Page "Paul Keating" Paragraph 11

At a 1988 meeting at Kirribilli House, Hawke and Keating discussed the handover of the leadership to Keating.

Hawke agreed in front of two witnesses that he would resign in Keating's favour after the 1990 election.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Lionel Bowen, retired at the 1990 election, and Keating was appointed Deputy to Hawke.

In June 1991, after Hawke had intimated to Keating that he planned to renege on the deal on the basis that Keating had been publicly disloyal and moreover was less popular than Hawke, Keating challenged him for the leadership.

He lost ( Hawke won 66 – 44 in the party room ballot ), resigned as Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, and declared in a press conference that he had fired his ' one shot '.

Publicly, at least, this made his leadership ambitions unclear.

Having lost the first challenge to Hawke, Keating realised that events would have to move very much in his favour for a second challenge to be even possible.