Mike Willesee

Michael Willesee (Born June 29 1942) is an Australian television presenter.

The son of Don Willesee, who was Foreign Minister in Australia's Whitlam government (1972-1975), Willesee hosted Four Corners from 1969 to 1971. He later 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 Australian Liberal Party, John Hewson. With the 1993 federal election to take place in only ten days, Willesee asked Hewson numerous questions in regards to 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 Hewson's supporters dubbed the 'unloseable election'. However, others counter that opinion polls held up until election day still predicted a Coalition victory.

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

In his fifties Willesee rediscovered the Roman Catholic faith of his upbringing. He has reported on religious topics and in 1998 he made a famous 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. 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.