Friday 13 February
A special Friday edition of 7.30 covering the Liberal leadership spill. Can new leader Angus Taylor save the Liberal Party? Sarah Ferguson interviews former prime minister Tony Abbott.
Tonightâs program came from the Parliament House studio.
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Same as Thursday.
According to The Age/SMHâs Calum Jaspan, the headhunting process for Tozerâs replacement at 7.30 has come up empty-handed so far. Commissioning editor of 7.30 Patricia Drum will be the showâs acting boss in the meantime.
ABC NEWS names new Executive Producer for b7.30
ABC NEWS has named a new Executive Producer for prime-time current affairs flagship 7.30 , with Dani Isdale taking over the key role in June.
Isdale has 26 years of experience as a journalist working in Australia, the US and for the past decade at UK public service broadcaster Channel 4 News.
Currently Isdale is Channel 4âs Deputy Head of Foreign and Commissioning Editor of its award-winning Foreign Film Fund. She also works as a Program and Duty Editor and last year launched global affairs vodcast TrumpWorld.
Isdale has run both the Washington and Westminster bureaux and her teamâs coverage of conflicts in the Middle East, Europe and Africa has won international recognition, including BAFTA, News Emmy and Royal Television Society awards.
Born and raised in North Queensland, she began her journalism career as a cadet reporter with Network 10 in Townsville, going on to be a state reporter, federal politics reporter, national correspondent, Europe and Middle East correspondent and presenter. She subsequently worked for SBS World News and Dateline.
7.30 is presented by Sarah Ferguson and airs Monday to Thursday with a 2026 average nightly total TV audience of 885,000 viewers, which is up 4 per cent year-on-year*.
Justin Stevens, ABC Director News: âWorking with Sarah Ferguson and the 7.30 team is a big job and a vitally important role. 7.30 is going from strength to strength, growing audiences on broadcast and digital. Itâs a key priority for the ABC, a pillar of prime-time that also bolsters our coverage across other national platforms. Dani brings exceptional experience and credentials and Iâm delighted to have her on board.â
Dani Isdale: âJoining Sarah and this exceptional team is a real privilege. 7.30 has spent four decades setting the standard for interviews, investigations and storytelling at home and abroad. Iâm looking forward to building on that legacy and finding new audiences across all platforms.â
*Source: VOZ National, Total TV, Content Consolidation 28 days as at 04/03/2025. 7.30 refers to Mon-Thurs regular programming not including Friday specials.
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The Age/SMHâs Calum Jaspan wrote in his column today
But what interests On Background most is that the program is being shifted out of the investigations and current affairs division under the aforementioned Puccini (Jo Puccini, the ABCâs head of investigations and current affairs) and into the digital and national news division, led by Lee Glendinning.
When Isdale starts in June, she and her team will report to the managing editor for national news, Sam Clark, ABC director of news Justin Stevens recently told staff. Clark currently has oversight of Insiders, Parliament House coverage, Afternoon Briefing, sport, and business.
30 March
Sarah Ferguson interviews Anthony Albanese about the governmentâs fuel security plan. The rising price of diesel has prompted calls to speed up the electrification of the freight industry. How AI is changing some peopleâs jobs.
You can watch the full interview here.
The Ombudsmanâs Office received 27 content complaints about an interview with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Esmaeil Baghaei**.** The complainants were broadly concerned that the interview was not impartial as the interviewer was combative, rude and favoured a United States and Israeli perspective that did not highlight the US and Israel as âaggressorsâ.
Ombudsmanâs Finding
The content was in keeping with the standards for due impartiality.
20 April
Sarah Ferguson interviews Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The government has the NDIS in its sights as it tries to find savings. Plus drivers are choosing EVs amid the fuel crisis but is the infrastructure ready?
FEDERAL BUDGET 2026
TUESDAY 12 MAY FROM 7.30PM
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down the 2026 Federal Budget, live from Canberra.
7:30pm: The Treasurer Jim Chalmersâ speech.
8:00pm: Budget 2026: 730
Budget Special hosted by Sarah Ferguson including interviews with the Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson with analysis from Jane Norman, Jacob Greber, Ian Verrender and Tom Crowley.
The ABC will broadcast Opposition Leader Angus Taylorâs Budget Reply speech at 7:30pm (AEST) on Thursday 14 May.
Ombudsman Investigation Report
ABC NEWS | 7.30 | Angus Taylor interview | 14 May 2026 | No breach
Summary
The Ombudsmanâs Office received 43 content complaints about an interview with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor. The complainants were concerned that the interview was not impartial as the interviewer was combative and frequently interrupted Mr Taylor.
Analysis
7.30 is the ABCâs flagship current affairs program. The audience expectation of a program of this nature is to robustly test and scrutinise ideas, claims and policies in the public interest. Politicians appearing on the program have a message to sell and often avoid answering questions that distract from that message. This often means the program host is required to put alternative views and interrupt to ensure the interview remains focused and questions asked are answered. For some, this approach may seem combative or hostile, but it is a common feature of this format and is not evidence of bias. Guests understand the format and are willing participants.
