Bill Hayden

The Honourable  Bill Hayden  AC KStJ
21st Governor-General of Australia
In office 16 February 1989 – 16 February 1996
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Sir Ninian Stephen
Succeeded by	Sir William Deane
Born	23 January 1933 (1933-01-23) (age 75) Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
Profession	Politician
Religion	Raised as a Roman Catholic Atheist as an adult

William George Hayden, AC KStJ (born 23 January 1933) was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the Malcolm Fraser-led Liberal Party of Australia.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Politics 3 Governor-General 4 Later life 5 Honours 6 Styles and Honours 7 Notes 8 References

Early life

Bill Hayden was born in Ipswich, Queensland, the son of an American-born sailor of Irish descent. He was educated at Brisbane State High School and served in the Queensland Police Force from 1953 to 1961.^[1] He furthered his education through private study, completing an economics degree at the University of Queensland. Prior to the 1970s he was a self-described democratic socialist.^[2]

Politics

He became active in the Labor Party, and in the 1961 federal election he surprised everyone, including himself, by winning the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, defeating Donald Alastair Cameron, the Minister for Health in the Menzies Liberal government.

Hayden was a diligent member of parliament and in 1969 he was elected to the Opposition front bench. When Labor under Gough Whitlam won the 1972 election, Hayden became Minister for Social Security, and in that capacity introduced Medibank, Australia's first system of universal health insurance. In June 1975 he succeeded Jim Cairns as Treasurer (finance minister), a position he held until the Whitlam Government was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975.

When Labor lost the 1977 election, Whitlam retired as leader and Hayden was elected to succeed him. His political views had shifted to the centre, and he advocated economic policies which favoured the private sector and supported the American alliance. At the 1980 elections he improved Labor's position but narrowly failed to defeat Malcolm Fraser's Liberal government. At this election the popular union leader Bob Hawke, known to harbour leadership ambitions, was elected to Parliament.

By 1982 it was clear^{[neutrality disputed]} that Fraser was manoeuvring to call an early election, and Hawke began mobilising his supporters to challenge Hayden's leadership. On 16 July Hayden narrowly defeated Hawke's challenge in a party ballot, but Hawke continued to plot against Hayden^{[citation needed]}. In December Labor failed to win the vital Flinders by-election, reinforcing doubts^{[weasel words]} about Hayden's ability to win an election.

On 3 February 1983, in a meeting in Brisbane, Hayden's closest supporters told him that he must resign^{[citation needed]}, which he did. 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. At a press conference that afternoon Hayden, still emotional^{[neutrality disputed]}, said that "a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory at the present time". Labor under Hawke won the 1983 election, and Hayden became Minister for Foreign Affairs, a position he held until 1988, performing competently but without evident enthusiasm^{[neutrality disputed]}.

As Foreign Minister, Hayden advocated closer integration between Australia and its Asian neighbours. In a remarkable^{[neutrality disputed]} 1983 speech, 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... I happen to think that's desirable."

Governor-General

After the 1987 federal election Hawke offered Hayden the post of Governor-General to give him a dignified exit from politics and some consolation for having robbed him of the chance to become Prime Minister. Hayden's appointment as the next Governor-General to succeed Sir Ninian Stephen was publicly announced in mid-1988, and he immediately left parliament and severed all connections with the Labor Party. He assumed the post in early 1989, and served with discretion and distinction during the transition from the Hawke government to the Keating government in December 1991.

Early in his term, he was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia^[3] to fulfil the Governor-General's role as Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order. He had previously said he would never accept any honours.

The Governor-General is normally the Chief Scout of Australia.^[4] Bill Hayden declined the office on the grounds of his atheism, which was incompatible with the Scout Oath.^[5]

Later life

After Hayden left office in 1996, however, it became apparent^{[weasel words]} that he still resented how he had been treated by the Labor Party. He had a particular animosity towards Paul Keating, whom he believed to have engineered the 1983 leadership change^{[citation needed]}. In 1998 he used the occasion of a defamation case involving Bob Ellis and two Liberal cabinet ministers, Tony Abbott and Peter Costello, and their wives, to publicise rumours about Keating's personal life^{[citation needed]}. By the late 1990s Hayden had become a conservative, joining the board of the conservative magazine Quadrant. In the debate preceding the 1999 republic referendum, Hayden rejected the specific proposal and sided with the monarchists,^[6] claiming he only supports direct election of a president.^[7]

Honours

Bill Hayden was appointed Principal Companion and Chancellor of the Order of Australia in 1989, upon taking up his position as Governor-General. This entitles him to the postnominal letters AC.

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Queensland in 1990 for his distinguished contributions to Australian life. He was appointed to the Order St John Australia and also received the Gwanghwa Medal of the Korean Order of Diplomatic Merit.^[8]

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, Bill Hayden was made a Life Member of the party.

Styles and Honours

• Mr William Hayden (1933-1961)
• Mr William Hayden MP (1961-1972)
• The Hon William Hayden MP (1972-1988)
• The Hon William Hayden (1988-1989)
• His Excellency the Hon William Hayden AC KStJ (1989-96)
• The Hon William Hayden AC KStJ (1996-)

Notes

References

• John Stubbs, Hayden, William Hienemann 1989
• Bill Hayden, Hayden, An Autobiography, Angus and Robertson 1996 ISBN 0-207-18769-X

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

v • d • e Governors-General of Australia Hopetoun · Tennyson · Northcote · Dudley · Denman · Munro-Ferguson · Forster · Stonehaven · Isaacs · Gowrie · Gloucester · McKell · Slim · Dunrossil · De L'Isle · Casey · Hasluck · Kerr · Cowen · Stephen · Hayden · Deane · Hollingworth · Jeffery · Bryce

v • d • e Leaders of the Australian Labor Party Watson · Fisher · Hughes · Tudor · Charlton · Scullin · Curtin · Chifley · Evatt · Calwell · Whitlam · Hayden · Hawke · Keating · Beazley · Crean · Latham · Beazley · Rudd

Persondata
NAME	Hayden, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hayden, William George
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian politician and Governor-General of Australia
DATE OF BIRTH	23 January 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brisbane, Queensland
DATE OF DEATH	Living person
PLACE OF DEATH

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