Articles
Musk’s mirror
Inside Story • Friday 20 September 2024
Jasmine and the power of memory
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 24 August 2024
Why I work to revive the Tasmanian tiger
Nature • Monday 8 July 2024
Red flags
The Monthly • July 2024
Debating whether Julian Assange is a journalist is irrelevant. He changed journalism forever
Guardian Australia • Saturday 29 June 2024
A contemplative case for winter gardening
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 29 June 2024
In publicising Laura Tingle’s ‘counselling’, the ABC risks giving the bullies a victory
Guardian Australia • Saturday 1 June 2024
A time of year for gathering in and letting go
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 4 May 2024
How are we to understand the pervasive journalistic arrogance of the Bruce Lehrmann imbroglio?
Guardian Australia • Wednesday 17 April 2024
I peer into volcanoes to see when they’ll blow
Nature • Monday 25 March 2024
The in-between
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 23 March 2024
If Meta’s intransigence isn’t enough, AI poses an even greater threat to journalism
Guardian Australia • Saturday 2 March 2024
Living memory
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 10 February 2024
She’s ‘Asia’s sweetheart’, but have you heard of Aussie-born celebrity Anne Curtis?
Good Weekend • Saturday 27 January 2024
The sandwich of mortality
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 23 December 2023
Who is Taiwanese?
Inside Story • Friday 1 December 2023
The inconvenient truth of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples
Foreign Policy • Sunday 19 November 2023
Tendrils in the night
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 11 November 2023
Rodrigo Duterte’s legacy
Inside Story • Wednesday 1 November 2023
‘They treated me like an animal’: how Filipino domestic workers become trapped
Guardian Australia • Thursday 26 October 2023
No winners in Murray-Darling Basin Plan
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 14 October 2023
Australia’s public housing towers are regarded as dated and ugly. But what will happen when they’re gone?
Guardian Australia • Monday 2 October 2023
No daylight: inside Labor’s decision to back AUKUS
Australian Foreign Affairs • October 2023
The liminal garden
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 30 September 2023
Daniel Andrews remoulded the state of Victoria – but the wheels were beginning to wobble
Guardian Australia • Tuesday 26 September 2023
Why is the campaign for an Indigenous voice struggling? It’s not just the media
Guardian Australia • Sunday 24 September 2023
Rupert Murdoch retires from News Corp with the media world he ruled ebbing away
Guardian Australia • Saturday 23 September 2023
British-Australian man jailed in Philippines claims authorities fabricated evidence
Guardian Australia • Friday 8 September 2023
The germinator
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 12 August 2023
Victorians need to know why Daniel Andrews thought hosting the Commonwealth Games was a good idea
Guardian Australia • Wednesday 19 July 2023
Détente with the daffodils
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 8 July 2023
When the chips are down
The Monthly • June 2023
ABC’s lack of ambition on coronation coverage left Stan Grant to shoulder outsized burden
Guardian Australia • Saturday 27 May 2023
The moth vine encroaches
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 27 May 2023
What Thailand’s election of a radical new government means for science
Nature • Thursday 18 May 2023
New media’s idiosyncratic survivor
Inside Story • Thursday 18 May 2023
I helped to build Taiwan’s Silicon Valley
Nature • Monday 1 May 2023
Rupert Murdoch’s news empire knowingly lied. Can we just pause to take in how extraordinary that is?
Guardian Australia • Monday 24 April 2023
Cultivating memories
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 15 April 2023
Daniel Andrews’ media-free trip tells us something about China – and a lot more about journalists and the premier
Guardian Australia • Wednesday 29 March 2023
‘Pretentious’, ‘hyperbolic’ and ‘irresponsible’: what was behind Nine newspapers’ Red Alert series?
Guardian Australia • Friday 17 March 2023
Feeding on imperfection
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 11 March 2023
Tanya Plibersek’s dispassionate ambition
The Monthly • Thursday 9 March 2023
‘If I had run, I would have won’: the family pain behind Plibersek’s leadership call
Good Weekend • Saturday 4 March 2023
Manila’s countless dead
The Monthly • Wednesday 1 February 2023
The communal garden
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 21 January 2023
The Philippines is losing its ‘War on Drugs’
Foreign Policy • Wednesday 11 January 2023
Taiwanese flock to civil defense training ahead of potential Chinese invasion
Foreign Policy • Monday 19 December 2022
The story of Daniel Andrews: dogged, divisive and enduringly popular
Guardian Australia • Tuesday 1 November 2022
The Daniel Andrews paradox: the enduring appeal of Australia’s most divisive premier
Guardian Australia • Sunday 30 October 2022
Penny Wong wants Australia to be more than a supporting player
Foreign Policy • Saturday 1 October 2022
Was Fraser right?
