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Title : John Hewson was favourite to become PM when Mike Willesee asked this question about a cake
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John Hewson was favourite to become PM when Mike Willesee asked this question about a cake

Mike Willesee — who has died at the age of 76 from cancer of the throat — was a giant of current affairs journalism.

Willesee has been described by peers as "quality and class", a journalist with a sharp mind and a great instinct for the right question for ordinary Australians.

A bad interview with him could turn an "unlosable election". And that's exactly what happened to former Liberal leader John Hewson during the 1993 federal election.

The interview that sank a political leader's career

During the campaign, Willesee interviewed the then opposition leader on Channel Nine's A Current Affair program.

Mr Hewson was trying to spruik his party's proposed tax reforms, but a simple question from Willesee about the cost of a birthday cake seemed to throw him off completely.

The interview went like this:

External Link: The now infamous 'birthday cake' interview

Willesee: "If I buy a birthday cake from a cake shop and GST is in place, do I pay more or less for that birthday cake?"

Hewson: "…If it is a cake shop, a cake from a cake shop that has sales tax, and it's decorated and has candles as you say, that attracts sales tax, then of course we scrap the sales tax, before the GST is..."

Willesee: "OK — it's just an example. If the answer to a birthday cake is so complex — you do have a problem with the overall GST?"

Mr Hewson couldn't say whether or not a birthday cake would cost more or less with the proposed tax.

His answer made the policy look too complicated for voters, and that question is said to have put the nail in Mr Hewson's election campaign coffin.

Speaking on ABC TV today, Mr Hewson reflected on the question that dogged him for years.

"Good question, bad answer," he said.

"Mike Willesee was a great journalist, he made a huge contribution through Four Corners, A Current Affair and This Day Tonight. He was a bit of a benchmark for the journalistic community.

"I think he'll be remembered particularly fondly — even by me."

Former 7.30 presenter Kerry O'Brien remembers that interview as "the turning point in the whole campaign for John Hewson".

"I think he'd probably say that himself," O'Brien said.

"That was a kind of Mike Willesee classic. He was excellent at hitting the mark for ordinary Australians, who weren't necessarily highly informed, who were looking to him to do the work for them, and he did."

More broadly, O'Brien described Willesee as "an absolute trailblazer on Australian television".

"I regarded him right through my career as the benchmark."

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