Crikey editorialised about Paul Keating yesterday:
He’s the Bert Newton of Australian politics: the polished performer whose gift for spontaneous, stiffly splenetic wit was honed in tougher vaudevillian times, times when having a personality meant more than booking an in-store appearance from Sophie Monk. “He” is of course Paul Keating, a man who knows how to milk a moment in the public gaze, a man who also knows how to fill that moment with something pointedly amusing and worth the repeating.
Two brackets of achingly sharp political standup from Keating yesterday have hogged the airwaves and set a handful of agendas in the 24 hours since. That Keating need only floss his teeth in public to turn the news cycle on its ear says a lot for the standard of over-massaged, verbally neutered performance we have come to expect from the modern political operator.
And then there was this in the Tips and Rumours section:
Keating speaks for all of us: Will Paul Keating’s unsolicited but sage advice to Kevin Rudd prompt a change in style and direction? The view among many Labor staffers and most of the ministry is hopeful. Prompted by Kerry O’Brien on The 7.30 Report, Keating took aim at the government’s lack of “narrative”, strategic direction and ability to work to a theme, a story. The PM’s speechwriters should take note. Keating also took aim at the propensity for “little press secretaries” to keep the PM captive to the 24-hour media cycle while ignoring the bigger picture and time to think. He also ridiculed the PM’s penchant for small-time micro-management, recalling Jimmy Carter’s control of the White House tennis court time sheet. It was a big call for Keating to give the PM a gentle slap in these areas, but he knows he can because he is being urged to by the many players in Canberra he is still in contact with. While the Government is travelling well, mostly due to Nelson’s poor performance, there are underlying signs of worry that Keating has picked up from the odd minister, staffer and party official. He speaks for all of us.
Here’s the other part of what Keating had to say – aside from the bit about narrative – on the 7 30 Report on Wednesday night:
KERRY OBRIEN: Kevin Rudd has been painted as micro manager. Now whatever you and Bob Hawke were accused of as prime ministers I don’t think micro manager was one of them. Can a Prime Minister afford to engage in the small detail in running Government? In the end do you have to invest trust and significant autonomy in your ministerial colleagues?
PAUL KEATING: Absolutely. You can’t micro manage a thing like the Commonwealth. And I noticed the other day that the US presidential candidate Obama was overheard with a microphone on.
KERRY OBRIEN: With the British Opposition Leader.
PAUL KEATING: With the British Opposition Leader saying in these jobs you must have time to think and I used to say that to that Gary Gray when he was secretary of the Labor Party, he thought we should have been out all the time talking. I mean John Howard turned the prime ministership into something like a state police minister. He was at the scene of every crime, twice a day on radio. The guy did no thinking. When a country has a lead they’re does not think, think then that country starts to move back.
KERRY OBRIEN: You would have to form the impression that Kevin Rudd is not giving him that much time to think either?
PAUL KEATING: Well frenetic activity in the end suiting journos, running at the behest of little press secretaries does not pay off.
…And it looks like PJK’s push for increased super contributions may be having an effect.
If only someone could convince Keating to take up regular blogging
Well, Keating’s right, of course. Isn’t he almost always so? (Except on privatisation.) Whether Rudd is capable of heeding his warnings is another question. The current style of media/politician relations is yet another dreadful legacy of the Howard years; yet another draft of poison Rudd has to cut out of the body politic. Rudd has done extremely well in some areas, Iraq,detention centres,the arts (it appears, from last night’s Q&A) etc, etc. But he has to learn, which Keating did not, that you can’t open the gate for future extreme right wing exploitation – HECS,industrial relations etc.If you do, you only set the country up for another period of Howardification, when Labor eventually loses office.
Give these RWDBs a bone and they’ll treansmogrify it into a near totaltarian banquet. Detention centres are a very good example.
Just like many forget that Joan Kirner was responsible for a Casino and Poker Machines in Victoria, Paul Keating was responsible for detention centres.
I don’t think PJK is going to like the Rudd years – Rudd is a micro-manager. This isn’t a product of Howard-ification, it’s who Rudd is. He’s going to sweat the little stuff.
