does anyone now any facts on Bob Hawk because I have to do a project on him? Also if you do you now some reasons why Paul Keating gave him the boot?

A couple of highlights remembered.

Malcolm Fraser was confident of winning the 1983 Federal Election as Bill Hayden, then leader of the A.L.P. Was fairly uninspiring. Hawke (a Rhodes Scholar who had completed his degree at Oxford) had been president of the ACTU and managed to win party leadership a couple of months before the election. He had a lot of charisma and Fraser couldn't match him on TV. Labor won in a landslide.

Hawke was a drunk who (publicly) stopped drinking for the term of his prime ministry. He may even have stopped drinking in private but the jury is out on that one. (And, for your information, the difference between a drunk and an alcoholic is that a drunk doesn't have to go to the meetings.)

At that time, cartoonist Larry Pickering, used to produce a nude calendar every year and his 1984 edition featured this pic of Bob Hawke drinking milk. As you can see, he was also getting his beer straight from the can.

(Note to Rooster and Angela: If this is offensive, please edit out the cartoon.)

After the election, Bill Hayden was asked whether he could have won the election and he famously quipped, "A drover's dog could have won that election." And that led us to the most popular song in Australian political history. It's called, "The Drover's Dog".

Keating was Hawke's Treasurer but the their apparent friendship in the early years deteriorated into publicly slanging each other.  Keating was ambitious and wanted the top job and as Hawke's leadership began to crumble he began to lose support, both within the party and with the voting public.

Keating (who spent more time collecting Ormalu clocks than doing his job) finally got the numbers to challenge for the leadership and became Prime Minister in 1991. He held the job till 1996 but was an embarrassment. In '96 John Howard led the misnamed Liberal Party (they're not remotely liberal; they're conservatives) to an overwhelming victory. That left Labor licking their wounds until Kevin Rudd emerged in 2007.

And, although you didn't ask, I worked with Paul Keating's uncle for more than 20 years. He was a grey, dour man, much like his nephew. Unlike the politician, he was a good man.