Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM. Next election,
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi will have a new contender
Speaker 1: for his Western Sydney seat, with commentator and Cheek Media
Speaker 1: founder Hannah Ferguson announcing she's taking a tilt.
Speaker 2: She says she's started canvassing.
Speaker 1: Vocals to find out what they want from their representative,
Speaker 1: and that she's already been warned that attempts to build
Speaker 1: a dirt file on her have forgotten. Today we speak
Speaker 1: with Hannah Ferguson and political journalist Karen Middleton about what
Speaker 1: it takes to actually oust a PM and what else
Speaker 1: could be in store. It's Thursday, July thirty. So, Hannah,
Speaker 1: you've been planning a move into politics for quite some
Speaker 1: time now. But the seat that you've chosen and the
Speaker 1: opponent in it, the Prime Minister, couldn't be.
Speaker 2: More of a challenge.
Speaker 1: So why did you decide to take on the Prime
Speaker 1: Minister now?
Speaker 3: But easy?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Graindlaw, where the Prime Minister currently represents, is
Speaker 4: my home electorate and last year when I announced the
Speaker 4: Senate run, I was so passionate about challenging in the
Speaker 4: Senate as an independent, but the more I had conversations
Speaker 4: with locals, the more I was talking to the people
Speaker 4: around me, the question just kept coming up towards the
Speaker 4: end of last year and started this year, which is, well,
Speaker 4: why not graindlerw why not a crack at the Lower House?
Speaker 4: And I think, to be honest with you, in part
Speaker 4: that was because it is the seat that he holds,
Speaker 4: and that is a big pursuit and it's something I
Speaker 4: take incredibly seriously. So for me, it's about listening to
Speaker 4: the local community, hearing the frustration and disappointment, and then saying, okay, well,
Speaker 4: now it's an opportunity to start hosting these community events,
Speaker 4: to understand, to engage, to see this appetite for an
Speaker 4: independent campaign here and what the issues are at a
Speaker 4: local and national level that people.
Speaker 2: Around me care about.
Speaker 4: As soon as I started hosting local events and you know,
Speaker 4: engaging in that way. Of course, the media has kind
Speaker 4: of reported on it, and it's all come out very
Speaker 4: very early, But it's still something I'm passionate about. But
Speaker 4: I believe in that we are all entitled to better
Speaker 4: community representation.
Speaker 1: And I know that you're only at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of this. You've just studied hosting these community meetings to
Speaker 1: hear from the electorate, But how are you thinking about
Speaker 1: your platform and what you're going to be advocating for.
Speaker 2: Well, already the things that I'm hearing from the community
Speaker 2: are around specifically gambling regulation, artificial intelligence regulation, how we're
Speaker 2: taxing and actually regulating data centers as they are brought
Speaker 2: to Australia and expanded rapidly in different parts of Australia,
Speaker 2: including the Cooks River, which is kind of local to
Speaker 2: my community as well.
Speaker 4: And I think it's also about looking at things like
Speaker 4: a gas export tax. Labours just had their national conference
Speaker 4: and all of the issues that were on the table
Speaker 4: that I think a lot of Australians at a national
Speaker 4: level care about.
Speaker 2: The descent was silenced, the debate was stifled.
Speaker 4: I think there's so much frustration in the community at
Speaker 4: a supermajority government that's sitting on their hands. They were
Speaker 4: handed a mandate at the last federal election and yet
Speaker 4: we are so frustrated and disappointed at the lack of action,
Speaker 4: which I believe has contributed to one nation's rise. So
Speaker 4: there are a few issues that I'm obviously deeply passionate
Speaker 4: about that I continue hearing at every feedback session I'm
Speaker 4: doing with locals at these community meetings. You know, I
Speaker 4: keep saying the three g's for grain, block, gas, gambling,
Speaker 4: and gaza.
Speaker 2: People want action. They have an appetite for change.
Speaker 1: And howa you come to politics with this ready made
Speaker 1: media platform. You have always been upfront about your political ambitions,
Speaker 1: but you've built Cheek not as a politician, as a
Speaker 1: journalist or a commentator. You've been on seven AM in
Speaker 1: that capacity. So how are you going to manage that?
Speaker 1: How are you going to divide the media business, the journalism,
Speaker 1: the commentating at Cheek from the politics.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I have an amazing team of journalists that Cheek
Speaker 4: has brought on board to facilitate this transition as well.
