The 7.30 Report
The 7.30 Report is an Australian week-nightly television current affairs program, which was shown on ABC1 and ABC News 24 at 7.30 pm from 1986 to 2011. In 2011, it evolved into 7.30, a revamped current affairs program.[1]
The 7.30 Report
Sarah Ferguson
Leigh Sales
Chris Uhlmann
Kerry O'Brien (1995–2010)
Australia
English
25
Ben Hawke
Clay Hichens, Phil Kwok
30 minutes
28 January 1986 –
4 March 2011
Format[edit]
The program usually comprised several pre-recorded items and live interviews, focusing on issues of national or global significance. The program traditionally featured interviews with politicians.
Reporters in its last season included: Tracy Bowden, Matt Peacock, Andy Park, Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Dylan Welch, Louise Milligan, Madeleine Morris, Conor Duffy, Sarah Whyte, David Lewis, Monique Schafter, Alex Mann, Michael Atkin, and political editor Sabra Lane.
Former reporters had included political editor Heather Ewart,[7] Deborah Cornwall, Greg Hoy, Mark Willacy, Michael Brissenden, Murray McLaughlin, Mary Gearin, Mike Sexton, John Taylor, Peter McCutcheon, Paul Lockyer, Lisa Whitehead, Natasha Johnson, David Mark, Genevieve Hussey, Mark Bannerman and Jonathan Harley. Paul Lyneham also hosted The 7.30 Report for several years.[8]
Until 2010, satirists John Clarke and Bryan Dawe presented a (usually) weekly mock interview covering a topical issue.[9] Dawe played the interviewer, while Clarke played a prominent public figure but, unusually for satire, he deliberately made no attempt to imitate the appearance, voice, or mannerisms of the person he portrayed. When portraying Julia Gillard he placed a flower pot behind him to give the impression of him being a woman. These interviews were a continuation of the pair's work for A Current Affair, beginning in 1989, for which they won a number of awards.