Bill Hayden | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 1974 | |
| 21stGovernor-General of Australia | |
| In office 16 February 1989 – 16 February 1996 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Bob Hawke Paul Keating |
| Preceded by | Sir Ninian Stephen |
| Succeeded by | Sir William Deane |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 22 December 1977 – 8 February 1983 | |
| Prime Minister | Malcolm Fraser |
| Deputy | Lionel Bowen |
| Preceded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Succeeded by | Bob Hawke |
| Leader of the Labor Party | |
| In office 22 December 1977 – 8 February 1983 | |
| Deputy | Lionel Bowen |
| Preceded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Succeeded by | Bob Hawke |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade | |
| In office 11 March 1983 – 17 August 1988 | |
| Prime Minister | Bob Hawke |
| Preceded by | Tony Street |
| Succeeded by | Gareth Evans |
| Treasurer of Australia | |
| In office 6 June 1975 – 11 November 1975 | |
| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Jim Cairns |
| Succeeded by | Phillip Lynch |
| Minister for Social Security | |
| In office 19 December 1972 – 6 June 1975 | |
| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Lance Barnard |
| Succeeded by | John Wheeldon |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forOxley | |
| In office 9 December 1961 – 17 August 1988 | |
| Preceded by | Donald Cameron |
| Succeeded by | Les Scott |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William George Hayden (1933-01-23)23 January 1933 Spring Hill, Queensland, Australia |
| Died | 21 October 2023(2023-10-21) (aged 90) Queensland, Australia |
| Political party | Labor |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Brisbane State High School |
| Alma mater | University of Queensland |
| Occupation | Police officer (Queensland Police Service) |
| Profession | Politician |
William George Hayden (23 January 1933 – 21 October 2023) was an Australian politician who served as the 21stgovernor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He wasLeader of the Labor Party andLeader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983, and served asMinister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988 underBob Hawke and asTreasurer of Australia in 1975 underGough Whitlam.
Hayden was born inBrisbane,Queensland. He attendedBrisbane State High School and then joined theQueensland Police, working as a police officer for eight years while studying economics part-time at theUniversity of Queensland. Hayden was elected to theHouse of Representatives at the1961 federal election, aged 28 – along withManfred Cross andDoug McClelland, Hayden was the earliest elected Labor MP still alive at the time of his death.[1] When Gough Whitlam led the Labor Party tovictory in 1972, Hayden was madeMinister for Social Security. He replacedJim Cairns astreasurer in 1975, but served for only five months before thegovernment was dismissed.
In early 1977, Haydenchallenged Whitlam for the party leadership and was defeated by just two votes. He defeatedLionel Bowen tosucceed Whitlam asLeader of the Opposition at the end of the year, following Labor's defeat at the1977 election. Hayden led the party to the1980 election, recording a substantial swing but falling short of victory. He was replaced by Bob Hawke just a few weeks before the1983 election, after months of speculation. Hayden served asMinister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988, then left parliament to assume the governor-generalship. He held that position for seven years; onlyLord Gowrie has served for longer.
