It's time for Australia to break out of its 'timidity'

In an exclusive interview with the Financial Review, Keating draws together a critique of Australia and its place in the world from his 55 years of public life since he first entered federal parliament in 1969. The critique combines his sharp opposition to the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal struck with Washington and London to counter the strategic challenge of China, his support for an Australian republic and a lament over a lack of a bold economic policy reform agenda to come close to matching that of the Hawke-Keating Labor governments from 1983 to 1996. "It's always been timid, you know,"…