Using up-to-the-minute facial recognition technology and geographical location indicators, the Four Corners team forensically analysed hundreds of hours of covert vision to piece together a picture of the extent of greyhound trainers’ involvement in the cruel and illegal practice of live baiting. Obtaining remarkable interviews, including candid admissions from racing industry insiders, the team proved that things were rotten in the greyhound racing industry in Australia.

Caro Meldrum-Hanna is a reporter with ABC TV’s Four Corners program. Before joining Four Corners in 2014, Meldrum-Hanna reported from 2011 to 2013 for the ABC’s 7.30, where she was nominated for six Walkley Awards, winning two. In 2015 Meldrum-Hanna was named NSW Journalist of the Year by the Kennedy Foundation for her body of work on Four Corners.

Sam Clark is a senior producer at the ABC’s National Reporting Team in Melbourne. Prior to joining the ABC in 2013, he worked as a producer at The Project on Network Ten where he won a Walkley in 2012, along with journalist Hamish Macdonald, for a series of stories on an Indonesian child improperly jailed in an Australian adult prison. Clark also won the 2014 Walkley for daily current affairs television, along with The Age’s Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, for stories about corruption inside the CFMEU.

Max Murch is a freelance journalist. He joined Four Corners in 2012 and again in 2014 where he worked on programs that won four Kennedy Awards and two Quill Awards. He’s also worked at ABC Lateline, RN Breakfast and ABC Fact Check. Outside the ABC he’s worked on independent documentaries. This is Murch’s first Walkley.

Judges’ comments:

“Making a Killing” exposes greyhound racing’s ugly secret: it has long relied on live “kills” and baiting in training to encourage dogs to race fiercely. It took bravery, tenacity and months of planning in three states to produce a jaw-dropping report that has shaken not just the greyhound code but the entire racing industry.
The same story in the hands of another journalist wouldn’t have been the same.