Michelle Grattan AO

Michelle Grattan was born on 30 June 1944, and educated in Melbourne at Ruyton Girls' School, and then Taylor's College. She always wanted to be a journalist but when she missed out on a cadetship she enrolled to study political science at the University of Melbourne. She tutored in Politics at university before joining The Age as a journalist in 1970 where she worked under editor Graham Perkin.

It was an exciting and dramatic time to be a political journalist. By 1976, she was The Age's chief political correspondent. She was the first woman in Australia to hold such a post for a major metropolitan newspaper, and she retained the title for seventeen years. She won respect from politicians for her meticulous reporting and integrity. Her work rate was prodigious. She won the 1988 Graham Perkin award for Australian Journalist of the Year.

In 1993, she was appointed editor of the Canberra Times, the first woman to become editor of a major daily broadsheet in Australia. She had been working in the Canberra Press Gallery for 21 years by that stage. By 1995 she had returned to The Age as political editor before moving to the Australian Financial Review in 1996. Michelle is now the political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and one of the most highly respected print and radio journalists in Australia.