Trump v the swamp Mike Baird Ninja Warriors Leaks flood the White House Why I quit politics TV’s hit machine brothers

OCTOBER 2017

POWER 2017 Who’s got it, who’s lost it, and who’s behind the scenes 8 LEAH PURCELL Actor, playwright, director

Because: She allows white audiences to see from an Aboriginal perspective. Her radical adaptation of Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife broke new ground for Australian theatre. Among its string of awards was the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for best drama, whose judges described it as “a declaration of war on Australia’s wilful historical amnesia”. Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman, uses the full arsenal of drama to tell new stories. In 2016 she co-directed Cleverman, which screened on ABC TV and meshed Aboriginal dreamtime stories into contemporary sci-fi genre. She also co-directed The Secret Daughter, which screened on Seven Network last year and has now been signed for a second series. Starring Jessica Mauboy, it marks the first time a commercial network has put an Indigenous Australian as the lead in a drama series. Season one was the second-highest rating drama for the year. What the panel says: She’s an Indigenous woman with a very political view. The Drover’s Wife was an incredible achievement and will make for a brilliant film. She also has two mainstream TV series on air and she’s winning every single award. – Graeme Mason The Drover’s Wife told the story in a completely different way to which it has been told before. – Gabrielle Trainor She is a true penetrator and a true outlier. – Rachel Griffiths And don’t forget she’s also an actor with her perfromance in Redfern Now second to none. – Graeme Mason

OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 57 THE PANELLISTS

Rachel Griffiths Graeme Mason Ann Mossop Russel Howcroft Louise Adler Lisa Havilah Gabrielle Trainor Academy Award- Chief executive officer of Head of strategic events at Chief creative officer at Chief executive of Director of Carriageworks, Chairman of the National nominated and multi-award Screen Australia. University of NSW. PwC; panellist of Gruen Melbourne University Sydney. Film and Sound Archive winning actor. on ABC1. Publishing; president of and the Barangaroo the Australian Publishers Arts and Culture panel; Association. AFL commissioner.

8 LEAH PURCELL Actor, playwright, director

Because: She allows white audiences to see from an Aboriginal perspective. Her radical adaptation of Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife broke new ground for Australian theatre. Among its string of awards was the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for best drama, whose judges described it as “a declaration of war on Australia’s wilful historical C L U A amnesia”. Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman, uses the full arsenal of drama to tell U T R L new stories. In 2016 she co-directed Cleverman, which screened on ABC TV and meshed Aboriginal dreamtime stories into contemporary sci-fi genre. Story l MATTHEW DRUMMOND Group portrait l PETER BRAIG She also co-directed The Secret Daughter, which screened on Seven Network last year and has now been signed for a second series. Starring Jessica Mauboy, it marks the first time a commercial network has put an Indigenous Australian as the 1 CARL AND MARK FENNESSY 2 AFL WOMEN’S 3 THE MURDOCHS 4 WALEED ALY lead in a drama series. Season one was the 5 RACKA RACKA 6 NICOLE KIDMAN 7 MEGAN DAVIS AND THE REFERENDUM COUNCIL second-highest rating drama for the year. 8 LEAH PURCELL 9 REBEL WILSON 10 LEIGH CARMICHAEL What the panel says: She’s an Indigenous woman with a very political view. The Drover’s Wife was an incredible achievement and will make for a brilliant film. She also has two mainstream TV series on air and she’s winning every single award. ”Is there anyone missing?” the chairman addresses the inaugural cultural power panel. (For the past 16 years, just – Graeme Mason table, gesturing to a screen on stage that lists the nominations one panel has decided overt, covert and cultural power. But The Drover’s Wife told the story in a completely for the Australians who wield the most cultural power. The who, these days, has time to be across all three?) Lunch is actor in the group fires her opening shot. about to be served in the theatre-cum-private dining room at different way to which it has been told before. “Rupert absolutely has to be on this list, and to ignore him Sydney’s Restaurant Hubert and seated around the table is an – Gabrielle Trainor is a naivety or wilful aspirationalism,” says Rachel Griffiths. advertising man, a publisher, an AFL commissioner, the chief She is a true penetrator and a true outlier. “And Lachlan, particularly with the influence of radio in of a visual and performing arts venue, a film and TV executive, – Rachel Griffiths shaping cultural discussion, I think cannot be ignored.” It’s an academic and an actor. The amuse-bouche to start: a And don’t forget she’s also an actor with her the start of The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s forthright discussion about the means of (cultural) production. perfromance in Redfern Now second to none. – Graeme Mason

OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 51 OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 57 CULTURAL POWER CULTURAL POWER