Inside Story • Monday 12 September 2022
Spring in Chaucer’s garden
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 10 September 2022
A quiet winter of neglect
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 18 June 2022
This is Not Journalism
Meanjin Quarterly • Winter 2022
Could this be the election in which News Corp’s impotence is exposed?
The Age • Monday 16 May 2022
In an age of unlimited information, what are voters actually Googling?
The Age • Monday 2 May 2022
Focus on gaffes misses the real issues
The Age • Monday 18 April 2022
Independents and the balance of power
The Monthly • April 2022
The dark curse of lantana
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 12 March 2022
Novak Djokovic didn’t have to be the biggest news story in the nation this week
The Age • Saturday 15 January 2022
Life as a wayward gardener
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 18 December 2021
Diversity deferred, again?
Inside Story • Thursday 16 December 2021
Here we go again
Inside Story • Thursday 25 November 2021
Taking the arrows
Inside Story • Friday 12 November 2021
Cracking the code
Inside Story • Monday 25 October 2021
Information warfare
Inside Story • Friday 8 October 2021
We need to think about post-lockdown rights
The Monthly • October 2021
Cultivated tastes
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 25 September 2021
The Australian versus the Press Council, again
Inside Story • Thursday 16 September 2021
Bullying must end, but it can’t all be tweet nothings
The Age • Wednesday 15 September 2021
News Corp’s shift on emissions reveals limitations of power
The Age • Tuesday 7 September 2021
The premier, the crime boss and the ABC
Inside Story • Thursday 2 September 2021
Muddying the waters
Inside Story • Tuesday 31 August 2021
As COVID returns to Felmington’s public housing estate, the response is markedly different
The Age • Saturday 7 August 2021
Freedom of speech or promotion of lies? Who gets to decide what’s true?
The Age • Saturday 7 August 2021
Is Sky News taking Australia by storm?
Inside Story • Thursday 5 August 2021
‘Trust the science’ is the mantra of the Covid crisis – but what about human fallibility
The Guardian • Saturday 24 July 2021
Can Mark Scott transform universities?
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 24 July 2021
Bylines and bygones
Inside Story • Friday 16 July 2021
Potted rules for indoor gardening
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 10 July 2021
‘We thought we were Australian’: Melbourne tower lockdown lives on in legacy of trauma
The Guardian • Sunday 4 July 2021
The watchdog that sometimes barked
Inside Story • Friday 2 July 2021
JabSeeker
The Monthly • July 2021
From blood clots to Craig Kelly, is the media reporting Covid responsibly?
The Guardian • Wednesday 30 June 2021
What Four Corners did and didn’t do
Inside Story • Wednesday 16 June 2021
Conciliation on Murray-Darling
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 12 June 2021
Murray Darling towns warned dams not the answer as river flows wane
The Age • Tuesday 8 June 2021
When bravado trumps reporting
Inside Story • Tuesday 1 June 2021
Withdrawal of defamation action a win for the ABC, not Christian Porter
The Age • Tuesday 1 June 2021
Good news week
Inside Story • Friday 21 May 2021
War in the newsrooms
Inside Story • Tuesday 11 May 2021
The arc of justice
Inside Story • Saturday 24 April 2021
Journalists need to take social media responsibilities seriously
The Age • Friday 16 April 2021
Gourd almighty
The Satuday Paper • Saturday 10 April 2021
Up the river
The Monthly • April 2021
What has QAnon got to do with Australians?
