I agree with the sentiments expressed by the author although I would go further. Saving money for the future makes sense for an individual facing insecurity but it doesn't make sense for a money issuing sovereign government (SG).

Keating expressed the view that moving people from the factory floor to clean office work was an advance. It wasn't! That was moving people from productive work to what is largely parasitic non-work. Book-keeping and banking are service industries and such costs should always be kept to a bare minimum.

Up to the point where demand for domestic resources starts to cause inflation the SG can buy labour and resources to provide necessary future infrastructure. A SG can never go broke issuing IOUs for goods and services it purchases.

If the car industry is allowed to collapse then the steel industry will be next. The steel and other metal industries are the key to our future well being.
Australia needs to promote industries that use steel sheet and plate such as rolling stock and the car and whitegoods industries because when the mining industry turns down, as it inevitably will, our balance of payment problems will become acute and we will not be able to import much in the way of consumer goods or trains or structural and boilermaking steel.

We may need a future fund but the type we need is one that has purchased income producing foreign assets, as has Norway. The mining resource rent tax was a means of securing our future by investing in profitable businesses overseas. Australia should not be living on its assets.

I disagree with the most of the sentiments expressed by the author.

Keating's so-called leadership on the issue of indigenous rights mainly involved the Mabo legislation, that was forced on him by the many uncertainties resulting from the High Court decision. The legislation arguably benefited the legal community more than the indigenous community, and was in any case amended substantially by the Howard government. Keating's stance on the republic has led us nowhere, while his attempts to "get into bed with Asia" were 20 years too late and ended up being greatly stymied by the Asian economic crisis.

Keating's main achievements were as Treasurer. He basically followed the economic wisdom of free-market neo-classical economics and was instrumental in changing Australia to a vibrant free-trading and more competitive economy. In my opinion he was a rotten Prime Minister, being captive to left-wing interests that helped him unseat Hawke.

I agree that the expansion of superannuation was one of Keating's achievements but I disagree with the author's view that a government run superannuation fund run by public servants should have been set up to invest superannuation contributions, instead of private funds. Such a fund would not be free of management costs (as suggested), might be subject to political interference, and would have an uncomfortable role in using its equity muscle in companies at AGMs.

The author criticises Keating for selling off the Commonwealth Bank and CSL, and deregulating the banking system. Both CBA and CSL have thrived following privatisation, which has also ended unfair regulative advantages previously held by non-banks (such as finance companies, building societies and credit unions). The only mistake Keating made was that he could have waited for the banks to realise the full benefits of deregulation before selling off CBA and thus gained a better price.

Talking about Keating and other hasbeen politicians only encourages them and the ABC to bore everyone silly with a 'wisdom' that was never present in their own regimes.

One serve of Australian politicians is more than enough for anyone.

Some of Paul Keating's greatest achievements:

*A catastrophic loss of productive institutions transferred from the Australian nation to private (increasingly foreign) ownership.

*A massive transfer of wealth from those who actually (themselves) create it to those who acquire it.

*Diplomatic and economic orientation to a gaggle of corrupt Asian dictatorships.

*Working and living conditions imported, through tariff cuts, from slave countries like the Prison Republic of China.

*Reorientation of a manufacturing nation into a nation of golf caddies and bar waiters.

*17% p.a.mortgage interest.

*An economic and political inheritance to be grasped and extended by Howard/Costello to its logical conclusion: work choices.

Clever.

The only reason the leftie media elites are talking about Keating is because Goffs almost senile, and they cannot say anything positive about Hawke (Gillard backer), Rudd or Gillard and Shorten is just plain dumb.

Keating is their new go to man.

What a sorry lot.

Btw Qantas in trouble, Holden and Ford pulling out, many small businesses closing ...

Why?

Gillard put Australia through a 10 month election campaign.

What did they f...ing expect.

Why don't the media sheet home the blame where it belongs. No wonder they are dredging up the old ego maniac keating.

Both the major parties have sold us out. We no longer have any monetary sovereignty. All our new money for growth + inflation gets created as debt by private banks, from which we will never escape.