Mike Willesee - Career

Career

Willesee figured prominently in the controversy that erupted over the decision in early 1967 by the Liberal government, led by Prime Minister Harold Holt, not to reappoint the ABC Chairman Dr James Darling. This decision was rumoured to have been the result of the government's anger over critical coverage of its policies on the ABC. Willesee's own critical comments about the decision on TDT on 2 April further angered Holt, who questioned the ABC's impartiality and implied that Willesee (whose father Don Willesee was a Labor Senator; in 1972 he would become Foreign Minister in Gough Whitlam's Labor government) was politically biased. Holt's remarks backfired, as they provoked strong protests from both Willesee and the Australian Journalist's Association.

After TDT, Willesee hosted the ABC's flagship current affairs program Four Corners from 1969 to 1971. He then moved to the Nine Network, where he hosted A Current Affair, another popular Australian current affairs program. He was known for a long-running friendship with a disabled boy named Quentin Kenihan, who has osteogenesis imperfecta. He was also known for sparring with the Orange People, who recruited in Australia during the 1980s.

One of the most significant interviews conducted by Willesee was the famous Birthday Cake Interview in 1993, with then leader of the Liberal Party, John Hewson. With the 1993 Federal Election to take place in only ten days, Willesee asked Hewson numerous questions about the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) that the Coalition wished to introduce. Hewson struggled to answer the simple question of whether a birthday cake would cost more or less under his government as a result of the GST. Willesee's unrelenting questioning along with Hewson's indecisive answers and his frequent stuttering made it appear that Hewson had little understanding of one of his own major policies. Hewson would go on to lose the election against Paul Keating and the Coalition would remain out of government for a further three years. Many political analysts believed that the interview cost Hewson's chance of winning what his supporters dubbed the 'unloseable election'. However, others counter that opinion polls held up until election day still predicted a Coalition victory.

In 1993, Willesee received public outrage for his controversial action of interviewing, via phone, two young children, a brother 11 and his sister 9 who were being held in a hostage situation. Many held the opinion that his actions were reckless and endangered the children's lives. This event was subsequently parodied by ABC TV's Frontline where main character Mike Moore interviewed a gunman and his hostage daughter. In the final scene of this episode, Mike interviews, live on air, another gunman in another siege who, much to Mike's horror, subsequently shoots each of his hostages, the sounds of which are played live across Australia.

Willesee is remembered by many Australians for the night when, filling in for Jana Wendt on "A Current Affair", he fronted the show drunk.

In his fifties Willesee rediscovered the Roman Catholic faith of his upbringing. He has reported on religious topics and in 1998 he made a report entitled Signs From God on the appearance of stigmata displayed by a woman, Katya Revas, in Bolivia. This documentary was watched by an audience of 28 million in the United States. In 1999, Willesee won the Bent Spoon Award from the Australian Skeptics for Signs From God. The rationale for Willesee receiving the award was that the show was "seeking to capitalise on the irrational millennial fears of many people".

In 2002, Willesee became the 19th inductee into the TV Week Logies Hall of Fame.

On 21 August 2006 Willesee appeared on Andrew Denton's TV show Enough Rope and spoke about his dedication to discovering what science can ascertain about the Shroud of Turin; specifically, whether it contains the blood of Jesus Christ.

In 2012, Willesee joined the Seven Network's Sunday Night as a reporter.