Decorated journalists call for Walkleys overhaul amid board stoush

A war has broken out in the body overseeing Australia’s most prestigious media awards show, with a list of the country’s most decorated journalists, including nine Gold Walkley winners, calling for an overhaul of the Walkley Foundation days before half its board resigned.

Journalists including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Nick McKenzie and Kate McClymont, The Australian’s Hedley Thomas, The Australian Financial Review’s Neil Chenoweth, former Press Gallery veteran Laurie Oakes and 11 others have co-signed a letter supporting a push to have more independent directors on the board of the Walkley Foundation.

Winners at the 69th Walkley Awards in December.Credit:

The letter, sent on February 10, was addressed to the then-six directors on the foundation’s board, three of whom were representatives from the media union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. On Friday, the union representatives on the board – Karen Percy, Kate Ferguson and Erin Delahunty – all abruptly resigned from their positions with the MEAA and, therefore, the Walkley Foundation.

It’s expected the ABC’s Michael Slezak will be appointed president and The Age’s Bianca Hall will be the incoming vice-president, after the pair were recommended by the union’s national committee, however, neither appointment has been formalised. If approved by the board, both would join the board of the Walkley Foundation, with the third director still an unknown.

The push to overhaul the governance of the Walkley Foundation is significant and follows a two-year process examining ways to strengthen the corporate governance of its board, a statement by the three non-union directors who remain on the board said on Friday.

The call for the overhaul has been led by those directors – the ABC’s Adele Ferguson, who is chair of the board, journalist Victoria Laurie and former ABC journalist Sally Neighbour – who are asking for an additional two independent directors to be added to the board to dilute the union’s voting control over the board.

They said the proposal, put forward in December, was rejected by the union. However, the union in its response on Monday said it did not explicitly refuse the proposal and instead requested further explanation on why an overhaul was necessary.

The Walkley Foundation was founded a decade ago by the MEAA, while the Walkley Awards have been a union-controlled entity for 70 years. The Walkley Foundation board is separate to the Walkley Advisory Board, which is responsible for overseeing the judging for the awards.

The foundation board was described to this masthead as fractious and “dysfunctional”, with battle lines drawn between the union and independent members.

The group of journalists behind the letter said a proposal to amend the Walkley Foundation’s constitution, to require the majority of board directors to be independent, was “both overdue and essential”.

“We note that the Corporate Governance Council of the ASX recommends, in its outline of best practice governance for not-for-profits in Australia, that ‘a majority of the board should be independent directors’,” the letter said.

While the Walkley Foundation faced a number of present and material challenges, the make-up of the board was not one of them, a statement from the union said in response on Monday morning.

“Newly elected MEAA leaders will take up their positions on the board imminently, and we invite the other directors of the Walkley Foundation – as we did some months ago – to meet with MEAA’s elected journalist leaders to explain the rationale for their proposed changes,” the union said.

Union members have also said privately that the Walkley Foundation’s constitution was enshrined to ensure the body remains operated by journalists, for journalists. The two directors put forward in the overhaul proposal to join the board do not come from media backgrounds, this masthead was told.

The Walkley Foundation concluded a review into its sponsorship policies in 2024 and opted not to renew its partnership with Ampol, after protests from a number of high-profile cartoonists in 2023.

Updating its sponsorship policies, the foundation says it no longer accepts money from companies or individuals “that it deems to pose a significant reputational risk due to the nature of their dealings that offer no tangible benefit to humanity”.

The union also passed a resolution calling for ethical reporting in the Israel-Gaza conflict in late-2023, which was understood to have received some opposition at the time, however has not proven a lingering issue.

Other journalist signatories of the letter included former journalists and Walkley Foundation chairs Quentin Dempster and Marina Go, Gold Walkley winners Chris Masters, Paul Bailey, Sue Spencer, Pamela Williams, former Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes and others.

“While we acknowledge and respect the important role of MEAA in supporting and promoting the Walkley Awards throughout their history, we believe it is critical to expand and diversify the board to ensure it has the skills and expertise needed to take the Walkleys into the future,” the letter said.

“A majority of independent directors will ensure that the board is fully aligned with both the spirit
of journalism and best practice in the modern world.”

A statement was issued to union members on Friday afternoon, confirming that the three directors, including Percy, the national president, and Delahunty, the deputy president, had abruptly resigned.

No official explanation has been given yet for the reason behind their exits.

*The letter attached contains a typo. It marks the letter with the date February 10, 2024, when the letter was, in fact, sent on February 10, 2025.

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