Foremost Political Commentator

Sunday Morning News political commentator, Laurie Oakes has had a long and distinguished career reporting, interviewing and commentating on Australia’s political landscape. Laurie is renowned for his cutting interviews and ability to obtain leaked information. In 1997, Laurie used leaked documents to break the "travel rorts saga" that ended the careers of three Ministers and several other high ranking politicians and staffers. He has several political books to his name for which he is highly regarded.

When Australia’s news and current affairs television programs engage a political commentator, it’s Laurie Oakes they call upon. Laurie is at the forefront of political journalism, having reported federal politics in Australia for nearly 40 years, working in newspapers, television and radio.

For nearly 25 years Laurie Oakes has been the political editor for Australia’s top-rating television network, the Nine Network. He conducts a weekly political interview on the network's Sunday Morning News. Laurie also writes a weekly column each Saturday in The Sydney Daily Telegraph, Melbourne's Herald-Sun, The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, The Adelaide Advertiser, and several other newspapers.

Renowned for his incisive political commentary and probing interviews, Laurie Oakes has broken many major stories. In 1980 the entire federal budget was leaked to him, and in 1997 it was Laurie Oakes who, using leaked documents, broke the travel rort saga that ended the careers of three Ministers and several other high ranking politicians and staffers. To top it off, Laurie then scored an exclusive interview on Sunday with one of the ‘Travelgate’ affairs’ surprise victims – John Howard’s close friend and senior advisor, Graham Morris.

At the age of 25, Laurie was Canberra Bureau Chief at the Melbourne Sun Newspaper when he began providing political commentaries for the ‘Willessee’ program on Channel Seven. Then, in 1978, he began his own political journal ‘The Laurie Oakes Report’, which led him to join Channel Ten the following year, where he remained for a further five years.

A highly regarded political author, Laurie’s books include “The Making of an Australian Prime Minister" (1972, co-author), “Whitlam P.M" (1973), “Grab for Power" (1974, co-author), “Crash Through or Crash" (1975) and “How Will I Vote?" (1984)

In 1998 Laurie’s peers awarded him a Walkley Award for journalistic leadership. A collection of his columns which appeared in The Bulletin Magazine between 1987 and 2007 has now been published by Hachette.