Breakfast With Papers

Van Badham is a writer, theatre-maker and novelist, occasional broadcaster, critic, trade unionist and feminist. She writes columns for The Guardian and her interests include gardening, baking and dialectical materialism.

David Barnden is a Principal Lawyer at Equity Generation Lawyers, an incorporated legal practice specialising in climate change risk. David is involved in a number of public interest climate change cases in the Federal Court of Australia including representing 8 students from around Australia who brought a class action against the Federal Environment Minister to protect young people from the climate change impacts of the proposed Vickery Extension Coal Project.

Clive Hamilton is an Australian academic and author of a number of books, including Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change and Hidden Hand: How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World (with Mareike Ohlberg).  He is professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra and has held various visiting academic positions, including at Yale University, Sciences Po and the University of Oxford.

Kerry O'Brien is one of Australia's most respected journalists. His reporting has earned him six Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley and the Walkley for Journalism Leadership.

Nicholas Harmsen is the Deputy Editor of ABC News in South Australia. Nick has two decades reporting from Adelaide to regional Queensland, Canberra and Washington D.C. He was the ABC’s state political reporter for a decade. In 2020, Nick and his colleague Patrick Martin were recognised with the SA Press Club’s Gold Award for their investigation into MPs’ expenses.

Mark Willacy has been a journalist for more than 25 years and has reported for the ABC from more than 30 countries. A seven-time Walkley Award winner, in 2020 Mark was awarded Australia’s highest honour in journalism, the Gold Walkley, for exposing alleged Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan. That story led to his book Rogue Forces.

Pavlo Hunka is performing as Tsar Dodon in The Golden Cockerel in the 2022 Adelaide Festival. An internationally acclaimed opera singer, he has sung in the most prestigious opera houses in the world over the past 32 years. Pavlo is the Artistic Director of the Ukrainian Art Song Project whose aim is to record an anthology of over one thousand Ukrainian classical art songs by 29 Ukrainian composers.

Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year, a Wheeler Centre podcast about Australians' lives in the fog of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a former editor of The Monthly and the author of the bestselling book Well May We Say: The Speeches that Made Australia.

Gareth Evans, now Chancellor of the Australian National University, was a member of the Australian Parliament for 21 years, and a cabinet minister throughout the Hawke–Keating era, serving as Foreign Minister from 1988-96. He led the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000-09 and has won many prizes and awards for his contributions to international policymaking. He has written or edited, solely or jointly, twelve books, most recently Good International Citizenship: The Case for Decency.

Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. Her book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, won the 2014 Stella Prize. Her most recent book is You Daughters of Freedom, about the Australian suffrage movement. Clare is Professor of History at La Trobe University and co-host of history podcast Archive Fever.

Linda Jaivin has been studying Chinese politics, language and culture for more than forty years. She has been a foreign correspondent in China, and is co-editor of the China Story Yearbook, an associate of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University and the author of twelve books.

Kara Jung is an award-winning journalist and editor, including stints as political reporter for The Advertiser and Deputy Editor-in-chief for The Messenger. She is currently The Advertiser's Deputy Digital Editor, a News Corp columnist, co-chair of The Advertiser's Year of the Woman campaign and a Women in Media SA committee member.

Jess Hill is an investigative journalist and the author of See What You Made Me Do and the Quarterly Essay The Reckoning: How #MeToo is Changing Australia. She has been a producer for ABC Radio and journalist for Background Briefing, and Middle East correspondent for The Global Mail. Her reporting on domestic abuse has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards. See What You Made Me Do won the 2020 Stella Prize and the ABA Booksellers’ Choice Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Scott Ludlam was a Senator representing WA from 2008 to 2017 and served as deputy leader of the Australian Greens. He has also worked as a filmmaker, artist and graphic designer. Full Circle is his first book, the fruit of a life of activism, study and travel.

Michael West spent two decades working as a journalist, stockbroker, editor and finance commentator before striking out on his own in July 2016. After eight years as a commentator with The Australian and another eight years with the Sydney Morning Herald as a journalist and editor, Michael founded website michaelwest.com.au to focus on journalism of high public interest. Michael is a Walkley award-winner and Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Social and Political Sciences.

Gabrielle Chan has been a journalist for more than 30 years. Currently writing for Guardian Australia, she has previously worked at The Australian, ABC radio, The Daily Telegraph, in local newspapers and politics. Her new book is Why You Should Give a F*ck About Farming.

John Daley was Chief Executive of the Grattan Institute for eleven years. He has published extensively on economic reform priorities, budget policy, tax reform, housing affordability, and generational inequality. In his storied career, he has worked across law, public policy, strategy, and finance for institutions including the University of Oxford, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, McKinsey and Co and ANZ Bank.

