When I stepped into the role of Victoria’s deputy chief health officer in July 2020, there was a lot to learn.

But the aspect most foreign to me was working with the media.

It felt very much like preparing for an exam. In the morning, I’d receive a briefing on the current facts and figures, the issues that journalists had raised and those that were anticipated to be raised, and I’d have an hour or so to remember as much as I could before answering questions at the press conference.

In reflecting on a year fronting press conferences, the role of journalism stood out as an important issue. I was aware the pandemic had become very much a political story, and that political journalists approached the story very differently to health or science journalists.