The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the editor-at-large is Paul Kelly.

The Australian is the biggest-selling national newspaper in the country, with weekday sales of 135,000 and Saturday sales of 305,000, figures substantially below those of top-selling papers in Sydney (The Daily Telegraph), Melbourne (The Herald Sun), and Brisbane (The Courier-Mail). Its chief rival is the business-focused Australian Financial Review.

In May 2010, the newspaper launched the first Australian newspaper iPad app.^[1]

Parent companies[link]

The Australian is published by News Limited, an asset of News Corporation, which also owns the sole dailies in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin and the most popular metropolitan dailies in Sydney and Melbourne.^[2] News Corporation's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder is Rupert Murdoch.

The Australian integrates content from overseas newspapers owned by News Limited's parent, News Corporation, including the Wall Street Journal and The Times.^[2]

History[link]

The first edition of The Australian was published by Rupert Murdoch on 15 July 1964, becoming the third national newspaper in Australia following shipping newspaper Daily Commercial News (1891)^[3] and Australian Financial Review (1951). Unlike other Murdoch newspapers, it was neither a tabloid nor an acquired publication.^[4] From its inception The Australian struggled for financial viability and ran at a loss for several decades.^[4]

Coverage[link]

Daily sections include National News (The Nation) followed by Worldwide News (Worldwide), Sport and Business News (Business). Contained within each issue is a prominent op/ed section, including regular columnists and non-regular contributors. Other regular sections include Technology (AustralianIT), Media, Features, Legal Affairs, Aviation, Defence, Horse-Racing (Thoroughbreds), The Arts, Health, Wealth and Higher Education. A Travel & Indulgence section is included on Saturdays, along with The Inquirer, an in-depth analysis of major stories of the week, alongside much political commentary. Saturday lift-outs include Review, focusing on books, arts, film and television, and The Weekend Australian Magazine, the only national weekly glossy insert magazine. A glossy magazine, Wish, is published on the first Friday of the month.

The Australian has long maintained a focus on issues relating to Aboriginal disadvantage."^[2] It also devotes attention to the information technology, Defence and mining industries,^[2] as well as the science, economics, and politics of climate change. It has also published numerous "special reports" into Australian energy policy.

Since 2006 the Australian Literary Review has been a monthly supplement, until its last issue on October 2011.

Notable stories[link]

In 2009, The Australian ran many articles about the Rudd Government's "Building the Education Revolution" policy, which uncovered evidence of over-pricing, financial waste and mismanagement of the building of improvements to schools such as halls, gymnasiums and libraries. On the newspaper's website, there was a section named "Stimulus Watch", subtitled "How your Billions Are Being Spent", which contained a large collection of such articles.

The following year, the policy turned into a political embarrassment for the government, which until then had been able to ignore The Australian's reports. Along with the government's insulation stimulus policy, it contributed to perceptions of incompetence and general dissatisfaction with the government's performance.^{[citation needed]} On 16 July 2010 it was reported that Julia Gillard had admitted that the school-building program was flawed and that that errors had been made because the program was designed in haste to protect jobs during the global financial crisis.^[5]

Payment for online content[link]

In October 2011 News Ltd announced that it was planning to become the first general newspaper in Australia to introduce a paywall. It charges readers $2.95 a week to view premium content on its website and mobile phone and tablet applications.^[6]

Editorial and opinion pages[link]

Mitchell has said that the editorial and op-ed pages of the newspaper are centre-right,^[7] "comfortable with a mainstream Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, just as it was quite comfortable with John Howard."^[2] According to other commentators, however, the newspaper "is generally conservative in tone and heavily oriented toward business; it has a range of columnists of varying political persuasions but mostly to the right."^[8] Its former editor Paul Kelly has stated that "The Australian has established itself in the marketplace as a newspaper that strongly supports economic libertarianism".^[9]

The Australian presents varying views on climate change, including giving space to articles and authors who agree with the scientific consensus, such as Tim Flannery, those who agree with the cause but disagree with the methods of coping with it, such as Bjorn Lomborg,^[10] through to those who disagree that the causes or even presence of global warming are understood, such as Ian Plimer.

