Hawke, Keating at odds

Press, 31 May 1986, Page 10

Hawke, Keating at odds

NZPA-Reuter Canberra The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, and his Treasurer, Mr Paul Keating, are at loggerheads again as alarm increases over the state of Australia’s economy and the plunging dollar.

Mr Keating, who fell foul of Mr Hawke two weeks ago for calling a national economic conference after saying the country could become a

“banana republic,” attacked Mr Hawke’s personal staff on this right. “They sit like courtiers in a Manchu court,” he said. Mr Hawke should remind them that they were not elected to office and must behave themselves, he said in a television interview.

Mr Hawke defended his staff yesterday, saying, “The loyalty, integrity and competence of my staff is beyond question. They don’t have an opportunity,

publicly, to defend themselves. I do, and I do it.”

The opposition, which according to opinion polls is running level in popularity with the Government for the first time since Labour came to power in 1983, gleefully calls it “a collision of two super-colossal egos.” Mr Keating’s outburst reflected a growing split between the two men as their Government sought remedies for Australia’s economic woes. '