All Media - Coverage of Indigenous Affairs -Winner

Tony Koch, The Australian, "Bloody Disgrace: Saga is State’s Worst Injustice"

Since November 2004, when he was sent to cover rioting on Palm Island in the wake of Mulrunji Doomadgee’s death in custody, Tony Koch has championed this story.

With many years of experience reporting Indigenous issues, Koch covered the lengthy inquest in forensic detail and was instrumental in bringing Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley to court.

The pressure he placed on the Queensland government prompted the then premier, Peter Beattie, to announce a major reform in the way deaths in custody are treated and investigated.

Tony Koch started out as a shorthand court reporter in Brisbane before joining Queensland Country Life as a journalist in 1976. He spent 22 years at The Courier-Mail and co-authored Joh’s K.O. (Boolarong), a book chronicling the Coalition split in 1983. Koch is now chief reporter with The Australian in Queensland.

Among his dozens of awards, Koch’s series of reports on this story have already won him the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year for 2007. This is Koch’s fourth Walkley, including an outstanding contribution to journalism award in 1999.

Judges’ comments

Tony Koch captured the tragedy of a family, the challenge of authority and the plight of a people. He reported with empathy and outrage. He reported with courage. He demanded answers and asked one question of all of us: what is the life of a black man worth in Australia in 2007?

Koch’s commentary is short but strong. He is the owner of this story and in the 12 months since he broke the story, he maintained the hammer blows, maintained the rage. There is no doubt Koch’s stories got under Beattie’s skin.