Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Thing
Figure
Successors
Absolutely
Nelson
Figures
Iconic
Present
Hopeless
Since
Post
Happened
Posts
Talk
Aids
Successor
President
Tragedy
Mandela

More quotes by Bob Hawke

Image
I really had very little to do with Pierre Trudeau. He was off the scene very soon.
Bob Hawke
Image
[ 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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty.
Bob Hawke
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Geoffrey [Howe] and I were mates, and he disagreed with [ Margaret Thatcher] position. So, we cooperated surreptitiously.
Bob Hawke
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I respected [Margaret Thatcher] enormously. She had great integrity in that respect.
Bob Hawke
Image
The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.
Bob Hawke
Image
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
Image
[ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.
Bob Hawke
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I believe [ Rajiv Gandhi] had a real sense that he would be assassinated.
Bob Hawke