William Henry Haigh (28 May 1924 – 15 November 2017) was an Australian politician. He was the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for Maroubra in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

from 1968 to 1983. He served as Minister Assisting the

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

from 1976 until 1978, as Minister for Services from 1977 to 1978, and as Minister for Corrective Services from 1978 to 1981. Haigh was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, to boot repairer Christopher Haigh and Catherine Runcie Deegan. His family migrated to Australia and he was educated at

Malabar Malabar may refer to the following: People * Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India * Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion Places * Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...

and Randwick. He was then apprenticed as a fitter and turner, and joined the

Amalgamated Engineering Union The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major United Kingdom, British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992. History ...

aged 16. He married Edith Frances Jones on 9 June 1945, with whom he had four children. Haigh worked at

Bunnerong Power Station Bunnerong Power Station was a coal-fired power station in the south-eastern Sydney suburb of Matraville, New South Wales, Australia that was decommissioned by 1975 and subsequently demolished. When the last generating units were commissioned, ...

from 1949 until 1959, and joined the Labor Party in 1949. He was elected to Randwick Municipal Council in 1956, serving until 1968 (as Mayor from 1962). In 1968, following the retirement of former

Bob Heffron Robert James Heffron (10 September 189027 July 1978), also known as Bob Heffron or R. J. Heffron, was a long-serving New South Wales politician, union organiser and Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), Labor Party Premier of New So ...

, Haigh was selected as the Labor candidate for Heffron's seat of Maroubra. His first win was a narrow one, but at subsequent elections he was untroubled. In 1976 he was appointed to the ministry as Minister Assisting the Premier; the Services portfolio was added in 1977. In 1978 he became Minister for Corrective Services. Dropped from the ministry after the 1981 state election, he resigned from parliament in 1983; the by-election for his seat was won by future Premier

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He later en ...

. He is the only member for Maroubra who did not serve as leader of the NSW ALP. Haigh died age 93 on 15 November 2017 and his term as Mayor of Randwick remains the longest continuous term.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haigh, Bill 1924 births 2017 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Mayors of Randwick