Annabel Crabb


Annabel Crabb is an Australian political journalist, commentator and television host who is the ABC's chief online political writer. She has worked for Adelaide's The Advertiser, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the Sunday Age and The Sun-Herald, and won a Walkley Award 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, as well as The Wife Drought, a book about women's work–life balance. She has hosted ABC television shows Kitchen Cabinet, The House, and Back in Time for Dinner.

Education

Crabb completed high school at the Wilderness School in Medindie, South Australia. She then studied at University of Adelaide, graduating in 1997 with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. She briefly became 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 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.
Crabb took up a position with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 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 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, as part of a team called the West Coast Odd Sox.
Crabb is a regular panelist on the ABC Television political show Insiders, a guest on panel shows such as Network Ten's Good News Week and the ABC's Q&A.
Crabb was a panelist on the 2010 ABC Federal Election series, . She returned to her role on the panel for the 2013 series.
In 2012, Crabb began hosting her own TV program Kitchen Cabinet on ABC2, 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 to London to host coverage of the Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Podcast

In November 2014, Crabb started a podcast with Leigh Sales called Chat 10 Looks 3. It is independent of the work they do for other media outlets and is an opportunity for them to talk about books, movies, television, the media and culture.

Political views

Crabb is a regular political commentator with the ABC and Fairfax. She has written of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott 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 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, 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 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 shows the graph at conferences, people just go... ". 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 problem 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 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. They have three children.

Awards