Laura Tingle, one of Australia’s best journalists and top political analysts, is joining the ABC as Chief Political Correspondent for nightly current affairs flagship 7.30.

A journalist, author and essayist, Laura Tingle has spent most of her 35-year career in journalism reporting on Australian federal politics, and the country’s major policy debates.

Currently political editor of The Australian Financial Review, Tingle will provide expert reporting and in-depth analysis of Australian federal politics and the country’s major policy debates. She will also write a weekly column for the ABC website.

“Laura is one of the great political journalists of her generation,” said ABC Director, News Gaven Morris. “More than ever, audiences want political analysis that clearly explains what is unfolding in the political arena, provides analysis of the why, and puts it all into context – and no one does that better than Laura Tingle.

"Laura joins Australia's strongest political journalism team, alongside Andrew Probyn, Sabra Lane, Antony Green, Annabel Crabb and the best Canberra bureau."

Tingle said: “After 35 years as a print reporter, I am looking forward to exploring the very different opportunities that television provides to report on, and shine a light on, the workings of Australian politics and policy.”

ABC Head, Investigative and In-Depth Journalism John Lyons said: “Boosting 7.30’s editorial firepower is one of ABC NEWS’s priorities this year and Laura is a crucial part of that. Laura brings a depth, sharpness and perspective which helps viewers make sense of these extraordinary times we are living in.”

7.30 Executive Producer Justin Stevens said: “Laura will continue 7.30’s long tradition of covering federal politics and national affairs with original analysis.This year we want to confirm 7.30 as the unmissable daily destination for current affairs. Laura joins Leigh Sales and our award-winning team for the best nightly analysis and news breaking."

Contact

Sally Jackson

ABC NEWS

jackson.sally@abc.net.au

LAURA TINGLE

Currently the political editor of The Australian Financial Review, Laura Tingle has also written on economics and politics for The Australian, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald and is a regular guest on the ABC's Insiders program and Late Night Live on Radio National.

She has won two Walkley Awards, the Paul Lyneham Award for Press Gallery Journalism and the 2017 Qantas European Union Journalism Award.

Tingle is the author of Chasing the Future (1994); two Quarterly Essays – Great Expectations: Government, entitlement and an angry nation (2012) and Political Amnesia: How we forgot how to govern (2015); and In Search of Good Government (2017). She is currently writing a third Quarterly Essay on Australian politics which is due for release in September 2018.

7.30

Presented by the award-winning Leigh Sales, 7.30 provides the best analysis of local, national and international events from an Australian perspective, 7.30pm Monday-to-Thursday on ABC TV.