Hayden was born on 23 January 1933 at theLady Bowen Lying-In Hospital inSpring Hill, Queensland. He was the first child born to Violet Quinn and George Hayden, who married a few weeks after his birth.[2] He had a younger brother and two younger sisters,[3] as well as an older half-brother from his mother's first marriage who was raised by an aunt.[4] His parents both had prior marriages which ended in widowhood.[5]
Hayden's father was an American seaman, probably born in California,[6] who jumped ship in Sydney a few years before World War I. He worked as a piano-tuner and musical instrument salesman, moving toRockhampton, Queensland, in the early 1920s. He held radical political views and was a member of theIndustrial Workers of the World.[7] Hayden's mother was born inBrandon, Queensland, to a working-class family of Irish descent.[8] After the death of her first husband, ashearer, she worked in Rockhampton as a barmaid.[4] The couple moved to Brisbane during theGreat Depression.[9]
Hayden spent his first year at a boardinghouse inFortitude Valley, before the family moved to a rented cottage in the working-class area ofHighgate Hill.[2] The family became more financially stable after his father enlisted in the army in 1941.[10] He began his education at St Ita's Catholic Primary School inSouth Brisbane, but was withdrawn from the school when it rescinded his father's contract to tune the school pianos. He switched to Dutton Park State School and was later highly critical of the quality of education that he received.[11] Hayden went on to South Brisbane Intermediate School, where he passed the state scholarship exam in 1947. This allowed him to complete his secondary education atBrisbane State High School in 1948 and 1949.[12] After leaving school, he found work as a junior clerk in the State Government Stores, where he worked until joining the police.[13] He was conscripted to theRoyal Australian Navy for six months following the passage of theNational Service Act 1951, having earlier unsuccessfully applied to join theRoyal Australian Air Force as an 18-year-old.[14]
Hayden joined theQueensland Police Force in 1953 following his father's death. He completed his training in Brisbane and the following year was transferred toMackay inNorth Queensland. He was briefly stationed in the small country towns ofCalen andSarina.[15] As he was supporting his mother and younger siblings, he also worked a second full-time job driving a milk truck and various seasonal jobs on rural properties.[16] In 1956, Hayden was transferred back to Brisbane and worked as aplainclothes constable at the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). He was later moved to police headquarters onRoma Street where he was rostered on atGovernment House, guarding thegovernor of Queensland.[17] He was transferred again in 1957 to the two-man police station atRedbank, on the outskirts ofIpswich.[18]
Hayden held far-left views as a young man and attempted to join theCommunist Party of Australia, but was refused membership due to his police ties.[14] He first attempted to join the ALP in South Brisbane in 1953, but was also regarded with suspicion in the context of theALP split of the mid-1950s.[19] He was ultimately recruited to the Redbank branch of the ALP in 1957.[20] Hayden became "an active and energetic party worker, closely aligned with the left-wingTrades Hall faction that now controlled the Queensland ALP".[21] He became secretary of the electoral executive committee for the state seat ofBremer and president of the divisional executive for the federal seat ofOxley.[22] In 1960 he began attending adultmatriculation classes with a view towards attending university. He also attended political science lectures given byMax Poulter at the Brisbane Trades Hall.[23]
In October 1960, Hayden won ALPpreselection for the federal seat of Oxley, running as the Trades Hall candidate againstAustralian Workers' Union (AWU) candidate Bert Warren.[24] At the1961 federal election he unexpectedly defeated incumbentLiberal MP and cabinet ministerDonald Cameron, winning 53 percent of the primary vote on an 11-point swing.[25] Hayden's win was part of a 15-seat swing to Labor that nearly brought down the Menzies government.
Overcoming initial resistance to his membership of the Labor party, Hayden was soon popularly elected as one of the then youngest members of the federal parliament (only 28 years old at the time he entered it). He proved to be a diligent, well-spoken parliamentarian.[26] In 1969, he became a member of the Opposition front bench.[27]
When Labor won the1972 election underGough Whitlam, Hayden was appointedMinister for Social Security and, in that capacity among other efforts to promoting reform, introduced the single mothers pension andMedibank, Australia's first system of universal health insurance. On 6 June 1975, he succeededJim Cairns astreasurer, a position he held until the Whitlam governmentwas dismissed by the governor-general, SirJohn Kerr, on 11 November 1975. Labor suffered its worst-ever defeat inthe election held a month later, and Hayden was left as the only Labor MP from Queensland.[28]
