TLIAD - Advance Australia Where?

Thunderbolt



The Youthful Caretaker
February 3 1968 to March 7 1968

John Malcolm Fraser (b. 1930) was just a young man when John McEwen’s departure from the Country Party galvanised him into entering politics. He weathered the turbulent years of the McEwenites tearing the Country Party apart from within, got elected as the member for Wannon in 1954 and found himself elected leader of a rump party of six MPs on his 32nd birthday. Fraser was a young man out in the real world, but within the chamber of the House of Representatives he had already been in parliament for a quarter of his life.

Pragmatic and flexible, Fraser declared that the Country Party would not and should not continue indefinitely as a fringe conservative protest party, and lead the party back into coalition with the governing Liberal Party in 1962. Against the convention established in the 1920s, Fraser was not appointed Treasurer – that role went to Bill McMahon instead. Fraser did not even have the choice of his own portfolio, given he was the very junior leader of a junior coalition partner. He was however made Minister for Trade, where he applied himself energetically to the task of broadening Australia’s trade relationships. Over the next 23 years, Fraser would serve as trade minister for thirteen of them.

When Bill McMahon succeeded Gentle Jack and swept to victory in the 1966 elections, Fraser added Deputy Prime Minister to his title. Although the Liberal Party had a deputy leader of their own – Paul Hasluck – Fraser outranked the veteran politician in the official list of the McMahon ministry.

It was therefore in early 1968 that Malcolm Fraser became Prime Minister following the untimely death of Bill McMahon. This was over the objections of Treasurer and Deputy Liberal Party leader Paul Hasluck, who declared he had the seniority to take over straight away. The Governor-General, Lord Casey, decided to follow the precedent set in 1939 rather than the one set in 1945, and Fraser had his commission.

He stayed formally in office for a month, presided over the funeral service which was attended by Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Wilson, Prime Minister Holyoake, President Johnson and other dignitaries. At the end of his otherwise unremarkable premiership, he returned to his fortress at the Department for Trade.

Like Menzies, Fraser’s greatest achievement arguably came after leaving the Lodge. He temporarily broke the Coalition early in 1970 over the Constitutional Crisis, sharply disagreeing with the new Liberal Party leader over tactics in the Senate. Historians generally agree that Fraser’s actions prevented a much more serious crisis from developing – either the running out of supply, or the unprecedented intervention of the Governor-General – although another school of thought condemns Fraser for making the Coalition unelectable for nearly a decade.

Fraser would stay as Country Party leader and serve in future Coalition governments in his preferred Trade Portfolio until his sudden retirement from the role on his 55th birthday in 1985. He had served as a federal party leader for a record 23 years, longer than any other. No Country Party leader has had as much influence since Fraser, who is still revered as a giant by the rank and file.

As of 2014, Malcolm Fraser is Australia’s earliest-serving surviving Prime Minister.
 
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Thunderbolt



The Accidental Prime Minister
February 3 1968 to November 10 1969

Harold Edward Holt (1908-1995) wasn’t ever meant to be Prime Minister.

A member of the two Menzies governments, Holt’s legacy in politics seemed to be tied to that of his bushy-eyed mentor, in the sense that time had passed him by. When the McEwenite wing of the Liberal Party came to the fore, Holt was relegated to the sidelines as the junior minister for the Interior, where he not as much served under but was tolerated by Gentle Jack.

When Bill McMahon took the reins of power, Holt became the minister for Customs and Excise – a demotion - and despite being the longest-serving minister on the conservative side of politics, with various roles dating back to 1940, his career seemed to be essentially at a dead end. At least he had a lot of time available to go diving near his home in Melbourne.

It is one of the great stories of Australian politics, only confirmed after Holt’s death, that the member for Higgins was planning to quietly announce his retirement from the ministry on the morning of February 4 1968 – the day after McMahon played ‘the squash game that needs no towel’. He was compelled to stay on in the interim by Prime Minister Fraser, who felt that one sudden retirement from politics that day was one too many.

