Bob Hawke and Sir Peter Abeles; Bill Shorten and Anthony Pratt. What is it that attracts such close friendships between these Labor leaders and the richest part of the ‘top end of town’? Abeles and Hawke’s friendship had started in the 1970s when Hawke was president of the ACTU. According to Hawke’s biographer (later his wife) Blanche D’Alpuget, Hawke looked upon Abeles as a ‘father figure’; he found the older man ‘subtle, sophisticated cosmopolitan, immensely fascinating’.