Brian Toohey

The National Times, Australian Financial Review, and other media

“Behind a wall of secrecy bad decisions are often made because they’re not contestable; no-one’s looking over the shoulder and saying ‘what’s that?'"

While editing The National Times, Brian Toohey published some of the most controversial and bold investigative journalism of the 1980s. As a reporter and author, he broke numerous stories about national security and politics, regularly receiving leaks that enraged and embarrassed politicians and governments.

Career Timeline

1966-1972: Toohey graduates from the University of Queensland in 1966 with a Bachelor of Economics and having edited the university’s student magazine. Based in Brisbane, he works as a research officer for the Australian Labor Party before moving to Canberra as an aide to the Defence Minister, Lance Barnard, in the Whitlam government.

1973: He leaves the Whitlam government and joins the Australian Financial Review’s Canberra office.

1975: Toohey is appointed as the Australian Financial Review’s Canberra correspondent at a time of political crisis, which culminates in the Governor-General’s dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975.

1976-1978: He covers the Coalition government, which is led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Toohey publishes a leaked copy of the Hope Royal Commission’s report on the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), which deals with foreign intelligence. Harvey Barnett, Director General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which has a domestic focus, convinces Fraser not to take legal action against Toohey. Senior officials also argue against Fraser’s wish to tap Toohey’s phone in Parliament House. When Toohey reports that a Cabinet submission in 1978 said a lump of plutonium was left unguarded at Maralinga, the site of British atomic testing in the 1950s and early 1960s, Fraser’s requests to investigate the leak are rejected by Deputy Secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, Mike Codd.

1979: Toohey becomes the Washington correspondent for the Australian Financial Review and The National Times.

1981: He is appointed The National Times’ Deputy Editor, then Editor. The weekly newspaper publishes aggressive, ground-breaking stories, most famously case summaries from the Costigan Royal Commission which accuse a person it names ‘Goanna’ of drug offences and other matters. Kerry Packer identifies himself as the ‘Goanna’ and strongly denies the allegations. The National Times also reports several stories based on transcripts of bugged telephone conversations, leading to the resignation and conviction of a senior NSW Minister.

1984: Toohey and a National Times reporter face contempt charges before the Senate Privileges Committee after publishing leaked stories about the in-camera work of a Parliamentary Select Committee on the conduct of High Court judge Lionel Murphy. Appearing before the Privileges Committee, Toohey levels further allegations against Select Committee members and refuses to name his source/s, arguing publication was in the public interest. The Privileges Committee finds that the leaks were a serious contempt of the Senate but does not impose a penalty. At other times, action is taken by governments in the High Court and the Federal Court to stop publication by Toohey of secret papers.

1986: A decision by the Fairfax board to soften the campaigning and hard-edged journalism of The National Times, and to rebrand it as The Times on Sunday sees a new editor appointed. Toohey becomes a contributing editor, but resigns when the paper refuses to publish ‘The death of Labor’, his critical analysis of the Hawke/ Keating government.

1987: Toohey launches and edits The Eye, an investigative newspaper. ‘The death of Labor’ story appears in the first issue. The Eye mounts successful court actions over leaked classified documents generated while Bill Hayden is Foreign Minister. One set of documents shows how the Hawke government surrendered to US pressure to scrap a long-standing policy of banning visits by nuclear-armed ships.

1988: He is appointed as a regular columnist for The West Australian and, a year later, as a columnist for The Sun Herald.

1996: Toohey becomes a columnist and feature writer at the Australian Financial Review.

1990-2021: His articles are published in media including Inside Story, The Sunday Age, Nikkei Asia Review, The Canberra Times, Eureka Street, Pearls & Irritations, and Michael West Media. He is a frequent guest on RN Breakfast, Late Night Live, Mike Carlton, 2GB, the ABC’s Insiders, and Meet the Press on Channel Ten and Face the Press on SBS.

Books

Secret: The Making of Australia’s Security State (Melbourne University Press, 2019)

Tumbling Dice: The Story of Modern Economic Policy (with William Pinwill) (William Heinemann, 1994)

Oyster: The Story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (with William Pinwill) (William Heinemann, 1989)

The Winchester Scandal (with Roderick Campbell and William Pinwill) (Random House, 1992)

The Book of Leaks (with Marian Wilkinson) (Angus and Robertson, 1987)

Awards

1999: Walkley Award for Journalistic leadership