Labor recently said goodbye to one of its heroes, Bill Hayden, sometimes referred to as the greatest prime minister Australia never had. He was pushed aside as party leader by Bob Hawke in 1983. Soon after, Hawke was elected to replace Malcolm Fraser as PM. As Hayden memorably put it in a moment of bitterness, ‘a drover’s dog’ could have led Labor to victory at that time, but in the end it was a silver bodgie who took the prize.
Hawke made Hayden his Minister for Foreign Affairs, and then Governor-General. Although he said he preferred the levers of government to cutting ribbons, Mr Hayden was very well paid to put up with the pointless indignity of that role. A faithful man at his core, he managed to resist the temptation to sack his old nemesis, as John Kerr did with Gough Whitlam.
Still, it was a strange transition for the bloke who had started as a humble Queensland cop and milkman, his father a ship-jumping communist seaman from America, and his mother a barmaid.
Struggling to be taken seriously initially when he tried to get into politics, Hayden ascended rapidly under Gough Whitlam. He requested an economic portfolio when Labor gained government, but was appointed Minister for Social Security instead. Gough said it would be the making of him, and he was right.
The architect of Medicare
With Anthony Albanese recently announcing ‘the biggest investment in Medicare in its 40 year history’, it’s worth remembering that Australia’s favourite piece of government policy began under Bill Hayden, along with the single mother’s pension and other progressive initiatives which positively changed people’s lives.
In the words of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in advance of Albanese’s visit last week, ‘when drinking water, we should not forget those who dug the well’. While this applies perfectly to the architect of Medicare, President Xi was actually referring to Hayden’s friend and mentor, Gough Whitlam, who visited China 50 years ago, setting the transition towards the country becoming Australia’s biggest trading partner.
At that time though, China was militarily weak, and the US was dominating the world, which makes Anthony Albanese’s current high wire balancing act between the two great powers much more complex than anything Whitlam had to grapple with.
In his oratory remembering Bill Hayden, Mr Albanese praised his quiet strength of character, humility and ‘enduring interest in the big ideas’, apparently seeing himself in the same light. There are also similarities in their economic views, working class origins, and a certain awkwardness before cameras and microphones.
Transformation
Both men made the transition from fiery militancy as young men to comparative conservativism in older age, with Mr Hayden opposing the republic proposal in 1999 and being baptised into the Catholic Church in 2018, as Gough Whitlam had predicted. He remained married to the same woman, Dallas Broadfoot, for 63 years.
Hayden never seemed to have the kind of ego, stability or killer instinct necessary to become Prime Minister, but he also managed to make friends across the aisle in a way that is unusual now.
According to fellow ex-policeman Peter Dutton, Bill Hayden was a man ‘who put his party and his nation before personal ambition’. John Howard said he admired Mr Hayden’s ‘economic competence and personal integrity’. Paul Keating described him as ‘a great servant of Australia’.
We will never know what kind of Prime Minister Bill Hayden might have been, but with Anthony Albanese currently in the hot seat, we’re learning more about what kind of person he is with each week that passes.
Since the failure of the referendum on the Voice, Albo has been attacked by the Murdoch press for flying around the world to countries large and small, but the Labor side would argue that the previous government left Australia’s diplomacy in tatters, with much fence-mending to be done.
International issues are likely to dominate again this week, with Greens senators recently walking out over the government’s failure to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the High Court announcing that indefinite detention of asylum-seekers is unlawful, and the residents of Tuvalu being offered the right to resettle here when their homes go underwater due to the climate crisis, apparently as compensation for Australia continuing to export gas and coal as fast as possible.
After three weeks off, the House of Representatives will sit again today.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
Long ago, he did work experience in Parliament House with Mungo MacCallum.
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