Hamish Macdonald is an Australian broadcast journalist and news presenter. Macdonald is currently host of the ABC's Q&A political panel discussion show He has previously worked at networks including Channel 4, ITV and Al Jazeera English.
Career
Upon earning a journalism degree from Charles Sturt University in 2002, Macdonald began a short stint as a reporter covering politics in Canberra with regional broadcaster WIN. He moved to the United Kingdom, where he reported for Channel 4 and ITV. In the UK's Channel 4 News, Macdonald built a career as a news producer and reporter. He covered major stories including the Asian tsunami and the London bombings. He reported live for Channel 4 and ITV news. He also reported as an eyewitness for Australian Networks Nine, Seven, and ABC.
In early 2006, Hamish worked as a producer for Al Jazeera English's regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Al Jazeera English is the English-language sister channel of the Arabic network Al Jazeera. In the summer of 2006, he was hired as a news presenter at the Kuala Lumpur bureau of Al Jazeera English. Macdonald won the "Young Journalist of the Year" award at the Royal Television Society awards in London, on 20 February 2008. Hamish later moved to Al Jazeera's London bureau, during which time he also acted as the UK correspondent for the Australian breakfast programme Sunrise. He left Al Jazeera English in June 2010.
Network Ten
In November 2010, Australia's Network Ten announced that Macdonald would report for 6.30 with George Negus as a senior foreign correspondent and fill-in presenter. Macdonald has been a fill-in presenter for Ten News and guest panellist and fill-in presenter on The Project. In June 2012, Macdonald was appointed host of a revived Ten Late News. In 2013, he hosted current affairs series The Truth Is. Macdonald was widely criticised for posting a photo of himself, Magdalena Roze, Hermione Kitson and Sandra Sully on Twitter holding champagne and celebrating at the GQ Man of the Year awards the same day 100 Ten employees had been axed. Chris Reason of the Seven Network, whose wife, Kathryn Robinson was one of those axed responded to the Tweet "Congrats, but are these champagne days? 100 mates out of work." Macdonald announced he would be leaving Network Ten in September 2013. Rumours surfaced the network was underwhelmed with MacDonald's The Truth Is series and MacDonald was upset Ten had not shown greater support for his work. In 2017, Macdonald regularly hosted The Sunday Project and was later appointed permanent host in January 2018. He remained in the position until December 2019 upon taking on his new role as host of Q&A on ABC. He will continue to appear on The Project as a guest. In May 2019, Macdonald hosted the 2019 Australian Federal Election coverage on Network 10.
ABC TV
In November 2019, ABC announced that Macdonald will host Q&A from February 2020, replacing Tony Jones.
On 6 January 2014, Macdonald joined the ABC Television Network in the US in a senior role as an international affairs correspondent for the network. Despite being contracted to Network Ten in Australia until March 2014, MacDonald gained an early release from the network who supported his new appointment. He was initially based in New York City but moved to London later in 2014. His contract reportedly allowed him to accept limited outside work with other organisations in certain circumstances.
Personal life
Macdonald shares a media pedigree with his siblings. His older brother Rory is a producer and reporter with ABC Radio Sydney, while his older sister Kari Keenan is a producer for 2UE. MacDonald lives in Sydney. On 6 June 2019, Macdonald came out as gay and is in a relationship with boyfriend Jacob Fitzroy.
