A surprise Christmas present from daughters is the bumper Bob Hawke biography presented in recycled artistically designed wrapping paper from Cairns featuring Torres Strait Pigeons and other tropical motifs . Care was taken not to damage the wrapping as it is so good it could be laminated and hung on a wall , perhaps near the painting of a parliament by American Bucklee Bell .
As the book runs to 996 pages, with numerous pix , a cursory glance from time to time has nevertheless revealed information of great interest.
It was illuminating to read that Hawke had once instructed his German Alsatian dog to drive from Canberra premises Peter Coleman , later a prominent Liberal politician .
This immediately reminded me of the occasion in Darwin when Hawke , in the Australian Council of Trade Unions, very tired and emotional , came to an ALP function . He slumped down in a chair, the hosts' friendly Alsatian bitch nuzzled up to him . Hawke responded by telling it to go away , but it persisted in trying to make friends with him . At one stage, he grabbed handfuls of the animal's hair , looked closely at it , declared it had the worst blankety blank definition of any Alsatian he had ever seen.
The lady of the house, cutting up tucker for the gathering with a sharp knife, was most upset by Hawke's treatment and description of the pet.
There was another moment of mirth upon reading that the brilliant high flying finance journalist Max Newton , one of Bob's drinking mates, had become the publisher of " a newspaper of vulgar titillation for several years ". Strangely, that saucy publication was not named . It can be revealed that the publication was none other than the Kings Cross Whisper,bought by Newton in l975. Aspects of the Whisper will be covered in a post ready to be run in Little Darwin in the near future .
No doubt other items of interest will be discovered in Hawke's book...in passing, the photo of Hawke with John Farnham at the opening of new headquarters for the AusMusic Training Centre , l989 , instantly brought to mind Pete Steedman , who headed the organisation . Pete's hectic life, which included editorship of the Labor Star newspaper and a lively spell as MHR for Casey during which he was named politician of the year , would make both a great unexpurgated musical and a gigantic biography equal in size to the Encyclopedia Britannica .
No doubt other items of interest will be discovered in Hawke's book...in passing, the photo of Hawke with John Farnham at the opening of new headquarters for the AusMusic Training Centre , l989 , instantly brought to mind Pete Steedman , who headed the organisation . Pete's hectic life, which included editorship of the Labor Star newspaper and a lively spell as MHR for Casey during which he was named politician of the year , would make both a great unexpurgated musical and a gigantic biography equal in size to the Encyclopedia Britannica .
