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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-06-04 Daily Xml
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Condolence

Hawke, Hon. R.J.L.

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. S.S. Marshall (resumed on motion).

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:41): I rise to join this condolence motion for the man who I believe was the greatest prime minister Australia has ever had. I want to point out that a lot of people have mentioned that Bob Hawke was born in Bordertown and was a famous son of the South-East. However, it is worth pointing out that the South-East is hardly a hotbed of Labor politics.

I was also born and brought up down in the South-East and I had a great-aunt called Aunty Girlie. From the earliest age of our watching television, every time Bob Hawke, who was then the ACTU president, would come on the television my great-aunt Girlie would make a hand motion like a pistol and then she would click her fingers to shoot Bob Hawke on the tele, so he was not exactly the toast of the town in the South-East, shall we say.

A lot of people have also talked about how we remember Bob Hawke's slogan in the 1983 election campaign, which was 'Bringing Australia Together', and I think he really did that. As a 16 year old in 1983, I was doing politics, economics and a few other subjects, such as communications, at Blackfriars Priory School. I was in year 11 in 1983 when I went in my school uniform, without a ticket, to the Festival Theatre to see Bob Hawke give his 'stump' speech about bringing Australia together and why he wanted Australians to vote for him and his vision a week or so later.

The other day it was interesting to hear Chris Schacht, who was the state secretary at the time. He said that, when Hawkie wanted this 2,000-seat auditorium booked, he was a little bit worried because Bob Hawke had been the leader of the Australian Labor Party at the federal level for only a matter of weeks. Obviously, he came in after Bill Hayden moved aside. Schachtie was a little bit concerned that they might have 2,000 seats and not have a very big audience there. Well, Schachtie reckons that about 5,000 people turned up. I remember getting there really early, sneaking in and getting a seat front and centre, as I said, in my school uniform.

Again, let's just go back to where I was brought up in the South-East with a family who had always voted Country Party or Liberal Party, with the exception of dad, who voted for Des Corcoran because he said that Des was a good bloke who worked hard for the area, so he voted for the man rather than the party. I had been pretty much indoctrinated since my birth and all through those Whitlam years, when dad was really upset with Gough Whitlam and his vision. I do not know why, but that is what I remember.

At Blackfriars, I had some outstanding teachers. Rene Schinkel and I used to have great discussions and debates (I think the rest of the class was asleep) and Rene was a big supporter of Gough Whitlam. He took one view of the dismissal and, as a 16 year old, I had a different view at the start of the year. My economics teacher was Kathy Snelling, Jack Snelling's mum. Obviously, he went to Blackfriars as well before coming in here.

I had turned up to this thing with Bob Hawke, and he talked about bringing Australians together. He said that it was not about bosses versus workers: it was about bosses and workers sitting around the table together and coming up with agreements, which went on to become the accord. I had never seen so many people so excited. It was almost as big as the Split Enz concerts that I used to go to back then. People were really excited by the guy because Bob Hawke had charisma. Anyone who was ever in a room with Bob Hawke will know that he had charisma.

Despite 16 years of living in the family home and being indoctrinated one way in politics, while Bob Hawke did not get me totally over the line that night, he led me on a path where I thought that Labor might be a better option. At the end of his speech and great rapturous applause, I raced out, got under the security ropes in between a couple of security guards or federal police and grabbed whatever I could on the way. It just happened to be a Greens triangular 'No Dams' sticker. I had my pen on me, and I got him to sign it. I still have that Bob Hawke signed 'No Dams' sticker, along with my 'Bringing Australia Together' stickers. I have about five of those left. I have my 'Bob for Jobs' badge as well.

That night, just a week or 10 days before the federal election of 1983, was a defining moment in my life. I have since met a lot of people who went out and joined the Labor Party after being there who had not considered joining a political party until they heard Bob Hawke speak at the Festival Centre that night. Fast-forward a few years and I was working as a journalist. I got to meet Mr Hawke a few times, not only through press conferences and things like that.

