BOB HAWKE

Party

Hawke brought his ACTU negotiating skills to his very public role as Prime Minister. While his authority within the Party was unquestioned, he also achieved consensus within government ranks, was politically astute, provided advice on what was electorally acceptable, and brought diverse groups to the negotiating table.

While able to persuade his ministers and members to support policy changes, he relied on the considerable support of his Treasurer Paul Keating and Industry Minister John Button to achieve economic reform. Other Ministers, too, were drivers in their portfolios in what was viewed as a reformist government.

At the grassroots level Labor Party members were at times critical, notably  in relation to his siding with the airlines during the pilots’ strike and his willingness to cooperate with business interests. His leadership was damaged, the electorate was becoming disenchanted with the recession, and he was successfully challenged at the end of 1991. 

Partnerships

The 1983 Accord between the government and unions, led by Bob Hawke and ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty, was a landmark agreement. It was achieved at the end of a difficult process for both bodies, at a time when the economy was stagnating. 

Kelty, whose support was vital, recorded that it was an exercise in changing people’s ideas; that the Accord opened the economy to the world, improved real wages and produced an effective minimum wages system, but promised that the living standards of all sectors of the population would be maintained.

Full employment, reflecting the interests of the government and the union movement, was the primary aim, but its political success allowed Hawke’s government to restrict wage demands restraining wage growth, and to re-cast social policy including the health system. Bill Kelty was central to the operation of Hawke’s agreement with the union movement. 

People

Bob Hawke’s admiration for West Australian tycoon Alan Bond was well known when Bond's yacht Australia II won the America’s Cup for Australia in September 1983.

Hawke considered that Bond had lifted the national spirit with his win at a time when the country was in economic decline, but united around this 'marvellous historic victory'. Known as ‘Bondy’ and ‘Hawkie’, Hawke wore his highly recognisable Australia jacket, and joked and laughed with Bond in Perth during celebrations at the end of the race.

Hawke also memorably stated that Australians taking a day off to celebrate the victory should not be penalised. 

Publications

Neal Blewett, Robert James Lee Hawke, in Michelle Grattan (ed), Australian Prime Ministers, 2010

Gerry Bloustein, Barbara Comber & Alison Mackinnon (eds.), The Hawke Legacy, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, 2009 

Blanche d’Alpuget, Hawke: the Prime Minister, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2010

Bob Hawke, The Hawke memoirs, William Heinemann Australia, Port Melbourne, 1994

Bob Hawke, National reconciliation: the speeches of Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia, Fontana, Sydney, 1984 

Christine Jennett & Randal G. Stewart (eds.), Hawke and Australian public policy: consensus and restructuring, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1990 

Stephen Mills, The Hawke years: the story from the inside, Viking Press, Ringwood, 1993 

Susan Ryan & Troy Bramston (eds.), The Hawke government: a critical retrospective, Pluto Press Australia, North Melbourne, 2003

Roger Wettenhall & John Nethercote (eds.) Hawke’s second government: Australian Commonwealth Administration 1984 – 1987, Canberra College of Advanced Education and Australian Institute of Public Administration, Belconnen, 1988

Roger Wettenhall & John Halligan (eds.) Hawke’s third government: Australian Commonwealth administration 1987 -1990, University of Canberra and Australian Institute of Public Administration, Belconnen, 1992

Thanks to Dr Auriol Weigold for her contribution to this page.