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Power

AFR Magazine's annual Power Issue: The definitive analysis of Australia's most powerful people.

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Australia’s 10 most powerful people in 2022

This time last year, there was considerable argument about whether Anthony Albanese should even make the top 10, such was his struggle for relevance.

  • Tom McIlroy
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the cover of the 2022 Power issue.

Albanese tops Power List, but how will he change Australia?

A fair number of voters know the prime minister’s log cabin to Lodge story. But how many have a clear sense of how he plans to use his power to change the nation into the 2030s?

  • The AFR View

The 10 most covertly powerful people in Australia in 2022

Those who are shaping the nation from behind the scenes.

  • Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese.

Red, teal and green – a new look for the Power list

As we emerge from the pandemic, a structural shift might keep Labor in power for quite a while.

  • Phillip Coorey
Anthony Albanese in the living room of his childhood home in Sydney’s Camperdown.

How Anthony Albanese was convinced to revisit his childhood home

It is only when the current occupant appears with arms outstretched – “welcome to my home, Prime Minister, and your former home” – that he crosses the threshold.

  • Matthew Drummond
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September 2022

Scott Morrison trips into Luca Fauvette at the Devonport Strikers Soccer Club in the seat of Braddon.

How to lose an election, ScoMo style

“Australians know I can be a bit of a bulldozer.” If there was a moment when you could say Scott Morrison lost the federal election, it was on Friday, May 13.

  • Aaron Patrick

Indigenous Australians dominate 2022 cultural power list

Linda Burney heads the annual list of the nation’s 10 most culturally powerful people.

  • Lisa Murray

Australia’s top five powerbrokers in the law for 2022

AFR Magazine’s hotly anticipated Power issue, out on Friday, September 30, includes lists of the key players across six industry sectors. Here are Australia’s most influential legal sector leaders.

  • Michael Pelly

Australia’s 10 most powerful business leaders in 2022

In a market as small as Australia, big is powerful. So it’s no surprise that the leaders of the largest companies again dominate the annual corporate power list.

  • James Thomson
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles with the photograph of his grandfather, Percy Pearce.

The WWI battlefield visit that brought Richard Marles to tears

The defence minister’s grandfather was decorated for gallantry in World War I. On a recent visit to France, he found himself in the field where his grandfather’s courage helped win the war.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Drummond
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Australia’s top five technology leaders for 2022

It’s a year when the most powerful are those who can keep the show on the road until markets recover.

  • Paul Smith

Australia’s five most powerful property people in 2022

Just when the property sector was finally learning to live with the virus, it was hit with a fresh wave of disruption.

  • Nick Lenaghan

Australia’s most powerful consultants in 2022

The consulting firms were flying in 2021-22, a lack of qualified staff being the main constraint on growth. The big move this year is Accenture Australia asserting its presence by growing rapidly to be about the same size as PwC.

  • Edmund Tadros and Hannah Wootton

Three women in the education Power List, but a man takes top spot

As the pandemic crisis eases, the sector has to face up to some big challenges and hopes are high that Jason Clare will deliver on the high expectations.

  • Updated
  • Julie Hare

Australia’s top five deal makers in 2022

There’s plenty of work to go around, but the cream of the crop in the investment banking sector emerged in the past year.

  • Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald

The intriguing names left off the 2022 power list

If the covert list was longer, here’s who would have made the cut.

  • Matthew Drummond

October 2021

AFR Power 2021 list: Premiers Daniel Andrews, Annastacia Palaszczuk, Mark McGowan, Gladys Berejiklian.

Morrison has been unseated by the premiers

The Prime Minister might run the nation and set policy, but it is the state premiers who wield the real power in the pandemic, managing every aspect of ordinary Australians’ lives.

  • Updated
  • Phillip Coorey

Eight of the PM’s most ‘powerful’ quotes

History is filled with examples of exceptional leaders. Only some were exceptional orators. Scott Morrison, without question, deserves to join their ranks.

  • Updated
  • James Schloeffel

The 10 most powerful people in Australia in 2021

This year, the combined might of four premiers has dislodged Scott Morrison from the top of the Power list.

  • Tom McIlroy

The intriguing names left off the covert power list

A diverse and fascinating group of people wield power behind the scenes in the nation - these Australians didn’t make the list but still hold considerable influence.

  • Matthew Drummond
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Australia’s 10 most covertly powerful people in 2021

The pandemic and national intelligence have added new names to the list of those wielding the greatest influence behind the scenes.

  • Tom McIlroy

September 2021

Grace Tame, Ash Barty, Chris Hemsworth, Emma McKeon, The Kid Laroi, Tanya Hosch, Bruna Papandrea, the Betoota Advocate, Stephen Page, Mary-Louise McLaws.

The 10 most culturally powerful people in Australia in 2021

Heading the list is Grace Tame, who has been through hell, rebuilt herself in its wake and is now calling those who enabled that hell to account.

  • Brook Turner

Australia’s top five power brokers in law for 2021

This year, for the first time, women occupied the nation’s two most senior positions in the law.

  • Michael Pelly

Australia’s 10 most powerful business leaders in 2021

From the start of the pandemic, the corporate sector had kept calm and carried on. But this year its patience ran out.

  • James Thomson
Left to right: Alan Tudge, Phil Honeywood, David de Carvalho, Peter Coaldrake, Barney Glover.

Australia’s five most powerful education leaders in 2021

Although the impact of COVID-19 on the teaching sector has been profound, the movement to online learning might be its most enduring legacy.

  • Julie Hare