A secret 1988 pact between Hawke and Keating to transfer Australian Labor leadership shaped a years-long power struggle that ended with Keating's prime ministership.
Key Facts
- Date of agreement
- June 1988
- Meeting venue
- Kirribilli House, Sydney
- Witnesses present
- Bill Kelty and Sir Peter Abeles
- Keating's December 1991 winning vote
- 56 votes to 51 against Hawke
- Keating sworn in as PM
- 20 December 1991
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In the early 1980s, Paul Keating backed Bob Hawke's bid for the Labor leadership, helping displace Bill Hayden, reportedly on Hawke's informal promise that two terms would be sufficient. By 1988, Keating sought to formalise this understanding with a witnessed agreement, as Hawke's high approval ratings had kept leadership questions out of public discourse.
In June 1988 at Kirribilli House, Prime Minister Hawke and Treasurer Keating, witnessed by ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty and Sir Peter Abeles, agreed that if Hawke won the 1990 federal election he would hand leadership to Keating during that parliamentary term. Hawke stipulated that any public disclosure of the deal would void it entirely.
Hawke won the 1990 election but reneged on the agreement in January 1991. Keating's first leadership challenge in June 1991 failed, but a second challenge in December 1991 succeeded, with Keating defeating Hawke 56 votes to 51. Keating was sworn in as Prime Minister on 20 December 1991, while ongoing bitterness between the two men played out in memoirs and the press.