Working closely with ministerial colleagues and the ACTU Secretary, Bill Kelty, Hawke negotiated with trade unions to establish the Prices and Incomes Accord in 1983, an agreement whereby unions agreed to restrict their demands for wage increases, and in turn the government guaranteed to both minimise inflation and promote an increased social wage, including by establishing new social programmes such as Medicare.

The process of the Accord, by which the government and trade unions would arbitrate and agree upon wage increases in many sectors, led to a decrease in both inflation and unemployment through to 1990.

The seventh and final revisiting would ultimately lead to the establishment of the enterprise bargaining system, although this would be finalised shortly after Hawke left office in 1991.

Keating later caused considerable public comment and a degree of controversy, when he declared on a radio programme in 1986 that if Australia did not address the balance of payments, the country risked degenerating to the status of a "banana republic".

[23] Towards the end of the 1980s, the government was heavily criticised by some for maintaining consistently high interest rates, which Hawke and Keating argued were necessary to reduce economic growth gradually so that demand for imports did not grow out of control.

In private, Keating had argued for rates to rise earlier than they did, and fall sooner, although his view was at odds with the Reserve Bank and his Treasury colleagues.

It had been demonstrated that Australia, along with many other Western nations, would experience a major demographic shift in the coming decades, due to ageing population, and it was claimed that this would result in increased pension payments that would place an unaffordable strain on the Australian economy.

[29] 'One Nation' also proposed a series of further tax cuts for middle-income workers coming in two tranches, in 1993 and 1995, although these would later be deferred to 1995 and 1998, a move which cost the government considerable political support among the public.

Universal health care had already been introduced under the branding of Medibank by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, but this had been quickly curtailed by the Fraser government.

In addition, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Capital Grants Program was established to construct and renovate school buildings in remote area communalities.

The Hawke–Keating government oversaw a massive expansion of targeted welfare assistance throughout its period in office, creating subsidised homecare services, eliminating poverty traps in the welfare system, increasing the real value of the old-age pension, reintroducing the six-monthly indexation of single-person unemployment benefits, and establishing a wide-ranging programme for paid family support, known as the Family Income Supplement.

[38] From 1983 to 1996, improved service provision, higher government transfer payments, and changes to the taxation system "either entirely offset, or at the very least substantially moderated, the increase in inequality of market incomes over the period".

[42] However, in 1985 the government did return ownership of Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock), with Governor General Sir Ninian Stephen presiding over the ceremony handing the title deeds to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people.

The transfer was done on the basis that a lease-back to the National Parks and Wildlife Service and joint management by members of the local Mutijulu community would be settled upon.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was established in February 1992 and in 1993 the government passed the Native Title Act in response to the High Court's historic decision in Mabo v Queensland.

Six months after the Mabo Decision, Keating delivered his Redfern Park Speech to launch the International Year for the World's Indigenous People.

[42] The government refused to fund the tall ship First Fleet Re-enactment Voyage which was staged on Sydney Harbour on Australia Day because it believed this might offend indigenous Australians.

[44][45] When queried about these events in Parliament on 27 February 1992, Keating launched a repudiation of Australian ties to Britain and called the Liberals "'bootlickers" and "lickspitters" and accused them of "cultural cringe to a country which decided not to defend the Malay peninsula, not to worry about Singapore, not to give us our troops back to keep ourselves free from Japanese domination".

[45] The committee, chaired by Malcolm Turnbull of the Australian Republican Movement, submitted its report to the government on 5 October 1993 and Keating announced a working party of ministers to develop a paper for cabinet.

Hawke sought to raise Australia's international profile in the United States, Russia, China, Japan and south-east Asia and also took an interest in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; Keating, when Prime Minister, became a fierce advocate of greater Australian integration within ASEAN.

Arguably the most significant foreign policy achievement of the government took place in 1989, after Hawke proposed a south-east Asian region-wide forum for leaders and economic ministers to discuss issues of common concern.

[47][48] The first APEC meeting duly took place in Canberra in November 1989; the economic ministers of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United States all attended.

[47][48] Upon becoming Prime Minister, Keating developed this idea further, winning the support in 1993 of recently elected US President Bill Clinton and Chinese Premier Li Peng to expand APEC to a full Leaders' Meeting.

[50] Hawke also took a major public stand in the aftermath of the Tiananmen square massacre in 1989; despite having spent years trying to get closer relations with China, Hawke gave a tearful address on national television describing the massacre in graphic detail, and unilaterally offered asylum to over 42,000 Chinese students who were living in Australia at the time, many of whom had publicly supported the Tiananmen protesters.

[52] Keating made a conscious effort to develop a personal relationship with Indonesian President Suharto, and to include Indonesia in multilateral forums attended by Australia.

Keating's friendship with Suharto was criticised by human rights activists supportive of East Timorese independence, and by Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta.

Hawke unsuccessfully lobbied New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange to change the policy and the ANZUS Treaty faced its most serious test.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) provided vessels for the multi-national naval force, patrolling the Persian Gulf to enforce the UN sanctions.

[59] Through his role on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Hawke played a leading role in ensuring the Commonwealth initiated an international boycott on foreign investment into South Africa, building on work undertaken by his predecessor Malcolm Fraser, and in the process clashing publicly with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who initially favoured a more cautious approach.

[62] In the government's fourth term, Hawke personally led the Australian delegation to secure changes to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, ultimately winning a guarantee that drilling for minerals within Antarctica would be totally prohibited until 2048 at the earliest.