Robert Hawke
Blanche D’Alpuget (Penguin 1984)
“I had the idea that one could not be a businessman and stay a human being.” Sir Peter Abeles
If we are moving into the century of the Pacific Basin, then the starting date for Australia was probably March 1981. At a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce, Alan Carroll, the American representative of Business International, gave the keynote address. Among Business International’s Australian clients were Chase Manhattan, IBM, General Electric, Rio Tinto, to name a few. They relied on Carroll to keep them informed on economic and political trends in Australia and South East Asia. He outlined to them the strategy to bring Robert Hawke to power.. He forecast that Hawke would be Labour Leader by late 1982 and Prime Minister by 1983. Hawke would also be in power for ten years and not for one term. (Hawke PM John Hurst, London 1983, p266)
Hawke, of course, did become Prime Minister and has recently won another term. He is what we would see as a social democrat, a strong supporter of the Americans and big business, increasingly at odds with the left-wing of his party. He is pro MX, pro Israel, pro uranium mining and a promoter of economic policies which Thatcher would endorse. He is also immensely popular, but recently support has begun to slide and the election victory wasn’t as decisive as he wanted. “He has subsequently admitted that his campaign performance was affected by his concern about his daughter, a heroin addict. After the election he almost went into hiding for a month.” (Guardian 1 April 1985)
Heroin has become an issue in Australian politics, the heroin business growing from nothing ten years ago to a turnover estimated at 1.7 billion dollars. Obviously that fact was brought home to Hawke by his daughter’s addiction. But one feels when he went into hiding he was reflecting on close personal connections with this other American big business..
The connection between Australian mobsters and American Mafia figures and the heroin trade are explored in Alfred Mckoy’s Drug Traffic (Harper and Row, Australia 1980). Briefly, they centre around Australian drug traffickers Bela Csidei and Murray Riley to Jimmy Frattiano, Mike Rizzitello, Rudy Tham, and Salvatore Amarena, a former Trafficante-Marcello man.
“Connections have included meetings with top Australian businessmen. One of whose name has cropped up in American investigations is an industrial knight. A police reference to his company being ‘backed by money’ from an American crime syndicate was dropped from the final transcript of the Moffit Royal Commission. His chief general manager is on record as flying to America from Sydney for a meeting with Rudy Tham. The knight himself is alleged to have met Frattiano in New York to discuss the possibility of investing in the Westchester Premier Theatre – the theatre where top eastern organised crime leaders met at a show given by Frank Sinatra in the latter part of 1977.” (Sydney Bulletin 7 November 1978)
Although not named, we know that the knight in question is Sir Peter Abeles, a close friend and drinking partner of Robert Hawke, a person regarded by Hawke as a father figure, “we became trusted friends.” In 1973, as head of the union ACTU, Hawke was responsible for promoting involvement in business enterprises. One he established was a joint ACTU-New World Travel venture. The partnership was with Thomas Nationwide Transport whose managing director, later chairman, was Sir Peter Abeles.
Abeles has connections – though slight – to the Nugan Hand Bank scandal through business partner John Charody, who was a bank representative. (Tribune 3 September 1980). He also figures in some reports of the New South Wales Corporate Affairs Commission which detail his role as a go-between for the deals of mining magnate Alexander Baron and one Bela Csidei. Csidei, a peripheral Nugan Hand associate, was convicted in 1977 of growing marijuana on his property with cash and seeds from Jimmy Frattiano. Interestingly, Frattiano has mentioned one Hungarian-Australian member of the Knights of Malta, Ivan Markovics, but not Bela Csidei who had a diplomatic passport issued by the Knights of Malta. Abeles is also a Hungarian-Australian…”With Hungarians he speaks their own language.” (D’alpuget p 238)
In 1982 Frattiano testified, in a New York trial, that he had been given free transportation for his San Francisco clothing store from the American trucking subsidiary of Abeles’ Thomas Nationwide Transport. He also said that Venera ‘Benny Eggs’ Mangano, a member of the old Genovese family, told him Abeles paid Mangano $25,000 “So that there would be no problems on the docks. He told me he took care of it and was going on Abeles’ payroll”. The total paid to the Mafia was put at $300,000. (UPI 23 July 1982) Rudy Tham, who introduced Abeles to Frattiano in 1976, protected Abeles from Teamster Union harassment.
“Bob shows his emotions, and more than his intellect, more than arguing, I find that most attractive about him. It is only the Anglo-saxons who say a man cannot show his emotions. But I’m a European. When I’ve had personal problems I cry.” Sir Peter Abeles. (D’Alpuget p236).
(Thanks to Jonathan Marshall’s Parapolitics USA nos 3/4 p12; no.2 p22; and no.7 p 28 for the above material.)
SD