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Home , Gerard Henderson, Kevin Rudd, Kim Beazley, Mark Latham, Melissa Doyle, Paul Keating

The reform boldness of contrasts poorly with the timidity of , writes Greg Barns.

evin Rudd stood on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin on a fresh morning in early September and told popular breakfast presenter Kof Channel 7’s Sunrise program how chuffed he was that would be sworn in as ’s first female Governor-General that day. Doyle then asked Rudd about the prospects for an Australian Republic. It was as though Rudd froze. Oh yes, it was ALP policy that there be an Australian head of state but when Doyle pressed Rudd for a timeframe on when Australia might become a republic, Rudd simply muttered, ‘next question.’ Now what if Paul Keating was Prime Minister and Melissa Doyle asked him the same question? He would have painted a canvas in which a republic was the centrepiece of a strategy to redefine Australia as an independent, confident Asia-Pacific nation. To put the contrast in cricketing terms, where Rudd shuffled at his crease and fended the ball off, Keating would have dashed out of wicket, planted the front foot down and smashed the ball through the offside field for four.

10 IPA Review | November 2008 www.ipa.org.au Paul Keating speaks at book launch in on May 8, 2006 . Tracey Neamy | AAPImage Why Keating makes Kevin look bad

www.ipa.org.au IPA Review | November 2008 11 aul Keating may not like this retreat in in August this year he language of Keating as Trea- analogy, but he has much more that Australians are ‘practical and a bit surer, and as Prime Minister for in common with former British cautious’ about economic reform. that matter, was urgent and un- PPrime Minister Margaret Thatcher than No wonder Mr Keating is so cranky Tcompromising. It did not flinch—there he does with Kevin Rudd. Both Keating about the ’s lack of was no self-doubt. Perhaps only former and Thatcher are iconoclastic individu- policy cohesion and capacity to think Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, with als who reshaped their parties, the body seriously about the long term. whom not unnaturally Keating got on politic around them and left an indelible Where Mr Rudd and his cabinet puff well, has spoken with such a sense of self- mark on the economy and society they out their collective chest about working certainty and force in modern Australian reshaped. And both are individuals who on Saturdays, and pushing public ser- politics. today are like Banquo’s ghost, as they vants to stay at their desks long into the For Keating, politics and policy- loom over their successors. night all in aid of creating an impression making was a high wire act, first, second The Labor Party of Kevin Rudd of general busyness, Mr Keating always and third. ‘There are a lot of people in does its best these days to ignore its for- gave the impression that he had time to this country who are content to sit back mer leader—and Mr Rudd’s ambivalent reflect and step outside the stultifying and do nothing, to take the easy way. But attitude towards the Keating dream of confines of Capital Hill, yet continue to it’s all about risk and those who risk and a Republic is emblematic of this. The be serious about the business of reform. win deserve everything they get,’ Keating ALP spent a decade after Mr Keating We can put it another way. Mr told a group of bankers back in 1987. lost office in a landslide to John How- Rudd probably clocks up twice as many What needs to be appreciated about ard in 1996 running a million miles hours as Mr Keating did, but this does Keating is that he single handedly turned from the legacy and achievements of not equate with being a committed and the ALP inside out. As journalist David the government that had gone before genuine long term reformer. McKenzie wrote in December 1991, them. Similarly, the British Conserva- What Mr Keating showed was that just after Keating replaced tive Party today under its wunderkind reformers needed to balance their lives as Prime Minister, ‘for many traditional leader David Cameron is unashamedly by polishing antique clocks, delving into Labor supporters, Keating is the Trojan breaking with the radical conservatism the emotional rollercoaster of a Mahler horse that ripped the philosophical heart of Mrs Thatcher. symphony or fossicking around antique out of the party by embracing free mar- What a pity in both cases. stores in Queen Street Woollahra or kets, cutting back on government spend- And it is even more so in the con- Paris. ing and selling off the “crown jewels” of text of Labor Party which, One gets a sense that where Kevin the public sector,’ McKenzie said. This while in office federally today, could be Rudd, and their cohorts was an historic victory for those advo- said to not actually be in government. think that practicing politics is about cates of free markets in and out of par- One does not get the sense that Mr taking small steps, and watching the me- liament. Rudd and his cabinet have any of the dia and the polls in an almost fetishist The record of Paul Keating as eco- zeal, intellectual inquiry and sense of manner, Paul Keating was the embodi- nomic reformer is well documented, adventure about them that character- ment of John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps.’ much commented upon, and debated. ised Keating when he became Treasurer Could one imagine Paul Keating Much of that reform agenda was ex- in the in 1983, and doing what Wayne Swan did this year, ecuted in his first four years as Treasurer. which hallmarks stayed with him until underwhelming an audience of corpo- Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald the end in 1996. rate high flyers at Hayman Island by on July 1 1987, Steve Burrell observed Where Keating defined the issue, telling them that Australians are ‘practi- that since he became Treasurer in March the debate and the parameters around it, cal and a bit cautious’, about economic 1983 Keating had Rudd plays on the same turf as his po- reform, and not to expect the earth to brought the budget deficit back litical opponents both inside and outside move while he is in office? from an unsustainable 5 per the parliament. Not a bit of it. The Keating rhetoric cent of national income to less The man who wears the Treasurer’s and practice was to lecture, cajole and than 1 per cent in four years. mantle today, Wayne Swan, is the antith- drag you along the reform road whether He has rammed through reduc- esis of Keating. Mr Swan is a manager of you liked it or not. Where the Rudd tions in real wages which very the economy and nothing more. Accord- Government has a penchant for inqui- few thought possible, largely ing to The Australian’s economics editor, ries, subcommittees and reviews, with retaining the extra competitive- Michael Stutchbury, Swan is wary of Keating there was no such navel gazing. ness flowing from the fall in the reform agendas. Stutchbury quoted the He knew what the Australian economy dollar. He has floated the dollar, Treasurer as saying at a corporate leaders needed in the short, medium and long deregulated the financial mar- term and he set about doing it. kets, reformed the tax system Greg Barns is a barrister specialising and freed up access for foreign in criminal law and human rights. He investment, to set the scene for writes regularly for Crikey. a fundamental restructuring of

