Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. In rising today I wish to share my condolences on the death of Australia's 23rd Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. Much has already been said about Hawke since his death in May. We've all shared his life stories, his place in Australian history and his influence on our national identity. This is hardly a surprise. Hawke was a giant of our nation and he made an enormous impression on so many of us.

Hawke's contribution to Australia is hard to overstate—Medicare, the Franklin River, the Accord, banning uranium mining, action on workplace gender discrimination, floating the Australian dollar. They are things that many people today take for granted, so deeply ingrained in our community are they. But for families like mine, and millions of others—migrants of first, second, and third generations—his commitment to multiculturalism, welcome, and compassion has meant the world. Hawke rejected racism. He rejected division. He refused to allow racial equality to become a political football, recognising the same shared humanity of us all. Even before he entered parliament he was leading protests against the Springboks, calling for an end to apartheid in South Africa. He took the work started by Al Grassby and Gough Whitlam in the 1970s and made it his own. When he established the Office of Multicultural Affairs he situated it within his own portfolio, making his own personal commitment to harmony and welcome clear to all. He wept speaking about the death of protesters in Tiananmen Square.

He was real; he was authentic—not afraid to show that leadership is not just about being loud and strong. The offer of asylum that he immediately made to Chinese students is a testament to his commitment to human rights. As Barrie Cassidy wrote in the Guardian shortly after Hawke's passing:

No matter how often he was advised to step warily on racism, given the diverse nature of Australia's electorates, he was uncompromising, calling it out whenever he saw it, or any hint of it.

I am too young to have voted for Hawke. In fact, I was born in the year he became Prime Minister. When I got involved in the Labor Party he was a figure of politics past, a piece of living history. But like so many of us, many generations in the party and the Labor movement, I have fond memories of meeting Hawke at a Labor or union function—surrounded, as he was, by many activists like me, eager to sit with a figure of inspiration. These are memories I hope to hold onto for all of my life.

He was a man of warmth and generosity, friendly to a fault—be it a crowd of young Labor members postretirement, and people of every possible background: children, parents, workers and Labor constituents. Many people from an enormous range of backgrounds are claiming a special affinity with Hawke, and here too shall I, as a proud Australian of Italian heritage. The spirit of Italy seeps into my home city, Melbourne—our coffee, our restaurants, our spirit of hospitality—and there's no doubt Hawke lived that spirit. It was part of who he was as well as something he embraced while working with the Italian communities in Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Brunswick and many more.

In a report in the Australian on election day, a member of Hawke's staff described his electoral office. She said:

… Mr Hawke liked his office to exude all the warmth of an Italian nonna’s kitchen, stocked with tea and biscuits open to all who wanted to pop in.

And she said that she:

… still remembers drinking cappuccinos with the then prime minister at the now closed San Marco restaurant.

For my part, there are many wellsprings of inspiration, but Bob Hawke will always loom large in my mind as I work in this place. We should all seek to reject division and racism. We should all strive to live up to Bob's legacy of generosity, welcome, compassion and leadership. Today I join my colleagues in this place in offering my sincere condolences to Hawke's family. He will be deeply missed. Arrivederci, Mr Hawke.