Robert Manne wrote that "The Australian is... the only newspaper that is read by virtually all members of the group of insiders I call the political class, a group that includes politicians, leading public servants, business people and the most politically engaged citizens. Even those members of the political class who loathe the paper understand that they cannot afford to ignore it."^[11]

Antipathy to the present Labor government[link]

Martin Hirst, a professor at Deakin University's school of communication, said to a recent 2011 Australian media inquiry that he had been "blown away" by The Australian's newspaper coverage of national affairs, accusing the paper of political bias. He stated: "Every story about federal politics is slanted in a way that is against the government [the centre-Left ALP]."^[12]

Antipathy to the Greens[link]

In April 2011, the leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, accused the Australian of deliberate false reporting in order to discredit the Greens party.^[13]

Columnists and contributors[link]

Regular columnists include Dennis Shanahan, David Burchell, Peter van Onselen, Michael Stutchbury, Simon Adamek, Glenn Milne, Paul Kelly, George Megalogenis, Mike Steketee, Greg Sheridan, Alan Wood^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Phillip Adams, Nicolas Rothwell, Janet Albrechtsen, Imre Salusinszky, Chris Kenny, Troy Bramston, Nikki Savva, Tim Soutphommasane, Judith Sloan, Emma Tom and Angela Shanahan. It also features daily cartoons from Bill Leak and Peter Nicholson.

Occasional contributors include Gregory Melleuish, Kevin Donnelly, Tom Switzer, James Allan^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Luke Slattery, David Messer, and Noel Pearson.

Former columnists include Cordelia Fine,^[14] Michael Costa, Michael Costello, Frank Devine and Matt Price.

Other contributors include Penny Wong, Clive Hamilton, Tim Costello and Kevin Rudd.

Awards[link]

In November 2006, The Australian journalist Caroline Overington was awarded both the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism and a Walkley for investigative journalism over her coverage of the AWB Oil-for-Wheat Scandal for the paper.^[15] The following year, Hedley Thomas won the Gold Walkley Award for his coverage of the Haneef case.

Also in 2007, the newspaper's website won the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association Online Newspaper of the Year award.^[16]

[edit] The Australian's "Australian of the Year"

In January of every year, The Australian announces its choice for "Australian of the Year". In 2011, the newspaper announced that Treasury Secretary Ken Henry was its winner of the award for 2010.^[17] Previous winners include Kevin Rudd (2009),^[18] Stephen Keim (2008),^[19] Bob Brown (1983)^[20] and Gough Whitlam.^[18]

See also[link]

Australia portal

• Journalism in Australia
• List of newspapers in Australia

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Australian website

Australian people
Australians

Donald Bradman · Hugh Jackman · Heath Ledger Kylie Minogue · Angus Young · Leigh Whannell · Nicole Kidman
Total population
23,400,000
Regions with significant populations
Australia 23,203,000
Greece 135,000+[1]  United Kingdom 96,900[2]  United States 89,210  Netherlands 78,927  New Zealand 62,700  China 51,900  Canada 42,000  Italy 30,000  Lebanon 25,000  Chile 23,305[citation needed]  El Salvador 18,000[citation needed]  Argentina 11,369  Uruguay 9,376  Brazil 7,491  Peru 6,322  Colombia 5,706

Australian people, or simply Australians, are the citizens of Australia. Australia is a multi-ethnic nation, and therefore the term "Australian" is not a racial identifier. Aside from the Indigenous Australian population, nearly all Australians or their ancestors immigrated within the past 230 years. Colloquial names used to refer to Australians include Aussies, and Antipodeans.^[3][4]

The mainstream Australian culture (occasionally defined as the Anglo-Celtic culture), is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants beginning with the early settlers from England, Scotland, and Ireland. The populations of Sydney, Melbourne and the other major cities are different from the demographics of rural Australia as a result of the differing migration patterns.

