Paul Hasluck - Governor-General

Governor-General

It is alleged that Gorton was uncomfortable having a potential rival such as Hasluck remaining in the Cabinet. In early 1969, Gorton offered him the post of Governor-General, which he accepted. He resigned from Parliament on 10 February 1969, being the first Western Australian member of the House of Representatives to resign. This may have cost Hasluck a second opportunity to become Prime Minister, since in 1971 Gorton lost the Liberal leadership, and the Liberals might well have turned to Hasluck instead of McMahon had he still been available.

At the 1972 election Whitlam defeated McMahon and became Prime Minister. This created a potentially awkward situation since Whitlam and Hasluck allegedly disliked one another. (In a celebrated incident in the House of Representatives in 1965, Whitlam had thrown a glass of water at Hasluck when Hasluck said: "You are one of the filthiest objects ever to come into this chamber".) However, Hasluck and Whitlam treated each other with complete respect and they had no difficulties in their formal dealings with each other.

In 1973, Hasluck's Official Secretary Sir Murray Tyrrell retired after a career during which he had served six governors-general over 26 years. He was succeeded by David Smith.

Hasluck granted Whitlam a double dissolution in April 1974 (with an election on 18 May) when the Liberal Opposition threatened to block the Budget bills in the Senate. Hasluck's term as Governor-General was due to expire in July 1974. Whitlam had offered to extend his term, but Hasluck declined, citing his wife's refusal to remain at Yarralumla longer than the originally agreed five years. Historians of the period are certain that if Hasluck had still been Governor-General in 1975, the constitutional crisis of that year would have ended differently. Hasluck himself implied this in his book, The Office of Governor-General and also in the Queale Lecture.

Hasluck's last official act as Governor-General was to open the 29th Parliament on 9 July 1974. Two days later, his successor Sir John Kerr was sworn in. Hasluck retired to Perth where he remained active in cultural and political affairs until his death in 1993. He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

After Hasluck's death, his son Nicholas Hasluck published a selection of his father's private journals and notebooks, under the title The Chance of Politics. This book contained a number of highly critical comments, both political and personal, about many of Paul Hasluck's contemporaries. The publication of this material caused considerable offence to some people. Others saw the comments as useful historical information.

Set into the footpath along St Georges Terrace, Perth are 150 bronze tablets commemorating notable figures in Western Australia's history, completed as part of WAY 1979. One of the tablets is devoted to Hasluck.

His heraldic banner as Knight of the Garter, from St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, probably the only one in Australia, was hung in the south transept of St George's Cathedral, Perth in 1995. The Catherine wheels on the banner were taken from the Armorial Bearings granted to him by the College of Arms. The crest beneath the banner includes the seven pointed Australian Commonwealth Star and a formalised representation of West Australian Xanthorrhoea.