"This is a low flying person." Keating - 2008.
On Peter Costello: "He's all tip and no iceberg."
On Andrew Peacock: "A painted, perfumed, gigolo."
He saved his best for Howard:
"I am not like the Leader of the Opposition. I did not slither out of the Cabinet room like a mangy maggot."
"The brain-damaged Leader of the Opposition."
"The greatest job and investment destroyer since the bubonic plague."
"The desiccated little coconut."
And I loved this exchange with Whitlam when the Big Man was God and PJK a young parliamentarian who had left school at 14, managed rock bands and been a devoted disciple of Jack Lang.
Gough: "You should go to university. Get an education."
PJK: "Why? Then I'd be just like you."
Blasphemy! But the man knew himself. And boy, did he know policy - what levers to pull, how a change in one area would affect other parts of the economy. And a big picture man, too.
Keating had the elitist image because of his taste in French clocks, Italian suits and German composers (when you have some big thinking to do, take a walk listening to Mahler. I now swear by it). He was an economic rationalist (aka neoliberal) but everything was underpinned by the question "what will be better for the people?"
Whereas Howard had the "battler's mate" image because he looked like one, and like so many who voted for him, had the most banal, suburban, middle-of-the-road taste. But was very much a top end of town man when it came to policy.
Keating said in the 1996 election campaign, "change the government and you'll change the country", and how right he was. It's still a great country, but what could have been had people not been sick of his arrogance, is a real sliding doors missed moment. Out of politics at 52. I hoped for years he'd make a comeback but my old man nailed it at the time: "He's tired. He's done it all. That's it."
A bloody shame, though.
Yeah I bet he hasn't been back there since he first left. Potts Point is much grander thank you. Probably hasn't been west of Balmain since he quit politics.
