campaign strategy for the 1996 election, publicly committing to keep numerous Labor reforms such as Medicare, and defusing the republic issue by promising to hold a constitutional convention. This combined with a narrative of "time for a change" led to a heavy defeat for the Keating Government on 2 March 1996, suffering a five percent two party preferred swing and losing 29 seats, making it the second-worst defeat of a sitting government in Australian history. Keating announced he would retire as Labor Leader and from Parliament, and tendered his resignation as prime minister on 11 March, 13 years to the day after Bob Hawke had first taken office. Post-political career After leaving Parliament in 1996, Keating moved to the affluent eastern Sydney suburb of Woollahra. He accepted appointment as a director for various companies, and also became a senior adviser to Lazard, an investment banking firm. Keating was also appointed to the advisory council to the Chinese Government Development Bank. He was also appointed a visiting professor of public policy at the University of New South Wales and was awarded honorary doctorates in law from Keio University in Tokyo (1995), the National University of Singapore (1999), the University of New South Wales (2003) and Macquarie University (2012). In 1997, Keating declined appointment in the Australia Day Honours as a Companion of the Order of Australia, an honour which has been offered to all former prime ministers since the modern Australian Honours System was introduced in 1975. On his refusal, Keating expressed that he had long believed honours should be reserved for those whose work in the community went unrecognised and that having been prime minister was sufficient public recognition. In 2000, he published his first book since leaving office, Engagement: Australia Faces the Asia-Pacific, which focused on foreign policy during his time as prime minister. In 2002, Keating's former speechwriter and adviser, Don Watson, published Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM. The book first drew criticism from Keating's by then-estranged wife, Annita Keating, who said that it understated her contribution, a complaint Watson rejected. Keating himself was so unhappy with the book that it brought the two men's friendship to an abrupt end. Keating initially avoided public political comment during the Howard Government, although made occasional speeches criticising his successor's social policies. Ahead of the 2007 election, Keating joined former Labor Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam