Bill Hayden

For the fictional spy character, see Bill Haydon.

The Honourable Bill Hayden AC, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Bill Hayden in May 1990.
21st Governor-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
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
Leader of the Opposition Elections: 1980
In office 22 December 1977 – 3 February 1983
Deputy	Lionel Bowen
Preceded by	Gough Whitlam
Succeeded by	Bob Hawke
Leader of the Labor Party
In office 22 December 1977 – 3 February 1983
Deputy	Lionel Bowen
Preceded by	Gough Whitlam
Succeeded by	Bob Hawke
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 the Australian Parliament for Oxley
In office 9 December 1961 – 8 October 1988
Preceded by	Donald Cameron
Succeeded by	Les Scott
Personal details
Born	William George Hayden (1933-01-23) 23 January 1933 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Labor
Spouse(s)	Dallas Broadfoot; 4 children
Alma mater	University of Queensland
Profession	Politician

William George "Bill" Hayden AC, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (born 23 January 1933) is an Australian politician who was the 21st Governor-General of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He was previously the Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983, and served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade under Prime Minister Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1988. Earlier he had briefly been the Treasurer of Australia under Gough Whitlam in 1975.

Early life

Born in Brisbane, Bill Hayden was the son of George Hayden, an Irish-American sailor originally from Oakland, California, and already 52 years old at the time of Bill's birth. Hayden's paternal grandparents were from Cork in Ireland, and significant parts of his approach to social issues and politics throughout his public life reflected the Irish side of his family background.

Hayden was educated at Brisbane State High School and served in the Queensland Police Force from 1953 to 1961. He continued his education privately, completing an economics degree (on a part-time basis) at the University of Queensland. Prior to the 1970s, he was a self-described democratic socialist.

Politics (1961–1988)

During the late 1950s he became active in the Labor Party. In the 1961 federal election he surprised almost everyone, including himself, by winning the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, located in southwest Brisbane. He ousted Don Cameron, the Minister for Health in the Menzies Liberal government, on a nine-point swing. Hayden's win was part of a 15-seat swing to Labor that nearly brought down the Menzies government.

One of the youngest members of the legislature (only 28 years old at the time he entered it), Hayden proved to be a diligent, well-spoken parliamentarian. In 1969 he became a member of the Opposition front bench. When Labor won the 1972 election under Gough Whitlam, Hayden was appointed Minister for Social Security, and in that capacity introduced the single mothers pension and Medibank, Australia's first system of universal health insurance. On 6 June 1975 he succeeded the disgraced Jim Cairns as Treasurer, a position he held until the Whitlam government was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975. Labor suffered its worst-ever defeat in the election held a month later; the Liberals' Malcolm Fraser became Prime Minister, and Hayden was left as the only Labor MP from Queensland.

Opposition Leader

When Labor lost the 1977 election in yet another landslide, Whitlam retired as leader and Hayden was elected to succeed him. His political views had become more moderate, and he advocated economic policies which encompassed the private sector and the American alliance. Several opinion polls during early 1980 showed the ALP under Hayden neck-and-neck with, or actually ahead of, Fraser's administration. At the 1980 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 toppling the Coalition. Hayden did, however, manage to slash Fraser's majority, from 48 seats to 21. He not only regained most of what Labor had lost in the previous two elections, but put the party within striking distance of winning the next election.

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.

In December Labor surprised many pundits by its failure to win the vital Flinders by-election in Victoria, further raising doubts about Hayden's ability to lead the ALP to power. On 3 February 1983, in a meeting in Brisbane, various leading Labor figures, including Paul Keating and Senator John Button, told him that he must resign. He reluctantly accepted their advice. Hawke was then elected leader unopposed. Later that morning, unaware of the events in Brisbane, Fraser in Canberra called a snap election for 5 March. Fraser had been well aware of the infighting within Labor, and wished to call an election before the party could replace Hayden with Hawke. It was only a few hours before the writs were issued that Fraser learned of Hayden's resignation. 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".

