Laurie Oakes
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Laurie Oakes is acknowledged as one of Australia's foremost political commentators, with a career in journalism spanning more than 30 years. He has covered every Federal election since 1966, and is a respected and somewhat feared member of the Canberra press gallery. Oakes is renowned for his incisive political commentary, probing interviews and scoops. In 1997 it was Laurie Oakes who, using leaked documents, broke the travel rorts saga that ended the careers of three Ministers and several other high ranking politicians and staffers.
Oakes graduated from the University of Sydney in 1964. He was also working part time with the Sydney Daily Mirror. At the age of 25 he was the Melbourne Herald Sun's Canberra Bureau Chief and while working for that paper he began providing political commentaries for the TV program, Willesee at Seven. In 1978 he began The Laurie Oakes Report, his own televised political journal. In 1979 he joined Channel 10 for five years. He has written about politics for The Age in Melbourne and the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney and commentated for several radio stations.
He has for many years been a weekly contributor to the Channel 9 television program, Sunday, and regularly reports for National Nine News. He writes a weekly column for The Bulletin magazine.
Awards
In 1998 Oakes won the Walkley Award for Journalistic Leadership, and again in 2001 for television news reporting.