Does Hawkie tell the truth after a bottle of red wine or over fruit and yoghurt at brekkie?

Bob Hawke was always a keen punter, so which horse is he backing for prime minister?

Laurie Oakes yesterday on Nine's Today program with the PM:

OAKES:There are reports in some Sunday papers that Bob Hawke told guests at a dinner in Perth that you won't go the distance and Greg Combet will take over sooner rather than later. What's your response to that?

Gillard: Well, as it happens I had breakfast with Bob Hawke yesterday and we were laughing together about Julie Bishop's endeavours to spin this story. Bob and I were having a good old chuckle over some yoghurt and fruit yesterday morning.

Oakes: So he denies to you, to your face that he said that?

Gillard: Oh, what Bob said is clearly Julie Bishop's been out and about trying to sell this story and we just laughed about it, it's just one of those silly little flurries.

Oakes: Mr Hawke has confirmed though that he does expect Greg Combet to be your successor. Greg Combet's older than you. Now that doesn't suggest Hawkie thinks you're around for the long haul.

Gillard: I think Bob Hawke would happily confirm that he's a fan of Greg Combet, and no wonder. Greg Combet is a very, very talented man.

On ABC1's Insiders yesterday:

BOB Hawke has said you should be next in line for the Labor leadership. How do you feel about that?

Greg Combet: I reckon that was done over a few glasses of red wine if anything. It's nice of Bob to say nice things, but we have a big job ahead of us here. And I understand that has come through Julie Bishop, so I don't know whether it's a particularly reliable source. What I do know, because Bob is a mate of mine, is the tremendous admiration he's got for the PM.

Cassidy: You don't think he might have speculated along those terms, even without the benefit of a red wine?

Combet: Oh, you ask Bob.

Cassidy: OK. What though, what do you make of, when the bookmakers have Bill Shorten as favourite to lead Labor into the election? What's that all about and why is that public perception out there?

Combet: Well how would I know? I'm not betting on it, Barrie, and I'm not running the book.

So who's running the book? Kate Hannon AAP, August 1, 2009:

BOB in adulthood lost any religious conviction he may have had and developed a passion for horseracing he still maintains.

So which horse did he back last time? Phillip Coorey in The Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 2010

THE former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, who was at Canberra Airport at the same time as the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, was allegedly overheard telling the Labor backbencher Daryl Melham that he was disappointed in [Kevin] Rudd. A Liberal staff member claims to have heard Mr Hawke asking Mr Melham about switching Mr Rudd for the deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard.

Don Parties On, David Williamson's new play:

COOLEY: Assassins at midnight. Took an elected prime minister and cut his throat before any of his elected colleagues knew it. That's democracy?

Don: You emailed me a few months ago and said something like "Kevin Rudd is a hopelessly dysfunctional control freak who shouldn't be running a school canteen, let alone a nation."

Cooley: Yeah, but the faceless assassins at midnight. It's un-Australian, mate.

Kev parties on. Spokesman for the former prime minister, Peter Hartcher, in theSMH on Saturday:

AND although there are houses closer to the Lodge, there aren't many. Rudd's new house is a little more than two kilometres from his former house in Canberra, less than a five-minute drive. In fact, the most direct route from Parliament House to Rudd's new place goes directly past the Lodge. Is Kevin Rudd stalking Julia Gillard? Not exactly, but the choice of house is not just a real estate decision. It's a statement of political intent. It's a message that says, "I'm not going anywhere."