Margaret Simons (born 1960) is an Australian academic, freelance journalist and author. She has written numerous articles and essays as well as many books, including a biography of Senate leader of the Australian Labor Party

Penny Wong Penelope Ying-Yen Wong (born 5 November 1968) is an Australian politician who has been Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia), Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate (Australia), Leader of the Government in the ...

. Her essay ''Fallen Angels'' won the

Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

for Social Equity Journalism. She is an

Honorary Fellow Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...

at the

Centre for Advancing Journalism The Faculty of Arts is one of the largest faculties at The University of Melbourne. It is the university's home of teaching and research in the humanities, social sciences and languages. Teaching of the arts and humanities at The University of M ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

Early life and education

Simons was born in the UK in 1960. Simons has a doctorate in

creative arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Career

In 2010 Simons co-founded, with Melissa Sweet, the community-funded news site YouComm News, run by the Public Interest Journalism Foundation based at Swinburne University of Technology. At this time, she was a

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

at the Institute of Social Research at Swinburne, and also a Senior Associate of RMIT University. She co-authored the memoirs of

Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...

, former Prime Minister of Australia (with Fraser), published in 2010. She was the media reporter for ''

Crikey Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in '' T ...

'' and has been a regular media commentator in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

.'' She has also written for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', ''

Griffith Review ''Griffith Review'' is a quarterly publication featuring essays, reportage, memoir, fiction, poetry and artwork from established and emerging writers and artists. Each edition focuses on a contemporary theme, enabling pertinent issues to be aired ...

'', and ''

The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...

''. For many years, she wrote the "Earthmother" gardening column for ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', and has also written gardening book and novels. She was director of the

and coordinator of the Master of Journalism degree at the University of Melbourne from 2012 to 2017, and served as Associate Professor of journalism at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

between 2017 and 2019. From 2018 to 2021 Simons was a Director and Chair of Research at the Public Interest Journalism Initiative. Simons is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University.

Recognition

Simons was a finalist for a Walkley Award for journalism in 2007 for the story ''Buried in the Labyrinth'', about the release of a

paedophile Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

into the community, published in ''

''. Her book ''The Content Makers – Understanding the Future of the Australian Media'' (2007) was longlisted for the 2008

Walkley Book Award The Walkley Book Award is an Australian award presented annually by the Walkley Foundation for excellence in long-form journalism and nonfiction, with subjects ranging from biography to true crime to investigative journalism and reporting. Winne ...

for non-fiction. In 2015 she won the Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism for her essay ''Fallen Angels'', published in ''

''. The essay is an investigation of sex tourism in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and the children that have been abandoned there by their Australian fathers. The award was shared with photographer Dave Tacon. Her book, ''Penny Wong'', a biography of

, Senate leader of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

, was longlisted for the 2020

Selected works

* * ''The Truth Teller (''1996) * ''Wheelbarrows, Chooks & Children: a gardener's life'' (1999) * ''Fit to Print: inside the Canberra Press Gallery'' (1999) * ''The Meeting of the Waters: the Hindmarsh Island affair'' (2003) * ''Latham's World: the new politics of the outsiders (''2004) * ''The Rich and Fertile Story of Compost: resurrection in a bucket'' (2004) * ''The Content Makers: understanding the media in Australia'' (2007) * ''Faith, Money & Power: what the religious revival means for politics'' (2007) * ''Malcolm Fraser: the political memoirs'' (with

) (2010) *
Duty of Care
August 2010, ''The Monthly'' * ''Journalism at the Crossroads: crisis and opportunity for the press'' (2012) * ''Kerry Stokes: self made man'' (2013) * ''Six Square Metres: reflections from a small garden'' (2015)
Fallen Angels
July 2015, ''The Monthly''
The Long Letter to a Short Love, or...
Summer 2015, ''

Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is an Australian literary magazine. The name is derived from the Turrbal word for the spike of land where the city of Brisbane is located. It was founded in 1940 in Brisbane ...

''
Right Wing Refugee
January 2016, SBS
Lost Boy Found
June 2016, SBS
Is Michelle Guthrie Tuned in to the ABC?
September 2016, ''The Monthly'' * ''Penny Wong: passion and principle'' (2019)
Cry Me a River: The Tragedy of the Murray-Darling Basin
March 2020, Quarterly Essay

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Margaret Living people 1960 births Australian freelance journalists Griffith Review people University of Technology Sydney alumni University of Melbourne faculty Monash University faculty