Tributes flow for Hazel Hawke

Former prime minister Bob Hawke says he remembers his ex-wife Hazel with deep affection.

Mrs Hawke died on Thursday aged 83, after a battle with dementia.

"I remember Hazel with deep affection and gratitude," Mr Hawke said in a statement on Friday.

"She was more than a wife and mother, being father as well during my frequent absences as I pursued an industrial then political career."

Hazel did an outstanding job as Australia's first lady during his time in power from 1983 to 1991, he said.

"She was a constant support, particularly through some very difficult times.

"Our three children, Susan, Stephen and Rosslyn, adored their mother as did our six grandchildren, and my thoughts are very much with them at this time."

Mr and Mrs Hawke divorced in 1995.

Hazel Hawke dies

Hazel Hawke, ex-wife of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, has died aged 83, following a battle with dementia.

Her family issued a statement on Wednesday night saying she passed away peacefully after succumbing to complications of the disease.

Her family said they appreciate the great affection many have for Hazel, but have asked for privacy.

There will be a private funeral for family and close friends.

A memorial celebration of her life will be held later at a time and place to be advised, the statement said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard this evening paid tribute, saying 'we have lost a wonderful Australian'.

Tributes pour in

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce praised Mrs Hawke as "A good person - God bless".

"Hazel Hawke: she was the Australian representation of the warmth and familiarity of a mum," Senator Joyce tweeted.

Greens Leader Christine Milne tweeted: "Vale Hazel Hawke".

"A wonderful contribution to the life of the nation incl WWF, NSW Heritage Council, Children's television,music + the Arts".

Labor MP Ed Husic tweeted that he was "Truly saddened to hear of the passing of a great Australian".

President of Alzheimer's Australia Ita Buttrose said many people would feel a sense of personal loss following the passing of Mrs Hawke.

She was the first prominent Australian to speak publicly about her life with Alzheimer's disease, helping reduce the stigma and sense of isolation experienced by the thousands suffering from dementia.

"Her courage to speak openly about her dementia journey has left a lasting legacy in raising the profile of Alzheimer's disease," Ms Buttrose, Australian of the Year 2013, said in a statement.

"It took remarkable courage to make public appearances after her diagnosis in order to raise awareness of the disease and tackle stigma head on."

Emily's List, an organisation for supporting and promoting Labor women, tweeted they were saddened to hear of Mrs Hawke's death.

Minister for Ageing Mark Butler, who in 2011 launched the biography Hazel: My Mother's Story, by her daughter Sue Pieters-Hawke, said his thoughts were with the former first lady's family and friends.

"An inspiring Australian leader and perhaps our bravest Dementia campaigner," he wrote on Twitter.

And Labor backbencher Steve Gibbons described Mrs Hawke as "a most handsome and elegant person and a great Australian".

'Charm, grace and intelligence'

Hazel Hawke's life was exhilarating and glamorous, lonely and painful.

She had the mixed blessing of being married to Bob Hawke, Labor's most successful prime minister and, for many of their years together, a hard drinker and womaniser who was rarely at home.

She survived to become, during nearly nine years at the Lodge, perhaps the best loved of all prime minister's wives.

This came from her charm, grace and intelligence. It also came from admiration for her courage in dealing with a wayward husband, the loss of a baby and a drug-addicted daughter.

Many women warmed to her because they knew that she, having suffered too, understood their problems.

And her courage stayed to the end, through divorce and the long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Missing university always a regret

Hazel Masterton, who died on Thursday aged 83, was born in Perth on July 20, 1929.

Her parents were God-fearing and hard-working. They gave her love and security, but although she was very bright, they discouraged her going to university. She later regretted this.

Hazel and Bob met at a church camp when they were 18.

He was glamorous, a law student with a motor bike, high spirits and a sense of going places.

In her memoir, which was published just after the Hawkes left the Lodge, Hazel makes her physical attraction plain.

She liked his skin, his hair, his hands, even the smell of him. Soon it was a serious and passionate affair.

Hazel became pregnant. They were engaged and in love, but he'd applied for a Rhodes Scholarship, which was then open only to single males.

"Bob and I talked about it, prayed about it, made our decision, kept our secret and supported each other," Hazel recalled of her abortion, an agonising experience which made her a life-long supporter of family planning counselling.

Bob won his scholarship and left for Oxford in 1953, with Hazel following at the end of the year.

The next two years among the dreaming spires, the intellectual stimulation, cricket, beer drinking, fellowship and touring, were the most carefree of their lives.

They married soon after their return to Perth in 1956 and moved to Canberra, where Bob started work on a PhD and their first child, Susan, was born.

Although occasionally upset by Bob's boozy escapades, it was a happy period for Hazel in the intimate academic atmosphere.

In 1958 Bob took his first step up the labor movement ladder when he became an ACTU research officer and the family moved to Melbourne.

Hazel had great trouble adjusting to the big, more impersonal city where she had no friends.

Bob was working long hours and then drinking long hours with his new union mates.

