Sally Sara has been announced as Patricia Karvelas’ replacement on ABC Radio National Breakfast.
“We’ll be reporting on what’s going on across the country, and given the kinds of stories that are also unfolding internationally, international news would obviously be extremely important as well,” Sara said Friday morning.
Sara has reported from more than 40 countries as a foreign correspondent for ABC, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa and India, and has worked for Foreign Correspondent and Landline.
She has extensive experience in audio journalism and has been a presenter of The World Today since 2020.
“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to join the team. I can’t wait,” Sara said.
“I will work hard to engage audiences with stories from across the country and around the world.”
Karvelas announced she would be quitting the ABC Radio National Breakfast show in October.
“After ten years, it’s time to do something different, and I’m ready to take on a new cross-platform role,” she said.
ABC star Patricia Karvelas announced in October that she was leaving the Radio National Breakfast show
Karvelas has struggled to attract listeners, with its RN Breakfast program ranked last in Sydney in the latest GfK survey, which showed a 2 per cent audience share – down 0.5 percentage points from the previous survey .
ABC chairman Kim Williams said in June she was concerned about the declining ratings and highlighted changes.
“I would like to see a bigger audience for Radio National,” Williams said in an interview with Karvelas.
“I would like to see Radio National increase its ambitions in terms of its role in Australia.”
Before joining the public broadcaster in 2015, Karvelas worked for 13 years at the Australian newspaper and had a brief stint at Sky News Australia.
After being appointed breakfast presenter, she spoke about the perception of left-wing bias at the ABC.
“Everyone has our own biases because we all have a ‘lived’ experience – the suburb we live in, the families we come from, the schools we went to,” she told The Australian.
‘But all the professionals I have worked with at the ABC are questioning their own prejudices.’
Karvelas was a strong supporter of the Albanian government’s failed proposal for an indigenous voice in parliament.
She tweeted a message of support from the Labor party on election night 2022, posing with Labor spokeswoman Linda Burney and writing: ‘This woman is a legend and looks like she will be the next Minister for Indigenous Affairs #UluruStatement .’
ABC CEO David Anderson said at a Senate estimates hearing on November 29 that this showed ‘no’ political bias.
In 2023, she denounced trolls who abused her online after speaking about the challenges she faced as a closeted lesbian at the start of her journalism career.
‘I was very careful with my colleagues who I felt were not supportive, [and] among politicians who I knew were hostile to gay rights, and there were many,” she said.
‘People would be surprised about that, because I think I’m known to the public as someone who can stand up and not really be afraid of people.
“But that’s not what happens when you’re in a social setting where people find gay jokes funny.”
She is now “very out” and has heard that young LGBTQ+ journalists working in Canberra are more accepted than they were 20 years ago.
However, she said there was still some reluctance about being too open about her love life when speaking on air.
‘I don’t want people to feel like I’m not their broadcaster. But if I’m not my authentic self, I can’t do my job well,” she said.
‘If you are completely yourself, you do better.’
Karvelas has two daughters with her wife.