Page 2566 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 August 2019
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Bob was also a powerful advocate for the environment. As Prime Minister, he saved Tasmania’s Franklin River from damming. He banned new uranium mining in Arnhem Land. He promoted the World Heritage listing of Kakadu National Park and led an international push to protect Antarctica from mining and to preserve it as a place of peace and science.
Bob was also one of the first leaders to recognise the dangers of climate change and highlight the importance of acting to protect our planet for future generations. In the late 1980s he said:
We don’t inherit the planet, we borrow it … Global warming cannot be dismissed as just another environmental problem. It has the potential to change fundamentally, in a single lifetime, the way all nations and people live and work. Care for your planet as you would care for your children. Their tomorrows depend on our actions today.
Every Labor leader, whether at state or territory level or the national level, is aware of the legacy of achievement left by those who came before them. Bob Hawke’s is perhaps the mightiest of them all. The Labor Party, and indeed the labour movement of today, has in large part been shaped by the great reforms of the Hawke-Keating years.
We continue to be a party of serious economic reform, making tough decisions because we know they are right for our nation’s long-term prosperity. We continue to be a party that values inclusiveness and a strong social safety net and an economy that works for all Australians, not a select few. We continue to be a party that advocates for fairness, inclusiveness and equality for all and utterly rejects racism in all its forms. And we continue to be a party that understands the importance of protecting our environment and acting to combat global climate change. It is certainly the case that many of Labor’s underlying beliefs and values today find their roots in the years of the Hawke government.
Bob Hawke was also a strong supporter of and advocate for our city, Canberra. I have often said that Canberra is a place where passionate, creative and intelligent people can make a lasting contribution to the fabric of our nation, and I think this is something Bob believed too. His former press secretary, Geoff Walsh, recalled, after Bob’s death, that when people complained about Canberra he would reply, “Have you looked at the quality of policy making in our city? You could not complain about how well the nation is being served by the public service.” I believe that that continues to be the case today.
In his early life Bob lived in Canberra while studying for a PhD at the ANU. Sadly his residency was cut short when he was whisked away to Melbourne to work for the Australian Council of Trade Unions. I like to think that this disappointed Bob and that his decision to run for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party and become Prime Minister of Australia was of course driven in part by his wish to return to our great city.
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