{"id":396470,"date":"2026-01-07T01:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396470\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:30:14","slug":"incredible-opportunity-veteran-channel-nine-broadcaster-ben-avery-quits-after-16-years-as-he-lands-new-role-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396470\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Incredible opportunity’: Veteran Channel Nine broadcaster Ben Avery quits after 16 years as he lands new role in politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine News Adelaide journalist Ben Avery has quit the network and taken on a role within the Liberal Party.<\/p>\n

The South Australian journalist and Nine News Adelaide deputy news director will now serve as the new South Australian Liberal Party leader Ashton Hurn’s\u00a0spin doctor.<\/p>\n

The journalist worked in Nine’s Adelaide offices since 2010 and has enjoyed stints as a senior reporter and deputy news director.<\/p>\n

His time with the network also included a stint as the Nine’s Europe correspondent from 2020 to 2021.<\/p>\n

Mr Avery announced his plan to leave Nine last week, it is understood, while his colleagues were said to be shocked by his departure.<\/p>\n

Nine News Adelaide news director Jeremy Pudney said Mr Avery had been an “outstanding member” of the team and would be missed.<\/p>\n

“While we’re sad to see him go, he leaves with Nine’s best wishes,” he told The Advertiser.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Liberal spokesman confirmed that the veteran South Australian journalist had accepted an offer to work in Ms Hurn’s office.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Just<\/p>\n

It is believed his role is to be the Opposition Leader’s chief media advisor ahead of the state election in March.<\/p>\n

The South Australian journalist is expected to bring “breadth and depth of experience” to Ms Hurn’s team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A senior Liberal branded Mr Avery’s appointment “exciting”.<\/p>\n

“There is some genuine excitement and energy around Ashton as the new leader and Ben has an incredibly opportunity to capitalise on that for the broader Liberal team,” they said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Channel Seven broadcaster Christie Cooper has also left her post,<\/a> with the reporter announcing her departure from the network after 13 years.<\/p>\n

\"ABC<\/p>\n

The Melbourne-based journalist revealed she has stepped down from the channel on her LinkedIn page and confirmed she was already working on a new project.<\/p>\n

“After 13 years at the Seven Network (with a break in between), I’ve officially handed in my resignation,” Cooper began.<\/p>\n

“I’m excited for what’s to come in 2026. I’ll be working on getting my new business, Growing Healthier Futures, off the ground, while continuing to freelance as a journalist, presenter, producer and chief of staff.”<\/p>\n

Cooper revealed she will be back on TV screens in the coming weeks as part of the presenting team for the Australian Open in Melbourne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“To everyone I’ve worked with over the years at Seven, thank you for trusting me with your stories. Bring on 2026,” she added.<\/p>\n

Cooper began her career with Seven as a local Melbourne reporter back in January 2021 and\u00a0quickly became known for her upbeat nature when delivering different news reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As well as reporting on local crime and human interest stories, Cooper also delivered “green thumb” reports based on her own interest in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine News Adelaide journalist Ben Avery has quit the network and taken on a role within the Liberal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,211432,36783,134,10940,211430,211431,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-396470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ben-avery","11":"tag-channel-nine","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-liberal-party","14":"tag-nine-news","15":"tag-nine-news-adelaide","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}