If you missed the second episode of Kerry O’Brien’s interviews with Paul Keating, it is still on ABC TV’s iview for a few more days, here. Well worth watching this insight into political power.
There’s a fascinating moment shortly after the start. The camera pans through the back room of Keating’s office, and shows him at work on a computer, reading a scanned newspaper. Kerry O’Brien says:
“Particularly revealing are his often candid notes handwritten in the margins at the time. He has a meticulous archive of more than 10,000 newspaper articles going back to the 1970s, collected personally week by week.”
The camera then focusses on a particular newspaper, The Australian Financial Review of Thursday 5 September 1985. It is stamped, ‘PJ Keating personal collection’. The headline on the lead story says, ‘Accord ... but costly’, written by Gerard Noonan. The opening paragraph of the lead article is:
“Not without some significant short term pain, the Australian Council of Trade Unions has scored a major coup in gaining - almost overnight - superannuation coverage for all wage and salary earners.”
And in the top right corner of the page, written in Paul Keating’s elegant handwriting, it says:
“The beginning of national super”
So there’s as good a record as any, from the father of modern superannuation. The historic date is 4 September 1985, not seven years later when the national superannuation guarantee started.
(Paul Keating wrote three articles on superannuation for Cuffelinks, listed here).
http://cuffelinks.com.au/where-did-smsfs-come-from-and-where-are-they-going/
http://cuffelinks.com.au/dividend-imputation-and-superannuation-are-worth-fighting-for/
http://cuffelinks.com.au/living-longer-and-superannuation/