If Bill Hayden employed a ghost writer to prepare his autobiography, then that man must
surely be a clone of the original. Hayden's voice is one of the most familiar in
contemporary Australian politics; serving in turn as Treasurer under Whitlam, leader of
the Opposition, Minister for Foreign Affairs and most recently as Governor-General. What
comes booming out of the page is pure Hayden - but oh what he is saying! At times you wish
he had said the things now revealed publicly, while at other instants you just feel glad
that he was blocked or silenced by colleagues. A few examples include his views on the
need for an Australian nuclear technology base and his calls for using the joint
facilities at Pine Gap and Nurrungar as bargaining chips on trade issues. Equally, there
are issues where he obviously needed to be more diplomatic in office, eg: his sympathy
with Indonesia over East Timor and his observation of Asian racism. Depending on your
perspective, these revelations of the real Hayden can provoke anything on the range of
emotions: relief, disappointment, admiration or contempt.
Bart Simpson complained that Krusty the Klown's autobiography was
"self-serving with many glaring omissions" - a criticism that applies widely to
autobiography as a genre. Hayden's tome joins the recent wave of political kiss and tell
autobiographies. Certainly there are times when you see Hayden building himself up as a
figure, who was unfortunately stopped from achieving what he should have. At the same time
the faults of others are exposed, most notably Bob Hawke who supplanted Hayden as Labor
Party leader to then become Prime Minister. Yet autobiography is one of the few ways to
peer into the minds of decision-makers, the reader can assess for himself the merits of
many of Hayden's claims, and Hayden uses the form well, without obviously abusing it.
The
account of Hayden as foreign minister is not a history of our foreign policy at the time.
Nevertheless, it gives some important insights into the process. There is a great deal of
discussion on our relations with the United States, and the ANZUS Treaty in particular. We
learn about how the relations with our neighbours were built. We see some comments on
Hayden's working relations with his department, and some (generally unfavourable) comment
on the Defence Force's efforts to build links with the region. For anyone interested in
the history of the time, Hayden's easy-to-read account provides some provoking insights to
supplement more academic writings.
Martin Dunn
Hayden: An Autobiography by Bill Hayden (Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1996),
610 pp. $39.95.
Originally published in Research & Analysis: Newsletter of the Directorate of
Army Research and Analysis, Issue 7, Canberra, June 1996.
(c) Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 1996 - reprinted with permission.