The Liberal Party convened in the wake of McMahon’s funeral to find the party almost evenly split among the three leading contenders for the leadership: Treasurer Paul Hasluck, Foreign Minister David Fairbairn and Education Minister Billy Snedden. There, a stalemate among the three candidates resulted in the surprising rise to power of Holt, who was elected with the backing of Snedden and Fairbairn – who each found the idea of Holt at the Lodge better than either of their rivals - and with only token resistance from Hasluck, who was quickly shuffled off to London to replace the declining Menzies. Jack McEwen remained strictly neutral in the eyes of the public. In private, he was aghast.

Exactly why the party rallied around Holt remains one of the mysteries of Australian politics. The most common explanation is that, much like a college of cardinals, the Liberals chose a placeholder who would have a short reign, after which time the succession would properly sort itself out.

Holt had none of the charisma nor personal popularity of the deceased McMahon, and the Liberal Party soon found itself in a tailspin, especially when the new Prime Minister went up against Labor’s new energetic leader. Holt also suffered from a lack of media training that McMahon had, and was soon the subject of ridicule from the general public, who called him “Harold Halting”.

It took nearly eighteen months for David Fairbairn and Billy Snedden to patch up their differences and decide to ask Holt to resign in their favour. Whether it was intentional or not, Holt outmanoeuvred them by calling an election on the morning Fairbairn and Snedden planned to present their fait accompli. Any change of leadership would have to wait until after the election; Holt later claimed he was unaware of any plot to move against him, and he always intended to visit the Governor-General on the day he did.

Despite the farcical circumstances of the calling of the election, Holt put up a spirited fight. In the end, he did well to limit the Liberals’ losses in the 1969 election, although the Coalition did maintain control of the Senate, which set the events of the 1970 Constitutional Crisis in train.

Holt immediately announced his retirement from the Parliament of Australia after 1969 and finally fulfilled his dream of retiring to a beach shack in Far North Queensland, where he passed away in relative obscurity in 1995. Among the pantheon of post-war Prime Ministers, he stands out as the least likely.

 
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Thunderbolt



The Cautious Administrator
November 10 1969 to December 15 1978

Edward Gough Whitlam (1916-2014) could have been one of the great Chief Justices of the High Court of Australia, or so he said in one of his many interviews after leaving the Lodge. History will show that instead of being a great Chief Justice, Whitlam became an average Prime Minister instead.

The story goes that Prime Minister Forde, in the early stages of his crisis of confidence that led to the spectacular implosion of his government in 1960, sensed that the young and ambitious Attorney-General had designs on his job, much like H.V. Evatt had fifteen years before. Whitlam, 44 at the time, later confessed that Forde was absolutely right, although not that year; he was planning to run as Treasurer Artie Calwell’s deputy on a ‘unity ticket’ that would gently ease the Prime Minister into retirement and renew Labor’s almost-uninterrupted hold on power it had enjoyed since 1941.

The plan backfired spectacularly when Forde got wind of the plan, and demanded the resignations of the two would-be-usurpers. Calwell and Whitlam dug in their heels, and demanded a vote from the ALP caucus instead, since the Labor leader didn’t have the authority to sack colleagues unilaterally. The move weakened Forde’s leadership immensely, and as a face-saving measure he offered Whitlam the newly-vacated seat on the High Court held by the retiring Evatt. Whitlam refused the offer, Forde led Labor to defeat, and the crisis passed.

Whitlam became an energetic deputy under the street-brawler Calwell. His performances in parliament soon became the stuff of legend, particularly his clashes with the member from Wannon, who, when stating to the parliament that he was a Country member, had Whitlam replying out loud “Oh yes, I remember!”