The Age • Sunday 28 March 2021
Australian media’s latest export
Inside Story • Thursday 25 March 2021
Q for conspiracy
Meanjin Quarterly • Tuesday 16 March 2021
Cabinet slammed shut: whither our federation
inkl • Friday 12 March 2021
Muting the messenger
Inside Story • Friday 12 March 2021
Australian agricultural associations that rake in millions should have charitable status revoked, tax expert says
The Guardian • Monday 7 March 2021
Shift in gender balance means abuse claims are being taken seriously
The Age • Saturday 6 March 2021
Cautious or craven? The saga of Four Corners program on Morrison and QAnon has laid bare fractures within the ABC
The Guardian • Saturday 6 March
Melbourne doctors under review for promoting discredited Covid treatment
The Guardian • Monday 22 February
To save journalism, flawed regulation is better than none
inkl • Monday 22 February
Google’s search engine not as good as its competitors for news, research finds
The Guardian • Wednesday 3 February 2021
Trump ban signals tipping point for social media platforms
The Sydney Morning Herald • Wednesday 13 January 2021
Summer in the garden
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 19 December 2020
How the making of Brett Sutton got him through pandemic and kept Premier’s faith
The Age • Saturday 28 November 2020
When the rivers run dry
The Monthly • November 2020
ASIC under pressure
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 31 October 2020
The facts don’t support claims of a Brett Sutton cover-up over emails
The Guardian • Friday 23 October 2020
The Hunter Biden story is a crucial moment: does Twitter care more than News Corp about fact-checking?
The Guardian • Thursday 22 October 2020
Spring hopes eternal
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 17 October 2020
‘Culture of fear’: why Kevin Rudd is determined to see an end to Murdoch’s media dominance
The Guardian • Saturday 17 October 2020
One hundred days of Andrew’ press conferences: What do they tell us about journalism?
The Age • Sunday 11 October 2020
Why Australia runs out of vital medicines
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 10 October 2020
Dfat admits email Addresses of almost 3,000 Australians stranded overseas released in breach
The Guardian • Thursday 1 October 2020
Victoria hotel quarantine inquiry: systemic issues more urgent than individual blame
The Guardian • Tuesday 29 September 2020
Moves to build economic security
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 19 September 2020
Scott Morrison’s friend, his Indigenous charity and the millions in defence contracts
The Guardian • Monday 5 September 2020
The unconventional charity run by Scott Morrison’s ‘dear friend’ Leigh Coleman
The Guardian • Friday 4 September 2020
Australia experiencing critical shortage of antidepressants, contraceptives and HRT
The Guardian • Saturday 8 August 2020
Murray–Darling could need Reserve Bank-style regulator
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 8 August 2020
‘New mode’ for Covid-19 board
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 1 August 2020
Mysterious Mr Power, architect of our recovery
The Saturday Paper • Saturday 25 July 2020
‘It was paternalism’: how government support for Melbourne’s locked down public housing blocks fell short
The Guardian • Saturday 11 July 2020
Some Melbourne tower residents still waiting for supplies including nappies and medication
The Guardian • Wednesday 8 July 2020
‘They change the rules’: confusion reigns for frightened and stressed Melbourne public housing residents
The Guardian • Tuesday 7 July 2020
Today show dumps Pauline Hanson for ‘divisive’ remarks about Melbourne public housing residents
The Guardian • Monday 6 July 2020
Melbourne towers’ sudden hard lockdown caught police, health workers and residents off-guard
The Guardian • Sunday 5 July 2020
Melbourne’s ‘hard lockdown’ orders residents of nine public housing towers to stay home as coronavirus cases surge
The Guardian • Saturday 4 July 2020
Govt tight-lipped on ACCC Murray–Darling Basin water report
Saturday Paper • Saturday 4 July 2020
Politics and water do mix
Inside Story • Tuesday 25 June
Winter’s bounty
Saturday Paper • Saturday 20 June 2020
The unfulfilled promise of lithium mining
Saturday Paper • Saturday 13 June 2020
The end of the university boom
Saturday Paper • Saturday 23 May 2020
Patients frantic over mysterious global shortage of HRT medications and contraceptive pills
The Guardian • Friday 22 May 2020
Adam Bandt, the personable hardliner
The Monthly • May 2020
Alan Jones: end for the shock-jock whose views on women, race and climate pandered to his tiny audience
The Guardian • Wednesday 13 May 2020
Australian media’s fight for press freedom should be a lesson to journalists worldwide
Nieman Reports • Tuesday 5 May 2020
The real reason our shelves were empty
Saturday Paper • Saturday 2 May 2020
As Australia takes on Google and Facebook over news content, the world is watching
The Guardian • Tuesday 21 April 2020
Real long-term thinking on TV would mean Netflix and Stan are treated the same as free-to-air
The Guardian • Tuesday 16 April 2020
Andrew Bolt and the ABC: did the reporting on George Pell step over a line?
