Australian Story: 19x30

Before the Storm

This week’s program goes behind the scenes with a tenacious regional newspaper reporter who last year won Australia’s top journalism award.

Joanne McCarthy’s exposure of a national scandal emerging in the Newcastle and Hunter Valley region played a large part in the establishment of one of Australia’s biggest-ever Royal Commissions.

Her efforts so impressed former Prime Minister Julia Gillard that one of her last acts in office was to send a personal note to Ms McCarthy.

As this program reveals, it’s been a marathon effort for both Joanne McCarthy and some of those closest to her, including her parents and ten siblings….