Speaker 4: So there's a great team that I trust deeply to
Speaker 4: continue delivering this progressive commentary platform that is trusted by
Speaker 4: our audience. From my perspective, I've already been disclosing on
Speaker 4: the opinion pieces that I produce for the platform, saying
Speaker 4: that I intend to run as an independent candidate at
Speaker 4: the next election. Obviously, this public transition from Senate to
Speaker 4: the seat of Grainler really changes that dynamic. Like I
Speaker 4: don't want to hide about that conflict as well. It's
Speaker 4: loud and clear. But people also have been exposed to
Speaker 4: my views every day, every week, every month for like
Speaker 4: six years now as well. So I think people have
Speaker 4: a familiarity with my belief systems and with my beliefs
Speaker 4: and my belief systems and what I'm advocating for, and
Speaker 4: I want to continue being honest and.
Speaker 2: Upfront about my views.
Speaker 4: But I also think there's an opportunity here. So I
Speaker 4: think it's about handing over the team, ensuring that Cheek
Speaker 4: is able to survive and thrive and criticize me too,
Speaker 4: and sometime next year, depending on when the election will be,
Speaker 4: I will step away from Cheek and run a campaign
Speaker 4: full time.
Speaker 1: It's difficult, though, isn't it, Because any critique that Cheek
Speaker 1: now makes of Labor or Anthony ALBERNIZI, even if it's
Speaker 1: not written by you, is going to be seen through
Speaker 1: the lens of your candidacy.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's a massive issue.
Speaker 4: Like I'm going to sit here and say the hats
Speaker 4: that I am trying to wear right now are genuinely impossible.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to pretend.
Speaker 4: Otherwise, because it's the thing that keeps me awake at
Speaker 4: night every day I'm thinking about what is the best
Speaker 4: path forward where I can serve our audience, because the
Speaker 4: one thing that I don't want here is for Cheap
Speaker 4: to become some sort of propaganda arm for a campaign.
Speaker 2: That's not what I want now.
Speaker 4: Of Course, every piece that we publish that is about
Speaker 4: the Labour Party, that is about the government, that's about
Speaker 4: the workings of parliament, people are going to assume that,
Speaker 4: and I understand that. And actually it's a conversation that's
Speaker 4: been ongoing with our team where I consistently am communicating
Speaker 4: to journalists in our team, like how are you feeling
Speaker 4: about this? I want your work to be valued, in
Speaker 4: your voice, to be valued outside of mine and my
Speaker 4: influence here too.
Speaker 2: It's imperfect.
Speaker 4: I know there's a conflict, but all I can do
Speaker 4: for now is trust our editorial team to continuing their
Speaker 4: job to the best of their ability, to share their opinions,
Speaker 4: to continue publishing.
Speaker 2: Great work, and for me to step out as much
Speaker 2: as I can.
Speaker 1: Being in the media, being a journalist or a commentator
Speaker 1: isn't easy, but being a politician, I would say, is
Speaker 1: even harder. You're going to be under a lot of
Speaker 1: scrutiny for the next eighteen month months, particularly as a
Speaker 1: young left leaning woman.
Speaker 2: So how are you feeling about that? Oh? Terrified? Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean it's so funny to me.
Speaker 4: When people come to me and say, oh, is this
Speaker 4: a publicity stunt. I don't know why any twenty eight
Speaker 4: year old woman in Australian society would subject themselves to
Speaker 4: the kind of coverage that I am expecting.
Speaker 2: As well.
Speaker 4: There is going to be blatant sexism, these assumptions of
Speaker 4: capacity surrounding my age and my gender that I know
Speaker 4: that's going to happen. It's already in comments sections.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 4: I'm going to be called an influencer a million times over.
Speaker 4: I understand and I expect it. At the end of
Speaker 4: the day, I've been a public person for five or
Speaker 4: six years now and people know so much about me,
Speaker 4: and I hope that's built a trust but also an
Speaker 4: understanding of who I am authentically.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's a really powerful thing to
Speaker 2: be heading into this campaign with, is that I've been open.
Speaker 4: I share so much of my life that I think,
Speaker 4: actually that's a superpower that you know anything that and
Speaker 4: I'm sure there will be a lot of kind of
Speaker 4: attempts from different political operatives, from media Brits to undermine me.
Speaker 4: I expect that I understand that it does not deter me,
Speaker 4: because ultimately, all I can be is upfront and honest
Speaker 4: and myself.
Speaker 2: Have you heard from Albin Ezi or anyone in Labor
Speaker 2: yet to be completely honest, Ruby.
Speaker 4: A couple of months ago, I received through a different
Speaker 4: sort of source, I tip off that Labor believed that
Speaker 4: I might be running in the seat and that they
Speaker 4: were building a dirt file on me.
Speaker 2: I haven't heard anything since.
