A Second Enlightenment?

Paul Keating reflects on the world outlook

"George Herbert Bush talked about a New World Order then lost to Bill Clinton. And what happened then? Well, nothing happened then! The Americans cried victory and walked off the field. The greatest challenge we face, whether for managing incidents or easing the new economic tectonic plates into place, will be to construct a truly representative structure of world governance which reflects global realities but which is also equitable and fair." http://evatt.org.au/publications/papers/202.html

I've always had a 'love/hate' relationship with Paul Keating (who, incidentally and obviously, has never heard of me - unless he personally read any of my emails when he was in office, which is doubtful in the extreme). One thing, on the 'hate' side of the ledger, was the 'legalisation' of industrial action by unions. To give him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he thought legitimising industrial action was a positive thing, although he's so smart it's hard - if not impossible - to believe he didn't see the move as a 'control' on previously uncontrolled industrial action; after all, I did and assume many others did as well.

On the 'love' side of the ledger, he has always appeared to be a person with a genuine concern for the underdog, with a desire to promote equity and fairness. For example, his attitude to our First People has always demonstrated a desire to acknowledge past atrocities, to encourage us all to recognise our responsibility in changing their experience (see the link to his 1999 Redfern speech in Links at the bottom of this page). Another example is his introduction of the most advanced superannuation system since super began. "In 1992 the Federal Labor Government Introduced the Superannuation Guarantee (SG), following a refusal by the AIRC to increase the level of contributions under awards." http://www.actu.asn.au/super/about/super_history.html

Those tidbits are just to show why I am always interested in hearing what Paul Keating has to say, even if I don't always agree with him. I actually believe that it was a dark day for this country, Rudd's election notwithstanding, when he lost the 1996 election because he had not had the full opportunity to express and implement his own vision which would have come from the mind of an innovative and principled thinker - something of which we've had too little experience for most of our short history.

His speech to the Melbourne Writers' Festival is worth a read, in my opinion. It appears on the Evatt Foundation website, and I've linked to it there (earlier in this article) so you can have a look at other interesting items as well.