‘I won’t miss the pressure’: Election guru Antony Green calls time
After more than three decades of crunching the numbers on polling night, ABC election guru Antony Green is preparing to step out of the spotlight.
He’s as synonymous with polling day as democracy sausages, how-to-vote cards and the electoral commission.
But as Green counts down to his last on-air broadcast as ABC’s chief election analyst, the veteran poll-caller says he is looking forward to parts of stepping away from the cameras after more than 30 years in the role.
“There’s been lots of people saying ‘we’ll miss you’ and they’re saddened, but that said, I won’t miss the pressure of election night,” the 65-year-old said.
“Colleagues have said you’ll enjoy the process more when you’re just looking after the (election) computer in the background.”
Saturday will be Green’s 12th and final federal election as a presenter for the ABC, after announcing in February he would step back from presenting. But he will still play a behind-the-scenes role in future elections.
The renowned analyst is still putting the finishing touches on his election guide for the broadcast and making adjustments to the computer system, saying crunching the numbers live is just the tip of the iceberg.
“I’m still intimately involved in all the programs with how the graphics work and the online system … it’s the whole aspect of the election and how it is reported,” Green said.
After starting at the national broadcaster in 1989 as an election researcher, he first appeared on election night coverage at the NSW poll two years later.
His first federal election in 1993 was among his most notable, with Labor leader Paul Keating defying opinion polls in an upset victory over John Hewson.
Green has been a mainstay of election night since the early 1990s. Photo: ABC
“Those elections where there are surprising on-the-day results, they’re the ones that are the most memorable,” he said.
The nature of reporting the vote tally has since become more intricate.
“Once upon a time it was only TV election coverage, now as well as what I’m saying on camera, you have to worry about what is being published on screen and online as well,” Green said.
“There is a terrain of media out there waiting for me to say ‘so and so have won’ and that’s the pressure I hate,” he added.
Whether the final outcome of Saturday’s election is in line with predictions or produces a last-minute surprise, Green hopes it will not be as difficult to forecast as the previous one.
“This time should not be as complicated as last time,” he said.
“Last time (in 2022) independents popped up and there was no history of how preferences should flow, and so you couldn’t compare it.”
Green will be succeeded by ABC data journalist and presenter Casey Briggs, whose title will be ABC chief election and data analyst.
