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Natasha Bita is a multi-award winning journalist with a focus on free speech, education, social affairs, aged care, health policy, immigration, industrial relations and consumer law. She has won a Walkley Award, Australia’s most prestigious journalism award, and a Queensland Clarion Award for feature writing. Natasha has also been a finalist for the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award and the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her reporting on education issues has won the NSW Professional Teachers’ Council Media Award and an Australian Council for Educational Leaders award. Her agenda-setting coverage of aged care abuse won an Older People Speak Out award. Natasha worked in London and Italy for The Australian newspaper and News Corp Australia. She is a member of the Canberra Press Gallery and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Contact her by email natasha.bita@news.com.au

@natasha_bita

Natasha Bita

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sanctionsEducation

26/6/24: Jewish Sydney University student at the Quadrangle who is considering transferring UniversityÃ¢â¬â¢s following USYD deal with Muslim Students Association, which has been linked with Hizb ut Tahrir. John Feder/The Australian.

Unis agree on anti-Semitism policy

Academics and students who attack Zionism can be sanctioned for anti-Semitism under a common definition approved by 30 Australian universities on Tuesday night to protect Jewish Australians.

Natasha Bita

Solutions summitPolitics

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney gestures during a discussion with former Australian Ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos and The Australian’s editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn at the Universities Australia conference in Canberra on February 25, 2025. Picture: Universities Australia / X

Former adviser’s White House intel on tariffs

Donald Trump’s first-term White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has given hope on tariff exemptions, noting that the US Defence Department needs to buy raw materials from Australia.

Joanna Panagopoulos and Natasha Bita

Solutions SummitHigher Education

25-02-2025 - Vice chancellor of University of Technoloy Sydney Catherine Livingstone speaks at the Universities Australia Solutions Summit at the National Convention Centre in Canberra.

Give us money earmarked for roads, say ‘entitled’ unis

Cash-strapped universities will urge governments to siphon spending from roads to research, claiming they need billions of dollars in bonus taxpayer funding for teaching and research.

Natasha Bita

Research fundingHigher Education

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, NCA NewsWire, Wednesday, 28 September 2022.Western Sydney University Chancellor Peter Shergold photographed speaking at the Inaugural James Martin Institute Oration at Western Sydney University Parramatta.NSW Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Knives out for research grants red tape

Red tape for research grants will be cut as the Australian Research Council backs ‘riskier’ projects.

Natasha Bita

ExclusiveNation

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 07: Senator Lidia Thorpe addresses the crowd on October 07, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. With Australia's historic referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament just a week away, activity in the leadup to it has been at fever pitch in both the YES and NO camps. The Stop Black Deaths In Custody events were held against the backdrop of the referendum, which will take place on Oct. 14. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Lidia Thorpe demands ‘blak sovereignty’ land grab

The Senator has urged Indigenous Australians to plant the Aboriginal flag on land and make white people pay to visit to ‘assert sovereignty’ over Australia | LISTEN

Natasha Bita

EducationNation

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos FEBRUARY 20, 2025: DEputy Premier Prue Car speaks duringQuestion Time in NSW Legislative Assembly. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Higher goals for schools, students

Australia’s biggest schooling system has set higher targets for academic performance and school retention, with NSW Education Minister Prue Car setting two-year NAPLAN goals.

Natasha Bita

ExclusiveEducation

Caption: Tom Habtewold, Restaurant Manager at McDonald’s Kellyville. Photo: Henrique Fanti.

Macca’s puts uni credits on menu for staff

Flipping burgers can count towards a uni degree, through a work-study scheme for the fast-food industry that is breaking down the barriers between academic study and on-the-job training.

Natasha Bita

INQUIRERInquirer