Monash Journalism staff: Bill Birnbauer
Senior Lecturer
William (Bill) Birnbauer is one of Australia’s most senior journalists, with more than 30 years experience at The Age, The Sunday Age and The Herald. He joined Monash University journalism in December 2008. Birnbauer has reported on many high-profile issues and was The Age’s Chief of Staff, News Editor and Night Editor for almost six years.
He was also the paper’s Health, Science and Environment Editor, City Editor, Medical Reporter, Sydney reporter, National Affairs Correspondent, Insight investigative reporter, features writer, state political reporter, general reporter and associate editor.
Bill has made two hour-long TV documentaries. The Big Lie (SBS) tracked lung cancer victim Rolah McCabe’s battle with Big Tobacco, while Sudden Death (ABC) was a medical detective story about a rare genetic defect called malignant hyperthermia. Bill has written two books, co-edited an anthology of short stories, and has written several chapters in edited publications.
In 1996, Bill led a team that won a Walkley award, Australia's most prestigious journalism award, for a narrative feature on the Port Arthur massacre. He has been a Walkley finalist four times. He won a Melbourne Press Club Quill award (he has been highly commended four times in the Quills), and has won the Victoria Law Foundation award (5 times), the Human Rights Award, the UN Association’s Media Peace Award and a Dart Award.
He is a member of the invitation-only International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Washington-based Centre for Public Integrity, and has engaged in major investigations for the consortium.
In 2001, Bill reported on a $US1.2 billion international tobacco smuggling operation into China and Taiwan which involved links between a Triad-backed distribution company and former British American Tobacco executives. The ICIJ’s report was a finalist in the US-based Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) online section.
In 2003, he was part of an ICIJ team that reported on the explosive growth of private global water utility companies which are taking control of public water works. ‘The Water Barons’ won an IRE award for online journalism in 2003.
The judges said: “This series could become a coverage blueprint for years to come.’’
Since 2001, Bill has reported on the shredding of sensitive internal documents by British American Tobacco, first revealed when Melbourne lung cancer victim Rolah McCabe sued the cigarette giant.
Bill unearthed two key whistleblowers: one was a former BAT executive who stated the shredding was done to sanitise documents and keep them out of court. The other insider was a senior partner with BAT’s former law firm, Clayton Utz. Lawyer Chris Dale had conducted an internal investigation at the law firm and had made adverse findings against two lawyers involved in the McCabe case. Publication of Dale’s findings sparked an investigation by the former Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Crime Commission.
Bill’s reporting has prompted numerous government and regulator inquiries and reviews: they include investigations into the regulation of Victoria’s cosmetic laser industry; infection rates at a neo-natal intensive care unit; the reporting of adverse events at the state’s hospitals; medical board investigations into disgraced psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks; the behaviour of British American Tobacco and Clayton Utz; and Labor Party funding raising.
Bill was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University, California, in 1992-93. He undertook a variety of courses including management communication, power and politics in organisations, Japanese politics, the Gorbachev-Yeltsin years, and development of the short story.
He is currently doing a Masters degree by research which is examining models for non-profit investigative journalism.
Publications
Books
- The Journalist who Laughed, co-authored with Garry Sturgess and illustrated by Vane Lindesay (Hutchinson)
- Face Value: The Kay Nesbit Story (Penguin)
- A Year of One’s Own, anthology co-edited by Birnbauer including a short story. (Stanford University Publication Services)
Book chapters
- Journalism investigation and research: edited by Stephen Tanner (Longman)
- If atoms could talk, edited by Rosaleen Love (Greenhouse Publications)
- The Water Barons, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of The Centre for Public Integrity (Public Integrity Books)
