The Australian’s Paul Garvey has been named the 2024 WA Journalist of the Year at the WA Media Awards, and won the Beck Prize for Political Reporting, for his series of articles titled “Direction 99 Debacle”.
Garvey’s reporting forensically examined close to 200 Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions examining Australian immigration cases and unearthed stories of numerous violent criminals spared deportation because of the Minister’s Direction 99.
The judges said of Garvey’s work:
“Garvey’s meticulously-researched investigation revealed case after case of violent offenders, sexual predators and drug traffickers being spared deportation as a result of Giles’ previously little-known Direction to members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.”
Another big winner on the night was the ABC team led by reporter Kathryn Diss, which won six categories. The team included Keane Bourke, Daryna Zadvirna, and Jake Sturmer, all of whom fronted a two-year whole of newsroom effort to tell the stories behind WA’s youth justice crisis, by focussing on “An Avoidable Tragedy: The Death of Cleveland Dodd”.
An initiative of MEAA, the WA Media Awards support and encourage professional and ethical reporting, and celebrate excellence in Western Australian journalism.
Paul Garvey
ALL MEDIA (Including online publications)
BUSINESS, ECONOMICS OR FINANCE REPORT
Brad Thompson, Peter Ker, Australian Financial Review, “Andrew and Nicola Forrest – Splitting the Fortescue fortune”
COLUMNIST – The Matt Price Prize
Brendan Foster, WAToday, News.com, “Body of Work”
CULTURE AND ARTS REPORT – THE A.H. Kornweibel Arts Prize
Victoria Laurie, Business News, “State of the Arts: Funding Fails in the Wealthy West”
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
Victoria Laurie, Business News, Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, Good Weekend Magazine, “State of the Arts and Stolen Memories”
HEALTH / MEDICAL REPORT
Ayla Darling, Teresa Tan, Dan Harrison, ABC, “Behind Closed Doors: How one child’s voice exposed the dangers of rape inside mental health hospitals”
LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORT
Rebecca Peppiatt, WAtoday, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “The case of the missing millions”
NEW JOURNALIST OF CADET – The Eaves-Prior Day Prize
Harriet Flinn, Seven West Media, Vice
OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM STUDENT AWARD
Chloe Henville, Western Independent, “Changes in regional WA”
POLITICAL REPORT – The Beck Prize
Paul Garvey, The Australian, “Direction 99 Debacle”
REGIONAL & COMMUNITY – Three News Stories / Features outside a 70 km radius of Perth
Mya Kordic, Erin Parke, Rosanne Maloney, Andrew Seaborne, Vanessa Mills, ABC, “Kimberly Boat Arrivals”
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
Peter Milne, WAtoday, “The real legacy for WA from Alcoa”
SOCIAL EQUITY REPORT
Kathryn Diss, Keane Bourke, Daryna Zadvirna, Jake Sturmer, ABC, “An Avoidable Tragedy: The Death of Cleveland Dodd”
SPORTS REPORT – The Gilmoir-Christian Prize
Nadia Mitsopoulos, ABC, “WAIS gymnasts seek justice”
TEXT FORMATS
BEST HEADLINE (Ten words or less)
Michael Palmer, David Friedlos, Seven West Media, “Brains Trust”
FEATURE – The Hugh Schmitt Prize
Jade Jurewicz, STM, Seven West Media, “Power of Love”
NEWS
Josh Zimmerman, The West Australian, “Joondalup Health Campus failures”
SUBURBAN – Three news stories / features within a 70 km radius of Perth
Rachel Fenner, Seven West Media, “Voices of Rockingham”
PHOTOGRAPHY
COMMUNITY / REGIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Brianna Fiore, ABC, “Refugees in rural Australia”, ‘Country town Imam”, and “Gay conversion therapy still legal”
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPH / PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Jake Sturmer, ABC, “The More Things Change”
NEWS PHOTOGRAPH
Daniel Wilkins, The West Australian, “Tiffany’s Farewell”
RADIO / AUDIO JOURNALISM
AUDIO FEATURE – Based on a single story
Erin Parke, ABC, “Slave Names”
AUDIO NEWS STORY
Kathryn Diss, ABC, “An Avoidable Tragedy”
MULTIMEDIA
MULTIMEDIA FEATURE
Kathryn Diss, Keane Bourke, Daryna Zadvirna, Jake Sturmer, ABC, “An Avoidable Tragedy: The Death of Cleveland Dodd”
MULTIMEDIA NEWS
Kathryn Diss, ABC, “An Avoidable Tragedy”
TELEVISION / VIDEO JOURNALISM
CAMERAWORK
Simon Hydzik, Seven, “Israel-Hamas War”
NEWS REPORTING
Kathryn Diss, Mitch Edgar, Lauren Buckley, Mark Evans, Jake Sturmer, ABC, “An Avoidable Tragedy: The death of Cleveland Dodd”
VIDEO FEATURE
Rhiannon Shine, ABC, “ABC 7:30 Body of Work”
2024 MEAA CLARION AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO JOURNALISM
David Cusworth
2024 WA JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Paul Garvey, The Australian, “Direction 99 Debacle”
See also: Two young Australian media execs star in INMA 2024 Global 30 Under 30 Awards