Keating understood the power of tradition yet he loved to...

Keating understood the power of tradition yet he loved to break the rules and create a new orthodoxy. That's what he did as treasurer saying, in effect, that Labor runs a market model with equity, and it worked. When he became PM, he tried to construct a new set of Labor beliefs based on Asian engagement, reconciliation and the republic. For Keating, these weren't just policies; they were the new Labor template handed down from the mount. The trouble, of course, was his inability to convert a lot of the public.