42 Facts About Bob Heffron

Robert James Heffron, known as Bob Heffron or R J Heffron, was a long-serving New South Wales politician, union organiser and Labor Party Premier of New South Wales from 1959 to 1964.

Bob Heffron was later elected to the Parliament of New South Wales for Botany in 1930.

However his disputes with party leader Jack Lang led to his expulsion from the ALP in 1936 and Bob Heffron formed his own party from disgruntled Labor MPs known as the Industrial Labor Party.

Bob Heffron served as Minister of the Crown in the cabinets of William McKell, James McGirr and Joseph Cahill, most notably as Minister for Education from 1944 to 1960 and as Deputy Premier.

Bob Heffron oversaw the development of higher education services, including the establishment of the New South Wales University of Technology.

Bob Heffron joined the New Zealand Socialist Party in 1912 and, becoming a miners' union organiser, was involved in the Waihi miners' strike, an event significant to the development of the labour movement in New Zealand.

That same year in Victoria, Bob Heffron was appointed an organiser for the Federated Clothing Trades of the Commonwealth of Australia and joined the leftist Victorian Socialist Party.

Bob Heffron was eventually successful at the next election in 1930, defeating Mutch, and held Botany until its abolition in 1950.

Bob Heffron clashed with the Federal Government's imposition of National Emergency Services procedures, most notably over the imposition of brownouts for the city of Sydney.

On 9 July 1946 he presented a proposal to the cabinet outlining the creation of a technological-based university in NSW, as a separate institution to the existing Sydney Technical College and a year later cabinet authorised the appointment of a Developmental Council, chaired by Bob Heffron, to bring the new tertiary institution into existence.

In September 1958 Bob Heffron moved the bill to change the name of the New South Wales University of Technology to the University of New South Wales following the recommendations of the Murray Report that had proposed the expansion of its focus from technology into such fields as medicine and arts.

Meanwhile, Bob Heffron, who supported a general policy of decentralising tertiary education across the state, directed his department to begin the establishment of various Teachers' Colleges in New South Wales, to provide sufficient tertiary training to the expanding numbers of teachers filling the new schools and colleges across the state.

In May 1951, Bob Heffron indicated his support for the establishment of a satellite college of Sydney University in Newcastle as an initial step towards the establishment of a full university.

However, by the time Bob Heffron opened the Newcastle University College on 3 December 1951, no affiliation had been finalised.

Undeterred, Bob Heffron asked New England about its willingness to conduct external studies.

Bob Heffron asked the University of Sydney if it had any objection to New England being granted independence to operate the state's external education program.

The first opportunity for Bob Heffron came in February 1946, when McKell announced to the Labor caucus of his intention to resign before the 1947 election.

At the ballot on 5 February 1947, Bob Heffron lost by two votes to the Minister for Housing, James McGirr, who was favoured by the more Catholic and conservative caucus members.

When McGirr announced his resignation on the grounds of ill health on 1 April 1952, Bob Heffron put himself forward as a candidate to succeed him against, among others, Deputy Premier Joseph Cahill.

Bob Heffron became premier, being sworn in with his cabinet on 23 October 1959 at Government House, Sydney by Governor Sir Eric Woodward.

Indeed, the 68-year-old Bob Heffron's government consisted mostly of MPs and Ministers who had come in with McKell after the 1941 election.

In parliament, Bob Heffron tended to reflect this by leaving most of the speaking roles to his deputy Jack Renshaw and local government and highways minister Pat Hills.

On 14 October 1960, Bob Heffron presided over the official opening of Warragamba Dam, the completion of which meant that it became the primary reservoir and the first reliable water supply for the whole Sydney catchment.

At the opening, Bob Heffron declared: "We have come along way from the Tank Stream, Sydney's first water supply".

In early 1961, in response to lobbying from Lend Lease Corporation, Bob Heffron's government undertook a significant groundbreaking reform for apartment buildings by introducing Strata title schemes, the first such system in the world, which enabled separate ownership of units outside of company and co-operative titles and allowed for unit owners to more easily gain finance and loans.

Therefore, while Downing, as attorney general, would normally be the person to move the nomination of chief justice in cabinet, he refused to do so, leaving Bob Heffron to do it himself.

Bob Heffron had long supported this policy from his Langite days, seeing the council as an outdated bastion of conservative privilege, a position that was echoed by trade union official and member of the legislative council, Tom Dougherty, who had pushed through a rule at the 1952 state conference that banned MLCs from becoming members of the state party executive.

However, Bob Heffron's efforts found themselves up against significant opposition, not only from the Liberal and Country parties but within the Labor party itself.

On 6 April 1960, Bob Heffron attempted to send the bill back to the council, which returned it to the assembly on the same grounds as before.

Bob Heffron's announcement came as a surprise to many members of his own party, although there had been existing hints in the previous months that the Labor caucus had been discussing a departure plan for Heffron, to be replaced by the Deputy Premier Renshaw.

Bob Heffron stayed for one more term until his retirement in January 1968, marking thirty-seven years in Parliament.

Bob Heffron died aged 87 at the same hospital on 27 July 1978, survived by his two daughters.

Bob Heffron was granted a State funeral with a service at St Stephen's Uniting Church, Sydney that was attended by over 200 people including Governor Roden Cutler, Premier Neville Wran and former Premiers McKell, Renshaw, Askin, Lewis and Willis, before being sent for burial at Eastern Suburbs Crematorium in Matraville, which he had officially opened as the local Member of Parliament in May 1938.

The Bob Heffron years established for the first time that equality of opportunity in education was the right of all, not just of the privileged few.

In 1947 Bob Heffron was honoured by the Royal Australian Historical Society by being made an Honorary Fellow.

Bob Heffron was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sydney on 29 August 1952, with his citation reading:.

Bob Heffron was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science at the New South Wales University of Technology's first graduation ceremony to be held on the Kensington campus on 16 April 1955.

In 1962, the now University of New South Wales, in honour of his role in its establishment and his continuing support, named its newest building after him as the "Robert Bob Heffron Building", it was renamed the Australian School of Business in 2008 and is the UNSW Business School.

Bob Heffron was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of New England in 1956.

Bob Heffron was appointed as a member of the board of directors of the Prince Henry Hospital in his electorate at Little Bay on 21 August 1942, and was reappointed in 1947,1950,1953,1956 and 1959.

Bob Heffron served as chairman of the board from September 1950, officially unveiled the Memorial Clock Tower in April 1953, and was both a board member and chair until he resigned upon becoming premier in November 1959.

Bob Heffron's first daughter, Maylean, married Dutch sailor Pieter Cordia in 1945, was a trained nurse who worked at Prince Henry Hospital, led efforts to create the Coast Chapel in the hospital in 1967, and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2005 for her efforts to save the heritage of the Prince Henry Hospital, which included the building named after her father forty years previously.