Reagan was a leader who gave himself time away from sweating the small stuff. Instead of thinking he took naps. To each, their own.
JWH was somehwere in the middle of Rudd’s micro-manager and PJK’s grand thinker, and that was probably a good thing. Rudd buys into every little news item, and Keating would be lucky to get out of his pyjamas.
While it is somewhat amusing to hear Keating use such colourful language, it is also somewhat embarrassing to hear an ex-PM use such colourful language, especially when he uses it to describe people.
If I was Kevin I’d just remind him this: Howard defeated you.
I might too Benji, but I reckon you’ve more than taken care of it.
What’s HowardC on about re Keating’s language? He must watch the Hollowmen and think its a documentary about how people should speak.
Keating’s use of language is wonderful I wish Kev would pick up on it. Nothing like a good insult. All pollies used to speak like him and politics was the richer for it. Robust candid and fruity…bring it on.
The old detention centre furphy while technically right has to be seen through the prism of what Howard and Co did with it. They turned it into a cruel art behaving like bastards to gain votes. As a regular visitor to detention centres I can tell you they were sad, dreadful places and the damage done to people many of whom are now Australian citizens was appalling. It is debatable whether the Labor mob would have gone that far. Most of their Mps notably people like Laurie Ferguson and Julia Gillard who looked the other way were cowardly. The biggest help for detainees came from the likes of Bruce Baird and Judy Moylan.
They are the heroes of all this. Whether a Labor Government would have produced similar heroes is a matter that can only be speculated on.
One point Keating made that has been missed was about John Howard being a commentator on anything and everything. It’s something Kev’s minders have picked up and it drives me nuts. i don’t care what Kev thinks about art, drugs in sport, ice cream junk food gate crashers at parties. I think he should just refuse to answer all these issues which are really just journos seeking some sort of silly sound bite for the 6pm news.
Kev, silence is golden stay out of the camera range and only speak when you have something important to say.;
I’m a pretty rare beast when it comes to Keating – a conservative who does have some time and respect for the man. He got some things right and some things wrong. I personally love his turn of phrase even though I also have the same reservations Howard C points out above when it gets directed at a particular individual target. His language is so refreshing from the standard management jargon stuff you hear. I also like how be brings back some of the old Aussie slang and sayings. He does add something to the “Australian” language.
The thing about Paul Keating is that he has a turn of phrase that makes people turn around and listen. Whether they laugh with him, shout at him, or whatever, he remains talent, as long as he times his comments in the right way.
I know that I pay attention to the TV when I see him turn up on it.
Kevin Rudd does run the risk of turning into Jimmy Carter, or worse, Clive Hamilton, offering opinions on art, binge drinking, von Hayek, or whatever. None of this wandering around being a secular prophet on living an ethical life will make any difference with the wider pubic, and people will forget what he is saying about the economy, national security, and the stuff that people will remember in deciding how to vote in 2 1/2 years time.
Federal Labor has a real danger at present of being continually dragged down to Brendan Nelson’s level of thinking if it can’t aim a bit higher, and they are still in a strong position to do so.
I used the word “nong” in a post today, all because of PJK. Still the same flair for language. I felt almost nostalgic for his vigorous speech. JWH didn’t have a speech-making style so much as a grey miasma. I think Kev is still developing, but his style will be more towards Killen than Keating.
My point is supposed former statesmen shouldn’t resort to namecalling. I’ve got no problem with him saying “that’s a dog of a policy”, despite the fact that I’ll probably disagree with him. Keating is more likely to say “Costello is a dog”.
There is a difference against being straight-forward and demeaning. Keating should play the ball and not the man, but a leopard doesn’t change its spots, I guess.
Keating almost lost his first election, saved only by a silly tax policy by the Opposition, then he got smashed the second time around. By John Howard, of all people. The public always wanted him gone, both elections.
He really isn’t the one from whom to be taking political advice.
Sorry HowardC you digging a hole on this one and remember first rule of digging a hole is when you kow you in trouble stop digging.
