Louise Milligan | |
|---|---|
 Milligan with TV/Video Feature (Long Form) award atMelbourne Press Club Quills, March 2019. | |
| Born | Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation(s) | Reporter and author |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Employer | Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
Louise Milligan is an Australian author and investigative reporter for the ABC TVFour Corners program. As of March 2021, she is the author of two award-winning non-fiction books. Her first novel,Pheasants Nest, was published in 2024.
Born inDublin, Ireland,[1] Louise Milligan grew up in the Roman Catholic faith.[2] She moved with her family to Australia when she was six.[1]
She graduated fromMonash University with an arts/law degree.[3]
Early in her career she wasHigh Court reporter forThe Australian. She subsequently spent seven years reporting forSeven News, where she specialised infreedom of information, before joiningABC News.[4]
In 2015 Milligan travelled to Indonesia to cover the executions of "Bali Nine" group membersAndrew Chan andMyuran Sukumaran, and after that covered theRoyal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse inBallarat.[1] She reported on the allegations of sexual abuse againstGeorge Pell forABC Television's7.30.[4]
In March 2024, Milligan reported forFour Corners on a toxic culture for female staff atCranbrook School inSydney as it prepared to transition from boys only toco-ed.[5]
As of May 2024[update] Milligan is an investigative reporter theABC TV programFour Corners.[1]
Melbourne University Press (MUP) published Milligan's first book,Cardinal, in May 2017. A month later MUP withdrew the book from bookshops acrossVictoria in response toVictoria Police charging CardinalGeorge Pell with historic sex assault.[6]Cardinal was returned to Victorian bookshops in February 2019.[7]
In 2022, she publishedWitness,[8] which critiques thecriminal justice system insexual assault trials. It includes interviews withprosecutors,defence counsel,solicitors, judges, and academic experts, and also highlights two high-profile cases which she had covered as a journalist. Milligan reveals howplaintiffs often feel as if it is they who are being tried, and legal practitioners also find it very stressful because of its adversarial nature. In the book she also describes how she was cross-examined in the Pell committal byRobert Richter, realising that she was not sufficiently protected by theEvidence Act s 41, and puts a strong case for legal reform in this area.QUT law professor Ben Mathews calledWitness balanced, and "a triumph of intellect and empathy".[9] The book was generally well-received,[10] although Aboriginal writer Ellen O'Brien, writing in theSydney Review of Books, points to its deficits in coverage of the additional complexities involved when Aboriginal women are the victim-survivors.[11]
Milligan's friendLouise Adler, ofMelbourne University Press and thenHachette Australia, published her non-fiction books.[1]
In March 2024 Milligan published her first novel,Pheasants Nest, a crime fiction thriller.[12] The book was influenced by therape and murder of Jill Meagher inMelbourne in 2012, after Milligan was the first journalist to interview Meagher's husband, and explores the idea of a woman in a similar situation who survives such an attack. The name is derived from a notorious suicide spot,Pheasants Nest bridge, which in on theHume Highway and crosses theNepean River inNew South Wales. It also includes themes of police officers' untreatedPTSD. Milligan started writing the novel in 2015, and returned to it in 2022, when she took a break from journalism.[1]
In 2019, she was invited to give theCastan Centre for Human Rights Law annual lecture. Her talk was titled "A journalist's defence of trial procedures".[13]
| Year | Work | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Cardinal | Walkley Book Award | — | Won | [19][4] |
| 2018 | Australian Book Industry Awards | Small Publisher Adult Book | Shortlisted | ||
| Davitt Award | Non-fiction / True Crime | Shortlisted | [20] | ||
| Debut | Shortlisted | ||||
| Melbourne Prize for Literature | Civic Choice Award | Won | [21] | ||
| 2021 | Witness | Colin Roderick Award | — | Shortlisted | [22] |
| Davitt Award | Non-fiction / True Crime | Won | [23] | ||
| Ned Kelly Awards | True Crime | Finalist | |||
| Stella Prize | — | Shortlisted | [24] | ||
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | People's Choice Award | Won | [25] | ||
| Nonfiction | Shortlisted | [26] |
In March 2021, the Australian Attorney-GeneralChristian Porter commenced defamation proceedings against Milligan for an article published on 26 February 2021 which he says made a false rape allegation against him.[27] Porter discontinued the action in May 2021 after the ABC agreed to post an editorial note to the original publication and to pay mediation costs.[28]
In June 2021, federalMP Andrew Laming commenced defamation proceedings against Milligan for fourtweets sent on 28 March 2021.[29] He alleged one tweet implied he admitted to illegally taking a photo of a woman's underwear as she bent over inBrisbane in 2019. In August 2021 Milligan agreed to pay Laming approximatelyA$130,000 in damages and fees.[30][31]
 |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
