Journalism
Essays and Articles
'Crooks, thieves, ex-finance minister and a blogger in Russia' (Crikey, 10 January 2012)
'Putin a comic book hero to stir the Russian spirit' (Crikey, 23 December 2011)
'Western journalists missing the real Russian roulette' (Crikey, 16 December 2011)
'In Russia, laughter, even in a paddy wagon, is the best medicine' (Crikey, 6 December 2011)
'Five bloody years as journalists, and freedom of speech, die' (Crikey, 23 November 2011)
'Death of Gaddafi: we like the crazy ones the best, they're not as scary' (Crikey, 24 October 2011)
'Blood on the Mexican border squeezed by opportunistic GOP' (Crikey, 14 October 2011)
'Putin apologists line up to justify the ruling tandem's bitch slap to democracy' (Crikey, 10 October 2011)
'Putin's endorsement a surprise despite its inevitability' (Crikey, 26 September 2011)
'The last days of casa Castro' (The Australian, 3 January 2011)
'A town kicks against cartel rule' (The Weekend Australian, 11 December 2010)
'Reporters suffer in Mexican mayhem' (The Australian, 27 September 2010)
'Rights and wrongs' (The Australian, 10 December 2008)
'Attacks on cyberspace preceded Russian tanks' (The Australian, 15 August 2008)
Interviews
'In Russia, a bumper season for authoritarian self-sabotage' (Crikey, 7 December 2011)
'The Essential Argument: An Interview with Christopher Hitchens' (The Punch, 3 October 2009)
'African daylight kidnapping leads to Australia' (The Australian, 22 September 2008)
Between Two Anniversaries
In 2010, Matthew and Canadian photojournalist Austin Andrews travelled through Mexico between the country's Bicentenary of Independence and its Centenary of Revolution. Visiting a number of the towns and historic sites that played a role in these conflicts, they also focused on more contemporary issues, such as illegal migration and the drug war. Their coverage for Disposable Words, which combined elements of travelogue, history and reportage, resulted in hundreds of photographs and thousands of words.
'Mexcellaneous Vol. 3: The Divine Comida' (Disposable Words, 26 May 2010)
'Drag War II: Revolución en el Norte' (Disposable Words, 2 March 2011)
'Drug War I: A Tapestry of Murder' (Disposable Words, 16 February 2011)
'Migration V: Arriaga Postscript' (Disposable Words, 18 January 2010)
'The Other Train' (Disposable Words, 7 January 2011)
'A Big Blue Watery Road' (Disposable Words, 21 December 2010)
'Migration IV: A Walk in the Parque' (Disposable Words, 2 December 2010)
'Mexcellaneous Vol. 2' (Disposable Words, 24 November 2010)
'Night on Bald Mountain' (Disposable Words, 20 November 2010)
'Don't Fear the Reaper' (Disposable Words, 9 November 2010)
'Migration III: The Good Shepherd' (Disposable Words, 7 November 2010)
'Migration II: Boarding the Beast' (Disposable Words, 4 November 2010)
'Migration I: Waiting On the Arriaga-Ixtepec' (Disposable Words, 3 November 2010)
'Rehearsing Revolution' (Disposable Words, 29 October 2010)
'Six Death Sun Shield' (Disposable Words, 24 October 2010)
'Mexcellaneous Vol. 1' (Disposable Words, 21 October 2010)
'Mezcal, Mole and Mercados' (Disposable Words, 6 October 2010)
'Land, Liberty and the Scene of a Murder' (Disposable Words, 29 September 2010)
'A Sunday Service' (Disposable Words, 27 September 2010)
'Mexican Bicentenary III: The Military Parade' (Disposable Words, 2011)
'Mexican Bicentenary II: Fireworks Fiesta' (Disposable Words, 19 September 2010)
'Mexican Bicentenary I: Joint Session of Congress' (Disposable Words, 18 September 2010)
'The Spectacle of Tragedy' (Disposable Words, 14 September 2010)
Essays and Articles
'CHOGM's in tents experience comes to an end' (Crikey, 31 October 2011)
'Barnett's evocation of security on the money, but target is not' (Crikey, 28 October 2011)
'CHOGM demo a precursor to the big show…in a roundabout way' (Crikey, 26 October 2011)
'The punitive-minded police state cranks up for CHOGM' (Crikey, 24 October 2011)
'Always behind the eight ball' (The Weekend Australian, 11 July 2009)
'Gough still has that old charisma' (The Australian, 5 June 2009)
'More facts, please, to fill in the big brushstrokes of broadband' (Inquirer, 11 April 2009)
'Costello stays tightlipped on Spectator's Brutus view' (The Australian, 20 February 2009) (with Imre Salusinszky)
'Costello outsold by a cookbook' (The Weekend Australian, 27 September 2008)
'Would alternative PM cringe over Kirribilli?' (The Australian, 26 September 2008)
'Whitlam, 92 not out, still pushing reform' (The Weekend Australian, 12 July 2008)
'Friendly family feud with cousin Ehud' (The Australian, 24 June 2008)
Article Series
Community Cabinets:
'Put a lid on it' (Strewth, 27 August 2009)
'Call to look to independents' (The Australian, 27 August 2009)
'In-demand ministers face local grilling' (The Australian, 27 August 2009)
'Cabinet meets Campbelltown canaries' (The Australian, 18 February 2009)
Barnaby Joyce and New England:
'Joyce "unlikely" to challenge Windsor' (The Australian, 19 January 2009)
'Barnaby's mum says don't run' (The Weekend Australian, 17 January 2009)
'Joyce "would fail" in seat bid' (The Australian, 16 January 2009)
Lyne By-Election:
'Major parties "scared to run"' (The Australian, 29 September 2008)
'Nationals consider going it alone' (The Australian, 8 September 2008)
'Victor ready to get cracking on positives' (The Australian, 8 September 2008)
'Nats tipped to lose Vaile's seat' (The Weekend Australian, 6 September 2008)
'Nationals attack "Labor stooge" in Lyne poll' (The Australian, 1 September 2008)
'Nationals face Lyne in the sand from sea-changers' (The Weekend Australian, 30 August 2008)
Vibewire ElectionTracker Program
Matthew was selected as one of four young political correspondents travelling around Australia in the last two weeks of the 2007 federal election campaign tracking John Howard and Kevin Rudd. Becoming part of the media entourage, the trackers wrote one article and one blog post per day, while also podcasting from the campaign trail. Matthew travelled with John Howard in the penultimate week of the campaign, and covered election night from the National Tally Room in Canberra.
