Labor legend Bob Hawke dies aged 89, page-77

No that's a very limited picture you're presenting there, with no context whatsoever.

Howard reaped the benefits of the radically modernised financial and trading conditions that Hawke and Keating introduced.
AND he reaped the benefits of the mining boom which only was starting to ramp up in 2001-2.
He failed to introduce what Norway managed: a tax that operated for the benefit of the entire nation, a fund.

The conditions that Howard and Costello inherited were lucky accidents. But they pizzed up against the wall those benefits because they SPENT the revenue on buying middle class votes.

Nothing is clearer.