'He was a natural': How Bob Hawke ended up in budgie smugglers on a croc-infested river

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As Australia mourns the loss of the nation's longest-serving Labor PM, a former Northern Territory public servant gives fresh insight into the larrikin leader's golden touch — at catching barramundi.

It was an unassuming phone call to Darwin's Australian Bureau of Statistics branch:"Bob's coming up, it'd be great if someone could take him out fishing."

In some of the photos, Mr Hawke stands posed with a trio of big barramundi, donning a snappy pair of zebra-striped budgie smugglers, and that famous grin plastered on his jaw. His father, Walter 'Wally Numbers' Mitchell was the NT bureau's head statistician, and had been named as the Territorian responsible for taking Hawke out on his tropical expedition.

 

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Bob was very good By that standard Shorten might rate 3 out of 10

TheirABC fawns over PM Hawke in budgie smugglers, but not so much PM Abbott …

Red budgie smugglers - careful or you’ll trigger the Abbott haters 👎

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