Journalist - Life On The Job

Jeremy Fernandez

Journalist/News Anchor ABC

Jeremy Fernandez

Jeremy Fernandez is one of the ABC’s most accomplished presenters and journalists. ABC Director, News Justin Stevens: “Jeremy is a huge asset to the ABC News team, talented, dedicated and a terrific colleague who is liked and respected by audiences.

Summary of his life

He's one of the ABC's most prolific and versatile presenters, hosting everything from rolling news coverage, to roles in state and federal election coverages, and live broadcasts of New Year's Eve and the Sydney Mardi Gras.

But a younger Jeremy Fernandez never imagined a role on TV was a possibility — in fact, he was actually told by well-meaning career advisers not to even think about pursuing an on-air role.

Twenty-three years since he first landed a behind-the-scenes job at the ABC, the Malaysian-born journalist who migrated to Australia as a teenager has proved the doubters — and himself — spectacularly wrong.

Jeremy speaks conversational Malay

Introduction

Fernandez was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to parents Joseph and Elizabeth. The family moved to Kota Kinabalu, in Sabah in northern Borneo, within a month of his birth where his father took up a job as chief editor of the Daily Express newspaper.

It was in Kota Kinabalu that his father, a bank officer and part-time music journalist, took a job as the chief editor of the biggest English language newspaper in the east Malaysian state.

So, was it his father's career that gave him a taste for journalism?

"Great question," he says.

"My dad was a print journalist and I hated it — his hours were insane and it was very political.

"The newspaper's license to publish would depend on its coverage of the government of the day.

"It complicated the way he navigated his job in order to ensure that the newspaper could stay viable, ethical, rigorous, and remain licensed.

"I looked at my dad's career and swore that I would never become a journalist because I didn't like the lifestyle, the hours, the conflict and tension that good journalism can bring.

with Mum
(Source: ABC)

When he was 13, Fernandez and his family migrated to the Australian city of Perth. Joseph Fernandez wanted the opportunity to go to university [to study Law], something his own parents couldn't afford in Malaysia, and also to give his children (Jeremy has two sisters, Elayne and Elsie) the chance of a tertiary education.

But Jeremy Fernandez remembers it as an extremely stressful experience [moving to Perth].

"Education was always a very, very big part of the family story and the way to get ahead in life," he says.

"So, even when I was a kid, my grandparents before they even asked how I was would ask how my results were at school.

"There was enormous emphasis on performing well at school and I was an average student.

"The transition to Australia at the age of 13, going from my first year of high school in Malaysia to year nine in Australia was a seismic event in my life.

"It was incredibly tough socially and academically. I didn't perform that well at school and I barely got into university.

"That whole episode in my life, from packing up life in Malaysia, moving to Perth and settling in was — I don't want to say catastrophic because there were many good things about it – but it was so impactful.

"I just scraped into university and then had to work really hard from there.

"For a time, it looked like I wouldn't amount to much, professionally. That would have been a tremendous disappointment to my parents."

Education

He attended Morley Senior High School.

"I did a media program at high school in TV production and absolutely loved it. It was so much fun, and TV is so different to print, so I found a love of journalism, much to my own surprise.

"I still can't work out whether I came into journalism through exposure to my dad's career, or despite it. I suspect it's a bit of both."

After high school, Fernandez earned a journalism degree from Curtin University, then completed a broadcasting course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts [WAAPA].

"Personally, I never quite expected to get here [News Anchor ABC]. When I was growing up, what I saw on TV didn't resemble anything I could relate to, I felt like an outsider compared to the people I saw on air at the ABC.

"Then, I went on to study journalism and was told quite bluntly by people who cared about my career trajectory that I was going to have a really tough time, if not an impossible time, trying to get a job in media, let alone on air – one friend told me 'there's always SBS'.

"Being on air was never the primary driver of why I became a journalist; I became a journalist despite the understanding that I would most likely not be on air, so everything that's happened since then has been an incredible bonus."

Jeremy attended Curtin University
(Source: ABC)

The hard work paid off and he ended up graduating with a journalism degree from Perth's Curtin University, finishing in the top 15 per cent, then studied a broadcasting course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

WAAPA
(Source: Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts WAAPA)

Employment & Training

Having begun life in Australia as a migrant student, he worked as a kitchenhand, then went on to become a voice over artist before stepping up as a radio producer, and then an ABC presenter.