Michael McGuire has been a journalist for almost 25 years, working in Adelaide and Sydney. Michael has been at The Advertiser since 2008, principally working on the SA Weekend magazine. He has also written two novels. Never a True Word, published in 2017 and Flight Risk which came out last year.

Jane Caro is an author, columnist, broadcaster, advertising writer, documentary maker and social commentator who appears frequently on Q&A, The Drum, Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise. She has published ten books, including a memoir, Plain-Speaking Jane, and her most recent book and first novel for adults, The Good Mother.

Gideon Haigh has contributed to more than one hundred newspapers and magazines, and published more than forty books. He has won Premier’s Literary Awards in three states, two Waverley Library Prizes and a Ned Kelly Award for True Crime.

Tim Williams is the deputy head of news for The Advertiser, following a lengthy spell as education reporter.

Dr Richard Denniss is the Chief Economist and former Executive Director of The Australia Institute. He is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and a former Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU.Denniss writes regular columns in the Guardian Australia and regular essays for The Monthly. He often publishes in academic journals and has written 7 books including: Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough (with Clive Hamilton), An introduction to Australian Public Policy (with Sarah Maddison), Minority policy: rethinking governance when parliament matters (with Brenton Prosser) Econobabble: How to Decode Political Spin and Economic Nonsense, Curing Affluenza: How to Buy Less Stuff and Save the World, and Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next. He has been described by Mark Kenny in the Sydney Morning Herald as "a constant thorn in the side of politicians on both sides, due to his habit of skewering dodgy economic justifications for policy".

Rachel Doyle SC is a barrister practising in Melbourne specialising in industrial and employment law, discrimination law, class actions and negligence. She was associate to Justice Daryl Dawson of the High Court from 1994 to 1996. Power & Consent is her first book.

Peter McEvoy is the creator and founding executive producer of Q&A. In past lives he ran Media Watch and was an award winning journalist at Four Corners, Radio National and triplej.

Katrina Sedgwick has been Director/CEO of ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) since 2015. ACMI reopened in February 2021 following a multi award winning $40m transformation. She has a particular interest in supporting cross-disciplinary practice, and has an extensive background as a commissioner, creative producer, and festival director. From 2012 – 14 she was Head of Arts for the national broadcaster ABC TV, and between 2002 – 11 she was the founding Director/CEO of Adelaide Film Festival, and its $1m Investment Fund, supporting a multi award winning slate of films and installation works.

Colin James is a multi award-winning reporter at The Advertiser who has spent more than 30 years covering South Australian politics, crime, social issues and local government. Colin received a Walkley Award in 1994 for his coverage of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge saga. Among major events he has covered have been the Port Arthur Massacre, Thredbo ski lodge disaster and the Bali bombings. An expatriate New Zealander, he has raised three sons in South Australia, a state he very much adores.

David Marr has written for Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian and The Monthly, and has served as editor of the National Times, reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. His books include Patrick White: A Life, The High Price of Heaven, Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson), Panic and six bestselling Quarterly Essays, including his arresting essay on George Pell, The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell, recently updated and expanded into a book.

Rev Dr Lynn Arnold is an Anglican priest. He was SA Premier 1992-1993 and is former CEO of Anglicare SA and World Vision.

Leah MacLennan s State Political Reporter with the ABC in Adelaide. She previously reported for 730SA and Stateline. 

Scott Stephens is the ABC’s religion and ethics editor, and the co-host (with Waleed Aly) of The Minefield on ABC Radio National. His book On Contempt will be published in 2022, and he is delivering the 20th annual Simone Weil Lectures on Human Value at Australian Catholic University.

Rob Brookman AM is a leading Australian producer and festival director, having led Adelaide Festival (Artistic Director, Executive Director), Adelaide Festival Centre (Programming Director, Artistic Director), NZ International Festival (Artistic Director), Sydney Theatre Company (General Manager), State Theatre Company SA (Executive Director) and WOMADelaide (Co-founder, Artistic Director). He is a Trustee of WOMADelaide Foundation, Chair of UKARIA Cultural Centre and Chair of Australian Plays Transform.

Claire O’Connor SC is a lawyer with over 40 years’ experience in the law. She is a barrister and a silk. She is known primarily for her advocacy around human rights. In relation to refugees - she argued the (famous for law students) case of Al Kateb in the high court. She assisted with the Manus Island class action. She represented Cornelia Rau whose story recently featured as a fictional Netflix series -Stateless.   She has appeared for families in inquests including the inquest into the sinking of the 221 off Christmas Island where 49 people died. Claire had also worked for Aboriginal justice issues including acting in the Hindmarsh Island bridge Royal Commission and the royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Recently she acted for the Morrison family whose son and brother died in Yatala prison with a spit hood and cuffed lying face down in a prison van. Claire spoke last year at the March for Justice in Adelaide. She is a mother, a grandmother. A cyclist. A bush walker. And a feminist. 

