In just three years, Guardian Australia has built a new, independent and distinctive media voice in Australia.

When Joe Hockey delivered the Abbott government’s first budget in 2014, many newspapers judged it to be exactly the “fiscal medicine” Australia needed – a dose of shared “pain” for the national gain of budget repair.

Guardian Australia saw it differently. We immediately called out the fact that the “pain” of the spending cuts was not really being shared because it fell disproportionately and unfairly on the sick, the unemployed and low-income families.

We are guided by progressive values and dedicated to the old-fashioned journalistic grind of discovering the truth about what is happening around us, revealing new information and explaining cause and context. We are not afraid to swim against the tide.

I joined the fledgling Guardian Australia three years ago as political editor because I was convinced Australia needed a new, courageous, clear-eyed source of news and commentary.

It was a startup, with all the crazy work hours and improvisations that entailed, but it offered the irresistible prospect of telling stories that were not always being told.

No endeavour can always run perfectly, but we have grown and expanded across the country and I believe we are succeeding in our most important aims. We’ve reported scoops that have dominated the national debate, including the revelation that Australia spied on the former Indonesian president and his wife. We’ve provided fearless and factual coverage of politics, have revealed and documented the reality of offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru, and have led the national discussion on Indigenous issues and the environment, including the impact of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef.

How technology disrupted the truth | Katharine Viner Read more

We’ve shone a light on the quiet suffering of millions of women with endometriosis, held live events on issues such as marriage equality, covered sport in new ways, done terrific data journalism, run a wide scope of commentary and opinion, and established popular podcasts. And we’ve retained our sense of humour along the way, with a little help from First Dog on the Moon. We’ve won Walkley awards every year we’ve been publishing, in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

And as the world confronts new political and economic uncertainties, we have the incredible depth of international coverage and commentary from the Guardian UK and US and from Guardian correspondents around the globe. Guardian Australia is run as a separate company and operates its own Australia-focused newsroom, but it is also part of the Guardian’s 24-hour global news operation, helping to cover breaking international stories in all parts of the world.

Most importantly, we’ve tried to listen to our readers, to talk to you in comments threads and on social media, at our events and via email. We’re being read more than ever. More than three million people visited Guardian Australia in June. On election day Guardian Australia articles were viewed almost 2.8m times. On election night our authoritative politics live blog was viewed more than a million times.

But as is the experience of all media organisations, the great digital disruption is presenting both opportunities and enormous challenges. The reach of social media such as Facebook, the different ways readers are accessing news and the advent of adblockers have upended every newspaper’s business model. Many have set up paywalls.

The Guardian, including Guardian Australia, is responding in different ways. We want our journalism to remain accessible to everyone, but we are asking readers who value what we do to consider some financial support.

As the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, wrote recently in a thought-provoking essay on the future of journalism in this age of technological disruption, “the truth is a struggle. It takes hard graft. But the struggle is worth it: traditional news values are important and they matter and they are worth defending.”

I’ve just taken over as editor of Guardian Australia. I have one overriding aim – to steer us through this next wave of change and embed Guardian Australia as a leading progressive voice, and a place where Australian journalists can continue to do brave and important work.

If you agree that traditional news values are worth defending, if you are among the community of readers who share our values and like what we do, if you want to help independent journalism continue and prosper, I’m asking you to consider supporting us with a monthly or one-off contribution. It’s a small amount that can make a big difference to Australian journalism.

Lenore Taylor

Editor, Guardian Australia