MPs of all stripes paint a picture of Bob Hawke

The day set aside for parliament’s tribute was always going to be one for the ages.

Labor’s Ed Husic and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Parliament House yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

The day set aside for parliament to pay tribute to Labor’s most ­beloved and longest-serving prime minister, who died on May 16 aged 89, was always going to be one for the ages. You’re in the minority it seems if you don’t have a colourful anecdote about Hawkey.

Penny Wong recalls visiting his office after Labor’s 2013 loss. “He said ‘how are you, love’ and I said ‘oh, you know, it’s pretty hard being in opposition’. He said ‘oh well, I wouldn’t know’.”

Hawke served just 36 days as leader of the opposition in 1983. “No doubt a great mercy,” Scott Morrison mused. “In a coincidence, the current Leader of the Opposition equals that record (today)!”

“Are you saying something?” Anthony Albanese bellowed, as the Labor backbench chanted “election now!”

According to family legend, when Hawke’s mother Ellie was pregnant, her Bible fell open at Isaiah 9:6. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” That sealed his fate.

“He would hand the microphone to everyone when it came to the choruses but the moment it got to the verses he would seize it back, because only Bob was allowed to sing the verses,” Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said about Hawke’s infamous renditions of Waltzing Matilda and Solidarity Forever.

Burke — a coeliac — recalled how his eyebrows sharpened when he refused a Hawke-branded beer. From that day on Burke always made sure to bring his own gluten-free beverages to the notorious long lunches and dinners.

Bob Hawke died in May.

Josh Frydenberg recalled how he arranged for Hawke’s portrait to be hung at ­Oxford University after he had returned from studying there himself in 1996.

While the 23rd prime minister completed a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, he also entered the Book of Guinness World Records in 1963 for downing a yard of ale in 11 seconds.

But when the portrait bill came in, Mr Frydenberg was left wondering how to pay it. Until a horse owned by Hawke and John Singleton had a win at the track.

“The next morning, I called Hawke and said, ‘is there any chance your friends can tip some money into it?’ He said, ‘I’ll see what I can do’.” And, lo the deal was done.

Head in his phone, Bill Shorten barely raised an eye as he waited for his time at the dispatch box. He did offer a single chuckle when Warren Snowden declared the Hawke era as “the days when the left had a position on the budget”.

Shorten detailed the last time he saw Hawke, just days before he died.

“He was sitting out on his beloved balcony. He had a crossword in front of him. There was a dictionary, a strawberry milkshake and a cigar, which was removed for the photo. The sun was on his face. He was at ease with himself.”

In his first public speech since leading Labor to its election loss, Shorten didn’t offer up any words about recent history. Later in the corridor he was overheard telling someone who offered up their condolences, “every time I feel a bit down, I think about those kids in the cancer ward”.

But back to Bob, who saved ­Finance Minister Mathias Cormann from a potential public relations nightmare when Sir Peter Cosgrove produced three cigars during a function.

“As I was thinking about the mobile phones with cameras on the other side of the window and what I should be doing, the other two cigars disappeared in Bob’s pocket,” Cormann said. “The political dilemma was averted, for which I’m eternally grateful.”

Attorney-General Christian Porter says he realised the breadth of Hawke’s appeal when he witnessed his Liberal-voting grandmother Norma throw a vase at her TV during the Keating government. The TV was DOA. When Porter asked why, she said: “They should bring back Bob Hawke. He was a much better bloke — and at least he liked cricket.”

Morrison stopped short of ­declaring that Hawke had a go and got a go, like Winx, but it felt ­implied.

“The gaudy red, white and blue jacket emblazoned with the word ‘Australia’,” the PM said. “How good was that? Sadly they don’t make prime ministerial jackets like that anymore.”

Former Labor deputy Tanya Plibersek teared up as she reminisced about the “extrovert’s ­extrovert” who could “charm the birds from the trees”.

“I always felt like he treated me as a comrade and that meant so much to me, to be treated as a comrade,” she said.

A sentiment that wasn’t shared by all. One Labor member refused to offer himself up to the Church of Bob because, “I actually knew him, unlike the other platitudes”.

But final words to new deputy Richard Marles: “It struck me, at the end of the day, he was just ­delighted to be Bob Hawke.”