Hazel Hawke
Encyclopedia
Hazel Hawke, AO is the former wife of Bob Hawke
, Prime Minister of Australia
1983–91. They divorced after he left the prime ministership. She worked in social policy areas, and was an excellent amateur pianist and a patron of the arts. After she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
, she made public appearances in order to raise awareness of the disease and surrounding issues. She is now in high-level nursing care.
in 1929. She met her future husband Bob Hawke
at a church fellowship in Perth. They married on 3 March 1956. They lived in Melbourne
from 1958 to 1983, including during his term as President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
. Bob spent much of his time in Canberra
after his election to Parliament
in 1980. After he became Prime Minister on 11 March 1983, the family lived in The Lodge in Canberra, until Hawke was replaced as Prime Minister by Paul Keating
in December 1991.
During their marriage, Bob Hawke had an affair with Blanche d'Alpuget
in the 1970s. Hawke proposed to his mistress in 1978, but later withdrew the offer saying "Divorce could cost Labor three per cent." D'Alpuget was initially so upset at Hawke's decision not to leave Hazel that she considered suicide or killing him, but they reconciled and remained friends—so much so that she became his official biographer. From 1980 to 1982 d'Alpuget worked closely with Hawke in preparing his 1982 biography. In 1988 Hawke and d'Alpuget resumed their affair but he remained ostensibly committed to his wife during his prime ministership. After he left office in 1991, he and Hazel announced their separation and later divorced. Hawke and d'Alpuget were married in 1995.
Hazel and Bob Hawke have three children: Susan Pieters-Hawke (born 1957), Stephen (born 1959) and Roslyn (born 1960). Their fourth child, Robert Jr, died in his early infancy in 1963.
advocate in Australia
, often drawing on her personal experience of having an illegal abortion in 1952 so that her future husband Bob Hawke
could further his education at the University of Oxford
.
's Concerto in F for Three Pianos and Orchestra, K. 242, the others being Duncan Gifford
and Rebecca Chambers. They played at the Sydney Opera House
with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
under John Hopkins
. The performance was recorded and is available.
She was the inaugural Patron of the Kendall National Violin Competition, and is now Patron Emeritus.
. The citation read: "For service to the community, particularly through the promotion of the reconciliation process, support for continued improvement in the quality of children's television, as a contributor to the preservation of heritage items, and involvement with environmental and wildlife preservation groups".
aired an episode of Australian Story
in which Hawke publicly revealed that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease
. Her family had noticed significant short-term memory loss, leading to the diagnosis in 2001. She had been reluctant to go public about the illness she called the 'Big A', but eventually did so to publicise a fund for supporting Alzheimer's sufferers that she had jointly set up with Alzheimer's Australia.
In 2004, Hazel Flynn and Hawke's daughter Susan Pieters-Hawke published a book, Hazel's Journey: A personal experience of Alzheimer's, describing the previous decade of Hawke's life and the onset of Alzheimer's. At the book launch on 1 November 2004, Pieters-Hawke revealed that her mother had reached the mid-stages of the disease and was now suffering from quite severe short-term memory loss. That year the Hazel Hawke Dementia and Care Fund was established. Hawke's granddaughter Sophie Pieters-Hawke launched an education kit for schoolchildren about Alzheimers in 2007.
In August 2009, she was placed in high level care.
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
, Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
1983–91. They divorced after he left the prime ministership. She worked in social policy areas, and was an excellent amateur pianist and a patron of the arts. After she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, she made public appearances in order to raise awareness of the disease and surrounding issues. She is now in high-level nursing care.
Marriage to Bob Hawke
Hazel Masterson was born in Perth, Western AustraliaPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
in 1929. She met her future husband Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
at a church fellowship in Perth. They married on 3 March 1956. They lived in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
from 1958 to 1983, including during his term as President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
. Bob spent much of his time in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
after his election to Parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
in 1980. After he became Prime Minister on 11 March 1983, the family lived in The Lodge in Canberra, until Hawke was replaced as Prime Minister by Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
in December 1991.
