Peter Hartcher is an Australian
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and the Political and International Editor of the ''
Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...
''. He is also a visiting fellow at the
Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based foreign policy think tank.
Career
In 1981, while a student at
Chevalier College in
Burradoo
Burradoo () is a suburb of Bowral, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.
The village of Burradoo is well known as an expensive area in the Southern Highlands (among other residential areas including Mo ...
, New South Wales, Hartcher was national winner of the Sydney Morning Herald's Plain English Speaking competition and won a trip to England, where he won the international final the following year.
His career in journalism began the following year with a cadetship at the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. In 1986, he took up his first overseas posting as the newspaper's Tokyo correspondent.
On his return to Australia in 1988, Hartcher was made chief political correspondent, a position he held until 1991, when he accepted a job with the ''
Australian Financial Review
''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...
'' as Tokyo correspondent.
Between 1995 and 2000 he was the ''Australian Financial Reviews Asia-Pacific editor. His 1996 investigative series uncovering the secret negotiation of a security treaty between Australia and Indonesia won the Australian journalism award, the
Gold Walkley
The Gold Walkley is the major award of the Walkley Awards
The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic ...
.
[ He then went to the US for three years, where he was the Washington DC correspondent. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Citibank Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 2004, Hartcher rejoined the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' in his current capacity.
In late 2012 and early 2013, Hartcher wrote several columns covering ]Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
's ailing leadership and the potential return to leadership of the former prime minister, Kevin Rudd.
Books
In 1998 Hartcher published his first book, ''The Ministry'' (), an exposé of the role played by Japan's Ministry of Finance in that country's economic collapse and subsequent stagnation.
''Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing 7 Trillion Dollars'' (), Hartcher's critique of Greenspan Greenspan is a typically Ashkenazi Jewish surname. It is the anglicized form of the German/Yiddish surname Grünspan ("green swarf", "green patina", "verdigris", " copper(II) acetate"). Cognate are the surnames Grynszpan, Grinszpan and Grinshpan (P ...
's and the Federal Reserve Board
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mon ...
's management of the US economy through the years of irrational exuberance, was published in 2004 to a mixed reception in the US, but was met with greater critical enthusiasm internationally.
In 2007, Hartcher wrote ''Bipolar Nation: How to Win the 2007 Election'' in Black Inc's ''Quarterly Essay
''Quarterly Essay'' is an Australian periodical that straddles the border between magazines and non-fiction books. Printed in a book-like page size and using a single-column format, each issue features a single extended essay of at least 20,000 ...
'' (), an analysis of the Australian electorate's collective psyche and what he argues is its peculiar susceptibility to manipulation.
In 2009, Hartcher published ''To The Bitter End: The Dramatic Story of the Fall of John Howard and the Rise of Kevin Rudd'' (Crows Nest, NSW:Allen & Unwin. ).
In 2011, Hartcher published ''The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made Its Own Luck – And Could Now Throw It All Away'' (Black Inc. ), for which in 2013 he was awarded the 2013 Ashurst Business Literature Prize.
Hartcher's second ''Quarterly Essay'', "Red Flag: Waking Up to China's Challenge", was published in 2019.
His 2021 book, ''Red Zone: China’s Challenge and Australia’s Future'', was longlisted for that year's Walkley Book Award.
References
External links
Hartcher's articles in ''Sydney Morning Herald''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartcher, Peter
1963 births
Australian columnists
Australian newspaper editors
Australian political journalists
Walkley Award winners
Living people
Journalists from Sydney
The Sydney Morning Herald people