With our neophyte Prime Minister and his Treasurer struggling to find
their feet - and a direction to travel in - let's hope they've been
watching the ABC's interviews with Paul Keating. If not, they're out on
DVD this week.
For those of us who lived through the Hawke-Keating
government's extraordinary 13 years - and those who didn't - Kerry
O'Brien's four interviews are a reminder of Keating's indisputable claim
to be our greatest, most reforming, treasurer.
If you're tempted
to doubt that, consider Business Council president Tony Shepherd's
description of our economy in the early 1980s. Keating had described it
as a "moribund, inward-looking industrial graveyard" and he'd been
right, Shepherd said.
"We had a fixed exchange rate, tariffs [on
imports] were still high, we were frightened of Japanese investment ...
our financial system was tightly regulated, our industrial relations
system was centralised, complex and unproductive, and just about every
service was provided by the public sector. State ownership extended to
banks, insurance, telecommunications, airlines, ports, shipping,
dockyards, electricity, gas etc," Shepherd said.
Keating was the
instigator of virtually all those reforms. And though many of them
weren't opposed by the Coalition opposition, they were radical reforms -
brave steps into the unknown - controversial in the community,
including among many Labor voters.
O'Brien's interviews reveal
Keating in all his strengths and weaknesses. His self-congratulation
("there's nothing there to be humble about"), bravado ("what I love
about the Road Runner is he runs that fast he burns up the road behind
him; there's no road left for the others"), colourful language ("a
pimple on the backside of progress"), disposal of people who got in his
way (Bob Hawke, for instance) and revenge against supposed enemies
("don't get mad, get even" - including with Fairfax).
But no
leader of this country since John Curtin has more cause for
self-congratulation than Keating. No leader is without character
failings and Keating's were outweighed by his contribution.
If
Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey want their chapter in Australia's economic
history to be half as glorious as Keating's there's much they could
learn from him, starting with his clear sense of purpose. "I had to make
sure this slothful, locked-up place finally became an open, competitive
economy."
His vision was of "an efficient, competitive, open, cosmopolitan republic, integrating itself with the Asian region".
"To
do what's right and good gives you the surge. Without the surge, what
are you? You're just mucking around with tricky press statements,
appearances and 'doorstops'." - "You make the political strategy around
good policy rather than around trickery."
Keating was a man of
courage. "I always believed in burning up the government's political
capital, not being Mr Safe Guy." - "You're nobody until you attract a
good set of enemies." - "If you run hard enough and fast enough for a
great change you'll get it." - "Statecraft and nation building are about
taking the risks and moving the country on."
And a man of
toughness. "Nations get made the hard way; nation building is a hard
caper." - "You've got to elbow your way through." - "In the end, if you
want to get the changes through you've got to hold your nerve and
squeeze the system."
Does that sound like any present politician?
Last week Hockey said he had an "economic plan" focused on building
economic growth. Great. At last. What is it?
"It is focused on
getting rid of inhibitive taxes and inhibitive regulation that
undermines our capacity to be at our best. We need to speed up the
Australian economy and ... if we repeal the carbon tax, it will add to
economic growth ... when we get rid of the mining tax it sends a clear
message to the world that we need mining investment."
Really?
That's the best you've got - to undo the reforms of the previous
government? To move to a less economically efficient instrument against
climate change and undercharge mainly foreign-owned mining companies for
their appropriation of our non-renewable resources? That will balance
the budget? That's what will lift productivity? Seriously?
According
to Abbott last week, "the challenge is always the same: to build the
strongest possible economy with lower taxes and less red tape leading to
higher productivity and stronger economic growth ... my business - the
business of government - should be making it easier for you to do your
business".
Really? Easy as that, eh? No need for courage or
toughness. No need to do anything that won't win a vote of thanks from
the Business Council.
