Bob Hawke - Early life, Trade union leader, Prime Minister, Life after politics, Honours, Popular Culture

Australian statesman and prime minister (1983–91), born in Bordertown, South Australia. He studied at the universities of Western Australia and Oxford, and worked for the Australian Council of Trade Unions for over 20 years, before becoming a Labor MP in 1980. His party defeated the Liberals in the 1983 election only one month after adopting him as leader. A popular politician, known for his emotional outbursts, he was a skilled negotiator who won praise for his handling of industrial disputes. In 1990 he became the first Labor prime minister to win a fourth term in office, and the party's longest serving prime minister, but his role was challenged by Paul Keating in 1991, who narrowly defeated him in a leadership ballot. Hawke was largely responsible for his party's electoral successes, but many felt that traditional Labor values were discarded under his leadership.

Hon Bob Hawke, AC

23rd Prime Minister of Australia
In office 11 March 1983 – 20 December 1991
Preceded by	Malcolm Fraser
Succeeded by	Paul Keating
Born	9 December 1929 Bordertown, South Australia, Australia
Political party	Labor
Spouse	(1) Hazel Hawke (married 1956, divorced 1995) (2) Blanche d'Alpuget (married 1995-)

Robert James Lee 'Bob' Hawke AC (born 9 December 1929) is a former Australian trade union leader turned politician who became the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia.

Early life

Hawke was born in Bordertown, a small town in South Australia near the Victorian border. his uncle, Albert Hawke, was Labor Premier of Western Australia between 1953 and 1959 and was a close friend of Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, who was in many ways Bob Hawke's role model.

Hawke was raised in Perth and attended Perth Modern School and completed undergraduate degrees in Law and Arts (Economics) at the University of Western Australia.

On his return to Australia in 1956, Hawke married Hazel Masterton, with whom he had four children, one of whom died in infancy. They moved to Canberra while Hawke started studying for a doctorate at the Australian National University, but he abandoned the degree in 1958 when he was offered a post as research officer at the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) headquarters in Melbourne. John Button, Industry Minister in the Hawke Labor government, recalled Hawke holding court in the bar of a dingy pub that served as a Labor and union hangout, and offering him the post of Attorney-General in a future Hawke government.

Trade union leader

Part of Hawke's work at the ACTU was the presentation of its annual case for higher wages to the national wages tribunal, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission.

Hawke declared publicly that "socialist is not a word I would use to describe myself" and his approach to government was pragmatic .He concerned himself with making improvements to workers' lives from within the traditional institutions of government, rather than to any ideological theory.

In industrial matters, Hawke continued to demonstrate a preference for and considerable skill at negotiation, and was generally liked and respected by employers as well as the unions he advocated for.

In 1973 Hawke became Federal President of the Labor Party. When the Gough Whitlam government was controversially dismissed by the Governor General in 1975 and the government defeated at the ensuing election, Whitlam initially offered the Labor leadership to Hawke, although it was not within Whitlam's power to decide who would succeed him.

This shock led Hawke to make a sustained and ultimately successful effort to conquer his alcoholism — John Curtin was his inspiration in this as in other things. Indeed Hawke had been the most popular man in Australia for nearly ten years by the time he entered Parliament.

Hawke was elected to the House of Representatives for the Melbourne seat of Wills at the 1980 election, and was immediately elected to the Opposition front bench. In July 1982 Hawke made his first challenge for the Labor leadership, losing by four votes. In February 1983, on the same day that Fraser called an election for 5 March, Hayden was persuaded to resign and Hawke became Labour leader without opposition.

Prime Minister

The inaugural days of the Hawke government were distinctly different from those of the Whitlam era. Rather than immediately initiating extensive reform programmes, Hawke announced that Fraser's pre-election concealment of the budget deficit meant that many of Labor's election commitments would have to be deferred. Hawke managed to persuade the Labor caucus to divide the ministry into two tiers, with only the most important Ministers attending regular cabinet meetings.

Hawke used his great authority to carry out a substantial set of policy changes. Accounts from ministers indicate that while Hawke was not usually the driving force for economic reform (that impetus coming from the Treasurer Paul Keating and Industry Minister John Button), he took the role of reaching consensus and providing political guidance on what was electorally feasible and how best to sell it to the public, at which he was highly successful.

