Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech but, as a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I want to speak on behalf of the people of Queensland and give our condolences to the family of Bob Hawke. I want to celebrate a life. I don't see this as loss or something that we park in our memory. Funerals, memorial services and condolences are a wonderful time to celebrate a life well lived. That is an important thing to which we bring truth, because it is truth that really shines through. Bob Hawke was one of Australia's best-remembered prime ministers. I can even recall in 1983 being in Singleton's main street, John Street, when I heard on the news that he had replaced Bill Hayden as the Leader of the Opposition. There are very few things that I tend to remember like that—I know where I was when the moon landing occurred, when John F Kennedy was assassinated—and yet I remember Bob Hawke becoming opposition leader.

I actually didn't vote for Bob Hawke in 1983. I voted for Malcolm Fraser, much to my regret. But I did vote for Bob Hawke when the alternative was Andrew Peacock. My dad has teased me forever for that, because my father was born into an underground-coalmining family in Wales and he understood the blight that the British labour movement had put on the coalminers by nationalising their industry. So my father was no friend of the Labor Party, and he teased me about voting for Bob Hawke. But later on my father would also call him 'the silver bodgie'. That was a term that some people used. But even as a term of derision it was quite often used with affection, which is quite remarkable. We know that Bob Hawke is one of very few people in this country who are known by their first name. People would say 'Bob', and everyone knew who they were talking about. People say the same about Joh and the same about Pauline. I can't think of too many other politicians who everyone across the country knows from their first name only—Bob Hawke.

My understanding of politics in my 20s, back in the 1980s, was limited because I'd spent three years overseas in America. But, as I understand it, John Howard lacked the support from Malcolm Fraser to implement many of the reforms that John Howard sought to implement. But that didn't stop Bob Hawke; he stole them and implemented them, and so did Paul Keating. They made a wonderful pair. As I understand it, they picked up this whole country. It was like a sheepdog running into the middle of a group of people, shaking all the water and mud off it, infecting everyone with its enthusiasm and then wanting to play and take off. In doing that, Bob Hawke picked up this whole country. He did what his predecessors in the Labor Party failed to do and what his contemporaries in the Liberal Party failed to do. He vastly improved this country.

He had his failures, like the ACTU business ventures that failed. From memory, there was Bourke's in Melbourne, and Solo petrol stations. His first attempt to run for parliament failed, and then he went on later to win four federal elections on the trot. Of course, he said something that many people see as cynical—I know I certainly did at the time—and that was his pledge that there would be no child living in poverty by 1990. He was clever and bold and he got away with it. He was shorter than John Howard, but he referred to John Howard as 'shortie'. That cheekiness and that boldness left that tag with John Howard.

Having discussed some of his past indiscretions, I'll go on to what I celebrate about Bob Hawke, which is the majority of what I want to talk about. No. 1: his passion flowed. I can remember the tears rolling down Bob's cheeks when we heard about Tiananmen Square, and they were genuine. They were the sorrow, the sadness and the deep hurt at the senselessness of it all. That man was really in pain when he felt that. Then there was his daughter's battle with drug addiction and the pain there—not only his pain as a father but also his pain for his daughter and her pain. And we know that Bob Hawke attended the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland every year for many years in a row, and he performed as Bob Hawke, in the crowd and sometimes even on the stage.

Another thing that I loved about Bob Hawke was that he was not politically correct. He was blunt and direct and he thrived on it; he loved it. In fact, today's Labor would not allow Bob Hawke to be Prime Minister. Yes, he wouldn't cop racism, which is wonderful, and nor would he fling around the term 'racist' idly. That was significant, because he was a man of character in that sense. He had a wonderful sense of humour, a brutal sense of humour. I can remember him dressing down some journalists. He was especially down-to-earth. After all, One Nation now has a former federal Labor leader in our party today who is also down-to-earth and has a wicked sense of humour. But I think what really matters—what gave Bob Hawke his connection with the Australian people, with politics and with the country as a whole—is that he was natural. He was who he was. He didn't pretend to be someone else. Sure, he was a larrikin in his behaviour, his approach and his sense of humour, as many people have talked about, and that's what led him to be so beloved by people across Australia. Even his political enemies respected him enormously. And he had courage. He had the courage to do what the Liberals at the time lacked the courage to do. He had the courage to deregister the BLF in 1986. Recently, he spoke out against the CFMEU.

Another trait that I loved about Bob Hawke was his leadership ability. Certainly, he had a talented cabinet—I can remember some of them: Button; he had Richo to help him—but he shepherded them, and he did a wonderful job of that. He resurrected politics in this country, gave it some energy, because he had energy, boundless energy. Not just quantity of energy; he had a quality of energy, and that's what I like about him, because that shone through and carried him and it also carried our nation. He initiated and instituted many, many reforms not only in this country but overseas.

When I was working in the underground coalmines in Kentucky, I came across a wonderful old-timer who'd had a stroke, and I had to help him out considerably because he couldn't go underground. We tackled many challenges and brought in quite a few innovations in America. My friend Guy actually said to me, 'Malcolm, there is only one thing we leave behind, and that is our name,' and Bob Hawke's name is a worthy legacy of a life well lived.