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Bob Hawke

October

Britain's King Charles wears the Imperial State Crown and Queen Camilla wears the Diamond Diadem during a ceremony on the day of the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)

A future republic has to be for every Australian

A republic cannot just be about severing ties with Britain. It has to be about unifying Australia too.

  • The AFR View
King Charles III will make his first visit to Australia as its crowned head of state.

Charles III will find republicans who missed their best chance

The vibrant republican sentiment of the 1980s has been replaced by a dour, downbeat guilt-ridden version in the 2020s.

  • John Roskam

September

Productivity Commission chairwoman Danielle Wood last week admitted that economists have lost power in policy debates.

How business and economists can become relevant again

A central problem is that good economic policies have not been well communicated and have often been debated in an echo chamber of elites.

  • John Kehoe

July

Penalties have to be harsher than just a cost of doing business.

How to burst the CFMEU’s balloon for good

Press the construction union, and it simply bulges up somewhere else. More tools are needed if the union’s long-term culture is to change.

  • Peter Richards
Henry Hutchison of Australia during the Men’s Rugby Sevens Quarter Final match between Australia and USA during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in Paris.

The cheeky Bob Hawke quip that could deliver our first gold medal

They delivered an 18-0 drubbing to the Americans in their sevens quarter-final after drawing inspiration from some blunt speaking by Bob Hawke.

  • Staff writers
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The Albanese government should deregister the CFMEU.

On CFMEU, Albo must emulate Hawke

The union must be deregistered, and government construction contracts must once again be used to ensure that unacceptable union behaviour is not tolerated.

  • Roger Gyles
Sir Rod Carnegie had a major influence over Australian mining, business and national economic policy in the 1980s.

Australia’s blue blood miner, management moderniser and business nationalist

During his heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, Sir Roderick Carnegie was a believer in the power of big corporations competing in open markets to drive human progress.

  • The AFR View
Sir Rod in 1998 when he chaired Adacel Technologies.

Rod Carnegie: corporate giant felled at the final hurdle

Sir Rod Carnegie soared across the corporate sky in the ’70s and ’80s but was thwarted in his attempt to secure full Australian local control of mining giant CRA.

  • Andrew Clark
Carnegie is flanked by Ron Walker (left) and Lloyd Williams after a Hudson Conway annual general meeting.

Tributes for Rod Carnegie, driving force for corporate nationalism

Sir Rod Carnegie, who had a major influence over Australian mining, business and national economic policy in the 1980s, has died at the age of 91.

  • Andrew Clark

June

ACTU secretary Sally McManus and president Michele O’Neil at the triennial ACTU Congress on Thursday.

Split over ‘unbalanced’ ACTU policy on Israel-Gaza

A Left-aligned union leader has claimed officials quashed debate over Gaza at last week’s ACTU Congress by allowing criticism of Israel without mentioning Hamas.

  • David Marin-Guzman

April

Michael Lee

‘Destined for greatness’: Lehrmann judge tested his arm with former PM

All eyes will be on Justice Michael Lee – arguably the best-known judge in the land – when he hands down his judgment in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case on Monday.

  • Michael Pelly

March

Four-year terms to end short-termism

New Business Council of Australia president Geoff Culbert pushed the idea at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit to “break out of the jail of short-term thinking” in Australian politics.

  • The AFR View

February

Prime Minister John Curtin (right) and US southwest Pacific commander General Douglas MacArthur.

Keating’s strategic illusion dies hard

The former prime minister’s timid isolationism, leaving others to do the heavy lifting, has its roots deep in Labor’s history.

  • Alex McDermott

December 2023

Treasurer Paul Keating and RBA governor Bob Johnston announce the float of the Australian dollar on December 9, 1983.

Forty years after $A float, no brave new world of prosperity in view

The anniversary of the bold decision is a reminder that the float set off a domino-effect of policy liberalisation that reversed Australia’s economic decline.

  • The AFR View
Paul Keating and Bob Johnston announce the float of the Australian dollar on December 9, 1983.

‘No point being a mouse’: Keating 40 years after floating the dollar

The float of the Australian dollar in1983 should be an example for political leaders to realise there are “long-term gains for some short-term pain” from tough economic reforms, says one of the players involved.

  • John Kehoe
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November 2023

Globally, neoliberalism fell to its knees in 2007, struck down by the Global Financial Crisis.

Who killed neoliberalism?

Neoliberalist theory and practice went so horribly wrong because governments that put their faith in markets forgot one word – competition.

  • Craig Emerson
Clem Walton (right) and youngest son John hold the piece of radioactive rock in September 1954. The rock led to the discovery of the Mary Kathleen lease. The 100lb rock and his geiger counter led Walton a nearby hill “alive with uranium”, which would ultimately become the centre of the mine.

How Rio Tinto changed Australia

The group’s pioneering role in the Pilbara helped transform the nation through engagement with Asia. A new book reveals the full story for the first time.

  • Andrew Clark
Qantas has suffered reputational damage.

It’s time to scrap the Qantas foreign ownership cap

Capping the foreign ownership of Qantas makes the airline a supplicant of Canberra, and many of its problems flow from that.

  • John Wylie

October 2023

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Bill Hayden’s foreign policy was his finest hour

Former Labor leader Bill Hayden’s 1983 ANZUS review preserved the alliance, but he despised craven and servile pandering to Washington

  • James Curran
Anthony Pratt.

Will that be Mr Pratt, Sir Anthony or Colonel?

The Melbourne billionaire toyed with the idea of receiving a knighthood from King Charles III, whose charities he supported.

  • Aaron Patrick

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/bob-hawke-27j