Phillip Adams (writer)

Phillip Adams
AO, FAHA, FRSA
Adams speaking at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
Born
Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams

(1939-07-12) 12 July 1939 (age 85)
Maryborough, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupations
  • Film producer
  • journalist
  • broadcaster
  • former advertising executive
Known forRevival of Australian cinema;[1]
Public intellectualism
Spouses
Rosemary Fawcett
​
(divorced)​

Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams AO, FAHA, FRSA (born 12 July 1939) is an Australian humanist,[2] social commentator, ex-broadcaster, public intellectual and farmer. He hosted Late Night Live, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program on Radio National from 1991 to 2024. He also writes a weekly column for The Weekend Australian.

Adams has had careers in advertising and film production and has served on many non-profit boards including WikiLeaks, Greenpeace Australia, Ausflag, Care Australia, Film Victoria, National Museum of Australia, both the Adelaide and Brisbane festivals of ideas, the Montsalvat Arts Society and the Don Dunstan Foundation. As a young man he joined the Communist Party of Australia, and was a member of the Australian Labor Party for fifty years.

Adams has been appointed both a Member and subsequently an Officer of the Order of Australia; and he has received numerous awards including six honorary doctorates from Australian universities; Republican of the Year 2005; the Senior ANZAC Fellowship; the Australian Humanist of the Year, the Gold Lion at Cannes Lions Festival; the Longford Award; a Walkley Award; and the Henry Lawson Australian Arts Award. In 1997 the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter after him.[3] A National Trust poll elected him one of Australia's 100 national living treasures.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference godfather was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "National Living Treasures". National Trust of Australia. 2012. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2014. Writing in The Monthly, Professor Robert Manne described Adams as 'perhaps the most remarkable broadcaster in the history of this country'.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference spa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).