The Murdoch family has been a fixture on the than anyone in Australia (with the possible exception of If Rebel’s star keeps rising, she’ll one day join Nicole AFR Magazine’s power lists, bouncing back and forth between vlogger/singer/songwriter Troye Sivan). Racka Racka are an Kidman, who’s firmly entrenched herself in Hollywood’s 1 overt and covert power depending on the year in question. In acquired taste; to get the drift imagine putting sci-fi films and inner sanctum. In May she had four projects shown over four CARL AND MARK FENNESSY recent years they’ve vanished, more by force of sheer repetition computer games into a blender and turn it up to Quentin days at Cannes and she’s on every other magazine cover. But CEOs of Endomol Shine Australia than conscious design. But our panellists, who all draw their Tarantino levels of gratuitous violence – while leaving the lid it’s what she’s doing behind the scenes that caused the panel livelihoods from drawing eyeballs, agree that the facts cannot off. When George Miller of Mad Max fame spent time with to put her on the cultural power list: optioning books for film be ignored: with interests in newspapers and news sites, cable them at a recent symposium organised by Screen Australia and TV series to be made by her production company Because: Australians watch the first Asian-born actor moved TV, radio, book publishing and film and TV production, the and Google, he surmised that Racka Racka isn’t the future of Blossom Films, retaining Australian writers, supporting an average of three hours of into Neighbours’ Ramsay Street. Murdochs wield serious cultural clout. “They touch just about the entertainment industry, it’s the now. edgier filmmakers and creating the roles for women that she free-to-air TV a week, and What the panel says: Mark everything you can imagine across the entire cultural wished had existed at the start of her own career. “I feel like there’s a good chance that and Carl are creating what landscape,” says Screen Australia chief Graeme Mason. Facts I’m in a position now where I have a little bit of power; I what they’re seeing comes from people watch on television at are facts. Despite what you read on Facebook. would like to throw it behind people that need it,” she told Endemol Shine Australia. This the moment across genres. Cultural power, for the purpose of the AFR Magazine’s The New York Times. year the Fennessys will have They had two of the biggest power issue, is the ability to define what it means to be By the time lunch is served at Restaurant Hubert (crudités, 15 shows broadcast across shows up against each other Australian. But social media info bubbles make it harder for chicken fricassee, pinot noir) and panellists are reaching for Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS, with Ninja Warrior on Nine and cultural icons to cut through and across. “You just get deeper food metaphors, the conversation has shifted from the people straddling genres from comedy MasterChef on Ten. They’ve got and deeper into your stuff and as a result there’s no peripheral who make the content that Australians consume daily, to the and drama (Offspring, Blue Offspring and then they’ve got vision around what else might be going on,” says Gruen outliers who develop our palate. “Every now and then Murder, Wake in Fright) through Survivor replacing MasterChef. regular Russel Howcroft. someone makes us eat something new and that changes the to observational (Gogglebox) – Graeme Mason Which is why the panel leapt upon the moments that made diet moving forward,” says Griffiths. and reality (Survivor, Married MasterChef has done a huge us all look up and stare. Australian Ninja Warrior drew in an One of those people in 2017 is Leah Purcell. When Purcell at First Sight). Australian Ninja amount to change who we see average of 2.5 million viewers across the three weeks it was a little girl, her mother would read her Henry Lawson’s Warrior took four years of on television, normalising that screened on Nine Network. The TV show’s format might be The Drover’s Wife, the legendary tale of bush stoicism. In pitching, but it proved the value and making us respond: “Oh Japanese-American, but its mix of tradies and personal Purcell’s radical re-telling for the stage, Aboriginal Australia is of their instincts, becoming the that’s us.” I do think these trainers scampering across the quintuple steps had an elevated from a bit role to the story’s centre. One particularly most-watched new TV show in franchises are reflecting cultural unmistakable Aussie flavour: like a California sushi roll unforgettable scene: an Aboriginal man describing his beloved, five years. And through their diversity in a way that drama is stuffed with barramundi. “her skin oiled with Bogong moth fat, shining like a full moon casting they’re changing how behind. – Rachel Griffiths More people tuned into Ninja than watched last year’s Rio … smooth like shallow running water over river rocks.” TV looks. The constitution The number one medium in Olympics, giving Nine an out-of-the-box hit that’s marked the Also diversifying our diet is the Referendum Council and might forbid people with dual Australia remains free-to-air return of the sports stadium spectacular (remember It’s a Megan Davis, a professor of law who stands at the centre of the citizenship from sitting in television and the Fennessys Knockout?). And while no contestant won the grand final, it debate over changing the constitution to help reconcile white Parliament, but we don’t care have, I’m going to say, 40 per put another trophy in the cabinet of Endemol Shine Australia and black. This was to be the year when Australians voted on where you’re from when it cent of prime-time content CEOs Carl and Mark Fennessy, the makers of MasterChef, whether to add a preamble to the country’s foundation comes to being crowned coming out of their shop. Their Offspring and Survivor, confirming their position as the most document to acknowledge Australia’s First Nations. Instead we Australia’s MasterChef: programs rate. Very few failures bankable TV producers in the country. “Mark and Carl heard the Statement from the Heart, delivered by Davis at a 1.5 million cheered on Malaysian- come out of Shine. They’re a deserve to be number one because they’re creating what people 300-strong gathering of Indigenous leaders at Uluru. Clear and born accountant Diana Chan, very powerful hit machine and, are watching across genres and across channels,” says Mason. cogent, the statement expressed the overwhelming desire of whose trio of fruits dessert as a result, advertisers have got If an old-school platform like free-to-air can still move Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for something more than trounced the competition. How faith. And they’re staying with millions, then it’s worth noting that radio reaches millions on constitutional amendments. “The one thing my people have far we’ve come since 2008 when television. – Russel Howcroft the move. As more of us spend more time commuting, we’re never given up on,” Davis would later write in The Monthly, getting a bigger serve of Kyle and Jackie O, Kate and Hughesy, “despite forensically documenting in our collective memory the Hamish and Andy. But none are considered worthy additions to BY THE TIME LUNCH IS SERVED capacity of law to oppress, is the capacity of law to redeem.” the cultural power list because, in the panel’s view, commercial AND PANELLISTS ARE REACHING The changes envisaged in the Statement from the Heart radio stars don’t have much to say. “The fact that the likes of FOR FOOD METAPHORS, THE will take years to gather momentum. But when there’s an 2 Hamish and Andy don’t engage with any of the big issues of the CONVERSATION HAS SHIFTED appetite, momentum grows quickly. Dark Mofo, a spin-off of AFL WOMEN’S day actually reinforces with young people that that stuff is not FROM THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE Hobart’s MONA, has crept out of Tasmania’s mid-winter to Erin Phillips, Adelaide Football Club and premiership hero important,” says AFL commissioner Gabrielle Trainor. THE CONTENT THAT AUSTRALIANS become Australia’s hottest festival. The pagan-like celebration Which underlines the importance of Waleed Aly. His CONSUME DAILY TO THE OUTLIERS of darkness is the utter opposite of sunny (nanny-state) “Something We Should Talk About” editorials on Network WHO DEVELOP OUR PALATE. mainland Australia. Because: Sheilas kicking Sherrins is a game- with girls in the same footy club, it’s just the most Ten’s The Project tackle the news of the day – Turnbull and And then there are the ideas whose time has well and truly changer, creating a whole new type of champion wonderful thing that’s happening. There’s no gay marriage, electricity prices, even delays to the NBN – and come. The women’s competition in the AFL was due to start and making players such as Erin Phillips household discrimination around the passion that the mums or serve it up with the indignation that makes people under 40 in 2020, but was rushed forward into 2017. By the time of the names. More than 24,000 turned up to see Carlton the dads have or the kids have depending on which snap to attention. His take on the news might be the only DIY celebrities on YouTube show how fame is changing on centre bounce-down at the season’s opening match between smash Collingwood in the first game of AFL sex is playing. – Russel Howcroft current affairs that Generation Y follows. Should you query the digital frontiers. Rebel Wilson is rewriting the rules from Carlton and Collingwood, Melbourne’s Ikon Park was filled Women’s. Once the season was over, almost The enrolments of young girls and women in AFL his power, count the number of ministers and shadow the centre. As Fat Amy, the “totes inappropes” Tasmanian with 24,000 screaming fans. Some came to see history, others 200,000 people had attended a match and the TV football have gone up 56 per cent in the past year ... ministers who appear on The Project each week. character in the Pitch Perfect film franchise – $US400 million came simply to see their team colours fly. The first season of audience was 5.6 million. From Auskick to AFL, At least 30 openly gay women seamlessly When Generation Y isn’t watching the The Project, they’re ($500 million) at the box office and counting – Wilson reset AFLW was watched by millions, delivered new advertisers women now make up 27 per cent of players. And transitioning into elite Australian Rules Football: I watching YouTube stars apply makeup (Lauren Curtis, the scales as an actress. Plus-sized and proud, she punched and led to a surge in little girls wanting to kick a footy. women aren’t just reshaping what it means to be a think that was a profound moment. – Gabrielle Trainor 3.7 million subscribers) or icing cupcakes (My Cupcake back when Woman’s Day claimed she had lied about her Bec Goddard coached the Adelaide Crows to victory. Two champion, they’re also reshaping AFL. For years The oval is a site where everybody has a right to be Addiction, 3.1 million subscribers) or modifying their rides name, age and upbringing. Rebel sued its publisher Bauer days before the AFLW grand final against Brisbane, she was in we’ve wondered if an AFL player would ever come and to barrack passionately. We have not had that (Mighty Car Mods, 2.4 million subscribers). Or if they’re really Media for defamation, alleging the articles had caused her to her car when Alastair Clarkson, the legendary Hawthorn out as gay. Suddenly there are 30 of them. huge explosion of disharmony and divisiveness that twisted, they’re watching Racka Racka. Danny and Michael lose millions of dollars of TV and film work. In June the jury coach, called her mobile. She pulled over, doubting it was really What the panel says: At any given AFL men’s people like Pauline Hanson talk about. There’s no Philippou are 25-year-old twins who hail from Pooraka in agreed and in September she was awarded $4.5 million in him, and couldn’t believe he wanted to share tactics for stopping game, the audience is perhaps 52 per cent male and other aspect of Australian life which brings people Adelaide and who make appallingly gruesome mini-feature damages. “It was a win for everybody,” says Griffiths. “These the Brisbane Lions’ forwards. He was a Hawk, she was a Crow. 48 per cent female. In the women’s competition, it’s together. – Louise Adler films for their 4 million subscribed fans. magazines have been really good at making truth seem He was a man, she was a woman. But both of them were 50/50. Dads are wanting their daughters to play What Melbourne looks like in three years, seven They’re on the cultural power list to exemplify the YouTube optional and Rebel was saying, ‘You know what, you don’t coaches of AFL footballers. And they were talking coach-to- football. Girls now have the joy of the club and the years, as a result of the power of women’s football,

