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Thirty years ago, Pauline Hanson exposed a fault line in Australian politics that never really went away.
This week, following Hanson's first National Press Club address and amid signs One Nation is enjoying its strongest political moment in years, Fourth Estate asks what the media got right, what it got wrong, and whether we've ever truly understood the Australia that keeps bringing Hanson back.
Joining Tina Quinn are broadcaster Raf Epstein, award-winning journalist David Leser, whose landmark Good Weekend profile Pauline Hanson's Bitter Harvest remains one of the defining accounts of Hanson's rise, and veteran political reporter Margo Kingston, author of Off The Rails: The Pauline Hanson Trip, one of the most influential books written about the One Nation phenomenon.
Together they revisit the journalism that shaped Australia's understanding of Hanson — from Tracey Curro's famous "Please Explain" interview to Maxine McKew's forensic Lateline interrogation — and ask what those moments can tell us about her resurgence today.
We also hear from Crikey's Charlie Lewis and Nine Political Editor Charles Croucher, who were both in the room for Hanson's National Press Club appearance.
Why has Hanson endured? What does her resurgence tell us about Australian politics, the media, and the voters journalists still struggle to understand? And three decades on, how the hell do we cover her going forward?
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When Barrie Cassidy arrived in Canberra in 1979, Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister, the political shockwaves of the 1975 dismissal were still reverberating through Australian politics, and Fraser was already fending off the leadership ambitions of a rising Andrew Peacock.
The press gallery was smaller, the media landscape less fragmented, and for a young reporter who had discovered a passion for politics while covering Victoria's state parliament, Canberra offered a front-row seat to power.
What followed was a career that would take Cassidy from the corridors of Parliament House to the Prime Minister's office itself, before carrying him overseas to report on some of the defining political stories of the late twentieth century.
As part of our ongoing profile series, Barrie Cassidy joins Tina Quinn to reflect on those formative years, his time working for Bob Hawke, and the experiences that shaped one of Australia's most respected political journalists.
This is part one of a special two-part conversation.
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For decades, China was seen in Australia as an opportunity. Today, it's more often described as a threat.
But how much of Australia's understanding of China reflects reality — and how much is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves?
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks of an "ideological disagreement" with the United States, and as global tensions expose vulnerabilities in supply chains and energy security, a broader question is emerging: is Australia prepared to think more independently about its place in the world?
This week, Fourth Estate examines the media narratives, strategic assumptions and political debates that have come to define Australia's relationship with its largest trading partner.
Host Tina Quinn speaks with former Labor leader and University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten about Australia's fuel security, sovereign capabilities and what self-reliance might look like in an increasingly uncertain world.
Then, a panel featuring Professor Wanning Sun (University of Technology Sydney and a frequent contributor to Crikey), Peter Hartcher (Political and International Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age) and Ben Doherty (Senior Reporter, Guardian Australia) explores how China is framed in Australian media, the influence of the United States on Australian foreign policy, and whether Australia's assumptions about alliances, security and sovereignty need rethinking.
Are we seeing China clearly — or through the lens of geopolitics, fear and strategic rivalry?
And as the balance of global power shifts, what does Australian self-reliance actually look like?
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Sarah Wilson has lived through almost every era of modern media — from becoming a newspaper columnist in her early 20s, to editing Cosmopolitan magazine and hosting MasterChef Australia, writing bestselling books, podcasting and independent publishing.
But in recent years, her focus has shifted toward much bigger questions: how do we live meaningfully in an age of ecological crisis, political instability, information overload and growing civilisational anxiety?
In this conversation with Tina Quinn, Sarah discusses her new book, I Eat the Stars, why she believes our resistance to societal collapse needs to evolve, and why making art, finding beauty and embracing uncertainty may be more important than ever.
They also discuss why Australian media often struggles to grapple with complexity, the pressures of the modern attention economy, and how Sarah’s own long and unconventional career has shaped the way she now thinks about journalism, culture and the path forward.
