PAUL KEATING PREMIER OF NSW former Prime Minister of Australia 1991-1996 is an observation and interpretation I make now after watching the must see 4 part series on the ABC with Kerrie O'Brien and Paul Keating himself, the ABC 4 Corners Program Titled Insiders and after reading an unrelated article in the Australian in relation to the design and siting of Sydney's next Casino.
I recommend all those interested in Australian politics to watch, study and discuss but not to forget the Liberal Party antics of branch stacking by merchant bankers in Victoria essentially delivered similar powers to a select few people through manipulations not too dissimilar in what happens in the boardrooms and takeovers in Australia's biggest corporations.
The rise of Jeff Kennett should also be studied on how he took power to become Victoria's first elected dictator. The writer remembers well because he alleges Roger Prescott won his seat on one statement against John Harrowfield and the Independent of the following untrue statement by claiming that " a vote for an independent is a vote for labor" such was the dislike and distrust of political competition that he made a claim to put fear in the minds of voters using an untrue statement which could not be pursued under false advertising legislation and in any case it was too late the election was over. A clever use of words made at his appropriately useful time designed to put doubt in the voters minds.... a very clever tactic indeed.
The Keating interviews reveal so much of what I did not know or understand about the Paul Keating the man I now call the best Treasurer and Prime Minister the LNP never had and how he took power and essentially used it to improve the Australian economy in the direction it had to travel. Paul Keating did it differently than my kitchen cabinet would have done it but after all he had the power and he used it but its a pity he could not have been in govt instead of the rabble we had under Rudd and Gillard.
To explain to readers, the writer lived through the financial market turmoil's of the Whitlam years under Jim Cairns and the non eventful Malcolm Frazer years and the Bob Hawke Paul Keating years. The writer was working as an Investment Officer /Analyst and dealt in the money market for most of those years seeing interest rates hit a peak of 26% pa for 4 year Bank NCD's during the Whitlam years which really could not be compared to the Keating years where interest rates peaked at least 19%pa when the Pyramid Building Society went into liquidation in Victoria.
The Whitlam years were different for lots of reasons including a whole set of rigid monetary policy settings which could not deal with the budget fiscal positions and the high inflation of those years. Housing interest rates were fixed, this created a squeeze in other areas causing commercial rates to skyrocket beyond reason for a time until the dismissal and the resultant new elections gave us the Liberals headed by Malcolm Fraser.
Looking back at the Fraser years, the writer cannot really remember much in the way anything interesting happening during those years but maybe the voters had had enough of the ALP until Bob Hawke made his move........ to be continued
