What if Bob Hawke, hailed as a leader who actually ‘got’ environmental issues, had never been rolled by Paul Keating? Perhaps the climate policy wars would have turned out differently.
The death of Bob Hawke at the age of 89 has united politicians across the spectrum, with tributes to his character and contribution to modern Australia.
From doted-on child to Rhodes Scholar, ACTU president and ultimately prime minister, Robert James Lee Hawke had a significant impact on Australian life.
The Labor leader’s personal popularity is stubbornly low, but this has allowed him to build himself as a team player, and position him well to become Australia’s next prime minister.
Canberra’s attitude to nuclear weapons has always been riddled with contradictions. Homegrown nuclear campaigners winning the Nobel prize have put the cat among the pigeons.
The Australian prime ministership has never been easy, but the most successful tenures have been those in which the person has matched the circumstances.
The release of the much-awaited papers from the parliamentary archives will lead to new appraisals of Lionel Murphy’s life and work – including his alleged misbehaviour.
While both parties may have set out to modernise and renew their ideologies, the ALP’s and Labour’s attempts to marry the old and new instead precipitated two separate identity crises.
Australians are crying out for political leadership. One way our leaders can redeem themselves is by getting to work on a complete shake-up of how we pay for and use transport infrastructure.
For his own good, Malcolm Turnbull can’t get out of the country quickly enough. He’s off on Wednesday to the G20 in Germany and, if he has any sense, while he’s abroad he’ll try to avoid being drawn on…
The Prices and Incomes Accord was a series of agreements between Labor and the ACTU where unions would moderate their wage demands in exchange for improvements in the ‘social wage’.
Australian and American leaders over the years have, from time to time, disagreed or said things to cause embarrassment. But, for the most part, such disagreements have been kept out of the limelight.