Bill Hayden obituary

Bill Hayden, back row, second from left, during the Royal visit to Australia in March 2006. Hayden brought in Australia’s first universal health insurance scheme and introduced pensions for single mothers while he was minister for social security. Photograph: Tim Rooke/Rex Shutterstock

Bill Hayden, who has died aged 90, was the working-class Queensland copper and leader of the Labor party who seemed destined to become prime minister of Australia, but was controversially pressured to relinquish the leadership just before the snap 1983 election.

Described as the best man never to have become prime minister, he was a successful leader of the opposition. His party’s decision to deny him a chance to become PM has been called a moral turning point in its history, a victory for a “whatever it takes to win” philosophy that cursed it with leadership turmoil in subsequent years.