Former prime minister Paul Keating - architect of some of the most profound economic reforms in the country's history during the 1980s - has launched a surprise critique of the liberal economic philosophy he once championed, declaring it has "run into a dead end"...
Mr Keating made his remarks in response to a speech delivered by the new leader of the ACTU, Sally McManus, at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday...Mr Keating's response will surprise many who have seen him as a hitherto staunch defender of open markets, and key force in modernising the Australian economy. He also presided over some of the federal government's earliest privatisations and the floating of the dollar.
His shift in rhetoric will be grist to union attacks on the government and the business community over growing job insecurity and flat-lining wages...