One of my very dear friends at the Adelaide News while I was a cadet journalist, Janine Young, became a cadet photographer. Janine's dad was Mick Young. I was quite often down at Janine's place, and Mick was always there with plenty of advice on my family upbringing in the South-East and who I should be voting for. Quite often, Bob was there as well. Particularly if I went around on a Saturday morning, Bob and Mick would be sitting out on the sundecks at Sunlake Place at Tennyson going through the form guides.

Mick had this big Commander phone at home with about six lines coming in. We all thought it was because he was special minister of state and immigration minister, but it was so he could have people from Sydney, Melbourne and all around Australia ring in each Saturday morning to get the latest mail. Speaking to Janine, she said that she knew all the racetracks in Australia from the age of five because Bob Hawke used to ring up on a Saturday morning and she would have to take long notes if Mick was on the other line.

I got to meet Bob a few times there. One time that really stands out was in 1987, when he came over with Mick, who was the member for Port Adelaide, and also Kim Beazley, who was the defence minister. They came to Adelaide to announce that the Collins class submarines would be built here in Adelaide. It was a tremendous announcement. We went down to the Brompton Park Hotel, which was then run by Mick's son Michael, and then down to the Colac Hotel, which was owned by the Labor Party.

There was a great little band that Mick used to get to all his shows called The Good Time Rascals. They sang well into the night. Hawkie slipped off a bit earlier, but I remember Kim Beazley and Mick Young standing on the tables singing, 'We all live in a yellow submarine,' until well after midnight, when the Irish songs came out as well. Bob was a terrific fella who brought all Australians together. The deputy leader mentioned before that Australians loved Bob Hawke and Bob Hawke loved Australians.

Another thing worth saying is that Australians trusted Bob Hawke. Even though he asked Australians to change in a way that we had never seen change of that scale before, we trusted Bob Hawke not to do the wrong thing by us. He took us on a journey of great change: bringing in a different industrial relations system with more discussion on both sides, floating the dollar, making huge tariff changes and other changes that really strengthened the Australian economy for years to come. You cannot bring about change without trusting those people who are going to take you on that journey of change.

During the 2001 federal campaign, a little bit like our leader I got to go down to the Airport to pick up Bob and Blanche and take them around. It was incredible to see the impact he had on people. Even 10 years or so after he had left the role of prime minister, people still idolised Bob Hawke and wanted a photo with him or an autograph and the like.

I should also mention a fellow called Bob Bell. I am not sure whether too many people will remember Bob Bell. I thought the member for Giles might have mentioned him. In 1989, Bob Hawke visited Whyalla and some bloke gave him a bit of lip. Bob Hawke yelled out, 'You silly old bugger,' as Bob would. It became the big national story for about three days. It just shows you that Bob never lost his approach that it did not matter that he was the prime minister; he could still interact with people and have a bit of a go. If they were having a go at him, he would have a bit of a shot back at them.

Bob Hawke will be remembered as our greatest ever prime minister. He will be remembered as someone who changed not only the Australian economy but also our sense of social justice because he took people who had a particular view on race, gender and other issues and made it okay for them to change their mind and be more caring and understanding of other people's points of view. We should never forget that great thing that he did for Australia. He had an immense effect on us as a nation, and he also had an immense effect on us as individuals.

At the 1983 function, many of us who were not aligned with the Labor Party went to the Festival Centre just to see Bob Hawke in action. He changed so many of us. He had such an effect on us. I want to skip forward a generation to seven years ago, when I took my son, Conor, who was then 14, to see Bob Hawke give a talk on Asia. Conor was doing his third year of high school study in Mandarin. He heard Bob Hawke talk about how important Asia was and how important China was. Afterwards, I introduced Conor to Bob Hawke. It was like Conor was the only bloke in the room. He gave him his time and spoke to him about what he wanted to do in the future and what he was doing at the time. Conor said, 'I'm studying Mandarin.' Bob asked, 'How are you finding it?' Conor said, 'I'm finding it really tough.'

Conor was about to pull out of his Mandarin studies, but Bob Hawke inspired Conor at that meeting to persevere, and he did. At the end of that year, he spent three months of year 10 living with a Chinese family in Shanghai and studying Mandarin. He is actually in China at the moment on his fifth trip. As he said to me on the night we heard about Hawke's death, 'It was so hard to do Mandarin, but those words that Bob Hawke spoke to me inspired me to stick with it and go on with my studies.' He is really glad he did. I am really glad that Bob snapped me out of the conservative political beliefs that I had as a 16 year old. I think Conor and I and a lot of Australians are in a better place because of Bob Hawke.

