THE LATE MR HAWKE POSES HERE AFFECTIONATELY WITH HIS SECOND WIFE:BLANCHE
IN MEMORY OF BOB HAWKE:1929-2019
LIFE AS A CORPORATE TURK
After leaving Parliament, Hawke entered the business world,
taking on a number of directorships and consultancy positions which enabled him
to achieve considerable financial success. He deliberately had little
involvement with the Labor Party during Keating's tenure as Prime Minister, not
wanting to overshadow his successor, although he did occasionally criticise
some of Keating's policies publicly.[80]
After
Keating's defeat and the election of the Howard Government at the 1996
election, he began to be more involved with Labor, regularly
appearing at a number of Labor election launches and campaigns, often alongside
Keating. In 2002, Hawke was named an honorary member of South Australia's Economic
Development Board during Rann's Labor government.[81][82]
In
the run up to the 2007
election, Hawke made a considerable personal effort to support Kevin Rudd, making speeches at a large number
of campaign office openings across Australia. As well as campaigning
against WorkChoices, Hawke
also attacked John Howard's record
as Treasurer, stating "it was the judgement of every economist and
international financial institution that it was the restructuring reforms
undertaken by my government, with the full cooperation of the trade union
movement, which created the strength of the Australian economy today".[83]
Similarly,
in the 2010 and 2013
campaigns, Hawke lent considerable support to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd
respectively. Hawke also maintained an involvement in Labor politics at a state
level; in 2011, Hawke publicly supported New South Wales
Premier Kristina Keneally, who was facing almost
certain defeat, in her campaign against Liberal Barry O'Farrell, describing her campaign as
"gutsy".[84]
In
February 2008, Hawke joined former Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating in Parliament House to
witness Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deliver the long anticipated apology to
the Stolen Generations.[85]
In
2009, Hawke helped establish the Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding
at the University of
South Australia. Interfaith dialogue was an important issue for
Hawke, who told the Adelaide Review that he is
"convinced that one of the great potential dangers confronting the world
is the lack of understanding in regard to the Muslim world. Fanatics have
misrepresented what Islam is. They give a false impression of the essential
nature of Islam."[86]
In
2016, after taking part in Andrew Denton's Better Off Dead podcast, Hawke added
his voice to calls for voluntary euthanasia to be legalised.[87]Hawke labelled as 'absurd' the lack
of political will to fix the problem. He revealed that he had such an
arrangement with his wife Blanche should such a devastating medical situation
occur.[88] He also publicly advocated
for nuclear power and
the importation of international spent nuclear fuel to
Australia for storage and disposal.[89][90]
In
late December 2018, Hawke revealed that he was in "terrible health".
While predicting a Labor win in the upcoming 2019
election, Hawke said he "may not witness the party's
success".[91]
In
May 2019, in the lead-up to the 2019
Australian federal election, Hawke made a joint statement with
Keating. They endorsed Labor's economic plan and condemned the Liberal Party
for "completely [giving] up the economic reform agenda". They stated
that "Shorten's Labor is the only party of government focused on the need
to modernise the economy to deal with the major challenge of our time: human
induced climate change".[92]
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