12 IPA Review | November 2008 www.ipa.org.au Paul Keating’s election night speech after his win in 1993. National Archives of Australia, A6135

the economy. He has demol- as Margaret Thatcher when it came to economic reform agenda, wrote in 2001 ished the shibboleths of the past micro-economic reform, in particular in that the former Treasurer ‘has claim to and transformed Labor into a the area of industrial relations. being the central figure in Australian party of economic rationalists The University of ’s Les politico-economics in the past quarter of capable of confronting the real- Coleman concluded in an analysis pub- a century.’ ity of being a small trading na- lished last year that And as noted in The End tion in a big world. comparison of the economic of Certainty, his chronicle of the Hawke- Keating of course was no demi-god. performance of the Hawke- Keating years, after Paul Keating used his There were certain ‘no-go’ areas—sub- Keating and Howard Govern- famous 1986 ‘Banana Republic’ remark stantial deregulation of the labour mar- ments relative to other econo- to describe where the Australian econ- ket and the privatisation of Telstra. His mies at the same time shows omy might head if serious economic economic management credentials were that the reform was interrupted, he became the severely undermined by events leading delivered: lower inflation, inter- ‘dominant figure’ within the Hawke up to, and during the recession of 1990- est rates, and unemployment, Government, much to the Prime Minis- 1991, the deepest economic malaise in and stronger exchange rates; ter’s frustration and incredulity. The way Australia since the Great Depression of but weaker economic growth. it worked, according to Kelly, was that the 1930s. The boast that he controlled The [Howard] government has Keating saw himself as the driving force the Reserve Bank and that his hands outperformed its predecessor of the government and Hawke the front firmly gripped the levers of the nation- on three criteria and underper- man. al economy came back to haunt him formed on one. It also delivered It was a perception that increased in that dark period, particularly when a stronger currency, which is over the years as Hawke’s power waned. interest rates reached cripplingly high outperformance for import- Can anyone name another period levels. And to serious free marketeers ers and Australian tourists, but in modern Australian political history Keating was not in the same class as his underperformance for exporters where a minister had such a sense of Kiwi counterpart, Roger Douglas, who and foreign visitors. chutzpah and there was so little his Prime Minister could do about it? at the same time as Keating was reshap- But even amongst the free marketers ing Australia, was literally resuscitating there is admiration for Keating. David ut it was not only within the ALP New Zealand after years of red tape and Love, a respected economics journal- that Keating became the central economic nationalism had fairly stran- ist and commentator whose latest book figure. The Liberal Party ina gled it to death. And to the Melbourne Unfinished Business (reviewed in the Sep- Bsense remade its strategy around Keat- think tank and business luminaries like tember 2008 edition of the IPA Review) ing, particularly under ’s Michael Porter, Des Moore, and Hugh reflects on the significance of the Keating Morgan, Keating was not nearly as game leadership. In fact, it is not too much of a www.ipa.org.au IPA Review | November 2008 13 Under , , and Kevin Rudd, Keating’s name and achievements were seen as a political albatross and baggage which had to be hidden out of the voter’s view.

