328,366 research outputs found
Keating, M S, TX4101
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/396389Surname: KEATING. Given Name(s) or Initials: M S. Military Service Number or Last Known Location: TX4101. Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Card Index Number: 35544.232888
Item: [2016.0049.28682] "Keating, M S, TX4101
Keating's Venetian vision
No full textUnfinished Business: Paul Keating’s Interrupted Revolution
David Love
Scribe, $32.95
Reviewed by Dennis Woodward
THIS is an unusual book. It is part biographical, part anecdotal, draws on a long and detailed knowledge of Australia’s financial system, offers some intriguing insights, and mounts a consistent central argument. Essentially, it aims to resurrect Paul Keating’s reputation.
Keating’s achievements in carrying out reform in the economic and financial services industry against the wishes of the “proto communists” in the Labor Party have not, David Love argues, been given due recognition both within his own party and the community at large. In particular, his plan to introduce compulsory superannuation which would eventually rise to 15 per cent of income (but was frozen at the 9 per cent level in place when he lost government) is seen as a visionary scheme which would have solved the problem of retirement incomes, dealt with Australia’s foreign debt problems and paved the way for Australia to become a “modern Venice” as a source of finance. The book is a plea for the fulfilment of this program, which was halted by the Coalition government because of its antipathy to union based superannuation funds competing with traditional financial players, and which was abandoned by Labor in opposition.
Woven through the book is an account of the emergence of the Macquarie Bank Group from its beginnings within Hill Samuel and its transformation into a global financial institution funding infrastructure. Its achievements were made possible by the financial deregulation carried out under Keating, and Love holds it out as a success story that could have provided a model for other companies, enabling Australia to become a financial powerhouse. Incomplete though Keating’s reforms were, they were still seen as sufficient for Australia to ward off the speculative activities of hedge funds seeking to drive down the Australian dollar in the wake of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Yet the failure to complete Keating’s vision and the ignoring of private debt and the ever burgeoning current account deficit by Howard and Costello has made Australia vulnerable, according to Love.
Reading this book at a time when the global financial system is in crisis and massive government intervention in the form of privatisation of banks, injection of capital into financial institutions, government guarantees of deposits and interbank loans are taking place, it is hard to wholeheartedly agree that financial deregulation was a great idea. Love’s vitriol against the pre-Keating system in which “Australia’s second-rate economic status was the result of a constricted, insular financial system, and a banking system, that was constipated, incompetent, over-cautious, arrogant and shallow” might seem a little misplaced. Many might lament the fact that financial institutions didn’t remain “over-cautious.” Love, however, who notes the beginnings of the “sub-prime” financial crisis, draws the conclusion that completing Keating’s policy on superannuation would have protected Australia from the crisis by making it less dependent on the need to source foreign funds.
It is possible, however, to agree that Australia’s current account deficit and foreign debt are looming problems and industry superannuation has its advantages without totally going along with financial deregulation. Placing even more of workers’ savings in the hands of unregulated financial intermediaries appears less attractive in the light of what they have done with the funds that they do have.
Irrespective of whether one agrees or disagrees with the book’s central argument, however, it is well worth reading. It is pitched at a general readership but has a solid (if undocumented) basis. It draws on personal interviews with Keating and reveals some behind the scenes political manoeuvring. It should be of interest to those who follow Australian politics and economic matters. •
Dennis Woodward teaches politics at Monash Universit
Policy Convergence, Transfer and Learning in the UK under Devolution
No full textThis paper explores the policy transfer and learning process within the UK since 1999, examining the conditions in which transfer takes place among central and devolved governments. We distinguish among concurrent policies, policy competition, coercive transfer and policy learning. Policy transfer can be more or less coercive and constrained, while policy learning is voluntary. Mechanisms for transfer include financial instruments, political parties, the civil service and policy communities. Transfer can take place from centre to periphery, from periphery to centre and across the periphery. There is also transfer at the European and international levels. As it is England that has tended to break with older policies, notably on public service provision, the pressure has been to follow its lead, with the devolved administrations resisting or conforming. The UK government has paid much less attention to possible learning from the devolved territories and sometimes has sought to insulate England from debates there, especially where politically sensitive matters or large resources are at stake. Learning among the devolved territories is only now really beginning
A. V. Lane, C. A. Keating, L. S. Thorne (portraits from book, undated)
No full textImage of portraits of A. V. Lane, C. A. Keating, and L. S. Thorne.Title from finding aid. Recto: [imprinted] A. V. Lane. C. A. Keating. L. S. Thorne. News copy not transcribed
Keating, R J, VX38961
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/396393Surname: KEATING. Given Name(s) or Initials: R J. Military Service Number or Last Known Location: VX38961. Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Card Index Number: 35795.232897
Item: [2016.0049.28686] "Keating, R J, VX38961
Keating, Thomas, P-Kx106627
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/396387Surname: KEATING. Given Name(s) or Initials: THOMAS. Military Service Number or Last Known Location: P-KX106627. Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Card Index Number: 14743.232884
Item: [2016.0049.28680] "Keating, Thomas, P-Kx106627
Keating, M, NX68380
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/396386Surname: KEATING. Given Name(s) or Initials: M. Military Service Number or Last Known Location: NX68380. Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Card Index Number: 43343.232882
Item: [2016.0049.28679] "Keating, M, NX68380
Keating, R H, 429461
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/396380Surname: KEATING. Given Name(s) or Initials: R H. Military Service Number or Last Known Location: 429461. Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Card Index Number: 52448.232870
Item: [2016.0049.28673] "Keating, R H, 429461
Keating, T G, TX2354
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/396388Surname: KEATING. Given Name(s) or Initials: T G. Military Service Number or Last Known Location: TX2354. Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Card Index Number: 30802.232886
Item: [2016.0049.28681] "Keating, T G, TX2354
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