He is the former political editor of The Age, a Walkley Award winner and five-time winner at the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards. In 2005, he won the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year for his coverage of the plight of asylum seekers on Nauru. He is the author seven books, including A True Believer: Paul Keating (1996), Reconciliation: A Journey (2001) and Freeing Ali: The Human Face of the Pacific Solution (2005).