What Maui said. True to the letter. I have the hard copies of the documents pushed under my door in the middle of the night urging me and my colleagues back to work. So the resignation, done in cold blood and full knowledge to save my super and savings, was not a drawback to him. And his ilk. Not at all.
Thus when in Kilmore he said, to my face, that he wanted us back to work, I asked him, directly, if his government “would deal with the pilot body through their choice of negotiating body "in good faith" if the AFAP would submit itself to the Arbitration Commission”-they are my words and I remember them very clearly……he said “Yes”......no ifs and no buts.
……and then at every point the AFAP made some progress in the Commission-he, the Prime Minister, "Mr Fixit", the great negotiator, did exactly the opposite and ensured the rug was pulled out. Some might call that lying. Some might certainly say the "fix was in". They might say that, I couldn't possibly comment. How could I know what was in his heart?
He will die very rich. No doubt he saved his parliamentary salary well. Must have. Some may well mourn. Quite possibly. But for me, I will take no joy in his passing. He will be judged at a Higher Tribunal soon as we must all one day be. But Bob, as your eyes soon close for the last time on the harbour views, as you hear the clink of gold (or might it be thirty pieces of silver?) for the last time…..was it worth it mate? Was it really worth it? I guess as an Oxford man he might echo fellow Oxonian Robert Southey’s famous words.
"Why that I cannot tell," said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
Famous indeed. If he was genuinely doing his best to get the industry on a stable footing for deregulation then he failed absolutely spectacularly. Blew billions rather than talking and killed 4 airlines. Fighting to someone else's tune and someone else last dollar. All rather than talk. Hawke’s last breath will undo nought of what he did and what he let happen.
I suspect, that to save ink and time, the obituary writers will do as I have done and cut and paste words from a great writer to tell their tale. Maybe they’ll go to Macbeth for inspiration and simply say……
“ Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it”
Sui Generis