Writer
Paul Keating
Paul Keating was the prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996.
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Australians pierce the foreign policy propaganda of both major parties
A Resolve Political Monitor poll published in today’s Sydney Morning Herald makes clear that the Australian community at large possesses a contrary view to the foreign policy priorities of the Albanese government and its predecessor under Scott Morrison. Continue reading »
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Marles, with all pretension, flogging a dead seahorse
Richard Marles and his mate, the US defence secretary, are beginning to wilt under the weight of sustained comment in Australia critical of the AUKUS arrangement. Continue reading »
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Nancy Pelosi: ‘Pot calling the kettle black’
Nancy Pelosi said of my recent 7.30 interview ‘it is not in the security interest of the Asia-Pacific region for people to talk that way’ – that is, of my remarks in respect of Taiwan. Continue reading »
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Desperate in our search for security from Asia we are becoming a US protectorate
In responding to comments made by me overnight in respect of AUKUS and defence arrangements with the United States, the Prime Minister says ‘the world has changed between 1996 and 2024’. He says, ‘the world is different’. Continue reading »
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The military control of Australia
The Albanese government with their policy is likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States, writes former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating. Continue reading »
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AUKUS servility just one facet of poor governance
Richard Marles has the Navy out in force firing torpedoes at AUKUS critics. Continue reading »
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Peter Dutton: climate denialist – peddler of danger
Peter Dutton is a charlatan – an inveterate climate change denialist. Continue reading »
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Appointment of Samantha Mostyn as Governor-General
I congratulate Samantha Mostyn on her appointment as Governor-General. Such an appointment is a great honour. Continue reading »
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Restoring appropriate equilibrium between our two countries
This morning I had a one hour five minute meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister Mr Wang Yi. Continue reading »
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Visit to Australia by Chinese Foreign Minister HE Wang Yi
The Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Wang Yi, is in Australia this week to participate in the China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue with his Australian counterpart, Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Continue reading »
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Penny Wong rattles the China can
It doesn’t take much to encourage Penny Wong, sporting her ‘deeply concerned’ frown, to rattle the China can – a can she gave a good shake to yesterday. Continue reading »
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Lifting the sense of ourselves
For anyone seeking an understanding of what Paul Keating’s public life was all about, his acceptance speech on the occasion of his life membership of the Labor Party in 1999 is required reading. Continue reading »
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The death of Lowitja O’Donoghue
Lowitja O’Donoghue was a great Indigenous woman. A very great one. Continue reading »
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The Chilcot Report: John Howard should be held in contempt by every thinking Australian
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has visited on Australia the whole spectre of terrorism, through his craven and ill-judged support of the United States and its invasion of Iraq. Now we live perpetually with the spectre of terrorism and racial strife, visited upon us by his prejudices and lack of judgment. Continue reading »
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Unconscionable profits
The Canadian private equity fund Brookfield’s bid for Origin Energy has the sole aim of delivering unconscionable profits to investors. But the rest of us have to know we are in the company of the masters of the universe and click our heels whenever we are given the cue from their obedient investment banks. Continue reading »
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The death of Henry Kissinger: Statement by Paul Keating
Henry Kissinger’s death draws to a close the epoch of intellectualism in foreign policy to which he was committed following his early study of and belief in a system of organised strategic balance and restraint of the kind that emerged from the Treaty of Westphalia in the 17th century. Continue reading »
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Bill Hayden warned that becoming a US supplicant carried unacceptable risks
Bill Hayden rescued and resuscitated the Labor Party as a national force as certainly as I am standing before you today. We may see the likes of Bill Hayden again, but I doubt it. At Bill’s initiative, in 1983 he put into place a review of ANZUS, suggesting that Australia presenting as a sycophant or Continue reading »
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Herald Sun report on support for Zionist Federation letter “untrue”
Today’s Melbourne Herald Sun carries a story that, along with other former Australian Prime Ministers, I will be a signature to a statement drafted by The Zionist Federation of Australia, condemning the attack by Hamas on Israel. This report is without foundation and is untrue. Continue reading »
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The Hayden Oration – 29 September 2017
Australia’s relationship with the United States is fine. What is not fine is the Austral-Americans in this country conducting themselves as though Australia is some branch office of the United States or worse than that, its lickspittle. Continue reading »
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Death of Bill Hayden – A statement from Paul Keating
A modernising Treasurer, the author and founder of Medicare, the re-shaper and builder of the post-War Labor Party, Foreign Minister and finally, in high office, Governor General. Continue reading »
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Leadership from Paul Keating on recognition of Aboriginal dispossession -1992
“Nowhere in the world, I would venture, is the message more stark than it is in Australia. We simply cannot sweep injustice aside. … the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians. It begins, I think, with that act of recognition. … Down the years, there has been Continue reading »
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NATO’s provocative lurch eastward and the ‘supreme fool’ Jens Stoltenberg
President Macron of France is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of NATO’s Atlantic design and focus. Continue reading »
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AUKUS, Australia and China
Australia’s capacity to protect its sovereignty lies not in accession to US interests but in a broad diplomatic and security effort with our Asian neighbours, writes Paul Keating in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Albanese on 24 January, seven weeks before the San Diego AUKUS announcement and obtained by the Guardian Australia under FOI Continue reading »
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Never before has a Labor Government been so bereft of policy ambition
In facing the great challenge of our time, a super-state resident in continental Asia and an itinerant naval power seeking to maintain primacy – the foreign minister was unable to nominate a single piece of strategic statecraft by Australia that would attempt a solution for both powers. Paul Keating’s response to Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s Continue reading »
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Paul Keating – Australia locks in Asian Century as subordinate to the US
The Albanese Government’s complicity in joining with Britain and the United States in a tripartite build of a nuclear submarine for Australia under the AUKUS arrangements represents the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since the former Labor leader, Billy Hughes, sought to introduce conscription to augment Australian forces in World War One. Continue reading »
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Capital city newspapers urge nuclear war by Australia against China: God help us
The Sydney Morning Herald’s prominent series of provocations, urging Australia into a war with China, concluded its third instalment today. Continue reading »
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If only our current PM said this…
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age front page stories on Australia’s supposed war risk with China represents the most egregious and provocative news presentation of any newspaper I have witnessed in over fifty years of active public life. Continue reading »
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The “little Americans” that populate Australia
Greg Sheridan, in his opinion piece of Tuesday 21 February, provides yet another display of his spiteful, vacuous journalism – his erroneous claims that I am not the progenitor of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, and that my views on Australian strategic policy are eccentric and at odds with the US alliance. Continue reading »
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The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, the Bourbons of the Pacific
The Japanese are hanging out for some Quad which has us, the Americans and the Indians in it. I mean, this is the kind of hopeless environment we’re in. China is simply too big and too central to be ostracised. Continue reading »
