Page 2569 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 August 2019
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Pre-eminent among these is that as Prime Minister he was able to introduce and shepherd through what were, by any standards, extraordinary society-wide changes. Whatever position people may have had about his reforms, particularly the major economic ones at the time and since, I suspect very few other people in Australia’s political history could have pulled them off with such grace and relatively little division.
As well as having a giant intellect, Bob Hawke had a wonderful ability to bring people along with him, including the opposition at the time, on a range of key issues. Most prime ministers since, regardless of their achievements or abilities, have been more divisive figures.
As has been noted by many others, he wore his heart on his sleeve. He clearly loved Australia and wanted the best for our country and for Australians in general. The Australian people knew this. He was a marvellous communicator and could talk easily with people from any walk of life.
As well as his compassion and commitment to all Australian citizens he had a deep regard for people and for human rights across the planet. As the Chief Minister touched on, his compassionate and emotional response to the Tiananmen Square massacre where thousands of students were killed by the Chinese military just over 30 years ago is still discussed, is still remarkable and it is still strong in my memory. It is for this type of leadership that he was able to stay Prime Minister for so long, winning the Australian people over at four federal elections.
For the Greens, the very first federal election he won in 1983 is probably of most noteworthiness since it was, of course, the no-dams election. After a build-up of protests reminiscent of the Adani protests of now, Bob Brown reflected on the thousands of people who had gone to Tasmania to protest about the Franklin River being dammed, and 500 or so had gone to Risdon prison.
Bob Brown tells the story of a rally in Melbourne of 15,000-plus people in early 1983 shortly after Bob Hawke had taken the Labor leadership where Hazel Hawke famously wore no-dam earrings and Bob announced his opposition to the dam. This was a turning point, and the environment movement publicly backed and campaigned for Labor to take government. On the eve of the election in March 1983, Bob Hawke made only one commitment: no Franklin dam and compensate those affected.
Bob Hawke went on to make many more positive conservation decisions protecting rainforests, world heritage areas and Antarctica throughout the term of office, but it is the Franklin dam case that made the biggest impact to environmental politics late last century. Of course, the Franklin River is now an internationally renowned tourism destination as well as important wilderness area. The Greens acknowledge the important role that Bob Hawke, along with Graham Richardson, played in these key environmental issues. We will be discussing Landcare as our next item this morning, another legacy of this era.
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