Bill Hayden - Politics

Politics

He became active in the Labor Party, and in the 1961 federal election he surprised everyone, including himself, by winning the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, located in southwest Brisbane. He ousted Don Cameron, the Minister for Health in the Menzies Liberal government, on a nine-point swing. Hayden's win was part of a 15-seat swing to Labor that nearly brought down the Menzies government.

Hayden was a diligent member of parliament and in 1969 he was elected to the Opposition front bench. When Labor won the 1972 election under Gough Whitlam, Hayden became Minister for Social Security, and in that capacity introduced the single mothers pension and Medibank, Australia's first system of universal health insurance. On 6 June 1975 he succeeded Jim Cairns as Treasurer, a position he held until the Whitlam Government was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975. Labor was severely defeated in an election held a month later; Hayden was left as the only Labor MP from Queensland. He tried to oust Whitlam as leader, but failed.

When Labor lost the 1977 election, Whitlam retired as leader and Hayden was elected to succeed him. His political views had become slightly more moderate, and he advocated economic policies which encompassed the private sector and the American alliance. At the 1980 election. Labor finished a mere 0.8 percent behind Malcolm Fraser's Liberal government on the two-party vote, having gained a nationwide swing of over four percent. However, due to the geographically uneven nature of the swing (strong in Victoria and to a lesser degree Western Australia, but comparatively weak in the other states), Labor fell 12 seats short of toppling the Coalition. Hayden did, however, manage to slash Fraser's majority, from 48 seats to 21. He not only regained much of what Labor had lost in the previous two elections, but put the party within striking distance of winning the next election. At the 1980 poll, popular union leader Bob Hawke, known to harbour leadership ambitions, was elected to Parliament.

By 1982 it was evident that Fraser was manoeuvring to call an early election. Hawke began mobilising his supporters to challenge Hayden's leadership. On 16 July Hayden narrowly defeated Hawke's challenge in a party ballot, but Hawke continued to plot against Hayden. In December Labor surprised many pundits by its failure to win the vital Flinders by-election in Victoria, further raising doubts about Hayden's ability to win an election.

On 3 February 1983, in a meeting in Brisbane, Hayden's closest supporters told him that he must resign. He reluctantly accepted their advice. Hawke was then elected leader unopposed. Later that morning, unaware of the events in Brisbane, Fraser in Canberra called a snap election for 5 March. Fraser had been well aware of the infighting within Labor, and wished to call an election before the party could replace Hayden with Hawke. He only discovered later that Hayden had resigned just a few hours before the writs were issued. At a press conference that afternoon Hayden, still chagrined, said that "a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory, the way the country is". Labor under Hawke won the 1983 election handily, and Hayden became Minister for Foreign Affairs, a position he held until 1988.

As Foreign Minister, Hayden advocated closer integration between Australia and its Asian neighbours. In a 1983 interview, he stated: "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 that Australia will become a Eurasian country over the next century or two. Australian Asians and Europeans will marry another and a new race will emerge: I happen to think that's desirable." Asiaweek, 19 August 1983.