Gittins, whose first byline in the Herald was on Saturday March 9, 1974, covered his 46th federal budget this year.
Federal Treasury boss Stephen Kennedy and Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe both paid tribute to Gittins’ journalism over four decades.
Ross Gittins covered his 46th federal budget this year.
Dr Kennedy said: “Something that is special about what Ross Gittins does is he humanises the economic policy debate; no-one in Australia has made a contribution in this domain as well as Ross.”
Dr Lowe said he had seen first hand how admired Gittins is for his commitment to educating students, when a young man approached him after a public speech recently and “asked if he could take a selfie and ask a question.”
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“We took the selfie … his question was, do you personally know Ross Gittins? When I answered yes, the look of sheer delight on the young man’s face was something to behold,” Dr Lowe said.
Herald economics writer Jessica Irvine, one of the dozens of young reporters Gittins has mentored over his career, said he had played a central role in Australian journalism and politics.
“He’s been at that intersection of taking public policies and explaining it to readers … he’s actually helped to have better public policies in Australia,” she said.
The Herald‘s editor Lisa Davies and executive editor James Chessell paid tribute to Gittins on behalf of their predecessors.
Ms Davies said: “Ross has forged an extraordinary career explaining complicated economic concepts and policies in ways readers not only understand, but respect.
“His verdict on each federal budget remains a highlight of the Herald‘s coverage, and the first thing most readers devour.”
The Gold Walkley went to ABC journalist Mark Willacy and the broadcaster’s investigations team for the Four Corners story, “Killing Field”, on war crimes allegations against Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
There were 16 award nominations received across the Herald and The Age.
The Heydon investigation was also nominated in the investigative journalism category. Moir and photographer Kate Geraghty were each nominated for the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year award.
Harriet Alexander, Mark Stehle and Richard Lama were nominated in the print/text feature writing (short) category for their piece, “The Monster: A short history of Australia’s biggest forest fire“.
The mastheads’ digital team received two nominations for their interactive online project “Invisible Crime: Are we failing victims of sexual violence?”
Journalists from The Age were nominated for their work reporting the hotel quarantine blunder that led to Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 infections.
Megan Gorrey is the Urban Affairs reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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