Katharine Murphy quits as Anthony Albanese's press secretary
As sure as death and taxes is the conga line of ministerial staffers leaving their jobs in politics after an election.
The highest-profile of those departures is Anthony Albanese's press secretary Katharine Murphy, who CBD can report is moving on from the prime minister's office after just 18 months in the role, and was busy saying her farewells to the press gallery on Wednesday morning.
'Murpharoo,' as she's affectionately known, left her role as Guardian Australia's political editor to join the prime minister's office last January, in a move that was mocked by former opposition leader Peter Dutton during one of his numerous broadsides against the press gallery.
'I am genuinely shocked to see Murpharoo take up a spot to now be officially running lines for Labor,' Dutton quipped before taking a swing at this masthead's then chief political correspondent David Crowe.
Murphy was replaced by veteran journalist Karen Middleton, beginning a period of instability in The Guardian's Canberra bureau. Reporters Dan Hurst, Amy Remeikis and Paul Karp, along with photographer Mike Bowers, all left the bureau in quick succession.
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Middleton and Karp would both make claims of workplace misconduct against each other, before the political editor formally left in March, after taking several months of medical leave. Karp, who joined our stablemate, The Australian Financial Review, said he 'left with my head held high and with a clean record' in a farewell speech to colleagues. Middleton hasn't commented and CBD is not taking sides.
That leaves the influential role of political editor very much up for grabs. CBD hears recruitment has been put on hold while The Guardian's forever editor Lenore Taylor is in Europe. Could Murphy return to the fold? We reached out to her and The Guardian but didn't hear back.
There is precedent for Murphy making a comeback. Anne Davies, the outlet's Gold Walkley-winning former investigations editor quit to work as a spinner for teal MP Sophie Scamps in 2023, but returned to The Guardian last year and is filing from NSW Parliament in Macquarie Street.
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