Journalists from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have been recognised at the 2023 Kennedy Awards, collecting five wins.

SMH journalists Carrie Fellner, Katrina McGowan, Mat Cornwell and Rhett Wyman won the John Newfong award for Indigenous affairs reporting for their two-year “Paradise Poisoned” investigation into fears of a cancer cluster in the Aboriginal community of Wreck Bay.

Lucy Cormack, Tom Rabe, Alexandra Smith and Jordan Baker from The Sydney Morning Herald won the outstanding political reporting award for “Game Over for Lobbyist after ‘Catholic Gut’ Comment”, which reported on comments made by ClubsNSW chief executive Josh Landis that subsequently resulted in his sacking.

Kate Geraghty was awarded the outstanding portrait photography prize for her work on “Defender of Bakhmut”, a co-production with Anthony Galloway.

Eryk Bagshaw and Natalie Clancy picked up the Tom Krause Award for Outstanding Foreign Correspondent for Kidnapped in Japan, a collaboration between Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes.

Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox was awarded the Vince O’Farrell prize for outstanding cartoonist for her Don’t Look, Becky illustration.

Bevan Shields, editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, said the wins highlighted the high calibre of journalism being produced by the masthead.

“These awards are a great recognition of the Herald’s powerhouse newsroom,” he said. “Our wins cover significant and diverse issues such as gun violence in America, the flawed child protection system in Japan, Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and the poisoning of an Indigenous community on the NSW coast.