They say a week is a long time in politics but for Annabel Crabb, one of her latest projects took more than six years to germinate.

Crabb, 52, a celebrated political journalist and commentator, podcaster and TV presenter with two Logie nominations, has earned fans across Australia for her signature “Did you know?” style, in which she breaks down complex concepts for a mainstream audience with trademark wit and approachability. She is talking to Sunday Life ahead of her new ABC series, Civic Duty, which explores the quirks of Australian democracy, from the beginning of preferential voting to the decline of traditional media and the rise of influencers in the political space.

But this isn’t the project that took her six years to develop. That’s a children’s book, There’s a Prawn in Parliament House: The Kids’ Guide to Australia’s Amazing Democracy, inspired by her eldest daughter Audrey’s school excursion to Parliament House when she was in year 6 (she’s now 18 and in her first year at university).

“If you ask Australians whether they’re interested in politics, most of them will say no,” says Crabb. But rather than lament this fact, Crabb has made “political-tainment” her brand, becoming a regular fixture on our TVs on election nights and hosting numerous shows on the ABC.

“Working in politics is a substantially risky decision that these days isn’t a peaceful line of work,” Crabb says. “We’re living in fairly turbulent times in the media, in politics and in the way we disagree with each other as human beings. Making this show felt like a good time to stop for a second and have a look at our system and the way it functions. It’s not perfect, but it was important to appreciate some of the things that have served us well.”

A huge part of Crabb’s success in telling these stories is her undeniable charm. After all, it’s difficult to think of another Canberra correspondent who could have convinced politicians, from former treasurer Joe Hockey to former Liberal leader Peter Dutton, to open their homes for her series Kitchen Cabinet.

Few would forget Crabb sharing a barbecue lunch with Hockey – including an awkward iceberg lettuce chop – at his Canberra rental in 2012, or the curry served by Scott Morrison, then the social services minister. On Kitchen Cabinet, which ran for 40 episodes over seven seasons, Crabb always brought dessert and usually walked away with stories ordinary Australians could never read in a newspaper.

Despite the obvious intrigue of seeing how and what our male federal MPs cook, Crabb also relished hearing the backstories of women in parliament. “It used to be argued that parliament was too rough-and-tumble a place for women,” she says. “But when you sit and listen to the life story of someone like [Indigenous former Labor MP] Linda Burney or [independent MP] Dai Le – women who have gone through extraordinary ordeals before politics – you think, yeah, I’m not sure the blokes could have survived such things and still had gas left in the tank for public service.”

Still, not every female politician rushed to be part of the show. “[Former prime minister] Julia Gillard was the one I constantly asked, but she always said no,” Crabb says. “She didn’t want to look bad at cooking on television, and that’s fair enough because I think there are different consequences for women in the kitchen.”

Crabb’s own journey into the political sphere was more by accident than design. Born and raised on a sheep and grain farm in rural South Australia, Crabb grew up in a tight-knit family with strong values.

“Growing up in the country gives you a gratitude for things,” she says. “As kids we didn’t have a library. Mum organised remote lending and we used to get surprise packages of books that would turn up at our local train station.

“When you grow up in a place with no cinemas and other distractions, you have to use your own curiosity to keep yourself amused. Reading was something I developed a passion for very early on. It’s probably been one of the great loves of my life – all because Mum encouraged it.”

After graduating with an arts/law degree at the University of Adelaide in 1997, Crabb switched to journalism, completing a cadetship at Adelaide’s The Advertiser before being posted to Canberra. She joined the federal bureau of The Age in 2000 and worked in London from 2003 to 2007 before joining The Sydney Morning Herald. “I certainly didn’t have any particular plans to be involved in media or politics when I left school,” she says.

In 2009, Crabb made the leap to the ABC, where she has flourished as both a commentator and presenter. Though many of her projects are about politics, or are politics-adjacent, she’s also hosted shows like Back in Time for Dinner, which charted the history of the Australian family through the prism of mealtimes. The show also included a pointed take on gender roles, something Crabb has written about extensively in her columns and a 2014 book, The Wife Drought.

Crabb might have given up on the law professionally but she ended up marrying a lawyer, Jeremy Storer. The pair met at university and Crabb says Storer swapped classes so he could be in hers. “I thought, oh, he’s cute.”

“Jeremy and I are very different – I am more extroverted than he is,” she says. “If I were in a relationship with somebody like me, the house would’ve burnt down by now.”

The couple have three children – as well as Audrey, who recently moved out of the family’s Sydney home to study in Canberra, there’s Elliott, 15, and Kate, 12. At home, Crabb likes to gather her family for a meal and to discuss the news, what’s happening at school and in each of their lives.

Referring to Audrey’s move, she says her younger two children have “seen a bit of sadness in their little young lives with their big sister moving out”.

She adds, “Watching them handle it has been very moving. Processing the loss of a sister – who is not lost, but a loss nonetheless – is a big change.”

Crabb also knows the pain of tragic loss. In 2022, her eldest brother, James, then 51, took his own life. It’s a topic she still finds difficult to discuss. “As you get older, bits start falling off your life – sort of like a car that’s falling apart. You come up against the terrible things that can go wrong and the unfairness of it all. Losing my brother was a very big shock, and it’s terrible to watch your parents go through that experience.”

She says her younger brother, Tom, helped her through some of the darkest times after James’ death. So did her good friend, fellow journalist and former 7.30 host Leigh Sales, with whom Crabb has hosted the pop-culture podcast Chat 10 Looks 3 for 11 years, including several national tours of sell-out live shows.

Crabb says the bond she shares with Sales – one that’s obvious from the way they banter on air – provides sweet relief when life gets heavy. “We have this running joke where Leigh makes it clear that I’m not actually her best friend,” says Crabb. “She has an actual best friend!

“But I’ve been very lucky to have close female friends in my life, and to get that level of friendship with someone where you’re in your darkest moments, and you can laugh and be ridiculous – it’s great. Black humour is one of the most underrated tonics in the world.”

Another string to Crabb’s bow that sets her apart from “pale, male and stale” political archetypes is her love of fashion, especially from the 1950s. But, as evidenced by Crabb’s cover shoot with Sunday Life, she also leans into the Annie Hall aesthetic made famous by the late Diane Keaton.

In May, Crabb created a stir on the ABC’s election night broadcast when she wore a shirt and beige leather tie by Sydney designer Natalija Rushidi. And in 2017, a jacket Crabb wore in The House, a behind-the-scenes series about Parliament House, received rave reviews (Crabb later revealed she’d bought it on eBay for $200).

Coming back to Civic Duty, Crabb reflects on why this seems to be the right time to make a show focused on democracy.

“People aren’t getting their news from the same morning newspaper or evening news bulletin, and that makes it very difficult for political arguments to be prosecuted in the way that they used to be,” she says. “There’s a huge amount of change under way that’s disrupting the way we talk about the big decisions we have to make together.

“One of the reasons that I wanted to make this show was to reinforce the basics of our system and how we got here and why it’s special.”

Civic Duty premieres on ABC TV and ABC iView on November 10.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Fashion director: Penny McCarthy. Hair: David Keogh using John Frieda. Make-up: Aimie Fiebig using Charlotte Tilbury. Fashion assistant: Abbey Stockwell.

Stockists: Calibre; Christian Louboutin; Perri Cutten; Zara.

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