The June Andrews Award for Industrial Relations Reporting is an all-media award recognising outstanding journalism which captures the importance of a robust industrial relations ecosystem for Australian workers and businesses, as well as its complexities.

The award seeks to elevate the importance of industrial relations coverage and to encourage it further.

Entrants must be Australian citizens or permanent Australian residents. To be eligible for entry, work must cover industrial relations and have been published, produced or broadcast in Australia.

Journalists working in all media are encouraged to apply and do not have to be designated Industrial Relations reporters.

Entrants may submit one piece of journalism or a body of work of up to three related pieces of journalism, published or broadcast in any medium from April 27, 2022 to April 26, 2023.

Each entry to the Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism is judged on how well it responds to:

• the category description; and
• judging criteria.

For more information on how judging works, including the judging criteria, please refer to the FAQs.

Your entry must comply with the Terms & Conditions.

2023 winner:

Max Mason, The Australian Financial Review, “Top accounting firm sacked woman who alleged sexual assault” (1 | 2 | 3)

2022 Winners

André Dao, Michael Green and Sherry Huang, The Monthly, “On the Chain”

“’On the chain’ is a forensic investigation into the reality of some of the most vulnerable in Australian society. Through unprecedented access and dogged research, the journalists elevated previously unheard voices of migrant meatworkers. The outcome was a fascinating and insightful essay exposing extreme overwork, exploitation and racism.”

André Dao is a writer, editor, and researcher. His debut novel, Anam, won the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.

Michael Green is a Walkley Award–winning freelance print and audio journalist in Melbourne. He has produced two critically acclaimed narrative podcasts, The Messenger and The Wait, on the impact of Australia’s immigration policy.

Sherry Huang is an organiser and researcher at Migrant Workers Centre. She has worked on several major migrant workers’ campaigns and media outlet exposures.

2022 Finalists

2022 finalists were announced on May 26:

• André Dao, Michael Green and Sherry Huang, The Monthly, Schwartz Media, “On the Chain”
• Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, Sydney Morning Herald, Nine and 7.30, ABC, “Humanitarian disaster’: Australian construction giant CIMIC in underpayment scandal” and “Hundreds of foreign workers left in limbo by Australia’s biggest construction company”
• Ben Schneiders and Royce Millar, The Age, “Steph Lentz was sacked this year for being gay. It was perfectly legal” “Religious schools in Victoria to lose the right to sack LGBTQ staff” and “Australia’s top private schools are growing richer and faster than ever”

Read the full list of Mid-Year Celebration finalists here. Winners were announced at the Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism on June 15.