In my view, Bob Hawke was one of the better Prime Ministers Australia has produced. Hawke, better known as Hawkie had levels of personal popularity around 75% in 1984, still pretty much unheard of since.

Hawke came across at a bit of a larrikin, he was really an academic though attending the University of Western Australia (UWA) before heading to Oxford University in the United Kingdom as a Rhodes Scholar. Hawke was awarded a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from UWA and then Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. Apparently, he found he was pretty much covering the same material so switched to a Bachelor of Letters course.

Hawke presented his thesis on wage fixing in Australia, he later used that experience to formulate the Accord between unions and the government to fix wages and prices. Possibly one of his greatest achievements was downing a yard glass of beer in 11 seconds to claim the world record. Hawke claims this achievement is possibly the most important act that contributed to his politician success. During his years at the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Hawke was a divisive leader, once he became Prime Minister he changed his style and morphed into a great collaborative leader.

Hawke became a master of consensus bringing individuals into the conversation, he listened to people and sought their counsel. Hawke had charisma, he also had a high level of arrogance believing he was the only one who could deliver electoral success. Hawke was rolled by Treasurer Paul Keating on his second attempt during December 1991 and Hawke’s nine years as Prime Minister with Australia in the deepest recession it had ever faced. I believe much of this falls on Paul Keating, he was Treasurer and he pursued the interest rate rises.

Hawke came to power in 1983 during the 1982/83 recession that coincided with a severe drought; ironically, the rains came shortly after Hawke came to power. Sure, there is some luck involved, Malcolm Fraser had a good run and should have been more reformist after Whitlam. The Hawke government introduced financial reforms from floating the dollar, dismantling the tariff system, privatising state sector industries, ending subdisation of loss-making industries and deregulation of the financial system. I think the Hawke government was a pretty decent government and is viewed in a positive light by most Australians.