Lin Lin
Lin Lin connects housing market data, corporate collapses and regulatory decisions into tightly reported stories on how politics and economics hit households and investors. She works as a business reporter and finance presenter at ABC News, covering property, construction, corporate failures and consumer finance with an emphasis on evidence and impact. Her reporting sits at the intersection of business and politics, tracking how policy, regulation and corporate behaviour shape housing, household budgets and confidence.
Housing market and property downturn
Housing and property cycles are a core strand of Lin Lin’s work, anchored in granular market data and clear explanations of momentum, affordability and risk. In her coverage of national home values stalling in May, she uses Cotality index figures to show dwelling values slipping in major cities and details month, quarter and annual changes alongside median prices. She ties those numbers to the drivers behind them, including higher interest rates, weak confidence and proposed property tax changes weighing on demand. Her housing downturn reporting also brings in voices such as AMP chief economist Shane Oliver, who describes how poor affordability and low confidence leave some cities particularly vulnerable to price falls.
Across these pieces she returns to themes of affordability, investor sentiment and regional differences, framing housing as both an economic story and a political battleground over tax and planning settings.
Developer and agency collapses
Lin Lin has built a sustained line of coverage around the collapse of property developer Bathla and other real estate businesses, following the story from early distress through funding deadlines and potential liquidation. Her Bathla reporting tracks the developer’s efforts to buy time, the tens of millions of dollars in funding needed to keep construction going, and the actions of lenders and administrators as they consider breaking up projects. She reports closely on the impact on apartment buyers and contractors, including a case where a buyer faces a $40,000 shortfall if Bathla does not honour a promised contribution at settlement.
In parallel, her work on the collapse of buyer’s agency Dashdot examines insolvency timelines and how hundreds of customers were left tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket after being urged to proceed with purchases days before the business failed. Live markets coverage notes that she has been leading ABC News’ reporting on Bathla, and includes an extended discussion with Shane Oliver on whether the developer’s downfall reflects deeper strain in the residential development sector.
Throughout these stories she returns to the consequences for ordinary buyers, small businesses and trades, and to questions about regulation, oversight and political responsibility for boom-time risk taking.
Regulation, markets and household finances
Beyond property, Lin Lin covers how regulators, markets and central banks affect household finances, often through concise, data-led updates within ABC News’ markets coverage. In one ASX live blog she reports on ASIC’s warning that price comparison websites have allegedly misled consumers about the range of products offered, and highlights court actions over sites generating multiple leads from a single brand. The same coverage notes ASIC’s concerns about service agreements and privacy, with Lin Lin spelling out the risks of signing away data and how enforcement action fits into broader consumer protection.
She also contributes currency and spending updates, including reports on the Australian dollar’s level against the US dollar and commentary from the Reserve Bank about persistent inflation risks.
Another segment details Commonwealth Bank’s household spending index, showing growth slowing month-on-month and easing year-on-year as inflation and softer income growth weigh on consumption. Across this work she focuses on how regulatory moves, interest rate expectations and market shifts translate into pressure on families and small businesses, tying financial indicators back to political debates over inflation, wages and cost of living.
Broadcast news and finance presentation
Alongside her reporting, Lin Lin presents television news bulletins for ABC News, including Auslan-interpreted programs that aim to make major stories accessible to deaf audiences. Episodes of ABC News With Auslan and ABC News At Noon list her as presenter for editions delivering the latest news and information with analysis from experts and guests. Her broadcast role complements her finance work, giving her a platform to explain complex economic and corporate stories in clear, direct language for a broad audience. Author material notes that she is a finance presenter as well as a business reporter, and references earlier experience reporting for CNBC and SBS, which underpins her familiarity with markets and corporate news. Across both broadcast and written formats, she maintains a focus on timely developments in housing, business failures, regulation and markets, and on the political and economic stakes those stories carry.
4 more politics journalists.
Alexander Britton
Alexander Britton is a senior digital editor and political reporter whose work combines political strategy, economic policy and the human impact of major decisions. He covers tax and cost-of-living pressures, central bank forecasts, interest rates, trade risks, parliamentary accountability and social debates. His reporting also examines global crises, including Gaza, with a focus on humanitarian need, aid limits and direct testimony. Britton has written about sport, culture and language, including fans travelling for the Boxing Day Test and Words of the Year. He now works in senior newsroom leadership for a major news group, after digital editorial roles at SBS News. Earlier, he was a political correspondent in the UK. He writes in clear, accessible language, using concrete examples, eyewitness material and direct reporting to connect policy and political conflict to households, businesses and individual lives.
Andi Yu
Andi Yu reports on how politics and legal processes shape social cohesion, public safety and everyday life. She is a journalist and digital producer for ABC News. Her beat spans politics, antisemitism, extremism, multicultural and faith issues, housing, planning, transport, courts, crime, health regulation and inequality. She has covered a royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, an alleged attack on an Indigenous protest camp, changes to the Suburban Rail Loop, high-rise housing plans, Erin Patterson’s appeal, black-market peptides and culturally tailored midwifery care for First Nations families. She previously reported for the Australian Associated Press and has covered politics, health, crime, refugees and diverse communities. Yu explains complex policy, court and regulatory issues in clear, accessible formats. She connects testimony, evidence and government decisions to their effects on residents, businesses and marginalised communities.
Andrew Bolt
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Ben Smee
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