57 Facts About Bill Hayden

William George Hayden was an Australian politician who served as the 21st governor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996.

Bill Hayden 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.

Bill Hayden 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.

When Gough Whitlam led the Labor Party to victory in 1972, Bill Hayden was made Minister for Social Security.

Bill Hayden replaced Jim Cairns as treasurer in 1975, but served for only five months before the government was dismissed.

In early 1977, Bill Hayden challenged Whitlam for the party leadership and was defeated by just two votes.

Bill Hayden 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.

Bill Hayden led the party to the 1980 election, recording a substantial swing but falling short of victory.

Bill Hayden was replaced by Bob Hawke just a few weeks before the 1983 election, after months of speculation.

Bill Hayden served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988, then left parliament to assume the governor-generalship.

Bill Hayden held that position for seven years, with only Lord Gowrie having served for longer.

Bill Hayden was born on 23 January 1933 at the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital in Spring Hill, Queensland.

Bill Hayden was the first child born to Violet Quinn and George Hayden, who married a few weeks after his birth.

Bill Hayden had a younger brother and two younger sisters, as well as an older half-brother from his mother's first marriage who was raised by an aunt.

Bill Hayden held radical political views and was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Bill Hayden's mother was born in Brandon, Queensland, to a working-class family of Irish descent.

Bill 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.

Bill Hayden began his education at St Ita's Catholic Primary School in South Brisbane, but was withdrawn from the school when it rescinded his father's contract to tune the school pianos.

Bill Hayden switched to Dutton Park State School and was later highly critical of the quality of education that he received.

Bill Hayden went on to South Brisbane Intermediate School, where he passed the state scholarship exam in 1947.

Bill Hayden 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.

Bill Hayden joined the Queensland Police Force in 1953 following his father's death.

Bill Hayden completed his training in Brisbane and the following year was transferred to Mackay in North Queensland.

Bill Hayden was briefly stationed in the small country towns of Calen and Sarina.

In 1956, Bill Hayden was transferred back to Brisbane and worked as a plainclothes constable at the Criminal Investigation Branch.

Bill Hayden was later moved to police headquarters on Roma Street where he was rostered on at Government House, guarding the governor of Queensland.

Bill Hayden was transferred again in 1957 to the two-man police station at Redbank, on the outskirts of Ipswich.

Bill Hayden held far-left views as a young man and attempted to join the Communist Party of Australia, but was refused membership due to his police ties.

Bill Hayden first attempted to join the ALP in South Brisbane in 1953, but was regarded with suspicion in the context of the ALP split of the mid-1950s.

Bill Hayden was ultimately recruited to the Redbank branch of the ALP in 1957.

Bill Hayden became "an active and energetic party worker, closely aligned with the left-wing Trades Hall faction that now controlled the Queensland ALP".

Bill Hayden became secretary of the electoral executive committee for the state seat of Bremer and president of the divisional executive for the federal seat of Oxley.

Bill Hayden attended political science lectures given by Max Poulter at the Brisbane Trades Hall.

In October 1960, Bill Hayden won ALP preselection for the federal seat of Oxley, running as the Trades Hall candidate against Australian Workers' Union candidate Bert Warren.

Bill Hayden's win was part of a 15-seat swing to Labor that nearly brought down the Menzies government.

When Labor won the 1972 election under Gough Whitlam, Bill Hayden was appointed Minister for Social Security and, in that capacity among other efforts to promoting reform, introduced the single mothers pension and Medibank, Australia's first system of universal health insurance.

Labor suffered its worst-ever defeat in the election held a month later, and Bill Hayden was left as the only Labor MP from Queensland.

Bill Hayden did regain much of what Labor had lost in the landslides of 1975 and 1977.

Bill Hayden slashed Fraser's majority in half, from 23 seats to 11.

On 16 July 1982 Bill Hayden narrowly defeated a challenge by Hawke in a party ballot but Hawke continued to plot against Bill Hayden.

Bill Hayden believed that if he put Parliament into "caretaker mode" early enough, Labor would essentially be frozen with Hayden as its leader.

Unknown to Fraser Bill Hayden resigned two hours before Fraser travelled to Yarralumla.

Bill Hayden only learned of Hayden's resignation a few hours before the election writs were issued.

At a press conference that afternoon Bill Hayden, still chagrined, said that "a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory, the way the country is".

Bill Hayden pursued efforts to engage Vietnam and Cambodia despite vehement opposition from allied nations and key stakeholders.

In 1983, Bill Hayden announced a review of the Australian foreign aid program, which reported in March 1984.

Bill Hayden severed his political connections with the Labor Party.

Bill Hayden took up the post of governor-general in early 1989 and served during the period of transition from the Hawke government to the Keating government in December 1991.

Bill Hayden continued to write opinion and comment pieces for other magazines and newspapers in Australia about current social, economic and political issues including foreign affairs.

In September 2018, Bill Hayden was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church at St Mary's Church, Ipswich.

Bill Hayden told The Catholic Leader that "there's been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life".

Bill Hayden died in Queensland on 21 October 2023, after a long illness at the age of 90; nine years to the day after Gough Whitlam's death.

Bill Hayden's death was commemorated by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who announced Hayden would be honoured with a state funeral.

Bill Hayden received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Queensland in 1990 for his distinguished contributions to Australian life.

In 1996, Bill Hayden 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.

Bill Hayden 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.