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Laurie Oakes (born 14 August 1943, Newcastle, New South Wales) is an Australian political journalist and commentator. For much of the past 40 years he has covered the Parliament of Australia in the Canberra Press Gallery, covering every federal election since 1966.
In 1997, Oakes used leaked documents to break the "travel rorts saga" that ended the careers of three Ministers and several other high ranking politicians and staffers.
More recently he used leaked documents showing the Rudd Government ignored warnings from four key departments about its Fuelwatch scheme.
However, he is most famous for the remarkable feat of getting hold of the entire 1980 Federal Budget in advance of Budget night. This stunning Budget leak, broadcast on Ten Network, was unprecedented at the time and, given modern security measures surrounding the Budget documents, is unlikely to be ever repeated.
Oakes, who was educated at Lithgow High School (of which he was the dux in 1961), graduated from the University of Sydney in 1964. During this time he worked part-time with the Sydney Daily Mirror. At the age of 25 he was the Melbourne 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, a televised political journal. In 1979 he joined Network Ten and worked there for five years. He has since written about politics for The Age in Melbourne and the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney. He has commentated for several radio stations.
Most recently, Oakes has been a weekly contributor various Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) owned media outlets, notably the Channel 9 television program, Sunday, and regular reporter for Nine News. He wrote a weekly column for The Bulletin magazine until it ceased publication in January, 2008. Oakes now writes for Sydney's The Saturday Daily Telegraph.
In August 2008 Sunday was axed. He now presents politics for Today on Sunday with hosts Cameron Williams and Leila McKinnon.
Awards
In 1998 Oakes won the Walkley Award for Journalistic Leadership, and again in 2001 for television news reporting.
Books
- The Making of an Australian Prime Minister (1972, co-author)
- Whitlam P.M (1973)
- Grab for Power (1974, co-author)
- Crash through or Crash (1975)
- How Will I Vote (1984)
External links
- Oakes Report - ninemsn.com.au
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