The objective of the ABC Ombudsman’s Office is to resolve complaints regarding ABC content. The Office is separate to and independent of content making areas within the ABC and the Ombudsman reports to the ABC Board.

The role of the Local Editor at ABC Gold Coast is to try to be all things to all people - locally, as well as key internal and external stakeholders. A small team puts together more than 50 hours of content to a local audience on the radio via 91.7 ABC Gold Coast, while there is a news/features team gathering local content of local, state, and national interest and delivering it to audiences on the radio, online, on social media and on TV. One of the most challenging, and rewarding, parts of the role is making sure the two teams work together as one to deliver content across platforms, without doubling up on resources. This has involved changing work-practices and developing better ways for staff to communicate with each other. The teams also literally work more closely together, thanks to a key building project delivered at the start of 2017. Previous proposals to refurbish, and bring all staff under the one roof, had failed and it was a great credit to my ability to bring key decision makers together which made the project possible. The new work-space and new work practices made planning for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games a much easier process. With staff working side by side, ABC Gold Coast was able to deliver a breadth and depth of big-event coverage never seen before by a regional station, and rarely seen before by a capital city station. By developing a comprehensive strategy to deliver content across platforms, and engaging with key internal and external stakeholders, ABC Gold Coast was able to reach a national audience on-air (through an agreement with ABC Grandstand digital radio), online (through partnerships with news and sport reporters and the ABC News website), and on TV (through planning and cooperation with multiple ABC television platforms. A highlight of the coverage, was that almost all of it was delivered from the field, with content makers and journalists determined and able, to get out of the office to tell amazing stories.

As the Regional Editor, Qld, for ABC's Regional and Local Division, I oversaw the output of Queensland's ten regional bureaux. This involved being responsible for the editorial output of the local radio stations, news, rural and features operations.As the coronavirus pandemic escalated across Australia, I was responsible for working with the Queensland Local Editors to develop COVID-safe practices and work places. For many bureaux, this meant coming up with ways to operate without staff on-site. By identifying risks and doing some problem solving in mid-late February, the Queensland team was prepared and ready to react when local restrictions came into place in March, including lock downs, travel restrictions, etc. My experience in planning for local disaster coverage played a big role in why I worked with the Queensland regional team to develop our plans early. I had built trust with the Local Editors, as someone who understood the demands on the local teams from the audience, themselves, and their ABC colleagues in different cities, states, and program areas. I gained a lot of local disaster coverage planning experience during 2019, which was a year of disasters across the state. It began with severe flooding across Townsville and north west Queensland, and ended with fires scattered from Rockhampton to the border with NSW. I ensured all teams understood they would be stronger working together, and we developed broadcast and staffing plans that allowed us to scale our coverage up or down as required. At the beginning of 2020, I oversaw the rollout of the Regional and Local Division's 'Local for Local' strategy - which was designed to increase the digital content published by regional journalists and content makers. I worked with Local Editors across Queensland to make sure their staff were across why their stories mattered, and how they could be developed to reach an audience beyond their traditional broadcast borders.

Being responsible for the output of a national program on the ABC's main channel was a career goal of mine, and I was thrilled to take on the role of Supervising Producer of the midday news bulletin (Midday with Ros Childs) on ABC TV and ABC News 24. Having the editorial responsibilities of delivering a program for a national audience, with local content, was one I embraced.Building key relationships across the organisation was incredibly important to make sure the program continued to deliver key content to the country. The program had also only recently begun broadcasting for a full hour - which mean the relationships I built were vital to ensure we had the quantity of content we needed to provide the quality program we wanted. Under my stewardship, the program settled into a strong rhythm and became known for delivering local, state, national, and international content of a high quality to a wide audience. With a mix of reporter live crosses, packages, and guests, the program became a place reporters wanted to contribute to, and I often received positive feedback on the program and my role with it. By having these strong relationships, I was able to create the space for me, and the presenter Ros Childs, to work on a five part series which examined economic policy in Australia. The program aired on the ABC News Channel and could be found on ABC's online platform, iView as well. The interviewees included social researcher Hugh Mackay, Red Balloon founder Naomi Simson, and Enrst and Young CEO Rob McLeod. The program broke ground for the News Channel, by delivering in-program content, which could be packaged up as video-on-demand content for a digital platform (iView).

