‘We will not be able to just spend our way out of the mess: we must work our way out of it, work our way out of it together,’ said then opposition leader Bob Hawke in a seminal speech delivered in Sydney just a month before the 1983 election.

Hawke went on to argue, ‘It is time for controlled, responsible, stimulation of the Australian economy … what I do offer is a program to produce growth and expansion in the economy.’

Over Hawke’s time as Prime Minister, average annual real economic growth hit 3.5