The 1994 Employment Minister Simon Crean even had to be briefed by officials on the content of the policy when Working Nation was released.
Julian Smith/AAP
Cabinet papers released today by the National Archives show Working Nation began as a rational exercise but was soon overtaken by a desire to make the policy everything to everyone.
The Keating cabinet in 1995, featuring John Faulkner (back row, centre), whose vision for a carbon price was thwarted.
AAP Image/National Archives of Australia
Paul Keating’s government, faced with the prospect of international action on climate change, took steps to preserve the coal industry - a tactic that has been rebooted many times since.
Paul Keating drove a policy agenda that had been rallied after the 1993 victory.
AAP/NAA
After 1993, Paul Keating became ever-more dominant in cabinet policy discussions to ensure a legacy for the Labor government.
Queen Elizabeth signs the visitors’ book at Parliament House, while Prime Minister Paul Keating and Parliament House officials look on in February 1992.
National Archives of Australia
Hangga Fathana, Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) Yogyakarta
It was Paul Keating himself who first raised the idea of a security agreement between Indonesia and Australia in June 1994 to Indonesian President Soeharto.
Wayne Swan has drawn a parallel between the the ALP’s ‘Laborism’ and New Labour’s ‘Third Way’ in the UK.
Number 10/flickr
While both parties may have set out to modernise and renew their ideologies, the ALP’s and Labour’s attempts to marry the old and new instead precipitated two separate identity crises.
The end game of Tony Abbott’s policy pitches is unknown, but in the interim they seem to be destabilising the party.
Brendan Esposito/AAP
For his own good, Malcolm Turnbull can’t get out of the country quickly enough. He’s off on Wednesday to the G20 in Germany and, if he has any sense, while he’s abroad he’ll try to avoid being drawn on…
Eddie Koiki Mabo (left) and Jack Wailu on the Torres Strait island of Mer.
National Archives of Australia/AAP
The Mabo decision changed Australia’s concept of land ownership. It was a divisive yet important step toward recognising Indigenous rights and establishing native title.
The Hawke Labor government had a strong incentive to seek a new approach to industrial relations when it came to office.
National Archives of Australia
The Prices and Incomes Accord was a series of agreements between Labor and the ACTU where unions would moderate their wage demands in exchange for improvements in the ‘social wage’.
Unionists protesting the reduced role of the Industrial Relations Commission after the introduction of the work choices legislation in 2006.
Julian Smith/AAP
Cabinet papers reveal the extent to which the Keating government was torn between concern for fiscal responsibility and a desire to tackle Indigenous disadvantage and pursue meaningful reconciliation.
Paul Keating took the prime ministership with a ‘comprehensive plan to get the country cracking’, but the task was daunting.
National Archives of Australia
Labor’s project of economic transformation hit some harder realities as Paul Keating assumed the top job. And a new push on remaking Australia stirred a brooding reaction of its own.
Despite international efforts, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to grow.
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
The 1992 and 1993 cabinet papers confirm that Australia was a reluctant player in international discussions about climate change and environmental issues under Prime Minister Paul Keating.
The government was forced to respond to John Hewson’s plan.
The National Archives of Australia, Author provided
By the end of 1992, Paul Keating had done more than anyone to place on the political agenda issues of national identity that had been either dead or dormant for years.
Bill Shorten must channel the abilities of his colleagues in parliament and the broader progressive movement if he is to lead the ALP back to government.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe says Bill Shorten must channel the abilities of his colleagues in parliament and the broader progressive movement if he is to lead the ALP back to government.
Australia’s current public-policy space is too small to grapple with the huge geopolitical and environmental shifts underway.
EPA/Mast Irham
Scare campaigns only work if there is some anxiety to build on. Labor’s Medicare campaign plugged into a long history of Coalition ambivalence – or open hostility – towards Medicare.
It’s quiet out there, too quiet.
Outback image from wwww.shutterstock.com