Australian Books: Paul’s gospel

Saturday, 28th January 2012

After Words: The Post-Prime Ministerial Speeches
By P.J. Keating
Allen & Unwin, $59.99, pp 628
ISBN 9781742377599

At a certain point in his post-Presidential career, noted a contemporary observer, Theodore Roosevelt passed from being a former US President to becoming an acknowledged international leader. The same is now true of Paul Keating, in his post-Prime Ministerial career. If proof were needed, it is to be found resonating in After Words, a collection of his speeches delivered since losing office in 1996.

Rare among Australian Prime Ministers, Keating is above all a man of ideas. Passionately argued ideas about Australia and Australia’s place in the world; about global economics and politics; about architecture, music and the arts generally. Keating speaks with confidence and it is a pleasure to read a book where the civilising impact of creativity meets the imperatives of politics and government.

He is, of course, the same Paul Keating described by Conrad Black as having ‘a tongue which could clip a hedge’. True too. But that was in the thick of political battle, where the warrior Keating confronted critics and foes. Keating never thought much of his opponents, once musing that he was condemned to deal with their mediocrity, unlike a distinguished predecessor: ‘John Curtin, God love him, had real enemies.’

My favourite memory of Keating is on the Sydney Town Hall stage at the Annual Conference of the NSW Labor party in the winter of 1982. I was a young assistant general secretary, at the time about to leave for my first trip to Europe. As we looked over the teeming theatre of the party conference, Keating drew me a map of Paris pointing out the places I should visit and the history of each. It was an original and insightful introduction to Paris: its nuances explained and its rich textures identified.

More significantly, Paul Keating understood the challenges which confronted Australia in the last quarter of the 20th century. And unlike many others, he was determined that Australia would master its destiny.

His chapter on the Labor government (1983-1996) is the best assessment yet written on the Hawke/Keating period in office. The economy was opened to international competition and our banking and financial systems liberalised. The social security net was strengthened and education extended. Landmark industrial changes were embraced, despite the objections of some within the Labor movement itself. Tariff walls erected under Chifley began to come down under Hawke and Keating. Keating demonstrated, time and again, that leadership often involves staring down your own constituency and then taking it with you.

As to what motivates the former Prime Minister, it is also to be found in this book. He remains a lad from Bankstown, which might explain the occasional sharp elbow. In his acceptance speech for life membership of the NSW ALP, Keating leaves no one in any doubt that his formative years in Bankstown provided his enduring motivation in public life.

Unquestionably, Keating would have flourished in any political system from the Parliaments of Europe and North America through to the contests for executive office. This is underlined by the depth of his thinking on issues as diverse as the vast difference between nationalism and patriotism (wherein he discusses the views of thinkers as important as George Orwell and John Lukacs with an effortless command), to the rebuilding of Berlin centred on Potsdamer Platz, to the introduction of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, to the relationship between Australia and Indonesia and the perils of the global economic system. While Graham Freudenberg in A Certain Grandeur and John Howard in Lazarus Rising have established benchmarks at their respective poles for Australian political memoir, Keating has achieved a milestone in After Words for Australian political leadership.

Prime Ministers are best subject to evaluation by Australian historians some 25 to 30 years after their terms in office. This allows the law of consequences to show itself in the results of decisions taken or not taken. In Keating’s case, however, it is already possible to make judgements. The impact of his reform program as Treasurer and Prime Minister, from economic liberalisation to financial deregulation and mandatory superannuation, has meant a far more prosperous Australia, externally focused and confident in its place in the world. This book of his speeches reaffirms the significance of our 24th Prime Minister.

Stephen Loosley is a former Labor senator and ALP president.

More articles from: Stephen Loosley | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comment

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit