Gus McCubbing
Gus McCubbing is a reporter at The Australian Financial Review who covers how money, markets and policy decisions flow through to companies, investors and everyday lives. His finance reporting tracks sector moves on the ASX and global capital flows, then ties them back to the people making and feeling those decisions. Across markets, sport, politics and travel, he leans on narrative detail to show the human side of financial and corporate stories.
Markets, ASX and sector performance
McCubbing’s core finance work focuses on equity markets, commodities and debt, with a particular interest in how investors are positioned across sectors and regions. He writes on global investment firms shifting exposure from outperforming markets such as the US, Japan and South Korea into underperforming markets like the ASX, spelling out what those allocation decisions mean for local stocks and capital formation. His coverage of technology stocks on the ASX, including periods when the sector is the market’s worst performer yet brokers are buying back in, shows a consistent focus on valuation gaps, broker conviction and the conditions under which contrarian buying emerges.
Topic data tied to his byline shows regular work on commodities, manufacturing, mining and debt markets, reinforcing a remit that spans the broader real-economy backdrop to listed equities. Within those stories he tends to frame price moves and index performance in terms of underlying business models, sector cycles and the behaviour of institutional investors, rather than treating the market as a series of disconnected ticks.
The result is finance coverage that is less about quoting prices and more about explaining why capital is moving, who is driving it and where risk is building.
Sport, wealth and the business of performance
A distinctive strand in McCubbing’s work is his use of sport to explore money, career transitions and investment. He profiles a former AFL player whose trip to Disneyland ultimately guided him into wealth management, using that story to unpack how athletes move from on-field performance to advising clients and building financial businesses. In another piece he follows a former tennis champion who is “chasing unicorns”, charting the shift from elite sport into venture-backed entrepreneurship and the culture of high-growth tech investing.
His sport coverage often sits at the intersection of business and fandom.
One article on the president of the Geelong Football Club examines the “winner takes all” dynamics of leadership and competition at a major club, bringing out the governance and strategic pressures behind on-field success. He writes on the Australian who helped China fall in love with tennis, tracking the commercial and cultural work required to build a market for a global sport. His byline appears across Australian Open tennis coverage, where he connects players, tournaments and sponsors to broader questions about brand building and the economics of major events.
Taken together, these pieces show a reporter who treats sport as a business ecosystem and a proving ground for how money and ambition interact.
Politics, society and economic fault lines
McCubbing also works on long-form political and social features that trace how power and policy decisions filter through the community. His analysis of how Dan Andrews “won over” voters examines the mechanics of modern campaigning, the media strategies and the voter segments that underpin sustained electoral success. In “Fault lines: The growing divide threatening our society”, he looks at widening social and economic divides, mapping the pressures that arise when parts of society feel left behind by growth and reform.
He has reported from inside Westfield Bondi Junction during a deadly attack, reconstructing twenty minutes of terror through eyewitness accounts and timelines.
Another piece on university life in 2024 examines how students use online lectures at double speed and what that says about the changing experience of higher education, discipline and opportunity. His coverage of green “hobby farmers” opposing a $1.5 billion wind farm shows how large-scale energy projects collide with local identity, land use and trust in institutions.
Across these stories he keeps attention on lived experience and social cohesion, while still drawing out the economic and policy context behind each episode.
Travel, hotels and lifestyle with a financial edge
Alongside markets and politics, McCubbing writes travel and lifestyle pieces that carry a clear business and place-making angle.
His profile of Melbourne’s Motley Hotel in Richmond highlights how a new property weaves together footy culture, contemporary art and food to create a distinctive offer in a competitive hospitality market. In a piece on a “touch of Paris off Collins Street” he details how a hotel uses design, service and narrative to position itself as a premium urban escape, signalling the investment and brand work behind that experience. Even in softer coverage, he tends to draw out the commercial logic and cultural positioning underpinning venues and neighbourhoods.
Across this body of work, McCubbing stands out from a generic finance reporter by bringing markets, sport, politics and lifestyle into the same frame, and by treating financial stories as human narratives rather than abstract data. He is a reporter at The Australian Financial Review and has been in that role since 2022.
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