Titles

“Indigenous families appeal to NT Government to keep young people out of detention”, “NT child protection workers allege unmanageable workloads putting vulnerable at risk” and “Tennant Creek night patrols begin to have effect”

Publication

AM, ABC Radio National Breakfast, ABC News Online

Year

2018

Category

Radio/Audio: News & Current Affairs

Jane Bardon’s tenacious reporting contributed to pressure on the Northern Territory and Federal Governments to respond to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children. The pressure prompted then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to visit Tennant Creek in July—making him the first PM to visit the Top End town in decades—and to promise a regional regeneration deal the following week. At the same time, the Northern Territory Government stripped the deputy chief executive of youth justice responsibilities due to ongoing problems.

Jane Bardon has been an investigative reporter and producer for newspapers, TV, radio and online at the BBC, SBS, The Age and the ABC since 1996. She won the Walkley Award for Coverage of Indigenous Affairs in 2017.

Judges’ comments:

“Taking the initiative to follow up news stories, Jane Bardon went above and beyond to shine a light on what was happening in some of the darkest shadows of her community. She also made sure to keep the people who were most at risk—the families and their loved ones—at the centre of what could very easily have been a story about a slow moving bureaucracy and haphazard response. The stories clearly indicate that change had occurred and was still occurring, driven by a reporter clearly in touch with, and passionate about, her community.”