Hawke: the Prime Minister

book reviews the Left, especially Ian Buruma Hawke: The Prime Minister from the float strengthened, but and Timothy Garton Ash, treat By Blanche d’Alpuget for d’Alpuget only Hawke can Ramadan highly positively, yet Melbourne University Press, take credit. denigrate more liberal Muslim 2010 d’Alpuget barely covers the figures—especially the Somali-born $44.95, 401 pages deregulation of the banking sector Dutch citizen Ayaan Hirsi Ali. ISBN 9780522856705 or Keating’s role in putting together Berman’s outrage and anger begins the detail of the policy together, to burn through as he demonstrates awke: The Prime Minister underplaying his contribution to their subtle condescension, their Hhas been written to confirm the government from the start. arguable sexism, their dismissal the ‘great man’ view of history, Hawke’s great contribution as a of her ideas, and their absurd which is not surprising given Labor leader, aside from winning efforts to paint Hirsi Ali as an Blanche d’Alpuget is Bob Hawke’s four elections, was the Accord. In ‘enlightenment fundamentalist.’ current wife. The result this landmark change In the end, this final burst of is that Hawke’s judgment for labour relations in white heat is illuminating. is depicted as near Australia, the major Berman demonstrates that what peerless and he is seen as unions and the Hawke Western intellectuals are doing having full ownership of government agreed to is in fact adopting the categories the reform legacy of his arbitrated wage increases of the Islamist movement governments. It would that were lower than rises themselves—to whom Qaradawi have been a better book if in inflation in exchange is an orthodox moderate and it were less cavalier in its for social benefits such Ramadan is half-way lost to portrayal of Hawke and as universal health care, Western liberalism while Hirsi Ali more willing to credit superannuation, and tax is ‘an infidel fundamentalist,’ as she his team of ministers for reforms benefiting low- was labelled by the murderer of her successes. and middle-income Australians collaborator Theo van Gogh. Looking back on the Hawke most. It was both the framework Moreover, these intellectuals era, there were at least four or five for negotiating key reforms to the basically treat Muslims as children potential prime ministers. There economy and an effective macro- with no agency while engaging in were obvious candidates in Hawke, economic tool for creating jobs an essentialising and condescending Bill Hayden and Paul Keating, and and limiting inflationary pressure. quest for a single Muslim less obvious contenders in Kim It had support from key business intellectual messiah to cure all the Beazley and John Dawkins. The groups. ills of the diverse Muslim world— strength of Hawke’s government Ralph Willis is credited in the thus their attraction to Ramadan. was in the depth of its talent as well book with formulating the vision Overall, this is a book that anyone as his leadership. This is almost of the Accord. After visiting Britain interested in the most important completely lost in the biography. in the late 1970s and early ’80s, intellectual debates of our time Hawke’s importance to the Willis became convinced that must read. government peaks in the first 18 the unions there had cost Labour months after his election to office. office, resulting in Thatcher Reviewed by Tzvi Fleischer Keating had yet to emerge as the recasting the industrial landscape. Treasurer who would dominate The Accord was a hope that the This review first appeared in the politics in the latter part of the political wing of the Labor Party Australia/Israel Review. 1980s. Hawke’s involvement is could tame the industrial wing well mapped out as integral to the led by the Australian Council of © Australia/Israel Review. float of the dollar. The Keating of Trade Unions (ACTU). Hayden 1983 may have been guided by as leader had been sceptical of this, Hawke, but the condescending but Hawke embraced this hope nature of d’Alpuget’s depiction is and could use his relationships in unnecessary. Both men emerge the union movement to obtain POLICY • Vol. 26 No. 4 • Summer 2010–11 59 book reviews broad agreement to significant success should be that he pushed of the Asia-Pacific and Australia’s wage restraint. economic reform at a pace that position in it. It is fair to say that Although Hawke was the critical the public could accept, whereas Hawke arrived at this view well figure in establishing the Accord at times Keating and John Howard before Keating’s embrace of Asia, framework and delivering the pushed reform faster to strengthen and Hawke’s strategic view drove social wage in the context of wage their leadership bids within each the priorities of foreign policy restraint, the book misses the later party. even after Keating became leader. reality that Keating became the And yet, Howard hardly rates