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Paul Keating Quotes

Paul John Keating is a former Australian politician who served as the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1991 to 1996 as leader of the Labor Party. He had earlier served as Treasurer in the Hawke Government from 1983 to 1991.

Keating was born in Sydney, and left school at the age of 14. He joined the Labor Party at a young age, serving a term as state president of Young Labor and working as a research assistant for a trade union. Keating was elected to the House of Representatives at the age of 25, winning the Division of Blaxland at the 1969 federal election. He served as Minister for Northern Australia for three weeks in the dying days of the Whitlam Government. After Labor lost power in 1975, Keating held increasingly senior portfolios in the shadow ministries of Whitlam, Bill Hayden, and Bob Hawke. He came to be seen as the leader of the Labor Right faction in New South Wales, and developed a reputation as a talented parliamentary performer.

After Labor won the 1983 election, Keating became one of the most influential figures in the new government. As Treasurer, he oversaw the introduction of a large number of reforms intended to liberalise and strengthen the Australian economy. These included the Prices and Incomes Accord, the float of the Australian dollar, the elimination of tariffs, the deregulation of the financial sector, and reform of the taxation system . The relationship between Hawke and Keating eventually began to deteriorate, and in 1988 they secretly agreed that Hawke would retire after the next election. Keating was elected deputy Labor leader in 1990. In June 1991, he unsuccessfully challenged for the leadership, believing that Hawke had reneged on their earlier agreement. He resigned from cabinet, but mounted a second challenge six months later and emerged victorious.

Keating became prime minister in the midst of the early 1990s recession, which as Treasurer he had famously described as "the recession we had to have". After a long run of poor polling, Labor was widely expected to lose the 1993 election, but fought a strong campaign and managed to increase its majority. The Keating Government focused mainly on economic issues in its first term, introducing compulsory superannuation, creating an infrastructure development program, and initiating the privatisation of Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank. In later years, Keating's agenda centred more on social and cultural matters. He participated in the "history wars", and helped make republicanism and indigenous rights the subject of national debates. His government established the Republic Advisory Committee and enshrined native title in statute law.

At the 1996 election, Labor suffered a landslide defeat to John Howard's Liberal–National Coalition. Keating's personal approval rating had reached historically low levels in his second term, with opponents portraying him as elitist and out of touch. He left parliament after the election, but in retirement has remained active as a political commentator, defending his government's legacy. Since leaving office, Keating has received consistent praise for his role in modernising the economy, particularly during his period as Treasurer. Evaluations of his overall prime ministership have been more mixed.

✵ 18. January 1944
Paul Keating photo
Paul Keating: 33   quotes 1   like

Famous Paul Keating Quotes

“Never get between a Premier and a bucket of money.”

Paul Keating

as quoted in a 2014 Daily Telegraph article http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/all-riled-up-over-an-empty-bucket/news-story/93c0bff6a075170852189ba9a7480365

“For John Howard to get to any high moral ground he would have to first climb out of the volcanic hole he's dug for himself over the last decade. You know, it's like one of those deep diamond mined holes in South Africa, you know, they're about a mile underground. He'd have to come a mile up to get to even equilibrium, let alone have any contest in morality with Kevin Rudd.”

Paul Keating

ABC Radio interview, March 5, 2007.

“Between 1999 and 2004 there was no investment in Australia, it all went into housing and consumption all borrowed on the current account. When Peter Costello runs around saying, 'Oh we've paid off the debt,' it's like the pea and thimble trick. The Government debt or the massive private debt abroad? It's continuing to grow.”

Paul Keating

7:30 Report interview, May 8, 2006

“Because in the end those kind of conservative tea-leaf-reading focus group driven polling types who I think led Kim into nothingness, he's got his life to repent in leisure now at what they did to him.”

Paul Keating

On Kim Beazley's ALP Leadership, Lateline interview, June 7 2007.

“No choice we can make as a nation lies between our history and our geography. We can hardly change either of them. They are immutable. The only choice we can make as a nation is the choice about our future.”

Paul Keating

"A Prospect of Europe", 1997 speech at the University of New South Wales.

“If this Government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again, and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for. We will end up being a third rate economy…a banana republic.”

Paul Keating

Speaking to John Laws on Radio 2GB, May 14, 1986.

Paul Keating Quotes about people

“This is the sweetest victory of all. This is a victory for the true believers; the people who, in difficult times, have kept the faith.”

Paul Keating

1993 election victory speech.

“It really surprises me that some people in this party think we owe Westpac something. Or the ANZ Bank. Or the National.”

Paul Keating

Australian Labor Party national conference, July 1984.

“The Labor Party is not going to profit from having these proven unsuccessful people around who are frightened of their own shadow and won't get out of bed in the morning unless they've had a focus group report to tell them which side of bed to get out.”

Paul Keating

On the modern ALP, Lateline interview, June 7 2007.

Paul Keating Quotes

“The Placido Domingo of Australian politics.”

Paul Keating

Self description, based on the assessment that Domingo's performances are "sometimes great, and sometimes not great, but always good." Press Gallery Christmas dinner, 1990.

“[Australian Reserve Bank] Governor MacFarlane said recently when Paul Volcker broke the back of American inflation it's regarded as the policy triumph of the Western world. When I broke the back of Australian inflation they say, "Oh, you're the fellow that put the interest rates up." Am I not the same fellow that gave them the 15 years of good growth and high wealth that came from it?”

