Featured
How we shot the 2025 Power issue
Photographing the cover of AFR Magazine’s latest issue took a bit more art direction than usual, but we knew we had a winning idea.
Australia’s 10 most powerful people in 2025
Overt power is declared, open and public. It primarily vests in the position, although personal charisma is vital.
Albanese tops the list but with a fragile grip on power
The competitive tension between Albanese and Chalmers is likely driven by the latter’s desire to carve his own legacy and vie for the top job at some stage.
The year’s top 10 power players (that aren’t people)
Sometimes it’s not people who make the biggest impact on our cultural consciousness.
A notable absence makes this year’s Power list historic
The prime minister’s power is as close to absolute as is possible, marking a historic absence of opposition figures.
September
‘It shows you everything that’s wrong with the Liberal party’
The battle for the seat of Bradfield is a snapshot of how the Liberals are on a campaign to irrelevance.
Australia’s 10 most covertly powerful people in 2025
Even if they’re out in the open, their most influential moves are behind the scenes. Here’s how our power panel decided who made the cut.
Australia’s five most powerful property people in 2025
For a few years, it’s been a matter of survival for the sector. House prices are rising again, yet the legacy of high construction costs has cruelled supply.
Australia’s five most powerful people in law for 2025
Two lower-profile judges have made this year’s list, and both are shaping their courts’ directions in equally influential ways.
The 10 most powerful people in corporate Australia in 2025
The business leaders who, in the view of our panel, have the most power to act unilaterally or to shape the political agenda.
More CEOs make the power list, but not many have a seat at the table
Does the entrenchment of Labor at the federal level further erode the top end of town’s ability to shape public policy?
Why Australia decided to move first – and fast – on social media ban
Anthony Albanese was initially reluctant to ban social media for under-16s. It might become his legacy.
The 10 most culturally powerful people in Australia in 2025
What does it mean to be Australian in 2025? Here are the people shaping that definition.
The five most powerful Australian tech leaders in 2025
As well as dealing with perennial challenges, industry and government are under pressure to figure out how to regulate AI without strangling its potential.
On the power menu in Australia: beef Wellington and caramel slice
In a year of political tension, war and worry about the cost of living and housing affordability, it was two stories about food that had Australia talking.
The most powerful people in consulting in 2025
The glamour boys and girls of the firms’ consulting arms have been humbled, while the typically serious auditors have gained the upper hand.
Australia’s most powerful deal makers in 2025
Most deal makers react to opportunities as they arise. This list highlights the handful of bankers who create opportunities.
July
Three decades of PMs, fashion icons and the odd person headed for jail
The Financial Review’s monthly glossy changed the format for magazines when it arrived in 1995. We look back on its greatest hits, and the occasional near miss.
September 2024
Negative gearing explodes | Coles’ and Woolies’ dodgy discounts | The corporate Power list
This week on the Chanticleer podcast, James and Anthony look at how the supermarket giants were accused of dodgy discounting, ask who will win the brawl over negative gearing, and examine the corporate Power list.
How we got Australia’s most powerful to step into David Rowe’s world
We thought our Power listers might be reluctant to participate. Turns out, they loved it – more or less.
Australia’s 10 most powerful people in 2024
There are three new faces on the Power list – plus some big swings in the ranking.
Inflation makes or breaks this year’s Power list
The power rankings reveal the splintering of traditional political power in a two-party system that is emerging alongside the economic strains.
The forces that shaped 2024’s list of Australia’s most powerful people
Someone wasn’t happy to be on this year’s Power list. But even Power listers have no say in the process.
The 10 most covertly powerful people in Australia in 2024
Those who wield the most clout behind the scenes in the nation’s business and politics.
Australia’s five most powerful people in education in 2024
As we hurtle to the end of the year, there are a lot of balls still up in the air for the sector. The question is, how many have landed?