Geez, I wish I'd known there would be a major in Keating at Sydney Uni, must have been 30 years after my day, but I could have gone back for a post-grad.
But nevertheless, Paul Keating, a man without a lot of formal education, other than what he got at the knee of Jack Lang, a great Australian, socialist or not, and having worked jobs like in an Ink Factory at West Chatswood, is a man who pulled himself up by the bootstraps to become a great servant of the Australian people. By mere chance, after being a musician for several years, I went back to my academic roots and started teaching tax law to accountancy students. I say more chance because this was the time when Keating delivered the most comprehensive reforms to our tax system perhaps since Federation. I remember it well because I had to learn it all in order to teach it. Just think of that. There's a bloke without a lot of formal education and he delivers a reform package like that. Of course he just gave the guidance as to what he wanted to the law drafters but he had the native intelligence to conceive it and comprehend it and deliver it. Apart from being quick on his feet and a master of repartee, Paul Keating has been one of the genii of our political history.
