Sean Dorney is a Walkley-award winning journalist and Nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney. He is well known for his many years covering Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific as correspondent for ABC News.

Sean was both deported by and awarded by the Papua New Guinean government, receiving an MBE and Companion of the Star of Melanesia (CSM) in 2018. In 2020 he became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his distinguished service to Australia-Papua New Guinea relations, to the broadcast media as a journalist, and as an author. He had previously been made a Member of the Order (AM) in 2000 for his service as a foreign correspondent. Sean’s books include Papua New Guinea: People, politics and history since 1975, The Sandline Affair, and The Embarrassed Colonialist.