Herald journalists win major prizes at Walkley Awards

Investigative journalists Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders have won the highest honour in Australian journalism, the Gold Walkley, for revealing the nation’s most powerful union had been infiltrated by bikies and organised criminals.

The Building Bad investigation, published by The Sydney Morning Herald and its sister publication The Age, ran for several months and exposed widespread allegations of corruption and intimidation within the union. It resulted in the sacking of several high-profile union leaders, and the federal government ultimately placed the union into administration.

Ben Schneiders, Nick McKenzie and David Marin-Guzman have won the highest honour in Australian journalism, the Gold Walkley for their investigative work on Building Bad.

Herald and Age journalists claimed 10 awards in total at the 69th Walkley Awards, Australian journalism’s night of nights, after scoring 20 nominations across 16 categories – more than any other news organisation in Australia.

Held at the International Convention Centre in Sydney on Tuesday, the awards were for stories that included investigations into “forever chemicals” and a campaign by Australia’s richest person to remove portraits of herself from the National Gallery of Australia.

Investigative reporter Carrie Fellner, who was a finalist for three awards, won the print/text news report category alongside Matt Davidson, Matthew Absalom-Wong and Michael Evans for an investigation titled “The factory that contaminated the world”, which covered the unfolding environmental and health crisis of the impacts of PFAS, known as “forever chemicals”.

Fellner also won the documentary category alongside Katrina McGowan, Janine Hosking and Mat Cornwell for the iKandy Films and Stan film How To Poison A Planet.

Investigative reporter Carrie Fellner won two Walkleys for her coverage of the unfolding environmental and health crisis of the impacts of PFAS, known as “forever chemicals”.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Arts writer Linda Morris and investigative reporter Eryk Bagshaw won the specialist/beat reporting category for their work exposing mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s campaign to have a portrait removed from the National Gallery of Australia.

Investigative reporter Nick McKenzie and the broader Herald, Age, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes team responsible for the major Building Bad investigation into the CFMEU won two awards – the Gold Walkley and for best long-form current affairs story on television.

McKenzie, senior writer Michael Bachelard and 60 Minutes producer Amelia Ballinger won scoop of the year and the current affairs short (under 20 minutes) for revealing a cache of messages from then-Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo. Pezzullo was later sacked over the affair.

The Herald’s chief photographer, Nick Moir, was named press photographer of the year, while Herald cartoonist Cathy Wilcox won cartoon of the year.

Arts writer Linda Morris and investigative reporter Eryk Bagshaw won the specialist/beat reporting category for their work exposing mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s campaign to have a portrait removed from the National Gallery of Australia.

A team of Herald and Age reporters, editors, developers and designers won the explanatory journalism category for a series of interactive pieces about Olympic records, and columnist David Leser won the commentary, analysis, opinion and critique category.

Executive editor of Nine’s metro mastheads, Luke McIlveen, said the awards represented “an incredible year for the unrivalled journalism at the Herald and The Age”.

“This is deserved recognition for the journalists, editors, photojournalists and artists who serve our readers every day,” he said.

Former Herald editor Judith Whelan, who was remembered as a trailblazer for women in media after her death in June, was celebrated at Tuesday’s ceremony, which her family attended.

A commemorative video featured tributes from Herald editor Bevan Shields, former editor Lisa Davies and ABC News director Justin Stevens.

“The fact that she became editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, she was very proud of that. She regarded it, as she said, as the best business card in Australian journalism,” Whelan’s husband, Chris Henning said.

Whelan was one of only three women to helm the Herald in its 193-year history, and was also an editor of Good Weekend for seven years. Her executive roles at the ABC included head of specialist content and director of regional and local.

Walkley Foundation chief executive Shona Martyn said the quality of the more than 1100 entries submitted proved the “excellence of Australia’s leading journalists”.

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