Comment: Rape claim will tarnish the Hawke legacy
Dillon, who makes the claims while contesting Hawke’s will for an additional $4 million to the $750,000 she was bequeathed , was living at home at the time with her husband and it’s a matter of record they were heroin users. Dillon’s drug abuse became a full-blown addiction, which led to a tearful, heart-wrenching press conference by her father at the beginning of the 1984 election campaign.
However, there are inconsistencies with aspects of Dillon’s account, both in terms of what was supposed to have happened when, where Landeryou lived and whether he could have children .Hawke was more than just the larrikin he was made out to be by his biographer Blanche D’Alpuget. He was a serial philanderer, prone to lecherous behaviour and a bad drunk. When Hawke was named father of the year in 1971, it surprised friends and colleagues.
If the claims are true, it leaves Hawke’s reputation in tatters, besmirches his legacy as a Labor hero, and detracts, perhaps fatally, from his legacy as the ALP’s longest serving and most successful prime minister. The social situation has changed since these incidents were alleged to have taken place. Now, any accuser is more likely to be believed than they might have been in the early 1980s and this is a change for the better. However, the complexity of this story – and the doubts already raised about some claims – should add to any natural caution.
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