The political memoir, especially in
Australia, can make for heavy reading: self-aggrandisement,
ego-boosting, dubious justification and the settling of old scores
and slights, real or imagined.
But not so with the ebullient Gareth
Evans, one of Australia's outstanding public figures of the modern
age, whose latest book, his 12th, crackles with wit, self-deprecating
humour and illuminating insights into both politics and the
complexities of public policy.
He has few, if any, regrets; his
judgments, while acute, are generous. The title, Incorrigible
Optimist, is most apposite.
Since entering the Senate in the late
1970s and serving with distinction in the Hawke and Keating
governments, Evans went on to grace the international stage as head
of the Brussels-based international Crisis Group before becoming the
Australian National University's chancellor in 2010.
Evans has always been a good talker and
an amusing raconteur; such qualities abound in this elegant, almost
conversational memoir of a busy, rich, engaged and very examined
life.
In the early 1990s, The Canberra
Times sent me to talk to the then foreign minister to write a
profile. He agreed to a 20-minute interview, but the allotted time
came and went and, despite his staff's efforts to get him to stick to
his schedule, he was happy to go on talking, embellishing a story
here, adding a reflection there. He was expansive and exuberant.
On the way out after what seemed the
best part of an hour, or perhaps even longer, a very senior official,
who had been kept waiting, looked up at me, saying: "Oh, it was
only you he was meeting. No doubt you engaged him on his favourite
subject: Gareth Evans." It was, I thought, a needlessly waspish
comment.
Anyway, as one might expect in a
memoir, there is a lot of Evans here – and it is a far from
unattractive or intrusive presence; rather, it is an absorbing and
thoughtful meditation on events, issues and processes that Evans has
been part of for four decades.
An early supporter of Bob Hawke, Evans
looks back on Labor's most successful leader with undisguised
admiration.
Hawke, as leader, had four exceptional strengths, he
writes: the ability to craft a grand narrative; a facility to connect
with people; a readiness to operate collegiately; and – in contrast
to the earlier larrikin persona – the maintenance of both personal
and institutional discipline.
Hawke appointed Evans to the foreign
ministry after Bill Hayden, the man Hawke deposed as Labor leader,
vacated the post to become governor-general. But Evans writes he was
not Hawke's first choice for the plum job.
That was Kim Beazley, but
Beazley's preference was to stay at defence. Evans had different
views on some of those most closely held by Hawke, notably the United
States alliance and the Middle East.
Evans notes wryly how Hawke later
described him as "the best and most widely respected foreign
minister in Australia's history", but not before taking out
insurance by appointing an old friend, Richard Woolcott, as head of
his department.
"It did not take me long to
discover that his very explicit prime-ministerial brief was to curb
my more adventurous instincts. This mission evidently gave my new
secretary the impression that he should see himself as the lead
policymaker in the enterprise, and feel free to make public
statements accordingly." But after a testy start, the two
crafted a sound working relationship.
Purchase this book, CLICK BELOW:
Original review on: http://www.canberratimes.com.au
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