Hamish Macdonald Biography
Hamish Macdonald is a TV journalist and news presenter from Australia. Macdonald hosted ABC’s Q+A political panel discussion show from February 2020 to July 2021. He has previously worked on channels such as Channel 4, ITV, and Al Jazeera English.
How old is Hamish Macdonald? – Age
He is 42 years old as of 18 May 2023. He was born in 1981 in Sydney, Australia.
Hamish Macdonald Family – Education
Macdonald comes from a family of journalists. His older brother Rory is an ABC Radio Sydney producer and reporter, while his older sister Kari Keenan is a 2UE producer. MacDonald attended the Scots College and Sydney School.
Is Hamish Mcdonald married? – Partner
Macdonald came out as gay in 2019 and is now in a relationship with partner Jacob Fitzroy. In May 2023, he married.
Hamish Mcdonald’s Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $4 million.
Hamish Mcdonald ABC
On January 6, 2014, Macdonald accepted a top position as a foreign affairs correspondent with the American television network ABC. Despite having a contract with Network Ten in Australia until March 2014, MacDonald was granted an early release from Ten, which aided his new position. He began his career in New York City before relocating to London in 2014. In rare cases, his ABC contract purportedly allowed him to accept limited outside employment with other organizations.
From February 2020 to June 2021, Macdonald presented Q+A on Australia’s ABC TV, succeeding Tony Jones as host of the panel show. Macdonald was in charge of the show while it transitioned from Monday to Thursday nights. Viewership dropped from 411,000 in early 2020 to 280,000 a year later under Macdonald’s leadership. By April 2021, the number of metro viewers had dropped even more, with only 224,000 tuning in. Macdonald departed the position after 18 months, saying he was thrilled to be “moving into a new opportunity” and looking forward to working with the ABC again.
Macdonald’s decision to leave the program was influenced by the hatred he got on Twitter while presenting Q+A, which forced him to cancel his account in January 2021. Similarly, Lisa Millar, an ABC presenter, decided to leave the social media platform in September 2021 owing to the harassment she received while hosting News Breakfast. Both Macdonald and Millar’s experiences sparked a public debate on the high degree of personal harassment and bullying that Australian journalists suffer on Twitter, as well as how the site can better manage the problem.
Hamish Mcdonald The Project – Network 10
Network Ten in Australia announced in November 2010 that Macdonald would report for 6.30 alongside George Negus as a senior international correspondent and fill-in presenter. Macdonald has appeared as a guest panelist and fill-in presenter on Ten News and The Project. In June 2012, Macdonald was named host of the relaunched Ten Late News. He hosted the current affairs show The Truth Is in 2013.
Macdonald received widespread criticism for tweeting a photo of himself, Magdalena Roze, Hermione Kitson, and Sandra Sully sipping champagne and rejoicing at the GQ Man of the Year awards on the same day as 100 Ten employees were laid off. Seven Network’s Chris Reason, whose wife, Kathryn Robinson, was among those let go, responded to the tweet “Congrats, but are these champagne days over?” “100 friends are out of work.”
Macdonald announced his departure from Network Ten in September 2013. Rumours circulated that the network was underwhelmed with MacDonald’s The Truth Is series, and MacDonald was disappointed that Ten had not showed more support for his work.
In 2017, Macdonald returned to Network Ten, hosting The Sunday Project on a regular basis before being named permanent presenter in January 2018. He held the post until December 2019, when he took over as host of ABC’s Q&A. He will continue to appear as a guest on The Project.
Macdonald hosted Network 10’s coverage of the 2019 Australian Federal Election in May 2019. In July 2021, it was reported that Macdonald would return to Network 10 on August 22, 2021, to host The Project on Friday nights and The Sunday Project, taking over for Peter van Onselen.
Hamish Mcdonald Al Jazeera
Hamish worked as a producer for the regional headquarters of Al Jazeera English in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the beginning of 2006; Al Jazeera English is the Arabic network’s English-language sister channel. In the mid-year of 2006, he was recruited as a news moderator at the Kuala Lumpur department of Al Jazeera English.
On February 20, 2008, Macdonald was named “Young Journalist of the Year” at the Royal Television Society awards ceremony in London. Later, Hamish moved to Al Jazeera’s London bureau, where he also worked as the UK correspondent for Sunrise, an Australian morning show. He left Al Jazeera English in June 2010.