[1] Van Onselen is also a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and was a weekly columnist at The Australian newspaper.
Van Onselen also holds a Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours in political science, majoring in philosophy, and a Masters in Policy Studies (with Distinction).
[5] Van Onselen has written several politically themed books, including John Winston Howard (co-written with Wayne Errington), which was rated by The Wall Street Journal Asia as the best biography of 2007.
[10] He has also written columns and opinion pieces for a range of newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the Australian Financial Review, The Canberra Times and The Courier-Mail.
[17] Following the 2010 election, Van Onselen became a regular presenter at Sky News, co-hosting Australian Agenda from 2010[18] as well as his own programs The Contrarians and The Showdown.
[19] In 2014, Van Onselen stepped down from hosting The Contrarians (which would later become Keneally and Cameron) and The Showdown was axed, when he was given his own four-times-weekly primetime program PVO Newshour, which premiered on 20 January 2014.
[22] In July 2016, Van Onselen added a fourth hosting role at Sky News, presenting morning program Sunday Edition.
[25] In 2018, Van Onselen had a weekly segment on Radio National Breakfast, and appeared regularly on The Drum, Insiders and The Project.
[26] On 25 January 2022, Van Onselen was called out by The Project co-host Carrie Bickmore about an article he had written about 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame.
He had described her behaviour as “childish”, after seeing her apparently deliberate refusal to smile for press photos with the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, in Canberra.