Alan Ramsey

Who is Alan Ramsey?

Alan Ramsey is an Australian columnist and former writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. He first started working in journalism in 1953, for Frank Packer who then owned Sydney's Daily Telegraph. He gained experience working for small newspapers in Mt Isa and Darwin before joining Australian Associated Press. For AAP, Ramsey worked as a correspondent in Port Moresby and London before being appointed as a correspondent to travel with the first contingent of Australian combat troops to Vietnam 1965. Returning to Australia, he was appointed by The Australian to cover federal politics in Canberra in February 1966. He gained notoriety in 1971 when he yelled "liar" at then Prime Minister, John Gorton, from the press gallery of the House of Representatives. He wrote for a number of other publications before becoming a speechwriter for Australian Labor Party leader Bill Hayden until 1983. He wrote the national politics column for the Sydney Morning Herald from 1986 to 2008. He retired in December 2008. He released a selection of over a decade of opinion pieces for the Herald in his 2009 book A Matter of Opinion. He is a member of the board of the Whitlam Institute, and is married to another journalist from the Fairfax stable, Laura Tingle.