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How to resolve AdBlock issue? New Walkley Foundation directors and judging board take their seats
THE Walkley Foundation for Excellence in Journalism has announced the appointment of five new board directors, as well as five replacement members of its Walkley Judging Board.
These appointments bring fresh and exciting expertise and perspectives to the foundation, and include Bridget Brennan, Nadine Garner, Nour Haydar and David Ross, who join the foundation’s board of directors, alongside new Walkley Judging Board chair Ben Butler.
Journalists Mike Amor, John Paul Janke, Nick Miller, Kirsty Needham and Hugh Riminton also join the cohort of 10 senior journalists who are currently serving on the Walkley Judging Board.
The foundation’s full board of directors is now: Michael Slezak, Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) media federal president; Kasun Ubayasiri, MEAA media vice president; Bridget Brennan, Ben Butler, Nadine Garner, Nour Haydar and David Ross.
MEAA vice president (media) Bianca Hall, who has served as a director since March 2025 will step down from that role, after helping lead significant reforms. The Walkley foundation has thanked Ms Hall for her thoughtful contribution to the board and looks forward to her continued involvement as a member of the company.
NEW DIRECTORS
Bridget Brennan is a Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman and co-host of News Breakfast on the ABC. An award-winning journalist and former foreign correspondent, she helped establish the ABC’s first Indigenous Affairs Reporting Team and has spent her career focusing on the stories of women and children.
Nadine Garner is one of Australia’s most celebrated screen and stage performers, with a career spanning more than 40 years across all major companies and platforms. A Logie, Helpmann, AFI and Green Room Award winner, Ms Garner brings to the board a deep commitment to Australian storytelling and is a fierce advocate for the support and funding of Australian creative work.
Nour Haydar is host and senior producer of Guardian Australia’s award-winning daily news podcast Full Story. A former federal political reporter in the Canberra press gallery, she covered national politics for the ABC from Parliament House across television, radio and digital platforms including News Breakfast and Afternoon Briefing. Ms Haydar is committed to improving media coverage and reporting practices around gender-based and state-sanctioned violence.
David Ross is a journalist at The Australian covering business and finance, and he has reported on some of Australia’s biggest commercial stories. Before joining The Australian he worked as a freelance journalist writing for local and international publications and at the European Parliament in Brussels. He is a passionate believer in the power of good journalism to inform and engage the public.
NEW JUDGING BOARD CHAIR
Ben Butler is a senior investigative journalist who has worked at newsrooms across Australia, including the ABC, Guardian Australia, the Herald Sun, The Age and The Australian, specialising in the intersection of business and crime.
Investigations he has worked on include exposing the Commonwealth Bank for ripping off term deposit customers, revealing the complex financial engineering used by the owner of the collapsed ‘sorry business insurer’ Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, as well as the involvement of rich Australians in offshore tax schemes laid out in the Pandora Papers.
Mr Butler has won two Walkley Awards at last year’s 70th gala event as part of a team reporting on Australia’s childcare crisis, three Melbourne Press Club Quills, two Kennedy Awards and a Citi Award.
NEW JUDGING BOARD MEMBERS
Mike Amor is one of Australia’s most experienced broadcast journalists and is currently a presenter for Channel Seven Melbourne’s new service, having returned to Australia after 18 years as the network’s United States Bureau Chief.
John Paul Janke is from Wuthathi Country on Eastern Cape York Peninsula and from Mer (Murray) Island in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait). He is the national Indigenous affairs editor at SBS and NITV and in his ninth season as the host of the channel’s flagship Indigenous news and current affairs show The Point. He has also been an ABC Radio presenter on ABC 666 Canberra and has regular appearances on Insiders (ABC).
Nick Miller is live news editor (mornings) at Guardian Australia. Previous roles include seven years based in the UK as Europe correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, freelance news and features writer and production editor based in New York and arts editor, health editor and state news editor at The Age.
Kirsty Needham is Australia and Pacific Islands correspondent for global news agency Agence France-Presse. Among past roles she was China correspondent in Beijing for the Fairfax newspapers, and won the Walkley Award for Scoop of the Year in 2022, for her reporting on China’s push for Pacific security deals, as a Reuters correspondent.
Hugh Riminton is a two-time Walkley winner with more than 40 years as an interviewer, foreign correspondent, political editor and presenter. He has reported from the frontlines of conflicts in some 50 countries, for the Nine Network, CNN and Ten.
Ben Butler and the five new members join the current Judging Board which consists of:
Christine Ahern, Nine; Gay Alcorn, Good Weekend Magazine; Tom Dusevic, The Australian; Richard Guilliatt, freelance journalist and author; Julie Lewis, The Sydney Morning Herald; Claire Mackay, ABC; Greg Muller, ABC; Jake Nowakowski, photojournalist, Herald Sun; Melanie Petrinec, The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail; and Paul Williams, SBS.
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