Speaker 4: And it's designed to intimidate, that is designed to scare me,
Speaker 4: and it hasn't.
Speaker 2: And that was done a few months ago.
Speaker 4: I don't know how true that was because it didn't
Speaker 4: come directly from them, but it was designed to be
Speaker 4: a tactic that was used to, you know, instill fear
Speaker 4: in a young woman that wants to have a crack.
Speaker 4: And I think that's really telling.
Speaker 1: Well, Hannah, thank you so much for your time, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 2: Still to come.
Speaker 1: Press Gallery journalist Karen Middleton weighs in on Hannah's chances. So, Karen,
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister Anthony ALBERNIZI, he's represented the seat of
Speaker 1: Grandler for thirty years.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: For myself, I will be satisfied if I can be
Speaker 5: remembered as someone who will stand up for the interests
Speaker 5: of my electorate, for working class people, for the labor movement,
Speaker 5: and for our progressive advancement as a nation into the
Speaker 5: next century. Thank you, missus.
Speaker 1: Speaking Tell me though, a bit about what the electorate
Speaker 1: used to be, like what Graandler was when he first
Speaker 1: won it back in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2: Well, it was much more working class.
Speaker 3: It's a seat with a long history of working class residents.
Speaker 5: Grandler is very much your working class electorate, alongside the
Speaker 5: more established families. The nineteen ninety one census showed that
Speaker 5: forty six percent of the total population of Grandler were
Speaker 5: born overseas.
Speaker 3: There are still areas that are as they were when
Speaker 3: Anthony Alberanesi was young. The council house that he lived
Speaker 3: in with his mother and grewuppian is still there and
Speaker 3: it is still housing.
Speaker 2: But this is in his bones. This is the place
Speaker 2: that he grew up.
Speaker 5: I grew up in public housing in the inner city
Speaker 5: of Sydney as the son of a pensioner.
Speaker 3: But over those decades it's become a lot more gentrified,
Speaker 3: as people with more money you have moved in, and
Speaker 3: so the demographic now is far more kind of white collar.
Speaker 3: I suppose you'd say some of the bones of that
Speaker 3: original Electric are still there, and the original demographic, for example,
Speaker 3: Leichhart and Norton Street and areas like that that for
Speaker 3: within that Electric have heavy Italian influence. Slowly, over the
Speaker 3: years you've seen different waves of migration, So you've seen
Speaker 3: migrants from China, migrants from India. So it's a far
Speaker 3: more diverse population I think than it was when Anthony
Speaker 3: Albanezi first won that seat.
Speaker 1: And so has becoming Prime Minister changed his popularity in
Speaker 1: the seat at all, because as PM, he's not just
Speaker 1: making decisions for the electorate, he's making decisions for the
Speaker 1: entire country.
Speaker 3: Yes, and they're all always is when someone is elevated
Speaker 3: to the Prime ministership, and it can kind of go
Speaker 3: in both directions. So I think there's a section of
Speaker 3: the population in his electorate who would say they're really
Speaker 3: pleased that he is now the Prime Minister, and that
Speaker 3: can increase your personal support in an electorate. But then
Speaker 3: there's a cohort that might say, well, now that he's
Speaker 3: the prime minister, he's not paying as much attention to
Speaker 3: us in our seat, or he's not doing what we
Speaker 3: thought he would do, or he's not the same politician
Speaker 3: demonstrating the same values as he did when he was younger.
Speaker 3: And so there can be criticisms as well, and I
Speaker 3: think there's a little bit of both. But if you
Speaker 3: look at Anthony Albaneze's vote in that seat over the
Speaker 3: last few elections, it was.
Speaker 2: Strong when he first won it.
Speaker 3: Then through the period of the instability of Labor leadership,
Speaker 3: the Raud Guillard Raud years, his personal vote dropped and
Speaker 3: I think that reflected the general chaos in the Labor Party.
Speaker 3: But since he became Prime Minister, and really since he
Speaker 3: became opposition leader in twenty nineteen, his personal vote, his
Speaker 3: primary vote has steadily increased. So you would think that
Speaker 3: that is partly to do with the fact that he's
Speaker 3: now the Prime minister, the leader of the country.
Speaker 2: And then there's a degree of sort of local pride
Speaker 2: in that.
Speaker 1: And the Greens have made many unsuccessful attempts for Grandla
Speaker 1: over the years, and that's led to notoriously testy relations
Speaker 1: between Albanezi and the Greens. Given that what kind of campaign.
Speaker 1: Do you think we're going to see Albanzi run against
Speaker 1: the new threat of an independent like Hannah Ferguson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well this is interesting because that is the downside.
