Bill Hayden

William George "Bill" Hayden ( born January 23, 1933, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian politician. He was Secretary of State and Governor-General of Australia.

Biography

Career and longtime deputy

The son of an American sailor of Irish descent worked after his education in Catholic schools from 1953 to 1961 as a police officer with the Queensland Police. After he had continued his education in night schools, he finished next to a university with a degree in economics at the University of Queensland.

Already during his time as a police officer, he was a member of the Australian Labor Party. A nationwide surprise he succeeded in 1961, when he was elected as a candidate of the Labor Party for the constituency of Oxley in the House of Representatives and thereby against the former MPs and Liberal health minister in the cabinet of Robert Menzies, Donald Alastair Cameron, won. As a committed deputy he belonged in 1969 to the leadership circle of that time still in the opposition Labor Party and represented at that time democratic socialist positions. Hayden belonged to the House of Representatives until 1988.

Minister and Chairman of the Labor Party

After the victory of the Labor Party in the elections of 1972 he was appointed Minister of Social Security of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on 19 December 1972. His tenure was 1973, the adoption of the law establishing of Medibank, Australia's first comprehensive health insurance system. In June 1975, he was appointed by Whitlam Minister of Finance ( Treasurer ), and held this office until impeachment Whitlam by Governor-General John Kerr Robert on November 11, 1975.

As Whitlam Party resigned after the defeat of Labor in elections to the House of Representatives on 10 December 1977 as Chairman of the Labor Party, Hayden was elected as his successor. At the same time he increasingly held a moderate political stance and argued for an alliance with the United States and in particular for an economic policy that favored the private sector.

Although an improvement in the Labor Party succeeded him in the next three years at the polls, defeated his Labor Party in elections to the House of Representatives on 18 October 1980 51 to 54 seats only slightly since the November 1975 ruling Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. In this election was the first time the popular chairman of the Australian Federation of Trade Unions (Australian Council of Trade Unions ), Bob Hawke, elected deputies.

After 1982 it became clear that Prime Minister Fraser proposed the calling of early elections, Hawke began to mobilize followers to replace Hayden as leader of the Labor Party. Although Hayden struck at a internal party election Hawke on 16 July 1982 was this not on his efforts to the post of party chairman. As there in December 1982 succeeded the Labor Party in the by-election in the constituency Flinders, a safe constituency of the Liberal Party, not a victory, party internal voices were heard, who denied Hayden an election victory against the Liberal Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Hayden then entered on February 3, 1983, fell after a party meeting in Brisbane, after his closest supporters had suggested to him that step. Shortly after, Hawke was elected unopposed to succeed him as party leader. As Fraser elections on March 5, 1983 proclaimed in ignorance of the detachment by Hayden Hawke, Hayden said at a press conference:

" A shepherd dog could at this moment the Labor Party lead to an election victory " ("A drover 's dog Could lead the Labor Party to victory at the present time" ).

Following the landslide election victory Hawkes at the early parliamentary elections on 5 March 1983 in which the Labor Party 75 seats, the Liberal Party, however, won only 33 seats, Hayden was appointed on 11 March 1983, Minister of Foreign Affairs from the current Prime Minister Hawke. This post he held until 17 August 1988. As foreign minister, he campaigned for closer relations between Australia and its Asian neighbors. In a remarkable speech, he declared in 1983:

" Australia is changing. We are a specialty, as a European country in this part of the world. There is a large and growing Asian population in Australia and it is inevitable, in my view, that Australia is a Eurasian matic country ... I think that this is desirable. " ( " Australia is changing. We're an anomaly as a European country in this part of the world. There's already a large and growing Asian population in Australia and it is inevitable in my view did Australia wants to become a Eurasian country ... I happen to think that's Desirable. " )

Governor-General of Australia

After the elections to the House of Representatives on July 11, 1987 Prime Minister Hawke offered him the post of Governor-General of Australia to give him a dignified exit from political life, but also a consolation for not reaching the premiership.

When he was formally proposed in mid-1988 by Prime Minister Bob Hawke as the successor to Sir Ninian Stephen for the office of Governor-General of Australia, he gave up his ministerial office, and his seat, and also ended the connections to the Labor Party.

After his appointment by Queen Elizabeth II, he joined the Office of the 21st Governor-General officially after being sworn on 16 February 1989.

The transition of the affairs of Prime Minister Hawke to his successor Paul Keating, who as then followed this Hayden Hawke as Labor Party chairman, he performed with tact and sense of responsibility.

The Office of the Chancellor of the Order of Australia, he held due to his activities as Governor General, although he had previously repeatedly stated that he would accept no honors. On the other hand, he declined the office of the Chief Scout of Australia also exercised by the Governor General, as the reference in the oath of the Boy Scouts of God was incompatible with his atheistic convictions.

On 16 February 1996 he was succeeded by the former Judge of the High Court of Australia, Sir William Deane Patrick, according to the Office of the Governor General.

Later life

After his retirement from the post of Governor-General, he was awarded by the Council of Australian Humanist societies the award Humanist of the Year 1996. In the same year he gave his memoirs with the title of Hayden, An Autobiography.

It was apparent that he had not yet overcome the loss of the party presidency and the former behavior within the Labor Party. In particular, he had an aversion to Prime Minister Keating, whom he nachsagte the background work with his fall as a laboratory Chairman.

In 1998, he took a libel case in which labor minister Tony Abbott, Finance Minister Peter Costello and their wives to the known policy columnist Bob Ellis sued, as an opportunity to deliberately spread rumors about the private life Keatings.

In the late 1990s Hayden took then increasingly conservative and loyal to the British Crown views and was chairman of the advisory board of the conservative magazine Quadrant. During the 1999 debate over the referendum establishing a republic Australia, he spoke out in favor of retaining the monarchy.

At the 45th meeting of the Labor Party of Queensland, he was appointed honorary member of the Australian Labor Party in 2007.

After retiring from politics, he settled as a farmer and cattle breeder in Brisbane.