Joanne McCarthy (journalist)

Joanne McCarthy's reporting and the Shine the Light campaign, Newcastle Herald McCarthy covered the sexual abuse of children, particularly in the Catholic Church, in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, and the Herald turned that reporting into a public campaign for a royal commission. Julia Gillard granted one in 2012 and acknowledged the paper's work as a major factor. McCarthy won the 2013 Gold Walkley. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard from more than 8,000 survivors and delivered its final report in December 2017. Few regional papers have changed national policy so directly.