trend of do-it-yourself celebrity. And they embody it better get to define my truth. Truth is not a moving feast.’” coach, as equals, about how to win the flag. MEDIA AFL BRICKWOOD; JAMES impact of that on a 10-year-old boy who is playing it is fundamentally changing our city. – Russel Howcroft

52 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 53 CULTURAL POWER CULTURAL POWER

The Murdoch family has been a fixture on the than anyone in Australia (with the possible exception of If Rebel’s star keeps rising, she’ll one day join Nicole AFR Magazine’s power lists, bouncing back and forth between vlogger/singer/songwriter Troye Sivan). Racka Racka are an Kidman, who’s firmly entrenched herself in Hollywood’s 1 overt and covert power depending on the year in question. In acquired taste; to get the drift imagine putting sci-fi films and inner sanctum. In May she had four projects shown over four CARL AND MARK FENNESSY recent years they’ve vanished, more by force of sheer repetition computer games into a blender and turn it up to Quentin days at Cannes and she’s on every other magazine cover. But CEOs of Endomol Shine Australia than conscious design. But our panellists, who all draw their Tarantino levels of gratuitous violence – while leaving the lid it’s what she’s doing behind the scenes that caused the panel livelihoods from drawing eyeballs, agree that the facts cannot off. When George Miller of Mad Max fame spent time with to put her on the cultural power list: optioning books for film be ignored: with interests in newspapers and news sites, cable them at a recent symposium organised by Screen Australia and TV series to be made by her production company Because: Australians watch the first Asian-born actor moved TV, radio, book publishing and film and TV production, the and Google, he surmised that Racka Racka isn’t the future of Blossom Films, retaining Australian writers, supporting an average of three hours of into Neighbours’ Ramsay Street. Murdochs wield serious cultural clout. “They touch just about the entertainment industry, it’s the now. edgier filmmakers and creating the roles for women that she free-to-air TV a week, and What the panel says: Mark everything you can imagine across the entire cultural wished had existed at the start of her own career. “I feel like there’s a good chance that and Carl are creating what landscape,” says Screen Australia chief Graeme Mason. Facts I’m in a position now where I have a little bit of power; I what they’re seeing comes from people watch on television at are facts. Despite what you read on Facebook. would like to throw it behind people that need it,” she told Endemol Shine Australia. This the moment across genres. Cultural power, for the purpose of the AFR Magazine’s The New York Times. year the Fennessys will have They had two of the biggest power issue, is the ability to define what it means to be By the time lunch is served at Restaurant Hubert (crudités, 15 shows broadcast across shows up against each other Australian. But social media info bubbles make it harder for chicken fricassee, pinot noir) and panellists are reaching for Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS, with Ninja Warrior on Nine and cultural icons to cut through and across. “You just get deeper food metaphors, the conversation has shifted from the people straddling genres from comedy MasterChef on Ten. They’ve got and deeper into your stuff and as a result there’s no peripheral who make the content that Australians consume daily, to the and drama (Offspring, Blue Offspring and then they’ve got vision around what else might be going on,” says Gruen outliers who develop our palate. “Every now and then Murder, Wake in Fright) through Survivor replacing MasterChef. regular Russel Howcroft. someone makes us eat something new and that changes the to observational (Gogglebox) – Graeme Mason Which is why the panel leapt upon the moments that made diet moving forward,” says Griffiths. and reality (Survivor, Married MasterChef has done a huge us all look up and stare. Australian Ninja Warrior drew in an One of those people in 2017 is Leah Purcell. When Purcell at First Sight). Australian Ninja amount to change who we see average of 2.5 million viewers across the three weeks it was a little girl, her mother would read her Henry Lawson’s Warrior took four years of on television, normalising that screened on Nine Network. The TV show’s format might be The Drover’s Wife, the legendary tale of bush stoicism. In pitching, but it proved the value and making us respond: “Oh Japanese-American, but its mix of tradies and personal Purcell’s radical re-telling for the stage, Aboriginal Australia is of their instincts, becoming the that’s us.” I do think these trainers scampering across the quintuple steps had an elevated from a bit role to the story’s centre. One particularly most-watched new TV show in franchises are reflecting cultural unmistakable Aussie flavour: like a California sushi roll unforgettable scene: an Aboriginal man describing his beloved, five years. And through their diversity in a way that drama is stuffed with barramundi. “her skin oiled with Bogong moth fat, shining like a full moon casting they’re changing how behind. – Rachel Griffiths More people tuned into Ninja than watched last year’s Rio … smooth like shallow running water over river rocks.” TV looks. The constitution The number one medium in Olympics, giving Nine an out-of-the-box hit that’s marked the Also diversifying our diet is the Referendum Council and might forbid people with dual Australia remains free-to-air return of the sports stadium spectacular (remember It’s a Megan Davis, a professor of law who stands at the centre of the citizenship from sitting in television and the Fennessys Knockout?). And while no contestant won the grand final, it debate over changing the constitution to help reconcile white Parliament, but we don’t care have, I’m going to say, 40 per put another trophy in the cabinet of Endemol Shine Australia and black. This was to be the year when Australians voted on where you’re from when it cent of prime-time content CEOs Carl and Mark Fennessy, the makers of MasterChef, whether to add a preamble to the country’s foundation comes to being crowned coming out of their shop. Their Offspring and Survivor, confirming their position as the most document to acknowledge Australia’s First Nations. Instead we Australia’s MasterChef: programs rate. Very few failures bankable TV producers in the country. “Mark and Carl heard the Statement from the Heart, delivered by Davis at a 1.5 million cheered on Malaysian- come out of Shine. They’re a deserve to be number one because