Annabel Crabb (born 1973) is an Australian political journalist, commentator and television host who is the ABC's chief online political writer. She has worked for
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
The Sun-Herald
''The Sun-Herald'' is an Australian newspaper published in tabloid or compact format on Sundays in Sydney by Nine Publishing. It is the Sunday counterpart of ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. In the 6 months to September 2005, ''The Sun-Herald'' ...
'', and won a
Walkley Award
The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
in 2009 for her '' Quarterly Essay'', "Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull". She has written two books covering events within the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
, as well as ''The Wife Drought'', a book about women's work–life balance. She has hosted ABC television shows ''Kitchen Cabinet'', ''The House'', ''Back in Time for Dinner'', and ''Tomorrow Tonight''.
Early years
Crabb was born in Adelaide to Christobel and Mac Crabb, and grew up on a small farm near
Two Wells, South Australia
Two Wells is a town approximately north of the Adelaide city centre in South Australia adjacent to Port Wakefield Road and passed by the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line. The first settlers in the area used two aboriginal wells in the area a ...
.
She completed high school at the
Wilderness School
, motto_translation = Always True
, established = 1884
, type = Independent, day and boarding
, denomination = Non-denominational
, slogan =
, principal = ...
in
Medindie, South Australia
Medindie (formerly also known as Medindee or Medindi) is an inner northern suburb of Adelaide the capital of South Australia. It is located adjacent to the Adelaide Park Lands, just north of North Adelaide, and is bounded by Robe Terrace to th ...
, then studied at
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
, graduating in 1997 with
Arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
and
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
degrees. She was briefly involved in student politics, holding the position of women's officer at the University's Student Association.
Career
Journalism
Crabb undertook a cadetship at ''The Advertiser'' in 1997. She moved to ''The Advertiser's''
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
bureau two years later, having worked for ''The Advertiser'' in both state and federal politics, before departing in 2000 to move to ''The Age'' as a political columnist and correspondent.
Three years later Crabb travelled to the United Kingdom and spent several years there working as the London correspondent for the ''Sunday Age'' and ''Sun-Herald'', and acting as an occasional and largely non-political correspondent for ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. During this time she wrote her first book, ''Losing It: The Inside Story of the Labor Party in Opposition''.
She returned to Australia in 2007 and started work as a senior writer and political columnist for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', and until recently, Crabb's opinion pieces featured in a regular column in the publication. During this time, Crabb served as a commentator for the ABC's coverage of the
2007 Australian federal election
The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for elect ...
.
Crabb took up a position with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...
in November 2009, working as its chief online political writer. Crabb is also one of the presenters of '' The Drum'' on the 24-hour news channel, ABC News 24.
In September 2014, Crabb's book ''The Wife Drought'' was published, contributing to the debate about work-life balance for women.
In 2017, in a footnote to readers of her ''
Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' column, Crabb implied that she had resigned from her role at that newspaper.
Television
From mid-2012, Crabb and radio personality Merrick Watts appeared in the ABC1 light-entertainment television program ''
Randling
''Randling'' was an Australian comedic word-based television quiz show hosted by Andrew Denton. It aired on ABC1 at 8:30 on Wednesday nights, with the show repeated on Fridays on ABC2 at 11pm.
The show was hosted by Andrew Denton who posed quest ...
'', as part of a team called the West Coast Odd Sox.
Crabb is a regular panelist on the
ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to:
*ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or
*ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia
ABC Television or ABC ...
political show '' Insiders'', a guest on panel shows such as
Network Ten
Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...
's ''
Good News Week
''Good News Week'' is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and 11 February 2008 to 28 April 2012. The show's initial run aired on ABC until being bought by Network Ten ...
'' and the ABC's '' Q&A''.
Crabb was a panelist on the 2010 ABC Federal Election series, '' Gruen Nation''. She returned to her role on the panel for the 2013 series.
In 2012, Crabb began hosting her own TV program ''
Kitchen Cabinet
Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integrated in ...
'' on
ABC2
ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment pr ...
(later ABC1), an informal interview program with Australian politicians over a meal prepared by both Crabb and her guest.
In 2017, Crabb hosted a six episode documentary series about the inner workings of Parliament House called ''The House''.
In 2018, she hosted a seven part series called ''Back in Time for Dinner'', based on the format of UK show '' Back in Time for...''. A family's home is transformed each week into a replica of a standard house from a different decade, with the family cooking and eating meals from that era.
In May 2018, the ABC flew Crabb and
Jeremy Fernandez
Jeremy Fernandez is an Australian journalist and television news presenter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Career
Fernandez joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2000 working as a producer for ABC Local Radi ...
to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to host coverage of the
Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held on Saturday 19 May 2018 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. The groom is a member of the British royal family; the bride is American and previously worked as an ...
.
