Emma Alberici Parents: Meet Franco and Anna – Emma Alberici, a former foreign correspondent and journalist from Australia, served as the network’s chief economics correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Emma Alberici graduated from Deakin University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and economics and the University of Melbourne with a bachelor’s degree in Italian.
Alberici began his journalism career as a cadet with the Herald Sun in Melbourne. She worked as a reporter for the Nine Network’s The Small Business Show.
Alberici has been a finalist in the Walkley Awards for journalism three times. All three were for investigative reports, the first of which was her report on a patron’s death at Star City Casino in 1998.
Alberici’s coverage of the incident, including exclusive interviews with witnesses, family, and friends, prompted a police integrity commission investigation.
She was a member of the Lateline team that inspired the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in 2012.
She took over as host of the ABC’s flagship current affairs program Lateline in 2012, replacing Ali Moore. She shared the hosting duties with Tony Jones. She dismissed accusations of bias after being chastised for her interview style.
After 28 years, ABC announced in October 2017 that Lateline would be axed as the broadcaster launches new investigative and specialist journalism teams. Emma Alberici was later appointed as the ABC’s chief economics correspondent.
Alberici wrote a news story for the ABC website on 14 February 2018 stating evidence that only one in every five large companies pays Australian tax, as well as an analysis piece critical of the (then Liberal) government’s proposed company tax cuts.
Later that day in parliament, the current prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, referred to the news article as one of the most perplexing and shaky pieces I’ve seen on the subject.
The ABC later removed both the news story and the analysis, claiming that they violated editorial standards. Alberici hired a lawyer to negotiate with ABC management, and both articles were edited and republished a week later.
Other media outlets claimed the ABC was unfairly singled out by the government because other economic commentators had also questioned the wisdom of company tax cuts, and they speculated that Malcolm Turnbull had pressured the ABC to retract the story.
Later, other media outlets received access to a letter written by Alberici’s attorney to the ABC Managing Director. It was stated that Emma was the reason the “prime minister ringing him” with complaints, according to the head of ABC news.
The ABC claimed in April 2018 that it had discovered a number of inaccuracies or misleading statements in Alberici’s story and that her analysis piece lacked objectivity in response to the Australian Senate.
Former ABC journalists claim that the network gave in to political pressure. After this episode, Alberici produced a number of TV shows for the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent rather than writing much more on economics.
In 2020, she was let go by ABC. She settled with ABC following a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Alberici joined the Compare the Market team as chief strategy, government relations, and communications officer in 2020 after leaving ABC.
In April 2021, she left Compare the Market. For Hardie Grant Books, she is currently penning a memoir with the working title Rewrite the Story.
Franco and Anna Alberici gave birth to Emma Alberici. Her parents are Italian immigrants who arrived in Australia in 1955 on a passenger liner. Alberici attended Our Lady of Mercy College in Heidelberg, Victoria, after the family relocated to Melbourne.
