Fourth Estate
Every week, we discuss how the media has covered the news and analyse issues affecting the industry - with some of the biggest names in journalism in Australia and around the world. Broadcast live on Sydney's 2SER 107.3FM, with the financial assistance of the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
Episodes
July 31, 2025 • 46 mins
All eyes are again firmly on Gaza this week as the enclave faces mass starvation that human rights groups and aid organisations have been loudly warning of for months.
Media outlets that seemed to previously play down the plight of Palestinians, and the actions of the Israeli government have flooded their front pages with graphic images of emaciated, disease ridden children, accompanied by headlines like “Stop This Now.”
The UK a...
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July 17, 2025 • 35 mins
For generations, First Nations people have called for a truth-telling process — a way to formally acknowledge the harm caused by colonisation and ongoing injustice.
In Victoria, that process has taken historic form through the Yoorrook Justice Commission — the first truth-telling inquiry of its kind in Australia.
Over a number of years, the commission heard thousands of testimonies, exposing the deep and painful truths of the st...
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July 3, 2025 • 41 mins
Journalist, author and television presenter, Jan Fran joins Tina Quinn in studio to talk the launch of Ette Media, a new independent venture she's co-founded with fellow journalist, Antoinette Lattouf.
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June 26, 2025 • 50 mins
What began as just five casual shifts behind the microphone has escalated into one of the most high-profile legal battles in Australian media.
In 2023, Antoinette Lattouf was dropped as a fill-in presenter on ABC Radio Sydney after she shared a Human Rights Watch post about the Israel-Gaza conflict, which claimed Israel had used starvation as a "weapon of war."
Lattouf took the national broadcaster to court, alleging wrongful di...
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June 5, 2025 • 41 mins
We turn the clock back this week and revisit former Fourth Estate host, Monica Attard's conversation with Sophie McNeil, previously the ABC's Middle East Correspondent, and Hugh Riminton, National Affairs Editor for 10 News First.
This episode originally aired in May 2021, during what became known as the Israel-Palestine crisis.
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May 29, 2025 • 37 mins
As the latest uprising of violence in Gaza surpasses 600 days, the government of Israel is facing unprecedented condemnation from its Western allies.
France, the United Kingdom, and Canada have provided the most surprising about-face, with many other countries echoing sentiments of "disgrace" over the Netanyahu government's actions.
But many critics say it's a case of too little, too late.
So what has triggered this shift in langua...
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May 10, 2025 • 62 mins
In what turned out to be a much more definitive result than most pundits were expecting, the Labor government of Anthony Albanese has been returned to office for a second term with an increased majority.
Meanwhile, the Coalition suffered devastating losses across the board, and lost the head of their party in Peter Dutton.
Why did the Coalition lose so spectacularly? How did the Albanese Government manage a largely unprecedented ...
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May 1, 2025 • 39 mins
After what's been a largely uneventful election campaign, Australian's are only days away from heading to the ballot box, and analysts are predicting the result could bring some surprises yet.
So, will Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Labor party be returned to government?
Or will Peter Dutton and the Coalition defy the polls and make a largely unprecedented comeback?
And what how will the minor parties and independents,...
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April 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Australia is three weeks into the 2025 federal election cycle, and this time around the issues dominating the agenda have been as wide-ranging as housing, energy prices, climate change and somehow even, American President Donald Trump.
But as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's campaign falters captures the media's attention, is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese enjoying a smoother ride than he otherwise would be?
Joining Tina Quinn t...
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April 10, 2025 • 50 mins
As the as the so-called ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has collapsed, the official death toll in the region has surpassed 50,000, although experts warn the real number is much higher.
Of those many thousands who have perished are hundreds of journalists who have been killed in Gaza while simply reporting on the conflict.
This last week brought shocking footage of a media tent being bombed, with a number of journalists inside ...
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March 29, 2025 • 38 mins
After what seemed like an interminably long lead-up, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has finally called the election for May 3 - ending weeks of speculation about when Australians will head to the polls.
The date was seemingly ‘leaked’ an hour before Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton was due to hand down his much anticipated budget speech, catching the Liberals on the back foot and no doubt setting the tone for the usual horse race ...
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March 20, 2025 • 40 mins
As Fourth Estate returns this week, we examine whether the issue of anti-Semitism is being weaponised by both our media and political class.
Joining Tina Quinn to discuss is investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein, Crikey's Rachel Withers and The Sydney Morning Herald's Max Maddison.
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March 6, 2025 • 37 mins
This week we turn back the clock to Tina Quinn's conversation with foreign correspondent, Lynne O'Donnell.
Lynne has spent close to 30 years covering terrorism, conflict and war across Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
In 2022, Lynne herself made headlines around the world, when she was detained by Taliban intelligence agents in Afghan capital of Kabul, forced to retract some of her articles, and coerced into making a publi...
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February 24, 2025 • 34 mins
This week we step back into the archives to Tina Quinn's conversation with famed human rights lawyer, author and broadcaster, Geoffrey Robertson.
The year was 2021. Scott Morrison was still prime minister of Australia, it was the early days of the Biden presidency, before Russia’s war with Ukraine, and this most recent conflict in the Middle East.
Julian Assange was still fighting off extradition from his UK prison cell to the Uni...
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January 23, 2025 • 42 mins
Crikey’s proprietor Eric Beecher, is a rare combination of journalist, media owner and idealist.
“A media mongrel”, he says his friends call him, at 33 he became the youngest-ever editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, but was wooed away by the most consequential press mogul’s of the modern age, Rupert Murdoch.
But as he tells Tina Quinn, it was a short-lived tryst.
He joins Fourth Estate this week to talk about the dangers of mogu...
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January 16, 2025 • 30 mins
After close to two months of speculation, Hamish Macdonald, the former Q+A host and current Radio National and The Project presenter has been confirmed as the new Mornings host on ABC Radio Sydney.
Macdonald replaces Sarah Macdonald, who announced on air only days after being told that her contract would not be renewed, prompting public outcry from her very loyal listenership.
It comes amidst concerns from the ABC audience, that it...
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January 9, 2025 • 40 mins
This week we dip back into the Fourth Estate archives to Tina Quinn's 2022 discussion with Samantha Maiden and Jess Hill, reflecting on the ten year anniversary of the famous and historic 'misogyny speech', delivered by Australia's then Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
While many seemed to miss the gravity of the moment in the immediate aftermath, and dismissed the speech as a misstep by a then embattled Prime Minister, it was a momen...
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December 23, 2024 • 75 mins
David Marr was 33 years old when he was appointed editor of the National Times, but his tenure was short lived.
He was spectacularly sacked within two years, but his unmatched prose would see him become an internationally renowned biographer, and an award winning journalist for his coverage of the deaths of Aboriginals in custody for the ABC's Four Corners program.
In part two of his conversation with Tina Quinn, David discusses hi...
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December 22, 2024 • 65 mins
David Marr’s extraordinary career as a journalist, broadcaster and biographer, has seen him write about the most interesting and controversial people in Australian history.
From Kevin Rudd and George Pell to John Howard and Bill Henson, his work he says has been about trying to explain the "contradictions" of his subjects.
As part of our ongoing series of profiles, David joined Tina Quinn in studio talk about his upbringing in the ...
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December 14, 2024 • 47 mins
The world's media has brought us spectacular images out of Syria this week, as the brutal dictatorship of the country's President Bashar al-Assad crumbled this week, in a moment being compared to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and one which promises to reshape the landscape of power in the Middle East.
Joining Tina Quinn to discuss this seismic moment:
Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent who is currently in the S...
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