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I respected [Margaret Thatcher] enormously. She had great integrity in that respect.

Bob Hawke

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Bob Hawke
Age: 89 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 9
Died: 2019
Died: May 16
Former Prime Minister Of Australia
Politician
Trade Unionist
Union Organizer
Bordertown
South Australia
Australia
Robert James Lee Hawke
The Honourable Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee Bob Hawke
Respected
Integrity
Respect
Great
Thatcher
Margaret
Enormously

More quotes by Bob Hawke

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[ Elizabeth II] has immersed herself, in the sense [that] she can speak intelligently about any and all members of the Commonwealth and she has played a role.
Bob Hawke
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Peoples have come to experience that political structures and divisions of power are not immutable. Nor will they perceive the distribution of wealth and resources between nations to be unalterably ordained by heaven and incapable of drastic rearrangement by the less than gentle manipulation of man.
Bob Hawke
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[ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.
Bob Hawke
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As far as we're concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.
Bob Hawke
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You've got to remember the Cold War was a very real thing then, so the relationship with the United States was very, very important. As was the relationship that I was developing with China: that was something I did very much. And they weren't conflicting things.
Bob Hawke
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We [ with Brian Mulroney and Rajiv Gandhi] went to the meeting in Canada [the 1987 Vancouver CHOGM] and I said to them there that sanctions weren't working they were just being busted. And it did seem to me that one way that we could bring the apartheid regime down would be if we did mount an effective investment sanction.
Bob Hawke
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While society cannot provide employment for its members, the production/work/income nexus has to be abandoned as a justification for our present parsimony to the unemployed. An assumption cannot be used to justify making second-class citizens of those who are unfortunate enough to constitute living proof of the inaccuracy of that assumption.
Bob Hawke
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Brian Mulroney, myself, [and] Rajiv Gandhi I think that was the real core [of the Commonwealth ]. That was the engine room, I reckon.
Bob Hawke
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It was Indira Gandhi who very much lined up with the Russians. And she was, you know, within the Commonwealth, basically one out on that. The first meeting in 1983 was held in India and I was very off put by her. I just couldn't abide her, basically.
Bob Hawke
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Geoffrey [Howe] and I were mates, and he disagreed with [ Margaret Thatcher] position. So, we cooperated surreptitiously.
Bob Hawke
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I went along with it, and wanted to appoint a significant figure in Malcolm Fraser. I didn't have high hopes that they'd be able to do anything, but something was worth a try.
Bob Hawke
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I really had very little to do with Pierre Trudeau. He was off the scene very soon.
Bob Hawke
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In fact, soon after that [South African sanctions], I was going on an official visit to the UK and Margaret Thatcher instructed every minister to clear the decks of any outstanding matters between us - Australia and the Brits. And she went out of her way to make sure that that was as successful a visit as it possibly could be.
Bob Hawke
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Don't talk to me about what's happened since [Nelson] Mandela! His successor was absolutely hopeless - no such thing as AIDS - and this present President... It's a tragedy, you know, what's happened there post-Mandela, because he was an iconic figure.
Bob Hawke
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The essence of power is the knowledge that what you do is going to have an effect not just an immediate but perhaps a lifelong effect on the happiness and wellbeing of millions of people and so I think the essence of power is to be conscious of what it can mean for others.
Bob Hawke
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By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty.
Bob Hawke
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The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.
Bob Hawke
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It had things that it could do and which I thought were worthwhile: one would be South Africa, of course. And, as I said, I assumed a leadership role within the Commonwealth on that.
Bob Hawke
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The personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]... For instance, once she goes - if she's ever going to die, it seems to be questionable - if Charles [of Wales] were there, whether there'd be the same sort of cement is very questionable, I think.
Bob Hawke
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I assumed the leadership within the Commonwealth for the fight against apartheid. I was very much assisted by Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister of Canada, [and] Rajiv Gandhi, when he became the Prime Minister of India. And there were trade sanctions.
Bob Hawke