Get in touch, we'd love to hear from you and 2SER needs you! Head to love2SER.com and tell us your thoughts, or email us at [email protected]. You can also tweet us at @fourthestateau.
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As the war in Gaza continues — and journalists covering the conflict are being killed at unprecedented rates — we return to the Fourth Estate archives for a conversation that now feels more urgent than ever.
In this 2020 interview, former ABC Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill joins then-Fourth Estate host Sharon Davis to discuss McNeill’s book We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know: Dispatches From An Age Of Impunity and the years she spent reporting from Gaza, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
Together, Sophie and Sharon unpack the realities of frontline journalism: documenting war crimes, navigating questions of objectivity and advocacy, and bearing witness to immense human suffering in an era increasingly defined by impunity.
The conversation also revisits the extraordinary case of Rahaf Mohammed, the young Saudi woman whose plea for asylum led Sophie to fly to Bangkok — sparking an international story that blurred the lines between reporting and intervention.
Listening back now, the interview is striking not only for how sharply it anticipated many of today’s debates around war reporting and press freedom, but also for the insight it offers into the convictions that would later draw Sophie away from journalism and toward international human rights advocacy and a career in politics.
This episode was originally broadcast in March, 2020.
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From accusations of “broken promises” to cries of socialism, class warfare and even communism, the media reaction to the Albanese Government’s federal budget has been fierce.
But how radical are the reforms actually being proposed?
This week, Tina Quinn examines the political and media framing surrounding the budget — from the rhetoric around debt, aspiration and intergenerational burden, to the backlash over modest changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
First, Tina speaks with Ben English, editor of The Daily Telegraph, whose paper branded Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ budget a “big-taxing communist manifesto.”
Then, a panel featuring Phil Coorey (Political Editor, Australian Financial Review), Shalailah Medhora from (Political Reporter for Hack, Triple J), Jason Koutsoukis (Special Correspondent, The Saturday Paper), and Kalila Welch (Cheek Media), unpack the politics, economics, lobbyists, scare campaigns and media narratives shaping the national debate.
Is this meaningful reform — or moral panic?
And if even soft changes provoke this level of outrage, what does that say about the future of economic reform in Australia?
Get in touch, we'd love to hear from you and 2SER needs you! Head to love2SER.com and tell us your thoughts, or email us at [email protected]. You can also tweet us at @fourthestateau.
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Are we asking enough questions about the way Australia manages inflation, and the way the media reports on it?
Every Reserve Bank decision is treated like a national event. Interest rates rise, borrowers brace, and economists debate whether inflation expectations remain “anchored”. But has economic journalism become too narrowly framed around the logic of the Reserve Bank? And are governments escaping scrutiny as economic management is increasingly outsourced to unelected technocrats?
Host Tina Quinn is joined by Stephen Long, Emilia Terzon and Hugh Riminton to discuss fiscal policy, media narratives around inflation, and who really bears the cost of fighting it.
The panel also examines the proposed Seven West Media–Southern Cross Austereo merger, tensions surrounding Kerry Stokes’ influence over the company, looming restructures and job cuts at Nine News, and the fallout from the Kyle and Jackie O controversy at ARN.
Plus, a reflection on the death of Ted Turner — the CNN founder who transformed television news through the advent of the 24-hour news cycle.
We'd love to hear from you and 2SER needs you! Head to love2SER.com and tell us your thoughts, or email us at [email protected].
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In December 2023, Australia’s national broadcaster made the decision to dismiss one of its radio presenters, claiming she had brought the Australian Broadcasting Corporation into disrepute after sharing a social media post from Human Rights Watch highlighting atrocities in Gaza.
Within hours, The Australian had reported on her removal. But it was her decision to challenge the dismissal in court that turned the story into a national flashpoint.
In June 2025, Antoinette Lattouf won that battle — with the Federal Court finding she had been unlawfully dismissed and ordering the ABC to pay compensation.
