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.
Bob Hawke with ministers and staff at the last cabinet meeting in the old Cabinet Room in 1988.
AAP Image/Supplied by the National Archives of Australia
No present leader touches Hawke for charisma, popularity or communications skills, even leaving aside the larrikin history.
Beginning of an era: a victorious Bob Hawke at the National Tally Room on March 5, 1983. His prime ministership was an exciting time for an economics student.
National Archives of Australia/AAP
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.
Former prime minister Bob Hawke has died, age 89.
AAP/State Library of NSW/The Conversation
From doted-on child to Rhodes Scholar, ACTU president and ultimately prime minister, Robert James Lee Hawke had a significant impact on Australian life.
Eyes on the prize: if the polls are right, Bill Shorten will become the next prime minister. But what kind of prime minister would he be?
AAP/Lukas Coch
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.
Happy days: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in parliament.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Labor has managed more cohesion in recent years because its left and right wings have shifted to common ground - partly through its factions.
If Malcolm Turnbull is to draw any comfort from a self-inflicted wound, he might consider the history of leaders who have endured bad polling and prevailed.
AAP/Darren England
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.
As the opinion polls continue to show the government flagging, Malcolm Turnbull has slid into the ‘beleaguered’ column.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The Australian prime ministership has never been easy, but the most successful tenures have been those in which the person has matched the circumstances.
Lionel Murphy, far right, sits beside Gough Whitlam at a media conference.
The Australian
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.
Wayne Swan has drawn a parallel between the the ALP’s ‘Laborism’ and New Labour’s ‘Third Way’ in the UK.
Number 10/flickr
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.
The majority of working Australians drive to and from work.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
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.
The end game of Tony Abbott’s policy pitches is unknown, but in the interim they seem to be destabilising the party.
Brendan Esposito/AAP
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 Hawke Labor government had a strong incentive to seek a new approach to industrial relations when it came to office.
National Archives of Australia
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’.
Australia must think differently about its relationship with the US under Donald Trump.
Reuters/Carlos Barria
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.