January: Nostradamus fans are disappointed when it becomes evident that Nine journalist James Massola’s speculation that there is an “outside chance” of an election on December 2, 2024, followed by a prime ministerial wedding the next week, has failed to materialise. The Saturday Paper’s Paul Bongiorno posts on X about “the main lesson of the Holocaust” without mentioning the murder of six million Jews.
February: ABC Radio National Late Night Live presenter David Marr puts this question to his guest, ABC journalist Laura Tingle: “Do you think, in times past, it would have been possible for him (opposition leader Peter Dutton), as leader of the conservative Coalition, to be out there arguing that Jews are not safe in Albanese’s Australia? That’s an extraordinary, dramatic accusation.” Tingle concurred. See December. Sydney Morning Herald economics correspondent Ross Gittins throws the switch to denial and declares that it is “unlikely that (Donald) Trump will leave a mark on the course of history”.
March: The ABC appoints John Lyons, a vehement critic of the Trump administration, as its “editor Americas”. Your man Lyons tells ABC News Breakfast that he will be “trying to translate the Trump presidency to an Australian audience”. Somewhat pompous, don’t you think? RN Saturday Extra presenter Nick Bryant refers to “the great historian Eric Hobsbawm”. Conveniently overlooking the fact that Comrade Hobsbawm was a lifelong communist of the Stalinist genre. Matthew Doran, the ABC’s man in Jerusalem, declares there are “50,000 Palestinian” fatalities but does not state that these are Hamas figures that do not distinguish between civilian and military deaths.
April: ABC 7.30 presenter Sarah Ferguson rebukes Coalition frontbencher Michael Sukkar with a “what would your mother say?” put-down after he had interrupted frontbencher Clare O’Neil, who had been speaking for more than a minute. Ferguson herself interrupted O’Neil eight times and Sukkar on 16 occasions.
The Sydney Writers Festival artistic director defends a panel comprising Barrie Cassidy, Waleed Aly, George Megalogenis, Amy Remeikis and Niki Savva as representing “a range of political views”, despite the fact there is not a political conservative among this lot.
May: At the end of the ABC’s Q+A program, presenter Patricia Karvelas advises that it will take a “tiny break”. The final pre-break panel comprises three politicians and two commentators – Dee Madigan and Emma Shortis, both of whom are left-of-centre types, illustrating Q+A’s lack of viewpoint diversity. Left-of-centre academic Judith Brett claims Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies moved “the party to the left”. Really. One-time Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull correctly states that the Liberals ran a shocking campaign at the May 2025 election – but overlooks that he lost 14 seats when leading the Coalition at the 2016 election. Newly appointed ABC global affairs editor Tingle defines her task as explaining Australian politics to the world.
June: Retired admiral Chris Barrie declares that if Australia does not develop a climate plan, it is likely that by 2028 “it’ll all be over” – whatever that means. Historian James Curran declares that “up until the 1960s, most Australians saw no contradiction between being a British race patriot and an Australian nationalist” – overlooking Australians of Irish Catholic, Italian, Greek and Maronite background. Norman Swan, the ABC’s doctor in the house, tells colleagues “it’s a long time since I practised medicine”. It was not long ago that Swan’s books stated that he was “Australia’s most trusted doctor”. A metamorphosis of the medical kind, it seems.
July: Nine’s CBD column sneers at Liberal National Party MP Amanda Stoker as having been a “rising star in the Liberal Christian soldier faction”. How funny is that? And would CBD refer to a Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist with such disdain? The Sydney Morning Herald letters editor declares that she has received “very many suggestions” that Angus Taylor should remove the “g” from his name – a joke that would go down well in grade three. Australian National University professor Mark Kenny declares that Israel is not a democracy, despite having free elections for its entire population – Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
August: The Sydney Morning Herald front page lead story is headed “Sydney says ‘enough’ ” in its coverage of the Palestine Action Group’s march across Sydney Harbour Bridge. Its state political reporter, Alexandra Smith, declares this “will be remembered as the day Sydney turned out en masse to plead for humanity”. In fact, a fraction of Sydney’s population took part in the march in which some protesters carried ISIS flags, a portrait of Ali Khamenei was held high and anti-Semitic chants were heard. Australian historian Christopher Clark tells ABC Global Roaming listeners “the difficult thing about the future is that we don’t know what’s in it”. A profound thought, to be sure.
September: 7.30 fails to cover the assassination on September 10 (US time) of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a leading American conservative. However, a week later Ferguson interviews American leftist demagogue Hasan Piker about Kirk. No other view is heard. The Australia Institute’s Emma Shortis forewarns that by 2060 climate-induced disasters will lead to young people not being able to complete school. Anti-Zionist Antony Loewenstein says Germany has reason to feel guilty about the Holocaust “to some extent”. That’s all, folks.
October: The Australian Financial Review Magazine publishes its annual “Power Issue”. A title declares that the Prime Minister’s power is “as close to absolute as possible”. That was then. Opposition leader Sussan Ley is not on any list – despite the fact the Coalition shares the balance of power in the Senate with the Greens. Author Tom Keneally, in what he calls a “geriatric rant”, tells readers he has renounced “all pretence of my allegiance to the monarchy”. Buckingham Palace shakes. Keneally’s piece in Nine newspapers is illustrated by a recent photo of him talking to Queen Camilla.
November: Influencer Grace Tame turns book reviewer for The Saturday Paper. After warning of “the threat of planetary destruction”, she describes Tony Abbott’s Australia: A History “as unoriginal as it is biased and boring”. Abbott’s book later is praised by Tom Holland of The Rest is History podcast fame, but what would he know? Nine travel editor Anthony Dennis gives travel snobbery a chance by distinguishing between “the true travellers” (like him) and “the tourists” (such as those who look for a McDonald’s on the Champs-Elysees). Dennis’s advice to Nine readers is all about getting away from the hoi polloi.
December: Tragedy strikes when there is a terrorist attack on the Sydney Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach. NSW police allege the attack was undertaken by religiously motivated radical Islamists with links to ISIS. However, Tingle states that “the actions (of the terrorists)” are not based on their religion. ABC managing director and editor-in-chief Hugh Marks backs Tingle, indicating that the year of the snake has had little impact with respect to the wisdom of managers at the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster.
Morale was high on New Year’s Day as the good people of Australia looked forward to the year of the snake and the onset of wisdom. But, alas, it turned out that 2025 was riven with false prophecy, hyperbole, historical howlers, fake news, sneering pomposity and denial – month after month.