any changes by keating as pm were already started while he was treasurer under hawke and we were already fully into his 'recession we had to have' fuckup before he took over. technically it probably dates to 1940-41 when australia realised churchill's scheme to re-direct the 2ndaif troops from coming home to defend australia from the japs in png to go into the debacle in singapore that sent them all to changi. after that the us arrived and started taking over. if we had the 7th and 8th divisions to push back thru kokoda we would have cleared png ourselves and been a more equal partner in the macarthur ego-show in the pacific. post-war traditionalists like menzies still tied us to the uk but that faded as the empire collapsed.
Australia