The Power Index has been created to address one simple, yet complex question: who really runs Australia? Who are the people who hold and exert the most power and influence? And how? And why?
Led by Paul Barry – one of the country's most respected investigative journalists – our team of reporters and editors follow trends in power on a daily basis and will name the most powerful people in Australia, supported by deep, thoughtful and entertaining profiles of the people who pull the strings.
The Power Index is made up of the following elements:
A free website
The Power Index website offers daily news, views and features about power and influence in Australia, with the team following the movements of the powerful.
The Power Lists
These lists, in a number of categories of power and influence, are at the heart of understanding who runs Australia. Across the year, our editorial team conducts hundreds of interviews with knowledgeable people at, and close to, the centre of power. On and off the record.
The result is our lists, ranked in order, of the ten most powerful and influential people in categories like Political Fixers, Megaphones, Money Movers, Law Enforcers and Lobbyists.
A new category is unveiled every few weeks. Each contains "insider" profiles of the ten most powerful people in the category, as well as profiles of important figures who didn't quite make the list and a careful explanation of how power actually works unique to each category.
In July, at the end of each year of categories and lists, we publish the Power 50 -- a list ranked in order of Australia's most influential and powerful people, selected by a panel of powerful experts and observers.
Every profile in The Power Index paints a rich picture of each personality, as well as revealing the way they wield power, what motivates and drives them, their networks, connections and powerful relationships, insights into their personal and professional style and habits, and observations of how others see them. Profiles are updated whenever relevant news affects someone on the list.
The Power Index is not a list of powerful office-holders or people in leadership positions. It is a deeply-researched biographical directory of the people who pull Australia's levers of power and influence -- overtly and covertly -- supported by a news feed that takes readers inside the subterranean world of power and influence every weekday.
The Power 50
This is our annual report ranking the 50 Most Powerful People in Australia. Released after a year of lists have been published, The Power 50 is selected by a panel of experts and observers.
The Power Alert
Every Tuesday and Thursday, The Power Index editorial team delivers news and views from the world of power and influence, as well as snippets from our Power Lists and Power Reports.
How we pick the powerful
Each of our Power Lists takes six weeks of interviews and investigation to put together. We examine what people have done in the previous 12 months to see how they're likely to wield their power in the future and determine if they're actually as potent as they're perceived to be. We then come up with a short list that we discuss with the experts who work in the field or know it best, and from that we arrive at our Top Ten. For a more detailed breakdown of our process go here.
