Janet Albrechtsen
Janet Kim Albrechtsen (born 23 September 1966) is a conservative Australian opinion columnist with the News Limited-owned newspaper, The Australian. From 2005 through 2010, she was a member of the Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's state-owned national broadcaster.
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[edit] Early life and education
Albrechtsen was born in Adelaide and attended Seacombe High School. She subsequently studied at University of Adelaide, graduating in law, with honours.[1] Albrechtsen later moved to Sydney, where she worked as a solicitor in commercial law at Freehills.[1] She subsequently attained a doctorate in law (SJD) from the University of Sydney.[1] Her thesis was titled: 'The regulation of the fundraising process in Australia: searching for an optimal mix between legislative prescriptions and market forces'.[2] Albrechtsen has also taught as an academic.[3]
[edit] Career
Since turning to commentary, Albrechtsen has written for the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age, Quadrant, Canada's National Post, The Vancouver Sun and The Wall Street Journal Asia.[1] Albrechtsen has been a member of the Foreign Affairs Council since 2003.
Albrechtsen was appointed to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005.[1][4] She told reporters in late 2009 that she was planning to retire from the board, and completed her five-year term on 18 February 2010 without seeking reappointment.[5][6]
In 2008, Albrechtsen wrote a chapter for Peter van Onselen's book The Liberals and Power. She argued the Liberals have become preoccupied with "dominating the rational low ground," abandoning the high moral ground to the left. Left-wing reviewer Norman Abjorensen said he appreciated her view of Howard's legacy as not just a transformation of the Australian economy but also one of the Labor Party.[7]
Janet Albrechtsen is also an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.
[edit] Personal life
She was married in 1991 to lawyer John O'Sullivan and now has 3 children, two daughters and a son.[1]
[edit] Views and influence
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This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (November 2010) |
Albrechtsen's views are generally right-wing. She supports free market policies, as well as social conservativism, such as opposition to gay marriage and assimilation of migrants.
A frequent commentator on legal issues, she has criticized both the High Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia for judicial activism.
[edit] Global warming
According to Mark Davis, a Melbourne University academic, Albrechtsen was one of four 'suspect' commentators in the Australian press to "sound the warning that this environmental catastrophe [global warming] will pass into memory" in the 2000s.[8]
[edit] Muslims
In 2002, the ABC's Media Watch program queried Albrechtsen's source for a claim in a column that
- ”Pack rape of white girls is an initiation rite of passage for a small section of young male Muslim youths, said Jean-Jacques Rassial, a psychotherapist at Villetaneuse University".
Media Watch asserted that she was misquoting a report in the London Times which said that
- ”Jean-Jacques Rassial, a psychotherapist at Villetaneuse University, said gang rape had become an initiation rite for male adolescents in city suburbs."
Additionally, Media Watch claimed that Albrechtsen's article misrepresented the findings of Flemming Balvig, a criminologist at Copenhagen University. While extending her aforementioned argument that gang-rape forms an initiation rite for a section of French, male Muslim adolescents, Albrechtsen represents Balvig's research thus:
"Denmark presents a similar story. Last year,Flemming Balvig a criminologist at Copenhagen University, confirmed the French experience of this barbaric rite of passage into manhood for some of these young men."
Balvig refuted this use of his work, viewing it as misrepresentation. In an exchange with Media Watch he writes:
"The citation is completely wrong. What I have said is, that the main explanation of gang rape probably is social, and not cultural or religious."[9]
In a short response that did not deal with the content of the allegations made against her, Albrechtsen accused Media Watch of left-wing bias and ambush journalism, citing "misleading conduct of the kind you [Media Watch] purport to expose",[10]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Who's Who in Australia - entry on Janet Albrechtsen
- ^ Albrechtsen's SJD Thesis, Sydney University Library website
- ^ "Profile: Janet Albrechtsen". news.com.au. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,9277270-32523,00.html.
- ^ Caldwell, Alison (24 February 2005). "ABC critic appointed to board of directors". ABC News. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1310461.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
- ^ Sharp, Ari (11 November 2009). "Albrechtsen to step down as director on ABC board". The Sydney Morning Herald: p. 7. http://www.smh.com.au/national/janet-albrechtsen-to-step-down-as-director-on-abc-board-20091110-i7lr.html. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
- ^ Meade, Amanda (22 February 2010). "Board vacancy". The Australian: p. Media section, p. 31.
- ^ Abjorensen, Norman (February 2009). "The long road back to office". Australian Book Review (308): 18–19.
- ^ Davis, Mark (2008). The Land of Plenty: Australia in the 2000s. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. pp. 192–194, 199. ISBN 9780522854848.
- ^ Media Watch (9 September 2002). "Janet Albrechtsen's View". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/090902_s3.htm. Retrieved 6 June 2007.
- ^ "Email from Janet Albrechtsen to Peter McEvoy". 6 September 2002. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/reply2.htm. Retrieved 6 June 2007.; "Media Watch, Muslims, Albrechtsen and Others". 2002. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/muslim.htm. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
[edit] External links
- Archive of Albrechtsen's columns with reader comments, from February 2007 onwards
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