That changed when Paul Keating became prime minister in 1991. Keating had been treasurer in the Labor government of Prime Minister Bob Hawke, which had come to power in 1983. At their best, these two politicians led one of the most impressive Australian governments. From the left, Keating drove the structural reform of the Australian economy that the previous right-of-center government had made necessary through its neglect. Keating deregulated banking and the financial system, floated the Australian dollar, cut trade tariffs and began to privatize state-owned banks and airlines. Defeating Hawke in an intraparty coup during a recession for which, as treasurer, Keating could have expected to receive much of the blame, he launched a cultural offensive to redefine Australia and its place in the world.
The title of a 1992 speech, ?Australia and Asia: Knowing Who We Are,? says it all. Keating ridiculed Menzies, describing his premiership as an ?almost endlessly regressive era [which] sunk a generation of Australians in Anglophilia and torpor,? and he opened up on his countrymen: ?My criticism is directed at those Australians ? or more accurately that Australian attitude ? which still cannot separate our interests, our history, or our future, from the interests of Britain.? He instructed Australians to learn from what he called the geophysics of the situation: ?geophysically speaking this continent is old Asia ? there?s none older than this. It?s certainly not going to move, and after two hundred years it should be pretty plain that we?re not going to either.? The answer therefore was for Australians to embrace Australia?s ?destiny as a nation in Asia and the Pacific.?
Keating continues to provide this audience with the intellectual case for their Asian vision of Australia?s future. In a 2003 speech on Australia?s geopolitical and economic positioning, Keating argued that the Chinese economy ? a $3 trillion economy generating $200 billion of new wealth annually ? will propel the next stage of global growth: ?While the twentieth century was the century of the Americas, the chances are the twenty-first century will be the century of Asia and we may see, for the first time, a real eclipse of American economic power.? Keating predicted that one day China would be the only country with the cultural and military unity to ?deal with? the United States. This would leave Australia marginalized and isolated, looking wistfully for U.S. protection. Keating questioned the benefits of a free trade agreement with the U.S., and while he thought Australia should maintain the alliance with the U.S., Australia should, he thought, make its ?own luck.?
