Sydney Institute, a privately funded current affairs forum.[1] His wife Anne Henderson is Deputy Director.
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[edit] Education
Henderson attended the Jesuit Xavier College in Melbourne. He studied Arts and Law at the University of Melbourne, prior to completing his Ph.D. At the University of Melbourne Henderson was President of the DLP (Democratic Labor Party) Club. Like other political clubs at the University of Melbourne during the 1960s the DLP Club was not affiliated with the political party of the same name, but supported DLP policies and invited DLP parliamentarians, including the then Senator Jack Little in 1968, to speak on campus at DLP Club public meetings.
[edit] Career
Henderson taught at Tasmania and La Trobe universities before working for four years on the staff of Kevin Newman in Malcolm Fraser's Coalition government.
From 1980 to 1983 he was employed in the Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations and was Chief-of-Staff to John Howard between 1984 and 1986 (during which time Howard was Deputy Leader, and later, Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia). Gerard Henderson was appointed by the Keating government to the board of the Australia Foundation for Culture and the Humanities and by the Howard government to the editorial board of the Documents on Australian Foreign Policy series.
As a commentator Henderson is on the conservative side of politics on issues such as industrial relations, national security and the Iraq War. His columns defended the former Howard government policy on Iraq and national security since the 11 September attacks.
Gerard Henderson is the author of Mr Santamaria and the Bishops (1982), Australian Answers (1990), Gerard Henderson Scribbles On (1993), Menzies' Child: The Liberal Party of Australia (1994, second edition 1998) and A Howard Government? Inside the Coalition (Harper Collins, 1995) - as well as numerous articles and essays. In August 1994 he profiled former Prime Minister Bob Hawke for the ABC TV Four Corners program.
Henderson is a known critic of The Chaser satirical news team, voicing his disgust at its attacks on him, his dealings with politicians, and events that he stages at the Sydney Institute.[citation needed]
In an article appearing in "The Sydney Institute Quarterly" (issue 29), Henderson declared John Howard 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, 2006, p. 12)
[edit] Media appearances
Henderson regularly appears as a commentator on political TV programs such as Insiders (ABC) and The Nation (Sky News) with David Speers.
[edit] References
- ^ Ewin Hannan and Shaun Carney (10 December 2005). "Thinkers of influence". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/thinkers-of-influence/2005/12/09/1134086810518.html?page=fullpage. "While not a think tank, it operates as a forum for debate. It does not commission research or have policies." "The institute is privately funded, with all papers delivered to it published in The Sydney Papers."
