Secret leadership deal letters between Bob Hawke and Bill Hayden revealed

Bob Hawke and Bill Hayden ­exchanged secret letters detailing the terms of a leadership change on the eve of the 1983 election that swept Labor to power.

Bill Hayden shares laugh with Bob Hawke at Fairbairn RAAF Base, Canberra in 1989.

Bob Hawke and Bill Hayden ­exchanged secret letters that detailed the terms of an agreement to facilitate a leadership change on the eve of the 1983 election that swept Labor to power.

These letters became Mr Hayden’s insurance and the foundation stone for the Hawke government.

While the deal for Mr Hayden to step aside for Hawke to become Labor leader, including appointing him foreign minister and guaranteeing a future ambassadorial post, have been known, the signed letters have never been revealed before.

The letters are disclosed in a new biography, Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny, published on March 1. The book includes new interviews with more than 100 people, including Hawke, and extensive access to previously untapped archival records in Australia, the US and UK.

The book also reveals that Malcolm Fraser’s likely source that Labor was about to change leaders, prompting him to call an early election for March 5, 1983, was Neville Wran, then NSW premier and Labor’s national president.

Fraser said a Labor source tipped him off about a leadership change and speculation fell on former Whitlam-era ministers Tom Uren or Clyde Cameron, or Mr Hayden’s press secretary Alan Ramsey. Mr Hayden suspected it was Uren. But Fraser’s senior adviser, Alister Drysdale, said it was Wran.

“We got a tip-off from Wran that Labor was about to change leaders,” Mr Drysdale said. “As is often the way with Liberal and Labor leaders, Malcolm got on better with Wran than he did with (Victorian Liberal premier) Dick Hamer. I am pretty certain that Nifty was the tip-off.”

Fraser gambled that Labor would stick with Mr Hayden once the election was called. He also did not anticipate that Mr Hayden would step down. Mr Hayden planned to resign on February 4, but brought it forward when he learnt that Fraser was planning an early election from journalist Laurie Oakes.

The cover of the biography on Bob Hawke by Troy Bramston, a senior writer for The Australian.

The leadership transition was finalised in Mr Hayden’s Brisbane office with deputy Labor leader Lionel Bowen, Senate leader John Button and Senate deputy leader Don Grimes party to the agreement. Mr Hayden only agreed to resign if the deal was put on paper. Bowen and Grimes, however, did not know there was an exchange of letters.

The letters, signed on February 3, set out Mr Hayden’s terms: his staff were found new jobs; John Dawkins, Peter Walsh and Neal Blewett remained shadow ministers; he be made shadow foreign minister and hold that ministry in government; be given an additional private secretary; and be appointed high commissioner to London for five years.

“In standing down as leader I will be making a number of sacrifices,” Mr Hayden wrote to Hawke. “I have done this however for what I and some of my senior parliamentary colleagues believe to be (in) the interests of the party.”

Hawke replied, agreeing to the conditions. “I confirm that the matters set out in your letter have been agreed,” he wrote.

It was difficult for Mr Hayden to relinquish the leadership. “I felt like a total failure,” he recalled. “It hurt, but I couldn’t hang on. Malcolm was tough and unforgiving. He would have given me a hard time.”

Hawke was “elated” about becoming leader. “I was absolutely convinced that I had a better chance of winning the election,” he recalled. Hawke was not concerned about the integrity of making promises to Mr Hayden, including a diplomatic posting. “I didn’t think that would eventuate; nor did it,” he said.

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