The Walkley Foundataion an Alliance Initiative

Meet the Walkley Advisory Board

The Walkley Advisory Board is drawn from senior leaders in the Australian media

• Laurie Oakes, Chair

  Laurie Oakes, one of Australia's foremost political commentators, has had a distinguished career in journalism that spans more than 30 years. His incisive political commentary... read more

• Malcolm Schmidtke

  Malcolm Schmidtke is managing editor (business) at The Herald Sun. Previously he was editor of The Sunday Age, editor of The Australian, deputy editor of The Age and a deputy ... read more

• Gay Alcorn

  Gay Alcorn began her career in Queensland, and joined The Sunday Age before its launch in 1989. She worked as the Darwin correspondent for four years, and was The Age's Washin... read more

• Mike Carlton

  Mike Carlton is one of Australia's best known broadcasters and journalists. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he has been a news reporter and editor, a TV and radio anc... read more

• Helen Dalley

  Helen Dalley is one of Australia’s most experienced and highly respected journalists and interviewers. Helen is a Walkley award-winning television journalist &nd... read more

• John Donegan

  Dual Walkley winning photographer John Donegan has been picture editor of both the Melbourne Herald Sun and The Sunday Age. He held these positions between bouts of freelancin... read more

• David Higgins

  David Higgins is one of Australia’s most experienced digital journalists. He has edited the flagship websites for News Limited (News.com.au) and Fairfax (smh.com.au... read more

• Peter Meakin

  Born in England, Peter Meakin, the Seven Network's Director of News and Public Affairs, moved to Australia via Brazil and Singapore with his family in the 1950s. He started wo... read more

• Hedley Thomas

  Hedley Thomas is The Australian’s national chief correspondent. He writes across the newspaper, specialising in investigative reporting with a particular interest in... read more

• Liz Jackson

  Liz Jackson graduated with first class honours in philosophy and literature from Melbourne University, before qualifying as a Barrister-at-Law from Gray’s Inn, Londo... read more

• Narelle Hooper

  Narelle Hooper is editor of the Australian Financial Review BOSS Magazine. Narelle has reported on Australian business and financial markets for nearly 20 years across print ... read more

• Laurie Oakes, Chair

  Back to Top
  

  Laurie Oakes, one of Australia's foremost political commentators, has had a distinguished career in journalism that spans more than 30 years.

  His incisive political commentary - such as the Oakes Report - and news-breaking ability has earned him the respect of peers and politicians alike and in 1998 he won the Walkley Award for Journalistic Leadership.

  Oakes is renowned for his probing interviews and Canberra-shaking scoops. In 1997 he broke the travel rorts saga that ended the careers of three ministers and government staffers. He also scored an exclusive interview on Sunday with one of the "Travelgate" affair's surprise victims — John Howard's close friend and senior adviser, Graham Morris.

  Oakes graduated from Sydney University in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He joined The Daily Mirror the following year and in 1965 became state political roundsman.

  By the age of 25, he was The Melbourne Sun-Pictorial's Canberra bureau chief. While reporting for this paper, Oakes also provided political commentaries for the Seven Network's Willesee At Seven program.

  In 1978 he started his own political journal, The Laurie Oakes Report. The following year he joined Channel 10, where he stayed for five years before moving to the Nine Network.

  For several years Oakes wrote about politics in The Age in Melbourne and The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney and provided political reports and commentaries to a number of radio stations.

  Laurie Oakes is also a highly regarded political author, and has written a biography on Gough Whitlam and recently released Power Plays. Oakes presents “The Oakes Report”, a weekly political interview on Today, and files reports for Nine News and Today.

  Please note, Laurie abstained from taking part in the board judging for the 2010 Walkley Awards, as he had entered his own work for consideration.

• Malcolm Schmidtke

  Back to Top
  

  Malcolm Schmidtke is managing editor (business) at The Herald Sun.

  Previously he was editor of The Sunday Age, editor of The Australian, deputy editor of The Age and a deputy editor of The Australian Financial Review.

  He was a Walkley award-winner in 2004, together with Gay Alcorn and Liz Minchin, for a feature on former Opposition leader Mark Lathham.

• Gay Alcorn

  Back to Top
  

  Gay Alcorn began her career in Queensland, and joined The Sunday Age before its launch in 1989. She worked as the Darwin correspondent for four years, and was The Age's Washington correspondent from 1999-2002, where she covered both the 2000 presidential election and the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

  She has won three Walkley awards, the latest in 2004 when she was part of the investigative unit which profiled former ALP leader Mark Latham. Her other Walkleys were for news and feature writing.

  Gay was appointed Sunday Age editor in March 2008 after two years in the position of deputy editor for The Age.

• Mike Carlton

  Back to Top
  

  Mike Carlton is one of Australia's best known broadcasters and journalists.

  In a career spanning more than 40 years, he has been a news reporter and editor, a TV and radio anchor, foreign correspondent, newspaper columnist, humorist and satirist.

  Mike recently retired from the Radio 2UE Breakfast Show. He resumes writing a weekly column for the Sydney Morning Herald in mid-October 2009, and is soon to publish a history of the World War II cruiser HMAS Perth and her crew.

• Helen Dalley

  Back to Top
  

  Helen Dalley is one of Australia’s most experienced and highly respected journalists and interviewers. Helen is a Walkley award-winning television journalist – as a reporter, interviewer and presenter on the Nine Network for two decades.

