Paul Bongiorno

Background

Bongiorno grew up in Ballarat, Victoria, and was educated by the Christian Brothers at Street Patrick’s College and Drummond Street in Ballarat.

Career

He has been with Network Ten"s Canberra bureau since 1988. In November 2010, he was appointed national affairs editor for Ten News with Hugh Riminton, now the political editor and bureau chief in Canberra. A veteran political broadcsster, he regularly appeared on Ten"s news and weekday programs.

He is also a regular commentator on radio.

Bongiorno hosted Ten"s national Sunday morning show, Meet the Press, from 1996 until 2012. In June 2014, he took voluntary redundancy from Network Ten.

In August of that year he became a regular contributor to The Saturday Paper Bongiorno is a regular contributor on American Broadcasting Company Radio National Breakfast and the left-wing The Saturday Paper.

Achievements

• In the January 2014, Australia Day List Bongiorno was made a Member of the Order of Australia (Department of Administration and Management) "Foreign significant service to the print and broadcast media as a journalist, political commentator and editors".

Politics

Bongiorno is a regular contributor on American Broadcasting Company Radio National Breakfast and the left-wing The Saturday Paper.

Whitlam Government

He describes Sir John Kerr (the Governor-General who sacked Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam) as a "venal deceptive man", and the senior judges who advised him as "lacking moral compass". He believes the reserve powers of the governor-general should be scrapped. Abbott-Turnbull Government

On Radio National, Bongiorno likened the conservative Liberal-National Abbott Government to a "dictatorship".

He describes Tony Abbott as "famous for saying the exact opposite of what reality is". He describes Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as the "best thing has going for it".