Hawke was a drunk and ran the parliament as his own private brothel

Too bad 'me too' movement was not around then.

They should ban all alcohol in the Parliament ... why should the Taxpayer pay for cheap drunks.

In reply to Suze,    perhaps they should consider 'locking the zippers' on parlimentarians long pants....????????

They are making important decisions while affected by alcohol - it wouldn't happen in any other workplace. Tony Abbott was so rat-arsed on red wine after a boozy luncheon at Parliament House one day that he was asleep in his office and missed voting on an important issue.

He was always seen as a "ladies' man" and never really impressed me as people's PM. Bob was always about Bob, eager to make friends with the rich and famous, naked when opening the door to visitors. His reputation was well known, so there are no surprises; no reputation to tarnish.

He certainly had some shortcomings as a human being but he was a great prime minister and so much was achieved under his leadership.

Here are some:

FLOATING THE AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR

This was one of Bob Hawke’s first acts when he came to government in 1983 and often called his most significant decision.

Floating the Australian dollar meant it would no longer be pegged to other currencies like the British pound or the US dollar.

It was part of a broader deregulation push carried out by the Hawke government.

LAUNCHING MEDICARE

Prime Minister Bob Hawke at Parliament House with the first Medicare card in 1983.

In February 1984 Hawke announced Medicare. It was a new version of Gough Whitlam’s Medibank program which had been dismantled by Malcolm Fraser’s government.

It became Australia’s first affordable and universal health insurance system and is still going strong today.

FINANCIAL REFORMS

Hawke is credited with transforming the national economy into a global one.

He founded the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to promote growth in the region and helped open up Australia’s telecommunications industry to competition.

He overhauled taxes, cut tariffs, introduced enterprise bargaining and advocated for free agriculture trade.

Hawke also sold the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

FOREIGN POLICY

Hawke helped remake the Australia-US alliance, reviewing the ANZUS treaty and renegotiating Australia’s role in joint facilities, while making their function more transparent to the public.

He built a strong relationship with China and famously cried in parliament following the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989.

Hawke also used Commonwealth allies to put pressure on South Africa to end apartheid. He convinced US and European banks to add financial sanctions to existing trade and brought in sporting bans, which were all important factors in Nelson Mandela being released from prison.

He also helped push for a peaceful end to the killing fields in Cambodia.

Hawke also helped end mining and oil drilling in Antarctica.

ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

In 1984, Hawke’s government introduced the Sex Discrimination Act which stopped women being discriminated against based on marital status, being pregnant or potential to become pregnant.

He assigned Susan Ryan to a ministerial portfolio on the status of women and the pair brought in the Affirmative Action Act in 1986.

ENVIRONMENTAL WARRIOR

Hawke blocked the damming of Tasmania’s Franklin River when he came into office by passing the World Heritage Conservation Act, which enabled the Commonwealth to protect Australia’s World Heritage sites from threats. The battle went all the way to the High Court but Hawke won.

He also banned new uranium mining at Jabiluka in the Northern Territory.

OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM

Hawke pushed the governor-general to ditch God Save the Queen in favour of Advance Australia Fair in 1984. It had been a long debate, which started under Gough Whitlam abd was put to a plebiscite in 1977.

He also decided that green and gold would officially become Australia’s national colours.

It was Paul Keating that did all the good things during the Hawke Government not Bob Hawke.

Keating was running Australia from the background and has never been recognised for all the good he did.

Oh dear, the man is dead and therefore unable to defend himself and even if all of this is true it's past history. Would the author have been game enough to write this when Hawke was PM? 

Here we go again blaming poor old Bob. Blanche had no complaints, she married the twit. He was good at his job though, not his fault if the women ran after him. They do the same to me!

I agree Hawke did some good things while PM but as a man, he was a drunk and from what I have read and heard he was pretty much a low life personally.