The Hon. Bill Hayden AC

The Hon Bill Hayden AC (1933‒2023) was Governor-General of Australia from 1989 to 1996 and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983. One of five children, Hayden was born into a working-class family in Brisbane and grew up in the outer metropolitan suburb of Ipswich. In 1953, shortly after the death of his father, he joined the Queensland Police Force and went on to serve with them for eight years, during which period he studied economics and politics part-time at the University of Queensland. In 1961, at the age of 28, he was elected Labor member for the Federal seat of Oxley, a seat Hayden held without loss until his retirement from politics in 1988. He joined the opposition front bench in 1969 and following the election of the Whitlam government in 1972 he was appointed Minister for Social Security, in which role he introduced the single mother’s pension and the country’s first universal healthcare scheme Medibank, the precursor to Medicare. Hayden later briefly served as Treasurer under Whitlam, who he succeeded as opposition leader in 1977. Described as the best man never to have become prime minister, Hayden narrowly missed toppling Malcolm Fraser for the top job in 1980, but he was nevertheless pressured to resign the ALP leadership to make way for Bob Hawke in the lead up to the Federal election three years later. As Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade under Hawke from 1983 to 1988, Hayden advocated for greater involvement and integration with Asia and sought to institute improvements to Australia’s foreign aid program. During his career he also openly supported marriage equality and voluntary euthanasia. Though his appointment as Australia’s 21st Governor-General was viewed as a consolation prize for having been denied the prime ministership in 1983, and despite his republican views, Hayden’s term as governor-general was extended to seven years (rather than the customary five) such was his popularity and effectiveness in the role. After leaving public life, Hayden joined the board of Quadrant, a literary, cultural and political journal, and wrote opinion pieces for Australian newspapers and magazines on social, political and economic issues. He was named Australian Humanist of the Year in 1996 and made a life member of the Australian Labor Party in 2007. A former atheist, Hayden was baptised in 2018 at the age of 85.