Is Antony Green sentimental about his last election? Not a chance

For more than 90 state and federal elections, Antony Green has been a fixture on the ABC. But as he prepares to call his last election on Saturday night, the 65-year-old is as modest as ever.

“I don’t particularly feel anything, to be honest,” he says. “It’s just another election for me. It’ll probably hit me more when the next bunch of elections come around and I’m not as involved as I was.”

Antony Green sits on the ABC election set ahead of what he says is his last election. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

In fact, trying to get any kind of sentiment out of him ahead of the big day, is near impossible.

He is a big music fan, does he listen to anything to pump himself up? “No, Friday is devoted to rehearsals and avoiding interviews.”

What about on Saturday, will he do anything special?

“My usual routine is to take a sleeping tablet the night before and have as much sleep as possible and have a nice lie in,” he says. “And then go and have a cooked breakfast in a cafe somewhere, probably go off and vote, come back, tidy up, and then go to work and rehearse from about one or two in the afternoon.”

Does he eat anything in particular to keep his energy up? “Whatever sweets and lollies and chocolates that are lying around.”

No favourites? “Not particularly. There have been lots of jokes about snakes and whether I’m a kookaburra or not.” (He was caught on camera once with a snake in his mouth.)

He will wear a special tie, though, one that hasn’t been seen for a few years. “I’m going to wear my black tie with the coloured blocks, which I haven’t worn for a couple of years, but I thought I’d drag it out for one last turn. It’s a bit wide for these days…”

Green’s complete matter-of-factness about his farewell broadcast belies how prized he is not only by the ABC – journalist Leigh Sales called him “the smartest hire in the history of ABC News” – but by the public in general, with T-shirts, bingo games, mugs and knitwear all adorned with his image.

Green started his almost 40-year career at the ABC in 1989 when he answered a job ad for an election researcher, but it wasn’t until 1991 that he made it on air to talk about NSW electoral boundaries and then that year’s federal election. Since then, he has transformed the way elections are presented on television.

He helped develop the ABC’s election computer system and is now synonymous with its fabled results touch screen (standing in front of that screen, you will most likely hear him say, “These are very early figures” or “Sorry, that’s the wrong screen”).

For all that, though, he dismisses any notion of celebrity – or the jollification of election calls in general (the Beetoota Advocate satirists, for example, have prime place in Network Ten’s coverage).

“It’s tough to fill five or six hours,” he says. “We have the advantage in that the computer system allows us to say something sensible about the numbers. If you haven’t got the computer system, what do you fill the coverage with? The easiest way to do an election coverage is get a bunch of people on camera to disagree with each other. I call that the Footy Show version of the election coverage. If I’m doing something on television, I like to try and make sure I’m saying something worthwhile.”

Green won’t miss the rehearsals when his on-air role is over.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

He doesn’t think the election will be a particularly easy call – he says 7.30pm will be a critical time for anyone tuning in at home – despite Labor leading in the polls.

“You go on the numbers from the computer – you make a mistake if you get your views predetermined by what polls say, the classic was 2019 [when Scott Morrison had a shock victory] when at about 25 past seven, I said these results are like the poll this morning, but the opposite way around – you go off the numbers you see and that’s what I’ll be doing.

“The hardest elections to do are the elections where there is no change since the last election. People will say, ‘Oh, do you watch particular seats?’ We’ve got a computer system that analyses the numbers. Our computer system highlights things that are changing – are there seats changing, are they going in different directions? – so the hardest elections to do are ones where you don’t see any change.”

Green will remain at the ABC as an election consultant. Casey Briggs will take over his on-air role, starting with the South Australian election in March next year.

“To be honest, I’ll enjoy being involved and not having to participate in those rehearsals,” Green says. “Rehearsals drive me nuts more than the coverage.”

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