Nick Visser
Nick Visser is a politics-focused reporter and liveblogger at the Guardian, working on fast-moving daily news with a consistent emphasis on how policy decisions play out in real time. His coverage sits at the intersection of politics, the environment and breaking news, shaped by a long stint in digital-first reporting and liveblog formats. He brings experience from national and international outlets to his current role, which centres on rolling coverage of Australian public life and its broader political context.
Daily politics liveblog and cost-of-living coverage
At the Guardian he runs a daily news liveblog for the Australian edition, filing frequent updates across politics, public policy and major national developments.
One of his recurring formats is “as it happened” coverage of domestic issues, such as the recent rise of petrol prices above $2 a litre in some areas. That liveblog work is structured around short, time-stamped entries that track events across the day, reflecting his background in rapid digital reporting.
His focus in these pieces is the immediate impact of decisions and events on people’s day-to-day lives, rather than long-form commentary.
Environment and climate reporting
Before joining the Guardian, Visser spent more than a decade at HuffPost, where he worked as a senior reporter and editor on general assignment and environmental coverage.
Profiles of his career describe him as covering climate change, environmental policy and the politics surrounding those issues, as well as broader world news. At HuffPost he held roles including reporting on a general assignment team and serving as an editor focused on “green” coverage, giving him a deep familiarity with environmental stories and their political dimensions. During this period his work also appeared at outlets such as Mother Jones, Grist, the Seattle Times, the Advocate and on KUOW, as well as in the Jordan Times, extending his environment beat across different formats and regions.
Breaking news, elections and world stories
Visser’s past roles have included anchoring overnight breaking news coverage, where he led teams through major events on tight deadlines.
His experience spans major electoral cycles, including the 2020 and 2024 elections, which he covered as part of a breaking news brief. Public profiles describe his beat as including politics, world news and international stories, reinforcing that he moves easily between domestic and global angles. This background in elections and international coverage feeds into his current liveblog work, where he tracks political developments and global events as they intersect with Australian news.
Australian public policy and infrastructure coverage
Alongside politics and environment, Visser has reported on Australian public policy questions tied to land, infrastructure and urban development. One example is his coverage of the mass sale of 18 plots of land in the inner-Sydney suburb of Haberfield, a story that closed a two-decade saga over valuable, in some cases flood-prone, real estate near the central business district. That piece reflects a wider interest in long-running local disputes, regulatory decisions and their eventual resolution, rather than one-off announcements.
His reporting on these topics keeps attention on practical outcomes for residents and the way government and planning processes shape neighbourhoods over time.
Digital-first reporting style
Across roles at the Guardian, HuffPost and other outlets, Visser works primarily in digital formats, combining liveblogs, breaking news pieces and short reports rather than long magazine-style features. His professional descriptions emphasise “Reporter and liveblogger” and “Breaking News” work, underlining a style built around speed, clarity and continuous updates. The mix of politics, environment and world news in his portfolio means his stories often frame individual events within ongoing national and international narratives.
That combination of rapid filing and cross-beat context is a defining feature of his coverage and distinguishes him from more narrowly focused political reporters.
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
Andrew Bolt is a journalist, columnist and political commentator known for combative conservative analysis across print, online and television. He writes for the Herald Sun, where his national affairs columns and political blog are promoted as driving the news cycle, steering discussion and offering a strong perspective on leadership and cultural conflict. He hosts The Bolt Report on Sky News Australia four nights a week, extending the same opinion-led style to broadcast. Bolt’s core focus is party politics and leadership struggles, using senior figures in government and opposition to argue about values, national interests and ideological direction. He also writes on culture, history, identity and race, including contested narratives about Indigenous identification, and covers populist movements, border control, terrorism and free speech. His work is written as arguments rather than reportage, using direct language, stark framing and sustained campaigns on chosen issues.
Ben Smee
Ben Smee is a public interest reporter whose defining work examines how state power affects justice and vulnerable people. He is Guardian Australia’s Queensland correspondent and senior correspondent, covering Queensland politics, policing, youth crime, domestic and family violence, courts, elections and major policy debates. His investigations into children held in police watch houses exposed institutional failures and won a Walkley Award and Queensland Clarion honours. He also reports on police use of force against vulnerable First Nations people, police culture, victims failed by domestic violence systems, human rights, health policy, electric vehicles, surrogacy and infrastructure spending. His work has appeared across breaking news, features, live blogs and investigative podcasts. A former editor, head of news and political reporter, he combines sustained investigations with daily coverage, returning to institutions and laws to track whether promises of reform produce change.