It’s time for Australia to break out of its ‘timidity’: Keating
In a wide-ranging interview, Paul Keating draws together a critique of Australia and its place in the world from his 55 years of public life since he first entered federal parliament in 1969.
Former prime minister and treasurer Paul Keating has used his 80th birthday to urge Australians and their political leaders to break out of a “timidity” in the nation’s intellectual structure, its economic and business aspirations, its constitutional links with Britain, its security dependence on the United States and its failure to reconcile with its original inhabitants.
“The country is so timid,” Keating tells The Australian Financial Review. “To come of age, Australia has to have a new and altogether different idea of itself.
Michael StutchburyEditor-at-largeMichael Stutchbury is editor-at-large. He is in his fourth decade of writing for and editing national newspapers. After nearly six years as editor of The Australian, he returned to the Financial Review as editor-in-chief (2011-2024). Email Michael at mstutchbury@afr.com
