Join historians Frank Bongiorno, Carolyn Holbrook, and Joshua Black as they discuss their new book, Gold Standard?: Remembering the Hawke government.

Was the Hawke government ‘the gold standard’ for federal government in Australia? A stellar line-up of historians, social scientists, politicians and journalists shed valuable new light on the policies, politics and personalities of the Hawke government and ask: What lessons can it offer in the art of reformist government? How do its legacies continue to shape Australian society?

Troy Bramston and Andrew Podger explain how Hawke masterfully managed the work of government and administration; Michelle Grattan and Meghan Hopper analyse how the government and prime minister dealt with the media; Frank Bongiorno shows how the Labor Party won four elections on the trot; while Marija Taflaga looks at how unprepared Hawke’s opponents were for their period in the wilderness. Bruce Chapman and Liam Byrne discuss the competing legacies of the Labor–Union Accords of the 1980s; Meredith Edwards and Carolyn Holbrook demonstrate that social justice and health reform were still possible in the context of fiscal restraint; Marian Sawer shows how women’s policy mattered; while Peter Yu recalls the major disappointments of the era for First Nations Australians. Gareth Evans and Ian Macphee offer their perspectives on the Hawke government’s legacies and impact; Barrie Cassidy and Craig Emerson share their recollections of the Hawke office; and Joshua Black shows that memories of the Hawke era were not so rosy in its immediate aftermath.

About the editors

Frank Bongiorno is a historian at the University of Canberra and the author of books including The Sex Lives of Australians: A History, The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia, Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia and, with Nick Dyrenfurth, A Little History of the Australian Labor Party.

Carolyn Holbrook is a historian at Deakin University. Her latest books are Challenging Anzac: Stories that Don’t Fit the Legend, co-edited with Mia Martin Hobbs and Joan Beaumont (2026), Australia Fair? Democracy, Bureaucracy and the Making of Modern Australia, co-authored with James Walter (2026), and Gold Standard? Remembering the Hawke Government, co-edited with Frank Bongiorno and Joshua Black (2026). She is the director of the Australian Policy and History network and the Australian Health and History digital archive.

Joshua Black is a political historian, policy researcher and media adviser. His PhD on the history of Australian political memoir and autobiography was completed at the Australian National University in 2023. Josh has been a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australia Institute and a Palace Letters Fellow at the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University.