Juanita Phillips

If you are an avid news watcher, then it is very unlikely that you are not familiar with Juanita Philips. Born in Brisbane on 11 October 1963, Juanita Phillips is an Australian journalist and news presenter. She is currently with ABC as the weeknight presenter of ABC News in and evening presenter for ABC News 24.

Philips started off as a cadet journalist at The Courier-Mail, where later on she became a columnist and a feature writer. From there she moved on to TVQ-10 Brisbane and then onto Sydney to join Ron Wilson on TEN-10s Ten News First at Five. She was with Sky News Australia and then moved on to London where she worked with the BBC World News and later on at CNN International. She then returned to Australia to work as a weekend presenter of ABC News in New South Wales.

Phillips met Mario Milostic, an Australian graphic designer in 2002, at a cafe. Six weeks later, Milostic proposed to her and they got married. She is blessed with two children Marcus, eleven year old Marcus and 8 year old Mischa. After seven years of staying together, the couple separated four years ago in 2010.  While she was married to Milostic, she took a career break and nursed him through his battle of bowel cancer. She describes her divorce with her ex-husband as "really terrible". Milostic was a stay at home Dad, taking care of the family while Philips was the breadwinner. She published a book titled “A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life" where she talks about work life balance and motherhood.

Phillips, who had her first child at 40, wrote: "Yes, it is possible to have it all - just not all at the same time. If you try to have it all at the same time, you'll pay a high price. Whether you think it's worth the price - well, that's your decision alone." She has written several articles for The Bulletin, one of which is an article on Lyn White, an animal rights activist.

Philips, a single mom started seeing Greg Combet who is twice divorced, and is Federal Government Minister for Climate Change roughly a couple of years ago in 2012. Supposedly Greg who was single and lonely then, acted on a dare, and sent a mail to Philips inviting her out for dinner. Though she wasn't looking for a relationship at nearly 50, Philips now thinks the couple will grow old together! Combet and Philips traveled together for a climate change conference in Europe on a first-class government funded overseas trip, creating a controversy. 

The day Combet was facing an inquiry into government corruption; Philips was not allowed to read the ABC News bulletin to avoid conflict of interest. Combet has mentioned in an interview, how difficult it is for a federal MP to maintain a meaningful person relationship while living the life of a federal MP. On 19 November 2013 The Australian published the ABC's top salaries, according to which, Juanita Phillips’ salary is $316,000

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