Over the course of this year, The New Daily covered hundreds of big stories and we wrote about literally thousands of people.
We had a federal election, we wrestled with the aftermath of COVID-19, we came out of our pandemic-induced slumber and embraced our lives in a very different world. We turned to our entertainers and artists and sporting heroes for comfort, and they brought their own share of controversy and chaos.
But who were the biggest newsmakers? In the realms of politics, entertainment, sport, health and culture, there were plenty of figures who got people talking. The disrupters, the movers and shakers, the people who made us angry, the people who made us cry, the people who made us proud.
Narrowing the list wasn’t easy. But we managed, and over the next few days we’ll tell you who made the list and why.
Here are the first 10 in our series of people who grabbed our attention most in this turbulent year of 2022.
Love them or loathe them, these are the Australians who got us all talking.
Below, we introduce to you our picks from No.21 down to No.12. Stay tuned tomorrow for No.11 to No.2.
The 29-year-old golfer has had a rollercoaster year.
He enjoyed a golden start, winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort, Maui, in the process setting a PGA Tour scoring record and entering golf’s top 10 world rankings for the first time.
In July, he won the British Open at St Andrews, the oldest of the four major professional golf championships, rising to No.2 in the world’s golf rankings.
His success made Smith Australia’s first men’s major winner since Jason Day at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
A lingering hip injury forced Smith to pull out of the BMW Championship in August, the same month he left PGA Tour to join LIV Golf, a deal that reportedly netted him a $100 million signing bonus.
Smith went on to win his third Australian PGA Championship by three shots at Royal Queensland Golf Club.
However, Smith’s world ranking has slipped to No.3, and is in danger of dropping further as the Saudi-backed tour is still awaiting approval from the Official World Golf Ranking Board to receive world ranking points.
As one of Australia’s biggest Hollywood stars, Robbie has enjoyed plenty of buzz. The actor went viral when pictures emerged of her filming Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie movie, in which she scored the titular role.
Photos of her in skin-tight neon outfits certainly helped build anticipation for the movie, and the retro style she wore when she was papped in character helped spark this year’s ‘Barbiecore’ trend, which saw fashion’s biggest influencers embrace fun, hot-pink looks.
She was among a slew of Australian stars who appeared in the final episodes of Neighbours (since saved by Amazon) to pay tribute to the show that helped launch their careers.
Robbie went the extra mile and sent 37 bottles of Champagne to the cast and crew in Melbourne for their last days of filming – a sign she hasn’t forgotten where she comes from, despite earning the title of Hollywood’s highest-paid actress this year, after scoring a reported $12.5 million for Barbie.
Robbie looks to have a bright year ahead, as she has already entered the 2023 Golden Globes race, with a nomination for best actress in a comedy for her role in Babylon, set to premiere in January.
The former Socceroo has continuously advocated for human rights and social change, starting this year off by entering the ‘Change the Date’ debate in January.
“For our First Peoples, January 26 is a day of mourning which signifies the beginning of dispossession, frontier violence [and] destruction of culture,” he wrote for SBS.
“Therefore, let us acknowledge the truth of Australia’s history and resolve to find a date for our national celebration that brings us all together.”
In November he became chair of the Australian Republican Movement, replacing Peter FitzSimons.
Foster got to finish the year on a high as he celebrated the Socceroos reaching the knockout stage at the World Cup for just the second time in history.
He called the Socceroos “heroes”, but he condemned Qatar for human rights abuses, and FIFA for not standing up to this year’s host nation.
“In a World Cup where so much harm has been caused, thousands died [and] discrimination has been institutionally promoted by FIFA rather than challenged, a welcome [and] beautiful moment of inspiration,” he tweeted after Morocco made the World Cup semi-finals.
Foster announced he would donate his Cup broadcast fee to families of deceased migrant workers, along with LGBTI and women’s rights organisations in Qatar.
Let’s start with the eye roll. The activist made headlines for her strong stance before the 2022 federal election, with an image of her posing stony-faced alongside then-PM Scott Morrison making headlines.
The 2021 Australian of the Year, and a child sex abuse survivor who drove a campaign for important legal reform, Tame was openly critical of Morrison, particularly for his government’s lack of action on women’s safety and failure to pass reforms recommended by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins.
She gained widespread support from the likes of Lisa Wilkinson and Wil Anderson after an image of her sitting with a bong in 2014 was circulated in the media and online.
She also emerged as one of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins’ staunchest supporters, calling her a “national hero” and slamming “an insidious nationwide character assassination campaign” after a retrial into allegations Higgins had been raped by then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann was dropped.
Tame also revealed her childhood abuser was allegedly continuing to harass her via social media and planning an “act of revenge” upon the September release of Tame’s memoir, which detailed her experiences on the path to becoming one of the country’s most outspoken advocates for abuse survivors.
Wong made history when she became Foreign Affairs Minister this year, becoming Australia’s first foreign minister of Asian descent and first openly-LGBTQI+ front bencher.
She hit the ground running, immediately flying from country to country for important talks and to strengthen Australia’s international relationships, paying particular attention to Pacific countries – strengthening their ties with Australia in a race against China’s growing influence in the region.
A key message from her election campaign was Australia’s failure when the Solomon Islands signed a security deal with China earlier this year.
Intent on reinvigorating relations in the Pacific, Wong has visited Fiji, Malaysia, Indonesia, Samoa and Tonga since taking office.
She ended 2022 with a historic visit to Beijing on the countries’ 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
Wong had earlier in 2022 met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 conference, in what she described as “the first step” to repairing the damaged relationship between China and Australia.
Her achievements thus far include an eight-year human development and social inclusion partnership with Samoa and a bilateral security pact with Vanuatu.
