Paul Keating is certainly one of the worst characters in Australian political history - between his failures as Treasurer and as PM and also his general character flaws.
Not true, he's probably the greatest Treasurer that Australia ever had and one of the greatest Prime Ministers.
Obviously the "recession we had to have" was a great example of the elitest views and general disregard for "working families" that characterised Keating.
Well, it was technically true, it's just like that joke that the only time politicians get in trouble is when they accidentally tell the truth. It was a recession that had to happen, there was no way around it. But Keating did not have general disregard for working families, that was Howard all the way with WorkChoices and his sabotaging of superannuation.
All of Keating's reforms and policies went toward improving the lives of working families.
He rarely debates on points of policy, instead attacking individuals (such as his "desiccated coconut" comment). This is always a good example of a person bereft of ideas and lacking in the ability to discuss opposing points of view rationally.
Nonsense. Keating was full of imagination (as you can see in his insults, which are the icing on the cake) and is probably one of the best at being about to debate on points of policy. The conservatives mainly hate him because he ran rings around them and embarrassed them.
He rode roughshod over the concept of an independent central bank, even boasting to have the Governor of the Reserve Bank in his pocket. Youth unemployment hit 25%, interest rates hit 18%, Australia lost its AAA credit rating.
Only because it followed the economic boom of the 1980s from his reforms.
He sold off Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank and would have sold off Telstra if he hadn't been tossed out of office in 1996. Privatisation is not a bad thing per se, however he sold off the public assets, spent the money and then racked up even more debt.
Howard continued the privatization of the Commonwealth Bank, going further than Keating did, and Howard was also responsible for the privatization of Telstra so I'm not sure what your point is. Howard squandered his revenue on middle class welfare and refused to lift the minimum contribution for superannuation when he presided over economic boom, which was a lost opportunity for the Baby Boomers.
When finally removed from office, his legacy was $96 billion of public debt.
That's disingenuous, you'll blame him for the debt but won't credit him for the reforms and policies that created a modern economy when he handed over power to Howard and Costello in 1996.
He has subsequently attempted to claim credit for every positive aspect of Australia's economic growth, however his record while Treasurer and PM paint a very different picture.
He does deserve credit, he was responsible for floating the dollar, the six pillars policy preventing the big four banks from merging, decentralization of wage fixing and introducing enterprise bargaining, reduction of tariffs, the Prices and Incomes accord, moving the Australian economy away from dependence on the United States and the United Kingdom and opening up trade and foreign investment with the rising Asian economies, and compulsory Superannuation which made the first moves to solve the ageing Baby Boomer crisis and also creating a massive domestic savings pool for the private sector.
His one redeeming point was his introduction of compulsory superannuation, which will reduce the impact of the pension on future taxpayers (and has already begun to achieve this).
Compulsory superannuation was a damn big achievement considering the discussions now about how we are going to take care of the Baby Boomers, Keating was twenty years ahead of everyone else on that one and Howard and Costello completely f[Inks]ed up by refusing to lift the minimum contribution. Keating's plan was for it to eventually be lifted to 15% (or to at least 12%, at the bare minimum) but he left office before it could happen and then Howard broke his promise to lift it.
Australia's economic growth over the past decade has been more due to the stewardship of Howard as Prime Minister, and especially Costello as Treasurer. Paying off government debt (and regaining Australia's AAA credit rating) allowed the economy to ride the world market flexibly during some times of massive fluctuations over the past few years. This resulted in the Phillips Curve shifting in, with unemployment falling without a simultaneous rise in inflation (until the last few years - and even now, inflation is still lower than it had been in some previous years). This also brought interest rates down.
Howard and Costello rode off of Hawke and Keating's economic reforms. Any fool would have been able to preside over that economic growth with the reforms in place.
Furthermore, if Howard was such a great economic manager, why, when he was Fraser's Treasurer, did he let wages grow by 16 per cent, creating a recession with stagnant growth of 1.4 per cent, high inflation at 11 per cent and unemployment at 11 per cent? At least Keating's recession killed the inflation problem, after Howard's recession there was still double-digit inflation.
Their stewardship allowed the Australian economy to weather the Asian economic crisis of 1997/98, the US recession of 2001 and the worst drought on record without once falling into recession. Their reform of the tax system with the introduction of the GST has helped to curtail inflation by reducing consumer demand (although this is only somewhat).
No, once again they rode off the reforms of Hawke and Keating. They avoided the Asian economic crisis because by that time Australia had a floating exchange rate.
Living standards rose throughout the Howard/Costello government and Australia has taken a new place on the world stage - with a pride of identity that we had lost in the Keating years.
Living standards rose because of Keating's economic reforms.
Howard never shied away from controversial reforms/decisions when he considered it to be in the best interests of the country. It's rare to see that type of courage in a politician.
What reforms?
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