Death of Bill Hayden – A statement from Paul Keating

A modernising Treasurer, the author and founder of Medicare, the re-shaper and builder of the post-War Labor Party, Foreign Minister and finally, in high office, Governor General.

Bill Hayden was a great servant of Australia.

A modernising Treasurer, the author and founder of Medicare, the re-shaper and builder of the post-War Labor Party, Foreign Minister and finally, in high office, Governor General.

Political circumstances denied Bill Hayden the Prime Ministership but the Hawke Government in which he served as Foreign Minister was set up and shaped by him as Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party.

And, the economic personnel he put in place were the building blocks the Hawke Government relied upon to shift the country’s policy to the economic rationalism which has since made Australia so flexible and so wealthy.

Very few Australians have made such a contribution over such a long period.

The country is the poorer for his passing.

I extend my condolences to his wife Dallas and to her children and family.

21 October 2023