I Once Met ... Paul Keating

Prime Minister Keating arrives at a Labor Party fundraiser in Darwin where he meets a star-struck Buffalo Bruce ... 1994, a time of harsh CLP criminal justice laws ... Native Title Act and the reconciliation movement also at work ... Synchronistic forces at play 

Keating: G'day comrades

I turned 16 the year that the Hawke Labor government came to power. To say that it was an influential government at an influenceable time of my life is a gross understatement. 

Like Leverhulme, I had enormous respect for Bob Hawke, and I also sort of met him once - I turned around from buying a beer at the bar at the Darwin RSL on ANZAC Day 1991, and there was the Prime Minister standing right next to me. 

But for all of Hawke's gravitas and ability to bring the union movement along with him to achieve economic reform, there was always another, younger presence at his elbow who seemed to be setting the pace.

Paul Keating stepped out of Hawke's shadow in June 1991 and took the reins as PM six months later. I was a part-time law student at that time, with little active interest in politics. If anything, I was probably a Democrat - middle of the road. 

A confluence of factors dragged me into the political sphere and ultimately into meeting Keating.  

Often I was at lectures with other part-time students, including the NT Labor politician Neil Bell. Neil was shadow attorney general for at least part of that time, and it was about then that Shane Stone, CLP attorney general, began his campaign for harsher juvenile justice laws.  

Neil had been a teacher before entering politics, and his electorate was west of Alice Springs, taking in many of the communities where kids would be most affected by the Stone Age laws. 

Also, as part of a criminal law thesis for one of my undergraduate units (which was taught by the now Hon. Justice Jenny Blokland), I contacted each of the major political parties in the NT, Canberra and WA to seek information about policies on juvenile justice and sentencing. 

It was a hot topic in the early to mid-1990s, leading ultimately to WA and the NT passing mandatory sentencing laws. It was also the point that political parties started harvesting email addresses and building their first mailing lists.

In early 1994, as a result of those two unconnected factors, I received an invitation from the NT Labor Party to a fundraiser at the Marrara football stadium at which Prime Minister Paul Keating was scheduled to make a speech. 

Keating was coming to town for the Aboriginal All Stars v Collingwood game, which arose from the infamous round 4, 1993 game at which Nicky Winmar lifted his jumper to Collingwood fans who had been heckling him and Gilbert McAdam. 

Keating's role in passing the Native Title Act in December 1993 had made him a figurehead in the reconciliation movement. 

Aside from Neil Bell, I knew no one in the ALP, and I wasn't a member myself, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hear Keating speak in that political climate.  

When I arrived there wouldn't have been more than about 100 people in the room - such was the impotence of the Labor opposition in the NT, the CLP having been in power continuously since self-government.  

I chatted to a group of "Young Labor" uni students for about 20 minutes, when suddenly the TV camera lights flared and the room briefly fell silent, before it was filled with applause. 

I turned around, and there was the Prime Minister, striding into the room and heading straight for me! 

Before I could move aside he was right in front of me, holding out his hand and beaming at me for the cameras. 

I reached out for the handshake while cameras snapped and whirred all around me. Keating boomed out, "G'day comrades! All faithful party members, I assume".  

He quickly moved on to grab other hands before I could tell him the truth.

The following day, I returned to Football Park Marrara to see the Aboriginal All Stars thump Collingwood.  

I enjoyed that weekend - evidently more than Keating did, as he later quipped that, "The best way to see Darwin is from 35,000 feet on the way to Paris". 

I have no idea what his speech was about. 

Previous editions: 

I Once Met ... Bob Hawke
I Once Met ... Lionel Murphy

Justinian invites contributions to I Once Met ... Email: justinian@lawpress.com.au