Keating Government

The Keating Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia for the just over 4 years that Paul Keating was Prime Minister. This government began on 20 December 1991 when Keating defeated Bob Hawke in a second leadership challenge, and became Prime Minister. The Australian Labor Party government, led by Keating, defeated the Liberal-National Coalition led by John Hewson and won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives in the 1993 Federal election, and Keating continued to serve as Prime Minister for the next term of office. The Government ended when John Howard became Prime Minister on 11 March 1996 after the electoral defeat of the Australian Labor Party.

A notable initiative by the Government was the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee in 1992 as part of a major reform package addressing Australia's retirement income policies. Since its introduction, employers have been required to make compulsory contributions to superannuation on behalf of most of their employees. This contribution was originally set at 3% of the employees' income, and has been incrementally increased.

In 1993 the Government passed the "Native Title Act" in response to the High Court's decision in Mabo v Queensland. It was Australia’s first national native title legislation.

In its second term of office Graham Richardson resigned involuntarily in March 1994. cite web|url = http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/meetpm.asp?pmId=24&pageName=inoffice|title = Paul Keating in office | |work = Australia's Prime Ministers|publisher = National Archives of Australia|accessdate = 2008-07-30] This was at the same time as the involuntary resignation of Ros Kelly over the Sports rorts affair. Following the resignation of treasurer John Dawkins former WA Premier Carmen Lawrence entered parliament and the ministry. However she was unable to contribute as effectively as might have been expected due to controversy over the Royal Commission into the Easton affair.

See also

*First Keating Ministry
*Second Keating Ministry

References