Award-winning journalists to undertake special investigations

THE Australian's editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell and editor Paul Whittaker announce the formation of a national investigations team.

THE Australian's editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell and editor Paul Whittaker announce the formation of a national investigations team.

The team, which is intended to leverage the newspaper's story-breaking credentials, will be led by national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas, a five-time Walkley Award winner, including a Gold Walkley in 2007 for exposing the injustices suffered by Mohamed Haneef. And it includes some of Australia's most accomplished journalists: Rory Callinan, Michael McKenna and Natasha Robinson.

Callinan, an award-winning investigative reporter and former Time magazine staff writer, is a winner of the UN Association of Australia Media Peace Award for his expose of trafficked Indian children adopted to Australia and a four-time Walkley finalist for reports on the war on terror and controversial training methods at the Australian Institute of Sport.

McKenna, a former Canberra press gallery journalist and US correspondent, was a 2009 Walkley finalist and a Queensland Journalist of the Year for reports exposing abuse by police of Taser guns.

Robinson is a relentless investigator whose reports on accused Serbian war criminal Captain Dragan Vasiljkovic culminated in him being ordered to be extradited from Australia to face trial in Croatia.

Mitchell and Whittaker said The Australian was continuing to invest in serious journalism at a time when other media were retreating from reporting that was challenging and expensive. '

'The Australian has a proud record of investigative journalism and we are now building on that with a dedicated team of first-rate reporters who will have a wide remit," they said.