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You see, before I became prime minister, the Australian prime minister only attended ever two meetings in the world: the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the South Pacific Forum.

Paul Keating

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Paul Keating
Age: 80
Born: 1944
Born: January 18
Former Prime Minister Of Australia
Politician
Trade Unionist
Bankstown
New South Wales
Australia
Paul John Keating
The Honourable Paul Keating
Ever
Meeting
Forums
World
Prime
Attended
Meetings
Commonwealth
British
Pacific
South
Australian
Became
Minister
Two
Ministers
Government
Heads
Forum

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Politicians come in three varieties: straight men, fixers, and maddies.
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In the end it's the big picture which changes nations and whatever our opponents may say, Australia's changed inexorably for good, for the better.
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The lesson of the Federation should be that the lesson is over. Australia must have a new idea of itself. We have to strike out in a new direction, in a new way, armed with our own self-regard, our own confidence and fully appreciating our own uniqueness. All other roads will lead us into the shadow of great powers.
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No choice we can make as a nation lies between our history and our geography. We can hardly change either of them. They are immutable. The only choice we can make as a nation is the choice about our future.
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If you are sitting on the title of any block of land in New South Wales you can bet an Aboriginal person at some stage was dispossessed of it.
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Well, Australians should speak for the national interests of Australia, and whatever role former Australian prime ministers may have, one of the things you do is speak frankly about the country as you see the country's best interests, you know?
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If this Government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again, and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for. We will end up being a third rate economy... a banana republic.
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The fact is Burke is smarter than two thirds of the Western Australian Labor Party rolled together.
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The great changes in civilisation and society have been wrought by deeply held beliefs and passion rather than by a process of rational deduction.
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In the end, rational policy is always good.
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Nobody wants to have in their CV in the upper echelons of the American economic family that they nationalised major banks.
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John Howard turned the prime ministership into something like a state police minister. He's at the scene of every crime, twice a day on radio, the guy did no thinking.
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When the Berlin Wall came down the Americans cried, 'Victory,' and walked off the field.
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The great curse of modern political life is incrementalism.
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You see, psychologically, Australia must understand it has to live in the region around it. Australia must find its security in Asia it cannot find its security from Asia.
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I've always held the view that great states need strategic space. I mean, George Washington took his space from George III. Britain took it from just about everybody. Russia took all of Eastern Europe. Germany's taken it from everywhere they can, and China will want its space too.
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The United States being in Asia is unambiguously a good thing for the region.
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You just can't have a position where some pumped up bunyip potentate dismisses an elected government.
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You know, in the WikiLeaks cables, the Chinese discovered that Kevin Rudd was urging the Americans to keep the military option open against them. This is hardly a friendly gesture.
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I try to use the Australian idiom to its maximum advantage.
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