Bill Landeryou

Who is Bill Landeryou?

William Albert Landeryou, 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 the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, 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, 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.