Joe O'Brien (journalist)

Joe O'Brien
Occupation(s)	Journalist and Television Presenter
Years active	1995–present
Known for	working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Television	News Breakfast ABC News Mornings

Joe O'Brien (born 1968 or 1969)[1] is an Australian journalist and news presenter.

O'Brien is best known for his lengthy tenure hosting ABC News Mornings on the ABC News channel, which he has hosted since the channel's inception in 2010 until 2023.[2]

He joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1995, initially based at the local ABC station in Rockhampton, Queensland before moving to Brisbane where he worked as a reporter and presenter.[3] O'Brien then moved to Sydney, where he regularly anchored The Midday Report on ABC TV.[3]

Upon the launch of the ABC's new weekday breakfast program News Breakfast on ABC2 in late 2008, O'Brien was appointed as the co-host of its Friday edition.[4]

As the ABC prepared to launch its new 24-hour news channel in 2010, O'Brien was announced as one of its presenters in April 2010.[5] He commenced hosting ABC News Mornings on 23 July 2010.[2]

During the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey in 2017, O'Brien's questioning of the Australian Christian Lobby's Lyle Shelton was criticised by commentators Tom Switzer and Andrew Bolt who both believed O'Brien had suggested same sex marriage opponents had no right to support gay athletes such as Ian Thorpe.[6][7]

In May 2023, O'Brien announced that after 13 years he will switch from hosting ABC News Mornings to host ABC Evening News on the ABC News channel.

Personal life

O'Brien grew up in Innisfail, Queensland after his parents moved from New South Wales with their four young children around 1970.[8]

In 1999, he performed as a back-up dancer for Dannii Minogue at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.[9]

O'Brien was a brother-in-law to Australian rugby league player Peter Jackson, who died from a heroin overdose in 1997.[10] and, in 2015, he introduced an Australian Story episode which profiled his sister, Jackson's widow Siobhan Jackson.[11]

O'Brien is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 having received his first dose of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in May 2021 and his second dose in July 2021. A photo of him after receiving his second dose garnered attention due to his prominent biceps.[12] [9]

References

1. Nauman, Zoe; Schipp, Debbie (17 March 2013). "They're telly's most switched-on blokes". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 July 2022. Joe O'Brien - Age: 44, Presenter, ABC News 24
2. "ABC News 24: Better Late Than Never". Media Watch (TV program). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2022. ...on its first full day on air, the Midday Report's Ros Childs interviewed News 24 morning host Joe O'Brien on how his first morning had gone... - ABC News 24, The Midday Report, 23rd July, 2010
3. "Joe O'Brien". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
4. Schwartz, Larry (4 November 2008). "A well balanced breakfast". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2022. Hosted by Virginia Trioli and Barrie Cassidy, with Joe O'Brien replacing Cassidy on Fridays, the three-hour weekday program represents the ABC's first step towards 24-hour news coverage.
5. "ABC News 24 line-up announced". Crikey. 17 April 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
6. Switzer, Tom (3 September 2017). "The marriage equality movement and the new intolerance". The Sydney Morning Herald. We saw a telling example of this when ABC News presenter Joe O'Brien asked the Australian Christian Lobby's Lyle Shelton whether he could in good faith support gay athletes in sporting endeavours. The contorted logic here is that if you oppose gay marriage you must be a homophobe...
7. Bolt, Andrew (26 August 2017). "ABC host: Opponents of gay marriage are banned from backing gay athletes". The Daily Telegraph. Apparently O'Brien believes the only arguments against same-sex marriage are those advanced by homophobes who must - must - hate all gays.
8. O'Brien, Joe (16 February 2018). "The Road Back Home - Joe O'Brien: Innisfail, QLD". ABC Australia YouTube channel. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
9. Hirst, Jordan (9 November 2021). "ABC News hunk Joe O'Brien was a Mardi Gras backup dancer". Q News. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
10. Gordon, Kent (30 March 2015). "Siobhan Jackson: Sexually abused footballer Peter Jackson's widow turning lives around as principal in remote Indigenous community of Lockhart River". ABC News. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
11. "Educating Miss Siobhan". Australian Story. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
12. Mastroianni, Bianca (20 July 2021). "Fans are stunned over ABC newsreader Joe O'Brien's muscular arms". news.com.au. Retrieved 2 July 2022.