On this episode of Fourth Estate, Lattouf sits down with Tina Quinn to discuss her new book Women Who Win. She reflects on the women who inspired it, her own experience taking on one of the country’s most powerful media institutions, and what her case reveals about journalism, power, and the limits of speaking out.
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Community radio station 2SER could be off the air within months, after the withdrawal of long-standing university funding.
In this episode of Fourth Estate, we examine how the station reached this point — from the timeline of key decisions to growing concerns from staff, volunteers and alumni about transparency and leadership.
Former 2SER Program Director and Fourth Estate host Anthony Dockrill joins us to unpack what’s gone wrong — and whether the station can still be saved.
We also pay tribute to beloved broadcaster James Valentine, who has died aged 64. We reflect on his remarkable career across radio, television and music, and the legacy he leaves behind, with former colleagues Sarah Macdonald and Mark Humphries.
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This week, one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers, Ben Roberts-Smith, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of war crime murder.
The charges follow years of investigative reporting by journalists at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald — and a landmark defamation case that tested that reporting in court.
In this episode of Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn speaks with two of the journalists behind the story, Nick McKenzie and Michael Bachelard about how the investigation was built — from sourcing and verification, to editorial decisions and legal risk.
What does it take to report allegations of war crimes?
And what does this case reveal about the power — and limits — of journalism in holding institutions to account?
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More than 2,000 ABC staff walked off the job in the broadcaster’s first strike in 20 years.
While the dispute centred on pay, progression and job security, it also exposed deeper concerns about culture, leadership and editorial independence.
In this episode of Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn speaks with current and former ABC journalists, including Michael Slezak, Fran Kelly, Quentin Dempster, Emma Field and Scott Mitchell, to unpack what led to the strike — and what it reveals about the future of the organisation.
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"She seems unaware of just how inexperienced she is," was how one media commentator described Virginia Trioli when she first took her place behind the microphone of the Drive program on 774 ABC Radio Melbourne.
She had by that point more than a decade of experience as a journalist — but was still relatively new to the art of broadcasting.
But Trioli was a quick study, and in the 25 years that followed, would establish herself as one of Australia’s most incisive and instinctive broadcasters, from the interview with Peter Reith that would earn her a Walkley Award, to her expansion into television, presenting Lateline, and her role as the foundation host of the now long-running ABC News Breakfast.
As part of our ongoing profile series, the two-time Walkley Award winner joins Tina Quinn to reflect on those years in broadcasting — the interviews that defined her career, the evolution from radio to television, and the pressures that would ultimately lead her to step away from daily broadcasting.
Virginia's 2024 memoir, A Bit on the Side: Reflections On What Makes Life Delicious, is published by Pan Macmillan.
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When Virginia Trioli stepped onto the floor of "this horrible soviet-style building" that was The Age newsroom as a young cadet journalist in 1990, she knew she’d found her place — despite the building doing its best to suggest otherwise.
What followed was a career that quickly established her as a formidable voice in print, including the publication of her seminal feminist manifesto, Generation F — before a pivot into broadcasting that would shape the decades to come.
As part of our ongoing profile series, the two-time Walkley Award winner joins Tina Quinn to reflect on those early years in journalism, and the transition that would take her beyond the newsroom.
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For eleven years, John Howard dominated Australian politics, winning four elections and reshaping the country’s political and economic direction.
To many supporters, he remains the careful economic manager with a plain-spoken style and an instinctive connection to suburban voters. But in her new book Where It All Went Wrong: The Case Against John Howard, journalist and political commentator Amy Remeikis sets out to challenge the mythology surrounding the Howard years, a narrative she argues is still perpetuated in sections of the media and political class today.
In this episode of Fourth Estate, Remeikis joins Tina Quinn to revisit the Australia that elected Howard in 1996 after thirteen years of Labor governments under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, and to unpack why she believes many of the political and social dynamics shaping Australia today can be traced back to decisions made during his prime ministership.
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Fourth Estate goes live for this special International Women’s Day edition, as host Tina Quinn revisits some of the remarkable women who helped reshape Australian journalism.