Whitlam was also arguably the most pro-American Prime Minister since the Second World War, and nearly split his own party over the issue of Vietnam. He was in favour of Australia going “all the way with LBJ”, while his leader – a veteran of the Curtin war cabinet - was not. Bill McMahon gleefully exploited the issue in the 1966 election, stating that if Labor couldn’t agree in opposition, don’t count on them agreeing on anything in government. There was even a train of thought that Whitlam was a CIA spy, planted in order to draw Australia closer into the sphere of influence of the United States.

Outfoxed and outgunned by McMahon, Calwell announced his resignation after the election and Whitlam rose to the leadership. He was the beneficiary of McMahon’s extraordinary bad luck, Holt’s ineptitude and the general implosion of the governing Liberal Party. Regardless, his election victory in 1969 wasn’t so much an endorsement of the Labor platform as a rejection of the Coalition, who had burnt themselves out after three terms.

Whitlam took an unusually long time to form his first cabinet – three weeks – and the dynamism of the opposition spokesperson was replaced by a sobering, cautious, measured approach to government. Every decision was analysed from every possible angle, discussed at length, pondered for every possible outcome, and only then did Whitlam appear to act.

Within the first year of government, Whitlam reversed the policy of the previous Australian government in regards to Vietnam. Rather than being a “spirited sideline cheer-squad”, the Prime Minister approved a limited deployment of troops into battle in Vietnam. It was the first use of Australian troops in a combat zone since Korea. This was immediately unpopular and Whitlam quietly shelved plans for a larger deployment. Australian troops left Vietnam in 1972.

1970 saw the biggest constitutional crisis the country had ever seen. The Liberal Party, now led by David Fairbairn, attempted to force an early election through the denial of supply to the government through the Senate, where it still held a slight majority in tandem with the Country Party. Fairbairn had intended to force Whitlam to call an early election, where he felt he had a good chance of toppling a first term leader.

The plan fell apart when Malcolm Fraser, the leader of the Country Party and former Prime Minister, took offense at what he perceived as Fairbairn’s lack of respect towards the junior coalition partner. Fraser also had serious misgivings at what he felt were actions which amounted to a constitutional coup. He refused to follow through and at the eleventh hour instructed his senators to either vote with Labor or abstain. These actions resulted in the biggest split in the Coalition since 1952.

Academics to this day question whether Whitlam would have bowed to the wishes of the Senate had the Country Party voted with their coalition cousins. Another question of contention is whether the Governor-General, Sir Garfield Barwick, would have intervened, and if so, on which side. It is purely an academic question as after the budget was passed and Fraser formally broke the coalition, Whitlam requested and received a double dissolution which resulted in a landslide ALP victory.

To his dying day, Whitlam never spoke again about the 1970 Constitutional Crisis, or what he would have done had the Country Party not allowed supply to pass. Despite having control of both houses for the remainder of his time in office, the Prime Minister cautiously governed, with little vision or outward enthusiasm for the task. Australia just kept on going.

The remaining period of the Whitlam government was relatively uneventful, save for the drama of Cyclone Tracy which destroyed the city of Darwin on Christmas Day 1975. The actions of the Prime Minister in swiftly and effectively managing the aftermath briefly erased the public’s image of a dour and aloof policy-driven technocrat and contributed to Labor’s final election victory of the 1970s.

Whitlam announced his resignation as ALP leader and Prime Minister to a stunned conference in 1978; the delegates were stunned only in the sense that something was actually happening for once. He was the first ALP leader to retire at a time of his own choosing, and quietly resigned from the parliament as soon as his hand-picked successor was in place.

Gough Whitlam later became a respected spokesperson for conservational causes and was honoured, along with all surviving ALP prime ministers, at a function in 2003 commemorating the centenary of Christian Watson’s first ALP federal ministry. This would be his final public appearance, and he quietly passed away in 2014.

 

RichMill

Well, hopefully the next Prime Minister actually gets something done ITTL; I would hate the see the progressivism of the era go to waste.
 

