Barrie Cassidy

Barrie Cassidy (born 4 March 1950) is an Australian political journalist as well as a radio and television host and presenter and commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was the long-running host of the Sunday morning political commentary program Insiders from 2001 to 2019, and in 2020 took over as the host of the long-form interview program One Plus One.

Cassidy was born in Wangaratta, Victoria, on 4 March 1950, and grew up in the Victorian town of Chiltern, attending Rutherglen High School. He had four brothers and an elder sister and grew up with a love of football and sports.

Starting his career as a cadet on the Albury Border Morning Mail in 1969, he moved to the Shepparton News about a year later before being hired as a court reporter for the Melbourne Herald. Joining the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he initially covered state politics. He moved to Canberra to become the ABC's federal political correspondent for radio and television in 1979.

In 1986, Cassidy was approached by the then prime minister, Bob Hawke, to become his personal press secretary. He remained in the job—which he has described as "the most rewarding and interesting period of my life"—until Paul Keating took over the leadership in 1991 following a challenge.

Cassidy moved to Washington, D.C., in 1991, to be with his girlfriend, Heather Ewart, who had been posted there as the North America correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. New Idea magazine had an article titled, "Bob Hawke's Minder Quits for Love". Cassidy worked as a correspondent for The Australian before returning to Australia to host the Last Shout and Meet the Press programs on Network Ten. He returned to the ABC to replace Paul Lyneham as host on The 7.30 Report, before he and his wife, Heather Ewart, were sent to Brussels as European correspondents, sharing the job.

In 2010, Cassidy wrote The Party Thieves: The Real Story of the 2010 Election (Melbourne University Press, October 2010, ISBN 978-0-522-85780-1), which one reviewer called "the standard text on precisely what happened in 2010".

Cassidy hosted the Sunday morning political discussion show Insiders from its inception in 2001 until his retirement in 2019. He formerly hosted the sports panel show Offsiders, but he stepped down from this role to write The Party Thieves, and at the end of the 2013 season left the program entirely.

In November 2008, ABC announced that Cassidy would co-host ABC News Breakfast alongside Virginia Trioli from Monday to Thursday. He was replaced by Joe O'Brien in January 2009.