Paul Keating quotes

John Howard turned the prime ministership into something like a state police minister. He's at the scene of every crime, twice a day on radio, the guy did no thinking. (Paul Keating)
Australia without the Irish would be unthinkable...unimaginable...unspeakable. View quote
Paul Keating
While frenetic activity, in the end suiting journos; running at the behest of little press secretaries does not pay off. View quote
Paul Keating
The Labor Party is not going to profit from having these proven unsuccessful people around who are frightened of their own shadow and won't get out of bed in the morning unless they've had a focus group report to tell them which side of bed to get out. View quote
Paul Keating
[Australian Reserve Bank] Governor MacFarlane said recently when Paul Volcker broke the back of American inflation it's regarded as the policy triumph of the Western world. When I broke the back of Australian inflation they say, "Oh, you're the fellow that put the interest rates up." Am I not the same fellow that gave them the 15 years of good growth and high wealth that came from it? View quote
Paul Keating
A familiar question for Australians is how much we are a product of our circumstances, and how much we are what we have made ourselves to be. In truth, by the act of migration the country was made: by that voluntary act and by the emigrants' ambitions it was built. View quote
Paul Keating
In the end it's the big picture which changes nations and whatever our opponents may say, Australia's changed inexorably for good, for the better. View quote
Paul Keating
If this Government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again, and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for. We will end up being a third rate economy...a banana republic. View quote
Paul Keating
Silly what's his name, the Shrek, whoever he was on the television this morning? View quote
Paul Keating
The fact is, Burke is smarter than two thirds of the Western Australian Labor Party rolled together. View quote
Paul Keating
For John Howard to get to any high moral ground he would have to first climb out of the volcanic hole he's dug for himself over the last decade. You know, it's like one of those deep diamond mined holes in South Africa, you know, they're about a mile underground. He'd have to come a mile up to get to even equilibrium, let alone have any contest in morality with Kevin Rudd. (Paul Keating)
We will not adopt the fantastic hypocrisy of modern conservatism which preaches the values of families and communities, while conducting a direct assault on them through reduced wages and conditions and job security. View quote
Paul Keating
You just can't have a position where some pumped up bunyip potentate dismisses an elected government. View quote
Paul Keating
It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us. View quote
Paul Keating
I mean (blowing lips), I mean he's going Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, he's going troppo, he's going troppo, he's more to be pitied than despised, he's simply going troppo. View quote
Paul Keating
The little desiccated coconut is under pressure and he is attacking anything he can get his hands on... (he is) still there araldited to the seat. View quote
Paul Keating
Because in the end those kind of conservative tea-leaf-reading focus group driven polling types who I think led Kim into nothingness, he's got his life to repent in leisure now at what they did to him. View quote
Paul Keating
Between 1999 and 2004 there was no investment in Australia, it all went into housing and consumption all borrowed on the current account. When Peter Costello runs around saying, 'Oh we've paid off the debt,' it's like the pea and thimble trick. The Government debt or the massive private debt abroad? It's continuing to grow. View quote
Paul Keating
He's a pre-Copernican obscurantist. View quote
Paul Keating
If one takes pride in one's craft, you won't let a good thing die. Risking it through not pushing hard enough is not a humility. View quote
Paul Keating
He's the greatest L plater of all time. (Paul Keating)
This is a low-flying person. View quote
Paul Keating
All tip and no iceberg. View quote
Paul Keating
Never get between a Premier and a bucket of money. View quote
Paul Keating
The Placido Domingo of Australian politics. View quote
Paul Keating