By Kerry-Anne Walsh
TWENTY-SIX years ago a fiery, diminutive larrikin led the federal ALP to a thumping victory, restoring its collective battered pride after eight years in the political scrub.
This weekend that bloke, Bob Hawke, whose 1983 win over Malcolm Fraser is now part of Labor legend, was given life membership of the ALP at its national conference in Sydney.
There aren't many in the parliamentary party now who were around for that victory – current Defence Minister John Faulkner was; Treasurer Wayne Swan, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese were baby Labor staffers, in training for their later careers.
But most of those applauding Hawke on the conference floor would have known about him only through folklore and history books. The party these days is run by young men and women in a hurry, with little time for looking over their shoulders at its rich history.
Labor's last quarter-century has been bookended by the most different of Labor stars – Hawke, prime minister until toppled by Paul Keating in 1991, was a grand Aussie mix: a blue-collar boyo with an eye for the booze and broads who possessed an extraordinary intellect he applied rigorously to helping working people.
Kevin Rudd is a new breed of political leader who could slot in as easily into a Liberal as a Labor government. Polished, highly intelligent, rich, poll-driven.
There's never been a Labor leader like him, and quite possibly won't be again after he's gone.
Some in Labor ranks scratch their heads about what it is about the man who has few friends within the party that makes him so wildly popular with voters.
Hawke was a popular leader; wherever he went he was treated like a rock star. But Rudd is in another league altogether.
His popularity has been consistently high since he took the leadership from Kim Beazley less than a year out from the November 2007 election.
All things being equal, Rudd looks set for at least one, if not two, more terms.
What of the Opposition, then? Their last quarter-century was bookended largely by the presence of only one man: John Howard.
Howard was the on-again, off-again leader throughout the tumultuous 1980s after the Fraser defeat, the revolving door to the leader's office seeing in, then out, Andrew Peacock, John Hewson and Alexander Downer.
Howard saw off, on the Labor side, Paul Keating, Kim Beazley (twice), Simon Crean and Mark Latham. Paul Keating was so obsessed with Howard that for some years after the voters tossed him out in 1996 he fantasised about returning to Parliament and the Labor leadership, to trounce his foe. There were only ever two chances of that: Buckley's and none.
The pages of history are sprinkled with the names of leaders who, if the stars had been aligned differently, could and should have been as big as Howard or Rudd.
Beazley is still the greatest Labor prime minister the country never had.
Historically, events such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that changed the world also kept voters glued to Howard. That was just one example of how Beazley's place in time was always out; and how his enemy – Howard – was always too wily.
And despite possessing a monstrous intellect, keen Labor sensitivities and the common touch, Beazley simply did not have enough killer instinct to ward off the all-consuming Rudd ambition.
In the end, he pretty much surrendered, despite most of his party willing him to keep going.
Now, Rudd is to the Coalition in Opposition what Howard was to Labor for 12 long years. He seems unassailable; he's already seen off Brendan Nelson, dispatched Peter Costello from Parliament (almost) and has current leader Malcolm Turnbull flailing on the ropes.
Turnbull is, by a country mile, the one in the Opposition with prime minister stamped on his forehead.
But, like Beazley, his place in time is wrongly aligned. The portents aren't good. History would suggest, however, that if he does lose the Opposition Leader's job before or after the election, natural leaders like him, with relentless ambition, return. And sometimes triumph, like Howard.