Keating and Hawke provided a study in contrasts.

Among other things, the Hawke Government floated the Australian dollar, deregulated the financial system, overhauled the tariff system, privatised state sector industries, ended subsidisation of loss-making industries, and sold off the state-owned Commonwealth Bank of Australia — all reforms that in other Western countries would have been performed by right-wing governments (except in New Zealand under Roger Douglas in David Lange's Labour Government).

Hawke benefitted greatly from the disarray into which the Liberal opposition fell after the resignation of Fraser. Exploiting these divisions, Hawke led the Labor Party to comfortable election victories in 1984 and 1987.

Hawke's Prime Ministership saw considerable friction between him and the grassroots of the Labor Party, who were unhappy at what they viewed as Hawke's iconoclasm and willingness to co-operate with business interests. All Labor Prime Ministers have at times engendered the hostility of the organisational wing of the party, but none more so than Hawke, who expressed his willingness to cull Labor's "sacred cows".

On social policy, the Hawke government saw gradual reforms. In the latter years of the Hawke government, Aboriginal affairs saw considerable attention, with an investigation of the idea of a treaty between Aborigines and the government, though this idea was overtaken by events, notably including the Mabo court decision.

The Hawke government also made some notable environmental decisions. Although Keating was the main architect of the government's economic policies, he took advantage of Hawke's declining popularity to plan a leadership challenge. In 1988 Hawke had responded to pressure from Keating to step down by making a secret agreement (the so-called "Kirribilli agreement" or "Kirribilli accord") to resign in favour of Keating some time after winning the 1990 elections. After Keating made a speech to the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery that Hawke considered disloyal, Hawke indicated to Keating that he would renege on the agreement. Hawke defeated Keating's leadership challenge, but he was clearly a wounded leader.

When Keating resigned from the position of Treasurer on 3 June 1991, Hawke had himself sworn in as Treasurer for one day while he decided between the rival claims of Ralph Willis and John Kerin for the job.

Hawke's demise came when the new Liberal leader, Dr John Hewson, released a proposal for sweeping economic change, including a goods and services tax and deep cuts to government spending and personal income tax, in November 1991. Neither Hawke nor his new Treasurer, John Kerin, could mount an effective response to this challenge, and a rattled Labor Party turned to Keating.

Hawke occupies a curious place in the mythology of the Australian labour movement. He cannot be denied the title of Australia's most successful Labor leader, and by 2004, when Howard won his fourth election, the Hawke years had come to seem like a vanished golden age to Labor voters. On the other hand the left blamed Hawke for betraying Labor policies and traditions for the sake of easy populist success, and of laying the foundations for Howard's conservative agenda.

Life after politics

After politics, Hawke entered the business world with considerable success. Hazel Hawke, who for the sake of the Labor cause had put up with the open secret of his relationship with his biographer Blanche d'Alpuget while he was Prime Minister, divorced him, and shortly afterwards he married d'Alpuget.

Hawke also had a brief career as a special reporter on the Australian version of 60 Minutes covering the 1992 British General Election.

According to a January 28, 2006 report in the Australian Financial Review, Hawke — who initially made a small fortune from the property market — now focuses almost solely on facilitating business deals in China.

The newspaper claimed Californian prosecutors were eager to interview Hawke over his involvement with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Moses Joseph, who has been arrested and charged with 11 counts of theft, fraud and perjury. It reported:

Mr Hawke agreed to become a shareholder and director in one of Moses Joseph's companies, Powerwan Australia, in September 2004.

Mr Hawke told the AFR his involvement with Mr Joseph had been "a mistake of judgement" and said he would be happy to talk to US authorities.

Honours

Hawke was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1979.

Popular Culture

Bob Hawke was featured in the film ‘The Night We Called It a Day’ played by David Field, the film was set when Hawke was leader of the ACTU.

Preceded by: Bill Hayden	Leader of the Labor Party 1983–1991	Succeeded by: Paul Keating
Preceded by: Malcolm Fraser	Prime Minister of Australia 1983–1991
Preceded by: Paul Keating	Treasurer of Australia 1991	Succeeded by: John Kerin