Australia former Prime Minister Bob Hawke listens during a campaign launch in Sydney on June 19, 2016. (AP)Bob Hawke, a transformative and charismatic Left-wing lawmaker with a “larrikin” streak who served as Australian Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991, died on Thursday aged 89, his family said. “Today we lost Bob Hawke, a great Australian, many would say the greatest Australian of the post-war era,” his wife and former biographer Blanche d’Alpuget said in a statement. Hawke’s death comes ahead of a Saturday general election, with his Opposition Labour party is narrowly ahead in the polls. “The Australian people loved Bob Hawke because they knew Bob loved them, this was true to the very end,” Labour party leader Bill Shorten said in a statement.

Source: The Telegraph May 16, 2019 19:52 UTC