a trade union, having joined the Labor Party as soon as he was eligible. In 1966, he became president of New South Wales Young Labor. During the 1960s, Keating also managed a rock band named The Ramrods. Early political career Through his contacts in the unions and Young Labor, then known as Youth Council, Keating met future senior Labor figures such as Laurie Brereton, Graham Richardson and Bob Carr. He also developed a friendship with former New South Wales Premier Jack Lang, who Keating took on as a political mentor. In 1971, he succeeded in having Lang re-admitted to the Labor Party. Keating successfully gained the Labor nomination for the seat of Blaxland in the western suburbs of Sydney, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1969 when he was just 25 years old. Keating was initially more socially conservative; in his maiden speech he declared that the Liberal Government had "boasted about the increasing number of women in the workforce. Rather than something to be proud of, I feel it is something of which we should be ashamed". He later voted against former prime minister John Gorton's motion to decriminalise homosexuality in 1973. According to Tom Uren he was originally a "very narrow-minded young man", who later "matured" and became far less socially conservative. After Labor's victory at the 1972 election, Keating narrowly failed to be elected to serve in the Cabinet, instead being a backbencher for most of the Whitlam Government. He was eventually appointed Minister for Northern Australia in October 1975, but served in the role only until the Government was controversially dismissed by Governor-General John Kerr the following month. In a 2013 interview with Kerry O'Brien, Keating called the dismissal a "coup" and raised the idea to "arrest [Kerr]" and "lock him up", adding that he would not have "[taken] it lying down" if he was prime minister. After Labor's defeat in the 1975 election, Keating was quickly added to the Shadow Cabinet, serving as Shadow Minister for Minerals, Resources and Energy until January 1983. During this time he achieved a reputation as a flamboyant and fierce parliamentary performer, adopting the style of an aggressive debater. In 1981, he was elected president of the New South Wales Labor Party, thus becoming the leader of the influential Labor Right faction. At this time, he initially supported the former Treasurer Bill Hayden for Labor Leader over