News Corp commentator Lucy Zelić nails her political colours firmly to the mast | Weekly Beast

Interviewing Ted O’Brien on 2GB, the former sports broadcaster says she has been a ‘Liberal faithful’ for many years. Plus: how the Canberra Times portrayed Zachary Rolfe

Lucy Zelić has graduated from an SBS sports broadcaster with perfect pronunciation of foreign names to a conservative commentator who happily describes herself as one of the “Liberal faithful”.

In 2018 Zelić’s custom of pronouncing World Cup footballers’ names in the same way they would be in their home country saw her labelled “spectacularly silly and flamboyant” by the News Corp columnist Claire Harvey.

Zelić joined the Daily Telegraph as a columnist in May, and this month branched out as an afternoon host on Nine Radio’s 2GB.

At the Tele she has written extensively about her opposition to trans women competing in women’s sport and attempting to be housed in women’s prisons. She has argued that childcare is harmful for children: “You’ll have to forgive me for longing for the days where our fathers went to work, our mothers spent our formative years at home with us and blocks of land cost as little as $400.”

This week, filling in for afternoons host Michael McLaren on 2GB, Zelić conducted a cosy interview with the deputy opposition leader, Ted O’Brien, in which she declared her political allegiance. Even by 2GB standards it was highly partisan.

“I’ve got a personal question to ask you first,” she said. “Please tell me, as a Liberal faithful, which I have been for many years and so many of our loyal listeners are, can you give me some good news? Ted, are we going to get our act together, mate?”

Zelić continued the interview by referring to the Liberals as “we”, asking if “we are any closer to … standing in our convictions and rediscovering what it is that people really loved about the Liberal party.

“Cause I had your back, mate, I’ll tell you now.”

Zelić did not appear to believe her interview was biased in any way, as she finished up with: “Ted, I appreciate that you’ve fielded some of the tough questions I’ve thrown at you today.”

Zelić and 2GB declined to comment.

Lost findings

Last weekend readers using the Canberra Times app were stunned to read a profile of former police constable Zachary Rolfe under the headline: “Who is Zachary Rolfe: the story of the NT cop with prominent Canberra parents.”

The feature, written in 2022, was updated in the version available on the web with several introductory paragraphs referring to the findings of the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu the previous Monday. The coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, found that Rolfe was racist and it could not be ruled out that his attitudes contributed to his conduct on the night he shot and killed Walker.

However, the version served to readers on the Times app appeared without the updated paragraphs and could still be found there in its original form as of Friday.

The feature focused on Rolfe’s Canberran parents, Richard and Deb, who have “been supporting Indigenous artists for years”. It said their son, one of three, attended Canberra Grammar, was in the first XV for rugby and rowing and lived in the wealthy suburb of Red Hill.

“Zach Rolfe’s friend said he was influenced by his parents’ attitudes and beliefs, of wanting to help others. And trying to portray Constable Rolfe as a privileged toff wasn’t the reality.”

A family friend was quoted as saying Rolfe “was always goal-driven. He always said to me that he liked having a hard day’s work. So I think that’s been hard for him the last three years [as at 2022], he hasn’t been able to work. He’s felt a bit unproductive.”

The feature was promoted prominently on the front page of the Times website and app on Saturday, independent of any coverage of the inquest, with the lines: “Zachary Rolfe came from a world of privilege but his parents always made sure to give back.”

In the comments section multiple readers asked why the “puff piece” did not refer to the coroner’s findings. Comments could still be read on the app on Friday, but were not visible on the web version.

The updated paragraphs made no mention of Rolfe being found to be racist, other than via a link to a separate story on the inquest.

The editor of the Canberra Times, John-Paul Moloney, is on leave but a spokesperson for its publisher, ACM, said the masthead “stands by the publication of this background article” and pointed to seven other stories published about the inquest and the coroner’s findings.

“The second paragraph of the article links directly to reporting of the findings,” the spokesperson said.

“The fact that this is an article from 2022 is made clear at the top and bottom of the article.”

The web version does include a footnote saying the story was from 2022 and had been updated, but the app version did not, as of Friday.

