The birthday cake interview was a live interview on Australian television in March 1993 in which Liberal Party Opposition Leader John Hewson was unable to clearly explain to reporter Mike Willesee whether a birthday cake would cost more or less under his proposed tax reforms.
It is remembered as contributing to Hewson's unexpected failure as leader of the Coalition to win the federal election that took place ten days later.
The complications of the new package were demonstrated in the interview with Mike Willessee on 3 March 1993 on the Nine Network's A Current Affair,[3] in which Hewson was unable to answer a seemingly straightforward question about whether a birthday cake would cost more or less under a Coalition government.
"[4]The following day, Keating paid a televised visit to a bakery, but the owner told him that although he disliked the proposed GST, taxes under the Labor government already had an adverse effect on his business.
The birthday cake interview was widely seen as crucial in the loss of what many of his supporters had called an "unloseable election",[3][6] making his tax proposal seem too complicated[4] and Hewson himself ignorant about it.
In August 2006, Andrew Denton conducted an in-depth interview with Hewson on the ABC TV program Enough Rope.