The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have claimed several honours at the Kennedy Awards for excellence in journalism, including investigative reporter Nick McKenzie winning the journalist of the year for a second time.
More than 400 people gathered at Royal Randwick in Sydney for a gala dinner on Friday night, where the awards honoured 34 categories. McKenzie took out the award after winning before in 2020.
McKenzie and Joel Tozer also won the outstanding finance reporting award for both mastheads and 60 Minutes following their investigation into Star Entertainment, owner of The Star Sydney casino, enabling suspected money laundering by drug syndicates and Chinese high rollers.
Tozer and Adele Ferguson claimed the outstanding consumer affairs reporting award for Bad Look: Exposing the dark underbelly of the cosmetic surgery industry, also on 60 Minutes.
Ferguson, Lauren Day and Klaus Toft won the outstanding investigative reporting honour for Cosmetic Cowboys, a joint production for the ABC’s Four Corners and Nine publications.
Megan Herbert from The Age won the Vince O’Farrell Award for outstanding cartoon for “Big week for SCOTUS”, after the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade ruling that gave women the constitutional right to abortion.
Tim Elliott from Good Weekend won the Jim Oram Award for outstanding feature writing for Knives Out, a profile that probed the fantastical life of celebrity chef Jock Zonfrillo.
The Herald’s state political editor Alexandra Smith and state political reporter Lucy Cormack claimed the outstanding political reporting award for their coverage of the John Barilaro’s New York trade posting saga.
The Age’s editor Gay Alcorn said it was pleasing to have the masthead’s journalists feature prominently given the awards were NSW-based.
“The winning work showed courage, persistence and creativity,” Alcorn said.
“The Age’s Nick McKenzie is one of the finest journalists of his generation and his Kennedy Journalist of the Year award – for the second time – is well deserved.”
Channel Seven sports commentator Bruce McAvaney was honoured with the outstanding lifetime achievement award.
The awards are named in honour of Sydney crime reporter Les Kennedy, who died in 2011 at the age of 53.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.