Paul Keating

7:30 Report interview, May 8, 2006

World , Wealth

“The excesses of the 80s must not reappear in the 90s, The last thing we need now is a return to the 80s philosophy of 'greed is good' and that the only useful interest is self-interest.”

Paul Keating

From a speech he delivered in Bankstown, New South Wales on the 24th of February 1993
Source: http://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1993-paul-keating

“Hewson: I ask the Prime Minister: if you are so confident about your view of Fightback, why will you not call an early election?
Keating: The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm out of this load of rubbish over a number of months. There will be no easy execution for you. You have perpetrated one of the great mischiefs on the Australian public with this thing, trying to rip away our social wage, trying to rip away the Australian values which we built in our society for over a century.”

Paul Keating

Question Time, Australian House of Representatives, 1992, Labor in Power (w:Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1993), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_CHXDBq9Ps

Confidence , Sport

“A familiar question for Australians is how much we are a product of our circumstances, and how much we are what we have made ourselves to be. In truth, by the act of migration the country was made: by that voluntary act and by the emigrants' ambitions it was built.”

Paul Keating

Address to the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of parliament of the Republic of Ireland, 20 September, 1993.

Truth , Question , Country

“He's a pre-Copernican obscurantist.”

Paul Keating

Referring to Prime Minister John Howard's attitude to industrial relations. ABC Radio interview http://web.archive.org/web/20070503051216/http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1911526.htm, May 1, 2007.

“In the end it's the big picture which changes nations and whatever our opponents may say, Australia's changed inexorably for good, for the better.”

Paul Keating

Concession Speech, March 2, 1996.

Change

“I used to refer to him as Thallium, a slow acting dope”

Paul Keating

Referring again to former Treasurer Peter Costello, 7.30 Report, August 6, 2008. 7.30 Report Interview http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2326431.htm

“Clodhopper”

Paul Keating

Referring to former Treasurer Peter Costello, launch of Unfinished Business - Paul Keating's Interrupted Revolution, August 6 2008. 7.30 Report Interview http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2326431.htm

“The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on.”

Paul Keating

Referring to his economic record, 7.30 Report, August 6, 2008. 7.30 Report Interview http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2326431.htm

Dogs

“We will not adopt the fantastic hypocrisy of modern conservatism which preaches the values of families and communities, while conducting a direct assault on them through reduced wages and conditions and job security.”

Paul Keating

Election campaign launch, February 14, 1996.

Family , Communication

“By the year 2000 we should be able to say that we have learned to live securely, in peace and mutual prosperity among our Asian and Pacific neighbours. We will not be cut off from our British and European cultures and traditions or from those economies. On the contrary, the more engaged we are economically and politically with the region around us, the more value and relevance we bring to those old relationships. Far from putting our identity at risk, our relationships with the region will energise it.”

Paul Keating

Election campaign launch, February 14, 1996.

Peace , Learning

“I mean (blowing lips), I mean he's going Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, he's going troppo, he's going troppo, he's more to be pitied than despised, he's simply going troppo.”

Paul Keating

In Parliament, circa 1992. Cited in Vulgar politics back in vogue http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s1008343.htm, ABC PM, 11 December 2003.

“John Howard turned the prime ministership into something like a state police minister. He's at the scene of every crime, twice a day on radio, the guy did no thinking.”

Paul Keating

Referring to former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, 7.30 Report, August 6, 2008. 7.30 Report Interview http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2326431.htm

Guy , Thinking

“Silly what's his name, the Shrek, whoever he was on the television this morning?”

Paul Keating

Referring to Howard Government Minister Joe Hockey, Lateline interview, June 7 2007.

“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.”

Paul Keating

1992 The Redfern Speech, launching International Year of Indigenous Peoples

Life , Children , Alcohol , Disease

“Australia without the Irish would be unthinkable…unimaginable…unspeakable.”

Paul Keating

Speaking in 1992, as quoted in "Ned Kelly and 'Mary Poppins' writer among top Irish-Australians" by Pádraig Collins, in The Irish Times (19 August 2009) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0819/1224252870389.html

“He’s the greatest L plater of all time.”

Paul Keating

Referring to Treasurer Peter Costello, Lateline interview, June 7 2007. Lateline interview http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1945485.htm

Time

“The little desiccated coconut is under pressure and he is attacking anything he can get his hands on… (he is) still there araldited to the seat.”

Paul Keating

In reference to Prime Minister John Howard. ABC Radio interview, March 5, 2007.

“You just can't have a position where some pumped up bunyip potentate dismisses an elected government.”

Paul Keating

In reference to former Governor-General John Kerr. The Great Crash for The World Today book launch, 9 November, 2005.

“This is a low-flying person.”

Paul Keating

Referring yet again to former Treasurer Peter Costello, 7.30 Report, August 6, 2008. 7.30 Report Interview http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2326431.htm

Personality , Flying

“The fact is, Burke is smarter than two thirds of the Western Australian Labor Party rolled together”

Paul Keating

Referring to disgraced former Western Australia Premier Brian Burke, ABC Radio interview, March 5, 2007.

“While frenetic activity, in the end suiting journos; running at the behest of little press secretaries does not pay off”

Paul Keating

Referring to Kevin Rudd's first eight months, 7.30 Report, August 6, 2008. 7.30 Report Interview http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2326431.htm

“All tip and no iceberg.”

Paul Keating

Referring to Treasurer Peter Costello, ABC Radio interview, March 5, 2007.

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