Birthday Cake Interview
Encyclopedia
The "birthday cake interview" was a famous political interview in Australia
that was carried out between interviewer Mike Willesee
and Liberal Party
Opposition Leader Dr. John Hewson
shortly before the 1993 federal election. It is remembered as the interview which contributed to Hewson's failure to win the election because he was unable to explain one of his key tax policies on live television.
in November 1991, after years of Australian Labor Party
dominance in Federal politics. The package included new social structures, industrial reforms and radical economic policies. One of the key elements of the package was the introduction of a consumption tax
called the Goods and Services Tax
(GST), the compensatory abolition of a range of other taxes such as sales tax, deep cuts in income tax for the middle and upper-middle classes, and increases in pensions and benefits to compensate the poor for the rise in prices flowing from the GST.
Bob Hawke
and his Treasurer
John Kerin
were unable to mount an effective response, and in December, Paul Keating
successfully challenged Hawke and became Prime Minister
.
Through 1992, Keating mounted a campaign against the Fightback! package and, particularly, against the GST, which he described as an attack on the working class
in that it shifted the tax burden from direct taxation of the wealthy to indirect taxation of the mass of consumers. Keating famously described Hewson as a "feral abacus".
's A Current Affair, which would make it 3 March 1993, 10 days before the election. in which Hewson was unable to answer a question posed by journalist Mike Willessee about whether or not a birthday cake would cost more or less under a Coalition
government. Hewson stonewalled and was unable to answer a seemingly straightforward question. Hewson was instead forced into a series of circumlocutions about whether the cake would be decorated, have candles on it, and so on.
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.
As a result, Hewson lost the leadership, 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 [Mike Willesee] to get stuffed!"
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that was carried out between interviewer Mike Willesee
Mike Willesee
Michael Willesee is an Australian television presenter.Mike Willesee came to prominence in 1967 as a reporter for the ABC's new nightly current affairs program This Day Tonight , where his aggressive style quickly earned him a reputation as a fearless political interviewer.-Career:Willesee figured...
and Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Opposition Leader Dr. John Hewson
John Hewson
John Robert Hewson AM is an Australian economist, company director and a former politician. He was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1990 to 1994 and led the party to defeat at the 1993 federal election.-Early life:...
shortly before the 1993 federal election. It is remembered as the interview which contributed to Hewson's failure to win the election because he was unable to explain one of his key tax policies on live television.
Background
After winning leadership of the ailing Liberal Party, Hewson launched a comprehensive package of proposed reforms called Fightback!Fightback!
Fightback! was a radical economic policy package, 650 pages long, proposed by then Liberal Party leader John Hewson.-Key elements:The key elements of Fightback! were:...
in November 1991, after years of Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
dominance in Federal politics. The package included new social structures, industrial reforms and radical economic policies. One of the key elements of the package was the introduction of a consumption tax
Consumption tax
A consumption tax is a tax on spending on goods and services. The tax base of such a tax is the money spent on consumption. Consumption taxes are usually indirect, such as a sales tax or a value added tax...
called the Goods and Services Tax
Goods and Services Tax (Australia)
The GST is a broad sales tax of 10% on most goods and services transactions in Australia. It is a value added tax, not a sales tax, in that it is refunded to all parties in the chain of production other than the final consumer....
(GST), the compensatory abolition of a range of other taxes such as sales tax, deep cuts in income tax for the middle and upper-middle classes, and increases in pensions and benefits to compensate the poor for the rise in prices flowing from the GST.
Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
and his Treasurer
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
John Kerin
John Kerin
John Charles Kerin, AM is an Australian economist and former Australian Labor Party politician.-Career in politics:...
were unable to mount an effective response, and in December, Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
successfully challenged Hawke and became Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
.
Through 1992, Keating mounted a campaign against the Fightback! package and, particularly, against the GST, which he described as an attack on the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
in that it shifted the tax burden from direct taxation of the wealthy to indirect taxation of the mass of consumers. Keating famously described Hewson as a "feral abacus".
The interview
This assault forced Hewson into a partial backdown, agreeing not to levy the GST on food. However, this concession opened Hewson to charges of weakness and inconsistency, and it also complicated the arithmetic of the whole package. Essentially, the weakening of the GST reduced the scope for the tax cuts, which were the most attractive elements of the package for middle-class voters. The complications of the new package were demonstrated in the interview ten days before the election,The article "Hot Pies, Cold Pies AND Pie-Eaters", by Alan Ramsey, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 March 1993 places the interview the "previous" Wednesday evening on the Nine NetworkNine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
's A Current Affair, which would make it 3 March 1993, 10 days before the election. in which Hewson was unable to answer a question posed by journalist Mike Willessee about whether or not a birthday cake would cost more or less under a Coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
government. Hewson stonewalled and was unable to answer a seemingly straightforward question. Hewson was instead forced into a series of circumlocutions about whether the cake would be decorated, have candles on it, and so on.
Excerpt
- Mike 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?"
- John Hewson: "Well, it will depend whether cakes today in that shop are subject to sales tax, or they're not - firstly. And they may have a sales tax on them. Let's assume that they don't have a sales tax on them... then that birthday cake is going to be sales tax free. Then of course you wouldn't pay - it would be exempt, would, sorry - there would be no GST on it under our system. If it was one with a sales tax today it would attract the GST, and then the difference would be the difference between the two taxes whatever the sales tax rate is on birthday cakes, how it's decorated, because there will be sales tax perhaps on some of the decorations as well, and then of course the price - the price will reflect that accordingly. But the key point is that there, the average Australian will have more money in their pocket - "
- Willesee: "No, but just on the, just on the birthday cake, because I'm trying to pick up a simple example. You tell us in what you've published that the cost of cake goes down, the cost of confectionery goes up, there's icing and maybe ice-cream, and then there's candles on top of it."
- Hewson: "That's right, now that's the difficulty - that's what I'm addressing in the question. To give you an accurate answer, I need to know exactly what type of cake to give a detailed answer. I mean if it's just a cake from a cake shop that is not presently subject to sales tax, it will not attract the GST."
- Willesee: "But isn't that - "
- Hewson: "If it is a cake shop, a cake from a cake shop that has sales tax, and it's decorated and candles as you say, that attracts sales tax, then of course we scrap the sales tax, before the GST is - "
- Willesee: "Okay - it's just an example. If the answer to a birthday cake is so complex - you do have an overall problem with the GST, don't you?"
- Hewson: "Well, people don't know how much tax they currently pay..."
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 120 to 1
20 to 1 is an Australian television series, currently hosted by Bert Newton that counts down an undefined "top 20" of elements or events of popular culture, such as films, songs, sporting scandals. Previously the show was hosted by Charles "Bud" Tingwell and narrated by David Reyne...
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.
As a result, Hewson lost the leadership, and the issue of the GST was dropped from the Liberal Party's agenda until the 1998 election campaign.
In August 2006, Andrew Denton
Andrew Denton
Andrew Christopher Denton is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
conducted an in-depth interview with Hewson on the ABC TV
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
program Enough Rope
Enough Rope
Enough Rope with Andrew Denton is a television interview show originally broadcast on ABC Television in Australia...
. 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 [Mike Willesee] to get stuffed!"