05-17-2019, 06:42 AM
(05-17-2019, 04:01 AM)PaulP link Wrote: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.
Hawke was a good prime minister, as good as they can be as they all get turned into something worse when they get the job, but his treatment of his ex wife was terrible, gold digging was the domain of the replacement IMHO.