Thunderbolt



The Faceless Man Who Lacked The Common Touch
December 15 1978 to March 1 1979

Robert James Lee Hawke (b. 1929) had one of the shortest political careers in Australian history. In parliament for just ten years, he was a minister for all but three weeks of that time. Although competent as a minister, it was his disastrous reign as Prime Minister – the shortest of any Labor PM apart from Chifley – that he would be most remembered for.

Hawke’s rise to the top was characterised by performing political favours - some perfectly legitimate and above board, others not - and knowing exactly when to cash in the chips. He was elected to the seat of Corio in the 1969 election and immediately appointed Minister for Labour by the urbane Whitlam, who was grateful to have someone with an ACTU background to keep the unions in line.

When the dashing Jim Cairns made one indiscretion too many for Whitlam’s liking, Hawke was able to line up the numbers to have him elected Deputy Prime Minister, and when Bill Hayden was forced out as Treasurer after a disastrous period in office, Hawke was able to take one step closer to the Lodge. Finally, when Whitlam finally tired of power and wished to go quietly, Hawke was able to step up triumphantly.

There was one small problem for Hawke though – he was virtually unknown to the Australian public. And the more they saw of him, the less they liked him. Hawke was a political animal, the archtypical faceless man that reveled in party room machinations. He was a disaster as Prime Minister; wooden and inauthentic in unscripted situations, Hawke recoiled in shock when a campaign worker offered a spontaneous hug. When he slurred his speech reciting the affirmation of office from Governor-General Ken Myer, the tongues started wagging around the Canberra press gallery: was Hawke electable?

The general public would not have to wait long, as Hawke decided on a whim to go to the polls early in 1979, vastly underestimating the public’s desire for a change of government, along with overstating the support for Labor. Although Hawke's critics claim Labor would have won with any other leader – even Whitlam – at the helm, the generally accepted consensus is that 1979 was simply not a good year for Labor, and after ten years, it was time for a change.

Hawke resigned the leadership on election night, and took the loss personally. He was oblivious to the fact that he had many personal traits which made him a fantastic unionist, but a poor head of government. His health spiralled out of control and he eventually suffered a collapse later that year.

Years of recovery followed, and Hawke’s image had been largely rehabilitated by the time of the Bicentenary in 1988. He remained devoted to his wife Hazel, who he later said “had saved my life, more than a few times”. He was devastated at her passing in 2013, although he bravely delivered an emotional eulogy at her memorial service, as he would later do for his old friend Gough Whitlam in 2014.

Hawke is now Australia’s oldest surviving Prime Minister.


 

Thunderbolt

SenatorChickpea said:
... that's well written and plausible, and also quite sad.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Quite the opposite of OTL's Gough, or at least the perception of the man.

RichMill said:
Well, hopefully the next Prime Minister actually gets something done ITTL; I would hate the see the progressivism of the era go to waste.
Click to expand...

Sorry to disappoint! Hawke was little more than a place holder though.
 

SenatorChickpea

Now that update shows just why the Shuffling the Deck timelines are so fun- Bob Hawke as the faceless man? Bravo!


... please tell me we're headed for either Abbott or Howard as the great left-wing icons.
Hmm, Abbott is actually quite a plausible Catholic Labor figure in the tradition of Santamaria I suppose....
 

Thunderbolt

SenatorChickpea said:
Now that update shows just why the Shuffling the Deck timelines are so fun- Bob Hawke as the faceless man? Bravo!


... please tell me we're headed for either Abbott or Howard as the great left-wing icons.
Hmm, Abbott is actually quite a plausible Catholic Labor figure in the tradition of Santamaria I suppose....
Click to expand...

Abbott as a fringe DLP senator would be highly amusing, but he remains in the pack, alas. :)
 

Thunderbolt



The Great Reformer
March 1 1979 to February 23 1983

John Grey Gorton (1911-2002) was the Prime Minister that Australia needed. At the age of 68, at an age when McEwen and Forde before him were in the sunset of their careers, Gorton won the biggest landslide of any Prime Minister since Curtin in 1943. Although his time in office was short, it was important for the reforms his government brought in, after the decade-long malaise of the Whitlam-Hawke ministries.

