The MPC is thrilled to announce the finalists for our 28th Quill Awards for Excellence in Victorian Journalism.

Finalists for each category are listed below, alphabetically by surname of primary entrant. The 2022 Student Journalist of the Year finalist list is also presented.

Winners will be announced at the 28th Quill Awards Dinner on Friday 24 March 2023. Book your tickets now.

See also: 47th Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year finalists, 8th Harry Gordon Australian Sports Journalist of the Year finalists

The 28th Quill Awards covers work published in the 2022 calendar year.

Please note: links are not available for all stories, and may not comprise the full entry submitted for consideration.

Artwork

• Matthew Davidson, The Age, “Jack's Story”
• Richard Giliberto, The Age, “Stormy Weather”

Best Breaking News or Live Coverage

• 7NEWS Melbourne, “Victoria's Flood Emergency”
• The Age online team, The Age, “Djokovic deportation saga”
• Nine News Melbourne, “Maribyrnong Flood Special Coverage”
• Sarah Jane Bell, Ethan St Ellen and Roland Pagels, Sunrise, “Maribyrnong Flood”

Best Coverage of an Issue

• Anthony Dowsley, Herald Sun, “The Verdict”
• Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, The Age and 7.30, “Medicare Exposed”
• Anthony Galloway, Michelle Griffin and Kate Geraghty, The Age, “The invasion of Ukraine”

Cartoon

• Matthew Davidson, The Age, “Whiplash economics succession”
• Andrew Dyson, The Age, “Off-Leash Area”
• Matt Golding, The Age, “Indigenous voice to Parliament”

Business News/Feature, sponsored by McGrathNicol

• Eryk Bagshaw and Edward Adeti, The Age, “Blood Gold”
• Jarni Blakkarly, CHOICE, “Facial Recognition in Retail Investigation”
• Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, The Age and 7.30, “Medicare: A Basket Case”
• Peter Ker, Australian Financial Review, “Newcrest Culture Wars”

Coverage of Women in Sport, sponsored by the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation

• Jeremy Story Carter, ABC National Regional Reporting Team, “Is this Australia's coolest footy team?”
• Sam Landsberger, Herald Sun, “Female umpire abuse shame”
• Mark Robinson, Herald Sun, “To Hell and Back”
• Lauren Wood, Herald Sun, “Enough is enough: AFLW conditions laid bare”

Excellence in Indigenous Affairs Reporting, sponsored by the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

• Bridget Brennan, Brooke Fryer, Suzanne Dredge and Stephanie Zillman, Four Corners, ABC News, “How Many More?”
• Loretta Florance, Amy Bainbridge and Kirstie Wellauer, 7.30, “Inside Youpla’s collapse”
• Jack Latimore, The Age, “Mallee Indigenous group pleads to stop car rally on cultural heritage site”
• Louise Milligan, Naomi Selvaratnam and Lauren Day, Four Corners, “Heart Failure”

Excellence in Science, Medical and Health Reporting, sponsored by University of Melbourne

• Melissa Davey, Guardian Australia, “Generation Vape”
• Tania Ewing, Cosmos Magazine, “The Clinical Trial That Learnt On The Go”
• Amalyah Hart, Cosmos Magazine, “Model or monster?”
• Pallavi Singhal, Nick O’Malley, Daniel Carter and Mark Stehle, The Age, “Silent Killer”

Feature Writing

• Adam Carey, The Age, “Walking in two worlds: the Territory kids discovering a new school”
• Miki Perkins, Good Weekend magazine, “The Torres Strait Islander elders lawyering up to stop their homes from sinking”
• Erin Somerville, ABC News, “Raising Giants”
• Cameron Stewart, Weekend Australian magazine, “Bad Betty”

Features Photograph

• Alex Coppel, Herald Sun, “Underwater Babies”
• Christopher Hopkins, Guardian Australia, “Heaven is the Place where there is no Harm”
• Eddie Jim, The Age, "Graduation"
• Justin McManus, The Age, “Johnny and his Dogs: Fighting Fracking”

Grant Hattam Quill for Investigative Journalism, sponsored by HWT

• Stephanie Convery, Emma Kemp and Melissa Davey, Guardian Australia, “The gaping hole in sport’s concussion policies”
• Nick McKenzie, Amelia Ballinger and Joel Tozer, 60 Minutes, “Trafficked”
• Kate McClymont and Thea Dikeos, 60 Minutes and The Age, “The Price of Hope”
• Josie Taylor and Matilda Marozzi, ABC News, “Victoria Police officers weaponising database to target women”

Innovation in Journalism, sponsored by Ryman Healthcare

• Matilda Boseley and Dave Fanner, Guardian Australia, “Voting 101”
• Jewel Topsfield, Matt Davidson, Sophie Aubrey and Margaret Gordon, The Age, “Jack's story”
• Victoria's Agenda Team, The Age, “Victoria's Agenda”
• The Visual Stories Team, The Age, “Anatomy of the Lismore disaster”

Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary

• Jonathan Horn, Guardian Australia, “Commentary on Sporting Controversies”
• Sean Kelly, The Age, “Endings and beginnings”
• Peter Martin, The Conversation Australia, “Why unemployment is set to stay below 5% for years to come”

Multicultural Affairs and Media, in partnership with Gandel Foundation

• Achol Arok and Daniel Ziffer, ABC News, “So-called 'African gangs' dominated headlines at the last Victorian election and trust issues remain”
• Noor M Ramazan and Christopher Hopkins, Guardian Australia, “'Now my Children Can Grow up in Peace'”
• Andriana Simos, The Greek Herald, “The Hellenic heart of Melbourne”
• Iris Zhao, Dong Xing, Jason Fang and Jarrod Fankhauser, ABC News, “‘It’s a struggle for voters’: Unpacking the China factor”

