You’re not going to get another Prime Minister like that: Graham Richardson on Bob Hawke

Will we ever see another prime minister like Bob Hawke?

It’s the question being asked across the nation today as Australia remembers the former Prime Minister.

A senior minister for the Australian Labor Party during the Hawke government, Graham Richardson looked back fondly on the life of Bob Hawke.

“I can’t imagine another Prime Minister being like Bob Hawke,” Mr Richardson, pictured above alongside Bob Hawke and the Prime Minister of Malta in 1991, told Ross and John.

“I doubt that you can get someone with the raw Aussie accent, skolling beers at the cricket. You’re not going to get another Prime Minister like that.”

It wasn’t the Australian public who voted Hawke out of office, but a leadership challenge that saw the end of his nine year tenure as Prime Minister. Graham Richardson was involved in the move that saw Paul Keating take over the leadership in 1991.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. The Prime Minister job is a huge job,” Mr Richardson told 3AW Breakfast.

“Working 20 hours a day isn’t conducive to good decision making all the time. Eventually you just get tired.”

“Ever since Australia met him, Australia loved him,” Mr Richardson said.

“Hawkey was everybody’s hero.”

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