His success wasn’t solely down to his competence, of course, or even personal popularity – although he had something of a reputation as a ladies’ man during his time as minister under Gentle Jack and Bill McMahon. He was simply the right man in the right spot at the right time, and he harnessed the benefits to the tilt.

Wounded in the Second World War, the craggy-faced Gorton was elected as a Country Party senator in 1951. He quickly followed John McEwen into the Liberal Party in 1952. Defeated for re-election in 1954, he switched to the House of Representatives and was appointed to the ministry in 1960. Under Bill McMahon he became Foreign Minister and was allegedly one of the first to switch his support to Harold Holt in the 1968 leadership election, which resulted in his appointment as Treasurer.

In the aftermath of the 1969 election defeat, Gorton resigned to the back benches and kept a low profile. He privately disapproved of David Fairbairn’s attempt to block supply to the Whitlam government in 1970 (or so he attests in his memoirs). His principled stand earned the trust and respect of Malcolm Fraser, who had by this time taken the Country Party out of the coalition. Gorton stayed out of the shadow cabinet until 1976, and when he announced a press conference on his 65th birthday, most correspondents in Canberra assumed it would be to announce his retirement from federal politics.

How wrong they were. Appearing alongside Malcolm Fraser, he launched a blistering attack on the ineffectual leadership of Billy Snedden, demolishing with it the remaining legacy of the Holt governments (conveniently overlooking that he was a senior member of that government), and declared himself the only true Liberal capable of taking down Whitlam in 1979. He also pledged that the Country Party would be brought back into government as true coalition partners, not little brothers.

Gorton’s accession to the Liberal Party leadership was summed up in one simple phrase: “It’s Time”. It was the jolt of electricity that the Liberals needed. He knew that without a credible, principled opposition Labor would be re-elected indefinitely, given they were seemingly the default party of government since 1941. He therefore positioned himself as the caring, empathetic, kindly uncle of the nation, in contrast with the dour, grey and largely ineffectual Whitlam, whose goodwill earned from the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy had largely worn off. Gorton was the blue sky dreamer with plans; Whitlam was not.

By the time that Hawke replaced Whitlam, Gorton could barely believe his luck. The ducks had lined up in a row. And when the election was called for him just mere minutes into the 1979 election coverage – the first in colour television – he was treated like a conquering hero by the Liberal Party faithful.

The Gorton-Fraser government of 1979-1983 was notable for its efficient, progressive and pragmatic governance. Australia established relations with the communist government of China after years of stubborn refusal by Whitlam (who was in reality just following American policy in this area). Gorton granted self-government to the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory in 1980, and independence to Papua New Guinea in 1981 where he was hailed as a hero. A new parliament house was approved in 1980, and the Special Broadcasting Service – broadcasting in over thirty different languages – was established in 1981.

Three actions of Gorton aroused much discussion that remain to this day. The first of these was on January 26 1980 when Gorton declared “Advance Australia Fair” would replace “God Save The Queen” as Australia’s national anthem, without public debate or referendum.

The second was when Gorton abolished the system of knighthoods under the British Empire, and instituted a system of unique Australian honours, which would be subsequently repealed by one of his staunchly pro-monarchy successors in a ‘tit-for-that’ move.

The third was when Gorton – in an act of public brainstorming, as he put it later – mused that one day he would be buried in the soil of an Australian republic. He would make a return briefly to public life in early 1999 speaking in favour of a republic ahead of the binding national referendum.

John Gorton abruptly retired as Prime Minister on the day after attending Frank Forde’s funeral, declaring that he had achieved all he had wanted to do. Perhaps reminded of the mortality of life, the air of invincibility and ‘can-do’ attitude seemed to have drained from his face. The news played highlights of his career in office to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "My Way". And Gorton did things exactly his way.

