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Speaker 1: Welcome to Ask Fear and Greed, where we answer questions

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Speaker 1: about business, investing, economics, politics and more. I'm Michael Thompson and.

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Speaker 2: Hello Sean ale mullow. Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: This is a question really just for you, and you

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Speaker 1: don't need to do any research for this. You just

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Speaker 1: need to look far, far far into your past. So right,

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Speaker 1: probably put it a future mischo fast, okay, forward a

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Speaker 1: little bit for it, right, okay. Parliament resumed in the

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Speaker 1: last week, which I mean, you're a bit of a

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Speaker 1: political junkie. I am too. I love watching this stuff

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Speaker 1: and so it's always exciting. There's a lot of theater

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Speaker 1: around it. But you worked in the press gallery in

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Speaker 1: Canberra for a time as a journalist. So my question

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Speaker 1: for you today is what's that like. What's it like

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Speaker 1: when parliament starts? What's it like working in the press gallery?

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of kind of pressure, but is it

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Speaker 1: fun as well?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a question many people ask. If

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Speaker 2: people know you've been in the press gallery, everyone wants

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Speaker 2: to know what it's like. And it is great fun.

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Speaker 2: Omit is high pressure and I did it quite a

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Speaker 2: few years ago, and you know, there have been people

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Speaker 2: that have been in press Gallery for thirty forty years.

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Speaker 2: Michelle Gratton is a dullion now I don't think she's

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Speaker 2: actually in the gallery as such, but she's still writing politics.

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Speaker 2: But people like Laura Tingle and Phil Curry, those sorts

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Speaker 2: of people have been there for a long long time.

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Speaker 2: It is intense. So where you work there's a corridor

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Speaker 2: with all the news outlets. So you come in, you

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Speaker 2: park downstairs, get you're on the Senate side, you come up,

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Speaker 2: you go into your office and it's more electronic now,

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Speaker 2: but basically, you know, members of Parlams are always providing

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Speaker 2: information and that sort of thing. But you spend your

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Speaker 2: day wandering around talking to politicians, talking to advisors to politicians.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the relationship between the journalist and the advisor

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Speaker 2: is absolutely critical to make it work. There's a cafe,

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Speaker 2: the main cafe there which everyone seems to go to,

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Speaker 2: and you can go down there and you're running to someone.

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Speaker 2: It might be a politician, might be an advisor. You

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Speaker 2: chat to them. It's all very kind of convivial. There

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Speaker 2: are press conferences. Often when politicians are walking in, they'll

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Speaker 2: have a press conference that might be seven o'clock in

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Speaker 2: the morning, although I'll call one for eleven o'clock. Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister typically or the oppositionally typically calls them for about

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Speaker 2: eleven o'clock or so. You do that. That morning is

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Speaker 2: kind of fun. You're running around, you're trying to get stuff,

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Speaker 2: You're getting things online. That's how it works. Question Time

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Speaker 2: then starts, and this is assuming that both House reps

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Speaker 2: and Senate are sitting, and there's a public gallery for

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Speaker 2: question time and then a separate gallery for the media.

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Speaker 2: So you go there and that can be pretty intense.

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Speaker 2: Question time is really the heart of what goes on

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Speaker 2: because that's where the debate on a day between the

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Speaker 2: cross benches, opposition and federal government takes place. And once

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Speaker 2: you get to that, and I worked in kind of newspapers,

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Speaker 2: so it's depending on whether you're certainly broadcast is a

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Speaker 2: bit the same as newspapers. Once question times, I have

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Speaker 2: a three thirty. It is full on. You've got a deadline.

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Speaker 2: The broadcast guys need the six pm news. The radio

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Speaker 2: guys kind of even faster because they're rolling the whole time,

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Speaker 2: as you would know on that one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the deadlines there are hourly or every half hour

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Speaker 1: kind of thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and rightly or wrongly. Politicians still want to see

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Speaker 2: themselves in the six pm news. They still want to

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Speaker 2: see them on themselves on the front page of the

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Speaker 2: Australian or the front page of the finn Review or

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Speaker 2: the Age, and so they actually work around that as well,

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Speaker 2: so that last part of the day can be totally frantic.

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Speaker 1: Can I ask you it sounds like everyone gets on well,

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Speaker 1: that there's a great kind of community and there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of conversations happening between journalists and advisors and journalists

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Speaker 1: and politicians and journalists and other journalists. Is it still

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Speaker 1: competitive then as well? Like you are looking for that

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Speaker 1: exclusive or you're looking for that angle that nobody else has,

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Speaker 1: because I know there's the legendary story of Lorir Oaks

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Speaker 1: getting the leak of the the nineteen eighty budget. The

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Speaker 1: entire thing was leaked to him beforehand, and that kind

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Speaker 1: of thing is just absolute gold. How do you handle

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Speaker 1: that kind of competition in an environment where everyone is

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Speaker 1: like talking to everybody every single day.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so scoops still seem to rule the roost,

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Speaker 2: rightly or wrongly, and so people are always looking for

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Speaker 2: an inn on some sort of story, particularly a running

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Speaker 2: story that others wouldn't have. So you know, the superannuation

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Speaker 2: tax is a running story at the moment, the housing

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Speaker 2: crisis is a running story. If a journalists got something

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Speaker 2: on that no one else has, then pat on the

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Speaker 2: back their editors give them a pat on the back.

