Jackson Gothe-Snape came to journalism following careers in law and the public service. The Data Journalism Handbook opened his eyes to new opportunities in media and, after teaching himself the basics of coding, he somehow scored a gig inside the Canberra Press Gallery in 2013.

Working at the coalface of political news, he looks to data analysis and freedom of information requests for leads. He has only unearthed one entitlements scandal so far, but his approach has delivered a fresh perspective on migration reform this year.

Making a searchable version of the South Australian lobbyist register in 2014 was the start of his mission to end patronising transparency practices. His @lobbywhat Twitter bot tweets updates to the federal lobbyist register and is followed by a “who’s who” of government relations and journalism.

Jackson is currently receiving funding from the Walkleys Innovation Fund to make the paper-based Interests Register of federal parliamentarians searchable, as part of the community journalism project BURN THE REGISTER. He is looking for sponsors to expand in 2018.

He also produces the Two Grumpy Hacks political podcast and has a mean slo-mo video of his dog on his Instagram account @jacksongs.