Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was also with much sadness that I learned of the passing of William George Hayden AC, 21st Governor-General of Australia, at the age of 90 on 21 October. As the member for Clark put it, Bill Hayden was a thoroughly decent man. It was interesting to hear about the member for Clark's somewhat of a road to Damascus experience with Bill as Governor-General when he was working with him as an ADC. It was also a privilege to listen to the member for Blair and to hear about that letter, which I would love to read, where Bill Hayden talked about his thinking when he decided to get baptised into Catholicism. My family's thoughts are with Dallas, Bill's beloved wife of 63 years, their children and all those who knew him and loved him best. We mourn the passing of a thoroughly decent man, as has been said, a great servant of the Australian Labor Party and a great servant of our nation.

Bill was born in 1933 and grew up in working-class Brisbane. After leaving school he joined the Public Service and then the Queensland Police Force. In the police, he saw poverty, violence and injustice firsthand, which was a really formative influence on his political career. In 1961, he was elected as the Labor member for Oxley in the election that Labor almost won under Arthur Calwell. After years in opposition, Bill Hayden was appointed as a minister and Treasurer in the Whitlam government. As a reforming Minister for Social Security, he introduced Australia's first single-mothers pension, having seen, as a Queensland police officer, how women often became trapped in violent relationships. This wasn't a popular thing to do—the reaction to it was an indicator of the conservatism of his time—but it was a reflection of Bill's character. Bill Hayden also introduced Medibank, the forerunner of today's Medicare universal health system, again in the face of fierce opposition from doctors, conservative state governments, private hospitals, the inefficient private health funds and some Senate obstruction. As Treasurer in the last months of the Whitlam government, Bill Hayden succeeded in introducing some discipline to economic policy and the budgeting process.

Following the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 and the further defeat of 1977, Bill became the leader of the parliamentary Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition. He wrote in his autobiography that being opposition leader is the toughest job in the country. As Leader of the Opposition, Bill Hayden got very close to winning the 1980 election, where Labor achieved 49.6 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, the largest swing to Labor in the preceding quarter of a century. The electorate result was more clear cut, with 74 seats to the LNP coalition and 51 to Labor in the then House of Representatives of 125 seats. In the face of growing support within the party for Bob Hawke, as the 1983 election approached, Bill Hayden decided to resign in the interest of party unity, and we've heard from the member for Blair, who knew him well, how difficult that was. There is no doubt that Labor would have won the 1983 election under Bill Hayden's leadership. He memorably said that a drover's dog could have led the party to victory at that time.

Bill Hayden's great contribution to the Labor Party and to the nation during those hard years of opposition and his ministerial career was, as Paul Keating has said, to lay the foundation for the social and economic reforms that created three decades of economic growth and delivered Australia a new era in education, foreign affairs, environmental policy and universal health care. Bill Hayden served the nation with distinction and dignity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and then as Governor-General, as we heard earlier from the member for Clark.

Bill Hayden was also very notable for his humility and service—that service which started as a young man. I note his connection to this service in that he wanted donations to the St Vincent de Paul Society in preference to flowers at his funeral. This was also noted by some fellow Vinnies friends of mine in Darwin this weekend past.

We mourn the passing of an influential giant of the Labor Party. As the Prime Minister has said:

Like so many of my colleagues, I benefited greatly from Bill's advice, I valued his insight and I always appreciated the considered way in which he offered it.

My family's condolences to Bill's family and to all those who grieve for Bill Hayden. God bless you all and, of course, God bless Bill. May he rest in peace.

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