Hawke, Bob (1929-2019), served as prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He took office when the Australian Labor Party (ALP) , which he headed, won parliamentary general elections. Hawke won four successive elections, becoming Australia’s longest-serving ALP prime minister. Hawke worked to create jobs through government spending and to improve relations between business and labor. In addition, he reformed Australia’s education system and transformed its financial and banking systems.
Early life and family
Robert James Lee Hawke was born on Dec. 9, 1929, in Bordertown, South Australia. Hawke’s grandparents had come to South Australia from England in the mid-1800’s. Robert was the younger of two boys born to Clement and Ellie Hawke. Clement Hawke was a Protestant minister, and young Robert—familiarly known as Bob—at times rebelled against his family’s conservative values. Bob began drinking alcohol and became an agnostic—a person who is unsure about the existence of God.
Hawke attended Perth Modern School and later the University of Western Australia, where he was president of the Student Representative Council. Hawke graduated with degrees in law and economics in 1953. That year, he went to Oxford University in England on a Rhodes scholarship. Hawke submitted a thesis on the history of laws setting a basic, or living, wage in Australia and graduated with a Bachelor of Letters degree in 1955. He also developed a reputation as a popular, hard-drinking young man.
Hawke returned to Australia and married Hazel Masterson (1929-2013) on March 3, 1956. He had met her eight years earlier through church activities. The couple had four children: Susan (1957-…), now known as Sue Pieters-Hawke; Stephen, known as Steve (1959-…), who became a writer; Roslyn (1960-…); and Robert, Jr., born in 1963, who died in infancy. Bob and Hazel Hawke divorced in 1995. Hawke married Blanche d’Alpuget, an Australian writer who had written a 1982 biography about him, that same year.
Labor movement and politics
Hawke’s uncle Albert was active in politics and eventually became premier of Western Australia in 1953. Albert Hawke had a strong influence on Bob’s political ideas and guided him toward the ALP, which Bob joined in 1947.
In 1956, Hawke entered a doctoral program at the Australian National University. In 1958, however, he left the university and took a job with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Australia’s largest labor organization, as the council’s first paid researcher. In 1963, Hawke failed in his first attempt to win a seat in the Australian Parliament. But in 1969, he was elected president of the ACTU. Hawke was popular with union members as well as with employers and government representatives, and he formed strong ties both inside and outside the ALP. In 1972, Hawke worked closely with the ALP as the party won the federal election, making Gough Whitlam prime minister.
Hawke soon became one of the most prominent figures in Australia’s labor movement. He served on the Reserve Bank Board, which governs the Reserve Bank of Australia. The Reserve Bank of Australia is the country’s central bank, and it issues Australia’s currency. Hawke also served on other governing and advisory bodies, including the Australian Population and Immigration Council, a panel set up to advise the government on immigration issues; and the Monash University Council, which governs Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
A heavy travel schedule and workload—combined with a lingering dependence on alcohol—led Hawke to a physical breakdown in 1979. But he soon recovered, and he capitalized on his growing fame and influence by making a second run at Parliament. In October 1980, at the age of 50, Hawke won the Wills (Victoria) seat in the Australian House of Representatives.
In July 1982, Hawke narrowly lost a challenge for leadership of the ALP. On Feb. 8, 1983, he challenged again and won, becoming leader of the ALP. Less than a month later, on March 5, the ALP won the general election. Hawke was sworn in as prime minister of Australia on March 11, 1983, just two years after entering Parliament.
Prime minister
Hawke took over an Australian government deep in debt and an economy burdened with high unemployment and inflation. In April 1983, Hawke organized an economic conference involving all political parties, unions, and employer organizations. The conference produced a wages and prices accord—an agreement to promote economic growth through a variety of policies addressing both labor and business concerns.
Hawke worked with his treasurer, Paul Keating, to begin the deregulation of Australia’s banking and financial systems and to allow the free fluctuation of the value of the Australian dollar. Throughout his time in power, Hawke backed away from the traditional ALP use of tariffs to protect Australian industries and jobs. Instead, the government reduced protection for domestic business, bringing an increase in competition. Hawke’s government also introduced reforms in the tax system, as well as reforms in education and training.
In 1984, Hawke’s government passed the Sex Discrimination Act, which outlawed sex discrimination in the workplace. That same year, the government established a universal system of health insurance, along with an increase in social security benefits for the children of low-income families.
In January 1989, while on a visit to South Korea, Hawke suggested the creation of a forum for improving economic growth, cooperation, trade, and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. Later that year, representatives from 12 Asia-Pacific countries met in Canberra, Australia’s capital, to establish the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization. Also in 1989, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission developed as the chief government agency for Indigenous Australians (Australia’s native peoples).
Hawke supported international pressure on South Africa in objection to its apartheid regime. Apartheid was South Africa’s policy of rigid racial segregation from 1948 until 1991. Hawke also committed Australia to the multinational military force that defended Kuwait against the Iraqi invasion that began in 1990. Hawke worked to develop closer ties for Australia with the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and other nations.
In 1990, Australia was hit by an economic recession (overall business decline). Unemployment soared to its highest rate since the Great Depression, a worldwide economic slump of the 1930’s. Despite Hawke’s longstanding popularity, his support dwindled in the hard economic times. His treasurer, Paul Keating , challenged Hawke for the ALP leadership in June 1991. Hawke narrowly retained control, but he was defeated in a second vote in December, ending his time as ALP leader. Keating replaced Hawke as prime minister on Dec. 20, 1991. Hawke was the first Labor prime minister to have been removed by his own party while still in office.
Later years
Hawke resigned from Parliament in February 1992, but he remained active with the ALP. He also began working in television journalism and pursued various business interests. Hawke has served as adjunct professor in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University and as a visiting professor at the University of Sydney. Hawke also served on the advisory council of the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, at the University of South Australia, was established in 1997. Hawke died in Sydney on May 16, 2019.
