The only impressive thing about Paul Keating was his five o’clock shadow, he had a penchant for Armani suits and designer wear, but I felt this was a ruse designed to gloss over his deficiencies. Keating was a flawed personality, he was forever seeking legitimacy, he wanted to be the centre of attention, he wanted all the accolades for himself.

Keating suffers from not only self importance, his inflated ego blends with his legendary arrogance ensuring every news conference is all about him. Instead, Keating was all about abuse, he was known for his put downs; however, this was just a distraction for his lack of substance. What Keating really achieved is the demise of political standards, he presided over the proliferation of personal abuse and the lowering of parliamentary standards. All Keating ever did was sit up at night looking for personal slurs to level at people whilst conveniently overlooking his own glaring shortcomings.

We all know the brains of the operation was Bob Hawke who earned a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws, as a Rhodes Scholar, Hawke’s research was based on wage determination. Keating on the other hand was a union lacky, no formal education, never had a real job outside of politics. Well, how could he? He never had any qualifications, no university studies for law, accounting or finance. Despite his working class background, Keating had no trade either so apart from flouncing around union offices, he had no actual work experience – it really showed.