Requiem for R.J.L. Hawke.

On Thursday, Australia lost one of its greatest heroes: Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia, our longest-serving Labor Party PM by far, and for me our greatest-ever peacetime leader. Hawke was a politician committed to national unity, equity and diversity, economic risk-taking, consensus as a party leader, and international diplomacy. 

As prime minister from 1983 until 1991, Hawke and his government's achievements included:

- establishing the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC);

- introducing Telecom (now Telstra) and Landcare Australia;

- saving the Franklin River and the Wet Tropics in Tasmania and Queensland respectively;

- re-introducing universal health care in Australia;

- floating the Australian dollar and subsequently deregulating the banking sector;

- more than doubling national high school completion rates;

- banning mining in Antarctica;

- granting extended visas to Chinese university students after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre;

- successfully negotiating for Nelson Mandela's release and the end of apartheid in South Africa;

- replacing God Save the Queen with Advance Australia Fair as our national anthem.

To be sure Hawke made mistakes as all politicians do, like with his Australia Card legislation in 1985 and conflicts with his Treasurer and eventual successor Paul Keating, and his tenure had low points like with a surge in national interest rates after the 1987 Black Monday Wall Street crash. He also admitted to failing as a father and husband. But his successes surely outnumber his failures. He was a well-known drinker and womaniser before entering Parliament in 1980 after serving as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and famously even once held a Guinness World Record for ale-drinking, but managed to kick these habits and reform himself into a responsible and conscientious national leader. And in that role, his benevolence, patriotism and energy shone through. Bob Hawke and his government opened Australia up to the rest of the world economically and socially, and left a legacy that remains extensive today. Rest in peace, Prime Minister Hawke. You were one of a kind.