Nick McKenzie

Nick McKenzie is an Australian investigative journalist, who has won ten Walkley Awards.[1][2] He has twice[3] been named Australian Journalist of the Year,[4] Australia’s most coveted journalism prize, and is the most decorated journalist in the Melbourne Press Club's history.[5][6]

Nick McKenzie
NationalityAustralian
OccupationInvestigative journalist
WebsiteNickMcKenzie.com.au

McKenzie is known for his work exposing corruption in politics, business, foreign affairs/defence, human rights issues and policing/criminal justice.[7] He works for Melbourne's The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, and has reported for Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners[8] and Nine’s 60 Minutes.[9]

Life and career

McKenzie graduated from RMIT University, Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) in 2001.[10] He also holds a Masters in International Politics from the University of Melbourne and is currently obtaining a Melbourne JD (Juris Doctor), a graduate law degree.[11]

He firstly worked as a cadet journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, later joining Fairfax Media (publisher of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald). McKenzie's 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.[12]

In 2009, a report by McKenzie and colleague Richard Baker into foreign bribery involving Reserve Bank of Australia subsidiaries sparked a national scandal.[13] It led to Australia's first-ever foreign bribery prosecution in 2011 and guilty pleas of RBA firms Securency and Note Printing Australia.[14][15] 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.[16]

In 2012, McKenzie’s reporting on corruption and organised crime within the Australian Customs service was recognised with a Walkley Award.[17] The reporting led to reforms of the Australian customs service announced in 2013 by Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and overseen by former NSW judge James Wood.[18] In 2012, McKenzie obtained confidential Victoria Police files documenting the suicides of at least 40 people sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Victoria.[19] [20] Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu immediately called a parliamentary inquiry into abuse allegations by religious clergy.[21]

A 2012 interview McKenzie conducted with sports scientist Steven Dank was used by Australia’s anti-doping agency ASADA in its controversial doping case against the Essendon Football Club.[22]

In 2014, a news story by McKenzie on Four Corners into abuse in disability care homes led to a Victorian Ombudsman inquiry and a federal senate inquiry, which recommended a royal commission that was later announced by the Morrison Government.[23]

McKenzie has been involved in many high profile stories.[24] He interviewed Australian terrorist leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika before Benbrika was prosecuted for leading terror cells in Sydney and Melbourne. During Benbrika’s court case, the public prosecutor told the court that Benbrika was covertly recorded by authorities claiming that he had threatened McKenzie, telling him to “watch yourself” and that he knew how to find the reporter.[25]

In 2014, a report co-authored by McKenzie 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.[26]

In 2016, McKenzie and Baker revealed the Unaoil oil industry corruption scandal that implicated some of the world's biggest oil industry firms, including Rolls Royce, ABB, Petrofac and Halliburton in alleged corruption involving a Monaco firm called Unaoil.[27] In 2019, the founders of Unaoil pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption offences in the United States.[28]

Documentaries

McKenzie was awarded the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award and the Lowy Institute Media Award for reporting on foreign interference in Australia by the Chinese Communist Party.[29][30]

His 2017 Four Corners documentary program Power and Influence reported that ASIO had warned Australian political parties about receiving donations from two men, billionaires Huang Xiangmo and Chau Chak Wing.[31] It also reported that former Trade Minister Andrew Robb had been hired on a $880,000 yearly consultancy by a company closely linked to the Chinese government.

The story was a catalyst for Australia's controversial counter foreign interference laws and later led to the resignation of senator Sam Dastyari over his dealings with Huang.[32][33] Huang was expelled from Australia by ASIO on security grounds, but denied the allegations about him,[34]while Chau Chak Wing commenced defamation proceedings.[35] [36]

In July 2019, McKenzie presented Crown Unmasked detailing corporate misconduct involving Crown Resorts, including allegations Crown was working with casino junket operators owned by Hong Kong’s triads.[37] The investigation also reported Australia’s Department of Home Affairs favoured visa applications by Crown’s VIP gamblers, including criminals. Crown attacked the reporting in advertisements, describing it as “a deceitful campaign.” Crown's chairwoman Helen Coonan in 2020 told a commission of inquiry into Crown's suitability to hold a gaming licence that the advertisement contained significant errors.[38] The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission also opened probes into the money laundering allegations.[39]

