Keating: The Interviews
There's been no one quite like Paul Keating. Leaving school at age fourteen, he joined the Labor Party soon after, and thus began a remarkable and tumultuous forty-year journey into history as one of Australia's most significant and contentious political leaders. In this candid four-part interview series with Kerry O'Brien, Keating reveals the forces that shaped his ambitions, and the inside stories of perhaps the most intense and painful period of economic and social reform in Australian history, including the triumphs and the tears of his highly successful but explosive relationship with Bob Hawke. This unique series has many unforgettable moments. No other Prime Minister has revealed so much of themselves or their craft to the camera. Paul Keating lived by the sword and died by the sword, believing "we all get carried out in the end."
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0% donePart One follows the boy from Bankstown with a childhood passion for antiques and classical music, rivalled only by his fascination for an English Tory named Churchill and the rich brawling history of the Labor Party. It also explores Keating's relationship with his mother, who has a killer instinct and an ambition to see her son become Prime Minister.
Part Two explores the story through Paul Keating's eyes of his powerful relationship with Bob Hawke, one that arguably led to the most successful reforming partnership in Australian politics. But they were two bulls in one paddock and the tensions were predictable.
From Paul Keating's dire warnings that Australia was headed for Third World status to the tearaway boom as economic reforms took hold, and "the recession we had to have", this is a tale as only Keating would tell it. His partnership with Bob Hawke ends in true Shakespearean style. "In the end I'd execute him..."
Part Four charts the politically risky ride of the Keating Prime Ministership-- building the road to an Australian Republic, repointing the continent to Asia, delivering the Redfern Speech, embracing Mabo, introducing compulsory superannuation and blowing budget surpluses to climb out of recession. Keating wins the unwinnable election and sees off two Opposition Leaders, Hewson and Downer, only to be brought down by a third.
