Colleen Egan is an Australian politician and former journalist. She is member of the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

for the electoral district of Thornlie. A member of the Labor Party, she won her seat at the 2025 Western Australian state election. Egan was editor at ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'' newspaper and notably played a role in obtaining the acquittal of Andrew Mallard, who had been wrongfully convicted of murder, for which she won a

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 ...

in 2006. She also unwittingly contributed to the political downfall of Western Australian Liberal powerbroker Noel Crichton-Browne when he made inappropriate sexual comments to her at a Liberal Party conference.

History

Egan, who has principally been employed as a print journalist by ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', first established herself as an investigative journalist in 2000 when her exclusive interviews with terrorist Jack Roche were published in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

''. Her work has since taken her to London, covering trials at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

, and back to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

as a weekly columnist for ''The Sunday Times''. She is now Chief of Staff for WA Attorney General John Quigley. Egan was approached in 1998 by the family of Andrew Mallard who had been convicted and detained in 1995 for the murder of jeweller Pamela Lawrence. Her subsequent investigations revealed that Mallard's conviction had been largely based on a

forced confession A forced confession is a confession obtained from a suspect or a prisoner by means of torture (including enhanced interrogation techniques) or other forms of duress. Depending on the level of coercion used, a forced confession is not valid in rev ...

. Her book on the case, ''Murderer No More: Andrew Mallard and the Epic Fight that Proved his Innocence'', was published by Allen & Unwin in June 2010. Egan worked as

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

for Western Australian Attorney-General John Quigley from 2017 to 2023, and ran a candidate for the seat of Thornlie in the 2025 Western Australian state election. In the 2025 Western Australian state election, she was elected in Thornlie, succeeding Chris Tallentire.

Awards

* Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism for 2006 for her role in the acquittal of Andrew Mallard. *

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp. The group's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television pr ...

's 2007 Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism, also for the eight-year investigation that led to the acquittal of Andrew Mallard. *2011,

Davitt Award The Davitt Awards are literary awards which are presented annually by the Sisters in Crime Australia association. The awards are named in honour of Ellen Davitt (1812–1879) who wrote Australia's first mystery novel, ''Force and Fraud'' in 186 ...

for ''Murderer No More''

References

External links

*Transcript from Radio National ''Media Report'' programme, featurin
interview with Colleen Egan
(Broadcast on Thursday, 10 August 1995). *Walkley Awards website page fo

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Colleen Year of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian columnists Journalists from Western Australia Politicians from Perth, Western Australia Walkley Award winners Australian non-fiction crime writers Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Women members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians

History

Awards

See also

References

External links