they’re creating what people 300-strong gathering of Indigenous leaders at Uluru. Clear and born accountant Diana Chan, very powerful hit machine and, are watching across genres and across channels,” says Mason. cogent, the statement expressed the overwhelming desire of whose trio of fruits dessert as a result, advertisers have got If an old-school platform like free-to-air can still move Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for something more than trounced the competition. How faith. And they’re staying with millions, then it’s worth noting that radio reaches millions on constitutional amendments. “The one thing my people have far we’ve come since 2008 when television. – Russel Howcroft the move. As more of us spend more time commuting, we’re never given up on,” Davis would later write in The Monthly, getting a bigger serve of Kyle and Jackie O, Kate and Hughesy, “despite forensically documenting in our collective memory the Hamish and Andy. But none are considered worthy additions to BY THE TIME LUNCH IS SERVED capacity of law to oppress, is the capacity of law to redeem.” the cultural power list because, in the panel’s view, commercial AND PANELLISTS ARE REACHING The changes envisaged in the Statement from the Heart radio stars don’t have much to say. “The fact that the likes of FOR FOOD METAPHORS, THE will take years to gather momentum. But when there’s an 2 Hamish and Andy don’t engage with any of the big issues of the CONVERSATION HAS SHIFTED appetite, momentum grows quickly. Dark Mofo, a spin-off of AFL WOMEN’S day actually reinforces with young people that that stuff is not FROM THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE Hobart’s MONA, has crept out of Tasmania’s mid-winter to Erin Phillips, Adelaide Football Club and premiership hero important,” says AFL commissioner Gabrielle Trainor. THE CONTENT THAT AUSTRALIANS become Australia’s hottest festival. The pagan-like celebration Which underlines the importance of Waleed Aly. His CONSUME DAILY TO THE OUTLIERS of darkness is the utter opposite of sunny (nanny-state) “Something We Should Talk About” editorials on Network WHO DEVELOP OUR PALATE. mainland Australia. Because: Sheilas kicking Sherrins is a game- with girls in the same footy club, it’s just the most Ten’s The Project tackle the news of the day – Turnbull and And then there are the ideas whose time has well and truly changer, creating a whole new type of champion wonderful thing that’s happening. There’s no gay marriage, electricity prices, even delays to the NBN – and come. The women’s competition in the AFL was due to start and making players such as Erin Phillips household discrimination around the passion that the mums or serve it up with the indignation that makes people under 40 in 2020, but was rushed forward into 2017. By the time of the names. More than 24,000 turned up to see Carlton the dads have or the kids have depending on which snap to attention. His take on the news might be the only DIY celebrities on YouTube show how fame is changing on centre bounce-down at the season’s opening match between smash Collingwood in the first game of AFL sex is playing. – Russel Howcroft current affairs that Generation Y follows. Should you query the digital frontiers. Rebel Wilson is rewriting the rules from Carlton and Collingwood, Melbourne’s Ikon Park was filled Women’s. Once the season was over, almost The enrolments of young girls and women in AFL his power, count the number of ministers and shadow the centre. As Fat Amy, the “totes inappropes” Tasmanian with 24,000 screaming fans. Some came to see history, others 200,000 people had attended a match and the TV football have gone up 56 per cent in the past year ... ministers who appear on The Project each week. character in the Pitch Perfect film franchise – $US400 million came simply to see their team colours fly. The first season of audience was 5.6 million. From Auskick to AFL, At least 30 openly gay women seamlessly When Generation Y isn’t watching the The Project, they’re ($500 million) at the box office and counting – Wilson reset AFLW was watched by millions, delivered new advertisers women now make up 27 per cent of players. And transitioning into elite Australian Rules Football: I watching YouTube stars apply makeup (Lauren Curtis, the scales as an actress. Plus-sized and proud, she punched and led to a surge in little girls wanting to kick a footy. women aren’t just reshaping what it means to be a think that was a profound moment. – Gabrielle Trainor 3.7 million subscribers) or icing cupcakes (My Cupcake back when Woman’s Day claimed she had lied about her Bec Goddard coached the Adelaide Crows to victory. Two champion, they’re also reshaping AFL. For years The oval is a site where everybody has a right to be Addiction, 3.1 million subscribers) or modifying their rides name, age and upbringing. Rebel sued its publisher Bauer days before the AFLW grand final against Brisbane, she was in we’ve wondered if an AFL player would ever come and to barrack passionately. We have not had that (Mighty Car Mods, 2.4 million subscribers). Or if they’re really Media for defamation, alleging the articles had caused her to her car when Alastair Clarkson, the legendary Hawthorn out as gay. Suddenly there are 30 of them. huge explosion of disharmony and divisiveness that twisted, they’re watching Racka Racka. Danny and Michael lose millions of dollars of TV and film work. In June the jury coach, called her mobile. She pulled over, doubting it was really What the panel says: At any given AFL men’s people like Pauline Hanson talk about. There’s no Philippou are 25-year-old twins who hail from Pooraka in agreed and in September she was awarded $4.5 million in him, and couldn’t believe he wanted to share tactics for stopping game, the audience is perhaps 52 per cent male and other aspect of Australian life which brings people Adelaide and who make appallingly gruesome mini-feature damages. “It was a win for everybody,” says Griffiths. “These the Brisbane Lions’ forwards. He was a Hawk, she was a Crow. 48 per cent female. In the women’s competition, it’s together. – Louise Adler films for their 4 million subscribed fans. magazines have been really good at making truth seem He was a man, she was a woman. But both of them were 50/50. Dads are wanting their daughters to play What Melbourne looks like in three years, seven They’re on the cultural power list to exemplify the YouTube optional and Rebel was saying, ‘You know what, you don’t coaches of AFL footballers. And they were talking coach-to- football. Girls now have the joy of the club and the years, as a result of the power of women’s football,

