58+ Bob Hawke Quotes On Equality, Progressive And Visionary

Bob Hawke was an Australian politician and the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1983 to 1991. He was a leader of the Labor Party and a key figure in the Australian labor movement. He was known for his reformist agenda, particularly his wide-ranging economic reforms, and for his memorable personality and larrikin style. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Bob Hawke on equality, progressive, visionary.

Top 10 Bob Hawke Quotes

1. Do you know why I have credibility? Because I don't exude morality.
2. I find a fence a very uncomfortable place to squat my bottom.
3. My point was that the war was intrinsically wrong, and as a result of our participation we haven't improved Australia's security but created a greater danger at home and abroad.
4. Unless and until something concrete is done about addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue you won't get a real start on the war against terrorism.
5. We will not allow to become a political issue in this country the question of Asianisation.
6. I think it is just stupid economics for a government to approach economic management from a strand of thinking regarding unions as enemies.
7. I hated [Robert Mugabe]. He's one of the worst human beings I've ever met. He treated black and white with equal contempt. He was a horrible human being.
8. George Bush Junior [George W Bush] was a religious fanatic, and Tony Blair wasn't far behind in a way.
9. It had things that it could do and which I thought were worthwhile: one would be South Africa, of course. And, as I said, I assumed a leadership role within the Commonwealth on that.
10. [John Howard] led the Government. They had the numbers, and just basically automatically went along with the Americans.

Bob Hawke Short Quotes

• I really had very little to do with Pierre Trudeau. He was off the scene very soon.
• I had no time for Indira Gandhi. She was too much in the Russian camp for my liking.
• I can't speak with authority about Emeka Anyaoku. I just didn't know him that well.
• [ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.
• I respected [Margaret Thatcher] enormously. She had great integrity in that respect.
• The things which are most important don't always scream the loudest.
• Institutions do live on their history.
• I believe [ Rajiv Gandhi] had a real sense that he would be assassinated.
• The world will not wait for us.
• I had a very close relationship with [Brian] Mulroney.

Bob Hawke Famous Quotes And Sayings

The essence of power is the knowledge that what you do is going to have an effect not just an immediate but perhaps a lifelong effect on the happiness and wellbeing of millions of people and so I think the essence of power is to be conscious of what it can mean for others. — Bob Hawke

While society cannot provide employment for its members, the production/work/income nexus has to be abandoned as a justification for our present parsimony to the unemployed. An assumption cannot be used to justify making second-class citizens of those who are unfortunate enough to constitute living proof of the inaccuracy of that assumption. — Bob Hawke

There is no doubt that this government and this country are benefiting from the reforms that we brought in the 1980s, and that couldn't have been done without the co-operation of the trade union movement. — Bob Hawke

In fact, soon after that [South African sanctions], I was going on an official visit to the UK and Margaret Thatcher instructed every minister to clear the decks of any outstanding matters between us - Australia and the Brits. And she went out of her way to make sure that that was as successful a visit as it possibly could be. — Bob Hawke

It was Indira Gandhi who very much lined up with the Russians. And she was, you know, within the Commonwealth, basically one out on that. The first meeting in 1983 was held in India and I was very off put by her. I just couldn't abide her, basically. — Bob Hawke

We [ with Brian Mulroney and Rajiv Gandhi] went to the meeting in Canada [the 1987 Vancouver CHOGM] and I said to them there that sanctions weren't working; they were just being busted. And it did seem to me that one way that we could bring the apartheid regime down would be if we did mount an effective investment sanction. — Bob Hawke

Peoples have come to experience that political structures and divisions of power are not immutable. Nor will they perceive the distribution of wealth and resources between nations to be unalterably ordained by heaven and incapable of drastic rearrangement by the less than gentle manipulation of man. — Bob Hawke

I had a good personal relationship with Lee Kuan Yew and I used him, in the sense, that he... He made a statement in 1980, and he said in that statement that, "If Australia keeps going the way it is, it will finish up the poor, white trash of Asia." And he was right, because we were just going backwards. — Bob Hawke

I led the fight here against apartheid as President of the ACTU, including particularly the Springbok tour in 1971. And that led to the banning of the South African cricket tour which had been scheduled - that was something that I sorted out with Sir Donald Bradman. That was interesting. — Bob Hawke

I assumed the leadership within the Commonwealth for the fight against apartheid. I was very much assisted by Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister of Canada, [and] Rajiv Gandhi, when he became the Prime Minister of India. And there were trade sanctions. — Bob Hawke

The personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]... For instance, once she goes - if she's ever going to die, it seems to be questionable - if Charles [of Wales] were there, whether there'd be the same sort of cement is very questionable, I think. — Bob Hawke

You've got to remember the Cold War was a very real thing then, so the relationship with the United States was very, very important. As was the relationship that I was developing with China: that was something I did very much. And they weren't conflicting things. — Bob Hawke

I went along with it, and wanted to appoint a significant figure in Malcolm Fraser. I didn't have high hopes that they'd be able to do anything, but something was worth a try. — Bob Hawke

One of the features of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings was [that] she [ Elizabeth II] would have a meeting with each of them. You'd have an allotted time. — Bob Hawke

