Miranda Devine

Miranda Devine (born July 1961 ) is a conservative Australian columnist and writer. Her column, formerly printed twice weekly in Fairfax Media newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, now appears in the News Limited newspapers Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun and Perth's Sunday Times. She hosted The Miranda Devine Show, a weekly syndicated radio show on Sydney station 2GB. The show ended in 2015. As of early 2020, her columns appear in the New York Post.

Early life and education
Born in New York and growing up between Tokyo and Sydney. Devine is the eldest daughter of Frank Devine, a New Zealand born Australian newspaper editor and journalist, who died in 2009. She attended school at Loreto Convent and the International School of the Sacred Heart Tokyo, has a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University (USA) and a Bachelor of Science in Maths from Macquarie University. Devine studied first-year architecture at Sydney University and worked briefly at the CSIRO's Division of Textile Physics.

Career
Devine worked for the Boston Herald as a reporter and feature writer. In 1989, Devine joined The Daily Telegraph as assistant editor, police reporter and columnist after returning to Australia to live in Sydney. She had also previously worked at British tabloid the Sun and Sunday Times in London. Most recently, Devine's columns, focused on  United States politics, are published by the New York Post and she makes appearances promoting her articles on local media outlets. Devine lives in Sydney with her husband and two sons.

Commentary 
Devine is noted for her conservative stance on a range of social and political issues, including Catholicism, and this approach has proved controversial at times. But also she has been critical of some conservative politicians, such as former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and in April 2016 she coined the term "delcon" (delusional conservative) to describe some of his uncritical diehard supporters.

In 2009, Devine suggested that green ideologies like biodiversity conservation were to blame for the poor management of forested areas and national parks, and consequently for the deaths during the Black Saturday bushfires event . This rhetoric was revived during the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, but promptly rejected by the scientific and firefighting community  

In 2011, Devine used the news of Australian federal government minister Penny Wong's decision to parent a child with her female partner as the basis of a column in which she argued that the 2011 riots in England were the result of a "fatherless society".

In 2015, Devine sparked considerable controversy after claiming that "women abusing welfare" were the main cause of domestic violence. According to Devine, "If you want to break the cycle of violence, end the welfare incentive for unsuitable women to keep having children to a string of feckless men".

In 2017, she wrote that share bicycle schemes were a terror threat.

In 2018, Devine advocated for the continuation of coal-fired electricity options; she has repeatedly suggested that climate change is a political conspiracy.

Devine has been accused by media of promoting the white genocide conspiracy theory and described as pivotal in popularising the concept within Australian politics. Referring to white South African refugees as "oppressed white, Christian, industrious, rugby and cricket-playing Commonwealth cousins", she has claimed they would "integrate seamlessly" with European Australians.

In 2019, Devine defended convicted child sex abuser George Pell, claiming that the victim’s “accusations are implausible” and that “Victoria police chief Graham Ashton desperate for a distraction from the crime epidemic he’s incapable of stopping”.

References

External links
 Devine's blog at the Daily Telegraph

Category:1961 births
Category:20th-century Roman Catholics
Category:21st-century Roman Catholics
Category:Australian columnists
Category:Australian Roman Catholics
Category:Australian conspiracy theorists
Category:CSIRO people
Category:Female critics of feminism
Category:Living people
Category:Macquarie University alumni
Category:People from New York (state)
Category:Women columnists