Under Prime Minister Paul Keating, Canberra has taken special pains to emphasize its links with Asia.

CNN: HEN THE FOREIGN MINISTERS

Paul Keating, prime minister from 1991 to 1996, counted ex-President Suharto, Indonesia's dictatorial leader at the time, as a friend.

ECONOMIST: Australia

The savings incentive replaces one that Paul Keating, the former Labor prime minister, had promised but failed to deliver before losing office.

ECONOMIST: Australia

Earlier this decade, in Paul Keating's days as prime minister, the government was keen to stress that Australia was part of Asia.

ECONOMIST: Down under

Australia earlier renewed John Howard's tenure in a government of the right that has followed on market-friendly policies of a pioneering Labor prime minister, Paul Keating.

FORBES

Paul Keating, prime minister from 1991 to 1996, who sought to turn Australia into an Asian regional power, concluded a security agreement between Australia and Indonesia in 1995.

ECONOMIST: Australia and Indonesia

Previous prime ministers such as Bob Hawke and Paul Keating established the first ties with Asia, but the new policy would be deeper and more organised, adds our correspondent.

BBC: Australia PM Julia Gillard outlines Asia manifesto

For that, there is a powerful precedent in previous Labor governments' free-market reforms, under prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, which helped pave the way for the economic boom of the Howard years.

ECONOMIST: Labor's defeat has unleashed an internal war

So the great tradition is not dead, even if Britain's politicians still have much to learn to reach the standards of Australia, where a future prime minister, Paul Keating, told an incumbent one, Malcolm Fraser, that he looked like an Easter Island statue with an arse full of razor blades.

ECONOMIST: Desiccated calculating bores

Tellingly, the man whom Rupert Murdoch selected to replace Rebekah Brooks as the chief executive of News International in London was Tom Mockridge, a former press adviser to Paul Keating. (As an historical aside, the changes in media ownership rules that enabled Rupert Murdoch to build up his share of the Australian market came into effect under Paul Keating).

BBC: Murdoch in Australia: The fallout

In fact, they actively disliked each other: In my favorite episode, the bitterly cynical computer expert, Avon (Paul Darrow), tries to hunt and kill the wily thief, Vila (Michael Keating).

FORBES: Epic British Science Fiction Series 'Blake's 7' May Get a Remake

It's a job that has meant Paul's met a number of great artists including Spandau Ballet, Heather Small, The Zutons and Ronan Keating.

BBC: Paul O'Gorman is Tony Livesey's warm-up man.