Paul Keating: From Bankstown to the Top

From Bankstown to the Top

Paul Keating represents a period of Australian politics that fuels debate amongst a generation old enough to remember, and a generation young enough to be fascinated by the social ramifications of the time.

Mr. Keating is seen as a politician who added character and backbone to the country. And character is one thing Keating did not lack. His acid tongue made question time one of the most entertaining sports on television. His contempt for the opposition, and in particular, then Opposition leader, John Howard, is legend: “I am not like the Leader of the Opposition. I did not slither out of the Cabinet room like a mangy maggot.”

Today, he still holds the same vitriol against the Liberal party, but his life is far from public. Instead Keating prefers to make his money through canny investment (although his controversial piggery investment came back to bite him) and property interests.

In his interests

Mr. Keating is estimated to have made a windfall of $23 million from an $11,000 initial investment in Australian sound specialist Lake Technologies. By 1992 he had bought five million shares at 22 cents. The deal left Mr. Keating as the third largest investor combined with 9.35 million shares he purchased before the company floated in 1999. He is said to have purchased the shares for 0.1 cent, a reward for helping Strathfield owner Andrew Kelley raise capital. Dolby took over Lake Technologies in 2004 for $22 million or 16 cents a share.

‘The Great Australian Piggery Scandal’ was a little less kind. Mr. Keating sold his share in the piggery for what is believed to be a low price, to his partner Achilles Constantinidis. His partner then on-sold the shares in the Parkville and Glengallen piggeries to Indonesian interests as Prime Minister Keating was negotiating a treaty with Indonesian President Suharto. The sale, which was publicised as late as 1999 led to allegations of back-stabbing, tax evasion and conflicts of interest arose. Mr. Keating is estimated to have made more than $6 million on the deal. 

The boy from Bankstown

Troubled investment aside, his rise into political history was not the lore of most politicians; however his roots were not unlike any other Labor supporter. He was born on January 18, 1944, to a boilermaker, who was also a strong union representative. In 1959, at age 15, Keating left school and took up work as a research assistant for a trade union. As soon as he was eligible, he joined the ranks of the ALP. 

Former NSW Premier Jack Lang, whose welfare and social policy shaped his political career during the Depression, was an inspiration to a young and idealistic Keating. As a mentor, Mr. Lang met with Mr. Keating on a weekly basis to discuss Labor politics in the early ’70s and with the help of his extensive contacts gained endorsements to contest the federal seat of Blaxland, in Sydney’s western suburbs.

At the age of 25, he was elected into the House of Representatives in the 1969 election. He was the Minister for the Northern Territory during Gough Whitlam’s waning weeks as Prime Minister, and following Labor’s removal became an opposition frontbencher.

Under Bob Hawke’s Prime Minister-ship in 1983, Mr. Keating became Treasurer and his decisions became more significant.  Combined with no formal education, pressure mounted. Having inherited interest rates as high as 22 per cent from treasurer John Howard, Keating’s decisions and their consequences were magnified. Industry Minister, John Button noted that Keating was ‘extraordinarily hesitant’ in his first six months as Treasurer. 

The count

Nevertheless, Keating became the driving force behind Labor economic policy in his first three years as Treasurer. Commenting that Australia may become a ‘banana republic’ or a one-dimensional economy, he cut tariffs, deregulated banks and floated the Australian dollar all in an effort to entice foreign investors to an attractive market. In a Radio National interview, Keating explained the defensive economic mechanisms that allows ‘…the shock [to] hit the exchange rate, which is like a shock absorber. It moves. And the Interest rates stay low’. He may have been right in economic theory, but during 1989 and the ‘recession we had to have’, Keating’s interest rates peaked at 17 per cent.  

After failing to challenge Hawke for the ‘promised’ leadership in early 1991, his return in December of the same year to mount a successful challenge and become Prime Minister was remarkable, as it was controversial.
It set the tones for an election in 1993, which was thought to be a one-sided contest. Dr. John Hewson, dubbed Australia’s next Prime Minister had set in place drastic policy in order to speed up Australian recovery from Keating’s ‘recession’.

Political commentators saw the election ‘un-winnable’ for Labor, but Paul Keating’s to-the-point and somewhat arrogant appraisal of opposition policy brought to attention the perceived danger Hewson posed to the workforce and middle-earning Australia.

Looking to Asia

After his against the odds win in 1993, Keating’s policy turned to foreign relations in the Asia/Pacific Region. In an effort to create some semblance of unity, he did not create a system whereby Australia would reign as a regional superpower. His creation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum (APEC) looked at bilateralism to provide stability; an idea current politics may need to embrace in such times of volatility.  

He brought to the table the idea of Australia becoming a republic and, perhaps an influence from his years as Minister for the Northern Territory for Whitlam, reconciliation with Aboriginals. Though no meaningful progress has been made in these areas, Keating did much to bring them to the national conscience. He recognised the need for, and established dialogue with regional neighbours, foreseeing the benefits for cultural and economic co-operation; maybe not in his time in office, but in another’s.

With Keating, there was ‘no bull’. He delivered what he thought was necessary, whether it be disparaging comments on the opposition or dramatic policy.  History may judge Keating better than the electorate did in 1996, but he won’t care one way or another.

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