Background Briefing

Death in Chinatown

Year 12 student Jeremy Hu, was repeatedly kicked and stomped on in Melbourne’s Chinatown, and he later died of his injuries.

None of his friends called an ambulance that night, and instead of taking him to the hospital, they checked him into a hotel.

Reporter Jane Lee investigated the $30 billion international education industry and followed the murder trial in the aftermath of Jeremy Hu's death.

I was Series Producer and fact checker on this story, which won the 2018 Quill Award for Radio Journalism (Long Form).

The drugs don't work

With secret recordings, leaked documents, and whistle-blower testimony, Hagar Cohen uncovers how the Queensland Ambulance Service botched an investigation into one of its biggest-ever drug tampering scandals.

This investigation was the first of a series of stories about the drug fentanyl, on which I was Series Producer, fact checker and researcher. For this story team was recognised as a Walkley finalists in the Radio/Audio Feature category 2018.

Photograph by Tim Leslie

From verbal abuse to axe murder

Journalists Elizabeth Byrne and Susan McDonald investigate how health professionals, and law enforcement could have prevented the death of 28-year-old Tara Costigan, were they equipped with the right information at the right time.

This story was recognised as a 2018 Our Watch finalist (All Media: Longform).

Photograph by Tom Joyner

All the Best

Morwell

When the Hazelwood Mine in Morwell caught fire, the open cut mine burned for 45 days. The town of Morwell was full of toxic smoke and ash, and many who could left to avoid what we now know to be life-threatening consequences.

In this episode of All the Best Supervising Producer Sally Whyte and I took a group of reporters to Morwell, and spoke to residents about the immediate aftermath of the open cut mine fire, as they cleaned ash off the rose gardens.

Photograph by Sally Whyte

Blowing the Whistle

Stories of whistleblowers, and what it means to blow the whistle in Australia, told in response to a change to whistleblower law, Section 35P of the ASIO Act.

This is an example of my favourite sort of All the Best episode — when something happened and we came together to get to the bottom of why and put it into context using unexpected stories.

A Walk in the Park

When 17-year-old Masa Vukotic was murdered in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster while out for a walk in a park near her house, the Victorian Homicide Squad Chief responded to the tragedy by suggesting that ‘people, particularly females, they shouldn’t be alone in parks … I’m sorry to say that is the case.’ At All the Best we responded with this episode, including a monumental collaboration where Melbourne women recorded their own walks home at night.

Artwork by Stephanie Freda Leigh

RN Drive

US Election broadcast 2016

I led RN Drive’s 2016 US election coverage throughout the 2015 - 2016 election season, with a mandate to source and engage experts and analysts who hadn’t been heard on RN before, with a view to diversifying our election coverage and the perspectives heard talking about US politics.

This culminated in a jam-packed live election night broadcast with three very different rundowns — one for a Trump victory, one for a Clinton victory, and one if things were too close to call.

Audience engagement

In my time at RN Drive I drove social and audience engagement strategy for the show (with experiments both successful and failed).

One of the more fruitful experiments was this series I produced in the lead up to the 2017 Federal Budget, which solicited audience voice memos and used them to inform a series of expert panels on key issues. We used it to ground our budget coverage in the way political decisions impact the way we live our lives in real, practical ways.

The Drawing Room

I produced daily live audio stories on RN Drive, and occasionally would step in to produce The Drawing Room, more in-depth, panel conversations with a variety of guests.

Drawing Room segments usually brought two guests with different perspectives together on a topic, and were edited and turned around for daily broadcast.

The Party Room

Development, format, workflow

The Party Room was RN’s first digital-only audio project, and as such had unique requirements around workflow, project management, delivery and rights.

Along with Fran Kelly, Patricia Karvelas and Executive Producer Dina Rosendorff I developed and refined a format and workflow that would play to the strengths of podcast delivery, interest new audiences, and fit with Breakfast and Drive production, while adhering to rigorous editorial standards.

Federal Election 2016

Season One of The Party Room ran in the lead up to the 2016 double dissolution federal election, with PK and Fran providing analysis, contextualisation and breaking news on the podcast.

Formats included quick-response bonus episodes, panel discussions, a state of the nation whip around with ABC Local presenters across Australia, analysis of rural and regional election issues, and guests including Annabel Crabb, Leigh Sales, Shalailah Medhora, Sabra Lane, Antony Green and Barrie Cassidy.

It was named one of the top Australian podcasts of 2016 by Apple Podcasts.

Launch & social campaigns

The Party Room launched with social videos from politicians across the political spectrum.

It continued to engage with its growing audience through Facebook Live Q&As, online articles, 80s music and audience questions.