Former Prime Minister Paul Keating appeared on ABC’s 7.30 tonight, offering his take on Donald Trump’s presidency and what it means for Australia, and in all honestly, it was bloody refreshing.
Speaking to national treasure Leigh Sales, Keating reckoned our fate in the face of the US election results isn’t all that bad, and that we shouldn’t always be turning to the States for leadership when we do okay on our own.
“This society of ours is better than the United States. It’s more even, it’s more fair, we’ve had a 50% increase in real income in the last 20 years. Median America has had zero, zero.”
Keating went on to reference multiple factors that put us at an advantage, and look, we reckon he’s on the money. With an enviable universal health care system and superannuation, our social safety nets are a far sight better than those Trump is inheriting.
Perhaps most strikingly, Keating brought up gun control, an area that Australia happens to be incredibly privileged in compared to the US.
“We don’t shoot our children in schools and if they were to be shot we’d take the guns off the people who shot them. The Americans do not do this.”
As far as cultural leadership goes, Keating was deadset on the fact we shouldn’t always focus on the States – and that we’re perfectly capable of running our own show.
“The idea that… we are some sort of subordinate outfit that has to get a signal from abroad before we think of ours is a complete denial of everything we have created here.”
Keating concluded that, at the end of the day, we should focus on our trade relations with Asia more than anything. Our alliance with ASEAN could lead to an even more fruitful alliance with America, he said.
Considering the perpetually fearful rhetoric that has been clogging up our news feeds today, his spin seems kinda necessary to maintain some semblance of morale in this dark time.
Keating, you legend. Miss you. Watch the clip below:
Paul Keating says Australia should focus less on the US alliance and more on Asia #auspol #abc730 https://t.co/B3iA6ZlVrr
— abc730 (@abc730) November 10, 2016
Source and photo: 7.30 / ABC / Twitter.
