Nicholas Stuart

Nicholas Stuart (born 1961) is a columnist with The Canberra Times and the author of three books about Australian politics.

His unauthorised biography of Kevin Rudd^[1] has been described by Monash University's Senior Lecturer in Economics Nick Economou as "requisite reading for observers of Australian national politics".^[2] The book has been assessed as a fair, balanced and generally positive treatment of Rudd.^[3] Within a month of the election of the new Labor government Stuart published another 96,000 word book analysing the last term of the Howard government and identifying the significant factors that resulted in the change of government at the 2007 election.^[4] This has received similar positive reviews in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, and The Age newspapers.^[5]

Less than one month after the fall of Kevin Rudd Stuart published a third book; Rudd's Way.^[6] This book describes reasons why the ALP decided to remove Rudd from the leadership, making him the only successful Labor prime minister never to face re-election.

Stuart's newspaper column specialises in coverage of strategic and defence issues^[7] reflecting an interest developed after studying for an MA in War Studies at King's College London in 1984. When he returned to Australia the next year Stuart became a cadet radio news journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, gaining wide reporting experience. He later reported on politics and international events for the Radio Current Affairs programs "AM" and "PM", before moving to the ABC TV environmental program "A Question of Survival". He covered the aftermath of the 1989 Tienanmen protests in China before becoming the ABC's Indochina Correspondent, based in Bangkok.

Stuart was critically injured in a vehicle accident in Bangkok in late 1990 when he was left in a coma.^[8] He later returned to work in Bangkok and covered the 1992 demonstrations that led to the fall of the military-backed government of the country. He received a High Commendation issued by the Walkley Award judges that year. However, the ABC believed he had not properly recovered from his accident and was recalled to Australia. After working for a period in the Corporation's International Operations division, he later left the ABC.

Stuart accompanied his wife, Catherine McGrath, to Singapore where she was based as an ABC correspondent in 1995. When they returned to Canberra, Stuart became a columnist with The Canberra Times.

In 2015 Stuart became a Press Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge.^[9]

Stuart has become increasingly involved with disability issues, initially as a Director and later President of the National Brain Injury Foundation of Australia.^[10] As a result he became an ex-officio Director of Brain Injury Australia between 2011 and 2014.^[11] In 2013 Stuart was elected as a Director of the House With No Steps, Australia's second largest provider of services for people with a disability.^[12]

In 2016 Stuart received a Churchill Fellowship to study long-term recovery after head injury.^[13]

References