On 14 June 2020, McKenzie reporting for The Age and Nine Network released covert recordings purporting to show cabinet minister and Labor party power broker Adem Somyurek organising branch stacking. Somyurek is alleged to have registered local party members with false details, taking funds from business owners to pay for party membership fees, and directing ministerial staffers to engage in wrongdoing.[40] Included in the numerous covert recordings, are several sections where Somyurek is heard making derogatory comments towards MPs Gabrielle Williams and Marlene Kairouz and ministerial staffers, which have been described as sexist and homophobic.[40]

“This is going to be relentless; we're just going to go fuck them. We're just going to go to town. This is fucking war. We've got fucking massive numbers, we've got about thirty going in every week...”

— [40], Covert audio recording of Somyurek

On 15 June 2020, Premier Dan Andrews sacked Somyurek from his cabinet and referred Somyurek's conduct to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission for further investigation.[41] Andrews also wrote to the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to seek the termination of Somyurek's party membership. Later that day, the Labor Party's national president, Wayne Swan, confirmed that Somyurek had resigned his membership and there would "never be a place for Somyurek in the ALP ever again".[42]

Court cases and shield laws

In 2010, McKenzie and investigative reporters Ben Schneiders and Royce Millar revealed political parties were storing personal information about voters, raising privacy concerns.[43] A Greens party candidate had supplied the password to the ALP Eleczilla voter profile database,[44] prompting the police to charged the trio with unauthorised access to a restricted database.[45] The trio admitted responsibility for the database access as part of a court diversion program, avoiding a conviction.[46] The trio’s barrister said there was a public interest in whether political parties should maintain such data and that investigative journalists provide “genuine service to this community.”[47] The Age published a news article acknowledging the unlawful conduct,[48] while editor-in-chief Andrew Holden defended the reporting, stating investigative journalists needed to report public interest stories.[49]

In a 2013 source case brought by a political donor in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, three journalists including McKenzie made an application to keep their sources confidential, but could not rely on shield laws as they hadn’t been introduced. Justice Lucy McCallum ruled a journalist's pledge to keep a source confidential "is not a right or an end in itself" and could be overridden "in the interests of justice,"[50] but the case was settled and no sources disclosed.[51]

In 2015, McKenzie defeated a Victorian Supreme Court application brought by an alleged mafia figure for disclosure of his sources in the first legal test of Victoria’s journalist shield laws.[52] [53] The case was described by the ABC's Media Watch program as a landmark test of source protection.[54] The court ruled that identifying McKenzie’s sources would jeopardise their safety, that that there was a strong public interest in reporting on the mafia's infiltration of politics and that there would be a chilling effect if disclosure was granted.[55] The Australian journalists’ union, the MEAA, described the decision as “important for public interest journalism,"[56] but other reporting suggested shield laws still remained unsatisfactory.[57] [58] In his ruling, Supreme Court Justice John Dixon found that it was reasonable for police to suspect the alleged mafia figure placed a $200,000 “hit” on the suspected newspaper source.[59] [60]

In 2016, the alleged mafia boss abandoned his defamation legal action against The Age over a series of articles describing him as a mafia boss involved in murder, extortion and drug trafficking.[61] The Age published an apology noting the man was never charged by the police, but did not retract reports identifying him as the head of the Calabrian mafia.[62]

In 2017, the ABC reached a confidential settlement with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association president after she appeared in a Four Corners program reported by McKenzie about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Australian politics and universities. The president demanded an apology but this was refused and instead Four Corners added an editors note to the program transcript.”[63]

In 2017, McKenzie and veteran reporter Chris Masters produced several reports detailing allegations that Australia’s special forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. They reported that Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith is under investigation by the federal police and the military inspector general.[64] Roberts-Smith attacked the claims as unfounded and is suing McKenzie and Masters for defamation.[65] The trial is due to commence in June 2021 in Sydney.[66]

Awards and recognition

McKenzie is the most decorated journalist in the history of the Melbourne Press Club's Quill Awards and has twice won the press club's highest award, the Gold Quill.[5][6] McKenzie has won Australia's top journalism award, the Walkley Award, on ten occasions.[67][68]

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.[69]

In 2012, McKenzie and Baker were rated the third most influential journalists or editors in Australia by news website Crikey.[70]

In 2017, McKenzie won the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award with Baker for work on Chinese Communist Party interference in Australia.[4] In 2019, McKenzie won the Lowy Institute Media Award for reporting on foreign interference in Australia by the Chinese Communist Party.[29][30]

McKenzie also won a Kennedy Award for investigative reporting for his work exposing war crimes.

