"He was persuasive and committed when he needed to be, yet a good listener at the cabinet table. He was a hard worker and an excellent judge of trends. He was comfortable with people, and they with him. And he had a strong moral compass.
The economic reforms that flowed from the initial economic summit and the accord are well documented. Not so well known were his achievements around education. When Hawke came to office in 1983, Australia had one of the lowest high-school retention rates in the developed world. Just 30% completed year 12. When he left office that number had increased to 70%. You can only imagine the difference that made to this country.
Hawke was also proactive on foreign policy.He was disgusted with apartheid in South Africa and couldn’t abide the timid responses around the world. As head of the ACTU, he was a leader in the protests against the visiting Springboks.As prime minister, he marshalled support at Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings – in the Bahamas in 1985 and in Vancouver in 1987 – to put together financial sanctions against South Africa. He secretly flew the international banker Jim Wolfensohn to Vancouver to put the bans in place. Years later a South African foreign minister described that action as the “dagger that finally killed apartheid”.
He took the same approach when cabinet ministers told him world leaders were intent on mining Antarctica and the momentum was unstoppable. He would have none of that. He flew to Paris and lobbied the French president. He got conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteau on board. And 18 months later, the continent was locked up to mining.
But the character trait that most endeared him to me was his total abhorrence of racism in any form. He detested it. No matter how often he was advised to step warily on racism, given the diverse nature of Australia’s electorates, he was uncompromising, calling it out whenever he saw it, or any hint of it.Bob Hawke was the exception to two rules – well, maybe many, but two in particular.First, he overcame a drinking problem – a serious drinking problem – and went on to be Labor’s longest-serving prime minister."
