‘PEAK TROLL’
wake up to supportive messages from colleagues and other journalists. She’s reluctant to call the abuse gendered, she thinks her male colleagues are wearing a lot of it too, but even for the hard- nosed, the online vitriol has got to be hard to take?
‘‘I think for the most part it’s been OK,’’ O’Brien says, tactfully. ‘‘I think in those moments when your defences are down the pile on can be pretty immense, but I am pretty reliant on the support of my colleagues (and) just try to refocus on the job at hand.
‘‘But like everybody else, I’m human. Covid is awful, and I’ve had personal bad news in this time (she declines to elaborate), which I’ve needed to grapple with.
‘‘I definitely subscribe to the prime minister’s ‘be compassionate and be kind’ decree. I really do think, no-one knows what anyone is going through at any point, but especially during this time. Take a step back before you have a go.’’
Just hours before we meet, O’Brien has essentially called for Health Minister David Clark’s resignation on The AM Show, after a third embarrassment in which he admitted moving houses in alert level 3. While the prime minister said she was comfortable with it, he’d already admitted breaking the rules twice.
Later that night, during a live cross on the 6pm news, O’Brien again says Clark shouldn’t be in the job. O’Brien’s consistent questioning of the PM about Clark has been criticised as being at the expense of focus on bigger issues.
Calling for Clark to step down isn’t about coming for a scalp, she says. On the day the minister was outed for mountain biking during level 4, O’Brien had spoken to a woman who couldn’t bury her stepfather.
‘‘She was making those sacrifices on the same weekend he was going for a hoon on his mountain bike ... These are the people we are asking questions on behalf of.’’
With entry to the afternoon pressers restricted, O’Brien is often asking questions on behalf of her colleagues, and she’s asking for members of the public, who inundate her inbox with queries and pleas.
The conference is short considering the number of reporters representing a dozen news organisations, and often they’re the only chance to get basic questions answered. The reporters who sit in them day in and day out can tell when messaging has changed subtly. It can feel nitpicky but language matters and O’Brien points to the effectiveness of repetitive questioning – there’s now an inquiry into personal protection equipment distribution, for example.
In 2019, O’Brien was named best political journalist at the Voyager Media Awards for a portfolio that largely consisted of stories dedicated to the Jami-Lee Ross saga.
The judges said O’Brien was courageous and tenacious.
‘‘(She) wielded considerable influence on the 2018 political scene with her scoops. She leads from the lip and is not put off by those who would have her silenced. A true political muckraker.’’