Bob Hawke Jacket

Any boss who sacks a worker for not coming in today

Celebration of triumph. Yes, it really is 'that jacket', but was it Bob Hawke's?

At the Royal Perth Yacht Club’s rousing celebration of Australia II’s America’s Cup win, Prime Minister Bob Hawke declared to the assembled masses that “any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum!”, a comment which instantly cemented him in Australia’s popular history. Symbolic of Bob Hawke’s presence at the time was the jacket he was wearing, displayed here in the WA Maritime Museum. But was it Bob’s jacket? Well, the answer is that it was lent to him during the event by its actual owner, architectural student Paul Burham, who designed it based on a tea towel pattern featuring the word “Australia”, along with a mosaic of the national flag and a map.

He later loaned it to the Museum. However, it presented a real problem for the Museum’s textile conservator because in the euphoria of the win, the Prime Minister was sprayed with beer and champagne, which soaked into the fabric. On one hand, the alcoholic shower was an authentic marker of the occasion. On the other, it stained the fabric. The solution, the artefact comes first, so the beer and champagne had to come out.