Bob Hawke’s daughter Ros Dillon settles after battle over dad’s will
Ros Dillon may have set her sights on a chunky $4.2 million cut of her late father Bob Hawke’s multimillion-dollar estate, but in the end was satisfied with a sliver of the former prime minister’s legacy, Annette Sharp reveals.
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Ros Dillon may have set her sights on a chunky $4.2 million cut of her late father Bob Hawke’s multimillion-dollar estate but in the end was satisfied with a sliver — around $40,000.
It’s almost enough to buy her a much-needed set of implanted teeth (estimated cost $30,000) and a future burial plot (estimated $14,400), two of an extensive list of items she tabled in her NSW Supreme Court legal claim lodged in December.
Additionally she will receive $750,000 the former prime minister set aside for each of his three surviving children — and his stepson, artist Louis Pratt, only child of Hawke’s second wife, writer Blanche d’Alpuget — in his last will.
Twelve months and five days after Hawke died, Dillon on Thursday signed off on her settlement with her stepmother and the executers of her father’s estate.
The resolution of mediation talks came as d’Alpuget heads into her third month of chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer diagnosed before Easter.
Yesterday Dillon told this column: “I am relieved that the matter has been resolved and wish Blanche well in her recovery.”
The mediation was finally achieved after an unlikely broker stepped up to play peacemaker between the warring Hawkes.
Graham Richardson, former Hawke government minister, and his wife Amanda, joined mediation talks a month ago after the former Labor environment, arts, sports and tourism minister became concerned for Hawke’s enduring legacy and the damage to his broken family.
Having known Ros, or Rosslyn, and her siblings Susan and Steven during his years with the ALP from 1971 — the same decade Hawke rose to power — Richardson told this column he had seen first hand all that Hawke’s political career had cost his family.
“Bob was a god — and while I had my moments with him during his parliamentary career — I really hope not to see his name diminished further. He was no saint, but he’d hate this fight,” Richardson said yesterday.
When Richardson’s wife Amanda learned d’Alpuget had the support of Ros’s older sister Sue Pieters-Hawke in the mediation talks, the couple contacted Dillon to offer assistance with what
they knew would be a complicated legal process.
Dillon, who has famously battled addiction since she was a teenager, explosively claimed in her lawsuit to have been raped repeatedly by former Hawke friend and Labor MP Bill Landeryou, now deceased, in the 1980s.
The divorced mother-of-two said her father told her at the time that she couldn’t go to the police about the alleged assaults as it would detrimentally affect his hopes of becoming leader of the Labor Party and future prime minister.
She said the response was “shocking and hurtful” and had “haunted” her in the decades since.
Richardson, a famed ALP lobbyist and “fixer”, refused to discuss the details of the private mediation between Dillon and d’Alpuget but admitted the legal claim had made him “sad”.
“It’s so sad to see this kind of fight over money. Amanda and I just thought it would be best for all concerned if it was tied off, resolved and put away. Both Blanche and Ros aren’t in great shape health-wise and they really didn’t need this to be dragging on.”
While d’Alpuget battles breast cancer, Dillon, 59, has admitted in court documents to suffering depression, anxiety, PTSD and agoraphobia.
Neither Dillon nor d’Alpuget responded to calls yesterday.
This column understands d’Alpuget will also pick up the tab for Dillon’s legal fees — put in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — after Dillon retained lawyer and East Sydney Liberal branch president Michael Tiyce to represent her in the stoush.
Federal hopeful Tiyce, who describes himself as “Lawyer, rationalist, dog lover, r6 rider,
East Sydney Liberal branch prez, Rule of law fanatic, #Gaystapo” on his Twitter site, was advised by the Richardsons prior to settlement his services were no longer required.
Asked if Dillon was happy with the settlement, which has dashed her hopes of buying a $2.5 million home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Richardson said: “I think so, in so far as Ros can be happy. She’s put up with a lot through the years. It’s had an inevitable impact on her.”
d’Alpuget received the lion’s share of Hawke’s estate — put at over $10 million following the sale of the couple’s Northbridge home last year for $9.2 million — along with racehorses, investments and the proceeds of an auction of Hawke memorabilia that netted close to $600,000.
annette.sharp@news.com.au