Bill Landeryou

William Albert Landeryou (born 17 April 1941), Australian politician, was leader of the Australian Labor Party in the Victorian Legislative Council and a minister in the Labor government of John Cain.

Landeryou was born in Melbourne, the son of a timber worker. He left school at 15 and worked for a trucking company. He was active in the Storemen and Packers' Union (now the National Union of Workers), becoming an organiser in 1966, Victorian State Secretary in 1969, federal secretary in 1974 and federal president in 1979. He also became a director of 133 Sydney Rd Ltd, a company controlled by the union, which owned the R.J. Hawke Hotel, a hotel in Sydney Rd Brunswick.

Landeryou was active also in the Australian Labor Party, and was President of Victorian Young Labor in 1964-66. A supporter of the party's right-wing faction, and a close ally of the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bob Hawke, Landeryou became a member of the party's Victorian Administrative Committee following the removal in 1971 of the left-wing group which had controlled the Victorian Labor Party since 1955.

In 1976 Landeryou were elected to the Legislative Council as member for Doutta Galla Province, a safe Labor seat in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne. He was immediately elected to the front bench. The Opposition Leader, Clyde Holding, appointed him shadow minister for ethnic affairs and consumer affairs. In 1980 Holding's successor, Frank Wilkes, appointed Landeryou shadow minister for local government. In 1979 he became leader of the opposition in the Council.

During 1981 Landeryou became convinced that Wilkes could not win the 1982 state election and supported his replacement by John Cain, which took place in September 1981. Cain appointed Landeryou shadow minister for employment. When Cain led Labor to victory in the April 1982 state elections, forming the first Labor government in Victoria since 1955, Landeryou was appointed Minister for Economic Development and Tourism. In December 1982 he became Minister for Industrial Affairs and he was also made Minister for Labour and Industry.

On being appointed a minister, Landeryou immediately resigned his union and company positions. During 1983, however, it was alleged by an official of the union, Mick O'Grady, that Landeryou had continued to sign cheques on behalf of both the Storemen and Packers Union and 133 Sydney Rd Ltd after taking office as a minister. It was also alleged that Landeryou was continuing to profit from various investments made by the union while he was an officebearer.

Premier Cain appointed an accountant, John Balmford, and a lawyer, Michael Black, QC, to investigate the allegations. In July 1983 Balmford's report rejected most of the allegations, but found that Landeryou had countersigned some cheques after resigning his positions, because no new signatory had yet been appointed. Cain announced that he had "severely rebuked" Landeryou for signing cheques on behalf of the union and the company while he was a minister. Nevertheless, Cain said, Landeryou was a "capable and valuable" minister and "on balance, and weighing up all the circumstances," he did not ask for Landeryou's resignation.

In August, however, both Balmford and Black's reports were made public, and Cain then demanded and received Landeryou's resignation. Landeryou's supporters alleged that Cain had always disliked Landeryou and resented his influence in the Caucus and Cabinet as a leader of the Labor Unity faction, and that he had used the allegations against Landeryou as a pretext for removing Landeryou from the Cabinet.

Landeryou continued to serve in the Legislative Council until the defeat of the Labor government in 1992. He then resigned to allow John Brumby to enter Parliament. Since leaving Parliament Landeryou has remained active in Labor Party affairs and pursued a career in business. His son Andrew Landeryou was active in student politics in the 1990s and now publishes a weblog on political matters.

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