Bob Hawke Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I can't speak with authority about Emeka Anyaoku. I just didn't know him that well.

  Bob Hawke

  Speak, Authority, Wells

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Firsts, India, Commonwealth

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  11 Copy quote

• All the arguments there are against Malcolm [Turnbull] - and there are many - the one thing in which he is impeccable and why I would support him in this is that he has an absolutely impeccable record on the question of colour and race. People often wondered why. What I see as a possible explanation is [that] he came from a very wealthy family - a 'squattocracy' - and he had private education at home and then he went to boarding school at Melbourne Grammar School, one of those lead schools in Australia.

  Bob Hawke

  Home, School, Race

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Political, Heaven

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Queens, Thinking, Personality

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  5 Copy quote

• It was very much an Australian/New Zealand initiative to have a nuclear free South Pacific. And the Americans were very apprehensive about this. So, I explained to them that, as far as I was concerned, this didn't involve any diminution in our commitment to the ANZUS relationship. But David Lange took it further and he barred visits of US nuclear warships to New Zealand.

  Bob Hawke

  Commitment, Nuclear, Initiative

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• Bill Heseltine had been at university with me, at the University of Western Australia. I knew him well.

  Bob Hawke

  Australia, Bills, Wells

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  5 Copy quote

• George Bush Junior [George W Bush] was a religious fanatic, and Tony Blair wasn't far behind in a way.

  Bob Hawke

  Religious, Juniors, Way

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

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

  Bob Hawke

  Integrity

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• It was the South African Government that has introduced politics into sport by decreeing politically that no non-white person will represent their country. They introduced politics into sport." And Don [Bradman] was a very shrewd old bloke, and he looked at me for about thirty seconds and then he said, "Bob, I've got no answer to that." And that was it.

  Bob Hawke

  Sports, Country, Government

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• I rang my friend Jim Wolfensohn, who was then running a private commercial bank in New York. I said, "Come up to Vancouver", and he did. I put my proposition to him. He said, "I think it could work." I said, "Will you help us?" He said, "Yes." So, I set aside senior people in our treasury and they worked with Wolfensohn and the investment sanctions were applied. And that's what brought the regime down. The last South African Finance Minister, Barend du Plessis, went on record as saying that it was the investment sanctions that put the final nail in the coffin of apartheid.

  Bob Hawke

  Senior, Running, New York

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  5 Copy quote

• [John Howard] led the Government. They had the numbers, and just basically automatically went along with the Americans.

  Bob Hawke

  Government, Numbers

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Iraq, Priorities, Bob

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• When George Bush Senior [George HW Bush] was getting his alliance together to go into Iraq - to kick the Iraqis out of Kuwait - he rang me up. I was very close to George Bush Senior; I got to know him well as Vice President to Ronald Reagan. And George rang me up and said, "Oh, Bob," he said, "I'm having trouble with Brian [Mulroney]." He said, "He's got a big wheat trade with Iraq, and he doesn't want to upset that." I said, "You leave it with me."

  Bob Hawke

  Senior, Kuwait, Iraq

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• [ Rajiv Gandhi] was very reflective and rueful and regretful about the fact that his children's education...He wanted them to get educated outside of India, but he said to me the only place that he found where they would be safe was in Russia, and he didn't really want them to be educated there! So, I said, "Well, send them to Australia. I'll look after them." And my security bloke went absolutely bloody bananas, and I said, "We'll look after them." But, in the end, he didn't send them.

  Bob Hawke

  Children, Australia, Russia

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Would Be, Roles, Worthwhile

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• I told [ David Lange] he was crazy, because you can't have an alliance relationship if you refuse access to their ships. And the Americans wanted to punish him very severely and I intervened there and softened them somewhat. They wanted to really take some tough, reactive measures to New Zealand.

  Bob Hawke

  Crazy, Alliances, Ships

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• [ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.

  Bob Hawke

  Mother, Leader, Attractive

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• If you've got good chemistry at the top, it's an enormous help. It's easy to have good chemistry with some, not so easy with others. With [Robert Mugabe], for example.

  Bob Hawke

  Mugabe, Example, Helping

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• The concept there was that the small number of developed countries within the Commonwealth should provide assistance. This was not just financial but personal, providing experts and so on, to assist less developed members of the Commonwealth to get on the growing path. And that was part of what we did with South Africa.

  Bob Hawke

  Country, Numbers, Growing

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• I had no time for Indira Gandhi. She was too much in the Russian camp for my liking.

  Bob Hawke

  Too Much, Camps

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Real, War, Important

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  5 Copy 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

  Tragedy, President, Hopeless

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  4 Copy quote

• I was used on a number of occasions by the United States and China as a conduit. For instance, I was up there talking with the Chinese leadership and they said to me that they were a bit concerned that the Americans had a misunderstanding about their relationship with the Soviets. There was some suggestion that there was a rapprochement developing between China and the Soviets, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

  Bob Hawke

  Talking, Numbers, Chinese

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  6 Copy quote

• One other thing: at the meeting in Canada, [there was] the coup in Fiji. This comes to an important part of the Commonwealth: the role of the Queen [Elizabeth II]. I had absolutely just enormous respect for her as leader of the Commonwealth. You could talk to her about any of the fifty-one countries of the Commonwealth and you could have an intelligent conversation with her about the economics, the politics. She really immersed herself in the Commonwealth.

  Bob Hawke

  Country, Queens, Intelligent

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

  7 Copy quote

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