Liam Bartlett

Liam Bartlett has spent almost 30 years working in Australian media, as one of Perth’s highest profile journalists and public broadcasters.  During that time, he has enjoyed a series of high-profile positions across all three media platforms – television, radio and print.

Bartlett’s roles have included news anchor at Channel Nine in Perth, hosting the state-based 7.30 Report on ABC TV (WA), reporting from the Melbourne bureau of ‘A Current Affair’, a columnist and feature writer for News Limited through the Sunday Times and the host of prime-time talkback shifts on Radio 6PR and 720 ABC Perth.

When Liam hosted the ABC’s flagship statewide morning current affairs program, it became the only Morning Program in the ABC’s Australian network that consistently outrated its commercial opposition, a record that still stands today.

He is best known to national audiences as the journalist who was asked to join the Nine Network’s most prestigious current affairs program, 60 Minutes – following the death of stalwart Richard Carlton in 2006.  For almost seven years, Liam lived mostly out of a suitcase, gathering interviews and information from scores of international destinations in what can only be described as the best ride any foreign correspondent could ask for.

His first assignment was the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006 and after dodging incoming Katyusha rockets in Israel and being bombed in Beirut.  Since then he has covered war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Ossetia and Syria.  In less risky parts of the world he has been tear-gassed on the West Bank, stoned by a mob in Nigeria and lost in the middle of the Congo.  

Respected by his peers for covering stories that others don’t want to do, Liam has ignored advice from an Australian prime minister to ‘stay away’, inadvertently taken the wrong advice and been bitten by a deadly snake as a result and wished he’d had better advice before helping to raid the nest of a three metre mother crocodile!

On a more positive note, he has enjoyed several pints with Tom Jones and a heap of laughs with Billy Crystal. Spending time with Tom Hanks, Beyonce, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, Jack Black, Shania Twain, Pamela Anderson and Dame Helen Mirren wasn’t half bad either.

In 2012, Liam left the program to spend more time with his then school-aged children. He accepted an opportunity to help set-up a global creative development department and worked as an expat with Shell International in London for two years – before returning home to rejoin the Nine Network in Perth in January 2015 as a news presenter.  He was asked to return to 60 Minutes on a full-time basis at the end of 2016.

Liam is a highly entertaining and engaging speaker who provides a fascinating insight into what goes on behind the headlines in a presentation titled ’60 Minutes of Fear, Fame and Fun.’  He is also an articulate and entertaining MC/facilitator who brings a touch of class to any occasion Liam has hosted numerous corporate and government awards and events, conferences, seminars and forums.