Chat 10 Looks 3 podcast
In November 2014, Crabb started a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
with
Leigh Sales
Leigh Peta Sales (born 10 May 1973) is an Australian journalist and author, best known for her work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. built around the same tenets as the podcast - friendship, kindness, and an agreement to not discuss politics. Crabb has said “somehow, through word of mouth, this vast community has formed, bringing terrible humour and good book recommendations and the salve of human kindness to what turns out to be quite a big audience for that kind of stuff”.
Political views
Crabb is a regular political commentator with the ABC and Fairfax. She has written of former Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott
Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Abbott was born in Londo ...
that as an opposition leader he was "potent, focused, absolutely deadly, and ultimately he succeeded", but of his period as Prime Minister she writes that Abbott's "most significant achievements... were acts of dismantlement or shutting down: ending the carbon and mining taxes, stopping the boats." In a May 2016 study of Abbott's successor
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Turnbull grad ...
she wrote that he "struggled as Opposition leader", his major flaw being that "he overleapt his colleagues in an attempt to build something". Of his Prime Ministership she wrote: "Turnbull is more upbeat, more expansive ("waffly," his critics would say), less disciplined and less aggressive".
Following the election of Donald Trump as US President in 2016, Crabb asked "Where will Angry White Man strike next?" and wrote: "A kind of madness has come over the world. The elevation of Donald Trump from talented freelance bottom-pincher to Leader of the Free World, substantially powered by angry white dudes in Michigan, has created, internationally, a mood of fear and uncertainty among the existing political class."
Crabb does not support reform of the controversial Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 limitations on free speech. She describes Immigration Minister
Peter Dutton
Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...
as having a commitment to free speech which "fully covers the right of everyday Australians to make racist remarks". Crabb supported proposals to legislate for same-sex marriage; proposals that were ultimately successful. She has described businesses and service providers who refuse to cater to same-sex weddings as "homophobes".
Gendered impacts of caring on work
Crabb has reported on the differential impact of parenting on workforce productivity and that following the birth of a child, fathers spend, on average, half the number of hours on household work that mothers do. Crabb shared demographic analysis by Jennifer Baxter of the Australian Institute of Family Studies showing that women spend on average 30 hours per week on household work, whereas men spend 15. In the 7am podcast, Crabb described the pattern, saying the graph "just leapt off the page", and that men's average work hours follow a flat line 'like a cruiser, just cruising along". Crabb reported "Whenever she (Baxter) shows the graph at conferences, people just go... (intake of breath)". The analysis looks at paid working hours, child care and unpaid domestic work in heterosexual couples. "The work is so evocative, like in ER when someone has a very dangerous elevation, the heartbeat of a highly stressed and anxious person". She suggests that by changing both Australian laws and societal pressures, the disparity in hours spent on household work may be addressed, and that fathers may have more time and stronger relationships with their children.
Crabb has reported on policy which has changed gendered aspects of parenting and work. She has reported on policy which has changed this. She said, "Employers are starting to recognise that the fathers of a young generation do want to be more involved in their kids lives than their dads were and that if you want to attract and retain great staff then trusting them to make the right decision in their private lives only strengthens their attachment to your workplace and commitment to the job you want them to do."
Personal life
Crabb's partner is lawyer Jeremy Storer, brother of Australian senator
Tim Storer
Timothy Raphael Storer (born 24 October 1969) is a former Australian politician who served as a Senator for South Australia from February 2018 to June 2019. Following the disqualification of Skye Kakoschke-Moore during the parliamentary eligib ...
. They have three children.
Awards
* In 2009 her ''Quarterly Essay'', titled "Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull", won a
Walkley Award
The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
for best magazine feature writing.
* In 2011 Crabb received an
Eisenhower Fellowship
Eisenhower Fellowships is a private, non-profit organization created in 1953 by a group of prominent American citizens to honor President Dwight D. Eisenhower for his contribution to humanity as a soldier, statesman, and world leader. The organiza ...
.
Books published
* Crabb, Annabel. ''Losing It: The Inside Story of the Labor Party in Opposition''. Picador Australia, 2005.
* Crabb, Annabel. ''Quarterly Essay 34: Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull''. Black Inc., 2005.
* Crabb, Annabel. ''Rise of the Ruddbot: Observations from the Gallery''. Melbourne: Black Inc., 2010.
* Crabb, Annabel. ''The Wife Drought''. Melbourne:
Random House Australia
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2014.
* Crabb, Annabel and Sharpe, Wendy. ''Special Delivery – Favourite Food To Make and Take'' Murdoch Books Australia 2015. .
*Crabb, Annabel and Sharpe, Wendy. ''Special Guest - Recipes for the happily imperfect host.'' Murdoch Books Australia, 2018.
* Crabb, Annabel. ''Quarterly Essay 75: Men at Work: Australia's Parenthood Trap''. Black Inc., 2019.