When Labor lost the1977 election in another landslide, Whitlam retired as leader. In the ensuingleadership ballot Hayden was elected overLionel Bowen to succeed him; Bowen was then elected as Hayden's deputy.[citation needed] Aged almost 45, he was the youngest person to be elected leader of the Labor Party sinceChris Watson in 1901.[citation needed] His political views had become more moderate, and he advocated economic policies which encompassed the private sector and the American alliance.[citation needed]
At the1980 election, Labor finished a mere 0.8 percent behind Fraser's government on the two-party vote, having gained a nationwide swing of over four percent. Yet, due to the geographically uneven nature of the swing (strong in Victoria and, to a lesser degree, Western Australia and New South Wales, but comparatively weak everywhere else), Labor fell 12 seats short of making Hayden prime minister. Hayden did, however, regain much of what Labor had lost in the landslides of 1975 and 1977. He also slashed Fraser's majority in half, from 23 seats to 11.[citation needed]
By 1982, it was evident that Fraser was manoeuvring to call an early election. But the main threat to Hayden came less from Fraser than from elements in Hayden's own party.Bob Hawke, a former union leader who had been elected to Parliament two years earlier, began mobilising his supporters to challenge Hayden's leadership. On 16 July 1982 Hayden narrowly defeated a challenge by Hawke in a party ballot but Hawke continued to plot against Hayden.[29]
In December, Labor surprised many pundits by its failure to win the vitalFlinders by-election in Victoria, further raising doubts about Hayden's ability to lead the ALP to power.[30] On 3 February 1983, in a meeting inBrisbane, various leading Labor figures, includingPaul Keating and SenatorJohn Button, told Hayden that he must resign.[29] He reluctantly accepted their advice.[31] Hawke was then elected leader on 8 February, unopposed.[citation needed]
Fraser had been well aware of the infighting within Labor and wanted to call an election before the party could replace Hayden with Hawke. He believed that if he put Parliament into "caretaker mode" early enough, Labor would essentially be frozen with Hayden as its leader. On the same morning that Hayden resigned, Fraser asked for, and was granted,an election for 5 March. Unknown to Fraser, however, Hayden resigned two hours before Fraser travelled toYarralumla. He only learned of Hayden's resignation a few hours before the election writs were issued. At a press conference that afternoon Hayden, still chagrined, said that "a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory, the way the country is".[32] Hayden's quip about a "drover's dog" became part of Australian political history. Hayden himself referred to it good-humouredly many years later when he said, "There are so many things I did in my political life that I am very proud of. ... But the one thing I am remembered for is damn well saying 'A drover's dog could win the next election'. It seems to have settled into political idiom. The only person who didn't like it was Bob Hawke."[33]
Labor won the 1983 election in a rout, handing the Coalition what is still the worst defeat of a sitting non-Labor government since Federation. Hayden became Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. In that post, he advocated closer integration between Australia and its Asian neighbours. In a 1983 interview, he stated: "Australia is changing. We're an anomaly as a European country in this part of the world. There's already a large and growing Asian population in Australia and it is inevitable in my view that Australia will become an Eurasian country over the next century or two. Australian Asians and Europeans will marry another and a new race will emerge: I happen to think that's desirable."[34][35]
_1988_Bill_Hayden%2c_Russian_FM_Shevardnadze%2c_Moscow.jpg)
As Foreign Minister, Hayden had oversight of the Australian foreign aid program. He pursued efforts to engage Vietnam and Cambodia despite vehement opposition from allied nations and key stakeholders. In 1983, Hayden announced a review of the Australian foreign aid program (known as the "Jackson Review" after the chair,Sir Gordon Jackson), which reported in March 1984.[36] The main recommendations of the report, which were directed at improving the professional quality of the Australian aid program, were accepted by the Government. During the next few years, in various speeches, Hayden set out the foreign aid priorities of the government.[37]
