Radio - Radio Current Affairs Reporting - Winner

Anne Barker, AM, PM and The World Today, ABC Radio, "NT Intervention"

When the federal government staged its intervention in Central Australia’s stricken Indigenous communities in July, Anne Barker was there to provide exhaustive coverage.

As ABC Radio’s current affairs correspondent for the Northern Territory, Barker worked nearly 100 hours in the first week alone, covering every facet of the story.

Barker’s reports – on alcohol, police, housing, remote doctors, the threat of bankruptcy at Mutitjulu and the Indigenous communities’ fears that their children would be taken away – led other media’s coverage on this issue.

As NT correspondent, Barker’s beat includes everything from Aboriginal affairs to cyclones, crocodiles and cane toads. She has been with the ABC for nearly two decades since she joined the Melbourne newsroom as a radio cadet, straight out of university. Barker has spent time in the Canberra press gallery and has had assignments in East Timor, Indonesia and Fiji. She has previously been a Walkley finalist in radio news and radio features, but this is her first Walkley win.

Judges’ comments

Barker is a very good reporter, and in terms of current affairs her work here is comprehensive, dispassionate and informative.

She uses the medium with skill, including sound to create compelling radio. An outstanding breadth of coverage, leading the news through days of reporting from the most remote areas of the country through logistical difficulties.