During their marriage, Bob Hawke had an affair with Blanche d'Alpuget
Blanche d'Alpuget
Josephine Blanche d'Alpuget is an Australian writer, and second wife of the longest-serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister, Bob Hawke.-Biography:...
in the 1970s. Hawke proposed to his mistress in 1978, but later withdrew the offer saying "Divorce could cost Labor three per cent." D'Alpuget was initially so upset at Hawke's decision not to leave Hazel that she considered suicide or killing him, but they reconciled and remained friends—so much so that she became his official biographer. From 1980 to 1982 d'Alpuget worked closely with Hawke in preparing his 1982 biography. In 1988 Hawke and d'Alpuget resumed their affair but he remained ostensibly committed to his wife during his prime ministership. After he left office in 1991, he and Hazel announced their separation and later divorced. Hawke and d'Alpuget were married in 1995.
Hazel and Bob Hawke have three children: Susan Pieters-Hawke (born 1957), Stephen (born 1959) and Roslyn (born 1960). Their fourth child, Robert Jr, died in his early infancy in 1963.
Abortion
Hazel Hawke has acted as a prominent pro-choicePro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
advocate in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, often drawing on her personal experience of having an illegal abortion in 1952 so that her future husband Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
could further his education at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
Writer
Hazel Hawke has written books including My Own Life: An Autobiography (1992) and A Little Bit Of Magic: Thoughts For Women (1994).Music
Hazel Hawke was an excellent amateur pianist. In 1990, she was one of the three soloists in MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Concerto in F for Three Pianos and Orchestra, K. 242, the others being Duncan Gifford
Duncan Gifford
Duncan George Gifford is an Australian-born award-winning concert pianist and teacher. He has been a professor of piano at the Conservatory of Palma in Majorca since 2006. Musica Viva describes him as a "major artist of his generation"...
and Rebecca Chambers. They played at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra , commonly known as the Sydney Symphony, is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney...
under John Hopkins
John Hopkins (conductor)
John Hopkins OBE is a Yorkshire-born, British conductor and administrator. Hopkins moved to New Zealand in 1957 and to Australia in 1963. He conducted the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 1987 in one of New Zealand's first Orchestral Composers' Reading Workshops...
. The performance was recorded and is available.
She was the inaugural Patron of the Kendall National Violin Competition, and is now Patron Emeritus.
Honours
In June 2001 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of AustraliaOrder of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
. The citation read: "For service to the community, particularly through the promotion of the reconciliation process, support for continued improvement in the quality of children's television, as a contributor to the preservation of heritage items, and involvement with environmental and wildlife preservation groups".
Alzheimer's disease
On 3 November 2003, the ABCAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
aired an episode of Australian Story
Australian Story
Australian Story is a national weekly documentary series, produced and broadcast on ABC Television.Since 1996 Australian Story has featured many Australians from diverse backgrounds and reputations...
in which Hawke publicly revealed that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. Her family had noticed significant short-term memory loss, leading to the diagnosis in 2001. She had been reluctant to go public about the illness she called the 'Big A', but eventually did so to publicise a fund for supporting Alzheimer's sufferers that she had jointly set up with Alzheimer's Australia.
In 2004, Hazel Flynn and Hawke's daughter Susan Pieters-Hawke published a book, Hazel's Journey: A personal experience of Alzheimer's, describing the previous decade of Hawke's life and the onset of Alzheimer's. At the book launch on 1 November 2004, Pieters-Hawke revealed that her mother had reached the mid-stages of the disease and was now suffering from quite severe short-term memory loss. That year the Hazel Hawke Dementia and Care Fund was established. Hawke's granddaughter Sophie Pieters-Hawke launched an education kit for schoolchildren about Alzheimers in 2007.
In August 2009, she was placed in high level care.
Sources
- Australia's Prime Ministers – Meet a PM – Hawke – Hazel Hawke
- Australia's Prime Ministers – Fast Facts – Hawke
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2003). Australian Story – The Big 'A'.
- Stephens, Tony (2 November 2004). When love shone through the fog, The Age.
- Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (25 November 1998) Pages 2927 and 2928 (a public pro-choice letter from Hazel Hawke)
- It's an Honour Australian Government (Retrieved 23 September 2007)
- Hazel Hawke inspires mission