Bob Hawke facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bob Hawke
AC GCL
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Official portrait, 1983
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| 23rd Prime Minister of Australia | |
| In office 11 March 1983 – 20 December 1991 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor-General | |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Malcolm Fraser |
| Succeeded by | Paul Keating |
| 13th Leader of the Labor Party | |
| In office 8 February 1983 – 19 December 1991 |
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| Deputy |
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| Preceded by | Bill Hayden |
| Succeeded by | Paul Keating |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 8 February 1983 – 11 March 1983 |
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| Prime Minister | Malcolm Fraser |
| Preceded by | Bill Hayden |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Peacock |
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Wills |
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| In office 18 October 1980 – 20 February 1992 |
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| Preceded by | Gordon Bryant |
| Succeeded by | Phil Cleary |
| 7th National President of the Labor Party | |
| In office 7 June 1973 – 2 August 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Tom Burns |
| Succeeded by | Neil Batt |
| National President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions | |
| In office 10 September 1969 – 1 September 1980 |
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| Preceded by | Albert Monk |
| Succeeded by | Cliff Dolan |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Robert James Lee Hawke
9 December 1929 Border Town, South Australia, Australia |
| Died | 16 May 2019 (aged 89) Northbridge, New South Wales, Australia |
| Resting place | Macquarie Park |
| Political party | Labor |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 4 |
| Parent |
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| Relatives | Albert Hawke (uncle) |
| Education |
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| Signature |  |
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia as leader of the Australian Labor Party. He was the third longest serving Prime Minister of Australia.
He was a union leader before he entered parliament in 1980. He became leader only a little while before the 1983 election but he defeated Malcolm Fraser. His government made many changes, like the Whitlam government, but did it more slowly and with more planning. His government moved Labor to the right economically. His leadership was challenged twice by Paul Keating. He lost the second time and retired.
By July 1990, Hawke had overtaken Malcolm Fraser as the second longest-serving Australian Prime Minister but on 21 December 2004 the record was overtaken by John Howard, making Hawke the third longest serving Prime Minister.
Hawke died on 16 May 2019, aged 89.
Hawke holds the highest-ever approval rating for an Australian prime minister, reaching 75% approval in 1984. Hawke is frequently ranked within the upper tier of Australian prime ministers by historians.
Contents
Early life and family
Bob Hawke was born on 9 December 1929 in Bordertown, South Australia, the second child of Arthur Hawke (1898–1989) (known as Clem), a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Edith Emily (Lee) (1897–1979) (known as Ellie), a schoolteacher. His uncle, Albert, was the Labor Premier of Western Australia between 1953 and 1959.
His older brother Neil died aged 17.
At the age of fifteen, he boasted to friends that he would one day become the Prime Minister of Australia.
At the age of seventeen Hawke had a serious accident while riding his Panther motorcycle that left him in a critical condition for several days. This near-death experience was a catalyst to not let his abilities go to waste. He joined the Labor Party in 1947 at the age of eighteen.
Education and early career
Hawke was educated at West Leederville State School, Perth Modern School and the University of Western Australia, graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. He was also president of the university's guild during the same year. The following year, Hawke won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend University College, Oxford, where he undertook a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE). He soon found he was covering much the same ground as he did in his education at the University of Western Australia, and transferred to a Bachelor of Letters. He wrote his thesis on wage-fixing in Australia and successfully presented it in January 1956.
In 1956, Hawke accepted a scholarship to undertake doctoral studies in the area of arbitration law in the law department at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Political Career
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In 1956, Hawke joined the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) as a research officer. Having risen to become responsible for wage arbitration, he was elected ACTU President in 1969, where he achieved a high public profile.
After a decade serving in that role, Hawke announced his intention to enter politics, and was subsequently elected to the House of Representatives as the Labor MP for Wills in Victoria. Three years later, he led Labor to a landslide victory at the 1983 election and was sworn in as Australia's 23rd Prime Minister. He went on to lead Labor to victory three more times, in 1984, 1987 and 1990, making him the most electorally successful and longest-serving Labor Prime Minister in history.
