Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was the 23rd prime minister of Australia, serving from 1983 to 1991. He held office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1969 to 1980 and as president of the Labor Party national executive from 1973 to 1978.

Hawke was born in Border Town, South Australia. He attended the University of Western Australia and went on to study at University College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1956, Hawke joined the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) as a research officer. Having risen to become responsible for national wage case arbitration, he was elected as president of the ACTU in 1969, where he achieved a high public profile. In 1973, he was appointed as president of the Labor Party.

In 1980, Hawke stood down from his roles as ACTU and Labor Party president to announce his intention to enter parliamentary politics, and was subsequently elected to the Australian House of Representatives as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Wills at the 1980 federal election. Three years later, he was elected unopposed to replace Bill Hayden as leader of the Australian Labor Party, and within five weeks led Labor to a landslide victory at the 1983 election, and was sworn in as prime minister. He led Labor to victory a further three times, with successful outcomes in 1984, 1987 and 1990 elections, making him the most electorally successful prime minister in the history of the Labor Party.

The Hawke government oversaw one of the largest overhauls of Australia's political economy in its history. A defining feature of the Hawke term was the close co-operation between business, the government and trade unions via conferences such as the national economic summit, the tax summit and the accord.