Channel Nine's Peter Harvey. Source: Supplied
Peter Harvey in Saigon in 1966 for Newsweek. Source: Supplied
- OBITUARY
Peter Michael St Clair Harvey
Television and newspaper journalist, war correspondent, raconteur. Born Bellevue Hill, Sydney, September 16, 1944. Died Sydney, March 2, aged 68.
THE voice of Peter Harvey, that deep baritone that for many Australians embodied authority and integrity, described many events over the past five decades, from the brutality of war and famine to the cut-and-thrust of politics and the vanity of celebrity.
Its owner was the type of reporter who could be relied upon to cover any story at all, a news director's dream who would tackle all topics with the same enthusiasm and professionalism.
And news directors did throw him at anything, including a few years ago the trenches of Sydney Fashion Week and the near open warfare of bitchy designers, stylists and models. Harvey took the assignment in his stride, as he did all others, and his reporting on the premier fashion event -- by a journalist who had witnessed the war in Vietnam in the late 1960s -- was a highlight of Nine's bulletins that week.
His deadpan delivery was the perfect counterpoint to the fashion world as he sliced it apart and served it to viewers. At one stage while waiting for the next catwalk parade, Harvey grabbed a chair for a break, sitting in the middle of a wardrobe area. Surrounded by the frenetic energy of designers and wardrobe assistants and a mob of beautiful and half-naked models, Harvey was oblivious to it all.
With his glasses perched on the end of his nose, the hardened reporter was instead lost in that day's cryptic crossword.
Harvey, who has died at the age of 68 from pancreatic cancer, had a career in journalism that would be the envy of any reporter. He was part of a generation of newsmen who travelled the world and made their mark overseas. He then came home to become one of the most respected and trusted voices in Australian media.
For many Australians he was the voice of Canberra. His authoritative sign-off -- "Peter Harvey . . . Canberra" -- with its deep delivery, became so familiar it was impersonated by comedians on the ABC's The Late Show. Throughout the Keating and Howard years, Nine's formidable political team of Harvey and Laurie Oakes offered insightful and comprehensive coverage of federal politics and the policies affecting all Australians.
"Peter Harvey was a fierce competitor when we worked for rival networks, and a valued colleague in the 13 years we were together in the Nine Network's Canberra bureau," Oakes says.
"He has been called a journalist's journalist, and there was truth in that, but he had the knack of explaining quite complex issues in language everybody could understand.
"Peter was best known for his time in Canberra, where he covered politics with distinction and earned the respect of politicians from all parties. But he was extraordinarily versatile. He was a talented broadcaster, able to ad lib material where most of us would need a script.
"One of the things I most admired about him was the way he mentored younger colleagues. Peter's was a generous spirit. He's a real loss to journalism."
Harvey's professionalism has earned him encomiums, including from former prime ministers John Howard and Bob Hawke.
"He was a character," says Howard. "His voice had presence and authority, but his real ability as a journalist was to take very complex information and tell it in minimal words to the public so they could understand what was happening. He could simplify complex issues and that was integral for a successful political journalist.
"I remember not long after I was made a junior minister in 1976, I was given the Customs portfolio and I made a decision to ban something. I held a press conference and it was all going very well until this booming voice at the back of the room asked, 'why the crackdown?' It was his way of saying, 'you've made the announcement, now tell us why'. It was a salutary lesson for a junior minister and I never forgot it for the rest of my time in politics."
And Hawke: "It is with much sadness that I have learnt of the death of Peter Harvey. I always found him to be a most thorough and fair journalist, not given to sensationalism -- just the facts -- always on top of the issues and highly respected within his profession and politics generally.
"He was always up for a bit of a celebration down the back of the aircraft. We will all miss him from our television. I send my condolences to Anne, Claire, Adam and extended family."
Tributes have also come from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who rang Harvey's family on the weekend to offer her condolences, as well as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. He was a "true newsman to his bootstraps", according to Gillard. "He was well known to Australians, and he was well loved."
Abbott said Harvey was "a passionate newsman in every sense of the word and his passing represents a sad day for journalism in Australia".
One of Harvey's press gallery colleagues, The Australian's political editor Dennis Shanahan, recalls his first overseas assignment in an age when the press travelled on the prime minister's plane on overseas trips.
"I remember crossing the tarmac at the RAAF base at Fairbairn and thinking how far I had come in my journalistic career," Shanahan says.
