**UPDATE: Due to the surge of Omicron cases and uncertainty around travel in the coming weeks, in consultation with the NSW Government and Tamworth Regional Council we will be postponing and shifting the Walkley Awards to Sydney. The 66th Walkley Awards Gala Dinner will be held in Sydney on Friday, February 25, 2022.**
The Walkley Foundation is delighted to announce the finalists for the 66th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
The Walkley Awards, Australia’s pre-eminent national journalism awards, recognise and reward the best in the craft and set the industry standard for excellence.
Announcing the finalists, then chief executive of the Walkley Foundation, Louisa Graham, said: “Our warm congratulations to this impressive array of finalists, who have set the standard for best-practice, ethical journalism in Australia in another disrupted year. This is work that makes a difference, that creates change, holds the powerful to account and holds a mirror up to our nation and its culture. It will be a longer wait than usual to announce our winners, but we want to have the best chance at celebrating together as an industry, so we are looking forward to gathering in February 2022.”
Finalists are selected by panels of peers on the basis of overall merit and journalistic excellence. The Walkley Foundation encourages a diversity of entries from journalists around Australia. This year we received 1280 entries.
Judges for this first round are selected by the Walkley Judging Board. You can find information about the Walkley Awards judging process here, and the Terms and Conditions of the Awards here.
The Walkley Foundation has a mechanism for dealing with any conflict of interest, actual or perceived, that may arise during the judging process. The guidelines are based on the principle that all actual conflicts of interest are to be avoided and that even a perceived conflict may be damaging to all parties. You can read more about the conflict of interest guidelines here.
Thanks to the generous support of the NSW Government all Walkley Award winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Sydney on Friday February 25.
A full list of this year’s finalists and judges follows.
Beneath that is a list of the winners of the Nikon Photography Prizes.
For media enquiries contact Clare Fletcher on clare.fletcher@walkleys.com or 0432 616 810.
66th Walkley Award finalists
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super
- Natassia Chrysanthos, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Hundreds of Sydney students claim they were sexually assaulted”, “‘Pretty dark culture’: Sydney boys’ school heads express regret over rape claims” and “Rape culture reckoning as wave of sexual assault claims unleashed”
- Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Con Artist of the Century”, “Vanished without a trace: Caddick, the toy boy and the missing millions” and “The Lady Vanishes”
- Ellen Whinnett, Lillian Saleh, Kelvin Healey and Valerie White, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser, “The AN0M Files”
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Sydney Airport
- Avani Dias, Ali Russell, Ange McCormack and Laura McAuliffe, Four Corners, ABC TV and triple j Hack, ABC Radio, “Tinder: A Predators’ Playground”, “Federal Government meets with Tinder after ABC investigation” and “Tinder changes safety policies after Hack investigation”
- Lisa Wilkinson and The Project Team, The Project, Ten, “Brittany Higgins”, “Lisa Wilkinson editorial” and “Canberra March4Justice”
- Naaman Zhou, Guardian Australia, “Australia’s delivery deaths: the riders who never made it and the families left behind”, “’They don’t have brakes, the tyres are gone’: food delivery companies accused of bike safety failures” and “Uber Eats riders earning as little as $5 for deliveries crossing multiple NSW suburbs”
INNOVATION
Award Partner Google News Initiative
- Kylie Boltin, Ella Rubeli, Ravi Vasavan and Emma Anderson, SBS, “Ravi and Emma”
- Matilda Boseley, Guardian Australia, “Guardian Australia TikTok”
- Emma Morris, Samuel Tate, Genelle Weule, Nathan Bazley and the Mt Resilience Team, ABC, “Mt Resilience”
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
- Duska Sulicich, The Age, “Michael rolled, the vote assured, Hallelujah!”, “It’s all a bit cray-cray” and “The Art of the Steal”
