Nick Cater

Nicholas Charles Cater is a British-born Australian journalist and author who writes on culture and politics. He is a columnist for The Australian newspaper.

Early life and education

Cater was born in Billericay, Essex,[1] and grew up in Hythe near Southampton.[2] His parents were teachers. He graduated from the University of Exeter with an honours degree in sociology in 1980 and drove laundry vans for a year before joining the BBC as a trainee studio manager.[3]

Career

He worked as a producer in the London bureau of Australia's Channel Seven from 1983 to 1986 before rejoining the BBC as a journalist. He produced and directed the documentary Bridge Builders comparing the construction of the Tyne and Sydney Harbour Bridges.

Cater emigrated to Australia in July 1989, where he joined News Limited. He worked on The Advertiser in Adelaide and became group Asia correspondent in 1993, where he was best known for tracking down the paedophile Robert 'Dolly' Dunn, reported on the front page of The Daily Telegraph under the headline "Hello Dolly" on 17 April 1996.[4]

Cater worked in senior editorial roles at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph[5] in Sydney before joining The Australian in 2004.[6] He was appointed editor of The Weekend Australian in 2007.

Cater left The Australian in September 2013, but continued to write a weekly column for it.[7]

In 2014, Cater was appointed executive director of the Menzies Research Centre.[8] where he was instrumental in founding the Robert Menzies Institute[9] a library, exhibition and research institute dedicated to the legacy of former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies, housed in the heritage Quad building on the University of Melbourne's Parkville campus. He co-curated of the institute's permanent exhibition with Dr David Kemp.[10] Cater is a regular commentator on Sky News Australia. He hosts the weekly show Battleground on Alan Jones's ADH TV[11] and co-hosts the weekly podcast Six O'Clock Swill with Tim Blair.[12]

Defamation case

In 2015, the Wagner family, of Toowoomba, Queensland, sued him for defamation over comments he made in broadcasts and in print about the cause of the floods in that town in 2011, in which 12 people died.[13][14][15] Justice Peter Flanagan dismissed the complaints against Cater relating to comments he made on radio,[16] however The Spectator (Australia) settled out of court over comments Cater made in an article.[15] In September 2019, a jury found that Cater had defamed the Wagners with comments he made in a television broadcast.[17]

Publications

The Lucky Culture

The Lucky Culture and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class (2013) was described as a manifesto for a counter revolution against the age of political correctness by Peter Coleman, who wrote "every 50 years or so Australians need a new book marking the end of an era and the start of a new one".[18]

Two Australian prime ministers launched the book at separate events. John Howard endorsed the book in Sydney[19] and it was given a qualified endorsement by Kevin Rudd in Brisbane[20] two months later. The former Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, described The Lucky Culture as a "beautifully written and perceptive… historical essay".[21] Among others who greeted the book favourably are Boris Johnson,[22] Geoffrey Blainey,[23] Miranda Devine,[24] Keith Windschuttle,[25] Janet Albrechtsen,[26] Julie Bishop and Jack Snelling. Chris Bowen[27] and Peter Craven[28] gave qualified endorsements. The former Labor leader Mark Latham was among the book's leading critics, writing, "It takes a fair bit to offend me these days but Nick Cater's new book The Lucky Culture and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class has done the trick."[29] The former Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis called for the book to be pulped, calling it "a loathsome shallow Murdochist piece of Pommy filth".[18]

Other critics include the journalist Guy Rundle of Crikey[30] and the historian Frank Bongiorno.

Other works

Cater was editor of the 2006 book, The Howard Factor,[31] a review of the first decade of the John Howard government.

