The Hawke Memoirs By Bob Hawke

The Hawke Memoirs By Bob Hawke

Hardcover

ISBN 0855615028

Publisher: William Heinemann Australia 1994

Used – Near Fine. This book is in mint condition. The Dust Jacket has some very limited signs of wear and the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. The book is protected with a Cellophane cover.

Bob Hawke takes the reader on an interesting journey through his childhood up to and including his years in England as a Rhodes scholar. When he returned to Australia he was responsible for making major changes to the stevedoring industry through containerisation. This led to Hawke being elected President of the ACTU on 11 September 1968.

Before Hawke became Prime Minister his time in the ACTU introduced him to many world events on which he reflects. Through one of these, I gained a new understanding of the United Nations partitioning of Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states with the proclamation of the State of Israel on 14/5/1948 and how taking it from the Palestinians has never been resolved for them.

Hawke describes how Australia's links to the USA, was a direction initiated by Prime Minister John Curtin who in 1942 stated “Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links and kinship with the United Kingdom.” Hawke's character assessment of President Reagan was of a man he found very friendly and well liked, not an intellectual but someone who did defer to his appointed experts.

Hawkes thoughts on Soviet Communism, Nazism (extreme racism with authoritarian views and behaviour) and Fascism (one party dictatorship which is against democracy and usually racist) led him to name them as the three greatest scourges of the 20th Century. His thoughts on Mao's Great Leap Forward (1958-62) involving collectivism, starvation and atrocious punishment of Chinese citizens gave me an insight into this period in China's history.

Hawke further provides a background on the joint communication facilities with the USA at North West Cape in Western Australia, Pine Gap out from Alice Springs and Narrungar in S.A.

A whole chapter is devoted to the history of uranium mining in Australia which has the world's largest uranium deposits. Of further interest is the background of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology and to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. Of note are the non-signatories i.e. India, Israel, Pakistan, South Sudan and North Korea which withdrew.

Leading up to the Australian Labour party winning the 1983 election, Bob Hawke served for one only term in the House of Representatives before taking office in March 1983 as Prime Minister of Australia. He was responsible for introducing asset tests to pensions and an income test on pensioners over 70 years of age. He believed the absence of these tests led to proliferation of tax avoidance schemes. The Costigan Royal Commission pinpointed tax avoidance as Australia's fastest growing industry. The Australian dollar was floated under Bob Hawke. Its first collapse was in early 1985. Hawke's government first floated the idea of a 12.5% consumption tax but it was killed off at a 1985 National Taxation Summit.

Throughout the book Hawke provides many personal assessments on Paul Keating's psychological being.

Hawke's government enacted capital gains tax, disallowed fringe benefits, cracked down on tax shelters and dropped marginal tax rates taking the top rate of 60% down to 49%. It also stopped the taxing of dividends paid to shareholders.