News Photograph

• Jason Edwards, Herald Sun, “The Bulldozer”
• Darren Howe, Bendigo Advertiser, “Angels On My Shoulders”
• Justin McManus, The Age, “Rochester Floods”
• Darrian Traynor, Getty Images, “A dark day”

News Report in Writing

• Aisha Dow and Nick McKenzie, The Age, “Triple-0 scandal: wasted time, wasted lives”
• Paul Sakkal, The Age, “Operation Daintree: Daniel Andrews under direct investigation in new IBAC probe”
• Chris Vedelago and James Dowling, The Age, “Coles, Woolworths recycling scheme collapses after secret stockpiles revealed”

Podcasting

• Richard Baker, Kate Cole-Adams, Julia Carr-Catzel and, Kyle Hopkins, The Age, “The Confession”
• John Silvester, Tammy Mills, Margaret Gordon and Hanna Mills Turbet, The Age, “Naked City”
• Harrison Tippet, Geelong Advertiser, “Death interrupted”
• Jewel Topsfield, Sophie Aubrey and Margaret Gordon, The Age, “Enough”

Radio Current Affairs

• Amy Bainbridge, Loretta Florance and Kirstie Wellauer, ABC AM, “Sorry Business”
• Matilda Marozzi and the Background Briefing team, ABC Radio National, “Is getting quality care at medicinal cannabis clinics just pot luck?”

Radio News

The judges in this category decided on a winner only, rather than selecting a shortlist. The award winner will be announced along with the other Quills winners.

Regional and Rural Journalism, sponsored by TAC

• Bonnie Barkmeyer, WIN News Victoria, “Central Victorian Flood Emergency”
• Hayley Elg and Timothy Cox, The Ballarat News, “Ballarat Clarendon College allegations”
• Fiona Myers, The Weekly Times, “FMD Time Bomb”
• Harrison Tippet, Geelong Advertiser, “Institutional abuse: A city's scars laid bare”

Reporting on Disability Issues, sponsored by the Victorian Government

• Stephanie Convery, Guardian Australia, “Left behind: the fight for accessible public transport in Victoria”
• Claudia Forsberg, ABC Victoria and ABC Ballarat, “Accessible Taxis Reportage”
• Ruby Jones, Georgia Cranko, Elle Marsh and Erik Jensen, 7am, “The killing of Ann Marie Smith”
• Jewel Topsfield, The Age, “The autism advantage - why businesses are hiring autistic people”

Scoop of the Year

• Mark Buttler, Anthony Dowsley and Aneeka Simonis, Herald Sun, “Jailhouse Mastermind Sting”
• Annika Smethurst and Paul Sakkal, The Age, “Victorian Liberals' donor scandal”

Sports Feature

• Jonathan Horn, Guardian Australia, “The Life, Career & Death of Shane Warne”
• Konrad Marshall, Good Weekend magazine, “Being Ben Simmons”
• Jon Ralph, Herald Sun, “I ended up in an injecting room”
• Ben Schneiders, Carla Jaeger and Lachlan Abbott, The Age, “'A cultural mess': Behind the A-League pitch invasion”

Sports News

• Sam Landsberger, Herald Sun, “Dons' holy fail”
• Mark Robinson, Herald Sun, “Like the Russian Mafia”
• Michael Warner, Herald Sun, “Demons’ Secret Hell”

Sports Photograph

• Eddie Jim, The Age, “The G.O.A.T”
• Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun, “Kambosos Jr vs. Haney”
• Darrian Traynor, Getty Images, “El Toro”
• Michael Willson, AFL.com.au, “Buddy Beauty”

TV Camera Work (Creative)

• Peter Drought, ABC News Victoria, “Fight for The Outer Suburbs in Victoria's Election”
• Ryan Mason, Nine News, “Snow Police”
• Travis Nemtsas, Nine News, “Beach Artist”
• Lachlan Shine, 7NEWS Melbourne, “Crime Fighters Exclusive”

TV Camera Work (Shot of the Year)

• Malcom Corp, Nine News Melbourne, “Wild Rampage”
• Grant Stevenson, 7NEWS Melbourne, “Chase Terror”
• Simon Tucci, ABC News Breakfast, “Journalist celebrates when Socceroos qualify for World Cup”
• Dean Wood, 10 News First, “Drive-by ambush”

TV/Video Feature

• Christine Ahern and Thea Dikeos, 60 Minutes, “Dying For Help”
• Alexis Daish, A Current Affair, “Frecker Police Tapes”
• Richard Willingham, Kirsten Robb and Sarah Curnow, 7.30, “Victims of sexual violence forced to wait in bloodied and soiled clothes due to crisis in Forensic Care”

TV/Video News

• Christine Ahern, Today Show, “Aged Care Captives”
• Carrie-Anne Greenbank, Nine News, “Ukraine War”
• Bridget Rollason, ABC News, “Victoria's health crisis”
• Cassie Zervos, 7NEWS, “Fawkner Shooting Victims”

Early career awards

MPC Student Journalist of the Year

• Grace Baldwin, Monash University
• Angus Delaney, Swinburne University of Technology
• Caroline Hartnett, University of Melbourne
• Thomas Monaghan, RMIT

Young Journalist of the Year, sponsored by Wilnic Family Trust

• Grace Baldwin, Herald Sun
• Sarah Booth, Herald Sun
• Claudia Forsberg, ABC News and ABC Ballarat
• Gillian Lantouris, Nine News

Inquiries: admin@melbournepressclub.com or 03 8080 3610