Its very addictive, politics, Hawke was quoted as saying. He also said he was interested in being influential in politics but that didnt necessarily mean being in Parliament: In some ways its more fun on the outside. It gives you more power.
These days, in Parliament, he shares a desk with Victorian powerbroker Michael Sukkar, the Assistant Treasurer.
In recent months hes become involved in a factional tussle in NSW that is spilling over into several nasty preselection contests, including in the marginal seats of Lindsay and Reid, held by first-term MPs Melissa McIntosh and Fiona Martin.
He is Morrisons personal representative on the Liberal Partys NSW executive and has become a divisive figure within the state division because of his tight control of factional numbers.
Hawke is also very close personally to Morrison. They are part of a bible study group, along with Stuart Robert, that has met each sitting week since they were elected in 2007. The tight-knit group was integral to corralling support for Morrison when Turnbulls leadership was challenged in 2018.
In his first speech, Hawke told Parliament: I am a big believer in the ideas of grace, forgiveness, redemption and a second chance Christian values that have seasoned secular culture in a way that makes it more humane and our world more inhabitable.
What did he do this week?
On Tuesday, Hawke used his ministerial discretion to allow the asylum seekers who have become known as the Biloela family to move to community detention in Perth.
Nadesalingam and Priya Murugappan fled Sri Lanka by boat in 2012 and 2013 and met in Australia. The couple and their Australian-born daughters, Kopika, six, and Tharnicaa, four, have been held on Christmas Island since August 2019, after being removed from the Queensland town of Biloela following unsuccessful asylum claims by the parents. Courts and tribunals up to the High Court have repeatedly found Australia does not owe the parents protection.
The family found themselves split up a fortnight ago when Tharnicaa fell ill with pneumonia and a blood infection and she was airlifted to Perth with her mother for medical treatment.
Heartbreaking photos of Tharnicaa in tears hugging her sister in a Christmas Island hospital bed before they were separated reignited public pressure for action. Some Coalition MPs who had been lobbying behind the scenes on the familys behalf were prompted to speak publicly.
Hawke said he was conscious of the compassionate factors around keeping children in immigration detention for a long time, particularly as legal appeals drag on.
The family still has a case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and a special application to the High Court in train. Hawke also revealed he is considering two applications to use his ministerial discretion, one for a so-called bar lift that would allow Tharnicaa to apply for a humanitarian or safe haven enterprise visa, and the other under a section of immigration law that allows a minister to grant a visa in the public interest.
Why is this important?
For more than a decade the Coalition has decried almost all high-profile acts of compassion towards asylum seekers who arrive by boat, with warnings the merest hint of an exception would give people-smugglers impetus to restart their trade.
In 2011, Morrison as opposition immigration spokesman said it wasnt reasonable for taxpayers to pick up the tab for flying relatives to Christmas Island to attend the funerals of asylum seekers who drowned in the dangerous seas around the island. (The next day he said he had erred with the comments.)
Even in September 2019, shortly after the Murugappans were removed to Christmas Island, then home affairs minister Peter Dutton described their children as anchor babies a term used in the United States to accuse would-be immigrants of having children to cement their claims.
However while there has been pressure to get the family off Christmas Island once it became clear the protracted legal proceedings would drag on, there is little appetite for a similar push to let them stay in Australia. The governments position remains that anyone who arrived by boat will not be allowed to settle here.
If people are not found to be owed protection obligations, the expectation is, where is it safe to do so, that they return home, Hawke said, adding that Sri Lanka was considered safe these days.