Joe Aston is one of Australia’s most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.
For 12 years he struck fear into the hearts of the nation’s political and corporate leaders with his must-read column Rear Window in The Australian Financial Review.
He interrogated some of the country’s biggest business stories including Rio Tinto’s Juukan Gorge scandal; CPA Australia and its Naked CEO Alex Malley; the decline and fall of both Magellan Financial Group and Alan Joyce’s Qantas. In 2023, Joe and his AFR colleagues won a Walkley Award for their coverage of the PwC tax leaks scandal.
AFR editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury says Aston “turned a gossip column into a form of journalism like never before seen in Australia, and arguably the world.”
Joe resigned from the Financial Review in October last year. His book about Qantas, The Chairman’s Lounge, was published in October 2024 by Simon & Schuster.
Talking Points
Video
Joe Aston | ABC 7.30
Qantas is the airline Australia loves to hate. Its share price is at record highs, but the public has not forgotten the lows of post-pandemic travel chaos. Joe Aston, who used to work for Qantas, became the airline's scourge after writing column after column of criticism of Alan Joyce's leadership. He's now written a book, The Chairman's Lounge, and it's already causing headlines about Anthony Albanese's acceptance of upgrades on Qantas flights. He spoke to Sarah Ferguson.Australian Manufacturing | Q+A
Ryan Young asked: I am from a bathroom & plumbing supplies retailer who sells products made in Germany & Italy. These products are made in countries with similar wages, unionism and costs associated with manufacturing products in their own country. Why then, does a country who has made a fortune digging valuable resources out of the ground not have the capacity to make these products here, particularly given the reduced freight costs to the consumer of homegrown products compared to those made in Europe? Panellists: Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic, Senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie, economist & former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, economist, author & professor of economics and public policy Stephanie Kelton and journalist & author Joe Aston.