In what he regards as a series of unexpected fortunate events, Fernandez secured a casual job working as an overnight radio producer on ABC radio in Perth, had a stint producing on local radio in Albany but missed out on an ABC cadetship and "about 30 other journalism jobs", which made him rethink if he was on the right career path (he actually started investigating a chef's apprenticeship).

Then an offer came out of the blue for a short-term reporting job in the ABC's Perth newsroom and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history. He's more than lived up to his parents' expectations.

News

Jeremy began his career with the ABC in 2000, working across roles in Perth, regional WA and Melbourne, where he anchored ABC News on the network’s Asia Pacific television service.

Over the past two decades he has become one of the ABC’s most experienced news presenters, as well as playing a key role in our coverage of state and federal elections and budgets. He was one of the founding members of the ABC NEWS channel team and has had an integral role in its success.

While the ABC now looks a lot different to when Fernandez was watching as a teen, he says there's still a long way to go to reflect the diversity of modern Australia.

"The symbolism of having a person of colour reading the news is significant because I think we can all agree that for the organisation, and Australian media more broadly, appointments like mine have been pretty rare," he says.

"But I also think symbolism can only go so far, the job of fair representation isn't done by having a brown-skinned newsreader.

"The task of reaching and relating to diverse audiences is about which stories we choose to cover, how we choose to cover them, who we choose to give a voice to when we tell stories.

"I don't think of myself as a storyteller. I think of myself as a person who enables other people to tell their stories and I think there's a critical difference in how we approach that.

"So, I'm quite measured about how much impact my appointment might have in the broader world. It doesn't change life or the outlook for every person of colour out there who wants to be in the media, or who consumes media. It's just a facet of it."

Experiences & Opportunities

His work across the ABC has included leading our live coverage of multiple Australian of the Year Awards, New Year’s Eve telecasts from Sydney Harbour, Australia Day Live at the Opera House, the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and Sydney World Pride.

He has been a guest host of The Drum, Q+A, ABC News Breakfast, Weekend Breakfast, Compass and Media Watch. He fronted the special COVID series The Virus and pioneered the ABC’s explainer series produced by ABC News Video Lab. He has also starred in segments for Play School.

With Jane Goodall
(Source: ABC)

Do you know who Jane Goodall is?

Playschool

With all of these accomplishments under his belt, Jeremy now specialises in live events and rolling multi-platform news coverage, having worked in Perth, Melbourne and London and with The Seven Network, The ABC, Australia Network, and CNN.

Significant events

Fernandez's first major presenting role was hosting ABC News on the Asia Pacific television service. He was a founding presenter of the 24-hour news channel, now called ABC News Channel, when it launched in 2010.

Ten years ago [2013], Fernandez made headlines after writing an online story about a racist tirade he endured on a bus in front of his two-year-old daughter.

He dubbed it his 'Rosa Parks moment' and wrote about racism being a part of his life since childhood when "the fairer-skinned kids would call me the 'oily man' because to them, I looked to them like I'd been dipped in a barrel of black oil".

On Friday I had what I like to think of as my own Rosa Parks moment on a Sydney bus, culminating in a woman calling me a "black c***".

He says he still encounters racism but is circumspect about talking about it.

"Discrimination comes in almost invisible ways, that make you stop and second guess your own reaction to it. For me, it's been relatively rare that racial abuse or discrimination has been outwardly evident or easily defined," he says.

"With that bus incident, I spoke out because it was important to call it out at the time, and I still think it's important to call it out, but what I regretted about it was that I became the centre of the story.

"And that was never the point, I was not trying to draw attention to myself. So, I've been a bit more reserved about how I talk about race since because I don't want to be known for my race or the colour of my skin.

Jeremy has extensive experience anchoring breaking news coverage, including the deaths of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Sydney’s Martin Place Siege in 2014, the ANZAC Centenary, the election of Xi Jinping in 2012, the 2015 Paris terror attacks, the UK’s Brexit referendum result, multiple royal visits and Bob Hawke’s memorial service. Major news events he has covered from the field as a reporter and presenter include the Black Summer bushfires and last year’s [2024] Northern Rivers floods.

