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Hawke telemovie overlooked Hazel

Friends of Hazel Hawke say she made a much greater contribution to the country than depicted in the Hawke telemovie, including to children's TV.

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It attracted 1.6m viewers on Sunday night and mostly positive reviews.

But while some say Hawke glossed over too many points in its  90 minutes, the role of Hazel Hawke in the film has been the subect of discussion this week.

A Current Affair featured a segment this week which reminded us that as a sufferer of Alzheimer’s Disease, Hazel was unable to defend herself in media this week -and blissfully unaware of the dramatisation on screen.

Her role, as played by Rachael Blake, was largely a silent supporter of her husband Bob, played by Richard Roxburgh.

Today the founding director of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation writes passionately about Hazel’s achievements for The Age, including as a board member of the ACTF.

Hazel Hawke was instrumental in helping forge Australia’s children television sector.

“I was two years into my appointment as founding director of the ACTF when Hazel agreed to join the board in December 1983; she remained a member for 18 years,” writes Edgar.

“It was my privilege and good fortune to work alongside and get to know Hazel through those years. She used her public profile selflessly and strategically to promote the causes she chose, including children’s television.

“Hazel set up a critically important meeting and came with me to see Michael Duffy when he was minister for communications in the Hawke government. Duffy, who respected Hazel, was under siege at a time when there was serious conflict between the commercial television stations and the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. Fifteen commercial licensees were challenging the validity of the Children’s Program Standards in the High Court, which handed down a decision stating the standards were invalid.

“Duffy introduced an amendment bill strengthening the Broadcasting Television Act and affirming the tribunal’s powers to impose quotas and standards. Without this legislation, the children’s television production industry could not have become the successful domestic and international business it did.”

You can read more at The Age.

10 Responses

  1. Goonies, I’m not the only person who thinks the history of this biopic was fanciful. theage.com.au/opinion/politics/hazel-hawke-written-out-in-biased-history-20100720-10jg2.html?autostart=1

    Meanwhile, i’ll work on my unresolved issues…most of which stem from seeing Bob and Blanche nude!

  3. The fact this was a movie was the biggest problem. The 2 hours did not give enough time to go into depth on anything. They could have have easily gotten a whole series out of the content.

  4. Totally disagree that Hazel was protrayed as cold, if anything she was portrayed as a long suffering wife (which no doubt she was).

    Mick you seem to have some unresolved issue with Blanche – how was history rewritten?

    Agree with the others that it was a Hawke telemovie not a Hazel one so whats the problem?

  9. Whatever the producer’s say, this telemovie was told through Blanche’s eyes.

    Hazel was depicted as cold and not very relevant, Keating a humourless monster and Blanche – the person who untapped Bob’s dreams. Come on! Just because Blanche agreed to cooperate with the movie doesn’t mean history should be rewritten to suit her. And just because Keating didn’t cooperate and Hazel wasn’t able to, doesn’t mean they needed to be depicted in such a two-dimensional way. Surely, the producers are bigger than that.

    In other news, I thought the acting was great. Particularly, Rox and Brammall.

  10. Sue Pieters-Hawke defended her mother and sister in The Age last week before ‘Hawke’ aired.

    While acknowledging what Hazel did, it was a movie about Bob, not Hazel.

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