Don't talk to me about what's happened since [Nelson] Mandela! His successor was absolutely hopeless - "no such thing as AIDS" - and this present President... It's a tragedy, you know, what's happened there post-Mandela, because he was an iconic figure. — Bob Hawke

I rang Brian [Mulroney] up. I said, "What's this bloody nonsense. You've got a wheat trade with Iraq and you won't come aboard?" I said, "We've got a bloody big wheat trade too, so get your priorities right." And he said, "Okay, Bob. I'll come." I rang George and he was very appreciative. — Bob Hawke

If you've got good chemistry at the top, it's an enormous help. It's easy to have good chemistry with some, not so easy with others. With [Robert Mugabe], for example. — Bob Hawke

It was the South African Government that has introduced politics into sport by decreeing politically that no non-white person will represent their country. They introduced politics into sport." And Don [Bradman] was a very shrewd old bloke, and he looked at me for about thirty seconds and then he said, "Bob, I've got no answer to that." And that was it. — Bob Hawke

I told [ David Lange] he was crazy, because you can't have an alliance relationship if you refuse access to their ships. And the Americans wanted to punish him very severely and I intervened there and softened them somewhat. They wanted to really take some tough, reactive measures to New Zealand. — Bob Hawke

There is a reciprocal respect for [ Elizabeth II], for her interest in the Commonwealth. The members of the Commonwealth recognise that here is a genuine interest from the top. So, that's one reason. I'm not putting it necessarily in order of importance. — Bob Hawke

She [ Elizabeth II] is, you know, "Do-what-you're-told, Lady". But in the Commonwealth, she is much more than just a figurehead. — Bob Hawke

I was used on a number of occasions by the United States and China as a conduit. For instance, I was up there talking with the Chinese leadership and they said to me that they were a bit concerned that the Americans had a misunderstanding about their relationship with the Soviets. There was some suggestion that there was a rapprochement developing between China and the Soviets, but nothing could have been further from the truth. — Bob Hawke

Bill Heseltine had been at university with me, at the University of Western Australia. I knew him well. — Bob Hawke

It was a remarkable relationship. Margaret [Thatcher] and I had a love/hate relationship. She was always defending the South African regime and we had some terrible fights, including an enormous one in Canada. — Bob Hawke

By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty. — Bob Hawke

I just loved him and he loved me... He was a most humble man, the most decent man I've ever met in my life and he always looked for the best in people to find positives and he said something to me that always remained with me. He said if you believe in the fatherhood of God you must necessarily believe in the brotherhood of man, it follows necessarily and even though I left the church and was not religious, that truth remained with me. — Bob Hawke

[ Elizabeth II] has immersed herself, in the sense [that] she can speak intelligently about any and all members of the Commonwealth and she has played a role. — Bob Hawke

Geoffrey [Howe] and I were mates, and he disagreed with [ Margaret Thatcher] position. So, we cooperated surreptitiously. — Bob Hawke

Brian Mulroney, myself, [and] Rajiv Gandhi; I think that was the real core [of the Commonwealth ]. That was the engine room, I reckon. — Bob Hawke

In sum, the truth is that we luxuriate in the comfortable assertion that women enjoy equality. We have salved our consciences by eliminating the more obvious discriminations like unequal rates of pay for work of equal value. But, in fact, we have not eliminated the inheritance of the millennia that women are lesser beings, an inheritance which still manifests itself in a whole range of prejudice and other forms of discrimination. — Bob Hawke

The concept there was that the small number of developed countries within the Commonwealth should provide assistance. This was not just financial but personal, providing experts and so on, to assist less developed members of the Commonwealth to get on the growing path. And that was part of what we did with South Africa. — Bob Hawke

I said to my people, "We're knocking apartheid off but we've got to be prepared to assist them." And I sent senior people over there to assist the incoming South African regime to go about the economic plan. — Bob Hawke

We had a very good relationship. Very good. I liked [Sonny Ramphal]. I thought he was a genuine man. — Bob Hawke

I wrote a letter to our Australian newspaper about three weeks before the invasion and I said, "Osama bin Laden must be on his knees morning and night praying to Allah that the Americans will invade." And, of course, he was, because nothing more advanced his cause - the cause of terrorism - than the invasion of Iraq. It was an absurdity. — Bob Hawke

It was very much an Australian/New Zealand initiative to have a nuclear free South Pacific. And the Americans were very apprehensive about this. So, I explained to them that, as far as I was concerned, this didn't involve any diminution in our commitment to the ANZUS relationship. But David Lange took it further and he barred visits of US nuclear warships to New Zealand. — Bob Hawke

As far as we're concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa. — Bob Hawke

I think there are a number of reasons, not least of which is the personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]. It's very easy to underrate her significance. I think she finds the Commonwealth and her position as Head of the Commonwealth infinitely more interesting than being the Queen of England, because she has no significant role in the latter. — Bob Hawke

I don't know who described Mahathir [bin Mohamad] as a pillar of the Commonwealth, but they don't know what they're talking about. — Bob Hawke

Life Lessons by Bob Hawke

1. Bob Hawke taught us the importance of hard work and dedication, as he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of all Australians.
2. He also showed us the importance of being open to change and adapting to new situations, as he was willing to take risks and embrace new ideas.
3. Finally, he taught us the importance of having a strong sense of purpose and commitment to a cause, as he was passionate about making a difference in the world.