After winning the1987 election, Prime Minister Hawke announced thatQueen Elizabeth II, asQueen of Australia, had approved of Hayden's appointment asGovernor-General of Australia. This was widely viewed as a consolation on Hawke's part for replacing Hayden earlier as Labor Leader in 1983 and thus denying him the chance to become prime minister. The Queen's appointment of Hayden as governor-general to succeedSir Ninian Stephen was announced in mid-1988.[38] On 17 August, Hayden resigned from Parliament, becoming the last MP to leave Parliament before the recently opened newParliament House began sitting the following week. He also severed his political connections with the Labor Party. He took up the post of governor-general in early 1989 and served during the period of transition from the Hawke government to theKeating government in December 1991. The usual term served by a governor-general was five years but, by agreement between the government and Hayden, his term was extended for an additional two years to early 1996.[39][40]
Upon his appointment as governor-general, he became,ex officio, Chancellor and Principal Companion of theOrder of Australia.[41]
Other governors-general had been appointed by theScout Association as itsChief Scout of Australia[42] but Hayden declined because he was an atheist, which was incompatible with theScout Promise.[43] Instead, the Scout Association of Australia appointed him as its national patron.[citation needed]
By the late 1990s, Hayden joined the board ofQuadrant. In the debate preceding the1999 republic referendum, he rejected the specific proposal and sided with the monarchists,[44] stating he supported the direct election of a president.[45]
After retiring as governor-general, Hayden continued to contribute to public policy discussion in Australia. While on the board ofQuadrant, he took time to lend personal support to the publication and wrote a tribute to its editorPadraic McGuinness on his death in 2008.[46] He also continued to write opinion and comment pieces for other magazines and newspapers in Australia about current social, economic and political issues including foreign affairs.[47]
In May 1960, Hayden married Dallas Broadfoot (born 28 September 1936),[48] the daughter of a miner from Ipswich.[23] They initially lived in a rented cottage inDinmore before building a house in Ipswich's western suburbs. The couple had three daughters and a son.[49] Their first daughter, Michaela, died in 1966 at the age of five after being struck by a car.[50]
In September 2018, Hayden was baptised in theRoman Catholic Church atSt Mary's Church, Ipswich. He toldThe Catholic Leader that "there's been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life".[51] The baptismal ceremony was attended by a gathering of family, friends and former colleagues. Hayden's siblings, Patricia Oxenham, John Hayden and Joan Moseman, along with other family members, were present.
Hayden died in Queensland on 21 October 2023, after a long illness at the age of 90;[52][53] nine years to the day afterGough Whitlam's death. His death was commemorated by Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese, who announced Hayden would be honoured with astate funeral.[54][55][56]
Hayden's wife, Dallas, aMember of the Order of Australia, died on 15 January 2024, less than three months after her husband.[57]
By virtue of being governor-general, Hayden was the Chancellor of theOrder of Australia and its Principal Companion (AC).[39] In 1999,Latvia awarded him theOrder of the Three Stars 3rd Class.[58]
Hayden received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from theUniversity of Queensland in 1990 for his distinguished contributions to Australian life. Other awards included admission to the Order of St John Australia and also the Gwanghwa Medal of the Korean Order of Diplomatic Merit.[59]
In 1996, Hayden was recognised as the AustralianHumanist of the Year by theCouncil of Australian Humanist Societies.[60] In 2007 at the 45th State Conference of the Queensland Branch of theAustralian Labor Party, Hayden was made a Life Member of the party.[citation needed]
In September 2017, in delivering the second Hayden Oration at the University of Southern Queensland in Ipswich, former Australian prime ministerPaul Keating spoke at length of Hayden's contribution to the Labor Party. Keating spoke, in particular, of the reform period during the Hawke Labor government in the 1980s in Australia. He noted that the foundations for the reforms had been set down before the Labor Party won office in 1983 during the period when Hayden was Leader of the Opposition and was working to prepare the party for government. "Those great reforms", Keating said, "began with the frameworks Bill Hayden brought to the front bench, the day he became Leader of the Labor Party."[61]
The annual Hayden Oration, sponsored by the Queensland Labor politicianJennifer Howard, was established in 2016 to honour Bill Hayden. Lectures held in the series include the following:
| Parliament of Australia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forOxley 1961–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Social Security 1972–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Treasurer of Australia 1975 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 1977–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade 1983–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor-General of Australia 1989–1996 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Labor Party 1977–1983 | Succeeded by |
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