Under Deamer's editorship, The Australian encouraged female journalists, and was the first mainstream daily newspaper to hire an Aboriginal reporter, John Newfong.

[17] In October 2011, The Australian announced that it was planning to become the first general newspaper in Australia to introduce a paywall, with the introduction of a $2.95/week charge for readers to view premium content on its website, mobile phone, and tablet apps.

[20] In October 2018, Chris Dore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, and The Sunday Times (Western Australia) was announced as taking over as editor-in-chief.

[23] Since 2019, The Australian has published an annual study, called Australia's Richest 250, which ranks the country's wealthiest people from one to 250, in order of their net worth.

Other regular sections include technology ("Australian IT"), media (edited by Darren Davidson since 2015), features, legal affairs, aviation, defence, horse-racing ("Thoroughbreds"), the arts, health, wealth, and higher education.

A traveland indulgence section is included on Saturdays, along with "The Inquirer", an in-depth analysis of major stories of the week, alongside much political commentary.

[26] The tone and nature of The Australian's coverage has changed over time, but since the late 20th century under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch and with Chris Mitchell as editor-in-chief, it has taken a markedly conservative direction.

[27] Laurie Clancy asserted in 2004 that the newspaper "is generally conservative in tone and heavily oriented toward business; it has a range of columnists of varying political persuasions, but mostly to the right.

[30] The Australian presents varying views on climate change, including articles by those who disagree with the scientific consensus, such as Ian Plimer, and those who agree, such as Tim Flannery and Bjørn Lomborg.

"[34] The Australian has been described by some media commentators and scholars as working to promote a right-wing agenda, and as a result, encouraging political polarisation in Australia.

[39] Victoria University issued a statement that "At no point does the research report claim that News Ltd publication fuelled far-right sentiment.

On the newspaper's website, a section named "Stimulus Watch", subtitled "How your Billions Are Being Spent", contained a large collection of such articles.

[50] On 18 August 2012, Hedley Thomas reported that Gillard had left her job as a partner with law firm Slater & Gordon as a direct result of a secret internal investigation in 1995 into corrupt conduct on behalf of her then-boyfriend Ralph Blewett.

[53] The Teachers Pet, an investigation into the disappearance of Lynette Dawson, is a podcast written by Hedley Thomas and Slade Gibson that ran in 2018.

It was credited with generating new leads that led to the subsequent arrest of Chris Dawson for the murder of his wife,[54] and the setting up of police enquiry Strike Force Southwood to explore claims of sexual assaults and student-teacher relationships at several Sydney high schools brought up on the podcast.

[62] Columnists include Janet Albrechtsen, Troy Bramston,[63] Henry Ergas, Ticky Fullerton, Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Adam Creighton, Robert Gottliebsen, Gideon Haigh, Paul Kelly, Chris Kenny, Brendan O'Neill, Nicolas Rothwell, Angela Shanahan,[64] Dennis Shanahan, Greg Sheridan, Judith Sloan, Cameron Stewart,[65] Peter van Onselen, Graham Richardson, Peta Credlin,[66] and Claire Lehmann.

[68] Occasional contributors include Gregory Melleuish, Kevin Donnelly, Caroline Overington, Tom Switzer, James Allan, Hal G.P.

Colebatch, Luke Slattery,[69] Noel Pearson, Bettina Arndt, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, and Lucian Boz.

[70] Contributors to The Weekend Australian Magazine and "Review" in The Weekend Australian include Phillip Adams, national art critic Christopher Allen, actor and writer Graeme Blundell, Jeremy Clarkson, Antonella Gambotto-Burke, author Trent Dalton, author Nikki Gemmell, poet Sarah Holland-Batt, and demographer Bernard Salt.

Starting in 1968, the official award had long had links to the Victorian Australia Day Council, and at the time a public perception arose that it was state-based.