‘This could easily be my full-time home’: Liz Hayes eyes Tasmania for her future

“I don’t understand why there are so many secrets.” Veteran television journalist Liz Hayes discusses all things Tasmanian and cops a heckling from locals. See the photo >>>

Veteran television journalist Liz Hayes in Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

She’s journeyed to some of the most hostile and heart-wrenching locations on the planet, but veteran television journalist Liz Hayes may one day call Hobart home.

After more than 40 years in the industry, including decades as an investigative globetrotter, Hayes is just as likely to be spotted in a sunhat these days, gently strolling Sandy Bay’s beaches.

Tasmania has become a second home, thanks to her 20-year relationship with former 60 Minutes sound recorder Ben Crane, who hails from Hobart – and with whom she makes almost monthly visits to the island.

But her visit to Tasmania this week came with a dual purpose, both to visit Crane’s family and to promote her new book, I’m Liz Hayes.

Entitled as a subtle nod to her television sign-off, the memoir covers Hayes’ life and astonishing media career – from her childhood in regional New South Wales to interviewing an Afghani war lord, risking her life in unruly mobs or suffering a full-scale panic attack in the depths of a Colombian emerald mine.

I'm Liz Hayes

Much of her work has been deeply affecting, from interviewing the traumatised victims of the Lindt cafe siege to covering stories with people affected by poverty and disaster, and even having her crew shot at.

At 67, the Sydneysider has no plans yet of slowing down the pace with 60 Minutes or her cold case show, Under Investigation with Liz Hayes – but that doesn’t mean she isn’t thinking of a perhaps quieter-paced future in Tasmania.

“We find ourselves down here a lot, it’s a second home down here,” she told the Mercury.

“It’s not a bad spot, is it?

“This could easily be my full-time home. I’m very comfortable here. I guess it gets quite cold – but I’m quite ready for it.”

Journalist Liz Hayes is gently heckled at Sandy Bay during a photo-shoot for the Mercury. Picture: Amber Wilson

Hayes’ down-to-earth style means she is relaxed and friendly. She maintains her composure while she is gently heckled by a group of youths during the Mercury photo-shoot.

She maintains her good humour when they fail to recognise her. “Are you some kind of influencer?” one asks. “ You must be famous.”

“No, definitely not famous,” a smiling Hayes replies.

Hayes and Crane have a mission of visiting a new Hobart destination each time they visit – the Black Footed Pig to the Mount Nelson Signal Station, and a favourite spot of Bruny Island.

“I just love that there’s refrigerated bread on the side of the road. The honesty system is still somehow or other working,” she said.

That’s not to say Hayes has rose-coloured glasses on when it comes to Tasmania.

She’s acutely aware of the state’s health and hospital system problems, an issue experienced by much of regional Australia.

Hayes also commented on a problem she has encountered while covering Tasmanian stories – a disturbing lack of transparency in the state’s political and judicial systems.

She said this wasn’t a theme peculiar to Tasmania, having also come up against roadblocks to accessing information in South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia – but noted the trend was “a real concern”.

“I think transparency makes us a better community and when we think someone is hiding something, there is a secret, it becomes to our courts and our police services, that makes people conspiratorial and it keeps us from the truth. I don’t think that’s a good thing,” she said.

“I found that Tasmania is equally guilty on that front. There are cases down here where I don’t understand why there are so many secrets.”

Hayes was able to draw on diaries that she’d kept over decades when she was approached to write her memoir, which she said she hoped would speak to young people from regional areas.

“Your postcode shouldn’t limit you. You should not let your postcode define you. You can be and do whatever you want to do – and success is equally being right where you live and doing whatever it is you choose to do,” she said.

I’m Liz Hayes: A Memoir by Liz Hayes (HarperCollins, $49.99) is available now.

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Originally published as ‘This could easily be my full-time home’: Liz Hayes eyes Tasmania for her future