20 Facts About Ralph Willis

Ralph Willis AO was born on 14 April 1938 and is an Australian former politician who served as a Cabinet Minister during the entirety of the Hawke-Keating government from 1983 to 1996, most notably as Treasurer of Australia from 1993 to 1996 and briefly in 1991.

Ralph Willis served as Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Transport and Communications and Minister for Finance.

Ralph Willis represented the Victorian seat of Gellibrand in the House of Representatives from 1972 to 1998.

Ralph Willis is the son of Doris and Stan Willis; his father was a boilermaker who became a prominent trade unionist and served as federal president of the Boilermakers' Society of Australia and Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Society of Australia.

Ralph Willis attended University High School and went on to complete a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne.

Ralph Willis initially intended to work as a teacher but subsequently joined the Commonwealth Public Service as a research assistant in the Department of Labour and National Service.

In 1960, Willis resigned from the public service to work as a research assistant for future prime minister Bob Hawke, then working as research officer for the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

In 1969, Ralph Willis replaced Hawke as research officer and advocate upon Hawke's election as ACTU president.

Ralph Willis remained in the position until his election to parliament in 1972, with one of his last cases before the commission being a successful argument for gender equality in award wages.

In 1972, the year that the Whitlam government was elected, Ralph Willis was elected to the House of Representatives for the safe Labor seat of Gellibrand in Melbourne's western suburbs.

Ralph Willis retained this role following the 1984 and 1987 elections, before being appointed Minister for Transport and Communications in 1988.

However, Kerin's period as Treasurer was troubled, and after Hawke was forced to sack Kerin for making a public gaffe in December 1991, Ralph Willis was finally appointed to the role of Treasurer in his place.

Ralph Willis retained the role after Labor unexpectedly won a fifth consecutive election in 1993, and was expected to remain in the role until the sudden resignation of Dawkins in December 1993, who had grown frustrated with the role.

Ralph Willis was duly appointed as Treasurer for a second time by Keating, and was responsible for helping to roll-out the Government's major 'One Nation' economic package on which it had won the 1993 election, including a round of middle-income tax cuts and the establishment of a national infrastructure commission.

In late 1995, Ralph Willis was briefly Acting Prime Minister when Prime Minister Paul Keating, Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley, Government Senate leader Gareth Evans and Deputy Government Senate leader Robert Ray were all in Indonesia for the signing of a security agreement between Australia and Indonesia.

Ralph Willis remained as Treasurer until the 1996 election, which Labor heavily lost; in the weeks before the election, Ralph Willis chose to unilaterally release a letter purportedly written by Liberal Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

Ralph Willis was one of only three people to be a member of the Cabinet continuously during the Hawke-Keating government between 1983 and 1996, the other two being Kim Beazley and Gareth Evans.

At the time of his retirement from Parliament, Ralph Willis was the last Labor MP from the time of the Whitlam government still serving.

Ralph Willis was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for long service to the Commonwealth Parliament.

On 2 June 2009, Ralph Willis was conferred with the degree of doctor of the university Honoris Causa from Victoria University for services to Australia and in particular the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.