Our Team

James DowlingScience and Health Reporter

James Dowling is a reporter in The Australian’s Sydney bureau. As an intern at The Age he was nominated for a Quill award for News Reporting in Writing for his coverage of the REDcycle recycling scheme. When covering health he writes on medical innovations and industry.

James Dowling

Latest

defenceDefence

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, NewsWire Photos. FEBRUARY 8, 2024: Shadow Minister for Defence, Andrew Hastie holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Hastie’s views on women in combat ‘untenable’

Labor says opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie should be stripped of his portfolio after he refused to walk away from past comments on women in combat roles.

Ben Packham and James Dowling

inquestLegal Affairs

Shopping centre security to face inquest scrutiny

Almost one year on from the Bondi Junction massacre, owners and security subcontractors who operated the Westfield shopping centre are primed to face criticism.

James Dowling

BennelongPolitics

Scott Yung , THE LIBERAL who came close to unseating Kogarah MP Chris Minns in 2019 has declared he can Ãknock outÃ the Labor Leader at the election if he is given the opportunity to run.Chinese-Australian Scott Yung eroded Mr MinnsÃ primary vote lead to just 69 votes last election, before the Labor Leader won on preferences with a margin of 1.8 per cent.But boundary changes have now put Kogarah on a knife edge, reducing the margin to just 0.1 per centPicture: Jeremy Piper

Embattled candidate keeps quiet

The Liberal Party favourite in the race to secure the country’s most marginal electorate has refused to answer questions on a potential breach of state electoral law.

James Dowling

Coronial inquestNation

Australian businessman John Singleton (right) has spoken out nearly a year after his daughter, Dawn (left) , was killed in the Bondi Junction stabbing attack. Picture: 60 Minutes

John Singleton slammed by daughter over Bondi stabbing inquest interview

The sister of Bondi Junction massacre victim Dawn Singleton has slammed her father, prominent adman John Singleton, over his 60 Minutes interview, saying he hadn’t seen Dawn ‘since she was 8’.

James Dowling

Hospital walkoutsMedical

Doctors in NSW have announced that there will be strike action this week. Pictured from the instagram page of Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF). Picture: FacebookSource https://www.facebook.com/asmofnsw

‘It’s not too late to negotiate’: minister’s plea to doctors

The Minns government has pleaded for doctors to step back from threatened strikes exposing the fault lines through NSW’s public hospital system and its chronic workforce shortages.

James Dowling

Anti-Semitism forumPolitics

Teal MP faces down rival at Jewish forum

A month after threatening to take their campaign race to court, Allegra Spender has debated Liberal candidate Ro Knox at a Jewish forum in Sydney.

James Dowling

Election 2025Politics

Cunningham United Australia Party UAP candidate Benjamin Britton. Thursday, May 6, 2022. Picture: Dylan Arvela

Whitlam candidate dumped from Lib ticket

Liberal candidate Benjamin Britton has been disendorsed and replaced after old interviews were uncovered in which he railed against women enlisting in the ADF and opposed Covid lockdowns.

James Dowling

Universal dental careMedical

(L-R) Greens candidate for Macnamara Sonya Semmens, Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt, Greens candidate for Wills Samantha Ratnam and Victorian Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May pose for a photograph during a press conference advocating for the inclusion of dental care in Medicare at Luna Park in Melbourne, Melbourne, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AAP Image/Nadir Kinani) NO ARCHIVING

ALP can’t handle the tooth, says Bandt

Dentists appeal for gradual reform away from Medicare as Labor manoeuvres towards a soft stance on universal dental care access and the Greens turn up the pressure.

James Dowling

BennelongPolitics

NCA 2025 Federal Election Liberal Bus 04/04/2025Sydney AustraliaLeader of the Australian Liberal party Peter Dutton visits a petrol station in Carlingford in Sydney to discuss fuel prices on the campaign trail for the 2025 federal election.Picture Thomas Lisson / NewsWire

Lib candidate nowhere to be seen amid scrutiny of possible guideline breach

Bennelong candidate Scott Yung was absent from campaign events on Friday after acknowledging he used undeclared campaign advertising in 2019.

James Dowling

ExclusiveNation

Liberal candidate denies past disclosure breach

The Liberal candidate for Sydney’s marginal Bennelong, Scott Yung, endorsed by Peter Dutton, contracted advertising help in a past campaign without informing electoral authorities.

James Dowling

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/james-dowling/page/2