Cheek Media founder and CEO Hannah Ferguson is seriously considering taking on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his inner-west Sydney seat of Grayndler at the next federal election.
Ferguson, 28, is a law graduate who has spent the last six years building and leading Cheek Media, an independent platform offering progressive commentary on news and politics.
Now, she says she’s ready to step into the political arena as an independent candidate and has been engaging with her local inner-west community to find out what issues matter to them. Ferguson had initially considered a tilt at the Senate, but says countless conversations with locals had pushed to consider the lower house.
“As a 28-year-old, Gen Z woman who has a public profile, there is a real risk in taking on the prime minister of a country,” Ferguson told Women’s Agenda.
“But the more I engaged in those conversations, the more I knew I needed to explore the question. But that wasn’t about me running in Grayndler. [It] was about is there appetite for an independent Grayndler? And ensuring that there was a legitimate understanding of the issues for the community.”
Ferguson, who was born in the electorate and currently lives there, began sending out invites to her email list of locals to come to monthly politics in the pub events. The first event was held two weeks ago, with tickets selling out in a day.
“The first question I got in that room at that community event was ‘where are you running? Are you running here?’” Ferguson says.
“[I’m] open and frank with people that I’m considering it, and getting an understanding of their prominent issues, how they’re feeling. With every community member I’ve met with, the issues [are] very similar: it is gambling, it is Gaza, it is a gas export tax, it is concern around AI regulation.”
Grayndler is considered a safe Labor seat, with Albanese holding it with a margin of 17.3 per cent. He has been the local member since 1996. In the 2025 election, the Greens’ Hannah Thomas collected 33.1 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.
Despite Albanese securing nearly 54 per cent of first preference votes at the last election, Ferguson says there is an appetite in the seat to challenge what she calls a “broken system”.
“As someone who lives in the seat of Grayndler I am frustrated — and my local representative happens to be the prime minister — but I am frustrated that I feel like we are part of a very broken system right now,” she said.
“The political party machinery was normalised in Australia for a very, very long time, but I am a firm believer that what the independents have socialised is a new idea that you can vote for someone that genuinely just reflects the community that they live in and represent.
“We need to be outside of the political establishment and challenging this broken system. But it doesn’t only look like Pauline Hanson.”
The question now is whether Ferguson’s popularity on social media will translate into the political realm, including with voters who aren’t engaged with her online profile already.
She personally has 134,000 followers on Instagram, while Cheek Media has 250,000 followers and her podcast Big Small Talk has 64,000.
“I’m meeting with community members and trying to kind of understand legitimately what the pathway looks like here,” Ferguson said.
“From my perspective, I am someone that is a really strong and proud advocate on a number of issues, and I think at a certain point, I was getting tired of talking through social media. I want to go and speak to people in my community. I want to go and do the door-knocking.
“No matter if you’re a Labor voter for 30 years or a One Nation voter. I want to speak to people that have very different viewpoints to me and understand how they’re feeling.”
Grayndler is a very different electorate to the traditionally blue-ribbon Liberal seats where independent candidates have been successful in recent elections. Ferguson believes what their success has highlighted, though, is that there is no such thing as a safe seat.
“Grayndler is a very different electorate; it’s a very progressive electorate, and there needs to be more voices putting their heads up and saying this is not good enough,” she says.
“There needs to be more people taking on those safe seats and independents challenging beyond just those Liberal heartland areas. Politicians need to understand that they should have to fight to have the privilege to represent their communities.”
At the prospect of potentially stepping away from Cheek Media, Ferguson says she has always wanted the media platform to exist outside of her. What that looks like yet in practical terms is not immediately clear.
“What’s really important to me is that Cheek is able to be a functioning media offering in Australia far beyond me,” she says.
“I want Cheek to outlive me. I think that’s really important to say, and it’s part of the reason that I’ve ensured that we’ve hired a team of journalists and a partnerships manager to continue building out what Cheek is, and so that I can step out of that.”
So can a media platform like Cheek operate independently of Ferguson?
“Cheek is not going to be some sort of arm of a campaign; it’s going to be a continuing independent media platform in Australia, and hopefully, it will criticise me too,” Ferguson says.
“I want it to be capable of sitting outside of me, [so I can] step out for a considered period of time to pursue independent politics.”
Feature image: Hanah Ferguson/supplied.