Kelty tells of Hawke’s ‘unfinished business’

Bob Hawke saw tackling climate change and a treaty with indigenous people as Australia’s ‘unfinished business’.

Bob Hawke and Blanche d’Alpuget during the wedding of her son Louis Pratt at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains last Saturday. Picture: James Simmons Photography

Bob Hawke saw tackling climate change and a treaty with indigenous people as Australia’s “unfinished business”, says former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty who hailed his close friend and co-­architect of the Accord as a “genius”.

Mr Kelty, who first met Mr Hawke in 1966 when he was a “warrior” advocate for the ACTU, said he walked away with tears in his eyes after a final deeply emotional meeting with Mr Hawke a few weeks ago.

“He’s dying and when you ask about the big issues, he says ­climate change, we’ve got to deal with climate change,’’ Mr Kelty told The Australian.

“We talked about here we are with this tiny planet in this immense universe living in a continent inhabited by indigenous people for 50,000 years.

“Look after the planet, respect indigenous people with their long history and make sure we maintain that social-democratic model. That was the framework for the discussion.

“Here’s a bloke dying, talking about climate change and indigenous Australia. He was still thinking. He had that clarity of thought. He’s incredibly special. It’s that ­respect for indigenous people which, in his view, has always manifested as a treaty and that was his unfinished business.

“You walk away and the bloody tears are coming out your eyes; you can’t help it.”

Mr Kelty said Mr Hawke and Paul Keating had been responsible for “some of the greatest labour reforms in the history of the country, including Medicare, national superannuation, the minimum wages system, the increase in education expenditure and (action to combat) discrimination against women.”

A memorial for the former union leader outside Trades Hall in Melbourne last night. Picture: David Geraghty

One of Mr Kelty’s successors, ACTU secretary Sally McManus, said she met Mr Hawke in his Sydney office before she took over the job two years ago.

“He talked a lot about negotiations, he talked a lot about the ­Accord, he talked to me about taking on journalists. He said he would just take them on and get on top in interviews and that you should try and do that,’’ she said.

“For me, it was in a way surreal because here was this person you’d grown up with on TV and all of a sudden I am sitting in his room and I am about to be ACTU leader like he was. He, at that stage, had ­watery eyes like a grandfather. He was just reflecting, being positive and being incredibly nice and gentle. And then, like this, he switched.

“He said ‘what’s your current budget?’ and ‘how many staff have you got?’ I didn’t have the figure off the top of my head. I wasn’t even in the job yet. His eyes were sharp, direct, the intellect coming out. He just changed from being a grandfather to what you remembered. You wouldn’t want to have been under cross-examination from him.”

Blanche d’Alpuget outside her Sydney home yesterday. Picture: John Grainger

Former ACTU president and cabinet minister Simon Crean said Mr Hawke drove generational change but also gave Labor “legitimacy and longevity” in government. Mr Crean said the outpouring of grief at Mr Hawke’s passing was more than him being a great character. “He did connect, he did relate, he did have charisma,’’ he said. “But more than that, he did bring the country together.

“I think in the current climate where there’s so much division and frustration with the division and the inability to get agreement. Bob showed how it could be done.”