Frank Bongiorno will be in conversation with Joshua Black, Marija Taflaga and Peter Yu on Gold Standard? Remembering the Hawke government. Edited by Frank Bongiorno, Carolyn Holbrook and Joshua Black.

Was the Hawke government ‘the gold standard’ for federal government in Australia? A stellar line-up of historians, social scientists, politicians and journalists sheds valuable new light on the policies, politics and personalities of the Hawke government and asks: What lessons can it offer in the art of reformist government? How do its legacies continue to shape Australian society?

Troy Bramston and Andrew Podger explain how Hawke masterfully managed the work of government and administration; Michelle Grattan and Meghan Hopper analyse how the government and prime minister dealt with the media; Frank Bongiorno shows how the Labor Party won four elections on the trot; while Marija Taflaga looks at how unprepared Hawke’s opponents were for their period in the wilderness. Bruce Chapman and Liam Byrne discuss the competing legacies of the Labor–Union Accords of the 1980s; Meredith Edwards and Carolyn Holbrook demonstrate that social justice and health reform were still possible in the context of fiscal restraint; Marian Sawer shows how women’s policy mattered; while Peter Yu recalls the major disappointments of the era for First Nations Australians. Gareth Evans and Ian Macphee offer their perspectives on the Hawke government’s legacies and impact; Barrie Cassidy and Craig Emerson share their recollections of the Hawke office; and Joshua Black shows that memories of the Hawke era were not so rosy in its immediate aftermath.

Dr Joshua Black is a political historian, policy researcher and media adviser.

Professor Frank Bongiorno AM FAHA FASSA is Donald Horne Professor of History and Public Ideas at the University of Canberra.

Dr Marija Taflaga is Senior lecturer in the ANU School of Politics and International Relations and the Director of the Center for the Study of Australian Politics.

Professor Peter Yu, a Yawuru man with over 40 years’ experience in Indigenous development and advocacy in the Kimberley, is the inaugural Vice-President (First Nations) at The Australian National University

Books will be available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

Additional information:

Registration is required for this event.

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A podcast will be made available after the event.

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