Walkley Awards cut ties with fossil fuel company Ampol

The nation’s most prestigious journalism awards has cut ties with Ampol, and will only partner with sponsors who offer a ‘tangible benefit to humanity’.

The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism trophies.

The nation’s most prestigious media awards, the Walkleys, and its principal sponsor, Ampol, have agreed to end their controversial two-year commercial arrangement, with the journalism prize body demanding that any future corporate collaborations must involve partners who offer a “tangible benefit to humanity”.

Ampol’s sponsorship deal with the Walkleys is due to expire in October, and will not be renewed, it was announced on Thursday.

The Australian understands that neither Ampol, nor the Walkleys, wished to renegotiate the deal, given the negative publicity that the sponsorship attracted for both parties.

For Ampol, the sponsorship soured last August when a group of cartoonists and journalists publicly announced they were withdrawing their entries to the Walkleys because of the awards body’s ties to the fossil fuel company, and associated concerns over climate change.

Sydney Morning Herald and Age cartoonist Cathy Wilcox and Canberra Times cartoonist David Pope wrote to the Walkley Foundation last year, raising their concerns about Ampol’s sponsorship.

“The fossil fuel industry uses its sponsorship of our sporting teams and cultural events to build a ­social license and distract attention from its role in heating the planet and delaying the transition to renewable energy,” the letter said.

Among those to withdraw their Walkley entries to last year’s awards were cartoonists Fiona Katauskas, David Blumenstein and Glen Le Lievre, while Matt Golding, David Rowe and First Dog on The Moon said they would not enter.

The situation flared further last September when The Sydney Morning Herald published a story quoting from a 1961 newspaper column by Sir William Gaston Walkley – the founder of the Walkley Awards and the one-time chairman of Ampol – who wrote that Australia could one day “cease to become a white man’s country”.

The Walkley Foundation Board revised its sponsorship policy in light of the Ampol controversy, with the new guidelines – announced earlier this year – stating that sponsors must not “pose a significant reputational risk due to the nature of their dealings that offer no tangible benefit to humanity.”

It is understood that the Walkley Foundation is still looking for a major sponsor to replace Ampol.

Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown labelled the foundation’s handling of the sponsorship situation as “shameful” and said many of his fellow cartoonists “look like a pack of imbeciles.”

DDaily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“For Christ’s sake, we draw funny pictures for a living and pillory people and what cartoonists are doing is cruelling it for other cartoonists,” he said.

“They’re biting the hand that feeds them.

“How are they going to get to the Walkleys, in a Tesla or on a solar-powered pogo stick?”

Veteran political correspondent Laurie Oakes branded the boycott as “dangerous”.

“Journalism in Australia is ­already in trouble in terms of losing public trust and this is likely to make that worse,” Oakes said.

In a statement on Thursday, the Walkleys Foundation thanked Ampol for its support. “Ampol’s multifaceted support of the Walkley Foundation has assisted with archiving decades of groundbreaking stories and photographs,” said the foundation’s chief executive officer Shona Martyn.

A spokesman for Ampol said: “Ampol has a long history with the Walkley Foundation, which stretches back to the inception of their annual Awards.

“More recently as a platinum partner, Ampol was proud to support the Walkley Opportunity Scholarships initiative to provide opportunities in journalism for individuals from socio-economically disadvantaged communities.”

The Walkley Awards were founded in 1956.