He was buried himself less than twenty years later, with his headstone bearing the insignia that he had himself created for all former prime ministers and governors-general: the Order of the Southern Cross.
 

Thunderbolt



Batting On A Flat Wicket
February 23 1983 to March 17 1985

John Winston Howard (b. 1939) was a Prime Minister in the tradition of Menzies and Fraser, not so much that he is remembered for what he accomplished in office, but by what he was able to do outside of the confines of the Lodge. That’s not to diminish his achievements in his two years in power by any means, which stand the test of time even thirty years later.

A "cricket tragic" all his life, Howard joined the Liberal Party on his eighteenth birthday and quickly identified himself with fellow Sydneysider Bill McMahon. He was elected to the former Prime Minister’s seat in the by-election caused by his death in 1968, and became a shadow minister in 1971 after Billy Snedden became leader. In the heady days of 1976, when Gorton rumbled over the horizon like a thunderstorm, Howard quickly assessed which way the wind was blowing and emerged as shadow treasurer.

Howard was one of Australia’s great reforming treasurers, implementing a wave of free-market reforms and floating the Australian dollar in 1980. Investment increased, trade was booming, and Howard’s star rose dramatically. Therefore, when the oldest person to occupy the position of Prime Minister announced his retirement at the age of 72, Howard’s youthfulness and relative inexperience wasn’t an issue.

Howard was elected Liberal Party leader (and hence Prime Minister) over the more experienced Andrew Peacock, who had served as Foreign Affairs Minister since 1979. Howard swiftly moved to placate Peacock and his supporters, making him Treasurer and giving him complete control over fiscal policy, which freed up Howard to devote his time to his real passion: domestic and foreign affairs.

Continuing the reforms of the Gorton-Fraser government, Howard heralded “ten years of change in two”, as his biographer later stated. Immigration restrictions, which had been loosened from the shameful White Australia Policy back in the McEwen years, were done away with altogether. Australia benefited from the influx of skilled migrants from countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, turning Sydney and Melbourne into two of the most multicultural cities in the world.

Howard also made very visible and important breakthroughs in the areas of indigenous affairs, being the first Prime Minister to formally live and work in an indigenous community when he spent a week in Arnhem Land in 1984. The Howard-Fraser government passed the Race Discrimination Act and appointed the first indigenous cabinet minister, Senator Charlie Perkins.

On the foreign stage, relations noticeably cooled between Australia and the United States when Howard took the decision to back New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance. Although he did not completely disavow the ANZUS treaty, there is no doubt that Howard followed a more independent foreign policy stance than that of his predecessors. He also broke off completely diplomatic relations with South Africa, which were not restored until the release of Nelson Mandela. It was only appropriate that Howard would represent Australia at Mandela’s inauguration as President of South Africa later in 1994.

Howard was narrowly defeated in the 1985 election but stayed on in parliament before retiring in 1987. He added his name to the bipartisan declaration of apology to the First Australians in 1988, a logical progression for the man who did so much in such short time for indigenous Australians. He was elected President of the International Cricket Council in 1990. Those closest to him say he covets that role as the true pinnacle of his career.

 

Darth_Kiryan

John howard in 1983? Dear God what the Hell!:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Everything i liked before this moment, but then it got to John Howard and then we just entered bizarro-world.

Its a complete and utter distortion of reality, though i will say that i liked that you kept Menzies out of his long reign of command after WW2. interesting choice.

:p:p:p
 

Thunderbolt

Darth_Kiryan said:
John howard in 1983? Dear God what the Hell!:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Everything i liked before this moment, but then it got to John Howard and then we just entered bizarro-world.

Its a complete and utter distortion of reality, though i will say that i liked that you kept Menzies out of his long reign of command after WW2. interesting choice.

:p:p:p
Click to expand...

