Bill Hayden
William George Hayden AC (23 January 1933 – 21 October 2023) was an Australian politician who served as the 21st governor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He was Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983, and served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988 under Bob Hawke and as Treasurer of Australia in 1975 under Gough Whitlam.
For the fictional spy character, see Bill Haydon.
Bill Hayden
21 October 2023 (aged 90)
Queensland, Australia
4
Police officer
(Queensland Police Service)
Politician
Hayden was born in Brisbane, Queensland. He attended Brisbane State High School and then joined the Queensland Police, working as a police officer for eight years while studying economics part-time at the University of Queensland. Hayden was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1961 federal election, aged 28 – along with Manfred Cross and Doug McClelland, Hayden was the earliest elected Labor MP still alive at the time of his death.[1] When Gough Whitlam led the Labor Party to victory in 1972, Hayden was made Minister for Social Security. He replaced Jim Cairns as Treasurer in 1975, but served for only five months before the government was dismissed.
In early 1977, Hayden challenged Whitlam for the party leadership and was defeated by just two votes. He defeated Lionel Bowen to succeed Whitlam as Leader of the Opposition at the end of the year, following Labor's defeat at the 1977 election. Hayden led the party to the 1980 election, recording a substantial swing but falling short of victory. He was replaced by Bob Hawke just a few weeks before the 1983 election, after months of speculation. Hayden served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988, then left parliament to assume the governor-generalship. He held that position for seven years, with only Lord Gowrie having served for longer.
Early life[edit]
Hayden was born on 23 January 1933 at the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital in Spring 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 to Rockhampton, Queensland, in the early 1920s. He held radical political views and was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.[7] Hayden's mother was born in Brandon, Queensland, to a working-class family of Irish descent.[8] After the death of her first husband, a shearer, she worked in Rockhampton as a barmaid.[4] The couple moved to Brisbane during the Great Depression.[9]
Hayden spent his first year at a boardinghouse in Fortitude Valley, before the family moved to a rented cottage in the working-class area of Highgate 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 in South 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 at Brisbane 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 the Royal Australian Navy for six months following the passage of the National Service Act 1951, having earlier unsuccessfully applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force as an 18-year-old.[14]
Policing career[edit]
Hayden joined the Queensland Police Force in 1953 following his father's death. He completed his training in Brisbane and the following year was transferred to Mackay in North Queensland. He was briefly stationed in the small country towns of Calen and Sarina.[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 a plainclothes constable at the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). He was later moved to police headquarters on Roma Street where he was rostered on at Government House, guarding the governor of Queensland.[17] He was transferred again in 1957 to the two-man police station at Redbank, on the outskirts of Ipswich.[18]
Honours[edit]
By virtue of being Governor-General, Hayden was the Chancellor of the Order of Australia and its Principal Companion (AC).[39] In 1999, Latvia awarded him the Order of the Three Stars 3rd Class.[58]
Hayden 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.[59]
In 1996, Hayden was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.[60] 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.
In September 2017, in delivering the second Hayden Oration at the University of Southern Queensland in Ipswich, former Australian prime minister Paul 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]
A series of Hayden orations, sponsored by Jennifer Howard (Australian politician), has been established to honour Bill Hayden. Lectures held in the series include the following:
Fourth Oration,Susan Ryan, 6 September.