Former prime minister Bob Hawke faced the end of his life with a “sense of calm,” Julia Gillard has said, while remembering him as “Australia’s greatest peacetime leader”.
Other current and former Australian leaders have hailed Mr Hawke as a “political legend,” who radically reshaped Australian politics.
Labor leader Bill Shorten paused his election campaign on Thursday night to pay tribute to the party’s longest-serving prime minister. Speaking from Sydney, Mr Shorten said: “The nation and Labor are in mourning. We have lost a favourite son. Bob Hawke loved Australia and Australia loved Bob Hawke.”
Speaking at Brisbane airport on Thursday evening, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Mr Hawke was Labor’s greatest prime minister “in my view”. In a separate, written statement, Mr Morrison also acknowledged Mr Hawke as Australia’s third longest-serving prime minister – and the most “electorally-successful” federal Labor leader, having won four successive elections.
“Profoundly Australian, Bob Hawke was a conviction politician who became a political legend. Bob Hawke was a great Australian who led and served our country with passion, courage, and an intellectual horsepower that made our country stronger,” Mr Morrison said.
Former prime minister Paul Keating, who was Mr Hawke’s treasurer before challenging him for Labor leadership, also issued a statement on Thursday night.
“With Bob Hawke’s passing today, the great partnership I enjoyed with him passes too. A partnership we forged with the Australian people. But what remains and what will endure from that partnership are the monumental foundations of modern Australia.
“The country is much poorer for Bob Hawke’s passing”.
Ms Gillard also hailed her predecessor as “the greatest peacetime leader Australia has ever had. As a teenager Bob inspired me, as a PM he guided me. I will miss him. I wish so very much that Bob had been able to see one more election day.”
Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd described Mr Hawke as a “giant of Australian politics”, pointing to his establishment of Medicare and APEC, as well as his work with Mr Keating internationalising the Australian economy in the 1980s.
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull tweeted: “Farewell Bob Hawke a great Australian, Labor leader and reforming Prime Minister. Australia is a better place because of him.”
But in politically-charged comments that have raised eyebrows, Mr Abbott added: “His key achievements – financial deregulation, tariffs cuts and the beginnings of privatisation – went against the Labor grain, as Labor’s more recent policy direction shows. You might also say he had a Labor heart but a Liberal head.”