This video of Laurie Oakes interviewing Governor-General Bill Hayden was broadcast in 1989.
I’m not sure of the precise date of the broadcast. It is dated here as June 30 for filing purposes.
Hayden became Governor-General in February 1989, after a 27-year career as a Labor politician.
Elected to the Queensland seat of Oxley in 1961, Hayden became Minister for Social Security in the Whitlam government in 1972. He introduced Medibank, the precursor of the current Medicare, Australia’s first system of universal health insurance. In 1975, he became Treasurer.
Hayden became Leader of the Opposition after the ALP’s defeat in the 1977 federal election. He led the party at the 1980 election, picking up seats but failing to win.
Hayden stood down as leader and was replaced by Bob Hawke on the eve of the 1983 federal election. He served as Foreign Minister in the Hawke government between 1983 and 1988.
Hayden was Governor-General until 1996 when he was replaced by Sir William Deane.
In this interview with Laurie Oakes, Hayden studiously avoids making any political comment on his notorious predecessor, Sir John Kerr, the man who dismissed the Whitlam government in 1975.
- Watch Hayden interviewed by Oakes (15m)
