Bridget Brennan
Alma materRMIT University (BComm)
OccupationJournalist
Years active2011 - present
TelevisionNews Breakfast, Four Corners, The Drum, Insiders

Bridget Brennan is an Australian journalist.

Brennan is currently news presenter of the ABC's breakfast program News Breakfast and is the Indigenous Affairs Editor[1]

She is a Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman.[2]

Career

Brennan joined the ABC as a cadet journalist in 2010.[2][3] From 2011 to 2013, she was based in Darwin where she worked as a radio and television reporter.[2][3]

After a brief period of working in Hong Kong for CNN, Brennan returned to the ABC in 2014 as a reporter for national radio current affairs programs AM, The World Today and PM.[3]

After then working as on Background Briefing on Radio National, Brennan joined Four Corners as a researcher.[3]

After being awarded the 2016 Andrew Olle scholarship, Brennan became the ABC's national Indigenous Affairs correspondent.[2][4] This was a role she continued until she was appointed as the ABC's London-based Europe correspondent.[3] She returned to Australia in 2020 and was appointed as the ABC's Indigenous Affairs editor.[3]

On 14 June 2020, Brennan seemingly became the first non-white panelist on ABC TV's Sunday morning current affairs program Insiders.[5][6] The invitation to appear on Insiders was issued after criticism the program received, including from Brennan, for having an all-white panel (consisting of Patricia Karvelas, David Crowe and Katharine Murphy) discuss the Black Lives Matter movement the week prior.[5] Junkee also reported that it appeared the show had never had a person of colour appear as a panelist in the history of Insiders.[5][7] When asked about the issue on Insiders, Brennan stated: "It is not good enough any more, particularly at this moment, but I would say any week, to have a panel of white people speaking about issues when there is very little lived experience of discrimination and racism on that panel."[5]

Brennan hosted the summer edition of The Drum throughout December 2021 and January 2022.[8]

Along with Dan Bourchier, Brennan co-hosted a special edition of Speaking Up on the ABC News channel about the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament on 6 July 2022.[9]

Following Leigh Sales' decision to step down from hosting 7.30 in 2022, Brennan was reported to be one of three ABC journalists approached by senior ABC management about potentially succeeding Sales on the program, with the others being Sarah Ferguson and David Speers.[10]

In November 2023, ABC announced that Brennan will join News Breakfast as news presenter and co-host the show one day per week whilst Lisa Millar works on other projects.[11][12]

Awards

Brennan was part of the first female Indigenous Four Corners reporting team when they investigated the issue of femicide experienced by First Nations women in Australia.[13] Brennan along with Suzanne Dredge, Brooke Fryer and Stephanie Zillman won the Gold Quill at the 2023 Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards for the Four Corners report, entitled "How many more?".[14] The story also won the Quill Award for Excellence in Indigenous Affairs reporting.[14]

Views

In March 2022, she was highly critical of The Australian's coverage of the acquittal of Zachary Rolfe who was found not guilty of murdering Kumanjayi Walker.[15] Brennan accused the newspaper of "traumatising, unethical and appalling reporting."[15]

Speaking about the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament on Insiders in July 2022, Brennan suggested Aboriginal Australians deserve reparations as part of the reconciliation process, stating: "This has to be about justice, this has to be about reparations. It has to be about giving some power to Aboriginal communities."[16]

References

  1. ↑ "Bridget Brennan". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2023. Retrieved 29 March 2023. Bridget Brennan is the Indigenous Affairs Editor. She was previously the ABC's Europe Correspondent in London and the National Indigenous Affairs Correspondent
  2. 1 2 3 4 Brant, Chloe (3 July 2017). "NAIDOC Week: Reporting on Indigenous issues helped journalist Bridget Brennan connect with her culture". ABC News. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Bridget Brennan - Indigenous Affairs Editor at Australian Broadcasting Corporation". LinkedIn. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  4. ↑ Brook, Stephen (18 May 2018). "Indigenous journalists changing stereotypes". The Australian. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Sutton, Candace (14 June 2020). "ABC's Insiders: Host forced to admit its failure to include Indigenous voices". news.com.au. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  6. ↑ Knox, David (15 June 2020). ""Insiders does need to do better"". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Scott, Rob (12 June 2020). "ABC's 'Insiders' has not had a person of colour on its panel in at least a decade". Junkee. Retrieved 29 March 2023. The publicly available archives are patchy between 2005 and 2010, and there are no archives available before 2005, so it's impossible to be certain, but an ABC spokesperson was unable to nominate a single person of colour who had appeared on the Insiders panel in the show's history.
  8. ↑ Knox, David (17 January 2022). "Summer Drum". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 March 2023. Bridget Brennan leads a panel discussion on the issues of the day.
  9. ↑ Knox, David (2 July 2022). "NAIDOC Week 2022: guide". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 March 2023. Bridget Brennan and Dan Bourchier will co-host a special live program on ABC News Channel, about the Uluru Statement, explaining where we're at in establishing a First Nations Voice in the Constitution
  10. ↑ Visontay, Elias (14 February 2022). "Bridget Brennan joins David Speers and Sarah Ferguson as top contender to host 7.30". The Guardian. Brennan – a former Europe correspondent for the ABC based in London – has already been unofficially approached about replacing Sales. A source says a senior ABC figure discussed the role with Brennan in recent days and asked her to consider throwing her hat into the ring.
  11. ↑ "Bridget Brennan joins News Breakfast | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au. 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  12. ↑ Laidlaw, Kyle (2023-11-01). "BRIDGET BRENNAN appointed to newsreader position on ABC NEWS BREAKAST". TV Blackbox. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  13. ↑ "ABC wins Melbourne Press Club Gold Quill for 'How Many More?'". About The ABC. 25 March 2023. Brennan, Dredge and Fryer broke new ground as the first female Indigenous reporting team to report a Four Corners.
  14. 1 2 "28th Quill Awards for Excellence in Victorian Journalism 2022: All the winners". Mediaweek. 25 March 2023. Gold Quill Awards winner: Bridget Brennan, Brooke Fryer, Suzanne Dredge and Stephanie Zillman, Four Corners, ABC News for "How Many More?"
  15. 1 2 Meade, Amanda (16 March 2022). "The Australian's coverage of Zachary Rolfe verdict condemned as 'a national disgrace'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  16. ↑ Morrow, David (31 July 2022). "ABC Insider panellist's call for Indigenous voice to parliament to be 'feared and revered'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
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