FED: ALP to honor Hazel Hawke, but Bob won t be there

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-1999
FED: ALP to honor Hazel Hawke, but Bob won t be there

CANBERRA, Aug 17 AAP - She already holds national living treasure status in the hearts of
most Australians and this week Labor luminaries will gather to honour Hazel Hawke at a dinner
in Sydney.

But the man who catapulted her into the national spotlight, former husband and former prime
minister Bob Hawke, will not be there to join the celebrations.

ALP national secretary Gary Gray said the Labor Party's national executive was hosting the
dinner to honour Mrs Hawke's three-decade commitment to charity and Australian life in
general.

"Hazel Hawke has worked tirelessly for many significant causes, from her involvement with
the Brotherhood of St Laurence in the 1970s, her work with the Australian Children's
Television Foundation since the early 1980s and more recently, her contribution to the
Aboriginal reconciliation process," Mr Gray said in a statement.

"Her campaign commitment to the ALP and trade union cause has been unstinting; her loyalty
has never faltered and she has endured the many demands of political life with enormous good
humour and grace."

Leading ALP figures expected to assemble at the New South Wales parliamentary dining room
on Thursday night include Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and former prime minister Gough
Whitlam and his wife Margaret.

They will join Reconciliation Council chairwoman Lowitja O'Donoghue and Mrs Hawke's three
children and grandchildren.

But Mr Hawke, who dumped his wife of 39 years to marry his younger, glamorous blonde-haired
biographer Blanche d'Alpuget in 1995, will be a notable exception.

Mrs Hawke, who was nominated as a Living National Treasure in a national poll in 1997, has
refused to publicly criticise his actions.

An ALP spokesman said Mr Hawke was relaxed about his omission from the invitation list, but
the party did not believe his presence would be appropriate.

The dinner will benefit the Hazel Hawke Scholarship which was recently established at the
Curtin University of Technology in Perth.

AAP rft/mfh/sr/br

KEYWORD: HAZEL

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