Virginia Trioli

Virginia Frances Trioli (born 16 August 1964) is an Australian journalist and author.

Career

Born in Bendigo, she attended Donvale High School and graduated from La Trobe University in the 1980s, with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a fine arts major in cinema. She worked as a publicist for a book publisher, then at the Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission before starting at The Age in 1990. For three years she was president of The Age's chapter of the union, the Australian Journalists Association (now the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance).

She undertook but did not complete postgraduate studies in New York from 1993 to 1994 while working as a reporter for The Age, where she worked until 1999. Trioli worked part-time for the Packer organisation as a columnist in the magazine The Bulletin. She became well known as a radio presenter when she worked at 774 ABC Melbourne in 2001 on weekday afternoons, where she shared the journalist union's Walkley Award with the 774 "Drive Team". In 2001 she won another Walkley Award for her interview with former defence minister Peter Reith over the "Children Overboard Affair".

In 2005, Trioli moved to Sydney to host the morning show on the radio station 702 ABC Sydney, replacing Sally Loane.^[1] After nearly two years, she resigned from this role on 9 November 2007 to concentrate on developing her TV career. Many speculated she wanted the role of presenter of Media Watch on ABC TV.^[2] In addition to her radio commitments, she was a regular occasional commentator on ABC TV program Insiders and was a weekly host on Sunday Arts. On 5 February 2007, Trioli was announced as the Friday presenter of ABC's Lateline news and current affairs program, replacing Maxine McKew. Trioli hosts the ABC program Q&A when its regular host, Tony Jones, is on a break.

She is the author of the book Generation F: Sex, Power and the Young Feminist published in 1996 as a riposte to Helen Garner's The First Stone.

In 2008, Trioli moved back to Melbourne to commence co-hosting ABC News Breakfast alongside Barrie Cassidy, Joe O'Brien, Paul Kennedy and Vanessa O'Hanlon. In January 2009, ABC announced that Joe O'Brien will remain as host on Monday through to Friday replacing Barrie Cassidy. In May 2010, O'Brien left ABC News Breakfast to work as a newsreader on ABC News 24 with Michael Rowland taking over as co-host.

Personal life

Trioli answers to the nickname "Trigger".^[2] She is married to Russell Skelton who is a contributing editor of The Age^[3] and head of the ABC's fact-checking unit. They have one child.

Controversies

Gesture made in reference to Barnaby Joyce after conclusion of the interview.

On 19 October 2009, while hosting the ABC2 breakfast news program ABC News Breakfast, live images were transmitted of Trioli making a gesture of a contorted face and a twirling finger in reference to conservative National Party Australian Senator Barnaby Joyce, thereby suggesting the Senator was crazy.^[4][5][6] The gesture was criticised, and was suggested to reflect the ABC's bias to left-leaning parties and causes that some conservative commentators believe influences the publicly funded broadcaster's news and current affairs reporting.^[7][8][9] She subsequently apologised for this action.^[10]

Awards

• 1995: Walkley Award^[11]
• 1999: Melbourne Press Club – "Best Columnist"^[11]
• 2001: Walkley Award^[11]

Bibliography

• 1996 Generation F: Sex, Power and the Young Feminist, ISBN 1-86330-513-0

References