You are a humorless old bugger who probably thought the Cooper’s Monarchy ad was in bad taste. Using the word statesman is a giveaway. It has all the hallmarks of a card carrying member of the Bunyip Aristocracy
Keating speaks the way I speak and the way people speak to each other at work and in pubs and a parties. Which is why I spend half my life doubled over with laughter.
The great Australian piss take; the insult that has two meanings– a knock and a term of endearment is one of our national treasures.
Give me Keating anytime compared to the monotonic drone of the unlamented just departed PM. For a bloke who wore his Australianness on his sleeve he sure didn’t have any idea of how we speak to each other.
Sadly Kev O7/08 is getting there in his bid to bore us witless. His speech to the athletes in Beijing must had had them wishing they could open a vein. Good thing they only had chopsticks.
It’s always good fun to impersonate public figures, and for PJK, I would always use his material from “Ordure in the House” – you’d make a cat laugh was one of my favourites.
I could do a decent Hawke to. On the last ever Eclectic Parrot show on 3CR in 2001, I did a sign off and tribute to the show in Hawkie’s silver bodgie drawl, and folk were running to the studio window to see where the voice was coming from. Hawkie would never have been seen in such den of left-wing ratbaggery, though.
JHW’s shopkeeper aspirational drawl would make my partner writhe on the floor in agony, especially if combined with the neck depressed into the body, shoulders raised and rolling, ape-styled power walk.
But I can’t do Rudd. Can’t bear to listen to him. All-grey sound, extruded millimetre by millimetre.
Might have to try doing him with a Mandarin accent.
Or bring on Julia. The red fox might bring a bit of colour to proceedings.
Geez, JWH, HWJ, JHW … whatever
And dates: the Parrot (a natural history show in Melbourne on both 3CR and 3RRR) ran from 1985 and finished in 1991.
Thanks Alan for the grossly inaccurate stereotyping. As an Aussie-Rules playing, state-school educated son-of-a-single-parent, I can honestly say I am proud I don’t write in the same manner as how I speak. Then again, I write for a living, so I guess I know how to do it.
I’m sorry, (scratch that, I’m not sorry) but I believe that being civil enables people to discuss the issues more rationally, rather than getting sidelined by petty personalities. Keating thinks Costello is a nong; could he care to define the term? Does it have something to do with job performance or with political affiliation?
If we can discuss the issues, and what people actually do, without resorting to using four letter words, then we may actually get some important stuff done around here. I’ve grown up surrounded by people who thought things should be done differently, but I only really have a problem with them if they attack me personally.
Labor would be mad not to move right now on the republic. Surely being sacked twice now *without notice* is against their stated policy?
I seem to recall the republic being a big part of the Labor narrative once under…er whassisname. The highest ranking conservative in the country right now is the dog-catcher in Tennant Creek so there may never be a better time.
HowardC Bunyip Aristocrats go across all classes as you would find if you researched the derivation of the term. Costello is a nong . Keating called him that and he also said why he is a nong. I too write for a living but I don’t see what your point is there. And as one who was on the end of a Keating spray once (thank goodness it was on the phone) I can tell you even as I was getting paid out I marveled at the use of vocabulary. He got the point across. First point being; this wasn’t meant to be civil discourse. Interestingly the people who want Pete, the hammock, Costello back in Parliament say it is because of his loud and abusive manner at the despatch box. They want someone who can serve it up to Kev. They have forgotten the Labor Party’s weapon of mass destruction Saint Julia who is the best attack dog in parliament. She has been quiet for a while but should the Libs unleash Pete Julia will be off the chain. I will start listening to Parliament again if she does.
But Howard sorry, (scratch that I’m not sorry) I know you don’t mean to but you just sound prissy.
I spent too much time in the UK being screwed by impeccably polite toffs to hanker after “civilised” communication.
I welcome Keating’s invective (and Alan’s summing up of it) mostly because all politicians only seem to give sanitised stuff these days. Oddly enough, Howard probably didn’t follow the mould, but crikey … that meant being bored silly by banalities, or subjected to lowest common denominator rubbish.
I can see Howard C’s point that many react to such blasts. They’re by no means my cup of tea, but I always look forward to them. I suppose it is a bit like Aussie Rules where you need a bit of aggro in addition to talent.
