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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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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
Real
Gandhi
Think
Brian
Thinking
Commonwealth
Engine
Engines
Core
Room
Rooms
Reckon

More quotes by 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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I rang Brian [Mulroney] up. I said, What's this bloody nonsense. You've got a wheat trade with Iraq and you won't come aboard? I said, We've got a bloody big wheat trade too, so get your priorities right. And he said, Okay, Bob. I'll come. I rang George and he was very appreciative.
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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I don't know who described Mahathir [bin Mohamad] as a pillar of the Commonwealth, but they don't know what they're talking about.
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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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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I think there are a number of reasons, not least of which is the personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]. It's very easy to underrate her significance. I think she finds the Commonwealth and her position as Head of the Commonwealth infinitely more interesting than being the Queen of England, because she has no significant role in the latter.
Bob Hawke
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By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty.
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
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[ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.
Bob Hawke
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The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.
Bob Hawke
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I had a very close relationship with [Brian] Mulroney.
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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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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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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[ 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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My point was that the war was intrinsically wrong, and as a result of our participation we haven't improved Australia's security but created a greater danger at home and abroad.
Bob Hawke
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I respected [Margaret Thatcher] enormously. She had great integrity in that respect.
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 will not allow to become a political issue in this country the question of Asianisation.
Bob Hawke