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Jon Faine | |
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| Born | Jonathan Eric Faine (1956-09-21)21 September 1956 (age 68)[1] |
| Career | |
| Show | Mornings |
| Station | ABC Radio Melbourne |
| Time slot | 8:30 am - 11:00 am weekdays |
| Show | The Conversation Hour |
| Station(s) | ABC Radio Melbourne, ABC Victoria |
| Time slot | 11:00 am - 12:00 noon weekdays |
| Style | Talk |
| Country | Australia |
| Previous show | The Law Report |
Jonathan Eric FaineAM (born 21 September 1956) is an Australian former radio presenter who hosted the morning program onABC Radio Melbourne inMelbourne. Faine is recognised as a prominent and influential member of the Australian Jewish community.[2][3]
Faine was born inDunedin, New Zealand. He emigrated toSydney with his parents at a young age. Later they moved to Melbourne in 1968,[4] where he attendedMelbourne High School.
Faine graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1979 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1981 atMonash University, where he worked as an intern at the Springvale Legal Centre, and is promoted as a prominent alumnus on the university's website.[5] After graduation, he began his professional career as a solicitor at the Melbourne law firms Barker Harty and Co, and Holding Redlich and Co, and then at the Fitzroy Legal Service.
Faine began his professional career practising as a solicitor in various Melbourne law firms, combining work with his love of cars by serving as a motoring reporter for a lawyers' magazine.[citation needed] He acted pro-bono for the Australian Democrats in a number of Court of Disputed Returns matters in the late 1980s with success.[citation needed] In 1989 he began working in radio, producing and hostingThe Law Report on theRadio National channel of theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation and later working on various ABC radio and television programs.
From 1996 to 2019, Faine hosted ABC's local radio morning program, from 8:30 am to 12:00 noon in Melbourne, including theConversation Hour which was heard acrossVictoria from 11:00 am. He is known for vigorous debate and for fostering conversation on politics, law, arts and sport. His highest ratings peaked in September 2002 and in 2003 he received the ABC Local Radio "Broadcaster of the Year" award. He also worked on scripts for a number of television and feature films.[citation needed]
After a leak of ABC presenters' salaries in 2013, Faine disclosed his taxpayer-funded salary to be $300,000 per annum in 2014.[6][7]
In 2011, Faine was included byAustralian Jewish News in its list of the 50 most influential members of the Jewish community in Australia with strong connections to Israel.[8]
In 2019, Faine announced his intention to leave the ABC after 23 years presenting the morning program with ABC Melbourne.[9] In May 2019, ABC announced thatVirginia Trioli would be leaving theNews Breakfast television program to replace Faine.[10]
Faine's last day of presenting was 11 October 2019. The program was broadcast from the Melbourne Town Hall in front of a live audience.
Faine currently writes a column forThe Age.[11] His bookApollo and Thelma was published by Hardie Grant in March 2022.
Together with his son Jack, who was aged 19 at the time, Faine used hislong service leave in 2008 to drive overland from Melbourne toLondon, United Kingdom.[12]
Faine has declared himself as anatheist and that his worldview is one ofsecular humanism.[citation needed]
Faine was made a Member in the General Division of theOrder of Australia (AM) on 26 January 2019.[13]
Faine is claimed by some to be a former member of theAustralian Labor Party,[14] although he reportedly has never been a member of any political party.[15]
Faine was reprimanded by the ABC for interviews that he conducted in 2013 regarding theAWU affair, in which he was found to have demonstrated bias in his handling of interviews defending Labor prime ministerJulia Gillard's involvement in the AWU's slush fund scandal.[16][17]
Faine likened theAbbott government's review of the ABC and SBS toVladimir Putin's Russia.[18] In a 2015 interview with Liberal prime ministerTony Abbott, Faine criticised Abbott for saying that taxpayers should not have to fund "lifestyle choices" and asked why the prime minister kept "saying stupid things" and suggested Abbott was a bully: "You yourself admit you have an aggressive streak - isn't that the core of bullying?"[19]
| External videos | |
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 One Plus One: Jon Faine, One Plus One,ABC News |