Robert Hawke received a bachelor's degree in law and economics from the University of Western Australia and a bachelor of letters degree from Oxford in 1955 as a Rhodes scholar. Hawke became active in the Australian Council of Trade Unions, becoming its president in 1970. Ten years later, he became a member of Parliament, and in 1983 was elected the leader of the Labor Party. That same year the Labor Party won the national elections and Hawke became Prime Minister. Bibliography: D'Alpuget, Blanche. Robert Hawke . 1983. Lansdowne Press Inc.