Foreign Minister

Labor won the 1983 election handily, and Hayden became Minister of 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 a 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." Asiaweek, 19 August 1983. ].

As Foreign Minister Hayden had oversight of the Australian foreign aid program. In 1983 Hayden announced a review of the Australian foreign aid program (known as the "Jackson Review" after the chair, Gordon Jackson) which reported in March 1984. 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.

Governor-General (1988–1996)

After winning the 1987 election, Hawke offered Hayden the post of Governor-General as a consolation for replacing him as Labor Leader, denying him the chance to become Prime Minister. The Queen of Australia's appointment of Hayden as the next Governor-General to succeed Sir Ninian Stephen was publicly announced in mid-1988, and within the following months Hayden resigned from Parliament and severed his political connections with the Labor Party. He assumed the post in early 1989, and served with discretion and distinction, including during the period of transition from the Hawke Government to the Keating Government in December 1991. As a mark of respect for the service Hayden had rendered to Australia, the usual term of five years for a Governor-General was extended to seven years.

Upon his appointment as Governor-General, he became, ex officio, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Australia. He had previously said he would never accept any honours.

Former Prime Minister John Howard and former Governor-General Bill Hayden at Padraic McGuinness's funeral

The Governor-General is normally the Chief Scout of Australia. Hayden declined the office on the grounds of his atheism, which was incompatible with the Scout Promise. Instead, he served as the "National Patron" of the Scout Association during his time in office.

Later life

Hayden's 1996 autobiography indicates that after he left office in 1996 he was still frustrated by his treatment from some sections of the ALP. The book is interpreted by some readers as indicating that he retained an animosity towards Keating for having helped engineer the 1983 leadership change. By the late 1990s Hayden joined the board of Quadrant, a well-known Australian conservative monthly cultural and public policy magazine. In the debate preceding the 1999 republic referendum, he rejected the specific proposal and sided with the monarchists, stating he only supported direct election of a president.

Since retirement from the position of Governor-General, Hayden has continued to contribute to public policy discussion in Australia. While on the board of Quadrant, he took time to lend personal support to the publication and wrote a tribute to its editor P.P. McGuinness on his death in 2008. He has 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.

Honours

By virtue of being Governor-General, he was the Chancellor of the Order of Australia and its Principal Companion (AC).

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University 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.

In 1996 he was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. In 2007 at the 45th State Conference of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Labor Party, Hayden was made a Life Member of the party.

Styles and honours

• Mr Bill Hayden (1933–61)
• Mr Bill Hayden MP (1961–72)
• The Hon Bill Hayden MP (1972–88)
• The Hon Bill Hayden (1988–89)
• His Excellency the Hon Bill Hayden AC (1989–96)
• The Hon Bill Hayden AC (1996–present)

References

• Denis Murphy, Hayden, A Political Biography, Angus & Robertson Publishers 1980 ISBN 0-207-14101-0
• John Stubbs, Hayden, William Hienemann 1989
• Bill Hayden, Hayden, An Autobiography, Angus and Robertson 1996 ISBN 0-207-18769-X

External links

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Don Cameron	Member of Parliament for Oxley 1961–1988	Succeeded by Les Scott
Political offices
Preceded by Bill Wentworth	Minister for Social Security 1972–1975	Succeeded by John Wheeldon
Preceded by Jim Cairns	Treasurer of Australia 1975	Succeeded by Phillip Lynch
Preceded by Gough Whitlam	Leader of the Opposition 1977–1983	Succeeded by Bob Hawke
Preceded by Tony Street	Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade 1983–1988	Succeeded by Gareth Evans
Government offices
Preceded by Sir Ninian Stephen	Governor-General of Australia 1989–1996	Succeeded by Sir William Deane
Party political offices
Preceded by Gough Whitlam	Leader of the Labor Party 1977–1983	Succeeded by Bob Hawke