Australian National University. Photo: Dave Snowden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_House_ANU_Canberra_(2948649223).jpg)
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Australian National University. Photo: Dave Snowden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_House_ANU_Canberra_(2948649223).jpg)
Seven Network. Photo: Sesqui centennial, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Channel7Epping1.JPG)
(Rice's book examines medical incompetence and argues for ...)
Rice's book examines medical incompetence and argues for stronger accountability and legal remedies for patients injured by medical treatment. It was published by Angus & Robertson in 1988.
https://www.vgls.vic.gov.au/client/en_AU/vgls/search/results?av=0&ic=true&ps=300&qu=Medical%20care%20--%20Australia.&st=AT
1988
journalist author television producer
Stephen Rice was born on August 15, 1957, in Duisburg, Germany, and became associated professionally with Australia. His career developed during a period in which Australian journalism expanded across investigative newspapers, commercial current-affairs television, and internationally oriented news production.
Rice studied at The Australian National University in Canberra, completing Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees in 1981. The university, established in 1946 as Australia's national research university, combines teaching with advanced research and has played a prominent role in the country's public-service, legal, and intellectual life.
Rice began his journalism career with The National Times, an investigative Australian newspaper, after completing his university studies. He joined The Sydney Morning Herald in 1984 and covered national and state political and legal affairs. The newspaper, founded in 1831, is one of Australia's oldest continuously published metropolitan newspapers.
In 1984 Rice moved into television with Channel Nine's Willesee program, where his brief included investigating corruption in New South Wales. He later became a senior producer and then executive producer of A Current Affair, a major commercial current-affairs program, before becoming executive producer of Nine's Sunday and Business Sunday programs in the 1990s. Sunday combined investigative reporting, interviews, and analysis of national and international affairs within the Nine Network's commercial television system.
Rice's work on Sunday included international investigations and reporting projects. In 1988 he filmed and reported an interview with the Southeast Asian heroin warlord Khun Sa after crossing the Burmese border, an assignment recognized with a Walkley Award. In 1997 he received the Walkley Award for News Leadership for his work as executive producer of Sunday. He was also executive producer of The Small Business Show and The Dream Factory, an eight-part 2000 documentary series about young Australian actors seeking careers in Hollywood.
From 2004 Rice worked as a producer on Nine's 60 Minutes, the Australian edition of the long-running television news-magazine format. In 1998 he received a New York Festivals Gold Medal for Saddam's Missing Billions, an investigation into Saddam Hussein's hidden fortune produced with Sunday presenter Jim Waley. In 2002 Sunday received the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Public Affairs Program, and Rice was later associated with further international television recognition, including a 2013 New York Festivals award for The Carbon Cowboy.
Rice left Nine in 2016 after the network's review of a 60 Minutes report concerning an attempted child-recovery operation in Lebanon. He subsequently worked as a senior producer on the Seven Network's Sunday Night program from 2017 to 2019. Since 2020 he has worked for The Australian, where he has served as editor of the newspaper's New South Wales bureau. The Australian is a national daily newspaper founded in 1964 and organized around national political, economic, cultural, and public-affairs reporting.
Rice filmed and reported an exclusive 1988 interview with the Southeast Asian heroin warlord Khun Sa after entering the Burmese border region, producing an internationally notable investigative television report.
As executive producer of Sunday, Rice led current-affairs journalism that included investigations of international political and financial affairs, including Saddam's hidden fortune.
Rice wrote Some Doctors Make You Sick: The Scandal of Medical Incompetence, a 1988 book examining medical malpractice, professional accountability, and patients' legal responses to medical injury.
Rice and journalist Jessica Halloran co-produced The Australian's investigation into allegations of abuse by Olympic pole-vault coach Alex Parnov, which won the 2025 Walkley Award for Sports Journalism.
(Rice's book examines medical incompetence and argues for ...)
1988Rice's journalism has consistently emphasized investigative reporting, public accountability, and the tension between commercial pressures and the editorial responsibilities of current-affairs broadcasting. His public comments about privacy law and freedom of information express a preference for broad media scrutiny of public life, while his work has also addressed the need to preserve credibility when pursuing strong ratings and strong stories.
