Following the death of John Laws, we have republished this Peter FitzSimons interview that originally ran on December 3, 2023.

John Laws, 88, now on Radio 2SM in the morning slot, celebrated 70 years on air this week. I spoke to him on Thursday, in his studio, in the early afternoon.

John Laws during his last shift at 2UE on November 30, 2007.Credit:

Fitz: John, back in November 2007, I was cleverly disguised as a fellow broadcaster at 2UE right in the booth next to you, when you gave what we all thought was your final broadcast. You finished with a brilliant soliloquy, starting: “Fifty-three years ago, in a small studio in Bendigo, I pressed a yellow switch that went from right to left, and for the first time, I heard my own voice on the radio and knew my life was never going to be the same again. I was right. And it was because of you, dear listeners … ” We will get back to that retirement speech. But can you take me back to that beginning?

JL: Yes. I remember very clearly. It was an exciting time in Bendigo. I was 18, and had never done anything like that before, had no training, and was pretty nervous. But it was amazing. And then I just settled in, thought, well, “here we go”. And I kept talking, and I’ve been doing it ever since, for the last 70 years. From Bendigo, I went to Townsville, where I had a good look at the nurse’s quarters, and then I moved to Newcastle … and then I moved to a few places and just loved it. It was so easy for me. I didn’t have any difficulty with it at all.

Fitz: And in those early years of moving around, did you think of yourself as a journalist, a broadcaster, an entertainer, what?

JL: I never thought of myself, and I still don’t, as a journalist.

Laws with long-time ratings nemesis Alan Jones in 2019. “We’re friends now.”Credit: James Brickwood

Fitz: Nevertheless, let’s agree that you would have started to make a serious impact on the affairs of the day as a broadcaster, when you first interviewed an Australian prime minister.

JL: Sir Robert Menzies was the first prime minister I interviewed. I thought he was a real gentleman. And it was interesting because when we knew that he was actually coming into the studio we were all told to wear a tie, but the times changed, and by the early ’80s we had moved to Bob Hawke, who arrived saying “Just call me Bob!”

Fitz: The most famous moment of your career was when Paul Keating said to you that if, as treasurer, he couldn’t bring in sensible economic policy, then Australia would end up as “a third-rate economy … a banana republic”. I remember somebody at the time telling me that you didn’t know at that moment what a banana republic was, and had to have a........

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