The Guardian • Tuesday 15 April 2020
Autumn in the garden
Saturday Paper • Saturday 28 March 2020
AAP is Australian democracy’s safety net – its closure will affect us all
The Guardian • Tuesday 3 March 2020
Summer Gardening
Saturday Paper • Saturday 7 December 2019
Questions raised over Scott Morrison’s declaration he is not a New Zealand citizen
The Guardian • Saturday 26 October 2019
Penny Wong: could Australia accept a gay asian woman as PM?
The Guardian • Sunday 29 September 2019
The Lambie interview: inside her power play
Saturday Paper • Saturday 21 September 2019
Spring Garden Tasks
Saturday Paper • Saturday 7 September 2019
What the ACCC thinks about journalism
Inside Story • Tuesday 30 July 2019
The Winter Garden
Saturday Paper • Saturday 29 June 2019
Duterte’s opposition in disarray following Philippines mid-terms
The Interpreter • Tuesday 21 May 2019
In Angeles City, all politics is local
Inside Story • Wednesday 15 May 2019
‘Rodrigo Duterte is my idol’: Inside the Philippines election from Manila’s slums
ABC • Sunday 12 May 2019
Journalist Maria Ressa and the Philippine election
Saturday Paper • Saturday 11 May 2019
‘Do you ever think about me?’: the children sex tourists leave behind
The Guardian (UK) • Saturday 2 March 2019
Suppression orders aren’t perfect but journalistic hubris won’t fix the problem
The Guardian (Aus) • Wednesday 27 February 2019
For sale: a local paper near you
Inside Story • Sunday 3 Feburary 2019
The revolution continues
Inside Story • Monday 31 December 2018
The ACCC’s plan to reshape the media landscape
Inside Story • Tuesday 11 December 2018
“There is this woman, Charmian Clift. And I have to dress up like her and go out and be her”
Inside Story • Friday 21 November 2018
How Nine and Fairfax sat the wrong test
Inside Story • Friday 9 November 2018
ABC board is weak and lacks legitimacy, but it should not be sacked
The Guardian (Aus) • Friday 28 September 2018
Guthrie and Milne: no friends of the ABC
Meanjin • Wednesday 26 September 2018
The end of Fairfax as we knew it
Inside Story • Thursday 26 July 2018
“Here we are, living it again, as though we didn’t learn our lesson”
Inside Story • Wednesday 4 July 2018
The unassuming Australian nun taking on Rodrigo Duterte
The Guardian (Aus) • Saturday 16 June 2018
Looking for trouble
Inside Story • Friday 18 May 2018
When the politics got personal
The Monthly • December 2017
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Meanjin Quarterly • Winter 2017
Fallen angels
ABC Radio Earshot • Tuesday 13 December 2016
Duterte’s dirty war: A trip to the Philippines reveals the human cost of the war on drugs
The Monthly • December 2016
Winner • 2016 Quill Award for Best Feature.
Is Michelle Guthrie tuned in to the ABC? The new managing director’s vision isn’t clear
The Monthly • September 2016
Lost Boy Found
SBS • 26 June 2016
The story of Kot Monoah, whose long journey to Melbourne’s western suburbs began when his family fled the second Sudanese Civil War.
After the story: What did an award-winning story on the children of Australian sex tourists achieve?
The Monthly • 24 Mar 2016
A follow-up to the award-winning feature ‘Fallen Angels’.
Right-wing refugee: the rise of Rita Panahi
SBS • 8 Feb 2016
‘The Long Letter to a Short Love, or …’
Meanjin Quarterly • Summer 2015
Germaine Greer’s 30,000-word unsent love letter to Martin Amis.
‘Fallen Angels: The children left behind by Australian sex tourists in the Philippines’
The Monthly • July 2015
Winner • 2015 Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism)
Winner • 2015 Quill Award for Best Feature.
