Visions of Bob Hawke’s eldest daughter and wife being prised apart by federal police during a heated confrontation at an airport lounge somewhat detract from the epic love story that is Bob and Blanche.
Not that anyone will be too surprised. A romantic saga that has played out in public for several years, we’ve been spared few details of the d’Alpuget-Hawke soap opera.
The real angst lies in the third corner of this particular love triangle with Hazel Hawke, the long-suffering wife, conveniently discarded once the political damage divorce could wreak on her husband’s career no longer mattered.
With the former PM’s daughter Sue Pieters-Hawke having taken offence at her stepmother’s subsequent portrayal of Hazel as a gold-digging doormat, a tarmac-side brawl was sadly inevitable.
All of which makes for a vaguely entertaining yet stomach-churning spectacle.
And hardly a ringing endorsement for the supposed sanctity of marriage or the capacity of consenting adults to navigate their personal lives with dignity.
Fortunately for Bob and Blanche, no amount of scandal and mud-slinging will deprive them of the power to have their relationship legally recognised. However many raised eyebrows their union might inspire, the legitimacy of their marriage remains unchallenged.
Like all heterosexual couples, their right to tie the knot is a given. A formality so easily accessible it can be smugly taken for granted.
When the ALP debates the rights of certain Australian citizens to marry at the party’s national conference in December, it won’t be the merits of Bob and Blanche subjected to scrutiny.
Instead it will be the fate of the gay men and women of Australia that lies in the hands of the party as they consider amending the Marriage Act to include same-sex unions.
For the full article, click here