Liz Hayes is a veteran journalist with 60 Minutes, author, and the host of Under Investigation With Liz Hayes.
Liz Hayes is a household name in Australia and an icon of Australian news television. She’s appeared on our TV screens for over forty years making her a true veteran of the industry in a career that has tracked the rise of TV current affairs journalism in Australia. And yet Liz came from humble beginnings: the daughter of a dairy farm, Liz grew up mostly without a television. Liz has stayed true to her calling as a journalist through it all and today produces her own investigative program with 60 Minutes.
In 2023 she published her memoir, I’m Liz Hayes, which tells her extraordinary story from farm girl to Australian TV royalty, and the thousands of amazing stories she covered in between, mostly as a journalist for 60 Minutes, where she criss-crossed the globe on the sometimes exhausting hunt for exclusive yarns. Liz has interviewed several prime ministers, reported from a helicopter above a live volcano in Iceland, helped catch Australia’s most wanted paedophile, interviewing dozens of the highest-profile celebrities and musicians, covered crime in Australia and overseas, interviewed warlords in Afghanistan, visit Guantamano Bay and so much more.
As I discover in our chat in her beautiful Sydney apartment, Liz has some sage advice to offer as someone who has experienced the pressure of appearing in front of TV cameras for four decades.
Our conversation touches upon...
🕵♀️ Liz’s latest endeavor, Under Investigations, and her foray into the world of not just true crime but international unsolved mysteries
📔 Her decision to write a memoir to hopefully inspire others to dream big
🏃♂️ Her childhood growing up on a dairy farm as a potential star runner and the dreaded pre-competition “egg flip”
📰 Her experience court reporting at The Manning River Times in Taree and how that nurtured her interest in journalism
🎤 The steep learning curve becoming a TV journalist in Sydney and how Liz still finds it tough being in front of a camera today
🚁 The time she had to make a narrow helicopter escape while reporting on emerald mining in the Andes
👦 Why she prefers human interest stories to celebrity stories
📺 And why Liz left breakfast TV to join 60 Minutes and escape public attention.
For a full episode transcript and links to Liz’s work visit our website: http://bylinespodcast.com
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Sound production by Jonathan Koster: https://www.instagram.com/djjonnysounds