Greg Combet: Bob Hawke transformed Australia irrevocably and for the better

As a prime minister and national public figure Bob Hawke resonated with Australian people like no other. He was authentic, charismatic, fiery and intelligent. He was a fighter for workers, an advocate for social justice. He connected with ordinary people, and they with him.

I vividly remember my father and I gathering around the wireless in September 1969 to hear news of Hawke’s election at the Paddington Town Hall to the presidency of the ACTU. Our excitement seemed to be shared around the country. Hawke was destined to be prime minister.

His prime ministership from 1983 to 1991, including a record four successful election campaigns for a Labor leader, followed more than two decades as a trade union leader with an extraordinary record of achievement.

A Rhodes scholar who wrote his thesis on the unique Australian system of industrial relations conciliation and arbitration, Hawke secured a role as a researcher and industrial advocate with the Australian Council of Trade Unions in the late 1950s.

At a time when the wages of all Australians workers were determined by centralised wage fixing, Hawke’s role as an ACTU advocate placed him at the centre of national industrial and economic affairs. It also meant he carried the hopes and expectations of millions of Australians for improvements in their standard of living.

In the 1960s Hawke revelled in his national role and the attention it attracted, establishing himself as the standout trade union figure of the times. He pioneered the use of the media to prosecute a campaign, wield power and to build a personal profile.

It’s difficult to overstate Hawke’s significance to many Australians, even by the time of his election as ACTU president in 1969. It was the time of the Vietnam war and rumbling social unrest. The long Menzies period was over but the Liberal-Country party Coalition clung to power, stifling the social and political change that was fermenting. Gough Whitlam was coming but had not yet arrived.

Hawke stood in stark contrast to the conservative government leadership of the period. He was a fighter for workers: intelligent, outspoken and brash, he delivered pay increases, he took a stand on political and social issues, he fixed industrial disputes and he loved a beer and the races. He cared for people. He was revered, even loved.

Throughout the 1970s it seemed to be only a matter of time before Hawke’s destiny was fulfilled. His profile as a national industrial and political figure grew to eclipse all but the prime ministers of the day. His frustration with the chaotic episodes that plagued the Whitlam government focused his approach to politics, and the Fraser period cultivated the conditions for Bob’s entry into parliament in 1980.

Eventually the Hawke juggernaut swept aside Bill Hayden as Labor leader on the day Malcolm Fraser called the election in 1983, and then the juggernaut overran Fraser at the ballot box.

For the next eight years Hawke was at the helm of governments that transformed Australia irrevocably and for the better. From his long period as a trade union leader he knew how the economy really worked.

He developed extensive networks in the business community. He gained unique insight into the anti-competitive arrangements that sustained high prices and disadvantaged workers. As ACTU president Hawke had tried to break down cartels by setting up rival cut-price retail, travel and petrol outlets.

Hawke took his experience of the real economy into parliament, and as prime minister developed a program of reform to be achieved by consensus. Its objectives were to stimulate economic growth, investment and productivity improvement while delivering a fairer distribution of wealth and opportunity.

His political partnership with Paul Keating and the many other talented members of cabinet and the public service delivered extraordinary change. Medicare, universal superannuation, tax reforms, enhanced social security measures, competition law reform and numerous other progressive public policy changes date from this time.

The unshackling of the economy from the past was Hawke’s signature reform. Interest rates, wages and the prices of numerous goods and services had been fixed by an array of institutions for decades. It stifled innovation and investment and, in an increasingly internationalised economy, it was unsustainable.

Hawke dismantled fixed exchange rates and floated the dollar, liberalised the financial system, privatised some government businesses, attacked cosy anti-competitive business arrangements, reduced regulation and tariff protection, promoted free trade, and allowed international competition to drive dramatic efficiency and productivity improvements through many Australian industries.

These reforms continue to benefit Australians today. They have made the economy more resilient in the face of international financial crises. But they were difficult and contentious at the time.

The dismantling of industry protection was extremely contentious within the union movement and among numerous Labor voters. The jobs of many thousands of workers were impacted. Working conditions changed dramatically.

Hawke won support for the changes through his negotiating skills, through the respect that he commanded in the labour movement, by supporting workers during the transition of their industries, and by delivering pay rises and vital social benefits like Medicare. The accord between Labor and the ACTU, led by the brilliant Bill Kelty, was fundamental to the Hawke government’s success.

As a young waterside workers union official in the late 1980s I had first-hand exposure to Hawke’s ability to win union support for difficult reforms. Hawke had established a commission of inquiry into the waterfront to make recommendations for the restructuring of employment arrangements that dated from world war two.

The union leadership was angry and asked to see Hawke. Gathered around the cabinet table in the newly minted Parliament House Hawke charmed, cajoled, chided, reassured and persuaded a group of hardened, veteran waterfront unionists of the necessity for reforms. It was a compelling display of leadership.

When I assumed the leadership of the ACTU some years later Bob was the first on the phone. In his ceaseless passion for the labour movement he encouraged and supported its emerging leaders, including me. His personal support and friendship continued through my time in parliament and beyond. I cared for him very deeply.

At a time when Australians yearn for genuine national leadership, for political leaders who command respect, we mourn the loss of a prime minister who did just that.

Bob Hawke’s record of achievement over several decades both inside and outside parliament demand his recognition as the greatest leader of the Australian labour movement of the 20th century. No one else can claim such a record of popularity, acclaim and achievement. No one else has so profoundly touched the lives of millions of Australians.

Vale one of Australia’s best.