ACM was contacted for further comment on the discrepancy between the app and the web version of the story.

Reckoning with the Rolfe case

Allen & Unwin will publish a substantial book about the Rolfe case, The Red House: Kumanjayi Walker and Zachary Rolfe: An Australian Reckoning.

It was written by the Walkley award-winning researcher and producer Kate Wild, who worked for the ABC for many years, and will come out next month. Wild, who has been following the story since she heard the news in 2019, has written “an exploration of the inseparable connections between this country’s past, present and future and the chance to change that cycle”.

Wild says she has spoken with countless people who saw the conflict between Rolfe and Walker as the “centre of a map”.

“Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Territorians have taken me along some of their paths on that map over the last five years, and before that,” she said. “I hope their work and my efforts combined have made markers on a new road.”

Ley in full flight

The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, who inherited the role with the Liberal party reeling from its worst defeat in its 80-year history, will be given the 60 Minutes treatment on Sunday.

With Ley holding a commercial pilot’s license, Channel Nine was keen to capture the member for Farrer in full flight. But there was a roadblock to obtaining these glorious pictures. 60 Minutes was not able to go up in a light plane with Ley because of insurance rules for single engine aircraft flights.

The executive producer of 60, Kirsty Thomson, told Beast producers were able to install a camera on the plane to capture all the action . “The story doesn’t suffer in any way from us not being on the plane,” she said.

Unstoppable Bluey

Bluey has done it again, becoming the most streamed show in the US for the first half of 2025. In 2024 it was the most streamed show in the US for the entire year.

US viewers watched 25bn minutes of the seven-minute show on Disney+ between January and June this year, according to Nielsen streaming content ratings.

In second place was Grey’s Anatomy with 22.5bn minutes. Six out of the top 20 most-streamed titles fell into the animation category: Bluey; Family Guy; Bob’s Burgers; SpongeBob SquarePants; American Dad! and South Park.

The ABC originally co-commissioned the series with BBC and has the Australian streaming rights.

Le Grand gesture

It was marked “satire” at the top of the page but some readers were still tripped up by an opinion piece in Thursday’s Age by the state political editor Chip Le Grand, headlined on its website as: “Premier gives thanks to her everlasting gift: the Liberal Party”.

In the scenario Le Grand visits the Labor premier, Jacinta Allan, at home and gets a tour of a house adorned with tributes to Liberal failures.

“On the eastern wall, before a golden butsudan, stands a squat statue in the image of John Pesutto, a former Liberal leader who, on the day he was dumped by his party colleagues, was comfortably ahead of Allan in the polls,” Le Grand writes.

“On the western wall hangs a painting in the style of French Romantic Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People depicting Moira Deeming in a flowing gown hurdling over a prostrate Pesutto to barricade the entrance of a unisex bathroom.”

His point was summed up in the last line: “Politics wasn’t meant to be this easy.”

Some Age readers relished the satire and thanked the writer for the laughs. Others remarked: “This only works if it’s funny.”

Trial travails

Journalists covering the Erin Patterson trial in Morwell were astounded when the reporter from newswire Australian Associated Press departed before the jury returned its verdict.

The supreme court said it was the biggest criminal case in recent memory, with 252 journalists and outlets registered for updates. Many of those, including an AAP reporter and photographer, converged on Morwell to report from the scene. A handful each day had a chance to sit in the courtroom itself.

Why would AAP, which has dozens of clients relying on its copy, leave the scene at the 11th hour after a nine-week trial?

The acting CEO of AAP, Emma Cowdroy, confirmed the reporter left because resources were stretched and it was too expensive to leave a journalist “for an indefinite period of time at Morwell”. The jury was out for seven days and the media were left in a holding pattern in the small town.

However, the court did provide a live audio feed to a court in Melbourne where AAP, and many others, covered the verdict.

“On the day of the verdict, we had a photographer at the court at Morwell, as part of our plan to remain there as/when possible,” Cowdroy told Weekly Beast. “We provided quick and effective coverage of the verdict to our subscribers, including valuable ongoing content.”