For Prime Minister Bob Hawke, it finally came down to the numbers. Last Wednesday newly released opinion polls showed not only that his Labor Party trailed the conservative opposition, 31% to 52%, but also that his own approval rating was a slim 26% -- down from a 1983 high of 75%. The next day, bowing to party pressure, Hawke put his job up for grabs, and lost it by a vote of 56-51 to the party's former treasurer, Paul Keating.
Thus ended Hawke's unbroken tenure of eight years and nine months at the % helm, the longest stint by a Labor...
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