My favourite polly was Dunstan, who only very rarely resorted to invective. But after 40-odd years observation, I’m starting to realize he was a once-in-a-lifetime shot. Until another emerges, we’ll probably have to settle for Keating or similar.
One calls Costello a lazy hammock dwelling nong and a dope. The other calls Costello a great Parliament performer and a great treasurer, but never asks him to dinner. Who of these is telling the truth. One tells it as it is the other doesn’t.
Thank you for the reply, Alan. We don’t get your musings down here in Sydney, but the Keating sprays are legion and I’m sure your spray was a classic.
I have to admit I love hearing Keating pop up once in a blue moon. I’m sure if it were a daily spray it might become a bit tedious but the man is real. He’s brutally honest and explains his ideas or greviances well. He sums up a Costello in less than 30 seconds, perfectly. The “all tip and no iceberg” line was hilarious and as usual true. Has Downer ever been summed up better than “the idiot son of the aristocracy”? I know I get all excited whenever someone mentions the National Party in his presence! Imagine what he would think of the likes of Barnaby Joyce?
Never will be a politician in this country like Paul Keating again. I just wish he could be brought back into the Labor fold in a more official capacity.
FWIW, I still don’t rate Rudd but hey he’s not John Howard which is the main thing.
Um, given that most of us can, and do, locate the Crikey website, or receive its daily jottings in our inboxes, not sure about this habit of LPs of rehashing the more illuminating tidbits from Crikey. A bit lazy, perhaps? Better to write your own damn news. At least it would be original!
Um, Matilda, not everyone here reads Crikey and the point of the post is to draw together a number of disparate items and put them together in a context. Also, unlike Crikey, we’re not “professionals” – sometimes time allows for more original commentary, sometimes it doesn’t, but we still like to provide a starting point for discussion within our community.
If you think the purpose of this blog is to provide “news”, then I’m afraid I think you’re mistaken.
News, opinion, whateva. As it seems to occur several times a month, i thought it was timely to make mention of this habit. I suppose the exception would be when Mark, or another LP blogger, has a piece in Crikey, posting it here would be a legitimate cross-post.
In this case, I wonder why the writer couldn’t have gone straight to the actual event of Keating’s speech at a book launch (or whatever it was that created publicity) and riffed off Keating’s words, and why it is that he’s always media gold, instead of regurgitating slabs of the Crikey commentary.
As for your comment about ‘news’, aren’t you taking a rather mainstream view of what constitutes ‘news’? Often blogs serve the purpose of bringing us stories untouched by the corporate media, or fresh slants on the mainstream topics du jour. Perspectives on news stories offered by the blogging universe may be individualistic or revelatory, unearthing a buried nugget of truth which would never make its way into the dead tree media. Thought that was part of what LP tries to do, on occasion.
That’s all valid, Matilda, and thanks for the feedback.
Kim’s right in assuming that it was a lack of time on my part. I also do think there’s some value in highlighting what might otherwise be overlooked and making a few connections to see what folks think.
Paul Keating is a crotchety old pain in the arse. He’s right about Kevvie’s control freakery but it’s not his call. If Kevvie goes way overboard yeah alright, but it’s his job now and Keating should just get over it and get a life.
Matilda, I think it’s OK for us to do it because we are us, because what what said in Crikey was well said and why invent a new set of words, and it gives everyone here a chance to have a chat about it.
Whatever.
David Love did piece on Perspective the other night about Keating’s unfinished business:
We could have had enough to retire on an income similar to our work earnings and boosted national savings to a degree that we had heaps of dosh to fund our own development with no current account deficit.
Costello commissioned a ‘generational report’ and then used it to excuse handing out dosh for electoral purposes to people who didn’t really need it. A huge wasted opportunity during the good times. He deserves a special place in the dustbin of history.
Keating is spot on about Cossie.
Politics seems to most often a victory of style over substance. This seems to be more pronounced in recent years. This is epitomised by the Hollowmen – bearing in mind that truth is often stranger than fiction.
