Bob Hawke was Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, and his government is credited with reforms that increased the competitiveness of the economy while preserving the social safety net and avoiding the social dislocation caused by neo-liberal policies in the UK. The dollar was floated, tariffs phased out, but Medicare and compulsory superannuation were established.
Hawke PM: The making of a legend is a trip down memory lane into a country where the ALP was bold, reform structural, and trade unions mattered. Some of the debates of that time – telecommunications – have been rendered obsolete by technology, but the contest between neo-liberal and social democratic ideas was as keen then as now.
Now that Hawkie has gone to his reward, the baleful influence of defamation law is reduced and what was hinted at in past biographies can be stated openly. It doesn’t change much – Hawke’s infidelities and drunken boorishness (but never as PM) are given an outing but are already well known, as is the distant relationship with his children. The suggestions of corrupt conduct – accepting money and perks in return for favourable treatment of mates – isn’t taken further than appointing Peter Abeles to the Board of the Reserve Bank. As ever, his behaviour was tacky rather than illegal.
Tacky or not, Hawke remains fascinating, albeit flawed. His big reforms were often other people’s ideas, but Day is clear Hawke was indispensable to creating an environment where big ideas could be argued for and implemented. His narcissism is hard to take but can’t diminish his political legacy.
Reviewed by Grant Hansen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Day is an Australian historian and author. Day has written widely on Australian history, biographies of prime ministers, and the history of the Second World War. Day’s latest work is a two-part biography of former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, Hawke PM: The Making of a Legend and Young Hawke: The Making of a Larrikin.
Among his many books are Menzies and Churchill at War and a two-volume study of Anglo-Australian relations during the Second World War. His prize-winning history of Australia, Claiming a Continent, won the prestigious non-fiction prize in the 1998 South Australian Festival Awards for Literature. John Curtin: A Life was shortlisted for the 2000 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards’ Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction. His 2013 book, Antarctica: A Biography, offers an engaging account of the frozen continent. Day’s biography of former prime minister Paul Keating was published in 2015.
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