Finalist • 2015 Walkley Award for Feature Writing (over 4000 words).
‘Chasing the Truth’
The Sunday Age • 13 Nov 2011
Commentary on the federal government media inquiry.
Second Life: Mark Scott Embarks on Another Five-Year Term
The Monthly • July 2011
An assessment of the ABC Managing Director’s record, and his likely future.
Who Should Look After the Cities?
Inside Story • June 2011
The Federal Government plans to get back into the urban planning business.
‘Sex Before Soccer: SBS’
The Monthly • June 2011
An assessment of the present and future of Australia’s second public broadcaster.
‘Crises of Faith: The Future of Fairfax’
The Monthly • Feb 2011
‘Exodus: The International Student Sector’
The Monthly • Nov 2010
‘Duty of Care’
The Monthly • Aug 2010
An investigation into the impact of the Hepatitis C cluster at a Melbourne abortion clinic.
‘Dangerous Precedent: The Melbourne model’
The Monthly • Mar 2010
An investigation into the impact of the University of Melbourne’s reforms.
‘Sustaining a Nation’
Griffith Review • Edition 27
A journey through the Murray-Darling basin and reflections on food security.
‘Public Broadcasting Looks for a Future’
Inside Story • Jan 2009
The Pay TV Industry has opened a new front in its battle with free to air.
‘Chill Winds’
Inside Story • Dec 2008
Amid the backslapping, this year’s Walkley Awards dinner highlighted the threat to quality journalism.
‘A Cry in the Night’
Griffith Review • May 2008
Conflict between Africans and police on the public housing estate in Flemington.
‘Buried in the Labyrinth’
Griffith Review • Winter 2007
A story of danger and frustration at the hands of bureacracy.
Finalist • 2007 Walkley Awards for Magazine Feature Writing.
‘The War on Democracy – Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press’
Sydney Morning Herald • 8 Dec 2006
Review of book by Niall Lucy and Steve Mickler.
‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’
Griffith Review • Autumn 2006
An exploration of the public-private schooling debate.
‘Fitting the Bill’
The Age • 12 Nov 2005
A profile of Australian Workers Union National Secretary Bill Shorten.
‘Media column’
The Age • Mar – Dec 2005
Published monthly in The Age‘s Media and Creative section on Mondays.
‘The Nation Reviewed’
The Monthly • Issue 8 • Dec 2005 – Jan 2006
Comments on the inaugural broadcast conference of The ACMA Broadcast Conference 2005
‘Fear and Loathing at the ABC’
The Monthly • Issue 1 • May 2005
‘Ties that bind’
Griffith Review 8 • Winter 2005
‘Crikey Sells Out’
The Age • 5 Feb 2005
‘Life without Reputation’
Griffith Review 5 • Spring 2004
‘Habits of Disdain: Myth, Evidence and Culture Warrior’ (The Overland Lecture)
Overland 172 • Spring 2003
‘In the Name of the Father’
The Age • 22 Nov 2003
A profile of Philip Ruddock.
Review of Speaking for Myself Again, Four Years with Labor and Beyond by Cheryl Kernot
Sydney Morning Herald • 3 Aug 2002
Anthologies & Periodicals
‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’
Published in The Best Australian Essays 2006 (Black Inc., 2005), edited by Drusilla Modjeska.
‘Ties that Bind’
Published in The Best Australian Essays 2005 (Black Inc., 2005), edited by Robert Dessaix.
‘Inside the ABC’
Published in Do Not Disturb – Is the Media Failing Australia? (Black Inc., 2005), edited by Robert Manne.
‘Helen Garner: The woman with the Hammer in the kitchen drawer’
Published in The Best Australian Essays 2001 (Black Inc., 2001), edited by Peter Craven.
‘The night of the fruit pickers’
Published in Out West (Harper Collins, 1996), edited by John Dale.
Republished in Australian Summer Stories 2 (Penguin, 2000).
‘The Press Gang’
Published in The Best Australian Essays (Bookman Press, 1998), edited by Peter Craven.
‘Why Clare is not a yahoo’
Published in Mother Love 2 (Random House, 1997), edited by Debra Adelaide.
Book chapters
‘Using public records in Journalism’
Published in Investigation and Research (Pearson Education, 2002), edited by Stephen Tanner.