Bolton’s biography provides a balanced perspective of a broader life, and of Hasluck’s achievements in many other spheres. In some respects, this is the prime strength of the work; providing an insight into the man and the factors that influenced his upbringing and approach as an adult, as much as the chronicling of his career which has been covered, to some extent, elsewhere. Intriguingly, the biography alludes to the other directions Hasluck’s career might have taken.

Most notably, the biography provides an insight into Hasluck’s formative experiences in Western Australia and his modest upbringing in a family environment focused on the care of others in a series of locations in the service of the Salvation Army. These experiences influenced Hasluck’s perspective on social purpose and human advancement. As Bolton writes, Hasluck’s early years shaped his ‘ideals of responsibility and diligence … [and] a sense of social conscience’. They also formed, as Bolton suggests, Hasluck’s ‘revulsion’ from the proselytising of the Salvation Army and may have had some bearing on Hasluck not possessing ‘an efficient emotional thermostat’.

Bolton’s extensive review of Hasluck’s early years, if read in association with Hasluck’s own biography to the age of thirty-five, Mucking About (1977), provides a rich perspective of Perth in the 1920s and 1930s. Bolton provides a picture of a segment of Perth society; of a small circle of people, some of whom left to be educated at Oxbridge, while the others remained behind to advance the arts, literature, and culture. Hasluck played an influential role as drama critic for the West Australian for eight years, and was an active participant in literary and dramatic society activities. Bolton believes that during his years in his twenties and thirties, Hasluck made an ‘innovative and lasting impact on nearly every aspect of the intellectual life of Western Australia’.

Hasluck’s early years gave him insights that would contribute to him becoming an accomplished historian as well as influence his approach as a minister. He could look directly back into Western Australia’s colonial experience, represented by his conduct of oral histories of early settlers and participants in the colony. Through his historical work and interest in Aboriginal place names, he gained a deep knowledge of the conditions of Aborigines. He was to write an MA thesis, published as the book Black Australians (1942). He was only one of two people in Australia undertaking postgraduate research on Aborigines.

His horizons broadened beyond Western Australia. In his twenties he and his new wife, Alexandra, travelled to London, where he researched settler–Aboriginal relations in Western Australia at the London Reading Room, as well as working in the slums in east London. The couple travelled to Geneva for a youth summer school associated with the League of Nations (a precursor to his diplomatic career) and they travelled again overseas in 1938, this time throughout South-east Asia. The ports of call included Saigon (Hasluck was later to become minister for external affairs with responsibility for the conduct of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War). In Batavia (Jakarta), he taught himself to read seventeenth-century Dutch so that he could translate records from the Dutch East India Company.

Bolton traces Hasluck’s career in government, initially as temporary officer in the Department of External Affairs in Canberra. Hasluck then moved into work in London and San Francisco, eventually leading to the formation of the United Nations. While the relations in H.V. Evatt’s department were bordering on the tumultuous with irascible colleagues, Hasluck’s ‘judgment … hard work and mastery of the … documentation’ marked him out as a major contributor to Australia’s efforts at the time. His time in Canberra, London, and ultimately as Australia’s first representative at the United Nations in New York, all convey an unplanned and temporary situation, though it is clear that Hasluck could have progressed to senior Australian or international diplomatic positions.

Bolton cites Hasluck’s comment, made later in life, that he was ‘the wrong driver in the wrong truck’, a view that is reinforced by the fact that Hasluck derived little satisfaction from his time in Parliament. Bolton also suggests what could have otherwise been the case for Hasluck, if circumstances had been different. An accomplished historian, he produced two monumental volumes of World War II history, poetry, and recollections of phases of government through five substantial works. He was involved in academic teaching, as a lecturer, and after leaving his initial years in government service, an academic career looked likely and logical, including as a contender for a new chair at the University of Melbourne.

The Menzies Liberal/Country Party Ministry in 1951. Paul Hasluck is standing at the far left (photograph via Wikimedia Commons, National Library of Australia)

It wasn’t to be. Hasluck entered Parliament in 1949 as the member for Curtin and held the seat until his appointment as governor-general in 1969. Hasluck was the longest-serving minister for territories, a sprawling if politically obscure portfolio covering the welfare and advancement of the people of Papua and New Guinea and the Northern Territory as well as other smaller territories under Australia’s jurisdiction. His intellectual grasp of the challenges within this portfolio, his command of ministerial responsibilities, as well as his tireless hard work, were legendary. Hasluck then became minister for defence for a time before being appointed as minister for external affairs during Australia’s ill-fated involvement in the Vietnam War.

Hasluck’s personality and character are sketched deftly. Hasluck has been subject to harsh assessments by some. He could be aloof and donnish; some described him as prickly, even as a bully. Others remember his compassion,his culinary skills, his love of jazz, and a slight larrikin streak.

Hasluck had little talent for self-promotion, one reason why he did not gain the prime ministership after Harold Holt’s death in 1967, despite his qualifications. It is fair to say that he also didn’t have his heart set on it. The narrowness of political life had become a chore. His respect for many of his colleagues was at a low ebb, as evinced in the vignettes he wrote, often quite acerbic and only released after his death. It is hard to conceive now, but on the day of the vote Hasluck did not try to elicit last-minute support. Instead, his secretary protected her minister while he paid one of his numerous visits to the parliamentary library. He lost to Gorton by a handful of votes.

Of the governor-generalship,Bolton suggests that Whitlam was keen for Hasluck to stay on for an additional term in 1974, but concerns with Alexandra’s mobility at Government House, and the failure of successive prime ministers to accede to a request to install a lift, may well have had an impact on the course of Australian constitutional history.

Geoffrey Bolton’s work provides a depth and contextual setting of an Australian political career that was diverse, prodigious in its achievements, and selfless. ‘Nugget’ Coombs, a contemporary of Hasluck and fellow Perth Modern alumni, referred to him as ‘one of those nineteenth-century liberals’, a comment that Bolton says Hasluck took as a compliment. But as Bolton conveys, Hasluck was grounded in a sense of profound Australian identity and loyalty, with a ‘deeply ingrained love of country’ yet with an intellect and, one could suggest, an experience of the world that ‘transcended a narrow nationalism’. Bolton is right to conclude that Hasluck should be remembered ‘as a distinguished historian, poet, cultural publicist and essayist’ quite apart from ‘an intellectual in Australian politics’ who made a significant contribution to each phase of the governmental process. He is of a breed we may never see again.