"The loneliness and the sense of isolation and desolation was overwhelming," Hazel recalled.

With Stephen born in 1959 and Rosslyn the following year, Hazel soon had three children under four and a husband who, as his star rose in the union movement, had ever growing demands on his time.

In 1963 Hazel gave premature birth to Robert, who was severely brain damaged and lived only four days.

Both were shattered and Bob's drinking became so desperate that he collapsed with alcoholic poisoning. Hazel went through "agonies of guilt and blame".

She never forgot: "The suffering I witnessed during the work I undertook as the prime minister's wife never failed to stir the most confusing and sympathetic feelings in me.

"Whenever I saw damaged children in hospitals or institutions, and the anguish of their parents, I thought of Robert, and tears were close."

Bob threw himself into his campaign for the ACTU presidency, which he won in 1969.

The family suffered, especially after he opposed the 1971 Springbok tour and visited Israel in 1973.

The Hawkes received death threats, letters of vilification and parcels of excrement. Hazel and the children were tormented with details of Bob's womanising.

When Bob was named Victorian father of the year, she said the choice was absurd.

Media interest, that troubled her from the start, became more intense when Bob became ALP president in 1973.

She was smoking and drinking, sometimes heavily. Her children seemed without structure and left home early.

Lowest ebb then a turning point

But she found some purpose when she started working for the Brotherhood of St Laurence and began a welfare course.

With the help of a psychologist, meditation and a gradually growing circle of her own friends, her battered confidence slowly recovered.

In 1979, feeling her marriage was disintegrating as Bob's drinking and philandering continued, she talked to a divorce lawyer.

She didn't want to leave her marriage, nor did she want to be one of those middle-aged women whose husbands discard them.

His drinking, she felt, was the main problem.

She'd seen "his dark despair, his remorse, the times when he had felt defeated and seen his life spin out of control".

But it was masked by his amazing ability to bounce back and work hard and well next day, a resilience that amazed doctors, colleagues and her.

She was also getting letters about his womanising. Some were from women who said they had a claim on Bob, others told her she was weak for not leaving him.

"We had reached our lowest ebb," she recalled. "...Each of us asked the other to leave. We both stayed."

That year became a turning point with Bob deciding to move into federal politics and finally resolving, after many false starts, to stop drinking.

When Bob became Labor leader in 1983, Hazel, the prickly defender of her family's privacy, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight of a federal election campaign.

She found she enjoyed the travel, the crowds and the camaraderie.

She even coped with questions about Bob's infidelities. Once she replied: "Of course there was hurt...But it's gone. I always felt it was just a phase. I didn't see it as the core of Bob."

By then, she felt, their marriage was mending: "There were no blinding flashes or passionate declarations, but we were more relaxed and companionable with each other as life's storms abated."

Her faith in her husband's abilities was also reawakened: "There was no doubt he was an extraordinary man, who I loved and would support in whatever ways I could."

Support him she did, but not just as a handbag.

More easily than many PM's wives, she thrived on the demands of the job - and she insisted it was a job. She also found she was actually seeing more of Bob than she had for many years.

While she accompanied him to many functions, and almost always on overseas visits, she also insisted on doing her own thing.

She decided what causes she would support and what functions she would attend.

Her interests were wide-ranging - including Aboriginal affairs, music, adult literacy, playgroups, drug misuse, domestic violence, child abuse and AIDS awareness.

She became patron or board member of more than 40 organisations and hosted radio and television shows.

Hazel seemed like a different woman - poised, elegant, an easy mixer at all levels; also a loving mother and grandmother. TV shots of her charging across the tarmac on her return from overseas visits to scoop a grandchild into her arms helped warm a nation's heart.

Her metamorphosis was helped by Bob's vigor.

"I'm reminded of how he was as a young man, in good health, very clear in direction and commitment," she said.

There were dark moments, the worst in 1984 when she went on television to say Rosslyn had a heroin problem that had severely affected her health.

Even that became a political plus.

"She stunned a nation, won its heart and seared the private tragedy of Australia's most public couple into the minds of all who saw her," Woman's Day said.

Her standing stayed as high as ever, even as Paul Keating stalked and finally overthrew the victor of four successive elections in December 1991.

Divorce

Hazel's memoir ends as Bob resigned from parliament, with her looking forward to a long and comfortable retirement together in the home overlooking Sydney Harbor they'd recently built.

Her last sentence is: "We two sexagenarians have gathered just a touch of moss, but not nearly enough to stop us rolling busily, contentedly, on - with each other, our children and theirs - in our little bit of magic."

But it didn't happen.

In 1994, after 38 years of marriage, they divorced. The following year Bob married his biographer Blanche D'Alpuget.

Then, in 2001, Hazel found she had Alzheimer's. Her immediate response was "bugger, bugger, bugger".

Two years later she went on television to launch the Hazel Hawke Alzheimer's Research and Care Fund.

That was typical, using her last and most awful affliction to try to do some good which she continued to do in the twilight years of her life.