Federal treasurer of Australia (1983-1991) and Prime Minister (1991-1996), Paul John Keating (born 1944) was a dominant and powerful Australian Labour Party (ALP) politician, widely admired and equally widely vilified, who undeniably made his mark on the party.

Paul John Keating was born on January 18, 1944, in the working-class western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The eldest child of Irish, solidly Labor-oriented parents, Keating absorbed politics from childhood. His father, Matt Keating, was a leading local Labor Party member.

Keating was educated at De La Salle College in Bankstown, Sydney. But academic qualifications were not of interest to the impatient young Keating, and he left school in November 1958 to enter the workforce, which he did in January 1959, two days after his 15th birthday. He continued studies at night school while working as a clerk with the Sydney Country Council.

By his late teens Keating was an enthusiastic member of Young Labor...