As someone in their early 50’s, I grew up with Paul Keating. Throughout most of the 1980s he was on the television every night as the Treasurer, alongside Prime Minister Bob Hawke.
Then as I turned eighteen and eligible to vote he became the Prime Minister when he challenged Hawke for the leadership in 1991.
In 1993 I got to vote for the first time, first in February at the State Election, and then just a few weeks later headed to the polls again with the federal showdown between Keating and John Hewson.
In his acclaimed one man show Jonathan Biggins explores the man who was Australia’s 24th Prime Minister. A man remembered for many cutting one liners, economic reform, bold and progressive policies, and a love of antique clocks.
He once described Liberal treasurer Peter Costello as “all tip and no iceberg”, and memorably killed of Andrew Peacock’s hopes of returning to the leadership by asking, “Can a soufflé rise twice?” John Howard was labeled desiccated coconut under pressure, while comments describing Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammad Mahathir as a “recalcitrant” improved a whole nation’s vocabulary.
Keating is remembered for pushing through the changes in defence forces, which saw LGBTIQA+ people being allowed to serve without keeping their sexuality and gender identity a secret, but he also owned up to saying in a cabinet meeting that “Two blokes and cocker spaniel don’t make a family”.
The Gospel According to Paul, which will have a season at the State Theatre Centre from next week for Black Swan State Theatre, has been described as “one hilarious and evocative night of theatre”.
It was a pleasure to chat with Jonathan Biggins about his acclaimed work, and his fascination with Keating and the Australia he created.
When did you first become interested in Paul Keating?
We used to do this thing called The Wharf Review, which we actually wrapped up this year, It had been going since the 2000s. I did him initially in that, it’s a short format of monologues and sketches with other people including Bib Hawke and various people.
“I’d seen Gerry Connolly doing an impressions of him, and I thought ‘I might have a go at that’, and it just grew and grew, and became more popular.
I thought he’d be the perfect person to write a one-man show about, because not only was he an extraordinary political figure, he was also an entertainer, a vaudevillian, he was very funny. He managed to bridge both sides of politics, if you hated him, you still respected him.
Most notably politicians usually have one line we remember them for, but Keating has a whole bunch of iconic quotes.
Yes, I mean there’s whole books dedicated to his one-liners and performance. This show is about working out which ones are really his.
You’ve been doing the show for few years, what kind of people are coming to see a play about Paul Keating?
It really is all types. I often use the example of this, there’s a theatre in Sydney called the Glen Street Theatre, it’s up in Frenchs Forrest, a suburb which was just outside of Tony Abbott’s electorate and Bronwyn Bishop’s electorate. You can gather a sense of the sort of people who live there, but they turned up in drives to see it, it really does c ross that political divide.
You get your true believers, your Keating fans – through his prime ministership and ‘world’s greatest treasurer’. Then you a whole new generation of people who’ve watched him on YouTube, plus he keeps putting his head up and is not afraid to speak his mind. He’s always in the news, and is one of those people who have just endured.
For younger people is he just a guy who pops up in the news?
He’s constantly in the public eye. The interesting thing is that he left school and fourteen and never went to university. He is the self-made man, an autodidact, he taught himself everything he knew and knows. He’s got his pilot’s licence, and a bus driver’s licence. He’s an authority of friendship, and decorative antiques between the Napoleon and the end of the Reighn of Terror.
He’s quite an extraordinary figure, and that makes him a rich and entertaining person to be in the company of in the theatre.
Do you think he gets remembered fairly?
I think so. You could argue that a lot of the problems that are facing us now as the results of globalisation and neoliberal economics, which he was a champion of, could be laid at his door.
But he argues that when he did was perverted by a failure to keep the balance right. They always relied on protections for the greater bulk of the population, and those have been eroded.
So for example, negative gearing – which the Hawke and Keating government’s brought in – initially was only meant to be on new builds, and he wanted to scrap it after a certain term. He was persuaded not to, and you could argue that failure to scrap negative gearing has led to a rusted on endemic problem.
I don’t think anyone’s going to tackle that challenge.
No, and every subsequent government has these problems. Hawke and Keating had the courage to take things on and bring about reform, and nobody has really done it since.
I guess Howard and the GST is the single biggest reform since then, but its become increasingly difficult to do it. Back then you had the cooperation of Bill Kelty, the accord, and the whole union movement.
Now the union movement is fragmented, nobody has the strength anymore. You’ve got noisy self interest lobby groups on every corner of the political spectrum, all wanting things to go there way. So I think its very hard.
The Gospel According to Paul is part of Black Swan State Theatre’s 2025 program and plays at the State Theatre Centre from 23rd July until 3 August. Tickets are on sale now.
