Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and trade unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996. He held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as treasurer under Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1991 and as the seventh deputy prime minister from 1990 to 1991.
Keating was born in Sydney and left school at the age of 14. He joined the Labor Party at the same age, serving a term as State president of Young Labor and working as a research assistant for a trade union. He was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the age of 25, winning the division of Blaxland at the 1969 election. He was briefly minister for Northern Australia from October to November 1975, in the final weeks of the Whitlam government - along with Doug McClelland, he is the last surviving minister who served under Gough Whitlam. After the Dismissal removed Labor from power, he held senior portfolios in the Shadow Cabinets of Whitlam and Bill Hayden. During this time he came to be seen as the leader of the Labor Right faction, and developed a reputation as a talented and fierce parliamentary performer.