Noel Towell
Noel Towell focuses on the money and policy pressures running through schools, childcare and universities, treating education as an economic system that shapes family budgets and working lives. His reporting at The Age follows the cost of education, the financial health of providers and the industrial disputes that sit behind classrooms and campuses. He combines detailed pricing and wage data with on-the-ground stories from parents, staff and students to show where the system is under strain.
School fees and private education costs
Much of Towell’s work tracks what families pay for private and Catholic schooling and how those charges are changing over time. In coverage of Victorian parents paying more for private school than in any other state, he sets out statewide median tuition figures and highlights how charges have risen beyond $11,000 a year.
When a private school hikes fees by almost 20 per cent, he details specific year-level costs and reports on parents organising petitions and public campaigns in response to sudden bill shocks.
He also examines large-scale capital projects, such as an $85 million sports and aquatic centre at a prestigious school, and asks how such high-end spending interacts with that school’s access to federal funding. Across these pieces, the emphasis is on concrete numbers, comparisons between schools and states, and the way fee decisions move quickly from boardrooms to household budgets.
Childcare economics and provider collapse
Towell extends the same financial lens to the childcare sector, following both family costs and the balance sheets of operators. In reporting on families bracing for more childcare centre collapses, he links soaring operating costs, weakening demand and intense competition to a rising risk that providers will go broke. A separate story on administrators taking control of a national childcare chain shows how these pressures play out once a company fails, describing warnings to staff about an “uncertain” and “challenging” future and the implications for parents who rely on those centres.
His work in this area combines business language - administrators, insolvency, competition - with the practical consequences for care availability and job security, keeping the financial beat anchored in everyday effects.
Classroom behaviour, alternative schooling and workforce strain
Towell regularly reports on how policy changes land inside classrooms, from behaviour standards to alternative schooling options.
On mainstream schools, he has covered plans at hundreds of Melbourne schools to enforce higher standards of respect and behaviour through explicit instruction regimes, connecting pedagogical approaches with concerns about order and learning quality. In work on “schools of last resort”, he follows the rapid growth of programs for students disengaged from mainstream classrooms, describing how these settings struggle to keep up with demand from young people seeking a second chance.
He also writes on more positive, niche initiatives, such as a primary school’s “human-powered vehicle” racing program, using this to show how schools try to create engagement and pride despite broader challenges. Alongside this, his coverage of a proposed four-day working week for teachers and school staff frames workforce shortages as a structural problem, not just a temporary squeeze, linking union demands to wider plans to stabilise public education. The story about school starters being observed for autism and ADHD checks under a Liberal plan fits this pattern, bringing early childhood screening and partisan policy into the same frame as classroom realities and support needs.
Universities, wages and industrial disputes
Towell’s beat also reaches into higher education, where he focuses on pay, backpay and industrial claims. In reporting on Melbourne University’s agreement to repay $72 million to academic staff, he outlines how wage claims covering a decade led to repayments for about 25,000 current and former academics. The piece sits squarely at the intersection of finance and labour, showing how underpayment disputes translate into large liabilities for institutions and long-awaited restitution for staff.
Taken together with his school and childcare coverage, this university work reinforces a through-line: he treats education as a network of employers and service providers whose financial decisions reverberate through classrooms, lecture theatres and family lives.
4 more finance journalists.
Aaron Bell
Aaron Bell stands out for turning broker research and complex market commentary into clear stories for everyday investors. He writes about the Australian share market as a journalist for The Motley Fool Australia and also works as a freelance journalist and editor focused on financial topics and the Australian economy. His beat covers ASX-listed companies and exchange-traded funds. He writes on broker recommendations, valuation changes, price targets, upside forecasts, earnings results, guidance, and share price reactions. He also covers thematic and emerging markets ETFs, NASDAQ-focused funds, and sectors such as space-related industries. In his reporting, he uses numbers, rating changes, and target prices to explain risk, reward, and what has changed in the business.
Adam McCleery
Adam McCleery tracks the money and deals shaping advertising and media agencies. He is a journalist at AdNews, covering agency pitches, account moves, media buying decisions, budgets, contracts and settlements. His beat sits between finance, media and marketing, with a focus on advertiser confidence, commercial outcomes and the pressures facing agencies, brands and media owners. He reports on television, streaming, subscription models and platform strategies, as well as artificial intelligence, data, privacy and ad technology. His past work spans print, digital and business-to-business titles. He writes in a straightforward, deal-driven style. He follows how brands review, consolidate or shift agency relationships, and how pricing, measurement, fragmentation, policy and economic conditions affect spending, investment, risk and the value of agency services.
Adelaide Miller
Adelaide Miller is an award-winning national business reporter at the ABC who stands out for linking markets coverage with accountability reporting on how finance, regulation and corporate decisions affect workers, consumers and small businesses. She covers superannuation, small business obligations, the ASX, global indices, inflation, government debt, investor sentiment, cryptocurrency, corporate conduct, mortgage stress, and consumer impact. She reports on the gap between legislative intent and on-the-ground practice, and she often uses data, live markets context, and direct reporting from affected people. Her background includes ABC Investigations, Background Briefing, and Four Corners. She also has reported on AI-driven political campaigning, Telstra’s Senate inquiry scrutiny, family law, and a personal essay on her grandmother’s dementia. She works across TV, radio, online, and podcast formats.
Adeshola Ore
Adeshola Ore reports on finance and public policy through their effects on everyday life. They are a reporter at the Guardian, covering tax debates, public spending, institutional policy and the communities shaped by them. Their beat also includes politics, rights, social equity, climate, migration, Indigenous policy, agriculture, food safety and public health. Notable reporting has covered bird flu and egg supplies, catastrophic floods, death cap mushroom poisonings, refugee communities, university misconduct and place-naming rules in Tasmania. Earlier work included global climate conferences, international affairs and social policy. Ore reports through live political coverage, ground-level interviews, documents and hearings. They write news features and explainers that clarify complex rules, risks and rights. They also contribute to the Guardian’s daily news podcast, bringing field reporting and interviews with affected communities into wider discussions of politics and policy.