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:54): I rise to make a short contribution on this condolence motion remembering Bob Hawke. It is very difficult to find something new or original to say about a man who led such a storied life and a life that is enmeshed in popular Australian culture.

Certainly, for those who grew up in the 1980s, as I did, Bob Hawke loomed very large. I think it is very rare for a politician to cross that divide between politics and popular culture. In fact, there is probably an argument to be made that Hawke was the only person who truly did that. When the media compiles snapshots of the decade that was the 1980s, Hawke is always there, but it is not just a cursory shot of him coming to power: it is the famous interview after Australia's America's Cup victory; it is footage of Bob playing cricket and of Bob shedding a tear during the press conference when he was asked about his daughter's drug use.

My earliest memory of Hawke was the speech he gave in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which he famously broke down. I think it is fitting that today is the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I do not think any words could have truly brought home to an eight year old the significance of what had taken place, but watching the prime minister cry—the leader of our country—on the ABC news told me that something truly significant had taken place. I think one of Bob's great skills was how he could always find a way to engage with people on a completely different level.

It is all too easy to mark the passing of someone as significant as Bob Hawke by bandying about all sorts of wild comparisons to other leaders. As a member of the Labor Party, I think comparing anyone to John Curtin is tantamount to jumping the shark, but I think there were genuine comparisons in the way that Curtin's leadership brought the country together during World War II and the way that Hawke's leadership brought the country together in the early 1980s after a very divisive time in Australian politics.

The manner in which Curtin and Hawke achieved this unification was different. Curtin was stoic and incredibly resilient in the face of threats to national security and his own failing personal health. Hawke's great gifts were his ease of association and supreme social intelligence. He had the ability to harness our love of the larrikin and he resisted the temptation of the dog whistle.

Bob Hawke enlisted our capacity for love and compassion and never resorted to making political capital out of a battler, the oppressed or the dispossessed. For Hawke, these were people to embrace and fight for; they were not to be turned into scapegoats, or stereotyped into scared and loathed interlopers intent on taking the things we have and hold dear. Perhaps the most important quote from Hawke, at least in terms of what contemporary society needs most, is this:

I think it is just stupid economics for a government to approach economic management from a strand of thinking regarding unions as enemies.

This was the platform on which Hawke built the accord. It was an achievement that demonstrated the unthinkable: that bitter enemies could come to the table and work together for the common cause of making Australia a better place for all. In doing so, Hawke overcame a century of enmity and distrust to put Australia on the path to the prosperity that we still enjoy.

In a wider sense, of what relevance is the idea of an accord to the imperative of today's political, social, economic and environmental concerns? What would Robert James Lee Hawke say about the division that is allowed to fester—and is even encouraged—for cheap political gain with regard to taking action on climate change, homelessness or youth employment? The problems may be different from those of 1983 but they are every bit as serious, and in the face of impending disaster we have retreated to our respective camps.

At this point, you may expect me to conclude that we need a leader like Hawke to step forward, but the truth of the matter is that, in this day and age, no political party would elect someone like Bob Hawke to be its leader. Had there been Facebook in Bob's day, I am sure some of the contents would provide cause for concern and ammunition for those who sought to oppose him.

On that note, I will finish my remarks by urging all who crave a return to the kind of leadership that was the hallmark of Bob Hawke's prime ministership to reflect on why such people are not drawn to public life and why we have never since seen the likes of Bob Hawke.

The SPEAKER (15:59): I also pass on my sincere condolences to the family and close friends of the Hon. Bob Hawke. May he rest in peace. The condolence motion has been moved by the Premier and seconded by the Leader of the Opposition. I ask members to please rise so that the motion can be carried in the customary manner.

Motion carried by members standing in their places in silence.

The SPEAKER: The house will stand suspended until the ringing of the bells.

Sitting suspended from 16:00 to 16:10.

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