To claim her role as PM's wife was peripheral is a fiction and a fantasy.
The dramatised documentary Hawke that screened last Sunday depicts a downtrodden, frumpish, glum-faced Hazel Hawke drifting about in dressing gown and slacks, playing a peripheral role in her husband's ascension to the role of prime minister.
History is a fertile field for half-truths, innuendo and the suppression of facts. Women have been written out of history for centuries and Hazel joins a long line of outstanding women who have not been fairly recognised by their partners - and, in this case, a second wife, Blanche D'Alpuget, who wants to claim her place as the great love of a great man who did much for his country.
The dramatised television documentary presents a convincing picture of the way things were. But the program, based on two biographies of Bob Hawke by D'Alpuget, dismisses her predecessor with a few kind words, but mainly as a politically ambitious partner in a failed marriage who clung on for her place in the sun.
This is fiction and fantasy for those who knew Hazel.
Bill Hayden said that the drover's dog could have led the Labor Party to victory in 1983, but Hawke was worried about the number of votes he would lose as a divorced man so he implored Hazel to stay with him. It was the right call.
It did not take long for Hazel to develop a following of her own - which in subsequent elections became a major reason voters supported Hawke. Hazel's speech to the National Press Gallery in January 1984 established her as an unassuming, disarmingly honest, sincere and intelligent human being - an ordinary woman, one we could all identify with and admire for the way she handled herself.
There was a strong feeling among women that if Hazel stayed with Bob, he couldn't be as bad as reports suggested.
In an interview on Sunday following the telemovie, Hawke struggled to remember what Hazel's interests were as the prime minister's wife. He came up with ''education'', but he could not remember any details.
Children, their welfare and the arts were Hazel's priorities. Among other organisations, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Austcare, the Australian Youth Orchestra, the NSW Heritage Council, World Wide Fund for Nature and the Australian Children's Television Foundation had Hazel's support. This meant she worked for them; she was not just a figurehead.
I was two years into my appointment as founding director of the ACTF when Hazel agreed to join the board in December 1983; she remained a member for 18 years.
It was my privilege and good fortune to work alongside and get to know Hazel through those years. She used her public profile selflessly and strategically to promote the causes she chose, including children's television.
Hazel set up a critically important meeting and came with me to see Michael Duffy when he was minister for communications in the Hawke government. Duffy, who respected Hazel, was under siege at a time when there was serious conflict between the commercial television stations and the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. Fifteen commercial licensees were challenging the validity of the children's program standards in the High Court, which handed down a decision stating the standards were invalid.
Duffy introduced an amendment bill strengthening the Broadcasting Television Act and affirming the tribunal's powers to impose quotas and standards. Without this legislation, the children's television production industry could not have become the successful domestic and international business it did.
Hazel never complained about the cards dealt her in life: not when her husband walked out after she had supported his ambition; not when she became the victim of Alzheimer's.
She and Bob had built a new home in Sydney where they were living after he lost the prime ministership to Paul Keating. Hazel invited me and another colleague to visit. She told us that Bob and Blanche wished to marry sooner rather than later, but the law required separation for a year prior to divorce. To move the wedding date forward, Bob wanted Hazel to agree that they had not been living as man and wife, although they were living under the same roof and undertaking public functions together. She feared financial retribution for the children if she did not agree.
We urged her to seek independent legal advice, but Hazel chose to go quietly. She moved to a simple suburban home, while Bob and Blanche moved into the harbour mansion.
Hazel's memory had been troubling her and she suggested she resign from the ACTF board. I talked her out of it at first, but by 2001 she could not travel alone. At her farewell board dinner, she made a speech that was lucid and moving for all those present, who knew what lay ahead as she made no secret of her condition.
Hazel is an exceptional person who was always gracious. Bob Hawke was a fortunate man to have her by his side when he ran to be prime minister. His wife was an important vote winner and it is unlikely Bob's ambitions would have been fulfilled without her loyalty and dedication to him, and the genuine care she demonstrated for the people of Australia.
She is not someone to be cursorily dismissed from our history.
Patricia Edgar is an author, television producer and educator. She was the founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation.
Email a friend