Over its 45-year history, the Council of the Order of Australia has stripped awards from 46 people. Is Bettina Arndt next?
The Coalition comes out well and truly on top in this full list of Order of Australia honours given out to politicians over the past few years...
Analysis by Inq has revealed that the Council of the Order of Australia has become stacked with Liberal Party veterans, insiders and sympathisers. Have the awards themselves become partisan?
David Harris died more than a year ago after his NDIS funding was cut off. Yet the NSW government has yet to launch an inquest into his death.
Even when police officers are charged with murder, powerful and politically connected unions rush to protect them.
Our Inquiry Journalism model is built on questions. We don’t just look for the big stories, we look for the side-stories, the stories under the surface that reveal where the real power lies, and who is influencing it.
We’re not part of any establishment, we’re here to scrutinise the establishment and call bullshit when we need to. And unlike so much of Australia’s “local” media, we are actually owned and controlled here, not a mere cog in someone’s global network.
We often take our readers behind the curtain and under the hood, because how the story happens is sometimes just as important as the story itself. Our journalists reveal the side details so our members get the inside running.
We’re not interested in filling columns, or baiting clicks. Our membership model requires us only to tell important stories, and to live up to the high expectations of our members. Story length, team structure, format, everything is open for discussion. The truth is the only thing that matters.
How investigative journalism is paid for is one of the biggest questions facing the media at the moment. We can’t speak for everyone else, but we can share how INQ is funded. INQ is part of Crikey, which over nearly 20 years has avoided industry trends and remained a subscriber-only email supported by a paywalled site. This reluctance to follow trends has insulated us from industry changes. It seems like every time an algorithm flaps its wings, a news site dies.
Meet the team
David Hardaker
Reporter
David has an extensive career as a journalist and broadcaster, primarily at the ABC where he worked on flagship programs such as Four Corners, The 7.30 Report, Foreign Correspondent, AM and PM. He spent eight years reporting in the Middle East and can speak Arabic.
David will be covering legal affairs and crime.
Kirsten Drysdale
Reporter
Kirsten started her journalistic career in Brisbane producing video and text content for museums and exhibitions. From there she made her way to TV where she wrote, produced and presented, starting on the ABC’s Hungry Beast in 2009, followed by stints at SBS’ The Feed, various Chaser productions including The Hamster Wheel, Media Circus, The Chaser’s Election Desk, and most notably six seasons of consumer affairs program The Checkout. In addition to her television work, Kirsten produced and hosted Radio National consumer psychology podcast Talking Shop and authored a book I Built No Schools in Kenya.
Kirsten will be covering rural and regional affairs.
Georgia Wilkins
Reporter
Georgia has worked as a journalist in Australia and overseas, including six years as a reporter for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. During this time, she worked as a business and finance reporter, covering corporate misconduct, multinational tax avoidance and wrongdoing at the big end of town. She also worked at The Weekly Review and the Phnom Penh Post, where she covered the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
Georgia will be covering business and consumer affairs.
Justine Landis-Hanley
Reporter
Justine has just completed a media and philosophy degree at the University of Sydney. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Saturday Paper and The Age. She has worked as a casual reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, an international fellow to the Agence-France Presse Tokyo bureau, editor of student newspaper Honi Soit, and was The New York Times Australia bureau’s first reporting intern. Justine is passionate about gender equality, and has undertaken public policy research work and fellowships with the G20, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
If you have a tip on education you can contact Justine.
Emily Watkins
Reporter
Emily has been Crikey’s media reporter since she joined in early 2017. She has been a journalist for 12 years, having previously worked for ABC’s Media Watch, the NT News, news.com.au and SA’s Sunday Mail.
Contact Emily about all things media and technology.
Chris Woods
Reporter
Chris began their career in journalism at Long Island newspaper The Statesman in 2013. They spent the next five years freelancing for The Saturday Paper, Junkee, Pedestrian.TV and Brisbane startup blog The Tech Street Journal, before joining Crikey as a freelancer in 2017, Worm writer in 2018, and, finally, INQ reporter in 2019. Chris also volunteers at intersectional feminist current affairs program 3CR Tuesday Breakfast and law reform group Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project.
Chris will be covering indigenous affairs.
Kishor Napier-Raman
Reporter
Before joining Crikey in 2018, Kishor was an editor of the University of Sydney’s student paper Honi Soit, an intern at the Sydney Morning Herald on the state news beat, a casual legal reporter for Justinian and the Gazette of Law and Journalism, and a research assistant at the Australian Human Rights Commission.
In his spare time, he is completing a law degree at the University of Sydney.
Kishor will be covering issues with respect to immigration, race and religion.
Amber Schultz
Reporter
Amber has been a reporter for The Age, writer for ABC Comedy’s Tonightly, and creator of student talk show The Struggle. She was awarded the Jacoby-Walkley scholarship in 2018, and was an Associate Producer at Nine News. Amber has studied an undergrad degree in The Netherlands and a Masters of International Relations and Journalism at Monash in Melbourne. She is fluent in Spanish.
Amber will be covering all issues related to health for INQ.
Charlie Lewis
Reporter
Charlie writes chiefly about industrial relations, politics, culture and social services. Prior to INQ he worked in various roles across government and unions and was a researcher for RN’s the Daily Planet. He hosted the Alternative History on Triple R radio, and is a regular guest and occasional host on Breakfasters. He spent the 2019 election in Warringah, covering the fight for Tony Abbott’s seat for Crikey.
Charlie will primarily cover environment and energy, and has a strong interest in industrial relations, politics, culture.