He co-edited with Helen Baxendale a selection of the writings of Christopher Pearson under the title A Better Class of Sunset (2014), with introductions by Tony Abbott and Jack Snelling.[32][33]

Cater contributed the chapter "Barons versus bureaucrats: the history of the grain trade in North America and Australia" to Only in Australia. The History, Politics and Economics of Australian Exceptionalism (2016).[34]

Cater co-authored The Road to Freedom: The Origins of Australia's Greatest Political Party (2019) with John Nethercote,[35] and wrote the lead chapter in Australia Tomorrow (2022).[36]

References
  1. "Thatcher's Utopian Dreaming Ruined My Education". 19 April 2013. Archived from the original on 14 June 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. Cater, N. (2013). The Lucky Culture. 4th Estate. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-74309-813-4. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  3. "The end of an era at Bush House". Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  4. "Diplomatic impunity", The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 2004
  5. Nick Cater – The Wheeler Centre
  6. "Welcome to Oz, where no one rules", Spiked, 22 April 2013
  7. "Nick Cater bids farewell to The Australian". The Australian. 9 September 2013. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015.
  8. "New Executive Director", Menzies Research Centre news release
  9. "Liberal-aligned institute considered la Trobe, Monash before striking Melbourne Uni deal". The Age. 22 July 2021.
  10. "The first exhibition of the Robert Menzies Institute officially opens at the University of Melbourne".
  11. "Nick Cater's Battleground". adh.tv. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  12. "Six O'Clock Swill". captivate.fm. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  13. "Alan Jones defamation case: journalist Nick Cater accused of 'selective quoting' ". The Guardian. Australian Associated Press. 22 May 2018.
  14. Robertson, Joshua (28 October 2015). "Alan Jones and Nick Cater face libel case over Grantham flood claims". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  15. Meade, Amanda (23 November 2017). "Spectator Australia takes a hit with big Grantham floods payout". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  16. "Alan Jones considers appeal over $3.75m payout to Wagner brothers" by Mark Schliebs, The Australian, 12 September 2018
  17. "Wagner family wins defamation case against 60 Minutes over Grantham flood report". The Guardian. Australian Associated Press. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  18. Peter Coleman, "Australian Notes", The Spectator, 4 May 2013. Archived 15 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  19. "John Howard Launches The Lucky Culture", 8 May 2013 Archived 2 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ""Kevin Rudd launches The Lucky Culture in Brisbane"". Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  21. Tony Abbott, "Progress and its critics", The Spectator, 27 April 2013
  22. Boris Johnson interviewed by Jon Faine, 774 ABC Melbourne, 23 August 2013
  23. "Launch of The Lucky Culture and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class by Nick Cater", Geoffrey Blainey, speech, 13 May 2013
  24. Miranda Devine, "Timely warning of danger within", The Daily Telegraph, 23 April 2013
  25. Keith Windschuttle, "Left Stranded By An Ebbing Tide", Quadrant, June 2013, pp. 5–6.
  26. Janet Albrechtsen, "Why John won't vote Labor this time", The Australian, 8 May 2013
  27. Chris Bowen, "Launch of The Lucky Culture, Revesby Workers Club", 8 May 2013
  28. Peter Craven, "Nick Cater shows he's a working-class fan in The Lucky Culture", The Australian, 11 May 2013
  29. Mark Latham, "The Culture Wars: Legitimate Battlefield or Just Another Sneaky Right-Wing Attack", Chifley Research Centre, 2 May 2013
  30. Guy Rundle, "The trolling, parody genius of 'Nick Cater' ", Crikey, 8 August 2013
  31. The Howard Factor, Nick Cater (ed.), Melbourne University Publishing, 2006.
  32. "A Better Class of Sunset: Collected Works of Christopher Pearson". Archived from the original on 14 September 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  33. Baxendale, Helen; Cater, Nick, eds. (2014). A Better Class of Sunset: Collected Works of Christopher Pearson. ISBN 9781925138207. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  34. Only in Australia. Oxford University Press. 23 June 2016. ISBN 978-0-19-875325-4. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  35. John Nethercote; Nick Cater (2019). Road to Freedom: The Origins of Australia's Greatest Political Party. Cleveland, Queensland: Connor Court Publishing. ISBN 9781925826715.
  36. Jake Thrupp, ed. (2021). Australia Tomorrow. Cleveland, Queensland: Connor Court Publishing. ISBN 9781922449795.
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