In my little neck of the woods, some locals have told me it takes them only five minutes to walk from their houses to our nearest pub, but it takes them almost 45 minutes to walk back exactly the same way.

I don't know why it takes them so much longer to walk back, but I think the difference is staggering.

Whenever I think of drinking, I think of our former PM Bob Hawke. Hawke once held the world record for the fastest drinking of a yard of beer in 11 seconds (the current record in the Guinness Book of Records is five seconds).

When I think of Hawke, I also think of Frank Sinatra. Why? More than a few have ranked Sinatra as the greatest singer of the 20th century.

Now don't laugh, but I think George Michael was the greatest singer of the 20th century.

Who did George Michael think was the greatest singer of all time? Frank Sinatra. But George Michael isn't Bob Hawke.

Bing Crosby, who to this day has the highest-selling single of all time with his 1942 song "White Christmas", said something along the lines of "a voice like Sinatra's comes along once in a lifetime. Why did it have to be my lifetime?" But Bing Crosby isn't Bob Hawke.

Sinatra always loved Australian audiences and orchestras, claiming once: "There are three best places for musicians: Los Angeles, London and Sydney, Australia."

But all this changed during a 1974 visit to our land down under. Sinatra criticised and insulted the Australian press, who responded in kind.

What happened next? Well, as the saying goes and his hit song said "anything goes".

His second Melbourne concert was cancelled and airport staff imposed a ban on his private jet at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport. So much for "Leaving on a Jet Plane", Frank. "I Can't Stop Loving You"? Well, the Transport Workers Union did, refusing to fuel any jet - private or commercial - that Sinatra attempted to fly on. "Come Fly With Me"? Poor old Sinatra had "High Hopes".

After eventually flying on a commercial flight to Sydney, a three-day media siege of Sinatra's hotel took place while reporters demanded an apology. "Born Free"? Maybe, but now Sinatra was trapped in a Sydney hotel suite. Perhaps he had crooner virus?

Soon the ban on Sinatra expanded to every union that mattered, and the stalemate meant the Australian leg of his tour had come to a grinding halt.

In a phone call to Sinatra's Sydney hotel suite, then-prime minister Gough Whitlam said: "There's only one man who can solve this for you."

As president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bob Hawke - and a bottle of brandy - worked long and hard with Old Blue Eyes to write a joint statement which Hawke read out on the front steps of Sinatra's hotel.

Not an apology exactly, but a statement to agree to disagree and get on with the job. The tour was back on thanks to the negotiating skills of Hawke.

If there was a talent Hawke most certainly possessed, it was his ability to make people realise that we are all on the same side.

The day Australia won the America's Cup back in 1983, an ebullient Prime Minister Hawke declared "any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum".

Hawke later explained that it brought us all together.

When Jesus was ministering here on earth, he went to great lengths to teach people that we all came from the same place, and that every man is our brother and every woman is our sister.

Who were Jesus' biggest enemies in his work? The Pharisees.

It's no wonder, really. Their very name meant "the separated ones".

We currently have serious debates going on our country.

But in all your debates, ask yourself "is this worth dividing me from my loved ones?"

You may not have the luxury of a Bob Hawke to put things back together.