“After a lost decade, we’ve got a lot of work to do to regain Australia’s position as the partner of choice in the Pacific,” she said.
The billionaire tech mogul caused quite a stir in the energy sector with his efforts to reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels in favour of renewables.
In February, Cannon-Brookes partnered with Canadian asset manager Brookfield in a dramatic multibillion-dollar takeover bid for AGL to fast-track the closure of the energy giant’s major coal-fired power stations.
AGL’s power assets are vital to Australia’s electricity market, but they also comprise our most polluting power stations.
AGL rejected the bid as “not in the best interests” of shareholders, but the Atlassian co-founder didn’t back down.
Instead, he took an 11.28 per cent stake in the company through his private investment vehicle Grok Ventures and affiliates, becoming AGL’s largest shareholder.
He used that stake in the company to campaign against a planned demerger, which would split AGL in two – a green energy retailer called AGL Australia and a coal-fired electricity generator, Accel Energy.
He said the demerger plan was “flawed” and would delay the decarbonisation of one of Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitters.
Cannon-Brookes might have lost the takeover battle, but he won the war; AGL abandoned its demerger plans in May, and in November, all four of the billionaire’s independent director candidates were appointed to the company’s board.
The Country Liberals senator – a Warlpiri-Celtic woman and former deputy mayor of Alice Springs – won a Parliament seat in this year’s federal election after receiving high-profile endorsements from former prime minister John Howard and former federal Labor president and Indigenous activist Warren Mundine.
Although many considered her success a win for Indigenous representation, Price’s stance on hot-topic Indigenous issues has sparked debate. Writing for The New Daily in 2018, Price equated the ‘Change the Date’ movement to “virtue signalling”, labelling the invasion of Australia a “myth”.
“The date that marks Australia Day isn’t what is hurting Indigenous people – it is the continuing disadvantage and appalling conditions some of them have to endure, and they aren’t complaining about a date,” she wrote.
“Activists need to realise that Indigenous people have far more serious issues to combat than the supposed dangers of a January barbecue.”
In November, Price garnered backlash for calling out Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney for wearing designer clothes and travelling by private jet to remote communities to “tell people in the dirt what’s good for them”, as well as criticising the Voice as “emotional blackmail”.
The charm offensive continues both on and off screen for one of Australia’s favourite Hollywood exports.
Hemsworth marked his return to his signature character, Thor, in Thor: Love and Thunder. Filmed during the first couple of years of COVID-19 thanks to the government’s $400 million incentive scheme.
The location meant he got to stay close to his Byron Bay-based family while making the film, which saw two of his children score cameos.
The film wasn’t a hit with critics, but it made $US750 million ($1.1 billion) internationally, keeping Hemsworth firm in his standing as one of Marvel’s top actors.
After winning the AACTA Trailblazer Award in December, Hemsworth said it is his goal to bring as many productions to Australia as possible.
Unfortunately, he also ended the year with a health scare. After undergoing genetic testing for Disney+ series Limitless, the 39-year-old actor found he is up to 10 times more likely than the average person to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
“The idea that I won’t be able to remember the life I experienced, or my wife, my kids, is probably my biggest fear,” Hemsworth said, revealing his grandfather is currently battling the incurable disease.
He told Vanity Fair the health warning has prompted him to take a quick break from Hollywood to spend time with his family before promotions begin for his next two already-filmed movies, Mad Max prequel Furiosa and Extraction 2.
Ash Barty had a massive year, starting with a cracker performance at the Australian Open. Already ranked World No.1, she solidified her position as queen of the tennis court by becoming the first local player to win the Australian Open singles title in 44 years.
The historic win looked to herald yet another year of success, but Barty shocked the world by announcing her retirement from the sport just two months later – the second time she’s walked away from tennis.
This time, Australia’s homegrown star looks to have put professional tennis firmly in her rear-view mirror.
“I’ve done this before, but it’s a very different feeling,” she said.
“I’m so grateful for everything tennis has given me. It’s given me all of my dreams plus more, but I know that the time is right now for me to step away and chase other dreams.”
Dogged by rumours of switching to professional golf or cricket, Barty said she felt “a genuine sense of fulfilment” at the end of her tennis career.
In her first year of ‘retirement’ the three-time grand slam champion has been far from idle, receiving an Order of Australia, marrying long-time partner Garry Kissick, releasing a memoir and her own series of children’s books and winning the Newcombe Medal at the Australian Tennis Awards for a record fifth consecutive year.
Morrison certainly made headlines this year – many of them unflattering.
In the lead up to the 2022 federal election, Australians were exhausted from the pandemic and dissatisfied with the late take-up of RATs and vaccinations.
Morrison’s performance on the campaign trail didn’t gain him many new fans. From support of Warringah candidate Katherine Deves to disastrous photo-ops featuring surprise hairwashing, rejected handshakes, a collision with an eight-year-old footballer and a suspiciously pink chicken curry, the PM couldn’t seem to put a foot right.
Economic pressures, lack of action on climate change, and perceived failures on the international relations front (China’s security pact with the Solomon Islands; the French submarine contract debacle), meant by election day, the Liberal Party’s loss was almost a foregone conclusion.
Morrison continued to court controversy after his loss, using one of his first public appearances post-election to tell churchgoers, “we don’t trust in governments”.
In August, news broke he had secretly appointed himself to five ministries during the pandemic. Although the move wasn’t technically illegal, it has been criticised as undermining Australia’s democracy.
Although he apologised to his colleagues for secretly swearing himself in, Morrison remains largely unrepentant over the scandal, refusing to resign from Parliament and defending his actions as a necessary safeguard to ensure the operation of government during the health crisis.
He’s seen out the year fronting the Robodebt royal commission, where he once again failed to make a positive impression.
