Joe Aston is one of Australia’s most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.
For 12 years he struck fear into the hearts of the nation’s political and corporate leaders, transforming The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window into the nation’s premier daily column.
There he interrogated some of Australia’s biggest business stories including Rio Tinto’s Juukan Gorge scandal; CPA Australia and its Naked CEO Alex Malley; the decline and fall of both Magellan Financial Group and Alan Joyce’s Qantas; and the PwC tax leaks scandal.
His editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury said Aston “turned a gossip column into a form of journalism like never before seen in Australia, and arguably the world.”
In 2024, he became a best-selling author with the publication of his first book, The Chairman’s Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out.
And in 2025, he launched Rampart, a premium subscription news publication specialising in Australian business and finance.
Before entering journalism, Aston was a speechwriter and adviser to politicians Joe Hockey and Bruce Baird, and at airlines Qantas and Etihad. He lives in Sydney.