The Hawke Government created Medicare and Landcare, brokered the Prices and Incomes Accord, established APEC, floated the Australian dollar, deregulated the financial sector, introduced the Family Assistance Scheme, enacted the Sex Discrimination Act to prevent discrimination in the workplace, declared "Advance Australia Fair" as the country's national anthem, initiated superannuation pension schemes for all workers and oversaw passage of the Australia Act that removed all remaining jurisdiction by the United Kingdom from Australia. During his time as Prime Minister, Hawke recorded the highest popularity rating ever measured by an Australian opinion poll, reaching 75% approval in 1984.
In June 1991, Treasurer Paul Keating unsuccessfully challenged for the leadership, believing that Hawke had reneged on the Kirribilli Agreement. Keating mounted a second challenge six months later, this time narrowly succeeding. Hawke subsequently retired from Parliament, pursuing both a business career and a number of charitable causes, until his death in 2019, aged 89.
Personal life
Hawke married Hazel Masterson in 1956 at Perth Trinity Church. They had three children: Susan (born 1957), Stephen (born 1959) and Roslyn (born 1960). Their fourth child, Robert Jr, died in early infancy in 1963. Hawke was named Victorian Father of the Year in 1971. The couple divorced in 1995.
He left her for writer Blanche d'Alpuget, and the two lived together in Northbridge, a suburb of the North Shore of Sydney. Hawke married d'Alpuget in 1995.
Legacy
A biographical television film, Hawke, premiered on the Ten Network in Australia on 18 July 2010, with Richard Roxburgh playing the title character. Rachael Blake and Felix Williamson portrayed Hazel Hawke and Paul Keating, respectively. Roxburgh reprised his role as Hawke in the 2020 episode "Terra Nullius" of the Netflix series The Crown.
In July 2019, the Australian Government announced it would spend $750,000 to purchase and renovate the house in Bordertown where Hawke was born and spent his early childhood. In January 2021, the Tatiara District Council decided to turn the house into tourist accommodation.
In December 2020, the Western Australian Government announced that it had purchased Hawke's childhood home in West Leederville and would maintain it as a state asset. The property will also be assessed for entry onto the State Register of Heritage Places.
The Australian Government pledged $5 million in July 2019 to establish a new annual scholarship—the Bob Hawke John Monash Scholarship—through the General Sir John Monash Foundation. Bob Hawke College, a high school in Subiaco, Western Australia named after Hawke, was opened in February 2020.
In March 2020, the Australian Electoral Commission announced that it would create a new Australian electoral division in the House of Representatives named in honour of Hawke. The Division of Hawke was first contested at the 2022 federal election, and is located in the state of Victoria, near the seat of Wills, which Hawke represented from 1980 to 1992.
Honours
Orders
1979: Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), "For services to trade unionism and industrial relations"
Foreign honours
1989: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Elephant
1999: Freedom of the City of London
2008 Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu
2012 Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun
Awards
- August 1978: Rostrum Award of Merit, for "excellence in the art of public speaking over a considerable period and his demonstration of an effective contribution to society through the spoken word"
- August 2009: Australian Labor Party Life membership, Bob Hawke became only the third person to be awarded life membership of the Australian Labor Party, after Gough and Margaret Whitlam. During the conferring, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd referred to Hawke as "the heart and soul of the Labor Party".
March 2014: University of Western Australia Student Guild Life membership
Fellowships
Honorary degrees
Nanjing University, Honorary doctorate- University of Oxford, Honorary Doctor of Civil Law
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Honorary doctorate- Rikkyo University, Honorary Doctor of Humanities
Macquarie University, Honorary Doctor of Letters- University of New South Wales, Honorary doctorate
University of South Australia, Honorary doctorate- University of Western Australia, Honorary Doctor of Letters
- University of Sydney, Honorary Doctor of Letters
Images for kids
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Hawke as ACTU President in 1970
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William Cheung and Bob Hawke in traditional Chinese attire in 1983
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Hawke presenting a relief check to John Bannon, Premier of South Australia following the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires
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Hawke addresses the Labour Day crowd, 1980
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Hawke with wife Hazel in Moscow, 1987
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Prime Minister's Office preserved from Hawke's time in office in 1988, Old Parliament House
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Hawke at Parliament House for the Apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008
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Hawke in 2012
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See also
In Spanish: Bob Hawke para niños