Jeremy reporting on Bushfires
(Source: ABC)
Jeremy is also a reporter as well as a News Anchor

"Those people [Bushfires 2019] are the ones I remember the most because they embody what humanity is all about: finding the secret to people's endurance and resilience and fortitude in difficult times.

"For me, there's something really uplifting about that. I think that's the thing I love most about this job, the access to people who managed to achieve incredible things, to lift themselves up, and also their family and their community."

11 August 2023 - Appointed ABC NSW 7PM News Anchor
"The moment when the significance of this really hit me was when ABC Sydney presenter Richard Glover said to me, 'you know, you're only the fourth anchor since 1956', and I thought, 'wow, that's a pretty big title to take on and I'm very humbled by it," he says.

Editor's note: There have been three long-serving, main anchors of the ABC NSW 7pm News - James Dibble, Richard Morecroft and Juanita Phillips. Ross Symonds also presented the news in the 1960s/70s, alternating with James Dibble, and Tony Eastley presented the news from 2002-2004.

James Dibble	Richard Morecroft
Juanita Phillips

But the buzz of breaking news is what he thrives on.

"I've really come to love breaking news and rolling coverage because of the thrill of the unexpected, and the machinery that goes with working with a production team highly attuned to each others' needs, strengths, and weaknesses. That is the sort of work that's most exciting to me," he says.

"I also get a buzz from trying to make the news more approachable, because I've spent so long feeling like an outsider in this industry.

"I've interviewed prime ministers, princesses and movie stars but the best people I've interviewed are just everyday people, regular folks who found themselves unexpectedly in the centre of a media event, often tragedies like floods and fires.

9 December 2024 - Broadcasting from new ABC studios in Parramatta

Parramatta Studios

Conclusion

"Considering where we came from and how my family measured success, I look back over the 31 years since we moved to Australia and think, well, we actually did OK," he says.

"My parents are very, very down to earth. They're proud of me. They're not starstruck, but they celebrate my success, and they know what the journey has been like."

Since he started in journalism two decades ago, there's been a massive shift in how people get their news from broadcast to digital platforms but Fernandez believes there's still a place and audience demand for an evening news bulletin as part of a broad suite of journalistic offerings in the digital age.

"I think good journalism is good journalism, whatever form it takes ," he says.

"The way in which people consume news is changing but what people need out of journalism is the same — it's about shining light in the darkness, bringing understanding to complicated matters, to getting people to care about the things that affect them and the things that affects their community and their planet," he says.

"I think those are the fundamentals that sit at the core of journalism and those things haven't changed.

"The way people consume news is different and that's perhaps one of the biggest issues we're facing now but the 7pm News is just one of the things we produce in order to reach audiences.

"The reality is all of us who work in newsrooms, and on the 7pm News, we don't simply apply ourselves singularly to one program, or to one story, we apply ourselves much more broadly across the division in order to meet those audiences where they are.

Australia Day 2016

"Part of my job, I think, is to give credibility to the 7pm bulletin, and from an editorial point of view, my starting point is always, particularly when I'm subbing scripts, to be thinking about any given story from an outsider's point of view, from the point of view of someone who isn't across a story the way we are and to make sure that we are explaining things in ways that people can trust."

News is frequently bad, and the world's problems can seem insurmountable, but Fernandez says he remains buoyant by occasionally switching off and reframing.

"I regularly tune out of the news, and I think it's important to detach from the news sometimes for your own mental health," he says.

"I also think it's important for journalists to detach from the daily cycle of news to get some perspective on how people in the regular world perceive and process events in the news.

"I try to look for the good and I think when I meet people who have an incredible story to tell I try to look for the joy in helping them tell their stories. It doesn't mean that it comes at the expense of being informative or being rigorous in our journalism, but I think joy and hope are as effective as anything else, in informing people."

Jeremy has also offered his services to various charitable and community organisations including Room To Read, The Australian Human Rights Commission, The Australian Network on Disability, The Top Blokes Foundation, Mindframe, Suicide Prevention Australia, and Dress for Success.

