Hawke model could serve as a pick-me-up for next-gen Labor

WHEN Bob Hawke led Labor to victory in March 1983, 30 years ago tomorrow, his hope was that Labor would become the "normal and natural" party of government for Australia.

Hawke wanted to pioneer a new model of Labor government. After the razzle, dazzle and crash of the Whitlam years, he sought to lead a reforming and responsible Labor government of longevity and legitimacy.

At 34 years of age, Kim Beazley was the youngest minister in the new government. Now Australia's ambassador to the US, he says the election of the Hawke government "heralded the most effective era of federal government in Australia in peacetime".

"The reform agenda," he says, "was massive and, given the constraints of the Cold War, the foreign policy agenda was highly innovative. Australia really began to count for something in terms of international leadership and an exemplary society."

Gareth Evans, who at 38 became the youngest minister in cabinet, says the lesson for modern Labor, and politics generally, is not only what Labor did, but how it did it.

Now chancellor at the Australian National University, Evans sketches out the Hawke model. "With strong leadership, a strong team, strong organisational discipline, a strong policy focus and a willingness to argue hard political cases - rather than be driven by focus-group angst - you can have not only very good government, but electorally very successful government."

Hawke recognised Gough Whitlam's achievements but wasn't blind to its errors and excesses. Unlike the cumbersome Whitlam cabinet, which included all ministers, Hawke wanted an inner cabinet to drive policy, supported by an outer ministry. Cabinet was to abide by the principle of solidarity. "I favoured a style of consensus," Hawke told me recently, "but I was also committed to the concept of cabinet authority. We had learned from the mistakes of the Whitlam government when people could lose in cabinet and then seek to overturn it in caucus. I said that wasn't going to happen."

So his streamlined 13-member cabinet and 14-member outer ministry was sworn in. In contrast, Julia Gillard presides over a top-heavy ministry with a cabinet of 21 and an outer ministry of nine.

Hawke was blessed with a cabinet of exceptional talent - the best since Federation. Consider the names in the first cabinet: Paul Keating, Lionel Bowen, Bill Hayden, John Button, Don Grimes, Ralph Willis, Peter Walsh, Susan Ryan, Mick Young and Evans.

The outer ministry included Beazley, John Dawkins, Neal Blewett, Michael Duffy, John Kerin and Brian Howe.

It is difficult to see Labor compiling a cabinet of this calibre anytime soon. The backgrounds were mostly humble, the experiences diverse, the intellect obvious (at one stage there were three Rhodes scholars) and a mix of professions were represented. Discipline, pragmatism and a drive to enshrine Labor values in policy were the guiding principles.

Although today they are often quarrelling, Hawke's partnership with Paul Keating was crucial to the government's success. Keating was the bold, reforming treasurer with a flair for advocacy; Hawke was the charismatic, consensus-driven leader who set a strategic direction for the government.

In 1983, they found that Malcolm Fraser and John Howard had left a budget deficit forecast of $9.6bn (in today's terms $44bn) and a ramshackle and sclerotic economy. Reform was necessary to avoid becoming the basket case of the Asia-Pacific.

Blewett told me: "It is difficult to see any other Labor leader but Hawke winning four consecutive elections, particularly given the economic turbulence of the 1980s and early 90s."

"Since many of the challenges," Beazley says, "involved economic restructuring, nobody in our show seemed better placed - certainly no one else was likely to build a public consensus around a process of deep reform."

Hawke practised consensus politics, eschewed the politics of division and class warfare. He worked with business, unions and the social welfare sector. He successfully communicated the case for reform. No prime minister was more popular.

The policies that energised productivity and delivered more competitive and efficient markets were fundamental to economic prosperity and social progress. Medicare was created. Education opportunities were expanded and standards were lifted.

Without these reforms, we would not have the great enterprising, aspirational middle class that populates places such as western Sydney. But today, many of these voters are alienated by the party that created the opportunities to improve their lives.

In 1991, when Hawke lost the prime ministership to Keating, his popularity had slumped and the economy was emerging from recession. A favourable assessment of his policy legacy would take time. Hawke's legacy to his party was that he provided the model for a reforming government of longevity. Sadly, it is too late for modern Labor to reach back to the Hawke model to save it from itself. This will be a task for the next generation of Labor.