  Helen was a senior reporter, and alternate host on the well-regarded, agenda-setting Sunday program for 16 years. Helen hosted the Nine Network’s continuous coverage of the 2003 Iraq War and the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Her work has also featured on 60 Minutes and A Current Affair.

  Helen was also a founding member of Nine Network's Business Sunday as a reporter and occasional presenter. She has hosted Today, A Current Affair Summer Edition, Today On Saturday, Nightline, and has played a major role in Nine's Federal Election coverage. She has also won the United Nations' Media Peace Award.

  Helen now works with Sky News, as Host of the Sky News Late Agenda and Sky News Business Business View programs. She also played a major role in Sky News' coverage fo the 2007 and 2010 federal elections.

   

   

• John Donegan

  Back to Top
  

  Dual Walkley winning photographer John Donegan has been picture editor of both the Melbourne Herald Sun and The Sunday Age. He held these positions between bouts of freelancing, based at various times in London, Jerusalem and Darwin.

  After a decade at The Age, Donegan is freelancing again and is now based in Sydney where he launched 1826 Media in 2009.

  He joined the Walkley Foundation in 2010, after serving as a judge of the photography categories in 2009.

   

   

   

• David Higgins

  Back to Top

  David Higgins is one of Australia’s most experienced digital journalists.
  

  He has edited the flagship websites for News Limited (News.com.au) and Fairfax (smh.com.au) and is currently News Limited’s Innovations editor, responsible for the development of next-generation digital news products.
  

  David began his career with News Limited as a journalist at The Australian before moving to The Sydney Morning Herald in 1997.
  

  In 2007 he returned to News as editor of News.com.au, doubling site traffic to 5.4 million Australians. During his editorship News.com.au was named Australia’s fastest growing brand by GPY&R and the newspaper website of the year by the PANPA industry organisation.
  

  A two-time Walkley Award finalist, David covered technology, business and general news as a reporter. He is a former SMH deputy chief of staff and was the founding editor of the paper’s BIZ.com and Radar sections.
  

  David holds an MBA from the University of Technology, Sydney. He is a past member of the PANPA Digital Advisory Board and the Advisory Board of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.

   

• Peter Meakin

  Back to Top
  

  Born in England, Peter Meakin, the Seven Network's Director of News and Public Affairs, moved to Australia via Brazil and Singapore with his family in the 1950s.

  He started work in Adelaide as a copy boy on The Advertiser in 1959, switching to television in 1966 as news director at SES-8 Mt Gambier. The following year he moved to TVW-7 Perth and in 1969 was appointed news director at TEN-10 Sydney.

  Peter became involved with the Nine Network in 1973, working for Mike Willesee's Transmedia on A Current Affair. He became Chief of Production for 60 Minutes in 1979, then Joint Executive Producer of Willesee in 1984 before his appointment as Director of Current Affairs for the Nine Network in 1987.

  Following this, he also worked as Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, Sunday and Business Sunday and took up the position of Director of News and Current Affairs for Nine in 1993.

  In November 2002, Peter was awarded a prestigious Walkley Award for Journalism Leadership and in April 2003, The Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society in the Presentation of News and Current Affairs.

  In May 2003, Peter Meakin joined the Seven Network as Director of News and Public Affairs.

• Hedley Thomas

  Back to Top

  Hedley Thomas is The Australian’s national chief correspondent. He writes across the newspaper, specialising in investigative reporting with a particular interest in legal issues, the judiciary, public administration, corruption and politics.

  Hedley, 43, first joined The Australian in 2006 after working for The Courier-Mail, The South China Morning Post and the Gold Coast Bulletin. 

  He is the author of Sick to Death, a book revolving around surgeon Dr Jayant Patel who was tried for manslaughter and grievous bodily harm in Brisbane after working as a director of surgery in Queensland.  Dr Patel was convicted in July 2010. Hedley was responsible for uncovering his appalling background, leading to a public outcry and the criminal prosecution.

  Hedley has won five Walkley awards including the Gold Walkley, in 2007, for his investigations into the fiasco surrounding the Australian Federal Police investigations of Dr Mohamed Haneef. Hedley is based in the Brisbane Bureau of The Australian, which he returned to in early 2010 after a two year stint in investor relations and media for a resources company.

• Liz Jackson

  Back to Top

  Liz Jackson graduated with first class honours in philosophy and literature from Melbourne University, before qualifying as a Barrister-at-Law from Gray’s Inn, London. On her return to Australia in 1983 she worked as a legal adviser in the NSW Premier’s Department before joining the ABC in 1986. At ABC Radio she presented the Coming Out Show, the Law Report and Background Briefing before joining ABC TV's Four Corners program as a reporter in 1993. She has worked at Four Corners from then till the present, apart from presenting ABC TV’s Media Watch show in 2005. Throughout her career Liz Jackson has won numerous awards including three Logies and eight Walkley awards for excellence in journalism, including the Gold Walkley award in 2006.

  Liz Jackson is married with two children.

   

• Narelle Hooper

  Back to Top
  

  Narelle Hooper is editor of the Australian Financial Review BOSS Magazine. Narelle has reported on Australian business and financial markets for nearly 20 years across print and electronic media and is a former senior writer with the Australian Financial Review. She has worked as finance correspondent with ABC Radio's current affairs programs AM and PM, presenter of the weekly Business Report on Radio National and co-presented SBS TV's The Business Show. She previously reported on federal politics with BRW Magazine from Canberra.

  Narelle grew up in country NSW and studied journalism at Canberra University. She has a Masters of Management (Financial Management) from Macquarie Graduate School of Management.