That's the beauty of shuffling the deck, even the bizarre is truly bizarre.
Thanks for reading. :D
 

Thunderbolt



The Bankstown Boy
March 17 1985 to May 1 1997

As Australia’s second-longest serving Prime Minister, Paul John Keating (b. 1941) would devote much of his energy reversing or ignoring the legacy of his predecessors rather than instituting any lasting change of his own.

Keating was elected to parliament in the Whitlam wave of 1969 and had worked his way into cabinet by 1976 as the Minister for Northern Development. He was a surprise choice as Treasurer in the short-lived Hawke cabinet, the brevity of which meant he never handed down a budget. He stayed in that position under Bill Hayden’s insipid leadership in opposition.

When Hayden left federal politics in 1982, Keating narrowly beat Lionel Bowen for the leadership of the Labor Party, and, at the age of 41, was its youngest leader since Christian Watson. When Gorton vacated the stage, both major parties were led by young, articulate and energetic leaders. And while John Howard had the respect of the country due to his sincerity and progressive zeal, it was Keating who made the voters swoon in the 1985 poll. Labor won a majority of 19 seats in an expanded House of Representatives, and increased that figure marginally in a double dissolution held early in 1987.

Feeling that the heady Gorton-Howard years had done irreparable damage to Australia’s security, Keating made the restoration of the American alliance a major priority. The Pine Gap tracking station, put into mothballs by the Liberals in 1983, was opened up again soon after Keating’s election victory. It was a sign that there were new priorities in Canberra. Reagan, Bush and Clinton were invited to speak to the Australian parliament, and new trade agreements were opened up between Australia and what would be soon the world’s single superpower.

At the same time, Keating also sought to reconnect with what he termed “the grand mother country”. He had an excellent working relationship with Margaret Thatcher, and found more in common with her than her Labour counterparts in Britain. The British imperial honours, cast aside by John Gorton only five years previously, were brought back to complement what Keating would deride as the “Liberals’ bunyip medallions”, which he ignored outright. Keating was an avowed monarchist, and stifled any contemplation of moving towards a republic, repeatedly striking down attempts to add it to the Labor Party platform. He stopped short of bringing back “God Save The Queen” but insisted that it be played alongside “Advance Australia Fair” at what he termed "appropriate occasions", which eventually became code for any event he was present at.

Recognising that you couldn’t unscramble an egg, Keating did make some token efforts to engage with indigenous Australia. He offered the important symbolic apology to the First Australians in early 1988 on the eve of the bicentenary of European settlement. However, it was a gesture that many felt was hollow, was ill-timed and would have been far more authentic were it delivered by his processor John Howard. Although the Keating government initiated the Native Title Act 1993 in response to the determination of the High Court to Mabo v Queensland (No 2), his government did little beyond symbolic action, and it was up to his successor to implement the recommendations with more rigour.

A fiscal conservative, Keating personally withdrew Sydney’s application to host the 2000 Olympic Games in 1993, claiming that a lot of public money was going to waste for a process which was all but decided already in favour of the Chinese capital. Keating was vindicated in part when Beijing defeated Manchester and Berlin on the first ballot to host the first games of the new century. He may have also decided there was a certain hypocrisy in splurging money on an international sporting circus at a time when his treasurer was tightening the purse-strings.

Keating was fortunate in part that he faced very little real opposition, either in his own party or in the opposition. An abortive leadership challenge by John Dawkins in 1992 was shrugged off disdainfully, another challenge by Ralph Willis, soon after the 1996 horror budget was released, barely got off the ground. When the affable and highly competent Alex Downer was unexpectedly replaced as opposition leader early in 1997, Keating called a snap election to capitalise on the Liberals’ disarray. However, five weeks later, all was subsequently lost, and he tearfully claimed it was the “bitterest defeat of all”.

Keating now splits his time between Sydney and London, and remains an avowed supporter of the British monarchy in Australia. He was the unofficial leader of the “no” vote in the Australian republic referendum of 1999. He is the only Prime Minister to refuse an Order of the Southern Cross.
 
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