stretch to argue that were it not for Paul The Liberal Party had presided the national decks might come the en- Keating’s remarkable 1993 federal elec- over a period—the 1950s and ergy to make the whole Australian ex- tion victory, the Liberal Party might not 1960s—when gross domestic periment exciting again.’ The props that have achieved its decade of political suc- product per head was half what Menzies had so effectively utilised to cess, which turned the veteran war horse it is now; when commodities cement his party’s control of Australia Howard into Australia’s second longest occupied 85 per cent of our for 23 years such as the British mon- serving Prime Minister. exports; when telephones were archy, the US alliance and a decidedly As former Howard staffer and half what they are now; when gradualist and limited attitude to social commentator once there were half as many cars per reform were being smashed by a Labor put it, ‘some Liberals felt real political thousand people of population; Prime Minister. pain leading to obsession—when Keat- when pensions were half their For Howard, Keating represented ing won the so-called “unlosable elec- real value of today and when 10 the antithesis of what he believed the tion” in 1993.’ children per 1,000 went to uni- Liberal Party to be. And he let it be With the 1993 election victory versity instead of 30 per 1,000. known, prior to his election as Prime under his belt, many Liberals feared That was the golden age when Minister in March 1996, that he in- that Keating would unleash a whole- Australia stagnated. That was tended to undo the Keating legacy in a sale makeover of Australian society and the golden age when Australia comprehensive way. In June 1995 How- culture. was injected with a near-lethal ard delivered what he termed a ‘Head- For many in the Liberal Party, dose of fogeyism by the conser- land’ speech. In it he crystallised his 12 symbols such as the Australian Flag vative parties opposite, when years of frustration and anger at Paul and the British monarchy were sacred. they put the country into neu- Keating’s record. There was, according They were dear to the heart of- Rob tral and where we very gently to Howard, ‘… a frustrated mainstream ert Menzies and the party branches ground to a halt in the nowhere in Australia today which sees govern- were disproportionately represented land of the early 1980s, with a ment decisions increasingly driven by by conservatives who saw the seeds of dependency on commodities the noisy, self-interested clamour of revolution in Keating’s preparedness to that would not pay for our im- powerful vested interests with scant re- change both. ports … You can go back to the gard for the national interest.’ What also galvanised the Liberal fifties to your nostalgia, your But Howard promised that under Party like it had never been hardened Menzies, the Caseys and the a government led by him, ‘the views of previously, was that Keating, unlike whole lot. They were not - ag all particular interests will be assessed Hawke, or any other Labor leader since gressively Australian, they were against the national interest and the 1996 with the brief exception of Mark not aggressively proud of our sentiments of mainstream Australia.’ Latham, routinely attacked the very culture, and we will have no bar The Howard Government’s -po heart of the Liberal Party without apol- of you or your sterile ideology. litical strategy based essentially, or ini- ogy. tially anyway, on being the antithesis of Keating’s intentions were clear: to re- Keating’s tirade on February 27 Keating was, as history tells us, highly make Australia in the image that he cre- 1992, against the Liberal Party and successful. The Liberal Party won over, ated. In some ways Keating saw himself the conservative side of politics, was and maintained the support of low and as the great moderniser, in stark con- then, and remains today, without peer middle income suburbanites and those trast to the ‘old fogeys’ of the past. As in terms of sheer excoriation. That day, in regional Australia—those voters iden- notes in Recollections of a during in the parliament, tified as mainstream and unimpressed Bleeding Heart, Keating’s tagging of the Keating launched into a description of with Keating’s remodelling efforts—for republic, the flag, Asia and reconcilia- the Liberal Party’s role in Australia’s his- four successive elections. tion were the result of a view that the tory that, even by his own standards, In short, the Keating personality ‘last symbols of Australia’s colonial past was breathtaking in its scope and its and legacy was the backdrop to John were inimical to a clear-eyed apprecia- invective: Howard’s own radicalism in office when tion of reality … from this clearing of he too sought to steer the nation in a

