Emma Alberici’s daughter Allegra McCauley, 18, banned from going within 50m of her ex-ABC star mum

The 18-year-old daughter of television presenter Emma Alberici cannot approach her mother’s home in Sydney‘s eastern suburbs as part of a restraining order taken out by police. 

Allegra McCauley, one of the former ABC journalist’s three children with ex-husband Jason McCauley, is not to go within 50m of her mother’s Coogee address or anywhere she works, court documents revealed.

Police took out an apprehended violence order on December 29 to protect 52-year-old Alberici, who was made redundant by the national broadcaster in 2020. 

The intensely private Alberici was a foreign correspondent and chief economics correspondent for the ABC where she also fronted the current affairs program Lateline for five years.

The 18-year-old daughter of television presenter Emma Alberici (above) cannot approach her mother’s home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs as part of a restraining order taken out by police

Allegra McCauley, one of the former ABC journalist’s three children with ex-husband Jason McCauley (above), is not to go within 50m of her mother’s Coogee address or workplace

She married 60 Minutes sound recordist McCauley in 2003 and the couple separated in 2016. 

Under the terms of the AVO, her daughter must not assault, threaten, stalk, harass, intimidate or recklessly destroy or damage any property belonging to Alberici.

McCauley has also been charged with destroying or damaging property worth less than $2,000 on the same day the interim AVO was issued. 

The teenager is not to contact her mother except through a lawyer and is due to appear in Waverley Local Court on January 12. 

Alberici, who was once a reporter for the Nine Network’s A Current Affair, became the ABC’s chief economics correspondent after Lateline was axed in October 2017.

The intensely private Alberici married 60 Minutes sound recordist McCauley in 2003 and the couple separated in 2016. They have two daughters and a son (all pictured)

In that role she wrote a news story for the ABC website in February 2018 which stated only one if five large Australian companies paid tax, as well as an analysis piece critical of the Coalition federal government’s proposed company tax cuts. 

Then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull attacked Alberici in parliament over the news story which he described as ‘one of the most confused and poorly researched articles I’ve seen on this topic’.

The ABC took down the story and analysis but both were edited and republished after negotiations between the broadcaster and a lawyer acting for Alberici.

Supporters of the journalist accused the ABC of buckling to pressure from Turnbull and unfairly targeting Alberici.

The ABC claimed it had identified errors or misleading statements in Alberici’s company tax cuts story and found her analysis piece lacked impartiality.

She was made redundant in 2020 and reached a settlement with the ABC after taking a complaint to the Fair Work Commission.

Alberici responded to news of that settlement in a social media post which referred to then ABC director of news Gaven Morris.

‘It is true that the ABC and I reached an agreement yesterday,’ she wrote. 

‘After 18 years of loyal service, including as one of the country’s first mother foreign correspondents (with three kids under three) I am no longer employed by them.

Under the terms of the AVO, Alberici’s  daughter must not assault, threaten, stalk, harass, intimidate or recklessly destroy or damage any of her property

‘Despite the enormous toll his actions have taken on my mental health, Gaven Morris wanted to call it a termination payout, no doubt so he could tell the world I was fired for incompetence or some such. 

‘To be crystal clear: I have never coveted the camera. I will no longer be on TV and will not accept any role if it’s offered. It is too painful to be in the public eye. For further removal of doubt, I have been made no offers from anyone in the media.’   

Since then, Alberici has worked in strategy, government relations and communications for financial comparison website Compare the Market and as a headhunter for recruitment firm Derwent. 

She is reportedly writing a memoir called Rewrite the Story and is an ambassador for the children’s cancer charity Camp Quality.