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He was a brilliant man, and a better statesman.
That his premiership overrides in significance a multi-decade long career in the public eye to such an extent that the latter has become so criminally oft-underdiscussed even by his admirers is testament to the volume of accomplishment in his term of office.
The scale of his achievements is most apparent when you look back to Australia in the 1970s. Successive governments had relegated what could have been among the great powers in south pacific to little more than the "poor white trash of Asia", to quote Lee Kuan Yew. The fact that any politician could not only remedy such circumstances, but irreversibly redefine the economic landscape of his country for the better while facing off a hesitant public service, lulling a potentially adversarial industrial base and remaining popular with the electorate should strengthen all of your convictions that sharp, charismatic, ambitious technocrats can succeed in democratic environments.
So few people love Bob Hawke more than I do. Rest in peace.
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