Robert Heffron

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Robert James Heffron (10 September 1890 - 27 July 1978) was the Labor Premier of New South Wales from 28 October 1959, to 30 April 1964.

Born in Thames, New Zealand, he became one of the longest-serving New South Wales state parliamentarians. "Bob" Heffron (as he was widely known) represented several constituencies in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs continuously from 1930 to 1968.

Once the state Labor Party had overcome the divisive 1930s legacy of Jack Lang and had regained office in 1941, Heffron became a cabinet minister. In the series of Labor governments which ruled New South Wales uninterruptedly from 1941 to 1965, Heffron always held a prominent place. His main portfolios were those of Emergency Services (1941-44) and, above all, Education (1944-52, 1953-59); in 1946 he published a book on educational policy called Tomorrow Is Theirs.

In youth a Catholic, he spent most of his adulthood — unusually for a New South Wales Labor politician at the time — outside the Roman Church. He unsuccessfully attempted to gain the Premiership upon the retirement of William McKell in 1947 (though McKell had hoped that Heffron would succeed him), and again at the departure of James McGirr in 1952. Finally, when Joseph Cahill died in office (October 1959), Heffron became Premier.

By this stage Heffron's best days were behind him; his reign coincided with the ever increasing political importance of television, on which his old-fashioned and rhetorical speaking style, honed on public platforms forty years previously, seldom appeared to advantage. According to future Premier Bob Carr (who eventually succeeded Heffron in the eastern Sydney electorate of Maroubra), the still-embittered Lang referred to Heffron as "Mr Magoo". In Robert Askin the New South Wales Liberals had, for the first time, a confident, tough, and photogenic leader, skilled — unlike Heffron — in TV debate, although Labor did respectably at the 1962 election. Heffron retired to the backbenches in 1964, his successor as Premier being Jack Renshaw.

Heffron died in Sydney in 1978, aged 87.

Preceded by Joseph Cahill

Premier of New South Wales 1959 - 1964

Succeeded by Jack Renshaw

Preceded by Joseph Cahill

Deputy Premier of New South Wales 1953-1959

Succeeded by Jack Renshaw

Premiers of New South Wales
Donaldson | Cowper | Parker | Forster | Robertson | Martin | Parkes | Farnell | Stuart | Dibbs | Jennings | Reid | Lyne | See | Waddell | Carruthers | Wade | McGowen | Holman | Storey | Dooley | Fuller | Lang | Bavin | Stevens | Mair | McKell | McGirr | Cahill | Heffron | Renshaw | Askin | Lewis | Willis | Wran | Unsworth | Greiner | Fahey | Carr | Iemma