16 Susie Ferguson | Stepping into the Unthinkable

After decades as one of the country’s best-known journalists, Cameron Bennett took on a unique new challenge: to educate the nation on the New Zealand Wars and help tell Māori stories.

As fast-food workers suffered under the indignity of zero-hour contracts, Anna Burns-Francis stepped up to tell their stories. Her tireless reporting forced corporations to put employee welfare over greed.

A shock diagnosis forced Simon Wilson to come to terms with his own mortality. Rather than let it derail his work, the veteran journalist made the bold call to bring readers along on each step of his gruelling cancer journey.

As stories tumbled out about ACC's handling of sensitive client data, Anusha Bradley was there holding the agency to account. Her award-winning coverage prompted an independent review, policy changes and legal reform.

Plunged into lawless South Sudan in 2017, Michael Morrah overcame danger and personal trauma to report on the brutal realities of life in the wartorn nation.

A wheelchair user all her life, Olivia Shivas’ coverage on people with disabilities suffering horrific abuse in care hit uncomfortably close to home. Her courageous reporting would help expose injustice and give survivors a voice.

Long before it made national headlines, Justin Latif faced an uphill battle to convince his bosses the occupation of Ihumātao was worth covering. The ensuing reportage opened up a national conversation about identity, land ownership and Māori rights.

During the 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa Barbara Dreaver reported on an ill-equipped healthcare system, complex tensions between traditional and western medicine, and the tragic and preventable loss of life.

Through the telling of one couple’s devastating story, Susie Ferguson lifted the lid on the grief suffered by the hundreds of Kiwi families who lose a baby each year. The veteran broadcaster reflects on helping break NZ’s final taboo.

Disheartened by one-dimensional coverage of gangs in Pākehā media, Moana Maniapoto and Hikurangi Jackson set about delving into the issue themselves. The Whakaata Māori mother-son duo’s empathetic coverage captured the complexity and humanity of Aotearoa’s gang landscape.