Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck (1 April 1905 – 9 January 1993) was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974.

Hasluck joined the Department of External Affairs during World War II, and served as Australia's first Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1946 to 1947.

In his five years in the position, Hasluck saw two previous political adversaries (William McMahon and Gough Whitlam) become prime minister; he maintained good working relationships with both.

[2] He obtained a position in the colonial postal service and was postmaster in Coolgardie and on the Great Southern Railway, but later resigned to work full-time for the Salvation Army.

His mother was born in England and came to Western Australia to work as a domestic servant, also becoming a devout Salvationist where she met her future husband.

[3] Hasluck grew up in relative poverty, with the family often in financial distress as his parents undertook full-time missionary work.

[4] He had a "strict religious upbringing" in line with the beliefs and tenets of the Salvation Army, but became estranged from the movement at a young age.

[5] As a small child Hasluck spent periods in North Fremantle and in locations around regional Western Australia, including York, Kalgoorlie and Collie.

He would eventually enrol in the University of Western Australia six years after leaving school,[6] completing a diploma in journalism on a part-time basis in 1932 and graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1937.

[5] He was offered a full-time position in 1925 and covered a wide range of areas, including court and police reporting, sporting events, finance and drama and politics.

He cultivated a close relationship with the Perth Trades Hall and the union movement, developing a friendship with Westralian Worker editor and future prime minister John Curtin.

The Freshwater Bay Press was later revived by his son Nicholas, and among its subsequent publications it issued a second book of Paul Hasluck's poetry, Dark Cottage in 1984.

Although it was notionally a Labor seat, it was located in natural Liberal territory in Perth's wealthy beachside suburbs, and Hasluck won it with a resounding swing of almost 14 percent as part of the Coalition's large victory that year.

Although he shared the paternalistic views of the period about the treatment of the Papua New Guineans and followed an assimilationist policy for Aboriginals he carried out significant reforms in how both peoples were treated.

[10][11] Michael Somare, who became Papua New Guinea's first Prime Minister, said that his country had been able to enter self-government without fear of having to argue with an Ian Smith "simply because of Paul Hasluck".

He worked to strengthen Australia's relationship with the United States and with anticommunist governments in South-East Asia and opposed Australian recognition of the People's Republic of China.

Normal practice called for McMahon to stay on as caretaker prime minister until Labor could choose a full ministry at its first caucus meeting.

In 1973, Hasluck's Official Secretary, Sir Murray Tyrrell, retired after a career during which he had served six governors-general over 26 years.

Hasluck granted Whitlam a double dissolution in April 1974 (with an election on 18 May) when the Liberal Opposition threatened to block the Budget bills in the Senate.

Whitlam had offered to extend his term, but Hasluck declined, citing his wife's refusal to remain at Yarralumla longer than the originally-agreed five years.

Set into the footpath along St Georges Terrace, Perth are 150 bronze tablets commemorating notable figures in Western Australia's history, completed as part of WAY 1979.