trend of do-it-yourself celebrity. And they embody it better get to define my truth. Truth is not a moving feast.’” coach, as equals, about how to win the flag. MEDIA AFL BRICKWOOD; JAMES impact of that on a 10-year-old boy who is playing it is fundamentally changing our city. – Russel Howcroft

52 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 53 CULTURAL POWER

3 THE MURDOCHS Media owners

Because: Their media interests work and be exported, it will be are so extensive they are akin to made. – Rachel Griffiths the water table of Australian They have that connection to culture: invisible but ever the west coast of the US. So present, and in some parts of they’re making content out of the media eco-system, essential the west coast and exporting to sustaining life. Network Ten that into Australia as well. may have slipped from the – Russel Howcroft family’s grasp, but they still own It’s Foxtel, it is Channel Ten (for newspapers accounting for now), it is newspapers, it is radio 60-odd per cent of sales, the stations. There is no one more most visited news website in the powerful in creating culture in country, Nova FM and stakes in this country. They touch just Foxtel and APN, and production about everything you could companies including Endemol imagine over the entire cultural Shine and FremantleMedia. landscape. – Graeme Mason What the panel says: And they invest in the arts. I think we’re moving into a period – Lisa Havilah of consolidation in terms of They’re not exactly hands- content production. And if Foxtel off proprietors. decides that certain drama can – Gabrielle Trainor