Above all, Jeremy is proud of his heritage and stands ready to encourage all people to achieve their potential. As a young man, some told him he would never make it in broadcasting because of the colour of his skin. Jeremy says he is humbled by the many people who broke barriers before him, and by those who tell him that his career trajectory gives them hope for themselves and their children.

What's New

Quick Fire Questions & Answers - Sydney Morning Herald
12 February 2023

How did you get your big break?

Most of my career has been due to a series of little breaks, rostering dilemmas, luck, hard work, and some quiet supporters who’ve always backed me. Young Jez would never have believed what was to come!

What are your daily news media habits?

I’m a grazer. My weekdays feature rotations of news and current affairs in the mornings; dance, disco, and orchestral music at the gym, and while I’m writing and researching; and then a mix of reading and TV in the afternoons and evenings. And I always make time to read or listen to something I wouldn’t otherwise seek.

Which living person do you most admire?

Friends and family are top of the list for me - and we all know better than ranking them!

What’s your guilty streaming pleasure?

Disco remixes, TikTok dancers and workout hacks.

Which phrase do you overuse?

“It. Was. Delicious!” My daughter does quite the impression of me raving about my last meal.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

An airline pilot. I even studied aviation while at school.

What was your first job?

I was a dish hand and pot scrubber in a food hall.

Facebook or Instagram?

Instagram.

Recommend a podcast.

For true crime: In The Dark.

What’s one vice you wish you could give up?

One vice? LOL. It’s a draw between cake and burgers.

The song that’s always on high rotation?

I Knew You Were Waiting For Me - George Michael and Aretha Franklin

What are you reading?

A Dutiful Boy, by Mohsin Zaidi.

Favourite movie of the past decade?

Lion.

Top of your sporting bucket list?

I’d love to do an ocean swim one day.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

One of my mentors would always say, “Baby steps” when she could see me getting overwhelmed or impatient. It’s my mantra for consistency and focus.

What are the three things you couldn’t live without?

My headphones, earplugs, and eye mask. I’m a vision, when I tuck myself into bed every night.

At Bondi Beach
(Source: Bondi Observer)

Links

TV Tonight	ABC News - Appointment Announced

The Guardian	Being Asian Australian

Daily Mail UK - World Pride

Articles from The Conversation

Prejudice

Articles from The Conversation

YouTube Videos

Australia now Malaysia: Alumni Vignette - Jeremy Fernandez
https://youtu.be/7HzbVNoyXNw?si=J3pC_fUV1yhf4SZf

Jeremy Fernandez #thereslifeafter Year 12 Exams
https://youtu.be/GD0i7ZqjMuw?si=9HSVEvufsld7N8fV

Jeremy Fernandez fires through Quickfire Questions | Quickfire Questions
https://youtu.be/tdE6_7Hk-ME?si=ipj0aEbOvrBrpIaa

Making the News: ABC Splash Live (2014)
https://youtu.be/nvQrZ7usNqs?si=qbI8LwoM-R4_foEu

Maya is interviewed by Jeremy Fernandez on ABC Midday News (BTN)
https://youtu.be/cYyd9zZO4Hc?si=BCkgqzeJMDkI7hne

Public Education Foundation Jeremy Fernandez
https://youtu.be/Qx1NZ6jGGas?si=50O-U7dDyIIXtJZF

MC - Jeremy Fernandez - ABC News Journalist & Anchor
Affinity Intercultural Foundation
https://youtu.be/3WyNyFCFfmQ?si=pqGRSFdZ8Fn9Sc7n

Welcome From the Host With Jeremy Fernandez | Day 1
https://youtu.be/naokKob_Ne4?si=-Z8ft050nSt3vW1t

Activities

The Interview!

Primary & Middle

Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical & Creative Thinking

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

1. You are to interview an older person - a grandparent or elderly neighbour about:

their life
their school days
the training for their job
their first job
their first pay
how they travelled to work
what they took to lunch each day
the changes in technology in their job
did they change jobs at any time
what things did they marvel at the most

2. You are to record this interview - either by taping it or making a video.

3. You are to take a photo of that person

4. You are to write an article about this person and submit it to this website - see link below (after getting permission from the person you have interviewed).

"Not Stupid" Podcast Analysis

Secondary