Peter FitzSimons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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_(cropped).jpg) FitzSimons in 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Peter John FitzSimons (1961-06-29)29 June 1961 (age 63) Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Education | Knox Grammar School Findlay High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Sydney | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Non-fiction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1987–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rugby player | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Peter John FitzSimons[1]AM (born 29 June 1961) is an Australian author, journalist, and radio and television presenter. He is a formernational representative rugby union player and was the chair of theAustralian Republic Movement from 2015 to 2022.[2]
FitzSimons grew up inPeats Ridge,[3] in theCentral Coast of New South Wales. He was one of seven children. He attended Peats Ridge Public School andKnox Grammar School before going in 1978 toFindlay High School, Ohio,[4] for a year as anexchange student on anAmerican Field Service Scholarship. He then completed an arts degree at theUniversity of Sydney,[5] residing atWesley College from 1980 to 1982.[6]
FitzSimons first played club rugby with theSydney University Football Club and then with theManly RUFC in Sydney in the 1980s under the coaching ofAlan Jones.[1] Between 1985 and 1989 he played withCA Brive in France for four seasons as the club's first foreign player. He played seventest matches atlock for theAustralian national rugby union team between 1989 and 1990, debuting againstFrance in Strasbourg in November 1989, on the Wallabies 1989 tour of Europe. His final Test match was against theAll Blacks in Christchurch.[7]
InOn a Wing and a Prayer, formerWallabies wingerDavid Campese criticised FitzSimons for starting a brawl in Australia's first Test againstFrance in 1990.[8]: 117, 166 Campese labelled FitzSimons' actions "a disgrace to the good name of rugby"[8]: 117 and asserted that "he was doing the game and its reputation enormous damage."[8]: 166 Campese cautioned that if such fights "turn even one family away from the game, then they have been too costly".[8]: 166
Former WallabiesbackrowerWillie Ofahengaue said of FitzSimons: "He's a big character. Funny guy. Talkative. One thing I remember about rooming with him was he used to get his suitcase, tip it up and pour everything out on to the floor. When it was time to go home he would chuck everything back in any old way. Fitzy was a real roughie, but he is married now so he must have changed."[9]
FitzSimons has written forThe Sydney Morning Herald since 1988,[10] and has been a sports columnist for that publication since 1987.[11] He regularly appears on the AustralianFoxtel programThe Back Page, formerly hosted by rugby league journalistMike Gibson and nowTony Squires. For the Saturday edition ofThe Sydney Morning Herald, FitzSimons writes a column titled "The Fitz Files" which looks at all the happenings over the past seven days in sport. He writes a more general version of "The Fitz Files" inThe Sun-Herald on Sundays, focusing on community activities and events in Sydney.Andrew Denton has called him "Australia's finest sports journalist".[12] On 25 September 2001 he wrote a thought-provoking opinion editorial piece titled "Memo world: try saying sorry to avoid a sorry end".[13]
In August 2022 FitzSimons threatened to sue SenatorJacinta Nampijinpa Price for defamation when she said that he had been rude and aggressive in a telephone interview. Price urged FitzSimons andThe Sydney Morning Herald to release the recording of the interview but they declined to do so.[14]
In January 2006 FitzSimons began co-hosting a breakfast radio program withMike Carlton on Sydney radio station2UE. He was brought onto the 2UE breakfast show in an attempt to boost the program's dwindling ratings.[15] However, theMike and Fitz Breakfast Show still trailed a long way behind the number one program on2GB, hosted by FitzSimons' former coach Alan Jones.[16] After two years, FitzSimons quit to become astay-at-home dad and focus on his writing.[17]
FitzSimons is a prolific writer and is one of Australia's best-selling non-fiction writers.[18] He has written books about subjects such asNancy Wake, the shipwreck of theBatavia, SirJohn Monash,Breaker Morant,Charles Kingsford Smith andJohn Eales.[19]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[23]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[24]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[25][26]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[27]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[29]FitzSimons is or was involved with a range of community organisations. At theUniversity of Sydney he was a fellow of the Senate from 2009 to 2013,[30] as well as Pro-Chancellor,[31] apatron of TheRussell Prize for Humour Writing,State Library of New South Wales, since 2015[32] and chairman of theAustralian Republic Movement from 2015 to 2022.[33][2]Additionally, he served on the council of theAustralian War Memorial[34] and founded the Cauliflower Club withNick Farr-Jones.[35]
In the lead-up to2019 New South Wales state election, FitzSimons began a campaign to prevent the demolition of theSydney Football Stadium andStadium Australia. He began by launching a petition in late 2017 onChange.org that reached approximately 220,000 signatures prior to the election as well as numerous editorial articles decrying the demolitions. The stadium issue became a major element of the campaign with Labor leaderMichael Daley calling the election a "referendum on stadiums".[36] On 5 December 2017, FitzSimons remarked on Twitter that the incumbentGladys Berejiklian government could "bulldoze and rebuild three new stadiums, including Parra, for $3 billion—on no demand—or they can win the next election, but they can't do both."[37]
On 23 March, Berejiklian and her coalition were easily returned to government, with political commentators suggesting that the issue did not resonate with the wider community of the state.[38] The campaign had a minor success, however, as the government changed the original plan for a complete knock down rebuild of Stadium Australia, and instead would go ahead with a billion-dollar refurbishment. The refurbishment would also be cancelled, although no funds were allocated to any grassroots sports facilities as FitzSimons wished, and later had a similar level of funding directed to a new stadium in Penrith.
FitzSimons is married to Australian journalist and TV presenterLisa Wilkinson.[39] They have three children and live in Sydney.[40]
FitzSimons has identified himself as anatheist and aRepublican.[41][42]
FitzSimons is well renowned for wearing a red bandana.[43][44] He has explained his regularly wearing of the bandana due to his children giving it to him to wear, so he wears it for them.[45][46] He is at times referred to informally as "Pirate Pete" due to his wearing of the headwear.[47]
On 13 June 2011 FitzSimons was named aMember of the Order of Australia for service to literature as a biographer, sports journalist and commentator, and to the community through contributions to conservation, disability care, atheism, social welfare and sporting organisations.[48][49]
We accept that such hate as drove the planes into the World Trade Centre towers can only have come from incredible suffering, and we are desperately sorry for that suffering
The new Labor leader says the state election would be a referendum on stadiums
it is possible to say with confidence there was one thing Sydneysiders did not vote against – new or refurbished stadiums.
