Book Review Paul Keating by David Day

I have now read a few biographies on Keating. and I think this is the best.

There is a reason for this. I was around then. I met with His staff and people in treasury. I met with Hawke's staff and people on PMC. I met with staff on the Opposition Leader's staff.
Thus I think I have a pretty good idea of what was going on.
Just to give you an idea I actually remember telling Arthur Sindonis at a lunch in the rocks with other financial markets analysts say Peacock would be Opposition Leader on a specific date. He told me I was dreaming.  After the coup he rang me up to tel me He should not have been as dismissive as he was. I thanked him but also told him my information was not secret. The late Brian White said the same thing later that week on 2UE!

What I got from this biography was the state of Keating's mental, emotional and physical health particularly when he was PM.

The ALP was always going to lose the 96 election.
Not because of policies On competition for instance Keating was miles ahead of Howard. ( I have have a  memory that  Howard was both pro and anti competition. He then got into trouble with Hanson because he meekly introduced some policies to boost competition.
No his policies overall were sound. His team were not. The government were tired as well. Most Ministers were either too long in the job or simply not good enough.
The country needed a change of government.

Day, like most biographers has had to rely on certain people. When some are Graham Richardson or Mark Latham you can be sure they want to shine like a beacon. The idea that Latham should have been appointed a Minister by Keating was self serving. also was Richardson's role in the felling oh Hawke.  I have been told by a few people that Keating let loose ( a euphemism for swearing) on Richardson in the second vote because Richardson was costing him votes!

Day shows Keating's good side and his bad.

He also shows that although Keating had a form of dyslexia which meant he could not read like most of us to gain knowledge he more than made up for it by talking to people and getting all that he could out of them.
John Stone who was head of Treasury when Keating became Treasurer hated it when Keating demanded to talk to the people who had written him drafts on all the subjects he has to read.
( I am disappointed no-one who writes on the history of this period never mentions how Stone feared the late Chris Higgins intellect and was very insecure about him. Stone was a very poor Head of treasury whereas Bernie Fraser was one of the best and the best RBA Governor simply because he never feared brighter people than him. Indeed he encouraged them in their views.)

I think Keating , like John Curtin, was a working class intellectual.

I highly recommend the book