Whatever one thinks of their politics, Bob Hawke and John Howard were two of our very best prime ministers, and together they gave Australia close to a quarter-century of economic reform plus social harmony.

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There was one important difference, though, in their respective circumstances. Hawke's reforms were carried largely with Opposition support; Howard's in the teeth of a fierce antagonism.

The Australia of 2000 was comfortable with its past and confident about its future. Over the course of two centuries, a convict colony had become one of the world's great democracies and arguably the world's most successful immigrant society.

Hawke's co

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