Samantha Maiden wins at Kennedy Awards for Brittany Higgins coverage

News.com.au’s National Political Editor Samantha Maiden has been recognised for breaking the Brittany Higgins story at the 10th annual Kennedy awards.

News.com.au’s National Political Editor Samantha Maiden has been recognised for her outstanding work breaking the Brittany Higgins story at the 10th annual Kennedy Awards in Sydney on Thursday night.

Maiden won Journalist of the Year, Scoop of the Year, Outstanding Political Reporting and Outstanding Investigative Journalism at the awards which honour excellence in journalism.

She was nominated in five categories, including Journalist of the Year, Outstanding Online News Breaking, Scoop of the Year, Outstanding Investigative Journalism and Outstanding Political Reporting.

It’s not the first time Maiden’s work telling Higgins’ story has been recognised – her coverage also won the Our Watch Award at the 2021 Mid-Year Walkleys in June.

Maiden was also named Journalist of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards in September and took out Single Article of the Year for her report on Higgins.

She is also a finalist in two categories at the 2021 Walkley Awards For Excellence in Journalism, Scoop of the Year, for her original Higgins exclusive, and Coverage of a Major Event or Issue. The Walkley Award winners will be announced at a gala in Tamworth in February.

News.com.au's National Political Editor Samantha Maiden. Picture: News Corp

Brittany Higgins pictured speaking to media after a meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

News.com.au published the first exclusive interview with the former Liberal staffer at 7am on February 15.

The story included three major revelations: the allegation of a rape at Parliament, the pressure the Liberal staffer felt she was under not create “trouble” in the lead up to an election and the extraordinary decision of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds to hold a formal employment meeting with the alleged victim in the room where she said the incident occurred.

This decision led to an immediate public apology from a “shattered” Prime Minister.

Maiden then followed up with a string of further scoops. At 10.30pm on February 15, she revealed that Parliament’s cleaners had been sent in after Brittany Higgins was found in the office and that a secret AFP investigation had been conducted into the office clean up.

Then, at 1.20pm on February 17, Maiden revealed the voicemail message that Michaelia Cash left for Ms Higgins years earlier, urging her to “sleep tight” as the government had her story “under control”.

Maiden’s news-breaking helped spark multiple inquiries, including internal reviews into the workplace culture at Parliament House and who knew what in the Prime Minister’s office. Her exclusive stories also sparked global headlines as the story was followed by CNN, the BBC, The New York Times and The Times in London.

In August, ACT police charged a Queensland man with sex without consent in relation to this matter. He has pleaded not guilt but has been committed to a trial in the Supreme Court.