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Home , Bill Hayden, Bob Hawke, Hawke Government, John Dawkins, Ralph Willis

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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 University Press, take credit. denigrate more liberal Muslim 2010 d’Alpuget barely covers the figures—especially the Somali-born $44.95, 401 pages 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 ’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 , 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 , 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 and , 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 . The groups. ills of the diverse Muslim world— strength of Hawke’s government 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 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 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 ’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 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, in the mid-1980s, Jews Keating the ‘sick man.’ Keating is tariff policy and privatisation were in the Soviet block, , caricatured as a man who barely supported by both sides of politics, or the first , 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. challenge. d’Alpuget claims Hawke on Writers and Politics The first thing that many would certainly have beaten By Peter Coleman people want to know about a Fightback! but this is less than Quadrant Books, Sydney, 2010 writer is where they are ‘coming clear. Despite Hawke deserving $44.95, 324 pages from.’ Coleman’s first book in the lion’s share of credit for the ISBN 9780980677829 1974 was a scathing critique 1987 and 1990 victories, Hawke’s of Australian censorship, Obscenity, loss of public and party confidence eter Coleman wrote the essays Blasphemy, Sedition: Censorship in in 1991 was pronounced. By the Pin this book over the last 10 Australia. This suggests that he is end of 1991, it was not clear years, rediscovering his own voice not a rigid conservative of the kind whether this decline was terminal after many years in that Hayek criticised or whether he could have recovered politics when his mind but inclined towards to win against Hewson. was his own but his classical liberalism. This In addition, Keating finished public voice was not. The may not be immediately the tariff reform process, result is a collection of a p p a r e n t b e c a u s e brought in enterprise bargaining, essays for connoisseurs: Coleman has kept out launched a republican process, the fine writing, simple and of economic debates, superannuation we know today, direct in style, with no sensibly exploiting his and responded to Mabo. Hawke fancy pretensions but comparative advantage may have done some of these often a hint of direct, in other areas. However, things, had he won in 1993, but astringent wit instead. I am advised of a ‘dry’ Keating did them his way. Coleman has been such a quiet economist’s comment that the For many, Hawke is the best Prime achiever in his lifetime that the treatment of economic issues in Minister in Australian history, and result is enlightening—in the Quadrant was never better than he should let historians decide volume of work, the range, the the period when Coleman was the his fate. Keating has indicated he depth, and in the persona that editor. may write a retaliatory response, emerged when this slow learner The essays fall into four parts (1) but sometimes it is better to rise (the title of his 1994 memoir) Cultural Freedom and the Cold above the fray. Keating may write eventually grew up and ‘struck a War, (2) Poets and Journalists, (3) a better book, but these protagonist length,’ as spin bowlers say. Party Games, and (4) What Shall led books are not often reliable He has written nine books We Do With Our Lives? accounts of the governments they of his own, was a co-author of Each section has its own special led or served. two others, and has edited five interest and reveals various facets of Both were great men but in more, including three important his knowledge and experience. Some different ways. Their partnership, collections of papers. Of course, readers may be most interested in complemented by a talented the bulk is not hard to explain the 12 essays in the first part of ministry, rescued Australia from a because anyone who spends most the book, on the fight-back by the deep economic malaise and helped of 50 years writing will produce Congress for Cultural Freedom turn the country towards its Asia- a lot of words. The point is to against communist propaganda Pacific future. This is the abiding have something to say. Coleman in intellectual and cultural life.

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