Louise Milligan | |
---|---|
Born | Ireland |
Nationality | Australian |
Occupation(s) | Reporter and author |
Years active | 2004–present |
Louise Milligan is an Australian investigative reporter for the ABC TV 7.30 and Four Corners programs. As of March 2021, she is the author of two award-winning non-fiction books.
Born in Ireland, Milligan grew up in the Roman Catholic faith.[1] She graduated from Monash University with an Arts/Law degree.[2] Early in her career she was High Court reporter for The Australian. She subsequently spent seven years reporting for Seven News before joining ABC News.[3]
Melbourne University Press (MUP) published Milligan's first book, Cardinal, in May 2017. A month later MUP withdrew the book from bookshops across Victoria in response to Victoria Police charging Cardinal George Pell with historic sex assault.[4] Cardinal was returned to Victorian bookshops in February 2019.[5] The charges against Pell were withdrawn in February 2019 for the "swimmers trial" and he was acquitted in April 2020 regarding the cathedral trial.
In 2019, she was invited to give the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law annual lecture. Her talk was titled "A journalist's defence of trial procedures".[6]
In 2021, the Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter commenced defamation proceedings against Milligan for an article published on 26 February 2021 which he says made a false rape allegation against him.[7] Porter discontinued the action in May 2021 after the ABC agreed to post an editorial note to the original publication and to pay mediation costs.[8]
In 2021, federal MP Andrew Laming commenced defamation proceedings against Milligan for four tweets sent on March 28, 2021.[9] He alleged one tweet implied he admitted to illegally taking a photo of a woman's underwear as she bent over in Brisbane in 2019. In August 2021 Milligan agreed to pay Laming approximately $130,000 in damages and fees.[10][11]