Winner: Heidi Murphy, 3AW, “Long Shift”

Judges’ citation: 

‘Long Shift’ unveiled a major scandal involving the betrayal of a first responder by Ambulance Victoria, an agency Victorians should be able to trust.

The judges assessed an extremely strong and engaging field of entries but felt this radio current affairs journalism stretched above, particularly due to the additional pressure of live broadcasting with exclusivity, originality and impact.

With little preparation time, Heidi Murphy broke the story of an exhausted paramedic, Jim, who crashed his ambulance after an 18-hour shift – only for Ambulance Victoria to deny his version of events before finally admitting the truth with seconds bearing down until the end of the program.

Heidi’s ability to convince the talent to talk was powerful, securing an exclusive, and raw interview, which saw the story picked up by most Melbourne media outlets.

Amid a pay dispute, it built pressure which forced the resignation of the Ambulance Victoria CEO.

Highly Commended:

Charlotte King and Andy Burns, ABC News, “The price of freebirth”

Shortlisted:

ABC Radio Melbourne Drive, ABC Radio Melbourne, “Melbourne Drive Forum: Violence Against Women - Finding the Solutions’’

ABC Radio Melbourne Mornings, ABC Radio Melbourne, “Triple 0 outage”