Birthday Cake Interview - Aftermath

Aftermath

Hewson subsequently lost the 1993 election, which, until that point, had been billed by many of his supporters as the "Unloseable Election". However, the contribution of the birthday cake interview to Hewson's loss is disputed. According to Channel 9's 20 to 1 episode "Unscripted and Unplanned", it was the moment Hewson lost the election; the interview was held 10 days before the election, and polls right up to election day predicted a Coalition victory.

After the election Fightback! was declared dead and buried, in May 1994 Hewson lost the Liberal leadership to Alexander Downer, and the issue of the GST was dropped from the Liberal Party's agenda until the 1998 election campaign.

In August 2006, Andrew Denton conducted an in-depth interview with Hewson on the ABC TV program Enough Rope. Upon being shown footage of the birthday cake interview, John Hewson commented, "Well I answered the question honestly. The answer's actually right. That doesn't count... I should have told him to get stuffed!"