4 5 WALEED ALY RACKA RACKA Commentator and co-host of The Project YouTube stars

Because: The John Oliver of Australia, Aly makes Nine or Ten. They’re probably not watching the Because: What began with a an “I made this myself” character Australia has more digital-content those who’ve switched off to the news switch it news at all, other than watching [co-host] Carrie fi ght to the death between Harry adored by a younger generation creators with more than 1 million back on. And his eloquent rants get results. In April Bickmore and Aly. That is culturally incredibly Potter and a Star Wars Jedi in a glued to YouTube. Their own subscribers than anywhere else in he began calling for plastic bags to be banned from important. – Graeme Mason suburban street in Adelaide description for themselves is the world. So Google is obsessed by supermarkets. By July, Coles and Woolworths He cuts through and is someone you cannot ignore. (25 million views) is now a full “Wannabe fi lm-makers on a Australia. – Graeme Mason announced they would phase out single-use bags Against Pauline Hanson he defended austistic franchise of homemade slasher rampage!” And now they’ve got We might just be putting Racka within 12 months. Aly moves down from number children and their legitimate place in mainstream pics, video-game parodies, stunts a fi lm deal. Racka at number fi ve because one spot in 2016, when he won the Gold Logie classrooms. He condemned the notion that Muslim and gratuitous violence (a What the panel says: They we’re trying to look cool. But what for Best Personality on Australian Television. But men should be allowed to beat their wives as psychopathic Ronald McDonald get more eyeballs than any other we do know is that if you’re under The Project remains a reliable workhorse for Ten unacceptable domestic violence. And he’s issued a is particularly popular). The content created in this country. 25 years of age, your number one – in August the show added Sunday nights to its challenge to state premiers to ban plastic bags. production qualities of Racka Beyond My Kitchen Rules, beyond medium of choice is YouTube. So weekday line-up. – Louise Adler Racka – the creation of Danny even Ninja Warrior. They are the obviously the Racka Rackas of the What the panel says: He is able to reach an He’s also the only voice on certain types of and Michael Philippou – are just biggest, with half-a-billion views of world have got massive infl uence. audience that is not usually tuning into Seven, questions. – Ann Mossop lo-fi enough to give their videos their content. Google told me that – Russel Howcroft SIMON SCHLUTER; AP; JAMES BRICKWOOD 54 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 55 CULTURAL POWER

3 THE MURDOCHS Media owners

Because: Their media interests work and be exported, it will be are so extensive they are akin to made. – Rachel Griffiths the water table of Australian They have that connection to culture: invisible but ever the west coast of the US. So present, and in some parts of they’re making content out of the media eco-system, essential the west coast and exporting to sustaining life. Network Ten that into Australia as well. may have slipped from the – Russel Howcroft family’s grasp, but they still own It’s Foxtel, it is Channel Ten (for newspapers accounting for now), it is newspapers, it is radio 60-odd per cent of sales, the stations. There is no one more most visited news website in the powerful in creating culture in country, Nova FM and stakes in this country. They touch just Foxtel and APN, and production about everything you could companies including Endemol imagine over the entire cultural Shine and FremantleMedia. landscape. – Graeme Mason What the panel says: And they invest in the arts. I think we’re moving into a period – Lisa Havilah of consolidation in terms of They’re not exactly hands- content production. And if Foxtel off proprietors. decides that certain drama can – Gabrielle Trainor

4 5 WALEED ALY RACKA RACKA Commentator and co-host of The Project YouTube stars

Because: The John Oliver of Australia, Aly makes Nine or Ten. They’re probably not watching the Because: What began with a an “I made this myself” character Australia has more digital-content those who’ve switched off to the news switch it news at all, other than watching [co-host] Carrie fi ght to the death between Harry adored by a younger generation creators with more than 1 million back on. And his eloquent rants get results. In April Bickmore and Aly. That is culturally incredibly Potter and a Star Wars Jedi in a glued to YouTube. Their own subscribers than anywhere else in he began calling for plastic bags to be banned from important. – Graeme Mason suburban street in Adelaide description for themselves is the world. So Google is obsessed by supermarkets. By July, Coles and Woolworths He cuts through and is someone you cannot ignore. (25 million views) is now a full “Wannabe fi lm-makers on a Australia. – Graeme Mason announced they would phase out single-use bags Against Pauline Hanson he defended austistic franchise of homemade slasher rampage!” And now they’ve got We might just be putting Racka within 12 months. Aly moves down from number children and their legitimate place in mainstream pics, video-game parodies, stunts a fi lm deal. Racka at number fi ve because one spot in 2016, when he won the Gold Logie classrooms. He condemned the notion that Muslim and gratuitous violence (a What the panel says: They we’re trying to look cool. But what for Best Personality on Australian Television. But men should be allowed to beat their wives as psychopathic Ronald McDonald get more eyeballs than any other we do know is that if you’re under The Project remains a reliable workhorse for Ten unacceptable domestic violence. And he’s issued a is particularly popular). The content created in this country. 25 years of age, your number one – in August the show added Sunday nights to its challenge to state premiers to ban plastic bags. production qualities of Racka Beyond My Kitchen Rules, beyond medium of choice is YouTube. So weekday line-up. – Louise Adler Racka – the creation of Danny even Ninja Warrior. They are the obviously the Racka Rackas of the What the panel says: He is able to reach an He’s also the only voice on certain types of and Michael Philippou – are just biggest, with half-a-billion views of world have got massive infl uence. audience that is not usually tuning into Seven, questions. – Ann Mossop lo-fi enough to give their videos their content. Google told me that – Russel Howcroft SIMON SCHLUTER; AP; JAMES BRICKWOOD 54 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 55 CULTURAL POWER

