The memoirs of former NZ prime minister David Lange are set to hit
bookshops this week. And they will drop a huge bucket all over our own
Bob Hawke –
the two men’s egos put them on a dangerous collision course.

Crikey has been told of one incident involving the former Victoria State
Opera, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Hawke, former Brisbane Lord Mayor Sallyanne
Atkinson and Lange’s wife. The big
man played a peripheral role in the drama. The VSO organised an Australia-wide
te Kanawa tour and the Brisbane leg of the tour, held during Expo in 1988, was
sold out within ten minutes of the bookings opening.

At an after-performance
party at the Festival Hall, the world and his wife tried to crowd in to see
the famous diva, who was enthralled with Hawke and the feeling seemed to be
mutual. The huge Lange tried to barge in, but a VSO minder politely asked him
to wait until the crowd thinned. He would have waited but his wife, looking in the
room, saw Hawke. You must be there, she said, look who’s talking to Kiri, so in they
went!