Recent headlines about union corruption on building sites and also the charging of Ben Roberts-Smith with counts of war crimes murder have prompted me to think about the unique potency of investigative journalism.
Revelations about the involvement of criminals, bikies and union thugs on Victoria’s Big Build construction sites and the inaction of government were sparked solely by the investigative journalism of Nick McKenzie in The Age/SMH. Nick, together with Chris Masters, also later reported on allegations of war crimes against Roberts-Smith. Such reporting can be a long road especially when the stakes are high – the first of many reports was published in 2018.
Had the journalists not kept digging neither the lawless behaviour of the CFMEU nor the allegations of war crimes would be known today.
My thinking about the power of investigative journalism to spark reforms was prompted by a new interview with Phil Dickie which is now on our main page. Dickie’s stories in The Courier Mail in the 1980s set the scene for the inquiry by Tony Fitzgerald, QC, which led to the convictions of senior police, the imprisonment of politicians and the establishment of anti-corruption bodies.
Dickie, an old-school, shoe-leather journalist, persisted investigating in the face of more than 20 defamation writs, a bullet fired into his then girlfriend’s house and inertia from the state government to act. To its credit, his newspaper backed him all the way. Dickie assisted a Four Corners team led by Chris Masters that finally forced the Queensland government to launch the Fitzgerald inquiry.
Check out my interview with Phil Dickie here and on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Note that Democracy’s Watchdogs’ award for investigative journalism is running again this year. If you have an in-depth story or are doing a story you think may have a shot at winning the $1000 prize, you will be able to enter it when entries open in September.
Cheers,
Bill
