The Resume

(January 18, 1944- )
Born in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
Member of Parliament for Blaxland (1969-96)
Treasurer of Australia (1983-91)
Leader of the Australian Labor Party (1991-96)
Prime Minister of Australia (1991-96)

Why he might be annoying:

He left school at age fourteen.
As Treasurer, he went from insisting there would be no recession to calling the early-90s downturn ‘the recession Australia had to have.’
Bob Hawke, his predecessor as party leader and Prime Minister, claimed he called Australia ‘the arse end of the world.’
He was accused of ignoring human rights abuses in Indonesia to improve economic relations with the country.
He frequently criticizes journalists who write negatively about China while serving on the advisory board of the state-owned China Development Bank.

Why he might not be annoying:

While a trade union representative, he managed a rock band called the Ramrods in his spare time.
As Treasurer, he initiated several economic reforms, including reducing tariffs, floating the Australian dollar, licensing foreign banks to operate in Australia, and introducing a capital gains tax.
His Redfern Park Speech (December 10, 1992), in which he became the first Prime Minister to acknowledge offenses against Indigenous Australian by European settlers (‘We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination and exclusion.’), has frequently been cited as the greatest speech in Australian political history.
He led Labor to a surprise come from behind victory in 1993.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 76]
• I Come from Oz
• I Did Not Graduate High School [J-M]
• I Married in 1975
• Profiles 46751-47000 (Ranked: 46832)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 87.50% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying