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Peta Credlin

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Australian political advisor

Peta CredlinAO
BornMarch 1971 (age 53)
Wycheproof, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Australian National University
Occupation(s)Political adviser, political journalist, lawyer
Political partyLiberal
Spouse Brian Loughnane ​(m. 2002)​
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Peta-Louise Mary Credlin AO (born March 1971) is an Australian former political advisor who served as Chief of Staff to Tony Abbott during his term as prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015.

Credlin was previously chief of staff to Tony Abbott as Leader of the Opposition. Since 2016, she has been the host of Credlin and co-host of Jones & Co on Sky News Live. Credlin is a controversial figure in Australian media.

Early life and education

Peta Credlin was born to Len and Brenda Credlin in the small Victorian country town of Wycheproof. Her family moved closer to Geelong, and she attended Sacred Heart College, where she was a member of the debating team and elected deputy school captain in her second year.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne with a concentration in constitutional law, politics and history in 1998. At university, Credlin resided at Newman College, won a number of prizes and awards, and was a member and national finalist of the 1995 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition Team. After graduation, she was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Victoria, and applied for a job as a political staffer with Liberal senator Kay Patterson in 1999.

She obtained a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice with distinction from the Australian National University (ANU) in 2010, where she won the ACT Law Society Prize for the top student of 2009.

Career

After working for several years on Patterson's staff, Credlin moved to become an adviser to Senator Richard Alston, the Minister for Communications in the Howard government. She then left politics, and worked for three years as public relations manager for Racing Victoria. Tired of the commute between Melbourne and Canberra, where her husband Brian Loughnane was based, Credlin returned to her career as a political staffer, working for senators Robert Hill and Helen Coonan.

When the Howard government was defeated at the 2007 federal election, Credlin moved to Sydney to work at the Jockey Club until she was asked by Brendan Nelson, who had been elected federal Liberal leader and Leader of the Opposition, to join his staff as a senior adviser. When Malcolm Turnbull challenged Nelson for the party leadership, Nelson counselled her to join Turnbull's team, and she was appointed deputy chief of staff in his office. When Turnbull himself was challenged and defeated by Tony Abbott in December 2009, Credlin joined Abbott's staff as chief of staff. She rose to prominence when the Coalition won the 2013 federal election and she became Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister. She continued in that role until the Liberal Party leadership ballot of 14 September 2015, in which Abbott was defeated and replaced as leader by Malcolm Turnbull.

Credlin became a Sky News Australia contributor in May 2016, with her first appearance on 7 May 2016 during a special weekend edition of PM Agenda. She began co-hosting a weekly primetime program Credlin & Keneally from 16 November 2016 until 17 May 2017. Credlin hosts her own show Credlin each weeknight on Sky News Australia. As a political commentator and self-described journalist, Credlin has been described as a partisan. Crikey's Paula Matthews wrote in February 2017 that Credlin's support for Tony Abbott and criticism of then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull "takes media partisanship to its extreme" and represents "the channelling of a politician directly through a media mouthpiece".

Credlin has been an ardent critic of the Victorian government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly of then-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews. Credlin has been lauded by fellow Sky News hosts for her aggressive questioning of Andrews during his daily press conferences during the pandemic.

In 2020, Credlin was criticised for claiming that South Sudanese Australians were not following government measures intended to stop the spread of COVID-19 due to problems with language proficiency, Credlin also claimed that South Sudanese migrants were "poorly-assimilated" had ignored restrictions in an "end-of-Ramadan feast". Credlin's statement was criticised in the media, with SBS News noting that the vast majority of South Sudanese people are actually Christians.

In November 2020, Credlin compared COVID-19 lockdowns to the inquiry into the conduct of Australian SAS forces in Afghanistan.

During 2020, former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd started a petition for a Royal Commission into Murdoch owned media. Credlin claimed that the petition was a "data harvesting exercise" of email addresses by Rudd intended for political uses. Later, as part of a confidential settlement regarding defamation, Credlin in February 2021 made an apology to Rudd on Sky News for her comments.

In May 2021 she was accused of inciting violence by suggesting Labor leaders Daniel Andrews and Anthony Albanese be "whacked" with "baseball bats". In November 2021, she joined anti-vaccine mandate protests in Melbourne, where members of the crowd carried prop gallows and chanted anti-Andrews slogans.

Credlin became a columnist for The Australian newspaper in July 2021. Her arrival at that paper prompted Niki Savva to leave the paper and join The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Criticisms and controversies

Credlin has frequently played a role in internal Liberal Party divisions. In 2024 it was revealed that she provided extensive advice to expelled Liberal Party Member Moira Deeming, in her bid to remain in the Victorian Liberal Party, against the wishes of leader John Pesutto.

Most notably, Credlin has been an ardent critic of former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who defeated her former boss Tony Abbott for the liberal Party leadership.

Credlin is a member of the right faction of the Liberal Party, and a frequent critic of moderates within the party.

Honours

In June 2021, Credlin was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to parliament and politics, to policy development, and to the executive function of government".

Personal life

Credlin is married to Brian Loughnane, a former federal director of the Liberal Party of Australia, since December 2002. They had worked together in the Victorian office of the Liberal Party during the campaign for the 2001 federal election.

In 2013, Credlin pleaded guilty to a drink-driving offence, recording a blood alcohol level of 0.075, but did not have a conviction recorded against her.

References

  1. "'Peta for Premier' push as Credlin hits 50". The Australian. 15 March 2021. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  2. Staff and agencies (11 March 2016). "John Howard confirms he advised Tony Abbott to sack Peta Credlin". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021. The former Liberal prime minister John Howard has confirmed he advised Tony Abbott to remove Peta Credlin, his controversial chief of staff, before Abbott was dumped as leader by his party.
  3. Bourke, Latika (12 December 2014). "Peta Credlin critics are sexist, Tony Abbott claims during TV slap down". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2021. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told colleagues attacking his controversial chief of staff to 'take a long hard look at themselves' and accused them of attacking Peta Credlin because she is female.
  4. Matthewson, Paula (16 September 2015). "Peta Credlin on the outer after two-for-one deal". The New Daily. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021. Most powerful woman in Australia one day, pulped magazine cover the next – such is the fate of Peta Credlin, the controversial former chief of staff to ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
  5. ^ Legge, Kate (5 November 2011). "Who's the boss?". The Australian. Archived from the original on 12 April 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2013. ((dead))
  6. "'Control freak' Peta Credlin accused of pulling Coalition strings". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 December 2013. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  7. "Credlin critics told to 'back off' by Mathias Cormann". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 December 2013. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  8. "Give Peta Credlin some credit, and give her a break" by Peter van Onselen, The Australian, 6 December 2013
  9. "Tony Abbott dismisses 'obsessive' slur on chief of staff Peta Credlin". The Land. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  10. Meade, Amanda (31 March 2016). "Peta Credlin joins Sky News as 2016 election campaign commentator". The Guardian Australia. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  11. Knox, David (31 March 2016). "Peta Credlin joins SKY News". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  12. Knox, David (6 May 2016). "Peta Credlin in first SKY News appearance". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  13. Knox, David (3 October 2016). "Airdate: Credlin & Keneally". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  14. Matthewson, Paula (28 February 2017). "Abbott prefect Credlin takes media partisanship to its extreme". Crikey. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  15. Meade, Amanda (23 October 2020). "'Lethal' weapon: Sky News hosts gush as Peta Credlin promises exposé on Deadly Decisions". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  16. Blackston, Hannah (29 June 2020). "Sky News and Peta Credlin apologise for false reporting on COVID-19 outbreak". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  17. Razik, Naveen (29 June 2020). "Peta Credlin apologises for inaccurately blaming South Sudanese for coronavirus outbreak". SBS News. Archived from the original on 14 November 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  18. "One Rule For SAS, Another For Dan Andrews" Archived 22 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine by Peta Credlin, The Courier-Mail, 28 November 2020
  19. ^ Meade, Amanda (1 February 2021). "Peta Credlin forced to apologise to Kevin Rudd over false data harvesting claims". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  20. "Credlin comes out swinging as Victoria plunged into lockdown again" Archived 14 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine by Amanda Meade, The Guardian, 28 May 2021
  21. "Far-Right and Fascist Organizations Are Leading Australia’s Anti-Vax Movement" Archived 26 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine by Marty Hirst, Jacobine, 17 November 2021
  22. Zoe Samios (13 July 2021). "Niki Savva joins The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald". The Age. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  23. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/terrify-them-text-trove-reveals-credlin-s-secret-advice-to-deeming-20240913-p5kagx.html
  24. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-17/credlin-takes-fresh-swipe-at-turnbull-campaign/7419812
  25. https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/peta-credlin-on-former-boss-malcolm-turnbull-he-has-no-moral-compass/news-story/0ad2d9593cd31e268a356ca2b89939fc?amp
  26. https://amp.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-peta-credlin-has-become-the-liberal-party-s-great-right-hope-20190110-p50qp4.html
  27. "Peta Credlin appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in Queen's birthday honours". The Guardian Australia. 14 June 2021. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  28. Knott, Matthew (23 December 2011). "Brian Loughnane and Peta Credlin". Crikey: The Power Index: Power Couples. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  29. "Peta Credlin, Tony Abbott's chief of staff, avoids punishment on drink-driving charge". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 September 2013. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  30. Cadzow, Jane (5 April 2004). "Ms Fix-it". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 30 May 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2018.

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