Speaker 3: I suppose the upside is what we were just talking about.
Speaker 3: For him, that extra support, the sense of we've got
Speaker 3: the prime minister in our seat, but equally there can
Speaker 3: be harsh critics and people who are dissatisfied. And I
Speaker 3: think you've seen a rise in Green's support. The Greens
Speaker 3: have done relatively well. He had a big fight on
Speaker 3: his hands back in twenty sixteen. He's managed to see
Speaker 3: off Green challenges since then. But now, as you say,
Speaker 3: we've got this extra interesting dimension with Hannah Ferguson running
Speaker 3: in the seat. She will be another young progressive force.
Speaker 3: It's not clear whether the Greens will run their same
Speaker 3: candidate that they had before they ran Hannah Thomas, you know,
Speaker 3: just to make it doubly confusing, we're going to have
Speaker 3: if they run her again, we'll have two Hannahs opposing
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister. But he will be still very focused
Speaker 3: on seeing off any threat that he sees from either
Speaker 3: of those two candidates.
Speaker 1: And how ruthless do you think he and the Labor
Speaker 1: Party gap when it comes to something like this, because
Speaker 1: I just spoke to Hannah Ferguson and she said that
Speaker 1: she'd been told by a third party that there was
Speaker 1: some sort of dirt file that had been compiled by
Speaker 1: Labor about her already.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, that is exactly what happens. In fact, if we've
Speaker 3: got a situation like we have now where there's another
Speaker 3: party candidate or an independent challenging, the opponents will be
Speaker 3: gathering up whatever they can find and holding that back
Speaker 3: and probably rolling that out closer to the election to
Speaker 3: sort of cast doubt in the minds of voters. It
Speaker 3: can be a grubby business, Ruby, unfortunately, and it wouldn't
Speaker 3: be the first time they've done it, so I'm not
Speaker 3: surprised to hear that that might be happening.
Speaker 1: And so Karen, we've seen former Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Speaker 1: toppled by an independent, Zalie Steggel.
Speaker 2: That was back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Since then, the Teals have only grown in numbers, still
Speaker 1: unseening a serving prime minister.
Speaker 2: It's a huge ask. Can it be done?
Speaker 3: Do you think, well, look, you never say never about
Speaker 3: anything in these crazy political days. Given all sorts of
Speaker 3: upsets that we've seen in recent years, you have to
Speaker 3: say it is.
Speaker 2: A big ask.
Speaker 3: If you look at the primary vote that Anthony Albanezi
Speaker 3: has achieved in Grainlower in the last two elections, it's
Speaker 3: going to be extremely hard for a challenger to better
Speaker 3: him when he's getting fifty to fifty three percent of
Speaker 3: the primary vote. The other thing that is going to
Speaker 3: be difficult for Hannah Ferguson and indeed the Greens is
Speaker 3: that they could potentially split that extra vote, so it'd
Speaker 3: be interesting to see where preferences go, but I think
Speaker 3: they will struggle to unseat him.
Speaker 2: Having said that, the thing that has.
Speaker 3: Really gold in politics when you want to be a
Speaker 3: candidate is having a public profile, having name recognition, and
Speaker 3: certainly Hannah Ferguson has that because of her cheek media
Speaker 3: enterprise and the fact that she's got a huge following
Speaker 3: on social media and in fact, if Hannah Thomas was
Speaker 3: to run again for the Greens, and she's also got
Speaker 3: a higher profile now than she had before the last
Speaker 3: election because she was involved in a protest, she was
Speaker 3: involved in a struggle with police, and she, as we've
Speaker 3: seen in the media, got terribly injured. She's lost sight
Speaker 3: in one eye and that got a lot of coverage,
Speaker 3: so she's got a profile too. So you're now dealing
Speaker 3: with a slightly different contest than you had even in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, and you'll be fascinating to see how
Speaker 3: those votes go at the next election.
Speaker 1: Karen, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2: Thanks Ruby.
Speaker 1: Also in the news, official inflation figures show prices are
Speaker 1: not growing as fast as feared by the Reserve Bank,
Speaker 1: meaning there's less chance of an interest rate rise next month.
Speaker 1: Inflation fell to three point eight percent in June, compared
Speaker 1: to economists forecasts of four point one percent, and the
Speaker 1: federal government has confirmed that motorists will lose their fuel
Speaker 1: discount from Monday. The scheme was introduced in April to
Speaker 1: help motorists experiencing price shock due.
Speaker 2: To the war with Iran.
Speaker 1: Last week, oil prices crept over US one hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a barrel for the first time since May.
Speaker 2: I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 1: This is seven am.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.