Sharri Markson

Markson was born and raised in Sydney.[2] Her father is celebrity promoter, Max Markson. She worked for The Sunday Telegraph, where she was twice named News Limited's Young Journalist of the Year.[1][3]

In 2012 Markson won her first Walkley Award for television news reporting for a Cabinet Leak that revealed the NSW Government banned the sale of unleaded petrol without ethanol, to the benefit of the monopoly company, Manildra, against departmental advice, in a move that would increase the price of petrol for taxpayers.[4]

Markson became media editor of The Australian newspaper in February 2014.[5] There she was "noted for her aggressive pursuit of stories involving the ABC and Fairfax Media."[6]

She shifted to a senior writing role in 2015, and in September 2016 was appointed National Political Editor for The Daily Telegraph.[6] She notably wrote front page stories on then-Sydney Morning Herald columnist, Mike Carlton's abusive and anti-semitic emails and tweets to readers in the midst of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Markson's reporting led to the long-standing columnist's resignation from Fairfax. Fairfax's publisher, Sean Aylmer, told 2UE, "The issue wasn't the printing of the column. What sort of got him into trouble was the way he responded to those readers, and it was totally inappropriate, using very inappropriate language.".[7] A month after the coverage Markson was the subject of an anti-Semitic threat.[8]

Markson won a Walkley Award in 2018 alongside journalists Kylar Loussikian and Chris Dore for coverage of Barnaby Joyce's affair and "love child" with a parliamentary staffer, which ultimately led to Joyce's resignation as Australia's deputy prime minister.[9] The sensational front-page story, Bundle of Joyce, featured Joyce's girlfriend, Vicki Campion, walking across the street while pregnant. The story was initially met with controversy, with some journalists, commentators and politicians claiming the affair and pregnancy should have been kept secret from the public. Markson argued it was in the public interest to expose the hypocrisy of Joyce, who is a conservative politician who had campaigned on family values, opposed same-sex marriage and did not think women should get the cervical cancer vaccine because it might make them more promiscuous.[10] Later coverage by Markson revealed that Campion had been awarded jobs she was not qualified for in the officers of other government politicians and that Joyce had lied about the affair to then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The story led to Mr Turnbull announcing a "bonk ban" where ministers could not have sexual relations with their staff members.[11]

In the same year Markson won a Kennedy Award for Journalism for Scoop of the Year and Political Journalist of the Year and the overall award for journalist of the year.[12]

In 2018, Markson won the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism, which was presented to her by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch at an award ceremony in Sydney. When presenting Markson with the award, Lachlan Murdoch said: "Through your bold, take-no-prisoners reporting you broke ripper stories day after day and shook and shook and shook the political landscape.".[13]

As political editor of The Daily Telegraph, Markson also broke news of the impending leadership coup against Malcolm Turnbull by Peter Dutton. On August 17, 2018, Markson was the first to report Dutton was being urged to seize the leadership "within weeks" by conservative MPs unhappy with Malcolm Turnbull's leadership.[14] She followed up her story by breaking another story the next day that Dutton was seriously considering launching a challenge for the prime ministership.[15] The coverage of the leadership coup led Markson to jointly win (along with David Speers) the 2019 Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery Journalist of the Year Award presented by the National Press Club of Australia.[16]

In June 2018, she attended the AIJAC sponsored Rambam Fellowship Program in Israel, along with other journalists and politicians. According to The Australian Jewish News, "she found Israel to be an eye-opening experience as a journalist, but also discovered a deep emotional awakening inside her as an Australian Jew while visiting the Western Wall for the first time".[17]

Markson began hosting a self-titled weekly program on Sky News Live from 9 October 2018.[18] The debut episode of ''Sharri'' was watched by 105,000 viewers over the course of an hour.[19] After returning from maternity leave, Markson's show shifted to Sunday nights at 6pm where her ratings reached 314,000 viewers.[20]

In 2019, Markson won another Kennedy Award for columnist of the year.

Markson's work has occasionally attracted controversy. In November 2015, she was detained by Israeli security officials for breaching protocol during a visit to the Ziv Medical Centre in Safed.[21]

During the Federal Election campaign, Markson took her five-month-old baby on the campaign trail where they traveled with the Prime Minister on his private plane. Markson's baby was present for an exclusive sit-down interview with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.[22]

In May 2019, Markson was "mocked on twitter" after stating on air eight days before Election Day that the Coalition had a real chance to win.[23] Markson's analysis defied the majority of polling and public opinion which expected an electoral victory for then-Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and rather predicted the Coalition would come to win the election by taking a few key seats in Victoria, New South Wales and, crucially, Queensland. Markson later credited the Coalition victory to an incredible turnaround pulled off by leader Scott Morrison in key marginal areas.[24]

Markson began her journalism career as a copy girl at The Sunday Telegraph at the age of 16. She was promoted to the State Political Reporter, Canberra correspondent, and finally, Chief of Staff.[25]

She twice won the Young Journalist of the Year Award and did secondments at the New York Post and The Sun in London. As political reporter for The Sunday Telegraph in Canberra, Sharri revealed Tony Abbott missed the $42 million stimulus package vote in Parliament because he fell asleep after a night of drinking.[26]

She joined the Seven Network in 2011, and was part of a team of journalists who won a Walkley award for TV news reporting.[2][27] As news editor at the Seven Network in 2011, Markson was commended in the Walkley Awards for an investigation that revealed the Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner's rush to cash-in on the Solar Bonus Scheme subsidy for solar panels on his roof after then Premier Kristina Keneally announced it was shutting down. The coverage was cited as the first scandal of the new O'Farrell government.[28]

Markson was recruited as the Australian editor of Cleo in 2013.[29] Her tenure as editor involved launching a fight for equal pay for men and women named "Ditch the pay GAP".[30] The magazine also ran a prominent investigation into companies which were paying women less than men by examining the financial statements of 100 Australian companies.[31]

While editor, Markson made the decision to no longer mention sex on the magazine's cover.[32] In the same year coverage in CLEO triggered an investigation at the University of Sydney into sexual harassment occurring during 'initiation ceremonies' at the University's prestigious colleges.[33]

• Sharri Markson on Twitter