This role was a good opportunity to learn more about management responsibilities - including staffing and editorial leadership - in a news and programs environment, as for the first time I had no content making role at the same time. A significant challenge in this role was ensuring the News Channel (ABC News 24) had the necessary staff, from a numbers and skill perspective, to deliver what was required from the channel. Overcoming challenges didn't just mean finding someone to back-fill a role - it also involved a great deal of talent identification, to ensure the right people were being given training and development opportunities to improve their capacity. As an editorial leader, I was responsible for ensuring continuity of coverage across the day on big stories, which involved having group (and one-on-one) conversations with News Channel staff, and with internal stakeholders (including network planners and editorial leaders). I was also responsible for ensuring staff understood the editorial expectations and policies of ABC News, which involved having sometimes difficult conversations with staff about content choices. One of the highlights of the role was starting the process of the News Channel increasing its activity on social media, and increasing the amount of content which was delivered to the ABC News website. Being on the front-foot for this was an important step for the News Channel to take as it made staff aware of the importance of reaching new audiences with their content on 'new' platforms.

Working in the Brisbane newsroom of ABC News, was a return to 'traditional' reporting at a time when single-platform reporting was still the most common form of reporting in the organisation. What had been a slow creep of 'multi-platform' reporting was about to become an unstoppable tide which would change the organisation, and industry. As a reporter I embraced the opportunities which came with telling stories across TV, radio, and online. I covered several rounds including court, sport, and politics. I filed to all platforms, including doing live crosses into the 7PM bulletin, the News Channel (ABC News 24), and News Breakfast. As well as my reporting responsibilities, I also produced the 7PM News, and was the assistant Chief of Staff for the office. These roles involved liaising with the Queensland News Editor, the ABC News network desk, and local reporters.

This job was complex and challenging, not least because of the very early starts (2AM at the desk). As part of a small team, I helped produce content for the ABC's breakfast television program - News Breakfast. The program was at that time broadcast on ABC 2, before moving to the main channel, and later it was simulcast on the ABC News Channel (then ABC News 24).I had a range of responsibilities depending on what was required of me for the program. They included: writing story content; researching topics for interview, and booking talent (this including the technical side of booking studios and uplinks too); editing vision for broadcast; and supervising the shows editorial direction and production. This last responsibility was incredibly challenging, as it involved supervising the small team of producers, allocating them tasks, having editorial discussions with the presenters, and liaising with colleagues from around the country to try to deliver as much national content to the program as possible. This was at times challenging, as it meant working with colleagues who at that time hadn't embraced the opportunities the program presented them, their newsroom, and their content. This was one of my first professional opportunities to experience having 'successful' difficult conversations. Producing three hours of continuous news and magazine content is hard enough, but adding sleep deprivation and a team growing in confidence and skill, made for some exiting times and great learning opportunities. A highlight of my time at News Breakfast was when I was given the opportunity to present sport on the program. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity, and despite some early struggles with the autocue, it was a career (and personal) highlight!

As a story producer and journalist for BBC World News, I helped deliver stories of international significance to a global audience. As part of this process I worked with correspondents based around the world on some significant stories - including elections in Iran, the election of Barack Obama, the Black Saturday fires in Australia, the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, the Mumbai terror attacks, and the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. Telling these stories involved sourcing wire footage, and user-generated content (before the rise social media), and liaising with correspondents to deliver scripts and edit packages for broadcast. I also used my skills as a reporter to deliver stories, and covered events issues including piracy off the coast of Somalia, and events including wildfires in California. and BBC World News America.

As the local sports journalist, I was responsible for finding and delivering local sports stories from across the Far North. This involved looking for stories of importance to the local audience - whether it was local, state, national or international sport. I developed key relationships which enabled me to deliver these stories. While a news journalist I covered a variety of stories and rounds including court, police, and council. I covered elections at a local, state, and federal level. I was involved in the coverage of Cyclone Larry, the death of Steve Irwin, and the siege of a State MPs office in Cairns. For the last six months of my time with 7 Local News Cairns, I was the Bureau Chief, and editorial leader of the newsroom.