Rt Hon Bob Hawke AC

Speaker Profile

The Rt Hon. Robert (Bob) Hawke AC led the Labor Party to victory in the general election of March 1983 and became Australia's longest serving Labor Prime Minister, winning three successive elections.

Mr Hawke joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1947 and was elected President of the ALP for the period 1973-1978. In 1980 he was elected to the Federal Parliament, and in February 1983 became the Leader of the opposition. He led the Labor Party to victory in the general election in March 1983 and, in winning three successive elections, became Australia's longest serving Labor Party Minister. He ceased to be Prime Minister in December 1991 and resigned from the Parliament in February 1992.

Current honorary positions include: Member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University; Chairman of the Committee of Experts on Membership of the Education International; Olympic Attache of the Olympic Council of Malaysia for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games; Chairman of the Sydney City Mission Fundraising Task Force and Chairman, Fundraising Campaign, International Diabetes Institute.

Mr Hawke is also engaged in business consulting work and he published The Hawke Memoirs in 1994.

Travels from New South Wales