Vale Robert James Lee 'Bob' Hawke

[raptalia]

One of Australia's Greatest Prime Ministers has passed away.

Hard drinking, cigar smoking, womanising Bob Hawke was a worker's pollie. Under Bob Hawke the fabric of Australian society changed. The Hawke Government floated the Australian Dollar, de regulated the banking system, introduced the Equal Opportunity Act, redesigned the health care system and initiated a labour relations policy based on enterprise bargaining rather than confrontation. The industrial reforms initiated under Bob Hawke form the basis of the current EA system.

Tony Abbott has angered a few in describing Bob Hawke as being, 'a Labor Man with a Liberal head on his shoulders'. Despite the protestations with ALP ranks Abbott is probably not that far off the mark because floating the AUD and de regulating the banks, paving the way for privatisation of institutions such a Telstra some years later were things you would associate with a Liberal Government not one headed by a former President of the ACTU.

People often overlook the fact that Bob Hawke was a Rhodes Scholar and spent a year at Oxford studying Ecomomics which makes him one of the few Australian Prime Ministers with an economics background. Bob Hawke was also a man of great will power because during his time as Prime Minister he gave up alcohol. During this time he was also supported by his wife Hazel Hawke who deserves credit for Bob's success.

Under Bob Hawke the Labor Party stood up for workers or at least those who wanted to work. Unfortunately these days the ALP has become a champion of minority causes and those who do not have a work ethic. In an effort to buy votes the ALP has turned it's back on the Middle Australia that Bob Hawke recognised and supported.

Bob Hawke was respected on both sides of politics as a 'good bloke' a fact that is illustrated in the tribute paid to him by a political adversary in Scott Morrison. It was a particularly good summary of the man.

Farewell Bob thanks for your efforts.

 

[Lawnchair Larry]

Under Bob Hawke the Labor Party stood up for workers or at least those who wanted to work. Unfortunately these days the ALP has become a champion of minority causes and those who do not have a work ethic. In an effort to buy votes the ALP has turned it's back on the Middle Australia that Bob Hawke recognised........[/QUOTE]

This appraisal of Hawke....ruined by assertions of the current ALP in the above paragraph. Leave your opinion on this for another post or another thread.

 

[Greasyrhys]

RIP to the best damn PM our country has had, he’ll definitely be drinking proudly in heaven.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I was looking on the weekend for something on Bob's son Steve Hawke and his book on Polly Farmer which he wrote in 1994, given Polly's passing.

I found this article Steve wrote about his dad in the Oz after he passed away in May.

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

My old man was a far from perfect father. That was partly his nature, and partly the fact that he always tended to have just a few other things on his plate. But there is also absolutely no doubt that he was a loving father. I loved him back, and I love him back still. I’m not sure there is much more to be said on that front.

As a unionist, as a politician, as a prime minister, he may not have been quite perfect, but he was pretty bloody good. And as the years pass, by the judgments of history and by comparison with those who have followed, he keeps getting better.

I find myself returning to a quote in a speech I wrote for my mother in 1999, eight years after his prime ministership had ended, and one year after the great waterfront dispute that seemed to confirm we had returned to an era of ideological wars.

An article on that dispute referenced Australian journalist Phillip Knightley recalling a conversation with the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski, the author of Imperium, which describes the fall of communism in eastern Europe, and I quote: “While he was writing the book, Kapuscinski kept coming across people who would say: ‘It’s great that communism has gone but, my God, this capitalism’s tough. Isn’t there anywhere in the world where market forces rule, but they look after the young and the old, the sick and the poor, and the workers get a fair go?’

“Kapuscinski (who had been to Australia several times, and was very impressed with it) would always reply, ‘Yes, there is — Australia’.”

I think of that sentiment as a great testament to my father and his colleagues.

In the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, they were able to chart a course that ushered Australia into the new, inescapable world, whilst always insisting — in reality, not just by lip-service — on the right to, and the need for, the dignity of the ordinary working people of this land.

It is a legacy to be proud of, Dad.