Hasluck, Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla

▪ 1994

      Australian politician (b. April 1, 1905, Fremantle, Australia—d. Jan. 9, 1993, Perth, Australia), was a respected Cabinet minister and the first serving party politician to be named (1969) governor-general of Australia. Hasluck, who was from a family of Salvation Army officers, obtained a master's degree from the University of Western Australia, worked as a newspaper journalist (1922-38), and taught (1939-40) at his alma mater. He joined the federal Department of External Affairs in 1941, represented his country at the 1945 conference in San Francisco that established the United Nations, and then led the first Australian UN delegation (1946). In 1949 he was elected to Parliament for the Liberal Party. As minister for territories (1951-63), Hasluck worked to prepare Papua New Guinea for self-rule and eventual independence. Later, as the head of the Ministries for Defense (1963-64) and External Affairs (1964-69), he supported Australian involvement in the war in Vietnam. In 1968 he was narrowly defeated in his bid to succeed the recently deceased prime minister, Harold Holt, as Liberal Party leader and head of government. Although his appointment as governor-general was controversial, he was widely respected, but in 1974 he refused a second five-year term. Hasluck's numerous books include Black Australians (1942), an insightful and progressive history of Aborigine-white relations; The Government and the People, 1939-1945 (vol. 1, 1952; vol. 2, 1970), an official history of Australia in World War II; Shades of Darkness: Aboriginal Affairs 1925-65 (1988); a volume of collected verse; and an autobiography, Mucking About (1977). Hasluck was knighted in 1969.

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