Featuring archival interviews with Margaret Throsby, Liz Hayes, Maxine McKew, Bridget Brennan, Laura Tingle and more, the program reflects on the barriers women faced in the newsroom, and the legacy they’ve left for the generations that followed.
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The United States and Israel have launched a joint military operation against Iran, killing the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and dramatically escalating tensions across the Middle East.
But as the conflict unfolds, it is also exposing deep divisions within the Iranian community and its wider diaspora, and whether the media is capturing the complexity of those voices.
Host Tina Quinn is joined by ABC News journalist Nassim Khadem and Iranian-American writer and researcher Ciara Moezidiz to examine the context behind the conflict and the absence of nuance in some Western coverage.
For more of Ciara's writing and analysis, head to her Substack.
Later in the program, Nine newspapers media writer Calum Jaspan joins us to discuss the spectacular collapse of Australia’s most powerful breakfast radio partnership.
After 27 years on air, The Kyle and Jackie O Show has imploded following an extraordinary on-air clash between the hosts.
What does the future hold for both presenters, and for ARN after its $200 million bet on the polarising duo?
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In the wake of US and Israeli strikes on Iran, and Tehran’s retaliatory missile attacks across the region, we return to the Fourth Estate archives.
In this 2020 conversation, Iranian-American journalist, writer and academic Azadeh Moaveni joins then-host, Sharon Davies talking to the dangers of reporting from Iran and her book, Guest House for Young Widows, examining the young women from Europe and North Africa who left home to join ISIS.
This episode was originally broadcast in April, 2020.
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Once a beacon of groundbreaking American journalism, the masthead that helped expose Watergate and held presidents to account is now undergoing sweeping cuts that have shaken its newsroom.
More than 300 journalists have been laid off at The Washington Post, foreign correspondents, climate reporters, local staff, entire desks dismantled.
For many inside the newsroom, it wasn’t just the scale of the cuts that shocked, it was the way they were handled. Journalists reportedly learned they had lost their jobs via email and social media.
Owner Jeff Bezos was absent. Publisher Will Lewis was absent. And questions are now swirling about leadership, strategy, and the future of one of the world’s most influential newspapers.
This week on Fourth Estate, Marty Baron, Executive Editor of The Washington Post from 2013 to 2021, and the author of Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and THE WASHINGTON POST, joins Tina Quinn to discuss the gutting of the paper, what’s gone wrong, and whether a future for it still exists.
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia was framed as routine diplomacy by political leaders and much of the press. But outside the official engagements, thousands protested — and in Sydney, violent clashes between demonstrators and police were captured on camera.
Footage showed officers punching and capsicum-spraying protesters, including an 18-year-old pinned to the ground and struck repeatedly. Other videos showed men kneeling in prayer before being forcibly removed. Premier Chris Minns has urged the public not to rush to judgement based on short clips, promising an internal investigation and a review of body-worn footage.
So how did Australian media cover the visit — and the crackdown? When powerful images circulate instantly, what responsibility do journalists have to interrogate official narratives? And has the story shifted from diplomacy to police conduct?
Plus: Angus Taylor rolls Sussan Ley to become Liberal leader, Lenore Taylor steps down as Editor of Guardian Australia, and we reflect on the life and legacy of cartoonist Jon Kudelka.
Joining Tina Quinn to discuss is Mike Bowers (Host of Talking Pictures), David Leser (Regular contributor to Good Weekend) and Daanyal Saeed (Media Writer at Crikey).
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This week on Fourth Estate, we examine how the media covered the biggest stories of the week, from the attempted bombing at an Invasion Day rally in Perth, now declared a terrorist act, to the latest document dump linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
We also look at the shifts happening within the media itself, as Nine Entertainment sells off its powerful talkback radio stations and the ABC launches a new Q+A-style panel show.
Joining Tina Quinn to discuss is Charlie Lewis from Crikey and Daniel James from 7am.
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