{"id":827313,"date":"2026-07-27T16:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827313\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:58:12","slug":"anthony-albanese-update-cheek-media-chief-hannah-ferguson-to-take-on-prime-minister-in-grayndler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827313\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese update: Cheek media chief Hannah Ferguson to take on prime minister in Grayndler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media<\/a> commentator Hannah Ferguson has confirmed she plans to try to defeat Prime Minister Anthony Albanese<\/a> in his own inner-west Sydney<\/a> seat, promising better local representation and a challenge to the \u201cbroken\u201d political system.<\/p>\n

Speculation the Cheek Media executive and co-founder would run for Grayndler began over the weekend but wasn\u2019t confirmed until Monday night, when the 28-year-old confirmed she would challenge for the seat as an independent.<\/p>\n

\"C\ufeffheek<\/p>\n

Social media commentator Hannah Ferguson has confirmed she plans to try to defeat Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u00a0nna\\yashee.sharma<\/p>\n

The podcaster and writer announced plans to run for the Senate last year but said she pivoted to Grayndler, where Albanese has been the MP since before she was born, after a lot of consideration and conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe political system is broken,\u201d she said, in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe major parties are answering to vested interests, not the communities they have been elected to serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Albanese government<\/a> currently holds a historic 94-seat super majority in the House of Representatives – yet all I hear from voters is disappointment and frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson, who was among a small group of influencers invited by Labor to take part in last year\u2019s budget<\/a> lock-up \u2013 traditionally a domain limited to mainstream media \u2013 said she was \u201cnot here to play politics<\/a>\u201d but would be fighting to make local voices heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intention is to keep running<\/a> local events, keep listening to feedback and to keep learning from my community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to build a strong, community informed, evidence-based policy platform that builds on the issues that I am already hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Grayndler deserve better than a representative who chooses to prioritise the gambling<\/a> lobby, fossil fuel industry, and donors who pay to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Senate inquiry is considering Labor\u2019s watered-down gambling reform package<\/a>, which includes a ban on television<\/a> and radio gambling ads during live<\/a> sports and on online platforms once users opt in, but the Greens and independents say it doesn\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Albanese has been the Member for Grayndler since before Ferguson was born.\u00a0Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

Labor is also facing calls from the left \u2013 both inside and outside the party \u2013 to introduce a gas exports tax<\/a> that economists say could generate enough <\/a>money<\/a> to fund dental in Medicare or free university<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Albanese was on Monday forced to defend going to a dinner hosted by the 25-year-old son of a billionaire<\/a> accused of funnelling money from China<\/a>, saying he goes to \u201clots of functions in lots of places\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe declare all of our donations in accordance with the rules. We\u2019re transparent about it. I do attend a lot of events and, you know, that is part of the process that occurs. Engaging with people,\u201d he told the ABC\u2019s Insiders on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Albanese has pushed back on the calls for a gas tax, arguing that such a radical shake-up could damage Australia<\/a>\u2019s efforts to secure petrol from countries that buy the gas exports.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s proudly touted the government\u2019s wagering reform proposal as the \u201cstrongest ever action to tackle the harms of gambling\u201d.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s yet to comment on Ferguson\u2019s run for Grayndler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ferguson said she planned to step away from Cheek Media \u201cat some stage next year to campaign full-time\u201d and in the meantime would \u201ccontinue to publish disclaimers on the opinion<\/a> content I produce for the platform\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media commentator Hannah Ferguson has confirmed she plans to try to defeat Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-827313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827313","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=827313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}