Australia news live: NSW Nationals pull plug on net zero; Keating pays tribute to Laws

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Paul Keating says talkback radio heavyweight John Laws “partnered with” the former Labor prime minister in educating “middle ground” Australia.

In a statement after Laws’ death, aged 90, on Monday, Keating recalled the 15 years he spent doing interviews with and for Laws during his time as treasurer and prime minister, “lifting John’s program to be one to be listened to in respect of wider and deeper national, social and economic issues”:

In my terms, owing to John’s regard and general restraint, I was able to secure, without rude and perpetual interruption, which is the norm these days, 30 to 40 minutes of radio time to expatiate on complex issues whenever the issues suited.

It was those long interviews … which let the public into the wider and deeper national issues then to hand … John Laws led a public life he was entitled to be proud of. He certainly partnered with me … in educating a big and substantial chunk of the middle-ground constituency. As it turned out, a large measure of the country’s economic literacy was to emerge from John’s program.

One of John’s strengths was that he knew what he didn’t know. But would know enough to kick off an interview, coming in where he thought, but letting the interviewee do most of the talking.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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