I believe [ Rajiv Gandhi] had a real sense that he would be assassinated.
BOB HAWKEAs far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.
More Bob Hawke Quotes
-
-
It was very much an Australian/New Zealand initiative to have a nuclear free South Pacific. And the Americans were very apprehensive about this.
BOB HAWKE -
Bill Heseltine had been at university with me, at the University of Western Australia. I knew him well.
BOB HAWKE -
And it did seem to me that one way that we could bring the apartheid regime down would be if we did mount an effective investment sanction.
BOB HAWKE -
I think there are a number of reasons, not least of which is the personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]. It’s very easy to underrate her significance.
BOB HAWKE -
Institutions do live on their history.
BOB HAWKE -
It was a remarkable relationship. Margaret [Thatcher] and I had a love/hate relationship. She was always defending the South African regime and we had some terrible fights, including an enormous one in Canada.
BOB HAWKE -
I said to my people, “We’re knocking apartheid off but we’ve got to be prepared to assist them.” And I sent senior people over there to assist the incoming South African regime to go about the economic plan.
BOB HAWKE -
I assumed the leadership within the Commonwealth for the fight against apartheid. I was very much assisted by Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister of Canada, [and] Rajiv Gandhi, when he became the Prime Minister of India. And there were trade sanctions.
BOB HAWKE -
And that’s what brought the regime down. The last South African Finance Minister, Barend du Plessis, went on record as saying that it was the investment sanctions that put the final nail in the coffin of apartheid.
BOB HAWKE -
[ Elizabeth II] has immersed herself, in the sense [that] she can speak intelligently about any and all members of the Commonwealth and she has played a role.
BOB HAWKE -
You’ve got to remember the Cold War was a very real thing then, so the relationship with the United States was very, very important.
BOB HAWKE -
It was Indira Gandhi who very much lined up with the Russians. And she was, you know, within the Commonwealth, basically one out on that.
BOB HAWKE -
And, of course, he was, because nothing more advanced his cause – the cause of terrorism – than the invasion of Iraq. It was an absurdity.
BOB HAWKE -
There is no doubt that this government and this country are benefiting from the reforms that we brought in the 1980s, and that couldn’t have been done without the co-operation of the trade union movement.
BOB HAWKE -
The personality of the Queen [ Elizabeth II]… For instance, once she goes – if she’s ever going to die, it seems to be questionable – if Charles [of Wales] were there, whether there’d be the same sort of cement is very questionable, I think.
BOB HAWKE
![Bob Hawke Quote - As far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/as-far-as-were-concerned-there-was-no-sporting-org.jpg)
![Bob Hawke Quote - As far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/grey-as-far-as-were-concerned-there-was-no-sp.jpg)
![Bob Hawke Quote - As far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/blue-as-far-as-were-concerned-there-was-no-sp.jpg)
![Bob Hawke Quote - As far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/red-as-far-as-were-concerned-there-was-no-sp.jpg)
![Bob Hawke Quote - As far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/brown-as-far-as-were-concerned-there-was-no-sp.jpg)
![Bob Hawke Quote - As far as we’re concerned, there was no sporting organisation [that] should have anything to do with the sport in South Africa.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/white-as-far-as-were-concerned-there-was-no-sp.jpg)

