The Walkey Awards are made each year by the Walkley Foundation whose aims are to are to "organise, administer and promote the Walkley Awards as well as continuing to advance the interests of professional and ethical journalism in Australia."

The judges are all people with a background in journalism. Judging is a two tier process. Special judging panels in each category select three finalists from that category. A panel comprised of members of the Walkley Advisory Board then selects the winner of each caregory from among the finalists. The prestigous Glold Walkley, and the award for journalistic leadership are selected by the Board.

The Walkey Awards are similar to the Academy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize in that the judges are drawn primarily from the relevant profession. ABC staff are represented on both the Advisory Board and the various judging panels, but they are heavily outnumbered by journalists from the commercial media. In 2005 of the 73 judging panel members only six worked for the ABC. Another two were retired ABC journalists. Of the eleven Advisory Board members, who make the final decisions, only one is from the ABC. The Board is chaired my Malcolm Farr of the Daily Telegraph.

In testing allegations of ABC bias it is relevant to ask what the Walkley Foundation, which tends to reflect the views of the industry as a whole, thinks of the standard of journalism in the ABC.

In 2005 ABC Television won seven Walkey Awards, ABC Radio won five awards, while the ABC won the Gold Walkey for both TV and radio work, and the book award, a total of fourteen Walkleys.

By comparison:

• The Nine Network won no awards.
• The Seven Nework won no awards.
• The Ten Network won no awards.
• SBS TV won one award.
• No commercial radio stations won awards.

Full details of the 2005 Walkley Awards

• The Ten Network won no awards.
  

• The Seven Network won no awards.
• The Nine Network won two awards.
• SBS TV won two awards.
• No other radio stations won any awards.  ABC radio received 100% of the awards for radio.