Nick McKenzie

Nick McKenzie's Biography

A fourteen time winner of the Walkley Award, Australia’s highest journalism honour, and four time Australian Journalist of the Year, Nick McKenzie is a leading Australian investigative journalist who works for newspapers Melbourne’s The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He’s also presented major investigations for the ABC's Four Corners and 7:30, 60 Minutes and the Australian Financial Review.

With 20 years’ experience, Nick’s investigations span foreign affairs, defence and national security, corporate wrongdoing, politics, organised crime and corruption, the criminal justice system and social affairs. His work has sparked many national and state inquires, including Royal Commissions and parliamentary inquiries, prompted investigations in Australia, the US and Britain into corruption and led to significant legislative change.

Nick has led ground breaking investigations into political corruption that have led to the resignation of state and federal MPs and has also exposed war crimes involving Australian special forces. He’s conducted an unprecedented infiltration of Australia’s neo-nazi movement, revealed a major corruption scandal within Australia’s central bank, exposed organised crime in Australia’s biggest casinos and revealed doping in elite sport

Nick is passionate about giving vulnerable people a voice. He works closely with whistleblowers and is an advocate for better laws to protect their critical role exposing corruption and wrongdoing. He’s helped victims of sexual abuse in disability homes, soldiers with PTSD, and victims of human trafficking and police brutality to tell their stories to national audiences. Whistleblowers have worked with Nick to expose corruption, abuse scandals or other failings in political parties, the defence force, the Catholic church, the health system and law enforcement agencies.

Nick started his career in journalism at the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in 2002. As an ABC reporter, he revealed Australia’s first Al Qaeda cell and exposed a major police corruption scandal involving the murder of a state witness. He later joined Fairfax Media (now Nine), where his work saw him twice named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year.

The Perkin judging panel said:

Nick McKenzie’s impressive body of work in 2020 added to the breadth and depth of his investigative journalism over many years.

McKenzie’s work on war crimes, Crown casino, and corruption in the Victorian branch of the ALP, in particular, continues to make a difference, not just by prompting official actions and inquiries but by encouraging other media to investigate issues and by building a more open public conversation about key institutions and values.

McKenzie shines a powerful light. His is quality journalism critical to our democracy.

His journalism has been recognised with 14 Walkley Awards, and he is the most decorated reporter in the history of the Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards. He’s also been awarded the prestigious Lowy Institute Award for best foreign affairs reporting for his investigations into the Chinese Communist Party’s interference in Australian politics. This work has attracted global attention and debate, and contributed to new transparency laws.

Nick has a Bachelor of Arts from RMIT, a Masters in International Politics from the University of Melbourne.

Nick is the author of Crossing the Line - An explosive exposé and testament to the power of investigative journalism.

In mid-2017, whispers from Australia’s most secretive and elite military unit reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. McKenzie and veteran reporter Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only reveal shocking information about Australia’s most famous and revered SAS soldier but plunge the two reporters
into the defamation trial of the century.

For five years, McKenzie waged an epic fight for the truth to be acknowledged, persuading special forces soldiers to reveal dark secrets about the murders of prisoners and civilians involving Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.

Nick is also a highly skilled event host, panel facilitator and panellist.

Speaking Topics Include

Crossing the Line: Australia’s war secrets - elite soldiers murdered Afghan prisoners

Interference: Beijing’s infiltration of Australia’s political system

Investigative journalism

Organised crime

Corporate and white collar crime

Changing corrupt cultures

Governance