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Monica Attard

ABC journalist. In 2007 presented Media Watch on ABC television.

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website for 2005

All Media: Broadcast Interviewing Winner

Monica Attard , Sunday Profile, ABC Radio, "On The Brink"

Monica Attard's winning interviews entitled "On The Brink" explored three high-profile lives in turmoil. Her ground-breaking interview with former HIH director Rodney Adler was conducted during his trial on charges relating to the collapse of the insurer and was broadcast after his imprisonment. His only interview at that time examined his business ethics, dealings with the company and the impact of the collapse and subsequent criminal proceedings on his family and future prospects.

Attard's interviewing also canvassed the lives of Douglas Wood, the Australian held hostage in Iraq, and NSW magistrate Pat O'Shane. The latter was broadcast shortly after O'Shane resumed living with her husband of 20 years after a very public break-up in 2004, and featured her disclosure of the bipolar disorder she has suffered since adolescence.

Monica Attard began as a journalist on Channel Seven. She moved to the ABC in 1983 and has been there ever since, working across radio and television on Four Corners, Lateline, AM, PM and The World Today.

Attard was awarded three Walkley Awards for her work in the Soviet Union - including the Gold Walkley in 1991.

Since 2002, she has been presenting Sunday Profile on ABC Local Radio, nationally. She won her first Walkley for Broadcast Interviewing on that program in 2002.

Judges' comments

Attard conducts well-researched, comprehensive and hard-hitting interviews with 'difficult-to-secure' subjects. Each interview had a newsworthiness that went beyond a straightforward Q&A, making each quite revealing. The Rodney Adler piece was the standout interview scoop of the year.