Pre-Campaign Articles:
'In your Facebook' (5 October 2007)
'The two-man alliance' (18 October 2007)
'Bones and all' (22 October 2007)
'Blood sport' (23 October 2007)
'Bright young things' (5 November 2007)
'Placido Rudd' (7 November 2007)
Campaign Articles:
'Pork-barreling Lindsay' (10 November 2007)
'On Remembrance' (11 November 2007)
'Failure to launch' (12 November 2007)
'Of Kelly Clarkson and fig trees' (13 November 2007)
'The caravan heads north' (14 November 2007)
'Follow the leader' (15 November 2007)
'"I'm going to miss him."' (16 November 2007)
'How's it gonna end?' (23 November 2007)
Blog Entries:
'Come and see the violence' (10 November 2007)
'The loneliness of the long distance tracker' (11 November 2007)
'Matthew, lamenting' (12 November 2007)
'Tale of a morning' (13 November 2007)
'There will be blood' (14 November 2007)
'Flying home' (15 November 2007)
National Tally Room Live-Blogging:
'National Tally Room 1: Organised chaos' (24 November 2007)
'National Tally Room 2: A star is born' (24 November 2007)
'National Tally Room 3: It's Bennelong time' (24 November 2007)
'National Tally Room 5:The land appears to be sliding' (24 November 2007)
Audioblogging:
'Caught in traffic' (10 November 2007)
'Wireless-less' (12 November 2007)
'Everything is not good' (12 November 2007)
'Off the record' (13 November 2007)
Essays and Articles
'A Letter from Cuba on the Hunt for Hemingway' (Crikey, 16 November 2010)
'Postcard from San Francisco: Cocktails and Suicide Spots' (The Punch, 15 June 2010)
'The Tale of Two Cities' (The Best City in the World, 21 May 2010)
'Customs for beginners' (The Australian, 6 January 2009)
The Rabbit Bites
'Hugo's Heroes' (Disposable Words, 13 May 2011)
'El Nuevo Número Uno' (Disposable Words, 6 May 2011)
'Not Reporting But Drowning' (Disposable Words, 29 April 2011)
'Going Gently Into That Good Havana Night' (Disposable Words, 22 April 2011)
'The Mao Tse Tung Hour' (Disposable Words, 15 April 2011)
'Entering Hell' (Disposable Words, 8 April 2011)
'Forget Carter' (Disposable Words, 1 April 2011)
'Vladimir and Dmitri Go Cycling' (Disposable Words, 25 March 2011)
'The Other Intervention' (Disposable Words, 18 March 2011)
'Got Highly-Processed Generic Dairy Product?' (Disposable Words, 11 March 2011)
'Will the Real Revolutionaries Please Stand Up?' (Disposable Words, 4 March 2011)
'Qaddafi Duck' (Disposable Words, 25 February 2011)
'Some Men are Created Equal' (Disposable Words, 18 February 2011)
'Mexico's Smoking Guns' (Disposable Words, 11 February 2011)
'Le Roux's Endgame' (Disposable Words, 4 February 2011)
'Jingo All the Way' (Disposable Words, 28 January 2011)
'You Say You Want a Counter-Revolution' (Disposable Words, 21 January 2011)
'Fear and Loathing in Arizona' (Disposable Words, 14 January 2011)
'Go West, Young Man, Go West!' (Disposable Words, 7 January 2011)
The Wry Side
'Film fests are no place for the faint-hearted, or the polite' (The Australian, 15 June 2009)
'Face facts, beauty is in the eye of the brow holder' (The Australian, 8 June 2009)
'Casing a date lands me a 'friend' in need of my life story' (The Australian, 4 May 2009)
'Bulletproof or delusional as Y pops its recession cherry' (The Australian, 23 March 2009)
'There's snow reason for us to keep pretending like this' (The Australian, 22 December 2008)
Miscellaneous Opinion
'Sans Masthead' (Emerging Writers' Festival Blog, 30 September 2011)
'Shed kilos and get bitchin' abs with existential prose' (The Punch, 29 Septemer, 2009)
'One man's meal is another's joyful exercise in patience' (The Australian, 8 January 2009)