- Chris Tinkler, Herald Sun, “SCORN IN THE USA”, “NIGHTMARE ON FLINDERS ST” and “WASTE GATE TUNNEL”
- Cameron Wilson, Crikey, “Where Prince and Tiësto meet Hillsong and Tay-Tay: what we can learn from Scott Morrison’s public Spotify account”, “Australians buy animal wormer ivermectin on Facebook and Telegram to treat COVID” and “How Australia’s tattoo community is taking on a law it says could kill the industry”
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner Facebook
- Tim Elliott, Good Weekend, Nine, “Knives Out”
- Melissa Fyfe, Good Weekend, Nine, “The death of Ashleigh Petrie”
- Andrew Quilty, The Monthly, “The Worst Form of Defence: New revelations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan”
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
- Megan Lehmann, The Australian, “The Aftermath”
- Karen Middleton, The Saturday Paper, “Exit Afghanistan: Fear and retribution as Taliban takes control”
- Tom Patterson, The Australian, “Searching for a lost soul”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC Indigenous Consulting
- Stefan Armbruster, SBS World News, “Second round vaccinations in Torres Strait”, “Anger in the Torres Strait over Scott Morrison’s undelivered COVID-19 vaccine announcement” and “Australia spent $13 million on this security post in the Torres Strait. A year on, it’s still empty”
- Karla Grant, Julie Nimmo, Michael Carey, Mark Bannerman and the Living Black Team, Living Black, NITV, “Taken”, “Missing Pieces” and “Heritage Victory”
- Laura Murphy-Oates, Lorena Allam, David Maurice Smith and Jeremy Worrall, Guardian Australia, “Australia’s anguish: the Indigenous kids trapped behind bars”, “The WA cops rounding up Indigenous kids: a ‘toxic and racist environment‘” and “‘Hell scared’: how a terrified homeless boy found himself locked up alone in the ‘hole‘”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Award Partner BHP
- Andrew Messenger, Northern Daily Leader, “‘You feel so powerless’: little room for kids in rural mental health”, “Banksia Mental Health Unit: children’s services ruled not ‘economies of scale’ in plan for new mental health unit” and “Tamworth Banksia Mental Health modelling says New England North West won’t need more general-purpose beds until 2031”
- Nathan Morris and Kath Sullivan, Landline, ABC, “Welcome back, Darling”
- Cherie von Horchner, Barrier Truth, “Wilcannia abandoned”
CARTOON
Award Partner Epson
- Jon Kudelka, The Saturday Paper, “Duty of Care”
- David Pope, The Canberra Times, “Rollout de Vax”
- David Rowe, The Australian Financial Review, “Spineless”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
- Jessica Halloran, Sharri Markson and Claire Harvey, The Australian, “Drugs, sex, domestic violence: football’s dark cover-up”, “Misguided star waiting at home of rival to exact revenge” and “Crime Squad on trail of NRL cover-up over Sam Burgess claims”
- Caitlin Shea, Greg Hassall and Andrew Cooke, Australian Story, ABC, “Luc Longley: One Giant Leap”
- Michael Warner, Herald Sun, “‘Do Better’: The Secret Collingwood Racism Report”
- Alex Coppel, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser, “The Games that Had to Happen”
- Michael Dodge, Tennis Australia and Instagram, “Unguarded Moments”
- Jason Edwards, Herald Sun and The Australian, “The Crux”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC
- Rachel Mealey, AM and The World Today, ABC, “Port Macquarie Floods”
- Sally Sara and Victoria Pengilley, RN Breakfast and The World Today, ABC, “Afghanistan Interviews”
- Mark Willacy, AM, ABC, “Who Dares Kills”
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
- Camille Bianchi and Marc Wright, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast.com, “The Nurse”
- Angus Grigg and Lap Phan, The Australian Financial Review, “The Sure Thing”
- Alex Mann, Kevin Nguyen and the Background Briefing team, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, “The Base Tapes”
PRODUCTION
- Aimee Amiga, Matthew Absalom-Wong and Cormac Lally, Instagram, Facebook and theage.com.au, “Nazis Next Door: Social and Digital Delivery”
- Rhiona-Jade Armont and the 101 East team, Al Jazeera English, “This is Myanmar’s State of Fear”
- Patrick Forrest, Elise Potaka, David Ma and Calliste Weitenberg, The Feed, SBS, “Faking Influence – tv, digital interactive and Instagram”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine News
