Respected journalist Michael Usher has borne witness to many of the globe’s defining events, from the World Trade Centre to Bondi Beach, and Buckingham Palace to Mt Everest base camp.
He has seen immense joy, unbearable suffering, long-awaited justice and sporting glory. And each time, as he takes it all in, he applies the advice he received more than 30 years ago from revered Perth broadcaster Earl Reeve.
“He said ‘you’re not at a pulpit, or a lectern. You’re not talking down to the masses’,” Usher recalled this week.
“’You’re talking to one person, maybe a couple of people, directly to them. They’re inviting you into their lounge rooms’. So when I broadcast, I’ve always got in my mind the one or two people I’m talking to.”
On December 14 last year, as Usher relayed the devastating scenes at Bondi during Seven’s rolling coverage of the massacre, he thought of those who were taking in the news alone, who didn’t have anyone to talk to, or hold their hand.
“All I did that night was just be really mindful of, I guess, reaching through the TV, and saying ‘look, let’s just do this together. I’m learning it as you’re learning it. It’s a bad thing, it’s going to have implications, but we’ll worry about that in a few days’ time. For now, let’s just digest the information accurately, and I’m with you. And we’ll stay on air, you and me together, and we’ll learn it all’, and hopefully put it in the right context.”
“It was genuinely traumatic, and even the most senior people who have seen the worst stuff around the world were really rocked by what happened in Bondi.”
One of Australia’s foremost broadcast journalists, Usher has honed this calm and considered approach across his career as an investigate reporter, foreign correspondent and newsreader.
This month marks 10 years since Usher started with Seven, where he is now the 7NEWS chief network anchor, co-anchor of 7News Sydney and host of 7News Spotlight, roles which combine his passions for covering both breaking news and in-depth investigations.
In addition to anchoring the Bondi coverage, over the past 12 months Usher covered the mushroom murders trial, the Dezi Freeman shooting and war in the Middle East.
He also oversaw an eight-month Spotlight investigation which involved gaining unprecedented access inside a maximum security prison in NSW.
The resultant story was an incredible tale of forgiveness, capturing a meeting between grieving father Danny Abdallah and the killer of his three children and niece, Samuel Davidson.
The episode, which aired in August last year, has since been watched more than 25 million times worldwide.
“We started conversations through that story with families, who never thought they’d be sitting around a kitchen table talking about what forgiveness means, or would you do the same, how would you react as a parent, to the person who had killed your children?’” he said.
“I’m glad we were part of that conversation, and that is the power of those stories. I’m very grateful for it.”
For the second consecutive year, Usher has been recognised with a TV Week Logie nomination for the Ray Martin Award for Most Popular News Presenter.
7NEWS is also nominated in the News Coverage category for its coverage of the Bondi terror attack and the war in Iran, which Usher said was an honour for those both in front of and behind the camera.
“There are enormous teams that make it all work,” he said. “On the day of Bondi, people literally ran barefoot to work, and stayed awake for days on end . . . I’m pretty grateful when we get these nominations.”
Known as “Mush” amongst colleagues, at home his three adult children affectionately refer to their dad as “newsman.” Usher admits being a single parent has been a juggle at times, but he has learnt to merge his work life and personal life.
That might mean answering messages about what’s for dinner during ad breaks in the nightly news.
“You can’t separate the two, and I think I’m not alone in that. I’m available for work, I’m available for family,” he said.
While he lives in Sydney with kids Tom, Max and Alexandra, Usher’s parents remain in WA where he was raised and started his career.
He remembers watching foreign correspondents on TV as a child and thinking “I can do that”. It’s an attitude he attributes to his parents, both history and travel-loving school teachers, who encouraged him to chase his dreams.
“When you grow up in regional WA, the rest of the world can feel a long way away, but I was only ever led to believe that I could go and explore those places, and that anything was possible,” he said.
“There’s also a real can-do spirit in WA, we don’t have to wait until the Eastern States says yes or no.”
Usher got his start at GWN in Bunbury and Kalgoorlie in the early 1990s, the days when regional teams had to send their tapes by courier plane every afternoon in order to get to air the following day.
“The good thing about working in those areas was you had to know everyone. You’d go to the pub and the people you’re doing stories with are right next to you, the mayor, the police sergeants,” he said.
He recalled getting a phone call from some Kalgoorlie miners who were fed up waiting for a bypass road to be built, so set about building their own. Usher was there with a camera operator at 3am as they started work.
“They did it, fully bitumised, fully engineered, and they said ‘well, someone challenge us’,” he laughed. “I loved that experience (working in regional WA), it was really formative.”
Usher was headhunted by Channel 9 and moved to Sydney, where he went on to carve out a career which took him all over the world. He was on the ground for 9/11, the Queen’s funeral and the coronation of King Charles III, and said the privilege never wore off.
“I had moments where I thought ‘far out, how did I end up standing in the middle of Iraq, here I am at the base camp of Mount Everest, or the Galapagos Islands, or standing in New York as the Twin Towers collapsed, as the world is turning on its axis because of the grief and catastrophe,’” he said.
“I’ve really been mindful that where I’m standing is a long way from where I was raised and this is an extraordinary experience, good and bad, and I’m absolutely absorbing every part of it.”
Usher was in New York, covering Lleyton Hewitt’s US Open win, the day of the 9/11 attacks. He jumped into action, calling on the ability he had developed to remain calm amidst the chaos.
“I think it’s conditioned over years and years of doing this, whether it’s a world event, a catastrophe, or an amazing event like the Olympics . . . I go calm when really big things happen around me,” he said.
“It’s that instant resourcefulness to go, okay, we’ve got to tell a story. I’ve got to make this happen.”
The nature of news-telling has changed dramatically since Usher started out, and the 24/7 cycle where anyone with a phone can share content was never more telling than during Bondi.
“The very rapid speed that information is delivered on social media, through citizen journalists, some of that can be reckless, and damaging, and false.
“There is a responsibility that comes with what we do in mainstream media . . it comes with restrictions and responsibility and editorial judgment.”
Usher said the Logie nomination for the 7News team’s coverage of the event was a testament to this judgment and care.
In contrast to breaking news, Usher describes Spotlight investigations as “submarining” as they can take months to surface, but both contain the same thread that makes news so compelling.
“It’s humans, telling their story. And I’ve always really appreciated being able to tell those stories,” he said.
One such story will soon bring him home to WA. He’s eager to tell it — and all the others yet to come.
“I still haven’t told my best story,” he said. “That’s the beauty of what we do, there’s always another story to chase and people to meet and that’s what I love about it.”
Readers can vote for the TV Week Logies at tvweeklogies.com.au.
The 66th TV WEEK Logie Awards 2026 is Sunday 16 August, from 7pm on Seven and 7plus
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