Bob Hawke remembered in quotes

Paul Keating is one of many to pay glowing tributes to "five-star" and "24-carat" Bob Hawke at the former prime minister's state memorial service.

Bob Hawke Paul Keating

Paul Keating described former prime minister Bob Hawke's legacy as "five-star" and "24-carat". (AAP)

SOME TRIBUTES FROM SPEAKERS AT BOB HAWKE'S MEMORIAL SERVICE

"This memorial service marks the transition from the grief of loss to the celebration of a life triumphantly well lived. With today's transformative service, we smile again, we glow with pride for the presence among us for almost 90 years of a great human being." - Hawke's widow Blanche d'Alpuget.

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"What matters is the value of the legacy, its quality and its endurance. On both counts, Bob Hawke had a well-earned five-star rank and 24-carat stars at that." - Former prime minister Paul Keating.

"Much of the very late focus on my relationship with Bob was on the termination of cooperation between us and his displacement by me as leader. Any cursory observation of those events generally fails to comprehend the very high level of friendship and cooperation between us for those eight-and-a-half years. It lasted right to the end." - Mr Keating.

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"Australians all let us rejoice for the life of Robert James Lee Hawke." - Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

"It was a passionate and affectionate relationship between Bob and the Australian people. They knew each other well. They forgave each other's short comings. They understood each other's virtues, there was trust, there was faith in each other." - Mr Morrison.

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"I loved Bob. He was my mentor, my friend." - Former Labor leader and Hawke cabinet member Kim Beazley.

"At the heart of his ability to persuade was trust. Most people believed... that whether you agreed or not, your happiness was his motive." - Mr Beazley.

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"I will always be proud of what Dad did and of the spirit of optimism and inclusion he helped bring to our country. You all know that families are complex beasts at the best of times and that there can be some tough passages. Our family is no exception." - Hawke's daughter Sue Pieters-Hawke.

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"Bob was no saint. Bob had his faults. But he did a power of good for this country, a power of good for all of us. He made the country and helped make the country what it is. And he made a part for making this country play a better part in the rest of the world." - Former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty.

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"Bob Hawke, Australia's greatest prime minister, leaves an incomparable legacy. A modern nation, more prosperous, more fully enmeshed in a dynamic and assertive region still enjoying the benefits -- economic, social and environmental -- of visionary, hard-fought reform." - Hawke's economic advisor Ross Garnaut.

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"To use a cricketing anology which he would have liked, he was the Don Bradman of Australian politics. There was no peer. He had his weaknesses that were human but he made no secret of them which endeared him to the Australian public." - Former Labor leader Bill Hayden.

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'He reached out, he listened, he learned, he encouraged and he dared, dared us to be a better nation." - Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

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"I like to think of Bob Hawke and my grandfather drinking a beer and glass of wine together, imagining a better world. Creating a vision where a community and a united future is the guiding force for their respective endeavours." - Jacques Cousteau's granddaughter, Celine.

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"All the reflections shared today reinforce that his greatness was one of a kind." - Hawke's granddaughter Sophie Taylor-Price.


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4 min read
Published 14 June 2019 4:08pm
Source: AAP


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