Sean Fewster has covered crime and justice issues in South Australia for 20 years as The Advertiser's chief court reporter, focusing on advocacy for victims and the public's right to know. He is the author of the bestselling book 'City of Evil', which was adapted into a top-rating TV show, and the co-creator and co-host of the 'Just Lawful' true crime podcast.

Amelia Chaplin is passionate about demystifying climate science and the political jargon that surrounds it to empower young people with the knowledge and tools to make impactful change. She believes that the pathway out of the climate crisis is complete regeneration of our soils, sea’s and communities and that everyone has the power to make a difference. 

Rick Sarre is an Adjunct Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the University of South Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, a previous Chair of the Academic Board of UniSA and a member of the University Council.

Chris Russell has had many different roles at The Advertiser, including being business editor, national editor and acting chief of staff. He is currently the education reporter, covering schools and universities around South Australia. He also reports on energy, jobs, economics, infrastructure, the environment and other sectors.

Arman Abrahimzadeh OAM migrated from Iran in 1997 and studied at Uni SA’s School of Art, Architecture and Design. He currently works for the State Government and in 2018 he was elected as a City of Adelaide Councillor. In December 2021 he took on the role as Deputy Lord Mayor.

Paul Starick is The Advertiser and Sunday Mail's chief reporter. During almost 30 years in journalism, his roles have included Advertiser digital editor, deputy editor and chief political reporter. He's worked mostly in Adelaide but has been fortunate - or otherwise to have stints in Canberra and New York, along with visits to war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Paul enjoys football, cricket, reading and going to the gym.

Simon Birmingham has served as a Liberal Party Senator for South Australia since May 2007. In October 2020 Simon was appointed to position of Minister for Finance and Leader of the Government in the Senate after serving as Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Prior to which he served as the Minister for Education and Training, Assistant Minister in the education portfolio and before that as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray-Darling Basin and the Environment.

Michael Owen-Brown has recently been appointed The Advertiser's Head of Audience Growth and Engagement. During his decade as digital editor, The Advertiser won multiple national and international awards for digital innovation, including being named the Asia-Pacific's news website of the year three times in a row from 2013-15. He has been a journalist with News Corp for more than 25 years.

Royce Kurmelovs is a journalist and writer whose work has been published by the ABC, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera English, VICE, and The Guardian. Royce's bestselling first book, The Death of Holden, was published in 2016, followed by Rogue Nation and Boom and Bust. His latest book is Just Money.

Claudia Paul is an Aboriginal woman descending from the Wiradjuri people of central New South Wales, and is the third Indigenous Rhodes Scholar.   She is undertaking a DPhil in Musculoskeletal Science at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 2018, she graduated with a MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine from Magdalen College, Oxford.  Claudia also holds a Master of Traumatology from the University of Newcastle, and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Adelaide. Claudia has worked as a doctor with Hunter New England Local Health District and was previously a Student Representative for the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. 

Jo Dyer is currently Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week.  She has held leadership roles at national cultural institutions including Sydney Writers’ Festival, Sydney Theatre Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre and her freelance productions have been staged at venues including the Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai and the legendary Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. A two-time nominee for Best Picture at Australia’s AACTA awards, Jo’s films have won awards and screened worldwide, notably at the Berlin International Film Festival. Jo’s first book, Burning Down the House: Reconstructing Modern Politics, was published in February 2022 as part of Monash University Publishing’s In the National Interest series.

Tory Shepherd is a senior columnist with Guardian Australia and a former State Editor at The Advertiser. Her first book, On Freedom, was published in 2020.  

Simon Royal has been a TV and radio broadcaster for more than 30 years, working on state and national programmes in both mediums. An inveterate late bloomer/procrastinator, he’s more recently turned his hand to writing feature articles for InDaily and ABC online. Simon is interested in most things, except football - a firm resolve that came to him at an early age. Growing up in country South Australia in the late 60s/70s, this presented some social difficulties, although he seems to have largely recovered from that now. He is besotted with Irish Terriers and John F. Kennedy, having written his postgraduate diploma thesis about the latter, and a series of essays on the former. He is deeply drawn to things with a devil may care attitude, as well as lost causes.

Miles Kemp has worked as a reporter at The Advertiser since 1997, and in the industry since 1987, specialising in public sector policy. He has used the state's Freedom of Information law extensively to unearth inconvenient information. He has often been told to use his powers more for good but thinks journalism shouldn't take sides. Miles is often called a boomer but would like to stress he was born in 1966, two years after the accepted cut-off date.