Walkley Awards

The annual Walkley Awards, under the administration of the Walkley Foundation for Journalism, are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. McKenzie's Walkley Awards include:

  • 2004 Walkley for exposing police corruption
  • 2008 Walkley for exposing organising crime and race fixing in Australian racing
  • 2011 Walkley for exposing corporate misconduct and bribery linked to Reserve Bank
  • 2013 Walkley for doping in the Australian Football League
  • 2013 Walkley for exposing corruption inside Australia’s border force agency
  • 2014 Walkley for exposing corruption in construction industry and union movement
  • 2019 Walkley for exposing organised crime and foreign interference linked to Australia’s biggest gaming company Crown Resorts
  • 2020 Walkley for exposing misconduct and the dark underbelly of Australian power in the 60 Minutes investigation "The Faceless Man" [71]

Books

In 2012, McKenzie's book The Sting,[72] 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 textbooks, Australian Journalism Today (2012)[73] and The Best Australian Business Writing (2012).[74]

References
  1. Knott, Matthew. "The Power Index: Journos". Crikey.
  2. "Walkley Award: Crown Unmasked". Walkley Awards. The Walkley Foundation.
  3. {{cite web|title=Nick McKenzie |url=https://www.smh.com.au/by/nick-mckenzie-hve6q%7Cpublisher=Sydney Morning Herald}
  4. Publisher, Master. "Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year honour roll - Melbourne Press Club". www.melbournepressclub.com. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  5. "Best Coverage of an Issue or Event". Melbourne Press Club. Melbourne Press Club. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  6. "Quill awards 2011 - Monash University Gold Quill". Melbourne Press Club. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  7. {{cite web|title=Nick McKenzie |url=https://www.smh.com.au/by/nick-mckenzie-hve6q%7Cpublisher=Sydney Morning Herald}
  8. Knott, Matthew. "The Power Index: Journos". Crikey.
  9. "Nick McKenzie, Nick Toscano and Grace Tobin". The Walkley Foundation. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  10. "Outstanding Alumni". RMIT University. 25 May 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  11. McKenzie, Nick. "Nick McKenzie website".
  12. McClymont, Kate. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black". Sydney Morning Herald.
  13. Parliamentary Library. "Australia's Efforts Against Foreign Bribery: An Update". Australian Parliament House. Australian Parliament House. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  14. Letts, business reporter Stephen (28 November 2018). "How the RBA scandal unfolded". ABC News. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  15. Parliamentary Library. "Australia's Efforts Against Foreign Bribery: An Update". Australian Parliament House. Australian Parliament House. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  16. Eltham, Ben (13 September 2012). "A Grubby Trail of Plastic Money". New Matilda. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  17. Millar, Benjamin (28 November 2013). "The Age wins Walkley Awards". The Age. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  18. Bourne, James. "Treat customs officials like corrupt police: Jason Clare". Australian Broadcasting Corp.
  19. Knott, Matthew. "The Power Index: Journos". Crikey.
  20. Lee, Jane, McKenzie, Nick and Baker, Richard (12 April 2012). "Church's suicide victims". The Age. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  21. McIlroy, Tom (17 April 2012). "Baillieu announces inquiry into church sexual abuse". The Courier. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  22. Le Grand, Chip. "Dank swears peptides were permitted". The Australian.
  23. Branley, the Specialist Reporting Team's Alison (14 March 2019). "You'd be forgiven for having royal commission fatigue, but this one's important. Here's why". ABC News. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
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  25. Kissane, Karen (27 February 2008). "Benbrika boasted of threats, court told". The Age. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  26. BBC News (8 October 2014). "HK leader given secret payment by Australian firm". BBC. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  27. Thomas, Natalie. "Amec Foster Wheeler Shares Drop 10 % on SFP Probe". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  28. "Monaco's Ahsani brothers plead guilty in U.S. to vast bribery scheme". Reuters. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  29. ""Interference" journalists win 2019 Lowy Institute Media Award". About the ABC. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  30. "The Lowy Institute Media Award | Lowy Institute". www.lowyinstitute.org. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  31. "How much money have Chinese businesses donated to Australian political parties?". NewsComAu. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  32. "Sam Dastyari resignation: How we got here". www.abc.net.au. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  33. "How much money have Chinese businesses donated to Australian political parties?". NewsComAu. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  34. Dziedzic, foreign affairs reporter Stephen (18 February 2019). "ASIO denies discrimination after stripping Chinese billionaire's permanent residency". ABC News. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  35. Whitbourn, Michaela. "Court throws out truth defence in Chau Chak Wing's defamation case". Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  36. Pelly, Michael. "Chau Chak Wing wins $280,000 in defamation case v two former Fairfax Media papers". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  37. "Crown casino inquiry gets underway in Sydney". ABC Radio. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  38. Hatch, Patrick (16 October 2020). "Crown hasn't reviewed China disaster because of 'legal risk', says Coonan". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  39. Davies, Anne (21 January 2020). "Crown Resorts may have breached casino licence over proposed share deal with Melco, inquiry hears". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  40. Llanbey, Sumeyya; McKenzie, Nick; Tozer, Joel (14 June 2020). "Calls for investigation into factional powerbroker Adem Somyurek". The Age. Nine Entetainment Co. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  41. "'Terminated': Andrews sacks Somyurek, Albanese moves to kick him out of party". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  42. "Adem Somyurek quits Labor Party after 60 Minutes airs allegations of branch stacking, offensive language". ABC News. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  43. Millar, Royce and McKenzie, Nick (22 November 2010). "Revealed: How the ALP keeps secret files on voters". The Age. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  44. Campbell, James (23 April 2013). "Greens party candidate, Fraser Brindley charged with alleged hacking of ALP electoral database". Herald Sun. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  45. "Age journos admit fault in hacking case". www.heraldsun.com.au. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  46. "Vic journalists avoid database conviction". SBS News. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  47. Akerman, Pia. "Age journalists plead guilty to avoid conviction". The Australian.
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  49. "Vic journalists avoid database conviction". SBS News. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  50. Ralston, Nick. "Age journalists ordered to reveal sources". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
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  59. . Vice News https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/4wmnmq/everything-we-know-about-joseph-acquaro-the-melbourne-underworld-lawyer-executed-behind-his-gelato-shop. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  60. Russell, Mark (9 December 2015). "Alleged Mafia boss Antonio Madafferi loses court fight with The Age over sources". The Age. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  61. Le Grand, Chip. The Australian https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/fairfax-apology-as-businessman-accused-of-mafia-links-drops-case/news-story/f01cf7367405f6cc8774eb89d287f6d0. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  62. Le Grand, Chip. The Australian https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/fairfax-apology-as-businessman-accused-of-mafia-links-drops-case/news-story/f01cf7367405f6cc8774eb89d287f6d0. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  63. Cornwall, Deborah. "ABC quietly settles Chinese student's defamation case". The Australian.
  64. Masters, Nick McKenzie, Chris (15 December 2019). "Police launch second war crimes investigation into Ben Roberts-Smith". The Age. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  65. "Australian Journalism Today". Palgrave Macmillan Australia. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  66. Patrick, Aaron (29 December 2020). "The defamation trial of the century". Financial Review. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  67. "Walkley Award: Crown Unmasked". Walkley Awards. The Walkley Foundation.
  68. {{cite web|title=Nick McKenzie |url=https://www.smh.com.au/by/nick-mckenzie-hve6q%7Cpublisher=Sydney Morning Herald}
  69. "Munster Winners" (PDF). www.uts.edu.au. Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
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  74. "The Best Australian Business Writing 2012". NewSouth Books. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
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