RIP Bob Hawke

[Gointocarlton]

Mixed feelings about Hawke. I felt as though he gave Keating’s neo-liberal agenda a leftie sheen which it didn’t deserve. He seemed affable enough, but his hobnobbing with Holmes à Court and Bond never sat well with me, especially for an ex-union boss. Great Labor politicians of the past (Chifley, Whitlam, JJ Cahill) would be turning in their graves. And the way he treated his ex wife after he took up with Blanche was pretty poor IMO. His daughter had to come out and publicly defend Hazel from accusations that she was a gold digger, accusations that were never countered by Hawke himself.

Given the fairly low political standards under which we currently live, it may seem churlish to pan him, but I’m only a partial fan.

To use football parlance, his "off field" form was very ordinary at times.
As for hobnobbing with the affluent, it happens all the time and quite frankly makes the world go round. I read a couple of quotes in the small paper from him, made me stop and think about the type of bloke he was:

“Do you know why I have credibility? Because I don’t exude morality”

“The essence of power is the knowledge that what you do is going to have an effect, not just an immediate but perhaps a lifelong effect, on the happiness and wellbeing of millions of people and so I think the essence of power is to be conscious of what it can mean for others”

On how he wanted to be remembered
“As a bloke who loved his country, still does. And loves Australians and who wasn’t essentially changed by high office.

On the third one, he certainly was the same old Bob IMO.