Rick Morton is an award-winning journalist and writer. He reported on Social Affairs for The Australian for years and is now the Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper. His memoir 100 Years Of Dirt - about surviving his poverty- and trauma-ridden childhood - has been a critical and commercial success.
Here I ask Rick about issues he's been writing about of late - the conspiracy theories that have thrived amid COVID-19 and the new aged-care "Uber app" that's been given a multi-million dollar government contract - as well as his broader approach to journalism, the realities of poverty, how class works in Australia and the privatisation of the welfare state.
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Rick’s writing for The Saturday Paper
ARTICLE: How COVID-19 energised conspiracy theorists
ARTICLE: A fraction too much friction (on Scott Morrison's approach to the truth)
ARTICLE: Exclusive: Gov’s $5.8m aged-care app offers ‘no duty of care’
Rick's articles for The Australian
Rick's speech The Power of Money
ARTICLE: Rick Morton found writing his memoir painful enough. Then he had to read it aloud
Cause of the Week: Brotherhood of St. Laurence (bsl.org.au)