- Samantha Maiden, news.com.au, “Open Secret: The Brittany Higgins story”
- Michael Warner, Herald Sun, “‘Do Better’: The Secret Collingwood Racism Report”
- Ellen Whinnett, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Advertiser and The Courier-Mail, “The AN0M Files”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Award Partner Sky News Australia
- Samantha Maiden and the news.com.au team, news.com.au, “Open Secret: The Brittany Higgins story”
- Louise Milligan and the Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “The Canberra Bubble”
- Laura Tingle and James Elton, 7.30, ABC, “Women, politics and accountability”
- Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald, “COVID-19 ICU”
- Justin McManus, The Age, “Anti-Lockdown Protest”
- Brook Mitchell, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Sydney Anti-Lockdown Protest”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Award Partner ING
- Angus Grigg and Lap Phan, The Australian Financial Review, “The Sure Thing”
- Max Mason and Jonathan Shapiro, The Australian Financial Review, “Revealed: where alleged fraudster Bill Papas is holed up”, “Miami yachts and luxury cars: Forum’s web of assets” and “On the trail of Bill Papas and Westpac’s missing $285m”
- Caitlyn Rintoul, The West Australian, “Police investigating alleged sexual assault at BHP’s South Flank mine near Newman”, “WA mining giants unite for apology to female mine workers and back calls for sex assault inquiry” and “Mine site sexual harassment inquiry: Submission shows BHP sacked dozens of WA workers”
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Canva
- Scott Barbour, ausopen.com, “2021 Australian Open”
- Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun and The Weekend Australian Magazine, “Superheroes in Lockdown”
- Dean Sewell, The Sun-Herald, “Of Mice and Men”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CAMERAWORK
- Dean Brosche, The Feed, SBS, “The Button Man A murderous monster, or a quiet recluse?”
- Simon Hydzik and Matt Anderson, 7NEWS, Sunrise and The Latest, Seven, “Cyclone Seroja Coverage”
- Andy Taylor, ABC TV, “Exposed – The Ghost Train Fire”
TELEVISION/VIDEO NEWS REPORTING
Award Partner Seven
- Amelia Adams, Today and Nine News 6pm, Nine, “Capitol Attack”
- Tim Arvier, Nine News 6pm and Today, Nine, “Ambulance Delays”
- Withdrawn – Peter Fegan and Rebeka Powell, Nine News 6pm, Nine, “The Investigation of Andrew Laming”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner SBS
- Christine Ahern, A Current Affair, Nine, “Epping Disgrace”
- Kathryn Diss, 7.30, ABC TV, “Inside America’s COVID crisis”
- Elise Potaka, Calliste Weitenberg, David Ma and Patrick Forrest, The Feed, SBS, “Faking Influence”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner TEN News First and The Project
- Sarah Ferguson, Tony Jones, Patricia Drum and Lauren Day, Four Corners, ABC, “Fox and the Big Lie”
- Nick McKenzie and Joel Tozer, 60 Minutes, Nine, “Nazis Next Door”
- Lisa Wilkinson, Angus Llewellyn and Darryl Brown, The Project, Network Ten, “Brittany Higgins”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Award Partner AGL
- Nick McKenzie and Joel Tozer, 60 Minutes and The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Nine, “Nazis Next Door”, “Inside Racism HQ: How home-grown neo-Nazis are plotting a white revolution” and “From kickboxing to Adolf Hitler: the neo-Nazi plan to recruit angry young men”
- Louise Milligan, Lucy Carter, Peter Cronau and Jeanavive McGregor, Four Corners, ABC, “Inside the Canberra Bubble”, “Scott Morrison, senators and AFP told of historical rape allegation against Cabinet Minister” and “Bursting the Canberra Bubble”
- Ben Schneiders, The Age and The Sunday Age, “Scientology stashes millions in Australia”, “Scientology is shrinking fast and getting richer. How is this possible?” and “The peculiar experience of being targeted by Scientology”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
- Waleed Aly, The Monthly, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, “Woke Politics and Power”, “Get to root of Mess” and “It makes no sense to ask ‘why Melbourne?‘”
- Tom Dusevic, The Australian, “Why we must temper the joy on vaccine”, “PM delivers a rocket as vax debate goes feral” and “Where the bloody hell are the vaccines, Prime Minister?”
