Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee Hawke was born in Bordertown, South Australia, in 1929, the son of a Congregationalist minister. A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, he became the advocate and then president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. He entered parliament in 1980, became Labor leader in early 1983 and won that year's election. He won four elections, making him Labor's longest-serving prime minister, before his treasurer successfully challenged him in December 1991. He died in 2019. Part of his appeal was a popular, informal image that the Guardian says he believed endeared him to voters.

Admirers credit Hawke with opening the Australian economy, building consensus between unions and business and creating Medicare, and he remained one of Australia's most popular prime ministers. He also offered asylum to tens of thousands of Chinese students after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Critics on the left argue that deregulation, privatisation and wage restraint under the Accord weakened unions and Labor's traditions, and left-wing critics also claimed the Accord kept real wages stagnant. His 1987 statement that no child would live in poverty by 1990 is often cited as a promise that was not met. He remained active in public debate after leaving office and was a regular presence at Labor campaign launches.