Gregory Paul "Greg" Sheridan is an Australian foreign affairsjournalist and commentator. He has been the foreign editor of The Australian newspaper since 1992.
Sheridan first worked at The Bulletin magazine in 1979. His reporting on the Vietnamese boat people, after the end of the Vietnam War, sparked a lifelong interest in Asian politics. Sheridan joined The Australian in 1984. He worked in Beijing, Washington, and Canberra before becoming foreign editor in 1992. Writing on and from the Asian region since the 1980's, he specialises in Asian politics, and has written four books on the topic, and a book on Australia–U.S. relationships. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne.
Commentary
Sheridan has been a staunch supporter of closer ties between Australia and its Southeast Asian neighbours, particularly Singapore and Indonesia. In his book Hidden Agendas, journalist John Pilger accused him of being a "reliable ally" of the Suharto dictatorship while serving as the foreign editor of The Australian. In particular, Pilger derided Sheridan's defence of Indonesia following the Clinton administration's critique of Suharto's human rights records, as well as the Australian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee following its confirmation of the Santa Cruz Massacre. Sheridan stated that "even genuine victims frequently concoct stories". He was a vocal critic of Prime MinisterJohn Howard's intervention in East Timor in 1999, and during 2006 called for the removal of Mari Alkatiri as Prime Minister of that country. Sheridan has been a supporter of the Australian government's anti-terror legislation and argued the deportation from Australia of Americanenvironmental activistScott Parkin was well founded. He has also argued in support of the notion that George W. Bush will be judged "one of the great presidents of the United States". In reference to the 2011 Egyptian protests, Sheridan wrote that "What is happening in Egypt and across Arab North Africa more generally represents a distinct new phase in the existential crisis of Arab civilisation". In 2019 Sheridan visited Poland and Hungary, paid for by the Polish government and a conservative think-tank, the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. He wrote articles praising the Polish and Hungarian governments. In June 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, Sheridan commented on Sky News that there was no systemic racism in USA. “Most African Americans are middle class, and they don’t suffer daily, shocking racism,” Sheridan said. “I myself have lived in the United States on four separate occasions. And I never saw any racial confrontation. I never heard anyone make a racist remark.” Sheridan has been a regular critic of the ABC. In one column he wrote " the ABC has become a relentless behemoth of unaccountable and vindictive power that persecutes designated enemies in a grievously unfair and unprofessional way" which practices "an irresponsible, vicious, bullying misuse of state power." Sheridan called Andrew Bolt "the bravest man in Australia" for Bolt's defence of Pell. In 2020 Sheridan claimed that Tim Minchin's song about Cardinal Pell had been commissioned by the ABC. This claim was later revealed to be incorrect.
Personal life
Sheridan is originally from Sydney and moved to Melbourne in 2006. He is married to Jasbir Kaur "Jessie" Sheridan; the couple have three sons. Sheridan was given an Officer of the Order of Australia Honour in 2016, with the citation, "For distinguished service to print media as a journalist and political commentator on foreign affairs and national security, and to Australia's bilateral relationships".