6 NICOLE KIDMAN Actor, executive producer

Because: She turned 50 and company, Blossom, where her has turned herself into a mini covert influence on Australian cultural powerhouse, using her culture is really felt. connections and influence to What the panel says: find, fund and film new roles There’s no one at the moment for women. Along with Reese hotter than her. – Graeme Mason Witherspoon she was the Because of her engagement executive producer of, and won and her clout, when you do the the lead actress Emmy award numbers, Kidman helps content for, the hit HBO series Big Little get made. It’s commissioning Lies, based on the best-selling power for projects that are book by Australian author Liane female driven and have taste. Moriarty. Top of the Lake, If Kidman wakes up and has a directed by Jane Campion, read of a book and she goes, furthered her push into “I think this will make a good television and screened at movie,” it’s done. – Rachel Griffiths 8 Cannes (along with three of her She’s also pledged to work LEAH PURCELL films). And all that after she with a female director every Actor, playwright, director was nominated for an Academy 18 months. – Louise Adler Award at the Oscars last year And she always keeps her for Lion. With her acting career Australian accent and focus Because: She allows white audiences to see from hitting new heights, it’s the whenever she turns up an Aboriginal perspective. Her radical adaptation of work she’s doing behind the anywhere. She’s always talking Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife broke new scenes through her production about home. – Graeme Mason 7 ground for Australian theatre. Among its string MEGAN DAVIS AND THE REFERENDUM COUNCIL of awards was the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Pro vice-chancellor and professor of law at UNSW for best drama, whose judges described it as “a declaration of war on Australia’s wilful historical amnesia”. Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Because: Fifty years after the 1967 referendum The Statement from the Heart was written so Murri woman, uses the full arsenal of drama to tell when Indigenous Australians won the right to be beautifully, it was a moment that shifted something. new stories. In 2016 she co-directed Cleverman, counted, they asked for the right to be heard, and it It’s a key structural issue within our country that which screened on ABC TV and meshed Aboriginal was Davis who delivered the message. The Statement needs to be resolved and there has been a lot of work dreamtime stories into contemporary sci-fi genre. from the Heart, crafted by the Referendum Council to get to this point, which has gained some cultural She also co-directed The Secret Daughter, which from the aspirations of First Nations people across power. That statement was a real catalyst for the screened on Seven Network last year and has now the continent, was read out by Davis at Uluru in work that has been done and has paved the way for been signed for a second series. Starring Jessica June. It marked the end of five years of discontent what we hope will happen. – Lisa Havilah Mauboy, it marks the first time a commercial that a new preamble to the constitution – as If you go back and look at Indigenous leadership, network has put an Indigenous Australian as the proposed by the Recognise movement – did not you have indomitable women like Lowitja lead in a drama series. Season one was the recognise enough. The statement set out why O’Donoghue and intense male leaders, such as Noel second-highest rating drama for the year. Australia’s First Nations wanted their own voice Pearson. Davis comes across in a quite different way. What the panel says: She’s an Indigenous to parliament and a “Makarrata Commission” to She is young, she has expertise as a constitutional woman with a very political view. The Drover’s Wife promote truth and reconciliation. It was written as lawyer. This combination of hot-shot legal expertise was an incredible achievement and will make for a a letter not to government, but directly to the and warm, matter-of-fact persona has the potential brilliant film. She also has two mainstream TV Australian people. to cut through. She was the person chosen to series on air and she’s winning every single award. What the panel says: The Statement from the Heart represent this process, which was a huge thing – Graeme Mason was the fruit of a very long process of consensus because it’s the Indigenous community coming The Drover’s Wife told the story in a completely across Indigenous communities all over the country, together saying; “Well, actually, what we want is different way to which it has been told before. which is unprecedented and a vivid moment for something completely different from Recognition.” – Gabrielle Trainor Australia. This incredible process of getting It’s a different face of Indigenous leadership and her She is a true penetrator and a true outlier. Aboriginal communities all over Australia to agree leadership role is not going to go away. – Ann Mossop – Rachel Griffiths that this is what they want, this is what they ask I think there are other people who speak to the And don’t forget she’s also an actor with her of the government and of the people, is an Referendum Council and the Statement from the perfromance in Redfern Now second to none. extraordinary achievement in itself. – Gabrielle Trainor Heart. I would put Stan Grant up there. – Louise Adler – Graeme Mason RYAN PFLUGER/THE NEW YORK TIMES; JAMES BRICKWOOD; JOSH ROBENSTONE 56 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 57 CULTURAL POWER

