Adam Creighton is an Australian journalist and the Washington correspondent for The Australian.
He was previously the economics editor. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, and has appeared on the ABC panel show Q+A. Creighton has received several awards for his journalism and writing.
Creighton holds a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of New South Wales, and Master of Philosophy in Economics from Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar, and was a journalist-in-residence at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2019. He is also a contributor to Sky News Australia and is a member of the Advisory Council of the National Archives of Australia.
Creighton has previously worked at the Reserve Bank of Australia, Centre for Independent Studies and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. In 2010, he served as a senior economic adviser to then-Australian opposition leader, Tony Abbott.
Career and views
Creighton is regarded as holding generally conservative views and has been described by Jason Wilson of The Guardian as an "arch-neoliberal", though Creighton contests that definition and describes his views as "old DLP Labor sprinkled with a bit of libertarianism" and points to his stance in favour of land and inheritance taxes, a higher top marginal tax rate for very high incomes, tougher bank and pharmaceutical regulation, abolishing negative gearing and a universal age pension, and his advocacy against privatisation of energy markets. Creighton opposes increased action on climate change by the Australian government, and has warned of the lack of precision of climate and economic modelling, drawing on work by economist Robert Pindyck.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the economics editor for The Australian, Creighton was an ardent critic of government-implemented lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19, and praised Sweden's less restrictive approach to slowing the spread of the virus. Creighton's defence of the Swedish government response to the COVID-19 pandemic drew criticism from other sections of the media, with Crikey's Guy Rundle claiming that Creighton's columns were "a compendium of false comparisons", and The Guardian's Jason Wilson writing that Creighton's claims were "flatly contradicted by published epidemiological research", citing a paper that did not mention Sweden.
Creighton has referred to strict lockdowns as an affront to personal liberty and reflective of what he calls "health fascism". In April 2020, Creighton signed a joint letter with several dozen people from academia, business and media, calling for a scaling-back of Australia's lockdowns by May. He has argued for open debate and free speech, when commenting on opposition to The Joe Rogan Experience, writing: "It should be OK to have, and to air, a different view from public health officials, especially eminent scientists with long track records of publication, right or wrong."
Publications
- Creighton, Adam; Piggott, John (2006). "The Structure and Performance of Mandated Pensions". In Gordon L. Clark; Alicia H. Munnell; J. Michael Orszag (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199272464.003.0013. ISBN 978-019157720-8.
- with Gower, Luke; Richards, Anthony R. (January 2007). "The impact of rating changes in Australian financial markets". Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. 15 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1016/j.pacfin.2006.04.003.
- — (April 2008). "Taxing private equity". Policy Review (148): 19–33.
References
- "Adam Creighton heads to US for Washington role". The Australian. 15 January 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- ^ "Adam Creighton | Author at The Australian". The Australian. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- "Adam Creighton". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- "Zali's Political Slalom". ABC. 5 August 2019. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Fitzgerald, Karl. "EJ Craigie Award Winner – Adam Creighton". Prosper Australia. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- "Adam Creighton wins Citi Journalism Award for Excellence". The Australian. 30 April 2015.
- "Citi Journalism Awards for Excellence | Previous Journalism Award winners". citigroup.com. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- "General Motors ultimately 'doesn't care about Australian jobs'". Sky News Australia. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ^ "Mr Adam Creighton". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- Wilson, Jason (3 February 2015). "The rightwing reaction to Queensland shows they want to rule, not govern". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (29 December 2020). "Confessions of an 'arch neoliberal'". The Australian. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
- "User beware: Misplaced Pages has fallen for groupthink". The Australian. 7 August 2023.
- Creighton, Adam (18 November 2020). "Deloitte climate report more a fearmongering manifesto". The Australian. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (14 April 2020). "We may be over-reacting to an unremarkable coronavirus". The Australian. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (18 August 2020). "Coronavirus: We should kiss these lockdowns goodbye". The Australian. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (1 September 2020). "The COVID-19 panic is unnecessary – it is much less threatening than we think". The Australian. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (13 April 2020). "Coronavirus: lockdown 'hysteria is ruining 10 million lives'". The Australian. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (21 April 2020). "Under 60, in good health? Crossing the road is more risky". The Australian. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (6 October 2020). "Coronavirus: Sweden defied zealots and never met its Waterloo". The Australian. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Rundle, Guy (1 May 2020). "The right's attacks on Victorian health official show their failure and desperation". Crikey. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
- Wilson, Jason (21 December 2020). "Sky News Australia is increasingly pushing conspiracy theories to a global audience online". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- Nina Haug; Lukas Geyrhofer; Alessandro Londei; Elma Dervic; Amélie Desvars-Larrive; Vittorio Loreto; Beate Pinior; Stefan Thurner; Peter Klimek (16 November 2020). "Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions". Nature Human Behaviour (4): 1303–1312. doi:10.1038/s41562-020-01009-0. hdl:11573/1708441.
- Creighton, Adam (19 December 2020). "Personal liberty sacrificed at the altar of Covid public safety". The Australian.
- Cranston, Matthew (24 April 2020). "Economists duel it out on when to lift restrictions". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 7 May 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
- Creighton, Adam (7 February 2022). "Rogan ban a sign of elite's reluctance to allow free speech". The Australian.