Rare straightforward talk from a NSW Liberal - Police Minister DavidElliott.
Dominic Perrottet and I have a lot incommon.
We’re both suburban dads, both came upthrough the Young Liberals and both cut our teeth in the corporate world beforeheading into politics.
Ironically, we can both say that PaulKeating has motivated us in some way.
In fact, as my then local member,Keating actually motivated me to join the Bankstown Young Liberals.
As a young person who entered theworkforce when youth unemployment was nearly 50 per cent, it’s impossible forme to sit around to cop the veneration of St Paul.
His recent claim that he’s encouragingPremier Perrottet to make “people” the priority of the state government isbitterly ironic.
For those of us who are on the wrongside of 50, it would not come as a shock that Paul Keating’s government causedmy father prolonged periods of unemployment and created 17 per cent mortgageinterest rates. And Keating was the most uneducated prime minister since WorldWar II.
Now I’m not saying you have to be atradesman or professional to be in politics, in fact it would be disingenuousof me not to acknowledge the vision of Gough Whitlam by establishing theUniversity of Western Sydney.
It thereby gave us westies a crack at atertiary education but, like Bob Hawke mused, it’s no coincidence that Keatingis the only former Labor prime minister incapable of writing his own memoirs.
Although there is one thing I thankKeating for.
His government’s economic failingsforced me to mow lawns and paint houses to pay for my university degree, withthat degree being my entry into the Royal Military College at Duntroon.
His cosy, and sometimes deeplyhypocritical, relationship with the union movement gave me the motive to workin industry associations and the rest, as they say, is history.
As important as it is for Australianhistorians to objectively compare and contrast our leaders it’s probably a goodtime to note that as Treasurers, Dominic Perrottet and his federal counterpartJosh Frydenberg have managed the economy through an unprecedented number ofnational crises.
The cost of the war on terror, droughtand climate emergencies, as well as the global pandemic, have forced treasurersand first ministers into providing a higher level of governance. Keating,however, faced no disaster that wasn’t of his own making.
Recently, I made the point to somejournalists that the reason we have crap politicians in this country is becausewe treat our politicians like crap.
And I know us politicians are our ownworst enemy and I’m in no position to cast the first stone, but it’s also justas important that we stop offering up blind praise to our leaders simplybecause it’s fashionable or, worst still, it suits the agenda of contemporarythought.
Do I sound bitter? I hope so.
The boyhood memories of havinghousehold utilities cut off and the embarrassment of having well-naturedfriends anonymously drop off groceries while listening to Paul Keating say thathis recession was one we “had to have” still cuts to the bone.
Labor colleagues often remind me thatKeating was disloyal to everyone who ever backed him in.
Saying that he has to teach any Liberalleader about “people” is like Henry VIII offering marriage guidance. He seemedto hate people, particularly his constituents in Bankstown, which is why helived in Elizabeth Bay.
In short, Paul Keating was a completepr*ck and it took John Howard a decade to fix his mess.
