Quarterly Essay • 28th November 2021

The Reckoning

In 2021, Australia saw rage and revelation, as #MeToo powered an insurgency against sexism and sexual violence. From once isolated survivors to political staffers, women everywhere were refusing to keep men’s secrets. In this electrifying essay, Jess Hill traces the conditions that gave birth to #MeToo and tells the stories of women who – often at great personal cost – found themselves at the centre of this movement. This is a powerful essay about shame, secrecy and, most of all, a revolutionary movement for accountability.

Victorian Women's Trust • 15th August 2021

The Trap

This is a series about love, abuse and power, which looks deeply at abuse that happens in private, and in public, searching the world for answers to the questions that continue to confound us. Why does domestic abuse persist? Why do people become abusive? And what can we do to prevent it? From the Victorian Women’s Trust, this is The Trap.

5th May 2021

See What You Made Me Do | Documentary

A 3-part documentary series that explores one of the most complex and urgent issues of our time - domestic abuse. Presented by investigative journalist Jess Hill, this series examines the fine lines between love, abuse and power.

Black Inc. • 14th December 2018

See What You Made Me Do

Combining exhaustive research with riveting storytelling, SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO dismantles the flawed logic of victim-blaming and challenges everything you thought you knew about domestic and family violence. On shelves June 2019.

The Monthly • 1st November 2015

Suffer the children

When Erin saw the police lights flashing, she knew it was over. She steered the car to the side of the road, and turned to her two children. “OK guys, this is it,” she said. “We’ve done our best.” Her teenaged daughter started to panic. “Fuck! Oh my god!” she cried. “I can’t do this. You can’t leave us!” She grabbed for the bottle of Panadol in the centre console, insisting she wanted to die. “No!” Erin said firmly. “Settle, just settle.”

The Monthly • 1st July 2014

Power corrupts

Since 2009, the electricity networks that own and manage our “poles and wires” have quietly spent $45 billion on the most expensive project this country has ever seen. Allowed to run virtually unchecked, they've spent vast sums on infrastructure we don't need, and have charged it all to us, with an additional fee attached.

The Monthly • 1st March 2015

Home truths

After decades of ignoring domestic violence, Australians have learnt to condemn it. The statistics are now well known: a woman is murdered at least every week, another hospitalised every three hours. We say we’re horrified, and wonder what could possibly make a man hurt a woman he claims to love. Does he drink? Take drugs? Was he stressed, unemployed, frustrated? Did she provoke him? What could make a man lose control like that? There must be some reason for it.

Background Briefing • 3rd May 2015

A cycle of violence

There’s no such thing as a typical perpetrator. There are the family men who don’t even realise they’re abusive, the master manipulators who terrorise their partners, the drug addicts caught in a spiral of violence, and a dozen other types in between.

Background Briefing • 29th June 2014

The price of power

Never has it been more expensive to turn on your appliances. In the last few years, our power bills have doubled, making Australia's electricity prices some of the highest in the developed world.

Radio National • 14th June 2015

In the child's best interests

In a number of Family Court cases, where claims of child sexual abuse have been made against a father, the court has switched care from the mother to the father after a recommendation by a child psychiatrist or psychologist. Jess Hill investigates the role of expert report writers in the way the court decides on claims of abuse.

Radio National • 14th September 2014

ISDS: The devil in the trade deal

A common provision allowing foreign investors to sue governments has become a ticking time bomb inside trade agreements like the soon to be signed Trans Pacific Partnership. Some countries are now refusing to agree to the provision and are questioning its legal legitimacy.

The Guardian • 11th September 2015

What I've learned about domestic violence in my year reporting on it

When I started researching domestic violence last year, I thought I basically understood it. But pretty much everything I thought I knew about violence against women and children turned out to be wrong.

Radio National • 8th November 2015

The big disconnect

An over-investment in poles and wires means that ‘network charges’ on Australian electricity bills are among the highest in the world. But by charging these high prices, have the networks created conditions that will lead them to be undercut by new solar technologies?

The Guardian • 9th March 2015

How funding changes in NSW locked women out of domestic violence refuges

Women’s shelters are supposed to provide a place of safety for victims of domestic violence, but a radical shakeup of the sector by the state government led to desperate shortages of accommodation – sometimes with deadly consequences

Radio National • 3rd August 2014

The price of gas

Australians are about to face even bigger gas bills, as businesses are being driven offshore. So is the solution more coal seam gas fields, or should gas exporters be required to sell cheaper gas at home? Jess Hill concludes her two-part investigation into the high price consumers are paying for energy in Australia.

The Guardian • 24th June 2014

No journalist's report could damage Egypt as much as the Al-Jazeera verdict

Logical explanations for the shocking sentence handed down to Peter Greste and his colleagues will be hard to find. Is Egypt's court system really this paranoid?

2nd April 2014

Journalist Jess Hill speaks on Online News Production, Citizen Journalism and Foreign Correspondence - YouTube

Jess Hill (@jessradio) - an investigative reporter for ABC Radio National, and a former Middle East correspondent - speaks with Griffith University Professor of Journalism and Social Media Mark Pearson (@journlaw) about online news production, citizen journalism and foreign correspondence.

Radio National • 9th March 2014

The Abbot Point gamble

On the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef, Abbot Point is set to become one of the world’s biggest coal ports. However the yet-to-be-developed coal mines it's supposed to service look increasingly unviable and the environmental risks are enormous.

The Global Mail • 24th February 2014

The Growing Rebellion in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s King has been unusually outspoken against Syria’s regime. But what about the rebellion in his own Kingdom? And what kind of ruler will his heir apparent be?

Radio National • 22nd December 2013

Asylum seekers: drowning on our watch

More than a thousand asylum seekers have died trying to get to Australia by boat. But how many of them could have been saved? Australia’s search and rescue authorities stand accused of unnecessary delays, disregarding distress calls and passing responsibility to Indonesia, which is not equipped to carry out rescue operations.