Australian people can refer to:

• The citizens of Australia, as defined by Australian nationality law
• People whose ancestors lived in Australia

Indigenous Australians[link]

The earliest accepted timeline for the first arrivals of indigenous Australians to the continent of Australia places this human migration to at least 40,000 years ago most probably from the islands of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.^[5]

These first inhabitants of Australia were originally hunter-gatherer peoples, who over the course of many succeeding generations diversified widely throughout the continent and its nearby islands. Although their technical culture remained static—depending on wood, bone, and stone tools and weapons—their spiritual and social life was highly complex. Most spoke several languages, and confederacies sometimes linked widely scattered tribal groups. Aboriginal population density ranged from one person per square mile along the coasts to one person per 35 square miles (91 km²) in the arid interior. Food procurement was usually a matter for the nuclear family, requiring an estimated 3 days of work per week. There was little large game, and outside of some communities in the more fertile south-east, they had no agriculture.

Australia may have been sighted by Portuguese sailors in 1701, and Dutch navigators landed on the forbidding coast of modern Western Australia several times during the 17th century. Captain James Cook claimed the east coast for Great Britain in 1770, the west coast was later settled by Britain also. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000,^[6] divided into as many as 500 tribes^{[citation needed]} speaking many different languages. In the 2006 Census, 407,700 respondents declared they were Aboriginal, 29,512 declared they were Torres Strait Islander, and a further 17,811 declared they were both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.^[7] After adjustments for undercount, the indigenous population as of end June 2006 was estimated to be 517,200, representing about 2.5% of the population.^[6]

Since the end of World War II, efforts have been made both by the government and by the public to be more responsive to Aboriginal rights and needs. Today, many tribal Aborigines lead a settled traditional life in remote areas of northern, central, and western Australia. In the south, where most Aborigines are of mixed descent, most live in the cities.

Australian diaspora[link]

There is an estimated 1 million Australians (approximately 5% of the population) residing outside Australia. Hundreds of thousands of young Australians traditionally spend time living in Europe, but most return to Australia. The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement facilitates open migration to and from New Zealand. Key factors affecting the Australian Diaspora are rise of a global labour market, more accessible and economical international transport, and increasingly sophisticated communication technologies along with a growing interest in broader global community.

Population[link]

The current Australian population is estimated at 23,203,000 (26 June 2012).^[8] This does not include an estimated 1 million Australians living overseas (see above), but it includes the estimated 24% of Australians born overseas (in various nations, but predominantly the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, China, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, and Greece).^[9]

Historical[link]

The data in the table is sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics^[10][11] Note that population estimates in the table below do not include the Aboriginal population before 1961. Estimates of Aboriginal population prior to European settlement range from 300,000 to one million, with archaeological finds indicating a sustainable population of around 750,000.^[12]

Ancestry[link]

For generations, the vast majority of both colonial-era settlers and post-Federation immigrants came from the United Kingdom and Ireland, although the gold rushes also drew migrants from other countries. Since the end of World War II, Australia's population more than doubled, spurred by large-scale European immigration during the immediate post-war decades. At this time, the White Australia Policy discouraged non-European immigration.

Abolition of the White Australia Policy in the mid-1970s led to a significant increase in non-European immigration, mostly from Asia and the Middle East. About 90% of Australia's population is of European descent. Over 8% of the population is of Asian descent (predominantly Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Indian).^[13] The total indigenous population is estimated to be about 520,000 individuals, including people of mixed descent.^[6] The population of Queensland also includes descendants of South Sea Islanders brought over for indentured servitude in the 19th century.

In the 2006 Australian Census residents were asked to describe their ancestry, in which up to two could be nominated. Proportionate to the Australian resident population, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:^[13]

At the 2006 Census 455,026 people (or 2.3% of the total Australian population) reported they were of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.^[7]

Languages[link]

English, a West Germanic language, is the de facto national language of Australia and is spoken by the majority of the population, regardless of other languages spoken. Most Australians speak Australian English, however Australian Aboriginal English and Torres Strait English, along with various creoles and pidgins, are spoken by some Indigenous Australians. Australia is home to a great number of unique but endangered Indigenous Australian languages, as well as Australian Aboriginal sign languages. Australia's hearing-impaired community primarily uses Auslan, a member of the BANZSL language family.

