To the suggestion that he try to draw Downer on the republic by saying he hoped the new Liberal leader would take up the issue seriously, (Keating) replied that one should never invite the enemy to one’s own side because it was a sign of weakness.
[Read more →]
When Hewson began talking about his desire to ‘break the mould’ of Australian politics Keating found the proof of his argument. Watch out, he said; this man does not understand politics, or the nature of Australian democracy, or the link between the mould of politics and the mould of society.
[Read more →]
Power, Keating said, had to be exercised constantly. It had to be moved around. The Victorian ALP was a good example of an outfit that did not understand power. The Victorian ALP were ‘boarders’. The New South Wales ALP were ‘repellers of boarders’.
[Read more →]
Like a true Labor tribesman, Kelty was deeply attached to the traditions of the clan—including the traditions of loyalty to friends and savagery to enemies. I said to him once that all Paul Keating’s worst enemies seemed to be former friends. He reflected for a moment or two and replied that it was much the [...]
[Read more →]
Tags:ALP·Conscription·hatred·Labor·power·Tribalism·Vietnam·war
Very often people would put the very case I had put all week, and I would find myself putting the case to them that had been put to me. All week was spent in first gear going forward, and the weekends engaged reverse. It was tiring and dementing, but it helped me understand why politicians [...]
[Read more →]
At the core of every conversation in a political office, including the conversations politicians have with themselves, are the questions: What will happen? and Why should I believe you? Politics is the art of the knowable. The protagonists usually divide between the empirical and statistical and the psychological and anthropological.
Keating liked the clash of armies: he was a politician of the older kind, not embarrassed or frightened by power any more than a financier is embarrassed or frightened by money or a dentist by teeth. Power is the currency of politics, the reason for it, the stock in trade. Power was his creative medium. [...]
[Read more →]
Keating on politics: “It’s the great vista of politics that is so appealing. You know, a finger in every pie. You’re always certain of your own motivation even if you’re never quite sure of anybody else’s. So if it’s a case of backing in somebody to do a job you might as well back in [...]
[Read more →]
Keating on the Opposition: “You were heard in silence, so some of you scumbags on the front bench should just wait a minute until you hear the responses from me… You were in office from 1949 to 1983 bar three years…. And you left everything the way you found it. The place got old and [...]
[Read more →]
Tags:Australian Labor Party·Economic Policy·economics·insults·power·progressive politics·Reform
One for the political idealists to take on board.
Pindar prays: “With God’s help may I still love what is beautiful and strive for what is attainable.
[Read more →]
Tags:Electoralism·Ends and Means·Ideology·Politics·power·progressive politics
