Hedley Thomas: A Storyteller’s Relentless Pursuit for Justice

Hedley Thomas (0:03)

A lot of police in the past were completely incompetent, in some cases even corrupt. And as a result, families who lost loved ones never got justice. With the podcasting platform, we've got a chance to actually solve these cases finally, sometimes after decades. I mean, it's quite incredible. I hope that when people listen to it, they realize that I'm just trying to tell the story and put together enough facts that will generate a response from the criminal justice system that will put some bastard who has murdered his wife, girlfriend or some other person in the bin for the rest of his natural life.

Luke Darcy (0:44)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Empowering Leaders podcast. Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. VU is ranked number six in the world for sports science, training the next generation of athletes and coaches inside facilities that include Australia's only Altitude Hotel. It's the same pursuit of high performance we explore on this podcast week after week. Learn more at vu.edu.au.

If you enjoy listening to the Empowering Leaders podcast, be sure to subscribe and please if you have a moment, we would love you to leave a review so we can reach more listeners and empower more leaders.

Today's guest is one of Australia's most decorated and respected investigative journalists. Hedley Thomas has built a career defined by courage, persistence and unwavering pursuit of truth. A two-time Gold Walkley Award winner and recipient of eight Walkley Awards in total, he sits at the very pinnacle of Australian journalism. The Gold Walkley is the highest honor in the profession, awarded to the journalist judged to have delivered the most outstanding contribution to public interest reporting in the country, placing Hedley Thomas firmly among the most influential investigative reporters of his generation. His work has not just told stories, it has changed outcomes. Through his groundbreaking podcast, The Teacher's Pet, Hedley helped bring global attention to the disappearance of Lynette Dawson. The podcast has been downloaded close to 100 million times and reached number one on podcast charts in multiple countries including Australia, the UK and the United States, ultimately playing a role in one of the most significant criminal convictions in recent Australian history. Hedley, it's a great pleasure to spend some time with you. Thanks for joining me.

Hedley Thomas (2:25)

Mate, I love that intro. Can you please be my manager? I'll go and say that to other people. Tell my kids that was awesome. Thank you.

Luke Darcy (2:33)

I'd be happy to go on tour with you anytime, Hedley. And I think I undersold you a lot. But like all stories, it starts with humble beginnings. A young man growing up on the Gold Coast and you're a copy boy at the Gold Coast bulletin who went on to become a foreign correspondent, covering some moments like the fall of the Berlin Wall. Can you take us back to those early experience and how it's shaped you?

Hedley Thomas (2:56)

Yeah, for sure. I think I was just so fortunate as a teenager leaving high school, a state school, a public school on the Gold Coast in Southport. And knowing I wanted to be a reporter, but not really understanding how that might happen apart from if I took a pathway through university. And then through a girlfriend's parents' friends, I got an introduction to the editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin. And while I was still in my school uniform, he invited me in to be interviewed. And he asked me what I wanted to be. I said, look, I'd love to be a journalist. And he said, well, we can't offer you a reporting role as soon as you finish high school, but we can potentially employ you as the copy boy.

And I was up for it because I figured if I've got a foot in the door and I work hard, I might get the cadetship as a reporter after nine months or a year. And that's what happened. And yeah, it was brilliant. And then I got the job as a reporter and loved that. And was exposed to sports reporting initially.

And then as a police rounds reporter.

Luke Darcy (4:17)

You go from there to a foreign correspondent over the course of your career. And as I mentioned, some of the most significant world events, you're on the ground at the fall of the Berlin Wall and other significant moments. How did they shape your worldview and the way that you've gone on to tell stories?

Hedley Thomas (4:32)

Yeah. When I look back at that time, like it's a small miracle that those things happened and I got through them unscathed. I mean, I was 22 years old when I went to the London Office of News Corp and I was the youngest correspondent and I don't say that to give myself a pat on the back, although I did at the time, I thought I must have had something pretty special to be selected for that. The reason I'm sure now looking back was that I had some ability, but more importantly, I was really cheap compared with the older reporters who came with children and they needed a bigger housing allowances and all that. I was very inexpensive, but full of enthusiasm and I hadn't been overseas apart from a Geno's travel junket to the Micronesian island of Guam the year before I went to London. This was this incredible new experience for me. Within months, I'm crisscrossing Eastern Europe as those countries, those communist countries that were subjecting their populations to awful repression and dictatorship began to topple.