When Whispers was traveling back and forth from the UK to Australia and pondering on whether we wanted to finally settle in this wide brown land, one person we met who was very instrumental in making our decision was the late Bob Hawke, then Prime Minister.
There are plenty of obituaries written about him today so we'll just point you in the direction of some of the best.
Bob was simply an extraordinary human being. A sharp intellect and intelligence was masked by Hawke's ability to appear as the average bloke in the pub. At the same time he would met with world leaders: Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and China's Zhao Ziyang and business leaders who saw a great advantage in dealing with a former powerful Union leader who understood that business could be conducted whilst respecting worker's right.
Hawke once told me he admired how Big Business in Germany co-operated with unions with an attitude of "everyone should win". During his tenure Bob Hawke's inclusive policies, and for long after, worked in Australia.
Bob Hawke tributes flow as Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison make final federal election pitches
Some of our snaps over the years:
In 2012 in uber-smart Balmain Bob Hawke launched the Worker's Bar for advertising mogul and pub owner John Singleton pictured here with Bob. The pub was the location for a legendary meeting of unionists in 1891 that coincided with the famous Shearer's Strike in Queensland during which the Australian Labor Party was formed.
There are plenty of obituaries written about him today so we'll just point you in the direction of some of the best.
Bob was simply an extraordinary human being. A sharp intellect and intelligence was masked by Hawke's ability to appear as the average bloke in the pub. At the same time he would met with world leaders: Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and China's Zhao Ziyang and business leaders who saw a great advantage in dealing with a former powerful Union leader who understood that business could be conducted whilst respecting worker's right.
Hawke once told me he admired how Big Business in Germany co-operated with unions with an attitude of "everyone should win". During his tenure Bob Hawke's inclusive policies, and for long after, worked in Australia.
Bob Hawke tributes flow as Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison make final federal election pitches
Some of our snaps over the years:
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| Bob's first wife Hazel succumbed to the terrible scourge of Dementia. She remained devoted to Hawke. |
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In 2010 Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched the biography penned by his wife Blanche d'Alpuget |
