Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration 2011 The Hon. Paul Keating

Paul Keating entered Parliament in 1969, becoming Treasurer in the Hawke government in 1983. In this role he drove a range of financial and economic reforms which internationalised the Australian economy and underpinned more than twenty years of Australia’s continuous growth and prosperity. In December 1991 he became Prime Minister and led the ALP to an historic fifth term of government in March 1993. As Prime Minister he continued his progressive reform program which included the introduction of compulsory national superannuation to redress national savings and to provide more adequate retirement incomes. The Keating government implemented the historic Native Title legislation to facilitate the return of land to indigenous Australians and raised proposals for constitutional reform to have Australia become a republic. Paul Keating maintains his interest in contemporary national and international politics, economics and foreign affairs and contributes occasionally to the public debate.