Of course, by then Keating was negotiator with and the better a mention in the book although the primary architect who further friend of ACTU leaders like Bill his support for the policies of the developed the positions earlier Kelty. Keating delivered significant economic dries gave Hawke his mapped out. superannuation for all workers opportunity to take the centre Hawke was not a leader of great and enterprise bargaining after ground reform position on so rhetoric. He was a good campaigner the 1993 victory. The move to many issues. The Liberal Party’s and largely second to Keating in enterprise bargaining came after distaste for the Fraser legacy and the Parliament and the set piece inflation had been broken by both Labor’s embrace of markets meant speech. We hear little of Hawke’s the 1990 recession and the years the Liberals became unhinged speeches in the book. Hawke the of Accord wage restraint. This from political reality, ultimately public speaker is barely discussed was a key moment in Australian ending with the catastrophe of except with regard to the ‘no child economic and social history and John Hewson’s Fightback!. will live in poverty by 1990’ gaffe perhaps the most lasting change Tariff policy was embraced by during the 1987 election campaign. in the relations between the Labor Hawke after the 1990 election, but Reflecting on the Hawke-Keating Party and the union movement. this should be seen in the context era, Keating’s words are invariably The book does not cover of the Liberal Party going further, more poignant or cutting. Even the significant meetings of the harder and faster. In one of the Keating’s 1986 warning that Expenditure Review Committee, great ironies of politics, Hawke Australia would became a ‘banana the key committee of Cabinet and Keating made difficult policy republic,’ seen as a gaffe at the considering fiscal policy decisions decisions on cutting tariffs and time, is a critical rhetorical device for the Hawke government budgets. could still say they were more that forced the country towards So it does not sufficiently cover the measured than Hewson. The good deeper structural reform of the role of Keating, Dawkins, Peter political fortune of the Hawke- economy. The era is often defined Walsh, and Willis in the budget Keating era barely rates a mention by Keating’s language, not Hawke’s, decisions of the government. It in the book. This oversight is and this deserves more reflection. also fails to cover Dawkins’ reforms unjustifiable. Perhaps the gravest mistake that to education that have proved so The book stops being the book makes is to write about important. This is unfortunate and frustratingly simplistic when it Keating’s leadership challenge in the reader has little or no knowledge moves from domestic to foreign only 25 pages. Hawke emerges as of Hawke’s involvement (if any) in policy. Hawke’s successes on a leader hard done by, rather than these key policy outcomes. the world stage were substantial one who his colleagues considered Hawke was a fortunate leader and broad. Hawke was both a unable to turn around the dire living in interesting times. He had statesman and a humanitarian. opinion polls following the 1990 a consistently divided Opposition Whether the policy area was the recession. Hawke the man of but an Opposition that supported US alliance, engaging with China, vigour is compared continually to some of his key reforms. Critically, Cambodia in the mid-1980s, Jews Keating the ‘sick man.’ Keating is tariff policy and privatisation were in the Soviet block, South Africa, caricatured as a man who barely supported by both sides of politics, or the first Gulf War, the book hits reads briefing material, works far and this surely made it easier to its high points. Perhaps Hawke’s less than Hawke, and is constantly implement and sell change. Indeed, biggest contribution was an early getting ill. Yet by 1991, Keating one of the key insights to Hawke’s understanding of the importance is worthy of challenging Hawke. 60 POLICY • Vol. 26 No. 4 • Summer 2010–11 book reviews Although Keating believed that the legacy of the Hawke-Keating era has made telling contributions government’s best years were likely and will always bind them together in several fields, including social behind it, he renewed the Labor in a shared project. commentary, memoirs, biography, Party and the government after he reflections on writers and writing, was elevated. Reviewed by Corin McCarthy and inside views of politics ranging While Hawke’s federalism from the international campaign of reforms were largely shelved by the Congress for Cultural Freedom Keating, national competition to the brawl between the trendies policy aside, the 1993 election and the uglies in the NSW division was a vindication of the Keating The Last Intellectuals: Essays of the Australian Liberal Party.

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