BEN HILLS is one of Australia’s best-known investigative reporters and foreign correspondents, a winner of the Walkley Award (Australia’s Pulitzer Prize) and ‘highly commended’ for the Graham Perkin award as Journalist of the Year. He is the author of five books on widely different subjects: Blue Murder (an account of the battle for justice by the victims of the Wittenoom asbestos mine in Western Australia), Japan—Behind The Lines (the story-behind-the-story of his three years as a foreign correspondent in Japan), Princess Masako—Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne (the biography of Japan’s Crown Prince and Princess), Secrets of Sardinia – Eat Drink and Live to be 100 (an investigation of the lives of an extraordinary cluster of centenarians on this Mediterranean island) and (to be published in late 2009) Muckraker, the life and times of Graham Perkin of the Melbourne Age, Australia’s greatest newspaper editor since World War II.

Ben is a lively and authoritative speaker on a range of issues which he has covered during more than 40 years of reporting ranging from ivory smuggling in Kenya to Palestinian refugee camps and Taiwanese baby-traders. He has covered wars, earthquakes (particularly the tragic Great Hanshin quake of 1995 which killed 6000) coups and elections in more than 60 countries. His subjects of special interest include:

Japan – all aspects of Japanese society from the fight to save the ancient capital of Kyoto from developers to the exile of lepers on isolated islands, from the social dislocation that led to the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subways to the status of women in modern Japan. Ben is an authority on the Japanese royal family – his warts-and-all book on Crown Princess Masako outraged the Imperial Household Agency to such an extent that they attempted to ban it, and instead turned it into an international best-seller.

Longevity – Ben spent more than a year interviewing experts, researching the literature and interviewing centenarians to try and discover just why it is that some people lead much longer, healthier and more active lives than others – and particularly the anziani of the mysterious mountain fastnesses of Sardinia, where ancient tribes of people are three or four times as likely to live to be 100 than almost anywhere else on earth. Is it their genes? Their diet? Their active lifestyles in a pristine environment?

Investigative journalism and the role of the media. Ben was the founder of The Age Insight investigative team and has led many major exposes including the initial reporting that led to the Loans Affair and the sacking of the Whitlam Government, land deal scandals which led to the downfall of the Hamer/Thompson government in Victoria, an analysis of the Exxon oil company’s global strategy to avoid liability for its negligence, and asbestos cover-ups by the CSR and James Hardie companies. Ben has a lot to say about the role of the media as a social watchdog, Australia’s draconian libel laws and official secrecy.

Speaking topics:
- Japan
- Longevity
- Investigative journalism

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