Hawke memorial: Keating on a friendship that lasted to the end

Jun 14, 2019 – 10.49am

Former prime minister Paul Keating said it was trust that bound his 8.5 year partnership with Bob Hawke, including a friendship that lasted "right to the end".

"In the end, it was trust that held Bob and me together," Mr Keating told the crowd at the Sydney Opera House who gathered to honour the political giant and "larrikin" former prime minister.

"I knew he would never - he knew I would never leave a land mine in some budget or economic statement to explode in his face, as I knew when push came to shove, he would not rattle the big ones on the big policy changes," Mr Keating said.

Paul Keating spoke of shared obsessions and a very large dollop of friendship. Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Hawke died peacefully at his Sydney home on May 16, aged 89.

Mr Keating said that "much of the very late focus on my relationship with Bob was on the termination of cooperation between us and his displacement by me as leader.

"Any cursory observation of those events generally fails to comprehend the very high level of friendship and cooperation between us for those 8.5 years, a long time in so hot a policy hot house and in policy terms, it lasted right to the end.

"In the event between us, Bob and I won five elections successively, not far short of four American presidential terms in a row."

'It was this quest'

Mr Keating said that "at the core of it, Bob and I shared one primary idea,that Australia's creativity had been locked down by a paternal policy regime, the idea that the government knew best and that Australia was best protected and nurtured as aclosed economy behind policy barbed wire. A framework that both a Labor Party and the Coalition then heavily subscribed to."

Mr Keating said that he and Mr Hawke knew "to change it required wholesale policy reform on a scale the country and the Labor Party had never experienced.

"We knew we were in for it and so did those senior cabinet colleagues who shared our view, we knew none of the factions of the Labor Party would embrace so great a philosophical shift without a lot of persuasion and a lot of heft.

"It was this quest that was central to my 8.5 years partnership with Bob, the long and weary externalisation of the country, binding up sections of society as the changes bore their fruit and inevitably their cost."

'I don't exude morality'

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese said: "How do you measure a giant? Bob Hawke was not towering physically but somehow he seemed bigger than all of us.

"He loved Australians and they loved him back. It was indeed a national romance. He loved us together because we understood that our greatest strengths flow from unity. He reached out, he listened, he learned, he encouraged and he dared, dared us to be a better nation. He knew that Australia was great but it was a greatness that he wanted to build on. He wanted to protect us from those who sought to divide us. If ever there was a man who could appeal to our better angels, it was Bob. Do you know why I have credibility he once asked? "Because I don't exude morality".

Craig Emerson, a former adviser to Mr Hawke and close friend was the MC at the memorial, for which free tickets were snapped up within 25 minutes.

'Magnificent, rambunctious'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also spoke of a "passionate and affectionate relationship between Bob and the Australian people. They knew each other well. They forgave each others' short comings. They understood each others' virtues, there was trust, there was faith in each other."

Mr Hawke's daughter Sue Pieters-Hawke said of her father's "progressive,agnostic humanitarianism.

"With a deep love for people and an shakeable commitment to the realisation of a fairer and more just world. That, I believe, is Dad's foundational legacy.

"His belief that we can always, whoever and wherever we are, work towards a better world for all in our own corners. This was the vision he joyfully embraced in life and the challenge he leaves us. So we have good reason in our grief to celebrate the magnificent, rambunctious human being who has left us."

'A life triumphantly well live.'

Mr Hawke's wife Blanche was the last speaker.

"Today, this memorial service marks the transition from the grief of loss to the celebration of a life triumphantly well lived.

"With today's transformative service, we smile again, we glow with pride for the presence among us for almost 90 years of a great human being."

Mr Hawke made the Guinness Book of Records for downing a yard glass while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and in his later years indulged fans at the cricket by knocking back drinks.

But he gave up the drink in politics and proudly boasted he "didn't touch a drop" while in parliament.

The former ACTU leader rose through union and Labor ranks and won the party four elections, with his late first wife Hazel by his side.

But in 1991 his treasurer Paul Keating replaced him as leader, his marriage hit the rocks, and eventually he and Hazel divorced. He married his biographer Blanche d'Alpuget in 1995.

Blanche D’Alpuget arriving at the memorial. Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Hawke was farewelled at a private family funeral but the public remembrance will see more tributes from his loved ones and major political figures.

Former South Australian premier and Labor national president Mike Rann celebrated Mr Hawke and his lifetime of achievements in a letter last week.

Janette and John Howard's arrival. Alex Ellinghausen

"If there is a heaven I'd like to think that they've now got a larrikin up there, still carousing, chatting up the angels, or puffing on a giant cigar, a beer in hand while reading the form guide ... still campaigning, still winning and still getting things done," Mr Rann wrote.

While so many have very public memories of Mr Hawke, his son Stephen said he was simply "my dad".

"It's really not much more complicated than that - he was me old man," he told the ABC before the service.