Word: australians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...seats in the 125-seat House of Representatives (an approximate swing of 22), Hawke and his Laborites ended the 7½-year reign of Incumbent Malcolm Fraser and his Liberal/ National Party coalition. Fraser, a three-time winner whose majorities in 1975 and 1977 were the largest in Australian history, tersely conceded defeat. Then, pale and close to tears, he stunned supporters by announcing his immediate resignation as Liberal leader...
...first boasted that he would one day become Prime Minister. Throughout a long and highly visible career, he has enjoyed the image of an accomplished but eminently human character: in his past are both a Rhodes scholarship and a drinking problem. At Oxford he wrote a thesis on Australian labor relations and swaggered into the Guinness Book of World Records by gulping down 2½ pints of beer in 12 seconds...
After first running for Parliament unsuccessfully in 1963, Hawke spent the next 17 years commanding attention and consolidating political power indirectly: as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (A.C.T.U.) from 1970 to 1980, as president of the Labor Party (1973-78), and as the hand-picked protégé of Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. By the time he joined Parliament in 1980, Hawke was already Australia's most popular public figure. His bid for leadership seemed only a matter of time...
...breadth and brashness of Hawke's ambitions alarm some Australians as much as they delight others. The new contender is at once an urbane Rhodes scholar and a combative political gladhander, an articulate negotiator and a reformed alcoholic. He first attracted attention as president of the influential Australian Council of Trade Unions (A.C.T.U.) from 1970 to 1980. Even before Hawke was elected to Parliament, a 1979 poll revealed him as Australia's favorite choice for Prime Minister. When at last he did join Parliament two years ago, he was, he said, determined not to "warm...
...polls. A state election two weeks ago in Western Australia resulted in a startling 7.8% swing to Labor, which now controls four of Australia's seven regions. But Labor has often before led in the polls and lost at the polling booths. If Fraser is the man many Australians love to hate, Hawke may be the one they are loath to embrace. The Australian Financial Review, for example, portrays Hawke as "everybody's mate, but maybe not the person to make us make the hard choices." Australians face the first such choice this week as they determine whether...