The Walkley Foundation will not renew its major sponsorship deal with the fossil fuel company Ampol after changing its donation policy to sever ties with companies whose dealings “offer no tangible benefit to humanity”.
Ampol’s two-year platinum sponsorship is understood to be worth several hundred thousand dollars and was the top sponsorship tier funding the national Walkley journalism awards.
The Ampol sponsorship will end in October, the Walkeys foundation confirmed to Guardian Australia on Thursday.
A long list of award-winning cartoonists, led by Jon Kudelka, boycotted the 2023 prizes to protest against the fossil fuel sponsorship during the climate crisis.
Kudelka wrote he was shocked that a “well-known fossil fuel company is a sponsor of the Walkleys” and that when there was a revamp of the awards categories climate reporting “didn’t make the cut”.
