Geraldine Doogue

After graduating from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Doogue intended to train as a schoolteacher, but instead decided to apply for a cadetship at The West Australian newspaper. She later worked for The Australian and spent several years in the United Kingdom as London correspondent for Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspapers. ABC executives were so impressed with Doogue's on-air presence during an interview with the Four Corners program, that she was offered a hosting role on Nationwide.[1] In 1985 she and Richard Morecroft co-hosted The National, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's short-lived experiment with a nationwide hour-long nightly news service, combining news and current affairs, with Max Walsh and Richard Carleton as chief reporters.[2]

She worked at TEN-10 Sydney from 1988 to 1989 as co-presenter on Eyewitness News with Steve Liebmann and on commercial radio with 2UE, then returned to the ABC in 1990.[1]

Doogue was the host of Radio National's Life Matters program for 11 years from its inception in 1992. She received a United Nations Media Peace Prize and two Penguin Awards for her role in ABC TV's coverage of the Gulf War. She was the host of Compass on ABC TV from 1998 to 2017.[3] Since 2005, she has hosted the Extra and Saturday Extra programs on Radio National.[4]

In November 2018, Doogue was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.[5]

Doogue was first married to Tim Blue and then to ABC executive Ian Carroll who died from pancreatic cancer on 19 August 2011.[6] With Carroll she had two children and two stepchildren. Her elder daughter with Tim Blue, Eliza Harvey, is also an ABC journalist who is married to Adam Harvey, a son of journalist Peter Harvey.[7][8]

• Doogue, Geraldine; Kirkwood, Peter (2004), Tomorrow's Islam: Uniting age-old beliefs and a modern world, ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ISBN 978-0-7333-1543-5
• Doogue, Geraldine (2014), The Climb: Conversations with Australian women in power, The Text Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1-922182-32-6

Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

9 June 2003, "For service to the community, particularly as a commentator for social change, and to the media through raising public awareness of issues involving ethics, values, religion and spirituality."[9]

• Two Penguin Awards for excellence in broadcasting
• United Nations Media Peace Prize
• Churchill Fellowship for social and cultural reporting
• Doctor of the University, University of Newcastle Australia, 2015.
• Honorary degree, Australian National University, 2019[10]

• Long Distance Call
• Profile at the Australian Women's Register
• ABC profile for Saturday Extra