If Rudd is micro-managing, then by definition he will not grasp the mettle on the really big topics such as water, climate change and constitutional reform (such as getting state government to do sensible non-parochial things.
It seems to me, as Julian Morrow observed on Q&A, that Rudd’s government is really not providing the leadership people want on defining issues of our time such as water, climate change, renewable energy and sustainable living.
Keating still makes me chuckle, most recently for his accurate description of Costello as a nong, and in the past for cracks such as “the Souflée only rising once” (Peacock). But I won’t forgive him for the RFAs and sanctioning ongoing destruction of Australia’s unique and irreplaceable native forests, which of course still continues unabated, so he was not wholly responsible for this.
There’s no doubt that PJK is far more entertaining than the Ruddster and I always enjoy it whenever he flicks the switch to vaudeville. But let’s separate style from substance here; Keating was a self-indulgent and disorganised PM who more than anybody was responsible for inflicting a very conservative government on us. It’s no good having a vision if you don’t do the necessary to get it implemented.
Now Rudd is a boring, prudish, small-c-conservative micromanaging workaholic who, unlike Keating, is hard to warm to personally. I know who I’d rather share a drink with. But he’s likely to last a lot longer than Keating as PM and Keating is in no position to give him advice.
Oh, and BTW the proposed increase in complulsory super that Keating keeps pushing is really, really crap policy.
dd, I’d be interested in knowing why you think that. I dipped into the David Love book but it’s hard to assess the argument because it’s all PJK propaganda.
Keating’s remark that Rudd is not establishing a national narrative of course carries weight, but it has to be offset by Keating’s own particular need to establish one.
Part of Rudd’s entry to PM’ship included that he be very different from the codger, whose ten years of stranglehold on national narrative wore thin.
Rudd is failing, along historical lines, to establish that national narrative we’ve come to expect one way or another from PMs, but only if seen in that light. Again, I think Rudd has thrown open those sorts of historical constraints, thru the Aussie Summit etc, is gathering information, to present more cohesively later. I could be wrong, but I don’t think punters are ready for the narrative thing just yet; I think they’d become sick of that style of politics being rammed down their throats and at a guess Rudd is still letting in that fresh air into the system.
Punching out a narrative as Keating seems to want can certainly be the rope which ties political sails for forward thrust, but it can also be the rope by which a PM eventually gets tied to and run up the mast.
Also, I think it’s too early to really tell what such a narrative should be, with so much looming over the horizon, eighteen months or so away – CC and economic instability questions for starters, huge in themselves, let alone the daily stuff which hasn’t yet concretised in the public political mind, but will. I think then we’ll know if Rudd has played his early year well, or not.
Not knowing him is frustrating, and we want to draw a rule from him to measure against past knowns, but he’s clearly doing it his way, and while he might be a flop I don’t think he can be at all underestimated, especially in terms of playing the politics.
Paul Keating said:
The wound that Howard inflicted on him in 1996 have not healed yet. You get the feeling that they never will.
dd, I too would really appreciate a few words of explanation.
For the life of me I can’t imagine why you would think that.
Jack Strocchi says:
True. Paul Keating says:
Also true. So you’re both right.
” downhill, one ski, no poles ” – PJK
Anyone who doubts the absolute neccessity of compulsory superannuation will only have to wait a few years to see the enormous financial difficulties & social distress the European countries without it will endure.
Where do you think Singapore gained the capital to fuel its rapid & successful growth ?
Surely it was the 13 year labour incumbency that inflicted John Howard on us, rather than PJK personally? I think the populace wisely throw over governments after three or more terms, long incumbencies breed complacency at best and corruption at worst. I haven’t ever voted Liberal but I can’t wait for the NSW Labor party to be dumped because it is high time that particular vessel was flooded to the gunnels. I suppose it is too much to ask that they will return sans the odious Tripodi, but I live in hope.
The conservative grumble-bums cannot put up with people like Keating telling them how bereft of heart and soul they are as the majority might listen a little too closely: Julia gets away with it because she knows the value of mildness. The Fibs really are up the creek with a gal like Julia! *** Hey, Costello: come back!!!! lol ***