Bruce Hawker

Bruce Hawker
Hawker in 2010
Born	Bruce Hawker
Occupation	political pundit, political writer, political consultant, lobbyist
Nationality	Australian
Years active	1982 -
Website
http://www.candcgroup.com.au/

Bruce Hawker is a leading political strategist, commentator and chairman of "Campaigns and Communications Group"^[1] which he founded in January 2011.^[2] He was formerly Chairman and co-founder of Hawker Britton, established with David Britton in 1997.^[3][4] Before this, Hawker was the Chief of Staff to the Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr from 1995 to 1997 and Chief of Staff to Bob Carr MP while he was Leader of the Opposition in NSW from 1989 to 1995.^[5]

In 2008, Hawker was named by The Sydney Morning Herald as one of Sydney’s most influential people.^[6] In 2011, The Sydney Morning Herald nominated Hawker in its “50 most powerful people” as one of the top five political powerbrokers.^[7] Bruce Hawker was described in 2010 by the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, as a “wise elder” of the Australian Labor Party.^[8]

Hawker has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland and a Law degree from the University of New South Wales.^[9]

Contents 1 Political Work 2 Recent political work 3 See also 4 References

Political Work

In the Wran-Unsworth Government, Hawker was a senior advisor to Frank Walker, Attorney-General and Minister for Housing from 1982 to 1988.^[10]

From 1988 to 1997, Hawker was Chief of Staff to Bob Carr MP while Carr was Opposition Leader from 1988 to 1995 and Premier from 1995 to 1997.^[11]

While Labor was in Opposition in New South Wales under Carr, Hawker is credited with uncovering many scandals of the Greiner Fahey period including the Community Polling affair, a covert Liberal fundraising operation which funded phoney independent candidates in the 1988 State election.^[12] Hawker is also credited with uncovering scandals and controversies involving former Coalition MPs including Wal Murray, Matt Singleton, Phillip Smiles, Tony Packard, Neil Pickard and Barry Morris.^[13]

These and other controversies became part of Labor’s campaign against the NSW Coalition Government and contributed significantly to Labor winning office in 1995.^[14]

In 1997, Hawker and David Britton resigned from their positions as Chief of Staff and Chief of Communications, respectively, to start Hawker Britton.^[15] When asked to comment about Hawker's resignation, Bob Carr joked, "After all nine years is a long time to spend in a political office."^[15] After several years, Hawker Britton outgrew its The Rocks office in 1999, relocated twice as it grew to its current York Street address.^[16] By 2010 the company had six offices across Australia and offices in Wellington, New Zealand and 3 international offices in Washington, D.C., London and Shanghai.^[9]

While managing Hawker Britton, Hawker assisted Labor Party administrations in all States and territories to win and hold office at successive elections.^[17] Hawker was at the centre of a decade of success for Labor in State and Territory elections.^[18] Between 1998 and 2007 Labor won every State and Territory election it contested.^[19] Hawker has also provided advice on campaigns in Greece and New Zealand.^[20]

After his unexpected victory in the 2010 South Australian election, Labor Premier Mike Rann credited Hawker with being the main reason for Labor’s win.^[21]

When he was Health Minister, current Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott described Hawker and Hawker Britton as “dirty tricks merchants”,^[22] while former Prime Minister John Howard compared Hawker Britton to Liberal Party strategists Crosby Textor, saying “Hawker Britton would leave them (Crosby Textor) for dead.”^[23]

One columnist described Hawker’s role in this way: “This model, labelled the Hawker Britton approach by some conservatives, was first trialled successfully by the young Bruce Hawker when he was former NSW premier Bob Carr’s chief of staff. It has been adopted by Labor in every state and federally since Hawker, and Carr’s former senior adviser David Britton, left Carr’s office in 1997 to form the eponymous political consultancy”.^[24] The columnist criticised the approach in these terms: “The Hawker Britton approach is about spin, not substance”.^[25]

Recent political work

After the 2010 Australian federal elections, a hung parliament resulted. Hawker led the negotiations on behalf of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Labor Party with the independent members of parliament Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott which secured the incumbent Labor government a second term in office.^[26]

In its assessment of the process which saw Labor returned to power in 2010, The Age newspaper said Hawker was the official point man during Rob Oakeshott’s drafting of reforms to parliamentary process.^[27] The Age reported that in the negotiations, Hawker was “an effective behind-the-scenes hub” for Labor.^[28] The newspaper also reported that Hawker “has made a professional lifetime of being the man in the room – and his long investment in moving, cajoling, strategising and shaking in professional politics and beyond paid dividends for the ALP in a very dark hour.” ^[29] Hawker’s involvement was said to cause “disquiet” amongst Liberal ranks^[30] with claims that the independent MPs had been “manipulated by the ALP’s strategic mastermind”.^[31] When agreement was finally struck between Labor and the independents, The Daily Telegraph reported that “Hawker is now being hailed within Labor circles as the man who won Labor back the election.”^[32]

Hawker is a regular contributor to the media, writing editorials for the The Sydney Morning Herald and frequently appearing in interviews on Sky News and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.^[3] When suggested that he was resigning from Hawker Britton due to the thinning out of state Labor governments, Hawker dismissed these suggestions saying, "We've always worked on the basis that Labor governments will come and Labor governments will go, we've always tried to assist in the election of Labor governments, but we are realistic and pragmatic enough to understand no government lasts forever."^[33]

In 2011, Hawker founded Campaigns and Communications Group^[34] as a specialised election campaign and communications advisory firm.^[35]

See also

• Hawker Britton

References

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Name	Hawker, Bruce
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