Nick McKenzie

Nick McKenzie
Residence Melbourne
Nationality Australian
Occupation Investigative Journalist
Website NickMcKenzie.com.au

Nick McKenzie is an Australian investigative journalist, author and multiple Walkley Awards winner.[1]

He works for Fairfax Media and his investigations regularly appear in Melbourne's The Age newspaper,[2] The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review. He also presents special investigations for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's prestigious television program, Four Corners.

Life and career

His career began as a cadet journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, later joining Fairfax Media. McKenzie's investigative reporting has led to a number of government inquiries and police investigations, including a federal police probe into political donations given by alleged mafia figures.[3]

An investigation in 2009 by McKenzie and his Fairfax Media colleague Richard Baker into alleged foreign bribery involving two companies owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, sparked a national scandal and prompted an investigation by the Australian Federal Police.[4]

It ultimately led to Australia's first-ever foreign bribery prosecution in 2011, with the criminal charging of two firms, Securency and Note Printing Australia and several individuals.[5] McKenzie and Baker were awarded a Walkley Award for Investigative Reporting for their investigation, which also led to the governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, testifying before a senate committee to respond to allegations the bank mishandled the scandal.[6]

In 2014, a report by the pair on an undisclosed multi-million dollar payment to Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung from Australian company UGL, prompted widespread calls for Leung's resignation and sparked an investigation by Hong Kong authorities.[7]

In 2014, McKenzie and Baker’s investigation into organised crime and corruption in Australia’s construction industry was among the catalysts for the Abbott Government’s royal commission into trade union governance and corruption. The work of the commission has been controversial and described as a political witch-hunt by the Labor Party and union movement.[8]

Much of McKenzie's work has been produced with Richard Baker. In 2012, McKenzie and Baker were rated the third most influential journalists or editors in Australia by news website Crikey.[9]

Some of their work has been controversial. The pair's reporting on the work of a leading Australian surgeon, Professor Thomas Kossmann, prompted multiple formal inquiries that were highly critical of the surgeon, including a report by the Victorian Ombudsman. Kossmann and several of his medical colleagues, along with other journalists, disputed the extent of Kossman’s misconduct.[10]

An investigation in 2009 by McKenzie and Baker into the association between former Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and a wealthy Chinese businesswoman led to Fitzgibbon losing his portfolio.[11] Fitzgibbon denied the claims and later sued Fairfax Media.[12]

McKenzie and Baker have been summoned before Australian courts on several occasions in an effort by parties impacted by their work to get the pair to reveal the identity of some of their confidential sources. In October 2015, an Australian businessman identified as an alleged Calabrian mafia figure in a report by McKenzie on the ABC's Four Corners program brought an application in the Victorian Supreme Court to force McKenzie to reveal his sources.[13] McKenzie and Baker have contested and appealed these applications to avoid revealing their sources.[14]

Awards and Recognition

McKenzie has won Australia's top journalism award, the Walkley Award, on seven occasions.[15]

In 2010, McKenzie and his colleague Richard Baker were awarded the prestigious George Munster Prize for Independent Journalism by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.[16]

McKenzie is the most decorated journalist in the history of the Melbourne Press Club[17] Quill Awards and has twice won the press club’s highest award, the Gold Quill.[18]

Books

In 2012, McKenzie's book The Sting[19] – about one of Australia's biggest organised crime and money laundering investigations – was published by Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) Victory Books.

McKenzie has also contributed to the Australian journalism textbook, Australian Journalism Today (2012)[20] and The Best Australian Business Writing (2012).[21]

References

  1. ↑ "Nick McKenzie & Richard Baker". The Power Index. The Power Index. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Nick McKenzie". The Age. 15 August 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  3. ↑ McKenzie, Baker, Bachelard (22 May 2014). "Libs Take Money Of Mafia Man". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. ↑ Parliamentary Library. "Australia's Efforts Against Foreign Bribery: An Update". Australian Parliament House. Australian Parliament House. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Parliamentary Library. "Australia's Efforts Against Foreign Bribery: An Update". Australian Parliament House. Australian Parliament House. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Eltham, Ben (13 September 2012). "A Grubby Trail of Plastic Money". New Matilda. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  7. ↑ BBC News (8 October 2014). "HK leader given secret payment by Australian firm". BBC. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  8. ↑ Farr, Malcolm (22 October 2015). "Trade union royal commission controversial demand to Labor". News Ltd. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "Nick McKenzie & Richard Baker". The Power Index. The Power Index. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  10. ↑ "Alfred Hospital deflects blame for surgeon". The Australian. 22 May 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  11. ↑ Baker, Richard (26 March 2009). "Defence leaks dirt file on own minister". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Media Watch (16 September 2013). "Shield laws up but not quite there" (Ep 33). Australian Broadcasting Corp.
  13. ↑ Oakes, Dan (18 September 2015). "Antonio Madafferi suspected of putting hit on Melbourne lawyer, trying to monitor journalist Nick McKenzie, court documents allege". Australian Broadcasting Corp. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "McKenzie & Anor v Magistrates' Court of Victoria & Anor [2013] VSCA 81 (18 April 2013)". Austlii.edu.au. Australian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Nick McKenzie & Richard Baker". The Walkley Foundation. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  16. ↑ "Munster Winners" (PDF). www.uts.edu.au. Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "Best Coverage of an Issue or Event". Melbourne Press Club. Melbourne Press Club. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  18. ↑ Melbourne Press Club. Melbourne Press Club http://old.melbournepressclub.com/quills/2011/monash-university-gold-quill/nick-mckenzie-maris-beck-tom-mckendrick_age-age. Retrieved 22 October 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ↑ "Extract from The Sting". The Age. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  20. ↑ "Australian Journalism Today". Palgrave Macmillan Australia. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "The Best Australian Business Writing 2012". NewSouth Books. Retrieved 23 April 2014.

External links

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