Australian PM Anthony Albanese picks The Squiz first

In his first podcast interview of 2025 ahead of a federal election, PM Anthony Albanese has appeared on The Squiz’s News Club podcast to talk about his values and vision for the country as his Labor Government seeks a second term.

This is a significant moment for Australian media and follows moves in the US presidential election as the candidates capitalised on the influence of podcasts to reach engaged audiences. Squiz Media founder and managing director Claire Kimball said podcasting is a natural choice for politicians to communicate directly with voters as Australia heads to an election.

In the episode, Kate Watson and Claire Kimball talk to PM Anthony Albanese about his values, his approach to Donald Trump and why he doesn’t think the Coalition can win this election. When asked about traditional news media and its influence, he said, “Media is changing; some of the daily newspapers are so predictable. There is less news and more opinion, which I think is problematic. It’s just a cheer squad for one side of politics, and I think that makes it less influential".

“The Squiz is almost 7 years into podcasting with our news-based offerings and has built loyal audiences that legacy media broadcasters - public and commercial - once monopolised. We anticipate Australia’s leading politicians will make many more appearances across the country’s impressive array of podcasts in the coming weeks and months.

“For our part, The Squiz’s commitment to agenda-free news and information, along with our conversational style, makes us an obvious choice for the PM to launch his 2025 podcasting efforts, and we were pleased to have the opportunity.”

Nielsen data show that one in 3 podcast listeners have made decisions based on the content they’ve heard, and 70% of podcast audiences say they trust the information they receive. In comparison, the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that 48% of Australians trust traditional media. In a recent survey of 6,000 of The Squiz’s audience, 94% said that independent media is crucial to a balanced news diet.

“It’s the podcast election,” said Kate Waston, host and commercial director of The Squiz. "And the PM choosing us as the place to go when it comes to talking to Aussie news consumers shows just how influential independent media has become in Australia ’.

This exclusive, hour-long episode can be listened to on The Squiz’s News Club channel where ever you get your podcasts.