Rupert Murdoch’s sister, Janet Calvert-Jones, who was chairman of the Herald & Weekly Times from 1989 to 2009, becomes an AC in today’s King’s Birthday Honours list.
The top honour follows an AO in 2006 and recognises, “eminent service to philanthropy, to the arts, to medical research organisations, to the community, and to children and youth.”
She is credited with leading the Murdoch family in founding the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and continues to sit on the MCRI Council of Ambassadors. In an interview for The Australian, she tells how her mother “persuaded Rupert and me and my sisters to make a large donation so it could get started.”
Since then, she has recruited Sarah Murdoch – wife of NewsCorp chair Lachlan – to the cause, with Sarah Murdoch a member of the MCRI board since 2014 and its co-chair since 2021.
Other causes supported by the Calvert-Jones Foundation include Second Bite, Orange Sky Laundry, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Melbourne Zoo and the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation
She is also a director of the Royal Botanic Gardens and trustee of Cruden Farm, which was her childhood home, and where she grew up during World War II.
Rupert Murdoch acquired HWT – for which his father had worked – in January 1987, merging it into what is now News Corp Australia. Their father, Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch had been managing director and later chairman, and is credited with establishing Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, co-founding AAP and helping establish Australian Newsprint Mills.
Others in the media honoured today include:
Craig Leeson, most recently a foreign correspondent for Al Jazeera (2013-2020), who started his career as a reporter and editorial manager of The Advocate in Launceston in 1985; and
Gail Hambly, chair of Australian Associated Press from 2021-2025, and a former general counsel and company secretary of Fairfax Media from 1992.
Picture: Janet Calvert-Jones with her daughter and current HWT chair Penny Fowler at Cruden Farm (The Australian/David Caird)