40 Facts About Paul Hasluck

Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974.

Paul Hasluck joined the Department of External Affairs during World War II, and served as Australia's first Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1946 to 1947.

In 1949, Paul Hasluck was elected to federal parliament for the Liberal Party, winning the Division of Curtin.

Paul Hasluck later served as Minister for Defence and Minister for External Affairs.

Paul Hasluck initially stayed on in cabinet under the new prime minister, John Gorton, but in 1969 Gorton instead nominated him to replace Lord Casey as governor-general.

Paul Hasluck was born on 1 April 1905 in Fremantle, Western Australia, one of five children born to Patience Eliza and E'thel Meernaa Caedwalla Paul Hasluck.

Paul Hasluck's father was born in England and arrived in Australia in 1876 as a small child.

Paul Hasluck obtained a position in the colonial postal service and was postmaster in Coolgardie and on the Great Southern Railway, but later resigned to work full-time for the Salvation Army.

Paul Hasluck's mother was born in England and came to Western Australia to work as a domestic servant, becoming a devout Salvationist where she met her future husband.

Paul Hasluck grew up in relative poverty, with the family often in financial distress as his parents undertook full-time missionary work.

Paul Hasluck had a "strict religious upbringing" in line with the beliefs and tenets of the Salvation Army, but became estranged from the movement at a young age.

The family lived in Collie for four years, where Paul Hasluck's father ran a boys' home for child migrants, before moving back to Perth in 1916 where he ran the Aged Men's Retreat at Guildford.

Paul Hasluck was president of the school debating society but later recalled that he lacked in confidence and did not consider going on to further studies.

In 1922, after leaving school, Paul Hasluck joined the staff of The West Australian as a probationary cadet.

Paul Hasluck was offered a full-time position in 1925 and covered a wide range of areas, including court and police reporting, sporting events, finance and drama and politics.

Paul Hasluck was eventually placed in charge of the newspaper's press gallery staff at Parliament House and wrote a weekly political column covering state politics.

Paul Hasluck cultivated a close relationship with the Perth Trades Hall and the union movement, developing a friendship with Westralian Worker editor and future prime minister John Curtin.

Alexandra Paul Hasluck became a distinguished writer and historian in her own right, and was the first woman to be appointed a Dame of the Order of Australia.

Also in 1939, Paul Hasluck established Freshwater Bay Press, through which he released his first book, Into the Desert.

In 1941 Paul Hasluck was recruited to the staff of the Department of External Affairs, and served on Australian delegations to several international conferences, including the San Francisco Conference which founded the United Nations.

At the 1949 election Paul Hasluck won Liberal preselection for the newly created Perth-area seat of Curtin.

Paul Hasluck was responsible for the drafting of the bill that became the Welfare Ordinance 1953, which superseded the previous legislation controlling the lives of Aboriginals in the Northern Territory, the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918.

Paul Hasluck was briefly Minister for Defence in 1963 and 1964, and then became Minister for External Affairs.

Paul Hasluck held the office during the height of Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War of which he was a passionate supporter.

Paul Hasluck worked to strengthen Australia's relationship with the United States and with anticommunist governments in South-East Asia and opposed Australian recognition of the People's Republic of China.

When Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in December 1967 and was presumed to have drowned, Paul Hasluck was determined that Treasurer, William McMahon, of whom he had a very low opinion, should not become prime minister.

Paul Hasluck resigned from Parliament on 10 February 1969, being the first Western Australian member of the House of Representatives to resign.

Paul Hasluck was sworn in as Governor-General on 30 April 1969.

That created a potentially-awkward situation since Whitlam and Paul Hasluck had bitterly resented one another for years.

However, Whitlam was unwilling to wait that long and asked Paul Hasluck to have Whitlam and his deputy leader, Lance Barnard, sworn in as an interim two-man government once Labor's victory was beyond doubt.

Paul Hasluck promptly agreed, and Whitlam and Barnard held 27 portfolios between them until the full Labor ministry was sworn in.

Paul Hasluck granted Whitlam a double dissolution in April 1974 when the Liberal Opposition threatened to block the Budget bills in the Senate.

Whitlam had offered to extend his term, but Paul Hasluck declined, citing his wife's refusal to remain at Yarralumla longer than the originally-agreed five years.

Paul Hasluck retired to Perth, where he remained active in cultural and political affairs until his death in 1993.

Historians of the period are certain that, if Paul Hasluck had still been Governor-General in 1975, the constitutional crisis of that year would have ended differently.

Paul Hasluck himself implied this in his 1979 book, The Office of Governor-General, and in the Queale Lecture.

Paul Hasluck was even more explicit in his 1985 interview with Clyde Cameron for the National Library of Australia's Oral History series, which was not released until 2010.

Paul Hasluck said he doubted he would have discussed with anyone but Whitlam about the Senate's 1975 refusal to approve Supply.

Paul Hasluck argued that Kerr erred in taking advice from Malcolm Fraser prior to appointing him as prime minister.

Paul Hasluck received the Commemorative Medal of the 2500th Anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire on 14 October 1971.