Tracey Spicer is one of the most experienced and credible news presenters on Australian commercial television, with a career spanning 20 years, encompassing newsreading, documentary making, reporting, and radio broadcasting.
For the past decade, Tracey has been the face of Network Ten’s National Weekend News. She also anchors the new hour long Morning News, doing live interviews with the day’s newsmakers, from politicians to pop stars.
Renowned for her sharp mind and calm manner, Tracey is more than just another autocue reader.
In 2001, she travelled to Papua New Guinea to research, write and produce a documentary for WWF on the dearth of fresh water sources in villages devastated by deforestation.
The following year, Tracey produced a half hour fly-on-the-wall doco on one of Australia’s most powerful and controversial figures: radio personality Alan Jones.
The late 90s saw Tracey trekking in Kenya and Bangladesh, hosting documentaries on the work of World Vision, building schools to educate impoverished villagers.
As a schoolgirl in Brisbane, Tracey always wanted to be a journalist.
Graduating dux of her senior year, Tracey completed a Communications degree at QUT, winning a radio scholarship.
She cut her teeth as a cadet journalist at Macquarie National News station 4BH, before being promoted to the job of Chief Police Reporter and Breakfast New Editor at respected Melbourne news/talk station 3AW.
A stint in the country followed, as court and industrial reporter for Southern Cross Television in Gippsland.
Tracey was then poached by Channel 9 Melbourne, reporting on current affairs show Melbourne Extra and National Nine News.
An offer to do backup newsreading and reporting at Channel 10 Melbourne followed, before the “big break”: co-presenting the First At Five News in Brisbane.
In 1995, Tracey was again promoted, moving to Sydney to anchor the National Weekend 5 o’clock and Late News services, while reporting three days a week.
Four years later, Ten’s Morning News added another string to her bow.
In recent years, Tracey has hosted the morning program on VEGA FM, and appeared as a regular panellist on the irreverent “Slather & Wack”.
She is a sought after MC, hosting hundreds of corporate functions including the Ronald McDonald Ball and World Vision’s prestigious International Women’s Day dinner.
While her passion for news and women’s issues is well documented, Tracey’s greatest love is family. Tracey and husband Jason have two beautiful children, 2 year old Taj and 4 month old Grace.
The above is Tracey Spicer’s bio off the Ten Network site. She’s been sacked shortly after returning from her second maternity leave sojourn in two years, returning early at the behest of her employer to read weekly and weekend news bulletins. There has been some hype over the fact that she has been dismissed by email – a distinctly remote and cowardly method which seems to be becoming popular with some employers – however this is not reality, as Spicer deals through her manager, David Fordham. It was Fordham’s management company which requested the letter of contractural dismissal be emailed. Apparently.
On the issue of the reasons for Spicer’s dismissal, one’s attention is drawn inexorably to the last paragraph in her bio. Family and television presentation are perhaps incompatible. At least in the mind of a faceless someone within the Ten Network.