‘It’s a perfect world’: Indira Naidoo’s new direction combines taking on Compass and radio gig

Indira Naidoo keeps promising herself life will get less busy, but it won’t be this year as she follows in the footsteps of a “legend”.

Australian author, journalist and broadcaster, Indira Naidoo. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

It’s interesting that despite her years in the industry, Indira Naidoo still feels a little daunted following in the footsteps of Geraldine Doogue as host of ABC’s Compass.

“Especially (taking over from) someone who’s been so associated with a show for nearly all of its existence,” she shares.

“And really, for me, Geraldine is up there with Caroline Jones as the legendary pioneering women broadcasters who you never, ever, ever in a million years expect to ever meet. Or be in the same building with, let alone working on the shows that they created and made so special.

“She’s just an extraordinary journalist and really amazing thinker and has that big, wonderful, compassionate heart that I think is essential for a show like Compass.”

It’s a little ironic that this journalist – who went to Naidoo’s alma mater and having the veteran journalist held up as one of the university’s success stories – feels a little similar about interviewing Naidoo whose lengthy list of achievements includes reporting for and anchoring The 730 Report, ABC Late Edition News and World News Tonight on SBS TV.

But a few minutes in, and all that dissipates as Naidoo’s warm nature which exudes off the screen, instantly calms.

Indira Naidoo is the new host of Compass on the ABC for 2023.

Her first episode at the helm is particularly close to Naidoo’s heart. It details ’80s socialite Glen-Marie Frost’s story of riches to rags. Her career and social life seemed unstoppable. Until one day, divorce and health issues led to financial difficulties, and eventually her sleeping in her car. Despite her extensive network, Frost was homeless.

Women over 55 are the fastest growing group of homeless Australians. Now Frost is on a mission to help older homeless women, and ensure younger women are financially literate.

“What I was really admiring of Glen-Marie is that she wasn’t ashamed of her story and she was using her experiences to help to warn others,” Naidoo says.

Compass is unique in Australia for its focus on religion and ethics – but this year will broaden that focus to newer forms of spirituality and bring a sharper journalistic lens to stories of social justice, an emerging scandal in the Catholic Church and the tricky interplay between sexuality and religion.

“Another terrific episode I’m looking forward to is about a group of missionaries who come out as queer men and then they decide to do a float in the Sydney Mardi Gras,” Naidoo says.

“I just love that so many people trust their story to Compass.

“There aren’t a lot of shows that you would go to with that story and know that it would be portrayed in a fair, supportive and compassionate way.”

Former Compass host Geraldine Doogue.

Naidoo will combine the Compass role with her ABC Radio Evenings program which airs across Sydney, Canberra and regional NSW. She didn’t hesitate for a moment when the ABC came calling.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a busy life, but that’s all right,” she says with a laugh. “As my husband said, I always say every year it’s not going to be so busy this year.

“It’s going to be this, it’s going to be that. And then it doesn’t end up being that at all, it ends up being a quite demanding year.

“But these sorts of shows and opportunities don’t come along often, and when they come along at the same time, you’ve just got to step up and say yes and find a way to make it all work.”

But she believes it’s the perfect combination – being able to directly engage with her audience on radio to inform her Compass role.

“I’ve got this wonderful opportunity as a broadcaster at the moment where I can hear from my audience and I think the radio audience is really going to help me get a sense of what sort of stories we could be looking at in Compass,” Naidoo says.

“It’s a perfect world.”

She’s seen an increase in engagement through her own social media followers since she published her best-selling book The Space Between The Stars where she explored the healing power of nature following the death of her sister during the pandemic.

“There are so many personal stories people want to share with me of their own experiences of loss and grieving,” Naidoo says.

“Or the pandemic, or finding a special tree in their life. It’s been really lovely in the last few years to have those closer connections with people.”

Indira Naidoo signing copies of her book.

And fortunately those interactions are also largely positive, which she attributes to how she engages very differently from many in the media, largely eschewing Twitter.

“I’m not really tweeting all the time – mine is just much more like you stay in touch with a pen pal,” Naidoo says. “Every now and then checking in with them – asking them how they’re doing? I don’t want to get into all the other nitty-gritty issues that poison the twitterverse and social media. Much more the way you would touch base with a friend.”

Her year could even get a whole lot busier if she’s elected to the ABC board.

“So yes I set myself a very big challenge in putting my hand up for that,” Naidoo says, with a laugh. “That would be an amazing thing if that was an outcome that happens.

“But, you know, I think that when you get to my age and my stage of my career, that it’s really about what have I learned and how can that help other people?

“Because I have been so privileged and I have received so many gifts, whether it’s been my training, my exposure at the ABC – all the people that have taught me and been very generous in sharing their knowledge and skills with me, I’m really lucky.

“So any opportunity that I can have and then to pass that on to more people. I’d love to do.”

* Compass, Sunday, 6.30pm, ABC and iview

Originally published as ‘It’s a perfect world’: Indira Naidoo’s new direction combines taking on Compass and radio gig