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 The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

Penny Wong Penelope Ying-Yen Wong (born 5 November 1968) is an Australian politician who is serving as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate in the Albanese government since 2022. A member of the Australian Labor Pa ...

and Australian minister for the environment

Tanya Plibersek Tanya Joan Plibersek (born 2 December 1969) is an Australian politician who has been Minister for Social Services in the Albanese government since 2025. She was previously the Minister for the Environment and Water from 2022 to 2025. She was ...

. 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, president, 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 ...

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 ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

Early life and education

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

creative arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of me ...

from the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a technical institution can be traced back t ...

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 The Swinburne University of Technology (or simply Swinburne) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia. It is the modern descendant of the Eastern Suburbs Technical College established in 1908, renamed Swinburne ...

. 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 p ...

at the Institute of Social Research at Swinburne, and also a Senior Associate of

RMIT University The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...

. She was the media reporter for ''

Crikey Crikey is an Australian online news outlet founded in 1999. It consists of a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. History Crikey was founded by the activist shareholder Stephen Mayne, a journalist and former staffer of the ...

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

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

.'' 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 (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', ''

Griffith Review ''Griffith Review'' is a quarterly publication featuring essays, reportage, memoir, fiction, poetry and artwork from established and emerging writers and artists. The publication was founded in 2003 by Griffith University in Australia, and was ...

'', 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 daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'', 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 university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

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 spelled 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 pube ...

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. Win ...

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 Sex tourism is the practice of traveling to foreign countries, often on a different continent, with the intention of engaging in sexual activity or relationships, in exchange providing money or lifestyle support. This practice predominantly oper ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

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

, Senate leader of the

, 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

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. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourth List of ...

) (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 one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent impri ...

''
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 *
Tanya Plibersek: On Her Own Terms
' (2023)Review:

References

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