- Katharine Murphy, Guardian Australia, “Brittany Higgins’ shocking story must be a turning point. Women in politics have had enough”, “Canberra’s pale, stale and male tribe is missing the moment – as it did with Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech” and “Scott Morrison’s efforts to engage with women are more ‘me’ than mea culpa”
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD SHORTLIST
Award Partner NSW Government
- Addicted Australia, Jacob Hickey and Darren Dale, Blackfella Films and SBS
- Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra, Ivan O’Mahoney, Wayne Blair and Nel Minchin, In Films, ABC
- Incarceration Nation, Helen Morrison and Dean Gibson, Bacon Factory Films, Bent3land Productions and NITV
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD SHORTLIST
Richard Flanagan, Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry, Penguin
Kate Holden, The Winter Road, Black Inc.
Stuart Rintoul, Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O’Donoghue, Allen & Unwin
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon
- Alex Coppel, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Courier-Mail
- Jason Edwards, Herald Sun
- Christopher Hopkins, The Age, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald and Al Jazeera
2021 NIKON PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE WINNERS
These are not Walkley Awards, but prizes administered by the Walkley Foundation on behalf of Nikon. These photos will also appear in the Nikon-Walkley Press Photography exhibition.
- WINNER: Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Fighting COVID-19 Delta”
- WINNER: Brian Cassey, The Australian, “The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa”
See all the photography prize-winners and finalists’ hero images in our post here.
Thank you to the many senior journalists who gave their time to judge the Walkley Awards this year:
- Sarah Abo, 60 Minutes, Nine
- Mark Baker, AP
- Nick Batzias, Good Thing Productions
- Alice Brennan, Background Briefing, ABC
- Bridget Brennan, ABC
- Una Butorac, The Feed, SBS
- David Chau, ABC
- Tom Clift, Crikey
- Julie Coe, ACM
- Rhanna Collins, NITV
- Fiona Connolly, Woman’s Day
- Mark Corcoran, ex-ABC
- Angela Cox, Seven
- Danielle Cronin, ABC News Digital
- Sarah Curnow, ABC Investigations
- Mark Davies, ABC
- Mary Davison, Nine
- Suzanne Dredge, 7.30, ABC
- Andrew Drummond, AAP
- Tom Dusevic, The Australian
- Anton Emdin, illustrator
- Anton Enus, SBS
- Kieran Gilbert, Sky News
- Peter Gleeson, Sky News
- Ricardo Goncalves, SBS World News
- Phil Goyen, Seven
- Michelle Griffin, The Age
- Rashell Habib, Ten
- Madeline Hayman-Reber, freelance
- Phil Hemingway, ABC WA
- Anna Henderson, SBS
- Amanda Hoh, ABC
- Judy Horacek, cartoonist
- Antoun Issa, Guardian Australia
- Bridie Jabour, Guardian Australia
- Sandra Jackson, The West Australian
- Anita Jacoby, media executive and award-winning producer
- Alex Johnston, WIN News Tasmania
- Rae Johnston, NITV
- Chris Jones, The Courier-Mail
- David King, The Age
- Kylie Lang, The Courier-Mail
- Angus Llewellyn, The Project, Ten
- Mark Llewellyn, Seven
- Joanna Mather, The Australian Financial Review
- Grant McArthur, Herald Sun
- Barbara McGrady, photographer
- Heidi Murphy, 3AW
- Oliver Murray, news.com.au
- Sean Nicholls, Four Corners, ABC
- Renee Nowytarger, photographer
- Gareth Parker, 6PR
- Luke Pearson, Indigenous X
- Steve Pennells, freelance investigative journalist
- Jodan Perry, NITV
- Jo Puccini, ABC
- Nick Ralston, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Hugh Riminton, Ten
- Billy Rule, The West Australian
- Stefanie Sgroi, 60 Minutes, Nine
- Ben Smee, Guardian Australia
- Annika Smethurst, The Age
- Mike Smithson, Seven SA
- Danie Sprague, The Age
- Tom Steinfort, 60 Minutes, Nine
- Michelle Stephenson, Nova 96.9 Newsroom
- Lia Timson, The Age
- Brian Thomson, SBS
- Sarah Thornton, The Project, Ten
- Helen Trinca, The Australian
- Michael Usher, Seven
- Tracy Vo, Nine
- Liz Walsh, The Advertiser
- Raj Wakeling, The Project, Ten
- Paul Walker, Seven
- Chad Watson, ACM
- Kathryn Wicks, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Mark Willacy, ABC
- Cameron Williams, Nine