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Speaker 2: That is still at the heart of Camebra. In some ways,

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Speaker 2: it's a bit anachronistic camera because there are all these

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Speaker 2: people kind of together getting the same information. Occasionally you

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Speaker 2: get a scoop, but it is it's broadly the same,

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Speaker 2: and so it is fairly generic. What comes out. The

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Speaker 2: opinion isn't generic, and there are certain commentators who I

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Speaker 2: think are spectacularly good to read what Anthony Albernesi or

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Speaker 2: Susan Lee is thinking. But yeah, I mean broadly a

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Speaker 2: lot of the information is the same. Everyone is going

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Speaker 2: for the scoop, huge competition between them, but everyone's pretty friend.

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Speaker 2: Parliament House is a great place to work. It's a

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Speaker 2: really friendly place to work, and even both sides of

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Speaker 2: the aisle politicians like each other, you know, Like I

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Speaker 2: don't think Anthony Alberanzi hated Peter Dutton, you know, and

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Speaker 2: I don't think Peter Dutton hated Anthony Albanesi, and they've

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Speaker 2: both been doing you know, it's like in the same

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Speaker 2: workplace for twenty thirty years together. Even when you don't

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Speaker 2: like them, you're kind of begrudging, No, you like them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when Question Time resumes, is that really theater more

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Speaker 1: than anything?

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Speaker 2: Like?

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Speaker 1: Is there when you are watching Question Time and you're

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Speaker 1: watching it just okay, we're just going through the motions here.

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Speaker 1: This is really theatrical.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's partly and the Dorothy Dix's that

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Speaker 2: the government asks itself is theater, but often stuff is

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Speaker 2: turned up out of it, and so it is real debate.

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Speaker 2: So people who say Question Times how people behaving poorly,

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Speaker 2: and it's just theater. I think there's a lot more

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Speaker 2: to it because often stuff will come out of Question

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Speaker 2: Time that actually runs on the six pm news, in

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Speaker 2: the papers the next day, on the five o'clock, six o'clock,

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Speaker 2: seven o'clock editions of the radio shows, and then on

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Speaker 2: socials as well. It's probably a bit less so than

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Speaker 2: it used to be, because I think that the media

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Speaker 2: has is not as objective as it used to be,

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Speaker 2: and I think different media organizations have decided that they

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Speaker 2: have a fan base or an audience which they have

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Speaker 2: to tender to. And I'm not just talking about NewsCorp

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Speaker 2: I'm talking about nine, I'm talking about the ABC, and

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Speaker 2: so I think that it's perhaps not quite as objective

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Speaker 2: as it once was, and that has changed things a

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Speaker 2: little bit. But yeah, I mean a great place to work.

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Speaker 1: There is so much, so much more that I would

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Speaker 1: like to ask you, and we'll do another one another

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Speaker 1: time where maybe we can kind of compare with some

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Speaker 1: of the things that are happening in the US where

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Speaker 1: there's more restrictions on access to politics, which is kind

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Speaker 1: of frightening to see some of those things happening. But

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Speaker 1: it's also change and more new people are getting access

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Speaker 1: to things, which can be a good thing. But final question,

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Speaker 1: do you miss it?

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Speaker 2: You do? I do? I mean I'm not as much

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Speaker 2: a political junkie as many others, and I enjoyed living

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Speaker 2: in Canberra and I enjoyed the work, but it wasn't

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Speaker 2: for me. You know. I'm not Laurias or Laura Tingle

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Speaker 2: or those sort of people. I don't have their skills

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Speaker 2: or ability and I don't have a love of it.

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Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what, if you're a journalist, it's

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Speaker 2: where I mean where the power line is Canbra, and

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Speaker 2: so all the business policy that goes on it comes

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Speaker 2: out of Canbra. And so you can be down there

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Speaker 2: and you can see the bank CEO is down there,

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Speaker 2: because that's you know, I've been a banking reporter. Never

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Speaker 2: saw a bank CEO be a political reporter. You're running

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Speaker 2: into the bank CEOs. It's just all powerful camera and

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Speaker 2: it's an exciting place to be.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic. All right, Thanks very much, se On.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: Remember if you've got your own question that you would

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Speaker 1: like to ask sends it on through go to the

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Speaker 1: website Fear and Greed dot com, dot a you or

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Speaker 1: head to any of the social media platforms are Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and this to ask Fear and Greed