The Hawke–Keating government is an all-encompassing term to describe the duration of the Hawke government and the Keating government, which together spanned from 11 March 1983 to 11 March 1996. Both governments were formed by the Australian Labor Party, and were led from 1983 to 1991 by Bob Hawke as Prime Minister, and from 1991 to 1996 by Paul Keating as Prime Minister, with Keating serving as Treasurer throughout the Hawke government. During the Hawke–Keating government, the Labor Party won five successive federal elections, its most electorally successful period to date; the 13-year uninterrupted period of government also remains the Labor Party's longest spell in power at the federal level.
The Hawke–Keating government began after the Fraser government was defeated at the 1983 election and ended with defeat at the 1996 election, which ushered in the Howard government. In between those elections were further victories in 1984, 1987, 1990 and 1993. The Hawke–Keating government has been described by Labor figures as the party's most successful period in government in its history, and has generally been reviewed positively by historians for its degree of achievement. Scholars and politicians have noted the importance of the powerful political and personal partnership that developed between Hawke and Keating to the success of the government.
Economic reforms
The economic reforms pursued by the Hawke–Keating government has been claimed by numerous economic commentators and journalists since to have been the basis for both the modernisation and internationalisation of the Australian economy, and for triggering an unprecedentedly long period of economic growth, with Australia's gross domestic product increasing every year for 30 years after 1991; commentators have also credited the government's policies with bringing to an end what had been chronic inflation and balance of payments difficulties for Australia, enabling longer periods of stability and growth in both GDP and unemployment.
Macroeconomic modernisation
According to the journalist Paul Kelly, "the most influential economic decisions of the 1980s were the floating of the Australian dollar and the deregulation of the financial system". Although the Fraser government had played a part in the process of financial deregulation by commissioning the 1981 Campbell Report, opposition from Fraser himself had stalled this process. Shortly after its election in 1983, the Hawke government took the opportunity to implement a comprehensive program of economic reform, in the process "transform(ing) economics and politics in Australia". Hawke and Keating together led the process for overseeing the economic changes by launching a "National Economic Summit" one month after their election in 1983, which brought together business and industrial leaders together with politicians and trade union leaders; the three-day summit led to a unanimous adoption of a national economic strategy, generating sufficient political capital for widespread reform to follow.
Among other reforms, the Hawke government floated the Australian dollar, repealed rules that prohibited foreign-owned banks to operate in Australia, dismantled the protectionist tariff system, privatised several state sector industries, ended the subsidisation of loss-making industries, and sold off part of the state-owned Commonwealth Bank. The government also pursued the establishment of a new signature industrial relations and wages policy, the Prices and Incomes Accord. This was an agreement directly between the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the government to guarantee a reduction in demands for wage increases, in exchange for the government providing a significant increase in social programmes, including the introduction of Medicare and the Family Assistance Scheme; in so doing, the government was able to reduce inflation and unemployment over the decade. In the wake of the introduction of these macroeconomic reforms, in 1984 Keating was named Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year.
Industrial relations policy
As a former ACTU President, Hawke was well-placed to engage in reform of the industrial relations system in Australia, taking a lead on this policy area as in few others. Working closely with ministerial colleagues and the ACTU Secretary, Bill Kelty, Hawke negotiated with trade unions to establish the Prices and Incomes Accord in 1983, an agreement whereby unions agreed to restrict their demands for wage increases, and in turn the government guaranteed to both minimise inflation and promote an increased social wage, including by establishing new social programmes such as Medicare.