14 IPA Review | November 2008 www.ipa.org.au completely different direction from that hatever else he was in his 27 necessarily, it is to not have an overarching to which Keating had wanted to take it. years of political life, Paul narrative in place,’ Keating said. ‘There is But it was not only the Liberal Par- Keating was a firm believer in too much frenetic activity, in the end, ty over which Keating loomed in and W‘doing things.’ Politics for him was about suiting journos, running at the behest of post the 1996 election. The ‘post-me’ policy and destroying those who stood in little press secretaries, doesn’t pay off.’ He Labor Party, as Keating called it, was the way of the reform agenda of the mo- is not alone in holding that view. Crikey’s determined to tape its collective mouth ment. In this sense Keating can be com- Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane when it came to their former hero, in pared to Thatcher, Roger Douglas and wrote on September 2 that the ‘Rudd part due to the massive demonisation of Kennett. This type of political leadership Government needs a narrative, yes. But Keating by the new government. is sorely lacking in Australia today. there’s a difference between promoting a Under Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, What Keating and those we mention narrative and chucking an idea a day into Mark Latham and Kevin Rudd, Keat- above share in common is that each had the news cycle.’ ing’s name and achievements were seen a narrative, a journey on which they took One does not have to sign off on all, as a political albatross and baggage which the community. It was inevitably a roller or any, aspects or specifics of the Keating had to be hidden out of the voter’s view. coaster ride, but there was a reason for do- record in office to appreciate that Austra- The consequence of this strategy was ing it—to improve the economy and the lia needs many more politicians cut from to ensure that the ALP since 1996 has nation in the long term. the same cloth if it is to have a secure and stood for very little other than being a This is what so enrages someone of prosperous future. One in which the short paler shade of conservative blue. the temperament of Keating about the term needs of the media, voters and in- On economic issues the ALP has committee obsessed Rudd Government. terest groups are routinely ignored while veered back towards interventionist The sage advice Mr Keating gave to Mr the long term vision is crafted. Australia’s policy and the term ‘micro-economic Rudd on August 6 this year clearly stems various and numerous challenges as a na- reform’ which Keating championed has from that frustration. ‘I think if there’s tion today require Keating boldness, not disappeared from the lexicon. any problem the government has, when I Rudd timidity. say a problem I don’t think it’s a problem R

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