6 NICOLE KIDMAN Actor, executive producer

Because: She turned 50 and company, Blossom, where her has turned herself into a mini covert influence on Australian cultural powerhouse, using her culture is really felt. connections and influence to What the panel says: find, fund and film new roles There’s no one at the moment for women. Along with Reese hotter than her. – Graeme Mason Witherspoon she was the Because of her engagement executive producer of, and won and her clout, when you do the the lead actress Emmy award numbers, Kidman helps content for, the hit HBO series Big Little get made. It’s commissioning Lies, based on the best-selling power for projects that are book by Australian author Liane female driven and have taste. Moriarty. Top of the Lake, If Kidman wakes up and has a directed by Jane Campion, read of a book and she goes, furthered her push into “I think this will make a good television and screened at movie,” it’s done. – Rachel Griffiths 8 Cannes (along with three of her She’s also pledged to work LEAH PURCELL films). And all that after she with a female director every Actor, playwright, director was nominated for an Academy 18 months. – Louise Adler Award at the Oscars last year And she always keeps her for Lion. With her acting career Australian accent and focus Because: She allows white audiences to see from hitting new heights, it’s the whenever she turns up an Aboriginal perspective. Her radical adaptation of work she’s doing behind the anywhere. She’s always talking Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife broke new scenes through her production about home. – Graeme Mason 7 ground for Australian theatre. Among its string MEGAN DAVIS AND THE REFERENDUM COUNCIL of awards was the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Pro vice-chancellor and professor of law at UNSW for best drama, whose judges described it as “a declaration of war on Australia’s wilful historical amnesia”. Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Because: Fifty years after the 1967 referendum The Statement from the Heart was written so Murri woman, uses the full arsenal of drama to tell when Indigenous Australians won the right to be beautifully, it was a moment that shifted something. new stories. In 2016 she co-directed Cleverman, counted, they asked for the right to be heard, and it It’s a key structural issue within our country that which screened on ABC TV and meshed Aboriginal was Davis who delivered the message. The Statement needs to be resolved and there has been a lot of work dreamtime stories into contemporary sci-fi genre. from the Heart, crafted by the Referendum Council to get to this point, which has gained some cultural She also co-directed The Secret Daughter, which from the aspirations of First Nations people across power. That statement was a real catalyst for the screened on Seven Network last year and has now the continent, was read out by Davis at Uluru in work that has been done and has paved the way for been signed for a second series. Starring Jessica June. It marked the end of five years of discontent what we hope will happen. – Lisa Havilah Mauboy, it marks the first time a commercial that a new preamble to the constitution – as If you go back and look at Indigenous leadership, network has put an Indigenous Australian as the proposed by the Recognise movement – did not you have indomitable women like Lowitja lead in a drama series. Season one was the recognise enough. The statement set out why O’Donoghue and intense male leaders, such as Noel second-highest rating drama for the year. Australia’s First Nations wanted their own voice Pearson. Davis comes across in a quite different way. What the panel says: She’s an Indigenous to parliament and a “Makarrata Commission” to She is young, she has expertise as a constitutional woman with a very political view. The Drover’s Wife promote truth and reconciliation. It was written as lawyer. This combination of hot-shot legal expertise was an incredible achievement and will make for a a letter not to government, but directly to the and warm, matter-of-fact persona has the potential brilliant film. She also has two mainstream TV Australian people. to cut through. She was the person chosen to series on air and she’s winning every single award. What the panel says: The Statement from the Heart represent this process, which was a huge thing – Graeme Mason was the fruit of a very long process of consensus because it’s the Indigenous community coming The Drover’s Wife told the story in a completely across Indigenous communities all over the country, together saying; “Well, actually, what we want is different way to which it has been told before. which is unprecedented and a vivid moment for something completely different from Recognition.” – Gabrielle Trainor Australia. This incredible process of getting It’s a different face of Indigenous leadership and her She is a true penetrator and a true outlier. Aboriginal communities all over Australia to agree leadership role is not going to go away. – Ann Mossop – Rachel Griffiths that this is what they want, this is what they ask I think there are other people who speak to the And don’t forget she’s also an actor with her of the government and of the people, is an Referendum Council and the Statement from the perfromance in Redfern Now second to none. extraordinary achievement in itself. – Gabrielle Trainor Heart. I would put Stan Grant up there. – Louise Adler – Graeme Mason RYAN PFLUGER/THE NEW YORK TIMES; JAMES BRICKWOOD; JOSH ROBENSTONE 56 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 57 CULTURAL POWER

9 REBEL WILSON Actor

Because: She’s proof that trashy magazines who make today’s tall poppies won’t stand stuff up and were seen to have by and let their careers get trashed her reputation. And composted. Having forged a everybody loved her for taking whole new type of celebrity with it on. All the shock jocks were her Fat Amy character in Pitch talking about her. People around Perfect, Wilson showed the lady’s the world were talking about her. not for turning the other cheek – Graeme Mason when crossed by the rumour- These types of magazines rely on mongers of celebrity media. the fact that very few people will When Bauer Media’s Woman’s sue them. When a famous person Day ran a series of articles does sue, the press is usually accusing her of being a serial extremely unkind. There’s very liar, Wilson put on the boxing little surrounding press that’s gloves and fought – all the way supportive. – Rachel Griffiths until the Victorian Supreme She had been very public talking Court awarded her $4.5 million about the problems that she had. for defamation in September. She’s a smart woman, a qualified “I felt I had to stand up to a lawyer. She used to do her own bully,” she told the media throng, contracts. She is not zero-sized, barristers to either side after her she didn’t bother paying court win. “Far too often the expectations any heed, and she tabloid magazines and journalists was really great at doing what she who work for them don’t abide did. To take them on like that was by professional ethics. Far too an amazing thing. – Graeme Mason often their conduct can only be She wasn’t a tall poppy and described as disgusting and Australians didn’t feel that way disgraceful. I really love my job as about her. She was never on her an actor and now I look forward high horse. That’s what seemed to rebuilding my career.” to make going after Rebel so What the panel says: She’s vicious. – Rachel Griffiths seen as a woman who’s done it There was real malice. by herself. She was taking on – Gabrielle Trainor

10 LEIGH CARMICHAEL Creative director, Dark Mofo festival

Because: At a time when mainland state capitals constraints, he has set him up in this DarkLab entity just want us all to go to bed, Hobart’s Dark Mofo so he can concentrate on not only Dark Mofo, but feeds a hunger for the trouble and the troubling that other creative projects. Carmichael is on the Australia happens at night; old pubs turned into discos, Council now. I think he is hugely influential. People ethereal music pumped through tsunami warning across Australia and the world are looking at him as speakers across the CBD, art that’s bleeding edge an identity in his own right. – Gabrielle Trainor (literally – they sacrificed a bull). A spin-off from the A lot of the social commentary that came out of Dark Museum of Old and New Art, it’s now in its fifth Mofo was, “We could walk around in the dark and year and already hitting peak capacity; in 2017 trip over fires.” You can’t do that elsewhere. Our attendance surged 47 per cent to 427,000. cities are becoming too sanitised and too brightly lit. MONA’s David Walsh is still the enfant terrible Dark Mofo is an unsanitised, large-scale immersive of the cultural power scene, but he’s sired a son. experience that engages you on multiple levels. It cuts What the panel says: Walsh has recognised what through because there are fewer rules. – Lisa Havilah a great talent Carmichael is and how he has this Perhaps we’re all sick of that constipated feeling. extraordinary ability to create festivals of the likes of You’re very naughty if you go more than 40 Dark Mofo. So, to free him from the MONA kilometres an hour. – Russel Howcroft l CARTER SMITH; MATTHEW NEWTON 58 THE AFR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER