Thrilled and honoured to be nominated as a finalist in the 2018 Australia Museum Eureka Prizes in the science journalism category. Continue reading
Health / Human Rights / Polio
Category Archives: Human Rights
Papua New Guinea’s Resource Curse
It’s almost 10 years since I went to PNG for the first time. One of the stories I was investigating on that first trip was what ExxonMobil’s looming, massive, much-hyped PNG LNG (liquified natural gas) project would mean for the people at its highlands source, and for the country. A dozen trips older and wiser, … Continue reading
The last hard yard to wipe out polio
Earlier this year I went to northern Nigeria to research a story on the final push to wipe out wild poliovirus from the last crucibles of disease in terrorised parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Commissioned by Undark magazine, it was co-published in The Atlantic. Continue reading
Hear Me Roar: Profile of Elizabeth Reid
About 10 years ago, when I started writing about PNG and women, I got an encouraging email out of the blue from one Elizabeth Reid. I confess, I had to google her – only one of the most mighty (and modest) feminist wayfinders of the ’70s and beyond. She was Gough’s “supergirl” but has been … Continue reading
Children of the plague
“TB is the child of poverty – and also its parent and provider”: Bishop Desmond Tutu, who was himself a survivor of childhood tuberculosis. I was recently commissioned by the NGO ChildFund to pull together this report on the impact of the TB epidemic on the children of Papua New Guinea. You can find the … Continue reading
‘Ebola with Wings’: ABC Radio National Background Briefing
Five years after the alarm was raised on the drug resistant tuberculosis emergency in PNG, the worst fears of experts about its spread are being realised. I go back to Daru, the outbreak front line, for my debut as a radio journalist reporting for the ABC. Find the podcast here. Continue reading
Campaign to clear PNG couple jailed for abortion: The Age & Sydney Morning Herald
A confronting story from Bougainville, PNG, where I have often reported on the crisis of maternal deaths (second highest in the Asia Pacific after Afghanistan). The news angle here the landmark case around the jailing of a couple for the termination of a pregnancy. But the background context is about the tragedy deaths in childbirth, … Continue reading
Family planning: A matter of life and death
A different take on Mother’s Day: In Papua New Guinea, where maternal deaths are amongst the highest in the world, 44 per cent of women of fertile age and in a relationship report an “unmet need” for contraception. That means they have little if any capacity to space, delay or stop having babies. My story for … Continue reading
Forests / Health / Human Rights / Mining / Papua New Guinea
Notice: The Global Mail archive & PNG stories
Sadly The Global Mail’s archive has been shut down, but visitors to this blog note that I have today restored links to all my blogged PNG/Global Mail stories. Note these snapshots are a bit clunky and some images have vanished so keep scrolling past the blanks or you may miss lots of text! TGM was … Continue reading
The Monthly: Manus in the balance
This is my essay of a journey to another Manus Island. The one that fascinated legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead for 50 years. The one lost in the furore of Australia’s controversial ‘PNG Solution’, but forever changed by it. Now unlocked by The Monthly, so you can view it here. Continue reading
