COLOURFUL: Former prime minister Bob Hawke.
FOR the standing room only crowd at Clunes Back to Booktown yesterday, it was vintage Hawke.His wife, author Blanche d’Alpuget, may have been absent due to ill-health, but the former Prime Minister had no difficulty stepping into the breach.For more than an hour, glass of red at hand, he held the audience enthralled with his views on leadership, Australian politics, the media and what makes a great politician.There was even a quintessentially emotional moment when Bob was asked who had been his greatest influences.“The most brilliant destiny of my life was my choice of parents,” he said quietly, eyes glinting.“The continuing influence of my mother and father was remarkable…the love, inspiration and encouragement I received from my parents.” He paused. “My mother thought I had some kind of destiny.”The silence was so thick you could’ve heard a pin drop.On leadership, Hawke decried the paucity of great modern-day leaders.He said he never enjoyed parliament, calling Question Time a waste of time.“The decisions are already made…Question Time brings parliament and parliamentarians into contempt.”He took the opportunity to take a swipe at conservative media proprietor Rupert Murdoch – “a loaded, self-interested conservative”.He sheepishly admitted he had watched the recent telemovie about his life and when told actor Richard Roxburgh didn’t do him justice grinned and said: “Ah well, he’s only human.”And he stuck it to the media for its constant criticism of current Prime Minister Julia Gillard.“All this commentary of Julia’s dresses, geez, look how slovenly I was dressed at times, or Billy McMahon.“I don’t care whether she’s wearing a bikini or ballgown.”Then in true Hawke style, he hijacked proceedings after they had been concluded by host Michael Williams from Melbourne’s The Wheeler Centre.He rose to his feet and walked to the front of the stage.He apologised to the ladies in the audience then told the bluest of blue jokes: a wry anecdote about a Frenchman, an Englishman and an Australian.During the telling he dropped the f-word twice then left the crowd rollicking with a perfectly delivered punch-line, before heading out to sign copies of Hawke: The Prime Minister.