Paul Keating

Paul Keating was elected to the Australian Federal Parliament in 1969. He was appointed Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia upon the election of the Hawke Labor government in 1983. During the eight and a half years of his Treasurership, Keating presided over the dismantling of the protectionist economic framework that had existed in Australia for a century. He became Prime Minister in December 1991 and led the Australian Labor Party to an historic fifth term of government in March 1993.

As Prime Minister until 1996, he championed a clutch of seminal changes, including turning the High Court’s Mabo decision into a legislative system for the protection and adjudication of native title, introducing a universal and compulsory system of superannuation, reorienting Australia’s strategic and trade relationship toward Asia, laying out a constitutional framework for Australia’s movement to a republic, enveloping the settings and reforms with conscientious regard to art and culture in divining the national spirit.