Angus Taylor is the Federal Opposition leader and alternative Prime Minister and so there is significant public interest in asking challenging and interrogative questions. The interview occurred following Mr Taylor delivering his reply to the Federal Budget in the Parliament and extended over nearly 18 minutes. Framing the first question in the context of a recent One Nation win in a seat long held by the Liberal Party, as well as recent polling, the interviewer asked him whether his proposed cut to immigration was an attempt to stem the flow of votes to One Nation. We observe that Mr Taylor was given the opportunity to respond at length, including providing a broader overview of measures outlined in his budget reply, such as plans to cut taxation. Given immigration is a contested and controversial issue, the interviewer appropriately asked Mr Taylor what the total reduction in immigration intake is expected to be. When his responses did not appear to specifically address the question, she asked several times for a direct response, interrupting Mr Taylor. We observe that Mr Taylor repeatedly objected to the interruptions, requested time to finish his responses, and clarified that the relevant figure would be provided closer to an election and would be dependent on the number of houses built in the interim under the current government.
Some complainants argued that post-budget interviews with the Treasurer and Prime Minister were comparatively less combative. The Ombudsman notes that both these interviews included sustained challenges by the interviewer in response to refusing to explicitly acknowledge that the decision to change tax rules on investment properties was a âbroken promiseâ. The Ombudsman further notes that the ABC received a number of audience contacts arguing the interviewer was rude and overbearing in her post-budget interview with the Treasurer.
We consider the interviewerâs persistence in requesting Mr Taylor to provide specific details was justified in order to elicit relevant information for viewers to evaluate the Oppositionâs proposals. While, as Mr Taylor suggested at the conclusion of the interview, it may be the convention for Opposition parties to release policy details closer to an election, this does not preclude âaccountabilityâ interviews seeking to test significant policy proposals of alternative governments.
Ombudsmanâs Finding
The program did not breach the ABCâs editorial standards for impartiality.
Monday 1 June -
David Speers hosting tonight.
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David Speers hosting all week.
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Something I have noticed in the past 2-3 weeks is that a separate preview of the nightâs episode is no longer produced and shown during the 7pm news on the main channel, instead itâs the newsreader who reveals whatâs coming up.
âNot much of a journalistâ: Pro-Tehran regime academic clashes with 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson
A pro-Tehran academic has accused 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson of ânot being much of a journalistâ during a heated interview about Iran.
University of Tehran academic Mohammad Marandi used his appearance on the ABC current affairs program on Thursday to berate Ferguson, claiming she was a âsupporter of genocideâ and âcowardlyâ. He also demanded she âsupport (her) claimâ that Iran had a nuclear weapons program.
In the interview, Prof Marandi, a former adviser to Iranâs nuclear negotiating team, said Iran would continue to attempt to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz and that the US should remove its military bases from around the Gulf.
Sarahâs interview with Prof Marandi starts at the 5:40 mark of the video.
Is there any Liquid Glass for 7.30?
Angus Taylor unhappy with top ABC journalist Laura Tingle over âhot micâ criticism off camera
Two of the ABCâs highest-profile and highest-paid presenters â 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson and the showâs former political editor, Laura Tingle â have been swept up in a vicious war of words surrounding an alleged âhot micâ moment that apparently raised serious questions about the underlying political bias that seemingly pervades the public broadcaster.
Diary can reveal Angus Taylor has been quietly talking up claims Tingle made a series of allegedly unprofessional personal remarks about him â and his ability to sell the Coalitionâs policies â when he appeared on 7.30 in the lead-up to the federal election last year, even though Tingle wasnât the one interviewing him. According to several sources familiar with the Opposition Leaderâs version of events, he claims one of his staff members was quietly recording proceedings as Ferguson grilled him on the current affairs show when they inadvertently captured Tingleâs unflattering running commentary on the exchange as she watched from the sidelines.
⌠according to Diaryâs sparse political contacts, as far as Taylor is seemingly concerned the story is most definitely true. As far as the ABC is concerned, on the other hand, it most definitely is not.
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Sarah Ferguson documentary in the spotlight
Diary can reveal (7.30 host Sarah) Ferguson failed to disclose her involvement in the anti-vivisection film Sentient to the ABC for more than two years â in direct violation of the public broadcasterâs conflict of interest procedures â despite the fact it was heavily bankrolled by animal rights activists who campaigned for Labor and the Greens at the last federal election, and that she had been pitched to external funding bodies as the documentaryâs âexecutive producerâ.
The ABC presenter only bothered to tell her bosses at the public broadcaster about the project â and belatedly seek âurgentâ approval to accept the executive producer credit â last November after the doco was accepted for screening at the Sundance Film Festival.
Heavily redacted documents released by the public broadcaster under Freedom of Information earlier this year detailed Fergusonâs mad rush to seek retroactive permission from the ABCâs top bosses via email after hours on a Friday night as they desperately scrambled to play catch up and wrap their heads around the role she played in the project.
Opposition communications spokeswoman and Walkley Award-winning former ABC journalist Sarah Henderson â herself a former 7.30 Report host â immediately raised grave concerns about âthe ABCâs handling of the apparent conflict of interestâ given it appeared Ferguson was in some way âconnected to advocacy-linked fundingâ in a direct violation of the national broadcasterâs rules.
It has now emerged Ferguson kept her connection to the documentary secret from the ABC for at least five times as long as Henderson first feared, with Screen Australia revealing Ferguson had been listed as the filmâsâexecutive producerâ from the very outset.
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