"I mounted the steps behind the legendary Peter Harvey and was surprised to see the RAAF flight attendant come straight up to Peter, give him a bright 'Welcome aboard, Mr Harvey', and usher him to the best seat in the media section. I was gobsmacked as she ducked back quickly and returned with his gin and tonic so that he could relax before take-off.
"I then realised just how much further I had to go with the idea of travelling with prime ministers."
David Hurley, Nine's spokesman and a long-time journalist and news executive at the network, describes Harvey as "arguably the most versatile journalist ever employed by Nine".
"He reinforced that point every other day. He covered everything from the Whitlam dismissal to war zones to flower shows, and just about everything in between.
"And every single story attracted his trademark accuracy, his wonderful lyrical scripts, his keen eye for quirky detail -- and always, where appropriate, his tinder-dry humour. All delivered in that distinctive rich , burbling stentorian voice which made him an icon."
Former Nine news director Peter Meakin describes Harvey as "a lot more than just that memorable voice".
"He was a beautiful writer and he had incredible versatility," Meakin says.
"A highlight every year he was in Canberra was his autumn leaves report on the Today show, with Peter strolling through liquidambars in Canberra, celebrating the change in season. It became a minor institution; it was lovely.
"And he was a lovely guy, a very human person," Meakin says. "He will be remembered fondly by people on all networks, because he had friends everywhere."
Nine's current news director Darren Wick says it didn't matter whether the story was a Digger killed in Afghanistan or a tour by Lady Gaga, Harvey was "the authoritative voice".
"There is nobody like him," Wick says. "He's the ultimate figure of integrity and trust for our viewers. He's 50 years of experience . . . you just can't replace that trust, credibility and that unique ability to tell a story.
"He's a bloke who knew the right tone and could always find the right words, he had an amazing ability to take something complicated and condense it down to a simple message."
Born in Sydney's Bellevue Hill in 1944 to a journalistic family, Harvey learned his trade on The Daily Telegraph where in 1964, aged 19, he won a Walkley award. He was soon appointed Newsweek magazine's Sydney correspondent and travelled to South Vietnam for the publication to report on the war there, an experience he later said changed him "irrevocably".
"We got in a couple of difficult situations out on patrol -- blazing firefights where I found myself lying face down in the mud saying, 'Dear God, get me out of here'," he recalled in an interview.
Like so many other Australian reporters, Harvey made his way to London's Fleet Street in the early 1970s. He landed a job on The Guardian where, among many stories, he interviewed the artist and cultural icon Andy Warhol. Harvey was British reporter of the year in 1973, but returned to Sydney and joined the Nine Network in 1975.
He reported on the November 11, 1975, dismissal of the Whitlam government and covered federal election campaigns and the travails of prime ministers and opposition leaders. He reported from every continent visited by a serving prime minister, and filed reports from the Great Wall of China to the White House, No 10 Downing Street to the Kremlin.
In 1990 he was Nine's correspondent during the Gulf war and from his base in Saudi Arabia became the only Australian reporter embedded with US forces when fighting began.
Harvey was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October last year and announced his condition with typical aplomb. "Pardon the pun, but you can't cop this one lying down," he said in a statement. "You have to get up and fight it. I have no intention of going anywhere yet."
In a piece he wrote for The Australian Women's Weekly in January, he was brutally honest about his situation. "I'm not kidding myself about how serious the threat from pancreatic cancer is," he wrote. "It's deadly serious, but I'm spending my time living in the day. Worrying about tomorrow is not only futile, it can steal today from me."
Harvey came from a family of journalists and he leaves us with his own family of journalists in his children Claire Harvey, deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, and son Adam Harvey, a reporter at the ABC.
Both have inherited their father's love for telling stories and it was Claire's heartachingly beautiful tribute to him on the weekend that gives us perhaps the most complete picture of the man known simply as "Harves".
"Dad floated away on a wave of love and support from people he knew, and people who knew him," she wrote. "He knew the mainstream and social media were radiating light and hope in his direction. We should all have such a death: brave, warm and safe. The adored Anne, his greatest fan and the light of his life, held his hand day and night. It was the end. And Dad was right -- it was all right."
Peter Harvey is survived by his wife, Anne, and children, Claire and Adam. A private service will be held, followed by a service and memorial at Nine at a later date.
OBITUARY
Peter Michael St Clair Harvey
Television and newspaper journalist, war correspondent, raconteur. Born Bellevue Hill, Sydney, September 16, 1944. Died Sydney, March 2, aged 68.
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