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Grand Ambition

Paul Keating's global vision for Australia

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Grand Ambition

By: James Curran
Narrated by: James Curran
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Summary
 Written with never-before-seen documents from Paul Keating’s archive and drawing on long conversations and interviews with him over many years, this book explores the ambitions for Australia and its place in the world that guided Keating: arguably the last Prime Minister with a compelling long-term vision for the country.

As Australia stands on the edge of the greatest reappraisal of its strategic circumstances, what is the relevance of Paul Keating’s vision for Australia in the world today?

At the moment of his political defeat in 1996, Paul Keating stood defiant, still arguing for a vision of Australia that reached far beyond the limits of electoral politics. Three decades on, this book revisits that vision: bold, contested and somewhat unravelled by subsequent Coalition governments.

Drawing on newly revealed documents and extensive interviews, it traces how Keating sought to reshape Australia’s foreign policy at the end of the Cold War: anchoring the country in Asia, embedding China within a regional order, deepening ties with Indonesia and challenging long-held assumptions about dependence on great powers. For Keating, economic reform, national identity and international strategy were inseparable: part of a single, sweeping project to remake Australia.

Ambitious and provocative, this is both a portrait of a singular political mind and a reappraisal of a pivotal era. It argues that the questions Keating grappled with – about independence, security and identity – remain unresolved, and more urgent than ever in a world defined by rising tensions between the United States, China and the rest of the world.

Including exclusive photographs from Paul Keating's private collection. Politicians Politics & Activism Politics & Government China
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Great recount of Keating's national project and an interesting look behind the scenes of how he went about carrying his political vision. Great man.

Fantastic vision for a better Australia

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James Curran does an extraordinarily good job in describing what we could’ve been in 2026 if we had not reversed the reforms that Keating so patiently developed between 1991 and 1996. In many ways this book is difficult because if we had continue down the path that Keating lead we would such a different country, sovereign, independent, confident and most probably wealthier and definitely safer. What I most appreciated about this book is it is concise, clever and compelling. Congratulations James.

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