2026 Festival

Speaker Profile

Marian Wilkinson

Marian Wilkinson is a multi-award-winning journalist with a career that has spanned radio, television, online and print. She has covered politics, national security, refugee issues and climate change as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a Deputy Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Executive Producer of the ABC’s Four Corners program and a senior reporter with Four Corners

She is the author of several books. Her latest work is the Quarterly EssayWoodside Vs. the Planet, analysing Australia’s gas industry and its battles with the climate movement. 

When Did Climate Change Politics Become Unsexy?

Thursday April 23
Sorrento Community Centre
10.30am / 60 mins

Bob Brown, Tom McIlroy and Marian Wilkinson with Jo Dyer

Our esteemed panel - former Greens leader Bob Brown, Guardian political editor Tom McIlroy and Walkley Award-winning journalist Marian Wilkinson - discuss.


When The Cover-Up Is Worse Than The Crime: Journalism 101

Saturday April 25
Portsea Village 2
1.00pm / 60 mins

John Silvester, Kate Wild and Marian Wilkinson with Madeleine Grummet

Special Event
Saturday April 25
Halcyon Hall, The Continental
4.00pm / 60 mins

Geraldine Brooks, Jennifer Byrne, Annabel Crabb and Marian Wilkinson with Tom Wright 

This session is supported by Pitcher Partners

This is a Special Event

Big Business, Dodgy Dealings

Sunday April 26
Halcyon Hall, The Continental
12.00pm / 60 mins

Chris Kohler and Marian Wilkinson with Daniel Ziffer  

Panel member Chris Kohler’s new book How They Get You:  Sneaky Everyday Economics and Smart Ways to Hold on to Your Money is the catalyst for a conversation with investigative journalist Marian Wilkinson about businesses that behave badly - and what communities can do to fight back.