The diverse backgrounds of Australians lead to a great number of community languages being spoken:

Religion[link]

Australians have various religions and spiritual beliefs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics gathers information on religious belief in the national census.^[14] As in many Western countries, the level of active participation in church worship is lower than would be indicated by the proportion of the population identifying themselves as Christian; weekly attendance at church services is about 1.5 million, or about 7.5% of the population.^[15]

Nationality[link]

Australians share Australian nationality, which is governed by Australian nationality law. Since there is no national identification card, commonly accepted proofs of Australian citizenship are the Australian passport, an Australian birth certificate (prior to 1986, when jus soli was abolished), or an Australian citizenship certificate. Australia permits dual citizenship with no restriction, but a more restricted qualification is imposed on people wishing to enter Parliament (see Sue v Hill).

References[link]

See also[link]

v t e Australia History Timeline Prehistory Archaeology Exploration 1606–1787 1788–1850 1851–1900 1901–1945 Since 1945 Constitutional Diplomatic Economic Federation Immigration Indigenous Military Monarchy Railway Geography States and Territories Capitals Cities Cities by population Climate Continent Deserts Environment Flora Fauna Forests Geology Islands Mountains Regions Protected Areas Rivers Governance Government Constitution Monarchy Australian governments Parliament Foreign relations Military Law Law Enforcement Courts Electoral system Public Service Intelligence and Security Federal Budget National debt Politics Political parties Elections Political donations Economy Agriculture Companies Energy Home ownership Homelessness Manufacturing Media Mining Poverty Taxation Telecommunications Tourism Transportation Australian dollar Reserve Bank Stock Exchange Household income Gross state product Welfare system Superannuation Society Crime Demographics Education Health care Human rights Immigration LGBT rights Culture Australians Architecture Arts Australian English Cinema Cuisine Wine Dance Indigenous Literature Music Public holidays Religion Sport Television Theatre Art Symbols Coat of arms Flags Honours States and Territories Other Australian of the Year Award Environmental issues Overviews Index Outline Book Category Portal WikiProject

v t e Ethnic groups in Australia Australia Australian · Anglo-Celtic · Australian Aboriginal · Torres Strait Islander · White Europe Northern Danish · Norwegian · Swedish Western English · Anglo-Celtic (Cornish · Scottish · Welsh) · Belgian · Dutch · French · Irish · Manx Central Austrian · Czech · German · Hungarian · Polish · Swiss Southern Gibraltarian · Greek · Italian · Maltese · Portuguese · Spanish Balkan Albanian · Bosnian · Bulgarian · Croatian · Kosovan · Macedonian · Montenegrin · Romanian · Serbian · Slovene Eastern Russian · Ukrainian Asia East Chinese (Hong Kong) · Japanese · Korean · Taiwanese South Afghan (Pashtun) · Bangladeshi · Indian (Malayali · Tamil) · Nepali · Pakistani (Pashtun) · Sri Lankan (Sinhalese · Tamil) Southeast Cambodian · Filipino · Indonesian · Laotian · Malaysian · Singaporean · Thai · Vietnamese West Arab · Armenian · Assyrian · Iranian · Iraqi · Israeli · Jewish · Jordanian · Lebanese · Palestinian · Saudi · Turkish Americas North American · Canadian Caribbean Jamaican · Trinidadian and Tobagonian Latin Argentine · Brazilian · Chilean · Colombian · Ecuadorian · Peruvian · Salvadoran · Uruguayan Africa Egyptian · Ethiopian · Somali · South African · Sudanese · Ugandan · Zimbabwean Oceania Fijian · Maori · New Zealander · Samoan (according to 2006 Australian census data: 20680 - Ancestry by Country of Birth of Parents)