Our Journalists

Rita PanahiColumnist and Sky News host

Rita is a senior columnist at Herald Sun, and Sky News Australia anchor of The Rita Panahi Show and co-anchor of top-rating Sunday morning discussion program Outsiders.Born in America, Rita spent much of her childhood in Iran before her family moved to Australia as refugees. She holds a Master of Business, with a career spanning more than two decades, first within the banking sector and the past ten years as a journalist and columnist.

@ritapanahi

Rita Panahi

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OpinionRita Panahi

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 31: Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino speaks to the media during a press conference on May 31, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Lockdown restrictions remain in place across Victoria in response to a growing COVID-19 cluster in Melbourne's northern suburbs. During the seven-day "circuit-breaker" lockdown residents can only leave home for five reasons: care and caregiving, exercise, work and to buy groceries, or to get vaccinated. The lockdown is effective from 11:59 pm Thursday 27 May to 11:59 pm Thursday 3 June 2021. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Federal cash handouts would reward our lockdown lunacy

The federal government is right to knock back Victoria’s plea for lockdown cash. Why should the rest of the country pay for our leader’s stuff-ups?

OpinionRita Panahi

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos MAY 27, 2021: Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton announces new COVID lockdowns as infection rates rise. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Sutton outburst fails to get the point

Brett Sutton was aghast at criticism of contact tracing, but it’s not frontline workers we are angry with, it’s the leadership behind our disaster-prone response.

OpinionRita Panahi

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Covid-19 response and the vaccination program in the East Room of the White House on May 17, 2021 in Washington,DC. - The United States will release an additional 20 million doses of Covid vaccines abroad, bringing the total being shipped out to 80 million, the White House said Monday. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

Left-wing media hiding Biden’s litany of failures

The Biden administration’s incompetence and weakness is going unchecked thanks to the majority of the US media who continue to act as the Democrats’ unofficial propaganda arm.

OpinionRita Panahi

WARNING BLUR FACES, WARNING BLUR HOUSE AND HOUSE NUMBER. speak to Cameron Tandy before use. Drug use in Richmond. John, 51, has a heroin overdose in a side street around 200 meters from the Safe Injecting Room. Paramedic's treat the man, at one point having to assist his breathing. A nanny (I have an interview) picking up a 5 year old girl from Richmond West Primary witness the incident scaring the little girl. John elected not to go to hospital. Picture: Jason Edwards

Injecting room a disastrous move for struggling CBD

Melbourne’s CBD needs a massive economic boost, not a injecting room that will bring the same sort of depraved behaviour we have seen around Richmond.

Rita Panahi

(FILES) This file photo taken on April 9, 2018 shows New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard competing during the women's +90kg weightlifting final at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. - It was reported on May 6, 2021 that New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was poised to become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games in Tokyo under new qualification rules. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP)

Let’s not pretend men and women are the same

The emergence of trans athletes has seen even the wokest of the woke saying women’s sport should be for women. But speaking out comes with risks.

Rita Panahi

A person standing on asphalt road with gender symbols of male, female, bigender and transgender. Concept of choice or gender confusion or dysphoria. Istock

ABS must focus on facts, not political posturing

By submitting to trans activist demands, the Australia Bureau of Statistics is giving in to the Leftist push to redefine language and norms.

Rita Panahi

The Melbourne contact tracing company that has been offering its software to Australian businesses for free, COVIDTracer, is giving an insight in to its operations for the first time in the hope more businesses across Australia will adopt its gold standard infrastructure. Supplied images by , COVIDTracer,

QR code fail should be state government’s wake-up call

Victoria’s latest contact tracing fail has highlighted the inadequacies of the state’s QR code system in yet another example of a shambolic Covid response.

Rita Panahi